Migrants arriving in Finland are being offered classes on Finnish values and how to behave towards women. Concerned about a rise in the number of sexual assaults in the country, the government wants to make sure that people from very conservative cultures know what to expect in their new home.
Johanna is one of those energetic, animated teachers whose cheerful energy lures even the most reluctant pupil into engaging with the lesson. She uses both her hands to stress her meaning and she always softens any difficult points with a smile.
"So in Finland," she says softly, "you can't buy a wife. A woman will only be your wife if she wants to be - because here women are men's equals."
Her pupils, all recently arrived asylum seekers at this reception centre hidden away in the snowy depths of the Finnish forest, watch her carefully - and I watch them. Some of the young Iraqi men, who already speak good English and passable Finnish, nod sagely. Others, particularly the older men, stare at one another with raised eyebrows as Johanna's words are translated into Arabic for them. One man, hunkered down inside his black ski jacket seems to be taking notes while there's a faint smile on the lips of the only headscarfed young woman in the room.
Image caption Raasepoori reception centre in the Finnish forest "But you can go out to the disco with a woman here," adds Johanna brightly. "Although remember, even if she dances with you very closely and is wearing a short skirt, that doesn't mean she wants to have sex with you."
A Somali teenager pulls his woolly hat over his ears and cradles his head in his hands as if his brain can't cope with all this new information.
"This is a very liberal country," he says incredulously. "We have a lot to learn. In my country if you make sexy with a woman you are killed!" He turns to his neighbour, a Malian man of a similar age to gauge his reaction.
"It's quite amazing," the Malian nods. "In my country a woman should not go out without her husband or brother."
Image copyrightAlamyJohanna turns her attention to homosexuality and the Iraqi men on the back row - it's always the back row - begin to giggle and snigger.
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It might seem like a bit of a pantomime, but reception centres in Finland take these voluntary manners and culture classes extremely seriously. If men arriving from very different and conservative cultures are not immediately made aware that Finland has its own set of customs and rules which must be respected, then they will never integrate, warns Johanna.
The men may groan when she tells them that Finnish men share the housework, but they no longer baulk when they see their taxi driver is a woman. Since the autumn, when Johanna first started giving these classes, female asylum seekers frequently approach her to complain that their husbands are not treating them in the Finnish way. The men are also versed in Finnish criminal law so they know exactly what to expect if they touch a woman inappropriately.
And that's why these classes are backed by the interior ministry and the police. Last autumn three asylum seekers were convicted of rape in Finland, and at the new year there were a series of sexual assaults and harassments similar to those in Cologne and Stockholm. Victims reported that the perpetrators were of Middle Eastern appearance - something Helsinki's deputy chief of police, Ilkka Koskimaki decided to go public with.
"It's difficult to talk about," he admits as we drive in a patrol car through the icy streets of the city. "But we have to tell the truth. Usually we would not reveal the ethnic background of a suspect, but these incidents, where groups of young foreign men," as he puts it, "surround a girl in a public place and harass her have become a phenomenon."
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption More than 32,000 migrants arrived in Finland in 2015 The police van pulls up at a downtown reception centre where Koskimaki's preventive policing team give similar classes to Johanna's. A jumble of migrant men smoking on the snowy steps in flip-flops, hastily scarper indoors, clearly alarmed by the police presence. A muscly Iraqi man in gym kit approaches me cautiously and asks me in a whisper why I feel the need to visit the centre with three police bodyguards. Please, he pleads, please don't think all asylum seekers are dangerous because of a few criminals.
The lesson at Raasepoori reception centre is drawing to a close and the asylum seekers have been given optional homework to help them read up on Finland's sexual equality laws. As we leave the class, an Iraqi man in a colourful bomber jacket shakes my hand.
"It's great in Finland," he says "But when I marry, my wife will be a housekeeper who will cook the food I like - and she certainly won't go to discos."
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In Sweden, You Can Now Drive Without A Licence... As Long As You're An Immigrant
The case revolves around the arrest of a 22 year old Bosnian man in September last year, who was caught driving to the pub without a licence by officers. When the man claimed he had lost his licence nine months earlier as he migrated to Sweden but was unable to prove he'd ever had one at all, the case went to court, reportsSweden Radio.
The prosecution called for the man to produce evidence from Bosnia he had ever passed a driving test, but he claimed he is a refugee with ''problems'' back in his homeland and didn't want to alert the Bosnian government to where he had escaped to. Acquitting the man, the court said the impetus was on the prosecution to prove he didn't have a driving licence, rather than on the suspect to prove he did.
Because of Sweden's driving laws, any migrant who can claim they have lost their driving licence and can't write home to get a new one sent will now have 12 months grace and legal driving without a licence. With the 'refugee' application process now taking upwards of one and a half years in practice individuals will be free to drive without passing a test for two and a half years.
Committing a similar offence, a native Swede could expect fines of thousands of Kronor, or jail time for repeat offenders.
The safety implications of the ruling are clear to police officers, with traffic cop Stefan Palm making an appeal to newly legal-unlicensed drivers to please ''calm down before driving''. He was dissatisfied with the ruling, and said it should be up to migrants to prove they were able to drive.
Already the number of similar cases are building up, with just one criminal investigator reporting to have 30 similar cases awaiting prosecution, but with the legal precedent set they are unlikely to be successful for the Swedish police.
This is not the only case in which native Swedes are reduced to the status of second class citizens, paying with their tax money for benefits they have no hope to enjoy. Breitbartreported last year on the decision of Sweden's nationalised rail network to no longer require migrants to purchase and present train tickets. The policy proved so popular with Sweden's new population the rail company was even obliged to put on extra trains to cope with demand.
Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter:or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com
Germans must ban ALCOHOL to prevent further sex attacks and help migrants integrate | Daily Mail Online
Germany needs to ban alcohol if it wants to prevent further sexual violence and to help North African migrants integrate into society, a Muslim pressure group has claimed.
Commenting on the Cologne sex-attack controversy, MuslimStern, which has 20,000 followers on Facebook, said its mission was to 'highlight the way the media was using the incidents to promote racism against minorities'.
The group complained that the female victims had brought the unwanted attention to themselves by dressing in a manner that North African men were not accustomed to.
Large groups of Muslim men who congregated around the cathedral in Cologne on New Year's Eve are believed to be responsible for more than 520 sexual assaults and at least three rapes on women in the city
The MuslimStern Facebook page has called on German authorities to ban alcohol claiming that Cologne women were responsible for their own attacks by comparing them to a naked antelope thrown in front of a lion
The group claimed: 'The government should ban the consumption of alcohol because it leads to traffic accidents, violence and rapes, and is extremely damaging to health. But for capitalist societies, this is too much to expect. So long as alcohol is not prohibited there will be no discernible decline in these cases'
The group claimed: 'You cannot expect to chuck a naked antelope in front of a lion and not expect it to react. It is mind boggling that with so much time spent teaching children about sex at school, they completely forget to pass on this basic biological fact.'
As a consequence of the attacks, they urged the German government to introduce a ban across the country on the consumption of alcohol.
The group also blamed women for getting attacked by inciting the young men.
In one section of the Facebook post, which has since been deleted, the group claims: 'Some women should think about whether it is wise to lightly dressed and drunk, to go between hordes of drunken men.
'In general, the woman wearing due to their nature have a responsibility when it goes out of the house.
'You can not throw a naked antelope from a lion and expect that at the lion stirs nothing.
'It is amazing that is taught in biology class so much about the mating and sexual behavior of living things, but these rules are completely ignored in everyday life.
'And because many non-Muslims constantly emphasise that we live in a Christian country, we call on you, in this country that women should dress Christian.
'Mary, Mother of Jesus, lived out as a Christian woman has to dress. So it would be highly recommended for some women to take Mary as a role model and not Lady Gaga.'
Searching for a home: Refugees walk along a street as they cross the Slovenian-Austrian border today
More than 520 women have reported assaults from New Year's Eve with at least three rapes which have been blamed on Muslim migrants who congregated around Cologne's cathedral during the night.
Cologne's Muslim preacher Imam Sami Abu-Yusuf, who blamed women wearing perfume for the fact they were assaulted over the New Year, went on to justify it by saying that alcohol had taken away the restrictions of 'men from North Africa'.
He also added that the sex attackers were 'from North Africa', unlike Salafists like himself who are mostly from India and the Middle East.
Mr Yusuf had earlier told Russian TV women only had themselves to blame for being assaulted because of the way they dressed. When asked why the attacks had happened he told REN TV: 'One of the reasons is the way the women were dressed. If they just wear light clothing and put on perfume, then things like this will happen.'
After the comments local Green MP Volker Beck complained to police about the comments saying it was incitement to carry out crime.
As the controversy raged over the remarks, a reporter from the Cologne Express asked him to qualify his statements, and reported that he laughed when asked if he really believed that women were responsible for the attacks they suffered.
He told the Express: 'My reply was taken out of context. What I said was that we have a real problem with men from North Africa living in Cologne. These young men take tablets and drugs, and over New Year they took alcohol which took away all the barriers.'
Cologne Imam Sami Abu-Yusuf, pictured, suggested the women were attacked because they 'wore perfume'
The number of sexual assaults has prompted numerous demonstrations in Germany and caused significant political problems for chancellor Angela Merkel who is seeking to resolve the issue of uncontrolled migration
Cologne police were heavily criticised for their failure to protect women from the men who had gathered
Asked if that was the reason he was saying the women were attacked, he said: 'No, that is of course forbidden and not only for Muslims. But there were women with very open clothing and they were wearing perfume, and at the same time while walking through the drunken masses, of course for these North African men, that was an excuse to grope them. That doesn't mean to say that I believe women cannot be dressed like this. Everyone has to accept that.'
However as the controversy grows, German security experts have admitted that they had the mosque where he preaches under surveillance for more than a decade, including a raid in 2004 over suspicions that it was at the heart of a secret network of Arabic mujahedeen.
However they failed to come up with any concrete evidence of terrorist attacks that were planned. It has also been confirmed that he is regarded as Salafist extremist orientated on Wahhabism, which is the stricter Saudi Arabian form of Islam.
German FDP-Politician Tobias said: 'His statements are typical thinking for a Salafist. Not just he but other Salafists and Salafists on online platforms have justified the rape of women in the same way.'
MuslimStern has criticised the way refugees from North Africa and the middle east have been treated
Turkey is doing the dirty work of Europe's immigration control | openDemocracy
Migration Management Removal Centre in Kumkapı, Istanbul. Photo supplied by author.The summit in November was organised, at Turkey's insistence, to encourage closer cooperation between the EU and Turkey, to control migration westwards and to 're-energise' the process towards Turkey's accession to the EU.
The EU and Turkey agreed three main points: to prevent refugees leaving Turkey for the EU; to operate 'bilateral readmission provisions', i.e. accept migrants expelled from the EU and to send migrants deemed not in need of international protection 'swiftly' back to countries of origin.
For these services Turkey will receive an additional '¬3 billion of European aid and the promise of reduced visa restrictions. Announcing the deal, Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄlu unsurprisingly ignored the punitive elements of the agreement and humbly stated that payment was not for Turkey but to improve the living standards of Syrians living in Turkey's refugee camps.
Turkey takes a singular approach to refugee protection and despite being one of the early adopters of the 1951 Geneva Convention it has never removed the so-called 'geographical limitation' lifted by most signatories through the Bellagio Protocol of 1967.
This means that Turkey only grants full refugee status to claimants seeking asylum from European countries effectively denying international protection to the Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians and the many others from Africa and Asia now seeking safety in Turkey. Turkish asylum law is changing - but slowly - and the Law on Foreigners and International Protection (Yabancılar ve Uluslararası Koruma Kanunu) implemented in April 2014, allows some refugees to claim a temporary form of protection short of full international recognition as Convention refugees.
The Law creates three categories of people deserving of protection: refugees (seeking asylum from European countries), conditional refugees (to be resettled in a third country), and individuals under subsidiary protection.
Thus vanishingly few people can qualify as refugees and while many of Turkey's estimated 1.9 million 'people of concern' may become eligible for resettlement in third countries, the pressure on these programmes means that few will be accepted. Through the third category, temporary or subsidiary protection, Turkey acknowledges the threats many face in their countries of origin and the Directorate General of Migration Management (G¶§ Ä°daresi Genel M¼d¼rl¼Ä¼), supported by the UNHCR, grants temporary protection to Syrians and others from certain refugee producing countries.
We argue, however, that in practice this 'protection' falls far short of international best practice and that the protection they are offered fails to either keep them safe or allow them to rebuild their lives in exile. Our research with migrants granted temporary protection shows how the restrictions and limitations of Turkey's refugee regime makes normal life impossible and forces migrants to work illegally just to support themselves.
Temporary protection does not grant refugees permission to work and to qualify for temporary protection, all refugees must live in 'satellite towns' outside the main, cosmopolitan cities such as Istanbul. They must submit to controls and conditions and report once a week to the satellite cities they are allocated to. They do not receive any state support for accommodation or daily expenses so, without independent means, refugees are pushed towards living and working illegally.
Detainees can be seen at the windows of the Kumkapı removal centre. Photo supplied by author.The situation of refugees granted temporary protection shows the contradictions and inadequacies of the Turkish system. Applicants must find the resources to travel to the UNHCR Ankara Office and stay in the city while their case is processed, but if awarded temporary protection, they must stay in their satellite town without any support beyond a bus ticket '' if they are lucky.
Unable to find work and accommodation, many travel instead to Istanbul as much as 10-16 hours away their official hometown. Last month a Ugandan woman, Sandra (28), was sent to Konya city to register and settle as a refugee after being detained in a southern city for 7 months. She travelled from Istanbul to Konya for 11 hours. She spent 250 TRL (£57) on travel but was refused documents as she needed proof of address to register.
She had nowhere to stay, nor did she know anyone in Konya but unless she does register in 15 days, her application will be cancelled. Sandra's story shows how moving away means that not only are they risking "illegal" work but also risking fines and the loss of their temporary protection status if they fail to report weekly, or every two weeks to the Police in the satellite cities.
Many women refugees in Istanbul have multiple vulnerabilities. Accepted as refugees by the UNHCR, they have escaped persecution and survived violence in their countries of origin. Their lack of a work permit or any State support, forces them into dangerous and demeaning forms of unregulated/unsecure work and the restrictions their status imposes on them undermines their capacity to support themselves.
The UNHCR in Turkey holds substantial numbers of 'closed' files which have been abandoned by refugees who cannot meet the State's conditions. Some women do not even try to seek asylum as they do not trust a system that fails to offer real protection. Coskun's research (2015 Kim ka§ak, kim m¼lteci? [Who is illegal who is refugee?]. M¼dahil Dergi. Vol.1.) with Ugandan women refugees shows how it is only when they are detained that women apply for asylum '' or attempt to reopen files that have been closed. Temporary Protection grants few privileges but at least it stands between refugees and forced return to the countries they have fled from and detention as a precursor to forced return is exactly what the new EU agreement aims to promote.
Turkey is in the process of expanding its immigration detention estate and migrants and unregistered refugees know that if they are detained and found to be living illegally in the country they face deportation. Temporary protection then, for all its faults, is worth having.
New immigration detention centres, with the capacity for thousands, are being built in Turkey supported by EU aid and from 2014-15 new centres with capacity for thousands have been built in Erzurum, Gaziantep, Van, Kayseri, İzmir, and Kırklareli and refugees found to have broken the law, through petty crime, illegal working as well a serious offences are being deported will little chance for appeal or concern for the dangers they may face in countries of origin.
The detention centre in Istanbul - the so-called Foreigners Guest House in Kumkapı - holds refugees and migrants and can release or deport them with little warning. Women, including women who may have been forced into prostitution or even been trafficked, are held on the third floor and the detainees can be seen at the windows. Friends call up to the detainees from the road as visits are not permitted.
In December 2015 men detained in the Guest House set fire to bedding in protest at their conditions and their indefinite detention. The fire resulted in some releases including women held for 'illegal' working and prostitution but as they are obliged to continue working in the neighbourhood of the Removal Centre they may be picked up again at any time.
No-one died in the December fire but in January 2016 Dilo DerviÅ, a 20 year old refugee from Rojova, a Kurdish part of Syria, was found dead in his cell in Erzurum AÅkale Removal Centre. The police announced that he killed himself but his family are challenging the official statement and will seek justice.
This news came just after a press announcement, signed by eleven NGOs, raising concerns about human rights violations in the Erzurum AÅkale Removal Centre. Their statement emphasised that refugees cannot access legal representation in the Centre nor communicate with friends, family or advocates. News of thedeportation of Syrians, by tricking them into agreeing to voluntary return, have been circulating since November.
Turkey's detention estate is growing apace but lacks judicial oversight, independent inspection regimes or space for civil society organisations to monitor what goes on inside. It maybe unreasonable to expect the Turkish state to put such safeguards in place when they are lacking across the criminal justice system as a whole but in the case of the detention and deportation of refugees, injustice is supported financially and practically by EU money and by European states who are happy to let Turkey do the migration dirty work on their behalf.
The agreement with the EU will not improve the situation of Syrian or non-Syrian refugees, rather it will restrict their options for self-determination and make search for safety all the harder. Declaring Turkey a safe place for refugees increases the likelihood of those who do make it to the EU being returned to their already illegalised lives in Turkey and thence perhaps to the countries they have fled from. Protecting refugees on even a temporary basis must include providing them with livelihoods either through state support or through allowing them to work. Genuine humanitarian protection must include education and health care for all according to need not nationality.
In Turkey, Syrian refugees outnumber all other refugees combined and international support to protect them is clearly needed. But Syrians are not the only refugees in Turkey. Turkey is a transit zone where East meets West and where refugees from the world's danger spots mix with migrants from the former Soviet states and elsewhere seeking to raise their standards of living.
By using Turkey as purely a convenient bulwark against a unwanted refugees, the EU is cynically playing into the Turkish governments internal politics which keep migrants disenfranchised and controlled. As elsewhere, migrants in Turkey are useful as vulnerable scapegoats who provide the state with a cheap work force but who have no call on state resources. The EU's policy in relation to Turkey is short-sighted and cynical and surely motivated more by a desire to find an ally to hold back the human product of global insecurity than by finding a humanitarian solution to human needs.
PRO SIGNS AND FLAGS-Port of Calais is closed after migrants storm the harbour and even make it on to The Spirit of Britain ferry in a desperate bid to reach the UK | Daily Mail Online
The Port of Calais has been closed this evening after a storm of migrants broke into the harbour.
More than 100 migrants stormed the site and some have even made it on to ferries in a desperate attempt to reach Britain.
It came after a protest organised by French leftists to support migrants living in squalid conditions in the northern city of Calais drew around 2,000 people, according to organisers.
Scroll down for video
The Port of Calais has been closed after more than 100 migrants stormed the harbour, pictured, in a bid to get to Britain
It followed a 2,000-strong protest against the living conditions in migrant camps at the French city that turned into an escape attempt
A tweet showing what is believed to be a group of migrants after they boarded the Spirit of Britain ferry
Water canons, pictured, have been used on board the ship in an effort to get the migrants to disembark
P&O has confirmed it is running at a delay of between 90 minutes and two hours after migrants boarded the Spirit of Britain
The protest on Saturday came as British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited the region, which is temporary home to about 4,000 migrants camped out in hopes of finding a better life in Britain, across the Channel.
Long lines of cars and lorries are now building up outside the port and the incident has led to fears of travel chaos ahead of planned closures to the Eurotunnel from 9pm tonight.
The tunnel is shutting so an overnight safety exercise can take place and all services will be suspended, with the last UK departure at 9.20pm and the first departure leaving the UK at be 6.20am tomorrow and from France at 7.20am.
The Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart closed the port and said around 50 migrants made their way on to the P&O-operated vessel. Police are at the scene and water canons have been used on board the ship to try to get the group to leave.
Meanwhile, a statement tweeted by P&O said: 'The Port of Calais is resolving a security incident. As a result our vessels are subject to delay of between 90 and 120 minutes.'
In a video filmed by a bystander, crowds can be heard cheering as migrants try to force their way through the fence.
According to Reuters, port staff said some of the migrants have left the Spirit of Britain voluntarily and the rest will be removed by police if necessary.
Migrants are filmed breaking into the port, pictured, by a bystander and then making their way towards the ferry
Crowds can be heard cheering as the migrants bash their way against the fence, pictured, before forcing it open
Long lines of lorries and cars are building up outside the port with the Eurotunnel set for a planned closure overnight from 9pm
Danish firm DFDS Seaways called the incident a 'migrant invasion', adding the port would be reopened once police had cleared them out.
Numerous migrants have died trying to make the crossing illegally.
Witness Ben Ferguson said: 'Demonstrators broke police lines & headed to the port. In spite of clouds of teargas a group prised open fence b4 (sic) crowd followed.'
A statement from the Port of Dover said the French port was experiencing 'migrant activity' which had caused disruption to services.
It read: 'The Port of Calais is currently experiencing migrant activity which has caused disruption to ferry services. Therefore services to and from Calais via the Port of Dover are affected, but DFDS Seaways services are still running to Dunkirk as normal.
'The Port of Dover remains open for business, but the duration of this disruption to services remains unknown.'
Migrants, pictured running towards the port, are reported to have had tear gas fired at them by French police officers
A group is believed to have ripped open a fence in order to get access to the harbour in Calais, pictured
The incident comes hours after UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited the region and said more had to be done to help migrants deal with 'disgraceful conditions'
Some people from Britain were present at the demonstration while others carried banners saying 'refugees welcome here'.
But France is under pressure from Britain to secure the region and the French premier said this week that Europe cannot welcome everyone.
Mr Corbyn's visit comes amid a growing urgency over the migrant crisis, with French prime minister Manuel Valls warning the huge influx is putting the European Union's future in 'grave danger'.
During his visit, Mr Corbyn was given a tour of the site meeting refugees and aid workers before speaking of the 'dreadful situation' faced by people camped in the swamp-like conditions.
He said: 'What I'm trying to achieve here is to understand the nature of the refugee crisis that's facing the whole of Europe.
It is understood the group that invaded the port is larger than 100 people, disrupting services at the harbour
It is unknown exactly how many migrants were able to make their way onto the Spirit of Britain, pictured, but more than 50 are believed to be aboard, according to the Mayor of Calais
Mr Corbyn visited camps in Calais and Dunkirk today talking to migrants about living conditions and lack of doctors, education and food
'Ultimately we deal with the situation by dealing with the problem at its source, which are the wars and conflicts.
'Also, there are the human needs of people. We have got people here who have been here for months, if not longer than that, with no proper education, no access to doctors, no access to dentists, limited access to food - in very cold, very wet conditions.
'These conditions are a disgrace anywhere. We as human beings have to reach out to fellow human beings.'
Mr Corbyn said Britain should be part of a pan-European effort to help the people affected by the crisis.
Merkel calls for 'intensive action' against anti-Semitism - Israel News, Ynetnews
In her weekly video podcast the German Chancellor said that particular vigilance is necessary regarding 'young people who come from countries where hatred of Israel and Jews is widespread'.AFP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday called for "intensive action" against anti-Semitism,urging vigilance particularly regarding young people from countries "where hatred of Israel and anti-Semitism is widespread".
"Anti-Semitism is more pervasive than we imagine and that is why we must act intensively against it," Merkel asserted in her weekly video podcast. She is set to inaugurate an exhibition on "the art of the Holocaust" in Berlin on Monday.
The chancellor called on people to seriously consider the concerns raised late November by the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, who was worried that many asylum seekers "come from cultures where hatred of Jews and intolerance are deeply ingrained."
Germany welcomed some 1.1 million asylum seekers in 2015, many fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We must be specifically careful with young people who come from countries where hatred of Israel and Jews is widespread," she insisted, without mentioning the names of any countries nor directly referring to asylum seekers.
"We have seen manifestations of anti-Semitism in several schools and meeting places by young people, against which every adult must act," Merkel added. "We must also encourage students who do not think that way and enable them to make it possible for them to clearly say this is not the way it should be," she stressed.
"We can argue about this issue but it should also be clear: (anti-Semitism) has no place in our society (...) we must simply set clear limits," Merkel concluded.
Word do matter
Oud-GroenLinks-fractievoorzitter Leeuwin: Picnic is racistisch woord | ThePostOnline
Picnic/picknick is een racistisch woord. Het betekent namelijk Pick a nigger. En daarom is het beter dat de nieuwe online supermarktPicnic Online afstand neemt van zijn bedrijfsnaam. Dat schrijft de Amsterdamse oud-GroenLinks fractievoorzitter Iwan Leewin op Facebook. Leeuwin stapte afgelopen maand op als fractievoorzitter in Amsterdam Zuidoost. Hij kreeg vorig jaar een conflict met zijn partij nadat hij boos was weggelopen bij de onthulling van een standbeeld van Nelson Mandela gemaakt door kinderen. Dat leek volgens hem teveel op Zwarte Piet. Later bood hij zijn excuses aan.
En nu kan een online supermarkt dus op zijn toorn rekenen. ''Het gebruik van het woord Picnic ligt heel gevoelig en is voor het bewustwordingsproces in de Nederlandse samenleving niet bevorderlijk'', voegt hij de online grootgrutter toe. Er is alleen een probleem: dat picnic, pick a nigger zou betekenen is een broodjeaapverhaal.
Het woord is van oorsprong Frans en kwam rond 1800 in de Engelse taal terecht. Rond 1999 begon op internet het gerucht dat picnic, pick a nigger zou betekenen: in het racistische zuiden van de Verenigde Staten zou tijdens het lynchen van zwarten geluncht worden. Maar het bleek een urban legend, zoals later ook het Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia van de Ferris State universiteit zou bevestigen.
Maar dat wist Leewin niet. En dan krijg je dus dit soort berichten van de Co¶rdinator AD Netwerk Nederland; Afrikanen in Diaspora.
FALSE: The Word 'Picnic' Originated with Lynchings. : snopes.com
Claim: The word 'picnic' originated with crowds gathering to witness lynchings.Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1999]This e-mail is being sent to you as a public service announcement and as information in the form of a little known Black History Fact. This information can also be found in the African American Archives at the Smithsonian Institute.Although not taught in American learning institutions and literature, it is noted in most Black history professional circles and literature that the origin of the term "picnic" derives from the acts of lynching African-Americans. The word "picnic" is rooted from the whole theme of "Pick A Nigger." This is where individuals would "pic" a Black person to lynch and make this into a family gathering. There would be music and a "picnic." ("Nic" being the white acronym for "nigger.") Scenes of this were depicted in the movie "Rosewood."
We should choose to use the word "barbecue" or "outing" instead of the word "picnic."
Please forward this e-mail to all of your family and friends and let's educate our people.
Origins: Specious etymologies seem to be all the rage of late, and this dubious claim about 'picnic' fits that trend. You'll be heartened to know 'picnic' has nothing to do with crowds gathering to witness the lynching of blacks (or anyone else, for that matter) in America.'Picnic' began life as a 17th-century French word: it wasn't even close to being an American invention. A 1692 edition of Origines de la Langue Fran§oise de M(C)nage
mentions 'piquenique' as being of recent origin and marks the first appearance of the word in print. As for how the French came by this new term, it was likely invented by joining the common form of the verb 'piquer' (meaning "to pick" or "peck") with 'nique,' possibly either a Germanic term meaning "worthless thing" or merely a nonsense rhyming syllable coined to fit the first half of this new palate-pleaser.The first documented appearance of the term outside the French language occurred in 1748, but picnic was rarely used in English prior to 1800 or thereabouts. Even then, the word still wasn't being used in America (but rather in England) and referred to a fashionable pot-luck social affair that was not necessarily held out-of-doors.
Originally, the term described the element of individual contribution each guest was supposed to make towards the repast, as everyone who had been invited to social events styled as "picnics" was expected to turn up bearing a dish to add to the common feast. This element was picked up in other 'picnic' terms, such as 'picnic society,' which described gatherings of the intelligentsia where everyone was expected to perform or in some other way contribute to the success of the evening.
Over time, the meaning of the word shifted to emphasize an alfresco element that had crept into the evolving concept of what such gatherings were supposed to be. Nowadays one thinks of a picnic as a casual meal partaken in a pastoral setting, not as a repast enjoyed either indoors or outdoors and which was contributed to by everybody. Modern picnics can be provisioned by only one cook, and no one would think anything of it; what matters now is the food be eaten outdoors.
By the 19th century, 'picnic' had successfully made this linguistic shift in meaning. Its history (and that of every other word in the English language) is documented in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and nowhere in its lengthy OED entry is mention made of executions or lynchings or blacks.
The fact that this etymology is spurious hasn't deterred some from being offended by it, as noted in this excerpt from a 2000 National Post article:
Meanwhile, things are not peachy on the campus of SUNY/Albany. The university wanted to honour baseball legend Jackie Robinson by having a picnic. But the university's equity office said this must not occur because the word "picnic" referred originally to gatherings held to lynch Blacks. In fact, as one of their own English professors (rather less committed to historical revisionism than RMC's Dr. Robinson) pointed out, the word "picnic" actually comes from a 17th-century French word that denotes a party at which everyone brings food. But Zaheer Mustafa, the equity officer, nevertheless decreed that "picnic" not be used because "the point is '-- the word offends." So the university decided to call it an "outing." Then, homosexual students took objection to that, and SUNY decided to publicize the event without using any noun to describe it.
As Richard R. Jones noted in Black Voice News, there's a very real downside to spouting hoax definitions just because they push a few buttons: It makes those doing the protesting look ignorant. Those who run with their emotions instead of using their heads end up doing the racists' work for them by making themselves appear to be too foolish to crack open a dictionary, and this caricature is not something that should be fostered if racism is to be defeated:Many Black people are too quick to believe negative rumors; therefore, I refuse to contribute to national ignorance. These type of hoaxes only serve to make Black people look stupid and by no means is an advancement in education. It is too easy to go to the library and research the origin of words in dictionaries and/or encyclopedias to believe and spread every bit or garbage that comes through cyberspace.
Barbara "nitpicnic'ing" MikkelsonLast updated: 15 August 2015
Bengahzi
Hillary Clinton emails may be delayed due to snow, State Dept. tells federal judge - CNNPolitics.com
Lawyers for the department asked Judge Rudolph Contreras on Friday if State can release some of Clinton's emails on February 29, one month after it was initially supposed to turn over the last of the documents. That would also result in many emails not becoming public until after the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.
Contreras had ordered the State Department to stick to a monthly production schedule for the emails last May in response to a Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit brought by journalist Jason Leopold.
"Because the Clinton email team must perform its work onsite ... this storm will disrupt the Clinton email team's current plans to work a significant number of hours throughout the upcoming weekend and could affect the number of documents that can be produced on January 29, 2016," State's lawyers wrote.
Ryan James, a lawyer representing Leopold, told CNN Friday: "It's baffling why State needs a month to make up for only three days of snow-related office closures."
The final batch of emails include some of the most sensitive ones, such emails that have been flagged for further review by the intelligence community, which is involved in vetting the emails for public release, Deputy State Department Spokesman Mark Toner acknowledged.
RELATED: Hillary Clinton email dispute highlights complexities of classification
Toner said State still plans to release documents next week as planned, but are not able to get all of the remaining emails -- over 9,000 pages worth -- out by that date.
"The production on January 29th will not meet the Court's goal of producing the remaining emails from former Secretary Clinton," Toner said, "but we will strive to produce as many documents as possible on that day. "
"Should this request for an extension be granted, the remainder of the approximately 55,000 pages would be posted in February," he added.
The development comes just days after a leaked letter from the intelligence community's inspector general revealed that "several dozen" of Clinton's emails contain such information, but Toner denied there was a connection between those claims at the current delay.
"The cause of this delay is not due to any ongoing discussion about classification that has been in the news as of late," he said.
Additional documents found for reviewIn its request for extension, the State Department's lawyers say an oversight by their own reviewers is partially to blame for the delay, because a "number of pages" that required additional review by the interagency team were never actually sent out for review.
After discovering the issue, the filing says, they had to send 7,254 pages of emails to the "appropriate agencies."
That delivery was then delayed once again, according to the filing, by the snowstorm that currently has the Washington area bunkered down, with federal agencies closing at noon on Friday.
The State Department now plans to finish delivering those documents "next week."
Excluding these documents, the State Department says it will be able to release all other remaining emails -- about 2,000 -- by the original January 29 deadline.
REPUBLICAN!-James Comey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Brien Comey, Jr. (born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer. He is the seventh and current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He was the United States Deputy Attorney General, serving in President George W. Bush's administration. As Deputy Attorney General, Comey was the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the Department, serving in that office from December 2003 through August 2005. He was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York prior to becoming Deputy Attorney General.
In December 2003, as Deputy Attorney General, Comey appointed the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, close friend and former colleague Patrick Fitzgerald, as Special Counsel to head the CIA leak grand jury investigation after Attorney General John Ashcroftrecused himself. In August 2005, Comey left the DOJ and he became General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Lockheed Martin. In 2010, he became General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates. In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become Senior Research Scholar and Hertog Fellow on National Security Law at Columbia Law School. He also joined the London-based board of directors of HSBC Holdings.
Early life and education[edit]Born in Yonkers, New York, Comey grew up in Allendale, New Jersey.[2] His father worked in corporate real estate and his mother was a computer consultant and homemaker.[3] Comey is of Irish heritage.[4] He attended Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale.[5] Comey graduated from the College of William and Mary (1982), majoring in Chemistry and Religion. His senior thesis analyzed the liberal theologianReinhold Niebuhr and the conservative televangelistJerry Falwell, emphasizing their common belief in public action.[6] He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Chicago Law School.
Early career (1985''2001)[edit]After law school, Comey served as a law clerk for then-United States District Judge John M. Walker, Jr., in Manhattan. Then, he was an associate for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in their New York Office. He joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he worked from 1987 to 1993. While there, he served as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. He helped prosecute the Gambino crime family.[citation needed]
From 1996-2001, Comey served as Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the Richmond Division of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He was the lead prosecutor in the case concerning the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.[7] While in Richmond, Comey served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law.[8]
Bush years (2002''2005)[edit]U.S. Attorney[edit]He was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, from January 2002 to the time of his confirmation as Deputy Attorney General on December 11, 2003.[8] In November 2002, he led the prosecution of three men involved in one of the largest identity fraud cases in American history. The fraud had lasted two years and resulted in thousands of people across the country collectively losing well over $3 million.[9] He also led the indictment of Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas of bank fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud. His sons: Timothy J. Rigas and Michael J. Rigas as well as executives James Brown and Michael Mulcahey were also charged with participation in these crimes. Rigas was convicted of the charges in the summer of 2004 and on June 27, 2005, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Adelphia Corporation was forced to file for bankruptcy after it acknowledged it took $3.1 billion in false loans. It was "one of the most elaborate and extensive corporate frauds in United States history."[10]
In February 2003, Comey led the prosecution of Martha Stewart who was considered for the charges of securities fraud, obstruction of justice, and lying to an FBI agent. She sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems, making $227,824. The next day, the Food and Drug Administration refused to accept the company's application for Erbitux.[11] In March 2003, he led the indictment of ImClone CEO Samuel Waksal, who pled guilty to avoiding paying $1.2 million in sales taxes on $15 million worth of contemporary paintings. The works were by Mark Rothko, Richard Serra, Roy Lichtenstein, and Willem de Kooning.[12] In April 2003, he led the indictment of Frank Quattrone. It was alleged that in 2000, he urged subordinates to destroy evidence sought by investigators looking into his investment banking practices at Credit Suisse First Boston.[13] In November 2003, he led the prosecutions in "Operation Wooden Nickel", which resulted in complaints and indictments against 47 people involved in foreign exchange trading scams.[14]
Deputy Attorney General[edit]Martha Stewart case[edit]Comey is credited as the main prosecutor in Martha Stewart's 2004 conviction for obstruction of justice, stating, "This criminal case is about lying'--lying to the FBI, lying to the SEC, lying to investors."[15]
NSA domestic wiretapping[edit]In early January 2006, The New York Times, as part of its investigation into domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency, reported that Comey, who was Acting Attorney General during the March 2004 surgical hospitalization of John Ashcroft, refused to "certify" the legality of central aspects of the NSA program at that time. The certification was required under existing White House procedures to continue the program.[16]
After Comey's refusal, the newspaper reported, Andrew H. Card Jr., White House Chief of Staff, and Alberto R. Gonzales, then White House counsel and future Attorney General, made an emergency visit to the George Washington University Hospital to attempt to win approval directly from Ashcroft for the program.[16] According to the 2007 memoir of Jack Goldsmith, who had been head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the time, Comey went to the hospital to give Ashcroft support to withstand the pressure from the White House.
Comey confirmed these events took place (but declined to confirm the specific program) in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 16 May 2007.[17][18][19][20][21][22] FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, like Comey, also supported Ashcroft's decision; both men were prepared to resign if the White House ignored the Department of Justice's legal conclusions on the wiretapping issue. FBI director Mueller's notes on the March 10, 2004, incident, which were released to a House Judiciary committee, confirms that he "Saw [the] AG, John Ashcroft in the room. AG is feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed."[23] Comey withdrew his threat to resign after meeting directly with President Bush, who gave his support to making changes in the surveillance program.[24]
Post-Bush years (2005''present)[edit]In April 2005, Comey announced that he was leaving the Department of Justice in the fall. In August 2005, it was announced that Comey would enter the private sector, becoming the General Counsel and Senior Vice President for Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Department of Defense's largest defense contractor.[25] Comey's tenure took effect on October 1, 2005,.[26] serving in that capacity until June 2, 2010, when he announced he would leave Lockheed Martin to join the senior management committee at Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut based investment management firm.[27] On February 1, 2013, after leaving Bridgewater, he was appointed by Columbia University Law School as a Senior Research Scholar and Hertog Fellow on National Security Law.[28] He was also appointed to the board of directors of the London-based financial institutionHSBC Holdings,[29] to improve the company's compliance program after its $1.9 billion settlement with the Justice Department for failing to comply with basic due diligence requirements for money laundering regarding Mexicandrug cartels and terrorism financing.[30][31] Since 2012, he has also served on the Defense Legal Policy Board.[32]
Testimony before congressional committees[edit]In May 2007, Comey testified before both the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and the House Judiciary subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on the U.S. Attorney dismissal scandal. His testimony contradicted that of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who said the firings had been due to poor performance on the part of some of the dismissed prosecutors. Comey stressed that the Justice Department had to be perceived as nonpartisan and nonpolitical in order to function.[33]
''The Department of Justice, in my view, is run by political appointees of the President. The U.S. attorneys are political appointees of the President. But once they take those jobs and run this institution, it's very important in my view for that institution to be another in American life, that'--because my people had to stand up before juries of all stripes, talk to sheriffs of all stripes, judges of all stripes. They had to be seen as the good guys, and not as either this administration or that administration.[33]''Supreme Court consideration[edit]Politico reported in May 2009 that White House officials pushed for Comey's inclusion on the short list of names to replace Associate JusticeDavid Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.[34]Politico later reported liberal activists were upset about the possibility of Comey's name being included. John Brittain of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law stated, "[Comey] came in with the Bushies. What makes you think he'd be just an inch or two more to the center than Roberts? I'd be greatly disappointed."[35]
Same-sex marriage[edit]In 2013, Comey was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.[36]
FBI Director[edit]In May 2013, it was reported,[37][38] and in June 2013 it was made official, that President Barack Obama would nominate Comey to be the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, replacing outgoing director Robert Mueller.[39] Comey was reportedly chosen over finalist Lisa Monaco, who had overseen national security issues at the Justice Department during the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012.[40][41]
Comey was confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2013, for a full ten-year term running the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[42] He was sworn in as FBI director at 4:32 pm on September 4, 2013.[43]
In February 2015, Comey delivered a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., regarding the relationship between policemen and the African American community.[44][45]
[edit]In April 2015, Comey spoke at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, arguing in favor of more Holocaust education.[46] After The Washington Post printed a version of his speech, Comey was criticized by some commentators who argued that he suggested Poles and Hungarians share responsibility on equal terms with Germans for the atrocities of Holocaust.[47] His speech was also criticized by Polish authorities and Stephen D. Mull, the US Ambassador in Poland, was called to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[48] In a rebuke written in the Washington Post, Anne Applebaum said, "...James Comey, the director of the FBI, in a speech that was reprinted in The Post arguing for more Holocaust education, demonstrated just how badly he needs it himself."[49]
U.S. Ambassador Mull did issue an apology for Comey's remarks,[50] but when Comey himself was asked to apologize, he instead hand-wrote a letter expressing "regret", saying "The Polish state bears no responsibility for the horrors imposed by the Nazis. I wish I had not used any other country names, because my point was a universal one about human nature."[51][52] When asked if he was apologizing, he said, "I don't. Except I didn't say Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. In a way I wish very much that I hadn't mentioned any countries because it's distracted some folks from my point." According to formal agreements during the WWII period, Hungary was officially allied with Nazi Germany, whereas Poland was not.
Government surveillance oversight[edit]In his July 2013 FBI confirmation hearing, Comey said that the oversight mechanisms of the U.S. government have sufficient privacy protections.[53] In a November 2014 New York Times Magazine article, historian Beverly Gage reported that Comey keeps on his desk a copy of the FBI request to wiretap Martin Luther King, Jr., "as a reminder of the bureau's capacity to do wrong."[54]
Personal life[edit]Comey and his wife Patrice are the parents of five children. He is a Roman Catholic of Irish descent.[55][56] At 6' 8", he is the tallest member of the Obama administration,[57] and the tallest FBI director in history.[58]
Comey is a registered Republican who donated to U.S. Senator John McCain's campaign in the 2008 presidential election and to Governor Mitt Romney's campaign in 2012 presidential election.[59]
See also[edit]References[edit]^SHAWN BOBURG. "FBI nominee Comey was held captive as a Bergen teen". NorthJersey.com. ^McCaffrey, Shannon. "For new deputy attorney general, a department under fire", The Boston Globe, December 14, 2003. Accessed August 21, 2011. "As a teenager, he got a frightening taste of what it's like to be a crime victim when an intruder broke into his home in Allendale, N. J., while his parents were out and held his brother and him hostage at gunpoint. The captor fled and never was apprehended."^Alexandra Wolfe (June 16, 2003). "Meet Martha's Prosecutor". The New York Observer. Retrieved July 11, 2015. James Comey grew up in a middle-class family in Yonkers and Bergen County, N.J. His father worked in corporate real estate; his mother was a homemaker and computer consultant. He attended the College of William & Mary and got his law degree at the University of Chicago. ^Michael S. Schmidt (February 12, 2015). "F.B.I. Director Speaks Out on Race and Police Bias". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2015. ^Weiser, Benjamin. "Man in the News; Reputation for Tenacity; James Brien Comey", The New York Times, December 2, 2011. Accessed August 21, 2011. "EDUCATION: Northern Highlands Regional High School, Allendale, N.J.; B.S., College of William and Mary; J.D., University of Chicago Law School."^"Mr. Comey Goes To Washington", New York magazine, October 2003. Retrieved May 21, 2007.^"a-worthy-new-york-prosecutor", Op-Ed, New York Times, December 1, 2001.^ abDeputy Attorney General James B. ComeyThe White House. (no date). Retrieved May 18, 2007.^wired.com, 2002/11.^"adelphia-indict", usatoday.com, 2002-09-23.^"martha", CNNMoney.com, 2003/02/06.^"waksal", usatoday.com, 2003-03-03.^"quattrone", money.cnn.com, 2003/04/23.^"forex_031119", cbc.ca, 2003/11/19.^"Prosecuting Martha Stewart: The overview", New York Times, June 5, 2003^ abLIchtblau, Eric; Risen, James (January 1, 2006). "Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program". New York Times. Retrieved June 6, 2010. ^Comey Senate Judiciary Committee Transcript, May 16, 2007. Congressional Quarterly, Inc.^Isikoff, Michael; Evan Thomas (June 4, 2007). "Bush's Monica Problem: Gonzales, the president's lawyer and Texas buddy, is twisting slowly in the wind, facing a vote of no confidence from the Senate". Newsweek (The Washington Post Company). Archived from the original on 2007-06-01. Retrieved 2007-05-29. ^(Editorial) (May 16, 2006). "Mr. Comey's Tale: A standoff at a hospital bedside speaks volumes about Attorney General Gonzales.". Washington Post. pp. A14. Retrieved 2007-05-25. ^Eggen, Dan; Amy Goldstein (May 18, 2007). "No-Confidence Vote Sought on Gonzales". Washington Post. pp. A03. Retrieved 2007-05-25. ^Congressional Quarterly (May 15, 2007). "Senate Hearing on U.S. Attorney Firings - Transcript: Senate Judiciary Hearing (Transcript, Part 1 of 5)". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-05-25. ^Lichtblau, Eric (January 2, 2006). "Bush Defends Spy Program and Denies Misleading Public". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-05-25. ^Eggen, Dan (August 17, 2007). "FBI Director's Notes Contradict Gonzales's Version Of Ashcroft Visit". Washington Post. ^Eggen, Dan; Kane, Paul (May 16, 2007). "Gonzales Hospital Episode Detailed". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 5, 2010. ^Carrie Johnson, Griff Witte (August 8, 2005). "Lockheed Puts Faith In Tough Lawyer". washingtonpost.com. ^"Lockheed Martin Names James B. Comey General Counsel; Succeeds Frank H. Menaker, Who Will Retire". lockheedmartin.com. August 4, 2005. ^David Johnston (June 2, 2010). "Comey Leaving Lockheed for Hedge Fund". mainjustice.com. ^Columbia University School of Law (January 30, 2013). "Print Former Deputy Attorney General Joins Columbia Law School as Hertog Fellow in National Security Law James B. Comey Has Served as U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York and as General Counsel of Bridgewater Associates and the Lockheed Martin Corporation.". law.columbia.edu. ^Howard Mustoe (January 30, 2013). "HSBC Hires Tax, Anti-Terror Chiefs for Controls Panel". bloomberg.com. ^Aruna Viswanatha, Brett Wolf (December 11, 2013). "HSBC to pay $1.9 billion U.S. fine in money-laundering case". reuters.com. ^"HSBC money laundering report: Key findings HSBC operates in more than 80 countries around the world Failure after failure at HSBC led to the London-based bank being used as a conduit for "drug kingpins and rogue nations", a 300-page report compiled for a US Senate committee and has found.". bbc.co.uk. December 11, 2012. ^Lesley Clark; McClatchy News Service (June 20, 2013). "President Obama to name Jim Comey as FBI director". mcclatchydc.com. ^ abJames B. Comey. Testimony Transcript. Hearing of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. House Committee on the Judiciary. May 3, 2007. Retrieved May 18, 2007.(Congressional Quarterly transcripts, via the Washington Post.)^"James Comey pushed for Supreme Court", Politico.com, May 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2009^"Some on left souring on Obama", Politico.com, May 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2009.^"the-pro-freedom-republicans-are-coming-131-sign-gay-marriage-brief", thedailybeast.com, 2013/02/28.^Associated Press (May 29, 2013). "AP sources say ex-Bush official James Comey to be Obama's nominee to head FBI". washingtonpost.com. ^Steve Holland (May 29, 2013). "Obama expected to pick James Comey as next FBI chief: source". reuters.com. ^Pickler, Nedra, "Obama's FBI pick: James Comey, challenged wiretapping by Bush White House", AP via mercurynews.com, June 21, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-21.^"Obama-to-pick-james-b-comey-to-lead-fbi", New York Times, May 30, 2013.^"AP Sources: Obama Preparing To Name Comey To FBI", AP via NPR, May 29, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-30.^"Now voting on confirmation of Comey nomination (FBI)". Democrats.senate.gov. 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2014-07-14. ^"FBI '-- James B. Comey Sworn in as FBI Director". Fbi.gov. 2013-09-04. Retrieved 2014-07-14. ^Simio, Molly (13 February 2015). "In Rare Move, FBI Head Addresses Race Relations". Newspaper (The Hoya). Retrieved 20 April 2015. ^Comey, James B. (February 12, 2015). "Hard Truths: Law Enforcement and Race". Washington, D.C. ^Comey, James B. (April 16, 2015). "Why I require FBI agents to visit the Holocaust Museum". Washington Post. ^"Poland fury at Holocaust comment by FBI's James Comey". News Website (19 April 2015) (BBC News). Retrieved 20 April 2015. ^"Poland summons U.S. ambassador over FBI head's Holocaust remarks". Reuters. April 19, 2015. ^https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/04/19/fbi-director-got-it-wrong-on-the-holocaust/^http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3047226/Poles-wait-FBI-chief-apologize-Holocaust-remarks.html^http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/04/23/poland-grudgingly-accepts-fbi-director-apology-better-late-than-never/^http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/us-poland-us-holocaust-idUSKBN0NE0JT20150423#Z6Cs5dCR9M5yT5b6.97^Ackerman, Spencer. "James Comey defends US surveillance practices at FBI confirmation hearing", The Guardian. July 9, 2013; retrieved July 10, 2013.^Gage, Beverly (November 11, 2014). "What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals". New York Times. ^Profile, northjersey.com; accessed October 5, 2014.^Profile, irishcentral.com; accessed October 5, 2014.^Sarlay, Benjy (June 21, 2013). "James Comey (6"8) supplants Arne Duncan (6"5) as Official Administration Tall Person". Retrieved December 4, 2014. ^Harmacinski, Jill. "FBI Director: Agency working to choke off supply of heroin". Retrieved December 4, 2014. ^"james-comey-fbi", politico.com, 2013/05.Further reading[edit]External links[edit]Department of Justice Farewell AddressJames B. Comey - White House BiographyNew York Magazine, October 2003James B. Comey Professional Biography, United States Department of JusticeEric Lichtblau and James Risen, "Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program", New York Times, January 1, 2006"Palace Revolt", Newsweek, February 6, 2006"Former Supervisor Extols Fired Prosecutors", Washington Post, May 4, 2007"Loyal to Bush but Big Thorn in Republicans' Side", New York Times, May 17, 2007Transcript of James Comey's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 15, 2007"Intelligence Under the Law", a speech delivered by James Comey to the National Security Agency on Law Day, May 20, 2005January 1, 2008 Corporate Counsel article - "Attention Must Be Paid"Profile on Columbia Law School
Elections 2016
How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996
[S]ooner or later, as the globalist elites seek to drag the country into conflicts and global commitments, preside over the economic pastoralization of the United States, manage the delegitimization of our own culture, and the dispossession of our people, and disregard or diminish our national interests and national sovereignty, a nationalist reaction is almost inevitable and will probably assume populist form when it arrives. The sooner it comes, the better'... [Samuel Francis in Chronicles]
Imagine giving this advice to a Republican presidential candidate: What if you stopped calling yourself a conservative and instead just promised to make America great again?
What if you dropped all this leftover 19th-century piety about the free market and promised to fight the elites who were selling out American jobs? What if you just stopped talking about reforming Medicare and Social Security and instead said that the elites were failing to deliver better health care at a reasonable price? What if, instead of vainly talking about restoring the place of religion in society '-- something that appeals only to a narrow slice of Middle America '-- you simply promised to restore the Middle American core '-- the economic and cultural losers of globalization '-- to their rightful place in America? What if you said you would restore them as the chief clients of the American state under your watch, being mindful of their interests when regulating the economy or negotiating trade deals?
That's pretty much the advice that columnist Samuel Francis gave to Pat Buchanan in a 1996 essay, "From Household to Nation," in Chronicles magazine. Samuel Francis was a paleo-conservative intellectual who died in 2005. Earlier in his career he helped Senator East of North Carolina oppose the Martin Luther King holiday. He wrote a white paper recommending the Reagan White House use its law enforcement powers to break up and harass left-wing groups. He was an intellectual disciple of James Burnham's political realism, and Francis' political analysis always had a residue of Burnham's Marxist sociology about it. He argued that the political right needed to stop playing defense '-- the globalist left won the political and cultural war a long time ago '-- and should instead adopt the insurgent strategy of communist intellectual Antonio Gramsci. Francis eventually turned into a something resembling an all-out white nationalist, penning his most racist material under a pen name. Buchanan didn't take Francis' advice in 1996, not entirely. But 20 years later, "From Household to Nation," reads like a political manifesto from which the Trump campaign springs.
To simplify Francis' theory: There are a number of Americans who are losers from a process of economic globalization that enriches a transnational global elite. These Middle Americans see jobs disappearing to Asia and increased competition from immigrants. Most of them feel threatened by cultural liberalism, at least the type that sees Middle Americans as loathsome white bigots. But they are also threatened by conservatives who would take away their Medicare, hand their Social Security earnings to fund-managers in Connecticut, and cut off their unemployment too.
Middle American forces, emerging from the ruins of the old independent middle and working classes, found conservative, libertarian, and pro-business Republican ideology and rhetoric irrelevant, distasteful, and even threatening to their own socio-economic interests. The post World War II middle class was in reality an affluent proletariat, economically dependent on the federal government through labor codes, housing loans, educational programs, defense contracts, and health and unemployment benefits. All variations of conservative doctrine rejected these'...
Yet, at the same time, the Ruling Class proved unable to uproot the social cultural, and national identities and loyalties of the Middle American proletariat, and Middle Americans found themselves increasingly alienated from the political left and its embrace of anti-national policies, and counter-cultural manners and morals. [Chronicles]
For decades, people have been warning that a set of policies that really has enriched Americans on the top, and likely has improved the overall quality of life (through cheap consumables) on the bottom, has hollowed out the middle.
Chinese competition really did hammer the Rust Belt and parts of the great Appalachian ghetto. It made the life prospects for men '-- in marriage and in their careers '-- much dimmer than those of their fathers. Libertarian economists, standing giddily behind Republican politicians, celebrate this as creative destruction even as the collateral damage claims millions of formerly-secure livelihoods, and '-- almost as crucially '-- overall trust and respect in the nation's governing class. Immigration really does change the calculus for native-born workers too. As David Frum points out last year:
[T]he Center for Immigration Studies released its latest jobs study. CIS, a research organization that tends to favor tight immigration policies, found that even now, almost seven years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, 1.5 million fewer native-born Americans are working than in November 2007, the peak of the prior economic cycle. Balancing the 1.5 million fewer native-born Americans at work, there are two million more immigrants '-- legal and illegal '-- working in the United States today than in November 2007. All the net new jobs created since November 2007 have gone to immigrants. Meanwhile, millions of native-born Americans, especially men, have abandoned the job market altogether. [The Atlantic]
The political left treats this as a made-up problem, a scapegoating by Applebee's-eating, megachurch rubes who think they are losing their "jerbs." Remember, Republicans and Democrats have still been getting elected all this time.
But the response of the predominantly-white class that Francis was writing about has mostly been one of personal despair. And thus we see them dying in middle age of drug overdose, alcoholism, or obesity at rates that now outpace those of even poorer blacks and Hispanics. Their rate of suicide is sky high too. Living in Washington D.C., however, with an endless two decade real-estate boom, and a free-lunch economy paid for by special interests, most of the people in the conservative movement hardly know that some Americans think America needs to be made great again.
In speeches, Trump mostly implies that the ruling class conducts trade deals or the business of government stupidly and weakly, not villainously or out of personal pecuniary motives. But the message of his campaign is that America's interests have been betrayed by fools.
The huge infrastructure of the conservative movement in Washington D.C. is aghast at Trump, and calls him an economic illiterate for threatening China with tariffs. They can't understand that this is not primarily an economic measure, but a nationalist one. It's a signal to voters that one man is here to fight for them, not to school-marmishly tell them that capitalism is helping them when in fact it manifestly helps others a lot more. Trump has attracted his coalition of supporters among those who are the most-weakly attached to the Republican Party as an institution.
Plenty of others have noticed the parallels between Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump. Some have seen that Trump is attracting the "radical middle" social base and taking on the Caesarist, almost Latin American-style populism that Francis recommended. Buchanan was recently asked about why Trump was having all the success that he did not enjoy, when he is running on so many of the issues Buchanan did 20 years ago. Buchanan said that it was because the returns are in on the policies he criticized 20 years ago. All of this is true.
The Trump phenomenon does seem to be sui generis. There are not squadrons of Trumpistas in the Republican Congress. And his celebrity persona, his extremely unusual and independent financial power, his felicity for not just recognizing but channeling the grievances of his supporters is unmatched. It's hard to imagine anyone else rebuilding his coalition of Middle American radicals and fringier, race-obsessed "alt-right" nationalists.
The Republican party is incredibly powerful as an institution. It will have the power to recover and return things to a sense of normality someday, even if Trump wins the nomination.
But the Trump phenomenon also seems global and inevitable. America's elite class belongs to a truly global class of elites. And everywhere in Europe that global class is being challenged by anti-immigrant, occasionally-protectionist parties who do not parrot free-market economic policies, but instead promise to use the levers of the state to protect native interests. In Russia, Putin's populist nationalism has taken over a major state apparatus, precisely to avenge itself on the paladins of the free-market.
What is so crucial to Trump's success, even within the Republican Party, is his almost total ditching of conservatism as a governing philosophy. He is doing the very thing Pat Buchanan could not, and would not do. And in this, he is following the advice of Sam Francis to a degree almost unthinkable. Here's the concluding flourish of Francis' 1996 essay:
I told [Buchanan] privately that he would be better off without all the hangers-on, direct-mail artists, fund-raising whiz kids, marketing and PR czars, and the rest of the crew that today constitutes the backbone of all that remains of the famous "Conservative Movement" and who never fail to show up on the campaign doorstep to guzzle someone else's liquor and pocket other people's money. "These people are defunct," I told him. "You don't need them, and you're better off without them. Go to New Hampshire and call yourself a patriot, a nationalist, an America Firster, but don't even use the word 'conservative.' It doesn't mean anything any more."
Pat listened, but I can't say he took my advice. By making his bed with the Republicans, then and today, he opens himself to charges that he's not a "true" party man or a "true" conservative, constrains his chances for victory by the need to massage trunk-waving Republicans whose highest goal is to win elections, and only dilutes and deflects the radicalism of the message he and his Middle American Revolution have to offer. The sooner we hear that message loudly and clearly, without distractions from Conservatism, Inc., the Stupid Party, and their managerial elite, the sooner Middle America will be able to speak with an authentic and united voice, and the sooner we can get on with conserving the nation from the powers that are destroying it. [Chronicles]
Trump embodies this in nearly every letter. He doesn't have people from the traditional Republican power structure advising him. He doesn't say he'll direct the existing members of the managerial class to make a little tweak here or there; he says he'll send his friend Carl Icahn and threaten China with a tariff wall that could repel a tsunami of cheap goods.
What so frightens the conservative movement about Trump's success is that he reveals just how thin the support for their ideas really is. His campaign is a rebuke to their institutions. It says the Republican Party doesn't need all these think tanks, all this supposed policy expertise. It says look at these people calling themselves libertarians and conservatives, the ones in tassel-loafers and bow ties. Have they made you more free? Have their endless policy papers and studies and books conserved anything for you? These people are worthless. They are defunct. You don't need them, and you're better off without them.
And the most frightening thing of all '-- as Francis' advice shows '-- is that the underlying trend has been around for at least 20 years, just waiting for the right man to come along and take advantage.
Hey Guys - I spent a few months in Scotland in last year. They're great people. I loved almost every moment that I was there.The one strange moment that I had - and the reason I emailed - is that no one there understands the political system. They don't teach it in schools. Most Scots know more about American politics from entertainment tv than they do about how their political system works. Someone asked me how a president gets elected (they were a little confused about the delegate system). I explained it using references to the UK system and they were puzzled. It went something like this:Them: Wow, how do you know so much about the American political system?Me: They more or less teach how it works in school. It's usually slanted, but every student pretty much learns how it works in the US.Them: WOAH. They TEACH THAT?!Me: Uh, don't they teach you how your own political system works?Them: No, they teach geography... and sciences... and blah blah blah.Well it's no wonder that their entire political system can get taken over by foreigners. The foreigners know how it works better than they do!Like I said - great people, intelligent, no bullshit. But it's hard to know what you don't know. If you have never been told that you don't know it, why would you expect to know it?Nick
Scotland the best educated country in Europe, claims ONS report | Education News | News | The Independent
Scotland is the best educated country in Europe, according to a report released by the Office for National Statistics.
It says that nearly 45 per cent of people in Scotland aged between 25 and 64 have had some kind of tertiary education '' including university degrees and further education '-- ahead of Ireland, Luxembourg and Finland, which were the only other countries to get more than 40 per cent.
''In terms of the proportion of the population going into higher and tertiary education, Scotland actually has just about the highest in the world,'' ONS chief economic adviser Joe Grice told ITV News.
''Scotland also does very well in terms of people in the working-age population (16-64) that have got a qualification at NVQ4 or above.''
The UK as a whole was in fifth place on just under 40 per cent, followed by Cyprus, Estonia and Sweden. Just over 30 per cent of French had a tertiary qualification, while Germany's figure was less than 30 per cent.
While Scotland may have the most skilled staff, the London workers were ranked as the most productive.
The ONS said Londoners were the most productive with their ''nominal gross value added per hour worked'' at more than 30 per cent above than the UK average. The south east of England was in second place with about eight per cent.
All the other regions of the country were below the UK average. Scotland was in third place with Wales and Northern Ireland at the bottom of the table.
Congratulations New Yorkers: moments ago not only did your local authorities ban all travel starting at 2:30pm...
CUOMO: PORT AUTHORITY ISSUED TRAVEL BAN ON G. WASHINGTON BRIDGECUOMO: PORT AUTHORITY ISSUED BAN ON LINCOLN, HOLLAND TUNNELSCUOMO: PORT AUTHORITY ISSUED BAN ON BAYONNE, GOETHALS BRIDGESMTA TO SUSPEND LIRR, METRO-NORTH SERVICE AS OF 4PMCUOMO: PORT AUTHORITY ISSUED BAN ON OUTERBRIDGE CROSSING... but the local police announced that anyone using New York roads after that time will be arrested on the spot, like the vile criminal filth they are.
FOR the 20 actors nominated for an Oscar all to be white could at best be seen as a surprise. For that to be true two years running is, to many, a scandal. While there will be no empty seats at the 88th Academy Awards ceremony on February 28th'--live television does not permit such things'--there may be a lot of missing faces. Confronted with what is seen as a ''whitewash'', many prominent black Americans are saying they will boycott the ceremony.
In fact, as our analysis of film casts and awards shows, the number of black actors winning Oscars in this century has been pretty much in line with the size of America's overall black population. But this does not mean Hollywood has no problems of prejudice. As the data show, it clearly does.
The issue has come to a head because over the past two years some films with a particular emotional resonance were passed over. The original ''Rocky'' (1976) won three Oscars, and Sylvester Stallone was nominated (though he did not win) for both acting and writing. Critics and fans alike have heaped praise on 2015's new addition to the Rocky franchise, ''Creed'', which sees a black fighter as the hero. But the star and the black director, Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, will have to make do with fans' appreciation and more than $100m at the box office: the film's only nomination went to Mr Stallone, this time for Best Supporting Actor. ''Straight Outta Compton'', a hit film about a black hip-hop group with a black director and producer, was nominated only for its screenplay, the writers of which were white. ''Beasts of No Nation'' delighted our reviewer, and fans of its star, Idris Elba, hope he will be the next James Bond. It also brought a horrifying phenomenon, child soldiering in Africa, to Western audiences. But the Academy ignored it. All this happens in the shadow of last year's nominations, in which ''Selma'', a film about the civil-rights movement which our reviewer found ''remarkable'', was nominated but did not win Best Picture, as many thought it should. Neither its director, Ava DuVernay, nor its star, David Oyelowo, were recognised by the academy.
Fingers are pointing at the Academy's 6,000-odd voting members, 94% of whom are white. Spike Lee, whose ''Do The Right Thing'' is considered one of the great movies not to have won an Oscar, has lamented ''another all-white ballot''; Don Cheadle, who got a Best Actor nomination in 2004 for ''Hotel Rwanda'', has joked dryly about parking cars at the event. It is possible that the only black actor onstage will be Chris Rock, who is hosting. He has already said that the Oscars seem to have become a white equivalent of the Black Entertainment Television awards.
These years are far from the first whitewashing in Oscars history: no actors from ethnic minorities were nominated in 1995 or 1997, or in an extraordinary streak between 1975 and 1980. Throughout the 20th century, 95% of Oscar nominations went to white film stars. It is an embarrassing anachronism that the prevalence of white Academy electors has been allowed to continue into the 21st century, a trend that the Academy's (black) president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, has vowed to end.
Could the ''whiteout'' be a statistical glitch? If the data were random, such a glitch would be hugely unlikely. A 2013 survey of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), an American union for film performers, suggests that 70% of its members are white. If all of the Guild's members were equally likely to receive Oscar nominations, regardless of race, then over a two-year period 28 out of 40 nominations would be of white actors. The chances of no single person of colour being nominated across two ceremonies would be exceptionally small'--even during a 15-year span, the odds of seeing at least one sequence of back-to-back whiteouts are around one in 100,000.
Of course the data are not random. Yet, despite the 2015-2016 whiteout, an analysis of Oscar selections since 2000 suggests that the imbalances are industry-wide, not primarily to do with Academy voters. And they affect all ethnic minorities. Oscar nominations have not dramatically under-represented black actors. Instead, they have greatly over-represented white ones. Blacks are 12.6% of the American population, and 10% of Oscar nominations since 2000 have gone to black actors. But just 3% of nominations have gone to their Hispanic peers (16% of the population), 1% to those with Asian backgrounds, and 2% to those of other heritage (see chart).
Black actors get speaking roles in rough proportion to their percentage of America's population, according to a study of 600 top films from 2007-2013 at the Annenberg Center for Communication and Journalism. (See ''film roles'' in the chart above.) Again, Latinos and Asians do much worse. But blacks are under-represented in the roles that count for the Oscars, getting just 9% of the top roles since 2000, according to our own analysis. (We define ''top roles'' as the top three names on the cast-list on IMDb, an online film database, in films with a rating of 7.5 or greater, an American box-office gross of at least $10m, and which were neither animated nor in a foreign language.)
The numbers indicate that, whereas the film industry most certainly fails to represent America's diversity, the whitewashing occurs not behind the closed doors of the Academy, but in drama schools (shown in the SAG membership) and casting offices. For most of the past 15 years, the Academy has largely judged what has been put in front of them: minority actors land 15% of top roles, 15% of nominations and 17% of wins. Once up for top roles, black actors do well, converting 9% of top roles into 10% of best-actor nominations and 15% of the coveted golden statuettes, a bit above their share of the general population.
The view behind the scenes is perhaps more revealing. Blacks really are much more under-represented in the director's chair, where they account for 6% of directors of the top 600 films, according to the Annenberg study. Black women are nearly nonexistent there (two of the 600, Ms DuVernay being one). These are the numbers that critics of Hollywood should be most concerned about, along with the dearth of top roles for Hispanic and Asian actors. Best Actor nominations and wins'--in which black actors have done decently, 2015 and 2016 excepted'--seem to be the wrong target.
If consumers want their films to reflect the society in which they live'--as they do their parliaments and executive boards'--it is these areas that must see improvement. And film-goers may have more power to provoke that change than they realise. Hispanic Americans buy 25% of the nation's cinema tickets. If they, like the actors tweeting with the #OscarsSoWhite, are sick of a whitewashed Hollywood, then Hollywood would be wise to listen.
Correction: This piece has been updated. We originally said that ''Selma'' had received no Oscar nominations; it was nominated for, but did not win, Best Picture and Best Song. Apologies.
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Movie academy: Oscar voters overwhelmingly white, male - LA Times
The 2016 Academy Awards nominations were announced Jan. 14, and for the second year in a row all acting nominees were white. The lack of diversity, despite strong minority contenders, has renewed criticism and reenergized the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, first created after last year's nominees were announced. Four years ago, The Times investigated the make up of the Academy in depth.
When the names of winners are revealed on Oscar night, months of suspense give way to tears, smiles and speeches. Yet when the curtain falls, one question remains: Who cast the votes?
About 37 million people tuned in to the Academy Awards last year, and a great deal rides on the show's outcome. Winning a golden statuette can vault an actor to stardom, add millions to a movie's box office and boost a studio's prestige. Yet the roster of all 5,765 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a closely guarded secret.
Even inside the movie industry, intense speculation surrounds the academy's composition and how that influences who gets nominated for and wins Oscars. The organization does not publish a membership list.
"I have to tell you," said academy member Viola Davis, nominated for lead actress this year for "The Help." "I don't even know who is a member of the academy."
A Los Angeles Times study found that academy voters are markedly less diverse than the moviegoing public, and even more monolithic than many in the film industry may suspect. Oscar voters are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male, The Times found. Blacks are about 2% of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2%.
Oscar voters have a median age of 62, the study showed. People younger than 50 constitute just 14% of the membership.
The academy calls itself "the world's preeminent movie-related organization" of "the most accomplished men and women working in cinema," and its membership includes some of the brightest lights in the film business '-- Tom Hanks, Sidney Poitier, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg, among others. The roster also features actors far better known for their television acting, such as Erik Estrada from "CHiPs," Jaclyn Smith of "Charlie's Angels" and "The Love Boat's" Gavin MacLeod.
The academy is primarily a group of working professionals, and nearly 50% of the academy's actors have appeared on screen in the last two years. But membership is generally for life, and hundreds of academy voters haven't worked on a movie in decades.
Oscars 2015:List | Top nominees | Reactions | Snubs/surprises | Live updates | Full coverage
Some are people who have left the movie business entirely but continue to vote on the Oscars '-- including a nun, a bookstore owner and a retired Peace Corps recruiter. Under academy rules, their votes count the same as ballots cast by the likes of Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio.
To conduct the study, Times reporters spoke with thousands of academy members and their representatives '-- and reviewed academy publications, resumes and biographies '-- to confirm the identities of more than 5,100 voters '-- more than 89% of the voting members. Those interviews revealed varying opinions about the academy's race, sex and age breakdown: Some members see it simply as a mirror of hiring patterns in Hollywood, while others say it reflects the group's mission to recognize achievement rather than promote diversity. Many said the academy should be much more representative.
The Times found that some of the academy's 15 branches are almost exclusively white and male. Caucasians currently make up 90% or more of every academy branch except actors, whose roster is 88% white. The academy's executive branch is 98% white, as is its writers branch.
Men compose more than 90% of five branches, including cinematography and visual effects. Of the academy's 43-member board of governors, six are women; public relations executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs is the sole person of color.
"You would think that in this day and age, there would be a little bit more equality across the board, but that's not the case," said Nancy Schreiber, one of a handful of women among the cinematography branch's 206 voting members. "Being a cinematographer should not be gender-based, and it's ridiculous that it is."
Academy leaders including President Tom Sherak and Chief Executive Dawn Hudson said they have been trying to diversify the membership but that change is difficult because the film industry is not very diverse, and slow because the academy has been limiting membership growth for the last decade.
"We absolutely recognize that we need to do a better job," said writer-director Phil Alden Robinson, a longtime academy governor. But "we start off with one hand tied behind our back.... If the industry as a whole is not doing a great job in opening up its ranks, it's very hard for us to diversify our membership."
Independent studies of some film crafts show that the academy's demographics mirror the industry's. Women make up 19% of the academy's screenwriting branch, and a 2011 analysis by the Writers Guild of America, West found that women accounted for 17% of film writers employment. The academy's producers branch is about 18% female, and the directors branch is 9% female, figures comparable to those in a study by San Diego State University's Martha Lauzen. She examined the 250 top-grossing movies of 2011 and found that women accounted for 25% of all of the films' producers, and 5% of all their directors.
"Is most of commercial narrative filmmaking the product of mostly white men? Sadly, the answer is yes," said Alexander Payne, the director and co-writer of best picture nominee "The Descendants" who belongs to the director branch.
Frank Pierson, a former academy president who won an Oscar for original screenplay for "Dog Day Afternoon" in 1976, said merit is the primary criterion for membership.
"I don't see any reason why the academy should represent the entire American population. That's what the People's Choice Awards are for," said Pierson, who still serves on the board of governors. "We represent the professional filmmakers, and if that doesn't reflect the general population, so be it."
Oscars 2015:List | Top nominees | Reactions | Snubs/surprises | Live updates | Full coverage
Some academy members, though, believe the organization should do more to reflect the demographics of the nation. Denzel Washington, who won the lead actor award for 2001's "Training Day," said the academy needs to "open it up" and "balance" its membership.
"If the country is 12% black, make the academy 12% black," Washington said. "If the nation is 15% Hispanic, make the academy 15% Hispanic. Why not?"
A frequent criticism
Questions about the academy's diversity, or lack thereof, have persisted for years. In 1996, the Rev. Jesse Jackson organized nationwide protests over the absence of black and minority Oscar nominees, claiming it was evidence of "race exclusion and cultural violence" in Hollywood. The question came to the fore again last year, when not a single minority was among the 45 people nominated for actor, actress, supporting actor and actress, director and original and adapted screenplay.
In the past 83 years of Oscars, less than 4% of the acting awards have been bestowed on African Americans. Only one woman '-- Kathryn Bigelow '-- has received the Academy Award for directing "The Hurt Locker."
After the 2011 ceremony was staged without a single black male presenter, actor Samuel L. Jackson complained in an email to The Times: "It's obvious there's not ONE Black male actor in Hollywood that's able to read a teleprompter, or that's 'hip enuf,' for the new academy demographic!"
Asked about the diversity of Oscar presenters, Sherak said officials did not instruct this year's ceremony producers, Brian Grazer and Don Mischer, to include more minorities. "Producers produce the show, end of subject," he said. Past Oscar hosts have included African Americans Chris Rock and Whoopi Goldberg, and Eddie Murphy was initially slated to host this year's broadcast.
Age and gender have also prompted questions. Sony Pictures executives said last year that they believed their Facebook film "The Social Network" lost the best picture race to "The King's Speech" because older Oscar voters didn't relate to the Internet story. This year, some believe that Stephen Daldry's 9/11 drama "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" made the best picture shortlist because it appealed to middle-aged men.
"The film is about men trying to be good fathers, sons trying to be good sons," said Terry Press, a member of the public relations branch who for years has helped mount Oscar campaigns for filmmakers. "It's about unfulfilled conversations with your father and that's an extremely middle-aged man thing. It's like 'Field of Dreams.'"
African American actress and academy member Alfre Woodard, 59, cited the sexually explicit "Shame," which got no nominations, as an example of a film whose Oscar hopes may have been doomed by the academy's demographics. "Maybe if the median age was 45 to 50, a film like 'Shame' might show up, which I thought was a brilliantly rendered piece but a subject matter that you don't expect a certain older demographic would flock to see," she said.
Woodard, who joined the organization in 1985 and has been active on academy committees, said she often encourages women to apply for membership in the academy, believing the best way to effect change is from within. "It's like sitting out an election," she said. "The country is only going toward its ideals when people participate."
But others have lost patience. Academy member Bill Duke, a black actor and director, said: "The black community sees the academy as an entity that ignores the needs, wants, desires and representation of black directors, producers, actors and writers. Whether it is true or not, that is how it's perceived '-- as an elitist group with no concern or regard for the minority community and industry. And there doesn't seem to be any desire to change that perception."
Oscars 2015:List | Top nominees | Reactions | Snubs/surprises | Live updates | Full coverage
Some academy critics believe the organization, through its membership and Oscar picks, reinforces a lack of diversity on screen and in studio decision-making.
"People of color are always peripheral," said veteran African American character actor Bernie Casey ("Under Siege"), who said he recently quit the academy because he was disenchanted with its racial makeup. "Asians, Latinos, black people '-- you never see them. We are 320 million people in America and about 48 million black people and the same of Latin descent '-- but you would not believe that based on what you see in films and television shows."
This year, several minorities did land nominations in the acting categories: Davis and her fellow cast member from "The Help," supporting actress nominee Octavia Spencer, and Demin Bichir, a Mexican-born performer who starred in "A Better Life." All of the year's five nominated directors are white men, and none of the 21 producers of the nine best picture nominees is a person of color.
Were there more Latino academy members, Bichir said, opportunities for Latinos would improve. "That would mean there would be a lot more roles for Latin actors," the actor said, "and a lot more movies for [Latin] cinematographers."
Growth and change
The academy was founded in 1927 with two aims: to mediate labor disputes and improve the movie industry's image. Louis B. Mayer, the legendary head of MGM, initiated the idea and invited an elite cadre of professionals, including actress and United Artists studio co-founder Mary Pickford, director Cecil B. DeMille and producer Irving Thalberg, to join.
The academy's membership grew steadily over the years as the organization moved away from labor management issues to focus on film preservation, research and the Oscars, first presented in 1929 in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Today, the academy oversees more than $196 million in assets and dispenses more than $20 million in grants and scholarships a year, including to Streetlights, a job training and placement group that works to promote ethnic diversity in Hollywood. It donates $750,000 annually to film festivals around the country and sponsors an annual screenwriting competition that rewards winners with $35,000 fellowships. According to its tax filing for the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the Oscars generated $81.3 million in total revenue for the organization.
The academy grew rapidly between 1990 and 2000, adding close to 800 members. Former executive director Bruce Davis alerted the board to the steep increase and noted there had not been a commensurate growth in the film business. The organization attributed the membership surge to a relaxed attitude toward admission.
"The guilds are a democracy. If you have credits, nobody asks how good you were," said Davis, the executive director from 1989 to 2011. "But the academy has to be different."
In response, the organization in 2004 began limiting membership growth to 30 per year, not including those admitted to fill vacancies created by deaths, resignations or retirement. It also clarified and stiffened its policies for admittance. The available slots are allocated among the 15 branches and the academy's at-large division.
There are three ways to become a candidate for membership: land an Oscar nomination; apply and receive a recommendation from two members of a branch; or earn an endorsement from the branch's membership committee or the academy staff.
The membership committees then vote on the candidates; those who get a majority are invited to join. The academy says almost everyone accepts the offer.
Actors, for example, now must have three significant credits to be considered for membership, and producers need two solo producing credits or the equivalent. Such criteria benefit people with more experience. "The academy is always going to be slightly older '-- if just because you have to have about five years of credits before you're even considered," said Joe Letteri, a four-time Oscar winner for visual effects.
In practice, the bar for admittance varies widely from branch to branch. Last year, actress Rooney Mara and visual effects supervisor Tim Burke were among 178 invitees academy wide. Mara had had small roles in "The Social Network" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (she had yet to star in her current Oscar-nominated role in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"). Burke, in contrast, had won an Academy Award a decade earlier for his work on "Gladiator."
The academy began making public the names of its invitees in 2004, but does not say which ones accept and become members.
The more than 1,000 people invited to join since 2004 include black actors such as Jennifer Hudson, Mo'Nique and Jeffrey Wright. But overall, the group was only slightly more diverse than the academy it was joining '-- 89% white and 73% male. Sherak pointed out that in 2011, the invitees were 30% female and 10% nonwhite.
The academy's overall composition before and after the 2004 policy shift remained close to 93% Caucasian and 76% male, and its median age dropped from 64 to 62.
As part of the 2003 tightening of membership rules, Davis urged that a wider circle of potential invitees be considered. In 2009, he suggested to the sound branch committee that it had overlooked India's Resul Pookutty, who won an Oscar that year for sound mixing on "Slumdog Millionaire." Davis admired the technician's work and was moved by his emotional acceptance speech on Oscar night. (The committee extended the invitation a year later.)
"When I got the letter from them saying they would like to invite me into the academy, I was literally screaming in the studio," said Pookutty, who flew from Mumbai to Los Angeles to attend the new member luncheon. "It means a great deal. More than the pride of it, I feel that my whole fraternity in India has been recognized and honored."
Sherak and other academy officials said they're eager for more applications from women and minorities, and more involvement from those who are already members.
"I'm hoping your story runs and 7,000 phone calls break the lines here," Sherak said. "We've been trying to reach out to the constituency and we're looking for help. You want to be on a committee? Tell us what committee. If you are sitting waiting for us to find your name in our make-believe book and we are going to call you, we are not going to do that. Come to us, we'll get you in. We want you in. That would help us a lot."
john.horn@latimes.com
nicole.sperling@latimes.com
Times staff writers Jasmine Elist, Deborah Vankin, Reed Johnson and Emily Rome contributed to this report.
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I hate to pile on the doom-saying regarding the economy, but between China falsifying their GDP growth, oil plummeting, and what I'm about to say, it's hard not to be pessimistic.I work for the largest insurance brokerage in the world and I just got off a client call (world's largest music/event promoter, based on Wilshire blvd), and something very interesting was mentioned. My CEO mentioned to the client that AIG would soon be laying off 10K employees. 10 with three zeros. That's approximately 15% of their global work force, and this is after they already announced a 20-25% reduction in management, last quarter. I was shocked. I went to look at the news and found the attached, which I think is a prelude to the announcement of this round of layoffs. If AIG, after the last bailout, is being called on by Icahn to become "a simpler company," I can't think that anything good will come of this.I'll just sit here with my mac'n'cheese.Cheers,JD
CYBER!
Rogers: Cyber Command capabilities at 'tipping point'
Rogers: Cyber Command capabilities at 'tipping point'By Sean LyngaasJan 21, 2016National Security Agency director Adm. Mike Rogers expects a maturation of government offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.
More than five years after its inception, U.S. Cyber Command is at a "tipping point" in maturing its offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, said Adm. Michael Rogers, the command's head.
"The capacity and capability is starting to come online," Rogers said Jan. 21 at an Atlantic Council event in Washington.
The Pentagon's cyber mission force, which is slated to reach about 6,200 personnel, is developing more "tangible" capabilities "that you will see us start to apply in a broader and broader way," added Rogers, who is also National Security Agency director. Cyber Command has built this capacity in part by drawing on the NSA's technical prowess.
The NSA in 2016 will increasingly focus on bolstering the cyber defense of weapons systems, Rogers said.
"We need to move beyond a focus on the network structure into how do we get into systems and platforms, because they have every bit as much level of vulnerability in many ways as our traditional backbone network structure," the admiral said.
Rogers's prioritization of cybersecurity in weapons systems is typical of the consistent alarm expressed by defense officials that tools pushed out to soldiers are vulnerable to hacking. Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, has made cybersecurity in weapons a key piece of his latest round of acquisition guidance to the department.
It may take time for funding to catch up. Of the $3 billion the Air Force Space Command spent last fiscal year on cybersecurity, for example, not a single penny went to weapons' IT security.
'A whole lot more' OPM-style hacks coming2016 will be an important year for the NSA. In the coming weeks, the agency will unveil what is likely its biggest organizational overhaul since the late 1990s.
The reorganization will include changes to the agency's workforce and innovation strategies, Rogers said last month. The revamp will also include efforts to greater integrate the agency's twin missions of foreign intelligence gathering and information assurance, he said Jan. 21. "I don't like these stovepipes" of activity currently residing in the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, walled off from the agency's Signals Intelligence Directorate, Rogers added.
The NSA chief touched on cyber incidents affecting civilian agencies and the private sector.
The OPM hack, and the big breach of health insurer Anthem Inc., demonstrated that "data is increasingly a commodity of value all on its own," Rogers said. Given the rising value of data, he added, "what you saw at OPM'...you're going to see a whole lot more" of in the future.
Rogers also weighed on the use of encrypted communications, which has been a contentious topic in Washington. "Encryption is foundational to the future," he said. "So spending time arguing about, hey, encryption is bad and we ought to do away with it - that's a waste of time to me."
About the Author
Sean Lyngaas is an FCW staff writer covering defense, cybersecurity and intelligence issues. Prior to joining FCW, he was a reporter and editor at Smart Grid Today, where he covered everything from cyber vulnerabilities in the U.S. electric grid to the national energy policies of Britain and Mexico. His reporting on a range of global issues has appeared in publications such as The Atlantic, The Economist, The Washington Diplomat and The Washington Post.
Lyngaas is an active member of the National Press Club, where he served as chairman of the Young Members Committee. He earned his M.A. in international affairs from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and his B.A. in public policy from Duke University.
Click here for previous articles by Lyngaas, or connect with him on Twitter: @snlyngaas.
NSA Chief Stakes Out Pro-Encryption Position, in Contrast to FBI
National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers said Thursday that ''encryption is foundational to the future,'' and arguing about it is a waste of time.
Speaking to the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C., think tank, Rogers stressed that the cybersecurity battles the U.S. is destined to fight call for more widespread use of encryption, not less. ''What you saw at OPM, you're going to see a whole lot more of,'' he said, referring to the massive hack of the Office of Personnel Management involving the personal data about 20 million people who have gotten background checks.
''So spending time arguing about 'hey, encryption is bad and we ought to do away with it' '... that's a waste of time to me,'' he said, shaking his head.
''So what we've got to ask ourselves is, with that foundation, what's the best way for us to deal with it? And how do we meet those very legitimate concerns from multiple perspectives?''
Other government officials '-- most notably FBI Director James Comey '-- have been crusading for a way that law enforcement can get access to encrypted data.
But technologists pretty much universally agree that creating some sort of special third-party access would weaken encryption to the point that it would threaten every internet transaction we make, from online banking to filling out our health records to emailing our friends and significant others. A hole in encryption for special FBI access would be a hole that criminals could sneak through, too.
While there's been a lot of talk about giving up some privacy for security, Rogers said both are paramount.
''Concerns about privacy have never been higher. Trying to get all those things right, to realize that '-- it isn't about one or the other,'' he said. He does not think that ''security is the imperative and that ought to drive everything.'' Nor should privacy, he continued. ''We've got to meet these two imperatives. We've got some challenging times ahead of us, folks.''
Comey, who formerly advocated for a way to get law enforcement access without weakening encryption, recently switched tactics. Now he is pressuring companies to change their business models and simply not offer true end-to-end encryption to their customers.
The White House has decided not to pursue legislation to outlaw unbreakable end-to-end encryption, following pressure from privacy advocates and scientists. But the intelligence community's top lawyer, Bob Litt, privately advised the administration that a major terrorist attack could be an opportune moment to do so.
And the White House has not issued a statement in defense of encryption, to the frustration of Apple CEO Tim Cook, among others.
Meanwhile, Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., are reportedly planning their own proposed legislation to require law enforcement access.
Rogers' comments could indicate a split on this issue between the intelligence community and domestic law enforcement.
The previous NSA director, Michael Hayden, said in January that he thinks Comey is on the wrong side of this debate. ''I disagree with Jim Comey. I actually think end-to-end encryption is good for America,'' he said.
Hayden has also spoken about how U.S. intelligence agencies have figured out how to get the information they need without weakening encryption '-- such as using metadata, which shows who is contacting whom. Another former NSA boss, Mike McConnell, has also spoken out against trying to install backdoors in encryption.
Left unsaid is the fact that the FBI and NSA have the ability to circumvent encryption and get to the content too '-- by hacking. Hacking allows law enforcement to plant malicious code on someone's computer in order to gain access to the photos, messages, and text before they were ever encrypted in the first place, and after they've been decrypted. The NSA has an entire team of advanced hackers, possibly as many as 600, camped out at Fort Meade.
Pentagon delays cyber contracting requirementsBy Sean LyngaasJan 22, 2016In the face of industry resistance, the Department of Defense has delayed until the end of 2017 a key set of requirements for contractors to show they can protect sensitive but unclassified information from hackers.
The Pentagon in August issued an interim acquisition rule ordering contractors to adopt a National Institute of Standards and Technology standard with a slew of security requirements around access control and configuration management. Contractors said they needed more time to switch from one NIST standard to another, and the Pentagon yielded after a mid-December meeting with industry representatives. The department on Dec. 30 issued an updated interim rule announcing the delay.
Defense firms successfully made the case that adopting the new NIST standard was not a matter of "flipping a switch," said Trey Hodgkins, a senior vice president at the Information Technology Alliance for the Public Sector.
The Pentagon "created some breathing room around certification and flexibility so that the [prime contractors] can work with their lower-tier'...suppliers to make sure that everyone is compliant," Hodgkins added.
Bloomberg News was the first to report the delay in the contracting requirements. Claire Grady, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, told Bloomberg News, "We got feedback from industry that they did not think they could fully comply day one."
The requirements delay will give contractors time to adapt to a shifting landscape in cybersecurity requirements that has been characterized as a maze of piecemeal regulations.
"One of the things DOD recognized was the need to actually give companies time to become compliant with the newly established requirements -- hence the follow-on notice to allow time to comply," said David Wennergren, the Professional Services Council's executive vice president for operations and technology.
While welcoming of the new interim rule, Hodgkins said ITAPS wants the Pentagon to clarify that contracts issued between the August and December rules are subject only to the latter rule. Comments on the new rule are open until Feb. 29.
About the Author
Sean Lyngaas is an FCW staff writer covering defense, cybersecurity and intelligence issues. Prior to joining FCW, he was a reporter and editor at Smart Grid Today, where he covered everything from cyber vulnerabilities in the U.S. electric grid to the national energy policies of Britain and Mexico. His reporting on a range of global issues has appeared in publications such as The Atlantic, The Economist, The Washington Diplomat and The Washington Post.
Lyngaas is an active member of the National Press Club, where he served as chairman of the Young Members Committee. He earned his M.A. in international affairs from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and his B.A. in public policy from Duke University.
Click here for previous articles by Lyngaas, or connect with him on Twitter: @snlyngaas.
FaceBag
Facebook friends are almost entirely fake, study finds | News | Lifestyle | The Independent
Most of your Facebook friends don't care about you and probably wouldn't even sympathise with your problems, according to a new study.
Many people have hundreds of Facebook friends. But people can only really depend on four of them, on average, according to new research.
Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford University, undertook a study to find out the connection between whether people have lots of Facebook friends and real friends.
He found that there was very little correlation between having friends on social networks and actually being able to depend on them, or even talking to them regularly.
The average person studied had around 150 Facebook friends. But only about 14 of them would express sympathy in the event of anything going wrong.
The average person said that only about 27 per cent of their Facebook friends were genuine.
Those numbers are mostly similar to how friendships work in real life, the research said. But the huge number of supposed friends on a friend list means that people can be tricked into thinking that they might have more close friends.
"There is a cognitive constraint on the size of social networks that even the communication advantages of online media are unable to overcome," Professor Dunbar wrote wrote. "In practical terms, it may reflect the fact that real (as opposed to casual) relationships require at least occasional face-to-face interaction to maintain them."
Facebook friends tend to organise in different layers, the research claims. About five people will be in the first and closest one, then 15, 50 and 150 different friends will be in each of the groups as they move further out.
Google Car
Fuck the google car. Assisted driving is where it's at
News came earlier this week that the horrific natural gas leak spewing methane at Porter Ranch, just outside Los Angeles, will be capped and contained by the end of February. Of course, it's a promise that has come far too late. If you think Donald Trump is a national disgrace, you haven't been paying much attention to what's been happening here in California. Not that you can be blamed for not knowing how bad the atmosphere-warming leak actually is, nobody that has the power to do anything about it seems to care all that much, certainly not California's governor-for-life Jerry Brown.
While the leak was first discovered in late October, it took Brown two full months to declare a state of emergency. This, after UC Davis scientist Stephen Conley in early November determined that 100,000 pounds of methane was leaking per hour at the site, or 1,200 tons per day. Of course, this inaction is par for the course for Brown, who has long ignored the perils of oil and gas production in the state, especially when it comes to fracking. In the short term, scientists estimate the leaking methane is more than 80 times more potent than CO2 when it comes warming of our atmosphere.
''To put this into perspective, the leak effectively doubles the emission rate for the entire Los Angeles Basin,'' attested Conley. ''On a global scale, this is big.''
For what it's worth, the Obama administration, longtime boosters of natural gas, hasn't been much help either. While activists have called on the White House to declare the Porter Ranch leak a natural disaster so residents can seek tax and mortgage relief, Obama has ignored their pleas. As of early January, 6,500 families had applied for relocation assistance''the stench of methane is simply too unbearable to live with. All of this could have been prevented of course, because the Aliso Canyon storage facility, which is owned by SoCalGas, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, did not have a safety valve in place that would have helped to avert such a catastrophe.
SoCalGas also doesn't appear to be too concerned with the welfare of those living in and around Porter Ranch. They won't release air quality data and were seeking to expand the gas facility before they even dealt with their leak.
''At this rate, in just one month, the leak will have accounted for one-quarter of the total estimated methane emissions in the state of California. So it is no surprise that residents here feel sick,'' writes Erin Brockovich, who has called the Porter Ranch leak the BP oil spill on land. ''While I can escape to my home to recover from my symptoms, this community wakes up to conditions that cause vomiting, nosebleeds and serious respiratory issues daily. And no one really knows the potential long-term side effects of benzene and radon, the carcinogens that are commonly found in natural gas. This dangerous environment is why the Los Angeles Unified School District unanimously voted last week to close two Porter Ranch schools and relocate their nearly 1,900 students and staff to protect their safety.''
A sane approach to the situation would be to be to immediately put a halt to all oil and gas production in Aliso Canyon (an outright ban on all fracking in California wouldn't be a bad idea either). Currently there is legislation slogging its way through Sacramento to this effect, but it's likely to die a slow death in committee hearings before it ever makes it to Brown's desk. To top things off, the Southern California Air Quality District has repeatedly refused to close down the Aliso facility.
''The Air District doesn't need to stall any longer because it has all the information it needs to make the right decision right now: shut down the Aliso facility once and for all. We appreciate the Board hearing from the public, but this decision needs to be made fast,'' says Matt Pakucko of Save Porter Ranch, a group seeking to stop the methane leak. ''[This is an] insult to all of us who have been displaced from our homes, and [to] our kids who have been forced out of their schools because the air is too toxic to breathe.''
So why is Brown essentially sitting this one out, even though the Porter Ranch leak is by far the worst environmental disaster California has experienced in years? The answer may have a lot to do with his cozy ties to the oil and gas industry. Brown has pocketed over $2,014,570.22 from the oil and gas cartel since his 2006 race for California Attorney General. The industry has also poured lavish amounts of cash, nearly $1.2 million, into the coffers of Brown's favorite ballot initiatives, such as Prop 30, which passed a temporary tax in 2012 to fund state schools. It's pay-to-play politics, and the California's governor knows the game well.
Brown's sister, Kathleen Brown, also enjoys quite a few intimate connections to California gas producers. She sits on the board of Sempra Energy, the company that owns SoCalGas, and is richly compensated for her role''$267,865 in 2013 and $188,380 in 2014. Additionally, Kathleen Brown is a partner at Manatt Phelps, a law firm that often represents the fracking industry. Jerry and Kathleen are close. She was a delegate to Brown's 2014 trade and investment mission to Mexico and Gov. Brown recently appointed her husband Van Gordon Sauter to the California State Athletic Commission.
Sure, Jerry Brown proclaims to be a warrior in the fight against climate change, but his resum(C) is stained with industry cash. The mammoth methane leak in Porter Ranch is just one example of Brown's bureaucratic negligence and there is certainly more where that came from. Want to stop another devastating disaster like the Porter Ranch methane leak? The first order of business is to clean house and get rid of Brown and the rest of his oil and gas cronies. Only then will California regulators and legislators begin to play hardball with California's powerful fossil fuel polluters. Until then, don't expect much accountability.
Joshua Frank is managing editor of CounterPunch. His latest book, edited with Jeffrey St. Clair is Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. He can be reached at brickburner@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter @brickburner.
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LA gas well has 'destabilized', large crater develops in area '-- Officials: ''Could be catastrophic'' '-- TV: Risk of massive fire, possible explosion '-- Expert: ''If wellhead fails, the thing is just going to be full blast'... a horrible, horribl
Los Angeles Times, Jan 15, 2016 (emphasis added): Efforts to plug Porter Ranch-area gas leak worsened blowout risk, regulators say '-- Southern California Gas Co'... is trying to avoid a blowout, which state regulators said is now a significant concern after a seventh attempt to plug the well created more precarious conditions at the site. If a blowout occurs, highly flammable gas would vent directly up through the well'... rather than dissipating as it does now'... State officials said a blowout would increase the amount of leaked gas'... That natural gas also creates the risk of a massive fire'... The risk of fire already is so high that cellphones and watches are banned from the site'... [The gas company's attempts to stop the leak] expanded a crater around the wellhead, state and gas company officials said. The crater is now 25 feet deep, 80 feet long and 30 feet wide, those officials said'... [The gas company] declined repeated requests from The Times'... The gas company would not provide current photos of the site or allow media access'... In one internal state report obtained by The Times, an agency official described [one] kill effort as a ''blowout to surface.'' ''A large column of gas, aerated mud, and rock formed a geyser around the wellhead,'' the state observer wrote.
Scott McGurk, senior oil and gas field regulator assigned to daily watch at Aliso Canyon, Jan 15, 2016: The site and wellhead were made more unstable by the gas company's attempts to stop the leak by pumping a slurry directly into the well'... The wellhead sits exposed within the cavernous space, held in place with cables attached after it wobbled during the plugging attempt'... During one of [the plugging] attempts Nov. 13, a hole in the ground opened 20 feet north of the well'... Gas that had seeped through diffuse rock fissures on the western side of the narrow ridge began streaming instead from the new vent'... the vent allowed a ''serious amount of gas'' to escape.
Gene Nelson, a physical sciences professor at Cuesta College, Jan 15, 2016: ''If the wellhead fails, the thing is just going to be full blast'... It will be a horrible, horrible problem. The leak rates would go way up.''
Don Drysdale, California Department of Conservation spokesman, Jan 15, 2016: The possibility of fire [is] ''a concern'' even without a blowout.
Los Angeles Times, Jan 16, 2016: [There's] new evidence the [Puclic Utility Commission] is concerned that the compromised well site in Aliso Canyon is vulnerable to either a blowout'... an explosion, or both'... PUC includes a warning that damage to the well system, which was subjected to two months of aggressive high-pressure pumping to try to plug the leak, might now permit air to mix with methane in a way that ''could be catastrophic.'''... [T]he utility began a series of increasingly aggressive attempts to plug the well with heavy mud'... those efforts instead scoured a 25-foot-deep crater around the well, blew out a large vent from which gas could escape more freely, and threatened the stability of the wellhead itself'... The Department of Conservation says those facilities present ''a direct and ongoing threat to public health, safety, and the environment'''...
NPR, Jan 15, 2016: Adding to concerns over the disaster, efforts to stop the leak appear to have destabilized the well, the Los Angeles Times reports, raising the risk of a blowout'... SoCalGas' efforts to cap the well have actually increased the risk of a blowout. Seven attempts to plug the leak have made the area less stable'... even without a blowout, the leak could catch on fire.
FOX LA transcript, Jan 16, 2016: ''Trying to avoid a blowout, state regulators say it's now a big concern after SoCalGas has tried to plug a leaking well near Porter Ranch seven times. If a blowout happens, experts say highly flammable gas would go up the well, creating a risk of a massive fire '-- possibly even an explosion.''
Watch FOX LA's broadcast here (wait for 2nd video to play autonatically)
War on Ca$h
Norway's Biggest Bank Calls For Country To Stop Using Cash
The largest bank in Norway has called for the country to stop using cash, the Local reported Friday. This comes as the latest move in a country that has been leading the global charge toward electronic money in recent years, with several banks already not offering cash in their branch offices and some industries seeking to cut back on paper currency.
DNB, the bank with the proposal, has said eliminating the use of cash would cut down on black market sales and crimes such as money laundering.
''Today, there is approximately 50 billion kroner in circulation and [the country's central bank] Norges Bank can only account for 40 percent of its use. That means that 60 percent of money usage is outside of any control. We believe that is due to under-the-table money and laundering,'' Trond Bentestuen, a DNB executive, told Norwegian website VG, the Local reported.
''There are so many dangers and disadvantages associated with cash, we have concluded that it should be phased out,'' he added.
The country has already moved in this direction naturally. Bentestuen estimated that about 6 percent of Norwegians use cash on a daily basis, with the numbers higher among elderly people.
Norway's Ministry of Finance is opposed to the proposal, however, and other critics have raised concerns about privacy issues as well as how the change would affect tourists. Privacy advocates in Norway have expressed worries for years that, without cash, there would be no way for an individual to purchase something without being tracked.
In 2014, Finans Norge, a financial industry organization in Norway, said the country was on pace to be a cashless society by 2020, Ice News reported. While DNB said its proposal will take time to complete, executives suggested the country start phasing out cash by discontinuing the 1,000 kroner note so it could focus on updating its banking system.
''Eighty-five percent of our customers say that they never or only very rarely go to the bank. Therefore we think it is a mistake to maintain a very old structure with local branch offices. It is better to follow the customers and improve the offers where the customers are: digital,'' Bentestuen said.
A Norwegian five hundred Crowns currency banknote pictured in Stockholm, Dec. 8, 2011.Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Still, the Finance Ministry has no plans to change its laws for now.
''There are many, including the elderly, who still want to use cash and that must be allowed. Moreover, it isn't unproblematic for privacy to make every transaction traceable,'' Finance Ministry spokesman Tore Vamraak said, according to the Local.
In the meantime, DNB and Norway's second largest bank, Nordea, have already stopped using cash in their branch offices. And the movement toward a goal of no cash has been going on for a while. The Norwegian Hospitality Association pushed to eliminate consumers' right to pay cash at all stores and restaurants in 2013, The Local reported.
Other countries including Denmark and Sweden have made similar pushes as their populations also rely largely on electronic money.
F-Russia
Britain WANTED Alexander Litvinenko dead NOT the Kremlin says murdered former KBG agent's brother - Mirror Online
The younger sibling of murdered spy Alexander Litvinenko says his brother was not killed by Russian spies and instead blames UK security services that wanted him dead.
And Maxim Litvinenko has rejected the findings of the inquiry into his brother's death, saying that to blame the Kremlin is 'ridiculous.'
The inquiry found that President Putin 'probably' authorised the murder by Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, who were under the direction of Moscow's FSB intelligence service , when they poisoned the 43-year-old with radioactive polonium 210 at London's Millennium Hotel.
But Maxim Litvinenko, Alexander's younger brother, claimed the report was an obvious attempt to 'put pressure on Russia' and that British secret services had more reason to want Litvinenko dead than Putin.
Brothers: Alexander with this younger brother MaximRead more:Alexander Litvinenko inquiry: The other Putin critics who have been assassinated
Maxim, a chef by trade who lives in Rimini, Italy, said: "I don't believe for a second that the Russian authorities were involved.
"The sentence is a set-up to provide more bad publicity against the Russian government.
"The Russians had no reason to want Alexander dead, he claimed. 'My brother was not a spy, he was more like a policeman.
"He was in the FSB but he worked against organised crime, murders, arms trafficking, stuff like that.
Dead: each of these opponents to the Russian regime have lost their lives in suspicious circumstances
"He did not know any state secrets or go on any special missions . It is the Western media that have called him a spy."
His relations with Russia were so stable that Alexander planned to return, his brother claimed, because he didn't have enough work in London.
Read more:Alexander Litvinenko inquiry: Friend of murdered spy sent T-shirt threatening him with polonium poisoning
"He had already started to get in touch with old friends and would have gone back in due course," he added.
"My father and I are sure that the Russian authorities are not involved. It's all a set-up to put pressure on the Russian government.
"Why else would the court be called to hold this inquiry only after 10 years?'
Answers: Litvinenko's wife Marina addresses the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice"The West appear to be collaborating with Russia in Syria but it's not real-there's still sanctions."
He claimed that British authorities had not collaborated with Russian investigators on his brother's case and cast doubt on whether polonium was really the murder weapon saying he believes it could have been planted to frame the Russians.
Read more:Litvinenko inquiry: Theresa May blasts Russia for "blatant breach of international law" as she vows new crackdown
He said: "I believe he could have been killed by another poison maybe thallium, which killed him slowly and the polonium was planted afterwards.
Evidence: a diagram of the Alexander Litvinenko poisoned teapot"We have always asked for his body to be exhumed so that we can verify the presence of polonium in the body but we have been ignored.
"Now after ten years any trace would have disappeared anyway so we will never know. "
He also claimed that several other deaths, including the suicide of Boris Berezovsky, the dissident who had initially supported Litvinenko financially, and the murder of the owner of a nightclub where traces of polonium were found, could be linked to his brother's death.
Answers: Marina Litvinenko wife of dead agent Alexander speaks to reporters outside The High CourtMaxim, a chef by training, initially blamed the Russian regime for his brother's murder. But his views have now radically altered.
In 2008 and 2009 the Litvinenko family had a restaurant in Rimini, a resort on Italy's Adriatic coast which is popular with Russians, that was closed down, forcing the family into financial difficulties.
But as his views altered his fortunes seem to have improved.
Read more:Alexander Litvinenko inquiry: How ex-spy was killed 'on Putin's orders' and why no-one is facing justice
The father-of-two says he now works between Russia and Rimini, and is launching a property company in Italy targeting foreigners, especially Russians.
Poisoned: Alexander Litvinenko is seen lying in his hospital bed before his deathHe has denied accepting any money from the Russian state.
Asked why Litvinenko's widow Marina continues to maintain that the Kremlin is responsible for the death he said: 'She lives in London, to survive she has to play the game and take this point of view. She can't say anything else."
CLIPS AND DOCS
VIDEO-Antisemitism on the rise in Germany | All media content | DW.COM | 26.02.2015
Read alsoHow safe are Jews in Germany? 20.01.2016Can Jews still feel safe in Germany? The large influx of refugees from Arab countries has many Jewish communities concerned about increasing anti-Semitism.
Resist Anti-Semitism, hate speech, urges Merkel 24.01.2016Anti-Semitism is "unfortunately too often" evident in society, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her weekly video podcast. Germany still has a "big task", she says, to resist hate speech and uphold its constitution.
Marseille anti-Semitic attacks spark debate over wearing skull caps 12.01.2016A string of anti-Semitic attacks in Marseille has raised questions over whether Jewish men and boys should wear their skullcaps. The city's Jewish leader Zvi Ammar has urged Jews not to wear a kippa "until better days."
Jihadist attack ignites kippa debate in France 15.01.2016France's Jewish community has been hotly debating whether boys and men should wear skullcaps in public in the wake of an anti-Semitic attack. Some say it's simply too dangerous. Elizabeth Bryant reports from Paris.
VIDEO-Violence roils Haiti despite postponement of election | Reuters.com
[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]
On the 20 January 2016 edition of AC360, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin downplayed the latest development in Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal '-- the revelation that her private e-mail server "contained highly-classified intelligence from the most top secret of programs," as host Anderson Cooper reported. Toobin asserted that "it's a huge political problem," but added, " I don't think it's a big legal problem. I don't think the FBI is going to wind up charging her with a crime."
Cooper reported the news on Mrs. Clinton's sever as "big news tonight on the Democratic side." He continued by noting that "Clinton told NPR today that this is just another leak and attempt to inject the issue back into the campaign; and a Clinton's spokesman said on New Day that the information could have been nothing more than a forwarded news article." The anchor also pointed out, "You may remember Bernie Sanders saying in a CNN debate that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about her '-- quote, 'damn e-mails.'" He added, "The question is whether this will ever go away; and also, if Clinton can withstand a surge in the polls that the Sanders camp is enjoying right now."
VIDEO-CNN's Baldwin Presses Finney on Hillary Campaign's E-Mail Conspiracy Theory | MRCTV
[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]
Brooke Baldwin pursued Hillary Clinton flack Karen Finney on the 21 January 2016 edition of CNN Newsroom over her campaign's conspiracy theory that the intelligence community's inspector general purposely leaked the latest revelation about the highly-classified information on Mrs. Clinton's server. When Finney cited unnamed officials who alleged that the I.G. "unfairly targeted Hillary Clinton," Baldwin interjected, "What would the motivation be for this inspector general to do this?" When the Democratic operative asserted that "they want to take down Hillary Clinton," the anchor twice asked, "What is your proof for that?"
VIDEO-My Hair Is Layed Like Oscar Snub (Jada Pinkett vs Janet Hubert aka Aunt Viv) - YouTube
Actor and producer Ice Cube presented a different side of Hollywood, criticizing the #OscarsSoWhite complainers for putting a lot of energy into what he ultimately sees as a ''horse race.''
Appearing on BBC's ''The Graham Norton Show'' on Thursday, the actor said he was not joining the Hollywood trend of boycotting the Academy Awards, and for good reason.
''You can't boycott something that you never went to anyway,'' he said, adding he views award shows like a horse race. ''Once your horse loses the race, you tear up your ticket and go home.''
While Oscar critics feel the acclaimed film ''Straight Outta Compton'' was snubbed by the Academy, garnering only a Best Original Screenplay nomination, Ice Cube '' the film's producer '' disagreed.
''We got accolades from all levels,'' he said, referring to the response of fans and critics alike to the movie. He said being mad about not getting one guild or academy's recognition is like ''crying about not having enough icing on your cake.''
''We don't do movies for the industry,'' Ice Cube said, ''we do movies for the fans, for the people.''
Watch the video below.
Latest posts by Frieda Powers (see all)
VIDEO-Donald Trump: I could 'shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters' - CNNPolitics.com
"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," Trump said at a campaign rally here.
After the event, Trump declined to answer when asked by CNN to clarify his comments.
The GOP front-runner has repeatedly pointed to the loyalty of his supporters, many of whom tell reporters and pollsters that almost nothing could make them change their mind about voting for Trump in the presidential race.
Trump's comments come as the debate about gun violence in America has taken center stage in American political discourse amid several highly publicized mass shootings.
Trump has repeatedly touted his strong support for the Second Amendment and slammed President Barack Obama's recent use of executive orders to expand the reach of background checks needed to purchase a gun.
The brash billionaire's comments also come less than two months after two ISIS-inspired terrorists killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, and ISIS-linked attacks killed 130 in Paris. In response, Trump has called for fewer gun restrictions and a harder stance on terrorism.
Trump has joked about killing people before.
Last month, he appeared to consider whether he would kill journalists, as Russian President Vladimir Putin -- whom Trump defended -- has been accused of doing.
"I would never kill them. I would never do that," Trump told supporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, before reconsidering.
"Uh, let's see, uh?" he said aloud, his voice rising. "No, I would never do that."
"I was not good, really not good," Krief says of how he felt at the time. "I talked to my mom, and I said, 'We must go to Israel. We need to go to Israel.'"
Krief, a French Jew who had just finished high school, moved to Israel with his family six months later, as part of the largest migration of Jews from Western Europe to Israel since the modern state of Israel was created.
Nearly 8,000 French Jews moved to Israel in the year following the Charlie Hebdo attack, according to the Jewish Agency, which handles Jewish immigration, or aliyah, to Israel.
The number of French Jews moving to Israel has doubled -- and doubled again -- in the past five years.
In 2013, less than 3,300 French Jews moved to Israel. Only two years earlier, that number stood at 1,900.
Britain has the second-highest Jewish emigration from Western Europe, but the scale is much smaller. According to the Jewish Agency, 774 British Jews moved to Israel in 2015, less than one-tenth the number of French Jews.
'Difficult to live as a Jew in France'Many French Jews settle in Ashdod, a city in southern Israel known for its large French population.
You are as likely to hear French on the streets as you are Hebrew, especially in one of the city's many French caf(C)s.
"It's great for me here, much better than France," says Charly Dahan, a musician who moved to Israel from Paris two years ago.
Dahan sits in Caf(C) Lyon, a popular meeting spot for French Jews.
"This is the first time in my life that I am relaxed. In France, I also felt good, but the situation and the current problems... it's very difficult to live as a Jew in France," he adds.
The Jewish Agency says violence is part -- but not all -- of the reason for French immigration.
"While high-profile attacks such as those at the Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012, the Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014, and the kosher supermarket in Paris and the synagogue in Copenhagen last year have certainly been the most vivid instances of violence targeting French and European Jews, the French Jewish community has been living with a deep sense of insecurity for quite some time," says Avi Mayer, spokesman for the Jewish Agency.
Israel's Jewish leaders have always proclaimed that the country will always offer a home to Jews from anywhere in the world.
But what of the places these newcomers have left behind?
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently expressed the fear that an exodus of Jews would change the country for the worse.
"Without the Jews, France is no longer France. It's the oldest community. They have been French citizens since the French revolution," he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
Fear of being seen as JewishBut when the European Union studied the prevalence of anti-Semitism in 2013, it found that 74% of Jews in France avoid openly identifying themselves as Jewish at least some of the time, and more than a quarter of French Jews always do.
Dov Cohen, a French Jew who left Marseille for Ashdod last summer, says he never wore his religious skullcap, or kippa, in public.
"You have to watch out," Cohen says about his life in France. "You have to protect the children because of fights in the metro and on the buses. This pushed us to decide to make aliyah," he says.
"Here there is a feeling of security that no longer exists in France. Twenty years ago, maybe yes. But since the year 2000, there no longer is that feeling of security in France."
2015: Jewish leaders rebuff Netanyahu's call for mass migration
VIDEO-Confident Trump Says "Could Shoot Somebody" & Still Win | Zero Hedge
Did Donald Trump just jump the shark with his extreme comments? While the correlation between the un-PC-ness of The Donald's comments and his poll success is high, his latest statement may be too much for some...
"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," Trump said at a campaign rally in Iowa.
While he may well be correct in his statement, we suspect the mainstream media will have a field day with this one as the Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses loom.
We suspect though that the Brits will certainly ban him from entry if he did.
Of course, as we detailed previously, Trump's success is not as much his doing as a symptom of growing dissatisfaction in America. In Chronicles, in 1996, Francis, a paleoconservative and proud son of the South, wrote:
''[S]ooner or later, as the globalist elites seek to drag the country into conflicts and global commitments, preside over the economic pastoralization of the United States, manage the delegitimization of our own culture, and the dispossession of our people, and disregard or diminish our national interest and national sovereignty, a nationalist reaction is almost inevitable and will probably assume populist form when it arrives. The sooner it comes, the better.''
What we saw through a glass darkly then, we now see face to face.
Is not Trump the personification of the populist-nationalist revolt Francis predicted?
And no matter what, Trump is not the last of the populist-nationalists.
Given his success, other Republicans will emulate him. Already, other candidates are incorporating his message. The day Francis predicted was coming appears to have arrived.
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VIDEO-Hillary Clinton Laughs When Asked if She Will Release Her Goldman Sachs Speeches - Truthdig
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton laughed and turned away when Intercept reporter Lee Fang asked if she would release transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs.
Fang reports:
Clinton has recently been on the defensive about the speaking fees she and her husband have collected. Those fees total over $125 million since 2001.
Her rival Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has raised concerns in particular over the $675,000 she made from Goldman Sachs, an investment bank that has regularly used its influence with government officials to win favorable policies.
During one of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, Clinton reportedly reassured the crowd and told them that banker-bashing was unproductive and foolish, according to a Politico report based on accounts offered by several attendees. ['...]
When asked by the Des Moines Register on Thursday if she regretted her decision to make money from speaking to various interest groups, Clinton compared herself to President Barack Obama, noting that significant campaign donations from Wall Street did not stop him from passing the Dodd-Frank reform law.
But the Obama administration did in fact go easy on Wall Street by refusing to criminally prosecute the major financial institutions responsible for the 2008 economic crisis. And Dodd-Frank, many critics say, does not go far enough in preventing systemic risk.
What's more, though Obama fundraised for his presidential campaigns from Wall Street, he never enriched himself personally as the Clintons have done.
Read more here.
'--Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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VIDEO-Page and McLaughlin: The FBI Will Recommend Prosecution For Hillary - Breitbart
Chicago Tribune Editorial Board member Clarence Page and ''McLaughlin Group'' host John McLaughlin predicted the FBI will recommend Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton face prosecution for mishandling classified information on Friday.
McLaughlin asked, ''Forced prediction for the panel: the FBI will recommend that Hillary Clinton face prosecution for mishandling classified information? That's the FBI. Yes or no?''
Page stated, ''I'm going to say yes, but she won't be indicted.''
Earlier this week, we documented the riots that took place in tiny Heesch where 1,000 Dutch protesters took to the streets to demonstrate their extreme displeasure at the town's decision to settle some 500 refugees.
Just hours before the melee, far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders (who is set to go on trial in March for inciting racial hatred by promising to rid the Netherlands of ''Moroccans'') released a new TV spot for his ascendant Freedom Party. In the clip, Wilders says male Mid-East refugees are ''Islamic testosterone bombs'' who should be locked away in asylum centers in order to ''save the country's women'' from ''sexual jihad.''
If you watched the clip, your first reaction was probably to laugh, but if you're like us, that laughter quickly gave way to consternation because what the video clearly demonstrates is that not only is Europe succumbing to xenophobia, the bloc is increasingly receptive to messages that in any other context would likely be met with revulsion.
Of course you can't exactly blame Europeans for their newfound tendency to lean right (so to speak). Between the Paris attacks and the wave of sexual assaults that took place across the bloc on New Year's Eve, the EU electorate has come to associate refugees with violent crime. The bloc is in fact so frightened that pepper spray and gun sales are soaring as Europeans arm themselves against what they increasingly view as a hostile foreign invasion and an usurpation of Christian values.
All of this has served to boost the popularity of far-right groups like PEGIDA in Germany and the ''Soldiers of Odin'' in Finland, where vigilante justice has arrived in the form of roving patrols of young men donning black bomber jackets with Viking helmets stitched on the back.
It's against this rather disturbing backdrop that we bring you the following video from the ''Identitarian Movement'' in Germany. As you'll see, some German youths are prepared to stage an open revolt against policies and politicians they believe are ''sacrificing German values and traditions.''
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VIDEO-Oscars 2016: Mark Ruffalo attacks America's 'white privilege racism' | Film | The Guardian
'It isn't just the Academy Awards. The entire American system is rife with white privilege racism' ... Mark Ruffalo. Photograph: Joe Corrigan/WireImage
Related:Mark Ruffalo on Spotlight: 'The whole of Boston was complicit. Everybody looked the other way'
Two actors whose films are expected to challenge for Oscars glory next month, Brie Larson and Mark Ruffalo, have backed calls for the world's foremost film ceremony to improve diversity following the ongoing furore over all-white lists of nominees.
Ruffalo told BBC Breakfast that the ''entire American system is rife with white privilege racism,'' adding: ''It goes into our justice system.'' The 48-year-old actor said he was mulling joining the boycott advocated by Jada Pinkett Smith and civil rights leader Al Sharpton, though he later confirmed on Twitter that he would be attending.
Ruffalo, who is up for best supporting actor for his role in the Catholic church abuse drama Spotlight '' the bookmakers' favourite to take best picture '' wrote: ''To clear up any confusion. I will be going to the Oscars in support of the victims of clergy Sexual Abuse and good journalism.''
Larson, widely tipped to take home the best actress prize next month for her turn in abuse drama Room, used an Instagram post promoting her appearance on the front cover of the Hollywood Reporter to highlight the diversity deficit furore. ''Thank you @hollywoodreporter for covering this very unique moment in my life! It was wonderful spending time with all of you,'' she wrote. ''Personally, I'm interested in reading their article on #OscarsSoWhite. This is a conversation that deserves attention.''
Ruffalo's and Larson's comments came after last week's announcement of an all-white list of Oscar nominees in acting categories for the second year running. Pinkett Smith, her husband Will Smith and the Oscar-winning director Spike Lee have all said they will not be attending next month's ceremony in protest.
Will Smith on Oscars boycott: 'It's going the wrong direction'Related:Will Smith confirms he won't attend Oscars in row over lack of diversity
As pressure continued to mount on Oscars body the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has vowed to address the issue, 2006 Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon and 2012 nominee Viola Davis also spoke out on the diversity deficit.
''I really appreciated this article in Time on the lack of racial and gender diversity in this year's Oscar nominations,'' said Witherspoon in a Facebook post, adding: ''So disappointed that some of 2015's best films, film-makers and performances were not recognised. Nothing can diminish the quality of their work, but these film-makers deserve recognition. As an Academy member, I would love to see a more diverse voting membership.''
Davis, nominated for the 2011 race drama The Help, echoed previous comments from Whoopi Goldberg when she said the diversity deficit spread wider than the Oscars, to the entire ''Hollywood movie-making system''. She asked Entertainment Tonight: ''How many black films are being produced every year? How are they being distributed? The films that are being made, are the big-time producers thinking outside of the box in terms of how to cast the role?''
Related:Oscars race row rule change and the Terminator, terminated '' Dailies film podcast
Davis continued: ''Can you cast a black woman in that role? Can you cast a black man in that role? The problem isn't even our pay [though] you could probably line up all the A-list black actresses out there [and] they probably don't make what one A-list white woman makes in one film. That's the problem. You can change the Academy, but if there are no black films being produced, what is there to vote for?''
However, Davis refused to add her voice to the growing chorus of African American voices, including those of rapper 50 Cent and Fast and Furious star Tyrese Gibson, who have called on host Chris Rock to step down from next month's ceremony.
''Like I said, the Oscars are not really the issue,'' she said. ''It's a symptom of a much greater disease. But if he does, I hope he takes it as an opportunity to make a statement, a social statement about change. It's 2016.''
VIDEO-Famous Faces of the World Economic Forum 2016
The Environmental Protection Agency's top Midwest official is resigning over the Flint water crisis, the agency announced Thursday, amid criticism over the agency's alleged inaction in preventing the city's water from being contaminated with lead.
Region 5 administrator Susan Hedman offered her resignation and will leave in February after it was accepted by Administrator Gina McCarthy, the EPA said in a statement.
Hedman, the EPA's top Midwest official, had previously told The Detroit News the agency knew about the lack of corrosion control in the water supply as early as April, after an EPA official identified problems with the drinking water, but did not make the information public.
The resignation comes just two days after the EPA admitted its response to the crisis was too slow.
"Our first priority is to make sure the water in Flint is safe, but we also must look at what the agency could have done differently," the agency said in a statement Tuesday. An EPA spokeswoman confirmed the agency believed it did not act fast enough to address the problem, according to Reuters.
The EPA said that McCarthy sent Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder a letter issing a Safe Drinking Water Act Emergency Order, which requires the city and state of Michigan to take a series of "immediate steps" to address the drinking water contamination in Flint.
"EPA has determined the State of Michigan and the City of Flint's responses to the drinking water crisis in Flint have been inadequate to protect public health, there are serious, ongoing concerns with delays, lack of adequate transparency, and capacity to safely manage the drinking water system," the agency said in a statement.
Flint's water became contaminated with lead when the city switched its water source in 2014 as a cost-cutting measure while the city was under state financial management. The Flint River water was not properly treated to keep lead from pipes from leaching into the supply. Elevated blood-lead levels were found in two city zip codes.
The community about 75 miles north of Detroit, has about 100,000 residents, with about 40 percent of them living below the poverty line. The population is nearly 60 percent black.
Republican Governor Rick Snyder, who has faced fierce criticism for his role in the crisis, apologized in December and Michigan's top environmental regulator, Dan Wyant, resigned after a task force created by Snyder blamed problems on his agency.
The group said the Department of Environmental Quality erred by not requiring Flint to keep corrosive water from leaching lead from service pipes into residents' homes and belittling concerns from the public.
The lead '-- which can lead to behavior problems and learning disabilities in children and kidney ailments in adults '-- has left Flint residents unable to drink unfiltered tap water. The National Guard, state employees, local authorities and volunteers have been distributing lead tests, filters and bottled water. Snyder aides pledged that by the end of the week, officials would visit every household in Flint to ensure they have water filters.
President Obama, meanwhile, designated Flint a federal emergency on Saturday but has refused Snyder's request to designate it a disaster zone as it is a man-made incident.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver refused to call for Snyder's resignation while at a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., saying investigations should go forward. She said she wants Snyder to give Flint the services and the money needed to address the problem.
"People have said how they want things handled with him," Weaver said Wednesday. "I'm staying focused on what I need to get from him right now."
The U.S. Justice Department is helping the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate, and GOP state Attorney General Bill Schuette has opened his own probe.
The agency said that McCarthy has sent a memo to all staff instating a formal policy, effective immediately, on elevation of critical public health issues, while also requesting the EPA's Office of Inspector General conduct an evaluation of the region's public water system supervision program under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
VIDEO-Antisemitism on the rise in Germany | All media content | DW.COM | 26.02.2015
DW NewsStudies say the number of anti-semitic attacks in Germany increased by ten percent last year. One German Jew admits feeling unease wearing a kippah on the street. But he says emigration is not an option for him.
