oldephartte(in training): 28 January - Netvibes

Archie Comics and Jazz-Rap: The Week in Pop-Culture Writing - Archie’s Long, Dark Journey to Riverdale Abraham Riesman | Vulture “The characters are also a romantic vision of another time, though not in the way you might think. Sure, there’s a way in which the Riverdale gang harkens back to an invented, Pleasantville-esque period of American consensus and stability. But the time that we seek through Archie and his pals isn’t a historical time, but rather a personal one: adolescence. When you’re a child, you thumb through an Archie digest and, like the young Aguirre-Sacasa, dream of how great it’ll be to be a teenager. When you pick up one of Goldwater’s revamped Archie comics as an adult, you’re dreaming of how great it was to be a teenager. Either way, you’re pining for those axial days of high school.” The Future of Abortion on TV Julie Kliegman | The Ringer “For an abortion plotline that’s both entertaining and destigmatizing, look to Jane the Virgin, the third-season CW show with the premise that Jane (Gina Rodriguez) brings a baby into her Catholic family—rather than getting an abortion—after she’s accidentally artificially inseminated at 23. But in Season 2, Jane’s mom, Xiomara, gets pregnant and decides to have an abortion at the beginning of Season 3. To be blunt: That’s important, since TV generally underrepresents people of color getting abortions.” Grave New World Josephine Livingstone | The New Republic “1984 does not pastiche a world ravaged by capitalism and ruled by celebrities—the kind of world that could lead to the election of someone like Trump. Instead, it depicts suffering inflicted by state control masquerading as socialism. Remember, the banned book that opens Winston’s mind is called The Theory and Practice of Oligarchal Collectivism. That book, mixed with Winston’s own memories, supposedly reveal the true history of his world.” Rebooting Queer Eye and Will & Grace Is a Mistake Tom Vellner | BuzzFeed “The producers are right: America stands divided as it approaches an uncertain future. It’s also true that gay men are brave and laugh and have hearts. But the fact that television producers are still using the words ‘moisturizer,’ ‘fabulous,’ and ‘pink’ to define gay men is flagrantly out of touch. Ten years after Queer Eye ended its popular run in 2007, gay men are apparently still being reduced to neutered sidekicks—portrayed as if they do not have complex interior lives of their own, because they’re too busy improving the fashion habits of straight men.” Going Solo: Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth Steps Outside the Frame Mike Powell | Pitchfork “Here’s a guy who once wrote a concept album that in his words juxtaposed ‘the Aztec Empire with contemporary America and this idea of the destruction of place,’ who seemed strenuously, almost angrily opposed to making art that might humanize him in the eyes of his audience. Now he’s writing about lovers lying silently in each other’s arms and how heartache can turn even a brick wall inside out. Reality—the mundanity of it, but also the way those mundanities accrue into something remarkable—is the grail now.” Aminé and the Politics of Jazz-Rap Tirhakah Love | MTV News “Why should Aminé’s political coda be such a surprise? Even as hip-hop begins to embrace positive-leaning comfort music in trying times, there’s a very real need to ground that optimism within the realities of the Trump era. The words that Aminé added on The Tonight Show ended up overshadowing the rest of his performance—but that’s not a dis. In this case, working backward toward protest was exactly the right move. Aminé’s performance was a potent symbol of the way that urge will continue to seep into even the most seemingly apolitical music. White, mainstream audiences matter, not only in determining how well a song charts but in building up a national consensus across racial and class lines against fascism, racism, and xenophobia.” What Does Trainspotting’s Opening Speech Mean Today? Stuart Jeffries | The Guardian “What both [Irvine] Welsh and [Chuck] Palahniuk were addressing as the last millennium hobbled towards its end was not just consumerism’s existential void, but a crisis in masculinity, wherein men bridled at the domesticated half-lives they were leading and dreamed of a wild transvaluation of prevailing values. (Whether women were similarly bridling wasn’t considered in Fight Club or Trainspotting. Not really.)” Reading the Game: Red Dead Redemption Jason Sheehan | NPR “If we take as fact that Westerns are the American literary counterpoint to the samey-sameness and circular repetition of the Campbellian Hero's Journey in European high fantasy—that, like jazz or cubism, the Western exists to turn classical form inside out in an attempt at telling a truer story by beginning with the hero, broken by his labors, and attempting (almost always) to get a fresh throw of fate's dice—then Red Dead is a bonafide masterpiece.”48 min

How Culture Became a Powerful Political Weapon - When it comes to living in a democracy, Nato Thompson argues, nothing affects us more directly and more powerfully than culture. Culture suffuses the world we live in, from TV to music to advertising to sports. And all these things, Thompson writes in his new book, Culture as Weapon, “influence our emotions, our actions, and our very understanding of ourselves as citizens.” But comprehending how dominant culture has become also means thinking about the ways it can be, and has been, employed to manipulate consumers, by politicians, brands, and other powerful institutions. In Culture as Weapon, Thompson delves into the culture wars of the 1980s, the early origins of public relations and advertising in the early 20th century, how culture became a powerful vehicle for reinventing cities, and how brands associate themselves with causes to shape their own reputations. He looks at how artists have responded to these impulses, and how the emergence of the internet contributed to a new kind of immersion in culture, in which we’re more deeply absorbed in it than ever. Thompson is the artistic director of the nonprofit arts organization Creative Time, which commissions and supports socially engaged works of art. He spoke to me by phone. The interview has been edited and condensed. Sophie Gilbert: Your book explores how arts, entertainment, and culture in the larger sense color our view, as citizens, of how we interpret current events. Do you think this played out particularly in the last election? Nato Thompson: I feel like it plays out in every election. And to put a cautionary note around it, I’m game on for talking about the urgency of what Trump presents, but the misleading part of that is that it makes us think that those who didn’t vote for Trump are somehow outside of the bubble, which I totally do not believe. It falls too conveniently into the idea that the masses are somehow hypnotized by the media-culture machine but the progressive rationalists escape it, which just isn’t true. Our ideological terrain is much murkier than that. Gilbert: That’s interesting, because my next question was going to be about how you explore in the book how people and companies use culture to expand and maintain their influence. And one thing about the last president was that he was really a master of this, and in using cultural soft power. Can you talk a little bit about how he used culture within his administration? Thompson: Just the way Obama ran was interesting. He ran on a “change” platform, which is also what Trump ran on, obviously. Certainly this was the post-Bush era, and change was welcome to a country totally exhausted by the Iraq War and the War on Terror, and so the “brand” of Obama, to put it in those terms, was, “Yes we can,” and, “Change you can believe in.” Which certainly appeals to the heart, but could also easily be an ad for Pepsi-Cola. That said, he was extraordinarily personable, and probably the coolest president we will ever have. He was extremely deft on a talk show, he was the first president who could do a mic drop, he was the first president up there shooting hoops where you actually thought he was good. He was cool, but certainly not without a brand image. Gilbert: The first chapter is largely about the culture wars that emerged during the Reagan presidency, and it feels in some ways very familiar, especially with the current threats to NEA funding. Do you feel like history is repeating itself? Thompson: Yes, although at a very different speed. One of the lessons that we’re all learning that Reagan knew, very well in fact, is that controversies are on your side. When it comes to the culture wars, paradox is your friend. So when Trump says he’s going to build a wall—which I think is going to be the most iconic artwork of this era—it’s meant to make people angry. Some people think Trump is a master media strategist, but whether he is or not doesn’t matter. His personality happens to coincide with the needs of the media itself, and his behavior is such that the camera can’t get off him, and that’s something that the Christian right learned with the culture wars. When Jesse Helms went after “sodomites,” not only was he able to galvanize what he called the silent majority, but simultaneously he was able to gay-bash, to talk viscerally about sex, while pretending to hate it. He could have his cake and eat it. Trump does that too, I think. He enjoys condemning things because the things he’s condemning obsess the media. Gilbert: There’s a quote in the book from Hitler, who describes citizens as “a vascillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another,” and how the art of propaganda consists of finding ways to capture their attention. Do you think culture wars are about uniting people or dividing them? Thompson: Well, I don’t want to generalize because it’s a complex media landscape, and certain actions do in fact bring people together. But to say something kind of weird, I know a lot of people say love trumps hate—they use that phraseology—but I would say fear of the other is a more historically powerful force. Fear is one of these things in our emotional toolkits that gets a reaction out of us as people very fast. In our psychology, fear doesn’t have an opposite: It is the dominant emotional register. I say that because it’s useful to understand that fear is something we’re very vulnerable to, and because of that it will continue to be used. It’s a weapon we use on all fronts, because it’s how we function. This is the way things tend to have played out historically, and are playing out now. Gilbert: What did you make of the inauguration? What kind of message did it project? Thompson: It was interesting—there was so much footage of anarchists breaking windows, and I thought, this is the same media impulse that couldn’t take its eyes off Trump. An alternative title for the book certainly could have been, “If It Bleeds, It Leads,” and you see that same addiction to hyperbole, addiction to sensationalism, ratings, clickbait. I watched that and was so infuriated by it, because it just felt like nothing was changing in terms of the way we’re reading the world. Gilbert: I wanted to ask, too, about the concert the day before, with Toby Keith and The Piano Guys. Eight years previously we saw this huge cultural event with Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé, and the recent concert was also touted as a big inaugural event but the talent was markedly different. Do you have any thoughts on the message of that? Thompson: There’s been such a different range in this election with cultural strategies, and here I’m talking capital-C culture, like arts and entertainment. Because, of course, we all know Trump had a difficult time getting acts to agree to come, and certainly had he had his druthers, he would have had the Rolling Stones or someone big-name and mainstream, but it didn’t go that way. Quite frankly, I don’t think Trump thinks of himself as appealing to the demographic that actually ended up playing the inaugural concert. Gilbert: I thought about the protests, too, when I was reading the section on Campbell’s soup, and the power of branding for charitable causes, like pink soup cans for breast cancer. It seems there’s immense power in this instant visual iconography, like a sea of pink hats everywhere. Thompson: As far as I’m concerned, that march could have been led by a myriad of different issues, but thank goodness it was a women’s march. It was great for that, it had a different tone and a different feel, and the pink hats led a lot of that, a feeling of literal texture. The Campbell’s thing is a little different because that chapter is about how companies like to brand themselves as social-good companies, like how Google’s motto is “Don’t Be Evil.” I think that under Trump we’re going to be in for a lot more of brands for social justice, because, I suspect, a lot of people are going to be unhappy with him, even if they supported him. A lot of the energy with him was against something—against Hillary—and now she’s out of the picture that’ll have to shift to another target. And a lot of companies will be able to position themselves as being against the current system, when really in fact they’re not against it at all. Gilbert: The idea in the book too about the massive psychogenic illness of social media, and our self-perpetuating bubbles was fascinating. Because right now, every time I go on Twitter, I get a feedback loop of doom. Thompson: I think we’re all in a national and international learning curve with that. It’s almost like there’s an emotional logic to social networking that we’re all learning together, collectively. We’re learning the emotional responses that happen to us online, we’re learning that we’re all kind of trolls when it comes to the internet. We’re watching everyone freak out but also learning that freaking out emotionally wears us down. We’re all on this strange emotional rollercoaster ride together. This is such a new way to receive news, it’s such a new way to relate to people close to us. Who knows where it’s all going? But that, certainly, is very different from the culture wars of the ’80s. Gilbert: How can we, as consumers of culture, be aware of the ways in which our emotions might be being manipulated by it? While also not being afraid of it? Thompson: Well, it’s a good question. I think mindfulness, certainly, and I’m no therapist, but I’m a big fan of talking things out in groups and getting some distance from how things affect you before you react to them. There’s an early analysis in the book of Walter Lippmann [his thoughts on democracy, and how he believed that people acted emotionally rather than rationally]. I would say the same analysis applies to media. I don’t want to dismiss democracy as a concept, but certainly key pillars of it—that citizens vote rationally—are inaccurate when it comes to who we are as people. Part of that, then, is really getting a handle on how people know what they know. A lot of what drives culture is branding, and a lot of the driving engine of our society knows already exactly who we are and how to get us to do things. The logic of most industries actually works very coercively. So, I’m not answering your question, but I think it’s good to be aware of how intimate and deeply fearful we are. Gilbert: What I took from your last answer is that since we’re begin targeted so effectively by brands based on our identity, maybe we should start mixing things up? I should start consuming culture that isn’t typically my kind of thing? Thompson: Quite honestly, on a more strategic level, it’s good to just get outside of your bubbles. Looking at the red state/blue state thing, it’s not really about states. If you throw a rock 40 minutes outside of a city, you’ll probably hit a Trump area. But what that demonstrates, too, is that geographical proximity also has a huge power over who we think we are. The people around you inform you more than the internet does. This says to me that what we need is for people from the country to come to the city, and people from the city to come to the country, and we need to have honest and open conversations about what we’re thinking about.04:00

The Atlantic’s Week in Culture - Don’t Miss Remembering Mary Tyler Moore—David Sims looks back on the inimitable career of the actress, who died this week aged 80. A24Film The Oscar Nominations: La La Land, Moonlight, and Arrival Dominate—David Sims analyzes all the major contenders at this year’s Academy Awards. I, Daniel Blake Satirizes a Brutal Bureaucracy—David Sims watches Ken Loach’s Kafkaesque new movie, which follows the story of one man navigating Britain’s welfare system. Deciphering the Bizarre Twist Ending of Split—David Sims unpacks the final scene of M. Night Shyamalan’s newest movie. There Are No Easy Answers in Beware the Slenderman—Lenika Cruz delves into the unsettling HBO documentary, which follows the case of two Wisconsin girls who stabbed their friend. A Marriage Crumbles in the Gripping Iranian Drama The Salesman—David Sims praises the latest film from the Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi. The Elegant Simplicity of The Red Turtle—Christopher Orr reviews the beautifully sparse new film from the Oscar-winning animator Michaël Dudok de Wit. How Amazon Got a Best Picture Oscar Nomination—David Sims explains why the tech giant is the first online streaming service to receive an Academy Award nod. Indie Films to Look Forward to in 2017—David Sims casts an eye on all the exciting, smaller-scale movies coming to cinemas in the new year. C. Stanley Photography / Arena StageTheater Roe: Can a Play Influence the Abortion Debate?—Sophie Gilbert analyzes a new production about the legendary Supreme Court case, which opens during a time of renewed uncertainty over a woman’s right to choose. Brian Woolston / ReutersWomen’s March on Washington The Inauguration, and the Counter-Inauguration—Megan Garber follows the Women’s March on Washington, a protest that in its own way marked a peaceful transition of power. How Madonna Gave Trump Ammo With a Cry for Peace—Spencer Kornhaber discusses the pop star’s controversial comments during a speech at the Women’s March on Washington. NBCTelevision Saturday Night Live Faces Off Against the Trump Presidency—Sophie Gilbert recaps the sketch show’s first episode of the new administration. In Praise of Corinne, The Bachelor’s Human Conspiracy Theory—Megan Garber deciphers the reality show’s most enigmatic contestant. The Divine Comedy Within The Young Pope—Spencer Kornhaber unravels the humor of the new HBO show starring Jude Law. Losing Faith in The Path, Hulu’s Cult-Set Drama—Sophie Gilbert points to why the show may prove everything that’s wrong with streaming TV. Lucy Nicholson / ReutersMedia On Pitying Melania—Megan Garber sifts through all the memes, jokes, and fan fictions surrounding the first lady. Renata RakshaMusic The Month in Music About Loving Your Fellow Human—Spencer Kornhaber listens to new albums by The xx, Japandroids, and Austra that imagine personal and political utopias. Escape to the Future With Missy Elliott and Jamiroquai—Spencer Kornhaber discusses the sci-fi visions of two music-video legends, who returned with new songs and accompanying visuals. Signet Classics / AmazonBooks 1984 Isn’t the Only Book Enjoying a Revival—Sophie Gilbert analyzes some of the titles that have had a popular spike over the past year, in the wake of a divisive election. The Book That Bettered America—Megan Garber traces the significance of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to American evolution, as explained by Randal Fuller’s latest book. Brennan Linsley / APArt Why Christo Cancelled an Epic Public Artwork—Kriston Capps expands on how the artist’s decision to abandon his expansive Arkansas River project is the latest, biggest creative protest against Trump.27 Jan

Escape to the Future With Missy Elliott and Jamiroquai - Two icons of the music-video format have returned this Friday with light-up headpieces and underground post-apocalypse vibes and pretty catchy music. Do not call Missy Elliott and Jamiroquai nostalgia acts—they’re offering colorful and imaginative escape to the future. From the garbage-bag onesie of “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” to the bee facial of “Work It” to the Terminator goop of “She’s a Bitch” to the boogying marionettes of 2015’s “WTF (Where They From),” Missy Elliott’s knack for memorable music has been equalled by her knack for insane images. Today brings not only a visual smorgasbord in the video for the new song “I’m Better,” but also a trailer for a forthcoming documentary about the rapper that confirms her televisual excellence hasn’t happened by accident. It opens with her saying, “It’s never just making a hot record—I can do that in my sleep. But visually I have to see what I’m going to do with that record when I perform it.” The “I’m Better” video, aided by her longtime directorial collaborator Dave Meyers and the producer Lamb, features dancers suspended from the back as if they’re puppets, wearing glowing riot masks on their heads, and grooving in white workout gear like cultists doing aerobics. The industrial setting they’re in at the start of the clip turns out to have a liquid portal in the floor; everyone falls through, and suddenly it’s an underwater performance. The song is minimal, tense, and in step with the trap sound ruling hip hop right now. The dancing accentuates the uneasy mood: “I didn’t want them to hit every beat of the track,” Elliott told Fact. “I wanted it to be art.” She raps that her man watches her like he watches Scandal, which is to say totally caught up—a relatable feeling for the viewer. Less abstract but similarly heady is the new clip from the British funk act Jamiroquai. The band’s 1996 song “Virtual Insanity” made for one of the most famous music videos ever, with frontman Jay Kay hanging out in a room whose floors moved around him, a spectacle that scrambled the viewers’ expectations about gravity and home decor. That clip and others, such as the one for 1999’s “Canned Heat,” also demonstrated Kay really likes to wear things on his head. For the new song “Automaton,” the advanced single to the band’s first album since 2010, Kay’s hat fetish remains, as does the interest in science fiction and things moving that aren’t supposed to move. The video opens with a mushroom cloud—topical!—and then introduces Kay wearing a prehensile, light-up headpiece. He explores human ruins, first underground and then above ground, and reports back his findings to some researcher-type. His cyborg-scout get-up is cool in a campy way, and it fits right in with the song’s sound: disco rock with heavy amounts of vocal manipulation à la Daft Punk. Both Elliott’s and Jamiroquai’s videos might be seen as timely thanks to their dystopian vibes. But the creativity on display is exactly of the sort that both artists have shown throughout their careers. If there’s a takeaway message, it’s bedazzled onto one of Missy Elliott’s excellent outfits: “Save the Humans.”27 Jan

A Marriage Crumbles in the Gripping Iranian Drama The Salesman - The Salesman begins with what seems like an earthquake—the ground starts to shake at a comfortable-looking abode in Tehran, cracks suddenly appear in the walls, and the happily married Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) have to flee into the street. The newest film from Iran’s master of the domestic potboiler, Asghar Farhadi, is as subtly and methodically told as his other works, but to begin, he does allow himself one obvious visual metaphor. Emad and Rana’s life together is going to come apart at the scenes, seemingly out of nowhere, like a cruel act of god. In fact, it isn’t an earthquake that troubles the couple’s home, but nearby construction. Nonetheless, they have to temporarily move to another, shabbier apartment, where the previous tenant has left many of her possessions. They’re simultaneously playing the lead roles in a local production of Death of a Salesman, that canonical work on the myth of American exceptionalism. But Farhadi is not looking to draw some obvious parallel between Arthur Miller’s play and the lives of this couple. Rather, he wants to explore the terrifying speed with which conflict can disrupt our mundane lives, and the unconscious need we possess to slip into more outsized roles. The Salesman is a typically wrenching film for Farhadi, one that morphs from a quiet family drama to a low-key tale of revenge, and is all the more impressive for how seamlessly it executes that shift. Farhadi won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2011 for A Separation, which followed a middle-class Iranian couple’s attempt to divorce, and the various familial and courtroom troubles that then besieged them (The Salesman was similarly nominated for an Oscar this year). Farhadi’s cinematic style could kindly be described as sparing—the score is minimal, the camerawork lacking embellishment, the visuals strictly verité. When Farhadi cuts to the couple’s staging of Death of a Salesman, the exaggerated set behind them, decorated with neon signs advertising casinos and bowling, seems all the more lurid and cartoonish—a tightly restrained culture’s view of a shamefully extroverted land. That notion of extroversion is what begins to eat away at Emad and Rana’s relationship. When rehearsing Death of a Salesman, one of the male actors can barely stay in character at the sight of a female actor in the role of Miss Forsythe, who is implied to be a prostitute. Even the very idea of an actress pretending to be such a person feels like science fiction to him, and he can’t help but laugh at it. But fiction edges into reality for Emad and Rana, who learn that their new apartment’s previous tenant was similarly scandalous. The couple’s new neighbors remember her as “a woman with a lot of acquaintances” and who lived a “wild life,” but Emad and Rana are desperate to avoid discussing the subject. Their lives seem otherwise blissful: Their relationship is happy, and Emad is a beloved teacher at a local high school. That peace is disturbed when a client of the former tenant calls at the couple’s apartment and scuffles with Rana when he realizes she’s not who he’s looking for. This action unfolds entirely off-screen, while Rana is home alone. She can’t identify her assailant, nor does she want to address it with the police, afraid of the judgment that might follow, unfair or no. It’s an upsetting situation, but not a cataclysmic one—a crack in the wall, rather than a break in the foundation. But it’s enough to send Emad in search of retribution, a quest that will offer no help to his rattled wife (who doesn’t want the matter to spill out into the public eye), but might nonetheless satisfy his own anguish about failing to protect her. Farhadi is the best kind of political filmmaker—one who focuses his stories on mundane family matters and believable domestic dramas, whose works build to a catastrophe by upsetting the smallest societal norms. In The Salesman, you can feel Farhadi (who wrote and directed) putting his finger on the scale ever so slightly with the film’s big plot twist, then letting Emad’s own fragile masculinity do the rest. The tension in The Salesman all hinges on this one incident of mistaken identity and brief violence, one that can’t be undone or repaired. There is no grander escalation on the way, no confrontation with the former tenant who has inadvertently caused this mess (she remains a character only spoken of, an archetype as easy to imagine as the one the actors in Death of a Salesman snicker at). As tense as Emad’s revenge quest gets, The Salesman still falls short of the devastating heights Farhadi has hit with his best films (along with A Separation, the brilliantly-calibrated About Elly, also starring Alidoosti, is a vital work). The Salesman’s conclusion, while gripping, feels somewhat pat, focusing on a confrontation that wraps things up too neatly and quickly, even if Emad and Rana’s marriage remains deeply troubled. As the film goes on and Emad feels further emasculation and rage, Hosseini plays him as almost physically burdened by the unsolved crime, slightly more stooped over, with a bit of a dejected shuffle. It’s then, finally, that viewers can really see some Willy Loman in him. 27 Jan

Why Christo Cancelled an Epic Public Artwork - Christo, the artist famous for wrapping the Reichstag, erecting orange gates in Central Park, and running miles of fabric fence through Sonoma County ranch-land, has thrown in the towel. He told the New York Times this week that he is abandoning Over the River, his plan to drape a canopy over 6 miles of Colorado’s Arkansas River, as a protest against President Donald Trump. “I use my own money and my own work and my own plans because I like to be totally free,” Christo told the Times. “And here now, the federal government is our landlord. They own the land. I can’t do a project that benefits this landlord.” Rags Over the Arkansas River sounded a prompt triumphant note. The organization, which exists exclusively to oppose the artwork planned by Christo and his late-partner, Jeanne-Claude, declared their 18-year mission accomplished. The end of Over the River means the end of the road for Christo and Jeanne-Claude, at least in the U.S.: It was the couple’s last work planned here, their final collaboration in a career of public, socially engaged artworks stretching back 50 years. Christo’s decision to renege on this final work is the most dramatic example yet of an artist action against President Trump. Earlier this month, the mercurial photographer Richard Prince disavowed a portrait he made of Ivanka Trump (based on a selfie from the First Daughter’s own Instagram account), claiming that he had returned the $36,000 he received from Trump for the piece. Dozens of artists, curators, and cultural workers joined a strike on January 20, the day of President Trump’s inauguration. Christo’s strike may stand alone, however, as an example of an action that truly redacts an artwork from the world, not just notionally. Over the River was a work in progress: One federal lawsuit remained in the way of the artist’s plan to suspend 1,000 silvery fabric panels in stretches over a 42-mile span of the Arkansas River. The work had overcome several obstacles, most recently in January 2015, when a federal district court upheld a U.S. Bureau of Land Management decision to allow the project to proceed. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, pictured with a drawing for Over the River in Germany in 2006. (Thomas Haentzschel/AP)In the divisive world of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the civic debates were always the locus of their art. Running Fence, a 1978 film by Albert and David Maysles—documentarians who chronicled the artists’ works—showcases the many community hearings that served as the pair’s secret medium. The film showed the absurd lengths to which the artists went to persuade skeptical (and sometimes hostile) California ranchers to let them hang 24.5 miles of white nylon fabric in an undulating line drawn inland from the Pacific Ocean. Christo and Jeanne-Claude spent 4 years convincing the ranchers why they should bother; the final consummation of the project, Running Fence, ran its course for just two weeks in 1976. Over the River was grander in its ambition. The piece, conceived in 1992, required significant buy-in from the U.S. Department of the Interior. As part of the approvals process, Christo and Jeanne-Claude produced in 2011 a 1,686-page Environmental Impact Statement, a preparatory document usually reserved for large-scale infrastructural projects. The Sierra Club condemned the artists’ plans; the Phillips Collection, a museum in Washington, D.C., exhibited the draft federal document. By withdrawing from Over the River, Christo has done more than cancel an ongoing project. He has walked away from the fight that made the artists’ work so compelling. For nearly half a century, he and Jeanne-Claude generated hundreds if not thousands of hours of community hearings, op-ed arguments, and public harangues over the meaning of art. The pair identified public debate as vital to art—much more so than the installations themselves, which were always rendered in industrial materials and never lasted much longer than a fortnight. The purpose of The Gates was not to festoon Central Park with thousands of orange curtains, but to force the government of New York City to talk about art for more than 25 years. The permitting debate over The Gates, which were raised to great fanfare for a few weeks in February 2005, started way back in 1979, under Ed Koch’s administration. Christo’s Over the River protest, then, comes as a decisive statement. After spending most of his life arguing with people, trying to convince ordinary citizens of the virtue of submitting their consent and their property to the absurd, the artist is saying that the other side cannot be reached. Christo and Jeanne-Claude often fought in vain against NIMBYism, but sometimes, they broke through in epic fashion, reaching across the aisle, in a sense, and finding common ground. Christo is far from the first artist to say that common ground no longer exists, but with Jeanne-Claude, he spent a lifetime proving otherwise.26 Jan

Trump's Plan for Refugees - The Trump administration plans to severely curtail the number of refugees accepted to the U.S. to levels not seen since 2007, according to a draft of the president’s executive order. The plan would stop all refugee admissions for 120 days and suspend until further notice all refugee admissions from Syria, where a nearly six-year-long civil war has created a massive humanitarian crisis. Once resumed after 120 days, the U.S. refugee program, the draft said, will accept 50,000 people. The U.S. has accepted between 56,000 and 85,000 refugees during each of the eight years of the Obama administration that ended last week. The U.S. was scheduled to accept 110,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017. The 50,000 figure would be the lowest since 2007, when the U.S. accepted 48,282 refugees, according to data maintained by the the federal Refugee Processing Center. Syrian refugees will be denied entry into the U.S. until further notice. Last year the U.S. accepted about 10,000 Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war—far fewer than other Western countries. Donald Trump, when running for president, had sharply criticized the entry of Syrian refugees to the U.S., calling them a security threat, pointing to attacks committed by refugees in Europe. “The U.S. refugee and asylum-screening processes are very thorough and effective, and are very different from the processes in place in Europe,” Eleanor Acer, the senior director of refugee protection at Human Rights First, said in an interview. “It’s a totally different system.” Indeed, refugees are more rigorously vetted than any category of travelers who enter the United States. The U.S. can reject asylum-seekers on grounds such as health, criminal activity, and links to terrorism. As I’ve previously reported, the process involves three agencies: the State Department, which leads the program, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) at the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services. It takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months or even longer to process a case from referral or application to arrival in the U.S. It’s unclear what the 120-day suspension is meant to achieve beyond the existing vetting procedures. The draft order says that during this time the State Department and DHS will work to ensure “those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States.” “The order would totally derail U.S. refugee resettlement for some time to come,” Acer said. “The resettlement process is a complicated, multistep process. Because of the suspension and other provisions of the order, refugees would not even be referred into the front end of the process for quite some time.” Acer compared the potential situation with the impact on the U.S. refugee program after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when there was a halt on resettlements in the country. The U.S. program, she said, took “years to recover.” The draft order also appears to realign the U.S. refugee policy toward claims by “individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of any individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality.” This would have the effect of excluding the overwhelming majority of people in the Muslim world, some of whom are persecuted for reasons other than religion. National security experts, such as General David Petraeus, the former CIA director, and Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state, who have served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, in a letter to Congress, pointed out that accepting refugees “support[s] the stability of our allies and partners that are struggling to host large numbers of refugees.” Restricting their numbers, they added, would “undermine our core objective of combating terrorism.” Indeed, Turkey, a NATO ally, has borne the brunt of the Syrian refugee crisis, hosting nearly half the 4.8 million Syrian refugees. More than 1 million others are in EU countries. Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, said in an interview that the draft order is going to be read in the Muslim world “for what it is.” “We’ve already seen it in ISIS commentary [that] the Americans are out to do in the Muslims everywhere,” he said. “So it sets the stage for the next generation of terrorists. Imagine some kid out there, a 12-year-old now in a refugee camp; that gets played and replayed, and replayed. He knows he doesn’t have a viable economic future. And ISIS or its successor is there with money and a gun.” The draft executive order also severely restricts immigration from some Muslim countries, suspending for 30 days the issuance of visas from certain unspecified countries. Advocacy groups said, and news reports added, the countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The seven countries account for an insignificant number of people entering the U.S.—though they account for about 40 percent of the U.S. refugee intake. Muzaffar Chishti, the director of the Migration Policy Institute’s office at the NYU School of Law, said in an interview the draft executive order appears to suggest President Trump is “keeping up his electoral promises to stay true to his campaign theme.” But Chisti said Trump appeared to be moving away from his campaign vow to ban on all Muslims coming to the U.S. and “more into [banning] … the entry of people from certain countries. … So in many regards, this may sound nationality based. It doesn’t sound religion based.” There’s precedent for such action, most recently in the form of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) that was put in place after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Twenty-five nations were placed on that list, all but one, North Korea, with Muslim majorities. The program subjected the nationals of those countries to enhanced questioning upon their arrival in the U.S.—but didn’t bar their arrival. Citizens of those countries already in the U.S. were questioned at immigration offices. “That’s the closest parallel we’ve gotten to this,” Chisti said. Crocker, the longtime diplomat who is now dean of Texas A&M University’s George Bush School of Government and Public Service, recounted a conversation from last August that, he said, reflected the goodwill Americans public traditionally enjoyed in the Muslim world. “One comment I got in Jordan sticks with me, along the lines of ‘We Middle Easterners have always made a distinction between U.S. government policies, which we don’t like, and the American people, who we see as a force for good in the world,’” Crocker recalled. “This is going to come down as what the American people want, and it'll wipe away that distinction.” The executive order could be signed as soon as this week.26 Jan

Trump's Hollowed-Out State Department - When and if Rex Tillerson is confirmed as secretary of state, he’ll arrive to a Mahogany Row that is unusually quiet. On Wednesday, as the Associated Press and Josh Rogin of The Washington Post report, several top officials at the State Department resigned their posts. They include Patrick Kennedy, who had been the undersecretary of management since the George W. Bush administration, as well as Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond, and Gentry Smith, who directed the Office of Foreign Missions. Related Story Why Trump Is Keeping Some Obama Appointees Around Trump administration sources told CNN that the officials had been fired rather than quit. State Department spokesman Mark Toner, meanwhile, presented the departures as routine changeover. Longtime AP diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee points out that it’s not unusual to have top appointees resign at the change of administrations. Rogin fills in some context: Kennedy had been working closely with the Trump transition team and had been seeking to keep his job, though his hopes were fading. The abrupt resignations at this stage in the transition seems to have come as a surprise. They are made all the more important because Trump has not made any nominations for State positions beyond Tillerson, to say nothing of hearings of confirmation votes. Early on, rumors suggested that John Bolton, the superhawk and former ambassador to the United Nations, would be named as Tillerson’s No. 2, to assuage fears about the former Exxon CEO’s lack of diplomatic experience. But the Bolton trial balloon seemed to sink over concerns voiced most loudly by Senator Rand Paul. The need has perhaps lessened, as Tillerson’s nomination, once viewed as somewhat shaky, has firmed up, with Senator Marco Rubio’s support effectively clinching his confirmation. The resignations are not, primarily, a political story. They will further the impression among Trump’s critics that his administration is a chaotic mess staffed, when it’s staffed at all, by greenhorn newcomers. But the mass of voters don’t tend to get all that excited about internal managers at the State Department, especially since Trump and other Republicans have spent years railing against bureaucrats, and particularly bureaucrats who served under Hillary Clinton. If you think Foggy Bottom has been a disastrous mess, then house-cleaning might be a good thing. Kennedy’s name is not a household one, but he did come in for harsh criticism in the House report on the September 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, arguably coming in for worse censure than Clinton herself. But someone has to run the State Department, to keep the gears of diplomacy turning, and Rogin reports that the latest resignations are part of a “mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.” In early January, The New York Times reported that Trump’s team would not grant grace periods to any outgoing ambassadors, a break with tradition. A source dismissed concerns about their departures to Fox News, pointing out that many ambassadors are political appointees whose major qualification for their jobs was raising lots of money for Barack Obama: “The number twos are career foreign service officers and more than capable of stepping into the roles.” The question is what happens when the number twos start leaving, as well as the top career appointees in Washington. Several top State Department employees were on a list of officials asked to stay on during the transition period who refused to do so, Reuters reported on January 19. Tillerson’s business experience is expected to serve him well in marshaling an organization the size of the State Department, but learning the in and outs of administration will take time, and that will be harder without top officials like the ones who resigned on Wednesday around to help show the workings. The need for a professionalized, career staff to handle foreign affairs was clear nearly a century ago when the U.S. Foreign Service was created to grapple with the nation’s more ambitious global aspirations, and the faster pace of diplomacy in a world of modern communications. “The machinery of government provided for dealing with our foreign relations is in need of complete repair and reorganization,” Secretary of State Robert Lansing wrote in 1920. “As adequate as it may have been when the old order prevailed and the affairs of the world were free from the present perplexities it has ceased to be responsive to present needs.” Despite Trump’s diminished global goals—he has suggested pulling back from the U.S.’s global commitments and focusing inward—the situation is far more complicated now. If these four officials were pushed, then Trump seems to have taken a cavalier attitude toward the State Department’s ability to run itself without institutional knowledge. If they jumped, it’s tempting to view their departure as an example of official Washington’s resistance to President Trump. There are more pressing unanswered questions at the moment. Who will Trump, and Tillerson, tap to fill the newly opened spots? Will more career Foreign Service agents depart, hollowing out the department’s operations? And will the State Department be prepared if a crisis strikes before those vacancies are filled?26 Jan

The Month in Music About Loving Your Fellow Human - Katie Stelmanis of the electro-pop band Austra is tired of dystopia. Donald Trump’s election has spurred quick-turnaround art about unraveling social bonds and authoritarianism, but civilizational decline was a hot topic even before: city-smashing Marvel movies, end-times fantasies like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, doomsday as a muse for musicians from Radiohead to Britney Spears. Yet Stelmanis decided to make her third album, Future Politics, precisely the opposite of apocalypse porn. Says Austra’s press materials, “The future won’t look like the past: Dystopian dread takes this for granted, but utopian imagination is just as valid.” Much of popular music has always been, on some level, about utopia—whether a small-scale, temporary one between two people (The Beatles’s “I Want to Hold Your Hand”) or a larger vision of deliverance (the protest standard “We Shall Overcome”). Some of January 2017’s standout albums envision more perfect realities at various scales, a fact that’s especially notable because of the fraught moment in which we’re listening. The sociopolitical synth jams of Austra’s Future Politics, the expansive bar rock of Japandroids’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life, and romantic short stories of The XX’s I See You all, in their way, offer comfort and escape as they do pop’s eternal work of communicating love for your fellow human. Austra’s brilliant 2011 debut, Feel It Break, introduced the Canadian act’s template: synths-’n’-stomping from the school of Depeche Mode, an ear for classical-music composition, and Stelmanis’s extremely distinctive voice. She sings plaintively and from-the-throat, producing a sound that’s removed yet vividly emotional. This time, the primary emotion is a sense of yearning—both for a society that has radically reinvented itself, and for smaller personal victories. The slow-building electronic earthquake of the opener “We Were Alive” imagines what would happen if everyone were cured of the fatigue caused by the capitalist grind. On page you might get the sense that she’s waxing didactic—“Doctor, what’s the cure for apathy?”—but on record, what stands out is the clarity of her central question, asked again and again: “What if we were alive?” The tenderness of the melody and her delivery makes the slogan portable, multi-purpose—it could be a call to rethink a relationship, or an entire civilization. The album turns more uptempo from there: The title track, the lead single “Utopia,” and the eco-anthem “Gaia” are all ornate, modern disco numbers featuring snatches of heady lyrics (“The system won’t help you when your money runs out”). In interviews, Stelmanis has mentioned the Accelerate Manifesto and Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work, both calls to push technology forward so as to achieve super-egalitarian ends. That idea echoes in these songs’ bustle, but so does an underlying notion of empathy for all. The great “I Love You More Than You Love Yourself,” for example, could be a pep talk to a society that’s given up on itself but it more readily sounds like encouragement to a depressed lover. The song’s steady, warm pulse breaks down in the middle, as if letting the darkness in, but then builds itself back up. Most pop utopias aren’t overtly political at all, of course. The Canadian drums-and-guitar duo Japandroids delivers a more typical rock-and-roll feeling of escape, memorializing the bliss of abandon enabled by drugs or love. For their third album, they apply a few new colors—electronic touches, acoustic guitars—to their cult-beloved blend of shoutalong choruses, punk economy, and epic ambitions. At least one reviewer has framed the blast of uplift as inadvertently out-of-step with the times, but the alternative reading is that the band now sounds as vital as it ever could. Near to the Wild Heart of Life is a travelogue, devoted to finding moments of ecstasy on the road but also pining for someone back home. The high point comes on “Arc of Bar,” a seven-and-a-half minute epic built over a guitar loop that recalls a sputtering Tesla coil and a drum part that sounds like it could crack the foundation of any concert venue. The vocals lock into a hypnotic litany of descriptions about a scuzzy New Orleans nightlife spot, just the kind of place that has littered classic-rock lyrical history. It’s “a flesh bazaar of diamonds, dust, and drink,” a utopia for the night, meant to be left for another once the sun rises. An urgent portrayal of love threads through the album, with the band refreshingly unafraid of being called corny. The gauzy, interlude-like “I’m Sorry (For Not Finding You Sooner)” says it all in the title; the wistful gallop of “No Known Drink or Drug” declares, for not the first time in music history, that love is better than chemicals. But the song that hits me the most with full-bore inspirationalism is the closer, “In a Body Like a Grave.” As with Austra’s album, the drags of life are in the foreground: “Christ will call you out / School will deepen debt / Work will sap the soul.” But when a later verse offers that “there’s heaven in the hellest of holes,” the thunderous accompaniment makes it impossible to feel cynical. If Austra imagines utopia on a mass scale and Japandroids as moments within a lifetime, the phenomenal new release from The XX narrows the lens even further. Since their band arrived in 2009, Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, and Jamie “xx” Smith have made some of the most intimate-seeming rock on the market, with Sim and Croft finishing each others’ lines like lovers do over spare, R&B-indebted arrangements. Their third album brings in some brighter textures from the rave-music history that Jamie xx mined to critical acclaim on his 2015 solo album In Colour; the resulting vision of romantic tension and release is all the more transporting for it. Throughout, love is made to feel like shelter—a sometimes shaky one, but shelter nonetheless. The opener, “Dangerous,” is a two-step shuffle brimming with the sound of horns and the thrill of new, conspiratorial love. The singers’ friends don’t think they’re good for each other—but “they must be blind.” The devastating “Say Something Loving” uses a sample of an ooey-gooey 1970s pop song to stress the need for reaffirmations of affection once the initial rush of a relationship has worn off. Later, the warm and midtempo “I Dare You” returns to the early stage of love with a narrative of two suitors circling each other, infatuated with visions of a shared future. Most remarkable is the lead single, “On Hold,” an instant classic and a rare celebration of forgiveness. The chopped-up voices of Hall & Oates (yes) echo around as Croft and Sim sing of making peace as a lover moves on with someone else. The sentiment isn’t exactly triumphant—“When and where did we go cold? I thought I had you on hold”—but the sound of the music is. It, like so many great songs, is about the logic of love: the idea that harmony can only come about with intention, thought, honesty, and negotiation—as must be the case with any vision of a better world.26 Jan

CBC News

Struggling HMV Canada goes into receivership, set to close stores - HMV Canada's stores are facing closure within a few months after an Ontario court approved an application to place the company into receivership.05:30

Ralph Goodale to tell Trump administration: Canada doesn't support torture - Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he intends to send a clear message when he talks to U.S. President Donald Trump's team: Canada doesn't condone torture.05:00

CBC crew hits pothole, gets flat tire while gathering video of pothole problem - Potholes are destroying tires on a number of busy thoroughfares in the St. John's and Mount Pearl areas — even a CBC crew was taken out of commission by one.04:20

Town hall questions lobbed at Trudeau reflected regional concerns - Justin Trudeau heard plenty from Canadians as he crisscrossed the country on a national town hall tour this month with voters turning out in droves to profess their admiration for the prime minister but also to air concerns about the direction his nascent government is heading on a number of top files.03:00

'Abortion pill' Mifegymiso slowly available in Canada - 29 years after the 'abortion pill' debuted in Europe, the drug combination known as, Mifegymiso, is finally available in Canada. Though the distributor says it's received just three orders for the medication so far.03:00

Police charge woman who triggered Amber Alert for reporting fake kidnapping - A 32-year-old Brampton, Ont., woman has been charged with mischief for allegedly falsely reporting a kidnapping that then set off an Amber Alert for a missing teenager earlier this month.27 Jan

Edmonton police issue $465 ticket for cracked driver's licence - Camrose man upset after EPS ticketed and fined him $465 for a cracked driver's licence27 Jan

Border-town Manitobans balk at suggestion they should buy extra health insurance - Border-town residents are perplexed with the suggestion they should buy extra health insurance after some were left with huge medical bills following emergency stays in the U.S.27 Ja

Photos: Chickens, by Adam Cohn - Chickens © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall27 Jan

Minitrue: Control Comments on Spring Festival Gala - The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source. Immediately launch strict control measures for the “Spring Festival Gala.” Please make arrangements for affiliated self-media. Do not publish vile expressions of opinion, such as comments ridiculing the gala. Do not employ aggregation style, or gather provocative attacks or negative information following the gala, etc; permanently close any accounts found to be responsible for these. Please reply once received, thank you. (January 27, 2017) [Chinese] To welcome the Year of the Rooster, CCTV held and broadcast its annual Spring Festival Gala, the world’s most widely-watched television event. Past criticism and mockery of the gala’s patriotic tone has raised its political sensitivity, leading to heightened media and security controls. At The Wall Street Journal, Josh Chin reports on security teams’ efforts to control drones and other flying devices in the scenic southern city of Guilin, where a portion of the event was filmed: Spring Festival Gala security teams stationed in Guilin say they have shot down multiple drones as they battled an epidemic of aerial spying over an outdoor set in one of the city’s parks, the state-run Guilin Daily newspaper reported Friday. As of Tuesday, the paper said, drones had invaded the central staging area in Guilin a total of 24 times. Security forces had managed to shoot down and confiscate six drones, it said. […] According to state media, the Guilin portion will be broadcast from Elephant Trunk Hill, a lush park at the confluence of the Li and Taohua rivers named for a karst formation that looks like an elephant drinking from the water. It will feature 600 mostly ethnic-minority performers, 2000 costumes, 1,800 props and lots of neon lighting, a CCTV report said Friday. […] Since Jan. 4, security teams in the area had stepped up vigilance against drones, hang gliders, paragliders, hot-air balloons, model airplanes, floating lanterns and other small, low-flying aircraft, according to Guizhou Daily. They had also set up a no-fly zone within a five-kilometer radius of the stage, and established three “drone-control defensive perimeters,” it said. Guizhou Daily didn’t say who was operating the drones, or why police were also concerned about the other types of aircraft. […] [Source] Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. Some instructions are issued by local authorities or to specific sectors, and may not apply universally across China. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. See CDT’s collection of Directives from the Ministry of Truth since 2011. © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: CCTV, censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Lunar New Year, propaganda, Spring Festival GalaDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall27 Jan

Photo: Monkey and rooster, by · · · — — — · · · - Monkey and rooster © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall27 Jan

Global Times Attacks Shen Yun Amid “Cult” Crackdown - At Reuters, Ben Blanchard reports on a new judicial interpretation from the Supreme People’s Court which may allow an increased crackdown on groups that the government considers to be “cults”: China will crack down further on what it calls “cults” with a new judicial interpretation released on Wednesday mandating harsh punishments for groups proselytising to government officials or children or linking up with foreign groups. China’s officially atheist Communist Party does not tolerate challenges to its rule. It prizes social stability and religious activities must be state sanctioned. […] The judicial interpretation, release by the Supreme People’s Court and state prosecutor, list seven areas for which offenders will face tough penalties, including carrying out cult activities in public or trying to recruit children or state bureaucrats. In cases considered less serious, where adherents repent and leave the cult, or where they have been coerced into joining a cult, there is an option for punishment not to be imposed, the interpretation states. [Source] China Daily reports that, in line with the judicial interpretation, those who use the internet to promote “cult activity” will be facing tougher punishment after the court ruling goes into effect on February 1: The internet and social media outlets have become prominent platforms for cult members to preach their ideologies in recent years. To ensure such new criminal activities can be clearly targeted by law, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly released the judicial interpretation on Wednesday. According to Chinese law, a cult is an illegal organization that tries to control people by deifying the sect leader; deludes members under the guise of religion or in other names; and engages in activities that harm society. According to the judicial interpretation, which will take effect on Feb 1, those who use online chat rooms and social media platforms such as WeChat for cult-related activities may face imprisonment, as can those who print cult messages on bank notes. Cult members who have foreign connections, recruit people in other areas, carry out cult activities at key festivals, preach to minors or work as civil servants will be severely punished, the judicial interpretation stated. [Source] China Law Translate has translated the interpretation in full. The SPC decisions comes as Beijing continues its efforts to control and regulate religion, focusing resources most heavily on the troubled ethnic minority regions of Tibet (where many native Tibetans are Buddhist) and Xinjiang (home to many Muslim ethnic Uyghurs), and on areas experiencing a rapid spread of Christianity. Last year, President Xi Jinping warned, “We must resolutely resist overseas infiltration through religious means and guard against ideological infringement by extremists.” The government has periodically launched crackdowns on cults in the past. In 2014, after members of the fringe millenarian group Church of Almighty God (also known as Eastern Lightning 东方闪电) fatally attacked a woman at a Shandong McDonald’s franchise, authorities launched a crackdown on “evil cults.” The crackdown worried mainstream Christian leaders that the anti-cult sentiment being stoked would soil the images of their churches. Meanwhile, state-affiliated tabloid Global Times last weekend published an op-ed attacking a performance group linked to the group most famously considered a “cult” by Beijing. Shen Yun, a New York-based troupe founded in 2006 by adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice (illegal in China since 1999), has long claimed that Chinese authorities have made regular attempts to disrupt their global performances. Last year Beijing’s efforts were reportedly successful in cancelling a scheduled show in Seoul. Published under the byline Shan Renping, a pen-name of editor Hu Xijin, the op-ed attacks Shen Yun as Falun Gong propaganda in disguise: Falun Gong, a cult group, is notorious among overseas Chinese compatriots. In recent years, it orchestrated a so-called Shen Yun show, which disguises itself as a form of traditional Chinese art performance, in order to deceive many foreigners. It has been several years since the Shen Yun show was first staged. The company behind the show, Shen Yun Performing Arts, was founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong. The kitschy show continues to be staged for several reasons. For starters, Falun Gong is good at disguising itself. It masks its political propaganda behind traditional Chinese culture, and inept actors as excellent performers. The various singing and dancing performances in the show deceive the spectators who are interested in the Chinese culture but have limited knowledge of it. Moreover, having put in a lot of efforts in learning about business operations, Falun Gong is now familiar with the rules of overseas commercial performances and has established their own performing troop. In addition, the overseas anti-China forces use Falun Gong as a tool, providing it with funding and other supports, which created conditions for the development of the Shen Yun show. […] [Source] While Global Times castigates Falun Gong for using Chinese culture to propagandize, state-run People’s Daily reports that the central government appears quite comfortable with the technique: #China issues guidelines to preserve traditional culture in hopes to boost international influence https://t.co/JFh8DKco8T pic.twitter.com/BhNjwYEkPe — People's Daily,China (@PDChina) January 26, 2017 © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: cults, external propaganda, Falun Gong, propaganda, religion, Shen Yun, state media, Supreme People's CourtDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall26 Jan

Unfulfilled Wish List of the Week: Old Luo’s - CDT is expanding its wiki beyond the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon to include short biographies of public intellectuals, cartoonists, human rights activists, and other people pushing for change in China; and to archive and translate sensitive essays. The wiki is a work in progress. Old Luo’s New Year Wish List Originally published by Luo Yonghao on his personal blog in March 2006, the English teacher (who has since turned tech entrepreneur) offered a long list of his dreams for the new Year of the Dog. Nearly 11 years later on the eve of the Year of the Rooster, Old Luo may be disappointed on several points. Luo’s post came when China had just over 100 million internet users nationwide (by the end of 2016, the number had risen well above 700 million). This particular post represents the early days of China’s blogging era, and was among the first overtly political blogposts in China. State censorship policies and technology then coalesced to end China’s political-blogging era and make microblogs the primary platform for political netizen discussion. Similar trends have since muted much of the political discussion on Weibo, leading us into the current WeChat era. I hope that all good people have a happy new year, I hope all bad people have a miserable new year; I hope all people who are not so good and not so bad can arrange their new year as they wish. I hope all peace-loving people live in peace; I hope all war-loving people live within two neighboring countries with equal military strength, but with no nuclear weapons. I hope all ultra-nationalist angry youth will be enlightened, I hope all liberal angry youth will stay angry until there is nothing in this world for them to be angry about. I hope those idiots who lost passion for life too early but think of themselves as mature will not confuse the liberal angry youth with ultra-nationalist angry youth. I hope political prisoners in all countries will be released. I hope those countries with no political prisoners will not just be satisfied with the fact that their own country has no political prisoners. I hope Chinese public officials know who pays for their food and clothes. I hope taxpayers do not avoid paying, even if they are not happy about it. I hope those doctors who save people’s lives (if they still exist) die peaceful deaths [if they have to die,] and I hope those doctors who do not save dying patients will die in the same manner as their patients. I hope those who do not have much money do not stretch themselves to buy a house, I hope those who have money in hand also do not buy right now, I hope all those being bought off by developers and claiming there is no bubble in the real estate market will buy lots of luxurious houses before the bubble bursts. I hope all corrupt officials will live in greater fear, I hope those officials who are not corrupt can hold on. I hope Chinese peasants can migrate freely in their own country, I hope city residents who oppose peasants migrating into cities will one day realize that they have no conscience. I hope those migrant workers who can not get their wages will find a good lawyer to help them. I hope those who intentionally withhold overdue wages of migrant workers are hit by lightning, no matter how watchful they are. I hope all websites will not have keyword filtering, and I hope any websites which set up this filtering don’t do so voluntarily. I hope those who discriminate against homosexuals become objects of public scorn, and I hope of China’s gay couples can marry and also see their wishes fulfilled. I hope those amiable obliterators of right and wrong who think they’ve grasped the essence of Confucianism will understand that, actually, Confucius isn’t the idiot you take him to be. I hope those principled people who do know right from wrong will understand that, actually, we’re never alone, just a bit lonely. I hope those adults who always say “shoot the bird that sticks out its neck” and who, in good will, exhort outgoing young people to restrain their talents will one day know this: that there are some birds who come into the world to do what they think is right, not to dodge bullets. I hope those adults who, in ill will, attack those young people will get old a bit faster, and a bit faster still. I hope the not-bad people don’t run into bad people. I hope all the bad people don’t hear that the not-bad people think they’re bad. I hope the awesome people get awesomer, and I hope the stupid people will at least not be so stupid. I hope our generation becomes mature instead of slick and sly. I hope young people stay innocent and honest, but not childish. I hope all young people can cultivate the ability and habit of independent thought, and that all adults will at least cultivate the ability and habit of letting young people think independently. I hope that young lovers who burn with desire can find cheap, clean, safe places, and that adults in upscale hotels are as strong as ever. I hope that the sexually liberated get on happily. I hope the sexually conservative hold themselves back enough so that they have no regrets. I hope people with STDs will be honest for once. I hope the price of legal software will be reasonable. I hope the users of pirated software will be reasonable. I hope Apple will come out with a black iPod that’s 120G or bigger. And I hope that before he dies, Steve Jobs will know the insanity, the inhumanity that is a genuine Apple brand 300 yuan iPod USB cord with not one bit of technology inside it. Actually, what I really hope is that his disappointing company can make an MP3 player that’s better than the iPod. I hope this year there won’t be any stupid commercial movies like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, or The Promise. I hope China gets a sweet commercial movie like King Kong. And I hope even more that there’s a little space for the not-so-commercial movies. I hope my lawyer friends who give their assistance with such devotion have a very happy new year. In the new year, we’ll very happily sue! I hope that those who have violated our rights and await court are shaking in their boots. One small, final wish (the least likely to come true): that the next generation of Super Mario isn’t 3D. [Source] Can’t get enough of subversive Chinese netspeak? Check out our latest ebook, “Decoding the Chinese Internet: A Glossary of Political Slang.” Includes dozens of new terms and classic catchphrases, presented in a new, image-rich format. Available for pay-what-you-want (including nothing). All proceeds support CDT. © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: bloggers, longform, Lunar New Year, Luo Yonghao, New Year Wish List, word of the weekDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall26 Jan

Last African Allies Stick By Taiwan Despite Beijing’s Billions - Since the landslide election of pro-independence candidate Tsai Ing-wen as president of Taiwan last January, Beijing has been ramping up pressure on the de facto independent island nation, making bids to diplomatically isolate Taiwan and warning that blame for cross-strait conflict would be Tsai’s for her refusal to endorse the One-China policy. Beijing has also been using its economic strength to woo some of Taiwan’s last remaining allies in Africa. Last month, São Tomé and Principe switched its diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing, reducing Taiwan’s remaining global allies to 21. (Taiwanese media reported that the small West African island nation had asked for over $100 million prior to making the switch.) Earlier this month, after getting a $40 billion investment green light from Beijing, Nigeria ordered an unofficial Taiwanese trade mission out of the capital city of Abuja. (Chinese state media the next day praised Nigeria for “reaffirming commitment to the One-China policy.”) Amid this trend, Burkina Faso and Swaziland—Taiwan’s last two African allies—have pledged to stand by Taiwan. The former reportedly refused a hefty investment offer from Beijing, and the latter said “our friendship is based on our national interests and not on the size of Taiwan’s wallet.” Pauline Bax, Simon Gongo, and Lungile Dlamini report at Bloomberg: “We get outrageous proposals telling us, ‘if you sign with Beijing we’ll offer you $50 billion or even more,’’’ [Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Alpha] Barry said in an interview in the capital, Ouagadougou, this month. “Taiwan is our friend and our partner. We’re happy and we see no reason to reconsider the relationship.” […] The Chinese foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to e-mailed and faxed requests for comment. “Our relations are concrete,” Eleanor Wang, a spokeswoman at Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said by phone when asked about the island’s ties with Burkina Faso and Swaziland. “All cooperation projects are being processed as planned.” […] “It’d be hard to say how long these two countries can stick with Taipei, given that the entire African continent is turning toward China’s economic orbit,” said Zhang Linzheng, professor of political science at National Taiwan University in Taipei. “The Tsai Ing-wen government would feel the difficulties to prop them up. […] Both countries say they’ll continue to lobby for Taiwan’s inclusion as a member of the United Nations. “I’ve worked as an adviser in Guinea for five years,’’ said Barry, referring to the West African nation that’s drawn billions of dollars in Chinese investment because it holds the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, used to make aluminum. “I know how much Beijing is worth.’’ [Source] Read more about China’s increasing influence in Africa, via CDT. Prior to his inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to capitalize on mounting cross-strait tensions, turning them into what Fareed Zakaria recently referred to as an “opening bid” in his China negotiations. In a move that unsurprisingly angered Beijing and upset decades of diplomatic tradition, Trump spoke to Tsai on the phone and publicly referred to her as “president of Taiwan” in a tweet. Trump later said that the One-China policy was up for negotiation, drawing further consternation from Beijing. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed criticizing Trump’s “America First” agenda, American foreign policy experts Aaron Miller and Richard Sokolsky warn that Taiwan’s security could be at serious risk in the fallout of such a negotiation: Should Mr. Trump shift from questioning the “One China” policy–now in effect for more than four decades–to changing it, the impact on U.S. interests and strategy in Asia would be disastrous. The One China policy has enabled the U.S. to protect Taiwan and broaden its relationship with Taipei while maintaining U.S.-China ties that clearly serve American interests. Should Mr. Trump recognize Taiwan, he would likely risk an eventual military clash with Beijing and leave the American strategy in Asia in tatters. The real loser of such a policy change would be Taiwan, whose security would be in serious jeopardy. [Source] The Wall Street Journal reported last week that after initial enthusiasm on Taiwan for Trump’s rhetorical shift, doubts are now spreading. See also recent coverage from The Diplomat on top CCP official Yu Zhengsheng’s estimate that cross-strait relations were fit to grow “even more complex and grim.” © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Africa relations, donald Trump, Taiwan relations, Taiwan status, Taiwan U.S. relations, tsai ing-wenDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall25 Jan

Under Two-Child Policy, Many Find One is Enough - After adjusting family planning rules to allow families to have two children, the Chinese government anticipated a surge in births, which would ease demographic challenges such as an aging population and a labor shortage. New statistics show that, to some degree, their expectations have been met. From CBS News: According to the Communist Party’s National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC,) there were 17.86 million births in China last year, an increase of 7.9 percent from the previous year. “It demonstrates that the universal second-child policy came in time and worked effectively,” said Yang Wenzhuang, a division director of the NHFPC in a press release. […] In their press release, the NHFPC said that “by 2050, the policy is expected to bring about an extra 30 million working-age people and reduce the nation’s aging rate by 2 percent, commission projections show.” However, the NHFPC said the Communist Party’s leaders need to come up with better policies to support couples willing to have more than one child, “particularly in terms of maternity education and health services.” [Source] Some have advocated better policies to support China’s aging population, who won’t immediately benefit from an increase in the birth rate. An article in the Lancet by Yi Zeng and Therese Hesketh looks at the impact of the two-child policy and argues that, “more sound policy actions are needed to meet the social, health, and care needs of the elderly population.” Meanwhile, many families are choosing not to have a second child, due to financial and other pressures. The Nikkei Asian Review interviewed Weilin Zhao, a senior associate at the Fujitsu Research Institute’s Economic Research Center, about whether China could expect sustained population growth as a result of the eradication of the one-child policy: Q: Statistics aside, can you tell me how most Chinese people reacted to the country’s two-child policy shift? A: I contacted several fellow alumni of my junior high school and university in China via WeChat — China’s popular messaging app — and asked them whether they are willing to have a second child. Some of my friends whose children are 5 or 6 years old said they do not want to give birth to another child, because they have just completed the most labor-intensive period of child rearing. Another friend whose child goes to junior high school voiced her reluctance to have a second child, citing long intervals between pregnancies. As my ex-university classmates who have pursued careers tend to marry later, they said it would be hard for them to give birth after moving into middle manager positions. Although many women expressed willingness to have a second child, they said they are unable to do so due to the high cost of raising a child, and also because their parents are too old to [assume the responsibility of] caring for grandkids. [Source] An article in The Economist also questions whether the recent surge in number of births will significantly alter China’s demographics over the long-term: [T]he increase was smaller than expected. When they introduced the two-child policy, family-planning officials forecast that between 17m and 20m babies would be born every year between 2015 and 2020—an increase of about 3m a year. In the event the increase in 2016 was only 1.3m. Moreover, if pent-up demand explains much of the increase, that influence will fade. After a brief spate, the flow of water through the dam will go back to what it was before—unless there is a change in China’s underlying fertility rate, meaning unless the average woman of child-bearing age decides she wants more children. So far, that does not seem to be happening. It is true that the short-term rise in births may be hiding long-term changes but, anecdotally, there is little sign yet of a shift towards wanting larger families. More than 30 years of relentless propaganda have persuaded most Chinese that “one is enough”. In a government survey in 2015 three-quarters of couples said they did not want a second child, citing the cost of child care and education. People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s main mouthpiece, recently lamented that China’s fertility rate, at 1.05, was the lowest in the world (others put the rate a little higher). It has fallen consistently since 1950. [Source] According to a Wall Street Journal report, the government has vowed to stick with a two-child policy despite continued demographic concerns and uncertainty about the impact of the new policy: The country’s State Council, its cabinet, unveiled a key plan detailing deep demographic changes over the next 15 years, including low birthrates and a rapidly aging population, but said it would stick to a policy of letting families have a maximum of two children. “Problems and challenges associated with population security, and the balance between population, economy and society, are not negligible,” the State Council said in the blueprint released Wednesday. China’s total population, which stood at around 1.37 billion in 2015, will likely peak at 1.45 billion in 2030, it said. The population will grow at a slower pace after 2020, as the number of women of childbearing age drops while death rates rise with the elderly constituting a larger share of the population, it said. The timing of the peak mirrored projections by the United Nations, though the U.N. had estimated a peak of 1.42 billion in 2030, according to a report in 2015. [Source] © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: aging, childbirth, demographics, families, family planning, one-child policyDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall25 Jan

Photo: Yulong Village, Guilin, by Chris Goldberg - Yulong Village, Guilin, Guangxi © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Chris Goldberg, chrisgoldDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall25 Jan

Photo: Harbin, China, by PhotAsia - Harbin, China © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: PhotAsiaDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall24 J

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 27, 2017 - Today's podcast: Symons Valley Ranch vendor loses inventory in fire; John Gilchrist visits Rau Bistro; Wildrose leader Brian Jean; Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez.26 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 26, 2017 - Today's podcast: Conservationists react to CP’s plans to keep grizzlies safe; Calgary Flames continue to struggle; local board game designer finds Kickstarter success; turning Calgary cubicles into condos.25 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 25, 2017 - Today's podcast: Recap of Trudeau's U of C town hall; Mayor Nenshi on the past week in municipal politics; Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema on Keystone XL revival; Calgary doctor describes life in an Iraqi field hospital.24 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 24, 2017 - Today's podcast: Timothy Caulfield on Tamara Lovett trial; how the city deals with complaints about businesses; Dr. Raj Bhardwaj on how to manage pain when treating children; recap of the Oscar nomination announcement.23 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 23, 2017 - Today's podcast: Prime Minister Trudeau brings cabinet retreat to Calgary; story of the Bre-X scandal hits the big screen; new warehouse and welcome centre for Syrian refugees; students celebrate Chinese New Year.22 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 20, 2017 - Today's podcast: French skills in the Conservative leadership race; I.T. expert turns the tables on laptop thief; comedian Ali Hassan19 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 19, 2017 - Today's podcast: Arlene Dickinson on Kevin O'Leary's political ambitions; Calgary weighs new parking rules for neighbourhoods; Alberta teachers make a Canadian checklist for the country's 150th.18 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 17, 2017 - Today's podcast: Calgarian witnesses nightclub shooting in Mexico; woman wanted on animal abuse charges spotted in Jamaica; Julie Van Rosendaal prepares game meat.16 Jan

Eyeopener Podcast for Jan. 16, 2017 - Today's podcast: Hayley Wickenheiser on her retirement; Palace Theatre name returns to historic Calgary building; Red Deer man builds epic ice castle in his front yard.

Pence Vows Full Evaluation of Voter Rolls in Leaked Audio of Private Meeting - The vice-president isn’t going to let a total lack of evidence get in the way of a perfectly good voter-fraud investigation.27 Jan

Nikki Haley at the United Nations: ‘For Those That Don’t Have Our Back, We’re Taking Names’ - In the spirit of international harmony and understanding.27 Jan

The Anti-Abortion Movement Is Optimistic — But They’ve Been There Before - The 45th president is an unlikely champion for abortion opponents. And he may not accomplish more for them than did George W. Bush.27 Jan

Theresa May and Donald Trump Begin Their ‘Special Relationship’ - Trump joined British PM Theresa May for his first White House press conference Friday.27 Jan

Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto Had an Hour-long Phone Call - A day after the White House meeting was called off.27 Jan

Trump Just Undermined Americans’ Access to Health Care Out of Sheer Spite - Trump pulls ads alerting consumers to the Obamacare enrollment deadline — even though the spots have already been paid for.27 Jan

Jason Miller, Former Trump Insider, Hired by Former Clinton Insider - Miller will join Doug Band’s Teneo Strategy to act as a liaison to the Trump White House.27 Jan

Is California Really Going to Secede? - There’s a real movement afoot to make the Golden State its own golden republic. At very least, it will galvanize opposition to the Trump regime.27 Jan

Trump and Putin Will Talk Saturday and Lifting Sanctions Is ‘Under Co

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: The base wants resistance - Jennifer Bendery/HuffPost: The Democratic Base Is Marching Right Past Its Leaders Newly minted activists want Democrats in Washington to actually fight against Trump — or get out of the way. This week, when progressive champions Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) voted in a Senate committee to approve the thoroughly unqualified Ben Carson to head the Housing and Urban Development Department, there was little criticism from established liberal organizations in Washington. But the grassroots lit up ― blasting them on Twitter, Facebook, in calls to their offices, and in countless emails to Huffington Post reporters, asking us what on earth their one-time heroes were doing. Warren clearly felt the backlash. “OK, let’s talk about Dr. Ben Carson,” she began a lengthy Facebook post on Wednesday. That the votes came just days after millions poured into the streets in more than 650 women’s marches on Saturday made it that much more jarring. Those marches, after all, had not been sparked by Planned Parenthood, or the Democratic Party, or unions, or MoveOn.org, even if they did pitch in to help once it got going. Instead, they came from regular, angry people ― people who may try to replace the ones in power. xTrump's statement marking Holocaust remembrance leaves out any mention of Jews, by @abbydphilliphttps://t.co/xRxexh8X4K— Rosalind Helderman (@PostRoz) January 27, 2017 xTo my colleagues: don't ever again lecture me on American moral leadership if you chose to be silent today. pic.twitter.com/XW7sjmCcXh— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 28, 201705:20

Open thread for night owls: Black-white wage gaps worsen - Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute writes—Racial gaps in wages, wealth, and more: Black-white wage gaps are larger today that they were 35 years ago. For both men and women who work full time, the regression adjusted racial wage gap has widened since 1979. The figure below shows that, relative to the average hourly wages of white men with the same education, experience, metro status, and region of residence, black men make 22.0 percent less, and black women make 34.2 percent less. [...] Over the last few years, the labor market has been steadily improving, and the unemployment rate for all population sub-groups has fallen steadily. However, as has historically been the case, the black unemployment rate today (7.8 percent) remains nearly twice as high as the white unemployment rate (4.3 percent). And, black workers can’t educate themselves out of racial disparities in labor market performance. The unemployment rate for black college graduates sits at 4.0 percent, compared to 2.6 percent for white college graduates. Furthermore, average wages for white college graduates are far higher ($31.83 per hour) than average wages for black college graduates ($25.77). The black-white wealth gap is larger than the wage or income gaps. Median white wealth ($134,000) is 12 times higher than median black wealth ($11,000). And, 27 percent of black households have zero net worth (or less), while only 9 percent of white household do. In other words, black Americans face particular difficulties in trying to get ahead themselves or helping their children get ahead—in achieving the elusive American dream. Housing discrimination and housing segregation play an important role in the ability of black households to gain wealth. In an important forthcoming book(previewed in this poignant article), Richard Rothstein documents the evidence that the government did more than merely ignore discriminatory practices in the residential housing market for decades even after World War II, but actually promoted them. On top of housing discrimination writ large, environmental racism remains ever-present, exemplified by the disproportionate incidence of lead poisoning in poor and minority communities, which is proven to significantly affect health, future economic wellbeing, and even crime rates. [...] QUOTATION OF THE DAY “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951 TWEET OF THE DAY xWe're no strangers to #Resistance here in Middle Earth. Keep up the fight! pic.twitter.com/8f8mFLyeeT— Mordor National Park (@MordorNPS) January 27, 2017 HIGH IMPACT STORIES • TOP COMMENTS BLAST FROM THE PAST At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—War opposition still increasing: Yet another poll is showing increased opposition to Bush's new war in Iraq. The USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll has opposition at 43 percent, up from 38 percent Jan 10-12. Actual support from the invasion is at 52 percent. Of course, those numbers could move over to the "support" column if either the US or UK present evidence of Iraqi non-compliance. As of yet, all we're hearing is the same "trust us, we have evidence" bullshit, while all CIA leads to the weapons inspectors have come up empty. There may also be movement in the polls following the president's SOTU address, though it will be interesting to watch how long any such "bounce" will last. And it will also be interesting how the markets react, not just the Wednesday after the speech, but two weeks out. Bush may claim to ignore polls, but it'll be increasingly difficult to ignore his Wall Street supporters. War jitters alone continue to pound the market today. On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: A terribly-executed reminder to fans to help support the show! Even Trump’s “Day One” was plagiarized. The dangers of his false “voter fraud” claims. And a long-form freak-out over Russian-financed, social media-fueled “military-grade PsyOps.” x Embedded Content YouTube | iTunes | LibSyn | Support the show via Patreon27 Jan

Court says Wisconsin GOP must draw new Assembly map after ruling current map is illegal gerrymander - Late in 2016, a federal district court struck down Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn state Assembly map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. On Friday, the court followed up that decision by ordering the legislature to craft new districts for the 2018 elections by Nov. 1. Of course, those same lawmakers were responsible for creating the very maps that were struck down in the first place, so it remains to be seen how the court will treat any remedial plans that legislators come up with, but this latest ruling represents progress in a case that’s crucial for redistricting reform. Wisconsin is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country: Democrats won the statewide popular vote for the Assembly in 2012, but the GOP’s maps helped them maintain their majority. New maps could upend that. But even more importantly, this ruling might also have much broader implications, because a likely appeal to the Supreme Court could set the stage for a national precedent constraining partisan gerrymandering. An earlier Supreme Court ruling called Vieth v. Jubelirer previously held that partisan gerrymandering could be unconstitutional. But in that case, Justice Anthony Kennedy, as the deciding vote, refused to strike down the particular map in question for lack of a manageable standard to determine when impermissible partisan gerrymandering takes place. The plaintiffs in Wisconsin, however, have sought to overcome that problem by proposing one such standard called the “efficiency gap” that would examine how many votes get “wasted” in each election. Under this test, if one party routinely wins landslide victories in a few seats while the other party wins much more modest yet secure margins in the vast majority of districts, it could signify a gerrymander that has gone so far as to infringe upon the rights of voters to free speech and equal protection. While the federal district court didn’t rely solely on the plaintiffs’ “efficiency gap” in reaching its decision, the opinion appears to have been precisely designed with Kennedy’s Vieth ruling in mind. Should plaintiffs ultimately succeed in persuading the Supreme Court’s perennial swing justice to finally set forth a standard to judge when partisan gerrymandering crosses the line, courts could begin striking down redistricting plans across the nation and at all levels. Republicans have gerrymandered 55 percent of congressional districts and most state legislatures nationwide, so such a decision could have extremely far-reaching consequences.27 Jan

Trump's executive orders are stretching the limits of presidential power—and Republicans are pleased - I'm not sure how many ways we can keep pointing out that the Republican Party is no longer bound by any ideology other than dismissing all other American voices as illegitimate—that, essentially, Republicanism should govern America as a one-party state and that if that requires either propaganda efforts tailored to delegitimizing other government functions or simply snipping out parts of the Constitution they don't like, say the bits about Supreme Court nominations, that's what they'll do. But we'll keep doing it, at least until the party can cobble together five or six decent people to resist it from their own side of the aisle. So far, it's not happening. When President Obama relied heavily on executive orders to push through policies that had no chance in Congress, Republicans called him a dictator who abused his power and disregarded the Constitution. They even took him to court. They did indeed. And they railed about czars, and Fox News devoted eight full and increasingly incoherent and foaming years to declaring that President Not-Republican was both weak and ineffectual and a power-grabbing tyrant destroying our great American society with his malevolent presidential pen. And then the new guy walked in and it all vanished into thin air. Now President Trump, at the start of his tenure, is relying heavily on executive actions not just to reverse Obama administration initiatives, but to enact new federal policies covering immigration, health care and other areas in ways that could be seen more as the province of the House and Senate. And he is doing that with clear Republican majorities in Congress. So, lo and behold, it's bullshitting time.27 Jan

That 'working' retreat Republicans are having for Obamacare replacement? It's not working - Campaign Action After seven years of failure when it comes to Republicans crafting anything to replace Obamacare, only Republicans could have believed they'd come up with something at their retreat this week. Spoiler alert: they failed again. Republicans gathered Thursday morning specifically to discuss what should be in the reconciliation package to repeal Obamacare. Republicans voted to repeal Obamacare earlier this month, but now the hard work of outlining the parameters of that are in the committees' hands, and Republicans say no consensus has emerged. […] So far, what appears to have been settled is a timeline in which Republicans first pass a reconciliation bill that dismantles major parts of Obamacare, akin to the 2015 legislation vetoed by President Obama, but with a few additional “replace” elements—though there were few details of what those provisions would look like. Republicans in Congress would then depend on the Health and Human Services secretary (nominee Rep. Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, awaits Senate confirmation) to use administrative actions to change other pieces of Obamacare. But there were few details on that front, either, besides the fact that 1,400 administrative items have been identified as within Price's power to change. After that, there would be other replacement bills considered in the regular order, to use Senate parlance, but because they would require 60 votes in the Senate, those would need Democrats to pass. The tearing apart—they've got that part all worked out, mostly. They still have a big issue in whether or not they maintain the taxes and fees under Obamacare because they're going to need them to implement their still-elusive replacement plan. But the taxes have been one of the primary things they've railed against, and the Freedom Caucus maniacs, and they're unlikely to line up for that. But the putting back together? They can't do it. They won't do it. And when they've destroyed health care for millions of Americans? They will own that.27 Jan

Republicans waste no time targeting transgender Americans in states they control - In states where Republicans now claim the governor’s seat and both legislative chambers—about half the country—social conservatives have gotten off to a quick start introducing anti-LGBTQ legislation. Ashley Dejean writes: "We are seeing them already in an impressive number of states given how early in the legislative session it is," says Cathryn Oakley, senior legislative counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, though she adds that "some at this point are still rumored." By HRC's estimate, at least 40 anti-LGBT proposals have already been introduced for the legislative sessions this year. Some the measures are modeled after North Carolina's disastrous HB2 "bathroom bill" prohibiting trans individuals from using restrooms consistent with their gender. Others are horrifying attempts at violating the privacy of transgender students. Other proposals would force schools to out transgender students to their parents, something advocates find particularly troubling. Up to 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT. Whether their parents accept their gender identity has a significant impact on the mental health outcomes of young transgender people. "It risks their long-term health care outcomes and economic future by endangering their ability to protect their own privacy and move safely through the world," explains Sasha Buchert with the Transgender Law Center. This is life and death stuff, folks, no joke. Naturally, social conservatives don’t care whom they harm en route to their misguided goals. Mother Jones has a state-by-state listing of horribles but, per usual, Texas is really outdoing itself. 27 Jan

Trump wants to build a wall between us and Mexico, but the border voted heavily against him - Donald Trump is haphazardly plowing ahead with his proposal to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, but among the many obstacles he faces is this one: the areas of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas that actually abut our southern neighbor strongly opposed the president in 2016. Daily Kos Elections has calculated the results of last year’s presidential election for the nation’s congressional districts, and now The Washington Post’s Philip Bump has smartly put that data to use to show that eight of the nine districts along the border voted against Trump. (Click through to see the WaPo’s excellent interactive map of the region.) What’s more, three of those seats also elected Republicans last year: Arizona’s 2nd, located in Tucson and its suburbs; New Mexico’s sprawling 2nd; and Texas’s 23rd, which stretches from El Paso to San Antonio. All three are home to substantial Latino populations, and the two districts in Arizona and Texas both voted for Hillary Clinton after having narrowly supported Mitt Romney in 2016. It’s very possible Trump’s border proposals were responsible for that switch. Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who represents the 23rd, has been vocal in expressing his opposition to the wall, an issue Democrats hammered him over during his re-election campaign last year—a race Hurd won by just 1 percent. Should some form of Trump’s border wall actually come to fruition, that would make Hurd, along with Arizona 2nd District Rep. Martha McSally, obvious targets for Democrats once again.27 Jan

Is the White House trying to send press briefing archives down the memory hole? - The White House isn’t sending out daily transcripts of the press briefings and they’re also not archiving them on the White House website. The only briefing provided there is Sean Spicer’s first—the briefing to end all briefings, a full-tilt rant followed by no questions. We realize these briefings have been embarrassing and even “demoralizing” escapades in which Spicer tries to turn the Yammer in Chief’s tirades into lemonade, but there ought to be documentation. It’s one of the primary duties of White House officials as the country’s foremost public servants to provide a public record of events, including press briefings. The White House of popular vote loser Donald Trump has already scrubbed climate change information from its official site (and they’re working on doing the same at the EPA site), but maybe their retroactive “alternative facts” are just the tip of the iceberg. If there’s no official record of events, did it really happen? Only Donald Trump knows.27 Jan

Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Resistance FRIDAY! - From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE… Because I [thumping heart emoji] you so much The theme of our Who Won the Week poll tonight is "resistance." I don’t normally get a lump in my throat putting these together. It’s usually more of an evil grin, knowing that I’m going to force you to pick just one of at least 10 deserving candidates. Not signed in But I’m still on a post-women’s-march high, and I admit I got a bit emotional when I finished tonight’s list. We have a cruel, delusional, unhinged KKK-endorsed baby-man at the helm of this country, and it’s heartening to see how fast the righteously-angry resistance has mobilized, and in ways I never would’ve expected. I mean, seriously, how fucking furious do you think the totally unpopular and already-worst-president-ever was when he saw that Greenpeace banner hanging from that construction crane? He probably sent everyone out of the room so he could have some angry-baby whiny time. So tonight, for the first time in our WWtW poll’s history, there’s---paraphrasing J.R.R. Tolkien---”one option to rule them all.” I hope you enjoy clicking it as much as I will. Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]27 Jan

Ferguson residents still at risk while police fail to comply with reform - Here we go again. After being investigated by the Justice Department after the police shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014, the Ferguson Police Department was found to routinely violate the civil rights of its black residents. Among some of the DOJ findings—the circulation of racist emails by city officials, unconstitutional stops and arrests, imposing unduly harsh penalties for missed payments or appearances, and maximizing city revenue by encouraging officers to ticket more people. Apparently, institutionalizing thuggery and abuse wasn’t enough. Now the Ferguson Police Department has added contempt and noncompliance to its arsenal. The Associated Press reports that city officials missed deadlines in what was supposed to be an agreement with the DOJ to reform its policing practices. Clark Ervin, a Washington lawyer monitoring the consent decree involving the St. Louis suburb, told The Associated Press that Ferguson has missed some 120- and 180-day deadlines in crafting new policies and procedures on basic policing practices. Despite being almost half a year behind in meeting the deadlines, the Ferguson city manager says that they are on the right track and that progress is being made. Progress for whom, exactly? While some may say that it can be difficult to implement large systemic changes mandated by the federal government, slow progress on this issue doesn’t seem like nearly a good enough excuse after years of abusing citizens. The residents of Ferguson deserve better than this. 27 Jan

Democracy Now!

Hundreds of Thousands Sign Petition to Impeach Trump for Violating Constitution over Biz Interests - Donald Trump’s presidency is less than a week old, but some attorneys say a case for impeachment can already be made. We speak to John Bonifaz, who says Trump has violated a part of the U.S. Constitution that bars Trump from receiving payments from foreign governments. The effort is being led by Free Speech for People and RootsAction.27 Jan

Will Trump's Claims of Election Fraud Pave the Way for an Assault on Voting Rights? - President Trump is calling for a "major investigation" of voter fraud, as he continues to stand by his lies about the 2016 election despite the fact that his claims have been widely debunked by experts. Trump falsely asserted that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because 3 to 5 million unauthorized votes were cast in the election. Trump claims a 2008 study published by the Pew Research Foundation supports his "belief" of widespread voter fraud. However, according to Politico, there is no 2008 Pew study saying any such thing. There is another study—published in 2014 and since widely debunked—that mistakenly claimed 14 percent of noncitizens said they were registered to vote in 2008 and 2010. Brian Schaffner, one of the academics behind the survey that led to this study, told CNN Trump is misinterpreting the study, calling Trump’s claims "absurd" and "not even plausible." For more, we’re joined by Brian Schaffner, who recently co-wrote a piece in The Washington Post titled "Trump wants to investigate purported mass voter fraud. We pre-debunked his evidence." We’re also joined by Dale Ho, director of the Voting Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.27 Jan

Are Trump & Mexican President Provoking Conflict to Distract from Low Approval Ratings at Home? - Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto canceled a meeting with President Trump that was scheduled for next week, as tensions between the two countries rise. The move came after Trump announced plans Wednesday to expand the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico—a wall Trump has repeatedly said he would force Mexico to pay for. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the U.S. would impose a 20 percent tax on all goods imported from Mexico and use the proceeds to pay for the expanded border wall. But after widespread outrage at the plan, Spicer walked back his statements only hours later, saying the import tax was just "one idea."27 Jan

"The Media is the Opposition Party": Trump Adviser Steve Bannon Tells Press to "Keep Its Mouth Shut" - The battle between Donald Trump and the press escalated Thursday after one of Trump’s top advisers called the media the opposition party. In a rare interview with The New York Times, Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, said, "The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, added, "I want you to quote this. The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States." We speak to reporter Sarah Posner, who interviewed Bannon in July. In August, she wrote a headline-grabbing article for Mother Jones about Steve Bannon titled "How Donald Trump’s New Campaign Chief Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists."27 Jan

Headlines for January 27, 2017 - Doomsday Clock Closer to Midnight Than at Any Time Since 1953Mexican President Cancels Meeting with Trump as Tensions RiseTrump Visits Pentagon as White House Drafts Plans to Ramp Up Fight Against ISISLegal Experts & Republicans Condemn Trump Endorsement of TortureThousands March in Philadelphia Against Trump & Repeal of ObamacareState Department Senior Team Ousted by Trump AdministrationFive Members of Trump Inner Circle Were Registered to Vote in 2 StatesTrump Chief Strategist Says Media Should "Keep Its Mouth Shut"Trump Orders Publication of List of Crimes by Undocumented People, Recalling Nazi-Era PracticeDHS Halts Refugee Interviews Abroad, Effectively Halting Future AdmissionTrump Ordered Park Service to Find Photos Showing Big Inauguration TurnoutGambian President Adama Barrow Returns to Gambia Amid CelebrationHawaii: Hundreds to Protest Zuckerberg's Lawsuits to Force Native Hawaiians Off LandMike Pence to Speak at Anti-Abortion Rally in First for Sitting Vice PresidentOhio: Judge Rules Lethal Injection Process is UnconstitutionalBresha Meadows Is Transferred to Adolescent Treatment FacilityGeorge Orwell's "1984" Becomes Best-Seller After Trump Takes Office27 Jan

A Day We Were All Afraid Of: Immigrant Rights Activist Speaks Out After Trump Takes Executive Action - Wednesday marked the biggest single day of changes to U.S. immigration policy in recent memory. In a press conference at the Department of Homeland Security, President Trump announced and signed two executive orders to begin construction on a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and to crack down on those who cross it. Trump’s directive also greatly increases the number of immigration enforcement personnel. The order also strips funding from so-called sanctuary cities. But mayors across the country, including those in New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, say they will continue to allow police officers to refuse to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants on behalf of federal authorities. We speak to Erika Andiola, a nationally known immigrant activist who served as a spokesperson for Senator Bernie Sanders and helped him craft immigration policy. She is the political director for Our Revolution.26 Jan

In First TV Interview, President Trump Says Torture "Absolutely" Works - During his first televised interview as president, Donald Trump openly embraced torture and waterboarding. "I have spoken, as recently as 24 hours ago, with people at the highest level of intelligence, and I asked them the question: Does it work? Does torture work? And the answer was 'Yes, absolutely,'" Trump said. We speak to Vincent Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center.26 Jan

NYC: Thousands Protest Trump Plan to Impose Ban on Refugees, Block Visas from 7 Muslim Nations - On Wednesday night, thousands of protesters packed into Washington Square Park in New York for an emergency rally in support of Muslim and immigrant rights. The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations organized the event after leaked documents showed Trump is preparing to sign an executive order blocking visas from being issued to anyone from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. We hear from New York City Public Advocate Letitia James and Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour and speak to Vincent Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center.26 Jan

Faiza Patel: Trump Is Taking U.S. Back to Era of George W. Bush—But Worse - According to leaked documents, another executive order is in the works that would temporarily ban most refugees from entering the country and reportedly block visas from being issued to anyone from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. We speak to Faiza Patel, co-director of the Liberty and National Security program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

What Will 2017 Bring? - It’s a question on many minds as we begin this new year. It is perhaps asked more now than ever before in my life-time – and that spans 7 decades. All we can say for sure is that we are in for big changes . . . on many fronts. Each of us is faced with the decision: Will we sit back and accept changes imposed by Washington, Moscow, Beijing, and Big Business? Or will we take actions that guide humanity to a saner world? I’ve had the opportunity to travel across this magnificent planet, speaking at a wide variety of events and talking with individuals from a multitude of jobs and lifestyles. Everywhere, I encounter more and more people who are committed to taking actions that will change consciousness. They realize that consciousness change is the key to altering what we call objective reality. They know that the big events in this world are molded by the ways we perceive ourselves and our relationship to all that is around us. By changing perceptions, we change the world. In a few days, I leave for a two-month journey that will take me to venues in the United States, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, and Ecuador. I will be speaking at the Conscious Life Expo, the Heartbeat Summit, and many other places. Every one of these is oriented toward using changes in our perceived reality to influence the way human beings impact each other and the world. What will 2017 bring? That depends on you. I encourage each and every one of you to make a New Year’s resolution right now that will commit you to taking the path that leads to action. The events of this past year, including those in the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and the US serve as wakeup calls. One of the facts we awaken to is that business is the driving force behind politics and governments. Whether a leader’s name is Trump or Putin, Merkel or Xi Jinping, he or she serves at the pleasure of banks and other global corporations. And those banks and corporations depend on us – you and me – to buy their goods and services, work for, manage, and invest in them. Without us, they go the way of Woolworth’s, Polaroid, Pan Am, Bethlehem Steel, and so many others that have become corporate dinosaurs. However you feel about the new Oval Office occupant, know that his power base is the business community. However you feel about climate change, pipelines, vanishing forests, urban violence, wars, and just about every other issue, know that the twists and turns of that issue are shaped by business. However you feel about Monsanto, Exxon, Nike or any other business know that that business depends on its customers, workers, managers, and investors – us. Consumer movements work. They ended apartheid, installed seat belts, cleaned up polluted rivers, labelled fats, sugars, calories, and proteins in our foods, opened corporate doors wider to women and minorities, and so much more. In each of these areas we need to go further and we also need to expend these movements. We must insist that every company we support in any way be committed to serving us, the public, the world, future generations – not simply the bottom line. We must change the perception of what it means to be successful. That is our job and our pleasure. You have the power. Social networking makes it easier – and more fun – than ever to launch campaigns that will change the perception of what it means to be “successful.” It’s time for you and me to use all the tools at our disposal to show those who would drive us down a path of distraction, lethargy, depression, and mayhem that we simply will not stand for it. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for and we are here now. 2017 is our year! It will bring what we demand. Best wishes, John The Love Summit organized by the nonprofit Dream Change that John founded nearly 30 years ago is a powerful example of a movement that is going global to change businesses.1 Jan

Message from the Legendary Elder Siblings - I write this in-flight, returning from a magical trip to the Kogi of Colombia. I write this having seen and heard the airport TV reports of the trauma that continues to dominate US politics, as well as those in many other countries. Last year my Ecuadorian partner, Daniel Koupermann, and I took a group to the amazing lands of the Kogi – people who have a message for us all. They came down from their mountain hideaways to meet us and to spread their message of the need for change. They were so impressed by the deep spirituality and commitment of that 2015 group that they invited us to bring another similar group – and this time to be the first ever to live among them, to sleep in their community, and to sit in their sacred ceremonial lodges. For the 19 of us it was a life-changing trip. We were surrounded by breathtaking scenes: the emerald Caribbean and palm-fringed beaches, the Sierra Nevada mountains that rise 18,000 feet up from the ocean to glacier-covered peaks, the rain forests, and the sparkling rivers that cascade from the glaciers into the Caribbean. But most of all it was the Kogi who impressed us! I have to admit that I was shocked – ecstatically – by the extent to which the Kogi invited us to share their lives and ceremonies. These up-til-now illusive people totally opened the doors to their homes and hearts to us. They invited us to come and learn from their Mamos (wise elders/teachers/shamans/spiritual leaders), to answer a call that dates back to a time when their forefathers retreated from the onslaught of Spanish conquistadors and the destructive nature of European cultures. Their Mamos told us of how their ancestors had fled up the valleys of the glacial rivers into the mountains. Choosing to remain isolated for centuries, they developed a new dream of the Earth, a revelation that balances the brilliant potential of the human mind, heart and spirit with all the forces of nature. To this day they remain true to their ancient laws and traditions—the moral, ecological, and spiritual dictates of a force they identify as “the Mother”—and are still led by sacred rituals. In the late 1900s, their Mamos understood that they are the Elder Siblings and that they had to come down and share that powerful message with the modern world, the people they call the Younger Siblings – us. They have shared their history with others. What was unique this time was their enthusiasm for embracing this group on very personal levels. I write this while flying home and it is all too close to me to be able to express in detail at this moment (a book to come, I think!) but I will say that the bonding we all felt is symbolized by a ceremony when a Mamo and his wife in whose community we had spent the night invited us to witness their 5-year-old son training to become a Mamo. We traveled many miles down from their community and stood with them on the bank of a glacial river where it meets the Caribbean while the young man gently offered the river the commitments we had all made and blown into tiny pieces of cotton from a local plant. The Kogi message, although similar to the one I received more than 40 years ago when I was a Peace Corps volunteer living with the Shuar in the Amazon and then again 20 years later from the Achuar, is more urgent now than ever. It is the message that birthed nonprofits, including Dream Change and the Pachamama Alliance. It is the message of the North American indigenous people and all those who join them at Standing Rock. It is a message that now has issued forth from indigenous cultures and organizations around the world. It is a message of hope, one that says we can transformer ourselves from societies that adhere to systems that threaten to destroy us to ones that will sustain us and future generations. I’ve written many times about the necessity to move from a Death Economy, based on warfare and ravaging the very resources upon which it depends, to a Life Economy, based on cleaning up pollution, regenerating destroyed environments, and developing new technologies that recycle and life-styles that give back more than they take from our Living Earth. Now, flying back from the Kogi, I feel rejuvenated and recommitted to spreading the message that is the underlying principle behind that economic shapeshift that needs to happen. We know we are facing severe crises. We know the climate is changing and that we humans are devastating the air, water, and land that support all life on this planet. We know that our government is incapable or unwilling to turn things around. It is easy to be discouraged. EXCEPT we also now know what our Elder Siblings understood long ago, that We the People must transform ourselves and our institutions. That is the message of the Kogi. It is the message of the Shuar, the Achuar, the people at Standing Rock and all our brothers and sisters around the globe. It is the message of the rising oceans, flooding rivers, melting glaciers, the hurricanes, the political traumas, and all the other crises. We are blessed to be hearing this message, to be inhabitants of this incredible organism that is our Living Earth and to be able to understand that the crises are themselves the message that it is time for us to come out of our isolation and create the change we want and know in our hearts, minds, and souls is necessary.13 Dec 16

JFK’s Advice for this Hour of Change and Challenge - As I travel around the world speaking at venues that range from corporate summits to rock festivals and from consumer groups to universities, I hear deep dissatisfaction with the current global political/economic system. This is reflected in Brexit, and in movements sweeping Iceland, Italy, Greece, and so many other countries. And it was reflected, perhaps most strongly, in the US elections. People everywhere understand that although the system that’s been in place for roughly a century has created amazing science, technology, medicine, and arts, it has run its course. It is not serving We the People. Not on any continent. It is broken. And it can’t be fixed with old tools. Perhaps more than any other message to take away from the 2016 US presidential election – as well as movements around the globe – is that people are discouraged and are demanding something different. Those on the right look for a conservative, authoritarian government while those on the left favor a progressive, socialistic one. Bernie’s popularity and Trump’s victory symbolize these two opposite ends of the spectrum. Hillary stood in the middle and symbolized the status quo. When I finish giving speeches, during the question-and-answer period, people often ask if I don’t think things have to fall apart before we can move into a new phase. I believe we would be wise to accept the recent events as symbols that things have fallen apart. People are waking up to the fact that our space station is headed for disaster and we must change course. Those who feel discouraged by the results of the recent election and those who are euphoric share a motivation to change our space station’s navigational system. This new administration and Congress will have impacts. The Supreme Court, health care, regulations governing Wall Street, energy, transportation, education, and the environment, as well as international relations: all of these will change. But let us understand that these are symptoms. The illness is much bigger. It is a systemic disease. And we must heal it. We must ask: how do we pull back from the brink of disaster? How do we maneuver human societies in ways that will direct us away from systems that are obviously failing, to ones that are themselves renewable resources? Since the illness is the political/economic system itself, we must change it. Regardless of policies implemented by national governments, we all need to dedicate ourselves to converting a Death Economy, based on militarism and excessive consumption, into a Life Economy, based on cleaning up pollution, regenerating environments, and developing sustainable non-extractive technologies. When the US felt threatened by the Soviet domination of space, President John Kennedy in September 1962 said, “We meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance.” He then announced his intention to beat the Soviets by being the first nation to send men to the moon. “And,” he added with an optimistic statement that seemed almost beyond possibility, “it will be done before the end of this decade.” Although he did not live to see it, the President’s promise was fulfilled; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in July 1969. We are at such a time now. This hour of change and challenge, hope and fear, knowledge and ignorance, demands our involvement. It is imperative for each of us to be creative, to take actions, to understand that democracy truly is based on all of us participating in the great adventure that is the next ten years. John Kennedy’s promise is a promise for each of us to make now: It will be done before the end of the decade.10 Nov 16

Critical for Singapore to continue to have a reliable news source: Chee Hong Tat - On a visit to Mediacorp, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Communications and Information said a reliable news source allows Singaporeans to understand what’s happening around them.03:00

Companies need to pursue innovation amid challenging year: S Iswaran - The “confidence, resourcefulness, reliability and drive” qualities of the Rooster are precisely what Singapore need to navigate what is shaping up to be a challenging year of the Rooster, Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran, said on Saturday (Jan 28).27 Jan

Stop moaning, be pro-active: Heartware Network founder Raymond Huang to Singapore’s youth - He was a banker, but about 17 years ago, Raymond Huang decided he had had enough of the corporate world, and dedicated his life to youth development, encouraging them to be leaders, volunteers and entrepreneurs.27 Jan

PM Lee visits Senoko Energy for Chinese New Year - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and key union leaders greeted workers at Senoko Energy at their Plant in Woodlands today, on the first day of the Chinese New Year, Saturday (Jan 28).27 Jan

What goes into the making of a Chinese dragon? - In the past, Chinese dragons sold in Singapore would cost at least S$5,000. But these days, a dragon is easily available for as little as S$1,500.27 Jan

PM Lee emphasises importance of renewal in Chinese New Year message - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong specifically pointed out the significance of renewal for Singapore's economy and couples looking to start a family. 27 Jan

Panel recommends ways to improve Tamil translation standards for Govt - The recommendations focus on three broad areas: Tightening vetting procedures, addressing gibberish text issues and capability development. 27 Jan

Singapore Red Cross contributes S$20,000 for flood relief in Malaysia - The funds will support the Malaysian Red Crescent in assisting and evacuating people affected by the floods, says Singapore Red Cross. 27 Jan

2 companies fined S$10,000 each for breaching data protection rules - JP Pepperdine Group and Propnex Realty were both imposed the financial penalty after failing to secure customers' personal information on their IT systems, thus making them available publicly.

Number of people evacuated in Johor flooding continues to fall - Arouund 4,260 people remain evacuated in Johor, with a total of around 11,000 evacuees across six states, according to a government minister.44 min

Few dads take part in trials of obesity treatments for kids - Fathers are conspicuously absent from studies that test the best ways to prevent and treat obesity in children, according to an analysis of research done in the past decade.05:25

Cameroon keeper Onana pleased with Nations Cup stay-away - Young Ajax Amsterdam goalkeeper Andre Onana is pleased with his decision not to play for Cameroon in the African Nations Cup in a bid to consolidates his first-team place with the Dutch club.05:20

Elderly face increased disability risk after emergency room visit - Elderly patients who get treated for illnesses or injuries in the emergency department (ED) are at risk of increased disability for up to six months afterward, a recent study suggests.05:10

German‎ watchdog suspected VW scam on CO2 emissions: report - Germany's motor industry watchdog raised suspicions Volkswagen was using prototype vehicles to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in tests in 2015, soon after the carmaker's manipulation of diesel emissions tests was uncovered, the Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported on Saturday.05:05

Serena wins Australian Open for 23rd grand slam crown - Serena Williams pushed sentiments aside in an emotion-charged 6-4 6-4 defeat of sister Venus to win the Australian Open on Saturday and a record 23rd grand slam title in the professional era.04:50

Russia sanctions must be tied to progress on Ukraine peace - Gabriel - Germany and France agree that any moves to lift sanctions against Russia must be tied to progress in the peace process for eastern Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Saturday.04:25

UK confirms two more cases of bird flu on turkey and pheasant farms - British authorities say they have confirmed two more bird flu cases on farms in northern and eastern England, meaning there are now four areas where restrictions are in place across the country to reduce the spread of the disease.04:20

Trump's trade approach could harm world growth - ECB's Visco - U.S. President Donald Trum

Trump's trade approach could harm world growth - ECB's Visco - U.S. President Donald Trump's approach to trade issues could trigger retaliation in other countries and harm global economic growth, European Central Bank policy maker Ignazio Visco said on Saturday.04:15

No time to create walls between nations - Iran's Rouhani - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday it was no time to build walls between nations and criticised steps towards cancelling world trade agreements, without naming new U.S. President Donald Trump.04:15

Trump aides divided over policy shielding 'dreamer' immigrants - sources - Divisions have emerged among advisers to President Donald Trump over whether to rescind a signature policy of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, that shields young immigrants from deportation, according to congressional sources and Republicans close to the White House.04:10

UN urges US to continue 'long tradition' of welcoming refugees - The agencies, which offer frontline assistance to millions of would-be migrants and asylum seekers, hailed the US resettlement programme as "one of the most important in the world.04:00

May to raise trade, security with Turkey's Erdogan - Prime Minister Theresa May will meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday to discuss trade and security, her spokeswoman said, part of a charm offensive to bolster her hand in negotiations to leave the EU.03:40

About 40 Turkish NATO soldiers requested asylum in Germany-media - About 40 mostly high-ranking Turkish soldiers who worked at NATO facilities in Germany but were suspended after the failed coup in Turkey in July have requested asylum in Germany, news magazine Der Spiegel and broadcaster ARD reported on Saturday.03:20

No time to create walls between nations -Iran's Rouhani - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday it was no time to build walls between nations and criticised steps towards cancelling world trade agreements, without naming new U.S. President Donald Trump.02:15

Poland wants Merkel on it side in reforming EU - PM Szydlo - Poland wants to convince German Chan

Chinese New Year rent-a-boyfriend Facebook 'ads' pop up in Malaysia - It started as a joke "to lighten up the mood" during the festive season, but some men now claim to be getting legitimate requests for their services. 02:17

Chinese New Year fireworks spark a return to hazardous Beijing pollution - Residents of China's capital awoke on Saturday to dense, choking smog after many set off a barrage of fireworks overnight to ring in the Lunar New Year, despite limits and public admonitions against such displays in the congested city.00:15

Japan artist says latest sticker graffiti aimed at Trump - Japanese graffiti artist "281 Antinuke" says his latest street art - politically-charged stickers plastered around central Tokyo - takes aim at U.S. President Donald Trump.27 Jan

Fears rogue Philippine police on rampage - Philippine police allegedly abducting, framing, extorting and murdering people have raised fears of rogue cops going on the rampage under the cover of President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug war, critics and some of his supporters say.27 Jan

Chinese New Year ushered in across the globe - Firecrackers and fireworks lit up the night skies as Chinese New Year was ushered in across the globe on Saturday (Jan 28).27 Jan

North Korea appears to have restarted plutonium reactor - think tank - New commercial satellite imagery indicates North Korea has resumed operation of a reactor at its main nuclear site used to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons programme, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.27 Jan

North Korea appears to have restarted plutonium reactor: Think tank - New commercial satellite imagery indicates North Korea has resumed operation of a reactor at its main nuclear site used to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons programme, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.27 Jan

Astronauts and a performing donkey welcome China's new year - Chinese astronauts took centre stage on Friday at state television's annual glitzy, kitsch and often much derided marathon show welcoming in the lunar new year, but for many viewers a performing donkey was the star.

Media Monarchy

#PumpUpThaVolume: January 20, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays Gorillaz, Arcade Fire, Sturgill Simpson and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for January 20, 2017. ♬20 Jan

#MorningMonarchy: January 20, 2017 - Liberal lawsuits, "Trained to Kill" and Obama's legacy + this day in history w/Iran's Inaugural hostages and our song of the day by Ghost on your Morning Monarchy for January 20, 2017.20 Jan

#BookSmarts: “Trained to Kill: The Inside Story of CIA Plots Against Castro, Kennedy, and Che” - Continuing where we left off discussing "Suddenly", we reach an inauguration day that brings America back to fractious times we've seen before - with the publication of the new book, "Trained to Kill: The Inside Story of CIA Plots Against Castro, Kennedy, and Che".20 Jan

#NewWorldNextWeek: Finger Photos, Robot Uprising, #Inauguration Madness (Audio) - This week on the New World Next Week: Researchers warn of fingerprint theft from peace sign photos; more human workers made redundant by AI; and madness swirls around the inauguration spectacle in Washington DC.19 Jan

#NewWorldNextWeek: World Braces for #Inauguration Madness (Video) - This week on the New World Next Week: Researchers warn of fingerprint theft from peace sign photos; more human workers made redundant by AI; and madness swirls around the inauguration spectacle in Washington DC.19 Jan

#PumpUpThaVolume: January 19, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays Jack Scott, Wiley, Hospitality and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for January 19, 2017. ♬19 Jan

#MorningMonarchy: January 19, 2017 - Fiery protests, institutional abuse and Obama's legacy + this day in history w/"You Nazty Spy!" and our song of the day by OK Go on your Morning Monarchy for January 19, 2017.19 Jan

#PumpUpThaVolume: January 18, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays Kevin Krauter, Strand of Oaks, Chavez and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for January 18, 2017. ♬18 Jan

#MorningMonarchy: January 18, 2017 - Caffeine consumption, the hot chocolate market and Obama's legacy + this day in history w/Marion Barry and our song of the day by Right Said Fred on your Morning Monarchy for January 18, 2017.18 Jan

#PumpUpThaVolume: January 17, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays The Routes, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Red Porch Kid and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for January 17, 2017. ♬17 Jan

NATO Latest News

Secretary General: NATO membership will strengthen Montenegro’s sovereignty - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg praised Montenegro’s contributions to NATO on Thursday (26 January 2017), during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Duško Marković. He stressed that “NATO membership will strengthen Montenegro’s sovereignty,” and send a clear signal of stability and security in the Western Balkans.26 Jan

New NFIU proves NATO continues to be relevant and adaptive - Lieutenant General Steven Shepro, Deputy Chairman of the NATO Military Committee attended the Opening Ceremony for the Slovakian NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) on 24 Jan 17 in Bratislava, Slovakia. General Shepro provided an opening statement alongside the Slovak Minister of Defence, Peter Gajdoš, Ambassador Tacan Ildem, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy and Commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum, General Salvatore Farina.25 Jan

Visit to NATO by the Prime Minister of Montenegro - NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg will meet the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Mr. Duško Marković on Thursday 26 January 2017.25 Jan

NATO deepens cooperation with Kuwait and Gulf partners - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed closer cooperation between the Alliance, Kuwait and other Gulf partners on Tuesday (24 January 2017). During a joint press conference with First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah, the Secretary General praised Kuwait’s efforts to build greater security and stability in the Gulf region.24 Jan

Secretary General: NATO has a new home in the Gulf region - In a keynote speech on Tuesday (24 January 2017), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg marked the opening of the NATO Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) Regional Centre in Kuwait. As the Alliance’s first presence in the Gulf region, the NATO-ICI Regional Centre will be a vital hub for NATO’s practical cooperation with Kuwait and other Gulf partners, as well as Saudi Arabia and Oman.24 Jan

NATO marks closer ties with Gulf partners, opens new centre in Kuwait - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg led the North Atlantic Council in celebrating the opening of the NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) Regional Centre on Tuesday (24 January 2017). During an inauguration ceremony in Kuwait, the Secretary General highlighted the Centre’s potential in strengthening the partnership between NATO and Gulf partners, including in the important fight against terrorism.24 Jan

Visit to NATO by Deputy Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina - The NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Rose Gottemoeller, will meet with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Josip Brkić on Wednesday, 25 January 2017.24 Jan

NATO inaugurates new small headquarters in Slovakia - The Alliance marked the inauguration of a new NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) in Slovakia on Tuesday (24 January 2017). This multinational unit is one of eight small headquarters in the eastern part of the Alliance and will play a vital role in military planning, exercises and facilitating reinforcements. In a keynote speech, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Tacan Ildem stressed that these eight NFIUs symbolise NATO’s solidarity and commitment to collective defence.24 Jan

NATO Secretary General visit to Kuwait - Meeting of the North Atlantic Council with ICI Partners - At the invitation of the Kuwaiti authorities, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) chaired by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will visit Kuwait on 23 and 24 January 2017.23 Jan

Visit to NATO by the Minister of Defence of Japan - The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will meet with the Minister of Defence of Japan, H.E. Ms. Tomomi Inada, on Thursday 5 January 2017.20 Jan

National Post

Manitoba premier urged to apologize for saying aboriginal night hunting is causing ‘race war’ - WINNIPEG — Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is being criticized for saying young indigenous men with criminal records are responsible for night hunting which he previously said was fuelling a “race war.” “Young indigenous men — a preponderance of them are offenders, with criminal records — are going off shooting guns in the middle of the night,” Maclean’s magazine quotes Pallister as saying from his vacation home in Costa Rica. “It doesn’t make sense.” His comments came after a speech he made last week in which he said tension surrounding night hunting is leading to a “race war.” “Young indigenous guys going out and shootin’ a bunch of moose ’cause they can, ’cause they say it’s their right, doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said in the speech. “This is a poor practice. A dumb practice … It should stop. “So what are we doing? We’re organizing to bring indigenous people together and say the same thing I just said to ya, ’cause it’s becoming a race war and I don’t want that.” The Opposition is demanding Pallister apologize for his latest comments and commit to educating himself about First Nations. RelatedJen Gerson: Pallister ’s an unlikely standard-bearer for the Conservative brand, but he’ll have to do NDP legislature member Amanda Lathlin said Pallister’s comments are ignorant and feed into a dangerous stereotype of indigenous people. “Those comments were racist and irresponsible,” said Lathlin. “He did not consult or talk to our hunters in that community. That conversation is absolutely missing.” Olivia Baldwin-Valainis, spokeswoman for Pallister, said in an emailed statement that the province has stepped up its enforcement of laws that ban the use of bright lights to hunt at night. She said that resulted in 44 charges in 2016. Baldwin-Valainis didn’t say how many of the people charged were indigenous or how many had criminal records. “Reports of dangerous hunting practices have increased,” she wrote. “Two human lives have been lost, livestock have been found shot on private property and agricultural equipment, homes and buildings have been hit by stray bullets.” She didn’t address calls for Pallister to apologize or educate himself about treaty rights. Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox met earlier this week with reeves from several communities in western Manitoba who are pushing for a ban on indigenous night hunting. She said the government plans to bring both sides to the table in the near future to try to work out an agreement. Non-indigenous hunters are banned from hunting at night. Indigenous hunters are allowed — supported by a Supreme Court of Canada ruling — subject to safety restrictions. It’s evident … you don’t have a clear understanding of indigenous cultures, histories, or communities in Manitoba. Lathlin said hunting has a long-standing and revered place in indigenous culture, as does sharing the proceeds with the community. For indigenous people, hunting is about livelihood, not sport, she said. At a time when Canada is supposed to be working toward reconciliation with First Nations, Pallister’s comments perpetuate a negative stereotype, Lathlin suggested. “Here I am, an aboriginal woman raising my daughters to feel pride within our culture, and yet we have the leader of Manitoba taking a step backwards in regards to who we are as people. What kind of leadership is that?” Niigaan Sinclair, head of the native studies department at the University of Manitoba, issued a written invitation to Pallister. “It’s evident … you don’t have a clear understanding of indigenous cultures, histories, or communities in Manitoba, treaties and the relationships we share here, or how indigenous and non-indigenous peoples can live alongside one another respectfully, mutually beneficially, and legally,” he wrote. “I therefore offer for you to come to the University of Manitoba and our Department of Native Studies to receive the education you clearly need to make competent decisions that effect the lives of all Manitobans. “You must learn to stop your perpetuation of ignorant, factually incorrect, and divisive statements that draw on stereotypes and incite anger and violence if for nothing else than for the benefit of our home.”27 Jan

Alberta man’s rant over $465 ticket for having cracked driver’s licence a Facebook hit - CAMROSE, Alta. — An easy-going dude from Camrose, Alta., is racking up impressive views on Facebook with his good-natured rant against the young Edmonton police officer who gave him a $465 ticket for having a cracked driver’s licence. Dave Balay — or “Handsome Dave” as the self-proclaimed motorcycle enthusiast fashions himself on Facebook — posted a video of his story Friday and by late evening had already had 453,000 people check in to hear his tale of woe. Balay says he was driving home this week when two police cruisers pulled him over on an Edmonton freeway, apparently after they’d received a call saying he had swerved on the highway. He says he thinks the officers suspected he was impaired. A police helicopter was even called in. “All of a sudden, there’s four policemen around me,” he explains in his video, adding he had his seat belt on and had “no outstanding warrants” so thought everything would be fine. In his version of events, he politely produced his licence and registration while the officers grilled him. “ ’You been drinking?’ No. ”You on any drugs?’ No, well, I won’t mention Cialis to him,“ says Balay, referring to the erectile dysfunction medication. ”So they go and find out everything’s all good.“ But Balay says while one officer was his age — “he’s cool” — the other was a young guy who Balay implies had a bit of an attitude. “I’ve probably got a sports jacket in my closet older than him,” he cracks, adding he and the older officer briefly discussed the younger officer’s apparent concern. “Well, that’s good he takes his job seriously,” offers Balay. “That’s awesome. I’m glad.” Or at least it is until the officer tells Balay he’s going to give him a ticket for having a mutilated driver’s licence, all because the document has a small cut on the top corner. “I say, ’a mutilated licence! I didn’t even know there was such a thing.’ ” At first, Balay says he wasn’t that concerned, figuring “it’s not going to be that much.” But his attitude changed when he read the ticket and saw it was for $465. “I’m not paying it,” says Balay. “I’m going to go to the Crown prosecutor. He can either toss it out and I will get a new licence that doesn’t have any crack on it, or I will go to jail for the weekend or however long it takes to pay off 465 bucks, or I’ll do community service. Serve some soup or fold some clothes — whatever. “But I’m not working. I don’t have $465.” Well, that’s good he takes his job seriously. Media attention to Balay’s video even prompted the Edmonton police service to issue a statement standing by their officer. “Because of the observations of the witness, the officer had grounds to lay a careless driving charge under the Traffic Safety Act, which carries a penalty of $543 and six demerits,” says the release. “Upon speaking with the driver, who was cooperative, the officer used his discretion to issue a lesser fine for a cracked driver’s licence under the Traffic Safety Act Section 61.” The release says police won’t comment further and it will be up to the Crown and the courts to determine if the charge was warranted. As for Balay, he says things could have been handled differently. “You know what, policeman? You could just give me a warning and say, ‘I could give you a ticket for that.’ I think a warning would have been fine,” he says, ending his video with a big smile. “Way to go, Constable Whatever-The-Heck-Your-Name-Is! Nicely done!”27 Jan

N.B. couple used giant manure heap to harass neighbours, judge rules - So massive was the pile of manure lining the edge of David and Joan Gallant’s property in rural New Brunswick, it could be seen using satellite imagery. And the stench? Unbearable, they said. Especially after it rained or when the wind blew from the east. But despite the Gallants’ repeated complaints to neighbours Lee and Shirley Murray, the pile of poop just sat there for almost a year, part of an ugly — and escalating — dispute. The Murrays had without question set out to make the Gallants’ lives “miserable,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice George Rideout said in a recent decision. “The manure was piled high and a photo taken by Google (Earth) from a satellite shows it.” And the Murrays’ offensive actions didn’t stop there, the judge said. The Murrays used a snowblower to send snow and rocks onto the Gallants’ property and likely were behind the escape of numerous cows onto their property, causing extensive hoof damage to the lawn. “I have little doubt these activities were initiated by the Murrays and designed to inflict fear, nuisance and harassment against the Gallants,” the judge said. The manure was fresh, unseasoned, wet, raw manure. The smell was disgusting. Reached by phone, Lee Murray said Friday he and his wife planned to appeal, insisting that they were the ones who had been harassed and that their one-time friends had “made a big fuss over nothing” and were just looking for money. “There’s more to this,” he said. “This thing isn’t over yet.” The Gallants purchased their property from the Murrays in Indian Mountain, just outside Moncton, in 2001. The Murray property borders the Gallant property on three sides. It is not clear from the court records when or what caused the relationship between the two couples to sour. But in court affidavits, the Gallants say things got really bad when, over the course of several days in November 2013, the Murrays deposited hundreds of loads of cow manure along a strip of land next to their property. On one occasion, the Gallants said they were awoken at 4 a.m. by the sound of a loader dumping manure. “I called Lee Murray on his cellphone to complain, but he hung up on me,” David Gallant, who is retired, said in his affidavit. “The manure was fresh, unseasoned, wet, raw manure. The smell was disgusting,” he said. It was just the beginning of a long string of complaints documented by the Gallants. In March 2014, they alleged, the Murrays used their snowblower to blow snow and rocks onto their property. Handout“The manure was piled high and a photo taken by Google (Earth) from a satellite shows it.” In May 2014, they alleged that about 50 cattle from the Murray property escaped through a gate, causing extensive damage to their lawn from “hoofprint holes” and damage to three trees. “I saw cow dung all over our property,” David Gallant said in his affidavit. In September 2014, they say that Lee Murray put a large bale of hay near their back fence, “with the presumably intentional effect that it drew his cattle to eat, urinate and defecate as close to our house as possible.” It was around this time that the Gallants filed a complaint with the New Brunswick Farm Practices Review Board regarding the pile of manure. The following month, the Murrays finally removed the manure pile, but in the process of doing so, the Gallants alleged, they started a brush fire that caused smoke to enter their garage. RelatedDispute over parking spot turns condo into site of all-out war of liens, lawsuits and arrestsBitter feud between N.L. neighbours has disputed death threat, claims of cat gas chambers, and hard-of-hearing deputy sheriffFeud between residents at this B.C. seniors condo is ‘so bizarre’ even a judge had a hard time believing it was real In December 2014, the Farm Practices Review Board held a hearing and concluded that the cattle escape and placement of manure near the Gallants’ property constituted “unacceptable farming practices” and recommended a number of changes. The very next day the Gallants said they found a long scratch along the side of their car. “It is very unusual to observe this kind of vandalism where we live, on a rural road where the properties are very large and far apart from each other,” David Gallant said. In early 2015, the Gallants sued the Murrays in an effort to stop to what they said was an “increasing pattern of aggression.” The judge opens his Jan. 19 decision with this observation: “When neighbours fight, nothing good results. The case now before the court proves this adage.” Rideout said he had “no hesitation” in finding that the Murrays’ conduct had been “wilful and reprehensible” and awarded the Gallants $15,000 in damages. (The judge noted that the Murrays’ insurance company had previously covered damage related to the cattle escape.) Handout“The manure was fresh, unseasoned, wet, raw manure. The smell was disgusting,” David Gallant said. He also issued an injunction forbidding the Murrays from entering the Gallants’ property; spreading manure within 300 metres of their property; blowing snow, rocks or manure onto their property; and communicating with the Gallants, except in writing. The Gallants could not be reached Friday. Murray, who reportedly pleaded guilty last year in a separate case to failing to obtain the proper permits to have more than 19 heads of cattle, insisted the manure he had dumped next to the Gallants’ property was old and did not give off an odour. And the debris that was blown onto their property was merely “small shovelfuls.” Murray insisted he gets along with all of his other neighbours and that over the Christmas holidays, he helped spread gravel on their driveways. If neighbours get into a disagreement, they should resolve things by talking, Murray said. Never, he said, was he looking to aggravate the Gallants. “I’m not that type of guy.” • Email: dquan@postmedia.com | Twitter: dougquan27 Jan

Trump signs executive order for ‘new vetting measures’ to keep ‘Islamic terrorists’ out of U.S. - President Donald Trump has signed an executive action implementing “new vetting measures” that he says are aimed at keeping “radical Islamic terrorists” out of the United States. Trump says, “We don’t want them here.” The president says he only wants to admit people to the United States who will support the country. His comments echoed his campaign pledge to implement “extreme vetting” programs, particularly for people coming from countries with ties to terrorism. The president signed the executive action at the Pentagon, where he met with the joint chiefs of staff and participated in a ceremonial swearing-in for Defence Secretary James Mattis.27 Jan

Trump plays host to Theresa May and pledges ’lasting support’ to their ‘special relationship’ - WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday pledged America’s “lasting support” to the U.S.’ historic “special relationship” with Britain after he emerged from his first meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, leader of an ally who seeks to nudge the populist president toward the political mainstream. May, who said the meeting was the start to building their relationship, announced that Trump had accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II for a state visit later this year with his wife, first lady Melania Trump. Trump sought to charm May, noting during his first news conference as president that, “by the way, my mother was born in Scotland.” Olivier Douliery/Pool via BloombergU.S. President Donald Trump, left, walks with Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. The British prime minister is planning to pitch a free-trade deal to the new U.S. leader just as the reality of a new era of protection for American workers sinks in. “I am honoured to have the prime minister here for our first official visit from a foreign leader,” Trump said, standing alongside May in the ornate White House East Room. “This is our first visit so, great honour.” He added that the United States and the United Kingdom have “one of the great bonds.” “We pledge our lasting support to this most special relationship,” Trump said during brief opening remarks. “Together, America and the United Kingdom are a beacon for prosperity and the rule of law.” May thanked Trump for inviting her to visit so soon after his inauguration last Friday and said their meeting was an indication of the strength and the importance of maintaining good relations between the trans-Atlantic allies. She said there was “much on which we agree.” “Today’s talks, I think, are a significant moment for President Trump and I to build our relationship,” May said. The Trump-May meeting came a day after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto called off his own trip to Washington next week amid wrangling over who will pay for Trump’s planned wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump’s spokesman said the president would seek a 20 per cent tax on Mexican imports to pay for the barrier, then later clarified that such a tax would be a possible approach. May’s meeting with the president is being hailed by the British government as a sign that the trans-Atlantic “special relationship” is valued by the new administration. Evan Vucci / APPresident Donald Trump reaches out to shake hands with British Prime Minister Theresa May after a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. Before answering questions from a few journalists, Trump welcomed May to the Oval Office where he promptly showed off a bust of Winston Churchill, one of her predecessors. “It’s a great honour to have Winston Churchill back,” Trump said. The bust had been moved from the Oval Office to another part of the White House when Barack Obama held the office. Trump and May were seen holding hands briefly as they walked along the White House colonnade before the news conference. Afterward, they resumed their talks while dining in the State Dining Room on iceberg wedge salads, braised beef short ribs and salted caramel creme brulee. May’s visit, so soon after Trump’s inauguration, has been criticized by her political opponents, and risks being overshadowed by the flood of announcements, plans and proposals coming out of the White House. On Thursday, May was repeatedly asked about Britain’s stance on torture — the U.K. has condemned it — after Trump said he thinks torturing terrorism suspects works. Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, left, listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. The British prime minister is planning to pitch a free-trade deal to the new U.S. leader just as the reality of a new era of protection for American workers sinks in. Trump is something of a mystery to world leaders, many of whom expected Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the election. They also don’t know his administration’s main interlocutors with foreign governments, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and senior adviser Steve Bannon, a conservative media executive. So May is a bit of a scouting party — or guinea pig — among global politicians. She has strong reasons for wanting the relationship to work. Britain is set to leave the European Union and its 500 million-person single market. A trade deal with the U.S., Britain’s biggest export market, is a major prize. Pablo Martinez Monsivais / APPresident Donald Trump meets with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Trump has drawn parallels between Britain’s choice to leave the EU and his own success, using the Brexit vote to bolster his derision of the 28-nation bloc and his preference for striking bilateral agreements. That puts May in an awkward spot. She wants a good relationship with Trump, but does not share his disdain for the EU, saying it’s in Britain’s interests that it succeed. Trump and May both addressed a Republican retreat Thursday in Philadelphia, though their visits did not overlap. During his remarks to lawmakers, Trump bemoaned the fact that Wilbur Ross, his nominee to be commerce secretary, would not be confirmed in time for a visit that was expected to focus heavily on trade. RelatedAt Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, the price for joining ‘Winter White House’ just doubledConrad Black: Donald Trump will be popular, and Canada will adaptRex Murphy: Justin Trudeau the Boy Scout must settle into Donald Trump’s world May’s speech alternated between saluting Trump’s vision for what she called American “renewal” and reminding him, and his Republican colleagues, of the United States’ global responsibilities.27 Jan

Retired army medic takes the stand in court and denies conducting inappropriate breast exams - GATINEAU, Que. — A former medical technician accused of performing unnecessary and inappropriate breast exams at several military recruiting centres in Ontario is denying the exams ever took place. Retired petty officer James Wilks faces eight counts of breach of trust and one of sexual assault after six women accused him of conducting the exams at military recruiting centres in London, Windsor and Thunder Bay between 2005 and 2009. Taking the stand in his own defence, Wilks says he never asked any of the women to take off their shirts or bras or otherwise expose themselves to him, nor did he ever touch any of them. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred ChartrandFormer military medical technician James Wilks, a petty officer second class who is now retired, leaves court during a break at his court martial in Gatineau, Que., on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. The court martial of a former military medic charged with breach of trust and sexual assault has begun. The women testified to a military court last week that Wilks asked them to take off their shirts and bras so he could visually examine their breasts during routine medical exams for new recruits. One alleged Wilks also physically performed a breast exam. Prosecutors and Wilks’s lawyer are expected to deliver their final statements next week, before the five-member military panel begins deliberations on a verdict. Related‘I felt exposed’: Military tribunal hears from women who allege medic examined their breastsMilitary medic convicted of sexual assault for false breast examsRetired army medic pleads ‘not guilty’ to sex assault charges involving 16 women on first day of court martial27 Jan

Convicted rapist who fled Kingston correctional facility arrested after shoppers spotted him in Cornwall mall - A convicted rapist who fled a Kingston halfway house earlier this week was recaptured Thursday at a downtown mall in Cornwall. David Maracle, 51, was arrested by Cornwall police without incident after some alert shoppers identified the fugitive at the Cornwall Square Shopping Centre. He went missing from the Henry Trail Community Correctional Facility in Kingston on Sunday. RelatedSerial sex offender walks out of Kingston correctional facility, sparking manhunt in Ontario Cornwall police spokesman Const. Dan Cloutier said Maracle was arrested at 7:45 p.m. and did not put up any resistance. The Brantford man was convicted in the 1990s for raping a 14-year-old schoolgirl. He also has convictions for weapons possession, break and enter, assault, kidnapping and other sexual assaults.27 Jan

On cross-country tour, Trudeau hears growing anger and frustration from indigenous Canadians - OTTAWA — On his his just-completed nine-city town hall tour of Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got sharp and sometimes angry questions about aboriginal affairs — a sign of the growing impatience and frustration many indigenous people and their leaders have with his government. And the reviews, in some cases, have been less than kind. Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Felix Thomas, who was at Trudeau’s Wednesday night town hall forum in Saskatoon, characterized one of Trudeau’s answers on indigenous youth centre as “dismissive.” THE CANADIAN PRESS/John WoodsPrime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with pipeline protestors as they stand and hold signs at a town hall at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Thursday, January 26, 2017. Trudeau told the crowd in Saskatoon that First Nations chiefs who told him that money was needed for TVs and sofas in indigenous youth centres had not been listening to their own youth. “When a chief says that to me, I pretty much know that they haven’t actually talked to their young people,” Trudeau said in Saskatoon. “Because most of the young people I’ve talked to are asking for a place to store their canoes and paddles so they can connect back out on the land and a place with Internet access so they can do their homework in a meaningful way because their homes are often too crowded and they need a place to work and study.” Trudeau offered an almost identical answer — that chiefs were out of touch with their own youth — when challenged the next night in Winnipeg by Eric Redhead of Shamattawa First Nation, a community of about 1,500 located about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg near Hudson Bay. Shamattawa had pointedly asked Trudeau why the federal government was slow to respond to the suicide crisis on many First Nations reserves. Redhead singled out the Jan. 8 deaths, by suicide, of two 12-year-old girls, Jolyn Winter and Chantell Fox, from Wapakeka First Nation, in northwestern Ontario, about 200 kilometres from the Manitoba border. One of the girls was the granddaughter of Wapakeka Chief Brennan Sainnawap who, in a letter to Health Canada last July, begged for more funds to deal with a mental health crisis among youth in his community. His request was turned down. A senior Health Canada bureaucrat explained that the request came “at an awkward time” in the federal government’s budget cycle. This week, an anonymous donor, moved by the deaths of the two girls and the plight of the Wapakeka community, pledged $380,000 which the community believes can pay for four mental health workers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods A protestor shouts at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he speaks a town hall at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Thursday, January 26, 2017. “Now we have a private donor who stepped up — this is not the Conservative government, this is your government — who said it was an awkward time,” Redhead said. “We didn’t vote you in for that. Is this the new government now where the private sector is funding the First Nation suicide prevention program?” In response, Trudeau agreed with Redhead’s assessment. “We have seen far too many tragedies ongoing in indigenous communities and we need to more. Absolutely.” But then Trudeau largely repeated his answer from the night before in Saskatoon, saying, indigenous leaders who ask for sofas and TVs for their youth centre “haven’t done a very good job of listening.” Related‘What do we have to celebrate? The high suicides?’ Indigenous leaders disappointed with Trudeau’s recordAuditor General slams incompetence, indifference and neglect in federal government: ‘Deja vu all over again’ Time and again during his town hall meetings, Trudeau was challenged by indigenous people. It happened in Kingston, Ont., in Peterborough, Ont., in Halifax as well as Saskatoon and Winnipeg. “The conditions on our reserves our horrible! Horrible!,” said a woman in Winnipeg who said she was a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation, a community of about 2,000 near the northern edge of Lake Manitoba. “We live in third world conditions in our First Nations communities and that has to change. How is your government is going to help our communities? ” THE CANADIAN PRESS/John WoodsPipeline protestors stand and hold signs as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with the public at a town hall at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Thursday, January 26, 2017. In Fredericton, Trudeau was told his government had not put in place appropriate measures to consult First Nations on the Energy East pipeline project. In Kingston, an indigenous woman broke down in tears begging him to “protect our water.” In Peterborough, he was introduced by Curve Lake First Nation Chief Phyllis Williams who reminded the prime minister that her community had not potable water and was living under a boil water advisory. At more than one, he was criticized for failing to implement the United Nations Declaration of Rights and Indigenous Peoples. Two Dalhousie University students, Alex Ayt and Kathleen Olds, asked Trudeau for a selfie during a photo opp at a Halifax coffee shop. They then used the occasion of being up close and personal with the PM to press him on UNDRIP. Before Christmas, at events like the Assembly of First Nations annual special assembly in Gatineau, Que., many chiefs spoke about how the Trudeau government was slow to keep commitments, such as lifting a freeze on operating transfers to First Nations governments. And they spoke of how the current government began with high hopes and high expectations among indigenous Canadians. “During the election campaign (Trudeau) and his party convinced a lot of our people who normally don’t vote in elections to step forward and come to vote with the hope that change would come about. But change has been very slow in coming,” Jean Guy Whiteduck, chief of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, an Algonquin band based in Maniwaki, Que., said at that December AFN meeting. “At this stage I don’t know if he gets a passing mark.” During the series of town hall meetings, Trudeau heard from only a handful of chiefs but heard plenty from angry everyday citizens of First Nations communities. But his response in each case was similar usually. First, he would acknowledge the grievance put to him, often agreeing that the complaint is a valid one, before promising to do better. But that promise would frequently be followed by a recitation of of some of things his government has done. “We invested historic amounts of money in budget 2016 and [we will] continue to invest,” Trudeau said in Winnipeg in response to the woman from Ebb and Flow. “I think that we are starting on a path that is going to change the future for your daughter and the present for yourself. We’re not moving as fast as I’d like on that path — I absolutely agree — but it’s a difficult path to walk.” — with files from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix • Email: dakin@postmedia.com | Twitter: davidakin27 Jan

OPP officer who texted naked picture of inmate previously ignored sexual assault complaint - After the OPP started secretly monitoring the phone of one of their own officers, they found out Const. Luanne MacDonald had sent a photo to her boyfriend of a half-naked, intoxicated woman in a police cell block. Her boyfriend also happened to be an OPP constable. And that’s not all the OPP discovered about MacDonald, who worked at the Alexandria office of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry detachment. In March 2014, MacDonald got a call from a mother who reported her drunken boyfriend had sexually assaulted her 14-year-old daughter. MacDonald not only discouraged her from filing a complaint, but also lied about what she knew of the assault to an investigator. These details were revealed in an agreed statement of facts filed at the Ottawa courthouse after she pleaded guilty last week to one count of obstruction of justice. Unbeknownst to MacDonald, 46, the OPP were secretly monitoring her phone calls and text messages in 2014 under a court order Unbeknownst to MacDonald, 46, the OPP were secretly monitoring her phone calls and text messages in 2014 under a court order. The document filed with the court contains excerpts of the incriminating calls and messages, but it does not explain why her private communications were being intercepted. Her Ottawa-based lawyer, Michael Edelson, declined to comment on the case. The probe into the officer also resulted in seven other charges being laid on July 23, 2014, including breach of trust by a public officer, theft of telecommunication, fraud, voyeurism, and distribution of voyeurism material stemming from unrelated incidents. The agreed statement of facts reveals the constable suggested the mother not file a police report and made sure the reported sexual assault stayed a secret. MacDonald agreed with the mother that reporting the sexual assault would tear the family apart and “destroy a business.” “CAS (Children’s Aid Society) is going to be in our face,” MacDonald told the mother, adding that if charges are laid, “(the boyfriend) won’t be able to be around your kids, like any of them.” MacDonald told her not to tell anyone about their discussion despite acknowledging in a text message that she had a duty as a police officer to investigate. Wayne Cuddington/Postmedia NewsAn OPP car in a file photo. MacDonald told one of her friends that the boyfriend fondled the teen’s breasts and removed her pyjamas, and that she was “not saying a f—–g word” about it. She also shared details of the mother’s allegations with her boyfriend, OPP Const. John Bernard, according to the agreed statement of facts. “In her conversations with Bernard about the incident and her failure to report they discussed how they would make efforts to protect her from her failure to report,” according to the court document. Bernard was later charged in July 2014 with two counts of breach of trust by a public officer. He has not yet entered a plea on either charge. Both officers remain suspended with pay, according to the OPP. RelatedCase of alleged gang sex assault by officers highlights difficulties in police investigating police‘Josh, stop. She’s out’: Documents reveal new details in Toronto Police group sex-assault case When confronted by another OPP officer investigating the sexual assault, MacDonald lied about what she knew of the complaint. In the end, no charges were laid. Another admitted fact revealed that while MacDonald was on duty on April 9, 2014, she photographed a surveillance screen showing a partially clothed woman detained in the cell block. Police intercepted messages she sent from her BlackBerry to Bernard that included the photo of the woman who was not wearing pants. MacDonald also breached an order from her supervisor, an inspector, by contacting an unidentified individual believed to be “deceitful and treacherous in dealing with the police” by exchanging more than 600 phone calls and text messages with the person between 2011 and 2014, according to the agreed statement of facts. She is scheduled to return to the Ottawa courthouse on March 3 for a sentencing hearing.27 Jan

Fifteen years in prison for Quebec man who fathered three children with his daughter - A west Quebec man convicted of sexually abusing two of his daughters when they were young and fathering three children with one of them was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday in a Gatineau courthouse. Jacques Lesage, 79, of Val-des-Monts, Que. was found guilty last Friday by a jury who convicted him on three counts of incest and one count of indecent assault. The two daughters who were abused by their father cried and hugged each other before their supporters applauded them in the courtroom. Lucie Lesage, 53, and her sister Nathalie Lesage, 49, each requested a routine publication ban be lifted so their identities wouldn’t be a secret. “It’s a relief. I am very satisfied with the number of years that I think is appropriate for what we endured,” said Nathalie, clutching her sister’s hand outside of court. The sisters donned green clothing and jewelry for the sentencing, a symbol of hope and good luck, they said. “We’ve turned a page,” said Lucie through tears. She urged anyone who is a victim of sexual assault, particularly children, to come forward. The Crown and defence were worlds apart in their request for an appropriate sentence for Lesage. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence between 20 and 22 years in prison, while defence lawyer Antonio Cabral argued a prison term in the range of five to seven years was more appropriate.27 Jan

Greg Palast

Join NAACP Voter Fund for Facebook LIVE broadcast of my film on How Trump Stole It - I have a simple request. I’m asking that, this Thursday, at 8pm ET/5pm PT, you join the NAACP-National Voter Fund, Rainbow/PUSH, Josh Fox of Climate Revolution and many, many more–and “share” the Facebook LIVE broadcast of my documentary–the film that exposes exactly how Trump and his cronies attacked the voting rights of a million minority voters to steal the White House. That’s all we are asking: Between 8pm and 9pm Eastern, on Inauguration Eve, you “share” the live-stream with your Facebook followers. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, follows my crew’s undercover investigations for Rolling Stone and BBC-TV. "...Mainstream journalism has often struggled to cover the manipulation of data and the distortion of reality driven by billionaires like the Koch brothers or even Donald Trump... Palast slices through all the B.S.”- The Village Voice Pass this on to your friends, your organizations, and anyone who wants to get un-stupid about the theft of the 2016 election. I’ll be leading an online discussion right after the broadcast: What do we do now? Starting now you can share the trailer on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/GregPalastInvestigates/videos/10154917384607128/ And share the trailer on Twitter simply by retweeting this tweet:https://twitter.com/Greg_Palast/status/820218502405619712 Please also indicate that you are "going" to our virtual event on Facebook — and share it with your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/980244978772589/ On Thursday, January 19 at 8pm ET, go to https://www.facebook.com/GregPalastInvestigates/. (If you’re late, you can scroll back to the beginning.) The film (with the help of my friends Rosario Dawson, Shailene Woodley Ice-T, Willie Nelson and more), tells the story of the GOP’s weapon of mass vote destruction – and exposes the billionaires behind Trump and the vote trickery. The film was updated just this week. I guarantee: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll get revved up to resist. Trump didn’t win––his billionaire backers swiped it. We can take it back. Will you join me? - Greg Palast and the investigations team Make a tax-deductible donation to our Stolen Election Investigation * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Support The Palast Investigative Fund and keep our work alive. Or support us by shopping with Amazon Smile.AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of The Palast Investigative Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. GregPalast.com The post Join NAACP Voter Fund for Facebook LIVE broadcast of my film on How Trump Stole It appeared first on Greg Palast.17 Jan

I get the Blues too… - A note to all who’ve made a donation to our Investigative Fund You are not only keeping us alive financially, but emotionally. Eventually, our stories make national news, but, in those months while the mainstream resists, your encouragement really means a lot. People ask me how I keep my sense of humor when I see all these horrors, from lost votes to lost lives. The truth is, I get the blues too. Support, good wishes, and remembering the tough world I came from are what gets me back on track. And here’s something they can’t steal from us: a Happy New Year, from my family to yours. Thank you, Greg Palast, reporting Make a tax-deductible donation to our Stolen Election Investigation * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Support The Palast Investigative Fund and keep our work alive. Or support us by shopping with Amazon Smile.AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of The Palast Investigative Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. The post I get the Blues too… appeared first on Greg Palast.30 Dec 16

A note in the snow - Last week, I flew to Detroit with my team at the request of a major west coast publication. When I landed, they got cold feet; assignment cancelled. Without funding to continue, I should have headed home. But I was getting tips of nasty doings with the ballots in Motown. I could get the evidence that Trump’s victory was as real as his tan. So I tucked my long-johns under my suit, put on my fedora, and headed out to meet the witnesses, see the evidence and film an investigative report on the Theft of Michigan. With almost no sleep (and no pay), my producer David Ambrose and I put together an investigative film—and donated it, no charge, to Democracy Now! and several other outlets. As to the airfares, hotels, cars, camera batteries, sound equipment, local assistants and the rest, the bills have piled high as the snow and uncounted ballots. So, here I was, literally out in the cold, hoping you'd see the value of top-flight investigative reporting. So, buddy, can you spare a dime? Or $100 or so? For that, I’ll send you my new film, the one that, back in September, told you exactly how Trump would steal it. Or a signed copy of the book that goes with it: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a tale of billionaires and ballot bandits. I want to thank all of you who donated to get me to Washington DC to testify at the ad hoc Congressional hearing and to speak with the Justice Department about the suppression of minority votes. (On Monday, I was joined at the Washington Press Club by the nation’s top voting rights attorney, Barbara Arnwine; civil rights legend Ruby Sales; Muslim activist Sameera Khan. They announced plans to take legal and political action against Crosscheck, the Trumpistas’ latest Jim Crow tactic, the one our team uncovered for Rolling Stone. Khan joined me at Justice to present them 50,000 signatures (we unloaded reams of paper on them) gathered by 18 Million Rising, the Asian American advocacy group, to light a fire under Justice. On Tuesday, I joined the presidents of the NAACP chapters of Michigan and Wisconsin and other front-line voting rights leaders, to plan next steps for this week, for this year, for this decade. My presentation to Justice, to Congressmen and rights advocates, to the press, was so much more powerful because I arrived in DC with the goods, the evidence, the film, the facts from Michigan, from the scene of the electoral crime. So, in the end, my assignment wasn’t cancelled: I went to work for YOU. Because I have faith that my readers agree that this work is important, that I’m not on some fool’s errand. The US media doesn’t want to cover the vote theft—because, hey, the count is over—and we should get over it. I am not over it. I am standing my ground. Let me know if you think I’ve made the right decision. Feed the team. I have nothing to offer you in return except some signed discs and books (or the Combo)— and the facts. Continue Supporting the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation because it ain’t over and we’re not done. – Greg Palast * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie. Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. GregPalast.com The post A note in the snow appeared first on Greg Palast.18 Dec 16

The Republican Sabotage of the Vote Recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin - By Greg Palast for Truthout Photo of Michigan ballot with bubble. (Image courtesy of Palast Investigative Fund, 2016)Michigan officials declared in late November that Trump won the state's count by 10,704 votes. But hold on – a record 75,355 ballots were not counted. The uncounted ballots came mostly from Detroit and Flint, majority-Black cities that vote Democratic. According to the machines that read their ballots, these voters waited in line, sometimes for hours, yet did not choose a president. Really? This week, I drove through a snowstorm to Lansing to hear the official explanation from Ruth Johnson, the Republican secretary of state. I was directed to official flack-catcher Fred Woodhams who told me, "You know, I think when you look at the unfavorability ratings that were reported for both major-party candidates, it's probably not that surprising." Sleuthing about in Detroit, I found another explanation: bubbles. Bubbles? Michigan votes on paper ballots. If you don't fill the bubble completely, the machine records that you didn't vote for president. Susan, a systems analyst who took part in the hand recount initiated by Jill Stein, told me, "I saw a lot of red ink. I saw a lot of checkmarks. We saw a lot of ballots that weren't originally counted, because those don't scan into the machine." (I can only use her first name because she's terrified of retribution from Trump followers in the white suburb where she lives.) Other ballots were not counted because the machines thought the voter chose two presidential candidates. How come more ballots were uncounted in Detroit and Flint than in the white 'burbs and rural counties? Are the machines themselves racist? No, but they are old, and in some cases, busted. An astonishing 87 machines broke down in Detroit, responsible for counting tens of thousands of ballots. Many more were simply faulty and uncalibrated. I met with Carlos Garcia, University of Michigan multimedia specialist, who, on Election Day, joined a crowd waiting over two hours for the busted machine to be fixed. Some voters left; others filled out ballots that were chucked, uncounted, into the bottom of machine. When the machine was fixed, Carlos explained, "Any new scanned ballots were falling in on top of the old ones." It would not be possible to recount those dumped ballots. This is not an unheard of phenomenon: I know two voters who lost their vote in another state (California) because they didn't fill in the bubble – my parents! Meet mom and dad in my film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: How did Detroit end up with the crap machines? Detroit is bankrupt, so every expenditure must be approved by "emergency" overlords appointed by the Republican governor. The GOP operatives refused the city's pre-election pleas to fix and replace the busted machines. "We had the rollout [of new machines] in our budget," Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said. "No money was appropriated by the state." Same in Flint. GOP state officials cut the budget for water service there, resulting in the contamination of the city's water supply with lead. The budget cuts also poisoned the presidential race. The Human Eye Count There is, however, an extraordinary machine that can read the ballots, whether the bubbles are filled or checked, whether in black ink or red, to determine the voters' intent: the human eye. That's why Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, paid millions of dollars for a human eyeball count of the uncounted votes. While labeled a "recount," its real purpose is to count the 75,355 votes never counted in the first place. Count those ballots, mostly in Detroit and Flint, and Trump's victory could vanish. Adding to the pile of uncounted ballots are the large numbers of invalidated straight-ticket votes in Detroit. In Michigan, you can choose to make one mark that casts your vote for every Democrat (or Republican) for every office. Voters know that they can vote the Democratic ballot but write in a protest name – popular were "Bernie Sanders" and "Mickey Mouse" – but their ballot, they knew, would count for Clinton. However, the Detroit machines simply invalidated the ballots with protest write-ins because the old Opti-Scans wrongly tallied these as "over-votes" (i.e., voting for two candidates). The human eye would catch this mistake. But Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette stymied Stein's human eye count. The Republican pol issued an order saying that no one could look at the ballots cast in precincts where the number of votes and voters did not match – exactly the places where you'd want to look for the missing votes. He also ordered a ban on counting ballots from precincts where the seals on the machines had been broken – in other words, where there is evidence of tampering. Again, those are the machines that most need investigating. The result: The recount crews were denied access to more than half of all Detroit precincts (59 percent). I met with Stein, who told me she was stunned by this overt sabotage of the recount. "It's shocking to think that the discounting of these votes may be making the critical difference in the outcome of the election," she said. This story was repeated in Wisconsin, which uses the same Opti-Scan system as Michigan. There, the uncounted votes, sometimes called "spoiled" or "invalidated" ballots, were concentrated in Black-majority Milwaukee. Stein put up over $3 million of donated funds for the human eye review in Wisconsin, but GOP state officials authorized Milwaukee County to recount simply by running the ballots through the same blind machines. Not surprisingly, this instant replay produced the same questionable result. Adding Un-Votes to the Uncounted Stein was also disturbed by the number of voters who never got to cast ballots. "Whether it's because of the chaos [because] some polling centers are closed, and then some are moved, and there's all kinds of mix-ups," she said. "So, a lot of people are filling out provisional ballots, or they were being tossed off the voter rolls by Interstate Crosscheck." Interstate Crosscheck is a list that was created by Donald Trump supporter and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to hunt down and imprison voters who illegally voted or registered in two states in one election. An eye-popping 449,092 Michiganders are on the Crosscheck suspect list. The list, which my team uncovered in an investigation for Rolling Stone, cost at least 50,000 of the state's voters their registrations. Disproportionately, the purged voters were Blacks, Latinos and that other solid Democratic demographic, Muslim Americans. (Dearborn, Michigan, has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the US.) The Michigan Secretary of State's spokesman Woodhams told me the purpose of the mass purge was, "to clean our voter lists and ensure that there's no vulnerability for fraud. We've been very aggressive in closing vulnerabilities and loopholes to fraud." While Woodhams did not know of a single conviction for double-voting in Michigan, the "aggression" in purging the lists was clear. I showed him part of the Michigan purge list that he thought was confidential. The "double voters" are found by simply matching first and last names. Michael Bernard Brown is supposed to be the same voter as Michael Anthony Brown. Michael Timothy Brown is supposed to be the same voter as Michael Johnnie Brown. Woodhams assured me the GOP used the Trump-Kobach list with care, more or less. He said, "I'm sure that there are some false positives. But we go through it thoroughly, and we're not just canceling people." As to the racial profiling inherent in the list? Did he agree with our experts that by tagging thousands of voters named Jose Garcia and Michael Brown there would be a bias in his purge list? The GOP spokesman replied, "I've known a lot of white Browns." Jill Stein didn't buy it. Responding to both Michigan's and Trump's claim that voter rolls are loaded with fraudulent double voters, Stein said, "It's the opposite of what he is saying: not people who are voting fraudulently and illegally, but actually legitimate voters who have had their right to vote taken away from them by Kris Kobach and by Donald Trump." Crosscheck likely cost tens of thousands their vote in Pennsylvania as well. "It is a Jim Crow system, and it all needs to be fixed," Stein concluded. "It's not rocket science. This is just plain, basic democracy." * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie. Support the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation After investigating the REAL story of the recount, we stopped by the Department of Justice and handed them our Crosscheck petition, signed by 50,000 people. We have a lot more work to do and thankfully, our efforts are starting to get notice. We're not done... Join us bySupporting the Stolen Election Investigation Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. GregPalast.com The post The Republican Sabotage of the Vote Recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin appeared first on Greg Palast.18 Dec 16

Palast Report for Democracy Now!:By Rejecting Recount, Is Michigan Covering up 75,000 Ballots Never Counted? - Investigative reporter Greg Palast has just returned from Michigan, where he went to probe the state’s closely contested election. Trump won Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes out of nearly 4.8 million votes cast. Green Party presidential contender Dr. Jill Stein attempted to force Michigan to hold a recount, but a federal judge ordered Michigan’s Board of Elections to stop the state’s electoral recount. One big question remains: Why did 75,335 ballots go uncounted? Support the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation My team and I just returned from Michigan to report the REAL story of the recount. I’ve also been responding to urgent requests in the recount states for our technical files and analysis. We're in Washington and stopped by the Department of Justice yesterday and handed them our Crosscheck petition, signed by 50,000 people. Join us by Supporting the Stolen Election Investigation Last stop for Democracy • PLEASE, say, "Count me in to count the votes" by supporting the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation for a donation of any size no matter how small or large • Stay informed and get a signed DVD of my film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a signed copy of the book with the same title or better still - get the Book & DVD combo • Be listed as a producer ($1,000) or co-producer ($500) in the credits of the broadcast version of the updated, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: THE THEFT OF 2016. * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie. Donate to the Palast Investigative Fund and get the signed DVD. Download the FREE Movie Comic Book. Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. GregPalast.com The post Palast Report for Democracy Now!:By Rejecting Recount, Is Michigan Covering up 75,000 Ballots Never Counted? appeared first on Greg Palast.13 Dec 16

Crosscheck Is Not Just Crooked, It’s Criminal - After reading my report on the Kobach/Koch/Trump operation, which has removed tens of thousands of minority voters from the rolls in the swing states that surprisingly shifted to Trump, former federal judge (and now Congressman) Alcee Hastings told me Crosscheck is a criminal violation of federal law. Hastings has called for criminal indictments and written an official Congressional member letter to ask for investigation. hastings-crosscheck-letter-to-ag-lynch Hastings’ demand for justice is backed by a petition to expose and end Crosscheck’s racist attacks on voting rights. So far it's been signed by 50,000 people, including 29,507 members of 18 Million Rising, the Asian-American rights group. The group is joined by co-signers Rep. Keith Ellison, Bill Gallegos of Climate Justice, Martin Luther King III and others. On Tuesday, December 13 I will join the leaders of 18 Million rising in Washington, D.C. to present the petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Stopping Crosscheck is the Standing Rock of racist vote suppression. If we don’t open the investigations now, by January 21, Kris Kobach will be Homeland Security chief and Jeff Sessions Attorney General. Demand an investigation into Crosscheck, sign our petition — and then share it! For the full story, see the film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, the story of my investigation of Crosscheck. * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie. Donate to the Palast Investigative Fund and get the signed DVD. Download the FREE Movie Comic Book. Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. The post Crosscheck Is Not Just Crooked, It’s Criminal appeared first on Greg Palast.5 Dec 16

The No-BS Inside Guide to the Presidential RecountSorry, no Russian hacker hunt - by Greg Palast for Truthout There's been so much complete nonsense since I first broke the news that the Green Party would file for a recount of the presidential vote, I am compelled to write a short guide to flush out the BS and get to just the facts, ma'am. Nope, they’re not hunting for Russian hackers To begin with, the main work of the recount hasn't a damn thing to do with finding out if the software programs for the voting machines have been hacked, whether by Putin’s agents or some guy in a cave flipping your vote from Hillary to The Donald. The Green team does not yet even have the right to get into the codes. But that's just not the core of the work. The ballots in the electoral “dumpster” The nasty little secret of US elections, is that we don't count all the votes. In Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—and all over America—there were a massive number of votes that were simply rejected, invalidated, and spoiled. They were simply, not counted. Officially, in a typical presidential election, at least three million votes end up rejected, often for picayune, absurd reasons. The rejects fall into three big categories: provisional ballots rejected, absentee and mail-in ballots invalidated and in-precinct votes “spoiled,” spit out by a machine or thrown out by a human reader as unreadable or mis-marked. So, as Robert Fitrakis, lead lawyer for the recount tells me, their first job is to pull the votes out of the electoral dumpster—and, one by one, make the case for counting a rejected provisional, absentee or “spoiled” ballot. Spoiled: over-votes and under-votes How does a vote spoil? Most fall in the categories of “over-votes” and “under-votes.” In Michigan, the Green team has found a whole lot of people who voted for TWO candidates for President. These are the “over-vote”—votes that will count for neither candidate. How odd. While the schools in Detroit are not stellar, its graduates do know that they can only have one president. Then, some folks didn’t vote at all. They are the “under-voter.” But, Fitrakis and team suspect, many of these under- and over-voters meant to vote for a candidate but the robot reader couldn’t understand their choice. Here’s how it happens. Voters in Michigan and Wisconsin fill in bubbles next to their choice. The cards, filled up with darkened bubbles for each race, are gathered and fed through an “optical scanner.” These robotic eyeballs mess up all the time. This is what Fitrakis, an old hand at vote-machine failures (both deliberate and benign), calls “the calibration problem.” Are machines calibrated with a Republican or Democratic bias? No, that's not how it works. But just as poor areas get the worst schools and hospitals, they also get the worst voting machines. The key is an ugly statistic not taught in third grade civics class: According to the US Civil Rights Commission, the chance your vote will be disqualified as “spoiled” is 900% more likely if you’re Black than if you’re white. So the Green Party intends to review every single one of the six million bubble-filled cards. They’ll use the one instrument that can easily tell one bubble from two, or one bubble from none: the human eye. As you can imagine, This will require several thousand eyes. The good news is, Fitrakis reports, that well over a thousand volunteers have already signed up. Training by Skype begins Tuesday morning. Support the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation The team and I are off to Ground Zero: Michigan. Wisconsin. Pennsylvania. To report the REAL story of the recount. I’m also responding to urgent requests in the recount states for our technical files and analysis. And then it’s on to Washington—to the Department of Justice—while there’s a bit of Justice left. Join us by Supporting the Stolen Election Investigation Last stop for Democracy Provisional or “placebo” ballots According to the US Elections Assistance Commission (EAC), Americans cast 2.7 million provisional ballots in the last presidential election. About a million were simply discarded. What?! Yes. Discarded, not counted. You show up at your normal polling station and they can’t find your name, or they don’t like your ID, or you’re supposed to vote in another precinct. Instead of letting you vote on a regular ballot, you fill out a “provisional” ballot and place it in an envelope, sign your name, and under penalty of jail time for lying, affirm you’re a properly registered voter. The polls close—then the magic begins. It’s up to highly partisan election officials to decide if your vote counts. Hillary Clinton only won one swing state, Virginia, notably, the only one where the vote count was controlled by Democrats. She lost all swing states—Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona, North Carolina and Florida—where the GOP set the rules for counting these ballots and their hacks acted as the judge and jury on whether a ballot should be counted. Wisconsin generally rejects votes cast in the wrong precinct, even if they’re legal voters—and, says Fitrakis, “even if their official precinct was just another table in the same high school gym—and they were mis-directed by poll workers.” (That’s why I sometimes call “provisional” ballots “placebo” ballots. They let you feel you’ve voted, even if you haven’t.) In Wisconsin, provisional ballots were handed to voters—mostly, it appears, students—who didn’t have the form of ID required under new Wisconsin law. These ballots were disqualified despite zero evidence even one voter was an identity thief. Fitrakis says the Stein campaign will fight for each of these provisional votes where this is clearly no evidence the vote is fraudulent. Mail-in, Early and Absentee Ballots go Absent If you’ve gone postal in this election, good luck! According to EAC data, at least half a million absentee ballots go absent, that is, just don’t get counted. The cause: everything from postage due to “suspect signature.” Fitrakis told me that in his home state of Ohio, you need to put your driver’s license number on the envelope, “and if you don’t have a driver’s license and leave the line blank—instead of writing ‘no driver’s license’—they toss your ballot. From Palast's book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits by Ted Rall It’s a “gotcha!” system meant to knock out the ballots the officials don’t want to count. (Remember, your mail-in ballot is anything but secret.) Team Green will try to fight for each absentee ballot rejected for cockamamie reasons. If the recount doesn’t change the outcome, can we feel assured the election was honest? Sadly, no. As Fitrakis says, “If a student is given a provisional ballot because they didn’t have the right ID, or the state simply lost their registration, we can fight for the ballot to be counted. But most students who voted off campus didn’t know their right to get a provisional ballot and most probably didn’t get offered one. Students and others were discouraged from voting because they lacked the proper ID (300,000 by the estimate of the experts with the ACLU—that’s thirty times Trump’s plurality). But if you didn’t cast any ballot, provisional or otherwise, no one can fight for it. And final decisions may come down to the vote of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, God forbid. As Norman Stockwell, the editor of Madison-based The Progressive explained to me, formerly, elections law adjudications were made by a panel of non-partisan judges. These were replaced by this new commission of partisan shills appointed by GOP Governor Scott Walker. Trump says millions voted illegally. Is he crazy? Crazy like a fox. There’s a method in his madness that affects the recount. While the media dismisses Trump’s claim that there are "millions of people that voted illegally," they have not paid attention to the details of his claim. Trump explains that millions of people are “voting many, many times,” that is, voting in two states in the same election. Trump’s claim is based on a list of “potential duplicate voters” created by his operative, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach (a top dog in Trump’s transition team) directs a program for hunting down fraudulent voters using a computer system called, “Crosscheck.” It’s quite a computer: Crosscheck identified a breathtaking 449,922 Michiganders who are suspected of voting or registering in a second state, a felony crime, as are 371,923 in Pennsylvania. I spent two years investigating the Trump/Kobach claim for Rolling Stone. We obtained the “confidential” suspect list of several million citizens accused of voting twice. In fact, it was no more than a list of common names—Maria Hernandez, James Brown, David Lee—that is, common to voters of color. Read: Democrats. A true and typical example: Michael James Brown of Michigan is supposed to be the same voter as Michael Kendrick Brown of Georgia. Page from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (FREE) Comic book penned by Keith Tucker About 54,000 voters in Michigan, five times Trump’s plurality, lost their right to vote based on this nutty double-voter accusation. In Pennsylvania, about 45,000 were purged. The problem for Fitrakis: While he eventually plans to file suit against Crosscheck purges, in the meantime, it’s not clear he can challenge someone whose lost their vote because of a false accusation of double voting. And those who found their names missing and didn’t demand a provisional ballot—there’s no hope at all of recovering their vote. Is Jill Stein going to get rich? Fitrakis laughs at this one. “The FEC [Federal Elections Commission] has very strict rules on recounts. The donations for the recount are sequestered in a specially designated account and all spending is restricted to the recount.” The big problem is that the cost is somewhat out of Stein’s control. Each state will bill the campaign for the “pro-rated salaries and benefits” of its county and state officials working on the recount. To add to the cost and just plain drive the Green team crazy, the Wisconsin Election Board announced on Monday that each separate county elections clerk will decide if they’ll even let the Green volunteers directly view the ballots. Fitrakis and partners will have to get a court order to get into each county. How does one recount ballots without seeing them? (Hmm, is the Wisconsin board, stooges appointed by the GOP Governor, fearful that the viewing the ballots will expose the game?) Hillary joins the fray What will the Clinton camp add to the recount? “Lawyers,” said Fitrakis, though he’s yet to see them. The Clinton campaign is apparently helping find one voter in each Pennsylvania county, as one is required in each jurisdiction to file for a recount of that state. And what about that hack job? While Fitrakis is not looking for Russkies in the computer code, he says, “We’re more concerned with the private companies that control the keys to the kingdom—to match what’s on paper to the official count.” The “keys” are the little machines, memory cards and other electronic gewgaws that are used to suck the data from the voting machine—which are carried off to another state for tabulation by a private contractor. Will these tabulations at each step match what the volunteers find in the on-the-ground recount? One problem is that the tabulation software is “proprietary.” A private company owns the code to the count—and the privateers will fight fiercely, with GOP help, to keep the ballot counting code their commercial secret. Push and Pray Pennsylvania In the end, the single biggest impediment to a full and fair recount is that 70 percent of Pennsylvania voters used what are called, “Push and Pray” voting machines—Direct Recording Electronic touch-screens. Push the screen next to your choice and pray it gets recorded. Pennsylvania is one of the only states that has yet to require some form of VVPAT (“vee-pat”) or voter-verified paper audit trail that creates an ATM-style receipt. Therefore, the Keystone State recount will have to rely on hopes of access to the code, statistical comparisons to counties that used paper ballots—and prayer. Maybe it IS the Russians The possibility that a Putin pal hacked the machines was championed by University of Michigan computer sciences professor J. Alex Halderman who proposed, “The attackers would probe election offices well in advance in order to find ways to break into their computers…and spread malware into voting machines.” I imagine some squat, middle-pay-scale civil servant in chinos and a pocket protector who works in the Michigan Secretary of State’s office approached, one late overtime night, by some FSB agent in high heels and a slinky dress split halfway up her thigh. The svelte spy would lean against the bureaucrat provocatively and whisper, “My handsome dahling, would you mind sticking this little thumb drive into that big old computer of yours?” Professor Halderman, if you want to help the recount, put down the James Bond novels and pick up some Opti-Scan ballots. We’ve got a lot of bubbles to read. End PLEASE, say, "Count me in to count the votes" by supporting the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation for a donation of any size no matter how small or large Stay informed and get a signed DVD of my film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a signed copy of the book with the same title or better still - get the Book & DVD combo Be listed as a producer ($1,000) or co-producer ($500) in the credits of the broadcast version of the updated, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: THE THEFT OF 2016. * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie. Donate to the Palast Investigative Fund and get the signed DVD. Download the FREE Movie Comic Book. Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. GregPalast.com The post The No-BS Inside Guide to the Presidential RecountSorry, no Russian hacker hunt appeared first on Greg Palast.30 Nov 16

Exclusive: Jill Stein just called, Green Party filing for recount in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - by Greg Palast Jill Stein just called to say that I am the first one to be informed that the Green Party is formally petitioning for a recount in 3 states, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Trump’s margin is less than 11,600 in Michigan, 27,200 in Wisconsin and 68,000 in Pennsylvania. If just a few thousand votes are found in Wisconsin and Michigan, Hillary Clinton becomes president by 276 electoral votes verses 264 for Trump. Support the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation Stein told me “We’re filing in Wisconsin Friday because the votes were cast on proven hack-prone machines. This has been a hack-ridden election.” She said that it will be most difficult to recount the machines in Pennsylvania. When asked why the democrats are not bringing this action, Stein told this reporter that “Democrats do not act to protect the vote even when there is dramatic evidence” of tampering. The Green Party told us that Stein will be represented by experienced voting rights attorney’s John Bonifaz, Boston, MA and Robert Fitrakis, Columbus, OH. Stein said, “our voting system is on life support.” The presidential candidate also said, “The Green Party will continue to be the go to advocate for voting rights. That includes fighting vote suppression tactics such as the Interstate Crosscheck system.” Interstate Crosscheck is the program which wrongly purged hundreds of thousand of minority voters in this election, according to the investigation this reporter fro Rolling Stone Magazine. Stein received 50,700 votes in Michigan, five times Trump’s winning plurality, and 30,980 in Wisconsin, more than Trump’s margin. When asked the "Nader" question, "Isn’t it true that your votes in Wisconsin and Michigan, if they went to Clinton, would have blocked Trump?", Stein answered, "Not at all. Our polls showed that 61% of our voters would have simply sat out the election, and one-third of the remaining voters would have voted Trump." The candidate insisted, "We are the ‘un-spoilers.’" Stein said she acted when Clinton turned silent because, "Only candidates may formally demand a re-count and we have standing." * * * * * Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie. Donate to the Palast Investigative Fund and get the signed DVD. Download the FREE Movie Comic Book. Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo. Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info. GregPalast.com The post Exclusive: Jill Stein just called, Green Party filing for recount in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania appeared first on Greg Palast.23 Nov 16

Here’s what we do now A personal note by Greg Palast - Being right never felt so horrid. “This is th

(U//FOUO) DHS Intelligence Note: Germany Christmas Market Attack Underscores Threat to Mass Gatherings and Open-Access Venues - (U) A 25-ton commercial truck transporting steel beams from Poland to Germany plowed into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin at about 2000 local time on 19 December, killing at least 12 people and injuring 48 others, several critically, according to media reporting citing public security officials involved in the investigation. The truck was reportedly traveling at approximately 40 miles per hour when it rammed the Christmas market stands. Police estimate the vehicle traveled 80 yards into the Christmas market before coming to a halt. (U) German authorities are calling the attack a terrorist incident, with the attacker still at large. German authorities are warning that it is unclear if the attacker was a lone offender, acted as part of a cell, or if he received any sort of direction by a FTO, and expressed concern that additional attacks are possible. An individual who was initially detained on 19 December was released on 20 December, and is no longer considered a suspect, according to German police. The truck may have been stolen or hijacked with the original driver overpowered or murdered. The original driver, found dead in the truck cab, appears to have died from stabbing and shooting wounds, according to media reporting citing law enforcement officials. The truck tracking location system indicated repeated engine stalls in the time leading up to the attack, leading the owner of the vehicle to speculate this was unlikely if a veteran driver was operating the truck, unless there was some sort of mechanical trouble. In response to the incident, German authorities, as part of their heightened security posture, will place concrete barriers around access points at Christmas markets across Germany. … (U//FOUO) Vehicle Ramming Featured in Recent Terrorist Messaging (U//FOUO) I&A assesses that the 19 December likely terrorist attack at one of the largest Christmas markets in Berlin highlights terrorists’ continued use of simple tactics and is consistent with recent calls by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for attacks in the West using “all available means.” In an early December audio statement, ISIL spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir called for attacks in “their homes, markets, street gatherings and anywhere they do not think of.” Vehicle ramming has been featured in recent violent extremist publications and messaging—including in ISIL’s al Rumiyah magazine and al-Qaʻida in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) Inspire magazine—especially since the mid-July vehicle ramming attack in Nice, France. The early-November third issue of Rumiyah highlighted applicable targets for vehicle ramming attacks such as “large outdoor conventions and celebrations, pedestrian-congested streets, outdoor markets, festivals, parades, and political rallies.” The most recent Homeland attack featuring this tactic occurred at Ohio State University in Columbus on 28 November, where Abdul Razak Ali Artan ran over pedestrians and then continued the attack with an edged weapon after the vehicle came to a stop. (U//FOUO) On 20 December, ISIL’s A’maq News Agency called the attacker “an Islamic State soldier” consistent with previous instances of quickly posting claims of credit for operations. While the attack bears the hallmarks of ISIL’s tactics and targets, we have not been able to determine a definitive link to the group at this time. … (U//FOUO) I&A has no information indicating a specific or credible threat against individuals, locations or events in the Homeland, but several recent plots and attacks in the United States and overseas involving shopping malls, mass transit, and mass gatherings, including sporting events, have shown that homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) and terrorist groups are interested in attacking these types of targets. I&A assesses that commercial facilities—such as festivals, concerts, outdoor events, and other mass gatherings—remain a potential target for terrorists or HVEs, as they often pursue simple, achievable attacks with an emphasis on economic impact and mass casualties. The most likely tactics in a hypothetical terrorist attack against such events likely would involve edged weapons, small arms, vehicular assaults, and possibly improvised explosive devices. The 19 December events underscore the difficulties the private sector and law enforcement face in securing venues that are pedestrian-friendly, particularly in light of the large number of such areas.16 Jan

National Intelligence Council Global Trends Assessment: Paradox of Progress - We are living a paradox: The achievements of the industrial and information ages are shaping a world to come that is both more dangerous and richer with opportunity than ever before. Whether promise or peril prevails will turn on the choices of humankind. The progress of the past decades is historic—connecting people, empowering individuals, groups, and states, and lifting a billion people out of poverty in the process. But this same progress also spawned shocks like the Arab Spring, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and the global rise of populist, anti-establishment politics. These shocks reveal how fragile the achievements have been, underscoring deep shifts in the global landscape that portend a dark and difficult near future. The next five years will see rising tensions within and between countries. Global growth will slow, just as increasingly complex global challenges impend. An ever-widening range of states, organizations, and empowered individuals will shape geopolitics. For better and worse, the emerging global landscape is drawing to a close an era of American dominance following the Cold War. So, too, perhaps is the rules-based international order that emerged after World War II. It will be much harder to cooperate internationally and govern in ways publics expect. Veto players will threaten to block collaboration at every turn, while information “echo chambers” will reinforce countless competing realities, undermining shared understandings of world events. Underlying this crisis in cooperation will be local, national, and international differences about the proper role of government across an array of issues ranging from the economy to the environment, religion, security, and the rights of individuals. Debates over moral boundaries—to whom is owed what—will become more pronounced, while divergence in values and interests among states will threaten international security. It will be tempting to impose order on this apparent chaos, but that ultimately would be too costly in the short run and would fail in the long. Dominating empowered, proliferating actors in multiple domains would require unacceptable resources in an era of slow growth, fiscal limits, and debt burdens. Doing so domestically would be the end of democracy, resulting in authoritarianism or instability or both. Although material strength will remain essential to geopolitical and state power, the most powerful actors of the future will draw on networks, relationships, and information to compete and cooperate. This is the lesson of great power politics in the 1900s, even if those powers had to learn and relearn it. The US and Soviet proxy wars, especially in Vietnam and Afghanistan, were a harbinger of the post-Cold War conflicts and today’s fights in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia in which less powerful adversaries deny victory through asymmetric strategies, ideology, and societal tensions. The threat from terrorism will expand in the coming decades as the growing prominence of small groups and individuals use new technologies, ideas, and relationships to their advantage. Meanwhile, states remain highly relevant. China and Russia will be emboldened, while regional aggressors and nonstate actors will see openings to pursue their interests. Uncertainty about the United States, an inward-looking West, and erosion of norms for conflict prevention and human rights will encourage China and Russia to check US influence. In doing so, their “gray zone” aggression and diverse forms of disruption will stay below the threshold of hot war but bring profound risks of miscalculation. Overconfidence that material strength can manage escalation will increase the risks of interstate conflict to levels not seen since the Cold War. Even if hot war is avoided, the current pattern of “international cooperation where we can get it”—such as on climate change—masks significant differences in values and interests among states and does little to curb assertions of dominance within regions. These trends are leading to a spheres of influence world. … Competing Views on Instability China and Russia portray global disorder as resulting from a Western plot to push what they see as self-serving American concepts and values of freedom to every corner of the planet. Western governments see instability as an underlying condition worsened by the end of the Cold War and incomplete political and economic development. Concerns over weak and fragile states rose more than a generation ago because of beliefs about the externalities they produce—whether disease, refugees, or terrorists in some instances. The growing interconnectedness of the planet, however, makes isolation from the global periphery an illusion, and the rise of human rights norms makes state violence against a governed population an unacceptable option. One consequence of post-Cold War disengagement by the United States and the then-USSR, was a loss of external support for strongmen politics, militaries, and security forces who are no longer able to bargain for patronage. Also working against coercive governments are increased demands for responsive and participatory governance by citizens no longer poor due to the unprecedented scale and speed of economic development in the nonindustrial world. Where political and economic development occurred roughly in tandem or quick succession, modernization and individual empowerment have reinforced political stability. Where economic development outpaced or occurred without political changes—such as in much of the Arab world and the rest of Africa and South Asia—instability ensued. China has been a notable exception. The provision of public goods there so far has bolstered political order but a campaign against corruption is now generating increasing uncertainty and popular protests have grown during the past 15 years. Russia is the other major exception—economic growth—largely the result of high energy and commodity prices—helped solve the disorder of the Yeltsin years. US experience in Iraq and Afghanistan has shown that coercion and infusions of money cannot overcome state weakness. Rather, building a stable political order requires inclusiveness, cooperation among elites, and a state administration that can both control the military and provide public services. This has proved more difficult than expected to provide. …15 Jan

DoD Cybersecurity Discipline Implementation Plan February 2016 - Inspections and incidents across the Department of Defense (DoD) reveal a need to reinforce basic cybersecurity requirements identified in policies, directives, and orders. In agreement with the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) identified key tasks needed to ensure those requirements are achieved. The DoD Cybersecurity Campaign reinforces the need to ensure Commanders and Supervisors at all levels, including the operational level, are accountable for key tasks, including those identified in this Implementation Plan. The Campaign does not relieve a Commander’s and Supervisor’s responsibility for compliance with other cybersecurity tasks identified in policies, directives, and orders, but limits the risk assumed by one Commander or Supervisor in key areas in order to reduce the risk to all other DoD missions. As part of the Campaign, this Implementation Plan is grouped into four Lines of Effort. The requirements within each Line of Effort represent a prioritization of all existing DoD cybersecurity requirements. Each Line of Effort focuses on a different aspect of cybersecurity defense-in-depth that is being exploited by our adversaries to gain access to DoD information networks. The four Lines of Effort are: 1. Strong authentication – to degrade the adversaries’ ability to maneuver on DoD information networks; 2. Device hardening – to reduce internal and external attack vectors into DoD information networks; 3. Reduce attack surface – to reduce external attack vectors into DoD information networks; and 4. Alignment to cybersecurity / computer network defense service providers – to improve detection of and response to adversary activity In conjunction with this Implementation Plan, a DoD Cybersecurity Scorecard effort led by the DoD CIO includes prioritized requirements within these Lines of Effort. Although similar to and supportive of one another, they maintain two distinct reporting mechanisms with two distinct targets. Commanders and Supervisors at all levels will report their status with the requirements in this Implementation Plan via the Defense Readiness Reporting System (DRRS), allowing leadership to review compliance down to the tactical level. In contrast, the Cybersecurity Scorecard is a means for the Secretary of Defense to understand cybersecurity compliance at the strategic level by reporting metrics at the service tier. Securing DoD information networks to provide mission assurance requires leadership at all levels to implement cybersecurity discipline, enforce accountability, and manage the shared risk to all DoD missions. By including cybersecurity compliance in readiness reporting, this campaign forces awareness and accountability for these key tasks into the command chains and up to senior leadership, where resourcing decisions can be made to address compliance shortfalls. The Cybersecurity Discipline Implementation Plan and Cybersecurity Scorecard efforts are critical to achieving the strategic goal of Defending DoD information networks, securing DoD data, and mitigating risks to DoD missions as set forth in the 2015 DoD Cyber Strategy. The aforementioned line of efforts and associated tasks shall be linked to DoD Cyber Strategy implementation efforts whenever possible. The DoD Cybersecurity Campaign, reinforced by the USCYBERCOM Orders, will begin as soon as possible. Reporting on cybersecurity readiness in the scorecard and DRRS will begin as soon as possible.15 Jan

(U//LES) Homeland Security Investigations Presentation: Criminal Exploitation of Digital Currencies - What is a Virtual Currency? • An alternative financial value system involving the exchange of funds to purchase precious metals or other value base which can later be used in exchange for products and services. • Is not registered anywhere and it is not governed by any law other than arbitration private forums. • Personal data is not required. • The system focuses strictly on activities of the forum. • Information stored for two months and then permanently deleted. Types of Virtual Currencies E-Currency / E-Wallets Digital Gold Virtual World Virtual Games Merchants (FB, Amazon) Crypto-Currencies ** …13 Jan

(U//FOUO) U.K. Ministry of Defence Guide: Understanding the Arab People - The Arab World is a vast area which is home to people from diverse cultures. The way in which people behave and interact with you will therefore vary greatly across the region. This guide discusses aspects of Arab culture that you might experience in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen. Further reading on individual countries is recommended before you deploy. Most Arabs are Sunni Muslims who speak Arabic. However, there are many different religions, ethnic and social groups in the Arab world, among them Christians, Jews, Shi’a and Sunni Muslims, Kurds, Turks and Berbers. Some of these groups have suffered oppression in their countries, but many live happily as Arabs and as part of Arab society. While some Arab countries are very conservative and have strict rules about the role of women, others are more permissive in their approach to issues like alcohol, religion and education. The familiar stereotype of the Bedouin Arab with his camel, tent, robes and blood feuds is only a small part of Arab identity and history. In fact, this traditional way of life has died out in many parts of the Arab world, and is not significant today in areas like North Africa. With the improvement in technology and social media in recent years, people across the Arab World have been exposed to other cultures to a much greater degree than previous generations. Approximately 70% of the Arab World are under the age of 30 and so the entire region is undergoing a transformation as people try to find ways to integrate their traditional cultures into the modern world. … Religious Practice. Islam affects almost every aspect of life as a Muslim Arab. People use Islamic symbols to decorate their homes and cars, carry miniature Qur’ans with them, and go on pilgrimage to various holy shrines around the Arab world. Most Arabs follow a pattern of daily prayer, celebrate Islamic festivals and holidays, and adhere to the rules of Islam. Verses from the Qur’an are memorised. In most Arab countries, Islam also affects politics and law, influencing marriage, inheritance and divorce law, as well as many aspects of business and banking. It is common to see a copy of the qu’ran on car dashboards in Muslim countries. Sharia. Sharia is the law as revealed by God and based on the philosophy laid out in the Qur’an and Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammed). It provides the legal basis for all public rituals but also guides an individual in their personal life, such as how to wash and how to behave in relationships. Sharia is interpreted for the people by religious scholars (collectively known as an Ulema). In Saudi Arabia and Sudan, sharia is interpreted very strictly and encompasses all aspects of domestic and civil law. In other countries it is integrated with other influences. For example, Tunisia is a former French colony and during that period French civil law applied. Since gaining independence the law has developed and evolved to incorporate sharia into the existing framework, resulting in a more liberal interpretation. Christians. There are an estimated 12-16 million Christians in the Arab world, representing 5-7% of the total population. Larger communities are located in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Jordan and Iraq. The Coptic church is the most important Christian denomination in the Middle East, and suffers from discrimination in Egypt and elsewhere. A significant minority of these Christians do not consider themselves Arabs. …8 Jan

(U//LES) ATF Chemical Analysis of Exploding Targets - Over the past few months, ATF Agents have contacted the Forensic Lab to inquire about the chemical components of various exploding targets. To assist Agents with their inquiry, exploding targets were purchased (September 2012 to October 2012) from numerous distributors and chemically analyzed. All exploding targets contain an oxidizer and a fuel (catalyst). When these two components are properly mixed, the resulting mixture becomes a shock sensitive explosive. The exploding target oxidizers and fuels were analyzed using Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope / Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), and X-Ray Diffraction. All analysis was supervised by Forensic Chemist John Jermain. For additional questions and information, contact John at 925.280.3607. Additional studies dealing with exploding targets will be conducted by Forensic Chemist Brittany Crane and will be published at a later date. …7 Jan

Office of the Director of National Intelligence Background Report: Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections - “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” is a declassified version of a highly classified assessment that has been provided to the President and to recipients approved by the President. The Intelligence Community rarely can publicly reveal the full extent of its knowledge or the precise bases for its assessments, as the release of such information would reveal sensitive sources or methods and imperil the ability to collect critical foreign intelligence in the future. Thus, while the conclusions in the report are all reflected in the classified assessment, the declassified report does not and cannot include the full supporting information, including specific intelligence and sources and methods. The Analytic Process The mission of the Intelligence Community is to seek to reduce the uncertainty surrounding foreign activities, capabilities, or leaders’ intentions. This objective is difficult to achieve when seeking to understand complex issues on which foreign actors go to extraordinary lengths to hide or obfuscate their activities. On these issues of great importance to US national security, the goal of intelligence analysis is to provide assessments to decisionmakers that are intellectually rigorous, objective, timely, and useful, and that adhere to tradecraft standards. The tradecraft standards for analytic products have been refined over the past ten years. These standards include describing sources (including their reliability and access to the information they provide), clearly expressing uncertainty, distinguishing between underlying information and analysts’ judgments and assumptions, exploring alternatives, demonstrating relevance to the customer, using strong and transparent logic, and explaining change or consistency in judgments over time. Applying these standards helps ensure that the Intelligence Community provides US policymakers, warfighters, and operators with the best and most accurate insight, warning, and context, as well as potential opportunities to advance US national security. Intelligence Community analysts integrate information from a wide range of sources, including human sources, technical collection, and open source information, and apply specialized skills and structured analytic tools to draw inferences informed by the data available, relevant past activity, and logic and reasoning to provide insight into what is happening and the prospects for the future. A critical part of the analyst’s task is to explain uncertainties associated with major judgments based on the quantity and quality of the source material, information gaps, and the complexity of the issue. When Intelligence Community analysts use words such as “we assess” or “we judge,” they are conveying an analytic assessment or judgment. Some analytic judgments are based directly on collected information; others rest on previous judgments, which serve as building blocks in rigorous analysis. In either type of judgment, the tradecraft standards outlined above ensure that analysts have an appropriate basis for the judgment. Intelligence Community judgments often include two important elements: judgments of how likely it is that something has happened or will happen (using terms such as “likely” or “unlikely”) and confidence levels in those judgments (low, moderate, and high) that refer to the evidentiary basis, logic and reasoning, and precedents that underpin the judgments. Determining Attribution in Cyber Incidents The nature of cyberspace makes attribution of cyber operations difficult but not impossible. Every kind of cyber operation—malicious or not—leaves a trail. US Intelligence Community analysts use this information, their constantly growing knowledge base of previous events and known malicious actors, and their knowledge of how these malicious actors work and the tools that they use, to attempt to trace these operations back to their source. In every case, they apply the same tradecraft standards described in the Analytic Process above. Analysts consider a series of questions to assess how the information compares with existing knowledge and adjust their confidence in their judgments as appropriate to account for any alternative hypotheses and ambiguities. An assessment of attribution usually is not a simple statement of who conducted an operation, but rather a series of judgments that describe whether it was an isolated incident, who was the likely perpetrator, that perpetrator’s possible motivations, and whether a foreign government had a role in ordering or leading the operation. …6 Jan

U.S. National Electric Grid Security and Resilience Action Plan - The Joint United States-Canada Electric Grid Security and Resilience Strategy (Strategy) is a collaborative effort between the Federal Governments of the United States and Canada and is intended to strengthen the security and resilience of the U.S. and Canadian electric grid from all adversarial, technological, and natural hazards and threats. The Strategy, released concurrently with this National Electric Grid Security and Resilience Action Plan (Action Plan), details bilateral goals to address the vulnerabilities of the respective and shared electric grid infrastructure of the United States and Canada, not only as an energy security concern, but for reasons of national security. The implementation of the Strategy requires continued action of a nationwide network of governments, departments and agencies (agencies), and private sector partners. This Action Plan details the activities, deliverables, and timelines that will be undertaken primarily by U.S. Federal agencies for the United States to make progress toward the Strategy’s goals. The security and resilience of the integrated U.S. and Canadian electric grid is dynamic. New threats, hazards, and vulnerabilities emerge even as the two countries work to prevent, protect against, and mitigate their potential consequences and to improve their ability to respond to, and recover from, disruptive incidents. Secure and reliable electricity is essential for safe and continued operation of infrastructure owned by businesses, governments, schools, hospitals, and other organizations. Structure of the Action Plan The Strategy defines three strategic goals to reduce the systemic risk to the electric grid through combined and aligned organizational, technical, and policy efforts across the public and private sectors. This Action Plan is organized around the same three strategic goals: 1. Protect Today’s Electric Grid and Enhance Preparedness 2. Manage Contingencies and Enhance Response and Recovery Efforts 3. Build a More Secure and Resilient Future Electric Grid Implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan The Secretaries of Energy and Homeland Security, in coordination with other agencies and stakeholders, will lead the implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan. The Secretaries of Energy and Homeland Security will report annually to the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology on progress made in implementing the Strategy and Action Plan in coordination with other agencies. Agencies are also expected to take steps to increase the security and resilience of the electric grid that are not explicitly included in either the Strategy or Action Plan. These efforts will also be included in the progress report to the President. This Action Plan is not intended to, nor does it, create any binding obligations under international law. The Action Plan focuses on U.S. Federal actions that may be taken within current statutory authorities and resources. Implementation of these actions will occur in consultation with State and provincial governments, regulators, and utilities, where applicable, and will require the sustained, coordinated, and complementary efforts of individuals and groups from both the United States and Canada, including many who contributed to the development of the Strategy, such as private sector partners, policy makers, and the public. Agencies will engage with private sector partners to the extent permitted by and consistent with applicable law and policy, including, but not limited to, the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. App. 2. Iterations and future developments of this effort will be guided by each country’s Action Plan to pursue the goals of the Strategy. The Strategy sets the groundwork upon which to build future activity, just as multiple prior executive branch efforts informed the Strategy: •• Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8, “National Preparedness” (2011), PPD 21, “Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience” (2013), and PPD 41, “United States Cyber Incident Coordination” (2016); •• Executive Order 13636, “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity,” Executive Order 13653, “Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change” (2013), and Executive Order 13744, “Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events” (2016); •• Presidential Memorandum, “Climate Change and National Security” (2016); •• National Space Weather Strategy and National Space Weather Action Plan (2015).2 Jan

Joint United States-Canada Electric Grid Security and Resilience Strategy - This Joint United States-Canada Electric Grid Security and Resilience Strategy (Strategy) is a collaborative effort between the Federal Governments of the United States and Canada and is intended to strengthen the security and resilience of the U.S. and Canadian electric grid from all adversarial, technological, and natural hazards and threats. The Strategy addresses the vulnerabilities of the two countries’ respective and shared electric grid infrastructure, not only as an energy security concern, but for reasons of national security. This joint Strategy relies on the existing strong bilateral collaboration between the United States and Canada, and reflects a joint commitment to enhance a shared approach to risk management for the electric grid. It also articulates a common vision of the future electric grid that depends on effective and expanded collaboration among those who own, operate, protect, and rely on the electric grid. Because the electric grid is complex, vital to the functioning of modern society, and dependent on other infrastructure for its function, the United States and Canada developed the Strategy under the shared principle that security and resilience require increasingly collaborative efforts and shared approaches to risk management. The Strategy envisions a secure and resilient electric grid that is able to withstand hazards and recover efficiently from disruptions. In pursuit of this goal, the Strategy organizes joint approaches to protect today’s electric grid, manage contingencies by enhancing response and recovery capabilities, and cultivate a more secure and resilient future electric grid. As an expression of shared intent and approach, the Strategy organizes joint efforts to manage current and future security challenges. Three strategic goals underpin the effort to strengthen the security and resilience of the electric grid: •• Protect Today’s Electric Grid and Enhance Preparedness: A secure and resilient electric grid that protects system assets and critical functions and is able to withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions is a priority for the governments of both the United States and Canada. •• Manage Contingencies and Enhance Response and Recovery Efforts: The Strategy sets out a shared approach for enhancing continuity and response capabilities, supporting mutual aid arrangements such as cyber mutual assistance across a diverse set of stakeholders, understanding interdependencies, and expanding available tools for recovery and rebuilding. •• Build a More Secure and Resilient Future Electric Grid: The United States and Canada are working to build a more secure and resilient electric grid that is responsive to a variety of threats, hazards, and vulnerabilities. To achieve this, the electric grid will need to be more flexible and agile, with an architecture into which new technologies may be readily incorporated. The Strategy will be implemented in accordance with forthcoming U.S. and Canadian Action Plans, which will each detail specific steps and milestones for achieving the Strategy’s goals within their respective countries. These documents are intended to guide future activity within areas of Federal jurisdiction, with full respect for the different jurisdictional authorities in both countries. The Strategy is not intended to, nor does it, create any binding obligations under international law. Implementation will occur in consultation with state and provincial governments, regulators, and utilities, where applicable, and will require the sustained, coordinated, and complementary efforts of individuals and groups from both countries, including many who contributed to the development of the Strategy, such as private sector partners, policy makers, and the public. The two countries’ common effort to strengthen the security and resilience of the electric grid is imperative for both governments and all who depend on this critical asset.2 Jan

White House Office of Management and Budget missing from Trump WhiteHouse.gov - Every new administration has put its own spin on Whitehouse.gov since the website first went online way back in the 1990s. When a new President swings in, an archived version of the old site maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration remains online, but the incoming administration takes over the domain. President Donald Trump’s transition team decided to stick with the same design developed by his predecessor, but fill it with information about his administration and its policy priorities, which are — unsurprisingly — pretty different from those espoused on the Obama administration-era version of the site. But the Trump team did make at least one pretty shocking change to Whitehouse.gov: they appear to have banished some basic information about how the government works from the site — including the White House Open Government Initiative. Here’s one striking example: the entire section of the White House website devoted to the Office of Management and Budget was digitally wiped off the map. Trying to find OMB’s homepage now returns a page unavailable message urging visitors to “stay tuned” as the administration continues to update the website. Trying to navigate to the site via budget.gov re-directs to the same error message. That’s a big deal because OMB isn’t some minor part of the White House universe — it’s traditionally the largest entity within the Executive Office of the President. While OMB’s most prominent job is helping the President develop a budget, it also issues memorandums that advise federal agencies on how to carry out their roles in compliance with administration policies. Those memos provide key insights into how the government functioned in the past and still functions today. But when the Trump administration took the digital reins on January 20th, a digital archive of select memos going back to 1995 was removed from the White House website, along with everything else related to OMB other than two scant mentions on a page generally outlining the Executive Branch. This is a massive departure from how information about the office was handled over the past eight years. OMB’s online home was available via Obama’s version of Whitehouse.gov from the first day of his presidency, as shown by snapshots collected by the Internet Archive. Archives from near the beginning of President George W. Bush’s first term suggest his office also preserved a place for OMB when he took over the site, even though the Internet wasn’t yet the juggernaut it became by the time Obama took over. To be fair to Trump’s digital transition team, it’s not clear if they actually meant to erase OMB’s primary digital presence. The White House press team did not respond to an inquiry about if the office’s pages were removed on purpose and if the administration has plans to restore the information. The evidence available so far suggests that Trump’s digital team wasn’t equipped to handle the basics of transitioning the White House website — leaving open the possibility that they just didn’t realize they left out something important. For one thing, the site launched without a Spanish-language version and the related Twitter account — @LaCasaBlanca — has been silent since the inauguration. The transcripts of the three press briefings aren’t up: there is only the statement delivered by the Press Secretary on January 21st. Archived video of the briefings are available on the White House YouTube channel, as you can see below. Some features of the new Whitehouse.gov also have problems. Take the email button that appears on the Press Briefing page and some other places throughout the site, for example: clicking it turns up a “page unavailable” message rather than offering a way to sign up for email updates. (Sunlight asked a White House press secretary directly to add us to this list. We did not receive confirmation.) Broken jump links on the Executive Branch section, meant to help users more easily navigate to different parts of the page, suffer from the same problem. The White House “We the People” epetition platform remains live but there’s no associated Twitter account or comms channel. User accounts for the site also appear to have been deleted and new users have reported problems signing new petitions. Although previous administrations marked inaugurations with freshly designed digital digs, Trump’s Whitehouse.gov continues to use an open source code dubbed “FourtyFour” designed for the Obama WhiteHouse.gov. That last part isn’t necessarily a problem on its own– after all, why fix something that isn’t broken? But in the first few days of Trumps’ presidency, the administration seemed to have a hard time disclosing information about presidential actions online to the public in a timely manner. For example, although President Trump signed two executive orders on his first day in office, it took until January 23rd for even one of them to be published on Whitehouse.gov. Things had improved as of Wednesday evening — by that point information about two executive orders and eight memoranda were up — but the fact that they appear to have launched without a process for making basic online updates does not inspire confidence. And — as the OMB example shows — the Trump transition team didn’t prioritize keeping non-political content that provides important transparency about government operations online when they inherited Whitehouse.gov. Besides OMB, pages for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) also do not appear to exist — meaning there’s no real public record of who, if anyone, actually works on those teams or is leading them now. Some of those decisions have broken incoming links from external government sites — such as those that relied on the OMB memo archive — and the broader World Wide Web, causing disruptions that ripple out beyond just Whitehouse.gov. All of those hiccups point to a new administration that wasn’t prepared to digitally hit the ground running. That said, the Trump administration reportedly does have plans to give Whitehouse.gov a facelift — eventually. Ory Rinat, who provided digital strategy advice to Trump’s transition team, recently told Politico that the redesign in the works will take months because the team “wanted to make sure this was done right and with the people who are going to be running the website involved.” Getting the redesign “done right” will means returning things like the OMB memos purged from Whitehouse.gov in the initial digital transition online and either using the previous URLs or setting up redirects. If it doesn’t, the good news is that the information is still available elsewhere through online caches and archives, perhaps most easily through the National Archives and Records Administration’s archive of Obama’s version of Whitehouse.gov. The bad news is that the Trump administration started its digital tenure by making it much harder for average citizens to find information about how our government actually works directly from the source. That’s a major step back for transparency. It’s a series of decisions that are stark against the background of how the Trump administration is approaching communications and disclosure of actions with the public so far. The White House and President of the United States are making claims that are baseless or easily proven false. Transition officials have issued directives for media blackouts to federal agencies, only for the Press Secretary to deny them to reporters after the directives have already been publicly confirmed by transition officials and disavowed or clarified by agencies. The Internet has an amazing capacity to open up governments to their citizens. Modern technology enables transparency, accountability, participation and engagement that was impossible before every connected person could look up information with just a few keystrokes or taps. Every administration in the Internet-era has taken some steps to expand the government’s engagement with the digital world, building on the progress of their predecessors. Continued progress in open government in the United States depends on having an administration with both the political will and the technical ability to not only be good stewards of platforms, processes and policies that make our government more accessible and accountable to the public. Judging by the Trump’s version of Whitehouse.gov to date, it’s unclear whether the new administration has either.26 Jan

Open Data Policy Wizard helps you create your own policy - One of the hardest parts of creating an open-data policy is figuring out where to start. Here at Sunlight, we have several resources to help with this, including our Open Data Policy Wizard. We already have a sample “firestarter” policy that incorporates our guidelines for open-data policies. This policy was developed in 2015 with feedback from many experts on open data, including Mark Headd, Josh Tauberer, Abhi Nemani, Ben Wellington, Joel Natividad, and Andrew Nicklin. The Wizard asks you several basic questions about your city (or other place) and then emails you a version of the sample policy that has your place’s information included in it. You also get a link to a Google Doc version of the policy, which you can directly edit. This is a starting point, not an ending point. In particular, we advise you make sure you fully understand how this policy incorporates our policy guidelines, explore other places’ policies and (perhaps most importantly) work together with community stakeholders to make sure the policy meets local needs, desires and concerns. In addition to using our sample policy, we strongly encourage people looking at create an open-data policy to check out our OpenDataPolicies.org site, which is a repository of municipal open-data policies from around the country. It's a great way to see real-world policies that have been implemented. --> We created the Wizard to support our work on the What Works Cities initiative. Several of our partners — including Salinas, Calif. — have already made use of it. We see this Wizard as a step toward our broader vision of democratic policymaking whereby citizens have tools that allow them to engage in the process more easily, and citizens, stakeholders and government officials have tools that allow for collaborative drafting of public policy.26 Jan

How federal agencies and Congress pass laws to deny individual FOIA requests - There’s a hidden process of lawmaking that is sabotaging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Here’s how it works: Someone requests documents that a government agency does not want to release. Under current law, a judge may force an agency to comply. But, while the FOIA is pending, the agency asks Congress to pass a law allowing it to withhold the requested information. In 2014, I wanted to know if U.S. businesses had attempted to sell dangerous items, like surveillance equipment to foreign countries. If so, who was selling? And who was buying? To answer those questions, I turned to public records. To sell certain items abroad to certain countries, U.S. businesses apply for an export license from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Sometimes those requests are denied. A 2015 annual report from the BIS, in fact, showed 339 denials for the year. On October 22, 2014, I submitted a FOIA request to BIS for all export licenses that had been denied from 2000-2014. The agency, however, denied my request. While my appeal was being processed, Congress passed a law that authorized BIS to withhold my requested information. “Since you filed your appeal,” their letter read, “Congress has specifically recognized that Section 12(c) of the Export Administration Act (EAA) of 1979 is a statute covered by section 552(b)(3) of title 5, United States Code.” In their response, the Department of Commerce, of which BIS is a part, argued the EAA prohibited disclosure of the export license applications I sought. They were right. According to the Department of Justice, license applications under the EAA are exempt from disclosure. This exemption may be justified as a way to protect the integrity of the system. If export licenses become public, then that may be an incentive for businesses to withhold information from agencies like BIS, making it harder for BIS to its job. I didn’t dispute the wisdom of that, nor did I dispute the Justice Department’s interpretation of the EAA. Instead, I argued in my appeal that the EAA was expired law. I sent along a 2013 California Federal District Court decision to prove it. In that case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit civil liberties group, had requested “records concerning the export of devices, software, or technology used to intercept or block communication.” EFF then sued for the documents. The U.S. District Court in California ruled that the EAA was a “temporary measure” that had expired in 2001. It had been reinstated many times, but it was not in effect during the trial nor when I sent my FOIA appeal on Nov. 25, 2014. The EFF’s suit is still on appeal. On Dec. 18, 2015, as part of a bill transferring U.S. naval vessels to Mexico, Congress passed a two-paragraph provision aimed at the FOIA argument I’d taken from EFF. “Certain confidentiality of information requirements of the Export Administration Act of 1979 have been in effect from August 20, 2001,” the new law stated. This was the same law that had been cited in the BIS denial letter sent to me. Eight days before the law passed, Representative Edward Royce revealed how the law was introduced on the U.S. House floor: Finally, the bill included a provision requested by the Department of Commerce to ensure that our export control regime will continue to protect sensitive information related to export licensing. In particular, it clarified that the business confidentiality protections of the lapsed Export Administration Act would remain in effect under another provision of the law and would continue to protect information related to export licensing. I emailed and called Congressman Royce’s office to ask why he believed the provision would, in his words, “protect U.S. national security and the competitiveness of American exporters.” I received no reply. I also emailed and called the Office of Information Policy, the agency responsible for FOIA compliance, and was directed to the Department of Justice spokesperson. I called and emailed the DoJ. I received no reply. I emailed and called the Department of Commerce and the Bureau of Industry and Security, asking why they had requested the provision. I received no reply. I asked EFF for comment. “The law was definitely passed with EFF’s FOIA case in mind,” Mark Rumold, an EFF staff attorney, told me in an email. “We’ve had Congress pass laws in response to our lawsuits before, but never in a FOIA lawsuit,” he added. This is not the only time Congress has intervened in public records requests. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Department of Defense over a decade ago for photographs showing abuse and torture of detainees in U.S. overseas detention centers. In 2009, while the ACLU and DoD fought in court, Congress passed the Protected National Security Document Act, authorizing the DOD to withhold the photographs. In 2009, after an appeals court had ordered the photographs disclosed, former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri-al-Maliki “urged President Obama not to release them,” said Josh Bell, a strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Center for Democracy Media. The law passed. The Secretary of Defense can now temporarily deny disclosure if a case can be made that disclosure might somehow seriously endanger national security. Some photos were released in February 2016. Then, on January 18, 2017, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the government had not adequately shown how its threat assessment was made, concluding the Secretary of Defense’s method and standards for withholding must be explained. The lawsuit is ongoing. There may be other cases, but establishing a causal link between a single FOIA request and a provision that appears to target that FOIA is difficult. In 1998, the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmentalist nonprofit, sued for information that the Forest Service had collected on a rare bird. While the case was in federal district court, Congress passed the 1998 Parks Act, part of which states, “information concerning the nature and specific location of a National Park System resource which is endangered, threatened, or rare…may be withheld from the public in response to a request under FOIA.” The request and response appears to fit the profile of the ACLU and EFF cases. The Center for Biological Diversity, however, does not believe that to be true. “We don’t have reason to believe that it was a retaliatory measure to prevent disclosure of records specifically to the Center,” Margaret Townsend, an open government staff attorney at the center, told me. There’s also the problem of discerning motive. It’s possible, though unlikely, that the ACLU and EFF’s FOIA lawsuits were collateral damage, where Congress unintentionally denied a FOIA request as an accidental cost of doing business. This obscure process poses a problem for more than journalists and civil liberties nonprofits: it’s also a matter of judicial integrity. In April 2016, when the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that an Iranian bank must pay nearly $2 million to the victims of a terror attack, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, arguing that Congress had overstepped its authority in passing a law that decided a case before the high court. “No less than if it had passed a law saying ‘respondents win,’ Congress has decided this case by enacting a bespoke statute tailored to this case that resolves the parties’ specific legal disputes to guarantee respondents’ victory,” he wrote, as reported by CNN. The law “violates the bedrock rule” that the “judicial power is vested in the judicial branch alone,” Roberts added.“The entire constitutional enterprise depends on there being such a line” between the legislative and judicial branches of government. In 2011, the Sunshine in Government Initiative compiled data showing that federal agencies had invoked more than 240 statutes to withhold information from FOIA requesters. In reporting on the data, ProPublica, a nonprofit news outlet, noted, “for years such provisions could be easily slipped into legislation without notice.” How many of those provisions were passed to disrupt pending FOIA requests is unclear, but my experience suggests there’s at least one. Daniel DeFraia is a freelance journalist and American Studies PhD student at Boston University. Previously, he worked for the Committee to Protect Journalists and before that GlobalPost.25 Jan

The White House should publish text of Presidential actions immediately online - We were glad to see the White House has finally published more of the executive orders that President Donald J. Trump has signed in office, but that’s not the 21st century standard for digital government that the American people deserves in Washington. Tweeting pictures without disclosing the text of the documents is transparency theater, not open government in the public interest. When President Trump took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution on January 20th, 2017, his new administration took over the physical and digital infrastructure of the White House. Unfortunately, the communications team that relaunched a slimmed down whitehouse.gov — the team retained the same open source architecture for public disclosure and participation – was not ready on Day One to share the new president’s first actions in office. On January 21st, the Trump administration had sections for “presidential actions“ including executive orders, memoranda and proclamations — but nothing on them. As we told McClatchy, not publishing text of the executive orders online, as has been the practice for eight years now, left millions of Americans uninformed, particularly Americans with disabilities. On January 23rd, the White House finally published one of the two executive orders that President Trump signed on his first day in office. As we told Motherboard, when a White House doesn’t publish statements, transcripts, briefings, releases, proclamations and executive orders online, they’re failing to take full advantage of the extraordinary capacity of social media and websites to inform all of the public. Depending on emailed orders to the press to inform the public falls far short of modern proactive disclosure. The Trump White House is delaying publication of executive actions, and media coverage is suffering as a result, which in turns damages public knowledge and trust. The global implications of the Trump administration’s memorandum on the Mexico City Policy were initially misreported due to lack of information. Text of President Trump’s proclamation that his inauguration was a “national day of patriotic devotion” was not available to the public until it was published in the Federal Register. The White House should publish the text of all Presidential actions on WhiteHouse.gov immediately upon the President’s signature. In 2017, the public should be able to be inform itself, in plaintext on a website that meets modern accessibility standards. Anything less invites disaster by creating the potential for disinformation and misinterpretation of legally binding directives.24 Jan

After MuckRock FOIA lawsuit, CIA publishes declassified documents online - When the Sunlight Foundation received an inquiry from the Central Intelligence Agency last week, we weren’t sure what to expect, given the recent pace of world events. The news turned out to be straightforward: the CIA was going to publish approximately 12 million declassified pages from its CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) on the Internet. This afternoon, the CIA carried through on its commitment from October 2016, making nearly a million individual archived documents available to the public online in its Freedom of Information Act reading room. The CREST collection goes back to the 1940s and the origins of the CIA, covering the Cold War, the Vietnam and Korean wars, the Berlin Tunnel project, aerial reconnaissance, and more. There’s even a section on a STARGATE project, which might lead to renewed speculation about what our federal government knows about extraterrestrial life. It’s important to emphasize that these documents aren’t new: they’ve been available to researchers at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. If this corpus of documents represented “the CIA’s secret history,” they haven’t done a particularly good job of keeping it that way over the past 17 years or so since the CREST tool first became available in 1999. The records in question have been declassified due to the provisions of Executive Order 13256, which used to be 12958, issued under President Clinton in 1995. The order required “the declassification of non-exempt historically valuable records 25 years or older.” If agency staff decided that records fell under an exemption of the Freedom of Information Act, in other words, you’re not going to find them online unless someone sued them out. The shift today is that the CIA has used the Internet to make the declassified files available to all of the public, wherever we go online. That’s not a minor shift: the impact of open government upon public knowledge and trust is predicated upon access. Declassifying millions of documents doesn’t inform anyone if they just sit in a dusty file cabinet. Given Sunlight’s decade of advocacy for more open government through technology, we took some time today to talk to the CIA’s director of information management, Joseph Lambert, a 32-year veteran of the civil service, about why the agency was broadening access beyond the walls of four computers in NARA. “The CIA is made up of American citizens just like you,” he told Sunlight, over the phone. “The people that I work with, we believe that we hold these records in trust for the American people. When their sensitivity attenuates over time, we feel we have a responsibility so the American people can judge them for themselves. It’s important that we put these source documents online.” When asked about which documents would be of the greatest public interest, Lambert noted that the materials from the Berlin Tunnel get a lot of attention in College Park. (The CIA knows this because they log file access and printing.) He also highlighted science and technology research and development files, reports from operations in the middle of the 20th century, and materials on secret writing and invisible ink. In the 21st century, we’ll now be able to see if public fascination with these aspects of spycraft endures, should the agency participate in the federal government’s Web analytics program. As more documents are declassified, the public should expect more of them to flow onto this reading room, along with other materials responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests. When asked how the agency was approaching declassification, Lambert said that they’ve been working on this over the past eight years. “We are focused on improving transparency and releasing what we can,” he went on. “We involve experts. The standard is damage to national security. We have classification and declassification guides that will guide if there will be damage. That is really the impetus for what makes it out the door and what does.” When asked if President Barack Obama’s Open Government Directive had an impact upon this work, Lambert said that it had, noting that he was involved in writing the CIA’s first open government plan, in 2010. (As we reported earlier this month, however, the CIA has not published a new open government plan since. When we called this to the CIA’s attention, Lambert said that they were “in the process of updating it now” and would follow up. We’ll note it if and when it happens.) “The focus on open government and transparency has had positive effects,” said Lambert. “We’ve had 9 declassification events. We’ve partnered with presidential libraries and major universities, and looked at our archives to see what compelling stories were there and if sensitivity had been attenuated. We’ve told stories that positive to CIA, told others where got wrong, like the Korean War. We’ve tried to get a body of work out there where American public can judge for themselves.” The challenges the agency has faced in its declassification efforts in the past, however, pale in comparison to what lies ahead, as the pace and scale of data and document creation increases. “When I was starting my job, about 2 million pages passed through my office every year,” said Lambert. “Now, it’s about 12 million pages. We are going to have to scale from tens of millions of pages to hundreds of millions of pages. We can’t do that with just people. I did the math: we would need 2.5 million people in one of my 3 divisions. We can’t just deputize all of Fairfax.” Lambert told us that the agency will be focusing on machine learning and natural language processing software to help them, bring technology to bear. “We have spent time with the Archivist of the United States and the White House on automating these efforts,” he said. What the agency’s public relations efforts left out, however, is that the public can also thank MuckRock, a nonprofit that helps people to file Freedom of Information Act requests, for today’s transparency watershed. (Sunlight provided a grant to help MuckRock started, years ago. Our investment has been more than returned by the public knowledge they have created since.) As Jason Leopold reported, MuckRock filed a lawsuit in December 2014 to gain access to the entire CREST database. “The CIA told MuckRock it would take at least six years to release all of the documents,” noted Leopold. “Frustrated, Michael Best, a journalist and researcher, launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to manually copy and scan all of the documents.” As it turned out, it took just over two years. (Here’s hoping the agency figures out how to accept FOIA requests over the Internet using a new FOIA.gov even faster, dumps that fax machine in the dustbin of history, and follows up on all outstanding FOIA requests.) While we’re not thrilled about the fact all of these documents have been published as PDFs, today is another step in the ultra-marathon that is open government in the United States. Progress is progress, and should be celebrated.17 Jan

OpenGov Voices: Making open data more accessible — three lessons from Boston - From left to right: Ben Green, Kayla Larkin and Renée Walsh setting up Boston Open Data’s pop-up table at the main branch of the Boston Public Library. (Photo credit: Howard Lim/City of Boston)How do you share open data in a meaningful way to help citizens convert data into knowledge about their city? Over the past few months, the City of Boston’s Open Data team has worked to explore this essential question by placing our computers aside. In our quest to bring the Open Data to Open Knowledge project (funded by the Knight Foundation) to life, the team set out to host conversations to learn from everyday Bostonians. Howard Lim is the project manager of the City of Boston’s Open Data to Open Knowledge initiative.Given the community’s ongoing trust in their local libraries and our ongoing partnership with the Boston Public Library, we decided to arrange these discussions to take place at neighborhood branch libraries. We set up Boston Open Data pop-up tables at five branch libraries and at the central branch to gauge the public’s ongoing concerns and knowledge about the city’s open-data work. We set up tables near entrances, adjacent to the children’s reading room, and wherever we could to speak with library patrons as they went about their busy lives. The team spoke to babysitting grandmothers, doting fathers, and busy teenagers across Boston and learned so much about how we can make Boston Open Data more accessible. We’ve shared our top three lessons below in the hopes that these lessons can be helpful to other municipalities as well. Lesson 1: The term “open data” is confusing In our conversations, when we introduced the existence of Boston Open Data, many citizens expressed confusion about why such a platform existed. People even questioned the meaning of data itself. These insights suggest that open data by itself conveys little meaning about the underlying information. As a result, in our efforts to redevelop the City’s online sharing platform for data, we are working to sharpen our communications to convey what open data is and what it is not. By wrapping the platform with plain language (as suggested by 18F), we seek to broaden its reference and use by Boston’s citizens. Lesson 2: Data rarely came up during our conversations When interacting with Bostonians, we found that most people seldom discuss their everyday concerns by requesting more access to City data. When asked if there was data about Boston that people wanted to see, they rarely had any requests. It’s evident that releasing City data without much context has few benefits, especially because people don’t seem to connect issues with data. As a result, in our ongoing efforts to publish City data, we seek to provide potential use cases to hopefully deepen this connection. Lesson 3: Libraries are trusted institutions and librarians serve as gateways to building community knowledge Everyone we spoke with had nothing but positive things to say about their local library. Of course, people visited for a myriad of reasons — from paying a bill to studying for an exam — but all felt the library was an important pillar in their lives. Interestingly, we also learned that librarians have a great sense of the intellectual pulse of their communities due to their interactions with the public. For example, during one of our conversations with a librarian from Jamaica Plain (a Boston neighborhood), we got a great neighborhood perspective on civic life. Given these factors, we seek to work with librarians to provide greater public access to Boston Open Data. (Photo credit: Howard Lim/City of Boston)We want to incorporate these three lessons into our ongoing work to redevelop the City’s online portal for open data, which we plan to release by this spring. Additionally, by sharing our efforts on Sunlight’s blog, we hope to spark the open-government initiatives and transparency work found in other municipalities. Howard Lim is the project manager of the City of Boston’s Open Data to Open Knowledge initiative. Special thanks to the fellows and interns of the Boston Open Data team — Ben Green, Jean-Louis Rochet, Kayla Larkin, and Renée Walsh — who helped make these engagements come to life. You can reach him at howard.lim@boston.gov. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation.Interested in writing a guest blog for Sunlight? Email us at guestblog@sunlightfoundation.com17 Jan

Sending the wrong message to investors: Donald Trump and the rule of law - Every year, the consulting firm AT Kearney surveys executives for their opinions on where to invest. In mid- 2016, the United States topped the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Confidence Index for the fourth year in a row. AT Kearney found that global business executives are more optimistic about the economic outlook for the United States than for any other country. A significant percentage of business executives said, however, that they would reduce investment into the United States “if Americans elect a populist (far-left or far-right) president in the November election.” In November 2016, Americans elected a self-proclaimed populist president, Donald J. Trump, but the markets did not respond with fear. In the month since the election, global markets have generally risen. Analysts claim investors see opportunities in the President-elect’s plan to build infrastructure. Market actors, however, crave predictability, transparent regulatory processes, evenhandedness, and norms underpinning the rule of law. Some of the President- elect’s recent actions signal a decline in the rule of law. As a result of this signaling, foreign and domestic investment in the US is likely to decline. In countries with strong rule of law, government officials and agents, as well as individuals and private entities, are held to account. Laws and regulations are clear, publicized, stable, just, applied evenly, and protect fundamental rights. Policymakers enact, administer, and enforce the laws and regulations in an accessible, fair, and efficient manner. The court system provides a timely and even-handed approach to justice. Market actors know that although policies may change, these norms of good governance will persist. Thus, in the US, corporate investors presume that they will not be discriminated against because they hire Muslims, favor climate change accommodation, or choose to move their operations overseas. President Trump has used his words and actions in ways that undermine confidence that companies and individuals will be treated in a transparent, equitable, and accountable manner. Trump’s approach to trade policy illuminates how little he values evenhandedness and transparency, which are key norms underpinning the rule of law. In early December, Trump stressed that rather than applying the same tariffs to all companies, he would use punitive tariffs to punish companies that source overseas. First, under the Constitution, trade policymaking is a shared responsibility between the Executive and legislative branches. Congress has not indicated that it wants to single out specific companies for their production and employment decision. Hence, this approach is undemocratic, undermines longstanding US mores of evenhandedness, and violates trade commitments under the WTO, the international trade organization created by the US to discipline such practices. While it is laudable that the President elect wants to preserve jobs, executives may read into his action that the Trump Administration will act in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner. Secondly, Trump-affiliated companies are not modeling positive behavior. Trump subsidiaries and licensees make eyeglasses, perfume, cuff links and suits in Bangladesh, China, Honduras and other lower-wage countries, not in the USA. Executives may read into his actions that he is above the law and not fully committed to his own policies. In a similar manner, Trump’s refusal to put his family’s assets in a blind trust or to be fully transparent about his taxes or investments signals the wrong message about the rule of law. Without a blind trust, he risks conflicts of interest and raises questions about whether Executive Branch decisions are made in the public interest or the interest of his firm or cronies. Executives may read into this behavior that it is ok to have such conflicts of interest. Moreover, the United States may find it hard to promote good governance overseas when our new president’s approach to governance is opaque, unpredictable, and less accountable. Trump signals that his interests take precedence over the public’s right to know or the interests of other investors, who will not have the same access he and his family have to make good market decisions. Here again, his actions convey that the US will not adhere to the same levels of transparency, accountability and evenhandedness investors have long expected. Governance is not only about policy choices. It is also about signaling. President-elect Trump has indicated that he (and hence the US) are less committed to longstanding mores of good governance such as transparency, accountability and evenhandedness. Investors may send a signal in return by reducing their investments in US markets. Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Professor and Cross Disciplinary Fellow at the George Washington University, where she teaches corruption and good governance. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation.16 Jan

The appearance of corruption will be ubiquitous in a Trump presidency - John Wonderlich, Sunlight’s executive director, went on Democracy Now yesterday to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to ignore ethics experts urging him to divest from his businesses. Sunlight has been tracking Trump’s conflicts of interest for months, calling on him to disclose, divest and place the assets in a blind trust, as American presidents have done for decades. The plan Trump announced this week utterly fails to address these issues, which means the President-elect will enter the White House with unprecedented conflicts of interest. Why does it matter? As John told Democracy now, one of the concerns is self-enrichment: So the president is involved in every decision that gets made about how the country functions, involved at every level of government. And so, his knowledge of his vast business empire and of his debt means that any decision that gets made about taxes or about healthcare or about finance, about bank regulation—all the issues facing the country—have a direct and material impact on businesses that he owns. So that’s one concern, is that he’s going to make decisions not on behalf of what’s best for the country, but with an eye to his business interests. There are other concerns, too. It undermines the presidency to have even the appearance of corruption. And we now can be confident that everything that happens to President-elect Trump is going to be tinged with an appearance of corruption, because we don’t even know the full extent of his business connections, because he refuses to release his tax returns. So the appearance of corruption is going to be ubiquitous within a Trump presidency. And then a third level of concern is that by maintaining his business ties, Trump has levers that are not typically available to the presidency, so whether that is paying a private security force, like we know Trump is doing that is displacing the Secret Service’s role, which allows him to do things like eject protesters in a way that maybe the Secret Service wouldn’t do, or who knows what else? Trump is availing himself of levers to power that other presidents don’t have. You can watch the entire appearance on Democracy Now in the video embedded below:13 Jan

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