20 December - Netvibes 5 - 1

There looks to have been a Layout change at Netvibes. At first I didn't even manage a usable Copy.

All Over the Map

What kind of travel insurance do I need? - Here's the latest article by Paige Conner Totaro from All Over the Map People ask me this question all the time and the answer, as with most important things, is, “It depends.” It depends on what you want it to cover. I used to only buy travel insurance during seasons when there was a possibility of extreme weather (snow, hurricanes) that might delay a flight. If I’m going more » Thanks for reading All Over the Map - helping you plan your next adventure! Tell us about your travel plans.16 Dec

Review: Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore - Here's the latest article by Paige Conner Totaro from All Over the Map Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore Overview Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore Inner Harbor is a classic but fun hotel with a soaring lobby entrance just steps to Baltimore’s most popular attractions. Great family suites available with special perks for kids. Rooms The standard rooms are lovely, with a choice of king, double double, or double queen rooms. more » Thanks for reading All Over the Map - helping you plan your next adventure! Tell us about your travel plans. 1 Dec

Australian Food News

Smart packaging finds strong platform at AUSPACK 2017 - In the intelligent packaging space, Australian companies exhibiting at AUSPACK are developing solutions for brand owners that enable the development of experience-rich marketing campaigns; relay vital information on nutritional content and product provenance; and provide a platform for authentication, traceability, and brand protection.19 Dec

AUSPACK CONTINUES TO GROW PROCESSING FOR 2017 - Processing machinery will continue to be a critical focus for AUSPACK 2017 with an impressive list of companies that have already signed up to exhibit and with an inaugural Processing Day held on Wednesday March 8, 2017.19 Dec

ACCC won’t appeal Woolworths unconscionable conduct decision - The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it will not appeal the Federal Court decision which dismissed its claim that Woolworths had engaged in unconscionable conduct through its “Mind the Gap” scheme.18 Dec

Meat ad makes 2016 most complained about adverts list - Meat and Livestock Australia’s “Operation Boomerang” Australia Day advertising campaign has taken 3 out of top 10 places in the 2016 Advertising Standards Bureau’s (ASB) annual list of “most complained about” advertisements.18 Dec

Asahi acquires European beers from AB InBev - Japanese beverage giant, Asahi, has acquired AB InBev’s central and eastern European assets which were previously owned by SABMiller.18 Dec

ACCC tackles herb faking with court undertaking - Spencers dried oregano will undergo regular testing after an investigation found the oregano was not in fact 100 per cent oregano.18 Dec

Hellmann’s mayonnaise expands in Australia - American mayonnaise brand, Hellmann’s, is expanding its presence in Australian supermarkets.18 Dec

China insights report: Confectionery opportunities in China - As incomes in China continue to rise, snacking between meals has become increasingly popular. Traditionally, nuts and seeds were often consumed as snacks in China – particularly when travelling – yet confectionery has grown as a snack of choice for many Chinese today.18 Dec

Sungold embraces tradies in Fluoro - Sungold milk is embracing its tradesmen customers with a new bottle design for its flavoured milks.18 Dec

Four key facts about Australian meat chickens - How often do you see news articles or other stories about the Australian chicken industry with images depicting red or brown coloured chickens (often in cages as well, another sign that they’ve got the wrong bird; more on that later). Well, guess what? Those red or brown birds are almost certainly egg laying hens, not meat chickens.18 Dec

Agriculture News latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com

Huge Traffic Jams Set as Farmers Protest Gov’t Import Policies - Israeli farmers drove hundreds of tractors to demonstrate, demanding that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intervene in the crisis in the agricultural sector, in November. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)...19 Dec

Brazil Farm Economy to Rebound in 2017 - Brazil's farm economy will rebound in 2017 with a record harvest pushing up grain exports and expanding the country's livestock industry, according to analysts' forecasts. &lt19 Dec

3 Big Things Today, December 19 - Speculative investors lowered their net-long positions, or bets on higher prices, in soybeans and were more bearish on corn for a second straight week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commissi19 Dec

Holiday Trade Opens Door For Volatility - attention this week will focus on Fed Chairmen Yellen';s comments today on the labor market at the University of Baltimore';s mid-year commencement, as well as the dollar index and the stock19 Dec

Sri Lanka government taking land from small farmers to give to local and foreign investors - The 2017 government budget involves taking 20,000 acres (8,093 hectares). Some land has already been given to private companies, which fenced it off. Thousands of people have been displaced and forced19 Dec

Winter Wheat Crop Damage due to Arctic Blast - Grains were mostly lower led by soybeans which suffered double-digit losses going into the morning break. Wheat was in positive territory thanks to cold temps threatening the US wheat crop.19 Dec

High-end grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Market taps Newark for new market - High-end grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM) has signed a lease at 6203 Jarvis Ave. in Newarks premier shopping center. This is a great upgrade for this project in terms of the quali19 Dec

Construction: $500,000 permit filed for Crosstown Concourse restaurant - The Kitchen is here and Next Door is on its way. Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson, opened their bistro-style restaurant The Kitchen in the FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms Parks new Heart of the19 Dec

Construction: $500,000 permit filed for Crosstown Concourse restaurant - The Kitchen is here and Next Door is on its way. Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson, opened their bistro-style restaurant The Kitchen in the FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms Parks new Heart of the19 Dec

BBC Three documentary reveals cruelty inflicted on dogs at puppy farms - A new BBC Three documentary has revealed how criminal gangs are making millions by treating dogs worse than battery hens to meet the rising demand for handbag breeds in the UK.19 Dec

All Things Considered

At Least 9 Dead After Truck Drives Through Christmas Market In Berlin - A large truck slammed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin killing several people and injuring many more. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Christoph Sydow, a reporter with Der Spiegel Online.19 Dec

How Much Is Too Much? New Study Casts Doubts On Sugar Guidelines - An industry-funded study questions the evidence behind guidelines on daily sugar intake. Public health experts call the controversial findings an industry attempt to undermine scientific consensus.(Image credit: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)19 Dec

Smartphone Strategies For Families Just In Time For The Holidays - Kids and iPhones — it's a complicated world. For All Tech Considered, NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Amanda Lenhart, who studies how children and families use technology, to help navigate this in time for gift giving.19 Dec

BBC Editor Thanks Girl For Offer To Replace Big Ben Chimes - The BBC ends its afternoon news program with the bong of the Big Ben clock. When 8-year-old Phoebe Hanson heard the clock would go silent for three years of repairs, she wrote to the BBC to offer her gong and her voice. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Hanson and BBC editor Roger Sawyer.19 Dec

Evacuations Continue As Syrian Regime Solidifies Control Of Aleppo - Residents of Aleppo continue to flee the city as forces loyal to the Syrian regime solidify their control of what was once a rebel stronghold.19 Dec

Arizona Law Targets City Governments By Cutting Off Funds - A new Arizona law targets cities that pass laws state lawmakers deem to be in violation of state law by cutting off their funds. It's the latest escalation in a long-running conflict between rural and urban areas.19 Dec

German Police Investigate Truck Attack On Berlin Christmas Market - German police say at least nine people are dead and many more injured after a truck was driven into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin. They say they are investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack19 Dec

'Jeopardy!' Champion Dies Before Taped Episodes Air On TV - Jeopardy! champion Cindy Stowell recorded her episodes in August, but she died before the first episode aired.19 Dec

Conditions Worsen For Civilians As Iraqi Forces Struggle To Retake Mosul - Conditions in the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul are worsening for hundreds of thousands of civilians while the Iraqi government's push to take the town back is moving methodically.19 Dec

Political Battle Escalates Between Cities And State Governments - While the presidential election may have been the big political story of 2016, underneath the surface, a growing conflict between conservative state governments and liberal cities will have a big impact on national politics in the coming years.19 Dec

The American Dream

While Christians In America Cry ‘Peace And Safety’, Believers All Over The World Are Being Brutally Persecuted - Thanks to the election of Donald Trump, most Christians in America are feeling really good about the future, but it is another story entirely in much of the rest of the world. A Christian persecution watchdog group called Aid to the Church in Need released its “Religious Freedom in the World” report for 2016 a few weeks ago, and their conclusion was that the persecution of Christians globally is becoming much worse. In fact, there are seven nations where persecution is so bad that they were put into the “it could scarcely get any worse”category. Those nations included Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Syria. Personally, I would put North Korea at the very top of the list. If you are even suspected of being a Christian or owning a Bible, you and your entire extended family can be shipped off to a forced labor camp for the rest of your lives. There are brothers and sisters in North Korea that are literally being worked until they die, and we need to keep them in our prayers. But I definitely don’t want to take anything away from the brutal persecution that is taking place in the Middle East. The beheading, torturing and crucifying of Christians by ISIS has been well documented, and it isn’t just in Iraq and Syria where attacks are taking place. Earlier this month, an ISIS suicide bomber walked into a prominent Coptic Christian church in Cairo, Egypt and detonated his bomb. As a result, 25 Coptic Christians were killed… During Mass this past Sunday, an Islamic State suicide bomber made his way inside St. Peter and St. Paul’s Coptic Church in Cairo and detonated his bomb, leaving 25 people, mostly women, dead. The bombing, the deadliest since the 2010 New Year’s Eve bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, drew swift condemnations from governments around the world. But as much as such attacks remind the world of the plight of Copts, it is their daily encounter with discrimination and persecution that poses the greatest threat to their future. But did you hear about this from the big mainstream news networks in the United States? Probably not, because an Islamic terror attack against a Christian target is not the kind of story that they want to tell. Could you imagine knowing that every Sunday that you attend church could potentially be your last Sunday? But it isn’t just violence that Coptic Christians in Egypt have to deal with. The truth is that they are systematically discriminated against in every area of society, and this even includes sports… Little could dampen the enthusiasm of 13-year-old Tony Atef as he wore his soccer outfit and headed to Egypt’s most successful club, Al Ahly, to partake in the team’s junior soccer tryouts. After Tony scored two goals, a coach approached him, asking for his name to record among those accepted. But his dream of making the team died quickly, when the coach noticed the small tattoo of a cross on his wrist. Tony was quickly sent home. There would be no place for a Coptic Christian on an Egyptian soccer team. According to a Pew Report that was released in 2014, Christians are being persecuted in 151 different countries. So this is not just a Middle Eastern thing. But without a doubt, what we have been witnessing in the Middle East in recent years is the genocide of Christians in many areas. When the 20th century began, 25 percent of the population of the Middle East was Christian. Today, that number has dropped to about 5 percent. And even the Islamic nations that are supposedly “friendly” with the western world are cracking down on Christians. For example, an American pastor named Andrew Brunson was just unjustly thrown into prison in Turkey. The following comes from Jordan Sekulow of the ACLJ… An American pastor, Andrew Brunson, has been falsely charged with “membership in an armed terrorist organization.” Turkey has imprisoned this American pastor without any evidence. He has been a Christian pastor in Turkey for the past 23 years. We are representing the family of this American Pastor who is facing grave danger in a Turkish prison where he is being held simply because of his Christian beliefs. The government of Turkey – led by an Islamic party – has begun increased crackdowns on Christians, and Pastor Andrew, if convicted, may face years in prison based on extremely serious – and false – charges. We are launching a global campaign to call attention to his plight demanding that Turkey – a NATO member – release Pastor Andrew without delay. As has been the case with so many other American Christians that have gotten into trouble, Barack Obama has been silent on this matter. But how would he have responded if it had been a gay rights activist that had been falsely imprisoned? And it took Barack Obama a very long time to take the fight against ISIS seriously. Entire Christian communities were being absolutely butchered by ISIS, but he didn’t seem to care. Now that ISIS is finally being pushed back, the fleeing ISIS fighters are making sure that the Christians that once lived in those communities have nothing to come back to… In Christian settlements like Bartella, Qaraqosh and Karamles, about 80 per cent of the houses have been either completely destroyed by Coalition bombs or burned out and rendered uninhabitable by ISIS. One volunteer assessed the damage in Qaraqosh: “In most houses, all the rooms have been burned out completely,” he said. “Except, strangely enough, the kitchens. It is clear this has been an organised strategy.” Father Thabet, a priest from Karamles, said the destruction in some cases was done only hours before ISIS forces left. “It seems they wanted to make sure nothing of value would remain,” he said. “The effect is a mounting feeling of hopelessness among the Christians when they discover the damage. They will really need time to recover from this news, to adjust to the new perspective of living in displacement longer than they might have expected.” If you live in the western world and you have a good job and a warm home and plenty of food, you should consider yourself to be very blessed. Because for believers in much of the rest of the world life is a daily struggle, and they must constantly wrestle with the reality that they may soon have to lay down their lives for their faith. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.19 Dec

The ‘Experts’ Tell Us That Christmas Is The Most Depressing Time Of The Year – Do You Agree? - For many people, the holiday season is the most dreaded time of the year. But does it have to be that way? The holidays can be a real pressure point because they tend to magnify our problems. If you are a very busy person, it is likely that you are even busier and more stressed for time during December. If your family relationships are strained, this time of the year can be really tough because there is pressure to interact with family. Other people that feel a deep sense of loneliness often find that it becomes even deeper and more intense around Christmas. And more than anything else, so many people feel like they are missing out on something because their holidays never seem to match up with the glittering ideal that is constantly portrayed in the movies and on television. We are a deeply unhappy nation anyway, but this time of the year just seems to make it even worse. The truth is that there are a lot of people out there that can’t wait for the Christmas season to be over. If you can believe it, one survey found that 45 percent of us actually dread the holiday season. The following is an excerpt from a Psychology Today article… We are told that Christmas, for Christians, should be the happiest time of year, an opportunity to be joyful and grateful with family, friends and colleagues. Yet, according to the National Institute of Health, Christmas is the time of year that people experience the highest incidence of depression. Hospitals and police forces report the highest incidences of suicide and attempted suicide. Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals report a significant increase in patients complaining about depression. One North American survey reported that 45% of respondents dreaded the festive season. A different survey found a similar result. According to that survey, 48 percent of all men say that they “feel depressed or sad” around Christmas… Amid pressures to be “merry” and “happy”, nearly half of men admit that they actually feel depressed or sad over Christmas, a study by the Samaritans has revealed. Out of 140 people polled by an online survey, 48 percent of men said they feel low in December with 45 percent saying their worries were the most troubling during the festive period compared to any other time of the year. But of course it isn’t like we are a happy bunch the rest of the year either. It has been reported that the number of Americans formally diagnosed with depression increases by approximately 20 percent every year, and at this point about one out of every six Americans is on an anti-depressant or some other kind of psychiatric drug… The number used to be one in ten, but according to new data, one out of every six adult Americans is taking anti-depressants or some other type of psychiatric drugs now. What that breaks down to is “Overall, 16.7 percent of 242 million U.S. adults reported filling one or more prescriptions for psychiatric drugs in 2013,” according to research published today in Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Internal Medicine. Those are absolutely staggering numbers, and the epidemic is the worst among middle age women. It may be hard to believe, but at this point one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s is taking an antidepressant medication. And once you get on these drugs you tend to stay on them for a very long time. One study found that more than 84 percent of the people on these drugs get them refilled at least three times a year. Getting off these drugs is not easy, but staying on them indefinitely can be absolutely debilitating. When are we going to recognize that we have a serious national crisis on our hands? Nobody disputes that we are the most drugged people on the entire planet by a very wide margin. Incredibly, Americans account for only five percent of the global population, but we consume more than 50 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs. What is wrong with us? According to the New York Times, more than 30 million Americans take antidepressants right now, and it has been reported that health professionals in the United States write more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants every year. If we are not depressed, then why are we taking so much antidepressant medication? Of course the truth is that we are deeply depressed as a nation, and there are many out there that have decided to medicate themselves. In the United States today, 60 million people abuse alcohol and another 22 million people abuse illegal drugs. So why are we so unhappy? Well, there are lots of reasons, but one of the big ones is the breakdown of the family. The only two countries that have a higher divorce rate than the United States are Belarus and the Maldives. When it comes to marriage we are a dramatic failure as a nation, but nobody seems to be making fixing our marriages a major national priority. We also have the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet, and this leads to a tremendous amount of loneliness. Our wealth and technology have allowed us to become more isolated than ever before, but that is not a good thing. A century ago, 4.52 people were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people. When you start seeing these numbers, it starts making sense why we are all so deeply depressed. And fewer Americans than ever are choosing to get married and start families. According to a Pew Research Center survey, only 51 percent of all adults in the United States are married. But all the way back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in this country were married. So what is the answer? Well, you don’t need to immediately run out and get married and start a family in order to be happy. In fact, some of the unhappiest people in the entire world are married. And you aren’t going to find happiness in Christmas traditions either. You won’t find happiness by buying bigger and better Christmas presents, you won’t find happiness by watching more movies about Santa Claus, and you definitely won’t find happiness in a tree. In the end, what we are all craving is love and connection. If you have pleasant holiday memories, they invariably involve other people. That is because we were created to love and to be loved, and when we get away from that we start to get into trouble. The greatest need in our world today is love. If you feel as though there is not a lot of love in your life right now, ask yourself how much love you have been giving to others. Often it is the people that give the most love that end up receiving the most love. So if you want more love in your life, start reaching out and loving others. If you endeavor to become a person of great love, you will become happier not only during the holiday season, but during every other time of the year as well. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.18 Dec

The House Passes A Microchipping Law That Is Intended To Help Local Authorities Microchip Disabled People - The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would get the federal government heavily involved in microchipping disabled people for tracking purposes. If you would like to read it for yourself, you can find H.R. 4919 right here. The bill is also known as Kevin and Avonte’s Law, and the idea behind it is that if disabled people are microchipped it won’t be so easy for them to get lost. Of course we have been microchipping pets in this country for years, and this is yet another giant step down the road toward universal microchipping of everyone. We are being told that implanted microchips will make those with developmental disabilities “safer”, but where does this stop? Pretty soon there will be a huge push to microchip all children “for their safety”, and once that is accomplished it won’t be too long before they will want to microchip the entire population. Unfortunately, most Americans did not even realize that this bill was being discussed. The following is what the Daily Caller had to say about the goals of this bill… H.R. 4919, which passed 346 to 66 in the lower chamber, also known as Kevin and Avonte’s Law, mandates the U.S. attorney general award grants to law enforcement officials so that those agencies can create, establish and operate “locative tracking technology programs.” The programs mission would to find “individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, or children with developmental disabilities, such as autism, who have wandered from safe environments.” Additionally, the bill would also require the attorney general to consult with the secretary of health and human services and other health organizations to come up with best practices for the tracking devices. The fact that this bill was approved by a margin of almost 300 votes means that it had tremendous support from representatives in both parties. Now we will see what the Senate will do, and then it will be up to whoever the president is at the time to either veto it or not. We are being told this is a wonderful thing for the safety of those with developmental disabilities, but fortunately there were at least a few members of Congress that understood the dangers of this bill… “While this initiative may have noble intentions, ‘small and temporary’ programs in the name of safety and security often evolve into permanent and enlarged bureaucracies that infringe on the American people’s freedoms. That is exactly what we have here. A safety problem exists for people with Alzheimer’s, autism and other mental health issues, so the fix, we are told, is to have the Department of Justice start a tracking program so we can use some device or method to track these individuals 24/7,” Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said in a floor speech opposing the bill. In this case, Representative Gohmert is exactly correct. Once the federal government gets a foot in the door in some area, they always seek to expand that power eventually. And where does it end? I really like how Whitney Webb put it in her article about this bill… Giving local police the authority to decide who is micro-chipped and who is not based on their mental soundness is a recipe for disaster. Though the bill specifically mentions those with Alzheimer and autism, how long before these tracking programs are extended to those with ADHD and Bipolar disorder among other officially recognized disorders. Even the dislike of authority is considered a mental disorder known as “Oppositional Defiant Disorder,” which could also warrant micro-chipping in the future. If these programs expand unchecked, how long will it be before all Americans are told that mass microchipping is necessary so that law enforcement and the government can better “protect” them? Many Americans have been content to trade their liberties for increased “security” in the post-9/11 world, particularly when the state uses these talking points. Yet, as Benjamin Franklin once said, “those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” Perhaps as you read this article you are tempted to think that the microchipping could never go beyond disabled individuals. After all, people would never accept such a thing, right? Well, just look at what is going on in Dubai right now. Soon new injectable microchips that are inserted into the back of the hand will allow people to buy and sell without money… It might sound like something from a dystopian science fiction fantasy but you could soon be able to pay for goods and services with a microchip that is embedded in your hand, according to Etisalat officials. The UAE telecoms giant unveiled new injectable microchips, which store all your credit card, ID and business card data inside, for the first time in the Middle East at GITEX 2016 in Dubai. The technique is called bio-hacking, where an alien device is embedded on the back of the hand between the thumb and forefinger using a special syringe, medical tattoo artist Hazim Naori told 7DAYS. Of course those that know the Book of Revelation can see where all of this is going. The following is what Revelation 13:16-17 says in the Modern English Version… 16 He causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 so that no one may buy or sell, except he who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. We aren’t there yet, but we are heading down that road. And if nobody seems to object when the U.S. House of Representatives passes a microchipping law, that is just going to embolden them to push the envelope even further in the not too distant future. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.15 Dec

Harvard University Professor Claims That 20 Republican ‘Faithless Electors’ Are Considering Voting Against Trump - If what a Harvard University constitutional law professor is claiming is true, the plot to steal the Electoral College vote from Donald Trump is far more serious than most people thought. Larry Lessig briefly pursued the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, but these days he is using his position as a Harvard law professor to try to stop Donald Trump. His new organization is called “Electors Trust”, and it has been acting as a central hub for the campaign to deny Trump the 270 votes that he needs to become the next president. If this effort is to be successful, anti-Trump forces need to flip 37 of Trump’s votes, and Lessig says that so far 20 Republican electors are considering voting against Trump. Of course there are many that are skeptical of his claims, but why would a Harvard constitutional law professor lie about something like this? If Lessig is telling the truth, the Trump team should be deeply alarmed. It would be a grave mistake to simply assume that this Electoral College vote will be a formality, and we will find out on Monday what happens. And without a doubt Lessig is in a position to know what is going on, because according to Politico his organization has been serving “as a clearinghouse for electors to privately communicate their intentions”… Larry Lessig, a Harvard University constitutional law professor who made a brief run for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, claimed Tuesday that 20 Republican members of the Electoral College are considering voting against Donald Trump, a figure that would put anti-Trump activists more than halfway toward stalling Trump’s election. Lessig’s anti-Trump group, “Electors Trust,” has been offering pro bono legal counsel to Republican presidential electors considering ditching Trump and has been acting as a clearinghouse for electors to privately communicate their intentions. If they only had a handful of votes, I really doubt that Lessig would put his reputation on the line by going public like this. But now that they are more than halfway to their goal, he is probably hoping that a last minute publicity push will put them over the top. If the rest of the Republican electors are made aware that many Trump voters are already willing to flip, that may encourage others to join the cause… “Obviously, whether an elector ultimately votes his or her conscience will depend in part upon whether there are enough doing the same. We now believe there are more than half the number needed to change the result seriously considering making that vote,” Lessig said. Personally, I don’t think that it is going to work. But I am alarmed enough about this effort that this is the third article that I have written about it this week alone. On Wednesday, we also learned that U.S. officials are now claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “personally involved” in the effort to interfere with the presidential election. The following was reported by NBC News… U.S. intelligence officials now believe with “a high level of confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News. Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said. This revelation comes on the heels of a letter that was signed by 40 members of the Electoral College asking Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for a briefing on Russian interference in the election… Forty members of the Electoral College on Tuesday signed a letter demanding an intelligence briefing on Russian interference in the election ahead of their Dec. 19 vote. Ten electors originally signed the letter when it was published Monday, and 30 more have since added their names. The open letter — led by Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) — urged Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to give a detailed briefing on President-elect Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. Needless to say, there are many out there that are hoping to make as much as possible of this “Russian interference” angle in hopes that it will influence the votes of some electors. To many on the left, it makes perfect sense to try to deny Trump the presidency even though he won the election fair and square. Here is a typical example of their reasoning… Yet, at least outside of political fiction, there has probably never been a better election for electors to go against what their states’ voters wanted. Recent revelations by the Central Intelligence Agency that Russia actively engaged in this very close election to advantage Trump, and that Russia maintains leverage over him with unreleased information, call into question the legitimacy of a Trump presidency. Add to that Trump’s erratic and destructive behavior over the past month, the fact that nearly three million more voters preferred his opponent to him, his work to undermine relations with China, the fact that he considers his own uninformed opinions about international security superior to the evaluations of the nation’s intelligence agencies, and the near certainty that he’d be in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause on the day he is sworn in, and you really don’t get a more appropriate opportunity for Republican electors to rethink their states’ choice. To those that supported Trump this is utter lunacy, but this is actually what many on the left are thinking. Fortunately, at this point it appears that they are going to come up short. Even though Lessig claims that 20 Republican electors are considering abandoning Trump, the vast majority are solidly behind him… Virtually all Republican electors reached by The Hill said they will vote enthusiastically for Trump. “I’m voting how the people of Florida have told me to vote,” said Brian Ballard, a Florida elector who raised money for Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio during the GOP primary. “I don’t know anyone who isn’t. I appreciate people using First Amendment rights to reach out and try to convince me otherwise, but I’m obligated to support Trump because he won Florida. “Also, I love the guy and want him to be president.” So hopefully the vote next Monday will go as planned. There hasn’t been more than a single “faithless elector” in any presidential election since 1832, and even though it is likely that we will see some this time, it would take something extraordinary for the anti-Trump forces to come up with the 37 votes that they need to push Trump under 270 votes and throw the election into the House of Representatives. I don’t believe that they will be successful, but we have already seen during this election season that we should expect the unexpected. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.14 Dec

Is Donald Trump Going To Nominate Ted Cruz To Fill The Open Seat On The Supreme Court? - Is the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice going to be Ted Cruz? As wild as that might sound, there is buzz that it might actually happen. We all remember the bitter words that were exchanged between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump during the Republican primaries, but since that time they have mended fences, and Cruz ultimately ended up endorsing Trump. And Trump has shown that he is willing to work with his former rivals. He has already chosen Ben Carson to be his Housing Secretary, for a while there it looked like Mitt Romney was the leading contender to be Secretary of State, and on Monday Carly Fiorina actually met with Trump about a potential position in his administration. So just because Ted Cruz and Donald Trump clashed on the campaign trail does not mean that Trump would hold a grudge. In fact, GotNews is reporting that “a deal” is in the works that would result in Cruz being nominated to the Supreme Court once Trump ascends to the presidency… Texas Senator Ted Cruz is set to be nominated for a position on the Supreme Court by President-elect Donald J. Trump if current trends hold, a source close to the process tells GotNews. The source told GotNews that “a deal” is being cut which would see Cruz nominated to the Supreme Court on the condition that a pro-Trump Republican could be found to replace Ted Cruz in the Senate. It is unclear whether Cruz would be immediately nominated to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year, or if his nomination would come later. While Cruz was not on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court picks, he undoubtedly fits the bill as a staunch conservative constitutionalist. Of course this report has not been confirmed, and even if it is accurate we all know that Trump is prone to change his mind about these sorts of things. So Ted Cruz should not be counting his chickens just yet, but he has not exactly been downplaying the chatter either. When speculation about a potential Supreme Court position first came up, Cruz said that he was “humbled” to be considered… Cruz has been floated as a possible Supreme Court appointee, chatter he said he’s “humbled” to hear. But if that doesn’t materialize, the Texas senator, who’s favored to win reelection in 2018, says he’ll devote himself to holding Trump and the Republican Congress accountable to their campaign promises. “The American people have entrusted Republicans with control of the White House, the Senate and the House. That happens very rarely,” Cruz said late last week. “We now have a responsibility to stand up and deliver.” More recently, Cruz sounded very much like a politician eager for a new job when asked specifically about his chances of becoming the next Supreme Court Justice… “What I will say is that history is long and can take unexpected paths,” he said in response to an audience question about his filling the vacancy. “I think it is absolutely vital that that seat and every other seat that comes vacant on the court be filled by principled constitutionalists who will be faithful to the law and will check their own policy preferences at the door and simply honor their oath.” “I can also tell you that I have right now the privilege of serving in the United States Senate, of representing 27 million Texans,” he said. “That is a privilege and a responsibility I take very, very seriously. And I look forward to continuing to carry out that responsibility and continuing to fight for the principles of freedom and the principles embodied in the Constitution and Bill of Rights,” he added. And just a few weeks ago the Washington Examiner reported that a “Trump transition insider” said that Cruz would definitely accept a seat on the Supreme Court if it was offered to him… Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has informed Trump transition insiders that he would accept the nomination to take the place of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, potentially cementing the power of the court’s conservative wing for decades, according to sources. But another source close to Cruz said that while he is eager to help the new administration, he hasn’t committed to any new position. Cruz hinted at his openness to joining the court Friday at a legal conference. “Ted Cruz would absolutely accept it if offered a seat on the court,” said a transition insider. Needless to say, the nomination of Ted Cruz would be enthusiastically welcomed by tens of millions of social conservatives and evangelical Christians that voted for Trump in November. So if Trump wanted to send them a thank you gift, there would be few things that Trump could do that would please them more. And it would also remove a potential rival for the Republican nomination in 2020 if things don’t go so well for Trump during his first term. But could Cruz be confirmed by the Senate? It is no secret that many of his fellow Senators greatly dislike Cruz, but they may just confirm him to finally be rid of him. And even his detractors agree that Cruz is highly qualified. In fact, even CNN says that Cruz is “well qualified” to serve on the Supreme Court… Cruz is a former clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and a darling of judicial conservatives. He’s well qualified, and argued before the Court when he served as the Solicitor General of Texas. Trump might consider Cruz would kill two potential birds with one stone. He’d appoint a conservative and at the same time clear him out of the political arena. It seems clear that Cruz wants the job, and it appears that Trump is definitely considering him. A lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court is no small thing, and if Cruz does make it on to the Supreme Court he could become a thorn in the side of the liberal agenda in this country for potentially decades to come. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.12 Dec

Enormous Earthquakes Hit Both Sides Of The Pacific And Experts Warn The San Andreas Could ‘Unzip All At Once’ - Why is our planet shaking so violently all of a sudden? There have literally been dozens of significant earthquakes right along the Ring of Fire within the past 30 days, and two giant ones made headlines all over the globe on Thursday. First, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Humboldt County, California, and that was followed later in the day by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the Solomon Islands. But of course these latest earthquakes are just the latest examples of increased shaking along the outer perimeter of the Pacific Ocean. Experts are not quite sure what to make of all of this shaking, but they are warning that “the Big One” could strike the west coast at literally any time. Let’s start by discussing the historic earthquake that just hit the Solomon Islands. According to the Washington Post, it was originally determined to be a magnitude 8.0 earthquake before being downgraded to a 7.8… A massive earthquake erupted along a fault line near the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean on Thursday. The quake was originally detected as a magnitude-8 by the U.S. Geological Service, but has since been reduced to a 7.8 on the Moment-Magnitude scale. It was followed by a 5.5-magnitude quake, and aftershocks continue to roll through. Subsequently, that earthquake was followed by 20 extremely large aftershocks that all fell into a range between magnitude 4.8 and magnitude 6.5. All of this violent seismic activity seems to have shook the entire planet to at least some degree, because monitoring stations all over the world were experiencing strange “vibrations” as aftershock after aftershock shook the Solomon Islands. Prior to all of this shaking in the Solomon Islands, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake off the coast of California rattled residents of Humboldt County. Fortunately the quake was far enough offshore that not a lot of damage was done, but it is being reported that those living in the region could feel the ground rolling… Bonnie Brower, owner of the Ferndale Pie Company, told The Associated Press she was grabbing something from the fridge in the restaurant’s kitchen when the quake happened. She didn’t see any damage, but said says felt a “big jolt.” “I just felt this very huge jerk and I didn’t know what it was,” Brower said to The AP. Afterward, it felt like the ground was rolling, “like you were on a boat.” In recent months there has been a lot of earthquake activity along the west coast, and this has raised fears that “the Big One” could be coming soon. And Fox News recently reported that a major study has concluded that it is likely that someday the 800-mile-long San Andreas fault “could unzip all at once”… For years, scientists believed the mighty San Andreas—the 800-mile-long fault running the length of California where the Pacific and North American plates meet—could only rupture in isolated sections. But a recent study by federal, state and academic researchers showed that much of the fault could unzip all at once, unleashing a rare, singular catastrophe. Now, insurers have used that research to come up with a new analysis of the damage that could be caused by statewide break of the San Andreas. I don’t know about you, but to me that does not sound good. But because things have been so quiet in California for the last several decades, most people living in the region seem to greatly underestimate the threat. Those living on the west coast have been hearing the same warnings year after year, and many of them have become convinced that “the Big One” is never going to happen in their lifetimes. Unfortunately, the cold, hard science tells us a much different story. According to the top experts in the field, the San Andreas fault is way overdue for a historic earthquake… Experts have warned that the fault line has been quiet for far too long and is due to erupt at any time. Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Centre, told a conference in Long Beach: “The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight. And the southern San Andreas fault, in particular, looks like it’s locked, loaded and ready to go.” Seismologists have said that over the past 1,400 to 1,500 monster earthquakes have ruptured at 150-year intervals. And of course the San Andreas fault is only a small section of a seismic zone known as the Ring of Fire that roughly encircles the entire Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Geological Survey provides tools that show the latest earthquakes in the world, and earlier today I used one of those tools to display all of the earthquakes along the Ring of Fire of magnitude 2.5 or greater that have happened within the last 30 days. The following is a screenshot of what I discovered… The crust of our planet is becoming increasingly unstable, but meanwhile most people have been lulled into a false sense of security. At some point a great California earthquake is coming, and when it strikes it is going to change the lives of tens of millions of people in a single moment. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. 8 Dec

Proof That The Elite Really Do Want A Global Society With No Possessions, No Privacy And No Freedom - If you listen closely, the global elite are telling us exactly what they intend to do. If they get their way, our world is going to look vastly different than it does now in the not too distant future. These elitists share a dream of an environmentally-friendly dystopian socialist paradise in which individual freedom is severely restricted for the good of the collective. Where you live, what you do for a living, what you are allowed to eat and how many children you are permitted to have would all be determined by an all-powerful central government that nobody would question or challenge. This may sound very bizarre to you, but the global elite really do dream of these things. A perfect example of what I am talking about is an article that recently appeared on the official website of the World Economic Forum entitled “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better“. It was authored by a member of parliament in Denmark named Ida Auken, and as you can see she is quite convinced that we can achieve this type of society by the year 2030… Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, “our city”. I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes. It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much. In Auken’s world, nobody even pays any rent, and if you need anything at all you can have it delivered to your door within minutes. So how is that possible? Well, she believes that computers, robots and machines will eventually be doing almost all of the work that humans currently do… Shopping? I can’t really remember what that is. For most of us, it has been turned into choosing things to use. Sometimes I find this fun, and sometimes I just want the algorithm to do it for me. It knows my taste better than I do by now. When AI and robots took over so much of our work, we suddenly had time to eat well, sleep well and spend time with other people. The concept of rush hour makes no sense anymore, since the work that we do can be done at any time. I don’t really know if I would call it work anymore. It is more like thinking-time, creation-time and development-time. But of course there is a cost to living in such a society, and Auken openly acknowledges this. She admits that in her idealized version of the future she will “have no real privacy”… Once in awhile I get annoyed about the fact that I have no real privacy. No where I can go and not be registered. I know that, somewhere, everything I do, think and dream of is recorded. I just hope that nobody will use it against me. What Auken is envisioning is some sort of benign green dictatorship. In order to have a “perfect world” made up of imperfect humans, someone is going to have to be watching, tracking, monitoring and controlling all of those imperfect humans 100 percent of the time. And since virtually every decision that we make affects the environment in some fashion, every one of those decisions will have to be subject to government regulation. When I read Auken’s article, I was instantly reminded of a short video that was produced by the Forum for the Future that envisioned what life would be like in the year 2040. If you are not familiar with them, the Forum for the Future is one of the major non-governmental organizations that the global elite use to promote their agenda around the world. These NGOs have become increasingly powerful in recent years, and the biggest often work in conjunction with the United Nations to promote “change” in developing nations. In the video that I mentioned above, the Forum of the Future presents a chilling version of the future that includes “calorie cards”, a “global food council”, global water rationing and an immensely powerful central government that manages even the smallest details of our lives. You can watch the video on YouTube for yourself right here… Would you like to live in that type of a world? If we are not very careful, this type of tyranny could become a reality, because this is precisely where the global elite intend on taking us. About five years ago, I warned that this was coming… Imagine going to sleep one night and waking up many years later in a totally different world. In this futuristic world, literally everything you do is tightly monitored and controlled by control freak bureaucrats in the name of “sustainable development” and with the goal of promoting “the green agenda”. An international ruling body has centralized global control over all human activity. What you eat, what you drink, where you live, how warm or cold your home can be and how much fuel you can use is determined by them. Anyone that dissents or that tries to rebel against the system is sent off for “re-education”. The human population is 90 percent lower than it is today in this futuristic society, and all remaining humans have been herded into tightly constricted cities which are run much like prisons. Today we are closer to the global elite’s vision of the future than ever before. Even in some of the most conservative areas of the United States the green agenda is being pushed forward under the guise of “sustainable development”, and the global elite will never stop until they have everything that they want. We are constantly being told that we need to make sacrifices “for the good of the planet”, but the truth is that their agenda would open the door for global tyranny on a scale that most people do not even think is possible. Instead of a socialist paradise, what we will really be getting is a dystopian nightmare, but most will not realize the truth until it is far too late. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. 6 Dec

Why Can’t We Focus More On All Of The Good News In The World? - Why does “the news” have to be 99 percent bad news? It is certainly very true that our world is facing great challenges, and those challenges are only going to become more intense during the years ahead, but why can’t we celebrate the good things that are happening as well? For decades, one of the mantras in news organizations all over the country has been “if it bleeds, it leads”, but life is not all about death and destruction. Yes, if we only focus on the positive our life will be out of balance, but the same thing is true if we only focus on the negative. For those of us that are “news junkies”, it is way too easy to slip into the mindset that everything is bad in the world. Without a doubt, things are dark and getting darker, but there are also a whole lot of people out there that are doing their best to be lights in their communities. The average American has the television on approximately five hours a day, and much of that time is spent watching “the news”. Unfortunately, there are just six gigantic media corporations that control more than 90 percent of the news and entertainment that we consume through our televisions, and if we allow them to pour hour after hour of “programming” into our minds each day, it is inevitable that they are going to greatly shape how we view the world. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox shaping how my family and I are going to think and feel about things. So I am very thankful for the alternative media, but just like the mainstream media it too can have an obsessive focus on the negative. Yes, there are definitely times to focus on the great challenges that our society is dealing with, but there should also be time to celebrate the great triumphs. For example, today I want to tell you about Christie Jameson. After Christie and her husband Alva got married they started raising two children of their own, but they quickly realized that they wanted an even bigger family. So over the years they started adopting children that nobody else wanted into their family. At first it was just a few, but the family just kept on growing. Over the course of several decades, Christie and Alva adopted a total of 35 children, and what makes that even more extraordinary is that 26 of those children had special needs. Alva died in 2009, but Christie has continued to care for these precious children with all of her heart. Here is more on this incredible story from People Magazine… She and Alva felt they had room in their home and their hearts for several more children, so they began to adopt. One child led to two, then five, then 10, then 20. Over three decades, the Jamesons adopted 35 children in all — 26 of them with special needs. “We didn’t go looking for our family — most of them came to us, once the word got out that we would take the kids nobody else wanted,” says Jameson, now a single mom (Alva died of cancer in 2009) caring for 11 disabled children at home, including six with serious heart defects. It is amazing individuals such as this that our society should be celebrating. But instead we exalt people like the Clintons, the Kardashians and our overly spoiled sports stars. To raise even a single child takes an incredible investment of time, energy and love, but to raise 35 of them takes a person with an exceedingly special heart. And in the case of Christie Jameson that is especially true because over the years 12 of the special needs children ended up passing away… Over the years, Christie Jameson has adopted children who have Down syndrome, spina bifida, cerebral palsy and fetal alcohol syndrome. Some of her children were physically or sexually abused and some are blind or deaf, while others have weak immune systems and are not expected to live full lives. “Of the 35 we took in, we’ve lost 12,” she says. “Every time, it’s heart-wrenching, but if I had to do it all over again, I would. They deserved every happiness they could get in the short time that they were here. They brought a lot of joy into my life.” Someone like that should be one of the most famous people in the entire country, but instead barely anyone has even known that she has existed up until now. But of course you don’t have to be anonymous in order to do good things. Just look at what is happening down in eastern Tennessee. The horrible fires that recently destroyed much of Gatlinburg were so intense that they actually caused cars to melt in the overwhelming heat. It has been reported that at least 13 people were killed by the fires and at least 1,400 homes and buildings were damaged. In response to this great tragedy, Dolly Parton has decided to give all of the families that lost their homes $1,000 a month to help them rebuild their lives… On top of Dolly Parton’s pledge to donate $1,000 a month to families who lost their homes in a destructive wildfire near the Great Smoky Mountains last week, the country singer is now hosting a telethon. The event is set for Dec. 13 in Nashville, Dollywood spokesman Pete Owns confirmed to Mashable. The additional fundraiser comes less than a week after Parton announced in a video that her Dollywood Foundation had set up the My People Fund, which will provide $1,000 each month for up to six months to families who lost their homes in the wildfires. It is one thing to offer words of comfort to those that are hurting, but it is another thing entirely to step up and take care of their physical needs. So we should all applaud Dolly Parton for being a leader and taking care of her neighbors during this horrible time. In our society today, a lot of people love with words, but not nearly enough people love with action. The following is what James 2:14-17 says in the Modern English Version… 14 What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith but has no works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you give them nothing that the body needs, what does it profit? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. Let us be people of great faith, but let us also endeavor to be people of great works. When it is all said and done, people may remember what we have said, but they will definitely remember what we have done. In a world that is rapidly filling with darkness, light is needed more than ever, and so let us all do whatever we can to shine a light to those around us. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. 5 Dec

The United Nations General Assembly Passes 6 Outrageous Anti-Israel Resolutions - Last Wednesday, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to adopt 6 outrageous anti-Israel resolutions. These resolutions address a wide variety of issues including “a two state solution”, the status of the Golan Heights and a “lasting solution to the question of the City of Jerusalem”. Unlike UN Security Council resolutions, these UN General Assembly resolutions are not considered to be legally binding upon the parties, but they do show that virtually the entire planet is in favor of dividing the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. In addition, even though the U.S. voted against each of these resolutions, there is still a tremendous amount of buzz that the Obama administration may decide to go along with a UN Security Council resolution that would set the parameters for a “two state solution” before the end of Barack Obama’s term comes on January 20th. I have not seen a single mainstream news article about these UN General Assembly resolutions that were just passed. The only way that I learned about them is because someone sent me a link to an announcement on the official UN website. In this article I want to share with you some extended excerpts from that announcement so that you can see for yourself exactly how the UN feels about Israel. The first resolution that was adopted calls for an “intensification of efforts” to bring about “a final peace settlement” between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Of course any “final peace settlement” would mean a “two state solution” that permanently divides the land of Israel into two separate nations. 153 countries voted in favor of this resolution, but fortunately the United States was one of the seven nations that voted against it… The Assembly adopted a resolution on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine (document A/71/L.21) by a recorded vote of 153 in favour to 7 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 7 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Vanuatu). By the terms of the resolution, the Assembly called for the intensification of efforts by the parties, including through negotiations, with the support of the international community, towards the conclusion of a final peace settlement. The next resolution that was adopted addressed the status of Jerusalem. The resolution refers to Israel as “the occupying power”, and it calls for the city to be permanently divided between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Once again, the vote in favor of this resolution was incredibly lopsided… The Assembly also adopted a resolution on Jerusalem (document A/71/L.22) by a recorded vote of 149 in favour to 7 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 8 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Vanuatu). By its terms, the Assembly reiterated its determination that any actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem were illegal and therefore null and void and had no validity whatsoever, and called upon Israel to immediately cease all such illegal and unilateral measures. The Assembly also stressed that a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of the City of Jerusalem should take into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. Subsequently, the UN General Assembly also passed a resolution that calls for Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights. Sadly, the vote in favor of this resolution was also overwhelming… By the terms of a resolution on the Syrian Golan (document A/71/L.8), the Assembly demanded that Israel withdraw from all the occupied territory to the line of 4 June 1967 and called on all parties concerned to exert the necessary efforts to ensure the resumption of the peace process. That resolution received 103 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 56 abstentions. The General Assembly also passed three other anti-Israel resolutions last Wednesday, but none of them were nearly as important as the first three that I described. But just like with the other resolutions, the votes were not even close… In adopting a resolution on the Special Information Programme on the Question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat (document A/71/L.20), the Assembly renewed the Department’s mandate. It also requested the Department to disseminate information on all activities relating to the question of Palestine and peace efforts and to organize and promote fact-finding news missions for journalists to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. That text garnered 153 votes in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 7 abstentions (Cameroon, Honduras, Nauru, Paraguay, Togo, Tonga, Vanuatu). The Assembly also adopted a resolution on the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (A/71/L.18), as orally revised, by a recorded vote of 100 in favour to 9 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Guatemala, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 55 abstentions, and a resolution on the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat (document A/71/L.19), with 98 in favour to 9 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Guatemala, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 57 abstentions. Needless to say, the Palestinians were absolutely thrilled by the outcome of these votes. In fact, the Palestinian representative at the United States boldly declared that these resolutions represent “a clear reaffirmation of the international community’s consensus on the two-State solution”. And it is true – virtually the entire planet wants to see the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem permanently divided. The only thing that has been preventing that from happening has been the U.S. veto power on the UN Security Council. Unlike General Assembly resolutions, UN Security Council resolutions are considered to be legally binding on the parties. France was ready to introduce a Security Council resolution last September that would have officially divided the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, but the Obama administration stopped it. Previously I have spoken about how it appears that a “pause button” was hit at that point, but now there is a lot of speculation that Barack Obama may reverse course and decide to support such a resolution at the Security Council before his term ends on January 20th. If Barack Obama betrays Israel at the United Nations between now and January 20th, it will be one of the most prophetically significant events that we have ever seen, and the consequences for this nation (and for the rest of the world) will be exceedingly severe. As you can see from the UN General Assembly resolutions discussed above, there is a global consensus that the land of Israel should be divided, and the only one standing in the way right now is Barack Obama. Let us hope that he doesn’t decide to do something extremely foolish before handing over the reigns to Donald Trump in late January. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. 4 Dec

Jimmy Carter Urges Barack Obama To Divide The Land Of Israel At The United Nations Before January 20th - In an absolutely stunning editorial for the New York Times, former president Jimmy Carter has publicly called for Barack Obama to divide the land of Israel at the United Nations before Inauguration Day. While he was president, Carter negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, and ever since that time he has been a very strong advocate for a Palestinian state. Carter is completely convinced that a “two-state solution” will bring lasting peace to the Middle East, but now that Donald Trump has been elected Carter knows that his dream of seeing a Palestinian state while he is still alive is rapidly slipping away. In a desperate attempt to salvage the situation, Carter is urging Barack Obama to take bold action while he still has the power to do so. In his New York Times editorial, one of the steps that Carter says that Obama should take is to give formal U.S. diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state… I am convinced that the United States can still shape the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before a change in presidents, but time is very short. The simple but vital step this administration must take before its term expires on Jan. 20 is to grant American diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine, as 137 countries have already done, and help it achieve full United Nations membership. Of course such a move would largely just be window dressing. The new Trump administration could very quickly revoke diplomatic recognition, and so if Barack Obama really wanted to “leave a legacy” in the Middle East he would have to do something that Donald Trump would not be able to undo. Later on in his editorial, Carter suggested just such a thing. He urged Obama to support a UN Security Council resolution that would set forth firm parameters for resolving the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians… The Security Council should pass a resolution laying out the parameters for resolving the conflict. It should reaffirm the illegality of all Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 borders, while leaving open the possibility that the parties could negotiate modifications. Security guarantees for both Israel and Palestine are imperative, and the resolution must acknowledge the right of both the states of Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Further measures should include the demilitarization of the Palestinian state, and a possible peacekeeping force under the auspices of the United Nations. In a previous article, I discussed what the three main pillars of such a resolution would probably look like… 1. It would give formal UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state for the very first time. 2. It would grant East Jerusalem to the Palestinians as the capital of their new state. 3. It would establish the 1967 ceasefire lines as the basis for final negotiations for borders between the two states. Such a UN Security Council resolution would be considered legally binding on the Israelis and the Palestinians. And the Trump administration would not be able to undo such a resolution because it would take another vote of the UN Security Council to revoke the resolution once it had been passed and that would not happen. Right now the rest of the UN Security Council is ready to support this kind of resolution. The only thing that has been standing in the way has been the U.S. Security Council veto power, and there have already been rumblings that Obama may not exercise that veto power if a “parameters resolution” is put up for a vote before he leaves office. And if Obama was going to make such a move, a really good way to drum up some public support for it would be to have a highly respected former president publish an editorial supporting the move in a highly visible newspaper such as the New York Times. Over in Israel, the government has been ignoring Carter’s anti-Israel rants for years, and they have also responded to this latest editorial by Carter with silence… As Carter’s criticism of Israel over the years has become increasingly scathing and one-sided, Jerusalem’s policy has been to largely ignore him. In line with this approach, neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Foreign Ministry had any response on Tuesday to his op-ed. But without a doubt the Israelis are very concerned about what may happen next. They know the kind of damage that Barack Obama could do before we get to January 20th, and they are desperately hoping that Obama does not decide to do something exceedingly foolish. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post… A number of European governments, as well as various think tanks, are talking with Obama administration officials, urging them to take some kind of action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the waning days of the current presidency. Among the suggestions are a new UN resolution laying down parameters for a peace deal; US support for the recognition of “Palestine” in the UN; or – at the very least – backing or abstaining on an anti-settlement resolution in the Security Council. Israeli officials consistently maintain that they do not know what – if anything – Obama has planned. However, the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continuously says – as he did on Sunday – that he expects Obama not to divert from traditional US policy on the matter, is an indication that there remains concern over the matter in Jerusalem. From a Bible prophecy perspective, the division of the land of Israel is the number one event that we are watching for right now, and this is one of the reasons why I have labeled the period of time leading up to January 20th as “the danger zone“. There have been many that have warned that once we divide the land of Israel, our land will be divided as well. But in addition to the great earthquake that is coming to the center of our country, we also know that so many of the other major judgments that I warn about in The Rapture Verdict come after the land of Israel gets divided. But even though the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have both been running stories about a potential UN Security Council resolution that would divide the land of Israel, and even though experienced politicians such as Jimmy Carter and John Bolton are making lots of noise about it, most people don’t seem to understand how immensely important this really is in the greater scheme of things. But if Barack Obama does decide to make a move to divide the land of Israel at the United Nations at some point during the next several weeks, the consequences for this nation will be more severe than most people would dare to imagine. About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The Most Important News. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.29 Nov

Maude Barlow's blog

Opinion: Put down the selfie sticks and protect water in Canada - October 31, 2016 - 2:54pm By Maude Barlow & Emma Lui, originally published in the National Observer, October 31, 2016 There’s no question we had it bad with the former Harper government. It slashed protections for 99 per cent of lakes and rivers that previously existed in the Navigable Waters Protection Act and removed safeguards under other water legislation. People are hungry for real change. But one year later, are Justin Trudeau’s actions speaking louder than his words? Trudeau’s ministers assure Canadians that they are modernizing water and environmental legislation like the Navigation Protection Act and will create nation-to-nation relationships with First Nations. Meanwhile companies are still moving forward with pipeline, dam, mining and fish farm projects without scrutiny of their impacts on navigable waters. Many of these projects are also happening on the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples and will have impacts on their cultures, ways of life and economies. These projects are also happening without their free, prior and informed consent, despite Trudeau’s promise to respect this and other principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Trudeau government is giving these projects the green light. It issued a permit for the Site C dam under the Navigation Protection Act this summer, despite the Peace River being a “protected” river. This mega-dam, which will destroy prime farmland capable of feeding one million people, could leave residents in British Columbia on the hook for its $9 billion price tag. The federal government also approved the Pacific Northwest LNG project last month, despite objections to its impacts on salmon, Indigenous rights and the climate. This week hereditary chiefs for the Gitanyow and Gitwilgyoots and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust filed for judicial reviews of the federal government’s approval of the project. Now all eyes are on Trudeau’s anticipated approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline in December. The government is unlikely to even look at the impacts on the 1,309 waterways it will cut through. Pipelines like Trans Mountain and Energy East were exempted from federal scrutiny under the Navigation Protection Act. The Energy East pipeline crosses 2,963 waterways from Alberta to the coast of New Brunswick. The Council of Canadians’ report Every Lake, Every River: Restoring the Navigable Waters Protection Act, released this past week, examines how projects like the Energy East pipeline, the Ajax Mine in B.C. and the Keeyask Dam and Bipole III transmission line in Manitoba threaten the ability of Indigenous communities, residents and the outdoors community to navigate waterways for fishing, transportation and recreation. The Navigation Protection Act, formerly the Navigable Waters Protection Act, is one of Canada’s oldest pieces of legislation and protects the right of people in Canada to navigate lakes, rivers and other waterways. Healthy navigable waters are strongly linked to fisheries, boating, recreation, tourism and local economies. The chair of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities recently stated that there was nothing stopping Transport Minister Marc Garneau from restoring protections for lakes and rivers. Yet the only waterways that are “protected” are the same 97 lakes, 62 rivers and three oceans that Harper spared. This out of an estimated 31,000 lakes and 2.25 million rivers in Canada and Indigenous communities. In 2012, Mountain Equipment Co-op CEO David Labistour presented a list of 40 recreationally important waterways that are no longer protected and reminded the Senate committee studying the issue that the outdoor recreation industry creates at least 6 million jobs in Canada. In contrast, according to Statistics Canada, there were only 250,000 jobs in mining, oil and gas, and logging combined in 2015, which makes up about only 1.6 per cent of the jobs in Canada. Most jobs are in non-extractive industries, including 12 per cent in retail trade, 12 per cent in health care and social assistance, 12 per cent in manufacturing, eight per cent in accommodation and food services, and eight per cent in educational services. It’s time to put the selfie sticks down. The Trudeau government is following in Harper’s footsteps and promoting the extractive industry as the driver of jobs. Canada needs to move past the myth that we can only have clean water or jobs, but not both. Protecting waterways means protecting sustainable, green jobs. The Inuit in Labrador are taking a stand against the Muskrat Falls dam. Ninety-nine youth in Ottawa were arrested for protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline. Until the Trudeau government restores protections for every lake and every river and begins transitioning away from fossil fuels, these land defenders are the ones who represent real change in Canada. Emma Lui is the Water Campaigner and Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. 31 Oct

Global water rights advocates support WCC joining Blue Communities - October 27, 2016 - 3:18pm Children at the WCC event. Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC I was very pleased to award the World Council of Churches (WCC) a 'blue community' certificate on October 25. The WCC could potentially reach more than 500 million Christians worldwide in advocating the right to access water and sanitation. Protecting water and assuring just distribution of this life-giving resource is among the most critical of eco-justice issues. Global water rights advocates support WCC joining Blue Communities, World Council of Churches, October 27, 2016 Read more about the Blue Communities Project. Tags: BPP27 Oct

Asia Editorials latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com

U.S. may be losing East Asia to China - The election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency is continuing to send shock waves in the corridors of power across East Asia. Yet even before the results of the 2016 U.S. elections became known, t19 Dec

Should South Korea be worried? - North Korean belligerence in the form of nuclear and missile developments, a slowing Chinese economy and the successful vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye have compromised Se19 Dec

Putin’s dangerous fan club - A clutch of leaders who will certainly or likely be in power next year have made clear their admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. It may not last; we should hope it doesn't. 19 Dec

Trump must prepare for a showdown with Beijing - Donald Trump faces immediate challenges on multiple fronts — managing the war against Islamic State, fixing Obamacare and boosting growth to create jobs. However, as the fallout from h19 Dec

Christmas in America means the usual lawsuits - Christmas is right around the corner, meaning that the time has come for the usual passel of lawsuits and threats of lawsuits, of bitter division over words and symbols — in short, of all the us19 Dec

A Fed hike creates global concerns - The U.S. Federal Reserve Board last week decided to raise short-term interest rates. The move was widely expected in the wake of Donald Trump's election as the next U.S. pres19 Dec

Op-Ed: Underwater drone just a sample of US military action against China - File Photo The U.S. unmanned navy vehicle in the South China Sea has quickly become the focus of international attention. President-elect Donald Trump participated in this public discussion19 Dec

Space for the disabled - The Disabilities Bill redefining "disability" to include mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and chronic neurological conditions and offeri18 Dec

Striking a wrong note - and was rather surprised that legendary percussionist, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, had clearly chosen to omit the fact that he had launched the same fibreglass mridangam many years ago with the same fanfar18 Dec

The unmaking of Parliament - The Indian Parliament meets, the Indian Parliament ceases to meet, and there is nary an impact of these meetings/non-meetings on the democratic discourse in the country. Newspaper columns ru18 Dec

General Editorials latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com

Parrikar's advice to chronic critics: Dance naked - Panaji, Dec 20 (IANS) In a stern critique of a section of the Goan media, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said his advice to those who blabber needlessly was to take-off their clothes and dance nake03:01

Drowsy driving: The other hazard - ANALYSIS/OPINION: Why do we treat the driver who drank a glass of wine with dinner differently than the driver who just left the late movie after a long day of work? Driving after a single drink has c00:09

Donald Trump is pragmatic, not ideological - Donald Trump has set aghast many foreign policy analysts, economists, security experts and mainstream journalists who are accustomed to orderly thinking and a pretense of what they view as principled00:09

Training young Arab, Israil leaders together a new path to peace in the Middle East? - ANALYSIS/OPINION: As a young Marine captain commanding a rifle company in Vietnam, I had the opportunity to have Israel's legendary Gen. Moshe Dayan join my unit for a week. At one point we were00:09

Putting Campaign '16 to bed at last - Donald Trump could never, ever be elected president of the United States.Once the election returns were in, the soreheads continued to campaign as if Nov. 8 had never dawned. One by one, the flimsy ob00:09

Michelle Obama did not lear hope and humility as first lady - ANALYSIS/OPINION: Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming once said, "Those who travel the high road of humility will not be troubled by heavy traffic."That descriptive and funny line00:09

Where are Donald Trump's free market voices? - Donald Trump 's Cabinet selections so far have been good - principled conservatives like Dr. Ben Carson at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Rep. Tom Price, a physician, who wil00:09

Winning U.S. presidency without majority has become common - Donald Trump having received less than a majority of the popular vote, when in fact almost one-third of all the U.S. presidents (14, to be precise) did not receive 50 percent of the popular vote (beca00:09

BOOK REVIEW: 'The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan' - This is an important book by probably the best chronicler of modern financial affairs on the job today. It is a thoroughly researched and elegant narrative about the life of a major player in this cur00:09

Obama, the polarizing president - In this Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. Obama said one of his missions after leaving of00:09

Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union

Can We Fire the Electoral College? Probably Not, but We Can Put It Under New Management - The states have the constitutional power to transform the Electoral College into a democratic institution. This piece originally appeared at The Huffington Post.  The electors of the Electoral College met this afternoon in their respective states and anointed as president the candidate who won the popular vote in a larger number of states — Donald Trump — regardless of the fact that another candidate — Hillary Clinton — won the larger number of votes by several million. The ACLU has opposed the Electoral College since 1969 for non-partisan reasons. By now — everyone, Republicans, Democrats, and none-of-the-aboves — should be fed up with its undemocratic and unpredictable nature. Unfortunately, amending the Constitution to eliminate this atavistic system is a practical impossibility for the same reason the Electoral College is a problem: The less populous states have a disproportionate share of voting power. Constitutional amendments require approval by three-quarters of the states, not a national majority or even super-majority of voters. Most states are currently Republican-dominated, and Republicans may believe at the moment that the peculiarities of the Electoral College will help to serve their partisan goals in future elections.  That may not be true. The Democratic candidate did win the popular vote in this election. But in 2004, if John Kerry had won Florida or Ohio he would have passed the winning threshold of 270 Electoral College votes even though George W. Bush won the popular vote by several million votes.  More importantly, after an uncommonly brutal election season, we need to start rising above result-oriented partisanship and focus on whether our system for selecting a president is consistent with our fundamental principles. The Electoral College Has a Sorry History Alexander Hamilton, the current darling of Broadway, promoted the Electoral College in“Federalist 68” for deeply elitist reasons — he did not trust the common people to select the president. Notes of the Constitutional Convention show that the Electoral College’s unequal distribution of voting power was chosen as part of a sordid bargain: Along with the 3/5 Clause, the Electoral College was part of a compromise over slavery. States like Virginia wanted political influence commensurate with their total population even though they did not allow a large percentage of their population — slaves — to vote.  This historical artifact should have gone the way of the 3/5 Clause. Even if, like Hamilton, we wanted an oligarchy to choose our president, today’s Electoral College is not a deliberative body.  Although the Constitution does not require either of these approaches, most states have chosen to adopt laws requiring electors to cast their votes for whoever wins the state’s popular vote; 48 states decided on a winner take all system.  Whether an elector is permitted to exercise any independent judgment at all is hotly debated. The Electoral College thwarts the fundamental principle of one person, one vote by awarding each state a number of electoral votes equal to its allocation of representatives plus its two senators. A voter in Wyoming thus has over three times as much influence on the presidential election as a voter in more densely populated California. And there are still racial and ethnic disparities in voting power. One recent study calculated that Asian-Americans have barely more than half the voting power of white Americans because they tend to live in “safe” states — like Democratic-leaning New York and California and Republican-leaning Texas.  Furthermore, the number of representatives each state receives, the baseline for Electoral College representation, is determined by the census. But the census consistently undercounts minorities. The Census Bureau itself calculated that the 2010 census missed 1.5 million minorities, including 2.1 percent of African-Americans and 1.5 percent of Hispanics. The marginalization of minority voters in many states is compounded by state voter suppression laws. The smaller states argue that they will be ignored if they do not have more than their proportionate share of voting power. But the Electoral College system makes wallflowers of most states, including the most populous, and therefore of most of the American people. Two-thirds of 2016 presidential election events took place in half a dozen swing states. Less populous states already get to put several fingers on the scales in the Senate and in the constitutional amendments process. Why give them another undue advantage when our government is supposed to be run by “we, the people,” not “we, the states”? The National Popular Vote Act Solution Even without a constitutional amendment, the states have the power to fix the main problem of the Electoral College. If enough states enact the National Popular Vote Act (NPVA), the winner of the national popular vote would become the winner of the presidential election. Under the NPVA plan, states enact a law requiring their electors to vote for the winner of the national popular vote (rather than the state’s own popular vote). The act becomes effective only after states with electoral votes totaling at least 270 have passed the legislation. Eleven states (CA, D.C., HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, VT, WA) with a total of 165 electoral votes have already passed the NPVA. If states with electoral votes totaling 105 more votes pass the act, the winner of the next presidential election will be selected by popular choice. This state-based approach is consistent with the framers’ decision in Article II to authorize the states to control the appointment of electors. If it is constitutionally permissible for states to instruct their electors to vote for the winner of the state’s popular vote (the prevailing practice today), the states must also have the power to choose a different benchmark.   Dozens of pro and con arguments — more than can be explored here — have been made about the constitutionality of the NPVA approach. It is probably true that the Electoral College cannot be wholly eliminated without a constitutional amendment. The NPVA would not eliminate the Electoral College but simply place it under new management — the American people’s.  The ACLU supports the NPVA because we believe that the responses to the range of opposing arguments are more persuasive.  Although the states adopting the NPVA so far tend to be blue states, the movement has been bipartisan — as it should be. In February, the Arizona House became the third majority-Republican state legislative chamber to approve the act (following the New York and Oklahoma Senates) in a bipartisan 40-16 vote. If state legislatures refuse to go along, voters should take matters into their own hands with ballot initiatives to require that their states adopt the NPVA. The Electoral College has been a predictable rubber stamp so far, but there is always the chance of a December surprise from so-called “faithless electors” who don’t vote as expected. Why should we tolerate this degree of unpredictability from a group we don’t actually want or expect to be exercising their own judgment? Even if we can’t agree on results, we should all be ready to agree on principle that our president should be chosen, like all of our other elected officials, by the straightforward popular vote.   19 Dec

The California Transportation Department Is Cruelly and Unconstitutionally Destroying Homeless People’s Belongings - The ACLU of Northern California and allies have filed a class-action lawsuit to end the raids on homeless encampments. Sometimes the trucks arrive early. Sometimes they come with no notice at all. Sometimes, while workers from the California Department of Transportation make their way down the row of tents—seizing property and cherished belongings—people have mere seconds to grab everything they can. Then they stand and watch as their bedding, clothes, tools, bikes, medicine, food, and other things are tossed into a trash compactor and destroyed.  I’ve heard this story countless times from homeless people in the Bay Area and beyond. My colleagues who work on issues of poverty and inequality have too. For decades, save a few years where good practices and policies were followed because of lawsuit settlements, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and other government agencies in California have been conducting illegal sweeps of homeless encampments, cruelly and unconstitutionally seizing and destroying property.  That’s why we just filed a class-action lawsuit that seeks to stop this illegal practice once and for all.        The suit was filed on behalf of people like Kimberlee Sanchez, a longtime Oakland resident who has been homeless for five years. Kimberlee has been the victim of more sweeps than she cares to remember. In the latest one, Caltrans crews confiscated and destroyed an 18 karat gold necklace that had been a gift for Mother’s Day, a Coleman stove, food, her bedding, clothes, and a tent. She protested and was ignored. James Leone not only lost his belongings but was threatened with a Taser when workers took his stuff. The 56-year-old ended up homeless after losing his job during the recession of 2008. In April, Caltrans came to his camp and told him he had five minutes to move his belongings. But after only three, they began throwing his things, including his bike, into a trash compacter. When Leone pulled his bicycle out of the compactor, a California Highway Patrol officer threatened him with a Taser. That day, he lost his sleeping mat and bedding, all his clothing except what he was wearing, camping equipment, his Walkman, a family photo album, and a personal phone book. Homeless people like Kimberlee and James deserve respect for their humanity and their belongings. Caltrans should be giving proper notice before raiding encampments and refusing people an opportunity to move their belongings. We can't expect people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps if we've destroyed their boots. We are seeking a permanent injunction to stop this practice throughout California. We’re also seeking damages for people whose property has been illegally taken in the cities of Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley. They have lost cherished and necessary items, including family heirlooms, irreplaceable photographs, tents and sleeping bags, warm weather clothing, tools, food, stoves, and personal documents including identification. The homeless population in the Bay Area is increasing as housing becomes more and more expensive. Taking and destroying people’s property is not a solution. To the contrary, it makes it all that much harder for homeless people to find housing and get back on their feet. It’s also against the law. The sweeps are in violation of the United States and California Constitutions, California statutory and common law, and Caltrans’ own policies. The Fourth Amendment protects people from the unreasonable seizure and destruction of their property by the government, whether they live in a mansion or a tent. Furthermore, the constitutional prohibition against depriving people of their property without due process requires the government to give specific notice in advance of when it will conduct these operations and provide an opportunity for people to reclaim any property that it does seize. Caltrans is confiscating belongings that are critical to the survival of some of our most vulnerable citizens and crushing their hope of finding shelter and stability. It’s unconstitutional and unjust. We can't expect people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps if we've destroyed their boots.15 Dec

Oklahoma Just Passed a Law Requiring Private Businesses to Turn Their Bathrooms Into Billboards for Anti-Abortion Propaganda - The unconstitutional law compels political speech and seeks to shame women considering an abortion. The Oklahoma Legislature has outdone itself this time. In the latest of their absurd and callous efforts to shame and stigmatize women, Oklahoma legislators from both parties have passed into law a requirement that commands thousands of private businesses to turn their bathroom walls into billboards for anti-abortion propaganda. As part of a misguided effort to reduce the number of abortions in Oklahoma, Rep. Ann Coody and Sen. AJ Griffin introduced HB 2797 — the “Humanity of the Unborn Child Act.” Among other troubling provisions, the new law requires public schools, hospitals, restaurants, and nursing homes to post signs in their restrooms directing women to services aimed at discouraging abortion. It’s difficult to see what possible purpose this law could serve other than to shame and dissuade women from accessing their constitutionally protected right to a safe and legal medical procedure. The same legislation also requires the Oklahoma Department of Health to develop and distribute “educational” materials that “clearly and consistently teach that abortion kills a living human being.” Shaming women and limiting their right to access medically necessary health care is certainly nothing new for the state of Oklahoma. From 20-week bans to outrageous TRAP laws and from annual attempts to grant full rights to a fetus to threatening doctors who perform abortions with felonies, the Oklahoma Legislature is as persistent as they are imprudent. What’s new this time around is their attempt to conscript private businesses in their war on Oklahoma’s women. The requirement that many businesses, including restaurants, post signs that advance a backwards and misogynist agenda amounts to forced political speech, which is impermissible under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Requiring business owners to communicate a biased statement to their patrons falls well outside the state’s interest to regulate health and safety in these businesses. The ACLU of Oklahoma is considering a range of legal options to halt this government command to display its propaganda on bathroom walls. Upon receiving the news that her unfunded mandate would cost businesses and chronically impoverished schools an estimated $2.3 million, Sen. Griffin indicated a willingness to revise the legislation to reduce the burden on businesses. While we certainly welcome any opportunity to reconsider the merits of this ludicrous new law, it is disheartening that the majority of Oklahoma’s legislators are unwilling to stand up for women unless doing so happens to align with monied business interests. In the apparent absence of any desire to approach reproductive health care sensibly and with the rights of women in mind, we will continue to fight threats to Oklahoma’s women however they appear. 14 Dec

On International Human Rights Day, a Lesson for Trump - Human rights treaties can be some of the bulwarks against Trump’s most dangerous proposals. Saturday is International Human Rights Day, commemorating the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The significance of the day and its history is something that President-elect Donald Trump should reckon with after running a campaign that demonstrated outright contempt for human rights, particularly his “love” of waterboarding. Right now, we don’t yet know what Donald Trump will try in office. But to fight against any policies embodying the islamophobia, xenophobia, racism, or misogyny that were embraced during his campaign, we know that we have decades of international human rights law on our side. And no president can undo that because ratified treaties are not just lofty aspirations — under the Constitution they’re “the supreme law of the land.” In the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, the international community resolved to establish a robust international framework to maintain peace and security and promote human rights. It created the United Nations and the modern human rights system. Since then, the United States has played a critical role in creating global and regional human rights institutions based on treaties and international conventions that protect a whole host of human rights. Among the ratified agreements are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Racial Discrimination. With American leadership, the global community established standards for the treatment of prisoners of war and prosecuted war crimes and crimes against humanity at Nuremberg. Today, the Geneva Conventions are binding on every country and are among the universally accepted laws of war, categorically prohibiting acts of torture and cruelty. In 1951, the international community was faced with the daunting task of establishing international cooperation in resettling vulnerable refugees following the war and protecting their most basic human rights. The U.S. led the global effort to establish the Refugee Convention, which now forms the international standards for refugee protection and resettlement. Under it, countries may not discriminate against refugees on the basis of “race, religion, or country of origin.” Our country is a nation of immigrants and must continue to be seen as a safe haven to refugees from around the world. It’s the right and moral thing to do. Despite our all-too-often shortcomings in practicing at home what we preach abroad, more often than not, the U.S. has helped make these global commitments stronger. However, we've also benefitted tremendously from our investment and engagement with international law and institutions. Though its universality may make it seem abstract, international law has a tremendous impact in nearly all facets of our daily lives, from environmental well-being and public health to high-stakes governmental questions of public safety and armed conflict. These international agreements are still binding on us today, and they will continue to be under a President Trump. No matter how hard he tries to establish mass deportations, it’ll still constitute a flagrant violation of international law. No matter how hard he tries to bring back “waterboarding, or a hell of a lot worse,” torture will remain illegal under both the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture (in addition to U.S. law). No matter how hard he pursues a total or even partial ban on entry for Muslim refugees and immigrants or tries to re-enact Bush’s failed NSEER discriminatory registry program, international law still forbids them. Hopefully, Trump will realize that even if he decides to flout international human rights law, he would only be undermining our country’s interests. When the U.S. commits human rights abuses, other countries follow. It sets off a domino effect causing further instability, conflicts, and violence. And we lose the moral authority to do anything about it. We would also alienate allies on a whole host of issues pertaining to our national interest, including trade and sharing intelligence to fight real threats abroad. Trump campaigned on his ability to make a deal. But human dignity and fundamental human rights are off-limits for bargaining. Protecting them and living up to our international obligations are the best deal for the American people and the rest of the world. 9 Dec

The State of Alabama Last Night Tortured a Man While Slowly Snuffing Out His Life - The state of Alabama knew the drug midazolam led to previous botched executions, but it used it anyway. Alabama cruelly and excessively violated the bounds of human decency last night when it knowingly inflicted torturous pain during Ronald Smith’s botched execution. And it should never have come to this. Ronald Smith’s jury had voted to spare his life, but the trial judge in the case overrode the jury’s verdict and sentenced him to death under Alabama’s outlier practice. A divided Supreme Court then denied Smith’s request to postpone his execution to review the issue of judicial override, and Alabama moved forward with his execution.  The execution of Ronald Smith last night took far longer than it should have, 34 minutes, during which time his body heaved as he struggled. He was almost certainly awake when the prison administered the agonizing drugs, whose administration without sedation is an open and shut violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Alabama had insisted on using midazolam, a failed drug that has no place in executions.  It did this despite the dire and clear warnings from previous botched executions in virtually every state that has tried it: Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, and Ohio. Worse still, Alabama moved forward with the administration of excruciating drugs after it became clear that the midazolam failed to sedate Smith.   Midazolam is supposed to make inmates lose consciousness so that they will not feel the effects of the undeniably torturous drugs that follow it. But physicians have repeatedly explained that midazolam is not up to the task of preventing inmates from regaining consciousness. The  growing list of botched executions using midazolam is entirely too predictable: Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Joseph Wood in Arizona, and Clayton Locket in Oklahoma. All moved and struggled after administration of midazolam.   After McGuire was reported unconscious by the prison, he clenched his fist. Then for 25 minutes, his body heaved, and he struggled, gasped, choked, and snorted. Lockett’s vein had blown during his execution, and he writhed, clenched his teeth, and mumbled. Wood’s execution took almost two hours, during which he was chocking, snorting, and gasping for air, much like McGuire.       Ronald Smith’s execution is the latest in this chain of unconscionable failures.  According to witnesses, Smith heaved, struggled for breath, coughed, and talked after the administration of midazolam. He failed both consciousness checks: He heaved, gasped, and coughed after the first one. He moved his arm and hand after the second.   The entire purpose of a consciousness check is to have some assurance that the inmate is no longer responsive and will not feel the terrifying pain accompanying the second and third drugs in the protocol. Here, Smith failed the checks, and the prison moved forward anyway. It appears that the state of Alabama intentionally inflicted torturous pain on Smith, knowing that the midazolam had failed. The warden conceded later that the prison had no contingency plan in place in case the midazolam wasn’t working and that it had just followed the only protocol it had.  How could this happen?  Much of the explanation lies with the abdication of the courts. Smith’s lawyers had challenged the use of midazolam and warned that the prison needed a plan for how to respond if the midazolam failed. Their challenges were denied without any court’s oversight because in Alabama, like other places, the lower courts have adopted an impossible test for challenging lethal injection methods. In order for a court to even consider the claim, the inmate must suggest an alternative method for their own execution.  Making a death row inmate propose the method of execution, the product of the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Glossip v. Oklahoma, is itself wrong and today we’ve seen its disastrous result. And the lower courts have made this requirement worse by demanding that inmates point to an alternative that exists in state law. Smith asked for death by firing squad, believing it would be less painful than the midazolam protocol. The courts said that alternative was not good enough because Alabama law didn’t provide for it. Under this logic, if Alabama announced it planned to execute people by burning them at the stake and didn’t provide for another method, no death row inmate could ever get into court to challenge the stake burning. The legal morass surrounding lethal injection is untenable, and it must be addressed by the courts. Our legal system must provide for some mechanism of judicial review of torturous and failed drug options. Most immediately, Alabama should order a full investigation of Ronald Smith’s botched execution and halt further executions until it has an appropriate protocol. Alabama as well as Virginia and Arkansas, two other states that threaten to use midazolam in upcoming executions, should reject the use of the drug now.   The Constitution and human decency demand no less.   9 Dec

After Two Unconstitutional Anti-Abortion Bills Pass, We Have to Ask: What’s the Matter With Ohio’s Lame Duck Legislature? - In rapid succession, Ohio’s Legislature rammed through two draconian anti-abortion bills that are unconstitutional and wrong. This piece was originally posted by the ACLU of Ohio. It’s lame duck season in the state of Ohio and this year seems like the “super special” version. During the lame duck session, the legislature has just a few short weeks to pass laws before all bills have to start over from scratch in the new year. In a matter of 72 hours, Ohio’s super-majority party has managed to attach, pass, and push through a nearly unbelievable amount of legislation. Two of these bills would severely restrict or essentially outlaw abortion in Ohio: one passed this Tuesday, would ban abortion after six weeks and another passed late Thursday night would ban abortion after 20 weeks. There was hope that, for once, Ohio’s legislators would be able to focus on actual important issues affecting the Buckeye State instead of attacks on clinics and interference with women’s health. Adding these two bills, Ohio legislators have now introduced nearly 20 provisions designed to restrict a woman’s access to abortion since 2011. Reproductive Freedom Is Under Attack in Ohio… The Ohio Senate passed the six-week ban, which had been languishing in the Senate for over a year, with no public hearings. It was particularly disturbing to learn that the six-week ban would be attached to an unrelated bill to help children suffering from abuse and neglect. This unexpected move was made more baffling by fact that the Ohio Right to Life, Gov. John Kasich (R), and Senate President Keith Faber (R) previously have not supported the six-week ban. Ohio Right to Life has maintained its opposition and the governor has declined to comment. Yet, Sen. Faber,  made clear that his motivation to support the bill included the recent election and the future of the U.S. Supreme Court. … And Ohioans Don’t Even Get a Say A few hours after the six-week ban passed, we learned that the 20-week ban was set to be heard in committee in the Ohio House too. With less than half an hour’s notice before the committee convened, there was virtually no opportunity for anyone to speak out against the bill. Tuesday  morning, despite another late notification for the bill hearing, a small group of people were able to voice their opposition to the legislation. Legislators ignored the pleas of faith leaders and the personal stories of women and families whose lives would be affected by this legislation and the bill passed easily. Many Questions Remain Unanswered Why pass a 20-week ban when the six-week ban has already passed? Why would the Senate president suddenly decide to pass a six-week ban when he has been so clearly against it? Will Gov. Kasich veto the six-week ban and sign the 20-week ban to maintain his false “moderate” reputation? Or is the 20-week ban a backup in case the six-week ban is overturned?  When will the legislature abandon politician interference and their attempts to insert themselves between a woman and her doctor? What we do know is that bills passed under the cover of darkness, with little to no public input, are an irresponsible approach to legislation and an affront to an Ohio woman’s right to an abortion in the state. Similar bans that attempt to restrict abortion at different points in pregnancy have already been struck down by courts in Arizona, Idaho, Arkansas and North Dakota. How many women and families will have to be hurt and how many tax dollars will have to be wasted before Ohio’s legislative leaders get the message to stop interfering with a woman’s health decisions? Unfortunately, it’s pretty clear that the legislators who voted for such draconian legislation are flagrantly ignoring a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and not taking into consideration her health and well-being. 9 Dec

Obama Can Stop the Trump Administration From Targeting and Discriminating Against Muslim and Arab Immigrants - We can take action now to get rid of the discriminatory NSEERS program. This Monday, December 12, the ACLU will be joining Color of Change, 18 Million Rising, MomsRising.org, MoveOn, DRUM — Desis Rising Up and Moving, and others to deliver over 280,000 petition signatures calling on President Obama to repeal the special registration system targeting Muslim and Arab immigrants before Donald Trump takes office. Act now to end discriminatory registration The President-elect has promised on multiple occasions to target Muslim immigrants for “extreme vetting” — a truly terrifying prospect. In 2017, he could make this threat a reality by activating the dormant National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program with the flip of a switch — unless President Obama takes action now.The NSEERS “special” registration system was put in place by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. President Obama discontinued NSEERS in 2011 but left the regulatory framework on the books, ready to be reactivated at any time. If the Obama administration rescinds the NSEERS regulation now, that will terminate the registration program, leaving nothing for the next administration to reactivate.This program is not only discriminatory and dangerous — it’s completely ineffective as a security measure. In its nearly 10 years of operation, NSEERS did not produce a single terrorism conviction. Even the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security — the department’s watchdog — said the program was unreliable and a waste of taxpayers’ money.The ACLU is taking action now to get rid of the authoritarian tools the Trump administration can use to target immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. Join us this Monday, December 12, at 1:45 p.m. at Lafayette Square in front of the White House for a rally. We’ll deliver over 280,000 petition signatures to take a stand against discrimination and hate and demonstrate that we won’t stand idly by as the incoming administration tries to dismantle our free and open society. Sign the petition here.   9 Dec

In Federal Appeals Court for Wikimedia v. NSA: Here's How It Went - We’re defending the privacy and free expression rights of Wikimedia users and others. Originally posted on Wikimedia’s blog. Yesterday, the next hearing in Wikimedia Foundation v. National Security Agency took place before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. We filed this lawsuit in March 2015, to protect the free expression and privacy rights of Wikimedia users. The lawsuit challenges the government’s “Upstream” mass surveillance practices, which capture communications as they cross the internet backbone. This lawsuit is one of several steps we have taken to protect the privacy of Wikimedia users, including instituting HTTPS access across all the projects. In October 2015, the lawsuit was dismissed on procedural grounds at the district court level following a hearing before Judge T.S. Ellis, III, who found that Wikimedia and our eight co-plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the claims. We appealed this ruling to the Fourth Circuit, and yesterday’s arguments centered around the standing issue. At yesterday’s hearing, Fourth Circuit Judges Albert Diaz and Diana Gibbon Motz, and Senior Judge Andre M. Davis, asked pointed questions to both parties. The plaintiffs, including the Wikimedia Foundation, were ably represented by Patrick Toomey of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Among other things, Mr. Toomey argued that the district court had misunderstood several important technical aspects of Upstream surveillance and, as a result, had underestimated the scope and scale of the United States government’s searches of private internet communications. The government’s attorney, in turn, argued that the plaintiffs did not have standing because many of the details about Upstream surveillance remain classified and secret. At times, the three-Judge panel seemed skeptical of the government’s arguments. At the beginning of the hearing, Senior Judge Davis asked if the government had really argued in its legal briefs that a non-human robot could sift through people’s private communications without constituting a search under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits most searches and seizures conducted without a warrant. The panel also asked about the kind of additional evidence and discovery the plaintiffs would want if the district court’s dismissal was potentially reversed and remanded for further proceedings. The next step is to await a ruling from the panel, which could potentially take several months. In the days leading up to the hearing, our attorneys at the ACLU published a new comic to help explain how Upstream surveillance functions and why it should matter to internet users. They also have posted their own blog about the hearing. For further information on Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA, you can consult our landing page about the suit, as well as the ACLU’s case page for court documents and more detail. As soon as the opinion is handed down, we will provide another update. We will continue advocating for the privacy and expression rights of the Wikimedia communities, which enable users to freely create and share knowledge. 9 Dec

Trying to Keep the Internet Safe From Warrantless NSA Surveillance - With Trump about to become president, the courts need to rein in the NSA’s powers now. Originally posted at The Daily Beast. Next month, President-elect Trump will be handed the keys to the NSA’s vast spying apparatus. As a candidate, he supported mass surveillance of Americans’ phone calls, called for expanded spying on American Muslims, and even invited Russia to hack the emails of his political opponent. With these threats to privacy and liberty on the horizon, our courts will likely be more important than ever as a bulwark against unlawful spying. One of the courtroom battles that will shape President-elect Trump’s spying powers is already underway. On Thursday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument in Wikimedia v. NSA, our case challenging “Upstream” surveillance. First revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in June 2013, Upstream surveillance involves the NSA’s bulk searching of Americans’ international internet communications with the assistance of companies like AT&T and Verizon. If you email friends abroad, chat with family members overseas, or browse websites hosted outside of the United States, the NSA has almost certainly searched through the contents of your communications — and it has done so without a warrant. Upstream surveillance takes place in the internet “backbone” — the network of high-capacity cables, switches, and routers that carries Americans’ domestic and international internet communications. The NSA has installed surveillance equipment at dozens of points along the internet backbone, allowing the government to copy and then search the contents of vast quantities of internet traffic as it flows past. The government claims that Upstream surveillance is authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That law allows the NSA to engage in warrantless surveillance of Americans when they are communicating with so-called “targets” abroad. But these targets can be virtually any foreigner overseas — including people who are not accused of any wrongdoing whatsoever, like journalists, lawyers, and human rights researchers. No judge signs off on the government’s individual targets. Instead, the NSA secretly vacuums up millions of communications under a single court order each year. One of the most glaring problems with Upstream surveillance is that it is not targeted at all — at least not in any ordinary sense of the word. Instead, the government is systematically examining online communications in bulk, scanning their full contents to see which ones merely mention its targets. Because of how it operates, Upstream surveillance represents a new surveillance paradigm, one in which computers constantly scan our communications for information of interest to the government. To use a non-digital analogy: It’s as if the NSA sent agents to the U.S. Postal Service’s major processing centers to conduct continuous searches of everyone’s international mail. The agents would open, copy, and read each letter, and would keep a copy of any letter that mentioned specific items of interest — despite the fact that the government had no reason to suspect the letter’s sender or recipient beforehand. The ACLU brought this lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of legal, media, educational, and human rights organizations, including the Wikimedia Foundation (which runs Wikipedia), Amnesty International USA, The Nation magazine, PEN American Center, Human Rights Watch, the Rutherford Institute, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Global Fund for Women, and the Washington Office on Latin America. Each of these nine plaintiffs has been deeply affected by U.S. government spying. The confidentiality of plaintiffs’ international communications is essential to their work, and Upstream surveillance undermines their ability to ensure that these communications — with colleagues, journalists, witnesses, foreign government officials, victims of human rights abuses, and the tens of millions of people who read and edit Wikipedia — are indeed private. This spying violates our clients’ constitutional rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of association.  Last year, a federal district court in Maryland dismissed our suit, wrongly concluding that our clients lack standing to challenge Upstream surveillance because they had not “plausibly” alleged that their communications are intercepted. Without standing, our plaintiffs can’t have their day in court to challenge this spying on the merits. However, as we explained in our appeal briefs, it’s more than plausible that our clients’ communications are intercepted: the government’s own disclosures about Upstream surveillance, along with media reports, show that the NSA is vacuuming up and reviewing almost all text-based communications that enter and leave the country. Wikimedia alone engages in over a trillion internet communications each year, with individuals located in virtually every country on earth. Given the volume and geographic distribution of these communications, it’s indisputable that plaintiffs’ communications are ensnared by the NSA. We hope that the Fourth Circuit agrees. With President-elect Trump about to take over, there’s simply too much at stake for the judiciary to close the courthouse doors on those harmed by mass surveillance.  Check Out the Full Comic Explaining What the NSA Is Doing and Why It Matters   8 Dec

In Alabama, Susan Watson Took on the Powerful in Defense of Our Liberties and Won. We Celebrate a Life Well Lived. - Susan Watson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama, passed last week. She was an incredible person. In opposing the raft of bills seeking to make it more difficult to obtain an abortion, Susan Watson often commented, “Next it will be a crime to be a woman in Alabama.” And then she got to work overseeing the equivalent of seven federal court challenges to such restrictions in her first three years as the executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. After a brief illness, Susan died unexpectedly last week, and Alabama lost a champion for civil liberties. I knew Susan from my earliest days at the ACLU starting in 2000 through the present: as a plaintiff in voucher litigation in Florida, as a community activist in Pensacola, Florida; as an ACLU of Florida board member; as a colleague when she became the regional director in the Pensacola office of the ACLU of Florida; as my executive director in Alabama; and as my friend.          The ACLU of Alabama has a long and proud history, but when Susan took over in April 2013, she proceeded to elevate the organizational presence to meet many civil liberties’ challenges. I offer but a few examples. Susan Watson with Ray Arsenault, former president of the ACLU of Florida and civil rights historian, at the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March in March 2015. When the Alabama legislature passed a law requiring abortion doctors to have local hospital admitting privileges, Susan was there to tell them that the ACLU would sue to block the law. And we did sue, obtained a judgment declaring the law unconstitutional, and handed the state a $1.7 million bill for attorneys’ fees. When the lawsuit was filed, House Speaker Mike Hubbard called the ACLU an “extremist organization.” He has since been removed from office after having been convicted on multiple corruption charges. When Chief Justice Roy Moore did all in his power to thwart the momentum of same-sex marriage recognition in Alabama, Susan ensured that the ACLU joined with other organizations to obtain a judgment overriding the Alabama Supreme Court and Justice Moore’s administrative orders. Justice Moore has since been suspended from the Alabama Supreme Court for those actions. When Gov. Bentley barred Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds for its non-abortion family planning services, Susan pressed for the ACLU to sue and we obtained a permanent injunction against the governor and $50,000 in fees for having done so. The governor has since been mired down in personal scandal and has been relegated to the sidelines. With the years of experience she had in Florida, Susan hit the ground running in Alabama and never let up. We will truly miss her drive, her ambition, her leadership and, most of all, her potential. But we will press on in her memory and her spirit. 6 Dec

The Bovine

Did infected sheep come from U.S.? - This was the story from February 2015 that appeared around the time of the start of pre-trial hearings in the sheep-napping conspiracy case involving Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones. Once the presiding judge slapped a publication ban on the proceedings, the National Post took down this story. But now that the case is closed — it was thrown out due to having taken too long to come to trial — reporters can again report on it, and the National Post have put the story back up. Montana Jones and one of her threatened Shropshires, earlier on in the long saga. This photo from Ursula Fugger (Shropshiresheep.org) was used in the National Post story. From Adrian Humphreys in the National Post: “The bizarre case of a flock of rare sheep — purportedly stolen from an Ontario farm by agricultural activists to thwart a federal kill order during a disease scare — was adjourned after government documents suggested the infected sheep that sparked the high-profile standoff could have actually been an animal from the United States. Internal documents from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) also suggest workers may have tried to cover up any potential mistake or withheld information from its own reports, defence lawyers complain. However, until more of the government’s records on the controversial case are released, it is difficult to know precisely what has gone on since 2010, when a sheep tested positive for scrapie, a degenerative disease in sheep similar to the “mad cow disease” that affects cattle. Whether the diseased sheep came from the Ontario ewe, as the CFIA publicly says, or an American ram, as documents in court suggest it was once thought, is important not only for the criminal case but also for cross-border agricultural trade…” Read more in the National Post 14 Dec

Shepherd wins legal fight, six years later, after battling CFIA in court - Shepherd Montana Jones, with Shropshire sheep named “Murdoch”, outside the court after the Judge’s ruling that Michael Schmidt and we will not proceed to another 8-weeks of Superior Court (pre-trial motions plus 6-week judge and jury Criminal Trial) previously scheduled for April 2017. Photo by Laura Berman From Adrian Humphreys at the National Post NEWMARKET, Ont. — A six-year battle by a shepherd trying to protect her flock of rare sheep from government slaughter ended under an avalanche of more than 14,000 pages of paperwork Monday. An Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge threw out charges against Linda “Montana” Jones, an eastern Ontario sheep breeder, and Michael Schmidt, a well-known agricultural scofflaw, blaming prosecutors and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for its reluctant disclosure of massive amounts of government documents. It brings to a close the strange yarn of a fugitive flock, secretly removed from Jones’ farm hours before the CFIA arrived to slaughter them. It started in 2010 when a sheep in Alberta tested positive for scrapie (a degenerative disease similar to the “mad cow disease” that affects cattle). The CFIA said it came from Jones’ farm where she bred Shropshires, a rare breed that traces its lineage to the first sheep imported to Canada from England. Her farm was placed under quarantine and the CFIA moved to slaughter her flock as Jones fought to keep them. On April 2, 2012, when CFIA officers and police arrived at her farm, 170 kilometres east of Toronto, with an order to destroy 31 sheep they learned the flock had gone missing during the night….” Read more and watch the video on Nationalpost.com Kudos to the National Post for their continuing interest in this story, despite all those years of publication bans during the pretrial hearings. – Ed. 6 Dec

Canadian Press news service story on Sheep-napping dismissal in need of correction, says Montana Jones. - Montana Jones wrote today on Facebook:  “**WHOAH!** The media does not always fact check…Awaiting retraction/correction for a huge error in this article! Please issue a correction The Toronto Star, CTV News, CTV Toronto, The Canadian Press, Global News, Times Colonist, and all other publications who ran with this wooly misinformation. Reporter Diana Mehta wrote a significant false statement “Ten of the sheep were found either dead or dying during an inspection a few days later and were removed from the property”. FALSE In fact, the CFIA destruction order started out with 41 “susceptible” sheep and dropped to 31: There were NO “dead and dying” sheep. The CFIA used that phrase apparently to imply sheep disease on my (Montana Jones) farm and mislead the public. The reason the number changed is that a week prior a group of young sheep that were on the CFIA destruction order were shipped off farm to an abattoir, on the advice of the CFIA who authorized them to be processed and sold for meat. I chose not to sell any freezer lamb at the time and just took the loss, because there is and was so much public misperception about scrapie and human health, with people making erroneous fearful comments about mad cow disease. Under the circumstances at the time it was the best option for the sheep. The CFIA / Crown planting that phrase, and the subsequent quoting of it by Judge Bird in her ruling, was misleading and not based in fact. They were sent for meat the week before on March 28,2012, under direction and supervision of the CFIA .” From the Canadian Press story: “Charges in a long-running case over the abduction of prized sheep from an Ontario farm were stayed this week, after a judge found there had been unreasonable delays in bringing the matter to trial. The development ends a slow-grinding legal ordeal for an Ontario sheep breeder and a dairy farmer, unless the Crown decides to appeal. Linda “Montana” Jones and Michael Schmidt were charged following an investigation into the removal of 31 sheep from an Ontario farm in April 2, 2012, hours before the animals were to be euthanized. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had ordered the slaughter after a sheep sold by Jones to an Alberta farm allegedly tested positive in 2010 for scrapie, a deadly and easily transmitted disease that affects the nervous systems of sheep and goats. A lawyer for Jones and Schmidt sought a stay of proceedings earlier this month, arguing the delay in bringing the case to trial was unreasonable….” “When the CFIA learned of the positive test for scrapie on the Alberta farm, it made a number of orders which affected Jones’ farm and her herd of Shropshire sheep, Bird’s ruling said. On March 23, 2012, an order was signed authorizing the destruction of 41 sheep, an action that was to take place on April 2 that year. Ten of the sheep were found either dead or dying during an inspection a few days later and were removed from the property, Bird’s ruling said. Jones said, however, that there were no dead or dying sheep on the farm. She said a group of young sheep that were on the CFIA destruction order were sent to an abattoir on the advice of the CFIA, which authorized them to be processed and sold for meat. Jones said she chose not to sell any freezer lamb at the time. On April 1, 2012, the remaining 31 sheep that were to be killed were suddenly taken from Jones’ farm by a group that called itself the Farmers Peace Corp….” Read the whole story on the Canadian Press website.   2 Dec

Sheep-napping case dismissed today, due to excessive delay getting to trial - Montana Jones, lawyer Genevieve Eliany, and Michael Schmidt, emerge victorious from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket this morning, with a verdict of “case dismissed”. A full courtroom gallery of supporters and reporters listened intently this morning while Madame Justice Laura Bird read out her reasons for judgement on the motion of Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones, which was asking to have the CFIA’s case against them dismissed due to excessive delay. In short, Justice Bird did grant the requested dismissal of the case. We expect a copy of her decision will be available online for perusal at some point. While Justice Bird did attribute responsibility for eight months of the total 53 months delay to the defense, she concluded that the prosecution was primarily responsible for causing the delay through a failure to devote sufficient staff resources to getting the disclosure material out to the defense in a timely manner. Instead it dribbled out over the course of years, the last 5,000 pages of it arriving just in time for the scheduled start of pre-trial hearings in April of 2015. Also contributing to the delay on the part of the prosecution was their decision to pursue conflict of interest arguments against Michael and Montana’s choice to both use the same lawyer to represent them in this case. Michael Schmidt (right) talking to reporters outside the courthouse, following the verdict. In conversations with reporters on the courtroom steps after the verdict had been handed down, Michael Schmidt suggested that the outcome of having the case dismissed at this point due to excessive delay would actually have been preferred by the Crown, as a more palatable outcome than the revelation of what actually happened behind the scenes. Michael likened it to slapping a lid on a can of smelly garbage. Several reporters were on hand from local media including the National Post and Now magazine, and the media scrum outside the courtroom continued for about an hour. Elwood Quinn, a farmer from near Montreal, had brought a Shropshire sheep for the occasion. This sheep was of the same breed as Montana’s flock, which the CFIA eventually found and killed for testing. Also notable is that this verdict represents the end of the publication ban that began with the pre-trial hearings. It was unusual for a publication ban to be requested by the prosecution. Usually it’s asked for by the defense. One might wonder whether that publication ban request was an unintentional signal that the CFIA felt themselves to be “on the defense” in this case, which threatened to reveal potentially embarrassing details about their regulatory practices. Now that the case is ended, we can look forward to a fuller airing of the issues raised by this case in the media. Montana (second from right), after the hearing with a Shropshire sheep brought for the occasion by Ellwood Quinn, from Montreal. 28 Nov

Medical journals — trustworthy or not? - From Jon Rappoport’s blog: “Let us begin with a statement made by Dr. Marcia Angell, the former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, perhaps the most prestigious medical journal in the world—a journal that routinely vets and prints thousands of medical studies: “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” —Marcia Angell, MD, The New York Review of Books, January 15, 2009 You might want to read that statement several times, to savor its full impact. Then proceed to this next one, penned by the editor of The Lancet, another elite and time-honored medical journal that publishes medical studies: Richard Horton, editor-in-chief, The Lancet, in The Lancet, 11 April, 2015, Vol 385, “Offline: What is medicine’s 5 sigma?” “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness… “The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data. Journal editors deserve their fair share of criticism too. We aid and abet the worst behaviours. Our acquiescence to the impact factor fuels an unhealthy competition to win a place in a select few journals. Our love of ‘significance’ pollutes the literature with many a statistical fairy-tale…Journals are not the only miscreants. Universities are in a perpetual struggle for money and talent…” Still standing? Here are several more statements. They are devastating. The NY Review of Books (May 12, 2011), Helen Epstein, “Flu Warning: Beware the Drug Companies”: “Six years ago, John Ioannidis, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece, found that nearly half of published articles in scientific journals contained findings that were false, in the sense that independent researchers couldn’t replicate them. The problem is particularly widespread in medical research, where peer-reviewed articles in medical journals can be crucial in influencing multimillion- and sometimes multibillion-dollar spending decisions. It would be surprising if conflicts of interest did not sometimes compromise editorial neutrality, and in the case of medical research, the sources of bias are obvious. Most medical journals receive half or more of their income from pharmaceutical company advertising and reprint orders, and dozens of others [journals] are owned by companies like Wolters Kluwer, a medical publisher that also provides marketing services to the pharmaceutical industry.” More on Jon Rappoport’s blog. 24 Nov

Update on motion to dismiss sheep-napping conspiracy charges - From lawyer Karen Selick: The Montana Jones / Michael Schmidt motion to have their charges dismissed for unwarranted delay is just about to start its third day of hearing today (November 23). I was present for the first day. Lawyer Genevieve Eliany did an excellent job of presenting the case for dismissal, based on affidavit evidence provided by Shawn Buckley. The judge, Madam Justice Laura A. Bird of the Superior Court of Justice, is both a former Crown and a former defence lawyer. She appeared to be thoroughly familiar with the material that had been filed for the motion.  We are cautiously optimistic that she will decide in favour of dismissal. Justice Bird has already set a date for rendering her decision: Monday, November 28 at 9:00 am sharp. Observers are welcome to attend, but please ensure that you arrive on time. The place is the Newmarket Courthouse, 50 Eagle Street West, Newmarket. And if you haven’t yet renewed your donation for this cause, we could still use your contribution. Here’s the link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-defend-farmers-charged-in-rare-sheep-case/x/10508017#/ Thanks very much to those who recently contributed. 23 Nov

Motion to dismiss sheep conspiracy charges against Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones to be heard Nov. 21, 22, 23 in Oshawa – open to the public - Lawyer Shawn Buckley with Montana and Michael at the Durham Regional Courthouse in Oshawa, which is where the Nov. 21, 22, and 23 motion to dismiss the case will be heard. This just in from lawyer Karen Selick: Can you be in Oshawa, Ontario on Monday, November 21, 2016?  That’s the day when lawyer Genevieve Eliany will try to persuade the Superior Court of Ontario to dismiss the charges against Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt due to the inordinate delay in reaching trial. We’d like to see lots of supporters in the courtroom, so if you can arrange to attend that day—or on November 22 or 23 (yes, this motion is scheduled to take three full days to argue)—please come out and show your support. If you can attend for all three days, that would be wonderful, but if you can spare only one day, we’ll still be glad to see you. The place is the Durham Region Courthouse, located at 150 Bond Street East, Oshawa, Ontario L1G 0A2. Here’s a link to a map: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/150+Bond+St+E,+Oshawa,+ON+L1G+0A2/@43.9003408,-78.860806,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89d51cdd1900006d:0x9a97e9f2769b6cd7!8m2!3d43.900337!4d-78.858612?hl=en Court starts promptly at 10:00 a.m. so please arrive a bit early and be seated before court opens. And here’s a link to the courthouse etiquette page. Please read before you come. http://www.ontariocourts.ca/scj/at-court/etiquette-procedures/ If you’re wondering what happened to lawyer Shawn Buckley, never fear—Shawn is the deponent in the affidavit that Ms. Eliany will be using to argue the motion. It’s just not possible under court procedures for a lawyer to argue a motion based on his own affidavit, so his associate will handle this for him. I’m told that Shawn’s affidavit is superb. Some of you have offered to send additional financial support for this case just in case we needed it.  We do!  Although this campaign has raised over $65,600 in total, most of that was paid out in legal fees before this dismissal motion was initiated. We’ve raised about $2,300 towards the anticipated $10,000 cost of this motion. So if you’re among the donors who has offered additional money, now is the time to send it. We’re grateful for every penny. Here’s the link for making a donation:https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-defend-farmers-charged-in-rare-sheep-case#/updates — Karen Selick 18 Nov

Sheep-napping charges against Robert Pinnell dropped; Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones in court Nov. 21-23 - Reflections on a sheepish affair Michael Schmidt, Montana Jones, and Robert Pinnell — three of the four people accused in the 2012 sheep-napping case. Photo taken at start of proceedings. It has been 1403 days since my adventure with the legal system started. Today in the Superior court in Newmarket all charges in regards to me were withdrawn. In the beginning there were 4 of us charged with the disappearance of 31 Shropshire sheep. Myself, Robert Pinnell. Michael Schmidt. Susan Atkinson. And Montana Jones. Now after 1403 days Michael and Montana are the only ones left standing. What make this even more interesting is, that I had actually given a video statement, where I confessed, that I was the one that drove the truck and transported the sheep from one place to another. No one else had given a statement although Susan had later given a statement and plead guilty to a lesser charge. I never once said I was innocent  just that I was not guilty of what I was charged with; CONSPIRACY. Many times the topic of jail time was brought up and the statement I gave every time was 3 hot’s and a cot and someone else does my laundry jail doesn’t sound to bad to me. You see, I have always lived my life with the understanding snitches get stitches and that you never turn on a friend. I think the powers that be were unable to understand the fact I would rather spend years in jail then help them build a case on another person. I think anyone that knows me will tell you that is how I have always been. They offered me 2 years of jail instead of 5 IF I would snitch on my friends. So here I am. Now that all charges have been withdrawn against me I am free to say a few things. Up to this point I have kept silent, not wanting anything I might say to be used to help the crown. I will still keep some things to myself, but as the years have passed many of the small details have faded so I don’t think I would be of much help to the regardless. I am sure that anyone that has been following the case in the media will remember that on April 1 2012, 31 sheep went missing and that they were found sometime later on a farm outside of Owen Sound. The C.F.I.A. had been searching for these missing sheep with all their available resources. In my humble opinion it was a man… I mean sheep hunt worthy of a great serial killer. At long last they were located with the help of a tip from the public. That is where this story starts to become beyond belief. After a great and lengthy investigation, I was finally contacted by the lead inspector. I had left my name and phone number with the farmer where the sheep were staying with instructions to give it to the authorities if the sheep were located so that he would be able to point them to the real bad guy. Me. They did come and talk to me a few days later and I gave them a video statement telling them what I did. I have never once said to them I did not move the sheep but I did not share with them anyone else’s name. After this they proceeded to investigate and a few weeks later they raided the place I was living as well as the homes of the other accused. And all of this leads us to where we are today. Over the 1,403 days, I had 51-52 days in court, frankly I lost count. I received in excess of 12,000 pages of disclosure material. I did find the disclosure interesting, as it shows exactly how messed up the C.F.I.A. actually is. I am not actually sure if I can be charged again if I talk about specific details of the disclosure so I will just say that with the CFIA watching the quality of the food you eat, you are probably better off to put a gun in your mouth then to eat anything they approve. The way the organization is run, would be like a comedy if not for the fact that peoples lives are in the balance. No place but a government agency could things be this messed up. Not only does the right hand not know what the left is doing I don’t even think there is a left hand. Also for those people that don’t know me I had stopped shaving and cutting my hair the day I was charged so I have 1,403 days worth of hair. The reason I did this was to give a visual as to how long it actually takes to go through the legal process in Ontario. I must say that I never thought it would take this long and I will be very happy to finally shave. I know that both Michael and Montana still have more court time to look forward to so if anyone reading this is interested in donating to help them to finish this. Their hopefully last court proceeding will take place NOVEMBER 21, 22, and 23, 2016 in the OSHAWA Court. I am willing to let anyone that donates have their name put in a hat for, who gets to do the shaving. I am just trying to do my part to help them keep going. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-defend-farmers-charged-in-rare-sheep-case#/ Regardless of who does the shaving we are going to film it and make it available on YouTube. There is a lot more to the story but some things I will have to refrain from saying until everyone is finished in court. None of the 31 rare breed sheep killed by the CFIA had scrapie as confirmed by the CFIA — Robert Pinnell 1,403 days worth of beard and hair growth on Robert Pinnell 12 Oct

Raw Milk Keeps on Flowing at OFOF - Our Farm Our Food members with their milk on Wednesday Sept. 28th after two days of court hearings. Those are documents from the court proceedings on the table in front of the truck. There was a full parking lot of cars not long after 3 pm as those Our Farm Our Food members who could, arrived early for a media event which included a photoshoot with a table full of documents from the court proceedings earlier this week (photo above). Newly-court-sanctioned Our Farm Our Food legal representative Skip Taylor, shows the book of affidavits to Our Farm Our Food (OFOF) members on Wednesday. In case you’ve missed this week’s news so far, Michael , Elisa, Markus Schmidt, the Agricultural Renewal coop, and Our Farm Our Food coop were in court for two days this past Monday and Tuesday Sept. 26th and 27th, to argue motions. OFOF legal rep Skip Taylor, flips through one of the volumes of documents from this past week’s court proceedings, in case there are any speed readers in the group behind the table. The motion for Our Farm Our Food coop to be given intervener status in the proceedings was agreed on by all parties, and the motion to allow Lewis (Skip) Taylor to represent the coop at the proceedings was also approved by the judge, even though he is not a lawyer, and in spite of some objections by the other parties. Court documents of evidence and disclosures, available for Our Farm Our Food members’ perusal. However the motion by lawyer Davin Charney (representing the Church, ARC, Markus and Elisa) to convert the proceedings from an application (for an injunction) to an action (which could allow for trial by jury) was withdrawn after a day of presentation and objections because it became clear that it would likely not be granted by the judge. Also, in a surprising development, around 11 o’clock on the second day, Elisa van der Hout and Michael Schmidt both withdrew themselves from the proceedings and said that as far as they were concerned, the applications for injunctions could go ahead, and that they were ready to be arrested and jailed as a result. However, it seems the applications for injunctions will likely not be granted until after the next court date in December at the earliest, so arrests are likely not imminent. You can read the story in more detail here: Day One | Day Two | News Release. 29 Sep

Aggrieved Farmers Exit Court, Citing Lack of Justice; News Conference Wed. Sept. 28th, 3:00 pm in Thornhill - Markus, Michael and Elisa talking with supporters following their withdrawal from court proceedings yesterday at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ontario. Newmarket, Canada—September 27, 2016—At a two-day hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice Tuesday, in a dramatic turn of events, farmers walk away from the proceedings claiming the proceedings are not about justice. The farmers, Elisa Vander Hout and Michael Schmidt, and representatives of Our Farm Our Food coop will hold a press conference on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 3:00pm 901 Rutherford Road Vaughan, Ontario, Canada at the Christian Community Church. At the press conference, Elisa Vander Hout will address the reasons that she withdrew her participation in the court proceedings and next steps for the farm owners. “There is no justice in the courts,” claims Elisa Vander Hout, farmer at Glencolton Farms. “I would rather risk arrest than continue down this vicious cycle in the court system. The public needs to see what the Canadian government is doing here—they are criminalizing farmers and mothers, for choosing foods produced on our farms.” During Tuesday’s proceedings, the judge told Vander Hout that the bureaucrats could not have a conversation with the farm owners because that would be like getting legal advice. Vander Hout, Schmidt and the hundreds of coop members are requesting dialogue with the bureaucrats to move this issue forward without criminal charges. The past year has seen an unprecedented rise in consumer interest in raw milk as well as escalating, aggressive action against Elisa Vander Hout, Michael Schmidt and the Glencolton Farms community. “It is clear that the government will stop at nothing to persecute and prosecute peaceful farmers,” states Schmidt. “I have spent more time in courtrooms and under surveillance this past year than I have farming. As a farmer, it is my calling and my right to feed my community. This is what humans have done for millennia. The Ministry of Health interfering with private commerce is not right.” In January of this year, York Region, The Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Ministry of Health filed an application to get an injunction against the distribution or sale of raw milk against Michael Schmidt, Elisa Vander Hout, Glencolton Farms, Agricultural Renewal Coop and anyone who provides, distributes or recommends raw milk. Our Farms, Our Foods Coop is a 200 member cooperative formed for the purpose of boarding personal cows with a responsible dairyman. The group is just one of the many interested stakeholders in the petition to the Canadian Parliament. For additional information on raw milk www.realmilk.com 28 Sep

CBC | World News

More criminal charges laid in Flint, Mich., water crisis - Michigan's attorney general filed more criminal charges Tuesday in the investigation of lead-tainted water in Flint, targeting two former state-appointed emergency managers who had key roles in making changes to the supply that caused the crisis.29 min

Syria closes in on last rebel enclave in Aleppo, lets UN beef up monitoring - The UN will send an additional 20 staff members to east Aleppo, where they will monitor the removal of thousands of people, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.41 min

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Shocked Turks learning to keep calm, keep moving as attacks mount - The photograph of men and women cowering after a gallery shooting that killed Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov offers a vivid snapshot of Turks at this moment.07:16

ISIS claims responsibility for Jordan shootings, Newfoundland woman among 10 dead - ISIS claims responsibility for a series of weekend shootings in Jordan that killed nine Jordanians and a Canadian tourist, Linda Vatcher, a retired teacher originally from Burgeo, N.L.06:18

Ex-Wimbledon champ Kvitova injured by knife-wielding burglar - Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was injured by a knife-wielding attacker at her home in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.06:14

Russian officials arrive in Turkey to investigate ambassador's assassination - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that a group of Russian investigators had arrived in Ankara to help investigate the killing of Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov.03:51

Not just ignorance or bias: Why it's time to stop attacking voters who backed Trump or Brexit: Opinion - Limiting the analysis of electoral surprises such as Brexit or Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential victory to easy accusations of ignorance and bias would be unwise, writes Stephen Toope, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs.03:00

Swiss mosque shooting suspect who killed 3 is confirmed dead - A man who shot three people at a Zurich mosque on Monday is dead, police said on Tuesday, confirming that a body found near the scene was that of the assailant.02:10

Truck driver intentionally struck pedestrians at market, German police say - Berlin police said on Tuesday that investigators assume the driver of a truck that ploughed into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 48 others, did so intentionally in a suspected terrorist attack.00:21

CNET News

Honda delivers 2017 Clarity Fuel Cell to first six customers - Roadshow - And now they can drive in the carpool lane with impunity!41 min

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Tigers chase drone through the snow. Can they catch it? - CNET - Siberian tigers at a Canadian zoo are frolicking in the snow and then are mesmerized by a drone filming and teasing them.09:27

Don't Force it! Fix it with this 'Star Wars' multi-tool - CNET - Wookiee mechanics, droids and humans alike will find this Millennium Falcon-shaped tool kit from ThinkGeek can get the job done.09:06

Toyota recalls 86 coupe over ignition-key troubles - Roadshow - Thankfully, it affects fewer than 100 models in the US.09:00

Last minute holiday gifts for cooks and cooking gadget lovers - CNET - From Home Deals: Looking for a last minute holiday gift for the cook in your life? We've got a great selection of deals that can make cooking easier and quicker.08:37

Meet the Klingon newt and the Ziggy Stardust snake - CNET - Let's end the year on a playful note, with two stunning new species discovered in one of the most diverse areas on the planet.08:26

EU to Facebook: What's with that misleading WhatsApp info? - CNET - Could Facebook be slapped with a huge fine next year? Turn the page to chapter 2017 to find out.08:19

Watch Ford GT designer Camilo Pardo turn Instagram posts into art - Roadshow - This isn't something you can whip up at your local "Wine and Painting" studio.08:10

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame strikes a chord on social media - CNET - Social Cues: Also trending on social media are Archduke Franz Ferdinand and #ScroogeChristmasCarols.07:50

CNET News

Honda delivers 2017 Clarity Fuel Cell to first six customers - Roadshow - And now they can drive in the carpool lane with impunity!41 min

Steal the plans to this gingerbread Death Star - CNET - The deadliest spacecraft in the galaxy gets a deliciously detailed gingerbread makeover for the holidays.09:37

Tigers chase drone through the snow. Can they catch it? - CNET - Siberian tigers at a Canadian zoo are frolicking in the snow and then are mesmerized by a drone filming and teasing them.09:27

Don't Force it! Fix it with this 'Star Wars' multi-tool - CNET - Wookiee mechanics, droids and humans alike will find this Millennium Falcon-shaped tool kit from ThinkGeek can get the job done.09:06

Toyota recalls 86 coupe over ignition-key troubles - Roadshow - Thankfully, it affects fewer than 100 models in the US.09:00

Last minute holiday gifts for cooks and cooking gadget lovers - CNET - From Home Deals: Looking for a last minute holiday gift for the cook in your life? We've got a great selection of deals that can make cooking easier and quicker.08:37

Meet the Klingon newt and the Ziggy Stardust snake - CNET - Let's end the year on a playful note, with two stunning new species discovered in one of the most diverse areas on the planet.08:26

EU to Facebook: What's with that misleading WhatsApp info? - CNET - Could Facebook be slapped with a huge fine next year? Turn the page to chapter 2017 to find out.08:19

Watch Ford GT designer Camilo Pardo turn Instagram posts into art - Roadshow - This isn't something you can whip up at your local "Wine and Painting" studio.08:10

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame strikes a chord on social media - CNET - Social Cues: Also trending on social media are Archduke Franz Ferdinand and #ScroogeChristmasCarols.07:50

CNN.com - Top Stories

Berliners mourn victims of Christmas market truck attack - Shell shocked Berliners are mourning the victims of Monday's Christmas market attack.29 min

Timeline: Public life targeted - Over the course of 2016 there have been a string of terror attacks and foiled terror plots in Germany.09:31

Aleppo evacuation 'finished in hours' - A desperate operation to evacuate thousands of Syrians from eastern Aleppo could be completed by Wednesday, Turkey has claimed.09:09

Too little, too late for Aleppo's dead and displaced - How do you monitor a skeleton of a city bereft of its citizens, who have been bused out after seeing their homes bombed to pieces by barrel bombs from the Syrian regime and bunker busters from their Russian supporters?08:47

'Methbot' fraud steals $180M in online ads08:47

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Center for Climate and Energy Solutions RSS Feed

International Intern - ACADEMIC INTERNSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT – International InternCenter for Climate and Energy Solutions, Arlington, VA  The internship provides the ideal candidate the opportunity to work with the International team. This team works with governments and stakeholders to identify practical and effective options for an international climate framework. C2ES engages with international policymakers in the United States and other key countries; regularly convenes informal discussions among climate negotiators; and organizes conferences, workshops, and briefings on international climate policy developments. Prior to being hired, the selected candidate must be able to provide proof of academic credit or funding from an accredited college, university, or third party for research. Funding must cover at least minimum wage.Major Responsibilities:Support C2ES’s informal discussions, workshops, briefings, etc.;Contribute as needed to research and analysis of international climate policy issues;Maintain and improve content of international portions of the C2ES website; andContribute as feasible to C2ES blog and publications.Qualifications:Bachelor’s degree or higher in environmental policy or related fields, with focus on international issues; Masters level student preferred;Familiarity with international environmental agreements, particularly the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;Top-notch writing, editing, research, and analytic skills; journalism/advanced writing skills a plus;Attention to detail;Willingness to learn and pitch in at all levels.Status: Part-time/Full-time internshipAbout the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions: C2ES is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to forge practical solutions to climate change. Our mission is to advance strong policy and action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote clean energy, and strengthen resilience to climate impacts. A key objective is a national market-based program to reduce emissions cost-effectively. We believe a sound climate strategy is essential to ensure a strong, sustainable economy.C2ES is the successor to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and is widely recognized as an influential and pragmatic voice on climate issues. We are:•    A Trusted Source – Ranking regularly among the top environmental think tanks in the world, C2ES provides timely, impartial information and analysis on our pressing climate and energy challenges.•    A Bridge-Builder – We bring city, state, and national policymakers together with businesses and other stakeholders to achieve common understanding and consensus solutions.•    A Policy Innovator – We develop market-based solutions and other practical policy approaches that deliver real and lasting climate progress.•    A Catalyst for Business Action – We work with Fortune 500 companies to strengthen business action and business support for effective climate policy.For more information about the C2ES visit www.c2es.org.To apply - send cover letter, resume, and writing sample to: hr@C2ES.org19 Dec

Volkswagen Settlement Funding: What Cities Should Know - Volkswagen Settlement Funding: What Cities Should KnowDecember 2016Download the fact sheet (PDF)In October 2016, the U.S. government granted final approval of a $14.7 billion settlement against Volkswagen (VW) for equipping more than 500,000 of its diesel vehicles to cheat U.S. vehicle emissions tests in violation of the Clean Air Act. Volkswagen will spend $10 billion on vehicle buybacks and $4.7 billion to mitigate the pollution from these cars and invest in green vehicle technology. This latter amount will be split between two investment programs that states, cities, and tribes can use to expand alternative vehicle projects and access to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). Cities can play a key role, starting now, by identifying local emissions-cutting and zero-emission vehicle deployment projects that could benefit from increased investment and proposing ideas to states and Volkswagen about ways these funds can best be leveraged.14 Dec

Private Actors: Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution - Environmental Law Institute, January 1, 2017. Originally published on eli.org /docUploads/perciasepe-eli-debate-recap.pdf 14 Dec

An American in Marrakech - For 10 exhausting days, from the moment I arrived in Marrakech for the latest U.N. conference on climate change, I found myself thrust into the uneasy role of unofficial emissary for a country transformed overnight.COP 22 had started on a high note, as thousands from around the world celebrated the remarkably swift entry into force of the Paris Agreement just days earlier. But then in a flash, with news of Donald Trump’s surprise victory, the historic gains of Paris seemed suddenly at risk of unraveling.By the time I touched down in Marrakech two days after the election, the initial shock had given way to deep anxiety, with rumors swirling that president-elect Trump would proclaim at any moment that he would pull the United States from the Paris Agreement.As a strictly nonpartisan organization, C2ES has worked closely over the years with Democrats and Republicans alike. Before and after the election, we made clear our willingness to work with the next administration and others to build common ground.On the ground in Marrakech, like other veteran COP-goers from the United States, I found myself besieged by delegates desperate for insight into what had happened and, more importantly, what would happen now. I had precious little to offer.My first instinct was to note that one huge lesson of the entire campaign was the utter unpredictability of political outcomes – and that would be true going forward as well.True, the incoming president had declared climate change a hoax and vowed to “cancel” the Paris Agreement. But, I’d note, he’d also denied his climate denialism and, back in 2009, he’d signed an open letter in The New York Times supporting climate legislation.  Plus, there were already signs he was tempering his views on other issues like immigration and health care.At two C2ES-sponsored side events, I was joined by major U.S. companies, a top California official and a Democratic staffer from the Senate (we’d invited a speaker from the Trump transition team but they had no one in Marrakech). We all made the case that the strong momentum in the United States toward a clean-energy transition is bound to continue.But we could offer no solid assurance that our collective efforts had not just suffered a real blow.Against that uncertainty, it was heartening to hear country after country reaffirm its commitment to the Paris Agreement and to a low-carbon future. The negotiations, now focused on filling in the details of the new Paris architecture, continued. And in the end they achieved the same outcomes they likely would have.So for the moment, at least, the world is pressing ahead. But as we all head home from Marrakech, the uncertainty still looms. Should President-elect Trump make good on his campaign promise to withdraw from Paris, there is no denying that the consequences could be grave.The Paris Agreement is a remarkable achievement. Its pragmatic approach preserves the full sovereignty of nations to decide their own paths forward, while also providing them the means to hold one another accountable. It is precisely the sort of agreement U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have long advocated.But the agreement will only achieve its full promise if the more detailed rules being negotiated over the next two years are sound. The best way to ensure that is for the United States to remain at the table, honoring its commitments, and providing the kind of leadership that only it can.12 Dec

Fortune 500 Voices Give Glimpse of Climate Future Under Trump - Bloomberg BNA, Nov. 16, 2016 http://bit.ly/2fozPyK 12 Dec

Financing carbon capture: Corporate partners lead the way - Addressing climate change will require tremendous investment in low- and zero-carbon energy technologies. Estimates are as high as $1 trillion per year through 2030.Some of that investment must be in carbon capture technology, which can reduce emissions from both the power and industrial sectors. Carbon capture could provide 13 percent of global emissions reductions through 2050.Innovative corporate partnerships will play a critical role in launching this investment. That’s because partnerships can bring together the right combination of resources, talent, and experience and combine technical knowhow with business-oriented analyses of commercial viability. To solve our emissions challenges, innovation will be key, not just in technology, but also in investment models and business partnerships.NET PowerOne example of an innovative corporate partnership that is bringing carbon capture technology into the field is the NET Power demonstration project in La Porte, Texas.The NET Power project, which is expected to come online in 2017, will be the first in the world to use supercritical CO2 (when the gas has the density of a liquid), instead of steam, to drive a turbine. It will make electricity from natural gas using patented technology that captures almost all carbon- and non-carbon emissions at no additional cost: it has equipment costs and fuel usage that are equivalent to or better than best-in-class conventional natural gas combined cycle power plants without carbon capture.  The technology is also capable of very low or no levels of water usage.Each partner in the project brings a unique competency: 8 Rivers is the technology expert, contributing its invention and engineering oversight capabilities. Exelon Corporation contributes its sizeable network of business contacts, financial resources, project development support, and operations and maintenance expertise and may adopt the technology for commercial use in its operations. CB&I provides engineering, procurement and construction services, as well as financial assistance and experience with sales. Finally, Toshiba provides specialized expertise in high-pressure turbines.During a recent C2ES webinar on financing carbon capture, some of the partners explained why the collaboration model works better than the venture capital model of investment in this case.From the investor perspective, corporate partnerships are viewed as more mature transactions “both as an investment opportunity, but also as a technology that we think is ready for us to deploy when the time comes,” said David Brown, senior vice president of federal government affairs and public policy at Exelon.From the developer perspective, NET Power CEO Bill Brown said, “Normally, too many startup firms don’t have market definition as a critical part of their first stage. They should. By reaching out to the customers [like Exelon] to begin with, we were able to get a very good focus on the market.”What’s NextMore capital is being committed to a low-carbon future:A year ago, 20 nations launched Mission Innovation to double their cumulative annual spending on clean energy research from $10 billion to $20 billion, with CO2 capture utilization and storage being one of the “R&D Focus Areas.”As a complement, leading entrepreneurs launched the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and pledged to invest billions in early-stage clean energy technology.On Nov. 4, the CEOs of 10 oil and gas companies announced the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative which aims to direct $1 billion over the next decade to accelerate the development of technologies that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a significant scale, including carbon capture, use and storage.As this private capital is mobilized, innovative corporate partnerships can combine business experience and commercial viability with government contributions to research and development to advance the commercial deployment of clean energy technology quickly.The potential benefits for accelerated clean energy technology deployment are substantial. By reducing the cost of capture, the NET Power project may create an opportunity for U.S. innovation to help achieve emissions reductions globally.Also, reducing the cost of capture lets us explore re-use of CO2, an area of increasing focus. Launched in January, the Global CO2 Initiative aims to enable the capture and re-use of 10 percent of annual global CO2 emissions by converting them into useful products. Its new roadmap highlights the potential for CO2 reuse in concrete, fuels (methane and liquid fuels), carbonate aggregates, polymers, and methanol.To solve our emissions challenges, innovation will be key, not just in clean energy technology, but also in investment models and business partnerships.NET Power demonstration project in La Porte, Texas, expected to come online in 2017.12 Dec

Bob Perciasepe's remarks at Harvard University - Prepared remarks by Bob PerciasepePresident, Center for Climate and Energy SolutionsChallenges for the New PresidentHarvard University Center for the EnvironmentCambridge, MANovember 15, 2016I want to thank Doctor (Daniel) Schrag and the Harvard University Center for the Environment for inviting me to speak. And my thanks to all of you for coming to listen. Dan and I have been talking for some time about my coming up from Washington to do a lecture. I’m not sure either one of us had quite this backdrop of current events in mind.What a week. I know folks are still processing what happened seven nights ago and what happens next. The truth is: Elections have consequences. That’s why it’s so important to exercise our right to vote.It’s too soon to tell exactly what steps the next administration will take on climate and energy policy. The rhetoric of campaigning doesn’t always exactly match the realities of governing. We hope President-elect Trump and his advisers take some time to study the issues and hear a broad range of perspectives.They’ll find that a majority of Americans support stronger climate action.They’ll find that many cities and states are promoting energy efficiency, deploying renewable energy, and supporting alternative fuel vehicles.And they’ll find that business leaders recognize the rising costs of climate impacts, and also see opportunities in clean technologies. You could say they want to “win” in the growing global clean-energy economy.This evening, I want to explore three questions:What are the climate and energy realities facing this president, and all of us?What might we expect from a Trump Administration?And what can we do to promote environmentally responsible policies in the years ahead?To put my remarks in context, it helps to know a little bit about my organization C2ES – the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. C2ES is a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank. We work to forge practical solutions to climate change. Our mission is to advance strong policy and action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote clean energy, and strengthen resilience to climate impacts.We believe a sound climate strategy is essential to ensure a strong, sustainable economy. I want to underline that.  It’s a conviction our think tank was founded on.  And it’s a message I hope you’ll leave here with tonight: Environmental and economic progress go hand in hand.I came to C2ES a little over two years ago because of its reputation:As a Trusted Source of impartial information. We rank regularly among the top environmental think tanks in the world.As a Bridge-Builder. We bring city, state, and national policymakers together with businesses to achieve common understanding.As a Policy Innovator. We explore market-based solutions and other practical policy approaches.And as Catalyst for Business Action. We work with Fortune 500 companies to strengthen business support for climate policy.The idea of bringing disparate groups together is part of our DNA. Here are four quick examples:At the international level, C2ES brought together negotiators from two dozen countries for a series of private discussions that helped lay the groundwork for the landmark Paris Agreement.Our Solutions Forum is fostering collaboration to reduce emissions, mobilize climate finance, and strengthen resilience to climate impacts. That last one -- climate resilience -- is relatively new.  With communities experiencing climate impacts here and now, it’s something we can’t afford to ignore.We recently partnered with The U.S. Conference of Mayors to create the Alliance for a Sustainable Future, whose goal is to strengthen public-private cooperation.And our multi-sectoral Business Environmental Leadership Council is the largest U.S.-based group of companies devoted solely to addressing climate change.That’s who we are and where I’m coming from. Now, let’s look at the some of the realities facing the next administration.Realities on the GroundDepending on your point of view, this was either a “Change Election” or a “Fear of Change Election.” What I can tell you is that it wasn’t a “Climate Change Election” because nobody was talking about it.Climate change didn’t come up once in any of the presidential debates.  The only question about energy policy came from that guy in a red sweater, Ken Bone. Climate change was not top of mind in the voting booth. Asked before the election where climate change ranked among their concerns, voters put it No. 19 out of 23.But when asked where they stand, the majority of Americans – of all political viewpoints -- support climate action.  A majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans support funding renewables research, providing tax rebates for energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels, and regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.Americans support climate action because they understand that climate change is occurring, and that human actions are largely responsible.Here are a few more facts:2014 was the hottest year globally ever recorded. Until 2015. 2016 has been even hotter.Climate change is a matter of science, but also a matter of dollars and cents. This year, the United States experienced a dozen billion-dollar disasters.Climate impacts like rising sea levels and more frequent and intense heatwaves, downpours, and droughts threaten the way we all live our lives. Another reality is that our energy landscape has already changed. This isn’t your grandfather’s energy system. When I was born, the United States didn’t get any commercial power from natural gas or nuclear. Zero. Now those two sources together are responsible for more than half of our electricity.Let’s talk a minute about those two. First, natural gas. Thirty years ago, before many of you were born, it was illegal to use natural gas in a power plant.  Now it makes up more than a third of U.S. electricity supply. Coal makes up another third of our energy mix, down from about half 10 years ago.  This change is due in large part to market forces. Natural gas is inexpensive, so utilities have switched to if from coal.These same market forces are posing a challenge for nuclear energy. Nuclear is responsible for more than 60 percent of zero-carbon electricity in the United States – It’s the biggest source. A number of reactors have been closing prematurely, which could make it even harder to meet our climate goals.Renewables have been surging as costs have plummeted. Wind and solar generation have grown nearly twelve-fold since 2005. That’s nearly eight times greater than expected.Thanks to diversifying our energy mix, and improving energy efficiency, power sector emissions have fallen by more than 20 percent in the past 10 years.  We’re moving in the right direction.  The challenge will be to keep doing so.What to expectWhat can we expect from the new administration? I’ve been getting two questions for the past week: What will happen to the Clean Power Plan? And what will happen with the Paris Agreement? So let’s talk about those.Every new president usually halts regulations that are in the process of being formulated, so we can expect that. For a final regulation, like the Clean Power Plan, a simple stroke of the pen can’t undo it. It’s a process. First, they’d have to do a rule-making, which requires public comment.  Then, they'd need to come back with an alternative plan. That’s because under previous Supreme Court rulings, EPA is still under a legal obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s mandatory. They’ll be sued if they don't.The Clean Power Plan is currently in the courts. So we could find ourselves replacing the current legal uncertainty with new and different legal uncertainty.On a positive note, the Clean Power Plan prompted a lot of state environmental officials, public utility regulators and other stakeholders to sit down together for the first time to talk about electricity reliability, efficiency and affordability. We hope those conversations bear fruit.There’s no doubt that the Clean Power Plan could reduce power plant emissions faster and further than no plan at all. But progress has already been made and I think there are ways it can continue.Mr. Trump has also said he wants to “cancel” the Paris Agreement. The bottom line is that he could legally pull the U.S. out of it. Let’s think through, practically, how that would work out for us. Consider that virtually every country in the world has committed to taking climate action. The Paris Agreement is a bottom-up, flexible framework. It relies on peer pressure. If we want to hold other countries accountable, we have to hold up our end. If we walk away from our commitments, we also give up being a player in the innovative energy and transportation technologies that can create U.S. jobs. China, Brazil and the US led the world last year in employment in renewable energy.The Paris Agreement has widespread support among the business community. Eleven major companies we work with, including Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Microsoft, National Grid, and Shell, signed onto a C2ES statement applauding governments for bringing the agreement into force so quickly this month. Businesses say the agreement provides long-term direction, promotes transparency, and addresses competitiveness.Because the Paris Agreement is flexible, there are a lot of ways for an individual country to tailor its efforts. It was also designed to be durable – It can survive shifts in political currents. The nearly 100 other countries that have already ratified it are reducing emissions for a variety of reasons, including economic opportunities and health benefits to their people. I expect they will remain committed to moving forward.As for what else we can expect – we’ll have to wait and see. From opening up public lands and offshore areas to more drilling to re-assessing pipelines to appointing agency leaders with very different priorities from the past eight years, we’re going to see changes.What we can doSo that brings me to my final question tonight: What can we do to promote environmentally responsible policies in the years ahead? Let’s look at four vantage points – federal, state, local, and business.First: The executive branch has been the focus of climate action for a number of years.  That’s going to change. I want to posit that it may be time to return our focus on the legislative branch. Three areas where bipartisan support already exists are: building infrastructure, incentivizing carbon capture technologies, and preserving the nuclear fleet.Both presidential candidates talked about the need to modernize our aging infrastructure. That’s not just roads and bridges. We need to modernize our electric grid to move renewable power from where it’s generated to where it’s needed. We need to improve the natural gas pipeline system to reduce leaks. And we need to expand electric vehicle charging. The electric grid should be able to accommodate clean energy technologies like energy storage, time-of-day pricing, and grid-to-vehicle interfaces.Millions of miles of pipes carrying drinking water and wastewater are nearing end of life.  And it takes a lot of energy to move a gallon of water. The nation’s utilities lose about $2.6 billion dollars annually from trillions of gallons of leaked drinking water.Infrastructure projects can also help communities be more resilient to extreme weather, make communities more livable, increase property values, and save energy and water. And, of course, infrastructure projects create jobs.The second area where we could make progress is carbon capture, use and storage, or CCUS. Some of you might be skeptical about this as “clean coal.” The truth is, there’s no scenario for achieving the emission cuts we need globally without carbon capture. We need to keep emissions out of the air not only from coal and natural-gas power plants around the world, but also the industrial sector like steel, chemical, and cement plants. The industrial sector is responsible for more than 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases.Right now, there are bipartisan bills in the House and Senate that would spur carbon capture technology. Imagine Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, on the same bill. It’s true.A third area where we might get some bipartisan agreement is preserving our nuclear fleet. There’s a bill right now that both Senators Whitehouse and Inhofe support. From a climate perspective, it doesn’t make sense to prematurely close nuclear plants when, in the short- and medium-term, they cannot realistically be replaced by zero-emission power sources. Keeping these reactors operational also buys us time to address energy storage and transmission challenges to support more renewable generation.Let me add one more area as a possibility where we might see some agreement at the federal level: helping the communities most affected by the transition to clean energy. Remember that market forces – not regulations -- have mainly been driving the decline of coal.  And natural gas will continue to displace coal in our power generation fleet at current prices.  There are no plans for new coal-fired power plants in the United States. What coal communities need is opportunities for new jobs. The United States could be world leaders in manufacturing clean energy and transportation technologies. More Americans work now in the solar industry than work in either oil & gas extraction or coal mining. It will take a concerted effort involving education and training, but we have to help.Moving to the states, which have always been the incubators of policy, we’ve seen a lot of progress on clean energy. Twenty-nine9 states require electric utilities to deliver a certain amount of electricity from renewable or alternative energy sources. Ten states that are home to a quarter of the US population already have a price on carbon and are successfully reducing emissions. Those states are California and the nine Northeast states, including Massachusetts, in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI has added $243 million in value to Massachusetts’ economy. Massachusetts has also been named the most energy efficient state in the country for the last six years.Every state has either an operational wind energy project, a wind-related manufacturing facility, or both. Some of the biggest wind energy producers are Texas and Iowa. They won’t want to reverse the economic prosperity they’ve seen as a result. America’s first offshore wind farm has just come online off Rhode Island, launching new industry with the potential to create jobs in manufacturing and the marine trades.Time and again, we’ve seen leadership at the state level and I expect that will continue.On environmental policies, so much often comes down to the local level.  Many cities have already taken the ball and are running with it. They’re improving the energy efficiency of buildings, deploying cleaner energy, and encouraging cleaner transportation.Cities see the real and rising risks of climate change. They’re dealing with the impacts now. They also see opportunities to for energy and transportation systems that are cleaner and more efficient than today. To keep their efforts moving forward, partnership and collaboration will be key, especially between cities and companies.That’s why we at C2ES recently launched a partnership with The US Conference of Mayors called the Alliance for a Sustainable Future. The main goal is to spur public-private cooperation on climate action and sustainable development in cities. Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales is leading the steering committee. Founding sponsors include JPMorgan & Chase Co., Duke Energy, and AECOM, and the mayors of Austin, Des Moines, New York City, and Salt Lake City.Finally, business leadership has been and will continue to be crucial in transitioning to a clean energy and clean transportation future. A C2ES study found more than 90 percent of the companies in the S&P Global 100 Index see climate change as a business risk. They see rising sea level and more frequent and extreme heat waves, downpours and drought damaging and disrupting their facilities and operations, supply and distribution chains, and water and power supplies.More than 150 companies -- from Alcoa to Xerox -- signed the White House American Business Act on Climate Pledge.  They committed to cutting emissions, reducing water usage, and using more renewable energy. Business leaders see opportunities in clean energy and transportation.Here’s another thing to think about, the power of the consumer. In the past year, three in 10 Americans say they’ve rewarded companies for taking steps to address climate change.The reality is that we have strong momentum in the right direction.  Our economy has begun decarbonizing. Power sector emissions are down, thanks largely to market forces and to incentives for renewable energy that have strong bipartisan support. Many cities, states and companies, along with a number of congressional Republicans, want to keep that momentum going. Smart investments and technological innovation have started America on a clean-energy transition. Building on that momentum will protect communities from rising climate damages and will contribute to strong and sustained economic growth.The longer we wait to address climate change, the costlier it will be. I urge all of you to work at the local and state level to support common-sense policies that lead us toward a sustainable future.12 Dec

Why Donald Trump Probably Wont Wreck the Paris Climate Agreement - UN Dispatch Podcast, Nov. 17, 2016 http://bit.ly/2fR1XON 12 Dec

C2ES Wins Award as Top US Energy and Environment Think Tank - Press ReleaseNovember 29, 2016Contact Laura Rehrmann, rehrmannl@c2es.org, 703-516-0621 C2ES Wins Award as Top U.S. Energy and Environment Think TankWASHINGTON – The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) was named the top U.S. energy and environment think tank in this year’s Prospect Think Tank Awards for helping lay the groundwork for the Paris Agreement.Prospect, a monthly British magazine specializing in politics, economics, and current affairs, announced the 16th annual award winners November 28 at the House of Commons in London.The judges praised C2ES for its “extremely influential” Toward 2015 Dialogue leading up to the climate talks in Paris. C2ES organized nearly 100 hours of in-depth discussions among lead negotiators from the United States, China and 20 other key African, Asian, European, and Latin American countries. The resulting report outlined the essential elements for agreement in Paris.“Many of the ideas discussed at its gathering were eventually replicated in the Paris agreement,” the judges said. “That’s as high impact as it gets.”Prospect’s Think Tank Awards, founded in 2001, aim to recognize the most original, influential, and rigorous work on the most pressing challenges facing people, governments, and businesses today.C2ES is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to forge practical solutions to climate change.  It continues to convene informal discussions among negotiators, focusing now on the next round of decisions needed to implement the Paris Agreement and ensure its enduring success.Learn more about C2ES’s work:Vision for Paris: Building an Effective Climate Agreement, a report from the co-chairs of the Toward 2015 Dialogue outlining the essential elements of a Paris climate agreement. The report foresaw a durable legal agreement that sets binding commitments for all parties, holds countries accountable, and works to progressively strengthen global ambition.How we helped on the road to Paris, a blog by C2ES Executive Vice President Elliot Diringer.C2ES Annual Report, highlighting our key accomplishments over the past year.Our overview and summary of COP 22 in Marrakech.About C2ES: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to forge practical solutions to climate change. Our mission is to advance strong policy and action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote clean energy, and strengthen resilience to climate impacts. Learn more at www.c2es.org.  12 Dec

Volkswagen Settlement Funding: What Cities Should Know - Volkswagen Settlement Funding: What Cities Should KnowDecember 2016Download the fact sheet (PDF)In October 2016, the U.S. government granted final approval of a $14.7 billion settlement against Volkswagen (VW) for equipping more than 500,000 of its diesel vehicles to cheat U.S. vehicle emissions tests in violation of the Clean Air Act. Volkswagen will spend $10 billion on vehicle buybacks and $4.7 billion to mitigate the pollution from these cars and invest in green vehicle technology. This latter amount will be split between two investment programs that states, cities, and tribes can use to expand alternative vehicle projects and access to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). Cities can play a key role, starting now, by identifying local emissions-cutting and zero-emission vehicle deployment projects that could benefit from increased investment and proposing ideas to states and Volkswagen about ways these funds can best be leveraged. 12 Dec

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Facebook Fake News Checkers Affiliated With US Gov? - Facebook’s war on ‘fake news’ has skeptics asking: Who decides? … Facebook’s big crackdown on so-called “fake news” has one glaring fault, according to critics: Who gets to say what’s real and what’s not? – Fox News Facebook, which is rapidly becoming the largest “news” agency in the world, intends to use a selected group of supposedly non-government facilities to determine what’s fake or not when it comes to news dissemination on its vast ‘Net site. But these groups may in fact be affiliated with the US government and thus vulnerable to influence from DC and various government related intel agencies including the CIA. This is ironic because there is plenty of evidence, here, that Facebook itself is at least partially the creation of the CIA, which reportedly funded its initial formation and has doubtless been instrumental in its expansion. The information on users collected by Facebook is easily available to American intel efforts. This is one supposed reason Chinese officials won’t allow Facebook into their country as of yet. Potential Facebook evaluators of fake news reportedly include Politifact, Factcheck, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, ABC News and Snopes. More: Facebook’s plan to purge fake news relies on users, who flag stories they suspect of being bogus. Then, those stories are sent to third-party fact checkers … If ultimately deemed questionable, the story is labeled “disputed.”  The fly in the ointment, critics say, is that even media outlets and self-professed truth squads are biased. And distinguishing between made-up stories and ones the news police don’t agree with is risky business, they say.  “Everyone who cares about free speech and a free press has cause for alarm,” said Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of Breitbart, a conservative news site that has been accused without evidence of peddling fake news. Is Marlow right to be alarmed? The Washington Post under Jeff Bezos has via several controversial articles shown itself willing to support what amounts to American censorship. The Washington Post was, as well, reportedly part of a group of publications that participated in a CIA-led intelligence operation called Project Mockingbird. This involved ensuring that US reporters wrote articles that would be favorable to the US government and its military-industrial complex. In a November posting at Newsbud, John Whitehead writes the following, Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein … along with Bob Woodward blew the lid off the Watergate scandal … [He] reported in his expansive 1977 Rolling Stone piece, “The CIA and the Media”: “More than 400 American journalists … in the past twenty‑five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency… There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services… Reporters shared their notebooks with the CIA. Editors shared their staffs. Some of the journalists were Pulitzer Prize winners, distinguished reporters… In many instances, CIA documents show, journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America’s leading news organizations.” It is possible the AP was involved at least tangentially in Project Mockingbird, as many large media enterprises are said to have been involved including The New York Times, and TIME. It is could be that the large US television networks were involved as well. Snopes wasn’t around at the time but alternative media reporter Wayne Madsen has apparently reported here that Snopes.com is “a CIA operation” He wrote, “The so-called ‘fact-checking’ authentication website Snopes.com is the go-to website for CIA propaganda.” His Oct. 7, 2016 subscribers-only report is said to have stated: Snopes.com: the latest CIA addition to Internet disinformation … is run by a California couple named Barbara and David Mikkelson, who founded the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society . . . The Mikkelsons chose the name Snopes because it is the name of a fictional family featured in William Faulkner’s novels that includes a pedophile, a murderer, a bigamist, a corrupt racist politician, and a thief who live in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi. …  As far as Snopes.com is concerned, nothing they report should be taken seriously. They are as reliable a news source as The Onion.” Do Facebook’s news-evaluators have connections to US intel? Will they thus ensure that news presented on Facebook is favorable to the US even at the expense of the truth? There are deeper questions as well. A great deal of controversy remains over the definition of fake news and even whether it exists in amounts enough to make a difference. Conclusion: The idea of identifying and then banning fake news may have more to do with removing reports Western governments find offensive. Much of this material is published by the alternative media that has turned mainstream media into a single, vast, loss-making enterprise. But we have written that even censorship, however it is applied, won’t stop the gradual collapse of mainstream news. It is too late for that in our view. Nonetheless it will be tried.18 Dec

Silence Over Fedgov Anti-Media Bills Will Yield to Worse - Should journalists be worried about the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act? The Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act was rolled into H.R. 6393 and is headed to the President for approval. -Network World There is such a hush regarding H.R. 6393 that we can’t tell if it’s been signed by the President yet and likewise another anti-media bill H.R. 5181 – introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu – has a very low, nearly non-existent, profile. Taken together, these bills will create a significant change in how Congress and fedgov relate to the media, especially the alternative media. H.R. 6939, which is apparently awaiting the President’s signature, is intended to “help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from Russia, China and other nations.” It passed the Senate as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report.. H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and manipulation,” which is supposedly threatening “security and stability.” Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu, H.R. 5181 has been said by critics to enable a kind of “Ministry of Truth” that will give those who operate under its authority the ability to virtually shut down whatever media they wish. From AntiMedia.com: Make no mistake — this legislation isn’t proposing some team of noble fact-finders, chiseling away to free the truth from the façades of various foreign governmental narratives for the betterment of American and allied populations. If passed, this legislation will allow cumbrously pro-‘American’ propaganda to infiltrate cable, online, and mainstream news organizations wherever the government deems necessary. Neither bill has received much ongoing commentary in the mainstream media despite the overarching powers they will apparently confer on fedgov participants to deal with media outlets virtually as they wish. Both bills are likely unconstitutional but are being justified by supposed Russian interference in the American electoral system. This interference – which may or may not exist – is increasingly being likened to an act of war, which is proponents will claim as justification for the plainly censorial aspects of the bills. One might believe that various Congressmen would speak up about both of these bills that are surely aimed at the alternative media that has exposed an underbelly of formal sociopolitical, economic and military corruption during the Internet era. But such stalwart fighters for free-speech such as Senstor Rand Paul and Congressman Trey Gowdy have been conspicuous by their absence. Little or nothing has been said against these bills, which have received wide margins of victory in various votes. Conclusion: Significant, likely unconstitutional, change is coming to America’s media freedoms and this change is being created and formalized without a great deal of discussion, let alone protest. It could be that debate is provoked next year as various measures are applied, but of course next year may be too late.17 Dec

If Trump Wants to Root Out Pentagon Corruption, He Could Start With Nuclear Weapons -   Trump Floats Ban on Defense Firms Hiring Military Procurement Officials … US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he was considering imposing a lifetime ban on US military procurement officials going to work for defense contractors, a move that could dramatically reshape the defense industry. -Reuters President-elect Donald Trump has said Boeing & Co. prices are ridiculous and now he wants to ban government military officials from working with private contractors. But if Trump really wants to root out Pentagon corruption he should start with the nation’s nuclear weapons program which is over-hyped and patently false in at least some particulars. Begin with the development of “atomic bombs” supervised by J. Robert Oppenheimer affiliated with the New York-based Fellowship of the New Life, here, a progressive society that advanced non-religious morality under the slogan “deed not creed.” Offshoots of this sort of progressive philosophy gave rise to the Fabian Society in England. It is certainly possible that Oppenheimer could have considered his participation in a string of nuclear lies as a moral imperative. In any case, here are facts pertaining casting doubt on the ongoing nuclear narrative: The historical development of nuclear weapons was obviously high restricted. In fact, it was reported on by a single New York Times journalist, here, who later, it was revealed, was also on the Pentagon payroll. There are considerable questions about the radiation involved with nuclear weapons generally. Nuclear physicist Galen Winsor, here, was a skeptic who claimed nuclear power plants were “essentially just steam plants and nothing but the most expensive and effective way to boil water.” He used to eat “radioactive waste” on camera and said he did so often to prove the exaggerations surrounding uranium radioactivity. He died of Parkinson’s – reportedly at 82. Additionally, it should be pointed out that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are fully populated now, and have been since the initial bombings, though according to prevailing literature they shouldn’t be. Crawford Sams who ran the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan had this to say about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Transcript here.): “When the bomb went off, about 2 thousand people out of 250 thousand got killed [in Hiroshima] by blast, by thermal radiation, or by intense x-ray, gamma radiation … You see, it wasn’t “Bing” like the publicity here [said]: a bomb went off and a city disappeared. No such thing happened. That was the propaganda for deterrent … When I came back to this country, I was appalled, from a military standpoint, to find that our major planners in the War Department were using their own propaganda, 100 thousand deaths, Bing! … You don’t hear much about the effects of Nagasaki because actually it was pretty ineffective. That was a narrow corridor from the hospital … down to the port, and the effects were very limited as far as the fire spread and all that stuff. So you don’t hear much. There was only a single reporter, here, who reported definitively on radioactivity at Hiroshima by breaching the month long security ban affecting both cities after the blasts. He later reported on US “war crimes” from Korea and was shown to falsifying his reporting. The available videos of atomic blasts are enhanced (if not entirely falsified) as even the New York Times writes, here. At least one video on Youtube shows the Pentagon mimicking an atomic explosion with dynamite in a mid 1960s Hawaii detonation called Sailor Hat, here. As have others who have examined the issue, we have realized that Hiroshima and Nagasaki might have been firebombed before any “atomic bomb” was dropped on them, here and here. Our conclusions were advanced by information that when atomic bombs were supposedly dropped on Japan, a squadron of 66 bombers was directed to Imabari. in the early morning of August 6 (666), though Imabari. had been bombed already, twice. This bombing squadron might well have fire-bombed Hiroshima instead. here. As a result of our articles, we received two communications from a man who claimed to have been part of these unacknowledged fire-bombing sorties. An excerpt here from the first: ALPHAMEG a month ago: Well now!! i was a pilot of a B 29, on the raids of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. i am 96 years old. Yes we firebombed these cities as well as Tokyo. But there were A bombs dropped on the two cities in question… We responded here and he responded in that article’s feedback section, see below. Apparently the firebombing of Hiroshima was launched from Tinian Island, also said to be the takeoff point for A-bomb attacks. ALPHAMEG 3 weeks ago: War is a nightmare. Killing is never forgotten. Forgetfulness? Not likely. Gen. LeMay was a warrior. His game was to hit the enemy with everything he had, and go home. We flew from Tinian Island, near Saipan. We were the 21st Bomber Group. Most of our targets were with incendiaries. We flew day and night raids, dependent on the weather at destination. If primary targets were obscured, we had secondary targets. Always went home empty. LeMay wanted to drop a big one right on the Imperial Palace but was over ruled by Truman, just as McArthur was in his desire to proceed into Manchuria, and knock on the door of Stalin, and ask him if he would like to view the Japanese cities. And offer Joe a deal he couldn’t refuse. A brilliant scheme that could have nipped the following 40 year Cold War. These are the kind of warriors we need today. Heads will roll. There are plenty more anomalies that significantly call into question both the history and effect of “nuclear weapons.” You can see a fuller list here and here and  here. The Pentagon wants to spend one trillion updating its “nuclear deterrent.” Before the US “congress” approves the entire sum, Trump should approve an investigation of the Pentagon to find out the actual efficacy of nuclear weapons and how much they really cost to build and deploy. Boeing is apparently attempt to charge the White House some $3 billion, here, for upgraded planes. After Trump complained, Boeing is apparently reconsidering. Chances are if an investigation was launched into the reality of nuclear weapons in the US, nuclear weapons contractors would suddenly reduce their expenses and subsequent charges. Additionally, the Pentagon should surely be prevailed on to “test” a nuclear weapon publicly and without restrictions. Perhaps nuclear weapons perform exactly as advertised. But not once in the history of nuclear weapons has such a weapon been actually used in warfare though every other kind of hellacious weapon has been applied to the globe’s numerous wars. This makes little sense. In other words, the same country that drops napalm on children and kills some 500,000 children in Iraq (see Madeline Albright here) has such moral qualms about nuclear weapons that they are not used – ever. The wars that took place in the 20th century were accompanied by pervasive and massive falsehoods. World War One was seemingly not an accident, as is related in history books. It only happened after Europe’s most prominent and influential anti-war leaders were targeted for assassination. Rasuputin here was stabbed but did not die. Archduke Ferdinand was shot, here, and his death was a justification to precipitate the war. World War Two, was supposedly started by Hitler, but his funding, as is now reported in numerous places on the Internet, came from Western and Swiss banks including possibly central banks, here. After both wars, significant advances in global infrastructure were imposed. Public narratives issued by government should be regarded with caution. Government by necessity must aggrandize both its power and the threats it faces. Its conduct, worldwide, is often in variance with reality. The Pentagon has officially mislaid some $8 trillion in funds, here, stands accused most recently of hiding an additional $150 billion in “waste,” here. Yet for some reason we are supposed to take the Pentagon at its word when it provides “budgets” for weapons and resources it must have. Thanks to the Internet, most people harbor more skepticism when it comes to official pronouncement. And the mainstream media is held in lower regard than ever. Given the prevalence of the unbelievable “fake news” meme it is a wonder that so many people still believe in the entire government narrative regarding nuclear weapons. These weapons are almost never directly examined by the public and their tests,  when conducted, are hidden away from public eyes. Even their workings are shrouded in mystery. And it remains a capital offense to discuss these weapons intimately – or their impact. Conclusion: Trump is right to criticize the military-industrial complex and to demand changes. He should pay special attention to nuclear weapons and sort through Pentagon claims over the years to determine which are true and which are exaggerated to inflate budgets and military industrial profits. Editor’s Note: The Daily Bell is a libertarian publication and its articles have often stated that people ought to look out for their own interests first as best they can because politics are unpredictable and usually don’t change much – or just make things worse. Additionally, as a libertarian publication, DB has published articles in the past explaining that RT and Putin himself are part of the larger questionable dialectic being presented by East and West. In no way can DB be considered a proponent of Russian propaganda.   16 Dec

PropOrNot All-Star Organizers: Koch, Soros, CIA, MI6 Ukraine, All Together Now - PropOrNot: Evidence of a CIA Psychological Operation … On November 24, The Washington Post published a story citing the anonymous group PropOrNot. The story accused the Russians of building a large propaganda operation that worked to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect “insurgent candidate” Donald Trump. It claimed a large number of alternative news websites are acting as Russian agents, dupes, and useful idiots.  – BoilingFrogs/Rockwell This article excerpted above explains the forces behind PropOrNot and identifies them from a leftist/Ukraine standpoint. But another article published not so long ago by Washington’s blog, here, makes the connection between Ukraine and the Koch Brothers. This article will explain briefly what would seem to be full (or almost full) panoply of influences behind PropOrNot. The Koch Brothers along with the Scaife Foundation and some hugely powerful intel agencies have been identified as supporting the PropOrNot initiative. We’ve already written about this issue here and here. But we were puzzled by some other articles that seemed to attribute PropOrNot to different influences, including those of the Clintons and some groups oddly affiliated with Ukraine. The Kochs and Clintons didn’t seem to fit together but as it turns out, there’s apparently a link thanks to Washington’s blog, which seems to  have solved this particular puzzle for us. Here are some excerpts from an article published in early November 2016. Koch Brothers Secretly Allied w. George Soros for Hillary Clinton … The leading financiers of the Republican Party, the Koch brothers, were exposed … by the great investigative journalist Lee Fang, as being solid supporters and heavy financiers of congressional candidates who have been leaders in expanding the U.S. military budget and moving America toward a police state (including militarization of the police). The leading financier of the Democratic Party, George Soros, has long been known to provide major financial backing for the most-neoconservative Democratic candidates, such as Hillary Clinton, who favor every possible military invasion and coup (and see this, for more on that). In fact, Soros was one of the top three financial backers (the other two were the U.S. government and the Netherlands government) for the television station in Ukraine that championed extermination of the people in Ukraine’s Donbass region, where the coup-imposed government, which he helped to install, is loathed. And also on the Ukrainian matter, the Kochs have championed the view that when considering whether Crimea should be part of Russia, or else part of Ukraine, or else entirely independent, the people who live there shouldn’t have any opportunity to vote on the matter, and they should instead be forced to be ‘Ukrainians’, even if they loathe this post-coup Ukrainian government. There we seem to have the connection in full, depending on the credibility of those reporting these linkages. In any event, we are fairly comfortable: Washington’s blog has been around a long time and the article is well-footnoted. And so we are likely learning the Kochs via Soros are now integrated with larger, leftist/Ukraine technocratic/fascist elements … It makes sense that PropOrNot draws resources (or inspiration) from an  array of monied influences. The website itself is incredibly bold, a real statement of mighty intent. The CIA is involved, as is obvious. And the CIA has relationships with such groups as the Institute of Modern Russia. The Boiling Frogs article excerpted at the beginning of this analysis explains that PropOrNot “has all the hallmarks of an intelligence operation.” In fact, the strategy out of which PropOrNot was developed reportedly may stem from an article written in early 2008 by Cass Sunstein and colleague Adrian Vermeule titled simply “Conspiracy Theories.” Sunstein and Vermeule argue the existence of conspiracy theories “may create serious risks, including risks of violence, and the existence of such theories raises significant challenges for policy and law.” Importantly, the paper proposed “attacking targeted groups in cyberspace.”  Also: “Whatever the tactical details, there would seem to be ample reason for government efforts to introduce some cognitive diversity into the groups that generate conspiracy theories.” These ideas since then seem to have been put into practice in one way or another by both the Pentagon and MI6 which reportedly collaborates with the 361st Civil Affairs Brigade of the US Army. The Pentagon and MI6 have focused on energy on Ukraine and on undermining Russia’s presence and claims to Crimea. The Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington think tank dedicated to the study of Central and Eastern Europe also seems to be part of this group. (Its advisory council includes Zbigniew Brzezinski along with Madeleine Albright.) More: Although PropOrNot strives to remain anonymous, it does reveal connections to Modern Russia and its Interpreter Mag and thus, through Voice of America, its association with the CIA. Interpreter Mag is listed under “Related Projects” on its website. PropOrNot also collaborates with Polygraph Fact-Check, a purported fact-checking website produced by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, in other words, the CIA. Another so-called fact-checking operation is listed, Politifact. It is a project of the Tampa Bay Times and the Poynter Institute and shares a donor with the Clinton Foundation, the Omidyar Network, created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. He is a major donor of Kiev-based Hromadske TV, “the symbol of the info wars between Moscow and the Western world,” according to Forbes. And there you have it. Via George Soros … the Kochs and Scaife Foundation (and others) are linked to an entirely opposite (seemingly so) series of power centers including Ukraine “think tanks” and NGOs along with the most powerful Democratic groups including the Clintons. (And remember, we probably haven’t reached the top of this sprawling network.) Conclusion: This is truly a broad array of resources as might be expected for a group that wants to wipe out an entire media industry. The question must then be asked with a mixture of hope and anxiety: How does President Trump fit in? Editor’s Note: Some of this might seem like politics-as-usual, though of a very dirty variety, but the ramifications could certainly affect the alternative media that has already been accused of co-conspiring with Russia to affect the elections. The Daily Bell is a libertarian publication and its articles have often stated that people ought to look out for their own interests first as best they can because politics are unpredictable and usually don’t change much – or just make things worse. Additionally, as a libertarian publication, DB has published articles in the past explaining that RT and Putin himself are part of the larger questionable dialectic being presented by East and West. In no way can DB be considered a proponent of Russian propaganda. 15 Dec

Misguided Support for PropOrNot Seems to Include Koch Brothers, CIA, Parts of Congress - Congressional Query Into Russian Meddling Could Revive Bipartisan Oversight On Washington … Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, has said he would conduct an investigation into Russian interference with the election within the Armed Services Committee, of which he is chairman. –New York Times The CIA. The Koch Brothers and parts of Congress seem to support PropOrNot’s  extensive list of 200-plus alternative-news websites that supposedly have disseminated Russian propaganda. According to this article, above, anti-alternative news fervor in Congress could serve to bind together the parties in a common cause. In fact, this alliance is already broader than Congress. We recently published an article, here speculating on the involvement of powerful media manipulators and owners including the Koch Brothers and the Scaife Foundation. The Koch’s were publicly anti-Trump and reportedly tried to infiltrate Trump’s campaign in order to influence its direction. It is certainly possible that the Koch’s helped organize PropOrNot and its list of alternative media websites, many of whom were at least to some degree supportive of Trump. But other support is becoming clearer as well, including support from  the CIA and, as mentioned above, growing bipartisan Congressional approval. Congress seems divided about Russian involvement in manipulating US elections but in the span of several days, support has been at least clarified. The House of Representatives has passed a bill calling for considerable funding of a special government agency to investigate Russian involvement in American elections and who in the US might have facilitated that involvement. The Senate meanwhile passed a bill supporting additional government funding to investigate how Russian influence had been brought to bear on US elections. Mitch McConnell, GOP Senate leader, has now made public statements endorsing investigations into Russian influence on American elections. We previously wrote here about McConnell’s resistance to this supposition and how criminal threats were starting to be made against him. On Monday he changed his mind. What’s going on in Washington is obviously “hard ball.” All the harder because Russian influence on US elections – and hacking – cannot be proven without a reasonable doubt. Thus there is plenty of dissension over congressional moves and also over whether or not the Russians actually interfered in US elections, let alone made a Trump victory possible. This is not going to stop Congressional investigations apparently and a presumably an ongoing misguided emphasis on the organized connivance of alternative media with Russia. More: Russian meddling in the presidential election could have one unintended but potentially positive consequence: reviving a congressional willingness to conduct serious bipartisan investigations even if they pose political risks. If members of Congress find a way to move forward together to investigate the Russian activities, it would represent a reversal from recent years when lawmakers were driven to mount full-fledged inquiries only if they could damage the opposition party and not their own. It could also provide a model for how Congress approaches future clashes with the incoming Trump administration. Watchdog groups caution that the galvanizing force in this case is Russia, a subject that leaders of both parties are likely to rate an easy target.  “The Russians are not our friends,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, told reporters on Monday. One group that seems to have no doubt about anti-Russian assertions is the CIA, which has let it be known in several ways that it has confidence in conclusions that the Russians influenced US elections and did so to help Trump. Again, there is no actual hard evidence of this. Other US intel agencies have refused to endorse CIA conclusions. The FBI is known to be skeptical as well. PropOrNot gained notoriety when the Washington Post wrote an article about the website and its accusations regarding the dissemination of Russian propaganda. The Washington Post has refused to apologize for the article though a good deal of doubt has been cast on both the list and the initial reasoning that involving successful Russian influence in electing Trump. WashPo was reportedly part of a number of influential media entities including TIME and The New York Times that formed the core of the CIA-based “Mockingbird” propaganda push back in the mid 20th century. Project Mockingbird supposedly reached an understanding with top mainstream media to disseminate important CIA propaganda. Much of what was disseminated involved US international stances and the need for military preparedness and action. Back in the 1920s it has been reported that certain influential men purchased a large block of the US’s most influential media in order to form a media cartel. Like Project Mockingbird, the intention was to use these information outlets to propagandize at will. Now it would seem that the influence of the mainstream media is being brought to bear on the alternative media with an eye toward removing an influential, if underfunded source, of truth-telling not directly affiliated with establishment news and information. President-elect Trump has fought back against accusations that Russians hacked political servers or attempted to move the election in his direction and pointed out correctly there is no evidence of this, only circumstantial supposition. And it is probably unlikely that the Electoral College will be able to overturn what is evidently a legitimate political victory. On the other hand, Trump has just appointed Mike Pompeo as to be head of the CIA, a man who has been called the Koch Brothers “favorite” Senator by the Nation. Additionally, the Kochs have reportedly set up their own CIA-like entity to engage in various forms of industrial and political spying. The group reportedly includes former CIA agents. It is even possible that the Kochs are secretly supportive of Trump despite their public denigration of him. What’s not clear is how powerful certain misguided alliances are or even how powerfully they will hound the alternative media. However, a list does exist and over 200 entities stand accused of supporting Russian propaganda. Conclusion: It is astonishing to us given the list’s high profile and possible involvement of powerful American families and foundations that more voices have not been raised against the potential investigations in Congress. The evidence is apparently not what it is said to be and neither is a major target: the alternative media. Editor’s Note: Some of this might seem as politics-as-usual, though of a very dirty variety, but the ramifications will could certainly affect the alternative media that has already been accused of co-conspiring with Russia to affect the elections. The Daily Bell is a libertarian publication and its articles have often stated that people ought to look out for their own interests first as best they can because politics are unpredictable and usually don’t change much – or just make things worse. Additionally, as a libertarian publication, DB has published articles in the past explaining that RT and Putin himself are part of the larger questionable dialectic being presented by East and West. In no way can DB be considered a proponent of Russian propaganda.   14 Dec

Koch Bros. & PropOrNot: Feud Explodes Through the Pages of History -  The Martens find PropOrNot background ties to the billionaire Koch brothers, to the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, to the Sarah Scaife Foundation (the Mellon fortune), ExxonMobil, US Senators Chris Murphy and Rob Portman, who tie into Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, “two Wall Street behemoths that would very much like to pivot the national debate to anything other than Wall Street power and corruption.” –Paul Craig Roberts The recent naming of 200 websites and writers by PropOrNot as agents of Russian disinformation can only be fully appreciated as an explosion ripping through the pages of history and revealing a millennia-old struggle between freedom and repression. The Koch Brothers and Scaife exercise considerable control over the “moderate” libertarian media including the famous Cato Institute think tank and the leading libertarian magazine Reason. Meanwhile, the more vigorous and successful (in the 21st  century) faction of libertarianism has been anarcho-capitalism, championed notably in modern times by Lew Rockwell and his mentor Murray Rothbard, an important student of the great Ludwig von Mises himself. Mises’s writings further established the problems of state control by analyzing them through the lens of human action, marginal utility and business cycles. These are explosive insights that are once again under formal attack in some quarters even though the marginal utility, especially, is accepted throughout modern economics. (You can see recent articles of ours here and here.) Rothbard in fact helped found the Cato Institute before leaving after a fight with the Koch Brothers over ideology and direction. Rothbard and Rockwell then founded the Mises Institute. Lew Rockwell went on to found LewRockwell.com, the eponymous and successful libertarian web-publication. It never made sense that LewRockwell.com was listed on the PropOrNot website as a disseminator of Russian propaganda (not that any of it makes sense). But if the Koch Brothers and Scaife (through his foundation) are behind PropOrNot it all becomes a lot clearer. At least partially, this would seem to be a furtherance of the Koch vs. Rothbard feud. Congressman Ron Paul, a good friend of Rothbard’s was listed as well. One way or another many of the often important and passionate websites on the PropOrNot list are grounded (whether they know it or not – or even would admit it) in the Austrian, free-market vision so eloquently (and often voluminously) documented by Mises in such great works as Human Action. Mises’s books have had such an impact – once the Internet came along and they censorship ceased to be effective – because his codification of  human action and business cycles rehearse the age-old confrontation between freedom and tyranny and even, in its largest application, good and evil. The PropOrNot list is therefore history’s reverberation, an echo of these larger confrontations. It is so very shocking because it confronts us once again with humanity’s larger struggle. Meanwhile, there are other issues to consider that are slightly more mundane however. Again, both Roberts (above) and the Martens believe the Kochs and Scaife are behind PropOrNot, especially based on PropOrNot’s recommendations and the language used in some of PropOrNot’s statements – among other reasons. If this is so, then both Cato and Reason (the magazine and Foundation) are in some sense participative in the libel of some 200 websites and a former almost-successful presidential candidate Ron Paul. If this is true, shouldn’t Cato and Reason make every effort to find out the truth? If it is true, shouldn’t they then disassociate themselves from Koch and Scaife and refuse further funding? Prominent libertarian and free-market scholars sitting on the boards or trustee organizations of these groups should also try to find out what’s going on and speak out on the subject. We’ve mentioned Rand Paul in particular, see here. As a Senator whose father has been directly attacked by PropOrNot, shouldn’t he do what he can to find out who’s behind PropOrNot and if it really is the Kochs and the Scaife Foundation?  The silence seems well … “deafening,” yet the issues could not be more important. They are as old as time and as integral to humanity as history itself. These are important days – see here, the Internet Reformation. The Gutenberg press ushered in convulsive changes that echoed for some 500 years. Books circulated to the general public changed society and then culture. The process helped expand the Renaissance and eventually created the US republic and its “united States.” The elites of the day were powerless to combat the tumult (though they did try to co-opt certain parts of the press’s impact). Additionally, various elements of freedom were lost as society became more centralized after the so-called Dark Ages. But science was to a degree re-established, along with philosophy and the arts. Conclusion: The changes wrought by the Internet have hardly begun to be felt. They cannot be stopped without stopping human history. If the Kochs and Scaife are really involved in trying to stop what’s occurring, it’s very sad. And those with any involvement in it, even tangentially, should not be silent. If the Scaife Foundation and the Kochs are not involved, they should speak up and help us understand what’s going on. 12 Dec

CIA Pushes for New Elections? - Calls Grow For A New Presidential Election To Be Held After Russia Meddled To Help Trump … It is finally being said out loud, in public, on national television. America may need to hold a new presidential election after Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump.   –Politicus We can see the tide building to challenge Trump before the Electoral College votes to install him as president. Now a former CIA official has gone on television to say that the only solution to questions being raised involve an electoral “do-over.” More: Former CIA Operative Robert Baer brought up the idea of holding a new election during an appearance on CNN:    Baer said, “The Russians, it looks like to me did interfere in our elections. “We’ll never be able to decide whether they changed the outcome, but I’ll tell you having worked in the CIA if we had been caught interfering in European elections, or Asian elections, or anywhere in the world, those countries would call for new elections. “Any democracy would. I mean, I don’t see it any other way. The Electoral College before the nineteenth has got to know whether the Russians had an effect, Whether they went to Wikileaks, whether they hacked email, and whether they affected American opinion. They had a good reason to go after Hillary Clinton. Putin hates her for the Ukraine.” The CIA has already made news for suggesting that Russian hacking of the US elections was credible and may have done significant damage to results. It seems obvious that elements of the CIA are solidly aligned with the Democratic Party and with the Clintons in particular. When pressed, congressmen touting “intelligence reports” supporting the impact of the Russian hacks cannot provide specific facts and the CIA itself will not do so . This hasn’t stopped alternatives to Trump from evolving. In addition to an election do-over, Clinton advocates are fighting to change the results of the potential electoral college vote and also are considering turning to the courts to appoint Hillary as president in light of the claimed fraud. Here, from HuffPo: Russian Interference Could Give Courts Legal Authority To Install Clinton  …  A 1995 federal court ruling out of Pennsylvania may offer some clues to Clinton supporters as to possible legal authority for removing an elected official from office and replacing them with their erstwhile opponent … … In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the ruling of a federal district judge in Pennsylvania that invalidated a state senate election due to fraud, ordering the winner be removed from office and the subsequent vacancy be filled by his opponent. (Marks v. Stinson, 1994). The article goes on to admit there are differences between today’s situation and the one on which the court decision was based, most significantly the upcoming decision by the Electoral College. For this reason, a newly formed rogue faction known as the Hamilton Electors is reportedly organizing an effort to deny Trump the 270 votes he needs. The Hamilton group has one mission: convincing enough Electoral College to deny Trump the presidency and then, if possible, reorient the election so it supports someone else. The main name that has emerged is not Hillary but Gov. John Kasich of Ohio. Kasich has already said he won’t cooperate. A good deal of the justification for these efforts is Hillary’s supposed mounting lead over Trump in the popular vote. But most of this lead is coming from a few large, metropolitan cities where considerable, undetected voting fraud may have taken place. Additionally, if one wants to make the popular vote the determination for office, then most national – federal – elections would be determined by these cities. The rest of the US including the “red states” would suffer accordingly and languish without input into the federal process. Conclusion: Trump has begun to speak out against suggestions that he actually is losing the presidential popular vote and in addition has blasted the CIA’s suggestion that Russia actively helped him win. Here at DB, as a libertarian publication,  we have often pointed out that elections, especially large ones, usually don’t deliver what they promise. But this is an unusual election and political season and events are growing continually more heated. Ramifications may be considerable, though not predictable. Updated11 Dec

Criminal Accusations Emerge for Denying Russian Involvement in US Elections - … Could Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell get booted from office due to his alleged involvement with corruption related to the current Russia election scandal involving Donald Trump? Adding to the list of suspicious circumstances, Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, was named as a Trump cabinet pick soon after McConnell allegedly dismissed the Russian hacker investigation.  –Inquistr.com As predicted, supposed involvement of Russia in US  elections is rapidly devolving into accusations of criminality. It is certainly possible, in one way or another, that these could be turned on the alternative media itself (see excerpt above). What is striking about this is the rapidity with which accusations are being promulgated and applied. The idea basically is that if you deny Russia’s involvement in influencing US elections, you are likely an ally of this process or an unwitting dupe. See our article here. But these denunciations will not matter if they are not accompanied by further investigations bringing the power of the US government to bear. In this case, we can see the rhetoric escalating when it comes to McConnell. More: Despite strongly worded headlines that suggest otherwise, it is not currently clear if there is a link between Elaine Chao being picked for a cabinet position by Trump because of her husband, Mitch McConnell. It is also not yet clear if Mitch McConnell is guilty of any crimes related to accusations that McConnell had a position in covering up Trump’s tracks with the Russia election scandal. Also murky is whether Mitch McConnell is on the wrong side of the law with the Trump Russian hacker scandal, the wrong side of ethics, or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. … Mitch McConnell has been accused of being lenient when Trump’s election was questioned in regard to Russia allegedly producing emails against Hillary Clinton. The underlying accusation against McConnell – the “smoking gun” – is that he knew the Russians had hacked into GOP computer systems along with Democratic ones but withheld that information and actively fought against its release. According to a Dec. 9thNew York Times article, the CIA is confident that “Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems in addition to their attacks on Democratic organizations, but did not release whatever information they gleaned from the Republican networks.” Supposedly McConnell knew about these leaks when he “voiced doubts about the veracity of the intelligence” at a secret briefing. McConnell also reportedly said he considered “any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.” The idea is that when Trump picked McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao to head the Transportation Department around November 29, he was actually rewarding McConnell for undercutting CIA confidence in Russia’s involvement in tilting US elections. Of course to reach this conclusion, one would have to be certain that the CIA’s “high confidence” in its analyses were entirely accurate. Also that the Russian hacks revealed damaging info on the GOP that they declined to publish. And finally that a determination was made in Russia to release only damaging Democratic information. In fact, GOP “hacked” documents were reportedly released during the election but didn’t receive much attention because they were of a routine nature. Nonetheless, the CIA has “high confidence” in its findings, though these do not amount to certainty. Further, WikiLeaks itself, which leaked Democratic emails, has claimed the hacks do not come from Russia. Conclusion:  No one has denied the accuracy of what was published from what we can tell. But the mudslinging has already started and the implication is that the president-elect could be a co-conspirator. Expect worse to come. Editor’s Note: Some of this might seem as politics-as-usual, though of a very dirty variety, but the ramifications will could certainly affect the alternative media that has already been accused of co-conspiring with Russia to affect the elections. The Daily Bell is a libertarian publication and its articles have often stated that people ought to look out for their own interests first as best they can because politics are unpredictable and usually don’t change much – or just make things worse. Additionally, as a libertarian publication, DB has published articles in the past explaining that RT and Putin himself are part of the larger questionable dialectic being presented by East and West. In no way can DB be considered a proponent of Russian propaganda. 11 Dec

CIA Pushes for New Elections? - Calls Grow For A New Presidential Election To Be Held After Russia Meddled To Help Trump … It is finally being said out loud, in public, on national television. America may need to hold a new presidential election after Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump.   –Politicus We can see the tide building to challenge Trump before the Electoral College votes to install him as president. Now a former CIA official has gone on television to say that the only solution to questions being raised involve an electoral “do-over.” More: Former CIA Operative Robert Baer brought up the idea of holding a new election during an appearance on CNN:    Baer said, “The Russians, it looks like to me did interfere in our elections. “We’ll never be able to decide whether they changed the outcome, but I’ll tell you having worked in the CIA if we had been caught interfering in European elections, or Asian elections, or anywhere in the world, those countries would call for new elections. “Any democracy would. I mean, I don’t see it any other way. The Electoral College before the nineteenth has got to know whether the Russians had an effect, Whether they went to Wikileaks, whether they hacked email, and whether they affected American opinion. They had a good reason to go after Hillary Clinton. Putin hates her for the Ukraine.” The CIA has already made news for suggesting that Russian hacking of the US elections was credible and may have done significant damage to results. It seems obvious that elements of the CIA are solidly aligned with the Democratic Party and with the Clintons in particular. When pressed, congressmen touting “intelligence reports” supporting the impact of the Russian hacks cannot provide specific facts and the CIA itself will not do so . This hasn’t stopped alternatives to Trump from evolving. In addition to an election do-over, Clinton advocates are fighting to change the results of the potential electoral college vote and also are considering turning to the courts to appoint Hillary as president in light of the claimed fraud. Here, from HuffPo: Russian Interference Could Give Courts Legal Authority To Install Clinton  …  A 1995 federal court ruling out of Pennsylvania may offer some clues to Clinton supporters as to possible legal authority for removing an elected official from office and replacing them with their erstwhile opponent … … In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the ruling of a federal district judge in Pennsylvania that invalidated a state senate election due to fraud, ordering the winner be removed from office and the subsequent vacancy be filled by his opponent. (Marks v. Stinson, 1994). The article goes on to admit there are differences between today’s situation and the one on which the court decision was based, most significantly the upcoming decision by the Electoral College. For this reason, a newly formed rogue faction known as the Hamilton Electors is reportedly organizing an effort to deny Trump the 270 votes he needs. The Hamilton group has one mission: convincing enough Electoral College to deny Trump the presidency and then, if possible, reorient the election so it supports someone else. The main name that has emerged is not Hillary but Gov. John Kasich of Ohio. Kasich has already said he won’t cooperate. A good deal of the justification for these efforts is Hillary’s supposed mounting lead over Trump in the popular vote. But most of this lead is coming from a few large, metropolitan cities where considerable, undetected voting fraud may have taken place. Additionally, if one wants to make the popular vote the determination for office, then most national – federal – elections would be determined by these cities. The rest of the US including the “red states” would suffer accordingly and languish without input into the federal process. Conclusion: Trump has begun to speak out against suggestions that he actually is losing the presidential popular vote and in addition has blasted the CIA’s suggestion that Russia actively helped him win. Here at DB, as a libertarian publication,  we have often pointed out that elections, especially large ones, usually don’t deliver what they promise. But we have also pointed out that it remains our perception (until it is proved otherwise) that Trump is preferable to Hillary under almost any circumstances.11 Dec

 Populist Doom Aimed at Trump? - EUROPE’S POPULIST REVOLT  … Donald Trump met with his first foreign ally just a few days after winning the U.S. presidency. But it wasn’t one of the world’s leading statesmen who got the invitation to Trump Tower. It was Nigel Farage, a man once considered a footnote in British politics—but who, in 2016, found himself on the snug inside of one of history’s hairpin turns. –TIME, person of the year The “populism vs. globalism” meme that we analyzed back in midsummer (you read it here first) is swiftly becoming the most important propaganda initiative active today. It might spell Mr. Trump’s doom as a leader unless he counteracts it effectively. The meme is everywhere now, just as we suspected (and wrote) that it would be. We can see how important it is in the naming of Trump as TIME “Person of the Year.” Populism is featured throughout this issue of the magazine and is the defining description of Trump himself. But here is a disturbing thought: The bottom line is that globalism must eventually win out if internationalism is to continue to expand. This means that populism – and Mr. Trump – must lose in the long-term. There is seemingly no doubt (whether he knows it or not) that new president is embroiled in a unfathomably vast propaganda campaign. More: Given how fast the [globalist] dominoes are falling … that world might soon be upon us, for better or worse. Italy’s populist parties helped swing a referendum result on Dec. 4 that forced Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to resign. The Netherlands and France have crucial elections scheduled next year, and front runners in those countries are tapping the same veins of anger at the establishment that fueled the rebellions of 2016. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front in France, has chosen a blue rose as the logo for her presidential campaign, a symbol, she says, of the freak events that now seem almost natural. “I think the British, with the Brexit, then the Americans, with the election of Donald Trump, did that,” she tells TIME. “They made possible the impossible.” The idea that TIME is preaching is that we must accept the validity of populism and its victories. But in fact TIME is dissembling. Modern history in our view is “directed” … not left to chance. In fact, the sweep of modern history is globalist, with every major event inevitably ending up reinforcing a gradual internationalism. After the disaster of World War One you had the formation of the League of Nations. After World War Two you had the creation of the entire globalist infrastructure including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations. The BIS was updated as well. But with the advent of the Internet, globalism has come under sustained attack. Alternative media has created a virtual alternative culture based on Jeffersonian rural agrarianism, free-market – Austrian – economics and the general idea that competitive markets must decide prices and build prosperity rather than the technocracy of massive corporations, governments and armies. This kind of libertarian culture is anathema to globalists. They have fought hard to degrade and then eradicate it. Until the advent of the Internet, they were well on their way. More recently, the ‘Net and the information that has emerged from it has radically reshaped people’s views and given them a new and hopeful vision. This doesn’t mean that globalists are going to surrender their internationalist goals however. They never do. In fact, if one studies modern events from the standpoint of directed history it soon becomes apparent that most major sociopolitical and economic trends emerge from groups and individuals associated with globalism. Within this context it remains difficult to believe that Brexit, Trump and now Renzi are merely part of an aberrant reassertion of nationalist determination. It seems rather more likely they are in a sense part of an enormous realignment of elite manipulations. It could be as simple as the elite perception that a populist revolt is inevitable and that it is better to manage it than not. If one adopts this (reasonable, to us) perspective then a lot of additional counter-globalist trends begin to align themselves in predictable ways. Trump is obviously one of  the elements at the center of this manipulation. He is being cast as a “populist” (and nationalist) even though he doesn’t directly use that terminology on a regular basis. Nonetheless, the controlled media defines him this way. In the past weeks and months, we have seen additions and elaborations to the populist meme. A big wrinkle is the idea that Russia and Putin on the “populist” side of this meme. And portions of the alternative media stand accused of promoting Russian interests within this larger context. And most recently, here, the Washington Post reported that the CIA had stated that the Russians (presumably with alternative media connivance) had indeed intended to help Trump win the presidential race. In this way we have a polarization of individuals and facilities. On the one hand you have Trump, the alternative media and Russia. On the other you have Hillary, the mainstream media and NATO. We expect this polarization  to continue and expand. It not occurring by happenstance in our view but on purpose. The ultimate result, sooner or later, will likely be one or more false flags (or economic disasters) that gradually or swiftly degrade the credibility and usefulness of populism in the eyes of the general public. What is being set up is a vast, polarized construct, a dialectic that can be manipulated at will and one that could eventually result in the emergence of the wisdom of globalism as the preferred approach to prosperity and world peace. Directed history will make it seem so. Conclusion: Maybe we’re wrong, of course. This is a “conspiratorial” analysis of recent history, after all. However, it fits with what we understand of the way events have operated for at least the past several centuries. If so, Trump will have to fight hard to break out of dialectic paradigm in which he’s being placed.    10 Dec

The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, Tech

Stunning X-Ray Satellite View of Earth --"Reveals a Jet-Stream at Molten Core" -     The jet stream within the Earth's molten iron core has been discovered by scientists using the latest satellite data that helps create an 'x-ray' view of the planet. "The European Space Agency's Swarm satellites are providing our sharpest x-ray image yet of the core," said Phil Livermore, from the University of Leeds. "We've not only seen this jet stream clearly for the first time, but we understand why it's there." "We can explain it as an accelerating band of molten iron circling the North Pole, like the jet stream in the atmosphere," said Livermore. Because of the core's remote location under 3,000 kilometres of rock, for many years scientists have studied the Earth's core by measuring the planet's magnetic field - one of the few options available. Previous research had found that changes in the magnetic field indicated that iron in the outer core was moving faster in the northern hemisphere, mostly under Alaska and Siberia. But new data from the Swarm satellites has revealed these changes are actually caused by a jet stream moving at more than 40 kilometres per year. This is three times faster than typical outer core speeds and hundreds of thousands of times faster than the speed at which the Earth's tectonic plates move. Evolution of the magnetic field at the edge of the Earth's core 1999-2016. Credit: Nature Geoscience (2016) and Phil Livermore.     The European Space Agency's Swarm mission features a trio of satellites which simultaneously measure and untangle the different magnetic signals which stem from Earth's core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere. They have provided the clearest information yet about the magnetic field created in the core. The study, published today in Nature Geoscience, found the position of the jet stream aligns with a boundary between two different regions in the core. The jet is likely to be caused by liquid in the core moving towards this boundary from both sides, which is squeezed out sideways. "Of course, you need a force to move the liquid towards the boundary," said co-author Rainer Hollerbach, from the School of Mathematics at Leeds. "This could be provided by buoyancy, or perhaps more likely from changes in the magnetic field within the core." "Further surprises are likely," said Rune Floberghagen, ESA's Swarm mission manager. "The magnetic field is forever changing, and this could even make the jet stream switch direction. Changes in magnetic field at the edge of the Earth's core 1590 -1990. Credit: Nature Geoscience (2016) and Phil Livermore, University of Leeds "This feature is one of the first deep-Earth discoveries made possible by Swarm," said co-author Dr Chris Finlay, from the Technical University of Denmark With the unprecedented resolution now possible, it's a very exciting time - we simply don't know what we'll discover next about our planet. We know more about the Sun than the Earth's core. The discovery of this jet is an exciting step in learning more about our planet's inner workings." The Daily Galaxy University of Leeds Related articles"Seasons of the Sun" --Solar Jet Stream DiscoveredHidden Magnetic Messages in Meteorites from Early Solar System UncoveredAsteroid's "Hard Drive" --Clue to Fate of Earth's Core Billions of Years from Now        19 Dec

China's Hunt for Signals From the Dark Universe -     “So far we have collected about 1.8 billion cosmic rays, among them more than 1 million particles are high energy electrons,” Professor Fan Yizhong, a member of the mission team at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), told gbtimes. China’s dark matter-hunting satellite DAMPE celebrated its one year anniversary in space over the weekend, with the team now looking for unexpected results among collected data. Launched on December 17, 2015, the 1,900kg DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) has spent the year measuring the spectra of extremely energetic gamma-rays and cosmic ray with the aim of identifying possible Dark Matter signatures. DAMPE, which is also known as Wukong, after the monkey king in the Chinese fairytale Journey to the West, was carried on a Long March 2D booster, and placed in a 500km-altitude orbit. Scientists reported on Monday, Dec. 21, 2015 that China’s ground stations received its first data DAMPE. The image above is an artistic rendering imagines the filaments of dark energy that make up parts of the cosmic web. Monstrous galaxies are thought to form at the nexuses of these filaments. (ALMA/ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) A Kashgar station situated in Xinjiang tracked and obtained data from “Wukong,”taking around seven minutes to receive and record the data. It was then transmitted to the National Space Science Center, reported the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in a statement. DAMPE boasts of a massive surface area, not only capably observing high cosmic ray volumes but also surveying the sky at high energies. It uses four instruments for capturing the high-energy particles and tracing them back to their origin: a BGO calorimeter, a plastic scintillator detector, a neutron detector and a silicon-tungsten tracker. The particle sources are believed to be dark matter collisions, possibly giving scientists new insight into the dark matter that can potentially help scientists follow a wealth of scientific pursuits, including studying oceanic depths on icy moons and mapping out layers of celestial bodies. “[It’s] an exciting mission,” said Princeton University’s David Spergel of the DAMPE mission. A recent study in the Astrophysical Journal proposed that the solar system might be growing dark matter “hairs,” speculated to exist and sprout from Earth. "When gravity interacts with the cold dark matter gas during galaxy formation, all particles within a stream continue traveling at the same velocity," explained Gary Prézeau of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, who proposes the existence of long filaments of dark matter, or "hairs." Based on many observations of its gravitational pull in action, scientists are certain that dark matter exists, and have measured how much of it there is in the universe to an accuracy of better than one percent. The leading theory is that dark matter is "cold," meaning it doesn't move around much, and it is "dark" insofar as it doesn't produce or interact with light. Galaxies, which contain stars made of ordinary matter, form because of fluctuations in the density of dark matter. Gravity acts as the glue that holds both the ordinary and dark matter together in galaxies. According to calculations done in the 1990s and simulations performed in the last decade, dark matter forms "fine-grained streams" of particles that move at the same velocity and orbit galaxies such as ours. A stream can be much larger than the solar system itself, and there are many different streams crisscrossing our galactic neighborhood," Prézeau said. Prézeau likens the formation of fine-grained streams of dark matter to mixing chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Swirl a scoop of each together a few times and you get a mixed pattern, but you can still see the individual colors. "When gravity interacts with the cold dark matter gas during galaxy formation, all particles within a stream continue traveling at the same velocity," Prézeau said. But what happens when one of these streams approaches a planet such as Earth? Prézeau used computer simulations to find out. His analysis finds that when a dark matter stream goes through a planet, the stream particles focus into an ultra-dense filament, or "hair," of dark matter. In fact, there should be many such hairs sprouting from Earth. A stream of ordinary matter would not go through Earth and out the other side. But from the point of view of dark matter, Earth is no obstacle. According to Prézeau's simulations, Earth's gravity would focus and bend the stream of dark matter particles into a narrow, dense hair. Hairs emerging from planets have both "roots," the densest concentration of dark matter particles in the hair, and "tips," where the hair ends. When particles of a dark matter stream pass through Earth’s core, they focus at the "root" of a hair, where the density of the particles is about a billion times more than average. The root of such a hair should be around 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers) away from the surface, or twice as far as the moon. The stream particles that graze Earth's surface will form the tip of the hair, about twice as far from Earth as the hair’s root. "If we could pinpoint the location of the root of these hairs, we could potentially send a probe there and get a bonanza of data about dark matter," Prézeau said. A stream passing through Jupiter's core would produce even denser roots: almost 1 trillion times denser than the original stream, according to Prézeau's simulations. "Dark matter has eluded all attempts at direct detection for over 30 years. The roots of dark matter hairs would be an attractive place to look, given how dense they are thought to be,” said Charles Lawrence, chief scientist for JPL’s astronomy, physics and technology directorate. Another fascinating finding from these computer simulations is that the changes in density found inside our planet – from the inner core, to the outer core, to the mantle to the crust – would be reflected in the hairs. The hairs would have "kinks" in them that correspond to the transitions between the different layers of Earth. Theoretically, if it were possible to obtain this information, scientists could use hairs of cold dark matter to map out the layers of any planetary body, and even infer the depths of oceans on icy moons. DAMPE is testing the theory that dark matter particles may annihilate or decay and then produce high energy gamma-rays or cosmic rays - in particular electron/positron pairs – and DAMPE, with the widest observation spectrum and highest energy resolution of any dark matter probe in the world, will collect the evidence. The data analysis of the DAMPE collaboration, which includes institutions from across China and international partners from Italy and Switzerland, has been concentrated on the high energy cosmic rays, in particular the electrons. “We are looking forward to find something “unexpected” in the cosmic ray and gamma-ray spectra,” Fan says. The team is looking to publish their first results in early 2017. DAMPE meanwhile will continue to scan in all directions for the second year of its three-year mission, before switching to focus on areas where dark matter may most likely to be observed in the third. The space craft carries four science payloads in total and has the potential to advance the understanding of the origin and propagation mechanism of high energy cosmic rays, as well as new discoveries in high energy gamma astronomy. The Daily Galaxy via nasa.gov, gbtimes.com and theguardian.com     Related articles"Search for Earth's Deep Life" --Ancient, Hydrogen-Rich Waters Discovered Deep UndergroundImage of the Day: NASA Sizes Up Pluto and Its Moon Charon"Not a Coincidence" --Earth is the Largest Rocky Planet in our Solar system, and the Only One with Life        19 Dec

Today's "Galaxy" Stream --'The Weird Dark Side of the Universe' (VIEW) -     With the discovery of gravitational waves, says Kip Thorne, Caltech's Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, emeritus, "we humans are embarking on a marvelous new quest: the quest to explore the warped side of the universe—objects and phenomena that are made from warped spacetime. Colliding black holes and gravitational waves are our first beautiful examples," says Thorne. The video below is Kip Thorne's amazing view of this newly revealed dark side of the universe. In June 2009, Thorne resigned his Feynman Professorship (becoming the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus) in order to ramp up a new career in writing, movies, and continued scientific research. His most recent major movie project was Interstellar. Thorne was the film's science advisor and an executive producer. His principal current research is an exploration of the nonlinear dynamical behaviors of curved spacetime, using computer simulations and analytical calculations.     Thorne is a co-founder (with Weiss and Drever) of the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) Project and he chaired the steering committee that led LIGO in its earliest years (1984--87).   The existence of gravitational waves was first demonstrated in the 1970s and 80s by Joseph Taylor, Jr., and colleagues. Taylor and Russell Hulse discovered in 1974 a binary system composed of a pulsar in orbit around a neutron star. Taylor and Joel M. Weisberg in 1982 found that the orbit of the pulsar was slowly shrinking over time because of the release of energy in the form of gravitational waves. For discovering the pulsar and showing that it would make possible this particular gravitational wave measurement, Hulse and Taylor were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993. The Daily Galaxy via Caltech, MIT, Kavli Institute for Astrophysics, and Space Research Image credit: LIGO detects gravitational waves from merging black holes, LIGO, NSF, Aurore Simonet; Kip Thorne, Interstellar Related articles "Hacking the Chemical Fingerprint of the Universe" --Detecting Organic Molecules in Space Clouds Around Alien Kepler-Mission Planets --Clues to Habitability Gargantua! "Interstellar" Science Team Makes Real-World Discoveries About the Movies Black Hole's Shadow Weekend 'Galaxy' Insight -- "The Warping of Space and Time" Rocky Planet with a 3-Day Orbit --"Only 21 Light-Years Away"        19 Dec

"Biggest Map Ever of the Universe" --Pan-STARRS Telescope Maps the Cosmos and May Save Earth (VIDEO) -     The world's largest digital survey of the visible universe, mapping billions of stars and galaxies, has been published for the first time. Scientists will now be able to study the 'farthest reaches of the universe and gain insights into elusive dark energy and dark matter' using the map. The map is the product of the Pan-STARRS1 telescope using the 1.8 meter telescope at the summit of the Haleakala volcano in Maui, Hawaii, which captured large images of the sky every 30 seconds for four years. The combination of relatively small mirrors with very large digital cameras can observe the entire available sky several times each month. A major goal of Pan-STARRS is to discover and characterize Earth-approaching objects, both asteroids & comets, that might pose an extinction danger to our planet.   In May 2010, the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, observatory embarked on a digital survey of the sky in visible and near infrared light. Astronomers said it was the first survey with a goal of observing the sky very rapidly over and over again, looking for moving objects and transient or variable objects, including asteroids that could potentially threaten the Earth.     'The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys allow anyone to access millions of images and use the database and catalogues containing precision measurements of billions of stars and galaxies," said Ken Chambers, Director of the Pan-STARRS Observatories, at the University of Hawaii. "Pan-STARRS has already made discoveries from Near Earth Objects and Kuiper Belt Objects in the Solar System to lonely planets between the stars; it has mapped the dust in three dimensions in our galaxy and found new streams of stars; and it has found new kinds of exploding stars and distant quasars in the early universe." "This rapid, repeating survey has enabled us to discover very rare events in which a massive black hole shreds a passing star, which otherwise would have been impossible to spot," said Andy Lawrence, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy. "Releasing the data will now enable astronomers round the world to study huge numbers of distant stars and galaxies in ways we can't even guess." The Daily Galaxy via pswww.ifa.hawaii.edu and dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech Image credits: With thanks to Michael Sweet and NASA/Hubble Space Telescope Related articles"Our Early Solar System Harbored SuperEarths" (Weekend Feature)Did Our Early Solar System Harbor Super-Earths? -- "Earth Belongs to a 2nd Generation of Planets""There Could be At Least Two Unknown Planets Hidden Well Beyond Pluto"        19 Dec

The Titanic Volcanoes of Jupiter's Io --Surt Volcano Was 78,000 Gigawatts, Earth's 1992 Mt Etna, 12 Gigawatts (Sunday's Feature) -     The volcanic activity of Jupiter's moon, Io has been monitored for the last nine years by the Galileo spacecraft and now, with the advent of adaptive optics systems, by Earth-bound astronomers such as those at the Keck 11 Observatory on Maui, Hawaii and the Gemini North Observatory. "It is clear that this eruption is the most energetic ever seen, both on Io and on Earth," Franck Marchis and Imke de Pater, professor of astronomy and of earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley. "The Surt eruption appears to cover an area of 1,900 square kilometers, which is larger than the city of Los Angeles and even larger than the entire city of London. The total amount of energy being released by the eruption is amazingly high, with the thermal output from this one eruption almost matching the total amount of energy emitted by all of the rest of Io, other volcanoes included."     In February 2001 an eruption from the Surt volcano on the Jupiter-facing hemisphere of Io, the volcanic epi-center of our solar system, occurred with an estimated output of 78,000 Gigawatts. By comparison, the 1992 eruption of Mt Etna, Sicily, was estimated at 12 Gigawatts. During its peak, observed by the WM Keck II Telescope on Hawaii, its output almost matched the eruptive power of all of Io’s active volcanoes combined. This Aug. 29, 2013, outburst on Jupiter's moon, Io, represented one of the largest observed on the most volcanically active body in the solar system. (NSF/NASA/JPL-Caltech//UC Berkeley/Gemini Observatory) "We typically expect one huge outburst every one or two years, and they're usually not this bright," Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of one of two new studies describing the blasts, said in a statement. "Here we had three extremely bright outbursts, which suggest that if we looked more frequently we might see many more of them on Io."     "This eruption is truly massive," said Ashley Davies, PhD, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who aided in modeling the Surt eruption. "The observed energy indicates the presence of a vigorous, high-temperature volcanic eruption. The kind of eruption to produce this thermal signature has incandescent fire fountains of molten lava which are kilometers high, propelled at great speed out of the ground by expanding gases, accompanied by extensive lava flows on the surface."     Thanks to an orbital resonance with two of its neighboring moons, Europa and Ganymede, Io is continuously squeezed. The resulting friction heats Io's interior enough to create a mushy magma ocean only 50 kilometers (30 miles) beneath its surface. It is likely that this partially molten asthenosphere provides the source for basaltic silicate lava that erupts at hundreds of volcanoes across Io’s surface (though future missions to Io will be needed to confirm the existence of this magma ocean). Recent ground-based observations shed new light on the most powerful of Io’s volcanic eruptions. This volcanic activity has been monitored over the last 35 years by ground-based observatories, the Hubble Space Telescope, and several spacecraft that have visited Jupiter over the years. Unfortunately, the most recent spacecraft to visit the Jupiter system was New Horizons seven years ago and the next spacecraft to visit the system, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE), will not arrive until 2030. In the meantime, ground-based observations can make a significant contribution toward filling the gap, regularly monitoring Io’s volcanic activity. Many of Io’s volcanoes are persistent, meaning they maintain relatively consistent levels and styles of activity for years or even decades. Examples include Pele, a lava lake whose thin crust is regularly broken up by churning from below, and Prometheus, a lava flow field that heats up the sulfur dioxide frost below it to produce an umbrella-shaped plume of gas and dust 100 kilometers (62 miles) tall.     Many of Io’s lava lakes and lava flow fields (some reaching 300 kilometers or 186 miles in length) are persistent, but can show significant fluctuations in activity. However, some volcanoes are much less regular in their volcanic activity, remaining quiescent for years before experiencing “outburst” eruptions. These outbursts can begin suddenly, starting at fissures in Io’s crust, and generate fire fountains that can jet lava up to a kilometer (0.62 miles) into space before falling back to the ground to produce extensive lava flows. Over the course of hours and days, outburst eruptions quiet down as the fire fountaining subsides and lava flows through insulated channels along the surface. Recent observations by astronomers Imke de Pater, Katherine de Kleer, and Ashley Davies at the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), Gemini-North and Keck II Observatories atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii revealed an astonishing three outburst eruptions over the course of two weeks in August 2013 at Rarog Patera, Heno Patera, and an unnamed volcano 350 kilometers (217 miles) west of Isum Patera (201308C). The Daily Galaxy via planetary.org and berkeley.edu Image credits: NASA/JPL        18 Dec

Extragalactic Lighthouses --"We Can Now Detect Directed Signals From the Depths of the Cosmos" -     “If even one other civilization existed in our galaxy and had a similar or more advanced level of directed-energy technology, we could detect ‘them’ anywhere in our galaxy with a very modest detection approach,” said UC Santa Barbara physicist Philip Lubin, head of the UCSB Experimental Cosmology Group this past June. “If we scale it up as we’re doing with direct energy systems, how far could we detect a civilization equivalent to ours? The answer becomes that the entire universe is now open to us. Imagine if we sent up a visible signal that could eventually be seen across the entire universe. Imagine if another civilization did the same. Photonics advances allow us to be seen across the universe, with major implications for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, says Lubin. “But suppose there is a civilization like ours and suppose — unlike us, who are skittish about broadcasting our presence — they think it’s important to be a beacon, an interstellar or extragalactic lighthouse of sorts,” he added. “There is a photonics revolution going on on Earth that enables this specific kind of transmission of information via visible or near-infrared light of high intensity." Looking up at the night sky — expansive and seemingly endless, stars and constellations blinking and glimmering like jewels just out of reach — it’s impossible not to wonder: Are we alone? For many of us, the notion of intelligent life on other planets is as captivating as ideas come. Maybe in some other star system, maybe a billion light years away, there’s a civilization like ours asking the exact same question. The technology now exists to enable exactly that scenario, according to Lubin, whose new work applies his research and advances in directed-energy systems to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). His recent paper “The Search for Directed Intelligence” appears in the journal REACH – Reviews in Human Space Exploration. “Similar to the use of directed energy for relativistic interstellar probes and planetary defense that we have been developing, take that same technology and ask yourself, ‘What are consequences of that technology in terms of us being detectable by another ‘us’ in some other part of the universe?’” Lubin added. “Could we see each other? Can we behave as a lighthouse, or a beacon, and project our presence to some other civilization somewhere else in the universe? The profound consequences are, of course, ‘Where are they?’ Perhaps they are shy like us and do not want to be seen, or they don’t transmit in a way we can detect, or perhaps ‘they’ do not exist.” The same directed energy technology is at the core of Lubin’s recent efforts to develop miniscule, laser-powered interstellar spacecraft. That work, funded since 2015 by NASA (and just selected by the space agency for “Phase II” support) is the technology behind billionaire Yuri Milner’s newsmaking, $100-million Breakthrough Starshot initiative announced April 12. Lubin is a scientific advisor on Starshot, which is using his NASA research as a roadmap as it seeks to send tiny spacecraft to nearby star systems. In describing directed energy, Lubin likened the process to using the force of water from a garden hose to push a ball forward. Using a laser light, spacecraft can be pushed and steered in much the same way. Applied to SETI, he said, the directed energy system could be deployed to send a targeted signal to other planetary systems. “In our paper, we propose a search strategy that will observe nearly 100 billion planets, allowing us to test our hypothesis that other similarly or more advanced civilizations with this same broadcast capability exist,” Lubin said. “As a species we are evolving rapidly in photonics, the production and manipulation of light,” he explained. “Our recent paper explores the hypothesis: We now have the ability to produce light extremely efficiently, and perhaps other species might also have that ability. And if so, then what would be the implications of that? This paper explores the ‘if so, then what?’” Traditionally and still, Lubin said, the “mainstay of the SETI community” has been to conduct searches via radio waves. Think Jodie Foster in “Contact,” receiving an extraterrestrial signal by way of a massive and powerful radio telescope. With Lubin’s UCSB-developed photonics approach, however, making “contact” could be much simpler: Take the right pictures and see if any distant systems are beaconing us. “All discussions of SETI have to have a significant level of, maybe not humor, but at least hubris as to what makes reason and what doesn’t,” Lubin said. “Maybe we are alone in terms of our technological capability. Maybe all that’s out there is bacteria or viruses. We have no idea because we’ve never found life outside of our Earth. And you don’t need a large telescope to begin these searches. You could detect a presence like our current civilization anywhere in our galaxy, where there are 100 billion possible planets, with something in your backyard. "Put in context, and we would love to have people really think about this: You can literally go out with your camera from Costco, take pictures of the sky, and if you knew what you were doing you could mount a SETI search in your backyard. The lighthouse is that bright.”   The Daily Galaxy via ucsb.edu Image credit top of page with thanks to ESO        17 Dec

Today's "Galaxy" Stream --The Current Search for Life in the Milky Way -     Andrew Siemion, Director, Berkeley SETI Research Center takes us on a fascinating video tour of the current developments in the search for life in the universe. Not to be missed!         Related articlesToday's 'Galaxy' Radio: "What if Earth Receives a SETI Message?"        17 Dec

"There’s a Dark Cycle in our Galaxy" --Our Solar System's Path Through the Milky Way (Weekend Feature) -   Astrophysical phenomena derived from the Earth's winding path through the Galactic disc, and the consequent accumulation of dark matter in the planet's interior, can result in dramatic changes in Earth's geological and biological activity. “There’s a cycle in our galaxy; the solar system bobs up and down through the plane of the disk-shaped galaxy—we’re pulled towards the plane, we go through it, we overshoot, we go back,” said Michael Rampino, professor of biology at New York University. "We are fortunate enough to live on a planet that is ideal for the development of complex life," says Rampino. "But the history of the Earth is punctuated by large scale extinction events, some of which we struggle to explain. It may be that dark matter - the nature of which is still unclear but which makes up around a quarter of the universe - holds the answer. As well as being important on the largest scales, dark matter may have a direct influence on life on Earth."   Rampino's model of dark matter interactions with the Earth as it cycles through the Galaxy could have a broad impact on our understanding of the geological and biological development of Earth, as well as other planets within the Galaxy. “If the normal stuff, which is just 20% of the matter in the universe by mass, is so complicated, then why should the rest of the 80%, which is dark, be simple?” observes Manoj Kaplinghat, a professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine. But, he adds, as it currently stands, the theory requires additional data to back it up. According to Kaplinghat, this model is novel because it includes a dark disk possibly thick enough to be stable, yet thin enough to match the periodicity in the crater record. He also said this was the first model to account for the motion of the solar system through the spiral arms of our galaxy. The gravitational forces exerted by the spiral arms impede the solar system as it bobs through the plane of the galaxy—which could explain why the periods between comet impacts are not always exactly 35 million years. Rampino concludes that Earth's infrequent but predictable path around and through our Galaxy's disc may have a direct and significant effect on geological and biological phenomena occurring on Earth. In a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, he concludes that movement through dark matter may perturb the orbits of comets and lead to additional heating in the Earth's core, both of which could be connected with mass extinction events. The Galactic disc is the region of the Milky Way Galaxy where our solar system resides. It is crowded with stars and clouds of gas and dust, and also a concentration of elusive dark matter--small subatomic particles that can be detected only by their gravitational effects. Previous studies have shown that Earth rotates around the disc-shaped Galaxy once every 250 million years. But the Earth's path around the Galaxy is wavy, with the Sun and planets weaving through the crowded disc approximately every 30 million years. Analyzing the pattern of the Earth's passes through the Galactic disc, Rampino notes that these disc passages seem to correlate with times of comet impacts and mass extinctions of life. The famous comet strike 66 million ago that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs is just one example. What causes this correlation between Earth's passes through the Galactic disc, and the impacts and extinctions that seem to follow? While traveling through the disc, the dark matter concentrated there disturbs the pathways of comets typically orbiting far from the Earth in the outer Solar System, Rampino observes. This means that comets that would normally travel at great distances from the Earth instead take unusual paths, causing some of them to collide with the planet. But even more remarkably, with each dip through the disc, the dark matter can apparently accumulate within the Earth's core. Eventually, the dark matter particles annihilate each other, producing considerable heat. The heat created by the annihilation of dark matter in Earth's core could trigger events such as volcanic eruptions, mountain building, magnetic field reversals, and changes in sea level, which also show peaks every 30 million years. In the future, he suggests, geologists might incorporate these astrophysical findings in order to better understand events that are now thought to result purely from causes inherent to the Earth. This model, Rampino adds, likewise provides new knowledge of the possible distribution and behaviour of dark matter within the Galaxy. In March 2016, Tokuhiro Nimura, a researcher at the Japan Spaceguard Association, which was formed to monitor near-Earth objects that might strike the planet, and his coworkers suggested that the extinctions, global cooling and iridium layer might have been caused by the Solar System passing through a molecular cloud: one of the great clouds of gas and dust in space from which stars form. As dust accumulated in the atmosphere, it would have formed a haze that reflected sunlight and cooled the planet. The Hubble image at the top of the page shows the night sky within the youthful milky way galaxy 10 billion years ago ablaze with a firestorm of star birth glowing pink clouds of hydrogen. The Daily Galaxy via New York University and pbs.org and bbc.com Image Credit: darkmatterspace   Related articlesPeering into the Milky Way's Past --Our Sun was a Late Bloomer (Weekend Feature)"Why Isn't the Milky Way Crawling with Intelligent Life?" --The 'Planet of the Apes' Hypothesis RevisitedWill "Intelligence" Prove to Be Common in the Universe? (Today's Most Popular)The Super Brain --"Mutation of Human Genome Two Million Years Ago Created the Big Leap That Led To Speaking and Thinking"NASA's Kepler Mission Discoveries Transform Drake's Equation --"Humans Not the First Technological Civilization in the Universe" - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel        17 Dec

This Week's Most Popular --"From a New Theory of Gravity to Exploring Alien Planets" -     New Theory of Gravity as an Emergent Phenomena in the Cosmos --"First Tests Looks Interesting" LIGO's Discovery of Gravitational Waves --"May Upend General Relativity and Usher In a New Exotic Physics" StarTalk Radio --Exploring Alien Planets: "From Proxima b to ET Transmissions to Non-Carbon-Based Life" "Behemoth Black Holes of the Early Galaxies Emerged From a Single Central Supermassive Star" Related articlesBlack Hole Collisions --"Astronomers 'Hear' Them Via Gravity Signals"Merging Black Holes --"Will Reveal the Existence of Gravity Waves"Peering Into the Fabric of Spacetime --"We'll Soon See a Totally Different, Totally Unexpected Universe"NASA Goddard: "All Galaxies are Embedded Within a Vast Sphere of Black Holes" (Holiday Feature) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel        17 Dec

NASA Exoplanet Discoveries --"Mimic Alien Planets in Star Wars" -       In the "Star Wars" universe, ice, ocean and desert planets burst from the darkness as your ship drops out of light speed. But these worlds might be more than just science fiction. Some of the planets discovered around stars in our own galaxy could be very similar to arid Tatooine, watery Scarif and even frozen Hoth, according to NASA scientists. Sifting through data on the more than 3,400 confirmed alien worlds, scientists apply sophisticated computer modeling techniques to tease out the colors, light, sunrise and sunsets we might encounter if we could pay them a visit. Some of these distant worlds are even stranger than those that populate the latest Star Wars film, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." And others are eerily like the fictional planets from a galaxy far, far away.     A real planet in our galaxy reminded scientists so much of Luke Skywalker's home planet, they named it "Tatooine." Officially called Kepler-16b, the Saturn-sized planet is about 200 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The reality of its two suns was so startling, George Lucas himself agreed to the astronomers' nickname for the planet. "This was the first honest-to-goodness real planetary system where you would see the double sunset as two suns," said Laurance Doyle, an astrophysicist with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute and Director of the Institute for the Metaphysics of Physics, who discovered the planet using NASA's Kepler space telescope.     A person on Kepler-16b would have two shadows. In a storm, two rainbows would appear. Each sunset would be unique, because the stars are always changing their configuration. Building a sundial would require calculus. Astronomers have discovered that about half of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are pairs, rather than single stars like our sun. So while Kepler-16b aka Tatooine is probably too cold and gaseous to be home to life, or a hopeful desert farm boy, it's a good bet that there might be a habitable Tatooine "twin" out there somewhere. George Lucas has a fondness for desert planets, and at least one NASA scientist thinks he's on the right track. "Desert planets are possible. We have one right here in our solar system in Mars. We think desert planets elsewhere could be even more habitable than Mars is," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, an astrobiologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.       He likes Lucas' proliferation of arid worlds because he believes it might reflect the galaxy we live in. "The recurring theme of desert worlds in 'Star Wars' is really interesting, because there is some research that shows that these would be likely habitable worlds to find," said Domagal-Goldman, who is, among other things, a climate scientist. Desert worlds are not only a very real possibility, but they are probably very common, he said. They could be hot, like Tatooine and Jakku, or cold, like Mars and Jedha in "Rogue One." "The lack of water on a desert planet might be what makes it more habitable. Water amplifies changes to climates and can cause planets to end up being really hot like Venus, or really cold like Europa," said Domagal-Goldman. There is a world named Hoth in our galaxy—an icy super-Earth discovered in 2006. It reminded scientists so much of the frozen Rebel base they unofficially nicknamed it after the planet that appears in "The Empire Strikes Back." The planet's scientific designation is OGLE 2005-BLG-390L, after the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) that found it. Our galaxy's Hoth is too cold to support life as we know it. But life may evolve under the ice of a different world, or a moon in our solar system. On Earth, it's been found inside volcanoes, deep ocean trenches, even the frozen soil of Antarctica. NASA is currently designing a Europa mission to look for life under the crust of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. And Saturn's moon Enceladus also contains an underground ocean that could harbor alien life. For the scientists who characterize exoplanets, the most important planet to study is Earth-the only known planet with life. And life on Earth began in the ocean. "We need Earth climate science to help us understand planetary habitability and the potential diversity of life on exoplanets," said astrobiologist Nancy Kiang, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. As an astrobiologist, her job is to model the kind of plant life that might exist on planets around other stars—also known as exoplanets. We haven't confirmed the existence of ocean worlds like the perpetually rainy Kamino in "Attack of the Clones," or worlds with oceans, like the beachy Scarif from "Rogue One." But we have found frozen ocean worlds in our solar system, in the moons Europa and Enceladus. We may even be able to glimpse an ocean on an exoplanet in the not-so-distant future. "Ocean glint can be detected over large distances," said Victoria Meadows, a professor at the University of Washington and director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute's Virtual Planetary Laboratory. Such a glint was first observed reflecting from the liquid methane seas on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Both the forest moon of Endor, from "Return of the Jedi," and Takodana, the home of Han Solo's favorite cantina in "The Force Awakens," are green like our home planet. But astrobiologists think that plant life on other worlds could be red, black, or even rainbow-colored. A few months ago, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory announced the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, a planet only 4 light-years away from Earth, which orbits a tiny red star. "The star color would be peachy to the human eye," Meadows said. "And the planet would appear dark purple to light purple, looking at it from a spacecraft." From the surface of Proxima b, the sky would appear to be periwinkle. The light from a red star, also known as an M dwarf, is dim and mostly in the infrared spectrum, as opposed to the visible spectrum we see with our sun. The planet also doesn't have sunrises or sunsets like Earth: one side always faces its sun. "If you have photosynthetic organisms, they would always get fixed amounts of light all the time. It would be a permanent sunset around the planet. You would see a gradation of color," Kiang said. Just as seaweed changes color from green to dark brown as you dive deeper into the ocean, plants on a red dwarf planet may brilliantly change color from the day side to the night side. And that could mean rainbow plant life. In the "Star Wars" universe, Lucas and company envision scores of worlds bustling with intelligent beings. In our galaxy, we know of only one such world so far-Earth. But NASA exoplanet scientist think we have a fighting chance of finding life beyond our solar system. The next few years will see the launch of a new generation of spacecraft to search for planets around other stars. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will attempt to determine what's in the atmospheres of other planets. Then, in the next decade, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will bring us images of exoplanets around sun-like stars. That's one step closer to finding life. "The idea of life on other planets resonates with people on a very personal level," Doug Hudgins, NASA's program scientist for exoplanet exploration, said of the "Star Wars" films' enduring popularity. "They portray this image of a universe that is teeming with life." "We are at our heart explorers," he said. "We want to know what's out there. Through the imaginings of George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry, we get to feel for a bit of time like we really can go out and explore the stars." The Daily Galaxy via NASA Image credit Top of Page forwallpaper.com   Related articles NASA: "Wacky World of Exoplanets Continues to Surprise Astronomers" "The Observed Alien Planets in the Milky Way" --A NASA Image of the Kepler Mission Discoveries NASA's Kepler Mission Discoveries Transform Drake's Equation --"Humans Not the First Technological Civilization in the Universe" - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel StarTalk Radio --Exploring Alien Planets: "From Proxima b to ET Transmissions to Non-Carbon-Based Life" - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel "Far-Reaching Implications" -An Ancient Solar System Almost as Old as the Milky Way (Weekend Feature) "Why Isn't the Milky Way Crawling with Intelligent Life?" --The 'Planet of the Apes' Hypothesis Revisited Will "Intelligence" Prove to Be Common in the Universe? (Today's Most Popular)        16 Dec

The Daily Reckoning

How to Trade the Stock Market’s “Dead Zone” - This post How to Trade the Stock Market’s “Dead Zone” appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 2016 is over. I know we still have a little more than a week’s worth of trading days left. But market action is set to grind to a halt between Christmas and New Year’s as traders abandon their turrets for a little holiday cheer. Not much happens during the last trading week of the year. In fact, stocks are already beginning to wander through the dead zone. The financial media is foaming at the mouth over Dow 20,000. But the Big Board won’t cooperate. It wandered toward a small gain yesterday afternoon, still more than 100 points shy of cracking 20K. We don’t expect any big new to pop up and derail the markets over the next couple of weeks. But that doesn’t mean you should sit around twiddling your thumbs. While the market continues to tread water this morning, it’s time to review our short list of 12 bad trading habits. Even seasoned traders can fall into these traps. And it’s worth mentioning that I’ve been guilty of quite a few of these mistakes before. Here are 12 common mistakes many traders of every skill level tend to make: 1. Persistence in the face of repeated failure. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. No, I’m not talking about the good kind of persistence over adversity. That would involve introspection, research, learning— you get the idea. In this case, I’m thinking of a trader who books consistent losses, yet doesn’t make any adjustments to try to correct the matter. He never considers that his approach is the problem, just that he’s had back luck or something. Speaking of which… 2. Failure to analyze losing trades. So you’re booking loser after loser, yet you’re sweeping the results under the rug without any adjustment whatsoever? What’s the definition of insanity again? 3. Missing good trades from your watch list because you aren’t paying attention. This is an easy one. Set an alert! If you want to trade a stock when it breaks above $30 and it’s sitting near $26, set an alert for $29.50. You’ll never miss a breakout again. Don’t be an idiot and leave a trade for dead just because you wrote down the ticker and didn’t set an alert. There’s nothing worse than finding a Post-It Note on your desk with a ticker scribbled on it—and then finding out it’s doubled over the past month… 4. Taking trades that don’t fit your system’s criteria. You’re not making fruit salad—you’re trading. Why trade bananas and grapes if oranges are your thing? Stick with what you know. 5. Not having a concrete trading plan. So you bought a stock you like. Now what? When do you sell? What are your targets? What about stop losses? What, you didn’t consider the fact that this trade might not work out? Whoops. Probably should have figured that one out beforehand… 6. Buying someone else’s trade on a whim Your ideas might overlap with your next-door neighbor. But don’t get in a situation where you’re reliant on him to tell you whether you should be in or out. If you’re taking your poker buddy’s trade, you better be prepared to own it… 7. Revenge trading This is when you chase after a not-so-perfect trade because you’ve lost money on the stock before and it “owes you one”. The market doesn’t care. Sorry. This scenario is kind of like dating your ex-girlfriend’s best friend. Sure, it might be fun at first. But there’s no way in hell it ends without your car getting keyed… 8. Playing favorites The stock was good to you, so you come back for more even though you probably shouldn’t. This is much more prevalent and more difficult to correct than No. 7, in my opinion. It’s hard to get rid of the good feelings of a trade that was “just right”. 9. Ignoring stops Your technique doesn’t matter. If you ignore your stops, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot. This is when trades become investments—usually bad ones. 10. Over-trading You’re constantly maxed-out and trying to do too much every single day. Your broker loves you, but you’re account is treading water. You’re not a daytrader—but you’re changing your mind and taking several round trips every day. You need to hit the penalty box for a while to get your act together, but you’d rather try and grind it out. That’s usually a mistake. Then there’s the exact opposite problem… 11. Under-trading A short string of losses has paralyzed your trading. You end up riding the pine and ignoring quality set-ups instead of figuring out what went wrong and getting your act together. This “break” allows you to get away from losing money without having the do the work required to make any improvements. 12. Refusal to pick a time frame Here’s another version of the fruit salad problem. Some of your trades are short-term. A couple should play out in a few months. Oh, and you’re snagging a day-trade here and there. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having a couple of different portfolios. But a scatter-shot approach can be trouble. This is usually a problem beginning traders face when they’ve yet to discover their bread and butter. Hate this list? Love it? Either way, hit me up with some of your boneheaded mistakes and I’ll add them to the discussion. Sincerely, Greg Guenthner for The Daily Reckoning The post How to Trade the Stock Market’s “Dead Zone” appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 08:26

Superman Flies Again – The Wealth Story of the Decade Ahead - This post Superman Flies Again – The Wealth Story of the Decade Ahead appeared first on Daily Reckoning. Christopher Reeve made a perfect Superman. Tall, handsome, and indestructible, he embodied the spirit of Superman like no other actor to ever play the comic book superhero. Sadly, as you know, real life isn’t like comic books. In May 1995, Reeve shattered his second and third vertebrae in a horse riding accident. Though he never walked again, he spent the rest of his life advocating for research to find new ways to treat severe spinal cord injuries. At the time, a way to allow Reeve to walk again wasn’t scientifically possible. No amount of money or connections could help him. Reeve died in 2004 at the age of 52. About 12,000 Americans every year suffer an injury similar to Reeve’s. Globally, the WHO estimates up to 250,000 spinal cord injuries yearly. In the US, average lifetime care and rehabilitation costs approach $5 million per person, per catastrophic spinal cord injury. That’s $60 billion a year. It’s an avalanche of suffering for patients, family, and caregivers. But this isn’t about money. Injuries this devastating go beyond money, straight to the moral necessity of figuring out how we as a society can give our soldiers, football players, car crash victims, and those injured in severe falls a new lease on life. A second chance. A chance at the normal, independent lives you and I enjoy every day. Problem is, we can’t repair the spinal column post-injury. It’s just too complex, too fragile. Right? Same as it was in Superman’s case? What would you say if I told you there’s work underway right now that could give young men and women severely injured a car accidents… or on the football field… or the field of battle… … Men and women who today hear they will never use their arms or legs again… … Men and women who will live the rest of their lives looking up at the world from a bed… … That new lease on life. The chance at independence. The chance to enjoy what you and I enjoy every day of our lives. You wouldn’t believe me. You’d shake your head and tell me it’s a great goal, but it’s not scientifically possible. You’d come up with a good reason why I was a fool. Then I’d show you this. Click play below: This is real. This is happening right now. The most direct way to say it is, those with severe spinal cord injuries (12,000 a year in America, remember) could be on the verge of receiving the biggest medical miracle of the decade ahead. In fact, this miracle could represent the biggest fundamental shift, the biggest single advance, to medicine since open heart surgery. A moment ago, I said this isn’t about money. It isn’t. This is about giving hope to those who have none. This is about science lifting those up who face an uncertain, bedridden future. The science you just saw in that video clip is a world first. It’s on the verge of changing lives around the world. And you have a chance to be part of it – to profit from it – before it’s on the mainstream news. That news exposure is coming… maybe just weeks from now. Because when this amazing breakthrough comes into widespread awareness, the frenzy could be like nothing you’ve ever seen before. This isn’t about money. Still true. But make no mistake, if you’re in front of this story, you’re going to have a chance to get richer than you ever dreamed. All the possible Supermen – and Superwomen – of the future who today never have a chance to fly… will get their chance due to this incredible work. Click here to find out how you can get on board the wealth ride of your life… In fact, I’ll even introduce you to the scientist responsible for making this miracle real. Sincerely, Aaron Gentzler for The Daily Reckoning The post Superman Flies Again – The Wealth Story of the Decade Ahead appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 19 Dec

The Trump Bump vs. Gold vs. Yellen’s Keynesian Analysis - This post The Trump Bump vs. Gold vs. Yellen’s Keynesian Analysis appeared first on Daily Reckoning. For much of 2016, gold’s price action was whipsawed by market speculation about whether or not the Fed would raise interest rates in a final, grand gesture to ring out the month of December, as well as the soon-ending Obama administration. In essence, all year, the golden spotlight has been on Yellen. When pondering the Fed and its impact on gold price trends, there’s one line of questions. Will rates remain the same at the next meeting or will rates increase? If so, by how much? Earlier this year, as markets perceived low probability of a Fed rate increase, gold prices drifted higher, and lifted mining shares on the rising tide. When probability of a Fed rate increase appeared higher, gold sold down and took mining shares with it. As of last week, we have our much-anticipated, end of year, quarter-point rate increase, with accompanying guidance to expect three more rate moves in 2017. Apparently, and notwithstanding Trump and the “jobs, jobs, jobs”-thrust of his recent presidential campaign, the Fed believes that the U.S. economy is strong and getting stronger. Thus, it’s time to raise rates and cool down the overheated engine of growth and employment. Since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, broad markets firmed up and moved ahead, while gold corrected downwards. Here’s a chart that tracks the Dow Jones average ($INDU) against the daily gold contract ($GOLD). You can see the remarkable Dow-gold divergence, beginning right around election day. Looking back to September and October, notice how the Dow traded in a range; then it took off after Trump won. It’s what I call the “Trump Bump.” Gold prices took a hit in early October, as the chart shows. At the time, the idea was that the plunge anticipated the Fed’s rate increase in December. Then gold prices recovered, up until the wee hours of election night, when yellow metal began another downward track. So, what does the future hold? Nobody knows. But I expect that we’ll see a true contest of wills between Trump, and his Make America Great Again optimism; versus Yellen, and her sense that the economy is heating up and requires Fed interest rate ministrations to cool it all down. Along the lines of that impending contest of wills, a few weeks ago, I was organizing boxes in my basement. Purely by coincidence, I found a collection of old Harvard student course catalogs from 1972 through 1978 when I studied geology there. Inside these pages are Yellen prophesies! BWK photo. The mid-1970s also covers several years when a much younger Janet Yellen was on faculty at Harvard, employed there as an assistant professor of economics. Janet Yellen, long ago, on faculty at Harvard. Yellen earned a PhD in economics from Yale University in 1971. Her thesis was entitled Employment, output and capital accumulation in an open economy: a disequilibrium approach, prepared under the supervision of Nobel laureates James Tobin and Joseph Stiglitz. Degree in hand, Yellen migrated north to Cambridge, and went on payroll as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard, 1971–76. Yellen had quite a group of distinguished colleagues, back then. While paging through the dusty tomes, I saw familiar names of old professors, from whom I took an economics course or two – Otto Eckstein, Kenneth Arrow, Robert Dorfman, Wassily Leontief. And then there was Janet Yellen, Assistant Professor of Economics, with her bright future still to come. In 1972–73, Yellen taught a course in “Aggregative Economic Policy.” This covered “Theories of national income determination, employment, interest, investment, money, and economic growth from Keynes to the present.” In 1973–74, Yellen taught that course again; with the same name, except the course description changed to “Keynesian and post-Keynesian theories of national income determination, introduction to monetary theory, cyclical fluctuations and economic growth.” A year later, after a leave of absence, Yellen taught two courses, entitled “Macroeconomic Theory” and “Economic Theory.” The first course covered “Keynesian and classical models of employment and income determination; theories of inflation, aggregate fluctuations and growth; principles of stabilization policy; theories of consumption, investment and portfolio choice.” The second course during that year covered “Static Keynesian models and their classical antecedents; modern monetarist and post-Keynesian models; theories of consumption, investment, and portfolio behavior; theories of aggregate fluctuation and inflation; economic models and policy optimization.” Notice anything about Yellen’s courses? One sees the name Keynes prominently. In essence, Yellen taught party-line, Keynesian economics. Keynesian economists believe that private sector economic decisions often lead to what they perceive as “inefficient” macroeconomic outcomes. The economy just doesn’t do what central bankers and government planners want it to do. People don’t behave properly, at the “micro”-level (call it the “Trump”-level, for current purposes), and their cumulative sins all add up to grave policy faults and inefficiencies. Something must be done to correct the resulting inefficiencies. The policy solution to economic inefficiency is that a modern economy requires active measures by a (supposedly) wise and knowledgeable central bank, working in tandem with effective fiscal policy by the (supposedly) all-seeing, all-knowing government. The idea is to “stabilize output” over any given business cycle. The long and short is that Keynesian economics advocates a “mixed economy,” in which the private sector jumps through policy hoops created by government and its legions of Very Smart People. The end-state in all of this is to avoid terrible things called “recessions.” I won’t belabor the preceding points; people write long books about Keynesianism, versus, say, the “Austrian” school of economics. People argue over the merits of recessions, to clean out the muck from an economy. People argue over whether or not to attempt to control business cycles, if that’s even possible. All that, and much more. For our purposes in Gold Speculator, my view is that Ms. Yellen’s deep-down, inner Keynesian instinct is happy to see the downward-sloping $GOLD trend in the chart above. But also, she’s unhappy with that up-trending $INDU line, and certainly with the idea of a Trump Bump, and what it means in terms of her worldview. Yellen, and her Keynesian cohorts at the Fed, will do what they can to reign-in the robust and overheating – she evidently believes – U.S. economy… whether it’s robust and overheating or not. She’s like a doctor with but one standard remedy, no matter what the illness. Thus, as 2017 unfolds, we’re setting up for a battle royale, worthy of Wrestle-Mania at its finest. In one corner, we have incoming, President-elect Trump – with his go-go-go, charge ahead view of moving the economy. With his $3 trillion gathering of tech-heads. With many campaign promises to keep about “bringing back jobs” and such. In the other corner, we have a cadre of PhD-level, central bank policy wonks who really do believe their own hocus pocus. Much of the looming battle will play out in the public forum, and we’ll be able to watch it live, and in real-time. Other elements of this epic battle of monetary policy will be at the Deep-State level, behind tightly closed doors. We’ll hear leaks and rumors, to be sure. And along the way, the price of gold will be one key barometer of whose ideas are prevailing. At this point, I’m reminded of the words of the late Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, discussing the profound contradictions of his own, Soviet era, just before an entire empire came crashing down. He mused that, “We have arrived at an intellectual chaos.” Exactly. Intellectual chaos. Buy rumors, sell news. Gold will have its day again. Regards, Byron King for The Daily Reckoning The post The Trump Bump vs. Gold vs. Yellen’s Keynesian Analysis appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 19 Dec

Jim Rickards in Debate of Gold, SDRs, or More of the Same? - This post Jim Rickards in Debate of Gold, SDRs, or More of the Same? appeared first on Daily Reckoning. While meeting up last month in London, Jim Rickards in debate joined forces with Ann Pettifor for a discussion for the ages.  The center of the debate was on the “Future of the International Monetary System – Gold, SDRs, or More of the Same.”  The two economic heavyweights come from highly respective backgrounds and offer a unique perspective in their own right together with our Daily Reckoning UK colleagues. Ann Pettifor is a UK analyst focused on the global financial system and works as a director at UK based organization, Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME).  Her latest book, Just Money: How Society Can Break the Despotic Power of Finance covered the social impact of the global monetary system.  She was one of the few economist who predicted the financial crisis years prior to the aftermath of 2008 and is widely celebrated as a leading voice for UK analysis. Jim Rickards is an economist and macroeconomic analyst who just released his latest New York Times bestseller The Road to Ruin.  Jim Rickards worked for decades on Wall Street and has advised various departments within the U.S government regarding international monetary currency systems. When prompted about what is the future of the monetary system Pettifor responded: “The future of the global monetary system is in very dire straights.  We have known that for some time now.  The Bank of England is beginning to panic.  It has been panicking behind the scenes for some time, now together with the OECD, the IMF and the Bank of International Settlements.  The world is being allowed to go on as if everything is normal.” “What is so extraordinary about what has happened since the crisis is that nothing has happened. Nothing has changed. Structurally, the global financial monetary system remains exactly as it was.  What we’ve had is a massive private debt bubble, not a public debt bubble, that hasn’t burst. It is still out there.” “The problem is, as we have eased up in Britain, it has dipped a little since 2007 but it is where it was in 2005.  The reason why this private debt bubble has not been burst, has not been brought down and not been deleveraged is because there is not enough money to pay it down.  Debts do not rot with old age.  Debt rises exponentially and mathematically.” “The future of the monetary system is very precarious and fragile.  As we get more authoritarian governments, we are moving toward a new age… Who is going to be in charge of the new international monetary system?  Is it going to be under private authority?  Is it going to be Goldman Sachs that is going to run our monetary system?  Or is it going to be under public, democratic, and accountable authority?  That’s the choice.” Jim Rickards presented by posing a question “are capital markets a complex system?” “We have to confront the fact that if capital markets are a complex system, [then] none of the models that the regulators, the bankers and the risk managers are using correspond to reality.  They are at best obsolete and at worst dangerously wrong.” “This is one reason why regulators and bankers never see the crisis coming.  They are always ill prepared for when they come.  They always underestimate the magnitude.  Their reactionary function is slow and plotting because they don’t actually understand what’s happening.” “Complex systems are prone to collapse.  They build and build and periodically collapse.  It is the instability of the total system that we need to be concerned about.  The worst thing that can happen in a complex system is… that if you double the size of the system, you do not double the risk.  You increase the risk by a factor of five, or perhaps ten, and increase the risk exponentially.” “In 2008, all we heard about was “too big to fail.”  Since 2008, the five largest banks in the United States are all larger, they have a larger percentage of the total banking assets, there is greater concentration, they have much larger derivatives books.  Everything that was too big to fail in 2008 is bigger and more dangerous today.  And given the complexity of the system the risk is far greater than what we had in 2008.” Ann Pettifor responded pointedly on the current state of the monetary system stating that, “The financial system exists to serve the real economy.  Before the crisis banks used to lend. We invented the banking system in order to have institutions that would manage the credit system for us.” “After the crisis we started lending to the banks. We deposited more money into the banking system than the banking system lent out.  This is bizarre and perverse.  Why has it happened?  It is a human, social construct.  It is something that we’ve built over time.” Jim Rickards pushed forward on money and exchange noting that, “there is an invisible confidence boundary.  You will cross it.  You won’t know that you did until it’s too late.  You’ll find out the hard way.  We are now dealing with a much larger scale of risk.” “I think a lot of Ann’s remedies could work.  But they won’t be implemented in time before the calamity comes. In the next crisis when everyone wants their money back from the banks, the liquidity will come from the IMF in the form of trillions of SDR’s. If it works, it will only be because nobody understands it because ultimately it is fiat money.  They will then lose greater confidence and begin to ask – where is the gold?” To hear Jim Rickards in debate with full commentary on the international monetary system with the brilliant Ann Pettifor, click here. Regards, Craig Wilson, @craig_wilson7 for the Daily Reckoning The post Jim Rickards in Debate of Gold, SDRs, or More of the Same? appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 19 Dec

Here’s Why You Should Never Buy and Hold Gold - This post Here’s Why You Should Never Buy and Hold Gold appeared first on Daily Reckoning. Buying and holding a commodity like gold may be the most ignorant strategy ever… That’s a heresy to some gold “experts” who think they can predict its price direction. But here’s the cold hard truth: The market doesn’t care about what you, I, or any “expert” thinks should happen. To make money from gold, you’re either on the right side or the wrong side of the price trend. Today, I’m going to show you how to be “right” when investing in gold… “Buy and Hope” Strikes Again Let’s take a look at what’s happened to the price of gold this year… Gold started the year on a tear following a December 2015 Fed rate hike, sharply declining oil prices and trouble in China that sent stock markets around the world tumbling. A surge of money steered toward gold’s safe haven almost immediately. And as the gold price trended higher, Wall Street and Main Street jumped on the bandwagon… In May, JP Morgan told clients to “position for a new and very long bull market for gold.” Goldman Sachs joined the party in June by raising its average gold price forecasts in the near and long term, extending into 2018. And Merrill Lynch as recently as early October recommended buying gold on a brief dip because its analysts believed that when the Fed raised interest rates, stocks would sell off, the dollar would rally, and investors would see gold prices trend higher. But there was one big freaking problem… These “trust us” recommendations never gave you an exit plan. Most investors just followed the tried-and-true “buy and hope” strategy. They bought and hoped gold stocks would continue to move higher as the “experts” predicted. How’d that work out for them? If you bought in May per JP Morgan’s call, you got in around $1,270. If you bought in June per Goldman’s call, you got in around $1,324. If you bought in October per Merrill’s call, you got in around $1,256. Today, gold trades near $1,140. Most people who bought and held on without a clear exit strategy are down big. How Do You Make Money in Gold? The answer to that question is you don’t rely on “buy and hope.” Like many commodity markets, gold is famous for its boom-and-bust cycles. Gold is especially vulnerable to emotional investing. Every nervous global twitch can cause a big swing in prices because so many people have their political beliefs tied to gold. The bottom line is it’s incredibly hard to consistently make money in gold if you’re simply buying and holding, instead of using a systematic strategy like momentum-focused trend following trading. Sure, you may get lucky once in a while and thus imagine you are the next “Oracle of Omaha.” But what I’m talking about is a system of capturing strong, repeatable gains in the long run, in whatever market that’s trending. For example, my proprietary Trend Following system triggered a buy signal for gold stock Hecla Mining on April 20 – and a sell signal on October 10, capturing a solid 43% gain. But the immensely important point is my system triggered a sell signal as soon as the trend changed. The big-time decline was avoided. If you followed my straightforward system, you would have not only pocketed a gain of 43%—but also avoided the big loss. But most don’t know to follow this kind of momentum, crowd-following system. Instead of going with the trend no matter what, they fantasize about forecasts of gold going to the moon… and then on to Mars. And they’re still waiting for it to happen because the thrill of being right is more important to them than making money. But while significant numbers of investors were dreaming about making a fortune in gold while stockpiling for Armageddon, the trend changed like a bucking bronco. Most of these investors were gobsmacked. Remember, when any market moves either up or down, you either get on board on the right side of the trend or you get killed. Guaranteed. So ask yourself: Are you riding the gold trend? Or are you just guessing gold’s direction? Please send me your comments to coveluncensored@agorafinancial.com. Let me know what you think of today’s issue. Regards, Michael Covel for The Daily Reckoning The post Here’s Why You Should Never Buy and Hold Gold appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 19 Dec

Nomi Prins on the World Financial System in 2017 - This post Nomi Prins on the World Financial System in 2017 appeared first on Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning had the chance to sit down with best-selling author, economist and historian Nomi Prins for a candid one-on-one interview while in Berlin, Germany.  Between her exclusive meetings with Jim Rickards, a series of European press interviews and pressing research meetings for her forthcoming book Artisans of Money we sat down at a café in the heart of Europe to discuss what is unfolding in Europe and what to expect in 2017. The Brandenburg Gate, one of the best-known landmarks of Germany – and directly across from our meeting location. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for only the second time in a decade by .25 basis points the day after our interview.  Many saw this move as a reflection of Fed officials having confidence in the U.S economy and what might be signs of rising inflation.  Europe, in the meantime, has been left scratching its head in a perplexed wonder of how it should react. One year ago, Prins’ was out in front of the December 2015 rate hike in which she firmly believed other central banks would be forced to react.  This time, The Daily Reckoning got the exclusive on what she believes is next on the financial horizon and what specifically might be in store for the Eurozone. Nomi Prins at Checkpoint Charlie, in Berlin. The Daily Reckoning (DR): The U.S just raised interest rates – what reaction do you see coming from Europe and the European Central Bank (ECB)? Nomi Prins: The ECB won’t act as it had last year, it won’t react immediately by cutting rates.  What is most likely to come from the ECB this round is an expansion of quantitative easing operations (QE) in which more money is pumped into the system. It is also likely that the Bank of England (BoE) will cut rates – the central bank is one of the only major coordinated banks that operates at the same level of the Federal Reserve and remains independent in action.  It is also one of the very few central banks that has not acted by cutting rates, so far, in the wake of the financial crisis.  The BoE now believes that they have the room to cut rates. If the global markets pattern of turmoil is to be replicated in similar form from last year, they’ll be inclined to act.  From there, depending on how bad things get following the market shakeup after the Fed’s action, the BoE will be forced to extend, if not expand, its own UK version of QE. DR: The European Union has come to a very difficult crossroads economically and politically.  What is to come for the EU and the European Central Bank? Nomi Prins: The EU as an institution is going to continue its trend of cracking and progressively getting worse. The current near term reality for everyday people is that their economic future will not match what quantitative easing (along with zero interest rate policy) has done equal to what banks have been given. People can clearly see that those corporations are being given considerable financial and policy-oriented assistance, while the everyday worker is being left behind.  They might not know specifically what to call the economic hit they’re feeling, but they certainly understand they’re worse off. EU member states will look for more beneficial relationships in order to support their individual economies.  Though it will take a longer time, there will be a considerable shift in power underway within economic trade and geopolitical relationships.  This will also be seen within the ECB as it continues to struggle to react to economic and political shifts in the region. DR: What is to come economically and politically for 2017? What are you watching? Nomi Prins: In the United States, Donald Trump will be the major story.  If the infrastructure plan promised on the campaign, that has now been envisioned by many, is to actually take place it could spur economic growth globally. But that will remain to be seen for some time. Even if a massive stimulus of infrastructure spending were to take place, it is seemingly a flawed strategy to begin with in regards to budgets and overall impact to a real main street economy. The biggest moves will be political.  It is important to watch the speed and direction in which a president Trump is able to move forward with international alliances.  These relations will impact trade, currency and capital flows outside of the U.S.  While they were already set in motion during what can be described as an ongoing financial crisis, it will be furthered under a Trump administration. People in other countries are going to react to government actions, and inaction.  Expect a Europe that will remain economically and politically crippled.  More elections in Europe will bring about more economic shocks, and further stress. In the same breath, China will continually get bad press amongst the mainstream media outlets but carry on its momentum toward furthering its position as a global leader.  We saw that with its inclusion at the International Monetary Fund in the special drawing rights (SDR) and we’ll see further status moves in the future. The United Kingdom is undergoing minimal job numbers while the pound sterling continues to weaken.  That trend should continue in 2017.  Things for the UK will be rocky as they slowly head toward the Article 50 of exiting the European Union.  Theresa May has indicated that all of the strategy and government leadership planning will be made public around March of 2017. The impact on the UK and the EU will be made more clear then.  The public will have a greater understanding of whether the EU will be kind to the UK or set out to make an example out of those members that choose to leave.  In the meantime, the UK will begin to forge new relationships in order to be hedged for BREXIT uncertainty. DR: As the International Monetary Fund continues to surface as a global influencer what is your impression on its influence for 2017? News monitor on the street in Berlin, Germany. EU counterparts highly concerned about IMF and Lagarde’s trial. Nomi Prins: The IMF has been focused on a rising dollar and emerging markets not being able to pay back debts relative to a strengthening dollar.  If the Fed policy of raising rates continues to be a policy for the future and a strengthening of the U.S dollar continues, this debt burden will on EM will continue to press down on the global economy. Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, will be found guilty for criminal charges linked to her misuse of public funds during her time as France’s finance minister.  This very well could force her out of the post that she had just entered in February for her second five-year term.  Similar to Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s scandal and resignation from the IMF, the move could prove to be a destabilizing factor to the IMF and the organization’s ability to participate in government bailout activities. If she does step down from the head of the IMF, does the Fund select someone more friendly to U.S policy?  Does it just go away?  The coming weeks and days into 2017 will give very early signals as to what to expect. DR: Finally, how do you see the Fed responding for 2017? After this December 2016 rate hike, where is Yellen looking? Nomi Prins: On December 16 of last year, the financial headlines swirled that four quarter point increases would be on the horizon for 2016.  Instead, the reality was that we had one.  This time, they are saying even less.  The signaled expectation from the Fed is that three rate moves are to be anticipated. Technically speaking, there is no reason to trust anything that they say.  After getting one rate hike from a Fed that forecast four moves, it is clear that nothing from the Fed is known.  It shows that Yellen and those running the Fed are not really sure of anything. Regards, Craig Wilson, @craig_wilson7 for the Daily Reckoning   The post Nomi Prins on the World Financial System in 2017 appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 19 Dec

Here’s Why Every Mall is Doomed - This post Here’s Why Every Mall is Doomed appeared first on Daily Reckoning. A nasty retreat in retail stocks is threatening to steal your Christmas gains… The great retail comeback is beginning to look shaky just weeks after posting a huge post-election breakout. Some of the biggest names in the sector are now starting to roll over. If you’re stuck in any of these plays, you’ll have to act fast. If the breakdown we’re seeing is the real deal, it’s more proof that shopping malls are dying much faster than anyone anticipated. As the collapse accelerates, it threatens to shake the entire retail sector to its core… Let’s face facts—retail hasn’t exactly been one of the friendliest investments of 2016. Heck, even one of the smartest investors in the world lost a pile of cash on a mall stock this year… I’m talking about Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn. Dave’s a billionaire—and he didn’t acquire his cash stash by accident. His fund has returned nearly 17% annually to investors since its inception in 1996. But Einhorn’s having another rough year. His fund took a big stake in struggling retailer Macy’s (NYSE:M) in late 2015 only to watch shares implode nearly 30% before ditching the position altogether just six months later. Sure, Macy’s was burning piles of cash and closing stores left and right. The former peddler of Donald J. Trump branded shirts and ties just couldn’t compete with the Amazon juggernaut. But the chain looked like it was getting its act together earlier this year. Shares started recovering as the company cut costs and closed underperforming stores. Despite these improvements, the entire sector is suddenly falling apart. The S&P Retail Index ETF (NYSE:XRT) hit the skids about midway through last year. But after bottoming out in February, XRT slowly started to get its act together. That’s when a post-election rally offered a shot of adrenaline to the beaten-down mall stocks. A mid-November surged helped power the retail ETF to gains of nearly 18% in a little less than a month. By early December, this group of stocks was flirting with new 52-week highs. But after last weeks’ drubbing, it’s clear these stocks partied a little too hard after Trump’s win. Here comes the hangover… All the major mall anchors are coughing up their November gains at an alarming rate. Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE:JWN) took the biggest hit Friday, dropping nearly 9% after a JP Morgan downgrade. Macy’s and JC Penney followed suit, each dropping 7% to finish out the trading week. The post-election retail rally is all but cooked… The analyst note on the Nordstrom downgrade pulls no punches. Costs are too high. Online shopping is only cannibalizing brick-and-mortar sales. And store traffic is at its worst levels since 1972. It gets worse… The slow-motion collapse of the traditional retailers is starting to pick up steam. As this story continues to unfold, the retail sector is becoming a wasteland. Jeff Bezos and his army of same-day Amazon delivery drivers have gutted every brick and mortar store in their path. Derelict shopping malls dot the country. It’s not a pretty picture. We’ve attempted to play the most recent bounce in retail this month without much success. Out main strategy was to seek out the discounters and specialty boutiques to survive trading in the brick-and-mortar space. After all, these are the shops that can offer something shoppers wouldn’t find online. But even this move has been a total bust. Steer clear of the retail space for now. You never know where Amazon will strike next… Sincerely, Greg Guenthner for The Daily Reckoning The post Here’s Why Every Mall is Doomed appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 19 Dec

Source of Fake News: The Mainstream Media - This post Source of Fake News: The Mainstream Media appeared first on Daily Reckoning. The mainstream media is awash with hyper-active headlines about “fake news.” How can we make sense of this sudden obsession? Perhaps we can start by separating “news” from “analysis” from “commentary.” “News” is “he said this, she did that, this happened.” Analysis tries to make sense of trends that are apparent in the news longer-term — for example, why did Trump win? Is the economy actually healthy or not? “Commentary” is opinion that establishes a point of view and defends it while attacking other points of view. All these news flows are constantly being spun/manipulated to support specific agendas and narratives. Now we are being told some of these news flows are false/ misleading and their intent is to disrupt democracy. I would counter that censorship is not helpful to democracy — rather, it is the death of democracy. It’s all too obvious in the mainstream media (MSM) hysteria over “fake news” that the narrative being pushed is: any criticism of Hillary or questions about her health, foundation, etc., were by definition Russian propaganda. Never mind that few if any voters changed their mind as a result of the “Russian hacking”; voters were already so polarized that the content of the emails did not influence their decision, which was based on deeper foundations than “news.” The fear of those who want to preserve democracy is that under the excuse of “eliminating Russian propaganda” the status quo will restrict everyone who is inconveniently challenging the status quo narratives with data-based analysis. One of the underlying issues in the “fake news” narrative is: the Internet is a new medium. It enables seamless surfing over an endless range of topics and images, it enriches those who design click-bait headlines that grab our attention, it enables access to “forbidden” material such as pornography. As the older mediums of newspapers, radio and TV expanded into every nook and cranny of the nation/world, the creation, curation, editing and massaging of content and opinion became intensely centralized. This centralization led to a homogenization of content: no matter which of the three networks you were watching as the Vietnam war raged, the “news”, content and opinion were basically the same. Centralization of “news” and opinion enabled the central state to push a narrative that made its vested interests appear as inevitable elites rather than total fabrications that were dependent on the consent of the governed—a consent that was manufactured, in Noam Chomsky’s phrase, to support the status quo narratives and thus the status quo’s wealth and power. But there was a problem with this centralization of content/opinion creation and curation: it no longer explained the events or trends that were visible in the “news.” If the federal government and the mainstream media were correct that we were “winning the war in Vietnam” and there was “light at the end of the tunnel,” how could we explain what looked like a quagmire? When the only medium available to dissenters and those challenging the status quo narratives was print (mimeographs, web offset printers, etc.) and physical gatherings (meetings, demonstrations, lectures, etc.) then the central state could limit or disrupt dissenting narratives fairly easily. Limiting dissent in the age of decentralized content creation and curation is far more problematic. The Chinese central state supposedly pays hundreds of thousands of people to maintain its Great Firewall, but despite this gargantuan expenditure of treasure and effort, non-approved ideas are still leaking into China via the web/Internet. 200 years ago people printed pamphlets and spoke to small gatherings on street corners. That decentralized chaos was replaced by homogenized, centralized “news” and content curation. Now the web has enabled millions of pamphlets and small gatherings, and the Powers That Be rightly feel their ability to control the “news” and narratives to support the ruling elites is irrevocably eroding. And that’s resulting in their panicked demands to be given the power to eradicate “fake news,” i.e. dissent and “foreign propaganda.” What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes? That is the question of the moment. Does the Internet flip into centralized censorship a la China’s Great Firewall, where only ruling-elite approved “news” is distributed as “truth,” or does the Internet descend further into a Wild West where anything goes, and the worst impulses of the human psyche run amok. This chaos has been described as a “failed state,” and this choice of words is quite interesting. For it suggests that the Internet should be an orderly, centrally managed “digitally state” much like the central states that govern physical nations. Perhaps what has failed here is the narrative that everything fails and falls apart if it isn’t centrally managed and curated, a narrative that inevitably leads to censorship under the guise of “protecting you, the easily confused sheep, from these nasty wolves.” Censorship then enables another, much more well-organized and centralized pack of wolves (the ruling elites) to prey on the obedient sheep at their leisure, without fear of any disruptive dissenting narratives. What the ruling political elites and their mainstream media shills fear is a wide-open, chaotic and very Darwinian competition of concepts and ideas. They fear this so profoundly because they all know, somewhere in their hearts and minds, that their narrative is bankrupt, and that it no longer explains the world around us. It has failed, and this failure is now self-evident. The mainstream media has faithfully promoted a neoliberal, neoconservative, Keynesian narrative that has failed to produce the expected results. No wonder trust in the mainstream media has declined sharply in the past few years. Why should we trust a centralized institution that has parroted policies and narratives that haven’t produced the widespread security and prosperity that its proponents promised? The mainstream media’s “experts” who decry populism would rather blame “foreign propaganda” than examine why populism is on the rise: the mainstream political, financial and social institutions have failed to deliver what they promised, implicitly or explicitly. This failure is powering a search for new ways to understand our world, and this is a positive dynamic. The process is messy and fraught with bad ideas, fake news, hidden agendas, propaganda, and here and there, powerful new ideas and narratives. The ruling elites and their mainstream corporate media desperately want to shore up their failing narrative by censoring the creation, curation and distribution of competing ideas and narratives. As I said earlier, censorship is not helpful to democracy — rather, it is the death of democracy. We should ponder that as the mainstream media’s increasingly frantic cries for censorship fill the airwaves and print media. Unfortunately for the ruling elites and their mainstream media shills, you can’t put the Internet genie back in the bottle without destroying the economy and democracy. Regards, Charles Hugh Smith for The Daily Reckoning The post Source of Fake News: The Mainstream Media appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 17 Dec

“Fake News,” Censorship and Democracy - This post “Fake News,” Censorship and Democracy appeared first on Daily Reckoning. If you thought the mainstream media couldn’t disgrace themselves further after their 2016 presidential election partisan undoing, you were dead wrong… The Washington Post sinks deeper into the sewage literally every day. In an effort to delegitimize President-elect Trump, the Post recently ran a story on the proliferation of “fake news.” In it, the paper reported on hundreds of “fake” websites pushing “Russian propaganda” critical of Hillary Clinton and the ruling class… all supposedly designed to win Trump the election. But there was just one problem… The source the Post used for the story, PropOrNot, was unreliable … and the paper was just forced to admit its story on fake news was, well, fake. You could laugh this off as the latest failure of an inept, ethically bankrupt media. But as you’re about to see, this proliferation of fake news by the leading U.S. media operations is far more dangerous to your portfolio than you think… To be clear, I’m not arguing that fake news doesn’t exist. It’s all over the internet. But it’s always been with us. Discerning the difference between truth and fiction is why we were given the faculty of reason. If you read a web article about Yoko Ono having a love affair with Hillary Clinton and choose to believe it’s true, that’s on you. The only reason we’re hearing so much about this false reality epidemic now is because the mainstream media are using it as an excuse in the midst of its collective nervous breakdown. You see, they’re still trying to figure out how the unwashed masses didn’t follow their instructions precisely and vote for Clinton. The proletariat had to have been duped. They could not have possibly made an alternate choice. So now we are in Bizarro World, where MSNBC’s Brian Williams lectures about the dangers of “fake news.” This is the same teleprompter reader who was relieved of his duties on NBC’s Nightly News for making up a story of him coming under rocket-propelled grenade fire while on assignment in Iraq — all fake. That’s like Hillary Clinton lecturing about the impropriety of using a private server to transmit classified information. The fact is we’re now living in a multilayered reality where the biggest perpetrators of fake news are the ones most loudly decrying its existence. Remember the Newsweek story about U.S. military members flushing a Quran down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay? Never happened. Or the YouTube video that caused the Benghazi attacks? That’s 100% Clinton fiction that never happened either. How about Rathergate, where Dan Rather and CBS News aimed to influence the 2004 presidential election with a phony story about George W. Bush’s Air National Guard service relying on falsified documents? Or Rolling Stone’s recent University of Virginia rape hoax story? Sadly, there are thousands more to choose from. The fake news phenomenon would be just another sad chapter in the decline of societal mores and mainstream media if it weren’t so diabolical. Regards, Michael Covel for The Daily Reckoning The post “Fake News,” Censorship and Democracy appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 17 Dec

Trump Faces Coup - This post Trump Faces Coup appeared first on Daily Reckoning. We have it on excellent authority that a “Russian coup” is seizing the reins of the American republic. Further, we understand this coup threatens “the end of the United States as an independent country.” On whose warrant do we receive this information? No less an authority than Keith Olbermann… former ESPN guy and present host of GQ’s indispensable political show. Here’s the Edward R. Murrow of our times in full blast: We are at war with Russia. Or perhaps more correctly, we have lost a war with Russia without a battle. We are no longer a sovereign nation; we are no longer a democracy; we are no longer a free people. We are the victims of a bloodless coup… The nation and all of our freedoms hang by a thread, and the military apparatus of this country is about to be handed over to scum! Who are beholden to scum! Russian scum! Well, now… It seems we recall a time when folks of Mr. Olbermann’s political persuasion were all mush and milk when it came to the Russkies. It was the American cowboy who wore the black hat, recklessly jabbing at the Russian bear, provoking it to atrocities. No longer. Now it’s Olbermann and his gang who are doing the jabbing. “Russian scum”? The U.S. intelligence community has, apparently, been listening to Olbermann. Intelligence officials are claiming that Putin had “personal involvement” in those email leaks that helped sink Hillary. NBC cites two senior officials: “New intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies.” We’ll just have to take their word for it. No evidence is forthcoming. But it’s not the sort of accusation one should necessarily make without solid DNA evidence. Russia’s no pup the U.S. can knock around like an Iraq, for heaven’s sake. The Intercept: With two enormous military powers placed in direct conflict over national sovereignty, we need an extraordinary disclosure. The stakes are simply too high to take anyone’s word for it. Just so. And did the Russians even do it? It certainly remains plausible that Russians hacked the DNC, and remains possible that Russia itself ordered it. But the refrain of Russian attribution has been repeated so regularly and so emphatically that it’s become easy to forget that no one has ever truly proven the claim… No one has actually proven that group is the Russian government (or works for it). This remains the enormous inductive leap that’s not been reckoned with, and Americans deserve better. We should say they do. What if it’s not the Russians but a leaker within the intelligence community itself who wasn’t happy about the way Hillary lied about Benghazi… or with her handling of classified data… or (fill in the blank)? The Russians are sophisticated hackers. They probably have ways of hiding their tracks. Why leave evidence behind? Questions and more questions. Here’s another, and please ignore the tinfoil hat: Is all this just an 11th-hour stunt to stop Trump from becoming president? The popular election is over. But the real vote takes place in four days — Dec. 19. That’s when the Electoral College submits its vote to Congress. Trump won the Electoral College vote with 306 total votes. To secure the crown, 270 votes are needed, and that’s critical… A certain Larry Lessig professes constitutional law at Harvard. This fellow told Politico he’s been advising Republican electors with cold feet about voting for Trump. Lessig claims 20 Republican electors are already considering voting against Trump. And he expects more will follow. If they can pick off an additional 17 votes, that totals 37… which drops Trump below the required 270. That would hand over the decision to the Republican-controlled House. You’d expect them to stick with Trump. It would be the shocker of all shockers if they didn’t. But you never know what dark collaborations have been going on behind closed doors… in smoke-filled rooms. Maybe the establishment isn’t giving up just yet. Which raises another question: What if it’s not Russians who are attempting a coup… but Americans? If that’s the case, a new word would have to be discovered. “Irony” just wouldn’t suffice… Regards, Brian Maher Managing editor, The Daily Reckoning The post Trump Faces Coup appeared first on Daily Reckoning. 16 Dec

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Pieces of Truth Forged Into Daggers of Deception + ‘Fake News’ Covers Up Domestic Propaganda Law - The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun Writer, Dandelion Salad December 19, 2016 When truth and reality are shattered into a thousand shards of deception, skewed and slanted into vicious weapons for power and control, how can we in the Dandelion Insurrection move forward? Cautiously. Gandhi said, “We all have a […]19 Dec

Christmas In Hell by Rocket Kirchner - by Rocket Kirchner Writer, Dandelion Salad Rocket Kirchner (blog) Rocket Kirchner (youtube channel) Originally published December 18, 2012 December 19, 2016 It is a known fact that there are more suicides and more people depressed during the holidays than in any other time of the year. Many of these people are just alone in society. […]19 Dec

Rapacious Consumerism is the Life-blood of Capitalism by Graham Peebles - by Graham Peebles Writer, Dandelion Salad London, England December 18, 2016 Commercialisation has poisoned all areas of contemporary life, and together with its partner in crime, consumerism, is the principle cause of man-made climate change. Operating under the suffocating shadow of neo-liberalism, the market forces of commercialisation act blindly and indiscriminately. The presiding deity is […]18 Dec

Chris Hedges: Israel’s Secret Weapons–“Combat-Tested” Against the People of Gaza - Dandelion Salad with Chris Hedges RT America on Dec 17, 2016 On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges discusses the influence of the Israeli arms industry with independent journalist Rania Khalek. They examine the Israeli weapons and tactics that are tested on Palestinians in occupied territory and then sold to the world. RT […]17 Dec

Trump Dredging the Swamp to Empower the Worst Elements of the ‘Shadow World’ - Dandelion Salad The Story Behind the Gripping New Documentary ‘Shadow World’ (1/5) TheRealNews on Dec 16, 2016 In part one, Andrew Feinstein discusses being witness to a corrupt weapons deal in post-apartheid South Africa sparked his quest to uncover the world of war profiteers and weapons contractors. Trump Dredging the Swamp to Empower the Worst Elements […]16 Dec

Trump Trumpets His Real Plans by Ralph Nader - Dandelion Salad by Ralph Nader The Nader Page, Dec. 12, 2016 December 15, 2016 Even for a failed gambling czar, Donald Trump has been surprisingly quick to show his hand as he sets the course of his forthcoming presidency. With a reactionary fervor, he is bursting backwards into the future. He has accomplished this feat […]15 Dec

What Would Happen If We All Refused To Go Quietly To The Slaughterhouse? - The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun Writer, Dandelion Salad December 14, 2016 We are serving ourselves up on silver platters to the oligarchs and giant corporations. We have apples of misinformation in our mouths and sprigs of patriotic parsley tucked behind our ears. Must we complacently acquiesce to being pot-roasted […]14 Dec

Craig Murray: Russia Played No Role At All In The Email Leaks, interviewed by David Swanson - by David Swanson Writer, Dandelion Salad Talk Nation Radio December 13, 2016 Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. See www.craigmurray.org.uk. Murray explains that he has met the leaker […]13 Dec

Today, Pope Francis Issued the Catholic Church’s First Statement on Nonviolence—Ever by Rev. John Dear - Dandelion Salad by Rev. John Dear World Beyond War December 12, 2016 Today, Pope Francis released the annual World Day of Peace Message for January 1, 2017, called “Nonviolence—A Style of Politics for Peace.” This is the Vatican’s fiftieth World Day of Peace message, but it’s the first statement on nonviolence, in the tradition of […]12 Dec

Chris Hedges: The Wreckage of Neoliberalism - Dandelion Salad with Chris Hedges RT America on Dec 11, 2016 On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges discusses the damage done to Europe by neoliberal policies with Philipp Ther, author of “Europe Since 1989: A History”. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil looks at the current rise of the far right in Europe spawned […]11 Dec

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Corporate Media’s 'Fake News' Propaganda War Is Backfiring - You could almost hear the Star Wars theme song playing as I write this article. Maybe it's just because I watch too much of the Alex Jones show. This gets right to the articles main story line ...05:25

This woman was a sex slave and tortured by Europe's elite at age 6 - Woman confesses about the horror she went through at age of 6 being a sex slave for the European Elites.03:41

South Korea Presents Real Life Mecha Piloted Robot War Machine! - Today in Robot Apocalypse we go to South Korea. That is where a robotics company called Korea Future Technology has created a real life war machine mecha robot that mimics the pilot’s movements. Just in time for Christmas!02:27

BREAKING: Donald Trump Wins Electoral College Vote - According to the LawNewz.com count, Donald Trump officially received the necessary 270 electoral votes to become the 45th President of the United States ...19 Dec

Microwaves have been banned in Russia since 1976. THIS IS WHAT they don’t tell you! - Microwaves: either they are liked or disliked. Liked - as it speeds up dinner prep and dinner can be at the table in two minutes or dislike - it can harm your health and other problems ...19 Dec

Brussels on LOCKDOWN as anti-terror police swoop into the city - BRUSSELS is on lockdown and several streets have been cordoned off as well as public transport halted because of a police operation. A number of streets have been sealed off and people have been escorted back to their homes by the police ...19 Dec

Truck Plows Through CHRISTMAS Market in BERLIN. Multiple CASUALTIES Reported. - German media are reporting a truck has run into a crowded Christmas market in the center of Berlin, causing multiple injuries ...19 Dec

Shooting near US Embassy in Ankara. Embassy now on LOCKDOWN - The “ongoing security incident” comes about two hours after the Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated in the capital. The embassy compound, which is approximately 2 ...19 Dec

World’s Largest Cloning Facility Is Now Ready To Replicate Humans - The Boyalife corporation is ready to venture away from cloning animal species like cows, racehorses, and pet/police dogs. The scientist, Xu Xiaochun, is ready to take on his next big overture: cloning humans ...19 Dec

Russian ambassador to Turkey shot DEAD 'in revenge for Aleppo' - Russia's ambassador to Turkey has been assassinated allegedly in retaliation for the crisis in Aleppo. The gunman reportedly said in Turkish "We die in Aleppo, you die here" before opening fire and injuring Ambassador Andrei Karlov ...19 Dec

The Economic Collapse

Tis The Season For Credit Card Debt: This Christmas Americans Will Spend An Average Of 422 Dollars Per Child - For many Americans, the quality of Christmas is determined by the quality of the presents.  This is especially true for our children, and some of them literally spend months anticipating their haul on Christmas morning.  I know that when I was growing up Christmas was all about the presents.  Yes, adults would give lip service to the other elements of Christmas, but all of the other holiday activities could have faded away and it still would have been Christmas as long as presents were under that tree on the morning of December 25th.  Perhaps things are different in your family, but it is undeniable that for our society as a whole gifts are the central feature of the holiday season. And that is why so many parents feel such immense pressure to spend a tremendous amount of money on gifts for their children each year.  Of course this pressure that they feel is constantly being reinforced by television ads and big Hollywood movies that continuously hammer home what a “good Christmas” should look like. Once again in 2016, parents will spend far more money than they should because they want to make their children happy.  According to a brand new survey from T. Rowe Price, parents in the United States will spend an average of 422 dollars per child this holiday season… More than half of parents report they aim to get everything on their kids’ wish lists this year, spending an average of $422 per child, according to a new survey from T. Rowe Price. To me, that seems like a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a single child, but this is apparently what people are doing. But can most families really afford to be spending so wildly? Of course not.  As I have detailed previously, 69 percent of all Americans have less than $1,000 in savings.  That means that about two-thirds of the country is essentially living paycheck to paycheck. So all of this reckless spending brings with it a lot of additional financial pressure.  But because we are a “buy now, pay later” society, we do it anyway.  We are willing to mortgage a little bit of the future in order to have a nice Christmas now. Another new survey has found that close to half the country feels “pressure to spend more than they can afford during the holiday season”… The SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) annual Holiday Financial Confidence survey reveals that 43 percent of Americans feel pressure to spend more than they can afford during the holiday season. Pressure to overspend is up four percent since the survey was first conducted in 2014 by Harris Poll, but down slightly from a high of 46 percent last year. Ultimately, much of this spending ends up going on credit cards, and credit card debt is one of the most insidious forms of debt. And the truth is that credit card debt was already surging nationally even before we got to the holiday season… But at least one indicator suggests that much of the US is actually struggling financially: Americans are piling on credit card debt at record levels that we haven’t seen since the financial crisis. Households added $21.9 billion in credit card debt in the third quarter — the largest increase for that period since 2007 — bringing the amount of outstanding credit card debt to $927.1 billion, according to the latest study from WalletHub. Debt takes future consumption and brings it into the present, but there is a price to be paid for doing that. Because we have to pay interest on that debt, we always have to pay back more money than we originally borrowed.  And because interest rates on credit cards are so high, paying back credit card debt can be particularly painful. According to Business Insider, the average American household currently owes nearly $8,000 to the credit card companies, and it is being suggested that this is a sign that the economy is much weaker than we have been led to believe… The fact that the average household with debt now owes $7,941 to credit card companies, according to WalletHub, suggests that America’s putative economic strength might be a mirage — that the economy may in fact be a lot weaker than all the happy indicators are leading people to believe. “I think it is a cause of concern because it says consumers are struggling despite the low unemployment figures,” says Lucia Dunn, an economics professor at Ohio State University. “I think the rise in debt arises from weakness in the economy. People whose incomes have dropped may be trying to maintain an older level of consumption by just charging everything.” And guess what? The Federal Reserve just raised interest rates, and so that means that paying off credit card debt will be even more painful for Americans in 2017 than it was in 2016. Could it be possible that we have lost our way? Could it be possible that we need to entirely rethink our approach to “the holiday season”? According to an old NBC News story, one survey discovered that 45 percent of all Americans would prefer to skip Christmas altogether because of all the financial pressure… Some 45 percent of those polled said the holiday season brings so much financial pressure, they would prefer to skip it altogether. Almost half said their level of stress related to holiday expenses is high or extremely high. That’s probably because nearly the same amount — some 45 percent — say they do not expect to have enough money set aside to cover holiday expenses. As a society, we need to learn that things will never make us happy. Life is not about accumulating toys.  Rather, we were created to love and to be loved. If you want to live a great life, learn how to be a person of great love.  Unfortunately, most people never seem to learn that lesson. A couple of months ago, I reported that the total amount of household debt in the United States had reached a grand total of 12.3 trillion dollars. If you break that number down, it comes to approximately $38,557 for every man, woman and child in the entire country. In addition to that, we must also remember that corporate debt has approximately doubled while Barack Obama has been in the White House, state and local government debt is completely out of control, and the U.S. national debt is now sitting just under 20 trillion dollars. Our greed is absolutely killing us, but we can’t stop. So we will continue to party until eventually somebody comes along and turns out the lights.19 Dec

The Real Reason Why America Has Been Given A Reprieve - This is one of the most important articles that I have written in a long time.  The strange events of the past year and a half have befuddled and mystified many, and in this article I am going to explain why America has been given a temporary reprieve.  If you go back to June 2015, I warned my readers that major financial problems were imminent, and sure enough in August 2015 we witnessed the greatest financial shaking that we had seen in seven years.  I remember getting emails from my readers applauding me for absolutely nailing that prediction, but we were all concerned about what was coming next in September.  If you will recall, there was more buzz about September 2015 than any other month that I can ever recall.  That was the month of the last blood moon, the end of the Shemitah year and the Pope’s visit to the United States among other things.  There was a tremendous amount of anticipation that the crisis that had begun in August 2015 would greatly accelerate in September and lead us into a period of cataclysmic global chaos.  But that did not happen.  Instead, U.S. financial markets calmed down and eventually recovered.  There was a shift in the political realm as well, as the second half of 2015 marked the rise of Donald Trump.  During those key months, Trump miraculously built a commanding lead in the race for the Republican nomination that none of his opponents were ever able to overcome.  And now that Trump has won the election, an economic surge appears to be happening that is unlike anything that we have witnessed in many years. Compared to much of the rest of the world, America appears to have been blessed over the past year and a half.  Our financial markets have performed extremely well, the U.S. dollar is the strongest that is has been in over a decade, and jobs are coming back to the United States. None of this was supposed to happen.  In fact, our financial system was in such bad shape a year and a half ago that it was being projected that the U.S. would be on the bleeding edge of the next crisis.  But instead here we stand safe, prosperous and seemingly secure. How in the would can we explain this? What I am about to share with you I have previously shared on national television down at Morningside, but it has been brought to my attention that I have never shared this with my readers on The Economic Collapse Blog.  I apologize for this, because the past year and a half doesn’t make any sense until you understand these things. When people look back at September 2015, they always forget the most critical event.  In addition to everything else that was going on that month, France had a UN Security Council resolution all ready to go that would have permanently divided the land of Israel, that would have given formal UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state for the very first time, and that would have given East Jerusalem to the Palestinians as the capital of their new state. The rest of the UN Security Council was ready to go along with the French resolution, but there was just one country standing in the way. The United States has veto power on the UN Security Council, and so the Obama administration had the power to potentially block the resolution.  After carefully considering the matter, the Obama administration decided that it was not the time for such a resolution, and so France never submitted it for a vote. Just about everything else that Barack Obama did throughout his entire presidency was bad, but in this instance he got something completely right.  The decision whether or not to divide the land of Israel was in his hands, and he made the right call. Once this decision was made, it was almost as if someone hit a “pause button”.  None of the bad things that people were forecasting ending up happening, and since that decision America has been blessed compared to the rest of the world. And this is perfectly consistent with what God said that He would do.  Starting in Genesis 12 and continuing all throughout the Scriptures, God promises to bless those that bless Israel and to curse those that curse Israel. In this case, Barack Obama blessed Israel by preventing the UN Security Council from dividing the land, and so we were blessed as a result. But of course there have been many other instances over the past several decades when we have been cursed as a nation for attempting to take steps toward the division of the land of Israel.  One of the most notable instances took place in 1991 when George H. W. Bush got the Israelis and the Palestinians together for the very first time to discuss the dividing of the land of Israel into two states… At that conference, the New York Times reported that Bush told Israel that “territorial compromise is essential for peace”.  Needless to say, this upset a lot of people… At the exact same time that conference was going on, the “Perfect Storm” was raging in the North Atlantic.  Three major storms merged together, and instead of canceling one another out, they formed the kind of storm that is normally only seen once in a lifetime.  If you will remember, Hollywood made a big blockbuster with George Clooney that was based on this storm.  This gigantic storm went 1000 miles the wrong direction and slammed directly into the home of George H. W. Bush while he was at the Madrid conference talking about the need to divide the land of Israel… Another very notable example of this phenomenon came in 2005.  At that time, George W. Bush (the son of George H. W. Bush) had convinced Israel that it should pull all of the settlers out of Gaza and turn it entirely over to the Palestinians.  According to the New York Times, the last of the settlers was evacuated on August 23, 2005… On that exact same day, a little storm that came to be known as Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas.  It shocked forecasters by turning directly toward New Orleans, and it ultimately became the costliest natural disaster in all of U.S. history up until that time. There are dozens more examples like this, and men like John McTernan, William Koenig and David Brennan have done a great job documenting them. Today, 137 nations have already recognized a Palestinian state.  The holdouts are mostly in North America and Europe… France and most of the rest of Europe have been eager and ready to recognize a Palestinian state for quite a while now, but they don’t really want to move forward without the United States. And of course they can’t officially do anything at the UN Security Council without U.S. approval. Barack Obama had been hoping to achieve something through direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but those totally broke down and there is no hope that there will be any new negotiations any time soon. So Barack Obama knows that his only shot at “leaving a legacy” in the Middle East is at the United Nations, and earlier this year he said that a UN Security Council resolution that would recognize a Palestinian state was “on the table” for the very first time… At that time he did not indicate which way that he would go, and although there have been rumblings that something might happen, he has not taken any action yet. But now time is running out for Obama, because his term is scheduled to end on January 20th.  The advocates of a “two state solution” are becoming increasingly desperate, because they know that Donald Trump has already promised not to support a UN Security Council resolution that would divide the land of Israel.  So they know that if something is going to be done, it has got to be done now. A UN Security Council resolution would be legally binding on both the Israelis and the Palestinians, and it would be something that Donald Trump would not be able to undo.  Another vote of the UN Security Council would be required to revoke a resolution once it has been passed, and the votes would not be there to do that. So the next month is absolutely critical.  The UN Security Council still has time to take action while Obama is still in office, and we know that such a move is actively being considered.  For much, much more on this, please see the following articles that I have recently authored… -“Jimmy Carter Urges Barack Obama To Divide The Land Of Israel At The United Nations Before January 20th” -“John Bolton Warns That Obama May Divide The Land Of Israel At The UN Before The Inauguration” -“The Danger Zone: Why Israel Greatly Fears Barack Obama’s Last Few Months In Office” -“The New York Times Calls For Obama To Support A UN Resolution That Would Divide The Land Of Israel” If we can get to January 20th and the land of Israel has not been divided by the UN Security Council and Donald Trump successfully takes office, perhaps our reprieve will be extended for a while. But if Barack Obama very foolishly allows the land of Israel to be divided at the UN Security Council before January 20th, the “pause button” will be unpaused, our blessing will be turned into a curse, and all hell will break loose in America.18 Dec

Major Economic Warning Sign: The Euro Is Heading For Parity With The U.S. Dollar - The collapse of the euro is accelerating, and it looks like we could be staring a major European financial crisis right in the face early in 2017.  On Thursday, the EUR/USD fell all the way to $1.0366 at one point before rebounding slightly.  That represents the lowest that the euro has been relative to the U.S. dollar since January 2003.  Ever since 2011, I have been relentlessly warning that the euro is heading for parity with the U.S. dollar.  When the EUR/USD was trading at about $1.40 that must have seemed like crazy talk, but I never wavered.  I just kept warning people that the euro was going to weaken greatly relative to the U.S. dollar.  Here is one example from March 2015: “How many times have I said it?  The euro is heading to all-time lows.  It is going to go to parity with the U.S. dollar, and then it is eventually going to go below parity.”  After Thursday, we are almost there, and once we do hit parity that is going to be a sign that all sorts of chaos is about to erupt in Europe. For years, so many people that write about our coming economic problems have been proclaiming that the death of the U.S. dollar is imminent. But I have always taken a different approach.  I have always maintained that the collapse of the euro comes first, and that the death of the U.S. dollar happens some time later. So many people have wanted to get rid of all of their dollars in anticipation of the coming crisis, but that is a huge mistake. First of all, without exception everyone needs an emergency fund that can cover at least six months of expenses in case there is a job loss, a health emergency or all hell breaks loose for some reason. Secondly, cash is going to be king during the initial stages of the coming crisis.  Later on the U.S. dollar will rapidly lose value, but at first it will pay to have significant amounts of cash available to you. Most people out there seem to think that a strong dollar is great news and that it is a sign of good things to come under Donald Trump. But the truth is that an overly strong U.S. dollar is actually very bad news for the global economy. For the U.S., a strong dollar hurts our imports and tends to drag down our GDP. For the rest of the world, a strong dollar makes it more expensive to borrow money.  The economic boom in the developing world following the last financial crisis was fueled by mountains of cheap dollars that were borrowed at ultra-low interest rates.  But now the U.S. dollar is surging and interest rates are spiking, and that is starting to cause major problems. It now takes much more local currency to pay back those dollar-denominated loans that were made in emerging markets during the boom times.  If the U.S. dollar continues to rise we are going to see a staggering number of defaults, and a credit crunch in many areas of the globe seems inevitable at this point. Of course the big thing to keep an eye on over the coming weeks is the rapidly unfolding crisis in Italy.  The Italians have the 8th largest economy on the entire planet, and we are in the process of watching their entire banking system completely implode. In fact, their third largest bank is in imminent danger of collapse, and according to Reuters this could trigger “a wider banking and political crisis in Italy”… Italy’s government is ready to pump 15 billion euros into Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) and other ailing banks, sources said, as the country’s third-largest lender pushes ahead with a private rescue plan that is widely expected to fail. The world’s oldest bank has until Dec. 31 to raise 5 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in equity or face being wound down by the European Central Bank, potentially triggering a wider banking and political crisis in Italy. If needed, the government will pump 15 billion euros into the Siena-based lender and several other smaller banks to prevent that, two sources close to the matter said on Thursday. This is so much more serious than the ongoing economic depression in Greece. Greece is just the 44th largest economy on the planet, and we saw how much trouble Europe had trying to bail them out. So what is the rest of Europe going to do when financial collapse hits Italy? Here in the United States very few people are interested in hearing about a “global financial crisis” right at this moment, because in the aftermath of the election most people are feeling really good about where things are heading.  Just consider the following three facts that I pulled out of a Bloomberg article… #1 “The National Association of Homebuilders’ index of sentiment soared to an 11-year high in December, despite the sizable rise in bond yields since the election.” #2 “The University of Michigan’s December index of consumer confidence also continued its upward post-election trend, rising to 98. A sub-index that tracks respondents’ opinion of the government’s economic policies spiked to levels not seen since 2009.” #3 “The National Federation of Independent Businesses’ index of optimism among small businesses posted its sharpest surge since 2009 in November to reach 98.4. An expected improvement in business conditions among small business owners surveyed after Nov. 8 was the largest contributor to the improvement in the headline print.” Hopefully happy days will stick around for a while. But it won’t last forever. As I have warned so many times, the coming crisis is going to hit Europe first, and the United States will join the party not too long after. And a key marker that we have been watching for is almost here.  The euro is going to hit parity with the U.S. dollar just like I have been warning, and once that takes place expect events to start accelerating significantly.15 Dec

After Raising Rates Once During The Obama Years, The Fed Promises Constant Rate Hikes During The Trump Era - Now that Donald Trump has won the election, the Federal Reserve has decided now would be a great time to start raising interest rates and slowing down the economy.  Over the past several decades, the U.S. economy has always slowed down whenever interest rates have been raised significantly, and on Wednesday the Federal Open Market Committee unanimously voted to raise rates by a quarter point.  Stocks immediately started falling, and by the end of the session it was their worst day since October 11th. The funny thing is that the Federal Reserve could have been raising rates all throughout 2016, but they held off because they didn’t want to hurt Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the election. And during Barack Obama’s eight years, there has only been one rate increase the entire time up until this point. But now that Donald Trump is headed for the White House, the Federal Reserve has decided that now would be a wonderful time to raise interest rates.  In addition to the rate hike on Wednesday, the Fed also announced that it is anticipating that rates will be raised three more times each year through the end of 2019… Fed policymakers are also forecasting three rate increases in 2017, up from two in September, and maintained their projection of three hikes each in 2018 and 2019, according to median estimates. They predict the fed funds rate will be 1.4% at the end of 2017, 2.1% at the end of 2018 and 2.9% at the end of 2019, up from forecasts of 1.1%, 1.9% and 2.6%, respectively, in September. Its long-run rate is expected to be 3%, up slightly from 2.9% previously. The Fed reiterated rate increases will be “gradual.” So Barack Obama got to enjoy the benefit of having interest rates slammed to the floor throughout his presidency, and now Donald Trump is going to have to fight against the economic drag that constant interest rate hikes will cause. How is that fair? As rates rise, ordinary Americans are going to find that mortgage payments are going to go up, car payments are going to go up and credit card bills are going to become much more painful.  The following comes from CNN… Higher interest rates affect millions of Americans, especially if you have a credit card or savings account, or want to buy a home or a car. American savers have earned next to nothing at the bank for years. Now they could be a step closer to earning a little more interest on savings account deposits, even though one rate hike won’t change things overnight. Rates on car loans and mortgages are also likely to be affected. Those are much more closely tied to the interest on a 10-year U.S. Treasury bond, which has risen rapidly since the election. With a Fed hike coming at a time when interest on the 10-year note is also rising, that won’t help borrowers. The higher interest rates go, the more painful it will be for the economy. If you recall, rising rates helped precipitate the financial crisis of 2008.  When interest rates rose it slammed people with adjustable rate mortgages, and suddenly Americans could not afford to buy homes at the same pace they were before.  We have already been watching the early stages of another housing crash start to erupt all over the nation, and rising rates will certainly not help matters. But why does the Federal Reserve set our interest rates anyway? We are supposed to be a free market capitalist economy.  So why not let the free market set interest rates? Many Americans are expecting an economic miracle out of Trump, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve has far more power over the economy than anyone else does.  Trump can try to reduce taxes and tinker with regulations, but the Fed could end up destroying his entire economic program by constantly raising interest rates. Of course we don’t actually need economic central planners.  The greatest era for economic growth in all of U.S. history came when there was no central bank, and in my article entitled “Why Donald Trump Must Shut Down The Federal Reserve And Start Issuing Debt-Free Money” I explained that Donald Trump must completely overhaul how our system works if he wants any chance of making the U.S. economy great again. One way that Trump can start exerting influence over the Fed is by nominating the right people to the Federal Open Market Committee.  According to CNN, it looks like Trump will have the opportunity to appoint four people to that committee within his first 18 months… Two spots on the Fed’s committee are currently open for Trump to nominate. Looking ahead, Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s term ends in January 2018, while Vice Chair Stanley Fischer is up for re-nomination in June 2018. Within the first 18 months of his presidency, Trump could reappoint four of the 12 people on the Fed’s powerful committee — an unusual amount of influence for any president. By endlessly manipulating the economy, the Fed has played a major role in creating economic booms and busts.  Since the Fed was created in 1913, there have been 18 distinct recessions or depressions, and now the Fed is setting the stage for another one. And anyone that tries to claim that the Fed is not political is only fooling themselves.  Everyone knew that they were not going to raise rates during the months leading up to the election, and it was quite clear that this was going to benefit Hillary Clinton. But now that Donald Trump has won the election, the Fed all of a sudden has decided that the time is perfect to begin a program of consistently raising rates. If I was Donald Trump, I would be looking to shut down the Federal Reserve as quickly as I could.  The essential functions that the Fed performs could be performed by the Treasury Department, and we would be much better off if the free market determined interest rates instead of some bureaucrats. Unfortunately, most Americans have come to accept that it is “normal” to have a bunch of unelected, unaccountable central planners running our economic system, and so it is unlikely that we will see any major changes before our economy plunges into yet another Fed-created crisis.14 Dec

14 Signs That There Is A Plot To Use Russia As An Excuse To Steal The Presidency From Trump On December 19th Or January 6th - Donald Trump could have the election legally stolen from him on either December 19th when the Electoral College casts their votes or on January 6th when a joint session of Congress gathers to count those votes.  The establishment is in full-blown panic mode at this point, and they seem to have settled on “Russian interference in the election” as the angle that they plan to use to try to deny Trump the presidency.  As you will see below, there is an all-out effort to try to persuade members of the Electoral College that are supposed to be committed to Donald Trump to cast their votes for someone else instead.  And if that doesn’t work, the groundwork is being laid for the Electoral College votes to potentially be invalidated when a joint session of Congress meets to count those votes on January 6th.  I will explain how that would work later on in this article, but first let’s take a look at 14 signs that indicate that there is a plot to use Russia as an excuse to steal the presidency from Donald Trump… #1 A group of 10 presidential electors has sent a letter to National Intelligence Director James Clapper asking to be briefed on Russian efforts to interfere in the election in November.  This group is being led by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine. #2 The Clinton campaign is publicly supporting the effort to arrange for the members of the Electoral College to be given an “intelligence briefing” on Russian interference in the election before they cast their votes. #3 White House spokesman Josh Earnest claims that Donald Trump “called on Russia to hack his opponent” and that Trump “benefited from malicious Russian cyberactivity”. #4 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced that he supports an investigation into “Russian election interference”. #5 On Sunday, U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer, Jack Reed, John McCain and Lindsey Graham announced that they very much desire to see an investigation into Russian interference in the election. #6 U.S. Representative David Cicilline is urging electors to consider the “extent that foreign interference in the United States presidential elections may have influenced the final result” before they cast their votes. #7 U.S. Representative Jim Himes is calling Donald Trump “a danger to the republic” and is publicly encouraging members of the Electoral College to vote for someone other than Donald Trump on December 19th.  I don’t recall any member of Congress ever suggesting members of the Electoral College do such a thing in any other election. #8 Time Magazine is openly lobbying for members of the Electoral College to vote for someone other than Donald Trump on December 19th. #9 The former acting director of the CIA has boldly proclaimed that Russian attempts to alter the outcome of the election in November were “the political equivalent of 9/11″. #10 Former CIA agent Bob Baer recently went on CNN and publicly called for a new election if it can be shown that the first election was not legitimate due to Russian interference. #11 Former CIA operative and erstwhile presidential candidate Evan McMullin says that Donald Trump is “not a loyal American” because his views are not anti-Russian enough. #12 The Huffington Post is touting a 1995 federal court ruling as a precedent that could be used to take the presidency from Donald Trump and hand it to Hillary Clinton if a court finds that Russian interference altered the outcome of the election. #13 Hillary Clinton’s Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri is now claiming that a “foreign state” tried to hack her Gmail account just days before the election. #14 Barack Obama has ordered the intelligence community to gather all of the evidence that it can find of Russian interference in the election and to deliver that evidence to him before he leaves office. Most Trump supporters do not realize how very serious this is.  The establishment absolutely hates Trump and wants to find a way to keep him from taking office.  Now that they have gained traction with this “Russian hacking” angle, they plan to push this as hard as they can.  An article that was just posted by Time Magazine explained why this issue could potentially cause some members of the Electoral College to change their votes… And still further, we now learn that the Russians played a significant role in manipulating information available to the American people in a concerted effort to bring about the election of Trump. Even if this was not Trump’s doing, is it not the duty of the members of the Electoral College to consider whether the 2016 presidential election was undermined by a foreign power? And mustn’t it matter that the foreign power did so in order to bring about the election of a particular candidate? As Alexander Hamilton made clear, this was, one of the chief concerns of the Framers. As Hamilton explained in The Federalist Papers, a primary reason for the Electoral College was the need to protect our nation against “the desire of foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils . . . by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union.” Of course this is completely and utterly ridiculous, but this is the kind of mental gymnastics that they are going through right now.  They want to feel justified in denying Donald Trump the presidency, and so they are going to make this “Russian interference in the election” into the biggest issue that they possibly can. Which is ironic, because as Paul Joseph Watson has pointed out, foreigners have been influencing our elections and we have been influencing foreign elections for many, many years… Isn’t it funny how all you democrats who cry over foreign influence had no objection whatsoever to Saudi Arabia bankrolling Hillary’s campaign. You had no problem taking all that George Soros money, did you? You had no problem with the Obama State Department overthrowing the government of Ukraine. You had no problem with Obama interfering in the U.K.’s referendum on leaving the EU. But ultimately this is not about Russian interference in our election. Rather, this is all about the elite doing whatever is necessary to stop Donald Trump.  The elite are going to fight against him every step of the way, and they are never, ever going to give up.  This is a point that I made during an interview with Alex Jones on Monday… The next key date that we need to be watching for is December 19th. On Monday, members of the Electoral College will gather in Washington D.C. and in all 50 state capitols to cast their votes.  We know that at least one Republican elector that is supposed to be pledged to Trump will not be voting for him, and that elector claims that there are others that also will not be voting for Trump. If 37 Republican electors can be persuaded to cast their votes for someone other than Trump, that would throw the election into the House of Representatives, and it is unclear what the House would do in that scenario. If Trump is not stopped at the Electoral College, there is also the possibility that he could be derailed when a joint session of Congress gathers to count the Electoral votes on January 6th. As I discussed yesterday, all it takes to force a vote on the validity of Electoral College votes is an objection in writing that is signed by at least one member of the House and one member of the Senate.  As the official House.gov website explains, if both the House and the Senate vote to approve the objection, the votes covered by the objection are not counted… Since 1887, 3 U.S.C. 15 sets the method for objections to electoral votes. During the Joint Session, Members of Congress may object to individual electoral votes or to state returns as a whole. An objection must be declared in writing and signed by at least one Representative and one Senator. In the case of an objection, the Joint Session recesses and each chamber considers the objection separately in a session which cannot last more than two hours with each Member speaking for no more than five minutes. After each house votes on whether or not to accept the objection, the Joint Session reconvenes and both chambers disclose their decisions. If they agree to the objection, the votes in question are not counted. If either chamber does not agree with the objection, the votes are counted. In both the Senate and the House, there are anti-Trump Republicans that would absolutely cherish the opportunity to deny him the presidency. I don’t know if it will happen, but this Russian interference issue is the kind of thing that could be used to justify taking this kind of action. Of course if the election was stolen from Donald Trump that would likely throw the entire nation into a state of chaos, but I think that at this point the elite would be willing to risk just about anything to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.12 Dec

Secret Agenda: Are They Planning To Use ‘Russian Interference’ As An Excuse To Invalidate Trump’s Election Victory? - It has been said that nothing happens by accident in politics, and it is certainly no accident that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, members of the U.S. Senate and the mainstream media are all suddenly buzzing about “Russian hacking” and “Russian interference” in our elections.  Over the past 48 hours, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and just about every other major news source in America has been breathlessly telling us that the CIA has concluded that the Russians “intervened” in the presidential election with the specific goal of helping Donald Trump win.  The implication is that if the Russian interference was significant enough, it could have “unfairly” altered the outcome of the election and thus Donald Trump’s victory was not legitimate.  And if his victory was not legitimate, that opens up all sorts of possibilities for the Democrats. For those that have been wondering if the establishment was going to attempt to steal the presidency away from Donald Trump before he can be inaugurated, we now appear to have our answer. There are several ways that this could work, and we’ll take it one step at a time. On Friday, we were suddenly assaulted with all sorts of headlines about how the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the Russians interfered in the election and that they did so with the intention of helping Trump win.  The following example comes from CNBC… The New York Times reported American intelligence agencies have “high confidence” that Russia intervened in the later stages of the 2016 election to help Trump win the presidency. Senior administration officials said the Russian government gave WikiLeaks emails from the Democratic National Committee, among others including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. The organizations also found evidence that Russia hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems, but did not release the information. More specifically, we are being told that it is the CIA that is the primary source of this “intelligence”.  Of course the public is not being shown a shred of evidence that the Russians were behind any of this.  Instead, we are just being told to trust the “experts” at the CIA… The CIA has concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election specifically to help Donald Trump win the presidency, a U.S. official has confirmed to NPR. “Before, there was confidence about the fact that Russia interfered,” the official says. “But there was low confidence on what the direction and intentionality of the interference was. Now they [the CIA] have come to the conclusion that Russia was trying to tip the election to Trump.” On Sunday, four members of the U.S. Senate came forward to express their concerns about Russian interference.  Two of the four were Democrats, and the other two were Republicans that have been some of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump throughout the election season.  I don’t think that it is any accident that John McCain and Lindsey Graham have chosen to be part of this effort… “Congress’s national security committees have worked diligently to address the complex challenge of cybersecurity, but recent events show that more must be done,” said Sens. Chuck Schumer, the incoming Senate Democratic leader, Sen. John McCain, the Armed Services Committee chairman, fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Sen. Jack Reed, the top Armed Services Committee Democrat, in a Sunday morning statement. “While protecting classified material, we have an obligation to inform the public about recent cyberattacks that have cut to the heart of our free society. Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyber-attacks.” And of course this comes on the heels of Barack Obama ordering all of the intelligence agencies under his command to show him any evidence of Russian interference in the election before he leaves office.  According to NBC News, he is insisting that this evidence be delivered to him before January 20th… President Barack Obama has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to deliver to him a dossier of the evidence that the Russian government used cyber attacks and other means to intervene in the 2016 election, possibly with the idea of making more information public, a senior intelligence official told NBC News. White House counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco told reporters that the results of the report would be shared with lawmakers and others. Obama leaves office on Jan. 20. Monaco used careful language, calling it a “full review of what happened during the 2016 election process.” Incredibly, this review is actually going to be headed up by the infamous James Clapper… Taking the absurdity to a whole new level, Obama wants the report completed before his term ends on January 20, by none other than a proven and confirmed liar: “The review will be led by James Clapper, the outgoing director of national intelligence, officials said.” In other words, the report that the Kremlin stole the election should be prepared by the time Trump is expected to be sworn in. “We are going to make public as much as we can,” the spokesman added. “This is a major priority for the president.” So what is there such an urgency to this? Couldn’t they just begin this review now and have it completed at some point under the Trump administration? Or could it be possible that they need this information so urgently because they want to use it for political purposes? Some are already suggesting that if there is “clear evidence” of unfair Russian intervention that the only reasonable outcome would be to hold another election.  In fact, former CIA agent Bob Baer just appeared on CNN and stated that if “the evidence is there, I don’t see any other way than to vote again.” Could you imagine the uproar if that happened? Personally, I think that is not likely to happen. But this issue could be used to try to sway some Electoral College votes on December 19th.  We already know that one of Trump’s electoral voters has publicly pledged not to vote for him, and he claims that he has other Republican electoral voters that plan on joining him. But even if Trump successfully gets through the Electoral College vote, he still has one more hurdle to get over. On January 6th, a joint session of Congress will meet to count the electoral votes.  Most of the time this is a formality, but this time around that may not be the case. If at least one member of the House and at least one member of the Senate submits an objection in writing, electoral votes can potentially be invalidated.  The following comes from the official House.gov website… Since 1887, 3 U.S.C. 15 sets the method for objections to electoral votes. During the Joint Session, Members of Congress may object to individual electoral votes or to state returns as a whole. An objection must be declared in writing and signed by at least one Representative and one Senator. In the case of an objection, the Joint Session recesses and each chamber considers the objection separately in a session which cannot last more than two hours with each Member speaking for no more than five minutes. After each house votes on whether or not to accept the objection, the Joint Session reconvenes and both chambers disclose their decisions. If they agree to the objection, the votes in question are not counted. If either chamber does not agree with the objection, the votes are counted. So even if Donald Trump receives at least 270 Electoral College votes, he could still be denied the presidency by Congress. And that may be what the establishment is shooting for.  If they can present “compelling evidence” that Russian interference “unfairly” altered the outcome of the election in November, perhaps enough members of Congress can be convinced to vote to invalidate Trump’s election victory. I don’t think that is going to happen, but when it comes to Trump the normal rules don’t seem to apply. However, what should be apparent to everyone is that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the members of Congress that are suddenly making this such a huge issue all have a reason for doing so.  They claim that they are doing it for the good of the country, but in politics there is almost always an ulterior motive for everything. Do they actually intend to try to steal the presidency from Donald Trump? If they do, we won’t have too long to wait before we find out.11 Dec

Trumphoria: Americans Are More Optimistic About The Economy Than They Have Been Since Obama’s Win In 2008 - Optimism about the future of the U.S. economy has not been this strong since Barack Obama’s first presidential election victory in 2008. Donald Trump promised us an economic resurgence, and what is not to like so far? As I discussed earlier this week, stocks are soaring, businesses are already announcing that they are bringing jobs back to the United States, and the U.S. dollar has been lifted to levels that we haven’t seen in many years. Many are referring to this post-election surge as “Trumphoria”, and I think that is quite appropriate. Personally, I couldn’t imagine financial markets behaving this way if Hillary Clinton had won the election. Right now tens of millions of Americans are feeling deeply optimistic about the future for the first time in a very long time, and this is clearly reflected in the results of the most recent CNBC All-America Economic Survey… The CNBC All-America Economic Survey for the fourth quarter found that the percentage of Americans who believe the economy will get better in the next year jumped an unprecedented 17 points to 42 percent, compared with before the election. It’s the highest level since President Barack Obama was first elected in 2008. The surge was powered by Republicans and independents reversing their outlooks. Republicans swung from deeply pessimistic, with just 15 percent saying the economy would improve in the next year, to strongly optimistic, with 74 percent believing in an economic upswing. Optimism among independents doubled but it fell by more than half for Democrats. Just 16 percent think the economy will improve. It is funny how our political perspectives so greatly shape our view of the future. Because Trump won, Democrats now have an extremely dismal opinion of where the economy is heading, while Republicans suddenly believe that happy days are here again. Of course the truth is that the president has far less power to influence the economy than the Federal Reserve does, and so most Americans greatly overestimate what a president can do to alter our economic trajectory. But for now most Americans (excluding Democrats) are feeling really good about where things are headed. In fact, we just learned that the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey has soared to the highest level that we have seen since 2005. And of course the financial markets continued to roll onward and upward on Friday. The Dow was up another 142 points, and it is now less than 250 points away from the magic number of 20,000. I never thought that we would actually get to 20,000, but thanks to “Trumphoria” we may actually get there before the wheels start coming off. This post-election run has really been unprecedented. The following comes from CNBC… All major indexes have been hitting record highs since the election. In fact, the Dow has notched 14 record closes since then and gains in 20 of the past 24 sessions. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq also did something they haven’t done in more than five years: all three rose each day of this trading week. The last time all three rose every day during the same trading week was September 2011. Wouldn’t it be great if every month during Trump’s presidency was like the last 30 days? Trump promised that we would start winning so much that we would actually start getting tired of winning, and so far we are off to a tremendous start. As I discussed yesterday, some of the biggest winners from “Trumphoria” have been the big banks… The shares of Wells Fargo, the most hated bank in America these days, soared 28% over the past 30 days, Citigroup 25%, JP Morgan 26%, Goldman Sachs, which is successfully placing its people inside the Trump administration, 37%. But is this momentum in the financial markets sustainable? Of course not. There are signs of emerging economic trouble all around us. For instance, Sears just announced that it lost 748 million dollars last quarter and that it plans to liquidate even more stores. How in the world do you lose three-quarters of a billion dollars in a single quarter? If you had employees in every store literally flushing dollar bills down the toilet all day I don’t think you could lose money that quickly. And the moment that Trump takes office, he may immediately be faced with a major financial crisis in Europe which has been sparked by the meltdown of large Italian banks. The following comes from a Forbes article entitled “Italy’s Banking Crisis Is Nearly Upon Us“… There is a high degree of probability (approaching 90%, I’d say) that Italy will experience a severe banking crisis in the next few quarters. Perhaps they can stave off the problem for a year, but something will have to be done about the banks. Unfortunately, it looks like things are about to get very real for Italian banking giant Monte dei Paschi di Siena. According to Reuters, the European Central Bank has turned down their request for more time to raise needed capital… The European Central Bank has rejected a request by Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) for more time to raise capital, a source said on Friday, a decision that piles pressure on the Rome government to bail out the lender. Italy’s third-largest bank, and the world’s oldest, had asked for a three-week extension until January 20 to try to wrap up a privately funded, 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) rescue plan in the face of fresh political uncertainty. The ECB’s supervisory board turned down the request at a meeting on Friday on the grounds that a delay would be of little use and that it was time for Rome to step in, the source said. But most Americans have no idea what is unfolding in Europe right now. As Americans, we tend to be largely oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the world, and at this moment “Trumphoria” has gripped our nation. It is certainly not wrong to celebrate the fact that we are getting Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton, but let us also not lose sight of the fact that we are likely to be facing some tremendous challenges very early in 2017.10 Dec

Are We Being Set Up For A Crash? Stocks Hit A Level Only Seen During The Bubbles Of 1929, 2000 And 2007 - Will the financial bubble that has been rapidly growing ever since Donald Trump won the election suddenly be popped once he takes office?  Could it be possible that we are being set up for a horrible financial crash that he will ultimately be blamed for?  Yesterday, I shared my thoughts on the incredible euphoria that we have seen since Donald Trump’s surprise victory on November 8th.  The U.S. dollar has been surging, companies are announcing that they are bringing jobs back to the U.S., and we are witnessing perhaps the greatest post-election stock market rally in Wall Street history.  In fact, the Dow, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 all set new all-time record highs again on Thursday.  What we are seeing is absolutely unprecedented, and many believe that the good times will continue to roll as we head into 2017. What has been most surprising to me is how well the stocks of the big Wall Street banks have been doing.  It is no secret that those banks poured a tremendous amount of money into Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and Donald Trump had some tough things to say about them leading up to election day. So you wouldn’t think that it would be particularly good news for those banks that Trump won the election.  However, we seem to be living in “Bizarro World” at the moment, and in so many ways things are happening exactly the opposite of what we would expect.  Since Trump’s victory, all of the big banking stocks have been skyrocketing… Financial stocks in particular have been on fire. Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) are up about 20% since Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton — and that makes them laggards! Morgan Stanley (MS) has gained more than 25%. So has troubled Wells Fargo (WFC), despite the lingering fallout from its fake account scandal. Bank of America (BAC) is up more than 30%. And so is Goldman Sachs (GS) — the former employer of both Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin and Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon. But are these stock prices justified by the fundamentals? Of course not, but during times of euphoria the fundamentals never seem to matter much.  Stocks were incredibly overvalued before the election, and now they are ridiculously overvalued. Earlier today, a CNBC article pointed out that the cyclically-adjusted price to earnings ratio has only been higher than it is today at three points in our history… “The cyclically adjusted P/E (CAPE), a valuation measure created by economist Robert Shiller now stands over 27 and has been exceeded only in the 1929 mania, the 2000 tech mania and the 2007 housing and stock bubble,” Alan Newman wrote in his Stock Market Crosscurrents letter at the end of November. Newman said even if the market’s earnings increase by 10 percent under Trump’s policies “we’re still dealing with the same picture, overvaluation on a very grand scale.” And of course a historic stock market crash immediately followed each of those three bubbles. So are we being set up for a huge crash in early 2017? There are some out there that believe that this is purposely being orchestrated.  For example, Mike Adams of Natural News believes that the markets “will be deliberately and destructively imploded under President Trump”… Right now, the U.S. stock market is surging, with the Dow leaping toward 20,000, a number rooted in fiscal insanity and delusional expectations. There are no fundamentals that support a 20,000 Dow, but fundamentals have long since ceased to matter in a financial world hyperventilating on debt fumes while hallucinating about utopian economic models that will soon prove to generate fools instead of real wealth. Today I’m going on the record with a prediction that I’ll offer with near absolute certainty: The rigged markets that now seem to defy gravity will be deliberately and destructively imploded under President Trump for all the obvious reasons. There will be financial chaos like we’ve never seen before: Investors leaping off tall buildings, banks declaring extended “holidays” that freeze transactions, and California pensioners slitting their wrists after they discover their promised pension funds were just vaporized by incompetent bureaucrats. On the other hand, there are others that believe that Trump is just walking into a very bad situation and that a crash would be inevitable no matter who was president. History tells us that there is no possible way that stock prices can stay at this irrational level indefinitely.  But for now a wave of optimism is sweeping the nation, and many of those that are caught up in it will get seriously angry with you if you try to inject a dose of reality into the conversation. But like I said yesterday, let’s hope that the optimists are correct.  A survey that was just taken of 600 business executives found that 62 percent of them were optimistic about the U.S. economy over the next 12 months. Incredibly, that number was sitting at just 38 percent the previous quarter. For the moment, business leaders seem to be quite thrilled that we have a business executive in the White House. Hopefully Donald Trump’s business experience will translate well to his new position.  And it is certainly my hope that he is as successful as possible. But even during the campaign Trump talked about how stocks were in a giant bubble, and the euphoria that we have seen since his election victory has just made that bubble even larger. Throughout U.S. history, every giant financial bubble has always ended very badly, and this time around will not be any exception. Trump may get the blame for it when it bursts, but the truth is that the conditions for the coming crisis have been building for a very, very long time. 8 Dec

‘It Is Like A Nuclear Bomb Went Off In The Prepping Community’ - Is the prepper movement in the United States dying?  At one time it was estimated that there were 3 million preppers in the United States, but in late 2016 interest in prepping has hit a multi-year low.  The big reason for this, of course, is that the election of Donald Trump has fueled a tremendous wave of optimism among those that consider themselves to be conservatives, patriots and evangelical Christians.  Not since the election of Ronald Reagan has the mood on the right shifted in such a positive direction so suddenly.  But now that everyone is feeling so good about things, very few people still seem interested in prepping for hard times ahead.  In fact, it is like a nuclear bomb went off in the prepping community. As the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, I am in contact with a lot of people that serve the prepping community.  And I can tell you that sales of emergency food and supplies have been crashing since Donald Trump’s surprise election victory.  Firms that help people relocate outside of the United States have seen business really dry up, and I know of one high profile individual that has actually decided to move back to the country after Trump’s victory.  It is almost as if the apocalypse has been canceled and the future history of the U.S. has been rewritten with a much happier ending. Personally, I am quite alarmed that so many people are suddenly letting their guard down, but it is difficult to convince people to be vigilant when things seem to be going so well.  Just consider some of the things that have been happening in recent weeks… -Donald Trump was just named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. -The Dow just keeps setting brand new record high after brand new record high.  In fact, the Dow has now risen by more than 1,200 points since Donald Trump won the election. -The Russell 2000 has shot up an astounding 13 percent just since Trump’s victory. -Donald Trump has convinced heating, ventilation and air conditioning giant Carrier to keep about 1,000 jobs in the United States instead of shipping them to Mexico. -Donald Trump has convinced SoftBank to invest 50 billion dollars and create 50,000 new jobs in the United States. -The U.S. dollar index recently hit the highest level that we have witnessed since March 2003. -We just learned that U.S. Steel wants to bring back somewhere around 10,000 jobs to communities that lost them. At this point there is an overwhelming belief among those on the right that Donald Trump is going to be able to do what he has promised to do. And the numbers back this up.  In a previous article, I discussed the fact that a recent Gallup survey discovered that the percentage of Republicans that believe that the U.S. economy is “getting better” increased from just 16 percent immediately prior to the election to 49 percent immediately after the election. I don’t recall ever seeing such a shift in public sentiment in just a few days.  Tens of millions of Americans have put their faith in Donald Trump, and time will tell if he will be able to deliver.  As billionaire Mark Cuban recently pointed out, Donald Trump is like a number one draft pick that has not proven himself yet… “I’ll analogize it to the NBA draft: He’s the No. 1 pick,” Cuban said. “He’s who we put our hopes and dreams with, and we’re going to believe in him. Right now it’s a little bit easier because we haven’t played a game yet.” “There’s no reason to rush to judgment or come to any conclusions now,” he continued. “Let’s see what happens starting January 21 and go from there. I hope he’s a superstar, and I hope everything turns out the way we all hope it will. But until January 21, there’s no real point at going into detail.” Let us hope that President Trump will be everything that people are hoping that he will be. I would love it if 2017 is a year filled with peace and prosperity.  That way I could write less about our economic troubles and instead do more of the positive stories that I have been sharing lately.  And my wife and I could take some time off and just spend some time enjoying our quiet life up here in the mountains. I don’t think that is the way it is going to go, but I do hope that the optimists are right. At this point I could start listing out all of the reasons why our economy is doomed no matter who is president, but unless you are already convinced all of that reasoning would probably fall on deaf ears. Tens of millions of Americans are completely convinced that we are heading into a new golden era for America just because Donald Trump won the election, and for the sake of the nation let us hope that they are correct. But what if they are wrong? What if the rioting, violence and civil unrest that the radical left is planning for the Inauguration on January 20th sparks a movement that plunges many of our major cities into chaos throughout Trump’s presidency? What if all of the incredibly bad decisions that were made during the Obama years result in the biggest economic downturn we have ever seen early in the Trump years? What if Trump’s inability to get along with China results in a major trade war between the two largest economies on the entire planet? What if the growing financial instability in Europe results in a new global financial crisis that Trump will not be able to do anything to stop? I could go on and on, but I think that you get the point. All of the things that myself and other watchmen have been warning about all this time are coming. My hope is that the optimists are right and that the horrible events that are coming will be put off for as long as possible. But I wouldn’t count on it. A day of reckoning for America is fast approaching, and those that are wise understand the signs of the times. 7 Dec

War On The Homeless: Cities All Over America Are Passing Laws Making It Illegal To Feed And Shelter Those In Need - If you want to be a “Good Samaritan” to the homeless in your community, you might want to check and see if it is legal first.  All over the country, cities are passing laws that make it illegal to feed and shelter the homeless.  For example, in this article you will read about a church in Maryland that was just fined $12,000 for simply allowing homeless people to sleep outside the church at night.  This backlash against homeless people comes at a time when homelessness in America is absolutely exploding.  In a previous article, I shared with my readers the fact that the number of homeless people in New York City has just set a brand new all-time high, and the homelessness crisis in California has become so severe that the L.A. City Council has formally asked Governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency.  Sadly, instead of opening up our hearts to the rapidly growing number of Americans without a home, way too many communities are trying to use the law to force them to go somewhere else. For nearly two thousand years, churches have been at the forefront of helping the poor and disadvantaged, but now many communities are trying to stop this from happening.  Earlier today, I was absolutely stunned when I came across an article that talked about how a church in Dundalk, Maryland has been fined $12,000 for allowing the homeless to sleep outside the church at night… “I showed up Wednesday morning to find a citation on the door that said we’re going to be fined $12,000 and have a court date because we have unhoused homeless people sleeping outside the church at night,” said Reverend Katie Grover with the Patapsco United Methodist Church. Grover added that the men and women who sleep outside their doors do so because they have nowhere else to go and because they feel safe there. “We feel we here as a church that it’s scriptural mandate that’s it an imperative to care for the least, the last, the lost, the poor, the hungry,” she said. The authorities in Dundalk say that the church is running a “non-permitted rooming and boarding house”, and the severity of this fine is likely to put the church in significant financial difficulty if it is forced to pay it.  You can watch a local news report discussing this story on YouTube right here… Of course Dundalk is far from alone.  All across the U.S. laws have been passed that specifically target the homeless.  According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, the following are some of the most typical ways that the homeless are targeted… Carrying out sweeps (confiscating personal property including tents, bedding, papers, clothing, medications, etc.) in city areas where homeless people live. Making panhandling illegal. Making it illegal for groups to share food with homeless persons in public spaces. Enforcing a “quality of life” ordinance relating to public activity and hygiene. There are some people that have been feeding the hungry for decades that now find that their work has been suddenly made illegal.  For instance, down in Houston a Good Samaritan named Jay Hamberger is outraged that the help that he has been providing to the homeless for 27 years has now made him an outlaw… Jay Hamberger has been bringing food to Houston’s homeless for 27 years. He feels the city is infringing on his right to help others by requiring him to have prior permission to distribute food on public and private property. “I’ve done it with impunity for 27 years now, and I’m the most law-abiding outlaw, because what I’m doing is illegal,” Hamberger said. “My understanding is that there’s no legal way to make this right with the city.” This is just another example of how our society is being strangled to death by control freaks. If I see someone that is desperately hungry and I want to give that person food, then I am going to do it no matter what the law says. Unfortunately, as the homelessness crisis continues to escalate these types of laws are only going to increase.  Even in supposedly “tolerant” areas of the country we are seeing draconian measures being implemented.  For example, just check out the new ordinance that was just passed in Los Angeles… LA legislators passed an ordinance that would ban people from sleeping in cars and recreational vehicles (RVs) near homes, parks and schools. Advocates see the ordinance as the latest move to criminalize homeless people. The Los Angeles City Council voted in favor of the ordinance on Wednesday. Banning people from sleeping near homes, schools and parks in their vehicles, would, if signed into law, only make it legal to sleep overnight in cars and RV’s in industrial or commercial districts from 9:00pm to 6:00am. As millions of Americans have fallen out of the middle class in recent years, we have seen an explosion in the number of people living in cars, trucks and recreational vehicles.  This is something that I addressed in my recent article entitled “Living In A Van Down By The River – Time To Face The True State Of The Middle Class In America“.  During this time of the year many that live in their vehicles head for warmer climates, and cities like Los Angeles are responding to the influx of homeless people by trying to force them to go somewhere else. And this “war on the homeless” has actually been ramping up for quite a while.  Just check out these numbers from the Washington Post… Cities have enacted a wave of crackdowns and new laws against panhandling, camping and other activities associated with homelessness. They say such efforts help preserve the renewed vitality, curbing crime, health problems and behaviors that bother residents and disrupt business. Between 2011 and 2014, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty found that bans on sleeping in cars shot up 119 percent, citywide camping prohibitions jumped 60 percent, anti-loitering laws increased 35 percent and anti-begging laws increased 25 percent in a survey of 187 cities. Homeless people do not have a permanent address, and there is always a temptation to try to force them to go somewhere else so that they become someone else’s problem. But the truth is that we have a massive national crisis on our hands.  The number of homeless children in this country has increased by 60 percent since the end of the last recession, and the number of homeless people sleeping in shelters has risen to record levels in major cities on both the east and west coast. And considering the fact that about two-thirds of the country is currently living paycheck to paycheck, how bad will things get once the next major recession strikes? Poverty is growing all over the nation, and at the same time hearts all over America are growing very cold. I truly fear for what this country is going to look like just a few years from now. 6 Dec

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RA 10800 seals the universityhood of Tarlac College of Agriculture - CAMILING, Tarlac, Dec.20 (PIA) -- With the enactment of Republic Act 10800, the fourth attempt for the university conversion of Tarlac College of Agriculture into Tarlac Agricultural University (TAU)19 Dec

A look back at highlights of a unique year in UNESCO's Education Sector - A unique year is coming to a close for the UNESCO education sector. It is the first full year carried out in the context of the Global Education 2030 Agenda which informed the many different strands o19 Dec

10 NVizcaya towns adopt land use plans - BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Dec. 1 (PIA) - Out of the 15 municipalities of this province, only 10 have already completed their Municipal Land Use Plans (MLUPs), officials of the Department of Environmen19 Dec

New Orleans Agrees to Pay $13.3 Million for Police Post-Katrina Killings - New Orleans offered apologies and reached settlements totaling $13.3 million in civil rights lawsuits brought against the city for the killings of residents by police in the chaotic aftermath of Hurri19 Dec

Portuguese government introduce law that could see homes hit with a 20% increase - People buying a home in Portugal that has an unspoilt sea view or faces the sun may be hit by a property tax rise, while those with a place overlooking a cemetery may enjoy a tax reduction.19 Dec

Growing tornado impact puzzles scientists - LONDON, 19 December, 2016 - Tornado outbreaks - those sudden, multiple whirlwinds that can randomly destroy whole townships or pass by and do little more than ruffle the prairie grass - may be getting19 Dec

Microbeads in make-up are banned - Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom, pictured, urged Christmas shoppers to boycott cosmetics containing microbeads as she promised an outright ban by next October.19 Dec

Climate change deniers map of America - According to the researchers from George Washington University, many Americans believe global warming is related to the frequency of weather-related events they experience.19 Dec

College football notebook: Stanfords McCaffrey to skip bowl game - Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey announced Monday he will sit out the Sun Bowl to begin preparing for the 2017 NFL Draft. Very tough decision, but I have decided not to play in the Sun Bowl19 Dec

Experts say Marijuana highs in space may be ruined by radiation - In a new study, researchers found that high-energy protons from the sun can alter signalling within the brain, specifically messing with the endocannabinoid receptors.19 Dec

emptywheel

16 Words: “The British government has learned that Vladimir Putin recently sought significant quantities of votes for Trump” - This morning, I managed to remind the NYT in the NYT of its role in spreading leaks that led us to war in Iraq. I did so not to defend Donald Trump, but to point out how the flood of leaks leading up to the Iraq War is similar to the one we’ve had in the last week, insisting that Putin hacked Hillary specifically to get Trump elected. Here’s the comparison, which you’re familiar with from my posts in the last week. Trump is not quite right when he claims that, “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” Neither the entire intelligence community nor even everyone at the C.I.A. was wrong about the Iraq intelligence. Rather, leaks like the ones we’re seeing now ensured elected officials didn’t hear from the skeptics who got it right. That time, as members of Congress were demanding the Bush administration show its case for war, anonymous officials told this newspaper that aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq could only be used for nuclear enrichment. By the time Congress got a report, a month later, saying that might not be the case most members never read it; they had already been convinced that the case for war was a “slam dunk.” This time, just hours after the White House revealed President Obama had ordered a (belated) review by the entire intelligence community of how hacks have tainted our democracy, the C.I.A.’s incendiary conclusion got leaked to the press: First, anonymous leaks said Russia had hacked Democrats not just to cause chaos, but specifically to get Trump elected. Last Wednesday the leaks went further: Putin himself oversaw the operation to put Trump in the White House. On Friday, another C.I.A. leak came out minutes before Obama started a news conference where he said, “I want to make sure … I give the intelligence community the chance to gather all the information.” The point of my post is not — as numerous people who refute it without reading it suggest — to argue Russia didn’t hack Hillary. While I have lingering questions, I think that likely. Rather, it is to ask why the CIA is so invested in the narrative that Putin specifically intervened to get Trump elected, rather than the more obvious explanation, which is that he intervened to retaliate for real and imagined CIA-led covert operations targeted at Russian interests? 19 Dec

Lefties Learn to Love Leaks Again - Throughout the presidential campaign, observers have noted with irony that many on the right discovered a new-found love for WikiLeaks. Some of the same people who had earlier decried leaks, even called Chelsea Manning a traitor, were lapping up what Julian Assange was dealing on a daily basis. There was a similar, though less marked, shift on the left. While many on the left had criticized — or at least cautioned about — WikiLeaks from the start, once Assange started targeting their presidential candidate, such leaks became an unprecedented, unparalleled assault on decency, which no one seemed to say when similar leaks targeted Bashar al-Assad. Which is why I was so amused by the reception of this story yesterday. After revealing that Donald Trump’s Secretary of State nominee “was the long-time director of a US-Russian oil firm based in the tax haven of the Bahamas, leaked documents show” in the first paragraph, the article admits, in the fourth paragraph that, Though there is nothing untoward about this directorship, it has not been reported before and is likely to raise fresh questions over Tillerson’s relationship with Russia ahead of a potentially stormy confirmation hearing by the US senate foreign relations committee. Exxon said on Sunday that Tillerson was no longer a director after becoming the company’s CEO in 2006. The people sharing it on Twitter didn’t seem to notice that (nor did the people RTing my ironic tweet about leaks seem to notice). Effectively, the headline “leaks reveal details I have sensationalized” served its purpose, with few people reading far enough to the caveats that admit this is fairly standard international business practice (indeed, it’s how Trump’s businesses work too). This is a more sober assessment of the import of the document detailing Tillerson’s ties with the Exxon subsidiary doing business in Russia. This Guardian article worked just like all the articles about DNC and Podesta emails worked, even with — especially with — the people decrying the press for the way it irresponsibly sensationalized those leaks. The response to this Tillerson document is all the more remarkable given the source of this leak. The Guardian reveals it came from an anonymous source for Süddeutsche Zeitung, which in turn shared the document with the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The leaked 2001 document comes from the corporate registry in the Bahamas. It was one of 1.3m files given to the Germany newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. [snip] The documents from the Bahamas corporate registry were shared by Süddeutsche Zeitung with the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC. That is, this document implicating Vladimir Putin’s buddy Rex Tillerson came via the very same channel that the Panama Papers had, which Putin claimed, back in the time Russia was rifling around the DNC server, was a US intelligence community effort to discredit him and his kleptocratic cronies, largely because that was the initial focus of the US-NGO based consortium that managed the documents adopted, a focus replicated at outlets participating. See this column for a worthwhile argument that Putin hacked the US as retaliation for the Panama Papers, which makes worthwhile points but would only work chronologically if Putin had advance notice of the Panama Papers (because John Podesta got hacked on March 19, before the first releases from the Panama Papers on April 3). There really has been a remarkable lack of curiosity about where these files came from. That’s all the more striking in this case, given that the document (barely) implicating Tillerson comes from the Bahamas, where the US at least was collecting every single phone call made. That’s all the more true given the almost non-existent focus on the Bahamas leaks before — from what I can tell just one story has been done on this stash, though the documents are available in the ICIJ database. Indeed, if the source for the leaks was the same, it would seem to point to an outside hacker rather than an inside leaker. That doesn’t mean the leak was done just to hurt Tillerson. The leak, which became public on September 21, precedes the election of Trump, much less the naming of Tillerson. But it deserves at least some notice. For what it’s worth, I think it quite possible the US has been involved in such leaks — particularly given how few Americans get named in them. But I don’t think the Panama Papers, which implicated plenty of American friends and even the Saudis, actually did target Putin. Still, people are going to start believing Putin’s claims that this effort is primarily targeted at him if documents conveniently appear from the leak as if on command. I am highly interested in who handed off documents allegedly stolen by Russia’s GRU to Wikileaks. But I’m also interested in who the source enabling asymmetric corruption claims, as if on demand, is. 19 Dec

Obama’s Response to Russia’s Hack: An Emphasis on America’s More Generalized Vulnerability - President Obama’s comments Friday about the Russian hack of the DNC were a rare occasion where I liked one of his speeches far more than more partisan Democrats. I think Democrats were disappointed because Obama declined to promise escalation. The press set Obama up, twice (first Josh Lederman and then Martha Raddatz), with questions inviting him to attack Putin directly. Similarly, a number of reporters asked questions that betrayed an expectation for a big showy response. Rather than providing that, Obama did several things: Distinguish the integrity of the process of voting from our larger political discourse Blame our political discourse (and the press) as much as Putin Insist on a measured response to Putin Distinguish the integrity of the process of voting from our larger political discourse From the very start, Obama distinguished between politics and the integrity of our election system. I think it is very important for us to distinguish between the politics of the election and the need for us, as a country, both from a national security perspective but also in terms of the integrity of our election system and our democracy, to make sure that we don’t create a political football here. This gets to a point that most people are very sloppy about when they claim Putin “tampered” with the election. Throughout this election, the press has at times either deliberately or incompetently conflated the theft and release of emails (which the intelligence community unanimously agrees was done by Putin) with the hacking of voting-related servers (reportedly done by “Russians,” but not necessarily the Russian state, which is probably why the October 7 IC statement pointedly declined to attribute those hacks to Russia). Obama, after having laid out how the IC provided the press and voters with a way to account for the importance of the Russian hack on the election, then returns to what he says was a successful effort to ensure Russia didn’t hack the actual vote counting. What I was concerned about, in particular, was making sure that that wasn’t compounded by potential hacking that could hamper vote counting, affect the actual election process itself. And so in early September, when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn’t happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, and there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn’t. And, in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. This is consistent with the anonymous statement the White House released over Thanksgiving weekend, which the press seems unaware of. In it, the White House emphasized that it was aware of no malicious election-related tampering, while admitting they had no idea whether Russia had ever planned any in the first place. Blame our political discourse (and the press) as much as Putin By far the most important part of Obama’s comments, I think, were his comments about why he believed this to be the right approach. Obama described the October 7 DHS/ODNI statement as an effort to inform all voters of the hack and leak (and high level involvement in it), without trying to tip the scale politically. And at that time, we did not attribute motives or any interpretations of why they had done so. We didn’t discuss what the effects of it might be. We simply let people know — the public know, just as we had let members of Congress know — that this had happened. And as a consequence, all of you wrote a lot of stories about both what had happened, and then you interpreted why that might have happened and what effect it was going to have on the election outcomes. We did not. And the reason we did not was because in this hyper-partisan atmosphere, at a time when my primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was said by me or anybody in the White House would immediately be seen through a partisan lens, I wanted to make sure that everybody understood we were playing this thing straight — that we weren’t trying to advantage one side or another, but what we were trying to do was let people know that this had taken place, and so if you started seeing effects on the election, if you were trying to measure why this was happening and how you should consume the information that was being leaked, that you might want to take this into account. And that’s exactly how we should have handled it. Again, I get why Democrats are furious about this passage: they wanted and still want the IC to attack Trump for benefitting from the Russian hack. Or at the very least, they want to legitimize their plan to delegitimize Trump by using his Russian ties with Obama endorsement. From a partisan view, I get that. But I also very much agree with Obama’s larger point: if Russia’s simple hack decided the election, it’s as much a statement about how sick our democracy is, across the board, as it is a big win for Putin. To lead into that point, Obama points out how many of the people in the room — how the press — obsessed about every single new leak, rather than focusing on the issues that mattered to the election. [W]e allowed you and the American public to make an assessment as to how to weigh that going into the election. And the truth is, is that there was nobody here who didn’t have some sense of what kind of effect it might have. I’m finding it a little curious that everybody is suddenly acting surprised that this looked like it was disadvantaging Hillary Clinton because you guys wrote about it every day. Every single leak. About every little juicy tidbit of political gossip — including John Podesta’s risotto recipe. This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage. So I do think it’s worth us reflecting how it is that a presidential election of such importance, of such moment, with so many big issues at stake and such a contrast between the candidates, came to be dominated by a bunch of these leaks. What is it about our political system that made us vulnerable to these kinds of potential manipulations — which, as I’ve said publicly before, were not particularly sophisticated. This was not some elaborate, complicated espionage scheme. They hacked into some Democratic Party emails that contained pretty routine stuff, some of it embarrassing or uncomfortable, because I suspect that if any of us got our emails hacked into, there might be some things that we wouldn’t want suddenly appearing on the front page of a newspaper or a telecast, even if there wasn’t anything particularly illegal or controversial about it. And then it just took off. And that concerns me. He returns to that more generally, with one of the most important lines of the presser. “Our vulnerability to Russia or any other foreign power is directly related to how divided, partisan, dysfunctional our political process is.” The more [the review of the hack] can be nonpartisan, the better served the American people are going to be, which is why I made the point earlier — and I’m going to keep on repeating this point: Our vulnerability to Russia or any other foreign power is directly related to how divided, partisan, dysfunctional our political process is. That’s the thing that makes us vulnerable. If fake news that’s being released by some foreign government is almost identical to reports that are being issued through partisan news venues, then it’s not surprising that that foreign propaganda will have a greater effect, because it doesn’t seem that far-fetched compared to some of the other stuff that folks are hearing from domestic propagandists. To the extent that our political dialogue is such where everything is under suspicion, everybody is corrupt and everybody is doing things for partisan reasons, and all of our institutions are full of malevolent actors — if that’s the storyline that’s being put out there by whatever party is out of power, then when a foreign government introduces that same argument with facts that are made up, voters who have been listening to that stuff for years, who have been getting that stuff every day from talk radio or other venues, they’re going to believe it. So if we want to really reduce foreign influence on our elections, then we better think about how to make sure that our political process, our political dialogue is stronger than it’s been. Now, the Democrats who have celebrated hopey changey Obama have, over the years, recognized that his effort to be bipartisan squandered his opportunity, in 2009, to really set up a structure that would make us more resilient. It is, admittedly, infuriating that in his last presser Obama still endorses bipartisanship when the last 8 years (and events rolling out in North Carolina even as he was speaking) prove that the GOP will not play that game unless forced to. So I get the anger here. But, it is also true that our democracy was fragile well before Vladimir Putin decided he was going to fuck around. Even if Putin hadn’t hacked John Podesta, the way in which the email investigation rolled out accomplished the same objective. (Indeed, at one point I wondered whether Putin wasn’t jealous of Comey for having a much bigger effect on the election). Even if some Russians didn’t put out fake news, others were still going to do that, playing to the algorithmically enhanced biases of Trump voters. Even without Putin hacking voting machines, we can be certain that in places like Wisconsin and North Carolina the vote had already been hacked by Republicans suppressing Democratic vote. The effect Putin was seeking was happening, happened, anyway, even without his involvement. That doesn’t excuse his involvement, but it does say that if we nuked Putin off the face of this earth tomorrow, our democracy would remain just as fragile as it was with Putin playing in it during this election. So Obama is right about our vulnerability, though I think he really hasn’t offered a way to fix it. That’s what we all need to figure out going forward. But I can assure you: focusing exclusively on Russia, as if that is the problem and not the underlying fragility, is not going to fix it. Insist on a measured response to Putin Which leads us to his comments on a response. In spite of repeated efforts to get him to say “Vlad Putin is a big fat dick who personally elected Donald Trump,” Obama refused (though that didn’t stop some papers from adopting headings suggesting he had). Rather, Obama used the language used in the October 7 statement, saying the hacks were approved by the highest levels of the Russian government, which necessarily means Putin authorized them. We have said, and I will confirm, that this happened at the highest levels of the Russian government. And I will let you make that determination as to whether there are high-level Russian officials who go off rogue and decide to tamper with the U.S. election process without Vladimir Putin knowing about it. Q So I wouldn’t be wrong in saying the President thinks Vladimir Putin authorized the hack? THE PRESIDENT: Martha, I’ve given you what I’m going to give you. Similarly, Obama refused to respond to journalists’ invitation to announce some big retaliation. I know that there have been folks out there who suggest somehow that if we went out there and made big announcements, and thumped our chests about a bunch of stuff, that somehow that would potentially spook the Russians. But keep in mind that we already have enormous numbers of sanctions against the Russians. The relationship between us and Russia has deteriorated, sadly, significantly over the last several years. And so how we approach an appropriate response that increases costs for them for behavior like this in the future, but does not create problems for us, is something that’s worth taking the time to think through and figure out. I’m going to return to this to discuss a detail no one seems to get about Obama’s choices right now. But for the moment, note his emphasis on a response that increases costs for such hacks that do “not create problems for us.” Unsurprisingly (and, given America’s own aggressive cyberattacks, possibly unrealistically), Obama says he is most seeking norm-setting. What we’ve also tried to do is to start creating some international norms about this to prevent some sort of cyber arms race, because we obviously have offensive capabilities as well as defensive capabilities. And my approach is not a situation in which everybody is worse off because folks are constantly attacking each other back and forth, but putting some guardrails around the behavior of nation-states, including our adversaries, just so that they understand that whatever they do to us we can potentially do to them. Obama’s approach is “not a situation in which everybody is worse off because folks are constantly attacking each other back and forth.” Does that suggest the US has already been hacking Russia? Why do we never consider whether Putin was retaliating against us? Who started this cyberwar, anyway? Funny how Americans assume the answer must be Putin. In any case, we do need norms about this stuff, but that likely would require some honestly about what, if anything, is different about cyber election tampering than all the election tampering Russia and the US have engaged in for decades — which is a point Chilean Ariel Dorfman makes after pointing out the irony of CIA “crying foul because its tactics have been imitated by a powerful international rival.” Even assuming we’ll never learn the full extent of America’s own recent tampering, that’s likely to be something that Obama is thinking about as journalists and Democrats wail that he isn’t taking a more aggressive stance. 18 Dec

Trash Talk – Week 15 - I started on several versions of Trash Talk only in order to make it all less political. Trash will not always be non-political, but I will try. Kind of. So, Eagles cannot play with the Ravens today. Maybe next year, but not today. Who cares about the Browns and Bills? The Cheese will be playing Da Bears is the “Coldest Game In Chicago History”. Supposedly. Cheese is good cold, Bears hibernate. Jaguars/Texans is pretty much a who cares thing, much like Browns and Bills. Sorry Houstonian friends! But it is what it is. Colts at Vikes may, curiously, be worth paying attention to. Colts have done better lately, but still are effectively the JV squad without Andrew Luck. Vikes are exactly the Colts, but with a better defense and no Luck. Exciting! Steelers will beat the Bengals from all rights and appearances. Wish Scribe would still come around to chat about such things. Also, think Pittsburgh is a team that is scarily coming together late in the season, and needs to be paid heed to. Saints and Cardinals are playing in the “who gives a flying fuck bowl”. 49ers and Falcons are too, but the Dirty Birds think they are contenders. So did Marlon Brando. The best game, hands down, this week is Patriots at Broncos. If you follow Pats and Donks beat writers, and I do, there has been a TON written about this game. All brilliant of course, from both sides. I am not so brilliant, but, having seen them in action, not sure how Donks can score enough points to overcome the Pats worst. But TB12 and Bill Bell are NOT so good in Mile High. So, I have no confidence in my pick. If I had to bet real money, it would still be on Brady and Bill Bell. Sorry about that. If the Raiders cannot beat the Chargers in their once and (maybe not) future home, then the Rayduhs are pretenders. I think the Silver and Black are, kind of, for real. Enough that they will not lose to the Bolts anyway. Music today by BOC, with OD’d On Life Itself. 18 Dec

Liberal Bubbles and Conservative Intellectuals - Nicholas Kristoff explains once again that liberals need to hear from conservatives. Our thinking is clearer when we confront counter-arguments and alternatives, he says, and cites Cass Sunstein’s research on the decisions of three-judge panels. He’s worried about the dangers of the Trump Administration, but apparently thinks you could vote for Trump and be happy that he won on grounds other than racism or bigotry, though he doesn’t even try to offer an explanation of what those alternatives might be or why they are much different in practice from racism and bigotry. He is particularly worried that universities are bubbles of liberalism. Kristoff doesn’t seem to grasp the difference Rayne noted in a comment here between a liberal education and liberal politics. Liberal education merely means that we have a free and open discussion of facts and the lessons and conclusions to be drawn from facts. Liberal politics has to do with social and economic fairness. But, campuses are full of conservative politics. As we saw here with Amanda Delekta and her College Republicans, there are conservative students at the University of Michigan! Talk to the ROTC crowd, which cuts across college majors, and you’ll find plenty of conservative students. And there are plenty of politically conservative academicians. Just check out the engineering and business schools. Or the economics department at most colleges and universities. Kristoff sort of recognizes this when he points to Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health and a committed Evangelical Christian. What Kristoff doesn’t say is whether Collins believes in evolution or geology. In his list of conservative thinkers, which I put at the end, he doesn’t mention whether any of them believe in evolution or science generally or whether they are Birthers or Sandy Hook Truthers or followers of Alex Jones. Let’s assume that they all passed this simple test. But each of them is happy to ride to power on the coattails of those willing to feed the Republican base a constant dose of lies and distortion. Each of them apparently believes that a little racism is a small price to pay for tax cuts for the filthy rich. Each of them seems to believe that science denying is a reasonable price to pay to cut coal plant emission regulations, or that foolish arguments about the national debt justify killing Medicare or ending Social Security. Each of them participated willingly in, or at best, kept quiet about, the 25 year long phony assault on Hillary Clinton, from White Water to emails, from killing Vince Foster to Benghazi. Each of them is willing to put their favorite conservative goal ahead of a decent society. Kristoff says I should listen to them respectfully, even as they ignore or support the lies and deception that bring them to political prominence. I’ll make a deal with Kristoff. When his conservatives loudly and publicly denounce the Republican tactics of fire-hosing crackpot ideas and conspiracy theories at their base and at the nation generally, and when they start trying to win a battle of ideas in accordance with normal practice in those campus bastions of liberality, then I’ll take them seriously. ———————- Here’s Kristoff’s list of conservative twitter feeds: @DouthatNYT, @MJGerson, @StephensWSJ, @JoeNBC, @peggynoonannyc, @reihan, @Arthurbrooks, @ayaan, @eliotacohen, @Heritage, @danielpipes, @nfergus, @allahpundit, @charlescwcooke, @michaelbd, @SonnyBunch, @asymmetricinfo, @cathyyoung63, @KellyannePolls, and @jasonrileywsj. 17 Dec

Russian Hack-Related Excerpts from President Obama’s Press Conference - Just to have all this in one place, I’ve pulled all the comments from President Obama’s December 16 press conference. Josh Lederman, of AP. Q Thank you, Mr. President. There’s a perception that you’re letting President Putin get away with interfering in the U.S. election, and that a response that nobody knows about or a lookback review just won’t cut it. Are you prepared to call out President Putin by name for ordering this hacking? And do you agree with what Hillary Clinton now says, that the hacking was actually partly responsible for her loss? And is your administration’s open quarreling with Trump and his team on this issue tarnishing the smooth transition of power that you have promised? THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, with respect to the transition, I think they would be the first to acknowledge that we have done everything we can to make sure that they are successful as I promised. And that will continue. And it’s just been a few days since I last talked to the President-elect about a whole range of transition issues. That cooperation is going to continue. There hasn’t been a lot of squabbling. What we’ve simply said is the facts, which are that, based on uniform intelligence assessments, the Russians were responsible for hacking the DNC, and that, as a consequence, it is important for us to review all elements of that and make sure that we are preventing that kind of interference through cyberattacks in the future. That should be a bipartisan issue; that shouldn’t be a partisan issue. And my hope is that the President-elect is going to similarly be concerned with making sure that we don’t have potential foreign influence in our election process. I don’t think any American wants that. And that shouldn’t be a source of an argument. I think that part of the challenge is that it gets caught up in the carryover from election season. And I think it is very important for us to distinguish between the politics of the election and the need for us, as a country, both from a national security perspective but also in terms of the integrity of our election system and our democracy, to make sure that we don’t create a political football here. Now, with respect to how this thing unfolded last year, let’s just go through the facts pretty quickly. At the beginning of the summer, we’re alerted to the possibility that the DNC has been hacked, and I immediately order law enforcement as well as our intelligence teams to find out everything about it, investigate it thoroughly, to brief the potential victims of this hacking, to brief on a bipartisan basis the leaders of both the House and the Senate and the relevant intelligence committees. And once we had clarity and certainty around what, in fact, had happened, we publicly announced that, in fact, Russia had hacked into the DNC. And at that time, we did not attribute motives or any interpretations of why they had done so. We didn’t discuss what the effects of it might be. We simply let people know — the public know, just as we had let members of Congress know — that this had happened. And as a consequence, all of you wrote a lot of stories about both what had happened, and then you interpreted why that might have happened and what effect it was going to have on the election outcomes. We did not. And the reason we did not was because in this hyper-partisan atmosphere, at a time when my primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was said by me or anybody in the White House would immediately be seen through a partisan lens, I wanted to make sure that everybody understood we were playing this thing straight — that we weren’t trying to advantage one side or another, but what we were trying to do was let people know that this had taken place, and so if you started seeing effects on the election, if you were trying to measure why this was happening and how you should consume the information that was being leaked, that you might want to take this into account. And that’s exactly how we should have handled it. Imagine if we had done the opposite. It would have become immediately just one more political scrum. And part of the goal here was to make sure that we did not do the work of the leakers for them by raising more and more questions about the integrity of the election right before the election was taking place — at a time, by the way, when the President-elect himself was raising questions about the integrity of the election. And, finally, I think it’s worth pointing out that the information was already out. It was in the hands of WikiLeaks, so that was going to come out no matter what. What I was concerned about, in particular, was making sure that that wasn’t compounded by potential hacking that could hamper vote counting, affect the actual election process itself. And so in early September, when I saw President Putin in China, I felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn’t happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, and there were going to be some serious consequences if he didn’t. And, in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. But the leaks through WikiLeaks had already occurred. So when I look back in terms of how we handled it, I think we handled it the way it should have been handled. We allowed law enforcement and the intelligence community to do its job without political influence. We briefed all relevant parties involved in terms of what was taking place. When we had a consensus around what had happened, we announced it — not through the White House, not through me, but rather through the intelligence communities that had actually carried out these investigations. And then we allowed you and the American public to make an assessment as to how to weigh that going into the election. And the truth is, is that there was nobody here who didn’t have some sense of what kind of effect it might have. I’m finding it a little curious that everybody is suddenly acting surprised that this looked like it was disadvantaging Hillary Clinton because you guys wrote about it every day. Every single leak. About every little juicy tidbit of political gossip — including John Podesta’s risotto recipe. This was an obsession that dominated the news coverage. So I do think it’s worth us reflecting how it is that a presidential election of such importance, of such moment, with so many big issues at stake and such a contrast between the candidates, came to be dominated by a bunch of these leaks. What is it about our political system that made us vulnerable to these kinds of potential manipulations — which, as I’ve said publicly before, were not particularly sophisticated. This was not some elaborate, complicated espionage scheme. They hacked into some Democratic Party emails that contained pretty routine stuff, some of it embarrassing or uncomfortable, because I suspect that if any of us got our emails hacked into, there might be some things that we wouldn’t want suddenly appearing on the front page of a newspaper or a telecast, even if there wasn’t anything particularly illegal or controversial about it. And then it just took off. And that concerns me. And it should concern all of us. But the truth of the matter is, is that everybody had the information. It was out there. And we handled it the way we should have. Now, moving forward, I think there are a couple of issues that this raises. Number one is just the constant challenge that we are going to have with cybersecurity throughout our economy and throughout our society. We are a digitalized culture, and there is hacking going on every single day. There’s not a company, there’s not a major organization, there’s not a financial institution, there’s not a branch of our government where somebody is not going to be phishing for something or trying to penetrate, or put in a virus or malware. And this is why for the last eight years, I’ve been obsessed with how do we continually upgrade our cybersecurity systems. And this particular concern around Russian hacking is part of a broader set of concerns about how do we deal with cyber issues being used in ways that can affect our infrastructure, affect the stability of our financial systems, and affect the integrity of our institutions, like our election process. I just received a couple weeks back — it wasn’t widely reported on — a report from our cybersecurity commission that outlines a whole range of strategies to do a better job on this. But it’s difficult, because it’s not all housed — the target of cyberattacks is not one entity but it’s widely dispersed, and a lot of it is private, like the DNC. It’s not a branch of government. We can’t tell people what to do. What we can do is inform them, get best practices. What we can also do is to, on a bilateral basis, warn other countries against these kinds of attacks. And we’ve done that in the past. So just as I told Russia to stop it, and indicated there will be consequences when they do it, the Chinese have, in the past, engaged in cyberattacks directed at our companies to steal trade secrets and proprietary technology. And I had to have the same conversation with Prime Minister — or with President Xi, and what we’ve seen is some evidence that they have reduced — but not completely eliminated — these activities, partly because they can use cutouts. One of the problems with the Internet and cyber issues is that there’s not always a return address, and by the time you catch up to it, attributing what happened to a particular government can be difficult, not always provable in court even though our intelligence communities can make an assessment. What we’ve also tried to do is to start creating some international norms about this to prevent some sort of cyber arms race, because we obviously have offensive capabilities as well as defensive capabilities. And my approach is not a situation in which everybody is worse off because folks are constantly attacking each other back and forth, but putting some guardrails around the behavior of nation-states, including our adversaries, just so that they understand that whatever they do to us we can potentially do to them. We do have some special challenges, because oftentimes our economy is more digitalized, it is more vulnerable, partly because we’re a wealthier nation and we’re more wired than some of these other countries. And we have a more open society, and engage in less control and censorship over what happens over the Internet, which is also part of what makes us special. Last point — and the reason I’m going on here is because I know that you guys have a lot of questions about this, and I haven’t addressed all of you directly about it. With respect to response, my principal goal leading up to the election was making sure that the election itself went off without a hitch, that it was not tarnished, and that it did not feed any sense in the public that somehow tampering had taken place with the actual process of voting. And we accomplished that. That does not mean that we are not going to respond. It simply meant that we had a set of priorities leading up to the election that were of the utmost importance. Our goal continues to be to send a clear message to Russia or others not to do this to us, because we can do stuff to you. But it is also important for us to do that in a thoughtful, methodical way. Some of it we do publicly. Some of it we will do in a way that they know, but not everybody will. And I know that there have been folks out there who suggest somehow that if we went out there and made big announcements, and thumped our chests about a bunch of stuff, that somehow that would potentially spook the Russians. But keep in mind that we already have enormous numbers of sanctions against the Russians. The relationship between us and Russia has deteriorated, sadly, significantly over the last several years. And so how we approach an appropriate response that increases costs for them for behavior like this in the future, but does not create problems for us, is something that’s worth taking the time to think through and figure out. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. So at a point in time where we’ve taken certain actions that we can divulge publically, we will do so. There are times where the message will go — will be directly received by the Russians and not publicized. And I should point out, by the way, part of why the Russians have been effective on this is because they don’t go around announcing what they’re doing. It’s not like Putin is going around the world publically saying, look what we did, wasn’t that clever? He denies it. So the idea that somehow public shaming is going to be effective I think doesn’t read the thought process in Russia very well. Okay? Q Did Clinton lose because of the hacking? THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to let all the political pundits in this town have a long discussion about what happened in the election. It was a fascinating election, so I’m sure there are going to be a lot of books written about it. Peter Alexander. Q Mr. President, thank you very much. Can you, given all the intelligence that we have now heard, assure the public that this was, once and for all, a free and fair election? And specifically on Russia, do you feel any obligation now, as they’ve been insisting that this isn’t the case, to show the proof, as it were — they say put your money where your mouth is and declassify some of the intelligence, some of the evidence that exists? And more broadly, as it relates to Donald Trump on this very topic, are you concerned about his relationship with Vladimir Putin, especially given some of the recent Cabinet picks, including his selection for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who toasted Putin with champagne over oil deals together? Thank you. THE PRESIDENT: I may be getting older, because these multipart questions, I start losing track. (Laughter.) I can assure the public that there was not the kind of tampering with the voting process that was of concern and will continue to be of concern going forward; that the votes that were cast were counted, they were counted appropriately. We have not seen evidence of machines being tampered with. So that assurance I can provide. That doesn’t mean that we find every single potential probe of every single voting machine all across the country, but we paid a lot of attention to it. We worked with state officials, et cetera, and we feel confident that that didn’t occur and that the votes were cast and they were counted. So that’s on that point. What was the second one? Q The second one was about declassification. THE PRESIDENT: Declassification. Look, we will provide evidence that we can safely provide that does not compromise sources and methods. But I’ll be honest with you, when you’re talking about cybersecurity, a lot of it is classified. And we’re not going to provide it because the way we catch folks is by knowing certain things about them that they may not want us to know, and if we’re going to monitor this stuff effectively going forward, we don’t want them to know that we know. So this is one of those situations where unless the American people genuinely think that the professionals in the CIA, the FBI, our entire intelligence infrastructure — many of whom, by the way, served in previous administrations and who are Republicans — are less trustworthy than the Russians, then people should pay attention to what our intelligence agencies have to say. This is part of what I meant when I said that we’ve got to think about what’s happening to our political culture here. The Russians can’t change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country. They are a weaker country. Their economy doesn’t produce anything that anybody wants to buy, except oil and gas and arms. They don’t innovate. But they can impact us if we lose track of who we are. They can impact us if we abandon our values. Mr. Putin can weaken us, just like he’s trying to weaken Europe, if we start buying into notions that it’s okay to intimidate the press, or lock up dissidents, or discriminate against people because of their faith or what they look like. And what I worry about more than anything is the degree to which, because of the fierceness of the partisan battle, you start to see certain folks in the Republican Party and Republican voters suddenly finding a government and individuals who stand contrary to everything that we stand for as being okay because that’s how much we dislike Democrats. I mean, think about it. Some of the people who historically have been very critical of me for engaging with the Russians and having conversations with them also endorsed the President-elect, even as he was saying that we should stop sanctioning Russia and being tough on them, and work together with them against our common enemies. He was very complimentary of Mr. Putin personally. That wasn’t news. The President-elect during the campaign said so. And some folks who had made a career out of being anti-Russian didn’t say anything about it. And then after the election, suddenly they’re asking, well, why didn’t you tell us that maybe the Russians were trying to help our candidate? Well, come on. There was a survey, some of you saw, where — now, this is just one poll, but a pretty credible source — 37 percent of Republican voters approve of Putin. Over a third of Republican voters approve of Vladimir Putin, the former head of the KGB. Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave. And how did that happen? It happened in part because, for too long, everything that happens in this town, everything that’s said is seen through the lens of “does this help or hurt us relative to Democrats, or relative to President Obama?” And unless that changes, we’re going to continue to be vulnerable to foreign influence, because we’ve lost track of what it is that we’re about and what we stand for. Martha Raddatz. Q Mr. President, I want to talk about Vladimir Putin again. Just to be clear, do you believe Vladimir Putin himself authorized the hack? And do you believe he authorized that to help Donald Trump? And on the intelligence, one of the things Donald Trump cites is Saddam Hussein and the weapons of mass destruction, and that they were never found. Can you say, unequivocally, that this was not China, that this was not a 400-pound guy sitting on his bed, as Donald Trump says? And do these types of tweets and kinds of statements from Donald Trump embolden the Russians? THE PRESIDENT: When the report comes out, before I leave office, that will have drawn together all the threads. And so I don’t want to step on their work ahead of time. What I can tell you is that the intelligence that I have seen gives me great confidence in their assessment that the Russians carried out this hack. Q Which hack? THE PRESIDENT: The hack of the DNC and the hack of John Podesta. Now, the — but again, I think this is exactly why I want the report out, so that everybody can review it. And this has been briefed, and the evidence in closed session has been provided on a bipartisan basis — not just to me, it’s been provided to the leaders of the House and the Senate, and the chairman and ranking members of the relevant committees. And I think that what you’ve already seen is, at least some of the folks who have seen the evidence don’t dispute, I think, the basic assessment that the Russians carried this out. Q But specifically, can you not say that — THE PRESIDENT: Well, Martha, I think what I want to make sure of is that I give the intelligence community the chance to gather all the information. But I’d make a larger point, which is, not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin. This is a pretty hierarchical operation. Last I checked, there’s not a lot of debate and democratic deliberation, particularly when it comes to policies directed at the United States. We have said, and I will confirm, that this happened at the highest levels of the Russian government. And I will let you make that determination as to whether there are high-level Russian officials who go off rogue and decide to tamper with the U.S. election process without Vladimir Putin knowing about it. Q So I wouldn’t be wrong in saying the President thinks Vladimir Putin authorized the hack? THE PRESIDENT: Martha, I’ve given you what I’m going to give you. What was your second question? Q Do the tweets and do the statements by Donald Trump embolden Russia? THE PRESIDENT: As I said before, I think that the President-elect is still in transition mode from campaign to governance. I think he hasn’t gotten his whole team together yet. He still has campaign spokespersons sort of filling in and appearing on cable shows. And there’s just a whole different attitude and vibe when you’re not in power as when you’re in power. So rather than me sort of characterize the appropriateness or inappropriateness of what he’s doing at the moment, I think what we have to see is how will the President-elect operate, and how will his team operate, when they’ve been fully briefed on all these issues, they have their hands on all the levers of government, and they’ve got to start making decisions. One way I do believe that the President-elect can approach this that would be unifying is to say that we welcome a bipartisan, independent process that gives the American people an assurance not only that votes are counted properly, that the elections are fair and free, but that we have learned lessons about how Internet propaganda from foreign countries can be released into the political bloodstream and that we’ve got strategies to deal with it for the future. The more this can be nonpartisan, the better served the American people are going to be, which is why I made the point earlier — and I’m going to keep on repeating this point: Our vulnerability to Russia or any other foreign power is directly related to how divided, partisan, dysfunctional our political process is. That’s the thing that makes us vulnerable. If fake news that’s being released by some foreign government is almost identical to reports that are being issued through partisan news venues, then it’s not surprising that that foreign propaganda will have a greater effect, because it doesn’t seem that far-fetched compared to some of the other stuff that folks are hearing from domestic propagandists. To the extent that our political dialogue is such where everything is under suspicion, everybody is corrupt and everybody is doing things for partisan reasons, and all of our institutions are full of malevolent actors — if that’s the storyline that’s being put out there by whatever party is out of power, then when a foreign government introduces that same argument with facts that are made up, voters who have been listening to that stuff for years, who have been getting that stuff every day from talk radio or other venues, they’re going to believe it. So if we want to really reduce foreign influence on our elections, then we better think about how to make sure that our political process, our political dialogue is stronger than it’s been. Isaac Dovere of Politico. [snip] Q    Well, what do you say to the electors who are going to meet on Monday and are thinking of changing their votes?  Do you think that they should be given an intelligence briefing about the Russian activity?  Or should they bear in mind everything you’ve said and is out already?  Should they — should votes be bound by the state votes as they’ve gone?  And long term, do you think that there is a need for Electoral College reform that would tie it to the popular vote? [snip] So with respect to the electors, I’m not going to wade into that issue because, again, it’s the American people’s job, and now the electors’ job to decide my successor. It is not my job to decide my successor. And I have provided people with a lot of information about what happened during the course of the election. But more importantly, the candidates themselves, I think, talked about their beliefs and their vision for America. The President-elect, I think, has been very explicit about what he cares about and what he believes in. So it’s not in my hands now; it’s up to them. 17 Dec

Just Before Obama Weighs in on the Russian Hack, John Brennan Tells Everyone What He Says Others Said - At 2:20, WaPo published a story basically saying, “Anonymous source says CIA Director Wrote a Letter Claiming FBI Director and Director of National Intelligence Agree with Him,” but you wouldn’t know that from the headline. At 2:40, President Obama entered the White House briefing room to give his last press conference of the year, which was scheduled to start at 2:15. Everyone anticipated, correctly, the presser would be dominated by questions about Russia’s role in the election. So: 2:15: scheduled start for the President to comment on Russia’s hacking and what the intelligence says. 2:20: WaPo tells you what an anonymous leaker says CIA’s Director says FBI’s Director and Director of National Intelligence say, which differs somewhat from what Obama says. 2:40: Obama walks to the podium as, presumably, everyone waiting is reading WaPo’s scoop. Who says only Vladimir Putin is good at information ops? Mind you, once you get into the body of the article, there’s a significant difference between what WaPo says CIA says today and what its anonymous sources said CIA said a week ago, the last time it stomped on Obama’s efforts to introduce some deliberation into the claims about Russia’s hacks. Last week, WaPo said the CIA view was this: “It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. “That’s the consensus view.” [snip] The CIA shared its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Agency briefers told the senators it was now “quite clear” that electing Trump was Russia’s goal, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. [my emphasis] Goal, singular. Here’s what the lead says in today’s article. FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. are in agreement with a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the presidency, according to U.S. officials. With this further elaboration below. The CIA shared its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill about two weeks ago in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Specifically, CIA briefers told the senators it was now “quite clear” that electing Trump was one of Russia’s goals, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. CIA and FBI officials do not think Russia had a “single purpose” by intervening during the presidential campaign. In addition to helping Trump, intelligence officials have told lawmakers that Moscow’s other goal included undermining confidence in the U.S. electoral system. [my emphasis] WaPo still makes no mention of the most obvious goal, that Russia hacked Hillary to retaliate for real and perceived slights covertly carried out by Hillary and CIA, something that Hillary claimed just before the WaPo story and the Obama presser. In any case, if you look at CNN’s far more sober version of this, it appears that there is still some difference in emphasis about whether Russia was trying to elect Trump (and Brennan’s statement appears not to lay out what the consensus view is). The nuance lay in a stronger view by the CIA that the hacking was intended to help elect Trump, and the CIA leans more strongly in that view than the FBI does. Ah well, in the waning days of a great empire, who cares about deference to the outgoing President?   16 Dec

The DNC’s Evolving Story about When They Knew They Were Targeted by Russia - This week’s front page story about the Democrats getting hacked by Russia starts with a Keystone Kops anecdote explaining why the DNC didn’t respond more aggressively when FBI first warned them about being targeted in September. The explanation, per the contractor presumably covering his rear-end months later, was that the FBI Special Agent didn’t adequately identify himself. When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk. His message was brief, if alarming. At least one computer system belonging to the D.N.C. had been compromised by hackers federal investigators had named “the Dukes,” a cyberespionage team linked to the Russian government. The F.B.I. knew it well: The bureau had spent the last few years trying to kick the Dukes out of the unclassified email systems of the White House, the State Department and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the government’s best-protected networks. Yared Tamene, the tech-support contractor at the D.N.C. who fielded the call, was no expert in cyberattacks. His first moves were to check Google for “the Dukes” and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion. By his own account, he did not look too hard even after Special Agent Hawkins called back repeatedly over the next several weeks — in part because he wasn’t certain the caller was a real F.B.I. agent and not an impostor. This has led to (partially justified) complaints from John Podesta about why the FBI didn’t make the effort of driving over to the DNC to warn the higher-ups (who, the article admitted, had decided not to spend much money on cybersecurity). This NYT version of the FBI Agent story comes from a memo that DNC’s contractor, Yared Tamene, wrote at some point after the fact. The NYT describes the memo repeatedly, though it never describes the recipients of the memo nor reveals precisely when it was written (it is clear it had to have been written after April 2016). “I had no way of differentiating the call I just received from a prank call,” Mr. Tamene wrote in an internal memo, obtained by The New York Times, that detailed his contact with the F.B.I. [snip] “The F.B.I. thinks the D.N.C. has at least one compromised computer on its network and the F.B.I. wanted to know if the D.N.C. is aware, and if so, what the D.N.C. is doing about it,” Mr. Tamene wrote in an internal memo about his contacts with the F.B.I. He added that “the Special Agent told me to look for a specific type of malware dubbed ‘Dukes’ by the U.S. intelligence community and in cybersecurity circles.” [snip] In November, Special Agent Hawkins called with more ominous news. A D.N.C. computer was “calling home, where home meant Russia,” Mr. Tamene’s memo says, referring to software sending information to Moscow. “SA Hawkins added that the F.B.I. thinks that this calling home behavior could be the result of a state-sponsored attack.” [DNC technology director Andrew] Brown knew that Mr. Tamene, who declined to comment, was fielding calls from the F.B.I. But he was tied up on a different problem: evidence suggesting that the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Mrs. Clinton’s main Democratic opponent, had improperly gained access to her campaign data. [snip] One bit of progress had finally been made by the middle of April: The D.N.C., seven months after it had first been warned, finally installed a “robust set of monitoring tools,” Mr. Tamene’s internal memo says. [my emphasis] The NYT includes a screen cap of part of that memo (which reveals that the DNC had already been exposed to ransomware attacks by September 2015), but not the other metadata or a link to the full memo. One reason I raise all this is because the evidence laid out in the story contradicts, in several ways, this August report, relying on three anonymous sources (at least some of whom are probably members of Congress, but then so was the DNC Chair at the time). The FBI did not tell the Democratic National Committee that U.S officials suspected it was the target of a Russian government-backed cyber attack when agents first contacted the party last fall, three people with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters. And in months of follow-up conversations about the DNC’s network security, the FBI did not warn party officials that the attack was being investigated as Russian espionage, the sources said. The lack of full disclosure by the FBI prevented DNC staffers from taking steps that could have reduced the number of confidential emails and documents stolen, one of the sources said. Instead, Russian hackers whom security experts believe are affiliated with the Russian government continued to have access to Democratic Party computers for months during a crucial phase in the U.S. presidential campaign, the source said. [snip] In its initial contact with the DNC last fall, the FBI instructed DNC personnel to look for signs of unusual activity on the group’s computer network, one person familiar with the matter said. DNC staff examined their logs and files without finding anything suspicious, that person said. When DNC staffers requested further information from the FBI to help them track the incursion, they said the agency declined to provide it. In the months that followed, FBI officials spoke with DNC staffers on several other occasions but did not mention the suspicion of Russian involvement in an attack, sources said. The DNC’s information technology team did not realize the seriousness of the incursion until late March, the sources said. It was unclear what prompted the IT team’s realization. In August, anonymous sources told Reuters that FBI never told DNC they were being attacked by Russians until … well, Reuters doesn’t actually tell us when the FBI told DNC the Russians were behind the attack, just that Democrats started taking it seriously in March. But in the pre-Trump Russian hack bonanza, the NYT has now revealed that an internal memo says that the DNC had been informed in November, not March. And even that part of the explanation doesn’t make sense. As a number of people have noted, Brown is basically saying he didn’t respond to a warning — given in November — that a DNC server was calling home to Russia because he was dealing with a NGP-VAN breach that happened on December 18. He would have had over two weeks to respond to Russia hacking the DNC before the NGP-VAN issue, and that would have been significantly handled by NGP. Moreover, even the September narrative invites some skepticism. Tamene admits the FBI Special Agent, “told me to look for a specific type of malware dubbed ‘Dukes’ by the U.S. intelligence community and in cybersecurity circles.” And he describes “His first moves were to check Google for “the Dukes” and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion.” Had Tamene Googled for “dukes malware” any time after September 17, 2015, this is what he would have found. Today we release a new whitepaper on an APT group commonly referred to as “the Dukes”. We believe that the Dukes are a well-resourced, highly dedicated, and organized cyber-espionage group that has been working for the Russian government since at least 2008 to collect intelligence in support of foreign and security policy decision-making. [my emphasis] So had this initial report taken place after September 17, Had he clicked through to the report — which is where he would have gone to find the malware signatures to look for — he would have seen a big pink graphic tying the Dukes to Russia. It’s certainly possible the alert came before the white paper was released (though if it came after, it explains why the FBI would have thought simply mentioning the Dukes would be sufficient). But that would suggest Tamene remembered the call and his Google search for the Dukes in detail sometime in April but not in September when this report got a fair amount of attention. None of this is to excuse the FBI (I’ve already started a post on that part of this). But it’s clear that Democrats have been — at a minimum — inconsistent in their story to the press about why they didn’t respond to warnings sooner. And given the multiple problems with their explanation about what happened last fall, it’s likely they did get some warning, but just didn’t heed it. 16 Dec

Craig Murray’s Description of WikiLeaks’ Sources - One of the weaknesses of my post on the evidence needed to prove the Russian DNC hack (one I’ll fix when I move it into a page) is that I didn’t include a step where the intelligence community had to dismiss alternative theories. It is not enough to prove that tools associated with Russian intelligence hacked the DNC (whether or not you’re convinced they necessarily are used exclusively by GRU), but you also have to prove that no one else either hacked the known sources of leaked documents or otherwise obtained them. That was particularly important given early reports that FBI wasn’t sure that the documents stolen by hackers presumed to be GRU were the same documents dealt to WikiLeaks. One alternative theory I know some researchers tested, for example, is whether hackers could have gotten into the accounts of DNC staffers by testing passwords made available by past hacks (of LinkedIn and MySpace, in particular) for reuse. For a while, that definitely seemed like a plausible alternative theory, but ultimately I don’t think it plausibly could explain the known evidence. The most important alternative theory, however, comes from Julian Assange, who has been first intimating and more recently asserting directly that Russians were not his source (even while showing immediate concern that Obama’s hacking review targeted Wikileaks directly). Former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray has also made such a claim, first in a series of posts on his blog, and at more length in an interview with Scott Horton. Murray’s interview is well worth the listen, as he has nowhere near the same personal stakes in this story and — as he makes clear in the interview — because he seems to have had a role in handing over the second batch of emails. Ultimately, his description is unconvincing. But it is an important indication of what he claims to believe (which must reflect what Assange has told him, whether Assange believes it or not). Importantly, Murray admits that “It’s perfectly possible that WikiLeaks themselves don’t know what is going on,” which admits one possibility I’ve always suspected: that whoever dealt the documents did so in a way that credibly obscured their source. Murray explained that the two sets of documents handed over to Wikileaks came via two different American sources, both of whom had legal access to them. He describes a lot more about the Podesta emails, of which he said he had “first hand knowledge,” because of something he did or learned on a trip to DC in September. In this interview, he says “The material was already, I think, safely with WikiLeaks before I got there in September,” though other outlets have suggested (with maps included!) that’s when the hand-off happened. In that account, Murray admits he did not meet with the person with legal access; he instead met with an intermediary. That means the intermediary may have made false claims about the provenance. And even the claims about the provenance don’t make sense. Murray claimed the documents came from someone in the national security establishment, and implied they had come from legal monitoring of John Podesta because he (meaning John) is a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia. Again, the key point to remember, in answering that question, is that the DNC leak and the Podesta leak are two different things and the answer is very probably not going to be the same in both cases. I also want you to consider that John Podesta was a paid lobbyist for the Saudi government — that’s open and declared, it’s not secret or a leak in a sense. John Podesta was paid a very substantial sum every month by the Saudi government to lobby for their interests in Washington. And if the American security services were not watching the communications of the Saudi government paid lobbyist then the American intelligence services would not be doing their job. Of course it’s also true that the Saudis’ man, the Saudis’ lobbyist in Washington, his communications are going to be of interest to a great many other intelligence services as well. As a threshold matter, no national security agency is going to monitor an American register to work as an agent for the Saudis. That’s all the more true if the agent has the last name Podesta. But that brings us to another problem. John Podesta isn’t the lobbyist here. His brother Tony is. So even assuming the FBI was collected all the emails of registered agent for the Saudis, Tony Podesta, even assuming someone in national security wanted to blow that collection by revealing it via Wikileaks, they would pick up just a tiny fraction of John Podesta’s emails. So this doesn’t explain the source of the emails at all. But if we believe that Murray believes this, we know that the intermediary can credibly claim to have ties to American national security. Horton and Murray go on to discuss how WikiLeaks got the first batch of emails, the ones from DNC. That’s specifically the context where Murray talks about the possibility Assange doesn’t actually know. Though he suggests the leaker is a DNC insider angry about Bernie Sanders’ treatment. There’s a section on the murdered DNC staffer, which I’m not going to focus on because I find it distasteful. But Murray explains that Assange offered a reward pertaining to his murder because he thought the staffer might be mistaken for the real source, but was not the real source. Which suggests Assange implied to Murray that the documents were directly leaked by someone in a similar position. Again, someone who could pose as a DNC staffer.     Here, Murray states clearly that “Guccifer is not the source for WikiLeaks.” He explains that claim based primarily off the assumption that the Russians would never employ such as buffoon as Guccifer, not direct knowledge. Remember Guccifer stated publicly he had given the documents to WikiLeaks, with no rebuttal from Assange I know of. In other words, that doesn’t seem to make sense either. And with Assange you are by necessity dealing with documents passed through at least one and in the Podesta email case, perhaps two or more intermediaries. So even assuming the best effort to vet people on Assange’s side, he does have limited resources to do so himself. One more comment. Murray ends with a description of the reception of the emails that doesn’t make sense at all. He suggests the “mainstream media” ignored concerns about the Clinton foundation (he doesn’t even mention that this coverage might come from the legally FOIAed emails). He says they ignored other details, such as that Donna Brazile gave Hillary a debate question and that the DNC conspired against Bernie. He claims members of the media “colluded” with the Hillary campaign. I know some people believe these topics should have gotten more attention. Even if you believe these things, though, believing the traditional media didn’t cover them requires a blind spot about the massive Trump corruption they might have been covering instead. All that neither proves or disproves that Murray believes he got documents from someone in the national security establishment that were legally obtained. It just might explain why he’d believe something that, in this case, makes no sense.   15 Dec

Dealing With Trump Voters - Ever since the election, I’ve been thinking about how to deal with Trump voters I might meet. This article in the New York Times has helped me clarify my thinking. The star of the story is Amanda Delekta, identified as a sophomore at the University of Michigan and the Political Director of the College Republicans. She is “outraged” that students held vigils mourning the election results, and a biology professor canceled classes on the theory that students would be too upset to learn anything. She is further outraged that U of M’s president sent an email she interpreted as saying that the ideas of the “liberal majority” at the school are superior to the “ideology of their peers”. She thinks her ideology is entitled to respect. The article doesn’t explain exactly what her ideology is, or why it is entitled to respect. This stupid election campaign did not reveal any ideological stance of the winner. He is devoted to himself and beyond that, who knows. His only serious promises involve walls, deportations, keeping out Muslims, lower taxes, and no regulations. And somehow that will bring back so many jobs in manufacturing. Delekta can’t possibly think that is an “ideology” or that this hodge-podge is worthy of respect. There is no evidence that any of this crap would help workers or anyone except Trump and his rich allies. She apparently doesn’t realize we’ve been trying trickle-down economics for decades without any improvement in the wages of the bottom 50% of Americans while the rich have separated themselves from the rest of us. Delekta doesn’t seem to grasp the difference between liberalism as a set of ideas about politics, and a liberal educatioin, which is about free and oopen inquiry and analysis. She thinks students are somehow being brainwashed by using their brains to read and understand reality, without even noticing that plenty of people are using their liberal educations without in any way losing their conservative politics. Good examples can easily be found in business and engineering schools, but the same is true in most of the schools. By rejecting the common understanding that the best way to learn advanced skills is through free and open inquiry and not from memorizing a textbook, she has aligned herself with the base of the Republican Party. That includes the Sandy Hook Truthers, the Pizzagate fanatics, and all the other loons who believe everything from Young Earth creationism to poisonous Chemtrails to whatever lies are peddled by Fox News. If she were an active learner, she might have read about the rise of fascism in Germany, perhaps The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. Arendt says that when the artistic and intellectual elites were run out of Germany and Austria or neutralized in place, the masses took up all sorts of crackpot ideas and conspiracy theories as truth. They became fertile ground for Nazi propaganda, and this played a significant role in the rise of totalitarianism. The Republican Party is now entirely the party of crackpot ideas and conspiracy theories. All scientists conspire with China to create the anthropogenic climate warming hoax. Chemtrails are used to spray us with something for some purpose by unknown malignant agents. If we cut regulations and give enough money to the rich, the economy will grow and manufacturing jobs will return at higher wages than are paid in Bangladesh. It’s only the tax code that caused jobs to leave the US, not the minimal wages and minimal environment standards in poor nations. Sandy Hook was a hoax or a government plot or something else nefarious. No harm will come from getting rid of banking regulations. Liberals worship Satan in the basement of Pizza Parlors in DC. Income taxes are voluntary. No one should be upset because Trump chose a White Supremacist as his chief policy adviser. Jailing your political opponents is normal politics. Delekta thinks all the fear and anger among her classmates over the election could be solved by some Kumbaya about “we’re all Wolverines”, meaning the things that unite us are greater than our political differences. Sorry, but no. When you leave the Enlightenment for Crazytown, you go only with those who choose the crazy. Us post-Enlightenment people will stay in the present as long as possible, at least until you and your nutcase allies turn out all the lights except fire. It’s the young people who have identified the way forward. They don’t want to be around Delekta; they think she’s nuts. They don’t want to be identified with any of the Republican ideology, especially racism, but also science denialism and anti-factualism, and presumably the entire truth-denying thing. That’s just as true of moderate Republicans, if there are any of those still around, as it is of liberals and independents. No sane person voluntarily hangs around with people who can’t agree on facts and basic morality. Those of us not in school have to work and live with Trump supporters, but we don’t have to be friends with them. Bare civility will suffice. We don’t have to hire them, we don’t have to listen to them, and we don’t have to let them near our children. They can all keep company with each other. I’m sure Delekta will find many new and charming friends among the Breitbart crowd of White Nationalists, the facebook readers who liked and reposted fake news created in Eastern Europe, and militia groups scaring Muslims on their way to Mosques for services. She has a lot more in common with them than with her classmates at U of M. Or me for that matter. On edit: on Trump’s and the Republican Party’s science denialism. 14 Dec

Eurasia Review Newsletter

EU Moves Forward On Tightening Control Of Firearms - The Permanent Representatives Committee confirmed on Tuesday, on behalf of the Council, the agreement reached with the European Parliament on the proposal for a directive on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons, which...55 min

Commission Says Facebook Gave Misleading Information During WhatsApp Buyout - By Jorge Valero (EurActiv) — The European Commission could fine Facebook up to €170 million after it accused the social media giant of providing misleading information during its acquisition of WhatsApp. The executive said on...09:35

India: Amendment Aims To Fix Complicated Tax System – OpEd - The Indian tax system is the most complicated one in the world with the Centre; the States and local bodies having power to levy variety of taxes to earn revenue. The current multi-staged tax structure...09:30

Neocon Triumph? Trump Calls For ‘Safe Zones’ In Syria – OpEd - Donald Trump won the presidency largely because the American public was tired of the last 16 years of continuous wars and disastrous foreign interventions. When he said “I think getting along with Russia is a...09:22

It Wasn’t Russians: Hillary Lost Because She Blew Off Sanders And His Voters – OpEd - The incredible group-think that has seen the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, President Obama, the Clinton campaign and most of the corporate media braying that Vladimir Putin scandalously upended American democracy and threw the election...09:19

CPEC: Will It Be A Game-Changer For Pakistan Or A Nightmare? – Analysis - By Jyotishman Bhagawati* The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project connecting Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang province to Gwadar in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan has captured a lot of international attention in recent days. Considering the disastrous...09:13

Army Can Never Be Solution To Kashmir Problem – Analysis - By Nishant Rajeev* The September 18, 2016 Uri terror attack has possibly changed the course of India-Pakistan relations for years to come. It was the single largest loss of life suffered by the Indian Army...19 Dec

CPEC: Pakistan’s Newest Holy Cow Could Also Become Its Millstone – Analysis - By Shabir Choudhry* Pakistan faces many serious problems — and among them is the status and invulnerability of holy cows, and people who are above Pakistani laws. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not a...19 Dec

Amritsar Declaration Ignored Problems Of Indian-Origin Minorities In Afghanistan – Analysis - By Bawa Singh* Historically, Afghanistan and Sikhs have been enjoying religious and geo-cultural relations since the inception of Sikhism (1469). But lately, due to the ongoing civil war and terrorism in Afghanistan, an existential threat...19 Dec

Trump’s Impact On Pakistan – OpEd - After the thunderbolt of Brexit, the world was again taken by surprise on  November 8, 2016 when America astonished the world by choosing the billionaire, Donald Trump as their president. In Pakistan the overall perspective...19 Dec

Geoengineering Watch

Climate Engineering Cataclysm: A Live Presentation By Dane Wigington - Dane Wigington geoengineeringwatch.org For over 7 decades global climate engineering programs have been expanding in scope and scale. For over 7 decades the decimation these programs have inflicted on planet Earth has been accumulating. The biosphere on which all life depends has already been pushed past the breaking point on countless fronts. Though there are a09:14

East Antarctica Is Melting From Above And Below - Source: Climate Central East Antarctica is remote even by Antarctic standards. Harsh winds and ocean currents have largely cut off the region from the rest of the world. That’s left its massive stores of ice largely intact, especially compared to West Antarctica where a massive meltdown is underway that could raise seas by 10 or18 Dec

Washington’s Hypocrisy Over The Fall Of Aleppo - Source: Global Research With the report late Wednesday that a deal to evacuate the last of the Western-backed Islamist “rebels” from eastern Aleppo was back on track, following an earlier renewal of clashes, the scale of the debacle suffered by Washington in its five-year war for regime-change in Syria is emerging ever more clearly. The17 Dec

Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News, December 17, 2016 - Dane Wigington geoengineeringwatch.org What factors may be contributing to the public's willingness and ability to face facts from the front lines? The fluoridated water poisoning of the population is progressing along with the expanding forced vaccination campaigns. How much are these issues impacting the cognitive function and overall health of the masses? Obama sidesteps existing laws17 Dec

British Newspaper Reports On Climate Engineering - With all of us working together we are gaining ground in the battle to reach a critical mass of climate engineering awareness, the geoengineering/solar radiation management atrocities in our skies are now becoming all but impossible to hide. The just published article below from the "Daily Express" is the most recent example of mainstream media addressing the global climate engineering assault. As15 Dec

Climate Engineering Chemical Cool-Down Continues - Dane Wigington geoengineeringwatch.org Global climate engineering programs are not a proposal, but have long since been a lethal reality. "Winter Storm Decima" is bearing down on the US, but is this storm truly a natural weather occurrence? Will the hyped headlines on this event tell the real story of the global climate picture? An examination of the14 Dec

Life On Earth Is Dying. Thousands Of Species Cease To Exist - Source: Global Research On the day that you read this article, 200 species of life on Earth (plants, birds, animals, fish, amphibians, insects, reptiles) will cease to exist. Tomorrow, another 200 species will vanish forever. The human onslaught to destroy life on Earth is unprecedented in Earth’s history. Planet Earth is now experiencing its sixth13 Dec

Climate Engineering, Disinformation, And Lord Monckton, What’s The Connection? - Dane Wigington geoengineeringwatch.org Anyone who claims to be against climate engineering, anyone who claims to be in the fight to expose and halt it, and anyone who claims to care about the truth, has a responsibility to view the 15 minute video interview below. "Lord Monckton" adamantly and aggressively denies the climate engineering/weather warfare reality. Now more than ever before the power12 Dec

Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News, December 10, 2016 - Dane Wigington geoengineeringwatch.org The Orwellian dystopian world we all find ourselves in so far appears to be locked into its current course. Day is night, up is down, black is white,  whatever the official narrative is, the majority of the population seems all too willing to accept it. Militarized and industrialized power centers are now more dangerous10 Dec

Is Climate Engineering Contributing To Noctilucent Cloud Formation? - Dane Wigington geoengineeringwatch.org The rapid expansion of noctilucent cloud formations and sightings is an ominous sign of our rapidly disintegrating biosphere that almost no one is heeding. "Official" sources are doing their best to pacify the populations on every front and this includes the subjects of noctilucent cloud formation, atmospheric methane accumulation, and climate engineering. Noctilucent 9 Dec

intelNews.org

Mossad identified Hamas drone expert as principal target ‘years ago’: expert - Despite persistent silence from Tel Aviv, commentators there seem increasingly convinced that Israeli spies were behind last week’s killing of an aviation engineer who worked for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. 01:09

Hamas drone expert shot dead in Tunisia by assailants using gun silencers - A senior aviation engineer who headed the unmanned aerial vehicle program of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has been shot dead outside his home in Tunisia by a group of assailants using gun silencers.18 Dec

German and British spy services in ‘biggest rift’ since World War II, claim sources - A reported discord between British and German intelligence services, which began in 2014, allegedly persists and now constitutes the “biggest rift between [the] secret services” of the two countries “since World War II”. 15 Dec

Spy agencies deploy extra staff to analyze ‘treasure trove’ of ISIS computer data - Western military and intelligence agencies are deploying extra analysts to comb through unprecedented amounts of digital data collected from Iraqi regions that have recently been recaptured from the Islamic State.14 Dec

New director appointed to head Pakistan’s all-powerful intelligence agency - A new director, with considerable experience in counterterrorism, has been appointed to lead Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said to be one of the most powerful spy agencies in the world.13 Dec

Analysis: Russia did meddle in US election, but its goal was not to elect Trump - It would be extremely unusual and highly uncharacteristic of Russian spy agencies if they did not target the 2016 US presidential election. To not have done so would mean that they did not do their job.11 Dec

Greece jails member of alleged network of German retirees spying for Turkey - A German retiree living in Greece, who admitted in court that he was part of a network of German and other Western European residents of Greece recruited as spies by Turkish intelligence, has been jailed for 14 years. 8 Dec

US, British intelligence agencies spied on Israelis and Palestinians, files show - Documents accessed by a French newspaper show that American and British intelligence agencies worked together to spy on diplomats, academic researchers and defense contractors in Israel and the Palestinian territories. 7 Dec

Russia says it foiled major foreign cyber attack on its financial system - Russian authorities say they prevented a large-scale cyber attack by “a foreign intelligence service”, which had been designed to destabilize the country’s financial system and subvert its economy. 5 Dec

Senior US intelligence official tells Congress not to ‘micromanage’ spy efforts - The United States’ senior intelligence officer has told Congress that new legislation requiring spy agencies to act against alleged Russian covert operations constitutes “micromanagement” of the American Intelligence Community. 4 Dec

Joniopolis

Cane and Unable - Do not try this at home.  Do not try this anywhere.  Not with a fox, not in a box.  Especially not in a box.Folks, you know I’m famous—okay, within my own family—for taking on RIDICULOUS craft projects that always bomb out.  Somehow my brain is magnetically drawn to the impossible and you’ve read about many of my disasters right here in this blog.So for Christmas this year, I got the idea to make homemade candy canes. How tough can it be when you see boxes and boxes of them at the store, for mere pennies?All I can assume is that there is one amazing factory, undoubtedly in China, where they have figured out how to do this quickly and cheaply.  You cannot duplicate this in your kitchen.You decide to look up some recipes online.  Your eye scans the ingredients. You see things like “Heat-retardant gloves,” and “a bench scraper,” along with corn syrup, sugar, and other sticky items. You also notice you have to make two separate colors that you will then wrap around each other.Then you check the instructions and you see phrases like, “Working quickly…” and “pulling hard candy can be tricky,” and “don’t let children work with scalding liquids.”You read a caution about glass candy thermometers being breakable. When it talks about pulling, doubling, and twisting the hot candy it says, “Enjoy the upper body workout.”And here is where, in an unprecedented holiday miracle, Joni stops reading, closes the link, and decides candy cane making is not for her.  You see?  She can be taught.And if you want a truly memorable Christmas gift—one that won’t blister your hands, strain your muscles, or leave a sticky film on your kitchen counters that you have to chisel off—just check out my 24 books on my website.  So much easier, right?13 Dec

15 Ways You Know the Lines are Too Long -           You did it again. You forgot to buy everything by November, and now it’s December and you’re stuck in holiday shopping lines.  I love Christmas, but here’s how you know you’re in a line that’s just too long:1-       Your chewing gum has gotten old.  Twice.2-      You’ve exchanged email addresses with the people next to you.3-      People’s relatives are standing in for them, in shifts.4-      A catering truck pulls up to service your group.5-      You’ve taken off your coat to allow for the change in weather.6-      Your roots need a re-touch.7-      People are sitting in lawn chairs, using their lap tops.8-      One lady is stamping her Christmas cards.9-      A man calls home to tell his kids goodnight.10-    Your cell phone has become obsolete twice since you got in line.11-     You consider calling neighbors to feed the dog.12-    You’ve heard the same Muzak Christmas Carols eight times.13-     You’d be willing to pay double, if they’d just open another register.14 -    The store has put a Porta-Potty nearby.15-     They’re throwing a baby shower for a woman who wasn’t even pregnant when you first got in line.But you can save all this aggravation by purchasing my books online!  With 24 to choose from, there’s something for everyone, trust me. 6 Dec

More Than a Little Hair-Raising -           Today I am blogging about my hair.  Okay, it’s not really about my hair; it’s about my brain. But my hair played a key role this week.          First, we must acknowledge that our brain does not operate the same way other people’s brains do.  By saying “our” I feel less lonely in this trial. What happens to me is what happens to two of my friends, one of whom calls herself on the phone and the other of whom used glitter glue on her shoes, thinking it was shoe polish.          Except these women have excuses. One survived a brain aneurism and the other survived major head trauma from a car wreck.  So it’s like they have “Get Out of Jail, Free” cards in Monopoly.          For the rest of their lives, people will sympathize and smile.  After all, they’re lucky to be alive.  A little forgetfulness here and there is to be expected.          Not so in Joniopolios.  Joni has no such excuses for the many times she has called herself on the phone, hunted for her phone while talking on it, or tried dozens of times to get into the wrong car in parking lots.          Which brings us to my curly hair.  Sometimes I straighten it, and sometimes I wear it curly.  Viewers of my Youtube Mom videos have weighed in on this, all of which I appreciate, basically because I’m just glad they’re watching my channel.But this week was a curly week, so I was standing before my bathroom mirror, spritzing it with water to make it curlier, and suddenly realized I had picked up the sprayer of cleaner, not the water spray bottle.  In my defense, they are about the same size.  BUT NOW MY HEAD IS COVERED WITH CONCENTRATED DEGREASER/CLEANER.And today it is raining, so the chances are that my hair, now glopped up with a cleaner much stiffer than any hair product you can buy, is going to foam up like a cappuccino machine. This foam will then obey the laws of gravity and run straight into my eyes, burning them and causing me to drop to my knees in agony.  So if you see a woman out in public, drenched, screaming, crumpling to the ground, and foaming from the top of her head, you’ll know who it is.Or you can avoid this possibility by staying inside, Christmas shopping online, and buying my books here. 29 Nov

Laying the Blame for Daylight Saving Time -           For a couple of weeks now, we’ve all been trying to get used to Daylight Saving Time. Just after lunchtime it looks like evening, and by evening it looks like night.          Shortly after lunch people are seeing the long shadows, the sinking sun, and assuming it’s time to knock off work.  They think about going home and having dinner. Their brains stop whirling and if our brains made sounds, you would hear their motors slowing and even shutting off in some cases.Everyone I know wishes we could keep the summertime system in place, drive home when it’s still daylight out, and get more use out of the day.  Instead, we all get sluggish, sleepy, and unproductive.And guess who I found out is responsible:  Ben Franklin!  I know, I know, he’s been your hero and mine not only for his role in our nation’s founding, but for coming up with public libraries, the U.S. postal system, the fire department, the first public hospital, the lightning rod, bifocals—we could go on and on.  He was like a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci.          But when I heard he was the first advocate for DST, he completely fell off his pedestal.  Well, and the story about his pushing for the turkey as our national symbol.          So I checked it out.   Turns out he wrote an essay to the editor of The Journal of Paris in 1784, suggesting Parisians could economize on candle usage by getting up an hour earlier and making use of natural morning light instead.          But here’s the thing, folks: He was joking. No matter—people with impaired senses of humor didn’t get the satirical slant of his work and the next thing you knew, this concept was sweeping through all of Europe and Great Britain.  A guy named Robert Garland brought it over to the U.S. where President Woodrow Wilson tried it (it was repealed) and then Franklin D. Roosevelt made it a year round institution in 1942.          Seriously!  When you see Ben on a half-dollar coin or a fifty dollar bill, imagine him running around today, saying, “It was a joke-- I was only kidding!”          This same nonsense happened when Jonathan Swift wrote a sarcastic bit of satire in 1729, mocking the lack of care for the poor in Ireland, and publishing A Modest Proposal, wherein he suggested they actually eat their children. People who didn’t understand irony went ballistic. But at least the Brits finally realized he was kidding, whereas Franklin’s silliness was actually adopted into law.          Makes you want to tippy toe around some folks, and certainly think twice next time you jokingly say, “There oughta be a law…” Better yet, just enjoy the humor in my novels.  And, all kidding aside, they make lovely Christmas gifts.22 Nov

Living in a Ziggy World -           Most of you have heard cartoon character Ziggy’s famous line, “Accept that some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.”  Ziggy always made us feel better about days when everything went wrong, because at least there was someone else out there having the same experience, even if he was fictional.          But I think I’m channeling Ziggy, or maybe living under his cloud.  Last week both our car batteries died on the very same day.  Has this ever happened to anyone else in the universe?  Okay, First World Problems, I know—we should be grateful we even have cars.  But honestly, I can’t think of a single soul who has had this happen to them.          Both St. Bob and I had dead cars, with no living car to jump start either one of them.  Even worse, when we finally got them going—after much ado—we took them in to mechanics who said our batteries and alternators were just fine.  This means we are living in the Twilight Zone, and this could happen again at any moment, with no rational explanation whatsoever. Like I say, a Ziggy world.          Invariably both of us will have injuries at the same moment.  I’ve even blogged about numerous times.  Bob fell into a post the same day I did a face-plant in the garden.  And when Bob had cancer surgery I got kidney stones.           I’ve heard of married couples becoming more like each other, but this is ridiculous.          And now, our son Richie seems infected with the Ziggy virus as well.  Just as he got the keys to a three-story townhouse be bought, and began to move in, he sprained his knee.            And his bedroom is on the top floor.  One day later, Bob came down with a high fever and is lying in bed as we speak.  Okay, as we read. I’m scared to make a move, for fear I’ll trip, hit my head, fall into a coma, and top them both.  Why can’t either of these guys just win the Publishers’ Clearing House Sweepstakes?  That kind of luck would rub off quite nicely.Stay inside where it's nice and safe, and read one of my books!  You can find all of them here.15 Nov

If I Were a Cop - The other night Richie was planning to load a piano into his Jeep.  It actually fits, except the hatch back door has to remain up.“You can’t leave the lid up or you’ll get a ticket,” I said. He just stared at me. “That’s not illegal,” he said.“What! You can drive around with your trunk lid up and that’s okay?” I was flummoxed.  (Finally! I got to use the word, flummoxed).  “But it looks dangerous.”“How?” Richie asked.“I don’t know; it just does,” I told him.  “If I were a cop I would totally pull you over.”“And I would say, ‘but this is legal.’”“And I would tell you it just looks wrong.”Welcome to the world of Joni’s Laws.  I would be giving tickets out right and left, for things that just shouldn’t happen.  Teenagers being rude to their parents in the mall.  People leaving clothes in dressing rooms.  Drivers taking two parking spots. Parents ignoring their climbing kids who are about to fall out of grocery carts.  I could do this all day.And, on the other hand, I would probably never ticket someone parked in the wrong direction, on a curb.  “That’s illegal?” I would blurt out in the Police Academy.  And “You have to make brownies in a state certified kitchen to sell them—are you serious?”)Worst of all, if pulling someone over for a traffic violation, I’d probably let them off with a big smile if all they said was, “Are you even old enough to be a cop?”  It would make my day and I would reciprocate by making theirs. Certain careers just shouldn’t be open to all of us, you know?Have you read my latest book, Golden,yet?  Hurry and buy it as a Christmas gift, and then you can read it before you wrap it up!  Find it in paperback and on Kindle, then check out my other books and videos here. 8 Nov

A Real-Life Candyland -           When I was little I wanted to be Queen Frostine.  She lived in Candyland which is wonderful enough, but specifically in the Ice Cream Sea.          Her world included a Candy Castle, Gingerbread Plum Trees, Gumdrop Mountains, Lollipop Woods—basically a sugar kingdom.  Not only that, but she had flowing blue hair and a blue ballgown.          I had no idea this actual location has been recreated in Provo, Utah. Well, minus the blue hair and ballgowns. I don’t think it was intentional, but merchants there have amped up the sugar consumption enough to make you wonder if it could be the Type 2 Diabetes capitol of the world. Just take a look at one sign that made me swerve right into the café:          Our daughter, Nicole, attends BYU there, so we thought we’d visit.  Within two days I told St. Bob, “I have got to get out of Provo or else buy a new wardrobe consisting entirely of caftans.”  It literally seemed as if every other store was an ice cream shop or a bakery.  Even the trucks driving by had “cookie delivery” written on the side, as if part of an emergency response team.            Salt Lake City has its share of dangerous pastries          but Provo takes—and sells—the cake.  Maybe it’s because its largely LDS population doesn’t drink, so goodies become the vice of the day. Truly, you cannot walk downtown without tripping over frosted sugar cookies, a chocolate-tasting bar, milkshakes, waffles, candies, and cinnamon rolls. You can’t even go hiking without seeing a hot chocolate truck.          Even on campus, there seems to be a constant flow of calories. After doing a German dance in the JFSB building, performers handed out free servings of apple streudel to all the students.  Elsewhere the BYU Creamery offers huge samples of Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.   And then a few steps away in the Wilkinson Center and at Brigham Square, you find almost constant offerings of free donuts, cookies, popcorn, and cotton candy.  No wonder those kids bicycle by whistling Disney tunes.   Resisting temptation seems futile, so the only thing we could do to save ourselves from Sugar Rehab was to waddle out of there as fast as we could.  Well, maybe bring along a few cupcakes for the road…          It’s okay if you get crumbs in my book.  Snacking and reading are perfectly acceptable.  See which of my books whets your appetite here. 1 Nov

Cave Man Spanish -           For years I have spoken beautiful, fluent Spanish.  Spanish that can bring you to tears.          Or so I thought.  I learned a teeny bit attending Edith Bowen Elementary, a laboratory grade school.  Emphasis on teeny.  I retained numbers, colors, and three or four body parts.          But I thought I spoke Spanish, so I never took it again in the upper grades.  Wrongo.  Incorrecto.            Fast forward and I have decided that an English/Spanish dictionary is all I need.  I am now looking up every word I want, and using it to speak with native Spanish speakers in Los Angeles, where I lived for twenty years.          And here’s a bulletin about Hispanics: They’re too polite.  They tell you your Spanish is great, and they understand you perfectly. Okay, maybe they understand you, but trust  me: If you are speaking Spanish you taught yourself with a dictionary, you are speaking Cave Man Spanish. You are saying, “Me like this. I have happy. Here is you book.  Me go now.”          But Latinos are basically nice. They don’t want to hurt your feelings, and unlike we English-speaking grammar fanatics, they have no need to correct you every time you open your mouth.  So they smile and nod, and you are led down the path to linguistic hell.  Okay, maybe not hell, but at least heck.          Fast forward some more.  I am volunteering to help out in stores and all over the place, when someone speaks Spanish and a translator is needed.  I am totally happy to lend my expertise.          And then a bit more fast forwarding and our son, Cassidy, returns from his LDS church mission to Argentina and says, “Mom, your Spanish is terrible.  You don’t even use soy.”            Soy?  As in edame?  I certainly do use soy!  But now I suspect this is a critical Spanish word that has been missing from my repertoire (should have studied French), and sure enough, I look it up online and soy means I am.  Imagine speaking English without that auxiliary verb!  And that’s not all.  There are all kinds of conjunctions and phrases missing from my Spanish and I realize now that when dozens of Spanish speakers have asked me where I learned my Spanish they weren’t meaning, “Wow, I’m so impressed,” but “Where on earth did you learn such dreadful Spanish?”           Like I said, it can bring you to tears.Fortunately, my books are available in English.  Find them here and get started early on your Christmas shopping!25 Oct

A Golden Review of GOLDEN -          "Readers will fall in love with the characters in this story."          Wow.  An author dreams of a response like that, and I am humbled and delighted by Jennie Hansen's words about GOLDEN, my latest novel.  Today I'm sharing her review in Meridian Magazine with my blog readers:GOLDEN reviewed by Jennie Hansen          No one wants to enter the dark old mansion known as the Witch House. It’s actually a retirement home housing a dozen elderly people, but it’s poorly maintained. The landscaping is overgrown, the house is a dingy black color, and the interior is worse. When Jana Waterson and her seven month pregnant partner are assigned to visit teach a new resident there, she is appalled by the gloomy atmosphere. One of the elderly residents, a former nurse, recognizes the symptoms of preeclampsia in Jana’s partner who is quickly whisked off to the hospital. When Jana calls her husband, Ethan, who is the new bishop, he rushes to the hospital to give the woman a blessing. Thus begins the Waterson’s introduction to the house and its residents that soon become a major part in their lives and the lives of their ward members.          The Waterson children insist they want nothing to do with the Witch House, but Ethan is more afraid of his calling as bishop than of the spooky old house. With the owners’ approval he takes on renovating the house as a ward project. Many ward members are reluctant at first to get involved, but little by little the various organizations agree to portions of the project and some of the children adopt the individual residents as unofficial grandparents.                       Conversions, an irate son, a visit from a television station, a convert who changes her mind, and a romance or two are just a few of the happenings that occur during the project. Most surprising are the discoveries concerning the old house. Most rewarding perhaps is the discovery that past fears and doubts can be overcome. Black can be turned to gold.          Readers will fall in love with the characters in this story. Their doubts and fears are the type most of us struggle with. Each of the Watersons is a distinct personality with flaws, strengths, and personality quirks that make them realistic. Ethan and Jan’s interaction with each other and with their children strengthen the story. The residents of the senior facility are a great cross section of the elderly. Like people anywhere at any age they have likes and dislikes, they argue, they support each other. They also have memories they hold dear. They hold life dear too, and aren’t through living. Some are in wheelchairs and some rely on canes, but all are fiercely independent.          Hilton includes many humorous situations and clever lines, but there is a serious side underlying the humor. The story acknowledges the regrets most of us have and the insecurities we feel in certain situations, but it allows her characters to grow and better understand the atonement. She shows how weaknesses can become strengths, mistakes can be overcome, the power of forgiveness, and shows how in helping others we also help ourselves become stronger and better. As the Witch House is transformed from a place no one wants to enter to a golden opportunity desired by almost everyone, a similar transformation takes place in the hearts of those who take part in the project. Being elderly doesn’t keep the residents who decide to be baptized from becoming pioneers, the first members of the Church in their families. The author manages all this cleverly with a fun story and no preaching.         Joni Hilton is the author of twenty-four books, many magazine articles, and several award-winning plays. She is a regular feature writer for Meridian Magazine and also writes for Music and the Spoken Word. Formerly a TV talk show host, she now tours the U.S. as a corporate spokeswoman and a motivational speaker. She has held many leadership roles in her ward and stake and currently serves as ward Relief Society president. She and her husband live in California and they are the parents of four children.          GOLDEN may be purchased as a 333-page paperback, or on Kindle.  You can also visit Hilton's website here.18 Oct

GOLDEN - Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.  I love it when a new book comes out, but particularly when it’s a book I wrote.Allow me to introduce GOLDEN, my latest novel.  While many of my books are for the mainstream market, this one is for Latter-day Saints-- however, anyone could read and enjoy it.  In fact, whenever I write Mormon books, I write them with that in mind.  I picture someone handing this book to a non-Mormon friend, and then the friend reading it and gaining some insights into what we’re really like (and how funny we are).  I read Catholic and Jewish literature, and shame on you if you don’t love Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. But back to GOLDEN.  This is the story of a completely normal family with three challenging children, two parents who are doing their best but are terrified of their new church assignments, and what happens when they take on The Witch House, a local spooky mansion, as a project.  It has everything life offers—tricky relationships, life and death moments, spiritual anguish, consequences of terrible decisions, moments of faith and redemption, chances to grow, even surprises and laughter.I hope you’ll click on thislink and order it—and then order it again to give as gifts! (Kindle readers can find it here)11 Oct

Lifehacker

Today's Best Deals: Final Fantasy, Dremel, Anker Vacuum, and More - Final Fantasy XV, the most powerful Dremel, and Anker’s new vacuum leada off Tuesday’s best deals. Read more...43 min

How to Include Your Non-Christian Friends In the Holidays Without Being an Ignorant Jerk - Christmastime is here, and its traditions have become secular as much as they are religious. However, if you have friends of non-Christian faiths, including them in joy and spirit of the winter holidays can be tricky. Here’s how to show goodwill without trampling someone else’s beliefs.Read more...09:20

How’d You Do During This Year’s Money Challenge? - That’s a wrap for the first ever Lifehacker Ultimate Money Challenge. If you joined us at any point in this journey, we want to hear from you. If you didn’t, but you have a few ideas for 2017, we want to hear from you, too! Read more...08:30

The Best Dremel Set You Can Buy Is $50 Less Than Usual, Today Only - Dremel 4200 77-Piece Kit, $149 | More tool dealsWe’ve seen our fair share of Dremel discounts over the past few weeks, and it’s easy to see why: They make great gifts! But if you were holding out for the best of the best, your patience has been rewarded.Read more...08:23

Start a New Holiday Tradition to Turn Lonely Holidays Into Inspiring Ones - The holidays aren’t happy for everyone. Whether you don’t get along with your family, are far from home, or are missing a loved one, there are ways to turn the holidays into a special time. Here’s what we mean.Read more...08:00

Make a Quick Mulled Wine in the Microwave - The words “mulled wine” most likely conjure up images of big pots, slowly simmering with vino and spices. That’s all good, but the holidays can be hectic, and you may not have time to babysit a bubbling pot. To infuse wine with aromatics without ever turning on your stove, you’ll need to enlist your microwave.Read more...07:30

The Slot Tom Arnold Claims to Have Footage of Trump Saying ‘Every Offensive, Racist Thing Ever’ | De - The Slot Tom Arnold Claims to Have Footage of Trump Saying ‘Every Offensive, Racist Thing Ever’ | Deadspin This Ends Pretty Much How You Think It Will | Gizmodo Tim Cook on Why He Went to That Awkward Trump Meeting | Jezebel Rob Kardashian Apologizes to Blac Chyna, Says He Is ‘Seeking Help’ |Read more...07:29

Why Eggs Need to Be Refrigerated in the U.S., But Not in Europe - On a recent visit to Paris, I found it so strange that their eggs sat next to dried goods, at room temperature, since I’m used to refrigerating eggs in the U.S. We’re all concerned about the potential of Salmonella to make people sick, but the U.S. and Europe just protect against this threat in different ways.Read more...07:00

Delta's Amazing $20 Shower Head Is a Perfect Last Minute Gift Idea - Delta 75152 Shower Head, $20The shower head that came preinstalled in your home or apartment is probably terrible, but if you don’t have the cash to upgrade it to a Delta In2ition, the Delta 75152 is a fantastic option at $20.Read more...06:44

The Best Bottles of Champagne and Sparkling Wine to Buy on a Budget - It’s always fun to celebrate the New Year with a bottle of bub. If you want to bring Champagne, Prosecco, or sparkling wine to a party, you’ll find the prices range quite a bit, though. Here are the best bottles to buy if you’re on a budget.Read more...06:30

Niqnaq

“i’m absolutely weak, i can only just totter home… ” darling, the dollar’s collapsed … (WSB) - Foreigners are Dumping Pindo Treasurys as Never Before Wolf Richter, Wolf Street (Blog), Dec 15 2016 All kinds of things are now happening in the world of bonds that haven’t happened before. For example, authorities in China today halted trading for the first time ever in futures contracts of government bonds, after prices had swooned, with […]04:23

unhelpful cunts turds (let’s not be sexist) - EU formally extends Russia sanctions Alastair Macdonald, Reuters, Dec 19 2016 The EU extended economic sanctions against Russia by six months on Monday after completing the legislative process for a decision endorsed last week by national leaders at an EU summit. Sanctions introduced in Jul 2014 in response to Russian action in Ukraine will now […]00:40

adel the sith lord speaks - Toad foreign minister says Syria must be pressured into political solution Ali Abd’el-Ati, Reuters, Dec 19 2016 Toad FM & Sith Lord Adel al-Jubeir told the Arab League on Monday that if world powers fail to pressure the Syrian regime there will be no political solution to the war. Jubeir said at a meeting of […]00:26

kellyanne conway & reince priebus take to the air - Trump aide: Israeli envoy pick is not a rejection of two-state solution AP, Dec 19 2916 WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s chief of staff said on Sunday that the president-elect’s pick of lawyer David Friedman as the ambassador to Israel was not an indication that he rejects the notion of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian […]00:13

his body was a playground for the nazi elite - Hopeless Afghan struggle to save boy sex slaves Anuj Chopra, AFP, Dec 19 2016 Quivering with quiet rage, Shirin holds a photo of his teenage brother-in-law, who now lives as the plaything of policemen, just one victim of a hidden epidemic of kidnappings of young boys for institutionalised sexual slavery in Afghanistan. Shirin is among […]19 Dec

buchanan - The Real Saboteurs of a Trump Foreign Policy Patrick Buchanan, Dec 20 2016 The never-Trumpers are never going to surrender the myth that Putin ordered the hacking of DNC + Podesta to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. Their investment in the myth is just too huge. For Clinton and her campaign, it is […]19 Dec

just another CIA ‘loose cannon’ - Putin says Turkey ambassador murder is ploy to wreck Syrian peace process Andrew Osborn, Reuters, Dec 19 2016 MOSCOW – Pres Putin said on Monday that the killing of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey was a despicable provocation aimed at spoiling Russia-Turkey ties and derailing Moscow’s attempts to find, with Iran and Turkey, a solution for […]19 Dec

puzzle: pozner writes the blacklist his hater is prohibited from visiting? - Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Sandy Hook Parent Death Threat Curt Anderson, AP, Dec 19 2016 A Florida woman accused of threatening the parent of a boy killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting because she thought it was a hoax pleaded not guilty Monday and was barred from visiting websites that promote such false […]19 Dec

undoubtedly jackass has scored a perfect agreement, marred only by the russians - Russia Set to Block UN From Monitoring Aleppo Evacuation Somini Sangupta, NYT, Dec 18 2016 UNITED NATIONS — Russia said on Sunday morning that it would block an effort to deploy UN observers in Syria to witness the evacuation of thousands of men, women and children from eastern Aleppo, or what Ban Ki-moon has described as “a synonym […]19 Dec

those captured multinationals were real?? - UN to Send Monitors to Aleppo Farnas Fassihi, Noam Raydan, WSJ, Dec 19 2016 The UN prepared on Monday to dispatch monitors to supervise the evacuation of besieged neighborhoods in Aleppo, after a unanimous decision that marked rare international consensus on a response to the Syrian conflict. The UNSCR calls for sending observers who will […]19 Dec

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

Male bumblebees leave home without looking back - Male bumblebees leave home and fly away without looking back, making no effort to remember the location of the nest, researchers have found. 07:51

El Niño fueled Zika outbreak, new study suggests - A change in weather patterns, brought on by the 'Godzilla' El Niño of 2015, fueled the Zika outbreak in South America, researchers report. 19 Dec

Researchers estimate 10,000 metric tons of plastic enter Great Lakes every year - A new study that inventories and tracks high concentrations of plastic in the Great Lakes could help inform cleanup efforts and target pollution prevention. Researchers found that nearly 10,000 metric tons -- or 22 million pounds -- of plastic debris enter the Great Lakes every year from the United States and Canada. 19 Dec

Studies refute hypothesis on what caused abrupt climate change thousands of years ago - Two new studies refute the hypothesis that one or more comets/bolides struck North America approximately 12,900 years ago triggering rapid climate change and the start of the Younger Dryas period. 19 Dec

Mimicking biological movements with soft robots - Designing a soft robot to move organically -- to bend like a finger or twist like a wrist -- has always been a process of trial and error. Now, researchers have developed a method to automatically design soft actuators based on the desired movement. 19 Dec

Alzheimer's advance: Early stage study in mice show new drugs restore memory loss and prolong life - Breakthrough findings demonstrate a possible target and potential drug treatment to restore memory loss and extend life span in mice with neurodegeneration. 19 Dec

Freezing in record lows? You may doubt global warming - Researchers from Utah State University, Boston University, The George Washington University and the University of Oxford report findings from analysis of experiential basis for skepticism about climate change in the United States. 19 Dec

Newly discovered 'Casper' octopod at risk from deep-sea mining - Last spring, researchers made headlines with the discovery of what was surely a new species of octopod, crawling along the seafloor at a record-breaking ocean depth of more than 4,000 meters off of Hawaii. Now, a report reveals that these ghost-like, deep-sea octopods lay their eggs on the dead stalks of sponges attached to seafloor nodules rich in the increasingly valuable metals used in cell phones and computers. 19 Dec

Earliest evidence discovered of plants cooked in ancient pottery - Scientists have uncovered the earliest direct evidence of humans processing plants for food found anywhere in the world. Researchers studied unglazed pottery dating from more than 10,000 years ago, from two sites in the Libyan Sahara. 19 Dec

Satellites help discover a jet stream in the Earth's core - A jet stream within the Earth's molten iron core has been discovered by scientists using the latest satellite data that helps create an 'X-ray' view of the planet. 19 Dec

OpenSecrets Blog

Platinum Partners turns to brass - U.S. Attorney Robert Capers points to a chart as he details charges in an indictment against Platinum Partners hedge fund chief investment officer Mark Nordlicht and six others in a $1 billion fraud case, Monday Dec. 19, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Uh-oh. Bernie Madoff all over again? That’s what federal prosecutors are alleging in the case of Platinum Partners, a hedge fund that operated “like a Ponzi scheme,” according to a 48-page indictment released today by the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Eastern District of New York. The document charges seven men, including Platinum’s founder and its president, with running a multiyear fraud, even though the firm purported to have one of the best records in the industry, for years claiming double-digit returns for its investors. The strong returns it claimed drew in new investors. In reality, the firm’s executives overvalued its investments, such as a now-bankrupt oil and gas company, Black Elk Energy, according to the indictment. Platinum illegally drew on the assets of Black Elk and other companies, the indictment says, to cover a liquidity crisis; it also paid some investors back ahead of others. Unlike some in the hedge fund industry, the executives of Platinum weren’t major players in the political arena. But they weren’t pikers, either, giving (with their spouses and individuals connected to companies they controlled) a total of about $167,000 since the 2008 election cycle. The firm’s cofounder, Murray Huberfeld — who was arrested earlier this year by the feds, allegedly for trying to bribe a union leader to funnel $20 million in pension money to Platinum — gave the most, $35,400 with his wife; almost all of it went to GOP congressional candidates. Platinum founder Mark Nordlicht and his wife gave $31,600. The firm’s favorite candidate over the years? Josh Mandel, who ran in 2012 to unseat incumbent Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. He received $30,000 from Platinum’s executives, almost all of it given in December 2011. Highly unlikely that Mandel, who has announced he will run for Senate again in 2018, will be able to make a return trip to this particular set of donors. Should he scratch the surface of the hedge fund industry, though, he’ll find plenty of substitutes. Executives at Renaissance Technologies alone gave nearly $52 million in the 2015-2016 cycle alone, with Robert Mercer giving to Republican candidates and outside spending groups and James Simons giving to Democratic ones. Paul Singer’s Elliott Management came in at $26.4 million, all to the Republican side. Platinum had recently told investors it oversaw more than $1 billion in investments, a figure that was highly inflated if the government’s charges are true. But Huberfeld and Nordlicht appeared to know the gig was up a year ago: According to the indictment, in December 2015 the two discussed fleeing to Israel. “Assume we are not coming back to ny…Take passport,” Huberfeld emailed Nordlicht. The post Platinum Partners turns to brass appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog.19 Dec

Zinke’s nomination could bring questions about super PAC ties - GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana at Trump Tower this week.(Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones / Pool via CNP /MediaPunch/IPX) After much speculation about which oilman or pro-development donor would get the nod to run the Interior Department, multiple news sources have reported President-elect Donald Trump has picked Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke (R). Having been a U.S. Navy SEAL from 1986 to 2008 and a Montana state senator from 2009 to 2011, Zinke is a relative newcomer to the Washington political sphere. But the freshman representative — who secured his second term last month — has already collected over $10.5 million in campaign contributions in his short federal career. Besides retired people, who have given him about one-tenth of his total, Zinke has received strong support from ideologically-driven conservative PACs and congressional leadership PACs, which have donated roughly $764,000 and $271,000 each. A member of the House Natural Resources Committee and the Armed Services Committee, the Montana Republican has received at least $345,000 from the oil and gas industry over the years. Fracking giant Oasis Petroleum is his second-biggest donor ($46,800), following Fidelity National Financial and Fidelity National Information Services, which together have given about $179,000. Oasis Petroleum, which owns a North Dakota well that leaked more than 67,000 gallons of crude oil last year and another that blew out and killed two workers in 2011, has been a major donor for a number of pro-industry lawmakers, including North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer (R). A key energy adviser to team Trump, Cramer has been a strong supporter of the hotly-contested Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline. He donated $1,000 to Zinke’s campaign in late October. Little surprise, then, that Zinke seems to be in line with Trump and Trump’s other nominees in being friendly to fossil fuel development. He’s been a particularly outspoken advocate of the fourth phase of the Keystone Pipeline project, expected to carry American oil through Montana and North Dakota but halted by President Obama. And unfortunately for environmentalists and other protesters celebrating the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ recent decision to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline‘s construction while other routes are explored, an Interior Department lead by Zinke could play a big role in resurrecting both projects. A very friendly super PAC Zinke has also received campaign support from a super PAC, Special Operations for America, which spent $192,538 helping him get elected in 2014. And therein may lie a sticky situation: The super PAC was founded by Zinke in 2012. That year, the group spent $7,000 advertising against Obama but wrote checks totaling four times that amount — $28,258 — to Zinke’s own company, Continental Divide International, for “fundraising consulting.” Then, on Nov. 20, 2013, the super PAC started making independent expenditures supporting its founder’s campaign. Zinke’s financial disclosure report from 2014 shows he had resigned as the chairman on Oct. 1, 2013.Campaign Legal Center Associate Counsel said. What’s problematic is that Zinke’s 2015 financial disclosure report, covering the 2014 calendar year, still listed him as chairman of the super PAC. “Super PACs are supposed to be independent from the campaign, and this is just not by any measure independent,” said Brendan Fischer, associate counsel at the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center. Neither Zinke nor representatives of Special Operations for America could be reached by the time of publication. CLC filed a complaint with the FEC about possible coordination between the super PAC and Zinke’s campaign in connection with photos used in the super PAC’s pro-Zinke ads, but the FEC hasn’t taken any action on the matter yet. “What’s interesting about the Zinke and SOFA arrangement was the Zinke founded the group, raised money for the group, spent some money, resigned, hired his successor — the fundraiser for the group — and then announced his candidacy,” Fischer said. This cycle, the super PAC spent only about $192,000 on independent expenditures, including $524 in support of Zinke. Instead, it spent the majority of its funds — over $1 million — on printing and shipping, paying about $926,000 to a vendor called Consolidated Mailing Services and $216,000 to another, Direct Support Services. Another big client of Direct Support Services this election was Zinke’s leadership PAC, Supporting Electing American Leaders (SEAL). The PAC had a very successful election cycle, raising a total of $3 million, most notably from retired individuals and oil and gas industry donors. But only about $88,000 of the $2.6 million the committee spent this cycle actually went to federal and state candidates, including Cramer, and party committees. Several checks ranging from $1,000 to $70,000 — a total of $736,000 — went to Direct Support Services over the past two years. Overall, the PAC instead spent the bulk of its resources — about $740,000 — on soliciting and fundraising. Zinke’s campaign also paid about $547,000 to Direct Support Services this cycle. Zinke, a former board member and a current stock owner of a Santa Barbara-based oil company QS Energy (formerly known as Save the World Air), has also been involved in a kerfuffle over whether he’s actually a resident of Montana. The Whitefish address he lists as his residence on FEC forms was approved for use as a bed and breakfast, according to a Montana blog, and neither he nor his wife own property in their names in the state — although Zinke’s company, Continental Divide International, does. And his wife has identified herself as a Californian, which is in fact where she’s from and where she still spends significant time. Zinke has denied allegations that he resides anywhere but Montana. The post Zinke’s nomination could bring questions about super PAC ties appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog.14 Dec

How Trump could really ‘drain the swamp’ - This op-ed appeared first on CNN.com. President-elect Donald Trump in the lobby of Trump Tower. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) In his 2008 campaign, presidential candidate Barack Obama found that fiery speeches about the damaging role of special interest influence, lobbyists and the need to “change the culture in Washington” were enormously popular on the campaign trail. More recently, President-elect Donald Trump was even more successful in employing even more sweeping assurances about, as he put it, “draining the swamp.” If only it were so easy. Unfortunately, governing is different from making promises on the campaign trail. As Obama and others have found, these particular problems are deeply entrenched. And this time, the distance between the candidate’s promises and his actions post-election is looking more like a chasm. The shock and concern about Trump’s break with decades of US foreign policy to speak with Taiwan’s President was compounded by the revelation that it resulted from six months and $140,000 worth of behind-the-scenes work by former Sen. Bob Dole… Read the rest at CNN Digital The post How Trump could really ‘drain the swamp’ appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog.14 Dec

Pro-Tillis nonprofit goes dark after Tillis victory, but keeps paying former president - When it comes to politically active nonprofits, there are those that bend the rules, and there are those that seem to flout them entirely. One group, above all, is a member of the latter set: a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization called Carolina Rising. And its most recent tax filing, obtained by OpenSecrets Blog, only heightens concerns that the group was using nonprofit status as a vehicle for political spending in 2014, using funds given by secret donors. Dallas Woodhouse, wearing a “Thom Tillis” hat at the candidate’s victory party and talking to WNCN. The new document shows that Carolina Rising, which raised and spent about $4.8 million in 2014 — nearly all in support of Thom Tillis’ (R-N.C.) successful bid to unseat incumbent Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan — raised just $50,000 from a single anonymous donor in 2015, its second year in existence. The remainder of its $67,640 in revenue came from “policy program” revenue coded as “advertising, public relations, and related services.” Its expenditures dropped precipitously, too, to just $134,542. Most of that — nearly 74 percent — went to a firm set up by the group’s original president, Dallas Woodhouse, just weeks before the nonprofit itself was founded. Woodhouse has moved on to become the executive director of the N.C. Republican Party. The feast-to-famine nature of Carolina Rising’s finances between election years and off-years is a hallmark of nonprofit groups that don’t have a genuine social welfare function to offset their political activities. But what makes this group unique is the fact that it has spent the vast majority of its money, nearly 98 percent, on just two things: Ads for a single candidate in a single race and payments to firm owned by its founder, raising broader questions about whether the group is violating the law by providing excessive private benefit not only to Tillis — by running ads on his behalf — but also to Woodhouse. Stealth Political Committee and Cash Cow Woodhouse, a N.C. political insider and former head of the state chapter of the Koch-affiliated Americans for Prosperity, Dallas Woodhouse, filed documents with the Secretary of State’s office in Raleigh in March 2014 to form two organizations. The first was a limited liability corporation called Solutions NC. A few weeks later, Woodhouse formed Carolina Rising. By August, the new nonprofit had begun a weeks–long pro-Tillis spending binge that would ultimately top out at $4.7 million, helping usher him to victory against incumbent Kay Hagan and flip the Senate to Republican control.  In addition, though, the nonprofit wound up paying Solutions NC, Woodhouse’s firm, $72,000 for “management services“; that may well have been Woodhouse’s cut for running the group, as he didn’t draw a salary. In all, over 98 percent of the group’s spending in its first year would go towards paying Crossroads Media for the pro-Tillis ads or paying Woodhouse’s firm. And the new filings show that the Solutions NC payments continued, and even grew, in 2015, despite the fact that Carolina Rising revenues dropped to just $67,640. Using a combination of 2015 revenue and leftover cash from 2014, Solutions NC was paid an additional $99,000 for “management services.” In September 2015, Woodhouse moved on to become the executive director of the North Carolina GOP, but not before his firm collected more than $171,000 over two years from Carolina Rising, making it the largest recipient of that group’s money aside from Crossroads Media. Whatever the payments were for, there is little to show for it. The group’s social media presence on Facebook and Twitter mostly consists of third-party articles talking up GOP Gov. Pat McCrory’s agenda and inspirational Ronald Reagan quotes. (McCrory was just defeated in this year’s election.) The same goes for its website, which hasn’t been updated since June 2015. No Carolina Rising representatives responded to requests for examples of other programs, reports, or materials the group created after the 2014 midterms. When contacted about the nature of the Carolina Rising payments to his firm, Woodhouse’s only response was an email reading “do not contact me again.” Carolina Rising’s new president, Betsy Wilson, did not respond to calls or emails for comment. Wilson doesn’t have much of a trail, but her name does appear on a flyer for a fundraising cocktail party benefiting a 527 political committee called Real Jobs NC in October 2016. Tillis was a guest of honor at the event. Real Jobs is linked to NC political heavyweight Art Pope, who sits on the board of a foundation named after his father, the John William Pope Foundation. A Betsy Wilson is listed on the Pope group’s website as being in charge of receiving grant applications. Calls to the Foundation were not returned. The larger questions Last November, the Federal Election Commission deadlocked along party lines on going forward with an investigation of whether Carolina Rising was operating as political organization. That’s despite the fact that Woodhouse appeared on live TV from the floor of the Tillis victory party on election night, saying “$4.7 million, we did it.” It’s true, we never get tired of mentioning that incident, as there are few facts that seem so directly to unmask a political committee trying to disguise itself as a 501(c) nonprofit. Social welfare organizations like Carolina Rising are not supposed to have politics as their primary purpose, and as a result they can keep their donors’ names secret. But the reality is they can and frequently do spend large amounts on politics and find other ways to justify the rest of their activity to the IRS. Rarely does a group so brazenly spend so much of its money on a single candidate in a single race, though, and then get caught copping to it on live TV. And IRS rules prohibit a nonprofit from providing excessive benefit, financially or operationally, to any specific group of people (like a political party) or individual (like a single candidate for office or a firm owned by the group’s founder). Carolina Rising did both, and with the FEC already showing that it is unable to pursue what may be one of the most clear-cut cases of a nonprofit being used to channel anonymous political money into an election, the responsibility for oversight now rests with the IRS, which can revoke the group’s tax-exempt status. The watchdog group CREW has already filed a formal complaint with the IRS about Carolina Rising’s activities in 2014. Still, even if the IRS disciplines Carolina Rising, it might be a win for the rule of law, but the public would still be in the dark. That’s because when a nonprofit’s status is yanked, and the group has to pay taxes on its income, the decision is not made public in a way that allows identification of the group in question, meaning that it won’t be obvious to the public, or to the FEC, that the group was deemed too political for exempt status. What if the IRS acted and the FEC happened to catch wind of it and demand Carolina Rising disclose its donors? Even that wouldn’t peel back much of the onion. As we’ve written, the group’s largest donor is another social welfare organization that doesn’t disclose its donors, Crossroads GPS — meaning the wealthy backers who helped Tillis win in 2014 very likely won’t become known to the voters of North Carolina, even retrospectively. The post Pro-Tillis nonprofit goes dark after Tillis victory, but keeps paying former president appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog.14 Dec

Rick Perry, with multiple ties to CEO of controversial pipeline project, tapped for Energy Dept. - Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, at Trump Tower this week, is on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, and its CEO was the biggest funder of his 2016 presidential bid.(Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones / Pool via CNP /MediaPunch/IPX) The Dakota Access Pipeline protesters just got a new reason to keep their Standing Rock encampment intact: former Texas governor and two-time presidential candidate Rick Perry, tapped today by President-elect Donald Trump to head his Energy Department. Never mind that Perry — who now becomes the second of Trump’s competitors named to his Cabinet (Ben Carson is slotted for Housing and Urban Development) — previously wanted to scrap the agency altogether. Now the department will be helmed by a man whose biggest fan — as measured by donations supporting Perry’s presidential bids — is Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the controversial pipeline. Warren gave super PACs supporting Perry’s presidential bid $6 million last year, though he got nearly $4 million of it back after Perry dropped out. And beyond that, Perry is on the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners — a position he would have to relinquish, in all probability, if he’s to become secretary. Earlier this month, the Army Corps of Engineers, in response to the protests in North Dakota, said it would explore alternate routes for the pipeline segment at issue, but the demonstrators on site fear the Trump administration will reverse that decision. Perry raised just $1.4 million for his 2016 campaign, a fraction of what he brought in four years earlier. But his super PAC, Opportunity and Freedom PAC, brought in almost 10 times that much. Besides Warren, the most generous donors included rancher Julianna Holt and her husband, Peter Holt, CEO of Holt Companies, the largest U.S. Caterpillar dealership ($500,000). The Holts are more than just donors, though: According to a financial disclosure form Perry filed last year, the candidate had a $250,000 consulting gig with Holt. Warren and Darwin Deason of Deason Capital Services (whose son, Doug, is a big player in the Koch network) each donated $5 million to a second super PAC, creatively named Opportunity and Freedom I, but were reimbursed most of the funds in late August. The group didn’t report any independent expenditures, refunding $8.8 million and transferring the additional $1 million to the first Opportunity and Freedom PAC. Top Household Donors to Rick Perry, 1998-2016Data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, OpenSecrets Mostly thanks to these large donations, the oil & gas ($1.6 million) industry led the way in giving to Perry’s campaign committee and super PACs combined. And that’s a pattern that’s been in place pretty much throughout Perry’s political career; renewable energy advocates aren’t likely to find much interest in their projects at the top of DOE’s organizational chart for a while, assuming Perry is confirmed by the Senate. The miscellaneous finance ($480,000) and livestock ($376,000) industries were a distant second and third. Perry played a far better fundraising game in 2012, collecting $19.7 million for his campaign, almost all from donations of $200 or more. Oil & gas was No. 1 for him in that cycle ($1 million) after retired folks ($1.1 million); real estate professionals pulled in third ($926 million). His campaign’s top donors came from Ryan LLC, Murray Energy and the United States Automobile Association. Data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, OpenSecrets His biggest outside backer, Make Us Great Again (sound familiar?), spent almost $4 million trying to get Perry to the White House, with large donations coming from Dallas-based Contran Corp., formerly headed by now-deceased GOP funder Harold Simmons ($1 million); Kelcy Warren and Darwin Deason again ($250,000 each); and trial lawyer Tony Buzbee (also $250,000), who became Perry’s general counsel two years later when a grand jury indicted him on two felony counts, later dismissed. (The Travis County grand jury charged him with “abuse of official capacity” for threatening to veto $7.5 million in funds for a public corruption department, and “coercion of a public servant” for pushing for the resignation of a district attorney after she was convicted of drunk driving.) Data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics and OpenSecrets. Perry’s first presidential run came while he was still governor of Texas, a slot he occupied from 2000 to 2015, making him the longest-serving chief executive of that state. Voters elected Perry to three full terms: He raised $24.7 million in 2002, $30.4 million in 2006 and $49 million in 2010, according to data from the National Institute on Money In State Politics. In his last state election in 2010, he received $5.9 million from — guess who? — oil & gas interests, $3.8 million from lawyers and lobbyists and $3 million from conservative policy organizations. (These industries top the list of his previous elections as well, including his successful 1998 run for lieutenant governor, where he raised $12.3 million. He became governor in late 2000 when George W. Bush was elected president.) Perry’s personal holdings also reflect his comfort level with the fossil fuel industry. The financial disclosure form he filed in July 2015 indicated that his wife owned up to $15,000 in Energy Transfer stock, along with the same amount of another pipeline company and of Sunoco Logistics, the future operator of the pipeline being protested at Standing Rock. (According to Reuters, Sunoco Logistics outdoes all its competitors in spilled crude.) Perry himself has stock in QR Energy, Gray Rock Energy and other companies in the oil and gas industry. The post Rick Perry, with multiple ties to CEO of controversial pipeline project, tapped for Energy Dept. appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog.13 Dec

Challengers who bested incumbents reaped $70,000 in post-election funds - Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska snagged the most donations after Nov. 8 among incoming freshmen who beat out incumbents, with almost $25,000. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) The 2016 election is over. Ballots have been cast, and (most) federal candidates know the outcome of their hard-fought races. Yet company PACs and even individuals are still writing checks to candidates’ campaign committees, even though the campaigns they’re funding are done. “Giving after the election clearly shows the donation is not given to support the election of a specific candidate based on shared ideology or to see robust democracy, but to endear themselves to the particular candidate,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen. Running a federal campaign is an expensive business, to say the least. Candidates can end the political season hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars in debt. There were 145 winners with campaign debt as of mid-October, with a total $26.5 million to pay off between them. That’s an average of $182,766, stretching from Paul Mitchell‘s (R-Mich.) more than $3.1 million to California Democrat Grace Napolitano’s $126 outstanding. Senate races, on balance, are more expensive, and the eight Senate winners with debt owed an average of $219,270. Needless to say, helping balance a candidate’s checkbook might get a PAC or other donor off to a good start with an incoming lawmaker. While there are similar numbers of Republican and Democratic candidates on the list – 79 and 66, respectively – the partisan divide is striking. GOP candidates account for almost $18.7 million of the total debt, or an average of $236,343, almost exactly double the average $118,635 Dems owe. Since our pool of candidates with debt is so large, let’s look just at newbies who beat out veteran lawmakers. Incumbents lost their seats in 18 races; post-election reports, due Dec. 8, haven’t shown up on the FEC’s site for three of them. The 15 we were able to look at reaped reaped almost $71,000 in donations after Nov. 8. Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska pulled in the most post-election dough with almost $25,000, almost five times the average $4,700 haul. As of late November, Bacon held $40,000 in debt and had about $37,000 cash on hand. Bacon’s biggest post-election contribution came from the Kutak Rock PAC, which wrote a $5,000 check on Nov. 11. But the Nebraska-based firm’s loyalty hasn’t always been for the Republican; earlier in the election cycle, the PAC wrote several checks totaling $4,500 to Bacon’s Democratic counterpart, Rep. Brad Ashford. Chris Hawkins of the Hawkins Construction Company (also a Nebraska native), who had kept quiet throughout the cycle, also sent $2,000 to Bacon only after the election. Other post-election donors to Bacon’s campaign include Texas Republicans United PAC ($1,500), Tucker Bridwell of the Texas oil giant Concho Resources ($1,000), politically active K&L Gates PAC ($1,000) and National Association of Federal Credit Unions PAC ($1,000). Post-election donations to freshmen who defeated incumbents**FEC data through Nov. 28 So who are some of the PACs we saw giving to these winners and other politicians? The American Society of Anesthesiologists PAC gave $5,000 each to two incoming Democrat freshman who bested incumbents, incoming Rep. Charlie Crist in Florida and soon-to-be Sen. Tammy Duckworth in Illinois, as well as $2,500 to Nanette Barragan, a Democrat in California. The reports labeled these post-election checks as “2016 general election debt.” The anesthesiologists’ PAC is pretty active, having contributed more than $1.35 million to federal candidates in the 2016 cycle. Of that total, $31,000 went to members of the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, including ranking member Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The PAC also gave $37,500 to House Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions subcommittee members, contributing $17,500 to Rep. Joe Heck’s unsuccessful Nevada Senate campaign. (That’s above the $10,000 limit, so presumably refunds will be made.) ASAPAC also maintains a list of physicians in Congress, to which the PAC gave $100,500 in 2016. The National Shooting Sports Foundation also tagged $12,000 worth of post-election donations as “debt retirement;” all of them went to Republican winners of their races. The firearms industry trade association made $328,000 in contributions to members of Congress as of Oct. 19, 94 percent of whom were Republicans. The group spends more of its political money on lobbying, at almost $2.5 million in 2016 to date, down from more than $3.5 million spent last year. Unsurprisingly, the NSSF focuses on gun rights and firearms manufacturing issues in Washington and enlisted eight lobbyists for its efforts this year, including former Rep. Max Sandlin (D-Texas). National Shooting Sports Foundation Debt Retirement Donations**FEC data through Nov. 28 We also looked at the top PACs that gave to candidates this cycle as of Oct 19. No. 1 on the list, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, donated $22,500 to six candidates on Nov. 28. They included Duckworth; Crist; , who is in a runoff election on Saturday; Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.); Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.); and the leadership PAC of Steve Stivers (R-Ohio.) The runners-up, the National Association of Realtors and AT&T focused their post-Nov. 8 donations on Louisiana, where the Senate runoff election takes place Saturday. NAR gave $5,000 each to Kennedy and Mike Johnson, another Republican who lost in the primary, while the number three AT&T played it safe by giving $5,000 to both candidates in the runoff, Republican John Kennedy and Democrat Foster Campbell. The Beer Wholesalers also gave to Kennedy. “You will probably find that donations after Election Day aren’t partisan,” Holman said. “Really the emphasis is winners versus losers, or businesses or individuals that may have pending matters before the government.” Of course, some of the debt-ridden candidates are also in hock to themselves. For instance, Rep.-elect Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), a former ambassador to the Vatican, gave more than $4.1 million to his campaign, $450,000 of which came through loans. Those kinds of liabilities need not linger: Candidates can forgive personal loans that they have made to their campaigns, blurring the boundaries between gift and debt. But some need, or prefer, to be repaid. Something to keep in mind: There is potential for inaccuracies in our numbers, as we included all donations from candidate committee reports listed on Nov. 9 and after. OpenSecrets Blog spoke with two donors, a leadership PAC and an individual, that said they contributed earlier in the cycle, although FEC records showed them giving well after the election. For instance, Don Bacon’s post-general report shows Rep. Mike Conaway’s leadership PAC donated $1,000 on Nov. 21. But the committee’s treasurer, Bill Bain, said CONA PAC’s check to Bacon’s committee was actually written on Aug. 17, more than three months earlier. And Nina Ahmad, deputy mayor for public engagement of Philadelphia, said she wrote her $2,700 check to Democrat Dwight Evans on Nov. 2, although the campaign listed it as arriving Nov. 17. Senior researcher Doug Weber contributed to this report. The post Challengers who bested incumbents reaped $70,000 in post-election funds appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog. 9 Dec

Could campaign finance overhaul help solve congressional gridlock? - Vice President Joe Biden said big money in politics is “corrupting.” (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Should we restrict political contributions? How have weakened political parties impacted this election? Can public financing work? President-elect Donald Trump pledged to “drain the swamp,” yet has not proposed changes to the campaign finance system. So experts in the field with various viewpoints ran through scenarios at a forum organized by New York University and law firm Sidley Austin on Thursday. Vice President Joe Biden headlined the event, breezing by the subject except to call “the role of big money” in our system “corrupting,” and saying, “If you want to change overnight the way of the electoral process in America, have public financing.” Experts argued about what form that corruption — if it exists — takes, with some disputing Biden’s suggested cure. David Keating, president of the conservative Center for Competitive Politics, maintained there is no evidence stricter contribution limits affect the amount of corruption in politics. Others framed the issue differently, saying that politicians will be more likely to listen to policy advice from their biggest supporters. “The concern is one about rising inequality that comes from the greatest wealth transforming economic power into political power,” said Richard Hasen, a professor at the University of California at Irvine who runs a well-respected campaign finance blog. Getting money out of the system or silencing voices isn’t necessarily the answer, added David Donnelly, president and CEO of the group Every Voice. Advocates should instead try to incentivize small donors through public matching programs or vouchers, he said, or a set amount of money from the government given to the public for them to use for political donations.  Former Republican National Committee general counsel Benjamin Ginsberg called that idea “food stamps for politicians,” while NYU law professor Samuel Issacharoff said that even though public financing may work on the state and local level, it doesn’t scale to federal races. Hasen suggested vouchers be given to citizens to route first through political parties, in order to strengthen the institutions that have lost power with coordination rules and limits on party spending. The diminishing of the Democratic and Republican parties led outside groups to fill the void, panelists said, with their ability to spend unlimited amounts of money and take charge of the messaging. This shift in power could help explain the “rise in extremism,” because messages aren’t being filtered through a consistent institution. “Candidates have agendas set by outside groups,” Ginsberg said. “It’s a messy nonsensical system if the goal is to have members who get elected pay some degree of adherence to party principles as opposed to special party interests.” And that may have contributed to the stagnation in Congress. “The parties are weaker so their coordination function is diminished, which makes them unable to deliver [policy] like when they could cut deals,” Issacharoff said. “If you diminish the fuel for central mediating, money will simply reinforce what we have.” However, Hasen predicted the new Supreme Court will further loosen campaign finance restrictions, with limits on contributions to parties the next to go. Perhaps instead of limits, the focus should be on accountability and knowing who the big players are, he and others suggested. “If you give $10 million directly and it is transparent, then at least there’s an accountability for taking that $10 million,” Issacharoff said. “If you launder it through an LLC that goes through a super PAC, there’s no identification of the institutional backing of the money, and there’s no apparent accountability. We’re probably in the worst of all worlds right now.” On the note of transparency: John J. Kuster, a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, which sponsored the panel, boasted about the number of former public officials who have joined their ranks. (We have 61 Sidley employees in our Revolving Door database.) Contributions from employees and PAC of the global law firm (of which President Obama and the First Lady are alums) typically trend blue; about 75 percent of the $1.1 million they donated this year went to Democratic candidates of committees. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton benefited from the largest chunk, $370,000. The firm’s lobbying arm earned $3.7 million in the first three quarters of 2016, the largest client being biotechnology company Intrexon, which paid the firm $1.2 million through Sept. 30. The post Could campaign finance overhaul help solve congressional gridlock? appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog. 8 Dec

Pipelines of funds support allies of Dakota Access project - A winter storm hit the Standing Rock protestors the day after the Army Corps of Engineers denied the easement needed to build the pipeline. The pipeline has been boosted by politicians who have been heavily funded by the oil and gas industry. (Photo by Michael Nigro / Pacific Press) (Sipa via AP Images) When the Army Corp of Engineers announced Sunday it would block construction of an essential part of the Dakota Access Pipeline Project and study alternative routes, thousands of protestors at the site — members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, environmentalists, veterans and others — joined hands in jubilation. Concern about potential damage to the tribe’s sacred lands and leaks that could poison the water supply led to the outcry; a semi-permanent encampment of RVs, teepees and tents sprang up in recent months as the ranks of the objectors grew. But they’re not breaking camp just yet. The forces behind the $3.8 billion pipeline, which is expected to carry Bakken Shale oil from northwest North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to connect to an oil reserve in Illinois, have a lot of sway with President-elect Donald Trump, who could order the Corps to reverse course, and those around him. Trump indicated his support for the pipeline, including the segment that has triggered the controversy, on Monday. North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D), who has been mentioned as a possible Interior secretary under Trump, has avoided taking a position of the pipeline per se, but encouraged the protestors to go home: “When you look at it, we know one thing for sure: When the administration changes, the easement is going to be approved,” Heitkamp said Monday. “I understand the frustration of the protesters, I just think that this fight is not winnable.” A member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Heitkamp and her leadership PAC have raised $8.7 million since 2011, with $277,879 from the oil and gas industry. That includes $1,500 from the political action committee of Energy Transfer Partners, which owns Dakota Access, LLC, the key player in the project. Fellow North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven (R), who recently came out supporting the pipeline, also received $5,000 from the PAC during his re-election campaign this cycle. With seats on the Energy and Natural Resources and Indian Affairs committees, Hoeven’s single biggest financial supporter throughout his senatorial career has been the oil and gas industry, which has given his campaign $673,030 since 2011. In total, Energy Transfer Partners’ PAC donated $128,000 to federal candidates this in the 2016 cycle. Trump’s interest in the pipeline has been more than just tangential: His 2015 financial disclosure report showed he owned Energy Transfer Partners stock valued at between $500,000 and $1 million. Trump’s latest financial report, filed in May 2016, shows he reduced his investment to somewhere between $15,000 and $50,000, but also revealed an investment in Phillips 66 of between $100,000 and $250,000. Phillips 66 owns about 25 percent of the pipeline, making it the biggest partner in the project after ETP. Trump sold all his shares in companies in June, including the investment in ETP, according to his spokesperson, though no documentary evidence of that has been shared. Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren showed his strong support for Trump in late June by donating $100,000 to his joint fundraising committee, $3,000 of which went straight to his campaign. Like many big donors this cycle, Warren flirted with other presidential prospects first, most notably former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The pro-Perry super PAC Opportunity & Freedom I got a $5 million donation from Warren soon after Perry announced his bid last year — but Warren received a refund after Perry dropped out of the race a few months later. Perry, it turns out, is on the board of Energy Transfer Partners. National Republican party committees also received $203,400 from Warren this election cycle. At the state level, Warren donated $250,000 to Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) in this election cycle and $10,400 to Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, who oversees public utilities in the state. Angelle, the onetime head of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, is a board member of Sunoco Logistics Partners, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer and one of the smaller owners of the pipeline project. Angelle faces a run-off election for Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District seat on Saturday, and his single biggest supporter has been the oil and gas industry, which has contributed $103,150 so far. Warren doesn’t skimp: He has donated over $2.4 million to candidates, parties and committees at the federal level since 2007 and $1.7 million at the state and local level in the last decade. Energetic support Heitkamp is only the latest addition to the list of oil executives and pro-development politicians being considered to run the Interior Department, overseeing the nation’s wildlife and natural resources. Trump’s key energy advisor and Continental Resources CEO Harold G. Hamm, in particular, has been the mastermind of the energy policies of the president-elect. Hamm and his wife Sue Ann Hamm have donated nearly $1.9 million to federal candidates and committees over the years. This election cycle, individuals (including the chief executive) and the political action committee of Continental Resources donated $15,226 to Trump as well as $10,300 and $10,200 to Heitkamp and Hoeven, respectively. The oil billionaire who was at the forefront of the fracking boom in North Dakota was also considered a leading contender for the top job at the Department of Energy, but recently denied any plans to join Trump’s cabinet. In a Wall Street Journal column published Monday, another key energy adviser to the Trump campaign, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) — who also received $7,400 from Continental Resources this year — censured the protesters. He, too, counts the energy and natural resources sector as his biggest source of financial support, especially the oil and gas industry: The sector has given his campaign and his leadership PAC $932,925 throughout his congressional career, including his unsuccessful 1996 campaign. Oasis Petroleum, whose well leaked more than 67,000 gallons of crude oil last year, endangering a tributary around the Missouri River, topped Cramer’s donors, giving $68,500. North Dakota-based Armstrong Corp and Koch Industries also have given Kramer $32,800 and $33,000, respectively. While members of Congress have voiced their views on the high-profile project, the permitting process has mostly been in the purview of the states. Both the Iowa Utility Board and the North Dakota Public Service Commission have been key here. Unlike IUB members, who were all appointed by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, the three North Dakota public service commissioners — Julie Fedorchak, Randy Christmann and Brian Kalk — were elected to their six-year terms and boasted strong financial support from the energy and natural resources sector. Combined, they brought in a total of $117,550 from those interests. The North Dakota Petroleum Council forked over a total of $15,900 to the three. Hamm, of Continental Resources, gave them $1,000 each. And energy and natural resources donors have been crucial to Branstad, too, accounting for over $1 million out of $1.8 million total contributions to the governor since 2010. Unfortunately for protesters, the Dakota Access Pipeline is not the only pipeline plan that could be revived by the new administration. Cramer — formerly a North Dakota Public Service Commissioner who helped approve the original Keystone Pipeline in 2010 — has been a leading voice in reviving the fourth phase of the Keystone project, which would add North Dakota and Montana to its route. Called the Keystone XL, the pipeline proposal was a top election issue in 2014. The Obama administration rejected it last year, but Trump says he backs it to free America from dependence on foreign oil. Beneficiaries of the pipeline would be American oil moguls operating in the region, like Hamm and the Koch brothers. Keystone XL’s biggest owner, TransCanada, appears to be stepping up its political game. Contributions from the company’s employees and PAC jumped from $4,600 in the 2014 cycle to $243,226 this time around. Ohio Gov. John Kasich received $11,000, while Cramer and Trump received $5,000 and $4,136 each. Even Hillary Clinton, who publicly opposed the extended pipeline, received contributions totaling $1,639. The post Pipelines of funds support allies of Dakota Access project appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog. 8 Dec

Female candidates poorly funded by PACs, donors, and major parties - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 7, 2016 FOR INFORMATION, CONTACT: Michelle C. Whittaker, Director of Communications, Representation2020 (301) 270-1238 / (301) 270-4616 / mwhittaker@fairvote.org Brendan Quinn, Outreach Coordinator, Center for Responsive Politics (202) 857-0044 / press@crp.org David Vance, Common Cause (202) 736-5712 / dvance@commoncause.org Female Candidates Have Greatest Success in Open Seat Elections But Poorly Funded by PACs, Donors, and Major Parties Washington, DC — Representation2020, Common Cause and the Center for Responsive Politics have released a new report revealing the systemic disparity in funding for female candidates by PACs, individual donors and major parties. Women are underfunded to run for open seats despite that they are more likely to win open seat races than those in which they challenge an incumbent. In addition, Republican women are likely to face additional barriers and increased opposition funding. Despite high-profile wins in several states, women continue to occupy fewer than 20% of the 535 seats in Congress. The report highlights several deficits in funding, particularly for Republican women and women of color who are running for office. In 2014, only 13% of total donations from top Republican donors went to support Republican female candidates. In the same year, candidates who were women of color received less, on average, than other female candidates from donors giving more than $200. Additionally, Republican women face more negative ads from outside spending groups than other candidates. Fully 88% of all money spent by super PACs and politically active nonprofits on ads naming Republican women was spent opposing them. “Open seats races are nearly always the place for women to make gains, and that’s exactly where women are losing out,” says Cynthia Terrell, director of Representation2020. “The best way to change an unfair system is to change the rules and incentives that govern that system; Short-term, we need big donors to give women candidates a level playing field. Longer-term, we need reforms that create more opportunities for women candidates.” PACs, including membership PACs and leadership PACs, tend to underfund women running for open seats. PACs direct around 18% of their open seat funds to women, though women account for about one-third of candidates running in open seat races. “All membership PACs, particularly those that have given less support to women candidates, should have access to this information,” says Shelia Krumholz, executive director for the Center for Responsive Politics. “This empowers PACs to make data-driven decisions that honor not just their legislative agendas, but also the values and goals of their organizations and members.” “Money follows incumbents, but even when the seats are open, money from PACs flows overwhelmingly to male candidates,” said Jenny Flanagan, Common Cause Vice President of State Operations. “Reversing this trend would give us a congress that looks more like the America it represents.” This collaborative analysis includes key recommendations for funders to help level the playing field for women candidates across the country. Recommendations include increasing funding to female candidates, setting targets for funding of female candidates, and expanding consultation with organizations that recruit and train candidates to build a stronger pool of candidates. A full report is available at www.representation2020.com/donor_pac_giving. The post Female candidates poorly funded by PACs, donors, and major parties appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog. 7 Dec

Carson’s cash: Highly conservative interests have fueled his campaign and kept food on the table - Republican Ben Carson has been tapped to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP) No (public) experience required. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson has been tapped to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, despite never holding public office in his career. (Even Carson admitted he would be a “fish out of water” as a federal bureaucrat a few weeks back.) However, since the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins did run for president, we have some data on his personal finances and the people who most wanted him in office. Here’s what we know until Carson files a more up-to-date financial statement before his confirmation hearings: Carson and his wife, Candy, brought in anywhere from $9 million to $27 million from the start of 2014 to mid-2015, mostly from speaking gigs, book royalties, stock dividends and board of directors compensation. (The candidates are required to report the values of their assets and debts only in very wide ranges.) In less than a year-and-a-half, Carson brought in almost $4.2 million from 141 speaking engagements, giving presentations to large lobbying powerhouses like the National Association of Realtors (a group that might be glad to have an in with the HUD secretary), dozens of universities (most with a religious affiliation), and even the congressional campaign of Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.). Politically active nonprofits that hired Carson to speak included groups like Wisconsin Right to Life; the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank funded mainly by a foundation linked to Art Pope, a major donor to Republican causes; and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group. As a Fox News Network contributor, he reported earning almost $500,000, and he brought in $137,000 from The Washington Times. Carson held an estimated average $9.1 million in assets in his stock portfolio, spinning off dividends ranging anywhere from $94,000 to $234,000. Almost all of his holdings were in mutual funds and similar investment vehicles that buy and sell a variety of stocks and bonds. All except two, that is. Carson served on the board of directors for Kellogg Company, where he earned $125,000 as a board member — and almost $1 million to $5 million worth of stock, which brought him between $5,000 and $15,000 in stock dividends during this period. On top of that, he sold almost $3 million worth of employee stock options. He also was on the board of Costco Wholesale Corporation, which paid him $45,000 for his trouble, $50,000 to $100,000 in dividends from his $1 million to $5 million worth of stock, and $1.3 million from employee stock options he cashed in. Beyond that, he and his wife founded the charity Carson Scholars Fund, Inc., which awards college scholarships and builds reading rooms. Carson is also currently honorary national chairman of My Faith Votes, a nonprofit that urges Christians to go to the polls. Carson also sat on the advisory boards of Massachusetts biotechnology company Berg, LLC and Maryland’s HomeCentris Healthcare, LLC, and the board of directors of the nonprofit Academy of Achievement, all without being paid. He served as chairman of the board at biotechnology company Vaccinogen, Inc. for around ten months until May 2015. He and his wife own real estate in Pittsburgh, Penn. properties valued at more than $1 million, and received anywhere from $200,000 to $2 million in rent. Candy also earned an additional $100,000 to $1 million from America the Beautiful, a book she cowrote with her husband, and a couple of thousand dollars in stock dividends. Carson the candidate was extremely popular with the senior set: Almost one sixth of the $63 million he raised for his campaign came from retired individuals. People and PACs associated with Republican/conservative ideological groups and his fellow health professionals came in second and third at $1.3 million each. Well over half, or 58 percent, of his cash came from small donations of $200 or less. Having no prior donor base to pull from, Carson assembled a massive list of first-time political supporters. Up until December, a few months before Carson dropped out, almost 75 percent of his donations came from people who hadn’t donated to other federal candidates since at least 2007, according to our data analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity. (Though he didn’t build this infrastructure all on his own; Carson met with GOP strategist Karl Rove to share contacts during the primary.) With the names of more than 700,000 backers, Carson’s mailing list could be worth millions, CPI estimated, if he rented out the database to other candidates and committees. In the months of September and October, Carson reported earning at least $670,000 from what he labeled as “list rental income.” The outside groups that backed him also cashed in. Carson’s largest super PAC, 2016 Committee, which spent $6 million on his behalf, earned at least $158,000 from renting names, according to its latest quarterly report. Of those that funded pro-Carson outside groups, retired folk led the way again with $4.3 million, with those in the livestock ($433,000) and real estate ($342,000) industries at Nos. two and three, respectively. Livestock, you wonder? That’s because a few magadonors stood out in their support of Carson: Idaho rancher and philanthropist Harry Bettis spent $256,000 on two super PACs backing him, the 2016 Committee and National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee. Rancher and San Antonio Spurs Chairman Julianna Holt pitched in almost $145,000 to supporting groups and Ronald Henriksen, chair of Logix Communications, gave more than $161,000 to efforts backing the neurosurgeon. Political nonprofits researcher Anna Massoglia contributed to this report.  The post Carson’s cash: Highly conservative interests have fueled his campaign and kept food on the table appeared first on OpenSecrets Blog. 6 Dec

News24 Technology

Fin24.com | Facebook launches Group Video Call through Messenger - First Snapchat announced that users could snap in groups in time for the festive season – now Facebook is allowing Group Video Chats through Facebook Messenger.07:57

Fin24.com | Facebook accused of misleading EU in WhatsApp takeover probe - Facebook risks a multimillion-euro fine for allegedly misleading European Union merger watchdogs when it won approval to buy the WhatsApp messaging service in 2014.06:30

Fin24.com | SA's first human-AI app aims to do what Siri can't - A South-African world-first hybrid human and artificial intelligence app is aiming to go beyond digital personal assistants answering users’ more complex questions.02:49

Fin24.com | Zuckerberg builds software butler for his home - Mark Zuckerberg's artificial intelligence-imbued software "butler" - named Jarvis - is now in service, and even plays with his family, the Facebook chief said.02:00

Fin24.com | Uber’s financial loss is eye-popping - The slowdown in Uber's bookings growth can at least partially be explained by the company's decision to leave China.19 Dec

Fin24.com | Apple fights $13.6bn tax bill as EU lifts lid on case - Apple has set up a court battle with European Union competition watchdogs who ordered Ireland to claw back a record $13.6bn in unpaid taxes from the iPhone maker.19 Dec

Fin24.com | Fiat readies Alphabet’s Waymo 100 self-driving hybrid minivans - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV announced the production of 100 Pacifica Hybrid minivans which will join Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo self-driving vehicle fleet.19 Dec

Fin24.com | Telkom gives firm R1bn boost - Telkom has granted R1bn in financial assistance to subsidiary Business Connexion (BCX) for working capital and debt commitments.19 Dec

Fin24.com | Nintendo tumbles after Super Mario run draws tepid reviews - Nintendo has plummeted in Tokyo after the debut of Super Mario Run was met by lukewarm reviews.18 Dec

Fin24.com | MUST READ: The little emoji glossary - Emoji have exploded from 176 original designs to around 1 800 and counting, as the little symbols conquer the world. Here are a few things to know.18 Dec

U.S.

A Rare Bird Flu Infects Cats In New York City Shelter - Health officials are tracking people who interacted with the sick cats, since flu viruses can jump from animals to people. In this case they think there's probably little risk to humans.(Image credit: Stuart/Flickr)52 min

New Orleans To Pay $13.3 Million Over Police Killings After Hurricane Katrina - Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced the city would pay millions of dollars to people who were injured and to families of those killed by New Orleans police around the time of the devastating 2005 storm.(Image credit: Gerald Herbert/AP)09:24

This Doll May Be Recording What Children Say, Privacy Groups Charge - Privacy advocates have filed a complaint with U.S. regulators about the Internet-connected doll called My Friend Cayla. They say the toy can record and transmit everything children say to it.(Image credit: Brian Naylor/NPR)08:30

LA Legal Defense Fund Created To Aid Immigrants Facing Deportation - Officials in Los Angeles on Monday unveiled a $10 million fund to provide legal services to immigrants facing deportation. They say they want the fund set up before Donald Trump becomes president.(Image credit: Nick Ut/AP)05:05

For Cash-Strapped Monks, Selling Fruitcakes Is A Saving Grace - While monks aren't trying to dominate the fruitcake market, they have made enough money to help support their solitary way of life. And there might be a little competition between monasteries.(Image credit: Courtesy of Assumption Abbey)05:00

Trump's Doral Golf Course Highlights His Conflicts Of Interest - Donald Trump owns many golf courses, which provide his family with lots of revenue. And as president, he'll be able to steer labor and environmental policies that could boost his own profits.(Image credit: Greg Allen/NPR)03:06

Trump's Immigration Plan Could Undermine Promise To Boost Economy - Donald Trump says he will double the U.S. growth rate; that requires getting more people into the workforce. The president-elect also plans to limit immigration, the biggest source of new workers.(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)03:06

Anti-Trump Evangelical Faces Backlash - A prominent evangelical leader who harshly criticized Donald Trump during the presidential campaign now faces a backlash from fellow evangelicals who backed Trump.(Image credit: Mark Humphrey/AP)03:06

The Richest Administration In History Just Got Richer - President-elect Trump has selected billionaire businessman Vincent Viola to be Army secretary. Like other wealthy nominees, Viola could qualify for a tax break if he is forced to sell investments.(Image credit: Omar Vega/Invision/AP)03:00

China Returns U.S. Navy Drone Seized In South China Sea - The U.S. said China's seizure of the drone last week was "inconsistent with international law and standards of professionalism for conduct between navies at sea."(Image credit: U.S. Navy)00:16

The Hayride

Quote Of The Day, December 20, 2016 - “From top to bottom, LSU Athletics is in a relentless pursuit of excellence.” – Joe Alleva05:04

VIDEO: MTV Tells White Males To Hate Themselves For The New Year In A Racist Video - File this under “they still don’t get it.” MTV News featured a video of a bunch of Millennials giving their “2017 Resolutions For White Guys” video. They stereotype all white guys as a bunch of Donald Trump-loving racists. As you can guess, they not only try to call all white guys racist but they call them sexist too. They want white guys to quit thinking America is great, support Black Lives Matter, hate cops, and quit “mansplaining” among other things. Yeah, it’s more of the usual “shut up you racist and sexist” BS we’ve come to expect from the left. Imagine if we had a “2017 Resolutions For Black Guys” that included things like stop resisting police, stop committing crimes, and pull your pants up. Or a “2017 Resolutions For Muslims” that includes not committing terrorism, speak English, and take off your hijab. Or a “2017 Resolutions for Hispanics” that includes start speaking English, come to the U.S. legally and quit eating tacos. The left would call all of that racist and they would have a point. Why can MTV News and leftists in general stereotype white males in a way they would never do for anyone else? In the era of Donald Trump, people are no longer willing to be told shut up by MTV News and other progressives. Here are just a few of the comments on the MTV News Facebook post. If the left keeps this up and continues to treat white males as an interest that must be intrinsically opposed, they’ll start voting as an interest group under attack. They will vote for politicians who will go after MTV News and the rest of the radical left out of pure self-defense. It will be a very sad day for liberty and freedom in this country when that happens. Even worse, you can’t really blame white males if this happens. They will have no choice.      19 Dec

Donna Brazile Might Go Down As NOLA’s Most Prominent Looter Since Katrina - Joe Cunningham had a good post last night about that interesting tidbit appearing in POLITICO regarding Donna Brazile directing Democratic National Committee money into get-out-the-vote efforts in New Orleans, of all places, during the final stages of the presidential race. This was the passage in POLITICO’s piece, which was a post-mortem of the awful and incompetent Hillary Clinton campaign… But there also were millions approved for transfer from Clinton’s campaign for use by the DNC — which, under a plan devised by Brazile to drum up urban turnout out of fear that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote, got dumped into Chicago and New Orleans, far from anywhere that would have made a difference in the election. Joe’s take, which is correct, was that this shows how out-of-touch and stupid Hillary’s people were… Louisiana was deep, deep red by this point, and anything that could be salvaged in New Orleans wouldn’t have made a lick of difference. You see, you can’t run up the score in the popular vote in a state where black voter turnout hovers in the 40 percent rage in a good year. Brazile is a smart woman. You don’t get where she is by being dumb. She is a Louisiana native (and has a killer gumbo recipe, I’ve heard), so yeah, maybe she’s partial to Louisiana. Still, you would have to think that the places where Clinton was hardest hit – the places with all the blue collar workers – would have been a wiser investment. But, you would be wrong. The Democrats, you see, made an error in their calculations. Robby Mook, the Democrat wunderkind who ran Clinton’s operations, had blinders on and only saw the disgruntled American youth as the means for victory. So, when the job with them was seemingly done, there was some money just laying around, and it was sent to places like Louisiana. There was one person, and one person only, who saw this as a bad idea, and was actually working to turn the campaign around on it: Bill Clinton. All of this is true so far as it goes, but I suspect there is more going on. And I’ll confess I haven’t gone and dug into the FEC reports to prove this, and it might well have been structured such that it won’t really show up in those reports (generally speaking GOTV money, or “street money” if you will, is hard to smoke out since they find a way to hide it), but it’s pretty obvious what happened there. Which is that Donna Brazile, as interim head of the DNC rather than someone likely to hold that job for any length of time, took a few million bucks out of the DNC till and spread it around as swag to some of pals from back home in the Big Easy, among other places. That money was a payoff to some political machine people with whom she was pals. If you’re Brazile, why not do that? After all, like everybody else in the Democrat Party you figure you’re going to win the election anyway – and nobody sweats a few million bucks after a victory. That’s just the cost of doing business. Somebody else would head the party after Hillary won, and that somebody would be a Hillary stooge just like Brazile is, so any questions about the shoveling of swag from the DNC’s coffers to the machines in NOLA and Chitown and elsewhere which couldn’t be defended in any possible way as a legitimate campaign expense would be swept away. That works just fine right up to the point where Donald Trump wins the election – and then the donors start asking some questions about the money they set on fire and how it was spent. As I wrote at the American Spectator last week, all of the caterwauling and abject stupidity emanating from the Clintons and the Left about Trump’s victory is meant to distract those donors from asking those uncomfortable questions. And Brazile is going to get them. She’s finished in national politics. The money in the Democrat Party isn’t going to be too pleased to know they got looted to pay off the NOLA political machine for meaningless GOTV efforts in a hopelessly red state.19 Dec

Why in God’s Name Would Donna Brazile Move Clinton GOTV Money Into New Orleans? - It’s just a little paragraph in this great big piece at the Politico, but it tells you so much about just how screwed up Hillary Clinton’s campaign was and how poorly it was run: Thinking Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote (which, as you’ll recall, is the exact opposite of what happened), Brazile’s strategy at the DNC was to move money to places like… New Orleans. But there also were millions approved for transfer from Clinton’s campaign for use by the DNC — which, under a plan devised by Brazile to drum up urban turnout out of fear that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote, got dumped into Chicago and New Orleans, far from anywhere that would have made a difference in the election. Louisiana was deep, deep red by this point, and anything that could be salvaged in New Orleans wouldn’t have made a lick of difference. You see, you can’t run up the score in the popular vote in a state where black voter turnout hovers in the 40 percent rage in a good year. Brazile is a smart woman. You don’t get where she is by being dumb. She is a Louisiana native (and has a killer gumbo recipe, I’ve heard), so yeah, maybe she’s partial to Louisiana. Still, you would have to think that the places where Clinton was hardest hit – the places with all the blue collar workers – would have been a wiser investment. But, you would be wrong. The Democrats, you see, made an error in their calculations. Robby Mook, the Democrat wunderkind who ran Clinton’s operations, had blinders on and only saw the disgruntled American youth as the means for victory. So, when the job with them was seemingly done, there was some money just laying around, and it was sent to places like Louisiana. There was one person, and one person only, who saw this as a bad idea, and was actually working to turn the campaign around on it: Bill Clinton. Bill knew you couldn’t win with young voters. He, being a man who knew the American voter, saw Donald Trump and realized the working class, those who had been hit hardest by the past ten years and those who were fed up with Washington, were the voters that needed to be reached. Brazile did not listen. Mook did not listen. Mook and his cohorts were actively trying to get Bill to stay on script and not try to appeal to those voters. They were calling him senile and out of touch. So, money got sent to Louisiana instead of to Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other areas where Hillary could have perhaps won some of her support back. I mean, it kept Clinton from getting elected and got money spent in Louisiana, so thanks y’all… but still. Is it any wonder they were destroyed nationwide?19 Dec

PRAGER U: The Case For A Flat Tax, Featuring Steve Forbes - Steve Forbes, who would have been a significantly better president than George W. Bush had he been elected when he ran for the GOP nomination in 2000, has been the foremost proponent of a flat tax for a long time – and makes one of the best arguments in favor of that idea that you’ll hear. Which he does once again in this video for Prager University. 19 Dec

HITHER AND YON: Trump 8, Hillary 0 As Louisiana’s Electors Cast Their Votes - There wasn’t much of a controversy as the eight Louisiana electors met at the state capitol today to cast their votes to make Donald Trump the next president of the United States. All eight had pledged to vote for Trump, all eight had been deluged with obnoxious, pushy, ill-reasoned and sometimes even threatening e-mails, letters and phone calls amid what can actually be termed an attempted coup by the Democrats, and all eight fulfilled that pledge. There was one person in the state senate chamber who booed when one of the electors announced his support for Trump, and then quickly shut up as the room shot him disapproving glances. That was the extent of the acrimony inside the building. And outside, there was this… Around the country, as of this writing the meetings of the Electoral College have gone similarly. The height of the drama appears to have come from Minnesota, where a Democrat elector attempted to vote for no candidate rather than for Hillary; he was quickly disavowed and replaced with an alternate, who promptly cast a vote for Clinton and all 10 of Minnesota’s electoral votes went to her, and in Maine, where a Democrat elector voted for Bernie Sanders. Trump will easily surpass 300 electoral votes and end up within a vote or two of the 306 he earned on Election Night. And if the Democrats weren’t selfish idiots, they could have had an opportunity to perhaps shake loose enough electors to deny Trump the presidency in favor of another Republican. As the CATO Institute’s Michael Cannon wrote two weeks ago in the Washington Post… Democrats’ best chance to prevent Donald Trump from assuming the presidency is instead to do the unthinkable: Throw their support behind another Republican, such as Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee. … Whatever reservations Republican electors may have about Trump, empty entreaties from Democrats are unlikely to sway them. Even if 37 Republican electors voted for another Republican, the GOP-controlled House would likely select Trump anyway. The only way Democrats stand any chance of persuading Republican electors to abandon Trump is with a dramatic gesture of true bipartisanship. If all 232 Democratic electors pledge to reach across the aisle and vote for a Republican alternative to Trump, it would take just 38 GOP electors to make that person the next president. If Clinton announced she is releasing “her” electors and asked them to vote for a credible Republican alternative, she could plausibly deliver all 232 Democratic electors. She might even secure similar pledges from House Democrats in the event the election went to the House. Finding 38 Republican electors might then be easier than Democrats think. In 2012, Romney won a larger share of the popular vote (47.2 percent) than Mr. Trump did this year (46.2 percent). There are 35 Republican electors from states where Romney got more votes than Trump (Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin), and at least 120 others from states where Romney won a larger share of the vote. That’s more than half of Republican electors. Texas has 38 electors all by itself. That wouldn’t have worked, either, in all likelihood, but it would have at least lent some credence to the narrative that Donald Trump is so terrible as to be outside the acceptable political mainstream. At least the Democrats could say they weren’t trying to attempt a coup d’etat by stealing power they lost in the election. But that’s beyond the current capabilities of that party. Our congratulations, and sympathies, go out to the electors and alternates in Louisiana who endured as many as 90,000 e-mails apiece demanding they vote for someone other than Trump. Hopefully their ordeal, and the harassment attendant in them, is over. And hopefully the FBI and Justice Department will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law the cretins who sent them death threats. That kind of behavior is beneath a constitutional republic such as this one. The Advocate had a long piece Sunday written by Gordon Russell and Maya Lau about the Louisiana Department of Corrections, and how between former Angola Prison warden Burl Cain and current DOC head Jimmy LeBlanc there is a fairly extensive good-old-boy network of people making a killing off incarcerating people in this state. Over the past quarter-century, Cain and LeBlanc have populated the ranks of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections with friends and relatives, in positions high and low. Other kin and allies have found success in the private sector, supplying goods and services to an archipelago of prisons in a state that keeps more people behind bars than any other. A series of scandals that began last year has shaken up a department that has historically kept its business outside public view. Cain, warden of Angola for two decades and perhaps America’s most famous jailer, retired last year amid questions about his business ties to advocates for two state inmates. Other scandals have ended the careers of Cain’s eldest son and daughter-in-law. But LeBlanc has hung on. In reappointing him as corrections chief earlier this year, freshly minted Gov. John Bel Edwards made an extraordinary bet that LeBlanc can clean up the corruption that largely occurred on his watch. And that’s only the beginning. Edwards views the veteran corrections chief as the ideal man to lead a once-in-a-lifetime makeover of his department, an ambitious effort to end Louisiana’s 18-year reign as America’s prison capital. It would be a remarkable achievement, given that some of LeBlanc’s key allies have benefited from the explosive growth in the state’s prison rolls. The story does a great job of documenting how there’s a network of close to two dozen friends and family members of the Cains and LeBlancs either working at DOC or holding contracts from it. And given the well-reported torrent of scandalous allegations within the department, it seems scandalous in itself that Edwards would keep LeBlanc on board as the head of the department while he purports to clean it up. But the thing to understand is that Edwards isn’t interested in cleaning up anything at DOC, and retaining LeBlanc is the unmistakable signal proving it. What Edwards wants to change is the total number of people incarcerated in Louisiana; he wants that number reduced by a sufficient amount such that Louisiana no longer has the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the nation. And while that’s a laudable ambition, one supposes, it has very little to do with whether Louisiana has an honest or effective corrections department, or whether Louisiana enacts and implements policies which serve to reduce the number of lawbreakers in our midst who need to be incarcerated. It’s well worth reading, but one gets the impression that rather than offer a quizzical tone about LeBlanc’s retention in the face of a need to clean up a department whose corruption he’s benefited from it might have been a bit more accurate to question whether Edwards isn’t merely paying lip service to reform while maintaining the status quo. Particularly since Edwards’ family has had a stranglehold on the sheriff’s department in Tangipahoa Parish for decades – and presumably has made a fortune on incarcerating criminals during that time just like lots of other sheriffs have done. Meanwhile the Times-Picayune’s editors have proven once again they’re not the sharpest tools in the shed… The NBA granted the All-Star game to New Orleans months after Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an executive order protecting state workers and state contractors from being fired, discriminated against or harassed based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.  The governor’s executive order, the director of an LGBT advocacy group said, made Louisiana “a little island in the deep South,” and the NBA’s decision to move its big game from Charlotte to New Orleans was an indication that discrimination costs as much as inclusion pays. But since signing the executive order in April, Gov. Edwards has had very little cooperation from other Louisiana officials.  In fact, he’s been opposed by the state’s grandstanding Attorney General Jeff Landry and by more than a dozen of the state’s lawmakers. And on Wednesday a Baton Rouge judge ruled that the governor’s executive order was unlawful.  In his ruling, Judge Todd Hernandez of the 19th Judicial District went further than the attorney general was even asking him to go.  Mr. Landry’s legal team had indicated in court that the attorney general would be satisfied if just the transgender protections were removed, that is, that Mr. Landry wouldn’t object to an executive order protecting gay, lesbian and bisexual people from discrimination. But Judge Hernandez ruled against the entirety of the governor’s executive order, which means that state employees who love people of the same sex can be legally discriminated against and fired for that reason alone. Louisiana can do better than that.  Louisiana should do better than that.  The governor is expected to appeal the ruling, but lawmakers could make such an appeal unnecessary by embracing the simple concept that no state workers and no state contractors should be fired because of their gender identity or their sexual orientation. If people are fired or denied promotions, then it should be because they’re incompetent or because they haven’t performed well enough to advance.  If people aren’t hired, it should be because they’re not qualified for whatever positions they seek. What a complete swing and miss. The issue in last week’s complete courtroom beatdown suffered by Edwards at Landry’s hands has nothing in particular to do with gay rights. It has to do with the governor’s executive overreach and the affirmation of our crucial principle of checks and balances – something which is a great deal more important than NBA all-star games and stupid leftist boycotts. If it’s good law to engage in protection against discrimination of gay people in state government, then let there be a bill brought on the issue and let there be a debate in the legislature about it. So far, when that debate has been had the cultural Left has not won it, and so far the cultural Left has not shown itself to be a sufficient electoral force to produce a legislative majority willing to make a protected class out of gays, lesbians and other sexual minorities. We call that constitutional government, and representative democracy. It is far more important to preserve than the liberal pieties the mediocre editorialists at the Times-Picayune – Tim Williamson, president, David Francis, publisher, Mark Lorando, editor, Terri Troncale, Opinions editor and Jarvis DeBerry, Deputy Opinions editor – seem to think are paramount. If the paper was worth the dead trees it’s printed on three days a week, today’s editorial wouldn’t be about the necessity to change the law Edwards broke in promulgating his executive order, it would be instead praising Hernandez for recognizing the importance of the constitutional process in making policy. Perhaps that’s over their heads. But with Donald Trump about to take office, maybe leftists like Williamson, Francis et al will rediscover the fruits and benefits of limited government. And to clean something up from last week, Charlie Melancon said he was forced out as the head of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, rather than leaving on his own… Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries secretary said Friday he’s being forced out of his Cabinet position by Gov. John Bel Edwards, months into the secretary’s work to correct widespread financial problems identified by auditors. Charlie Melancon said he was asked by Edwards’ administration officials, not the governor directly, to leave the office in mid-February and he agreed. He said he wasn’t given a reason for his forced exit in conversations with Edwards’ chief of staff, Ben Nevers, and the governor’s executive counsel, Matthew Block. “You serve at the pleasure of the governor, and if they want you to resign, you don’t have to have a reason,” Melancon said in an interview with The Associated Press. “If through the chief of staff and the governor’s executive counsel he asks that I resign, I resign.” The Edwards administration said Melancon has been let go because of a difference in management styles, which translates into Melancon was a political liability Edwards didn’t think he could afford any longer. But in case anyone thinks Melancon’s ouster changes any of the things which made him unpopular in the first place, think again. The two issues which enraged so many recreational fishermen and small commercial fishermen in the state about Melancon – first, fighting against a bill in Congress that would put the state in charge of red snapper management rather than continuing the corrupt federal policies which enable a small number of commercial fishermen to control the bulk of the annual harvest, and then second, killing the TAG Louisiana program which enables fishermen to assist in gathering data on the health of the state’s fisheries at negligible cost to the state – are not going to see any major policy changes. Particularly in the case of the red snapper management. One has to recognize that Edwards secured max-out donations from a large number of the “Sea Lords,” the large commercial fishermen who benefit from the federal red snapper policy DWF seeks to preserve. In other words, it’s Edwards’ position DWF has taken, not Melancon’s. Melancon’s replacement will have the same policy, and be unpopular for the same reason. By the way, we’re told to be on the lookout for one of two Democrats to replace Melancon. One is state representative Gene Reynolds of Minden, whose district went heavily both for Trump on Nov. 8 (65-33) and for John Kennedy on Dec. 10 (63-37) and is starting to see some writing on the political wall, and the other is Foster Campbell – who is vested in the state’s pension plan and wants a richer salary upon which to base his retirement on. Public Service Commissioners only make some $45,000 per year, while the DWF job pays…considerably more. Campbell doesn’t need the money. But he would appreciate the prestige. And he and Edwards owe each other favors, so for the extra loot he can get after two years on the job, he’d be glad to stick it to the recreational fishermen. For Today’s Last Thing, since this is the last installment of Hither And Yon before the Christmas Holidays, we take you down to New Orleans for the sights and sounds of Celebration In The Oaks at New Orleans’ City Park… Merry Christmas, everybody!19 Dec

VIDEO: The Magic Of Editing Turns Hollywood Celebrities Into Trump Fans - We got a huge kick out of this, as it’s basically perfect – as a takedown of the idiotic video Martin Sheen and his pals put out demanding electors not vote for Trump… This isn’t any more of an abuse of video editing than the things Michael Moore does, so it’s not like anyone can complain. And by the way, Moore is out offering electors, who vote today to officially make Donald Trump the president-elect, financial benefits for voting against him – which is an attempt to bribe a public official and a crime. Trump’s Justice Department ought to prosecute him for it, just like it ought to prosecute Madonna for offering blowjobs, Harvard professor Larry Lessig for offering free legal counsel and several others who have broken the law in this insane Democrat exercise to attempt to overturn the results of the election.19 Dec

Quote Of The Day, December 19, 2016 - “I’m a big boy, but this is stupid. Nobody is standing up and telling these people, ‘Enough, knock it off.’ ” – Ash Khare, a Republican elector from Pennsylvania who attends today’s Electoral College meeting guarded by police against harassment and under threat from Hillary supporters.19 Dec

Sharon Weston Broome’s Surrogate Gary Chambers Throws Down The Racial Gauntlet For Baton Rouge - Quick question – who is the most prominent, most virulent racist in Louisiana? As of the past few months, perhaps the clearest answer is Gary Chambers, the blogger and political activist who managed to promote himself into a position as a surrogate for mayor-elect Sharon Weston Broome thanks to loud attacks on the Baton Rouge police in the wake of the Alton Sterling shooting, demands for a residency requirement for BRPD officers and various other exercises in self-promotion of a rather irresponsible kind. Chambers may or may not have a role in Broome’s administration. He’s owed something politically, since he abandoned his previous benefactor C. Denise Marcelle to join Broome’s camp in the primary. But after a post on his blog over the weekend which can best be described as racial pyromania, Chambers may have made himself too hot to handle unless Broome wishes to govern a Baton Rouge which begins to look like Zimbabwe before the end of her first term. As an aside, we’ll explain the Zimbabwe reference – when that country made its changeover from white minority rule to black majority rule, it was renamed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe and the capitol was renamed from Salisbury to Harare; those changes were nothing compared to what came shortly thereafter. Most notably, the Mugabe government in that country seized land from white farmers and redistributed it to its friends, a decision which turned Zimbabwe from the “breadbasket of Africa” into relying on the United Nations for food aid. Most of the white population then fled the country and Zimbabwe has now very little prospect of economic success. The kleptocratic Mugabe regime rules over a ruin, but it rules – and even when its black landowning class is inviting white farmers back onto the land because they actually understand agriculture, that government rails against “colonialism.” Zimbabwe is worth keeping in mind when you read what Chambers wrote about white Baton Rougeans… Over the next few weeks Mayor-Elect Broome is working aggressively to craft an agenda to lead Baton Rouge. The reality is, much of the work Broome will attempt to carry out will have to go before the metro council. The council has a racial and political balance that favors white Baton Rouge. Sworn in January 2, 2017 the council will consist of 7 white republicans and five black democrats. One black male and one white female will hold seats on the council. White men are the majority. One of the newly elected members of the council is a young white male. Dwight Hudson made a name for himself in south Baton Rouge as an activist for the movement to incorporate the city of St. George a break away city. This council makeup means that if the white republicans decide they want to function like the congress of the U.S. and block the policies of the leader of the parish, they can attempt to do so with ease. And the personal denigration of Dwight Hudson as a “young white male” gets followed up with a generalization of white Baton Rouge’s “limited mindset”… The reality is, not only is Broome the first black north Baton Rouge candidate to win that wasn’t approved by the white establishment, she is also a woman. Unlike in the black community in Baton Rouge where the majority of our elected officials are black women, in the white community the majority of elected officials are white males. Often men who grew up more privileged than the majority of us. Men who have not spent much time learning about communities or perspectives outside of their own. It is this limited mindset and reach that they govern from. As someone who has wrestled with the metro council over trying to make Baton Rouge more progressive, I know first-hand the tactics of the white republican members of the metro council. Now for the meat of the issue… It has already been said that the St. George group is mounting to attempt to break away again. They will pretend it is about children and schools, but it is really about black and white. Many of them want a white leader for their community. The tide has turned for Baton Rouge and it will be difficult for a non-progressive white to win in this parish ever again. The solution for white people has always been the same when a city gets too black, break away or leave. Our community is divided and Broome has her work cut out for her. It is my hope that she meets the metro council head on, with a solid progressive agenda that will create new job growth in sections of the parish that have not seen it, as well as build on what growth we have already seen. They will attempt to make it hard for her simply because she wasn’t picked by them, and isn’t one of them, so we have a responsibility – those of us who voted for her to rise to the occasion and support her efforts to lead this parish. No matter what part of this city-parish you’re from, we need her to be successful, because our children’s future depends on it. What she does has the ability to impact the future of Baton Rouge for years to come. It is my prayer that Mayor Broome is unapologetically progressive, our community needs real progress. Now, Gary Chambers is a moron and he doesn’t understand what “progressive” actually means. That said, there is little confusion as to the sentiment he’s talking about – what he wants is for Broome to continue taking tax dollars from the southern part of Baton Rouge and redistributing them somewhere else, but instead of the downtown area as previous mayor Kip Holden did, he wants that wealth redistributed in North Baton Rouge. Which is a message Broome herself has echoed throughout the campaign. This isn’t Africa and you can’t dispossess people of their real estate, but you can certainly tax them off their property, provide them corrupt government and poor-quality services in return and therefore send them packing for the suburbs. That happens all the time in urban America and it’s more than likely going to happen in Baton Rouge. Chambers says racism is the cause, but he fails to recognize that the black middle class is decamping for Ascension and Livingston Parishes just the same as the white middle class is, and for the same reasons – crime, lousy schools, declining property values in middle class neighborhoods. It should be mentioned that Gary Chambers has his office in South Baton Rouge, not North Baton Rouge. Add hypocrisy to his myriad sins. But the question for Broome is whether this is the tone and attitude she wants to have in her administration. Is she going to take after Robert Mugabe as Chambers would have it? Or will she repudiate his attitude that white people in Baton Rouge owe something to black people and make an effort at collaborative government with the majority-Republican Metro Council? If it’s the former, she shouldn’t be surprised in the least that a St. George 2.0 finds purchase. Her only path to success would be to leave racists like Chambers by the roadside.19 Dec

GRANTHAM: A Christmas Letter To Vladimir - You know what they’re saying? That you hacked the presidential election. That you gave the USA the 45th President of the United States. Overlooking the fact that our voting citizens delivered enough electoral college votes to secure the presidency for the republican nominee. Overlooking the fact that no election machines are ever attached to the internet. In the end I don’t think you hacked anything. So I’m wondering what Obama, Hillary, Podesta and a host of their minions are chirping about. And then it came to me. A Sanders supporter (obviously) figured out how to hack the emails of the circle O’Hillary. Probably phished a password and then eased swiftly into the unsecured private server O’Hillary. Once in, especially in Huma’s account, all was delivered unto Wikileaks. Who knows how it worked out. But using O’Hillary logic, a person hacked the infamous Hillary server, delivered the 30,000+ emails to Wikileaks, had a shot of vodka and, ergo to wit: it has to be the Russians! The traditional boogeyman of American nightmares. Well, I don’t buy it. But irregardless of my belief, I’m still willing to thank you, or whoever, that exposed the Clinton circle and their condescending view of America. Hillary got what she deserved, a loss. We can only hope Christmas brings a special prosecutor for the Clinton foundation. So, between me and you, a big “spasibo” to you if you did it. But come January 20, 2017 you’ll still be regarded as thug and a typical Russian dictator and Oligarch. Thanks for your gift and just consider Steven Seagal our version of a fruitcake. You can regift, just not back to us. Merry Christmas! From all of us.19 Dec

Inter Press Service » IPS Inter Press Service News Agency – Journalism and Communication for Glo

You must be the change you wish to see in the world – Mahatma Gandhi - By Farhana Haque Rahman, Director General, Inter Press ServiceDHAKA, Dec 20 2016 (IPS)2016 has been a dramatic year for the world, and for the media. Political dysfunction appears to be on the rise, putting social media under increasing critical scrutiny even as prestigious global commercial news brands capable of acting as the fourth estate are downsizing.Farhana Haque RahmanFiscal austerity in advanced economies is catalysing populist protests and a nascent form of nationalism that risks turning the international arena into a less generous space.And yet times are even harder in conflict-riven lands such as South Sudan, drought-suffering regions in Madagascar and, for too long now, cities such as Aleppo. While robust and credible news coverage is under threat, never has it been more needed.I would like, however, to announce some good news. A year ago, Inter Press Service was in troubled waters. Today, thanks to many stakeholders, and the fine work of the IPS team, that is less the case. I can confidently assert that we are alive and kicking. Amid tense and rapidly-changing global times – worryingly dubbed the “post-truth” era – it is a sign of hope that genuine interest in real-world problems remains vibrant, and a tribute to our contribution to keeping valuable information flowing.While some talk of globalization going into reverse and a “new normal” of subdued prospects, the fact is – as recognized by the universal nature of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – that the world is increasingly interconnected irrespective of how many container ships sail the seas.The challenge of climate change is a concrete example of that interconnection. Air pollution turns out to be worse in areas that are not where it is generated. Bacteria resistant to antibiotics are adept travellers, making local practises a global concern.Through it all, development work is being done, and tracking its success – and even its setbacks when they offer learning moments – is our critical mission. That job may be getting harder, and new challenges to media freedom may arise, but IPS will be here to do it.07:36

‘Complex’ Climate Fund Procedures Hindering Development - Seated, from left to right: Nicholas Kotch, Lead trainer, Dr Kholiquzzaman, Chairman Palli Karma Sahayak Samity (PKSF), Farhana Haque Rahman, Director General IPS, Mr Abul Maal A Muhith, Finance Minister of Bangladesh, Mr Shahiduzzaman, Senior Advisor and IPS representative South Asia, Mr Robert Watkins, UN Representative and UNDP Resident Coordinator. Credit: Mauro Teodori/IPSBy Mahfuzur RahmanDHAKA, Dec 20 2016 (IPS)Though highly hopeful about achieving the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) well ahead of the 2030 deadline, Bangladesh is upset over the procedures to access the Green Climate Fund, calling them ‘ridiculously complex’ and warning that they may slow down its drive to achieve the SDGs.Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, wants to emerge as a star performer in implementing the SDGs, repeating its success with the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But officials say developed nations are not delivering funds to the affected countries as promised.“The carbon emissions of developed countries are damaging the environment of smaller economies. They must ensure we’re provided enough funds to mitigate this damage.” --Finance Minister AMA Muhith“The developed countries are mainly responsible for climate change. They’ve demonstrated goodwill in terms of financing climate change programmes all over the world, but Bangladesh is very unfortunate as it doesn’t get a fair share of it. The procedure of the Climate Change Fund is ridiculously complex,” said Bangladesh’s Finance Minister AMA Muhith.Muhith was inaugurating a two-day media capacity building workshop titled ‘Reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ in Dhaka on Dec. 18. The United Nations Foundation and Inter Press Service (IPS) jointly organised the programme under the theme ‘Working Together: Why and how should the media report on the SDGs?’ Journalists from leading media outlets participated in the workshop.IPS Director General Farhana Haque Rahman also spoke at the inaugural session, while UN Resident Coordinator and U.N. Development programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Bangladesh Robert D. Watkins presented the keynote paper. IPS South Asia Representative Shahiduzzaman moderated the session.According to Muhith, “The carbon emissions of developed countries are damaging the environment of smaller economies. They must ensure we’re provided enough funds to mitigate this damage.”The Green Climate Fund was announced at the UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico in 2010. Developed nations pledged 100 billion dollars a year to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.Referring to the growing adverse impacts of climate change on Bangladesh, a worried Muhith said many poor people in rural Bangladesh have lost everything due to riverbank erosion across the country.“We’re spending our own money to tackle climate change’s negative impacts, but we don’t get the support we should get as one of the worst sufferers of climate change,” he said.Families who live on ‘chars’ – river islands formed from sedimentation – are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. This family wades through floodwaters left behind after heavy rains in August 2014 caused major rivers to burst their banks in northern Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPSAccording to a report by the Dhaka Tribune, an English daily, Bangladesh is set to lose 50 million dollars from the Green Climate Fund “because of tension between the World Bank and donors, and lack of government commitment. Even as the government is scrambling to find funds for dealing with climate change impacts, donors have decided to pull the plug on the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF).”Despite these obstacles, Muhith remains upbeat about Bangladesh’s march forward from the MDGs. He said Bangladesh will be able to achieve the SDGs well before the stipulated time of 2030.“I personally think Bangladesh will certainly reach the targets well before 2030, although the procedure to initiate the development takes time,” he said.Bangladesh’s initiatives to eradicate poverty aim to leave no one behind, said the country’s Finance Minister, adding that it would be quite possible for some other countries to reach the targets ahead of 2030 as well.Bangladesh received a U.N. award for its remarkable achievements in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly in reducing the child mortality rate in 2010. It also received an FAO Achievement Award in 2015 for its success in fighting hunger, and a Women in Parliaments Global Forum Award, known as the WIP Award, in 2015 for its outstanding success in closing the gender gap in the political sphere.Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also received the UN’s highest environmental accolade – Champions of the Earth in 2015 – in recognition of Bangladesh’s far-reaching initiatives to address climate change.Speaking at a high-profile discussion on ‘MDGS to SDGs: A Way Forward’, at UN Headquarters in New York on Sep. 30, on the sidelines of the 70th UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “We’ll take the country forward by setting another example by implementing SDGs as Bangladesh did in the case of the MDGs. In this journey, no one will be left behind as we aspire to build Bangladesh as a progressive, peaceful and prosperous country.”The adoption of the SDGs on Sep. 25, 2015 by the United Nations was a ‘unique show of global unity’ as it holds the promise to build a better world with the first-ever common development agenda.The 17 SDGs envisage a sustainable future for all by engaging the entire world in collective efforts to end poverty, fight inequality, establish peace and tackle climate change.“Bangladesh has become a role model in South Asia and in the world in achieving the MDGs, the predecessor of SDGs. We believe Bangladesh will again lead the way in achieving the SDGs,” Nagesh Kumar, head of UN-ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office, told a seminar at the Prime Minister’s Office in Dhaka on Aug. 17.Related ArticlesQ&A: Bangladesh’s ‘Higher Trajectory of Development’ Not Easy but AchievableThe Role of SDGs in Achieving Zero HungerGroups Slam Green Climate Fund Approval of Firms Tied to Dirty Energy06:17

Feminism Helps Villagers Coexist with Drought in Northeast Brazil - “This vegetable garden changed my life,” said Rita da Silva (right, in yellow), in the Primeiro do Maio village, where some 65 families live. A group of women organised to collectively grow vegetables and fruit to sell in the market in Caraúbas, a nearby city in Northeast Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPSBy Mario OsavaCARAÚBAS, Brazil, Dec 20 2016 (IPS)“The vegetable garden changed my life,” said Rita Alexandre da Silva, in the village of Primeiro do Maio where 65 families have obtained land to grow crops since 1999, in this municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in Northeast Brazil.She is part of the Group of Women that organised in 2001 and adopted the slogan “United to overcome”, with the goal of having their own productive activities, reaffirming their rights and combating sexism.“I used to only stay at home or in the fields, I wasn’t allowed to go out, to go to town. With the garden I started to go to the city to sell our products in the market, over the objections of my husband and my oldest son,” Da Silva told IPS.“Bringing money home when my husband was sick” helped overcome the resistance, she said. “Now my son, who is married, has a different attitude towards his wife.”The 60-year-old mother of three grown-up children shares with five other local women one hectare of the village’s collective land, where they grow lettuce, coriander, onions, tomatoes, manioc, papayas, coconuts and other fruits and vegetables.The difficulty is transporting products to the city of Caraúbas, 22 km away. The women hire a truck for 25 dollars, and they also have to pay for the maintenance and cleaning up of the stand where they sell their produce.“We get up at two in the morning every Saturday to get to the market,” said Antonia Damiana da Silva, a 41-year-old mother of four.But “our life has changed for the better, we eat what we produce, without poisonous chemicals, and we are different people, more free, we decide what we’re going to do and tell our husbands,” she said.The village was created by families of farmers who lived in the surrounding areas, without land of their own, who occupied an unproductive piece of land. Their first attempt to occupy it lasted 18 days in 1997, when the owners of the land obtained a court order to evict them.Part of the “agrovillage” where 65 families of the Primeiro do Maio village live, an oasis of green vegetation in the midst of aridity caused by five years with almost no rain in the caatinga, the semi-arid ecosystem exclusive to the Northeast of Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPSTwo years later, they tried again, and the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform assigned each family 13 hectares and a good house in the “agro village”. They were also awarded a common area for the community association building, for raising livestock, and for growing fruits and vegetables.“Agro villages” in Brazil are rural settlements created in isolated areas, where houses and community and service facilities are concentrated near the plots of land. They form part of the government’s land reform programme, and offer previously landless farmers urban advantages such as schools, health posts and in some cases sewerage.The drought which has dragged on for five years in the semi-arid Northeast is all too evident in the grey vegetation, apparently dead, throughout the entire ecosystem exclusive to Brazil known as the caatinga. But its low and twisted bush-like trees tend to turn green a few hours after it rains, even if it barely sprinkled.The Primeiro do Maio agro village appears in the landscape almost like an oasis, because of the green of its trees and of the vegetable garden and orchard, populated by birds and other animals.The traditional crops grown by the families, mostly corn and beans, were lost to the drought. But the community garden is still productive, irrigated with well water and managed according to the principles of agro-ecology, such as crop diversity and better use of natural resources, including straw.They receive technical assistance and support from Diaconía, a non-profit social organisation composed of 11 evangelical churches, which are very active in the Northeast.Antonia Damiana da Silva (C) proudly explains how her biodigester uses the manure from her small livestock to produce cooking gas for her family in the rural settlement where she lives in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the Northeast of Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS The income from the garden empowers the women, particularly in times of drought when the local crops are failing.But because of the difficulties in getting the produce to market, and the prevailing but rarely mentioned sexism, the Group shrank from 23 to six members, who work in the garden and sell their produce in Caraúbas.The garden, irrigated without any water wastage, is based on a production model promoted by Networking in Brazil’s Semi-Arid Region (ASA), which groups together some 3,000 social organisations in the Northeast, including trade unions, religious groups and non-governmental organisations.“Coexisting with the semi-arid” is its slogan, in contrast to the former official policy of ”fighting drought” which generated one failure after another, with the construction of big dams, aqueducts and canals that do not provide solutions to the most vulnerable: poor peasant farmers scattered throughout rural areas.The Primeiro do Maio village was one of eight places visited by participants in the National Meeting of ASA, which drew about 500 people Nov. 21-25 to Mossoró, a city in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, 80 km from Caraúbas.“There can be no coexistence with the semi-arid, without feminisim,” according to ASA, which supports the Group of Women and other initiatives that bolster gender equality in rural communities.The green of the garden cultivated by women in the Primeiro do Maio village contrasts with the aridity of the surrounding area in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in the Northeast of Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPSThe “social technologies” that drive that coexistence are in general more rapidly embraced and with more determination by women.Damiana, for example, has an arsenal of resources in the backyard of her house that enable her to assert that she enjoys “a wonderful life”.A biodigester, fed with the manure from her small livestock, provides her with cooking gas. In the village there are 10 other houses that use this technology, which consists of a sealed container where organic waste ferments until producing methane gas and natural fertilisers.“Biowater”, a chain of filters which cleans the wastewater produced in her home, makes it possible to reuse it in her vegetable garden and orchard. She also raises fish in a small three-metre-diameter tank. The fish she raises is the tilapia azul (Oreochromis niloticus), native to the Nile River, which is highly productive in fish farming.Vanusa Vieira, a 47-year-old mother of two, is another participant in the Group who works in the collective garden, although she says she prefers working with animals. “I love raising animals, I can’t live without them, I look after them from early morning to night,” she told IPS standing in her yard where she has birds, goats and a cow.“I learned from my father and mother, who had cattle and chicken,” she said. Now that she has her own house with a big yard she has an aviary and pens.But the drought has forced her to reduce the number of animals she keeps. Corn got too expensive and water is scarce, she said. And her honey production, which “helped us buy a truck,” has stalled because the woods are dry and there are no flowers, Vieira explained.But small livestock such as goats and sheep that are able to survive on limited food and water are a resource that helps families survive lengthy droughts like the one that has had the Northeast in its grip since 2012.Also important is the small subsidy that the families of the agrovillage receive from the social programme Bolsa Familia, aimed at the poorest in this country of 202 million people. In addition, some of the men work as day labourers to boost the family income, in light of the fall in production on their plots of land.Related ArticlesFish Farming, a Challenge and Opportunity for Small Farmers in Brazil’s AmazonOrganic Cacao Farmers Help Reforest Brazil’s Amazon JungleBrazil – from the Droughts of the Northeast to São Paulo’s ThirstRural Women in Latin America Define Their Own Kind of Feminism19 Dec

A Crisis Only ‘Humanity’ Can Overcome - By Eresh Omar JamalDec 19 2016 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)On December 18, as appointed by the United Nations General Assembly, the international community recognises and celebrates the rights of migrants around the world. This date was chosen because the General Assembly had adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (resolution 45/158) on December 18, 1990. Thus, by building on the rights of migrant workers, the UN, with the aid of other organisations, incorporated successfully, the idea of upholding the rights of all migrants.Yet, that ‘idea’, despite being a commendable one, seems to have remained only that – an idea; never really materialising beyond it fully. And this has, perhaps, never been more evident than today. Nor the misfortune humanity has had to endure because of this failure, been more glaring.In the case of Bangladesh for example, the rights of its workers abroad still remain elusive to this day. Just prior to Bangladesh holding the Global Forum on Migration and Development between December 10-12, a Middle East women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, “Bangladesh is hosting an important global conference on migration, yet has an abysmal record protecting its own citizens” (‘Improve protections for migrant domestic workers’, The Daily Star, December 9).Newspaper articles have been written, conferences held, slogans repeated, yet, successive governments have failed time and again to protect the rights of the thousands of men and women who leave everything behind to travel abroad in the simple hope of building a better future for themselves and those they hold dear – a hope, I assume, all of humanity has in common.This hope, of course, is nothing new. The UN website states, “Throughout human history, migration has been a courageous expression of the individual’s will to overcome adversity and to live a better life.” That dream of a better life, for many migrant workers, however, often fails to transform into reality.Despite their remittances significantly helping the country’s economy by increasing its foreign currency reserves, reducing the Taka’s devaluation, helping infrastructure investments and assisting the repayment of foreign debts, migrant workers are frequently exposed to mistreatment abroad, followed by refusal from our government to acknowledge such mistreatments, or even listen to their grievances for various political or geopolitical reasons.Such grievances of women Bangladeshi workers include the denial of their full salaries, adequate food and living conditions, forcibly being worked for excessively long hours without breaks or days off, physical assault and even sexual abuse. In fact, according to a HRW report issued in July, “Bangladeshi workers’ accounts of abuse were among the most extreme [of all] documented in Oman… [including] forced labour and trafficking.”To summarise the general condition of most migrant workers irrespective of gender and nationality: according to the most recent survey by the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation conducted in the Asia-Pacific and Gulf regions, “More than 75 percent of migrant workers said they received wages lower than what they were promised before they left their home countries, or experienced unforeseen deductions” (’75pc of migrant workers received lower wages than promised: survey’, The Daily Star, December 8). Moreover, 14.5 percent respondents said they did not receive wages on time and 25 percent had no days off in a week.If we take the other end of the migrant spectrum—those fleeing one form of persecution or another—the outlook not only fails to get any better, but actually worsens. A UN Refugee Agency 2015 report revealed the number of people displaced to be at its highest ever—surpassing even post-WWII numbers.65.3 million people in total were displaced at the end of 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And just to put that into perspective, that is one out of every 113 people on earth. I do not know if that includes the men, women and children who have drowned at sea in their attempt to find something better than what they were fleeing, or those who were lost to us in some other way. But that figure itself must be in the thousands.Meanwhile, it is important to remember that the migrant crisis really started to blow out of proportion after Europe meddled in the affairs of the then richest country in Africa — Libya — though a large part of it was also prompted by American (Western in general) interventions in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and elsewhere. As Dr. Curtis Doebbler — international lawyer and professor of international law — wrote, “In almost every case, the African and Middle East migrants are fleeing wars, violence, or exploitation caused by Europeans, Americans and their allies” (‘The European Migration Crisis’, CounterPunch.org, April 24, 2015).Following that logic, it is the moral responsibility of both Europe and America now, to do everything in their power to help these helpless people that they are mostly responsible for turning homeless and landless in the first place. The UN too, despite its good work in many areas, has failed these people miserably by being unable to prevent such interventions, many of which have blatantly violated international laws, put in place, largely, by the UN and Western nations themselves.And the saddest part is, refugees fleeing war zones, persecution, poverty and intolerance, are the least welcome in these countries. A report released by Amnesty International in July 2015 said, “Migrants heading for Europe face abuse and extortion in the Balkans…at the hands of the authorities and criminal gangs” (‘Migrants heading for Europe facing abuse and extortion in the Balkans’, amnesty.org.uk).According to the then Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia deputy director Gauri van Gulik, “Refugees fleeing war and persecution make this journey across the Balkans in the hope of finding safety in Europe only to find themselves victims of abuse and exploitation and at the mercy of failing asylum systems” (‘Europe’s Horrific Mistreatment of Migrants, the Victims of America’s Wars’, Centre for Research on Globalisation, August 21, 2015). Reports of torture and other forms of abuse coming out of many refugee camps and asylums in the UK, Australia and others have been so horrific, that some migrants, after risking their lives to escape whatever nightmare they were going through, tried to commit suicide there (‘Horrific Mistreatment of Migrants’, Stephen Lendmen, August 20, 2015).Is this how human beings are supposed to be treated? Again, as Dr. Curtis Doebbler writes, “If Europe and the United States really want to deal with the so-called ‘European migration crisis’ they will need to start by admitting to themselves, and the world, that they are the cause of it…[and] engage in an open and transparent manner with the aim of achieving cooperation to address the root causes of the crisis, not merely the temporary manifestations.”And the same applies for the rest of the world. If we truly want to respect the rights of migrants, the UN and the international community must work together to prevent such gross violation of international law, which not only destabilises the country migrants are coming from, but also the rest of the world.Also, we must stop separating people along racial, religious and other invisible lines and accept that we are all human beings, whose rights must be protected, regardless of the country of our origin. Otherwise, as is quickly becoming clear, with the creation of migrants and the denial of their rights, the whole world will continue to suffer together. And this is where world leaders, civil society members, academics, and other influential individuals have failed us till now. However, those who find their failures unacceptable must continue to fight the fight that is needed to bring policymakers back on the right track. For not only are the rights of migrants at stake, but, quite clearly, so is the humanity within us. And it is only by answering the call of humanity that lies within us that we can overcome the great crisis currently facing us.The writer is a member of the Editorial team at The Daily Star.This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh19 Dec

Security Council Agrees to Send UN Monitors to Aleppo - The UN Security Council has agreed to send UN monitors to Aleppo. Credit: UN Photo/Amanda VoisardBy Tharanga YakupitiyageUNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 2016 (IPS)The UN Security Council – which has long struggled to find common ground on Syria – has unanimously approved a resolution allowing the UN to monitor the evacuation of civilians from Aleppo.Proposed by France, the resolution calls for the immediate deployment of UN monitors and their “unimpeded access” to East Aleppo in order to ensure the safety of evacuees and those that remain in the besieged Syrian city. Monitors are needed to prevent “mass atrocities” by parties to the conflict, said France.Russia, which has vetoed six Security Council resolutions on Syria since the conflict began in 2011, was initially ready to block the initiative, calling it a “disaster.”“We have no problem whatsoever with any kind of monitoring, but the idea that they should be told to go to wander around the ruins of eastern Aleppo without proper preparation and without informing everybody about what is going to happen, this has disaster written all over it,” said Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.After three hours of closed-door consultations on Sunday, a compromise was reached between the world powers to allow monitors to observe after consultations with “interested parties.”French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault noted that the resolution marks just the first step.“France calls on each side, in particular the regime and its supporters, to be responsible so that this resolution is implemented without delay and a lasting ceasefire is put in place across the country,” he said.Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari criticised the move, saying that the resolution was “just another part of the continued propaganda against Syria and its fight against terrorists.”The resolution also demands unhindered humanitarian access for the UN and international organisations to deliver life-saving assistance.In response to the vote, Human Rights Watch’s UN Director Louis Charbonneau said that such monitoring is “crucial” and that Syrian, Russian and Iranian militaries must comply with the resolution.“Russia and Iran have abysmal records complying with their obligations to protect civilians in Syria and allow aid access,” he said.Charbonneau also highlighted the need for the UN General Assembly to establish a mechanism to gather and preserve evidence of serious crimes and prepare cases for prosecution, noting it could “deter those contemplating further atrocities in Syria.”Head of Amnesty International’s UN Office Sherine Tadros echoed similar sentiments, saying that UN monitors must be allowed to investigate war crimes and the Security Council must send monitors to all areas of evacuation in the country beyond Aleppo.“The world is watching how the UN responds to the plight of Aleppo,” she said.According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, approximately 20,000 civilians have already been evacuated from east Aleppo.The ongoing evacuation process got off to a shaky start with the breakdown of a ceasefire agreement between rebels and government forces, forcing all evacuations to be suspended. Evacuations have since been resumed as an estimated 15,000 civilians remain in the city.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described destruction caused by the 6-year civil war in Syria as a “gaping hole in the global conscience.”“Aleppo is now a synonym for hell…peace will only prevail when it is accompanied by compassion, justice, and accountability for the abominable crimes we have seen,” he said.19 Dec

Colombia’s Example and Our Calamitous Blunders - By Editor, Sunday Times, Sri LankaDec 19 2016 (The Sunday Times - Sri Lanka)There is a reason why the peace deal of the Colombian Government with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) became a reality despite formidable obstacles. Credited with brokering the deal and bringing to a close, one of the deadliest and longest-running civil wars in Latin America, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos,Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for 2016 attributes his success to putting the victims at the heart of the process.‘This succeeded because we made sure that the victims were prioritised in every way possible and were not made to feel irrelevant’ he said, soon after accepting the award.Colombia’s difference in national dialogue The Colombian example was singular. Its national dialogue was not limited to exclusively elitist pockets of opinion but reached out even to those who had earlier responded negatively in a national plebiscite, including religious and trade union leaders. Comprehensive revisions were made in the draft as a result. Santos now has the heavy responsibility of implementing the accord but the start has been promising.There are valuable lessons that Sri Lanka’s Unity Government can learn from the Colombian President’s trenchant advice. One strong focus there has been the importance given to reform of national laws, policies and practices in an inclusive and open manner rather than secretively.And if last week’s Concluding Observations by the United Nations Committee against Torture (UNCAT) is any indication, the Government needs to pull up its game and respond properly to the multitude of challenges looming before it in the coming months Change in Government, no panacea.Last week’s column examined the UNCAT’s Observations issued in response to Sri Lanka’s periodic report submitted in terms of the Convention against Torture. The same focus will be continued for this week due to its overriding importance. These are precisely the key points which reform should address.The UNCAT’s recommendations concerned systemic patterns of impunity in the South as well as in the North. Flamboyant promises and artificial assurances will not serve as a miracle cure for these ills. Instead, carefully structured reforms are needed that put the victims at the core of the process. These reforms must address the investigative, the prosecutorial and the judicial pillars of the system, all of which have been seriously compromised.The Committee stated quite rightly that torture was most evidenced during the initial hours of interrogation. Police investigators often fail to register detainees during this period, providing them with opportunities to abuse at free will. Remarking that neither the Attorney General nor the judiciary exercises sufficient control over orders of detention, the Committee called for safeguards wherein even judges who fail in their judicial duties in this regard should be held to account.Rejecting regressive measures And so, it is precisely at this point that safeguards had to be provided to detainees including prompt access to counsel, the right to notify relatives and the need to install video surveillance in all places of custody except when the right to privacy or the right to confidential communications with a lawyer or a doctor may be at issue.The UNCAT did not take kindly therefore to a recently proposed (and withdrawn) amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code seeking to bar prompt legal access to detainees. Neither did it respond well to another problematic effort to enact a counter-terror law which was more draconian than the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which it sought to replace.In fact, the abuse of detention laws forms a main thrust of this report. Pointedly it was observed that forthcoming legislation on national security should adopt a precise definition of terrorist acts and guarantee the requirement of strict necessity and proportionality with the ensuring of effective judicial review. Reflecting on the pattern of forced confessions under the PTA, the Committee expressed alarm that the proposed counter-terror law continues to allow this.Judicial diligence and punishment in lack there of Given the Committee’s finding that judges do not exercise their discretion in examining cases of alleged torture with due diligence, it was pointed out that judicial review to test the voluntariness of the confession was itself not a sufficient safeguard.And to be plain, the point made by the UNCAT regarding the absence of judicial due diligence has often been reflected in comments made by Sri Lanka’s appellate courts that litter our constitutional jurisprudence. In that regard the Committee’s recommendation is difficult to disagree with.Judges must actively ask the detainees about their treatment during detention and request a forensic examination. If they fail to respond appropriately to allegations of torture raised during judicial proceedings, they must be appropriately disciplined.Independent investigation of torture allegations The jurists also called for the enforcement of Sri Lanka’s Evidence Ordinance in all cases including in terrorism related offences as well as ensuring the right of a detainee to have access to an interpreter.It reminded the Sri Lankan State of its duty to ensure that detained persons are promptly brought before a judge and in any event, not exceeding 48 hours. Arresting officers must register the exact date, time, ground for the detention and place of arrest of detainees.Officers who fail to adhere to the law or ensure that their subordinates do so, must be penalized.The State was also requested to establish effective prosecutorial oversight over the police. Statements obtained during police interrogation must not be relied on as the central element of proof in criminal prosecutions. And an independent body must head the investigation of torture.Refraining from foolhardy provocation Among this plethora of recommendations, one fact is certain. The UNCAT’s response last week was notably harsh. Perhaps the quite flagrant if not foolhardy provocation presented before its astonished members in the subversive form of an intelligence chief being part of the State delegation was one reason. We shall never know.Whatever it is arrogance or ignorance driving Sri Lanka’s calamitous blunders that we constantly see, this needs to stop.This story was originally published by The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka19 Dec

Carbon Tax Could Boost Green Energy in Bangladesh - A worker arranges bricks for burning at a traditional brick factory in Munshiganj, Bangladesh. Such factories are responsible for a large amount of carbon emissions. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPSBy Farid AhmedDHAKA, Dec 19 2016 (IPS)Bangladesh is weighing a World Bank proposal to introduce a carbon tax, the first of its kind in the South Asian nation, amid fears of a backlash from consumers.In its proposal, the World Bank suggested that the government introduce the carbon tax initially only on petroleum products. Bank officials advised the government to keep the market price of fuel unchanged by slashing its own profits."The cost of a carbon tax should not be passed on to the consumers." --Dr. Saleemul HuqFuel costs are generally much higher in Bangladesh compared to the international market, which has allowed the government to make a huge profit in past years.“We need to weigh the proposal to assess its pros and cons,” Bangladesh’s state minister for Finance and Planning M.A. Mannan told IPS in Dhaka.Previous efforts to tax polluting industries by Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith have failed to gain traction, and several senior government officials who asked not to be named believe the government will not act quickly on any new tax.Still, many climate change activists and scientists were largely happy with the proposal and said those responsible for carbon emissions must pay the price. They believe imposing such a tax would trigger new investments in clean technology, but stress that the market price of fuel should be kept stable for consumers.“Bangladesh has no obligation to impose a carbon tax but nevertheless it should do so to both raise revenue for investments in cleaner energy and also to impose some cost on polluting energy,” said Dr Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development.“At present, the cost the consumers bear is much higher than necessary when the global price of imported petroleum is considered. Hence the cost of a carbon tax should not be passed on to the consumers,” Dr. Huq told IPS.He said that the tax collected thus would accrue to the government, which could then allocate it to investments in cleaner energy.The chief of a leading consumers’ rights group disagreed. “I don’t think it’s justified to impose a carbon tax right at this moment,” Ghulam Rahman, president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, told IPS.Rahman, who earlier headed Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission, said it would not only affect consumers but also hamper the country’s production and development.Bangladesh should not rush to impose a carbon tax when many of the world’s largest polluters have failed to do so, he said.In a move to address the impacts of climate change, Bangladesh amended its constitution in 2011 to include provisions for the protection of the environment and safeguarding natural resources for current and future generations. Moreover, as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution during the COP21 meeting in Paris, Bangladesh committed to reducing climate-harming emissions by 5 percent.Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, a professor of economics at the University of Dhaka, said the government should take effective measures to curb carbon emissions, but instead of introducing a carbon tax immediately, it should encourage green and clean technologies by offering tax breaks and other benefits.Apart from their adverse impacts on the environment, unchecked carbon dioxide emissions take a huge toll on public health, said Titumir, who also heads the policy research group Unnayan Onneshan.With assistance from the World Bank, Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to its low-lying geography, was the first to set up its own Climate Change Trust Fund to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, and this time Bangladesh could take the lead again.Zahid Hussain, lead economist at the World Bank’s Dhaka office, said, “Petroleum products are the best option for Bangladesh to introduce a carbon tax since the government was making a huge profit by selling petroleum products.”Initially, Bangladesh could focus on fuel only since it might be difficult to collect carbon taxes from other sources, he said.Hussain argued that while oil prices do fluctuate, the government could assist the most vulnerable segments of the population.Apart from tapping a significant source of revenue, Hussain said a carbon tax could even help Bangladesh and its exporters carve a niche the increasingly environmentally-conscious developed markets across the world.A World Bank document did not rule out the challenges of introducing carbon tax and said policy-makers could justifiably be concerned about the impacts of carbon taxes on the poorer segments of the population and on some economic sectors.“A carbon tax can have significant benefits for Bangladesh, but it’s not without challenges,” it said.Related ArticlesOffsets to Cushion South African Carbon TaxCarbon Pricing to Save Green Climate Fund19 Dec

Bring Back Our Girls Campaign Faces “Hope Fatigue” - Bring Back Our Girls campaign co-founder Saudatu Mahdi with Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda. Credit: Donor Direct Action.By Lindah MogeniNEW YORK, Dec 16 2016 (IPS)The Bring Back Our Girls Campaign has experienced some successes but must now overcome the challenge of hope fatigue, Bring Back Our Girls campaign co-founder Saudatu Mahdi told IPS in a recent interview.“There is the challenge of hope fatigue, especially when the expected timelines are not achieved and financial streams are low…however, the campaign remains faithful in its advocacy,”Mahdi told IPS.However Mahdi also noted that, “Bring Back Our Girls has been one of the longest-standing campaigns in Nigeria and has been largely sustained by the horrendous nature of what the girls have gone through.”On April 14th 2014, 276 female students in a boarding secondary school in Chibok, Northern Nigeria, were loaded into trucks at gunpoint and kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in the dead of the night.The kidnappings sparked an international outrage which led to the foundation of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign – an homage to the social media hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.Mahdi who is also the Secretary-General of Nigerian women’s rights group, Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) appealed for an end to the rampant violence against Nigerian women and girls and the release of the girls currently in Boko Haram’s captivity.Fifty-seven of the kidnapped girls managed to escape in June 2014, two months after their capture. Two years later, in May 2016, one of the kidnapped girls was found clutching a four-month year old baby in the outskirts of Sambisa forest in Northeastern Nigeria- rumored to be one of Boko Haram’s strongholds.More recently, 21 of the kidnapped girls, along with a twenty-month old baby born to one of the girls, were released by Boko Haram on October 12th this year after negotiations with the Nigerian government finally bore fruit.Asked whether there are any plans in motion to rehabilitate the released Chibok girls, Mahdi told IPS that the Nigerian government and philanthropic organizations have been involved in “forming rehabilitation plans which specifically target survivors of Boko Haram.”Mahdi also told IPS that, “I can confirm that the 21 recently released girls are currently in a government hospital where their health is being looked after and they have undergone a full regime of both psycho-social and medical examinations.”“There is a dire need for the rehabilitation and reintegration of all girls as a responsibility of the Nigerian government,” said Mahdi.“The recent release of some girls is only part of the deal and we have to be careful. There is hope and we can build on hope. There is still a window of opportunity that we will see all girls released…” said Mahdi at a Donor Direct Action panel discussion held in New York on December 8th.Currently, the Bring Back Our Girls campaign is pressuring the Nigerian government to release results from rescue operations, said Mahdi.Also speaking at the panel, prominent global women’s group’s supporters, Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda, stressed the urgency of standing in solidarity with women’s rights groups by helping increase their funding.“It is not about one person passing on the light but all of us being able to shine our own lights,” said Steinem.16 Dec

Refugees from Boko Haram Languish in Cameroon - UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi is received at the Minawao Camp in Cameroon’s Far North region on Dec. 15, 2016, where some 60,000 refugees have fled attacks by Boko Haram. Credit: Mbom Sixtus/IPSBy Mbom SixtusMINAWAO CAMP, Cameroon, Dec 16 2016 (IPS)Tears spring to Aichatou Njoya’s eyes as she recalls the day Islamic militants from Boko Haram arrived on her doorstep in Nigeria.“It was on May 24, 2013. My husband was sleeping in his room while I was on the other side of the house with our six children. The youngest was only one month old,” she mutters, pausing to collect herself.The funding gap for refugees and IDPs in Cameroon now stands at 62.4 million dollars.Njoya told IPS when the armed insurgents broke into the house, they grabbed her husband and dragged him into her room. “They brought him in front of us and put a machete to his neck and asked him if he was going to convert from Christianity to Islam. They asked thrice, and thrice he refused. Then they slew him right in front of me and our children,” she said, still holding back tears.The widowed refugee said an argument ensued among the assailants as to whether to spare her life or not. They finally agreed to let her live. The next day she escaped with her children to the hills and trekked for several days until they reached the border with Cameroon, where the UNHCR had vehicles to transport refugees to the camp. The camp had just been set up, she says.Njoya, now 36, has been living in the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon’s Far North region for more than three and a half years now, with scant hope of returning anytime soon.IPS spoke with Njoya and others during the Dec. 15 visit of Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for the United Nations Refugee agency UNHCR, to the camp. Grandi called for the financial empowerment of Nigerian refugees to help them cope with insufficient humanitarian aid.The camp hosts about 60,000 Nigerians who have fled their homes since 2011 because of attacks carried out by the Islamist terror group, Boko Haram.Grandi spoke with refugees, representatives of national and international NGOs, and officials of the Cameroonian government who gathered to welcome him. Cameroon is the third country he is visiting as part of his tour of countries of the Lake Chad Basin affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.Grandi said his visit was intended to encourage donors to provide more aid to affected countries and governments to work together to reinstate peace in the region and facilitate the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) their homes.“We have made efforts to improve aid, but aid is still insufficient. I have listened to complaints of these refugee women who say they do not have any income generation activities and I think the UNHCR and its partners should begin working in that direction. Help them help themselves,” he said.He had just listened to representatives of the refugees and refugee women discussing the difficulties they face on a daily basis, including food and water shortages, scarcity of wood, insufficient medicines, and insufficient classroom and medical staff in health units in the camp.Growing population, funding gap aggravate living conditionsAccording to Njoya, and every other refugee who talked to IPS, including Jallo Mohamed, Bulama Adam and Ayuba Fudama, living conditions are growing worse by the day. They all complain of joblessness. Njoya says even when they leave the camp with refugee certificates as IDs, Cameroonian security officers still stop them from going out.“This hinders the success of the income generation activities we are yearning for,” she said.“When we just got here, they gave each refugee 13 kg of rice monthly. It was later reduced to 10 and last month (November 2016) it dropped further. The rationing for wood has also declined.  Nowadays when you go to the health unit for headache, they give you paracetamol. If you have a fever, they give you paracetamol. If you have stomach ache or anything else, they give you the same tablets. And when you go there at night, there is no one on duty,” says Jallo Mohamed.Reports say there are periods when as many as 50 births are recorded per week in the Minawao camp.“You can’t blame them. They sleep early every night because they do not have TV sets or other forms of entertainment. That is why the birth rate is as it is,” said a medic at the camp who asked not to be named.Cameroon currently hosts more than 259,000 refugees from the Central African Republic and 73,747 Nigerians. Funders led by the U.S., Japan, EU, Spain, Italy, France and Korea were able to raise only 37 per cent of a total of 98.6million dollars required in assistance for refugees and IDPs in Cameroon this year – a funding gap of 62.4 million dollars, according to the UNHCR factsheet.The funding gap for requirements of Nigerian refugees, according to the UNHCR, stands at 29.7 million dollars. Nevertheless, High Commissioner Grandi remains positive that empowering refugees to earn incomes will improve living standards at the Minawao Camp.Regarding the wood shortage, he said he saw fuel-efficient cooking stoves in Niger and Chad and will encourage stakeholders in Cameroon to introduce the models in the camp. He also reassured refugees that an ongoing water project will provide the camp and host communities with clean pipe-borne water.The High Commissioner’s mission to Cameroon also includes the launching of 2017 Regional Refugee Response Plan for the Nigeria Refugee Situation.Related ArticlesStories of Hope from a Cameroon Refugee CampBoko Haram: Recruited by Friends and FamilyRelease of Chibok Girls Rekindles Pressure to Free Last 19616 Dec

Beyond Dreams - By Adrian A. HusainDec 15 2016 (Dawn, Pakistan)An op-ed article, advising President Barack Obama to accord recognition to Pales¬¬tine before he left office, appeared out of the blue some days ago in the New York Times.Adrian A. HusainAuthored by Jimmy Carter, the piece was curiously ill-timed. Obama is due to retire in the third week of January and is already something of a ceremonial — rather than executive — figure.One wonders why the former US president should have offered this piece of advice at the eleventh hour. It smacked of panic, of the well-meaning hysteria of a venerable Democrat in the face of the advent of the permanently ‘tweeting’ president-elect. Liberalism is fundamentally dishonest.There have been other concerns. In fact, there is currently a storm in the United States over a CIA report relating to an alleged hacking by the Russians during the presidential elections. An investigation has been launched in Congress.It is as though a segment of the American political elite, including senior Republicans, had suddenly realised that it was confronting an abyss. The certainties of democracy were suddenly under threat.With Trump playing ducks and drakes with time-honoured policies, footholds such as those of continuity — and stability — could be seen slipping away. There was a kind of crisis of faith.In a recent interview, Noam Chomsky expressed concern about the “organised destruction of human life” by certain Republicans through their defiance of global efforts at climate control.However, what is worrying to the rest of the world is the overall slippage in evidence in the context of democracy and the perceived abortion of the ‘system’ in the US.America seems to have lost out on account of its neo-liberalism when this can so easily slide into fascism. Nationalism, such as that of Trump is a dated — and risky — phenomenon.It appeared to go out in the US with George Bush but has reared its head again. The dream of making America ‘great again’ has a menacing ring.Obama’s, on the other hand, was a dream of a gun-free and peaceful domestic environment in the United States and of a realistically possible peace abroad.However belated, we must also commend Jimmy Carter’s concern about Palestine. The two-state solution is not one that should be jettisoned because of Israel’s intransigence. A sovereign Palestinian state is a moral imperative.The mayhem in the Middle East too must end. It is the responsibility of the West to see to it that it does — since it was the West that initially brought it about.If wisdom is to prevail, then nationalisms and fundamentalisms alike must be contained. Also, granted that we live in a world crushed by demographic constraints and poverty, economic advancement alone is not enough.Not just environmental but intellectual degradation and the question of the survival of ‘homo sapiens’ — of a thinking humanity — must be addressed. There is a space beyond that of political and economic power. A discourse of the human spirit and value is called for.Liberalism has, on the whole, failed to provide this. It is a philosophy that is fundamentally dishonest. Its humanist postures fail to convince. On the contrary, they often barely hide a hegemonistic — and predatory — mindset.Both Britain and France, for instance, jump eagerly into the fray when required. David Cameron and François Hollande both endorsed and spearheaded intervention in Libya when this could have been avoided. Anarchy is all that that led to.There was likewise concern in the West about the rise to power in Egypt of The Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi. Alarm bells started to ring when, in the course of a year, an Islamist order began to take shape. Israel grew jittery.A dilemma came about in the relevant corridors of power and an expedient conclusion was reached. Democracy had to be kicked in the shins and military rule ushered in.Realpolitik, yet another facet of liberalism, fascinates but also disturbs. Despite his part in the undoing of the ‘Arab Spring’ in Egypt, Obama was perhaps not entirely to blame where it is the US establishment that ultimately calls the shots.In our own neck of the woods, the nationalism of Narendra Modi is inevitably a source of concern. Kashmir continues to be a flashpoint. But we must not overreact to acts of provocation along the Line of Control by India. An equivalent response seems the best option.It is, however, too easy to heed promptings in the direction of counter-aggression. That is surely not the way. In a war-torn world — and given a long history of failed peace initiatives — it makes more sense to pursue the cause of peace.Above all, the will to resolve the issue of Kashmir must be there. That is a vital ingredient. It is a prerequisite of meaningful and productive dialogue.The writer is the founder chairman of Dialogue: Pakistan, a local think tank. Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2016This story was originally published by Dawn, Pakistan15 Dec

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Putin and Erdogan Jointly Condemn Assassination of Russian Ambassador - Lauren McCauley, staff writerUpdated 3pm EST: Leaders of Russia and Turkey both publicly condemned the assassination of Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, on Monday and said the killing would not derail efforts towards peace in Syria.31 min

After 'Pivotal Year' for Reproductive Rights, Advocates Ready for Trump-Era Battles - Deirdre Fulton, staff writer2016 was a "pivotal year" for women's health, according to a 50-state report card released Monday by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR)—and given signals from the incoming Trump administration, "2017 will undoubtedly bring new challenges and new opportunities for action."31 min

Poll Shows Canadian Majority Wants Water for People, Not for Profit - Deirdre Fulton, staff writerAn overwhelming majority of Ontarians want their government to prioritize community drinking water needs over those of commercial water-bottling companies, according to a new poll which also supports the call for Nestlé Waters Canada to sell a well it purchased this summer to the local municipality as its residents have demanded.19 Dec

#NotNormal: Trump to Continue Having Private Security Team - Andrea Germanos, staff writerProtection provided by Secret Service may have been the norm for past presidents and president-elects. But not for Donald Trump. In "a major break from tradition," Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel writes Monday, Trump not only has continued to use his private security team during the transition, but he also "is expected to keep at least some members of the team after he becomes president."19 Dec

Trump Sons Auctioning Off First Family Hunting Trip for $500,000: Report - Lauren McCauley, staff writerHunting enthusiasts Donald Jr. and Eric Trump will be ringing in their father's ascent to power with a fundraiser and bash dubbed "Opening Day 2017," according to an invitation obtained by TMZ and reported on Monday.19 Dec

IMF Chief Convicted, But Spared Jail Time, for Corruption - Lauren McCauley, staff writerChristine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Monday was found guilty of "negligence" for approving a massive government payout to business tycoon Bernard Tapie during her tenure as French finance minister. "This should help calm all that they're-only-in-it-for-themselves, anti-establishment feeling out there," quipped Globe and Mail senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon in response to the latest charge of government corruption.19 Dec

Chinese Newspaper: Trump Has 'No Sense of How to Lead a Superpower' - Deirdre Fulton, staff writerPresident-elect Donald Trump "is not behaving as a president who will become master of the White House in a month," the Chinese newspaper Global Times wrote in an editorial on Monday. "He bears no sense of how to lead a superpower."19 Dec

Saddam Hussein Was Not 'Worth Removing From Power': Ex-CIA Agent - Nadia Prupis, staff writerA former CIA analyst who personally interrogated Saddam Hussein said the U.S. "got it so wrong" on the invasion of Iraq and should have left the now-deceased leader in power.19 Dec

North Carolina Poised to Repeal Anti-LGBTQ "Bathroom Bill" - Nadia Prupis, staff writerNorth Carolina lawmakers are poised to repeal the anti-LGBTQ "bathroom bill," the state's incoming Democratic governor said Monday. Governor-elect Roy Cooper said a special legislative assembly will convene Tuesday to address the bill, known as HB2, which requires transgender people to use public facilities that correspond to their biological sex, rather than their gender identity. The bill also prohibits municipalities from creating nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people at the local level.19 Dec

Amid Finger Pointing at Russia, US Brings Tanks Back to Cold War Depot - Andrea Germanos, staff writerAs President Barack Obama vows that the United States will take "action" in response to the allegations that Russia interfered with the November election, the U.S. army has started to bring tanks back to a Cold War site in the Netherlands as a show of its "commitment to deterrence in Europe."19 Dec