1075: CIA Paid Me

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 14:56

by James Arnold

| October 03, 2018 12:00 AM

China has benefited most from global free trade, helped on by knowledge transfer and industrial espionage. Yves Logghe

P resident Trump's recent United Nations speech focused on independence and national sovereignty over multilateralism. Among other things, you could say that Trump implicitly backed Brexit once again.

The recent transatlantic nuptials are a superb reminder of the inextricable ties that bind the United States and the United Kingdom. They remind us of the source and permanence of this relationship. There is a common origin, language, and legal system; shared security and defense: We are true collective cousins. And at this moment, between a frail Europe and a rising China, our mutual ties can become as meaningful today as they ever have been.

The World Wars made it evident what the Anglo mind believed in as the U.S. sacrificed for the freedom of all: The Atlantic Charter of 1941 and the U.K.-U.S.A. Agreement of 1946 and later amendments formed the backbone of military and intelligence cooperation '-- then further widened by mutual agreement. The Anglo Commonwealth remains in place three generations on.

Even as the EU struggles to hold itself together '-- Italy and Spain are swaying in the Euro winds '-- the Anglosphere may be reaching a moment in collective consciousness when we understand that free trade has not been quite the party we wanted. The West has suffered a relative decline as a result of the global nature of GATT and its successor, the WTO.

China has benefited most from global free trade, helped on by knowledge transfer and industrial espionage. The Middle Kingdom's development of competing military systems was born of their rising GDP and our complacency, in part due to our focus on the War on Terror. We are seeing the early consequences in the South China Sea, but China's end game remains probably best not imagined.

The U.S. has realized it is time to negotiate tariffs whilst being open to favor those closest or most reasonable. This may prove to be more successful than anticipated if executed appropriately: protecting key industry groups to allow them to flourish and outcompete. Implementation should be straightforward given our highly developed Information Technology infrastructure.

In a trade war, the country with the larger industrial base will be more prone to fracture. The U.S. economy of the Smoot-Hawley era is no more, but it is a closer representation of how China finds itself now.

Eighty percent of U.S. private sector incomes come from the service sector. This is why any trade war will have a far smaller impact on American jobs and incomes than a century ago in the West. The number of people engaged in agriculture and manufacturing, all other things being equal, has collapsed thanks to greater efficiency due to technological innovation. Any overall fall in U.S. consumption today would be much less dramatic than in any primarily industrial economy that tries to reject U.S. proposals for fair trade rules.

China's ability to enact industrial tariffs is also constrained by globally meandering modern supply chains. These present another reason the Middle Kingdom would only be shooting itself in the foot were it to respond inappropriately to US proposals.

The moment is here for the Anglo Interest to avoid being eclipsed by the rising Middle Kingdom '-- a rise that is primarily due to poor decisions of the former neoliberal order.

Meanwhile, the U.K. has reached a moment of need. Continental Europe is turning away, and a helping hand is most welcome from the United States. There is an irony in finding Western Europe unable to learn from the repeated lessons of history. It is time to define the future of the United Kingdom and the Anglo Interest in a positive tone.

The United States and United Kingdom have this opportunity to cement our historically strong relationship, unleash the power of free and fair trade, and eliminate burdensome red tape and regulation.

And such a collaboration, as successful as it promises to be, will almost certainly provide further impetus to the Anglosphere '-- Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are bound to follow.

James Arnold is a British financier.

I am quite familiar with the Microsoft Security Response

Center. They spend over a billion dollars annually in security research and this

building is quite impressive.

Regarding the case of the Russians and Microsoft. My

interpretation is that Microsoft would have owned the DNS as well as the web

apps or virtual machines where these sites were hosted. Microsoft does have an

Azure DNS service that you can use and it is quite fast. Updates happen

instantly over their content delivery network.

Like any server, on premises or in the cloud, if you don't

secure it, you would have problems with hackers taking it over. This could

quite easily be either them buying services outright, but honestly, I think

it's more hijacking someone's azure subscription or the virtual machine within

and making the changes. Many users with just enough skills to be dangerous are

putting up unsecured Azure servers and subscriptions on the internet. The ease

of which you can spin up a server in 15 minutes without a lot of know-how means

there are many non-security conscious people setting up servers and not

securing them properly. This is a huge problem for Microsoft, which is why

they've released a number of automated tools and visual alerts on the Azure

dashboard telling people what they must do to lock down their setups.

So it's unlikely that Microsoft took the DNS from another

provider, rather everything was already hosted on their network.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:05

"Operation b49" cuts the head off of the world-wide Waledac web

February 25, 2010 3:06PM ESTFebruary 25, 2010PCMag reviews products

independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page.

Terms of use.

An operation of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) has taken down a large number of command and control (C&C) servers for the Waledac botnet. Waledac is a major spammer botnet.

After months of technical research and investigation, Microsoft sought and received a temporary restraining order in a Northern Virginia federal court for VeriSign, operators of the .COM and .NET top-level domains, to remove registrations for 273 domains.

Click here to see the complaint. The domains are listed in the complaint; I did some checks and some are still up and running, though Microsoft claims that the order was executed and has already cut heavily into Waledac traffic. We don't know if they are serving the botnet, but some are serving parked web pages.

Botnets use large numbers of domains as part of "fast flux networks" in order to hide the actual C&C servers. They rapidly change the servers by changing the authoritative DNS for the domains to various IP addresses for bots in the botnet. As Microsoft states in the complaint, the domain registrar is the lone single choke point for those domains, at least for those in the .com and .net spaces.

The possibility of using registrars for this purpose is an old one, but there is no good mechanism for using it. In this case, a company like Microsoft has the resources to do research and bring a legal challenge, but the courts aren't an efficient way to deal with the problem. For their part, VeriSign probably has no problem cooperating even absent a court order, but their agreement with ICANN to operate the registries probably precludes them from taking down domains simply at the request of a 3rd party. The need the court order.

Top

Will do! Also, a quick

addition. They give us 2 hours a day called "wellness hours" and

provide "wellness coaches" for us in case the content DOES affect us.

The 2 hours are literally paid-free time (I usually go for walks and listen to

you guys!). The client sends reps every now and then to see how things are

going but I get the feeling google doesn't really care about what we're doing.

I mean, you guys were right about it being impossible to review every bit of

content and I'm sure they know that. I think all of it is in place as a back up

in case of lawsuits, but that is fairly obvious. Okay, NOW thats all I got.

Thank you reading and replying!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:26

AUDIENCE SCORE Average Rating: N/A

User Ratings: 26

Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.

Movie Info When you post something on the web, can you be sure it stays there? Enter a hidden shadow industry of digital cleaning where the Internet rids itself of what it doesn't like... violence, pornography and... political content. Who is controlling what we see and what we think?

Rating:

NR

Genre:

Directed By:

Runtime:

88 minutes

Studio:

Submarine Entertainment

CastCritic Reviews for The CleanersAudience Reviews There are no featured reviews for The Cleaners at this time.

The Cleaners QuotesNews & Features

Random thought I had today, and the No Agenda OTG segments

and general discussion of cell phones factored into it.

For a time the small, portable tobacco vehicle known as the

cigarette was a staple of everyday life. It was acceptable for everyone to

smoke everywhere. Big companies tried to cover up the detrimental health

aspects of smoking. Eventually things changed and people realized that smoking

wasn't good for themselves and society in general.

Now cell phones are the new cigarettes and social media

is the new tobacco. Hopefully we wise up to it faster than we did cigarettes.

Just a thought, for whatever it's worth.

Thank you for your courage. Love and light.

-andrew

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 03:06

A former Google boss has launched a withering attack on the firm, calling technology giants deluded.

Jessica Powell said she had become tired of defending the company in her role as its top PR chief.

'This is an industry that takes itself far too seriously, and its own responsibility not seriously enough,' she added.

Jessica Powell, above, said she had become tired of defending the company in her role as its top PR chief. Miss Powell, 40, launched her searing criticism in an essay and satirical novel, both published this week

'I want Silicon Valley to end the self-delusion and either fess up to the reality we are creating, or live up to the vision we market to the world each day. Because if you're going to tell people you're their saviour, you better be ready to be held to a higher standard.'

Miss Powell, 40, launched her searing criticism in an essay and satirical novel, both published this week, which together paint a damning portrait of the Silicon Valley culture.

She said: 'We go about saying that we're building these amazing things and doing great things for the world but we're also causing a lot of serious problems.

Her powerful assault is the first of its kind to come from someone so senior at Google, and one of very few to come from Silicon Valley where executives keep to a code of secrecy [File photo]

'There is a real problem that we have of black and white thinking '' that we lead with data all the time. You say, ''Oh well, of two billion users maybe a small percentage of that is bad actors''.

'It's very easy to forget that that's electoral interference, that's live-streamed suicides, that's Myanmar. It's really horrific stuff.'

Her powerful assault is the first of its kind to come from someone so senior at Google, and one of very few to come from Silicon Valley where executives keep to a code of secrecy.

The former journalist, who has three children, said she had been tempted to publish her novel '' The Big Disruption '' under a pseudonym but felt an obligation to break the silence.

'At a time when tech is under scrutiny for a number of issues, it's important that those of us who can speak up publicly do so without the comfortable cloak of anonymity,' she said.

Her essay paid tribute to the talented people she worked with at Google and some of the products it has built. But more than a year on from her departure, Miss Powell is scathing about big technology companies.

In one thinly-veiled attack, she accused them of using the sheer size of their platforms as an excuse not to fix problems.

She said: 'You can't go about telling your advertisers that you can target users down to the tiniest pixel, but then throw your hands up in front of the politicians and say your machines can't figure out if bad actors are using your platform.'

Google has been widely criticised for allowing jihadists, far-Right extremists and other hate preachers to post content on its YouTube video platform. In some cases, it funnelled cash from advertisers to the extremists posting videos.

However, in her essay, published for free on the Medium website, she admitted she needed to 'take a break from the issues that I got tired of defending at parties'. She quit the role in August [File photo]

But the firm has repeatedly told MPs it cannot stop problem content because of the sheer volume of videos that are uploaded to YouTube.

Miss Powell was in charge of the company's response to the criticism, reporting directly to Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai.

Her decision to quit the lucrative role in August last year surprised many in the industry. At the time, Miss Powell claimed she was leaving to go back to university to study creative writing.

However, in her essay, published for free on the Medium website, she admitted she needed to 'take a break from the issues that I got tired of defending at parties'.

She said: 'On the surface, things seemed really important and exciting. We were doing big things! Bringing the internet to the developing world! But also, on some level, it all felt a bit off, like when you go on vacation and find yourself wondering when it's going to feel like the Instagram pics other people have posted.'

Miss Powell also levelled criticism at Amazon and Facebook.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 03:08

S everal years ago, I was sitting in the audience at a big tech conference, learning about a startup that made it easy for people to rent rooms in other people's houses for short stays. In a world where people can now travel to any part of the world and share someone else's home, could we hope, the CEO asked, for greater cross-cultural understanding? ''Would nations have less war if the residents lived together?''

I closed my eyes, breathed deeply, and felt an immense sense of peace and hope for humanity wash over me.

Then I opened my eyes and thought, ''Isn't this basically a hotel in someone's house'Š'--'Ša cool, convenient, unregulated hotel?''

When it was my turn to take the stage, I too had a grandiose proclamation: Our startup, I declared, was helping people make meaningful connections in the real world.

What I really should have said was: We help people hook up.

On the plane ride home, I began to write what would eventually become The Big Disruption, a satirical novel based on my experience working at both a startup and one of the biggest tech companies in the world. I had no goal at the time other than to provide a bit of cathartic escape from the tech industry, where, on the surface, things seemed really important and exciting.

We were doing big things!

Bringing the internet to the developing world!

Singing songs to orphans!

But also, on some level, it all felt a bit off.

So, where to begin?

Should I start with the early stage companies? Like the time I was at a startup and the founder I was working for'Š'--'Ša guy who owned a hundred shirts in the same color and quoted Steve Jobs on a daily basis'Š'--'Šasked me whether we should hand out dildos as company swag or consider converting our social media platform into an anonymous sex club. (We even whiteboarded it.)

Or maybe I could start with the money'Š'--'Šall the absurd valuations with seemingly little basis in reality. Or the time a partner at a VC ''jokingly'' offered up my female friend, his employee, as an enticement for a founder to work with his firm.

You can't really claim that you're building for everyone in the world when your own workforce doesn't remotely resemble the outside world.Or maybe I should start with the tech workers. The employees at my most recent job'Š'--'Šrunning PR at a huge tech company'Š'--'Šwere some of the smartest, most passionate people I've ever worked with. They worked through the night to help people in a natural disaster. They gave money and vacation time to help the sick family members of other employees. They ran marathons on the weekend to raise money for clean water in Africa.

They also spent the weekday complaining on company message boards about the brand of water stocked in the micro-kitchens.

Then there are the amazing products. The progressive politics. The mighty ethical stands against evil. These are the things that, in my twenties, pulled me to tech in the first place and made me think I was embarking on something truly different.

To be sure, Silicon Valley has built some great products that have truly changed our lives for the better. And I do think that in many, many ways, it has taken noble stands during difficult times and helped redefine what people expect from companies, well beyond just the tech industry. It has also led me to some of my best friends and greatest opportunities, for which I am very grateful. There is so much I really do love about this world.

But there is also what drove me to leave the big tech company last fall and take a break. The issues that I got tired of defending at parties. The endless use of ''scale'' as an excuse for being unable to solve problems in a human way. The faux earnestness, the self-righteousness. All those cheery product ads set to ukulele music.

I wrote this book for two reasons. First, I wanted to explore what drives the insatiable expansion of the big tech companies. Despite how the industry is sometimes portrayed in the media, I don't really think the management teams at Facebook, Google, Apple, Uber, or Amazon wake up each morning thinking about how to steal more user data or drive us all out of our jobs. Those are real consequences, but not the root cause. Rather, it's the desperation to stay on top and avoid being relegated to a dusty corner of the Computer History Museum that pushes these companies into further and further reaches of our lives.

Second, I wrote this book because we should be able to love and celebrate the products that we build'Š'--'Šbut without ignoring the hard questions they raise. We need to end the self-delusion and either fess up to the reality we are creating or live up to the vision we market to the world. Because if you're going to tell people you're their savior, you better be ready to be held to a higher standard. This book is my small way of trying to push us all to be better. Meaning'...

You can't tell your advertisers that you can target users down to the tiniest pixel but then throw your hands up before the politicians and say your machines can't figure out if bad actors are using your platform.

When I wrote this novel, I eliminated almost all women and people of color from the story to make a point.You can't buy up a big bookstore and then a big diaper store and a big pet supply store and, finally, a big grocery store, national newspaper, and rocket ship and then act surprised when people start wondering if maybe you're a bit too powerful.

And you can't really claim that you're building for everyone in the world when your own workforce doesn't remotely resemble the outside world.

When I wrote this novel, I eliminated almost all women and people of color from the story to make a point. It's an exaggeration'Š'--'Šthe book is satire, remember'Š'--'Šbut it's also true that the Valley has a diversity problem.

Would Uber have had such a toxic internal culture, rife with sexual harassment, if there had been more women on the management team helping to drive the company's culture? Would the Google Photos app have labeled the image of an African-American woman an ''ape'' had there been greater representation of African-Americans on the engineering, product, or quality assurance teams'Š'--'Šsomeone who might have questioned whether the data pool feeding into the algorithm was sufficiently diverse? Would we see more funding for technology tackling problems affecting lower-income communities if venture capitalists were not graduating from just a handful of elite institutions?

That's also why I ultimately decided to publish this novel under my name. I was very tempted to publish it anonymously. I didn't really want the attention for myself, and I didn't want people to interpret the book as a specific take on one company. (For the record, I wrote it when I was between jobs.) Nor did I want readers to sit diagramming the characters, trying to figure out which character corresponded to a famous tech exec. (Hint: None of them do, except the one likable character. Clearly, that's me'...just kidding. No one's likable in this book.) But at a time when tech is under scrutiny for a number of issues, it's important that those of us who can speak up publicly do so without the comfortable cloak of anonymity.

Writing satire feels a bit like trimming a bonsai tree with a machete. But it felt like the right approach for an industry that takes itself far too seriously and its own responsibility not seriously enough. Because sometimes you're not saving the world; you're just building an anonymous sex club. And that's fine'Š'--'ŠI'm sure there are plenty of people who like anonymous sex clubs'Š'--'Šbut let's just be honest about it.

Stop trying to convince us'Š'--'Šand yourselves'Š'--'Šthat your dildos are diamonds.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 16:34

Subscribe FreePedophilia CommissionSteele Latest ArticlesEIN (Parent Site)Owl: Accuser Dr. Christine Blasey UPDATE 51: Collins YES, Speech SHINESRobert Steele: Deep State Plan A (Impeachment), Plan B (Assassination), Plan C (Amendment 25) '-- A is down, C is active, B is more likely than ever beforeEXCLUSIVE: Video 3:43 Extract of Senator Lindsey Graham and Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Discussing Military Tribunals BONUS: 00:11 John Kasich on CNN ''John McCain Was Put to Death''Benjamin Fulford: Pandemic False Flag & Big Tech CensorshipRobert Steele: President Donald Trump's 9/11 Speech is Full of Errors '-- Cell Phones Did Not, Do Not Operate on Aircraft, Nor Were Airphones Used UPDATE 3Robert Steele: Mormon Church Pedophilia Exposed? UPDATE 2Justice Ginsburg: Abraham Lincoln Grabbed My Ass in 1862 '-- I Want All His Statues Torn Down '...Robert Steele: Prime Suspects for NYT Op-Ed Are Kelly and Mattis UPDATE We Believe Woodward on Kelly & Mattis We Do Not Believe Slate on HuntsmanWilliam Binney & Robert Steele at CATO: 9/11 False Flag NSA Shut Down Watered Down Thin Thread Down Precisely to Prevent Revelation of US Persons Involved in the False Flag eventRobert Steele: Facebook is Doomed, Zuckerberg Cashing Out UPDATE 1 Facebook Now Censoring Photos and VideosRobert Steele: Vice President Mike Pence Platitudes at Pentagon 9/11 Commemoration '' Could This Be a Feint?Robert Steele: 9/11 Truth: To Be, or Not To Be, a Constitutional DemocracyWorth a Look: Nathalie: Confessions of a Fashion Model Mind-Control Sex Slave '-- Review by Henry MakowDavid Icke: Rothschild Zionism '' Names Names, All Enemies of the USA?Betty Boop: The Ramtha Trump ProphecyRobert Steele: Understanding Trump's United Nations Appearance '' He was speaking to America, scorning the cabal servants in the roomPedophilia & Empire: Satan, Sodomy, & The Deep State '' Chapter 19 Sir Jimmy Savile: British History's Biggest Pedophile, Sexual Blackmail Kingpin, VIP Pimp, BBC Pedophile Ringleader and the Massive Cover-upAlex Jones Melts Down: ''I'm Ready to Die'' (and Lie?)'...Three Amigos Proof of Life: Stephen E. Arnold, William Binney, Robert David Steele Kick OffRandy Short & Robert Steele: 12 Pardons = Black Male Vote [Comment by Cynthia McKinney]Richard Dolan: 9/11, MK-ULTRA, Joe Biden, End of the ConstitutionCarine Hutsebaut: Satanic Evil Should Not Be IgnoredSarah Westall with Dustin Nemos: Will Alex Jones Go to Prison for Treason?Cynthia McKinney: Rich White Kids'... Drunk, Promiscuous, with Absentee Parents? Is This What U.S. ''Leadership'' is All About?Robert Steele: Rod Rosenstein and Legalized Lying and Cheating at Justice '-- The Week in ReviewMongoose: Why Is Steve Bannon Visiting Jeffrey Epstein the Pedophile Master?Phil Giraldi: Zionist Israel's Fifth Column of US TraitorsDave Janda with X22: The Deep State's Biggest Fear Has Come True [Declassification of Damning Documents]Dr. Cynthia McKinney '' 5 Q's on 9/11Robert Steele: Faux News Full of Shit, Deep State Outlet, Lying About Syria Gas Attacks '' Faux News Joins Crap News Network as an Enemy of the American People '' Heil Zion!Robert Steele: The FBI [and CIA and NSA and DoJ] Must Be Torn Down, Root and Branch, and Reconstituted [Firing Rosenstein is a Superb Starting Point]Owl: DC Jogger Murder '-- Covering Up Brookings Institute Spy Being Investigated by Independent White House Counterintelligence Team?Mongoose: The Treason of Big Tech '-- New Movie on Creepy Google, Creepy FacebookRebecca Campbell: ET UFO Disclosure Soon? Why Seven Solar Observatories Closed? UPDATE 1Yoda: Syria False Flag, Treason in the White House?Andrew Garfield: Warning Notice for Republican on Mid-TermsTRUMPET: White House Good NewsITNJ: Fiona Barnett Exposes CIA MK-ULTRA, Human Trafficking, Bohemian Grove Child Hunting, and Australian Ministers and Justices Addicted to Pedophilia and Murderous PedophiliaRobert Steele: The Big Lie: ''Russian Propaganda.'' The Bigger Lie: ''The Truth Is What We Say It Is.''Robert Steele: How Many Died in Puerto Rico? President Right, GMU Wrongç>>译 '' ПеÑеведите

CategoriesCategories#UNRIG Our Country!

Steele Reviews (2,500+)Steele KindlesAmazon Kindle PagePopular (All Time)Joachim Hagopian: Pedophilia & Empire '' Satan, Sodomy, & the Deep State UPDATE 24 Chapter 20Robert Steele: Las Vegas False Flag a Hybrid (Innocent Drill, Rogue Mass Murder Unit)? UPDATE 23 Paddock Girlfriend Worked for FBIMemoranda for the President on 9/11: Time for the Truth '-- False Flag Deep State Truth! UPDATE Adds Videos of AuthorsOwl: Accuser Dr. Christine Blasey UPDATE 51: Collins YES, Speech SHINESTimothy Holmseth: Mike Pence & Pam Bondi in Willful & Obvious Defiance of Presidential Order on Child Trafficking (Pedophilia)?Betty Boop: Death By Doorknob Hanging '-- Signature of Pedophilia-Related Assassinations? Eleven People So Far '-- Who Knew Doorknobs Could Be So Deadly? UPDATE 1 Adds VideoJoachim Hagopian: Overview of Global Elite Pedophilia Inclusive of Vice President Mike Pence and Senators Feinstein, Graham, Kaine, McCain, Schumer UPDATE 2 Book OnlineDefDog: There Was a Missile, Fired by Israel, China, or the US, Government is Lying UPDATE 13: FCC Says It Was All A Mistake'...Robert Steele: Concept for Trump Triumph in 3 Moves UPDATE 5 Trump 2.0Robert Steele: Vatican Pedophilia & Illuminati Blood Drinking UPDATE: PedoEmpire Book Free OnlineRebecca Campbell: US Government Loses Vaccine Lawsuit '-- Has Lied to the Public for Decades '-- Vaccines NOT Tested '-- Autism Will Drop If Parents Use This Case to Legally Challenge Mandated VaccinationsRobert Steele & Ben Fulford in Tokyo '-- Discussing Deep State, Shadow Governments, False Flag, Fake News, Pedophilia '... UPDATE 9: Video DMongoose: Best New Satanic Pedophilia Banking Crime YouTube (39:20) Dutch with English Sub-Titles '-- Secret Intelligence Organizations as Totally Criminal UPDATE New Book Free OnlineEd Jewett: Conservatives Hunted and Killed Using NSA Social Media Software with Full Complicity of #GoogleGestapo UPDATE 2Pedophilia & Empire: Satan, Sodomy, & The Deep State '' Chapter 1: Introduction to Pedophilia '' The Mental Disorder and the Child Sex Abuse CrimeMichael Salla: Expolitics '-- Including Mars Colony'...Robert Steele: Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Jason Goodman, Patricia Negron, and Queen Tut UPDATE 8 Amended Complaint Filed 25 March 2018Mongoose: Deutche Bank Crashing, Preamble to Global Financial Reset?Cynthia McKinney: Memorandum for the President 3.0WARNING NOTICE: Alleged Child Sex Trafficking Camp in Arizona May Be a Fund-Raising Scam UPDATE 6Robert Steele: War in the Middle East [in February 2018]'... A strategic survey of possibilities, winners, losers'... (Trump Revolution 19)Robert Steele: Memorandum for the President '' Warning on a Violent American Spring, Eight Actions for Donald Trump to Make America Great Again UPDATE 8 '' White House Petition Numbers Being Rigged Down?The Future: Recent ''Core'' Work by Robert SteeleOwl: Charlottesville False Flag '-- Professional Hit, Paid Protesters? UPDATE 9 Jim Fetzer Outlines False Flag AnomaliesRobert Steele: Memorandum for the President 4.0 [WH Floor Plan Graphic Added]Jeff Rense: Hitler in Argentina & The US-Hitler Bargain Including NASA (as well as CIA) as a German PreserveSPECIAL: Jared Kushner Working for Israel to Enable Saudi Arabian Nuclear Attack Against Iran UPDATE 3: Trump May Be Gaming Zionists & Saudis, Pence to Go?Robert Steele: Open Letter to President Donald Trump UPDATE 1: Press Release with Links

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 18:24

Authentication , Big Data , Breach Response

Social Network Reveals It Cannot Log Users Out of All Third-Party Services

Mathew J. Schwartz (euroinfosec) ' October 3, 2018 Warning: Attackers behind the recently revealed Facebook mega-breach may still be able to access victims' accounts at third-party web services and mobile apps, and Facebook has offered no timeline for when that might change.

See Also: Live Webinar: Digital Identity Trust

Here's the problem: Whoever hacked Facebook stole single sign-on access tokens - and thus access - to at least 50 million accounts, which also gives them access to the hundreds of third-party services and mobile apps that accept victims' SSO authentication, dubbed Facebook Social Login or Facebook Login.

"If a service cannot guarantee its ability to offer single sign-off, it has no business providing single sign-on." On Friday, the company issued a breach notification, saying that attackers abused a "View As" privacy feature to gain access tokens for 50 million accounts, leading to Facebook resetting those access tokens and forcing users to log in again. For another 40 million accounts, just to be safe, Facebook says it also reset tokens - forcing users to log in again - because they had accessed the "View As" feature at some time (see Facebook Breach: Attackers Exploited Privacy Feature).

Individual Facebook users currently lack the ability to forcibly reset their Facebook Social Login access tokens. These tokens allow users to automatically authenticate to third-party web services and mobile apps, from Airbnb and Expedia to Spotify and Tinder. Accordingly, any personal data stored in these services is now at risk via the access tokens attackers stole (see Facebook Breach: Single Sign-On of Doom).

Delegated Security ResponsibilityUnfortunately, Facebook now says that while it can reset access tokens, it cannot guarantee that all third-party services that accept Facebook Social Login will honor these token-reset requests. As a result, whoever hacked the social network could still be using Facebook SSO to access victims' other accounts.

Facebook revealed this problem on Tuesday, couching it in its typical spin - namely, attempting to absolve itself by talking about how developers may not be following best practices.

In Facebook-speak: "Security is incredibly important to Facebook. It's why we recommend developers stick to our Facebook Login security best practices," says Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of product management, in the Tuesday blog post.

That means Facebook is not guaranteeing that developers follow its best practices, including always using its official software development kit.

As a result, while Facebook says it's reset 90,000 access tokens, "some developers may not use our SDKs - or regularly check whether Facebook access tokens are valid." But Rosen says Facebook is "building a tool to enable developers to manually identify the users of their apps who may have been affected, so that they can log them out."

In other words, at some future date, developers that Facebook has allowed to automatically connect with its users via its SSO Facebook Login may get their act together and review whether their web services or mobile apps have logged out users whose access tokens got stolen.

Facebook: Us, Enforce Rules?Facebook, however, does not enforce these best practices, which makes these sorts of bromides meaningless, while also putting users at risk.

This corporate approach, in fact, appears to mirror precisely what got Facebook into the Cambridge Analytica data scandal mess. Simply put, Facebook wasn't policing how third parties accessed, processed, used or sold Facebook users' data.

In the interim, data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica obtained profile data for as many as 87 million Facebook users via a "thisisyourdigitallife" personality app created by a U.K.-based researcher named Aleksandr Kogan. Facebook says that Kogan's app was able to access personal data not just for those who used his personality survey, but also some of their friends' data.

As a result, the data potentially may have been used to target them with advertising and disinformation campaigns (see Facebook to Congress: We Shared More Data Than We Said).

Potential Good NewsThe potential good news for the 50 million victims of Facebook's recent breach, however, is that there are as yet no signs that attackers did abuse the access tokens to access third-party services.

"We have now analyzed our logs for all third-party apps installed or logged in during the attack we discovered last week. That investigation has so far found no evidence that the attackers accessed any apps using Facebook Login," Rosen says.

But this might not be surprising, because one likely perpetrator of this attack would be an intelligence agency that was keen to build "big data" maps of citizenry using the stolen information, rather than raid people's Instagram profiles or Tinder picks.

"This Facebook data is mainly useful to either advertisers or nation-states," says Avivah Litan, vice president at Gartner Research. "I doubt advertisers hacked Facebook, so I imagine this is the work of a nation-state building out its population maps for citizenry of various countries."

In the meantime, Facebook needs to begin building out its ability to not just promulgate best practices to developers, but ensure they comply with them. Because if a service cannot guarantee its ability to offer single sign-off, it has no business providing single sign-on.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 20:37

Those signs that show you how fast you are traveling may be a part of a United States government surveillance program. That sign might not only be there to remind you what the speed limit is but a part of a dystopian ''Big Brother'' spy network.

''There used to be an old police saying, 'If you robbed a bank, please drive carefully,''' former NYPD Detective Sergeant and Bronx Cold Case Squad commander Joseph Giacalone told Quartz. Giacalone that if a getaway driver didn't do anything to attract the attention of police and get pulled over, they usually had a half-decent chance of fleeing. ''But that's no longer in effect because you can drive slow, you can stop at every red light, but these license plate readers and surveillance cameras track your every movement.''

According to recently released US federal contracting data, the Drug Enforcement Administration will be expanding the footprint of its nationwide surveillance network with the purchase of ''multiple'' trailer-mounted speed displays ''to be retrofitted as mobile LPR [License Plate Reader] platforms.'' The DEA is buying them from RU2 Systems Inc., a private Mesa, Arizona company. But that's not all. Two other related contracts have been found, as reported by Quartz.

The two contracts show that the DEA has hired a small machine shop in California, and another in Virginia, to conceal the readers within the signs. An RU2 representative said the company providing the LPR devices themselves is a Canadian firm called Genetec. The DEA's most recent budget describes the program as ''a federation of independent federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement license plate readers linked into a cooperative system, designed to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to interdict drug traffickers, money launderers or other criminal activities on high drug and money trafficking corridors and other public roadways throughout the U.S.'' But focuses primarily along the southwest border region, and the country's northeast and southeast corridors.

The problem, however, is a big one. What is, on the one hand, a game-changing crime-fighting tool, is also, on the other hand, a privacy overreach of near-existential proportion to innocents. License plate readers, which can capture around 2,000 plates a minute, cast a privacy-trampling wide net that has made it far easier for cops to catch serious criminals. But that requires the real-time collection, along with the storage of the data of innocents by authorities for later data mining and is highly alarming to privacy advocates.

''License plate readers are inherently a form of mass surveillance,'' investigative researcher Dave Maass of the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation told Quartz. ''You look at something like a wiretap and most of the time it's looking for a specific person and capturing specific conversations with that person. But here they are collecting information on everybody, not all of whom have been accused of a crime, in case they may one day commit a crime. This is un-American.''

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Mac SlavoViews:Read by 2,360 people Date: October 1st, 2018Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 14:43

Sedans aren't selling well anymore '' but it's not really because buyers have lost interest. They have lost interest in undersized sedans '' which are effectively the only sedans still available at prices most people can afford.

If you have about $20,000-$25,000 to spend, what options have you got?

One option you haven't got is a full-sized sedan.

There are none available for $25k. There are only two available for less than $30k '' just barely. They are the base trim versions of the Chevy Impala ($28,020) and the Dodge Charger ($28,995). Add a few options and you're well above $30k.

Lots of people can't afford that anymore. Not even with seven year financing deals. (Assuming zero interest, the monthly payment on a $30k car loan is $357; the current interest rate is actually just over 4 percent '' so your payment would be substantially more.)

But they still need a vehicle with room for their family '' and their family's stuff. A smaller sedan '' which they could afford '' won't cut it. Even though some have surprisingly roomy back seats, none have much in the way of trunk.

They are also effectively three-seaters '' because the government mandates that small children be strapped into saaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety seats and these can't be placed in the front passenger seat because it faces the airbag, which is a saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety hazard for small kids especially. So the kid gets strapped into a seat in the back seat. Which leaves only one other small-child-viable (and small child legal) seat in the small sedan.

If the family has two kids, the car is full-up. If their kids have friends, the car is useless.

And that is why sedans are sitting unsold.

Not because they are sedans.

Big sedans with three-across seats that could accommodate six passengers '' and which had trunks big enough to carry two or three more '' did sell. And were affordable, too. The base price of a 1970 Chevy Impala was $3,132 '' equivalent in today's devalued currency to $20,880.

There were also wagons based on those sedans, and these could carry as many as nine people '' more than any current minivan and most full-size SUVs, too.

Such cars were the typical cars owned by 1970s middle and working class Americans.

So what happened to them, if they were so popular?

The government decided they used ''too much'' fuel. Rather than let the market sort that out, mandates and regulations issued forth to distort the market. Your car's gas mileage somehow became Washington's busybody business '' and big sedans and wagons went from being popular and affordable to increasingly unaffordable and so less and less popular.

The sedans which could still be sold for not-too-much money were '' and are '' the ones without enough room for most families.

But most families still needed the room, and the car companies figured out a way to give it to them without giving them big sedans.

They gave them crossovers.

Most of these are also small '' in terms of overall length. But they have more vertical space and so more room inside than a car of the same length. Most of them actually are cars '' just taller-roofed and jacked-up, to make them look like SUVs (hence the term, crossover SUV).

The Toyota RAV4, for example, is descended from the same platform, or underlying chassis, as the Camry sedan. Both have about the same first and second row legroom, but the RAV4 has almost five times the cargo space (73.4 cubic feet vs. 15.1 in the Camry's trunk) and that space is much more versatile because it isn't isolated space. By folding a crossover's backseats flat, you create a full-length cargo floor big enough to accommodate the things which you could never even partially fit inside a modern sedan's purse-sized trunk.

Crossovers are also available with a third row of seats '' which is the modern way of dealing with the problem of child saaaaaaaaafety seats and the fact that current sedans aren't even five-passenger capable when small kids have to be transported. It wouldn't be a problem in a full-size (six-passenger) sedan, but . . . they don't make them anymore.

Ironically, these crossovers ascendant '' which have become popular because they offer buyers the things which big sedans used to but don't anymore because you can't buy them anymore '' use more gas than the small sedans which aren't selling.

The current RAV4 averages 23 city, 30 highway. The new Camry '' with a more powerful version of the same 2.5 liter four cylinder engine '' averages 28 city and 39 on the highway.

It does so because it's lighter, lower to the ground and much more aerodynamic than the high-riding/SUV-looking RAV4.

Even the full-size Charger almost matches the crossover RAV's MPG stats: 19 city, 30 highway '' and that's with a much larger 3.6 liter V6 under the hood.

Uncle tries '' but he rarely succeeds.

In the name of forcing us to drive ''more efficient'' cars, he inadvertently prompted the development of less-efficient crossovers.

Well, he did succeed in mostly killing off the big sedans. Give him credit for that. And because of crossovers, smaller sedans are probably on the way out, too. Which leaves . . . . crossovers.

Uncle's next target.

. . .

Got a question about cars '' or anything else? Click on the ''ask Eric'' link and send 'em in!

We depend on you to keep the wheels turning! And we are running low this month. If you like what you've found here, please consider supporting EPautos.

Our donate button is here.

If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:

EPautos 721 Hummingbird Lane SE Copper Hill, VA 24079

PS: EPautos magnets are free to those who send in $20 or more. My latest eBook is also available for your favorite price '' free! Click here. If you find it useful, consider contributing a couple of bucks!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 11:16

Af Nikolaj Schultz

12. okt. 2012 kl. 15.49 opdateret 12. okt. 2012 kl. 15.49 Nogle el-biler udleder mere CO2 end benzin- og dieselbiler.

Produktion af el-biler udleder nemlig s¥ meget CO2, at en el-bil forurener mere end en benzinbil i hele dens levetid.

Det viser ny norsk forskning

De norske forskere har sammenlignet el-, benzin- og dieselbiler af samme st¸rrelse fra produktion til skrotning.

Har glemt produktionenProfessor Anders Hammer Str¸mmen har v...ret med til at lave forskningen.

If¸lge ham har tidligere forskning ikke taget h¸jde for, hvordan el-bilerne bliver produceret.

- Vi har fundet ud af, at udslippet fra produktionen er stort nok til at kunne ...ndre opfattelsen.

- Milj¸-gevinsten ved brugen af el-biler har l...nge v...ret lidt sk...vt fremstillet. Det er ikke gjort bevidst, men det er fordi, vi har haft s¥ lidt viden om emnet.

Det siger Anders Hammer Str¸mmen til det norske medie VG.

El fremstillet p¥ kul er v...rstHans forskning viser ogs¥, at el-biler, der k¸rer p¥ elektricitet fremstillet af kul ¸ger CO2-udslippet med 17 til 27 procent i forhold til benzin- og dieselbiler.

El-biler, der k¸rer p¥ el fremstillet af naturgas, forurener lige s¥ meget som dieselbiler.

I dag bliver elektriciteten til bilerne fremstillet p¥ kul og naturgas. Hvis elektriciteten blev fremstillet p¥ vand- eller vindenergi ville man kunne reducere CO2-udslippet med 55-60 procent.

I’ll just be

blunt: We lost a really tough fight. And it hurts.

I’m not going to sugarcoat anything and tell you everything is going to be

fine. What happened today will touch every single person in this country,

in some very real and terrible ways. But it’s O.K. to step back for a

minute. Take a breath. Call up an old friend, lean on the shoulder of

someone you love, pet your puppy (I know I will), pet your cat. We’ll get

through this together.

And

then? You cannot give up.

Remember your anger and your pain in November. If we don't like being

powerless, then we need to win power – and do it now. We are not victims.

We are strong.

32 days until Election Day. Exactly one month. Tick. Tock.

I’m

fighting for re-election, and I’m fighting for Democratic Senate candidates

all over the country – because it’s never been more important for us to win

back the Senate.

It’s easy to feel helpless on days like today, but remember: Even the

fights we lose matter. Every time you called, and marched, and tweeted, you

helped move us closer. And it was so close.

Don’t

forget this: Even the fights we lose matter. History will

remember that we didn’t go quietly. We resisted, persisted, and fought to

be heard.

Because

of this fight, like never before, people have found their voices.

I’ve seen it. The hallways of the Capitol have been teeming with survivors

of sexual assault and activists who will not be silent – including the

women who held an elevator door open so they could make sure Jeff Flake

heard their pain.

We won’t let those doors close. Twenty-seven years ago, Anita Hill was

virtually alone. Today, we’re a grassroots army – and we will be heard.

We’re owning our anger, and we’re putting it to work. I’m angry. I’m angry

on behalf of women who’ve been told to sit down and shut up one time too

many. On behalf of everyone who doesn’t have power. African Americans,

Latinos, LGBTQ Americans, Native Americans, students, seniors – everyone

who gets put down and shut out of power by men who don’t know how to share.

And make no mistake: This whole sham of a confirmation process has been

about power

– powerful men helping powerful men and hijacking our democracy.

Here’s

my message for those powerful guys: Time’s up.

It’s time for everyone who’s been left out to take power. Entitled men,

powerful interests, and giant corporations can’t call all the shots.

So we’ve got a plan. It’s got three parts:

Take back the Senate.

Take back the House.

Return power to the people – where it belongs.

This hurts. But if we keep fighting, we can turn our pain

into power.

Please

chip in right now to help Democrats fight back and win power.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

DONATE NOW

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 13:52

The FBI's supplemental background check of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has just been completed. We don't yet know what, if anything, was uncovered beyond what we already knew'--or whether anything in the report will change votes in the Senate. Indeed, we may never even know what's in the report, given contradictory statements by GOP senators as to whether the findings, or at least a summary of them, will be made public.

What we do know is that the background check, which was supposed to examine all credible allegations of sexual assault made against Kavanaugh, has made matters more complicated. For reasons that aren't completely clear'--either the Senate's actual request for supplemental information was narrower than promised, or the White House directed the FBI not to pursue certain leads'--many senators are worried that the Republican-guided FBI investigation won't be sufficient to quell concerns about the judge's fitness to serve on the Supreme Court.

Story Continued Below

If the investigation has been as superficial as some reporting suggests'--despite calls from GOP Senators Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins for it to be thorough'--and if Kavanaugh does manage to squeak through, Democrats are not likely to let it go. Indeed, it is entirely possible'--no, likely'--that, if they win control of the House in November, the new majority party will consider articles of impeachment against Kavanaugh before his seat on the high court is warm. The course of such a proceeding has the potential to be so perilous and unpredictable that wavering Republican senators should consider that possibility before casting their votes to put Kavanaugh on the court in the first place. Facts that come to light in impeachment could come back to haunt senators who vote to support him.

So how would impeaching a Supreme Court justice work, exactly?

The Constitution contemplates removal from office of judges on the same terms as are available against any federal official'--terms that are by now familiar because they're so frequently mentioned against Trump. Under Article II, Section 4: ''The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.'' In all cases, the House investigates and votes on articles of impeachment, and any articles that receive a majority vote are then passed along to the Senate. That body then conducts a trial, and a supermajority of two-thirds is required for removal of the officer.

Although there have been only a tiny number of impeachment proceedings against federal judges at any level since the Constitution was ratified, those that have taken place have laid down significant markers that can help us understand the possibilities in this case.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, only 15 federal judges have been impeached in the nation's history. Of those, only eight were convicted and removed from office. When it comes to the Supreme Court, there's barely any history at all'-- only one justice, Samuel Chase, was impeached in the House, and the Senate fell far short of removing him from the bench. He ended up serving on the high court until he died, in 1811. These few cases, though, should be enough to get the Senate's attention now.

Does the Senate have an argument to make for impeaching Kavanaugh? Although the term ''high crimes and misdemeanors'' is not exactly a model for the kind of precise drafting that contemporary law requires, it's clear enough to exclude certain kinds of cases that Kavanaugh's most vociferous opponents might want to make against him. The raging, partisan screed that served as his opening statement last week has many questioning his judicial temperament, but that's a problem to consider before giving him a lifetime appointment'--not grounds for removal, even if he dials the anger up to 11 once he's on the bench. Similarly, even if he immediately becomes the fifth vote to overrule Roe v. Wade, well, that's too bad for those hoping to oust him'--even if he dissembled about how he might rule on abortion during the confirmation process. Justices are free to rule as they wish, no matter what they might have indicated (or, increasingly, refused to indicate) during questioning.

The one case involving the Supreme Court supports the conclusion that sitting justices should not be removed from office for anything but the most serious criminal conduct. In the Samuel Chase case, President Thomas Jefferson led the call for impeachment, ostensibly because of rulings Chase had made while sitting on a lower court'--but really because he had sharply criticized the president in connection with one proceeding, before a grand jury. (Chase famously opposed Jefferson during his presidential run, at one point leaving the bench without a quorum in order to ''canvass Maryland'' against him.) The Senate could muster only a bare majority (19-15) for his removal, rather than the required two-thirds, and the template against this kind of political removal was thereby set.

But the cases involving trial and appellate federal judges point in a direction that would be worrying for Kavanaugh if he's installed as a justice'--and if wrongful conduct is then found. Significantly, three of the four most recent impeachments'-- all of which led to convictions'--were for perjury. In the other case, Samuel B. Kent, a district court judge from Texas, became the first federal judge impeached for sexual assault, and for obstructing justice in being untruthful about his conduct. He was convicted and sentenced to 33 months in prison, but refused to resign (apparently for reasons having to do with his pension). In 2009, he was impeached by the House, but resigned before the Senate could conduct the trial that certainly would have convicted him.

Will a newly energized Democratic majority in the House have the stomach for impeachment? Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has demurred, but Jerry Nadler, the current ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wasn't nearly as coy. When asked whether, if he assumed the chairmanship of the committee, he'd consider impeachment, he had this to say: ''We would have to investigate any credible allegations of perjury and other things that haven't been properly looked into before.''

So hearings seem inevitable, but whether the committee would actually take the extraordinary step of beginning impeachment proceedings will likely depend on a few factors yet to come into focus. The real or perceived lack of thoroughness of the FBI investigation would be the most obvious trigger. If the FBI failed to interview the witnesses suggested by yet another alleged assault victim, Deborah Ramirez, for instance, hearings will likely follow'--and then, possibly, impeachment, depending on what's turned up. And, as Nadler suggested, the committee could also look into whether Kavanaugh committed perjury during the hearings; for instance, text messages have surfaced suggesting that he knew of Ramirez's potential allegations before the New Yorker told her story. He testified, though, that he learned of the accusations only when the story came out. State governments might also decide to conduct hearings, which could funnel into any action the House decides to take. And if any new sexual misconduct allegations surface after he's seated, we're back to square one.

But while Kavanaugh should be worried about impeachment proceedings, so too should GOP senators who vote to confirm him in the first place. If further interviews with some of the same witnesses that the FBI could have, but did not, question corroborate any of the assault allegations, Kavanaugh could land back in the Senate for a trial, where those senators who voted for him would find themselves in a tough spot for pushing him through in the face of unanswered questions. Even if there weren't enough votes to convict him, the political problems raised by a trial could be another matter entirely.

In any case, it's probably too much to hope that the end of the FBI investigation will put this all to rest. We may or may not learn what the FBI actually did, but it's likely the last chapter in this depressing saga has yet to be written.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:32

Published October 06, 2018

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 27, 2018.

In a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, the American Bar Association said ''new information of a material nature regarding temperament'' prompted the group to reopen its evaluation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The letter addressed to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein D-Calif., referred to a Sept. 27 hearing in which Kavanaugh addressed sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him by Christine Blasey Ford.

Ford claims Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when they were in high school. Kavanaugh denies the accusation.

During his emotional testimony in front of the committee, Kavanaugh blasted his critics and got into heated exchanges with Democratic senators when they questioned him about his behavior in high school and college.

''This confirmation process has become a national disgrace,'' he said during the hearing, before claiming the allegations were part of a smear campaign.

He also touted his ''well qualified'' rating from the ABA, the highest one it gives.

Kavanaugh's behavior at the hearing prompted many to question his fitness and temperament to serve on the nation's highest court.

On Thursday, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said he changed his views on Kavanaugh's nomination following the hearing.

''I've changed my views for reasons that have no relationship to his intellectual ability,'' Stevens said. ''I feel his performance in the hearings ultimately changed my mind.''

On Friday, Justice Elena Kagan, speaking at a Princeton University conference, said she feared that adding Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court might place it in danger of being perceived as a political body instead of a neutral institution for resolving disputes, Politico reported.

"It's an incredibly important thing for the court to guard is this reputation of being impartial, being neutral and not being simply extension of a terribly polarizing process," Kagan said.

At the same conference, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it was key for the court's justices to avoid the type of partisan rancor seen in other sectors of public life.

"We have to rise above partisanship and personal relationships, that we have to treat each other with respect and dignity and with a sense of amicability that the rest of the world doesn't ... share," she said.

The ABA said it doesn't expected a ''re-vote'' before the final Senate vote on Kavanaugh's nomination slated for Saturday.

''Our original report must be read in conjunction with the foregoing. Our original rating stands.''

In a Thursday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on, Kavanaugh said he may have been too emotional at the hearing.

"I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said," he wrote.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 19:21

Following Friday's announcement by GOP swing voter Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) that she would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the left flipped on one of its recent heroes; Michael Avenatti.

In a fiery speech announcing her decision, Collins ripped unsupported claims by Avenatti's client, Julie Swetnick, that Kavanaugh facilitated a Cosby-esque "gang rape" operation while in high school.

Some of the allegations levied against Judge Kavanaugh illustrate why the presumption of innocence is so important. I am thinking in particular not of the allegations raised by Professor Ford, but of the allegation that, when he was a teenager, Judge Kavanaugh drugged multiple girls and used their weakened state to facilitate gang rape.

This outlandish allegation was put forth without any credible supporting evidence and simply parroted public statements of others. That such an allegation can find its way into the Supreme Court confirmation process is a stark reminder about why the presumption of innocence is so ingrained in our American consciousness. -Sen. Susan Collins

As a result of Collins calling Swetnick's claim, liberals began to pile onto Avenatti - blaming him for Kavanaugh's impending Saturday confirmation, while conservative pundits poked fun.

Avenatti may be a Republican operative cuz no one could pull off this self-sabotage, unless it was deliberate.

'-- GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) October 5, 2018While Christine Blasey Ford's groping allegation may have been believable - and enough to derail the nomination, subsequent claims against Kavanaugh likely derailed what little legitimacy Ford had.

Collins called the Swetnick allegation "outlandish" and Kennedy said "this process changed dramatically when Mr. Avenatti entered the picture." Michael Avenatti provided cover for Republicans to confirm Kavanaugh. Nice work, dude. https://t.co/yOMHyrOqPF

'-- Robby Soave (@robbysoave) October 5, 2018THIS is why Democrats did NOT want Michael Avenatti to get involved in this fight. Collins is specifically citing Swetnick's "gang rape" accusation as something that made her think she needed to give Kavanaugh the benefit of the doubt.

'-- Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) October 5, 2018I wonder if the Swetnick fiasco will have the same effect on Michael Avenatti that the Roy Moore disaster did on Steve Bannon.

'-- Brit Hume (@brithume) October 5, 2018In WaPo telling, Jane Mayer, Ronan Farrow, and Michael Avenatti ended up helping the Kavanaugh confirmation effort. https://t.co/U9F3LIZ4Xa pic.twitter.com/BoJBisqbKJ

'-- Byron York (@ByronYork) October 6, 2018CNN's breaking news editor, Kyle Feldscher, took a swing at Avenatti - blaming him for Kavanaugh's confirmation in a tweet which reads: "Hard to state how much Avenatti's entrance into this process hurt the Democratic effort to bring down Kavanaugh's nomination." (h/t Josh Caplan @ Breitbart)

Hard to state how much Avenatti's entrance into this process hurt the Democratic effort to bring down Kavanaugh's nomination. https://t.co/tcofogweNo

'-- Kyle Feldscher (@Kyle_Feldscher) October 5, 2018Avenatti responded: "You are right. I should have turned my back on my client. Told her to ''shut up'' and stay quiet because people like you apparently believe assault victims are to blame. This line of thinking is disgusting and offensive to all survivors. And it makes lawyers not want to help them."

You are right. I should have turned my back on my client. Told her to ''shut up'' and stay quiet because people like you apparently believe assault victims are to blame. This line of thinking is disgusting and offensive to all survivors. And it makes lawyers not want to help them.

'-- Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) October 5, 2018Feldscher replied: "Literally never suggested that, but have a good weekend sir."

Literally never suggested that, but have a good weekend sir.

'-- Kyle Feldscher (@Kyle_Feldscher) October 5, 2018Update: As CNN now reports, Senate Democrats are also jumping on the anti-Avenatti bandwagon.

A host of Democratic senators and senior aides told CNN that the allegations from Avenatti's client gave the GOP an opening to conflate -- and dismiss -- all the allegations in one broad brush.

"Well you know at some point there were a lot of folks coming forward making all sorts of accusations," said Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, when asked about the allegations raised by Avenatti and his client. "It turns it into a circus atmosphere and certainly that's not where we should be."

Asked if Avenatti was helpful, Peters said: "I think we should have focused on the serious allegations that certainly appeared very credible to me that would be our best course of action."

Privately, the assessment was far more scathing.

"Democrats and the country would have been better off if Mr. Avenatti spent his time on his Iowa vanity project rather than meddling in Supreme Court fights," a senior Senate Democratic aide fumed, referring to Avenatti toying with the idea of seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. "His involvement set us back, absolutely." -CNN

One can imagine that Avenatti vs. Trump in 2020 is no longer in the cards...

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 17:36

by Jim Hoft October 6, 2018A week ago on Friday Senator Jeff Flake announced he would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh out of the Judiciary Committee.

Then he got cornered in an elevator by screaming leftists for 4 minutes.

About an hour later and after several private talks with Democrats Jeff Flake came out and announced he would only vote for Brett Kavanaugh if an investigation continued on the man for another week.This was exactly what Democrats were hoping for!

The women who were screaming at Senator Jeff Flake in the elevator are Soros-funded astroturfed activists.Their names are Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila.

They celebrated after Flake caved!And they raised over $30,000 on CrowdPac for their elevator antics.

These two heroes, who confronted @JeffFlake this morning, just changed the course of the Kavanaugh process. We''¤¸you so much, @AnaMariaArchil2 and Maria Gallagher. #StopKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/Hd4gxLWcCE

'-- Make the Road Action (@MaketheRoadAct) September 28, 2018

Ana Maria Archila (on right in picture above) is from Colombia where she says she was sexually abused as a child.

She was screaming at Jeff Flake in a elevator on Capitol Hill.

Earlier this week, thanks to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we discovered Ana Maria Archila is an illegal alien.

So we now have illegal alien Soros-paid activists influencing the Supreme Court confirmation process.Now this'...

Mike Cernovich discovered that illegal alien elevator activist Ana Marian Archila made $176,071 in 2016 as a far left activist.Elevator woman Ana Maria Archila is the co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy.

In 2016, she earned $178,071 in total compensation.

Tax returns are all public.

Yes, she is *literally* a paid protester, and well-paid at that.https://t.co/UiF3hoQWmZ pic.twitter.com/wWXOhwPrFW

'-- Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) October 6, 2018

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 15:43

Hollywood celebrities from Sarah Silverman to Alyssa Milano exploded with hate against Sen. Susan Collins over her promise to vote to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh Friday.

Kathy Griffin simply tweeted, ''FUCCKKKKK YOUUUUUU'' to Susan Collins Friday, following up by tweeting, ''Dear SenatorCollins: To quote madeleine: 'There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.' GO TO HELL.''

D) FUCCKKKKK YOUUUUUU @SenatorCollins

'-- Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) October 5, 2018

Dear @SenatorCollins:

To quote @madeleine: ''There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."

GO TO HELL

'-- Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) October 5, 2018

As a Buddhist it is my practice to have compassion for all people. But @SenatorCollins is really testing my limits right now.

'-- George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) October 5, 2018

Don't let this performance fool you. If @SenatorCollins believed in #MeToo she would have opened the door when I was in her office to hear stories of constituent survivors.

'-- Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 5, 2018

Susan Collins turns her back on women who have been traumatized by sexual assault. Elections have consequences. To start turning the ship of state back towards the rule of law, decency, truth, and the preservation of Democracy, Nov.6 has to be a lot more than a blue wave. VOTE!!!

'-- Rob Reiner (@robreiner) October 5, 2018

Read more

Mass censorship of conservatives and libertarians is exploding. You've already seen this with the demonetization and ultimate purge of Infowars and other alternative media outlets by mega-corporations working in tangent to stifle competition. But you are important in this fight. Your voice is important. Your free thought is important. Make no mistake, you are just as important as anyone in the Anti-American establishment.

You are our most important contributor.

Sign up for the free newsletter so they can't keep us from sending you critical information.

We need your support now more than ever. Donate to help support the Infowar.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 12:05

I was deeply honored to stand at the White House July 9 with my wife, Ashley, and my daughters, Margaret and Liza, to accept President Trump's nomination to succeed my former boss and mentor, Justice Anthony Kennedy, on the Supreme Court. My mom, Martha'--one of the first women to serve as a Maryland prosecutor and trial judge, and my inspiration to become a lawyer'--sat in the audience with my dad, Ed.

That night, I told the American people who I am and what I believe. I talked about my 28-year career as a lawyer, almost all of which has been in public service. I talked about my 12 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often called the second most important court in the country, and my five years of service in the White House for President George W. Bush. I talked about my long record of advancing and promoting women, including as a judge'--a majority of my 48 law clerks have been women'--and as a longtime coach of girls' basketball teams.

As I explained that night, a good judge must be an umpire'--a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no political party, litigant or policy. As Justice Kennedy has stated, judges do not make decisions to reach a preferred result. Judges make decisions because the law and the Constitution compel the result. Over the past 12 years, I have ruled sometimes for the prosecution and sometimes for criminal defendants, sometimes for workers and sometimes for businesses, sometimes for environmentalists and sometimes for coal miners. In each case, I have followed the law. I do not decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge.

As Justice Kennedy showed us, a judge must be independent, not swayed by public pressure. Our independent judiciary is the crown jewel of our constitutional republic. The Supreme Court is the last line of defense for the separation of powers, and for the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution. The justices do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle. They do not caucus in separate rooms. As I have said repeatedly, if confirmed to the court, I would be part of a team of nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States. I would always strive to be a team player.

During the confirmation process, I met with 65 senators and explained my approach to the law. I participated in more than 30 hours of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I submitted written answers to nearly 1,300 additional questions. I was grateful for the opportunity.

After all those meetings and after my initial hearing concluded, I was subjected to wrongful and sometimes vicious allegations. My time in high school and college, more than 30 years ago, has been ridiculously distorted. My wife and daughters have faced vile and violent threats.

Against that backdrop, I testified before the Judiciary Committee last Thursday to defend my family, my good name and my lifetime of public service. My hearing testimony was forceful and passionate. That is because I forcefully and passionately denied the allegation against me. At times, my testimony'--both in my opening statement and in response to questions'--reflected my overwhelming frustration at being wrongly accused, without corroboration, of horrible conduct completely contrary to my record and character. My statement and answers also reflected my deep distress at the unfairness of how this allegation has been handled.

I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times. I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said. I hope everyone can understand that I was there as a son, husband and dad. I testified with five people foremost in my mind: my mom, my dad, my wife, and most of all my daughters.

Going forward, you can count on me to be the same kind of judge and person I have been for my entire 28-year legal career: hardworking, even-keeled, open-minded, independent and dedicated to the Constitution and the public good. As a judge, I have always treated colleagues and litigants with the utmost respect. I have been known for my courtesy on and off the bench. I have not changed. I will continue to be the same kind of judge I have been for the last 12 years. And I will continue to contribute to our country as a coach, volunteer, and teacher. Every day I will try to be the best husband, dad, and friend I can be. I will remain optimistic, on the sunrise side of the mountain. I will continue to see the day that is coming, not the day that is gone.

I revere the Constitution. I believe that an independent and impartial judiciary is essential to our constitutional republic. If confirmed by the Senate to serve on the Supreme Court, I will keep an open mind in every case and always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American rule of law.

Judge Kavanaugh has been nominated as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 01:06

Image Joel Kaplan, Facebook's vice president for global public policy, left, sat two rows behind Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh at his testimony in Congress last week. They are longtime friends. Credit Credit Pool photo by Jim Bourg SAN FRANCISCO '-- ''I want to apologize,'' the Facebook executive wrote last Friday in a note to staff. ''I recognize this moment is a deeply painful one '-- internally and externally.''

The apology came from Joel Kaplan, Facebook's vice president for global public policy. A day earlier, Mr. Kaplan had sat behind his friend, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, when the judge testified in Congress about allegations he had sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in high school. Mr. Kaplan's surprise appearance prompted anger and shock among many Facebook employees, some of whom said they took his action as a tacit show of support for Judge Kavanaugh '-- as if it were an endorsement from Facebook itself.

The unrest quickly spilled over onto Facebook's internal message boards, where hundreds of workers have since posted about their concerns, according to current and former employees. To quell the hubbub, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, last Friday explained in a widely attended staff meeting that Mr. Kaplan was a close friend of Judge Kavanaugh's and had broken no company rules, these people said.

Yet the disquiet within the company has not subsided. This week, Facebook employees kept flooding internal forums with comments about Mr. Kaplan's appearance at the hearing. In a post on Wednesday, Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook executive, appeared to dismiss the concerns when he wrote to employees that ''it is your responsibility to choose a path, not that of the company you work for.'' Facebook plans to hold another staff meeting on Friday to contain the damage, said the current and former employees.

The internal turmoil at Facebook '-- described by six current and former employees and a review of internal posts '-- illustrates how divisions over Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court have cascaded into unexpected places and split one of the world's biggest tech companies.

Mr. Kaplan's show of support for Judge Kavanaugh hits a particularly sensitive spot for Facebook. It has been weathering claims from conservatives and Mr. Trump that Facebook is biased against right-wing websites and opinions. The company has denied this, saying it is a neutral platform that welcomes all perspectives. By showing up at Judge Kavanaugh's side, Mr. Kaplan essentially appeared to choose a political side that goes against the views of Facebook's largely liberal work force.

Many employees also viewed it as a statement: Mr. Kaplan believed Mr. Kavanaugh's side of the story rather than Dr. Blasey's testimony. That felt especially hurtful to Facebook employees who were also sexual assault survivors, many of whom began sharing their own #MeToo stories internally.

The tensions add to a litany of other issues that have sapped employee morale. In the past few weeks alone, the company, based in Silicon Valley, has grappled with the departures of the co-founders of Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook, plus the disclosure of its largest-ever data breach and continued scrutiny of disinformation across its network before the midterm elections.

''Our leadership team recognizes that they've made mistakes handling the events of the last week and we're grateful for all the feedback from our employees,'' Roberta Thomson, a Facebook spokeswoman, said in a statement on Thursday.

The latest trouble began a week ago, with the testimony of Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh in Congress. As Judge Kavanaugh testified, one face stood out to Facebook employees: Sitting two rows behind the judge was Mr. Kaplan, a former senior adviser to George W. Bush who had joined the company in a policy role in 2011 and heads up the social network's Washington office. He had been hired to help counterbalance Facebook's perception as left-leaning.

Tweets about Mr. Kaplan at the hearing immediately began circulating among Facebook message boards such as ''Women @ Facebook,'' a communications chat room called ''Just Flagging,'' and a group called ''Wait, what?'' where employees can ask public relations questions. Many employees had one query: Why was Mr. Kaplan there, front and center?

''Let's assume for a minute that our VP of Policy understands how senate hearings work,'' one program manager said in a post about Mr. Kaplan that was reviewed by The Times. ''His seat choice was intentional, knowing full well that journalists would identify every public figure appearing behind Kavanaugh. He knew that this would cause outrage internally, but he knew that he couldn't get fired for it. This was a protest against our culture, and a slap in the face to his fellow employees.''

''Yes, Joel, we see you,'' the employee added.

Facebook executives knew they had a serious problem on their hands, said the current and former employees. That led to last Friday's apology from Mr. Kaplan, a former Marine who once clerked for two conservative justices.

Image Judge Kavanaugh as he was sworn in to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Credit Pool photo by Jim Bourg In the note addressed to his policy group, Mr. Kaplan wrote, ''I have known Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh for 20 years. They are my and my wife Laura's closest friends in D.C. I was in their wedding; he was in ours. Our kids have grown up together.''

''I believe in standing by your friends, especially when times are tough for them,'' Mr. Kaplan added in a later post.

He also said, ''Laura and I felt it was important to be with them at the hearing to express our love and support for our friends during a very difficult time for all involved. I took a personal day to be there.''

Some Facebook employees noted that according to the company's internal human resources software, Mr. Kaplan had not taken a personal day to attend the hearing. Only later last Thursday did someone at Facebook update the system to say Mr. Kaplan had taken a personal day, said the current and former employees.

At last Friday's staff meeting, Mr. Zuckerberg defended Mr. Kaplan's appearance as a personal decision that did not violate company rules. Mr. Zuckerberg also said he trusted Mr. Kaplan's judgment, even though he himself would most likely not have chosen to attend the hearing, said two people who were at the meeting.

The messaging backfired. Some employees '-- particularly women '-- said it came across as if Mr. Zuckerberg was shrugging off Dr. Blasey's comments about sexual assault, saying that the chief executive's remarks had caused ''stress and trauma'' and were ''painful to hear.''

Many female employees were also upset that Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, who has made women's issues a personal platform and project, did not publicly say something about Dr. Blasey and sexual assault. Mr. Kaplan is known as a friend of Ms. Sandberg's, with the two having gotten acquainted at Harvard, which both attended.

Ms. Sandberg posted internally last Friday, writing, ''As a woman and someone who cares so deeply about how women are treated, the Kavanaugh issue is deeply upsetting to me.'' She added, ''I've talked to Joel about why I think it was a mistake for him to attend given his role in the company.''

In one internal Facebook group that is aimed at supporting female employees, dozens of women this week posted accounts of their own struggles with sexual assault. Mr. Kaplan's attendance at the hearing made them uncomfortable, they wrote, according to posts reviewed by The Times. Several said they would not feel comfortable working in the Washington office under Mr. Kaplan.

Other employees began criticizing Mr. Zuckerberg directly in recent days.

''I appreciate your desire to avoid taking sides, but please don't insult our intelligence by declaring that this act did not violate our policies, or that it was only an honest lapse in judgement,'' one engineer wrote in a post addressed to the chief executive. ''Please don't tell us that you know how hard it is for us when it is very clear from your words, your actions and your tone that you don't.''

On Wednesday, Mr. Bosworth, a 13-year veteran of Facebook and close friend of Mr. Zuckerberg's, weighed in in an internal post.

''If you need to change teams, companies or careers to make sure your day-to-day life matches your passions, we will be sad to see you go, but we will understand,'' Mr. Bosworth wrote. ''We will support you with any path you choose. But it is your responsibility to choose a path, not that of the company you work for.''

Mr. Bosworth backpedaled after facing opposition '-- including from Lori Goler, Facebook's head of human resources '-- who said he was dismissing legitimate employee concerns, said the current and former employees. On Thursday afternoon, he posted, ''I spoke at a time when I should be listening and that was a big mistake. I'm grateful to employees who shared feedback and very sorry that my actions caused employees pain and frustration when what they needed was better support and understanding from leadership.''

By that point, it was clear the tensions were not fading. Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer and the sponsor of the group ''Women @ Facebook,'' scheduled a meeting on Friday to deal with staff concerns. Mr. Zuckerberg, Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Kaplan are all expected to attend to field questions, said the current and former employees.

Follow Mike Isaac on Twitter: @MikeIsaac.

Kate Conger and Sheera Frenkel contributed reporting.

Interested in All Things Tech? Get the Bits newsletter delivered to your inbox weekly for the latest from Silicon Valley and the technology industry.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 00:50

Sen. Ben Sasse has been an ardent "never Trumper" since the campaign -- and that was on display when he gave an impassioned speech about the #MeToo movement and the upcoming vote on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination Wednesday.

Interested in Supreme Court? Add Supreme Court as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Supreme Court news, video, and analysis from ABC News."We all know that the president cannot lead us through this time. We know that he's dispositionally unable to restrain his impulse to divide us. His mockery of Dr. Ford last night in Mississippi was wrong but it doesn't really surprise anyone. It's who he is," Sasse said of Trump's comments at a campaign rally about Christine Blasey Ford, one of the women who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Kavanaugh has flatly denied the allegations.

Sasse and the rest of the Senate will be able to view the findings of the FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh throughout the day Thursday before they vote on his confirmation Friday.

Alex Brandon/AP Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., waits for the elevator after speaking on the Senate floor, in Washington on Capitol Hill, Oct. 3, 2018. in Washington.But the other points Sasse made in his evening speech on the Senate floor seemed to give voice to the conflicting feelings that many have about the upcoming confirmation vote.

Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the committee is "fundamentally broken" and decried how "the Senate is being swallowed up whole by 24/7 cable news."

He pointed not to "the important #MeToo movement" as the reason for the divisiveness over the Kavanaugh confirmation vote but how the country "is accelerating our descent into tribalism."

"No matter how much cable news screams this, it would be an egregious offense against the cause of women to call this one, up-or-down vote a proxy for the validation and validity of claims of sexual violence," he said.

Sasse also said that he urged the president to pick a female nominee before Kavanaugh's name was publicly announced.

"Although I've said many complimentary things about Judge Brett Kavanaugh ... I urged the president back in June and early July to make a different choice before he announced this nomination," Sasse said.

"I urged him to nominate a different individual. I urged the president to nominate a woman. Part of my argument then was that the very important #MeToo movement was also very new and that this Senate is not at all well prepared to handle potential allegations of sexual harassment and assault that might have come forward. This was absent knowing a particular nominee," Sasse said.

He went on to talk about the importance of the #MeToo movement and to decry the assertion that he said has been present on cable news and social media that anyone supporting Kavanaugh's confirmation -- like Sasse -- is voting against women or sexual assault victims.

He said that the "false choice that is being repeated hour after hour ... [is] that this confirmation vote about one vacant seat on the Supreme Court, that in that vote, we are somehow going to be making a giant, binary choice about the much broader issue about whether we do or don't care about women. That is simply not true."

"The Supreme Court confirmation vote isn't a grand choice about whether we love our daughters or whether we trust our sons. That is not the choice before is. This is a consent decision about one person for one seat," Sasse said.

Sasse repeatedly asserted that he believes academic findings about the widespread nature of sexual assault and the rarity of false sexual assault accusations. He also shared that he has two friends who have been raped, saying "it is an act from the pit of hell."

"Sex is big, not small, and you don't get to decide it for someone else," he said.

Sasse also recounted calls from concerned constituents on both sides of the Kavanaugh debate, and said his wife had called him "sobbing after both opening statements" from Ford and Kavanaugh's testimonies before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 14:41

Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. POLAND has told Angela Merkel's Germany to cough up further war reparations as Warsaw's populist government reopens a decades-old feud with Berlin. PUBLISHED: 14:22, Fri, Oct 5, 2018 | UPDATED: 15:54, Fri, Oct 5, 2018

\\ '); $('.gig-button-container', commentIco).append($('#spotCommentCounter .spot-im-replies-count').clone(true)); $('#componentDiv .gig-share-bar-container > table > tbody > tr').append(commentIco); }, onShareButtonClicked: function (e) { ExpressApp.GoogleAnalytics.TrackEvent('social','intent','https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1027382/Poland-Germany-World-War-2-history-reparations-Angela-Merkel-EU-latest-news'); (window.utag_add_event || function(){})({ "call_type":"event", "events": { "category": "Social", "action": "Intent", "event": "socialIntent" }, social:{ "platform":e.shareItem.provider } }); if (e.shareItem.provider == 'comments') { $('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: $('#gigyacomments').offset().top }, 'slow', 'easeOutExpo'); } } }; gigya.socialize.showShareBarUI(showShareBarUI_params);

Poland resume battle with Germany for further World War 2 reparations (Image: GETTY)

The Polish deputy foreign minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek believes Germany has only handed over enough money to cover just one percent of all the damage and loses throughout World War 2.

Germany may have paid around '‚¬1.3 billion to Poland in the early 1990s but the ruling Law and Justice party are attempting to extract more money from Berlin as they reopen the issue.

Mr Szynkowski vel Sek told Politico: ''In a situation where Poland received only 1 percent of all damages paid as the country that suffered the greatest destruction and losses, the question is whether there can be only one answer.

''So yes, we have the right to expect such a discussion.''

Poland's PiS is currently engaged in a long-running battle with the EU's German-influenced European Commission over Warsaw's judicial reforms.

Critics claim plans to the move to lower the retirement ages of Supreme Cost judges from 70 to 65, which forced 27 of the 74 sitting judges to retire, goes against basic democratic principles.

Poland blames Germany for the EU push to crackdown on the changes and has returned fire with its demands for further war reparations.

Last March, Warsaw said it could demand as much as '‚¬740 billion as compensation for destroyed property and the loss of life during World War 2.

According to analysts, the Poles stopped short of making a direct claim in order to preserve its crucial trade links with the EU's largest economy.

Germany is Poland's largest trade partner, while the Warsaw is the biggest recipient of aid from the Berlin-influenced European Commission.

At the time Arkadiusz Mularczyk, the head of the parliamentary committee on reparations, said: "We are talking about very large but justified sums for war crimes, for the destroyed cities, the lost demographic potential of our country."

PiS believe they never received reparations from Germany because they were paid to Poland while under Soviet control.

Nazi Germany, together with the Soviet Union, attacked and occupied Poland in 1939.

Adolf Hitler's Nazis were responsible for the death of most of the 3.2 million Jews that lived in Poland.

Poland never surrendered to Nazi Germany and endured the loss of around 3 million of its non-Jewish citizens during the war, including many of its intellectuals and elite.

Warsaw was virtually reduced to rubble by Nazis in 1944 after a failing uprising in which 200,000 citizens died.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 19:20

Shortly after the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting that targeted an outdoor concert on the Las Vegas Strip, a pro-ISIS media group is circulating an online poster warning of knife attacks at musical events.

Previous releases from Remah Media Production included a January poster showing a jihadist standing in front of a cityscape vowing to "sink America" and another showing jihadists standing in front of a nondescript legislative building vowing that "soon you will taste agony." The group has also released video nasheeds, or songs to inspire terrorists.

In the new poster, a jihadist wearing a suit jacket stands with a large knife behind his back while behind concert-goers whose attention is fixed on the stage.

"Wait for our surprises," warns the text, signed "Islamic State."

In May 2017, a suicide bomber claimed by ISIS killed 22 people leaving an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in the UK. Since the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre on a country music festival, ISIS has both claimed and idolized shooter Stephen Paddock, encouraging would-be terrorists to poach from his tactics such as how he used a sniper's perch in a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay to kill 58 people and wound hundreds more.

Official ISIS media persisted for a few months in claiming responsibility for the massacre. ISIS featured an update on the shooting investigation in a mid-October issue of their al-Naba newsletter, referring to Paddock both by that name and the nom de guerre Abu Abdul Bar al-Amriki, which they bestowed upon the killer the day after the attack. The shooting "highlights the difficulties faced by U.S. cities to protect their own Crusader citizens from attacks that can take unpredictable forms," the newsletter said.

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/isis-warns-of-knife-attack-surprises-at-concerts/

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 15:04

Chris Post | 69 News Chris Post | 69 News SAYLORSBURG, Pa., - An unknown man attempted to enter the retreat center that has been the longtime home of Fethullah Gulen Wednesday morning.

According to a statement on Fethullah's nonprofit site, the man appeared to be armed and attempted entry around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

A guard reacted with a warning shot and the man fled. No injuries were reported and the immediate threat appears to be over.

Retreat staff is fully cooperating with the state police to investigate the incident. According to Pennsylvania State Police, Lehighton, troopers completed a search of the are and could not locate the man. The investigation is continuing.

The attempted entry comes on the heels of Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin speaking recently that Turkey's National Intelligence Organization would launch overseas ''operations'' against supporters of Gulen.

It is well-known that the Turkish government under Recep Tayyip Erdogan has devised kidnapping plots against Gulen, as well as executed successful kidnappings of his supporters around the world.

Gulen has lived at the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center on Mount Eaton Road since 1999. Turkey blames Gulen for the failed 2016 coup, which left nearly 290 people dead in Turkey.

DISCLAIMER FOR COMMENTS: The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links may be removed by the moderator.

"); $.ajax({ type : "GET", url : url }).done(function(html) { var contentHTML = $(html); content.empty(); content.append(contentHTML); }).fail(function() { content.append("

Oops. Something went wrong. Please wait a minute and refresh your browser.

") }); });})(jQuery, AUI());

"); $.ajax({ type : "GET", url : url }).done(function(html) { var contentHTML = $(html); content.empty(); content.append(contentHTML); }).fail(function() { content.append("

Oops. Something went wrong. Please wait a minute and refresh your browser.

") }); });})(jQuery, AUI());

11:00 AMWind: W 12 mphWind Chill: 20°Humidity: 93%"); $.ajax({ type : "GET", url : url }).done(function(html) { var contentHTML = $(html); content.empty(); content.append(contentHTML); }).fail(function() { content.append("

Oops. Something went wrong. Please wait a minute and refresh your browser.

") }); });})(jQuery, AUI());

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 13:13

Source: Yandy

Yandy Sexy Op-Ed Anonymous Costume

It took lingerie purveyor and sexy Halloween costume maker Yandy just three days to go from idea to product execution on its Sexy Op-Ed Anonymous Halloween costume for the 2018 season.

"The timeline is always critical, and we work very quickly on these," Pilar Quintana-Williams, Yandy's vice president of merchandising, told CNBC. "We have an 'all-hands-on-deck' mentality during Halloween season."

Predicting the hottest trends for All Hallows Eve can be tricky for retailers, and filled with potential political pitfalls as Yandy found out with its Brave Red Maiden Costume. Fashioned after the popular Hulu show "The Handmaid's Tale," the costume was yanked late last month after customers accused the company of sexualizing "a show about misogyny and rape."

With fickle customer tastes and a flub generating immediate backlash on social media, the key for retailers is speed, Quintana-Williams said, declining to comment on the Brave Red Maiden. That's true both in ramping up production and removing problematic costumes off the shelves.

Yandy's "Sexy Op-Ed Anonymous" costume was based on an opinion piece published Sept. 5 in The New York Times written by an anonymous senior aide in the Trump administration who claimed to be "part of the resistance" working to thwart President Donald Trump.

Quintana-Williams said the idea came to her after the op-ed started to dominate the news that week. It's now ready for purchase on Yandy's website '-- taking less than a month to go from idea to consumer.

"The struggle when we the team have these ideas is how to create a costume that will resonate with our customers and will still be relevant," Quintana-Williams said. "The timeline is always critical, and we work very quickly on these."

For some Halloween costume suppliers, identifying these trends can be a bit of a guessing game.

Source: Disguise Costumes

A Disguise costume

Brad Butler, CEO of Halloween Express, said buying decisions start immediately after the holiday and continue through March. "So there's ample time to have the product made and shipped via the ocean to the U.S. market," he said.

"It's not possible to predict with certainty what will be popular or trendy. I wish we could," he said.

Licensing restrictions also constrain retailers from quickly making costumes of popular celebrities or movie characters, he said. Halloween Express sells more than $50 million a year in costumes and other items online and at its 130 seasonal store locations across the U.S.

They can get around that by making celebrity Halloween "kits" using items the actor, singer or politician may be known for and packaging them together for sale.

"The thrown-together celebrity kits usually are done using look-a-like pieces or pieces that closely resemble something the celebrity was known for," Butler said. "In Michael Jackson's case, a sequin glove was easy enough to use to get the idea across."

Disguise Costumes, which bills itself as the world's leading costume company, licenses ideas from Hasbro, Disney and other movie studios so its turnaround time is a lot slower. However, when 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney proposed to take away government funding for PBS, home of popular children's show "Sesame Street," demand for Big Bird costumes rose, said marketing director Bernice Nesbit.

Some of the company's most popular costumes this year are characters and items from the summer blockbuster hit "The Incredibles 2."

Smaller, independent Halloween stores also try to stay on trend.

When Hugh Hefner died in September 2017, Halloween Adventure in New York placed an order for Playboy costumes the next day but then had a hard time keeping them in stock, head buyer Jodi Lewis said.

After the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa, costumes of hazmat suits, which were worn by the medical staff treating patients, went viral over Halloween. And, of course, there was the inevitable sexy version.

Generic costumes like hazmat suits, which become trendy because of the news, are easier to produce because of fewer licensing issues, according to Butler.

Many retailers have not yet seen a clear trend this year. Lewis, for example, noted that pineapple costumes are flying off the shelves at her store.

"We don't know why," she said, but she noted a rising trend in carving pineapples instead of pumpkins.

Retailers may not always be able to accurately predict what consumers are looking for, but they try to do their best.

Ultimately, Butler said, it "comes down to a mixture of intuition, historical perspective, experience, monitoring pop-culture trends and news events and some good ole' fashion luck."

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 12:07

Victor VIRGILE via Getty Images A Burberry ensemble from its London Fashion Week spring/summer 2018 show. In July, two months after the company signed onto an agreement to reduce waste, news broke that the luxury label burned millions of dollars' worth of unsold stock.

You get the sense that luxury fashion label Burberry very much regrets its decision to burn $38 million of unsold stock rather than let it fall into the wrong hands.

It was embarrassing. The Burberry burn '-- #burnberry on social media '-- broke as a huge story in July, just two months after the brand announced it was a core signatory to Making Fashion Circular , an initiative aiming to design waste out of fashion and keep resources in circulation. When you cremate clothes, that's obviously not going to happen. The materials are lost. It's the antithesis of the circular economy.

The company moved to stem the fierce criticism and this month announced it would immediately cease incinerating clothes. But the backlash shined some light on the practice of destroying fashion. Burberry had not tried to hide its use of incineration, which was listed in its 2017/2018 annual report under ''finished goods physically destroyed during the year.'' But most brands don't talk publicly about the practice, which they have no obligation to disclose.

So why do they do it? Most often, the reason is to avoid devaluing the brand; there is a terror of what discounting would do to prestige. Some brands, such as Chanel, never discount. The idea is, keep it scarce and you keep it exclusive.

Over the last two years, Cartier owner Richemont, for example, has bought back about $575 million worth of watches from retail partners to avoid having the timepieces sold more cheaply on the gray market of unauthorized retailers. Most were destroyed, and the parts were recycled.

Pierre Albouy / Reuters Cartier watches. The brand's owner, Richemont, recently destroyed millions of dollars' worth of stock and recycled the parts.

It's not just high-end brands that are destroying their stock. Fast fashion is at it too. In 2017 it was revealed that fashion behemoth H&M '-- which has made much of its green agenda with recycling points in stores and what it calls a Conscious Collection '-- burned about 19 tons of obsolete clothing (the equivalent to 50,000 pairs of jeans) in a waste-to-energy facility run by one of Sweden's energy giants, M¤larenergi.

H&M said that the clothes were unsellable for safety reasons '-- for example, they didn't meet restrictions on chemicals or had been damaged by mold. The company used the same defense again this month after the German current affairs program ''Frontal 21'' dedicated a show to an investigation into the burning of unsold H&M stock in Germany, alleging that the brand destroyed 100,000 pieces of clothing unsold from multiple seasons.

And Nike was the subject of a New York Times article in 2017 that alleged the company slashed clothing and shoes to render them unwearable before disposing of them.

Public outcry over the destruction of fashion overstock shows that these methods of disposal carry an unofficial public approval rating close to zero. To input all the resources, emit so much pollution and waste and then destroy those clothes is pure madness, given the ecological emergencies we face.

Waste and fashion go hand in glove. The industry continues to pump out a swelling inventory; each year, north of 100 billion new garments from virgin fibers are pushed onto the market. H&M alone was reported in March to have $4.3 billion worth of unsold clothes .

The energy needs of fashion are incredible. More often than not '-- particularly in fast fashion '-- these demands are shouldered by developing economies with scant or patchy energy cover. A Cambodian factory producing garments for export, for example, needs power to iron and dye clothes. The French environmental organization Geres estimated that garment factories in Phnom Penh burn through 2.3 million cubic feet of wood every month. To feed wood-fired boilers, factories are clearing old-growth forests.

Then there are the emissions. The fashion industry pumps out more carbon dioxide than international flights and shipping combined, according to a 2017 Ellen MacArthur Foundation report .

Palash Khan via Getty Images Garment factory waste at a dumping site in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

There are moves to change the practice of destroying fashion overstock, although few address the issue in any systematic way. An insider from the luxury goods sector who wished to remain anonymous said that the days of luxury design houses' incineration of substantive collections that have failed to sell is probably gone. ''Instead, there's a cascade. Unsold stock is put through outlets, or garments and accessories disassembled and used in different ways. For example, the hardware like the zips and buttons can be removed. Incineration is the last resort.''

When it comes to this cascade, luxury goods brands have more options and more leverage than fast fashion brands. There are arguably more opportunities to reclaim their products and re-enter them in the supply chain. But fast fashion brands, already at low price and high volume, shouldn't expect to be invited into discount luxury outlets anytime soon.

Because fast fashion makes up the lion's share of the average wardrobe and is bought and discarded quickly, when we talk about today's out-of-kilter fashion consumption and disposal, we are really talking about this market.

Many people look to clothing recycling as a more acceptable and promising way of managing our fashion waste. Sure, there is vast potential; that is a given when the entry point is runaway consumption and resource use. But anybody who thinks we can miraculously scale up fashion recycling to counteract overproduction is verging on the delusional.

There is progress being made in the pursuit of recycled fiber. Y ou might have noticed a big increase in the amount of fashion on the market made of yarn from recycled waste fishing nets , for example .

Digital First Media / Orange County Register via Getty Images Marina Hamm, a designer and merchandiser for Volcom, displays one of the brand's bathing suits made from recycled fishing nets.

But this is still mostly tinkering around the edges. What's important to understand: It's not exciting innovation that will make recycling viable but dull old legal curbs on retailers, manufacturers and distributors. Here, France leads the way.

Regulation there now means that fashion producers must take responsibility for the end of life of the clothing they put on the French market, usually through participation in collecting and recycling programs. Other French initiatives are trying to limit the amount of different sorts of fibers that fashion producers may place on the French market. Complexity is the enemy of all recycling schemes.

But this French revolution is an anomaly. Elsewhere, including the U.S., there seems to be little appetite to curb the unsustainable habits of brands and get them to take real responsibility. The fact is that with a global fashion inventory this huge, even with an injection of good ideas and innovation, recycling will never triumph.

This brings us to a difficult conclusion as consumers. We hate incineration and destruction generally, but we're continuing to prop up the low-cost, high-volume system that makes it an inevitability. It's estimated that we buy about 60 percent more clothes annually than we did in 2000 and wear each item less before ditching it. Per capita, Americans send about 70 pounds of textiles a year to landfills. When are we going to look at our own consumption habits and demand that fashion brands produce fewer clothes?

For more content and to be part of the ''This New World'' community, follow our Facebook page. HuffPost's ''This New World'' series is funded by Partners for a New Economy and the Kendeda Fund. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundations. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:20

by Emma Williams | August 30, 2018

Tech giant, Facebook has launched a new pilot program with vegan company, Raise Vegan, Inc. to bring the classroom to parents, in a push to encourage raising children on plant-based diets.

The new subscription-based groups that launched this week, are the virtual classrooms, run by experts in their fields of medical, nutrition and birth. Offering up continuous six-week courses through the Facebook app in partnership with Google and Apple.

Vegan Company Raise Vegan, Inc. The vegan company that started just a year ago, is an all female-led team based in New York, with offices in Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Seeing a much needed service for parents, they grew from just a few members, to millions of parents around the world in a matter of months.

They issue the leading print and digital vegan parenting magazine worldwide, while hosting the largest private meet-up groups, and virtual chat groups supporting parents as they raise their families on plant-based diets. Raise Vegan has been working closely with Facebook developers since 2017, it was a natural progression to hosting the educational vegan groups for the tech giant.

Twenty-five of the groups are in beta testing around the world, including a course run learning group to help educate parents on veganism from conception through to adulthood. Members can join the classrooms by being in the free private groups, such as Vegan Pregnancy and Parenting, and request to join from there.

The $9.99 USD fee is charged to members Android or Apple accounts, and can be canceled at any time by simply removing yourself as a member.

Credit: Raise Vegan, Inc. New Testing of nutrition led subscription groupThe introduction of their first virtual classroom led by vegan nutrition experts and registered dietitians, Dahlia Marin and James Marin, a husband and wife team who own the vegan company 'Married to Health', describes how it will help parents be armed with expert information for raising vegan children, offer short masterclasses and provides daily interaction with experts to ask questions and gain knowledge.

To find out more, join the free parenting group on Facebook, Vegan Pregnancy & Parenting

Credit: ShutterstockYOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:5 Vegan Apps to Make Your Life Easier$43 Million Investment In New Vegan Food Company!India To Ban Single-Use Plastics By 2022Aldi Launching Massive 'Grab and Go' Vegan Meals in Stores Across The USAEmma WilliamsAssociate Editor, USA | Contactable via emma@raisevegan.com

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 15:25

When Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg promised Congress that AI would help solve the problem of fake news, he revealed little in the way of how. New research brings us one step closer to figuring that out.

In an extensive study that will be presented at a conference later this month, researchers from MIT, Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), and Sofia University in Bulgaria tested over 900 possible variables for predicting a media outlet's trustworthiness'--probably the largest set ever proposed.

The researchers then trained a machine-learning model on different combinations of the variables to see which would produce the most accurate results. The best model accurately labeled news outlets with ''low,'' ''medium,'' or ''high'' factuality just 65% of the time.

This is far from a smashing success. But the experiments reveal important things about what it would take to outsource our fact-checking to a machine. Preslav Nakov, a senior scientist at QCRI and one of the researchers on the study, says he's optimistic that sources of fake news can automatically be spotted this way.

But that doesn't mean it will be easy.

Method to madness

In the explosion of research on fake-news detection since the 2016 US presidential campaign, four main approaches have emerged: fact-checking individual claims, detecting fake articles, hunting down trolls, and measuring the reliability of news sources. Nakov and the rest of the team chose to focus on the fourth because it gets closest to the origin of misinformation. It has also been studied the least.

Previous studies tried to characterize the reliability of a news source by how many of its claims matched or conflicted with claims that had been fact-checked already. In other words, a machine would compare the history of factual claims made by a news outlet against the conclusions of sites like Snopes or PolitiFact. The mechanism, however, relies on human fact-checking and evaluates the history of the outlet, not the immediate present. By the time the latest claims have been manually fact-checked, ''it's already too late,'' says Nakov.

To spot a fake news source in close to real time, Nakov and his collaborators trained their system using variables that could be tabulated independently of human fact-checkers. These included analyses of the content, like the sentence structure of headlines and the word diversity in articles; overall site indicators, like the URL structure and website traffic; and measures of the outlet's influence, like its social-media engagement and Wikipedia page, if any.

To select the variables, the researchers relied both on previous research'--past studies have shown that fake news articles tend to have repetitive word choices, for example'--and on new hypotheses.

By testing different combinations of variables, the researchers were able to identify the best predictors for a news source's reliability. Whether an outlet had a Wikipedia page, for example, had an outsize predictive power; the outlet's traffic, in contrast, had none. The exercise helped the researchers determine additional variables they could explore in the future.

Data starved

But there is one other obstacle: a shortage of training data'--what Nakov calls the ''ground truth.''

For most machine-learning tasks, it's simple enough to annotate the training data. If you want to build a system that detects articles about sports, you can easily label articles as related or unrelated to that topic. You then feed the data set into a machine so it can learn the characteristics of a sports article.

But labeling media outlets with high or low factuality is much more sensitive. It must be done by professional journalists who follow rigorous methodologies, and it is a time-intensive process. As a result, it is challenging to build up a solid corpus of training data, which is partly why the accuracy of the study's model is so low. ''The most obvious way to increase the accuracy is to get more training data,'' says Nakov

Currently, Media Bias Fact Check, the organization chosen to supply the ''ground truth'' for the research, has evaluated 2,500 media sources'--a paucity in machine-learning terms. But Nakov says the organization's database is growing quickly. In addition to obtaining more training data, the researchers are also looking to improve their model's performance with more variables, some of which describe the structure of the website, whether it has contact information, and its patterns of publishing and deleting content.

They are also in the early stages of building a news aggregation platform that gives readers important cues to the trustworthiness of every story and source shared.

Despite the work left to be done, Nakov thinks such technology can help resolve the fake-news epidemic relatively quickly if platforms like Facebook and Twitter earnestly exert the effort. ''It is like fighting spam,'' he wrote in a Skype message. ''We will never stop fake news completely, but we can put them under control.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 20:49

Featured Politics SecurityCongressman Details Robert Mueller's Reported Excessive Drinking During the Work Day; Insiders Call For FBI InvestigationU.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is being tossed into the Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Ford alcohol drinking controversy, according to an upcoming book detailing and revealing Deep State and D.C. secrets.

Mueller reportedly has been spending parts of his work days drinking as well as his evenings, according to detailed accounts and reporting from the upcoming Deep State tell-all book 'PAINE: How We Dismantled the FBI in Our Pajamas.'

Rumors of Mueller's drinking have gone mainstream in recent months after employees at upscale D.C. watering holes notified Congressional personnel of the Special Counsel's frequent trips to the bar, often during week days, insiders report.

This obviously is concerning, given Mueller's key role in D.C. politics as well as his influence over the White House and President Trump. And some in Congress are calling for an investigation. But they dare not challenge Mueller publicly. Yet.

Just days ago Sen. Cory Booker grilled Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh at a Senate hearing, asking him if he drank during the day when he was a teenager in the summer. Booker should change his focus on Mueller, according to the new book's author, and rumors swirling a key player in D.C. and beyond.

''This is just a very very small part of the book,'' said author Mike Moore who writes under the pen name Thomas Paine. ''With all the emphasis on Judge Kavanaugh's teen drinking by the Democrats and their media enablers, I felt this was now newsworthy pertaining to Mueller's excessive drinking. This is not something that happened 35 years ago. This is happening now.''

Moore agreed the information leaked by employees of high-scale D.C. drinking establishments about Mueller's drinking should be investigated by Congress and law enforcement entities.

''If Kavanaugh is fair game, then certainly Mueller should be and the implications about his day drinking are disturbing,'' Moore said. ''This is a man investigating the President of the United States. This is a potential powder keg.''

Moore dropped the bombshell on Mueller's drinking on Tuesday night via CrowdSource the Truth. Here is a clip from that show. Warning '-- Some Graphic language:

A second Congressman who spoke to Moore/Paine for the book described this well-known dilemna in the beltway as ''Bob's problem.''

It's more of a question about ''leverage,'' the Congressman said. ''What kind of leverage do others have on you if you are problem drinker and have gotten into bad situations. That is important because this man is investigating the president and putting people in prison. Does he (Mueller) owe favors?''

That's a question for Congress to tackle. Or perhaps Big Media can start asking questions. If either have the guts. A very big if.

Moore said more facts, including what establishment(s) that blew the whistle on Mueller's drinking, are detailed in his upcoming book, 'PAINE: How We Dismantled the FBI in Our Pajamas.'

Help Support True Pundit's Independent Voice by Contributing Today!FOLLOW US!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:12

Published October 1, 2018

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration noted that cannabidiol shouldn't be a controlled substance, but international treaties require the United States to treat it as one.

That revelation from the federal agency appeared in a 27-page memo written after it approved the first drug made with CBD earlier this year.

''CBD has negligible potential for abuse,'' wrote Dr. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, the FDA's parent agency.Giroir noted that CBD doesn't meet the description of even the least-restrictive class of controlled substances, Schedule 5, but that international drug treaties require the nation to control the cannabis extract.

If those treaties were to change, he added, ''the above recommendation '... would need to be revised promptly.''

The letter was written to advise the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration about how to classify CBD. Before then, the DEA considered cannabis extracts to be in the most restrictive class of drugs, Schedule 1.

The letter was dated May 16 but became public Friday, after the DEA announced that FDA-approved cannabis drugs with no more than 0.1% THC could be classified as Schedule 5. Currently, that definition only applies to Epidiolex.

The DEA said that cannabis extracts with more than 0.1% THC will remain on Schedule 1.

Epidiolex is manufactured and sold by London-based GW Pharmaceuticals, which derives the extract from marijuana and trades on the Nasdaq as GWPH.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:12

This past June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its long-expected approval of GW Pharmaceutical's Epidiolex, a cannabidiol (CBD) oral solution for certain acute medical conditions. (Read more about it here.)

As a consequence of the FDA's action, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) today re-scheduled Epidiolex, and any future FDA-approved CBD drug, under Schedule V of the Controlled Substances Act. Read the full unpublished order here.

Concerns about how hemp-derived CBD products might be treated in this context prompted the US Hemp Roundtable to hire the law firm of Amin Talati Upadhye to counsel on FDA-related issues. Here is their analysis of today's DEA order:

Today the DEA announced that Epiodiolex, a highly purified, pharmaceutical firm of ĆBD, will be placed under schedule V of the Controlled Substances Act. In doing so, DEA noted that the drug no longer meets the criteria for schedule I, following FDA's approval of the drug for certain medical conditions. DEA also indicated that any material, compound, mixture, or preparation other than Epidiolex that falls within the CSA definition of marijuana set forth in 21 U.S.C. 802(16), including any non-FDA-approved CBD extract that falls within such definition, remains a schedule I controlled substance under the CSA.The placement of Epidiolex under schedule V '' the least restrictive schedule '' recognizes the proven health benefits of CBD and its low potential for abuse. Of note, DEA's scheduling determination is limited to only Epidiolex and generic versions of the same formulation. Therefore it is our opinion that DEA's announcement and related statements have no bearing on the status of hemp-derived CBD.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Oct 2018 12:11

Published September 27, 2018 | By Hemp industry Daily staff

(This story has been updated to provide additional details from the DEA announcement.)

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has taken some cannabidiol off the most restrictive class of controlled substances, a move that allows the sale of the first nonsynthetic, cannabis-derived medicine to win federal approval.

The agency announced Thursday that drugs including ''finished dosage formulations'' of CBD with THC below 0.1% will be considered Schedule 5 drugs, as long as the medications have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

It is the first time the agency has removed any type of cannabis from Schedule 1.

The action came three months after the FDA approved Epidiolex, a CBD preparation for rare types of epilepsy that is made from cannabis grown in the United Kingdom.

If the DEA had not taken this step, doctors would not have been able to prescribe the medication because Schedule 1 drugs cannot be prescribed. This rule is why physicians in states with medical marijuana laws recommend the plant but can't prescribe it.The change also means Epidiolex will be distributed through traditional pharmaceutical channels, from a doctor's prescription to a drug store, instead of through a marijuana dispensary or designated marijuana caregiver.

The rescheduling affects more than Epidiolex. Here are the details from the announcement:

The DEA said the new scheduling applies to ''FDA-approved drugs that contain CBD derived from cannabis and no more than 0.1% tetrahydrocannabinols.'' So even though Epidiolex is the only formulation that currently meets the definition, the change could eventually affect other CBD formulations.It's still not legal to make CBD in the U.S. The DEA said ''the bulk cannabis material used to make the Epidiolex formulation (as opposed to the FDA-approved drug product in finished dosage form) will remain in Schedule 1.''A Schedule 5 drug is still illegal without a prescription. The DEA says Schedule 5 drugs have a low potential for abuse and are generally pain relievers and antidiarrheal medications. Other Schedule 5 drugs include Lyrica and prescription-strength Robitussin with codeine.

Cannabis entrepreneurs cheered the new classification, even though it currently applies to only one drug for rare diseases and has a price tag that may limit the market.

London-based GW Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Epidiolex, has said it will charge $32,500 a year for the treatment, in line with other medications for intractable epilepsy.

As a result, many patients likely will wait to see if insurance covers the drug, a decision usually driven by another federal agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That agency determines what is included for recipients of federal health benefits.

Market opportunities and risk

The most intriguing potential for investors from the rescheduling is called off-label use '' physicians prescribing a drug for other conditions besides the ones for which the drug manufacturer ran trials.

Epidiolex's market opportunity may be much broader if doctors prescribe it to patients with other types of epilepsy under this standard.

The scheduling change also could make it easier for medical researchers to look at CBD applications beyond epilepsy treatment.

''Continuing to study the benefits of CBD would increase the number of practical uses for the compound,'' Michael Brubeck, CEO of Centuria Natural Foods, wrote in an email to Hemp Industry Daily.

He noted that several other CBD medications are in the pipeline for FDA consideration and that Epidiolex is ''paving the way for more cannabinoids following the same regulatory channel to market.''

The FDA said Thursday that the approval process won't change for other cannabis medications based on the CBD rescheduling. In other words, things won't necessarily get easier for other companies proposing FDA-approved cannabis medicines.

Shares of GW Pharmaceuticals, which trades on the Nasdaq as GWPH, closed at $174.50 Thursday, an increase of almost 7% and a record high for a cannabis stock on any exchange.

Rescheduling brings some risk for other CBD manufacturers and retailers.

GW Pharmaceuticals has repeatedly said it has no objection to other companies making CBD, but many in the cannabis industry fear the company and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may try to block other formulations of the extract.

Acetaminophen, for example, is perfectly legal over the counter, but it's not legal to make at home and then sell.

A few states, including South Dakota, have laws on the books that favor CBD products with FDA approval.

''It could really be a burden to the medical sector if the FDA becomes involved,'' said James Minutello, CEO of Leaf Logix, a Glendale, California, company that makes business management software for the cannabis industry.

Still, the rescheduling is a long-awaited improvement, he said.

''We're one step closer to finally ending prohibition and legitimizing the industry,'' Minutello said.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 11:31

October 4, 2018 at 12:18 pmLOS ANGELES (CBSLA) '-- An outbreak of flea-borne typhus has hit downtown Los Angeles, the county Department of Public Health said Thursday.

Health officials say they are investigating several cases of flea-borne typhus, a disease that infected fleas can spread to humans. While the fleas can come from cats, rats, and opossums, pets and animals do not get sick from typhus.

In people, however, typhus can cause high fever, chills, headache, and rash. It is not transmitted from person to person and can be treated with antibiotics.

''Although typhus normally occurs throughout L.A. County, we are observing several cases in the downtown Los Angeles area,'' Los Angeles County Health Officer Muntu Davis said in a statement. ''We encourage pet owners to practice safe flea control and encourage all cities in the county to ensure maintenance of their trash clean-up and rodent control activities.''

Typhus can spread in areas where there is an accumulation of trash that attracts wild animals like feral cats, rats and opossums.

To help prevent typhus, the department recommended that residents:'-- Practice safe flea control.'-- Use flea control products on pets.'-- When outside, wear pants tucked into socks or boots when outside. Spray insect repellent with DEET on socks and pant cuffs.'-- Avoid being near wild or stray animals.'-- Never feed or touch wild animals, especially opossums, rats and stray or feral cats.'-- Store trash in cans with secure lids to avoid attracting animals.'-- Clear areas where rats and stray animals sleep, hide or find food, such as crawl spaces, attics or under decks, and wear gloves and a mask when clearing these areas.

((C) Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

Comments (33)

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 20:38

San Francisco is home to some of the world's leading tech companies '-- Twitter, Uber and Salesforce to name a few '-- and they're changing how we live, work and get around.

But tech has yet to solve one of the more vexing and messy problems that plagues San Francisco: the city's poop-covered streets.

Sean Miller, a 24-year-old who recently moved to the city, hopes to put a dent in the dirty streets with an app he developed and released this week called ''Snapcrap.'' The app bills itself as ''the fastest way to request street cleaning in SF.''

''It's kind of funny, obviously,'' Miller said in a phone interview, describing the state of San Francisco's streets. ''But it's also a health crisis, and it's disgusting seeing that stuff.''

Beyond human waste, the city's sidewalks are littered with used needles, trash and more. Even Mayor London Breed admits it's a big problem, telling the San Francisco Chronicle she regularly asks the public works director: ''What are we going to do about the poop?'' A dedicated ''Poop Patrol'' is in the works to handle the 65 calls 311 gets daily reporting poop, according to the Chronicle.

The app is available for free in the iPhone app store. Its interface looks similar to Snapchat, with a camera filling the whole screen, which lets users snap a quick picture of the mess they spot on the streets and then submit the photo to 311 instantly with a pre-written message. App users can then visit the 311 ticket they submitted through Snapcrap, including the photo they took and the message they sent.

Miller said the app has advantages over using the SF 311 page directly.

''It's really a speed thing,'' Miller said. ''Using the 311 app, just taking a picture takes five clicks. You have to add a comment. There's a lot of friction for someone walking down the street in a nasty place. I want to take out my phone, take a photo and press send.''

Hoping to test the app on Wednesday afternoon, a McClatchy reporter ventured into the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood after downloading Snapcrap '-- and only had to walk about a block before discovering what appeared to be human feces, right in the middle of a sidewalk.

After snapping a picture of the offending pile near the corner of Schrader and Oak Streets, Snapcrap offered a few options in terms of an accompanying messages to send 311.

One message alludes to a frequent parlor game among those who walk the city's streets: ''Human or animal?''

Other messages are respectful and gracious.

''Thanks for cleaning! We appreciate you.''

Some messages are urgent.

''Please clean up this CRAP ASAP.''

And one is desperate.

''Help! I can't hold my breath much longer.''

The app could have more new features soon, including a map.

''There are definitely some bugs I need to work out,'' Miller said, adding that he wants to ''do some optimization on the back-end to make submitting tickets faster.''

Though the app is currently only available in the Apple store, Miller said he's working on an Android version.

Miller called the app a ''side project'' and said he spent about eight weeks building the app, but just during his free time and on the weekends.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 20:16

If, in spite of my warnings, you upgraded to the latest version of Win10, and you lost all of your \Documents, \Pictures, \Music, \Videos or other folders, DON'T DO ANYTHING until you've tried this fix. Thinkstock ");});try {$("div.lazyload_blox_ad").lazyLoadAd({ threshold : 0, // You can set threshold on how close to the edge ad should come before it is loaded. Default is 0 (when it is visible). forceLoad : false, // Ad is loaded even if not visible. Default is false. onLoad : false, // Callback function on call ad loading onComplete : false, // Callback function when load is loaded timeout : 1500, // Timeout ad load debug : false, // For debug use : draw colors border depends on load status xray : false // For debug use : display a complete page view with ad placements}) ;}catch (exception){console.log("error loading lazyload_ad " + exception);}}); Like all of its predecessors, the first version of this new version of Windows 10 is fraught with problems. Win10 version 1809, released yesterday, has triggered tales of locusts, frogs, lice, hail, boils and the death of every firstborn son. We're keeping a buglog on AskWoody , but one problem stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Many people report that the upgrade from Win10 version 1803 to version 1809 removes all of the files in their \Documents, \Pictures, \Music, and \Videos folders. The folders are still there, but nothing's in them.

I have no idea why that's happening '-- I'm still looking at all the reports, trying to discern a pattern '-- but according to an intrepid reporter on Spiceworks , there is a solution.

If you run the free version of Recuva '-- downloadable from the Avast/Piriform/CCleaner web site '-- you'll find that all of the files were deleted, not moved, not erased. Since they were simply deleted, you can recover them.

I have details for running Recuva in the Top 35 free apps for Windows 10 list.

Most important: DON'T DO ANYTHING until you download and run Recuva. Anything you do to your machine may disrupt the deleted files, and make parts of some of them unrecoverable.

Why didn't Microsoft catch this bug in beta testing? I don't know. It doesn't happen to everybody. But it does happen. My guess is that there's something specific in the logic for upgrading from 1803 to 1809 '-- a situation that isn't frequently tested in beta cycles, where the emphasis is moving from one beta build to the next.

How long until Microsoft officially acknowledges the bug? Hard to say.

For those who sacrificed their machines and their sanity in pursuit of a fast upgrade to a marginally better version of Windows '-- I salute you. Salt of the earth. You're the ones providing the screams that alert the rest of us, who are waiting on the sidelines.

For everybody else, particularly those who have learned from history and know how bad Win10 version changes can be, remember to lock down your machine to prevent 1809 from installing and fer heaven's sake, don't click ''Check for updates.''

See an 1809 bug? Add it to the buglog on the AskWoody Lounge .

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 20:08

UPDATE and some corrections in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

In the past few hours — very early Saturday morning US time — Microsoft pulled the Win10 version 1809 upgrade package. Details are sparse (yawn, as I grab a cup of coffee), but it looks like the official Download Windows 10 page is on version 1803, and ISOs have disappeared.

The KB 4464619 article now states:

We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating.

If you have checked for updates and believe you have an issue, please contact us directly at +1-800-MICROSOFT or find a local number in your area https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4051701/global-customer-service-phone-numbers.

If you have access to a different PC, please contact us at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/ (link will vary according to country of origin).

If you have manually downloaded the Windows 10 October 2018 Update installation media, please don’t install it and wait until new media is available.

We will provide an update when we resume rolling out the Windows 10 October 2018 Update to customers.

Permit me to provide an English-language translation:

If you were gullible enough to believe the breathless reviews about a product that’s marginally better than what you have, and you trusted Microsoft enough to install it on your machine as quickly as you could, the joke’s on you.

Moral of the story: Listen to what the experienced Windows folks say. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.

This time it’s particularly dire, because I have no idea how Microsoft is going to restore the data it deleted.

My Recuva trick for restoring deleted data doesn’t work all the time. Recuva itself doesn’t work all the time, even in the best circumstances (particularly on solid state drives). This isn’t one of those best circumstances.

Note the strategic timing of the announcement. Microsoft has known about this bug since October 2. I reported on it, along with a workaround that works most of the time, on October 4. They waited until early Saturday morning, October 6, to acknowledge the problem and pull the plug.

Anybody who tells you to install patches immediately should be drawn and quartered.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 20:41

Breaking News EmailsGet breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

BIERE, Switzerland '-- Cows burp and fart more than they need to, according to a Swiss firm that says it has developed a feed that cuts methane emissions from livestock '-- helping to combat global warming into the bargain.

A single cow produces the equivalent of about three tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, says Agolin, based in Biere, near Lausanne. Co-founder and managing director Kurt Schaller told Reuters its specialist feed can reduce that by 10 percent.

"We sell our mixture for around 1 million cows per year... There are 25-28 million cows in the European Union, so it is a big percentage," he said. "That represents 300,000 tonnes of CO2 reduction today."

The United Nations says livestock farming alone is responsible for up to 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Nearly a quarter of that comes from bovine flatulence.

Cows shown in a field near the village of Hargimont, Belgium, Aug. 11, 2018. Yves Herman / Reuters file"The burps for the cows '-- it is more burps than farts '-- contribute about ... 4 percent of [all] greenhouse gas emissions," said Anne Mottet, livestock development officer at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Agolin says field trials have shown its product also helps increase milk yield and feed efficiency, which are benefits that farmers can more easily measure.

"A farmer does not get a cent if he reduces his methane production," said technical director Beatrice Zweifel. "That is starting to change a little bit, however, for example in California, where farmers must reduce their methane production by 40 percent."

Breaking News EmailsGet breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 17:36

Last October, Monica Lewinsky debuted a P.S.A., ''In Real Life,'' in partnership with BBDO New York and Dini von Mueffling Communications. The video, which went on to be nominated for an Emmy, featured actors reciting cyberbullying posts to show the power of hurtful online words. Nearly a year later, Lewinsky is back with another P.S.A. that's an equally effective gut punch.

In this video, famous people are called by the names they have been called online: Lena ''the Whiny Fat Cu--'' Dunham; John Oliver, also known as ''Dumb Bitch Loser''; ''The Useless'' Alan Cumming. Presented under the hashtag ''#DefyTheName,'' the video promotes the idea that name-calling, no matter where it's done, can stay with the target for years. Bullying, as Lewinsky told Vanity Fair, even happened last week in the Senate hearings.

The P.S.A. this year is a little more interactive. It asks that people change their online name to whatever they have been called by bullies. And Lewinsky is not sitting this one out: for the month of October, she will take on the name Monica ''Chunky Slut Unmarryable That Woman'' Lewinsky. Here's why.

Vanity Fair: It's been almost a year since your ''In Real Life'' P.S.A. debuted. How does this one move the work forward?

Monica Lewinsky: Whereas last year's campaign focused on asking people to rethink their online behavior, with a secondary note about the positive impact of being an upstander instead of a bystander, this year #DefyTheName is focused on the targets of bullying behavior'--both in the P.S.A. and in the ask of people to change their display name on social media to include their bullied name.

How did the celebrities in the campaign get involved? Whose passion for the project surprised you?

Almost everyone involved in the P.S.A. is someone whom I know personally'--though maybe just virtually. This made it both wonderful and stressful as I felt especially responsible for making sure they were comfortable while also being mindful of how busy everyone is.

Anyone who is in the P.S.A. is passionate about making a change with this issue. Even with the vignettes where we just had name approval there was a time investment on their part. I'm so grateful to all of those who participated. We may have a surprise video later in the month from someone who I was shocked to learn was bullied as a kid'--but his schedule is tight though he cares about this issue. I'll keep you posted!

Did they pick these childhood taunts themselves?

Yes, they did. Some gave us a few from which to choose.

What is it about a P.S.A. that feels particularly powerful? Is it the fact that everyone is on YouTube now and that's how things are seen, or is there something in particular about the actual filmmaking?

I don't know about other P.S.A.s or agencies, but having worked with BBDO N.Y. two years in a row, I can tell you one of the ingredients that has made our P.S.A.s powerful is how much they care about this issue and are dedicated to the work. We have all, including DVM Communications, worked hundreds and hundreds of hours pro bono on this campaign because we all care about this issue'--how it's affecting people, particularly young people now'--and how we want to see this bullying behavior curbed for future generations.

P.S.A.s may also be having a moment because we're so thirsty for truth and ways to feel like we're making a difference. Some of the best P.S.A.s are the most impactful kinds of storytelling.

How have the conversations you have with people around bullying changed since you first started doing this work?

Many of us focused on this issue and in this space have worked to talk about the bullied experience in ways that help to de-stigmatize it. This is important because it is often the stigma that causes shame and then prevents people from reaching out to the others, which I think is the most dangerous'--suffering in silence.

It's also changed in the several years as the discourse online devolved, becoming more and more caustic. More people understand its importance as a social and mental-health topic.

It's been an exhausting few weeks of news, with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's incredible composure in the face of relentless harassment as one of the few bright spots. Obviously no one should have to endure what she has, but do you see her as a model for putting up with some of the most extreme kinds of bullying?

Absolutely. Dr. Blasey Ford was bullied and yet still chose to do the brave thing in testifying.

How has the Kavanaugh news cycle felt for you personally?

Just like for many other people in our country, it's been an emotional time for me. I wasn't able to watch the hearings to take care of myself emotionally (we were also shooting part of the PSA that day which was a better focus for me.)

For a lot of people, the best response to online harassment is to simply back away, but you've stuck with your work, and sometimes even respond to people who attack you on Twitter. What gives you the strength to keep that up?

I utilize all available safeties for what I see on social media. If a platform offers up a new tool, I'm on it! I'm also a huge fan of blocking. But in general, I try (though not always successfully) to practice neutral compassion online'--to de-personalize the vitriol being spewed at me and remind myself this person is probably suffering more than me. Really, who yells or says cruel things to a stranger?! (Also me: hello, drafts folder!)

Will you change your display name, and if yes, to what?

There were a lot to choose from, but thankfully Twitter only allows you 50 characters! My name for October will be Monica ''Chunky Slut Stalker That Woman'' Lewinsky. (No monogrammed presents, please.)

It was recently announced that you participated in a docuseries being exec-produced by Alex Gibney and directed by Blair Foster for A&E. Did preparing for that help you think of names?

Sadly, yes. Living through 1998 was one thing. Digging deep and preparing for these interviews was another layer of pain and working through my good old friend shame.

Get Vanity Fair's Cocktail Hour

Our essential brief on culture, the news, and more. And it's on the house.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Source: BBC News - Europe

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 15:53

Image copyright CERN Image caption Cern, home to the Large Hadron Collider, was quick to condemn the talk More than 1,600 scientists have so far signed a statement condemning the remarks of the Italian researcher who stated that physics was "built by men".

Prof Alessandro Strumia presented an analysis to an audience of predominantly young female physicists which he claimed "proved" women were less capable at the subject than men.

The statement at particlesforjustice.org says Prof Strumia's talk was "fundamentally unsound" and was "followed by open discrimination and personal attacks".

In response, Prof Strumia told BBC News that the high-energy physics community was about 100 times bigger than the number that have so far signed the statement.

He said that the signatories "mostly come from those countries more affected by political correctness, which I indicated as the problem. This is what leads to academicians that want (to get) others fired for having 'morally reprehensible' ideas".

The Pisa University-affiliated researcher made his comments - first reported by the BBC - during a workshop at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) - the lab on the Franco-Swiss border that discovered the Higgs Boson.

Cern has since suspended his participation from any activities at the lab.

Physicists from across the world are continuing to add their names to the statement.

"Strumia's arguments are morally reprehensible," it reads. "Belittling the ability and legitimacy of scientists of colour and white women scientists using such flimsy pretexts is disgraceful, and it reveals a deep contempt for more than half of humanity that clearly comes from some source other than scientific logic."

The workshop at which Prof Strumia was speaking was aimed at helping women to become particle physicists.

But the audience of early career researchers was upset and angered by his analysis of published research papers from an online library. He told them that his analysis showed that physics was not sexist against women.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Professor Donna Strickland became the first woman in 55 years to win the Nobel prize in Physics earlier this week He produced a series of graphs which, he claimed, demonstrated that women were hired over men whose research had been cited more highly in publications - an indication of higher quality.

Prof Strumia also presented data that he claimed showed that male and female researchers were equally cited at the start of their careers before men then overtook women as their careers progressed.

In addition, he highlighted behavioural research that he said indicated that the "assumption that men and women have identical brains is an ideology".

The statement at particlesforjustice.org forensically examines each of the claims and dismisses them.

"Strumia claimed to be proving that there is no discrimination against women, [but] his arguments were rooted in a circumscribed, biased reading of the data available, to the point of promoting a perspective that is biased against women," it states.

"The origin and validity of the data he presented have not yet been corroborated, but even if we take it at face value in all cases there are obvious alternative explanations that '... are directly in contradiction with his conclusions."

Professor Strumia denied that his use of data was biased.

He told the BBC: "The data about citations and hirings show that women are not discriminated (against) in fundamental physics. We reward merit, irrespective of gender."

The University of Pisa has said that it is considering a disciplinary review of his actions.

Follow Pallab on Twitter

Link to Article

Archived Version

Source: BitcoinNews.com

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 16:04

The crypto space has been waiting for institutional investors to enter the market and now, confirmation has come that at least one major institutional investor has jumped into the crypto market. Yale University has the second largest endowment in the United States at USD 30 billion, just behind Harvard's USD 36 billion endowment. The Yale endowment has invested an undisclosed sum of money into crypto hedge funds run by Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz.

Yale's fund is managed by David Swensen, who has a reputation for being a pioneer in institutional investment. Other university's endowment managers have been watching the movements of David Swensen for decades and have been trying to copy his strategies. Over the last 20 years, Yale's endowment has seen an 11.8% return per year.

A survey conducted by NEPC in February 2018 indicated that 96% of endowments and foundations don't invest in crypto. However, this could change now that Swensen has begun to invest Yale's endowment into crypto, potentially unlocking a fraction of the USD 550 billion of endowments in the United States into the crypto space. To put this in perspective, Bitcoin's market cap is only USD 114 billion as of 5 October 2018, with the total crypto market cap being USD 219 billion. Therefore, if Yale's endowment finds success investing in crypto, it could unleash a relatively large amount of capital into the crypto space in the future.

The specific crypto hedge fund Yale's endowment invested in is Paradigm, a USD 400 million crypto hedge fund started by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, former Sequoia Capital Partner Matt Huang, and former Pantera Capital employee Charles Noyes. Also, Yale's endowment invested in the USD 300 million crypto hedge fund started by Andreessen Horowitz.

Although the exact amount that Yale's endowment investment in crypto is unknown, it is known that 60% of the endowment will be put into alternative investments in 2019, which includes Venture Capital, Hedge Funds, and leveraged buyouts. Also, a previous study by Yale University found that 6% of investment portfolios should be invested in Bitcoin.

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews

Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? '' View our Media Kit PDF here.

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 01:06

A Russian deputy attorney general, who is thought to have directed Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya in her efforts abroad on behalf of Russia's government, reportedly died Wednesday night in a helicopter crash.

The Daily Beast reported that Saak Albertovich Karapetyan was aboard an unauthorized helicopter flight, which crashed near the village of Vonyshevo, outside of Moscow.

Karapetyan was reportedly behind Veselnitskaya's global efforts to lobby lawmakers to overturn anti-corruption acts such as the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which passed in 2012. The U.S. legislation is similar to others around the world which commemorate Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died while trying to expose a $230 million fraud scheme in Russia. The acts have reportedly incensed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Daily Beast reported that Karapetyan signed a letter sent on behalf of Russia's government to a U.S. court in 2014 refusing assistance into an investigation concerning Magnitsky's death. The letter was drafted reportedly with aid from Veselnitskaya.

Two years later, Veselnitskaya was involved in a meeting with President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort at Trump Tower. The meeting, which occurred during the 2016 presidential election, was reportedly set up under the presumption that Veselnitskaya would present damaging information on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign.

Trump Jr. has maintained publicly that the meeting was a "waste of time," stating that the meeting was focused on Russian adoption policy.

Veselnitskaya, however, has said publicly that the two discussed the Magnitsky Act during the meeting, alleging that Trump Jr. pledged to look into the issue after his father assumed office.

"[I]f we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it. I understand our side may have messed up, but it'll take a long time to get to the bottom of it," she recalled Trump Jr. saying, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The meeting has come under intense scrutiny in special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation, which is seeking to determine if members of then-candidate Trump's campaign knowingly colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.

Trump Jr. and other members of his father's campaign and administration have repeatedly denied having any ties to Russia during the election.

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201815:00

GetthelatestfromTODAYSignupforournewsletter

BenAffleckislettingfansknowhe'scompleteda40-daystayatatreatmentcenter.

The46-year-oldactorsharedacandidstatementonInstagramThursdayinwhichherevealedhe'dleftarehabfacilityandwillcontinueoutpatienttreatmentforalcoholaddiction.Affleckalsothankedhislovedones,Hollywoodpalsandfansfortheirsupport.

"ThesupportIhavereceivedfrommyfamily,colleaguesandfansmeansmoretomethanIcansay.It'sgivenmethestrengthandsupporttospeakaboutmyillnesswithothers,"Affleckwrote.

"Battlinganyaddictionisalifelonganddifficultstruggle.Becauseofthat,oneisneverreallyinoroutoftreatment.Itisfull-timecommitment,"hewrote,adding,"Iamfightingformyselfandmyfamily."

The"JusticeLeague"staralsoexpressedgratitudetowardthosewho'vesharedstoriesoftheirownaddictionbattles.

"Somanypeoplehavereachedoutonsocialmediaandspokenabouttheirownjourneyswithaddiction.Tothosepeople,Iwanttosaythankyou.YourstrengthisinspiringandissupportingmeinwaysIdidn'tthinkwaspossible.IthelpstoknowIamnotalone,"hewrote.

Affleckre-enteredrehabonAug.22afterreachingouttoestrangedwifeJenniferGarner,46,forhelp.GarnerwasphotographeddrivingAffleckfromhishomeinPacificPalisades,California,tothetreatmentfacility.

Thepairsplitupin2015andGarnerfiledfordivorcein2017,butithasnotyetbeenfinalized,andthey'veremainedclosewhileco-parentingtheirthreechildren'--Violet,12,Seraphina,9,andSamuel,6.

Affleck'sestrangedwife,JenniferGarner,hassupportedtheactorduringhismostrecentrehabstay.PascalLeSegretain/GettyImages"OnecrucialaspectofBen'srecoveryisforhimtobeabletoseekhelpwhenhefeelsasthoughheisnotincontrol'--whenhisongoingtreatmentandmeetingswithsobercoachesaren'tquiteenough,''asourceclosetoAfflecktoldNBCNewsatthetime.

"Thebest-casescenarioisforhimtoseekhelp,whichhehasdonewillingly,andforthatweareallverygratefulandhopeful,"thesourceadded.

Affleckpreviouslyenteredrehabforalcoholaddictionin2001,fouryearsafterwinninganOscarforco-writingthescreenplayto"GoodWillHunting"withclosefriendMattDamon.HesoughttreatmentagaininMarch2017.

OnThursday,Affleckendedhisstatementbyvowingtocontinueacceptinghelpwithhisaddiction.

"Withacceptanceandhumility,IcontinuetoavailmyselfwiththehelpofsomanypeopleandIamgratefultoallthosewhoarethereforme,"hewrote,adding,"IhopedowntheroadIcanofferanexampletootherswhoarestruggling."

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201814:32

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201814:27

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201814:08

TheACLUSponsorsanAdComparingBrettKavanaughtoBillCosbyandHarveyWeinsteinSuchnakedlypoliticalpropagandaisbeneaththecivillibertiesorganization.RobbySoave|Oct.2,20182:00pm

TheAmericanCivilLibertiesUnionisnotmerelyopposingBrettKavanaugh'sconfirmationtotheSupremeCourt.ThegrouphasalsospentamilliondollarstorunattackadsinseveralstatescomparingKavanaughtoconvictedsexualpredatorBillCosby.

"We'veseenthisbefore:denialsfrompowerfulmen,"saysthead'snarrator.Wethenseeimagesof#MeToovillains:formerPresidentBillClinton,formertalkshowhostsMattLauerandCharlieRose,formerstudioexecutive,HarveyWeinstein,Cosby,andfinallyKavanaugh.Theimplicationisclear:Kavanaughisjustlikethem.

TheadisrunninginNebraska,Colorado,WestVirginia,andAlaska,anditisaimedatpersuadingfence-sittingsenatorstovotenoonKavanaugh.

NEW:Whenwesaidwe'regoingtousethefullforceoftheACLUtostopBrettKavanaugh,wemeantit.

We'respendingmorethan$1milliontorunadslikethisinNebraska,Colorado,WestVirginia,andAlaskapic.twitter.com/dWyN1XYh29

'--ACLU(@ACLU)October1,2018TheACLU'sdecisiontoformallyopposeKavanaughwasanunusualmovefortheorganization,whichalmostnevertakesapositiononjudicialnominees.ThedecisiontoactivelyfightKavanaughbylinkingtheuncorroboratedallegationsagainsthimtothemuchmoredefinitive,actuallyprovenmisbehaviorcommittedbyCosbyandothersissomethingelse:nakedlypartisan.

It'sonethingtosaythatKavanaughisnotthebestchoicefortheSupremeCourt.It'squiteanothertoprematurelylumphiminwithClinton,Cosby,andWeinstein.IwouldhavethoughtsuchtacticswerebeneaththeACLU.Thisisashamefulmomentforaonce-greatorganization.

PhotoCredit:WinMcNamee/Pool/ZUMAPress/Newscom

RELATEDAuthenticityandTruthinthe#MeTooEraElizabethNolanBrown|10.07.18

TheSenateVotestoConfirmBrettKavanaughZuriDavis|10.06.18

BrettKavanaughWillBeConfirmed,andLiberalsShouldBlameMichaelAvenattiRobbySoave|10.05.18

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201813:14

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201812:35

WILLETSPOINT,QUEENS--It'sthebiggesttrendinmusicthatyoumayhaveneverheardof.

Thenagain,K-Pop--Koreanpopmusic--hasbeenpopular,especiallyintheNewYorkmetroarea,foryears.It'snowgoingmainstreamintheU.S.,andaclearsignoftheexpandingtrendisthetentcitygrowinghere,intheCitiFieldparkinglot.

It'swherethemusicgenre'smostpopularband,BTS,isscheduledtoplayonSaturdaynight.ItwillbethefirsttimeeverthataKoreanentertainmentactofanysorthassoldoutastadiumintheU.S.InthecaseofBTS,thesceneoutsideofCitiFieldshowstheloyaltyoftheband'sfans,asmuchasitdemonstratesthemusicalact'spopularity.

"They'reoverallgoodpeople,andwanttodogoodthingsfortheworld,"saidBTSfanKelseyDewan,24,abouttheseven-memberboyband,"Andthat'spersonallyformewhyIlovethem."

DewanistheKoreanpopsensation'snumbertwofan,literally.Writtenonthebackofherhandwasthenumber2,indicatingthatsheisthesecondinlineforthemorethan5,000ticketsreleasedforgeneraladmissiononthegroundatCitiField,surroundingthestage,attheSaturdayconcert.

The40,000orsootherfanshaveseatedtickets,whichsoldoutinjusteightminutes,monthsago.

Meanwhile,thefanswho'vesetuptents--hundredsofthem--outsideCitiField,withthestadium'spermission,havealsosetuptheirownnumberingsystemforreceivinggeneraladmissionfloortickets.It'sfirstcome,firstserved,butalsoallowspeopleinlinetoleavetogetfood,oreventoshowerorsleepatnearbyhotels,andnotlosetheirplaceinline,providedtheyhaveafriendtoholdtheirplace.

"It'sall,like,personal,"saidCrystalLee,19.ShewasdescribingBTS,butalsosaidthattheband'svibereflectsthatofthepeoplegatheredfordaysinadvancetohearthem."It'spartofbeingtheyouthgeneration,"saidLee,whoisfromFlushing,Queens.

Shewasinthesmallminorityoflocalfanswho'dchosentocampoutwhileawaitingtheirfavoriteband'sarrival.Thevastmajorityofcamperswerefromvastlydifferentpartsofthecountry.

"I'mfromNewOrleans,Louisiana,"TreyBaker,21,toldPIX11News."It'smyfirsttimeinNewYork,inthebigcity."

FanDaniMattispointedoutthatshe'sfrom"SouthFlorida,aboutanhourfromMiami,"inLakeWorth.

LikesomanyofthethousandsofpeoplecampedoutatCitiField,MattishadcomehereafterhavingbeenatotherBTSshowsaroundthecountryandtheworldontheband'scurrenttour.

Thecampingfanssaidit'sworthitallinordertoconnectwithBTS.Thebandhassomuchsuperstarappealthatitssevenmembers--KimSeok-Jin,KimNan-joon,MinYoon-gi,JungHo-seok,ParkJi-min,KimTae-hyung,andJeonJeong-guk,wereinvitedtospeakattheUnitedNationsduringitsGeneralAssemblymeetingslastweek.

Theywerethefirstbandtoreceivesuchanhonor.ThegroupdoesextensivefundraisingandcampaigningfortheUnitedNationsChildren'sFund.

EventhoughthebandmadehistorybyaddressingtheworldattheU.N.,itsfanssaidthatwitheachperformanceandsongrelease,BTSalsospeakstothempersonallyandindividually.

"It'scool,"saidfanKimberlyWeihert,fromtheCentralValleyofCalifornia."Mostofusdon'tspeakthelanguage"oftheband,shesaid,butaddedthatmusicisactuallythecommunicationmediumforthelegionoffans,whocallthemselvesBTSARMY.

"Wefeelthesameissues[thebandis]goingthrough,andeverythingisuniversal,andeverythingisjustnice."

TheCitiFieldconcertisscheduledfor7p.m.onSaturday.

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201812:25

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201806:10

AstandingovationforCongoleseNobelPeacePrize-winnerDenisMukwegewhotreatswarrapevictimsintheDemocraticRepublicofCongo.

Mukwegededicatedhisawardtoallwomenaffectedbyrapeandsexualviolence.

AthisPanzihospitalintheeasternCongolesecityofBukavu,Mukwegesaystheprizewasanimportantrecognitionofmanywomen'strauma.

DenisMukegesays,"Whenyoustartcountingthenumbers,themillionsofdeathsandhundredsofthousandsofwomenraped,thentheycannolongerbeignored.Wecannotcontinuetosimplycountnumbers,wehavetostartaprocessthatwillleadtothetruthcomingoutandjusticebeingdone.Theworldcantodaydrawaredlineandsayinarmedconflictswomenshouldneverbeusedasabattlegroundandifanyonebreaksthatruletheyshouldbeisolatedfromsociety".

NadiaMurad,aYazidirightsactivistandsurvivorofsexualslaverybysocalledIslamicState,alsowontheprestigiousaward.Nadiawas21in2014whenmilitantstookherfromNorthernIraqandshewasrepeatedlysoldforsexaspartofIslamicState'sslavetradebeforeescapingandbecominganadvocatefortherightsofhercommunityaroundtheworld.

NadiaMuradsays,"MydreamisforthesmallcommunitieslikeYazidisandChristians'--theminoritiesinIraqSyriaandintheregion'--beprotectedandnotdisappear.ISIL'sgoalistoeradicatethosefewsmallcommunities.Myobjectiveistopreventthatfromhappening,andtokeephumanbeingsalivewhatevertheircolour,theirreligion,ortheirnationality.Peoplehavetorespectthemastheyare".

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201805:20

Sting,RitaOraandEdSheeranhavejoinedforcestowarnTheresaMaya"no-deal"BrexitwillputBritainina"culturaljail".

BobGeldofisspearheadingacampaigntowarnoftheimpactofBrexitonthemusicindustry,andhasdrawnsupportfromartistsacrossthecountry.

Geldofsaid:"It'stwo-fold.Oneistheincomeitgeneratesforthiscountry,£94bn,contrastthattotheNHSspend,of£115bn,almostthesame.

"Thiswillbecriticallydamaged.

"Thesecondreasoniscultural-thevoiceofBritain,thegenuine,globalBritishvoiceismusic,ithasbeensincetheBeatles.

"Nooneknowsquitewhythistinyislandproducessuchvastreservoirsoftalentbutwedoknowtheentireplanetdances,eats,sleeps,andplayshardtoournoise.

"Thatisbeingendangeredbyarecklessnesswhichisexistentialandhistoricallyself-damaging."

Hesaidwhenhetouredinhisyouthhewouldhavetostopatborderstohavepatrolofficerscheckeverypieceofequipment,atahugecost,andhefearsthiswillreturn.

Geldofsaiditcomesatatimewhenrecordsalesaredownandmusiciansmakeverylittlefromstreaming.

OthersignatoriesincludeJarvisCocker,DamonAlbarn,JohnnyMarr,formerTheSmithsguitarist,andPinkFloyd'sdrummerNickMason.

Image:RitaOraisoneofthosewhohassignedthejointletterTheletterstates:"ImagineBritainwithoutitsmusic.Ifit'shardforus,thenit'simpossiblefortherestoftheworld.

"Inthisonearea,ifnowhereelse,Britaindoesstillrulethewaves.Theairwaves.

"ButBrexitthreatens,asitdoessomuchelse,thisvastvoice.Thishugeglobalculturalinfluencer.

"Weareabouttomakeaveryseriousmistakeregardingourgiantindustryandthevastpoolofyetundiscoveredgeniusthatlivesonthislittleisland."

AccordingtoTheObserver,theletterwascirculatedwiththesubject"towardsasecondvote".

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sun,07Oct201803:31

June22,2017|ClipOfHouseMinorityLeaderWeeklyBriefingThisclip,title,anddescriptionwerenotcreatedbyC-SPAN.User-CreatedClipbyvicrowJune22,20172017-06-22T11:18:59-04:00https://images.c-span.org/Files/263/20170622111914001_hd.jpgIsshetalkingaboutwhattheDemocratsaredoingtoTrumpconcerningRussia?IsshetalkingaboutwhattheDemocratsaredoingtoTrumpconcerningRussia?

";$('div#video-embed').html(cookieMsg);return;}});

UserCreatedClipsfromThisVideoViewallclipsfromthisvideoRelatedVideoMarch2,2017MinorityLeaderWeeklyBriefingHouseMinorityLeaderNancyPelosi(D-CA)briefedreportersandrespondedtoquestionsonherparty'slegislativeagenda.She'...

February16,2017HouseMinorityLeaderWeeklyBriefingHouseMinorityLeaderNancyPelosi(D-CA)briefedreportersandrespondedtotheirquestionsatherweeklybriefing.'...

March9,2017HouseMinorityLeaderWeeklyBriefingHouseMinorityLeaderNancyPelosi(D-CA)briefedreportersandrespondedtoquestionsonherparty'slegislative'...

May4,2017HouseMinorityLeaderWeeklyBriefingHouseMinorityLeaderNancyPelosi(D-CA)heldherweeklypressbriefingwithreporters.ShecalledRepublicanlawmakers'AffordableCareAct'...

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sat,06Oct201819:44

FirstladyMelaniaTrumpMelaniaTrumpTheHill's12:30Report'--PresentedbyCiti'--SenateadvancesKavanaughnominationinkeyvote|Manchin,Murkowskibreakrankswiththeirparties|Collinsfinaldecisionat3pmMelaniaTrumpdanceswithorphansinKenyaMelaniaTrumpgreetedwith'Notas---hole'signonAfricatripMOREsaidSaturdaythatshedoesn'talwaysagreewiththingsherhusbandwritesonTwitter,jokingshehasaskedhimbeforetoputdownhisphone.

"Idon'talwaysagreewithwhathetweetsandItellhimthat,Igivehimmyhonestopinionandhonestadvice,"TrumptoldreportersinEgyptduringhertourofAfrica,herfirstsolotripasfirstlady."Sometimeshelistensandsometimeshedoesn't."

"Ihavemyownvoiceandmyopinionsandit'sveryimportantformethatIexpresswhatIfeel,"sheadded.

Whenpressedifshewastryingto"scare"PresidentTrumpDonaldJohnTrumpLawyer:FordfoundTrumpmockinghertestimony'veryhurtful'McConnell:Kavanaughfighta'wakeupcall'aheadofNovemberelectionKaganwarnsthatSupremeCourtmaynothaveaswingvoteanymoreMOREintobeingmorepoliteorsensitive,thefirstladyresponded,"No,Itellhimmyopinions,whatIbelieve,andinsomeofthemmaybewedon'tagree."

"I'mnotelected,he'sthepresident."

Whenaskedbyreportersifshehadeverrequestedthatherhusbandtoputhisphonedown,thefirstladylaughedandresponded"yes."

Thefirstladyhasinthepastaddressedherhusband'softencombativeandpersonaltweetstargetingperceivedcritics.

AfterTrumpwentafterNBAstarLeBronJamesforappearingonDonLemon'sCNNshowinAugust,questioningthebasketballplayer'sintelligencewhenhecriticizedthepresident,thefirstladyvoicedhersupportforJames.

MelaniaTrumpsaidinastatementthat''itlookslikeLeBronJamesisworkingtodogoodthingsonbehalfofournextgeneration.''

ThefirstladyalsolaunchedacampaigntoendcyberbullyinginAugust,amovewhichthepresidentreportedlytriedtodiscourage.

AccordingtoTheNewYorkTimes,thepresidenttoldhiswifethatshewasinvitingbacklashbasedonhistendencytogoafterpeopleonTwitterhimself.

Updated:2:03p.m.

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sat,06Oct201816:03

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sat,06Oct201815:54

Mediaplaybackisunsupportedonyourdevice

MediacaptionTheBBC'sGordonCoreralooksatwhytheRussiancyberplotstingwassurprisingTheDutchgovernmenthasdefendedadecisionnottodetainfourRussiansaccusedofanattemptedcyber-attackontheglobalchemicalweaponswatchdoginTheHague.

ThesuspectedRussianagentsweresenthomeasitwasnotacriminalinquiry,PrimeMinisterMarkRuttesaid.

TheUSandUKhavejoinedtheNetherlandsinblamingRussianspiesforaseriesofcyber-plotsworldwide.

Russiahascomplainedofa"stage-managedpropagandacampaign".

ThedecisioninAprilnottoprosecutethesuspectsstarklycontrastedwithaUSannouncementonThursdaytolevelchargesagainstthefour,aswellasthreeotherallegedmembersofRussia'sGRUmilitaryintelligenceagency.

ReportsfromMoscowonFridaysuggestedtheDutchambassadorhadbeensummonedbyRussia.

WhatisRussiaaccusedof?TheNetherlandssaidithadcaughtfouragentsofRussia'sGRUmilitaryintelligencered-handedinTheHagueinAprilastheytriedtohackthewifinetworkoftheOrganisationfortheProhibitionofChemicalWeapons.TheOPCWwasinvestigatingachemicalattackonSyriaandanerveagentattackonSergeiSkripal-aRussianex-spyintheUKOneofthefouragents,theDutchsaid,hadbeeninMalaysiatargetingtheinvestigationintotheMH17plane,shotdownovereasternUkraineTheUSlaidchargesagainstsevenagentsfortargetingitsanti-dopingagency,football'sgoverningbodyFifaandUSnuclearenergycompanyWestinghouse;ofthesevencharged,fourwerethemenexpelledfromtheNetherlands,whiletheotherthreewereamongthosechargedinJulywithhackingDemocraticofficialsduringthe2016USelectionsCanadasaid"withhighconfidence"thatRussiawasbehindbreachesatitscentreforethicsinsportsandattheMontreal-basedWorldAnti-DopingAgencyTheUKaccusedtheGRUoffourhigh-profilecyber-attacks,whosetargetsincludedfirmsinRussiaandUkraine;theUSDemocraticParty;andasmallTVnetworkintheUKReadmore:Transparency-thetooltocounterRussia

'Spymania'ByStevenRosenberg,BBCMoscowcorrespondent

It'sbecomeafamiliarpattern.

TheWestaccusesMoscowofviolatinginternationallawandprovidesevidence;Moscowdeniesitandderidestheclaims.

Themilitaryhackersstoryisnodifferent.Russianofficialsandpro-KremlinmediahavebrushedasideWesternclaimsofGRUcyberattackswithonephrase:"spymania".

TheIzvestianewspaperclaimed"thevirusofspymaniahadonceagaininfectedtheWest".

GovernmentnewspaperRossiyskayaGazetamaintainedtheaccusationsofRussianmilitaryintelligencehackingwere"baseless".

Russia'sforeignministryhasalreadydismissed"Westernhysteriaaboutall-mightyRussiancyber-spies".

Thetoneisbrash,mockingandbelligerent.ThemessagetotheWest-betweenthelines-isthatRussiacannotbepressuredorisolated.

ButexistingsanctionsagainstRussiaarebeginningtobiteandthecountry'seconomicproblemsaremounting.IfthelatestclaimsaboutGRUhackerssparkafreshroundofWesternsanctions,Russia'seconomicdifficultieswillonlyincrease.

WhowerethesuspectsinTheHague?ImagecopyrightDutchgovernmentImagecaptionThepassportsofallfoursuspectswereseizedbyDutchintelligence-thisbelongedtoAlexeiMorenetsThefourmenhadflownintoAmsterdam'sSchipholairportinAprilondiplomaticpassports,hiredacarandparkeditattheMarriotthotelinTheHague,nexttotheOPCWoffice.

TheiraimhadbeentointerceptlogindetailsintheOPCW'swifinetworkfromthebootoftheircar,saidtheheadoftheDutchMIVDintelligenceservice,Maj-GenOnnoEichelsheim.

HeidentifiedthemenashackersAlexeiMorenetsandYevgenySerebriakov,andsupportagentsOlegSotnikovandAlexeiMinin.

OfficialssaidtheywerefromtheGRU'sUnit26165,whichhasalsobeenknownasAPT28.TheUK'sambassadortotheNetherlands,PeterWilson,saidtheunithad"sentofficersaroundtheworldtoconductbrazencloseaccesscyber-operations"-whichinvolvehackingintowifinetworks.

ImagecopyrightMinisterievanDefensieWhenthemenwerestopped,alargeamountoftechnicalequipment,mobilephonesandalaptopwereseized.Butthementhemselveswereescortedtotheairportandflownhomeratherthanbeingarrested.

TheyhadtrainticketstotravelontotheSwisscapitalBerneandwereplanningtotargetalaboratoryinSpiezwheretheOPCWanalysedsamples,Dutchofficialssaid.

Amongthemobilephonesseized,onewasfoundtohavebeenactivatedneartheGRUbuildinginMoscow.

ImagecopyrightMinisterievanDefensieAlsofoundwasareceiptforataxijourneyfromastreetneartheGRUtotheairport.ThetaxifirmhasconfirmedtotheBBCthatthereceiptisgenuine.

Inaseparatedevelopment,investigativewebsiteBellingcatallegedthatacarownedbyoneofthefour,AlexeiMorenets,wasregisteredtoanaddressonKomsomolskyProspektinMoscow-hometoGRU's26165militaryunit.Ithasfounddetailsof305individualswhosecarsareregisteredtothesameaddressonavehicledatabase.

Whywerethefoursenthome?Eventhoughthemenweretravellingondiplomaticpassports,theycouldstillhavebeenarrestedbecausetheywerenotaccrediteddiplomatsintheNetherlands.

Soquestionshavebeenaskedaboutthedecisiontosendthesuspectshomeimmediately,ratherthandetainthem.Hoursafterthecyber-plotrevelations,USjusticeofficialslevelledchargesagainstthefoursuspectsaswellasthreeothers.

ImagecopyrightDutchGovernmentImagecaptionDutchintelligencenamedthefoursuspectswhohadtravelledtotheNetherlandsondiplomaticpassportsinAprilAskedonDutchTVonThursdaynightwhythemenhadnotbeenarrested,Maj-GenEichelsheimexplainedthatithadbeenacounter-intelligenceoperationwiththespecificaimofgatheringintelligenceandkeepingtheNetherlandssafe.

Politicalleadersagreedthatthemenhadnotbeendetainedbecauseitwasanintelligenceoperation,ratherthanacriminalinquiryledbythepolice.

AccordingtoDutchexpertWillemijnAerdtsfromLeidenuniversity,theintelligenceserviceshavenopowersofarrestorprosecution.

"Iftheyhadarrestedthem,theywouldhavehadtoinformthepolice,"shetoldtheBBC.

"Itmighthavebeenadifficultdecisionbutitwasprobablyapoliticalthingaswell.Thedefenceministerwouldhaveknown."

ImagecopyrightFBIImagecaptionTheFBIreleasedthis"wanted"poster,namingandpicturingthesevenmen"Idon'twanttodescribethisas'lettingthemgo',"saidtheheadofDutchmilitaryintelligence."Wedisruptedanoperation.That'showwedothistypeofoperation."

Hisover-ridingthoughtinreactingtotheallegedcyber-plothadbeen"I'mnotgoingtoletthishappen",hesaid.

Whathavewelearnedabouttheallegedcyber-plot?ThelaptopseizedfromthesuspectswasfoundtohavebeenusedinBrazil,SwitzerlandandMalaysia,theDutchofficialssaid.

AccordingtotheUKambassadortotheNetherlands,thecyber-operationinMalaysiahadtargetedtheattorneygeneral'sofficeandMalaysianpoliceaswellastheinvestigationintotheMH17crash,inwhich298peopledied.

EarlierthisyearDutch-ledinternationalinvestigatorsconcludedthattheBukmissilewhichhadbroughttheplanedownhadbeentransportedbyroadfromaRussianmilitarybase.

DatafromthelaptopshowedithadalsobeenusedintheSwisscityofLausanneandwaslinkedtothehackingofalaptopbelongingtoWorldanti-dopingagencyWada,whichhasexposeddopingbyRussianathletes.

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sat,06Oct201814:42

Publishedtime:6Oct,201813:17

RTlooksatthosewhohavebeencaughtinthecross-fireofthecampaignagainsttheSupremeCourtnomineeBrettKavanaugh,andforcedtopayaprice.

JoeKaplan,aFacebookexecutivewhohasbeenfriendswithKavanaughfordecades,hadthegalltoattendhisSenatehearinglastweek.Kaplanwasforcedtosaysorryforthe''deeplypainfulmoment,''whilethesocialmedianetworkreleasedamessagesayingitsleadershiphad''mademistakes.''

Meanwhile,BobLong,anOklahomapastor,wascondemnedmerelyforurgingpeople"regardlessofwheretheystandpolitically''to''stepback''fromthespectacleof''senatorsholleringateachother''duringthesamehearing,inacallforbettermannersandmoresubstanceinAmericanpolitics.

'),link:"https://www.rt.com/usa/440496-brett-kavanaugh-media-apologies/"},events:{onReady:function(){if(ga){ga('send','event','JWPLAYER-GA','CLICKPLAY',location.href);ga('send','event','JWPlayerArticle','Ready',location.href);//Ð'ÑеменноэтидубÐ>>иÑующиесчетчикиостаются}},onPlay:function(){myStreamingTag.playVideoContentPart(metadata);if(ga){ga('send','event','JWPLAYER-GA','CLICKPLAY',location.href);ga('send','event','JWPlayerArticle','Play',location.href);}varplayingVideoId='js-mediaplayer-5bb85c25fc7e938f278b4623';//idтекущеÐ"оÐÐ>>ееÑаpauseMedia(playingVideoId);//заÐускаемÑункциюостановкивсехиÐ"ÑающихÐÐ>>ееÑовкÑомеэтоÐ"оКодÑункциинижеÐокоду},onPause:function(){myStreamingTag.stop();if(ga)ga('send','event','JWPLAYER-GA','CLICKPAUSE',location.href);},onComplete:function(){myStreamingTag.stop();if(ga){ga('send','event','JWPLAYER-GA','COMPLETE',location.href);ga('send','event','JWPlayerArticle','Complete',location.href);}}}});jwplayer("js-mediaplayer-5bb85c25fc7e938f278b4623").addButton("https://www.rt.com/static/libs/jwplayer/img/download.png","Download",function(){window.location.href="https://cdnv.rt.com/files/2018.10/5bb85c25fc7e938f278b4623.mp4?download=1";},"download");functionpauseMedia(playingMediaId){varplayers=document.querySelectorAll('.jwplayer,object');for(vari=0,max=players.length;i

Aftermanythreatenedtoboycotthischurch,andanonlinecampaignagainsthimstartedonTwitter,thepreachersaidsorryfor''invokingpain''andbeggedforforgiveness.

READMORE:Professorwhowished'death&castration'toKavanaughdefendersissentonpaidworkingtrip

''Thisishysteriamixedwithmisinformation.Andifyoudaretoquestionanything''suchastheChristineBlaseyFordallegations''youarelabeledanti-female,pro-rapeandyouareshutdown,''mediaanalystLioneltoldRT.

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Sat,06Oct201814:33

CLOSE

LaCroix'sparentcompanyisbeingsuedforallegedlyusingthecockroachinsecticide,linalool,asaningredientintheirbeverages.Veuer'sSamBermanhasthefullstory.Buzz60

AnewlawsuitsaysLaCroixdoesn'tcontainonlynaturalingredients.LaCroix'sparentcompanydeniestheallegations.(Photo:LacroixWater)

AlawsuitfiledagainstLaCroix'sparentcompanyallegesthesparklingwateradvertisedas"allnatural"includesaningredientusedincockroachinsecticideaswellasotherartificialingredients.

LawfirmBeaumontCostalesfiledthesuitonbehalfofcustomerLenoraRice,CBSPhiladelphiareports,andclaimstestingrevealedthesyntheticingredients.LaCroixdeniestheallegations.

"LaCroixinfactcontainsingredientsthathavebeenidentifiedbytheFoodandDrugAdministrationassynthetic,''thelawsuitobtainedbyCBSstates."Thesechemicalsincludelimonene,whichcancausekidneytoxicityandtumors;linaloolpropionate,whichisusedtotreatcancer;andlinalool,whichisusedincockroachinsecticide."

ThelawsuitalsostatesLaCroixmakersareawareoftheallegedunnaturalingredients.

NationalBeverageCorp.deniestheallegations,sayingallessencesinLaCroixsparklingwatersareall100percentnatural.

"TheUnitedStatesFoodandDrugAdministration(FDA)considers''natural''onafoodlabeltobetruthfulandnon-misleadingwhen'nothingartificialorsynthetic(includingallcoloradditivesregardlessofsource)hasbeenincludedin,orhasbeenadded,'''thecompanysaidinastatementearlierthisweek.

More:Honeybeesaredying.Apopularweedkillermightbetoblame,studysays

More:Weedkillerinbreakfastcereals:Howdangerousisit?

FollowAshleyMayonTwitter:@AshleyMayTweets

ReadorSharethisstory:https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/10/05/lacroix-lawsuit-claims-sparkling-water-ingredients-cockroach-insecticide/1532241002/

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Fri,05Oct201817:26

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Fri,05Oct201812:08

TVGuideThursdayOct4,2018at4:15PM

ActressandcomedianAmySchumerhasbeendetainedataprotestoftheSenateconfirmationhearingsforSupremeCourtnomineeBrettKavanaugh.

MSNBCtweetedimagesofdozensofprotestorsattheHartSenateOfficeBuildingatriumonCapitolHillbeingdetainedandescortedoutofthebuilding.Schumerappearstobeoneofthem,andseveralimagesandvideosshowherbeingdetainedbypolicehavemadetheirwayontoTwitter.Onevideofeaturesapoliceoffersaying,"Youwanttogetarrested?Exit.Now."

Beforethearrest,Schumerfilmedavideoforafanwhosemotherwasattheprotest,saying,"HiZola,I'mherewithyourmom.Shelovesyouverymuch.Ithinkwe'regoingtogetarrested,andwe'resoproudofyou."

Talkaboutaoneofakindcelebrityshout-out!

PiperPeraboArrestedatBrettKavanaughSenateHearing

MYMOMANDAMYSCHUMERAREGETTINGARRESTEDTOGETHERANDAMYSAIDHITOMEpic.twitter.com/AqZUBUxUrd

'--Z(@Theboldtype_z)October4,2018

VIDEO:AmySchumerisprotestingattheHartSenateofficebuilding.Copasks"Doyouwanttobearrested?"

Schumer:"Yes."pic.twitter.com/oV3BOu1ESU

'--NewsThisSecond(@NewsThisSecond)October4,2018

Schumeristhelatestinalineofcelebritieswho'vemadeappearancesinWashington,D.C.,tospeakoutagainsttheKavanaughhearings.PiperPerabo(Notorious,CovertAffairs)wasarrestedlastmonthwhenthehearingsbegan,andAlyssaMilanoattendedthehearingsandhasspokenoutonseveraloccasionsagainstKavanaugh.

OtherLinksFromTVGuide.comAmySchumer

LinktoArticle

ArchivedVersion

Thu,04Oct201823:56

TakeYourPills(Trailer)TakeYourPills(Trailer)PrescriptionstimulantslikeAdderallpromiseaperformance-enhancingboostthat'shardtoresistinacultureobsessedwithsuccess.

2018TV-141h27m

Inahypercompetitiveworld,drugslikeAdderallofferstudents,athletes,codersandothersawaytodomore--fasterandbetter.Butatwhatcost?

Genres:Documentaries

Director:AlisonKlayman

WatchNowonNetflix

WatchNowonNetflix

ADDITIONALVIDEOSTakeYourPillsTakeYourPills(Trailer)

PrescriptionstimulantslikeAdderallpromiseaperformance-enhancingboostthat'shardtoresistinacultureobsessedwithsuccess.

MOREDETAILSAvailabletodownload

Thismovieis:

Provocative,Cerebral,Mind-bending

Audio:

Italian,French,Spanish,German,English[Original],English-AudioDescription

Subtitles:

Spanish,SimplifiedChinese,English,TraditionalChinese,French