Saturday, March 25, 2017

25 March - Netvibes - oldephartteintraining


The 'Only' Profession to 'Celebrate What It Means to Live a Life' - Yesterday I praised Viola Davis’s Oscars speech for being memorable without being explicitly political—for simply talking about her job in a moving and well-written way. Twitter quickly let me know I missed something. On social media and conservative-leaning news sites, Davis’s speech had in fact sparked outrage. After explaining that she felt her mission was to “exhume … the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost,” Davis said this: I became an artist—and thank God I did—because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life. This claim has become one of the discussion items of the right-wing internet following the Oscars ceremony. “Art is wonderful; art is enriching; art can connect us with each other,” writes Ben Shapiro at Daily Wire. “But the utter arrogance of stating that artists are ‘the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life’ is astounding. How about doctors? How about stay-at-home mothers, who help shape lives rather than pursuing their own career interests? How about morticians? How about pretty much everybody in a free market economy, giving of themselves to others to improve lives?” Variants of that sentiment have ricocheted online, with Davis sometimes misquoted as though she’d said only “actors” celebrate what it means to live a life, or, worse, are the only ones who “know” what it means to live a life. Are people right to be offended? Did she say artists are better than anyone else? Reading her words literally, within the context of her speech, and extending her the slightest benefit of the doubt, it’s hard to see backlash against Davis as anything other than a symptom of our overblown culture wars. Anyone might “celebrate what it means to live a life” in their own personal ways, but for whom is that a primary function of their profession? Artists, definitely. Clergy, maybe. Doctors save lives rather than celebrating them, and it doesn’t denigrate them to say so. Stay-at-home parents help others, and Davis might even agree that that’s more noble, important, and essential than “celebrating” the meaning of life. Her point was simply that artists serve a specific role in telling stories about the human experience, and that she’s glad she’s a part of that. Certainly, she could have edited herself to make a less controversial, though arguably less interesting, statement. If she’d simply said, “I became an artist—and thank God I did—because we celebrate what it means to live a life,” complaints may have been harder to come by. The “only” highlights a specific way that artists are special, but it also is a dogwhistle to anyone holding strong resentment about Hollywood elitism and condescension. And there’s rarely been a better time to air such resentment than right now. Artists are now treated like candidates—expected to choose their words not for truth but for politics.On the right, reflexive disgust for the entertainment industry has taken on new fervor under Donald Trump. During the Fox and Friends after the Oscars, the snafu whereby La La Land mistakenly was announced as Best Picture was spun by Steve Doocy as, “Hollywood got the election wrong, and last night Hollywood got the Oscars wrong.” Guest Tucker Carlson agreed but added that Moonlight “had to win” because the moralizing, politically correct establishment willed it to. Yes, the Oscars were both an out-of-touch catastrophe and an insidiously rigged game. Donald Trump has given his own interpretation of the Academy’s screwup: “I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end,” he told Breitbart, as if the PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant who handed Warren Beatty the wrong envelope did so because he’d been cackling too hard at Kimmel tweeting the president “u up?”   Liberals may groan at Trump taking credit for his critics making a logistical mistake. But, of course, both sides see a lot of politics in entertainment these days: See all the takes making like Doocy and comparing the end of the Oscars to election night. To many viewers on Sunday, Davis’s speech seemed remarkable for how it nearly transcended partisan fray and just passionately talked about acting. But one word—“only”—was enough to make her a culture-war litmus test. Maybe she wanted to pick a fight about art’s place in society, or maybe she was simply portraying her profession as she genuinely sees it. Either way, it was a defiant move in an era where artists are increasingly held to the same standards as candidates for office: expected to choose their words not for truth but for politics. 28 Feb
Corinne Found the Perfect Way to Rebel Against The Bachelor - This post reveals “plot” points of episode 10 of The Bachelor season 21. According to the fabricated lexicon of The Bachelor, the show’s characters do not participate in a mere televised dating competition. They have been brought together, instead, on an emotional adventure that the show refers to, infallibly, as “a journey.” The Bachelor’s insistence on its own vague Campbelliness is ironic for several reasons. The biggest is that, while the show does offer a kind of momentum—things proceed week after week, Rose Ceremony after Rose Ceremony, with romantic tensions inevitably mounting—its participants, for the most part, do very little in the way of their own development. There are characters, yes, but very few arcs. The Bachelor or Bachelorette in question might learn some things as the season proceeds, sure; for the most part, though, the contestants are who they are, and they stay who they are. The tensions come not as those contestants grow and change, but instead as their different facets are systematically revealed to the Bachelor(ette). Different sides of their personalities are glimpsed; people are kept around or kicked to the curb based on the facets of themselves that manifest as the Journey continues apace. The Bachelor, basically, is a show that offers a lot of movement, but very little evolution. Related Story In Praise of Corinne, The Bachelor’s Human Conspiracy Theory Which made Monday’s episode especially striking. First, because, at the Rose Ceremony at the episode’s outset, Nick “said goodbye” (another term of Bachelor art) to Corinne Olympios, the season’s appointed villain. Corinne, who is dramatic and zany and materialistic and Good TV in human form, had long been a front-runner both despite and because of her antics (as SB Nation summed it up earlier this month, “Oh God, Corinne’s gonna win this whole dang thing, isn’t she?”). Her ouster on Monday, right before the Fantasy Suite dates, was a shock—to viewers of the show including, but definitely not limited to, Corinne herself. What was doubly striking about Corinne’s departure, though, was that she used the show’s elaborate farewell ritual to contradict The Bachelor’s dynamic stasis: While being broken up with by Nick and, by extension, Bachelor Nation, Corinne demonstrated that, against all odds, she had grown. As a person! Sort of! (I’d use another Bachelorism here, but of course, for this kind of thing, there is none.) The Bachelor’s traditional departure scene—Woman, Weeping Alone in a Limo—typically involves the said-goodbye-to contestant crying, wiping away mascara-tears, and discussing how much she wants—really, how ready she is—to “find love.” Not so Corinne. The woman who had spend the season defying the show’s long-established norms had one more trick up her faux-fur-covered sleeve. Corinne, Weeping Alone in a Limo, told the show’s invisible cameras not about how sad she was, but instead about … how changed she was. The season’s villain and cipher and punchline and living, breathing conspiracy theory used her final moments within the Bachelor spotlight to talk about what she had taken away from her experience on the show. She used them to talk not about The Journey, but about her own. Corinne, in the end, did something that is rare and almost rebellious within The Bachelor’s gauzy confines: She learned a lesson.It went like this: Nick did not call Corinne’s name at the New York City-based Rose Ceremony. He walked her out to the limo. “I’m sorry,” she told him, as they embraced. “I’m sorry if I ever did anything to make you upset.” He replied: “You never did! Listen, you never did anything wrong. Ever. You have nothing to regret. You have nothing to second guess. Look at me—nothing. Not a thing. You need to know that. Okay?” Corinne stepped into the limo. The traditional departure ritual began. She wept, as plaintive piano notes surrounded her. “Saying goodbye to Nick,” she told the camera, “is like, I feel like my heart is like, literally like—it’s never going to be repaired. I just want to feel loved—the way it’s supposed to be, like the normal way.” It was all standard-issue Bachelor stuff, right down to the invocation of “the normal way” … until things—as they so often will when Corinne is involved—took a turn. “I’m trying to, you know, say things that men think are appropriate,” she said, as her tears gave way to a slow smile. “And you know what? I’m done. Done trying to show my men how much I worship them and I love them and I care for them and I support them. I need that! So if someone feels that way about me? They can come and tell me. And they can bring a ring to go along with it.” It was … feminist? Sort of? It was also inflected with Corinne’s characteristic self-absorption and materialism, yes—and the probable result of some liberal editing, with that quick shift from weeping to grinning—but still. Corinne, with this, was rejecting the stuff of all those Cosmo stories offering advice on How to Please Your Man—and the stuff, for that matter, of a culture that tends to assume that women, and women alone, should do the work of making sure that men feel supported, and cherished, and, indeed, “worshipped.” Corinne had spend her season of The Bachelor myopically—even maniacally—focused on Nick. She had been, in Bachelorese, There for Nick and There for the Right Reasons and Not There to Make Friends. And in the end, if the aim is to be the woman before whom Nick “gets down on one knee,” it had all failed. Corinne took all that and then did something that is rare and almost rebellious within The Bachelor’s gauzy confines: She learned a lesson. She took the show’s truisms about coupledom and transformed them into other clichés: Corinne will, she suggested, from here on out, Focus on Herself and Do It for Herself. Corinne will do Corinne. She will Make Corinne Great Again. “I’m going to be me,” Corinne told the show’s invisible camera, as its invisible piano played her off. “And whatever happens, happens. But I will never kiss up to a man again in my entire life.” 28 Feb
Viola Davis's Urgent Call to 'Exhume the Ordinary' - Viola Davis’s acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress began with a thanks to the Academy and this observation: “You know, there’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered.” Pause. Some viewers may have felt a queasy pang. Was the Fences actress about to give a sequel to Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech? Was the next line going to be “this room,” so as to stand up for the presidentially denounced entertainment industry, so as to preach for truth and inclusion, so as to spark another skirmish about whether Hollywood is too self-regarding? No. The next line: “One place, and that’s the graveyard.” Whew. Davis’s speech quickly went viral and received wide acclaim for a lot of reasons, and prime among them was simply good writing. She opened with a question and gave an answer few would have guessed. She exploited the power of surprise, a power demonstrated amply elsewhere at the Oscars. Viola Davis' #Oscars acceptance speech was AMAZING. Watch it here https://t.co/fs8vScFX3b pic.twitter.com/cope2GlkKv — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 27, 2017 The speech also made self-evident why Davis deserves an Oscar. She seemed to be heaving with emotion, almost out of breath, and yet her words were clear and her sentences deftly paced. She gestured with the precision of her How to Get Away With Murder character Annalise Keating in law lecture, yet she showed the rawness of feeling that Mrs. Miller had in Doubt. But this was not acting. Or if it was, it was so good as to not seem like it. Which is, as Leonardo DiCaprio said from the stage elsewhere in the night, the definition of great acting. Most remarkable: the speech’s content. Typically, memorable Oscar acceptances make explicit political points, feature gaffes, or mark milestones. But Davis’s commanded attention through the mere discussion of art, as well as through specific, heartfelt shoutouts to colleagues and loved ones. “People ask me all the time: ‘What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?’” she said. “And I say, exhume those bodies, exhume those stories. The stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost. I became an artist—and thank God I did—because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.” The resonance with Davis’s work was obvious: Fences is based on August Wilson’s play about a 1950s black working-class family whose members aren’t famous, who simply strive and spar against the backdrop of society and history. Wilson “exhumed and exalted the ordinary people,” Davis said; his story was “about people, and words, and life, and forgiveness, and grace.” But the resonance with other themes of the night, and the era, was also unmissable. The Best Picture nominees included many tales of the culturally invisible and frustrated: post-recession Texans bereft of opportunity in Hell or High Water, low-level NASA mathematicians mostly forgotten by history in Hidden Figures, orphans and destitute families in India in Lion. Most notably, Best Picture winner Moonlight unspooled the tale of a poor black gay man simply surviving, an ordinary life of the sort that is portrayed so infrequently as to seem extraordinary. So there is, in fact, politics here, though subtle. In the context of conversations about diversity and inclusion at the Oscars and in America more generally, Davis’s praise of stories about common people of thwarted dreams necessarily has a political meaning: Portraying previously unportrayed struggles means that lives other than white, straight, well-off, and/or male matter. The point was reinforced, lightly, as she thanked her sisters, remembering, “We were rich white women in the tea party games.” They played as white and wealthy, perhaps, because that was what society had told them to fantasize about. Davis has shown the power of offering alternatives. 27 Feb
What Moonlight’s Win Says About the Oscars’ Future - The manner of Moonlight’s Best Picture win at the Oscars may have been bizarre and shocking, but in toppling expected favorite La La Land, Barry Jenkins’s film set a number of milestones. It’s the lowest-budgeted film to win the prize since Delbert Mann’s Marty in 1955; if adjusting for inflation, it’s the lowest ever. It’s the first movie centered on an LGBTQ character to be named Best Picture, and the first whose cast is entirely people of color. Beyond that, it’s incredible that Moonlight beat La La Land simply because the latter seemed like a film aimed at Academy voters—a well-made original musical about artistry and Hollywood dreams, shot through with nostalgia for the industry’s Golden Age. But maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising that Moonlight took Best Picture. It’s a stunning film, but also in some ways one that fits a mold the Academy has been leaning toward in recent years. For decades, it was very unusual for the movie with the most awards of the night to lose the Best Picture race. But in recent years, that’s been the norm. For decades, splits between Best Picture and Best Director (as happened at last night’s Oscars) were a relative rarity; in the last 20 years, it’s happened 8 times. Moonlight is a unique film, and one that tells the kind of story the Academy Awards have largely ignored through its history—but it’s also the kind of smaller, more intimate tale that voters have started warming to. Moonlight won three Academy Awards this year: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney. Last year’s Best Picture winner Spotlight took only two trophies, and in 2015, Birdman won four. The year before that, 12 Years a Slave won three, as did Argo in 2013. In every case, there was another more opulent production that won at least as many trophies, if not more: The Revenant, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Gravity, and Life of Pi, respectively (with all but Budapest winning Best Director but not Best Picture). La La Land seems to belong to this new ticket-splitting norm, where voters chalk up a bunch of technical wins for the glitzy frontrunner, but give Best Picture to the more critically acclaimed, smaller production. Again, this is not to discount Moonlight’s game-changing triumph. Though movies like Spotlight and Birdman were independent works, they were made on a much bigger budget and distributed by more established indie wings of major studios (Moonlight’s distributor was A24, a company founded only five years ago that has quickly become one of the most respected names in American art cinema). Still, only one major studio has won Best Picture in the last decade—Warner Bros. (for Argo and The Departed). As Hollywood’s major production companies have tilted away from prestige films to focus more heavily on big tentpole franchises, the Best Picture nominations list is mostly filled with indie and “mid-major” companies, (with streaming service Amazon making its own breakthrough this year for Manchester by the Sea). If things had been already edging in this direction, then Moonlight might be the beginning of an even bigger sea change. Of this year’s nine Best Picture nominees, it is the lowest-grossing (having made $22 million in the fourth months since its release, behind the next lowest Hell or High Water with $27 million). The Oscars used to have a certain reverence for perfectly well reviewed films that broke out in a major way. It’s how consensus choices like A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator, Braveheart, and Forrest Gump took the prize over more acclaimed movies. La La Land fits that mold well—but that mold may have been broken. It helps that Moonlight was universally heralded, getting the kind of rapturous critical raves that come once in a generation, rather than once a year. It was also a beautifully made film on every level, attracting support from a wider swath of Academy branches (it was nominated for its music, cinematography, and editing along with the expected writing, acting, and directing nods). That’s crucial for a Best Picture win, because people from every Academy branch get to vote on the winners, and it’s what had kept smaller, less technically impressive indie movies from winning in the past. Perhaps next year the trophy will go to some big epic that hits at the box office, like Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, and this recent pattern will be upended. Either way, Moonlight’s win is shocking enough to be remembered forever. The thing to watch for now is if it’s a magical Oscars anomaly, or a sign of profound change for the Academy. 27 Feb
Five Ways of Seeing Five Minutes of 'Real People' at the Oscars - If the last-minute twist at the Oscars was seen to echo all the last-minute twists in American culture lately—the Super Bowl, the election—a silly five-minute segment earlier in the night should be noted for what it captured about the country’s ongoing tensions and tastes in iPhone peripherals. Host Jimmy Kimmel’s team arranged for a sightseeing bus of supposedly “real” tourists to walk into the room, expecting a museum exhibit about the Oscars but instead finding themselves in the middle of the actual thing. “Welcome to the Dolby Theater,” Kimmel announced. “This is the home of the Academy Awards, which are, in fact, happening right now.” The greatest Hollywood tour bus trip EVER ... @StarLineTours #Oscars pic.twitter.com/hUsuhPQf0I — Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) February 27, 2017 The bit was both amusing and squirmy: a weird microcosm of Hollywood’s relationship with America, America’s relationship with the media, and Jimmy Kimmel’s ability to make everything a little more awkward than it needs to be. The Hunger for Folk Heroes (and Memes) At the front of the pack was the man who would be the moment’s breakout star, “Gary from Chicago.” In a room of tuxes, he wore basketball shorts, a baseball cap, and a “Hollywood” sweatshirt, with the gender-progressive touches of a purple phone case and a bag that might have been his fiancee’s purse. If the glitz ambush intimidated him, he showed no signs of it, happily introducing himself to stars and snappily replying to Kimmel’s jokes. On social media, pop culture’s craving for quirky symbolic everymen—see: Ken Bone, Joe the Plumber—quickly made itself known. So did the cravings of various corporate marketing teams. Our Collective Phone Addiction The dozen or so tourists seemed to realize what was happening at different rates, and with different emotions—fear, elation, nonchalance—but were united in keeping their phones in front of their faces. “You know we’re on TV so you don’t need to do that,” Kimmel said as Gary kept filming the room. His reply: “I know but I want to. I want to.” The phone accessories themselves could make for a post-show fashion column: one woman had a sparkling jeweled case, another wielded a selfie stick as if it were a talisman. Devices in hand, the group pulled celebs in for selfies; Gary even handed his phone to Mahershala Ali as he posed with the actor’s Oscar. For the tourists, it was a rare chance to see in the flesh people normally only ever seen on a screen. Yet they still insisted on having a screen between them. Piercing the Hollywood Bubble… In an era when Americans have become sharply aware of how isolated its various niches are—politically, socially, geographically—workaday citizens from around the country were literally bussed in for cultural exchange with the cultural elite. The stars received them warmly: Ryan Gosling offered up some sort of present to Gary, Jennifer Anniston handed over her sunglasses, Meryl and Mahershala and others grinned and hugged. Denzel Washington even “married” Gary and his fiancee Vicky, though it must be said this particular cinematic icon seemed in a bit of a hurry to return to his seat. … or Reinforcing It The alternate political reading of the moment was that the regular folks were treated patronizingly, expected to react with gratitude and awe at the mere fact of breathing the same air as famous people. Kimmel seemed a little too insistent that the tourists be wowed, and an awkward image was set when Gary started kissing actresses’ hands: He wanted to do it, but it looked a lot like royalty receiving a supplicant. “Well that was the most condescending moment in Oscars history,” the writer Walter Kirn tweeted. “Real people on parade. Weren’t they cute?” Lucy Nicholson / ReutersOscars (Host) So White The tourists were a mix of white and black and brown men and women. But Kimmel made the diversity seem anything but normal by using tired humor about “funny” names—which is to say, names unusual to white Americans. As the tourists entered the room, he had the crowd shout out “MAHERSHALA!,” the name of Moonlight’s Best Supporting Actor winner. Later, Kimmel reacted with horror when a woman of Asian descent told Kimmel her name rhymed with “jewelry.” When her husband said his name was Patrick, Kimmel replied with mock relief, “See, that’s a name.” At an event that has recently been accused of white supremacy, this was a pretty tone-deaf shtick. But Gary, of course, helped deflate it. “I feel like you’re ignoring the white celebrities,” Kimmel said. Gary: “Because I am, though!” The Insanity of Live TV My stress reflexes were in full effect watching the segment, and judging from the cringing reactions on Twitter, I wasn’t alone. It’s definitely possible the tourists were just actors, or that they’d at least been coached to a greater extent than we were led to believe. But still, the spectacle of chaos in a space as highly choreographed, as widely watched, and as culturally fraught as the Oscars was riveting. At the very end of the night, viewers would be reminded of what makes live TV like this so electrifying—the potential for disaster, and miracles. 27 Feb
'Moonlight, Best Picture': The Oscars and the Rare Power of Shock - Last year, the comedian Marc Maron brought the author Chuck Klosterman on as a guest on his WTF podcast. The two discussed many things (including Klosterman’s then-new book, But What If We’re Wrong?, which he was there to promote), but one of them was sports—and the particular thrill that they offer to audiences. Sporting events, Klosterman argued, promise that most dramatic of things: an unknown outcome. Unlike other widely watched events—the Super Bowl halftime show, the Grammys, the Oscars—the primary selling point of sporting events is that their endings are, by definition, unpredictable. Within them, anything can happen. Well. While you can say a lot about the Oscars on Sunday, you can’t say that the glitzy awards show was boringly predictable. The 89th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, right at its conclusion, brought a mixture of confusion and shock and full, deep delight to its viewers as Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway teamed up to announce the Best Picture winner and proceeded to, because of a backstage flub, announce the wrong movie. Chaos—and really, really good TV—ensued. Tired East Coasters were summoned back to their living rooms from their bedrooms, on the grounds that “ohmyGodyou’veGOTtoseethis.” Twitter erupted with jokes—about Bonnie and Clyde being at it again, about Schrödinger’s envelope, about “Dewey Defeats Truman” getting an Oscars-friendly update. It was late on a Sunday evening, and the unexpected had happened in the most unexpected of ways, and the whole thing was, as my colleague Adam Serwer perfectly summed it up, Moon-lit. During a time when Google has made so much information attainable, knowingness has become a default presence in American cultural life.The whole thing was also, however, a reminder of how rare it has become for audiences to witness, collectively, something that is truly Unexpected. This was live TV, with all the potential human error that live TV can bring—chaos, correction, drama, grace—at its depths but also its heights. What happened on Sunday hewed to roughly the same mechanics that gave the world all those Left Shark memes, and those “Nevertheless, She Persisted” tattoos, and the term “wardrobe malfunction”: The Oscars evoked caring by way of surprise. The Best Picture flub has become infamous overnight for roughly the same reason its predecessors did: It is exceedingly rare, in the highly produced world of mass media, for expectations to be thwarted. We know so much, nowadays. We are, in fact, sure of so much—about politics and human psychology and Hollywood awards shows and the correct ingredients of guacamole. During a time when Google has made so much information instantly attainable, knowingness has become a default presence in American cultural life. Oooh, that show is supposed to be excellent. That movie is supposed to be terrible. Poke bowls are the thing now. Big cultural events, the stuff of the Grammys and the Emmys and the Oscars, are in many ways the culmination of that posture: We know precisely what to expect of them. We can report, as they play out, that everything went according to plan, because we knew from the beginning what they were supposed to be; we can do that reporting, as well, with a note of disappointment. There are few things duller, after all, than met expectations. There are few things duller than met expectations.In that context, the Beatty-Dunaway-Oscars flub was a gift to audiences (and perhaps to ABC’s future live-audience ratings). It was also Chuck Klosterman’s point to Maron, at once proven and proven wrong. Here was the anything-can-happen logic of the live sporting event, applied to Hollywood’s highest, most ceremonialized, and most expectation-driven, of rituals. That was a powerful thing: During a moment in the United States that so often takes for granted that “reality” is something that can be produced as well as experienced, the Best Picture Oscars flub was a powerful reminder that reality, still, has its own production values. Yes, the flub was many other things, too: a shame for Moonlight, which so richly deserved to win Best Picture and whose victory threatens to be overshadowed by the mistake and its ensuing dramas. A shame for La La Land, whose producers delivered their full acceptance speeches before learning that their “win” had been announced in error. A field day for photographers both professional and non-, who snapped reaction shots onstage and backstage and among the celebrity audience. A moment of grace, as La La Land’s producer, Jordan Horowitz, met Jimmy Kimmel’s cheeky suggestion that everyone should get an Oscar with a politely defiant “I’m going to be really thrilled to hand this to my friends from Moonlight.” And also, sure: a metaphor for the slings and arrows of the 2016 election. A ratification of pop culture's current obsession with alternate realities. A vehicle for many, many jokes at the expense of Steve Harvey. Mostly, though, it was a twist ending that arrived, by the looks of things, in the twistiest of ways: a shock that came not at the hands of a savvy producer, but at the hands of quirky reality. Twist endings may have been a defining feature of the events of 2016 and early 2017—the reality show that was the 2016 presidential campaign found its pundit-ratified frontrunner vanquished in the final episode; the 2016 World Series featured another victorious underdog; Super Bowl LI found the expected winners winning, but only after its game went into nail-biting overtime. Their twists, however, took place within events whose endings were, by definition, unknown. The Oscars was a ceremony, shockingly interrupted. It was expectation, compellingly thwarted. And so: It was powerful in a way that few things can be, anymore, in a world that knows so much and expects, in the end, so little. In an essay for Screen Crush last year, Erin Whitney argued that “ours is a culture built on anticipation, where movies end with scenes teasing the next installment in the franchise, never allowing a moment’s rest to absorb what we just saw. We talk about movies years before they debut, we analyze TV plot twists, and anticipate albums for years before hearing a single song.” This whole process has led, Whitney argued, to “the slow death of surprise.” The best evidence for that may be the fact that marketers have recently been focused on surprising consumers—capitalism doing its best to keep that particular kind of magic alive. The dropped album. The surprise TV show. The secretly produced trailer. The live-aired, anything-could-happen TV musical. They are trying to capture what Klosterman was conveying to Maron in that WTF interview: “Sports is a connection to authentic aliveness,” the author put it to the comedian. “This is not something that anybody can control or script. It’s this unknown thing.” He added: “There’s something real interesting about ‘nobody knows,’ because you just don’t experience that anymore.” You don’t, until you do—until that mistake makes its way onto the glitziest and scriptiest of all of Hollywood’s stages. Sunday’s Best Picture flub is not only already iconic; it is also already the subject of conspiracy theories from a wide range of Oscar truthers who suggest that, among other things, the mistake was the result of President Trump exacting revenge on Jimmy Kimmel; or a prank pulled by Kimmel himself; or the dark dealings of Leonardo DiCaprio. They may have a point; it is unclear, for now, how the wrong card got into Warren Beatty’s hands. What they forget, though, is what Klosterman knows, and what all those delighted audiences, on Sunday, knew along with him: that the best conspirator is often people’s great capacity to make big, and dramatic, mistakes. 27 Feb
The Shadow of Trump at the Oscars - President Donald Trump was 3,000 miles away from the Academy Awards on Sunday night, but his presence loomed larger in the Dolby Theatre than anyone else in the room. From Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue to acceptance speeches to the ads punctuating the ceremony, it felt at times like the Oscars were more focused on delivering an extremely public rebuke to Trump than they were on celebrating the art of filmmaking. The question is how effective such forms of protest are, in a media environment in which more than half of Americans think the press is too critical of the current president. Kimmel was one of the few personalities in the room who mentioned Trump; others largely chose to subtweet, without saying his name. While jabs about the president and his Twitter fixation made for easy punchlines, the most cutting and memorable moments of the night were the ones that elected to show, not tell—to reveal how Trump’s policies stand in direct opposition to the spirit of art in general and film in particular. Trump was an irresistible target for Kimmel, who laid into the one-time Oscar presenter right from the start. “This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans,” he quipped, “and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us.” He was briefly earnest, compelling everyone watching to reach out to one person they disagree with and have “a positive, considerate conversation, not as liberals or conservatives”—something that, he affirmed, could truly make America great again. But then it was back to business as usual: thanking Homeland Security for letting the French actress Isabelle Huppert into the country, pointing to Andrew Garfield’s drastic weight loss for a role as proof that Hollywood discriminates not against nationality, but against age and weight. An extended gag lampooning Meryl Streep’s “uninspiring and overrated performances” seemed directly ripped from Trump’s own critique of the actress after the Golden Globes. The second award presented, for makeup and hairstyling, went to Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, and Christopher Nelson for Suicide Squad. “I’m an immigrant. I come from Italy,” Bertolazzi said, accepting the award. “I work around the world and this is for all the immigrants.” His sentiments were echoed in more specific terms by the Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, who won best foreign-language film for The Salesman, but elected not to attend the ceremony in protest of Trump’s immigration ban on seven majority-Muslim countries. His award was accepted by the Iranian American astronaut Anousheh Ansari, who read Farhadi’s statement aloud. “Dividing the world into the us and our enemies categories creates fears,” she read, with Farhadi calling out the “inhumane” immigration law earlier this year. “Filmmakers can turn their cameras to capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. They create empathy between us and others. An empathy which we need today more than ever.” One presenter, too, took the opportunity to put a human face on Trump’s policies. The actor Gael Garcia Bernal, co-presenting the award for best animated feature, slipped in a quick statement, saying, “As a Mexican, as a Latin-American, as a migrant worker, as a human being, I’m against any form of wall that separates us.” And last year’s winner for best supporting actor, Mark Rylance, briefly pondered how actors and filmmakers might work to unite Americans. “Opposition’s great in film and stories, it’s wonderful in sport, it’s really good in society,” he said. “The things these films made me remember and think about was the difficulty—something women seem to be better at than men—of opposing without hatred.” But Kimmel’s well of Trump jokes never ran dry. The Marvel movie Doctor Strange wasn’t just nominated for visual effects, it was also “named secretary of housing and urban development.” Introducing the Academy’s president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Kimmel noted how refreshing it was to have “a president who believes in arts and sciences.” At one point, noting Trump’s Twitter silence during the ceremony, Kimmel had his phone projected onto a screen at the back of the stage, and tweeted, “Hey @RealDonaldTrump u up?” at the president, followed by the hashtag “#merylsayshi.” This was trolling on an expert level, with its purpose solely to belittle Trump, and to remind him that he’s more in disrepute in Hollywood than ever before. It’s cathartic, perhaps, but it comes from a place of power—there’s not much the president can do that directly threatens the film industry. But he can, for instance, defund the NEA, which has a long history of helping projects (such as the 2012 drama Beasts of the Southern Wild) and artists who later ascend to Academy glory. Pointing out the president’s personal failings will almost certainly lead to viral tweets, but pinpointing how his policies damage the arts and entertainment industries might have a more profound impact in the long run. The most powerful moments of the ceremony, in the end, were the ones that illuminated the people excluded by the president’s policies. Accepting the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for Moonlight, also the best-picture winner, Barry Jenkins had a message for the people the movie was made for. “For all you people out there who feel there is no mirror for you,” he said, “that you feel your life is not reflected, the Academy has your back, the ACLU has your back, we have your back, and for the next four years ... we will not forget you.” In one of the most remarkable Oscar acceptance speeches of all time, Viola Davis explained her mission for making art. “You know, there is one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered and that’s the graveyard,” she said. “People ask me all the time—what kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola? And I say exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories—the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost.” It’s this kind of message that seems poised to have the most impact over the next four years. For one thing, President Trump—for once—seemed remarkably resistant to all the trolling happening onstage. “Some of you will get to come up here on this stage tonight and give a speech that the president of the United States will tweet about in all caps during his 5 a.m. bowel movement tomorrow,” Kimmel said at one point. As yet, though, there’s been no such response. 27 Feb
The Magnificent Harmony of Sunday In the Park With George - Sunday In the Park With George, currently playing in a limited run at New York’s Hudson Theatre starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is blissfully free of politics—a two-and-a-half hour respite from contemporary anxieties, a holiday on the banks of the Seine, bathed in sunlight and glorious harmony. And yet, without ever straining to, it makes one of the most persuasive cases imaginable for the power of artists, and how deeply integral their work is to a well-ordered society. Art shows us, as Gyllenhaal’s George demonstrates to his mother in one of the first act’s most moving songs, how life can be beautiful. But rather than simply celebrating the fruits of creative labor, Sunday In the Park is a testament to the process of making art; a substantial peek inside the mind of someone wrestling with their own genius. When the show—with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine—debuted in 1984, it was interpreted as one of Sondheim’s most personal expressions, coming on the heels of his critical and financial bomb, Merrily We Roll Along. George, the show’s hero, is obsessed with his paintings, to the detriment of everything else in his life. But as the show unfolds, moving from 19th-century France to 1980s Chicago, it explores the reasoning behind his single-minded fixation, and how George’s role as an observer lets everyone else see the world differently, too. That’s largely because this revival, directed by Sarna Lapine (James Lapine’s niece), is so magnificent and so emotionally rich, anchored by performances by Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford as George’s mistress and artist’s model, Dot. The show is based around Georges Seurat’s 1884 pointillist masterwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and George is a loose version of Seurat, with his life broadly fictionalized. As he sketches studies of Dot, who grumbles about the discomfort, the heat, and George’s fierce focus on his work, projections of his sketches appear on a backdrop onstage, rendered for the audience to witness in real time. All the while George narrates his thought process: the challenge of bringing order and harmony to a blank canvas. Gyllenhaal’s gifts as an actor are well-documented by now, so it’s his vocal talents that may come as a surprise (observe, if you haven’t already, Cary Fukunaga’s short video of Gyllenhaal singing George’s “Finishing the Hat” at the Hudson). His voice is rich, measured, and emphatic. But it’s the acting behind it that really cuts deep, in a remarkable fusion of technical accomplishment and intense absorption in a role. When he sings about mapping out a sky, sensing voices outside but being totally lost in focus, “dizzy from the height” of falling back to earth, you’re tempted, like Dot, to forgive him everything. Ashford, who won a Tony for the 2014 revival of the daffy comedy You Can’t Take It With You, is George’s perfect foil as Dot: sassy, practical, and infinitely charming. But she also conveys the exquisite pain of loving someone so inaccessible, and her chemistry with Gyllenhaal is pure. Toward the end of the first act, when George directs the many elements and characters to come together in a synergy of music and visuals, he places Dot at the front of the “painting,” as if to keep her close. But the supporting cast, too, are adept at bringing comic relief, and balancing the harmony of the show: Robert Sean Leonard as Jules, an accomplished artist; Penny Fuller as George’s mother, lost in nostalgia; Phillip Boykin as a foulmouthed and obstreperous boatman. The peripheral characters by their nature are fleeting archetypes, included to provide contrast with the more textured portrayals of George and Dot. The second act of Sunday In the Park, which leaps ahead to 1984—with Gyllenhaal playing another artist named George and Ashford his grandmother, Marie, Dot’s daughter—has often seemed jarring after the perfection of the first act, but Lapine manages to make the two halves more symbiotic by emphasizing how George’s art is tied to his great-grandfather’s. Just as Seurat used pointillism and the science of light to create new colors and impressions, 1984 George debuts a light installation called a “chromolume” at the Art Institute of Chicago. The work, created by the scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, looms above the audience in a dazzling display of illuminations, weaving and undulating overhead. Ashford, seamlessly segueing into playing a 90-year-old southern grandmother, spells out George’s isolation and creative frustration in “Children and Art,” a song addressed to her mother in the painting. The cracks in her vocals, and the deliberate weakness of Marie’s voice, make it one of the most moving numbers in the show. Modern George’s frustrations are different but rooted in the same fears—unlike his great-grandfather, he has to fundraise for his expensive, technologically advanced works, and respond to the criticism it inevitably receives. But in the song “Move On,” it becomes clear that the two are one and the same, straining to make art that counts, and to do something new. The resolution in the show comes from realizing that just doing the work is enough—everything else is out of an artist’s hands. This production, so deftly directed, emphasizes both the value in the struggle, and the timelessness of great art. It’s powerful indeed to have the experience, even briefly, of seeing the world through the eyes of a visionary. 26 Feb
Andy Warhol and Get Out: The Week in Pop-Culture Writing - 30 Years After His Death, Andy Warhol’s Spirit Is Still Very Much Alive R.C. Baker | The Village Voice “How much responsibility does a mirror bear for whatever beauty or ugliness it beholds? Warhol loved both the heights and depths of American culture, and reflected it back at us through his work, which remains resonant to this day. Here is the spin he put on the concept of American exceptionalism in the 1985 America book: ‘Maybe you think it's so special that certain people shouldn't be allowed to live [here], or if they do live [here] that they shouldn't say certain things or have certain ideas.’” The Rise of Roxane Gay Molly McArdle | Brooklyn Magazine “Gay has been persistent and precise when so many others have not: She believes in a substantial variety of writers and writing that includes not only race and gender and sexuality but also class, ability, geography. She also takes as long and hard a look at herself as she does anyone else. When considering, in her 2010 HTMLGiant essay ‘A Profound Sense of Absence,’ whether or not she read diversely, Gay concludes: ‘I don’t, nor do I know how to.’” The Age of Rudeness Rachel Cusk | The New York Times Magazine “Are people rude because they are unhappy? Is rudeness like nakedness, a state deserving the tact and mercy of the clothed? If we are polite to rude people, perhaps we give them back their dignity; yet the obsessiveness of the rude presents certain challenges to the proponents of civilized behavior. It is an act of disinhibition: Like a narcotic, it offers a sensation of glorious release from jailers no one else can see.” In Get Out, Racism Is the Horror Story Black People Try to Survive Frederick McKindra | BuzzFeed “Horror films constantly reinforced the concept of the white body’s vulnerability, and subtly advised their audiences to treat only those bodies with concern. Meanwhile, for black characters, and by extension, black people, if no one ever saw you scream, tremble, or bleed, they never learned to see you as human. In the aughts, black characters in horror films were either disposable, not worth depicting at all, or rendered racial amnesiacs when it came to issues that would concern any black person in real life.” Remembering Seijun Suzuki, an Absurdist Auteur in Hired-Gun Clothing Emily Yoshida | Vulture “The Japanese film-production world was a kind of temporary Wild West, no longer locked into the hierarchical promotion system that brought up Ozu and Kurosawa. Suzuki rose up through the reshuffling almost by accident, but once he became a director, he made sure nobody forgot his name.”Harry Belafonte and the Social Power of a Song Amanda Petrusich | The New Yorker “Belafonte was strikingly prescient about the ways in which taste could and would be politicized, and especially about how treacherous it is to confuse consumption with action. This seems, to me, to be an unspoken but profound hindrance to all popular rebellions: If a person reads the right authors, and buys the right records, and vouches for those preferences loudly and repeatedly, it can feel like all the necessary work has been done to align oneself with the proper causes.”Jackie Kennedy’s Strange, Elegant Accent, Explained by Linguists Alex Abad-Santos | Vox “Merely reading that line doesn’t do justice to the voice Portman adopted for the role. If you’re not aware of how Jackie Kennedy spoke, listening to Portman’s Jackie is like the tingle of soda in your throat. It often feels familiar, but in certain spots it pops and jumps. The way she lops off the end of ‘bitter,’ the funny hop in ‘artifact,’ the way she rolls through ‘remembered’—it’s like she’s invented her own unique way of speaking English.” Moonlight’s Forgotten Frequencies Dave Tompkins | MTV News “Moonlight's score is part of this allowed emotional space, internalizing the Miami environment. (In terms of pressing bass to vinyl, wider spaces between the grooves make room for longer wavelengths and lower frequencies.) According to [Nicholas] Britell, the composer, everything in Moonlight’s score has at some point been pitched down and lived an alternate bass life before reaching your ears, whether you hear it or not.” 25 Feb
Girls's Powerful Insight on Trauma - Why do the girls of Girls act that way? That’s the question underlying five years of baffled cultural responses to Lena Dunham’s epic of questionable decisions, cruelty, narcissism, and grace. Girls has never given a straightforward answer to the question. Despite unflinching confessional dialogue and occasional backstory development and sharp cultural satire, Hannah Horvath and her friends still have an air of Athena, sprung into existence fully formed. Asking why these girls spill drinks and impulsively marry and vomit off of bunkbeds is like asking why anyone exists at all. This has made Girls unusual in a cultural landscape where the tragic flashback is the go-to decoder of individual motivation. To take two recent examples from HBO, The Young Pope connected Pope Pious’s childhood abandonment to his adult torment, and Westworld’s so-called “key insight” was that to be human is to remember suffering. In society more broadly, ongoing dialogues about trauma, triggering, and privilege—dialogues that Dunham often wades into as a public figure—insist that personal history needs to be taken as seriously as present conduct does. On Girls, parental issues occasionally surface—Jessa’s flaky dad, Hannah’s closeted one, Marnie’s controlling mom—and brain chemistry came to the fore in Hannah’s OCD plot line. But sometimes it has seemed like the show wants to satirize the notion of explaining character through trauma. Once, Hannah recalled telling her mom that her babysitter touched her vagina at age 3—but added that she had probably been lying at it. At the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, her peers insisted her short story about violent sex must have been non-fiction from an abusive past; the joke was that it actually reflected her adventuresome present: “the time that I took a couple Quaaludes and asked my boyfriend to punch me in the chest.” This week’s sure-to-be-provocative episode “American Bitch”—posted to online platforms now and airing on HBO Sunday night—sharpened the show’s point of view on psychological cause and effect. In it, Hannah visits with a famous author, Chuck Palmer (Matthew Rhys), after writing an essay about accusations that he’d serially preyed on college-aged female fans. Chuck makes his case for innocence, Hannah relates some details from her past, and the two seem to come to an understanding—and then Chuck takes his penis out and presses it against Hannah. It’s a story of personal monstrousness and trauma, but it’s also a story about a system: a gender dynamic that ensures a common experience of degradation for women, whether in their pasts or in the present. Chuck Palmer has a surprising amount in common with Hannah. His fussiness hints at OCD. He proposes that writers need stories more than anything else, echoing Hannah’s experiences-at-all-cost outlook throughout Girls. The two bond over their love of Philip Roth, agreeing that “you can’t let politics dictate what you read or who you fuck” (Chuck’s words). And most tellingly, Chuck professes to want to understand the person he’s talking to but constantly interrupts with his own observations—perhaps a sexist tic, but also a narcissistic one plenty familiar to Girls viewers. In all of these things, Dunham may be sketching some ideas about the intrinsic traits that make a writer. But most of their conversation is a clash of biographies. Chuck emphasizes his loneliness, his daughter’s depression, his ex-wife’s hostility, and the sadness of book-tour life. When Hannah suggests an inappropriate power balance in him hooking up with girls on the road, Chuck shoots back that the real imbalance is that “she looks like a Victoria’s Secret model and I didn’t lose my virginity till I was 25 and on Acutane.” He is the victim in this reading. The women complaining online are exploiting his fame and desperation as well as the power of the internet to amplify harmful claims. It appears that this version of events nearly persuades Hannah, who apologizes for having written something that upset Chuck. But the apology is colored by all the buttering-up that has come before. Chuck repeatedly tells her how smart he thinks she is. He gives her a signed copy of Roth’s When She Was Good. And he claims that he invited her over to try and correct his true error with his accusers: not “pushing” enough to get to know them as people. When he then asks questions about her life, Hannah giggles and blithely answers. But during an earlier, tenser point in the conversation, Hannah relates a less happy bit of her history. In fifth grade, her English teacher Mr. Lasky took a liking to her based on her talent as a writer: He liked me, he was impressed with me, I did like special creative writing, I wrote like a little novel or whatever. Sometimes when he was talking to the class he would stand behind me and he’d rub my neck. Sometimes he’d rub my head, rustle my hair. And I didn’t mind. It made me feel special. It made me feel like someone saw me and they knew that I was going to grow up and be really, really particular. It also made kids hate me and put lasagna in my fucking backpack, but that’s a different story. Anyway last year I’m at a warehouse party in Bushwick and this guy comes up to me and he’s like, “Horvath, we went to middle school together, East Lansing!” And I’m like, “Oh my god, remember how crazy Mr. Lasky’s class was? He was basically trying to molest me.” You know what this kid said? He looks at me in the middle of this fucking party like he’s a judge, and he goes, “That’s a very serious accusation Hannah.” And he walked away. And there I am and I’m just 11 again and I’m just getting my fucking neck rubbed. Because that stuff never goes away. If this is Hannah Horvath’s long-awaited revelation about her past, it’s a relatively mild one: no rape, no violence, just some neck rubbing in class. But the insidiousness of it is in how it fits a pattern of warped gender relations. Chuck is like Mr. Lanksy: an older, powerful man praising a younger woman’s intellectual talents—but also tying that praise to flesh. Hannah’s value as a writer and her value as a body were long ago swirled together by a gatekeeper, and Chuck did something very similar to the young would-be authors he had sex with. If they consented, what were they consenting to? A validation of their mind, or the notion that what really matters is their body? The trauma here is not merely what happened, either. It’s in how honest expressions of discomfort by women are met with hostility and invalidation by men on legalistic pretenses. Consent is hugely important, but the issue isn’t entirely a legal one in this case. It is a moral one, a social one, and an emotional one. Hannah doesn’t seem to want either Chuck or Mr. Lasky in jail. She just wants to tell the truth about a troubling, degrading dynamic, and she is told—both by the guy at the Bushwick party and by Chuck—that she is wrong to do so. The earlier trauma itself didn’t create the new one.The sick twist is that the trauma has now been amplified and reenacted on Hannah for speaking out. Chuck flatters her, convinces her he’s no monster, and then unzips and thrusts against her without warning. For a moment, Hannah seems confused; for another moment, she seems to consider going along with it—she grabs him. Then she freaks out and screams at him. He gives her an evil grin. All the respect he had previously paid her has been rendered a joke. His praise of her mind was foreplay to the reminder that what he really liked was her body. And in Hannah’s moment of her considering whether to give in—for the rush, the faux validation, and the avoidance of conflict that would come with saying “yes”—she was in the same impossible situation as so many women before her. As a public figure, Lena Dunham has written a lot about trauma, especially about how a rape in early adulthood has had a concrete effect on her life over the years. But she also, recently, apologized for saying she “wished” she had had an abortion so as to help destigmatize the practice—a very inartful expression of the idea that a person and their worldview is not merely a result of biography. Girls seems to be trying to reconcile the need to honor the past's influence on the present while recognizing that no individual's history is an island. Did the Mr. Lasky experience change Hannah forever? Maybe. He could be the reason why she wants “to write stories that make people feel less alone than [she] did,” the exact kind of story that brought her to Chuck’s apartment. But that earlier trauma, in itself, didn’t create the new one she experienced in this episode. Nor was it, theoretically, necessary for Hannah to have gone through what she went through in order to care about Chuck's accusers. Why is Chuck such a creep? Girls doesn’t say that it’s because of any specific circumstance in his past. It’s not just because he’s what he calls a “horny motherfucker.” It’s simply because he can be this way. Because he is successful and male, he can put women in spots like the one he put Hannah in. He can expect them to often consent, queasily or not. He can even expect that other men will tell the women not to complain about it later. What he can’t expect anymore, Girls suggests, is for the women to actually remain silent. In the final moments of the episode, Hannah watches Chuck’s daughter play flute. She alternates her gaze between the girl and her father, perhaps weighing the implications of what just happened and what she should do about it. If Hannah writes about his actions, she may hurt him in a way that harms his daughter. But she keeps staring at the girl. She may well be one day put in a situation like the one Hannah was just put in. She may already have been. As Hannah leaves, we see a handful of women walking the opposite direction up the sidewalk, and then turning to enter his building. It reads as symbolism: a nod to all of the women past and future who can relate to what Hannah just went through, as different as their individual backstories may be. 25 Feb

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Photo: ‘No Begging’ sign on an elevated walkway at a Cartier store, by Remko Tanis - ‘No Begging’ sign on an elevated walkway at a Cartier store © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: remko tanisDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall24 Mar
Inequality, Wealth, and Happiness in China - At Bloomberg Businessweek, Dexter Roberts reports on economist Gan Li, his study of and concerns about inequality in China, and his “mission to depoliticize statistics.” Gan conducts a biennial survey on household finances across the country, and begins work on the next edition in July. The now much anticipated project almost suffered a premature death in 2012 after it exposed how Chinese society had become one of the most unequal in the world. Gan’s survey showed that China’s Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, had reached 0.61, well above the 0.4 level widely considered destabilizing by economists. The top 1 percent held more than one-quarter of China’s wealth, while 430 million Chinese struggled day-to-day. Less than 24 hours after Gan released the news, six cadres from the National Bureau of Statistics descended on his Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance. They demanded the data. The economist wondered whether he’d be shut down. His fears proved unfounded: “They found no errors,” he says. “A few days later, someone told me we should be OK.” […] After his run-in with the authorities in 2012, Gan hasn’t released an updated Gini coefficient, but he still sees income inequality as the biggest obstacle to China’s development. Even as the country has built up new social welfare programs, including a monthly subsidy for the poorest, household consumption has not grown much, because most Chinese still have no extra money to spend: The nation’s high savings rate is produced by the wealthy few. Gan wants more redistribution of income from the rich to the poor through property and inheritance taxes, neither of which exist in China. “What he found fundamentally changes the way we think about China’s economy,” says Tom Orlik, chief Asia economist at Bloomberg Intelligence. “China doesn’t face the challenge of building a welfare state but ensuring more equal distribution of wealth and income, which is much harder.” Gan has his detractors. His Gini coefficient estimate of 0.61 was unbelievably high, with the real figure now closer to 0.45, says Li Shi, an economist at Beijing Normal University, who uses data the statistics bureau collects. Gan’s survey sample is skewed by focusing on rich urban areas and excessively poor villages, Beijing Normal’s Li says. [Source] Many share Gan’s concerns about inequality. But according to Ravi Kanbur, Yue Wang, and Xiaobo Zhang at Cornell and Peking Universities, China’s income inequality, though still severe, has actually declined since its peak in 2010. From Dan Kopf at Quartz: This is the chart of Simon Kuznets’ dreams. Kuznets, a mid-20th century economist, famously hypothesized that for industrializing countries, income inequality would at first rise, but eventually begin to fall as the population got richer. It rises because the rural workers who migrate to cities make more money than those they left behind—urban work is more productive than rural work, and thus there is more demand for workers in cities than the supply in the early stages of industrialization. However, eventually, inequality starts to fall as a large proportion of people receive relatively high city wages. At the same time, rural workers also start to get paid more as fewer workers remain in the countryside, reducing the supply of labor and improving workers’ bargaining power. The Cornell and Peking economists think Kuznets’ vision is a good description of what has actually happened in China. They also think that government interventions, such as minimum-wage regulations and increases in the social welfare state, likely contributed to the fall in income inequality. [Source] The Economist also reported on these trends last year. As for public attitudes toward the gap, Sixth Tone highlighted a 2013 Renmin University survey’s finding that nearly three quarters of Chinese saw the country’s income inequality as “unreasonable,” though only 30% said that it was also “unacceptable.” In 2013, Harvard’s Martin King Whyte suggested at Foreign Affairs that “China needs justice, not equality”: that unequal distribution of political power is a greater problem than that of wealth. He argued that potential anger at wealth inequality had been largely defused by satisfaction with absolute gains in prosperity and the prospect of more to come. At The Washington Post, Simon Denyer reports on research indicating that enormous income gains between 1990 and 2005 were accompanied by a marked decline in happiness, with prosperity more than offset by rising insecurity. Spirits have since rebounded, but may still not have reached their former level. The first major implication of the findings is that China’s Communist Party has weathered the storm. It has navigated through the most disruptive period of economic turbulence without losing power: thanks in part, of course, to a ruthless system of state repression. But its ability to keep economic growth on track has also begun to reap benefits. The past decade has seen happiness levels begin to rise again, as continued economic growth has helped to bring down unemployment and given the government enough revenues to begin to rebuild the social safety net. […] Some external pundits argue that the current slowdown in China’s economic growth could cause upheaval and unrest, but Wang said his findings show this should not be a big concern. […] What matters most to people is income security, family life, and the health of oneself and one’s family, the report notes. When people are asked open-ended questions about what is important to their happiness, “broad societal matters such as inequality, pollution, political and civil liberties, international relations,” – issues which most individuals have little ability to influence – are rarely mentioned. [Source] © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: income, income distribution, inequality, public opinion, statistics, transparency, wealth gapDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall24 Mar
Photo: Old Town, Shanghai, by Ray Muzyka - Old Town, Shanghai © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Ray MuzykaDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall24 Mar
Person of the Week: He Weifang - 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. The wiki is a work in progress. 贺卫方 He Weifang has argued that the Chinese Communist Party is “an unregistered and therefore illegal organization.” (Source: szhgh.com) I think we mainland Chinese shoulder an enormous burden. This is true of Chinese people everywhere. As long as this piece of earth to which we all are rooted remains without the rule of law, we as Chinese have nothing to be proud of. —He Weifang, Hong Kong, 2010 He Weifang is a legal scholar and popular blogger who advocates for the rule of law and constitutionalism. He has been on faculty at Peking University (PKU) since 1992, though he was sent to a Xinjiang branch campus for two years after signing Charter 08 and serving as one of Liu Xiaobo‘s lawyers. Born in 1960 in Shandong Province, He earned his BA from Southwest University of Political Science and Law and his LLM from Peking College of Political Science and Law. Before gaining tenure at PKU, He was the editor of the university’s Law Journal and the journal Comparative Law. He launched to prominence as a legal reformist and a public intellectual in 1998, when he published an op-ed in the Southern Weekly criticizing the assignment of decommissioned army servicemen with no legal training as court judges. He’s article stirred up so much controversy among the general readership, and such a backlash in military publications, that Southern Weekly issued an apology. Later on, however, the government changed its policy, requiring former servicemen to pass the national law exam before working in the courts. He faced reprisals for signing Charter 08, Liu Xiaobo’s democratic manifesto modeled after Czech dissidents’ Charter 77. He and Mo Shaoping, Liu’s lawyers, were barred from a November 2010 flight to the U.K. on the grounds that their trip posed “a threat to China’s national security.” More than a year earlier, He resigned from PKU and accepted an offer to join the law faculty at Zhejiang University. But Zhejiang later rescinded the offer without explanation. He returned to PKU, which then dispatched him to Shihezi University in Xinjiang. Scholar Richard McGregor called it a “deliberately humiliating transfer.” He returned to Beijing in 2011. Undeterred by his temporary exile, He has continued to speak out against violations of the law and the constitution. In 2011 he wrote an open letter criticizing then-Chongqing Secretary Bo Xilai’s “strike black” campaign. In 2013, He signed an open letter calling on the National People’s Congress to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In 2016, He publicly criticized the powerful Communist Youth League and questioned its status as a publicly funded organization. In 2017, adding his voice to a chorus of concern surrounding the rights implications of China’s first civil code (set to be complete by 2020), He asked The New York Times, “Will other citizens’ rights be protected as well? […] This is a really bad move and has violated the basic spirit of civil laws, which champion dignity, personal freedom and equality.” While pushing for political and legal reform, He also writes about the law and a variety of social and cultural phenomena. In 2010 He co-authored a well-received collection of social commentary, “Si shou lian tan” (四手联弹), with scholar and memoirist Zhang Yihe. He closed his Weibo account in 2013 during a government crackdown on Big Vs, the most popular users of Weibo, when he had over a million followers. He has since reopened his account and more than regained his followers. He was named one of Southern Metropolis Weekly’s 20 most influential internet personalities in 2008, as well as one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers in 2011. His book “In the Name of Justice: Striving for the Rule of Law in China” is available in English. Entry written by Anne Henochowicz. 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: academics, activists, bloggers, He Weifang, legal reform, legal system, word of the weekDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall23 Mar
Baidu, Tencent Featured in Ranking Digital Rights Index - Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) reviews the world’s biggest Internet and telecommunications companies under the three categories of privacy, governance, and freedom of expression. It provides investors, lobbyists, and other stakeholders with a comparison of firms’ respect for human rights. The index consults the companies’ privacy policies, terms of service, and other self-disclosed, publicly available documents in its evaluations. This year’s index has expanded to include Chinese Internet company Baidu for the first time. It evaluated Tencent in 2015, and has re-assessed the company under the new methodology used in the 2017 ranking. Baidu and Tencent were both low on the list, with Tencent coming in third-to-last and Baidu at the very bottom. The review of Baidu included its Search, Cloud, and PostBar (贴吧 tieba) services. To contextualize the Chinese companies’ policies, the RDR report cites the 2016 Freedom on the Net publication from Freedom House. Freedom House deemed China’s Internet “Not Free” and placed China as the lowest-scoring country for the second year in a row. In RDR’s governance category, Baidu was the only company to score 0% for its lack of commitments to upholding human rights in employee training, due diligence, top-level oversight, or remedy mechanisms. Furthermore, Baidu provided no indication of how it responds to government and private requests for user data. Only Baidu PostBar’s user agreement stated that it complies with law enforcement requests for user data and private requests that the users choose to post. The RDR assessment of Tencent covered the company’s QZone, QQ, and WeChat services. Tencent’s moderately higher scores across all three categories indicate that Baidu has room for improvement. Tencent has differing policies for its users in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and outside of East Asia. The report found that the policies in English and traditional Mandarin are more detailed than their simplified Mandarin equivalents used in mainland China. The 2017 RDR index only reviewed the simplified Chinese documents. Tencent scored higher than Baidu in all three categories, tying with Google on governance. On freedom of expression, Tencent’s rules regarding the types of content it excludes were clearer than Apple’s. On privacy, Tencent’s disclosures about the type of data it collects are on par with Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, and Russia’s Yandex. Tencent tied with Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook regarding disclosures about its security practices. However, none of these companies scored well on questions of how they notify users about and respond to data breaches and other security incidents. These findings have arisen shortly after Tencent has become the first Chinese brand to pass the $100 billion valuation mark. Yet in its quest to establish international user bases Tencent will have to address data security and privacy concerns. In May 2016 the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab uncovered security vulnerabilities in Tencent’s widely used QQ Browser. These included unencrypted transmission of users’ search histories, URLs visited, and even the hard drive serial numbers of their devices. As Adam Minter has pointed out in an article on changing Chinese conceptions of online privacy for Bloomberg View: “Concerns about data security will also cramp Chinese companies’ ambitions to expand overseas. China wants firms such as Alibaba and Tencent to be global brands no less than Facebook or Google. The good news is that a consensus is growing in China that the problem must be addressed. Any solution will have to start with the government writing national standards on protecting online data. It can’t end there, though. Earlier this month, during China’s National People’s Congress, Tencent CEO Pony Ma called for standards to be combined with a national system for reporting data breaches, allowing companies like his to close leaks as soon as possible.” [Source] © anminda for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Baidu, corporate responsibility, data security, freedom of expression, personal data protection, ranking digital rights, tencentDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall23 Mar
Transparency vs Retaliation in Handling of Torture Cases - On Monday, China Law Translate highlighted a public notice from county-level public security authorities in Henan regarding the death of a suspect while in custody: On March 12, 2017,a suspect died while our bureau’s criminal investigation squad was handling the a case of a telecommunications fraud ring. Upon preliminary investigation by an inspection detachment from the Jiaozuo Municipal Public Security Bureau, the people’s police handling the case are suspected of using torture to extract confessions and collect evidence, and the Wen County procuratorate has opened a case for investigation. The public security organs will actively cooperate and resolutely punish case-handling personnel who have violated rules or laws. Any progress in the situation will be promptly released. Henan, Wen County Public Security Bureau 2017/3/13 [Source] The bureau’s ostensible openness represents a notable departure from similar cases in the past, such as that of Lei Yang, a young Beijinger who died soon after being beaten during his arrest for allegedly soliciting a prostitute. Because of Lei’s educational, professional, and family background—he graduated from a prestigious Beijing university, worked for a state-affiliated environmental organization, and had recently become a father—his case resonated widely among middle class Chinese. Authorities responded with a flurry of censorship measures: CDT published two leaked directives restricting coverage of Lei’s death. A third ordered “strict control” of online comments on the decision not to prosecute the officers involved, despite acknowledgement of the “direct causal relationship between Lei’s death and [their] inappropriate professional conduct.” AFP’s Joanna Chiu reported on the Jiaozuo notice’s apparent break from this pattern: “This is not the first time Chinese police admitted use of torture, but it is the first time the police released such information on a public network,” Chen Guangzhong of the China University of Political Science and Law told AFP. “This seems to be a new communication tactic,” said Jeremy Daum of Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center in Beijing. [Daum is also the founder of China Law Translate.] “If people believe that the situation is being reviewed openly in accordance with law and handled justly, they are more likely to wait and see what happens rather than take their concerns to the streets,” Daum told AFP. Chinese courts have a conviction rate of 99.92 percent, and concerns over wrongful verdicts are fuelled by police reliance on forced confessions and the lack of effective defence in criminal trials. [Source] A high-profile series of overturned convictions in recent years has seen several men exonerated after long prison terms or even execution. Last year, delegates at the legislative and advisory Two Sessions meetings in Beijing unsuccessfully proposed measures to prevent such errors in future. Some reforms have been adopted, but a U.N. panel, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International have all reported that pre-trial torture remains routine. The state-run tabloid Global Times reported approvingly on the notice’s publication: The police notice has been viewed by more than 13 million times, which shows the progress the government has made in terms of transparency, according to data provided by the administrator of a government affairs account on Sina Weibo, who goes by the alias “Zhengwuxinmeitixueyuan. The account added that most people praised the police for admitting possible misconduct. “This is the first time that the police have stepped up and admitted some of their officers tortured those in custody…There is hope for a society ruled by law,” commented ” Lee miaomiao,” a Henan-based commentator, on Wednesday, in reposting the police notice. “The notice is short but powerful … it shows the attitude of the police, the law enforcers. By doing so, the public is made aware of the facts,” wrote “Jimodexingzou,” an Anhui-based news reporter. [Source] Besides the divergence from past cases like Lei Yang’s, the handling of the Jiaozuo case also contrasts with that of allegations of torture in the more politically sensitive cases of rights lawyers in the wake of the “Black Friday” or “709” crackdown in 2015. State media have denounced lawyer Xie Yang’s leaked account of his mistreatment as “cleverly orchestrated lies.” In turn, Xie’s own lawyer Chen Jiangang and others have rebutted the accusation. On Thursday, Nathan VanderKlippe reports at The Globe and Mail, Chen’s law firm was scheduled to be inspected by Beijing justice officials in what Chen and his supporters describe as retaliation for his continued advocacy. “Why are they coming for me? It’s because of Xie Yang’s case,” Mr. Chen said in an interview. “They want me to be silent.” […] But rather than remain cautiously quiet, Mr. Chen has grown more outspoken. On Wednesday, he posted to Twitter a photograph of himself holding a banner that says, “Oppose torture, support Xie Yang.” He has also publicly sparred with state media over the accuracy of Mr. Xie’s story. […] The inspection of Mr. Chen’s workplace days later is China “tightening the screws and increasing pressure. It’s a way of threatening him and threatening the firm,” said Yaxue Cao, the founder of chinachange.org, which has translated and published the lawyer’s reports of torture. [Source] The official backlash against Xie’s account may have been triggered in part by a private diplomatic letter from Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and seven E.U. member states, urging investigation of his claims. After news of the letter emerged this week, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced it as a violation of judicial sovereignty and “the spirit of rule of law.” Notably absent from the list of signatories was the United States, an absence which agitated already deepening worries about the new Trump administration’s commitment to human rights advocacy. A Globe and Mail editorial on Tuesday argued that “the U.S. should show some courage and add its name.” At The Washington Post, though, Simon Denyer noted other possible explanations for the absence of signatures from the U.S., the E.U. as a whole, and the majority of its individual member states. In fact, diplomatic sources said the decision not to sign the letter apparently was made within the State Department’s bureaucracy, rather than by Tillerson or any of his team. That may be a function of the chaotic nature of the transition since Trump took over — with several senior positions still unfilled — and the lack of a clear strategy on how to deal with China, rather than a sign of a fundamental shift in stance. “I tend to think this is more to do with the fact that U.S. policy is so disorganized right now,” said Paul Haenle, who served in the National Security Council under George W. Bush and stayed on into the Obama administration. “Transitions are always really disorganized and confused, but this one is at a level I have never seen before.” […] Diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said Hungary had prevented the E.U. from signing as a bloc and threatened to do so in all such future cases. The Hungarian Embassy in Beijing declined to offer a comment. […] Yet it is also notable that 20 other E.U. nations besides Hungary also declined to sign the February letter on an individual basis. [Source] © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Black Friday 2015, european union, forced confessions, Lei Yang, rights lawyers, torture, transparency, United States, wrongful convictions, xie yangDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall23 Mar
Photo: Untitled (Luzhou, Sichuan), by gnoptiy - Untitled (Luzhou, Sichuan) © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: gnoptiyDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall22 Mar
Reality of Urbanization Catching up to the Dream - China’s ambitious urbanization plan is getting results: the country now has 102 cities housing more than one million people. The drive to move investment and infrastructure west to develop poor inland regions has had mixed results and created so-called ghost cities, in which the infrastructure and high rises are built but the residents don’t come. To reverse that trend, three local representatives at the recent National People’s Congress argued that urban planners should focus less on building skyscrapers and more on providing services and creating jobs for the displaced residents. The Guardian this week looks at the urbanization of China from various perspectives. Reporter Tom Phillips revisits newly developed Lanzhou New Town, in Gansu Province, which he last visited in 2013 when it was still under construction. He now writes: Reality took a while to catch up with the dream. When I first visited in 2013, as villagers came to terms with the destruction of their once-remote rural homes, an eerie hush gripped the city’s almost completely empty streets. The relentless din of car horns – a trademark of urban China – was completely absent. Dozens of tower blocks were under construction but, aside from builders, there was hardly a soul to be seen. Both Chinese and foreign journalists who flocked to the city came away convinced it was a flop. Returning four years later, however, I found this sleeping western giant appears to be slowly awakening as housing projects begin to fill up and pioneers start to move in. “People are buying property and moving in,” insists Shepard, who has visited the city twice. “As improbable as it sounds, it’s kind of coming to life. The place is almost like a mirage out in the middle of the desert. You see it glimmer on the horizon. You see it but you don’t really believe it is there – and then all of a sudden you are in the middle of it.” City officials declined to be interviewed by the Guardian about their progress in luring humans to the region’s lunar landscape. But during a government propaganda tour last year, Xu Dawu, Lanzhou New Area’s deputy Communist party secretary, claimed it had already attracted 150,000 permanent residents as well as 40,000 construction workers who were temporarily living there. Those numbers seem wildly inflated with huge swaths of the city still completely vacant. [Source] Elsewhere in the Guardian, writer Xiaolu Guo describes the transformation of the isolated village she grew up in: All that remains now of this world are a few black-and-white photos. The growth of my town obliterated almost everything. In the 90s, I left Wenling to study in Beijing; seven years after university, I became a film lecturer. When I finally returned to my hometown for a visit, I was lost. I remember standing on a traffic island in the middle of a four-lane street, clustered with traffic lights. In my entire teenage life, Wenling never had a single traffic light. I saw peasants and old people still unused to the ways of traffic signs, just like the donkeys they led by grass ropes. Tricycle taxis had been replaced by buses, and the Town Hall had now expanded into an imposing communistic City Hall. The once blooming rapeseed fields had given way to massive construction sites. Only old Tiger Mountain remained, her proud head rising above the smog. When the sky was clear, I could see a new transmitter tower on top of the Tiger’s head. The monks all had mobile phones. [Source] A series of time-lapse videos from the Guardian shows the physical changes to various regions of China due to urbanization over the past 30 years. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: ghost town, Lanzhou, urban planning, urbanizationDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall21 Mar
11-Country Letter to China Stirs Fears on U.S. Rights Stance - The Globe and Mail’s Nathan VanderKlippe reported on Monday on a letter to Beijing from 11 countries—Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and seven E.U. member states—protesting its treatment of detained rights lawyers, and calling for investigation of alleged torture and the abolition of the secretive and abuse-prone “residential surveillance” detention system. The letter, which was not publicly released, was sent shortly before Chinese state media denounced several lawyers’ accounts of torture as “fake news.” After describing the letter’s contents, VanderKlippe presented reactions to the letter, and to the failure of the U.S. and most E.U. nations to sign it: “Beijing always hears a clearer and firmer message when it’s delivered by multiple governments,” said Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch. The issuance of joint letters is “a strong indication of the widespread concern about human rights erosions in China today.” […] In an interview Monday, Mr. Chen [Jiangang, the lawyer of alleged torture victim Xie Yang] questioned why the 11-country letter was submitted quietly. Had it been made public, “the effect would have been much stronger,” he said. In a closed and restrictive system like China’s, he said, “secret talk and private questions will have no effect whatsoever.” […] “When a country like the U.S. is silent on this, it’s really interpreted by Beijing as a free hand to do what they want. And that costs people their lives,” said Sarah Cook, senior East Asia research analyst at Freedom House, a Washington-based watchdog on political, religious and economic liberties. “So it’s unfortunate if the U.S. removes itself from that type of leadership role.” [Source] The letter follows recent public statements from parties including a panel of U.N. experts, the E.U.’s delegation to China, and former U.S. ambassador Max Baucus. Richardson reported on Twitter that the U.S. had been invited to sign the letter, but declined, in what she described as “a very bad sign for human rights in China and elsewhere.” This is far from the only development under the fledgling Trump administration to stir such fears. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson kept a conspicuous distance from the launch of his department’s annual human rights reports earlier this month. Activists urged him to press China on rights issues during a visit to Beijing over the weekend, but many feared that his decision to travel without the traditional press pool would be seen as indicating a lapse in America’s commitment to press freedom. Then Tillerson’s repeated and unprecedented adoption of Chinese rhetoric during the trip drew praise from Chinese state media. In a press conference on Monday, State Department spokesperson Mark Toner denied a reporter’s suggestion that it signaled “some sort of shift on Taiwan, on Tibet” and other “issues and areas […] that Beijing believes are its own purview.” Toner responded that “we’re not walking away from our concerns about human rights, personal freedoms within China,” which remain “embedded […] in all of our conversations and in all of our discussions.” Eyebrows were raised still further on Monday by reports that that Tillerson would skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers next month in order to host Xi Jinping in the U.S., and would visit Russia later in April, leading to accusations of prioritizing autocracies over democratic allies. On Tuesday, the ACLU reported the U.S.’ unprecedented absence from a meeting of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at which Trump’s immigration policy, among other issues, is scheduled to come under scrutiny. The organization described “today’s refusal to engage the commission at all [as] a deeply troubling indication of its disrespect for human rights norms and the institutions that oversee their protection.” Tillerson has also threatened withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council if the body is not reformed. The head of the Chinese mission to the U.N. in Geneva also called for efforts to improve global human rights governance on Monday. He urged U.N. human rights institutions to “give equal attention to all categories of human rights.” China often highlights its enormous achievements in poverty reduction as serving the “right to development” in an effort to tip the scales of judgment on human rights in its favor. Similar appeal to the “outstanding” aspects of China’s rights record came in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ response to the 11-nation letter on Tuesday, as reported in an update by VanderKlippe at The Globe and Mail. The Ministry spokesperson’s responses were omitted from the official transcript of the daily press conference. “You mentioned this expression of opinions by 11 missions in China,” said Ms. Hua [Chunying], in response to a question from The Globe. “I believe this in itself is violating the spirit of rule of law.” She added: “All sovereign states enjoy the independence of judicial affairs, and no country has the right to interfere with the independence of their judicial affairs.” […] Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch, called on foreign powers to “voice these kinds of criticism consistently including at highest level of government, because the Chinese government is paying attention.” […] “China is outstanding in many aspects,” said Ms. Hua on Tuesday, after scolding a reporter for asking why the country maintains its residential surveillance detention system, which has been the subject of much international criticism. “Maybe you can spend more time talking to everyday Chinese and learning about the feelings of the Chinese people,” she said. “Then there could be a change in your point of view in looking at human rights issues in China.” [Source] Not all Chinese authorities appear to endorse Hua’s suggestion. A BBC team was recently assaulted and forced to sign a confession after attempting to visit a petitioner. At the same time, official demonization of Western media and pressure on sources have made many Chinese unwilling to speak with foreign reporters. 26% of respondents to a poll by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China last year said that their sources had been “harassed, detained, questioned or punished at least once for speaking to them.” Ahead of Li Keqiang’s visit to Australia this week, meanwhile, HRW’s Richardson noted another sign of defiance from Canberra besides its participation in the joint letter, and encouraged the government there to press Li on internet and media freedom and set clear conditions for a prospective extradition treaty: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will land in Australia for an official visit later this week. On the eve of his visit, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop delivered an unusually sharp warning to China on its need to move towards democracy. “While non-democracies such as China can thrive when participating in the present system…[h]istory shows that the embrace of liberal democratic institutions is the most successful foundation for nations seeking economic prosperity and social stability,” Bishop said during a speech in Singapore on March 13. […] Far too few leaders of democracies bother to call out China’s autocratic rule, especially about the rights to political participation, so Bishop’s comments are indeed welcome. But they’ll be even more welcome when she and other Australian officials use their leverage to press for actual and meaningful change in China. [Source] At South China Morning Post, Catherine Wong describes Australia’s “increasingly delicate path in balancing its relations with China and its traditional ally the United States amid sometimes erratic behaviour and unclear policy direction.” © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Australia relations, Black Friday 2015, Canada, Canada relations, detention, donald Trump, european union, human rights watch, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, residential surveillance, Rex Tillerson, rights lawyers, torture, United Nations, United States, xie yangDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall21 Mar
Photo: Beijing Street Music, by Roman Boed - Beijing Street Music © josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Roman BoedDownload Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall21 Mar

The Eyeopener from CBC Radio Calgary (Highlights)

Eyeopener podcast, June 24/2015 - The Blood Tribe passes a trespassing bylaw, the viability of geothermal in Alberta and Calgary's sizzling salsa dancing scene23 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Tuesday March 23 - On today's podcast: why the face of a U of C professor is being plastered all over Pakistan - selling milk and cell phones; how Jason Kenney plans to unify the PCs with the Wildrose; find out about the first "goat yoga" class in Alberta.22 Mar
Eyeopener for Wednesday March 22 - On today's podcast: how ready is Calgary for the next big flood; our Unconventional Panel on Alberta politics; did you know that taxi meters are made in Calgary; building a tiny home community in Big Valley.21 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Tuesday March 21 - On today's podcast: how a hockey playoff game was decided with a coin toss; why it's almost impossible to get a service dog for kids with autism in Alberta; and teaching your kids how to make their own lunch during spring break.20 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Monday March 20 - On today's podcast: long time conservatives talk about their new leader; Brian Jean on uniting the right; 25 years of counting eagles; spring has arrived and Kath Smythe is in to talk gardening.19 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Friday March 17 - On today's podcst: the shortest St. Patrick's Day parade; we speak to the finance minister about the new budget; we learn about new rules for flying drones.16 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Thursday March 16 - On today's podcast: should Alberta public sector workers share in the belt-tightening going on in the private sector; more on a contentious new development in Canmore; a new program for mentoring LGBT immigrants; naming RCMP puppies contest.15 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Wednesday March 15 - On today's podcast: our Unconventional panel debates if it's time for a provincial sales tax; can the Flames sustain their momentum; Debra Yedlin on the price of oil; and pie poetry.14 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Tuesday March 14 - On today's podcast: getting a deal on downtown commercial real estate; having trouble keeping track of your keys? Dr Raj has some memory tips for us; have you got what it takes to be on a local version of Survivor?13 Mar
Eyeopener podcast for Friday March 10 - On today's podcast:one student's work to uncover who was behind that Wildrose on Campus tweet that compared feminism to cancer; a Calgary veterinarian warns us about the health issues of flat-faced dogs; and are the Flames peaking at the right time. 9 Mar

di

Daily Kos

Voting Rights Roundup: Following GOP veto, Nevadans to vote on automatic voter registration in 2018 - Leading Off ● Nevada: Automatic registration is headed for the ballot in the Silver State. Voters will officially get to decide in 2018 whether any eligible voter who goes to the Department of Motor Vehicles will be automatically registered to vote unless that person opts out. Six states and D.C. have enacted some form of automatic registration since 2015.​ In Oregon, which uses this system, 43 percent of people who were automatically registered voted in 2016, so if this passes, it could result in a considerable number of new voters. Campaign Action Reformers had filed enough signatures to place the initiative on the ballot, but Nevada law gives the state legislature a chance to pass such proposals first and avoid a statewide vote. The Democratic-controlled legislature obliged, advancing automatic registration on a party-line vote, but Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed the measure on Tuesday, and Democrats lacked the votes to override him. Nevada could subsequently become the second state to pass this effort by initiative, after Alaska overwhelmingly voted to become the first state to do so in 2016. As Daily Kos Elections has previously demonstrated, another 19 states could attempt to pass automatic registration by initiative, which is a crucial option when Democrats only fully control six state governments and Republicans consistently oppose reforms to make voting easier. 46 min
Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Failure and Chaos in the White House - xWe will immediately repeal and replace ObamaCare - and nobody can do that like me. We will save $'s and have much better healthcare!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2016 xGOP aide on CapHill: "I'm starting to think that while we're pretty good at winning elections, we're not great at the whole governing thing"— Alex Roarty (@Alex_Roarty) March 24, 2017 xREALITY: GOP tried to ram massive overhaul of 1/6 of economy w/o getting industry on board or building consensus. OUTCOME: Not a surprise.— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) March 24, 2017 05:09
Open thread for night owls. Bonavoglia: Fighting to save the affordable care act is a class battle - Angela Bonavoglia is a journalist and health communications consultant, and the author of Good Catholic Girls: How Women Are Leading the Fight to Change the Church. At The Nation, she writes—Starting to mitigate America’s yawning class divide is exactly what the ACA did. And that’s exactly what the Republican plan would undo: [...] Contrast that with the responses to the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, a program that today covers over 70 million children, adults, people with disabilities, and seniors—one in five Americans. A just-released Kaiser tracking poll found that 84 percent of those surveyed believed it was important for states that expanded Medicaid with federal funds to continue to receive those funds, including 69 percent of Republicans. While only 12 percent of Americans said they wanted to see Medicaid funding decreased, nearly half (48 percent) wanted the funding to stay the same, and more than a third (36 percent) wanted to see it increased. Faced with Republican proposals to replace open-ended Medicaid funding with limited block grants or per-capita allotments to states, nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) said that Medicaid “should continue largely as it is today, with the federal government guaranteeing coverage for low-income people, setting standards for who states cover and what benefits people get, and matching state Medicaid spending as the number of people on the program goes up or down.” As for premium tax credits based on need, there have been complaints both from those who make too much to receive them and from those who receive them but feel they are insufficient. Still, few people favor abolishing them. A Kaiser poll in November 2016 found that 80 percent favored providing financial help to low- and moderate-income Americans who don’t get insurance through their jobs to help them purchase coverage— including 67 percent of Republicans. But an even more telling finding emerged in January from a Pew Research Center survey. Asked if it’s the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that all Americans have health-care coverage, 60 percent of Americans said yes—the highest percentage in nearly a decade. While far more Democrats than Republicans agreed with that statement, there were significant changes by income: A majority of Republicans (52 percent) with annual incomes under $30,000 agreed with the proposition (up from 31 percent in 2016), as did over a third of Republicans making $30,000 to $74,999 (up from 14 percent in 2016). Those making the most (over $75,000) agreed the least: 18 percent, up from 16 percent the year before. Though two-thirds (67 percent) of Republicans said that the government doesn’t have a responsibility to ensure health-care coverage, more than half (56 percent) said it should continue both Medicare and Medicaid. This picture speaks to a powerful coalition in the making. By guaranteeing coverage to a much larger share of the American public through Medicaid, and by convincing Americans of the justice implicit in the government’s providing financial assistance to those who can’t afford health insurance on their own, the ACA began to move us closer to a commitment to universal health care. While that term has become needlessly politicized, what it refers to—quoting the World Health Organization—is simply a system in which “all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship.” Ours is still a patchwork system, but it’s a system that Americans are increasingly committed to protecting. In late February, as congressional Republicans were readying their “repeal and replace” bill, the ACA reached its highest approval level ever: 54 percent, according to the latest Pew Research Center poll. [...] An interview worth reading:  How to Turn an Outpouring of Progressive Activism Into a Winning Social Movement, by Astra Taylor. A Calendar of Resistance Events QUOTATION OF THE DAY "We suggest that the CDC allow clinicians to list medical error as the cause of death, and, in the interim, the CDC should list medical error as the third most common cause of death in the U.S. after heart disease [...] and cancer [...] The U.S. government and private sector spend a lot of money on heart disease research and prevention. They also spend a lot of money on cancer research and prevention. It is time for the country to invest in medical quality and safety proportional to the mortality burden it bears."                   ~Dr. Martin A. Markary, May 1, 2016. The professor of surgery and health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University wrote the above remark in a letter to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control after the publication of his peer-reviewed study showing medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, instead of respiratory disease. TWEET OF THE DAY BLAST FROM THE PAST At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—A brief, and brutal, history of the Chamber of Commerce: Bill McKibben, Kossack, author, and co-founder of 350.org, a global campaign to fight climate change, writes the definitive short history of the Chamber of Commerce. From the outside, you'd think the U.S. Chamber of Commerce must know what it's doing. It's got a huge building right next to the White House. It spends more money on political campaigning than the Republican and Democratic National Committees combined. It spends more money on lobbying that the next five biggest lobbyists combined. And yet it has an unbroken record of error stretching back almost to its founding. It starts with the New Deal. The Chamber “accused Roosevelt of attempting to 'Sovietize' America; the chamber adopted a resolution 'opposing the president's entire legislative package.'" Opposition to FDR continued, shockingly, through the Lend-Lease program, designed to supply the allies with critical material to fight the Germans, and which brought a tremendous boon to American manufacturing. But more, the Chamber opposed American involvement in the war, the war which "triggered the greatest boom in America's economic history." HIGH IMPACT STORIES • TOP COMMENTS On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, the GOP really, totally threatens a health care bomb vote today. Armando and David Waldman discuss the Byrd rule and how to break it. GSA inexplicably buys Trump’s hotel argument. Did Sessions hide a third meeting with Kislyak? “Dim” Mnuchin is a weirdo. x Embedded Content YouTube | iTunes | LibSyn | Support the show via Patreon or Square Cash 24 Mar
Cartoon: Poor Trump voter - Trump doesn’t even care that he is screwing his largely poor, white supporters in his budget proposal. By cutting environmental protections, job protections and Federal Block Grants (which fund popular programs like Meals On Wheels), Trump does what he does best: Inflict pain on the powerless. #MAGA, y’all!  24 Mar
GSA rules Trump isn't violating his hotel lease because he promises to not spend the profits yet - In a move that can only be described as, well, odd, the General Services Administration officer who oversaw the original contract giving Donald Trump control of the government property that would soon be refurbished into a new Washington, D.C. hotel, has ruled that Donald Trump is not breaking the rules in the lease that prohibits any elected official from profiting off that lease. The reasoning goes like this; yes, Donald Trump is now an elected official. And yes, the lease says that elected officials can't profit from the arrangement. But it's all right because, and see if you can follow the logic here because it's a bit murky to us, he won't be able to directly pocket those untoward profits until he's back out of office. Today, Kevin Terry, a GSA contracting officer who oversaw the original contract negotiations with Trump, released a letter declaring that there was no reason for concern. In the letter, which is reprinted in its entirety below, Terry takes the position that there is no violation of the clause because the Trump Organization has been rearranged to steer any profits from the hotel away from Trump's bank accounts while he's in office. Trump owns more than 76 percent of the project; his children own the remainder. According to Terry's letter, the Trump Organization has presented documents to the GSA showing that although any profits (or losses) are accrued among the partners based on their ownership, any profits that would have gone to Trump himself will be kept separate and unavailable for Trump's personal use until he is out of office. Under the terms of the original agreement, Trump could have withdrawn money with ease, but the new corporate structure (established before Trump's inauguration) would prevent this, Terry wrote. Got that? All sides agree that Trump is an elected official, and will indeed be profiting off any decisions he makes or the company makes based on his status as an elected official, but it's fine because even though he might indeed be profiting off his status as president and as property owner he can't actually get his hands on those profits until he leaves office—upon which no harm, no foul. 24 Mar
Judge to Florida: Catch up with the constitution and add same-sex spouses to death certificates - A U.S. District judge that Slate calls “the unsung hero of marriage equality in Florida” has ordered the state to catch up with the Constitution and re-issue death certificates for Floridians who were “designated unmarried at time of death because their spouses were of the same sex,” even if they had been legally married in another state: James Merrick Smith and Hal F.B. Birchfield lived together in Florida for 42 years. They married in New York in 2012, and Smith died in Florida in 2013. At the time, Florida refused to recognize same-sex unions—so Smith’s death certificate listed him as unmarried with no surviving spouse. After the Supreme Court ruled inObergefell v. Hodges in 2015 that the Constitution protects same-sex couples’ right to marry, Birchfield asked the state to correct Smith’s death certificate. But Florida refused, declaring that it would not correct any death certificate that falsely listed an individual as unmarried with no surviving spouse unless compelled to do so by an individual court order. Birchfield and another gay widower, Paul Mocko, sued on behalf of themselves—and all other Floridians whose deceased same-sex spouses’ death certificates listed them as unmarried. And on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in their favor and ordered the state to correct these death certificates. “The state of Florida discriminated against us and disrespected our relationship in life and even in James’ death, but this decision will ensure that I and all the other surviving same-sex spouses will finally have accurate death certificates that honor our relationships,” Birchfield said in a statement The judge has a long history of going to bat for the rights of LGBT Americans in Florida, according to Slate: “Hinkle, you may recall, first blocked Florida’s same-sex marriage ban in 2014, then ordered recalcitrant state officials to comply with the law in a series of follow-up rulings involving uncooperative clerks and birth certificates.” Imagine that, LGBT Americans having the same constitutional rights as any other American. What a novel idea, especially these days. 24 Mar
Arctic, Antarctic clock record lows in sea ice extent. We're in 'uncharted territory' scientist says - While most of our attention has of late been focused with good reason on the Trump regime’s efforts to dismantle the Great Society, New Deal, the Affordable Care Act, safety, health and environmental regulations, along with making the U.S. diplomacy a scary joke worldwide, climate change has not stopped for a breather. Indeed, the news on that front is, for the most part, deeply unsettling, with just occasional bright spots.  Bright is not latest word from the National Snow and Ice Data Center—one of those federally funded operations the regime would like to ax. Every year, ice floating in the Arctic Ocean grows and shrinks with the season. The center has calculated that this year ice in the Arctic Ocean reached its maximum extent on March 7 and has now begun its decline, headed toward its minimum extent around Sept 10-15. That maximum registered at its lowest level in the 38-year satellite record. Contributing to this, according to NSIDC scientists, was a very warm autumn and winter with air temperatures 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average over the Arctic Ocean. In addition to this general warmth, there were several extreme winter heat-waves over the ocean for the second winter in a row. The maximum has been declining by 2.8 percent a decade since 1979, and the minimum has been declining 13.8 percent a decade. While dwindling in extent, the ice has also been thinning.  From the National Aeronautics and Space Administration: “We started from a low September minimum extent,” said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “There was a lot of open ocean water and we saw periods of very slow ice growth in late October and into November, because the water had a lot of accumulated heat that had to be dissipated before ice could grow. The ice formation got a late start and everything lagged behind—it was hard for the sea ice cover to catch up.” Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Antarctica saw a record low sea ice minimum during the Austral Summer, down 71,000 square miles below the previous lowest minimum set in 1997.  24 Mar
California cities to wall off companies bidding on Trump's border monstrosity - California is continuing its wall of resistance to Donald Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant policies, with three major cities either introducing or passing measures boycotting companies bidding on his border monstrosity (that Mexico isn’t paying for): Oakland became the second city in the nation to spurn businesses interested in working on the wall after Berkeley passed a similar measure last week. In San Francisco, Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced legislation Tuesday that would ban companies that bid on the wall from contracting with the city. Oakland’s resolution directs the City Attorney to refrain from entering any new contracts with or purchasing any professional services from companies providing goods or services to construct the border wall, as long as there’s no significant additional cost or conflict with existing law. The resolution also calls on the state’s retirement system, CalPERS, to divest from companies involved in constructing the wall. “Rather than build walls, we need to be building housing,” said Oakland Councilman Abel Guillén, “pointing out that Oakland is a city of immigrants and refugees, with 27 percent of its residents being foreign-born, including many from Mexico. “ Last Friday, observers in Old City Hall chamber cheered when Berkeley became first in the nation to pass a measure divesting from companies colluding with the Trump regime. Mayor Jesse Arreguín: “We as a community do not stand for building walls, but breaking down walls. We’re not going to stand for what I think are racist and xenophobic policies that marginalize our immigrant population.” 24 Mar
Donald Trump claims to create jobs, but President Obama actually did the job - Every time Donald Trump needs a distraction, he claims to have created jobs that were already on the way. With the healthcare bill on the ropes Friday morning, Sean Spicer was sent out to announce that the regime has achieved a new record in job-creating time travel. Today @POTUS announced 20K new US jobs from Charter Communications. When were the Charter jobs actually announced? Charter made this hiring goal public in the spring of 2015. Donald Trump is now announcing jobs from before he even entered the presidential race. With Trumpcare currently being packed off to intensive care, it’s only a matter of time before we see Donald Trump claiming the jobs saved by the auto company bailout and those created by the stimulus plan. After all, by this time in his presidency, Barack Obama had successfully negotiated, lobbied for, and pushed through the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a huge piece of legislation responsible for saving over 2 million jobs and pulling the economy out of recession. It was a contentious bill, requiring considerable attention and genuine deal-making. Perhaps that’s why in the period leading up to its passage, President Obama took zero days of vacation and played zero rounds of golf. That’s what competent leadership can do.  24 Mar
Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Resistance FRIDAY! - From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE [Poink!] The First Late Night Snark of Spring Sproings… "What a week for our poor president. He's been bombing harder than Mike Huckabee at an open-mic night, and his Republican friends can't get out the door fast enough, fuck the two-drink minimum." ---Samantha Bee "FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the agency is examining possible ties between Russia and President Trump’s campaign. … However, Comey refused to say whether Trump himself was being investigated. It’s part of his policy not to comment on ongoing investigations that don’t involve Hillary Clinton." ---Jimmy Fallon “Ivanka Trump is reportedly getting an office in the White House in addition to security clearance and government-issued communication devices. Even more unbelievable, so is Donald Trump.” ---Seth Meyers xWeird moment during German Chancellor Merkel’s WH visit when Steve Bannon sat at her feet and begged for stories about “the good old days.”— Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) March 18, 2017 "[Attorney General] Sessions spoke out against the trend of legalized marijuana, saying: 'I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana, so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that's only slightly less awful.' Sure. Marijuana is only slightly less awful than heroin, like how burning your tongue on hot cocoa is only slightly less awful than being set on fire." ---Stephen Colbert “Today the House Republicans were furiously working to get enough votes to pass the health care bill to replace Obamacare. ... Right now, it’s not looking good. The bill is basically on life support. And like most things on life support, Republicans will probably deny it coverage.” ---James Corden Ding dong, Trumpcare is dead. Long live Obamacare. Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!] 24 Mar

Democracy Now!

Florida's First Black State Attorney Faces Death Threats After Refusing Death Penalty for Cop Killer - A battle over the death penalty is brewing in Florida, where Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala has announced her office will no longer seek the death penalty in any murder cases, including in the case of Markeith Loyd, who is accused of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, and Orlando police officer Debra Clayton. Ayala’s announcement sparked immediate backlash from the police union and Florida Governor Rick Scott, who called on her to recuse herself from the Loyd case. When she refused, Scott signed an executive order removing her from the case and reassigning it. Now Ayala, the first African-American state attorney in Florida history, has been receiving death threats, including from local government employees. We are joined by Angel Harris, assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.24 Mar
Watch: Sen. Al Franken Grills Neil Gorsuch on Frozen Trucker Case in Extended Questioning - We feature an extended excerpt of Senator Al Franken (D-MN) grilling Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing about the so-called frozen trucker case of Alphonse Maddin. Gorsuch ruled it was right for Maddin to be fired after he disobeyed a supervisor and abandoned the trailer that he was driving, because he was on the verge of freezing to death. "It is absurd to say this company is in its rights to fire him because he made the choice of possibly dying from freezing to death or causing other people to die possibly by driving in an unsafe vehicle," says Sen. Franken. "It makes me question your judgment."24 Mar
Attorney for "Frozen Trucker": Neil Gorsuch May Have Been Most Hostile Judge I've Ever Encountered - As confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch wrap up and Senate Democrats vow to filibuster his nomination, we look at Gorsuch’s ruling in a case known as the "frozen trucker." Truck driver Alphonse Maddin was fired after he disobeyed a supervisor and abandoned the trailer that he was driving, because he was on the verge of freezing to death. We speak with Robert Fetter, the attorney who represented Maddin in his wrongful termination lawsuit.24 Mar
Will House Republicans "Jump Off the Cliff" and Cut Healthcare for 24 Million Americans? - As President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan face a showdown with Republicans, both moderate and conservative, on whether to repeal Obamacare, the party has been scrambling to rewrite the legislation in order to appease members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus and win its passage. The latest version of the bill strips away provisions that would require health insurers to provide basic services including maternity care, newborn care, emergency services, mental health and addiction treatment. The Democratic Caucus has been united in opposition to the bill, which is projected to leave 24 million fewer people insured by 2026 than under Obamacare. The bill also includes over $275 billion in tax breaks for wealthy Americans. We are joined by John McDonough, professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the former executive director of Health Care for All in Massachusetts, which played a key role in the passage of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform bill, which was known as Romneycare. He later became a top aide to the late Senator Ted Kennedy and worked on the development and passage of the Affordable Care Act.24 Mar
Headlines for March 24, 2017 - GOP Delays Healthcare Vote as President Trump Issues UltimatumPolice Arrest 24 at Healthcare Protest Outside White HouseHouse Intel Committee Democrat: More Evidence of Trump-Russia TiesHouse Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes Under Fire for Wiretap ClaimsSenate Minority Leader Plans Filibuster of SCOTUS Nominee Neil GorsuchState Department Tightens Visa Rules for Some TravelersDeath Threats Target Federal Judge Who Ruled Against Trump Travel BanHundreds of Migrants Feared Dead After Boats Capsize in MediterraneanBritain: Police Identify Assailant in Attack Near ParliamentVideo Shows Israeli Police Officer Assaulting Palestinian DriverIsrael Accused of "Dirty Tricks" in Arrest of Palestinian ActivistIsrael Arrests Jewish Teen for Bomb Threats Against Jewish CentersOusted Dictator Hosni Mubarak Released from Egyptian PrisonGOP Congressmember Duncan Hunter Faces DOJ Corruption ProbeLa Jornada Reporter Miroslava Breach Gunned Down in MexicoChicago Officer Draws Additional Charges in Laquan McDonald KillingTrump Issues Keystone XL Pipeline Permit to TransCanadaScientists Report New Record Low for Sea Ice in WinterRIP: Bob Lee aka Robert Alwalee, Black Panther Activist & Community Organizer24 Mar
Dark Data: Trump Backers Bankroll Firm Developing Psychological Profiles of Every U.S. Voter - One of the more mysterious parts of the Mercer family’s political orbit is Cambridge Analytica. The data firm claims it has psychological profiles of over 200 million American voters. The firm was hired by the Trump campaign to help it target its message to potential voters. The Mercers have bankrolled the company and placed Steve Bannon on its board. We speak to The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer.23 Mar
Dark Money Billionaires Push for Pro-Nuclear Radiation Climate Denier for White House Science Post - Years before backing Donald Trump, the Mercers helped support the congressional campaign of Arthur Robinson, who attempted to oust Rep. Peter DeFazio. Robinson made for an unusual candidate. He is a climate change denier who speaks about the positive effects of nuclear radiation. Robinson runs the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which stores some 14,000 samples of human urine. Robinson has said he is trying to find new ways of extending the human lifespan. The Mercers funded Robinson’s campaign and institute. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reports the Mercers also pushed to have Trump name Robinson as his science adviser. Jane Mayer writes about Robinson in her new piece, "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer exploited America’s populist insurgency."23 Mar
Jane Mayer on Robert Mercer & the Dark Money Behind Trump and Bannon's Radical Vision - We look at Robert Mercer, the man who is said to have out-Koched the Koch brothers in the 2016 election. The secretive billionaire hedge-fund tycoon, along with his daughter Rebekah, is credited by many with playing an instrumental role in Donald Trump’s election. "The Mercers laid the groundwork for the Trump revolution," Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon said. "Irrefutably, when you look at donors during the past four years, they have had the single biggest impact of anybody, including the Kochs." Before Bannon and Kellyanne Conway joined the Trump campaign, both worked closely with the Mercers. The Mercers bankrolled Bannon’s Breitbart News, as well as some of Bannon’s film projects. Conway ran a super PAC created by the Mercers to initially back the candidacy of Ted Cruz. While the Mercers have helped reshape the American political landscape, their work has all been done from the shadows. To talk more about the Mercers, we speak with Jane Mayer, staff writer at The New Yorker. Her latest piece is headlined "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency: How Robert Mercer exploited America’s populist insurgency." She is also author of "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right," which just came out in paperback.23 Mar
Headlines for March 23, 2017 - Amid Protests, House Set for Historic Vote on Healthcare BillSupporters of the Affordable Care Act Rally on Capitol HillHigh Court Rules 8-0 Against SCOTUS Nominee Gorsuch's 2008 RulingLondon Attacker Kills 3, Injures Dozens Near British ParliamentHouse Intel Chair Claims Surveillance Swept Up Trump CommunicationsLabor Secretary Nominee Alexander Acosta Refuses to Commit to Obama-Era Labor ProtectionsDoctors Without Borders: Tens of Thousands Fleeing Mosul Need CareAfghanistan: Taliban Fighters Overrun Sangin DistrictNYPD: Baltimore White Supremacist Targeted Black Men for DeathTens of Thousands of Argentine Teachers March Amid Nationwide StrikePuerto Ricans Stage Protests in 7 U.S. Cities Against Austerity CutsNYC Bakery Faces Protests After Company Threatens to Fire Dozens of Immigrant Workers23 Mar
Meet 2 U.S. Citizens Detained at Airports: A Police Chief and a Lawyer Who Sued Trump Administration - A growing number of U.S. citizens are sharing accounts of having been detained at airports across the country since the start of the Trump administration. Boston-based civil rights attorney Iván Espinoza-Madrigal says he was returning home on March 12 from a vacation in Portugal when he was detained at Boston’s Logan Airport. A day later, the former police chief of Greenville, North Carolina, Hassan Aden, says he was detained for over an hour by Customs and Border Protection agents when he was flying into New York City’s JFK International Airport after returning from visiting his mother in Paris. The two join other U.S. citizens, including a U.S. Olympic medalist, a NASA scientist and the son of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who have all been detained at airports across the country since the start of the Trump administration. For more, we’re speak with Iván Espinoza-Madrigal and Hassan Aden.22 Mar

John Perkins

You As Creator - Join me this spring for my 4-session live webinar series for writers. More information at the bottom of this email. The power of our perceptions to alter reality is a theme that runs through lectures I’ve given at Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and more than 50 other universities and to over 3,000 executives at various conferences and summits, ranging from investment bankers and CEOs of communications conglomerates to heads of human resource departments. Religion, culture, legal and economic systems, countries, and corporations are determined by perceived reality. When enough people accept these perceptions or when they are codified into laws, they have immense impact on objective reality. Breakthroughs in modern science indicate that changes in human perceptions not only govern human behavior; they govern – everything. This past month (February) I was teaching at Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas. My time there overlapped with two highly respected scientists who had just published a book about the powers of perception. Dr. Deepak Chopra is a cardiologist by training who has gained world-wide fame as a deep thinker, philosopher, and advocate of new ways to look at medicine and the world. Dr. Menas Kafatas is a physicist who specializes in cosmology (the science of the origin and development of the universe), quantum mechanics, and climate change. As we sat at meals together, we had many fascinating discussions about the impact of human consciousness on economics, politics, life in general – and the entire universe. In my lectures at the ashram, I discussed the relationship between perceived and objective realities and the idea that consciousness involves an awareness of the ways these impact each other, all of us, and our entire planet. Deepak and Menas gave lectures that were based on their newly released book You Are the Universe. They explored the idea that the very universe itself is a function of human perceptions. In the Preface to their book, they state: The most distant star, billions of light-years away, has no reality without you, because everything that makes a star real – its heat, light, and mass, its position in space and the velocity that carries it away at enormous speed – requires a human observer with a human nervous system. If no one existed to experience heat, light, mass, and so on, nothing could be real as we know it . . . [T]his is a participatory universe that depends for its very existence on human beings. There is a growing body of cosmologists – the scientists who explain the origin of the cosmos – developing theories of a completely new universe, one that is living, conscious, and evolving. Such a universe fits no existing standard model. A conscious universe responds to how we think and feel. It gains its shape, color, sound, and texture from us. Therefore, we feel the best name for it is the human universe, and it is the real universe, the only one we have. As pointed out in their book, scientists have discovered that when photons, electrons, and other sub-atomic particles are not observed by humans they act like waves that are constantly moving. However, once they are observed, they act like particles in a pinpointed location. This phenomenon, known as the “observer effect,” which seems to defy common sense suggests that the tiniest particles respond to human observation. In other words, those particles have consciousness about what is happening around them. You Are the Universe takes this idea to another level. It says that the entire universe responds to – in fact is created through – consciousness. Whether or not human consciousness creates the universe, there is no doubt that it has created the current crises that threaten life as we know it on this planet. Or that we humans are waking up to the realization that, in order to survive, we must rise to a higher level of consciousness. As I’ve written many times in previous newsletters, we are at the frontier of a revolution that may turn out to be the most important one in our species’ history – a Consciousness Revolution that will redefine relationships between perceived and objective reality and the impact we humans have on both. By way of example: As most of you know by now, one of the nonprofits I founded, Dream Change organizes “Love Summits”. These are – perhaps to your surprise – conferences aimed at instilling in business leaders the need to change their perception of what it means to be successful. The goal of the Love Summit is to bring to light why love is good business—how acting from a place of compassion not only benefits society and the environment, but also our businesses and other institutions. Love can be the motivation behind business planning and work relationships, instead of fear and scarcity, the current underpinnings of a suffering economy and environment. The Love Summit demonstrates how we can: Build purposeful, heart-centered business models that contribute to the greatest interest of people and the planet. Use individual and collective action to transform our economic system into one that is based on a life economy instead of a death economy. Inspire a global culture of love in business and throughout the world. The Love Summit is just one example of actions we can take to change reality by altering perceptions. Whether or not you help create the universe, there is no doubt that you create your universe, your life and you play a big role in creating the world we will pass on to future generations. Upcoming Event: May 30 – June 20, 2017 How to Write a Bestseller in Times of Crises: Using the Power of Story to Accelerate Change If you are a writer, you have an incredible opportunity to spread important messages, share thought-provoking ideas, and inspire revolutionary change through the power of story. Join me this spring in my exclusive 4-session webinar for writers, where I will help you improve your skills, get published and reach large audiences. Limited to just 24 participants, this webinar will be both intimate and participatory. Secure your spot today. 2 Mar
This Spring: A Special Webinar for Writers - How to Write a Bestseller in Times of Crises: Using the Power of Story to Accelerate Change By John Perkins We’ve entered the greatest revolution in history: The Consciousness Revolution. People around the world are waking up to the fact that we are facing huge crises. We must change. What is your role in this revolution? If you are a writer, you have an incredible opportunity to spread important messages, share thought-provoking ideas, and inspire revolutionary change through the power of story. Fiction and non-fiction. In addition to doing my own writing, I decided to create a small community of writers who intend to use their medium to accelerate change. We will come together in this Spring’s webinar: How to Write a Bestseller in Times of Crises: Using the Power of Story to Accelerate Change. Limited to just 2 dozen participants, this course is uniquely designed to help you hone your skills through writing exercises and discussions in an intimate salon. As a New York Times bestselling author, I will share my experiences of decades of writing bestsellers to help you improve your skills, get published, and reach large audiences. The webinar will take place every Tuesday evening over the course of one month, making it easy for you to journey into this portal of writing your bestseller. You will learn how to: Hone your skills to inspire, entertain, and motivate audiences; Open your heart and soul to the muses of writing; Utilize effective techniques to captivate audiences – as well as agents and publishers; Learn the pros and cons of marketing tools, including the use of publicists and social networking; Work with an intimate salon of talented writers; and Much more. You will have the option of breaking into smaller groups to discuss and critique each other’s work and spend an additional hour-long session with me. At the end of the course, you will also have the opportunity to arrange to join me in private mentoring sessions. Session Dates & Times: Session 1: Tuesday May 30 – 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM EST Session 2: Tuesday June 6 – 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM EST Session 3: Tuesday June 13 – 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM EST Session 4: Tuesday June 20 – 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM EST This webinar is for people who want to be part of a powerful salon of writers and who intend to channel their passions and skills into articles, books, and blogs that will inspire transformation. If you are such a person, please sign up now. Space is limited. Cost:  $780 for all 4 sessions. To see the course syllabus and purchase your tickets, click here. 9 Feb
How to Be a Democracy Under Trump - I watched President Trump’s inauguration from an airport TV in Guatemala. I’d just finished leading 22 people on a pilgrimage to live, study and participate in ceremonies with Mayan shamans at sacred sites. For me, it was the first leg of a two-month working-journey. I am still in Latin America, teaching and speaking at a variety of venues. In the days since that inauguration, I, like so many, have felt the horror of the emerging Trump policies. Latin Americans cannot understand why so few of us voted in the last election and why so many who did, voted for Trump. A larger percentage of people vote in most Latin American countries than in the US; in several countries, voter turnout exceeds 90%. Many of these countries have a history of brutal dictatorships. Once free of these dictatorships, they revel in their rights to hold democratic elections; they see their ability to vote for their leaders as both a responsibility and a privilege. They wonder why such a relatively small percentage of voters would elect a potential dictator. And moreover, why those non-voters did not vote against him. The participants on the Guatemala trip ranged from successful business executives to community organizers and healers – with lots of other professions in between. They came from Canada, Ecuador, England, France, Indonesia, Italy, the United States, and Guatemala. Many – especially those from the US – arrived in Guatemala feeling disenfranchised, disempowered, depressed, and – yes, horrified – by the election. However, as we moved through the shamanic ceremonies, they grew increasingly convinced that the election is a wakeup call for Americans. We have been lethargic and allowed our country to continue with policies that hurt so many people and destroy environments around the world (including Washington’s involvement in the genocidal Guatemalan Civil War against the Mayas that raged for more than three decades). This election exposed a shadow side. It stepped us out of the closet. Many people expressed the realization that Americans had failed to demand that President Obama fight harder to end the wars in the Middle East, vacate Guantánamo, reign in Wall Street, confront a global economic system where eight men have as much wealth as half the world’s population, and honor so many of the other promises he had made. They recognized that he was up against strong Republican opposition and yet it was he who continued to send more troops and mercenaries to the Middle East and Africa, brought Wall Street insiders into his inner circle, and failed to inspire his party to rally voters to defeat Trump and what is now a Republican majority in both houses. We talked about how throughout the world, the US is seen as history’s first truly global empire. Scholars point out that it meets the basic definition of empire: a nation 1) whose currency reigns supreme, 2) whose language is the language of diplomacy and commerce everywhere, 3) whose economic expansions and values are enforced through military actions or threats of action, and 4) whose armies are stationed in many nations. The message became clear: we must end this radical form of global feudalism and imperialism. Those who had arrived in Guatemala disillusioned and depressed now found themselves committed to transforming their sense of disempowerment into actions. At the end of WWII, Prime Minister Churchill told his people that England could choose the course of empire or democracy, but not both.  We in the US are at such a crossroads today. For far too long we have allowed our leaders to take us down the path of empire. President Franklin Roosevelt ended a meeting with union leaders by telling them that now they knew he agreed with them, it was their job to get their members to force him to do the right thing. FDR understood that democracy depends on We the People insisting that our leaders do what they promise to do. We failed with our last president. Let’s not repeat that mistake with the new one. It is extremely important that We the People force Trump and his band of corporatocracy henchmen to keep the promises we heard in his inaugural address.  Let us hear “making America great” as “making America a true democracy!”  Let us hear “we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People” and “we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow” as an echo of Prime Minister Churchill’s contention that a country cannot be both a democracy and an empire. It is up to us to insist upon democracy. It is essential that we continue to demonstrate and march, to bombard Trump and our other elected officials with tweets, posts, phone calls, and emails; to rally, clamor, and shout; and in every way to get out the word that we must end the wars, feudalism, economic and social inequality, and environmental destruction; we must become the model democracy the world expects of us. When General George Washington was hunkered down with extremely depressed troops at Valley Forge in the bleak winter of 1777, he ordered that an essay by Thomas Paine be read to all his men. Some of the most famous lines are as applicable today as they were then: These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he who stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.  .  . A generous parent should say, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace” . . .I love the man who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.  By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious future. We have arrived at such a time again. We must each do our part. Let’s here and now commit to taking positive actions. I commit to writing and speaking out at a wide variety of venues. I commit to supporting the Love Summit business conference, a powerful event that is committed to bringing love and compassion into business and politics, to transforming a Death Economy into a Life (Love) Economy. What are your commitments? We have arrived at a time that tries our souls. We must gather strength from distress, grow brave by reflection, and know that by perseverance and fortitude we can achieve a glorious future. Let’s make sure that the combined legacies of Presidents Obama and Trump will create the opportunity – indeed the mandate – to show the world how a country can be a true democracy. These are the times. . . Featured Event: Writing a Bestseller: How to Tell & Sell Your Story with John Perkins 4 Sessions | May 30-June 20, 2017 | Limited to 24 Participants | Register Here31 Jan
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

Channel NewsAsia Singapore News

Amos Yee asylum: 'Prerogative of the US' to take in people who engage in hate speech, says MHA - Singapore takes a 'very different approach' to the United States, which allows the burning of the Quran in the name of freedom of speech, says MHA. 41 min
Hike in water price 'absolutely necessary': PM Lee - Noting that the announcement of the water price hike provoked a strong reaction from Singaporeans, PM Lee acknowledged that the Government should have taken the time to explain the matter first.05:31
Hike in water price "absolutely necessary": PM Lee - Noting that the announcement of the water price hike provoked a strong reaction from Singaporeans, PM Lee acknowledged that the Government should have taken the time to explain the matter first.05:20
French President Francois Hollande to make state visit to Singapore - This is the first state visit to Singapore from France, and reciprocates President Tony Tan Keng Yam’s state visit to France in 2015, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says. 04:30
SEA Games: 6 meet cut to represent Singapore in open water swimming - Only two men and two women will represent Singapore in this event at this year's SEA Games competition. 03:07
SEA Games: 5 meet cut to represent Singapore in open water swimming - Only two men and two women will represent Singapore in this event at this year's SEA Games competition. 02:06
SEA Games: 6 meet cut to represent Singapore in open water swimming - Only two men and two women will represent Singapore in this event at this year's SEA Games competition. 00:04
Revamped Pang Sua Pond in Bukit Panjang reopens - Pang Sua Pond now feature Singapore's second-largest man-made floating wetland, according to PUB, the national water agency. 24 Mar
SEA Games: 6 meet cut to represent Singapore in open water swimming - Only two men and two women will represent Singapore in this event at this year's SEA Games competition. 24 Mar
People with disabilities need to be active agents of inclusion: Para-athlete Wong Meng Ee - The 2015 ASEAN Para Games swimmer talks to 938LIVE about fitting in during his growing-up years, efforts to make Singapore a more inclusive nation and the debate about equal rewards among able-bodied athletes and those with disabilities. 24 Mar

Channel NewsAsia Front Page News

Escalator malfunctions at Hong Kong mall; at least 18 injured - The accident at Langham Place in Mong Kok injured at least 14 women and four men.16 min
Central Congo militia decapitates 40 police officers in ambush - Militia fighters in central Democratic Republic of Congo decapitated about 40 police officers in an ambush, local officials said on Saturday, the deadliest attack on security forces since an insurrection in the region began last August.21 min
Wild elephants rescued from muddy bomb crater in Cambodia - Eleven wild elephants, including a baby, were rescued from a mud-filled bomb crater in Cambodia on Saturday after languishing in the swampy waters for four days, an environmental official said.38 min
Amos Yee asylum: 'Prerogative of the US' to take in people who engage in hate speech, says MHA - Singapore takes a 'very different approach' to the United States, which allows the burning of the Quran in the name of freedom of speech, says MHA. 41 min
Ivan Abadzhiev, the "Pope of Weightlifting," dies at 85 - Former Bulgarian weightlifting coach Ivan Abadzhiev, one of the sport's most successful and prominent figures, has died aged 85, officials said on Saturday.06:35
Barcelona to name one of its stadiums after Johan Cruyff - La Liga champions Barcelona will pay tribute to visionary midfielder and coach Johan Cruyff by naming one of their new stadiums after the late Dutchman and his statue will also be erected at the Nou Camp.06:30
Syrian rebels resume evacuation of Homs - governor - Syrian rebels in Homs resumed their evacuation as part of a deal to surrender the city's last insurgent pocket of al-Waer to the government, a senior official and a war monitor said on Saturday.06:20
WTA boss keen to let coaches instruct players from stands - The governing body for women's tennis (WTA) is considering changing the rules to allow coaches to instruct players from the stands, its chief executive Steve Simon said.06:15
Amos Yee asylum: 'Prerogative of the US' to take in people who engage in hate speech, says MHA - Singapore takes a 'very different approach' to the United States, which allows the burning of the Quran in the name of freedom of speech, says MHA. 06:05
England backs proposal to shorten Six Nations to six weeks - England's Rugby Football Union will back a proposal to reduce the length of the Six Nations to six weeks from the current seven to improve the tournament, the governing body's chief executive Ian Ritchie has said.06:00
China captures more than 2,500 fugitives who fled overseas: Report - China has captured 2,566 fugitives who had fled to more than 90 countries and regions and recovered 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) of illicit funds from 2014 to 2016, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.05:53
Iraqi forces pause Mosul push over concern for civilian casualties - Iraqi government forces paused in their push to recapture western Mosul from Islamic State militants on Saturday because of the high rate of civilian casualties, a security forces spokesman said.05:50
Egyptian court suspends jail sentence against journalists - An Egyptian appeals court suspended a jail sentence on Saturday against the former head of the journalists' union for harbouring colleagues wanted by authorities and for spreading false news, judicial sources and a lawyer said.05:35

Channel NewsAsia World News

Wild elephants rescued from muddy bomb crater in Cambodia - Eleven wild elephants, including a baby, were rescued from a mud-filled bomb crater in Cambodia on Saturday after languishing in the swampy waters for four days, an environmental official said.38 min
Syrian rebels resume evacuation of Homs - governor - Syrian rebels in Homs resumed their evacuation as part of a deal to surrender the city's last insurgent pocket of al-Waer to the government, a senior official and a war monitor said on Saturday.06:20
EU leaders renew fraying Union's vows on 60th anniversary - Europeans must contain their squabbling and carping about the EU if the Union is to survive, leaders warned on Saturday as they marked the 60th anniversary of its founding in Rome by signing a formal declaration of unity.06:10
Iraqi forces pause Mosul push over concern for civilian casualties - Iraqi government forces paused in their push to recapture western Mosul from Islamic State militants on Saturday because of the high rate of civilian casualties, a security forces spokesman said.05:50
Egyptian court suspends jail sentence against journalists - An Egyptian appeals court suspended a jail sentence on Saturday against the former head of the journalists' union for harbouring colleagues wanted by authorities and for spreading false news, judicial sources and a lawyer said.05:35
EU leaders renew fraying Union's vows on 60th anniversary - Europeans must contain their squabbling and carping about the EU if the Union is to survive, leaders warned on Saturday as they marked the 60th anniversary of its founding in Rome by signing a formal declaration of unity.05:35
Iraqi forces pause Mosul push over concern for civilian casualties - Iraqi government forces paused in their push to recapture western Mosul from Islamic State militants on Saturday because of the high rate of civilian casualties, a security forces spokesman said.04:45
Two suspects under formal investigation over Paris airport attack - Two men were jailed and put under formal investigation overnight on suspicion of helping a man who attacked an army patrol at a Paris airport a week ago, a judicial source said on Saturday.04:42
Two suspects under formal investigation over Paris airport attack - Two men were jailed and put under formal investigation overnight on suspicion of helping a man who attacked an army patrol at a Paris airport a week ago, a judicial source said on Saturday.04:35
Major nations responsible for keeping world peace - China vice premier - The world's major nations are responsible for maintaining global peace, and all countries should remain committed to a road of stable and peaceful development, China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said on Saturday.04:30
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Channel NewsAsia Asia Pacific News

China captures more than 2,500 fugitives who fled overseas: Report - China has captured 2,566 fugitives who had fled to more than 90 countries and regions and recovered 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) of illicit funds from 2014 to 2016, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.05:53
China captures more than 2,500 fugitives who fled overseas - Xinhua - China has captured 2,566 fugitives who had fled to more than 90 countries and regions and recovered 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) of illicit funds from 2014 to 2016, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.04:15
ASIA’S FUTURE CITIES: Fight or flight - innovation to stave off Manila’s ‘carmageddon’ - As Manila’s roads become increasingly congested, more innovative solutions are being sought to loosen the gridlock. And while taking to the sky is an option for a few, more mass-market solutions are also being developed.04:00
Philippines' communist rebels vow to revive ceasefire no later than March 31 - The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said on Saturday that its armed units will declare a unilateral ceasefire no later than March 31, ahead of the resumption of peace talks with the government of President Rodrigo Duterte next month.02:50
SeaWorld to expand in China after investment deal - A Chinese real estate investment firm has announced it has become the largest shareholder in SeaWorld and intends to import the US company's controversial theme parks into China.02:41
Platform collapse at power plant in China kills nine - Xinhua - An operation platform collapsed at a power plant in China on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring two, the official Xinhua news agency reported.02:35
Platform collapse at power plant in China kills nine: Xinhua - An operation platform collapsed at a power plant in China on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring two, the official Xinhua news agency reported.02:23
Platform collapse at power plant in China kills nine - Xinhua - An operation platform collapsed at a power plant in China on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring two, the official Xinhua news agency reported.00:25
Philippine troops rescue ship captain kidnapped by militants - Philippine soldiers on Saturday rescued one of two Filipino cargo ship crewmen taken captive just two days ago by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants, a security official said.24 Mar

Media Monarchy

#PumpUpThaVolume: March 24, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays The Seshen, Bettie Serveert, The Veldt and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for March 24, 2017. ♬24 Mar
#MorningMonarchy: March 24, 2017 - Second Sight, distasteful videos and the Rothschilds Musical + this day in history w/Queen Elizabeth I and our song of the day by Gorillaz on your Morning Monarchy for March 24, 2017.24 Mar
“Pleasure & Privilege” of the Rothschilds Musical - This month's Album Analysis uncovers a strange, little gem that was right there in the open. From the makes of 'Fiddler On The Roof' came the story of everyone's favorite money masters, 'The Rothschilds: A Musical'24 Mar
#NewWorldNextWeek: Sears Closing, China Opening, Chimp’s Rights (Audio) - This week on the New World Next Week: Sears braces for an online shopping future; China slips into the UN World Order driver's seat; and chimps may see their day in court yet.23 Mar
#NewWorldNextWeek: Should Chimps Have Legal Rights? (Video) - This week on the New World Next Week: Sears braces for an online shopping future; China slips into the UN World Order driver's seat; and chimps may see their day in court yet.23 Mar
#PumpUpThaVolume: March 23, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays Jupiter Deluxe Tube, Geotic, Erki Pärnoja and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for March 23, 2017. ♬23 Mar
#MorningMonarchy: March 23, 2017 - Charlie work, Zora's zombies and still normalizing cannibalism + this day in history w/"Liberty Or Death" and our song of the day by CeCe Winans on your Morning Monarchy for March 23, 2017.23 Mar
#PumpUpThaVolume: March 22, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays Neville Staple, Someday, Oligarkh and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for March 22, 2017. ♬22 Mar
#MorningMonarchy: March 22, 2017 - Drinkable sunscreen, honest grocery stores and praising plastic surgery + this day in history w/the McMartin Preschool indictments and our song of the day by Dude York on your Morning Monarchy for March 22, 2017.22 Mar
#PumpUpThaVolume: March 21, 2017 - Media Monarchy plays Julian Winding, Electric Youth, Bernays Propaganda and more on #PumpUpThaVolume for March 21, 2017. ♬21 Mar

NATO Latest News

NATO-EU cooperation: informal meeting between the North Atlantic Council and the Political and Security Committee - On 24 March 2017, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) and the Political and Security Committee (PSC) met to discuss NATO-EU cooperation, in particular the implementation of the Joint declaration signed by the NATO Secretary General, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission in Warsaw in July 2016, materialising in the common set of proposals endorsed by the respective Councils of both organisations in December 2016.24 Mar
Secretary General in Washington D.C. for Counter-ISIL talks - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with US Secretary of Defense James Mattis at the Pentagon on Tuesday (21 March 2017) to discuss enhancing NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism and preparations for the upcoming Meeting of NATO leaders in Brussels. The Secretary General is in United States to attend a meeting of the Counter-ISIL Coalition on Wednesday.24 Mar
Deputy Secretary General: NATO’s success due to continuous adaptation - Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller on Wednesday (22 March) outlined how NATO has continuously adapted to deal with changing security environments. Ms. Gottemoeller was speaking at the NATO Transformation Seminar in Budapest, an event that brings together key figures from across the Alliance to discuss the strategic challenges that NATO will face in the near to long term.24 Mar
Secretary General thanks Hungary for its firm commitment to NATO - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had talks in Budapest on Thursday (23 March) with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán. The two leaders discussed the current security situation and the Secretary General thanked the Prime Minister for Hungary’s significant contributions to NATO’s collective defence.24 Mar
Visit to NATO by the Minister of Home Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden - The Deputy NATO Secretary General, Ms. Rose Gottemoeller, will meet the Minister of Home Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden, Mr. Anders Ygeman, at NATO Headquarters on Monday, 27 March 2017.24 Mar
NATO Deputy Secretary General to participate in the Brussels Forum Conference - The NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Rose Gottemoeller will participate in a panel at the Brussels Forum organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States on Saturday, 25 March 2017.24 Mar
NATO sets date for May Meeting of NATO Leaders - NATO Allies decided this week that the next Meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of Heads of State and/or Government will take place in Brussels on 25 May 2017. The event will include an inauguration of NATO’s new Headquarters.23 Mar
Deputy Secretary General: NATO is adapting to face serious and evolving challenges - Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller on Thursday (23 March) addressed reporters about NATO’s adaptation to meet new challenges. She shared a platform with Hungarian Minister of Defence István Simicskó and General Denis Mercier, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation.23 Mar
NATO Secretary General attends meeting of Global Coalition to Counter ISIL - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attended a meeting of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL at the US Department of State on Wednesday (22 March 2017). Discussions focused on the military campaign against ISIL and progress on the liberation and stabilisation of Raqqa and Mosul. On the anniversary of the Brussels attacks, nations reaffirmed their shared mission to defeat ISIL.22 Mar
NATO Secretary General visit to Hungary - The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg will visit Budapest on Thursday, 23 March 2017. During his visit, the Secretary General will meet with the Prime Minister, Mr. Viktor Orbán, and the Minister of Defence, Mr. István Simicskó.22 Mar

National Post

Greg Palast

Who gets XL Pipeline Bonanza? Koch - From Greg Palast’s film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits Stay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo. * * * * * 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. Suppor the Stolen Election Investigation 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 Who gets XL Pipeline Bonanza? Koch appeared first on Greg Palast.24 Mar
Watch The Best Democracy… Movie Right now! - Right now, this minute, you can watch The Best Democracy Money Can Buy on Amazon from $2.99, or if you prefer get a lifetime stream from Vimeo. Or better yet, get a signed copy for a tax-deductible donation. See the Film that Jesse Jackson is bringing to 200 churches before election day. “Hilarious and heartbreaking. The most important movie — and the most entertaining. Standing ovation!” - John Perkins, author, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man Follow me as I bust the New Klux Klan – the billionaire bandits that are behind a scheme to purge one million voters of color on election day. The Hysteria Factory is in full effect. Trump says a million "aliens" are swimming the Rio Grande to vote for Hillary. Fox News —even NPR— are peddling stories about dead voters, ghost voters, double voters and other berserk claims of fraudulent voting. But it’s just the cover to STEAL THIS ELECTION, to swipe the Senate. Watch the Hysteria Factory Clip from the Movie  With the help of Willie Nelson, Rosario Dawson, and detectives Ice-T and Richard Belzer, I track down the secret billionaires behind Donald Trump and the guys who are gaming our voter rolls and funding this voter fraud Hysteria Factory. * * * * * * 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. Check for Movie Screenings in your area. 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 Watch The Best Democracy… Movie Right now! appeared first on Greg Palast.20 Mar
March 15 Fundraiserto support Greg Palast’s new investigation of Trump’s Billionaires - Join Jackson Browne to honor Greg Palast and his team’s new investigations of Trump’s billionaires and the plan to fix the vote of 2018 With discussion of the attack on voting rights by Joy Reid of MSNBC and the need for investigative reporting    WHEN: Wednesday, March 15 at  6:00pm PTWHERE:  Santa Monica, CA Wine and Buffet Performance by Jackson BrowneRock & Roll Hall of Fame "Lives in the Balance" | "Running on Empty" We are facing a democratic emergency: Our purpose is to expose and prevent the theft of the election of 2018—and the billionaires who have turned The White House into a profit center.  $100 per person or $175 per couple Very limited space. Get your TICKETS now. All proceeds are tax-deductible and benefit the Palast Investigative Fund (checks and credit cards accepted) If you are unable to attend but wish to support our work, and have your support acknowledged by Greg and Jackson, you can donate here. Trump has claimed that millions of Americans vote illegally.  The Palast team's investigation for Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera, and BBC TV proved that this claim was the excuse for "anti-fraud" measures that, in fact, blocked 1.1 million citizens of color from casting their votes in the swing states of Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida in the last election. No, Trump did not win – and Palast has showed how, in cruel detail. Palast says, "While our work has been lauded and applauded for exposing mass vote suppression, our goal now is to expand our research and investigations while also coordinating with the Civil Rights Law Center of Washington to insure that this information is in the hands of voting rights litigators, progressive legislators, church and front-line organizations to prevent the theft of the 2018 election.'' Our film on the suppression of the vote in 2016 The Best Democracy Money Can Buy has been viewed by more than one million Americans and has become the source of fighting facts from People For the American Way to Rainbow-PUSH Coalition to the Potomac Coalition. "What Greg Palast has done is heroic, invaluable, and must be seen by every voting rights advocate in America." - Voting rights attorney Barbara Arnwine Help us win this next battle for 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. Rent or buy the film from Amazon 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 March 15 Fundraiserto support Greg Palast’s new investigation of Trump’s Billionaires appeared first on Greg Palast. 7 Mar
Millions of fraudulent voters, my a**! Palast follows The Donald’s money - A Facebook Event  Get the non-fake info with investigative reporter Greg Palast. Palast says, "It’s no joke—and it’s far more sinister than a mere "lie." "The US press has done a good job exposing President Trump’s looney-toons claim that millions of votes were cast against him. "But what’s missing is what’s behind Trump’s claim — and it’s not just his cranky, whining ego looking to erase the embarrassment of losing the popular vote. "We are witnessing the crafting of a systematic plan to steal the 2018 midterm election." And that’s not all: Did anyone notice that in the middle of Trump’s psycho-drama of a press conference, he said, "…I want to thank Paul Singer for being here and coming up to the Oval Office." Those are the most dangerous words Trump has uttered since Inauguration Day. Get the facts (and watch the cartoon!) during this special Facebook Live event. And Palast lets you in on the follow-up to his Rolling Stone investigation. He’s digging, and the worms are crawling up the shovel. And we’ll talk about how YOU can take part in the investigation. We have a lot to talk about, and a lot to expose. * * * * * * 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 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 Millions of fraudulent voters, my a**! Palast follows The Donald’s money appeared first on Greg Palast.22 Feb
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

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U.S. Army Worldwide Equipment Guide 2015 Update - Volume 1: Ground Systems 658 pages 15,550,306  bytes  FD2C566BB002FD5D7CAE1754AE11619A803B90AECEE1890DBA8BC8450535DB27 Volume 2: Air and Air Defense Systems 490 pages 8,633,454  bytes  957E099E8E63975DB197EBD1FDEF27B70AA9BB61B09A923E85096091FE7AE769 Volume 3: Naval Systems 69 pages 2,781,746  bytes  46972E3456364C4F010F139283801A6A1A7B676D3DDC47E2084539EB100712DA 1. In today’s complicated and uncertain world, it is impossible to predict the exact nature of the next conflict that may involve U.S. joint forces. We must be ready to meet the challenges of any type of conflict, in all kinds of places, and against all types of threats in all Complex Operational Environments. As a training tool, the opposing force (OPFOR) must be a challenging, uncooperative sparring partner capable of stressing any or all warfighting functions and mission-essential tasks of the U.S. force. 2. The Army Training Circular 7-100 series describes the doctrine, organizations, TTP, and equipment of such an OPFOR and how to combine it with other operational variables to portray the qualities of a full range of conditions appropriate to Army training environments. 3. The WEG was developed to support the TC 7- 100 series and all OPFOR portrayal in training simulations (live, virtual, constructive, and gaming). The equipment portrayed in the WEG represents military systems, variants, and upgrades that US forces may encounter now and in the foreseeable future. The authors continually analyze realworld developments, capabilities, and trends to guarantee the OPFOR remains relevant. 4. Published in three volumes, (Ground; Airspace & Air Defense Systems; and Naval & Littoral Systems) the WEG is the approved document for OPFOR equipment data used in U.S. Army training. Annual updates are posted on the ATN website. Therefore it is available for downloading and local distribution. Distribution restriction is unlimited. This issue replaces all previous issues. … 11 Mar
U.S. Army Threat Tactics Report: Boko Haram - Boko Haram is a relatively new organization, having begun serious military operations against the Nigerian government in 2009. Abubakar Shekau leads a confederation of sub organizations with commanders who mostly control their own day-to-day operations. Shekau’s legitimacy comes from his position as deputy to the founder of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf. Boko Haram primarily conducts offensive raids, assaults, and ambushes against thinly-stretched and poorly-resourced Nigerian security elements and civilians in northeastern Nigeria. Influence from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), to whom Boko Haram recently swore allegiance, can be seen in an improved and increasing Boko Haram social media presence. The Nigerian military counterinsurgency campaign begun in 2013 has reduced Boko Haram’s freedom of maneuver within Nigeria, causing it to setup safe havens in Niger, Chad, and Cameroon utilizing hundreds of unguarded border transit points. Due to a campaign of violence against civilians and businesses, Boko Haram has lost both Nigerian civilian support and recruits, causing it to look to disaffected and poverty-ridden areas in border countries, particularly Cameroon. Boko Haram’s violent attacks have alienated it from much of the Nigerian population. … The primary goal of Boko Haram is to institute an Islamic state throughout Nigeria based on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law with an inevitable regional expansion. The founder and spiritual leader of Boko Haram, Muhammed Yusuf, and his followers originally believed in a peaceful transition and made what the current Boko Haram leadership considered illegitimate concessions to and compromises with secular and government leaders. The group has since adopted a takfirist ideology—the belief that less than a strict adherence to Salafist Islam makes a Muslim an “apostate” equal to infidels and, therefore, a legitimate target. Boko Haram has targeted and killed a number of prominent Muslim leaders who have been critical of the organization. Boko Haram considers any support of Western or secular ideas, such as schools based on Western influence, heretical and worthy of attack. The movement is not without provocations which have contributed to the escalation of its use of violence in pursuit of its goals. Decades of resentment against corruption, poverty, and perceived inequality have given Boko Haram its trajectory toward becoming an ever more violent organization. The reintroduction of sharia criminal courts in northern Islamic states failed because of the general perception of unfairness by the population. Police brutality, extrajudicial killings by security forces, and disappearances of people taken into custody have bred general distrust, animosity, and resistance to the Nigerian government that has not fully investigated and prosecuted offenses. Despite being Africa’s largest economy with great natural resource wealth, it has one of the poorest populations with a large percent of people living on less than $1 a day. The disparity in distribution of that wealth is stark in its inequitable concentration with 72 percent of the North’s population living in poverty compared with 27 percent in the South and 35 percent in the Niger Delta. The population in the North is caught between two violent and contesting forces, Boko Haram and the Nigerian security forces. … 11 Mar
Bilderberg Discussion Paper: Sources of Conflict in Western Societies - 1. In the mid—1950s, an interpretation of Western societies gained wide according to which most of the problems of these societies been solved. After “the end of ideology”, class war can be transformed into a “democratic class struggle” of virtually interchangeable parties in a “pluralist society” participation is more or less general. If there is any group left at all which feels alienated, that of intellectuals. Even some of the outstanding sociologists, such as Raymond Aron, Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipset, contributed to this happy notion. Perhaps the Milan meeting of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1955 (for which cf. Lipset’s Political Man, pp.404eqq.) illustrates best the mood of those years. But when the (now) Association for Cultural Freedom held its meetings on a similar theme in Princeton in 1968, the mood had changed very considerably. Even though some of the participants were still there – Daniel Bell, Arthur Schlesinger, for example -, the new catchwords sounded rather less pacific. “Black Power” and “student unrest”, Vietnam and Biafra as domestic problems of developed countries, old and new strains in the industrial, or indeed “post-industrial societies” dominated discussions. Nobody could possible have summarized these discussions in terms of an “end of ideology”.10 Mar
Joint Staff Strategic Assessment: Options to Facilitate Socio-Political Stability in Syria and Iraq - Key Observations There was consensus among SMA researchers and observers that: • Da’esh represents a compound threat: it is both the organization and the violent extremist idea it represents. • Da’esh battlefield loss in Iraq/Syria theater will not bring about an end to the salience of the extremist ideology that it represents. Rather, the “ideological battle” is likely to continue over the coming years with potentially unacceptable tolls on Western societies. • The effort to mitigate the threat should be compound and comprehensive: addressing the regional conflict as a whole, not Da’esh only, using targeted kinetic options along with complementary messaging and other non-kinetic options. The observations, research findings and implications presented below summarize the contributions of the separate research efforts included in this paper. They represent a three-pronged approach for encouraging support for regional stability by: • diminishing the global allure of the jihadist ideology that Da’esh presents; • attending to the underlying and persistent drivers of regional conflict; • shaping and influencing narratives to minimize Da’esh appeal. Analytic Findings and Recommendations Diminish Allure, Stem Spread of Ideology OBSERVATION: There are at least eight inter-related militarized conflicts in the region. US focus on Da’esh in Iraq and Syria has weakened Da’esh but, by not addressing other regional conflicts, has allowed extremist ideology to become further entrenched. OBSERVATION: Da’esh’s caliphate-state concept, the appeal of jihadism, and terrorist tactics are unlikely to disappear in the near term. However, we may be able to impact their appeal to aggrieved populations and diminish their lethality. RESEARCH FINDING: Violent and repressive counter VEO efforts increase the incidence and lethality of VEO responses; non-violent approaches appear to make groups less lethal (See Asal, Rethemeyer and Young, page 22). IMPLICATIONS: • Defeating Da’esh the organization with overt kinetic and violent means will at best diminish a portion of the threat and leave the region in persistent turmoil. • Efforts to neutralize Da’esh should be done in a way that reduces the possibility of AQ resurgence or emergence of other VEOs, including: • separating references to Islamist/ caliphist political thought in US narratives and strategic communications from the violent means associated with it; • addressing and working to mitigate the negative psycho-social dynamics in Iraq and Syria that impact both civilians and combatants many of whom are living with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); • building trust with elite/ leader networks in secret, over time, using rewards, and withholding punishments in order to accommodate acceptable elements of the larger movement of which Da’esh is part. Underlying and Persistent Drivers: Shift Emphasis to Avoiding Civil War in Iraq RESEARCH FINDING: Based on the range of interests (i.e., economic, social, domestic, etc.) of regional actors, Da’esh eventually will be defeated regardless of US efforts in Syria. The interests of regional actors that possess the relevant capabilities to impact the fight against Da’esh show high resolve for defeatist defeat in Syria and even more so for Da’esh defeat in Iraq. RESEARCH FINDING: Whether Iraqi tribal elites and Sunni factions perceive that there range of interests are better served b the Government if Iraq (GoI) or living under Da’esh/jihadist rule is determined by what they believe about the security conditions that each would bring. RESEARCH FINDING: Given their range if interests, the benefit Kurdish groups derive from continued civil conflict in Syria and Iraq (e.g., wealth, prestige, territory) can be countered with economic arrangements, and enhanced international and domestic influence. RESEARCH FINDING: GoI and Shi’a hardliners in Iraq have high resolve (political will) to avoid making substantive post-conflict political reforms that increase the stature of Sunni voices in the Iraqi government. Two conditions however change the decision calculus of each groups to preferring to make these reforms: 1) outbreak of full-scale civil warfare in Iraq; or 2) Iranian backing for such reforms. IMPLICATIONS: Now is the opportune time to shift policy towards conflict transformation – avoiding civil war in Iraq; begin engaging all parties in publically visible dialogue regarding their views and requirements for post-Da’esh governance and security. • Engage Sunni factions on security guarantees and requirements for political inclusion/power; • Engage Kurds on economic and international and domestic political influence requirements; • Incentivize Iran to back off on proxy funding, diminish stridency of Shi’a hardline easing way for GoI to make substantive overtures, open governance reform talks. Underlying and Persistent Drivers: Restabilize Saudi-Iranian Competition for Dominance; Use of Proxy Forces RESEARCH FINDING: The regional system will remain unstable; defeat of Da’esh decreases system conflict only marginally. RESEARCH FINDING: Saudi, Iranian use of proxy forces can quickly reignite hostilities in the region. Although direct confrontation is very costly for each, the chances of unwanted escalation are high. RESEARCH FINDING: Iran may be incentivized to limit proxy support by international efforts to 1) recognize Iran as a regional partner, 2) mitigate perceived threat from Saudi Arabia and Israel, and 3) expand trade relations with Europe. RESEARCH FINDING: There are few potential levers incentivizing Saudi Arabia to limit proxyism, although it may respond to warning of restrictions on US support if not curtailed. IMPLICATIONS: To be effective, efforts to address the underlying sources of regional instability should include a shift from a narrow focus on Da’esh toward the multiple active and latent conflicts in the region, most notably the Saudi-Iranian, Sunni-Shi’a rivalry. Activities should include open dialogue with Iran, Saudi Arabia and regional actors to quell the intensity of Saudi-Iran rivalry and mutual threat perceptions. Underlying and Persistent Drivers: Address Disaffected Populations OBSERVATION: The regional population is traumatized and wrought with PTSD. Both civilians and combatants are physically and psychologically wounded. OBSERVATION: Regional actors are using the fight against Da’esh as an excuse to fight others with whom they have long-standing animosities. OBSERVATION: As populations continue to be disaffected, Da’esh gains empathy, nationstates find avenues to either directly assault or use proxies to undermine adversaries, and US interests are curtailed. IMPLICATIONS: Address population grievances, not jihadist ideology independent of context. Sincerely addressing disaffection of regional populations – physical, social and political — makes conditions unfavorable for both the Da’esh organization and the ideology. It also sets the context for diminishing the allure of violent extremist ideology, civil conflict, and ultimately regional stability. Activities should include instituting immediate humanitarian relief for disaffected population will help ease trauma and facilitate overdue care for those wounded by all warring parties in this conflict, and development of long-term plans for dealing with IDPs, refugees and returnees. 5 Mar
(U//FOUO) DHS-FBI-USSS Joint Threat Assessment 2017 Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress - (U//FOUO) This Joint Threat Assessment (JTA) addresses threats to the 2017 Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress (the Presidential Address) at the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on 28 February 2017. This assessment does not consider nonviolent civil disobedience tactics (for example, protests without a permit) that are outside the scope of federal law enforcement jurisdiction; however, civil disobedience tactics designed to cause a hazard to public safety and/or law enforcement fall within the scope of this assessment. (U//FOUO) This product is intended to support federal, state, and local government agencies and authorities in identifying priorities for protective and support measures against terrorism and other existing or emerging threats to Homeland security. Information in this assessment is current and accurate as of 10 February 2017. (U) Key Findings (U//FOUO) As of 10 February 2017, the FBI, DHS, and the United States Secret Service (USSS) have no information to indicate a specific, credible threat to the Presidential Address or related activities within the National Capital Region (NCR). We assess the Presidential Address is an attractive target for violent extremists, as there will be a large gathering of senior US Government officials and members of Congress. There will also be a large presence of global media outlets, making it likely that any significant incident would garner widespread international media coverage, which is a common objective in terrorist attacks. We remain concerned about unaffiliated lone offenders, homegrown violent extremists (HVEs), and domestic extremists targeting the Presidential Address, as well as the sustained interest of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) in attacking gatherings, landmarks, and critical infrastructure within the NCR. (U//FOUO) Although the FBI, DHS, and the USSS lack reporting to show a specific interest by FTOs in the Presidential Address itself, we remain concerned about the sustained interest of some terrorist groups—such as core al-Qa’ida, the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS), and their affiliates—in targeting gatherings and public locations within the NCR, given its status as the nation’s capital. In addition, these groups continue to call on individuals to conduct independent attacks in the United States using vehicle ramming, edged weapons, improvised explosive devices, and small arms.27 Feb
Multinational Capability Development Campaign Military Strategic Communication Handbook Draft - Cell phones, smart phones, the Internet, and GPS are increasingly available and are changing the nature of conflict, even in remote areas. Information can now reach out in new ways to global audiences because of the revolution in Information Technology (IT), particularly using cell phones and smart phones. The revival of hybrid warfare manifested in recent developments in the international security environment – such as the Arab Spring, the Ukrainian crisis, the rise of Jihadist-Salafist terrorism, and the European migrant crisis – demonstrates the power of communication, broadly based on IT advantages: messages and perceptions become predominant of physical engagements and strongly impact the behaviour of people. Orchestrated activities carry messages and have a crucial effect on 55 public opinions, decision-making processes, and domestic support. From a communication perspective, military operations are part of a vicious circle (see Figure 1): they  result from political decisions, are part of state-funded activity, and are under constant observation of the media who strongly affect public opinion, which in turn influences political discussion and decision-making. Military success can be either directly aided or challenged by activities in the Information Environment. Military communicators need to convey the message that operations are in line with political decisions and serve the interest of the involved nations and their populace. In this respect, they may act as guardians of the political Narrative, ensuring that political will is reflected in words and deeds throughout operations planning and execution. Today’s military operations are also challenged with a fragmentation of communication capabilities and insufficient integration of communication with operations planning, resulting in fragmented Information Activities by multinational partners, insufficiently harmonised for achieving objectives in the Information Environment that support common strategic objectives. In the last decades the multinational community of communication practitioners struggled to overcome this challenge by introducing coordination mechanisms. For instance, the military Info Ops function and later StratCom were designed to provide an analysis, advice, coordination and oversight capacity for communication capabilities at various levels. However, relying solely on the coordination of capabilities and actions treats the symptom more than it constitutes a solution to the underlying problem. In addition, there is still a lack of consideration of the comprehensive scope of non-media activities that may help to create desired effects from a communication perspective. Coalition partners need to be able to gain enhanced situation awareness in the Information Environment; develop and issue timely, relevant and feasible communication guidance; implement communication plans in a consistent, transparent and flexible manner; and take emerging communication practices and technology into account. All this finally led to the concept of integrated communication and communication management – an approach to adequately respond to and shape developments in the Information Environment from a multinational coalition and comprehensive approach perspective. … 25 Feb
(U//FOUO) DHS-FBI-NCTC Bulletin: Terrorists Call for Attacks on Hospitals, Healthcare Facilities - (U//FOUO) Recent calls over the past year for attacks on hospitals in the West by media outlets sympathetic to the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) highlight terrorists’ perception of hospitals as viable targets for attack. Targeting hospitals and healthcare facilities is consistent with ISIS’s tactics in Iraq and Syria, its previous calls for attacks on hospitals in the West, and the group’s calls for attacks in the West using “all available means.” While we have not seen any specific, credible threat against hospitals and healthcare facilities in the United States, we remain concerned that calls for such attacks may resonate with some violent extremists and lone offenders in the Homeland because of their likely perceived vulnerabilities and value as targets. » (U//FOUO) The pro-ISIS Nashir Media Foundation released a series of messages on 29 December 2016 encouraging lone offenders in the West to conduct attacks on hospitals, cinemas, and malls. In early June 2016, ISIS called for a “month of calamity,” encouraging followers in Europe and the United States to attack schools and hospitals in an audio message released via Twitter. Additionally, in its January 2016 issue of Rumiyah magazine, ISIS provided tactical guidance and encouraged lone offenders to conduct arson attacks on hospitals. » (U) ISIS, through its Amaq news agency in November 2016, took credit for an attack on a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan that resulted in at least 74 deaths and 100 injuries. Aid organizations and coalition governments have alleged since early 2015 that ISIS has systematically targeted hospitals, healthcare facilities, patients, and healthcare workers in Iraq and Syria, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries and reducing the overall capacity of healthcare delivery infrastructure. (U) Possible Indicators of the Targeting of Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities (U//FOUO) Some of these activities may be constitutionally protected, and any determination of possible illicit intent should be supported by additional facts justifying reasonable suspicion. These activities are general in nature and any one may be insignificant on its own, but when observed in combination with other suspicious behaviors—particularly advocacy of violence—they may constitute a basis for reporting. » (U//FOUO) Consumption and sharing of media glorifying violent extremist acts in attempting to mobilize others to violence; » (U//FOUO) Loitering, parking, standing, or unattended vehicles in the same area over multiple days with no reasonable explanation, particularly in concealed locations with optimal visibility of potential targets or in conjunction with multiple visits; » (U//FOUO) Photography or videography focused on security features, including cameras, security personnel, gates, and barriers; » (U//FOUO) Unusual or prolonged interest in or attempts to gain sensitive information about security measures of personnel, entry points, peak days and hours of operation, and access controls such as alarms or locks; » (U//FOUO) Individuals wearing bulky clothing or clothing inconsistent with the weather or season, or wearing official uniforms or being in unauthorized areas without official credentials; » (U//FOUO) Individuals presenting injuries consistent with the use of explosives or explosive material without a reasonable explanation; and » (U//FOUO) Unattended packages, bags, and suitcases. (U) Possible Mitigation Strategies » (U//FOUO) Limit access in restricted areas and require employees to wear clearly visible identifications at all times; » (U//FOUO) Ensure personnel receive training and briefings on active shooter preparedness, lockdown procedures, improvised explosive device (IED) and vehicle-borne IED awareness and recognition, and suspicious activity reporting procedures; and » (U//FOUO) Conduct law enforcement and security officer patrols in loading, waiting, and patient triage areas, and around drop-off and pick-up points where there are large numbers of people concentrated in restricted spaces.20 Feb
U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office: Russia’s Military Strategy Impacting 21st Century Reform and Geopolitics - Russia is a nation that has always been blessed with creative minds, whether it be literary giants like Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy, artists such as Peter Carl Faberge, composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, or the military genius of an Aleksander Svechin or Aleksander Suvorov. Russia also has been blessed with the work of innovators in military equipment, such as Mikhail Kalashnikov, who created the world-renowned AK-47. Today’s military innovators are the modern-day scientists and engineers who assist in the creation of contemporary and new concept weaponry; and the military theorists who study changes in the character of war. Digital specialists understand how to develop and employ the capabilities of electronic warfare equipment, satellite technology, and fiber optic cables. While Kalashnikov’s fame is imbedded in Russia’s culture, it may be harder to find a current digital entrepreneur whose legacy will endure as long as his: there are simply too many of them, and their time in the spotlight appears to be quite short, since even now we are about to pass from the age of cyber to that of quantum. It is difficult to predict whose discoveries will be the most coveted by tomorrow’s military-industrial complex, not to mention the decision-making apparatus of the Kremlin and General Staff. Military theorists are playing an important role as well. They are studying how new weaponry has changed the correlation of forces in the world, the nature of war, and the impact of weaponry on both forecasting and the initial period of war. Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov noted in March 2015 that the military’s main tasks are to maintain the combat readiness of the Armed Forces and to ensure the Russian Federation’s defensive capability. Russia’s military heritage will assist this process tremendously. Combat readiness includes updated strategic thought, new equipment revelations, and future-war projections. Defensive capability includes not just protecting Russia’s territory, but also the security of the nation’s national interests and conduct of geopolitics. Capturing the essence of these developments is the goal of this book. In the process a few templates for understanding Russian military thought and actions are offered for further consideration and use. The work is divided into three parts. They address Russian methods of approaching strategy, future war (focusing on new weapons and organizations), and geopolitics. All three are important for foreign analysts to consider when attempting to predict the vector (s) in which Russian military capabilities and actions are heading. It is vital to remember that events that have transpired over the past 25 years have greatly affected Russia’s view of the world today and its strategic thought. Both the military and President Vladimir Putin’s colleagues in the Russian security complex are keen to overcome what they perceive as feelings of national humiliation and insecurity that they say were imposed upon them by the West. Part One of this book contains three chapters. They are focused on the personality of President Vladimir Putin, the development of Russian strategic thought over the past several decades, and contemporary military thought on the use or non-use of force, to include how Russian military officers think. Chapter One provides details on how Putin thinks and how he has been affected by specific issues. Ideology, politics, and military issues affecting his decision-making are discussed. Included in the assessment are several thoughts from some US and Russian specialists with key insights into political thought in Moscow. Chapter Two represents a detailed look at the development of Soviet and now Russian military strategy. The chapter examines strategic thought from the time of Svechin to the present, highlighting, in particular, those elements of strategic thought that continue to influence how forces will be used even today. Chapter Three offers a look at how Russia utilizes indirect, asymmetric, and nonmilitary operations, as well as how this differs from most Western interpretations of the General Staff’s use of strategy. In particular, the chapter examines how Russian military officers think and offers commentary on cross-domain deterrence thinking in Russia, which is a topic usually discussed only as a nuclear issue. Here several other potential adaptations of deterrence theory are reviewed. The chapter offers a differing view than some on the issue of hybrid war as a Russian concept and ends with a look at Russian reflexive control theory. Part Two examines Russia’s preparation for future wars. Included in the discussion are new military equipment and aerospace developments, future-war organizations, and digital expertise. Chapter Four deals with several new items of equipment that are now in the Russian inventory, including an extensive look at Russian unmanned aerial vehicles and electronic warfare equipment. Chapter Five is dedicated to the new Aerospace Force and the Strategic Rocket Forces. Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu has stated, “Their creation was prompted by a shift of the ‘center of gravity’ in combat struggle to the aerospace sphere.” The discussion includes the rationale behind Russia’s decision to integrate the Air Force, Air Defense Forces, and Space Forces into an Aerospace Force and to declare aerospace a new theater of military operations. The continued development of the Strategic Rocket Forces is covered, since it has found new impetus from the strategic guidance of President Putin. Chapter Six considers several organizational aspects of future-war thought, including equipment under development, organizational and doctrinal changes, and future-war thinking. Equipment under development includes robotics and laser research. Organizationally there is a look at Russia’s new science companies and the Advanced Research Foundation (the Russian military’s DARPA equivalent), followed by a summary of several articles discussing the future contours of conflict and the changing character or war. Chapter Seven discusses Russia’s cyber thinking and organizational development. This includes a review of a Russian-authored cyber book, recent cyber developments in Russia, treaties that Russia has made with other nations, and several policy efforts directed by the Kremlin and the Federal Security Service (FSB) to monitor cyber compliance. A section on military thinking on cyber issues is included, along with Russian efforts to control the international cyber environment. China is a main partner of Russia in this regard. Part Three is an examination of the application of military power and strategy to Putin’s geopolitical goals, specifically as applied to military operations in the Arctic and Ukraine. Chapter Eight investigates the ongoing militarization of the Arctic. The two goals of the military in the region appear to be to establish an overarching monitoring capability and a quick response, powerful military deterrent. Russia has continued to improve its military presence and infrastructure in the region. The buildup includes two light brigades, two airborne divisions that are on-call, new Borei- and Yasen-class nuclear missile submarines, rebuilt airfields, and new aerospace defense units. Meanwhile, Russian administration officials are working feverishly with the United Nations and other organizations to establish legal claims to the Arctic. Putin has made the Arctic a region of his personal interest, noting that the Arctic has been under “our sovereignty for several years. This is how this will be in the future.” This does not bode well for the future of the Arctic’s peaceful development. Chapter Nine discusses how and why Russia became engaged in the conflict in Ukraine, to include the interventions into both Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Russia’s strategy and use of new concepts (new reality, self-determination, use of surrogates, nonmilitary issues, indirect and asymmetric thinking, etc.) are examined. The end of the chapter focuses on Russian actions in Crimea, as it appears Russia is doing one of two things there with its massive military buildup: either it is ensuring that Crimea can never be given back to Ukraine due to all of the military equipment it now has stationed there; or it is preparing a bridgehead from which it can launch a pincer operation against Mariupol or advance quickly on Odessa or Transdniester. Chapter Ten provides conclusions drawn from this study. … 12 Feb
(U//FOUO) DHS-FBI Intelligence Assessment: Baseline Comparison of US and Foreign Anarchist Extremist Movements - (U//FOUO) This joint DHS and FBI Assessment examines the possible reasons why anarchist extremist attacks in certain countries abroad and in the United States differ in the frequency of incidents and degree of lethality employed in order to determine ways US anarchist extremists actions might become more lethal in the future. This Assessment is intended to establish a baseline comparison of the US and foreign anarchist extremist movements and create new lines of research; follow-on assessments will update the findings identified in the paper, to include the breadth of data after the end of the reporting period (as warranted by new information), and identify new areas for DHS and FBI collaboration on the topic. This Assessment is also produced in anticipation of a heightened threat of anarchist extremist violence in 2016 related to the upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions—events historically associated with violence from the movement. By comparing violence in the United States with Greece, Italy, and Mexico—countries historically exhibiting anarchist extremist violence targeting persons—from January 2010–July 2014, we identified factors that could explain differences in targeting and tactics by selected foreign anarchist extremists and United States. The study examines 110 anarchist extremist incidents occurring within the United States and these selected foreign countries. Only those incidents determined to be violent (i.e., involving threats of bodily harm) were included in the dataset. Our ability to analyze relevant details of attacks depended heavily on the quality of sourcing for these incidents—which almost solely derived from the media. Additionally, although US anarchist extremist attacks noted in this study occurred in multiple states, the majority of incidents occurred in the Pacific Northwest region. (U//FOUO) This Assessment was produced to assist federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies and private sector infrastructure and security officers in the deterrence, prevention, preemption of, or response to terrorist attacks against the United States conducted by anarchist extremists. Some of the activities described in the study may involve activities that are, by themselves, lawful or constitutionally protected, and the study’s findings should be considered within the existing framework of laws, regulations, and operating procedures that govern a particular enforcement entity. Additionally, conduct deemed potentially suspicious and indicative of terrorist activity should be taken in conjunction with other indicators and possible preoperational activity. (U) Key Judgments (U//FOUO) Our examination of anarchist extremist violence in the United States and in Greece, Italy, and Mexico revealed several prominent features that may inform strategies to counter domestic terrorism: » (U//FOUO) DHS and FBI assess the primary factor explaining the difference in targets between foreign and US anarchist extremists is foreign anarchist extremists’ focus on specific economic and governance issues relative to their geographic area, while US anarchist extremists tend to focus on symbols of capitalism. We assess the likely primary factor explaining foreign anarchist extremists’ greater willingness to use more violent tactics than their US counterparts is that these foreign anarchist extremist movements are often more organized—allowing for more complex attacks—and have a well-established tradition of lethal violence not currently seen in the United States. » (U//FOUO) The vast majority of US anarchist extremist attacks targeted property likely due to the location’s accessibility and as a symbol of capitalism and globalization. Most foreign anarchist extremist attacks targeted persons likely because of the cohesiveness of the movement and greater emphasis on issues that can be blamed on local, individual targets. US anarchist extremists targeted the banking/finance sector most often, as these perceived soft targets of capitalism are possible to attack with tactics that are non-lethal yet cause significant economic damage and pose significant public safety risks. Foreign anarchist extremists most often targeted government entities, likely due to the emphasis placed on local domestic issues by foreign anarchist extremists and their capabilities to commit attacks against hardened targets. » (U//FOUO) Arson was the most common violent tactic used by US anarchist extremists—approximately 70 percent (19 of 27) of attacks—while foreign anarchist extremists used arson in only a third of their attacks. US anarchist extremists likely use this tactic based on their intention to cause economic and property damage, which can be accomplished by arson with relatively limited resources and specialized skills. Unlike US anarchist extremists, foreign anarchist extremists frequently used explosives, likely due to their capability to develop more advanced explosive devices as a result of their more organized structure, having a history of using such tactics, and because their targets are hardened. … (U) Social Justice (U//FOUO) Social justice issues––specifically opposition to gentrification and opposition to perceived racism and fascism––were the second most common driver of violence for US anarchist extremists, as they accounted for 26 percent (7 of 27) of attacks. Social justice issues accounted for 12 percent of violent foreign anarchist extremist attacks, although these incidents occurred only in Greece and were all against perceived fascism. Although social justice issues can motivate anarchist extremists to violence, they are often a driver for violence if a social justice issue occurs within a location that also has an anarchist extremist presence. (U//FOUO) Social justice issues often result in legal protest activities, and historically, in both the United States and abroad, anarchist extremists have been known to co-opt legal protests as a cover to commit violence against their targets. However, a review of data in this study indicated in the seven social-justice motivated violent incidents committed by US anarchist extremists, only one of those incidents exploited otherwise legal protest activity. The reasons for this finding are currently a reporting gap. … (U//FOUO) Signposts of Change—How US Anarchist Extremists Could Become More Lethal (U//FOUO) We assess the following future occurrences could potentially lead US anarchist extremists to adopt more violent tactics: » (U//FOUO) Fascist, nationalist, racist, or anti-immigrant parties obtain greater prominence or local political power in the United States, leading to anti-racist violent backlash from anarchist extremists. » (U//FOUO) A charismatic leader emerges among US anarchist extremists advocating criminal activity and unifies the movement, possibly increasing motivation to commit violence. » (U//FOUO) Incendiary or explosive devices constructed by anarchist extremist(s) become more sophisticated. » (U//FOUO) Anarchist extremist(s) retaliate violently to a violent act by a white supremacist extremist or group. » (U//FOUO) Anarchist extremist(s) retaliate to a perceived act of violence or lethal action by law enforcement during routine duties, creating a martyr for the movement. » (U//FOUO) Anarchist extremist(s) with financial means travel abroad where they learn and acquire more violent tactics and return to teach others and/or conduct actions on their own. » (U//FOUO) Anarchist extremists acquire or arm themselves with legal and/or illegal weapons. » (U//FOUO) Multinational corporation or bank becomes involved in public scandal, leading to focused targeting campaign by US anarchist extremists against the entity. » (U//FOUO) A successful US or foreign anarchist extremist event disruption such as at the 1999 Seattle WTO riots motivates copycat and/or follow-on actions domestically. » (U//FOUO) A foreign intelligence service attempts to foment US unrest by facilitating anarchist extremist violence domestically. … 4 Feb
(U//FOUO) U.S. Army FM 2-22.2 Counterintelligence - This manual provides doctrinal guidance, techniques, and procedures for the employment of counterintelligence (CI) special agents in the Army. It outlines— • CI investigations and operations. • The CI special agent’s role within the intelligence warfighting function. • The importance of aggressively countering foreign intelligence and security services (FISS) and international terrorist organizations (ITO). • The roles and responsibilities of those providing command, control, and technical support to CI investigations and operations. • The need for effective dissemination of CI reports and products and the importance of cross-cueing other intelligence disciplines. • The significance of cultural awareness as a consideration to counter the foreign intelligence threat. This manual expands upon the information in FM 2-0 and supersedes FM 34-60. It is consistent with doctrine in FM 3-0, FM 5-0, FM 100-15, and JP 2-0. When published, FM 2-22.2 will provide further information on CI activities when Army forces are employed in tactical operations. … ARMY COUNTERINTELLIGENCE 1-1. CI focuses on negating, mitigating, or degrading the foreign intelligence and security services (FISS) and international terrorist organizations (ITO) collection threat that targets Army interests through the conduct of investigations, operations, collection, analysis, production, and technical services and support. 1-2. CI analyzes the threats posed by FISS and the intelligence activities of nonstate actors such as organized crime, terrorist groups, and drug traffickers. CI analysis incorporates all-source information and the results of CI investigations and operations to support a multidiscipline analysis of the force protection threat. COUNTERINTELLIGENCE SPECIAL AGENT 1-3. The CI special agent has the distinct mission of detecting, identifying, countering, and neutralizing FISS and ITO threats directed towards the Army through the execution of all CI functions. CI special agents should not be confused with human intelligence (HUMINT) collectors, military occupational specialty (MOS) 35M, and warrant officer (WO) area of concentration (AOC) 351M. They are specifically trained and certified for, tasked with, and engage in the collection of information from individuals (HUMINT sources) for the purpose of answering HUMINT-specific requirements. Although CI and HUMINT personnel may use similar methods, their missions are separate and distinct. Commanders should not use them interchangeably. Using CI personnel for HUMINT missions degrades the Army’s ability to protect its forces, information, and critical technology that provides the Army operational and technological superiority over existing and future adversaries. … COUNTERINTELLIGENCE MISSION 1-17. The mission of Army CI is to conduct aggressive, comprehensive, and coordinated operations, investigations, collection, analysis and production, and technical services. This CI mission is conducted worldwide to detect, identify, assess, counter, exploit, or neutralize the FISS and ITO collection threat to the Army and DOD to protect the lives, property, or security of Army forces. Army CI has four primary mission areas: • Counterespionage (CE). • Support to protection. • Support to research and technology protection (RTP). • Cyber CI. COUNTERESPIONAGE 1-18. CE detects, identifies, counters, exploits, or neutralizes the FISS and ITO collection threat targeting Army and DOD equities or U.S. interests. CE programs use both investigations and collection operations to conduct long-term operations to undermine, mitigate, or negate the ability of FISS and ITO to collect effectively on Army equities. CE programs also affect the adversarial visualization and decisionmaking concerning the plans, intentions, and capabilities of U.S. policy, goals, and objectives. The goal of CE is to— • Limit the adversary’s knowledge of U.S. forces, plans, intentions, and capabilities through information denial. • Limit the adversary’s ability to target effectively U.S. forces by disrupting their collection capability. COUNTERINTELLIGENCE SUPPORT TO PROTECTION 1-19. CI support to protection ensures the survivability and mission accomplishment of Army and DOD forces. 1-20. CI’s objective in supporting protection is to— • Limit the compromise and exploitation of personnel, facilities, operations, command and control (C2), and operational execution of U.S. forces. • Negate, mitigate, or degrade adversarial planning and targeting of U.S. forces for exploitation or attack. • Support the war on terrorism. SUPPORT TO RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY PROTECTION 1-21. Support to RTP is focused on preventing the illegal diversion or loss of critical technology essential to the strategic advantage of the U.S. 1-22. CI’s objective in supporting RTP is to— • Protect critical technology information from adversarial countermeasures development. • Ensure U.S. technological overmatch against existing and future adversaries. CYBER COUNTERINTELLIGENCE 1-23. Cyber CI protects information networks and provides an offensive exploitation capability against adversarial networks to ensure information superiority of U.S. forces. 1-24. CI’s objective in conducting cyber CI activities is to— • Maintain U.S. forces information dominance and superiority over existing and future adversaries. • Protect critical information networks from adversarial attack or exploitation. • Undermine adversarial information operations, systems, and networks. … COUNTERINTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATION OBJECTIVES 2-4. CI investigations are essential to counter threat collection efforts targeting Army equities. CI places emphasis on investigative activity to support force and technology protection, homeland defense, information assurance, and security programs. CI investigations focus on resolving allegations of known or suspected acts that may constitute national security crimes under U.S. law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). 2-5. The initial objective of CI investigations is to identify people, organizations, and other entities engaging in national security crimes and to determine the full nature and extent of damage to national security. The intent is to develop information of sufficient value to permit its use in the appropriate civil or military court. However, investigations should not be limited to the production of evidence. Investigative reports should include all relevant information as it pertains to the person or incident involved in the investigation. CI investigations are conducted to— • Identify people, organizations, and other entities engaging in national security crimes that impact Army equities. • Determine the full nature of national security crimes within the authority and jurisdiction of Army CI. • Prove or disprove allegations or indications that person or persons are engaged in national security crimes or incidents of CI interest. • Prevent the loss, control, or compromise of sensitive or classified defense information and technology. • Protect the security of Army personnel, information, operations, installations, and technology. • Acquire and preserve evidence used to support exploitation, prosecution, or any other legal proceedings or punitive measures resulting from CI investigations. • Detect and identify terrorist activities that may present a threat to Army, DOD, and national security. 2-6. CI investigations must conform to applicable U.S. laws and DOD and DA regulations. CI special agents must report information accurately and completely. They maintain files and records to allow transfer of an investigation without loss of control or efficiency. Coordination with other CI or law enforcement organizations ensures that investigations are conducted as rapidly as possible. It also reduces duplication and assists in resolving conflicts when jurisdictional lines are unclear or overlap. CI investigative activity must be discreet, ensuring the rights and privacy of individuals involved, as well as the preservation of all investigative prerogatives. This is required to protect the rights of individuals and to preserve the security of investigative techniques. 2-7. CI special agents need to have a thorough understanding of all investigative techniques and planning, approval processes, and legal requirements before requesting and initiating any type of CI investigative activity. A lack of understanding in any one of these areas may potentially invalidate any investigation from a prosecutorial standard and may jeopardize the ability to exploit a threat to the United States. … PRIMARY AUTHORITY 2-12. Army CI has investigative primacy for the national security crimes and incidents of CI interest listed below when they are committed by persons identified as subjects. If either the subject, potential subject, incident, or crime falls outside Army CI jurisdiction, Army CI may still retain joint investigative responsibilities. • Sedition. • Aiding the enemy by providing intelligence to the enemy. • Spying. • Espionage. • Subversion. • Treason. • Terrorism activities or materiel support to a known or suspected terrorist organization or person (DCS G-2, G-2 Memorandum (S//NF), 24 August 2005). • Incidents of CI interest. … INCIDENTS OF COUNTERINTELLIGENCE INTEREST 2-17. The following is not an all-inclusive list of incidents of CI interest: • The activities of ITO or material support to an ITO or person. Terrorist organizations are specified in DCS, G-2 Memorandum (S//NF), dated 13 February 2007, Operational Planning List (OPL) 2005 (U), as revised. • Unreported contact with foreign government personnel, persons or groups involved in foreign terrorism or intelligence, or unauthorized requests for classified or sensitive unclassified information. • Unauthorized disclosure of classified information or material. Not all incidents in this category may meet the threshold for a CI investigation. However, those that do will often include other indicators of espionage that are identified associated with the incident or when there are acts which are known methods of operations of FISS and ITO entities. Investigations are conducted to ascertain those entities involvement. CI special agents may also act to secure classified material and to determine if the actions of the subject were an act of omission or commission. The command requirements to report compromises or conduct inquiries as specified in AR 380-5, chapter VI, may also apply to these incidents. • Matters developed as a result of counterintelligence scope polygraph (CSP) examination as specified in AR 381-20. • Military personnel or DAC employees who perform unofficial travel to those countries designated in the operational planning list, who have unauthorized contact with official representatives of foreign countries, or who contact or visit foreign diplomatic facilities without authorization. • Attempts by authorized users of information systems to gain unauthorized access. • Known, suspected or attempted intrusions into classified or unclassified information systems when there is reasonable suspicion of foreign involvement or it has not been ruled out. • Unauthorized removal of classified material or possession of classified material in unauthorized locations. • Special category absentees (SCAs), which include those absent without leave (AWOL), deserters defectors, and military absentees who have had access to TS, SCI, SAP information, or TS cryptographic access or an assignment to a special mission unit within the year preceding the absence. CI special agents will conduct investigations of the circumstances surrounding the absences of SCA personnel using the guidelines presented in this manual. • Army military, civilian, or overseas contractor personnel declared AWOL and deserters who had access within the preceding year to TS, SCI, critical military technology as defined in AR 381-20, chapter 7, SAPs; personnel who were assigned to a special mission unit; personnel in the DA Cryptographic Access Program (DACAP); and personnel with access to critical nuclear weapons design technology. • Army military, civilian, or overseas contractor personnel who go absent without authority, AWOL, or deserters who do not have assignments or access; however, there are indications of FISS and ITO contact or involvement in their absence. • DA military and civilian personnel who defect and those persons who are absent without authorization and travel to or through a foreign country other than the one in which they were stationed or assigned. • DA military and civilian personnel detained or captured by a government, group, or adversary with interests inimical to those of the United States. Such personnel will be debriefed upon return to U.S. control. • Attempted or actual suicide or suspicious death of a DA member if they have an intelligence background, were assigned to an SMU, or had access to classified information within the year preceding the incident, or where there are indications of FISS and ITO involvement. • Suspected or actual unauthorized acquisition or illegal diversion of military critical technology, research and development information, or information concerning an Army acquisition program. If required, Army CI will ensure all appropriate military and civilian intelligence and LEAs are notified. Army CI will also ensure Army equities are articulated and either monitor the status of the agency with primary jurisdiction or coordinate for joint investigative authority. • Impersonation of intelligence personnel or unlawful possession or use of Army intelligence identification, such as badge and credentials. • Communications security (COMSEC) insecurities, except those which are administrative in nature. (See AR 380-40, chapter 7.) • Suspected electronic intrusions or eavesdropping devices in secure areas which could be used for technical surveillance. DA personnel discovering such a device will not disturb it or discuss the discovery in the area where the device is located. • Willful compromise of clandestine intelligence personnel and CI activities. … DECEPTION IDENTIFICATION AND DETECTION (BIOMETRICS) 6-38. Biometrics as a characteristic is a measurable biological and behavioral characteristic that can be used for automated recognition. Biometrics as a process is an automated method of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. As the level of security breaches and transaction fraud increases, the need for highly secure identification and personal verification technologies is becoming apparent. 6-39. Identification specific mission areas that CI detection and identification processes and technologies support include, but are not limited to, the following: • Countering foreign intelligence through the detection, identification, and neutralization of espionage activities. • Support to military readiness and conduct of military operations through protection, including— • Surveillance of air, land, or sea areas adjacent to deployed U.S. forces, sufficient to provide maximum warning of impending attack. • Indication of hostile intelligence penetration or attempts at penetration. • Support to law enforcement efforts to suppress CT. • Identification and affiliation of terrorist groups. • Assessment of group capabilities, including strengths and weaknesses. • Locations of terrorist training camps or bases of operations. • Weapons and technologies associated with identified terrorist elements. … COMPUTER FORENSICS 6-43. Computer forensics is conducted to— • Discover and recover evidence related to espionage, terrorism, or subversion against the Army. • Develop CI investigative leads. • Collect and report intelligence. • Support exploitation efforts. 6-44. Processing and examining digital media evidence is a tedious and time-consuming process which requires specialized training and equipment. Failure to properly process and examine digital media evidence could corrupt the evidence or yield the evidence inadmissible during future legal proceedings. Due to the complexities of cyber investigations, computer forensics support to CI investigations will only be conducted by specially trained and qualified personnel assigned to cyber CI elements in each theater. 6-45. Requests for computer forensic support will be made through the appropriate ATCICA. Requests for assistance will include detailed descriptions of the digital media evidence to be seized and examined and will be germane to the approved CI investigative objectives. 6-46. Every CI special agent is responsible for identifying the need for computer forensics support to their investigations. Computer forensics examinations involve a methodical process which, depending on the size and complexity of the digital media evidence, may take a significant amount of time to complete. Computer forensic operations cannot be rushed and therefore investigative time lines may need to be adjusted to accommodate the time required to complete the support. If a CI special agent is in doubt about the capabilities of, or when to leverage, cyber CI units, the agent should contact his ATCICA for guidance. … COUNTERINTELLIGENCE NETWORK INTRUSION INVESTIGATIONS 7-10. CI network intrusion investigations involve collecting, processing, and analyzing evidence related to adversarial penetrations of Army information systems. These specialized CI investigations are generally conducted independently of other traditional CI investigations. However, given the jurisdictional issues which involve the Internet, network intrusion investigations may require coordination with other U.S. and foreign government intelligence and law enforcement entities. 7-11. Threats to Army information systems can range from exploitation of vulnerabilities in information systems which allow adversaries to penetrate Army computers and collect critical information, to trusted insiders who either willingly or unwittingly enable adversarial forces to exploit these critical infrastructure resources. Any adversary with the motive, means, opportunity, and intent to do harm poses a potential threat. Threats to Army information resources may include disruption, denial degradation, ex-filtration, destruction, corruption, exploitation, or unauthorized access to computer networks and information systems and data. Cyber CI units are uniquely qualified to investigate and counter these threats. 7-12. All CI network intrusion investigations will be coordinated, to the extent necessary, with the USACIDC, specifically the Cyber Criminal Investigations Unit (CCIU). This coordination is necessary to ensure that investigative activities are not duplicated and that each organization does not impede or disrupt each other’s investigative or prosecutorial options. 7-13. A CI network intrusion investigation may be initiated under, but not necessarily be limited to, the following circumstances: • Known, suspected, or attempted intrusions into classified or unclassified information systems by unauthorized persons. • Incidents which involve intrusions into systems containing or processing data on critical military technologies, export controlled technology, or other weapons systems related RDT&E data. • Intrusions which replicate methods associated with foreign intelligence or adversary collection or which involve targeting that parallels known foreign intelligence or adversary collection requirements. 7-14. The purpose for conducting a CI network intrusion investigation will be to— • Fully identify the FISS and ITO entity involved. • Determine the FISS and ITO objectives. • Determine the FISS and ITO tools, techniques, and procedures used. • Assist the appropriate authorities with determining the extent of damage to Army and Department of Defense equities. … 7-32. The trusted insider is the most serious threat to DOD information systems security. The following list of indicators that could be associated with an insider threat should be addressed during threat briefings to CI customers: • Unauthorized attempts to elevate privileges. • Unauthorized sniffers. • Suspicious downloads of sensitive data. • Unauthorized modems. • Unexplained storage of encrypted data. • Anomalous work hours and/or network activity. • Unexplained modification of network security-related operating system settings. • Unexplained modification of network security devices such as routers and firewalls. • Malicious code that attempts to establish communication with systems other than the one which the code resides. • Unexplained external physical network or computer connection. • Unexplained modifications to network hardware. • Unexplained file transfer protocol (FTP) servers on the inside of the security perimeter. • Unexplained hardware or software found on internal networks. • Network interface cards that are set in a “promiscuous” or “sniffer” mode. • Unexpected open maintenance ports on network components. • Any unusual activity associated with network-enabled peripheral devices, such as printers and copiers.29 Jan

Sunlight Foundation Blog

Today in OpenGov: On weaponized disclosures, Trumpian ethics and more - In today’s edition, we decry weaponized disclosures, share new data about gun murders across the country, highlight Judge Gorsuch’s testimony on dark money, ask about Ivanka Trump’s new job in the White House, and more. SPEAKING UP On Tuesday, Sunlight joined a coalition of organizations dedicated to government transparency and accountability, privacy, human rights, civil rights, and immigrant rights in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly raising substantial concerns about recent executive actions on immigration and refugees. As we all noted in the letter, the White House’s memoranda include provisions inconsistent with federal privacy protections and information quality guidelines. These actions treat data disclosure as a tool for division and public intimidation, not a means for achieving transparency and accountability. Weaponized disclosures must not erode public trust in government. States and Cities Michigan Senate resists new transparency requirements. “Despite the Michigan House of Representatives’ unanimous vote last week to expand the state’s public records laws under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the outlook for improving transparency — in one of the least transparent states in the country — is questionable.” Sunlight’s Stephen Larrick weighed in: “It is absolutely necessary to have the executive branch and the chief of the executive branch be subject to FOIA…And I think the overwhelming majority of states that have those provisions are showing that democratic norm that transparency should be proportional to power” (StateScoop) A new way to track gun violence at the hyper-local level. The Guardian worked with data from the Gun Violence Archive to create a “new set of nationwide data for 2015 that maps gun murders at the micro level – down to the local census tract. You can use this data to do analysis of how gun murder clusters within neighborhoods in your city or state.”  (The Guardian) State legislatures are likely to tackle five tech-centric issues in coming sessions. “State legislatures are fairly predictable creatures when it comes to the bills they propose each session. A thing — in this case technology — becomes a major focus in the public eye for one reason or another, and a flood of potential legislative solutions pour out of capital offices, each meant to address, improve or regulate some aspect of the larger issue.” This article details five tech-centric issues that look poised for attention across state legislatures. (Government Technology) Money, money, money Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse grilled Judge Neil Gorsuch on Citizens United and money in politics at confirmation hearing. The Senate Judiciary Committee has been considering Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court Nomination. Yesterday, Senator Whitehouse “rattled Gorsuch with a series of increasingly tough questions about corruption, corporate spending, and Citizens United.” He specifically focused on the millions of dollars in dark money being spent to support Gorsuch’s nomination. (Slate) Paul Manafort accused of laundering $750,000. “President Trump’s former campaign leader Paul Manafort is being accused of laundering money from the party of Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed former president, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing documents from a Ukraine lawmaker.” (The Hill) Philadelphia District Attorney facing federal corruption charges. “A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams on federal corruption charges, including allegations that he” exchanged official favors for tens of thousand of dollars in bribes, defrauded a nursing home, and more.  (Wall Street Journal) Ethics in Trumpland Ivanka Trump’s increased role at the White House raises ethics concerns. Ivanka Trump, a close adviser to her father, is taking her role a step further with a White House office and security clearance. But her role as an unpaid, unconfirmed adviser with no official title “has historians and ethics experts questioning the appropriateness of having one of the president’s adult children serving directly in the administration, especially while continuing to own a business.”  (NPR) Precedent may push the President to give Ivanka an official position. Ivanka is taking on increased responsibility, but she won’t be “sworn into a formal role, despite Justice Department legal opinions that urge the president to make sure that individuals engaged in government work hold some type of official federal post, in part to guarantee that they are clearly subject to nepotism and conflict-of-interest rules.” (POLITICO) Trump’s global business partners are looking to cash in. “A previously little-known batch of billionaires and tycoons from around the world suddenly find themselves in an unprecedented position: How do you cash in on a partnership with the president of the United States of America?”(Forbes) Tired of your boss/friend/intern/uncle forwarding you this email every morning? You can sign up here and have it delivered direct to your inbox! Please send questions, comments, tips, and concerns to todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com. We would love your feedback! 22 Mar
Weaponized disclosure must not erode public trust in government - On Tuesday, Sunlight joined a coalition of organizations dedicated to government transparency and accountability, privacy, human rights, civil rights, and immigrant rights in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly raising substantial concerns about recent executive actions on immigration and refugees. As we all noted in the letter, the White House’s memoranda include provisions inconsistent with federal privacy protections and information quality guidelines: “The undersigned organizations committed to government openness and accountability, privacy, human rights, civil rights, and immigrant rights, write to express concern about certain provisions in the recent Executive Orders related to immigration and refugees.1 The provisions call for the collection and dissemination of personal information that selectively targets certain populations and reverses decades old policy that provides certain Privacy Act protections to immigrants and foreigners.2 Based on agency implementation memos,3 it appears that these provisions are being implemented in a manner that is unlawful and inconsistent with federal information quality guidelines, raising serious privacy, transparency, and accountability concerns. We ask that you modify the implementation memos to ensure that the collection and dissemination of information required by the Orders is complete, unbiased, and consistent with federal information quality guidelines. The data collected as a result of these provisions also must be disclosed to the public in a manner consistent with privacy safeguards, open data, and data quality requirements. It is also imperative that your agencies carry out the provisions in the Orders in a manner that is consistent with all applicable laws and regulations, including proper public notice and comment procedures. We oppose the Privacy Act exclusions included in the January 25th Order, and urge you to rescind these provisions. However, should you go forward, existing law limits how you may implement such changes, and, among other things, requires issuance of System of Records Notices (SORNs) and privacy impact assessments.” Sunlight champions open data that strengthens public policy and public trust in government. We support proactive disclosures that help grow bonds between the public and the government that represents them. These executive actions, however, in addition to violating federal information policy norms, treat data disclosure as a tool for division and public intimidation, rather than a means for achieving transparency and accountability. The disclosures ordered by the Trump White House support a political and racial narrative advanced by an administration that has repeatedly dissembled about violence, fabricated narratives about vulnerable populations, and explicitly vowed to ban Muslims from entering the United States of America. Modern history has repeatedly demonstrated that vilifying vulnerable populations, racial minorities or minority religions has led to the worst chapters of our shared history. In the 21st century, information disclosures hold immense potential to harm individuals when government use public data irresponsibly. As billions of people know around the world, once data is published online by a government, restoring reputations and privacy after mistakes is nearly impossible. It’s incumbent upon the Trump administration, Congress and the judiciary to ensure that abuse based on race, class, gender or religion is not tolerated. Public disclosure should be used with caution, never weaponizing transparency to divide nor threaten.22 Mar
Today in OpenGov: When politics meets technocracy - In today's edition, we dig deep into data-driven cities, keep an eye on President Trump's approach to data and transparency, follow attacks on press freedom in Turkey, cover potential corruption in Congress, and more the data-driven city   What can America's technocratic mayors learn from their political machine-driven predecessors? Anthony Williams, the former Mayor of Washington, DC and a self described technocrat, argues for a "Political Authority 3.0 at the local level—with the brain of the technocrat and the heart of the old ward heeler…" that deploys new "analytical horsepower in the service of long-time residents, connecting the data dots to jobs and improving the lot of still-struggling people." (CityLab) NASA is engaging teens across the world to help develop a smart city platform. "Through A World Bridge (AWB), an international program led by NASA and Trillium Learning that allows students to contribute to federal technology projects, teens in the U.S. and internationally are co-developing a smart city platform that will help monitor resources like renewable energy, water, electricity and agricultural systems." (FedScoop) Best practices — including a few from Sunlight — for data-smart cities. "With so many ways to plan the city’s digital future, where should a planning process begin? Below, we profile the digital strategies of three US cities, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and innovations. While the plans vary substantially, they fall into two distinct types: plans that focus on the city’s open data program and plans that address data as part of a comprehensive technology strategy."(Data-Smart City Solutions) Around the world The World Bank mapped 25 years worth  of global forest gain and loss to mark the International Day of Forests. Turkish journalists face a continued crackdown following last year's failed coup attempt. At least 81 journalists are imprisoned across the country and one paper has seen so many of its employees jailed that it is running a special shuttle service so their relatives can visit them. (New York Times) German lawmakers fear Russian interference in upcoming elections following hack at parliament. "While the hack could be a case of old-fashioned espionage conducted with modern means — in part because of its similarity to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in the United States, which the same Russian group reportedly pulled off a few months later — some German officials believe that the stolen information is more likely to be used as a weapon, making it a ticking bomb under the German elections in September." (POLITICO) Crossing the line in congress?   The Supreme Court denied Sen. Bob Menendez's attempt to escape corruption allegations, setting him up for a criminal trial. "The New Jersey Democrat argued unsuccessfully that his prosecution violates the Constitution’s speech-or-debate clause, which limits investigations into the legislative work of members of Congress." Menendez is accused of accepting $1 million worth of campaign  contributions and luxury travel in exchange for intervening on behalf of a friend in disputes with the federal government. (Bloomberg) Former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) jailed on election law charges.  "According to a complaint, Stockman set up a non-profit called Life Without Limits in 2011 that received a single $350,000 donation. Stockman is accused of funneling that money back to himself through payments to employees." (Roll Call) Examples like that of former U.S. Senator Mo Cowan show why the definition of a lobbyist should be expanded. General electric hired former U.S. Sen. William “Mo” Cowan as vice president of legal policy. As a former Senator, Cowan has unique privileges to access the Senate, a fact that could prove highly valuable for G.E. as Sunlight's John Wonderlich explained: “To have access to the grounds, and to have privileged access to where Senators are social with each other, where they’re relaxing, is an enormously valuable benefit…Especially with the Senate, which is designed to be a sort of chummy institution where deals are made in informal conversation, and where personal connections are more important than in the House.” Cowan, who filled outgoing Sen. John Kerry's seat for less than 24 weeks in 2013, has not registered as a lobbyist, which would restrict his privileges. (Boston Herald) Trump on Data and Transparency   Trump's continued refusal to comment on open government and open data plans is cause for concern. Engadget went deep on the new administration's approach to federal data, highlighting two approaches that may prove harmful including making data harder to find and cutting budgets so data is harder to collect. Sunlight's Alex Howard weighed in, citing the White House budget proposal and the risk that "Congress [could defund] agencies in a way that affects their ability to collect or maintain or disclose data." (Engadget) Trump can also choose to end longstanding transparency commitments, as he did this week with the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative. U.S. EITI civil society members explained in a statement: "The Department of the Interior has halted U.S. efforts to seek validation by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global anti-corruption effort to bring openness and accountability to the oil, gas and mining sectors. As civil society members of the U.S. EITI, we are saddened and alarmed that the United States will no longer comply with the standard of a crucial transparency initiative that it has supported since 2003." (Project on Government Oversight) The census must remain apolitical to ensure the quality and integrity of its results. The Center for Data Innovation's Daniel Castro made a strong argument against a proposed executive order that "would direct the Census Bureau to include questions about immigration status in the decennial census, an idea that Republican members of Congress previously proposed before the 2010 Census." The language would drive down the response rate among immigrant communities and put the overall integrity of the census at risk. (The Hill)   Tired of your boss/friend/intern/uncle forwarding you this email every morning? You can sign up here and have it delivered direct to your inbox! Please send questions, comments, tips, and concerns to todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com. We would love your feedback!   21 Mar
Today in OpenGov: The role of whistleblowers, reforms in Rhode Island, and more… - In today's edition we enjoy another day of Sunshine (Week), track OpenGov news on the east coast, welcome new leadership to the Open Government Partnership, check in on President Trump's conflicts, and more… One more day of sunshine   A dozen FOIA experts shared their best advice. Jonathan Peters observed Sunshine Week by asking "a dozen FOIA experts for one piece of advice that would help journalists and others use the FOIA effectively." Top tips? Get help from experts, do your research, make human contact, and don't hesitate to appeal. (Columbia Journalism Review) Advocates raised Trump transparency concerns. Panelists shared concerns about transparency in the Trump administration and highlighted the importance of whistleblowers at a "discussion organized by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight [which focused] on how the press and activists can pressure agencies to improve their responsiveness to Freedom of Information Act requests…"  (Government Executive) Everyday "FOIA heroes" make a strong case for the public's right to know. MuckRock ended Sunshine Week by focusing on five "ordinary citizens whose public records requests have made an impact." (MuckRock) State & Local The Massachusetts State Senate Office of Education and Civic Engagement shared some Sunshine Week Updates.  Rochester, NY brought its FOI process into the 21st century. "The city for years has promised automation of the historically paper-heavy process. Now, working with General Code of Gates, the city is ready to launch a new system that will allow people to file requests online, track the process as it gets reviewed, filled, denied or redacted, and get up-to-date time estimates on delivery."(Democrat & Chronicle via NFOIC) Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo argued for good government reforms. In an op-ed the Governor announced a good government legislative reform package that will focus on campaign finance and election reform, bring more transparency to legislative grants, and more. (Providence Journal) New Jersey moves to require tax return transparency from Presidential candidates. "New Jersey's state legislature passed legislation on Thursday in response to Trump's withheld tax returns. The bill, which is now up to Gov. Chris Christie to approve, would require all candidates for president and vice president to release tax returns [at least 5 years worth of returns]…in order to appear on the state ballot."(Mic.com) Around the world   Open Government Partnership steering committee welcomes new leadership. Last week, member governments of the Open Government Partnership chose Canada, Italy, South Africa, and South Korea to lead the OGP steering committee. The selected governments will serve a 3 year term starting on October 1. (Open Government Partnership) New research finds governments restrict opposition by limiting Internet access. "The effect varies from country to country, and is much less pronounced in democratic nations. But the study, published today in Science, suggests that besides censorship, another way national governments prevent opposing groups from organizing online is by denying them Internet access in the first place, says Nils Weidmann, a professor of political science at the University of Konstanz in Germany." (MIT Technology Review) How one Mexican city is using technology to improve trash collection. The city of Xalapa is targeting its notoriously poor system for trash collection by partnering "with the civic tech group Codeando Xalapa to put some cheap GPS devices onto garbage trucks and allow residents to see their exact location on a map just like in Uber or Lyft. Users can customize notifications to be alerted when the garbage truck is approaching the nearest collection point. And they can submit complaints directly to an oversight officer if there are any problems." (David Sasaki) Ethics in Trumpland President Trump is being sued for potentially hiding personal debts. "A Washington lawyer is suing President Donald Trump for allegedly obscuring the extent of his personal debts on his federal financial disclosure form." (POLITICO) How foreign governments can leverage Trump's business interests. "Trump has taken few steps to distance himself from his organization, and foreign governments could use the President’s business interests as bargaining chips to influence his policymaking." The Atlantic digs deeper in their video series Unpresidented.    Tired of your boss/friend/intern/uncle forwarding you this email every morning? You can sign up here and have it delivered direct to your inbox! Please send questions, comments, tips, and concerns to todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com. We would love your feedback!   20 Mar
Today in OpenGov: Wrapping up Sunshine Week, parsing Trump’s budget, and more - Looking for ways to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day? Check out Ireland’s colorful, CKAN powered open data portal. Meanwhile, in today’s edition, the sun sets on Sunshine Week, Trump drops his budget request, Phoenix embraces open data, and more… Sunshine Week Senator Chuck Grassley shared strong words in support of FOIA and transparency more broadly. In a post on Medium the Iowa Republican celebrated the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 while promising continued vigilance and oversight. “But we can’t just rest on our laurels. No matter which party is in control of Congress or the White House, continuing oversight of FOIA — and the faithful implementation of its amendments — is essential to ensure the law’s effectiveness as a tool for the public good,” he wrote. (Senator Grassley) Sen. Grassley teamed up with Sen. Amy Klobuchar to call for courtroom transparency. Earlier this week the bipartisan tandem “introduced the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act to give all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, the option of allowing their judicial proceedings to be photographed, recorded, broadcast or televised.” (The Hill) Data from 30,000 FOI requests at federal, state, and local level sheds light on response times. MuckRock analyzed their database and found that “despite FOIA’s reputation for being an eternity of waiting, our numbers indicate that while there are delays, most agencies are good at getting you a response within a month or so.” (MuckRock) The National Security Archive rounded up the busy week’s worth of FOIA news. The roundup kicked off with an analysis of the Office of Information Policy’s concerning response to the dissapointing results of the Archive’s annual FOIA Audit, which found that 3 out of 5 agencies have failed to update their FOIA regulations in response to the FOIA Improvement Act. (National Security Archive) Phoenix Suns(hine) Phoenix, AZ has teamed up with OpenGov on a new open data platform. “The new open source platform will improve both internal and public access to key information, such as public safety and transportation data” in Phoenix, the 6th largest city in the United States. (OpenGov) Los Angeles is leveraging open data and mapping technology to clean up its streets. “Los Angeles, California’s comprehensive Clean Streets LA (CSLA) initiative is effectively addressing street cleanliness using the power of data and mapping. Through a CSLA initiative called CleanStat, Los Angeles is the first city to map the cleanliness of every one of its blocks.” (Data-Smart City Solutions) Data, Technology, and the Trump budget President Trump released his budget proposal yesterday. We can expect a long time and a lot of debate before Congress approves a final budget, but it is worth considering what the President’s proposal might mean for government data and transparency programs. We’ve rounded up some initial stories and analysis below and are on the look out for more. If you’re tracking the budget and have a story to share please do by emailing us at todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com Good news for the Census? There has been some concern that the 2020 Decennial Census would be targeted for cuts “threatening the accuracy of the constitutionally mandated tally of Americans. But Trump has proposed boosting the project’s funds, particularly for technology needed to gather the data.”  (Bloomberg) A focus on federal IT? The Trump budget puts some focus on streamlining federal information technology and “…proposes using data to find solutions, and sharing and adopting best practices from the private and public sectors.” Specific items include more money for IT at the Veterans Affairs department (FedScoop) NOAA’s in trouble, but its satellites are safe. The budget proposal recommends a $250 million cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “but there’s one area of the massive data-collecting agency he seems keen on sparing: its satellite fleet.” The agencies satellites are vital to weather forecasting, a variety of business applications, and more. (Bloomberg) The fate of the US Digital Service remains unclear. “Formed as a continuation of the private sector tech experts who helped salvage Healthcare.gov, the USDS has since grown and expanded to become the go-to team for managing difficult digital projects across agencies, and now includes branches within the Defense Department. But will it survive in the Trump administration?” (FedTech Magazine) data on the hill Time to pass the “DATA Act for the financial industry.” Just reintroduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)) “the Financial Transparency Act would direct the government’s eight financial regulatory agencies to adopt data standards for the information they collect from the private sector in order to reduce duplication, burden and fraud and make it available for download, accessible via application programming interfaces and easily searchable. Currently, companies must supply reports in both machine-readable and paper – or PDF – formats.” (Federal Computer Week) Lawmakers look to protect privacy, increase transparency around drones. “Two Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation Wednesday that they said would protect individuals’ privacy and inform the public about the U.S. government’s expanded drone use.” (The Hill) Senator Claire McCaskill introduced a bill that would improve contract transparency. S. 651, the Contractor Accountability and Transparency Act of 2017, would make more robust contract information publicly accessible through usaspending.gov. (Senator McCaskill) Sunlight has joined a bipartisan coalition letter in support of this legislation, arguing that “Posting copies of contracts—rather than summary data that offers little, if any, insights into the goods and services being purchased—is essential to learning about government activities and eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and substandard performance.”   Tired of your boss/friend/intern/uncle forwarding you this email every morning? You can sign up here and have it delivered direct to your inbox! Please send questions, comments, tips, and concerns to todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com. We would love your feedback! 17 Mar
Today in OpenGov: How to connect communities to their data - In today’s edition, we share our new “Tactical Data Engagement” guide, catch up on the latest Sunshine Week news,  talk about Trump and transparency with C-SPAN, and much more… CONNECTING DATA TO COMMUNITIES The Sunlight Foundation published a new, comprehensive guide for cities to engage their residents to improve their communities with public data. In “Tactical Data Engagement,” local elected officials, government workers and the public will find practical steps that go beyond just publishing open government data online, including a strategic process, cases studies that reflect real impact, and simple tactics to move from ideas to action. The resource was developed as part of Sunlight’s ongoing work with dozens of cities across the United States through the What Works Cities initiative, which seeks to improve how data, evidence and technology are applied to improve the business of government and lives of residents. As Sunlight has advocated for over a decade, public access to government information in the 21st century should be free, open and online — but that’s not enough to meet cities’ goals to improve outcomes for  local communities. “We shouldn’t just be proactive about data access, but about facilitating use and reuse,” said Stephen Christopher Larrick, Open Cities Director at the Sunlight Foundation. “What we’ve seen is that cities that connect open data to the unique needs of their residents are able to achieve impact and demonstrate its worth” These gains don’t happen without the investment of time and expertise by city leaders and partnerships within and outside of government. “As Sunlight celebrates the progress that has been made publishing public information online in recent decades, we’re also mindful of all of the work yet to be done during Sunshine Week,” said Alexander B. Howard, Deputy Director at Sunlight Foundation. “Opening data isn’t enough on its own to deliver the transparency, accountability and tangible improvements to city life that mayors and residents want and need to see from the investment of time and resources. ‘Tactical Data Engagement’ provides useful case studies of cities and proven strategies that we hope every city will adopt and adapt, meeting their communities where they are to solve shared problems, together.” The guide is still a work in progress and we’d love it if you told us what you think by reaching out to local@sunlightfoundation.com or posting a comment in the public google doc. (Sunlight Foundation) IF IT’S PUBLIC, PUT IT ONLINE   Yesterday, the American Library Association presented Senator Jon Tester of Montana with the James Madison Award for his work promoting open access to government information and transparency. While accepting the award, Senator Tester announced that he is forming a bipartisan transparency caucus in the Senate. (Newseum)   Tester reintroduces the Public Online Information Act. “All Montanans know we cannot hold folks accountable without sunshine, and in the 21st century we have no excuse not to be as transparent as possible,” Tester said.  “We need more sunshine in our government and this legislation will make it easier for Montanans to keep folks honest.”The POIA “will make all public records from the Executive Branch permanently available on the Internet in a searchable database at no cost to constituents.”(Senator Tester)We are thrilled to see it reintroduced. Sunlight has supported POIA since 2010, when Rep. Israel and Sen. Jon Tester, first introduced this important transparency reform. If enacted, the bill would enshrine into law the simple, transformative principle that in the 21st century, public means online.  We hope Congress moves forward with much-needed open government reforms. Celebrating Sunshine Who uses FOIA and why? FOIA Mapper attempted to answer those questions based on an analysis of 229,000 requests spread across 85 federal agencies. (FOIA Mapper) Sunspots: “Still, there are bright spots around the country: court decisions, laws, bills, and other efforts breathing life into FOI principles. And it’s important to recognize those successes where we get them, because it’s all too easy to feel discouraged by the persistence and scale of FOI challenges. Progress, however fitful, is being made.” (Columbia Journalism Review) A new report endorses police body camera programs. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers released the report, Policing Body Cameras: Policies and Procedures to Safeguard the Rights of the Accused, after two years of research. The report “endorses the continued and wider use of body cameras as long as they are implemented with NACDL’s policy recommendations,” which are also laid out in the paper. (NACDL) Data analytics are worth the work they entail for local governments. “Cities worldwide are having a data and analytics-driven moment, and it’s one that is likely here to stay. Thanks to advances in computing, code-sharing, and mindsets around accessing government data, it has never been a more affordable, accessible or effective time to start harnessing analytics capabilities to improve local government services.” (Data-Smart City Solutions) One last chance to celebrate Sunshine Week with the Sunlight Foundation. Don’t forget that our event is happening tonight at 5:30 at our office in Washington, DC. Sign up to attend here. Transparency in Trumpland Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project on Government Oversight wrote an open letter to the President. In it, she urged President Trump to make transparency and openness a cornerstone of his administration, noting areas where President Obama fell short of his transparency promises that the Trump administration can tackle. (POGO) Sunlight’s executive director John Wonderlich went on C-SPAN to talk about the state of open government. “C-SPAN asked John for our views on the Trump administration’s approach to date on open government.” He responded with a number of examples from the campaign and first few months of Trump’s presidency.  You can read more and watch the full video here. Former Bush and Obama ethics counsels keep up the good fight. Norm Eisen and Richard Painter, former ethics advisers to Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, respectively, “have teamed up to become two of the most vocal critics of President Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest. They not only sued the president within days of his inauguration, they have also appeared regularly on TV news and testified on Capitol Hill on all manner of legal minutiae.” (Roll Call)   Tired of your boss/friend/intern/uncle forwarding you this email every morning? You can sign up here and have it delivered direct to your inbox! Please send questions, comments, tips, and concerns to todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com. We would love your feedback! 16 Mar
Sunlight joins C-SPAN to make sense of the state of open government - This morning, Sunlight’s John Wonderlich joined Greta Wodele Brawner on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to discuss Sunshine Week, transparency and accountability in the United States. You can watch the segment in the video embedded below: C-SPAN asked John for our views on the Trump administration’s approach to date on open government. Following is a short list of examples that we think offer some insight. How candidates conduct campaigns and transitions carries into office. After making himself available to the press through July, Trump set a bar as the least transparent modern presidential candidate in modern history. He held no press conference until January, no tax returns, no proactive disclosures around transition or inauguration. Ethics: Lack of disclosure of tax returns and divestment in accordance with decades of tradition sets up the Trump presidency for ongoing appearance of corruption, with an unknown number of conflicts of interest around the world No affirmative vision for open government. No public statements on the Freedom of Information Act, open government, open data, transparency, nor this year’s Sunshine Week. No comment on White House visitor logs, followed by the Press Secretary responding that they are “considering” whether to disclose them at all. Congress voted to remove an anti-corruption rule, which President Trump signed with fanfare, abandoning U.S. leadership on transparency of payments by the extractive industries to government Secret gag orders to agencies began the Trump administration Historic attacks on the role of the free press in democracy While WhiteHouse.gov is still missing policy documents, executive orders are now posted in a timely fashion No US chief technology officer, nor any evidence of plans for one, along with hundreds of key appointees not submitted to the Senate, including the US chief information officer, chief science advisor The President claimed to have made the most transparent selection of a nominee to be a Supreme Court Justice, given the campaign disclose of lists of potential nominees. When it came to announce his nominee, however, the White House tried to mislead out the press with another choice. Antagonism to government statistics and evidence: President Trump repeatedly said federal jobs numbers were “phony” but now aren’t Levied attacks on the independent judiciary after judges struck down his executive order as unconstitutional Moved drones for counterterrorism back to CIA, away from accountability and transparency at Department of Defense Please send us your stories of more positive or negative examples of transparency and accountability under President Trump.15 Mar
Connect open data to residents’ lives with our Tactical Data Engagement guide - Check out Sunlight’s new guide, “Tactical Data Engagement”, and help us improve the guide by annotating the Google Doc here. United States cities face a critical challenge when it comes to fulfilling the potential of open data: that of moving beyond the mere provision of access to data toward the active facilitation of stakeholder use of data in ways that bring about community impact. Sunlight has been researching innovative projects and strategies that have helped cities tackle this challenge head on. Today we’re excited to share a guide for our new approach to open data in U.S. cities–an approach we’re calling “Tactical Data Engagement,” designed to drive community impact by connecting the dots between open data, public stakeholders, and collaborative action. Access is critical but we have more work to do Many city leaders have realized that open data is a valuable innovation to bring to city hall, and have invoked the promise of a new kind of relationship between government and the people: one where government works with the public in new collaborative ways. City mayors, managers, council members, and other leaders are making commitments to this idea in the US, with over 60 US cities having adopted open data reforms since 2006, nearly 20 in 2016 alone–many with the help of the Sunlight team as part of our support of the What Works Cities initiative. While cities are building the public policy infrastructure for open data, they are also making technical advancements as municipal IT and innovation departments build or procure new open data portals and release more and more government datasets proactively online. These developments are all positive–they represent a sea change in our societal norms and expectations about the public right to government information online–and Sunlight is proud of the work we’ve done to advance access to open data through legal and technical reforms. However, we’re writing now to say is that these developments alone are not enough. Portals and policies are critical infrastructure for the data-driven open government needed in the 21st century; but there has been and continues to be a disconnect between the rhetoric and promise of open data when compared to what it has meant in terms of practical reform. Let us be clear: the promise of open data is not about data on a website. The promise is for a new kind of relationship between government and the governed, one that brings about collaborative opportunities for impact. While many reforms have been successful in building an infrastructure of access, many have fallen short in leveraging that infrastructure for empowering residents and driving community change. Announcing Tactical Data Engagement In order to formulate an approach to help cities go further with their open data programs, Sunlight has been conducting an extensive review of the relevant literature on open data impact, and of the literature on approaches to community stakeholder engagement and co-creation (both civic-tech or open-data driven as well as more traditional). We drew key inspiration from the field of urban planning, where low-cost, and often temporary physical interventions in the built environment have helped reimagine a more participatory and iteratively co-created conception of the city, as well as from the field of design, where human-centered approaches have long been recognized as critical. We’ve been evaluating case studies at the local level and have even learned from efforts in the federal government like the The Opportunity Project or the Center for Open Data Enterprise’s Open Data Roundtables. We’ve been conducting interviews with experts and drawing from our own direct work supporting cities with open data. The result so far is our “Tactical Data Engagement” Guide (still in beta) designed to address what we see as the the most critical challenge currently facing the open data movement: helping city open data programs build on a new infrastructure of access to facilitate the collaborative use of open data to empower residents and create tangible community impact. And we’re not done yet. In the spirit of the collaborative approaches we recommend, we’ll be continuing to speak to experts and public officials in city government for the next few months to learn how to better adapt Tactical Data Engagement to fit cities’ needs. Let us know what you think by reaching out to local@sunlightfoundation.com or by leaving a comment in the public Google Doc here. To fully meet their goals, cities need to turn their sights beyond access alone. Most open data initiatives, after all, aim for public stakeholders to use data productively. Cities want to do more with their data by enlisting the help of community actors, and, most importantly, they want open data to have an impact. An open data policy or portal on its own won’t necessarily bring out these goals. It’s clear cities need to go further. With Tactical Data Engagement we’ve laid out a process and begun to compile tactics that we hope will help them do just that. Check out the guide below.   15 Mar
Today in OpenGov: Trump’s Tax Tease - In today’s edition we get another peak at President Trump’s taxes, explore the idea of a congressional digital service, and celebrate Sunshine Week in the states… Sunshine in the states Thanks to Candace DiLavore for reaching out and sharing Reclaim New York’s new Online Transparency Index! “This platform, a new feature of The New York Transparency Project, allows citizens and elected officials to evaluate their local governments based on a list of indicators we developed to track how transparent and accessible their governments are online,” she explained. Open government is advancing in Rhode Island.  “When Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island and members of the state’s House of Representatives recently demanded that records relating to one of the biggest and most publicized loan investigations in the state be made public, it was an early Sunshine Week gift for the public and especially for advocates of open government.” (New England First Amendment Coalition via NFOIC) Bipartisan effort pushes Mississippi police to report civil asset forfeiture. “Facing growing bipartisan scrutiny over its unchecked civil asset forfeiture program, Mississippi will now require police to report how much property they seize from citizens under a bill signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant Monday.” (Reason)   Sunshine week rolls on Which federal agency will win this year’s FOIA March Madness? For the second year in a row MuckRock is asking 64 federal agencies to process an identical FOIA request for standard materials in an effort to crown the Most Responsive Agency. (MuckRock) Congress needs a digital service to modernize and restore public trust. Seamus Kraft, Executive Director of the OpenGov Foundation, made the case for a congressional digital service at a Sunshine Week event on Monday. According to Kraft, “a congressional digital service team…[could] help Congress identify their tech problems and take advantage of…[existing tools] to reverse declining public trust by improving congressional business processes and civic engagement.” (Federal Computer Week) Trump’s Tax tease President Trump’s 2005 taxes leaked last night. The leak, and subsequent confirmation by the White House, adds a small piece to the picture of Trump’s overall tax record. During the campaign, Trump became the first major party candidate since the 1970’s to refuse to release tax information, despite initially pledging to do so. (POLITICO) Trump’s team has argued that his taxes couldn’t be released because of an IRS audit, but their confirmation of details in this case suggest that any audit is not a real barrier to disclosure. elsewhere A new report predicts $10 billion in compliance savings from data based reporting. The report by the Data Foundation and PricewaterhouseCoopers encourages replacing document based reporting with standardized open data reporting or Standardized Business Reporting and cites $10 billion as an early-stage estimate. (fedscoop) Top White House aide accused of violating ethics rules. “The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is accusing a top White House official of potentially violating criminal conflict of interest laws by playing a role in meetings with major companies in which he also appeared to have held millions of dollars in stock.” The group filed a complaint against Christopher Liddell who currently serves as an assistant to the president and director of strategic initiatives. (POLITICO) Rex Tillerson used an email alias to discuss climate change while at the head of Exxon Mobil. The office of New York’s attorney general “said in court documents that Exxon hadn’t disclosed that Rex Tillerson, the former chairman and chief executive, used an alias email address to discuss risk-management issues related to climate change. Mr. Tillerson, now the U.S. secretary of state, used the pseudonym “Wayne Tracker” from at least 2008 to 2015, according to the attorney general.” (Wall Street Journal)   Tired of your boss/friend/intern/uncle forwarding you this email every morning? You can sign up here and have it delivered direct to your inbox! Please send questions, comments, tips, and concerns to todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com. We would love your feedback! 15 Mar
Today in OpenGov: Can’t Stop the Sunshine - It may be snowing on the east coast, but we are here to make sure the sunshine breaks through. In today’s edition, we share a fresh batch of Sunshine Week news, look at the costs of ignoring transparency requirements, and more… Sunshine week A one stop shop to learn about the federal FOIA. Interested in the federal Freedom of Information Act? Looking for information about the law or a specific agency? Check out FOIA Wiki, a “free and collaborative resource on the U.S. Freedom of Information Act…provided by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, with contributions from The FOIA Project at TRAC, MuckRock, The National Security Archive, FOIA Mapper, and users like you.” (FOIA Wiki) FOIA Audit finds 3 out of 5 agencies failing to follow the latest updates to law. According to a new report from the National Security Archive released this week only 33 out of 98 agencies have updated their rules to comply with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. (National Security Archive) How can we solve challenges to FOIA? “But the things people build — be they bridges, roads or freedom of information laws — wear out without regular maintenance. That’s why Sunshine Week exists, to remind us that it takes effort to keep freedom working.” (David Cuillier and Eric Newton via RCFP)  A new way to explore foreign influence. The Center for Responsive Politics is celebrating Sunshine Week with a new tool called Foreign Lobby Watch. The tool, a descendent of Sunlight’s Foreign Influence Explorer project, provides an easy way to “search filings required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).” CRP plans to add additional functionality in the future, making the tool even more powerful. (OpenSecrets.org) The Department of Justice’s digital disclosure of foreign lobbying makes progress. For the first time, DOJ will be proactively posting “informational materials” filed by foreign lobbyists online. The materials, previously available only in hardcopy, “include things like draft legislation, speeches, and press releases, and show how the lobbyists, in their own words, attempt to wield influence on behalf of their foreign clients.” (Project on Government Oversight) sunshine in the states Avoiding compliance with open government laws is expensive for states and citizens. Government organizations need a new approach to dealing with rapid technology change and increased expectations of openness. “Circling the wagons is not a bad idea. However, it should be done around the inadequate laws, policies and practices, and not around the content in which the public has a right to access.” (National Freedom of Information Coalition) Minnesota faces a growing list of exemptions to its transparency law. “Exceptions to government transparency are growing in Minnesota as lobbyists for local officials, law enforcement and businesses gain exemptions under the state’s public records law.” The law, which was 29 pages when passed in 1982, has ballooned to 176 pages. (The News Tribune) Liberating data from legacy systems. Municipal governments around the country are trying to figure out how to best “liberate operational data from” legacy systems and “there are some common lessons that can be derived from cities that have gone down this road already for those that are still trying to figure out the right approach.” (Mark Headd) Ethics in trumpland   Trump’s “Winter White House” poses espionage, transparency risks. “President Donald Trump relishes the comforts of his Mar-a-Lago estate for repeated weekends away from Washington, but former Secret Service and intelligence officials say the resort is a security nightmare,” noting the lack of background checks for visitors among other issues. It’s not possible to disclose visitor logs if the Secret Service doesn’t do background checks for people visiting the “Winter White House” in the first place. The Trump administration appears not to be doing due diligence the public can and should expect of securing Mar-a-Lago, given that the president has  gone there four times and is planning to travel there again this weekend. Espionage and influence concerns aside, we still don’t know how much each trip itself costs the public, with estimates ranging from $800-$3 million each trip, as the White House is not disclosing travel. (POLITICO) Fast Company goes deep on President Trump’s ties to the embattled ex-president of Panama. “Ricardo Martinelli, the ex-president of Panama facing extradition on corruption charges, helped [Trump] launch his first international property.” Sonny Perdue’s history of conflict. “President Donald Trump’s nominee for Agriculture secretary, agribusiness tycoon and former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, has long mixed personal and political business to benefit his friends and business associates — and he’s on track to do it again, even before he’s confirmed to the Cabinet post.” (POLITICO) Meanwhile, after a long delay, Purdue has submitted ethics forms detailing how he plans to avoid conflicts of interest in his new job. (The Hill) American Oversight will track Trump administration conflicts of interest.  The new 501(c)(3) organization led by the co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a former State Department lawyer,  “will primarily use litigation and open records laws” in its mission. (The Hill) Elsewhere Biden talks health data at South By Southwest. Former vice president Joe Biden echoed a common theme at this year’s South By Southwest conference with a speech that touched on “data transparency, especially for digital interactions between, and within, government agencies and the private sector.” (Ars Techinca) Lobbyists search for new approaches to influence in China. “Multinational companies have spent decades mastering the art of government relations in China. Now, as President Xi Jinping extends the Communist Party’s reach over policy making, they are starting to shift course.” (Bloomberg)   Tired of your boss/friend/intern/uncle forwarding you this email every morning? You can sign up here and have it delivered direct to your inbox! Please send questions, comments, tips, and concerns to todayinopengov@sunlightfoundation.com. We would love your feedback! 14 Mar
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