1107: Carbon Budget

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 20:43

Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is considering a new tax on the wealthiest American households. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will propose a new annual ''wealth tax'' on Americans with more than $50 million in assets, according to an economist advising her on the plan, as Democratic leaders vie for increasingly aggressive solutions to the nation's soaring wealth inequality.

Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, two left-leaning economists at the University of California, Berkeley, have been advising Warren on a proposal to levy a 2 percent wealth tax on Americans with assets above $50 million, as well as a 3 percent wealth tax on those who have more than $1 billion, according to Saez.

Christopher Ingraham for the Washington PostThe wealth tax would raise $2.75 trillion over a ten-year period from about 75,000 families, or less than 0.1 percent of U.S. households, Saez said.

Warren's campaign declined to comment on details of the plan.

''The Warren wealth tax is pretty big. We think it could have a significant affect on wealth concentration in the long run,'' Saez said in an interview. ''This is a very interesting development with deep root causes: the fact inequality has been increasing so much, particularly in wealth, and the feeling our current tax system doesn't do a very good job taxing the very richest people.''

[Warren's 2020 agenda: Break up monopolies, give workers control over corporations, fight drug companies]

Warren's proposal includes at least three new mechanisms to combat tax evasion, according to a person familiar with the plan. Those are a significant increase in funding for the Internal Revenue Service; a mandatory audit rate requiring a certain number of people who pay the wealth tax to be subject to an audit every year; and a one-time tax penalty for those who have more than $50 million and try to renounce their U.S. citizenship.

Warren's wealth tax proposal reflects the Democratic Party's leftward drift on economic policy and tax issues. Democratic politicians have traditionally shied away from proposing how they would raise revenue, for fear of being branded ''tax and spend'' liberals, said Jim Manley, who served as an aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Saez and Zucman earlier this week published an op-ed in the New York Times about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) proposal to raise marginal tax rates to 70 percent on income above $10 million, a plan the economists said would help combat an ''inequality crisis'' akin to climate change.

''It's a pretty dramatic change that shows how much the party has evolved,'' Manley said. ''It's not where everyone in the party is now, but it's an awful lot of people.''

Republicans are likely to seize on the plan as another example of Democrats looking to tax Americans' hard-earned gains, even though it would apply to only a tiny percentage of the population. In their major tax overhaul passed December 2017, Republicans significantly hiked the threshold for the federal estate tax - exempting estates with assets of $11.4 million (in 2019) or less from paying it. They have often referred to this provision, which affects several families a year, as the ''death tax.''

Saez said the proposal came together quickly over the course of the last two weeks, while adding the economists have spent years considering how to enact a wealth tax.

Saez and Zucman initially evaluated a proposal at Warren's request to levy a 1 percent wealth tax on income above $10 million, rather than a 2 percent wealth tax above $50 million, according to a Jan. 14 letter the economists sent to Warren. That letter was obtained by The Washington Post.

According to people familiar with the matter, Warren's team has considered multiple different proposals with various rates.

In recent decades the taxation of wealth has fallen out of favor in the world's richest countries. In 1990, 12 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development imposed some form of wealth tax.

By 2017, that number had fallen to just four: France, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. That decline has been mirrored by a decline in the taxation of high incomes, as well as a rise in inequality, according to the OECD.

The OECD report concludes that the merits of a wealth tax depend in part on how a country taxes capital gains '-- the income accrued from capital '-- and estates. Overall, it recommends that ''tax exemption thresholds should be high to ensure that the net wealth tax is only levied on the very wealthy,'' and that ''tax rates should be low and take into account tax rates on capital income to avoid imposing excessively high tax burdens on capital so as to prevent capital flight."

Estimates of how much money can be raised by taxing the very rich vary dramatically. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, published a report on Wednesday finding that a 1 percent wealth tax on the wealthiest 0.1 percent of Americans would raise $1.3 trillion over a decade. That would affect U.S. households with wealth above $32.2 million.

But conservatives have warned that high taxes on the very rich will stifle growth, lead to capital flight, and produce relatively minor revenue gains. Earlier this month, the right-leaning Tax Foundation found that Ocasio-Cortez's plan for a 70 percent tax rate would either only raise $189 billion in revenue over 10 years, or lose the federal government $63.5 billion.

The Tax Foundation has also warned against wealth taxes, arguing that ''capital accumulation is an essential ingredient for economic growth,'' that wealth inequality does not harm the economy, and that wealth rewards entrepreneurs who take risks.

Christopher Ingraham for the Washington PostSince announcing her presidential bid, Warren has pitched herself a champion of the working class against elites, arguing ''billionaires and big corporations'' have rigged the political and economic system to their advantage. The possibility of a wealth tax proposal comes on top of her plan to force corporations to have 40 percent of their board of directors selected by company employees, as well as her support for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) plan to provide ''Medicare-for-all'' by nationalizing the health insurance industry.

The wealthiest 1 percent of families currently face a total tax burden, including state and local taxes, of about 3.2 percent relative to wealth, Saez and Zucman write in their letter.

The bottom 99 percent of families currently has a tax burden of 7.2 percent relative to their wealth, the economists say.

''One of the key motivations for introducing a progressive wealth tax is to curb the growing concentration of wealth,'' Saez and Zucman wrote to Warren in their Jan. 14 letter. ''The top 1 percent wealth share has increased dramatically from about 22 percent in the late 1970s to around 40 percent in recent years. Conversely, the wealth share of the bottom 95 percent of families has declined from about 50 percent in the late 1970s to about 40 percent today.''

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 21:44

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "Call me a radical"

Sen. Elizabeth Warren plans to propose a "wealth tax" on Americans with more than $50 million in an effort to combat inequality in the United States , according to an academic adviser behind the tax. If implemented, the tax would raise $2.75 trillion over a 10-year period, according to a study he conducted.

The proposal would levy a 2 percent tax on individuals with more than $50 million in assets and 3 percent on those with more than $1 billion, according to Emmanuel Saez, an economist from the University of California Berkeley who did research on "progressive wealth taxation" for Warren. The intent of the tax is to "narrow the gap between wealth growth at the top and wealth growth for the middle class," Saez wrote in an email Thursday to CBS News.

"Democracies become oligarchies when wealth is too concentrated," Saez wrote. "A progressive wealth tax is the most direct policy tool to curb the growing concentration of wealth in the United States."

Saloni Sharma, a spokesperson for Warren, did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.

Approximately 75,000 households, less than 0.1 percent of the country's population, would be impacted by the potential tax, according to the study by Saez and Gabriel Zucman, another Berkley economist, that the pair sent to Warren on Jan. 18.

"Combining progressive wealth taxation with policies to rebuild middle class wealth is exactly what the United States needs to ensure vibrant and equitable growth for the future," Saez wrote in an email.

Earlier this month, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested a top tax rate of up to 70 percent for wealthy Americans during an interview on "60 Minutes."

Warren's proposal was first reported by the Washington Post.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 04:22

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 01:24

A few years after a young scholar from Chennai married a doctoral student from Jamaica in California, my aunt also wed an African-American there. And just as Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris divorced, so did my aunt. My cousin hasn't become a Senator like Kamala Harris but they share a hometown'--Oakland, California'--and a commitment to social justice. Serendipity?

My aunt, incidentally, is half English, half Bengali and her parents married during the Raj, when such cross-racial unions were particularly fraught. While marrying whites is common now among Indians, the same cannot be said about Africans'--be they American or otherwise. In the 1960s and 1970s it was even rarer, and it was possibly equally difficult for both to settle into each other's cultures.

One long-standing Indian-African union, of course, is that of cookbook writer and actor Madhur Jaffrey and her second husband, the concert violinist Sanford Allen who married in 1969. Post-apartheid, cross racial marriages among Indians and black South Africans has expectedly increased. The same cannot be said about the incidence of Africans marrying Indians in India. Intriguingly, when Harris' parents married'--but not my aunt'--such alliances were actually illegal in as many as 16 US states thanks to the passing of the so-called anti-miscegenation laws. It was legal, however, for mixed race couples to marry in Washington DC. Only in 1967 did the US Supreme Court strike down all state laws banning inter-racial marriage in its judgement on Loving v. Virginia.

Mildred and Richard Loving had been sentenced to a year in jail as their marriage had violated Virginia's 'miscegenation' statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as ''colored'' and ''white''. Befittingly, this landmark civil rights case was cited as precedent in US federal court decision that deemed same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional.

It is intriguing that Kamala Harris has often recounted that her mother brought them (she and her sister Maya) up as African-Americans rather than Indian-Americans. They lived in a black locality and she attended a predominantly African-American university. When she became Attorney General of California and then junior senator, that is the race Harris was identified with as a pioneering woman.

Could that be because the Indian immigrant community was less willing to accept a single mom with 'black' children back then and Shyamala Gopalan's civil rights activism in university gave her a natural entr(C)e into the African-American circle? She would have known that no matter what their ethnic percentage was, her daughters would be deemed 'black' by mainstream society.

Any matter of Indian-African identity in US is anyway complicated by the fact that for a long while the US authorities were not clear what immigrant desi Indians (as opposed to their 'red Indians'!) were, racially speaking. For most of the 20th century, US courts deemed Indians as both 'white' and 'non-white' depending on context and perhaps even individual views of the presiding judges!

In 1909, Bhicaji F Balsara became the first Indian US citizen because as a Parsi he was deemed to be of ''the purest of Aryan type''. But decades later, the same court ruled Rustom D Wadia was not white and thus ineligible for citizenship! And in 1923, the Supreme Court in US v. BS Thind declared people of Indian descent were not 'white' due to ''observable differences'' and ineligible for citizenship.

Not many Indians would know about Tarak Nath Das, an anti-British Bengali who emigrated to the US over 100 years ago. His marriage to a white American, Mary Keatinge Morse was nullified in the 1920s due to this racial ambiguity that put them in the crosshairs of miscegenation laws!

The Harris girls being baptised Christians would no doubt have helped their assimilation into a generally devout African-American community. Indeed, Harris recalls going to church every Sunday with all the other black kids in a friendly neighbour's car. Her mother, by implication, did not go, though Harris mentions her mother loved to sing the famous Negro gospel songs to the girls.

Given the less than linear history of Indians and Africans in the US, Harris has to tread a very fine line indeed. The non-resident desi community in the US may well take her belatedly to its bosom and contribute generously to her Presidential campaign. But she cannot really afford to dilute her African-American USP when aspiring to the top job as an avatar of Barack Obama.

My African-Indian-American cousin, though, has happy links to both sides of her ethnicity even as her mother and aunts have been equally joyously rediscovering their English roots. Had she been in politics, it may have been a tough call if forced to privilege one side over the other. Meanwhile another old friend's teenage son is also equally content in his Bengali-Ugandan-UK roots. Serendipity!

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 06:31

by Russia Today, '... Moscow

[ Editor's Note: The FBI had their day today, or I should say morning, with the full scale raid on Roger Stone's house, making sure it would look like a Hollywood movie.

But that said, Stone had asked for it, with his ''up yours'' attitude to not only to the FBI, but the Mueller investigation in its entirety, not a style I would have used in his situation.

Trump can whine all he wants about Mueller, and calling top FBI people crooks, a huge screw up on his part, as his record of being a crook is up there in the top ten list. Trump hung a ''come and get me'' target on himself in a boastful manner, thinking that as president he could pardon anyone, and would have the Oval Office tools to protect himself.

One of those tools was the bully pulpit of discrediting the entire FBI, openly threatening to gut and rebuild it, in retribution for breaking the rule be coming after someone who was supposed to be untouchable, the current White house tool of the Deep State crowd.

Yes, I know the statute of limitations has run out on much of Trump's shadowy history, and his lawyers have informed him of that. If he gets a 2nd term the current political batch will run out when they pass the 5 year mark.

But there are two levels of risk for Trump. There is the actually being charged with felony crimes group. And then there is presenting so much evidence that he is guilty of them that he will be a dead man walking politically.

The Republic Party will not want to go down the tubes with him and chuck him overboard by seeking a replacement candidate for 2020'... Jim W. Dean ]

Jim's Editor's Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPalJim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>

'' First published '... January 25, 2019 ''

The FBI has arrested Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser to US President Donald Trump, in a surprise early morning raid on his home. Stone has been indicted on charges including obstruction and witness tampering.

He was arrested at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, following Thursday's indictment by the office of the US Special Counsel Robert Mueller which is investigating Trump and his associates over allegations surrounding his 2016 campaign.

Stone is facing one count of obstruction of proceedings, one count of witness tampering, and five counts of false statements.

It is alleged that Stone, who officially left the Trump campaign in August 2015, told campaign officials in July 2016 about future WikiLeaks (referred to in Mueller's document as ''Organization 1'') releases of damaging information found in leaked Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails. US intelligence claims the emails were hacked by Russian ''government actors.''

During Trump's campaign, Stone boasted about having connections with WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, but later said it wasn't a direct link. Instead, he said that he relied on New York radio host Randy Credico (named ''Person 2'' in the Thursday indictment) as a ''go-between.''

The indictment says Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee about his alleged contacts with WikiLeaks and tried to convince another person to give false testimony.

Stone, a long-time ally of Trump, was recently praised by the US president for saying he would ''never testify against Trump'' and for having ''guts'' in the face of the ''rogue and out of control prosecutor'' Mueller.

The FBI showed up at Stone's door in force. Agents arrived armed with assault rifles and clad in body armor, and without warning.

FBI agents are among those left without pay due to the ongoing US government shutdown, and the fact that they still went and arrested Stone had the anti-Trump 'Resistance' praising on them on Twitter for ''protecting this country.''

Since Trump came to power, FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 'Russiagate' probe has been investigating the US intelligence community's allegations that he had colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Stone's arrest is arguably the most significant of the probe, which has so far resulted in several high-profile arrests on charges unrelated to the still unproven ''collusion.''

Russia has dismissed all allegations of working to put Trump in power or control his decisions.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 12:57

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The contents of this site are (C)2019 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 12:58

The big one: Repeated references to Trump campaign contacts about WikiLeaks Aaron BlakeSenior political reporter, writing for The Fix

January 25 at 7:39 AM

The indictment we -- including the indicted party -- have been expecting for months has finally come. Roger Stone, President Trump's longest-serving political adviser, has been charged with lying to investigators.

The lies pertain to his efforts to secure information from WikiLeaks about its release of Democrats' emails during the 2016 campaign. Here are some key sections and takeaways.

1. An abundance of contradictionThere's really not a lot of ambiguity when it comes to Stone's alleged lies. At one point, the indictment includes two exchanges in which Stone denies ever communicating with his WikiLeaks intermediary via text or email.

Here's one exchange:

Q: [H]ow did you communicate with the intermediary?

A: Over the phone.

Q: And did you have any other means of communicating with the intermediary?

A: No.

Q: No text messages, no '' none of the list, right?

A: No.

Later in his testimony, Stone repeats this:

Q: So you never communicated with your intermediary in writing in any way?

A: No.

Q: Never emailed him or texted him?

A: He's not an email guy.

Q: So all your conversations with him were in person or over the phone.

A: Correct.

But the indictment details many messages and makes clear there was no way Stone would simply have forgotten about these things.

''In truth and in fact, as described above, STONE and Person 2 (who STONE identified to HPSCI as his intermediary) engaged in frequent written communication by email and text message," the indictment states. "STONE also engaged in frequent written communication by email and text message with Person 1, who also provided STONE with information regarding Organization 1.'' (Organization 1 is WikiLeaks.)

2. A 'Godfather' referenceIn perhaps the most colorful section, the indictment says that Stone urged someone who was testifying in front of the House Intelligence Committee to emulate a character from ''The Godfather: Part II'' who feigned ignorance during his own testimony:

On multiple occasions, including on or about December 1, 2017, STONE told Person 2 that Person 2 should do a ''Frank Pentangeli'' before HPSCI in order to avoid contradicting STONE's testimony. Frank Pentangeli is a character in the film The Godfather: Part II, which both STONE and Person 2 had discussed, who testifies before a congressional committee and in that testimony claims not to know critical information that he does in fact know.

The clause ''which both STONE and Person 2 had discussed,'' is key, because it suggests both of them were familiar with exactly that the character had done.

For those unfamiliar:

3. The big question: The Trump campaign's roleThere is no smoking gun in the indictment when it comes to the Trump campaign's culpability, and for most of the campaign, Stone was an informal Trump adviser -- not actually serving on the campaign. So as far as potential Trump campaign collusion with Russia via WikiLeaks, which the U.S. government regards as a front for Russia's election interference, you still need to connect some dots.

But the indictment does make clear (repeatedly) the campaign was interested in the WikiLeaks information -- and even sought the information from Stone -- over a span of months, from the summer of 2016 to October 2016:

During the summer of 2016, STONE spoke to senior Trump Campaign officials about Organization 1 and information it might have had that would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign. STONE was contacted by senior Trump Campaign officials to inquire about future releases by Organization 1.

Later in the indictment:

Also on or about October 3, 2016, STONE received an email from a reporter who had connections to a high-ranking Trump Campaign official that asked, ''[the head of [Organization 1] '' what's he got? Hope it's good.'' STONE responded in part, ''It is. I'd tell [the high-ranking Trump Campaign official] but he doesn't call me back.''

The ''high-ranking Trump Campaign official'' appears to be Stephen K. Bannon, who according to emails obtained by the New York Times emailed with Stone about WikiLeaks the next day.

And later:

On or about October 7, 2016, Organization 1 released the first set of emails stolen from the Clinton Campaign chairman. Shortly after Organization 1's release, an associate of the highranking Trump Campaign official sent a text message to STONE that read ''well done.'' In subsequent conversations with senior Trump Campaign officials, STONE claimed credit for having correctly predicted the October 7, 2016 release.

You'll recall Oct. 7 was the day WikiLeaks orchestrated an email dump shortly after The Washington Post reported on Trump's ''Access Hollywood'' tape in which he talked crudely about grabbing women by their genitals. That apparent distraction was apparently appreciated by ''an associate of a highranking Trump Campaign official.''

The most significant reference to members of the campaign, though, could be this:

After the July 22, 2016 release of stolen DNC emails by Organization 1, a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact STONE about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign. STONE thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization 1.

The words ''was directed'' loom large here. Who did the directing? Why not just characterize who that was using vague terms, as is done throughout the indictment? Is it because it's not clear who that was, or because Mueller's team doesn't want to reveal too much about that person's role?

As he has in past indictments, Mueller isn't showing us too much here. But spending so much time detailing the campaign's interest in WikiLeaks -- which speaks to Stone's alleged lies but probably isn't entirely necessary -- does seem conspicuous. Remember that Mueller routinely includes stuff like this that comes up later -- most notably with Konstantin Kilimnick's ties to Russian intelligence and Michael Cohen's plea to lying about Trump Tower Moscow.

In many ways, this feels like another ''speaking indictment.'' There's a hint of something possible to come.

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 06:19

Mmmmkay.

As Ron White MIGHT say, ''That's a handy piece of information to have, right there.''

I will say this, Donald Trump has single-handedly made this pathetic election year worth the pain of sitting through. In staffing his campaign he has not been satisfied with the least common denominator, he has achieved the lowest possible denominator. Where G. Harold Carswell might have been an attempt to ensure that even the mediocre had representation on the Supreme Court, Trump is taking it upon himself to run an affirmative action program for imbeciles as staff an surrogates.

On Friday, violence prone Donald Trump henchman appeared on his favorite venue, the Infowars site run by conspiracy nutjob Alex Jones. (If you want to view it, this is the link)

In the interview, Stone starts trying to bat down all the bad rumor the press, particularly Trump bªte noire, the Washington Post, are investigating.

No, it turns out that Trump had not used cocaine. Yes, Trump (despite much evidence and court filings to the contrary) has always been faithful to his platoon of wives. Then there was this:

Stone said he also denied to the Washington Post ''reports'' that Trump is actually a homosexual.

''Lastly, she wanted to know what about the reports that Donald Trump is gay,'' he said. ''Folks, there is no report Donald Trump is gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but he is a red-blooded American male and he is most definitely heterosexual.''

NTTAWWT

This may be the first time in American political history that a presidential candidates surrogate has had to make this announcement.

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 06:13

In Mar-A-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace, by Laurence Leamer, Donald Trump is quoted as saying: 'I'm the king of Palm Beach. They all kiss my ass'.  Trump claimed that Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Wagner, Elizabeth Taylor, Denzel Washington and Steven Spielberg were members of his club at Mar-A-Lago.'But it was not true.'How Donald Trump used Mar-a-Lago Michael Jackson with Donald Trump's children at Donald Trump's hotel Mar A Lago in Palm Beach. Mar-a-Lago was the type of place where 'its guests could party as wildly as they wished'.At Mar-a-Lago, 'couples had sex out on the grounds'."Trump pushed elite model, Kelly Hyler into the pool after her date, personal trainer Jimmy Franzo jumped in nude."Helping her out, Trump suggested she change."She and Trump disappeared, the National Enquirer reported: 'I don't know what that guy has, but it worked,' she supposedly said."How Donald Trump used Mar-a-Lago Trump and Epstein. Virginia Roberts, an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein, "was recruited to perform a massage for Epstein while working as a $9-per-hour locker room attendant at Mar-A-Lago."In West Palm Beach, 'Sixty-three Russians bought luxury condos in seven Trump branded buildings along the ocean front.' Mar-A-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace, by Laurence Leamer.Two of the buyers were indicted later for alleged membership in the Russian-Jewish Mafia. James Safechuck (right) A lawsuit claims that Michael Jackson plied James Safechuck and his parents with cash, gifts and first-class travel. Michael Jackson flew the parents of James Safechuck to New York, and put them up in Trump Tower.Michael Jackson operated child sex syndicate"James ... went to stay in Jackson's room with him."mjfacts Michael Jackson's home in Trump Tower. In 1984, Michael Jackson "rented a four-bedroom condo on Trump Tower's 63rd floor just a few floors down from Trump's $100m Manhattan penthouse."dailymail.Trump told CNN: 'Michael Jackson lived in Trump Tower."He lives in various of my buildings. He sort of follows me around ... "He likes what I have.'dailymail. Michael Jackson with Donald Trump's children at Donald Trump's hotel Mar A Lago in Palm Beach. Donald Trump remembers his "good friend" Michael Jackson, offering what he calls "the real story" of Jackson."He recalled how Jackson lived at the Trump Tower, even getting hitched at one of his VIP clubs, the Mar-a-Lago."Donald Trump: 'I Know The Real Story of Michael Jackson'James Safechuck was "married to Michael Jackson, at Neverland."mjfacts In 1990, Donald Trump opened the Taj Mahal, a hotel casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.Michael Jackson was there to assist Donald Trump at the opening.Jackson stayed in a suite at the hotel.Trump then flew with Jackson, in a private jet, to Indianapolis, in order to visit a 'sick child'.The Donald, Jacko and me | Spectator Life. ... Wade Robson , at the controversial Johnny Young Talent School in Australia. Child singer Jamie Redfern, from Young Talent Time, toured the USA with gay singer Liberace, a friend of Donald Trump. YOUNG TALENT TIME Wade Robson was five years old when he first met Michal Jackson through a dance competition in AustraliaRobson says he was sexually abused by Michael Jackson from the age of seven.Robson says Michael Jackson's companies MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures were fronts for the "most sophisticated public child sexual abuse procurement and facilitation organisation the world has known". Michael Jackson allegedly ran child sex abuse operation. James Safechuck, New York, 1988. In 1987, James Safechuck appeared in a Pepsi advert featuring Michael Jackson.In 1984, Michael Jackson had been badly burned during the making of a Pepsi commercial, and may have been replaced by a body double. James Safechuck (centre), Hawaii, 1988. James now alleges that Michael Jackson sexually abused him for years.Michael Jackson Hit With New Abuse Claim James Safechuck, Los Angeles, 1989. James has joined a lawsuit against Jackson's estate, originally filed by Wade Robson in 2013. James's complaint claims that Jackson groomed him and molested him, beginning when he was 10 years old. James in London 1988. In 1988, James was with Michael Jackson in Hawaii, New York, the UK and France.In Jackson's 2005 criminal trial, court documents quoted various employees from Jackson’s Neverland Ranch saying James was sexually molested by Jackson.Michael Jackson Hit With New Abuse Claim Jordie Chandler In 1993, Evan Chandler (Charmatz), the father of Jordie Chandler, accused Jackson of molesting Jordie.In 2009, Evan Chandler died in mysterious circumstances.In 2016, Jordy Chandler disappeared!1993 In 1994, La Toya Jackson told the TV interviewer Geraldo Rivera that she and her mother found a canceled check she said Michael had written for $1 million, made payable to the father of one of Michael’s boys. "The father, supposedly, is a garbage collector," La Toya said. Jimmy Safechuck’s father is in the rubbish disposal business. Jackson Spent $34 Million to Silence Alleged Victims . Michael Jackson worked for AmeriCares, reported to be a front for the CIA, and reported to have links to pedophile rings. The complainants in the 2016 lawsuit include:1. James Safechuck2. Jason Francia, the son of one of Jackson’s longtime maids, Blanca Francia. 3. Gavin Arvizo, a young cancer survivor named Gavin Arvizo. Wade Robson (right) 4. Wade Robson, who says he was brainwashed by Jackson.Michael Jackson Hit With New Abuse Claim Michael Jackson worked for a 'CIA-front organisation with links to child abuse'.MICHAEL JACKSON WORKED FOR A CIA FRONT COMPANY .. Donald Trump's mentor and 'father figure' was Roy Cohn, who was totally gay, and who was said to run child abuse rings for the CIA. During the July 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, boy sex workers reported a huge increase in demand.Some male prostitutes claimed to have earned six times more than normal.Female sex workers said that business had been slower. Republicans! Glenn Murphy Jr. is an antigay advocate and former president of the Young Republican National Federation. He was sentenced to six years in prison after he was found guilty of having sex with an unwilling male after a private party for Republican supporters in Indiana. 16 Antigay Leaders Exposed as Gay During the July 2016 Republican Convention, Craigslist saw a huge increase in ads offering gay sex, specifically aimed at Republican attendees, according to The Daily Dot. Indiana state Rep. Phillip Hinkle voted for an anti-marriage equality amendment to Indiana’s constitution. He was caught in a sex scandal when he answered an ad on Craigslist from an 18-year-old named Kameryn Gibson, who was looking for a 'sugga daddy.' During the July 2016 Convention, Republicans employed lots of male escorts, according to the New York Post, which spoke with a number of rent boys working in Cleveland.They described the typical Republican client as married and aged between 40 and 50.Male escorts are making crazy money at the RNC | New York Post / RNC So Gay: Male Escorts Rake It In Madonna. Reportedly, the married Donald Trump has frequently been in touch with Madonna, actress Kim Basinger and Carla Bruni.dailymail At the Republican Convention, "Donald grabbed his wife's arms in what appears to be an effort to keep her at a distance."Body Language Expert Weighs In on Donald Trump.Reportedly, Trump's close friend Roger Stone likes sleeping with men. ... "A Huffington Post article reported on an unconfirmed rumour that Trump allegedly 'paid off' a gay lover to prevent their affair from breaking out into a public scandal."Donald Trump .. In 2011, a group of gay conservatives, called GOProud, invited Donald Trump to Washington.In Washington, GOProud got Trump to give his first big political speech as a potential Republican presidential candidate.This speech was made to the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference.Gay conservatives who helped kickstart Trump's GOP career. 16 Antigay Leaders Exposed as Gay or Bi. / The Right-Wing's 20 Biggest Sex HypocritesDonald Trump's close friend Roger Stone is a GOProud supporter.GOProud's leaders, Christopher Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia, got Roger Stone to get Donald Trump to the conference.Gay conservatives who helped kickstart Trump's GOP career. Roger Stone and Roy Cohn. Roger Stone was a close friend of the gay Roy Cohn.Roger Stone has placed swinger's ads for "exceptional muscular…single men."Swinger's Club ... ... GOP = Group of Perverts. GOProud was financed primarily by Jewish billionaire 'vulture capitalist' Paul Singer of Elliott Management Corporation.Paul Singer gives large sums of money to Jewish causes.[13]In 2007, Singer was one of Rudolph Giuliani's most important fundraisers in Giuliani's bid for the Republican presidential nomination.[60][13] In 2012, GOProud organised a party at the Republican National Convention."Guests will dance the night away after the evening convention session at The Honey Pot night-club in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood."Special guests included:David Keene, Former Chair of the American Conservative Union and Vice-Chair of CPACGrover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax ReformMary Matalin, author, CNN contributor and long-time GOP operativeRichard Grenell, former U.S. Spokesman at the United NationsAmy Kremer, Chair of the Tea Party ExpressMike Flynn, Editor, Breitbart.com, BigGovernment.comDana Loesch, contributor to Breitbart.com, radio host and CNN contributorMargaret Hoover, former FOX News contributor, author and current CNN contributorLarry O’Connor, Editor of Breitbart.tv and radio hostS.E. Cupp, author and co-host of MSNBC’s “The Cycle”Will Cain, analyst for The Blaze and CNN contributor Donald Trump's friend Roger Stone is Jewish."Donald Trump is a radical Zionist", said Roger Stone on The Steve Malzberg Show. Stone does not blame Jews for the JF Kennedy assassination.Trump does not blame Jews for 9 11.And, Trump Henchman Roger Stone Denies That Donald Trump Is Homosexual. Gay Republicans?Sheriff Paul Babeu (above) stepped down as a co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign in Arizona after a newspaper published accusations that he threatened to deport a former boyfriend, who was from Mexico, when the man refused to keep quiet about their relationship.Babeu made national headlines for his tough stance on illegal immigration. He was running for Congress in Arizona’s Fourth District. William Pryor Jr. is an eleventh-circuit judge and former Attorney General of Alabama.Donald Trump said he was considering Pryor for the Supreme Court.Pryor reportedly featured in nude porn photographs in the 1990s. The man in the porn picture is identified as 'Bill Pryor.'Various unnamed officials have identified the photo as authentic. Trump donated to a group that promotes homosexuality to 5 year-olds.Trump gave a $20,000 grant to an organization that:1. Promoted "fisting" to middle school students2. Recommended books excusing homosexual pedophilia.3. Stated its mission is "promoting homosexuality" in the public schools to children as early as kindergarten. Donald Trump's New York. Stephen Shames Photographer Donald Trump's mentor was Roy Cohn.They used to party together. Donald Trump, New York Mayor Ed Koch and Roy Cohn Roy Cohn was the lawyer for the top Mafia families of New York and Canada.Roy Cohn got Trump linked to key people. Bronx Kids - Runaway Kids and Teenage Prostitution "Cohn was a good friend of Craig Spence and together with top CIA and Army men, as well as politicians and businessmen, he once threw his birthday party at Spence's house."Spence was later investigated for running a CIA-sanctioned homosexual and pedophile entrapment ring at his house with operations going straight up to the White House..."Cohn 'ran the the little boys' with the purpose of blackmailing high officials... Bronx Boys. Stephen Shames Photographer—Stephen Shames "According to a 1954 news report, Cohn and his aide David Schine had met up with Spanish members of an international underground Nazi network while on a spy-hunting trip in Europe. "Some of the leading members of this network, according to the newspaper, were Col. Otto Skorzeny, Hjalmar Schacht and Werner Naumann.""Cohn was a board member of the notorious Permindex firm."This company brought together an international group of shady intelligence-connected men ...Board members had connections to the CIA, FBI, and Mossad, not to mention the mafia."isgp.nl/Beyond_Dutroux / Trump dossier Roger Stone. Trump's close friend Roger Stone worked with Roy Cohn.'I was introduced to Trump by Roy Cohn', says Roger Stone.Stone remains a "Trump confidante."[48][49]shermsays.blogspot. / nationalreview.com Father Bruce Ritter, founder of the charity Covenant House, mixing with the teenage boy prostitutes of New York. According to the former Nebraska senator John DeCamp, Ritter's charity Covenant House has been used to acquire children for the purposes of child abuse. Allegedly, Father Ritter's Covenant House, Americares, and Sandusky's Notre Dame child charity all have links to CIA pedophile rings. "The Roy Cohn clique (which is intimately connected to Trump) is responsible for the Franklin scandal, the DC callboy ring, Dutroux, the Jeff Epstein ring, the Tevfrik Arif Turkish sex ring, the Northern Marianas sex trafficking...see where I'm going with this?"And through the Council for National Policy, it seems to include the Vatican sex rings as well... "I was also surprised to find Arif and Bayrock connected to Fethullah Gulen, who I started researching after the Boston Marathon bombing because of his connection to Graham Fuller."Trump dossier / Boston bombers' uncle married daughter of top CIA official / The Deep Politics of God Revisited Alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein. "Mark Epstein, Jeffrey's brother, testified in 2009 that Trump flew on Jeffrey's private jet at least once," reports VICE News."Message pads from Epstein's Palm Beach mansion that were seized by investigators and obtained by VICE News indicate that Trump called Epstein twice in November of 2004."7 Things You Need To Know About Trump And Sex Slave Island ... In 2010, Epstein admitted to 'socializing' with Trump.When a lawyer representing a child victim asked if Epstein has "ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18," Epstein pled the FifthAt least one of Epstein's underage sex victims was recruited from Trump's Mar-a-Lago - which Epstein frequented often.Virginia Roberts, an alleged victim of Epstein’s, "was recruited to perform a massage for Epstein while working as a $9-per-hour locker room attendant at Mar-A-Lago." Trump was subpoenaed in 2009 for his connection to Epstein's under-age sex slave rings.In 2009, Trump was subpoenaed in a case against Epstein concerning victim Virginia Roberts.Michael Jackson with Donald Trump's children at Donald Trump's hotel Mar A Lago in Palm Beach. Trump's friend Michael Jackson has been linked to CIA mind control. Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. Donald Trump 'partied at the Playboy Mansion' Donald Trump 'partied at the Playboy Mansion with playmate Holly ... According to Ex CIA operative Laurel Aston, in his book Fighting Child and Human Trafficking and Slavery:"I knew Hugh Hefner. He is connected to the CIA."Hefner is a CIA programmer, CIA sex slave handler and pimp."Hefner was also a part of running MK ULTRA super assassins and ops."Laurel Aston Ex. C.I.A. Whistle Blower. Barron Trump In 1953, Hugh Hefner set up Playboy, "which was eventually revealed to be banked by the CIA."playboy mansion . / TRUMP; HEFNER INDUSTRY PIMPS; PLAYBOY MANSION Victoria Zdrok is a Ukranian-born former Playboy Playmate and Penthouse Pet who says that she went out with Donald Trump.Trump said of Zdrok: "she looks like a fucking third-rate hooker... She's full of shit."'F**king Third-Rate Hooker Trump (left) Charles Kushner (right) DownWithTyranny!. Ivanka Trump is married to Jared Kushner.Jared's father, Charles Kushner, "hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, secretly recorded the encounter and sent the tape to his sister as part of a blackmail scheme."Charles Kushner "served 16 months after guilty pleas to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations."Finally, Somebody Came Up With a New Trump-Clinton Angle The name Trump has been linked to prostitution. The Trump family empire was built on the backs of prostitutes. "Trump Escorts was apparently a high end escort service whose website featured the Trump International logo.""The address of Trump Escorts was/is 180 Riverside Drive, Upper West Side New York, New York 10024, USA, which is ... the address of Trump Place in Manhattan."Pimping the Donald - Trump Escorts . Trump and Felix Sater The Miami Herald reported that the CIA helped Felix Sater conceal his conviction for securities fraud while using him as a spy in his native Russia.Trump's friend Felix Sater launched the Fort Lauderdale Trump Tower.courthousenews Trump's close friend Billy Graham, chatting up a young boy. "Trump bought 40 Wall Street (The Trump Building) for a steal, because it formerly belonged to CIA asset Ferdinand Marcos, and his assets were frozen."wikipediaElliot Abrams (left) The Trump government has appointed Elliot Abrams  to handle US policy toward Venezuela. During the Reagan administration, Abrams played a role in the Iran-Contra affair.Abrams was convicted of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra investigationAbrams  pushed for military aid to the regime of Guatemalan Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, a dictator who was later convicted of genocide and crime against humanity.Abrams reportedly supported the attempted coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002, when Abrams was a member of the National Security Council of President George W. Bush....Trump is trying to topple President Maduro of Venezuela. In a televised news conference, the leader of Venezuela's armed forces has declared loyalty to President Maduro. Russia has warned the United States against meddling in Venezuela. Venezuela Military Backs Maduro, as Russia Warns US Not to Intervene Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó. Craig Murray writes:"Despite massive CIA opposition funding and interference over years as Big Oil tries to regain control of the World's largest oil reserves , Nicolas Maduro was democratically re-elected in 2018 as President of Venezuela."The coup now under way is illegitimate."The Coup in Venezuela Must Be Resisted - Craig Murray Juan Guaidó On 23 January 2019, Juan Guaidó swore himself in as acting President of Venezuela in the context of the ongoing presidential crisis, which came into being following the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President of Venezuela in January 2019.Guaidós claim has been recognized by the Organization of American States [3][4] and several governments, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States,[ but he is rejected by the pro-Maduro Supreme Tribunal of Justice.[13]Juan Guaidó did postgraduate studies at George Washington University, which has been linked to the CIA. ... Craig Murray writes: "Over the years, Chavez racked up real achievements in improving living standards for the poor and in providing health and education facilities.  "He was widely popular and both he and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, also racked up very genuine election victories. "Maduro remains the democratically elected President."But the dream went sour. In particular it fell foul of the tendency of centrally planned economies to fail to get the commodities people want onto shop shelves, and to the corruption that goes with centralisation. "The latter was certainly not worse than the right wing corruption it replaced, but that does not diminish its existence..."But, even today, Venezuela is still vastly more of a democracy than Saudi Arabia, and a far greater respecter of human rights than Israel in its dreadful repression of the Palestinians."  The Coup in Venezuela Must Be Resisted - Craig Murray Why Does the State Hate Alex Salmond? - Craig Murray The UK Government Manufacture of False Sexual ... - Craig Murray

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:58

The reporter from the Washington Post didn't ask Donald Trump about nuclear weapons, but he wanted to talk about them anyway. ''Some people have an ability to negotiate,'' Trump said, of facing the Soviet Union. ''You either have it or you don't.''

He wasn't daunted by the complexity of the topic: ''It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles,'' he said.

Story Continued Below

It was the fall of 1984, Trump Tower was new, and this was unusual territory for the 38-year-old real estate developer. He was three years away from his first semi-serious dalliance with presidential politics, more than 30 years before the beginning of his current campaign'--but he had gotten the idea to bring this up, he said, from his attorney, his good friend and his closest adviser, Roy Cohn.

That Roy Cohn.

Roy Cohn, the lurking legal hit man for red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy, whose reign of televised intimidation in the 1950s has become synonymous with demagoguery, fear-mongering and character assassination. In the formative years of Donald Trump's career, when he went from a rich kid working for his real estate-developing father to a top-line dealmaker in his own right, Cohn was one of the most powerful influences and helpful contacts in Trump's life.

Over a 13-year-period, ending shortly before Cohn's death in 1986, Cohn brought his say-anything, win-at-all-costs style to all of Trump's most notable legal and business deals. Interviews with people who knew both men at the time say the relationship ran deeper than that'--that Cohn's philosophy shaped the real estate mogul's worldview and the belligerent public persona visible in Trump's presidential campaign.

''Something Cohn had, Donald liked,'' Susan Bell, Cohn's longtime secretary, said this week when I asked her about the relationship between her old boss and Trump.

By the 1970s, when Trump was looking to establish his reputation in Manhattan, the elder Cohn had long before remade himself as the ultimate New York power lawyer, whose clientele included politicians, financiers and mob bosses. Cohn engineered the combative response to the Department of Justice's suit alleging racial discrimination at the Trumps' many rental properties in Brooklyn and Queens. He brokered the gargantuan tax abatements and the mob-tied concrete work that made the Grand Hyatt hotel and Trump Tower projects. He wrote the cold-hearted prenuptial agreement before the first of his three marriages and filed the headline-generating antitrust suit against the National Football League. To all of these deals, Cohn brought his political connections, his public posturing and a simple credo: Always attack, never apologize.

''Cohn just pushed through things'--if he wanted something, he got it. I think Donald had a lot of that in him, but he picked up a lot of that from Cohn,'' Bell said.

''Roy was a powerful force, recognized as a person with deep and varied contacts, politically as well as legally,'' Michael Rosen, who worked as an attorney in Cohn's firm for 17 years, told me. ''The movers and shakers of New York, he was very tight with these people'--they admired him, they sought his advice. His persona, going back to McCarthy '... and his battles with the government certainly attracted clients.''

It was a long, formidable list that included the executives of media empires, the Archbishop of New York and mafia kingpin Fat Tony Salerno, and there, too, near the top, was budding, grasping Donald John Trump.

''He considered Cohn a mentor,'' Mike Gentile, the lead prosecutor who got Cohn disbarred for fraud and deceit not long before he died, said in a recent interview.

People who knew Cohn and know Trump'--people who have watched and studied both men'--say they see in Trump today unmistakable signs of the enduring influence of Cohn. The frank belligerence. The undisguised disregard for niceties and convention. The media manipulation clotted with an abiding belief in the potent currency of celebrity.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy covers the microphones with his hands while having a whispered discussion with Roy Cohn, his chief counsel, during a committee hearing on April 26, 1954, in Washington. | AP Photo

Trump did not respond to a request from Politico to talk about Cohn. In the past, though, when he has talked about Cohn, Trump has been clear about why he collaborated with him, and admired him.

''If you need someone to get vicious toward an opponent, you get Roy,'' he told Newsweek in 1979.

A year later, pressed by a reporter from New York magazine to justify his association with Cohn, he was characteristically blunt: ''All I can tell you is he's been vicious to others in his protection of me.''

He elaborated in an interview in 2005. ''Roy was brutal, but he was a very loyal guy,'' Trump told author Tim O'Brien. ''He brutalized for you.''

Trump, in the end, turned some of that cold calculation on his teacher, severing his professional ties to Cohn when he learned his lawyer was dying of AIDS.

***

Cohn and Trump, according to Trump, met in 1973 at Le Club, a members-only East Side hangout for social-scene somebodies and those who weren't but wanted to be.

By then Cohn had been in the public eye for 20 years. As chief counsel to McCarthy, he led secretive investigations of people inside and outside the federal government whom he and McCarthy suspected of Communist sympathies, homosexuality or espionage. Over a period of several years, McCarthy's crusade destroyed dozens of careers before a final 36-day, televised hearing brought his and Cohn's often unsubstantiated allegations into the open, leading to McCarthy's censure in the Senate. Cohn, disgraced by association, retreated to his native New York.

There, through the '60s and into the '70s, Cohn embraced an unabashedly conspicuous lifestyle. He had a Rolls-Royce with his initials on a vanity plate and a yacht called Defiance. He was a singular nexus of New York power, trafficking in influence and reveling in gossip. He hung on the walls of the East 68th Street townhouse, that doubled as the office of his law firm, pictures of himself with politicians, entertainers and other bold-face names. He was a tangle of contradictions, a Jewish anti-Semite and a homosexual homophobe, vehemently closeted but insatiably promiscuous. In 1964, '69 and '71, he had been tried and acquitted of federal charges of conspiracy, bribery and fraud, giving him'--at least in the eyes of a certain sort'--an aura of battle-tested toughness, the perception of invincibility. ''If you can get Machiavelli as a lawyer,'' he would write in The Autobiography of Roy Cohn, ''you're certainly no fool of a client.''

Trump was 27. He had just moved to Manhattan but was still driving back to his father's company offices in Brooklyn for work. He hadn't bought anything. He hadn't built anything. But he had badgered the owners of Le Club to let him join, precisely to get to know older, connected, power-wielding men like Cohn. He knew who he was. And now he wanted to talk.

He and his father had just been slapped with Department of Justice charges that they weren't renting to blacks because of racial discrimination. Attorneys had urged them to settle. Trump didn't want to do that. He quizzed Cohn at Le Club. What should they do?

He became Donald's mentor, his constant adviser on every significant aspect of his business and personal life.''

''Tell them to go to hell,'' Cohn told Trump, according to Trump's account in his book The Art of the Deal, ''and fight the thing in court.''

That December, representing the Trumps in United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump and Trump Management, Inc., Cohn filed a $100-million countersuit against the federal government, deriding the charges as ''irresponsible'' and ''baseless.''

The judge dismissed it quickly as ''wasting time and paper.''

The back-and-forth launched more than a year and a half of bluster and stalling and bullying'--and ultimately settling. But in affidavits, motions and hearings in court, Cohn accused the DOJ and the assisting FBI of ''Gestapo-like tactics.'' He labeled their investigators ''undercover agents'' and ''storm troopers.'' Cohn called the head of DOJ down in Washington and attempted to get him to censure one of the lead staffers.

The judge called all of it ''totally unfounded.''

By June of 1975, the judge had had it with the Trumps' attorney. ''I must say, Mr. Cohn,'' he said in a hearing, ''that this case seems to be plagued with unnecessary problems, and I think the time has come when we have to bite the bullet.''

They hashed out the details of a consent decree. The Trumps were going to have to rent to more blacks and other minorities and they were going to have to put ads in newspapers'--including those targeted specifically to minority communities'--saying they were an ''equal housing opportunity'' company. Trump and his father, emboldened by Cohn, bristled at the implication of wrongdoing'--even, too, at the cost of the ads.

''It is really onerous,'' Trump complained.

At one point, flouting the formality of the court, Trump addressed one of the opposing attorneys by her first name: ''Will you pay for the expense, Donna?''

Trump and Cohn seemed most concerned with managing the media. They squabbled with the government attorneys over the press release about the disposition. First they wanted no release. Impossible, said the government. Then they wanted ''a joint release.'' A what? A public agency, it was explained to them, had a public information office, on account of the public's right to know.

Cohn didn't want to hear it.

''They will say what they want,'' he told the judge, and everybody else in the courtroom, ''and we will say what we want.''

The government called the consent decree ''one of the most far reaching ever negotiated.''

Cohn and Trump? They called it a victory.

Case 73 C 1529 was over. The relationship between Cohn and Trump had just begun.

''Though Cohn had ostensibly been retained by Donald to handle a single piece of litigation,'' Wayne Barrett, an investigative journalist for New York's Village Voice, would write in his 1992 book about Trump, ''he began in the mid-'70s to assume a role in Donald's life far transcending that of a lawyer. He became Donald's mentor, his constant adviser on every significant aspect of his business and personal life.''

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:54

Roy Marcus Cohn ( ; February 20, 1927 '' August 2, 1986) was an American lawyer best known for being Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army''McCarthy hearings, in 1954, for assisting with McCarthy's investigations of suspected Communists, and as a top political fixer.

Born in New York City and educated at Columbia University, Cohn rose to prominence as a U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor at the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, which concluded with the Rosenbergs' executions in 1953. As McCarthy's chief counsel, Cohn came to be closely associated with McCarthyism and its downfall. He also represented and mentored Donald Trump during Trump's early business career.

Cohn was disbarred by the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court for unethical conduct in 1986,[2] and died five weeks later from AIDS-related complications.

Early life and career [ edit ] Born to an observant Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City, Cohn was the only child of Dora (n(C)e Marcus; 1892''1967) and Judge Albert C. Cohn (1885''1959), who was influential in Democratic Party politics.[3][4][5] His great-uncle was Joshua Lionel Cowen, the founder and longtime owner of the Lionel Corporation, a manufacturer of toy trains. Roy lived in his parents' home until his mother's death, after which he lived in New York, the District of Columbia, and Greenwich, Connecticut.

After attending Horace Mann School[6] and the Fieldston School,[7][8] and completing studies at Columbia College in 1946, Cohn graduated from Columbia Law School at the age of 20. He had to wait until his 21st birthday to be admitted to the bar, and he used his family connections to obtain a position in the office of United States Attorney Irving Saypol in Manhattan the day he was admitted.[3]

As an Assistant US Attorney in Saypol's Manhattan office, Cohn helped to secure convictions in a number of well-publicized trials of accused Soviet operatives. One of the first involved the prosecution of William Remington, a former Commerce Department employee who had been accused of espionage by KGB defector Elizabeth Bentley.[3] Although an indictment for espionage could not be secured, Remington had denied his longtime membership in the Communist Party USA on two separate occasions and was convicted of perjury in two separate trials.[9]

While working in Saypol's office, Cohn also helped prosecute 11 members of the American Communist Party for preaching the violent overthrow of the United States government, under the Smith Act.[10][11]

Rosenberg trial [ edit ] Cohn played a prominent role in the 1951 espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Cohn's direct examination of Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, produced testimony that was central to the Rosenbergs' conviction and subsequent execution. Greenglass testified that he had given the Rosenbergs classified documents from the Manhattan Project that had been stolen by Klaus Fuchs. Greenglass would later claim that he lied at the trial in order "to protect himself and his wife, Ruth, and that he was encouraged by the prosecution to do so."[12] Cohn always took great pride in the Rosenberg verdict and claimed to have played an even greater part than his public role. He said in his autobiography that his own influence had led to both Chief Prosecutor Saypol and Judge Irving Kaufman being appointed to the case. He further said that Kaufman imposed the death penalty, based on his personal recommendation. If the ex parte discussions between a prosecutor and a judge outside the courtroom actually took place, they were improper.[13]

In 2008, a co-conspirator in the case, Morton Sobell, who had served 18 years in prison, said that Julius had spied for the Soviets but that Ethel did not.[14] However, in 2014, five historians who had published on the Rosenberg case wrote that Soviet documents show that "Ethel Rosenberg hid money and espionage paraphernalia for Julius, served as an intermediary for communications with his Soviet intelligence contacts, provided her personal evaluation of individuals Julius considered recruiting, and was present at meetings with his sources. They also demonstrate that Julius reported to the KGB that Ethel persuaded Ruth Greenglass to travel to New Mexico to recruit David as a spy."[15]

There is a consensus among historians that Julius was guilty, and their trial was marred by clear judicial and legal improprieties'-- many on the part of Cohn '--and that they should not have been executed.[16][17] Distilling this consensus, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz wrote that the Rosenbergs were "guilty'--and framed".[18]

Work with Joseph McCarthy [ edit ] The Rosenberg trial brought the 24-year-old Cohn to the attention of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover, who recommended him to Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy hired Cohn as his chief counsel, choosing him over Robert Kennedy. Cohn assisted McCarthy's work for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, becoming known for his aggressive questioning of suspected Communists. Cohn preferred not to hold hearings in open forums, which went well with McCarthy's preference for holding "executive sessions" and "off-the-record" sessions away from the Capitol in order to minimize public scrutiny and to question witnesses with relative impunity.[19] Cohn was given free rein in pursuit of many investigations, with McCarthy joining in only for the more publicized sessions.[20]

Cohn played a major role in McCarthy's crusade against Communism.[21] During the Lavender Scare, Cohn and McCarthy attempted to enhance anti-Communist fervor in the country by claiming that Communists overseas had convinced several closeted homosexuals employed by the US federal government to pass on important government secrets in exchange for keeping their sexuality secret.[21] Convinced that the employment of homosexuals was now a threat to national security, President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order on April 29, 1953, to ban homosexuals from working in the federal government.[21]

Senator

Joseph McCarthy (left) chats with Cohn at the Army''McCarthy hearings

Cohn invited his friend G. David Schine, an anti-Communist propagandist, to join McCarthy's staff as a consultant. When Schine was drafted into the US Army in 1953, Cohn made repeated and extensive efforts to procure special treatment for Schine. He contacted military officials from the Secretary of the Army down to Schine's company commander and demanded that Schine be given light duties, extra leave, and exemption from an overseas assignment. At one point, Cohn is reported to have threatened to "wreck the Army" if his demands were not met.[22][23] That conflict, along with McCarthy's accusations of Communists in the defense department, led to the Army''McCarthy hearings of 1954, during which the Army charged Cohn and McCarthy with using improper pressure on Schine's behalf, and McCarthy and Cohn countercharged that the Army was holding Schine "hostage" in an attempt to squelch McCarthy's investigations into Communists in the Army. During the hearings, a photograph of Schine was introduced, and Joseph N. Welch, the Army's attorney in the hearings, accused Cohn of doctoring the image to show Schine alone with Army Secretary Robert T. Stevens.[22]

Although the findings of the hearings blamed Cohn, rather than McCarthy, they are widely considered an important element of McCarthy's disgrace. After the Army''McCarthy hearings, Cohn resigned from McCarthy's staff and went into private practice.[3][24]

Legal career in New York [ edit ] After leaving McCarthy, Cohn had a 30-year career as an attorney in New York City. His clients included Donald Trump,[25]Richard Dupont, the New York Yankees baseball club, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner;[26][27]Mafia figures Tony Salerno, Carmine Galante, and John Gotti; Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager; the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and Texas financier and philanthropist Shearn Moody, Jr.[28] He was known for his active social life, charitable giving, and combative personality. In the early 1960s he became a member of the John Birch Society and a principal figure in the Western Goals Foundation. Although he was registered as a Democrat, Cohn supported most of the Republican presidents of his time and Republicans in major offices across New York.[3] He maintained close ties in conservative political circles, serving as an informal advisor to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.[3] Cohn's other clients included Aristotle Onassis.[29]

Retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz has referenced Cohn as "the quintessential fixer".[30]

Representation of Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch [ edit ] In 1971, businessman Donald Trump moved to Manhattan, where he became involved in large construction projects.[31] In 1973, the Justice Department accused him of violating the Fair Housing Act in 39 of his properties.[32][33] The government alleged that Trump's corporation quoted different rental terms and conditions and made false "no vacancy" statements to African Americans for apartments it managed in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.[34]

Representing Trump, Cohn filed a countersuit against the government for $100 million, asserting that the charges were "irresponsible and baseless."[32][35][33] The countersuit was unsuccessful.[36] Trump settled the charges out of court in 1975, saying he was satisfied that the agreement did not "compel the Trump organization to accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other tenant."[37] The corporation was required to send a bi-weekly list of vacancies to the New York Urban League, a civil rights group, and give the league priority for certain locations.[38] In 1978, the Trump Organization was again in court for violating terms of the 1975 settlement; Cohn called the new charges "nothing more than a rehash of complaints by a couple of planted malcontents." Trump denied the charges.[33][36][39]

Cohn also counted Rupert Murdoch among his clients, pressuring President Ronald Reagan repeatedly in furtherance of Murdoch's interests. Cohn is credited with introducing Trump and Murdoch in the mid-1970s, marking the beginning of what was to be a deep and pivotal association between the two.[40]

Lionel trains [ edit ] Cohn was the grandnephew of Joshua Lionel Cowen, founder of the Lionel model train company. By 1959, Cowen and his son Lawrence had become involved in a family dispute over control of the company. In October 1959, Cohn and a group of investors stepped in and gained control of the company, having bought 200,000 of the firm's 700,000 shares, which were purchased by his syndicate from the Cowens and on the open market over a three-month period prior to the takeover.[41] Under Cohn's leadership, Lionel was plagued by declining sales, quality-control problems, and huge financial losses. In 1963, Cohn was forced to resign from the company after losing a proxy fight.[42]

Later career and disbarment [ edit ] Cohn aided Roger Stone in Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1979''1980, helping Stone arrange for John B. Anderson to get the nomination of the Liberal Party of New York, a move that would help split the opposition to Reagan in the state. Stone said Cohn gave him a suitcase that Stone avoided opening and, as instructed by Cohn, dropped it off at the office of a lawyer influential in Liberal Party circles. Reagan carried the state with 46 percent of the vote. Speaking after the statute of limitations for bribery had expired, Stone said, "I paid his law firm. Legal fees. I don't know what he did for the money, but whatever it was, the Liberal party reached its right conclusion out of a matter of principle."[43]

Federal investigations during the 1970s and 1980s charged Cohn three times with professional misconduct, including perjury and witness tampering.[3] He was accused in New York of financial improprieties related to city contracts and private investments. He was acquitted of all charges.[3] In 1986, a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court disbarred Cohn for unethical and unprofessional conduct, including misappropriation of clients' funds, lying on a bar application, and pressuring a client to amend his will. In this case in 1975, Cohn entered the hospital room of the dying, comatose Lewis Rosenstiel; the multi-millionaire founder of Schenley Industries, forced a pen to his hand and lifted it to the will in an attempt to make himself and Cathy Frank'--Rosenstiel's granddaughter'--beneficiaries. The resulting marks were determined in court to be indecipherable and in no way a valid signature.[2]

Homosexuality [ edit ] When Cohn brought on G. David Schine as chief consultant to the McCarthy staff, speculation arose that Schine and Cohn had a sexual relationship.[44][45] Speculation about Cohn's sexuality intensified following his death from AIDS in 1986.[3][46] Although some historians have concluded the Schine''Cohn friendship was platonic,[45][47][48] others state, based on the testimony of friends, that Cohn was gay.[49][50] During the Army''McCarthy hearings, Cohn denied having any "special interest" in Schine or being bound to him "closer than to the ordinary friend."[45]Joseph Welch, the Army's attorney in the hearings, made an apparent reference to Cohn's homosexuality. After asking a witness if a photo entered as evidence "came from a pixie", at McCarthy's request, he defined "pixie" as "a close relative of a fairy".[45] Though "pixie" was the name of a camera model name at the time,[51] the comparison to "fairy", a derogatory term for a homosexual man, had clear implications. The people at the hearing recognized the slur and found it amusing; Cohn, however, later called the remark "malicious", "wicked", and "indecent."[45]

In a 2008 article published in The New Yorker magazine, Jeffrey Toobin quotes Roger Stone: "Roy was not gay. He was a man who liked having sex with men. Gays were weak, effeminate. He always seemed to have these young blond boys around. It just wasn't discussed. He was interested in power and access."[52] Stone worked with Cohn beginning with the Reagan campaign during the 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries.

Lavender scare [ edit ] Cohn and McCarthy targeted many government officials and cultural figures not only for suspected Communist sympathies, but also for alleged homosexuality.[53] McCarthy and Cohn were responsible for the firing of scores of gay men from government employment and strong-armed many opponents into silence using rumors of their homosexuality.[53][54] Former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson has written: "The so-called 'Red Scare' has been the main focus of most historians of that period of time. A lesser-known element '... and one that harmed far more people was the witch-hunt McCarthy and others conducted against homosexuals."[55]

Death [ edit ] In 1984, Cohn was diagnosed with AIDS and attempted to keep his condition secret while receiving experimental drug treatment.[56] He participated in clinical trials of AZT, a drug initially synthesized to treat cancer but later developed as the first anti-HIV agent for AIDS patients. He insisted to his dying day that his disease was liver cancer.[57] He died on August 2, 1986, in Bethesda, Maryland, of complications from AIDS, at the age of 59.[8] According to Roger Stone, Cohn's "absolute goal was to die completely broke and owing millions to the IRS. He succeeded in that."[52] He was buried in Union Field Cemetery in Queens, New York.[3][22][58]

Media portrayals [ edit ] A dramatic and controversial man, Cohn inspired many dramatic fictional portrayals after his death. Probably the most famous is his fictionalized role in Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, in which Cohn is portrayed as a closeted, power-hungry hypocrite who is haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg as he lies dying of AIDS, a disease the character insisted be called "liver cancer". In the initial Broadway production, the role was played by Ron Leibman; in the 2010 Off-Broadway revival by the Signature Theatre Company in Manhattan, the role was reprised by Frank Wood;[59] in the HBO miniseries version of Kushner's play, Cohn is played by Al Pacino. Nathan Lane played Cohn in the 2017 Royal National Theatre production and the 2018 Broadway production.[60][61]

Cohn is a character in Kushner's one-act play, G. David Schine in Hell.

Cohn is portrayed by James Woods in the 1992 biopic Citizen Cohn, by Joe Pantoliano in Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985), and by George Wyner in Tail Gunner Joe (1977). Cohn is portrayed by actor David Moreland in The X-Files episode "Travelers", in which an elderly former FBI agent speaks to Agent Fox Mulder about the early years of the McCarthy era and the beginning of the X-Files.

In the early 1990s, Cohn was one of two subjects of Ron Vawter's one-man show Roy Cohn/Jack Smith; Cohn's part was written by Gary Indiana.[62]

Bibliography [ edit ] Cohn, Roy (1954). Only a Miracle Can Save America From the Red Conspiracy. Wanderer Printing Co. Cohn, Roy (1968). McCarthy. New American Library. Cohn, Roy (1972). A Fool for a Client: My Struggle Against the Power of a Public Prosecutor. Dell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-440-02667-9. Cohn, Roy (1981). How to Stand up for Your Rights and Win!. Devin-Adair Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8159-5723-2. Cohn, Roy (1986). Roy Cohn on Divorce: Words to the Wise and Not So Wise. Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-54383-3. References [ edit ] ^ "Roy Cohn". www.nndb.com . Retrieved June 18, 2017 . ^ a b "Cohn Ko'D". TIME. July 7, 1986 . Retrieved March 15, 2008 . One hospital attendant testified in a Florida court that Cohn "tried to take (Rosenstiel's) hand for him to sign" the codicil to his will. The lawyer eventually emerged with a document bearing what the New York judges described as "a number of 'squiggly' lines which in no way resemble any letters of the alphabet." ^ a b c d e f g h i j Krebs, Albin (August 3, 1986). "Roy Cohn, Aide to McCarthy and Fiery Lawyer, Dies at 59". The New York Times . Retrieved December 26, 2018 . Roy M. Cohn, the flamboyant, controversial defense lawyer who was chief counsel to Joseph R. McCarthy's Senate investigations in the 1950's into Communist influence in American life, died yesterday at the age of 59. ^ "Mrs. Albert C. Cohn Dies. Roy Cohn's Mother, 74". The New York Times. June 6, 1967. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013 . Retrieved April 4, 2008 . (Subscription required (help )) . Mrs. Dora Marcus Cohn, widow of Justice Albert C. Cohn of the State Supreme Court and mother of Roy M. Cohn, lawyer and industrialist, died last evening at her home, 1165 Park Avenue. She would have been 75 years old on Thursday. ^ "Albert Cohn. A Former Justice. Practiced Law Here With Son Roy Since Retiring From Appellate Bench". NY Courts. January 9, 1959. ^ Goodman, Walter (October 16, 1994). "In Business for Profit; Imagine That?". The New York Times . Retrieved April 4, 2008 . "The family's main derelictions occupy three chapters. One has to do with Mr. Newhouse's friendship with Roy Cohn, which began at Horace Mann, a Bronx preparatory school for affluent lads." ^ "In a Neutral Corner; Roy Marcus Cohn". The New York Times. April 22, 1960 . Retrieved April 4, 2008 . "By the time he was 20, Cohn, an alumnus of the Fieldston School in '..." ^ a b "Roy Cohn, the flamboyant New York lawyer who catapulted to public prominence in the 1950s as the grand inquisitor of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's communist-hunting congressional panel, died yesterday at the age of 59". Boston Globe. August 3, 1986. Irene Haske, a spokeswoman at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where Mr. Cohn died, said the primary cause of his death was cardio-pulmonary arrest, with "dementia" and "underlying HTLV III ^ "William Remington". Spartacus Educational . Retrieved 2018-12-27 . ^ Caute, David (1978). The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 63. ISBN 0671226827. OCLC 3293124. ^ Clune, Lori (2016). Executing the Rosenbergs: Death and Diplomacy in a Cold War World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190265885. ^ "False testimony clinched Rosenberg spy trial". BBC News. December 6, 2001 . Retrieved May 26, 2010 . ^ Radosh, Ronald & Milton, Joyce. The Rosenberg File. p. 278. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link) ^ Roberts, Sam (September 12, 2008). "Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits to Soviet Spying". The New York Times. ^ Radosh, ROnald; Klehr, Harvey; Earl, John; Hornblum, Allen; Usdin, Steven (October 17, 2014). "The New York Times Gets Greenglass Wrong". Weekly Standard . Retrieved June 18, 2017 . ^ Radosh, Ronald (June 10, 2016). "Rosenbergs Redux". The Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016 . Retrieved December 26, 2018 . ^ Ph.D, Frankie Y. Bailey; Ph.D, Steven Chermak. Crimes and Trials of the Century [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-57356-973-6 ^ DERSHOWITZ, ALAN M. (July 19, 1995). "Rosenbergs Were Guilty--and Framed: FBI, Justice Department and judiciary conspired to convict a couple accused of espionage". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved June 18, 2017 '' via LA Times. ^ "Executive Sessons of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations". Government Publishing Office. January 2003. ^ "U.S. Senate: "Have You No Sense of Decency? " ". www.senate.gov . Retrieved 2018-12-28 . ^ a b c "Lavender Scare". Out.com. April 26, 2013 . Retrieved July 11, 2013 . ^ a b c Drogin, Bob (August 3, 1986). "Roy Cohn, Hero and Villain of McCarthy Era, Dies at 59". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016 . Retrieved December 26, 2018 . Millions of Americans watched the real-life TV drama as McCarthy and Cohn tangled with top Army officials, trading bitter charges and accusations. Army counsel John G. Adams testified that Cohn had threatened to "wreck the Army." Army special counsel Joseph N. Welch also accused Cohn of doctoring a photo that was introduced as evidence. ^ "The Self-Inflated Target". TIME. March 22, 1954 . Retrieved March 11, 2008 . While they talked, newsservice teletypes were clacking out, for the morning papers, the Army's sensational charge: Roy Cohn had threatened to "wreck the Army" in an attempt to get special treatment for one Private G. David Schine. ^ O'Harrow Jr, Robert; Boburg, Shawn (June 17, 2016). "The man who showed Donald Trump how to exploit power and instill fear". Washington Post . Retrieved December 28, 2018 . ^ " ' I Need Loyalty ' ". POLITICO Magazine . Retrieved 2018-03-14 . ^ "A mentor in shamelessness: the man who taught Trump the power of publicity". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. April 20, 2016 . Retrieved 12 February 2018 . ^ "What Roy Cohn Taught Donald Trump". The Daily Caller . Retrieved February 12, 2018 . ^ Serwer, Andrew E. (August 21, 1995). "Who's Crazy: The IRS or Mr. Moody?". Fortune . Retrieved March 5, 2011 . ^ Auletta, Ken. "Don't Mess with Roy Cohn". Esquire. No. December 1978 . Retrieved 16 November 2017 . ^ "Trump's Showdown: Alan Dershowitz", Frontline, PBS. Accessed January 25, 2019. ^ "Donald (John) Trump biography". biography.com . Retrieved December 18, 2015 . ^ a b Dunlap, David W. (July 30, 2015). "1973 Meet Donald Trump". The New York Times . Retrieved March 10, 2016 . ^ a b c Resnick, Gideon (December 15, 2015). "DOJ: Trump's Early Businesses Blocked Blacks". The Daily Beast . Retrieved March 2, 2016 . ^ Baram, Marcus (2011-04-29). "Donald Trump Was Once Sued By Justice Department For Not Renting To Blacks". The Huffington Post . Retrieved June 16, 2015 . ^ Campbell, Barbara (December 13, 1973). "Realty Company Asks $100-Million 'Bias' Damages". ^ a b Elliott, Justin (April 28, 2011). "Donald Trump's racial discrimination problem". Salon.com . Retrieved March 10, 2016 . ^ David W. Dunlap '' "Meet Donald Trump", New York Times, July 30, 2015.. Retrieved August 10, 2015 ^ Baram, Marcus (July 29, 2011). "Donald Trump Was Once Sued By Justice Department For Not Renting To Blacks". Huffington Post . Retrieved March 10, 2016 . Trump, who emphasized that the agreement was not an admission of guilt, later crowed that he was satisfied because it did not require his company to 'accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other tenant.' ^ Tuccille, Jerome (1985). Trump: The Saga of America's Most Powerful Real Estate Baron. Beard Books. p. 138. ISBN 9781587982231 . Retrieved March 10, 2016 . ^ Graves, Graves. "Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch: inside the billionaire bromance". The Guardian . Retrieved 16 June 2017 . ^ "Group Acquires Lionel Control. Roy Cohn Heads Syndicate That Has Bought More Than 200,000 Shares". The New York Times. October 9, 1959 . Retrieved September 21, 2008 . ^ Vartan, Vartanig G. (May 7, 1963). "Roy Cohen Loses Top Lionel Post. Board Elects Victor Muscat as Its New Chairman. Proxy Fight Sidetracked Earnings Record. Reviewed Shareowners Convene to Hear Reports on Company Operations During the Year". The New York Times . Retrieved September 21, 2008 . ^ Labash, Matt (November 5, 2007). "Roger Stone, Political Animal, 'Above all, attack, attack, attack'--never defend. ' ". The Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015 . Retrieved December 26, 2018 . ^ Wicker, Tom (2006). Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy (1 ed.). Orlando: Harcourt. ISBN 015101082X. OCLC 61204327. ^ a b c d e Miller, Neil (2005). Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present. Advocate Books. pp. Ch. 18. ISBN 978-1-55583-870-6. Archived from the original on September 2, 2009. ^ "LIFE MAGAZINE - THE SNARLING DEATH OF ROY M. COHN - 905W-000-035". www.maryellenmark.com . Retrieved June 18, 2017 . ^ Wolfe, Tom (April 3, 1988). "Dangerous Obsessions". The New York Times. But so far as Mr. Schine is concerned, there has never been the slightest evidence that he was anything but a good-looking kid who was having a helluva good time in a helluva good cause. In any event, the rumors were sizzling away ... ^ Baxter, Randolph (November 13, 2006). "An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture". glbtq, Inc. Archived from the original on January 29, 2012 . Retrieved December 26, 2018 . Tall, rich, and suave, the Harvard-educated (and heterosexual) Schine contrasted starkly with the short, physically undistinguished, and caustic Cohn. ^ Lauerman, Kerry. "Roy Cohn". Salon. Archived from the original on January 14, 2017 . Retrieved December 26, 2018 . ^ Nicholas von Hoffman, "The Snarling Death of Roy M. Cohn." Life Magazine, March 1988 ^ "Pixie Subminiature Wrist Strap Camera Outfit, 1950's". The Ralph D. Thomas Private Investigation Vintage Collection . Retrieved September 27, 2016 . ^ a b Toobin, Jeffrey (June 2, 2008). "The Dirty Trickster". The New Yorker. p. 58 . Retrieved May 31, 2008 . He was interested in power and access. He told me his absolute goal was to die completely broke and owing millions to the I.R.S. He succeeded in that. ^ a b Johnson, David K. (2004). The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. University of Chicago Press. pp. 15''19. ISBN 978-0-226-40481-3. ^ Rodger McDaniel, Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt (WordsWorth, 2013), ISBN 978-0983027591 ^ Simpson, Alan K. "Prologue" to Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins, Rodger McDaniel, WordsWorth Press, 2013 - pg. x. ISBN 978-0983027591 ^ "Roy Cohn". American Heritage. May 1988. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. ^ Paul Colichman Chief Executive Officer (October 23, 2013). "Who is Roy Cohn?". PlanetOut . Retrieved December 5, 2013 . ^ "From Haunted Mansions To The Brooklyn Bridge". NYC 24. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008 . Retrieved December 26, 2018 . ^ "Past Shows". Signature Theatre. Archived from the original on August 2, 2010 . Retrieved November 2, 2013 . ^ "Angels in America on Broadway". angelsbroadway.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2018 . Retrieved 2018-04-01 . ^ "Angels in America". National Theatre . Retrieved August 11, 2017 . ^ Holden, Stephen (May 3, 1992). "Two Strangers Meet Through an Actor". The New York Times. Further reading [ edit ] Cohn, Roy Marcus (1969). Interviewed by Herbert S. Parmet, ed. Reminiscences of Roy Marcus Cohn: Oral History, 1969. New York, New York: Columbia University Libraries. p. 15. Von Hoffman, Nicholas (1988). Citizen Cohn; The Life and Times of Roy Cohn. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-23690-4. Ward, Geoffrey C. (1988). "Roy Cohn". American Heritage Magazine. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. Wolfe, Tom (April 3, 1988). "Dangerous Obsessions". The New York Times. Zion, Sidney & Cohn, Roy (1988). The Autobiography of Roy Cohn. St Martins. ISBN 978-0-312-91402-8. External links [ edit ] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roy Cohn.Roy Cohn on IMDb Roy Cohn at Find a GraveRoy Cohn's square on the AIDS Memorial Quilt

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:42

Ghislaine Maxwell (born 25 December 1961)[1] is a British socialite and the youngest child of publisher Robert Maxwell. Maxwell moved to the United States after her father's death and has become an advocate for the ocean as the founder of The TerraMar Project.

Early life and career [ edit ] Maxwell was born in 1961, the ninth and youngest child of Elisabeth (n(C)e Meynard), a French Protestant and Robert Maxwell, a Jewish Czech-born British media proprietor. Maxwell attended Headington School, Marlborough College, and Oxford University's Balliol College.[1]

She founded a successful women's club named after the original Kit-Cat Club[2] Maxwell was also a director of Oxford United F.C., during her father's ownership of the club.[3][4] Maxwell was fined £1,000 and banned from driving for one year in August 1996 after driving while intoxicated.[5]

Her father named his luxury yacht, the Lady Ghislaine in her honour, and it was near the yacht in the Canary Islands in 1991 that his body was found floating in the sea.[6] Though a verdict of death by accidental drowning was recorded, Maxwell has since stated that she believes her father was murdered,[7] commenting in 1997 that "He did not commit suicide. That was just not consistent with his character. I think he was murdered."[8] After his death, Robert Maxwell was found to have fraudulently appropriated the pension assets of his Mirror Group Newspapers to support its share price and was disgraced.[9]

Maxwell moved to the United States after her father's death, and has since become a prominent socialite in New York City.

She is the founder of The TerraMar Project.[10]

Jeffrey Epstein and sex trafficking allegations [ edit ] After moving to America, Maxwell and the billionaire American financier Jeffrey Epstein had a romantic relationship, and Maxwell remained close to him after their break-up.[11]

Maxwell has attracted press coverage for her friendship with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, who attended social functions with her in New York.[12] Maxwell introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew and the three often socialized together.[13]

In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence. Details of a civil lawsuit made public in January 2015 contained a deposition from a woman, identified as 'Jane Doe 3', accusing Maxwell of having recruited her in 1999, when she was a minor, to have sex with Epstein. A 2018 expose by the Miami Herald reveals Jane Doe 3 to be Virginia Roberts. Roberts asserted that she was introduced by Maxwell to Epstein and then "groomed by the two for his pleasure, including lessons in Epstein's preferences during oral sex".[14] According to James Patterson's book, "Filthy Rich," Maxwell's friendship with Donald J. Trump allowed Epstein unfettered access to Mar-a-Lago, where he recruited Virginia Roberts. He also tried to get another young girl to undress for him, but she complained to her wealthy father who went straight to Trump, who banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. Despite this ban, Maxwell continued to be close friends with Epstein.

Maxwell has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes.[11] In a 2015 statement, Maxwell rejected allegations that she has acted as a "madame for Epstein" and "facilitated Prince Andrew's acts of sexual abuse". Maxwell's spokesperson said that "the allegations made against Ghislaine Maxwell are untrue" and that she "strongly denies allegations of an unsavoury nature, which have appeared in the British press and elsewhere and reserves her right to seek redress at the repetition of such old defamatory claims."[13][15]

References [ edit ] ^ a b Haines, Joe (1988). Maxwell. London: Futura. pp. 434 et seq. ISBN 0-7088-4303-4. ^ Field, Ophelia (2009). Kitten Club: Friends who Imagined a Nation. Harper Press. p. 379. ^ "Profile of Ghislaine Maxwell", Walker's Research ^ David Crabtree, et al "A History of Oxford United Football Club", OUFC website, 8 March 2011 ^ "Maxwell daughter in drink case served tea for police." 10 August 1996, The Guardian, pg. 12. ^ "Family Misfortunes", 21 January 1996, The Observer, pg. 14 ^ Mark Lawson. "Shot in the dark?", The Guardian, 20 February 1997 ^ "Soundbites", The Observer, 23 February 1997, ^ Owen Bowcott (6 March 2011). "Ghislaine Maxwell: Press baron's daughter and Epstein's former lover". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 January 2014 . ^ TerraMar Project launches to celebrate and protect the world's oceans", Mother Nature Network, 10 October 2012 ^ a b "Ghislaine Maxwell: profile". The Daily Telegraph. 7 March 2011 . Retrieved 11 January 2014 . ^ "New role for Andrew in doubt after royal fiasco.", Matt Wells, 10 April 2001, The Guardian. ^ a b Gordon Rayner (2 January 2015). "Prince Andrew 'categorically denies' claims he sexually abused teenager". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 11 January 2014 . ^ "Even from jail, sex abuser manipulated the system. His victims were kept in the dark". miamiherald . Retrieved 2018-11-30 . ^ "Statement on Behalf of Ghislaine Maxwell", PR Newswire for Devonshires Solicitors, London, 10 March 2011

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:32

by Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

From Politico:

Stone met Trump in 1979. The matchmaker was the infamous Roy Cohn, and the context was the fledgling Ronald Reagan presidential bid. Just 27 at the time, six years younger than Trump, Stone was in New York working as the campaign's regional political director.

*

Editor's note: Roy Cohn had sex with every young man he kept company with, or so we are told by nearly everyone, including private sources who knew them from Le Club.

We begin with a tale. Not everyone is who they seem to be. By that, we mean the whole deal, that even as many as a dozen members of congress, according to a briefing from a former high ranking FBI counter-intelligence team supervisor, are 'fake people.'

We could talk about Stone and rigged elections or odd things in Florida but we won't.

We could talk about Trump/Bayrock properties, Kosher Nostra partnerships, in Broward and Dade County. Some house Russians giving birth to new fake American anchor babies, others simply have kidnapped teens there, part of the charm and appeal of Florida's golfing resort life style that drags trash from around the world to places like Maralago.

To run it all, well we will touch on that as well. The FBI is, however, in over their heads here as every judge and prosecutor they will need has been burned as well, themselves or family members, this is an industry and these folks aren't amateurs.

Then again, we will also note that not everyone is who we think they are.

Some are Russians, like in the TV show, The Americans. More are working for Israel, men of sorts such as Julian Assange, particularly anyone from the US, UK, Canada or Australia, that can pass for ''waspish'' or ''Nordic looking.''

They are given fake backgrounds, called ''legends,'' and continually fed opportunities, and placed in the limelight despite personal mediocrity.

All doors open for them as the family Rothschild and their minions control all doors, news media, the door to the White House, jobs with congress, friends with judgeships, local police to do your bidding'....

We aren't saying Stone is one of them. Trump is. So is the Bush family, all of them.

No, we aren't going to accuse poor Roger Stone.

You will want to look at, for instance, the Federal prosecutor that was Chief of the Organized Crime-Terrorism unit that went after bin Laden and that ran New York when the Mossad and Mohamed Atta detonated several buildings on 9/11.

Their names are English or Irish most often, I have no idea who made up the name ''Assange.''

Its like Rupert Murdoch, you can gain waspish sounding names through marriage.

Ever hear of ''Scooter Libby?'' Trump pardoned him on April 13, 2018. Why?

It used to be Roy Cohn, then head of the New York kosher mob, the man who laid the ground for the Kosher Nostra and its penetration of the White House through sexual blackmail.

Cohn loved young men of power, loved to ''do them'' as Roger Stone loved to tell about. He first got his hands on George W. Bush while Bush as at Yale. Donald Trump was another ''boy toy'' for Cohn, moving along with Trump and Roger Smith as ''W'' had, in and out of the ''glory hole'' lifestyle of pre-AIDS New York.

Trump was targeted from day one, fed to Mossadnik Gisele Maxwell, who along with Jeff Epstein and Donald Trump set up a human trafficking organization inside Florida that included local law enforcement who added that skill to their normal drug running.

The Sun Sentinel gets a piece of the story but misses the extent of it:

''A campaign operative who built his career on smearing political enemies, publicly calls women the C-word and consulted for attorney-turned-Ponzi-schemer Scott Rothstein has become one of Sheriff Scott Israel's trusted political guides. The sheriff's relationship with Roger Stone is a bond of contradictions, tying Broward's highest-ranking Democrat with a longtime Republican-turned ''Libertarian . The sheriff is a man of old-fashioned manners who rarely curses, and who talks about integrity at every turn. Stone hurls profanity at women on social networks, and once called Sheriff Israel ''an unqualified punk, a racist and a thief.''

Publications from The New York Times to the National Enquirer to the Washington Post have written about Stone, a distinctive looking, bleached-blonde, fashion aficionado with a strange Nixon tattoo. He's been termed a ''professional lord of mischief,'' a ''boastful black prince of Republican sleaze,'' and on the cover of New Yorker, the label most often affixed to him: ''The Dirty Trickster.''

The political hit-man-for-hire usually has his hand in national contests '-- he's a veteran of presidential political campaigns from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to John McCain to Donald Trump.''

The real trail, where the blood will flow, is Deutche Bank, source of the cash that bought Donald Trump when he was ''dirt cheap'' and ''flat broke.'' The cash came through Russia, part of the endless billions stolen by fake ''oligarchs'' who looted the Soviet Union and laid the groundwork for the prison camps of Siberia to begin filling the penthouse apartments in the Trump Tower with heavily tattooed thugs.

But we are ahead of ourselves, the indictment and a short video:

Stone Indictment 012419 by on Scribd

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 17:14

The transition to new fifth-generation cellular networks, known as 5G, will affect how you use smartphones and many other devices. Let's talk about the essentials.

Image Credit Credit Mark Allen Miller In 2019, a big technology shift will finally begin. It's a once-in-a-decade upgrade to our wireless systems that will start reaching mobile phone users in a matter of months.

But this is not just about faster smartphones. The transition to new fifth-generation cellular networks '-- known as 5G for short '-- will also affect many other kinds of devices, including industrial robots, security cameras, drones and cars that send traffic data to one another. This new era will leap ahead of current wireless technology, known as 4G, by offering mobile internet speeds that will let people download entire movies within seconds and most likely bring big changes to video games, sports and shopping.

Officials in the United States and China see 5G networks as a competitive edge. The faster networks could help spread the use of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies.

Expect to hear more about 5G soon at events like the big consumer electronics trade show CES in January in Las Vegas and MWC Barcelona (formerly the Mobile World Congress) in February in Spain. Wireless service providers including AT&T and Verizon are already talking up 5G. And device makers are previewing gadgets that will work with the technology.

Samsung recently demonstrated prototypes of 5G smartphones that are expected to operate on both Verizon and AT&T networks. Many other manufacturers are racing to follow suit, though Apple is not expected in the initial 5G wave. Analysts predict that iPhones with the new technology won't arrive until 2020. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Here's what you need to know.

What exactly is 5G?Strictly speaking, 5G is a set of technical ground rules that define the workings of a cellular network, including the radio frequencies used and how various components like computer chips and antennas handle radio signals and exchange data.

Since the first cellphones were demonstrated in the 1970s, engineers from multiple companies have convened to agree on new sets of specifications for cellular networks, which are designated a new technology generation every decade or so. To get the benefits of 5G, users will have to buy new phones, while carriers will need to install new transmission equipment to offer the faster service.

How fast will 5G be?The answer depends on where you live, which wireless services you use and when you decide to take the 5G plunge.

Qualcomm, the wireless chip maker, said it had demonstrated peak 5G download speeds of 4.5 gigabits a second, but predicts initial median speeds of about 1.4 gigabits. That translates to roughly 20 times faster than the current 4G experience.

The 5G speeds will be particularly noticeable in higher-quality streaming video. And downloading a typical movie at the median speeds cited by Qualcomm would take 17 seconds with 5G, compared with six minutes for 4G.

Rather than remembering to download a season of a favorite TV show before heading to the airport, for example, you could do it while in line to board a plane, said Justin Denison, a Samsung senior vice president.

Is that the only speed that matters?No. There's another kind of speed, a lag known as latency, that may become even more important with 5G.

Issue a command now on a smartphone '-- like starting a web search '-- and the response isn't exactly immediate. A lag of 50 to several hundred milliseconds is common, partly because signals often must pass between different carrier switching centers; 5G, which uses newer networking technology, was designed to reduce latency down to a few milliseconds. It was also designed to deliver signals more reliably than earlier cellular networks, which today frequently drop bits of data that aren't essential for tasks like watching movies on a phone.

That improvement could bring many benefits, notably in fields such as virtual reality. The highest-quality VR applications now typically require bulky headsets that are connected by wire to nearby personal computers that generate 3-D images. With 5G, that would be off-loaded wirelessly to other machines, freeing users to move and making it easier to develop goggles the size of eyeglasses, said Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm's semiconductor business.

In the related field of augmented reality, people could point a smartphone camera at a football game and see both live video on the display and superimposed player statistics or other data, said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

And 5G's impact extends to medicine and other fields that increasingly rely on high-speed connections.

''If you talk about remote surgery or connected cars, you don't want latency times to be too long,'' said Fredrik Jejdling, an executive vice president at Ericsson, a maker of cellular equipment.

When will 5G be here?The answer for smartphone users in the United States appears to be by the second quarter of 2019; precise timing is uncertain.

AT&T has actually switched on its mobile 5G service in 12 cities, with seven more targeted in its initial rollout plan. But smartphones aren't ready yet for a direct connection to 5G networks. So AT&T will initially market a 5G hot-spot device, made by Netgear, that can funnel wireless broadband connections to nearby phones and computers using Wi-Fi.

Andre Fuetsch, president of AT&T Labs and the carrier's chief technology officer, said the first Samsung smartphones for AT&T's 5G network will be available in the first half of 2019.

Verizon is already selling a 5G-branded service '-- based on its own variant of the technology '-- to provide wireless internet connections to homes in limited parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento. The carrier predicts that it will begin serving smartphone users in the first half of 2019, without identifying cities or specific timing.

Sprint said it might also switch on a 5G service first for smartphones in 2019, initially targeting nine American cities. Its prospective merger partner, T-Mobile, has stressed a nationwide 5G launch in 2020, but said it was installing gear in 30 cities that would be ready when 5G smartphones appeared in 2019.

Countries expected to follow the United States with 2019 rollouts of 5G include Britain, Germany, Switzerland, China, South Korea and Australia, according to a timetable compiled by Qualcomm.

Will consumers see the full benefits of 5G?Verizon and AT&T will introduce their 5G offerings with the first use of high frequencies that are known by the phrase ''millimeter wave.'' Using this, the wireless providers can pump data at high speeds, but the signals don't travel as far. So the two carriers are expected to first target densely populated areas '-- ''parts or pockets'' of cities, as AT&T's Mr. Fuetsch put it.

Sprint and T-Mobile plan to start with lower frequencies. The result may be somewhat slower initial speeds but broader range, said Michael Thelander, president of Signals Research, a wireless consultancy.

Still, 5G's full benefits aren't expected until American carriers upgrade key central switching equipment, which may not happen until late 2019 or sometime in 2020.

So should I buy a smartphone that works with 5G right away?A consumer study sponsored by Intel in August found that 58 percent of Americans were not knowledgeable about 5G or had not heard of it, though another survey in December by the chip maker indicated solid demand once the benefits were explained.

Confusion actually could increase over the short term because of some technical details.

You have a lot to consider. For example, while Verizon and AT&T plan to later add 5G services based on lower frequencies that offer wider coverage, the first 5G handsets may not work with those portions of their networks. So the reach of 5G signals for those phones may remain limited.

''I wouldn't buy a 5G phone until it supports 5G in one of the lower-frequency bands,'' Mr. Thelander said. ''For all operators but Sprint, this means at least late 2019, and more likely 2020.''

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by John P. ThomasHealth Impact News

Public attention about 5G has been focused on the plans of telecom companies to install millions of small cell towers on electric utility poles, on public buildings and schools, on bus stop shelters, in public parks, and anywhere they want in national parks and on federally owned land.

In local urban communities there would be a cell tower approximately every 500 feet along every street.

As bad as these small cell towers might seem from the standpoint of constant exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation in close proximity to the source, perhaps an even more alarming prospect will be the beaming of millimeter length microwaves at the earth from thousands of new communication satellites.

The FCC gave approval to SpaceX on March 29, 2018, to launch 4,425 satellites into low orbit around the Earth. [1]

The total number of satellites that is expected to be put into low and high orbit by several companies will be 20,000 satellites. [1]

5G will use Phased Array Antennas to shoot Beams of Radiation at Cell PhonesThese satellites will use the same type of phased array antennas as will be used by the ground-based 5G systems.

This means that they will send tightly focused beams of intense microwave radiation at each specific 5G device that is on the Earth and each device will send a beam of radiation back to the satellite. [2]

Previous generations of RF cellular communication used large antennas to send a blanket of radiation in all directions. The lower frequencies they used and the broad distribution of microwaves limited the numbers of cellular devices that could connect through an individual tall tower.

The much shorter length microwaves used for 5G will make it possible to use small phased array antennas to send and receive signals.

Phased array antennas consist of clusters of hundreds of tiny antennas that work together to shoot a ray of energy at a target just like a bullet. A cluster of these tiny antennas can be arranged in a 4 inch by 4 inch matrix.

The rays of microwaves they produce will be strong enough to pass through walls and human bodies. If they were not strong enough to do this, then everyone with a 5G smartphone would have to stand outside when using the devices. [2]

Each 5G product will also have multiple phased array antennas which will be used to create a powerful beam of radiation back to the 5G devices mounted on electrical utility poles or toward a specific satellite in space.

These beams of radiation will also need to be strong enough to pass through walls and human flesh such as a hand or head to reach the intended destination. [2]

This means that if you are in a crowded location, such as an airport or on a train, there will be hundreds if not thousands of invisible beams of radiation flying through the environment at the speed of light.

As people move in that environment, their bodies will be penetrated by numerous beams of radiation as they walk or as other people walk around them with their 5G smartphones. [2]

5G Phones will be much more Powerful than Previous PhonesThe effective radiated power of the 5G phased array antennas in phones will be 10 times more powerful than 4G phones.

No one will be free from exposure.

In addition, 5G beams of microwave radiation will be received and transmitted from new computer equipment, household appliances, and automobiles.

Stationary equipment such as Wi-Fi hubs in homes and offices will be permitted to use microwave beams that are 15 times stronger (300 watts) than the signals from 5G phones or 150 times stronger than 4G phones. [2]

Why is 5G so Much More Dangerous than Previous Microwave Communication Systems? Arthur Firstenberg, author, researcher, and advocate for limiting RF exposure from the environment, explains the analysis of 5G radiation that was published in Microwave News in 2002. He stated:

When an ordinary electromagnetic field enters the body, it causes charges to move and currents to flow.

But when extremely short electromagnetic pulses enter the body [5G], something else happens: the moving charges themselves become little antennas that re-radiate the electromagnetic field and send it deeper into the body.

These re-radiated waves are called Brillouin precursors.

They become significant when either the power or the phase of the waves changes rapidly enough.

5G will probably satisfy both requirements. This means that the reassurance we are being given'--that these millimeter waves are too short to penetrate far into the body'--is not true. [2]

5G Satellites Will Fill the SkiesThese are the companies with the biggest plans to deploy satellites:

SpaceX: 12,000 satellitesOneWeb: 4,560 satellites Boeing: 2,956 satellitesSpire Global: 972 satellitesArthur Firstenberg describes the plans of corporations who want to use 5G technology. He states:

Honeywell has already signed a memorandum of understanding to become OneWeb's first large customer'--it plans to provide high-speed Wi-Fi on business, commercial, and military aircraft throughout the world.

SpaceX would like to provide the equivalent of 5G to every person on the planet. [3]

Ground-based 5G ImplementationGround-based 5G systems are already being implemented in dozens of major cities right now. Plans are being approved by hundreds of other cities, which will allow implementation in 2019 and beyond.

As I explained in my previous articles, cities do not have the right to ''say no'' to 5G. FCC regulations prevent cities from objecting on the basis of health concerns '' they only can speak to issues of esthetics and the practical matter of the placement of equipment.

They are required to ''say yes,'' and they better do it quickly, or telecom companies will threaten them with legal action for obstructing their plans.

Satellite Based 5G ImplementationThe first two 5G test satellites were launched by SpaceX in February of 2018. Hundreds of other satellites are expected to be launched in 2019. The full set of 20,000 satellites could be put in orbit during the next two years.

To put this into perspective, as of September 2017 there were 1,738 operating satellites into orbit around the Earth. This means the number of satellites will be 11 times greater than the current number. [4]

Environmental Catastrophe from Rockets used to Launch SatellitesRocket fuel is very destructive to the Earth's ozone layer which protects us from the harsh effects of radiation from the sun. In 2017, there were 90 rocket launch attempts worldwide. [5]

The rockets that use solid fuel produce massive ozone depletion. While rockets using liquid kerosene as fuel destroy less ozone, they release massive amounts of black carbon soot into the air, especially at high altitudes.

If the number of annual rocket launches increases by 10 or more times, which is likely under the plans these corporations have made, computer models suggest that the combination of ozone depletion and release of black soot could produce a 3 degree warming effect over the Antarctic and reduce the ozone in the world's atmosphere by 4%. [3]

Even though it will be possible for a single rocket to put multiple satellites into orbit, we are still talking about a 10 or 20 fold increase in environmental damage over what is being produced today. [3]

The 5G satellites have a relatively short lifespan, perhaps only 5 years, which means there will be high numbers of rocket launches, not just in the next few years, but in every year for the foreseeable future. [3]

Mercury-based Rocket Fuel Could Spread Neurotoxins Over the Earth As bad as liquid and solid rocket fuels will be for the environment, Apollo Fusion is developing a mercury-based propulsion system for launching rockets.

These ion propulsion rocket engines use powerful magnets to push away small charged particles at high speeds, which generates thrust. NASA experimented with mercury ion propulsion in the 1960s, but abandoned the research.

Mercury is an extremely strong neurotoxin, which is harmful to all forms of life, especially humans.

The risks of an environmental catastrophe are monumental, because if there was a malfunction and one of these engines exploded, highly toxic mercury would be spread through the atmosphere and over the Earth. [6]

All the talk from telecom companies about 5G being a panacea for environmental protection and energy conservation is quite ridiculous when we think about the environmental damage that will be created by any of the rocket engines they choose to use for launching their satellites.

Space Junk will Pollute the Earth Each satellite will be the size of a small refrigerator and will weigh approximately 880 pounds. [4]

With a life expectancy of only 5-years [3], this means there will be a massive amount of space junk orbiting the Earth.

Eventually, all those satellites will fall down to Earth and will burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere.

All the hazardous materials in the satellites will be released into the air and will float down to the ground as dust or in droplets of rain.

Telecom Companies are Creating a Worldwide Disaster in the Name of Technological Progress 5G is promoted as being the next great wonder in the plan to advance technology to create smart cities where everything and everyone is instantly connected in real time with no lags or lost signals.

Of course there will be a few costs.

Everyone will be irradiated with millimeter-size, non-ionizing radiation 24 hours a day with completely unknown health effects.

Studies designed to investigate harm from 5G will be completed many years after the 5G systems on the ground and in space are fully implemented.

At that point it is very unlikely that telecom companies would dismantle their systems even if it is shown that their technology is causing cancer and other diseases. They would just deny the risks.

They will tell us that the science was settled decades ago. They will tell us that evidence linking 5G to cancer and other diseases is just a conspiracy theory that only a few crackpots believe.

Millions of people will suffer from radiation exposure with symptoms such as headaches, weakness, brain fog, impaired ability to learn and reason, chest pain, and numerous other symptoms that will baffle most conventional physicians.

There is Nowhere to Hide from 5G RadiationToday, it is possible to live in a location that has reduced levels of microwave exposure. This is accomplished by choosing a living space that is far away from cell phone towers.

However, in the near future, it won't matter where we live, because 5G will irradiate us wherever we happen to live or work.

Cities Can't Say No to 5G ImplementationFCC regulations have been structured in such a way that local municipalities cannot stop telecom companies from installing 5G. They are specifically prohibited from trying to delay or stop 5G implementation on the basis of health concerns. Their only recourse is to try to make the ground-based 5G system somewhat more esthetically pleasant.

Based on what has been happening around the country, telecom companies are sweeping aside local resistance and gaining approval for their 5G systems in rapid succession.

Can 5G Implementation be Stopped?As far as I can tell, at this point, the only way that 5G will be stopped will be by congressional action. If enough people raise a stink with their elected officials, then perhaps 5G could be put on hold while studies are done to examine the true health risks.

Telecom investment in 5G has been massive. They are planning full implementation on the ground and in space in the next couple years. The time to object is now and not after hundreds of thousands of people become sick. [7]

If you would like to watch an in-depth presentation on the risks and hazards of 5G, then please view the following presentation.

Listen to Arthur Firstenberg discuss the history, science, and description of 5G, including 5G from satellites in space and its expected effects on all living things:

Cell Phone Task Force, Taos, New Mexico, August 2, 2018You also may wish to review some of my previous articles about the risks of 5G and other forms of radio frequency exposure.

Public Waking up to Fact that 5G has not been Proven Safe for Human Health5G Technology is Coming '' Linked to Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Alzheimer's, and DeathCell Phone and Wi-Fi Exposure to the Eyes Causes Long-Term DamageNew 5G Cell Towers and Smart Meters to Increase Microwave Radiation '' Invade PrivacySmart Meters: Countdown to a National Crisis of Illness and DeathWill Driverless Cars Cause DNA Damage and Cancer?How Big Technology Companies Control the Minds of the Masses through Smart Phone AddictionAbout the AuthorJohn P. Thomas is a health writer for Health Impact News. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.) from the School of Public Health, Department of Health Administration, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

References[1] ''Planetary Emergency,'' Arthur Firstenberg, Cellular Phone Task Force.

[2] ''5G '' from Blankets to Bullets,'' Arthur Firstenberg, Cellular Phone Task Force.

[3] ''WiFi in the Sky,'' Arthur Firstenberg, Cellular Phone Task Force.

[4] ''5G from Space,'' Arthur Firstenberg, Cellular Phone Task Force.

[5] ''2017 Space Launch Statistics,'' '' Spaceflight101.

[6] ''Space Startup Apollo Fusion Wants To Use Mercury as a Fuel,'' Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 11/20/2018.

[7] Arthur Firstenberg, Cellular Phone Task Force, Taos, New Mexico, 8/12/2018.

Virgin Coconut Oil:How it has changed people's lives and how it can change yours!

Includes 85 recipes '' Free shipping available!

Published on January 6, 2019

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Friday, October 5, 2018 by

Chad Swiatecki AustinA pair of efforts to bring 5G telecommunication technology to portions of Austin is welcome news to proponents of the smart city capabilities available with widespread use. But the city still lags far behind other Texas cities in installation of the street-level ''cells'' needed to enable the standard that tech experts expect will start becoming widely available on consumer devices next year.

Late last month AT&T and Samsung announced a partnership to create a 5G innovation zone on Samsung Austin Semiconductor's 160-acre campus in North Austin. And the city's Communications and Technology Management Division recently prepared a pre-proposal document that could lead to a collaboration with Texas A&M University and Texas State University to bring 5G cells to a portion of the Riverside Drive community just east of downtown Austin.

Those efforts will add 5G cells to the city, which currently has three units installed in the downtown core compared to more than 800 units installed in Houston and more than 300 installed in Dallas, according to the Texas 5G Alliance.

The cells are typically installed by cellular service providers or third-party companies that lease their capacity to other companies, with both interests saying the city's permitting process to get right of way approval to install the cells has been an impediment keeping the city lagging behind other Texas cities like Waco.

''In Austin you've got a real uphill climb. And in a couple of years, you'll see 5G readiness as a necessity, when companies are evaluating a market as far as connectivity,'' said Scott Dunaway, spokesperson for the Texas 5G Alliance. ''In Austin the challenge has been the permitting process and the problems applicants face, while other cities have managed to knock those (problems) down.''

Malcolm Yeatts, chair of the city's Community Technology and Communications Commission, said the group is awaiting research from the city and Austin Energy about establishing a one-touch make-ready provider to handle the application and installation process that utilizes local utility poles.

Yeatts said he and other commissioners continue to hear from the technology community about Austin's slow adoption of 5G capability.

''It is difficult because it requires some rearrangement of cables on the poles, which is why we're going toward the one-touch make-ready provider that all the carriers would go to,'' he said. ''That's something other cities have used and we're exploring with Austin Energy, but we haven't made any recommendation to City Council because we're still in the information gathering phase.''

Ted Lehr, a data architect with the CTM division, said the city is working to find ways to help private companies to take the initiative in bringing 5G capacity into Austin. He said those are happening via a mix of traditional purchasing and engagement methods, while some are ''exploring or proposing novel ones.''

The 5G issue has become something of a priority for the Austin Technology Council in 2018, with a June panel on the subject drawing agreement that technology leaders need to push for 5G-friendly policies at all levels. In July more than 100 local tech entrepreneurs and business leaders signed a collective letter to every Council member imploring them to make city bureaucracy less of an impediment to the data standard.

''Austin Tech Alliance met with representatives from the city's Communications and Technology Management Department in June 2018, and they understood our concerns about the delays in permitting small cells,'' said Dave Edmonson, executive director of ATA. ''I understand they're focused on expediting those processes and eliminating unnecessary delays so that Austin can be ready for the 5G future.''

Photo by Kumar Appaiah made available through a Creative Commons license.

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MANET stands for Mobile adhoc Network also called as wireless adhoc network or adhoc wireless network that usually has a routable networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad hoc network.. They consist of set of mobile nodes connected wirelessly in a self configured, self healing network without having a fixed infrastructure. MANET nodes are free to move randomly as the network topology changes frequently. Each node behave as a router as they forward traffic to other specified node in the network.

MANET may operate as standalone fashion or they can be the part of larger internet. They form highly dynamic autonomous topology with the presence of one or multiple different transceivers between nodes. The main challenge for the MANET is to equipped each devices to continuously maintain the information required to properly route traffic. MANETs consist of a peer-to-peer, self-forming, self-healing network MANET's circa 2000-2015 typically communicate at radio frequencies (30MHz-5GHz). This can be used in road safety, ranging from sensors for environment, home, health, disaster rescue operations, air/land/navy defense, weapons, robots, etc.

Characteristics of MANET ''

Dynamic Topologies: Network topology which is typically multihops, may change randomly and rapidly with time, it can form unidirectional or bi-directional links.Bandwidth constrained, variable capacity links: Wireless links usually have lower reliability, efficiency, stability and capacity as compared to wired network.The throughput of wireless communication is even less than a radio's maximum transmission rate after dealing with the constraints like multiple access, noise, interference conditions, etc.Autonomous Behavior: Each nodes can act as a host and router, which shows its autonomous behavior.Energy Constrained Operation: As some or all the nodes rely on batteries or other exhaustible means for their energy.Mobile nodes are characterized with less memory, power and light weight features.Limited Security: Wireless network are more prone to security threats. A centralized firewall is absent due to its destributed nature of operation for security, routing and host configuration.Less Human Intervention: They require minimum human intervention to configure the network, therefore they are dynamically autonomous in nature.Pros and Cons of MANET ''

Pros:

Seperation from central network administration.Each nodes can play both the roles ie. of router and host showing autonomous nature.Self configuring and self healing nodes, does not require human intervention.Cons:

Resources are limited due to various constraints like noise, interference conditions, etc.Lack of authorization facilities.More prone to attacks due to limited physical security.

If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to contribute@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.

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(Carl Court/Getty Images)They are the scourge of walkers everywhere: the lazy pet owners who refuse to clean up after their dogs.

Sometimes, the culprits are caught. But more often than not, they strike when nobody else is looking and make a clean getaway.

But the era of not picking up after your pooch may be coming to an end.

In apartment buildings and neighborhoods across the country, pet owners are being asked to register their dogs in a DNA testing program that allows homeowners associations and building managers to link dogs to their droppings.

BioPet Vet Lab, based in Knoxville, Tenn., says its ''PooPrints'' testing kits are being used in 1,000 buildings, neighborhoods and dog parks in the country.

[Rare canine flu outbreak hits Chicago, leaving five dogs dead, sickening more than 1,000 others]

Among the most popular locations for doggie DNA testing, according to PooPrints Business Development Director Eric Mayer, are large metro areas with lots of urban dwellers, such as Chicago, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver and Dallas.

''We found that it's a ubiquitous problem in property management,'' Mayer told The Post. ''If you talk to property managers, they will tell you their biggest complains come from the 'two P's' '-- parking and poop.''

''Dog waste is also a health hazard,'' he added. ''It's more than just a nuisance. It can get into soil and local drinking water systems through storm drains.''

In Seattle, for example, a study found that an estimated 125,000 dogs ''dump 41,250 pounds of poop onto yards, sidewalks [and] parks'' each day, according to the Seattle Times. Aside from being unsightly, the study found, dog waste is a principal source of contamination in local waterways.

[Decades of human waste have made Mount Everest a 'fecal time bomb']

The registration process begins when a new dog-owning tenant moves into a building, Mayer said. That's when an inner-cheek swab is administered on the tenant's pet to collect a unique DNA signature. The dog receives a registration number, and its information is added to the DNA World Pet Registry. When errant poo is spotted, property managers are asked to send a stool sample to a lab, where scientists attempt to match it to the offender.

The matching process takes 10 to 14 days, Mayer said. Some buildings directly fine the residents who own the dogs, and others add each offense to the tenant's rent. The fines, Mayer said, can reach more than $100.

The company claims its statistics show that first-time offenders rarely re-offend.

[With fake service dogs on the rise, Canada proposes doggie 'driving license']

When PooPrints started five years ago, Mayer said, it was met with mixed reviews, with some people complaining that the service was intrusive. But several years later, Mayer said, most people have come around to the idea.

''We had one person who thought we would clone their dog, which is nearly impossible to do,'' Mayer told The Post. ''Some people thought it was an invasion of their dog's privacy. We love our dogs, but they're pets and not people.''

The DNA technology used by PooPrints is the same as the kind popularized by television shows such as ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,'' professor Michael Court told the Seattle Times.

''It's like a crime scene for poop,'' said Court, who specializes is pharmacogenomics at the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. ''When you already have DNA from a dog, you've created a reference bank library.''

DNA technology and steep fines, Mayer said, compel most pet owners to shape up '-- but not all of them.

''In South Carolina, we ended up finding 18 poop samples in a row that belonged to the same person,'' he said. ''Right now, that person holds the record.''

MORE READING: A missing Ohio police dog who survived one of the coldest winters in history has been found

Alexandria shelter cares for dogs rescued from South Korean meat farm

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 23:19

Operation Yellowhammer is the codename used by the UK Treasury for cross-government "no-deal" contingency planning for the possibility that Brexit negotiations for the withdrawal from the European Union fail to reach an agreement or an extension by 29 March 2019.[1]

Should there fail to be a negotiated settlement by that date, the UK would leave the European Union, leaving a hiatus impacting on many aspects of the relationship between the UK and European Union. The areas affected would include money, citizens, trade, customs and a range of regulations.[2]

On 6 September 2018 a press photographer captured a snapshot of a "no-deal" planning document revealing some details of then-current preparations and the HM Treasury codename for those plans.[3] The document appeared to indicate the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, a department of the Cabinet Office responsible for emergency planning, had been used in anticipation of government policy.[4] No further details were revealed.

References [ edit ]

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 05:09

If Oregon Governor Kate Brown has her way, the Beaver State will become the first to require universal home visits for newborn children in the care of their own parents.

Senate Bill 526, introduced this month in the Oregon Legislative Assembly as part of Brown's budget, orders the Oregon Health Authority to "study home visiting by licensed health care providers." Lawmakers went so far as to declare that SB 526 is an "emergency" measure '-- one that requires a resolution by the end of the year. The intro to the bill, the language of which has not yet been crafted, reads:

The Oregon Health Authority shall study home visiting by licensed health care providers in this state. The authority shall submit findings and recommendations for legislation to an interim committee of the Legislative Assembly related to health care not later than December 31, 2019.Moreover, the 18 sponsors of the bill claim that its passage is "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety," and therefore "an emergency is declared to exist."

What's the big emergency? Apparently, the state of Oregon is concerned that some parents are raising their children without the watchful eye of Big Brother monitoring their every move '-- a big no-no in the view of the progressive left.

Patrick Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority, told the Beaverton Valley Times that he's enthusiastic about the idea of universal inspections for newborns. "This isn't something for people in trouble. This is stuff all kids need. Stuff my kids needed," Allen said.

According to the Beaver Valley Times, "When the program is complete, every new parent '-- this includes adoptions '-- would receive a series of two or three visits by someone like a nurse or other health care practitioner. The visits could include basic health screenings for babies; hooking parents up with primary care physicians; linking them to other services; and coordinating the myriad childhood immunizations that babies need."

The program has been piloted in Lincoln County but has not been tried statewide.

Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-Beaverton), who sits on the powerful Ways and Means Committee that will hammer out the language of the legislation, has said that universal home visits are a priority for her.

And Oregon is not alone in the push for "universal" home visits. Washington Governor Jay Inslee tweeted earlier this month, "My budget would also offer universal home visits. This gives every new parent the opportunity to get a visit from a nurse during the first few weeks back home with their newborn to share important information and build confidence."

My budget would also offer universal home visits. This gives every new parent the opportunity to get a visit from a nurse during the first few weeks back home with their newborn to share important information and build confidence. #waleg

'-- Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) January 15, 2019

While it's not clear whether either of these programs would be mandatory, the use of the term "universal" suggests that they would. It's frightening to think about what would happen to parents who refuse such visits.

As someone who has been involved in the homeschooling movement for more than 20 years, I have seen many attempts to increase the oversight of children taught at home by requiring home visits by a teacher or social worker. The basic premise behind these attempted power grabs is that parents cannot be trusted with the care of their own children '-- that an agent of the state is the only one qualified to ensure that children are being properly cared for. Without such surveillance, proponents argue, children are at risk for abuse and neglect, something they believe government agents can prevent, despite volumes of evidence to the contrary. In Oregon, in fact, children in the foster care system are abused at twice the national rate. One wonders how a state that can't handle the children currently in its care could possibly manage to surveil an additional 40,000 children per year, let alone pay for such a program (answer: it can't).

Anytime a state or locality has tried to draft legislation requiring home visits for homeschooled children, the immediate response has always been, "What are they going to do next, require inspections for children from birth until they enter school?" The answer to that, of course, is yes. That has been the plan all along. Universal preschool, universal health care, universal free lunches '-- the lot of it '-- is just a surreptitious way for the state to monitor its citizens and control their behavior by handing out freebies.

Government agents monitoring the homes of law-abiding parents who have not been accused of a crime without a warrant is an unconscionable violation not only of parental rights and individual liberty but also a trampling of the Fourth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.

The parental right to familial self-determination has long been the constitutional standard, dating back to Pierce v. Society of Sisters in 1923 when the Supreme Court threw out an Oregon law requiring all children to attend public school. "The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only," the justices wrote. "The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations." [Emphasis added]

The idea of universal child inspections flies in the face of the ruling that the child is not a "creature of the state" and instead attempts to replace the parents' judgment with that of the state.

Parental rights groups have warned about the erosion of this precedent in recent years after a 2000 Supreme Court ruling (Troxel v. Granville) that opened the door for states and individual judges to apply their own rules. ParentalRights.org explained that on the one hand, the ruling seemed to affirm parental rights. The Court ruled:

The liberty interest at issue in this case '-- the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children '-- is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.In light of this extensive precedent, it cannot now be doubted that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.

At the same time, the group explained, the ruling "vacated the earlier strict scrutiny test that required proof of harm before the government could interfere with parental rights, instead granting to judges the power to balance parental rights on a case-by-case basis."

Oregon and Washington are testing these muddied legal waters, hoping to take advantage of the vague language to get their hooks into children just days after they exit the womb.

While some European countries and a host of international treaties and agreements use the "best interest of the child" standard to make all kinds of decisions about children, the U.S. rarely uses that standard except during child custody proceedings where there are two legal parents who disagree about how the child should be raised and where he should live. In the U.S. the de facto assumption is that '-- absent evidence of abuse or neglect '-- parents are responsible for determining the best interest of their own children.

No state agent could ever be an adequate substitute for a loving parent, but clearly, not everyone agrees. Proponents of home surveillance cite child abuse statistics and highlight horrific cases of neglect and abuse, glossing over the fact that most of these cases involve families who were known to law enforcement authorities and social services agencies that were unable to protect the children from their abusers.

The bottom line is that the statists pushing these policies do not trust us with our own children. It's not enough for them to have their hooks in them 180 days a year, feeding them propaganda from the first day of kindergarten through the end of high school. They now want access to them from the day they are born '-- and they will succeed if parents don't rise up and tell the government nannies to back off.

Follow me on Twitter @pbolyard

https://pjmedia.com/trending/oregon-could-be-the-first-state-to-require-in-home-surveillance-of-newborn-babies/

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 12:33

A man said he was questioned by police for over 30 minutes after he liked a tweet that appears to mock the transgender community.

Harry Miller, who believes 'trans women are not women', says the formal probe by Humberside Police was into his 'thinking' and his reasons for liking the limerick on Twitter.

The limerick referred to trans women as 'stupid' and made comments about vaginas and 'synthetic' hormones.

Mr Miller, who used to be a policeman, says an officer told him he was investigating reports of a hate crime.

'Cop said he was in possession of 30 tweets by me,' he recalled on Twitter.

'I asked if any contained criminal material. He said ''No.''

'I asked if any came close to being criminal and he read me a limerick. Honestly. A limerick. A cop read me a limerick over the phone.'

After telling the PC he did not write the limerick, he reportedly said: 'Ah. But you liked it and promoted it.'

He concluded: 'It's not a crime, but it will be recorded as a hate incident.'

Harry said the conversation turned 'incredibly sinister' as the officer tried to probe his 'thinking'.

He said: 'The cop told me that he needed to speak with me because, even though I'd committed no crime whatsoever, he needed (and I quote) ''to check my THINKING!'' Seriously. Honestly.

'Finally, he lectured me. Said, ''Sometimes, a woman's brain grows a man's body in the womb and that is what transgender is.'' You can imagine my response.

'Lastly, he told me that I needed to watch my words more carefully or I was at risk of being sacked by the company for hate speech.'

Harry says he is actually the chairman of his company and later told The Spectator how the incident made him feel like a 'criminal'.

More: UK'I just find this all unbelievable and sinister,' he said. 'I've broken no law, the police don't suggest that I've done anything illegal.

'But here they are, investigating me for tweeting a limerick. It's mad, completely mad.'

The incident has sparked his Twitter supporters to write a string of further limericks.

Harry says he is determined to continue sharing his views: 'Free speech is a hill that we have to fight on.

'If we can't express ourselves freely within the law, none of the other rights we have mean anything.'

A spokesman for Humberside Police said: 'We take all reports of hate incident seriously and will always investigate and take proportionate action.'

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 21:17

Industry experts say pilots probably saw something in the air but doubt it was a drone. Lori ArataniReporter focusing on transportation issues, including airports, airlines, and the nation's railroad and subway systems

January 23 at 4:42 PMOne day after reports of drone activity near Newark Liberty International Airport temporarily halted flights, there are questions about whether the unmanned object spotted in the New Jersey sky was indeed a drone.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration said at about 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday they received two reports of possible drones operating near Newark Airport. One came from a Southwest Airlines pilot and the other from a United Airlines pilot who spotted what they believed was a drone in the air as they prepared to land at Newark. However, an FAA spokesman said Wednesday that the agency has been unable to independently confirm the sightings.

''We continue to work with local law enforcement to find additional evidence,'' the spokesman said.

The agency had initially said that the drones were spotted near Teterboro Airport, a smaller airport located about 17 miles north of Newark. On Wednesday, they said the drones were operating about nine miles from Newark Airport in airspace used by incoming flights.

Industry experts, however, are pushing back against the reports. The objects could have been balloons, plastic bags or space junk, they said. Adam Lisberg, spokesman for DJI, the world's largest drone maker, said the pilots probably spotted something in the air but that it's unlikely it was a drone.

Two drones at once. In the dark. At 3500 feet altitude. It's very cold outside, below freezing; not the kind of weather for flying drones. This is just not credible. https://t.co/nXysfvyRXA

'-- Brendan Schulman (@dronelaws) January 23, 2019 More reason to be skeptical of the Newark drone sightings: @flightradar24 shows both planes going ~250 mph when they supposedly spotted something the size of a dinner plate at 3,500 feet. Whatever they saw, it probably wasn't a drone. pic.twitter.com/EKrDOraLDr

'-- Adam Lisberg (@adamlisberg) January 23, 2019One reason, Lisberg said: The drones were reportedly flying at 3,500 feet. Under FAA rules, drones are not permitted to fly higher than 400 feet. And while it's possible for them to fly higher with FAA permission, Lisberg said it's ''highly unlikely.''

He said previous reports of drones flying near Gatwick and Heathrow airports in London '-- have made people more ''predisposed'' to assuming that when they see something in the air, it's a drone.

[Drones are flying themselves, but how far should Washington let them go?]

''There's certainly cases of knuckleheads flying drones where they shouldn't be, but we have strong reservations on [the Newark] report,'' he said. ''There has been case after case after case of someone who saw a drone in the air that turned out to be a bat or a balloon or a plastic bag.''

Federal officials are wrestling with how to regulate drones as their numbers continue to grow. Government officials estimate that more than 1 million are already in use.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed quotes to Brendan Schulman, vice president of policy and legal affairs at DJI. They should have been attributed to DJI spokesman Adam Lisberg,

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 21:18

By Evan Simko-Bednarski, CNN

Updated 7:52 PM EST, Tue January 22, 2019

(CNN) Flights in and out of New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport were disrupted Tuesday night after reports of a drone flying near Teterboro Airport.

Initially, the Federal Aviation Administration said there were reports of two drones. Later, they said there were two reports of one drone. The reports came from the flight crew of a Southwest flight and of a United flight.

FAA spokesman Greg Martin told CNN that the agency stopped flights at the airport after the initial report over the smaller regional airport some 15 miles away. Both airports serve the greater metro New York City area.

The drone was reportedly flying at 3,500 feet and has since cleared the airspace over the airport, Martin said.

Flights have since resumed, the FAA and the airport said.

The incident is reminiscent of similar stoppages at airports in the UK, when drone sightings at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports brought air traffic to a standstill.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates both Newark Liberty International and Teterboro airports, did not immediately comment on the matter.

Correction: The headline of this story has been updated to reflect that drones were reported near the airport. CNN has not confirmed an actual sighting of a drone in the area.

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 23:17

(C) Provided by Local News RSS EN-US Mike Ertel Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel resigned Thursday after photos emerged of him wearing blackface as a Hurricane ''Katrina victim'' at a Halloween party in 2005.

The stunning development ended the former Seminole election supervisor's 16-day stint as Florida's top elections officer.

The Tallahassee Democrat obtained the photos and showed them to Gov. Ron DeSantis's office Thursday morning. The governor's office announced Ertel's resignation just hours later.

''It has been an honor to serve you and the voters of Florida,'' Ertel's resignation letter stated.

The Democrat reported that the photos were taken a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

Ertel told the paper he was the man ''in blackface and red lipstick, wearing earrings and a New Orleans Saints bandanna, and falsies under a purple T-shirt that had 'Katrina Victim' written on it.''

Ertel would not talk with the Democrat about the circumstances surrounding the photo.

''There's nothing I can say,'' Ertel said. He did not respond to the Sentinel's request for comment.

Ertel had been Supervisor of Elections in Seminole County since 2005 before his appointment by DeSantis to the state job.

''That is not the Mike Ertel that I know,'' said Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine, who had been considered one of the potential successors to Ertel as supervisor.

DeSantis named Chris Anderson, chief investigations officer for the Seminole County Tax Collector's Office, as the county's new supervisor of elections on Jan. 18.

Ertel's appointment to the key post, which oversees the Division of Elections, earned bipartisan praise after the state dealt with election chaos following the November election and the unprecedented three statewide recounts.

Ertel, 49, ''has proven that he is vastly qualified to lead the state's elections efforts as Secretary of State, and will strive to ensure that Florida voters are confident that elections continue to be fair and accurate,'' DeSantis said at the time.

Ertel had long been active on social media, providing opinions on Twitter and Facebook about elections issues. But on Thursday, his Twitter account was deactivated.

The Seminole elections office also received plaudits for its programs, including the student registration efforts which earned it a prestigious First Time Voters Award in 2017 from the International Elections Awards in Jordan.

On Friday, DeSantis suspended Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher at the recommendation of Ertel, who wrote a three-page letter that listed what he called ''ingrained institutional incompetence'' at the Palm Beach office.

''I strongly recommend you [suspend Bucher],'' Ertel wrote, ''allowing fresh, competent leadership to take the reins of the much-maligned office.''

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

slemongello@orlandosentinel.com, 407-418-5920, @stevelemongello, facebook/stevelemongello

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 13:29

Transparency is critical to our credibility with the public and our subscribers. Whenever possible, we pursue information on the record. When a newsmaker insists on background or off-the-record ground rules, we must adhere to a strict set of guidelines, enforced by AP news managers.

Under AP's rules, material from anonymous sources may be used only if:

The material is information and not opinion or speculation, and is vital to the news report.

The information is not available except under the conditions of anonymity imposed by the source.

The source is reliable, and in a position to have accurate information.

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Reporters should proceed with interviews on the assumption they are on the record. If the source wants to set conditions, these should be negotiated at the start of the interview. At the end of the interview, the reporter should try once again to move some or all of the information back on the record.

Before agreeing to use anonymous source material, the reporter should ask how the source knows the information is accurate, ensuring that the source has direct knowledge. Reporters may not agree to a source's request that AP not pursue additional comment or information.

The AP routinely seeks and requires more than one source. Stories should be held while attempts are made to reach additional sources for confirmation or elaboration. In rare cases, one source will be sufficient '' when material comes from an authoritative figure who provides information so detailed that there is no question of its accuracy.

We must explain in the story why the source requested anonymity. And, when it's relevant, we must describe the source's motive for disclosing the information. If the story hinges on documents, as opposed to interviews, the reporter must describe how the documents were obtained, at least to the extent possible.

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We must not say that a person declined comment when he or she is already quoted anonymously. And we should not attribute information to anonymous sources when it is obvious or well known. We should just state the information as fact.

Stories that use anonymous sources must carry a reporter's byline. If a reporter other than the bylined staffer contributes anonymous material to a story, that reporter should be given credit as a contributor to the story.

And all complaints and questions about the authenticity or veracity of anonymous material '' from inside or outside the AP '' must be promptly brought to the news manager's attention.

Not everyone understands ''off the record'' or ''on background'' to mean the same things. Before any interview in which any degree of anonymity is expected, there should be a discussion in which the ground rules are set explicitly.

These are the AP's definitions:

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In general, information obtained under any of these circumstances can be pursued with other sources to be placed on the record.

ANONYMOUS SOURCES IN MATERIAL FROM OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Reports from other news organizations based on anonymous sources require the most careful scrutiny when we consider them for our report.

AP's basic rules for anonymous-source material apply to pickups as they do in our own reporting: The material must be factual and obtainable no other way. The story must be truly significant and newsworthy. Use of sourced material must be authorized by a manager. The story must be balanced, and comment must be sought.

Further, before picking up such a story we must make a bona fide effort to get it on the record, or, at a minimum, confirm it through our own sources. We shouldn't hesitate to hold the story if we have any doubts. If the source material is ultimately used, it must be attributed to the originating member and note their description of their sources.

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 23:40

Dave Rubin used to be a host on The Young Turks, a liberal online news show, but has now become a ''classical liberal''. This term has been coined by Rubin in order to be able to espouse talking points of conservatives and libertarians, while also being called a liberal. However, the truth is that the term ''classical liberal'' refers to someone who is essentially a libertarian. Dave Rubin often states that he is only invited by libertarians and conservatives to speak at colleges, expressing his belief that this is because they are the only ones who are tolerant of other people's ideas. The truth is that the reason he is invited by conservatives and libertarians is that he shares their ideology. But how could Dave Rubin go from being a self-described ''liberal'' to being a self-described ''basically libertarian'' in just a span of two years?

Well, to set the groundwork, here is a video in which Dave Rubin states that he loves Bernie Sanders, and that he essentially supports everything that he believes in, and even dubs Bernie Sanders a ''socialist''. ''If you guys know anything about me at this point you know that I do like Bernie, he's the guy that I pretty much everything he says I pretty much agree with'...'' Rubin stated .

Fast forward to 2018:

And people who want personal liberty, individual freedom and small government will fight you every step of the way. The game is afoot! https://t.co/dsflTrdULx

'-- Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 1, 2018

How can Dave Rubin go from supporting someone he himself dubbed a ''socialist'' to now completely opposing him ''every step of the way'', and making a video titled ''Socialism Isn't Cool''?

Well, on September 21, 2016, Rubin and Learn Liberty announced a partnership together. What is Learn Liberty? It is essentially a libertarian think tank that releases videos that espouse Libertarian ideas. Learn Liberty was launched by the Institute For Humane Studies, which is a ''non-profit organization that engages with students and professors throughout the United States''. The focus of The Institute Of Humane Studies is Libertarianism. Who sits on the board of directors for the Institute for Humane Studies? Charles G. Koch, whose net worth is over 60 billion dollars. The chief financial officer of The Institute For Humane Studies stated that Charles G. Koch is ''a longtime and generous supporter of ours, but we're not involved as a political organization.'' Charles Koch has donated 12.4 million dollars to the IHS between 2008 and 2012.

What does this mean? Effectively, Dave Rubin gained a source of income from Learn Liberty, a Libertarian think tank which receives funding from the Koch Brothers. Is it hard to figure out why Dave Rubin had such a change of mind? I don't think so.

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 23:40

Since 2011, Learn Liberty has been committed to tackling big questions about what makes a society free and how to improve the world we live in. In just five years, we've partnered with over 150 professors and other intellectuals to help explore these ideas.

Today, we're announcing a new partnership between Learn Liberty and the wickedly talented David Rubin of The Rubin Report!

The Rubin Report is a fan-funded talk show headed comedian and liberty-friendly Youtuber, David Rubin. Dave is devoted to ''big ideas and free speech'' '' needless to say, a great match for Learn Liberty! The Rubin Report has previously nabbed speakers including comedian Stephen Fry, presidential candidate Gary Johnson, and moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

What does this mean for you? The Rubin Report will be releasing a new interview each month with top tier thinkers on topics related to liberty. Up first is constitutional law professor Randy Barnett, followed by historian Stephen Davies, and education and free speech expert Joanna Williams. We'll be releasing our favorite highlights from each interview on the Learn Liberty YouTube channel.

We believe this is a huge step toward providing you with the best thought-provoking and liberty-oriented content.

Check out the trailer for our collaboration above head over to YouTube to subscribe to the Rubin Report.

" In March 2018, Smartmatic, the electoral product

company which had participated in the majority of elections under the

Bolivarian government, ceased operations in Venezuela, its native country,

stating that they could no longer guarantee the validity of election results

through its machines.[43] "

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartmatic

" In 2014, Smartmatic’s CEO Antonio Mugica and

British Lord Mark Malloch-Brown announced the launching of the SGO Corporation

Limited,[38][39] a holding company based in London whose primary asset is the

election technology and voting machine manufacturer. "

Internet voting on a global scale:

" In 2014, Smartmatic and Cybernetica, the Estonian

IT lab that built the original Internet voting system used in the country,

co-founded the Centre of Excellence for Internet voting. The Centre is working

with the government of Estonia to advance Internet voting on a global

scale.[72][73][74] "

1.

eight days:

Venezuela crisis: Maduro given ultimatum by European

leaders

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47014322

"Spain, Germany, France and the UK have warned

Venezuelan President Nicolás

Maduro that he must call elections within eight days - or

they will

officially recognise the opposition."

2.

No gold for you! They should have stored the gold in

Switzerland cause No.1

beats No.5 any day of the week for these kind of things:

Bank of England refused to return $1.2bn in gold to

Venezuela – reports

https://www.rt.com/news/449833-venezuela-gold-bank-england/

"The Bank of England blocked Venezuela’s attempts to

retrieve $1.2 billion

worth of gold stored as the nation’s foreign reserves in

Britain, sources

told Bloomberg on Friday."

3.

Pompeo appoints Iraq War neocon to Venezuela regime

change team:

Trump-bashing Iraq war architect Elliott Abrams to lead

US regime change in

Venezuela

https://www.rt.com/usa/449756-abrams-pompeo-venezuela-iran-contra/

" He returned to the corridors of power in 2001, as

a director on the

National Security Council for President George W. Bush.

He played a key role

in the 2002 attempted coup in Venezuela against President

Hugo Chavez, and

was one of the architects of the 2003 Iraq war.

In February 2017, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

and Trump’s

son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner wanted to bring

Abrams back to the

State Department as deputy secretary, but Trump

reportedly vetoed the

proposal after reading what Abrams wrote about him during

the 2016

presidential campaign, as part of the NeverTrump

conservative camp. "

4.

Debbie is back:

Congresswoman who fixed Democratic primary for Clinton

now ‘fixing’

democracy in Venezuela

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/449686-debbie-schultz-fixing-venezuela/

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Jan 2019 15:05

The decades-long US infatuation with Venezuela came to a head on Wednesday as the United States, Canada, Brazil, and others all declared a man who never even ran for the office of presidency, much less got elected to the office, as the president of Venezuela.

On Wednesday, Juan Gerardo Guaid" Mrquez took a public oath of office and swore himself in as the President of Venezuela. He assumed this office with zero democratic process'--essentially making himself a dictator'--and was immediately declared legitimate by Washington.

This move by Washington to recognize Guaid" as the official president is a page out of the book they've used over the last two decades to invade and destroy countries like Iraq, Libya, and Syria. The exact same rhetoric from the bipartisan warmongers in DC is being put out once more as shills like Marco Rubio threaten all out war. All of the sudden, Trump's haters are coming together in solidarity, seething with their warmongering mucus over the potential for a Venezuelan conflict.

U.S. diplomats in #Venezuela should present their credentials to President @jguaido. Maduro has no authority to expel anyone.

And trust me on this one, if Maduro is stupid enough to test @realdonaldtrump by harming any U.S. diplomat, the consequences would be swift & severe.

'-- Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 23, 2019

For those who don't remember, nearly the exact same tactics were used just before the US invaded Libya and turned this bastion of hope in Africa into a terror-infused hell-state in which human slaves are now openly sold in public.

Just like Guaid" claimed to be president and was recognized by the US, in Libya, the head of the Libyan National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil threatened mass deaths if the West did not intervene and was quickly given control. Days later, the Libyan NTC was officially recognized as the Libyan government and the Gaddafi regime was out. Days after this, NATO powers, led by the US, proceeded to turn Libya into the war ravaged hell hole it is today.

As we look at Venezuela, let's remember the last time Marco Rubio knocked off a regime he didn't like and how that turned out. Fair is fair. pic.twitter.com/NMG07tuR8y

'-- Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 23, 2019

In the next few days, you can expect this move by the US to stoke potential for a civil war in Venezuela which would draw in other countries like Cuba and Brazil. The result of this potential civil war would be utterly catastrophic.

The Russian Foreign Ministry agrees and responded on Thursday to Washington's recognition of Guaido as president, noting that it ''is aimed at deepening the split in Venezuelan society, increasing the conflict on the streets, sharply destabilizing the internal political system and further escalation of the conflict.'' The Ministry then repeated claims it made just before the US invaded Syria and Libya by saying similar action in Venezuela would be ''fraught with catastrophic consequences.''

The move by Washington and others even prompted a response from Putin himself on Thursday who said, according the Russian state media outlet, RT, that ''foreign interference in Venezuela's internal affairs grossly violates international law.''

To those who think this is about Nicols Maduro, think again. No one here is arguing that Maduro is an angel. No one here is saying that his election wasn't surrounded in controversy. And, no one here is claiming that the people of Venezuela do not have a right to contest his presidency. But to ignore every president's meddling in the country since George W. Bush and the US desire to overthrow Hugo Chavez for a decade before this would be incredibly naive.

TFTP has long reported on the crimes against the Venezuelan people by the state. We have reported on the mass killing of citizens by police, the loyalists being armed while the opposition was disarmed, and the disturbing police state the country has become. But the current situation in Venezuela would look like a paradise compared to what will likely ensue following Western intervention.

I'm no expert on Venezuela but I'm pretty sure you can think Maduro is a horrible/bad/authoritarian president *and* also think it's bad for the US to back coups or regime change there.

'-- Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 23, 2019

Venezuela is not a tyrannical autocracy and its crisis is NOT organic; it is a deeply divided and polarized society'--which the US is exploiting for special interests.And no, socialism alone did not create the horrific plight currently faced by the Venezuelan people. Decades of sanctions and meddling have proven to be unbelievably effective at hurling their economy into a whirlwind of chaos, collapsing their currency, and cutting them off from the rest of the world'--literally starving them to death.

Venezuela has 2.5 billion dollars withheld in international banks as a result of US sanctions. This money would be used to import medicines and food. https://t.co/O0mdskpU7y

'-- Nunes 🌐 (@fcn_84) January 21, 2019

Make no mistake, this has likely long been the plan. As George Galloway, former 30 year member of the British Parliament noted, ''before they drop the bombs, they drop the narrative, of course. And the disinformation bombardment in Venezuela has been one of the longest bombing runs in history. Massive sums of US money have been spent on media distortion, subversion, sabotage, military coups, and threats of invasion throughout the Chavez-Maduro era.''

For those who may be unaware, the proven oil reserves in Venezuela are known to be the largest in the world, totaling 297 billion barrels. In December, Caracas and Moscow signed a $5 billion investment deal to raise Venezuela's oil production by one million barrels per day. This move was done to counter the effects of US sanctions which have been crippling the country and raised many neocon eyebrows.

What's more, aside from their proven oil deposits, Venezuela is also known for its extremely rich gold deposits. Also in December, Caracas gave the green light to Russia to begin mining gold inside their country.

''As for Russia's participation in gold-mining or other mining projects, Venezuela has made a wide range of interesting proposals that are currently under consideration by interested Russian operators,'' the ambassador said.

Because of their rich deposits and need to subvert US sanctions and a weaponized US dollar, Venezuela has become the 25th largest holder of gold in the world making them a direct threat to the global banking system.

To think that the US interests in Venezuela are purely humanitarian is not only asinine but it blindly ignores decades of US interventionism highlighting the contrary'--especially considering what happened in Libya.

As TFTP has previously reported, on October 20th, 2011, the West took it upon itself to use NATO to overthrow Gaddafi '-- not for any humanitarian threat to civilians as had been repeatedly claimed and is the alleged impetus behind the coup in Venezuela '-- but because his planned roll-out of a new currency to be used across Africa posed a palpable existential threat to central banks at the heart of the Western financial and political system.

In fact, before Washington's endorsement of Guaido, Venezuela was carrying out a similar plan. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently launched a gold trade with Maduro. But this was not simply moving gold from one place to another. Maduro announced that he was moving his entire refining operation directly to Turkey in a direct move against the Western monetary controlled sanctions.

Now, we find ourselves on the precipice of an all out invasion of their country. Go figure.

As US sanctions continue to backfire due to an ever-increasing coalition of countries dedicated to fighting them, the American military industrial complex will have no other options for self-preservation other than war. Regardless of how you feel personally about what is going on with the Venezuelan people and their government, buying into another set of lies used for Western interventionism'--in yet another country who ''needs some freedom'''--will undoubtedly be catastrophic, and 100 percent of recent similar situations proves this.

Courtesy of The Free Thought Project

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.

A Note From The Publisher: On January 17th I received another 30 day suspension from Facebook for sharing this article . The truth is a violation of community standards. We will keep publishing the truth, but please understand that we just lost a lot of traffic and I need you to help spread the word if we are to keep growing. I can't share anything on Facebook, but YOU can. Please do what you can to help. God Bless You, Dean Garrison

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Jan 2019 15:01

The United States are trying to organize a coup in Venezuela and the UN Security councils should look into the threat to Caracas, Russian envoy to the international organization said.

The council gathered on Saturday to discuss the situation in the Latin America country where the opposition leader declared himself the head of Venezuela with the support of US and its allies.

Russia, along with three other countries, voted against the US putting the crisis in Venezuela on the agenda of the Security Council saying that the internal situation in the country does not represent the threat to the international community, but Washington's action do.

Vassily Nebenzia said that the US's shameless actions in Venezuela violate all norms of the international law.

Also on rt.com France, Germany & Spain issue 'identical' threats to recognize Venezuela's self-appointed president The UNSC is discussing the "situation in Venezuela" as nine out of 15 council members voted to hold the meeting and two abstained.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo started his speech by giving a series of tragic stories from Venezuela blaming starvation and poverty on "socialist policies" of the government that deprived people of prosperity. He then went on to hail the self-proclaimed ''interim president'' of Venezuela, Juan Guaido who Washington supported this week.

Read more

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 06:35

Elliot Abrams (left) The Trump government has appointed Elliot Abrams  to handle US policy toward Venezuela. During the Reagan administration, Abrams played a role in the Iran-Contra affair.Abrams was convicted of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra investigationAbrams  pushed for military aid to the regime of Guatemalan Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, a dictator who was later convicted of genocide and crime against humanity.Abrams reportedly supported the attempted coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002, when Abrams was a member of the National Security Council of President George W. Bush....Trump is trying to topple President Maduro of Venezuela. In a televised news conference, the leader of Venezuela's armed forces has declared loyalty to President Maduro. Russia has warned the United States against meddling in Venezuela. Venezuela Military Backs Maduro, as Russia Warns US Not to Intervene Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó. Craig Murray writes:"Despite massive CIA opposition funding and interference over years as Big Oil tries to regain control of the World's largest oil reserves , Nicolas Maduro was democratically re-elected in 2018 as President of Venezuela."The coup now under way is illegitimate."The Coup in Venezuela Must Be Resisted - Craig Murray Juan Guaidó On 23 January 2019, Juan Guaidó swore himself in as acting President of Venezuela in the context of the ongoing presidential crisis, which came into being following the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President of Venezuela in January 2019.Guaidós claim has been recognized by the Organization of American States [3][4] and several governments, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States,[ but he is rejected by the pro-Maduro Supreme Tribunal of Justice.[13]Juan Guaidó did postgraduate studies at George Washington University, which has been linked to the CIA. ... Craig Murray writes: "Over the years, Chavez racked up real achievements in improving living standards for the poor and in providing health and education facilities.  "He was widely popular and both he and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, also racked up very genuine election victories. "Maduro remains the democratically elected President."But the dream went sour. In particular it fell foul of the tendency of centrally planned economies to fail to get the commodities people want onto shop shelves, and to the corruption that goes with centralisation. "The latter was certainly not worse than the right wing corruption it replaced, but that does not diminish its existence..."But, even today, Venezuela is still vastly more of a democracy than Saudi Arabia, and a far greater respecter of human rights than Israel in its dreadful repression of the Palestinians."  The Coup in Venezuela Must Be Resisted - Craig Murray Why Does the State Hate Alex Salmond? - Craig Murray The UK Government Manufacture of False Sexual ... - Craig Murray

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Jan 2019 13:26

Over the past year, the U.S. has imposed increasingly restrictive sanctions on Venezuela's finances and debt issuance as Nicolas Maduro continues to tighten his grip over the collapsing Venezuelan state.

Yet, despite expectations that the U.S. would slap direct sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry, Washington appears reluctant to go any further.

The word out of Washington is that the United States is no longer looking at sanctioning Venezuela's oil industry, and not just because Venezuelan oil accounts for a large part of the imports of the refiners on the Gulf Coast. The U.S. Administration doesn't want to be responsible for the total collapse of Venezuela, and doesn't want to be blamed for contributing to it, analysts told Platts's Brian Scheid.

''If you break it, you buy it,'' George David Banks, a former international energy and environment adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, told Platts. ''The White House doesn't want to own this crisis.''

It looks like the U.S. Administration is currently shelving the idea of imposing oil sanctions on Venezuela, and the Trump Administration is much more hesitant than last year, probably more hesitant than ever, to use what has been seen as the ultimate punishment on Venezuela'--a ban on U.S. imports of Venezuelan oil and/or a ban on U.S. exports of diluents that help Venezuela to blend its heavy crude oil so it can pass through pipes for export.

Rumors of U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil have been circulating the news flow for more than a year. This time last year, such sanctions were more in the realm of 'when' rather than 'if'.

The United States, however, while continuously tightening financial sanctions and designating a growing number of officials and persons, has so far refrained from slapping Venezuelan oil with restrictions.

One reason may be that Gulf Coast refiners continue to rely on imports of Venezuela's heavy oil. Despite the collapsing oil production, Venezuela has seen exports of crude oil to its biggest market, the United States, climb since February this year. In fact, between February and June, Venezuelan oil exports to the Gulf Coast refineries increased by an impressive 43 percent.

While U.S. imports in February stood at 472,000 bpd, they increased to 559,000 bpd in March, and to 632,000 bpd in April, EIA data shows. According to preliminary U.S. Customs data reported by Platts, oil imports from Venezuela averaged around 530,300 bpd in July.

Venezuela's exports to the United States are holding steady, but its total oil production is collapsing, to the tune of around 50,000 bpd each month, even without direct sanctions on its oil.

Outside of war-induced outages, Venezuela is suffering the worst loss of oil production in history amid an unprecedented economic collapse, years of mismanagement and underinvestment in the oil industry, an aggravating humanitarian crisis, and a leader who is hell-bent on clinging to power. Venezuela's inflation will surge to one million percent by the end of this year as the country with the world's biggest oil reserves remains stuck in a profound economic and social crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts.

The rig count in Venezuela plunged to 28 rigs in July 2018, compared to 50 rigs in July 2017, according to the Baker Hughes International Rig Count.

OPEC's latest Monthly Oil Market Report showed that Venezuela's oil production dropped by 47,500 bpd from May to average 1.340 million bpd in June. This compares with an average of 2.154 million bpd in 2016, and an average of 1.911 million bpd in 2017.

The EIA joins other forecasts in predicting that Venezuela's production will drop to below 1 million bpd by the end of this year, and to just 700,000 bpd by the end of next year. The 700,000 bpd projection is comparable to the current oil production of New Mexico, for example.

In view of this utterly desperate situation in Venezuela's oil industry, U.S. sanctions would only make things worse and lead to higher oil prices, which President Trump and the Administration don't want ahead of the mid-term elections in November.

Then, Maduro could use U.S. oil sanctions to blame the 'imperialist power' for the total collapse of the country. The United States wants to avoid taking responsibility for this collapse at all costs.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

Crackdown Looms As Maduro Survives Assassination Attempt Pakistan: Exxon Is Close To Making A Mega Oil Discovery Oil Prices Slide As China Imposes 25% Tariff On U.S. Oil

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 22:08

Scientists suspect a long-fingered bat in Liberia could be carrying a species of the Ebola virus known as Zaire ebolavirus. (iStock)

The Ebola virus has been found in a bat in Liberia, the country's government and scientists with Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health announced this week.

The discovery marks the first time the virus has ever been found in a bat in West Africa, though it has previously been found in bats in Central Africa, according to the Tech Times.

AMERICAN MONITORED FOR POSSIBLE EBOLA EXPOSURE RELEASED, HAVING 'NEVER DEVELOPED' DISEASE, NEBRASKA MEDICAL FACILITY SAYS

The university's Mailman School of Public Health said in a statement Thursday that scientists found ''genetic material from the virus and ebolavirus antibodies'' in a greater long-fingered bat located in the Nimna District of Liberia.

Preliminary testing indicates a specific strain of the virus '-- Zaire ebolavirus '-- may have been found in the bat. Zaire ebolavirus is ''responsible for causing the West African Ebola epidemic which infected nearly 30,000 people between 2013 and 2016,'' according to the Mailman School of Public Health's statement.

"Zaire ebolavirus is also responsible for the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is now the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history," the school added.

While no human cases of Ebola were connected to the discovery, and there have been no new human cases of the virus in Liberia since the outbreak ended in 2016, the finding is significant because it could help researchers further understand where human cases of Ebola originate from.

''This discovery is a major step forward in understanding how Ebola outbreaks happen,'' Jonathan Epstein, a scientist with the nonprofit EcoHealth who worked on the research, said in a statement.

''It's critical that we identify which animals naturally carry Ebola and related viruses '-- without knowing that, we can't truly understand and reduce the risk of another outbreak occurring in the region,'' he explained.

SUSPECTED EBOLA PATIENT WAS FALSE ALARM, SWEDISH HOSPITAL SAYS

Scientists have previously suspected bats could be an animal host for the virus. Specifically, for the greater long-fingered bat, scientists will need to find more than one bat of this species to determine whether or not this type is a natural reservoir, or host, of the Ebola virus, according to The Washington Post.

While scientists noted more research is needed, the Liberian government chose to announce the news in order to ''engage local communities about this finding to help reduce the possible risk of exposure and educate people about the positive impacts of bat species on pest control and the environment,'' according to the statement.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 12:55

P. gingivalis may be the main culprit in Alzheimer's diseaseA. DOWSETT, PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

By Debora MacKenzie

If you bled when you brushed your teeth this morning, you might want to get that seen to. We may finally have found the long-elusive cause of Alzheimer's disease: Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in chronic gum disease.

That's bad, as gum disease affects around a third of all people. But the good news is that a drug that blocks the main toxins of P. gingivalis is entering major clinical trials this year, and research published today shows it might stop and even reverse Alzheimer's. There could even be a vaccine.

Alzheimer's is one of the biggest mysteries in medicine. As populations have aged, dementia has skyrocketed to become the fifth biggest cause of death worldwide. Alzheimer's constitutes some 70 per cent of these cases and yet, we don't know what causes it.

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Bacteria in the brainThe disease often involves the accumulation of proteins called amyloid and tau in the brain, and the leading hypothesis has been that the disease arises from defective control of these two proteins.

But research in recent years has revealed that people can have amyloid plaques without having dementia. So many efforts to treat Alzheimer's by moderating these proteins have failed that the hypothesis has been seriously questioned.

However evidence has been growing that the function of amyloid proteins may be as a defence against bacteria, leading to a spate of recent studies looking at bacteria in Alzheimer's, particularly those that cause gum disease, which is known to be a major risk factor for the condition.

Bacteria involved in gum disease and other illnesses have been found after death in the brains of people who had Alzheimer's, but until now, it hasn't been clear whether these bacteria caused the disease or simply got in via brain damage caused by the condition.

Gum disease linkMultiple research teams have been investigating P. gingivalis, and have so far found that it invades and inflames brain regions affected by Alzheimer's; that gum infections can worsen symptoms in mice genetically engineered to have Alzheimer's; and that it can cause Alzheimer's-like brain inflammation, neural damage, and amyloid plaques in healthy mice.

''When science converges from multiple independent laboratories like this, it is very compelling,'' says Casey Lynch of Cortexyme, a pharmaceutical firm in San Francisco, California.

In the new study, Cortexyme have now reported finding the toxic enzymes '' called gingipains '' that P. gingivalis uses to feed on human tissue in 96 per cent of the 54 Alzheimer's brain samples they looked at, and found the bacteria themselves in all three Alzheimer's brains whose DNA they examined.

''This is the first report showing P. gingivalis DNA in human brains, and the associated gingipains, co-lococalising with plaques,'' says Sim Singhrao, of the University of Central Lancashire, UK. Her team previously found that P. gingivalis actively invades the brains of mice with gum infections. She adds that the new study is also the first to show that gingipains slice up tau protein in ways that could allow it to kill neurons, causing dementia.

The bacteria and its enzymes were found at higher levels in those who had experienced worse cognitive decline, and had more amyloid and tau accumulations. The team also found the bacteria in the spinal fluid of living people with Alzheimer's, suggesting that this technique may provide a long-sought after method of diagnosing the disease.

When the team gave P. gingivalis gum disease to mice, it led to brain infection, amyloid production, tangles of tau protein, and neural damage in the regions and nerves normally affected by Alzheimer's.

Cortexyme had previously developed molecules that block gingipains. Giving some of these to mice reduced their infections, halted amyloid production, lowered brain inflammation and even rescued damaged neurons.

The team found that an antibiotic that killed P. gingivalis did this too, but less effectively, and the bacteria rapidly developed resistance. They did not resist the gingipain blockers. ''This provides hope of treating or preventing Alzheimer's disease one day,'' says Singhrao.

New treatment hopeSome brain samples from people without Alzheimer's also had P. gingivalis and protein accumulations, but at lower levels. We already know that amyloid and tau can accumulate in the brain for 10 to 20 years before Alzheimer's symptoms begin. This, say the researchers, shows P. gingivalis could be a cause of Alzheimer's, but it is not a result.

Gum disease is far more common than Alzheimer's. But ''Alzheimer's strikes people who accumulate gingipains and damage in the brain fast enough to develop symptoms during their lifetimes,'' she says. ''We believe this is a universal hypothesis of pathogenesis.''

Cortexyme reported in October that the best of their gingipain blockers had passed initial safety tests in people, and entered the brain. It also seemed to improve participants with Alzheimer's. Later this year the firm will launch a larger trial of the drug, looking for P. gingivalis in spinal fluid, and cognitive improvements, before and after.

They also plan to test it against gum disease itself. Efforts to fight that have led a team in Melbourne to develop a vaccine for P. gingivalis that started tests in 2018. A vaccine for gum disease would be welcome '' but if it also stops Alzheimer's the impact could be enormous.

Journal reference: Science Advances

Article amended on 24 January 2019The spelling of the toxic enzymes made by P. gingivalis was corrected

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 13:26

Parts of this article (those related to the section on policy positions, which sounds as if he is still head of the Commission) need to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( March 2016 )

Gregory B. Jaczko ( ;[citation needed ] born October 29, 1970, Norristown, Pennsylvania) was a Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). A physicist with public policy experience in academia and serving on Congressional staffs, he has been deeply interested in the development of nuclear power and its relation to the American public.[citation needed ] On May 21, 2012, he announced his resignation pending the confirmation of the next person to fill this role.[2] On July 9, 2012, Jaczko was replaced by Allison Macfarlane, a nuclear waste expert and associate professor at George Mason University.[3]

Early life and education [ edit ] Gregory B. Jaczko was raised in Albany, New York.[4] He studied physics and philosophy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and earned a bachelor in the two disciplines there in 1993.[4] He earned a doctorate in theoretical particle physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1999.[4]

He is married to journalist Leigh Ann Caldwell.[5]

Political career [ edit ] Jaczko served as a Congressional Science Fellow in the office of U.S. Representative Ed Markey in Washington, D.C. on the basis of an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. He also worked as an adjunct professor for Physics and Public Policy[6] under Dr. Francis Slakey[7] at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.[8]

He later advised the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on issues regarding nuclear power.[4] He served as appropriations director for U.S. Senator Harry Reid and as Reid's science policy advisor.[8]

Jaczko was first sworn in as a Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on January 21, 2005. On May 13, 2009, President Obama designated him the organization's Chairman,[4] i.e. its principal executive officer and official spokesperson.[8] The chairman is responsible for long-range planning as well as budgetary and certain personnel functions of the NRC. ''He also has authority for all NRC functions pertaining to a potential emergency involving an NRC licensee''.[8]

Policy positions [ edit ] Jaczko has asserted that the greatest possible openness furthers the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's work on the protection of the environment and of public health and safety.[8] He encourages ''licensees, vendors, state and local governments, interest groups, and the general public'' to participate in the Commission's policy-making efforts.[8] Efforts by Jaczko to strengthen security regulations for nuclear power plants have included requiring new such plants to be able to withstand an aircraft crash.[8]

On February 9, 2012 Jaczko cast the lone dissenting vote on plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years when the NRC voted 4-1 to allow Atlanta-based Southern Co to build and operate two new nuclear power reactors at its existing Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. He cited safety concerns stemming from Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, saying "I cannot support issuing this license as if Fukushima never happened".[9]

Management style & resignation [ edit ] A report by Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector General Hubert T. Bell accused Jaczko of "strategically" withholding information from his colleagues in an effort to keep plans for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository from advancing.[10][11]

In October 2011, all the other four NRC commissioners'--two Democrats and two Republicans'--sent a letter to the White House expressing "grave concern" about Jaczko's actions at the NRC. On December 14, 2011, Commissioner William Ostendorff, a Republican, told a House oversight committee that Jaczko's "bullying and intimidation... should not and cannot be tolerated."[12]

At a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing on December 14, 2011, NRC Commissioner William Magwood, a fellow Democrat, testified about what he called Jaczko's abusive behavior towards employees, especially female subordinates. ''One woman told me that she felt the chairman was actually irritated with someone else, but took it out on her,'' Magwood said. ''Another said she was angry at herself for being brought to tears in front of male colleagues. A third described how she couldn't stop shaking after her experience. She sat, talking with her supervisor until she could calm down sufficiently to drive home.'' [13]

A report by the majority Republicans on the Government Reform and Oversight Committee detailed incidents indicating what House Republicans called Jaczko's "propensity for angry outbursts and aggressive behavior." A 2012 NRC Office of Inspector General report cleared him of such allegations.[14] Top House Republicans called on President Obama to dismiss Jaczko.[15]

Jaczko said problems at the agency were not his fault but instead stem from "lack of understanding" on the part of others.[16] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defended Jaczko, saying his critics are attacking him because "they're concerned about the nuclear industry. He's concerned about the American people."[17]

Peter A. Bradford, who was a commission member from 1977 to 1982, has also defended Jaczko. Bradford said it was not unusual for the commissioners to disagree strongly, and added that he did not believe that "the chairman is somehow raging around the agency and intimidating the staff".[18] He also argued that, although the letter about Jaczko was written by two Republicans and two Democrats, it was necessarily bi-partisan in the context of nuclear politics. He claimed that "In Washington, you've got a situation where the 'nuclear party' transcends the Republican and Democratic party," adding that "You've got four members of the nuclear party writing a letter about the chairman, who's never been a member of the nuclear party."[18]

Jaczko resigned in May 2012.[19] He was succeeded by Allison Macfarlane.

References [ edit ] ^ a b "Commissioner Dale E. Klein". 2012-03-29 . Retrieved 2012-10-13 . ^ "N.R.C. Chairman to Resign After Stormy Tenure", New York Times, retrieved May 21, 2012 ^ [1]. NRC website. ^ a b c d e Name: Jaczko, Gregory; Current position: Chairman. Allgov.com, retrieved March 16, 2011 ^ "Leigh Ann Caldwell - A Little More". leighanncaldwell.com. ^ Meghan Anzelc: Gregory Jaczko, Ph.D. Physics, Commissioner, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. American Physical Society / www.aps.org ^ Dr. Francis Slakey. Georgetown University / spi.georgetown.edu ^ a b c d e f g Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko. Nuclear Regulatory Commission / Nrc.gov, retrieved March 16, 2011 ^ Ayesha Rascoe (Feb 9, 2012). "U.S. approves first new nuclear plant in a generation". Reuters. ^ The Wall Street Journal (2011-06-10). "Report Slams U.S. Nuclear Regulator". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 2011-06-10 . ^ Bloomberg News (2011-06-10). "NRC Chief Withheld Information on Yucca Plans, Watchdog Says". Bloomberg News . Retrieved 2011-06-10 . ^ ABC News. "U.S. News - National News". ABC News. ^ "Nuke commissioners accuse chairman of abusing staff, withholding information". TheHill. ^ "NRC Inspector General Clears Jaczko". energybiz.com. ^ "Nuke commissioners accuse chairman of abusing staff, withholding information". TheHill. ^ MATTHEW DALY. "NRC commissioners: Chairman Jaczko is a 'bully ' ". Businessweek.com. ^ "NRC Chief's Temper Undermining Agency, House Republicans Say", Bloomberg, 14 December 2011 ^ a b Matthew Wald (December 28, 2011). "Agency Smackdown, Round 2: A Critique of 'the Nuclear Party ' ". New York Times. ^ "Chairman of N.R.C. to Resign Under Fire", New York Times, 22 May 2012 External links [ edit ] Appearances on C-SPAN

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 13:13

The MCC Carbon Clock shows how much CO2 can be released into the atmosphere to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C and 2°C, respectively. With just a few clicks, you can compare the estimates for both temperature targets and see how much time is left in each scenario.

In line with the recent IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) has updated its Carbon Clock.In 2015, with the Paris Climate Agreement, all nations around the world set themselves the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C (preferably 1.5°C) compared to pre-industrial levels. An ambitious goal. The Special Report of October 2018 presents new figures: The atmosphere can absorb no more than 420 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 if we are to stay below the 1.5°C threshold. However, since around 42 Gt of CO2 is emitted globally every year'--the equivalent of 1332 tonnes per second'--this budget is expected to be used up in just over nine years. The budget for staying below the 2°C threshold, for its part, of approximately 1170 Gt, will be exhausted in about 26 years.

Thus, the clock keeps ticking and shows how little time is left for political decision-makers to take action. Navigating the MCC website allows for an interactive understanding of the time frame of action required for a given political goal.

With just one click, the upper left-hand corner leads you to the scenario for the 2°C target, and the upper right-hand corner to the 1.5°C target. In both cases, the clock shows the remaining carbon budget'--and the remaining time.

The concept of the carbon budget is based on a nearly linear relationship between the cumulative emissions and the temperature rise. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the earth would necessarily be 1.5'°C warmer at the very point in time when the remaining carbon budget for staying below the 1.5'°C threshold was used up. This is due to, among others, the fact that there is a time lag between the concentration of emissions in the atmosphere and the impact thereof on the temperature. The update of MCC's Carbon Clock based on the IPCC Special Report also involved a technical change: So far, the IPCC had illustrated the likelihood of a given outcome in terms of a lower (33 percent), a medium (50 percent) and a high (66 percent) probability. In light of the new findings, however, the scientists now say that the calculated budget of 420 Gt for reaching the 1.5'°C threshold will be used up with 66 percent of the examined scenarios. This indicates a shift in uncertainties: away from the likelihood of staying below the temperature threshold, and towards the likelihood that the models will indeed translate into a 1.5°C rise in temperature.

While the Carbon Clock appears to be a precise measurement of the time left to ensure climate protection, many uncertainty factors remain, such as different definitions of the 1.5°C target as well as different assumptions about the climate sensitivity, the actually attained degree of global warming, and the future development of other greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the calculation assumes that the annual emissions of years to come will be close to those of the year 2017, while latest numbers show that emissions are still on the rise. eit, dass die Modelle das Ziel einhalten.

Update December 2018: In agreement with the latest IPCC Special Report, the number for the 2°C budget was updated to 1170 Gt CO2 (see Table 2.2., IPCC SR15), while an earlier version referred to 1070 Gt CO2.

For questions about the Carbon Clock, please contact MCC Press and Public Relations.

By using the following line of HTML code you can embed the MCC carbon clock into your website:<iframe src="https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/clock/carbon_clock.htm?i=3267263" style="width:600px; height:340px;"></iframe>

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 13:10

Greta Thunberg (Swedish pronunciation: [²greːta ²tʉːnˌb...rj] ; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist. In August 2018, she became a prominent figure for starting the first school strike for climate outside the Swedish parliament building, raising awareness of global warming.[1] In November 2018, she spoke at TEDxStockholm, and in December 2018 she addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Life [ edit ] Greta Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003.[2] Her mother is Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman and her father is actor Svante Thunberg,[3] who is named after his ancestor Svante Arrhenius.[3][4] Her grandfather is actor and director Olof Thunberg.[citation needed ]

Thunberg has been diagnosed with autism.[5] She insisted that her family become vegan and give up flying.[6]

Student strikes for climate [ edit ] Sign "Follow Greta! Strike for climate" in

Berlin (14 December 2018).

On 20 August 2018, Thunberg, then in ninth grade, decided to not attend school until the 2018 Sweden general election on 9 September after heat waves and wildfires in Sweden.[1] Her demands were that the Swedish government reduce carbon emissions as per the Paris Agreement, and she protested via sitting outside the Riksdag every day during school hours with the sign Skolstrejk f¶r klimatet (school strike for the climate).[5]

After the general elections, she continued to strike only on Fridays, which gained worldwide attention. She inspired school students across the globe to take part in student strikes.[4] As of December 2018, more than 20,000 students held strikes in at least 270 cities[4] in countries including Australia, Austria,[7] Belgium, Canada,[8] the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Japan, Switzerland,[9][10] the United Kingdom and the United States.[4][11] In Australia, thousands of school students were inspired by Thunberg to strike on Fridays, ignoring Prime Minister Scott Morrison's comments of "more learning in schools and less activism".[12]

Other activism [ edit ] Greta Thunberg participated in the Rise for Climate demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels and the Declaration of Rebellion organized by Extinction Rebellion in London.[13]

On 24 November 2018, she spoke at TEDxStockholm.[14] She speaks about autism as a way to explain why she cannot understand the inaction of governments and of citizens on climatic threat. Towards the conclusion of her talk, Thunberg said, "We've had thirty years of pep-talking and selling positive ideas. And I'm sorry, but it doesn't work. Because if it would have, the emissions would have gone down by now'--they haven't."[15]

On 4 December 2018, Thunberg addressed the COP24 United Nations climate change summit.[16] On 12 December 2018, Thunberg again addressed the COP24 plenary assembly, stating:[17][18]

"You only speak of a green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children."

"And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself"

On 23 January 2019, Thunberg arrived in Davos after her 32-hour train journey,[19] in contrast to the many delegates who arrived by up to 1,500 individual private jets flights,[20] to continue her climate campaign at the World Economic Forum. The following day, Thursday, she gave an impromptu speech at a lunch event with a guest list that included Christiana Figueres, Jane Goodall, music stars Bono and Will.i.am, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn, and an array of bankers and investors.[21] Thunberg told them:

"Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we will have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame. Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular, have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money. And I think many of you here today belong to that group of people."

There was a short pause in the room before Bono started clapping.[21]

Prizes and awards [ edit ] Greta Thunberg was one of the winners of Svenska Dagbladet's debate article writing competition on the climate for young people in May 2018.[22] In the World Nature Fund's prize the young environmental hero of the year 2018, Thunberg is one of the three nominees.[23] Thunberg was nominated for the electricity company Telge Energi's prize for children and young people who promote sustainable development, Children's Climate Prize, but declined because the finalists would have to fly to Stockholm.[24] In November 2018, she was awarded the Fryshuset scholarship of the Young Role Model of the Year.[25] In December 2018, Time magazine named Thunberg one of the world's 25 most influential teenagers of 2018.[26]

See also [ edit ] Individual and political action on climate changeSchool strike for climateReferences [ edit ] ^ a b "The Swedish 15-year-old who's cutting class to fight the climate crisis". The Guardian. 1 September 2018. ^ Lobbe, Anne-Marie (13 December 2018). " 15 ans, elle remet les dirigeants mondiaux leur place!" (in French). Sympatico . Retrieved 3 January 2019 . ^ a b "School Strike for Climate: Meet 15-Year-Old Activist Greta Thunberg, Who Inspired a Global Movement". Democracy Now!. ^ a b c d Damian Carrington (4 December 2018). " ' Our leaders are like children', school strike founder tells climate summit". The Guardian. ^ a b "The Fifteen-Year-Old Climate Activist Who Is Demanding a New Kind of Politics". The New Yorker. 2 October 2018. ^ "Climate crusading schoolgirl Greta Thunberg pleads next generation's case". The Straits Times. 5 December 2018 . Retrieved 22 December 2018 . ^ "FridaysforFuture Vienna" . Retrieved 29 December 2018 . ^ Karin Larsen (7 December 2018). "Metro Vancouver students cut class to demand action on climate change". CBC. ^ "More than 1,000 Swiss pupils strike over climate". swissinfo.ch. 21 December 2018. ^ "La "gr¨ve du climat" rassemble des centaines d'(C)tudiants al(C)maniques". RTS Info (in French). 22 December 2018. ^ "Klimatmanifestation ¶ver hela landet: "–desfr¥ga " ". Expressen (in Swedish). 30 November 2018. ^ Bard Wilkinson (30 November 2018). "Australian school children defy prime minister with climate strike". CNN. ^ "This Is Our Darkest Hour: With Declaration of Rebellion, New Group Vows Mass Civil Disobedience to Save Planet". Common Dreams. 31 October 2018. ^ "TEDxStockholm Theme: Wonderland". TED . Retrieved 20 December 2018 . ^ Jon, Queally (19 December 2018). "Depressed and Then Diagnosed With Autism, Greta Thunberg Explains Why Hope Cannot Save Planet But Bold Climate Action Still Can". Common Dreams . Retrieved 20 December 2018 . ^ Carrington, Damian (4 December 2018). " ' Our leaders are like children', school strike founder tells climate summit". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 4 December 2018 . ^ "Greta Thunberg makes an impassioned appeal at UN climate change conference in Poland". Herald Sun. NewsCorp Australia. 13 December 2018 . Retrieved 13 December 2018 . ^ Thunberg, Greta. "You Are Stealing Our Future: Greta Thunberg, 15, Condemns the World's Inaction on Climate Change". Democracy Now! . Retrieved 13 December 2018 . ^ Larson, Nina (24 January 2019). "Time to 'get angry', teen climate activist says in Davos". news.yahoo.com. AFP . Retrieved 24 January 2019 . I think it is insane that people are gathered here to talk about the climate and they arrive here in private jet. ^ Forrest, Adam (23 January 2019). "Record number of private jets to fly into Davos conference addressing climate change". The Independent . Retrieved 24 January 2019 . ^ a b Kottasova, Ivana; Mackintosh, Eliza (25 January 2019). "Teen activist blames Davos elite for climate crisis". CNN . Retrieved 26 January 2019 . ^ " " Vi vet '' och vi kan g¶ra n¥got nu" | SvD". SvD.se (in Swedish) . Retrieved 22 December 2018 . ^ "H¤r ¤r de nominerade till …rets milj¶hj¤lte 2018". Natursidan (in Swedish) . Retrieved 22 December 2018 . ^ Gelin, Gustav (1 November 2018). "D¤rf¶r nobbar Greta Thunberg klimatpriset". ETC (in Swedish) . Retrieved 22 December 2018 . ^ "Greta Thunberg blir …rets unga f¶rebild". Aktuell H¥llbarhet (in Swedish). 22 November 2018 . Retrieved 22 December 2018 . ^ "TIME's 25 Most Influential Teens of 2018". Time . Retrieved 22 December 2018 . External links [ edit ] Greta Thunberg on Twitter

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Sun, 27 Jan 2019 13:36

Katie Hall @Katie_StatesmanFriday Jan 25, 2019 at 5:36 PM Jan 25, 2019 at 5:36 PM

A man robbed a bank in downtown Austin before making his getaway on an electric scooter, Austin police said.

Luca Mangiarano, 19, was arrested Thursday and charged with robbery by threat in connection with a bank robbery that happened Dec. 18 at the BBVA Compass bank on Sixth Street.

The teller told police that a young man in a hoodie walked up to her station and handed her a note demanding money, his arrest affidavit says. She gave him cash and he left.

Another employee of the bank saw a man he believed was the bank robber leave the bank and grab a scooter, the affidavit says.

Police reviewed video footage that showed a man, whose clothing matched witnesses' descriptions of the suspect, riding a Jump scooter on the sidewalk away from the bank. Detectives sent Uber, which owns Jump, a subpoena requesting the account information for the Jump scooter, which had been used at Sixth and Guadalupe streets.

Uber supplied police with Mangiarano's phone number, email address and credit card number. Police then pulled surveillance video that captured Mangiarano in front of his apartment and concluded he appeared to be the robber caught on the bank's still photos from the incident, the affidavit says.

Mangiarano's cellphone information also showed that he was in the vicinity of the bank at the time of the robbery, the affidavit says.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 17:21

Scientists say rock must have been blasted to moon, buried then uncovered by asteroid impacts

An Apollo 14 astronaut on the moon in 1971.Photograph: NasaWhat may be one of the oldest known rocks from Earth has been found in the material that Apollo 14 astronauts brought home from the moon nearly 50 years ago.

It is thought that the rock, made up of quartz, feldspar and zircon, crystallised deep beneath Earth's surface about 4bn years ago and was catapulted towards the moon in a collision with an asteroid or comet soon afterwards.

''It is an extraordinary find that helps paint a better picture of early Earth and the bombardment that modified our planet during the dawn of life,'' said David Kring, a senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.

Chemical analysis of the 2g fragment suggests it formed more than 12 miles underground in an oxidising environment, which can be found on Earth but not on the moon. A major impact then excavated the rock and blasted it into space, according to a report in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

At the time of the collision, the moon was three times closer to Earth than it is today. After the rock came to rest on the lunar surface, another impact 3.9bn years ago partially melted and buried it, scientists believe.

The final impact that affected the rock happened about 26m years ago when an asteroid slammed into the moon and made the Cone crater, measuring 340 metres wide and 75 metres deep, near the Apollo 14 landing site.

That impact resurfaced the rock, which was then collected by the Nasa astronauts. The Apollo 14 crew spent more than 33 hours on the lunar surface in February 1971 and brought home nearly 43kg of moon rocks.

The researchers, led by Jeremy Bellucci and Alexander Nemchin at the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Curtin University in Australia respectively, concede that the rock may have formed on the moon, but argue that this would have required conditions not previously seen in lunar samples.

To have a lunar origin, the rock would have had to crystallise at tremendous depth where rocks tend to have very different compositions, they write.

The Earth formed in the early solar system 4.5bn years ago. The oldest known fragment of Earth rock is a zircon crystal from Western Australia. The sliver of material, the same width as two human hairs, has been dated to 4.4bn years old.

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Sat, 26 Jan 2019 14:56

BERKELEY (CBS SF) '-- The Berkeley City Council Tuesday night passed a disposable foodware and litter-reduction ordinance that backers say is the most ambitious municipal legislation in the U.S. aimed at reducing the use of single-use disposable foodware.

''History,'' Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin tweeted Tuesday night after the vote. ''.Berkeley passes the most ambitious groundbreaking policy to reduce throw-away foodware in the nation.''

''Without dramatic change in the products and packaging that we consume, there will be more plastics than fish in the ocean by the year 2050, the ordinance's lead author City Councilmember Sophie Hahn said at the meeting.

Supporters say the ordinance is backed by a coalition of more than 1,400 local, national, and international organizations participating in the global Break Free From Plastic Movement, including UpStream, The Story of Stuff Project, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the Surfrider Foundation.

Martin Bourque, the executive director of Berkeley's Ecology Center, a nonprofit that has collected Berkeley's recycling since 1973, said in a statement, ''Most of the single-use plastic foodware has no value in today's recycling markets. With China's ban on importing plastic scrap, cities are actually paying to get rid of it.''

Bourque said, ''We cannot recycle our way out of the disposable foodware problem. We have to focus on reduction.''

Under the bill, Berkeley consumers will have to either bring their own cup when getting a drink to go or pay 25 cents for a disposable one.

Some people KPIX 5 talked to said the ordinance goes too far, even for Berkeley.

''25 cents would be too steep,'' said UC Berkeley student Joseph Friedman. ''As a student, I mean, I don't have a lot of money. So having to spend 25 cents for a to go cup, it's not right in my opinion.''

But others said they would simply avoid the fee by carrying their own dishes. Another UC Berkeley student, Gina Wright, said is already carrying reusable utensils everywhere she goes.

''I don't use plastic spoons or forks anymore, or even compostable ones, because these are reusable,'' explained Wright.

Hahn said a majority of Berkeley restaurants are already on-board with her proposal, which requires them to switch to compostable takeout packaging. She went on to say this is just the beginning. In three years, the plan is to launch a program that would allow Berkeley residents to borrow reusable takeout containers and later return them.

''It's all about changing your habits to good ones, especially when the world is literally falling apart at the hands of human beings,'' said Wright.

The 25 cent fee would go into effect next year.

Christin Ayers Comments

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Sat, 26 Jan 2019 14:06

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Texas Municipal League says a bill coming up for a vote in the Texas House will cheat local governments by hundreds of millions of dollars.

In an attempt to build a future framework for wireless internet and 5G nearly all lawmakers are siding with major telecommunication companies at the expense of the cities.

A TML analysis shows Texas city governments would lose $750 million per year once 5G is in all Texas cities. State Bill 1004 by Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, would drastically lower the price cities charge for use of their public lands for mini-cell towers called network nodes.

The city of Austin just signed an agreement with major companies AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, charging them $1,500 per year per node. Houston and Dallas negotiated a rate of $2,500. SB 1004 would cap that fee at $250.

"Cities all across Texas have negotiated agreements with cell phone companies allowing them to put their equipment on city property, just like other utilities. But now those companies want a state law to cut those negotiated fees in many cases to just one-tenth of what they had agreed to pay," TML Executive Director Bennett Sandlin said in a press release blasting the bill.

The city of Austin made their agreement last October and has no active nodes operating yet, but Mayor Steve Adler worries this is a loss of local control.

"The legislature is weighing in with considerable weight," said Mayor Adler.

He describes how SB 1004 would also take power away from the city to regulate how many nodes go into the public right of way and where they're placed. It opens up for telecommunication companies to have access to traffic signals, street lights and city signs.

"Now the legislature is stepping in and taking what is highly coveted public space and turning it into cheap utility corridors," said Adler.

The main sponsors of the bill, Senator Hancock, Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, have not responded to a KXAN interview request after multiple attempts.

The ideas largest supporter, AT&T, is backing up the idea.

Dave Nichols, President of AT&T Texas responded, "Senator Kelly Hancock has worked with all parties, including the wireless industry, cities and other interested parties, to craft a bill that will bring tomorrow's technology to Texas quickly."

In earlier legislative committees, company spokesperson expanded on why this bill is needed for the future of wireless telecommunications.

"It's to give our customers an effortless, wireless customer experience," Ryan Tidwell from AT&T's engineering department told lawmakers in a spring committee hearing, "Things like 4K video, the internet of things, connected cars, smart cities. They all start with 5G."

T-Mobile, Verizon, and Century Link is listed as neutral on the bill.

The Texas Municipal League President says if this bill fails, Texans could still get quality internet access.

"Cities want this technology," said Sandlin, "Cities also want electric power lines, gas lines, telephone and cable television lines, but when they go on taxpayer-owned property it should be done with city oversight and city standards."

Every senator present voted for the bill earlier this year. It is scheduled for a vote in the Texas House, Wednesday.

A Longtime Lobbying Powerhouse Telecommunications companies and AT&T in particular are extremely effective in the Texas legislature. According to the watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice, AT&T ranks number one again this year for the amount of lobbyists.

According to the Texas Ethics Commission they have more than 100 lobbyists, paying them $7.7 million. That's an average of $75,000 per lobbyist to convince lawmakers to write and pass bills. Director of Research for Texans for Public Justice, Andrew Wheat, says that's not all.

"AT&T wields not only a stick in the form of a lobby but a carrot in the form of campaign contributions," said Wheat.

According to Texans for Public Justice, AT&T donated almost $2 million last year to Texas officials, including tens of thousands to the authors of the bill.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 20:14

Trump ally Roger Stone arrested 02:37

Roger Stone arrested following grand jury indictment 12:16

Arguing for stability in the lives of working people 09:05

Sen. Coons: Indictment suggests campaign, Russia connection 09:24

Stone to make court appearance Friday morning 02:26

Sen. Bennet: We should never shut gov't. down 12:30

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 17:25

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:54

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:15

Get the latest from TODAYSign up for our newsletter

Jan. 23, 2019, 12:31 PM GMT / Source: TODAY

By Eun Kyung Kim

Nick Sandmann, the Covington Catholic High School junior whose face-off with a Native American elder on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial vent viral over the weekend, is defending his actions and insisting he showed no insolence during the confrontation.

''As far as standing there, I had every right to do so,'' the 16-year-old told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie in his first television interview since the controversial standoff with activist Nathan Phillips.

Guthrie asked Sandmann whether he felt he owed anyone an apology or has assumed fault for the clash.

''My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I'd like to talk to him,'' he said. ''I mean, in hindsight, I wish we could've walked away and avoided the whole thing. But I can't say that I'm sorry for listening to him and standing there.''

The encounter occurred Friday during Sandmann's trip with his Kentucky classmates to the nation's capital for the March For Life anti-abortion rally. Numerous cameras recorded the confrontation with Phillips, who was returning from a separate march, and the moment quickly spread on Twitter.

But the scene took place right after the students ran into five members of the Hebrew Israelites, a radical movement that is "growing more militant," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Hebrew Israelites began taunting the boys, many of whom, including Sandmann, wore red hats bearing President Trump's ''Make America Great Again'' slogan.

''They started shouting a bunch of homophobic, racist, derogatory comments at us,'' Sandmann said. ''I heard them call us incest kids, bigots, racists. They called us f*****s.''

The students outnumbered their aggressors but Sandmann said he ''definitely felt threatened.''

''They were a group of adults and I wasn't sure what was going to happen next,'' he said.

It's unclear who started the confrontation, but each side claims to have been taunted first. Sandmann said his chaperone gave his classmates permission to begin shouting school chants as a way to drown out the Hebrew Israelites.

''In hindsight, I wish we had just found another spot to wait for our buses. But at the time, being positive seemed better than letting them slander us with all of these things," he said.

But Sandmann insists that none of his classmates shouted insults or racial slurs in retaliation.

''We're a Catholic school and it's not tolerated. They don't tolerate racism, and none of my classmates are racist people,'' he said.

Following that confrontation, Phillips and a group of Native Americans who had attended the Indigenous Peoples March began walking toward the students, standing between them and the protestors.

Phillips did not respond to an NBC News request for a response to Sandmann's comments, but he agreed to sit down with TODAY for an interview to air Thursday morning.

In previous media interviews about what happened, Phillips said he was simply trying to tamp down the tension.

''I intervened and things just escalated from there,'' he said.

Phillips and others have claimed they heard the teens yell "build that wall" during the confrontation, but NBC News could not find any video where that hot-button phrase was shouted.

Sandmann said he wasn't sure what Phillips was trying to accomplish but some of his friends wondered whether he was trying to join them and drum along with their chants.

''I'm not sure where he wanted to go. And if he wanted to walk past me, I would've let him go,'' Sandmann said.

But the two eventually found themselves standing face-to-face.

Sandmann said he now wishes he he had backed off, but he was unsure what to do at that moment.

"Well, now, I wish I would've walked away. I didn't want to be disrespectful to Mr. Phillips and walk away if he was trying to talk to me," he said. "I was surrounded by a lot of people I didn't know that had their phones out, had cameras, and I didn't want to bump into anyone or seem like I was trying to do something."

Sandmann was asked about the expression he wore on his face as he faced off against Phillips. Some have characterized the look as a smirk, but Sandmann describes it differently.

''I see it as a smile, saying that this is the best you're going to get out of me. You won't get any further reaction of aggression. And I'm willing to stand here as long as you want to hit this drum in my face,'' he said.

Sandmann said it was unfair to have his character weighed up by one look.

''People have judged me based off one expression, which I wasn't smirking, but people have assumed that's what I have,'' he said. ''And they've gone from there to titling me and labeling me as a racist person, someone that's disrespectful to adults, which they've had to assume so many things to get there without consulting anyone that can give them the opposite story.''

Asked about how the various videos may be perceived by some people, Sandmann continued to defend his actions, particularly against the comments by the Hebrew Israelites.

"Our school was slandered by the African-Americans who had called us all sorts of things. And I think I was perfectly fine with standing there and not letting the hate that was directed at us continue.''

Sandmann acknowledged that if he and the other teens weren't wearing the red ''Make American Great Again'' hats, which he purchased from a street vendor moments before the melee, things might have turned out differently.

''That's possible. But I would have to assume what Mr. Phillips was thinking and I'd rather let him speak for why he came up to us,'' he said.

Sandman said it's been ''weird'' to see himself constantly on television and that he's received numerous messages filled with both support and hostility but doesn't want to live his life in fear. He hopes to emerge from this episode with a deeper understanding of others.

''I have the utmost respect for Mr. Phillips as another person that freely used his First Amendment right. And I want to thank him for his military service as well. And I'd certainly like to speak with him,'' he said.

Eun Kyung Kim

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 13:19

Trump ally Roger Stone arrested 02:37

Roger Stone arrested following grand jury indictment 12:16

Stone to make court appearance Friday morning 02:26

Stone indictment not surprising: Fmr. CIA Director 11:23

Former nuclear regulator sounds alarms about the industry 06:23

Mika: Mitch McConnell can change this 01:26

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 05:50

The White House is preparing a draft of an emergency declaration President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump: I will deliver State of the Union 'when the shutdown is over' Former NYPD commander claims Trump got special treatment for gun licenses Colbert starts petition for Cardi B to give State of the Union rebuttal MORE could issue to secure funding for a wall along the southern border, CNN reported Thursday.

The news outlet obtained internal documents that show the administration has identified more than $7 billion in funding for the wall if Trump opts to declare a national emergency.

The draft declaration argues that the "massive amount of aliens who unlawfully enter the United States each day is a direct threat to the safety and security of our nation and constitutes a national emergency," CNN reported.

The administration would look to pull most of the money for the wall from military construction and Pentagon civil works funds, with additional funding coming from treasury forfeitures and the Department of Homeland Security, CNN reported.

The declaration has been updated within the past week, an official told CNN.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democrats have expressed skepticism about the legality of such an order, and if Trump followed through it would likely be tied up in the courts. Republicans have indicated they would prefer Trump not resort to such an option to build the wall.

A partial government shutdown that has lasted 34 days and counting was triggered by Trump's demand for wall funding. Democrats have repeatedly rejected that request, and urged the president to open the government amid negotiations over border security.

The Senate on Thursday rejected two measures to reopen the government.

In response, Trump said he would support a "reasonable" solution brokered by Senate leaders, but that he would use "other alternatives if I have to."

The president earlier this month floated the possibility of declaring a national emergency to start construction on the wall. He expressed confidence in his legal standing, but later backed away from the proposal and said Congress should address the issue.

Updated at 6 p.m.

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Archived Version

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 05:49

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was like a mother hen to America's mayors on Wednesday, telling them when to clap for her.

After thanking a member of her audience, she said, ''That's an applause line! I'll let you know.''

She followed through on her promise.

>>

After claiming Democrats support ''strong border security initiatives,'' she said, ''Do you want to'-- let's hear it for border security!'' as she held her hand up to call for a response.

Moments later, she called for applause from the bipartisan group for the Democrat majority in the House.

''The American people elected a House majority that would'-- that's an applause line! Not for everybody maybe,'' she said.

The House Speaker suffered several bizarre flubs during the appearance at The United States Conference of Mayors meeting.

''And we will strengthen our democracy by passing the Equality Act, that is an act to end discrimination against LG'-- LGTB community,'' she said, messing up the acronym.

''There are two challenges, uh, well, actually three that I want to just close with and that is are'-- these are the f'-- these wh'-- here they are!'' she said with a flustered laugh.

Suffering a brain freeze, Pelosi said, ''We have to think in a very'-- dra'-- drastic way about this,'' she told the mayors.

Wrapping up, she flubbed an attempt to connect with the audience.

''We must embrace innovation, inclusion, we just have to establish your motto that you have put forth here today,'' she said, fumbling through her papers.

''We're coming back to it here,'' she continued, stalling and reading.

''You know it,'' she said, hoping the audience would bail her out of the awkward moment.

''Infrastructure, inno-vution,'' she said, botching ''innovation,'' ''inclusion,'' she said.

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 04:22

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Thu, 24 Jan 2019 23:17

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Two months after Hurricane Katrina, Mike Ertel, then a Florida county supervisor of elections, was caught on camera, dressed in blackface. Nate Chute, USA Today Network

Michael Ertel, the newly appointed Secretary of State of Gov. Ron DeSantis, has resigned after photos emerged of him posing as a Hurricane Katrina victim in blackface at a private Halloween party 14 years ago.

The photos obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat were shown to the Governor's Office on Thursday morning. Hours later it issued a statement.

More: Florida Secretary of State Mike Ertel blackface photos: Social media reacts

"The governor accepted Secretary Ertel's resignation," the Governor's Office said.

At a news conference on hurricane relief in Marianna, DeSantis addressed the resignation.

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Gov. DeSantis on Michael Ertel resignation Tallahassee Democrat

"It's unfortunate. He's done a lot of good work," he said, adding that he accepted the resignation because "I don't want to get mired in side controversies."

The photo was taken in 2005, eight months after Ertel was appointed Seminole County supervisor of elections and two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

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After the Democrat texted the photos to him last week, Ertel, 49, identified himself as the white man in blackface and red lipstick, wearing earrings and a New Orleans Saints bandanna, and falsies under a purple T-shirt that had "Katrina Victim" written on it.

Over the phone and in person, Ertel would not comment on the record about the circumstances surrounding the photo.

Florida Secretary of State Mike Ertel, then Seminole County Supervisor of Elections, wearing blackface at Halloween party in 2005. (Photo: Special to the Democrat)

"There's nothing I can say," Ertel said.

The Democrat shared the photos Thursday with the Governor's Office, which had not previously seen them.

Ertel gave a presentation Thursday morning on election litigation before a House subcommittee. He submitted his resignation in an email around 2 p.m.

"I am submitting my resignation as Florida secretary of state effective immediately," he wrote. "It has been an honor to serve you and the voters of Florida."

DeSantis named Ertel on Dec. 28 to replace Ken Detzner, who served as former Gov. Rick Scott's Secretary of State since 2012.

The Secretary of State's Office is immersed in a debate about how to implement Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to some 1.4 million ex-felons. Desantis, who was against the amendment before the election, advised waiting to register them until the Legislature passed enacting legislation. Some counties, however, have begun the process.

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Florida Secretary of State Mike Ertel, then Seminole County Supervisor of Elections, in blackface at 2005 Halloween party. (Photo: Special to the Democrat)

Ertel said he sent an email to county elections supervisors to accept all applications from ex-felons.

The photos are the sole blemish on a seemingly spotless public career, highlighted by a record of increasing voter registration and making the elections office more accessible to the public.

Mike Ertel: A career timelineErtel began serving as supervisor of elections for Seminole County on Feb. 5, 2005, when Gov. Jeb Bush named him to replace Dennis Joyner, who stepped down for health reasons.

He ran against Democratic Party activist Marian Williams in 2006, beating her by 59 percent. He was subsequently re-elected without opposition. That same year he participated in monitoring the New Orleans mayoral election.

Ertel has a long record of expanding voting rights and registering people to vote. The city of Longwood gave him a Martin Luther King Jr. award for registering voters. In 2012, Ertel spoke out against Scott's purge of so-called non-citizens from the voter rolls, saying many of those who were purged were actually eligible voters.

Michael Ertel, Florida Secretary of State (Photo: Florida Department of State)

Ertel also has won international awards for his plans to restore voter confidence and trust in the elections system.

Prior to his time in public office, Ertel was in public relations, and was the first professional public affairs spokesman for Seminole County. After the 2004 hurricanes hit Florida, Ertel provided post-disaster media relations for Visit Florida.

Before that he spent eight years in the U.S. Army, providing public relations during the 1992 L.A. riots, and in Macedonia and Bosnia.

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Hurricane Michael left devastation in it's wake in 2018. The state of Florida continues to rebuild after the storm made landfall in Mexico Beach. Tallahassee Democrat

Contact Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.

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