A man in France was sentenced to two years in prison this week for repeatedly visiting pro-ISIS websites, even though there is no indication that he planned to stage a terrorist attack. The 32-year-old, whose name has not been released, was convicted by a court in the department of Ard¨che on Tuesday under a new law that has drawn scorn from civil liberties groups.
According to French media, police discovered the man's browsing history after conducting a raid on his house. During the investigation, they found pro-ISIS images and execution videos on his phone, personal computer, and a USB stick. An ISIS flag was on the wallpaper of his computer desktop, and his computer's password was ''13novembrehaha,'' a reference to the night gunmen killed 130 people in attacks across Paris. The man had been regularly consulting jihadist websites for two years, police said.
In court, the man argued that he visited the sites out of curiosity. ''I wanted to tell the difference between real Islam and the false Islam, now I understand," he said, according to FranceBleu. But the man reportedly admitted to not reading other news sites or international press, and family members told the court that his behavior had recently changed. He became irritated when discussing religion, they said, and began sporting a long beard with harem pants. A representative from the Ard¨che court confirmed to The Verge that there was no indication that the man had any plans to launch an attack. In addition to the two-year prison sentence, he will have to pay a '¬30,000 fine.
''The consultation of a site does not define a person as a terrorist.''
This week's conviction is the latest handed down under a controversial law that criminalizes the ''habitual'' consultation of websites that promote terrorism. A man in Marseille was convicted under the law in September, as was a 31-year-old man in August. The law, which went into effect in June, makes exceptions for those who visit the sites ''in good faith'' '-- for research, to inform the public, or for judicial purposes '-- but critics say it goes too far.
Patrick Baudouin, honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), described this week's conviction as ''excessive,'' saying it ''perfectly illustrates'' how judicial standards in France have been relaxed amid heightened security concerns. ''The consultation of a site does not define a person as a terrorist,'' Baudouin said in an email.
The Constitutional Council, France's highest court, will determine the constitutionality of the website law within the next three months, Reuters reported this week. As of mid-October, 13 cases had been brought under the law, according to Le Parisien, a French newspaper.
The man convicted Tuesday was not previously known to security agencies and had committed only petty crimes in the past, according to FranceBleu. Police reportedly came across his name while conducting surveillance on another person in the region, and received authorization from the Ard¨che prefecture to raid his home. Security forces are allowed to conduct warrantless raids and surveillance under France's state of emergency laws, which went into effect after last year's terrorist attacks and have drawn widespread criticism from human rights groups. The Ard¨che prefecture did not respond to a request for comment.
''Arbitrariness is the opposite of law.''
The French government has gradually tightened its control over the internet in a bid to curb online radicalization. A law passed following the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks allows the government to block websites that promote terrorism without a court order, and intelligence agencies were granted broad surveillance powers under a law that critics compared to a ''French Patriot Act.'' The government has also sought to proactively counter ISIS propaganda with its own messaging. This month, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced an online campaign, known as #toujourslechoix (''always the choice''), that aims to deter young people from joining jihadist movements.
Other European countries may soon implement similar censorship regimes, as well. The European Parliament is expected to ratify a new counterterrorism directive next month that, among other things, would allow member states to ''block access to web pages publicly inciting others to commit terrorist offenses.'' Rights groups say the current proposal is vaguely worded, making it ripe for abuse.
''When definitions are vague, it means that implementation becomes arbitrary,'' says Joe McNamee, executive director of European Digital Rights (EDRi), a Brussels-based advocacy group. ''And arbitrariness is the opposite of law.''
Senate Responds to Trump-Inspired Anti-Semitism By Targeting Students Who Criticize Israel
After Donald Trump's election emboldened white supremacists and inspired a wave of anti-Semitic hate incidents across the country, the Senate on Thursday took action by passing a bill aimed at limiting the free-speech rights of college students who express support for Palestinians.
By unanimous consent, the Senate quietly passed the so-called Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, only two days after it was introduced by Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Tim Scott, R-S.C.
A draft of the bill obtained by The Intercept encourages the Department of Education to use the State Department's broad, widely criticized definition of anti-Semitism when investigating schools. That definition, from a 2010 memo, includes as examples of anti-Semitism ''delegitimizing'' Israel, ''demonizing'' Israel, ''applying double standards'' to Israel, and ''focusing on Israel only for peace or human rights investigations.''
Critics have pointed out that those are political '-- not racist '-- positions, shared by a significant number of Jews, and qualify as protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.
According to the draft, the bill does not adopt the definition as a formal legal standard, it only directs the State Department to ''take into consideration'' the definition when investigating schools for anti-Semitic discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The memo's definition '-- which is widely supported by Israeli advocacy groups '-- was intended for identifying anti-Semitic groups overseas. Even then, it came with caveats. Criticisms of Israel are only examples of possible anti-Semitism ''taking into account the overall context,'' and the memo concludes: ''However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.''
Attempts to adopt the definition as a standard for campus censorship have drawn criticism from civil rights groups, free speech advocates, newspapers, hundreds of academics, and even one of the definition's crafters, who wrote a column last year arguing it should not be applied to campuses.
The bill approved by the Senate on Thursday was supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Jewish Federations of North America, and the Anti-Defamation League.
''The definition will have a severe chilling effect on campuses, and that is the explicit goal of the Israel advocacy organizations who promote it,'' said Liz Jackson, an attorney with the group Palestine Legal. ''Student activists for Palestinian rights already operate in a repressive environment. If this bill passes, they will face the specter of federal investigation simply for engaging in criticism of the Israeli government's abusive policies.''
Campus activists are being subject to an increasingly broad censorship effort by Israeli-allied groups. Each year, Palestine Legal documents hundreds of instances of obstruction, censorship, or punishment of pro-Palestinian activism at colleges and universities.
In December 2015, for example, one student at George Washington University was ordered by campus police to remove a Palestinian flag from her window, and threatened with further disciplinary action. At other campuses, students have been suspended or threatened with expulsion for demonstrating against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The University of Illinois in 2014 fired a tenure-track professor for tweeting about Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
Filing complaints with the Department of Education has been a favored tactic of groups including the Zionist Organization of America and the Brandeis Center, which have written letters to the department alleging that events like demonstrations and film screenings amount to ''harassment'' or ''intimidation,'' and create a ''hostile environment on the basis of national origin'' for Jewish students on campus.
The Department of Education has investigated and dismissed four such cases, against UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, and Rutgers University, ruling that ''robust and discordant'' expression is to be expected on a college campus, and that the events described ''do not constitute actionable harassment.''
The investigations nonetheless amount to public relations victories for Israeli advocacy groups, who can circulate articles about how pro-Palestinian activists are under investigation for anti-Semitism, while the activists have to deal with the months-long burden of being under government investigation.
Civil rights groups are confident that if the Department of Education actually did use the State Department's standard, the courts would quickly find it unconstitutional.
''If the Department of Education were to enforce this definition by restricting student speech critical of Israel, it would violate the First Amendment,'' said Jackson. ''The right to criticize a government '-- the U.S., Israeli, or any other government '-- is an enshrined constitutional freedom in our country. The Senate can't legislate that away.''
Jewish groups opposed to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank were quick to denounce the bill.
''Instead of fighting the anti-Semitism entering the White House, this bill will go after 19-year-old students carrying protest signs against human rights abuses,'' said Tallie Ben Daniel, academic program manager for Jewish Voice for Peace, in a statement. ''This is not how to fight anti-Semitism, this is a recipe for restricting civil liberties like the right to criticize a government for its policies.''
It is unclear when the House will consider a counterpart bill.
Top photo: Demonstrators against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in Chicago.
Today December 1, the United States FBI is granted new powers to intrude into any computer anywhere on the globe, instantly changing the FBI from a random law enforcement'...OpSec Monkey
Today December 1, the United States FBI is granted new powers to intrude into any computer anywhere on the globe, instantly changing the FBI from a random law enforcement agency to a global adversary. Law enforcement agencies are expected to be met with open arms and treated as good guys. There's not going to be any good guy treatment of the FBI here, and for good reason.
The U.S. FBI has been sort of a random law enforcement agency somewhere on the planet doing physical law enforcement work, kind of like the Bundespolizei in Germany would appear to an American, or the way the Polica Federal Argentina would appear to a European. Today, the FBI becomes a global adversary and enemy to every security-conscious computer user and to every IT security professional, similar to how the mass surveillance agencies are treated. The FBI has requested, and been granted, the lawful power (in the US) to intrude into any computer in the entire world. In 95% of the world, this makes the FBI no different from a Russian or Chinese criminal intruder, and it will be treated in the same way by people defending their systems; defending their homes.
This has happened under the boring legislative name of ''changes to Rule 41'', and is (as always!) presented as nothing of particular interest. This is an old trick: when you want sweeping broad new powers without accountability, don't call it ''sweeping broad new power without accountability'', but cloud it in a name so boring it will interest absolutely nobody. (This lawmaker trick was skillfully observed by John Oliver, who said we shouldn't call the peer-to-peerness of the Internet a boring term like ''net neutrality'', but the more to-the-point ''preventing cable company fuckery''.)
These ''changes to Rule 41'' put a lot of people in the FBI's crosshairs. As usual, most people think new powers for law enforcement can only target criminals '' as in actual, violent criminals. This would be the reasonable course of action, but not so in this case, not so at all. Techdirt points out that anybody using encryption, or anybody trying to hide their identity or location, can be presumed to be engaged in crime (having a ''guilty mind'', or mens rea in Legalese Latin) and therefore be a valid target.
This assertion is, of course, outrageous and preposterous.
Under this assertion, sources to reporters do not have a right to hide their identity: the FBI just invalidated most principles behind freedoms of the press. The EFF points out numerous other reasons why we want to protectpeople hiding their identity '' such as domestic abuse victims. Further, everybody has a right to hide their location for any reason or no reason at any time (with a few exceptions like felons serving sentences with electronic shackles). In short, seeing this activity as suspicious is blatantly outrageous.
Actually, let's take that observation one step further: carrying an electronic ankle shackle is considered equivalent to serving a prison sentence. So when the FBI says out straight that nobody has a right to hide their location, what they're saying is that they want to reduce everybody's freedom to the equivalent of being in prison. That's a remarkable statement no matter how you twist it.
These sweeping new powers for the US FBI have not been without opposition. There were some last-minute efforts to stop it, but in the end, the new powers took effect and will now need a constitutional challenge.
A lot of this comes down to law enforcement's distorted self-image: since they have the lawful power to enter a residence on its own jurisdiction (a power backed on location by a half-dozen locked and loaded assault rifles with safeties off), they have taken for granted that they can and should enter anywhere they see themselves having a need to enter. In short, law enforcement is used to getting some sort of preferential treatment when breaking and entering using force. But when the FBI tries to break into my firewall in Switzerland, there's no jurisdiction, and there's no guns: there's going to be just me shooting their attempts down with complete prejudice, no remorse, and 100% justification. They're going to be treated no differently than any other criminal trying to break into my home.
If the FBI wants the ability to behave like a global adversary, it will be globally treated as an adversary.
The security industry has already announced its intent to this effect, to refusing to give law enforcement any kind of preferential treatment: Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure was crystal clear a decade ago when this was discussed last time, saying ''Malware detectors will make no difference between adversaries based on whether they consider themselves lawful'', or something to that effect. An intruder is an intruder, plain and simple.
The FBI may have a very high horse to step down from. Just because it has been immediately accepted into houses when it's also pointing automatic rifles at the residents, that doesn't mean it's particularly welcome. When it doesn't carry guns and tries to intrude into computers, it will be ejected, rejected, and kicked out with force, lawful intrusion into a computer or not notwithstanding: an intruder is an intruder. And the FBI is about to become aware of that.
And as a final note, once the FBI breaks in to your computer at home, don't expect them to be able to protect their intrusion. The United States has proven itself utterly incapable of protecting its own dirtiest laundry, so it can't and won't protect the data it has stolen when breaking into your home.
NEW YORK '' Intelligence experts estimate that the Islamic State extremist group has between 60 and 80 operatives planted in Europe to carry out attacks, the Dutch counterterrorism coordinator said Friday.
Dick Schoof said in an interview with The Associated Press that would-be fighters are also heeding messages from the militant group "asking them not to come to Syria and Iraq, but to prepare attacks in Europe."
One result is that over the last six months the number of "foreign terrorist fighters" hasn't grown, he said, but the fact that they're not traveling "does not mean that the potential threat of those who would have traveled is diminished."
Schoof said military operations to oust the Islamic State from its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq are scattering the extremist group's fighters and supporters.
This will probably lead to a gradual increase of refugees that will pose a danger to the national security of the Netherlands and other European countries, he said.
Schoof said even though the Netherlands hasn't been hit by a major attack by Islamic extremists such as those in Belgium and France, "the chance of attack in the Netherlands is real."
"We have seen 294 terrorist fighters go overseas in Iraq and Syria and there are still 190 over there," he said. "And what happened in France and Brussels and Germany could happen to us."
There are probably between 4,000 and 5,000 European "foreign terrorist fighters" in Iraq and Syria, Schoof said.
While the number from the Netherlands, a nation of 17 million people, may seem low, he said, "whether there's 190 or 350, I think the number is big enough to worry."
Schoof, who was in New York to speak at a roundtable on "returning foreign terrorist fighters," said the Netherlands' program to deal with the threat balances "repression and prevention" and relies on strong cooperation between local and national authorities.
On the "repression" side, he said, fighters returning from Syria or Iraq are taken into custody and prosecuted, and courts have recently handed down six-year prison sentences in several cases. The government also takes away passports, freezes assets, and has beefed up security measures and the police force, he said.
On the prevention side, Schoof said, there's a lot of family support, with local authorities deciding the best interventions and providing education and psychological help if needed -- but there also could be arrests.
Jozias van Aartsen, the mayor of The Hague, said building trust and having close relations with the Muslim community is very important.
"They are Dutch citizens," he said. "There are some in the Netherlands who say shut down mosques. That's absolutely wrong policy."
But Van Aartsen said there is a need for vigilance. "The apparatus of local government can be very important as a watchdog against radicalization," he said.
Schoof stressed that the Netherlands does not tolerate "anti-democratic behavior."
"We try to prevent hate preachers coming in by not giving them a visa," he said.
The government is also concerned about the development of an ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Salafism, he said.
Last week, Schoof said, the Federation of Mosques, without any urging, sent a letter to all mosques in the country saying "the mosques themselves must realize that hate speech should not be accepted in the mosques."
"Those are important signals that you can build on in your trust relationships," he said.
Constitutional Law Analysis
In the Morning to you both.
Last episode you had a brief discussion about the laws surrounding abortion. You kind of got it wrong, but in your defense, it’s complicated and virtually no one without a legal education understands it. Including most TV pundits and reporters.
Abortion is a crime in virtually every state, and as such, is illegal in them all within the constitutional limits described by the Supreme Court. The court in Roe v Wade found that a woman has a right to privacy that shields her from the laws of the state in the first trimester. Therefore, after the first trimester, the state can regulate abortion in any way that they see fit.
Most of the controversy that you see today regards how the state attempts to regulate legal abortions, but that are clearly intended to limit access: requiring a burial for all embryos, that abortion clinic doctors have hospital privileges at a local hospital, etc.
You can see this clearly written out and compared in the book that I sent you last year: National Survey of State Laws, 7th edition.
So keep up the good work and don’t hesitate to ask if you have questions about legal sources, processes or reasoning.
My gift of $100 this episode is for my wife, Wendy. She needs lots of mom, sister, grandma and wife karma.
Sir Richard
Lord of Law Libraries & Lincoln, Nebraska
Richard Leiter
Texas Wants Aborted Fetuses Buried or Cremated | The Texas Tribune
In a little-noticed effort to regulate abortion providers, Texas health officials have quietly proposed rules that would require abortion providers to cremate or bury all fetal remains.
by Alexa UraJuly 6, 2016 5:36 PM
In a new effort to regulate abortion providers, Texas health officials are proposing rules that would require abortion providers to cremate or bury fetal remains.
The new rules, proposed by the Health and Human Services Commission, would no longer allow abortion providers to dispose of fetal remains in sanitary landfills, instead allowing only cremation or interment of all remains '-- regardless of the period of gestation. Abortion providers currently use third-party special waste disposal services.
''The Health and Human Services Commission developed new rules to ensure Texas law maintains the highest standards of human dignity,'' said health commission spokesman Bryan Black.
With little notice and no announcement, the proposed rules were published in the Texas Register on July 1, triggering a 30-day public comment period. ''Public comment will be taken and then the final rules are expected to take effect in September,'' Black added.
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Because the proposed rules would not be in statute, they might not require approval by lawmakers. Instead, state agencies can adopt rules with ''specific rulemaking authority'' granted by the Legislature.
But Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is hoping lawmakers will write the new rules into law when they reconvene in January, said Abbott spokeswoman Ciara Matthews.
"Governor Abbott believes human and fetal remains should not be treated like medical waste, and the proposed rule changes affirms the value and dignity of all life," Matthews said in a statement.
Trump Transition
Fashion Designers On Dressing First Lady Melania Trump - Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, tommy Hilfiger Dressing Melania Trump
"Will you dress future First Lady Melania Trump?" seems to be the question of the moment for fashion designers. After the fashion industry as a whole predominantly voiced enthusiastic support for Hillary Clinton throughout the 2016 election, designers are now faced with the possibility of dressing Melania Trump instead'--something many designers seem to be conflicted about.
Sophie Theallet was the first designer to take a stance on the issue, releasing an open letter announcing she will not dress the future First Lady and urging other designers to do the same. On the other side of the debate is Tommy Hilfiger, who revealed he would be "proud" to dress both Melania and Ivanka Trump.
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Until today, those two designers were the only ones to publicly comment on the topic. This morning, WWD brought more of fashion's influential voices into the conversation, publishing a piece which posed the question, "Would you dress Melania Trump?" to nine designers, including Marc Jacobs, Thom Browne, Vera Wang and CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg.
Von Furstenberg remained pretty neutral on the subject, saying, "Donald Trump was elected and he will be our president. Melania deserves the respect of any First Lady before her. Our role as part of the fashion industry is to promote beauty, inclusiveness, diversity. We should each be the best we can be and influence by our example."
Diane von Furstenberg and Marc Jacobs
Getty
But Jacobs didn't hide his feelings: "I have no interest whatsoever in dressing Melania Trump. I didn't see [Sophie Theallet's] letter. Personally, I'd rather put my energy into helping out those who will be hurt by [Donald] Trump and his supporters," Jacobs told WWD.
Meanwhile, Cynthia Rowley stepped in as a voice of reason, commenting on the entire discussion as a whole: "In the midst of this heated debate, the question actually seems somewhat irrelevant," she said. "[Melania] can simply purchase whatever she wants, so how can we control it? Just because she's shown wearing a designer does not mean that designer is endorsing her, her husband or any of their beliefs. Checking someone's ethical beliefs before they're allowed to purchase sets up an exclusionary dynamic that feeds into the exact mentality that is preventing us from moving forward in a positive direction."
Read all nine of the designers' responses on WWD.
Secretary of State David Petraeus? Supporters Make Their Case - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON '-- As President-elect Donald J. Trump continues his search for a secretary of state '-- a conspicuously public effort, in which the fortunes of the candidates rise and fall like characters in a political potboiler '-- allies of one of those candidates, David H. Petraeus, are mounting a vigorous lobbying campaign on his behalf.
Two influential Republican national security figures '-- Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina '-- spoke out publicly in favor of Mr. Petraeus this week, declaring that he was well qualified and saying his confirmation would not be hindered by his having pleaded guilty to mishandling classified material and being forced to resign as director of the C.I.A.
''He's one of the most talented and capable leaders I have ever known,'' Mr. McCain, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in one of the most animated exchanges he has had with reporters since he was re-elected last month.
The Run-UpThe podcast that makes sense of the most delirious stretch of the 2016 campaign.As for the scandal involving the leaking of classified material '-- in which Mr. Petraeus resigned after the disclosure that he had given a confidential diary to his biographer and mistress, Paula Broadwell '-- Mr. McCain said, ''I think people make mistakes in life and you move on.''
Among the major questions is whether Mr. Petraeus would be able to regain his security clearance; experts say Mr. Trump would be able to override any objections to that through his executive privilege.
Graphic | Donald Trump Is Choosing His Cabinet. Here's the Latest List. A list of possibilities and appointees for top posts in the new administration.
Mr. Petraeus has long captured Mr. Trump's imagination, but he comes with the baggage from not only his own scandal but also from having been C.I.A. director during the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
Mr. Graham, who also serves on the Armed Services Committee, said Mr. Petraeus would be ''an extraordinary pick.'' He described him as ''one of the most uniquely qualified'' of the people on Mr. Trump's list, noting that he was the best known of all of them overseas, after his C.I.A. stint and his military career; in which he was the top commander in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some Democrats signaled they would keep an open mind. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who will be the ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee, said she had ''great respect for his mind.'' She described his mishandling of classified material as ''the one question that comes up,'' but did not suggest it would prevent his confirmation.
But Democrats would be likely to use a Petraeus nomination as a way to portray Mr. Trump as a hypocrite. He hammered Hillary Clinton throughout the campaign for her use of a personal email address and computer server, saying that she should be jailed, even after the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said her misconduct had been less serious than that of Mr. Petraeus.
Democrats are also likely to object to the prevalence of retired generals in jobs that normally go to civilians, particularly after Mr. Trump named Gen. James N. Mattis as defense secretary.
Mr. Trump met with Mr. Petraeus on Monday, declaring on Twitter afterward that he had been ''very impressed!'' A person close to the transition said Mr. Petraeus was also being considered for the post of director of national intelligence '-- a logical choice, given his tenure at the C.I.A., but one that lacks the glamour and profile of secretary of state.
Interactive Feature | Trump Tower, the Center of the Political Universe A single day at Trump Tower in Manhattan provides a view of potential cabinet members and staff in the next administration.
During their meeting, a person briefed on the conversation said, Mr. Petraeus spoke with Mr. Trump about his guilty plea, to a misdemeanor, for mishandling classified material and how it might affect his odds of getting confirmed.
The contest for secretary of state has become the most protracted and closely watched of Mr. Trump's transition. People briefed on the transition say the president-elect is now considering three candidates in addition to Mr. Petraeus: Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee; Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City; and Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Gen. John F. Kelly, a retired Marine general, has also been in the mix and met again with Mr. Trump on Wednesday, though in recent days, his name has been mentioned more for secretary of homeland security.
On Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump had a very public dinner with Mr. Romney at Jean-Georges in Manhattan, the second time they met since the election. But the deal was far from sealed. Aides to Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that their boss would take his time making the choice.
Some of Mr. Trump's closest aides '-- including Kellyanne Conway, who managed his campaign '-- have argued vehemently against naming Mr. Romney, saying his repeated denunciations of Mr. Trump during the campaign ought to rule him out.
Mr. Giuliani, a fierce loyalist of Mr. Trump's, emerged as the early favorite for secretary of state. He has made no secret of his desire for the job. But his extensive record of business dealings with foreign governments could cause him trouble in a confirmation hearing. In recent days, people involved in the process said, his prospects have dimmed.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting from New York.
QUAYLE!
Pride flags pop up in VP-elect Pence's temporary Northwest D.C. neighborhood | WJLA
Pride flags pop up in VP-elect Pence's temporary Northwest D.C. neighborhood (Photo: Suzanne Kennedy/ABC7)
WASHINGTON (ABC7) '-- Christmas decorations are popping up left and right, but one street in NW Washington has a different kind of decoration this season'--rainbow flags.
''A respectful message showing, in my case, my disagreement with some of his thinking,'' said Ilse Heintzen.
The 'he' Heintzen is referring to is Vice-President Elect Mike Pence. Pence moved into a house on Heintzen's block where he will stay on-and-off until he moves into the Vice-President's mansion on the grounds of the Naval Observatory next year.
Neighbors started hanging the pride flags after the VP-Elect moved in because the LGBTQ community has criticized Pence's policies regarding LGBTQ rights.
Heintzen has gay and lesbian friends, so when one neighbor suggested ordering a pride flag, she and others asked for their own.
''I have no idea what [the Vice-President Elect] will think about, but I hope he will change his mind.''
There are roughly a half-dozen pride flags hanging on the block, and more are on the way.
''This is one way that I can show my disagreement,'' said Heintzen.
ABC7 reached out to the transition team's public relations people to get a comment from the VP-Elect, but so far we have not heard back.
Leverage Maneuver '' Trump Talks Openly With Taiwan President'...
Ok, this one strategic maneuver has just pegged my too-much-winning needle on max overdrive. Donald Trump took a congratulatory phone call from the President of Taiwan, and now the Chinese will be apoplectic.
Those of you who have been with us for a while, will note our arguments against China's MFN (Most Favored Nation) trade status have continually fallen on deaf ears within DC. Why? Because they are political ears paid to remain necessarily deaf, while various Chinese national interests have taken influence over our legislative priorities on trade and commerce.
In short, we've been ripped off. Bigly. For decades.
Rule #1 in any trade deal is to fully understand who is the customer within the equation. The U.S. market is the biggest trade customer on this entire beautiful blue planet. We hold all the leverage. Access, or denial of access, to this market is the leverage.
The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!
'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016
['...] ''President-elect Trump spoke with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, who offered her congratulations,'' according to a readout of the call released by Trump's transition team.
''During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties'' between Taiwan and the United States, the statement continued. ''President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year.''
The call, first reported by the Financial Times, is the first time a US president has directly spoken with Taiwan's leadership in more than 30 years. The White House was not made aware of the call until after it occurred, according to The New York Times. (link)
Immediately, the pearl-clutching media and professional political class went nuts because the U.S. is not supposed to do anything that might upset China. For over 30 years the issues between China and the breakaway free and democratic Taiwan have been tenuous.
According to diplomatic norms the U.S. is not supposed to acknowledge Taiwan out of fear we upset the Chinese under the auspices of the ''one china'' policy.
['...] ''This could be damaging,'' said Barry Pavel, director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council. ''We'll see the Chinese reaction in several hours. I don't expect it to be pretty.''
The danger, Pavel said, is that ''the Chinese are going to think it was deliberate and that this is the beginning of a hostile policy by the Trump administration, upending the basic geometry of diplomatic relations between the US and China since 1979.'' (read more)
Trump's former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, later told CNN's Anderson Cooper she wouldn't go beyond the call readout from the transition team statement, but the President-elect was fully aware of the call's implications. Brilliant.
This is exactly what we predicted a Trump presidency would do. Use economics instead of rockets and military to leverage a better position for America in the globe.
We talked about this in February of 2016 '' ['...] China holds immense leverage over North Korea; leverage of a similar comparative scope the U.S. holds over Puerto Rico. North Korea is financially dependent on China for its very survival. If China pulls back money from North Korea, N-Korea collapses upon itself.
Rather than go to war or engage the U.S. military in strikes against Korean military facilities, Donald Trump identifies economic leverage as the solution.
The United States have a $17+ trillion dollar market that China is dependent upon. Candidate Trump says use the principle trade leverage within ''most favored nation status'' as a bargaining tool to get N-Korea to stop military provocations and expansions.
The economic status of ''most favored nation'' is a golden ticket to the U.S. market:
In international economic relations and international politics, ''most favoured nation'' (MFN) is a status or level of treatment accorded by one state to another in international trade.
The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatment must, nominally, receive equal trade advantages as the ''most favoured nation'' by the country granting such treatment. (Trade advantages include low tariffs or high import quotas.) In effect, a country that has been accorded MFN status may not be treated less advantageously than any other country with MFN status by the promising country.
If China ever lost their golden ticket entry into the U.S. economic market it would cost them hundreds of billions almost immediately '' their tenuous economic model collapses without customers. China lobbies congress with tens of millions to keep their golden ticket in hand.
This is another excellent example of the benefit for a Trump presidency. Because Trump is not beholden to their financial lobbying efforts, he can make decisions that entirely in the U.S. larger global best interests. In doing so the direct downstream consequences are as wide ranging as keeping North Korea from military expansion. (more)
Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.
'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016
Droves of African Migrants in Mexico Awaiting U.S. Asylum Under Secret Pact
Herds of African immigrants are being housed in shelters in the Mexican border town of Tijuana while they await entry into the United States under what appears to be a secret accord between the Obama administration, Mexico and the Central American countries the Africans transited on their journey north. A backlog of African migrants is overwhelming limited shelter space in Tijuana and Mexican officials blame the slow pace of U.S. immigration authorities in the San Isidro port of entry for granting only 50 asylum solicitations daily.
Details about this disturbing program come from Mexico's immigration agency, Instituto Nacional de Migracion (INM), and appear this week in an articlepublished by the country's largest newspaper. ''Mexico is living through a wave of undocumented Africans, due to a humanitarian crisis on that continent, that has saturated shelters in Tapachula, Chiapas, and generated pressure on shelters in Tijuana, Baja California,'' the news article states. The African migrants' journey begins in Brazil under a South American policy that allows the ''free transit'' of immigrants throughout the continent. Ecuador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama facilitate the process by transferring the concentration of foreigners towards Mexico based on an agreement that Mexico will help them gain entry into the U.S. so they can solicit asylum.
The Africans are mostly entering Mexico through the southern state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala. This week alone 424 Africans arrived at the Chiapas immigration station, which is situated in Tapachula. Shelters in Tijuana currently have 154 migrants from African countries waiting on their U.S. asylum solicitations, according to figures provided by the INM. ''The undocumented don't want to stay in Mexico,'' the news article clarifies. ''They want to make it to U.S. territory to solicit asylum based on the life conditions that prevail in the continent.'' Authorities in Tijuana are offering support to migrants from El Congo, Somalia, Ghana and Pakistan to facilitate entering the U.S. through the San Isidro crossing, according to the news story. San Isidro is the largest land border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana.
The Obama administration has done a great job of promoting its various back-door amnesty programs, which include perpetually extending a humanitarian measure designed to temporarily shield illegal immigrants from deportation during emergencies. It's known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and in the last few years migrants from several African countries have received it so the new influx is not all surprising. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone got TPS back in 2014 over the lingering effects of the Ebola Virus and earlier this year Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson extended it. The administration cited the ''continued recovery challenges'' the African countries face for the extension.
Last summer Johnson extended a TPS for Somalians until March 17, 2017, which could have served as a driving force behind the sudden surge via Latin America. A notice in the Federal Register says the extension was warranted because the conditions in Somalia that prompted the TPS designation continue to be met. ''There continues to be a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions in Somalia due to ongoing armed conflict that would pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Somali nationals, as well as extraordinary and temporary conditions in the country that prevent Somali nationals from returning to Somalia in safety,'' the notice states. ''The Secretary has also determined that permitting eligible Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not contrary to the national interest of the United States.''
Con artist and former Green Party candidate Jill Stein raised fleeced the alt-left moonbats for more than seven million dollars. The financial ruse -as it was announced- was to fund an election recount effort in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Now this:
Pennsylvania '' According to legal documents, Jill Stein and her campaign failed to post the $1 million bond needed to challenge the election in Pennsylvania. The court proceeding scheduled for Monday has been canceled.
A ''praecipe to discontinue and withdraw'' was filed citing that Jill Stein did not post the $1 million needed in the matter of the 2016 presidential election.
A source close to the matter told ABC27's Dennis Owens that Monday's scheduled court proceeding has been canceled and the challenge is over.
Jill Stein provided the following statement:
''This is yet another sign that Pennsylvania's antiquated election law is stacked against voters. By demanding a $1 million bond from voters yesterday, the court made clear it has no interest in giving a fair hearing to these voters' legitimate concerns over the accuracy, security and fairness of an election tainted by suspicion.
No voter in America should be forced to pay thousands of dollars to know if her or his vote was counted. Still, the recount continues and we will fight to ensure the civil and voting rights of all citizens are protected. We look forward to announcing our next step on Monday and we will pursue every available remedy to ensure Pennsylvanians can trust what happened in this election.'' (link)
PedoBear
PIZZAGATE-I Found The Child Prostitution Cover Up by Media Matters (Founded by Alefantis ex-bf David Brock) Andrew Breitbart Tweeted About | pizzagate
While looking into one of Andrew Breitbart's tweets, I found the article that he was referencing on Media Matters. The founder of Media Matters is David Brock who is the ex boyfriend of James Alefantis. The main thing they try to disprove are claims of child prostitution being uncovered. There is a LOT of information here.
"Early on did John Podesta imagine his baby @mmfa would be covering up for underage sex slave ops & H8 crimes against blacks?" (February 2, 2011)
@mmfa is the twitter for Media Matters for America.
I did a search of posts between January 1, 2011 and February 2, 2011 and I came across the post titled "A Refresher Course on Andrew Breitbart's Dishonesty Tactics" exactly one day before Breitbart made this tweet.
The article attempts to disprove evidence of child prostitution revealed in undercover videos of ACORN.
Regarding Lila Rose's article (no longer available) "Planned Parenthood Advises 'Pimp' on Underage Sex Trafficking, Secret Abortions for Minors"
"This video reveals a top-level Planned Parenthood worker, the manager of Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey's second largest clinic, making a secret deal with a pimp. Watch and listen as the Planned Parenthood manager, Amy Woodruff, advises the pimp how to make the trafficking of underage girls look "as legit as possible" (her words). Watch and listen as the manager advises the pimp how to ensure that his 14-year old victims of trafficking can still make money for him after secret abortions by performing sex acts "waist up" (her idea). Watch as she advises the pimp to instruct his girls to lie on the paper work about their ages, and identify themselves as "students" to get cheaper contraception and avoid mandatory reporting laws.
We are calling on Congress to immediately freeze all funding of Planned Parenthood. We request that the Department of Justice and FBI launch a full-scale investigation of Planned Parenthood and prosecute the aiding and abetting of human trafficking.
We are also calling on state authorities to immediately revoke the licenses of all Planned Parenthood clinics found covering up sex abuse.
As we release this footage, it disturbs me to think of the Planned Parenthood supporters who will watch this video and still refuse to believe their own eyes and ears. No matter the evidence, a few people will refuse to believe Planned Parenthood would ever do anything wrong. To these people I ask: What more will it take? [Big Government, 02/01/11]"
But Planned Parenthood Actually Reported The "Potential Sex Trafficking" To Law Enforcement Officials. On January 24, Planned Parenthood released the following statement, titled "Planned Parenthood Informs Federal Authorities of Potential Sex Trafficking": According to mmfa, Planned Parenthood reported about potential sex trafficking to Law enforcement and on January 24, 2011 released a statement:
"Last week, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) alerted federal authorities to a potential multistate sex trafficking ring. Over a five day period, visitors to Planned Parenthood health centers in six states said they were seeking information from Planned Parenthood about health services Planned Parenthood could provide to underage girls who were part of a sex trafficking ring. Subsequent to alerting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Planned Parenthood learned the identify of one of those involved and believes these visits are likely a hoax by opponents of legal abortion seeking to discredit Planned Parenthood, which delivers preventive health care and abortion services to three million women each year.
Men, sometimes accompanied by a woman, have visited at least 11 Planned Parenthood health centers in six states within a one-week time frame. During their visits, they claimed to be involved in sex trafficking of teens, some of whom are in the United States illegally. These men appeared at health centers without appointments and said that they were seeking health services for themselves, but they quickly turned the conversation to the sex ring they said they were managing.
"When Planned Parenthood learns of an operation that exploits young women, we vigilantly work with law enforcement authorities to uncover and stop this abhorrent activity," said Stuart Schear, PPFA vice president for communications. "Planned Parenthood's top priority is the health and safety of our patients and the health and well-being of women and teens across the country, and we have been in contact with federal and local authorities to identify the persons involved in these visits."
One of the men involved in these visits has now been identified, and he appears to be associated with or influenced by Live Action, an anti-Planned Parenthood organization that uses surreptitious videotaping and manipulative editing for media and political campaigns. The pattern of these visits and the highly unusual nature of the information being shared with staff lends credibility to the possibility that these multistate visits are part of this organization's ongoing effort to "bring down" Planned Parenthood, a nearly 100-year-old organization with more than 800 health centers from coast to coast. Live Action is associated with James O'Keefe, the conservative activist who was arrested for attempting to wiretap the offices of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
In recent years Planned Parenthood has been the target of activists attempting to portray the organization negatively by secretly videotaping inside health centers and publicizing heavily edited versions of those tapes to the media. Recent incidents are the first time that such visitors have told Planned Parenthood staff that they are involved in sex trafficking of minor girls.
"If a multistate sex trafficking operation is in place, those responsible must be pursued to stop the exploitation of girls and young women," said Schear. "If these visits are part of a 'dirty tricks' campaign, they must be condemned. Falsely claiming sex trafficking to health professionals to advance a political agenda is an astoundingly cynical form of political activity."
All Planned Parenthood staff have been alerted to the suspicious visits, and Planned Parenthood is working with FBI investigators and local authorities. [Planned Parenthood, 1/24/11, emphasis in original]"
(Also, notice that it was published in January 2011 but was updated on April 25th, 2016.)
One of the claims on this article for media matters:
"Most Of The ACORN Videos Did Not Clearly Show That O'Keefe And Giles Were Engaging In Child Prostitution. In fact, in at least six of the eight heavily edited videos produced by O'Keefe and Giles and distributed by Breitbart, either the activists did not clearly tell the ACORN employees that they were planning to engage in child prostitution; or the ACORN employees refused to help them or apparently deliberately misled them; or ACORN employees contacted the police following their visit. [Media Matters, 12/8/09]"
The title of the earlier article (from December 2009) said there was NO evidence but this article says "MOST" did not show this.
I can't help wondering, does this mean that videos that do show this were found?
EDIT: Links to Veritas Investigation Videos on ACORN:
ACORN investigation overview video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJzjuDaYFdw
Baltimore Prostitution: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtTnizEnC1U Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNYU9PamIZk
DC Prostitution: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWRTYD26Kxc Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9MCk6GvQO4
NYC Child Prostitution: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrpRGZq7Z-U Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue_2_dhh1zo
San Bernadino Child Prostitution: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s8w9GEpSzw Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHY3MHBl2ug Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-1rs5lBjA
San Diego Child Prostitution Smuggling: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CMXMC7vba4 Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwbEPjYqKwI
Philadelphia Prostitution: Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af9DDayHwbg
EDIT 2: Planned Parenthood Undercover Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riX50sOhAyk&feature=youtu.be&t=2m52s
Busted! Politicians, Police Caught in Huge Norwegian Pedophile Ring | The Millennium Report
Norwegian police have filed charges against 51 people suspected of various kinds of abuse of children including babies. Even the future abuse of yet unborn children was discussed in the country's largest ever pedophile ring.A total of 150 terabytes of data, including photos, videos and chat transcripts was seized in an operation codenamed ''Dark Room,'' which was the largest operation of its kind carried out in Norway. The seized data shows, among other things, toddlers being penetrated, children being tied up, children having sex with animals and children having sex with other children.
''In total, there were 51 people involved in multiple networks with branches throughout the country and even overseas. A large number of images, movies and chat logs have been seized and analyzed. Over the course of the operation, we found serious cases of abuse against children of all ages, even infants,'' Hilde Reikr¥s, who was responsible for operation Dark Room, told Norwegian national broadcaster NRK.
The case began to unravel after a 22-year-old man in the city of Bergen was detained for sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl. During the search, police confiscated images and video clips of hardcore child pornography. In the course of the inquiry, the total amount of seized data grew to 150 terabytes, in effect the largest seizure in the history of Norway.
Chat logs revealed that the pedophile ring members communicated through encrypted Darknet networks for entrusted peers and contacted children through ordinary websites. Norwegian police described children as an age group particularly susceptible to compliments.
''Several perpetrators were obviously familiar to their immediate environments. Family and friends reacted with shock when they were arrested. Perpetrators come from all walks of life, many of them have a higher education, possess high IT skills and have used encryption to hide their tracks,'' prosecutor Janne Ringset Heltne told NRK.
The perpetrators were suspected of performing sexual intercourse, child rape, aiding and abetting sexual crimes against children, trafficking, production, possession and manufacturing of child pornography and manipulation and coercion towards children. Police suspect that some of files were shared on memory sticks using snail mail. Additionally, the perpetrators used fake accounts where they posed as children.
In the most chocking instance, there is evidence of a conspiracy to abuse a yet unborn child.
Most remarkably, the list of alleged perpetrators includes politicians for the Progress Party and the Labor Party, as well as a police officer.
About 350 victims have reported child sexual abuse within UK football clubs, police chiefs have said.
The National Police Chiefs' Council said a ''significant number of calls'' were made to forces after several former players made allegations of abuse against coaches.
Its figures are based on information about existing investigations as well as referrals from a new NSPCC helpline.
The charity said the hotline has received 860 calls in its first week.
Within the first three days of it launching, the organisation made more than 60 referrals to a range of agencies across the UK.
That was more than three times as many referrals as in the first three days of the Jimmy Savile scandal, the charity added.
The phone line is available 24 hours a day on 0800 023 2642.
Child protection project 'stopped by FA'
Scandal one of FA's biggest crises '' Greg Clarke
How do you talk to your children about sexual abuse?
The Football Association has announced an internal review and a number of football clubs are conducting their own inquiries.
Fifteen police forces have confirmed they are investigating allegations of historical child sex abuse in football.
They include the Metropolitan, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire, Scotland and Cheshire forces.
Outlining the police action to date, NPCC lead for Child Protection, Chief Constable Simon Bailey said the number of victims was currently ''indicative'' and information was still being collated.
He added: ''We are working closely with the Football Association to ensure that the response to this significant and growing number of victims, at all levels of football, is co-ordinated effectively.
''We continue to encourage those who have been the victim of child sexual abuse to report it, regardless of how long ago the abuse may have taken place.''
He said all reports would be treated ''sensitively and seriously'' and urged anyone with any information to come forward.
Media captionDavid Eatock: ''I literally just froze '' could not speak with fear, with shock, with disbelief''Meanwhile, former Newcastle United footballer David Eatock has become the latest to say he was abused by coach George Ormond.
He told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show he had been groomed by Ormond, later to be jailed for six years, between the ages of 18 and 21.
Mr Eatock, now 40, was not part of the court case that saw Ormond convicted in 2002 of assaulting seven boys, but he has now filed a complaint to police.
___http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38172940
Hi, I believe I have found the connection between the Pizza and hundreds of m - Pastebin.com
Pastebin PRO Accounts AUTUMN SPECIAL! For a limited time only get 40% discount on a LIFETIME PRO account! Offer Ends Soon!Hi,
I believe I have found the connection between the Pizza and hundreds of millions of Euros that directly tie to Zimbabwe and to individuals with direct ties to the Clinton Foundation.
Obviously, we've all become aware that there is a massive pedophile ring along Connecticut Ave. in Washington D.C in places like Comet Ping Pong, Buck's Fishing and Hunting, and Besta Pizza, to name a few. If you are unaware of such mounting evidence, you may download my archive (link: https://mega.nz/#!85NVmT5C!19-0fhuHXUK55ch4R_APKSg-PrusvLhRcT-rmp_EI8E)
Since there have been dead leads over the past week or so, I decided to take FBI anonymous' advice and take a look at the foundation, so I aimed to take a look at the Panama leaks from last year (Mossack Fonecca, the company with major donations to the Clinton Foundation), since nobody else seemed to do it.
First, I found that there was a company called, ''Besta World Group, Inc.'' and decided to take that for a spin (link: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/221081)
Here, we see that Besta World Group Inc is an intermediary of Sealight Incorporations Limited. Now, Sealight Incorporations Limited has nearly 4000 shell companies set up, so I thought this was a dead end.
I did some further digging, and came across this site, (link: http://archive.is/EanmB). If you scroll down to this image, (https://i.sli.mg/2rBeDx.png).
Here, you will see that Seallight Incoporations Limited is an intermediatry of everygood international co (empty shell) connected to standard directors (empty shell). This is where is became interesting. Develcan Ventures, LTD.
A search for Develcan (nice name, right?) Ventures, LTD came up with (link: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/24692?e=true). The most important thing to look at here is ''Ms. Elisana Marie-Antoinette Labonte''
I did a quick Google of her, and found this : http://thewhistleblowers.info/elisana-marie-antoinette-labonte-2014-conspired-to-lainder-money-via-account-at-deutsche-bank/ where she was accused of conspiring to launder 240,000,000E into Deutsche Bank. I then did some more digging and found her as the former director of a company (http://archive.is/rViV5) called Mayson Development Financial LTD.
When Googling this company, you'll find they have a registered address in Moscow, Russia, but if you switch to Google images, you'll find a thumbnail for ''Bounce Ping Pong, London''. I'm sure you'll see that Bounce Pizza Ping Pong (related to Ace Bounce Ping Pong in Downtown Chicago) is nearly identical to Comet Ping Pong on Connecticut Ave, which as you know, is right next door to our friends with the pedophile logo, Besta Pizza. Oh, by the way, Cheryl Mills, Sandler and Clinton Co. used to work at the lawfirm NEXT DOOR). Here is a link to their Instagram, with plenty of weird things, and common hashtags such as #chickenlover, which we all know is common pedophile lingo (link: http://archive.is/g1q5Q).
Now, the trail furthers, but before we continue, I'd like to point out that the major shareholder of Develcan is a woman named ''Priscila Lustre Taylor''. A quick Google of her will bring you to this article (link: http://archive.is/Ne36z)
''Then, late last month, documents emerged in London concerning Russia's largest tax fraud, an alleged $US230 million heist that led to the untimely deaths of four people and threatens to damage the Russian government.''
''Would you like to add stature and credibility to your company by appointing someone with both an English title and substantial qualifications to your board? Lord Stubbington is available,'' reads a letter circulated by Taylor's wife, Priscila Lustre Taylor.
''The global arms-smuggling network feeds on this frailty, just as it feeds on the cast-off planes and pilots of the former Soviet Union. Adding to the intrigue over the seized flight 4L-AWA in Bangkok was that the Ilyushin-76 transport plane once belonged to a number of notorious international weapons dealers, including Viktor Bout - the so-called ''merchant of death'' and inspiration for the 2005 Hollywood movie Lord of War. The plane's current owner was an entity with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates but operated by Air West Ltd, based in Georgia. Air West had leased the aircraft to a New Zealand firm called SP Trading through a series of bank accounts in Estonia and New York.''
Yes, I have connected the Pizza place to the man Nicholas Cage played in the movie, Lord of War, to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of money laundering due to illicit firearms, drugs, and child trafficking.
Anyway, back to Mayson Financial LTD. (Mayson, nice name again, right?). If you take a look here (http://archive.is/C1qMH) you'll see a man named Mikhail Konev is the current director since 2013, when he took over for Labonte.
I did a bit of a search on Mr. Konev, and found his LinkedIn, which shows he works at Merrill Lynch in Atlanta (as we know is the child trafficking capital of the United States) (link:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikhailkonev)
"Mikhail began his professional career at the age of 17, in his hometown of Volgograd, Russia. There he worked with U.S, Canadian, Italian, German and French citizens as interpreter and travel coordinator. Mikhail studied at the Virginia Military Institute and the Georgia State University and received his bachelor's degree in Business and Economics. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Mikhail was a founder and managing partner of a company specializing in export sales. Mikhail joined Merrill Lynch in 2012; he possesses strong interpersonal and analytical skills and focuses on simplifying the financial lives of clients through the creation of customized investment strategies, financial analysis and personal guidance. Mikhail resides in Midtown, Atlanta and in his free time he enjoys exploring new food and drink venues, attending local festivals, cooking for friends and family and spending hot summer days on a lake." (link: https://www.ml.com/mlwm/system/viewfapage.aspx?pageurl=varzigroup)
Export sales? You don't say.
Now, here is where it gets the most interesting. If you take a look at their filing history (link: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06338326/filing-history), you will see that before Ms. Labonte was director, a woman names Cinthia Julie Alcindor was director, who has more links to Panamanian shell companies. (link: http://archive.is/eOY2r)
Though, the biggest bombshell is the original director of Mayson Financial, who is named as one ''Alfred Brewster''. I took a dive in to see what shell companies Alfred Brewster was part of(link: (https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/22244), when I found one company called ''The Artemis Group'' (link: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/29006).
And who is the largest shareholder of The Artemis Group, owned by the man who formed Mayson Financial? One Rautenbach Muller Conrad, otherwise known as Billy Rautenbach.
I'm sure you're familiar with who Billy Rautenbach is (wiki link: http://archive.is/fLYF9) , who has ties with the Zimbabwean government (President Robert Mugabe).
What does this mean? (link:(http://archive.is/S6prZ)
''A few notable businessmen said to be calling the shots in Shaba are American Maurice Tempelsman, Zimbabwean Billy Rautenbach, South African Marc Rich, British John Bredenkamp, Swede Adolph Lundin and Jean Raymond Boulle.
Tenke Mining, owned by Swedish mining magnate Lundin is one of some 15 multinational mining companies partnered with GECAMINES in Shaba. Lundin is called a longtime associate of George HW Bush; African Confidential reported in 1997 that the ex-president telephoned Mobutu on Lundin's behalf after the dictator had threatened to terminate a mining contract.
Pardoned by outgoing President Clinton for tax-evasion charges, Marc Rich operates the Swiss-based Glencore company. "
UH oh.
Further researched here (link: http://archive.is/3k0O6)
"Katanga's militias and racketeering are connected to criminal networks of businessmen, including Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, Billy Rautenbach, John Bredenkamp, and Marc Rich. U.S. diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman has profited from Katanga concessions since the Kennedy era. Lawrence Devlin, the old CIA station chief of Lubumbashi under Eisenhower, maintained Tempelsman's criminal rackets with direct ties to Zaire's former President Mobutu, and was subsequently employed by Tempelsman (16). "
I believe I have tied in the evidence to prove that the United States Federal Government, the British Parliament, and the Russian Federation are working together through Mr. Taylor and Mr. Rautenbach, to launder hundreds of millions of dollars of child sex trafficking, drug running, and arms dealing through a plethora of offshore shell corporations, and back into high society Pizza Ping Pong businesses that exploit children.
Hi,I believe I have found the connection between the Pizza and hundreds of millions of Euros that directly tie to Zimbabwe and to individuals with direct ties to the Clinton Foundation.Obviously, we've all become aware that there is a massive pedophile ring along Connecticut Ave. in Washington D.C in places like Comet Ping Pong, Buck's Fishing and Hunting, and Besta Pizza, to name a few. If you are unaware of such mounting evidence, you may download my archive (link: https://mega.nz/#!85NVmT5C!19-0fhuHXUK55ch4R_APKSg-PrusvLhRcT-rmp_EI8E)Since there have been dead leads over the past week or so, I decided to take FBI anonymous' advice and take a look at the foundation, so I aimed to take a look at the Panama leaks from last year (Mossack Fonecca, the company with major donations to the Clinton Foundation), since nobody else seemed to do it.First, I found that there was a company called, ''Besta World Group, Inc.'' and decided to take that for a spin (link: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/221081)Here, we see that Besta World Group Inc is an intermediary of Sealight Incorporations Limited. Now, Sealight Incorporations Limited has nearly 4000 shell companies set up, so I thought this was a dead end. I did some further digging, and came across this site, (link: http://archive.is/EanmB). If you scroll down to this image, (https://i.sli.mg/2rBeDx.png). Here, you will see that Seallight Incoporations Limited is an intermediatry of everygood international co (empty shell) connected to standard directors (empty shell). This is where is became interesting. Develcan Ventures, LTD. A search for Develcan (nice name, right?) Ventures, LTD came up with (link: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/24692?e=true). The most important thing to look at here is ''Ms. Elisana Marie-Antoinette Labonte''I did a quick Google of her, and found this : http://thewhistleblowers.info/elisana-marie-antoinette-labonte-2014-conspired-to-lainder-money-via-account-at-deutsche-bank/ where she was accused of conspiring to launder 240,000,000E into Deutsche Bank. I then did some more digging and found her as the former director of a company (http://archive.is/rViV5) called Mayson Development Financial LTD.When Googling this company, you'll find they have a registered address in Moscow, Russia, but if you switch to Google images, you'll find a thumbnail for ''Bounce Ping Pong, London''. I'm sure you'll see that Bounce Pizza Ping Pong (related to Ace Bounce Ping Pong in Downtown Chicago) is nearly identical to Comet Ping Pong on Connecticut Ave, which as you know, is right next door to our friends with the pedophile logo, Besta Pizza. Oh, by the way, Cheryl Mills, Sandler and Clinton Co. used to work at the lawfirm NEXT DOOR). Here is a link to their Instagram, with plenty of weird things, and common hashtags such as #chickenlover, which we all know is common pedophile lingo (link: http://archive.is/g1q5Q). Now, the trail furthers, but before we continue, I'd like to point out that the major shareholder of Develcan is a woman named ''Priscila Lustre Taylor''. A quick Google of her will bring you to this article (link: http://archive.is/Ne36z) ''Then, late last month, documents emerged in London concerning Russia's largest tax fraud, an alleged $US230 million heist that led to the untimely deaths of four people and threatens to damage the Russian government.'' ''Would you like to add stature and credibility to your company by appointing someone with both an English title and substantial qualifications to your board? Lord Stubbington is available,'' reads a letter circulated by Taylor's wife, Priscila Lustre Taylor. ''The global arms-smuggling network feeds on this frailty, just as it feeds on the cast-off planes and pilots of the former Soviet Union. Adding to the intrigue over the seized flight 4L-AWA in Bangkok was that the Ilyushin-76 transport plane once belonged to a number of notorious international weapons dealers, including Viktor Bout - the so-called ''merchant of death'' and inspiration for the 2005 Hollywood movie Lord of War. The plane's current owner was an entity with headquarters in the United Arab Emirates but operated by Air West Ltd, based in Georgia. Air West had leased the aircraft to a New Zealand firm called SP Trading through a series of bank accounts in Estonia and New York.''Yes, I have connected the Pizza place to the man Nicholas Cage played in the movie, Lord of War, to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of money laundering due to illicit firearms, drugs, and child trafficking. Anyway, back to Mayson Financial LTD. (Mayson, nice name again, right?). If you take a look here (http://archive.is/C1qMH) you'll see a man named Mikhail Konev is the current director since 2013, when he took over for Labonte.I did a bit of a search on Mr. Konev, and found his LinkedIn, which shows he works at Merrill Lynch in Atlanta (as we know is the child trafficking capital of the United States) (link:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikhailkonev) "Mikhail began his professional career at the age of 17, in his hometown of Volgograd, Russia. There he worked with U.S, Canadian, Italian, German and French citizens as interpreter and travel coordinator. Mikhail studied at the Virginia Military Institute and the Georgia State University and received his bachelor's degree in Business and Economics. Prior to Merrill Lynch, Mikhail was a founder and managing partner of a company specializing in export sales. Mikhail joined Merrill Lynch in 2012; he possesses strong interpersonal and analytical skills and focuses on simplifying the financial lives of clients through the creation of customized investment strategies, financial analysis and personal guidance. Mikhail resides in Midtown, Atlanta and in his free time he enjoys exploring new food and drink venues, attending local festivals, cooking for friends and family and spending hot summer days on a lake." (link: https://www.ml.com/mlwm/system/viewfapage.aspx?pageurl=varzigroup)Export sales? You don't say.Now, here is where it gets the most interesting. If you take a look at their filing history (link: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06338326/filing-history), you will see that before Ms. Labonte was director, a woman names Cinthia Julie Alcindor was director, who has more links to Panamanian shell companies. (link: http://archive.is/eOY2r)Though, the biggest bombshell is the original director of Mayson Financial, who is named as one ''Alfred Brewster''. I took a dive in to see what shell companies Alfred Brewster was part of(link: (https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/22244), when I found one company called ''The Artemis Group'' (link: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/29006). And who is the largest shareholder of The Artemis Group, owned by the man who formed Mayson Financial? One Rautenbach Muller Conrad, otherwise known as Billy Rautenbach.I'm sure you're familiar with who Billy Rautenbach is (wiki link: http://archive.is/fLYF9) , who has ties with the Zimbabwean government (President Robert Mugabe). What does this mean? (link:(http://archive.is/S6prZ) ''A few notable businessmen said to be calling the shots in Shaba are American Maurice Tempelsman, Zimbabwean Billy Rautenbach, South African Marc Rich, British John Bredenkamp, Swede Adolph Lundin and Jean Raymond Boulle. Tenke Mining, owned by Swedish mining magnate Lundin is one of some 15 multinational mining companies partnered with GECAMINES in Shaba. Lundin is called a longtime associate of George HW Bush; African Confidential reported in 1997 that the ex-president telephoned Mobutu on Lundin's behalf after the dictator had threatened to terminate a mining contract. Pardoned by outgoing President Clinton for tax-evasion charges, Marc Rich operates the Swiss-based Glencore company. "UH oh. Further researched here (link: http://archive.is/3k0O6) "Katanga's militias and racketeering are connected to criminal networks of businessmen, including Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, Billy Rautenbach, John Bredenkamp, and Marc Rich. U.S. diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman has profited from Katanga concessions since the Kennedy era. Lawrence Devlin, the old CIA station chief of Lubumbashi under Eisenhower, maintained Tempelsman's criminal rackets with direct ties to Zaire's former President Mobutu, and was subsequently employed by Tempelsman (16). "I believe I have tied in the evidence to prove that the United States Federal Government, the British Parliament, and the Russian Federation are working together through Mr. Taylor and Mr. Rautenbach, to launder hundreds of millions of dollars of child sex trafficking, drug running, and arms dealing through a plethora of offshore shell corporations, and back into high society Pizza Ping Pong businesses that exploit children.
Civil War
Clinton and Trump Aides Clash at Campaign Managers Conference | TIME
Face to face with the foe, top aides from Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's campaigns clashed furiously, at time shouting over each other and tossing out catty asides about their opposite candidates. It was a fitting postlude to a caustic campaign.
Harvard's Kennedy School hosted its quadrennial Campaign Managers Conference on Wednesday and Thursday, and the deeply divided camps offered an often unfiltered oral history of their campaigns. Trump's victorious team wasn't shy about reminding the vanquished of their defeat, and the loss was still raw for Clinton's team. For some of the operatives, it was the first time meeting their rivals, and, in the case of the Clinton aides, it was their first public appearance since the Nov. 8 surprise.
''You're making me remember such a wonderful moment in my life,'' Clinton campaign chief Robby Mook said with more than a hint of woe, before dutifully taking his grilling from reporters and Harvard students about what went wrong. The diagnosis was inconclusive.
Over two days, the top aides from every major campaign but two '-- those of Ohio Governor John Kasich and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania were no shows '-- reflected for the Kennedy School project on the first postelection history of a campaign that saw a billionaire, former reality-show star catapult past rivals with more traditional credentials. But there were flashes of frustration if not anger for winners and losers alike.
''Don't act as if you have some kind of mandate,'' Obama strategist Joel Benenson said of Clinton's victory in the popular vote but not the all-important Electoral College.
''Hey, guys, we won,'' fired back Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.
''You guys are bitter,'' Conway added after another exchange. ''You're all bitter.''
Her assessment wasn't far off, and winning did little to instill a sense of humility.
''I would rather lose than win the way you guys did,'' said Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri, attacking Trump's courting of the ''alt-right.'' ''I am more proud of Hillary Clinton's alt-right speech than any other moment on the campaign.''
Tom Williams'--APHope Hicks, communications aide for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, attends a campaign rally at Madison City Schools Stadium in Madison, Ala., on Feb. 28, 2016Some key takeaways:
Ted Cruz's campaign advised Trump
Heading into the final weekend before New Hampshire voted, Cruz campaign maven Jeff Roe called his counterpart in Trump's organization. The blustery New Yorker was on track to win the state that Cruz was largely ceding it. Cruz's research showed voters were on the precipice of switching allegiances. If Trump could tone down some of his fireworks and campaign with a bit less acidity, he could sew up the state. Trump took the good advice, and he used a win in the state to start his string of wins. ''Donald Trump changed his strategy on Thursday before the Tuesday election, to be positive,'' said Corey Lewandowski, Trump's manager at the time. ''That was the recipe moving forward.''
Everyone hates the media '...
The press was a target of every campaign team, who objected to everything from the time given to Donald Trump's rallies to the rules used for debate qualifications. Trump's campaign blasted the press for its coverage of their candidate. ''The largest super PAC, called the media,'' his digital director Brad Parscale sneered. ''We had media bias that we had to spend money and energy to push and correct the message '... We had to fight media bias and corporate bias.''
And Mook said the political forecasters signaled that a Clinton win was inevitable, driving down voting numbers. ''When the New York Times or the other prognosticators say you have a 90% chance of winning, that suppresses [voters],'' Mook said.
It was a good tactic. Surveys consistently say they do not trust the media, and Trump's war on them boosted his appeal to the working-class voters who were looking for a candidate who would fight for them. ''We actively picked fights with the Union Leader,'' Lewandowski said of New Hampshire's largest newspaper and called its publisher Joe McQuaid ''a bad guy.''
But the Clinton campaignreallyhates the media
Palmieri criticized the press for providing airtime to Trump and ignoring their candidate. ''He gets all the coverage and you guys only covered her when she was talking about him,'' she said.
The Clinton team also piled on attacks for how the media covered Clinton's use of a private email server. ''It's going to go down in history as the most grossly overrated, overcovered and most destructive story in all of presidential politics,'' Palmieri said. ''If I made one mistake it was legitimizing the way the press covered this story line.''
Mook echoed with a critique of the coverage of WikiLeaks emails '-- stolen private messages of Democratic National Committee staffers and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. ''The media didn't seem willing to put that in the proper context of the deep connections that Donald Trump had [with Russia],'' he said.
Clinton aides repeatedly asserted that their boss '-- a former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State '-- was treated as an incumbent President from the first day of the campaign. A frequent point of frustration was her paid speeches between her time at the State Department and her campaign. Palmieri said she read the speeches and initially favored just releasing them to get them out there. However, she came to realize it would never be enough. ''They would be poured over, comma by comma,'' Palmieri said.
CNN takes a lashing
CNN honcho Jeff Zucker came under sustained fire while participating in a media panel over Wednesday evening dinner of fish. The former NBC executive who green-litThe Apprenticefaced questions about his network's extensive and unedited coverage of Trump. He was jeered and heckled by the audience of campaign operatives and journalists, who questioned his decision to hire former Trump campaign manager Lewandowski and to allow Trump surrogates to continuously air falsehoods on his air. One reporter questioned Zucker's decision to ask Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson '-- a ''nut job'' in her estimation '-- on shows even after she was shown to be factually challenged.
Brian Snyder'--ReutersRobby Mook, campaign manager for U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and communications director Jen Palmieri, left, talk to reporters on board the campaign plane en route to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Oct. 28, 2016Twitter is king
Trump fundamentally changed how campaigns are fought, and Twitter was the favorite battlefield for Trump. ''Donald Trump has just tweeted from his pajamas,'' Lewandowski marveled. ''Fox News would cover it live.'' True. And it bedeviled his rivals who couldn't match the machismo online. ''It was like owning the New York Times without the overhead or the debt,'' Trump aide Michael Glassner said. And when Trump stepped into controversy, he could fire off a late-night tweet and turn the page. ''He has the ability to change the narrative with 140 characters,'' Lewandowski said.
The result was that the traditional campaign infrastructure didn't much matter. ''People were really, really excited about President-elect Trump. They were not about Hillary Clinton,'' said Mike DuHaime, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's campaign strategist. ''The candidates have to be exciting for that to matter.''
Hillary is self-critical
Clinton, who has said she lacks the political talents of her husband, remained in a dark place even heading into Election Day. She was still bracing for a loss, even as polls showed her campaign heading toward a victory. ''There was no one who was less surprised that she lost than Hillary Clinton,'' said Palmieri, who added that Clinton insisted on expecting the worst. ''She doesn't expect everything to go her way.'' Palmieri said.
Mook also said former President Bill Clinton remains deeply upset about the results.
Mook wanted his team in foxhole
Seeing polls showing Clinton heading toward a loss in her primary against Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, Mook put out the call: everyone head north, whether they were tech engineers or political professionals. ''The entire campaign was there. We literally emptied out our headquarters,'' Mook said. Clinton lost by 22 percentage points. ''We went through that experience together,'' Mook said, saying he wanted his team unified in loss. In part, it is why no one blames Mook for the campaign loss.
The Clinton campaign also hates James Comey
The FBI director was a frequent target of the Clinton team, for providing what Mook called ''the single greatest headwinds we had in this campaign.'' That is, his pair of letters in the final 10 days of the campaign. Clinton's team believes the first letter alienated some soft Clinton supporters, while the second energized Trump's base. ''Mr. Comey seems to care little about FBI precedents,'' sniped Benenson, Clinton's strategist and pollster.
Earlier in the campaign, Mook was on the phone with White House political director David Simas when Comey went to the television cameras for an unprecedented press conference to criticize Clinton's use of private email. ''I think we had better got off the phone and watch this,'' Mook said to his counterpart. Neither knew just how far Comey would go.
Cruz wasn't trying to get booed at the GOP convention
''I don't think that he understood the conscience, the loaded word that that was,'' said Jamie Johnson, of Cruz's speech at the party's confab in Cleveland. Cruz withheld his endorsement of Trump and encouraged Republicans to vote their conscience. ''We understood that he could get booed '... but the eventual outcome of what he was trying to accomplish he thought he could pull it off and he didn't get it done,'' he added.
Donald Trump does what he wants to do
Trump's first campaign chief Lewandowski said the boss' wealth was always to be embraced. He insisted on rolling into airports with his Trump-branded plane. He wanted expensive cars to ferry him around. Trump aides also recounted that their pleas for the President-elect to stay on message often fell on deaf ears.
After Trump attacked Senator John McCain's military service, Lewandowski said he advised Trump to apologize. ''Donald Trump does what Donald Trump always does, which is doubles down,'' he said. ''His instincts are so different.'' Instead, Trump went to meet with reporters and repeat his criticism.
And for his attack on Judge Gonzalo Curiel, that was also premeditated and against the advice of staff.
''We had talked about it on the way to the venue and I made the strategic recommendation, as did others, not to do that, but Donald Trump does what Donald Trump wants to do,'' Lewandowski said later.
They were just the latest examples of Trump ignoring tradition. For instance, he refused to release his tax returns'--the first in decades to ignore that call. ''No one cared,'' Conway said glibly. Instead, Lewandowski said New York Times editor Dean Baquet, who told a separate Harvardaudiencethat he would risk jail time to publish Trump's tax returns. ''He's willing to commit a felony,'' Lewandowski said. ''It's egregious. He should be in jail.''
The Muslim ban wasn't a fluke and it helped Trump
Lewandowski explained that the campaign spent days working on the language for his Dec. 7 statement calling for the halt of Muslim immigration to the U.S. ''The media wants to focus on what the statement said,'' he said, before being interrupted by laughter. He continued to tout how the campaign spent multiple days vetting the policy. ''We actually called a lot of people,'' he said, adding, ''Donald Trump spent a lot of time thinking about this before we wrote this statement.''
Rubio strategist Terry Sullivan noted that the controversy only helped Trump, even among those who didn't agree with the constitutionally dubious plan, because it pitted Trump against elites. ''It was this elite attitude, it wasn't Middle America,'' he said of the press coverage.
Jim Bourg'--ReutersPaul Manafort, senior aide to Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, waves goodbye to reporters after Trump delivered a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., on April 27, 2016Polls were weaponized
Former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal planted himself in Iowa, betting he would go all-in in the state and notch an early win to prove he wasn't an also-ran. ''The path to victory was to throw everything into Iowa,'' TimmyTeepellsaid. Then, the media bifurcated the field into the main debate and also-rans based on polling standing. ''It became a national primary at that point,'' he said. ''You need to have the time to grow in Iowa, to meet people, to see your polls go up slowly. That didn't happen.'' Other campaigns also groused about the emphasis on polls, both for debates and for coverage. ''Ultimately that strategy broke down when the media decided to have a different kind of debate criteria,'' said Christian Ferry, who managed Senator Lindsey Graham's campaign. And once relegated to the undercard debate, they were stuck there. ''No candidate ever moved from the second tier to this first without the media changing the rules along the way.''
Team Trump can't accept a win
Time and again, Trump's aides crowed about their genius.
''I don't think you give yourself enough credit for the negative campaign you ran,'' said Mandy Grunwald, a longtime Clinton adviser and one of the savviest media strategists in the party. She then praised the Trump campaign's use of the National Enquirer to publish outlandish claims that Clinton was mortally ill or bound for jail at any time. Trump's team objected and stammered that they won. ''Take the compliment, Kellyann,'' Grunwald said.
''I would if it were one,'' Conway said.
Grunwald merely shrugged. ''We gave you the material to work with,'' she said.
America almost got a fourth debate
The Clinton campaign mulled pitching one more meeting of Clinton and Trump, Palmieri said, because those sessions were the only way that made clear the differences between the two nominees. Conway said the Trump team would have accepted the invitation. After all, Trump improved with each debate.
''When we were at our best when we could be on stage with Donald Trump,' Palmieri said. ''We could never replicate that when they were in their separate silos.''
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly attributed a quote about the 2016 election. It was Jennifer Palmieri who said, ''There was no one who was less surprised that she lost than Hillary Clinton.''
Heavily unpopular French President Francois Hollande announced that he will not be running in next year's presidential elections as the country swings further to the right, admitting that he would have a difficult task uniting his Socialist Party.
RELATED:#ParisAgainstTrump Takes Place as Fear of Le Pen Presidency Grows
"I have decided that I will not be a candidate," said Hollande said in a television statement. ''In the months to come, my only duty will be to continue to lead my country.''
Hollande quits after only one term, and goes out as one of the most unpopular French Presidents in recent decades after facing ongoing protests over unemployment and labor reform, policy changes and US$120,000hairdressing bills.
Hollande acknowledged that he would find it hard to unite his fractured socialist party. "I am aware today of the risk that going down a route that would not gather sufficient support would entail," he said.
For the Socialist Party, the focus is now on current Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who many believe will take the party to the April and May elections, but the party '' and the left in general '' has been increasingly split. Arnaud Montebourg and Benoit Hamon, who were former members of Hollande's administration, said they will run for president.
RELATED:European Elections Seen as Litmus Test for Right-Wing Populism'
France's far-right has also been gaining momentum, particularly in the wake of recent terrorist attacks, in line with rising populist and xenophobic sentiments.
Marine Le Pen, from the far-right National Front, has been growing in influence and said that she was not surprised by Hollande bowing out of the race. Right-wing candidate Fran§ois Fillon has been rising in recent polls.
'Moslims mogen zich negatief uitlaten over homo's'
In de Tweede Kamer wordt met afschuw gereageerd op een standpunt van het Meldpunt Internet Discriminatie (MiND). MiND vindt dat negatieve uitingen over homo's door moslims in de context van het geloof moeten worden gezien.
Voor de onafhankelijke Kamerleden Joram van Klaveren en Louis Bontes is deze reactie op een discriminatiemelding fout en onacceptabel. Zij stelden donderdag vragen aan de ministers van Justitie en Sociale Zaken. Volgens de twee Kamerleden stelt MiND dat gewelddadige homohaat mag op grond van de islam. Het oproepen tot geweld zou geen probleem zijn als dat gebeurt vanuit de islamitische levensovertuiging.
MiND laat in een verklaring donderdagmiddag weten dat er, na nieuw onderzoek, sprake is van een ''onjuiste beoordeling'' van enkele uitingen. ''Er is in enkele uitingen sprake van een opruiend karakter en het oproepen tot geweld. In deze gevallen is de context niet van belang.''
Fake News
Million Dollar Sculpture at FBI Headquarters Made People Seriously Ill | Inverse
In early 2015, the government commissioned a seemingly innocent, towering art installation for a FBI field office in Miami. What they didn't know was that they were simultaneously hauling in an accidental bioweapon right into their midst. The sculpture '-- which cost $750,000 '-- sent more than a dozen people to the hospital due to serious health complications. Whoops!
According to Politico, the piece, Cedrus, was created by artist Ursula von Rydingsvard out of 15,000 pounds of Western red cedar imported from Vancouver. The 17-foot-tall sculpture (which was probably worth even more than the government paid for it) was installed in early 2015, but had to be removed in October of that year after FBI workers started getting sick.
Several people suffered severe allergic reactions to cedar dust the sculpture constantly shed, and a dozen workers were hospitalized.
''The health and safety issues surrounding the sculpture were real,'' wrote Richard Haley, the FBI's assistant director of finance overseeing department property in a letter obtained by Politico. ''One employee required an 11-day hospital stay and none have been able to return to work at the new field office.''
The office's only nurse was one of the 17 people affected by the cedar, suggesting (perhaps) that the wood had gained some level of sentience and was targeting potential threats first.
Cedrus
It took the FBI and the General Services Administration, the government agency that leased the space in the first place, months to get rid of the sculpture. It was finally removed in October, and the entire ordeal was estimated to have cost taxpayers $1.2 million. The FBI and GSA both think the other agency should be on the hook for the expense.
Cedrus is currently being stored at the GSA's fine arts facility in Alexandria, Virginia, and will next be sent to a storage facility in Maryland where it can't harm anybody.
Photos via Hedrich Blessing
Rusland vreest nepnieuws via Nederlandse servers | NU - Het laatste nieuws het eerst op NU.nl
De Russische inlichtingendienst FSB bereidt zich voor op een "grootschalige cyberaanval", waarbij nepnieuws via Nederlandse servers zou worden verspreid.Daarvoor waarschuwt de FSB in een verklaring. Het doel zou zijn om "het Russische financile systeem te destabiliseren".
De aanvallers zouden van plan zijn om rond 5 december SMS-berichten en artikelen te verzenden, waarin op grote schaal over een financile crisis in Rusland wordt gesproken. Daarin zou worden beweerd dat een aantal toonaangevende banken failliet zijn of hun vergunningen zijn verloren.
Bij de aanval op Rusland moeten servers in Nederland worden gebruikt, stelt de FSB. Die servers zouden in het bezit zijn van de Oekra¯ense hostingprovider BlazingFast.
Volgens technisch directeur Ronald Prins van beveiligingsbedrijf Fox-IT is de kans heel klein dat Nederland bij de aanval betrokken is, juist omdat er servers in Nederland zijn gespot. "Zo makkelijk geef je jezelf normaal niet weg", aldus Prins.
De FSB beweert dat de geplande aanval wordt uitgevoerd door een "buitenlandse inlichtingendienst". Om welk land het zou gaan, zegt de dienst niet. In de verklaring wordt enkel de locatie van de gebruikte servers en het betreffende hostingbedrijf aangegeven.
Nepnieuws Het hoofd van de Duitse inlichtingendienst BND denkt dat Rusland betrokken was bij het verspreiden van nepnieuws tijdens de verkiezingen in de Verenigde Staten. Hij vreest dat Rusland hetzelfde tijdens de Duitse verkiezingsrace zal doen.
De Verenigde Staten verdenken Rusland van inmenging in de recente Amerikaanse verkiezingen, door het hacken van het Democratisch Nationaal Comit(C).
Door: NU.nl
This Is The Bombshell Story Of The Year Folks: Is Justin Trudeau The Son Of Fidel Castro? | Mirrorspectrum
Before we dive into how this could be true, let's take a look at Justin Trudeau and Fidel Castro's striking resemblance:
She remembers Castro during that visit as a ''very warm and charming man '-- I enjoyed him.''
-Margaret Trudeau on Fidel Castro
Pierre Trudeau, the former Prime Minister of Canada, made many visits to Cuba while the Prime Minister of Canada with his wife and mother of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Margaret Trudeau described Fidel's peculiar fascination with her baby, when the Trudeau family visited Cuba in the '70's and her description of Fidel is very romantic:''Fidel made it clear in his opening remarks that the parents were important but not nearly as important as the baby. In some pictures Fidel had a big patch of wet saliva on his uniform because he had come over early to cuddle the baby.
'...
She remembers Castro during that visit as a ''very warm and charming man '-- I enjoyed him.''
'...
Margaret Trudeau said she visited Castro at his hotel before the funeral to welcome him on behalf of the family.
Source: National PostHis wife, Margaret Trudeau was notorious for cheating on Pierre Trudeau with many men, including multiple members of the Rolling Stones.Macleans writes:3. 1977: Margaret Trudeau and the Rolling Stones. Margaret Trudeau spent her sixth wedding anniversary without her prime minister husband, instead partying with the Rolling Stones at a Toronto nightclub and later in Mick Jagger's limousine. The rendezvous sparked rumours that she was having an affair with the band's front man. She later disappeared to New York. The scandal signalled the end of the couple's tumultuous marriage, but Margaret Trudeau denied having affairs with any members of the Rolling Stones, later telling a conference on mental health, ''I should have slept with every single one of them.''The Guardian writes:When I meet Charlie Watts, he remembers it as being a ''pretty serious'' situation. To complicate matters, Wood was simultaneously having an affair with Margaret Trudeau, wife of the then Canadian prime minister. ''It was a bit worrying,'' says Watts, a thoughtful wrinkle appearing on his brow.Wikipedia:Over time, the marriage disintegrated to the point that, as recounted in her book, Trudeau had an affair with US SenatorTed Kennedy. She was also associated with members of the Rolling Stones, including Ronnie Wood[21]and, according to Keith Richards's autobiography, Life, Mick Jagger.[22][23]Wikipedia sources:Richards, Keith (2010). Life. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-03438-X. OCLC 548642133.:Page 393Jump up^Day, Elizabeth (November 13, 2011). ''The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch''. The Guardian. London.A young photo of Fidel Castro bears a striking resemblance to Justin Trudeau.A face swap looks as if it hasn't even been done:
Justin Trudeau's statement yesterday was especially over the top when describing a dictator who committed genocide against his own people, almost as if he was describing a father figure:''It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba's longest serving President.''Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.''While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro's supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for ''el Comandante''.''I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raºl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba.''On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader.''Fidel Castro visited Canada in 1959, and Pierre Trudeau visited Cuba numerous times:It outlines Castro's rise to power, as well as his first and only official visit to Canada, in 1959. The rest of the book examines the evolution of Castro and Trudeau's remarkable relationship as it arose out of the event that is the book's centrepiece: Trudeau's historic three-day 1976 visit to Cuba that notoriously culminated with his rallying cry of ''Viva el primer ministro Fidel Castro!''
Maga Feed
SCIENCE!
Stolen data prompts Science to flag debated study of fish and plastics
In August, Science told us it was considering adding an Expression of Concern to a high-profile paper about how human pollution is harming fish '-- and yesterday, the journal did it.
The move comes after a group of researchers alleged the paper contains missing data, and the authors followed a problematic methodology. In September, however, the co-authors' institution, Uppsala University in Sweden, concluded there wasn't enough evidence to launch a misconduct investigation.
The notice from Science stems from the theft of a computer carrying some of the paper's raw data, making it impossible to reproduce some of its findings:
In the 3 June issue, Science published the Report ''Environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic particles influence larval fish ecology'' by Oona M. L¶nnstedt and Peter Ekl¶v (1). The authors have notified Science of the theft of the computer on which the raw data for the paper were stored. These data were not backed up on any other device nor deposited in an appropriate repository. Science is publishing this Editorial Expression of Concern to alert our readers to the fact that no further data can be made available, beyond those already presented in the paper and its supplement, to enable readers to understand, assess, reproduce or extend the conclusions of the paper.
''Environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic particles influence larval fish ecology'' caught the media's attention for suggesting fish larvae are eating small particles of plastic rather than their natural prey. It became the focus of scrutiny soon after it was published when a group of researchers raised allegations of misconduct, even submitting a formal letter outlining their concerns.
We contacted corresponding author Oona M. L¶nnstedt, and received an out-of-office message.
According to a news story in Science, the laptop was stolen out of the car of L¶nnstedt's husband only days after the paper was published, and there is no backup. The news story provides more details of the critics' concerns about the paper, which L¶nnstedt denies.
Although Uppsala appeared to clear both authors of misconduct, the news story notes:
'...a second investigation, by Sweden's Central Ethical Review Board, is still ongoing. Science editor Andrew Sugden says the journal initially wanted to wait for this board's verdict before taking action, but decided to publish the expression of concern because the board has taken longer than expected and readers needed to know data for the paper are missing. (Science requires raw data to be published on its website as supplementary online material or placed in an online archive such as the Dryad Digital Repository; the UU team failed to deposit all of its data when the paper was published.)
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The BMJ has released a detailed correction to a much-debated article critiquing the expert report underlying the U.S. dietary guidelines.
After the article was published in 2015, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) organized a letter signed by more than 100 researchers, urging the publication to retract the article. Today, the journal said it found ''no grounds'' to do so.
However, in a press release accompanying the announcement of the correction, the BMJ notes that some aspects of the CSPI's criticisms were merited.
Editor in chief Fiona Godlee said in a statement:
We stand by [author Nina Teicholz's] article with its important critique of the advisory committee's processes for reviewing the evidence, and we echo her conclusion: 'Given the ever increasing toll of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, and the failure of existing strategies to make inroads in fighting these diseases, there is an urgent need to provide nutritional advice based on sound science.'
Teicholz '-- who already announced the article wouldn't be retracted '-- said in a statement that she appreciates the journal's support:
I am very grateful to The BMJ editors for their profound commitment to verifying the facts of my article and for their professionalism and integrity throughout this process. I am also grateful that they are providing a space for rigorous scientific debate, especially on a subject so important to public health. I hope the original intention of that article can now be fulfilled'--to help improve nutritional advice, so that it is based on rigorous science. This will help us to better combat nutrition-related diseases that have caused so much human suffering around the world.
Bonnie Liebman, CSPI's Director of Nutrition, told us she was not pleased with the decision:
The BMJ has stained its reputation by circling the wagons around Nina Teicholz's discredited and opinionated attack on the science underpinning the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The BMJ corrected or ''clarified'' 7 of the 11 errors cited by the letter from more than 180 scientists requesting a retraction, and failed to respond to the remaining four. (The clarifications are thinly veiled corrections.) It's startling that despite this long list of corrections and clarifications'--including several that undergirded the article's attack on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report''the journal nevertheless stands by the article's conclusions.
Liebman added:
As one reviewer noted, the article never should have been published as an ''investigation by the BMJ'' when it is '' better described as an opinion piece, editorial, or even an example of lobbying literature than an independent investigation.''
''The scientific report guiding the US dietary guidelines: is it scientific?'' criticized several aspects of the expert report, noting it used ''weak scientific methods,'' according to today's statement; it has already received a ''clarification'' (issued soon after it was published), and a previous correction, which addressed the research behind the analysis about saturated fats. The 2015 article has been cited six times, according to Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science, formerly part of Thomson Reuters.
After receiving heavy criticism, the journal asked two independent experts '-- Lisa Bero at the University of Sydney, and Mark Helfand at the Oregon Health & Science University '-- to review the article. As the BMJ statement notes:
Both reviewers found that the authors of the CSPI letter were correct in their contention that the [Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee] report described methods for identifying, selecting, and evaluating evidence for its report.
But they also noted problems with the committee's methods and rejected the letter's contention that the article should be retracted.
Professor Bero concluded: ''Teicholz's criticisms of the methods used by DGAC are within the realm of scientific debate'' and Professor Helfand said that ''it is clear that further investigation of the composition of the committee, as well as its conflict of interest policies and work group structure, are warranted.''
The review culminated in a lengthy correction notice, published today:
This article (BMJ 2015;351:h4962, doi:10.1136/bmj.h4962) stated that the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) ''conducted an [ad] hoc examination of the scientific literature without well defined systematic criteria for how studies or outside review papers were identified, selected, or evaluated.'' The article also stated that the committee ''conducted ad hoc reviews of the literature, without defining criteria for identifying or evaluating studies.'' These statements are incorrect. The DGAC defined the methods it used for identifying, selecting, and evaluating such evidence in its advisory report1 in Part C: Methodology and Appendix E2.2 However, it should be noted that the DGAC also used non-systematic approaches in its evidence selection.
The article also stated that the DGAC's recommendations on saturated fats were based, in part, on ''the 2015 committee's ad hoc selection of seven review papers,'' and that ''papers on saturated fats published since 2010 were covered by the committee's ad hoc review, which did not use a systematic method to select or evaluate studies.'' These statements are incorrect. Appendix E2.43 of the DGAC report defines the search strategy and inclusion criteria for the committee's selection of papers for this topic and gives the DGAC's quality rating (using AMSTAR, the methods of which were also described in Part C: Methodology of the report).
The article's data supplement Table D includes the phrases ''DGAC ad hoc selection'' and ''DGAC ad hoc review'' of the literature, under the sections ''dietary patterns and heart disease'' and ''dietary patterns and obesity,'' respectively, and notes that ''no systematic methodology is given for the selection of these studies.'' This is incorrect. The prespecified search strategy and inclusion criteria are described in Appendices E2.26 and E2.27, respectively.
The article also stated, in reference to evidence regarding DGAC's recommended diets and heart disease: ''The committee reviewed other, more recent studies but not using any systematic or predefined methods.'' This is incorrect. The DGAC defined its methods in Appendix E2.26, including search strategy, inclusion criteria, and quality rating (using AMSTAR, the methods of which were also described in Part C: Methodology of the report).
Included with the correction is a three-paragraph-long ''Clarification,'' which states:
The article stated that the committee did not systematically review certain studies on saturated fats from the 1960s and 1970s. This statement was insufficiently clear. It should have stated that the committee did not ''directly'' review these studies. The committee did consider two systematic reviews45 that themselves included five678910 of the six trials mentioned in the article.67891011
The article also stated, ''There have been at a minimum, three National Institutes of Health funded trials on some 50'000 people showing that a diet low in fat and saturated fat is ineffective for fighting heart disease, obesity, diabetes, or cancer. Two of these trials are omitted from the NEL review.'' This statement was insufficiently clear. The two trials referred to1213 were indeed omitted from the NEL's 2010 review, as stated in the article, but it should be noted that they were evaluated in a Cochrane review,4 and that this review was considered by the committee in its 2015 advisory report.1 In addition, the two trials evaluated the effects of diet modification on serum lipids as a proxy for heart disease.1213
The article also stated, regarding the Nutrition Evidence Library (NEL), that ''a systematic review on health and red meat has not been done. Although several analyses look at 'animal protein products,' these reviews include eggs, fish, and dairy and therefore do not isolate the health effects of red meat, or meat of any kind.'' This statement requires clarification. Several of the NEL reviews used ''meat'' as a search term and presented and discussed results of individual studies of red meat and total meat.141516171819
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Related
Giant new cover for Chernobyl is an engineering marvel '' and a monumental waste of money
A couple of days ago, one of the largest movable structures ever built was rolled into place to surround Chernobyl Unit 4, the infamous power plant in Ukraine. That plant was destroyed more than 30 years ago when it suffered a steam explosion and fire after the operators violated a number of operating procedures with many engineered safety systems turned off.
Even though the accident happened in 1986 and the areas outside of the plant have radiation levels that are safe for general accessibility, bureaucrats in the European Union decided that the concrete sarcophagus hastily erected near the time of the accident needed to be encased in a shiny new structure. In order to reduce doses for construction workers to the internationally accepted ''As Low As Reasonably Achievable'' (with no dollar value assigned to ''reasonable'') the new structure was built several hundred meters away from the damaged reactor.
The design included massive wheels and a rail system that would allow it to be slid into place when complete.
It was quite an engineering feat. It should be a source of pride for the workers that successfully completed their assigned tasks. Taxpayers, however, were asked to pay a large bill for something that wasn't actually needed. In era when sports complexes are publicly funded and cost roughly the same kind of money, I suppose it wasn't such a wild way to employ hard-working, skilled people in a productive fashion.
The endeavor, however, has resulted in headlines that indicate a need for a reasonable explanation for the real hazard and the actual need for the structure.
Here is one example of the reason this piece should be useful: New high-tech shelter reminds us that Chernobyl is still deadly, thirty years after the meltdown. Sadly, that headline appears on a site called ZME Science, a publication that claims to be ''a trusted and provocative source of science news and features, covering research and developments from all scientific fields.''
Here is a letter about the new confinement that was shared on one of my mailing lists. I'm republishing it here with the author's permission.
Dear friends of clean nuclear energy,
A giant sarcophagus has been built and is now inaugurated at Chernobyl. This technical engineering feet is described here :
It is described as shielding Ukraine from the deadly dangers of radiation.
Of course most readers of the Guardian and most world leaders that agreed to finance this huge box to ''keep the devil in the box'' don't know the numbers and have no precise idea of what is a dangerous level of radiation.
In fact most of them have been wrongly led, by such articles which contribute to increasing radiophobia, into believing that any (even microscopic) level of radiation is dangerous and deadly.
This of course only results from fear and ignorance. In French we say ''la peur est mauvaise conseill¨re'' (fear is a bad counsellor).
Here are my comments on this new Chernobyl sarcophagus:This sarcophagus is certainly an admirable engineering accomplishment : it is the largest movable object ever built by humanity, but it is useless health wise.
The world is spending '¬1.5bn (one and a half billion euros) to protect itself from harmless levels of radiation.
This sarcophagus is intended to keep the (said to be so) devil (radiation) prisoner in a big box (well bigger than that : the biggest box ever built!).
Some journalists, and non-scientists (which includes a large number of politicians) certainly might think and will believe that it is justified to build the biggest-ever prison box at any cost, even any number of billions of euros, to keep the biggest-ever devil as a prisoner encapsulated inside it. But it is not so : in this case the devil is no devil and it is not dangerous. The money is simply and sadly wasted.
In the days that followed April 26th 1986, when the reactor with no containment was in flames during two weeks, and indeed rejecting the largest-ever amount of radiation directly into the atmosphere, levels of radiation on site at Chernobyl and directly downwind, such as the city of Prypiat, were then extremely high of course, dangerous and even deadly for some of the firemen and workers courageously working on site at the moment of the accident.
This was mainly due to radioactive iodine 131, which has completely disappeared since the summer of 1986 (its half life is 8 days).
This is not the case any more. The danger has vanished. The evil radiation has disintegrated (as radioactivity always does, by definition) with time passing.
The radiation on the Chernobyl site now, outside the molten reactor building, even without the new sarcophagus, is hardly more than a few microsieverts per hour and has no detrimental health effects. It is millions of times less than the deadly radiation levels that occurred at the moment of the accident.
Such levels of radiation are lower than natural radiation in other locations of our planet where (and rightly so, as there is no danger) nobody is building a sarcophagus to contain an imaginary devil.
For example I have myself measured 50 microsieverts per hour on the beach of Guarapari in Brazil. Not only this popular beach is not considered as a potential health danger, but in fact it is famous for its BENEFICIAL health effects. Brazilians and South Americans come from far away to benefit from the thorium rich sands of this beach.
The new sarcophagus at Chernobyl is therefore useless health wise, a vast waste of international money and nothing but the financial and physical incarnation of the huge worldwide radiophobia that resulted from the Chernobyl accident and antinuclear propaganda amplified by the press.
This money would be better spent producing medical isotopes or developing small modular reactors to power energy-starving developing countries!
Bruno CombyPresident of Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy (EFN) Internationalhttp://ecolo.org/base/baseen.htm
Support EFN by becoming a member or making a donation here :
http://www.ecolo.org/subscri/subscrien.htm
Thank you for your support
Atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. Financial, strategic, and political analyst. Former submarine Engineer Officer. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast. Resume available here.
Please subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed.
Amazing timelapse shows installment of Chernobyl-arch over crippled reactor
- The massive containment dome has a minimum life span of 100 years and is one part of the plan that aims to make the area around the nuclear power plant safe. The dome completely covers the makeshift sarcophagus that was hastily built in the immediate aftermath of the 1986 meltdown.()
Elite$
Standing Rock Tribes File Complaint as Obama Sends Monitors
Tribes filed an official complaint Friday with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as Justice Department sends monitors to North Dakota.
On Friday, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Yankton Sioux Tribe filed an official complaint to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the ''serious and urgent risks of irreparable harm'' posed both by the construction of the pipeline and the recent attacks by state police.
RELATED:Standing Rock Water Protectors Get Ready for Stand Off
Later the same day U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that the Justice Department would send monitors to North Dakota in an effort to ''reduce tensions and foster dialogue.''
The Tribes' 345-page filing called on the Commission to demand that the U.S. government take precautionary measures to prevent ''ongoing and escalating violence and harassment of peaceful protesters by state and local police forces, and private security guards.''
''Endangering human and water security is a violation of international human rights. Our treaties are international law and are entitled to respect as such. Beyond that, we are constantly under corporate attack on our cultural and natural resources and spiritual lifeways. We are being robbed of treaty lands and it must be stopped,'' wrote Faith Spotted Eagle, Chair of the Ihanktonwan Treaty Steering Committee.
The statement raised concerns about grave human rights violations at the historic gathering of Indigenous tribes to prevent the construction of the multi-billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline. The statement highlighted the ''continued failure of the United States to ensure the safety of the protesters'' as well as the Obama administration's failure to protect ''the Tribes' and others' rights to life, liberty and personal security, health, peaceable assembly, association, and protection from arbitrary arrest.''
The IACHR is an independent body of the Organization of American States whose mission is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere.
Hours after the filing U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch finally responded to multiple calls on the Justice Department to intervene to stop attacks on water protectors by state law enforcement. In a videotaped statement released on the Justice Department Facebook page, she said she was ''closely monitoring'' the situation at Standing Rock and that she expected ''everyone involved to exercise restraint, to refrain from violence and to express their views peacefully.'' She added that she has offered ''community policing resources to local law enforcement in North Dakota.''
RELATED:UN Condemns 'Inhumane' Abuse of Standing Rock Water Protectors
Many immediately condemned Lynch's implication that the violence at the Oceti Sakowin camp was in any way caused by the unarmed peaceful protesters, and denounced her expressed concern for the safety of law enforcement.
''If she was monitoring the situation, then why didn't she save that poor woman from losing her arm? Why didn't she stop the horrible oppression?'' wrote one commenter. Another wrote, ''So DOJ and President are aware of the ND police violating human, civil, religious and constitutional rights of unarmed American Indians and their allies peacefully standing up for clean water. Absolutely disgraceful!''
The Tribes have not yet officially responded to Lynch's announcement.
Ministry of Truthiness
Reddit will punish hundreds of 'toxic users' and hide some posts from pro-Trump community
The news follows controversial actions by Huffman, who admitted last week to covertly editing comments that criticized him, replacing his username in the comments with those of moderators for r/the_donald. The blog post includes another lengthy apology about the incident, but also says the site "cannot tolerate" the group's behavior any more. Huffman writes that the subreddit, which has been known to use the site's "sticky" feature to push its posts up the site's rankings, will have its sticky posts removed from r/all '-- a major section near the site's front page. (The site will also introduce filtering options to r/all.)
More from The Verge:Google CEO says fake news is a problem and should not be distributedMossberg: Facebook can and should wipe out fake news Tor Browser vulnerability used to attack visitors to a child porn site
"More than anything, I want Reddit to heal, and I want our country to heal, and although many of you have asked us to ban the r/the_donald outright, it is with this spirit of healing that I have resisted doing so," Huffman writes. "If there is anything about this election that we have learned, it is that there are communities that feel alienated and just want to be heard, and Reddit has always been a place where those voices can be heard."
Earon
Senate Extends Idiotic Iran Sanctions by 99-0 Vote. [Kudos to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for standing on principle.]
Forget that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) agreed between Iran and the so-called P5+1 consisting of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and the European Union has by all accounts been one of the few real foreign policy successes in the eight years of an otherwise war-dominated the Obama Administration. Forget that the promise of normalizing trade relations with Iran would produce untold wealth '' and jobs '' for both the US and Iran. Forget that the Europeans are flocking in droves to resume lucrative trade with Iran, despite president-elect Trump's inexplicable Iranophobia. Forget that as the ''Germany of the Middle East,'' Iran brings to the table ''80 million people, an educated workforce, and a proud tradition of manufacturing''and a potential economic bonanza for its partners.
Nope. The US Senate is proof that habitually ingesting mainstream media ''fake news'' is extremely harmful for your mental health.
TheIran Sanctions Act, passed in 1996, would have, without Congressional action, expired at the end of the month. With the success of the Iran nuclear deal there is no reason at all that it should not have been allowed to do so. But the real isolationists are the interventionists in the US government, who cannot stand the idea that we can trade and be friendly with countries without endorsing every single thing about their political system.
But no. Today the US Senate voted 99-0 '' unanimously '' to continue the idiotic, counterproductive, economically-disastrous, and anachronistic sanctions regime against an Iranian government that has proven willing to do business with the United States.
Shame on you, Senators. Every one of you who voted to continue sanctions!
By the way, there was one hero. In the US House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) '' a Ron Paul Institute Board Member '' did a ''Ron Paul'' and courageously stood against the tide to vote against extending the sanctions on Iran. Give Rep. Massie the praise he deserves '' let him know you support him!
Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
MIC
Estonian Defence Forces successfully tested the first weaponized fully modular unmanned ground vehicle | Defence blog
The Estonian Defence Forces successfully tested the THeMIS ADDER weaponized fully modular unmanned ground vehicle.
This unmanned vehicle was conceived by Milrem, a defense and security provider based in Estonia, who says ADDER will soon work alongside soldiers in the field.
'Unmanned systems will play a significant role in the development of military capabilities in future,' said Kuldar V¤¤rsi, CEO of Milrem.
The THeMIS ADDER was equipped with a CIS 50MG. However, the system can be outfitted with smaller and larger caliber weapons as well.
Estonians have proved many times before that we can successfully be on the forefront of innovation and the Milrem unmanned ground vehicle is a great example of that innovation when it comes to new technologies in the military field>>, said Lieutenant General Riho Terras, Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces. THeMIS ADDER has great potential to put Estonia on the map of countries that provide new technologies and solutions to the modern battlefield>>, Terras added.
The THeMIS ADDER features the first fully modular hybrid unmanned ground vehicle in the world the THeMIS and the remote weapon station ADDER from ST Kinetics.
Ottomania
ErdoÄan's call to citizens: Sell dollars for lira, gold - FINANCE
President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan called on Turkish citizens on Dec. 2 to convert their foreign exchange into gold or the Turkish Lira, adding that there was no option other than cutting interest rates to spur growth.Following his remarks in Ankara, the lira saw fresh lows against the U.S. dollar.
''Those who keep foreign currency under their mattress should come and turn them into lira or gold,'' ErdoÄan said in a speech to mark the opening of an automotive showroom complex in Ankara.
''Such moves will hurt some people's game. Do not worry. We will destroy this game together. We saw such things in 2007 and 2008. I then said the problems would not affect Turkey. I am now saying the same thing. The problems will not even touch us,'' he added.
He also voiced his criticism against high interest rates, saying there was ''no option'' other than cutting interest rates.
''We will open the way for investors with low interest rates,'' the president said.
His position had previously raised tension between the Central Bank, which has kept the rates high to rein in inflation, and the government, insisting that rates should be lowered to make credit available to entrepreneurs.
''We should look at the world. Is the interest rate high in America, Japan, or Europe? While it is so low there, why are our interest rates wandering around 14, 15, or 16 percent? We will pave the way for entrepreneurs with low interest rates. High interest will only spur the financial sector, and I will also say this for public banks,'' he said.
The lira fell to a record low of 3.55 against the dollar after he spoke. The Turkish currency is down some 17 percent against the dollar since the start of the year.
The government has said it will take measures to make it easier for state institutions to conduct transactions in liras rather than dollars and has urged private businesses to do the same in an effort to shore up the currency.
An economic slowdown is also a source of concern and fresh data painted a mixed picture.
The manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) slipped to 48.8 in November from 49.8 in October, according to the Istanbul Chamber of Industry and IHS Markit, pointing to a contraction in activity on Dec. 1.
Meanwhile, Turkish exports rose 5 percent year-on-year in November to $11.95 billion and Istanbul retail prices rose 0.59 percent during the month, other data showed on Dec. 1.
December/02/2016
NA-Tech News
Of 8 Tech Companies, Only Twitter Says It Would Refuse to Help Build Muslim Registry for Trump
Every American corporation, from the largest conglomerate to the smallest firm, should ask itself right now: Will we do business with the Trump administration to further its most extreme, draconian goals? Or will we resist?
This question is perhaps most important for the country's tech companies, which are particularly valuable partners for a budding authoritarian. The Intercept contacted nine of the most prominent such firms, from Facebook to Booz Allen Hamilton, to ask if they would sell their services to help create a national Muslim registry, an idea recently resurfaced by Donald Trump's transition team. Only Twitter said no.
Shortly after the election, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty wrote a personal letter to President-elect Trump in which she offered her congratulations, and more importantly, the services of her company. The six different areas she identified as potential business opportunities between a Trump White House and IBM were all inoffensive and more or less mundane, but showed a disturbing willingness to sell technology to a man with open interest in the ways in which technology can be abused: Mosque surveillance, a ''virtual wall'' with Mexico, shutting down portions of the internet on command, and so forth. Trump's anti-civil liberty agenda, half-baked and vague as it is, would largely be an engineering project, one that would almost certainly rely on some help from the private sector. It may be asking too much to demand that companies that have long contracted with the federal government stop doing so altogether; indeed, this would probably cause as much harm and disruption to good public projects as it would help stop the sinister ones.
But the proposed ''Muslim registry,'' whether it be a computerized list of people from two dozen predominately Muslim nations who enter the country (as revealed in Kris Kobach's fatuously exposed Homeland Security agenda) or a list of all Muslims in the U.S., is both morally appalling and effectively pointless. In November 2015, asked by a reporter if the country should create ''a database or system that tracks Muslims in this country,'' Trump replied, ''There should be a lot of systems '... beyond databases. I mean, we should have a lot of systems.'' The New York Times reported that Trump added he ''would certainly implement that '-- absolutely.'' At a rally later that week, he told the crowd, ''So the database '-- I said yeah, that's all right, fine.'' The next day, George Stephanopoulos asked Trump, ''Are you unequivocally now ruling out a database on all Muslims?'' Trump replied, ''No, not at all.'' Although Trump attempted to walk back these comments during the campaign, a registry of some form is now back on the table, at least as far as Kobach is concerned.
Even on a purely hypothetical basis, such a project would provide American technology companies an easy line to draw in the sand '-- pushing back against any effort to track individuals purely (or essentially) on the basis of their religious beliefs doesn't take much in the way of courage or conviction, even by the thin standards of corporate America. We'd also be remiss in assuming no company would ever tie itself to such a nakedly evil undertaking: IBM famously helped Nazi Germany computerize the Holocaust. (IBM has downplayed its logistical role in the Holocaust, claiming in a 2001 statement that ''most [relevant] documents were destroyed or lost during the war.'')
With all this in mind, we contacted nine different American firms in the business of technology, broadly defined, with the following question: ''Would [name of company], if solicited by the Trump administration, sell any goods, services, information, or consulting of any kind to help facilitate the creation of a national Muslim registry, a project which has been floated tentatively by the president-elect's transition team?''
After two weeks of calls and emails, only three companies provided an answer, and only one said it would not participate in such a project. A complete tally is below.
Facebook: No answer.
Twitter: ''No,'' and a link to this blog post, which states as company policy a prohibition against the use, by outside developers, of ''Twitter data for surveillance purposes. Period.''
Microsoft: ''We're not going to talk about hypotheticals at this point,'' and a link to a company blog post that states that ''we're committed to promoting not just diversity among all the men and women who work here, but '... inclusive culture'' and that ''it will remain important for those in government and the tech sector to continue to work together to strike a balance that protects privacy and public safety in what remains a dangerous time.''
Google: No answer.
Apple: No answer.
IBM: No answer.
Booz Allen Hamilton: Declined to comment.
SRA International: No answer.
CGI: No answer.
This isn't to say that the companies that didn't reply to a request for comment or declined that request are tacitly endorsing the Trump agenda in general or a Muslim registry in particular. Still, it's asking very little of today's tech companies to prompt them to go on record as unwilling to help create a federal list of Muslims '-- or so one would very much hope.
''Any technology company should resist a government request for assistance that targets a customer on the basis of race, religion, or national origin,'' said ACLU attorney Ben Wizner when asked about the social and ethical obligation of these companies to fight, in some capacity, a project like the Muslim registry.
Should any of the above companies wish to expand their answer (or non-answer), this post will be updated accordingly.
Agenda 2030
NOAA forecasts major December cold blast for nearly all the USA | Watts Up With That?
Maybe it has something to do with the ''cold blob'' I pointed out yesterday?
The precipitation forecast shows the northernmost part of the USA as having above normal precipitation, which translates to heavier snow in the northern plains and northern Rockies, along with heavier snow in the Great Lakes and Northeast:
The 8-14 day Outlook gives the confidence that a forecaster has, given as a probability, that the observed temperature, averaged over upcoming days 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 will be in the range of one of three possible categories below (B), normal (N), or above (A). For any calendar 7-day period, these categories can be defined by separating the 30 years of the climatology period, 1981-2010 (30 years), into the coldest 10 years, the middle 10 years, and the warmest 10 years. Because each of these categories occurs 1/3 of the time (10 times) during 1981-2010, for any particular calendar 7-day period, the probability of any category being selected at random from the 1981-2010 set of 30 observations is one in three (1/3), or 33.33%. This is also called the climatological probability. The sum of the climatological probabilities of the three categories is 100%.
Graphical InformationThe colored shading on the map indicates the degree of confidence the forecaster has in the category indicated, where ''B'' and blue colors indicate ''below-normal'' and ''A'' and orange-red colors indicate ''above normal''. The darker the shading, the greater is the level of confidence. The numbers labeling the contours separating different shades gives the probability that the indicated category (A, B, or N) will occur.
The probabilities of all three categories are implied on the map, and sum to 100%. The forecast probabilities given on the map generally fall far short of complete confidence (100%) in any single category. When the probability of the above (A) or below (B) category is greater than 33.33% by some amount, the probability of the opposite category declines by that amount, while the probability of the middle category remains at 33.33%. In the event that the N category is greater than 33.33%, the probabilities of both the ''A'' and ''B'' categories is each reduced by 1/2 the amount that the ''N'' category exceeds 33.33%. When the probability of ''A'', or ''B'' reaches 63.33% or higher, the odds of the opposite category reach a minimum allowed value of 3.33%, while the odds of the middle category are allowed to drop below 33.33%.
The dashed contours on the map give the average of the temperature over the set of 30 observations for the calendar 7-day period during 1981-2010, in degrees Farenheit.
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.
Tokyo area gets first November dusting of snow in 54 years | The Japan Times
Snow fell in Tokyo and elsewhere in eastern Japan on Thursday, the first snowfall to hit the Japanese capital in November in 54 years, disrupting traffic and causing electricity usage to spike due to heating demand.
Injuries were also reported in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, including people who slipped on snowy roads and suffered fractured bones, according to firefighters and other authorities.
Freezing temperatures also caused snow to accumulate in Tokyo for the first time in November according to records going back to 1875.
East Japan Railway Co. said services on parts of the Ome and Chuo lines were suspended as snow-laden tree branches sagged over the tracks. Trains on other lines, such as Seibu and Keio, as well as subway systems in Tokyo also experienced delays, operators said.
On Thursday morning, electricity consumption spiked to 95 percent of capacity due to rising demand for heating, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.
Temperatures in the capital and neighboring areas fell to near zero Thursday morning, a level rarely seen in late November.
Snowfall began at 6:15 a.m. in central Tokyo, 40 days earlier than average. Other cities such as Yokohama and Utsunomiya also saw the season's first snowfall around 20 to 40 days earlier than average.
Temperatures dropped to a record low in many locations. In the town of Nakashibetsu, Hokkaido, the mercury hit minus 17.4 degrees Celsius while Tokyo's Edogawa Ward recorded 0.8 C.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, a cold air mass with a temperature of minus 3 degrees at an altitude of around 1,500 meters was spreading over the Kanto region including Tokyo.
Experts said the low temperatures and snowfall was due to Arctic air penetrating middle latitudes and being exposed to an atmospheric low with a front moving eastward off Japan's Pacific coasts.
The frigid air, otherwise kept locked in the polar region, has been released in the current phase of ''Arctic oscillation,'' a phenomenon characterized by symmetric seesawing between sea-level pressures in polar and middle latitudes, according to Weathernews Inc.
The phenomenon has not been completely clarified, and it is unknown how long the current pattern will last, it said.
The expected snowfall over a 24-hour period through noon Friday may reach 15 centimeters in Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures, 3 cm near mountains in northern Kanto and 2 cm in lowlands of the region, including most parts of Tokyo.
Vaccine$
New HIV vaccine tested in 33 humans, next trial includes 300 volunteers from the general population, and 300 from groups considered high-risk
An HIV vaccine (SAV001) developed at Western University can now move on to Phase II human clinical trials. Plans are underway to test it in 600 HIV-negative subjects across North America as early as next fall. The Phase II trial, once approved by government regulatory agencies, will determine the vaccine's ability to produce anti-HIV antibodies in patients who are not infected with the virus.
The results of the Phase I trial were published this week in the journal, Retrovirology, and showed that the vaccine is both safe for use and effective in triggering an anti-HIV immune response in HIV-positive patients. The results demonstrated that the vaccine was well tolerated with no serious adverse events and can now proceed to Phase II.
Developed by Chil-Yong Kang and a research team at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, the vaccine was tested in 33 HIV-positive volunteers. The proposed next phase will involve 300 volunteers from the general population, and 300 from groups considered high-risk including men who have sex with men, intravenous drug users, sex workers, and those living with an HIV-positive partner.
''We were very excited with the Phase I results,'' said Kang, a professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Western. ''The trial demonstrated that our vaccine stimulates broadly neutralizing antibodies that will neutralize not only single sub-types of HIV, but other sub-types, which means that you can have the vaccine cover many different strains of the virus.''
The SAV001 vaccine is unique in that it uses a killed whole HIV-1, much like the killed whole virus used in vaccines for polio, hepatitis A, rabies, and the flu. The killed HIV-1 is genetically engineered so it is less dangerous and can be produced in large quantities. The vaccine is the world's first preventative HIV vaccine using genetically modified killed whole-virus to receive approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed to this phase of human clinical trials.
''If we can show that this vaccine is effective in preventing people from contracting HIV, we can stop the AIDS epidemic and that would be tremendous,'' said Kang. ''It would be a tremendous contribution to humankind, and it would make all of our efforts worthwhile.''
HIV/AIDS has killed more than 41 million people worldwide, and more than 35 million people currently live with the infection.
''It remains to be determined whether this immune response triggered by the vaccine will prevent HIV infection in humans, but we are hopeful,'' said Kang.
Once Phase II has been successfully completed, Phase III will be conducted world-wide with 6,000 subjects and will be the true test to show if the vaccine is effective in protecting people against HIV infection.
The vaccine is being tested in partnership with Sumagen Canada, the Canadian branch of Korean pharmaceutical venture company, Sumagen Co. Ltd. which has been producing the vaccine for clinical trials and holds the patent on the vaccine for mass production and distribution. MEDIA CONTACT: Crystal Mackay, Media Relations Officer, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, t. 519.661.2111 ext. 80387, c. 519.933.5944, crystal.mackay@schulich.uwo.ca @CrystalMackay
ABOUT WESTERNWestern University delivers an academic experience second to none. Since 1878, The Western Experience has combined academic excellence with life-long opportunities for intellectual, social and cultural growth in order to better serve our communities. Our research excellence expands knowledge and drives discovery with real-world application. Western attracts individuals with a broad worldview, seeking to study, influence and lead in the international community. ABOUT THE SCHULICH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE & DENTISTRYThe Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University is one of Canada's preeminent medical and dental schools. Established in 1881, it was one of the founding schools of Western University and is known for being the birthplace of family medicine in Canada. For more than 130 years, the School has demonstrated a commitment to academic excellence and a passion for scientific discovery.
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F.D.A. Agrees to New Trials for Ecstasy as Relief for PTSD Patients - NYTimes.com
CHARLESTON, S.C. '-- After three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, C. J. Hardin wound up hiding from the world in a backwoods cabin in North Carolina. Divorced, alcoholic and at times suicidal, he had tried almost all the accepted treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder: psychotherapy, group therapy and nearly a dozen different medications.
''Nothing worked for me, so I put aside the idea that I could get better,'' said Mr. Hardin, 37. ''I just pretty much became a hermit in my cabin and never went out.''
Then, in 2013, he joined a small drug trial testing whether PTSD could be treated with MDMA, the illegal party drug better known as Ecstasy.
''It changed my life,'' he said in a recent interview in the bright, airy living room of the suburban ranch house here, where he now lives while going to college and working as an airplane mechanic. ''It allowed me to see my trauma without fear or hesitation and finally process things and move forward.''
Based on promising results like Mr. Hardin's, the Food and Drug Administration gave permission Tuesday for large-scale, Phase 3 clinical trials of the drug '-- a final step before the possible approval of Ecstasy as a prescription drug.
If successful, the trials could turn an illicit street substance into a potent treatment for PTSD.
Through a spokeswoman, the F.D.A. declined to comment, citing regulations that prohibit disclosing information about drugs that are being developed.
''I'm cautious but hopeful,'' said Dr. Charles R. Marmar, the head of psychiatry at New York University's Langone School of Medicine, a leading PTSD researcher who was not involved in the study. ''If they can keep getting good results, it will be of great use. PTSD can be very hard to treat. Our best therapies right now don't help 30 to 40 percent of people. So we need more options.''
But he expressed concern about the potential for abuse. ''It's a feel-good drug, and we know people are prone to abuse it,'' he said. ''Prolonged use can lead to serious damage to the brain.''
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a small nonprofit created in 1985 to advocate the legal medical use of MDMA, LSD, marijuana and other banned drugs, sponsored six Phase 2 studies treating a total of 130 PTSD patients with the stimulant. It will also fund the Phase 3 research, which will include at least 230 patients.
Two trials here in Charleston focused on treating combat veterans, sexual assault victims, and police and firefighters with PTSD who had not responded to traditional prescription drugs or psychotherapy. Patients had, on average, struggled with symptoms for 17 years.
After three doses of MDMA administered under a psychiatrist's guidance, the patients reported a 56 percent decrease of severity of symptoms on average, one study found. By the end of the study, two-thirds no longer met the criteria for having PTSD. Follow-up examinations found that improvements lasted more than a year after therapy.
''We can sometimes see this kind of remarkable improvement in traditional psychotherapy, but it can take years, if it happens at all,'' said Dr. Michael C. Mithoefer, the psychiatrist who conducted the trials here. ''We think it works as a catalyst that speeds the natural healing process.''
The researchers are so optimistic that they have applied for so-called breakthrough therapy status with the Food and Drug Administration, which would speed the approval process. If approved, the drug could be available by 2021.
Under the researchers' proposal for approval, the drug would be used a limited number of times in the presence of trained psychotherapists as part of a broader course of therapy. But even in those controlled circumstances, some scientists worry that approval as a therapy could encourage more illegal recreational use.
''It sends the message that this drug will help you solve your problems, when often it just creates problems,'' said Andrew Parrott, a psychologist at Swansea University in Wales who has studied the brains of chronic Ecstasy users. ''This is a messy drug we know can do damage.''
Allowing doctors to administer the drug to treat a disorder, he warned, could inadvertently lead to a wave of abuse similar to the current opioid crisis.
During initial studies, patients went through 12 weeks of psychotherapy, including three eight-hour sessions in which they took MDMA. During the sessions, they lay on a futon amid candles and fresh flowers, listening to soothing music.
Dr. Mithoefer and his wife, Ann Mithoefer, and often their portly terrier mix, Flynn, sat with each patient, guiding them through traumatic memories.
''The medicine allows them to look at things from a different place and reclassify them,'' said Ms. Mithoefer, a psychiatric nurse. ''Honestly, we don't have to do much. Each person has an innate ability to heal. We just create the right conditions.''
Research has shown that the drug causes the brain to release a flood of hormones and neurotransmitters that evoke feelings of trust, love and well-being, while also muting fear and negative emotional memories that can be overpowering in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. Patients say the drug gave them heightened clarity and ability to address their problems.
For years after his combat deployments, Mr. Hardin said he was sleepless and on edge. His dreams were marked with explosions and death. The Army gave him sleeping pills and antidepressants. When they didn't work, he turned to alcohol and began withdrawing from the world.
''I just felt hopeless and in the dark,'' he said. ''But the MDMA sessions showed me a light I could move toward. Now I'm out of the darkness and the world is all around me.''
Since the trial, he has gone back to school and remarried.
The chemist Alexander Shulgin first realized the euphoria-inducing traits of MDMA in the 1970s, and introduced it to psychologists he knew. Under the nickname Adam, thousands of psychologists began to use it as an aid for therapy sessions. Some researchers at the time thought the drug could be helpful for anxiety disorders, including PTSD, but before formal clinical trails could start, Adam spread to dance clubs and college campuses under the name Ecstasy, and in 1985, the Drug Enforcement Administration made it a Schedule 1 drug, barring all legal use.
Since then, the number of people seeking treatment for PTSD has exploded and psychiatry has struggled to keep pace. Two drugs approved for treating the disorder worked only mildly better than placebos in trials. Current psychotherapy approaches are often slow and many patients drop out when they don't see results. Studies have shown combat veterans are particularly hard to treat.
In interviews, study participants said MDMA therapy had not only helped them with painful memories, but also had helped them stop abusing alcohol and other drugs and put their lives back together.
On a recent evening, Edward Thompson, a former firefighter, tucked his twin 4-year-old girls into bed, turned on their night light, then joined his wife at a backyard fire.
''If it weren't for MDMA '... '' he said.
''He'd be dead,'' his wife, Laura, finished.
They both nodded.
Years of responding to gory accidents left Mr. Thompson, 30, in a near constant state of panic that he had tried to numb with alcohol and prescription opiates and benzodiazepines.
By 2015, efforts at therapy had failed, and so had several family interventions. His wife had left with their children, and he was considering jumping in front of a bus.
A member of a conservative Anglican church, Mr. Thompson had never used illegal drugs. But he was struggling with addiction from his prescription drugs, so he at first rejected a suggestion by his therapist that he enter the study. ''In the end, I was out of choices,'' he said.
Three sessions with the drug gave him the clarity, he said, to identify his problems and begin to work through them. He does not wish to take the drug again.
''It gave me my life back, but it wasn't a party drug,'' he said. ''It was a lot of work.''
Correction: November 29, 2016
An earlier version of this article misstated the year that the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies was founded. It was 1985, not 1986. A picture caption misspelled the surname of a psychiatrist and his wife, a psychiatric nurse, who studied the use of Ecstasy. They are Dr. Michael C. Mithoefer and Ann Mithoefer, not Mitheofer.
CLIPS AND DOCS
VIDEO - The White Helmets in the Syrian Inferno - YouTube
See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.
In the hours following President-elect Donald Trump's Thursday night post-election rally, the liberal media's utter inability to control their emotions could have united even the most ardent Never Trump supporters with examples like MSNBC national correspondent Joy Reid suddenly showing reservations about a president and his immediate family lacking military service despite it being the case for two of the last three First Families (Clinton and Obama).
''Remember, you know, Donald Trump who did not serve his country, who was the correct age, the appropriate age to go to Vietnam, got five deferments, has '-- was never asked about it by the way during the entirety of the campaign for 18 months,'' Reid complained at one point during MSNBC's The Last Word.
VIDEO - 'He's a Bigot!' Broken Record Sunny Hostin Bashes Sessions on The View | MRCTV
Friday's ''Hot Topics'' on the View was so incredibly biased it was hard to know where to begin. After playing a leaked audioclip of Trump aide Kellyanne Conway arguing with Clinton aide Jennifer Palmieri about the election results, Behar asked the panel if Palmieri was right in calling out Conway for winning on a platform of white supremacists. The liberal panelists wholeheartedly agreed with Palmieri, with Sara Haines making the most ludicrous comment.
Read the rest of the blog here.
VIDEO - The View Complains Trump Won Election 'Illegitimately' Because of Racists, the FBI, and Lies | MRCTV
Friday's ''Hot Topics'' on the View was so incredibly biased it was hard to know where to begin. After playing a leaked audioclip of Trump aide Kellyanne Conway arguing with Clinton aide Jennifer Palmieri about the election results, Behar asked the panel if Palmieri was right in calling out Conway for winning on a platform of white supremacists. The liberal panelists wholeheartedly agreed with Palmieri, with Sara Haines making the most ludicrous comment.
Read the rest of the blog here.
VIDEO - CNN Host Alisyn Comerota Can't Fathom Illegal Alien Voters'... | The Last Refuge
Mr. Pinko at PolitOpinion smartly captures the essence of how CNN smugly tries to promote the concept of ''fake news'' through a pontificating process of willful blindness.
Remember, as David Mamet accurately stated: in order for liberals to retain their own ideological world-view, they must claim not to know/see things that are brutally obvious to everyone else. Intentional and willful blindness.
In a recently aired segment of CNN, reporter Alisyn Comerota condescendingly questions a panel of Trump supporters. One of the inquires stimulates the panel to discuss an interview (prior to the election) where President Obama said illegal alien voters did not need to worry about being in trouble for illegally voting.
CNN's Comerota smugly refuted the allegation by saying the aforementioned segment was false as it was later broadcast on Fox Business News; therefore the panel's opinion was wrong. However, the Obama interview did take place, and the statement by President Obama was factually accurate as outlined within the concerns of the panel.
The video by PolitOpinion is a classic example of media ''gaslighting''. Camerota intentionally stating what the voters are able to see and hear with their own eyes and ears, is not what the voters are seeing and hearing with their own ears and eyes. Watch:
Transcript available HERE
VIDEO - Andrea Mitchell: Voters Saw Hillary as 'Man,' 'Did Not See Humanity in Her' | MRCTV
More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
On her MSNBC show on Friday, anchor Andrea Mitchell decried the fact that the usual liberal identity politics did not work with voters in November's election. Talking to Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, she fretted over the revelation that campaign focus groups ''showed that people related to Hillary Clinton as a man.''
While discussing Thursday's post-election forum at Harvard University, Mitchell noted longtime Clinton operative Mandy Grunwald telling the conference ''that all of her focus groups showed that people related to Hillary Clinton as a man, as though she were the commander-in-chief. She said, 'I've elected six women senators. I've never had a candidate. People view her as a man.' They did not see the humanity in her.''
VIDEO - CNN trying to lure Fox News' Megyn Kelly, says Drudgereport
CNN is looking to hire star Fox News anchor, Megyn Kelly, according to a report.
Sources told Drudge Report that CNN President Jeff Zucker was talking to Kelly and offering her a potential show on his network. However, the site said Zucker could not match the $20 million a year Fox News was reportedly offering to keep her on its airwaves.
CNN and Fox News did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for Kelly declined to comment.
Kelly, whose contract was set to expire after the election, currently hosts "The Kelly File" on Fox News. She previously hosted "America Live" and co-hosted "America's Newsroom" with Bill Hemmer.
Kelly made national headlines as the co-moderator of the first GOP debate in August 2015, where she directly challenged president-elect Donald Trump's treatment of women. Trump accused her of being biased, leading to an on-going battle between the two. They eventually sat down for a highly promoted television interview on May 17.
VIDEO - The Bank of England Knows How Many People Are Eating Its Cash - Bloomberg
Fury broke out amongst the vegetarian community in the U.K. yesterday when it emerged that the new polymer five-pound note contains traces of animal fat.
The discovery prompted an online petition for the Bank of England to make the new notes meat-free '-- it boasted more than 100,000 signatures at the time of writing.
While in the grand scheme of things the outrage of the vegetably-inclined may seem something of a minor issue, there is serious data showing the scale of the risks the new fivers pose to the meat-averse.
Since 2003 nearly £1.5 million ($1.87 million) of U.K. cash has been destroyed by being chewed or eaten, the bank's own figures show. Worryingly, as the chart below suggests, this is a problem that has being getting getting worse in recent years.
With the central bank planning to make all of the U.K.'s currency polymer in the years ahead, the non-vegetarianness of the banknotes is an issue that clearly needs to be addressed
Or, people could just stop eating them.
VIDEO - Hatchimals are Tamagotchis of the 21st century
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Source: CNNMoneyStories worth watching (15 Videos)Hatchimals are Tamagotchis of the 21st centuryFrom helping it hatch to teaching it to speak and play, the Hatchimal requires your constant attention.
Source: CNNMoney
VIDEO - Hunting for Hatchimals: Chicago Stores See High Demand For Furry Toy | NBC Chicago
It's the hot toy this holiday season'--and it's nearly impossible to find in the Chicago area. Trina Orlando reports. (Published Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016)
It's the hot toy this holiday season'--and it's nearly impossible to find in the Chicago area.
''We typically get around 40 to 50 guest calls per day inquiring if we have any in stock,'' says Amy Henson, manager of the Target in the city's Bucktown neighborhood.
Shoppers searching for Hatchimals, a cuddly creature inside an egg that hatches, are having a tough time at area stores'--but help could be on the way. Jorge Arroyo, manager of Toys R Us in Roscoe Village says he's expecting a new shipment Sunday.
''We don't have a number as to how many we'll receive,'' Arroyo said. ''When we open up our doors on Sunday morning at 8 a.m., these items will sell very quickly.''
Hatchimals typically cost between $60 and $70'--but on eBay they're going for much more.
A message posted on the Hatchimals website says more of the cutesy toys are on the way.
''We have increased production and a whole new batch of Hatchimals will be ready to hatch in early 2017,'' the statement reads. ''This is a special season and we don't want anyone to be disappointed.''
Target says shoppers looking for the toy can call overnight to see if a new shipment has arrived'--the phone lines are staffed around the clock. But beware: the shipments are selling out immediately, so you'll have to get up early and wait in line.
Published at 11:03 PM CST on Dec 1, 2016 | Updated at 11:09 PM CST on Dec 1, 2016
VIDEO - U.N. Apologizes for Role in Haiti's 2010 Cholera Outbreak - NYTimes.com
UNITED NATIONS '-- After six years and 10,000 deaths, the United Nations issued a carefully worded public apology on Thursday for its role in the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti and the widespread suffering it has caused since then.
The mea culpa, which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivered before the General Assembly, avoided any mention of who brought cholera to Haiti, even though the disease was not present in the country until United Nations peacekeepers arrived from Nepal, where an outbreak was underway.
The peacekeepers lived on a base that often leaked waste into a river, and the first cholera cases in the country appeared in Haitians who lived nearby. Numerous scientists have long argued that the base was the source of the outbreak, but for years United Nations officials refused to accept responsibility.
Even though Mr. Ban's office has acknowledged that the United Nations had played a role in the outbreak, his apology on Thursday was limited to how the world body responded to the outbreak, not how it started.
''We simply did not do enough with regard to the cholera outbreak and its spread in Haiti,'' Mr. Ban said on Thursday. ''We are profoundly sorry about our role.''
Apologies are rare for the United Nations. In 1999, Mr. Ban's predecessor, Kofi Annan, expressed ''deep remorse'' for the organization's failure to protect civilians from the genocide in Rwanda five years earlier.
Mr. Ban's apology '-- belated in the view of his critics '-- is part of his push for redress in Haiti before the end of his 10-year tenure on Dec. 31. Yet the people of Haiti have seen few tangible benefits so far.
The United Nations has not yet met its promise to eradicate cholera once and for all from Haiti, though Mr. Ban's aides said on Thursday that they were close to raising the $200 million they say they need to fix Haiti's water and sanitation system and treat Haitians for cholera. Nor has the United Nations yet raised an additional $200 million it wants for ''material assistance'' to families and communities that have suffered; donor nations have not yet come forward with the funds.
''It is aimed at providing a meaningful '-- but necessarily imperfect '-- response to the impact of cholera on individuals, families and communities,'' Mr. Ban said in a report made public on Thursday.
Mr. Ban goaded countries to make ''voluntary contributions,'' or else other means would have to be pursued, which can be interpreted only to be compulsory dues. ''Eliminating cholera from Haiti, and living up to our moral responsibility to those who have been most directly affected, will require the full commitment of the international community and, crucially, the resources necessary,'' he said.
The Haitian ambassador to the United Nations, Denis Regis, welcomed Mr. Ban's acknowledgment of the organization's role in the cholera outbreak, calling its previous position ''morally unjustifiable.''
Few things have damaged the standing of the United Nations '-- and Mr. Ban's record as its secretary general '-- as the cholera outbreak and particularly, his response to it.
In a country where few people have access to clean water and proper sanitation, the disease quickly spread in 2010 when United Nations peacekeepers failed to adequately follow protocols for disposing wastewater, while deployed in Haiti. Cholera surged again in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, which hit the nation in October.
One of the reasons the disease spread so widely, public health experts have said, is because it was allowed to; had there been a vigorous response in the first couple of years, it would have been far easier to contain, and fewer people would have died. The death toll stands at an estimated 10,000; some say it could be higher.
In the report issued on Thursday, Mr. Ban blamed perennial underfunding for cholera eradication. ''Efforts were beset from the start by the challenge of insufficient funding, which has had a dramatic negative impact on the capacity to respond effectively to the disease,'' he said.
Perhaps most damaging to the United Nations, which regularly presses governments around the world to pursue accountability, Mr. Ban and his aides have all along claimed immunity from prosecution under a longstanding diplomatic treaty. That view was upheld in August by a federal court in Manhattan, in response to a class-action lawsuit by cholera victims.
In recent months, Mr. Ban has expressed ''moral responsibility'' for the outbreak and ''deep regret.'' Senior United Nations officials said they had been constrained from saying any more by their lawyers, who were concerned that it would make them vulnerable to further legal claims elsewhere over misconduct or mistakes by its peacekeepers.
Mr. Ban made the apology in English, French and Haitian Creole. It was delicately worded to avoid the impression that the United Nations was taking full responsibility for cholera in Haiti. That could imply legal culpability.
The group that represents the victims, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, has said it has not yet decided on whether to take the matter to the United States Supreme Court to seek compensation.
Brian Concannon, the executive director of the group, called Mr. Ban's proposals a step in the right direction. ''But words alone won't save lives or remove the stain on the U.N.'s reputation,'' he said in an email. ''The U.N. and its member states will have to rise to the challenge and actually fund and effectively execute the projects.''
Mr. Ban's aides have said they would prefer to use the material assistance funds to aid communities most affected by the cholera outbreak '-- by giving children of survivors a free education, for instance '-- rather than open up a fund for individual claims for compensation. Whatever they use it for, they need the money first. Of the estimated $200 million, only $500,000 has so far been pledged.
It appears that yet again CNN can't help showcasing themselves as rabid violent left-wing ideologues. During a hot-mic segment on the afternoon show with Brooke Baldwin a CNN producer was setting up a live remote broadcast with correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.
During the set-up, the producer was heard discussing various hand signals with Malveaux: ''That means his plane's crashed '-- just kidding,'' the producer said, prompting a giggle and stunned face from Malveaux. (Video 01:28):
''An unfortunate and inappropriate remark was made by one of our producers off camera yesterday. We have apologized to the Trump transition team, and the producer has been disciplined.'' (link)
VIDEO - Howard Dean drops out of DNC chair race - CNNPolitics.com
"I'm not going to be a candidate for the DNC chairmanship," the former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential candidate said at the start of an Association of State Democratic Chairs forum in Denver. "I think it could possibly be divisive. I have other priorities. I have a grandchild now. But I am fully dedicated to using as much time as I can to support whoever the chairman is."
A leading contender for the spot is Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is still in the running for the position despite criticism over his past ties to the Nation of Islam and his defense of its leader, Louis Farrakhan, resurfacing in the news this week. Ellison distanced himself from the group during his first congressional run a decade ago.
Dean served as the governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and gained a national following during his bid for 2004 Democratic nomination by drawing support online -- a fairly novel concept at the time -- which came up short. Dean then in early 2005 won a spirited contest to chair the DNC. During his tenure Democrats won control of the House in 2006, and Barack Obama won the presidency two years later.
Dean earlier this month threw his hat in the ring for the reprise of that role, and was expected to be among Ellison's most formidable challengers.
"The dems need organization and focus on the young," Dean tweeted earlier this month, proposing to renew the strategy. "Need a fifty State strategy and tech rehab. I am in for chairman again."
The current head of the DNC is Donna Brazile, a longtime Democratic operative and former CNN contributor, who is leading in an interim capacity after Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned on the eve of the party's convention last summer. Hacked emails appeared to show Wasserman Schultz and other since-departed DNC officials discussing ways to undermine Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' efforts against Hillary Clinton in the primary.
Dean said late Friday afternoon he came to his decision "two or three weeks ago. Once I was in, I got a quick lay of the land. I think that I would have and could have won just with what we were able to accomplish last time I was chair," Dean told MSNBC on Friday.
Dean also sized up current rivals to Ellison for the party leadership. He called Jaime Harrison, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, a "good candidate" and New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley "very experienced."
"I may make an endorsement down the line," Dean said.
VIDEO - Slate makes up news about Twitter, Facebook banning Trump - YouTube
Media captionDr Cindy Meston, one of the BBC's 100 Women, explains the sympathetic nervous systemYou may be used to hearing about the female orgasm from women's magazines rather than scientists, but researchers are slowly beginning to study it - and often contradicting the advice columns. Part of the problem, they say, is that the female body has been studied far less than the male body and is far less well understood.
"I call it the ring of fire. It felt like fire in a circle in between my legs and that was a constant feeling - it was burn-y itchy, and then with intercourse or even a tampon it was like a serrated knife, very painful."
Callista Wilson, a San Francisco fashion stylist, first experienced this when trying to use a tampon at the age of 12. She was in her 20s before she finally saw a doctor.
"She seemed extremely puzzled that anything would be wrong," Callista says. "She said: 'You look perfectly normal so I would suggest you go to a therapist to talk about whatever's causing you this pain, it must be in your head.'"
Image caption Callista Wilson consulted 20 doctors before her problem was solved And it was another 10 years before Callista got a proper diagnosis.
Her sexual problems during this period affected every aspect of her life, she says, leading to depression and the breakdown of her relationship. Finally, after seeing 20 doctors, she found herself in the waiting room of Dr Andrew Goldstein, director of the Center for Vulvovaginal Disorders in Washington DC.
He told her that she had been born with 30 times the normal amount of nerve endings in the opening of her vagina - which meant that when her vagina was touched, it felt as though it was being burned. The solution was to have a circle of skin at the opening of her vagina removed. Once that was done, she was able to experience pain-free sex for the first time.
What is 100 women?BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. We create documentaries, features and interviews about their lives, giving more space for stories that put women at the centre.
Other stories you might like:
'I married a man to keep my girlfriend'
'Adults are so obsessed with children they have no time for important things'
Who is on the BBC's 100 Women 2016 list?
Callista's problem, known as congenital neuroproliferative vestibulodynia, is not common. But one thing researchers have recently come to understand is that the pelvic nerve system varies enormously from one woman to the next.
When New York gynaecologist Dr Deborah Coady began to look into the subject she found the nerves in the male genital region were fully mapped, but there was no information about women. So she teamed up with specialist surgeons and did the work herself, with interesting results.
"We've learned that there's probably no two of us that are alike when it comes to the branching of the pudendal nerve," Coady says.
"The way the branches [of the nerve] move through the body leads to difference in sexuality, meaning what areas may be more sensitive for one woman may not be for another."
The pudendal nerve is the most important nerve for making orgasms happen - it's the one that links the genitals to the brain-firing messages of touch, pressure and sexual activity.
Coady also found that each woman has a different number of nerve endings at each of the five erogenous zones in the genital area - the clitoris, the vaginal opening, the cervix, the anus and the perineum.
"This leads to why some women may be more sensitive in the clitoral area, some may be more sensitive just in the vaginal opening," she says.
Find out moreListen to Why Factor: The Female Orgasm on the BBC World Service on Friday 2 DecemberClick here for transmission times, or to listen online (from 19:30 GMT)And it is one reason why generic sex advice in women's magazines is often unhelpful.
"Fifty per cent may respond the way the magazine says," Coady points out. "But then there's going to be another bunch that - due to their anatomy, and due to the fact that nerves vary in all of us - may not respond like the magazine says."
For years we were told, 'Have a bubble bath, calm down, listen to relaxing music, do deep breathing exercises, chill out before sex'Dr Cindy Meston, University of Texas at AustinAnother big myth has been exposed at Dr Cindy Meston's sexual psychophysiology lab at the University of Texas at Austin.
When you think of a lab, you might think of lots of white, hard surfaces, bright lights and microscopes, but this one is quite different. People who take part in Meston's studies sit on a purple leather reclining sofa opposite a widescreen TV and watch videos of people having sex.
From the next room, Meston monitors their heart rate and the blood flow to their genitals, using a vaginal photoplethysmograph. Two inches long and about the size and shape of a tampon, it is inserted into the vagina. When switched on it emits a light, and by measuring how much light is reflected back, the scientists are able to tell how much blood is flowing into the vaginal tissue - and therefore how physically aroused the woman is.
Image caption Dr Meston (r) explains how to use the vaginal photoplethysmograph The results of Meston's studies go against perceived wisdom.
"For years we were told, 'Have a bubble bath, calm down, listen to relaxing music, do deep breathing exercises, chill out before sex,'" she says.
"But my research shows the opposite, that you actually want to get women in an active state.
"So, you can run around the block with your partner and get them to chase you around the block, or watch a scary movie together, ride a rollercoaster together, even a good comedy act. If you really get laughing, you're going to have a sympathetic activation response."
Meston is talking about the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for subconscious muscle contractions that get us ready for the flight or fight mode, like heart rate and blood pressure. She has found that if this system is activated before sex it will help women respond more intensely and more quickly.
It's quite the opposite for men.
For years it was assumed women worked in the same way as men but Meston's work has shown this to be a mistake.
Andrew Goldstein has also been aware since his student days that the female body and female sexuality is poorly understood.
"I completed a residency in obstetrics and gynaecology that was 20,000 hours," he says. "I had one 45-minute lecture on female sexual function and I can tell you what was said during that 45 minutes was almost all completely wrong,"
He adds: "Any sexual problem in women is given less importance than any sexual dysfunction in men. I think that there's clearly a double standard. Unfortunately it's obvious if men have sexual dysfunction, if they have erectile problems, you can see that, [whereas] women are stigmatised if they have any dysfunction. They are told it's in their head."
I completed a residency in obstetrics and gynaecology that was 20,000 hours - and I had one 45-minute lecture on female sexual functionDr Andrew Goldstein, Center for Vulvovaginal DisordersMeston says that it is hard to get funding for research into female sexual pleasure - the female orgasm is not seen as a "significant enough social problem", she argues. She also detects in the medical establishment a puritanical disapproval of this area of study.
"There are a lot of conservative reviewers who don't want to see federal funds going into sex research and so as a sex researcher you have to be a little bit creative," she says. "I was told straight-out to take 'sex' out of my proposal. They told me: 'You can talk about well-being or marital satisfaction, but talking about sexual arousal or orgasm as an ultimate end point will diminish your chances of getting funded.'"
Everyone's born out of a vagina, why don't we know more about them?Callista WilsonOn one occasion she was invited to speak to a group of retired academics, but was "un-invited" when the subject, Women's Sexuality, was advertised.
"There was such resistance and horror that we'd be talking about female sexual pleasure," she says. "I was horrified and offended. It depressed me to tell you the truth. I thought we were at least beyond that."
How does Callista Wilson feel when she hears about the difficulty of carrying out the kind of research that brought to an end her years of pain?
"Everyone's born out of a vagina, why don't we know more about them?" she says.
"Why don't we care more about them? Why aren't we more invested in them? This would benefit men and women to have more research and funding and more conversations about this. It would only benefit everyone."
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VIDEO - 95 million American workers not in US labor force
Taken together, the numbers show that there's more to meets the eye than a headline unemployment rate of 4.6 percent, the lowest since August 2007. Because that number ignores those not in the labor force, as well as workers at part-time jobs for economic reasons, it doesn't tell the whole story. A broader jobless measure is at 9.3 percent.
"I have a problem with people saying we're at full employment," said Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America, a trade credit insurance company. "We have a record 95 million people sitting on the sidelines. To me, that's hardly full employment."
The structural issue is what North calls the "silver tsunami of retirees" or those 10,000 baby boomers a day leaving the workforce and heading for retirement.
But that's only one more part of the problem. Another big issue is the skills gap for employers struggling to find workers to fill positions.
Job openings in September were at 5.5 million, though hires were at just 5.1 million, according to the Labor Department.
"Employers have lots of jobs open but can't find the right people to fill them. That's certainly a part of it as well," North said.
Companies are trying to be creative in that respect. Some strategies they are employing include reducing prerequisites for jobs '-- allowing, say, associate degree holders for jobs that formerly required bachelor's or master's degrees '-- while also focusing on job training and flexible hours.
That carries its own risk by allowing workers with a steeper learning curve on the job. But the current labor force condition is mandating innovative solutions, and compromises.
"It's a great thing for the candidate that's getting an opportunity, especially for the millennial who's interested in career growth and job changes every couple of years. For the employers, it's good in a sense to seek a new perspective from the labor pool," said Amy Glaser, senior vice president at Adecco Staffing, a recruitment and workforce solutions firm. "From a change management perspective, it's really difficult for the employer. It requires a lot of patience, creativity and open minds to look at things."
Glaser believes the various factors at play aren't going to go away anytime soon.
"There's not a quick fix," she said.
VIDEO - Shouting match erupts between Clinton and Trump aides - The Washington Post
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. '-- The raw, lingering emotion of the 2016 presidential campaign erupted into a shouting match here Thursday as top strategists of Hillary Clinton's campaign accused their Republican counterparts of fueling and legitimizing racism to elect Donald Trump.
The extraordinary exchange came at a postmortem session sponsored by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where top operatives from both campaigns sat across a conference table from each other.
As Trump's team basked in the glow of its victory and singled out for praise its campaign's chief executive, Stephen K. Bannon, who was absent, the row of grim-faced Clinton aides who sat opposite them bristled.
Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri condemned Bannon, who previously ran Breitbart, a news site popular with the alt-right, a small movement known for espousing racist views.
''If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant tactician, I am proud to have lost,'' she said. ''I would rather lose than win the way you guys did.''
President-elect Donald Trump's chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon decided not to attend an event at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, but protesters took to the streets of Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 30, regardless. (Twitter/Eli Gerzon of Jewish Voice for Peace)
Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, fumed: ''Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?''
''You did, Kellyanne. You did,'' interjected Palmieri, who choked up at various points of the session.
''Do you think you could have just had a decent message for white, working-class voters?'' Conway asked. ''How about, it's Hillary Clinton, she doesn't connect with people? How about, they have nothing in common with her? How about, she doesn't have an economic message?''
Joel Benenson, Clinton's chief strategist, piled on: ''There were dog whistles sent out to people. .'.'. Look at your rallies. He delivered it.''
At which point, Conway accused Clinton's team of being sore losers. ''Guys, I can tell you are angry, but wow,'' she said. ''Hashtag he's your president. How's that? Will you ever accept the election results? Will you tell your protesters that he's their president, too?''
The session was part of a two-day forum that the school's Institute of Politics has sponsored in the wake of every presidential election since 1972. It gathers operatives from nearly all of the primary and general election campaigns, as well as a large contingent of journalists, with the stated goal of beginning to compile a historical record.
[The election is over, but the Trump rallies continue: The president-elect's fans turn out for him in Ohio]
Generally, the quadrennial gatherings are frank but civil ones, in which political operatives at the top of their game accord each other a measure of professional respect.
This year, in the wake of a brutal campaign with a surprise outcome, it was clear that the wounds have not yet begun to heal. The animosity of the campaign aides mirrors the broader feelings of millions of voters on both sides.
Campaign officials lashed out at each other, and also against the media '-- which neither side believed had treated it fairly.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook also acknowledged that her operation had made a number of mistakes and miscalculations, while being buffeted by what he repeatedly described as a ''head wind'' of being an establishment candidate in a season where voters were eager for change.
He noted, for example, that younger voters, perhaps assuming that Clinton was going to win, migrated to third-party candidates in the final days of the race.
Where the campaign needed to win upward of 60 percent of young voters, it was able to garner something ''in the high 50s at the end of the day,'' Mook said. ''That's why we lost.''
He and others also faulted FBI Director James B. Comey for deciding in the waning days of the campaign to revive the controversy over Clinton's use of a private email server.
Trump officials said Clinton's problems went beyond tactics to her weaknesses as a candidate and the deficits of a message that consisted largely of trying to make Trump unacceptable.
David Bossie, Trump's deputy campaign manager, taunted Mook: ''You call it 'head winds,' I call it self-inflicted wounds.''
Conway added, ''There's a difference for voters between what offends you and what affects you,'' arguing that Trump was speaking more directly to people's anxieties and needs.
Strategists for Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), who waged a strong challenge against Clinton for the Democratic nomination, agreed. ''There was a large part of the Democratic primary electorate who had concerns about the secretary's veracity and forthrightness,'' said Jeff Weaver, Sanders's campaign manager.
Clinton's campaign aides insisted, again and again, that their candidate had been held to a different standard than the other contenders '-- as evidenced by the controversy over her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Palmieri said that many political journalists had a personal dislike for the Democratic nominee and predicted that the email issue will go down in history as ''the most grossly overrated, over-covered and most destructive story in all of presidential politics.''
''If I made one mistake, it was legitimizing the way the press covered this story line,'' Palmieri said.
Mook added that Trump deftly used his rally speeches to ''switch up the news cycle.''
''The media by and large was not covering what Hillary Clinton was choosing to say,'' Mook said. ''They were treating her like the likely winner, and they were constantly trying to unearth secrets and expose.''
For instance, Mook posited that the media did not scrutinize Trump's refusal to release his tax returns as intensively as the issue of Clinton's private email server.
Conway retorted: ''Oh, my God, that question was vomited to me every day on TV.''
The strangest criticism of the media, however, was by Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.
His complaint: Journalists accurately reported what Trump said.
''This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything that Donald Trump said so literally,'' Lewandowski said. ''The American people didn't. They understood it. They understood that sometimes '-- when you have a conversation with people, whether it's around the dinner table or at a bar '-- you're going to say things, and sometimes you don't have all the facts to back it up.''
[Trump escalates his conflict with the media]
At a dinner the previous evening, CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker was heckled during a panel discussion about the media by operatives from several losing Republican campaigns, who accused the network of showering Trump with free publicity.
To win the GOP nomination, Trump vanquished a highly credentialed field of 16 other Republicans, some of whom were backed up by tens of millions of dollars in outside spending. What his opponents failed to recognize, until it was too late, was that 2016 would be a year unlike any other, in which the standard rules would not apply.
''The uniqueness of this cycle made it such that some of those traditional kind of avenues became less effective,'' said Danny Diaz, who managed the campaign of the presumed early front-runner, former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
''Money and mechanics matter, but passion about a candidate matters more,'' added Mike DuHaime, a strategist for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), another establishment figure in the race.
Barry Bennett, the campaign manager for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, said of voters: ''What they wanted more than anything else was strength, and Donald Trump was supplying it every day.''
Clinton consultant Mandy Grunwald had a darker interpretation, which she expressed in an icy backhanded compliment to the Trump team on Thursday: ''I don't think you give yourself enough credit for the negative campaign you ran.''
She noted that the murky corners of the Internet were rife with false stories that Clinton was in dire health, and on the verge of going to prison. ''I hear this heroic story of him connecting with voters,'' Grunwald said. ''But there was a very impressive gassing of her.''
Benenson, meanwhile, served notice that the election may be over but that the battles it spawned are not.
''You guys won, that's clear,'' Benenson said. ''But let's be honest. Don't act as if you have a popular mandate for your message. The fact of the matter is that more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump.''
At which point Conway turned to her side and said: ''Hey, guys, we won. You don't have to respond. He was the better candidate. That's why he won.''
VIDEO - Apple iOS v10.1.1 - iCloud & Device Lock Activation Bypass via local Buffer Overflow Vulnerability - YouTube
CNN Correspondent Suzanne Malveauxjoke was covering the Carrier press conference, that featured both Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
Carrier was able to negotiate huge tax breaks for their company, if they promised not to move all their jobs to Mexico.
FTVLive has obtained video of Malveauxjoke before her live hit on CNN. The crew was waiting on Trump's appearance at the press conference and waiting for his plane to land.
At one point the crew joked about Trump's plane crashing.
Yep....this is CNN.
VIDEO - Exclusive - Tomi Lahren Extended Interview-The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Video Clip | Comedy Central
