No Agenda Episode 587 - "People the Board"
- Direct [link] to the mp3 file
- New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com
- Executive Producers: Sir Andrew Wilson, Sir Paul Dowe, Sir Dean Chartier, Daniel De West, Sir Random Hillbilly, Sir Gene Naftulyev Baron de Marriott Sherrif of Austin
- Associate Executive Producers: Sir Craig Porter, Jason Kirk, Christian Schlatter, Joel Obando
- Become a member of the 588 Club, support the show here
- Knighthoods: Sir Andrew Wilson, Sir Paul Dowe, Sir Dean Chartier
- New: Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) nashownotes.com
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- PR
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- twentythirty.com
- Just wanted to let you know I've also registered a 2030 website,
- TwentyThirty.org. Obviously linked to noagendashow.com and the2030club.com
- Cheers and Thank You For Your Courage,
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- Donation Note from Executive Producer Daniel
- I just sent you a contribution of $500. I would appreciate it if you read the following note for the next show.
- I believe in the value for value model you both have used for your show.
- It frees you as well as the rest of us from a certain level of information control mandated by the state and their corporate partners. More people should consider value for value as a way of distributing content, whether journalistic or artistic.
- It was not long ago that artists and journalists joined together in order to create an independent platform to circulate and distribute their ideas and commentary, some more interesting and influential than others. One example is the Russian "formalists" from 1910 - 1930, who sought an alternative perspective on language and art, and who, when writers were still dangerous to the state, were eventually condemned and hounded by Stalin and the authorities because the ideas were not simple enough for "the people." Many writers either followed the state dictates or fled or were imprisoned.
- It is telling today, that such movements do not exist, outside of the superficial, pseudo-intellectual "start-up communities" in Silicon Valley/Alley as well as their aping relatives in Paris and Berlin. "Start-up" is not equal to an intellectual movement.
- It could be that "the people" have finally acquiesced to the state and their corporate sponsors and have lost the urge to create a vision that does not immediately either turn into 1) a government 501 .org or a tech start-up, both of which are often eventually outlets for subversive government propaganda, or 2) simply digress into street violence, such as the Ukraine or Cairo.
- These things are not new, but people are losing quickly the historical perspective to recognize that by doing nothing is actually doing something. Some may argue that they are doing a lot, i.e. tweeting, facebooking, googling, but this is simply doing a lot of nothing, which in the end is something, and will have a consequence. It is a far cry from the band of writers and thinkers, poor yet edgy, that started the Russian formalist groups.
- I am reminded often here in Germany where I live that many people who were "good citizens" and quite clever and educated watched nervously as neighbors and colleagues were persecuted, imprisoned and forced to flee. These neighbors and colleagues were not persecuted by an invisible state, but by the other neighbors and colleagues who thought they knew a thing or two better. Smart people are easy bait for propaganda. An element of common sense is key to avoiding some of these mistakes. And those who do nothing, are surely doing something.
- But I congratulate you on finding an alternative. Although your efforts may appear like Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the mountain each day - and how else can one look at the daily flood of media and government propaganda - and attempt to make sense of it. But in attempting, you are doing something.
- Your creative work is somewhere between an artistic masterpiece and a circus act, but that may be due to the irony of our times. Bertolt Brecht would have probably enjoyed it.
- It may seem like a paradox that one can derive some truth within a system that seems built on subjectivity, but that is the struggle that every artist has had to deal with since he was scratching deer on the cave wall.
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- TODAY
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- Rainstick worked on California?
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- Kate Perry, de hogepriesteres van de Illuminati (video) | Niburu
- We komen nog even terug op de Grammy Awards 2014 en dan met name het optreden van Kate Perry met het nummer Dark Horse.
- De artieste die enkele jaren geleden in een televisie-interview al verklaarde dat ze haar ziel aan de duivel had verkocht.
- Als iemand het voorbeeld is van een Illuminati puppet dan is het wel Kate Perry.
- Tijdens haar optreden was ze gekleed als heks met prominent op haar borst het wapen van de Tempeliers. The Knights Templar oftewel de Tempeliers is (C)(C)n van de geheime (ridder)genootschappen in dienst van de Jezu¯eten. De Spaanse koning Juan Carlos heeft de machtigste titel binnen deze organisatie: Koning van Jeruzalem.
- In de video zie je ook een dier met de horens van Moloch en dansers in het zwart met uitstekende duivelshoornen en niet te vergeten het paaldansen met een bezemsteel.
- Het is een ceremonie waarbij aan het eind de heks wordt verbrand. Er zullen ongetwijfeld nog veel meer occulte symbolen te vinden zijn.
- Wat je ook ziet is een zwart paard op zijn achterpoten met roodgloeiende ogen, net zoals je die aantreft bij de ingang van het vliegveld van Denveren in het logo van het farmaceutische bedrijf Poonawalla dat voor bijna ieder land in de wereld de vaccinaties maakt. Het paard wat ook wel de bijnaam ''Devil's Horse'' heeft.
- Al deze hardcore occulte symboliek verscheen niet zomaar in het optreden. Je kunt zien dat er erg veel aandacht is besteed en veel werk voor verzet. Kate Perry zei waarschijnlijk ook niet voor niets enkele jaren geleden tijdens een televisie-interview: ''Ik heb mijn ziel aan de duivel verkocht''.
- Wat hier gebeurt is niet zomaar toevallig wat amateurisme. Het is een weldoordacht middel om de jeugd te conditioneren en vertrouwd te maken met occulte satanische zaken. Een hele generatie jongeren die opgroeit met satanisme, occultisme en alle daarbij behorende attributen en symbolen. Een hele generatie die straks alles wat met satanisme te maken heeft "heel gewoon" gaat vinden.
- Hieronder een video-opname van de voorstelling. Deze wordt regelmatig verwijderd door Youtube. Mocht dat hier ook het geval zijn dan staat hier nog een versie.Laat ons weten als geen van beiden meer mocht werken.
- End of The American Dream
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- Grammys 2014: Daft Punk wins 5 awards, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis help wed 33 couples - Newsday
- Originally published: January 26, 2014 10:43 PMUpdated: January 27, 2014 2:23 PMBy GLENN GAMBOA glenn.gamboa@newsday.com
- Photo credit: Getty Images | Beyonc(C) and Jay Z open the 56th Grammy Awards with a performance of their song "Drunk in Love" at Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Jan. 26, 2014)
- Daft Punk, a French electronic music duo that wears robot helmets, doesn't speak in public and rarely makes appearances, danced away with five Grammys, including album of the year and record of the year for their disco anthem "Get Lucky."
- "This is the most insane thing ever," said their collaborator Nile Rodgers after the duo's "Random Access Memories" won album of the year Sunday night at the 56th annual Grammy Awards. The album also won best dance/electronica album and best engineered album. They cemented their memorable evening with a massive jam with Stevie Wonder, Rodgers and Pharrell.
- However, newcomers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis may have made a more lasting impression with their radio-friendly, idealistic hip-hop and a stunning performance that ended in 33 weddings and a duet with Madonna.
- MORE GRAMMYS:Winners | Red carpet photos | Live coverage | Critic's recap | Best, worst-dressed
- The Seattle duo won for best new artist and swept the rap category, taking Grammys for best rap song and rap performance for "Thrift Shop" and best rap album for "The Heist." But their emotional performance of "Same Love," an anthem for equal rights for same-sex couples, may be discussed long after the awards, as Queen Latifah presided over a group wedding at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Madonna joined in with a moving version of "Open Your Heart" backed by a gospel choir.
- Paul McCartney, who received a lifetime achievement Grammy with Ringo Starr and the family members of the rest of The Beatles, added some current awards to his collection Sunday night as well, winning best rock song for "Cut Me Some Slack," his collaboration with the surviving members of Nirvana, and best music film for "Live Kisses." He even performed a new single, "Queenie Eye," with Starr on drums -- a rare collaboration between the surviving Beatles. Two other McCartney projects also received awards: best surround sound album for "Live Kisses" and best boxed package for "Wings Over America."
- Jay Z, who had a night-leading nine nominations, had to settle for only two wins -- best music video for "Suit and Tie" and best rap-sung collaboration for "Holy Grail." However, he took the win in stride, thanking God for bringing a "beautiful light of a young lady in my life," as he looked at wife Beyonc(C). He quickly added a note for their daughter, "I wanna tell Blue, 'Look, Daddy got a gold sippy-cup for you.' "
- Whether they won any awards or not, the power couple was the talk of the show, opening the evening with a rare joint appearance on a steamy version of Beyonc(C)'s single "Drunk in Love."
- Other highlights included:
- MEMORABLE. Pink delivered a highflying take on "Try," suspended by cables while she sang and spun over the crowd, before performing her song of the year nominee "Just Give Me a Reason" with Nate Ruess. A wild mash-up between rockers Imagine Dragons and rapper Kendrick Lamar was a blinding display of rage and release.
- LOCAL HERO. During the nontelevised portion of the ceremony, Seaford's Matthew Koma got shout-outs from both Zedd and Foxes, as they accepted the best dance recording Grammy for "Clarity," which Koma co-wrote with them.
- THANKFUL. Lindsay Lohan and the entire Lohan clan in Merrick received thanks from Kathy Griffin in her acceptance speech for best comedy album because they, along with Oprah Winfrey and Ryan Seacrest, provided her with the material for her success.
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- Katy Perry's Grammy Performance Was Probably Inspired By These 4 Movies - Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV.com
- Katy Perry went full "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" during her live performance of "Dark Horse" at Sunday night's Grammy Awards.
- It's understandable why. After all, if you're going to have a song named "Dark Horse," there's bound to be some gothic imagery, an evil witch and a horse that's actually hiding Juicy J. Disney might've found its Evil Queen for a live version of their Disney classic, but what other movies might Katy Perry have taken inspiration from? We take some guesses:
- "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"Those moving trees? People adorned in black? Those flames? 100 percent "Lord of the Rings."
- "Silent Hill"That final part where Katy Perry is surrounded by fire has "Silent Hill" written all over it. (Yes, we've already mentioned the flames but, whatever.) Or, you know, any movie that's inspired by the Salem Witch Trials.
- "Maleficent"It's not out yet, but maybe Katy Perry saw the preview and thought, "Wow. I need to be Maleficent."
- "The Craft"Katy Perry would've made a great Nancy. The attitude, the having people carry her '-- the world needs a "The Craft" remake now.
- Join the COVERGIRL #covermoment conversation by sharing your favorite moments on Instagram and Twitter, and check them out at covermoment.com.
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- SOTU
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- Ford lady already had a $400m trucking company
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- Sickening wounded warrior misguided pride
- Lets applaud tricking parents into sending theor children to get their heads blown off
- for the oil, mineral and drug trade
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- Executive order - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- United States Presidents issue executive orders to help officers and agencies of the executive branch manage the operations within the federal government itself. Executive orders have the full force of law[1] when they take authority from a power granted directly to the Executive by the Constitution, or are made in pursuance of certain Acts of Congress which explicitly delegate to the President some degree of discretionary power (delegated legislation). Like statutes or regulations promulgated by government agencies, executive orders are subject to judicial review, and may be struck down if deemed by the courts to be unsupported by statute or the Constitution. Major policy initiatives usually require approval by the legislative branch, but executive orders have significant influence over the internal affairs of government, deciding how and to what degree laws will be enforced, dealing with emergencies, waging war, and in general fine policy choices in the implementation of broad statutes,
- In other countries, similar edicts may be known as decrees, orders in council, or fiat.
- Basis in United States Constitution[edit]Although there is no constitutional provision nor statute that explicitly permits executive orders, there is a vague grant of "executive power" given in Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the Constitution, and furthered by the declaration "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" made in Article II, Section 3, Clause 5. Most executive orders use these Constitutional reasonings as the authorization allowing for their issuance to be justified as part of the President's sworn duties,[2] the intent being to help direct officers of the U.S. Executive carry out their delegated duties as well as the normal operations of the federal government: the consequence of failing to comply possibly being the removal from office.[3]
- An executive order of the President must find support in the Constitution, either in a clause granting the President specific power, or by a delegation of power by Congress to the President. 343 U.S. 579, 585. Antieau, Modern Constitutional Law,§13:24 (1969)
- Other types of orders issued by "the Executive" are generally classified simply as administrative orders rather than Executive Orders.[4] These are typically the following:
- Presidential directives are considered a form of executive order issued by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of a major agency or department found within the Executive branch of government.[5] Some types of Directives are the following:
- History and use[edit]All presidents beginning with George Washington in 1789 have issued orders which in general terms can be described as executive orders. During the early period of the Republic there was no set form with which such orders were required to comply and consequently such orders varied widely as to form and substance.[9] Until the early 1900s, executive orders went mostly unannounced and undocumented, seen only by the agencies to which they were directed. However, the Department of State instituted a numbering scheme for executive orders in 1907, starting retroactively with an order issued on October 20, 1862, by President Abraham Lincoln. The documents that later came to be known as "Executive Orders" probably gained their name from this document, captioned "Executive Order Establishing a Provisional Court in Louisiana."[4]
- Until 1952, there were no rules or guidelines outlining what the president could or could not do through an executive order. However, the Supreme Court ruled in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 US 579 (1952) that Executive Order 10340 from President Harry S. Truman placing all steel mills in the country under federal control was invalid because it attempted to make law, rather than clarify or act to further a law put forth by the Congress or the Constitution. Presidents since this decision have generally been careful to cite which specific laws they are acting under when issuing new executive orders.
- Wars have been fought upon executive order, including the 1999 Kosovo War during Bill Clinton's second term in office. However, all such wars have had authorizing resolutions from Congress. The extent to which the president may exercise military power independently of Congress and the scope of the War Powers Resolution remain unresolved constitutional issues, although all presidents since its passage have complied with the terms of the Resolution while maintaining that they are not constitutionally required to do so.
- Criticisms[edit]Critics have accused presidents of abusing executive orders, of using them to make laws without Congressional approval, and of moving existing laws away from their original mandates.[10] Large policy changes with wide-ranging effects have been effected through executive order, including the integration of the armed forces under Harry Truman and the desegregation of public schools under Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- One extreme example of an executive order is Executive Order 9066, where Franklin D. Roosevelt delegated military authority to remove any or all people (used to target specifically Japanese Americans and German Americans) in a military zone. The authority delegated to GeneralJohn L. DeWitt subsequently paved the way for all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to be sent to internment camps for the duration of World War II.
- Executive Order 13233, issued by President George W. Bush in 2001, which restricted public access to the papers of former presidents, was criticized by the Society of American Archivists and other groups, stating that it "violates both the spirit and letter of existing U.S. law on access to presidential papers as clearly laid down in 44 USC. 2201''07," and adding that the order "potentially threatens to undermine one of the very foundations of our nation". President Obama revoked Executive Order 13233 in January 2009.[11]
- Legal conflicts[edit]As of 1999, U.S. courts have overturned only two executive orders: the aforementioned Truman order, and a 1995 order issued by President Clinton that attempted to prevent the federal government from contracting with organizations that had strike-breakers on the payroll.[12] Congress was able to overturn an executive order by passing legislation in conflict with it during the period of 1939 to 1983 until the Supreme Court ruled in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha that Congress may not promulgate a statute granting to itself a legislative veto over actions of the executive branch inconsistent with the bicameralism principle and Presentment Clause of the United States Constitution.[13]
- The loss of the legislative veto has caused Congress to look for alternative measures to override executive orders such as refusing to approve funding necessary to carry out certain policy measures contained with the order or to legitimize policy mechanisms. In the former, the president retains the power to veto such a decision; however, the Congress may override a veto with a two-thirds majority to end an executive order. It has been argued that a Congressional override of an executive order is a nearly impossible event due to the supermajority vote required and the fact that such a vote leaves individual lawmakers very vulnerable to political criticism.[14]
- State governors' executive orders[edit]Executive orders as issued by the governors of the states are not statutes like those passed by state legislatures, but do have the force of law in a similar way to the federal system. Executive orders are usually based on existing constitutional or statutory powers of the Governor and do not require any action by the state legislature to take effect.
- Executive orders may, for example, demand budget cuts from state government when the state legislature is not in session, and economic conditions take a downturn, thereby decreasing tax revenue below what was forecast when the budget was approved. Depending on the state constitution, a governor may specify by what percentage each government agency must reduce by, and may exempt those that are already particularly underfunded, or cannot put long-term expenses (such as capital expenditures) off until a later fiscal year. The governor may also call the legislature into special session.
- There are also other uses for gubernatorial executive orders. In 2007, for example, the Governor of Georgia made an executive order for all of its state agencies to reduce water use during a major drought. This was also demanded of its counties' water systems, however it is unclear whether this would have the force of law.
- Presidential proclamation[edit]According to political science professor Phillip J. Cooper, a presidential proclamation "states a condition, declares a law and requires obedience, recognizes an event or triggers the implementation of a law (by recognizing that the circumstances in law have been realized)".[15] Presidents define situations or conditions on situations that become legal or economic truth. These orders carry the same force of law as executive orders'--the difference between the two is that executive orders are aimed at those inside government while proclamations are aimed at those outside government.
- The administrative weight of these proclamations is upheld because they are often specifically authorized by congressional statute, making them ''delegated unilateral powers''. Presidential proclamations are often dismissed as a practical presidential tool for policy making because of the perception of proclamations as largely ceremonial or symbolic in nature. However, the legal weight of presidential proclamations suggests their importance to presidential governance.[16]
- See also[edit]References[edit]^John Contrubis, Executive Orders and Proclamations, CRS Report for Congress #95-722A, March 9, 1999, Pp. 1-2^SCOTUS, Mississippi v. Johnson, 71 U.S. 475 (1866), The Supreme Court's decision held that the President has two kinds of task to perform: ministerial and discretionary. EOs help facilitate the execution of the Executive's ministerial duties.^SCOTUS, Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52 (1926), Majority Opinion.^ abHarold C. Relyea, Presidential Directives: Background and Overview, CRS Report for Congress #98-611, Nov. 26, 2008.^National Security Directives[dead link], San Diego State University, Presidential Documents, Retrieved 2009-12-07.^http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/obama.html. ^http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/executive-orders. ^ abGerhard Peters (2013-06-13). "The American Presidency Project / Executive Orders". Retrieved 2013-11-01. ^93rd Cong., 2nd sess. (1974). Executive Orders in Times of War and National Emergency: Report of the Special Committee on National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency Powers, United States Senate. U.S. Govt. Print. Off. p. 23. ^Gaziano, Todd F. (2001-02-21). "The Use and Abuse of Executive Orders and Other Presidential Directives". Legal Memorandum #2 (Heritage Foundation). Retrieved 2008-10-11. ^"Executive Order 13489 of January 21, 2009 '-- Presidential Records". Retrieved 2009-01-22. , Federal Register publication page and date: 74 F.R.4669, January 26, 2009.^Catherine Edwards, "Emergency Rule, Abuse of Power?," Insight on the News, August 23, 1999, Pg. 18^Pika, Joseph A., Anthony Maltese, The Politics of the Presidency, 7th ed., 2010, pg. 276-277^Harold Hongju Koh, The National Security Constitution: Sharing Power after the Iran-Contra Affair, 1990, pg. 118''19^Phillip J. Cooper. 2002. By Order of The President. University of Kansas Press. Page 116.^Presidential Proclamations Project, University of Houston, Political Science Dept., Retrieved 2009-12-07Further reading[edit]Cooper, Phillip J., By Order of the President: The Use and Abuse of Executive Direct Action, Kansas State University, Kanniversity Press, 2002.Howell, William G., Power without Persuasion: The Politics of Direct Presidential Action, Princeton UniversityPress, 2003.Mayer, Kenneth R., With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Power, Princeton University Press, 2002.Warber, Adam L., Executive Orders and the Modern Presidency: Legislating from the Oval Office, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006.External links[edit]
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- MyRAObama to launch government-backed retirement savings program - Yahoo Finance
- WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The Obama administration is scheduled on Wednesday to launch a retirement savings vehicle called "myRA," aimed at enrolling more Americans in a government-backed investment option.
- In details provided by the White House on Wednesday, the retirement savings proposal would be similar to a Roth Individual Retirement Account, but with holdings backed by the U.S. government like savings bonds.
- "MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in," President Barack Obama said in introducing the program on Tuesday night in his State of the Union Speech.
- Those accounts would be available to households earning no more than $191,000 a year. Businesses will need to register in the pilot program by the end of the year for their employees to participate voluntarily.
- Investors would earn a variable interest rate equal to the Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP, which is available to federal employees. Contributions could be withdrawn tax-free at any time.
- Initial investments could be as low as $25, and contributions as small as $5 could be made through payroll deductions.
- Participants could save up to $15,000, for a maximum of 30 years, in their accounts before transferring their balances to a private-sector Roth IRA.
- About half of all workers and 75 percent of part-time workers lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, the White House said.
- Retirement BenefitsInvesting EducationObamaWhite Houseretirement savings
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- Stockman walks out of State of the Union | TheHill
- Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) said Tuesday night he left President Obama's State of the Union speech early after "hearing how the president is further abusing his Constitutional powers."
- "I could not bear to watch as he continued to cross the clearly-defined boundaries of the Constitutional separation of powers," Stockman said in a press release shortly after Obama's speech ended. "Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed in the tone and content of tonight's address."
- Stockman said Obama was promising to "break his oath of office and begin enacting his own brand of law through executive decree.""This is a wholesale violation of his oath of office and a disqualifying offense," the Texas congressman said.
- Stockman also criticized Obama for refusing to admit "his policies have failed," and for advancing a plan for more taxes and spending that is a "blueprint for perpetual poverty."
- The Tea Party-backed congressman had missed weeks of House votes and hadn't been campaigning in Texas for his race against Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). After tweeting that people could "find out Monday" where he'd been, Stockman resurfaced Monday to say he'd been on a House-sanctioned international trip and blasting reports saying he had been missing.
- Other Republican members had similar reactions to Obama's promise to do by executive order what he can't get done legislatively in Congress.
- "Unfortunately, what I heard from President Obama tonight was hostility toward our foundational principles, condescension toward a co-equal branch of government, and a general aversion to common sense and bipartisanship," Rep. Raºl Labrador (R-Idaho) said in a press release.
- "The president's attempt to intimidate Congress by abusing executive power demonstrates a serious unwillingness to work with the coequal legislative branch of government," Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) said in a statement.
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- Obama to Assert Unilateral Agenda - WSJ.com
- President Barack Obama is expected to stress that he intends to take unilateral action on a host of issues.
- WASHINGTON'--President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night will seek to shift the public's souring view of his leadership, a challenge the White House sees as critical to shaping the nation's policy direction over the next three years.
- Mr. Obama will emphasize his intention to use unilateral presidential authority'--bypassing Congress when necessary'--to an extent not seen in his previous State of the Union speeches, White House officials said.
- He also is expected to announce that some of the nation's largest employers, including Xerox Corp., AT&T Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co., have signed a White House pledge agreeing not to discriminate against the long-term unemployed when making hiring decisions, according to a draft of the policy and interviews with several people familiar with the matter.
- Mr. Obama will stress that he intends to take unilateral action on a host of other issues: infrastructure development, job training, climate change and education. Administration officials hinted broadly at the assertive new direction Sunday.
- "We need to show the American people that we can get something done," Dan Pfeiffer, a senior White House adviser, told CNN as part of a round of interviews previewing the speech.
- The more aggressive, executive-led approach marks a recalibration by the White House after seeing how congressional Republicans responded in 2013 to the president's re-election, a senior administration official said. Several key White House initiatives stalled in Congress last year, including an immigration revamp, an increase in the minimum wage, gun-control legislation and economic proposals.
- Mr. Obama faces one disadvantage Tuesday night: The number of Americans tuning in to the State of the Union address tends to decline in a president's second term, even though it still will be the largest audience Mr. Obama is likely to command all year. Mr. Obama also must find a way for his message to compete with widespread attention given to the botched rollout of his health-care law and to the approaching November midterm elections.
- Polls show the president's lethargic record of accomplishments in 2013 raised doubts among Americans that he is capable of tackling the country's problems. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released this weekend showed Mr. Obama's approval rating at 46%, compared with 55% a year ago.
- Still, it would be hard, if not impossible, for a president to entirely ignore Congress on Tuesday night while speaking in the Capitol before its members. And to accomplish the most substantive policy changes, Mr. Obama will need lawmakers' approval.
- "He says, 'Oh well, it's hard to get Congress to do anything.' Well, yeah, welcome to the real world. It's hard to convince people to get legislation through. It takes consensus," said Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.). "But that's what he needs to be doing is building consensus and not taking his pen and creating law."
- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in an interview that Mr. Obama's speech wouldn't present "a grandiose agenda. It's going to be a very practical agenda aimed at middle-class people."
- In preparing for his address, White House advisers have wrestled with how to speak to a Congress that has been hostile to his agenda, officials said. Mr. Obama's approach will be coupled with calls for Congress to act on a handful of his key priorities.
- The main issues will be immigration reform and raising the minimum wage. But senior administration officials said Mr. Obama will point to a bipartisan budget agreement reached at the end of last year as a catalyst for compromises on other issues that have stalled over partisan differences, including a farm bill, an extension of unemployment insurance benefits, patent reform and manufacturing proposals.
- Mr. Obama in 2014 plans to pursue a business agenda entailing the permanent elimination of capital-gains tax for certain small-business investments and renewal of various business tax incentives that expired, including a research credit, aides said, although it was unclear if he will mention specifics in his speech.
- The White House has considered several proposals on infrastructure, people familiar with the talks said. In previewing the speech to backers, administration officials cited a proposal Mr. Obama made last year: reworking the business-tax system and directing one-time revenue gains to roads, bridges and other public works. Some Republicans might prove amenable, because their business allies want both tax-code changes and infrastructure repairs. But many Republicans want a broader tax overhaul.
- The president has championed policies designed to address what he sees as economic inequality, but is moving to shift the focus onto economic opportunity so as not to alienate certain voters in 2014's elections.
- Although the unemployment rate has been falling from its October 2009 high of 10%, large numbers of Americans have dropped out of the labor market. Meantime, millions of Americans have been without work for more than six months, which many economists believe can make it harder for them to find a job.
- In recent weeks, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett has reached out to chief executives seeking commitments that they won't discriminate against the long-term unemployed in hiring practices. The White House has scheduled an event highlighting the initiative for Friday.
- Bank of America Corp., Siemens AG, Dow Chemical Co. and Deloitte LLP are expected to join Xerox, AT&T, Lockheed Martin and P&G, among others, in signing the pledge, which states they "are committed to inclusive hiring practices and pledge to remove barriers" to the employment of long-term jobless, according to a draft of the agreement.
- Officials with Bank of America and Dow Chemical confirmed they have agreed to the pledge; officials from the other companies couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.
- The initiative is the latest White House effort to tackle public-policy issues without congressional action. Mr. Obama has used his executive power before, including on climate change, economic issues and immigration concerns, such as a 2012 move to allow many young undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. under certain conditions.
- Flexing executive power isn't new to the presidency, particularly in a second term. President George W. Bush signed executive orders on issues such as the environment and federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. President Bill Clinton did so on issues including gun control. Mr. Obama has been pressured by some supporters to assert more executive authority.
- But the corporate hiring pledge also shows the limits of executive power. Under the nonbinding agreement, companies won't be obligated to hire the long-term unemployed, and it is unclear how the administration will monitor progress.
- The impact of executive power also may fall short on other priorities, such as immigration and education, than if the moves included legislation.
- Mr. Obama will attempt to follow through by hitting the road Wednesday for a two-day trip to tout his new message at events in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Tennessee.
- As he does, he will be dogged by criticism from Republicans. In an interview Sunday on Fox News, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said his party wouldn't endorse "more spending, more debt, more taxes and more regulation."
- '--Michael R. Crittenden, Peter Nicholas, Janet Hook and John D. McKinnon contributed to this article.
- Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com and Damian Paletta at damian.paletta@wsj.com
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- Valerie Jarrett Orders Companies To Start Hiring '' Or Else'...
- And we listen to this Iranian Jarrett? Why would any American trust her?
- The insanity of Obama's policies toward Iran'...Read it and weep
- AMERICAN BLOOD on IRANIAN HANDS
- http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/american-blood-on-iranian-hands/#disqus_thread
- ''The worst part for me is that nobody remembers,'' Mark Nevells said last year on the anniversary of the Hezbollah bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut.
- A Marine had thrown his body in front of the truck to try stop the vehicle and afterward for five days, Nevells and other Marines had dug through the rubble for the bodies of the men they had served with.
- One of the first Marines on the scene heard voices coming from underneath the rubble. ''Get us out. Don't leave us.''
- The Marines lost more people that day than at any time since Iwo Jima and the number of Americans murdered that day by a terrorist group was a record that would stand until September 11.
- In Washington, the murder of 220 Marines and the Iranian, Ismail Ascari, who drove the truck full of explosives that tore through their barracks, are inconvenient truths and lost memories. And it has always been that way.
- Before the attack, the NSA intercepted a message from Iranian intelligence in Tehran to the Iranian ambassador in Damascus ordering ''a spectacular action against the United States Marines.''
- Mohsen Rafiqdoost, Khomeini's bodyguard who helped found Iran's Revolutionary Guard and served as Minister of Revolutionary Guards during the bombing, boasted, ''both the TNT and the ideology, which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs, and soldiers at the Marines headquarters, were provided by Iran.''
- Today Mohsen is a millionaire and stands to make a huge profit from the flow of goods after Obama's weakening of sanctions on Iran. He also boasts of being the ''father of Iran's missile program'' though there are so many in Iran making that same claim that Iran's missile program is undeniably a bastard.
- The Marines who died in the bombing were lucky. Another Marine did not die as quickly.
- Colonel William R. Higgins was captured by Hezbollah, the terrorist group acting as Iran's hand in Lebanon, and tortured for months until his body was dumped near a mosque.
- An autopsy report found that he had been starved and had suffered multiple lethal injuries that could have caused his death. The skin on his face had been partially removed along with his tongue and he had also been castrated.
- Fred Hof, a diplomat who had been a friend of the murdered man, said, ''I am one of a small handful of Americans who knows the exact manner of Rich's death. If I were to describe it to you now '' which I will not '' I can guarantee that a significant number of people in this room would become physically ill.''
- ''The State Department, not the Defense Department, had the lead. That meant diplomacy, not military might. It meant no retribution, no retaliation, no rescue,'' Robin L. Higgins, his wife, wrote.
- Colonel Higgins' wife and daughter sued Iran for the murder and won a $355 million judgment from seized Iranian assets. The court found that, ''Although an act of cruel savagery, the mutilation of the Colonel's body was apparently consistent with the Islamic Guard's fulfillment of Iranian foreign policy.''
- Like Higgins, William Francis Buckley, the CIA station chief, was also captured and tortured for months. On video tapes released by his Hezbollah captors, he was incoherent and his mind had been broken by the horrors inflicted on his ravaged body and his soul.
- ''They had done more than ruin his body,'' CIA Director William Casey said. ''His eyes made it clear his mind had been played with. It was horrific, medieval and barbarous''
- Imad Mughniyah was reportedly one of Buckley's main interrogators and Iran passed along messages offering to trade Buckley in exchange for weapons sales.
- Robert Stethem, a Navy diver, was brutally murdered when Hezbollah terrorists took over TWA flight 847. The Iranian-backed terrorists, one of whom was Imad Mughniyah, beat and kicked him to death.
- ''They were jumping in the air and landing full force on his body. He must have had all his ribs broken,'' Uli Derickson, the stewardess, described. ''I was sitting only 15 feet away. I couldn't listen to it. I put my fingers in my ears. I will never forget. I could still hear. They put the mike up to his face so his screams could be heard by the outside world.''
- Stethem's screams, like those of the other American victims of Iran, have yet to be heard in Washington.
- After the bombing of the American embassy in Beirut, the terrorist group that took credit for the attack warned, ''This is part of the Iranian revolution's campaign against imperialist targets throughout the world.''
- It may be tempting to dismiss all this as ancient history, but the terror never stopped. In 1996, 19 Air Force airmen were killed in the bombing of the Khobar Towers with another truck bomb. ''The Khobar Towers bombing was planned, funded, and sponsored by senior leadership in the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran,'' the judgment in yet another case by victims of terrorism against Iran found.
- President Clinton responded to the Iranian act of terror with a conciliatory message to Mohammad Khatami, another newly elected phony reformer playing the part of the President of Iran
- ''The United States has no hostile intentions towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and seeks good relationships with your government,'' Clinton wrote. ''In order to lay a sound basis for better relations between our countries, we need a clear commitment from you that you will ensure an end to Iranian involvement in terrorist activity.''
- The Iranians rejected the call for peace and Clinton, who had earlier told advisors, ''I don't want any pissant half-measures'', backed down, as he usually did when confronted with Islamic terror.
- The 9/11 Commission found evidence that the majority of the ''muscle'' operatives who would terrorize the crews and passengers had ''traveled into or out of Iran between October 2000 and February 2001.'' After September 11, top Al Qaeda officials fled to Iran as part of its policy of covertly allowing Al Qaeda terrorists to travel across its border without passport stamps. Thekey figure in the cooperation between Iran and Al Qaeda was once again Imad Mughniyah who met with and influenced Osama bin Laden.
- The 1998 indictment of Al Qaeda stated that the terrorist group had ''forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with representatives of the government of Iran, and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah, for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States.''
- After the Israelis finally took out Mughniyah with a bomb in his headrest, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared, ''The pure blood of martyrs like Imad Mugniyah will grow hundreds like him.''
- Last week, even while the pro-Iran leftist activists of MSNBC and the Huffington Post were furiously defending Obama's Iran nuke sellout, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs placed a wreath on Mughniyah's grave thereby pledging allegiance to everything that the terrorist mastermind stood for.
- Even as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani boasted that the nuclear deal meant that the United States and other world powers had ''surrendered before the great Iranian nation'' and its true ruler, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, described the United States as ''Satan'' and declared it an enemy; the cloud of wishful thinking still lingers in Foggy Bottom breathed by the career diplomats of the State Department.
- Jimmy Carter, whose empowerment of the Ayatollah Khomeini left his hands covered in the blood of Americans murdered by Iranian terror, has come out to praised Obama and Kerry for ''doing the right thing'' while warning that sanctions on Iran would be a ''devastating blow''.
- All these horrific acts of terror took place as a result of Jimmy Carter's appeasement of Iran. What blood price will be exacted for Obama's appeasement of Iran?
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- The History Behind U.S. Presidents Using 'God Bless America' in Official Speeches | TheBlaze.com
- President Barack Obama is set to deliver the annual State of the Union address tonight '-- and following tradition, it's likely he'll end the speech with three familiar words: ''God bless America.''
- This phrase '-- well known in American culture '-- has been present in official presidential addresses for decades.
- FILE '' In this Feb. 12, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)
- ''God bless America'' and its derivatives didn't regularly enter the presidential fray until April 30, 1973, when President Richard Nixon used it in the midst of the Watergate scandal, The Huffington Post reported.
- While that was the beginning, it wasn't until President Ronald Reagan regularly began using it that the term caught on. Ever since, it has been a standard remark made in the conclusion of many official presidential speeches.
- This was the very subject of ''The God Strategy,'' a book written by David Domke and Kevin Coe that was published back in 2008. The text highlights how political leaders have invoked both faith and God in their speeches over the past 75 years.
- In an official description of the book, the authors claim that ''religious signals'' have intentionally been sent by both Democrats and Republicans, particularly since Reagan's election in 1980.
- But it was Nixon's decision to employ the word that really kicked off the use of ''God bless America,'' with Domke and Coe calling it unprecedented and ''the first time in modern history that it had happened,'' according to an article they wrote for Time back in 2008.
- Speaking to the nation from the Oval Office to directly address the Watergate scandal, Nixon appealed for the nation to pray for him before uttering ''God bless America.''
- ''I ask for your prayers to help me in everything that I do throughout the days of my presidency,'' he said.
- The trend continued from there.
- From 1933 through 1981, of 229 major presidential addresses, Domke and Coe said that only one '-- Nixon's address '-- included the words ''God bless America.'' But from Reagan's inauguration in 1981 through President George W. Bush's final term in office, of 129 major presidential speeches, ''God bless America'' was uttered 49 times.
- Obama, too, has continued the tradition. Watch his 2013 State of the Union address below (see the ''God bless these United States of America'' reference at the 1:14:15 mark below):
- It's not as though presidents never made references to God before Nixon. Many did, but the authors argued that they hadn't done so with as much frequency as we've seen over the past few decades.
- ''God bless America,'' the authors argued, has lost its meaning over the years and has been treated by presidents as a way to ''sate the appetites of those in the public and press corps who want assurance that this person is a real, God-fearing American.''
- Regardless of how or why presidents of late have used the term, its history is intriguing.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- F-Russia
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Russian Lgbt Law White Paper | Scribd
- ''Movie lovers have Netflix, music lovers have Spotify '-- and book lovers (whether they read literary fiction or best-selling potboilers) now have Scribd.'''' NPR
- ''[Scribd] is a place where you can browse and skim and read whatever strikes your fancy'...'''' Wired
- ''For less than the price of buying one new book a month (e- or otherwise), you can wander through more than 50,000 books.'''' Entrepreneur
- ''This has got to be the next best thing to sliced bread. I can finish reading one book and go grab another instantly'''' Wendy Brooks, a Scribd reader
-
- Robert M's report from Reddit
-
- Dear Adam & John,
- I've been doing my part, propagating the great whitepaper by Producer Heiss
- as far an wide as I possibly can, and I would like to briefly share with
- you the responses I have gotten which may surprise you.
- I uploaded the whitepaper to my own personal dropbox acct and shared it
- across the social news site reddit. I expected to be 'downvoted' to
- oblivion and roundly excoriated, but the actual somewhat positive response
- I posted it on the subreddit /r/gay under the following post title: "Whitepaper
- by prominent gay activist proves Russian 'anti-gay' law has nothing to do
-
- with gays.
- The sole comment I received on this post stated:
- "PrettyCoolGuy 1 point 6 hours
- OK, this is interesting, and I'm going to try and read as much as possible.
- So far i've read the executive summary, and I have a question.
- With regards to point 4 (It says you are more likely to be a victim of an
- anti-LGBT hate crime in the US than in Russia), I wonder if this is just
- about reporting. For example, let's say someone gets bashed in NYC. I think
- that they will go to the police, because, I think, there is a perception
- that the police might actually do something about it. Let's say the same
- crime happened in some outlying city in Russia. Would the survivor go to
- the police? Honestly, I don't know, but my gut is telling be that they
- might not be as ready to contact authorities.
- In other words, statistics do not always accurately represent reality. If
- no crime is reported then it won't show up in reports. Another example is
- rape. Statistically, women are more likely to be raped today than in 1950.
- Why are things getting so much worse for women? Actually, that's the wrong
- question! These days, police actually give a shit about rape (not in every
- single case, it must be noted), while in 1950 the concept of date rape, for
- example, didn't even exist."
- I got the most response by far from the popular /r/conspiracy subreddit.
- Here are the most relevant replies:
- "DuckTech 4 points 5 hours ago
- The US Media are propaganda lapdogs for the Government. Gays are a
- distraction for the people so they will not think about what is actually
- "xenoglossus 4 points 7 hours ago
- Goddamn. I feel so foolish for not seeing this for what it really was. I
- was honestly convinced that Russia was making moves to grossly violate
- human rights. I fucking *hate* how effective and coordinated US propaganda
- ^^I made sure to hit that guy in the mouth, and you may have gained a new
- "DuckTech 4 points 5 hours ago
- We are at war with russia. If it isn't a Proxy war in Syria, then its the
- Economic War in the media.
- They are holding the winter Olympics? Then lets start this thing saying
- they are prosecuting gays and make people worry about visiting.
- This is why America is hated across the world. Our media lies to paint a
- picture they want to see."
- I think that guy is ALREADY a listener.
- "xenoglossus 1 point 7 hours ago
- Holy shit, who is downvoting this? Great find, OP. Something fucking *weird* is
- Hit this guy in the mouth as well, probably another new listener.
- "IntrinsicThought 0 points 2
- This sub disappoints me sometimes when it get's lost in the divisions
- created by the globalists. Russia *is* persecuting Gays. Russia*is* hosting
- an Olympics. USA *is* using Russia's persecution of gays to rain on
- Russia's parade while many of the same problems exist at home. It's not
- that hard to figure out guys, sometimes both sides are bad: VOTE EQUALITY
- And then there is ^^ This ^^ guy.
- Thanks to both you and Producer Heiss for a great product that I think has
- woken some up and ruffled feathers. Look forward to hearing you guys
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- For LGBT Donors, Russia Is The New Marriage
- When Julie Dorf started trying to raise money for international LGBT rights work more than two decades ago, she said, people looked at her like she was nuts.
- ''When we started [the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission] in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, people would look at me and say, 'I have people dying in my backyard; I don't have time to think about gay people in Russia.'''
- And while U.S. support for LGBT advocacy abroad has grown over the years since IGLHRC came into being as the first international gay rights organization in 1990, it has claimed a tiny sliver of the dollars going to LGBT advocacy. Major grassroots fundraising efforts with the celebrity glitter that the domestic movement became so adept at were not a part of the equation.
- But a fundraiser headlined by Melissa Etheridge on Monday night in Manhattan showed how much times have changed. Etheridge has partnered with Dustin Lance Black and other entertainment industry figures to form a coalition to raise funds for Russian LGBT activists, which they're calling Uprising of Love. That's also the title of the anthem Etheridge penned for the movement resisting Russia's ''homosexual propaganda'' law. It will go on sale in January with proceeds going to LGBT activists.
- By the time the Uprising of Love coalition launched, the Human Rights Campaign had already made waves by diving into international work with a $3 million investment from Republican financiers. Its first initiative was also a fundraising campaign for Russian activists, under the banner ''Love Conquers Hate.'' It uses the classic retail strategy that HRC perfected to support its domestic work: selling campaign-branded t-shirts advertised with photos of celebrities in campaign gear.
- In remarks before performing the new song, Etheridge gave voice to the mood among Americans that seem to make them ready for international LGBT fundraising pitches.
- ''It seemed to be just weeks after we had just had this incredible high of that decision of the Supreme Court knocking down DOMA'' that she learned about the anti-gay crackdown in Russia, she said. ''We've been pushing this boulder for 20, 30 years up this hill [in the U.S.]. And we made it, and we can breath'.... All of us who have gone that journey, when we see what's happening in Russia, [we say] ''No no no no. We are never ever ever going back.''
- Etheridge speaks for many Americans who've been active in the LGBT rights movement '-- or at least that's the hope of the organizations who are now trying to expand their fundraising for international work. If they're successful, it will be a fundamental change in the ecosystem of LGBT fundraising, which has kept international efforts as a small niche working in the shadow of domestic advocates and organizations working from Europe.
- The money raised by Uprising of Love will go to the Russia Freedom Fund, which is a partnership between the Arcus Foundation, the Council for Global Equality, and the Open Society Institute. If the average politically aware American has ever heard of any of these groups, the last one is the most likely to be familiar '-- Open Society is the pro-democracy organization established by financier George Soros.
- Open Society has been giving grants to LGBT organizations for about a decade, but only established a specific LGBT rights initiative in 2008. By that time it had already established itself as one of the major donors working on LGBT issues abroad. That's not only a reflection of Open Society's commitment to the issue, but also how small the international LGBT sector was in the world of philanthropy.
- A 2010 review of international LGBT grant-making found that the four U.S.-based organizations that gave the most support gave a combined total of around $10 million. To put that in perspective, that same year another survey of U.S. LGBT organizations brought in a total of more than $161 million.
- Only two American LGBT-specific organizations placed within the top 10 global givers to LGBT rights abroad that year. (The others were the Open Society Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Atlantic Philanthropies; other top givers included European organizations and governments.) One was the Aestraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, which was started as an all-volunteer organization in 1977, and today has an operating budget of $7 million. It has always raised a substantial portion of its grants, but its international program '-- launched in 1996 '-- was heavily spurred by gifts from the German philanthropist Ise Bosch, heir to the Bosch appliance fortune.
- The other was Arcus Foundation, which is taking the lead in organizing the Russia Freedom Fund. It was established by Jon Stryker, an architect who is heir to a Kalamazoo, Michigan based medical-technology fortune. This year, said Arcus's Executive Director Kevin Jennings, Arcus will spend $18 million on LGBT rights causes, and $10 million on its second area of focus '-- protecting great apes.
- But because of its endowment, Arcus has never needed to try to raise money before, said Jennings. The Russian Freedom Fund is the first time the organization has tried to find widespread support for any of its initiatives.
- ''We've never done anything like this before, so I don't know what to expect,'' Jennings told BuzzFeed. The foundation has seeded the fund with $150,000 and has lined up commitments from major donors and other organizations, but these have not yet been made public. This includes the Human Rights Campaign, although spokesman Fred Sainz declined to provide how large its contribution would be.
- It's fitting that Russia would become the first test of Americans' willingness to invest in LGBT rights battles abroad. In some ways, the Russian oppression of LGBT people is where the U.S. international movement began.
- The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission was the first organization based in the United States dedicated to LGBT rights overseas. And it grew out of work that Julie Dorf started doing while studying abroad in Russia in the 1980s as an undergrad at Wesleyan University. She wound up writing her senior thesis in 1987 on the gay slang developed in Russian prisons '-- a place many gays wound up under the Soviet regime.
- She got work leading tours to Russia after she graduated, a position she used to smuggle aid to activists behind the iron curtain, everything from carbon paper to electric generators. When she decided to start an organization to do this work in a more sustainable fashion, she took a group of her key donors to Russia in 1992, on a trip she led along with Rep. Barney Frank and his then-partner, Herb Moses.
- ''It's a bizarre nostalgia trip that things are so bad in Russia again,'' said Dorf, who is now with the Council for Global Equality.
- The situation in Russia is not the first time Americans have taken notice of a serious threat to gay rights abroad, of course. When news of Uganda's ''kill the gays'' bill broke in United States in 2009 '-- thanks largely to Rachel Maddow's consistent highlighting of the proposal on her MSNBC program '-- it provoked a major outcry. But that never translated into a broad-based fundraising effort.
- In some ways, said Andrew Park, today's push for funds for Russia is the outgrowth of institutional responses to the Uganda crisis. Park directs the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity program for Wellspring Advisors, which is a major actor in the international LGBT giving world. But it's hard to say how big; the grants it helps administer are all anonymous, and the identities of their sources are a closely guarded secret.
- Around the time the Ugandan bill started making headlines, U.S. LGBT organizations started engaging internationally, Park said. The ball had started rolling when several LGBT organizations had come together in 2008 to start the Council for Global Equity to lobby the state department on its LGBT policy. When the Uganda story broke, traditionally domestic organizations began exploring ways to get directly involved overseas.
- ''The Uganda moment is one of the reasons that HRC started its program; the momentum for that started before the Russia problem came along,'' Park said. A broad-based fundraising programing might have been possible for Uganda based on the ''thirst for information'' about what was going on there, he added, but none of the organizations stepped in to provide a place for dollars to go.
- But the crisis in Russia also came at the exact right moment to capture Americans' attention. One barrier to international engagement by U.S. activists has long been that they have felt too embattled at home, first because of the HIV crisis and then the fight over marriage equality. And the pool of LGBT donors is very small; a 2012 study estimated that less than 3 percent of LGBT adults in the U.S. contribute to LGBT rights organizations.
- While LGBT advocates stress that there is plenty of work left to do at home '-- including building on the Supreme Court victory to establish marriage equality in all fifty states '-- the fall of DOMA has given Americans the bandwidth to pay attention to the situation in other countries.
- ''Some Americans recognize that as the U.S. LGBT movement institutionalizes its rights in law and policy that attention should also be paid to solidarity with other communities, specifically with LGBT communities that find themselves in a very different moment of rights fulfillment,'' said Jessica Stern, who has been the executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission since 2012.
- So the confrontation in Russia struck at exactly the right moment to capitalize on the energy unleashed among American LGBT people in the wake of the Supreme Court victory. And the situation in Russia had some elements that made it especially well-poised to capture Americans' attention. It evoked Cold War tropes of America championing freedom against Russian oppression, and the Olympics were an ideal point of confrontation around which to organize. And, some advocates say privately, the fact that Russia is perceived as is a white nation with an advanced economy may have made it easier for many in the U.S. movement to identify with than many of the countries in Africa where the situation for LGBT people is far more dire than in Russia.
- There is a danger in this intense focus on Russia, warns Katherine Acey, executive director emeritus of the Astraea Foundation.
- ''What's happening in Russia has always been a very difficult and terrible situation and it deserves support,'' she said, ''but it does feel a little odd that Russia has suddenly become the flag ship for global issues.''
- The challenge to the movement going forward, Stern said, is to now broaden the focus to other places where LGBT people remain embattled.
- ''We hope that Russia doesn't become the sum total of the international news cycle's attention to LGBT rights,'' she said. ''We must have the attention span to care about LGBT rights violations in multiple places at any particular moment.''
-
- Uprising of Love
- Join Uprising of Lovein support of the safety and dignity of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Russians.
- THE ISSUE#UprisingofLoveAt this unique moment in history, when we are seeing such rapid progress in the fight for equality in the West, we cannot be blinded to appalling crimes against humanity elsewhere. Today in Russia, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people are facing harassment, arrest and violence under a set of horrific new laws. For their sake, we must come together and start an uprising of love.
- The goal of this movement is twofold:1. To support the LGBTI community in Russia and foster an atmosphere where Russians feel bolstered to be themselves and speak up for this cause.2. To raise awareness among the international community to continue to build public pressure and vigilance.
- The following prominent individuals have pledged their support to this cause.They are writing songs, producing videos, writing op-eds, and using their influence to spread the message of love to the people of Russia.
- Bonnie AbaunzaDirector of Hans Zimmer's Special Projects and Philanthropy division
- Calpernia AddamsSinger/Songwriter & Activist
- Ted AllenCookbook author / Host, Food Network's "Chopped"
- David AmbrozCorporate Philanthropic Professional
- Alan BallWriter / Director / Producer
- Lance Bass & Michael TurchinEntertainer / Producer; Artist / Actor
- Nate BerkusDecorator / Product Designer
- Dustin Lance BlackWriter / Director / Producer / Co-Founder, Uprising of Love
- Jeremiah BrentInterior Designer
- Sarah BrownFounder and President of PiggyBankKids
- Kelly BushFounder and CEO, ID
- Michael Cashman CBE MEPMember of the European Parliament / Actor
- Deepak Chopra, M.D.Physician / Writer
- Bruce CohenAcademy Award-winning producer / Co-founder, Uprising of Love
- Andy CohenTelevision Executive / Host / p
- Chris ColferActor / Author
- Wilson CruzActor / GLAAD's National Spokesperson
- Melissa EtheridgeSinger-songwriter / Co-founder, Uprising of Love
- Carrie FisherActor / Author
- James FrancoWriter / Director / Academy Award-nominated Actor
- Stephen FryActor / Writer / Activist
- Brian GradenTV Executive / Producer
- Simon Halls & Matt BomerFounder, Slate PR; Actor
- Ed HarrisActor / Director
- Alan HergotPartner, Bloom Hergott Diemer
- Cyndi LauperGrammy, Emmy, and Tony Award Winning Artist and Advocate
- Gregory LewisExecutive Director, Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund
- Judith LightTony and Emmy Award-winning Actress / Activist
- Michael LombardoPresident, HBO Programming
- Greg Louganis & Johnny Chaillot-LouganisOlympic Gold Medalist; Paralegal, Loeb and Loeb
- MadonnaMusical Artist / Activist
- Alec MapaActor / Comedian / Writer
- Wentworth MillerWriter / Actor
- Julianne MooreAcademy Award nominated Actress
- Max MutchnickEmmy Award-winning Writer / Producer
- Kathy NajimyActor / Director / Producer / Activist
- Jim NicolayAgent, Creative Artists Agency
- Edward NortonAward-winning Actor
- Lisa PaulsenPresident & CEO, Entertainment Industry Foundation
- Billy PorterTony Award-winning Actor
- Alan PoulProducer / Director
- Greg PropperPartner, Propper Daley / Co-Founder, Uprising of Love
- Zachary QuintoActor / Producer / Activist
- Rob ReinerFilmmaker / Activist
- Michele ReinerPhotographer / Activist
- John RobertsFounder, EUK Consulting
- Ric RobertsonFormer COO, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Michael McCorry RoseActor
- Lawrence RubinExecutive, Creative Artists Agency
- Adam SchroederFeature and TV producer
- Steven SchwartzAcademy & Grammy Award-winning Composer
- Jake ShearsSinger / Writer
- Curt ShepardProgram Director, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
- Chip SullivanHead of Publicity, DreamWorks
- Steve TaoExecutive, Bad Robot
- John TedstromCEO, John Tedstrom Associates
- Lily TomlinActor / Writer / Producer
- Linda WallemActor / Writer / Producer / Co-founder, Uprising of Love
- Steve WarrenPartner, Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman, LLP
- Sigourney WeaverAcademy Award-nominated Actress
- This effort is also a collaboration of a number of partners:Learnabout the situation in Russia &the efforts to support LGBTI Russians.Help support the safety and dignity of LGBTI RussiansAll donations to Uprising of Love will go directly to the Russia Freedom Fund. The Russia Freedom Fund is a U.S. tax-deductible vehicle for making financial contributions in support of the LGBTI movement in Russia and efforts to combat discrimination and violence there based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 100% of all donations will be paid out as grants. This initiative responds to growing concerns about recent state-sponsored discrimination in Russia and expresses solidarity between the international LGBTI community and allies, and the Russian LGBTI movement. Learn more >
- Thank you, your message has successfully been submitted. #UprisingofLove
-
- Jon Stryker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Jon Lloyd Stryker (born ca. 1958) is an American architect, philanthropist and activist for social and environmental causes. He is a billionairestockholder and heir to the Stryker Corporation medical supply company fortunes of grandfather Homer Stryker alongside sisters Pat and Ronda. In 2010, his net worth was estimated at $1.2 billion.[1]
- Stryker is the founder and President of Arcus Foundation, an international foundation supporting Great Ape conservation and social justice endeavors. The threatened colobine species Rhinopithecus strykeri is named for him.
- Stryker has donated over $247 million to charitable organizations, supporting primate conservation and LGBT rights.[7]
- Primate conservationEditStryker is founder and President of the Arcus Foundation, a private foundation that supports great ape conservation as well as human social justice causes including sexual orientation and gender equality. He is a founding Board Member of the Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy in Northern Kenya, Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida and Greenleaf Trust in Kalamazoo, Michigan.[8]
- Naming of Rhinopithecus strykeriEditIn 2010, the newly discovered Myanmar Snub-nosed Monkey was named Rhinopithecus strykeri in his honor; Stryker's Arcus Foundation had supported the primate research teams who discovered the colobine, already known and hunted for food by natives in Northern Myanmar on the Maw River, during the course of a survey of Hoolock Gibbons.[9]
- Social justice and human rightsEditStryker's Arcus Foundation supports groups advancing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) human rights and social justice.[10] Stryker is a Platinum Council (US $50,000 and over annual contributions) donor to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.[11]
- In 2009, Kalamazoo College received a $200,000 planning grant from Stryker's Arcus Foundation to prepare for the establishment of a social justice leadership center.[12] In January 2012, the College announced that they had received a $23 Million Grant from the Arcus Foundation to fund the now functioning Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.[13]
- Visual artistNan Goldin's work in Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography has been supported by the purchase and exhibition of silver dye bleach prints "through the generosity of" Stryker.[14]
- Political contributionsEditStryker formed the political action committeeCoalition for Progress in August 2006 to fund election campaigns for Michigan Senate and Michigan House of Representatives district candidates, particularly from the Democratic Party.[15] Stryker personally contributed $4.7 million while sister Pat Stryker contributed $500,000 by November 2006.[16] In the 2006 Michigan gubernatorial election, Jennifer Granholm was re-elected as Governor of Michigan over Republican opponent Dick DeVos, the subject of advertising paid for by the Coalition.[17] In early August 2012, Stryker donated $325,000 to the group, Freedom to Marry Minnesota, which went on to defeat a referendum that would have placed a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Minnesota. [18] In 2013 Minnesota became the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage.
- Stryker is divorced and has two children.[3] Stryker is gay.[10]
- In June 2010, Stryker enlarged his contiguous residential property in Palm Beach, Florida, initially enlarged by purchasing the ocean-access lot next to the one containing his 1924 Mediterranean-style house designed by Marion Sims Wyeth, whose west facade was designated a landmark in 1990, by the further purchase of the adjoining residence of Jimmy Buffett and Jane Buffett for $18.5 million using as titular buyer Via Marina LLC.[19] Stryker has also maintained one or more residences in Kalamazoo,[5] and in 2003 surprised himself by finding that a commercial building he bought in Kalamazoo formerly housed his grandfather's Orthopedic Frame Co. which became Stryker Corp. Stryker is credited with built-space revitalization efforts in the city.[7] Stryker has purchased an apartment in the Time Warner Center in New York City.[20] In June 2013 it was reported that Stryker purchased the Mystery Point property on the Hudson River, putting part of the property under a conservation easement for public access while retaining the home for private use.[21] It has also been reported that Stryker purchased the pioneering eco resort Maho Bay Camps [22] but the buyer and their intentions have not been disclosed eight months after the property was sold.
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- GuideStar Exchange Reports for ARCUS FOUNDATION
- Basic Organization InformationARCUS FOUNDATION
- Physical Address:New York, NY 10001 EIN:38-3332791Web URL:www.arcusfoundation.org NTEE Category:T Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Grantmaking T20 Private Grantmaking Foundations Ruling Year:1997 Sign in or create an account to see this organization's full address, contact information, and more!
- Mission StatementThe mission of the Arcus Foundation is to achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes.
- Expert AssessmentThere are no Expert Reviews for this organization. Learn more about TakeAction@GuideStar.Impact Summary from the NonprofitThe creation of a more just and humane world, based on diversity, equality and fundamental respect.
- Personal ReviewsARCUS FOUNDATION does not have review writing capability at this time.
- Forms 990 Provided by the NonprofitFinancial StatementsAudited Financial Statement is not available for this organization.
- Kevin has a long and distinguished career as an educator, social justice activist, teacher, and author. Most recently, he was CEO of Be the Change, a nonprofit that creates national issue-base campaigns on pressing problems in U.S. society. Before that, Kevin served as Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education, heading the department's Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools where he led federal efforts to promote the safety, health and well being of U.S. students and led the Obama Administration's anti-bullying initiative. Kevin began his career as a high school history teacher and coach in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. During this time he served as faculty advisor to the nation's first Gay-Straight Alliance leading him in 1990 to found the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national education organization tackling anti-LGBT bias in U.S. schools. Dr. Burton has extensive experience working for LGBT organizations and causes, with a focus on health care advocacy and service delivery. From 1992-1994, she was the Director of Lesbian Health for the New York City Department of Health, and also served as director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center's Project Connect.
- Highest Paid Employees & Their CompensationHighest Paid Employee data is not available for this organization.
- Evidence of ImpactExpert Comments
- There are no comments available for this organization.
- Organizational StrengthsExpert Comments
- There are no comments available for this organization.
- Areas for ImprovementExpert Comments
- There are no comments available for this organization.
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- Bringing Human Rights Home | Amnesty International USA
- 02.05.2014 | Barclays Center | Brooklyn, NY
- Read, see and hear the latest #AmnestyConcert interactive content - what the artists are saying, fan love, videos, images and ways to get involved.
- Interactive UpdatesRead, see and hear the latest #AmnestyConcert interactive content - what the artists are saying, fan love, videos, images and ways to get involved.
- Tickets on sale through Ticketmaster on January 11. Don't be left out in the cold. Get yours today - before they sell out.
- Get TicketsTickets on sale through Ticketmaster on January 11. Don't be left out in the cold. Get yours today - before they sell out.
- What does it mean to bring human rights home? The denial of any person's human rights regardless of where they live in the world is an affront to our own rights. Read more.
- Take Injustice PersonallyWhat does it mean to bring human rights home? The denial of any person's human rights regardless of where they live in the world is an affront to our own rights. Read more.
- Don't miss a beat. Read the latest concert news.
- Concert NewsDon't miss a beat. Read the latest concert news.
- On February 5, 2014 thousands of human rights supporters will descend upon the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NYC for an unforgettable night. Imagine Dragons, Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Fray, The Flaming Lips, Tegan and Sara, Cold War Kids, Collbie Caillat, Cake and others will perform. Nadya and Masha, two women from Russian art collective Pussy Riot who were recently freed from prison after 21 months (and hundreds of thousands of online actions by Amnesty activists), will take the stage.. Stories will be told. Actions will be taken. Lives will be changed.
- "Amnesty's past concerts have featured some of the greatest artists of our generation and have been catalysts for real, measurable change. It's an honor to perform as part of this event and continue the cause of championing human rights around the world."-- Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Grammy-nominated rock band Imagine Dragons
- "We are happy to support Amnesty International's work on behalf of human rights and political prisoners. We, more than anyone, understand how important Amnesty's work is in connecting activists to prisoners."-- Nadezhda "Nadya" Tolokonnikova and Maria "Masha" Alekhina, members of Pussy Riot who were jailed in 2012 for publicly criticizing Russian president Vladimir Putin in a church
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- Madonna & Pussy Riot
- NEW YORK (AP) -- Madonna's not done with her recent string of public appearances - she also has signed on to introduce members of Pussy Riot at Amnesty International's human rights concert in New York.The pop singer made the announcement Wednesday morning on social media. She's been busy of late, appearing on Sunday's Grammy Awards with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and singing with Miley Cyrus during an "MTV Unplugged" taping Tuesday.Madonna says in a statement that she admires Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. They were recently released after nearly two years in jail following a conviction for hooliganism when they staged a protest in a Russian church.The Feb. 5 Bringing Human Rights Home concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn also includes Imagine Dragons, Lauryn Hill, The Flaming Lips and others.
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- Russian Ruble Falls to Record Low as Minister Warns of Inflation
- MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) '' The Russian ruble continued its slide Wednesday to reach historic lows as a government minister warned that the currency's continued plunge could cause a spike in inflation.
- The euro climbed 55 kopecks to 48.02 rubles on Wednesday evening in Moscow, the ruble's weakest showing against the European currency since trading began. The dollar rose 47 kopecks to 35.20 rubles by the same time, the ruble's lowest value against the greenback since 2008.
- If the ruble continues to weaken it will result in more expensive imports and could boost inflation, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev warned during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Prime business news agency reported.
- Other emerging market currencies are falling alongside the ruble as the United States winds up giant money printing programs that have buoyed emerging markets, but the ruble's dive has been among the most pronounced.
- The Russian currency traded Wednesday outside the central bank's trading corridor for the second time in 2014, as the regulator failed to keep the currency within the target band.
- The central bank, which controls the value of the ruble through interventions on the currency market, has widened the target corridor for the ruble by 65 kopecks since the start of the year.
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- F-Russia-Steve Sailer: iSteve: NYT: "Russians: Still the Go-To Bad Guys"
- Movies these days tend to be extremely accurate visually about what the past looked like or would have looked like if people back then had more money and time to work on their looks (e.g., all the work put into, say, American Hustle to look like 1978-80).But the kind of people who write about movies are generally pretty clueless about how people thought or behaved in the past. Cultural pundits today mostly absorb some generally acceptable lessons about the evil attitudes of the past and don't look for nuance.
- Thus, from the New York Times:
- Russians: Still the Go-To Bad Guys
- THE movie ''Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,'' which opens in theaters this weekend, revolves around an American C.I.A. analyst first introduced in Tom Clancy's 1984 novel ''The Hunt for Red October.'' The source material isn't the only thing that's a little creaky. Ryan's destination is Moscow, his target a Russian businessman plotting to crash the American economy through a terrorist attack.
- In portraying the diabolical oligarch Viktor Cherevin, Kenneth Branagh delivers his lines in the thick, menacingly slow accent that defines Eastern European baddies on screen: ''You think this is game, Jack?''
- Nearly 25 years after the Berlin Wall fell and marked the end of the Cold War, Hollywood's go-to villains remain Russians.
- That assumes that Russians were the movies' go-to villains during the Cold War, which was hardly true. An obvious example is the James Bond movies, in which the novels' original bad guys, the Soviet SMERSH agency, were replaced by the nonideological for-profit multinational SPECTRE.In general, Cold War movie bad guys were far more often the CIA, the oil companies, the military-industrial complex, the rich, and so forth and so on. (Among powerful American institutions, the Marine Corps and the FBI spent a lot of money and effort schmoozing Hollywood to keep from being portrayed badly.) Overall, the Soviets didn't figure much in American entertainment, and when they did, were usually seen as not the real problem.
- The use of the Soviets as bad guys tended to be a 1980s idiosyncrasy of a handful of out-of-the-closet conservative action stars (e.g., Sylvester Stallone) or writer-directors (John Milius -- Red Dawn). Their anti-Communist movies were extremely controversial at the time since they were much more popular with the public than with the culturesphere.
- In general, Hollywood saw the Nazis as having agency, while the Soviets did not. They were a mere unfortunate reaction to our own agency. That's not a wholly unreasonable interpretation of history, but you can see why it wasn't very stimulating for making movies, so there were few anti-Soviet movies.
- Even then, it is difficult to recognize any sort of negative ethnic stereotyping of Russians of the type we see today. Throughout the Cold War, American culture producers tended to view Russians as a cultured people as seen in all the great Russian novels and plays of the pre-Communist era. Many of the Russians in the West during the Cold War were refugee aristocrats of impeccable manners: some became head waiters, others novelists (Nabokov). For example, Ensign Chekov on Star Trek was named to call to mind the great Russian playwright.
- The current notion of Russians as flatheaded goons didn't exist in America before the Berlin Wall came down.
- While Soviet government officials were seen as boring and badly dressed, Americans during the Cold War tended, if anything, to overrate Russian culture as more elegant than American culture. For example, the Bolshoi Ballet was hugely famous during the Cold War. Similarly, young Texan pianist Van Cliburn winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 was gigantically famous at the time. Russian figure skaters and gymnasts were highly admired. Even the U.S. victory over the Soviet ice hockey team at the 1980 Olympics was seen as bumptious upstarts somehow knocking off a team that was far more elegant than the brutal North American style.
- At the upper end of Hollywood prestige, note Dr. Zhivago, the second biggest grossing movie of the 1960s, which depicts Russians as soulful, literary, and romantic but sadly victimized by Stalin. The movie ends with a travelog of a giant new Soviet hydroelectric dam showing the bad times are over and progress is being made.
- The current stereotype associating Russians with organized crime simply didn't exist during the Cold War.
- The last few years alone have seen a sadistic ex-K.G.B. agent (''The Avengers''), crooked Russian officials (''A Good Day to Die Hard''), Russian hit men (''The Tourist''), a Russian spy (''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''), a Russian-American loan shark (''Limitless'') and so many Russian gangsters they have displaced Italians as film's favored thugs (''Jack Reacher,'' ''Safe,'' ''A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas,'' among others).
- I suspect screenwriters and studio executives have deemed Russians to be politically safe villains. No advocacy group will protest.
- E.g., Steven Spielberg thought Hindus were a safe set of villains in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 30 years ago, but quickly discovered that he'd better go back to Nazis.No foreign distribution deal will be nixed. Russian moviegoers here and abroad are probably inured to seeing themselves portrayed as Boris Badenovs on screen.
- Russia is second only to China as a growth market for Hollywood movies. The movie industry is very concerned about Chinese sensitivities, so it would be interesting to see why it doesn't seem concerned about Russian sensitivities.Why make a TV show about modern-day surveillance and wiretapping when you can do a Red-scare period piece and offend or provoke no one?
- Still, it doesn't make for as powerful drama as it once did.
- If you grew up during the Cold War, you viewed Russians with a potent mix of hatred and fear, and felt in your gut that a nuclear war between our countries could erupt any second, obliterating everybody and everything. That's why movies like ''The Day After'' and ''Threads'' were so visceral.
- No, these were basically movies about how Ronald Reagan was going to blow up the world. It's funny how the gigantic Nuclear Freeze movement of the early 1980s is so forgotten that it doesn't even have its own Wikipedia page.I doubt today's teenage moviegoers are walking around with the same mixed-up feelings about the Russians. Ivan Drago, the Soviet-bred fighting machine who battled Rocky Balboa in 1985, may have been absurd but he was a fall guy for his time. Has our pop culture not moved beyond ''Rocky IV''?
- Once again, Stallone was notoriously out of step with the rest of Hollywood in the 1980s by making anti-Communist movies, from which he made lots and lots of money, much as Mel Gibson made lots of money off the Mexican-American market with The Passion of the Christ. And don't forget that Rocky IV still ends with Rocky Balboa negotiating world peace with the young new Soviet premiere.Now, in defense of post-Berlin Wall Hollywood screenwriters, let me point out that they were faster at sniffing out that something funny was going on in Yeltsin's new free market democracy than was, say, Stanley Fischer.
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- Steve Sailer: iSteve: What is Sochi all about?
- One nagging question is why Vladimir Putin is spending a supposed $50 billion dollars to fix up the Black Sea coastal town of Sochi and a nearby inland mountain ski village to host the upcoming Winter Olympics. That's a huge amount for a Winter games, which are smaller in scale than the summer games that contributed so much to Greece's current debt problems.Putin's reasons no doubt include national pride and to allow his friends and supporters to skim tens of billions off the top of the construction budgets.But another reason appears to be to develop one of that vast but northerly country's most southerly, mild, palm-lined, and scenically-varied regions into a world-class four-season resort and retirement destination for Russia's ruling class, where they can't be arrested by Russia's rivals. Many of Russia's biggest pre-Putin criminals have fled to safe havens in London, New York, the South of France, and the like, where they occupy themselves owning major league sports franchises and so forth. But Putin and his current oligarchs figure that the Washington-New York-London axis will look less approvingly on their crimes than on those of their predecessors. So, they'd better have a nice, warm place within Russia to retire to. Czarist and Soviet rulers used to have resort homes in the Crimea (e.g., Yalta), but that beautiful, mostly Russian peninsula got handed to the Ukraine on 1/1/1992. Stalin had a second home south of Sochi on the Black Sea, but that's now in Georgia.So, Russia's latest rulers need a new, improved dream destination. Hence, the huge investment in Sochi.
- That also helps explain some of the Western anger over the Sochi Olympics: the development of Sochi is intended to reduce the threat of Western countries taking Russian leaders prisoner some day, which reduces Western influence over Russia.
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- European Union - EEAS (European External Action Service) | Eastern Partnership
- What happens in the countries in Eastern Europe and the southern Caucasus matters to the EU. As the EU has expanded, these countries have become closer neighbours, and their security, stability and prosperity increasingly affect the EU's. Closer cooperation between the EU and its eastern European partners '' Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine '' is very important for the EU's external relations.
- Launched in 2009, the Eastern Partnership [832 KB] is a joint initiative between the EU, EU countries and the eastern European partner countries. It enables partner countries interested in moving towards the EU and increasing political, economic and cultural links to do so. It is underpinned by a shared commitment to international law and fundamental values - democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms - and to the market economy, sustainable development and good governance.
- The EU has put forward concrete ideas for each partner country. The aim is to improve relations with individual countries.
- A new generation of Association Agreements is being negotiated with some countries on an individual basis. These will replace the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements concluded with partner countries (apart from Belarus) in the late 1990s. The latest Association Agreements/DCTFAs to have been initialed were the ones for Georgia and the Republic of Moldova.
- promotes democracy and good governancestrengthens energy securitypromotes sector reform and environment protectionencourages people-to-people contactssupports economic and social developmentprovides additional funding for projects to reduce social inequality and increase stability.
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- SnowJob
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- Senate Intelligence Hearing
- Clapper, Brennan, Comey, Flynn, Olson
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- Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize.
- Edward Snowden will be one of scores of names being considered by the Nobel prize committee. Photograph: The Guardian/AFP/Getty Images
- Two Norwegian politicians say they have jointly nominated the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel peace prize.
- The Socialist Left party politicians Baard Vegar Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen said the public debate and policy changes in the wake of Snowden's whistleblowing had "contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order".
- Being nominated means Snowden will be one of scores of names that the Nobel committee will consider for the prestigious award.
- The five-member panel will not confirm who has been nominated but those who submit nominations sometimes make them public.
- Nominators, including members of national parliaments and governments, university professors and previous laureates, must enter their submissions by 1 February.
- The prize committee members can add their own candidates at their first meeting after that deadline.
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- Silicon Valley companies reach NSL deal
- WASHINGTON (AP) -- Technology companies and privacy advocates are praising a new government compromise that will allow the Internet's leading companies to disclose more information about how often they are ordered to turn over customer information to the government in national security investigations.The Justice Department on Monday reached agreements with Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. that would allow them to disclose data on national security orders the companies have received under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. While the compromise doesn't allow companies to disclose everything they wished, and allows them to disclose more than the government originally wanted them to, both sides seemed relatively satisfied with the agreement filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has the final say.The five companies welcomed the deal, but said more needs to be done. "We filed our lawsuits because we believe that the public has a right to know about the volume and types of national security requests we receive," the companies said in a joint statement. "While this is a very positive step, we'll continue to encourage Congress to take additional steps to address all of the reforms we believe are needed."Apple said on its website, "We believe strongly that our customers have the right to understand how their personal information is being handled, and we are pleased the government has developed new rules that allow us to more accurately report law enforcement orders and national security orders in the U.S."Federal officials also seemed pleased with the agreement, which follows discussions about government digital spying after leaks about National Security Agency surveillance by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden."Permitting disclosure of this aggregate data addresses an important area of concern to communications providers and the public," Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a joint statement.Some of those companies signing the agreement were among several U.S. Internet businesses identified as giving the NSA access to customer data under the program known as PRISM.The companies had said they wanted to make the disclosures in order to correct inaccuracies in news reports and to calm public speculation about the scope of the companies' cooperation with the government. The providers wanted to show that only a tiny fraction of their customers' accounts have been subject to legal orders.Following the Snowden leaks, the FBI allowed communications providers to report in a limited way the number of orders for data they received from the government and the number of accounts affected by such orders. However, the FBI only agreed to disclosure of a single, aggregate number of criminal and national security-related orders to the companies from all U.S. governmental entities, plus local and state entities.Under the compromise announced Monday, Internet companies will be able to release more information, but still only in very general terms when it comes to national security investigations. They can report the number of criminal-related orders from the government. They also will be able to release, rounded to the nearest thousand, the number of secret national security-related orders from government investigators; the number of national security-related orders from the FISA court; and the number of customers affected by both. In the FISA orders, the companies will be able to say the number of requests for personal information about their customers versus their actual emails.The companies can also choose a simplified reporting process that allows them to report the number of criminal-related orders; then, national security or intelligence orders in increments of 250; and the total number of customers targeted, also in groups of 250.The companies will have to delay releasing the number of national security orders by six months. They also had to promise that if they come up with new technology or new forms of communication, they are not able to reveal that the government can tap into that new technology for two years.Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called it a "positive first step." "Though there is still a great deal of work to do, today's announcement is good for American companies and the Americans they employ and serve," he said.The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a brief supporting the tech firms in their bid to disclose more information, said the deal "partially" lifted an information gag on the companies. But the group praised the agreement as "a victory for transparency."Alex Abdo, a lawyer with the ACLU's National Security Project, said: "It is commendable that the companies pressed the government for more openness, but even more is needed. Congress should require the government to publish basic information about the full extent of its surveillance."---Associated Press writer Stephen Braun in Washington, AP National Writer Martha Mendoza in San Jose, Calif., and AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.---Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland
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- Google-Backed Developer Group Slams Newly Uncovered NSA App Spying | TechCrunch
- The Application Developers Alliance, which counts Google and AT&T as members according to its website, has condemned recent NSA revelations concerning data collection efforts by the government from apps, saying that the news ''damages'' its industry, and ''undermines the hard work of app developer entrepreneurs everywhere.''
- Yesterday, newly reveled efforts by the NSA and its British counterpart, the GCHQ, to collect user information from certain mobile applications relit the discussion concerning privacy, data integrity, and the limits of government surveillance. The documents behind the leak, provided by Edward Snowden, allow the government to, in the words of The Guardian, ''piggyback [on] commercial data collection for their own purposes.''
- This isn't great news for developers, naturally, because government intrusion into data provided to applications by users likely undermines users' interest in sharing their information with apps in general. If you think the NSA might hoover up whatever you share, you'll likely share less.
- And, apps can better target ads '-- read: make more money '-- if they know more about you. So, the less you trust the integrity of your information, the less money developers can make from you, in a sense. This means that the NSA's efforts could introduce drag into a market sector that is quickly growing. If so, it would be another example of the NSA's activities being real in the sense that their damage is no longer theoretical (the much worried chilling of the press) or philosophical (self censorship and the like), but actual, and now.
- Here's the Application Developers Alliance's full statement on the situation:
- Uninhibited collection of consumers' personal data by governments hacking into apps is unacceptable. Developers are surprised and disappointed to learn that personal information entrusted to them by users has been secretly collected and stored. This surveillance damages our entire industry and undermines the hard work of app developer entrepreneurs everywhere.''
- I think that it is fair to say that given the sheer wealth and political power of modern technology companies, the more irked they become at the NSA and its activities, the more likely we are to see change. Google et al have become large, well monied political players. Money is speech, after all.
- And we've seen that tech companies can enact governmental change in the recent decision by the government to loosen the rules regarding sharing how many requests for user data that they receive. Several large firms were willing to take the government to court, and the government relented.
- It's simple to dismiss the new revelations as overblown outrage '-- Down with this sort of thing! What's for lunch? '-- but instead I'd hazard that the news has an important takeaway worth remembering: The NSA found a gap in the armor of data, and happily helped itself. It will continue to do this. So, we can take the app data story as indicative of future performance.
- Something to think about.
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- Apps Have Been Leaking "Golden Nuggets" of Personal Info to the NSA
- The Guardian has obtained top secret documents from Edward Snowden that show that both the NSA and GCHQ (its UK equivalent) have been developing the ability to siphon personal information from "leaky" smartphone apps such as Google Maps and Angry Birds. In one document, the agency lays out the "perfect scenario" of the type of info it can obtain when a photo taken with a smartphone is uploaded to a social media site.
- Yes, your selfie habit comes with a price.
- The classified documents show that data from the latest generation of iPhone and Android apps isn't limited to age, gender, and location. According to theGuardian, the agency might even be able to figure out if you're a swinger:
- One slide from a May 2010 NSA presentation on getting data from smartphones '' breathlessly titled "Golden Nugget!" '' sets out the agency's "perfect scenario": "Target uploading photo to a social media site taken with a mobile device. What can we get?"
- The question is answered in the notes to the slide: from that event alone, the agency said it could obtain a "possible image", email selector, phone, buddy lists, and "a host of other social working data as well as location".
- In practice, most major social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, strip photos of identifying location metadata (known as EXIF data) before publication. However, depending on when this is done during upload, such data may still, briefly, be available for collection by the agencies as it travels across the networks.
- Depending on what profile information a user had supplied, the documents suggested, the agency would be able to collect almost every key detail of a user's life: including home country, current location (through geolocation), age, gender, zip code, martial status '' options included "single", "married", "divorced", "swinger" and more '' income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education level, and number of children.
- It's all part of the NSA's dragnet approach. Rather than hack into one person's handset, the agency uses mass surveillance tools, "such as cable taps, or from international mobile networks," to "collect large quantities of mobile phone data," from apps. And the more obsessed you get with the computer in your pocket, the more data the NSA gets.
- The agencies also made use of their mobile interception capabilities to collect location information in bulk, from Google and other mapping apps. One basic effort by GCHQ and the NSA was to build a database geolocating every mobile phone mast in the world '' meaning that just by taking tower ID from a handset, location information could be gleaned.
- A more sophisticated effort, though, relied on intercepting Google Maps queries made on smartphones, and using them to collect large volumes of location information.
- So successful was this effort that one 2008 document noted that "[i]t effectively means that anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system."
- App developers or the companies that deliver an app's advertisements decide what information is generated. The Guardian says potentially sensitive details "would likely qualify as content, rather than metadata."
- President Obama's recent speech about reforming the NSA focused on the collection of metadata and did not mention the information collected from smartphone apps. As with other recent revelations, the NSA says its not using its spy tools on Americans, but rather "valid foreign intelligence targets".
- Just like the shadowy data brokers that sell information you put on Facebook to marketers, here the middlemen are the ad platforms:
- One mobile ad platform, Millennial Media, appeared to offer particularly rich information. Millennial Media's website states it has partnered with Rovio on a special edition of Angry Birds; with Farmville maker Zynga; with Call of Duty developer Activision, and many other major franchises.
- The agencies try to target "weak spots" in the communications infrastructure:
- Another slide details weak spots in where data flows from mobile phone network providers to the wider internet, where the agency attempts to intercept communications. These are locations either within a particular network, or international roaming exchanges (known as GRXs), where data from travellers roaming outside their home country is routed.
- In a 2010 presentation about the spy agencies big plans for mobile phone interception, GCHQ named their tech tools after various Smurfs:
- GCHQ's targeted tools against individual smartphones are named after characters in the TV series The Smurfs. An ability to make the phone's microphone 'hot', to listen in to conversations, is named "Nosey Smurf". High-precision geolocation is called "Tracker Smurf", power management '' an ability to stealthily activate an a phone that is apparently turned off '' is "Dreamy Smurf", while the spyware's self-hiding capabilities are codenamed "Paranoid Smurf".
- To the spy agencies, your privacy looks like dopey old cartoon.
- To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.
- RelatedPresident Obama's much-anticipated speech about NSA surveillance reforms is going on now, and he's threading a tiny needle: cheerleading'... Read'...
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- Snowden says NSA engages in industrial espionage: TV
- Snowden says NSA engages in industrial espionage: TVTop News
- Snowden says NSA engages in industrial espionage: TV
- BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency is involved in industrial espionage and will grab any intelligence it can get its hands on regardless of its value to national security, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden told a German TV network.
- In text released ahead of a lengthy interview to be broadcast on Sunday, ARD TV quoted Snowden saying the NSA does not limit its espionage to issues of national security and he cited German engineering firm, Siemens as one target.
- "If there's information at Siemens that's beneficial to U.S. national interests - even if it doesn't have anything to do with national security - then they'll take that information nevertheless," Snowden said, according to ARD, which recorded the interview in Russia where he has claimed asylum.
- Snowden also told the German public broadcasting network he no longer has possession of any documents or information on NSA activities and has turned everything he had over to select journalists.
- He said he did not have any control over the publication of the information, ARD said.
- Questions about U.S. government spying on civilians and foreign officials burst into the open last June when Snowden, leaked documents outlining the widespread collection of telephone records and email.
- The revelations shocked Germany, a country especially sensitive after the abuses by the Gestapo during the Nazi reign and the Stasi in Communist East Germany during the Cold War.
- Reports the NSA monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone have added to the anger in Germany, which has been pushing for a 'no-spy' agreement with the United States, a country it considers to be among its closest allies.
- Snowden's claim the NSA is engaged in industrial espionage follows a New York Times report earlier this month that the NSA put software in almost 100,000 computers around the world, allowing it to carry out surveillance on those devices and could provide a digital highway for cyberattacks.
- The NSA planted most of the software after gaining access to computer networks, but has also used a secret technology that allows it entry even to computers not connected to the Internet, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials, computer experts and documents leaked by Snowden.
- The newspaper said the technology had been in use since at least 2008 and relied on a covert channel of radio waves transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards secretly inserted in the computers.
- Frequent targets of the programme, code-named Quantum, included units of the Chinese military and industrial targets.
- Snowden faces criminal charges after fleeing to Hong Kong and then Russia, where he was granted at least a year's asylum.
- He was charged with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national security information and giving classified intelligence data to an unauthorised person.
- (Editing by Sophie Hares)
- Snowden says NSA engages in industrial espionage: TVTop News
- Snowden says NSA engages in industrial espionage: TV
- BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency is involved in industrial espionage and will grab any intelligence it can get its hands on regardless of its value to national security, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden told a German TV network.
- In text released ahead of a lengthy interview to be broadcast on Sunday, ARD TV quoted Snowden saying the NSA does not limit its espionage to issues of national security and he cited German engineering firm, Siemens as one target.
- "If there's information at Siemens that's beneficial to U.S. national interests - even if it doesn't have anything to do with national security - then they'll take that information nevertheless," Snowden said, according to ARD, which recorded the interview in Russia where he has claimed asylum.
- Snowden also told the German public broadcasting network he no longer has possession of any documents or information on NSA activities and has turned everything he had over to select journalists.
- He said he did not have any control over the publication of the information, ARD said.
- Questions about U.S. government spying on civilians and foreign officials burst into the open last June when Snowden, leaked documents outlining the widespread collection of telephone records and email.
- The revelations shocked Germany, a country especially sensitive after the abuses by the Gestapo during the Nazi reign and the Stasi in Communist East Germany during the Cold War.
- Reports the NSA monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone have added to the anger in Germany, which has been pushing for a 'no-spy' agreement with the United States, a country it considers to be among its closest allies.
- Snowden's claim the NSA is engaged in industrial espionage follows a New York Times report earlier this month that the NSA put software in almost 100,000 computers around the world, allowing it to carry out surveillance on those devices and could provide a digital highway for cyberattacks.
- The NSA planted most of the software after gaining access to computer networks, but has also used a secret technology that allows it entry even to computers not connected to the Internet, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials, computer experts and documents leaked by Snowden.
- The newspaper said the technology had been in use since at least 2008 and relied on a covert channel of radio waves transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards secretly inserted in the computers.
- Frequent targets of the programme, code-named Quantum, included units of the Chinese military and industrial targets.
- Snowden faces criminal charges after fleeing to Hong Kong and then Russia, where he was granted at least a year's asylum.
- He was charged with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national security information and giving classified intelligence data to an unauthorised person.
- (Editing by Sophie Hares)
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Joint Statement by Director of National Intelligence James...
- Joint Statement by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Attorney General Eric Holder on New Reporting Methods for National Security Orders
- As indicated in the Justice Department's filing with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the administration is acting to allow more detailed disclosures about the number of national security orders and requests issued to communications providers, the number of customer accounts targeted under those orders and requests, and the underlying legal authorities. Through these new reporting methods, communications providers will be permitted to disclose more information than ever before to their customers.
- This action was directed by the President earlier this month in his speech on intelligence reforms. While this aggregate data was properly classified until today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with other departments and agencies, has determined that the public interest in disclosing this information now outweighs the national security concerns that required its classification.
- Permitting disclosure of this aggregate data addresses an important area of concern to communications providers and the public. But more work remains on other issues. In the weeks ahead, additional steps must be taken in order to fully implement the reforms directed by the President.
- The declassification reflects the Executive Branch's continuing commitment to making information about the government's intelligence activities publicly available where appropriate and is consistent with ensuring the protection of the national security of the United States.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Heres the Interview Transcript | a.nolen
- A fantastic reader sent me the link to an English-language transcript of Snowden's interview last Sunday, provided by NDR. As a public service, I'm posting the link below ASAP. Thanks again, Hubri5! People like you make blogging great!
- Snowden Interview, NDR Jan 26th 2014
- '--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--''
- Wow- having read the interview, I really recommend it. Snowden continually impresses me with his poise and dedication to doing the right thing. He's a national treasure.
- So, down to the nitty-gritty. Snowden explains the weasel-words that the US president and apologists for the NSA use to confuse the public about the nature of domestic spying programs'' this explanation applies to other governments collaborating with the NSA too.
- In many countries, as in America too the agencies like the NSA are not allowed to spy within their own borders on their own people. So the Brits for example they can spy on everybody but the Brits but the NSA can conduct surveillance in England so in the very end they could exchange their data and they would be strictly following the law.
- If you ask the governments about this directly they would deny it and point to policy agreements between the members of the Five Eyes saying that they won't spy on each other's citizens but there are a couple of key points there. One is that the way they define spying is not the collection of data. The GCHQ is collecting an incredible amount of data on British Citizens just as the National Security Agency is gathering enormous amounts of data on US citizens. What they are saying is that they will not then target people within that data. They won't look for UK citizens or British citizens. In addition the policy agreements between them that say British won't target US citizens, US won't target British citizens are not legally binding. The actual memorandums of agreement state specifically on that that they are not intended to put legal restriction on any government. They are policy agreements that can be deviated from or broken at any time. So if they want to on a British citizen they can spy on a British citizen and then they can even share that data with the British government that is itself forbidden from spying on UK citizens. So there is a sort of a trading dynamic there but it's not, it's not open, it's more of a nudge and wink and beyond that the key is to remember the surveillance and the abuse doesn't occur when people look at the data it occurs when people gather the data in the first place.
- What could you do if you would sit so to speak in their place with this kind of instrument [XKeyscore]?
- You could read anyone's email in the world. Anybody you've got email address for, any website you can watch traffic to and from it, any computer that an individual sits at you can watch it, any laptop that you're tracking you can follow it as it moves from place to place throughout the world. It's a one stop shop for access to the NSA's information. And what's more you can tag individuals using ''XKeyscore''. Let's say I saw you once and I thought what you were doing was interesting or you just have access that's interesting to me, let's say you work at a major German corporation and I want access to that network, I can track your username on a website on a form somewhere, I can track your real name, I can track associations with your friends and I can build what's called a fingerprint which is network activity unique to you which means anywhere you go in the world anywhere you try to sort of hide your online presence hide your identity, the NSA can find you and anyone who's allowed to use this or who the NSA shares their software with can do the same thing. Germany is one of the countries that have access to ''XKeyscore''.
- The BND basically argues if we do this [spy on innocent citizens], we do this accidentally actually and our filter didn't work.
- Right so the kind of things that they're discussing there are two things. They're talking about filtering of ingest which means when the NSA puts a secret server in a German telecommunications provider or they hack a German router and they divert the traffic in a manner that let's them search through things they're saying ''if I see what I think is a German talking to another German I'll drop it'' but how do you know. You could say ''well, these people are speaking the German language'', ''this IP address seems to be from a German company to another German company'', but that's not accurate and they wouldn't dump all of that traffic because they'll get people who are targetes of interest, who are actively in Germany using German communications. So realistically what's happening is when they say there's no spying on Germans, they don't mean that German data isn't being gathered, they don't mean that records aren't being taken or stolen, what they mean is that they're not intentionally searching for German citizens. And that's sort of a fingers crossed behind the back promise, it's not reliable.
- What about other European countries like Norway and Sweden for example because we have a lot of I think under water cables going through the Baltic Sea.
- So this is sort of an expansion of the same idea. If the NSA isn't collecting information on German citizens in Germany are they as soon as it leaves German borders? And the answer is ''yes''. Any single communication that transits the internet, the NSA may intercept at multiple points, they might see it in Germany, they might see it in Sweden, they might see it in Norway or Finland, they might see it in Britain and they might see it in the United States. Any single one of these places that a German communication crosses it'll be ingested and added to the database.
- I have to stop myself from just quoting the whole interview. Snowden devotes time to explaining the problems inherent in outsourcing intelligence, which is something many of his detractors will heartily agree on.
- One of the really admirable things about Snowden is that he is polite; he respects the secrecy oaths he took which don't violate his conscience; and he has none of the hateful bitterness I've come to expect from his intelligence-affiliated detractors. At the end of the day the angry shills who call him a ''traitor'', or the psychopaths who threaten to use their spook super-powers to kill him, aren't just fuming about a 'rogue' co-worker. Snowden has put a mirror to their faces and shown them something substandard about themselves. Deep down, these shills don't like themselves very much, and it's easier to project those bad feelings onto Edward than face the reality about their own character. Snowden's actions are beautiful in a way theirs will never be, at least, will never be without a personal paradigm shift.
- NSA apologists: disengage. You don't have to be whores forever; there's a better life on the outside.
- Anyway, for the rest of us, what do we do in the meantime?
- One reaction to the NSA snooping is in the very moment that countries like Germany are thinking to create national internets an attempt to force internet companies to keep their data in their own country. Does this work?
- It's not gonna stop the NSA. Let's put it that way. The NSA goes where the data is. If the NSA can pull text messages out of telecommunication networks in China, they can probably manage to get facebook messages out of Germany. Ultimately the solution to that is not to try to stick everything in a walled garden. Although that does raise the level of sophistication and complexity of taking the information. It's also much better simply to secure the information internationally against everyone rather than playing ''let's move the data''. Moving the data isn't fixing the problem. Securing the data is the problem.
- If Snowden ever has the time, it would be great to know how he secures his data'' I mean programs, browsing habits, connection choices. Learning from a trusted source how best to protect oneself would be very valuable.
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- Rooting For The Laundry: The Absolute Insanity Of Decisions About The NSA Being Made Based On 'Liberal' Or 'Conservative' Ideology
- Geoffrey Stone, one of the members of the White House task force which suggested that the President needed to end the Section 215 bulk collection of phone records, has said that he was told that the White House rejected that plan because they viewed the report as "liberal."''And instead of our report being truly understood as a middle ground, based upon taking into account all of those perspectives on both sides of the spectrum, I think the White House got moved by thinking of our report as a liberal report,'' Stone said.
- God forbid a supposedly "liberal" President actually do something he considers "liberal." And, indeed, it seemed that his non-proposal in which he pretends to reform NSA surveillance was predicated on not pissing off the hawkish conservatives who tend to support the surveillance state.So... what happens now that the supposedly conservative, hawkish, surveillance state-loving Republican Party has agreed that the program is unconstitutional and should be shut down?
- To some extent, it really does seem to go back to the corruption of power. Those in power always seem to trust themselves not to abuse that power -- and unthinking automaton partisan hacks seem to flip their position based on whether their guy or the other guy is power.
- There's been an insanely stupid debate over the past few weeks as to whether or not folks like Ed Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange were somehow "ideologically pure" enough to be supported by liberals -- which highlights the monumentally asinine level of political discourse in the country these days, further highlighted by President Obama rejecting the task force's opinions as being "too liberal."
- As can be seen by the flip-flopping of "liberals" and "conservatives" over the surveillance state, the entire concept of those labels is really no different than if you're rooting for the orange team or the yellow team. It's like the old joke about how if you root for a sports team, you're really rooting for the laundry. People focused on whether something is "liberal enough" or "conservative enough" are wasting everyone's time. These issues are not about being "liberal" or "conservative." They're about doing what's right. It's not about partisan politics or which team you play for or root for. It should be about what is best for the country and the wider world in which we live.
- It's incredibly disheartening that we seem to live in a world where that aspect is barely considered but what color your team is matters the most.
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- CYBER
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- Target says criminals attacked with stolen vendor credentials
- By Jim Finkle and Mark Hosenball
- BOSTON/WASHINGTONWed Jan 29, 2014 7:58pm EST
- People shop at a Target store during Black Friday sales in the Brooklyn borough of New York, November 29, 2013.
- Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer
- BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Target Corp said on Wednesday that the theft of a vendor's credentials helped cyber criminals pull off a massive theft of customer data during the holiday shopping season in late 2013.
- It was the first indication of how networks at the No. 3 U.S. retailer were breached, resulting in the theft of about 40 million credit and debit card records and 70 million other records with customer information such as addresses and telephone numbers.
- "The ongoing forensic investigation has indicated that the intruder stole a vendor's credentials, which were used to access our system," Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement.
- She declined to elaborate on what type of credentials were taken, who the vendor was, or to provide other details.
- The company's shares have been hurt since the data breach was announced on December 19, and the incident has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers as well as federal law enforcement and consumer protection agencies.
- Target closed at $56.89 per share on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, down 1.7 percent, after reaching its lowest level since July 2012.
- Earlier on Wednesday U.S. spy chiefs called on Congress to draft stricter requirements for how retailers and other private businesses should inform government agencies and customers about big breaches of personal and financial data.
- The comments came as Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the Department of Justice was investigating the massive hacking at Target.
- Separately, at Wednesday's threat hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, where the National Security Agency is headquartered, asked intelligence chiefs if media leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had affected U.S. cybersecurity efforts.
- "Is the impact of the Snowden affair slowing us down in our work to be more aggressive in the cybersecurity area?" Mikulski asked.
- FBI Director James Comey said political uproar over surveillance and Snowden's leaks had complicated discussions about how to fight consumer data breaches.
- "There is the threat of fraud and theft because we've connected our lives to the Internet," Comey said. "We need to make sure that the private sector knows the rules of the road and how we share that information with the government."
- Some U.S. officials with responsibility for cybersecurity have complained privately that, while states have created a "patchwork" of local rules requiring businesses to report breaches of consumer data to authorities and the public, there are no similar federal requirements.
- Congress has been wrestling for years with proposals for legislation on data security but has been unable to reach agreement. There is no national standard to govern how and when businesses that suffer consumer data breaches must advise their customers and federal agencies.
- Holder, testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, said the Justice Department would seek the perpetrators of the Target breach as well as "any individuals and groups who exploit that data via credit card fraud."
- "While we generally do not discuss specific matters under investigation, I can confirm the department is investigating the breach involving the U.S. retailer, Target," Holder said.
- The Secret Service has taken the lead investigating the breaches at Target and other retailers, including Neiman Marcus and Michaels Companies Inc, the largest U.S. arts and crafts retailer.
- Reuters reported on January 23 that the FBI also warned U.S. retailers to prepare for more cyber attacks after discovering about 20 hacking cases over the past year that involved the same kind of malicious software used against Target during the holiday shopping season.
- As lawmakers accelerated to gather information about the data breaches, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, took a new tack, asking Target why the company had not yet reported its data breach to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
- "Your failure thus far to provide this information to your investors does not seem consistent with the spirit or the letter of the SEC's financial disclosure rules," Rockefeller wrote in the three-page letter to Target's chief executive.
- Democratic members of the Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday asked Neiman Marcus for documents relating to the upscale retailer's recent cybersecurity breach. Last week, the same lawmakers asked Target executives to provide an array of internal documents.
- On Thursday, members of the powerful House Oversight Committee, which has broad investigative jurisdiction, will hold a telephone briefing with Target representatives, during which detailed questions are expected to be asked about how and why the data breaches occurred.
- Target's Snyder did not provide details about upcoming meetings but reiterated that Target was "continuing to work with elected officials to keep them informed and updated as our investigation continues."
- At least three different congressional panels are slated to hold hearings, beginning next week. Target's chief financial officer and a Neiman Marcus official will appear before the Senate Judiciary panel on Tuesday.
- (Additional reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in New York, and Lawrence Hurley, Susan Heavey and Alina Selyukh in Washington; Writing by Ros Krasny; Editing by Howard Goller, Bernadette Baum, Tom Brown and Ken Wills)
- Link thisShare thisDigg thisEmailPrintReprints
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- New Clues in the Target Breach '-- Krebs on Security
- An examination of the malware used in the Target breach suggests that the attackers may have had help from a poorly secured feature built into a widely-used IT management software product that was running on the retailer's internal network.
- As I noted in Jan. 15'²s story '' A First Look at the Target Intrusion, Malware '' the attackers were able to infect Target's point-of-sale registers with a malware strain that stole credit and debit card data. The intruders also set up a control server within Target's internal network that served as a central repository for data hoovered up from all of the infected registers.
- ''ttcopscli3acs'' is the name of the Windows share used by the POS malware planted at Target stores; the username that malware used to upload stolen card data was ''Best1_user''; the password was ''BackupU$r''
- That analysis looked at a malware component used in Target breach that was uploaded to Symantec's ThreatExpert scanning service on Dec. 18 but which was later deleted (a local PDF copy of it is here). The ThreatExpert writeup suggests that the malware was responsible for moving stolen data from the compromised cash registers to that shared central repository, which had the internal address of 10.116.240.31. The ''ttcopscli3acs'' bit is the Windows domain name used on Target's network. The user account ''Best1_user'' and password ''BackupU$r'' were used to log in to the shared drive (indicated by the ''S:'' under the ''Resource Type'' heading in the image above.
- That ''Best1_user'' account name seems an odd one for the attackers to have picked at random, but there is a better explanation: That username is the same one that gets installed with an IT management software suite called Performance Assurance for Microsoft Servers. This product, according to its maker '-- Houston, Texas base BMC Software '-- includes administrator-level user account called ''Best1_user.''
- This knowledge base article (PDF) published by BMC explains the Best1_user account is installed by the software to do routine tasks. That article states that while the Best1_user account is essentially a ''system'' or ''administrator'' level account on the host machine, customers shouldn't concern themselves with this account because ''it is not a member of any group (not even the 'users' group) and therefore can't be used to login to the system.''
- ''The only privilege that the account is granted is the ability to run as a batch job,'' the document states, indicating that it could be used to run programs if invoked from a command prompt. Here's my favorite part:
- ''Perform Technical Support does not have the password to this account and this password has not be released by Perform Development. Knowing the password to the account should not be important as you cannot log into the machine using this account. The password is known internally and used internally by the Perform agent to assume the identity of the ''Best1_user'' account.''
- I pinged BMC to find out if perhaps the password supplied in the Target malware (BackupU$r) is in fact the secret password for the Best1_user account. The company has so far remained silent on this question.
- This was the hunch put forward by the Counter Threat Unit (CTU) of Dell SecureWorks in an analysis that was privately released to some of the company's clients this week.
- Relationships between compromised and attacker-controlled assets. Source: Dell Secureworks.
- ''Attackers exfiltrate data by creating a mount point for a remote file share and copying the data stored by the memory-scraping component to that share,'' the SecureWorks paper notes. ''In the previous listing showing the data's move to an internal server, 10.116.240.31 is the intermediate server selected by attackers, and CTU researchers believe the ''ttcopscli3acs'' string is the Windows domain name used on Target's network. The Best1_user account appears to be associated with the Performance Assurance component of BMC Software's Patrol product. According to BMC's documentation, this account is normally restricted, but the attackers may have usurped control to facilitate lateral movement within the network.''
- According to SecureWorks, one component of the malware installed itself as a service called ''BladeLogic,'' a service name no doubt designed to mimic another BMC product called BMC BladeLogic Automation Suite. BMC spokeswoman Ann Duhon said that the attackers were simply invoking BMC's trademark to make the malicious program appear legitimate to the casual observer, but it seems likely that at least some BMC software was running inside of Target's network, and that the attackers were well aware of it.
- According to a trusted source who uses mostly open-source data to keep tabs on the software and hardware used in various retail environments, BMC's software is in use at many major retail and grocery chains across the country, including Kroger, Safeway, Home Depot, Sam's Club and The Vons Companies, among many others.
- A copy of the SecureWorks report is here (PDF). It contains some fairly detailed analysis of this and other portions of the malware used in the Target intrusion. What it states up front that it does not have '-- and what we still have not heard from Target '-- is how the attackers broke in to begin with'....
- The folks at Malcovery (full disclosure: Malcovery is an advertiser on this blog) have put together a compelling case that the avenue of compromise at Target stemmed from an SQL injection attack. Malcovery notes that techniques that may be similar to the Target breach were used by the Alberto Gonzalez gang, as illustrated in an indictment against Vladimir Drinkman, Aleksandr Kalinin, Roman Kotov, Mikhail Rytikov, Dmitriy Smilianet (see Hacker Ring Stole 160 Million Credit Cards for more information on these guys).
- As that report notes, Drinkman and his associates were co-conspirators of Alberto Gonzalez (famous for the TJX breach), Damon Toey, and Vladislav Horohorin (BadB). Drinkman and his gang of Russian hackers were active from at least August 2005 through at least July 2012 and were charged with stealing data from NASDAQ, 7-Eleven, Carrefour, JCPenney, Hannaford Brothers, Heartland Payment Systems, Wet Seal, Commidea, Dexia Bank, JetBlue Airways, Dow Jones, an unspecified bank in Abu Dhabi, Euronet, Visa Jordan, Global Payment Systems, Diners Singapore (a regional branch of Diner's Club), and Ingenicard.
- Malcovery's CTO and co-founder Gary Warner writes:
- ''In each of these cases, an SQL Injection attack resulted in malware being placed on the network and credit card or personal information being exfiltrated from the network. According to the indictment for the above, Gonzalez and Toey would travel to retail outlets and make observations about which Point of Sale terminal software was being used, afterwards, they would pass the information to the hacker crew who would penetrate the network, customize and load the malware, and exfiltrate the stolen data.''
- A copy of the Malcovery report can be downloaded here.
- EAGLE CLAW, RESCATOR, AND LAMPEDUZA
- An advertisement for ''Eagle Claw,'' a base of more than 2 million card ''dumps'' stolen from Target.
- Meanwhile, the cybercrook known as Rescator and his merry band of thieves who are selling cards stolen in the Target breach continue to push huge new batches of stolen cards onto the market. In an update on Jan. 21, Rescator's network of card shops released for sale another batch of two million cards apparently stolen from Target, a collection of cards which these crooks have dubbed ''Eagle Claw.''
- Working with several banks anxious to know whether this batch of two million cards really was from Target (or else some other recent breach like Neiman Marcus), we were able to determine that all of the cards purchased from Eagle Claw were used at Target between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15. The method behind that research was identical to that used in my previous research on this topic.
- Incidentally, anyone who wants to understand the hierarchical pecking order of Rescator's crew should check out this analysis by security researcher Krypt3ia, which examines the Lampeduza cybercrime forum of which Rescator is a leading member.
- Anyone hoping that this retail breach disclosure madness will end sometime soon should stop holding their breath: In a private industry notification dated January 17 (PDF), the FBI warned that the basic code used in the point-of-sale malware has been seen by the FBI in cases dating back to at least 2011, and that these attacks are likely to continue for some time to come.
- A frequency analysis of POS malware incidents assembled by Recorded Future.
- ''The growing popularity of this type of malware, the accessibility of the malware on underground forums, the affordability of the software and the huge potential profits to be made from retail POS systems in the United States make this type of financially-motivated cyber crime attractive to a wide range of actors,'' the FBI wrote. ''We believe POS malware crime will continue to grow over the near term despite law enforcement and security firms' actions to mitigate it.''
- Tags: Ann Duhon, BackupU$r, Best1_user, BladeLogic, BMC, Dell SecureWorks, Eagle Claw, fbi, gary warner, Krypt3ia, Lampeduza, malcovery, michaels breach, Neiman Marcus breach, rescator, sql injection, Symantec, target breach, target data breach, threatexpert
- This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 29th, 2014 at 12:18 pm and is filed under A Little Sunshine, Latest Warnings, The Coming Storm. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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- Inequality
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Our 'Winner Take All' Economy Is Destroying Us | Common Dreams
- The United States is, by every reasonable measure, the most unequal of the world's rich countries. And this is not new development. For more than three decades, the US has been suffering from a crisis of inequality. The Democrats have not taken this crisis seriously enough. The Republicans seem hell-bent on making it worse.
- Evidence of extreme and rising economic inequality in the US is quite overwhelming. In 1979, the top 1% earned about 9% of all income; in 2013, they earned 24%. The incomes of the top 0.1% have grown even faster. More than half of all economic growth since 1976 has ended up in the pockets of the top 1%. Meanwhile, the incomes of the shrinking middle class have stagnated, and the incomes of those with a high school education or less have fallen substantially. The purchasing power of the minimum wage has fallen by about 15% since 1979. One in five kids lives in poverty.
- How have we responded to all of this? By cutting taxes for the rich, busting unions and vilifying the poor! Over the past few decades, effective tax rates on US corporations and the richest 1% have fallen by about a third. Among the world's rich countries, US tax rates on the rich are near the very bottom. Since 1970, the percentage of private sector workers in unions has fallen from 29% to 7%.
- It has not always been this way. Between 1948 and 1975, the income of the median US household doubled. The incomes of the bottom 20% actually grew a little faster than the incomes of the top 20% over this period. Between 1928 and 1950, the distribution of income in the US actually became dramatically more equal.
- Why should we be concerned about inequality? America is about opportunity, not guarantees -- right? Actually, no! Among the world's rich countries, the US is tied for last in class mobility; an American's economic success is in fact highly correlated with his/her parents' wealth and status. Richard Wilkinson captures this sad reality perfectly: ''If you want the American Dream, you'll have to go to Denmark.''
- Economic inequality inevitably means political inequality. The right-wing Koch brothers, for example, spent more than $50 million aiming to defeat Obama and the Democrats in 2012. Right-wing casino magnate Sheldon Adelson spent over $100 million. Increasingly, legislation is literally being written by corporate lobbyists. The Koch brothers are entitled to their right wing views; they should not be entitled to the kind of outsized influence that $50 million will buy.
- There is also compelling evidence that inequality is socially corrosive. In their magnificent book, The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show that unequal societies suffer from higher rates of violent crime, incarceration, obesity, infant mortality, mental illness and alcoholism. Inequality is also associated with lower life expectancy, lower levels of educational performance and lower levels of trust. Inequality is bad for all of us.
- In this context, the Republican Party's economic proposals are especially appalling. The Republican vision '' embodied in the ''Ryan Plan,'' a budget proposal supported by virtually every Republican legislator -- calls for still deeper cuts in taxes for corporations and the top 1%, and further reductions in the ''regulatory burden'' on oil, coal and gas companies (including ''frackers'') and '' believe it or not -- Wall Street! And further still, Republicans advocate deep cuts in spending on education, Head Start, environmental protection, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Remarkably, the Republicans have concluded '' yet again! -- that the super-rich are getting too little, while children, the elderly, the middle class and the poor are getting too much!
- Sound familiar? After thirty years, it should. This is trickle-down economics.* The ''logic'' here (and I'm being generous) is that the economy will grow if we provide a better ''business climate'' -- lower taxes and fewer regulations will liberate corporations to create jobs. The problem is that it doesn't work. Three decades of lower taxes and reckless deregulation have saddled us with slow growth, soaring inequality, the financial meltdown of 2008, a devastating recession, rising tuition at our public universities, and diminishing opportunities for millions of Americans. And yet -- like a zombie that will not die '' trickle-down economics is alive and well in the US, despite its long record of failure.** Ask any Republican about the economy, and he (or she) will tell you that we need more of this toxic concoction.
- The US remains a very rich country. It has the capacity to do much better; it has the capacity to produce equitable, sustainable growth. A detailed discussion of how this might go is more than I can do here, but this process would surely include higher taxes on the wealthy, a more serious effort to regulate the financial sector, greater corporate accountability, and increases in public investment. It would also require a shift in priorities - a political transformation. It would require a discourse and a policy agenda that prioritizes the needs of working class and poor people: affordable education and health care, enhanced worker bargaining power, and a commitment to full employment.
- Along with a grim, stubborn economic crisis, we face a national identity crisis. Do we want to recognize that our well-being is tied to that of our neighbors? Do we want to prioritize shared prosperity and economic security? Do we want a country in which every kid has a chance to reach her full potential? Or do we want a country that prioritizes the ''right'' of rich people to get richer?
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
- Tim Koechlin holds a Ph. D. in economics. He is the Director of the International Studies Program at Vassar College, where he has an appointment in International Studies and Urban Studies. Professor Koechlin has taught and written about a variety of subjects including economic, political and racial inequality; globalization; macroeconomic policy, and urban political economy.
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- FACT SHEET: Opportunity for All: Securing a Dignified Retirement for All Americans
- Office of the Press Secretary
- Creating the ''myRA'' '' a Simple, Safe, and Affordable Starter Savings Account to Help Millions of Americans Start Saving for Retirement
- * Year of Action: Making Progress Through Executive Action *
- To build lasting economic security, the President will act on a set of specific, concrete proposals to expand opportunity for all Americans. In the State of the Union, the President announced that he will use his executive authority to direct the Department of the Treasury to create ''myRA'' '' a new simple, safe and affordable ''starter'' retirement savings account that will be offered through employers and will ultimately help millions of Americans begin to save for retirement.
- Starter Savings Account: Making It Easier to Start Saving for Retirement. This new product will be targeted to the many Americans who currently lack access to workplace retirement savings plans, which is usually the most effective way to save for retirement. Starting to save is just the first step towards a secure retirement, and the President wants to help more Americans save for their future.Safe and Secure: Principal Protection So Savers' Account Balance Will Never Go Down. The product will be offered via a familiar Roth IRA account, and savers will benefit from principal protection, so the account balance will never go down in value. The security in the account, like all savings bonds, will be backed by the U.S. government. Contributions can be withdrawn tax free at any time.User-Friendly for Savers: Portable Account with Contributions that Are Voluntary, Automatic, and Small. Initial investments could be as low as $25 and contributions that are as low as $5 could be made through easy-to-use payroll deductions. Savers have the option of keeping the same account when they change jobs and can roll the balance into a private-sector retirement account at any time. Favorable Investment Return: Same Secure Investment Return Available to Federal Employees. Savers will earn interest at the same variable interest rate as the federal employees' Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Government Securities Investment Fund. Widely Available: Available to Millions of Middle Class Americans Through Their Employer. This saving opportunity would be available to the millions of low- and middle-income households earning up to $191,000 a year. These accounts will be offered through an initial pilot program to employees of employers who choose to participate by the end of 2014. The accounts are little to no cost and easy for employers to use, since employers will neither administer the accounts nor contribute to them. Participants could save up to $15,000, or for a maximum of 30 years, in their accounts before transferring their balance to a private sector Roth IRA.* Continuing to Work With Congress on the President's Existing Proposals to
- Make Sure That All Americans Can Have a Dignified Retirement *
- The President remains committed to working with Congress to help secure a dignified retirement for all Americans. While Social Security is and must remain a rock-solid, guaranteed progressive benefit that every American can rely on, the most secure retirement requires a three-legged stool that includes savings and pensions. That's why the President is using his executive authority to create the ''myRA'' and has already proposed to work with Congress on the following proposals to help Americans save for their retirement:
- Giving Every Employee Access to Easy, Payroll-Based Savings Through the Auto-IRA. About half of all American workers do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans like 401(k)s, which puts the onus on individuals to set up and invest in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Up to 9 out of 10 workers automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan through their employer make contributions, even years later, while fewer than 1 out of 10 workers eligible to contribute to an IRA voluntarily do so. The President's budget will propose to establish automatic enrollment in IRAs (or ''auto-IRAs'') for employees without access to a workplace savings plan, in keeping with a plan that he has proposed in every budget since he took office. Employers that do not provide any employer-sponsored savings plan would be required to connect their employees with a payroll deduction IRA. This proposal could provide access to one-quarter of all workers, according to a recent study.----- Making Sure the Auto-IRA Works for Workers and Small Businesses. Workers would not be required to contribute and are free to opt out. Employers would also not contribute. The plan would also help defray the minimal administrative costs of establishing auto-IRAs for small businesses, including through tax incentives.
- Removing Inefficient Retirement Tax Breaks for the Wealthiest While Improving Them for the Middle Class. The Auto-IRA will spread the tax benefits for retirement savings to millions more middle-class Americans. Current retirement tax subsidies disproportionately benefit higher-income households, many of whom would have saved with or without incentives. An estimated two-thirds of tax benefits for retirement saving go to the top 20% of earners, with one-third going to the top 5 percent of earners. Our tax incentives for retirement can be designed more efficiently. According to one 2012 study, additional tax expenditures are a comparatively inefficient way to generate additional saving. The President has proposed to limit the benefits of tax breaks, including retirement tax preferences, for high income households to a maximum of 28 percent. The President has also proposed to limit contributions to tax-preferred savings accounts once balances are about $3.2 million, large enough to fund a reasonable pension in retirement.* Importance of Securing a Dignified Retirement for All Americans *
- Many Americans lack access to workplace retirement savings plans '' usually the most effective and generous means of saving for retirement. About half of all workers and 75 percent of part-time workers lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans.
- The financial crisis dealt a severe blow to the retirement outlook for many families, wiping out more than $12 trillion dollars in household wealth. While financial markets have returned to their pre-crisis levels, median household wealth has only recovered 45 percent of the losses during the recession.
- The risk of an insecure retirement is especially great for women, minorities, and low-income Americans. Women continue to be less prepared for retirement than men and comprise 63 percent of the elderly living below the poverty line. White households have six times the wealth, including retirement savings, of African Americans or Hispanics. And low-wage and part-time workers are just one-third as likely as high-wage and full-time workers to participate in an employer-based retirement plan.
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- Presidential Memorandum -- Retirement Savings Security
- Office of the Press Secretary
- MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
- SUBJECT: Retirement Savings Security
- All Americans deserve the ability to save for retirement. Since taking office, my Administration has committed to strengthening retirement security for all Americans, including by helping workers find ways to save for retirement and to protect those hard earned savings. Unfortunately, too few Americans have enough savings to maintain their standard of living in retirement.
- But we know there are proven strategies that can help the average family save. Workplace-based retirement savings that allow workers to automatically take a portion of their pay and put it into a retirement account can increase retirement savings dramatically. Approximately 9 out of 10 workers automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan continue to make contributions to that account compared to the less than 1 out of 10 eligible workers who voluntarily contribute to Individual Retirement Accounts. The positive effect of automatic contributions is especially pronounced among lower-income households and others with traditionally low savings rates.
- Unfortunately, only about half of all American workers have access to employer-sponsored retirement savings accounts. It is clear that we cannot continue on this course.
- The Department of the Treasury has worked diligently to develop a new tool that can make long-term savings a reality for more working Americans. A new kind of retirement savings tool could help American families as they start to build for their retirement. In order to make this tool available to working Americans, I hereby direct as follows:
- Section1. Retirement Savings Security. (a) By December 31, 2014, you shall finalize the development of a new retirement savings security that can be made available through employers to their employees. This security shall be focused on reaching new and small-dollar savers and shall have low barriers to entry, including a low minimum opening amount. In developing this security, you shall ensure that it:
- (i) protects the principal contributed while earning interest at a rate based on yields on outstanding Treasury securities;2
- (ii) offers savers the flexibility to take money out if they have an emergency and keep the same Treasury security if they change jobs; and
- (iii) is designed to help savers start on a path to long-term saving and serve as a stepping stone to the broader array of retirement products available in today's marketplace.
- (b) Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, you shall begin work with employers, stakeholders, and, as appropriate, other Federal agencies to develop a pilot project to make the security developed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section available through payroll deduction to facilitate easy and automatic contributions.
- Sec. 2. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
- (i) the authority granted by law to a 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 memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
- (c) This memorandum 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.
- (d) You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Tom Perkins Was Right: We Do Hate the Rich. And For Good Reason
- This column was originally published in VentureBeat by editor-in-chief Dylan Tweneyand is reprinted here with permission. When Kleiner Perkins cofounder Tom Perkins wrote on Friday that a "progressive Kristallnacht" is coming, reaction was swift and severe.
- Rightly so: The 82-year-old billionaire compared himself '-- and other members of the wealthiest "1 percent" '-- to Jews in 1930s Germany.
- "I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its '1 percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American 1 percent, namely the 'rich,'" Perkins wrote.
- That comparison is both offensive and wrong. It's offensive because it trivializes the plight of German Jews, who were systematically oppressed during the years leading up to World War II: Their businesses were shut down, their opportunities limited, their homes destroyed. They were forced to wear yellow stars and were systematically hounded, harassed, and beat up by armed thugs while law enforcement turned a blind eye. Eventually, they were forced into ghettos and shipped off to concentration camps, where they were murdered by the millions. By appropriating that historical calamity to help illustrate his own feelings of discomfort in modern society, Perkins shows that he has no sense of propriety or shame.
- It's also wrong, because the rich are not in any significant way being oppressed. Even in San Francisco, where the protests against corporate buses (aka the "Google bus") have occasionally turned violent '-- and creepily personal, going so far as to picket individual tech employees' homes '-- these represent mere ripples on the surface of a rich person's otherwise smooth, unruffled life. Perkins is free to come and go as he pleases from his 5,500-square foot penthouse atop San Francisco's Millennium Tower, or to purchase and sell a 289-foot yacht, or to marry a famous novelist and divorce her, all without any significant interruption. The firm he founded (which was quick to disavow his words, by the way) continues to collect vast funds from investors and make investments in startups without restriction. And, no doubt, Perkins' wealth continues to grow unfettered by anything more serious than capital gains taxes.
- If that's oppression, sign me up.
- But Perkins was right about one thing: People don't like the rich. "I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful 1 percent," Perkins wrote.
- I wonder why that might be? Could it have something to do with the way America's economy has grown out of recession for the past seven years, but the vast majority of that growth has gone to the wealthy instead of working people? Could it have to do with the fact that the stock market has increased vastly since 2007, but wages have not only stagnated, they've declined substantially relative to 1970 levels?
- Could it have to do with the alleged collusion between the chief executives of Silicon Valley's largest companies '-- Google, Apple, Intel, and Adobe '-- to keep salaries down by not "poaching" employees from one another, as you'd ordinarily be able to do in a free market?
- Could it have to do with the fact that a spate of young, venture-fundedentrepreneurs have taken to publishing openly their disgust and distaste for those less fortunate than they are? Or that wealthy tech company founders and VCs have chosen to spend their money on massive, ego-massaging projects with little public benefit, like yachts and America's Cup races, while complaining about every attempt to put some reasonable reinvestment into the government-funded infrastructures from which they have benefited since day one?
- Perkins is right: People don't like him and his fellow "one percenters." Perhaps that is a flaw in the American psyche, a refusal to celebrate our mostsuccessful entrepreneurs and wealth creators. But I don't think so: The wealthy have never wanted for people to celebrate them. I think it is because the wealthy have forgotten how to say "enough." They have forgotten how to give back. And they have increasingly refused to participate in the common welfare.
- No wonder people hate them.
- It's probably too late for Tom Perkins. He'll never change his mind. But for younger Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, investors, and techies, it's not too late. Many of you talk of "changing the world" as being a stronger motivation than getting rich. Now's the time to do it. Take a look around you. Are people pissed off at your presence? Are people protesting the bus that takes you to work?
- Maybe it's time to think about why that might be, and what you can do about it.
- Dylan Tweney is the editor-in-chief of VentureBeat. This essay was the most recent installment of his weekly column Dylan's Desk. You can sign up for VentureBeat's newsletter here.
-
- Has historian finally found real reason for Hitler's obsessive hatred of Jews? | Mail Online
- By Allan HallUPDATED: 08:35 EST, 19 June 2009
- Unmasked: Adolf Hitler's virulent hatred of the Jews led to the Holocaust, which claimed six million lives
- Adolf Hitler's obsessive hatred for Jews was sparked by his experiences after World War One, according to a new book.
- Respected historian Ralf-George Reuth argues the dictator blamed them for both the Russian revolution and the collapse of the German economy.
- The claim is a stark contrast to previous theories that Hitler's anti-Semitism was spawned on the back streets of Vienna when he was a down-and-out in the lead up to 1914.
- Historians have even speculated that he was partly-Jewish himself '' or even that his mother died at the hands of an inept Jewish physician.
- 'Hitler's Jewish Hatred; Clich(C) and Reality'draws on numerous archives to pinpoint the reasons behind the Holocaust, which claimed six million lives.
- Reuth argues that what was probably lower middle-class bigotry shared by many at the time, morphed into murderous hatred for Hitler after 1919.
- At the time almost half of all German private banks were Jewish owned, the stock exchange dominated by Jewish stockbrokers, almost half of the nation's newspapers were Jewish run as were 80 per cent of chain stores.
- It became fashionable to decry the loss of the war on Jewish financiers.
- But Hitler, according to Reuth, also blamed Jews for the Russian revolution, citing Leon Trotsky's faith, as well as that of Marx whose theories he followed and even Lenin, who was one-quarter Jewish.
- When a Soviet republic was declared briefly in Munich that year, argues Reuth, the die was cast for Hitler to demonise the Jews as bearing responsibility for the world's ills.
- 'With World War One lost and Germany in financial ruin, with revolution threatening, he came to see the Jews as solely responsible for stock-exchange capitalism, which caused acute poverty and suffering when it faltered, and Bolshevism,' said Reuth.
- 'These two events were pivotal in shaping his views of Jews and his subsequent plan to murder them all.
- 'He bought into the rumours and the whispers that blamed Jewish capitalists for stabbing Germany in the back.
- The final solution: Millions of Jews died at Auschwitz Concentration Camp, seen here after the war ended in 1945
- 'Then he saw that many Jews played prominent roles in the brief Soviet republic founded in Munich in 1919, against everything Hitler the nationalist stood for.
- 'The two events, together with the Russian revolution, coalesced to turn them, in his mind, into scapegoats for everything.
- 'But it was only after World War One, not before. I show that he had many Jewish acquaintances in Vienna, despite his writing in Mein Kampf that he was sickened by the sight of the Jews he saw there.'
- Reuth draws on a wealth of archival material showing how Hitler fed off the intellectuals of the day to shape his belief.
- He quotes Nobel prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann who wrote in 1919 that he equated the Bolshevik revolution in Russia with the Jews.
- Ernst Nolte, a Berlin historian, expounded this theory over 20 years ago in a paper that was not given much credit at the time.
- Reuth is a distinguished Nazi-era biographer who wrote an acclaimed book about Third Reich propaganda master Josef Goebbels.
- Flashpoint? Reuth claims the role of Jewish people in the 1917 Russian Revolution was one of the triggers for his hatred
- Share or comment on this article
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- Why the rich are freaking out - Ben White - POLITICO.com
- NEW YORK '-- The co-founder of one the nation's oldest venture capital firms fears a possible genocide against the wealthy. Residents of Manhattan's tony Upper East Side say the progressive mayor didn't plow their streets as a form of frosty revenge. And the co-founder of Home Depot recently warned the Pope to pipe down about economic inequality.
- The nation's wealthiest, denizens of the loftiest slice of the 1 percent, appear to be having a collective meltdown.
- Economists, advisers to the wealthy and the wealthy themselves describe a deep-seated anxiety that the national '-- and even global '-- mood is turning against the super-rich in ways that ultimately could prove dangerous and hard to control.
- (Also on POLITICO: Full finance policy coverage)
- President Barack Obama and the Democrats have pivoted to income inequality ahead of the midterm elections. Pope Francis has strongly warned against the dangers of wealth concentration. And all of this follows the rise of the Occupy movement in 2011 and a bout of bank-bashing populism in the tea party.
- The collective result, according to one member of the 1 percent, is a fear that the rich are in deep, deep trouble. Maybe not today but soon.
- ''You have a bunch of people who see conspiracies everywhere and believe that this inequality issue will quickly turn into serious class warfare,'' said this person, who asked not to be identified by name so as not to anger any wealthy friends. ''They don't believe inequality is bad and believe the only way to deal with it is to allow entrepreneurs to have even fewer shackles.''
- And so the rich are lashing out.
- In the latest example, Thomas Perkins, co-founder of legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, wrote a letter to The Wall Street Journal over the weekend comparing Nazi Germany's persecution and mass murder of Jews to ''the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the 'rich.'''
- (Sign up for POLITICO's Morning Money tip sheet)
- He went on to say he feared a progressive ''Kristallnacht,'' referring to the 1938 German pogrom in which nearly 100 Jews were killed and more than 30,000 arrested, a dark omen of the murder of 6 million that would follow.
- People, to put it mildly, went nuts.
- Even Perkins's old firm disavowed him and his comments and said he no longer has anything to do with the company. Perkins then went on Bloomberg television, ostensibly to apologize for the remark. But instead he doubled down on the analogy, saying ''when you start to use hatred against a minority, it can get out of control.''
- Perkins was not the first wealthy investor to invoke Nazi Germany as a warning over current attitudes toward the wealthy. In 2010, when Obama suggested raising the tax on ''carried interest'' earned by private equity executives, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman said, ''It's a war. It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.''
- Obama still hasn't managed to persuade Congress to hike the 20 percent rate on carried interest even though most on Wall Street expect to lose the perk at some point. Schwarzman eventually apologized for his Hitler remark.
- (PHOTOS: 20 politicians talk minimum wage)
- More recently, the New York Post dedicated considerable ink to complaints from residents of the Upper East Side that newly elected progressive mayor Bill de Blasio directed plows to avoid the neighborhood as some kind of revenge for their wealth and support of de Blasio's opponent.
- ''He is trying to get us back. He is very divisive and political,'' Upper East Side resident Molly Jong Fast told the Post. ''By not plowing the Upper East Side, he is saying, 'I'm not one of them.'''
- The mayor dutifully trundled up to the neighborhood to admit mistakes in plowing but strongly denied any ulterior motive.
- Ken Langone, a wealthy investor and co-founder of Home Depot, recently told CNBC that the Catholic Church in New York might see a decline in donations if Pope Francis did not tone down his comments about the dangers of economic inequality. ''You want to be careful about generalities. Rich people in one country don't act the same as rich people in another country,'' Langone said.
- New York Times columnist Paul Krugman this week wrote that even plutocrats who manage not to invoke Nazi Germany ''nonetheless hold, and loudly express, political and economic views that combine paranoia and megalomania in equal measure.''
- The phenomena is not limited to the U.S. bankers across the globe who gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week and complained publicly and privately that in their view vilification of the rich, particularly in the financial industry, has gone far enough.
- ''Life is hard enough, and I think this constant lecturing on ethics and on integrity by many stakeholders is probably the most frustrating part of the equation. Because I don't think there are many people who are perfect,'' Sergio Ermotti, chief executive of UBS AG, told The Wall Street Journal. ''We are far from being perfect '... but it's not going to be very helpful to be constantly bashing banks.''
- But perhaps nowhere is the collective freakout more pronounced than the financial capital of the world. Here in New York, even wealthy donors who tend to favor Democrats are deeply concerned about the current political discourse at the city level in which de Blasio wants to increase taxes on the rich, and the national level, in which Democrats have pledged to make the 2014 midterm elections about addressing economic inequality.
- ''I think this is going to be disastrous for the city,'' one top executive at a large Wall Street bank said on the eve of de Blasio's election. ''The people who pay taxes could move out, the businesses could leave. What's keeping us here?''
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- Tim Draper On Tom Perkins Holocaust Comments - Business Insider
- Over the weekend, billionaire venture capitalist Tom Perkins caused controversy when he said that the way activists and progressives in San Francisco are starting to treat the super rich reminds him of how the Nazis treated the Jews.His comments were met with near-universal scorn.
- However, famed venture capitalist Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, tells us that Perkins is a "brilliant" man, who has identified a real problem '' "schadenfreude, something that continues to be a thorn in humanity's side."
- "The bitter taste of envy brings us all down," says Draper. Draper's full quote is below.
- Draper is a very successful venture capitalist, perhaps best known for his firm's investments in Hotmail and Chinese search engine Baidu. Lately, he's become an activist for better government in California.
- Here's the letter that Perkins wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
- Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."
- From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these "techno geeks" can pay. We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a "snob" despite the millions she has spent on our city's homeless and mentally ill over the past decades.
- This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?
- This letter upset lots of people, including those who work at the venture capital firm that bears Perkins's name, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
- In a tweet, KPCB said: "Tom Perkins has not been involved in KPCB in years. We were shocked by his views expressed today in the WSJ and do not agree."
- After the news broke, we emailed Draper to draw his attention to Perkins's comment and the subsequent fallout.
- Here is what Draper said to us, in full:
- On Tom Perkins, he is a brilliant man, and he is identifying schadenfreude, something that continues to be a thorn in humanity's side. The bitter taste of envy brings us all down. I like to celebrate the wealth and success of great heroes like Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Larry Ellison. I think it makes us all better to strive to be better and brighter. '... and I like a good bus. If our government focused on providing the kind of service to its constituents that Google provides its employees, I wouldn't have to initiate SixCalifornias.info.
- Draper is referring to his plan to split California into six states '' states that he believes would be run by governments that are more responsive to the local needs of their citizens. We're posting a video on that plan later today.
- Draper came into the Business Insider news room a couple weeks ago, and we asked him about the backlash against Silicon Valley wealth. We asked him: Why do people hate Silicon Valley?
- Please enable Javascript to watch this video
- Produced by Matt Johnston
-
- Historian - 'Did Hitler Have Reason To Hate The Jews?' | Real Jew News
- History Articles, Holocaust Hype Articles, How The Jews Prompted A German Backlash
- - HISTORIAN -'DID HITLER HAVE REASON TO HATE THE JEWS?'By Brother Nathanael Kapner, Copyright 2009-2010
- Articles May Be Reproduced Only With Authorship of Br Nathanael Kapner& Link To Real Zionist News (SM)Please Help Support This Site!Or Send Your Contribution To:Brother Nathanael Kapner; PO Box 1242; Frisco CO 80443E-mail: bronathanael@yahoo.com
- For The BestAlternative News CoverageCLICK:Rense.comHere___________________________________
- RESPECTED HISTORIAN RALF GEORG REUTH ARGUES THAT HITLER may have had a 'real' reason to hate the Jews.Noted for his breadth of knowledge on World Wars I and II and its prominent figures, German historian Reuth has enjoyed much acclaim for his numerous books covering the World Wars era.
- In his new 2009 book, Hitler's Jewish Hatred - Cliche and Reality, Ralf Georg Reuth recounts that Hitler blamed the Jews for both the collapse of the German economy and the Russian revolution. (See Hitler's Judenhass - Klischee und Wirklichkeit & Purchase Here.)
- Drawing on numerous archives, Reuth paints the social backdrop during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. ''Almost half of all German private banks were Jewish owned,'' writes Reuth, ''the stock exchange was dominated by Jewish stockbrokers, and almost half of the nation's newspapers were Jewish run as were 80 per cent of chain stores.''
- Reuth's groundbreaking book was reviewed in the June 19, 2009 issue of London's The Daily Mail in an article entitled, Has Historian Finally Discovered Real Reason For Hitler's Hatred Of Jews? Of particular note is one of the comments attached to the article made by a British subscriber regarding Jewish influence in Pre-WWII Germany: ''I thought this was all fairly obvious.''
- Indeed, Jewish control of the banks, the stockmarket, the press and commerce, is ''fairly obvious'' - BUT - to state this obvious fact OUT LOUD will have all the Jews breathing down our necks crying, ''Anti-Semitism!'' Thank God that finally a historian with repute among the general public has no fear of Jewish attempts to censor the truth.
- HITLER & THE JEWISH 'STAB IN THE BACK'
- ''BLAMING THE LOSS OF WORLD WAR I ON JEWISH FINANCIERS and the budding Weimar Republic at home,'' writes Ralf Georg Reuth, ''Hitler subscribed to the Stab In The Back theory which was growing in popularity in Germany in 1919.''
- The Stab In The Back theory attributed Germany's losing the war not to military defeat on the battlefield, but to the intentional sabotaging of the war effort by Jewish financiers, socialists, and international Bolsheviks. Hitler would later blame Jewish journalists who fled Nazi Germany for inciting belligerence against Germany leading to WWII.
- To Hitler and many others, it was left liberal politicians and supporters, (German Jewish bankers and their international Jewish network), of the Weimar Republic who 'stabbed Germany in the back' by signing the armistice on November 11, 1918. They would soon become known as the November Criminals.
- HITLER INCLUDED IN HIS LIST of November Criminals, the international Jewish bankers who financed and controlled the Weimar Republic. These Jewish bankers operated both out of Frankfort, (known as the 'mother city' of Jewish bankers), and abroad.
- Frankfort produced its Rothschilds, Lazards, Warburgs, Dreyfuses, Seifs, as well as sending to New York, Jacob Schiff, an agent for Walter Rothschild. (The Jews of Germany, Marvin Lowenthal, 1936).
- Thus, the 'Stab in the Back' theory became hugely popular among Germans who found it impossible to swallow defeat. During the war, Adolf Hitler became obsessed with this idea, especially laying blame on Jews and Marxists in Germany for undermining the war effort.
- HITLER AND THE JEWISH COMMUNISTS
- ''WITH WORLD WAR ONE LOST and Germany in financial ruin, Hitler came to view the Jews as solely responsible for the growth of Bolshevism,'' writes Reuth. In his book, Reuth quotes Nobel prize-winning novelist, Thomas Mann, who equated the Bolshevik revolution in Russia with the Jews. Continuing, Reuth writes:
- ''When a Soviet Republic (Munchner Raterepublik) was declared briefly in Munich in 1919, the die was cast for Hitler to point to the Jews as bearing responsibility for the nation's ills.
- Hitler saw that many German Jews played prominent roles in the growing communist movement, which was against everything Hitler the nationalist stood for.
- Two events - Germany's defeat of the war due to Jewish financial intrigues together with the Russian revolution and its threat to Germany - shaped Hitler's views of Jews and his subsequent plan to rid Germany of them all.'' View Entire StoryHere.
- A defining moment in the political formation of Adolf Hitler, was the January 1919 Spartacus Uprising (Spartakusaufstand) in Berlin. The prominent figure in the uprising was the communist Jew, Rosa Luxemburg.
- Luxemburg, along with other left-wing Jews including Karl Liebknecht, founded the socialist Spartacus League (Spartakusbund) in 1914. During the war, Luxemburg drafted the Spartacus programme, Leitsatze, which called upon socialists to turn the nationalist conflict in Germany into a revolutionary war with international consequences. View Entire StoryHere & Here.
- WHILE NOT ADVOCATING VIOLENCE against any specific group, a solution to the ''Jewish Question'' must be arrived at. For as Reuth points out, and it is certainly applicable today, Pre-WWII Germany saw a tremendous rise of Jewish influence in every sphere of its societal infrastructure.
- This overwhelming Jewish influence is indeed the situation we now find ourselves in today - both in America and in Europe. The question remains, ''What can we do about this preponderance of Jewish influence?''
- Jews are the most organized power bloc in the world. Thus, to combat Jewish supremacy, Gentiles must ALSO become an organized power bloc.
- The Jewish-occupied media have convinced the Gentiles that the one organization that can oppose them, the historic Christian Church, (not the Zionist-Protestant innovation), is an institution to be shunned. Thus, many Gentiles will say, ''I don't believe in organized religion.'' This is a piece of Jewish brainwashing - exactly what the Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion planned. But Jews do believe in organized religion, their own synagogue.
- The synagogue of the Jews is called in the Bible, ''The Synagogue of Satan.'' The Church, however, the Bible calls, ''The New Jerusalem,'' that is, ''The City of Peace.''
- Thus, if Gentiles, who once loved going to Church, can get organized, whether in Church buildings, home groups, or foundations, they can STOP the Jews from taking over America and all the nations that host them.
- ___________________________________
- For More See:How The Jews Prompted A German BacklashClick HereAnd:Germany's Forbidden WordsClick Here
- And:Neo-Nazi Rise In Germany Frightens JewsClick Here
- And:Jewish Bankers & Their AgendaClick Here
- And:Jewry's Scheme For World DominationClick Here
- And:The Jewish Question Is Now A Global IssueClick Here
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- Kristallnacht - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Kristallnacht (German pronunciation:[kÊɪsËtalnaÏt]; English: "Crystal Night"), also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, or Reichskristallnacht [ËÊaɪ§s.kÊɪsËtalnaÏt], Pogromnacht[poËÉÊoËmnaÏt] (listen), and November pogrome[noËvÉmbÉpoÉÊoËmÉ] (listen), was a pogrom (a series of coordinated attacks) against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9''10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and non-Jewish civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening.[1] The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.[2]
- At least 91 Jews were killed in the attacks, and 30,000 were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps.[2] Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers.[3] Over 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone) and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged.[4][5]Martin Gilbert writes that no event in the history of German Jews between 1933 and 1945 was so widely reported as it was happening, and the accounts from the foreign journalists working in Germany sent shock waves around the world.[3]The Times wrote at the time: "No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday."[6]
- The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew resident in Paris. Kristallnacht was followed by additional economic and political persecution of Jews, and is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany's broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.[7]
- Etymology[edit]The incident was originally referred to as die Kristallnacht (literally "crystal night"), alluding to the enormous number of glass windows broken throughout the night, mostly in synagogues and Jewish-owned shops. The prefix Reichs- (imperial) was later added (Reichskristallnacht) as a sardonic comment on the Nazis' propensity to add this prefix to various terms and titles like Reichsf¼hrer-SS or Reichsmarschall.[citation needed]
- Background[edit]Early Nazi persecutions[edit]In the 1920s, most German Jews were fully integrated into German society as German citizens. They served in the German army and navy and contributed to every field of German science, business and culture.[8] Conditions for the Jews began to change after the appointment of Adolf Hitler (the leader of the Nazi group) as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, and the assumption of power by Hitler after the Reichstag fire.[9][10] From its inception, Hitler's regime moved quickly to introduce anti-Jewish policies. The 500,000 Jews in Germany, who accounted for only 0.86% of the overall population, were singled out by the Nazi propaganda machine as an enemy within who were responsible for Germany's defeat in the First World War and for its subsequent economic difficulties, such as the 1920s hyperinflation and Great Depression.[11] Beginning in 1933, the German government enacted a series of anti-Jewish laws restricting the rights of German Jews to earn a living, to enjoy full citizenship and to gain education, including the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which forbade Jews to work in the civil service.[12] The subsequent 1935 Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship and forbade Jews to marry non-Jewish Germans.
- The result of these laws was the exclusion of Jews from German social and political life.[13] Many sought asylum abroad; hundreds of thousands emigrated, but as Chaim Weizmann wrote in 1936, "The world seemed to be divided into two parts'--those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."[14] The international vian Conference, on 6 July 1938, addressed the issue of Jewish and Gypsy immigration to other countries. By the time the conference was held, more than 250,000 Jews had fled Germany and Austria, which had been annexed by Germany in March 1938; more than 300,000 German and Austrian Jews were still seeking refuge and asylum from oppression. As the number of Jews and Gypsies wanting to leave increased, the restrictions against them grew, with many countries tightening their rules for admission. By 1938, Germany "had entered a new radical phase in anti-Semitic activity."[15] Some historians believe that the Nazi government had been contemplating a planned outbreak of violence against the Jews and were waiting for an appropriate provocation; there is evidence of this planning dating to 1937.[16] In a 1997 interview, the German historian Hans Mommsen claimed that a major motive for the pogrom was the desire of the Gauleiters of the NSDAP to seize Jewish property and businesses.[17] Mommsen was quoted as saying:
- The need for money by the party organization stemmed from the fact that Franz Xaver Schwarz, the party treasurer, kept the local and regional organizations of the party short of money. In the fall of 1938, the increased pressure on Jewish property nourished the party's ambition, especially since Hjalmar Schacht had been ousted as Reich minister for economics. This, however, was only one aspect of the origin of the November 1938 pogrom. The Polish government threatened to extradite all Jews who were Polish citizens, but would stay in Germany, thus creating a burden of responsibility on the German side. The immediate reaction by the Gestapo was to push the Polish Jews '-- 16,000 persons '-- over the borderline, but this measure failed due to the stubbornness of the Polish customs officers. The loss of prestige as a result of this abortive operation called for some sort of compensation. Thus, the overreaction to Herschel Grynszpan's attempt against the diplomat Ernst vom Rath came into being and led to the November pogrom. The background of the pogrom was signified by a sharp cleavage of interests between the different agencies of party and state. While the Nazi party was interested in improving its financial strength on the regional and local level by taking over Jewish property, Hermann Goering, in charge of the Four-Year Plan, hoped to acquire access to foreign currency in order to pay for the import of urgently-needed raw material. Heydrich and Himmler were interested in fostering Jewish emigration".[17]
- The Zionist leadership in the British Mandate of Palestine wrote in February 1938 that according to "a very reliable private source'--one which can be traced back to the highest echelons of the SS leadership," there was "an intention to carry out a genuine and dramatic pogrom in Germany on a large scale in the near future."[18] The report of the Woodhead Commission on the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab State was presented to the British parliament and published on November 9, the day of the Kristallnacht.[19]
- Expulsion of Polish Jews in Germany[edit]In August 1938 the German authorities announced that residence permits for foreigners were being cancelled and would have to be renewed. This included German-born Jews of foreign origin. Poland stated that it would not accept Jews of Polish origin after the end of October. In the so-called "Polenaktion", more than 12,000 Polish-born Jews, among them the philosopher and theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and future literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki, were expelled from Germany on 28 October 1938, on Hitler's orders. They were ordered to leave their homes in a single night, and were allowed only one suitcase per person to carry their belongings. As the Jews were taken away, their remaining possessions were seized as booty by both the Nazi authorities and by their neighbors.
- The deportees were taken from their homes to railway stations and were put on trains to the Polish border, where Polish border guards sent them back over the river into Germany. This stalemate continued for days in the pouring rain, with the Jews marching without food or shelter between the borders. Four thousand were granted entry into Poland, but the remaining 8,000 were forced to stay at the border. They waited there in harsh conditions to be allowed to enter Poland. A British newspaper told its readers that hundreds "are reported to be lying about, penniless and deserted, in little villages along the frontier near where they had been driven out by the Gestapo and left."[20] Conditions in the refugee camps "were so bad that some actually tried to escape back into Germany and were shot", recalled a British woman who was sent to help those who had been expelled.[21]
- Shooting of vom Rath[edit]Among those expelled was the family of Sendel and Riva Grynszpan, Polish Jews who had emigrated to Germany in 1911 and settled in Hanover, Germany. At the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, Sendel Grynszpan recounted the events of their deportation from Hanover on the night of 27 October 1938: "Then they took us in police trucks, in prisoners' lorries, about 20 men in each truck, and they took us to the railway station. The streets were full of people shouting: 'Juden raus! Auf nach Pal¤stina!'" ("Jews out, out to Palestine!").[22] Their seventeen-year-old son Herschel was living in Paris with an uncle.[7] Herschel received a postcard from his family from the Polish border, describing the family's expulsion: "No one told us what was up, but we realised this was going to be the end ... We haven't a penny. Could you send us something?"[23] He received the postcard on 3 November 1938.
- On the morning of Monday, 7 November 1938, he purchased a revolver and a box of bullets, then went to the German embassy and asked to see an embassy official. After he was taken to the office of Ernst vom Rath, Grynszpan fired five bullets at Vom Rath, two of which hit him in the abdomen. Vom Rath was a professional diplomat with the Foreign Office who expressed anti-Nazi sympathies, largely based on the Nazis' treatment of the Jews, and was under Gestapo investigation for being politically unreliable.[24] Grynszpan made no attempt to escape the French police and freely confessed to the shooting. In his pocket, he carried a postcard to his parents with the message, "May God forgive me ... I must protest so that the whole world hears my protest, and that I will do."
- The next day, the German government retaliated, barring Jewish children from German state elementary schools, indefinitely suspending Jewish cultural activities, and putting a halt to the publication of Jewish newspapers and magazines, including the three national German Jewish newspapers. A newspaper in Britain described the last move, which cut off the Jewish populace from their leaders, as "intended to disrupt the Jewish community and rob it of the last frail ties which hold it together."[11] Their rights as citizens had been stripped.[25]
- Death of vom Rath[edit]Ernst vom Rath died of his wounds on 9 November. Word of his death reached Hitler that evening while he was with several key members of the Nazi party at a dinner commemorating the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. After intense discussions, Hitler left the assembly abruptly without giving his usual address. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered the speech, in his place, and said that "the F¼hrer has decided that... demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered."[26] The chief party judge Walter Buch later stated that the message was clear; with these words Goebbels had commanded the party leaders to organize a pogrom.[27]
- Some leading party officials disagreed with Goebbels' actions, fearing the diplomatic crisis it would provoke. Heinrich Himmler wrote, "I suppose that it is Goebbels's megalomania...and stupidity which are responsible for starting this operation now, in a particularly difficult diplomatic situation."[28] The Israeli historian Saul Friedl¤nder believes that Goebbels had personal reasons for wanting to bring about Kristallnacht. Goebbels had recently suffered humiliation for the ineffectiveness of his propaganda campaign during the Sudeten crisis, and was in some disgrace over an affair with a Czech actress, Lda Baarov. Goebbels needed a chance to improve his standing in the eyes of Hitler. At 01:20 am on 10 November 1938, Reinhard Heydrich sent an urgent secret telegram to the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and the Sturmabteilung (SA), containing instructions regarding the riots. This included guidelines for the protection of foreigners and non-Jewish businesses and property. Police were instructed not to interfere with the riots unless the guidelines were violated. Police were also instructed to seize Jewish archives from synagogues and community offices, and to arrest and detain "healthy male Jews, who are not too old", for eventual transfer to concentration camps.[29]
- Riots[edit]The timing of the riots varied from unit to unit. The Gauleiters started at about 10:30pm, only two hours after news of vom Rath's death reached Germany. They were followed by the SA at 11pm, and the SS at around 1:20am.[citation needed] Most were wearing civilian clothes and were armed with sledgehammers and axes, and soon went to work on the destruction of Jewish property. The orders given to these men were very specific, however: no measures endangering non-Jewish German life or property were to be taken (synagogues too close to non-Jewish property were smashed rather than burned); Jewish businesses or dwellings could be destroyed but not looted; foreigners (even Jewish foreigners) were not to be the subjects of violence; and synagogue archives were to be transferred to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). The men were also ordered to arrest as many Jews as the local jails would hold, the preferred targets being healthy young men.[citation needed]
- The SA shattered the storefronts of about 7500 Jewish stores and businesses, hence the appellation Kristallnacht (Crystal Night).[30] Jewish homes were ransacked all throughout Germany. Although violence against Jews had not been explicitly condoned by the authorities, there were cases of Jews being beaten or assaulted.
- This pogrom damaged, and in many cases destroyed, about 200 synagogues (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores. Some Jews were beaten to death while others were forced to watch. More than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps; primarily Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.[31] The treatment of prisoners in the camps was brutal, but most were released during the following three months on condition that they leave Germany. The number of German Jews killed is uncertain. The number killed in the two-day riot is most often cited as 91. In addition, it is thought that there were hundreds of suicides.[citation needed] Counting deaths in the concentration camps, around 2,000-2,500 deaths were directly or indirectly attributable to the Kristallnacht pogrom. A few non-Jewish Germans, mistaken for Jews, were also killed.[citation needed].
- The synagogues, some centuries old, were also victims of considerable violence and vandalism, with the tactics the Stormtroops practised on these and other sacred sites described as "approaching the ghoulish" by the United States Consul in Leipzig. Tombstones were uprooted and graves violated. Fires were lit, and prayer books, scrolls, artwork and philosophy texts were thrown upon them, and precious buildings were either burned or smashed until unrecognisable. Eric Lucas recalls the destruction of the synagogue that a tiny Jewish community had constructed in a small village only twelve years earlier:
- It did not take long before the first heavy grey stones came tumbling down, and the children of the village amused themselves as they flung stones into the many coloured windows. When the first rays of a cold and pale November sun penetrated the heavy dark clouds, the little synagogue was but a heap of stone, broken glass and smashed-up woodwork.' [32]
- After this, the Jewish community was fined 1 billion reichsmarks. In addition, it cost 4 million marks to repair the windows.[33] Events in recently annexed Austria were no less horrendous. Of the entire Kristallnacht, only the pogrom in Vienna was completed. Most of Vienna's 94 synagogues and prayer-houses were partially or totally destroyed. People were subjected to all manner of humiliations, including being forced to scrub the pavements whilst being tormented by their fellow Austrians, some of whom had been their friends and neighbours. Official figures released after the event by Reinhard Heydrich stated that 191 synagogues were destroyed, with 76 completely demolished; 100,000 Jews were arrested; three foreigners were arrested; 174 people were arrested for looting Jewish shops; and 815 Jewish businesses were destroyed.[citation needed]
- The Daily Telegraph correspondent, Hugh Greene, wrote of events in Berlin:
- Mob law ruled in Berlin throughout the afternoon and evening and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. I have seen several anti-Jewish outbreaks in Germany during the last five years, but never anything as nauseating as this. Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the "fun".[34]
- Tucson News TV channel briefly reported on a 2008 remembrance meeting at a local Jewish congregation. According to eye-witness Esther Harris:
- They ripped up the belongings, the books, knocked over furniture, shouted obscenities.[35]
- Historian Gerhard Weinberg is quoted as saying:
- Houses of worship burned down, vandalized, in every community in the country where people either participate or watch.[35]
- Concentration camps[edit]The violence was officially called to a stop by Goebbels on 11 November, but it continued against the Jews in the concentration camps despite orders requesting "special treatment" to ensure that this did not happen. On 23 November, the News Chronicle of London published an article on an incident which took place at the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen. Sixty-two Jews suffered punishment so severe that the police, "unable to bear their cries, turned their backs". They were beaten until they fell and, when they fell, they were further beaten. At the end of it, "twelve of the sixty-two were dead, their skulls smashed. The others were all unconscious. The eyes of some had been knocked out, their faces flattened and shapeless". The 30,000 Jewish men who had been imprisoned during Kristallnacht were released over the next three months but, by then, more than 2,000 had died.[citation needed]
- Aftermath[edit]Home movie from Vienna taken likely just after Kristallnacht in 1938.Hermann G¶ring met with other members of the Nazi leadership on 12 November to plan the next steps after the riot, setting the stage for formal government action. In the transcript of the meeting, G¶ring said,
- 'I have received a letter written on the F¼hrer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another... I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as to the aim of today's meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again, but to make decisions, and I implore competent agencies to take all measures for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to me.' [36]
- The persecution and economic damage done to German Jews continued after the pogrom, even as their places of business were ransacked. They were forced to pay Judenverm¶gensabgabe, a collective fine of one billion marks for the murder of vom Rath (equal to roughly $US 5.5 billion in today's currency), which was levied by the compulsory acquisition of 20% of all Jewish property by the state. Six million Reichsmarks of insurance payments for property damage due to the Jewish community were to be paid to the government instead as "damages to the German Nation".[37]
- The number of emigrating Jews surged, as those who were able left the country. In the ten months following Kristallnacht, more than 115,000 Jews emigrated from the Reich.[38] The majority went to other European countries, the US and Palestine, and at least 14,000 made it to Shanghai, China. As part of government policy, the Nazis seized houses, shops, and other property the (C)migr(C)s left behind. Many of the destroyed remains of Jewish property plundered during Kristallnacht were dumped near Brandenburg. In October 2008, this dumpsite was discovered by Yaron Svoray, an investigative journalist. The site, the size of four American football fields, contained an extensive array of personal and ceremonial items looted during the riots against Jewish property and places of worship on the night of 9 November 1938. It is believed the goods were brought by rail to the outskirts of the village and dumped on designated land. Among the items found were glass bottles engraved with the Star of David, mezuzot, painted window sills, and the armrests of chairs found in synagogues, in addition to an ornamental swastika.[39]
- Responses to Kristallnacht[edit]From the Germans[edit]The reaction of non-Jewish Germans to Kristallnacht was varied. Many spectators gathered on the scenes, most of them in silence. The local fire departments confined themselves to prevent the flames spreading to neighbouring buildings. In Berlin, the police officer Wilhelm Kr¼tzfeld barred SA troopers from setting the New Synagogue on fire and received only a rebuke. The British historian Martin Gilbert believes that "many non-Jews resented the round up",[40] his opinion being supported by German witness Dr. Arthur Flehinger who recalls seeing "people crying while watching from behind their curtains".[41] The extent of the damage was so great that many Germans are said to have expressed their disapproval of it, and to have described it as senseless.[42]
- In an article released for publication on the evening of 11 November, Goebbels ascribed the events of Kristallnacht to the "healthy instincts" of the German people. He went on to explain: "The German people are anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race."[43] Less than 24 hours after the Kristallnacht Adolf Hitler made a one hour long speech in front of a group of journalists where he managed to completely ignore the recent events on everyone's mind. According to Eugene Davidson the reason for this was that Hitler wished to avoid being directly connected to an event that he was aware that many of those present condemned, regardless of Goebbels unconvincing explanation that Kristallnacht was caused by popular wrath.[44]
- In 1938, just after Kristallnacht, the psychologist Muller-Claudius interviewed 41 randomly selected Nazi Party members on their attitudes towards racial persecution. Of the interviewed party-members 63% percent expressed extreme indignation against it, while only 5% expressed approval of racial persecution, the rest being noncommittal. A study conducted in 1933 had then shown that 33% of Nazi Party members held no racial prejudice while 13% supported persecution; Sarah Ann Gordon sees two possible reasons for this difference: By 1938 large numbers of Germans had joined the Nazi Party for pragmatic reasons rather than ideology thus diluting the percentage of rabid antisemites, and the Kristallnacht could have caused party members to reject anti-semitism that had been acceptable to them in abstract terms but which they could not support when they saw it concretely enacted.[45] During the Kristallnacht several Gauleiter and deputy Gauleiters had refused orders to enact the Kristallnacht, and many leaders of the SA and of the Hitler Youth also openly refused party orders, while expressing disgust.[46] Many Nazis actually helped Jews during the Kristallnacht.[46]
- As it was aware that the German public did not support the Kristallnacht the propaganda ministry directed the German press to portray opponents of racial persecution as disloyal.[47] The press was also under orders to downplay the Kristallnacht, describing general events at local level only, with prohibition against depictions of individual events.[48] In 1939 this was extended to a prohibition on reporting any anti-Jewish measures.[49]
- The vast majority of the German public dissaproved of the Kristallnacht as for example evidenced by the torrent of reports attesting to this by diplomats in Germany.[50]
- The US ambassador to Germany reported:
- In view of this being a totalitarian state a surprising characteristic of the situation here is the intensity and scope among German citizens of condemnation of the recent happenings against Jews.[51]
- To the consternation of the Nazis the Kristallnacht affected public opinion counter to their desires, the peak of opposition against the Nazi racial policies was reached just then, when according to almost all accounts the vast majority of Germans rejected the violence perpetrated against the Jews.[52] Verbal complaints grew rapidly in numbers, and for example the Duesseldorf branch of the Gestapo reported a sharp decline in anti-semitic attitudes among the population.[53]
- There are many indications of Protestant and Catholic disapproval of racial persecution, for example the Catholic church had already distributed Pastoral letters critical of Nazi racial ideology, and the Nazi regime expected to encounter organised resistance from the powerful Catholic church following Kristallnacht.[54] The Catholic leadership however, just as the various Protestant churches, refrained from responding with organised action to Kristallnach, thereby wasting a golden opportunity considering the public mood.[54] While individual Catholics and Protestants took action, the Churches as a whole chose silence publicly.[54] Nevertheless individuals continued to show courage, for example a Parson paid the medical bills of a Jewish cancer patient and was sentenced to a large fine and several months in prison in 1941, and a Catholic nun was sentenced to death in 1945 for helping Jews.[54] A Protestant parson spoke out in 1943 and was sent to Dachau concentration camp where he died after a few days.[54]
- Martin Sasse, Nazi Party member and bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia, leading member of the Nazi German Christians, one of the schismatic factions of German Protestanism, published a compendium of Martin Luther's writings shortly after the Kristallnacht; Sasse "applauded the burning of the synagogues" and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, "On 10 November 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words "of the greatest anti-Semite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews."[55]Diarmaid MacCulloch argued that Luther's 1543 pamphlet, On the Jews and Their Lies was a "blueprint" for the Kristallnacht.[56]
- [edit]The Kristallnacht pogrom sparked international outrage. It discredited pro-Nazi movements in Europe and North America, leading to eventual decline of their support. Many newspapers condemned Kristallnacht, with some comparing it to the murderous pogroms incited by Imperial Russia in the 1880s. The United States recalled its ambassador (but did not break off diplomatic relations) while other governments severed diplomatic relations with Germany in protest. The British government approved the Kindertransport program for refugee children. As such, Kristallnacht also marked a turning point in relations between Nazi Germany and the rest of the world. The brutality of the pogrom, and the Nazi government's deliberate policy of encouraging the violence once it had begun, laid bare the repressive nature and widespread anti-Semitism entrenched in Germany, and turned world opinion sharply against the Nazi regime, with some politicians calling for war. The private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht was held on 6 December 1938. William Cooper, an aboriginal Australian, led a delegation of the Australian Aboriginal League on a march through Melbourne to the German Consulate to deliver a petition which condemned the "cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany". German officials refused to accept the tendered document.[57]
- A more personal response, in 1939, was the oratorio A Child of Our Time by the English composer Michael Tippett.[58]
- Kristallnacht as a turning point[edit]Kristallnacht changed the nature of persecution from economic, political, and social to physical with beatings, incarceration, and murder; the event is often referred to as the beginning of the Holocaust. In the words of historian Max Rein in 1988, "Kristallnacht came...and everything was changed."[59]
- While November 1938 predated overt articulation of "the Final Solution", it foreshadowed the genocide to come. Around the time of Kristallnacht, the SS newspaper Das Schwarze Korps called for a "destruction by swords and flames." At a conference on the day after the pogrom, Hermann G¶ring said: "The Jewish problem will reach its solution if, in any time soon, we will be drawn into war beyond our border'--then it is obvious that we will have to manage a final account with the Jews."[11]
- Specifically, the Nazis managed to achieve in Kristallnacht all the theoretical targets they set for themselves: confiscation of Jewish belongings to provide finances for the military buildup to war, separation and isolation of the Jews, and most importantly, the move from the antisemitic policy of discrimination to one of physical damage, which began that night and continued until the end of World War II. The event showed the public attitude was not solidly behind the perpetrators. Many Germans at the time found the pogroms troubling, because they equated them with the days of the SA street rule and lawlessness. The British Embassy in Berlin and British Consular offices throughout Germany received many protests and expressions of disquiet from members of the German public about the anti-Jewish actions of the time.[citation needed]
- Modern response[edit]Many decades later, association with the Kristallnacht anniversary was cited as the main reason against choosing 9 November ("Schicksalstag"), the day the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, as the new German national holiday; a different day was chosen (3 October 1990, German reunification). The avant-garde guitarist Gary Lucas's 1988 composition "Verkl¤rte Kristallnacht", which juxtaposes the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah", with phrases from "Deutschland 'ber Alles" amid wild electronic shrieks and noise, is intended to be a sonic representation of the horrors of Kristallnacht. It was premiered at the 1988 BerlinJazz Festival and received rave reviews. (The title is a reference to Arnold Schoenberg's 1899 work "Verkl¤rte Nacht" that presaged his pioneering work on atonal music; Schoenberg was an Austrian Jew who would move to the United States to escape the Nazis).[60]
- Kristallnacht was the inspiration for the 1993 album Kristallnacht by the composer John Zorn. The German power metal band Masterplan's debut album, Masterplan (2003), features an anti-Nazism song entitled "Crystal Night" as the fourth track. The German band BAP published a song titled "Kristallnaach" in their Cologne dialect, dealing with the emotions of the Kristallnacht.[61]
- See also[edit]^"'German Mobs' Vengeance on Jews", The Daily Telegraph, 11 November 1938, cited in Gilbert, Martin. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. Harper Collins, 2006, p. 42.^ ab"World War II: Before the War", The Atlantic, 19 June 2011. "Windows of shops owned by Jews which were broken during a coordinated anti-Jewish demonstration in Berlin, known as Kristallnacht, on Nov. 10, 1938. Nazi authorities turned a blind eye as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed storefronts with hammers, leaving the streets covered in pieces of smashed windows. Ninety-one Jews were killed, and 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps."^ abGilbert, pp. 13''14.[incomplete short citation]^Berenbaum, Michael & Kramer, Arnold (2005). The World Must Know. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. p. 49.^Gilbert, pp. 30''33.^"A Black Day for Germany", The Times, 11 November 1938, cited in Gilbert, p. 41.[incomplete short citation]^ abMultiple authors (1998). "Kristallnacht". The Hutchinson Encyclopedia 1998 edition. Hutchinson Encyclopedias 1998 (18 (1998) ed.). England: Helicon Publishing. p. 1199. ISBN 1-85833-951-0. ^Goldstein, Joseph (1995). Jewish History in Modern Times. Sussex Academic Press. pp. 43''44. ISBN 978-1-898723-06-6.^Trueman, Chris. "Nazi Germany - dictatorship". Retrieved 12 March 2008. ^"Hitler's Enabling Act". Retrieved 2008-03-12. ^ abcGilbert, p. 23.[incomplete short citation]^Cooper, R.M. (1992). Refugee Scholars:Conversations with Tess Simpson. Leeds. p. 31. ^"The Holocaust". Retrieved 12 March 2008. ^Manchester Guardian, 23 May 1936, cited in A.J. Sherman, Island Refuge, Britain and the Refugees from the Third Reich, 1933''1939, (London, Elek Books Ltd, 1973), p. 112, also in The Evian Conference '-- Hitler's Green Light for Genocide, by Annette Shaw^Johnson, Eric. The Nazi Terror: Gestapo, Jews and Ordinary Germans. United States: Basic Books, 1999, p. 117.^Friedl¤nder, Saul. Nazi Germany and The Jews, volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933''1939, London: Phoenix, 1997, p. 270^ abMommsen, Hans (12 December 1997). "Interview with Hans Mommsen". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 6 February 2010. ^Goerg Landauer to Martin Rosenbluth, 8 February 1938, cited in Friedl¤nder, loc. cit.^R. John & S. Hadawi: The Palestine Diary, New York: 1970, vol. 1, p. 285.^"Expelled Jews' Dark Outlook". Newspaper article (London: The Times). 1 November 1938. Retrieved 12 March 2008. ^"Recollections of Rosalind Herzfled," Jewish Chronicle, 28 September 1979, p. 80; cited in Gilbert, The Holocaust'--The Jewish Tragedy, London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1986.^Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, p. 228.^German State Archives, Potsdam, quoted in Rita Thalmann and Emmanuel Feinermann, Crystal night, 9''10 November 1938, pp. 33, 42.^William L. Shirer, The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich, p. 430.^"Nazis Planning Revenge on Jews", News Chronicle, 9 November 1938^Friedl¤nder, op.cit., p. 268.^Walter Buch to Goring, 13.2.1939, Michaelis and Schraepler, Ursachen, Vol.12, p. 582 as cited in Friedl¤nder, p. 271.^Graml, Anti-Semitism, p. 13 cited in Friedl¤nder, op.cit., p 272^"Heydrich's secret instructions regarding the riots in November 1938", (Simon Wiesenthal Center)^GermanNotes, http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww2_kristallnacht.shtml, retrieved 26 November 2007^"The deportation of Regensburg Jews to Dachau concentration camp" (Yad Vashem Photo Archives 57659)^Lucas, Eric. "The sovereigns", Kibbutz Kfar Blum (Palestine), 1945, pg 171 cited in Gilbert, op.cit., p 67.^Raul Hilberg. The destruction of the European Jews, Third Edition, (Yale Univ. Press, 2003, c1961), Ch.3.^Carleton Greene, Hugh. Daily Telegraph, November 11, 1938 cited in "The Road to World War II", Western New England College.^ ab"Kristallnacht Remembered". www.kold.com. Retrieved 2008-05-17. ^Conot, Robert. Justice at Nuremberg, New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1983, pp. 164-72.^"JudenVermoegersabgabe" (The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies)^Jewish emigration from Germany (USHMM)^Connolly, Kate (22 October 2008). "Kristallnacht remnants unearthed near Berlin". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 7 May 2010. ^Gilbert, op. cit., p. 70^Dr. Arthur Flehinger, "Flames of Fury", Jewish Chronicle, 9 November 1979, p. 27, cited in Gilbert, loc. cit.^"New Campaign Against Jews", The Argus, 11 November 1938^Daily Telegraph, 12 November 1938. Cited in Gilbert, Martin. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. Harper Collins, 2006, p. 142.^Eugene Davidson. The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8262-1045-6. p. 325^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 pp. 263-264^ abSarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 p. 266^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 p. 159^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 p. 156^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 p. 157^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 pp. 175-179^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 p. 176^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 pp. 180, 207^Sarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 pp. 175-179, 215^ abcdeSarah Ann Gordon. Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10162-0 pp. 251, 252, 258, 259^Bernd Nellessen, "Die schweigende Kirche: Katholiken und Judenverfolgung", in B¼ttner (ed)Die Deutschen und die Judenverfolgung im Dritten Reich , p. 265, cited in Daniel Goldhagen'sHitler's Willing Executioners (Vintage, 1997).^Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666-67.^Miskin, Maayana (8 February 2010). "Yad Vashem to Honor Aborigine". Israel National News. Retrieved 20 April 2012. ^Lewis, Geraint (May 2010). "Tippett, Sir Michael Kemp". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition). Retrieved 29 April 2012. (subscription required)^Krefeld, Stadt (1988). Ehemalige Krefelder Juden berichten uber ihre Erlebnisse in der sogenannten Reichskristallnacht. Krefelder Juden in Amerika 3. Cited in Johnson, Eric. Krefeld Stadt Archiv: Basic Books. p. 117. ^"Gary Lucas: Action guitarist by Seth Rogovoy". www.berkshireweb.com. Retrieved 20 May 2008. "A knowing reference to Arnold Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht", the piece ironically juxtaposed the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah," with phrases from "Deutschland Uber Alles," amid wild electronic shrieks and noise. The next day the papers ran a picture of Lucas with the triumphant headline, "It is Lucas!"" ^"BAP Songtexte (German)". Retrieved 16 May 2008. References[edit]Books in EnglishBrowning, Christopher R. (2003). Collected memories: Holocaust history and postwar testimony. George L. Mosse Series in Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-18984-8. Mayer, Kurt (2009). My Personal Brush with History. Tacoma: Kurt Mayer, Confluence Books. ISBN 978-0-578-03911-4. Friedlander, Saul (1998). Nazi Germany and the Jews : Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939. New York, NY: Perennial. ISBN 0-06-092878-6. Gilbert, Martin (1986). The Holocaust: the Jewish tragedy. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-216305-5. Johnson, Eric J. (1999). Nazi terror: the Gestapo, Jews, and ordinary Germans. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-04906-0. Mosse, George L. (1978). Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism. New York: Howard Fertig. ISBN 0-86527-941-1. Mosse, George L. (2000). Confronting history: a memoir. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-16580-9. Mosse, George L. (2003). Nazi culture: intellectual, cultural and social life in the Third Reich. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-19304-7. Mosse, George L. (1999). The Crisis of German Ideology : Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich. New York: Howard Fertig. ISBN 0-86527-426-6. Schwab, Gerald (1990). The day the Holocaust began: the odyssey of Herschel Grynszpan. New York: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-93576-0. Shirer, William L. (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-72868-7. Yahil, Leni (1990). The Holocaust: the fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504523-8. Dawidowicz, Lucy (1991 (Re-issue)). The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945. UK: Bantam. ISBN 978-0-553-34532-2. Steinweis, Alan E. (2009). Kristallnacht 1938. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03623-9. Books in GermanChristian Faludi: Die 'Juni-Aktion" 1938. Eine Dokumentation zur Radikalisierung der Judenverfolgung. Campus, Frankfurt a. M./New York 2013, ISBN 978-3-593-39823-5Hans-Dieter Arntz. "Reichskristallnacht". Der Novemberpogrom 1938 auf dem Lande - Gerichtsakten und Zeugenaussagen am Beispiel der Eifel und Voreifel, Helios-Verlag, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-938208-69-4Doscher, Hans-Jurgen (1988). Reichskristallnacht: Die Novemberpogrome 1938 (in German). Ullstein. ISBN 978-3-550-07495-0. Kaul, Friedrich Karl; Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (1965). Der Fall des Herschel Grynszpan (in German). Berlin: Akademie-Verl. ISBN Unknown. ASIN B0014NJ88M. Available at Oxford Journals (PDF)Korb, Alexander (2007). Reaktionen der deutschen Bev¶lkerung auf die Novemberpogrome im Spiegel amtlicher Berichte (in German). Saarbr¼cken: VDM Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-4823-9. Lauber, Heinz (1981). Judenpogrom: "Reichskristallnacht" November 1938 in Grossdeutschland : Daten, Fakten, Dokumente, Quellentexte, Thesen und Bewertungen (Aktuelles Taschenbuch) (in German). Bleicher. ISBN 3-88350-005-4. P¤tzold, Kurt & Runge, Irene (1988). Kristallnacht: Zum Pogrom 1938 (Geschichte) (in German). K¶ln: Pahl-Rugenstein. ISBN 3-7609-1233-8. Pehle, Walter H. (1988). Der Judenpogrom 1938: Von der "Reichskristallnacht" zum V¶lkermord (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-596-24386-6. Schultheis, Herbert (1985). Die Reichskristallnacht in Deutschland nach Augenzeugenberichten (Bad Neustadter Beitr¤ge zur Geschichte und Heimatkunde Frankens) (in German). Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale: Rotter Druck und Verlag. ISBN 3-9800482-3-3. Online resourcesWroe, David (21 October 2008). "Hitler 'led henchmen' in Kristallnacht riots". Daily Telegraph. Segev, Tom (31 October 2008). "Hitler gave the order". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Rabbi Eliahu Ellis & Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky. "Kristallnacht". Holocaust studies. Aish.com. Retrieved 2008-05-20. "Germany commemorates Nazi era 'Kristallnacht'". CNN.com. 1998-11-09. Archived from the original on February 25, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-20. "What Was Kristallnacht?". THHP Short Essays. The Holocaust History Project. 2003-11-28. Retrieved 2008-05-20. "Kristallnacht "Night of Crystal" - "Night of Broken Glass"". Holocaust Prelude. Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. 2006-2007. Retrieved 2008-05-20. Frieda Miller, Vancouver Holocaust Education Center (2008-02-25). "Kristallnacht". From Aryanization to Cultural Loss: The Destruction of the Jewish Fashion Industry in Germany and Austria. Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota. Retrieved 2008-05-20. [dead link]"Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany 29th July to 8th August 1946". The Trial of German Major War Criminals Volume 20. The Nizkor Project. 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-20. Allida Black, June Hopkins, et al. (2003). "The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers - Kristallnacht". Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt; Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, Hyde Park, New York. US National Park Service archive (nps.gov). Retrieved 2008-05-20. "Kristallnacht: A Nationwide Pogrom, November 9''10, 1938". Holocaust Encyclopedia. US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2008-05-20. "Kristallnacht: The November 1938 Pogroms". Online exhibitions, special topics. US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2008-05-20. Yad Vashem (2004). "Kristallnacht". Yad Vashem's Photo Archives. The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. Retrieved 2008-05-21. [dead link]External links[edit]
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- Series of Deaths Among Financial Workers Jolts London - WSJ.com
- Jan. 28, 2014 12:01 p.m. ET
- LONDON'--A string of recent deaths among finance workers has stunned the City of London, already engaged in a bout of introspection about stress levels among its workers.
- A 39-year-old man died Tuesday morning after falling from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s skyscraper in Canary Wharf, one of London's main financial districts, according to a police statement. The J.P. Morgan employee, Gabriel Magee, landed on a ninth-floor roof and was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr. Magee was a vice president in the investment bank's...
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- JP Morgan IT executive plunges to death at bank's London HQ - Yahoo News
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- Two Top American Bankers Commit Suicide in London
- Two top ranking American bankers working in senior positions in London have committed suicide in the space of two days.
- Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan bank executive, died early this morning after he jumped 500ft from the top of the bank's European headquarters. His body was discovered on the ninth floor roof, which surrounds the 33-story Canary Wharf skyscraper.
- Just two days earlier, on Sunday, fellow American banker, William 'Bill' Broeksmit, 58, was found hanging in his South Kensington home.
- Broeksmit '' who retired last February '' was a former senior manager at Deutsche Bank and had lived in London many years. He started working for the bank in 1996 but left for a period of 7 years before returning in 2008.
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- More Bank Runs Coming
- After last week´s decision by HSBC to halt its policy of not honoring large withdrawal requests by depositors comes news of the Russian bank ''My Bank'' implementing its own run-protection measure.
- ''My Bank'', one of Russia´s top 200 lenders by assets, has introduced ''a complete ban on cash withdrawals until next week.'' In my discussion of HSBC´s similar policy here, I note that limiting redemption requests has been a measure to help fractional-reserve banks remain solvent since, well, the advent of fractional-reserve banking.
- Today there is almost no place to hide. Since all banks are guaranteed by their central banks or deposit insurance agencies, they are all motivated to participate in creating liquidity against their deposit base. Since no bank will go bankrupt provided that the central bank honors its guarantee to support it, one might ask why banks (like HSBC or My Bank) are turning to alternative measures to ensure their own liquidity.
- In Deep Freeze, Philipp Bagus and I discussed a practical problem that sheds light on these recent private initiatives limiting deposit redemption: the size of the problem (not enough good quality assets to cover the deposit liabilities of banks) is at least an order of magnitude larger than the ability of the central bank or government to fix. In Iceland´s case, there were almost no foreign exchange reserves available to guarantee deposit accounts held by Icelandic bank subsidiaries in faraway lands.
- Even printing just the amount of money needed to honor the liabilities of the domestic deposit accounts is not only economically damaging (as Iceland saw) but also politically difficult to implement '' who wants to live with the inflationary hangover caused by the amount of new money the central bank would have to create to make the banking system whole again? I don´t see anyone lining up to move to Zimbabwe, after all.
- Maybe the recent private policies to guarantee their liquidity are a sign by banks that the size of the problem is bigger than the solution put in place to date. Deposit insurance might stop a run for so long, but sooner or later even it can run out of funds.
- (This post originally published at Mises Canada.)
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- BBC News - Lloyds Banking Group customers hit by card problems
- 26 January 2014Last updated at 15:56 ET Lloyds Banking Group says it has fixed problems that affected Halifax, Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and TSB customers using ATMs and debit cards.
- Lloyds is the largest retail bank group in the UK with 30 million customers.
- The chief executive of TSB, Paul Pester, said its customers' debit card transactions had been affected after problems with two out of seven IT servers.
- He tweeted an apology and replied to some comments personally.
- In a statement, Lloyds Banking Group said: "We apologise that earlier today, between 3pm and 6pm, some customers were unable to complete their debit card transactions.
- "Although the majority of transactions were unaffected, we are very sorry for the inconvenience that this will have caused.
- "At the same time, some customers encountered problems at approximately half of our 7,000 ATMs. This was resolved by 7.30pm, and all of our ATMs are now working."
- When the problems first arose, TSB chief Mr Pester tweeted: "My apologies to TSB customers having problems with their cards. I'm working hard with my team now to try to fix the problems," he said, and he also took to Twitter to respond directly to unhappy customers.
- He told the BBC two of the seven servers that process TSB debit card payments had suffered problems, which meant that about a quarter of TSB card transactions were affected.
- Mr Pester later tweeted: "The cause of the problems at TSB is now fixed. It'll take a while to sort the backlog. Sorry customers may have problems for an hour or so."
- TSB has about five million UK customers and is in the process of being split from Lloyds Banking Group.
- 'Big nuisance'Alexander Holland told the BBC he had just bought £90 of fuel at a service station when his card was declined.
- Continue reading the main storyLeanne Seaward, 29, from Verwood in Dorset, said she discovered she had problems when she went to pay for her weekly supermarket shop at about 16.15 GMT.
- "It was a little embarrassing, I put my card in and it kept saying transaction void. I thought it was because I am in the process of switching banks, so assumed they might have closed my account without telling me.
- "Luckily I had my husband with me so he was able to pay, but if I was getting petrol and on my own it could have been a completely different matter."
- "They tried it several times and then suggested I used the cash point which I also tried but was declined," he said.
- "What was I supposed to do? To make matters worse the police were in the service station and came over when I was explaining that there was nothing I could do but write them an I.O.U! How totally embarrassing."
- Sam, a restaurant waiter, said he had served a couple of customers who were affected.
- "Of course, they didn't know what the problem was and neither did we," he told the BBC. "All that happened was the card machines displayed transaction failed notices."
- "It's a big nuisance and causes delays for other customers. It has a knock-on effect and banks need to be much more reliable if people are going to rely on their debit and credit cards to pay for services."
- Not everyone who have tried to use their cards have had problems, and Lloyds said that online customers were unaffected.
- IT glitchProf Alan Woodward, a cyber security specialist at the University of Surrey, told the BBC: "It is quite unusual for two bits of hardware to fall over at the same time so I suspect it's something else that's happened.
- "Quiet times like Sundays are when they do things like maintenance, so they'll do software upgrades or they might be doing back-ups. And it's those sort of things that tend to go wrong. So I suspect something like that has affected two machines at once.
- "They might have been able one out of the cluster going down but two is probably what's causing the problem."
- UK banks have suffered a series of IT problems over the past few years. In December, an estimated 750,000 customers at the Royal Bank of Scotland group were unable to use their credit and debit cards for several hours following an IT glitch.
- In 2012, a major IT failure locked many RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers out of their accounts for several days. The issue was particularly bad for Ulster Bank, with customers facing access problems for weeks.
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- Bundesbank calls for capital levy to avert government bankruptcies | Reuters
- FRANKFURTMon Jan 27, 2014 6:03am EST
- FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Bundesbank said on Monday that countries about to go bankrupt should draw on the private wealth of their citizens through a one-off capital levy before asking other states for help.
- The Bundesbank's tough stance comes after years of euro zone crisis that saw five government bailouts. There have also bond market interventions by the European Central Bank in, for example, Italy where households' average net wealth is higher than in Germany.
- "(A capital levy) corresponds to the principle of national responsibility, according to which tax payers are responsible for their government's obligations before solidarity of other states is required," the Bundesbank said in its monthly report.
- It warned that such a levy carried significant risks and its implementation would not be easy, adding it should only be considered in absolute exceptional cases, for example to avert a looming sovereign insolvency.
- The International Monetary Fund discussed the option in a report in October and said that reducing debt ratios to end-2007 levels for a sample of 15 euro area countries, a tax rate of about 10 percent on households with positive net wealth would be required.
- The German Institute for Economic Research calculated in 2012 that in Germany a 10-percent levy on a tax base derived from a personal allowance of 250,000 euros would add up to around 230 billion euros. It did not give a figure for crisis countries due to lack of sufficient data.
- Greece has been granted bailout funds of 240 billion euros from the euro area, its national central banks and IMF to protect it from a chaotic default and possible exit from the euro zone. Not all funds have been paid out yet.
- In Germany, however, the Bundesbank said it would not support an implementation of a recurrent wealth tax, saying it would harm growth.
- Recent reforms and adjustments in the euro zone's struggling
- countries - Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Portugal - have improved conditions for sustainable growth, the Bundesbank said, but remained concerned about high debt levels.
- It was still a key challenge to drive down public as well as private debt and the ECB's upcoming bank health checks could help to address current problems in the banking sector.
- A successful test could also help to wean banks in the euro zone periphery countries off ECB funding, the Bundesbank said.
- "It is not the purpose of European monetary policy to ensure solvency of national banking systems or governments and it cannot replace necessary economic adjustments or bank balance sheet clean ups," the Bundesbank said.
- (Reporting by Eva Taylor Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
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- Maybe ET should ask Credit Lyonnais why the markets are stumbling despite Modi
- Maybe RBI govRajan should give another pep talk to the market. He he he he!
- Markets are falling because big banks have reduced access to free money (tapering of money printing and market socialism).
- And, Credit Lyonnais is a stupid French company that lost billions because of bad bets and loans. It would have collapsed if it were not bailed out by French government.
- CAUTION: Moral Volcano is unsafe for children and pregnant women. Adults may experience discomfort when reading Moral Volcano. Symptomatic treatment is recommended. Moral Volcano has nothing to do with morals or volcanoes.
- BEWARE: All assertions and statements on this site are in the nature of bets. These bets may be proven to be way off the mark. Do your own research and reach appropriate conclusions. Consult experts in the relevant field to be sure. Moral Volcano (represented by V. Subhash) and his partners, agents, assassins and others accept no responsibility whatsoever for anything on this web log or other content linked by this blog.
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- Resistance to Goldman Sachs deal grows - News - The Copenhagen Post
- Resistance to the planned sale of 19 percent of the state-owned energy company DONG to US investment bank Goldman Sachs has exploded over the past few days.
- An online petition against the sale has reached nearly 150,000 signatures, becoming the most popular petition ever on the website skrivunder.net. There has been more than a doubling of signatures since Saturday, when the number sat at around 68,000.
- READ MORE: Finance minister stands by Goldman Sachs deal
- The petition, 'Nej tak til statens salg af DONG til Goldman Sachs' (no thanks to the state's sale of DONG to Goldman Sachs), points out that the state-brokered deal gives the American firm veto rights over any changes in DONG's leadership and strategy, even though Danish law states that such rights are normally only conferred with at least a 33 percent stake in a company.
- Goldman Sachs's plans to administrate its ownership from shell corporations in Luxembourg, the US state of Delaware and the Cayman Islands '' all well-known tax havens '' has also come under intense scrutiny.
- In addition to the online petition, a protest against the planned sale of DONG has been scheduled for Wednesday at 4pm outside of Christiansborg. Some 3,000 attendees have signed up via Facebook.
- READ MORE: Questions linger over DONG and Sachs deal
- Sceptics within SocialdemokraterneInside Christiansborg, far-left party Enhedslisten and the far-right Dansk Folkeparti have long been vocal critics of the Goldman Sachs deal. But now MPs of ruling coalition party Socialdemokraterne have spoken out against the deal, which was brokered by the the party's own Bjarne Corydon, the finance minister.
- ''We need a timeout in the partial sale of DONG to Goldman Sachs,'' Bjarne Lautsen (S) told DR Nyheder. ''Many negative things have emerged and there has also been a new offer from Danish pension companies.''
- Corydon has refuted earlier reports that the Finance Ministry was offered a bid from the pension firm PensionDanmark that was more lucrative than the one from Goldman Sachs.
- READ MORE: Private investment in DONG Energy finalised
- Vote on ThursdayCorydon will face a parliamentary hearing tomorrow about the planned sale, where he is expected to be grilled by Parliament's Finance Committee on the Goldman Sachs deal. The same committee will vote on the sale on Thursday.
- Despite the public scepticism of the deal, the Finance Ministry has stood by its decision and has been publicly backed by PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (S).
- The deal to sell part of DONG to Goldman Sachs was finalised in December. If it passes, the deal will bring the Danish government's ownership down from 81 to 60 percent.
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- Agenda 21
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- Meterologists can't even predict winter freeze in the South of the USA!
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- Solar Provides 0.2% of Electric Supply--Up From 0.02% Before Obama | CNS News
- (AP PHoto/Julie Jacobsen)
- (CNSNews.com) - Solar power, which President Barack Obama promoted in his State of the Union Address, accounted for 0.2 percent of the U.S. electricity supply in the first nine months of 2013, according to data published by the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration.
- That is up from the 0.02 percent of the total electricity supply that solar power sources provided in 2008, the last calendar year before Obama took office.
- ''Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy,'' Obama said in the State of the Union. ''The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we've been in decades.''
- ''It's not just oil and natural gas production that's booming; we're becoming a global leader in solar, too,'' he said. ''Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can't be outsourced. Let's continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries that don't need it, so that we can invest more in fuels of the future that do.''
- According to the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration, the United States is producing less electricity now than it did when Obama took office. (See Table 7.2.a.)
- In 2008, according to EIA, the U.S. generated a net of 4,119,388 million kilowathours of electricity. In 2012, the last full calendar year for which data has been collected, the U.S. generated a net of 4,047,765 million kilowatt hours of electricity.
- From 2008 to 2012, U.S. electricity production declined by 1.7 percent.
- In the first nine months of 2013, according to the latest data from EIA, U.S. electricity production continued to decline. In those nine months, the U.S. produced 3,078,460 million kilowatthours of electricity compared to 3,095,504 in the first nine months of 2012.
- Coal remains the largest source of electricity in the United States, even though coal-produced electricity has been declining in the Obama years.
- In 2008, the U.S. generated 1,985,801 million kilowatthours'--or 48.2 percent--of its total of 4,119,388 million kilowatthours of electricity from coal. In 2012, the U.S. generated 1,514,043 million kilowatthours---or 37.4 percent--of its total of 4,047,765 million kilowatthours from coal.
- Solar-generated electricity did not make up the slack.
- In 2008, according to EIA, the U.S. got 864 million kilowatthours'--or 0.02 percent--of its 4,119,388 million kilowatthours of electricity from solar thermal and photovoltaic energy. By 2012, the U.S. got 4,327 million kilowatthours'--or 0.1 percent--of its 4,047,765 million kilowatthours from solar.
- In the first nine months of 2013, the U.S. got 6,407 million'--or 0.2 percent--of the total of 3,078,460 million kilowatthours generated up to that point from solar.
- Thus, even though solar generation of electricity has been increasing at a tremendous pace in the United States since 2008, it still supplies only 0.2 percent of the country's electricity.
- A larger supply of U.S. electricity, according to EIA, comes from wood. In the first nine months of 2013, 28,400 kilowatthours of electricity--or 0.9 percent--of the total of 3,078,460 million kilowatthours generated up to that point came from wood.
- ''Most of the electricity from wood biomass is generated at lumber and paper mills,'' says a brief by the EIA. ''These mills use their own wood waste to provide much of their own steam and electricity needs.''
- Since 2008, natural gas-generated electricity has increased as a share of the overall supply. In 2008, it produced 882,981 million kilowatt hours'--or 21.4 percent'--of the 4,119,388 million overall supply. In 2012, it generated 1,225,894 million kilowatthours'--or about 30.3 percent'--of total of 4,047,765 million kilowatthours of supply. In the first nine months of 2013, it generated 853,969 million kilowatthours'--or about 27.7 percent'--of the 3,078,460 million kilowatthours of total supply.
- Nonetheless, electricity has gotten more expensive since 2008'--with the electricity price index now at its all-time high.
- In December 2009, the month before Obama took office, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' seasonally adjusted electricity index was 193.965. In December 2013, it hit a record 203.186. In December 2008, the average price for a kilowatt hour of electricity in the United States was 12.4 cents. In December 2013, it was 13.1 cents'--the most expensive electricity has ever been in December.
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- California drought: 17 communities could run out of water within 60 to 120 days, state says
- As California's drought deepens, 17 communities across the state are in danger of running out of water within 60 to 120 days, state officials said Tuesday.
- In some communities, wells are running dry. In others, reservoirs are nearly empty. Some have long-running problems that predate the drought.
- The water systems, all in rural areas, serve from 39 to 11,000 residents. They range from the tiny Lompico County Water District in Santa Cruz County to districts that serve the cities of Healdsburg and Cloverdale in Sonoma County.
- And it could get a lot worse.
- "As the drought goes on, there will be more that probably show up on the list," said Dave Mazzera, acting drinking-water division chief for the state Department of Public Health.
- Most of the affected water districts have so few customers that they can't charge enough money to pay for backup water supplies or repair failing equipment, leaving them more vulnerable to drought than large urban areas.
- The state health department compiled the list after surveying the more than 3,000 water agencies in California last week. The list will be updated weekly, Mazzera said.
- State health officials are in discussion with leaders of other agencies, including the state Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to work on immediate solutions, he added. Those could include everything from trucking in water to the health department providing emergency funds for drilling new wells or connecting faltering systems to other water systems.
- A similar list of vulnerable communities was compiled during California's last drought, which lasted from 2007 to 2009. But the current drought is more severe. Less rain fell in 2013 than in any year since California became a state in 1850.
- Even though some rain is forecast for Thursday, major storms are desperately needed this winter and spring to replenish depleted reservoirs, rivers and the Sierra Nevada snowpack -- which on Tuesday stood at 14 percent of normal.
- "This is a statewide drought. This is a serious drought," Bill Croyle, director of the state Drought Task Force, said Thursday. "It's all hands on deck."
- Croyle, an official with the state Department of Water Resources, made his remarks at a meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, a state board of water experts.
- Asked by board member Hank Nordhoff, a San Diego businessman, where the water will come from to bail out small systems, Croyle said he's working on it.
- "You are going to get it wherever you can get it," he said.
- Retorted Nordhoff: "That's a frightening reply."
- Croyle cited the possibility of new pipe connections to other water systems and trucking in water.
- "On the Central Coast, they have in the past looked at desalination," he added. "So if we lose our groundwater and surface water, we are going to go to the ocean. It is going to be expensive, but you bring in mobile plants and fire them up."
- Since California's last major drought, which ran from 1987 to 1992, most major urban areas have spent millions of dollars to store water underground, fund conservation programs, build new reservoirs and construct wastewater recycling plants. As a result, their residents are feeling little effect so far.
- On Tuesday, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission announced a voluntary 10 percent cutback for its 2.6 million customers in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties. Similarly, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has requested a 10 percent voluntary cutback. Others, like the Contra Costa Water District and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, have not yet asked customers to meet conservation targets.
- The story is different in many rural areas.
- Lompico County Water District, in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Felton, has long-standing water supply issues and is exploring a possible merger, but so far has been stymied by nearly $3 million in needed upgrades -- a hefty bill for the district's 500 customers.
- A boat dock is nowhere near the water at Stevens Creek Reservoir in Cupertino, Calif., on Jan. 22, 2014. (Nhat V. Meyer)
- "We have been unable to take water out of the creek since August and well production is down, and we didn't have that much water to begin with," said Lois Henry, a Lompico water board member.
- Henry said she hopes the state comes with funding to help the agency find more reliable water. The district could soon have to begin trucking in water, she said.
- "I'm frankly worried," Henry said. "I know people turn their faucet on and say, 'Oh, everything's fine.' And I know it's not."
- In Cloverdale, where 9,000 Sonoma County residents draw their water from four wells, low flows in the Russian River prompted the City Council last week to put in place mandatory 25 percent rationing, which includes a ban on lawn watering. The city raised water rates 50 percent to put in two new wells, which should be completed by July, said City Manager Paul Caylor.
- "Hopefully," he said, "we'll be able to get through the summer and the development of this project will pay off."
- Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter Jason Hoppin contributed to this report. Paul Rogers covers resources and environmental issues. Contact him at 408-920-5045. Follow him at Twitter.com/PaulRogersSJMN
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- Deze maand niet de warmste januari - Binnenland - VK
- 29/01/14, 07:50 '' bron: ANP
- (C) anp. Een bereklauw staat al in bloei in het Amsterdamse Bos.
- Hoewel het bijzonder zacht was, gaat de eerste maand van dit jaar niet de boeken als de warmste. Met een gemiddelde temperatuur van 5,7 graden komt januari 2014 tegen de verwachtingen in pas op de 8e plek in de top 10 warmste januari's sinds 1901. Dat heeft weeronline.nl laten weten.
- Met temperaturen die normaal worden gemeten in maart, kan nauwelijks van winter worden gesproken. Zo was er geen enkele ijsdag en viel er bijna geen sneeuw. Alleen in het noordoosten van het land was het vorige week wit. Normaal is het aan het begin van het jaar gemiddeld 3,1 graden.
- Opvallend was vooral het begin van de maand. Op 6 januari gaf de thermometer zelfs 14,5 graden aan, waarmee het de op een na warmste januaridag ooit is. Vorig jaar begon daarentegen erg koud. Gemiddeld kwam het kwik in januari 2013 niet verder dan 2 graden. Ook telde de maand 13 ijsdagen.
- Op het nippertje komt er deze maand toch nog een miniwinter. Woensdag ligt de gevoelstemperatuur in het noorden rond -10. Donderdag kan mogelijk worden genoteerd als de eerste ijsdag van het jaar. Een ijsdag wordt gemeten als de temperatuur in De Bilt niet boven het vriespunt uitkomt.
- De warmste januari ooit was in 2007. Toen was het gemiddeld 7,1 graden.
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- South Korea approves $7bn nuclear project
- South Korea has approved funding for two new nuclear plants to boost its nuclear power industry struggling to emerge from the shadow of Japan's Fukushima disaster.
- The project costing $7bn was approved on Wednesday, only two weeks after Asia's fourth-largest economy announced a policy shift to cut its reliance on nuclear power in the wake of radiation cleanup conerns in Japan.
- South Korea still plans to double its nuclear capacity over the next two decades as its state-run industry builds at least 16 new domestic reactors and pushes for overseas sales.
- The plants are due to be completed by the end of 2020.
- The new decision also comes after a series of nuclear reactor shutdowns due to safety issues, which raised the risk of blackouts during times of peak demand, and put pressure on policy makers to maintain power supplies for its energy intensive industries.
- In May 2013, a scandal broke over parts supplied using fake documents, resulting in closures of some reactors to replace these parts.
- Then on Wednesday, South Korea shut down another nuclear power plant due to a technical glitch, taking the number of reactors closed to four and increasing the risk of power shortages over winter.
- South Korea, which ranks fifth globally in nuclear power generation, has largely developed its own nuclear industry with 23 nuclear reactors built and operated through state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO).
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- Verkeershinder bij nucleaire top Den Haag | nu.nl/binnenland | Het laatste nieuws het eerst op nu.nl
- Dat bleek maandag tijdens eenbriefingover de maatregelen op het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken.
- De top wordt op 24 en 25 maart gehouden in het World Forum in Den Haag. Dagelijks zullen 13.000 agenten worden ingezet, vier maal zoveel als bij de troonswisseling vorig jaar, zei Ruud Bik, plaatsvervangend korpschef van de Nationale Politie.
- ''Overlast wordt zo veel mogelijk beperkt'', zei Jan Hendrik Dronkers, directeur-generaal van Rijkswaterstaat. ''Niettemin moeten weggebruikers tussen Amsterdam, Den Haag en Rotterdam rekening houden met zeer ernstige verkeershinder."
- "Dat geldt ook voor weggebruikers in Wassenaar, Leiden, Katwijk, Noordwijk, de Bollenstreek en Haarlemmermeer.''
- Het brugrestaurant over de A4 (richting Den Haag) gaat bijna 3 dagen dicht. Ook het benzinestation en enkele andere bedrijven en horecazaken bij Den Ruygen Hoek sluiten verplicht de deuren.
- Dubbele spitsTijdens de drukste momenten 's ochtends op maandag 24 maart en de middag van 25 maart moet rekening worden gehouden met een "spits bovenop de spits".
- Dronkers: ''Het advies is om op die twee dagen niet naar dit deel van de Randstad te komen, als mensen er niet per se hoeven te zijn. Probeer elders of thuis te werken.''
- Mensen die t"ch in Den Haag, Schiphol en omgeving moeten zijn, kunnen beter buiten de spits reizen, benadrukt Dronkers.
- Het is mogelijk dat automobilisten die tussen Amsterdam en Den Haag rijden, via Utrecht moeten omrijden. Het verkeer tussen het noorden en oosten en de Randstad moet misschien via Arnhem en Apeldoorn rijden, om Utrecht heen.
- TreinenDe NS zet tijdens de spits op 24 en 25 maart extra treinen en langere treinen in tussen Amsterdam, Den Haag en Rotterdam. Daardoor kunnen er 22.000 mensen per uur met de trein, 10.000 meer dan normaal, aldus Dronkers.
- Prorail heeft extra mensen paraat en houdt locomotieven achter de hand om gestrande treinen snel weg te kunnen slepen.
- SchipholVanwege de top kunnen vliegtuigen vanaf 10 maart enkele weken lang niet landen op de Polderbaan op Schiphol. De baan wordt gereserveerd voor de hoge gasten. Vliegverkeer boven de Randstad wordt aan banden gelegd.
- Het gebied rond de Polderbaan is onderverdeeld in twee zones en is alleen toegankelijk voor bewoners en bedrijven. Wie in de dichtstbijzijnde zone 2 woont of werkt, kan op maandag 24 maart bepaalde tijden het erf niet af.
- De gebieden worden afgesloten voor doorgaand verkeer en bewoners en werknemers kunnen alleen naar binnen via een politiepost en op vertoon van hun legitimatiebewijs. In zone 2 bevinden zich zeven adressen. In zone 3 gaat het om 134 woningen en bedrijven
- AwacsAwacs-vliegtuigen van de NAVO zullen het luchtruim bewaken. Recreatieve luchtvaart, zoals sportvliegtuigen en ballonvluchten, is op en rond de top niet mogelijk, zei Dick Schoof, de Nationaal Co¶rdinator Terrorismebestrijding en Veiligheid (NCTB). Ook op zee, vooral de strook voor de kust, gelden beperkingen.
- ''We zijn goed voorbereid'', zei Schoof. Om de top veilig en ongestoord te laten verlopen, zijn tal van zichtbare en onzichtbare maatregelen genomen.
- BalansDe overheid heeft daarbij volgens Schoof gezocht naar een balans tussen noodzakelijke veiligheidsmaatregelen en een ongestoord doorgaan van het maatschappelijk leven. Maar ''hinder is onvermijdelijk, zeker bij vervoer over de weg''.
- Nederland blijft volgens Schoof baas in eigen huis. "Er zijn natuurlijk gesprekken over de veiligheidsmaatregelen met de Amerikanen, Russen en Chinezen. Maar we doen alleen wat in onze ogen moet gebeuren, niet in de ogen van anderen."
- GrensAls het nodig is, kan Nederland de grens met buurlanden sluiten tijdens de nucleaire top .
- De overheid kan die maatregel nemen als er bijvoorbeeld aanwijzingen zijn dat er ''potentieel gewelddadige groepen'' naar ons land komen die de veiligheid van de top kunnen bedreigen.
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- Obama Nation
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- Lew to Congress: Raise the debt ceiling ''well before'' deadline - CBS News
- Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is urging Congress to raise the debt ceiling well before the Feb. 7, 2014, deadline. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
- Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is urging House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the other congressional leaders to channel the bipartisan bonhomie of the recent budget deal into raising the nation's debt ceiling ''well before'' the U.S. runs out of borrowing authority on Feb. 7.
- PoliticsBudget deal sealed, but don't expect the bipartisanship to lastCBSNews.com Executive Washington Editor Steve Chaggaris talks with RealClearPolitics Political Reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns about the recent budge...
- ''Congress again has demonstrated its ability to work constructively to address the country's most pressing fiscal issues,'' Lew wrote in a letter Thursday, referencing the recent votes by the House and Senate to pass a budget for the next two years. ''In this spirit, I am writing to urge Congress to take prompt action to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by extending the nation's borrowing authority. It is incumbent on Congress to allow Treasury to finance the spending levels established in the budget agreement as well as the commitments previously approved by Congress.''Congress extended the debt limit through Feb. 7 when they passed a deal to end the 16-day government shutdown in October. Lew said that he would be able to use so-called ''extraordinary measures'' to continue to finance the government past that date, but only until late February or early March.
- Since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2010, Republicans have routinely used the need to raise the debt ceiling to extract spending cuts from Democrats. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said recently that President Obama will stand by his position that the debt ceiling increase should not be conditioned on other policies, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has other ideas.
- "I doubt if the House or for that matter the Senate is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase," McConnell said Tuesday.
- Lew reiterated Mr. Obama's position in the letter. ''The creditworthiness of the United States is an essential underpinning of our strength as a nation; it is not a bargaining chip to be used for partisan political ends. Moreover, as you know, increasing the debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to pay for expenditures Congress has already approved,'' he wrote. ''The American public expects its leaders to put an end to governing by crisis and to focus on promoting economic growth and job creation.''
- (C) 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
-
- Obama's high school pot dealer beaten to death by gay lover over flatulence | Mail Online
- Raymond Boyer was known as 'Gay Ray' to Obama and his marijuana smoking 'Choom Gang' of privately-educated kids at Hawaiian high schoolRay was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in 1986, seven years after he supplied the future president and his friends with drugsLover Andrew Devere, a male prostitute, gave police a variety of reasons for the murderHe said surfer Boyer put him down constantly and broke wind in his faceCourt documents uncovered for the first time by MailOnlineChoom is island slang for pot smoking and group went on excursions to countryside to get high and party, sometimes in Ray's surf vanDevere is now living on the mainland after serving his life sentenceObama last week said marijuana was no more dangerous than alcoholDevere's new wife Elizabeth told MailOnline doing drugs is fine if you are rich and 'have the tools to deal with it' but not if you are poor with problemsBy Richard Alleyne On Honolulu, Hawaii
- PUBLISHED: 09:17 EST, 29 January 2014 | UPDATED: 09:33 EST, 29 January 2014
- President Obama's high school pot dealer who he thanked in his yearbook for the 'good times' was beaten to death by his lover after a series of fights over flatulence and drugs, MailOnline can reveal today.
- Raymond Boyer, known as 'Gay Ray' to Obama and his marijuana smoking 'Choom Gang', was bludgeoned to death with a hammer seven years after he sold the future president and his friends drugs.
- His lover Andrew Devere, a male prostitute, gave police a laundry list of reasons for the killing, including that Boyer, a surfer and unemployed chef, constantly put him down, made him beg for drugs and had a habit of breaking wind in his face.
- Good times: Obama thanked Ray in his high school yearbook alongside his family and his Choom Gang buddies
- Pot head: Obama and his 'Choom Gang' of privately-educated friends used to score drugs off Ray. Ray was murdered seven years after the gang left school by his lover for a myriad of bizarre and frankly petty reasons
- The sordid end to the life of Boyer at 37 was in direct contrast to the young men he supplied drugs to who all went on to lead successful and productive lives.
- Since getting high with Obama and his private school educated friends he lost his job as the manager of a local pizzeria and ended up on welfare living above a car repair shop.
- The full extent of Ray's grisly end and the bizarre reasons for it were set out in mitigation by Devere, who was jailed for life for the murder.
- Appeal court documents from 1991, uncovered for the first time by MailOnline, reveal Devere killed Boyer on New Year's Day 1986 because: Boyer was killing a friend of his by supplying that friend with drugs; Boyer embarrassed Devere and put him down in front of other people; Boyer had developed a habit of farting in Devere's face; Boyer once attacked Devere with a knife, slicing Devere's finger; Boyer made Devere beg for drugs.
- Finally, the documents say the last straw came on the morning that Devere killed Boyer when the victim had refused to give Devere money to buy medication to soothe the murderer's sore throat.
- Obama has never hidden his drug taking youth and recently put on record that he felt that marijuana was no worse than alcohol.
- Killer: Andrew Devere, pictured in a variety of mugshots over the years, was sentenced to life for the grisly crime. He said he killed Boyer because he broke wind in his face, was killing a friend by selling him drugs, didn't pick up his medicine for a sore throat and insulted him in public. Devere is now free and living on the mainland
- Party bus: Obama and the Choom Gang used to go to parties in the hills in Ray's surf van (file photo) and get high. Weed was rife in Hawaii during the counter-culture years of the 1970s and often smoked openly
- He mentioned in his own autobiography that he took drugs. And David Maraniss's book 'Barack Obama: The Story' revealed the existence of the Choom Gang (Choom is slang for smoking pot) and their dealer 'Ray'.
- It was even known that 'Ray' had been murdered but only now can the MailOnline can reveal the full tragic story of his life.
- Raymond Boyer, originally from California, was an athletic surfer who earned a living as the day manager of a pizza restaurant near the private school where Obama and his teenage friends were taught in Hawaii.
- Mama Mia Pizza restaurant, which also had a bar, was at the centre of a thriving university scene in Honolulu during the counter culture days of 1979.
- At the time, marijuana '' or pakalolo as it was known locally - was flourishing on the island. It was grown in the hills and sold and smoked openly on the streets and beaches.
- Boyer, 30 at the time, lived the archetypal hippy existence, sleeping in an old bus with two pet monkeys, and enjoying in full the promiscuous and hedonistic lifestyle of the gay community on the Pacific island.
- He also dealt drugs to friends - and it was through supplying marijuana that he came into contact with the young Obama, known as Barry, who was attending Punahou school nearby.
- Obama, 18, who was only just beginning to explore his black roots '' having been brought up by his white grandparents '' was a leading member of a group called the Choom Gang.
- Choom is island slang for pot smoking and the group went on excursions to the countryside where they would get high and party, sometimes in Ray's surf van.
- Experiments: Obama, 18, who was only just beginning to explore his black roots '' having been brought up by his white grandparents '' was a leading member of a group called the Choom Gang
- Choom: The gang, whose other passions were beer and basketball, even made up rules about the smoking of 'bud'. Obama was particularly fond of the 'interception' and 'roof hits', according to a biography
- The gang, whose other passions were beer and basketball, even made up rules about the smoking of 'bud'.
- One of them was that you skipped a turn if you did not inhale properly and the other, a favorite of Obama, was that you could grab an extra drag of a joint if you elbowed in and shouted 'intercepted'.
- The young Obama popularized the concept of 'roof hits', when all the windows of a car were rolled up so you could suck up the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.
- 'Wasting good bud smoke was not tolerated,' Tom Topolinski, one member of the Choom Gang, told Maraniss.
- 'Barry also had a knack for interceptions. When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted "Intercepted!", and took an extra hit. No one seemed to mind.'
- Ray, although older, was an integral part of the gang, known for his ability to 'score good bud' and drive them up nearby Mount Tantalus to party.
- He even got a mention in Obama's school yearbook as the teenager wrote his thanks to: 'Tut [his grandmother], Gramps, Choom Gang, and Ray for all the good times.'
- While the other members of the gang went onto university and careers as lawyers, writers and businessmen, Ray's wild life was just beginning to unravel.
- He lost his job at Mama Mia's and lived above a car repair shop in a rundown area of downtown Honolulu.
- His relationships became ever more sordid and he ended up sleeping with a gay prostitute drug addict called Andrew Devere, 17 years his junior.
- This was to be his undoing.
- As he slept on New Year's Day 1986, Devere, upset with Ray's treatment of him, took a claw hammer and literally beat his brains out. His body was not found until eight days later.
- Devere said that he had meant to shoot Boyer but could not get a gun and was planning to kill him at night but he fell asleep. He finally bludgeoned him to death the next morning.
- Formative: It emerged last week that Obama believes that marijuana is no more dangerous than booze
- Privileged: Devere's current wife Elizabeth suggested that rich people have 'the right tools' to deal with taking drugs, but those like Devere, a former male prostitute, didn't and they 'subtract from the good'
- He said: 'I wasn't mad at him at the time that I did it.... But I knew I had to do it because.... later on ... I knew that I would, you know, I would forget about how he treated me'.
- Devere, who jailed for life for the murder but released in 2007, has since moved to the mainland.
- He now has a wife and although has since been convicted of minor drug offenses holds down a job.
- He is too traumatized to talk about his old life but his wife, Elizabeth, told MailOnline that the gruesome episode was a warning to anyone.
- 'He is embarrassed about it but I told him that you cannot run from it,' she said. 'Drugs always alter your mind. I have a past myself. Because of the drugs and his lifestyle it was a really tough environment to survive in.
- 'He survived by being a prostitute. I think drugs affect people in different ways. It depends how you are brought up.
- 'If you have the right tools to deal with them then it's okay. But if not they definitely subtract from the good.'
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- Ryan Loskarn leaves letter - John Bresnahan - POLITICO.com
- Loskarn was arrested by federal agents on Dec. 11. | Courtesy
- CloseJesse Ryan Loskarn, the former top Senate GOP aide who committed suicide last week, said in a letter released by his family that he was sexually abused as a child, and the horror from that episode eventually led him down a path toward possessing child pornography.
- In a typed letter just over two pages long and posted online by his mother late Monday night, Loskarn revealed in vivid detail his personal experiences and apologized profusely for possessing child pornography, which led to his arrest by federal agents on Dec. 11.
- Until the raid on his Capitol Hill home by U.S. Postal Service investigators, Loskarn was a well-liked and respected chief of staff for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). He was a former leadership aide with a solid reputation and numerous friends on both sides of the aisle.
- (Earlier on POLITICO: Ryan Loskarn believed to have committed suicide)
- That all changed in one day, however. Loskarn was fired by Alexander the day he was arrested. He was placed on suicide watch in jail, and he was only released after his lawyers convinced a federal judge that he was not going to take his own life.
- In the Jan. 23 letter, Loskarn said he planned to kill himself immediately after his arrest, claiming that the ''news coverage of my spectacular fall makes it impossible for me to crawl into a hole and disappear. I've hurt every single human being I've ever known and the details of my shame are preserved on the Internet for all time. There is no escape.''
- The 35-year-old Loskarn hanged himself last Thursday in his parents' home in Sykesville, Md.
- POLITICO obtained the letter on Monday afternoon but planned to delay publishing a story until Tuesday in an effort to find out more regarding the circumstances surrounding it. POLITICO contacted Loskarn's family, but they did not comment.
- Gay Loskarn, Loskarn's mother, posted the letter online late Monday evening, offering some thoughts on her son's situation.
- In her post, Ms. Loskarn complained about the ''media frenzy'' surrounding her son's arrest in December.
- (Earlier on POLITICO: Lamar Alexander top aide Ryan Loskarn arrested on child porn charges)
- ''The last month of Jesse Ryan Loskarn's life was surrounded by a media frenzy, with what appeared to be the goal of destroying his reputation beyond repair,'' Mrs. Loskarn said. ''Newspapers and other media outlets depicted him mostly in a negative light and stole away any good he had done during his short but full life.''
- Mrs. Loskarn added: ''During this tragic time he had no voice, but in his death he can be heard. Our society is quick to judge especially when the topic surrounding his death is so difficult. This letter written by Jesse Ryan Loskarn was found after he took his own life on January 23, 2014. If his words can help just one person who is suffering in silence, it will be his greatest accomplishment.''
- In his letter, Loskarn said he first stumbled across child pornography ''during a search for music on a peer-to-peer network. I wasn't seeking it but I didn't turn away when I saw it. Until that moment, the only place I'd seen these sorts of images was in my mind.''
- According to Loskarn, the incident struck a deep emotional chord since he had been sexually abused as a child. He didn't give any details about that abuse.
- ''I found myself drawn to videos that matched my own childhood abuse,'' Loskarn wrote. ''It's painful and humiliating to admit to myself, let alone the whole world, but I pictured myself as a child in the image or video. The more an image mirrored some element of my memories and took me back, the more I felt a connection.''
- Loskarn added: ''This is my deepest, darkest secret.''
- (PHOTOS: Lamar Alexander's top aide investigated for child porn)
- According to a federal complaint against Loskarn, he made ''several purchases'' from November 2010 to March 2011 from a Toronto-based movie production company operating a website that offered DVDs via mail and streaming video. Court documents said ''the majority of these films featured young nude boys.''
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- JRL's Last Message - www.jesseryanloskarnslastmessage.com
- The last month of Jesse Ryan Loskarn's life was surrounded by a media frenzy, with what appeared to be the goal of destroying his reputation beyond repair. Newspapers and other media outlets depicted him mostly in a negative light and stole away any good he had done during his short but full life. During this tragic time he had no voice, but in his death he can be heard. Our society is quick to judge especially when the topic surrounding his death is so difficult. This letter written by Jesse Ryan Loskarn was found after he took his own life on January 23, 2014. If his words can help just one person who is suffering in silence it will be his greatest accomplishment.
- Jesse Ryan Loskarn's Last Message:
- On December 11, 2013, I was arrested for possession of child pornography. Writing those few words took a long time; seeing them in print is agony. But I owe many, many people an explanation '' if that's even possible '' and that's why I've written this letter.
- The news coverage of my spectacular fall makes it impossible for me to crawl in a hole and disappear. I've hurt every single human being I've ever known and the details of my shame are preserved on the internet for all time. There is no escape.
- My family has been wounded beyond description. My former boss and colleagues had their trust broken and their names dragged through the mud for no reason other than association. Friends' question whether they ever really knew me.
- Everyone wants to know why.
- I've asked God. I've asked myself. I've talked with clergy and counselors and psychiatrists. I spent five days on suicide watch in the psychiatric ward at the D.C. jail, fixated on the ''why'' and ''how'' questions: why did I do this and how can I kill myself? I've shared the most private details of my life with others in the effort to find an answer. There seem to be many answers and none at all.
- The first time I saw child pornography was during a search for music on a peer-to-peer network. I wasn't seeking it but I didn't turn away when I saw it. Until that moment, the only place I'd seen these sorts of images was in my mind.
- I found myself drawn to videos that matched my own childhood abuse. It's painful and humiliating to admit to myself, let alone the whole world, but I pictured myself as a child in the image or video. The more an image mirrored some element of my memories and took me back, the more I felt a connection.
- This is my deepest, darkest secret.
- As a child I didn't understand what had happened at the time of the abuse. I did know that I must not tell anyone, ever. Later the memories took on new and more troubling meaning when I became a teenager. They started to appear more often and made me feel increasingly apart from everyone else. In my mind I instigated and enjoyed the abuse '' even as a five and nine year old '' no matter the age difference. Discussing what had happened would have meant shame and blame.
- I always worried someone might look at me and know, so I paid close attention to others for any sign they might have figured it out. No one ever did. By my late teens I reached a sort of mental equilibrium on the matter. I couldn't stop the images from appearing altogether, but I generally controlled when they appeared.
- As an adult I thought I was a tougher man because of the experience; that I was mentally stronger and less emotional than most. I told myself that I was superior to other people because I had dealt with this thing on my own.
- Those I worked with on the Hill would likely describe me as a controlled, independent, and rational person who could analyze a situation with little or no emotion. That's how I viewed myself. In retrospect, the qualities that helped me succeed on Capitol Hill were probably developed partly as a result of the abuse and how it shaped me.
- In the aftermath of my arrest and all that followed, the mental equilibrium I had created to deal with my past is gone. Today the memories fly at me whenever they choose. They're the first thing I see when I wake and the last thing I think about before falling asleep. I am not in control of anything anymore, not even my own memories. It's terrifying.
- In my life, I had only ever mentioned the abuse to three friends, and then fleetingly so. I never spoke to a mental health professional about this or any other matter until I was in the D.C. jail. I talked with a counselor there about my crime and the horrible hurt I had caused so many people. I didn't talk to him about my past. I didn't think it mattered because I intended to kill myself as soon as possible.
- The session ended and I left to be taken to a cell. Before I'd gone far, the counselor called me back. He said there was something he couldn't put his finger on and he wanted to talk some more. And then he just stopped and looked at me, not saying a word. He was the first person in my life who I think had figured it out. And he was the first person I ever spoke to in any detail about those memories.
- That conversation was the first of many that have already taken place, and many more to come, as I begin the process of trying to sort this out and fix myself.
- I understand that some people '' maybe most '' will view this as a contrived story designed to find some defense for defenseless behavior. That it's an excuse. In some ways I feel disgusting sharing this truth with you because in my heart I still struggle to see my five-year-old self as a victim. But I'm sharing this with you because it is the truth, not an excuse. And I believe it played a role in my story.
- To my family, friends and Capitol Hill colleagues: I've had individual conversations with each of you in my mind. I've pictured your face as I admitted to my failure and heard the shock and disappointment in your voice. I lay awake at night reviewing these conversations over and over again. They are among the most excruciatingly painful aspects of this terrible, terrible nightmare.
- To those who choose to sever all ties with me, I don't blame you. No one wants to think or talk about this subject matter. All I can say is: I understand and I'm sorry.
- To those of you who have offered words of compassion to me and my family: your kindness has been remarkable. Compassion is harder to accept than condemnation when you feel as disgusting and horrible as I do, but it means a great deal. I'm more grateful to you than you can possibly imagine.
- And last, to the children in the images: I should have known better. I perpetuated your abuse and that will be a burden on my soul for the rest of my life.
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- Child Sex Trafficking in the USA: What Really Goes On - The Good Men Project
- A soldier talks about her journey into human trafficking rescue.Erika Clark is a young, Air Force intelligence analyst whose career was ended by a knee injury and now works with trafficked children in the Washington DC area. The trafficked children are shuttled on a circuit between U.S. cities to avoid detection in the sex trade, where pimps put them on the street and force them to perform sex acts with approximately eight to ten men a night. The lifespan for a trafficked child after entering ''the life'' is around seven years before they're killed or die from AIDS.
- ''I love them so much because they are no different than I am,'' said Clark. ''There's absolutely nothing I've done, nothing about my character that makes me any more virtuous or any better than these girls that are working as prostitutes.''
- The average age a child becomes prostitute in the USA is 13 years old and it's estimated that 293,000 children in the USA could be trafficked, with the vast majority being girls. Portland, Oregon has become a sex trafficking capital of the United States, but Atlanta, Houston, Toledo, New York City, Washington DC, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Kansas City and Los Angeles are competitors. It's rife in every major city. According to the FBI, sex trafficking is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world.
- Trafficking humans is not limited to smuggling people across international borders. Legally, anyone bought or sold through threat, force or coercion, put into the lifestyle against their will, is a trafficked person. Anyone who has a pimp, he's a trafficker.
- Trafficking rescue, a dangerous career
- Clark was adrift and miserable after medically separated from her 10-year career in the military and she flopped about on her sofa for weeks, unsure of what to do next. She had a degree in security and intelligence with a minor in Middle Eastern studies, and studied Farsi at the Defense Language Institute in California. After six years of enlistment, she had been accepted into a Navy Intelligence Officer commissioning program and had been deployed to Qatar, where the summer temperature averages 130 degrees.After her separation, Clark was unsure what the Navy intended for her and if she needed to start a new life. Was it time for her and her soldier husband to buy a house and start a family, could she continue with the Navy or should she start a new career? She selected the sofa and in her words, ''feeling sorry for myself.''
- Her husband Jaimie, deployed in Afghanistan, suggested that she find something to occupy her time so she wouldn't be so upset about her ruptured career.
- ''So I was like gosh, if I could do anything, what would I do?'' said Clark. ''I wasn't really sure because I'd been in the military my whole life since I was 18, so I really didn't have any idea about what I could do if I could pick.''
- Clark had always been passionate about human rights and began to look at non-profit organizations. Among her explorations, she attended a fund-raiser for a Washington DC shelter for rescued minor prostitutes founded by a woman formerly trafficked as child. After learning about the organization, Clark bought the founder a drink, told her she wanted to be part of the fight and was offered the job of personal assistant.
- The former soldier began her trafficking work with only clerical duties, setting up meetings and filing papers, but the girls' stories sent her into tears, daily.
- ''My boss initially wouldn't let me interact with any of the clients because she said bursting into tears is not very helpful to them, which is true,'' said Clark.
- After six months, she began to direct client service training (the girls are called clients), and then she began to work on the hotline and in street outreach.
- For a while, Clark's husband was not OK with her choice of work and particularly uncomfortable about the DC street outreach, which is obviously dangerous. Jaimie drove her the 45 minutes from Annapolis into DC, even shadowed her as she walked ''the track,'' connecting with the young girls. All out-reach workers are required to take a self-defense class every quarter of the year to protect them from retaliation and violence, and eventually Jaimie began to instruct them.
- ''Jaimie was raised by a single mom and has several little sisters, so he's really passionate about women not being defenseless,'' said Clark. ''He teaches the outreach workers to flip him and kick him and punch him and he comes home all beaten up, but he loves it because he really wants these women to be prepared.
- He's very supportive of it now, but he's worried about my safety. He says that's what he loves about me, that I've always been very passionate about fighting for people who are oppressed, so it's something he loves about me, but it makes him nervous.''
- Q: What do you do on street outreach?
- Clarke: We went out on Friday and Saturday nights. We'd identify potential victims, potential traffickers and had outreach material that we'd try to give to the girls, but we can't obviously, if there are any pimps around or any watchers. We had to stay very situationally aware of what was going on in order not to cause problems for the girls.
- Clark:They're people that have been paid off. Often they're homeless people, because they're not particularly loyal to one thing or another. Say a pimp has six girls, they call it a ''stable,'' he can't keep his eye on all of them at the same time. So if they're out working, he'll pay a homeless guy like ten bucks to keep an eye on the girls and tell him if they're talking to anyone, what they're doing, so that the girls know they're always being watched.
- When they're working, these girls don't just stay in DC, they travel around. A pimp will have little pimp friends all around the country and they go from state to state. The girls we talk to, some are from Miami, Cincinnati, they're from everywhere, which helps divert law enforcement because you don't see the same girls all the time and it makes it harder to outreach to them because the girls are different all the time.
- Q: So they can't develop local connections either.
- Clark:Definitely not, because they live with the pimp and the other girls in ''the stable,'' which is wherever they're being held. He treats them like livestock and he tells them that they are. There's a head girl and she'll often collect money for him and kind of be his female counterpart. But the problem is these girls are fighting to be the pimp's No. 1 girl because sometimes she can sleep in the bed with him or ride in the front seat of the car. They all think they're in love with their pimp.
- This is a very American thing, not with girls from other countries. The girls I worked with from DC, they all thought their pimps were their friends, so they compete with the other women for the affection of this one man. It's a really messed-up situation.
- Q: I don't get this. Why do they think that this older man who is selling them for sex with other men is their boyfriend?
- Clark:Usually what happens is there's a runaway or a girl comes from a bad family situation, there are a lot of broken homes obviously, and the pimp will befriend them. If you or I saw this, we'd think it was incredibly inappropriate, but these are very impressionable young girls and there's a 35 year-old man talking to this 12-year-old telling her, ''Oh, you're so pretty, you're so smart,'' just filling whatever she's insecure about, building her up.
- So, inevitably when the girl gets into a fight with her parents he really fans the flame of feeling'--''He understands me, he cares about me.'' Then he'll take her out and buy her clothes, take her to dinner, courting-like rituals, and he'll coerce her to leave her house and stay with him and this is the ''honeymoon'' phase.
- Then about three or four weeks in he'll say, ''We need to make some money. We've been spending all this money and I don't have any and my friend here says if you have sex with him he'll give me 'X' money and we can pay the rent, I think you should.''
- Obviously, this girl is not okay with that because many of them are virgins in the first place. Then he arranges the ''seasoning'' period, a period of time when the girl is getting raped by however many people it takes. He'll bring her to a restaurant where he knows a bunch of people and in the kitchen, this little girl is raped by eight men in a row, things like that. Then he blames it on her, very similar to a domestic abuse situation, and he'll say, ''Why did you make me do that? I've done so much for you and I've asked only one thing and you couldn't even do that!''
- So, she's feeling that he loves her so much and she couldn't perform anything for him and that she deserved all of that. Sometimes it has to happen more than once, but eventually the girl just feels so impure and dirty that she won't even ask for help because she feels like she wouldn't be accepted back into her family because she's fallen so far from who she was. Once she's realizes that she's a prostitute now and not going back to eighth grade, she's in shock and traumatized. Then she's introduced to the stable. The girls that have been there longer usually do a lot of her training and handle logistics.
- Pimping is glamorized. People think Pretty Woman when they think prostitution, which is completely inaccurately represented. At the Washington DC library last summer, they had a ''Pimp out your library card!'' promotion. People don't know what pimping really looks like, but it's seeped into our vernacular and it's glamorized here more than in any other country.
- Clark: Usually they're removed from school, but it depends. In Atlanta, these pimps might have one residence in the inner city, but they usually also have a really nice house in a good part of town. A scary part about this is that you think you're safe because you live in the suburbs and put your kids in a good school system so they can be protected from these things. But some of these pimps will actually put some of their girls into these good public schools and use his legitimate home address. These girls attend the public high schools and they groom younger girls in the schools completely under the nose of everybody'--teachers, parents'--they just think this senior girl is befriending your freshman daughter. She might give her a present, spend time with her and eventually she's groomed right into the life.
- Q: Prostitution and pimping fills a lot of content on primetime TV and the expressions have worked into everyday language and men, boys and even suburban girls regularly refer to girls and women as ''hos'' and ''bitches.'' What do you make of that?
- Clark: My only idea of why women use those words to each other now is like how the African culture has kind of taken the ''n'' word back, so it's not offensive when they speak to each other. It's because it was such a derogatory word for such a long time. But even though we're in a post-modern, feminist age in America, we still have Puritanical roots, so to challenge a woman's purity still is a really deep offense even if she is more promiscuous. To call a woman a slut or a whore or imply any of those things like dirty or impure is still very offensive to women.
- Q: Why don't these girls jump on a bus and go back to their families and teachers?
- Clark:When you're trafficked and that young, and first of all, if you're an American, you don't even know you're trafficked. Second, you don't know if anyone's looking for you or really cares because your pimp is telling you that you're a whore and stuff.
- Q: In the USA, what's the penalty for trafficking and what's the penalty for a john?
- Clark: It's by state and it's a hot topic. The punishment is very lenient even if you get a conviction and to get a conviction you have to prove an awful lot to prove that a girl was trafficked. One of the biggest issues is getting these girls to testify. They usually suffer from Stockholm syndrome, where people who have been abused over a period of time feel attached to the perpetrator.
- The thing about trafficked girls in America is that they love their pimps. They think he's their boyfriend and that they're going to marry their pimp once they earn some arbitrary amount of money'--$120,000 I heard last time'--and they'll get married and live happily ever after. They don't understand that they're victims when we first get a hold of them and they're pissed off that you're not letting them talk to their boyfriend. They think you're holding them away from their true love and they're very upset about it, so they're definitely not testifying against him in court. Convictions are extremely rare.
- And for the johns, all they have to do is go to ''john school,'' which is this four-hour Saturday class that costs like $300. They're supposed to be learning to respect women and not buy prostitutes and if they attend john school it goes off their record. They're rarely arrested. There's still a mentality that prostitution is a victimless crime. They see a girl that's working and first of all, they think she's 18 and second, that she's there by choice and wasn't coerced or forced.
- Q: Do cops hit on these young girls too?
- Clark: Yes, it's going on. Not all police officers, but in any profession there's going to be some bad apples. A lot of times this girl is about to get arrested or she gets arrested and put in a car and he gives her the option of going to jail or not.
- Q: Is there a connection between prostitution and sporting events?
- Clark: Yes, the Super Bowl, the World Cup, any large sporting event, they have a lot of trafficked women, unfortunately, around those events. They know that's where the business will be.
- One problem with prostitution, especially in Africa and parts of Southeast Asia, is that there's more of a demand to be sure that the girls are HIV free. So the movement has been toward younger and younger girls and children to ensure that they are not infected.
- There's also a belief in South Africa and Namibia that the way to cure yourself from AIDS is to have sex with a virgin. So to make sure that she's a virgin you have men raping toddlers'--like two year-olds they will rape because they think they'll be free from AIDS. But of course, that's not how it works and now this little girl has HIV, too. Also, in South Africa, younger girls will have a sugar daddy situation with a much older man and that's how the HIV is coming into the younger population.
- Q: When you worked with child trafficking abroad, how was it different than in the USA?
- Clark: The trend I noticed the most was the way the girls are trafficked in each country. In America, generally it's coercion. Very rarely will you have a girl that's kidnapped walking home from school. It happens, but not nearly as commonly as the relationship with the pimp and the grooming.
- In Cambodia, it's so impoverished. We were teaching English to some children in Phnom Penh in the slum area and one day, one of the little girls was missing from class. We found out her brother sold her to a trafficker'--her own brother, not even her parents. What gives a brother the authority to do something like that? She was seven and he was older, maybe 12. We assumed she went to Thailand. We didn't ever find her.
- There's a lot of that in Cambodia because there's such a crushing poverty. Mom's a garbage picker and dad's high or drunk all the time and the kids can't even go to school because you have to pay to go to public school in Cambodia. They're so vulnerable, like sitting ducks.
- In Thailand, a lot of their parents were involved in it. Often these girls come from the villages and they get trafficked into the city either by an aunt or uncle or trafficker. What they do is go into villages and say, we have this great job and we're looking for young ladies to work there'--we have a new factory, or a fish company, or we need waitresses. The parents get some kind of living stipend sent back from the girls and they believe that's what their daughters are going to go do. They aren't educated people, they may be fishing people in a fishing village, so a lot of times the parents are involved.
- India was incredibly violent and you'd hear horrible stories. These girls are on a train and they wake up and all of a sudden they're in a brothel because they got drugged and just taken. There was the most snatching of girls in India of all the places I've been, and also in the surrounding countries where the girls get brought into India.
- Q: If a guy goes to a travel agency in the USA, can he get book an overseas trip for a sex tour involving minors?
- Clark: Obviously not an ethical travel agent, but there definitely are travel agencies that will book sex tours and trips, but they don't advertise. Usually these men find out about sex excursions like that from other men and use the same travel service. Men operate together, so they teach other and encourage each other in trafficking. If you can change the heart of one man, so many girls are spared.
- People still don't think that human trafficking occurs in America. They think it's something that happens to those poor little girls in Thailand, but they don't understand that it happens to poor little girls in America too.
- In America, these girls are required to make a quota every night. They'll be out on the street all night until five in the morning and they'll do in-call, out-call all day long, the Craig's List stuff, basically pimps bringing them to hotels or johns are coming to them in hotels. Some girls are minors working in strip clubs in America and they're trafficked. The clubs that usually have trafficked girls are a little bit shadier and the danger level goes up when you go into those places.
- According to prostitutes, the trend with men is that they've become incredibly violent and more perverse. As porn becomes more violent and exploitive, so have men's sexual appetites and these little prostitutes are paying for it. There's more violence, punching, hitting, bruising, making these girls bleed and that applies to children as well.
- Q: What do the rescued girls do at the shelter?
- Clark: The girls in recovery are home-schooled because they may have been out of a school for a few years and are behind. They may do art, yoga, dance or karate. They make jewelry and sell it online. They give them the freedom to be little and they try to see what it is that makes each girl come alive, encourage them to dream again.
- Trafficking is not just a women's issue, and it's not like the girls even keep any of the money. They say prostitution is the oldest profession and it's always been accepted, but I say look at William Wilberforce'--he took down the trans-Atlantic slave trade. That was totally legal and it was a very accepted part of the economy and he fought it and it became illegal within 20 years.
- It's slavery. Slavery happened since the beginning of time too, people are always going to subjugate weaker people. People do awful things to each other, but just because it's been happening for a long time doesn't make it okay. Just because there are women who are always being sold doesn't make it an acceptable thing to do with a human being.
- The Protection Project: Johns Hopkins University
- Trafficking in Persons Report: U.S. Department of State
- Shared Hope International
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- Sex trafficking targets children in Washington '-- RT USA
- Published time: March 04, 2011 21:55Edited time: March 05, 2011 02:01America is quick to condemn other nations for the sexual exploitation of girls, when in fact it occurs daily in the United States '' many times right under the noses of powerful politicians.
- Contrary to popular sentiment across the United States, the sexual exploitation of children does not only take place in developing nations.
- The trafficking of minors is a big moneymaker '' even in the United States. It is the third highest profit driver among organized crime in the US. Often, American teens and children are recruited in public areas, such as malls, entertainment centers, theaters, and even in their schools.
- Tina Frundt, the founder and executive director of Courtney's House, a non-profit organization that helps girls and women who have been victims of human or sex trafficking said many in the US believe there are lots of laws which protect trafficked children, when in reality there are not. In many cases children are penalized for actions they had no ability to consent to or escape from.
- Frundt, a victim of sex trafficking herself, explained the trade in Washington is nothing new; it has been ongoing for over 50 years.
- ''It has always been trafficking controlled. It didn't go away, the crime just got bigger,'' she said.
- Numerous types of men take part in the trade, from lobbyists, to businessmen and possible even congressmen may be involved.
- Frundt explained there needs to be more education for children regarding the dangers and the involvement of younger girls with older men.
- ''How it usually happens is a pedophile manipulates a child,'' she explained.
- There needs to be greater information available so children can protect themselves from these dangers, and greater laws need to be in place to aid in protecting children. Laws need to be enacted to better charge traffickers; including adding known traffickers to the sex offended lists. Right now, they are not. Instead the incidents are labeled prostitutes and the children and adult victims are ignored by the system.
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- Stephanie Chapman of Fairfax, Va convicted of sex trafficking a child | wusa9.com
- ALEXANDRIA, Va. (WUSA9) -- Authorities say a 28-year-old woman was convicted on Thursday on charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a child, sex trafficking of a child, and interstate transportation of a minor for the purposes of prostitution.
- A federal jury convicted Stephanie Chapman of Fairfax, Va., who now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, with a mandatory minimum term of 10 years of imprisonment. She is set to be sentenced on January 24, 2014.
- According to authorities, Chapman was indicted on July 11, 2013. Court records and evidence at trial revealed that between February 27, 2013 and March 12, 2013, Chapman and her boyfriend, Ronnie Holmes, met a 15-year-old girl and recruited her to be a prostitute for them. Authorities say Chapman and Holmes took sexually suggestive photographs of the girl, sent them to potential customers, and posted them on Backpage.com. They then drove the girl to meet customers at locations in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. After the girl had sex with the customers, Chapman and Holmes took half of the money, according to records.
- Ronnie Holmes previously pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a child.
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- Lawmakers, groups use Super Bowl to flag sex traffic scourge - Yahoo Sports
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- League:NFLSeattle vs. DenverSun6:30 PMSEADENView All
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- Turkey
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- According to sources:
- Erdogan was moving too fast with the Islamification, Gülen wants to slow it all down
- move it through the 'veins' slowly
- Financial attack to bring it down a notch
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- Turkey Raises Rates Sharply to Bolster Lira - WSJ.com
- Updated Jan. 28, 2014 7:01 p.m. ET
- ISTANBUL'--Turkey's central bank on Tuesday unveiled a series of aggressive interest rate increases, far exceeding market expectations and sending the lira roaring back after an extraordinary policy meeting billed as a test case for under-pressure emerging markets.
- The bank raised its overnight lending rate to 12% from 7.75%, raised its one-week repo rate to 10% from 4.5% and raised its overnight borrowing rate to 8% from 3.5%. The overnight lending in the late liquidity window'--the highest rate charged to Turkish banks if...
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- Emerging markets: Black Wednesday in Ankara? | The Economist
- THE rot has not been stopped. Last week, it seemed as if the Turkish authorities were in denial. Inflation was too high, the current account deficit was too wide but the central bank failed to push up interest rates; the lira was sinking. But the bank acted decisively last night, pushing the rate on 7-day repos to 10% (from a theoretical 5.25%) and overnight rates by more than four percentage points. The initial reaction was positive, with the lira rebounding and Asian equity markets moving higher.
- But the initial reaction was short-lived and the Turkish lira is now lower than it was before the move. My mind is inevitably drawn back to Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), when the British authorities raised rates by five percentage points in a matter of hours in a doomed effort to keep the pound within the Exchange Rate Mechanism. I was in a bank dealing room when the second rate rise was announced and was a bit surprised to see equity markets rally; the explanation from dealers was that the policy was so self-evidently bad for the economy that it would never be sustained. Their cynicism was right; by the end of the day, the rate rise was cancelled and Britain dropped out of the ERM. The reputation of the then Conservative government did not recover but the economy did; some dubbed the day "White Wednesday" in consequence.
- Turkey has no exchange rate peg to manage, so it doesn't have the automatic escape route Britain had back in 1992. The problem then was that British policy was too tight; Turkish policy has not been tight enough. Citibank comments that
- In a rising US rates environment (which most still subscribe to), emerging markets need to have real rates of 5% plus or so, at least when it comes to the ones that have current account deficits to finance. Otherwise, they will just not be able to attract the necessary inflows to fund such current account positions, and, on the contrary, see outflows from existing fixed income positions built up over the last years. The need for high rates is even more clear, if there is basically an absence of growth, making equity flows less likely, too. At 10% interest rates, with 7.4% inflation, real rates in Turkey are still less than 3% real rates, for example.
- Indeed, Black Wednesday seems a rather more appropriate term this time since the sharp rise in rates may damage the financial sector and the rest of the economy without stabilising the currency. This is a problem if an economy gets used to very low rates; debts are taken out on the assumption that such rates will be in place for good. When it comes to tightening policy, the central bank risks doing a lot of damage. Of course, the same argument applies across the developed world; one reason why central banks will be so hesitant before they announce the first rate rise of the next cycle.
- As for the rest of the world's markets, there was a slight perversity in the initial reaction; since when have massive rate hikes been good news? Emerging markets seem to be in tightening mode; South Africa pushed up rates by half a point today (without boosting the rand) and India raised rates by a quarter-point yesterday (a move that did help the rupee).
- This tightening may be the delayed response to previous policy failures. Shweta Singh of Lombard Street Research comments that
- Many emerging markets, largely the deficit EMs, are battling uncomfortably high inflation even as growth continues to moderate well below trend. Our analysis shows that the supply side bottlenecks are the main culprit. Easy external liquidity conditions and populist fiscal policies have kept domestic demand artificially supported. Deteriorating current account balances reiterate this mismatch. In a scenario of risk aversion, a strong US$ and higher real US yields, deficit EMs may see further weakness in the currency, adding to inflationary pressures and necessitating further domestic demand compression. A weaker currency may help competiveness in the longer term, but not without causing pain in the short run
- It doesn't seem that long ago that emerging markets were claiming the US was indulging in "currency wars" by keeping rates near zero and indulging in QE, but they don't seem that happy with tapering and a stronger dollar either.
- PreviousDebt: Capacity to pay
- NextThe euro zone: Where has all the money gone?
- I was talking about tapering with a banker friend of mine last week and he informed me of the primary challenge banks face with tapering: their current assets will still be issuing the same percentages even as rates go up.
- In other words, bonds don't quicken their maturities just because interest rates rise. It takes time for financial institutions to adjust their portfolios when rates and inflation rise and fall.
- So, in the current environment of expectations that rates will rise, bankers and investors are looking for bigger returns. And they have already decided that Turkey's real returns on investment are too low, despite the large and sudden rate increases.
- This is because Turkey's problem isn't an overheating domestic economy, it is uninterested international investors. This makes a statement about the imbalance of Turkey's economy- too tilted towards foreign investment at the expense of domestic demand.
- Yet these imbalances take years to properly address. In the short run, Turkey's economy is all about international investors, and they aren't buying what Turkey is selling.
- If investors remain uninterested in Turkish assets, this acts as a booster to inflation as the economy naturally slows from the higher rates. Sure, Turkey's central bank could attempt to boost growth by slashing rates, but wasn't that the problem to begin with?
- And, given its importance to international investment during the past decade, a Turkey with too low real returns, high inflation, and low growth might well act as a symbol of investor perception about troubles with emerging markets, and dimly decide they are best avoided all together.
- This would be a mistake. There are great people with great ideas running world-class organizations in the rough and tumble emerging markets, and they could use some loans.
- So, investors and other elitist fat cats running the world, remain rationally clear-headed and do your homework from start to finish. Given the markets overall reaction in the past 10 days, I believe investors are doing just that.
- So, Masters of the Universe, good job from not making a sell-off into a panic! (Up to now...)
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- Turkish forces 'strike ISIL convoy in Syria' - Al Jazeera English
- Turkish forces 'strike ISIL convoy in Syria'
- Last updated: 16 hours ago
- Army attacks al-Qaeda-linked rebel convoy in Syria in retaliation for cross-border fire, local media reports.The Turkish armed forces attacked a convoy of al-Qaeda-linked rebel vehicles in Syria in retaliation for cross-border fire on Tuesday, destroying three vehicles, Turkish media said.
- Turkish troops opened fire on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions in northern Syria after a mortar shell fired from Syria landed in Turkish territory during clashes between ISIL and the Free Syrian Army, broadcaster NTV reported.
- It said a pick-up truck, a lorry and a bus were destroyed in the Turkish retaliation on Tuesday evening.
- There were no reports of casualties and NTV did not say exactly where along the border the attack occurred.
- Turkish newspaper Todays Zaman retracted a report that claimed that Turkish fighter jets had hit the ISIL convoy in northern Syria.
- The initial report said that Turkish F-16s had struck a number of ISIL vehicles "after militants opened fire on a military outpost" on the Turkey-Syria border on Wednesday.
- NTV did not mention involvement of the Turkish air force.
- Turkish media have cited a two-day escalation in hostilities between the sides, but the Turkish military has only retaliated with tanks and artillery fire.
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- Turkije en Iran gaan samenwerken in Syri
- Iran en Turkije gaan samen een humanitaire hulpactie opzetten voor Syri. Dat liet de Iraanse president Hassan Rohani weten na een gesprek met de Turkse premier Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan. Die is woensdag in Iran aangekomen om vooral de zakelijke banden tussen de landen aan te halen. ''Humanitaire hulp van beide landen, zeker in de wintertijd, kan tenminste delen van het probleem van het Syrische volk oplossen'', aldus Rohani. De Iraanse president zei er niet bij waaruit die hulp zal bestaan. Volgens het kantoor van de president heeft ErdoÄan ook laten weten bereid te zijn samen met Iran ten strijde te trekken tegen terreurgroepen in de regio.
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- 'Turkse straaljagers vallen jihadisten aan'
- Gevechtsvliegtuigen van de Turkse luchtmacht hebben een konvooi van de extremistische Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) aangevallen in het noorden van Syri. Dat blijkt volgens de Turkse krant Today's Zaman woensdag uit een verklaring van de Turkse strijdkrachten.
- De Turkse militairen zouden een aantal voertuigen van de aan het terreurnetwerk al-Qaeda gelieerde Syrische groepering hebben aangevallen. Aanleiding voor de actie was een vuurgevecht bij een Turkse grenspost op de Turks-Syrische grens eerder woensdag. Onbekend is of er slachtoffers zijn gevallen.
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- SOCAR to commission oil refinery in Turkey in 2017 - AzerNews
- Star oil refinery of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, which is under construction in Turkey's Izmir city, will be operational in 2017.
- The news was announced by SOCAR's vice-president for refining David Mammadov in his recent interview with SOCAR Plus journal, Trend Agency reported.
- He noted that SOCAR Turkey Enerji has acquired some 62 percent share in the Turkish Petkim petrochemical complex since 2008;. The complex is composed of factories for production of high and low density polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, acrylonitrile, ethylene glycol, purified acids, aromatic hydrocarbons, ethylene, propylene, hypochlorite, vinyl chloride monomer, phthalic anhydride, terephthalic acid, and other products.
- The holding has a leading position in Turkey's petrochemical products market, and SOCAR takes sequential steps for developing its petrochemical assets, he said.
- "The construction of a new Star refinery with an annual capacity of 10 million tons has started in order to optimize demand for raw materials and reduce the amount of fuel imported to Turkey. The refinery is planned to start operation in 2017," Mammadov noted.
- The Star refinery will be capable of refining oil grades such as Azeri Light, Kirkuk, and Urals.
- Some 16 billion cubic meters of gas will be produced in the Shah Deniz Stage 2 development and exported to energy markets. This figure will be increased by one billion cubic meters per year.
- Estimated at $5.5 billion, the refinery is mostly intended for creating a resource base for the chemical company Petkim Holding. It will contribute significantly to the region and country's economy by creating job opportunities and increasing competitiveness.
- SOCAR to increase number of gas stations in Romania
- CEO of SOCAR Romania Hamza Karimov said in an interview with SOCAR Plus journal that the number of gas stations, operating under the SOCAR brand in Romania, will increase to 100.
- He noted that 20 gas stations are currently operating in Romania under the SOCAR brand.
- "One of the main tasks ahead of us is to bring the number of gas stations to 100, thus covering the entire territory of Romania," Karimov said.
- SOCAR entered the Romanian market in 2011 by acquiring a 90 percent share in Romanian Romtranspetrol, owned at the time by Iulian and Doina Berescu.
- SOCAR is the only producer of oil products and has two refineries on its balance sheet. It also has automatic gas stations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania, and Switzerland.
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- POLITICS - Turkish PM Erdogan slams media, investors, opposition
- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan speaks during the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) group meeting in Ankara, Jan 28. AA photo
- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan has slammed what he called ''the losers' lobby'' '' local and international media, business groups, investors, opposition parties and the Fethullah G¼len movement '' accusing them of targeting the Turkish economy and people in a bid to overthrow the government.''Smear campaigns against Turkey have mostly been carried out by some circles inside Turkey. Certain media groups, some businessmen and business organizations, some civil society organizations and even the main opposition party and other political parties have unfortunately taken the task of smearing their own country and economy,'' ErdoÄan told lawmakers from his Justice and Development Party (AKP) at a parliamentary group meeting on Jan. 28.
- The group is not just targeting the government and its policies but the entire Turkish economy, ErdoÄan said, calling the move a ''treasonous plan'' aiming at tarnishing the credibility of the government.
- He repeated his earlier accusations of treachery against the Turkish Industry and Business Association (T'SÄ°AD), saying conducting such a smear campaign against one's own country would be regarded as an act of betrayal in every part of the world.
- With the fight between ErdoÄan and G¼len becoming bitterer, the statements coming from each side are also increasing in venom. G¼len recently gave two comprehensive interviews to leading international media, the BBC and the Wall Street Journal, amid the ongoing corruption and graft operation engulfing some of ErdoÄan's ministers and his close circles, including his own son.
- The BBC and the Wall Street Journal have also borne the brunt of ErdoÄan's criticisms, with the Turkish leader turning the clock back to the 1930s to hint that they were part of Jewish capital.
- ''Who are the bosses of these newspapers? They recently did the same thing in England and [British Prime Minister David] Cameron immediately shut down newspapers. Then they have started to hit from America. The same mentality. We should know this mentality. With whom are they moving? Who are their partners?'' asked ErdoÄan.
- Arguing that the country's top business leaders had never been audited in the past and that they started to voice their unease when such auditing processes began, ErdoÄan signaled that big holdings would be subjected to financial inspection.
- Dismissing arguments that the government was threatening big capital through audits, ErdoÄan said: ''We have no any plans to intimidate big capital. What we tell big capital is to be sincere and work properly. Informing against your own country'... Forget about it. Do your work properly. We'll give assessments on you as long as you do your work properly. If not, we have things to do.''
- Those who are trying to portray the AKP as corrupt are holding secret talks to replace the government with another one that would not disturb them, ErdoÄan said.
- ''The upcoming elections are local elections. You won't get the results you are expecting. The AK Parti will win elections to enlighten the country. We will all stand firm. We will have more solidarity. The March 30 elections will mark a turning point for Turkey, for democracy and the national will,'' he said.It's not important which candidate wins the elections but which party will win, ErdoÄan said.
- ''[This is] because each municipality the AKP wins will have a meaning, because the losers' lobby will get another blow from the people. Then there will be no obstacle before Turkey and its democracy and the resolution [of the Kurdish question]. We will take more democratization steps and make more reforms,'' he said.
- 'Islam is no one's exclusive possession'
- ErdoÄan also criticized the G¼len movement without directly mentioning it by name, accusing the movement of ''being hostile to its own country'' and attempting ''to steal the national will.''
- ''Islam is no one's exclusive possession. Concepts such as serving and raising students are humanitarian concepts,'' ErdoÄan said. ''Despite many of our sincere brothers, who have started with the love of service, the organization has preferred to become a tool for Turkey's enemies.''
- The prime minister said lies targeting him and his party were being distributed around Anatolia. ''The biggest theft is the theft of the national will,'' he said. ''Those who attacked the national will on Dec. 17 [2013] with their fanatics within the judiciary cannot track corruption. They cannot fling the dirt of corruption at us. The losers of the 'old Turkey' are singing the tune of corruption as a choir. If you want to see corruption, go look in the mirror.''
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- Chicago Tribune gunfire in local Istanbul elections
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- British Embassy says 'puzzled' by Erdogan remark on newspaper closure
- Latest HeadlinesTR_ISTA - 28.01.2014 18:31:20Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan said on Tuesday that British Premier David Cameron has ordered the closure of a newspaper, a statement that startled observers as well as the British Embassy in Ankara.
- ErdoÄan was reacting to a supporter who reminded him of a BBC interview with Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah G¼len during a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) at Parliament. G¼len's BBC interview followed an earlier interview with The Wall Street Journal.
- ''Is it just BBC? The Wall Street Journal [as well]. Who are the owners of these? They have done the same thing in Britain, too, and Cameron has immediately closed down their newspaper. Now they have begun to strike from the US,'' ErdoÄan said.
- ''We are puzzled by Prime Minister ErdoÄan's remarks,'' said an official from the British Embassy, explaining that his statement might have been a result of a misunderstanding because Cameron has never closed down any newspaper.
- It was not clear what ErdoÄan was referring to, but media reports have speculated that he might have in mind the closure of Rupert Murdoch mass-selling tabloid News of the World. Murdoch closed down the tabloid after it was accused of hacking into the mobile phones of crime victims, celebrities and politicians.
- ErdoÄan has accused members of G¼len's Hizmet movement of conspiring against his government in the wake of a corruption scandal that went under way with a wave of detentions on Dec. 17, which included sons of three former government ministers.
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- The Kurds' Dangerous Game in Turkey
- Under different circumstances, it would be a sign of great hope to witness an alliance between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Kurdish political movement. Since the Kurdish issue has always been an important aspect of democratization, any possibility of reconciliation with the government would promise a great chance for the democratization of Turkey's politics. Alas, nowadays, the tacit alliance between the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) jailed leader, Abdullah calan, and the government presents more of a risk of further complicating the present political crisis than anything else.
- It is perfectly understandable that Kurds do not want a confrontation with the government since it could endanger "the peace processes." Indeed, Kurds paid a very high price over the decades to come to this point, and they do not want to miss this chance by getting involved in the recent fight within the governing coalition of conservatives. Moreover, they are alarmed by the prospect of the victory of the more nationalist political actors against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and his party. After all, the G¼len movement is known to be critical of the latest negotiations with calan, one of the opposition parties is the ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the other, so-called social democrat Republican People's Party (CHP), does not promise any hope for a solution to the Kurdish issue. Kurds rightly think that if Erdo?an loses power, there may be a nationalist rise; that is why they have been considering supporting Erdo?an so that he emerges from the crisis in return for an improvement in the peace talks.
- Nevertheless, it is a major miscalculation for more than one reason. First, it cannot avoid appearing like the acceptance of an "indecent proposal" to give a hand to the PM to whitewash not only the corruption probes, but also his autocratic responses in the face of allegations. I do not know if it will work or fail, but in the end, such an alliance will result in the Kurdish political movement losing legitimacy in the struggle for democratization and will strip it of moral superiority. Leaving aside the more critical voices, even those democrats and left-liberals who have supported the Kurdish movement all the way have started to express disenchantment with Kurdish politics, as a result of the possibility of such an indecent alliance. As Turkey is sliding toward a more authoritarian regime, it becomes more and more difficult for the democrats to approve of the Kurdish political calculations.
- Second, such an alliance has less chance of working than failing, since the AKP will be very cautious not to be seen in such an alliance to avoid nationalist criticism and will not deliver much in terms of the peace process. Besides, the peace process which has been restricted to Turkish intelligence so far and does not seem likely to go beyond it in the short run. Kurds and their leader may need to wait longer to be acknowledged as legitimate actors in serious political negotiations. Besides, under the circumstances, the process may start to be increasingly seen as the Kurds' contribution to the rise of an "intelligence state" in Turkey.
- It is true that, the Kurdish party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), is careful to be equally critical of both sides who are fighting with each other, namely the G¼len movement and the government. Nevertheless, calan and the BDP did not hesitate to define the whole affair as a "coup" attempt against the government from the beginning. Moreover, they agreed with the government that there is a "global plot" against the government and named "London-based capitalist circles, the Chicago circle, the Jewish lobby and Armenian and Greek nationalists" as major actors in the worldwide conspiracy. In fact, this is the most painful aspect of the disappointment with the Kurdish political discourse on behalf of many democrats in Turkey. It seems that, at the end of the day, Turkish conspiratorialism has met its Kurdish counterpart to enforce authoritarian politics in the country.
- Finally, apart from the matters of principle, it is a big miscalculation on behalf of Kurds to invest their hopes in the governing party, since it has lost enormous legitimacy on the domestic, regional and international fronts. Kurdish peace is a regional and even an international issue, as well as a domestic one, and no political government suffering from all the weaknesses that the AKP is suffering can afford to get involved in such a serious problem, let alone solve it.
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- Turkey Internet activists warn the government 'cannot stop us' | Sci-Tech | DW.DE | 27.01.2014
- Net activists in Turkey say a proposed law to tighten censorship online won't stop them. The move to block websites comes as the government faces high legal corruption allegations.
- Turkey's largest city Istanbul has again seen riot police clash with protestors. This month the protesters have been demonstrating against government legislation that's going through parliament to tighten state control over the Internet.
- Turkey has some of the tightest controls in the world.
- And the scene is not unknown in Istanbul. Istanbul's city centre became a battleground, with police using water cannon and tear gas to disperse protestors.
- The proposed legislation would enable the government to impose further controls over the Internet, including empowering ministers to block websites.
- Lawyer Selen Kaledelen of the Korsan website, which campaigns for freedom of information, says the new Internet crackdown is a crude attempt by the government to stifle allegations of high-level government corruption.
- "I'm not shocked because I saw it coming. Amid the government corruption allegations, this law would allow authorities just to block websites, like citizen journalism Naber Media or others, within four hours," says Kaledelen. "So for me it's dictatorship of the authorities in terms of law. It's a censorship law and we don't recognize it."
- For the past month, Turkish media has been filled with reports of the government purging thousands of police officers and prosecutors following judicial probes into high level government graft.
- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the focal point of people's anger
- With the probes all but shut down, critics accuse the government of seeking to prevent any further - potentially embarrassing - leaking of information on the Net.
- Under the new legislation, Internet providers would face greater government control and be compelled to keep users' information. Keyword searches could also be blocked.
- Political analyst Cengiz Aktar of the Istanbul Policy Forum says the proposed law is the latest nail in the coffin of "already ailing Internet freedom in Turkey.
- "The law of 2007 is already very restrictive," says Aktar. "Turkey is one of the worst countries in terms of Internet freedom even now. We will see how far it will go. It's always very difficult to cut all links with the world to make Turkey something which would look like North Korea, but these are desperate moves by the government."
- However, government spokesman Huseyin Celik dismisses such concerns, saying the proposed law aims to protect the family and privacy.
- "Turkey is not China and will never be like China in this manner. Don't we all agree that we need some laws for social media and Internet media?" asks Celik. "These can be regulations based on world standards anywhere in the world."
- Under the existing legislation, Turkish courts have blocked more than 40,000 websites. That's one of the highest figures in the world.
- Popular sites such as YouTube were banned for several years.
- The information is out there
- But Law Professor and expert on cyber freedoms, Yaman Akdeniz of Istanbul's Bilgi University, questions the effectiveness of such controls.
- Turkey is heading into an 18 month election period, which some fear will be fought on the streets
- Akdeniz says the banning of popular websites have turned Turks into "net savvy" people. As in China, many people in Turkey have found ways to get around the blocks.
- "Turkish people have become very knowledgeable about the Internet since YouTube was blocked," explains Akdeniz. "Everybody knows what a proxy is and everybody knows how to change their DNS [Domain Name System] numbers on their computer. And so the new measures also include blocking access to alternative measures such as proxy websites. But if people want to access information, you will not be able to stop them as long as they know the information is out there."
- With the government enjoying a large majority in parliament, it's expected the Internet legislation will become law.
- Lawyer Selen Kaledelen says she'll stay on the front line of this increasingly bitter battle and fight what could become a government "cyber army."
- "I don't think they will succeed. People like us will talk, and it's not just about government corruption, it can be any case." Says Kaledelen. "So we will have additional routes and roads to communicate in the future, they can't stop us. But maybe they can build their own cyber army, because they are doing that, they are hiring some computer scientists, or coders and hackers. They are building their own crew."
- Turkey's mainstream media is under increasing government pressure. So the Internet, with its citizen journalists and alternative news sites, remains one of the last sources of independent information.
- And this is a critical time for the country.
- Turkey is entering an 18 month election period and the outcome of the battle over Internet freedom could have far reaching consequences.
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- Turkey's Halkbank seen continuing to handle Iran oil payments - U.S.
- Turkey's Halkbank seen continuing to handle Iran oil payments - U.S.Top News
- Turkey's Halkbank seen continuing to handle Iran oil payments - U.S.
- ANKARA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Turkey's state-owned Halkbank is expected to continue processing payments for Iranian oil imports to Turkey, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen said on Monday.
- "Halkbank has for some time been involved in handling oil payments for importing oil from Iran into Turkey and we expect that to continue," David Cohen, Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence told reporters.
- "We talked more broadly about sanctions ... on the banking sector so that there is good clarity on the scope of sanctions that remain in effect," Cohen said after his meeting with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu.
- An interim deal between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - known as the P5+1 - came into force last week, granting Iran a limited easing of sanctions in return for temporary constraints on its uranium enrichment and nuclear development.
- (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, Writing by Humeyra Pamuk)
- Turkey's Halkbank seen continuing to handle Iran oil payments - U.S.Top News
- Turkey's Halkbank seen continuing to handle Iran oil payments - U.S.
- ANKARA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Turkey's state-owned Halkbank is expected to continue processing payments for Iranian oil imports to Turkey, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen said on Monday.
- "Halkbank has for some time been involved in handling oil payments for importing oil from Iran into Turkey and we expect that to continue," David Cohen, Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence told reporters.
- "We talked more broadly about sanctions ... on the banking sector so that there is good clarity on the scope of sanctions that remain in effect," Cohen said after his meeting with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu.
- An interim deal between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - known as the P5+1 - came into force last week, granting Iran a limited easing of sanctions in return for temporary constraints on its uranium enrichment and nuclear development.
- (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz, Writing by Humeyra Pamuk)
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- POLITICS - 'Washington has no interest in using Gulen against AKP,' head of American-Turkish Council says
- ISTANBUL - H¼rriyet Daily News
- Although relations between Washington and Ankara are not at their best, the assertion that the US does not want Turkey to be successful is nonsense, says a former US envoy. US investors continue to have long-term confidence in the Turkish economy, according to James Holmes, the head of American-Turkish Council.Both Ankara and Washington suffer from disillusionment on different subjects, says former US envoy to Ankara James Holmes while explaining the recent strains in bilateral relations. H'RRÄ°YET photo, Levent KULU
- The United States has no desire to use Fethullah G¼len, a Turkish Muslim scholar who lives in self-imposed exile in America, as a tool against Ankara, said James Holmes,who is currently the president of the American-Turkish Council.Ties between Ankara and Turkey might be on the frosty side, but Turkey continues to be an important ally for the U.S., according to Holmes.There is a general conviction in Turkey that somewhere in the U.S., a button has been pushed to weaken Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan and his government.
- This is an impossible view. I met with a group of parliamentarians in Ankara recently; their very first sentence was that Fethullah G¼len lives in Pennsylvania '' as though by asserting that, the U.S. government has responsibility for what G¼len does.
- My impression is that many Turks '' certainly not all '' use this as a way of rational explanation for something which they can otherwise not figure out. They need to understand that some things happen in Turkey because Turks do it, not because somebody else did it to them. This is clear case of Turks at sixes and sevens with each other; the activities going on which are very much the body and consequences of Turks against Turks rather than somebody else from outside pushing a button. I have to reject the notion that the U.S. is behind this.
- I am fascinated by the fact that most stories start with ''U.S.-based G¼len.'' It is almost an adjective associated with him. This is a fact of life that he lives there. The U.S. has absolutely no interest in using G¼len against the interests of the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] or PM ErdoÄan.
- The worse thing is the assertion that the U.S. does not want Turkey to be successful. This is nonsense. Look at the Istanbul stock exchange. [Around] 65 to 70 percent of the Istanbul stock exchange [is in the hands of] foreigners, and a lot of it is from American investors. Why would American investors want to continue [to invest] '' and they do continue to invest? Why would they want to continue to invest if they wanted it to fail? Turkey was, is and continues to be a valuable ally to the United States.Many think the G¼len movement could not have become so strong had the U.S. not supported it, as it suited the U.S. policy of supporting moderate Islam.
- I don't think the U.S. as a matter of policy has ever felt it needed to have G¼len in order to carry out its policy objectives. It is big enough to carry out its policy objectives without relying on a particular individual or movement. G¼len came to the U.S. at the end of the 1990s; he holds a green card. As long as he does not violate the laws, he can live in the U.S. He has got his own presence, his own equities, his own interests in U.S., which are being conducted on behalf of his community, which provides him with reasons to stay there. U.S. authorities are familiar with him in terms of charter school activities, and they are constantly engaging with local educational authorities. There have been instances of visa and education fraud, and his organization is thoroughly investigated, and they don't come up with crimes. These fears and allegations are overwhelmingly fabricated in a way that has much to do with domestic policy in Turkey.
- How does Washington view the G¼len movement?
- My impression is that their attitude is benign.
- Yet as a superpower, the U.S. certainly uses every tool available to it.
- I don't think he fits into that category at all '' meaning a useful instrument for U.S. policy. I don't believe U.S. policy has come to the conclusion it wants to use the G¼len movement in terms of the outreach of Islam around the world.
- Then how are the developments seen from Washington?
- Although there is certainly a number of Turks who wish to hate the U.S., I believe that Turks overwhelmingly regard the relationship with the U.S. as valuable and valid. I am optimistic that even when you go through bad patches, there will be a point in time in which it will turn and will turn in a way which the validity and importance of relationship is reiterated and you move on from there.
- Right now, we are at a point which I won't say is at the peak. The astonishing thing is that seven months ago we were talking about the excellent relationship between the U.S. and Turkey '' perhaps the best that it had been in 20 years; that was the vocabulary used when the prime minister was in Washington in May.
- Within these few months, it has become a more difficult relationship '' one where we need to be prepared as businesspeople to emphasize the importance of protecting the relationship. The investor community has not panicked; they are not saying I am out of here. There is a cautious wait-and-see attitude.
- If you ask the question in Washington and Ankara, you will have different answers. What happened is disillusionment probably on both sides. As far as Turkey is concerned, there is disillusionment with respect to Syria, with respect to the request for the setting up of a parallel negotiating track for free-trade negotiations between the U.S. and the EU.
- From Washington's perspective, it really began to turn with the [September 2013] decision to buy the high-altitude air-defense system from China. That was the dominant mystification in the relationship.
- Then there was a pretty sharp exchange with the publication of a story that the U.S. is behind this; that really spelt out Washington's concern, which continues to this day, that Turkey needs to take responsibility for its own actions rather than attributing everything that goes wrong in the country to the hidden hand of somebody else, namely the U.S.
- The fact that relations are not exactly at their best is the reason why the U.S. is suspected of looking for an alternative to the current government.
- You can't beat something with nothing. You are imputing a capability to G¼len or to the opposition parties, which certainly has not yet been manifested in terms of the politics of Turkey. I hear that Hizmet [the G¼len Movement] might control 5 to 6 percent of the popular vote. On local elections, I hear with all else going on that the AK Party continues to have a sizable popular vote lead. If we were intent on [making] these kinds of efforts to unseat the existing government, I wish we could pick somebody who has the chance of being the winner. I don't see that being the case. Why would the U.S. take the risk of backing a lame horse?
- Don't you think that the government is convinced that the U.S. is behind these developments?
- It is possible that the PM is advised by some people and he may have read stories, but I don't believe he believes that now. I don't think he sees that as a rational explanation for this.
- I think it has to do with where you find ways to be successful in a campaign environment with your core constituency. And that's certainly the explanation Washington finds for this; it is domestic politics at a highly heated campaign time.
- Will the AKP remain the main interlocutor in the eyes of Washington?
- [Yes], but this is fundamentally the choice Turks are making. It is simply the way we see local politics for this season and also probably for the parliamentary elections. There continues to be strong support [from Turks for the AKP].
- How come U.S. investors are not panicking?
- It is interesting, but it is also reaffirming; it says U.S. investors are long-term investors; they look at Turkey in terms of long-term growth and its potential for the next 10 years. U.S. investors are prepared to say, ''OK, in bilateral ties, there have been cycles, but in the long term, we expect there to be good progress, a stable government and an ability for investors to get solid returns.''
- What makes them think like that?
- One; the confidence that the government won't suddenly move against their economic interests; two, they can repatriate their money when they wish to; three, there is a condition of economic law which they can rely upon. The last one is a bit shaky; it constitutes some of the element of risk; but that's been priced into their investment decision already. I don't think they see what's going on now as a dramatic shift in terms of the risk which they had already assessed at the time they made the investment.
- There are other positive developments.Turkey for three decades has had the overwhelming burden of a civil war with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]. For 12 months now, we have had a democracy initiative and a cease-fire, which is holding. Certainly 12 months of this sort of durability for the initiative has the chance of creating a new normal in Turkey. That is the most positive thing that has happened in the last three decades.
- Ambassador James Holmes (Ret.) is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the American-Turkish Council, a bilateral, non-profit organization dedicated to the strengthening of U.S.-Turkish trade, investment, defense and cultural relations, and to the promotion of awareness and understanding of U.S.-Turkish issues.
- Ambassador Holmes is a 37-year veteran of the United States Foreign Service with overseas experience in Latvia, Turkey, Norway, New Zealand and Pakistan. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Ankara, Turkey from 1992-1995.Subsequently, he was the President's Coordinator for Assistance to Central and Eastern Europe, Ambassador to Latvia, Special Envoy for the Balkans, founder of the Department of State's Office of eDiplomacy, and the Department's Chief Knowledge Officer and Deputy Chief Information Officer.
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- Turkse premier naar Teheran om banden met Iran te versterken
- Foto: (C) Reuters. Hassan Rohani.De Turkse premier Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan brengt op 28 januari een tweedaagse officile bezoek aan Teheran om, voor het eerst, in gesprek te gaan met de onlangs aan de macht gekomen Iraanse president Hassan Rohani.
- Volgens deskundigen zal ErdoÄans bezoek zich waarschijnlijk voornamelijk richten op de ondertekening van een strategische samenwerkingsovereenkomst tussen Iran en Turkije.
- ''Turkije heeft strategische samenwerkingsovereenkomsten gesloten met veel buurlanden, maar het sluiten van zo'n overeenkomst met Iran is nooit eerder besproken. Het laat zien dat zich nauwere banden ontwikkelen tussen de twee landen'', zei Iran-deskundige Bayram Sinkaya van de Yıldırım Beyazıt Universiteit in Ankara vandaag in een gesprek met Today's Zaman.
- De Turkse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Ahmet DavutoÄlu zei vorige maand dat Turkije ernaar streeft om nauwere banden te ontwikkelen met Iran. Volgens het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken zal Rohani vlak na ErdoÄans bezoek aan Iran, in februari een officile bezoek brengen aan Turkije.
- In maart 2012 werd een geplande ontmoeting tussen ErdoÄan en de voormalige Iraanse president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opgeschort, te midden groeiende spanningen tussen Turkije en Iran in verband met afwijkende opvattingen over de burgeroorlog in Syri. De Iraanse autoriteiten lieten weten dat Ahmadinejad last had van een gastro-intestinale bloeding. ErdoÄan arriveerde in Teheran vergezeld door een grote delegatie van ministers en functionarissen om in gesprek te gaan over het versterken van economische banden, de burgeroorlog in Syri en het nucleaire programma van Iran, maar Ahmadinejad liet meer dan 24 uur op zich wachten.
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- Syria
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- Barack Obama and King Abdullah II to meet at Sunnylands | The Desert Sun | mydesert.com
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- EA WorldView - Home - Syria WikiLeaks Special: How the US Government "Supported Opposition Groups" (and for How Long?)
- Craig Whitlock, writing in The Washington Post, declares, "US Secretly Backed Syrian Opposition Groups, Cables Released by WikiLeaks Show".
- It is a provocative article, but it only goes so far. When you read it alongside the WikiLeaks cables that it mentions, vital questions emerge, both about the specific case of Syria and about the many cases beyond. What does this story say about the relationship --- past and present --- between the US Government and private groups? What it say about the distinction between support of "civil society" and support of movements to challenge and even topple regimes?
- See also Syria WikiLeaks Document: The US Government Support of Opposition Groups, Civil Society, and Human Rights (April 2009)
- Whitlock's account is useful in description of US-backed initiatives up to 2009, but he does not really take on the significance of the April 2009 report from US diplomats in Damascus that not only put a question mark over US-funded efforts, but did so in the context of a wider shift in American policy:
- As the Syria policy review moves apace, and with the apparent collapse of the primary Syrian external opposition organization, one thing appears increasingly clear: U.S. policy may aim less at fostering "regime change" and more toward encouraging "behavior reform".
- Thus, the US Embassy said the challenge was "how to bring our U.S.-sponsored civil society and human rights programming into line a less confrontational bilateral relationship" with Syria.
- It is not known if the Embassy's recommendations were adopted. Whitlock notes, "The cables indicate money was set aside at least through September 2010," but even that does not indicate if the funds were allocated or suspended.
- And there is a further issue. Whitlock's account focuses on one initiative: the funding of the satellite channel Barada TV, affiliated with the London-based Syrian exile organisation Movement for Justice and Development.
- That is understandable, given the $6 million provided to the MJD from 2006, funneled through the Democracy Council of California in a "Civil Society Strengthening Initiative". But there were a variety of programmes pursued through the Bureau of Human Rights and Labor and the Middle East Partnership Initiative, established by the George W. Bush Administration. Recipients of grants included Freedom House, for workshops for Syrian activists on "strategic non-violence and civic mobilization"; the American Bar Association, which held a conference in Damascus and then continued outreach for legal education programs in Syria through local partners; American University, for research on Syrian tribal and civil society; Internews, which worked with the Arab Women Media Center to support media youth camps for university-aged Syrians in Amman and Damascus. Funds also went to Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), International War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), and The International Research and Exchange Board (IREX). And there were specific programmes through the Aspen Strategic Initiative Institute (more than $2 million for "Supporting Democratic Reform"), the Regents of the University of New Mexico (almost $1 million for "The Cooperative Monitoring Center-Amman: Web Access for Civil Society Initiatives"), the International Republican Institute ($1.25 million for "Supporting Democratic Reform").
- Details of other grants are blacked out in the document, at the request of the State Department. So are all initiatives conducted inside Syria, given security considerations and diplomatic sensitivities.
- So what exactly was the line --- if any --- between supporting movements for "civil society" and those advocating the overthrow of the Assad regime? That may not be possible to establish, especially given the censored portions of the April 2009 cable; nor is there any indication whether the US Government gave an answer to that question after the April approach by the Embassy.
- What is clear, however, is that the Damascus Embassy was worried that it had no control, and indeed little involvement, in the programmes: "Though the Embassy has had direct input on a few of these efforts, especially with DRL, most of the programming has proceeded without direct Embassy involvement."
- The Embassy was thus trying to get a handle on the US efforts amidst its call to establish "how best to advise the SARG (Syrian regime) that its tolerating dissent will be a key issue as our bilateral relationship moves forward".
- But further WikiLeaks cables indicate that this clarity was not forthcoming. In June, the US diplomats in Damascus raised questions about the Movement for Justice and Development: "Evidence the organization has a sizable, influential constituency inside and outside Syria is difficult to discern. Post has seen no reporting on the size MJD's base in Europe and the U.S." The Embassy continued with even greater worries:
- Reporting in other channels suggest the Syrian Muhabarat [security service] may already have
- penetrated the MJD and is using MJD contacts to track U.S. democracy programming. If the SARG does know, but has chosen not to intervene openly, it raises the possibility that the SARG may be mounting a campaign to entrap democracy activists receiving illegal (under Syrian law) foreign assistance.
- And in September, the Embassy wrote of the questioning of civil society and human rights activists by Syrian security agencies: "It is unclear to what extent SARG intelligence services understand how USG money enters Syria and through which proxy organizations. What is clear, however, is that security agents are increasingly focused on this issue when they interrogate human rights and civil society activists."US Secretly Backed Syrian Opposition Groups, Cables Released by WikiLeaks Show
- The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming into the country, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables.
- The London-based satellite channel, Barada TV, began broadcasting in April 2009 but has ramped up operations to cover the mass protests in Syria as part of a long-standing campaign to overthrow the country's autocratic leader, Bashar al-Assad. Human rights groups say scores of people have been killed by Assad's security forces since the demonstrations began March 18; Syria has blamed the violence on ''armed gangs.''
- Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles. Classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million to the group since 2006 to operate the satellite channel and finance other activities insideSyria. The channel is named after the Barada River, which courses through the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
- The U.S. money for Syrian opposition figures began flowing under President George W. Bush after he effectively froze political ties with Damascus in 2005. The financial backing has continued under President Obama, even as his administration sought to rebuild relations with Assad. In January, the White House posted an ambassador to Damascus for the first time in six years.
- The cables, provided by the anti-secrecy Web site WikiLeaks, show that U.S. Embassy officials in Damascus became worried in 2009 when they learned that Syrian intelligence agents were raising questions about U.S. programs. Some embassy officials suggested that the State Department reconsider its involvement, arguing that it could put the Obama administration's rapprochement with Damascus at risk.
- Syrian authorities ''would undoubtedly view any U.S. funds going to illegal political groups as tantamount to supporting regime change,'' read an April 2009 cable signed by the top-ranking U.S. diplomat in Damascus at the time. ''A reassessment of current U.S.-sponsored programming that supports anti-[government] factions, both inside and outside Syria, may prove productive,'' the cable said.
- It is unclear whether the State Department is still funding Syrian opposition groups, but the cables indicate money was set aside at least through September 2010. While some of that money has also supported programs and dissidents inside Syria, The Washington Post is withholding certain names and program details at the request of the State Department, which said disclosure could endanger the recipients' personal safety.
- Syria, a police state, has been ruled by Assad since 2000, when he took power after his father's death. Although the White House has condemned the killing of protesters in Syria, it has not explicitly called for his ouster.
- The State Department declined to comment on the authenticity of the cables or answer questions about its funding of Barada TV.
-
- US Resumes Nonlethal Aid to Syrian Opposition
- GENEVA - The United States has restarted deliveries of nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition, officials said Monday, more than a month after al-Qaida-linked militants seized warehouses and prompted a sudden cutoff of Western supplies to the rebels.
- The communications equipment and other items are being funneled for now only to non-armed opposition groups, said the U.S. officials.
- But the move nevertheless boosts Syria's beleaguered rebels, who saw their international support slide after Islamic militants seized bases near the Turkish border that had been under the authority of a key U.S.-backed leader.
- It could also be seen as a U.S. reward to the opposition for its participation in ongoing peace talks with President Bashar Assad's government in Geneva.
- The U.S. officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity, said the aid was being sent through Turkey into Syria, with the coordination of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council, led by Gen. Salim Idris, a secular-minded, Western-backed moderate.
- They stressed that the halt in supplies last month was only a "precautionary measure" until the Obama administration could once again verify the security of aid packages.Items taken in December from the Bab al-Hawa crossing between Syria and Turkey have since been returned, the officials said, and U.S.-supported rebel groups have taken steps to prevent future supplies from being diverted.
- Direct, nonlethal U.S. assistance to armed Syrian rebel units could resume soon, U.S. officials said. They provided no indication about the status of lethal assistance such as body armor and ammunition.
- Britain also suspended deliveries some six weeks ago and Turkey shut its side of the border as fears over the growing strength of extremist jihadis crystallized in the takeover of the warehouses and bases by the Islamic Front, a new alliance of six of the most powerful Islamic rebel groups in Syria.
- It was a stark demonstration of how Idris's influence had diminished amid the rise of al-Qaida-affiliated militants flush with cash, weapons and battleground experience.
- More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's civil war, now in its third year. Internationally brokered peace talks began last week in Switzerland, but have made little to no headway, with most of the discussions centered on improving access for humanitarian groups and potential prisoner releases.
- Syria's fractured opposition movement has been losing ground militarily for several months as rebel factions turn their guns against each other, undermining the battle to oust Assad.
- The U.S. officials said they resumed deliveries of a range of goods to civilian actors in Syria as early as late December. These included ambulances, garbage trucks, generators, food baskets, school supplies and office equipment.
- The officials the aid is going to local and provincial councils and civil society groups, and the United States is confident the deliveries are reaching their intended recipients. They stressed U.S. support for the "moderate armed and unarmed opposition remains steadfast."
- (C) Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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- Slave Training
-
- Common Core: How 'Nonprofits' Reaped Millions
- A closer look, however, reveals that several ''nonprofit'' education companies drove the Common Core initiative while being flooded with millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Corestandards.org, the official website of this group of governors and state school officers, emphasizes the talking point that the standards were ''state-led,'' though that claim has been called ''fiction'' by Common Core experts such as historian and researcher Dr. Mercedes Schneider.
- The current-day website of the group states the following in its ''Frequently Asked Questions'' section:
- The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt'...
- The nation's governors and education commissioners, through their representative organizations the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) led the development of the Common Core State Standards and continue to lead the initiative. Teachers, parents, school administrators and experts from across the country together with state leaders provided input into the development of the standards.
- As Kyle Olson, founder of Education Action Group, observes, use of the Wayback Machine, an internet website archivist, to explore prior versions of the Common Core group's website shows that the quote captured on March 5, 2010 is, in fact, the standard talking point heard today about Common Core's beginnings:
- The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
- The description of how the standards began is somewhat different, however, on the very same website on October 19, 2009, just six months earlier:
- The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board.
- Similarly, a 2009 news release at the website of NGA Center states:
- Forty-nine states and territories have joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The initiative is being jointly led by the NGA Center and CCSSO in partnership with Achieve, Inc., ACT and the College Board.
- Achieve, Inc., which bills itself as a nonprofit ''education reform organization,'' states up front on its website that it ''partnered with NGA and CCSSO on the initiative and a number of Achieve staff and consultants served on the writing and review teams'' for the Common Core standards.
- ACT refers to the nonprofit responsible for the popular college admissions and placement test taken by many high school graduates. The ACT website states that this nonprofit is an "active partner with the Common Core Standards initiative."
- The College Board is currently led by its president, David Coleman, who partnered with Jason Zimba and Susan Pimentel to form Student Achievement Partners, another nonprofit education organization devoted to the success of the Common Core standards.
- As Common Core expert Dr. Sandra Stotsky told Breitbart News, all three '' Common Core ''architect'' Coleman, Zimba, and Pimentel - were heavily involved in writing the English Language Arts and Math standards, though none of them had any experience in teaching these subject areas.
- So sometime around New Years 2010 the language changed. Of course, this was also about the time states were considering whether or not to accept stimulus money as an incentive to adopt the standards, so proponents likely needed all the positive ''state-led'' spin they could get.
- Schneider, who has created one of the most comprehensive websites for Common Core information and history, comments on the popular talking points that Common Core has been ''state-led'' and that ''teachers, parents, school administrators and experts from across the country'' have been involved in providing input into the development of the standards:
- '...if one reviews this 2009 NGA news release on those principally involved in CCSS development, one views a listing of 29 individuals associated with Student Achievement Partners, ACT, College Board, and Achieve. In truth, only 2 out of 29 members are not affiliated with an education company.
- CCSS as ''state-led'' is fiction. Though NGA reports 29 individuals as involved with CCSS creation, it looks to be even fewer.
- Similarly, Joy Pullmann of The Heartland Institute observes:
- NGA first directly involved governors in nationalizing education standards in June 2008, when it co-hosted an education forum with the Hunt Institute, a project of former North Carolina Gov. James Hunt Jr. In December 2008, NGA, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and Achieve Inc. released a report calling for national standards. The report recommended ''a strong state-federal partnership'' to accomplish this goal.
- Those three nonprofits answered their own call the next few months, deciding to commission Common Core. NGA and Hunt's press releases during that time, and a paper describing NGA's Common Core process by former NGA education director Dane Linn, provide no endorsement of such activity from more than a handful of elected officials. NGA spokesmen refused requests for comment.
- Interestingly, former Republican presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty led the NGA, along with former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt (D) in June of 2008 when the decision was made that ''high, rigorous standards'' must be created that are ''supported by an aligned and clearly articulated system of curriculum, assessments, teacher preparation and professional development, textbook selection'...''
- It is also the case that, in 2008, Pawlenty served as vice-chairman of the Achieve board of directors and, in 2009, became the board's co-chairman. Also in 2009, Achieve received $20.9 million from the Gates Foundation, $2 million from the Carnegie Foundation, and a combined $2.6 million from five member-corporations of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) '' GE, Prudential, Nationwide, Lumina, and State Farm.
- Schneider notes the millions of dollars funneled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the ''nonprofit'' organizations involved:
- The four principal organizations associated with CCSS '' NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and Student Achievement Partners '' have accepted millions from Bill Gates. In fact, prior to CCSS ''completion'' in June 2009, Gates had paid millions to NGA, CCSSO, and Achieve. And the millions continued to flow following CCSS completion.
- As Schneider points out, the NGA received $23.6 million from the Gates Foundation prior to June of 2009, and an additional $2.1 million after that date ''to work with state policymakers on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards'...''
- The state school officers (CCSSO) received $47.1 million from Gates prior to June of 2009, with the largest payout to support data ''access'' and ''data driven decisions.''
- Schneider points out that, prior to June of 2009, Achieve, Inc. received $23.5 million in funding from the Gates Foundation. Another $13.2 million followed after the Common Core was created, with $9.3 million devoted to ''building strategic alliances'' for Common Core promotion.
- To Coleman's ''nonprofit'' Student Achievement Partners, which has always been only devoted to the Common Core standards, Gates bestowed $6.5 million in June of 2012.
- ''In total, the four organizations primarily responsible for CCSS '' NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and Student Achievement Partners '' have taken $147.9 million from Bill Gates,'' Schneider concludes. ''Common Core Gates Standards.''
-
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- (C) 2014 Copyright France 24. All rights reservedFrance 24 is not responsible for the content of external websites.
- France M(C)dias Monde sites
-
- Shut Up Slave!
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- Three charged with stealing food from skip behind Iceland supermarket
- Paul May and his two fellow defendants will appear before magistrates charged under an obscure section of the 1824 Vagrancy Act. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
- A man will stand trial next month after being caught taking some tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese from the dustbins behind a branch of Iceland.
- It is expected Paul May, a freelance web designer, will argue that he was taking the food because he needed it to eat and does not consider he has done anything illegal or dishonest in removing food destined for landfill from a skip.
- The case will require magistrates to scrutinise the phenomenon of "skipping" '' taking discarded supermarket waste to cook and eat, and will highlight the issue of how much supermarket food is discarded, despite long campaigns to reduce the waste. It will also focus attention on a group of people taking radical steps to feed themselves as they struggle with the rising cost of living in London.
- May, 35, along with Jason Chan and William James, all residents of a squat in north London, were arrested on 25 October, just before midnight, after a member of the public called the police to report three men climbing over a wall at the back of Iceland in Kentish Town .
- Police arrested the men as they left the area with a holdall and trolley containing food. The total value of the items taken allegedly amounted to £33 and they were of low value, consisting of tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese and Mr Kipling cakes.
- Initially arrested for burglary, the three men were charged under an obscure section of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, after being discovered in "an enclosed area, namely Iceland, for an unlawful purpose, namely stealing food".
- Police returned the items to the Iceland store. The men were held in a police cell for 19 hours before being released, May said.
- Lawyers for the three men have asked the Crown Prosecution Service to consider dropping the case, but the CPS responded this month that the case would go ahead, because "we feel there is significant public interest in prosecuting these three individuals".
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-
- Denmark law sectiion 266b
- DenmarkThe present Section 266 b of the Danish Penal Code from 1995 states that:"(1) Any person who publicly or with the intention of dissemination to a wide circle of people makes a statement or imparts other information threatening, insulting or degrading a group of persons on account of their race, colour, national or ethnic origin, belief or sexual orientation, shall be liable to a fine, simple detention or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years."
- "(2) When handing down the punishment, it is to be considered as an aggravating circumstance that the statement is in the nature of propaganda."
-
- When hate speech begins, free speech ends (or does it?) - News - The Copenhagen Post
- Last week's conviction of Danish-Iranian artist Firoozeh Bazrafkan for racism, after she claimed on her blog that she was ''convinced that Muslim men around the world rape, abuse and kill their daughters'', has led to free speech advocates questioning whether anti-racism laws are fair '' or even effective.
- Bazrafkan was convicted by the Eastern High Court for violating section 266b of the criminal code '' the so-called racism law '' and fined 5,000 kroner.
- According to the law, it is illegal to ''spread messages that threaten, taunt or degrade a group because of their race, skin colour, national or ethnic extraction, belief or sexual orientation''.
- The court argued that Bazrafkan in her blog had generalised about Muslims men being criminals, and that because her statement ''derided and degraded a group simply based on their faith'', she was guilty.
- Bazrafkan argues, however, that her blog post was actually a criticism of Islam and not a racist generalisation of Muslims.
- ''It's important to remember that I did not write that ALL Muslim men committed horrible acts and used Islamic codes to justify them, I wrote that Muslim men around the world can do these things because it is allowed according to [Islamic] codes,'' she told The Copenhagen Post. ''It's not the same thing.''
- She added that her conviction meant the court had limited her freedom of expression '' a right that is guaranteed under article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
- Conditional free speechBut it's not as simple as that. While article 10 does indeed protect free speech, it also grants states the right to restrict speech for various reasons, such as public safety or the protection of health and morals.
- Even though states can limit free speech, Jacob Mchangama, the director of legal affairs at the liberal think-tank Cepos, said that authorities had no business interfering in the public statements of its citizens.
- ''It's very misguided for democracies to place arbitrary limits both on what can be said and who is being protected. Why is it okay to say degrading things about disabled people but not homosexuals? And how do we judge when something is sufficiently degrading? There are problems defining these limitations.''
- Mchangama has called for the abolition of section 266b.
- ''I think it's valid if people want to start a debate about tolerance and our need to be more open toward ethnic and sexual groups. But the state needs to be neutral about statements that individuals make.''
- Getting rid of section 266b is not simple however. Denmark is a signatory of several international conventions and treaties that obligates it to legislate and enforce against hate speech.
- Learning from historyChristoffer Badse, the senior legal adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, argued that these laws have their place given the number of global conflicts that have arisen because of hate between groups.
- ''Racist language can create an atmosphere of hatred,'' Badse said. ''We have seen this both in modern society and in places with ethnic conflicts such as Northern Ireland and in the former Yugoslavia. There are historic reasons for these laws.''
- He sympathises with Mchangama's complaint that the law affords some groups criminal protection that others don't receive, but argues that anyone can use civil courts to sue if they feel they have been discriminated against.
- He added that some groups, given the history of discrimination they have suffered, are offered extra criminal protection.
- ''In the case of hate speech against the disabled, we haven't seen that it is a big enough issue for it to warrant criminal conviction.''
- Anti-Muslim rhetoricUnlike the disabled, Muslim immigrants have been the focus of intense media scrutiny for decades, particularly since the formation of the anti-immigration party Dansk Folkeparti in the mid-1990s.
- Statements critical of Muslim immigrants and their religious background are commonplace in the Danish media. Some more recent examples include MP Marie Krarup (Dansk Folkeparti) calling for Muslim women to discard their headscarves, and MP Inger St¸jberg (Venstre) demanding that Danish Muslims accept that Denmark is the land of the Danes and that they can find somewhere else to live if they don't like it here.
- Badse argued that the harsh tone of the immigration debate demonstrates that it is possible to have a debate about Islam and religion without breaking the racism legislation.
- ''There is a balance between the need to protect vulnerable groups and minorities, and recognising concerns about freedom of speech and expression, which I think the prosecutor in [Bazrafkan's] case got right,'' Badse said. ''When people make exaggerated claims and accusations, they can be punished. But it is still possible to discuss all issues of public interest.''
- Counterproductive legislationBut Mchangama argued that cases such as Bazrafkan's demonstrate how the law interferes with the public debate.
- He also questions whether laws preventing racist speech actually protect anyone. ''After all, everyone is protected from being the victim of crimes, whether they are based on hate or otherwise,'' he said.
- ''I don't think there is good science showing that if you have hate speech laws in place that they result in less hate crimes,'' Mchangama said. ''Laws like these have been abused in many different countries as a way to suppress various groups. So we need to be careful and err on the side of liberty.''
- The laws may even be counterproductive. Following Bazrafkan's conviction, the statement that a court deemed illegal was published across the Danish media (including The Copenhagen Post).
- After her conviction, Bazrafkan remained staunch in her opposition to the law. ''Section 226b, I'm not done with you,'' she wrote on her Facebook profile, suggesting that she will continue to speak out against Islam.
- Anti-racism law helps racistsIn an opinion piece in Politiken newspaper following Bazrafkan's conviction, Rune Engelbrecht Larsen, an author who focuses on social issues, argued that the racism law was probably having the opposite of its intended effect.
- ''Each racism case has already become an opportunity to strengthen and defend hate speech, and after this verdict it's hard to see how the racism legislation can accomplish anything else,'' he wrote.
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-
- Producer Adam Tucker's analysis
- Please find attached copy of an addition to Queenslands Bikie slave laws which now requires Tattooists to get a
- licence which also involves finger and palm printing. Apologies for sending in slave tracking PDF format as I was
- unable to convert or highlight particular sections for you due being password locked (and possibly me not knowing
- In the Tattoo Parlours Act 2013 see page 15 for Fingerprinting and palm printing of applicants.
- I have also attached a copy of Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Bill 2013 (anti Bikie Bill) which I
- believe you may have already talked about on a previous show.
- The part that grabs my attention is on page 5 under Definitions- (d) any other group of 3 or more persons by
- called, whether associated formally or informally and
- whether the group is legal or illegal.
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- Ministry of Truth
-
- D-notice system to be reviewed in wake of Edward Snowden revelations
- Stories based on Snowden's leaks raise questions about the D-notice system's usefulness, minutes of the committee's latest meeting say. Photograph: Uncredited/AP
- Officials are planning to review the historic D-notice system, which warns the media not to publish intelligence that might damage security, in the wake of the Guardian's stories about mass surveillance by the security services based on leaks from the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
- Sources said Jon Thompson, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence, was setting up an inquiry into the future of the committee, raising fears that the voluntary censorship system also known as the DA-notice could be made compulsory.
- The committee is supposed to be consulted when news organisations are considering publishing material relating to secret intelligence or the military. It is staffed by senior civil servants and media representatives, who give advice on the publication of sensitive stories.
- The MoD declined to say why the future of the committee was being considered, but minutes of its latest meeting say: "The events of the last few months had undoubtedly raised questions in some minds about the system's future usefulness."
- In his latest report, its secretary, Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Vallance, raised concerns about the parallel publication of Snowden's revelations by newspapers around the world, noting that at the outset the Guardian had "avoided engaging with the DA-notice system before publishing the first tranche of information".
- However, giving evidence to MPs in December, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, said the D-notice committee had found nothing published by the paper that put British lives at risk. He said the Guardian had consulted government officials and intelligence agencies '' including the FBI, GCHQ, the White House and the Cabinet Office '' on more than 100 occasions before the publication of stories. On only one occasion was there no consultation with the UK government before publication, when the editor feared an injunction could be sought, he said.
- Compliance with D-notices is not compulsory, but there are fears the system could become more draconian after a review.
- Simon Bucks, associate editor at Sky News and the D-notice committee's media vice-chairman, told the Sunday Times: "Any suggestion that the current system be abolished would potentially be a precursor of a coercive system, which I believe the entire British media would oppose."
- A spokesman for the MoD said the department was "considering a review of the system", but no decisions had been made. There are currently five standing D-notices relating to military operations, nuclear weapons, ciphers and secure communications, sensitive installations and the security services.
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- 'I'll Break You in Half,' U.S. Congressman Threatens Reporter
- Government is all about thugish behavior, though it usually isn't as blatant by the thugs that set the rules.Congressman Michael Grimm was caught on a television camera saying to a reporter, "I'll break you in half," after he was asked in an interview about a federal investigation into campaign finance violations.
- He could be heard saying, "I'll break you in half," and NY1 said he threatened to throw Scotto over a balcony, reports Reuters.
- Grimm issued a statement late Tuesday, saying the reporter had taken a "cheap shot" by asking a question about a topic other than President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, which the president had just delivered.
- A fundraiser for Grimm, Diana Durand, was arrested this month on charges she illegally funneled more than $10,000 to his campaign.NY1.com has released this transcript of the video:"And just finally before we let you go, we haven't had a chance to talk about some of the..." Scotto began before Grimm cut him off."I'm not speaking to you off-topic, this is only about the president," said Grimm, before walking off camera."So Congressman Michael Grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances," Scotto said before tossing back to the station. But as the camera continued to roll, Grimm walked back up to Scotto and began speaking to him in a low voice."What?" Scotto responded. "I just wanted to ask you..."Grimm: "Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this f-----g balcony."Scotto: "Why? I just wanted to ask you..."Grimm: "If you ever do that to me again..."Scotto: "Why? Why? It's a valid question."Grimm: "No, no, you're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy."
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- Shiny mirrors and Trinkets
-
- Google Loses Bid for Appeals Review of Gmail Wiretap Suit
- Google Inc. (GOOG) lost its bid for a federal appeals court review of a ruling that permitted a lawsuit to go forward over claims the company violated wiretap laws by scanning the contents of private e-mail messages.
- U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, California, denied Google's request for the appeal hearing in an order yesterday. While allowing federal claims in the lawsuit to proceed in a Sept. 26 ruling, Koh has yet to rule whether the plaintiffs can represent all Gmail users, as well as people whose messages were received by a Gmail user.
- Lawsuits against Internet companies and social networks are multiplying as users become more aware of how much personal information they're revealing, often without their knowledge. In San Jose, Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) and LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) also face accusations they've intercepted communications for their profit at the expense of users or non-users.
- In her ruling yesterday, Koh wrote the case is a combination of various suits from different U.S. states with related claims, the oldest of which was filed more than three years ago. Koh said the plaintiffs and Google have fully argued in court filings whether the case should proceed as a group lawsuit, and that she will rule on that request ''shortly'' with a target trial date in October.
- Tortuous History''The long and tortuous procedural history of this litigation,'' Koh wrote, ''demonstrates why further delaying this three-year-old litigation for immediate appellate review is unwarranted.''
- The case was brought by users of Gmail and other e-mail services from states including Texas, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida. They claim Google exploits the content of messages so that it can profit from the creation of user profiles and targeted advertising.
- Google, the operator of the world's largest search engine, had argued that Koh's Sept. 26 ruling is a ''novel interpretation'' of wiretap laws and raised issues that had never been addressed by the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
- Google didn't immediately respond to an e-mail after regular business hours yesterday seeking comment on the ruling.
- Koh said in her September ruling that the plaintiffs can proceed with their claims that Mountain View, California-based Google violated federal wiretap laws, rejecting the company's argument that Gmail users agreed when they accepted subscription service terms and privacy policies to let their messages be scanned. She threw out state law claims.
- Novel InterpretationGoogle had to ask Koh for permission to appeal her ruling as the case is still going on. The company said it must ''obtain guidance on whether the court's novel interpretation of now-antiquated statutory provisions in an unanticipated context is correct.''
- Google argued in a filing that the case should be thrown out because the scanning processes at issue ''are a standard and fully disclosed part of the Gmail service'' and the reading and mining of e-mail is ''completely automated and involves no human review.''
- The case is In re Google Inc. Gmail Litigation, 13-md-02430, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
- To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net
- To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
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- Federal consumer bureau data-mining hundreds of millions of consumer credit card accounts, mortgages | WashingtonExaminer.com
- In a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are conducting a massive, NSA-esque data-mining project collecting account information on an estimated 991 million American credit card accounts.
- It was also learned at a Congressional hearing Tuesday that CFPB officials are working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on a second data-mining effort, this one focused on the 53 million residential mortgages taken out by Americans since 1998.
- ''The NSA does not ask Americans' permission to collect their phone records and emails and texts. The CFPB does not ask permission to collect information on America's financial consumers. ''The mortgage information is being compiled in a database that can be "reversed engineered" by hackers seeking information for identify theft, according to an expert cited during the hearing.
- The revelations came in a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, during which CFPB Director Richard Cordray was repeatedly pressed about federal officials rummaging around in the private financial affairs of millions of Americans.
- "We're collecting aggregated information," Cordray told the committee while defending the bureau's data-mining efforts.
- "Can you, Mr. Cordray, personally guarantee that the consumer information is 100 percent secure?" asked Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas.
- Cordray said he could not, but added that the bureau "attempt[s] to safeguard any information we have about the American public."
- Later in the hearing, Neugebauer remarked that CFPB "and NSA are in a contest of who can collect the most information."
- "I fundamentally disagree with that characterization," Cordray shot back.
- Congress' powers to oversee the CFPB are limited. The federal Dodd-Frank Act that created the bureau requires that the Senate confirm its directors, such as Cordray, and that the director testify before Congress twice a year, but Congress' authority stops there. The bureau is part of the Federal Reserve, for which Congress similarly confirms top officers but has no direct oversight. Cordray's nomination to the CFPB director's post was confirmed by the Senate last year.
- According to Steven Antonakes, the bureau's deputy director, CFPB's program mines credit card accounts maintained by 18 of the largest card issuers in the United States.
- CFPB has signed a four-year, $2.9 million contract with Argus Information and Advisory Services to obtain credit card data from nine of the issuers, according to documents made available by the committee.
- The contract is to end March 2017, according to USAspending.gov, a government database that tracks federal spending.
- A memorandum of understanding signed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency permits Argus to obtain data from nine other credit card issuers.
- In previous testimony before Rep. Jeb Hensarling's panel, Antonakes said ''the combined data represents approximately 85-90 percent of outstanding card balances.''
- The Argus contract specifies that the company must collect 96 ''data points'' from each of the participating card issuers for each credit card account on a monthly basis.
- The 96 data points include a unique card-account identification reference number, ZIP code, monthly ending balance, borrower's income, FICO score, credit limit, monthly payment amount, and days past due.
- "Would you object to getting permission from consumers, those people who you work for, before you collect and monitor their information?" Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., asked Cordray.
- "That would make it impossible to get the data," Cordray replied.
- "You can't even opt out," Duffy said. "The NSA does not ask Americans' permission to collect their phone records and emails and texts. The CFPB does not ask permission to collect information on America's financial consumers."
- A committee aide estimated that over the life of the Argus contract, the company will collect about 51 terabytes of data, or the equivalent of all the text in all the books in 50 large libraries.
- Neugebauer pressed Cordray on the possibility of reverse-engineering of the mortgage database. "Can this data be reverse-engineered?" he asked.
- "We're concerned about making sure that does not happen as much as possible," Cordray answered. "I don't need that headache."
- But Bob Avery, project director for the national mortgage database at the FHFA, admitted during an Urban Institute meeting last year that the mortgage data is vulnerable to reverse engineering by hackers.
- ''There are major challenges to this,'' Avery said in a video of the Nov. 11, 2013, meeting that has been posted on YouTube.
- ''Privacy is number one,'' Avery said. ''It is easy to reverse engineer and identify the people in our database. We have the date the mortgage was taken out, the size of the mortgage and we have the Census tract [of the mortgage holder]. Ninety-five percent of these are unique.''
- Avery also said on the video that the mortgage database would be accessible to all federal employees, not just those at FHFA.
- Cordray was also questioned on whether CFPB needs to collect so much consumer data.
- "The CFPB is collecting far more data than is necessary. It is a expensive and it is risky," said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J.
- Garrett cited Thomas Stratmann, a George Mason University law school professor, who said CFPB officials need sample no more than 1.4 million credit card accounts from card issuers in order to provide useful information about card holders' market behavior.
- CORRECTION: The statements in Tuesday's hearing by Rep. Randy Neugebauer were incorrectly attributed earlier to Rep. Spencer Bachus. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.
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- After bug, Google notifies users that all is a-OK with Gmail | Internet & Media - CNET News
- A glitch that caused some e-mails to be marked as spam and others to be deleted is fixed -- but the Web giant says users should make sure their messages are in the right place.
- The notice that Google sent out to some Gmail users.
- (Credit: Screenshot by Lindsey Turrentine/CNET)Google assured Gmail users on Tuesday that the slight bug that affected their inboxes last week is definitively fixed. The Web giant sent out notices to users that could have experienced issues.
- "You may have been impacted by a recent issue in Gmail that inadvertently caused some actions (e.g. delete, report spam) taken while viewing a message to be applied to a different message," Google wrote. "The issue occurred between January 15 and January 22 and is now fixed."
- Apparently, this bug could have deleted or marked as spam some users' e-mails. The company reports that the glitch didn't affect all users and most likely targeted Gmail on iOS apps, mobile browsers, and offline versions of the e-mail service. It's unclear how many people were hit by the bug. Google has asked users to double-check their spam and trash folders to make sure there are no important messages hiding out.
- "We encourage you to check your Trash and Spam folders before February 14, 2014 for any items you did not intend to delete or mark as spam and move them back to your inbox," Google wrote. "We apologize for any inconvenience."It appears this bug is separate from the bizarre Gmail glitch that plagued some users last week. During that incident, not only were e-mail addresses being automatically filled in for unintended recipients but one poor man was flooded with thousands of unsolicited e-mails because of the glitch. It's unclear if the bug is related to last Friday's massive Gmail outage.
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- War on Men
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- Feminism's Toxic Twitter Wars | The Nation
- In the summer of 2012, twenty-one feminist bloggers and online activists gathered at Barnard College for a meeting that would soon become infamous. Convened by activists Courtney Martin and Vanessa Valenti, the women came together to talk about ways to leverage institutional and philanthropic support for online feminism. Afterward, Martin and Valenti used the discussion as the basis for a report, ''#Femfuture: Online Revolution,'' which called on funders to support the largely unpaid work that feminists do on the Internet. ''An unfunded online feminist movement isn't merely a threat to the livelihood of these hard-working activists, but a threat to the larger feminist movement itself,'' they wrote.
- #Femfuture was earnest and studiously politically correct. An important reason to put resources into online feminism, Martin and Valenti wrote, was to bolster the voices of writers from marginalized communities. ''Women of color and other groups are already overlooked for adequate media attention and already struggle disproportionately in this culture of scarcity,'' they noted. The pair discussed the way online activism has highlighted the particular injustices suffered by transgender women of color and celebrated the ability of the Internet to hold white feminists accountable for their unwitting displays of racial privilege. ''A lot of feminist dialogue online has focused on recognizing the complex ways that privilege shapes our approach to work and community,'' they wrote.
- The women involved with #Femfuture knew that many would contest at least some of their conclusions. They weren't prepared, though, for the wave of coruscating anger and contempt that greeted their work. Online, the Barnard group'--nine of whom were women of color'--was savaged as a cabal of white opportunists. People were upset that the meeting had excluded those who don't live in New York (Martin and Valenti had no travel budget). There was fury expressed on behalf of everyone'--indigenous women, feminist mothers, veterans'--whose concerns were not explicitly addressed. Some were outraged that tweets were quoted without the explicit permission of the tweeters. Others were incensed that a report about online feminism left out women who aren't online. ''Where is the space in all of these #femfuture movements for people who don't have internet access?'' tweeted Mikki Kendall, a feminist writer who, months later, would come up with the influential hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen.
- Martin was floored. She's long believed that it's incumbent on feminists to be open to critique'--but the response was so vitriolic, so full of bad faith and stubborn misinformation, that it felt like some sort of Maoist hazing. Kendall, for example, compared #Femfuture to Rebecca Latimer Felton, a viciously racist Southern suffragist who supported lynching because she said it protected white women from rape. ''It was really hard to engage in processing real critique because so much of it was couched in an absolute disavowal of my intentions and my person,'' Martin says.
- Beyond bruised feelings, the reaction made it harder to use the paper to garner support for online feminist efforts. The controversy was all most people knew of the project, and it left a lasting taint. ''Almost anyone who asks us about it wants to know what happened, including editors that I've worked with,'' says Samhita Mukhopadhyay, an activist and freelance writer who was then the editor of Feministing.com. ''It's like you've been backed into a corner.''
- Though Mukhopadhyay continues to believe in the empowering potential of online feminism, she sees that much of it is becoming dysfunctional, even unhealthy. ''Everyone is so scared to speak right now,'' she says.
- Just a few years ago, the feminist blogosphere seemed an insouciant, freewheeling place, revivifying women's liberation for a new generation. ''It felt like there was fun and possibility'...a momentum or excitement that was building,'' says Anna Holmes, who founded Jezebel, Gawker Media's influential women's website, in 2007. In 2011, critic Emily Nussbaum celebrated the feminist blogosphere in New York magazine: ''Freed from the boundaries of print, writers could blur the lines between formal and casual writing; between a call to arms, a confession, and a stand-up routine'--and this new looseness of form in turn emboldened readers to join in, to take risks in the safety of the shared spotlight.''
- The Internet also became a crucial place for feminist organizing. When the breast cancer organization Komen for the Cure decided to defund Planned Parenthood in 2012, the overwhelming online backlash led to a reversal of the policy and the departure of the executive who had pushed it. Last year, Women, Action & the Media and the Everyday Sexism Project spearheaded a successful online campaign to get Facebook to ban pro-rape content.
- Yet even as online feminism has proved itself a real force for change, many of the most avid digital feminists will tell you that it's become toxic. Indeed, there's a nascent genre of essays by people who feel emotionally savaged by their involvement in it'--not because of sexist trolls, but because of the slashing righteousness of other feminists. On January 3, for example, Katherine Cross, a Puerto Rican trans woman working on a PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center, wrote about how often she hesitates to publish articles or blog posts out of fear of inadvertently stepping on an ideological land mine and bringing down the wrath of the online enforcers. ''I fear being cast suddenly as one of the 'bad guys' for being insufficiently radical, too nuanced or too forgiving, or for simply writing something whose offensive dimensions would be unknown to me at the time of publication,'' she wrote.
- In some ways, the fact that people are being mean to each other on Twitter is hardly worthy of comment. Still, as the #Femfuture report attempted to point out, the Internet is where a lot of contemporary feminist activism is happening. ''The Internet is the modern-day agora,'' says Cross, who studies online social dynamics in her academic work. ''It is increasingly a place where so many people are coming together and doing very meaningful, very real things, so that the social patterns prevailing on the Internet are of interest to everybody.''
- Further, as Cross says, ''this goes to the heart of the efficacy of radical movements.'' After all, this is hardly the first time that feminism'--to say nothing of other left-wing movements'--has been racked by furious contentions over ideological purity. Many second-wave feminist groups tore themselves apart by denouncing and ostracizing members who demonstrated too much ambition or presumed to act as leaders. As the radical second-waver Ti-Grace Atkinson famously put it: ''Sisterhood is powerful. It kills. Mostly sisters.''
- In ''Trashing: The Dark Side of Sisterhood,'' a 1976 Ms. magazine article, Jo Freeman described how feminists of her generation destroyed one another. Trashing, she wrote, is ''accomplished by making you feel that your very existence is inimical to the Movement and that nothing can change this short of ceasing to exist. These feelings are reinforced when you are isolated from your friends as they become convinced that their association with you is similarly inimical to the Movement and to themselves. Any support of you will taint them'.... You are reduced to a mere parody of your previous self.''
- Like the authors of #Femfuture, Freeman was trashed for presuming to represent feminism without explicit sanction, in this case of the group she'd founded with Shulamith Firestone. It began, she told me, when the left-wing magazine Ramparts published a neck-down picture of a woman in a leotard with a button hanging from one breast. The group decided to write a letter to the editor. Four members drafted one without Freeman's knowledge, and when they presented it to the rest of the group, she realized it was too long and would never be printed. Freeman had magazine experience, and she decided to write a pithier letter of her own under her movement name, Joreen. When Ramparts published it but not the other one, the women in her group were apoplectic, and Freeman was excoriated at their next meeting. ''That was a public trashing,'' she says. ''I was horrible, disloyal, a traitor.'' It went beyond mere criticism: ''There's a difference between trashing someone and challenging them. You can challenge someone's idea. When you're trashing someone, you're essentially saying they're a bad person.''
- For feminists today, knowing that others have been through similar things is not necessarily comforting. ''Some of it is the product of new technologies that create more shallow relationships, and some of it feels like this age-old conundrum within feminism,'' Martin says. ''How do we disentangle what part is about social media and what part is about the way women interact with one another? If there's something inherent about the way women work within movements that makes us assholes to each other, that is incredibly sad.''
- There's a shorthand way of talking about online feminist arguments that pits middle-class white women against all the groups they oppress. Clearly, there's some truth here: privileged white people dominate feminism, just as they do most other sectors of American life. Brittney Cooper, an assistant professor at Rutgers and co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective blog, is one of the black women who participated in #Femfuture, and she has spoken out against the viciousness that dominates Twitter. But she also emphasizes that the resentment expressed online is rooted in something real.
- ''I want to be clear: I think there's an actual injury,'' Cooper says. The online feminist efflorescence a few years back led to book deals and writing careers for far more white women than women of color. ''Black women are brought into these mainstream feminist websites to bring a little bit of color or a little bit of diversity, but that doesn't parlay into other career advancement opportunities.'' On Twitter, by contrast, women of color, trans women and other people who feel silenced can amplify one another's voices, talking back to people with power in an unparalleled way.
- That doesn't mean, though, that social media's climate of perpetual outrage and hair-trigger offense is constructive. ''There is a problem with toxicity on Twitter and in social media,'' Cooper says. ''I think we have to say that. I'm not sure that black women are benefiting from the toxicity.''
- After all, it's not just privileged white women who find themselves on the wrong side of an online trashing. The prospect can be particularly devastating for marginalized people who depend on the Internet for community. As an academic, Cross studies the terrifying harassment many women face from sexist trolls, but she says that putative allies can be nearly as intimidating.
- Being targeted by other activists, she says, ''leaves you feeling threatened in the sense that you're getting turned out of your own home'.... The one place that you are able to look to for safety, where you were valued, where there is a lot less of the structural prejudice that makes you feel so outcast in the rest of the world'--that's now been closed to you. That you now have this terrible reputation'... I know a lot of friends that live in fear of that.''
- If your professional life is tied up with activism, the threat is redoubled. ''To suddenly be tarred by the very people that I'm supposed to be able to work with, my allies, as being a sellout or being infatuated with power or being an apologist for this, that and the other privilege'--if that kind of reputation gets around, its extremely damaging,'' says Cross.
- The dogma that's being enforced in online feminist spaces is often called ''intersectionality,'' but in practice it's quite different from the theory elaborated by Kimberl(C) Crenshaw, the UCLA law professor who coined the word. In a 1989 article in TheUniversity of Chicago Legal Forum, ''Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti-Discrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics,'' Crenshaw described how the failure to consider the intersection of racism and sexism in the lives of women of color left a lacuna in civil rights law. She cited a failed lawsuit by a group of black women against General Motors; the court ruled that while race discrimination and sex discrimination are both causes of action, ''a combination of both'' is not. Another of Crenshaw's articles described a women's shelter balking at accepting a Latina victim of domestic violence because she wasn't proficient in English and thus couldn't participate in mandated group therapy sessions. Her work can be theoretical, but it's focused on legal and material conditions far more than patterns of discourse.
- ''My own efforts to create a voice and a perspective on these failures haven't really been about chastisement, or a certain set of assumptions about what the articulation that I'm critiquing should have been, or what the failure of it represents in the person,'' Crenshaw says, ''but rather a collective effort to build a feminism that does more of the work that it claims to do.''
- Online, however, intersectionality is overwhelmingly about chastisement and rooting out individual sin. Partly, says Cooper, this comes from academic feminism, steeped as it is in a postmodern culture of critique that emphasizes the power relations embedded in language. ''We actually have come to believe that how we talk about things is the best indicator of our politics,'' she notes. An elaborate series of norms and rules has evolved out of that belief, generally unknown to the uninitiated, who are nevertheless hammered if they unwittingly violate them. Often, these rules began as useful insights into the way rhetorical power works but, says Cross, ''have metamorphosed into something much more rigid and inflexible.'' One such rule is a prohibition on what's called ''tone policing.'' An insight into the way marginalized people are punished for their anger has turned into an imperative ''that you can never question the efficacy of anger, especially when voiced by a person from a marginalized background.''
- Similarly, there's a norm that intention doesn't matter'--indeed, if you offend someone and then try to explain that you were misunderstood, this is seen as compounding the original injury. Again, there's a significant insight here: people often behave in bigoted ways without meaning to, and their benign intention doesn't make the prejudice less painful for those subjected to it. However, ''that became a rule where you say intentions never matter; there is no added value to understanding the intentions of the speaker,'' Cross says.
- There are also rules, elaborated by white feminists, on how other white feminists should talk to women of color. For example, after Kendall's #solidarityisforwhitewomen hashtag erupted last fall, Sarah Milstein, co-author of a guide to Twitter, published a piece on the Huffington Post titled ''5 Ways White Feminists Can Address Our Own Racism.'' At one point, Milstein argued that if a person of color says something that makes you uncomfortable, ''assume your discomfort is telling you something about you, not about the other person.'' After Rule No. 3, ''Look for ways that you are racist, rather than ways to prove you're not,'' she confesses to her own racial crimes, including being ''awkwardly too friendly'' toward black people at parties.
- Now, it's true that white people need to make an effort not to be racist. And there are countless examples of white feminists failing women of color and then hiding behind their good intentions. Ani DiFranco provided a textbook example of what not to do when, following an uproar over her plan to hold a songwriting retreat on a former slave plantation, she then canceled it with a self-pitying statement: ''I know that the pain of slavery is real and runs very deep and wide. However, in this incident I think [it] is very unfortunate what many have chosen to do with that pain.'' (DiFranco later issued a more sincere apology.)
- But the expectation that feminists should always be ready to berate themselves for even the most minor transgressions'--like being too friendly at a party'--creates an environment of perpetual psychodrama, particularly when coupled with the refusal to ever question the expression of an oppressed person's anger.
- ''I actually think there's a subset of black women who really do get off on white women being prostrate,'' Cooper says. ''It's about feeling disempowered and always feeling at the mercy of white authority, and wanting to feel like for once the things you're saying are being given credibility and authority. And to have white folks do that is powerful, particularly in a world where white women often deploy power against black women in ways that are really problematic.''
- Preening displays of white feminist abjection, however, are not the same as respect. ''What's disgusting and disturbing to me is that I see some of the more intellectually dishonest arguments put forth by women of color being legitimized and performed by white feminists, who seem to be in some sort of competition to exhibit how intersectional they are,'' says Jezebel founder Holmes, who is black. ''There are these Olympian attempts on the part of white feminists to underscore and display their ally-ship in a way that feels gross and dishonest and, yes, patronizing.''
- This reached an absurd peak during the tempest over #Femfuture. Jamia Wilson was one of the black women involved in the Barnard meeting, and she has since become part of the four-woman leadership team for the #Femfuture project, which continues to work on ways to make online feminism financially sustainable. She watched incredulously as white women joined in the pile-on about #Femfuture's alleged racial insensitivity. One self-described white feminist tweeted at her to explain that no women of color had been at the Barnard meeting ''and that I needed to be educated about that,'' Wilson recalls. Somehow, activists who prided themselves on their racial enlightenment ''were whitesplaining me about racism,'' she adds, laughing.
- In a revolution-eats-its-own irony, some online feminists have even deemed the word ''vagina'' problematic. In January, the actress and activist Martha Plimpton tweeted about a benefit for Texas abortion funds called ''A Night of a Thousand Vaginas,'' sponsored by A Is For, a reproductive rights organization she's involved with. Plimpton was surprised when some offended Internet feminists urged people to stay away, arguing that emphasizing ''vaginas'' hurts trans men who don't want their reproductive organs coded as female. ''Given the constant genital policing, you can't expect trans folks to feel included by an event title focused on a policed, binary genital,'' tweeted @DrJaneChi, an abortion and transgender health provider. (She mentioned ''internal genitals'' as an alternative.) When Plimpton insisted that she would continue to say ''vagina,'' her feed filled up with indignation. ''So you're really committed to doubling down on using a term that you've been told many times is exclusionary & harmful?'' asked one self-described intersectional feminist blogger.
- Plimpton takes intersectionality seriously'--A Is For is hosting a series of discussions on the subject this year'--but she was flummoxed by this purist, arcane form. ''I'm not going to stop using the word 'vagina' for anybody, whether it's Glenn Beck or Mike Huckabee or somebody on Twitter who feels it creates a dysphoric response,'' she tells me. ''I can't do that and still advocate for reproductive freedom. It's just not a realistic thing to expect.''
- Mikki Kendall is unmoved by complaints about the repressive climate online. An Army veteran, graduate student and married mother of two in Chicago, Kendall is both famous and feared in Internet feminist circles. Mother Jones declared her one of the ''13 Badass Women of 2013'''--along with Wendy Davis and Malala Yousafzai'--for her creation of the #solidarityisforwhitewomen hashtag. But as Kendall well knows, many consider her a bully, though few want to say so out loud. ''I kind of have a reputation for being mean,'' she says.
- On the phone, Kendall isn't mean. She seems warm and engaging, but also obsessed'--she talks at length about slights made in the comment threads of blogs more than five years ago. As she sees it, feminist elites have been snubbing women with less power for years, and now that their power is being challenged, they're crying foul. Their complaints, she argues, are yet another assertion of privilege, since they're unmindful of how much more flak Kendall and her friends take.
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- ''If you look at the mentions for me, for @BlackAmazon, for @FeministaJones, for a lot of other black feminists, it's hard for us to see this other stuff as bullying, I'll be honest with you,'' she says. ''Because we are getting so much more than 'I don't like your article.' And we're getting it all day. I had someone who spent four hours last week dumping porn images into my mentions. I've had people send me pictures of lynchings. So then when somebody says, 'Oh, this article is terrible,' and a bunch of people talk about how terrible an article was, and you say that's bullying'--I'm going to side-eye your definition of bullying.''
- The problem, as she sees it, lies in mainstream white feminists' expectations of how they deserve to be treated. ''Feminism has a mammy problem, and mammy doesn't live here anymore,'' Kendall says. ''I know The Help told you you was smart, you was important, you was special. The Help lied. You're going to have to deal with anger, you're going to have to deal with hurt.'' And if it all gets to be too much? ''Self-care comes into this. Sometimes you have to close the Internet.''
- Few people are doing that, but they are disengaging from online feminism. Holmes, who left Jezebel in 2010 and is now a columnist for TheNew York Times Book Review, says she would never start a women's website today. ''Hell, no,'' she says. The women's blogosphere ''feels like a much more insular, protective, brittle environment than it did before. It's really depressing,'' she adds. ''It makes me think I got out at the right time.''
- Read Next: Jessica Valenti suggests, to protect womens' rights, "Back The Fuck Up"
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- Will Helen Clark be the first woman to run the UN?
- In the course of a political career that has lasted over 30 years, Helen Clark only thought of quitting once. With a personal poll rating of just 2% soon after becoming party leader in 1993, she asked a few close friends whether there was any point continuing. "They said, 'You've just got to keep standing there', which was the best advice. If you keep standing, actually very few will come after you."
- Clark went on to become New Zealand's first elected female prime minister in 1999 '' leading for three consecutive terms '' and is now the most powerful woman at the United Nations, working her second term as head of the UN development programme. She could well become the first woman to lead the organisation once the incumbent Ban Ki-Moon stands down in a few years.
- En route to Davos, the alpine schmoozefest for powerbrokers, Clark was in London last week to deliver a lecture on leadership for the Women of the Year organisation. With so few female heads of state to act as a yardstick, she has been compared to Margaret Thatcher, despite her vastly different Labour party politics and incredibly impressive, no-nonsense support of other women.
- On the advice from close friends to keep on as party leader, she persisted. "They said: 'Don't give in.' It's not in my nature to give in anyway." She lambasts organisers at Davos for failing to increase the number of women and, on panels, happily discusses female representation in the same breath as her views on Syria or other affairs of state.
- By the end of her nine years as prime minister in 2008, New Zealand's governor general, cabinet secretary, attorney general and speaker were all women. Meanwhile, opponents in her last unsuccessful election urged voters to "ditch the bitch".
- Now 63, there can be few women better qualified to talk about the treatment of women in power. Clark decided early on to ignore much of the criticism of her sex, she says. "There was a lot of very gender-based criticism. You know, 'Your voice is too low, your teeth are too crooked'. They don't like your hairstyle, they don't like your clothes. In fact, they don't really like anything about you, and maybe this all adds up to [the notion] that they don't really like a woman doing what you're doing.
- "But, you know, if you found all that hurtful then you're probably not going to be able to survive these jobs. You have to be able to dismiss it, and I seem to have developed a style, where [journalists] always knew that I'd get to a point and say 'move on', you know, 'get over it'."
- But was she really not that bothered by patronising remarks? "Earlier on, it annoyed me, but then I got to the point in my career where I said: 'Look, who cares, it's irrelevant and if I comment on it, it's an issue, so let's move on.' I've got bigger things to do."
- Given this attitude, her view of Julia Gillard, the former prime minister of Australia whose speech denouncing misogynists in parliament was a YouTube sensation, is less surprising. "Many women around the world saw this as incredible, but how did it play in Australia?" Clark asks. Gillard was, of course, subsequently ousted as leader of the Australian Labor party .
- "I had no personal experience of it," Clark says of sexual harassment, "but, if there is one silver lining from all this, we need all these people coming forward ... Women are not prepared to suffer in silence. The lid is off and that has to be healthy."
- She is also well aware of the double standards that mark a woman in power, pointing out the fact that "strength" in men is described as "toughness" in women and judged accordingly. But pondering why men are more likely to push themselves forward, she suggests that more women than men "want to balance a range of factors" when getting to the top. One of the biggest factors is childbirth.
- Elected to parliament at 31, she has remained childless by choice. "It just would have been totally impractical without a spouse who was prepared to completely give up a career," she says. Her husband, sociologist Peter Davis, was on a fast-track university career, so she felt that wasn't an option. Asked if she ever regretted the decision, she says: "No, definitely not '... It was absolutely right for me."
- But women who want to combine motherhood with powerful positions should be able to, she says. "It really points to the need for a lot more discussion of families and of the role of boys and girls, women and men, so that the boys grow up with an expectation to be an equal in the household."
- Clark was brought up on a farm in rural New Zealand, and her own mother gave up her career as a teacher as soon as she married. Clark, who kept her maiden name, never wanted to go down the same route. There's "some truth", she says, in the story that she cried on her wedding day. So why did she get married? "It was 1981. It wasn't that usual for people in public life [to be unmarried]. It still isn't." She doesn't seem to mind that this makes her marriage sound like political expediency '' she is still happily married to the same man 34 years later.
- She first became interested in politics because of international affairs '' the death of JFK when she was a teenager, the war in Vietnam and the injustices of apartheid. Now her name is potentially in the frame for the top job at the UN, the first woman to lead the diverse group of 193 nations.
- The election of a UN secretary-general is a process so complicated it takes years to go through, all of it behind closed doors. Clark has many points in her favour, not least her current job and the fact that New Zealand is part of the amusingly named Weog group (Western Europe and Other Group, but essentially it means the old developed countries). There hasn't been a secretary-general from Weog since Kurt Waldheim in the 1970s, which in the obtuse nature of UN affairs could mean it's about time another one got the job.
- Asked if she wants the job, she refects on how being a woman would play out in that role. "There will be interest in whether the UN will have a first woman because they're looking like the last bastions, as it were." But it could also be a massive "turn-off" to others, she admits. She loves her job, she says, and laughs when I point out she hasn't answered my question. "If there's enough support for the style of leadership that I have, it will be interesting."
- Back in New Zealand, there are fewer women in government than there were when she was prime minister. At the recent Davos meeting, only 15% of delegates were women, an even smaller number than last year. "These battles never go away," she says. "It shouldn't just depend on a group of exceptionally ambitious women. We need it to be in the culture of our societies, institutionalising it in the normal scheme of things. [Then] there will be a lot of women at the top."
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- 2030
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- Whither Europe on emissions? | Marketplace.org
- Is Europe blowing hot and cold over climate change?
- The European Union has been in the forefront of the campaign against global warming, but its latest climate plan has been attacked for being much weaker than it should be. Some scientists say that by 2030, the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent of 1990 levels if it is to avert a catastrophe. Europe is proposing a 40 percent cut instead.
- "Although it's better than doing nothing at all, it's not an awful lot better,'' says Dr. Doug Parr of Greenpeace,''The leadership that Europe has displayed up to now is slipping back."
- Other campaigners are concerned about Europe's new target for renewable energy use. It commits the EU to producing around a quarter of its energy from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2030. But the target is for Europe as a whole, and is not binding for each of the 28 individual member states.
- "Some member states will be more virtuous, and some will be less virtuous," says Monica Frassoni of the European Alliance to Save Energy. She believes the member states will bicker over this commitment, the target will be hard to enforce, and that won't encourage companies to invest and innovate.
- "The combined effect will be much less development and research of technologies on energy efficiency and renewables," says Frassoni.
- The European Commissioner for Climate Action defended her targets. Connie Hedegaard said that in these tough economic times ,the Europeans would have rejected a more stringent and ambitious plan. She pointed out that Europe still leads the world in climate action, lamenting the fact that other big economies had not followed Europe's example by adopting emissions targets.
- "That should be telling the Europeans something," argues James Sproule of Britain's Institute of Directors.He says no one else wants to sacrifice economic growth in the name of saving the planet. And he says the new, softer targets are a sign that Europe's enthusiasm for climate action is also waning.
- Stephen Beard is the European bureau chief and provides daily coverage of Europe's business and economic developments for the entire Marketplace portfolio.
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- EU 2030 Objectives: emissions vs. renewables
- Following the recent publication of the 2030 framework for climate and energy policies by the European Commission (EC), I was struck by the political struggle over what, to many people, would seem like a trivial choice of phrase: emissions or renewables. Behind the serene diplomatic curtain of these negotiations the key battleground has been whether to introduce a strong renewable energy objective for member states, or to concentrate on an emission reduction target. The two appear similar in phrase, but are vastly different in practice.
- The framework sets out the objective to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 40%, below 1990 levels across the EU as a whole, with a target of 27% of EU energy generated via renewable means by 2030, again, across the EU. These are building on the 2020 targets of 20% emissions and 20% renewable energy generation which the EU is currently on course to meet. This framework is being put to the Council of Europe and European Parliament for ratification before the close of 2014, in preparation for the 2015 Paris Summit in which global climate change and energy measures will be discussed at an international level.
- The key point of issue for this framework is the lack of binding targets per-nation. Both are binding at the EU level, which brings us back to my argument of renewables versus emissions. In 2010, Austria was the leading producer of renewable energy power as a proportion of its energy demand, upwards of 60% , while the United Kingdom had a total proportion of less than 10%. Cycle forward to present day and the UK is on course to produce 15% of its energy requirements via renewable sources by 2020, missing the EU target by 5%, but with the EU as a whole meeting the 20% threshold, no sanctions or redress needs to be made.
- EU targets to combat climate change, and lead the charge for an internationally binding deal must be applauded, but with such a divergent spectrum within their own house, reaching these targets in the future is going to become progressively harder. To have binding EU targets, you must have a coherent and long term strategy which is broadly based along similar lines across different member states. What we currently have is a kaleidoscope of various strategies, led by national interests, in a sector which is reliant on international stability and cooperation. The 2030 framework fails in this regard.
- Germany, turning its back on nuclear energy post Fukishima, even though it does not lie on a tectonic plate, has reverted to renewable sources and fossil fuels, importing vast amounts of coal cheaply from the US as worldwide prices have collapsed, increasing Germany's already large emissions base. The UK has committed to a nuclear future, building new 21st century plants, as well as winning the argument on shale gas, where a key victory in the framework was that no additional regulation was announced at the EU level regarding this energy source. France relies on over 20 aging nuclear power plants for over 75% of its energy demand, committing itself to a new generation is a formality but an expansive one. Spain and Portugal have both published results which show renewable energy sources (wind and hydro power) produced a greater percentage of their energy requirement than fossil fuel based sources for the first time ever, indicating renewables can maintain the capacity market even as energy demand increases.
- Many will argue that each nation demands a unique energy strategy to best suit their environment and individual infrastructure demands, and I'd be hard pressed to argue against that, but by failing to strictly lay out the requirement for a nation to actually produce 27% of its energy needs via renewable sources means investment can be diverted. Finance that would go into the development of hydro technology in the North Sea (in the UK) will be diverted towards nuclear and shale gas. The 2030 framework in essence, will not actually encourage further investment in renewables, for example, the UK will simply carry on under-producing renewable energy and trade off with Spain's quota so as to reach the EU binding target. The emissions target will never be achieved without drastic changes across the infrastructure (iron, steel, chemical) sectors and a huge leap forward in innovative technology.
- I previously wrote an article on Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technology, arguing it was a necessity to meet future emission targets, another fine example of divergent energy strategies as the UK has the only commercially viable testing programme, even with the EU CCS Directive of 2009 which aimed for 15 operational plants by 2015. Over the past month, the European Parliament has voted in support of CCS as a low carbon technology with the EC formally launching a report into how to develop this technology across the EU. Nationally binding objectives for both renewables and emissions may have been a costly answer, but this would have streamlined the EU energy strategy. Finance would have been pooled, industry forced to react as one and not differently due to dependence on the investment priorities of the individual country, and European energy grids would have been prioritised for the transferring of energy across the EU to cater for peak demand. I won't say the 2030 framework is a failure, each target met is a step in the right direction, but my argument is that we must all step in the same direction '' via energy generation, innovative technology and energy efficiency plans. In my eyes it was a chance missed, and the 2040 targets seem an awfully long way off.
- Ed GavaghanA proud alumni of Aston University (UK) where I studied English Language & European Studies, with a one year placement at Korea University (SK) focusing on Asian politics, international trade, economics and history. Understanding the fractious Anglo-European relationship, as well as gaining first-hand knowledge of key international institutions was at the heart of my decision to specialise in European Public Affairs at Maastricht University (NL).Previously working at the British Chamber of Commerce in Brussels and now a full-time political researcher in the UK, I have a passion for policy analysis, Tarantino films, travelling, aviators and explaining the rules of cricket to anybody who will listen.
- Feel free to contact me at: egavaghan@europeanpublicaffairs.eu / Or follow me on Twitter: @epgavaghan
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- 2030-Should a robot decide when to kill? | The Verge
- By the time the sun rose on Friday, December 19th, the Homestead Miami race track had been taken over by robots. Some hung from racks, their humanoid feet dangling above the ground as roboticists wheeled them out of garages. One robot resembled a gorilla, while another looked like a spider; yet another could have been mistaken for a designer coffee table. Teams of engineers from MIT, Google, Lockheed Martin, and other institutions and companies replaced parts, ran last-minute tests, and ate junk food. Spare heads and arms were everywhere.
- It was the start of the Robotics Challenge Trials, a competition put on by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the US Department of Defense dedicated to high risk, high reward technology projects. Over a period of two days, the machines would attempt a series of eight tasks including opening doors, clearing a pile of rubble, and driving a car.
- The eight robots that scored highest in the trials would go on to the finals next year, where they will compete for a $2 million grand prize. And one day, DARPA says, these robots will be defusing roadside bombs, surveilling dangerous areas, and assisting after disasters like the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
- Mark Gubrud, a former nanophysicist and frumpy professor sort, fit right in with the geeky crowd. But unlike other spectators, Gubrud wasn't there to cheer the robots on. He was there to warn people.
- ''DARPA's trying to put a face on it, saying 'this isn't about killer robots or killer soldiers, this is about disaster response,' but everybody knows what the real interest is,'' he says. ''If you could have robots go into urban combat situations instead of humans, then your soldiers wouldn't get killed. That's the dream. That's ultimately why DARPA is funding this stuff.''
- As the US military pours billions of dollars into increasingly sophisticated robots, people inside and outside the Pentagon have raised concerns about the possibility that machine decision will replace human judgment in war.
- Around a year ago, the Department of Defense released directive 3000.09: "Autonomy in Weapons Systems." The 15-page document defines an autonomous weapon '-- what Gubrud would call a killer robot '-- as a weapon that "once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator."
- The directive, which expires in 2022, establishes guidelines for how the military will pursue such weapons. A robot must always follow a human operator's intent, for example, while simultaneously guarding against any failure that could cause an operator to lose control. Such systems may only be used after passing a series of internal reviews.
- "It's a veto power that you have about a half-second to exercise. You're mid-curse word."The guidelines are sketchy, however, relying on phrases like "appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force." That leaves room for systems that can be given an initial command by a human, then dispatched to select and strike their targets. DARPA is working on a $157 million long-range anti-ship missile system, for example, that is about as autonomous as an attack dog that's been given a scent: it gets its target from a human, then seeks out and engages the enemy on its own.
- Some experts say it could take anywhere from five to thirty years to develop autonomous weapons systems, but others would argue that these weapons already exist. They don't necessarily look like androids with guns, though. The recently tested X-47B is one of the most advanced unmanned drones in the US military. It takes off, flies, and lands on a carrier with minimal input from its remote pilot. The Harpy drone, built by Israel and sold to other nations, autonomously flies to a patrol area, circles until it detects an enemy radar signal, and then fires at the source. Meanwhile, defense systems like the US Phalanx and the Israeli Iron Dome automatically shoot down incoming missiles, which leaves no time for human intervention.
- "A human has veto power, but it's a veto power that you have about a half-second to exercise," says Peter Singer, a fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. "You're mid-curse word."
- Gubrud, an accomplished academic, first proposed a ban on autonomous weapons back in 1988. He's typically polite, but talk of robotics brings out his combative side: he approached DARPA director Arati Prabhakar at one point during the challenge and tried to get her to admit that the agency is developing autonomous weapons.
- He may have been the lone voice of dissent among the hundreds of robot-watchers at DARPA's event, but Gubrud has some muscle behind him: the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), an organization founded in 2009 by experts in robotics, ethics, international relations, and human rights law. If robotics research continues unchecked, ICRAC warns, the future will be a dystopian one in which militaries arm robots with nuclear weapons, countries start unmanned wars in space, and dictators use killer robots to mercilessly control their own people.
- Concern about robot war fighters goes beyond a "cultural disinclination to turn attack decisions over to software algorithms," as the autonomy hawk Barry D. Watts put it. Robots, at least right now, have trouble discriminating between civilians and the terrorists and insurgents who live among them. Furthermore, a robot's actions are a sum of its programmer, operator, manufacturer, and other factors, making it difficult to assign responsibility if something does go wrong. And finally, replacing soldiers with robots would convert the cost of war from human lives to dollars, which could lead to more conflicts.
- ICRAC and more than 50 organizations including Human Rights Watch, Nobel Women's Initiative, and Code Pink have formed a coalition calling itself the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Their request is simple: an international ban on autonomous weapons systems that will head off the robotics arms race before it really gets started.
- "Tireless war machines, ready for deployment at the push of a button, pose the danger of permanent ... armed conflict."There has actually been some progress on this front. A United Nations report in May, 2013 called for a temporary ban on autonomous lethal systems until nations set down rules for their use. "There is widespread concern that allowing lethal autonomous robots to kill people may denigrate the value of life itself," the report says. "Tireless war machines, ready for deployment at the push of a button, pose the danger of permanent (if low-level) armed conflict."
- The UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons will convene a meeting of experts this spring, the first step toward an international arms agreement. "We need to have a clear view of what the consequences of those weapons could be," says Jean-Hugues Simon-Michel, the French ambassador to the UN Conference on Disarmament and its chairman, who persuaded the other nations to take up the issue. "And of course when there is a particular concern with regard to a category of weapons, it's always easier to find a solution before those weapons exist."
- Watching the robots stumble around the simulated disaster areas at the DARPA trials would have been reassuring to anyone worried about killer robots. Today's robots are miracles of science compared to those from 20 years ago, but they are still seriously impaired by lousy perception, energy inefficiency, and rudimentary intelligence. The machines move agonizingly slowly and wear safety harnesses in case they fall, which happens often.
- The capabilities being developed for the challenge, however, are laying the groundwork for killer robots should we ever decide to build them. "We're part of the Defense Department," DARPA's director, Arati Prabhakar, acknowledges. "Why do we make these investments? We make them because we think that they're going to be important for national security." One recent report from the US Air Force notes that "by 2030 machine capabilities will have increased to the point that humans will have become the weakest component in a wide array of systems and processes."
- "If we can protect innocent civilian life, I do not want to shut the door on the use of this technology."By some logic, that might be a good thing. Robot shooters are inherently more accurate than humans, and they're unaffected by fear, fatigue, or hatred. Machines can take on more risk in order to verify a target, loitering in an area or approaching closer to confirm there are no civilians in the way.
- "If we can protect innocent civilian life, I do not want to shut the door on the use of this technology," says Ron Arkin, PhD, a roboticist and ethicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who has collaborated extensively with Pentagon agencies on various robotics systems.
- Arkin proposes that an "ethical governor," a set of rules that approximates an artificial conscience, could be programmed into the machines in order to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law. Autonomy in these systems, he points out, isn't akin to free will '-- it's more like automation. During the trials, DARPA deliberately sabotaged the communications links between robots and their operators in order to give an advantage to the bots that could "think" on their own. But at least for now, that means being able to process the command "take a step" versus "lift the right foot 2 inches, move it forward 6 inches, and set it down."
- "When you speak to philosophers, they act as if these systems will have moral agency," Arkin says. "At some level a toaster is autonomous. You can task it to toast your bread and walk away. It doesn't keep asking you, 'Should I stop? Should I stop?' That's the kind of autonomy we're talking about."
- "No one wants to hear that they're building a weapon," says Doug Stephen, a software engineer at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) whose team placed second at DARPA's event. But he admits that the same capabilities being honed for these trials '-- ostensibly to make robots good for disaster relief '-- can also translate to the battlefield. "Absolutely anything," Stephen says, "can be weaponized."
- His team's robot, a modification of the humanoid Atlas built by Boston Dynamics, earned the most points in the least amount of time on several challenges, including opening doors and cutting through walls. When it successfully walked over "uneven terrain" built out of cinder blocks, the crowd erupted into cheers. Stephen and his team will now advance to the final stage of the challenge next year '-- alongside groups from institutes including MIT and NASA '-- to vie for the $2 million prize.
- That DARPA funding could theoretically seed the rescue-robot industry, or it could kickstart the killer robot one. For Gubrud and others, it's all happening much too fast: the technology for killer robots, he warns, could outrun our ability to understand and agree on how best to use it. "Are we going to have robot soldiers running around in future wars, or not? Are we going to have a robot arms race which isn't just going to be these humanoids, but robotic missiles and drones fighting each other and robotic submarines hunting other submarines?" he says. "Either we're going to decide not to do this, and have an international agreement not to do it, or it's going to happen."
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- 2030 (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America is a 2011 dystopian novel[1] by American actor and comedian Albert Brooks. It is his first novel.
- Synopsis[edit]The story follows a diverse cast of characters in the year 2030, by which time cancer has been cured, generational tension between the young and the old has escalated, and the "half-Jewish" president of the United States is hamstrung by massive federal debt, and challenged by a high-profile kidnapping of senior citizens, massive reconstruction of earthquake-devastated Los Angeles in partnership with China, and a constitutional amendment which could lead to a foreign-born president.[2]
- Development[edit]According to Brooks, he "did an earlier version of the book as a script" but felt it would be too expensive to produce it as a futuristic film.[3] The novel "is meant to be very plausible [...] I almost wanted the book to read like a news story. This is not a faraway America."[3]
- Brooks had already written "substantial portions of 2030" before pitching it to Elizabeth Beier, Brooks's editor at St. Martin's Press.[1]
- Reception[edit]The book has received mostly positive reviews. Janet Maslin of The New York Times remarked that Brooks "made the nervy move of transposing his worrywart sensibility from film to book. Two things are immediately apparent about his debut novel: that it's as purposeful as it is funny, and that Mr. Brooks has immersed himself deeply in its creation." Asking why Brooks' take should be taken seriously, Maslin answers, "his prognostications are not so farfetched for futuristic fiction; that he has worked them into a real novel, not a tricked-up movie treatment; and that a little humor goes a long way in this often bleak genre". But about the ending, "some events seem abrupt and artificial", and Brooks "doesn't have the pitilessness it requires."[4]
- Kirkus Reviews summarized, "Actor Albert Brooks has fun imagining a world in the future'--though not too far in the future to be wholly implausible" and "the tone is satiric, something Brooks usually does with a light touch, though occasionally he loses the playfulness and shows too heavy a hand."[2]
- Publishers Weekly called the novel a "smart and surprisingly serious debut", noted its "sweeping narrative", and classified it as "a novel as entertaining as it is thought provoking, like something from the imagination of a borscht belt H.G. Wells."[5]
- References[edit]External links[edit]
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- Vietnam gets flooded in the disaster epic Nuoc 2030
- Here's the stark image of Vietnam under water, in the new movie Nuoc 2030, which is getting its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. Check out the teaser trailer and poster below.
- Here's the synopsis of Nuoc 2030, which sounds like one of the bleakest visions of near-future climate change we've seen in movies in quite some time:
- It is the year 2030. Catastrophic climate change as a result of global warming means that most of the arable land in southern Vietnam is now below sea level. Most of the population has already been evacuated, but Sao and her husband Thi refuse to leave their land. They are living in a stilt house and subsisting on the dwindling fish population. On floating farms along the coast, major multinational corporations are working on a secret project to create vegetables, now a rare commodity.
- When her husband is murdered, Sao gets a job at the floating farm where she suspects she may find his murderer. She discovers that the concern is making use of genetic engineering in its production and that the processes used pose a huge health risk. Does the chief scientist, who was once her lover, have anything to do with her husband's death? Her quest for the truth sucks her into a whirlpool of events that eventually see her faced with a dramatic decision.
- Here's the teaser trailer, which doesn't really show much:
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- Hillary 2016
- Dropping the middle name = decriminalizing her
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- Clinton Named As Longtime CIA Spook
- A private researcher claims to have found''the smoking gun''linking President Bill Clintonto the CIA as a long-termoperative.
- The ties were obvious inthe 1980'²s when theagency used an airstripin western Arkansas aspart of a money laundering-drugs for money scamand continue today throughClinton appointments.
- EXCLUSIVE TO THE SPOTLIGHT
- BY SPOTLIGHT STAFF (1993)
- New information adduced by investigator Stew Webb points to the likelihood that Bill Clinton has been a deep cover CIA agent since his days at Georgetown University.
- Ivy League schools are well known as a recruiting ground for the CIA.
- The man Clinton defeated for the president, George H.W. Bush, an alumnus of Yale, is widely believed to have been recruited as an undergraduate.
- CIA agents are sworn to place their loyalty to the agency above anything else.
- They are also expected to lie about their association with ''the Company'' as it is called, whenever asked-including under oath.
- Of course, the CIA has its unique ways to enforce discipline.
- With a budget secret from the taxpayers and its unknown (legal and illegal) businesses around the world, its total income is estimated at $35 billion per year.
- One of the businesses attributed to the CIA by many researchers is drug and gun smuggling. The small airport at Mena, Arkansas, has long been known as a transshipment pint used by the CIA.
- Webb estimates that some 36 billion in drugs have gone through the Mena airport during the years 1981 to 1988. (Iran/Contra) Clinton was governor of Arkansas during the years 1979-81 and 1983-92.
- The controlled press barely batted an eye when investigators revealed Bill Clinton organized protests against the Vietnam War in Europe and traveled behind the Iron Curtain as a Rhodes scholar in the 1960'²s.
- The SPOTLIGHT has learned Clinton's trips were more than youthful adventure. Clinton was working for the CIA, according to Webb. According to sources within the CIA, Clinton was used by the agency to infiltrate protest groups and report on their activities. In addition, Clinton used his cover as a Rhodes scholar to view the Khrushchev memoirs, then he stole documents for ''the Company'', Webb said.
- According to sources, Clinton was answering to London bureau chief Cord Meyer when he took the Khrushchev documents. Contacted in Washington recently, Meyer denied Clinton was working for the agency (CIA).
- Webb said his sources indicate former Time editor and Council on Foreign Relations mouthpiece Strobe Talbott, international business tycoon Ira Magaziner and a third Ivy League grad. at Oxford all started careers with the CIA as they were schooled in England. The one unidentified agent died shortly after returning to this country. The other three engaged in brilliant careers that placed them in influential positions the media, business and politics.
- Talbott, for example, was able to influence international opinion as a writer at Time and frequent talking head on infomercials- public affairs propaganda aimed at enforcing the Establishment line-such as Inside Washington. Talbott now serves as an undersecretary of state.
- Magaziner made millions of dollars as a management consultant to major international corporations and as an advisor to Sweden and Israel after graduating.
- Today Magaziner handles the day-to-day operations of the president's health care task force. One of the plans being pushed forward by the task force is a national identification card, which could be used to keep tabs on individuals around the country (SPOTLIGHT, June 28,1993).
- Clinton began a meteoric political rise culminating in his election as president. Clinton appears to have helped the agency whenever and wherever he could on his way to the top.
- KHRUSHCHEV PAPERS FIRST ASSIGNMENT
- One of Bill Clinton'sfirst assignments withthe CIA was to sneakinto Moscow and bringout the Nikita Khrushchevmemoirs, according tofreelance investigatorStew Webb.
- ''I was told by two sources within the CIA that Bill Clinton has been CIA since 1967 or 68,'' freelance investigator Stew Webb said.
- ''Clinton and a couple of others went to Moscow from Stockholm, Sweden.
- ''They acted as a couple of Rhode scholars,'' he added. ''They were able to, for research purposes, view Khrushchev's memoirs.
- They stole them for the CIA. They answered to a guy named Cord Meyer.'' Meyer served as the London CIA bureau chief while Clinton was in England studying under the Rhodes scholarship program. Clinton is also alleged to have infiltrated war protest groups for the agency, giving the CIA names of fellow protesters and the source of the movement's funding.
- When Khrushchev Remembers was published in 16 different languages in the early 1970s, it was denounced as a CIA trick.
- Meyer's history with the agency is intertwined with recent American history.
- Meyer, for example, talked with teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
- They maintained correspondence until the day Hoffa disappeared, according to Webb.
- Also, Meyer's ex-wife, Mary Pinchot Meyer, was murdered October 12, 1964, shortly after deciding to publish her diary'' including details of an affair with JFK. Webb said his sources tell him Mrs. Meyer's death was a CIA hit ordered by James Angleton, a CIA counterintelligence specialist.
- ''She kept a diary on the affair,'' Webb said. ''She announced publicly to different people that she was having this affair with Kennedy and she was going to print a book.
- ''All of a sudden she ended up dead, and her diary ends up disappearing.''
- Sources say Angleton had the diary destroyed once it came into his possession. In addition, Angleton handled the CIA's dealing with the Warren Commission investigation of the Kennedy assassination.
- Angleton was Israel's chief advocate in the CIA.
- Related Posts:Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=286132
- The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT or any other VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors or partners. Legal NoticePosted by Stew Webb on Jan 29 2014, With 0 Reads, Filed under Editor, Government, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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- EARon
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- 170,000 rockets are aimed at Israel's cities, says IDF intel head
- 170,000 certainly ups the ante and brings credibility to Iran's latest threat of slaughtering all of America's military bases within its reach.
- The head of Israel's most powerful intelligence agency depicted Wednesday a changing battlefield in which offensive cyber capabilities will, in the near future, represent the greatest shift in combat doctrine in over 1,000 years. For now, though, he said, the 170,000 rockets and missiles pointed by enemy states at Israel represented the most pressing threat, a danger he placed even above Iran's rogue nuclear program.
- ''Cyber, in my humble opinion, and you don't have to agree with me, will be revealed in a not very long time as a revolution greater than the creation of gunpowder or the usage of the aerial space at the start of the past century,'' said Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the head of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate. Kochavi, a former infantry officer, called the possibilities inherent in cyber warfare ''nearly limitless, and that is not a metaphor.''
- He listed four central challenges. The first, notably listed ahead of Iran's nuclear program, are rockets, he said. Kochavi asserted that Israel faces 170,000 rockets and missiles, and that, ''for the first time in many decades, the enemy has the ability to drop considerable amounts of munitions on the cities of Israel.'' In the past the threat was countered by the IAF, he said; today it is Israel's enemies' primary weapon and it represents an enormous intelligence challenge to counter.
- He said the 170,000 number had actually been higher, but that Syria's stockpiles were being depleted in the civil war, and Hamas's arsenal had been depleted during Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. ''The number will rise again,'' Kochavi warned.
- He revealed that the cyber threats facing Israel are growing ''exponentially'' and said that during the past year the state has faced hundreds of attacks and the intelligence community has faced dozens of attacks, ''the vast majority of which were thankfully unsuccessful.''
- And finally, he noted the ''near 360 degree'' presence of Jihadist elements along Israel's borders. A slide depicting areas under the control of militant, Salafist elements covered what looked like half of Syria and had a presence in nearly every country in the region, including Turkey, he noted. Aside from creating friction along the border regions and melting the traditional state lines, he said that the rise of sub-state groups also mean that today ''90 percent of Israel's future battlefields are in urban areas.''
- Full article: 170,000 rockets are aimed at Israel's cities, says IDF intel head Read more: 170,000 rockets are aimed at Israel's cities, says IDF intel head (The Times of Israel)
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- LNG/GAS
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- Gas Prices Explode higher
- Natural Gas futures prics are exploding higher... By now everyone is quite aware of the US climatic conditions so whatever squeeze just took place has nothing to do with fundamentals, and everything to do with someone being Amaranth'd. The only question is who, and who is their counterparty (especially if it is a public company).
- The last 3 days in NG is +9.6%, -6.5%, and today +10.4% - these are 5 sigma swings!!
- Average:Your rating: NoneAverage: 4.8(9 votes)
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- TTP/TTIP
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- Sen. Reid Comes Out Against TPP Fast Track
- This is some unexpected good news:
- WASHINGTON'--Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke publicly with the White House Wednesday on trade policy, instantly imperiling two major international trade deals and punching a hole in one piece of the economic agenda the president outlined in his State of the Union address a day earlier.
- Mr. Reid told reporters he opposed legislation aimed at smoothing the passage of free-trade agreements, a vital component to negotiating any deal, and pointedly said supporters should back down.
- "I'm against fast track," Mr. Reid (D., Nev.) said, using the shorthand term for legislation that prevents overseas trade agreements from being amended during the congressional approval process. "I think everyone would be well-advised just not to push this right now."
- The move spells trouble for two sets of complicated talks, one with the European Union and the other with countries in the Asian-Pacific region. Both deals likely would have required such a "fast track" approval to clear the Congress. The U.S.'s negotiating partners wouldn't likely commit to a final agreement that could be unpopular back home without assurances that it couldn't be modified by U.S. lawmakers.
- Christie scandal: New allegations emerge from Zimmer lawsuit
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- War on Printers
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- Major patent expiration could spark a second 3D printing revolution
- One of the central patents controlling production of a specific type of 3D printer expired yesterday, and the news has the 3D printing community buzzing. The patent concerns selective laser sintering (SLS), a form of additive manufacturing that offers some significant advantages over other techniques. Today the cost of an SLS printer can run as high as $250,000, but the hope is that this patent expiration will dramatically reduce that figure.
- It might seem extreme, but the claim isn't without evidence. After the expiration of the patent for fused deposition modeling (FDM), an enormous open source movement appeared almost overnight. What had once been a corporate oddity became a popular DIY project, and companies arose to cater to a whole new market: the enthusiast 3D printing customer. These rickety, (relatively) low-fidelity printers found great traction with the Arduino and Raspberry Pi crowd, and their success has led directly to the low-cost, mid-range printers available today.
- SLS' combination of resolution, speed, and materials quality has many excited.
- SLS machines can offer significant upgrades over current economy-level 3D printers because they don't rely on a traditional extruder to control the modeling material. This slow and inherently inaccurate process imposes a fairly hard limit on resolution, and greatly restricts the materials with which we can print '-- or at least, it has. FDM has historically used mostly plastics, like ABS, but printing with more innovative materials like carbon fiber is now becoming a reality.
- By contrast, SLS machines user a high-powered laser to fuse small particles of material, released almost as an aerosol, to the growing object. With this technology it is possible to print plastic, metal, ceramic, or glass '-- virtually anything that can be released as a powder and heat-fused to a growing print. If this technology comes down in price even a fraction as far as FDM has, the at-home 3D printing revolution could finally begin in earnest.
- At least, some people think so. Others aren't so sure. The patent at issue here is (as you might expect since it is expiring) quite old, and covers only the most basic principle of laser additive printing. Companies have spent nearly two decades improving the technology, and those proprietary devices are all still kept safe from start-ups and hobbyists. This patent expiration technically opens a legal path for some new company or individual to bring SLS printers to market, but those outlined in the patent may simply be too primitive to be useful.
- RepRap is an open-source printing project that has made enormous strides since its inception.
- Also at issue is the financial wisdom of entering the SLS market. Since it incorporates high-powered precision lasers, there's no guarantee that this technology can be made anywhere near as cheap as an FDM machine; a company could well find that they have no market, with printers too expensive for hobbyists and too primitive for professionals. Additionally, any attempts to improve on SLS technology could easily overlap with patents still in effect '-- and the risk of unwittingly opening themselves to lawsuits could stifle innovation.
- Still, many of these problems existed for FDM printers when they became fair game just a few short years ago, and today you can pick some very decent home printers for as little as $300. Even if the tech has to take a few downgrades in terms of resolution or the range of possible materials, there's no reason the basic principle couldn't still make its way to the open source scene. We've already seen tentative attempts at an open-source sintering printer (PDF), such as this one that used wax as the building material '-- hardly a proof of concept for printing your own replacement car parts.
- The past few months have seen a reduction in momentum within the open source printing community, mostly owing to the fact that their prior rate of advancement had been unsustainably quick. With a whole new method of printing now legally available, that momentum could well be about to return.
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- BTC
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- One Day After Bitcoin Arrest, Winklevii Argue for Fewer Bitcoin Rules
- At a panel on virtual currencies held by the New York Department of Financial Services yesterday, Bitcoin investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss warned banking supervisors that too many rules would "cripple" the volatile crytocurrency. It seems the twins only like an overzealous legal system when it adds to their bank account.
- Just one day earlier, Charlie Shrem, the CEO of a Bitcoin company financed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, was arrested for money laundering using Bitcoins on Silk Road. (Shrem's company, BitInstant, was not named in the indictment.) In a statement about the arrest, the brothers distanced themselves from Shrem, and said they "look forward to clearer regulation being implemented on the purchase and sale of bitcoins."
- By clearer, they apparently meant invisible. According to theWall Street Journal, the investors tried to stoke fears of losing Bitcoin jobs overseas:
- In the first of two days of hearings held by New York's top banking supervisor on the topic, prominent bitcoin entrepreneurs such as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss acknowledged potential benefits of setting certain rules on the industry but warned that too much regulation could stall innovation and send jobs overseas. [...]
- Regulation "will play the biggest role in bitcoin's forthcoming evolution," Cameron Winklevoss told a panel from the New York Department of Financial Services. He warned that "overregulation could cripple its development."
- Regulators were understandably concerned that Shrem, an early advocate and (until this week) vice president of the Bitcoin Foundation, was accused of laundering the currency through a "dark web drug site." But Shrem's backers, who invested through their fund Winklevoss Capital Management, said it was no big deal:
- Responding to a question from Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the New York financial-services department, who presided over the hearing, Tyler Winklevoss described the arrest of Mr. Shrem as a "speed bump" for the fledgling industry.
- Careful bros, sometimes a little roadblock can cost you.
- To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.
- [Image via Associated Press]
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- Kale
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- Kale vs. Weed: Which Is the More Lucrative Green? | Vocativ
- This year's Super Bowl, an American ritual in which average folk gather around the television to gorge on chicken wings and cheap beer, will feature an unlikely addition to the menu for stadium-goers: kale.
- ''Kale is so trendy right now,'' says Eric Borgia, the chef overseeing this year's game, who has created a delicious-sounding chicken-sausage and Tuscan kale sandwich to be sold at MetLife stadium. ''Every book you open up, it's all about kale and kale chips.''
- He's right'--there's now even a National Kale Day. But before kale reached its apex of popularity, the leafy green was a relatively inconsequential vegetable, at least in the cultural zeitgeist. In 1997, for instance, the biggest buyer of kale was not a supermarket chain. It was Pizza Hut, which used the leafy green as a garnish on its salad bar.
- Perhaps the only other leafy green to capture the public's imagination as deeply as kale is something that has been around for generations: weed. And with weed becoming legal in more and more states, the profits from growing it are increasingly ripe for the pickings.
- So if you're a green-thumbed entrepreneur who's considering heading into either industry (or you're just generally curious), what are the numbers you need to crunch?
- Recreational weed is currently legal in two states'--Washington and Colorado. For medicinal purposes, weed is legal in 21 states. That number is likely to grow. Given that many more states will likely begin the process of decriminalization or outright legalization in the next decade or so, Vocativ created a helpful map to see which states will be the next ones to smoke you out, legally speaking. (We're looking at you, California. Sup, brah?)
- KNOW THY LEAF: What's in it?
- Kale is jam-packed with nutrients and has plenty of cholesterol-lowering benefits. The leaf itself contains protein, high levels of vitamin C and K, iron, omega-3 and fiber. One study even found that eating kale could lower your chance of colon cancer.
- There are more than 400 chemicals in marijuana, but only 15 percent are unique to Cannabis. The one you've probably heard of'--delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol'--or THC, as its locally known, is the stuff that is the "most pharmacologically active." That is, it gets you high. There have been plenty of studies that have documented some of the health benefits of smoking weed'--especially for migraines, glaucoma and seizures'--but scientists have recently found that it might have one ironic effect that runs counter to the popular stoner stereotype. It actually helps your memory.
- (GrowingMarijuanaTips.com)
- With kale on our plates and weed in our brains, we wondered: Which is the more lucrative business?*
- That's a complicated question to answer.
- I spoke with experts on either side: Drew Ramsey, one of the founders of National Kale Day who has written a book on the subject, 50 Shades of Kale; and Ellis Smith, a horticulturist, dispensary owner and co-founder of American Cannabis Consulting, a company that helps weed farmers and entrepreneurs open up shop.
- On one hand, kale is a relatively simple crop to grow.
- ''You literally put seeds in the ground and wait for the kale to grow,'' says Magary.
- Kale does fine in low-nitrogen soil, and it's a generally a hardy plant'--one that can even survive a winter's frost. The reason producers like kale, he says, is that they can get multiple harvests from one plant. Unlike broccoli (where you get one head), kale gives you many harvests per plant, since you're just picking the leaves and waiting for them to re-grow.
- The market for kale is certainly growing, though it's difficult to tell exactly how big the market will become. The USDA tracks the consumption of kale in terms of pounds consumed per person, per year, but it doesn't track the overall market size, so we did a little back-of-the-envelope calculation to figure it out.
- In 2012, the USDA recorded 0.4 pounds of kale consumed per person in the U.S. Since that number does not take into account the 8,144 farmers markets in America, we rounded up to 0.5 pounds per person. Multiplying out the total population with the average retail price for kale ($2.19), we arrived at market size of $345 million. That number will likely grow.
- According to Nielsen, which now tracks perishables, the year-over-year growth for kale surged more than 600 percent from October 2012 to October 2013.
- The takeaway for you kale-farming-hopefuls is this: Kale farming is a good but low-margin business. If you have a couple of acres, you might want to give it a try, but don't expect to be raking in the green, at least metaphorically.
- Weed, on the hand, is more involved'--and certainly more expensive, which can make it harder to find backing to start up a pot-related business.
- ''Colorado is still what I call a bro-brah market,'' says Smith, the pot-grower. ''But in the new market, it's all smart businessmen who are very well funded. All they're looking at is ROI.''
- Smith says a serious weed-grower would need at least $3 million to $5 million in startup capital to get going in the weed business'--whether that's for a recreational shop in Colorado or a medicinal dispensary elsewhere.
- Most entrepreneurs, he says, are paying about $15 per square foot just for the warehouse growing facility. It's an additional $50 to $100 to build out the facilities. Then there are legal costs, which drive the entry costs way, way up.
- ''This is a serious game now,'' he says. ''It's not attainable for the guy who thinks he just wants to go and quit his job and work in the market.''
- Then again, the rewards are huge. It's a market currently valued at $1.44 billion that's growing at 64 percent'--faster than the global market for smartphones.
- *Note: No reporters got stoned for the making of this story'...but I did eat kale yesterday.
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- Drone Nation
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- US Customs grounds drone fleet after $12 million unmanned aircraft crashes off of California
- Published time: January 28, 2014 21:16(FILE) Undated file photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy shows an unmanned aerial vehicle conducting tests over Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. (Reuters / U.S. Navy/Erik Hildebrandt/Northrop Grumman)
- The United States Customs and Border Protection has grounded an entire fleet of drones, the agency admitted on Tuesday, after a mechanical function the night before forced a crew to crash an unmanned aircraft valued at $12 million.
- A spokesperson for the CBP said in a statement Tuesday that the drone, a maritime variant of the Predator B, was deliberately crashed into the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California after it encountered problems shortly after 11 p.m. local time late Monday.
- "The crew determined that the UAS would be unable to return to where it originated in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and put the aircraft down in the water," the spokesman, Michael Friel, told reporters.
- The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the decision to bring down the aircraft was made by the Predator's remote crew after they discovered that the drone's onboard generator failed during an otherwise routine patrol mission off the California coast, and that the backup battery lacked the sufficient power needed to keep it in the air. The Los Angeles Times reported that the drone broke apart on impact, and Connie Terrell, petty officer and spokeswoman for the Coast Guard, told reporters that her agency erected a ''buffer zone'' off of the California coast following the crash so the CBP could recover what remained of the aircraft.
- According to Reuters, the crew was still unsure of what exactly caused the mechanical failure as of Tuesday afternoon.
- Prior to Monday's incident, the CBP operated a fleet of ten drones that are operated regularly in order to patrol the US border with Mexico. That number diminished by one after this week's crash, the agency has temporarily grounded the rest of their arsenal as a precaution while an investigation is launched to determine what exactly went wrong with the unmanned aircraft.
- The CBP has been flying Predator B drones to patrol the region since 2005, and in fiscal year 2012 the fleet logged a total of 5,700 flying hours. Each craft can stay airborne for 20 hours at a time and may reach a height of 50,000 feet.
- ''The CBP UAS program focuses operations on the CBP priority mission of anti-terrorism by helping to identify and intercept potential terrorists and illegal cross-border activity,'' the agency says on their website. ''The Predator B's capability to provide high-quality streaming video to first responders, and to assess critical infrastructure before and after events, makes it an ideal aircraft to support emergency preparations and recovery operations.''
- Monday night's crash marked the first time the CBP lost a drone since 2006, when an operating crew error caused a Predator to crash over Arizona only a few months after the program first started. When the National Transportation Safety Board investigated the incident, they determined that ''the CBP was providing a minimal amount of operational oversight'' ahead of the crash.
- The use of unmanned aircraft have exploded across the US in the years since, and last year the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted for the first time on record of administering a fleet of their own unmanned vehicles. The Federal Aviation Administration expects to have rules in place that will allow for the widespread use of drones in the domestic airspace by the end of 2015, but industry experts and privacy advocates are still struggling to find a way to ensure UAVs can soar freely without interrupting other air traffic or invading the privacy of the American people.
- Monday's crash comes two months after the US Navy lost a drone off the coast of San Diego. A Navy drone also crashed during a training mission in Maryland one year earlier.
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- Monsantooo
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- DDT link to Alzheimers - News in Brief - The Ecologist
- 'DDT is good for me!' - detail of Penn Salt chemicals advertisement in Time magazine June 30, 1947. Photo: Crossett Library via Flickr.com.
- The magnitude of the effect is strikingly large. It is comparable in size to the most common genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's.
- Exposure to the synthetic pesticide DDT - widely known to be harmful in the environment - may also increase the risk and severity of Alzheimer's disease, a team of US scientists has found.
- The new study published in JAMA Neurology showed patients with Alzheimer's had four times the level of DDE, the chemical compound left when DDT breaks down, lingering in their body compared to healthy people.
- Out of the 86 patients involved 74 had DDE blood levels almost four times higher than the 79 in the control group who did not have Alzheimer's disease.
- DDT may contribute to brain cell death
- The researchers believe the chemical increases the risk of Alzheimer's and may be involved in the development of amyloid plaques in the brain, which contribute to the death of brain cells.
- Professor Allan Levey, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Centre at Emory, said: "This is one of the first studies identifying a strong environmental risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
- "The magnitude of the effect is strikingly large. It is comparable in size to the most common genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's."
- Banned since the 70s but still used
- DDT has been banned in many countries since 1972, when its impact on human health and wider environmental concern was first questioned.
- The chemical is still used to control malaria in some areas - its original purpose when introduced during World War Two. The World Health Organization still recommends DDT for keeping malaria in check. It is also used to fight typhus disease, which is transmitted by lice and fleas.
- DDT is still used as an agricultural pesticide in some countries. It has not been used in the UK since the 1980s, and is now banned across the EU, the USA and most industrialised countries.
- However DDT may be present in some imported crops. It is also highly persistent in soils and the wider environment.
- The toxic chemical lingers for decades
- Dr Jason Richardson, one of the scientists conducting the research said:"We are still being exposed to these chemicals ... We get food products from other countries and DDE persists in the environment for a long time."
- Levels of DDT and DDE have decreased significantly over the last three decades, yet the toxic pesticide is still found in 75 to 80% of the blood samples collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a national health and nutrition survey in the US.
- This occurs, scientists say, because "the chemical can take decades to break down in the environment". In addition, people may be exposed to the pesticide by consuming imported fruits, vegetables and grains from places where DDT is still being used and eating fish from contaminated waterways.
- Alzheimer's Research UK commented that more evidence was needed to prove the role of DDT in dementia.
- The study was conducted by Rutgers, Emory University and University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
- Sophie Morlin-Yron is a freelance journalist.
- More information: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2011/WHO_HTM_GMP_2011_eng.pdf?ua=1
- Report: http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1816013
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- USPS
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- PostNL: Nog maar drie dagen postbezorging - Economie - Reformatorisch Dagblad
- PostNL sluit niet uit dat bezorgers binnenkort nog maar 3 dagen per week de post rondbrengen. beeld ANP
- PostNL sluit niet uit dat bezorgers binnenkort nog maar drie dagen per week de post rondbrengen. Een Europese richtlijn verplicht nu nog bezorging op minimaal vijf dagen per week, maar de Europese Commissie heeft onderzoek gedaan naar een soepelere postrichtlijn.
- Dat meldt het AD op gezag van een Europarlementarir.
- Een woordvoerder van PostNL bevestigt dat het bedrijf overgaat op postbezorging van '4 of misschien zelfs 3 dagen'' per week 'als de EU het toestaat''.
- Voor rouw en medische post zal een uitzondering gemaakt worden. Begin dit jaar besloot PostNL al geen post meer te leveren op maandag.
- Volgens PostNL neemt het postvolume in Nederland sneller af dan in andere Europese landen. Dat is mogelijk te wijten aan de zeer hoge internetdichtheid van Nederland.
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- 2TTH
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- Karl Slym Suicide: Another Tata Company Top Executive Takes His Life
- In July last year, VP HR of Tata Steel committed suicide. It was alleged that the executive was confined and tortured at a Tata plant/office.
- In July 2013, VP HR of Tata Steel committed suicide after alleged confinement and threats.
- Karl allegedly left a 3-page suicide note mentioning domestic problems. His wife was sleeping and was not aware of what had happened when the police came to inform her.
- Karl Slym, CEO of Tata Motors, allegedly took his life in a Bangkok hotel.
- CAUTION: Moral Volcano is unsafe for children and pregnant women. Adults may experience discomfort when reading Moral Volcano. Symptomatic treatment is recommended. Moral Volcano has nothing to do with morals or volcanoes.
- BEWARE: All assertions and statements on this site are in the nature of bets. These bets may be proven to be way off the mark. Do your own research and reach appropriate conclusions. Consult experts in the relevant field to be sure. Moral Volcano (represented by V. Subhash) and his partners, agents, assassins and others accept no responsibility whatsoever for anything on this web log or other content linked by this blog.
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- Carey Family Attorney Eric Sanders Seeking Videos of Miriam Carey Incident at White House? | American Everyman
- Late this evening I received a Twitter notification that someone had mentioned me in a Tweet. The person who did that was Eric Sanders, the attorney who was representing the Carey family in a custody suit after Miriam had been shot and killed after attempting to leave the White House grounds and being chased and gunned down by Secret Service and Capitol Police half a mile away '... while she was unarmed'... in front of her then 14 month old daughter.
- At this point it's hard to say what's behind this effort, but if it is legit, perhaps it will be a good start to finally finding some measure of justice for Miriam and accountability for those who murdered her.
- Background:Days after the shooting, Mr. Sanders made a comment on a Friday when the judge denied the Carey family custody of the child, Erica Carey, that they weren't going to give up their efforts to gain custody. In a bizarre legal move, Erica had been held by the state for quite some time after the shooting of her mother while Justice Department teams scoured Miriam's home in hazmat suits careful not to let any DNA out of the condo. The very next business day after Sanders made that comment (a Tuesday since that Monday was a federal holiday) he was arrested on a trumped up federal charge.
- It is no secret that I believed and still believe to this day that we are being lied to about the nature of what happened that fateful day.
- I know for a fact via police reports and witness statements, that the mainstream media is lying about Miriam trying to ''ram the gates'' at the White House. There is no damage to the front of her car as anyone can plainly see in the photos taken at the scene. The police report itself clearly states that Miriam had made a wrong turn into the White House access road and turned around before being confronted by Secret Service who were trying to prevent her from LEAVING the grounds when one put a bike rack in front of her. The one eye witness confirmed that he saw her trying to LEAVE the White House grounds when they attempted to stop her.
- From the beginning of this awful story I have wondered about the relevancy of little Erica to it all. One of the first articles I wrote about this put forward the notion that she wasn't just a side-note to the story, but in fact the core of it.
- The day Miriam attempted to leave the White House grounds with Erica was the wedding anniversary of Barack and Michelle Obama. I wondered why Miriam, a single mother, would take Erica on that day to the White House after having been on record saying she knew Obama was spying on her and controlling her life.
- Though the media universally attempted to portray Miriam as some sort of whacked out loony, her sister made it clear that she wasn't delusional. Her successful appearing lifestyle would also suggest a measure of responsibility that doesn't lend itself to the ''lone nut driver'' story we were being spoon-fed by every single MSM outlet.
- Another interesting facet of the case is how every single outspoken African American advocate suddenly went dead silent when an unarmed 34 year old black woman was gunned down in broad daylight by Obama's secret police force and the House of Representatives had the unmitigated gall to give them a 5 minute standing ovation for doing so.
- Something was horribly wrong with the story. Lies were being peddled by every news agency with a consistency not seen since the pre-Iraq invasion. The story seemed doomed to quietly slip down the proverbial rabbit hole. Short of a DNA test, the only possible evidence that could surface would be videos taken from the scene by White House security cameras showing exactly how and when Miriam and Erica entered the White House grounds and the circumstances of their attempt to leave unmolested by Obama's secret police.
- Little Erica's alleged father (Miriam's boyfriend at the time) took custody of her and the story has grown cold ever since.
- No justice for Miriam Carey has been handed out. No so much as a reprimand for gunning down an unarmed woman in the streets of DC for making a wrong turn onto White House grounds.
- Breaking news;As I stated earlier, there has been a development.
- Eric Sanders after being released from federal lockup came across some of my writing on the Miriam Carey story. I and a few others like Dr. James Manning and Raw Story, understand that there is something else to this tragic event and Eric came across our efforts. Dr. Manning has gone so far as too claim that Miriam's sister has called for a DNA test on little Erica. I don't know if that is true or not. I do not endorse forcing anyone's child to submit DNA for such a test. It's an invasion of her privacy that she is far too young to understand and I don't feel decisions like that are anyone's business but her direct relations, in this case her aunts and her grandmother.
- Sanders and I exchanged Tweets for a short period. We don't exactly see eye to eye on this case but I think it's fair to say we both agree there MUST be some kind of effort made to extract a measure of justice for Miriam from the Capitol Police and the Secret Service. No agency (or man for that matter) is above the law and their standing operating procedures in this case were definitely violated resulting in Miriam's violent and needless death.
- On that point, Mr. Sanders and I are in complete agreement.
- At one point I wrote that the White House had to have had security cameras at that location which would tell at least one part of the story of how Miriam died that day. Not all of it, but part of it.
- This evening, out of the blue, I received a notification that I had been mentioned on Twitter. This is what it said.
- The link left by Mr. Sanders in the Tweet takes you to a longer tweet he posted in which he explains that he has taken some time to ''observe'' Capitol Police and Secret Service procedures and has formulated a conclusion about what may have happened that day.
- What does that mean? Does it mean he has conducted his own private investigation into their policies and procedures or does it mean they brought him in to quell dissent on this caustic issue and he's now going to come out with some kind of story to put the whole thing to bed?
- Hard to say at this point, but he did offer up one more interesting bit of news: he's attempting to get security camera videos from local buildings that would have captured the incident at the White House gate where it all supposedly started.
- Here is Eric Sanders' full Twitter statement:
- Over the past couple of days, while in Washington, D.C., I had an opportunity to observe police operations of the Metropolitan Police Department, United States Secret Service '' Uniform Division and United States Capitol Police, specifically, around the White House and United States Capitol grounds, along with the immediate areas around the District of Columbia. The purpose of the observations was to rebut and/or support various theories as to how this police interaction with Miriam resulted in her untimely avoidable death. Without giving away all of my observations of their respective police operations, I can see how the shooting of Miriam unfolded.
- The key to understanding Miriam's untimely avoidable death begins at the corner of 15 Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW (United States Department of Commerce building) or E Street (White House entrance checkpoint), which is essentially the same corner. More importantly, cameras located atop of the United States Commerce building and the W Hotel aka Hotel Washington 515 15th Street NW probably gave a clear and unobstructed view of Miriam's direction, rate of travel towards and into the White House entrance gate and away from the White House entrance gate.
- We are going to get to the bottom of this incident.
- Notice how this is phrased. He states the purpose of the observation was to refute and/or support various (conspiracy) theories about this case.
- To me that's odd. I would think the purpose of anyone's efforts at that particular location would be to try to figure out how Miriam was shot and killed for making a wrong turn onto White House grounds. Do you know that there have been 6 people over the last 50 years or so who have attempted to actually break into the White House, two of which were armed and opened fire on the White House grounds striking the building. Do you know how many of them were gunned down in the street?
- Not a single one of the people who have attempted to bust into the White House have been killed and I think only one was shot'... in the leg.
- Miriam was shot a half a mile away multiple times, unarmed, for LEAVING the White House grounds'... in front of a 14 month old child.
- Given those historical facts, it's curious to me why the Carey family lawyer would spend time as a guest of the agencies who took her life, trying to ''refute and/or support'' the 'conspiracy'' theories as to the specifics of that particular murder.
- Without actually saying he is going to do so, it would appear that Mr. Sanders is implying that he intends to get the security camera videos from those two buildings in an effort to see if they show Miriam entering the White House grounds and leaving them.
- But he seems rather careful to not actually claim that is what he is going to do. Instead, he infers it and in the legal eagle mind of Mr. Sanders, that's a rather big difference.
- If Mr. Sanders really wants to know what happened, he should go through whatever legal hoops he has to in order to get his hands on the security camera footage of that corner from the White House itself. They SURELY have working video security. Without a doubt there is footage from that day of what happened at that guardhouse.
- And it would be pretty much the same process as trying to get the videos from the W Hotel and the Commerce Building seeing as how the Justice Department and the FBI and/or Capitol Police certainly grabbed up any local video security camera footage from that day for ''national security'' reasons. He's going to have to go through the Secret Service to get any of those videos anyway, might as well get all of them, right?
- But that's assuming they still exist which they almost certainly don't.
- I don't know what to think about Mr. Sanders' ''breaking news'' at this point.
- Part of me wants to think that he's making an effort to get to the bottom of all of this but another part of me smells a rat.
- I know how they work. They need to put this ''conspiracy theory'' to bed. They always do. So they come along a few months after the fact with an insider to offer up a very controlled new narrative which is slightly more honest than the old one, but still, not completely kosher. They did it with Benghazi they did it with the ridiculously staged bin Laden strike story. They do it all the time. It's important in the historical context.
- What could have happened goes something like this: they brought Sanders in, scared the shit out of him by letting him see the raw power of the Secret Service yet did so subtlety by taking him around kinda like a VIP for a day. Gave him a handler to walk him through the operation who explained the carefully scripted storyline for him of how ''miscommunication'' and ''9/11 panic'' got the best of a good system that fateful day. Then they end up giving him a couple clips of a video from way over across the street somewhere'... not a full video of her leaving and turning around and exiting as the story goes'... but a couple of edited clips of her car entering and then sometime later, exiting the building.
- Sanders comes away with a tragic story, but a story of a mistake, rather than a deliberate act.
- If that's the case, and we will know soon enough, then Mr. Sanders will be playing a role in the cover-up of the Miriam Carey murder.
- If on the other hand Mr. Sanders comes out of this with handfuls of nothing, then we can make a determination as to his intent at that time depending on his next step.
- However, and this is why I bothered to write this'... if on the slim chance Mr. Sanders is actually doing this in order to get to the bottom of Miriam's murder (that's the third time I wrote that and it was murder. Accident or not, they chased her, saw she was unarmed through the window of the car, saw the kid in the car, opened fire anyway, and eventually shot her dead standing beside her car unarmed. That's murder folks) and he comes away with videos from those two locations and starts a process to get the White House security recordings, then in that case he's doing a rather noble and selfless thing, opening himself up to more legal issues and painting a target squarely on his forehead.
- With that possibility in mind, after all this time researching and writing about finding justice for Miriam and Erica, I stand with Mr. Sanders in his efforts to produce these important videos. It won't tell us the whole story and quite probably will look a little like the Pentagon Flight 77 videos, but at this point it's a start. Hopefully it's a start born of good intentions to finally get some justice for Miriam.
- Filed under: Uncategorized
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- VIDEOS
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- VIDEO-Obama: 'We Don't Resent Those Who, by Virtue of their Efforts, Achieve Incredible Success' | MRCTV
- MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.
- MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.
- Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.
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- VIDEO-Global Security Threats - C-SPAN Video Library
- Senate Committee Select IntelligenceFollow Sponsors
- Directors from four intelligence agencies gave their annual assessment of global threats to the United States.'National Intelligence Director James Clapper former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden to .. Read MoreDirectors from four intelligence agencies gave their annual assessment of global threats to the United States.'National Intelligence Director James Clapper former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden to return remaining stolen intelligence documents saying the disclosures have caused ''profound damage'' by revealing surveillance methods to terrorists
- 1 hour, 48 minutes | 63 Views
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- VIDEO-Shutterbug Time - Music Video - Special Agent Oso - Disney Junior Official - YouTube
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- VIDEO-Rep. Michael Grimm Threatens to Throw Reporter Off 'Fucking Balcony' for Asking the Wrong Question - Truthdig
- Rep. Michael Grimm Threatens to Throw Reporter Off 'Fucking Balcony' for Asking the Wrong QuestionPosted on Jan 29, 2014As State of the Union rebuttals go, it's going to be hard to top Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y.
- The former Marine and FBI vet apparently made chilling comments to reporter Michael Scotto after he had asked about campaign finance issues. According to a transcript from the network conducting the ill-fated interview:
- Grimm: ''Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this f'--''g balcony.''
- Scotto: ''Why? I just wanted to ask you'...''
- Grimm: ''If you ever do that to me again'...''Scotto: ''Why? Why? It's a valid question.''
- Grimm: ''No, no, you're not man enough, you're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy.''
- More on the story here. Video below.
- New and Improved CommentsIf you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.
- Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
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- VIDEO-Virtual Big Block of Cheese Day: The White House Is Open for Questions | The White House
- In 1837, President Jackson hosted an open house featuring a 1,400-pound block of cheese. On Wednesday, January 29th, with a nod to history (and maybe the TV show the West Wing), White House officials will take to social media for a day long 'open house' to answer questions from everyday Americans.
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- VIDEO-Max Baucus, potential ambassador to China: 'I'm no expert on China' [video] | Twitchy
- Classic Baucus. MT @BDayspring: This happened: "I'm No Real Expert On China," said Max Baucus during hearing to be named Amb. to #China
- '--Ben Weyl (@benweyl) January 28, 2014Sen. Max Baucus has been nominated for the post of U.S. ambassador to China. But maybe, just maybe, he's not the best candidate for the job:
- Max Baucus, nominee for US ambassador to Beijing, today: "I'm no real expert on China" youtube.com/watch?v=n44aAV'...'--Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) January 28, 2014
- ''No real expert on China.'' Geez.
- At least one thing's been confirmed at this confirmation hearing: Max Baucus is a ginormous doofus.
- But he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night MT @KevinMcLaughlin: Max Baucus, nominee for Amb. to China: I'm no real expert on China.'--Alex Coelho (@apcoelho) January 28, 2014
- Dem Sen. Max Baucus speaks out of turn, admits sequester was White House's idea
- 'Rhymes with resticles': Bette Midler's harsh words for Dem Sen. Max Baucus
- Bipartisanship! Both sides bid retiring Sen. Baucus good riddance
- Flashback: Sen. Max Baucus says, 'If you like your health plan you can (pretty much) keep it'
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- VIDEO-The government resigns '' Ukraine and the opposition wait for the next moves | euronews, world news
- Euronews correspondent in Kyiv says: ''The next step is to wait to hear from the opposition. The resignation of the prime minister was a call to them to head the government and to face the problems which have led to this political crisis.''
- So what will be the next moves? How will the political vacuum be filled, a continuation of demonstrations that have marked this square on the map of the world or an easing of the protests and posturing and a path towards a solution?
- One protester said: ''A people's government should be formed. The next things then to happen are: the president's resignation followed by snap elections, presidential and parliamentary.''
- A march in the capital showed the anti-government demonstrators do not have a monopoly on protests. Thousands of supporters of President Viktor Yanukovych, many from the regions, streamed into a park in front of the parliament. Their banners read stop Maidan and they denounced the opposition for ''prostituting Ukraine for the Europeans''.
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- VIDEO-Cows' farts and burps cause explosion in Rasdorf, Germany | euronews,
- Methane from cows' farts and burps caused an explosion in a German town, police say.
- Their flatulence and belching led to a build up of gas in the cow shed in Rasdorf.
- The roof of the shed was damaged after a static electric charge sparked an explosion. One cow '' of the 90 in the shed '' was injured in the blast.
- Police in Rasdorf told Reuters: ''A static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames.''
- Cows are thought to produce up to 500 litres of methane a day.
- Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Agriculture is responsible for an estimated 14 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases and a significant portion of these emissions come from methane, which is thought to be 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
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- VIDEO-Controversial ruling sees gay sex remain a criminal offence in India | euronews,
- Gay sex remains a criminal offence in India after a controversial ruling today by the republic's Supreme Court.
- Activists had asked for a review of the court's earlier verdict to reinstate a 153-year-old law that criminalises homosexuality and makes it punishable by up to life imprisonment.
- But the court said on Tuesday it would not review its decision, prompting criticism from activists and ministers.
- Last December the Supreme Court overturned a 2009 Delhi High Court ruling, which had decriminalised gay sex.
- The Delhi court described Section 377 '' a law that dates from colonial times '' as discriminatory and said sex between consenting adults should not be a crime.
- Delhi activist Kavita Krishnan tweeted: ''Supreme Court rejects petitions to review Secrion 377. Turns blind eye to its duty to overturn blatantly unconstitutional, shoddy verdict.''
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- VIDEO-Snowden exklusiv - Das Interview | NDR (English) : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive
- Internet Archive's in-browser video player requires JavaScript to be enabled. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.
- Whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked the documents about US mass surveillance. He spoke about his disclosures and his life to NDR investigative journalist Seipel in Moscow.
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- Individual FilesAnimated GIFThumbnailSnowden_Interview_NDR_english.mp4413.0 KB3.8 KBFormatSizesnowden_interview_en_files.xmlMetadata[file]snowden_interview_en_meta.xmlMetadata769.0 BArchive BitTorrentsnowden_interview_en_archive.torrent14.6 KBCreditshttp://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/netzwelt/snowden271.html
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- VIDEO-BFP EyeOpener Report: Sibel Edmonds on the CIA's ''Reverse Engineering'' of Turkey's Erdogan
- In this exclusive interview for the Boiling Frogs Post EyeOpener report, FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds discusses her recent article, ''Turkish PM Erdogan: The Speedy Transformation of an Imperial Puppet.'' We talk about Erdogan's falling out with Fethullah G¼len and the CIA, CIA's Islamization Operations via USA-Based Imam Fethullah Gulen, the US Imperial Commandments, and how serviceable puppets are discarded by their shadow government masters when they reach their ''expiration date.''
- Related Articles & Analyses
- Turkish PM Erdogan: The Speedy Transformation of an Imperial Puppet
- Turkish Intel Chief Exposes CIA Operations via Islamic Group in Central Asia
- Did You Know: The King of Madrasas Now Operates Over 100 Charter Schools in the US?
- Turkish Imam Fethullah Gulen Nabs George Bush PR Queen
- Boston Terror, CIA's Graham Fuller & NATO-CIA Operation Gladio B-Caucasus & Central Asia
- The Sanitized Gulen Coverage Continues'...
- Gladio-Operation B Interview Series with Sibel Edmonds @ Corbett Report
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- VIDEO-The Snowden Effect | a.nolen
- I woke up excited today, because ARD, the German television broadcaster, is supposed to air a half-hour long interview with Edward Snowden. According to last night's teaser for the program, the *next big thing* is that the NSA does industrial espionage.
- I thought Greenwald's reporting on the NSA and Petrobras had already blew the lid on that one, but on reflection, Petrobras is a state-owned entity, so imho, American national security interests could be affected and therefore Petrobras is possibly a legitimate target. But the spying didn't stop there.
- In his ARD interview, Snowden says that the NSA is taking things a step further by spying on companies with information that is useful, not threatening, to the USA. That's crossing a line, though I don't expect ethically-challenged NSA supporters to understand the difference. They've been used to stealing German technology since great-grandpa's time.
- ''I don't want to pre-empt the editorial decisions of journalists but what I will say is there is no question that the US is engaged in economic spying,'' Snowden told veteran NDR journalist Hubert Seipel. ''If there is information at Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they'll take it.''
- To the rest of the world, however, stealing is wrong, even if you have a rich industrialist friend who'll split the profits from a government contract with you. Yeah, even.
- It's going to be a busy weekend in newsrooms around America, as pundits desperately try to spin whatever Putin Snowden chooses to talk about today. They've already started at ABC World News with this little nugget:
- It's ''The Snowden Effect''!
- ''The Snowden Effect'' happens when innocent American companies partner with the NSA and spy on their economic competitors. These poor US companies are then ostracized by clients in the international community'' and perhaps even at home by paranoid customers'' who no longer wish to work with these American firms, for fear that their data will be pilfered. This is totally unfair, and Mr. Snowden has hurt national interests wiwy baud, as Eric Holder would gladly prove to us, if we all had the proper security clearances. 'Super-special top-secret low-down level four', perhaps?
- In my part of the world we have a saying: 'Lie with dogs, rise with fleas.'
- If you're going to do shady deals with the NSA for your own economic advancement, it's NO ONE'S FAULT SAVE YOUR OWN when you're found out and shunned. The NSA ruined American technology companies' reputation, not Snowden. American technology companies' own greediness ruined their reputations, not Snowden.
- Not, 'The Snowden Effect'.
- I suspect those shills who eagerly lump Edward with the FSB will conveniently forget that Snowden is no longer free to make decisions on his own, and place blame for anything and everything they don't like in tonight's interview at Snowden's feet. If you're going to tar Snowden with the 'Putin' brush, let's try to be consistent kids. Remember the only reason Snowden's head is still on his shoulders is that he isn't pissing off Putin and embarrassing the Russian leader's American buddies. If Snowden had to rely on American spooks following the rule of law, well'...
- Make us proud again, Edward. (And are you still rocking the Tor stickers?)
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- VIDEO-Wanted dead by US officials, Snowden tells German TV | News | DW.DE | 26.01.2014
- Fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has claimed that US government officials "want to kill me" in an exclusive interview which German television says it conducted in Moscow.
- German NDR television issued a further snippet ahead of a broadcast late Sunday in Europe of an exclusive interview with Snowden in which the intelligence whistleblower claims that US officials wanted him killed.
- "These people, and they are government officials, have said they would love to put a bullet in my head or poison me when I come out of the supermarket, and then watch as I die in the shower," he told NDR interviewer Hubert Seipel, who said the interview took place last Thursday.
- Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in Russia in August, referred in the interview to a report by US website BuzzFeed of explicit threats against him from unnamed Pentagon and National Security Agency (NSA) officials.
- The former NSA contractor is wanted by US authorities on treason charges for disclosing details of a vast intelligence operation that monitored millions of phone calls and emails across the world.
- The interview was aired on German ARD television, of which NDR is a member, with a German-language voice-over late on Sunday, European time.
- In the ARD talkshow G¼nter Jauch run prior to the interview's broadcast, former US ambassador to Berlin John Kornblum was asked where Snowden would be in 10 years time.
- Kornblum said he expected Snowden would return to the United States under a deal. "I believe there will be an arrangment," Kornblum said.
- Industrial espionage too?
- In an earlier snippet released online late on Saturday by the public broadcaster NDR, Snowden claimed that the NSA was involved in industrial espionage and did not limit its espionage to issues of US national security.
- "If there is information at [German electronics and engineering giant] Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they'll take it," Snowden said.
- NDR's interviewer Seipel, in a pre-broadcast interview in German also published online by NDR, said Snowden's sole "life insurance" was that he had entrusted journalists of the New York Times, Washington Post and Britain's Guardian with the material.
- At regular intervals, Seipel said, these media outlets triggered a series of "small thematic bombs."
- 'Very carefully' selected documents
- "The NSA is still trying to guess, how much material it involves. At the start there was talk of 200,000, then of 600,000 and now there are around 1.7 million documents," Seipel said.
- Snowden had "very carefully" selected documents that rather than focusing on individual persons, focused on the structure of the US secret services and alleged "violations," Seipel said.
- "He has shown what happens within this apparatus, also in connection with other services."
- "The accusation that he has endangered the lives of thousands of soldiers or secret service employees is in my view feeble-minded," Seipel said, adding that Snowden had a "very strong" sense of justice.
- "That [President Barack] Obama said he was not a patriot is for him, I think, quite difficult enough."
- Interview arranged via 'safeguards'
- The interviewer said Snowden was "very precise in what he says, but naturally was also very cautious" to avoid breaching the terms of his asylum in Russia.
- Seipel said the NDR team conducted the exclusive interview using three cameras and a microphone after organizing the meeting using encrypted phone calls and several other "safeguard measures."
- On Thursday, in a question-and-answer session on the "Free Snowden" website, the fugitive ruled out returning to the United States, where he said there was no chance of a free trial.
- ipj/msh (dpa, Reuters, AFP)
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- VIDEO-First interview while in Russia: Snowden talks to German NDR - reports - News - World - The Voice of Russia: News, Breaking news, Politics, Economics, Business, Russia, International current events, Expert opinion, podcasts, Video
- The site says that Snowden, in strict secrecy, talked with journalist Hubert Seipel.
- During the interview, Snowden particularly, said that the US National Security Agency also engages in industrial espionage. If there is information about, for example, the Siemens company, which is not linked with issues of national security, NSA would also use it, Snowden said.
- Edward Snowden also said that at present, he has no confidential documents on his hands. He has already handed everythinhg he posessed over to journalists.
- The full version of Snowden's interview will be broadcasted by the NDR TV channel on Sunday at 22:00 GMT.
- In June 2013, Edward Snowden gave several secret materials concerning the NSA's secret surveillance activities to reportets from The Washington Post and The Guardian newspapers. The NSA claims that up to 20,000 secret documents may have come into journalists' hands.
- After handing over the papers, he flew to Hong Kong. From July 23, 2013, Snowden stayed in the transit zone at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport until August when the Russian government granted him temporary asylum for one year.
- Republicans urge lawmakers to end surveillance of Americans' phone records
- Snowden himself to decide on temporary asylum extension in Russia - lawyer
- US gov't abuse of human rights is the real crime, not Snowden - interview
- Voice of Russia, RIA Novosti
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- VIDEO-BBC News - Reclusive cleric denies using influence in Turkey
- A reclusive Islamic cleric has denied using his influence to start investigations into alleged high-level government corruption.
- Fethullah Gulen, who has been linked to a power struggle that is currently shaking the Turkish establishment, was speaking to BBC Newshour's Tim Franks from self-imposed exile in the United States in his first broadcast interview in 16 years.
- He was responding to allegations that he had ordered his followers holding senior positions in Turkey's police and judiciary to launch those investigations.
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- VIDEO-BBC News - Sochi 2014: No gay people in city, says mayor
- 26 January 2014Last updated at 21:07 ET Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
- When asked about gay people, Anatoly Pakhomov told Panorama: "We don't have them in our town"
- The mayor of Sochi, host of the Winter Olympics, has said there are no gay people in the city.
- Anatoly Pakhomov said homosexuals were welcome at the Games - as long as they "respect Russian law" and "don't impose their habits on others".
- Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov said there were several gay bars in Sochi.
- In June 2013, Russia passed a law banning the promotion of "non-traditional" sexuality to under-18s - widely seen as an attack on gay rights.
- The controversial new law made providing information on homosexuality to under-18s a crime, punishable by a fine.
- Critics say its loose interpretation effectively stops gay rights protests in Russia.
- Continue reading the main storyAs far as I know there are several gay clubs in Sochi... how do they survive? Why they are not bankrupt? ''
- End QuoteBoris NemtsovOpposition leaderAnatoly Pakhomov, a member of President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, told Panorama that gay people would be welcome at the Games.
- "Our hospitality will be extended to everyone who respects the laws of the Russian Federation and doesn't impose their habits on others", he said.
- But when asked whether gay people had to hide their sexuality in Sochi, the Mayor said: "No, we just say that it is your business, it's your life. But it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city."
- When challenged, the mayor admitted that he was not certain there were no gay people in Sochi: "I am not sure, but I don't bloody know them."
- BBC Panorama reporter John Sweeney visited a gay bar in Sochi the night before he interviewed the mayor.
- Most people did not want to be filmed and those that did were cautious about what they said.
- Drag queen Madame Zhu-Zha said there was a gay community in the city and in other areas of Russia.
- "There are very many clubs for gay people in Moscow - in Sochi we have two gay clubs as well. In some places there's serious prejudice against gay people. In other places it's not as bad."
- The Sochi 2014 organising committee told BBC Panorama it was working hard to ensure the Games will be remembered for their diversity.
- Boris Nemtsov, former Deputy Prime Minister and now a leader of the opposition, said the mayor's claim was laughable.
- "As far as I know there are several gay clubs in Sochi.
- "How do they survive? Why they are not bankrupt?"
- Last week, President Vladimir Putin said homosexuals would be welcome in Sochi for the Olympics but said, "just leave the children alone".
- "We don't have a ban on non-traditional sexual relations," he said. "We have a ban on the propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia."
- Panorama: Putin's Games, BBC One, Monday 27 January at 20:30 GMT and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.
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- VIDEO-Jamie Dimon: It would "be criminal to subject our company" to a trial | Crooks and Liars
- Sorry, I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head about the privilege and sense of entitlement that allows Jamie Dimon to award himself a 74 percent pay raise despite rather large settlements by JPMorgan Chase for the "London Whale" and Bernie Madoff scandals, numbering in the billions of dollars.
- And then, to prove that he really is above little plebian trivialities like accountability, Jamie Dimon told an audience of his fellow elites in Davos, Switzerland that it would have been "criminal" to subject JPMorgan Chase to a trial.
- Dimon said JPMorgan had "two really bad options" in choosing to settle or fight the cases. Going to court could have taken three or four years and the outcome could have been worse, he said.
- "It would really hurt this company and that would have been criminal for me to subject our company to those kinds of issues," Dimon said.
- Personally, I think that paycheck is criminal. Clearly, we don't see eye to eye on the notion of personal and fiscal responsibility. I'm proud to say that Elizabeth Warren sees it the same way I do:
- Wow. In this interview, JPMorgan head Jamie Dimon explains why it is so important for big banks to settle with regulators after they break the law and avoid going all the way to court. It would be really costly, he says. Well, duh. I hope the banking regulators were listening. If they are never willing to go to trial either - which sure seems to be the case - they have a lot less leverage in their settlement negotiations.
- Christie scandal: Lawyer questions whether Zimmer told truth about diary
