812: Non-Disabled

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:34

Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter 5-year-old civil war.

The fighting has intensified over the past two months, as CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other as they have maneuvered through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed.

In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east.

"Any faction that attacks us, regardless from where it gets its support, we will fight it," said Maj. Fares Bayoush, a leader of Fursan al Haq.

Rebel fighters described similar clashes in the town of Azaz, a key transit point for fighters and supplies between Aleppo and the Turkish border, and March 3 in the Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsud.

The attacks come amid continued heavy fighting in Syria and illustrate the difficulty facing U.S. efforts to coordinate among dozens of armed groups that are trying to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad, fight the Islamic State militant group and battle one another all at the same time.

"It is an enormous challenge," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who described the clashes between U.S.-supported groups as "a fairly new phenomenon."

"It is part of the three-dimensional chess that is the Syrian battlefield," he said.

The area in northern Syria around Aleppo, the country's second-largest city, features not only a war between the Assad government and its opponents, but also periodic battles against Islamic State militants, who control much of eastern Syria and also some territory to the northwest of the city, and long-standing tensions among the ethnic groups that inhabit the area, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.

"This is a complicated, multisided war where our options are severely limited," said a U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. "We know we need a partner on the ground. We can't defeat ISIL without that part of the equation, so we keep trying to forge those relationships." ISIL is an acronym for the Islamic State.

President Barack Obama recently authorized a new Pentagon plan to train and arm Syrian rebel fighters, relaunching a program that was suspended in the fall after a string of embarrassing setbacks, which included recruits being ambushed and handing over much of their U.S.-issued ammunition and trucks to an al-Qaida affiliate.

Amid the setbacks, the Pentagon late last year deployed about 50 special operations forces to Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria to better coordinate with local militias and help ensure U.S.-backed rebel groups aren't fighting one another.

But such skirmishes have become routine.

Last year, the Pentagon helped create a new military coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces. The goal was to arm the group and prepare it to take territory away from Islamic State in eastern Syria and to provide information for U.S. airstrikes.

The group is dominated by Kurdish outfits known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG. A few Arab units have joined the force in order to prevent it from looking like an invading Kurdish army, and it has received airdrops of weapons and supplies and assistance from U.S. Special Forces.

Gen. Joseph Votel, now commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and the incoming head of Central Command, said this month that about 80 percent of the fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces were Kurdish.

The U.S. backing for a heavily Kurdish armed force has been a point of tension with the Turkish government, which has a long history of crushing Kurdish rebellions and doesn't want to see Kurdish units control more of its southern border.

The CIA, meanwhile, has its own operations center inside Turkey from which it has been directing aid to rebel groups in Syria, providing them with TOW antitank missiles from Saudi Arabian weapons stockpiles.

While the Pentagon's actions are part of an overt effort by the U.S. and its allies against the Islamic State, the CIA's backing of militias is part of a separate covert U.S. effort aimed at keeping pressure on the Assad government in hopes of prodding the Syrian leader to the negotiating table.

At first, the two different sets of fighters were primarily operating in widely separated areas of Syria '-- the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeastern part of the country and the CIA-backed groups further west.

But, over the past several months, Russian airstrikes against anti-Assad fighters in northwestern Syria have weakened them.

That created an opening that allowed the Kurdish-led groups to expand their zone of control to the outskirts of Aleppo, bringing them into more frequent conflict with the CIA-backed outfits.

"Fighting over territory in Aleppo demonstrates how difficult it is for the U.S. to manage these really localized and, in some cases, entrenched conflicts," said Nicholas Heras, an expert on the Syrian civil war at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington. "Preventing clashes is one of the constant topics in the joint operations room with Turkey."

Over the course of the Syrian civil war, the town of Marea has been on the front line of the Islamic State's attempts to advance across Aleppo province toward the rest of northern Syria.

On Feb. 18, the Syrian Democratic Forces attacked the town.

A fighter with the Suqour Al-Jabal Brigade, a group with links to the CIA, said intelligence officers of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State know their group has clashed with the Pentagon-trained militias.

"The MOM knows we fight them," he said, referring to the joint operations center in southern Turkey, which is known as MOM from the acronym of its name in Turkish, Musterek Operasyon Merkezi.

"We'll fight all who aim to divide Syria or harm its people," said the fighter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Marea is home to many of the original Islamist fighters who took up arms against Assad during the Arab Spring in 2011. It has long been a critical way station for supplies and fighters coming from Turkey into Aleppo.

"Attempts by Syrian Democratic Forces to take Marea was a great betrayal and was viewed as a further example of a Kurdish conspiracy to force them from Arab and Turkmen lands," Heras said.

The clashes brought the U.S. and Turkish officials to "loggerheads," he added.

After diplomatic pressure from the U.S., the militia withdrew to the outskirts of the town as a sign of good faith, he said.

But continued fighting among different U.S.-backed groups may be inevitable, experts on the region said.

"Once they cross the border into Syria, you lose a substantial amount of control or ability to control their actions," said Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official. "You certainly have the potential for it becoming a larger problem as people fight for territory and control of the northern border area in Aleppo."

W.J. Hennigan and Brian Bennett reported from Washington and special correspondent Nabih Bulos from Amman.

william.hennigan@latimes.com

brian.bennett@latimes.com

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:31

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:35

Palmyra

They are engaged in what can only be called genocide of the poor Yazidis (though for some baffling reason the Foreign Office still hesitates to use the term genocide). They are a threat to our security in Europe; they are a nightmare for the people of Syria. If ever a group of terrorists deserved to be wiped off the face of the Earth, to be expunged from the roll of the human race '' that group is Isil.

And then there is a second reason why I rejoice at the news from Palmyra '' and although I am aware that for many people this is a very secondary consideration, it is, for me, of deep emotional importance. The victory of Assad is a victory for archaeology, a victory for all those who care about the ancient monuments of one of the most amazing cultural sites on Earth. The monsters of Isil were not just content to murder anyone who refused to accept their barbaric version of Islam. They were so small, so narrow, so stunted in their understanding of the will of God that they regarded any pre-Islamic building or structure '' no matter how beautiful '' as being somehow a blasphemy. They have mined, bombed and demolished some of the most sublime buildings in the world. They took the devoted curator of the site, Khaled al-Assad, and punished him for his scholarship by killing him in the amphitheatre.

The period in which Isil has held Palmyra '' now almost a year '' has been a moral and cultural catastrophe. And yes, that is why I am glad that they have been driven from the site.

On April 19, we in London will show our solidarity with Palmyra by erecting in Trafalgar Square a digitally reproduced copy of the 15-metre gateway of the Temple of Bel. The project is being led by the Institute of Digital Archaeology, and it is a joint venture with Harvard, Oxford and Dubai's Museum of the Future.

It will not be perfect. It will not be made of the same pinkish-golden stone of that original temple gateway, which Isil has blown to atoms. It will be made of resin. But it will still look amazing, and it will symbolise our collective determination '' across the world '' to put this ghastly epoch behind us, and to remember that for almost 2,000 years there was a willingness on the part of every conqueror who came to Palmyra to enjoy the architecture for what it was.

That temple was sacred once to Bel; then it was a church in the Byzantine period; and then it was a mosque. No one, until these sickos, thought to destroy it. I am glad the gateway will be going up in London, because I hope it will also be a sign of our British determination to be useful in the reconstruction of the country.

It is alas very hard to claim that the success of the Assad forces is a result of any particular British or indeed Western policy. How could it be? We rightly loathe his regime and what it stands for, and for the last few years we have been engaged in an entirely honourable mission to build an opposition to Assad that was not composed simply of Isil. That effort has not worked, not so far.

It has been Putin who with a ruthless clarity has come to the defence of his client, and helped to turn the tide. If reports are to be believed, the Russians have not only been engaged in air strikes against Assad's opponents, but have been seen on the ground as well. If Putin's troops have helped winkle the maniacs from Palmyra, then (it pains me to admit) that is very much to the credit of the Russians. They have made the West look ineffective; and so now is the time for us to make amends, and to play to our strengths.

We have some of the greatest archaeological experts in the world. I hope that the Government will fund them to go to Syria and help the work of restoration. It is far cheaper than bombing, and more likely to lead to long-term tourism and economic prosperity. One day Syria's future will be glorious, but that will partly depend on the world's ability to enjoy its glorious past. British experts should be at the forefront of the project.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:34

BEIRUT, March 27 (Reuters) - Syrian government forces backed by heavy Russian air support drove Islamic State out of Palmyra on Sunday, inflicting what the army called a "mortal blow" to militants who seized the city last year and dynamited its ancient temples.

The loss of Palmyra represents one of the biggest setbacks for the ultra-hardline Islamist group since it declared a caliphate in 2014 across large parts of Syria and Iraq.

The army general command said that its forces took over the city with support from Russian and Syrian air strikes, opening up the huge expanse of desert leading east to the Islamic State strongholds of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor.

Palmyra would become "a launchpad to expand military operations" against the group in those two provinces, it said, promising to "tighten the noose on the terrorist group and cut supply routes ... ahead of their complete recapture."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were still clashes on the eastern edge of Palmyra on Sunday morning, around the prison and inside the airport, but the bulk of the Islamic State force had withdrawn and retreated east, leaving the city under President Bashar al-Assad's control.

Amaq, a news agency close to Islamic State, said its fighters launched a twin suicide attack against government forces in west Palmyra, without giving details.

Syrian state-run television broadcast from inside the city, showing empty streets and badly damaged buildings.

It quoted a military source saying Syrian and Russian jets were targeting Islamic State fighters as they fled, hitting dozens of vehicles on the roads leading east from the city.

Russia's intervention in September turned the tide of Syria's five-year conflict in Assad's favor. Despite its declared withdrawal of most military forces two weeks ago, Russian jets and helicopters carried out dozens of strikes daily over Palmyra as the army pushed into the city.

"This achievement represents a mortal blow to the terrorist organization and lays the foundation for a great collapse in the morale of its mercenaries and the beginning of its defeat," the army command statement said.

In a pointed message to the United States, which has led a separate Western and Arab coalition against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq since 2014, the military command said its gains showed that the army "and its friends" were the only force able to uproot terrorism.

Valery Sharifulin/Getty Images A view of the ancient town of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Syrian Government's army is fighting with ISIS militants for control of the heritage site.

BIGGEST DEFEATObservatory director Rami Abdulrahman said 400 Islamic State fighters died in the battle for Palmyra, which he described as the biggest single defeat for the group since it announced its cross-border caliphate nearly two years ago.

The loss of Palmyra comes three months after Islamic State fighters were driven out of the city of Ramadi in neighboring Iraq, the first major victory for Iraq's army since it collapsed in the face of an assault by the militants in June 2014.

Islamic State has lost ground elsewhere, including the Iraqi city of Tikrit last year and the Syrian town of al-Shadadi in February. The United States said the fall of Shadadi was part of efforts to cut Islamic State's links between its two main power centers of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.

On Friday the United States said it believed it had killed several senior Islamic State militants, including Abd ar-Rahman al-Qaduli, described as the group's top finance official and aide to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Islamic State and al Qaeda's Syrian branch the Nusra Front are excluded from a month-long cessation of hostilities in Syria that has brought a relative lull in fighting between the government and rebels battling Assad in the west of the country.

The limited truce has allowed indirect peace talks to resume at the United Nations in Geneva, sponsored by Washington and Moscow. But progress has been slow, with the government and its opponents deeply divided over any political transition, particularly whether Assad must leave power.

The government delegation, which portrays the fight against terrorism as Syria's overriding priority, will return to the talks next month bolstered by its battlefield gains.

"The liberation of the historic city of Palmyra today is an important achievement and another indication of the success of the strategy pursued by the Syrian army and its allies in the war against terrorism," Syrian television quoted Assad as telling visiting French parliamentarians.

The Observatory said around 180 government soldiers and allied fighters were killed in the campaign to retake Palmyra, which is home to some of the most extensive ruins of the Roman empire.

Islamic State militants dynamited several monuments last year, and Syrian television broadcast footage from inside Palmyra museum on Sunday showing toppled and damaged statues, as well as several smashed display cases.

Syria's antiquities chief said other ancient landmarks were still standing and pledged to restore the damaged monuments.

"Palmyra has been liberated. This is the end of the destruction in Palmyra," Mamoun Abdelkarim told Reuters on Sunday. "How many times did we cry for Palmyra? How many times did we feel despair? But we did not lose hope."

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:34

Danielle Ryan is an Irish freelance journalist and media analyst. She has lived in the US and Germany and is currently based in Moscow. She previously worked as a digital desk reporter for the Sunday Business Post in Dublin. She studied political reporting at the Washington Center for Politics & Journalism in Washington, DC and also has a degree in business and German. She focuses on US foreign policy, US-Russia relations and media bias.

The recapture of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra was the single biggest defeat for ISIS since it declared its caliphate, but the West does not seem interested. Why? Because then they'd have to give some credit to Russia.

Indeed, it must have been a tough weekend for Western media's favorite Syria pundits. It's hard to fathom that any observer '-- regardless of their particular leanings '-- could feel anything other than relief at such a victory.

Yet, there's a strange sense that some pundits might actually be a little bit disappointed. Not to see the back of ISIS in the city, of course, but to be faced with the uncomfortable reality that their narrative is quickly unraveling.

No word from the grand coalitionGiven the monumental importance of this latest victory in Syria's war, you would expect at least a comment or two from Barack Obama, who more than a year and a half ago solemnly swore that his grand coalition would ''degrade and destroy'' the terror group. You might also expect a few words from David Cameron, who, like Obama, has seemed so terribly concerned by the humanitarian situation in Syria and so determined to ''defeat'' ISIS. But the two of them must have been having a bit too much fun this past Easter weekend, because there wasn't a peep out of them. In a way, they've done us a favor, because their silence speaks far louder than their words ever could.

The reality is, while the Syrian army, supported by Russian air power, was advancing on ISIS positions, Cameron and Obama were busy trying to figure out how they could get you to believe that Russia was actually helping ISIS. When they weren't doing that, they were busy plotting how best to topple the Syrian president, who controls the one and only fighting force that is capable of defeating on the ground the barbaric terror group they claim to be so ''shocked and concerned'' by. Yes, such valiant determination they have shown in their quest to rid the world of terrorism.

A blow to the Western narrativeUnfortunately, the loud but duplicitous proclamations from Washington and London were gobbled up whole by a pliant media, and so, for a while we were treated to headlines about the Russians ''helping'' ISIS, or ''giving ISIS and air force'' and other such nonsense which now looks rather embarrassing in hindsight. In this context, the recapture of Palmyra was not just a mortal blow to ISIS, it was also a mortal blow to the West's entire rotten narrative on Syria.

One of the other favorites, was the line that Putin was ''weaponizing'' refugees, shamelessly propagated by NATO chief General Philip Breedlove. This one was particularly deceitful as it utterly disregarded the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled nations torn apart by NATO interventions well before Russia entered the Syrian war.

When Palmyra was taken by ISIS, Western media gave the story extensive coverage. They were outraged when the militants blew up the 2,000-year-old Arch of Triumph. They were sickened when ISIS publicly beheaded 82-year-old renowned antiquities scholar Khaled al-Asaad and hung his body in the main square. Given their obvious distress at what had happened to this place of such huge historical significance, you would think they'd have been delighted to see it liberated from the group of jihadis currently terrorizing not only Syria, but Europe, too.

Instead, they can barely stomach it.

Sure, they covered it. They had to. But in contrast to the coverage the city was given when it was captured, the initial reaction to its liberation was fairly subdued. Some of the initial reports yesterday did not even mention the word Russia, while others used the Syrian army's success to cast doubt over Assad's commitment to fighting the terror group.

But just let's imagine for a moment that it had been British and American warplanes involved in the battle to retake Palmyra. The front pages of Western newspapers would be overflowing with self-congratulations. Someone would probably be running in to drape an American flag over the ancient ruins. Neocons and liberals alike would be making the TV rounds, happily predicting the beginning of a new dawn for the Syrian people. The usual script.

What will the pundits do now?One of the rare analysts who has actually been right on Syria time and again is Max Abrahms, political science professor and terrorism expert at Northwestern University. Abrahms recently commented on Twitter that it would be interesting to see whether the media would make any changes to their punditry lineups, given that so much of their previous Syria analysis is ''now debunked''. Sadly, there will likely be no change at all. The same pundits will continue to appear.

Watch as they try to minimize the importance of the Syrian and Russian achievement at Palmyra. Watch as they try to extricate themselves from the quagmire of their own misinformation campaign. Watch as they engage in ever more impressive mental gymnastics, trying desperately to prove they were, of course, right all along. They simply cannot highlight Russia's role in this kind of victory, because in doing so, they would highlight their own failure.

All talk, little actionIf Washington truly wants to wipe out ISIS, both their actions and their chosen allies of Turkey and Saudi Arabia would seem to raise some uncomfortable questions. Russian warplanes carried out 41 sorties in 24 hours to support the Syrian army's Palmyra offensive. American planes carried out two. As veteran reporter Robert Fisk wrote in The Independent yesterday: ''[The Americans] wanted to destroy ISIS, but not that much.''

Now, while Assad's forces push on towards the self-proclaimed ISIS 'capital' of Raqqa and Russia sends robots and engineers in to help de-mine Palmyra, what will Cameron and Obama be doing? They'll be scrambling for new talking points '-- and to their relief, the same pundits who peddled lies about this war for years will no doubt come to their aid and continue to obscure basic facts. But as the latest victory shows, it will become harder and harder to convince the masses when the truth becomes plainer and plainer to see.

Fortunately however, there are some who aren't as afraid to give credit where it is due. London Mayor Boris Johnson admitted that the Russians have "made the West look relatively ineffective; and so now is the time for us to make amends, and to play to our strengths".

He went on: "If Putin's troops have helped winkle the maniacs from Palmyra, then '' it pains me to admit '' that is very much to the credit of the Russians. It is alas very hard to claim that the success of the Assad forces is a result of any particular British or indeed western policy."

Just like Iraq, when the veil of lies and deceit is finally lifted, the truth will be plain to see.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 17:31

Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter five-year-old civil war.

The fighting has intensified over the last two months, as CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other while maneuvering through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed.

In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east.

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''Any faction that attacks us, regardless from where it gets its support, we will fight it,'' Maj. Fares Bayoush, a leader of Fursan al Haq, said in an interview.

Rebel fighters described similar clashes in the town of Azaz, a key transit point for fighters and supplies between Aleppo and the Turkish border, and on March 3 in the Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsud.

The attacks by one U.S.-backed group against another come amid continued heavy fighting in Syria and illustrate the difficulty facing U.S. efforts to coordinate among dozens of armed groups that are trying to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad, fight the Islamic State militant group and battle one another all at the same time.

''It is an enormous challenge,'' said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who described the clashes between U.S.-supported groups as ''a fairly new phenomenon.''

''It is part of the three-dimensional chess that is the Syrian battlefield,'' he said.

The area in northern Syria around Aleppo, the country's second-largest city, features not only a war between the Assad government and its opponents, but also periodic battles against Islamic State militants, who control much of eastern Syria and also some territory to the northwest of the city, and long-standing tensions among the ethnic groups that inhabit the area, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.

''This is a complicated, multi-sided war where our options are severely limited,'' said a U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. ''We know we need a partner on the ground. We can't defeat ISIL without that part of the equation, so we keep trying to forge those relationships.'' ISIL is an acronym for Islamic State.

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President Obama this month authorized a new Pentagon plan to train and arm Syrian rebel fighters, relaunching a program that was suspended in the fall after a string of embarrassing setbacks which included recruits being ambushed and handing over much of their U.S.-issued ammunition and trucks to an Al Qaeda affiliate.

Amid the setbacks, the Pentagon late last year deployed about 50 special operations forces to Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria to better coordinate with local militias and help ensure U.S.-backed rebel groups aren't fighting one another. But such skirmishes have become routine.

Last year, the Pentagon helped create a new military coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces. The goal was to arm the group and prepare it to take territory away from the Islamic State in eastern Syria and to provide information for U.S. airstrikes.

The group is dominated by Kurdish outfits known as People's Protection Units or YPG. A few Arab units have joined the force in order to prevent it from looking like an invading Kurdish army, and it has received air-drops of weapons and supplies and assistance from U.S. Special Forces.

Gen. Joseph Votel, now commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and the incoming head of Central Command, said this month that about 80% of the fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces were Kurdish. The U.S. backing for a heavily Kurdish armed force has been a point of tension with the Turkish government, which has a long history of crushing Kurdish rebellions and doesn't want to see Kurdish units control more of its southern border.

The CIA, meanwhile, has its own operations center inside Turkey from which it has been directing aid to rebel groups in Syria, providing them with TOW antitank missiles from Saudi Arabian weapons stockpiles.

While the Pentagon's actions are part of an overt effort by the U.S. and its allies against Islamic State, the CIA's backing of militias is part of a separate covert U.S. effort aimed at keeping pressure on the Assad government in hopes of prodding the Syrian leader to the negotiating table.

At first, the two different sets of fighters were primarily operating in widely separated areas of Syria '-- the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeastern part of the country and the CIA-backed groups farther west. But over the last several months, Russian airstrikes against anti-Assad fighters in northwestern Syria have weakened them. That created an opening which allowed the Kurdish-led groups to expand their zone of control to the outskirts of Aleppo, bringing them into more frequent conflict with the CIA-backed outfits.

''Fighting over territory in Aleppo demonstrates how difficult it is for the U.S. to manage these really localized and in some cases entrenched conflicts,'' said Nicholas A. Heras, an expert on the Syrian civil war at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington. ''Preventing clashes is one of the constant topics in the joint operations room with Turkey.''

Over the course of the Syrian civil war, the town of Marea has been on the front line of Islamic State's attempts to advance across Aleppo province toward the rest of northern Syria.

On Feb. 18, the Syrian Democratic Forces attacked the town. A fighter with the Suqour Al-Jabal brigade, a group with links to the CIA, said intelligence officers of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State know their group has clashed with the Pentagon-trained militias.

''The MOM knows we fight them,'' he said, referring to the joint operations center in southern Turkey, using an abbreviation for its name in Turkish, Musterek Operasyon Merkezi. ''We'll fight all who aim to divide Syria or harm its people.'' The fighter spoke on condition of anonymity.

Marea is home to many of the original Islamist fighters who took up arms against Assad during the Arab Spring in 2011. It has long been a crucial way station for supplies and fighters coming from Turkey into Aleppo.

''Attempts by Syrian Democratic Forces to take Marea was a great betrayal and was viewed as a further example of a Kurdish conspiracy to force them from Arab and Turkmen lands,'' Heras said.

The clashes brought the U.S. and Turkish officials to ''loggerheads,'' he added. After diplomatic pressure from the U.S., the militia withdrew to the outskirts of the town as a sign of good faith, he said.

But continued fighting among different U.S.-backed groups may be inevitable, experts on the region said.

''Once they cross the border into Syria, you lose a substantial amount of control or ability to control their actions,'' Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official, said in a telephone interview. ''You certainly have the potential for it becoming a larger problem as people fight for territory and control of the northern border area in Aleppo.''

Bulos is a special correspondent.

For more on U.S. national security, follow @WJHenn and @ByBrianBennett

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Wed, 30 Mar 2016 22:08

By Dylan Byers

04/13/15 01:29 PM EDT

The Long Island-based hedge-fund magnate who is helping bankroll Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign for the Republican nomination is also one of the top investors in the Breitbart News Network, sources with knowledge of the matter told the On Media blog on Monday.

Robert Mercer, the co-CEO of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, is the main donor behind a network of pro-Cruz super PACs that have raised at least $31 million to date, according to a recent New York Times report. Mercer has spent more than $15 million on conservative political campaigns and causes since 2012.

What the Times report did not mention is that Mercer is also one of the most generous backers for Breitbart News Network, a group of right-wing news and opinion site that command considerable influence among the conservative base.

Breitbart's early coverage of Cruz's presidential bid has been by turns effusive and critical. One recent profile portrayed Cruz as "the true Washington outsider" who has built "a formidable operation, all while sticking true to his aggressive conservatism." Four days later, the site published an article stating that Cruz was "poorly matched to defeat Hillary" and "damaged goods as far as presidential politics is concerned."

Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman at Breitbart, did not comment when asked whether Mercer's financial support would influence the site's coverage of Cruz and the 2016 presidential campaign. In a statement, spokesperson Kurt Bardella said Breitbart News "is a for-profit operation and we do not discuss our investors."

Before joining Renaissance Technologies, Mercer worked in I.B.M.'s research center. The Times report portrayed Mercer as a "reclusive," "low-profile" figure. "Intensely private, he has been described as 'an icy cold poker player' whose boss once jokingly called him 'an automaton,'" the Times reported.

Renaissance has also come in for scrutiny: Last year, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accused the firm "of using complex financial structures that allowed it to underestimate how much it owed the Internal Revenue Service by $6 billion," per the Times report. "The I.R.S. has been investigating Renaissance for at least six years. A spokesman for the firm said its tax practices were legal and appropriate."

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:46

.

Battery

At common law, an intentional unpermitted act causing harmful or offensive contact with the "person" of another.

Battery is concerned with the right to have one's body left alone by others.

Battery is both a tort and a crime. Its essential element, harmful or offensive contact, is the same in both areas of the law. The main distinction between the two categories lies in the penalty imposed. A defendant sued for a tort is civilly liable to the plaintiff for damages. The punishment for criminal battery is a fine, imprisonment, or both. Usually battery is prosecuted as a crime only in cases involving serious harm to the victim.

Elements

The following elements must be proven to establish a case for battery: (1) an act by a defendant; (2) an intent to cause harmful or offensive contact on the part of the defendant; and (3) harmful or offensive contact to the plaintiff.

The Act The act must result in one of two forms of contact. Causing any physical harm or injury to the victim'--such as a cut, a burn, or a bullet wound'--could constitute battery, but actual injury is not required. Even though there is no apparent bruise following harmful contact, the defendant can still be guilty of battery; occurrence of a physical illness subsequent to the contact may also be actionable. The second type of contact that may constitute battery causes no actual physical harm but is, instead, offensive or insulting to the victim. Examples include spitting in someone's face or offensively touching someone against his or her will.

Touching the person of someone is defined as including not only contacts with the body, but also with anything closely connected with the body, such as clothing or an item carried in the person's hand. For example, a battery may be committed by intentionally knocking a hat off someone's head or knocking a glass out of some-one's hand.

Intent Although the contact must be intended, there is no requirement that the defendant intend to harm or injure the victim. In Tort Law, the intent must be either specific intent'--the contact was specifically intended'--or general intent'--the defendant was substantially certain that the act would cause the contact. The intent element is satisfied in Criminal Law when the act is done with an intent to injure or with criminal negligence'--failure to use care to avoid criminal consequences. The intent for criminal law is also present when the defendant's conduct is unlawful even though it does not amount to criminal negligence.

Intent is not negated if the aim of the contact was a joke. As with all torts, however, consent is a defense. Under certain circumstances consent to a battery is assumed. A person who walks in a crowded area impliedly consents to a degree of contact that is inevitable and reasonable. Consent may also be assumed if the parties had a prior relationship unless the victim gave the defendant a previous warning.

There is no requirement that the plaintiff be aware of a battery at the time it is committed. The gist of the action is the lack of consent to contact. It is no defense that the victim was sleeping or unconscious at the time.

Harmful or Offensive Conduct It is not necessary for the defendant's wrongful act to result in direct contact with the victim. It is sufficient if the act sets in motion a force that results in the contact. A defendant who whipped a horse on which a plaintiff was riding, causing the plaintiff to fall and be injured, was found guilty of battery. Provided all other elements of the offense are present, the offense may also be committed by causing the victim to harm himself. A defendant who fails to act when he or she has a duty to do so is guilty'--as where a nurse fails to warn a blind patient that he is headed toward an open window, causing him to fall and injure himself.

Aggravated Battery

When a battery is committed with intent to do serious harm or murder, or when it is done with a dangerous weapon, it is described as aggravated. A weapon is considered dangerous whenever the purpose for using it is to cause death or serious harm. State statutes define aggravated battery in various ways'--such as assault with intent to kill. Under such statutes, assault means both battery and assault. It is punishable as a felony in all states.

Punishment

In a civil action for tortious battery, the penalty is damages. A jury determines the amount to be awarded, which in most cases is based on the harm done to the plaintiff. Even though a plaintiff suffers no actual injury, nominal damages (a small sum) may still be awarded on the theory that there has been an invasion of a right. Also, a court may award Punitive Damages aimed at punishing the defendant for the wrongful act.

Criminal battery is punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both. If it is considered aggravated the penalties are greater.

battery

n. the actual intentional striking of someone, with intent to harm, or in a "rude and insolent manner" even if the injury is slight. Negligent or careless unintentional contact is not battery no matter how great the harm. Battery is a crime and also the basis for a lawsuit as a civil wrong if there is damage. It is often coupled with "assault" (which does not require actual touching) in "assault and battery." (See: assault>

battery

noun assault, attack, beating, harmful physical contact, injurious force, offensive action, onslaught, unlawful hitting, unlawful striking, unlawful touchingAssociated concepts: assault and battery, simple batterybattery

see ASSAULT.BATTERY. It is proposed to consider, 1. What is a battery; 2. When a battery, may be justified. 2. - 1. A battery is the unlawful touching the person of another by the aggressor himself, or any other substance put in motion by him. 1 Saund. 29, b. n. 1; Id. 13 & 14, n. 3. It must be either willfully committed, or proceed from want of due care. Str. 596; Hob. 134; Plowd. 19 3 Wend. 391. Hence an injury, be it never so small, done to the person of another, in an angry, spiteful, rude or insolent manner, as by spitting in his face, or any way touching him in anger, or violently jostling him, are batteries in the eye of the law. 1 Hawk. P. C. 263. See 1 Selw. N. P. 33, 4. And any thing attached to the person partakes of its inviolability if, therefore, A strikes a cane in the hands of B, it is a battery. 1 Dall. 1 14 1 Ch. Pr. 37; 1 Penn. R. 380; 1 Hill's R. 46; 4 Wash. C. C. R. 534 . 1 Baldw. R. 600. 3. - 2. A battery may be justified, 1. on the ground of the parental relation 2. in the exercise of an office; 3. under process of a court of justice or other legal tribunal 4. in aid of an authority in law; and lastly, as a necessary means of defence. 4. First. As a salutary mode of correction. For example: a parent may correct his child, a master his apprentice, a schoolmaster his scholar; 24 Edw. IV.; Easter, 17, p. 6 and a superior officer, one under his command. Keilw. pl. 120, p. 136 Bull. N. P. 19 Bee, 161; 1 Bay, 3; 14 John. R. 119 15 Mass. 365; and vide Cowp. 173; 15 Mass. 347. 5. - 2. As a means to preserve the peace; and therefore if the plaintiff assaults or is fighting with another, the defendant may lay hands upon him, and restrain him until his anger is cooled; but he cannot strike him in order to protect 'the party assailed, as he way in self-defence. 2 Roll. Abr. 359, E, pl. 3. 6. - 3. Watchmen may arrest, and detain in prison for examination, persons walking in the streets by might, whom there is reasonable ground to suspect of felony, although there is no proof of a felony having been committed. 3 Taunt. 14. 7. - 4. Any person has a right to arrest another to prevent a felony. 8. - 5. Any one may arrest another upon suspicion of felony, provided a felony has actually been committed and there is reasonable ground for suspecting the person arrested to be the criminal, and that the party making the arrest, himself entertained the suspicion. 9. - 6. Any private individual may arrest a felon. Hale's P. C. 89. 10. - 7. It is lawful for every man to lay hands on another to preserve public decorum; as to turn him out of church, and to prevent him from disturbing the congregation or a funeral ceremony. 1 Mod. 168; and see 1 Lev. 196; 2 Keb. 124. But a request to desist should be first made, unless the urgent necessity of the case dispenses with it. 11. Secondly. A battery may be justified in the exercise of an office. 1. A constable may freshly arrest one who, in, his view, has committed a breach of the peace, and carry him before a magistrate. But if an offence has been committed out of the constable's sight, he cannot arrest, unless it amounts to a felony; 1 Brownl. 198 or a felony is likely to ensue. Cro. Eliz. 375. 12. - 2. A justice of the peace may generally do all acts which a constable has authority to perform hence he may freshly arrest one who, in his view has broken the peace; or he may order a constable at the moment to take him up. Kielw. 41. 13. Thirdly. A battery may be justified under the process of a court of justice, or of a magistrate having competent jurisdiction. See 16 Mass. 450; 13 Mass. 342. 14. Fourthly. A battery may be justified in aid of an authority in law. Every person is empowered to restrain breaches of the peace, by virtue of the authority vested in him by the law. 15. Lastly. A battery may be justified as a necessary means of defence. 1. Against the plaintiffs assaults in the following instances: In defence of himself, his wife, 3 Salk. 46, his child, and his servant. Ow. 150; sed vide 1 Salk. 407. So, likewise, the wife may justify a battery in defending her husband; Ld. Raym. 62; the child its parent; 3 Salk. 46; and the servant his master. In these situations, the party need not wait until a blow has been given, for then he might come too late, and be disabled from warding off a second stroke, or from protecting the person assailed. Care, however, must be taken, that the battery do not exceed the bounds of necessary defence and protection; for it is only permitted as a means to avert an impending evil, which might otherwise overwhelm the party, and not as a punishment or retaliation for the injurious attempt. Str. 953. The degree of force necessary to repel an assault will naturally depend upon, and be proportioned to, the violence of the assailant; but with this limitation any degree is justifiable. Ld. Raym. 177; 2 Salk. 642. 16. - 2. A battery may likewise be justified in the necessary defence of one's property; if the plaintiff is in the act of entering peaceably upon the defendant's land, or having entered, is discovered, not committing violence, a request to depart is necessary in the first instance; 2 Salk. 641; and if the plaintiff refuses, the defendant may then, and not till then, gently lay hands upon the plaintiff to remove him from the close and for this purpose may use, if necessary, any degree of force short of striking the plaintiff, as by thrusting him off. Skinn. 228. If the plaintiff resists, the defendant may oppose force to force. 8 T. R. 78. But if the plaintiff is in the act of forcibly entering upon the land, or having entered, is discovered subverting the soil, cutting down a tree or the like, 2 Salk. 641, a previous request is unnecessary, and the defendant may immediately lay hands upon the plaintiff. 8 T. R. 78. A man may justify a battery in defence of his personal property, without a previous request, if another forcibly attempt to take away such property. 2 Salk. 641. Vide Rudeness; Wantonness.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:12

He stressed he used marijuana responsibly, saying, ''I occasionally use it.''

He added, ''I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 29 years.''

''For me when I smoked marijuana when I was 17 years old for the first time, the first takeaway was holy cow this is so much better than alcohol! There just doesn't seem to be a downside,'' said the former governor.

When marijuana was legalized in Colorado, the campaign focused on saying that weed is healthier for you than alcohol. Johnson envisions the same tactics getting marijuana legalized on the federal level. He did admit, ''there's a downside to doing any thing all the time.''

The former governor is no longer at Cannabis Sativa Inc., as he resigned Jan. 1 to focus on his presidential run. However, Johnson is confident he will have had an impact on marijuana far into the future.

The former governor told TheDC, ''One of the assets that Cannabis Sativa has is a 'Sativa lozenge.' which I'm going to suggest is as good a marijuana high as exists on the planet. We can't legally produce it anywhere because its strain specific.''

Sativa is one of the two main marijuana subspecies used for consumption '-- the other being Indica.

''I was directly responsible for bringing the 'Hi' brand,'' said Johnson. He added, ''200 years from now this Sativa lozenge will exist under the brand name Hi.''

He stressed he used marijuana responsibly, saying, ''I occasionally use it.''

He added, ''I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 29 years.''

''For me when I smoked marijuana when I was 17 years old for the first time, the first takeaway was holy cow this is so much better than alcohol! There just doesn't seem to be a downside,'' said the former governor.

When marijuana was legalized in Colorado, the campaign focused on saying that weed is healthier for you than alcohol. Johnson envisions the same tactics getting marijuana legalized on the federal level. He did admit, ''there's a downside to doing any thing all the time.''

The former governor is no longer at Cannabis Sativa Inc., as he resigned Jan. 1 to focus on his presidential run. However, Johnson is confident he will have had an impact on marijuana far into the future.

The former governor told TheDC, ''One of the assets that Cannabis Sativa has is a 'Sativa lozenge.' which I'm going to suggest is as good a marijuana high as exists on the planet. We can't legally produce it anywhere because its strain specific.''

Sativa is one of the two main marijuana subspecies used for consumption '-- the other being Indica.

''I was directly responsible for bringing the 'Hi' brand,'' said Johnson. He added, ''200 years from now this Sativa lozenge will exist under the brand name Hi.''

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 04:55

Someone clearly offended by Donald Trump's presidential campaign took action this weekend to symbolically bury his aspirations.

A tombstone displaying the name "Trump" below a cross surfaced in Central Park in the vicinity of the Tavern on the Green. The stone for "Donald J." adds a year of birth (1946), but no date of death.

The epitaph on the gravestone: "Made America Hate Again."

Photos of the tombstone popped up on Instagram, Twitter and several websites.

The headstone was removed by Sunday evening. There were no clues as to who placed it there, but a spokesperson at the city Parks Department said its workers hauled the gravestone away.

Published 6 hours ago

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 04:14

Benjamin Aaron "Ben" Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American political commentator, nationally syndicated columnist, author, radio talk show host, and attorney.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Shapiro graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard Law School. He has written six books, the first of which was 2004's Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, written when he was 17 years old. He currently writes a column for Creators Syndicate and is editor-in-chief at The Daily Wire. He is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the media watchdog group TruthRevolt.[1]

Early life[edit]Shapiro was born in Los Angeles, California.[2] Skipping two grades (third and ninth), Shapiro switched between public and private elementary schools and graduated from Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles in 2000 at age 16.[3][4] Shapiro graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2004 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2007.[5]

His third book, Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House, was published by Thomas Nelson in 2008.

In 2011, HarperCollins published Shapiro's fourth book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV, in which Shapiro argues that Hollywood has a left-wing agenda which it actively promotes through primetime entertainment programming. For the book, Shapiro interviewed many in the entertainment industry.[6] In an interview with Thom Hartmann on RT's The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, Shapiro cited the children's show Sesame Street as an example of left-wing propaganda.[7] Shapiro also interviewed several producers who said that Happy Days and M*A*S*H had an intended pro-pacifist orientation.[8] Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times questioned Shapiro citing The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Simpsons as examples, and Goldstein argued that those shows have "gone over like gangbusters with middle America."[6] The same year Primetime Propaganda came out, Shapiro became a fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.[9]

In 2013, Threshold Editions published Shapiro's fifth book, Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans. Bullies is Shapiro's first book to be listed on The New York Times Best Seller List; the book debuted at #32 in the combined print and e-book nonfiction list on January 27.[10]

On October 7, 2013, Shapiro co-founded the TruthRevolt media watchdog website in association with the David Horowitz Freedom Center. The site was intended to be a conservative counterpart to Media Matters for America.[11] Shapiro resigned as the site's editor-in-chief in April 2015.[1]

Breitbart.com[edit]In 2012, Shapiro became editor-at-large of Breitbart.com, a news and opinion website founded by Andrew Breitbart.[12] He resigned from Breitbart in March 2016.[13][14]

Gun control debate on Piers Morgan Live[edit]In January and May 2013, Shapiro was invited onto Piers Morgan Live to debate gun control.[15] Some media reports said that Morgan lost the debate,[16][17] in which Morgan slammed down a copy of the United States Constitution that Shapiro provided and calling it "your little book." Shapiro called Morgan a "bully" for arguing that conservatives are heartless in the face of gun deaths as opposed to debating the statistics, and Morgan said Shapiro believed that gun rights are meant to provide ordinary citizens the means to defend themselves against government tyranny.[18][19]

Following the debate, conservative news outlets criticized CNN for liberal bias for posting only a very small portion of the debate, leaving out many of Shapiro's critical conservative points.[20] Portions that were excised including Shapiro calling out Morgan's position on focusing on a ban for assault rifles when the majority of gun-related crime is perpetrated by those with handguns, as well as disproportionately attacking the National Rifle Association for its broad interpretation of second amendment rights without similarly attacking the American Civil Liberties Union for its broad interpretation of first amendment rights when it comes to citizens' rights to purchase and play with violent video games.

"Friends of Hamas" story[edit]On February 7, 2013, Shapiro published an article citing unspecified Senate sources who said that a group named "Friends of Hamas" was among foreign contributors to the political campaign of Chuck Hagel, a former US Senator awaiting confirmation as Secretary of Defense as a nominee of President Barack Obama. In the article, Shapiro criticized the Obama administration for ignoring his questions about Hagel's foreign associations and called for full disclosure of Hagel's foreign ties.[21]

On February 20, Slate reporter David Weigel reported that he could not find any convincing evidence "Friends of Hamas" actually existed, based on personal interviews with Senate staffers, the conservative Center for Security Policy, and the US Treasury Department Terror Sponsors list.[22] Shapiro told Weigel that the story he published was "the entirety of the information [he] had."[23]

Subsequently, New York Daily News reporter Dan Friedman reported on February 20 that he may have been the unwitting source of the "Friends of Hamas" allegation. Friedman said that the story arose in the course of questioning Republican aides over Hagel's connections to foreign terrorist groups, presuming that one of the aides had interpreted his asking about such political connections as evidence of their existence.[24] Shapiro responded by reporting that his source had averred that Friedman was not a source.[25][26]

In an interview with Salon.com, Shapiro said the following in regard to the controversy: ''We're all striving for some semblance of truth, even if there's angles to it. When people make corrections or find things that I do wrong, it doesn't upset me. It urges me to do better.''[27]

Perspective on Israel[edit]In a column written for Townhall.com in 2003, Shapiro proposed to expel the Palestinian population from the West Bank. Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg said, "this was the position of the extremist Meir Kahane, who was banned by the Israeli Supreme Court from participating in Israeli politics because of his racist views."[28] In the article, Shapiro states that "if Germans, who had a centuries-old connection to the newly created Polish territory, could be expelled, then surely Palestinians, whose claim to Judea, Samaria and Gaza is dubious at best, can be expelled."

A decade later, however, Shapiro abandoned this position. In an article published on March 13, 2013, Shapiro wrote, "Some on the right have proposed population transfer from the Gaza Strip or West Bank as a solution. This is both inhumane and impractical. Moving millions of Palestinians out of areas they have known for their entire lives will certainly not pave the way to peace" and while "both right and left agree that a population separation is necessary," he proposes that Israel "has no choice but to weather [the anti-Israeli propaganda]" until a realistic solution comes to light.[29] More recently, Mr. Shapiro publicly tweeted "using the word 'Palestine' is silly, since it doesn't exist."[30]

UCLA BDS proposal[edit]On February 25, 2014, the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC) convened to consider a resolution for the university to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. Shapiro appeared at his alma mater to deliver counterarguments to the resolution that were embraced with wide acceptance from the crowd.[31] Shapiro pointed out the hypocrisy of the selective moral outrage in targeting Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, which was described as far less egregious than the human rights violations carried out by other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, and by groups such as the Palestinians themselves. He pointed to the differences between Israel and the rest of the countries in the Middle East as it relates to the treatment of sexual and religious freedom and diversity, and made the claim that the BDS Movement is fueled not by true concern for human rights but instead by antisemitism.[32]

Radio and television[edit]Shapiro guest hosts regularly for major talk show hosts including nationally syndicated hosts Jerry Doyle and Rusty Humphries. From May 2, 2010 to 2011, he hosted The Ben Shapiro Show on the Orlando, Florida talk radio station WEUS.[33] Shapiro currently acts a co-host on "The Morning Answer" on KRLA 870 Los Angeles and KTIE 590 San Bernardino with Brian Whitman and Elisha Krauss. The show was listed as #80 on Talkers Heavy Hundred list of top 100 radio shows in the country.[34]

Between January 2014 and August 2015, Shapiro hosted a talk radio program in Seattle with a Bonneville Communications station, KTTH.[35] Shapiro split time in Los Angeles and continued to broadcast on "The Morning Answer."[36]

Legal[edit]After graduating from Harvard Law School in 2007, Shapiro briefly practiced law at the Los Angeles office of Goodwin Procter LLP but now does independent legal consulting for major media clients.[37]

In July 2015, Shapiro and transgender rights activist Zoey Tur were on Dr. Drew On Call to discuss Caitlyn Jenner's receipt of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.[38][39] Shapiro announced publicly that he had filed a police report after Tur had grabbed his neck and threatened on air to send him "home in an ambulance."[40][41]

Campus lectures[edit]Shapiro frequently speaks at a number of college campuses across the country, often to present his conservative viewpoint on more controversial subjects.

In November of 2015, in the wake of the protests at the University of Missouri, Shapiro was invited by the campus's chapter of the College Republicans, in conjunction with Young America's Foundation, to speak at the university. The speech, entitled "The Truth is a Microaggression," was critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, safe spaces, microaggressions, and other aspects of American college campuses and the behavior of modern college students.[42] The theater in which he spoke was filled to capacity as over 400 people attended, and the live-stream of the event was viewed by over 130,000 people.[43]

On February 25, 2016, Shapiro gave a speech at California State University, Los Angeles entitled "When Diversity Becomes a Problem." Shapiro's speech focused on how the concepts of microaggressions and safe spaces were being used to suppress free speech in the name of diversity of skin color, while ignoring the value of diversity of thought.[44] In response to the announcement of the speech, hosted by the campus's chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, student protesters demanded that the speech be cancelled, labeling it as "hate speech." The university's president, William Covino, eventually announced the cancellation of the speech three days before it was to take place, with the intention of rescheduling it so that the event could feature Shapiro debating someone with opposing viewpoints.[45] In response to the cancellation, Shapiro said he would be attending the event anyway, and several lawsuits were threatened against the university for canceling the speech. As a result, Covino ultimately backed down and allowed the speech to go on as planned.[46] The day of the speech, hundreds of student protesters formed human chains to block the doors to the theater where the event was to be held, shoving away anyone who attempted to enter and starting several fights in the crowded lobby. Some students were ultimately able to enter the theater by being sneaked in through back doors, though the protesters soon found out and barricaded those doors as well. Shapiro eventually made it into the theater and began his speech, only for a fire alarm to be pulled by one of the protesters; Shapiro continued speaking regardless, calling Covino "cowardly" and referring to the protesters as "spoiled brat snowflakes" and "fascists."[47] After the speech ended, Shapiro had to be escorted out a secret exit by police and his own bodyguards, while those inside the theater were told that they could not leave since the protesters were preventing anyone from leaving. Only after Shapiro left did the protesters eventually disperse, and those inside the theater were allowed to exit.[48]

Departure from Breitbart[edit]In March 2016, Shapiro resigned from his position as editor-at-large of Breitbart.com following the website's lack of support for reporter Michelle Fields, in response to her alleged assault by Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's campaign manager.

Personal life[edit]Shapiro married Mor Toledano in 2008; both practice Orthodox Judaism.[49][50] Together, they have a daughter born in 2014.[51] Shapiro's cousin is former child actress turned stage actress Mara Wilson.[52]

Bibliography[edit]See also[edit]References[edit]^ abAdams, T. Becket (April 30, 2015). "Ben Shapiro out, TruthRevolt in turmoil as Horowitz denies shutdown reports". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 7 January 2016. ^"Justin Bieber a symptom of a big problem". KTTH. ^Pope, Justin (June 10, 2004). "School liberalism blasted". Deseret News. Associated Press. Retrieved June 27, 2011. ^"Ben Shapiro: Proud Torah- Observant Jew and Rising Star in America's Conservative Movement"(PDF). Zman Magazine. March 2012. p. 57. In his early years in public school, he skipped from second grade into fourth...[Shapiro] skipped ninth grade... ^"Ben Shapiro". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved 2016-01-03. ^ abGoldstein, Patrick (June 13, 2011). "'Propaganda' is hard to prove". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 27, 2011. ^Hartmann, Thom (June 8, 2011). "Is Sesame Street subverting children with a liberal bias?". The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann. YouTube. ^Lawson, Mark (June 29, 2011). "Is US TV too leftwing?". The Guardian. Retrieved June 29, 2011. ^Glazov, Jamie (May 31, 2011). "Primetime Propaganda". FrontPage Magazinee. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^"Combined print & e-book nonfiction". New York Times. January 27, 2013. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^"Ben Shapiro: TruthRevolt Will Make MSM 'Pay' for Lies, Change 'Nature of Media'". Big Journalism. 2013-10-07. Retrieved 2013-11-18. ^Weigel, David (March 21, 2012). "Meet the Breitbarts". Slate. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^Cassandra Vinograd. "Breitbart's Michelle Fields, Ben Shapiro Resign Over Trump Incident". NBC News. Retrieved 14 March 2016. ^"Breitbart reporter, editor resign over response to alleged assault by Trump campaign manager". Fox News. Retrieved 14 March 2016. ^YouTube.com Ben Shapiro vs. Piers Morgan^Mr. Conservative.comPiers Morgan Ben Shapiro Exchange Insults on Gun Ban, Shapiro Destroys Morgan, February 2013^Breitbart.comCNN's Morgan Slams Down Constitution, Calls it "Your Little Book" January 10, 2013^Daily Caller.comPiers Morgan Loses Gun Control Debate to Ben Shapiro, January 11, 2013^"Right to Bear Arms Quotes". www.revolutionary-war.net. Retrieved 2016-02-02. ^Newsbusters.comCNN slashes Piers Morgan Ben Shapiro Segments, January 15, 2013^Shapiro, Ben (February 7, 2013). "Secret Hagel Donor?: White House Spox Ducks Question on 'Friends of Hamas'". Big Peace. Breitbart.com. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^Weigel, David (February 20, 2013). ""Friends of Hamas": The Scary-Sounding Pro-Hagel Group That Doesn't Actually Exist". Slate. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^Christopher, Tommy (February 20, 2013). "Secret Hagel Donor?: White House Ducks Questions On 'Fox And Friends Of Hamas'". Mediaite. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^Friedman, Dan (February 20, 2013). "'Friends of Hamas': My role in the birth of a rumor". New York Daily News. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^Christopher, Tommy (February 21, 2013). "The Young Turks Guest Catches Breitbart News' Ben Shapiro In 'Friends Of Hamas' Lie". Mediaite. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^Trotter, J.K. (February 20, 2013). "'Friends of Hamas' Rumor Debunked by Reporter Who Accidentally Started It". The Atlantic Wire. Retrieved February 22, 2013. ^Alex Seitz-Wald. "Is this baby-faced blogger the next Andrew Breitbart?". salon.com. ^Goldberg, Jeffrey (February 20, 2013). "Prominent Hagel Detractor Endorses Fascistic Vision of Israel". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 25, 2013. ^"What Can Israel Do? '' Ben Shapiro". Townhall.com. 2013-03-13. p. 1. Retrieved 2013-11-18. ^Shapiro, Ben. Twitter. Ben Shapiro https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/712047311287877632. Retrieved 29 March 2016. ^Ben Shapiro at UCLA USAC meeting on BDS proposal, February 28, 2014^Breitbart.comShapiro crashes UCLA hearing on BDS, February 26, 2014^"Ben Shapiro joins The Big 810 AM in Orlando". Radio Business Report. May 15, 2010. Retrieved December 4, 2011. ^"2013 Heavy Hundred 61''80". Talkers.Com. Retrieved 2013-11-18. ^"Ben Shapiro explains departure from AM 770 KTTH", MyNorthwest.com (Bonneville Communications), August 20, 2015 ^"Radio Ink Magazine". radioink.com. ^"Ben Shapiro: Proud Torah-Observant Jew and Rising Star in America's Conservative Movement"(PDF). Zman Magazine. March 2012. p. 57. He practiced law for a while at the Los Angeles office of Goodwin Procter LLP. Today he serves as an independent legal counsel for large media clients, running Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting in Los Angeles. ^http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ben-shapiro-files-complaint-transgender-reporter-tur-article-1.2298804^http://www.newsweek.com/conservative-editor-files-police-report-against-transgender-reporter-after-355851^"Jewish pundit, trans journalist in on-air spat". The Times of Israel. ^Andrew Tobin (21 July 2015). "WATCH: Trans journalist threatens right-wing Jewish pundit during on-air spat". Haaretz.com. ^"University of Missouri Audience Applauds as Ben Shapiro Rips Aggressive Professor". Breitbart.com. ^"Conservative Commentator Crashes Mizzou Safe Space". The Daily Signal. ^"Ben Shapiro Torches Cal State LA Faculty in 'Diversity' Speech". Breitbart.com. ^"University President Shuts Down Conservative Journalist's Speech, Citing "Free Exchange of Ideas"". Mediaite. ^"In Reversal, Cal State LA President Allows Conservative Pundit Ben Shapiro to Speak at Campus Event". KTLA 5. ^"Shapiro Speech at Cal State Marred by Blockaded Doors". The Daily Caller. ^"Ben Shapiro escorted by police from CSULA due to angry protesters". ABC 7. ^Glazov, Jamie (May 13, 2004). "Brainwashed". FrontPage Magazine. Retrieved June 27, 2011. ^[1]Archived January 28, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.^Shapirop, Ben (Feb 5, 2014). "Letter to My Newborn Daughter". Townhall. Retrieved 29 September 2015. ^"Justin Bieber a symptom of a big problem". KTTH. External links[edit]

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 15:23

Another year has come and gone, and what a year it has been here at Pornhub Insights! We had lots of fun this year, crunching the numbers and delivering the data on the porn viewing habits of many different types of Pornhub viewers. We took a look at how everything and anything from the Super Bowl to Marilyn Monroe's birthday to Storm Juno affected search behaviors and traffic rates on the site. Whether you're a My Little Pony aficionado, an Android worshipper or BDSM enthusiast, Pornhub Insights has had you covered in 2015. Like we've done in 2013 and 2014 before, today we're coming at you with our annual year in review, to revisit some of our favorite Insights of 2015, along with a bunch of brand new stats. This year, we have also invited renowned psychologist, sex therapist and author of The Sex Bible for People over 50, Dr Laurie Betito, to comment on some of this year's findings.

The world watched a lot of porn this year. It's kind of almost impossible to fully wrap your mind around just how much exactly, but this infographic breaks it down nicely. In 2015 alone, we streamed 75GB of data a second, which translates to enough porn to fill the storage in around 175 million 16GB iPhones. ''Love'' remains the most commonly featured word in Pornhub comments, which is interestingly something that we happen to have in common with another widely used platform often featuring depictions of scantily clad babes. #Love was the most popular hashtag on Instagram this year as well.

TRAFFIC TRENDSSome interesting rank changes took place over the course of the year, with regards to the countries that bring the most visitors to Pornhub. The United States remains at the top, with American visitors accounting for about 41% of our overall traffic, followed by the United Kingdom in at second place. India knocks Canada out of 3rd place with a one rank postion gain, though this year's most notable chart climbers are Japan and the Philippines in at 12th and 16th place respectively, thanks to the 3 spot jumps achieved by each. Belgium makes a return to the list this year, rounding it out in 20th place.

We all spent a little more time on Pornhub this year, too. When we put together last year's report, the worldwide average length for a visit to Pornhub was 9 minutes and 16 seconds. ''This indicates that most people are not 'addicted' in a way that they spend all of their time on porn, or doing little else with their time,'' notes Dr. Laurie. ''Your average person only stays long enough to find what they like and masturbate to it.'' Over the course of 2015, this figure extended by 4 seconds, with the average session duration now clocking in at 9:20. This likely has to do with the fact that we are spending more time on line, in general. eMarketer reports that we are now spending an average of 5.6 hours online per day, up from 5.3 in 2014. The countries with the lengthiest average visit durations also each added a few seconds their their times. The Philippines remain in the top spot with visits here lasting a leisurely 12:45 on average, which is 5 seconds longer than last year. The US added 11 seconds to their average time on site. India added over a minute to their now 9:30 average since last year, whereas France's 9:09 average visit length remains exactly the same to where it was at in 2014. On the other hand, Pornhub viewers in countries like Cuba, Mongolia and Kazakhstan tend to keep their sessions short and sweet, with average visit lengths ranging from just over 5 minutes to around 6.5 minutes.

We also took a look at which states last the longest and which have the shortest average visit times. Over in Hawaii, Mississippi and South Carolina, visits last well over 10 and a half minutes, whereas in Rhode Island and Utah, sessions last just over 9 minutes on average. Interestingly, states with longer average session times tend to be located in the south, whereas those with shorter average session times are central or more northern. Dr. Laurie indicates that this is an ''interesting finding since we often associate the American south with more religious conservatism.''

Back in November we published Pornhub's Fappy Hour, which outlined which times of the day and which days of the week Americans most visited Pornhub. Below we've got this same data, but on a worldwide level. To calculate this, we adjusted the data to compensate for the differing time zones around the world. Overall, the majority of visits to the site take place between 9 pm and midnight, after which they drop off drastically between the early morning hours. Traffic then builds back up over the course of the day, with a notable afternoon delight spike at 4 pm, then dipping again during the dinnertime hours after which it begins to climb again at 9. ''The peak in the afternoon indicates that people are likely logging on at work. [Maybe 4pm is] when they want to rest their brains perhaps and look for distractions?'' posits Dr. Laurie.

This is the pattern that is largely followed on weekdays, during which people are likely sticking to a more regimented routine. On the weekend however, peak hours change and vary, when users are sticking to less strict schedules during their days off from work. Specifically, we see well below average traffic rates during the evening hours on Saturdays, when people tend to be out enjoying themselves, not needing to worry about an early start the next morning. Similarly, we see a spike during the early morning hours on Sunday between 1-4, likely coming from these same people getting a quick session in before bed after their night out. As a result, we see traffic again dipping below average between 5-8 am on Sunday, as users don't have to rush to get their early morning Pornhub time in before heading out to work. Dr. Laurie suggests that ''these results may indicate that porn watching is linked to leisure but not as a priority for people. Most people still value human social interaction above solo sex.''

THE SEARCH IS ONAnd now for a look at what was searched for the most on Pornhub over the course of the last 12 months. In 2015 'lesbian' was the most searched term on the site. Lady-on-lady loving is also the type of content that happens to be the most popular among our female viewers and as we'll see a little later on in our coverage, our female viewership has also grown over the course of the past year. This may be what finally pushed 'lesbian' into the number one spot. ''Research by Dr. Meredith Chivers of Queens University has shown that women are aroused by all kinds of sexual activity/imagery, whether they are gay or straight, while straight men are usually not aroused by gay porn and gay men generally not aroused by straight porn,'' notes Dr. Laurie. ''It could be that the sexual acts they see on lesbian porn is what they favor (mostly cunnilingus), or simply that they get aroused to such a variety of imagery that it is difficult to pinpoint true desires versus what their bodies respond to.'' Other big gaining search terms this year were 'black' with a 16 rank placement jump and 'celebrity sex tape' with a 47 place jump. Family favorite 'step mom and son' jumped an astonishing 71 places, making it the 15th most searched term on Pornhub, in the world. Dr. Laurie suggests that ''taboo acts will always rank high simply because it's taboo. It's also only in fantasy and it usually stays there, as compared to threesomes which are often desired in real life for example.''

We'll continue with a list of the terms that had the most significant proportional search gains from 2014 to 2015. At the top of the list is 'giantess' with an impressive 1091% gain. In case you're unfamiliar, in this context giantess refers to the depiction of a larger than life woman getting down with some very tiny men. Other impressive gainers include 'celebrity sex tape' with an 829% increase over the course of the last year (thanks Kim!) and 'man eating pussy' with a 769% gain. ''This one may be due to the increase in number of women viewing'' the site, suggests Dr. Laurie.

Over in the US, 'lesbian' got knocked down from the number one spot as the most searched term in the land, and has been replaced by 'step mom'. 'Celebrity sex tape' here also made an impressive 39 spot leap, indicative of a 553% search increase over the course of the last year and lands in at 12th place. However, it's 'hardcore lesbian scissoring' that had the biggest gain over the course of the last year in America, to the tune of an impressive 918% increase.

Did you know that searches for BBW content have gone up 47% since 2013? Check out our Big Beautiful Data post for more stats on lovely larger ladies.

Click through this gallery to see where our top terms are searched for the most and least throughout the world. Some interesting trends pop out here. For one, searches for 'cartoon' and 'lesbian' are much more prominent in the western hemisphere, and searches for 'black' increase in popularity in the US and southern Africa. Searches for 'step mom' and 'step sister' are proportionally higher in English speaking countries, whereas our users in most of Asia and Africa don't seem to be overly interested in content featuring squirting.

SEARCHING AROUND THE WORLDIn this next section we're going to break down the top 10 searches, top gaining searches, top 3 categories, top 3 porn stars and top 3 relative searches, meaning the terms that are searched for the most in that specific location compared to the rest of the world, for each one of our top 20 countries. We'll begin with the good old US of A.

In the country that brings the most visitors to Pornhub, search terms like ''black,'' ''step mom and son'' and ''threesome'' are searched for proportionally more than anywhere else around the globe.

Over in the United Kingdom, 'british chav' climbed an impressive 23 spots to land in at number 9 as the most searched for term there, and is also the top relative search. Searches for the term were also up 312% over last year. What's also really interesting here is that 'indian' shows up in third place on the UK's top relative searches, likely having to do with the sizable Indian population residing there. ''Recent research from Royal Holloway University has shown that we are attracted to and trust, people who look like us. So it stands to reason that countries with specific populations (''black'' ''indian'' ''asian'') will search for those words,'' posits Dr. Laurie.

Some interesting changes over in India. While the vast majority of top, gaining and relative searches here contain 'indian,' search terms 'japanese' and 'indonesia' both made some impressive leaps to get into the top 10 list with 14 and 47 place jumps respectively. Bollywood babe Sunny Leone (NSFW) is the top searched porn star.

While Canada is one of the few countries that does not feature its own nationality as a top searched term, searches for 'canadian' were in fact up by 188% over the course of the last year. How's that for patriotism, eh? 'Anal' is also up 8 spots, now sitting in at 9th place on the country's list of top search terms.

Germany comes in 5th place on Pornhub's list of top 20 countries and has some very patriotic search habits indeed. 'German' remains the top searched for term by a long shot, followed by others like 'german milf' in thirdplace, 'deutsch' in fourth and 'german amateur' in 5th. 'Step mom' searches increased by 180% in Germany, where homegirl Lexy Roxx (NSFW) is the top searched porn star in the land.

The step mom craze on Pornhub appears to have transcended language as well. In France, searches for 'belle mere' which is the french translation of the term, have increased by a solid 190% from 2014 to today. Local lady Clara Morgane (NSFW) slides into second place on the list of top searched porn stars and the category with the most views in the country that's home to the city of love is Anal.

Down under in Australia searches for step relatives are all the rage. 'Step mom' and 'step sister' land in at the number 2 and number 8 spots for most searched terms in the country, both with some impressive gains over last year. Similarly, the top gaining searches here are 'step mom shower' with a 310% increase and 'step sister caught' with a 283% growth in searches since 2014.

Over in the bootshaped country, searches for 'footjob' and 'feet' were quite popular in 2015. Nabbing the 5th and 9th spots in Italy, the 2 terms also showed search increases of 82% and 68% respectively. The biggest gainer this year by far, however, was 'amatoriale napoli,' translating to 'amateur Naples' which climbed an impressive 99 spots to secure the 4th place rank, which is representative of a 411% search increase.

Searches for '3D hentai' were up almost 700% in Brazil this year. Similarly, 'cartoon' is now the second most searched term in the country, up 6 spots from last year, and searches for 'pokemon' and 'scooby doo' are up 157% and 134% respectively. Basically brazilians really got into animated porn this year, explained possibly by the fact that Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, where this type of content is also quite popular. Local porn stars Kid Bengala (NSFW) and Marcia Imperator (NSFW) are the 1st and 3rd most searched for in their homeland.

Over in Mexico, megababe Mujer Luna Bella (NSFW) claims the top spot as the most searched for porn star in the country. Searches for step mom are up 116%, not to be outshined by the more local variant 'mexican mom' for which searches increased by a respectable 230% this year.

It's all about My Little Pony in Russia. Searches are up a clopping whopping 438% since 2014 and the term jumped an astonishing 133 places to slide in at 7th place on the list of most searched terms in the country. The California-born babe with the Russian sounding name, Sasha Grey (NSFW), is top searched porn star in the country.

The patriotism is strong over in Japan in that the vast majority of top, gaining and relative searches contain 'japanese'. The top gaining term in Pornhub's 12th ranked country is 'japanese tickle' with a solid 404% increase. All of the porn stars on the list here, Ai Uehara (NSFW), Yuma Asami (NSFW) and Yui Hatano (NSFW), hail from Japan.

In spot number lucky 13 comes Spain. In this lovely Mediterranean country, they like their ladies a little more on the seasoned side. Mature is the most viewed category here and searches 'maduras espanolas' or 'spanish swingers' increased by 456% since 2014. Barcelona bad boy Nacho Vidal (NSFW) is the most searched for porn star in the country.

Who says the best porn needs to feature real life actors? This isn't necessarily the case down in the Netherlands, where 'cartoon' is up 6 spots on the list of top searched terms, in at number 8. Searches for the term increased by 46% over the course of the last year. ''Cartoon sex searches certainly indicate the level of fantasy that porn offers,'' notes Dr. Laurie. ''My hypothesis is that the rise can probably be attributed to the frequency with which many people engage in gaming, hence spending lots of time in a world of fantasy. The [desire to watch] sex with cartoons can be an extension of this.''

The step mom craze continues over in Poland, where searches are up 171%, nabbing the 4th spot rank on the list of the top 10 most searched terms. BDSM searches were also up 88% this year. Searches for 'czech' are down 6 points, now ranking it at spot number 10.

Japanese mega babe Maria Ozawa (NSFW) is the most searched for porn star in the Philippines. Incidentally, 'japanese' is also the 5th most searched for term in the island nation. Otherwise, they are keeping it local with search terms like 'pinoy,' 'pinay' and 'filipina' dominating the top 10 list.

If you're looking for the 'worlds biggest dick,' you may want to consult a swede as they really appear to have done their research this year. Searches for this term specifically are up 338% in Sweden.

It's all about the homegrown in Argentina, where 'argentina,' and 'argentino' are the nation's top searched terms. When we look at the top gaining searches in the country, 'jovencitas argenatinas' meaning 'young argentinians,' and 'argentina casero' which translates to 'argenitina home' showed increases of 176% and 159% respectively.

If you're looking for a country where searches for 'Scooby Doo' porn increased considerably this year, look no further than Romania. In the country famous for being home to Dracula, homegirl Alina Plugaru (NSFW) is the most searched for porn star.

Belgium is one of the few European countries that does not feature its own nationality on its list of top searched terms. Rather, 'french' takes the top spot, followed by 'massage' in 2nd. 'Arab' takes 10th place, which is perhaps explained by Lebanese born babe Mia Khalifa claiming second place on the country's list of top searched porn stars.

LEADING LADIESDid you know that Pornhub's most viewed video of all time is the very NSFW 'Kim Kardashian Sex Tape With Ray J'? As such, Kim K nabs the top spot as most searched for porn star on Pornhub this year, followed closely by pro athlete fave Mia Khalifa (NSFW) and then MILF queen Lisa Ann (NSFW) in 3rd. We saw an increase in India's traffic shares this year, which may account for the considerable 8 spot climb by the country's number one babe Sunny Leone (NSFW) this year. Pornhub viewers also seem to really be enjoying Riley Reed's videos, who is up 7 spots, perhaps thanks to the release of her first anal scene (NSFW) this year. Brunette babes August Ames (NSFW) and Dillion Harper (NSFW) were also being searched for a lot more this year, as indicated by their 46 and 18 respective rank jumps.

It was quite the year for the Library Girl herself, Kendra Sunderland (NSFW), who tops the list for the porn star with the highest proportion of search increases over the course of the last year with a whopping 3869% gain. Searches for Floridian foxy lady Peta Jensen (NSFW) were up 3246% and for our near sextronaut and Digital Playground contract star Eva Lovia (NSFW) at778%.

CATEGORICAL ANALYSISNot only was 'Lesbian' 2015's top searched term on Pornhub, it also happens to be the category with the highest number of views. The 'Teen' category holds it down in second place, followed by the 'Big Dick' category which is up one spot at third place. Some new and evidently quite popular categories were added to Pornhub this year, namely 'Babysitter' sitting in at 12th place and 'Cartoon' in at number 20. The 'Public' category jumped an impressive 30 spots and is currently the 19th most viewed category on the site. Formerly known as the 'Outdoor' category, the name change is likely what brought about the sizable jump.

This heat map switches things up a little and shows us where which of our top categories claim the number one rank as most viewed in different countries around the world. As you can see, there's lots of red on the map, indicating the tremendous popularity of the Lesbian category in countries like the United States, Canada Norway, Finalnd, Australia, Morocco and Guatemala, to name a few. There's a decent amount of yellow on there too, showing how much countries like Mexico and India enjoy the Teen category. Most of Africa lights up in the sage color denoting the popularity of the Ebony category there.

WHAT WOMEN WANTSome of our favorite Insights posts to date out have focused on gender demographics which we are able to compile and study thanks to anonymized data from our web analytics tool. It's very interesting to study the different ways that men and women use and interact with the site. Up next we've got the latest on how the ladies get down with Pornhub. As we mentioned a little earlier on, our female viewer base has grown over the course of the last year. In 2014's year in review, we reported that 23% of our visitors were from members of the fairer sex, and we are now up to 24% at the end of 2015. Well done ladies! Dr. Laurie believes that ''this number will likely keep increasing as more and more women are feeling empowered about their sexuality and experience less shame in liking sex. More and more women are also more open about masturbation (doing it and talking about it!)''

Within our top 20 countries, these proportions are up across the board as well. The Philippines still holds in down with the largest share of female viewers at 35%, up from 34% last year. India's proportion went up from 26% in 2014 to 30% this year with similar increases noted in Australia which went from 25% last year to 28% today and in the United States where female viewership is now up to 23% from just 21% the year before. There is also a high proportion of female viewers in many Caribbean and Central and South American countries like Jamaica, Nicaragua and Honduras, all hovering around the 40% mark. This heat map demonstrates where Pornhub has the highest proportions of women visiting from throughout the world.

Interestingly, we see that there are higher than average proportions of female viewers south of the equator. On to top searches. 'Lesbian' remains at the top of the list for the ladies this year, followed by 'threesome' and squirt. Ladies are more interested in lesbian and group sex content, based on what we see here. Men on the mother other hand are more into watching maternal figures get it on. The top searched term among our male viewers is 'step mom,' followed by 'milf' in third and 'mom' in fourth place. Both sexes have a serious step parent fetish though, with 'step dad daughter' ranking in at 11th place with the ladies and 'step mom son' coming in at 9th with the dudes.

Straight dudes, it's time to really start paying attention. We've found that women are much more interested in watching porn featuring men performing cunnilingus than men. Searches like 'guy licking pussy' and 'man eating pussy' are searched for over 930% more by women than men. So basically, if you're still trying to figure out what women want, it's that. We'll take a look at categories next.

Again, women are predominantly drawn to categories featuring Lesbian and Gay male content, while men gravitate towards our Teen and Big Dick categories the most. The categories that get viewed significantly more often by women aside from the obvious 'For Women' category, again feature group, rough and lesbian/gay sex. Let's see which porn stars were the most popular among the ladies this year.

Reality/porn stars Kim Kardashian and Farrah Abraham (NSFW) take the 2 top spots here, followed by the mother of all MILF porn, Lisa Ann (NSFW) in third. Anal queen Asa Akira (NSFW) slides in just after Bollywood babe Sunny Leone (NSFW), then followed by Pinky (NSFW) and the famously well-endowed Mandingo (NSFW). Love and Hip Hop star Mimi Faust (NSFW) is 79% more searched for by women than men, not to be outdone by our dear sextronaut, Johnny Sins (NSFW) who is searched for 181% by women. It should be noted that while James Deen is reflected here as being the porn star most searched for by women compared to men, this data is cumulative and reflects all of the searches from 2015. As a result of recent events, it will be interesting to see if this number will decrease over the course of the next year.

AGE AIN'T NOTHING BUT A NUMBERThis year we also began exploring age demographics, again thanks to anonymized data from our web analytics tool. While the average Pornhub viewer is aged 35.3 years old, around 60% of our viewers are millennial-aged. These figures alter from country to country, however. For instance, in countries like the India and the Philippines which have median ages that are lower than the world average (22 and 27, compared to 29 worldwide), there are much higher proportions of younger viewers.

We also have the top searched and top gaining terms for each of our age groups. Some interesting trends emerge, notably that the older age groups tend to look for content featuring older people more. In the 18-24 and 25-34 groups, searches for 'teen' rank higher than other terms like 'milf' which begin to rank higher in the 35-44 groups and up. In the 35-44 and 45-54 groups, 'teen' ranks much lower, then disappears off of the list in the 55-64 group's top 10. 'Granny' is the second most searched term among the 65+ crowd. ''This finding comes back to the argument of whom we are most likely attracted to (those similar to ourselves). Also, this finding flies in the face of most women's thinking that men only like youthful women,'' suggests Dr. Laurie.

For more info on our Millennial aged viewers, check out this post.

DIVIDED OVER DEVICESMore and more, we are finding that our users are are opting for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets when they visit Pornhub. In fact, visits from smartphones alone now account for 53% of traffic shares, up from just 45% last year. As such, only 36% of Pornhub traffic originates from desktop computers worldwide. Let's take a look at traffic shares by device in our top 20 countries.

Interestingly, desktop traffic actually rose in Spain this year, up from 49% in 2014 to 50% in 2015. Everywhere else, we noticed a decrease in desktop traffic shares and an increase in smartphone shares as a result. Some of the largest fluctuations by 10 percent points or more were observed in Japan, Brazil, Poland, Romania and the Philillpines.

There was a notable increase in mobile traffic shares in Eastern Europe, specifically with the 46-62% increases that took place in countries like Bulgaria, Moldova and Serbia. Ethiopia takes the cake with a whopping 204% increase, with honorable mentions in Peru and Morocco each with 46% increases.

OPERATING SYSTEM UPDATEWe also really enjoy reporting on how different OS users interact with the site. Back in September, we released our Apple vs. Andorid post which gave the full run down on which types of porn is preferred within these 2 major subsets of our user base. In this next section we get back to basics with updated traffic shares stats. We'll begin with desktop. Windows is still in the lead when it comes to which operating system our computer using viewers visit Pornhub with. However the proportion of MacOs desktop traffic shares are up from 11.5% last year to 13% this year.

On the mobile side, visits from Android based devices are down from almost 50% of traffic shares last year to 47.9% this year. The proportion of iOS-based mobile traffic shares are up from 40.2% last year to an impressive 46.2% in 2015.

Want to know what kinds of porn Android users search for more than Apple addicts? Check out our Apple vs. Android Insights.

BROWSER BATTLEOn the desktop browser front, Google Chrome still accounts for the lion's share of traffic shares, at 48.9%, followed by Internet Explorer in a distant second place with 17.8%. Last year Firefox claimed second place with just over 20% of traffic shares. Again, this trend is not unique to Pornhub. According to statcounter when it comes to general worldwide desktop traffic, Internet Explorer actually beat out Firefox this year.

While Safari only accounts for about 7% of desktop traffic shares, the Mac browser dominates on the mobile front with 42.7% of shares, up from 38.5% last year. On the other hand, visits from the Android Browser are down by over half, now responsible for just 11.3% of shares compared to last year's 25.1%.

FUN AND GAMESThe biggest changes with regards to gaming console traffic shares occurred between Playstation and Xbox. Though you can play Fallout 4 on both, traffic shares on PS are up to an impressive 46.9%, from just 40% last year and are down to 37.9% from 45.7% on Xbox. This trend is not unique to Pornhub however, as the International Business Times reported that this year's PS4 sales nearly doubled those of the Xbox One.

PORNHUB INTERRUPTEDBy now we know that when big holidays or events take place, traffic changes on Pornhub can be drastic. In this last section we'll be examining how various holidays, sporting and entertainment events as well as days of political significance affected site traffic throughout the world over the course of the last year. We'll begin with holidays. Overall, New Year's Eve is the holiday that causes the largest traffic drops on Pornhub. With an average 44% decrease on a worldwide level, huge drops of over 65% were recorded in Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.

Traffic dips by about 39% on Christmas Eve worldwide, with the biggest drops having taken place in France and Belgium. Smaller but still significant drops are noted on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. It should be noted that when we measure traffic changes for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, we examine only the evening hours whereas for Christmas and Easter we take the entire day into account. Overall traffic is around by about 18% on Xmas, with larger drops of 30% observed in Australia and the United Kingdom.

With regards to Easter, international traffic drops by 9%, with more notable dips in Belgium and Poland. The primary religion in Russia is Orthodox Christianity which does not observe the same holiday schedule as other sects of Christianity. This explains the traffic increases over Christmas and Easter in the country.

In the US, other holidays traditionally involving big get togethers like Independence Day and Thanksgiving also bring about near 12% traffic dips. Trick or treating on Halloween and Valentine's Day dinners cause traffic to drop by about 3% on these smaller, non-statutory holidays as well.

Over in the United Kingdom, holidays like St Andrew's Day bring traffic down by 8% and by 9% on St George's Day. There is however a 7% rise in traffic on New Years Day, suggesting that perhaps Pornhub plays a meaningful role in NYE hangover recovery in the Isles.

Check out how other big holidays in some of our top 20 countries affect local traffic. Taking the lead here is Sweden, where Midsummer Eve causes traffic to drop around 19% below average, as well as a 15% dip on Walpurgis Night. Romania's May Day celebrations brings traffic down by 18% while the beginning of Ramadan caused traffic to come down by 15% in India. Argentina's National Day on October 12th and Day of respect for cultural diversity on May 25th each brought traffic 14% below average in the country.

Being that a decent amount of our traffic comes from millennial-aged men, when big sporting events go down, so to does Pornhub traffic. In the US, traffic dropped by 25% during the Superbowl and then by 27% on the day of the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao UFC fight. Over in New Zealand, the Rugby World Cup brought traffic down by a whopping 47% and by a slight 6% during the Cricket World Cup Final. Soccer matches always bring traffic levels way down on Pornhub. In Chile, traffic dropped by 35% during the Copa American Semi-Final Match game against Peru. The 2015 UEFA Champion's League Final brought traffic down by 43% by host country Germany and 25% and 36% in competing Italy and Spain.

Other big TV and entertainment events brought about some traffic fluctuations on the site this year too. The Late Late Toy Show which aired on November 27th and is estimated to have been watched in around 1/3 of Irish households caused a 16% drop on the Emerald Isle. The Republican Debates caused traffic to dip by about 4.5% on average in the US, while the Democrat debates only caused a 2% dip. The birth of Princess Charlotte brought traffic down by 3% in the United Kingdom, while the opening day of Expo Milan caused a 4% drop over in Italy.

Our viewers exercising their right to vote on election and referendum days can also cause traffic disruptions on Pornhub. This year's Greek Referendum brought traffic down by 4% in the country, whereas Canada's federal election day brought about an 8% dip. The largest drop of this sort at 12% was recorded in Venezuela during the Parliamentary Elections. On the other hand, traffic actually increased by 4% in Portugal on their legislative election day. This is perhaps explained by the fact that this election represented a new low in terms of voter turnout in the country, at just 55%.

Big events like these can also bring about shifts in search behaviors on Pornhub. For instance, when Kate Middleton gave birth in May, searches for her shot up on the site by 920%.

Similarly, with all of the media hype building, searches for Star Wars skyrocketed leading up to and after the release of the latest installment. Specifically, these searches were up by 1854% around the December 18 release date of The Force Awakens.

While there is already a fair amount of Pornhub-grade content going on in Westeros as is, fans of the show tend to be searching for 'Game of Thrones' big time when Season debuted and ended this year. Searches spiked by almost 200% the day after the premiere on April 13 and then again by 212% on the day of the June 15 finale.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!This brings us to the end of Pornhub's 2015 Year in Review! We've got lots of awesome Insights posts on the way, that will deliver the data on everything from your favorite sporting and cultural events and everything in between in 2016 so be sure to stay tuned. Which findings were you the interested in or surprised by in this most recent Year in Review? Let us know in the comment section below.

WAIT, THERE'S UPDATES!Our Year in Review can't cover everyone, so we focus mainly on comparing the Top 20 countries that bring traffic to Pornhub. We're more than happy to provide some additional data on request, so here are some updates based on 2015 statistics.

NorwayThe folks at side3.no asked where Norway fell into the swing of things. Norway ranks 30th in sites bringing traffic to Pornhub. They have a slightly higher proportion of female viewers at 26% compared to the worldwide average of 24%, but they do fall several seconds short of the worldwide average for time spent per visit.

AustriaDerstandard.at asked about Austria, which ranks 35th in traffic to Pornhub. Much of their search list is similar to neighboring Germany with terms like 'german' and 'deutsch' topping the list. Austrians also seem to enjoy a bit of 'german dirty talk' as that's one of the top terms in 2015, moving up 24 spots from 2014.

MaltaMaltaToday.com.mt inquired about their country. We noted that Malta has a much higher percentage of women visitors at 29% compared to the worldwide average of 24%. Their average time on site of 8 minutes and 20 seconds falls well behind the worldwide average though. We were however impressed that this country ranking 173 worldwide based on population manages to rank 93rd for traffic to Pornhub.

Northern IrelandSunday Life in Belfast asked us to look at Northern Ireland, which ranks 4th of all regions inside the U.K. for traffic to Pornhub. We see far less ladies from Northern Ireland than we would like '' only 21% of visitors compared to the worldwide average of 24%. That may account for the 1 second they come up short for time on site compared to the U.K. in general. Although MILF is the top category here, we suspect GILFs are equally popular with 'very very old granny' being a search that is more likely to come from Northern Ireland than elsewhere worldwide.

SerbiaThe folks at telegraf.rs asked us to look at Serbia's data for 2015. Their country ranks 41st worldwide for traffic coming to Pornhub. Interest in fellow Serbians top their search list with 'serbian' and 'serbian amateur' taking the top two spots. Searches for 'croatian' are about equal to 'teacher', 'gangbang' and 'public' porn. The average Serbian's time on site is much lower than the world average at 7 minutes and 48 seconds, but they do have a higher proportion of female visitors at 31% compared to 24% worldwide.

AndorraWe were contacted by El Peri²dic to find out about their home country of Andorra. Although they only rank 162 for worldwide traffic to Pornhub, that's still well ahead of their population rank of 202 worldwide. Matronly porn rules in Andorra with ''mom'' being the top search term and ''MILF'' being the top category. We also find an interest in mature ladies with ''mature'' being the 4th most popular category and ''maduras espanolas'' being one of the terms that is searched much more by Andorrans than the rest of the world. Apparently they also like seeing a ''trimmed bush'' very ''close up''.

SloveniaThe Pornhub Statisticians were asked to look into Slovenia by the people at Dnevnik.si. Slovenians spend an average of 8 minutes and 27 seconds on Pornhub, less than the worldwide average. 27% of visitors are women, which is higher than the world. Searches for ''lesbian'' have moved up 15 places from 2014 to 2015, and ''public'' porn has moved up 71 spots. The most viewed category is ''mature'', which is contrary to the most popular search ''teen''. Although ''slovenian'' one a popular search, other relative popular searches include ''bosnian'', ''croatian'' and ''serbian''.

MacedoniaRadioMOF asked us to look at the porn habits of Macedonians. On average they spend 8 minutes and 57 seconds on Pornhub, a bit less than the world average of 9 minutes 20 seconds. They have a much larger proportion of female viewers at 30% compared to 24% worldwide. 70% of visitors are Millennials under the age of 35, much more than the world average. Popular searches include ''macedonian'' and ''macedonia'' but other countries like ''serbian'', ''albanian'' and ''bulgarian''. The most popular category is ''mature'', with ''MILF'' also appearing in the top 5, so it's not surprising MILF super-pornstar Lisa Ann is Macedonia's most searched for pornstar.

Croatia24sata.hr asked us to review the porn habits of Croatians. On average, Croatians spend 8 minutes and 52 seconds each time they visit Pornhub, which is about 30 seconds less than the world average of 9 minutes and 20 seconds. 27% of visitors are female, which is slightly higher than the world average of 24%. The most popular category viewed in Croatia is ''Mature'', followed by ''Lesbian'', and the most searched for pornstar is ''Lisa Ann''. The most searched for term is ''croatian'', and they search quite often for ''serbian'', and ''bosnian'' compared to the rest of the world.

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 19:44

Een omstreden folder die vijftien gemeenten hebben meegestuurd met de stempassen voor het Oekra¯nereferendum, blijkt gemaakt door PostNL.Volgens de Volkskrant gingen deze gemeenten, waaronder Amersfoort, Westland en Veldhoven, in op een aanbod van PostNL om een bijsluiter met informatie over het referendum samen met de stempas te versturen.

In de folder wordt uitgelegd wat het doel is van het associatieverdrag met Oekra¯ne. Ook worden argumenten van voor- en tegenstanders samengevat.

Vorige week klaagden diverse organisaties uit het nee-kamp dat de woordkeuze in de folder kiezers tot een ja-stem zou willen verleiden. SP-Kamerlid Ronald van Raak noemde de samenvatting van de argumenten zelfs "tenenkrommend".

PostNL laat in een reactie weten dat de tekst is geschreven "op basis van wat door de referendumcommissie en de Kiesraad beschikbaar is gesteld". De folders zijn aan gemeenten aangeboden als 'service'. Daarnaast is het volgens een PostNL-woordvoerder ook commercieel interessant.

6 aprilHet referendum van 6 april is een initiatief van het platform GeenPeil. Nederlanders mogen zich tijdens dit raadgevend referendum uitspreken over het associatieverdrag tussen de Europese Unie en Oekra¯ne.

In 60 seconden: Het Oekra¯ne-referendum

Animatie door In60seconds

Door: NU.nl

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Archived Version

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 06:28

Een overwinning van het Nee-kamp bij het referendum over het associatieverdrag met Oekra¯ne heeft geen enkel gevolg voor het Oost-Europese land. 'žDe uitkomst van het referendum is symbolisch. Een Nee-stem van Nederland zal de weg naar hervormingen van Oekra¯ne niet blokkeren.'' Evenmin verwacht ze dat haar land dan in Russische invloedssfeer belandt. 'žWe hebben een strategische beslissing genomen.''

Dat zegt de Oekra¯ense minister Natalie Jaresko van Financin in een gesprek met NRC. 'žWij hebben het verdrag getekend dus wij gaan er hoe dan ook mee door, ongeacht de uitslag hier.'' Tegelijk met het verdrag tracht Oekra¯ne de financin te hervormen en de grote corruptie te bestrijden. 'žDit is namelijk de (C)nige weg. Daar bestaat in ons land breed draagvlak voor''.

Haar ambtsgenoot Jeroen Dijsselbloem (PvdA) ontkent dat met name zijn partijgenoten binnen het kabinet het Ja-kamp trachten te steunen. VVD-minister Kamp (EZ) is minder zichtbaar. 'žDat loopt echt niet langs partijpolitieke lijnen. Het is logisch dat de ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken, Handel en Financin zich er mee bemoeien. Die zijn toevallig allemaal van de PvdA.''

Heeft u een tip over dit onderwerp, ziet u een spelfout of feitelijke onjuistheid? We stellen het zeer op prijs als u ons daarover een bericht stuurt.

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Wed, 30 Mar 2016 15:52

The Russian deployment in Syria is one of the factors that have led the US to see the Russian military as 'the greatest array of threats to US interests'. Photograph: Handout/Reuters

The US military will keep three heavy army brigades in Europe on a continuous basis, reversing Barack Obama's reduction of forces after concluding that Russian aggression poses an enduring threat to continental stability.

Related:Afghan military will need help 'for years', says general set to lead US forces

The shift in course is the latest in a series of small restorations of the military status quo before Obama, suggesting that senior officers have already begun to look past his presidency.

Shortly after Obama leaves office in 2017, the army presence in Europe will return to three armored brigades, with associated vehicles and artillery set for immediate restoration.

In 2012, the Obama administration removed two of the four army brigades long stationed in Europe, though after Vladimir Putin's 2014 invasion and occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine, the military began bolstering its presence, particularly in eastern Europe.

Gen Phil Breedlove, the outgoing Nato military chief, announced the additional force presence as a critical step in reassuring European allies of a US military commitment that some have called into question.

''This army implementation plan continues to demonstrate our strong and balanced approach to reassuring our Nato allies and partners in the wake of an aggressive Russia in eastern Europe and elsewhere. This means our allies and partners will see more capability '' they will see a more frequent presence of an armored brigade with more modernized equipment in their countries,'' Breedlove said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes a day after the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Joseph Dunford of the marine corps, cited Russia as one of his principal persistent security challenges and took note of bolstered Russian conventional and digital military capabilities that have recently matured.

Russia's ''new intercontinental ballistic missiles, aircraft, nuclear-powered submarines, tanks, and air defense systems'', backing Vladimir Putin's willingness to seize territory from his neighbors and launch the first out-of-area Russian military expedition in a generation, in Syria, has rendered the Russian military ''the greatest array of threats to US interests'', Dunford told a Washington thinktank.

The rearmament in Europe reverses a longstanding push in US defense circles to de-emphasize a continent once believed to be thoroughly stable. It also comes amid two political developments: the rise of Donald Trump, who has disparaged the Nato alliance as a drain on US resources, and the twilight of Obama, whose discomfort with ground troop deployments appears to pose less of a restriction to commanders.

Last week, Dunford and the defense secretary, Ashton Carter, openly predicted an imminent increase of US ground forces in Iraq and Syria '' officially at 3,870 but functionally around 5,000 '' before submitting their recommendations for a troop escalation to the White House.

The new commander of the Afghanistan war, Gen John Nicholson, has also voiced discomfort with the already-delayed troop drawdown Obama has ordered by the end of his presidency. Nicholson will soon issue a troop request to Obama, which Dunford signaled on Tuesday will reflect ''fundamental changes'' that the military considers necessary to avoid a repeat of Afghanistan's bloody 2015.

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 22:07

Revealed in a filing today, the FBI has successfully unlocked the iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen. Apple, which has refused to comply with the FBI's request, was set to face off with the government last Tuesday. The FBI, however, requested a delay for the hearing stating that it had found an outside method that could potentially unlock the device in question without Apple's help. Now, the FBI has announced that it has been successful in unlocking the device.

While specific details of the method used by the FBI are unclear at this point, the organization stated in a filing that it ''successful accessed the data stored on Farook's iPhone and no longer requires the assistance from Apple.''

Now that the FBI has accessed the data from the device, it will withdraw legal action against Apple. As for what information was on the iPhone, we'll likely never know as it will be classified.

More to come'...

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 14:23

The FBI has agreed to help prosecutors gain access to an iPhone 6 and an iPod that might hold evidence in an Arkansas murder trial, just days after the agency managed to hack an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino terror attacks, a local prosecutor said Wednesday.

Cody Hiland, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' 20th Judicial District, said that the FBI's Little Rock field office had agreed to help his office gain access to a pair of locked devices owned by two of the suspects in the slayings of Robert and Patricia Cogdell.

It was not immediately clear whether the FBI planned to use the same method it used to access data on Syed Rizwan Farook's phone. Calls to the FBI's Little Rock field office were not immediately returned. An FBI spokesman in Washington declined to comment.

Full coverage: Apple's fight with the FBI >>

The couple were killed in their home just outside Little Rock in July, according to the Associated Press. Four suspects, ages 14 to 18, have been charged in the killings, Hiland said.

Prosecutors asked for a delay in the trial of 18-year-old Hunter Drexler on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the FBI said it had successfully gained access to an iPhone 5c that Farook used.

Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the deadly attacks at the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2, leaving 14 dead and many more wounded. Federal prosecutors went to court to force Apple to help them unlock Farook's phone, but the historic court battle was staved off earlier this week when a third party helped the FBI gain access to the device.

"The iPod had just come into our possession a couple of weeks ago," Hiland said Wednesday. "Obviously when we heard that [the FBI] had been able to crack that phone we wanted to at least ask and see if they wanted to help."

Hiland did not know what operating system the phone, which belonged to Drexler, was running.

The phone at the heart of the Arkansas case is a later model than the one used by Farook, but it would present some of the same access problems, said Andrew Crocker, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group in San Francisco.

An iPhone 6 would be running iOS8 or a later operating system that encrypts all data on the phone, when locked, Crocker said. Apple has said it lacks the capability to bypass that level of encryption.

The device would also trigger a delay after each successive incorrect passcode entry, meaning even FBI software that can input an endless string of password combinations would encounter longer and longer wait times between attempts.

On Tuesday, an FBI official told the Los Angeles Times that the successful hack of Farook's phone was unlikely to help police win broader access to encrypted data. Police officials have long complained that encryption acts as a roadblock to routine criminal investigations, rendering useless thousands of smartphones sitting in police evidence lockers around the country.

The process used to gain access to Farook's phone might not work on other devices, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official said it was also unlikely that the FBI would use the new tool in cases that would result in criminal prosecutions because the method would then become subject to discovery at trial.

Crocker said he was skeptical that the Arkansas case would be analagous to the situation involving Farook's phone.

''In a criminal case, if the FBI uses a technique, there's going to be questions about divulging that technique or chain of custody to the defense," he said. "So my instinct is this might be something different.''

Hiland said he's not concerned with setting a precedent. He simply wants access to all the available evidence at trial.

''Our focus is on the case," he said. "Our job is to seek justice."

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT & @lacrimes for crime and police news in Southern California.

MORE ON APPLE VS. FBI

FBI vs. Apple: How both sides were winners and losers

FBI hacks iPhone: Does this make your phone less private?

Apple wants the FBI to reveal how it hacked the San Bernardino killer's iPhone

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Archived Version

Mon, 28 Mar 2016 14:44

A lot of people are watching the spectacle of Apple vs. the FBI and the Homeland Security Theatre and rubbing their eyes, wondering why Apple (in the person of CEO Tim Cook) is suddenly the knight in shining armour on the side of consumer privacy and civil rights. Apple, after all, is a goliath-sized corporate behemoth with the second largest market cap in US stock market history'--what's in it for them?

As is always the case, to understand why Apple has become so fanatical about customer privacy over the past five years that they're taking on the US government, you need to follow the money.

Apple wasn't very good about customer security in the early days of iOS. Early iterations of the iPhone notoriously lied about the security of SSL connections to email servers; my understanding is that this led to them being banned from some corporate and government accounts for a few years. But then they seem to have realized that security wasn't merely a useful feature to pitch to their customers, but a necessity. And the reason it's essential is Apple Pay.

It used to be a truism that General Motors was an insurance company wit a car-manufacturing subsidiary. GM's pension fund had grown so large (over most of a century) that GM had to invest the money somewhere in order to generate a return on investment that would keep the pensioners going: selling cars was simply not a big enough business. And today Apple is sitting on the largest cash stockpile in US corporate history. Its legendary $120-150Bn in cash has attracted the attention of activist investors like Carl Icahn, but even share buy-backs will only get you so far when you're taking 90% of the profits of the entire global smartphone industry. Some analysts have opined that if Apple maintains its current turnover and earnings, and continues to buy back shares at the current rate, by 2024 AAPL will revert to private ownership ... and still be sitting on $100Bn in cash.

Of course, if you have a tenth of a trillion dollars you can't just rock up to a bank and say "please accept this deposit, how much interest do you pay"? For one thing, if you have $0.1Tn, you have enough money to buy several banks. For another thing, money doesn't exist when it's not moving: it's a coefficient of economic velocity. Money needs to be invested and generate a return. Over the past decade Apple leveraged their cash pile to ensure they had a lead over their competitors. Given a five year product roadmap, they could project the need for some critical piece of hardware'--synthetic sapphire phone displays, for example, or 5K monitor panels'--years in advance. Such components didn't actually exist, but they knew suppliers who could provide them if someone loaned them the cash to build a factory (typically in the high hundreds of millions to low billions of dollars). So Apple would find a company like Sharp and say, "we're going to need a million 27 inch 5 megapixel displays in four years time. We'll front you the money to set up the factory at just 1% over the bank base rate, in return for an exclusive option to buy the first million quality-compliant components to come out of it". Everyone wins: Sharp get a factory that can mass-produce new high resolution display panels, Apple gets an exclusive lead on these panels for consumer sales, and Apple also gets to invest its money in a way that generates far more profit than merely handing it over to an investment house.

But ... Apple has too much money. From roughly 1998, when Steve Jobs returned, Apple began growing like a dot-com startup, at high double-digit annual percentage growth rates'--only it started doing so from a billion dollar a year turnover base, not two guys in a garage. By 2008 it was probably clear to Steve Jobs and Tim Cook that if their strategy of becoming the dominant company in the consumer side of the post-PC world succeeded, the problem of where to find enough mattresses to stuff the $500 bills was only going to get worse. When you're making $50-100Bn a year in profit, you can't put the money in a bank: you have to become a bank. And that's what Apple Pay is about, and that's why Apple have become fanatical about customer privacy and electronic civil rights (in one very narrow field).

I'm going to assume you know what Apple Pay is: you use your iPhone, iPad, or Watch as a trusted, authenticated identity token in a shop to pay for stuff. It ties into your bank account and basically your phone swallows your debit and credit card.

Ultimately the banks are going to discover'--the hard way'--that getting into bed with Apple was a bad idea, about the same way that getting into bed with Amazon over ebooks was a bad idea for the Big Five publishers. Apple is de facto an investment bank, right now: all it needs is a banking license and the right back end and regulatory oversight and risk management and it will be able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Chase or Barclays or HSBC as a consumer bank, too. And Apple has a very good idea of how risky their customers' behavior is because unlike the banks and the credit card settlement network they're not running on incrementally upgraded legacy infrastructure designed in the 1950s. Note those two words a couple of sentences ago: "risk management". Banks are not in the business of holding your money or making loans; they live or die by how well they manage risk. Apple, like Google, has a much richer relationship with their customers than any bank. They can (for example), with a customer's position, know roughly where the customer's phone or watch is moving, and thereby spot faked payment credentials if someone clones the device and tries to use it to buy something a thousand miles away. The CC networks have velocity checking but it's a really crude metric for spotting fraud: Apple can massively improve on it.

But that's not where anti-fraud methods begin and end. For example, Apple have got reasonably good fingerprint readers on their current devices, backed by long PINs and password management. The newer phones have trusted hardware stores for the cryptographic tokens that are used to unscramble the addresses where data is written in the phone's on-board storage: they support (and encourage the use of) two-factor authentication. Some analysts report Apple is working on improving their front-facing cameras to the extent that they can do iris or retina scanning. On the long-term horizon, there are already ultra-compact low-cost DNA sequencers out there; if you really want to authenticate a user via biometrics, about the ultimate trust level is a combination of a shared secret (their password) with a mixture of biometrics tested simultaneously'--a fingerprint reader that can quickly confirm a match for their genome while the front camera recognizes the retina of the person holding the device. Their phones are, in many respects, more secure than the ATMs and credit card infrastructure we've used to accessing our bank accounts. And that gives the phone vendors an opportunity to leapfrog over the existing banking infrastructure in the efficiency of their risk management protocols, by reducing fraud while simultaneously knowing much more about their customers' habits and being able to spot potentially risky activity patterns early enough to reduce their exposure.

Here's my theory: Apple see their long term future as including a global secure payments infrastructure that takes over the role of Visa and Mastercard's networks'--and ultimately of spawning a retail banking subsidiary to provide financial services directly, backed by some of their cash stockpile.

The FBI thought they were asking for a way to unlock a mobile phone, because the FBI is myopically focussed on past criminal investigations, not the future of the technology industry, and the FBI did not understand that they were actually asking for a way to tracelessly unlock and mess with every ATM and credit card on the planet circa 2030 (if not via Apple, then via the other phone OSs, once the festering security fleapit that is Android wakes up and smells the money).

If the FBI get what they want, then the back door will be installed and the next-generation payments infrastructure will be just as prone to fraud as the last-generation card infrastructure, with its card skimmers and identity theft.

And this is why Tim Cook is willing to go to the mattresses with the US department of justice over iOS security: if nobody trusts their iPhone, nobody will be willing to trust the next-generation Apple Bank, and Apple is going to lose their best option for securing their cash pile as it climbs towards the stratosphere.

Discuss.

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Wed, 30 Mar 2016 22:00

Apple has released an updated build of iOS 9.3 for users affected by an activation bug, first reported last week. Although the version number is still 9.3, the update features a new build number, 13E5237, to signify the change. The issue prevented some iPhone and iPad owners from successfully completing the upgrade steps for iOS 9.3 if they could not recall their Apple ID info immediately, to pass Activation Lock.

Apple stopped signing iOS 9.3 for older devices due to this bricking bug. Affected customers can now download the new firmware to upgrade to iOS 9.3. This may involve DFU mode and a cable to download the new firmware via iTunes, if currently stuck on the Activation Lock screen.

Otherwise, simply visit Settings to check for a new Software Update for users who were prevented from updating sooner because Apple pulled the build. Users already on iOS 9.3 do not have to do anything as they have already successfully upgraded to the new operating system.

The iOS 9.3 launch has not been a smooth rollout, with several major bricking and crashing bugs affecting users. Apple already had to re-release iOS 9.3 specifically for the iPad 2, which was affected by a different issue with activation. Over the weekend, we reported on a widespread issue where opening links would cause some apps to hang and crash on iPhones and iPads. Apple is yet to officially comment on when that problem will be addressed. iOS 9.3 includes several major new features, such as Night Shift and Touch ID Notes.

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Archived Version

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 22:04

If you've been hit by the iOS 9.3 broken links you can follow these steps to fix the issue whilst we wait for a full update from Apple. Unfortunately you'll need to hook your iPhone or iPad up to your computer and sync with iTunes.

If you still have it installed, delete the Booking.com app from your deviceTurn on Airplane ModePlug your device into your computer and open iTunesTurn your device off and onMake sure you have the Booking.com app in iTunes on your computer - download linkKeep Airplane Mode on!In iTunes, sync the Booking.com app to your deviceSelect your iOS device in iTunesChange to the Apps tabSearch for Booking.com and press installPress SyncWait for the sync to finish, then open the Booking.com app on your deviceForce close the Booking.com app by double tapping the home button and swiping upForce close Safari by double tapping the home button and swiping Safari upDelete the Booking.com appTurn off Airplane ModeOpen Safari - your links should work again! It'll also fix any problems with links from other apps like Mail or Messages.You may need to try this a few times for it to work, it seems like a specific timing needs to occur for the correct caches to clear.

Thanks to Booking.com quickly fixing their side! You should be able to safely reinstall their app again after confirming these steps worked.

(Thanks to Wojtek Pietrusiewicz who's guide led me in this direction.)

Now you're back in action - here are some tips for using Universal Links.

. Bookmark the

.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:19

WASHINGTON (AP) '-- The State Department and Pentagon are ordering the families of U.S. diplomats and military personnel to leave posts in southern Turkey due to security fears.

The two agencies said dependents of American staffers at the U.S. consulate in Adana and the Incirlik air base and two other locations must leave. The so-called "ordered departure" notice means the relocation costs will be covered by the government.

The move comes amid heightened security concerns throughout Turkey and was accompanied by an updated travel warning advising U.S. citizens of an increased threat of terrorist attacks.

It also comes as Turkey's president is set to arrive in Washington to attend President Barack Obama's nuclear security summit.

Comments

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:22

A new documentary on the G¼len Movement, a mysterious Islamic group operating charter schools throughout the US, premieres today and runs through March 31st at the Cinema Village Theatre in NYC. A pre-release screening earlier this month with translation into Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese drew a diverse crowd of 980 and a standing ovation in L.A. Yet this national film, a bi-coastal sensation, was passed over by Texas' four largest film festivals and the state's media.

"It's very disappointing for me that the first public screening could not happen in Texas, my home state and the epicenter for this issue," said Mark Hall, the documentary's independent director and producer. Hall added,

This was a very difficult film to make because these people don't want to be on camera, they wouldn't be interviewed. The subject of charter schools is also very difficult because most people don't want to criticize the school 'reform' movement. Killing Ed is not necessarily a 'cinematic' film, but the purpose of an expos(C) is to reveal something that the populace needs to be aware of.

A film about the worst-case scenario for privately-owned and operated schools funded by public tax dollars - one that exposes the underbelly of a charter school movement that is apparently funding a known Islamist group's interests, no less - hits a lot of nerves, which has people in power keeping their distance.

Among the facts uncovered in KILLING ED, the G¼len Movement, which is operated by followers of Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah G¼len, has been identified as a 'terrorist organization' by the Turkish government. The movement is under FBI investigation in four states and receives over $500 million in taxpayer-funded revenue each year to operate charter schools in the U.S., which now number more than 150 schools (with 12 new schools applied for) enrolling 60,000 students annually.

Granted, the intent of the film is not to take issue with all charters schools, but rather focuses on the worst-case scenario. But isn't examination of more than 100 charter schools run by a Turkish imam in the United States warranted as we explore educational reform? After all, the G¼len charter chain is the largest of its kind in America, employing approximately 5,000 Turkish employees brought over on H1-B visas - many of whom are un-certified, untrained teachers - to teach American children.

G¼len charters also use taxpayer dollars to give preferential support to affiliated businesses ranging from catering and construction to school furniture and curriculum development. The schools advertise heavily and sponsor events, creating income for media outlets, lobbyists, and consultants. Perhaps the reason why so few seem interested in reporting on this is that the G¼len Movement has sponsored hundreds of trips to Turkey for politicians and journalists, inciting a congressional investigation yet dampening the urgency to inform the public about a dangerous trend.

"Thousands of people have been on these propaganda trips to Turkey," said Sharon Higgins, co-founder of Parents Across America and an expert on the G¼len charter schools.

This New York Times article is one of the few major news stories on the G¼len Movement over the past 5 years. In it, Stephanie Saul chronicles the activities concerning just one of the Turkish G¼len-affiliated contractors operating in Texas. In the film, you see the abuses from another contractor, Solidarity Contracting of Houston, which built several schools in the state, including the Harmony School of Political Science and Communication in Austin.

"Solidarity has gone out of business and no one knows what happened to the owner of the company, a G¼len follower named Levent Ulusal," said Hall.

Since viewing the film, I have my own ideas as to why my fellow Texans would ignore this, but quality isn't one of them. In its short life, the documentary has garnered acclaim from educated stakeholders and experts in the film industry. KILLING ED has been nominated for a Best Documentary jury prize at the upcoming Julien Dubuque International Film Festival.

Furthermore, in a letter from the director of acquisitions for the Tallgrass Film Festival, Shan Jabara hailed the film "a hit" at Tallgrass. In the following excerpt, Jabara urged the Dallas International Film Festival to screen it:

KILLING ED enjoyed a preview screening at our last festival...and aroused great interest and concern for the subject of the Gulen Movement's charter schools and their rapid expansion. Most of our audience had no knowledge of this crusade, although there are a handful of local professors who had traveled to Turkey as guests of an organization that is connected to the Gulen Movement. The professors were very supportive of the organization as they were well-treated and there was no attempt at indoctrination. However, they seemed to have no idea that U.S. tax dollars were supporting the Movement's chartered schools and that they were poorly run, non-student centered and corrupt institutions opening up around the country. We have educators on our prescreening and programming committees that were so appreciative to have a chance to see this film before such a school was attempted in our city (the largest in the state of Kansas.)

As a film enthusiast, I can live with the fact that our state's film festivals failed to find room for a good documentary. But as a parent, a Texan, and a media advocate, I am astonished by the lack of support for this artful execution of a terrifying systemic problem. And my point of view does not stem from a lack of interest in Islam or education reform. I can get on board with a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. To name a few examples, I engage in Interfaith dialogue and send my kids to a Catholic school (and I'm not even Catholic).

But looking the other way as funds are diverted from our public education system, which is subject to locally-elected oversight and regulations to protect the public interest, in order to finance charter schools that further sub-par education and fund anti-democratic activities in the US and other nations? That is unconscionable.

The parallel of a society's reticence to confront an uncomfortable yet dangerous problem hit me while watching Spotlight, the Oscar-nominated film based on the true story of The Boston Globe investigation of priests molesting school children. That film exposed a different problem, but the same sentiment: If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to abuse one.

On digging deeper, I began to find out why. According to New York University Research Professor of Education Diane Ravitch, "The privatization movement is 'the perfect storm'."

In theory, the privatization of education makes sense. The problem is, it still has severe problems in application. As Dr. Ravitch explained,

In 1998 I testified on behalf of charter schools in New York. I become very discouraged because one of the conservative think tanks where I was on the board authorized charters in Ohio and all of them failed. Over time I began looking and saying to myself 'these things don't work'. The testing's not working its not making schools better. The kids are not getting a better education; they're getting a worse education. They're losing the arts, they're losing physical education, they're losing history. I began to realize that the things I believed in were wrong. When people say why did you change your mind it's a simple answer: three words: I was wrong.

"You see the politicians looking the other way not wanting to acknowledge the problems they know," said Hall. "You see the same thing with the foundations of billionaires, like Bill & Melinda Gates, that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to push through a school policy agenda that most Americans may not want."

The G¼len movement informally operates schools internationally under the cover of various foundations and brand names. Here in Texas, Harmony Public Schools operates nearly 40 campuses around the state, often branded or positioned as science academies or STEM-related in major and secondary metropolitan areas.

KILLING ED features several teachers who were willing to go on record concerning the drawbacks of the Harmony charter school chain, the largest chain of charter schools in the state.

"The Turkish administrators do most of the planning on what is going to be implemented in our schools," said Harmony educator Amy Warren. She added that she's not qualified to teach health and was encouraged to take the kids to recess.

Another Harmony teacher in Lubbock, who kept anonymous in the film to prevent reprisals from the G¼len Movement read from her diary, "I think at this point we have more un-certified teachers than certified."

In Houston, a covert camera shows the "special ed" student sitting outside of three different classes during his day.

The privatization movement postulates that the broken school system will benefit from competition. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who advocates for privatizing education using a voucher system, claims that parents aren't complaining so he's not worried.

"We have over 500 campuses. We have 215 charters, so if you have a charter and you're successful, you can replicate," said Patrick. However, in a clip from KILLING ED, Patrick mentions Harmony among the models, even though its operations are clearly problematic.

As a parent, I can see this from both sides. No question that our public school system has its challenges. My own urban neighborhood's public school is 98 percent low-income and serves a predominantly Spanish-speaking community. After some of our neighborhood's most committed parents made a go of making the public school work, many gave up over frustrations with school administrators and other issues. The options these parents faced were to home school, choose a private or charter school or move. We opted to stay and selected a local private school.

The benefits we enjoy by supporting our local Catholic school include a warm and diverse community, an accountable principal, certified teachers, engaged parents, and a transparent system - essentially the same benefits I would expect from a well-performing public school. It is a shame that we have to pay to get the benefits that many suburban families get in their public schools, and that the lack of more viable options prevents more families from staying in town.

As a Texan, when it comes time to pay my property taxes each year, I don't complain because I know this contribution helps fund the public school system that should provide the quality of education that every child deserves. In the real world, words like "should" may sound idealistic, but supporting public education is an ideal worth pursuing if we want America to remain a superpower.

Privatization is a much larger issue than one shady school system, but the G¼len movement exemplifies the perils of diverting funds from public education to subsidize a system that serves special interests over those of our children.

Texas can do better. At least I hope we can.

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Archived Version

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 15:13

The word ''American'' is ''problematic,'' according to the University of New Hampshire, because it ''assumes the U.S. is the only country inside'' land masses '-- North America, South America and Central America '-- with the word ''America'' in their names.

The UNH language guide decrees that language users should say ''U.S. citizen'' or ''resident of the U.S.'' instead.

For skin color, the taxpayer-funded school in the Live-Free-or-Die state instructs speakers to say ''European-American individuals'' instead of ''Caucasian.''

Also, employees at the University of New Hampshire present as passive-voice fact the notion that the concept of race ''was designed to maintain slavery.''

The words ''mothering'' and ''fathering'' are verboten because speakers must ''avoid gendering a non-gendered activity.''

The word ''black'' for black people is okay, though.

The words ''healthy'' and ''handicapped'' are ''problematic.'' The currently politically-correct terms are ''non-disabled'' and ''person who is wheelchair mobile,'' UNH instructs.

Using the words ''rich'' and ''poor'' is also wrong now. Instead of ''rich,'' the UNH language police insist, speakers need to say the totally different ''person of material wealth.'' Instead of ''poor,'' it's the completely not-the-same 11 words: ''low economic status related to a person's education, occupation and income.''

''Homosexual'' is ''an outdated clinical term considered derogatory and offensive by many gay and lesbian people.'' The taxpayer-funded school suggests ''Same Gender Loving'' instead.

On this same score, the absence of gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms (and special housing) evidences a prejudice called ''ciscentrism,'' which is a ''pervasive and institutionalized system that places transgender people in the 'other' category.''

''Senior citizen'' is bad but ''people of advanced age'' is good.

Obviously, the words ''illegal alien,'' ''manpower,'' ''freshmen,'' ''mailman'' and ''chairman'' are never acceptable, according to UNH. And forthwith ''foreigners'' must be ''international people.''

The taxpayer-funded school offers a ''Gender Pronoun Guide'' for ''nonbinary pronouns'' such as ''ze,'' ''zie'' and ''hir.'' Such pronouns ''are often used by trans, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people.''

Oddly, the taxpayer-funded University of New Hampshire's guide to unfair and prejudicial words includes among its additional references a style guide from the American Psychological Association called Guidelines for Respectful Language. Another cited reference is the ''Making Excellence Inclusive'' from the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

And in a transcendent bit of irony, the University of New Hampshire Wildcats participate in intercollegiate sports in the America East Conference.

The UNH language police manual also offers training for faculty members to thwart the menace of microaggressions '-- which are everyday words which make radical leftists angry or frustrated.

Earlier this summer, the entire University of California system under current-president Janet Napolitano has been training faculty to avoid phrases administrators claim are offensive including the description of America as a ''land of opportunity.'' Other offensive phrases in the taxpayer-funded school system include, ''I believe the most qualified person should get the job'' and ''affirmative action is racist.'' (RELATED: California Trains Professors To Avoid 'Microaggressions')

Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send education-related story tips to [email protected].

The word ''American'' is ''problematic,'' according to the University of New Hampshire, because it ''assumes the U.S. is the only country inside'' land masses '-- North America, South America and Central America '-- with the word ''America'' in their names.

The UNH language guide decrees that language users should say ''U.S. citizen'' or ''resident of the U.S.'' instead.

For skin color, the taxpayer-funded school in the Live-Free-or-Die state instructs speakers to say ''European-American individuals'' instead of ''Caucasian.''

Also, employees at the University of New Hampshire present as passive-voice fact the notion that the concept of race ''was designed to maintain slavery.''

The words ''mothering'' and ''fathering'' are verboten because speakers must ''avoid gendering a non-gendered activity.''

The word ''black'' for black people is okay, though.

The words ''healthy'' and ''handicapped'' are ''problematic.'' The currently politically-correct terms are ''non-disabled'' and ''person who is wheelchair mobile,'' UNH instructs.

Using the words ''rich'' and ''poor'' is also wrong now. Instead of ''rich,'' the UNH language police insist, speakers need to say the totally different ''person of material wealth.'' Instead of ''poor,'' it's the completely not-the-same 11 words: ''low economic status related to a person's education, occupation and income.''

''Homosexual'' is ''an outdated clinical term considered derogatory and offensive by many gay and lesbian people.'' The taxpayer-funded school suggests ''Same Gender Loving'' instead.

On this same score, the absence of gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms (and special housing) evidences a prejudice called ''ciscentrism,'' which is a ''pervasive and institutionalized system that places transgender people in the 'other' category.''

''Senior citizen'' is bad but ''people of advanced age'' is good.

Obviously, the words ''illegal alien,'' ''manpower,'' ''freshmen,'' ''mailman'' and ''chairman'' are never acceptable, according to UNH. And forthwith ''foreigners'' must be ''international people.''

The taxpayer-funded school offers a ''Gender Pronoun Guide'' for ''nonbinary pronouns'' such as ''ze,'' ''zie'' and ''hir.'' Such pronouns ''are often used by trans, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people.''

Oddly, the taxpayer-funded University of New Hampshire's guide to unfair and prejudicial words includes among its additional references a style guide from the American Psychological Association called Guidelines for Respectful Language. Another cited reference is the ''Making Excellence Inclusive'' from the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

And in a transcendent bit of irony, the University of New Hampshire Wildcats participate in intercollegiate sports in the America East Conference.

The UNH language police manual also offers training for faculty members to thwart the menace of microaggressions '-- which are everyday words which make radical leftists angry or frustrated.

Earlier this summer, the entire University of California system under current-president Janet Napolitano has been training faculty to avoid phrases administrators claim are offensive including the description of America as a ''land of opportunity.'' Other offensive phrases in the taxpayer-funded school system include, ''I believe the most qualified person should get the job'' and ''affirmative action is racist.'' (RELATED: California Trains Professors To Avoid 'Microaggressions')

Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send education-related story tips to [email protected].

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 02:36

Prefigurative politics are the modes of organization and social relationships that strive to reflect the future society being sought by the group. According to Carl Boggs, who coined the term, the desire is to embody "within the ongoing political practice of a movement . . . those forms of social relations, decision-making, culture, and human experience that are the ultimate goal."[1]Prefigurativism is the attempt to enact prefigurative politics.

Boggs was writing in the 1970s about revolutionary movements in Russia, Italy, Spain, and the US New Left. The concept of prefiguration was further applied by Sheila Rowbotham to the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s,[2] by Wini Breines to the US SDS;[3] and by John L. Hammond to the Portuguese Revolution.[4]

The politics of prefiguration rejected the centrism and vanguardism of many of the groups and political parties of the 1960s. It is both a politics of creation, and one of breaking with hierarchy. Breines wrote: ''The term prefigurative politics '... may be recognized in counter institutions, demonstrations and the attempt to embody personal and anti-hierarchical values in politics. Participatory democracy was central to prefigurative politics. '... The crux of prefigurative politics imposed substantial tasks, the central one being to create and sustain within the live practice of the movement, relationships and political forms that ''prefigured'' and embodied the desired society.''[5]

Anarchists around the turn of the twentieth century clearly embraced the principle that means used to achieve any end must be consistent with that end, though they apparently did not use the term "prefiguration." For example, James Guillaume, a comrade of Mikhail Bakunin, wrote, "How could one want an equalitarian and free society to issue from authoritarian organisation? It is impossible" [6]

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and various libertarian-socialist and anarchist groups refer to this as "building a new world in the shell of the old." If a group is aiming to eliminate class distinctions, prefigurative politics demands that there be no class distinctions within that group, nor should that group's actions reinforce classism. The same principle applies to hierarchy: if a group is fighting to abolish some or all forms of hierarchy in larger society, prefigurative politics demands they individually and as a group adhere as closely to that goal as possible.

The concept of prefiguration later came to be used more widely, especially in relation to movements for participatory democracy [7] It has especially been applied to the antinuclear movement of the 1970s and 1980s in the US and the antiglobalization movement at the turn of the twenty-first century [8]

Perspectives on prefigurative politics[edit]Anthropologist David Graeber in Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology described the prefigurative politics of those at the 1999 Seattle WTO protest:

When protesters in Seattle chanted "this is what democracy looks like," they meant to be taken literally. In the best tradition of direct action, they not only confronted a certain form of power, exposing its mechanisms and attempting literally to stop it in its tracks: they did it in a way which demonstrated why the kind of social relations on which it is based were unnecessary. This is why all the condescending remarks about the movement being dominated by a bunch of dumb kids with no coherent ideology completely missed the mark. The diversity was a function of the decentralized form of organization, and this organization was the movement's ideology. (p. 84)

Examples of prefigurative political programs[edit]The global Bah'­ Faith community strives to realise a model of society by developing its movement and administration which endeavour to embody several renowned social principles. After sufficient development, many Bah'­ communities of the world may reach a transitional stage of dual power with the traditional pre-existing administrative institutions in their respective areas.The Black Panther Party in the United States was responsible for creating what members referred to as survival programs, including the well-known Free Breakfast for Children Program. These programs were designed to provide food, education, medical care and clothing for individuals outside of traditional capitalist relations, as well as state-sponsored social service programs. They embodied, at least on a small scale, the kind of self-determination in the black community that the Panthers were working toward on a large scale.The Community Land Trust model provides a method of providing cooperatively owned, resident controlled permanent housing, outside of the speculative market.In Argentina the occupation and recuperation of factories by workers (such as Zanon), the organizing of many of the unemployed workers movements and the creation of popular neighborhood assemblies reflect the participants' desire for horizontalism, which includes equal distribution of power among people, and the creation of new social relationships based on dignity and freedom.The occupation movements of 2011 in Egypt and the Arab world, in Spain, and in the United States embodied elements of prefiguration (explicitly in the case of Occupy Wall Street and its spinoffs in occupations around the United States). They envisaged creating a public space in the middle of American cities, for political dialogue and achieved some of the attributes of community in providing free food, libraries, medical care, and a place to sleep[9]See also[edit]References[edit]^Boggs, Carl. 1977. Marxism, Prefigurative Communism, and the Problem of Workers' Control. Radical America 11 (November), 100; cf. Boggs Jr., Carl. Revolutionary Process, Political Strategy, and the Dilemma of Power. Theory & Society 4,No. 3 (Fall), 359-93.^Rowbotham, Sheila. 1979. The Women's Movement and Organizing for Socialism. In Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright. Beyond The Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism, 21-155. London: Merlin Press^Breines, Wini. 1980. Community and Organization: The New Left and Michels' "Iron Law." Social Problems 27, No. 4 (April), 419-429; Breines, Wini. 1989. Community and Organization in the New Left, 1962-1968: The Great Refusal. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.^Hammond, John L. 1984. Two Models of Socialist Transition in the Portuguese Revolution. Insurgent Sociologist 12 (Winter-Spring), 83-100; Hammond, John L. 1988. Building Popular Power: Workers' and Neighborhood Movements in the Portuguese Revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press.^Breines, Wini. Community and Organization in the New Left, 1962''1968: The Great Refusal, 1989, p. 6.^quoted by Benjamin Franks in The direct action ethic: From 59 upwards. Anarchist Studies 11, No. 1, 22; Cf. Benjamin Franks, 2008. Postanarchism and meta-ethics; Anarchist Studies. 16, No. 2 (Autumn-Winter), 135-53; David Graeber, Direct Action: An Ethnography. Oakland: AK Press, 2009: 206; Eduardo Romanos, Anarchism. In Snow, David A., Donatella Della Porta, Bert Klandermans, and Doug McAdam (eds), The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Oxford: Blackwell: 2013.^John L. Hammond, Social Movements and Struggles for Socialism. In Taking Socialism Seriously, edited by Anatole Anton and Richard Schmidt, 213-47. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2012. Francesca Polletta, Freedom is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002; Marina Sitrin, ed., Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina. Oakland: AK Press, 2006.^Andrew Cornell, Anarchism and the Movement for a New Society: Direct Action and Prefigurative Community in the 1970s and 80s. Institute for Anarchist Studies, 2009 http://www.anarchiststudies.org/node/292Barbara Epstein, The Politics of Prefigurative Community: the Non-violent Direct Action Movement. Pp. 63-92 in Reshaping the US Left: Popular Struggles in the 1980s. Edited by Mike Davis and Michael Sprinker. London: Verso, 1988l Jeffrey S. Juris, Anarchism, or the cultural logic of networking. In Contemporary Anarchist Studies: an Introductory Anthology of Anarchy in the Academy, edited by Randall Amster et al., 213-223. New York: Routledge, 2009.^Andy Cornell, Consensus: What It Is, What It Is Not, Where It Came From, and Where It Must Go. In We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation, edited by Kate Khatib et al., 163-73. Oakland: AK Press, 2012; John L. Hammond,. The significance of space in Occupy Wall Street. Interface 5, No. 2 (November 2013), 499-524; Luis Moreno-Caballud and Marina Sitrin, Occupy Wall Street, Beyond Encampments. yesmagazine.org, November 21, 2011.Further reading[edit]

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Archived Version

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:52

Writing in an op-ed for the Harvard Crimson, the Ivy League university's student newspaper, sophomore Rachel Huebner found one of the last places on her prestigious college campus that a person is allowed to be anti-politically correct '-- or so she contends.

Huebner, a staff editorial writer for the Crimson, detailed in her Wednesday op-ed how the modern American college system has changed her view that Americans value open discourse.

Huebner contends in her article that once she began college, she quickly realized that ''the current culture on college campuses is a culture defined not by open expression '-- but by sensitivity.''

A student claps while standing in a protest movement's camp at the University of Missouri Nov. 9. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

''This undue focus on feelings has caused the college campus to often feel like a place where one has to monitor every syllable that is uttered to ensure that it could not under any circumstance offend anyone to the slightest degree,'' she wrote. ''It sometimes feels as though pluralism has become an antiquated concept.''

''Facts and history have been discarded, and instead feelings have been deemed to be the criteria that determine whether words and actions are acceptable,'' she added.

''It sometimes feels as though pluralism has become an antiquated concept.''

While she said that she respects the ''explosion of new identities'' in the college culture over the last several decades, Huebner believes many of the movements ''have gone too far,'' citing the University of New Hampshire's ''Bias-Free Language Guide'' and other hyper-sensitive college incidents.

''Safe spaces'' are another huge problem on today's college campuses, Huebner added, because they ''deeply encroach'' on ''open dialogue and free expression.''

''It is ironic that while the origins of the term safe space can be found in the 20th century women's movement, where it 'implies a certain license to speak and act freely,''' she wrote. ''Today, the term has come to be associated with precisely the opposite: the inability to speak freely.''

In a class I attended earlier this semester, a large portion of the first meeting was devoted to compiling a list of rules for class discussion. A student contended that as a woman, she would be unable to sit across from a student who declared that he was strongly against abortion, and the other students in the seminar vigorously defended this declaration. The professor remained silent. In a recent conversation with peers, I posed a question about a verse from the Bible. A Harvard employee in the room immediately interjected, informing me that we were in a safe space and I was thus not permitted to discuss the controversial biblical passage. And these are just stories from the past three months.

According to Huebner, the rise of hyper-sensitivity on college campuses and the ''assault'' on free speech have ''dire consequences.'' In fact, she even cited a recent study that alleged the ''microagression climate'' at universities has been ''detrimental'' to student health.

''Administrators must recognize that the current restrictions are incompatible with the very premise and goal of an education,'' Huebner concluded. ''It is time to stop focusing on feelings as the criteria for speech and actions on the college campus.''

'--

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Archived Version

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 14:19

NEW YORK (AP) '-- An expedited screening program called PreCheck was supposed to be the answer to maddeningly long security lines at the airport. But four years after its launch, the Transportation Security Administration is far short of enrolling enough travelers to make a difference, spelling trouble for summer travel season.

Fliers can expect massive security lines across the country, with airlines already warning passengers to arrive at least two hours early or risk missing their flight.

The TSA cut its airport screener staff by 10 percent in the past three years, anticipating PreCheck would speed up the process. When not enough fliers enrolled, the agency tried to make up for that shortfall by randomly placing passengers into the express lanes. But it recently scaled back that effort for fear dangerous passengers were being let through. That's when the lines started growing, up to 90 minutes in some cases.

The TSA is shifting some resources to tackle lines at the nation's biggest airports, but says there is no easy solution to the problem with a record number of fliers expected this summer.

"We had unacceptable line waits at the majority of our hubs," says Robert Isom, chief operating officer of American Airlines. "Based on what the TSA is telling us, there is no relief in sight."

Launched nationwide in 2012, PreCheck gives previously vetted passengers special screening. Shoes, belts and light jackets stay on. Laptops and liquids stay in bags. And these fliers go through standard metal detectors rather than the explosive-detecting full-body scanners most pass through.

PreCheck lanes can screen 300 passengers an hour, twice that of standard lanes.

The TSA offered Congress a lofty goal of having 25 million fliers enrolled in the program. Based on that and other increased efficiencies, the TSA's front-line screeners were cut from 47,147 three years ago to 42,525 currently. At the same time, the number of annual fliers passing through checkpoints has grown from 643 million to more than 700 million.

As of March 1, only 9.3 million people were PreCheck members. Applicants must pay $85 to $100 every five years. They must also trek to the airport for an interview before being accepted. Getting once-a-year fliers to spend the time or the money to join has been a challenge. While 250,000 to 300,000 people are joining every month, it will take more than four years at that pace to reach the target.

"It hasn't been a failure; it just isn't moving as quickly as it needs to move," says Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president for legislative and regulatory policy at airline trade group Airlines for America.

Without enough members, the TSA faced a problem: PreCheck lanes were nearly deserted while other lines snaked throughout terminals. Keeping empty PreCheck lanes open was a waste of staff. But without them, passengers who paid to join would be aggravated.

So the agency created workarounds to allow passengers who hadn't been fully vetted to still get expedited screening.

Those who flew 50,000 miles a year or more with an airline sometimes got the PreCheck designation on their boarding pass at check-in. Others would randomly get it based on demographic information.

As a further step, the TSA in 2013 created a program called Managed Inclusion where it randomly pulls people out of the normal line when it grows too long. Fliers' behavior is monitored, they are screened for explosives and then allowed to use the faster PreCheck lane.

The Associated Press has made repeated requests under the Freedom of Information Act for details on how many fliers are allowed into PreCheck through each method, but has been denied the information for unspecified security reasons.

Lines did get shorter. By Thanksgiving 2014 nearly 50 percent of fliers were getting expedited screening.

Then last year, two back-to-back embarrassing inspector general reports came out, highlighting TSA security lapses. One disclosed that the agency let a convicted domestic terrorist use PreCheck. The second revealed that in 67 out of 70 tests across the nation, screeners failed to find mock weapons and explosives.

In response, TSA agents stopped pulling passengers out of line unless there was an explosive-detecting canine team present. That change went into effect in September, right after the Labor Day rush.

The move forced about 10 percent of all passengers '-- some 70 million fliers a year '-- to go back to normal screening.

Longer lines soon followed. By February, just 26 percent of passengers were screened through PreCheck, according to Associated Press calculations on TSA data obtained through a public records request.

During the week of spring break in mid-March, 6,800 American Airlines passengers missed their flights because of long checkpoint lines, foreshadowing the headaches airlines fear during the peak summer travel months.

"The TSA is more or less suggesting that we need to live with it," says Isom, American's chief operating officer.

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport waits have topped out at 90 minutes, with the typical morning rush averaging 45 minutes to an hour, says Wendy Reiter, the airport's director of security and emergency preparedness. In the first week of March, 50 Delta Air Lines passengers missed international flights '-- the type of flight that only departs once a day.

Last week, officials in Charlotte, North Carolina were warning passengers of waits exceeding 75 minutes, saying the lines were "extremely heavy."

At the world's busiest airport, in Atlanta, general manager Miguel Southwell told the TSA last month that "things appear to be only getting worse."

And in Minneapolis, executive director Jeffrey Hamiel told the TSA that "we are experiencing unacceptably long security wait times during peak periods."

The TSA knows there is no quick fix.

"The real answer to the volume growth is to ideally get a fully-vetted trusted traveler population," TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told The Associated Press.

For now though, the agency is relocating 28 of its 142 canine teams to the 20 busiest airports so it can randomly put more fliers into PreCheck. The TSA won't say which airports are losing the teams and could therefore have longer lines.

An additional 200 screeners are being trained each week, but that is offset by the average 103 screeners the TSA loses weekly through attrition. The agency is asking airlines to enforce carry-on bags restrictions before checkpoints so it has fewer bags to screen. Airport and airline staff will also take over some non-security related tasks, such as returning empty bins to the start of the checkpoint.

There has been one bright side: the TSA says there is a direct correlation between longer lines and a spike in PreCheck enrollments.

__

Follow Scott Mayerowitz at twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/scott-mayerowitz

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Archived Version

Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:17

March 21, 2016 '' a temporary statement with references. A full statement will be published in summer 2016.

The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts '' not ideology '' determine reality.

1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: ''XY'' and ''XX'' are genetic markers of health '' not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species. This principle is self-evident. The exceedingly rare disorders of sex development (DSDs), including but not limited to testicular feminization and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are all medically identifiable deviations from the sexual binary norm, and are rightly recognized as disorders of human design. Individuals with DSDs do not constitute a third sex.1

2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one. No one is born with an awareness of themselves as male or female; this awareness develops over time and, like all developmental processes, may be derailed by a child's subjective perceptions, relationships, and adverse experiences from infancy forward. People who identify as ''feeling like the opposite sex'' or ''somewhere in between'' do not comprise a third sex. They remain biological men or biological women.2,3,4

3. A person's belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V).5 The psychodynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved.2,4,5

4. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous. Reversible or not, puberty- blocking hormones induce a state of disease '' the absence of puberty '' and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child.6

5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.5

6. Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.7,8,9,10

7. Rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT '' affirming countries.11 What compassionate and reasonable person would condemn young children to this fate knowing that after puberty as many as 88% of girls and 98% of boys will eventually accept reality and achieve a state of mental and physical health?

8. Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents, leading more children to present to ''gender clinics'' where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs. This, in turn, virtually ensures that they will ''choose'' a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults.

Michelle A. Cretella, M.D.President of the American College of Pediatricians

Quentin Van Meter, M.D.Vice President of the American College of PediatriciansPediatric Endocrinologist

Paul McHugh, M.D.University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital

References:

1. Consortium on the Management of Disorders of Sex Development, ''Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Disorders of Sex Development in Childhood.'' Intersex Society of North America, March 25, 2006. Accessed 3/20/16 from http://www.dsdguidelines.org/files/clinical.pdf.

2. Zucker, Kenneth J. and Bradley Susan J. ''Gender Identity and Psychosexual Disorders.'' FOCUS: The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry. Vol. III, No. 4, Fall 2005 (598-617).

3. Whitehead, Neil W. ''Is Transsexuality biologically determined?'' Triple Helix (UK), Autumn 2000, p6-8. accessed 3/20/16 from http://www.mygenes.co.nz/transsexuality.htm; see also Whitehead, Neil W. ''Twin Studies of Transsexuals [Reveals Discordance]'' accessed 3/20/16 from http://www.mygenes.co.nz/transs_stats.htm.

4. Jeffreys, Sheila. Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism. Routledge, New York, 2014 (pp.1-35).

5. American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013 (451-459). See page 455 re: rates of persistence of gender dysphoria.

6. Hembree, WC, et al. Endocrine treatment of transsexual persons: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94:3132-3154.

7. Olson-Kennedy, J and Forcier, M. ''Overview of the management of gender nonconformity in children and adolescents.'' UpToDate November 4, 2015. Accessed 3.20.16 from www.uptodate.com.

8. Moore, E., Wisniewski, & Dobs, A. ''Endocrine treatment of transsexual people: A review of treatment regimens, outcomes, and adverse effects.'' The Journal of Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2003; 88(9), pp3467-3473.

9. FDA Drug Safety Communication issued for Testosterone products accessed 3.20.16: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm161874.htm.

10. World Health Organization Classification of Estrogen as a Class I Carcinogen: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/ageing/cocs_hrt_statement.pdf.

11. Dhejne, C, et.al. ''Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden.'' PLoS ONE, 2011; 6(2). Affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychiatry, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Accessed 3.20.16 from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885.

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Archived Version

Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:06

In de vijftien jaar dat het homohuwelijk is toegestaan in Nederland, trouwden meer vrouwen met elkaar dan mannen. Ook scheidden vrouwen vaker van elkaar. Volgens COC-voorzitter Tanja Ineke komt dat doordat de maatschappelijke acceptatie van lesbiennes achterloopt.

"Er is meer aandacht voor discriminatie van homo's", zegt Ineke. "Discriminatie van vrouwen is minder zichtbaar, maar zeker aanwezig. Lesbiennes voelen zich vaak niet serieus genomen. Er worden opmerkingen gemaakt als: 'als je een goede beurt krijgt, voel je je daarna wel weer beter'."

Volgens Ineke zijn vrouwen daarnaast vaker slachtoffer van seksueel geweld. "Misschien dat lesbiennes door dit soort dingen minder goed in hun vel zitten. Daardoor lopen er wellicht meer huwelijken op de klippen."

Ze benadrukt dat er onderzoek moet worden gedaan naar de oorzaken van scheidingen in homohuwelijken.

Vrouwen trouwen vaker met elkaar dan mannen. Dat is logisch, zegt Ineke. "Bijna een op de vijf vrouwen voelt zich aangetrokken tot andere vrouwen. Er zijn voor vrouwen simpelweg meer potentile partners om mee in het huwelijksbootje te stappen."

Zo'n zestig procent van die verbintenissen houdt stand, zegt Ineke. "Het gaat dus ook heel vaak wel goed. Dat is volgens COC Nederland genoeg reden voor een feestje."

"Nederland was vijftien jaar geleden het eerste land ter wereld waar het huwelijk voor paren van gelijk geslacht werd toegestaan. Sindsdien zijn er twintig landen gevolgd. Dat is gewoon hartstikke mooi."

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 20:04

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 19:49

Gunfire rang out inside the Capitol Visitor Center on Monday when a police officer shot a man with a gun.

Gunfire rattled Capitol Hill when a police officer shot a gunman inside U.S. Capitol Visitor Center on Monday afternoon.

At approximately 2:40 p.m., an unknown male with a gun entered the visitor center below the Capitol grounds. The Capitol's sergeant-at-arms said the ''shooter has been caught'' and that a U.S. Capitol Police officer was "shot, but not seriously."

A female bystander was also reportedly injured in the gunfire.

The Capitol and adjacent office buildings were placed on lock down for about a half hour before an all-clear order was issued. There was reportedly some confusion as the day began with a scheduled lockdown drill. "THIS IS A DRILL," an early morning memo notified Capitol staffers. "EXERCISE EXERCISE."

The Visitor Center was commissioned, in part, as a response to a 1998 shooting at the Capitol when Russell Eugene Weston Jr. (a paranoid schizophrenic) entered the building and shot and killed Capitol Police officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson. All visitors to the capitol now enter via the underground center and its layers of security.

Violence is not uncommon on Capitol Hill.

Last April, a man killed himself outside the building. In 2013, a woman was fatally shot near the Capitol after attempting to drive through a White House security checkpoint. In 1971, the Weather Underground exploded a bomb in a Senate bathroom (no one was injured). In 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists fired 30 rounds from a balcony, injuring five congressman.

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson survived an assassination attempt after leaving the Capitol (he was shot but beat the gunman with his cane).

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 06:01

Giving former inmates with histories of addiction monthly injections of a medication that blocks the effects of opioids cuts relapse rates by a third, according to research at five medical centers.

Release from prison is among the riskiest times for former addicts, with the loss in physical tolerance and behavioral control so common that often "they relapse the same day," said Charles P. O'Brien, senior author of the study and founding director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Studies of Addiction.

Over the 11/2 years of the comparison study, seven participants in the non-treatment group overdosed, three of them fatally, compared with none in the medication group.

The paper, published online Wednesday evening in the New England Journal of Medicine, comes amid a slew of federal actions aimed at stemming an epidemic of opioid abuse that is blamed for 78 deaths a day.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week issued guidelines for primary care physicians to reduce prescriptions for narcotic painkillers, which are responsible for most of the deaths; others die from heroin. On Tuesday, President Obama announced a series of moves to expand treatment, improve physician training, and cut illegal access to the drugs.

Large numbers of people in the criminal justice system have histories of substance abuse, and O'Brien said that he had been urging for years that a medication to prevent relapse be issued upon release. Some systems treat prisoners with maintenance opioids such as methadone and buprenorphine under certain circumstances, but few issue the newer, long-lasting opioid blocker tested in the new study.

The researchers recruited volunteers with a history of incarceration and substance abuse who did not want to be on the better-known opioid maintenance therapies. They were assigned randomly to two groups.

The 155 people in the control group received the "usual treatment": substance-abuse counseling and referrals to community treatment programs.

The 153 in the treatment group were also given monthly injections of extended-release naltrexone, a non-narcotic opioid "antagonist" that works by blocking opioid receptors. Heroin or any other opioid would have no effect while the person is using the blocker medication, sold under the brand name Vivitrol.

The injections ended after six months. At that point, 43 percent of the treated group had relapsed compared with 64 percent of the controls, and the median amount of time before relapse was 101/2 weeks as against five weeks. It also calculated that five people had to be treated in order to prevent one relapse. Many public health initiatives, such as vaccines and screenings, require treating hundreds of people to save one individual from disease.

The participants were tracked for an additional year, with the effects of the medication waning over time until the two groups were roughly equal. That suggested continuing treatment longer might be more effective.

Research shows that the three main kinds of medication-assisted therapy - methadone, buprenorphine, and Vivitrol - are far more effective than programs such as Narcotics Anonymous or even residential treatment that is based entirely on counseling without medication. But the counseling is critical to the drug therapy's success; adding medication helps former users to focus more intently on changing their lives. That may be even more important for people getting out of prison.

"They have no family support," said Akia Feggans, director of behavioral health for Philadelphia Fight, an AIDS services organization that works with recently released prisoners. "It's more than just willpower," Feggans said. "It's learning, 'how do I deal with being angry, how do I deal with a family that is dysfunctional.' " The usual reaction, she said, would be to "go back to what you know": using drugs.

O'Brien said there were two key messages in the study findings.

"If someone is scheduled to get out of prison with a history of opioid addiction, you could give them one injection, and at least for the next month, they cannot relapse," he said. A colleague at Penn is just starting a study with prisoners in Philadelphia that will give Vivitrol before release.

The second message, he said, is that doctors must be trained in pain management, as well as dealing with addiction to pain medicine. O'Brien said many physicians have never heard of naltrexone.

Among the announcements made by the Obama administration on Tuesday was the agreement by 60 medical schools to include instruction on prescribing opioids. The list includes just two schools in Pennsylvania: Penn, which has required instruction for decades based on O'Brien's work, and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. On the list in New Jersey: Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Laura Bamford, a physician who prescribes substance-abuse treatment at Fight and another clinic, said that release from prison is "a perfect time" to give extended-release naltrexone but cautioned that it would not be appropriate for everyone.

Because it blocks the effects of opioids, for example, someone must be clean for one to two weeks, depending on the opioids they had been abusing, or the medication will send them into withdrawal. Methadone and buprenorphine, on the other hand, contain substitute opioids that are tightly controlled.

For someone who has not used opioids, Bamford said, it is hard to understand the challenges of stopping. The brain must be retrained.

Most addicts "don't want to be using heroin or pills," she said. "It is not a conscious decision to go out and get high every day, like it is not a conscious decision for someone with diabetes to have high blood sugar."

Both are slip-ups, and medication helps people avoid them.

dsapatkin@phillynews.com

215-854-2617

@DonSapatkin

More CoverageWhat is medication-assisted addiction treatment?Mar 30 - 7:06 PM

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As crisis rages, hospital works to reduce opioids in the ERMar 28 - 4:10 PM

Federal officials, advocates push pill-tracking databasesMar 28 - 9:10 AM

Published: March 30, 2016 '-- 5:31 PM EDT | Updated: March 31, 2016 '-- 1:07 AM EDTThe Philadelphia Inquirer

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Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY , KUSA6:40 PM. MDT March 30, 2016

In this February 2016 photo, actress Whoopi Goldberg attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center.((Photo: Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images)

USA TODAY - Whoopi Goldberg is lending her name and financial backing to a new line of medical marijuana products designed specifically for women.

Goldberg, who has been public about her own marijuana use, is one of a handful of Hollywood celebrities jumping into the marijuana marketplace. Bob Marley's family has partnered with a cannabis company to produce Marley Natural products, and Snoop Dogg backs Leafs by Snoop. Goldberg said her ''Whoopi & Maya'' company received financial backing from three friends and family members, and she will serve as chairwoman.

''I want to go nice and slow with this. I don't want this to be a joke to people. It's not a joke to women,'' Goldberg told USA TODAY.

The company she's co-founded offers four products: a balm, a tincture, sipping chocolate, and a bath soak. All are infused with marijuana and aim to reduce the pain and cramps from periods. Pricing has not yet been set.

The products sold under the "Whoopi & Maya brand" will be available only in California to people with their medical marijuana cards, and they'll be on shelves in the next several weeks in at least five marijuana dispensaries around the state.

Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, the product today is unavailable elsewhere.

The marijuana industry is one of the country's fastest growing industries, increasing annually by 31%, with a national market worth $5.7 billion, say the two research firms.

By launching in California, Goldberg and partner Maya Elisabeth are entering one of the world's largest marijuana marketplaces, with California producing $2.7 billion in sales last year, according to the cannabis-focused data firms New Frontier and ArcView Market Research.

California voters this fall are widely expected to pass a ballot measure legalizing recreational marijuana. In many cases, medical and recreational products are identical; the only difference is whether a user needs a doctor's recommendation.

California lawmakers this summer approved series of measures formalizing the state's medical marijuana system. Those measures lay the groundwork for a legal recreational system, and could potentially give anyone offering medical marijuana products a leg up in selling recreational products if they're legalized this fall.

"Success at the ballot box would massively increase California's total legal market share,'' Troy Dayton, CEO of The ArcView Group, said in a statement.

Elisabeth said she and Goldberg believe their niche '-- if you can call 50% of the population a niche, she laughs '-- is ripe for success. She said women have for generations been herbal healers, and she believes the company's marijuana products are no different.

There's very little scientific research available about the benefits of medical marijuana use, largely because the federal government has sharply restricted it. Researchers only now are starting to conduct sophisticated trials about its potential benefits for PTSD and seizure sufferers. England's Queen Victoria is widely believed to have used a similar tincture to relieve her own cramps, Elisabeth said.

"I'm excited for people to feel comfortable using cannabis," said Elisabeth, a founder of the all-female Northern California edible marijuana products cooperative Om Edibles.

Goldberg said smoking pot or drinking marijuana-infused tea has helped control her own cramps and pain, and she currently uses a "vape" pen filled with marijuana oil to combat glaucoma headaches. She said she's not interested in creating a recreational cannabis company to sell joints to people who just want to get high. Goldberg came up with the idea for the company with a friend, and found Elisabeth to partner with.

Goldberg said that at her age, 60, she's willing to take the risk of violating federal law because she believes so strongly in the company's mission.

The new "Whoopi & Maya" line of marijuana products aims to offer relief to women suffering from cramps and period pain. (Photo: Courtesy photo/Michael Osborne/Whoopi & Maya)

Another interest of the two women is in breaking what some are calling the "grass-ceiling" in the semi-legal cannabis industry, which has seen limited participation of minorities and women in leadership roles.

When it comes to starting marijuana-focused businesses, state regulators have written rules that tend to favor established small-business owners with access to capital and clean criminal records. And because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, some would-be entrepreneurs feel unwilling to stick their heads above the water, Elisabeth said, especially those who've seen how police and prosecutors disproportionally punish minorities when it comes to drug use.

''A lot of white men don't have to think about this,'' said Elisabeth, who is white.

Goldberg, an actress and comedian known for films like "Ghost" and TV shows like "Star Trek: The Next Generation," has been open about using marijuana, penning a column for The Cannabist and arguing for legalization on "The View". This venture into the public spotlight is different: It's her first investment in a small business like this.

''This is a nice quiet way that I can be part of this,'' Goldberg said of the new company. ''It had to help people if I were going to be involved."

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 14:02

Obama and Erdogan to have 'informal' meetingTurkish President will have formal talks with US Vice President Joe BidenDisagreement over the Kurdish questionUS security fears mount over TurkeyObama and Erdogan Will an informal meeting with Obama be enough for the Turkish president?Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in the United States for a nuclear security summit.

However, he will not have a formal meeting with his counterpart, US President Barack Obama.

Obama will only have informal talks with Erdogan in Washington this week.

It has been announced that the Turkish president will have a formal meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden.

The US has also ordered the families of all military and diplomatic personnel to leave southern Turkey due to security concerns.

It has also warned its citizens not to travel to the region.

The White House has dismissed suggestions that all three factors amount to a snub for Ankara:

''The decision to do this, the timing of it was completely considered independently of the nuclear security summit and the visit here to Washington by Turkish officials. Absolutely no connection to that whatsoever. This was done, as it should be, based on the security threat and our concern about the safety for American citizens'', spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Erdogan will be one of 50 world leaders attending the nuclear security summit in Washington on Thursday and Friday.

Bones of contentionAlthough allies, Washington and Ankara are sharply divided over the Kurdish militia in northern Syria.

The militia has US military supportAnkara has a large ethnic Kurdish minority and sees US support as a national security threatUS increasingly critical of Turkey's record on freedom of expressionWho is Fetullah Gulen?Erdogan wants the US authorities to take steps against a network of schools run by a movement affiliated with the Islamic preacher Fetullah Gulen.

A Turkish cleric based in the USFaces terrorism charges in TurkeyAlly-turned-foe of Erdogan after 2013 graft investigationDenies his followers sought to topple the Erdogan governmentMounting security concerns Security concerns have prompted Washington to actThe US State Department has warned its citizens against travelling to southeastern Turkey.

It also warned of ''increased threats from terrorist groups throughout Turkey''.

The White House has also ordered the families of US military and diplomatic personnel to leave parts of southern Turkey.

670 dependents of US military personnel told to leave southern TurkeyOrder includes Incirlik air base, used in the fight against ISILIzmir, Mugla provinces also involvedSecurity in Istanbul, Ankara ''satisfactory''What they are saying''This also includes continuing to intensify our coordination on key aspects of our counter-ISIL stragety, including ramped-up efforts to secure the Turkey-Syria border.'' '' White House spokesperson Josh Earnest tells reporters the US has a lot of important work to do with Turkey.

''The real money launderers are there (in the United States). Have the authorities taken any steps towards them?'' '' Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referring to Fetullah Gulen's network.

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:56

"We're asking the world, the big countries, to open the borders for us. We're not here for money. We're here for a safe place. We want a peaceful land on the planet"

Hundreds of human rights activists, students and migrants have taken to the streets of Athens chanting ''open the borders.''

The migrants were some of the thousands left stranded in Greece because of frontier closures across the Balkans.

The show of anger on Wednesday cam just days before Turkey is due to start taking back illegal migrants from Greece under an EU deal '' a deal the demonstrators demanded be scrapped.

''We want nothing from the Greek government. They themselves are in trouble, the Greek economy right now,'' said one migrant from Afghanistan.

''We're asking the world, the big countries, to open the borders for us. We're not here for money. We're here for a safe place. We want a peaceful land on the planet.''

Migrant and refugee arrivals from Turkey are on the rise again in Greece.

Authorities recorded 766 between Tuesday and Wednesday morning '' around four times the number seen in the previous 24 hours.

Under the EU-Turkey deal, migrants and refugees who arrive in Greece from Turkey will be subject to being sent back once they have been registered and their individual asylum claim processed.

Returns are due to begin from 4 April, and for each Syrian returned from the Greek islands to Turkey, one will be sent the other way for direct resettlement in Europe.

Human rights groups and some governments have expressed concerns about the legality of the scheme.

Reporting from the demonstration, euronews' Konstantinos Tsellos said: ''The closed borders policy has caused despair for the thousands of migrants and refugees currently stranded here in Greece.

''They're calling for the EU-Turkey deal to not be implemented so that they have a chance to continue their journey to Europe.''

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 06:21

Kurdish Peshmerga Forces have described how they face attacks from chemical weapons as they seek to push back ISIL forces on the road to retake Mosul.

The fighters are confronted by shells and even landmines packed with noxious substances as they advance, they told Euronews reporter Mohamed Shaikhibrahim.

Chemical weapons were used extensively in the First World War but banned shortly afterwards. However, ISIL has been manufacturing and deploying poisons such as mustard gas which cause blisters to the skin and the insides of the lungs.

''In the presence of international experts we have recorded the fact this site was bombed with chemical weapons and poisonous gases on more than four occasions,'' Brigadier Mohammed Assad of the Peshmerga Forces said.

''The worst of these attacks was last year by shells with deadly chemicals in them. We also found landmines with chemicals which we dismantled preventing hundreds of soldiers from being killed.''

The advancing Kurdish fighters have become familiar with a range of ISIL battle tactics, including night-time assaults, the use of tunnels to reposition reinforcement and blanket deployment of booby traps.

Euronews' reporter witnessed the troops in action at a military camp just 1.5 kilometres from a stronghold of the jihadist fighters.

The location, known as ''Sultan Abdullah Barrack'', is close to the village of Sultan Abdullah, which lies south-east of Mosul. It is one of a cluster of defensive positions which have to be cleared of the so-called Islamic State before the offensive on the city can begin.

This is one of the most important military fronts for the Peshmerga but so far the fighters have been frustrated in their efforts to liberate the village.

The battles are mostly at night. In daylight the Peshmerga forces monitor from afar, opening fire on any suspicious movements among the buildings now emptied of civilians.

The Peshmerga troops have been able to retake many of the villages surrounding Mosul. Their targets now are to keep control of the borders and provide back up for the Iraqi troops advancing on the city.

Mohammed Shaikhibrahim reported: ''Sultan Abdullah is considered one of the main military barracks from which to attack and this is the reason why so many of the Peshmerga elite forces are stationed here. It is also a sensitive transit point between Kirkuk, Erbil and Mosul cities.''

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 05:38

The official said the group has spent the last several weeks preparing, including setting up safe houses, establishing informant networks and coordinating operations with Iraqi and Peshmerga units. It's the same strategy that Special Operations forces have used in previous deployments to combat zones.

Several Pentagon and military officials declined to discuss specifics of the so-called Expeditionary Targeting Force with CNN.

But Defense Secretary Ash Carter seemed to confirm in comments made at the Pentagon on Monday that the Special Operations forces had begun missions.

"The only thing I'll say is the (Expeditionary Targeting Force) is in position, it is having an effect and operating, and I expect it to be a very effective part of our acceleration campaign," he said during a press conference.

According to Carter, the force will conduct raids, seize places and people, and free ISIS-held hostages and prisoners.

Carter also told reporters that the force would cause ISIS "to fear that anywhere, anytime, it may be struck."

A U.S. official told CNN that Carter's statement reflects that Delta operations have begun.

CNN is not detailing any precise locations or operations. Based on several interviews with U.S. officials however, a growing role is rapidly emerging for Special Operations forces in Iraq and Syria.

CNN has learned that Delta Force plans to replicate the strategy that Special Operations forces used for years in Iraq and Afghanistan. The plan: Gather enough intelligence to stage raids on terror compounds and hideouts. Then from intelligence gathered at those sites, such as laptops and cellphones, forces will try to rapidly learn more about ISIS networks and quickly attack additional related targets.

It's a strategy that worked in May 2015, when Delta raided a compound in Syria, killing ISIS operative Abu Sayyaf and capturing his wife.

U.S. military officials have said material gathered at the raid and the interrogation of his wife provided extensive intelligence of ISIS networks that has been used in subsequent missions.

The Abu Sayyaf raid is the only known ground combat operation inside Syria for U.S. forces outside of a failed hostage rescue attempt. All other operations to kill ISIS operatives have been conducted by overhead drones. Putting forces on the ground is seen as a way to go more directly after key individuals, although it poses the risk of any ground combat operation.

Carter announced the initial details in December during congressional testimony, saying that the Pentagon was sending a "specialized expeditionary targeting force" to conduct "raids and intelligence gathering missions."

Carter also said at the time that "this force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations in Syria." For now, the force is in fact working only in Iraq, but is prepared to go into Syria if it gathers enough intelligence to warrant a mission.

Conducting targeted operations inside Syria is seen as potentially more risky because there would not be a local force on the ground for the U.S. troops to work with.

The ETF -- which numbers about 200 personnel -- has collected enough intelligence now about ISIS operations in Iraq in up to half a dozen locations that raids and field operations are ready inside Iraq.

These are described as "targeted" missions, in which the military is going after a specific individual or ISIS operation. Targeted missions required days, if not weeks, of continuous surveillance of the area to ensure civilians are not nearby. Depending on the situation, the President often will be asked to approved specific missions.

The personnel are largely made up of Delta Force, one of the U.S. military's so-called "Tier One" Special Operations units. As with the Naval Special Warfare Development Group -- publicly known as Seal Team 6 -- Delta operatives are highly trained to operate secretly in hostile environments.

There remains a raging debate inside the administration about whether to acknowledge the ETF operations once they begin. Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the the U.S. Special Operations Command has warned all his troops not to talk about it because of security concerns. But Pentagon officials acknowledged to CNN that there is pressure within the administration to tout the success of the effort -- if indeed the operations are successful.

While the ETF is not yet operating in Syria, a separate group of about 50 U.S. special forces have greatly expanded their initial operations there in recent weeks after the Pentagon announced they were going to Syria.

This group's mission is to accompany tribal, Arab and Kurdish forces in Syria as they try to regain territory from ISIS. Small U.S. teams now regularly leave their locations in northern Syria and go into the field. Several U.S. military officials confirmed that most recently U.S. troops went with local fighters to a location near the town of Al-Shaddadi in eastern Syria to help coordinate their operations and assist them in calling in airstrikes. ISIS has in recent days been driven from the area and U.S. officials see it as a victory for the policy because getting ISIS out of the town cuts a key route between Syria and Iraq.

But expanding Special Operations forces in Syria by sending the ETF remains complicated in addition to security concerns. If the teams capture operatives in Iraq, the plan calls for them to be turned over to the Iraqi government. If ISIS operatives are captured in Syria, the U.S. might try to turn them back over to their home countries, officials said. But clearly if there are Syrians and other nationalities fighting, that might make a turnover difficult and the U.S. is not planning to hold the people it captures beyond a short period of time.

And in another complication, so far it is not clear to what extent the U.S. would inform Russia of any ground operations to ensure U.S. troops are not inadvertently bombed in Russian airstrikes. Currently the Russians have only been given the broad indications, and not specifics, of where Special Operations force are based in northern Syria, U.S. officials said.

Carter also said Monday that "momentum is now on our side" in the fight against ISIS.

He told reporters that he fully expects the U.S. to play a greater role in assisting the Iraqi military's effort to retake Mosul.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford also said that U.S. forces would "do more in Mosul" to help the Iraqi Army reclaim the city -- the country's second-largest -- from ISIS.

Carter also discussed the U.S. cyber campaign against ISIS, using another terms for the organization, saying it was intended to "disrupt ISIL's command and control" and "overload their network," thereby impacting ISIS' ability to control its forces, the local population and the economy.

CNN's Ryan Browne contributed to this report.

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 04:44

[See NewsBusters for more.] An irritated Jake Tapper on Tuesday unloaded on Barack Obama, attacking the President for ''lecturing'' journalists about how to do their job. Highlighting a speech from Monday, in which the Democrat called for reporters to ''dig'' and ''demand more,'' Tapper quipped, ''His message was a good one. But was President Obama the right messenger?'' The CNN host rebuffed, ''Many believe that Obama's call for us to probe and dig deeper and find out more has been made far more difficult by his administration than any in decades, a far cry from assurances he offered when he first took office.''

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Thu, 31 Mar 2016 04:41

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

One day after the networks failed to acknowledge to big developments on Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal, ABC's World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News similarly punted Tuesday evening on a federal judge's ruling that granted the group Judicial Watch discovery powers in the lawsuit concerning the response of Hillary Clinton's State Department to the deadly 2012 Benghazi terror attack.

In addition to the English-language networks, the top Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision also ducked this issue and censored it from their Tuesday evening newscasts.

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CNN host Jake Tapper went after President Barack Obama Tuesday, suggesting a speech on journalism the president delivered to a room full of reporters may have been better served if given to his own administration.

Speaking at a journalism awards dinner Monday night, Obama lectured the news media on how to cover the 2016 race. He praised reporters for asking him ''really tough questions'' during the 2008 election and argued journalism is more than simply giving a microphone to an individual.

While Tapper noted that Obama made ''many salient points'' in his speech, he contended that Obama's administration has been anything but friendly to the press.

''Was President Obama the right messenger?'' the CNN host asked before documenting the ''media critic-in-chief's'' treatment of the press.

''Mr. President, with all due respect '... Maybe, just maybe, your lecturing would be better delivered to your own administration.''

(H/T: Mediaite)

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Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:41

CNN host Jake Tapper grilled Donald Trump advisor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday, pressing her on the campaign's response to a salacious tabloid story alleging Ted Cruz had extramarital affairs and new video showing ex-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields was grabbed by manager Corey Lewandowski.

Tapper asked Huckabee Sanders in blunt terms if she was ''ashamed'' of a recent video Trump campaign social-media director Dan Scavino posted. The video implied Cruz had been romantically involved with his former communications director, Amanda Carpenter.

''There is no actual evidence that it happened,'' Tapper said. ''I mean, at some point aren't you just ashamed? This is the Trump campaign sending it out!''

''Look, what I'm personally ashamed of Jake is the entire process,'' Huckabee Sanders replied. ''It's gotten to where it's gutter politics.''

Huckabee Sanders alleged that the Cruz campaign is ''one of the directest, nastiest campaigns out there.''

Tapper agreed that he would prefer to talk about the issues.

''I would love to be talking about trade, immigration and counter-terrorism,'' the CNN host said. ''But unfortunately, I now have to turn to another question which has to do with the fact that your campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, now faces legal charges.''

Tapper noted that Trump said there was ''nothing'' in the video.

''When you watch that tape, do you see nothing?'' he asked.

''I do,'' Huckabee Sanders insisted, arguing that press scrums can often be somewhat physical.

Tapper pressed her.

''OK, you don't see anything there. The police obviously it differently,'' he said. ''[E]ven if you don't think that it is a big deal, it did happen. And both Corey Lewandowski and Donald Trump initially said that she made it up and that he never touched her. Those are not true statements.''

Huckabee Sanders continued to contend press scrums can be physical and said she was once hit in the face with a camera.

''But if that happened to you and the cameraman said he made it up, how would you feel?'' Tapper asked.

Huckabee Sanders dodged the question, saying there was no ''malice'' on Lewandowski's part.

''I'm not talking about the grabbing. I'm talking about the lying part of it,'' Tapper fired back. ''It happened. It did happen. It seems to me probably this whole thing could have been avoided if Corey just said sorry. But it did happen.''

Huckabee Sanders continued to say she didn't think ''anything happened.'' Tapper said he didn't feel the two were ''getting anywhere'' and concluded the interview.

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Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:39

Republican front-runner Donald Trump identified health care and education as two of the three top functions of the federal government on Tuesday at a CNN town hall.

''In your opinion, what are the top three functions of the United States government?'' an attendee asked the billionaire.

Trump said the ''greatest function of all by far'' is security.

''I would also say health care, education,'' he added.

Moderator Anderson Cooper pressed him on his answer.

''So in terms of federal government role, you're saying security. But you also say health care and education should be provided by the federal government,'' Cooper said.

''Those are two of things. Yeah, sure. There are obviously many things. Housing, providing great neighborhoods,'' Trump answered.

Cooper reminded Trump that he formerly said he'd like to end the Department of Education.

''Aren't you against the federal government's involvement in education?'' he asked. ''Don't you want it to devolve to states?''

''No, I want it to go to states. Yeah, absolutely,'' he replied.

''So that's not part of what the federal government should do?'' Cooper asked.

''Well, the federal government. But the concept of the country is that we have to have education within the country,'' Trump replied.

''And federal health care run by the federal government?'' Cooper asked.

''Health care. We need health care for our people. Obamacare is a disaster,'' Trump said.

''That is something that the government should be doing?'' Cooper pressed.

''The government can lead it but it should be privately done,'' Trump said.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:48

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Jan. 21, 2016 | 1:07Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said the United States had invited the 26 other coalition nations to convene in Brussels next month to address the military campaign against the Islamic State.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:46

By NEIL COLLIER, MARGARET CHEATHAM WILLIAMS and TAIGE JENSEN| Mar. 20, 2016| 2:21Triacetone triperoxide, which was used in the Paris attacks in November, has become the Islamic State's explosive of choice in Europe. Specialists in bomb detection explain why.

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:42

Top Hillary Clinton campaign aide Joel Benenson said on CNN Monday that if Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) wants Clinton to participate in a debate preceding April's Democratic primary in New York, then he'll need to change his ''tone.''

The comments came after the Sanders campaign said over the weekend that they wanted to challenge the former secretary of state to a debate before the April 19 delegate-rich primary.

When asked about the proposition, Benenson dodged the question and instead insisted that the biggest news of the weekend was a Washington Post story that detailed how the Sanders campaign plans to sharpen their rhetoric against Clinton in the coming days and weeks.

''They're talking about running harsher negatives now,'' Benenson said. ''This is a man who said he'd never run a negative ad ever. He's now running them, they're now planning to run more.''

''Let's see the tone of the campaign he wants to run before we get to any other questions,'' he added.

CNN host Kate Bolduan went on to press Benenson on why the Clinton campaign doesn't want to debate Sanders again, despite agreeing in January to participate in an additional four debates.

''What's the risk?'' she asked.

''There's no risk. [Clinton has] done very well in the debates. The debates have been very good, but Sen. Sanders doesn't get to decide when we debate, particularly when he's running a very negative campaign against us,'' Benenson replied. ''Let's see if he goes back to the kind of tone he said he was going to set early on. If he does that, then we'll talk about debates.''

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:40

When ''The View'' co-host Michelle Collins asserted that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz lives by a ''crazy moral code,'' she got an earful from actress Candace Cameron Bure, an outspoken Christian in Hollywood.

''The View''

Collins also said it would be ''satisfying'' if the National Enquirer report alleging Cruz has cheated on his wife turns out to be accurate.

Bure took offense to both statements.

''Crazy moral code?!'' Bure said, pushing back strongly against the insinuation that Christian values are ''crazy.''

Collins quickly backtracked, telling Bure, ''You have a point, actually.'' But she also repeated her desire to see Cruz be proven to be a cheater.

''Girlfriend, I love you but I am so disagreeing with you,'' Bure responded. ''I can't find the humor in that. I don't find satisfaction in seeing anybody be ruined. I want to believe the best in people.''

''Candace is a better person than me,'' Collins replied. ''Someone like Ted Cruz, I would like to see him fall personally. He's not a good guy.''

Watch the video via ABC below:

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:34

As the Federal Bureau of Investigation tees up to begin the interview portion of their investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, Judge Andrew Napolitano offered a warning for her aides of the dangers of these interviews.

During an interview on Fox News' ''Fox & Friends'' Monday morning, Napolitano asserted that the 147 FBI agents who have been working on the case for more than a year ''have a mountain of evidence'' that they are ''now ready to test.'' Yet Clinton's former aides do have a choice of whether or not they want to succumb to the FBI's interviews should they take place.

Judge Napolitano warns that the FBI's interview stage could be ''very, very dangerous'' to Clinton's aides. (Image source: Fox News)

''If they go in, they're not under oath, but it's very, very dangerous, because if they mislead or lie to the FBI, that's a felony '-- the equivalent to perjury '-- and they can be prosecuted,'' Napolitano said. ''And they do not know, and their lawyers do not know, what the FBI knows about them.''

The senior judicial analyst for Fox News continued to say that the timing of the investigation is ''very, very treacherous.''

''I would think the Democrats need to know whether or not they're about to nominate somebody for president who might be a criminal defendant in a felony prosecution before November,'' he said. ''They should know that now.''

He continued, ''Prediction: something will happen by May which is now a little over a month away.''

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:17

An MSNBC reporter covering the 2016 election said Monday that reporters are not tougher on Republican front-runner Donald Trump because they are trying to protect their access to him.

The admission from national reporter Tony Dokoupil came after ''Last Word'' host Lawrence O'Donnell noted radio personality Charlie Sykes, who conducted a pointed interview with Trump Monday, was surprised the media hasn't been tougher on the billionaire.

Dokoupil argued that Sykes did a ''one and done'' style interview with Trump '-- a luxury he said is not afforded to journalists who regularly cover the billionaire.

''People who are on the beat, people who work for our network, they have to keep that relationship going for a long, long time,'' Dokoupil said. ''Charlie did not have that burden.''

O'Donnell immediately pushed back against Dokoupil's assertion.

''Well, I don't think the fact that you have to cover Donald Trump means that you have to then play softball with him so that you can guarantee he will speak to you another time,'' the host said. ''Once the mission of the interview is to get the next interview with the same person, we know how soft that interview is going to be.''

After Dokoupil's comments stirred debate online, he turned to Twitter to double down on his remarks.

Image source: Twitter

Image source: Twitter

Image source: Twitter

And, while O'Donnell didn't offer direct comment on his Twitter account, he did retweet some conscious messages.

Image source: Twitter

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 13:58

Glenn Beck, a top surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, said Monday morning that the National Enquirer story alleging that the Texas senator has had five extramarital affairs isn't true because Cruz ''doesn't have the game'' for five mistresses.

Glenn Beck discusses the National Enquirer story about Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's alleged affairs on The Glenn Beck Radio Program Monday. (Image: TheBlaze TV)

''I don't mean to hurt his feelings,'' Beck said. ''But when I told my wife, I said, 'Have you seen the Enquirer?' She just laughed. OK '-- she's been around him. She just laughed. '... Tania and I talked about it. We're surprised he had enough game for [his wife] Heidi.''

Aside from Cruz not having ''game,'' Beck listed four other reasons why he believes the tabloid story about the presidential hopeful is untrue.

Beck said that in order for someone to have that many mistresses in a short period of time, he would have to be ''a sexual predator,'' and that he and his wife have been around Cruz and have ''never seen'' any signs of that.

Additionally, the conservative radio host said Cruz ''has known that he could be the president from the beginning,'' so he wouldn't risk his entire career.

''You are not as driven as he is, you are not as smart as he is, and then go in for your last four years before you're going to run for president '-- you don't go to 2012 and be thinking, I'm going to run for president and think you can get away with [five affairs],'' Beck said.

Beck also said it is clear he has not been engaged in the alleged affairs because of ''his soul.''

''Your soul would rot,'' he said. ''You would have other signs of soul rot. I have not seen any signs of him being a dirtbag in any other way.''

Lastly, Beck suggested that the story was planted by GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, a claim the billionaire businessman has denied.

The National Enquirer is a U.S.-based tabloid known for it's sensational stories often supported by rumors and unnamed sources. The tabloid made headlines when it was the first to break the story about Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards' 2008 affair, which led to the end of his campaign.

Complimentary Clip from TheBlaze TVThe full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

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Tue, 29 Mar 2016 13:05

Home / News / White student assaulted for "cultural appropriation"March 28, 20160 Comments

CALIFORNIA - A video has surfaced online alleging a San Francisco State University employee assaulted a white student for "cultural appropriation". The woman has been identified online as Bonita Tindle. According to LinkedIn Tindle has held multiple jobs at SFSU since September 2015.

In the video Bonita Tindle claims the white student should not wear his hair in dreadlocks because of his white culture. Bonita Tindle's friend Davia Spainis a witness to the assault. We would also like to mention that according to wikipedia dreadlocks originated from ancient Greece.

The victim has reportedly filed a police report. If you have additional information to add please leave a comment below.

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 18:05

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:45

MONTGOMERY, Ala. '--Alabama teachers may soon be required to undergo training about not having sex with students.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Cam Ward (R-Alabaster). It cleared a senate committee Tuesday.

Sen. Dick Brewbaker (R-Montgomery) told ABC 33/40, to think an additional hour of professional development would make any difference at all is absurd. He abstained from the vote. "I didn't think it was worth a vote. I mean, we have to tell grown-ups with a college degree, who claim to be professionals, that they're supposed to keep their hands off the people in the little desks? I mean, this is just crazy!" Brewbaker said.

He also told ABC 33/40, "if we've gotten to the point where a bill like this is necessary, we're hiring a lot of people in public education who aren't worthy of the public trust."

Ward expects the bill to go before the full senate after next week's spring break recess.

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:43

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:18

Pandemonium broke out at a Bernie Sanders rally in Portland, Oregon, Friday when a tiny bird flew onto the Vermont senator's podium.

The Democratic presidential candidate was delivering his stump speech when the crowd first drew his attention to the bird after it landed on the ground near him.

''Now you see, this little bird doesn't know it'--,'' Sanders said.

His sentence was interrupted as the bird fluttered onto the podium and perched up next to the senator, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

Moments later, it flew away.

''I think there may be some symbolism here. I know it doesn't look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us for world peace,'' Sanders said. ''No more wars.''

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Mon, 28 Mar 2016 15:37

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Wed, 30 Mar 2016 16:02

With the increasing propaganda wars, we thought a reminder of just how naive many Westerners are when it comes to their news-feed. As Arjun Walia, of GlobalResearch.ca, notes, Dr. Ulfkotte went on public television stating that he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, also adding that noncompliance with these orders would result in him losing his job.

He recently made an appearance on RT news to share these facts:

I've been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public.

But seeing right now within the last months how the German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia '-- this is a point of no return and I'm going to stand up and say it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do and have done in the past because they are bribed to betray the people, not only in Germany, all over Europe.

It's important to keep in mind that Dr. Ulfkotte is not the only person making these claims; multiple reporters have done the same and this kind of truthfulness is something the world needs more of.

One (out of many) great examples of a whistleblowing reporter is investigative journalist and former CBC News reporter Sharyl Attkisson.

She delivered a hard-hitting TEDx talk showing how fake grassroots movements funded by political, corporate, or other special interests very effectively manipulate and distort media messages.

Another great example is Amber Lyon, a three-time Emmy award winning journalist at CC, who said that they are routinely paid by the US government and foreign governments to selectively report and even distort information on certain events. She has also indicated that the government has editorial control over content.

Ever since Operation Mockingbird, a CIA-based initiative to control mainstream media, more and more people are expressing their concern that what we see in the media is nothing short of brainwashing.

This is also evident by blatant lies that continue to spam the TV screen, especially when it comes to topics such as health, food, war ('terrorism'), poverty, and more.

Things have not changed, in fact, when in comes to mainstream media distorting information and telling lies. They have gotten much worse in recent years, in fact, so it is highly encouraging that more people are starting to see through these lies, even without the help of whistleblowers like Dr. Ulfkotte.

One great example is the supposed 'war on terror,' or 'false flag terrorism.' There are evenWikileaks documents alluding to the fact that the United States government planned to ''retaliate and cause pain'' to countries refusing GMOs.

Mainstream media's continual support of GMOs rages on, despite the fact that a number of countries are now banning these products.

The list of lies goes on and on. It's time to turn off your T.V. and do your own research if you are curious about what is happening on our planet. It's time to wake up.

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