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<p>Source: USDA</p>
<p>==TOTAL STATES==</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from</p>
<p>Month On Feed Yr Ago : Placed Yr Ago : MarketedYr Ago : DisappYr Ago</p>
<p>-2017-</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,904 100 : NA NA : NA NA : NA NA</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,772 100 : 2,102 111 : 1,914 110 : 56 90</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,782 101 : 1,694 99 : 1,648 104 : 56 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,605 100 : 1,981 111 : 1,751 110 : 53 95</p>
<p>-2016-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,652 99 : 1,785 117 : 1,777 106 : 55 71</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,665 99 : 1,843 115 : 1,787 117 : 69 93</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,256 100 : 2,171 95 : 1,705 105 : 57 76</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,135 101 : 1,895 98 : 1,732 105 : 42 74</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,165 102 : 1,879 115 : 1,868 118 : 41 68</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,804 106 : 1,572 102 : 1,713 99 : 50 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,804 102 : 1,525 103 : 1,912 109 : 61 88</p>
<p>May 1 10,783 101 : 1,889 110 : 1,794 105 : 74 96</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,853 101 : 1,664 107 : 1,658 101 : 76 115</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,770 101 : 1,892 105 : 1,747 107 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,709 100 : 1,710 110 : 1,591 105 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,575 100 : 1,779 99 : 1,589 98 : 56 73</p>
<p>-2015-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,800 99 : 1,527 99 : 1,674 101 : 78 108</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,799 102 : 1,607 90 : 1,532 104 : 74 100</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 102 : 2,286 97 : 1,630 97 : 75 77</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,986 102 : 1,931 96 : 1,642 98 : 57 88</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,002 102 : 1,632 95 : 1,588 94 : 60 91</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,236 101 : 1,547 99 : 1,725 97 : 56 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,571 100 : 1,481 102 : 1,747 95 : 69 92</p>
<p>May 1 10,640 100 : 1,719 90 : 1,711 92 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,797 99 : 1,548 95 : 1,639 92 : 66 80</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,688 99 : 1,809 100 : 1,631 98 : 69 106</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,713 101 : 1,551 94 : 1,516 98 : 60 85</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,626 100 : 1,789 88 : 1,625 91 : 77 108</p>
<p>-2014-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,873 101 : 1,537 92 : 1,655 95 : 72 94</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,633 100 : 1,789 95 : 1,475 88 : 74 101</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,058 99 : 2,357 99 : 1,685 91 : 97 128</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,799 99 : 2,007 99 : 1,683 99 : 65 105</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,837 98 : 1,720 96 : 1,692 90 : 66 120</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,127 98 : 1,560 91 : 1,787 89 : 63 98</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,594 98 : 1,455 92 : 1,847 97 : 75 119</p>
<p>May 1 10,648 99 : 1,912 93 : 1,865 96 : 101 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,873 100 : 1,636 95 : 1,778 98 : 83 120</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,790 99 : 1,808 96 : 1,660 96 : 65 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,590 96 : 1,650 111 : 1,549 95 : 71 118</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,590 95 : 2,029 108 : 1,788 93 : 71 90</p>
<p>-2013-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,725 95 : 1,679 101 : 1,736 99 : 77 104</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,597 94 : 1,882 97 : 1,681 95 : 73 83</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,144 92 : 2,388 110 : 1,859 101 : 76 97</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,876 93 : 2,025 101 : 1,695 106 : 62 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,026 94 : 1,788 89 : 1,883 96 : 55 90</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,368 97 : 1,722 90 : 2,000 105 : 64 102</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,767 97 : 1,587 95 : 1,895 96 : 63 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,760 97 : 2,055 99 : 1,948 97 : 100 100</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,924 95 : 1,720 113 : 1,815 100 : 69 88</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,845 93 : 1,884 105 : 1,724 90 : 81 117</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,073 94 : 1,482 86 : 1,638 93 : 60 65</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,193 94 : 1,876 102 : 1,917 106 : 79 98</p>
<p>-2012-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,348 94 : 1,664 99 : 1,745 98 : 74 81</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,254 94 : 1,943 95 : 1,761 99 : 88 86</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,989 97 : 2,180 87 : 1,837 102 : 78 80</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,647 99 : 2,004 81 : 1,598 88 : 64 86</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,656 101 : 2,007 89 : 1,955 96 : 61 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,710 103 : 1,922 90 : 1,913 100 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,077 101 : 1,664 98 : 1,965 93 : 66 90</p>
<p>May 1 11,110 99 : 2,084 115 : 2,017 101 : 100 125</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,482 102 : 1,521 85 : 1,815 100 : 78 132</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,677 102 : 1,792 94 : 1,918 96 : 69 133</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,811 102 : 1,714 103 : 1,755 98 : 93 155</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,861 103 : 1,847 97 : 1,816 102 : 81 145</p>
<p>-2011-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,065 104 : 1,673 94 : 1,776 97 : 91 140</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,914 104 : 2,035 104 : 1,782 101 : 102 165</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,312 105 : 2,496 100 : 1,796 104 : 98 158</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,730 105 : 2,469 100 : 1,813 101 : 74 137</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,589 107 : 2,259 100 : 2,046 106 : 72 153</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,448 104 : 2,133 122 : 1,911 100 : 81 169</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,928 104 : 1,695 104 : 2,102 105 : 73 133</p>
<p>May 1 11,200 107 : 1,810 90 : 2,002 107 : 80 78</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,271 105 : 1,795 110 : 1,807 97 : 59 63</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,399 105 : 1,914 103 : 1,990 105 : 52 87</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,583 105 : 1,667 100 : 1,791 104 : 60 88</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,514 105 : 1,899 104 : 1,774 100 : 56 80</p>
<p>-2010-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,614 103 : 1,789 116 : 1,830 105 : 65 90</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,487 103 : 1,958 106 : 1,769 108 : 62 94</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,779 103 : 2,504 101 : 1,734 99 : 62 105</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,173 103 : 2,462 103 : 1,802 103 : 54 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,873 102 : 2,270 107 : 1,923 106 : 47 84</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,070 103 : 1,754 94 : 1,903 98 : 48 112</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,494 101 : 1,628 117 : 1,997 100 : 55 96</p>
<p>May 1 10,443 96 : 2,022 123 : 1,869 96 : 102 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,767 96 : 1,627 102 : 1,857 99 : 94 136</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,874 97 : 1,856 103 : 1,903 104 : 60 120</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,984 97 : 1,674 100 : 1,716 102 : 68 121</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,008 98 : 1,822 98 : 1,776 102 : 70 104</p>
<p>-2009-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,277 103 : 1,546 94 : 1,743 104 : 72 95</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,134 101 : 1,844 91 : 1,635 104 : 66 99</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,474 101 : 2,474 101 : 1,755 97 : 59 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,879 99 : 2,388 105 : 1,746 96 : 47 92</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,637 98 : 2,113 103 : 1,815 96 : 56 114</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,752 95 : 1,863 112 : 1,935 95 : 43 96</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,407 96 : 1,391 92 : 1,989 101 : 57 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,822 97 : 1,638 86 : 1,952 91 : 101 126</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,162 96 : 1,600 104 : 1,871 93 : 69 92</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,228 95 : 1,808 104 : 1,824 99 : 50 79</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,288 94 : 1,678 97 : 1,682 95 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,234 93 : 1,858 104 : 1,737 93 : 67 112</p>
<p>-2008-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,972 91 : 1,647 97 : 1,683 102 : 76 131</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,972 93 : 2,016 94 : 1,575 91 : 67 118</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,415 95 : 2,438 90 : 1,814 97 : 67 143</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,997 97 : 2,281 94 : 1,812 107 : 51 94</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,869 96 : 2,061 97 : 1,884 91 : 49 98</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,295 96 : 1,666 103 : 2,047 102 : 45 74</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,815 96 : 1,518 92 : 1,978 92 : 60 115</p>
<p>May 1 11,135 99 : 1,900 88 : 2,140 103 : 80 81</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,684 100 : 1,536 98 : 2,010 110 : 75 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,853 102 : 1,736 89 : 1,842 100 : 63 88</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,966 102 : 1,723 104 : 1,776 104 : 60 80</p>
<p>Jan 1 12,097 101 : 1,787 106 : 1,858 101 : 60 62</p>
<p>-2007-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,099 101 : 1,701 99 : 1,645 101 : 58 66</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,760 98 : 2,134 113 : 1,738 97 : 57 69</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,967 96 : 2,716 112 : 1,876 106 : 47 58</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,302 94 : 2,420 109 : 1,701 97 : 54 79</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,299 95 : 2,119 92 : 2,066 100 : 50 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,737 99 : 1,622 83 : 1,999 102 : 61 105</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,272 98 : 1,657 85 : 2,140 97 : 52 83</p>
<p>May 1 11,297 98 : 2,159 113 : 2,085 96 : 99 86</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,644 99 : 1,573 97 : 1,821 101 : 99 114</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,599 96 : 1,960 107 : 1,843 94 : 72 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,726 97 : 1,659 104 : 1,711 106 : 75 103</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,974 101 : 1,690 77 : 1,841 102 : 97 117</p>
<p>-2006-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,973 102 : 1,714 91 : 1,625 95 : 88 97</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,969 104 : 1,884 92 : 1,797 106 : 83 91</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,385 109 : 2,430 87 : 1,765 101 : 81 140</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,986 110 : 2,227 95 : 1,760 97 : 68 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,822 107 : 2,295 115 : 2,072 102 : 59 111</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,872 105 : 1,963 117 : 1,955 102 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,559 107 : 1,946 110 : 2,198 106 : 63 100</p>
<p>May 1 11,559 109 : 1,913 86 : 2,170 109 : 115 120</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,812 109 : 1,629 98 : 1,798 100 : 87 97</p>
<p>Mar 1 12,023 108 : 1,837 105 : 1,958 100 : 90 130</p>
<p>Feb 1 12,110 107 : 1,598 105 : 1,612 99 : 73 100</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,804 104 : 2,199 117 : 1,810 102 : 83 112</p>
<p>-2005-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,726 103 : 1,884 103 : 1,715 97 : 91 99</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,473 101 : 2,045 117 : 1,701 104 : 91 84</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,482 100 : 2,788 103 : 1,739 96 : 58 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,000 100 : 2,355 99 : 1,816 101 : 57 93</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,092 102 : 1,993 95 : 2,032 106 : 53 95</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,392 103 : 1,678 98 : 1,918 100 : 60 103</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,769 101 : 1,769 107 : 2,083 100 : 63 90</p>
<p>May 1 10,639 103 : 2,223 94 : 1,997 99 : 96 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,870 101 : 1,660 104 : 1,801 95 : 90 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,152 102 : 1,750 97 : 1,963 100 : 69 103</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,339 102 : 1,523 94 : 1,634 96 : 73 106</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,299 100 : 1,885 107 : 1,771 100 : 74 79</p>
<p>-2004-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,334 100 : 1,834 105 : 1,777 102 : 92 102</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,334 103 : 1,743 90 : 1,635 106 : 108 111</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,502 103 : 2,701 97 : 1,803 97 : 66 65</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,988 102 : 2,375 96 : 1,800 89 : 61 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,868 103 : 2,102 88 : 1,926 93 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,132 102 : 1,719 86 : 1,925 85 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,640 101 : 1,647 99 : 2,085 94 : 70 115</p>
<p>May 1 10,375 98 : 2,370 103 : 2,026 91 : 79 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,763 100 : 1,600 86 : 1,891 95 : 97 154</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,987 104 : 1,810 89 : 1,967 109 : 67 108</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,138 104 : 1,612 98 : 1,694 98 : 69 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,253 106 : 1,754 84 : 1,775 90 : 94 125</p>
<p>-2003-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,335 104 : 1,748 105 : 1,740 97 : 90 91</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,043 103 : 1,926 97 : 1,537 89 : 97 108</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 98 : 2,781 116 : 1,855 94 : 101 120</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,839 97 : 2,474 113 : 2,032 110 : 63 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,590 95 : 2,384 107 : 2,075 97 : 60 140</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,923 95 : 1,997 109 : 2,270 104 : 60 133</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,539 96 : 1,672 102 : 2,227 107 : 61 120</p>
<p>May 1 10,535 96 : 2,307 102 : 2,238 103 : 65 84</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,713 93 : 1,870 129 : 1,985 99 : 63 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,546 92 : 2,032 104 : 1,803 99 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,700 92 : 1,650 91 : 1,733 96 : 71 113</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,658 92 : 2,089 96 : 1,972 95 : 75 84</p>
<p>-2002-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,898 92 : 1,658 105 : 1,799 99 : 99 106</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,742 91 : 1,977 104 : 1,731 96 : 90 113</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,416 94 : 2,389 88 : 1,979 104 : 84 124</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,129 93 : 2,188 102 : 1,848 101 : 53 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,089 93 : 2,218 101 : 2,135 98 : 43 80</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,487 95 : 1,840 93 : 2,193 107 : 45 76</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,970 98 : 1,644 84 : 2,076 98 : 51 66</p>
<p>May 1 10,951 98 : 2,267 96 : 2,171 99 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,577 100 : 1,453 94 : 1,996 110 : 83 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,518 98 : 1,953 106 : 1,825 95 : 69 70</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,572 97 : 1,810 115 : 1,801 103 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,565 98 : 2,179 96 : 2,083 102 : 89 114</p>
<p>-2001-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,891 NA : 1,578 NA : 1,811 NA : 93 NA</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,863 NA : 1,908 NA : 1,800 NA : 80 NA</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,125 NA : 2,702 NA : 1,896 NA : 68 NA</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,855 NA : 2,141 NA : 1,825 NA : 46 NA</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,891 NA : 2,204 NA : 2,186 NA : 54 NA</p>
<p>Jul 1 11,011 NA : 1,986 NA : 2,047 NA : 59 NA</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,245 NA : 1,965 NA : 2,122 NA : 77 NA</p>
<p>May 1 11,170 NA : 2,372 NA : 2,196 NA : 101 NA</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,523 NA : 1,551 NA : 1,815 NA : 89 NA</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,695 NA : 1,842 NA : 1,916 NA : 98 NA</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,941 NA : 1,580 NA : 1,745 NA : 81 NA</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,798 NA : 2,263 NA : 2,042 NA : 78 NA</p>
<p>Write to Rodney Christian at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 21, 2017 15:15 ET (19:15 GMT)</p> | USDA Cattle On Feed: Total Historical - Apr 21 -2- | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/21/usda-cattle-on-feed-total-historical-apr-21-2.html | 2017-04-21 | 0right
| 2,022 | Source USDA TOTAL STATES Continue Reading Below Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from Month On Feed Yr Ago Placed Yr Ago MarketedYr Ago DisappYr Ago 2017 Apr 1 10904 100 NA NA NA NA NA NA Mar 1 10772 100 2102 111 1914 110 56 90 Advertisement Feb 1 10782 101 1694 99 1648 104 56 97 Jan 1 10605 100 1981 111 1751 110 53 95 2016 Dec 1 10652 99 1785 117 1777 106 55 71 Nov 1 10665 99 1843 115 1787 117 69 93 Oct 1 10256 100 2171 95 1705 105 57 76 Sep 1 10135 101 1895 98 1732 105 42 74 Aug 1 10165 102 1879 115 1868 118 41 68 Jul 1 10804 106 1572 102 1713 99 50 89 Jun 1 10804 102 1525 103 1912 109 61 88 May 1 10783 101 1889 110 1794 105 74 96 Apr 1 10853 101 1664 107 1658 101 76 115 Mar 1 10770 101 1892 105 1747 107 62 90 Feb 1 10709 100 1710 110 1591 105 58 97 Jan 1 10575 100 1779 99 1589 98 56 73 2015 Dec 1 10800 99 1527 99 1674 101 78 108 Nov 1 10799 102 1607 90 1532 104 74 100 Oct 1 10218 102 2286 97 1630 97 75 77 Sep 1 9986 102 1931 96 1642 98 57 88 Aug 1 10002 102 1632 95 1588 94 60 91 Jul 1 10236 101 1547 99 1725 97 56 89 Jun 1 10571 100 1481 102 1747 95 69 92 May 1 10640 100 1719 90 1711 92 77 76 Apr 1 10797 99 1548 95 1639 92 66 80 Mar 1 10688 99 1809 100 1631 98 69 106 Feb 1 10713 101 1551 94 1516 98 60 85 Jan 1 10626 100 1789 88 1625 91 77 108 2014 Dec 1 10873 101 1537 92 1655 95 72 94 Nov 1 10633 100 1789 95 1475 88 74 101 Oct 1 10058 99 2357 99 1685 91 97 128 Sep 1 9799 99 2007 99 1683 99 65 105 Aug 1 9837 98 1720 96 1692 90 66 120 Jul 1 10127 98 1560 91 1787 89 63 98 Jun 1 10594 98 1455 92 1847 97 75 119 May 1 10648 99 1912 93 1865 96 101 101 Apr 1 10873 100 1636 95 1778 98 83 120 Mar 1 10790 99 1808 96 1660 96 65 80 Feb 1 10590 96 1650 111 1549 95 71 118 Jan 1 10590 95 2029 108 1788 93 71 90 2013 Dec 1 10725 95 1679 101 1736 99 77 104 Nov 1 10597 94 1882 97 1681 95 73 83 Oct 1 10144 92 2388 110 1859 101 76 97 Sep 1 9876 93 2025 101 1695 106 62 97 Aug 1 10026 94 1788 89 1883 96 55 90 Jul 1 10368 97 1722 90 2000 105 64 102 Jun 1 10767 97 1587 95 1895 96 63 95 May 1 10760 97 2055 99 1948 97 100 100 Apr 1 10924 95 1720 113 1815 100 69 88 Mar 1 10845 93 1884 105 1724 90 81 117 Feb 1 11073 94 1482 86 1638 93 60 65 Jan 1 11193 94 1876 102 1917 106 79 98 2012 Dec 1 11348 94 1664 99 1745 98 74 81 Nov 1 11254 94 1943 95 1761 99 88 86 Oct 1 10989 97 2180 87 1837 102 78 80 Sep 1 10647 99 2004 81 1598 88 64 86 Aug 1 10656 101 2007 89 1955 96 61 85 Jul 1 10710 103 1922 90 1913 100 63 78 Jun 1 11077 101 1664 98 1965 93 66 90 May 1 11110 99 2084 115 2017 101 100 125 Apr 1 11482 102 1521 85 1815 100 78 132 Mar 1 11677 102 1792 94 1918 96 69 133 Feb 1 11811 102 1714 103 1755 98 93 155 Jan 1 11861 103 1847 97 1816 102 81 145 2011 Dec 1 12065 104 1673 94 1776 97 91 140 Nov 1 11914 104 2035 104 1782 101 102 165 Oct 1 11312 105 2496 100 1796 104 98 158 Sep 1 10730 105 2469 100 1813 101 74 137 Aug 1 10589 107 2259 100 2046 106 72 153 Jul 1 10448 104 2133 122 1911 100 81 169 Jun 1 10928 104 1695 104 2102 105 73 133 May 1 11200 107 1810 90 2002 107 80 78 Apr 1 11271 105 1795 110 1807 97 59 63 Mar 1 11399 105 1914 103 1990 105 52 87 Feb 1 11583 105 1667 100 1791 104 60 88 Jan 1 11514 105 1899 104 1774 100 56 80 2010 Dec 1 11614 103 1789 116 1830 105 65 90 Nov 1 11487 103 1958 106 1769 108 62 94 Oct 1 10779 103 2504 101 1734 99 62 105 Sep 1 10173 103 2462 103 1802 103 54 115 Aug 1 9873 102 2270 107 1923 106 47 84 Jul 1 10070 103 1754 94 1903 98 48 112 Jun 1 10494 101 1628 117 1997 100 55 96 May 1 10443 96 2022 123 1869 96 102 101 Apr 1 10767 96 1627 102 1857 99 94 136 Mar 1 10874 97 1856 103 1903 104 60 120 Feb 1 10984 97 1674 100 1716 102 68 121 Jan 1 11008 98 1822 98 1776 102 70 104 2009 Dec 1 11277 103 1546 94 1743 104 72 95 Nov 1 11134 101 1844 91 1635 104 66 99 Oct 1 10474 101 2474 101 1755 97 59 88 Sep 1 9879 99 2388 105 1746 96 47 92 Aug 1 9637 98 2113 103 1815 96 56 114 Jul 1 9752 95 1863 112 1935 95 43 96 Jun 1 10407 96 1391 92 1989 101 57 95 May 1 10822 97 1638 86 1952 91 101 126 Apr 1 11162 96 1600 104 1871 93 69 92 Mar 1 11228 95 1808 104 1824 99 50 79 Feb 1 11288 94 1678 97 1682 95 56 93 Jan 1 11234 93 1858 104 1737 93 67 112 2008 Dec 1 10972 91 1647 97 1683 102 76 131 Nov 1 10972 93 2016 94 1575 91 67 118 Oct 1 10415 95 2438 90 1814 97 67 143 Sep 1 9997 97 2281 94 1812 107 51 94 Aug 1 9869 96 2061 97 1884 91 49 98 Jul 1 10295 96 1666 103 2047 102 45 74 Jun 1 10815 96 1518 92 1978 92 60 115 May 1 11135 99 1900 88 2140 103 80 81 Apr 1 11684 100 1536 98 2010 110 75 76 Mar 1 11853 102 1736 89 1842 100 63 88 Feb 1 11966 102 1723 104 1776 104 60 80 Jan 1 12097 101 1787 106 1858 101 60 62 2007 Dec 1 12099 101 1701 99 1645 101 58 66 Nov 1 11760 98 2134 113 1738 97 57 69 Oct 1 10967 96 2716 112 1876 106 47 58 Sep 1 10302 94 2420 109 1701 97 54 79 Aug 1 10299 95 2119 92 2066 100 50 85 Jul 1 10737 99 1622 83 1999 102 61 105 Jun 1 11272 98 1657 85 2140 97 52 83 May 1 11297 98 2159 113 2085 96 99 86 Apr 1 11644 99 1573 97 1821 101 99 114 Mar 1 11599 96 1960 107 1843 94 72 80 Feb 1 11726 97 1659 104 1711 106 75 103 Jan 1 11974 101 1690 77 1841 102 97 117 2006 Dec 1 11973 102 1714 91 1625 95 88 97 Nov 1 11969 104 1884 92 1797 106 83 91 Oct 1 11385 109 2430 87 1765 101 81 140 Sep 1 10986 110 2227 95 1760 97 68 119 Aug 1 10822 107 2295 115 2072 102 59 111 Jul 1 10872 105 1963 117 1955 102 58 97 Jun 1 11559 107 1946 110 2198 106 63 100 May 1 11559 109 1913 86 2170 109 115 120 Apr 1 11812 109 1629 98 1798 100 87 97 Mar 1 12023 108 1837 105 1958 100 90 130 Feb 1 12110 107 1598 105 1612 99 73 100 Jan 1 11804 104 2199 117 1810 102 83 112 2005 Dec 1 11726 103 1884 103 1715 97 91 99 Nov 1 11473 101 2045 117 1701 104 91 84 Oct 1 10482 100 2788 103 1739 96 58 88 Sep 1 10000 100 2355 99 1816 101 57 93 Aug 1 10092 102 1993 95 2032 106 53 95 Jul 1 10392 103 1678 98 1918 100 60 103 Jun 1 10769 101 1769 107 2083 100 63 90 May 1 10639 103 2223 94 1997 99 96 122 Apr 1 10870 101 1660 104 1801 95 90 93 Mar 1 11152 102 1750 97 1963 100 69 103 Feb 1 11339 102 1523 94 1634 96 73 106 Jan 1 11299 100 1885 107 1771 100 74 79 2004 Dec 1 11334 100 1834 105 1777 102 92 102 Nov 1 11334 103 1743 90 1635 106 108 111 Oct 1 10502 103 2701 97 1803 97 66 65 Sep 1 9988 102 2375 96 1800 89 61 97 Aug 1 9868 103 2102 88 1926 93 56 93 Jul 1 10132 102 1719 86 1925 85 58 97 Jun 1 10640 101 1647 99 2085 94 70 115 May 1 10375 98 2370 103 2026 91 79 122 Apr 1 10763 100 1600 86 1891 95 97 154 Mar 1 10987 104 1810 89 1967 109 67 108 Feb 1 11138 104 1612 98 1694 98 69 97 Jan 1 11253 106 1754 84 1775 90 94 125 2003 Dec 1 11335 104 1748 105 1740 97 90 91 Nov 1 11043 103 1926 97 1537 89 97 108 Oct 1 10218 98 2781 116 1855 94 101 120 Sep 1 9839 97 2474 113 2032 110 63 119 Aug 1 9590 95 2384 107 2075 97 60 140 Jul 1 9923 95 1997 109 2270 104 60 133 Jun 1 10539 96 1672 102 2227 107 61 120 May 1 10535 96 2307 102 2238 103 65 84 Apr 1 10713 93 1870 129 1985 99 63 76 Mar 1 10546 92 2032 104 1803 99 62 90 Feb 1 10700 92 1650 91 1733 96 71 113 Jan 1 10658 92 2089 96 1972 95 75 84 2002 Dec 1 10898 92 1658 105 1799 99 99 106 Nov 1 10742 91 1977 104 1731 96 90 113 Oct 1 10416 94 2389 88 1979 104 84 124 Sep 1 10129 93 2188 102 1848 101 53 115 Aug 1 10089 93 2218 101 2135 98 43 80 Jul 1 10487 95 1840 93 2193 107 45 76 Jun 1 10970 98 1644 84 2076 98 51 66 May 1 10951 98 2267 96 2171 99 77 76 Apr 1 11577 100 1453 94 1996 110 83 93 Mar 1 11518 98 1953 106 1825 95 69 70 Feb 1 11572 97 1810 115 1801 103 63 78 Jan 1 11565 98 2179 96 2083 102 89 114 2001 Dec 1 11891 NA 1578 NA 1811 NA 93 NA Nov 1 11863 NA 1908 NA 1800 NA 80 NA Oct 1 11125 NA 2702 NA 1896 NA 68 NA Sep 1 10855 NA 2141 NA 1825 NA 46 NA Aug 1 10891 NA 2204 NA 2186 NA 54 NA Jul 1 11011 NA 1986 NA 2047 NA 59 NA Jun 1 11245 NA 1965 NA 2122 NA 77 NA May 1 11170 NA 2372 NA 2196 NA 101 NA Apr 1 11523 NA 1551 NA 1815 NA 89 NA Mar 1 11695 NA 1842 NA 1916 NA 98 NA Feb 1 11941 NA 1580 NA 1745 NA 81 NA Jan 1 11798 NA 2263 NA 2042 NA 78 NA Write to Rodney Christian at csstatdowjonescom END Dow Jones Newswires April 21 2017 1515 ET 1915 GMT | Source/NOUN USDA/PROPN 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1/NUM 10535/NUM 96/NUM 2307/NUM 102/NUM 2238/NUM 103/NUM 65/NUM 84/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10713/NUM 93/NUM 1870/NUM 129/NUM 1985/NUM 99/NUM 63/NUM 76/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 10546/NUM 92/NUM 2032/NUM 104/NUM 1803/NUM 99/NUM 62/NUM 90/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 10700/NUM 92/NUM 1650/NUM 91/NUM 1733/NUM 96/NUM 71/NUM 113/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 10658/NUM 92/NUM 2089/NUM 96/NUM 1972/NUM 95/NUM 75/NUM 84/NUM 2002/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 10898/NUM 92/NUM 1658/NUM 105/NUM 1799/NUM 99/NUM 99/NUM 106/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 10742/NUM 91/NUM 1977/NUM 104/NUM 1731/NUM 96/NUM 90/NUM 113/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10416/NUM 94/NUM 2389/NUM 88/NUM 1979/NUM 104/NUM 84/NUM 124/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10129/NUM 93/NUM 2188/NUM 102/NUM 1848/NUM 101/NUM 53/NUM 115/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10089/NUM 93/NUM 2218/NUM 101/NUM 2135/NUM 98/NUM 43/NUM 80/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10487/NUM 95/NUM 1840/NUM 93/NUM 2193/NUM 107/NUM 45/NUM 76/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10970/NUM 98/NUM 1644/NUM 84/NUM 2076/NUM 98/NUM 51/NUM 66/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10951/NUM 98/NUM 2267/NUM 96/NUM 2171/NUM 99/NUM 77/NUM 76/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 11577/NUM 100/NUM 1453/NUM 94/NUM 1996/NUM 110/NUM 83/NUM 93/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11518/NUM 98/NUM 1953/NUM 106/NUM 1825/NUM 95/NUM 69/NUM 70/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11572/NUM 97/NUM 1810/NUM 115/NUM 1801/NUM 103/NUM 63/NUM 78/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11565/NUM 98/NUM 2179/NUM 96/NUM 2083/NUM 102/NUM 89/NUM 114/NUM 2001/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11891/NUM NA/PROPN 1578/NUM NA/PROPN 1811/NUM NA/PROPN 93/NUM NA/PROPN Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11863/NUM NA/PROPN 1908/NUM NA/PROPN 1800/NUM NA/PROPN 80/NUM NA/PROPN Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 11125/NUM NA/PROPN 2702/NUM NA/PROPN 1896/NUM NA/PROPN 68/NUM NA/PROPN Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10855/NUM NA/PROPN 2141/NUM NA/PROPN 1825/NUM NA/PROPN 46/NUM NA/PROPN Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10891/NUM NA/PROPN 2204/NUM NA/PROPN 2186/NUM NA/PROPN 54/NUM NA/PROPN Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 11011/NUM NA/PROPN 1986/NUM NA/PROPN 2047/NUM NA/PROPN 59/NUM NA/PROPN Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 11245/NUM NA/PROPN 1965/NUM NA/PROPN 2122/NUM NA/PROPN 77/NUM NA/PROPN May/PROPN 1/NUM 11170/NUM NA/PROPN 2372/NUM NA/PROPN 2196/NUM NA/PROPN 101/NUM NA/PROPN Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 11523/NUM NA/PROPN 1551/NUM NA/PROPN 1815/NUM NA/PROPN 89/NUM NA/PROPN Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11695/NUM NA/PROPN 1842/NUM NA/PROPN 1916/NUM NA/PROPN 98/NUM NA/PROPN Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11941/NUM NA/PROPN 1580/NUM NA/PROPN 1745/NUM NA/PROPN 81/NUM NA/PROPN Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11798/NUM NA/PROPN 2263/NUM NA/PROPN 2042/NUM NA/PROPN 78/NUM NA/PROPN Write/PROPN to/ADP Rodney/PROPN Christian/PROPN at/ADP csstatdowjonescom/PROPN END/PROPN Dow/PROPN Jones/PROPN Newswires/PROPN April/PROPN 21/NUM 2017/NUM 1515/NUM ET/PROPN 1915/NUM GMT/PROPN |
<p>Source: USDA</p>
<p>==TOTAL STATES==</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from</p>
<p>Month On Feed Yr Ago : Placed Yr Ago : MarketedYr Ago : DisappYr Ago</p>
<p>-2017-</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,821 100 : NA NA : NA NA : NA NA</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,096 103 : 1,770 116 : 1,989 104 : 56 92</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>May 1 10,998 102 : 2,119 112 : 1,951 109 : 70 95</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,919 101 : 1,848 111 : 1,703 103 : 66 87</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,782 100 : 2,117 112 : 1,914 110 : 56 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,782 101 : 1,694 99 : 1,648 104 : 56 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,605 100 : 1,981 111 : 1,751 110 : 53 95</p>
<p>-2016-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,652 99 : 1,785 117 : 1,777 106 : 55 71</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,665 99 : 1,843 115 : 1,787 117 : 69 93</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,256 100 : 2,171 95 : 1,705 105 : 57 76</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,135 101 : 1,895 98 : 1,732 105 : 42 74</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,165 102 : 1,879 115 : 1,868 118 : 41 68</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,804 106 : 1,572 102 : 1,713 99 : 50 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,804 102 : 1,525 103 : 1,912 109 : 61 88</p>
<p>May 1 10,783 101 : 1,889 110 : 1,794 105 : 74 96</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,853 101 : 1,664 107 : 1,658 101 : 76 115</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,770 101 : 1,892 105 : 1,747 107 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,709 100 : 1,710 110 : 1,591 105 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,575 100 : 1,779 99 : 1,589 98 : 56 73</p>
<p>-2015-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,800 99 : 1,527 99 : 1,674 101 : 78 108</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,799 102 : 1,607 90 : 1,532 104 : 74 100</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 102 : 2,286 97 : 1,630 97 : 75 77</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,986 102 : 1,931 96 : 1,642 98 : 57 88</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,002 102 : 1,632 95 : 1,588 94 : 60 91</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,236 101 : 1,547 99 : 1,725 97 : 56 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,571 100 : 1,481 102 : 1,747 95 : 69 92</p>
<p>May 1 10,640 100 : 1,719 90 : 1,711 92 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,797 99 : 1,548 95 : 1,639 92 : 66 80</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,688 99 : 1,809 100 : 1,631 98 : 69 106</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,713 101 : 1,551 94 : 1,516 98 : 60 85</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,626 100 : 1,789 88 : 1,625 91 : 77 108</p>
<p>-2014-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,873 101 : 1,537 92 : 1,655 95 : 72 94</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,633 100 : 1,789 95 : 1,475 88 : 74 101</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,058 99 : 2,357 99 : 1,685 91 : 97 128</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,799 99 : 2,007 99 : 1,683 99 : 65 105</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,837 98 : 1,720 96 : 1,692 90 : 66 120</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,127 98 : 1,560 91 : 1,787 89 : 63 98</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,594 98 : 1,455 92 : 1,847 97 : 75 119</p>
<p>May 1 10,648 99 : 1,912 93 : 1,865 96 : 101 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,873 100 : 1,636 95 : 1,778 98 : 83 120</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,790 99 : 1,808 96 : 1,660 96 : 65 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,590 96 : 1,650 111 : 1,549 95 : 71 118</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,590 95 : 2,029 108 : 1,788 93 : 71 90</p>
<p>-2013-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,725 95 : 1,679 101 : 1,736 99 : 77 104</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,597 94 : 1,882 97 : 1,681 95 : 73 83</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,144 92 : 2,388 110 : 1,859 101 : 76 97</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,876 93 : 2,025 101 : 1,695 106 : 62 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,026 94 : 1,788 89 : 1,883 96 : 55 90</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,368 97 : 1,722 90 : 2,000 105 : 64 102</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,767 97 : 1,587 95 : 1,895 96 : 63 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,760 97 : 2,055 99 : 1,948 97 : 100 100</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,924 95 : 1,720 113 : 1,815 100 : 69 88</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,845 93 : 1,884 105 : 1,724 90 : 81 117</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,073 94 : 1,482 86 : 1,638 93 : 60 65</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,193 94 : 1,876 102 : 1,917 106 : 79 98</p>
<p>-2012-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,348 94 : 1,664 99 : 1,745 98 : 74 81</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,254 94 : 1,943 95 : 1,761 99 : 88 86</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,989 97 : 2,180 87 : 1,837 102 : 78 80</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,647 99 : 2,004 81 : 1,598 88 : 64 86</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,656 101 : 2,007 89 : 1,955 96 : 61 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,710 103 : 1,922 90 : 1,913 100 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,077 101 : 1,664 98 : 1,965 93 : 66 90</p>
<p>May 1 11,110 99 : 2,084 115 : 2,017 101 : 100 125</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,482 102 : 1,521 85 : 1,815 100 : 78 132</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,677 102 : 1,792 94 : 1,918 96 : 69 133</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,811 102 : 1,714 103 : 1,755 98 : 93 155</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,861 103 : 1,847 97 : 1,816 102 : 81 145</p>
<p>-2011-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,065 104 : 1,673 94 : 1,776 97 : 91 140</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,914 104 : 2,035 104 : 1,782 101 : 102 165</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,312 105 : 2,496 100 : 1,796 104 : 98 158</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,730 105 : 2,469 100 : 1,813 101 : 74 137</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,589 107 : 2,259 100 : 2,046 106 : 72 153</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,448 104 : 2,133 122 : 1,911 100 : 81 169</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,928 104 : 1,695 104 : 2,102 105 : 73 133</p>
<p>May 1 11,200 107 : 1,810 90 : 2,002 107 : 80 78</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,271 105 : 1,795 110 : 1,807 97 : 59 63</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,399 105 : 1,914 103 : 1,990 105 : 52 87</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,583 105 : 1,667 100 : 1,791 104 : 60 88</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,514 105 : 1,899 104 : 1,774 100 : 56 80</p>
<p>-2010-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,614 103 : 1,789 116 : 1,830 105 : 65 90</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,487 103 : 1,958 106 : 1,769 108 : 62 94</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,779 103 : 2,504 101 : 1,734 99 : 62 105</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,173 103 : 2,462 103 : 1,802 103 : 54 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,873 102 : 2,270 107 : 1,923 106 : 47 84</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,070 103 : 1,754 94 : 1,903 98 : 48 112</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,494 101 : 1,628 117 : 1,997 100 : 55 96</p>
<p>May 1 10,443 96 : 2,022 123 : 1,869 96 : 102 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,767 96 : 1,627 102 : 1,857 99 : 94 136</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,874 97 : 1,856 103 : 1,903 104 : 60 120</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,984 97 : 1,674 100 : 1,716 102 : 68 121</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,008 98 : 1,822 98 : 1,776 102 : 70 104</p>
<p>-2009-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,277 103 : 1,546 94 : 1,743 104 : 72 95</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,134 101 : 1,844 91 : 1,635 104 : 66 99</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,474 101 : 2,474 101 : 1,755 97 : 59 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,879 99 : 2,388 105 : 1,746 96 : 47 92</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,637 98 : 2,113 103 : 1,815 96 : 56 114</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,752 95 : 1,863 112 : 1,935 95 : 43 96</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,407 96 : 1,391 92 : 1,989 101 : 57 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,822 97 : 1,638 86 : 1,952 91 : 101 126</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,162 96 : 1,600 104 : 1,871 93 : 69 92</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,228 95 : 1,808 104 : 1,824 99 : 50 79</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,288 94 : 1,678 97 : 1,682 95 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,234 93 : 1,858 104 : 1,737 93 : 67 112</p>
<p>-2008-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,972 91 : 1,647 97 : 1,683 102 : 76 131</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,972 93 : 2,016 94 : 1,575 91 : 67 118</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,415 95 : 2,438 90 : 1,814 97 : 67 143</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,997 97 : 2,281 94 : 1,812 107 : 51 94</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,869 96 : 2,061 97 : 1,884 91 : 49 98</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,295 96 : 1,666 103 : 2,047 102 : 45 74</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,815 96 : 1,518 92 : 1,978 92 : 60 115</p>
<p>May 1 11,135 99 : 1,900 88 : 2,140 103 : 80 81</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,684 100 : 1,536 98 : 2,010 110 : 75 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,853 102 : 1,736 89 : 1,842 100 : 63 88</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,966 102 : 1,723 104 : 1,776 104 : 60 80</p>
<p>Jan 1 12,097 101 : 1,787 106 : 1,858 101 : 60 62</p>
<p>-2007-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,099 101 : 1,701 99 : 1,645 101 : 58 66</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,760 98 : 2,134 113 : 1,738 97 : 57 69</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,967 96 : 2,716 112 : 1,876 106 : 47 58</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,302 94 : 2,420 109 : 1,701 97 : 54 79</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,299 95 : 2,119 92 : 2,066 100 : 50 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,737 99 : 1,622 83 : 1,999 102 : 61 105</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,272 98 : 1,657 85 : 2,140 97 : 52 83</p>
<p>May 1 11,297 98 : 2,159 113 : 2,085 96 : 99 86</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,644 99 : 1,573 97 : 1,821 101 : 99 114</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,599 96 : 1,960 107 : 1,843 94 : 72 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,726 97 : 1,659 104 : 1,711 106 : 75 103</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,974 101 : 1,690 77 : 1,841 102 : 97 117</p>
<p>-2006-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,973 102 : 1,714 91 : 1,625 95 : 88 97</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,969 104 : 1,884 92 : 1,797 106 : 83 91</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,385 109 : 2,430 87 : 1,765 101 : 81 140</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,986 110 : 2,227 95 : 1,760 97 : 68 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,822 107 : 2,295 115 : 2,072 102 : 59 111</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,872 105 : 1,963 117 : 1,955 102 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,559 107 : 1,946 110 : 2,198 106 : 63 100</p>
<p>May 1 11,559 109 : 1,913 86 : 2,170 109 : 115 120</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,812 109 : 1,629 98 : 1,798 100 : 87 97</p>
<p>Mar 1 12,023 108 : 1,837 105 : 1,958 100 : 90 130</p>
<p>Feb 1 12,110 107 : 1,598 105 : 1,612 99 : 73 100</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,804 104 : 2,199 117 : 1,810 102 : 83 112</p>
<p>-2005-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,726 103 : 1,884 103 : 1,715 97 : 91 99</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,473 101 : 2,045 117 : 1,701 104 : 91 84</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,482 100 : 2,788 103 : 1,739 96 : 58 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,000 100 : 2,355 99 : 1,816 101 : 57 93</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,092 102 : 1,993 95 : 2,032 106 : 53 95</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,392 103 : 1,678 98 : 1,918 100 : 60 103</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,769 101 : 1,769 107 : 2,083 100 : 63 90</p>
<p>May 1 10,639 103 : 2,223 94 : 1,997 99 : 96 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,870 101 : 1,660 104 : 1,801 95 : 90 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,152 102 : 1,750 97 : 1,963 100 : 69 103</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,339 102 : 1,523 94 : 1,634 96 : 73 106</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,299 100 : 1,885 107 : 1,771 100 : 74 79</p>
<p>-2004-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,334 100 : 1,834 105 : 1,777 102 : 92 102</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,334 103 : 1,743 90 : 1,635 106 : 108 111</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,502 103 : 2,701 97 : 1,803 97 : 66 65</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,988 102 : 2,375 96 : 1,800 89 : 61 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,868 103 : 2,102 88 : 1,926 93 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,132 102 : 1,719 86 : 1,925 85 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,640 101 : 1,647 99 : 2,085 94 : 70 115</p>
<p>May 1 10,375 98 : 2,370 103 : 2,026 91 : 79 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,763 100 : 1,600 86 : 1,891 95 : 97 154</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,987 104 : 1,810 89 : 1,967 109 : 67 108</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,138 104 : 1,612 98 : 1,694 98 : 69 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,253 106 : 1,754 84 : 1,775 90 : 94 125</p>
<p>-2003-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,335 104 : 1,748 105 : 1,740 97 : 90 91</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,043 103 : 1,926 97 : 1,537 89 : 97 108</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 98 : 2,781 116 : 1,855 94 : 101 120</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,839 97 : 2,474 113 : 2,032 110 : 63 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,590 95 : 2,384 107 : 2,075 97 : 60 140</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,923 95 : 1,997 109 : 2,270 104 : 60 133</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,539 96 : 1,672 102 : 2,227 107 : 61 120</p>
<p>May 1 10,535 96 : 2,307 102 : 2,238 103 : 65 84</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,713 93 : 1,870 129 : 1,985 99 : 63 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,546 92 : 2,032 104 : 1,803 99 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,700 92 : 1,650 91 : 1,733 96 : 71 113</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,658 92 : 2,089 96 : 1,972 95 : 75 84</p>
<p>-2002-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,898 92 : 1,658 105 : 1,799 99 : 99 106</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,742 91 : 1,977 104 : 1,731 96 : 90 113</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,416 94 : 2,389 88 : 1,979 104 : 84 124</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,129 93 : 2,188 102 : 1,848 101 : 53 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,089 93 : 2,218 101 : 2,135 98 : 43 80</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,487 95 : 1,840 93 : 2,193 107 : 45 76</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,970 98 : 1,644 84 : 2,076 98 : 51 66</p>
<p>May 1 10,951 98 : 2,267 96 : 2,171 99 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,577 100 : 1,453 94 : 1,996 110 : 83 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,518 98 : 1,953 106 : 1,825 95 : 69 70</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,572 97 : 1,810 115 : 1,801 103 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,565 98 : 2,179 96 : 2,083 102 : 89 114</p>
<p>-2001-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,891 NA : 1,578 NA : 1,811 NA : 93 NA</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,863 NA : 1,908 NA : 1,800 NA : 80 NA</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,125 NA : 2,702 NA : 1,896 NA : 68 NA</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,855 NA : 2,141 NA : 1,825 NA : 46 NA</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,891 NA : 2,204 NA : 2,186 NA : 54 NA</p>
<p>Jul 1 11,011 NA : 1,986 NA : 2,047 NA : 59 NA</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,245 NA : 1,965 NA : 2,122 NA : 77 NA</p>
<p>May 1 11,170 NA : 2,372 NA : 2,196 NA : 101 NA</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,523 NA : 1,551 NA : 1,815 NA : 89 NA</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,695 NA : 1,842 NA : 1,916 NA : 98 NA</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,941 NA : 1,580 NA : 1,745 NA : 81 NA</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,798 NA : 2,263 NA : 2,042 NA : 78 NA</p>
<p>Write to Rodney Christian at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 21, 2017 15:15 ET (19:15 GMT)</p> | USDA Cattle On Feed: Total Historical - Jul 21 -2- | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/21/usda-cattle-on-feed-total-historical-jul-21-2.html | 2017-07-21 | 0right
| 2,052 | Source USDA TOTAL STATES Continue Reading Below Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from Month On Feed Yr Ago Placed Yr Ago MarketedYr Ago DisappYr Ago 2017 Jul 1 10821 100 NA NA NA NA NA NA Jun 1 11096 103 1770 116 1989 104 56 92 Advertisement May 1 10998 102 2119 112 1951 109 70 95 Apr 1 10919 101 1848 111 1703 103 66 87 Mar 1 10782 100 2117 112 1914 110 56 90 Feb 1 10782 101 1694 99 1648 104 56 97 Jan 1 10605 100 1981 111 1751 110 53 95 2016 Dec 1 10652 99 1785 117 1777 106 55 71 Nov 1 10665 99 1843 115 1787 117 69 93 Oct 1 10256 100 2171 95 1705 105 57 76 Sep 1 10135 101 1895 98 1732 105 42 74 Aug 1 10165 102 1879 115 1868 118 41 68 Jul 1 10804 106 1572 102 1713 99 50 89 Jun 1 10804 102 1525 103 1912 109 61 88 May 1 10783 101 1889 110 1794 105 74 96 Apr 1 10853 101 1664 107 1658 101 76 115 Mar 1 10770 101 1892 105 1747 107 62 90 Feb 1 10709 100 1710 110 1591 105 58 97 Jan 1 10575 100 1779 99 1589 98 56 73 2015 Dec 1 10800 99 1527 99 1674 101 78 108 Nov 1 10799 102 1607 90 1532 104 74 100 Oct 1 10218 102 2286 97 1630 97 75 77 Sep 1 9986 102 1931 96 1642 98 57 88 Aug 1 10002 102 1632 95 1588 94 60 91 Jul 1 10236 101 1547 99 1725 97 56 89 Jun 1 10571 100 1481 102 1747 95 69 92 May 1 10640 100 1719 90 1711 92 77 76 Apr 1 10797 99 1548 95 1639 92 66 80 Mar 1 10688 99 1809 100 1631 98 69 106 Feb 1 10713 101 1551 94 1516 98 60 85 Jan 1 10626 100 1789 88 1625 91 77 108 2014 Dec 1 10873 101 1537 92 1655 95 72 94 Nov 1 10633 100 1789 95 1475 88 74 101 Oct 1 10058 99 2357 99 1685 91 97 128 Sep 1 9799 99 2007 99 1683 99 65 105 Aug 1 9837 98 1720 96 1692 90 66 120 Jul 1 10127 98 1560 91 1787 89 63 98 Jun 1 10594 98 1455 92 1847 97 75 119 May 1 10648 99 1912 93 1865 96 101 101 Apr 1 10873 100 1636 95 1778 98 83 120 Mar 1 10790 99 1808 96 1660 96 65 80 Feb 1 10590 96 1650 111 1549 95 71 118 Jan 1 10590 95 2029 108 1788 93 71 90 2013 Dec 1 10725 95 1679 101 1736 99 77 104 Nov 1 10597 94 1882 97 1681 95 73 83 Oct 1 10144 92 2388 110 1859 101 76 97 Sep 1 9876 93 2025 101 1695 106 62 97 Aug 1 10026 94 1788 89 1883 96 55 90 Jul 1 10368 97 1722 90 2000 105 64 102 Jun 1 10767 97 1587 95 1895 96 63 95 May 1 10760 97 2055 99 1948 97 100 100 Apr 1 10924 95 1720 113 1815 100 69 88 Mar 1 10845 93 1884 105 1724 90 81 117 Feb 1 11073 94 1482 86 1638 93 60 65 Jan 1 11193 94 1876 102 1917 106 79 98 2012 Dec 1 11348 94 1664 99 1745 98 74 81 Nov 1 11254 94 1943 95 1761 99 88 86 Oct 1 10989 97 2180 87 1837 102 78 80 Sep 1 10647 99 2004 81 1598 88 64 86 Aug 1 10656 101 2007 89 1955 96 61 85 Jul 1 10710 103 1922 90 1913 100 63 78 Jun 1 11077 101 1664 98 1965 93 66 90 May 1 11110 99 2084 115 2017 101 100 125 Apr 1 11482 102 1521 85 1815 100 78 132 Mar 1 11677 102 1792 94 1918 96 69 133 Feb 1 11811 102 1714 103 1755 98 93 155 Jan 1 11861 103 1847 97 1816 102 81 145 2011 Dec 1 12065 104 1673 94 1776 97 91 140 Nov 1 11914 104 2035 104 1782 101 102 165 Oct 1 11312 105 2496 100 1796 104 98 158 Sep 1 10730 105 2469 100 1813 101 74 137 Aug 1 10589 107 2259 100 2046 106 72 153 Jul 1 10448 104 2133 122 1911 100 81 169 Jun 1 10928 104 1695 104 2102 105 73 133 May 1 11200 107 1810 90 2002 107 80 78 Apr 1 11271 105 1795 110 1807 97 59 63 Mar 1 11399 105 1914 103 1990 105 52 87 Feb 1 11583 105 1667 100 1791 104 60 88 Jan 1 11514 105 1899 104 1774 100 56 80 2010 Dec 1 11614 103 1789 116 1830 105 65 90 Nov 1 11487 103 1958 106 1769 108 62 94 Oct 1 10779 103 2504 101 1734 99 62 105 Sep 1 10173 103 2462 103 1802 103 54 115 Aug 1 9873 102 2270 107 1923 106 47 84 Jul 1 10070 103 1754 94 1903 98 48 112 Jun 1 10494 101 1628 117 1997 100 55 96 May 1 10443 96 2022 123 1869 96 102 101 Apr 1 10767 96 1627 102 1857 99 94 136 Mar 1 10874 97 1856 103 1903 104 60 120 Feb 1 10984 97 1674 100 1716 102 68 121 Jan 1 11008 98 1822 98 1776 102 70 104 2009 Dec 1 11277 103 1546 94 1743 104 72 95 Nov 1 11134 101 1844 91 1635 104 66 99 Oct 1 10474 101 2474 101 1755 97 59 88 Sep 1 9879 99 2388 105 1746 96 47 92 Aug 1 9637 98 2113 103 1815 96 56 114 Jul 1 9752 95 1863 112 1935 95 43 96 Jun 1 10407 96 1391 92 1989 101 57 95 May 1 10822 97 1638 86 1952 91 101 126 Apr 1 11162 96 1600 104 1871 93 69 92 Mar 1 11228 95 1808 104 1824 99 50 79 Feb 1 11288 94 1678 97 1682 95 56 93 Jan 1 11234 93 1858 104 1737 93 67 112 2008 Dec 1 10972 91 1647 97 1683 102 76 131 Nov 1 10972 93 2016 94 1575 91 67 118 Oct 1 10415 95 2438 90 1814 97 67 143 Sep 1 9997 97 2281 94 1812 107 51 94 Aug 1 9869 96 2061 97 1884 91 49 98 Jul 1 10295 96 1666 103 2047 102 45 74 Jun 1 10815 96 1518 92 1978 92 60 115 May 1 11135 99 1900 88 2140 103 80 81 Apr 1 11684 100 1536 98 2010 110 75 76 Mar 1 11853 102 1736 89 1842 100 63 88 Feb 1 11966 102 1723 104 1776 104 60 80 Jan 1 12097 101 1787 106 1858 101 60 62 2007 Dec 1 12099 101 1701 99 1645 101 58 66 Nov 1 11760 98 2134 113 1738 97 57 69 Oct 1 10967 96 2716 112 1876 106 47 58 Sep 1 10302 94 2420 109 1701 97 54 79 Aug 1 10299 95 2119 92 2066 100 50 85 Jul 1 10737 99 1622 83 1999 102 61 105 Jun 1 11272 98 1657 85 2140 97 52 83 May 1 11297 98 2159 113 2085 96 99 86 Apr 1 11644 99 1573 97 1821 101 99 114 Mar 1 11599 96 1960 107 1843 94 72 80 Feb 1 11726 97 1659 104 1711 106 75 103 Jan 1 11974 101 1690 77 1841 102 97 117 2006 Dec 1 11973 102 1714 91 1625 95 88 97 Nov 1 11969 104 1884 92 1797 106 83 91 Oct 1 11385 109 2430 87 1765 101 81 140 Sep 1 10986 110 2227 95 1760 97 68 119 Aug 1 10822 107 2295 115 2072 102 59 111 Jul 1 10872 105 1963 117 1955 102 58 97 Jun 1 11559 107 1946 110 2198 106 63 100 May 1 11559 109 1913 86 2170 109 115 120 Apr 1 11812 109 1629 98 1798 100 87 97 Mar 1 12023 108 1837 105 1958 100 90 130 Feb 1 12110 107 1598 105 1612 99 73 100 Jan 1 11804 104 2199 117 1810 102 83 112 2005 Dec 1 11726 103 1884 103 1715 97 91 99 Nov 1 11473 101 2045 117 1701 104 91 84 Oct 1 10482 100 2788 103 1739 96 58 88 Sep 1 10000 100 2355 99 1816 101 57 93 Aug 1 10092 102 1993 95 2032 106 53 95 Jul 1 10392 103 1678 98 1918 100 60 103 Jun 1 10769 101 1769 107 2083 100 63 90 May 1 10639 103 2223 94 1997 99 96 122 Apr 1 10870 101 1660 104 1801 95 90 93 Mar 1 11152 102 1750 97 1963 100 69 103 Feb 1 11339 102 1523 94 1634 96 73 106 Jan 1 11299 100 1885 107 1771 100 74 79 2004 Dec 1 11334 100 1834 105 1777 102 92 102 Nov 1 11334 103 1743 90 1635 106 108 111 Oct 1 10502 103 2701 97 1803 97 66 65 Sep 1 9988 102 2375 96 1800 89 61 97 Aug 1 9868 103 2102 88 1926 93 56 93 Jul 1 10132 102 1719 86 1925 85 58 97 Jun 1 10640 101 1647 99 2085 94 70 115 May 1 10375 98 2370 103 2026 91 79 122 Apr 1 10763 100 1600 86 1891 95 97 154 Mar 1 10987 104 1810 89 1967 109 67 108 Feb 1 11138 104 1612 98 1694 98 69 97 Jan 1 11253 106 1754 84 1775 90 94 125 2003 Dec 1 11335 104 1748 105 1740 97 90 91 Nov 1 11043 103 1926 97 1537 89 97 108 Oct 1 10218 98 2781 116 1855 94 101 120 Sep 1 9839 97 2474 113 2032 110 63 119 Aug 1 9590 95 2384 107 2075 97 60 140 Jul 1 9923 95 1997 109 2270 104 60 133 Jun 1 10539 96 1672 102 2227 107 61 120 May 1 10535 96 2307 102 2238 103 65 84 Apr 1 10713 93 1870 129 1985 99 63 76 Mar 1 10546 92 2032 104 1803 99 62 90 Feb 1 10700 92 1650 91 1733 96 71 113 Jan 1 10658 92 2089 96 1972 95 75 84 2002 Dec 1 10898 92 1658 105 1799 99 99 106 Nov 1 10742 91 1977 104 1731 96 90 113 Oct 1 10416 94 2389 88 1979 104 84 124 Sep 1 10129 93 2188 102 1848 101 53 115 Aug 1 10089 93 2218 101 2135 98 43 80 Jul 1 10487 95 1840 93 2193 107 45 76 Jun 1 10970 98 1644 84 2076 98 51 66 May 1 10951 98 2267 96 2171 99 77 76 Apr 1 11577 100 1453 94 1996 110 83 93 Mar 1 11518 98 1953 106 1825 95 69 70 Feb 1 11572 97 1810 115 1801 103 63 78 Jan 1 11565 98 2179 96 2083 102 89 114 2001 Dec 1 11891 NA 1578 NA 1811 NA 93 NA Nov 1 11863 NA 1908 NA 1800 NA 80 NA Oct 1 11125 NA 2702 NA 1896 NA 68 NA Sep 1 10855 NA 2141 NA 1825 NA 46 NA Aug 1 10891 NA 2204 NA 2186 NA 54 NA Jul 1 11011 NA 1986 NA 2047 NA 59 NA Jun 1 11245 NA 1965 NA 2122 NA 77 NA May 1 11170 NA 2372 NA 2196 NA 101 NA Apr 1 11523 NA 1551 NA 1815 NA 89 NA Mar 1 11695 NA 1842 NA 1916 NA 98 NA Feb 1 11941 NA 1580 NA 1745 NA 81 NA Jan 1 11798 NA 2263 NA 2042 NA 78 NA Write to Rodney Christian at csstatdowjonescom END Dow Jones Newswires July 21 2017 1515 ET 1915 GMT | Source/NOUN USDA/PROPN TOTAL/ADJ STATES/NOUN Continue/VERB Reading/VERB Below/PROPN Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Month/PROPN On/ADP Feed/PROPN Yr/PROPN Ago/PROPN Placed/VERB Yr/PROPN Ago/PROPN MarketedYr/INTJ Ago/PROPN DisappYr/PROPN Ago/PROPN 2017/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10821/NUM 100/NUM NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 11096/NUM 103/NUM 1770/NUM 116/NUM 1989/NUM 104/NUM 56/NUM 92/NUM Advertisement/NOUN May/PROPN 1/NUM 10998/NUM 102/NUM 2119/NUM 112/NUM 1951/NUM 109/NUM 70/NUM 95/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10919/NUM 101/NUM 1848/NUM 111/NUM 1703/NUM 103/NUM 66/NUM 87/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 10782/NUM 100/NUM 2117/NUM 112/NUM 1914/NUM 110/NUM 56/NUM 90/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 10782/NUM 101/NUM 1694/NUM 99/NUM 1648/NUM 104/NUM 56/NUM 97/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 10605/NUM 100/NUM 1981/NUM 111/NUM 1751/NUM 110/NUM 53/NUM 95/NUM 2016/NUM 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2788/NUM 103/NUM 1739/NUM 96/NUM 58/NUM 88/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10000/NUM 100/NUM 2355/NUM 99/NUM 1816/NUM 101/NUM 57/NUM 93/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10092/NUM 102/NUM 1993/NUM 95/NUM 2032/NUM 106/NUM 53/NUM 95/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10392/NUM 103/NUM 1678/NUM 98/NUM 1918/NUM 100/NUM 60/NUM 103/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10769/NUM 101/NUM 1769/NUM 107/NUM 2083/NUM 100/NUM 63/NUM 90/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10639/NUM 103/NUM 2223/NUM 94/NUM 1997/NUM 99/NUM 96/NUM 122/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10870/NUM 101/NUM 1660/NUM 104/NUM 1801/NUM 95/NUM 90/NUM 93/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11152/NUM 102/NUM 1750/NUM 97/NUM 1963/NUM 100/NUM 69/NUM 103/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11339/NUM 102/NUM 1523/NUM 94/NUM 1634/NUM 96/NUM 73/NUM 106/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11299/NUM 100/NUM 1885/NUM 107/NUM 1771/NUM 100/NUM 74/NUM 79/NUM 2004/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11334/NUM 100/NUM 1834/NUM 105/NUM 1777/NUM 102/NUM 92/NUM 102/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11334/NUM 103/NUM 1743/NUM 90/NUM 1635/NUM 106/NUM 108/NUM 111/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10502/NUM 103/NUM 2701/NUM 97/NUM 1803/NUM 97/NUM 66/NUM 65/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 9988/NUM 102/NUM 2375/NUM 96/NUM 1800/NUM 89/NUM 61/NUM 97/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 9868/NUM 103/NUM 2102/NUM 88/NUM 1926/NUM 93/NUM 56/NUM 93/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10132/NUM 102/NUM 1719/NUM 86/NUM 1925/NUM 85/NUM 58/NUM 97/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10640/NUM 101/NUM 1647/NUM 99/NUM 2085/NUM 94/NUM 70/NUM 115/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10375/NUM 98/NUM 2370/NUM 103/NUM 2026/NUM 91/NUM 79/NUM 122/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10763/NUM 100/NUM 1600/NUM 86/NUM 1891/NUM 95/NUM 97/NUM 154/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 10987/NUM 104/NUM 1810/NUM 89/NUM 1967/NUM 109/NUM 67/NUM 108/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11138/NUM 104/NUM 1612/NUM 98/NUM 1694/NUM 98/NUM 69/NUM 97/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11253/NUM 106/NUM 1754/NUM 84/NUM 1775/NUM 90/NUM 94/NUM 125/NUM 2003/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11335/NUM 104/NUM 1748/NUM 105/NUM 1740/NUM 97/NUM 90/NUM 91/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11043/NUM 103/NUM 1926/NUM 97/NUM 1537/NUM 89/NUM 97/NUM 108/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10218/NUM 98/NUM 2781/NUM 116/NUM 1855/NUM 94/NUM 101/NUM 120/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 9839/NUM 97/NUM 2474/NUM 113/NUM 2032/NUM 110/NUM 63/NUM 119/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 9590/NUM 95/NUM 2384/NUM 107/NUM 2075/NUM 97/NUM 60/NUM 140/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 9923/NUM 95/NUM 1997/NUM 109/NUM 2270/NUM 104/NUM 60/NUM 133/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10539/NUM 96/NUM 1672/NUM 102/NUM 2227/NUM 107/NUM 61/NUM 120/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10535/NUM 96/NUM 2307/NUM 102/NUM 2238/NUM 103/NUM 65/NUM 84/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10713/NUM 93/NUM 1870/NUM 129/NUM 1985/NUM 99/NUM 63/NUM 76/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 10546/NUM 92/NUM 2032/NUM 104/NUM 1803/NUM 99/NUM 62/NUM 90/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 10700/NUM 92/NUM 1650/NUM 91/NUM 1733/NUM 96/NUM 71/NUM 113/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 10658/NUM 92/NUM 2089/NUM 96/NUM 1972/NUM 95/NUM 75/NUM 84/NUM 2002/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 10898/NUM 92/NUM 1658/NUM 105/NUM 1799/NUM 99/NUM 99/NUM 106/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 10742/NUM 91/NUM 1977/NUM 104/NUM 1731/NUM 96/NUM 90/NUM 113/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10416/NUM 94/NUM 2389/NUM 88/NUM 1979/NUM 104/NUM 84/NUM 124/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10129/NUM 93/NUM 2188/NUM 102/NUM 1848/NUM 101/NUM 53/NUM 115/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10089/NUM 93/NUM 2218/NUM 101/NUM 2135/NUM 98/NUM 43/NUM 80/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10487/NUM 95/NUM 1840/NUM 93/NUM 2193/NUM 107/NUM 45/NUM 76/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10970/NUM 98/NUM 1644/NUM 84/NUM 2076/NUM 98/NUM 51/NUM 66/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10951/NUM 98/NUM 2267/NUM 96/NUM 2171/NUM 99/NUM 77/NUM 76/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 11577/NUM 100/NUM 1453/NUM 94/NUM 1996/NUM 110/NUM 83/NUM 93/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11518/NUM 98/NUM 1953/NUM 106/NUM 1825/NUM 95/NUM 69/NUM 70/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11572/NUM 97/NUM 1810/NUM 115/NUM 1801/NUM 103/NUM 63/NUM 78/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11565/NUM 98/NUM 2179/NUM 96/NUM 2083/NUM 102/NUM 89/NUM 114/NUM 2001/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11891/NUM NA/PROPN 1578/NUM NA/PROPN 1811/NUM NA/PROPN 93/NUM NA/PROPN Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11863/NUM NA/PROPN 1908/NUM NA/PROPN 1800/NUM NA/PROPN 80/NUM NA/PROPN Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 11125/NUM NA/PROPN 2702/NUM NA/PROPN 1896/NUM NA/PROPN 68/NUM NA/PROPN Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10855/NUM NA/PROPN 2141/NUM NA/PROPN 1825/NUM NA/PROPN 46/NUM NA/PROPN Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10891/NUM NA/PROPN 2204/NUM NA/PROPN 2186/NUM NA/PROPN 54/NUM NA/PROPN Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 11011/NUM NA/PROPN 1986/NUM NA/PROPN 2047/NUM NA/PROPN 59/NUM NA/PROPN Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 11245/NUM NA/PROPN 1965/NUM NA/PROPN 2122/NUM NA/PROPN 77/NUM NA/PROPN May/PROPN 1/NUM 11170/NUM NA/PROPN 2372/NUM NA/PROPN 2196/NUM NA/PROPN 101/NUM NA/PROPN Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 11523/NUM NA/PROPN 1551/NUM NA/PROPN 1815/NUM NA/PROPN 89/NUM NA/PROPN Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11695/NUM NA/PROPN 1842/NUM NA/PROPN 1916/NUM NA/PROPN 98/NUM NA/PROPN Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11941/NUM NA/PROPN 1580/NUM NA/PROPN 1745/NUM NA/PROPN 81/NUM NA/PROPN Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11798/NUM NA/PROPN 2263/NUM NA/PROPN 2042/NUM NA/PROPN 78/NUM NA/PROPN Write/PROPN to/ADP Rodney/PROPN Christian/PROPN at/ADP csstatdowjonescom/PROPN END/PROPN Dow/PROPN Jones/PROPN Newswires/PROPN July/PROPN 21/NUM 2017/NUM 1515/NUM ET/PROPN 1915/NUM GMT/PROPN |
<p>Source: USDA</p>
<p>==TOTAL STATES==</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from</p>
<p>Month On Feed Yr Ago : Placed Yr Ago : MarketedYr Ago : DisappYr Ago</p>
<p>-2017-</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,813 105 : NA NA : NA NA : NA NA</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,504 104 : 2,150 113 : 1,783 103 : 58 138</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,604 104 : 1,928 103 : 1,979 106 : 49 120</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,821 100 : 1,615 103 : 1,784 104 : 48 96</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,096 103 : 1,770 116 : 1,989 104 : 56 92</p>
<p>May 1 10,998 102 : 2,119 112 : 1,951 109 : 70 95</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,919 101 : 1,848 111 : 1,703 103 : 66 87</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,782 100 : 2,117 112 : 1,914 110 : 56 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,782 101 : 1,694 99 : 1,648 104 : 56 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,605 100 : 1,981 111 : 1,751 110 : 53 95</p>
<p>-2016-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,652 99 : 1,785 117 : 1,777 106 : 55 71</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,665 99 : 1,843 115 : 1,787 117 : 69 93</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,256 100 : 2,171 95 : 1,705 105 : 57 76</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,135 101 : 1,895 98 : 1,732 105 : 42 74</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,165 102 : 1,879 115 : 1,868 118 : 41 68</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,804 106 : 1,572 102 : 1,713 99 : 50 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,804 102 : 1,525 103 : 1,912 109 : 61 88</p>
<p>May 1 10,783 101 : 1,889 110 : 1,794 105 : 74 96</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,853 101 : 1,664 107 : 1,658 101 : 76 115</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,770 101 : 1,892 105 : 1,747 107 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,709 100 : 1,710 110 : 1,591 105 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,575 100 : 1,779 99 : 1,589 98 : 56 73</p>
<p>-2015-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,800 99 : 1,527 99 : 1,674 101 : 78 108</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,799 102 : 1,607 90 : 1,532 104 : 74 100</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 102 : 2,286 97 : 1,630 97 : 75 77</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,986 102 : 1,931 96 : 1,642 98 : 57 88</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,002 102 : 1,632 95 : 1,588 94 : 60 91</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,236 101 : 1,547 99 : 1,725 97 : 56 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,571 100 : 1,481 102 : 1,747 95 : 69 92</p>
<p>May 1 10,640 100 : 1,719 90 : 1,711 92 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,797 99 : 1,548 95 : 1,639 92 : 66 80</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,688 99 : 1,809 100 : 1,631 98 : 69 106</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,713 101 : 1,551 94 : 1,516 98 : 60 85</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,626 100 : 1,789 88 : 1,625 91 : 77 108</p>
<p>-2014-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,873 101 : 1,537 92 : 1,655 95 : 72 94</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,633 100 : 1,789 95 : 1,475 88 : 74 101</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,058 99 : 2,357 99 : 1,685 91 : 97 128</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,799 99 : 2,007 99 : 1,683 99 : 65 105</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,837 98 : 1,720 96 : 1,692 90 : 66 120</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,127 98 : 1,560 91 : 1,787 89 : 63 98</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,594 98 : 1,455 92 : 1,847 97 : 75 119</p>
<p>May 1 10,648 99 : 1,912 93 : 1,865 96 : 101 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,873 100 : 1,636 95 : 1,778 98 : 83 120</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,790 99 : 1,808 96 : 1,660 96 : 65 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,590 96 : 1,650 111 : 1,549 95 : 71 118</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,590 95 : 2,029 108 : 1,788 93 : 71 90</p>
<p>-2013-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,725 95 : 1,679 101 : 1,736 99 : 77 104</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,597 94 : 1,882 97 : 1,681 95 : 73 83</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,144 92 : 2,388 110 : 1,859 101 : 76 97</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,876 93 : 2,025 101 : 1,695 106 : 62 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,026 94 : 1,788 89 : 1,883 96 : 55 90</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,368 97 : 1,722 90 : 2,000 105 : 64 102</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,767 97 : 1,587 95 : 1,895 96 : 63 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,760 97 : 2,055 99 : 1,948 97 : 100 100</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,924 95 : 1,720 113 : 1,815 100 : 69 88</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,845 93 : 1,884 105 : 1,724 90 : 81 117</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,073 94 : 1,482 86 : 1,638 93 : 60 65</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,193 94 : 1,876 102 : 1,917 106 : 79 98</p>
<p>-2012-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,348 94 : 1,664 99 : 1,745 98 : 74 81</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,254 94 : 1,943 95 : 1,761 99 : 88 86</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,989 97 : 2,180 87 : 1,837 102 : 78 80</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,647 99 : 2,004 81 : 1,598 88 : 64 86</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,656 101 : 2,007 89 : 1,955 96 : 61 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,710 103 : 1,922 90 : 1,913 100 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,077 101 : 1,664 98 : 1,965 93 : 66 90</p>
<p>May 1 11,110 99 : 2,084 115 : 2,017 101 : 100 125</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,482 102 : 1,521 85 : 1,815 100 : 78 132</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,677 102 : 1,792 94 : 1,918 96 : 69 133</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,811 102 : 1,714 103 : 1,755 98 : 93 155</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,861 103 : 1,847 97 : 1,816 102 : 81 145</p>
<p>-2011-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,065 104 : 1,673 94 : 1,776 97 : 91 140</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,914 104 : 2,035 104 : 1,782 101 : 102 165</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,312 105 : 2,496 100 : 1,796 104 : 98 158</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,730 105 : 2,469 100 : 1,813 101 : 74 137</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,589 107 : 2,259 100 : 2,046 106 : 72 153</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,448 104 : 2,133 122 : 1,911 100 : 81 169</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,928 104 : 1,695 104 : 2,102 105 : 73 133</p>
<p>May 1 11,200 107 : 1,810 90 : 2,002 107 : 80 78</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,271 105 : 1,795 110 : 1,807 97 : 59 63</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,399 105 : 1,914 103 : 1,990 105 : 52 87</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,583 105 : 1,667 100 : 1,791 104 : 60 88</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,514 105 : 1,899 104 : 1,774 100 : 56 80</p>
<p>-2010-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,614 103 : 1,789 116 : 1,830 105 : 65 90</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,487 103 : 1,958 106 : 1,769 108 : 62 94</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,779 103 : 2,504 101 : 1,734 99 : 62 105</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,173 103 : 2,462 103 : 1,802 103 : 54 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,873 102 : 2,270 107 : 1,923 106 : 47 84</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,070 103 : 1,754 94 : 1,903 98 : 48 112</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,494 101 : 1,628 117 : 1,997 100 : 55 96</p>
<p>May 1 10,443 96 : 2,022 123 : 1,869 96 : 102 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,767 96 : 1,627 102 : 1,857 99 : 94 136</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,874 97 : 1,856 103 : 1,903 104 : 60 120</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,984 97 : 1,674 100 : 1,716 102 : 68 121</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,008 98 : 1,822 98 : 1,776 102 : 70 104</p>
<p>-2009-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,277 103 : 1,546 94 : 1,743 104 : 72 95</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,134 101 : 1,844 91 : 1,635 104 : 66 99</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,474 101 : 2,474 101 : 1,755 97 : 59 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,879 99 : 2,388 105 : 1,746 96 : 47 92</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,637 98 : 2,113 103 : 1,815 96 : 56 114</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,752 95 : 1,863 112 : 1,935 95 : 43 96</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,407 96 : 1,391 92 : 1,989 101 : 57 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,822 97 : 1,638 86 : 1,952 91 : 101 126</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,162 96 : 1,600 104 : 1,871 93 : 69 92</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,228 95 : 1,808 104 : 1,824 99 : 50 79</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,288 94 : 1,678 97 : 1,682 95 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,234 93 : 1,858 104 : 1,737 93 : 67 112</p>
<p>-2008-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,972 91 : 1,647 97 : 1,683 102 : 76 131</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,972 93 : 2,016 94 : 1,575 91 : 67 118</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,415 95 : 2,438 90 : 1,814 97 : 67 143</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,997 97 : 2,281 94 : 1,812 107 : 51 94</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,869 96 : 2,061 97 : 1,884 91 : 49 98</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,295 96 : 1,666 103 : 2,047 102 : 45 74</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,815 96 : 1,518 92 : 1,978 92 : 60 115</p>
<p>May 1 11,135 99 : 1,900 88 : 2,140 103 : 80 81</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,684 100 : 1,536 98 : 2,010 110 : 75 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,853 102 : 1,736 89 : 1,842 100 : 63 88</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,966 102 : 1,723 104 : 1,776 104 : 60 80</p>
<p>Jan 1 12,097 101 : 1,787 106 : 1,858 101 : 60 62</p>
<p>-2007-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,099 101 : 1,701 99 : 1,645 101 : 58 66</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,760 98 : 2,134 113 : 1,738 97 : 57 69</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,967 96 : 2,716 112 : 1,876 106 : 47 58</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,302 94 : 2,420 109 : 1,701 97 : 54 79</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,299 95 : 2,119 92 : 2,066 100 : 50 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,737 99 : 1,622 83 : 1,999 102 : 61 105</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,272 98 : 1,657 85 : 2,140 97 : 52 83</p>
<p>May 1 11,297 98 : 2,159 113 : 2,085 96 : 99 86</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,644 99 : 1,573 97 : 1,821 101 : 99 114</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,599 96 : 1,960 107 : 1,843 94 : 72 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,726 97 : 1,659 104 : 1,711 106 : 75 103</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,974 101 : 1,690 77 : 1,841 102 : 97 117</p>
<p>-2006-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,973 102 : 1,714 91 : 1,625 95 : 88 97</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,969 104 : 1,884 92 : 1,797 106 : 83 91</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,385 109 : 2,430 87 : 1,765 101 : 81 140</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,986 110 : 2,227 95 : 1,760 97 : 68 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,822 107 : 2,295 115 : 2,072 102 : 59 111</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,872 105 : 1,963 117 : 1,955 102 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,559 107 : 1,946 110 : 2,198 106 : 63 100</p>
<p>May 1 11,559 109 : 1,913 86 : 2,170 109 : 115 120</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,812 109 : 1,629 98 : 1,798 100 : 87 97</p>
<p>Mar 1 12,023 108 : 1,837 105 : 1,958 100 : 90 130</p>
<p>Feb 1 12,110 107 : 1,598 105 : 1,612 99 : 73 100</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,804 104 : 2,199 117 : 1,810 102 : 83 112</p>
<p>-2005-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,726 103 : 1,884 103 : 1,715 97 : 91 99</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,473 101 : 2,045 117 : 1,701 104 : 91 84</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,482 100 : 2,788 103 : 1,739 96 : 58 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,000 100 : 2,355 99 : 1,816 101 : 57 93</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,092 102 : 1,993 95 : 2,032 106 : 53 95</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,392 103 : 1,678 98 : 1,918 100 : 60 103</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,769 101 : 1,769 107 : 2,083 100 : 63 90</p>
<p>May 1 10,639 103 : 2,223 94 : 1,997 99 : 96 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,870 101 : 1,660 104 : 1,801 95 : 90 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,152 102 : 1,750 97 : 1,963 100 : 69 103</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,339 102 : 1,523 94 : 1,634 96 : 73 106</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,299 100 : 1,885 107 : 1,771 100 : 74 79</p>
<p>-2004-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,334 100 : 1,834 105 : 1,777 102 : 92 102</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,334 103 : 1,743 90 : 1,635 106 : 108 111</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,502 103 : 2,701 97 : 1,803 97 : 66 65</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,988 102 : 2,375 96 : 1,800 89 : 61 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,868 103 : 2,102 88 : 1,926 93 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,132 102 : 1,719 86 : 1,925 85 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,640 101 : 1,647 99 : 2,085 94 : 70 115</p>
<p>May 1 10,375 98 : 2,370 103 : 2,026 91 : 79 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,763 100 : 1,600 86 : 1,891 95 : 97 154</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,987 104 : 1,810 89 : 1,967 109 : 67 108</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,138 104 : 1,612 98 : 1,694 98 : 69 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,253 106 : 1,754 84 : 1,775 90 : 94 125</p>
<p>-2003-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,335 104 : 1,748 105 : 1,740 97 : 90 91</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,043 103 : 1,926 97 : 1,537 89 : 97 108</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 98 : 2,781 116 : 1,855 94 : 101 120</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,839 97 : 2,474 113 : 2,032 110 : 63 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,590 95 : 2,384 107 : 2,075 97 : 60 140</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,923 95 : 1,997 109 : 2,270 104 : 60 133</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,539 96 : 1,672 102 : 2,227 107 : 61 120</p>
<p>May 1 10,535 96 : 2,307 102 : 2,238 103 : 65 84</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,713 93 : 1,870 129 : 1,985 99 : 63 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,546 92 : 2,032 104 : 1,803 99 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,700 92 : 1,650 91 : 1,733 96 : 71 113</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,658 92 : 2,089 96 : 1,972 95 : 75 84</p>
<p>-2002-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,898 92 : 1,658 105 : 1,799 99 : 99 106</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,742 91 : 1,977 104 : 1,731 96 : 90 113</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,416 94 : 2,389 88 : 1,979 104 : 84 124</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,129 93 : 2,188 102 : 1,848 101 : 53 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,089 93 : 2,218 101 : 2,135 98 : 43 80</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,487 95 : 1,840 93 : 2,193 107 : 45 76</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,970 98 : 1,644 84 : 2,076 98 : 51 66</p>
<p>May 1 10,951 98 : 2,267 96 : 2,171 99 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,577 100 : 1,453 94 : 1,996 110 : 83 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,518 98 : 1,953 106 : 1,825 95 : 69 70</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,572 97 : 1,810 115 : 1,801 103 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,565 98 : 2,179 96 : 2,083 102 : 89 114</p>
<p>-2001-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,891 NA : 1,578 NA : 1,811 NA : 93 NA</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,863 NA : 1,908 NA : 1,800 NA : 80 NA</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,125 NA : 2,702 NA : 1,896 NA : 68 NA</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,855 NA : 2,141 NA : 1,825 NA : 46 NA</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,891 NA : 2,204 NA : 2,186 NA : 54 NA</p>
<p>Jul 1 11,011 NA : 1,986 NA : 2,047 NA : 59 NA</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,245 NA : 1,965 NA : 2,122 NA : 77 NA</p>
<p>May 1 11,170 NA : 2,372 NA : 2,196 NA : 101 NA</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,523 NA : 1,551 NA : 1,815 NA : 89 NA</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,695 NA : 1,842 NA : 1,916 NA : 98 NA</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,941 NA : 1,580 NA : 1,745 NA : 81 NA</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,798 NA : 2,263 NA : 2,042 NA : 78 NA</p>
<p>Write to Rodney Christian at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 20, 2017 15:15 ET (19:15 GMT)</p> | USDA Cattle On Feed: Total Historical - Oct 20 -2- | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/20/usda-cattle-on-feed-total-historical-oct-20-2.html | 2017-10-20 | 0right
| 2,082 | Source USDA TOTAL STATES Continue Reading Below Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from Month On Feed Yr Ago Placed Yr Ago MarketedYr Ago DisappYr Ago 2017 Oct 1 10813 105 NA NA NA NA NA NA Sep 1 10504 104 2150 113 1783 103 58 138 Advertisement Aug 1 10604 104 1928 103 1979 106 49 120 Jul 1 10821 100 1615 103 1784 104 48 96 Jun 1 11096 103 1770 116 1989 104 56 92 May 1 10998 102 2119 112 1951 109 70 95 Apr 1 10919 101 1848 111 1703 103 66 87 Mar 1 10782 100 2117 112 1914 110 56 90 Feb 1 10782 101 1694 99 1648 104 56 97 Jan 1 10605 100 1981 111 1751 110 53 95 2016 Dec 1 10652 99 1785 117 1777 106 55 71 Nov 1 10665 99 1843 115 1787 117 69 93 Oct 1 10256 100 2171 95 1705 105 57 76 Sep 1 10135 101 1895 98 1732 105 42 74 Aug 1 10165 102 1879 115 1868 118 41 68 Jul 1 10804 106 1572 102 1713 99 50 89 Jun 1 10804 102 1525 103 1912 109 61 88 May 1 10783 101 1889 110 1794 105 74 96 Apr 1 10853 101 1664 107 1658 101 76 115 Mar 1 10770 101 1892 105 1747 107 62 90 Feb 1 10709 100 1710 110 1591 105 58 97 Jan 1 10575 100 1779 99 1589 98 56 73 2015 Dec 1 10800 99 1527 99 1674 101 78 108 Nov 1 10799 102 1607 90 1532 104 74 100 Oct 1 10218 102 2286 97 1630 97 75 77 Sep 1 9986 102 1931 96 1642 98 57 88 Aug 1 10002 102 1632 95 1588 94 60 91 Jul 1 10236 101 1547 99 1725 97 56 89 Jun 1 10571 100 1481 102 1747 95 69 92 May 1 10640 100 1719 90 1711 92 77 76 Apr 1 10797 99 1548 95 1639 92 66 80 Mar 1 10688 99 1809 100 1631 98 69 106 Feb 1 10713 101 1551 94 1516 98 60 85 Jan 1 10626 100 1789 88 1625 91 77 108 2014 Dec 1 10873 101 1537 92 1655 95 72 94 Nov 1 10633 100 1789 95 1475 88 74 101 Oct 1 10058 99 2357 99 1685 91 97 128 Sep 1 9799 99 2007 99 1683 99 65 105 Aug 1 9837 98 1720 96 1692 90 66 120 Jul 1 10127 98 1560 91 1787 89 63 98 Jun 1 10594 98 1455 92 1847 97 75 119 May 1 10648 99 1912 93 1865 96 101 101 Apr 1 10873 100 1636 95 1778 98 83 120 Mar 1 10790 99 1808 96 1660 96 65 80 Feb 1 10590 96 1650 111 1549 95 71 118 Jan 1 10590 95 2029 108 1788 93 71 90 2013 Dec 1 10725 95 1679 101 1736 99 77 104 Nov 1 10597 94 1882 97 1681 95 73 83 Oct 1 10144 92 2388 110 1859 101 76 97 Sep 1 9876 93 2025 101 1695 106 62 97 Aug 1 10026 94 1788 89 1883 96 55 90 Jul 1 10368 97 1722 90 2000 105 64 102 Jun 1 10767 97 1587 95 1895 96 63 95 May 1 10760 97 2055 99 1948 97 100 100 Apr 1 10924 95 1720 113 1815 100 69 88 Mar 1 10845 93 1884 105 1724 90 81 117 Feb 1 11073 94 1482 86 1638 93 60 65 Jan 1 11193 94 1876 102 1917 106 79 98 2012 Dec 1 11348 94 1664 99 1745 98 74 81 Nov 1 11254 94 1943 95 1761 99 88 86 Oct 1 10989 97 2180 87 1837 102 78 80 Sep 1 10647 99 2004 81 1598 88 64 86 Aug 1 10656 101 2007 89 1955 96 61 85 Jul 1 10710 103 1922 90 1913 100 63 78 Jun 1 11077 101 1664 98 1965 93 66 90 May 1 11110 99 2084 115 2017 101 100 125 Apr 1 11482 102 1521 85 1815 100 78 132 Mar 1 11677 102 1792 94 1918 96 69 133 Feb 1 11811 102 1714 103 1755 98 93 155 Jan 1 11861 103 1847 97 1816 102 81 145 2011 Dec 1 12065 104 1673 94 1776 97 91 140 Nov 1 11914 104 2035 104 1782 101 102 165 Oct 1 11312 105 2496 100 1796 104 98 158 Sep 1 10730 105 2469 100 1813 101 74 137 Aug 1 10589 107 2259 100 2046 106 72 153 Jul 1 10448 104 2133 122 1911 100 81 169 Jun 1 10928 104 1695 104 2102 105 73 133 May 1 11200 107 1810 90 2002 107 80 78 Apr 1 11271 105 1795 110 1807 97 59 63 Mar 1 11399 105 1914 103 1990 105 52 87 Feb 1 11583 105 1667 100 1791 104 60 88 Jan 1 11514 105 1899 104 1774 100 56 80 2010 Dec 1 11614 103 1789 116 1830 105 65 90 Nov 1 11487 103 1958 106 1769 108 62 94 Oct 1 10779 103 2504 101 1734 99 62 105 Sep 1 10173 103 2462 103 1802 103 54 115 Aug 1 9873 102 2270 107 1923 106 47 84 Jul 1 10070 103 1754 94 1903 98 48 112 Jun 1 10494 101 1628 117 1997 100 55 96 May 1 10443 96 2022 123 1869 96 102 101 Apr 1 10767 96 1627 102 1857 99 94 136 Mar 1 10874 97 1856 103 1903 104 60 120 Feb 1 10984 97 1674 100 1716 102 68 121 Jan 1 11008 98 1822 98 1776 102 70 104 2009 Dec 1 11277 103 1546 94 1743 104 72 95 Nov 1 11134 101 1844 91 1635 104 66 99 Oct 1 10474 101 2474 101 1755 97 59 88 Sep 1 9879 99 2388 105 1746 96 47 92 Aug 1 9637 98 2113 103 1815 96 56 114 Jul 1 9752 95 1863 112 1935 95 43 96 Jun 1 10407 96 1391 92 1989 101 57 95 May 1 10822 97 1638 86 1952 91 101 126 Apr 1 11162 96 1600 104 1871 93 69 92 Mar 1 11228 95 1808 104 1824 99 50 79 Feb 1 11288 94 1678 97 1682 95 56 93 Jan 1 11234 93 1858 104 1737 93 67 112 2008 Dec 1 10972 91 1647 97 1683 102 76 131 Nov 1 10972 93 2016 94 1575 91 67 118 Oct 1 10415 95 2438 90 1814 97 67 143 Sep 1 9997 97 2281 94 1812 107 51 94 Aug 1 9869 96 2061 97 1884 91 49 98 Jul 1 10295 96 1666 103 2047 102 45 74 Jun 1 10815 96 1518 92 1978 92 60 115 May 1 11135 99 1900 88 2140 103 80 81 Apr 1 11684 100 1536 98 2010 110 75 76 Mar 1 11853 102 1736 89 1842 100 63 88 Feb 1 11966 102 1723 104 1776 104 60 80 Jan 1 12097 101 1787 106 1858 101 60 62 2007 Dec 1 12099 101 1701 99 1645 101 58 66 Nov 1 11760 98 2134 113 1738 97 57 69 Oct 1 10967 96 2716 112 1876 106 47 58 Sep 1 10302 94 2420 109 1701 97 54 79 Aug 1 10299 95 2119 92 2066 100 50 85 Jul 1 10737 99 1622 83 1999 102 61 105 Jun 1 11272 98 1657 85 2140 97 52 83 May 1 11297 98 2159 113 2085 96 99 86 Apr 1 11644 99 1573 97 1821 101 99 114 Mar 1 11599 96 1960 107 1843 94 72 80 Feb 1 11726 97 1659 104 1711 106 75 103 Jan 1 11974 101 1690 77 1841 102 97 117 2006 Dec 1 11973 102 1714 91 1625 95 88 97 Nov 1 11969 104 1884 92 1797 106 83 91 Oct 1 11385 109 2430 87 1765 101 81 140 Sep 1 10986 110 2227 95 1760 97 68 119 Aug 1 10822 107 2295 115 2072 102 59 111 Jul 1 10872 105 1963 117 1955 102 58 97 Jun 1 11559 107 1946 110 2198 106 63 100 May 1 11559 109 1913 86 2170 109 115 120 Apr 1 11812 109 1629 98 1798 100 87 97 Mar 1 12023 108 1837 105 1958 100 90 130 Feb 1 12110 107 1598 105 1612 99 73 100 Jan 1 11804 104 2199 117 1810 102 83 112 2005 Dec 1 11726 103 1884 103 1715 97 91 99 Nov 1 11473 101 2045 117 1701 104 91 84 Oct 1 10482 100 2788 103 1739 96 58 88 Sep 1 10000 100 2355 99 1816 101 57 93 Aug 1 10092 102 1993 95 2032 106 53 95 Jul 1 10392 103 1678 98 1918 100 60 103 Jun 1 10769 101 1769 107 2083 100 63 90 May 1 10639 103 2223 94 1997 99 96 122 Apr 1 10870 101 1660 104 1801 95 90 93 Mar 1 11152 102 1750 97 1963 100 69 103 Feb 1 11339 102 1523 94 1634 96 73 106 Jan 1 11299 100 1885 107 1771 100 74 79 2004 Dec 1 11334 100 1834 105 1777 102 92 102 Nov 1 11334 103 1743 90 1635 106 108 111 Oct 1 10502 103 2701 97 1803 97 66 65 Sep 1 9988 102 2375 96 1800 89 61 97 Aug 1 9868 103 2102 88 1926 93 56 93 Jul 1 10132 102 1719 86 1925 85 58 97 Jun 1 10640 101 1647 99 2085 94 70 115 May 1 10375 98 2370 103 2026 91 79 122 Apr 1 10763 100 1600 86 1891 95 97 154 Mar 1 10987 104 1810 89 1967 109 67 108 Feb 1 11138 104 1612 98 1694 98 69 97 Jan 1 11253 106 1754 84 1775 90 94 125 2003 Dec 1 11335 104 1748 105 1740 97 90 91 Nov 1 11043 103 1926 97 1537 89 97 108 Oct 1 10218 98 2781 116 1855 94 101 120 Sep 1 9839 97 2474 113 2032 110 63 119 Aug 1 9590 95 2384 107 2075 97 60 140 Jul 1 9923 95 1997 109 2270 104 60 133 Jun 1 10539 96 1672 102 2227 107 61 120 May 1 10535 96 2307 102 2238 103 65 84 Apr 1 10713 93 1870 129 1985 99 63 76 Mar 1 10546 92 2032 104 1803 99 62 90 Feb 1 10700 92 1650 91 1733 96 71 113 Jan 1 10658 92 2089 96 1972 95 75 84 2002 Dec 1 10898 92 1658 105 1799 99 99 106 Nov 1 10742 91 1977 104 1731 96 90 113 Oct 1 10416 94 2389 88 1979 104 84 124 Sep 1 10129 93 2188 102 1848 101 53 115 Aug 1 10089 93 2218 101 2135 98 43 80 Jul 1 10487 95 1840 93 2193 107 45 76 Jun 1 10970 98 1644 84 2076 98 51 66 May 1 10951 98 2267 96 2171 99 77 76 Apr 1 11577 100 1453 94 1996 110 83 93 Mar 1 11518 98 1953 106 1825 95 69 70 Feb 1 11572 97 1810 115 1801 103 63 78 Jan 1 11565 98 2179 96 2083 102 89 114 2001 Dec 1 11891 NA 1578 NA 1811 NA 93 NA Nov 1 11863 NA 1908 NA 1800 NA 80 NA Oct 1 11125 NA 2702 NA 1896 NA 68 NA Sep 1 10855 NA 2141 NA 1825 NA 46 NA Aug 1 10891 NA 2204 NA 2186 NA 54 NA Jul 1 11011 NA 1986 NA 2047 NA 59 NA Jun 1 11245 NA 1965 NA 2122 NA 77 NA May 1 11170 NA 2372 NA 2196 NA 101 NA Apr 1 11523 NA 1551 NA 1815 NA 89 NA Mar 1 11695 NA 1842 NA 1916 NA 98 NA Feb 1 11941 NA 1580 NA 1745 NA 81 NA Jan 1 11798 NA 2263 NA 2042 NA 78 NA Write to Rodney Christian at csstatdowjonescom END Dow Jones Newswires October 20 2017 1515 ET 1915 GMT | Source/NOUN USDA/PROPN TOTAL/ADJ STATES/NOUN Continue/VERB Reading/VERB Below/PROPN Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Month/PROPN On/ADP Feed/PROPN Yr/PROPN Ago/PROPN Placed/VERB Yr/PROPN Ago/PROPN MarketedYr/INTJ Ago/PROPN DisappYr/PROPN Ago/PROPN 2017/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10813/NUM 105/NUM NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10504/NUM 104/NUM 2150/NUM 113/NUM 1783/NUM 103/NUM 58/NUM 138/NUM Advertisement/PROPN Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10604/NUM 104/NUM 1928/NUM 103/NUM 1979/NUM 106/NUM 49/NUM 120/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10821/NUM 100/NUM 1615/NUM 103/NUM 1784/NUM 104/NUM 48/NUM 96/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 11096/NUM 103/NUM 1770/NUM 116/NUM 1989/NUM 104/NUM 56/NUM 92/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10998/NUM 102/NUM 2119/NUM 112/NUM 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72/NUM 80/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11726/NUM 97/NUM 1659/NUM 104/NUM 1711/NUM 106/NUM 75/NUM 103/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11974/NUM 101/NUM 1690/NUM 77/NUM 1841/NUM 102/NUM 97/NUM 117/NUM 2006/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11973/NUM 102/NUM 1714/NUM 91/NUM 1625/NUM 95/NUM 88/NUM 97/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11969/NUM 104/NUM 1884/NUM 92/NUM 1797/NUM 106/NUM 83/NUM 91/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 11385/NUM 109/NUM 2430/NUM 87/NUM 1765/NUM 101/NUM 81/NUM 140/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10986/NUM 110/NUM 2227/NUM 95/NUM 1760/NUM 97/NUM 68/NUM 119/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10822/NUM 107/NUM 2295/NUM 115/NUM 2072/NUM 102/NUM 59/NUM 111/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10872/NUM 105/NUM 1963/NUM 117/NUM 1955/NUM 102/NUM 58/NUM 97/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 11559/NUM 107/NUM 1946/NUM 110/NUM 2198/NUM 106/NUM 63/NUM 100/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 11559/NUM 109/NUM 1913/NUM 86/NUM 2170/NUM 109/NUM 115/NUM 120/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 11812/NUM 109/NUM 1629/NUM 98/NUM 1798/NUM 100/NUM 87/NUM 97/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 12023/NUM 108/NUM 1837/NUM 105/NUM 1958/NUM 100/NUM 90/NUM 130/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 12110/NUM 107/NUM 1598/NUM 105/NUM 1612/NUM 99/NUM 73/NUM 100/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11804/NUM 104/NUM 2199/NUM 117/NUM 1810/NUM 102/NUM 83/NUM 112/NUM 2005/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11726/NUM 103/NUM 1884/NUM 103/NUM 1715/NUM 97/NUM 91/NUM 99/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11473/NUM 101/NUM 2045/NUM 117/NUM 1701/NUM 104/NUM 91/NUM 84/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10482/NUM 100/NUM 2788/NUM 103/NUM 1739/NUM 96/NUM 58/NUM 88/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10000/NUM 100/NUM 2355/NUM 99/NUM 1816/NUM 101/NUM 57/NUM 93/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10092/NUM 102/NUM 1993/NUM 95/NUM 2032/NUM 106/NUM 53/NUM 95/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10392/NUM 103/NUM 1678/NUM 98/NUM 1918/NUM 100/NUM 60/NUM 103/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10769/NUM 101/NUM 1769/NUM 107/NUM 2083/NUM 100/NUM 63/NUM 90/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10639/NUM 103/NUM 2223/NUM 94/NUM 1997/NUM 99/NUM 96/NUM 122/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10870/NUM 101/NUM 1660/NUM 104/NUM 1801/NUM 95/NUM 90/NUM 93/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11152/NUM 102/NUM 1750/NUM 97/NUM 1963/NUM 100/NUM 69/NUM 103/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11339/NUM 102/NUM 1523/NUM 94/NUM 1634/NUM 96/NUM 73/NUM 106/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11299/NUM 100/NUM 1885/NUM 107/NUM 1771/NUM 100/NUM 74/NUM 79/NUM 2004/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11334/NUM 100/NUM 1834/NUM 105/NUM 1777/NUM 102/NUM 92/NUM 102/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11334/NUM 103/NUM 1743/NUM 90/NUM 1635/NUM 106/NUM 108/NUM 111/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10502/NUM 103/NUM 2701/NUM 97/NUM 1803/NUM 97/NUM 66/NUM 65/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 9988/NUM 102/NUM 2375/NUM 96/NUM 1800/NUM 89/NUM 61/NUM 97/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 9868/NUM 103/NUM 2102/NUM 88/NUM 1926/NUM 93/NUM 56/NUM 93/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10132/NUM 102/NUM 1719/NUM 86/NUM 1925/NUM 85/NUM 58/NUM 97/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10640/NUM 101/NUM 1647/NUM 99/NUM 2085/NUM 94/NUM 70/NUM 115/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10375/NUM 98/NUM 2370/NUM 103/NUM 2026/NUM 91/NUM 79/NUM 122/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10763/NUM 100/NUM 1600/NUM 86/NUM 1891/NUM 95/NUM 97/NUM 154/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 10987/NUM 104/NUM 1810/NUM 89/NUM 1967/NUM 109/NUM 67/NUM 108/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11138/NUM 104/NUM 1612/NUM 98/NUM 1694/NUM 98/NUM 69/NUM 97/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11253/NUM 106/NUM 1754/NUM 84/NUM 1775/NUM 90/NUM 94/NUM 125/NUM 2003/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11335/NUM 104/NUM 1748/NUM 105/NUM 1740/NUM 97/NUM 90/NUM 91/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11043/NUM 103/NUM 1926/NUM 97/NUM 1537/NUM 89/NUM 97/NUM 108/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10218/NUM 98/NUM 2781/NUM 116/NUM 1855/NUM 94/NUM 101/NUM 120/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 9839/NUM 97/NUM 2474/NUM 113/NUM 2032/NUM 110/NUM 63/NUM 119/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 9590/NUM 95/NUM 2384/NUM 107/NUM 2075/NUM 97/NUM 60/NUM 140/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 9923/NUM 95/NUM 1997/NUM 109/NUM 2270/NUM 104/NUM 60/NUM 133/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10539/NUM 96/NUM 1672/NUM 102/NUM 2227/NUM 107/NUM 61/NUM 120/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10535/NUM 96/NUM 2307/NUM 102/NUM 2238/NUM 103/NUM 65/NUM 84/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 10713/NUM 93/NUM 1870/NUM 129/NUM 1985/NUM 99/NUM 63/NUM 76/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 10546/NUM 92/NUM 2032/NUM 104/NUM 1803/NUM 99/NUM 62/NUM 90/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 10700/NUM 92/NUM 1650/NUM 91/NUM 1733/NUM 96/NUM 71/NUM 113/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 10658/NUM 92/NUM 2089/NUM 96/NUM 1972/NUM 95/NUM 75/NUM 84/NUM 2002/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 10898/NUM 92/NUM 1658/NUM 105/NUM 1799/NUM 99/NUM 99/NUM 106/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 10742/NUM 91/NUM 1977/NUM 104/NUM 1731/NUM 96/NUM 90/NUM 113/NUM Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10416/NUM 94/NUM 2389/NUM 88/NUM 1979/NUM 104/NUM 84/NUM 124/NUM Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10129/NUM 93/NUM 2188/NUM 102/NUM 1848/NUM 101/NUM 53/NUM 115/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10089/NUM 93/NUM 2218/NUM 101/NUM 2135/NUM 98/NUM 43/NUM 80/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10487/NUM 95/NUM 1840/NUM 93/NUM 2193/NUM 107/NUM 45/NUM 76/NUM Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 10970/NUM 98/NUM 1644/NUM 84/NUM 2076/NUM 98/NUM 51/NUM 66/NUM May/PROPN 1/NUM 10951/NUM 98/NUM 2267/NUM 96/NUM 2171/NUM 99/NUM 77/NUM 76/NUM Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 11577/NUM 100/NUM 1453/NUM 94/NUM 1996/NUM 110/NUM 83/NUM 93/NUM Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11518/NUM 98/NUM 1953/NUM 106/NUM 1825/NUM 95/NUM 69/NUM 70/NUM Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11572/NUM 97/NUM 1810/NUM 115/NUM 1801/NUM 103/NUM 63/NUM 78/NUM Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11565/NUM 98/NUM 2179/NUM 96/NUM 2083/NUM 102/NUM 89/NUM 114/NUM 2001/NUM Dec/PROPN 1/NUM 11891/NUM NA/PROPN 1578/NUM NA/PROPN 1811/NUM NA/PROPN 93/NUM NA/PROPN Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11863/NUM NA/PROPN 1908/NUM NA/PROPN 1800/NUM NA/PROPN 80/NUM NA/PROPN Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 11125/NUM NA/PROPN 2702/NUM NA/PROPN 1896/NUM NA/PROPN 68/NUM NA/PROPN Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10855/NUM NA/PROPN 2141/NUM NA/PROPN 1825/NUM NA/PROPN 46/NUM NA/PROPN Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10891/NUM NA/PROPN 2204/NUM NA/PROPN 2186/NUM NA/PROPN 54/NUM NA/PROPN Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 11011/NUM NA/PROPN 1986/NUM NA/PROPN 2047/NUM NA/PROPN 59/NUM NA/PROPN Jun/PROPN 1/NUM 11245/NUM NA/PROPN 1965/NUM NA/PROPN 2122/NUM NA/PROPN 77/NUM NA/PROPN May/PROPN 1/NUM 11170/NUM NA/PROPN 2372/NUM NA/PROPN 2196/NUM NA/PROPN 101/NUM NA/PROPN Apr/PROPN 1/NUM 11523/NUM NA/PROPN 1551/NUM NA/PROPN 1815/NUM NA/PROPN 89/NUM NA/PROPN Mar/PROPN 1/NUM 11695/NUM NA/PROPN 1842/NUM NA/PROPN 1916/NUM NA/PROPN 98/NUM NA/PROPN Feb/PROPN 1/NUM 11941/NUM NA/PROPN 1580/NUM NA/PROPN 1745/NUM NA/PROPN 81/NUM NA/PROPN Jan/PROPN 1/NUM 11798/NUM NA/PROPN 2263/NUM NA/PROPN 2042/NUM NA/PROPN 78/NUM NA/PROPN Write/PROPN to/ADP Rodney/PROPN Christian/PROPN at/ADP csstatdowjonescom/PROPN END/PROPN Dow/PROPN Jones/PROPN Newswires/PROPN October/PROPN 20/NUM 2017/NUM 1515/NUM ET/PROPN 1915/NUM GMT/PROPN |
<p>Source: USDA</p>
<p>==TOTAL STATES==</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from</p>
<p>Month On Feed Yr Ago : Placed Yr Ago : MarketedYr Ago : DisappYr Ago</p>
<p>-2017-</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,332 106 : NA NA : NA NA : NA NA</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,813 105 : 2,393 110 : 1,801 106 : 73 128</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,504 104 : 2,150 113 : 1,783 103 : 58 138</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,604 104 : 1,928 103 : 1,979 106 : 49 120</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,821 100 : 1,615 103 : 1,784 104 : 48 96</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,096 103 : 1,770 116 : 1,989 104 : 56 92</p>
<p>May 1 10,998 102 : 2,119 112 : 1,951 109 : 70 95</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,919 101 : 1,848 111 : 1,703 103 : 66 87</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,782 100 : 2,117 112 : 1,914 110 : 56 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,782 101 : 1,694 99 : 1,648 104 : 56 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,605 100 : 1,981 111 : 1,751 110 : 53 95</p>
<p>-2016-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,652 99 : 1,785 117 : 1,777 106 : 55 71</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,665 99 : 1,843 115 : 1,787 117 : 69 93</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,256 100 : 2,171 95 : 1,705 105 : 57 76</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,135 101 : 1,895 98 : 1,732 105 : 42 74</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,165 102 : 1,879 115 : 1,868 118 : 41 68</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,804 106 : 1,572 102 : 1,713 99 : 50 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,804 102 : 1,525 103 : 1,912 109 : 61 88</p>
<p>May 1 10,783 101 : 1,889 110 : 1,794 105 : 74 96</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,853 101 : 1,664 107 : 1,658 101 : 76 115</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,770 101 : 1,892 105 : 1,747 107 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,709 100 : 1,710 110 : 1,591 105 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,575 100 : 1,779 99 : 1,589 98 : 56 73</p>
<p>-2015-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,800 99 : 1,527 99 : 1,674 101 : 78 108</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,799 102 : 1,607 90 : 1,532 104 : 74 100</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 102 : 2,286 97 : 1,630 97 : 75 77</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,986 102 : 1,931 96 : 1,642 98 : 57 88</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,002 102 : 1,632 95 : 1,588 94 : 60 91</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,236 101 : 1,547 99 : 1,725 97 : 56 89</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,571 100 : 1,481 102 : 1,747 95 : 69 92</p>
<p>May 1 10,640 100 : 1,719 90 : 1,711 92 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,797 99 : 1,548 95 : 1,639 92 : 66 80</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,688 99 : 1,809 100 : 1,631 98 : 69 106</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,713 101 : 1,551 94 : 1,516 98 : 60 85</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,626 100 : 1,789 88 : 1,625 91 : 77 108</p>
<p>-2014-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,873 101 : 1,537 92 : 1,655 95 : 72 94</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,633 100 : 1,789 95 : 1,475 88 : 74 101</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,058 99 : 2,357 99 : 1,685 91 : 97 128</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,799 99 : 2,007 99 : 1,683 99 : 65 105</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,837 98 : 1,720 96 : 1,692 90 : 66 120</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,127 98 : 1,560 91 : 1,787 89 : 63 98</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,594 98 : 1,455 92 : 1,847 97 : 75 119</p>
<p>May 1 10,648 99 : 1,912 93 : 1,865 96 : 101 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,873 100 : 1,636 95 : 1,778 98 : 83 120</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,790 99 : 1,808 96 : 1,660 96 : 65 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,590 96 : 1,650 111 : 1,549 95 : 71 118</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,590 95 : 2,029 108 : 1,788 93 : 71 90</p>
<p>-2013-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,725 95 : 1,679 101 : 1,736 99 : 77 104</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,597 94 : 1,882 97 : 1,681 95 : 73 83</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,144 92 : 2,388 110 : 1,859 101 : 76 97</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,876 93 : 2,025 101 : 1,695 106 : 62 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,026 94 : 1,788 89 : 1,883 96 : 55 90</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,368 97 : 1,722 90 : 2,000 105 : 64 102</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,767 97 : 1,587 95 : 1,895 96 : 63 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,760 97 : 2,055 99 : 1,948 97 : 100 100</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,924 95 : 1,720 113 : 1,815 100 : 69 88</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,845 93 : 1,884 105 : 1,724 90 : 81 117</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,073 94 : 1,482 86 : 1,638 93 : 60 65</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,193 94 : 1,876 102 : 1,917 106 : 79 98</p>
<p>-2012-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,348 94 : 1,664 99 : 1,745 98 : 74 81</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,254 94 : 1,943 95 : 1,761 99 : 88 86</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,989 97 : 2,180 87 : 1,837 102 : 78 80</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,647 99 : 2,004 81 : 1,598 88 : 64 86</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,656 101 : 2,007 89 : 1,955 96 : 61 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,710 103 : 1,922 90 : 1,913 100 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,077 101 : 1,664 98 : 1,965 93 : 66 90</p>
<p>May 1 11,110 99 : 2,084 115 : 2,017 101 : 100 125</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,482 102 : 1,521 85 : 1,815 100 : 78 132</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,677 102 : 1,792 94 : 1,918 96 : 69 133</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,811 102 : 1,714 103 : 1,755 98 : 93 155</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,861 103 : 1,847 97 : 1,816 102 : 81 145</p>
<p>-2011-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,065 104 : 1,673 94 : 1,776 97 : 91 140</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,914 104 : 2,035 104 : 1,782 101 : 102 165</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,312 105 : 2,496 100 : 1,796 104 : 98 158</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,730 105 : 2,469 100 : 1,813 101 : 74 137</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,589 107 : 2,259 100 : 2,046 106 : 72 153</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,448 104 : 2,133 122 : 1,911 100 : 81 169</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,928 104 : 1,695 104 : 2,102 105 : 73 133</p>
<p>May 1 11,200 107 : 1,810 90 : 2,002 107 : 80 78</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,271 105 : 1,795 110 : 1,807 97 : 59 63</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,399 105 : 1,914 103 : 1,990 105 : 52 87</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,583 105 : 1,667 100 : 1,791 104 : 60 88</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,514 105 : 1,899 104 : 1,774 100 : 56 80</p>
<p>-2010-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,614 103 : 1,789 116 : 1,830 105 : 65 90</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,487 103 : 1,958 106 : 1,769 108 : 62 94</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,779 103 : 2,504 101 : 1,734 99 : 62 105</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,173 103 : 2,462 103 : 1,802 103 : 54 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,873 102 : 2,270 107 : 1,923 106 : 47 84</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,070 103 : 1,754 94 : 1,903 98 : 48 112</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,494 101 : 1,628 117 : 1,997 100 : 55 96</p>
<p>May 1 10,443 96 : 2,022 123 : 1,869 96 : 102 101</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,767 96 : 1,627 102 : 1,857 99 : 94 136</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,874 97 : 1,856 103 : 1,903 104 : 60 120</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,984 97 : 1,674 100 : 1,716 102 : 68 121</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,008 98 : 1,822 98 : 1,776 102 : 70 104</p>
<p>-2009-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,277 103 : 1,546 94 : 1,743 104 : 72 95</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,134 101 : 1,844 91 : 1,635 104 : 66 99</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,474 101 : 2,474 101 : 1,755 97 : 59 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,879 99 : 2,388 105 : 1,746 96 : 47 92</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,637 98 : 2,113 103 : 1,815 96 : 56 114</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,752 95 : 1,863 112 : 1,935 95 : 43 96</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,407 96 : 1,391 92 : 1,989 101 : 57 95</p>
<p>May 1 10,822 97 : 1,638 86 : 1,952 91 : 101 126</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,162 96 : 1,600 104 : 1,871 93 : 69 92</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,228 95 : 1,808 104 : 1,824 99 : 50 79</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,288 94 : 1,678 97 : 1,682 95 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,234 93 : 1,858 104 : 1,737 93 : 67 112</p>
<p>-2008-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,972 91 : 1,647 97 : 1,683 102 : 76 131</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,972 93 : 2,016 94 : 1,575 91 : 67 118</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,415 95 : 2,438 90 : 1,814 97 : 67 143</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,997 97 : 2,281 94 : 1,812 107 : 51 94</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,869 96 : 2,061 97 : 1,884 91 : 49 98</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,295 96 : 1,666 103 : 2,047 102 : 45 74</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,815 96 : 1,518 92 : 1,978 92 : 60 115</p>
<p>May 1 11,135 99 : 1,900 88 : 2,140 103 : 80 81</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,684 100 : 1,536 98 : 2,010 110 : 75 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,853 102 : 1,736 89 : 1,842 100 : 63 88</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,966 102 : 1,723 104 : 1,776 104 : 60 80</p>
<p>Jan 1 12,097 101 : 1,787 106 : 1,858 101 : 60 62</p>
<p>-2007-</p>
<p>Dec 1 12,099 101 : 1,701 99 : 1,645 101 : 58 66</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,760 98 : 2,134 113 : 1,738 97 : 57 69</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,967 96 : 2,716 112 : 1,876 106 : 47 58</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,302 94 : 2,420 109 : 1,701 97 : 54 79</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,299 95 : 2,119 92 : 2,066 100 : 50 85</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,737 99 : 1,622 83 : 1,999 102 : 61 105</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,272 98 : 1,657 85 : 2,140 97 : 52 83</p>
<p>May 1 11,297 98 : 2,159 113 : 2,085 96 : 99 86</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,644 99 : 1,573 97 : 1,821 101 : 99 114</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,599 96 : 1,960 107 : 1,843 94 : 72 80</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,726 97 : 1,659 104 : 1,711 106 : 75 103</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,974 101 : 1,690 77 : 1,841 102 : 97 117</p>
<p>-2006-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,973 102 : 1,714 91 : 1,625 95 : 88 97</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,969 104 : 1,884 92 : 1,797 106 : 83 91</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,385 109 : 2,430 87 : 1,765 101 : 81 140</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,986 110 : 2,227 95 : 1,760 97 : 68 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,822 107 : 2,295 115 : 2,072 102 : 59 111</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,872 105 : 1,963 117 : 1,955 102 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,559 107 : 1,946 110 : 2,198 106 : 63 100</p>
<p>May 1 11,559 109 : 1,913 86 : 2,170 109 : 115 120</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,812 109 : 1,629 98 : 1,798 100 : 87 97</p>
<p>Mar 1 12,023 108 : 1,837 105 : 1,958 100 : 90 130</p>
<p>Feb 1 12,110 107 : 1,598 105 : 1,612 99 : 73 100</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,804 104 : 2,199 117 : 1,810 102 : 83 112</p>
<p>-2005-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,726 103 : 1,884 103 : 1,715 97 : 91 99</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,473 101 : 2,045 117 : 1,701 104 : 91 84</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,482 100 : 2,788 103 : 1,739 96 : 58 88</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,000 100 : 2,355 99 : 1,816 101 : 57 93</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,092 102 : 1,993 95 : 2,032 106 : 53 95</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,392 103 : 1,678 98 : 1,918 100 : 60 103</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,769 101 : 1,769 107 : 2,083 100 : 63 90</p>
<p>May 1 10,639 103 : 2,223 94 : 1,997 99 : 96 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,870 101 : 1,660 104 : 1,801 95 : 90 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,152 102 : 1,750 97 : 1,963 100 : 69 103</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,339 102 : 1,523 94 : 1,634 96 : 73 106</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,299 100 : 1,885 107 : 1,771 100 : 74 79</p>
<p>-2004-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,334 100 : 1,834 105 : 1,777 102 : 92 102</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,334 103 : 1,743 90 : 1,635 106 : 108 111</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,502 103 : 2,701 97 : 1,803 97 : 66 65</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,988 102 : 2,375 96 : 1,800 89 : 61 97</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,868 103 : 2,102 88 : 1,926 93 : 56 93</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,132 102 : 1,719 86 : 1,925 85 : 58 97</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,640 101 : 1,647 99 : 2,085 94 : 70 115</p>
<p>May 1 10,375 98 : 2,370 103 : 2,026 91 : 79 122</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,763 100 : 1,600 86 : 1,891 95 : 97 154</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,987 104 : 1,810 89 : 1,967 109 : 67 108</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,138 104 : 1,612 98 : 1,694 98 : 69 97</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,253 106 : 1,754 84 : 1,775 90 : 94 125</p>
<p>-2003-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,335 104 : 1,748 105 : 1,740 97 : 90 91</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,043 103 : 1,926 97 : 1,537 89 : 97 108</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,218 98 : 2,781 116 : 1,855 94 : 101 120</p>
<p>Sep 1 9,839 97 : 2,474 113 : 2,032 110 : 63 119</p>
<p>Aug 1 9,590 95 : 2,384 107 : 2,075 97 : 60 140</p>
<p>Jul 1 9,923 95 : 1,997 109 : 2,270 104 : 60 133</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,539 96 : 1,672 102 : 2,227 107 : 61 120</p>
<p>May 1 10,535 96 : 2,307 102 : 2,238 103 : 65 84</p>
<p>Apr 1 10,713 93 : 1,870 129 : 1,985 99 : 63 76</p>
<p>Mar 1 10,546 92 : 2,032 104 : 1,803 99 : 62 90</p>
<p>Feb 1 10,700 92 : 1,650 91 : 1,733 96 : 71 113</p>
<p>Jan 1 10,658 92 : 2,089 96 : 1,972 95 : 75 84</p>
<p>-2002-</p>
<p>Dec 1 10,898 92 : 1,658 105 : 1,799 99 : 99 106</p>
<p>Nov 1 10,742 91 : 1,977 104 : 1,731 96 : 90 113</p>
<p>Oct 1 10,416 94 : 2,389 88 : 1,979 104 : 84 124</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,129 93 : 2,188 102 : 1,848 101 : 53 115</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,089 93 : 2,218 101 : 2,135 98 : 43 80</p>
<p>Jul 1 10,487 95 : 1,840 93 : 2,193 107 : 45 76</p>
<p>Jun 1 10,970 98 : 1,644 84 : 2,076 98 : 51 66</p>
<p>May 1 10,951 98 : 2,267 96 : 2,171 99 : 77 76</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,577 100 : 1,453 94 : 1,996 110 : 83 93</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,518 98 : 1,953 106 : 1,825 95 : 69 70</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,572 97 : 1,810 115 : 1,801 103 : 63 78</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,565 98 : 2,179 96 : 2,083 102 : 89 114</p>
<p>-2001-</p>
<p>Dec 1 11,891 NA : 1,578 NA : 1,811 NA : 93 NA</p>
<p>Nov 1 11,863 NA : 1,908 NA : 1,800 NA : 80 NA</p>
<p>Oct 1 11,125 NA : 2,702 NA : 1,896 NA : 68 NA</p>
<p>Sep 1 10,855 NA : 2,141 NA : 1,825 NA : 46 NA</p>
<p>Aug 1 10,891 NA : 2,204 NA : 2,186 NA : 54 NA</p>
<p>Jul 1 11,011 NA : 1,986 NA : 2,047 NA : 59 NA</p>
<p>Jun 1 11,245 NA : 1,965 NA : 2,122 NA : 77 NA</p>
<p>May 1 11,170 NA : 2,372 NA : 2,196 NA : 101 NA</p>
<p>Apr 1 11,523 NA : 1,551 NA : 1,815 NA : 89 NA</p>
<p>Mar 1 11,695 NA : 1,842 NA : 1,916 NA : 98 NA</p>
<p>Feb 1 11,941 NA : 1,580 NA : 1,745 NA : 81 NA</p>
<p>Jan 1 11,798 NA : 2,263 NA : 2,042 NA : 78 NA</p>
<p>Write to Rodney Christian at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 17, 2017 15:15 ET (20:15 GMT)</p> | USDA Cattle On Feed: Total Historical - Nov 17 -2- | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/17/usda-cattle-on-feed-total-historical-nov-17-2.html | 2017-11-17 | 0right
| 2,092 | Source USDA TOTAL STATES Continue Reading Below Pct from Pct from Pct from Pct from Month On Feed Yr Ago Placed Yr Ago MarketedYr Ago DisappYr Ago 2017 Nov 1 11332 106 NA NA NA NA NA NA Oct 1 10813 105 2393 110 1801 106 73 128 Advertisement Sep 1 10504 104 2150 113 1783 103 58 138 Aug 1 10604 104 1928 103 1979 106 49 120 Jul 1 10821 100 1615 103 1784 104 48 96 Jun 1 11096 103 1770 116 1989 104 56 92 May 1 10998 102 2119 112 1951 109 70 95 Apr 1 10919 101 1848 111 1703 103 66 87 Mar 1 10782 100 2117 112 1914 110 56 90 Feb 1 10782 101 1694 99 1648 104 56 97 Jan 1 10605 100 1981 111 1751 110 53 95 2016 Dec 1 10652 99 1785 117 1777 106 55 71 Nov 1 10665 99 1843 115 1787 117 69 93 Oct 1 10256 100 2171 95 1705 105 57 76 Sep 1 10135 101 1895 98 1732 105 42 74 Aug 1 10165 102 1879 115 1868 118 41 68 Jul 1 10804 106 1572 102 1713 99 50 89 Jun 1 10804 102 1525 103 1912 109 61 88 May 1 10783 101 1889 110 1794 105 74 96 Apr 1 10853 101 1664 107 1658 101 76 115 Mar 1 10770 101 1892 105 1747 107 62 90 Feb 1 10709 100 1710 110 1591 105 58 97 Jan 1 10575 100 1779 99 1589 98 56 73 2015 Dec 1 10800 99 1527 99 1674 101 78 108 Nov 1 10799 102 1607 90 1532 104 74 100 Oct 1 10218 102 2286 97 1630 97 75 77 Sep 1 9986 102 1931 96 1642 98 57 88 Aug 1 10002 102 1632 95 1588 94 60 91 Jul 1 10236 101 1547 99 1725 97 56 89 Jun 1 10571 100 1481 102 1747 95 69 92 May 1 10640 100 1719 90 1711 92 77 76 Apr 1 10797 99 1548 95 1639 92 66 80 Mar 1 10688 99 1809 100 1631 98 69 106 Feb 1 10713 101 1551 94 1516 98 60 85 Jan 1 10626 100 1789 88 1625 91 77 108 2014 Dec 1 10873 101 1537 92 1655 95 72 94 Nov 1 10633 100 1789 95 1475 88 74 101 Oct 1 10058 99 2357 99 1685 91 97 128 Sep 1 9799 99 2007 99 1683 99 65 105 Aug 1 9837 98 1720 96 1692 90 66 120 Jul 1 10127 98 1560 91 1787 89 63 98 Jun 1 10594 98 1455 92 1847 97 75 119 May 1 10648 99 1912 93 1865 96 101 101 Apr 1 10873 100 1636 95 1778 98 83 120 Mar 1 10790 99 1808 96 1660 96 65 80 Feb 1 10590 96 1650 111 1549 95 71 118 Jan 1 10590 95 2029 108 1788 93 71 90 2013 Dec 1 10725 95 1679 101 1736 99 77 104 Nov 1 10597 94 1882 97 1681 95 73 83 Oct 1 10144 92 2388 110 1859 101 76 97 Sep 1 9876 93 2025 101 1695 106 62 97 Aug 1 10026 94 1788 89 1883 96 55 90 Jul 1 10368 97 1722 90 2000 105 64 102 Jun 1 10767 97 1587 95 1895 96 63 95 May 1 10760 97 2055 99 1948 97 100 100 Apr 1 10924 95 1720 113 1815 100 69 88 Mar 1 10845 93 1884 105 1724 90 81 117 Feb 1 11073 94 1482 86 1638 93 60 65 Jan 1 11193 94 1876 102 1917 106 79 98 2012 Dec 1 11348 94 1664 99 1745 98 74 81 Nov 1 11254 94 1943 95 1761 99 88 86 Oct 1 10989 97 2180 87 1837 102 78 80 Sep 1 10647 99 2004 81 1598 88 64 86 Aug 1 10656 101 2007 89 1955 96 61 85 Jul 1 10710 103 1922 90 1913 100 63 78 Jun 1 11077 101 1664 98 1965 93 66 90 May 1 11110 99 2084 115 2017 101 100 125 Apr 1 11482 102 1521 85 1815 100 78 132 Mar 1 11677 102 1792 94 1918 96 69 133 Feb 1 11811 102 1714 103 1755 98 93 155 Jan 1 11861 103 1847 97 1816 102 81 145 2011 Dec 1 12065 104 1673 94 1776 97 91 140 Nov 1 11914 104 2035 104 1782 101 102 165 Oct 1 11312 105 2496 100 1796 104 98 158 Sep 1 10730 105 2469 100 1813 101 74 137 Aug 1 10589 107 2259 100 2046 106 72 153 Jul 1 10448 104 2133 122 1911 100 81 169 Jun 1 10928 104 1695 104 2102 105 73 133 May 1 11200 107 1810 90 2002 107 80 78 Apr 1 11271 105 1795 110 1807 97 59 63 Mar 1 11399 105 1914 103 1990 105 52 87 Feb 1 11583 105 1667 100 1791 104 60 88 Jan 1 11514 105 1899 104 1774 100 56 80 2010 Dec 1 11614 103 1789 116 1830 105 65 90 Nov 1 11487 103 1958 106 1769 108 62 94 Oct 1 10779 103 2504 101 1734 99 62 105 Sep 1 10173 103 2462 103 1802 103 54 115 Aug 1 9873 102 2270 107 1923 106 47 84 Jul 1 10070 103 1754 94 1903 98 48 112 Jun 1 10494 101 1628 117 1997 100 55 96 May 1 10443 96 2022 123 1869 96 102 101 Apr 1 10767 96 1627 102 1857 99 94 136 Mar 1 10874 97 1856 103 1903 104 60 120 Feb 1 10984 97 1674 100 1716 102 68 121 Jan 1 11008 98 1822 98 1776 102 70 104 2009 Dec 1 11277 103 1546 94 1743 104 72 95 Nov 1 11134 101 1844 91 1635 104 66 99 Oct 1 10474 101 2474 101 1755 97 59 88 Sep 1 9879 99 2388 105 1746 96 47 92 Aug 1 9637 98 2113 103 1815 96 56 114 Jul 1 9752 95 1863 112 1935 95 43 96 Jun 1 10407 96 1391 92 1989 101 57 95 May 1 10822 97 1638 86 1952 91 101 126 Apr 1 11162 96 1600 104 1871 93 69 92 Mar 1 11228 95 1808 104 1824 99 50 79 Feb 1 11288 94 1678 97 1682 95 56 93 Jan 1 11234 93 1858 104 1737 93 67 112 2008 Dec 1 10972 91 1647 97 1683 102 76 131 Nov 1 10972 93 2016 94 1575 91 67 118 Oct 1 10415 95 2438 90 1814 97 67 143 Sep 1 9997 97 2281 94 1812 107 51 94 Aug 1 9869 96 2061 97 1884 91 49 98 Jul 1 10295 96 1666 103 2047 102 45 74 Jun 1 10815 96 1518 92 1978 92 60 115 May 1 11135 99 1900 88 2140 103 80 81 Apr 1 11684 100 1536 98 2010 110 75 76 Mar 1 11853 102 1736 89 1842 100 63 88 Feb 1 11966 102 1723 104 1776 104 60 80 Jan 1 12097 101 1787 106 1858 101 60 62 2007 Dec 1 12099 101 1701 99 1645 101 58 66 Nov 1 11760 98 2134 113 1738 97 57 69 Oct 1 10967 96 2716 112 1876 106 47 58 Sep 1 10302 94 2420 109 1701 97 54 79 Aug 1 10299 95 2119 92 2066 100 50 85 Jul 1 10737 99 1622 83 1999 102 61 105 Jun 1 11272 98 1657 85 2140 97 52 83 May 1 11297 98 2159 113 2085 96 99 86 Apr 1 11644 99 1573 97 1821 101 99 114 Mar 1 11599 96 1960 107 1843 94 72 80 Feb 1 11726 97 1659 104 1711 106 75 103 Jan 1 11974 101 1690 77 1841 102 97 117 2006 Dec 1 11973 102 1714 91 1625 95 88 97 Nov 1 11969 104 1884 92 1797 106 83 91 Oct 1 11385 109 2430 87 1765 101 81 140 Sep 1 10986 110 2227 95 1760 97 68 119 Aug 1 10822 107 2295 115 2072 102 59 111 Jul 1 10872 105 1963 117 1955 102 58 97 Jun 1 11559 107 1946 110 2198 106 63 100 May 1 11559 109 1913 86 2170 109 115 120 Apr 1 11812 109 1629 98 1798 100 87 97 Mar 1 12023 108 1837 105 1958 100 90 130 Feb 1 12110 107 1598 105 1612 99 73 100 Jan 1 11804 104 2199 117 1810 102 83 112 2005 Dec 1 11726 103 1884 103 1715 97 91 99 Nov 1 11473 101 2045 117 1701 104 91 84 Oct 1 10482 100 2788 103 1739 96 58 88 Sep 1 10000 100 2355 99 1816 101 57 93 Aug 1 10092 102 1993 95 2032 106 53 95 Jul 1 10392 103 1678 98 1918 100 60 103 Jun 1 10769 101 1769 107 2083 100 63 90 May 1 10639 103 2223 94 1997 99 96 122 Apr 1 10870 101 1660 104 1801 95 90 93 Mar 1 11152 102 1750 97 1963 100 69 103 Feb 1 11339 102 1523 94 1634 96 73 106 Jan 1 11299 100 1885 107 1771 100 74 79 2004 Dec 1 11334 100 1834 105 1777 102 92 102 Nov 1 11334 103 1743 90 1635 106 108 111 Oct 1 10502 103 2701 97 1803 97 66 65 Sep 1 9988 102 2375 96 1800 89 61 97 Aug 1 9868 103 2102 88 1926 93 56 93 Jul 1 10132 102 1719 86 1925 85 58 97 Jun 1 10640 101 1647 99 2085 94 70 115 May 1 10375 98 2370 103 2026 91 79 122 Apr 1 10763 100 1600 86 1891 95 97 154 Mar 1 10987 104 1810 89 1967 109 67 108 Feb 1 11138 104 1612 98 1694 98 69 97 Jan 1 11253 106 1754 84 1775 90 94 125 2003 Dec 1 11335 104 1748 105 1740 97 90 91 Nov 1 11043 103 1926 97 1537 89 97 108 Oct 1 10218 98 2781 116 1855 94 101 120 Sep 1 9839 97 2474 113 2032 110 63 119 Aug 1 9590 95 2384 107 2075 97 60 140 Jul 1 9923 95 1997 109 2270 104 60 133 Jun 1 10539 96 1672 102 2227 107 61 120 May 1 10535 96 2307 102 2238 103 65 84 Apr 1 10713 93 1870 129 1985 99 63 76 Mar 1 10546 92 2032 104 1803 99 62 90 Feb 1 10700 92 1650 91 1733 96 71 113 Jan 1 10658 92 2089 96 1972 95 75 84 2002 Dec 1 10898 92 1658 105 1799 99 99 106 Nov 1 10742 91 1977 104 1731 96 90 113 Oct 1 10416 94 2389 88 1979 104 84 124 Sep 1 10129 93 2188 102 1848 101 53 115 Aug 1 10089 93 2218 101 2135 98 43 80 Jul 1 10487 95 1840 93 2193 107 45 76 Jun 1 10970 98 1644 84 2076 98 51 66 May 1 10951 98 2267 96 2171 99 77 76 Apr 1 11577 100 1453 94 1996 110 83 93 Mar 1 11518 98 1953 106 1825 95 69 70 Feb 1 11572 97 1810 115 1801 103 63 78 Jan 1 11565 98 2179 96 2083 102 89 114 2001 Dec 1 11891 NA 1578 NA 1811 NA 93 NA Nov 1 11863 NA 1908 NA 1800 NA 80 NA Oct 1 11125 NA 2702 NA 1896 NA 68 NA Sep 1 10855 NA 2141 NA 1825 NA 46 NA Aug 1 10891 NA 2204 NA 2186 NA 54 NA Jul 1 11011 NA 1986 NA 2047 NA 59 NA Jun 1 11245 NA 1965 NA 2122 NA 77 NA May 1 11170 NA 2372 NA 2196 NA 101 NA Apr 1 11523 NA 1551 NA 1815 NA 89 NA Mar 1 11695 NA 1842 NA 1916 NA 98 NA Feb 1 11941 NA 1580 NA 1745 NA 81 NA Jan 1 11798 NA 2263 NA 2042 NA 78 NA Write to Rodney Christian at csstatdowjonescom END Dow Jones Newswires November 17 2017 1515 ET 2015 GMT | Source/NOUN USDA/PROPN TOTAL/ADJ STATES/NOUN Continue/VERB Reading/VERB Below/PROPN Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Pct/PROPN from/ADP Month/PROPN On/ADP Feed/PROPN Yr/PROPN Ago/PROPN Placed/VERB Yr/PROPN Ago/PROPN MarketedYr/INTJ Ago/PROPN DisappYr/PROPN Ago/PROPN 2017/NUM Nov/PROPN 1/NUM 11332/NUM 106/NUM NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN NA/PROPN Oct/PROPN 1/NUM 10813/NUM 105/NUM 2393/NUM 110/NUM 1801/NUM 106/NUM 73/NUM 128/NUM Advertisement/NOUN Sep/PROPN 1/NUM 10504/NUM 104/NUM 2150/NUM 113/NUM 1783/NUM 103/NUM 58/NUM 138/NUM Aug/PROPN 1/NUM 10604/NUM 104/NUM 1928/NUM 103/NUM 1979/NUM 106/NUM 49/NUM 120/NUM Jul/PROPN 1/NUM 10821/NUM 100/NUM 1615/NUM 103/NUM 1784/NUM 104/NUM 48/NUM 96/NUM Jun/PROPN 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<p>Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looks at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as she answers a question during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016. Julio Cortez/AP</p>
<p>He just can’t quit her.&#160;</p>
<p>It’s been 365 days since Donald Trump won the presidency and Crooked Hillary is still one of his favorite Twitter targets. To be fair, Trump did give former opponent Hillary Clinton a break for a few weeks after November 8, 2016—perhaps he too was in mourning?—but that doesn’t mean he gave up picking on her.&#160;To see just how much the president is not over the election,&#160;we’ve gathered the 70-plus times he’s trolled Clinton, at least by name (or nickname), since beating her a year ago.</p>
<p>Check them out here:</p>
<p>I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926456409260285952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926456069047582721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI &amp; Justice Dept.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926417546038923264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>The real story on Collusion is in Donna B's new book. Crooked Hillary bought the DNC &amp; then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926415703476928512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn't looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary &amp; the Dems..</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926403023861141504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Donna Brazile just stated the DNC RIGGED the system to illegally steal the Primary from Bernie Sanders. Bought and paid for by Crooked H….</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926247543801044993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary &amp; the Dems the focus?????</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/925005659569041409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 30, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>…are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924641278947622913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 29, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Never seen such Republican ANGER &amp; UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),….</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924635359480303616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 29, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>“WHAT HAPPENED”</p>
<p>“How Team Hillary played the press for fools on Russia” <a href="https://t.co/GqpIidk017" type="external">https://t.co/GqpIidk017</a></p>
<p>NOW WE KNOW! <a href="https://t.co/SgWL1HZmkI" type="external">pic.twitter.com/SgWL1HZmkI</a></p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/924096747122634752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 28, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>"Clinton campaign &amp; DNC paid for research that led to the anti-Trump Fake News Dossier. The victim here is the President." <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@FoxNews</a></p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/923147501418446849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 25, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Crooked Hillary Clinton spent hundreds of millions of dollars more on Presidential Election than I did. Facebook was on her side, not mine!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/921848853090983938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 21, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>. <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@foxandfriends</a> "Russia sent millions to Clinton Foundation"</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/920988223362469891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 19, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Uranium deal to Russia, with Clinton help and Obama Administration knowledge, is the biggest story that Fake Media doesn't want to follow!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/920972261032648705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 19, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>As it has turned out, James Comey lied and leaked and totally protected Hillary Clinton. He was the best thing that ever happened to her!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/920604520572424193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 18, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>…people not interviewed, including Clinton herself. Comey stated under oath that he didn't do this-obviously a fix? Where is Justice Dept?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/920597192666157057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 18, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Wow, FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete. Many..</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/920595564064100352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 18, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020? My answer was, "I hope so!"</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/919914000959397888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">October 16, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>The greatest influence over our election was the Fake News Media "screaming" for Crooked Hillary Clinton. Next, she was a bad candidate!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/911189860769255424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">September 22, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>The Russia hoax continues, now it's ads on Facebook. What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/911179462745710593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">September 22, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>After allowing North Korea to research and build Nukes while Secretary of State (Bill C also), Crooked Hillary now criticizes.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/910453612630900736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">September 20, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>The "deplorables" came back to haunt Hillary.They expressed their feelings loud and clear. She spent big money but, in the end, had no game!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/908161523180285953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">September 14, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Crooked Hillary Clinton blames everybody (and every thing) but herself for her election loss. She lost the debates and lost her direction!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/908160218995068928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">September 14, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Wow, looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over…and so much more. A rigged system!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/903587428488839170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">September 1, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service. He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton – it was great! Thanks S</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898870621584596993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">August 19, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>E-mails show that the AmazonWashingtonPost and the FailingNewYorkTimes were reluctant to cover the Clinton/Lynch secret meeting in plane.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/894981661926068228?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">August 8, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>…big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890208319566229504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 26, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got….</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890207082926022656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 26, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Problem is that the acting head of the FBI &amp; the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889792764363276288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 25, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails &amp; DNC server) &amp; Intel leakers!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889790429398528000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 25, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign – "quietly working to boost Clinton." So where is the investigation A.G. <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@seanhannity</a></p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889788202172780544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 25, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes &amp; Russia relations?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889467610332528641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 24, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>My son Donald openly gave his e-mails to the media &amp; authorities whereas Crooked Hillary Clinton deleted (&amp; acid washed) her 33,000 e-mails!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/888730468732067841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 22, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>…What about all of the Clinton ties to Russia, including Podesta Company, Uranium deal, Russian Reset, big dollar speeches etc.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/888727293346156546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 22, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>So many people are asking why isn't the A.G. or Special Council looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes. 33,000 e-mails deleted?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/888726438265966592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 22, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate &amp; delete 33,000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/886534810575020032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 16, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Why aren't the same standards placed on the Democrats. Look what Hillary Clinton may have gotten away with. Disgraceful!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/885128373441355777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 12, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother,as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/884378624660582405?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">July 10, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>…and did not want to "rock the boat." He didn't "choke," he colluded or obstructed, and it did the Dems and Crooked Hillary no good.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/879320905608044544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 26, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win..</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/879317636164841474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 26, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic Party in order to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders. Is she allowed to so collude? Unfair to Bernie!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/878946025662296064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 25, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Obama Administration official said they "choked" when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didn't want to hurt Hillary?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/878715504063643648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 24, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, 'bleached' emails, &amp; had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- &amp; they talk about obstruction?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/875441788110110727?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 15, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/875438639823675392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 15, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>A.G. Lynch made law enforcement decisions for political purposes…gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection. Totally illegal!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/874608587473080320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 13, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. Hits Facebook &amp; even Dems &amp; DNC.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/870077441401905152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">June 1, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign &amp; Obama Administration, there was never a special counsel appointed!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/865207118785372160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">May 18, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds! The phony…</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/859601184285491201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">May 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in …..</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/856233279841849344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">April 23, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/848857910297980928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">April 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Was the brother of John Podesta paid big money to get the sanctions on Russia lifted? Did Hillary know?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/848856822312292354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">April 3, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Why doesn't Fake News talk about Podesta ties to Russia as covered by <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@FoxNews</a> or money from Russia to Clinton – sale of Uranium?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/846854703183020032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">March 28, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>…money to Bill, the Hillary Russian "reset," praise of Russia by Hillary, or Podesta Russian Company. Trump Russia story is a hoax. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#MAGA</a>!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/846536212362018816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">March 28, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Why isn't the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill &amp; Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia, Russian speech….</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/846533818811080704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">March 28, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>What about all of the contact with the Clinton campaign and the Russians? Also, is it true that the DNC would not let the FBI in to look?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/843813078076719107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">March 20, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>The race for DNC Chairman was, of course, totally "rigged." Bernie's guy, like Bernie himself, never had a chance. Clinton demanded Perez!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/835814988686233601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">February 26, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/831837514226921472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">February 15, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>What are Hillary Clinton's people complaining about with respect to the F.B.I. Based on the information they had she should never…..</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/819867246352801792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">January 13, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never "mocked" a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him…….</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818421066859167746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">January 9, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>being a movie star-and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1. But who cares, he supported Kasich &amp; Hillary</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/817350726800306177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">January 6, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Hillary and the Dems were never going to beat the PASSION of my voters. They saw what was happening in the last two weeks before the……</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/817334794958807042?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">January 6, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: "In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity." So true!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/812450976670121985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 24, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>The so-called "A" list celebrities are all wanting tixs to the inauguration, but look what they did for Hillary, NOTHING. I want the PEOPLE!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/812115501791006720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 23, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>I have not heard any of the pundits or commentators discussing the fact that I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the win than Hillary on the loss!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/811564284706689024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 21, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult &amp; sophisticated than the popular vote. Hillary focused on the wrong states!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/811560662853939200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 21, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/809717035353722880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 16, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/809403760099422208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 15, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>I thought that <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@CNN</a> would get better after they failed so badly in their support of Hillary Clinton however, since election, they are worse!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/803562827776720896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 29, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>. <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@CNN</a> is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, that they don't know what to do.</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/803434300846862336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 29, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>Hillary's debate answer on delay: "That is horrifying. That is not the way our democracy works. Been around for 240 years. We've had free —</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/802858273284255744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 27, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p>Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in. Nothing will change</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/802849330176659456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">November 27, 2016</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Trump Has Tweeted About Hillary More than 70 Times Since He Won the Election a Year Ago | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/trump-has-tweeted-about-hillary-more-than-70-times-since-he-won-the-election-a-year-ago/ | 2017-11-08 | 4left
| 2,285 | Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looks at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as she answers a question during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St Louis Sunday Oct 9 2016 Julio CortezAP He just can8217t quit heramp160 It8217s been 365 days since Donald Trump won the presidency and Crooked Hillary is still one of his favorite Twitter targets To be fair Trump did give former opponent Hillary Clinton a break for a few weeks after November 8 20168212perhaps he too was in mourning8212but that doesn8217t mean he gave up picking on heramp160To see just how much the president is not over the electionamp160we8217ve gathered the 70plus times he8217s trolled Clinton at least by name or nickname since beating her a year ago Check them out here I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders not Crooked H without cheating I was right 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 3 2017 Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 3 2017 Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton rigged the Primaries Lets go FBI ampamp Justice Dept 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 3 2017 The real story on Collusion is in Donna Bs new book Crooked Hillary bought the DNC ampamp then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 3 2017 Everybody is asking why the Justice Department and FBI isnt looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary ampamp the Dems 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 3 2017 Donna Brazile just stated the DNC RIGGED the system to illegally steal the Primary from Bernie Sanders Bought and paid for by Crooked H8230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 3 2017 Sorry but this is years ago before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign But why arent Crooked Hillary ampamp the Dems the focus 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 30 2017 8230are now fighting back like never before There is so much GUILT by DemocratsClinton and now the facts are pouring out DO SOMETHING 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 29 2017 Never seen such Republican ANGER ampamp UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier now 120000008230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 29 2017 8220WHAT HAPPENED8221 8220How Team Hillary played the press for fools on Russia8221 httpstcoGqpIidk017 NOW WE KNOW pictwittercomSgWL1HZmkI 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 28 2017 Clinton campaign ampamp DNC paid for research that led to the antiTrump Fake News Dossier The victim here is the President FoxNews 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 25 2017 Crooked Hillary Clinton spent hundreds of millions of dollars more on Presidential Election than I did Facebook was on her side not mine 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 21 2017 foxandfriends Russia sent millions to Clinton Foundation 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 19 2017 Uranium deal to Russia with Clinton help and Obama Administration knowledge is the biggest story that Fake Media doesnt want to follow 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 19 2017 As it has turned out James Comey lied and leaked and totally protected Hillary Clinton He was the best thing that ever happened to her 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 18 2017 8230people not interviewed including Clinton herself Comey stated under oath that he didnt do thisobviously a fix Where is Justice Dept 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 18 2017 Wow FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete Many 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 18 2017 I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020 My answer was I hope so 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump October 16 2017 The greatest influence over our election was the Fake News Media screaming for Crooked Hillary Clinton Next she was a bad candidate 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump September 22 2017 The Russia hoax continues now its ads on Facebook What about the totally biased and dishonest Media coverage in favor of Crooked Hillary 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump September 22 2017 After allowing North Korea to research and build Nukes while Secretary of State Bill C also Crooked Hillary now criticizes 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump September 20 2017 The deplorables came back to haunt HillaryThey expressed their feelings loud and clear She spent big money but in the end had no game 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump September 14 2017 Crooked Hillary Clinton blames everybody and every thing but herself for her election loss She lost the debates and lost her direction 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump September 14 2017 Wow looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over8230and so much more A rigged system 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump September 1 2017 I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton 8211 it was great Thanks S 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 19 2017 Emails show that the AmazonWashingtonPost and the FailingNewYorkTimes were reluctant to cover the ClintonLynch secret meeting in plane 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump August 8 2017 8230big dollars 700000 for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives Drain the Swamp 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 26 2017 Why didnt AG Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got8230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 26 2017 Problem is that the acting head of the FBI ampamp the person in charge of the Hillary investigation Andrew McCabe got 700000 from H for wife 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 25 2017 Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes where are Emails ampamp DNC server ampamp Intel leakers 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 25 2017 Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign 8211 quietly working to boost Clinton So where is the investigation AG seanhannity 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 25 2017 So why arent the Committees and investigators and of course our beleaguered AG looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes ampamp Russia relations 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 24 2017 My son Donald openly gave his emails to the media ampamp authorities whereas Crooked Hillary Clinton deleted ampamp acid washed her 33000 emails 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 22 2017 8230What about all of the Clinton ties to Russia including Podesta Company Uranium deal Russian Reset big dollar speeches etc 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 22 2017 So many people are asking why isnt the AG or Special Council looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes 33000 emails deleted 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 22 2017 HillaryClinton can illegally get the questions to the Debate ampamp delete 33000 emails but my son Don is being scorned by the Fake News Media 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 16 2017 Why arent the same standards placed on the Democrats Look what Hillary Clinton may have gotten away with Disgraceful 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 12 2017 If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her motheras her mother gave our country away the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump July 10 2017 8230and did not want to rock the boat He didnt choke he colluded or obstructed and it did the Dems and Crooked Hillary no good 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 26 2017 The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 26 2017 Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic Party in order to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders Is she allowed to so collude Unfair to Bernie 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 25 2017 Obama Administration official said they choked when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election They didnt want to hurt Hillary 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 24 2017 Crooked H destroyed phones w hammer bleached emails ampamp had husband meet wAG days before she was cleared ampamp they talk about obstruction 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 15 2017 Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at but my nondealings are 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 15 2017 AG Lynch made law enforcement decisions for political purposes8230gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection Totally illegal 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 13 2017 Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself refuses to say she was a terrible candidate Hits Facebook ampamp even Dems ampamp DNC 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump June 1 2017 With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign ampamp Obama Administration there was never a special counsel appointed 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump May 18 2017 FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds The phony8230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump May 3 2017 New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative Would still beat Hillary in 8230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump April 23 2017 Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate Just asking 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump April 3 2017 Was the brother of John Podesta paid big money to get the sanctions on Russia lifted Did Hillary know 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump April 3 2017 Why doesnt Fake News talk about Podesta ties to Russia as covered by FoxNews or money from Russia to Clinton 8211 sale of Uranium 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump March 28 2017 8230money to Bill the Hillary Russian reset praise of Russia by Hillary or Podesta Russian Company Trump Russia story is a hoax MAGA 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump March 28 2017 Why isnt the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill ampamp Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia Russian speech8230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump March 28 2017 What about all of the contact with the Clinton campaign and the Russians Also is it true that the DNC would not let the FBI in to look 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump March 20 2017 The race for DNC Chairman was of course totally rigged Bernies guy like Bernie himself never had a chance Clinton demanded Perez 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump February 26 2017 This Russian connection nonsense is merely an attempt to coverup the many mistakes made in Hillary Clintons losing campaign 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump February 15 2017 What are Hillary Clintons people complaining about with respect to the FBI Based on the information they had she should never8230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump January 13 2017 Hillary flunky who lost big For the 100th time I never mocked a disabled reporter would never do that but simply showed him82308230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump January 9 2017 being a movie starand that was season 1 compared to season 14 Now compare him to my season 1 But who cares he supported Kasich ampamp Hillary 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump January 6 2017 Hillary and the Dems were never going to beat the PASSION of my voters They saw what was happening in the last two weeks before the82308230 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump January 6 2017 Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems In my opinion it is humiliating One must be able to lose with dignity So true 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump December 24 2016 The socalled A list celebrities are all wanting tixs to the inauguration but look what they did for Hillary NOTHING I want the PEOPLE 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump December 23 2016 I have not heard any of the pundits or commentators discussing the fact that I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the win than Hillary on the loss 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump December 21 2016 Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult ampamp sophisticated than the popular vote Hillary focused on the wrong states 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump December 21 2016 Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump December 16 2016 If Russia or some other entity was hacking why did the White House wait so long to act Why did they only complain after Hillary lost 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump December 15 2016 I thought that CNN would get better after they failed so badly in their support of Hillary Clinton however since election they are worse 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 29 2016 CNN is so embarrassed by their total 100 support of Hillary Clinton and yet her loss in a landslide that they dont know what to do 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 29 2016 Hillarys debate answer on delay That is horrifying That is not the way our democracy works Been around for 240 years Weve had free 8212 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 27 2016 Hillary Clinton conceded the election when she called me just prior to the victory speech and after the results were in Nothing will change 8212 Donald J Trump realDonaldTrump November 27 2016 | Republican/ADJ presidential/ADJ nominee/NOUN Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN looks/VERB at/ADP Democratic/ADJ presidential/ADJ nominee/NOUN Hillary/PROPN Clinton/PROPN as/SCONJ she/PRON answers/VERB a/DET question/NOUN during/ADP the/DET second/ADJ presidential/ADJ debate/NOUN at/ADP Washington/PROPN University/PROPN in/ADP St/PROPN Louis/PROPN Sunday/PROPN Oct/PROPN 9/NUM 2016/NUM Julio/PROPN CortezAP/PUNCT He/PRON just/ADV can8217/NOUN t/NOUN quit/VERB heramp160/NUM It8217s/PROPN been/AUX 365/NUM days/NOUN since/SCONJ Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN won/VERB the/DET presidency/NOUN and/CCONJ Crooked/PROPN Hillary/PROPN is/AUX still/ADV one/NUM of/ADP his/PRON favorite/ADJ Twitter/PROPN targets/NOUN To/PART be/AUX fair/ADJ Trump/PROPN did/AUX give/VERB former/ADJ opponent/NOUN Hillary/PROPN Clinton/PROPN a/DET break/NOUN for/ADP a/DET few/ADJ weeks/NOUN after/ADP November/PROPN 8/NUM 20168212perhaps/NOUN he/PRON too/ADV was/AUX in/ADP mourning8212but/PROPN that/SCONJ doesn8217/NOUN t/NOUN mean/NOUN he/PRON gave/VERB up/ADP picking/VERB on/ADP heramp160To/NOUN see/VERB just/ADV how/SCONJ much/ADJ the/DET president/NOUN is/AUX not/PART over/ADP the/DET electionamp160we8217ve/NOUN gathered/VERB the/DET 70plus/PROPN times/NOUN he8217s/PROPN trolled/VERB Clinton/PROPN at/ADP least/ADJ by/ADP name/NOUN or/CCONJ nickname/NOUN since/SCONJ beating/VERB her/PRON a/DET year/NOUN ago/ADV Check/VERB them/PRON out/ADV here/ADV I/PRON always/ADV felt/VERB I/PRON would/AUX be/AUX running/VERB and/CCONJ winning/VERB against/ADP Bernie/PROPN Sanders/PROPN not/PART Crooked/PROPN H/PROPN without/ADP cheating/VERB I/PRON was/AUX right/ADJ 8212/NUM Donald/PROPN J/PROPN Trump/PROPN realDonaldTrump/NOUN November/PROPN 3/NUM 2017/NUM Bernie/PROPN Sanders/PROPN supporters/NOUN have/VERB every/DET right/NOUN to/PART be/AUX apoplectic/ADJ of/ADP the/DET complete/ADJ theft/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Dem/PROPN primary/NOUN by/ADP Crooked/PROPN Hillary/PROPN 8212/NUM Donald/PROPN J/PROPN Trump/PROPN realDonaldTrump/NOUN November/PROPN 3/NUM 2017/NUM Pocahontas/PROPN just/ADV stated/VERB that/SCONJ the/DET Democrats/PROPN lead/VERB by/ADP the/DET legendary/ADJ Crooked/PROPN Hillary/PROPN Clinton/PROPN rigged/VERB the/DET 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<p>Tawanda Jones and Jaime Richardson are the family members of Tyrone West, a 44 year old unarmed African American man who died on July 18, 2013 while in police custody.</p>
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<p /> JAISAL NOOR, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore.
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<p />On July&#160;18, 2013, 44-year-old Tyrone West, an unarmed African-American man, was stopped and violently beaten in the Kitmore neighborhood of northeast Baltimore. He died shortly after in police custody. Police say he died of health issues exacerbated by dehydration and very high heat and not due to the violent nature of his arrest. On December&#160;18, the city prosecutor decided that no police officer would be charged in relation to the incident.
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<p />Now joining us for their first televised interview are two guests. We're joined by to Tawanda Jones, Tyrone West's sister. We're also joined by Jaime Richardson, his cousin.
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<p />Thank you both for joining us.
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<p />TAWANDA JONES, SISTER OF TYRONE WEST: You're welcome. Thank you for having us.
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<p />JAIME RICHARDSON, COUSIN OF TYRONE WEST: Thank you for having us.
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<p />NOOR: So, Tawanda, let's start with you. Baltimore state's attorney Gregg L.&#160;Bernstein, he declined to press charges against the officers involved in the killing of your brother. And he also said, he said that the police were legally justified in using force. And he also made a point of noting that they claim he had a gram of cocaine on him, he was on parole, and had three previous convictions for resisting arrest. What was your response to that statement and the fact that no police officers were charged in the death of your brother?
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<p />JONES: We've already discussed it, and I speak for my whole entire family. We're disgusted at Gregg Bernstein, who never prosecutes any of his officers.
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<p />And for them to say to my brother, hey, a gram of drugs on him, we know that that was a lie for the simple fact he was driving my vehicle at the time and I still have my vehicle. And anyone knows that if there's any drugs found going on your person, body, I wouldn't have my vehicle. You know, on that day he was going to give a friend a ride, and it should not result to him being brutally kicked, stomped, tased, maced by ten police officers.
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<p />And as far as his past, he did his time. Let's stay focused on July&#160;18, when he was driving and for no reason he was brutally murdered with witnesses, eyewitness accounts, who saw and could attest to him being brutally murdered. And we had many witnesses. And for the prosecutor not to look or take any of their statements and try to intimidate them is really sad. And I want the world to know it could be you if something don't get done in this.
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<p />And we're not really shocked, because there's, like, 32 murders that we aware of that we know that police had brutally beaten and killed or shot someone, and he never prosecute anybody. But only reason why we thought it was going to be different is because we said, okay, this thing is videoed. We have, like, ten or more witnesses, basically a whole community of witnesses. But we have, like, ten or more people coming forth with videotape. So we knew, we felt like it was a big chance that he was, you know, promptly going to, you know, prosecute these officers. But he didn't. He's a big letdown, as [incompr.]
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<p />NOOR: So, Jaime, I want to bring you in the conversation. Talk about what the family and the supporters had to do on a weekly basis to get any answers relating to the death of your cousin, Tyrone West.
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<p />RICHARDSON: Well, basically, we been protesting and doing marches since July&#160;18 at different agencies to get some answers. Nobody came to my family to say, you know, we're sorry for your loss and we're going to do an investigation. Nobody did that. We came out, we went to different agencies to figure out what was going on. The medical examiner office was withholding the autopsy. They released it, and it was--it's still only half of the autopsy.
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<p />NOOR: Which is very unusual. Normally the autopsy is released within 90 days at the most.
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<p />JONES: And not to mention is just the fact that they're going off what the police said. How are you a medical examiner's office? You're supposed to be transparent. All you know is you got a dead body, and you're supposed to look at what happened to this body. You're not supposed to go off of what the police are saying. That's biased. Nothing about this whole thing has been transparent at all. Nothing.
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<p />And we're still searching for answers. We still don't have answers. And we're talking 173 days we still don't have my brother's autopsy. We had to bury him without a death certificate. You're born in this world with a birth certificate. How dare you leave this world without a death certificate?
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<p />Why do we even need a death certificate in the first place? Why were these two rogue cops--and let's get to them, Nicholas Davis Chapman and Officer Ruiz. They initially started this and dragged nine other cops into this.
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<p />By the way, if they was tooken off--two weeks prior, they brutally beat Abdul Salaam. And this is public record. Anybody can do research. They should have been took off the streets. And it was indicated in the Anthony Anderson death.
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<p />NOOR: So, to be clear, two of the officers that were involved--
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<p />JONES: Yes, the two that started it, Nicholas Davis Chapman and Ruiz.
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<p />NOOR: --that were involved in the death of your brother--.
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<p />JONES: Yes. The first two that pulled him over for whatever unknown reason, you know, these are--.
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<p />NOOR: They had a record, a very recent record of violence.
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<p />JONES: Yes, a very recent record, two weeks prior. And then by the way, Nicholas Davis Chapman's riding around with a suspended driver's license. So how are you able to operate the police car in the first place? But more than that, you brutally beat a man two weeks prior to my brother's death--if they would have been just tooken off on desk duty, my brother would be alive. We would not be in this studio today.
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<p />NOOR: Did you get a response from authorities about that issue, the record of these police officers, the complaints?
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<p />JONES: Oh, Gregg Bernstein said--tell him.
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<p />RICHARDSON: [crosstalk] response was they wasn't involved.
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<p />JONES: No. And then when I told them and I brought up [incompr.], he said, well, you know what? I'm sorry. That's administrative. What do you mean? Are you serious? Administrative? That's all you can tell me? So he brutally beat, tased, and maced, but he's careless, and you're going to tell me it's administrative? We know that. What are you going to do about it, administrator?
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<p />NOOR: And you brought up the issue of witnesses.
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<p />JONES: Witnesses, numerous witnesses.
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<p />NOOR: The police--witnesses spoke to police, and there's video--.
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<p />JONES: Spoke to them. Eyewitness account. Videos. And then they kept bringing these witnesses, trying to intimidate them, week after week making them go to North Avenue courthouse, like as if they were going to recant their statements. Everybody said--I'd heard them on the news, different talk shows, of him being brutally murdered.
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<p />Now, if you're resisting arrest, how are you screaming, please help me, help me, stop, stop, they're killing me? Even at one point, a witness said, he was yelling "Trayvon Martin" as he was being brutally beat, tased, and kicked. If you're resisting, you're just running. You're not yelling, help, they're killing me. That don't sound like resisting to me.
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<p />And when I asked Gregg Bernstein, I said, did you look at the--I said, forget what I'm saying, forget any of this. Did you see the video? He said, well, I didn't really look at it. I just saw what was on the news. I said, what do you mean what's on the news? They don't show everything. Like, you didn't take the time? Well, no, that's the administrator.
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<p />How are you going to say--you basically let murderers go again. And it's just sad and it's a shame.
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<p />RICHARDSON: And I just want to add that these were ten armed police officers, Baltimore City and Morgan State.
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<p />NOOR: And to be clear, Tyrone West was unarmed.
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<p />JONES: Unarmed.
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<p />RICHARDSON: Unarmed.
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<p />JONES: Unarmed.
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<p />RICHARDSON: They brutally--they beat my cousin to--they beat my cousin to death. My cousin wasn't shot. He wasn't stabbed. He was beaten. Can you imagine how long that takes in order for someone to die? People don't understand what we're going through.
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<p />JONES: And not only that. And for them, this--it's a big--it's a conscious conspiracy to obstruct justice, because we still don't have his autopsy. They're just lining up what the police said, and they're trying to make it seem like my brother had this whole--you know, like he was this unhealthy person. He was a very healthy young man.
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<p />And then a simple fact: me and him just got finished eating dinner before he got that phone call to come pick him up. He had just drunk a whole 32 ounce gallon of Deer Park water in my face and had another one. And then they look so foolish. You see a Deer Park water bottle on the top of my car with these polices, and they spray so much pepper spray that you're seeing them pouring water in the police eyes. What about my brother eyes? Who tried to help him? No one.
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<p />NOOR: Now, our viewers know that, unfortunately, incidents like this are very common in this country. The Malcolm X Grassroots movement did a report that every 28 hours an African-American man or woman is killed.
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<p />JONES: It's open season on a black man.
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<p />NOOR: --is killed by police or vigilantes in this country. So talk about what lessons you have learned from this experience that you hope to share with others and what the next steps will be in getting justice for your brother.
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<p />JONES: The next step is we're going to stay out here. We're shutting every town hall meeting down. This is our time. And it is the election year. We're getting them jokers out of the chair.
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<p />You know, my--taxpayer dollar--I'm a teacher. I work every day. I don't go here and bust my tail to pay for people to kill people in our community, and especially my brother. So I do my jury duty service, I do all of that. And I do not commit crimes. And I will not have them done.
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<p />So we're going to get them out. We don't like what going on. I urge everybody. You can vote them--the same way they got in the chair, we're going to vote them out. Flat out.
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<p />NOOR: Would you like to add anything else?
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<p />RICHARDSON: It's just hard. It really is. And then we're not going to stop. We're going to be just like a splinter in somebody's foot that they can't get out.
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<p />JONES: And this is like them just constantly keep on making up lies. Now, all of a sudden, you wait. Now, if they would have brought out some of these lies maybe a week after this happened, even two weeks--you're going to wait 158 days to tell us some nonsense, and now you want to take all this time to draw a cartoon of, you know, the police and how they did what they did.
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<p />But you didn't show the witnesses, you missed the main thing, the videos, the witnesses that said what they saw. You know what I'm saying? For them to say--on one thing I read--and it was very disturbing when I know my brother didn't even get high using any type of drugs, on one of the things on the autopsy, it said something about he didn't have nothing in his bloodstream, and they possibly found something in his urine. First of all, we know marked metabolites--if I use cocaine today or tomorrow and they test me, it's going to show up. Those are marked metabolites. We're not idiots. You're going to see that. You're not--I don't--a person's not going to get high for it--tomorrow and then it just show up the next day.
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<p />We're focusing July&#160;18. You know, they want to focus on ten years ago with his record. He did his time. He didn't ever murder or brutally beat nobody. I can tell you that for certain. He didn't have--he didn't even have a run-in with the law. He was even a model, you know, person that came out and turned his life around. You know. I'm not trying to paint him out to be an angel, 'cause none of us are perfect, but he was a man that had goals set up, and he was accommodating those goals and achieving those goals. You know. And for you to be brutally murdered and all somebody can do is drag up your past as if this justified--. I wouldn't care if he was a killer. That's called a due process. No one should be brutally beat, stomped, kicked, tased in police custody, period. They're not the judge, jury, and a prosecution. [incompr.] going to take them. You're doing a crime? Lock me up, take me to jail, and let me get a lawyer, you know, and let them fight my case to see if I need to be back in there or not. That's nonsense. It's disgusting.
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<p />And I want to let everybody know it could be you. If we don't take a stand now--you all need to come out, support my family, 'cause we never thought it would be our family. And it could easily be your family. You could see they're not doing nothing. But we're going to make sure they do something in my brother's case. I will not stop until I'm dead and gone. And if I could come back then and fight for him, I will.
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<p />NOOR: Tawanda Jones and Jaime Richardson, thank you so much for joining us.
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<p />JONES: Thank you.
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<p />RICHARDSON: Thank you.
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<p />NOOR: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | EXCLUSIVE: Family of Unarmed Man Killed in Baltimore Police Custody Speaks Out | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11294 | 2014-01-07 | 4left
| 2,408 | Tawanda Jones and Jaime Richardson are the family members of Tyrone West a 44 year old unarmed African American man who died on July 18 2013 while in police custody JAISAL NOOR TRNN PRODUCER Welcome to The Real News Network Im Jaisal Noor in Baltimore On Julyamp16018 2013 44yearold Tyrone West an unarmed AfricanAmerican man was stopped and violently beaten in the Kitmore neighborhood of northeast Baltimore He died shortly after in police custody Police say he died of health issues exacerbated by dehydration and very high heat and not due to the violent nature of his arrest On Decemberamp16018 the city prosecutor decided that no police officer would be charged in relation to the incident Now joining us for their first televised interview are two guests Were joined by to Tawanda Jones Tyrone Wests sister Were also joined by Jaime Richardson his cousin Thank you both for joining us TAWANDA JONES SISTER OF TYRONE WEST Youre welcome Thank you for having us JAIME RICHARDSON COUSIN OF TYRONE WEST Thank you for having us NOOR So Tawanda lets start with you Baltimore states attorney Gregg Lamp160Bernstein he declined to press charges against the officers involved in the killing of your brother And he also said he said that the police were legally justified in using force And he also made a point of noting that they claim he had a gram of cocaine on him he was on parole and had three previous convictions for resisting arrest What was your response to that statement and the fact that no police officers were charged in the death of your brother JONES Weve already discussed it and I speak for my whole entire family Were disgusted at Gregg Bernstein who never prosecutes any of his officers And for them to say to my brother hey a gram of drugs on him we know that that was a lie for the simple fact he was driving my vehicle at the time and I still have my vehicle And anyone knows that if theres any drugs found going on your person body I wouldnt have my vehicle You know on that day he was going to give a friend a ride and it should not result to him being brutally kicked stomped tased maced by ten police officers And as far as his past he did his time Lets stay focused on Julyamp16018 when he was driving and for no reason he was brutally murdered with witnesses eyewitness accounts who saw and could attest to him being brutally murdered And we had many witnesses And for the prosecutor not to look or take any of their statements and try to intimidate them is really sad And I want the world to know it could be you if something dont get done in this And were not really shocked because theres like 32 murders that we aware of that we know that police had brutally beaten and killed or shot someone and he never prosecute anybody But only reason why we thought it was going to be different is because we said okay this thing is videoed We have like ten or more witnesses basically a whole community of witnesses But we have like ten or more people coming forth with videotape So we knew we felt like it was a big chance that he was you know promptly going to you know prosecute these officers But he didnt Hes a big letdown as incompr NOOR So Jaime I want to bring you in the conversation Talk about what the family and the supporters had to do on a weekly basis to get any answers relating to the death of your cousin Tyrone West RICHARDSON Well basically we been protesting and doing marches since Julyamp16018 at different agencies to get some answers Nobody came to my family to say you know were sorry for your loss and were going to do an investigation Nobody did that We came out we went to different agencies to figure out what was going on The medical examiner office was withholding the autopsy They released it and it wasits still only half of the autopsy NOOR Which is very unusual Normally the autopsy is released within 90 days at the most JONES And not to mention is just the fact that theyre going off what the police said How are you a medical examiners office Youre supposed to be transparent All you know is you got a dead body and youre supposed to look at what happened to this body Youre not supposed to go off of what the police are saying Thats biased Nothing about this whole thing has been transparent at all Nothing And were still searching for answers We still dont have answers And were talking 173 days we still dont have my brothers autopsy We had to bury him without a death certificate Youre born in this world with a birth certificate How dare you leave this world without a death certificate Why do we even need a death certificate in the first place Why were these two rogue copsand lets get to them Nicholas Davis Chapman and Officer Ruiz They initially started this and dragged nine other cops into this By the way if they was tooken offtwo weeks prior they brutally beat Abdul Salaam And this is public record Anybody can do research They should have been took off the streets And it was indicated in the Anthony Anderson death NOOR So to be clear two of the officers that were involved JONES Yes the two that started it Nicholas Davis Chapman and Ruiz NOOR that were involved in the death of your brother JONES Yes The first two that pulled him over for whatever unknown reason you know these are NOOR They had a record a very recent record of violence JONES Yes a very recent record two weeks prior And then by the way Nicholas Davis Chapmans riding around with a suspended drivers license So how are you able to operate the police car in the first place But more than that you brutally beat a man two weeks prior to my brothers deathif they would have been just tooken off on desk duty my brother would be alive We would not be in this studio today NOOR Did you get a response from authorities about that issue the record of these police officers the complaints JONES Oh Gregg Bernstein saidtell him RICHARDSON crosstalk response was they wasnt involved JONES No And then when I told them and I brought up incompr he said well you know what Im sorry Thats administrative What do you mean Are you serious Administrative Thats all you can tell me So he brutally beat tased and maced but hes careless and youre going to tell me its administrative We know that What are you going to do about it administrator NOOR And you brought up the issue of witnesses JONES Witnesses numerous witnesses NOOR The policewitnesses spoke to police and theres video JONES Spoke to them Eyewitness account Videos And then they kept bringing these witnesses trying to intimidate them week after week making them go to North Avenue courthouse like as if they were going to recant their statements Everybody saidId heard them on the news different talk shows of him being brutally murdered Now if youre resisting arrest how are you screaming please help me help me stop stop theyre killing me Even at one point a witness said he was yelling Trayvon Martin as he was being brutally beat tased and kicked If youre resisting youre just running Youre not yelling help theyre killing me That dont sound like resisting to me And when I asked Gregg Bernstein I said did you look at theI said forget what Im saying forget any of this Did you see the video He said well I didnt really look at it I just saw what was on the news I said what do you mean whats on the news They dont show everything Like you didnt take the time Well no thats the administrator How are you going to sayyou basically let murderers go again And its just sad and its a shame RICHARDSON And I just want to add that these were ten armed police officers Baltimore City and Morgan State NOOR And to be clear Tyrone West was unarmed JONES Unarmed RICHARDSON Unarmed JONES Unarmed RICHARDSON They brutallythey beat my cousin tothey beat my cousin to death My cousin wasnt shot He wasnt stabbed He was beaten Can you imagine how long that takes in order for someone to die People dont understand what were going through JONES And not only that And for them thisits a bigits a conscious conspiracy to obstruct justice because we still dont have his autopsy Theyre just lining up what the police said and theyre trying to make it seem like my brother had this wholeyou know like he was this unhealthy person He was a very healthy young man And then a simple fact me and him just got finished eating dinner before he got that phone call to come pick him up He had just drunk a whole 32 ounce gallon of Deer Park water in my face and had another one And then they look so foolish You see a Deer Park water bottle on the top of my car with these polices and they spray so much pepper spray that youre seeing them pouring water in the police eyes What about my brother eyes Who tried to help him No one NOOR Now our viewers know that unfortunately incidents like this are very common in this country The Malcolm X Grassroots movement did a report that every 28 hours an AfricanAmerican man or woman is killed JONES Its open season on a black man NOOR is killed by police or vigilantes in this country So talk about what lessons you have learned from this experience that you hope to share with others and what the next steps will be in getting justice for your brother JONES The next step is were going to stay out here Were shutting every town hall meeting down This is our time And it is the election year Were getting them jokers out of the chair You know mytaxpayer dollarIm a teacher I work every day I dont go here and bust my tail to pay for people to kill people in our community and especially my brother So I do my jury duty service I do all of that And I do not commit crimes And I will not have them done So were going to get them out We dont like what going on I urge everybody You can vote themthe same way they got in the chair were going to vote them out Flat out NOOR Would you like to add anything else RICHARDSON Its just hard It really is And then were not going to stop Were going to be just like a splinter in somebodys foot that they cant get out JONES And this is like them just constantly keep on making up lies Now all of a sudden you wait Now if they would have brought out some of these lies maybe a week after this happened even two weeksyoure going to wait 158 days to tell us some nonsense and now you want to take all this time to draw a cartoon of you know the police and how they did what they did But you didnt show the witnesses you missed the main thing the videos the witnesses that said what they saw You know what Im saying For them to sayon one thing I readand it was very disturbing when I know my brother didnt even get high using any type of drugs on one of the things on the autopsy it said something about he didnt have nothing in his bloodstream and they possibly found something in his urine First of all we know marked metabolitesif I use cocaine today or tomorrow and they test me its going to show up Those are marked metabolites Were not idiots Youre going to see that Youre notI donta persons not going to get high for ittomorrow and then it just show up the next day Were focusing Julyamp16018 You know they want to focus on ten years ago with his record He did his time He didnt ever murder or brutally beat nobody I can tell you that for certain He didnt havehe didnt even have a runin with the law He was even a model you know person that came out and turned his life around You know Im not trying to paint him out to be an angel cause none of us are perfect but he was a man that had goals set up and he was accommodating those goals and achieving those goals You know And for you to be brutally murdered and all somebody can do is drag up your past as if this justified I wouldnt care if he was a killer Thats called a due process No one should be brutally beat stomped kicked tased in police custody period Theyre not the judge jury and a prosecution incompr going to take them Youre doing a crime Lock me up take me to jail and let me get a lawyer you know and let them fight my case to see if I need to be back in there or not Thats nonsense Its disgusting And I want to let everybody know it could be you If we dont take a stand nowyou all need to come out support my family cause we never thought it would be our family And it could easily be your family You could see theyre not doing nothing But were going to make sure they do something in my brothers case I will not stop until Im dead and gone And if I could come back then and fight for him I will NOOR Tawanda Jones and Jaime Richardson thank you so much for joining us JONES Thank you RICHARDSON Thank you NOOR Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Tawanda/PROPN Jones/PROPN and/CCONJ Jaime/PROPN Richardson/PROPN are/AUX the/DET family/NOUN members/NOUN of/ADP Tyrone/PROPN West/PROPN a/DET 44/NUM year/NOUN old/ADJ unarmed/ADJ African/ADJ American/ADJ man/NOUN who/PRON 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<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Carter Page</a>, the Trump campaign’s onetime volunteer adviser on <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a>, views with amazement how much a Democratic opposition research dossier has been increasingly embraced by the liberal power structure in <a href="/topics/washington/" type="external">Washington</a>.</p>
<p>He told The Washington Times that he is stunned because the dossier is “completely false” and “full of lies” about his supposed conduct vis-a-vis <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a> last summer. The <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a>, which obtained a copy of the dossier, has been investigating the conduct since July.</p>
<p>“The mistakes are so laughable and humorous they’re beyond words,” <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> said of a dossier that has him meeting with Russians whom he insists he has never met. “It’s just so wild that it’s amazing.”</p>
<p>Not one of the sensational allegations in the Democrat-financed memos from former British spy <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Christopher Steele</a> has been verified independently, at least publicly. Yet Democrats are citing the dossier as a reason to achieve their major political objective — an independent investigative commission on <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a>- <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a>.</p>
<p>Democrats say routinely on cable news channels that some of <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a>’s findings have been confirmed, but they do not specify which ones.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a>’s gossipy, thirdhand anecdotes contain a central allegation: There was an elaborate conspiracy between <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> campaign aides and the highest levels of the Kremlin to hack the Hillary Clinton campaign computers, release stolen emails and spread disinformation.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> was smack dab in the middle, said chief accuser <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> and his Orbis Business Intelligence firm in London.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> runs investment firm Global Energy Capital LLC in New York City. Before that, he was an investment banker for Merrill Lynch and spent three years in <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a> last decade making deals with Russian businesses. His knowledge of and communications with Russians is part of his livelihood.</p>
<p>He has been doing exactly what then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged American entrepreneurs to do in 2012 as she stood next to then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>“We are committed to broadening and deepening ties between our two economies,” she said in <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a>.</p>
<p>The Steele dossier, written as a series of memos during the summer and fall, hit the streets Jan. 10 via the news website Buzzfeed, whose editor publicly doubted its veracity. The memos contained sensational charges that <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> colluded with Putin oligarchs. In The Times interview, <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> specifically rebutted all of the accusations.</p>
<p>There are four main charges concerning <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a>:</p>
<p>• <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> wrote that Paul Manafort, <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s summertime campaign manager, and <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> formed an alliance to work with Russian intelligence to hack the Clinton campaign.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> called this assertion “ridiculous.” Referring to himself as a “junior paid volunteer,” he said he has never met Mr. Manafort.</p>
<p>“ <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Steele</a> is saying I’m conspiring with Manafort. It’s so fictional,” he said.</p>
<p>• Second, <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> wrote that during <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a>’s July trip to <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a> to give a speech at the New Economic School, he held a secret meeting with Igor Sechin, president of the state-owned Rosneft oil company and a close ally of President Putin.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> said he delivered an unpaid speech at the university, a talk that was covered by the news media that day. <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> said he has never met Mr. Sechin.</p>
<p>“No, I have never met him,” he said. “It’s totally false.”</p>
<p>• <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> also wrote that Mr. Sechin offered <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> a brokerage fee when <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a> sold a 19 percent stake in Rosneft to outside investors. In exchange, the Trump adviser was to urge the candidate to end economic sanctions against <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a>.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> said no one ever made such an offer.</p>
<p>• In his fourth charge against <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a>, <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> wrote that, while in <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a>, <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> also met with a man named Igor Divyekin, a Russian official. He supposedly told <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> that the Kremlin had compromising information on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, as well as <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> said the first he ever heard of Mr. Divyekin was from the dossier.</p>
<p>He told The Times: “I had never heard of him. I asked a lot of people I knew in <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a>, all people from the university, some business friend people, ‘Have you ever heard of this guy?’</p>
<p>“I’m very careful that the things I say are accurate. If I’m going to say I did not meet him, I may have said hello to someone, right? So I wanted to be double, triple, quadruple sure that what I’m saying is accurate, right?</p>
<p>“Not only had I never heard of him, everyone I asked had never heard the guy’s name. He’s not a known person. He’s like someone in the bureaucracy who may have an important position but not someone who is publicly known and not someone I met with.”</p>
<p>Intel committee ‘facts’</p>
<p>The Steele paper, financed by Democrats via the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, has been denounced as inaccurate by some in the news media, by former Obama administration intelligence officials and by the Trump team.</p>
<p>James R. Clapper, former director of national intelligence, said his agency could not verify any of <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a>’s sources.</p>
<p>Former Deputy CIA Director Michael J. Morell, a Clinton adviser, said he learned that <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> did not talk to sources directly but with paid intermediaries.</p>
<p>“On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here, there is smoke but there is no fire, at all,” Mr. Morell said at an event sponsored by security analysis website The Cipher Brief. “There’s no little campfire, there’s no little candle, there’s no spark. And there’s a lot of people looking for it.”</p>
<p>In his most sensational allegation, <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> wrote that <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s attorney, Michael Cohen, met in Prague with Russian intelligence officials.</p>
<p>Mr. Cohen has presented evidence that he was in Southern California at the time. He said he has never been to Prague and showed the campaign his passport to prove it.</p>
<p>In other words, a critical meeting evincing a <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> conspiracy could not have happened, casting doubt on <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a>’s investigative methods and other claims of secret get-togethers.</p>
<p>What’s more, Russian tech CEO Aleksej Gubard is suing <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> for charging that his firm was involved in Russian-sponsored hacking into Democrats’ emails.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> watched with amazement on March 20 as Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence read portions of the Steele dossier into the record as certified facts.</p>
<p>They were led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat. At the committee’s first public hearing in its probe into Russian interference in the Nov. 8 election, Mr. Schiff read <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a>’s version of <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a>’s visit to <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a>. He offered no independent verification.</p>
<p>Mr. Schiff gave <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> credit for knowing the precise share — 19 percent — that oil company Rosneft planned to sell, when in fact the Russian government had announced that percentage months before <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> wrote the memo. It was public knowledge.</p>
<p>At the March 20 hearing, FBI Director James B. Comey announced that he had been authorized by the Justice Department to disclose that the bureau was investigating any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.</p>
<p>The Washington Post reported this month that the Obama Justice Department obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court warrant to surveil <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> as a foreign agent, beginning in July.</p>
<p>This was about the same time the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> obtained the Steele dossier.</p>
<p>Questions for the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a></p>
<p>The question some Republicans are asking is: Did the Steele dossier prompt the Obama administration to open the investigation into candidate <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a>" And did the administration cite information in the dossier as evidence to obtain the warrant"</p>
<p>The intrigue grows deeper. The Post reported Feb. 28 that the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> reached a financial agreement with <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> to continue investigating <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>.</p>
<p>If true, the agreement created the odd marriage of a partisan Democrat-paid investigator being hired by the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> to investigate the future president a few weeks before the election. The deal never went through because the dossier and <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a>’s name had become public, The Post reported.</p>
<p>The timeline (the dossier went public in January) would mean that the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> wanted <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> to investigate President-elect <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> and ultimately President <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a>.</p>
<p>The Washington Times asked the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> to confirm or deny that it had made such a deal. The public affairs office declined.</p>
<p>The New York Times reported that Fusion GPS and <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> spread the dossier to journalists and to the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a>.</p>
<p>Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, has begun pressing the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> for answers on what role the dossier played as the bureau made decisions to investigate and surveil <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> aides.</p>
<p>“The idea that the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> to investigate the Republican nominee for president in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a>’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends,” Mr. Grassley said in a March 6 letter to Mr. Comey, the bureau’s director.</p>
<p>He demanded a reply by March 20 and asked for documentation of agents’ interviews with <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a>. A subsequent Grassley letter said the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> had missed the March 20 deadline.</p>
<p>A key Grassley question: “Has the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> relied on or otherwise referenced the memos or any information in the memos in seeking a FISA warrant, other search warrant or any other judicial process?”</p>
<p>He also asked: “Has the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> verified or corroborated any of the allegations made in the memos? Were any allegations or other information from the memo included in any documents created by the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a>, or which the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> helped to create, without having been independently verified or corroborated by the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> beforehand? If so, why?”</p>
<p>Mr. Grassley on March 24 targeted Democratic Party-linked Fusion GPS, run by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn R. Simpson.</p>
<p>“When political opposition research becomes the basis for law enforcement or intelligence efforts, it raises substantial questions about the independence of law enforcement and intelligence from politics,” Mr. Grassley wrote to Mr. Simpson.</p>
<p>On April 7, Fusion’s attorneys of the <a href="/topics/washington/" type="external">Washington</a> firm Cunningham, Levy, Muse LLP wrote to Mr. Grassley saying the company would not answer the chairman’s questions.</p>
<p>‘Under surveillance’</p>
<p>“The March 24 letter calls for information and documents protected by the First Amendment rights, attorney-client privilege, attorney work product, and contractual rights (e.g., confidentiality agreements) of Fusion GPS and/or its clients,” the letter said. “Thus, so as to preserve those privileges and rights, we will not otherwise be responding to the questions enumerated within the March 24 letter.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> told The Washington Times that he, too, would like to know what role the unproven dossier played in the Obama administration persuading a judge to approve a wiretap on him.</p>
<p>“When you lie to a court, the FISA court is a court, that is a crime,” he said.</p>
<p>The Steele dossier appears to have made its way into intelligence briefings to members of Congress and then into news stories, though the Steele memos were not identified as the source.</p>
<p>In September, months before Buzzfeed published the raw <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Steele</a> memos, a story appeared in Yahoo News. It cited intelligence sources as saying they were investigating whether <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> secretly met in <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a> with Igor Sechin and Igor Divyekin — the two names found in the Steele dossier.</p>
<p>Again, <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> told The Times that he had never met with those two Russians.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> said that story spelled the end to his volunteer work for <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>. Campaign representatives said he was not part of the Trump team.</p>
<p>Before the Yahoo story, then-Sen. Harry Reid wrote a letter to Mr. Comey in August. He did not name <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> but referred to a “ <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> adviser” who was accused of meeting with “high-ranking sanctioned individuals while in <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a>.” The charge appears to come right out of the Steele investigation which had been turned over to the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a>.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> was an ideal suspect for liberals to accuse of <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a> collusion, given his pro- <a href="/topics/moscow/" type="external">Moscow</a> stances, his opposition to economic sanctions and his investments in Gazprom, the Russian natural gas firm.</p>
<p>Mr. Reid said it was a conflict of interest for a <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> surrogate and investor in <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a> to be promoting an end to sanctions.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> said the focus of his investments since founding Global Energy in 2008 has been the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> served as a Navy officer from 1993 to 1998, achieving the rank of lieutenant. He received the Joint Service Commendation Medal as a U.N. military observer in the Western Sahara. He received the Navy Achievement Medal for his work with the USS America aircraft carrier battle group in the Adriatic Sea during the Bosnia conflict.</p>
<p>After Mr. Schiff read portions of the Steele dossier at the March 20 intelligence committee hearing, <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> sent a letter to him and committee Chairman Devin Nunes, California Republican.</p>
<p>“I would eagerly welcome the chance to speak with the committee to help finally set the record straight following the false evidence, illegal activities as well as other lies distributed by certain politically motivated suspects in coordination with the Obama administration, which defamed me and other Americans,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Directly responding to Mr. Schiff’s reliance on the unproven dossier, <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> wrote: “Amongst many other complete lies, this excerpt from the highly inaccurate dossier concocted by the political consultant <a href="/topics/christopher-steele/" type="external">Mr. Steele</a> remained one of the primary false allegations against me throughout much of last year.</p>
<p>“Extensive recent reporting by The New York Times and other news organizations has been built on a foundation of many falsehoods with potential support from members of the Obama administration,” he wrote.</p>
<p>In a separate letter to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last month, <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> described his business routine: He works from an office building attached to the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, dines at the Trump Grille, meets associates in the Trump Tower Starbucks and has attended campaign events there.</p>
<p>Thus, he charged, the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> surveillance of him by the Obama administration amounted to surveilling the Trump campaign.</p>
<p>“So if prior media reports may be believed that surveillance was indeed undertaken against me and other <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> supporters, it should be essentially deemed as a proven fact that the American people’s concerns that Trump Tower was under surveillance last year is entirely correct,” he said, a reference to President <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a>’s assertion that his office was “wiretapped” by the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Asked about the status of the <a href="/topics/federal-bureau-of-investigation/" type="external">FBI</a> investigation, <a href="/topics/carter-page/" type="external">Mr. Page</a> told The Washington Times, “I’m quite optimistic in the direction this is heading.”</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/xGjXcUKYsKxMeCUl1" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Carter Page rebuts Democrats latching onto ‘completely false’ Russia dossier | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/16/carter-page-rebuts-democrats-on-russia-dossier/ | 2017-04-16 | 0right
| 2,451 | Carter Page the Trump campaign8217s onetime volunteer adviser on Russia views with amazement how much a Democratic opposition research dossier has been increasingly embraced by the liberal power structure in Washington He told The Washington Times that he is stunned because the dossier is 8220completely false8221 and 8220full of lies8221 about his supposed conduct visavis Russia last summer The FBI which obtained a copy of the dossier has been investigating the conduct since July 8220The mistakes are so laughable and humorous they8217re beyond words8221 Mr Page said of a dossier that has him meeting with Russians whom he insists he has never met 8220It8217s just so wild that it8217s amazing8221 Not one of the sensational allegations in the Democratfinanced memos from former British spy Christopher Steele has been verified independently at least publicly Yet Democrats are citing the dossier as a reason to achieve their major political objective 8212 an independent investigative commission on Trump Russia Democrats say routinely on cable news channels that some of Mr Steele8217s findings have been confirmed but they do not specify which ones Mr Steele8217s gossipy thirdhand anecdotes contain a central allegation There was an elaborate conspiracy between Trump campaign aides and the highest levels of the Kremlin to hack the Hillary Clinton campaign computers release stolen emails and spread disinformation Mr Page was smack dab in the middle said chief accuser Mr Steele and his Orbis Business Intelligence firm in London Mr Page runs investment firm Global Energy Capital LLC in New York City Before that he was an investment banker for Merrill Lynch and spent three years in Moscow last decade making deals with Russian businesses His knowledge of and communications with Russians is part of his livelihood He has been doing exactly what thenSecretary of State Hillary Clinton urged American entrepreneurs to do in 2012 as she stood next to thenPrime Minister Vladimir Putin 8220We are committed to broadening and deepening ties between our two economies8221 she said in Moscow The Steele dossier written as a series of memos during the summer and fall hit the streets Jan 10 via the news website Buzzfeed whose editor publicly doubted its veracity The memos contained sensational charges that Mr Page colluded with Putin oligarchs In The Times interview Mr Page specifically rebutted all of the accusations There are four main charges concerning Mr Page 8226 Mr Steele wrote that Paul Manafort Mr Trump8217s summertime campaign manager and Mr Page formed an alliance to work with Russian intelligence to hack the Clinton campaign Mr Page called this assertion 8220ridiculous8221 Referring to himself as a 8220junior paid volunteer8221 he said he has never met Mr Manafort 8220 Steele is saying I8217m conspiring with Manafort It8217s so fictional8221 he said 8226 Second Mr Steele wrote that during Mr Page8217s July trip to Moscow to give a speech at the New Economic School he held a secret meeting with Igor Sechin president of the stateowned Rosneft oil company and a close ally of President Putin Mr Page said he delivered an unpaid speech at the university a talk that was covered by the news media that day Mr Page said he has never met Mr Sechin 8220No I have never met him8221 he said 8220It8217s totally false8221 8226 Mr Steele also wrote that Mr Sechin offered Mr Page a brokerage fee when Russia sold a 19 percent stake in Rosneft to outside investors In exchange the Trump adviser was to urge the candidate to end economic sanctions against Russia Mr Page said no one ever made such an offer 8226 In his fourth charge against Mr Page Mr Steele wrote that while in Moscow Mr Page also met with a man named Igor Divyekin a Russian official He supposedly told Mr Page that the Kremlin had compromising information on Hillary Clinton the Democratic presidential nominee as well as Mr Trump Mr Page said the first he ever heard of Mr Divyekin was from the dossier He told The Times 8220I had never heard of him I asked a lot of people I knew in Moscow all people from the university some business friend people 8216Have you ever heard of this guy8217 8220I8217m very careful that the things I say are accurate If I8217m going to say I did not meet him I may have said hello to someone right So I wanted to be double triple quadruple sure that what I8217m saying is accurate right 8220Not only had I never heard of him everyone I asked had never heard the guy8217s name He8217s not a known person He8217s like someone in the bureaucracy who may have an important position but not someone who is publicly known and not someone I met with8221 Intel committee 8216facts8217 The Steele paper financed by Democrats via the opposition research firm Fusion GPS has been denounced as inaccurate by some in the news media by former Obama administration intelligence officials and by the Trump team James R Clapper former director of national intelligence said his agency could not verify any of Mr Steele8217s sources Former Deputy CIA Director Michael J Morell a Clinton adviser said he learned that Mr Steele did not talk to sources directly but with paid intermediaries 8220On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here there is smoke but there is no fire at all8221 Mr Morell said at an event sponsored by security analysis website The Cipher Brief 8220There8217s no little campfire there8217s no little candle there8217s no spark And there8217s a lot of people looking for it8221 In his most sensational allegation Mr Steele wrote that Mr Trump8217s attorney Michael Cohen met in Prague with Russian intelligence officials Mr Cohen has presented evidence that he was in Southern California at the time He said he has never been to Prague and showed the campaign his passport to prove it In other words a critical meeting evincing a Trump conspiracy could not have happened casting doubt on Mr Steele8217s investigative methods and other claims of secret gettogethers What8217s more Russian tech CEO Aleksej Gubard is suing Mr Steele for charging that his firm was involved in Russiansponsored hacking into Democrats8217 emails Yet Mr Page watched with amazement on March 20 as Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence read portions of the Steele dossier into the record as certified facts They were led by Rep Adam B Schiff of California the committee8217s ranking Democrat At the committee8217s first public hearing in its probe into Russian interference in the Nov 8 election Mr Schiff read Mr Steele8217s version of Mr Page8217s visit to Moscow He offered no independent verification Mr Schiff gave Mr Steele credit for knowing the precise share 8212 19 percent 8212 that oil company Rosneft planned to sell when in fact the Russian government had announced that percentage months before Mr Steele wrote the memo It was public knowledge At the March 20 hearing FBI Director James B Comey announced that he had been authorized by the Justice Department to disclose that the bureau was investigating any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials The Washington Post reported this month that the Obama Justice Department obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court warrant to surveil Mr Page as a foreign agent beginning in July This was about the same time the FBI obtained the Steele dossier Questions for the FBI The question some Republicans are asking is Did the Steele dossier prompt the Obama administration to open the investigation into candidate Trump And did the administration cite information in the dossier as evidence to obtain the warrant The intrigue grows deeper The Post reported Feb 28 that the FBI reached a financial agreement with Mr Steele to continue investigating Mr Trump If true the agreement created the odd marriage of a partisan Democratpaid investigator being hired by the FBI to investigate the future president a few weeks before the election The deal never went through because the dossier and Mr Steele8217s name had become public The Post reported The timeline the dossier went public in January would mean that the FBI wanted Mr Steele to investigate Presidentelect Trump and ultimately President Trump The Washington Times asked the FBI to confirm or deny that it had made such a deal The public affairs office declined The New York Times reported that Fusion GPS and Mr Steele spread the dossier to journalists and to the FBI Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley Iowa Republican has begun pressing the FBI for answers on what role the dossier played as the bureau made decisions to investigate and surveil Trump aides 8220The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for president in the runup to the election raises further questions about the FBI8217s independence from politics as well as the Obama administration8217s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends8221 Mr Grassley said in a March 6 letter to Mr Comey the bureau8217s director He demanded a reply by March 20 and asked for documentation of agents8217 interviews with Mr Steele A subsequent Grassley letter said the FBI had missed the March 20 deadline A key Grassley question 8220Has the FBI relied on or otherwise referenced the memos or any information in the memos in seeking a FISA warrant other search warrant or any other judicial process8221 He also asked 8220Has the FBI verified or corroborated any of the allegations made in the memos Were any allegations or other information from the memo included in any documents created by the FBI or which the FBI helped to create without having been independently verified or corroborated by the FBI beforehand If so why8221 Mr Grassley on March 24 targeted Democratic Partylinked Fusion GPS run by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn R Simpson 8220When political opposition research becomes the basis for law enforcement or intelligence efforts it raises substantial questions about the independence of law enforcement and intelligence from politics8221 Mr Grassley wrote to Mr Simpson On April 7 Fusion8217s attorneys of the Washington firm Cunningham Levy Muse LLP wrote to Mr Grassley saying the company would not answer the chairman8217s questions 8216Under surveillance8217 8220The March 24 letter calls for information and documents protected by the First Amendment rights attorneyclient privilege attorney work product and contractual rights eg confidentiality agreements of Fusion GPS andor its clients8221 the letter said 8220Thus so as to preserve those privileges and rights we will not otherwise be responding to the questions enumerated within the March 24 letter8221 Mr Page told The Washington Times that he too would like to know what role the unproven dossier played in the Obama administration persuading a judge to approve a wiretap on him 8220When you lie to a court the FISA court is a court that is a crime8221 he said The Steele dossier appears to have made its way into intelligence briefings to members of Congress and then into news stories though the Steele memos were not identified as the source In September months before Buzzfeed published the raw Steele memos a story appeared in Yahoo News It cited intelligence sources as saying they were investigating whether Mr Page secretly met in Moscow with Igor Sechin and Igor Divyekin 8212 the two names found in the Steele dossier Again Mr Page told The Times that he had never met with those two Russians Mr Page said that story spelled the end to his volunteer work for Mr Trump Campaign representatives said he was not part of the Trump team Before the Yahoo story thenSen Harry Reid wrote a letter to Mr Comey in August He did not name Mr Page but referred to a 8220 Trump adviser8221 who was accused of meeting with 8220highranking sanctioned individuals while in Moscow8221 The charge appears to come right out of the Steele investigation which had been turned over to the FBI Mr Page was an ideal suspect for liberals to accuse of Moscow collusion given his pro Moscow stances his opposition to economic sanctions and his investments in Gazprom the Russian natural gas firm Mr Reid said it was a conflict of interest for a Trump surrogate and investor in Russia to be promoting an end to sanctions Mr Page said the focus of his investments since founding Global Energy in 2008 has been the Middle East Africa Asia and North America Mr Page served as a Navy officer from 1993 to 1998 achieving the rank of lieutenant He received the Joint Service Commendation Medal as a UN military observer in the Western Sahara He received the Navy Achievement Medal for his work with the USS America aircraft carrier battle group in the Adriatic Sea during the Bosnia conflict After Mr Schiff read portions of the Steele dossier at the March 20 intelligence committee hearing Mr Page sent a letter to him and committee Chairman Devin Nunes California Republican 8220I would eagerly welcome the chance to speak with the committee to help finally set the record straight following the false evidence illegal activities as well as other lies distributed by certain politically motivated suspects in coordination with the Obama administration which defamed me and other Americans8221 he wrote Directly responding to Mr Schiff8217s reliance on the unproven dossier Mr Page wrote 8220Amongst many other complete lies this excerpt from the highly inaccurate dossier concocted by the political consultant Mr Steele remained one of the primary false allegations against me throughout much of last year 8220Extensive recent reporting by The New York Times and other news organizations has been built on a foundation of many falsehoods with potential support from members of the Obama administration8221 he wrote In a separate letter to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last month Mr Page described his business routine He works from an office building attached to the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue dines at the Trump Grille meets associates in the Trump Tower Starbucks and has attended campaign events there Thus he charged the FBI surveillance of him by the Obama administration amounted to surveilling the Trump campaign 8220So if prior media reports may be believed that surveillance was indeed undertaken against me and other Trump supporters it should be essentially deemed as a proven fact that the American people8217s concerns that Trump Tower was under surveillance last year is entirely correct8221 he said a reference to President Trump8217s assertion that his office was 8220wiretapped8221 by the Obama administration Asked about the status of the FBI investigation Mr Page told The Washington Times 8220I8217m quite optimistic in the direction this is heading8221 Copyright 169 2018 The Washington Times LLC Click here for reprint permission amp160 | 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reprint/NOUN permission/NOUN amp160/VERB |
<p>By Tom Engelhardt / <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176288/" type="external">TomDispatch</a></p>
<p>A White House television set showing President Trump. (Susan Walsh / AP)</p>
<p>He’s huge. Outsized. He fills the news hole at any moment of any day. His over-tanned face glows unceasingly in living rooms across America. Never has a president been quite so big. So absolutely monstrous. Or quite so small.</p>
<p />
<p>He’s our Little Big Man.&#160;</p>
<p>I know, I know… he induces panic, fear, anxiety, insomnia.&#160; Shrinks in liberal America will tell you that, since November 2016, their patients are more heavily medicated and in worse shape.&#160; He’s a nightmare, a unique monster.&#160; It’s been almost two years since he first entered the presidential race and in all that time I doubt there’s been a moment when the cameras haven’t been trained on him, when he wasn’t “breaking news.”&#160; (By May 2016, he had already reportedly received the equivalent in “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html" type="external">earned media</a>” of <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-has-gotten-nearly-3-billion-in-free-advertising-2016-05-06" type="external">nearly $3 billion</a> in free advertising.)&#160; He and his endless controversial statements, flubs, tweets, lies, insults, boasts, tales from outer space, and over-the-moon <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/23/donald-trumps-speech-features-superlatives/" type="external">adjectives</a> are covered daily the way, once upon a time, only Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination was.</p>
<p>Think of him as the end of the world as we, or maybe anyone, including Vladimir Putin, knew it.&#160; To me, that means one thing, even though most of you won’t agree: I think we owe Donald Trump a small bow of thanks and a genuine debt of gratitude.&#160; He’s teaching us something invaluable, something we probably wouldn’t have grasped without him.&#160; He’s teaching us just how deeply disturbed our American world actually is, or he wouldn’t be where he is.</p>
<p>A Quagmire Country</p>
<p>Think of him as a messenger from the gods, the deities of empire gone astray.&#160; They sent us a man without a center, undoubtedly because 17 years into the twenty-first century our country lacks a center, and a man without a fixed opinion or a single conviction, except about himself and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176273/tomgram%3A_nomi_prins%2C_all_in_the_family_trump/" type="external">his family</a>, because this country is now a swirling mess of contradictory beliefs and groups at each other’s throats.&#160; They sent us our first billionaire president who left countless people <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/nyregion/donald-trump-atlantic-city.html" type="external">holding the bag</a> in his various, often failed, business dealings.&#160; He brings to mind that classic phrase “those that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind” just as we’re now reaping the results of the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175478/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_1%25_election/" type="external">1% politics</a> that gained such traction in recent years; and of a kind of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175854/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_a_record_of_unparalleled_failure/" type="external">war-making</a>, American style, that initially seemed aimed at global supremacy, but now seems to have no conceivable goal.&#160; We’re evidently destined to go on killing ever more people, producing ever more <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html" type="external">refugees</a>, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176094/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_tomorrow%27s_news_today/" type="external">cracking open</a> ever more nations, and spreading ever more terror movements until the end of time.&#160; They sent a man ready to build a vanity wall on the Mexican border and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/politics/trump-budget-military.html" type="external">pour more money</a> into the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176238/tomgram%3A_william_hartung,_investing_in_the_military_(and_little_else)/" type="external">U.S. military</a> at a time when it’s becoming harder for Americans to imagine investing in anything but an ever-more powerful national security state, even as the country’s infrastructure <a href="https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/" type="external">begins</a> to crumble.&#160; They sent a billionaire who once deep-sixed a startling number of his businesses to save a country that couldn’t be more powerful and yet has proven <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/03/11/why-doesnt-the-united-states-have-high-speed-bullet-trains-like-europe-and-asia/#73303c4cc080" type="external">incapable</a> of building a single mile of high-speed rail.&#160;</p>
<p>Into this quagmire, the gods dispatched the man who <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/13/spicer-says-moab-strike-in-afghanistan-was-to-deny-isis-operational-space.html" type="external">loves</a> MOAB, who drools over “ <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-inauguration-luncheon-general-mattis-kelly" type="external">my generals</a>,” who wants to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-california-campaign-20160602-snap-story.html" type="external">build</a> a “big, fat, beautiful wall” on our southern border, but was beyond clueless about where power actually lay in Washington.&#160;</p>
<p>He’s a man with a history but without a sense of history, a man for whom anything is imaginable and everything is mutable, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176287/" type="external">including the past</a>.&#160; In this, too, he’s symptomatic of the nation he now “leads.”&#160; Who among us even remembers the set of Washington officials who, only a decade and a half ago, had such glorious dreams about establishing a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/101850/bush_s_faith_and_the_middle_east_aflame" type="external">global</a> <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/101850/bush_s_faith_and_the_middle_east_aflame" type="external">Pax Americana</a> and who led us so unerringly into an unending hell in the Greater Middle East?&#160; Who remembers that those officials of the George W. Bush administration had another dream as well — of a Pax Republicana, a one-party imperial state that would stretch across the American South deep into the Midwest, Southwest, and parts of the West, kneecapping the Democratic Party for an eternity and leaving that artifact of a two-party past confined to the country’s coastal areas.&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175336/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_war_is_a_drug/" type="external">Their dream</a> — and it couldn’t have been more immodest — was to rule the world and its great remaining superpower for… well… more or less ever.&#160;</p>
<p>They were to dominate America and America was to dominate everything else in a way no country in history — not the Romans, not the British — had ever done.&#160; As they saw it, in the wake of the implosion of the Soviet Union, there would be no other superpower, nor even a bloc of great powers, capable of obstructing America’s destined future.&#160; They and their successors would see to that.&#160;</p>
<p>The United States would be the land of wealth and power in a previously unimaginable fashion.&#160; It would be the land that made everything that went bang in the night — and in that (and perhaps that alone) their dreams would be fulfilled.&#160; To this day, Hollywood and its action films dominate planetary screens, while American arms merchants have a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/us/politics/united-states-global-weapons-sales.html" type="external">near monopoly</a> on selling the world their dangerous toys. &#160;As our new president recently put it, their energies and those of the U.S. government should remain focused on getting countries across the globe to <a href="https://bracingviews.com/2017/05/23/americas-beautiful-weapons/" type="external">engage in</a> “the purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment.” Indeed.</p>
<p>As for the rest of their dream of geopolitical dominance, it began to come a cropper remarkably quickly.&#160; As it turned out, the military that American presidents regularly <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175337/tomgram%3A_william_astore,_we're_number_one_%28in_self-promotion%29" type="external">hailed</a> in these years as the “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/washington/w23policytext.html" type="external">greatest force</a> for human liberation the world has ever known” or “the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/12/remarks-president-barack-obama-%E2%80%93-prepared-delivery-state-union-address" type="external">finest fighting force</a> in the history of the world” couldn’t even win wars against lightly armed insurgents or deal with enemies employing roadside bombs that could be built off the Internet for the price of <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/iraq-can-american-military-stop-deadly-ieds-99133" type="external">a pizza</a>.&#160; The U.S. military (and its allied <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175507/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_arrival_of_the_warrior_corporation/" type="external">warrior corporations</a>) turned out not to be a force for eternal order and triumph but, at least across the Greater Middle East and Africa, for eternal chaos and the spread of terror movements. &#160;They were the whirlwind, which meant that neither that “pax” nor that “Americana” would come to pass.</p>
<p>While Rome Burned…</p>
<p>Meanwhile, back at home, a gerrymandered, near-one-party state did indeed come into existence as the Republicans <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/14/1598918/-Republicans-now-dominate-state-government-with-32-legislatures-and-33-governors" type="external">swept</a> most governorships, gained control of a significant majority of state legislatures, nailed down the House and the Senate, and finally, when Little Big Man entered the Oval Office, took it all.&#160; It was a feat for the history books — or so it briefly seemed.&#160; Instead, the result has been chaos, thanks in part to a Republican Party that is actually three or four parties and a president barely associated with it, as a war of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellum_omnium_contra_omnes" type="external">all against all</a> broke out.&#160; None of this should have been surprising, given a congressional party that had honed its skills not on ruling but on blocking rule.&#160; In the last months, it has largely proved incapable even of ruling itself, no less the wild man and his unpredictable team of advisers in the White House.</p>
<p>From his “big, fat, beautiful wall” to his “ <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/02/trump-promises-a-big-league-phenomenal-mystery-tax-plan" type="external">big league</a>,” “phenomenal” tax plan to his “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-vows-insurance-for-everybody-in-obamacare-replacement-plan/2017/01/15/5f2b1e18-db5d-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.9a8ec46ea888" type="external">insurance for everybody</a>” healthcare program, the president promises to be the living proof that the long dreamed of Pax Republicana is just another form of war without end on the domestic front.&#160;</p>
<p>His victory was, in a sense, a revelation that both political parties had been hollowed out, as every Republican presidential candidate except him was swept unceremoniously off stage and out of contention in a hail of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/03/ted-cruz-is-mad-as-hell-at-donald-trump-he-should-be-angry-at-himself/?utm_term=.9e296bba4b75" type="external">insults</a>.&#160; Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, by now a remarkably mindless (and spineless) political machine without much to underpin it, came to seem ever more like the domestic equivalent of those failed states the war on terror was creating in the Greater Middle East.&#160; In short, American politics was visibly faltering and, in the whirlwind that deposited Little Big Man in office, a far wider range of Americans seemed in danger of going down, too, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-to-propose-big-cuts-to-safety-net-in-new-budget-this-week/2017/05/21/62c01f44-3e34-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?tid=a_inl&amp;utm_term=.8ce424328bd3" type="external">Medicaid users</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/politics/cbo-congressional-budget-office-health-care.html" type="external">Obamacare enrollees</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-budget-meals-on-wheels-funding-2017-3" type="external">meals-on-wheels seniors</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/health_care/republicans-already-giving-trumps-budget-a-cold-shoulder/2017/05/21/1f134808-3e1a-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb_story.html?tid=a_inl&amp;utm_term=.a39f0c505187" type="external">food stamp recipients</a> in what could become a slow-motion collapse of livable lives amid a <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/0303/Forbes-richest-people-number-of-billionaires-up-significantly-video" type="external">proliferation</a> of billionaires.&#160; Think of us as a nation in the process of consuming itself, even as our president turns the White House into a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176273/tomgram%3A_nomi_prins%2C_all_in_the_family_trump/" type="external">private business</a>.&#160; If this is imperial “decline,” it’s certainly a curious version of it.</p>
<p>It was into the growing hell that passed for the planet’s “sole superpower” that those gods dispatched Little Big Man — not a shape-shifting creature but a man without shape and lacking all fixed ideas (except about himself).&#160; He was perfectly capable of saying anything in any situation, and then, in altered circumstances, of saying the opposite without blinking or evidently even noticing.&#160; His recent trip to Saudi Arabia was a classic case of just that.&#160; Gone were the election campaign <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/05/18/donald-trump-said-saudi-arabia-was-behind-911-now-hes-going-there-on-his-first-foreign-trip/" type="external">denunciations</a> of the Saudis for their human rights record and for possibly being behind the 9/11 attacks, as well as of Islam as a religion that “ <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/09/politics/donald-trump-islam-hates-us/" type="external">hates us</a>”; gone was his <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/20/politics/melania-ivanka-headscarves/" type="external">criticism</a> of Michelle Obama for not wearing a headscarf on her visit to Riyadh (Melania and Ivanka did the same), and of Barack Obama for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/20/trump-mocked-obama-for-bowing-to-a-saudi-king-and-then-he/?tid=a_inl&amp;utm_term=.b49af0004343" type="external">bowing</a> to a Saudi king (he did, too).&#160; Out the window went his previous <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/analysis-trump-embraces-challenges-muslim-world/story?id=47544414" type="external">insistence</a> that any self-respecting American politician must use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” which he carefully avoided.&#160; And none of this was different from, say, swearing on the campaign trail that he would <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/3/13/14914812/trump-ahca-medicaid-cuts" type="external">never touch</a> Medicaid and then, in his first budget, offering plans to slash $880 billion from that program over the next decade.</p>
<p>Admittedly, Donald Trump — and yes, that’s the first time I’ve used his name, but there was no need, was there? — has yet to appoint his horse (or perhaps his golf cart) as a senator or, as far as we know, commit acts of incest in the tradition of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mentally_ill_monarchs" type="external">Caligula</a>, the first mad Roman emperor.&#160; Yet in many ways, doesn’t he feel something like an updated version of that figure or perhaps of Nero who so famously fiddled — actually, according to historian Mary Beard in her book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631492225/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">SPQR</a>, played the lyre — while Rome burned?</p>
<p>Fortunately, unlike every psychiatrist in town, I’m not bound by the “ <a href="http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/43689-focus-should-psychiatrists-speak-out-against-trump" type="external">Goldwater Rule</a>,” which prohibits a diagnosis of a public figure you haven’t personally examined. While I have no expertise in whether Donald Trump has a “narcissistic personality disorder,” I see no reason not to say the obvious: he’s a distinctly disturbed individual. That he was nonetheless elected president tells us a good deal about where we are as a country today. As Tony Schwartz, who actually wrote his bestselling book The Art of the Deal, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/16/i-wrote-the-art-of-the-deal-with-trump-his-self-sabotage-is-rooted-in-his-past/?utm_term=.8bdd960e4a4d" type="external">put it</a> recently, “Trump was equally clear with me that he didn’t value — nor even necessarily recognize — the qualities that tend to emerge as people grow more secure, such as empathy, generosity, reflectiveness, the capacity to delay gratification or, above all, a conscience, an inner sense of right and wrong.”</p>
<p>Now, that should be frightening. After all, given who he is, given his fear of “losing,” of rejection, of not being loved (or more accurately, adulated), of in short being obliterated, who knows what such a man might do in a crisis, including obliterating the rest of us. After all, he already lives in a world without fixed boundaries, definitions, or history, which is why nothing he says has real meaning.&#160; And yet he couldn’t be more meaningful. He’s a message, a warning of the first order, and if that were all he were, he would just be an inadvertent teacher about the nature of our American world and we could indeed thank him and do our best to move on.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there’s another factor to take into account. Humanity had, in the years before his arrival, come up with two quite different and devastating ways of doing ourselves in, one an instant Armageddon, the other a slow-motion trip to hell. Each of them threatens to cripple or destroy the very planet that has nurtured us these tens of thousands of years. It was not, of course, Donald Trump who put us in this peril. He’s just a particularly grim reminder of how dangerous our world has truly become.</p>
<p>After all, Little Big Man now has unparalleled access to the most “beautiful” weapons of all and he’s eager to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-exclusive-idUSKBN1622IF" type="external">update</a>and expand an already vast U.S. arsenal of them. I’m talking, of course, about nuclear weapons. Any president we elect has, since the 1950s, had the power to take out the planet. Only once have we come <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175605/tomgram%3A_noam_chomsky,_%22the_most_dangerous_moment,%22_50_years_later/" type="external">truly close</a>.&#160; Nonetheless, for the control over such weaponry to be in the hands of a deeply unpredictable and visibly disturbed president is obviously a danger to us all.</p>
<p>It could be assumed that the gods who sent him into the Oval Office at such a moment have a perverse sense of humor. Certainly, on the second of those deadly dangers, climate change, he’s already taken action based on another of his fantasies: that making America great again means <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176222/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_donald_trump%27s_energy_nostalgia_and_the_path_to_hell/" type="external">taking it back</a> to the fossil-fueled 1950s. His <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/" type="external">ignorance</a> about, and <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/04/trumps-real-success-his-first-100-days" type="external">actions</a> to increase the effects of, climate change have already taken the U.S., the <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/u-s-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climbed-for-the-second-straight-year-7bfcf27333e1" type="external">second largest</a> emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet, out of the climate change sweepstakes and into uncharted territory. These acts and the desire to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28032017/trump-executive-order-climate-change-paris-climate-agreement-clean-power-plan-pruitt" type="external">promote</a> fossil fuels in every way imaginable will someday undoubtedly be seen as <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175703/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_biggest_criminal_enterprise_in_history/" type="external">crimes</a> against humanity. But by then they will already have done their dirty deed.</p>
<p>If luck doesn’t hold, Donald Trump may end up making Caligula and Nero look like statesmen.&#160; If luck doesn’t hold he may be the Littlest Big Man of all.</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>. He is a fellow of the <a href="http://www.nationinstitute.org/" type="external">Nation Institute</a> and runs <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World</a>.</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on <a href="https://twitter.com/TomDispatch" type="external">Twitter</a> and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, John Dower’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608467236/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II</a>, as well as John Feffer’s dystopian novel <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1608467244/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Splinterlands</a>, Nick Turse’s&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608466485/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead</a>, and Tom Engelhardt’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2017 Tom Engelhardt</p> | Little Big Man | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/little-big-man/ | 2017-05-31 | 4left
| 2,459 | By Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch A White House television set showing President Trump Susan Walsh AP He8217s huge Outsized He fills the news hole at any moment of any day His overtanned face glows unceasingly in living rooms across America Never has a president been quite so big So absolutely monstrous Or quite so small He8217s our Little Big Manamp160 I know I know8230 he induces panic fear anxiety insomniaamp160 Shrinks in liberal America will tell you that since November 2016 their patients are more heavily medicated and in worse shapeamp160 He8217s a nightmare a unique monsteramp160 It8217s been almost two years since he first entered the presidential race and in all that time I doubt there8217s been a moment when the cameras haven8217t been trained on him when he wasn8217t 8220breaking news8221amp160 By May 2016 he had already reportedly received the equivalent in 8220 earned media8221 of nearly 3 billion in free advertisingamp160 He and his endless controversial statements flubs tweets lies insults boasts tales from outer space and overthemoon adjectives are covered daily the way once upon a time only Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination was Think of him as the end of the world as we or maybe anyone including Vladimir Putin knew itamp160 To me that means one thing even though most of you won8217t agree I think we owe Donald Trump a small bow of thanks and a genuine debt of gratitudeamp160 He8217s teaching us something invaluable something we probably wouldn8217t have grasped without himamp160 He8217s teaching us just how deeply disturbed our American world actually is or he wouldn8217t be where he is A Quagmire Country Think of him as a messenger from the gods the deities of empire gone astrayamp160 They sent us a man without a center undoubtedly because 17 years into the twentyfirst century our country lacks a center and a man without a fixed opinion or a single conviction except about himself and his family because this country is now a swirling mess of contradictory beliefs and groups at each other8217s throatsamp160 They sent us our first billionaire president who left countless people holding the bag in his various often failed business dealingsamp160 He brings to mind that classic phrase 8220those that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind8221 just as we8217re now reaping the results of the 1 politics that gained such traction in recent years and of a kind of warmaking American style that initially seemed aimed at global supremacy but now seems to have no conceivable goalamp160 We8217re evidently destined to go on killing ever more people producing ever more refugees cracking open ever more nations and spreading ever more terror movements until the end of timeamp160 They sent a man ready to build a vanity wall on the Mexican border and pour more money into the US military at a time when it8217s becoming harder for Americans to imagine investing in anything but an evermore powerful national security state even as the country8217s infrastructure begins to crumbleamp160 They sent a billionaire who once deepsixed a startling number of his businesses to save a country that couldn8217t be more powerful and yet has proven incapable of building a single mile of highspeed railamp160 Into this quagmire the gods dispatched the man who loves MOAB who drools over 8220 my generals8221 who wants to build a 8220big fat beautiful wall8221 on our southern border but was beyond clueless about where power actually lay in Washingtonamp160 He8217s a man with a history but without a sense of history a man for whom anything is imaginable and everything is mutable including the pastamp160 In this too he8217s symptomatic of the nation he now 8220leads8221amp160 Who among us even remembers the set of Washington officials who only a decade and a half ago had such glorious dreams about establishing a global Pax Americana and who led us so unerringly into an unending hell in the Greater Middle Eastamp160 Who remembers that those officials of the George W Bush administration had another dream as well 8212 of a Pax Republicana a oneparty imperial state that would stretch across the American South deep into the Midwest Southwest and parts of the West kneecapping the Democratic Party for an eternity and leaving that artifact of a twoparty past confined to the country8217s coastal areasamp160 Their dream 8212 and it couldn8217t have been more immodest 8212 was to rule the world and its great remaining superpower for8230 well8230 more or less everamp160 They were to dominate America and America was to dominate everything else in a way no country in history 8212 not the Romans not the British 8212 had ever doneamp160 As they saw it in the wake of the implosion of the Soviet Union there would be no other superpower nor even a bloc of great powers capable of obstructing America8217s destined futureamp160 They and their successors would see to thatamp160 The United States would be the land of wealth and power in a previously unimaginable fashionamp160 It would be the land that made everything that went bang in the night 8212 and in that and perhaps that alone their dreams would be fulfilledamp160 To this day Hollywood and its action films dominate planetary screens while American arms merchants have a near monopoly on selling the world their dangerous toys amp160As our new president recently put it their energies and those of the US government should remain focused on getting countries across the globe to engage in 8220the purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment8221 Indeed As for the rest of their dream of geopolitical dominance it began to come a cropper remarkably quicklyamp160 As it turned out the military that American presidents regularly hailed in these years as the 8220 greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known8221 or 8220the finest fighting force in the history of the world8221 couldn8217t even win wars against lightly armed insurgents or deal with enemies employing roadside bombs that could be built off the Internet for the price of a pizzaamp160 The US military and its allied warrior corporations turned out not to be a force for eternal order and triumph but at least across the Greater Middle East and Africa for eternal chaos and the spread of terror movements amp160They were the whirlwind which meant that neither that 8220pax8221 nor that 8220Americana8221 would come to pass While Rome Burned8230 Meanwhile back at home a gerrymandered nearoneparty state did indeed come into existence as the Republicans swept most governorships gained control of a significant majority of state legislatures nailed down the House and the Senate and finally when Little Big Man entered the Oval Office took it allamp160 It was a feat for the history books 8212 or so it briefly seemedamp160 Instead the result has been chaos thanks in part to a Republican Party that is actually three or four parties and a president barely associated with it as a war of all against all broke outamp160 None of this should have been surprising given a congressional party that had honed its skills not on ruling but on blocking ruleamp160 In the last months it has largely proved incapable even of ruling itself no less the wild man and his unpredictable team of advisers in the White House From his 8220big fat beautiful wall8221 to his 8220 big league8221 8220phenomenal8221 tax plan to his 8220 insurance for everybody8221 healthcare program the president promises to be the living proof that the long dreamed of Pax Republicana is just another form of war without end on the domestic frontamp160 His victory was in a sense a revelation that both political parties had been hollowed out as every Republican presidential candidate except him was swept unceremoniously off stage and out of contention in a hail of insultsamp160 Meanwhile the Democratic Party by now a remarkably mindless and spineless political machine without much to underpin it came to seem ever more like the domestic equivalent of those failed states the war on terror was creating in the Greater Middle Eastamp160 In short American politics was visibly faltering and in the whirlwind that deposited Little Big Man in office a far wider range of Americans seemed in danger of going down too including Medicaid users Obamacare enrollees mealsonwheels seniors and food stamp recipients in what could become a slowmotion collapse of livable lives amid a proliferation of billionairesamp160 Think of us as a nation in the process of consuming itself even as our president turns the White House into a private businessamp160 If this is imperial 8220decline8221 it8217s certainly a curious version of it It was into the growing hell that passed for the planet8217s 8220sole superpower8221 that those gods dispatched Little Big Man 8212 not a shapeshifting creature but a man without shape and lacking all fixed ideas except about himselfamp160 He was perfectly capable of saying anything in any situation and then in altered circumstances of saying the opposite without blinking or evidently even noticingamp160 His recent trip to Saudi Arabia was a classic case of just thatamp160 Gone were the election campaign denunciations of the Saudis for their human rights record and for possibly being behind the 911 attacks as well as of Islam as a religion that 8220 hates us8221 gone was his criticism of Michelle Obama for not wearing a headscarf on her visit to Riyadh Melania and Ivanka did the same and of Barack Obama for bowing to a Saudi king he did tooamp160 Out the window went his previous insistence that any selfrespecting American politician must use the phrase 8220radical Islamic terrorism8221 which he carefully avoidedamp160 And none of this was different from say swearing on the campaign trail that he would never touch Medicaid and then in his first budget offering plans to slash 880 billion from that program over the next decade Admittedly Donald Trump 8212 and yes that8217s the first time I8217ve used his name but there was no need was there 8212 has yet to appoint his horse or perhaps his golf cart as a senator or as far as we know commit acts of incest in the tradition of Caligula the first mad Roman emperoramp160 Yet in many ways doesn8217t he feel something like an updated version of that figure or perhaps of Nero who so famously fiddled 8212 actually according to historian Mary Beard in her book SPQR played the lyre 8212 while Rome burned Fortunately unlike every psychiatrist in town I8217m not bound by the 8220 Goldwater Rule8221 which prohibits a diagnosis of a public figure you haven8217t personally examined While I have no expertise in whether Donald Trump has a 8220narcissistic personality disorder8221 I see no reason not to say the obvious he8217s a distinctly disturbed individual That he was nonetheless elected president tells us a good deal about where we are as a country today As Tony Schwartz who actually wrote his bestselling book The Art of the Deal put it recently 8220Trump was equally clear with me that he didn8217t value 8212 nor even necessarily recognize 8212 the qualities that tend to emerge as people grow more secure such as empathy generosity reflectiveness the capacity to delay gratification or above all a conscience an inner sense of right and wrong8221 Now that should be frightening After all given who he is given his fear of 8220losing8221 of rejection of not being loved or more accurately adulated of in short being obliterated who knows what such a man might do in a crisis including obliterating the rest of us After all he already lives in a world without fixed boundaries definitions or history which is why nothing he says has real meaningamp160 And yet he couldn8217t be more meaningful He8217s a message a warning of the first order and if that were all he were he would just be an inadvertent teacher about the nature of our American world and we could indeed thank him and do our best to move on Unfortunately there8217s another factor to take into account Humanity had in the years before his arrival come up with two quite different and devastating ways of doing ourselves in one an instant Armageddon the other a slowmotion trip to hell Each of them threatens to cripple or destroy the very planet that has nurtured us these tens of thousands of years It was not of course Donald Trump who put us in this peril He8217s just a particularly grim reminder of how dangerous our world has truly become After all Little Big Man now has unparalleled access to the most 8220beautiful8221 weapons of all and he8217s eager to updateand expand an already vast US arsenal of them I8217m talking of course about nuclear weapons Any president we elect has since the 1950s had the power to take out the planet Only once have we come truly closeamp160 Nonetheless for the control over such weaponry to be in the hands of a deeply unpredictable and visibly disturbed president is obviously a danger to us all It could be assumed that the gods who sent him into the Oval Office at such a moment have a perverse sense of humor Certainly on the second of those deadly dangers climate change he8217s already taken action based on another of his fantasies that making America great again means taking it back to the fossilfueled 1950s His ignorance about and actions to increase the effects of climate change have already taken the US the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet out of the climate change sweepstakes and into uncharted territory These acts and the desire to promote fossil fuels in every way imaginable will someday undoubtedly be seen as crimes against humanity But by then they will already have done their dirty deed If luck doesn8217t hold Donald Trump may end up making Caligula and Nero look like statesmenamp160 If luck doesn8217t hold he may be the Littlest Big Man of all Tom Engelhardt is a cofounder of the American Empire Project and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War The End of Victory Culture He is a fellow of the Nation Institute and runs TomDispatchcom His latest book is Shadow Government Surveillance Secret Wars and a Global Security State in a SingleSuperpower World Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook Check out the newest Dispatch Book John Dower8217s The Violent American Century War and Terror Since World War II as well as John Feffer8217s dystopian novel Splinterlands Nick Turse8217samp160 Next Time They8217ll Come to Count the Dead and Tom Engelhardt8217s Shadow Government Surveillance Secret Wars and a Global Security State in a SingleSuperpower World Copyright 2017 Tom Engelhardt | By/ADP Tom/PROPN Engelhardt/PROPN TomDispatch/PROPN A/DET White/PROPN House/PROPN television/NOUN set/VERB showing/VERB President/PROPN Trump/PROPN Susan/PROPN Walsh/PROPN AP/PROPN He8217s/PROPN huge/ADJ Outsized/PROPN He/PRON fills/VERB the/DET news/NOUN hole/NOUN at/ADP any/DET moment/NOUN of/ADP any/DET 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<p>D.Raghunandan is a member of the Delhi Science Forum and an expert on climate change. He was the former President of All India Peoples Science Network and a member of the Low Carbon Path Committee of the Planning Commission. Raghu is trained as an Engineer (Aviation) and Social Scientist. Professionally, he is engaged in research, development and application of technologies for pro-poor rural enterprises in India. He has also published extensively and engages actively in advocacy on Climate Policy, both domestic and international, and other environmental issues. Raghu has served on numerous committees advising the Indian Government in these and other areas.</p>
<p>Anjali Appadurai is a member of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, an international coalition of people's movements around the world taking action on energy. She is also co-founder of the very recently-launched online political platform Tipping Point Collective. She has been organizing within and writing about international climate politics and the youth climate movement for several years.</p>
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<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
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<p />India is in the grip of an extreme heatwave that has killed more than 1,100 people in the past week. Some states have seen temperatures as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit. With the extreme heatwave in India, some are pointing to its connection to climate change. But can we make that connection? With us to help us connect the dots are our two guests.
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<p />Joining us from Delhi, India, is D. Raghunandan. Rhagu is a member of the Delhi Science Forum, which is a public interest organization dedicated to popularizing science and technology policies. And also joining us from Vancouver is Anjali Appadurai. Anjali is a member of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.
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<p />Thank you both for joining us.
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<p />ANJALI APPADURAI, GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE: Thanks, Jessica.
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<p />D. RAGHUNANDAN, DELHI SCIENCE FORUM: Thanks.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So Rhagu, let's start off with you, since you're on the ground there in India. I understand that scientists are often reluctant to link extreme weather events like this current heatwave in India to climate change. So can you just point us to some specific studies, or any sort of evidence that can connect this extreme heat wave to climate change?
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<p />RHAGUNANDAN: Yeah. Well, scientifically the difficulty is in pinpointing a causal relationship between a particular extreme weather event and climate change. We know that with climate change, and we have figures now showing this, we will have more heatwaves every year. Slightly higher temperatures each year. More extreme rainfall events each year. That we know. But whether this particular heatwave is because of climate change or because of local climatic or weather events, that's a slightly more difficult question to answer with a great deal of certainty.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Rhagu, those figures that you mentioned. What studies are you talking about?
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<p />RHAGUNANDAN: There are a number of meteorological studies in India as well as internationally by the IPCC and by other agencies which show that the number of high rainfall events every year have increased over the past 20 years. The number of heatwaves have also increased over the past 20 years. But as I said, it's very difficult to pinpoint whether this particular heatwave is because of climate change, or other regional or global weather events.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay. But we can pinpoint who's being affected by these extreme weather events. Anjali, can you just talk about some people who are most affected by this heatwave?
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<p />APPADURAI: Yes, Jessica. So the majority of people of this--the majority of this 1,100 casualties of this heatwave were homeless people. And the people who are affected first are people of lower incomes, laborers who are expected to be working outside in the sunlight. So this is a familiar situation we see with climate impacts around the world. It really, it usually works out this way, those lower on the socioeconomic ladder affected first. And that's one of the prime characteristics of climate change and how it's going to play out in our world in the next few years.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Now let's speak specifically about India's contribution to carbon emissions. India is a heavy consumer of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels. Rhagu, what specific energy policies has India maintained that's contributed to climate change?
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<p />RHAGUNANDAN: India is high on fossil fuel energy production. In terms of electricity generation for example, we are roughly in this country somewhere around 50 to 60 percent of electricity generation is down to coal. Now, that's the transition which India is trying to make, moving towards solar energy generation. But it's a slow transition given the costs.
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<p />However, the flipside is on a per capita basis, India still is way, way below the global average in terms of energy consumption. So in absolute numbers, we are high emitters. But on per capita basis, we are extremely low. The U.S., for example, has about 16 times the per capita energy consumption as India does.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Is there real momentum, you mentioned transitioning to solar. Is there real momentum in India to really move towards a greener economy?
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<p />RHAGUNANDAN: Yeah. There is good momentum on several fronts. One of them is a shift towards solar electricity generation and to wind. But the obstacle here is costs more than anything else. As we all know, solar and wind both are more expensive, particularly solar, than other forms of energy production, particularly coal.
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<p />India has set a very ambitious target for solar, and maybe we can discuss that a little bit later. But the other major driver is savings on energy by large industries. And this is prompted not so much by climate considerations as by energy costs in industries like steel and cement. The bigger obstacles, however, are the rising energy expenditures in the transportation sector driven largely by personal transport and the expanding middle class, and the failure of India to invest more in rail rather than in road. The big challenges I think are in personal transportation, as I mentioned, but also the resistance comes from the automobile manufacturers as well as from government, both of whom seem to think that the automobile sector is a major driver of economic growth in the country, as well as housing sector being a major driver. And these industries, the real estate industry and the automobile industry are resisting energy efficiency policies which could save a lot of energy, but which for [GDP] growth reasons is being held back.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Anjali, I want to ask you about the role of the U.S., China, and Europe in producing greenhouse gas emissions. What level of responsibility have they taken in trying to aid developing countries like India who make the case that they did not produce the brunt of these carbon emissions during industrialization, and need help from wealthier nations? Has the West and China really stepped up?
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<p />APPADURAI: Right. There's an important distinction to make here. I think it's important to start, the starting point should be that okay, we have a climate crisis on our hands, and 75 percent of the emissions in the atmosphere right now are the result of emissions from the industrialization of the West. And that industrialization has gotten the so-called developed countries, this is UN language, the developed, industrialized countries versus the developing countries, the developed countries to the level of wealth and human development that they're at right now.
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<p />So in the last few years, in the developing countries where 80 percent of the world's population resides, those countries have started to go through their own industrialization process, like China and India are kind of leading the way on that. They're the world's largest developing countries. And so their emissions are starting to rise in the way that sort of the U.S. and England were rising in their process of industrialization.
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<p />So notably, as a side note to that, much of the carbon output of countries like China are actually generated as a result of producing goods that are then directly exported to the U.S., so that's something to take into account as well. But it just shows you that the problem is, it's systemic in nature. It's the wealthiest, essentially, in the world who have caused the most emissions thus far.
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<p />And so then there's a question of who's responsible. So there's clearly historical responsibility. But then there's also an ongoing current responsibility. But it's important, as Rhagu mentioned earlier, it's important to note on a per capita basis, so on a per human basis, who is really paying for climate change and who has the responsibility to deal with the issue the most. So someone in China is using up to 20 times fewer emissions than someone in the U.S. is, for example. And there's less historical responsibility there. So when it comes to who has the responsibility, developed countries unequivocally have the brunt of the responsibility. And China's not so much in that camp because of the lack of the historical trajectory.
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<p />So that's well established in the UN negotiations. It's developed countries are legally obligated to step up and support developing countries not only through having strong domestic targets at home to curb their own emissions, but also through the very, very important pillar of climate finance. And finance can take several different forms, but it's essentially international transfers to help developing countries not only adapt to existing and ongoing climate impacts, but also to help them transition to a renewable economy. Because that transition can't happen on its own and out of the blue. The world is still very much operating on a Western economic model.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: And is that the basis for the Green Climate Fund, Anjali?
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<p />APPADURAI: Yes. The Green Climate Fund is a bit of a, it's a bit of a, honestly, an ongoing disaster. And it just goes to show the state of climate finance right now. Climate finance has really suffered. There's been a severe lack of commitment on the part of the developed world.
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<p />So the GCF, the Green Climate Fund, has been negotiating for a long time. And basically their decision was that the developed countries would work up to a pledge of $100 billion U.S. annually by 2020. And so there was a deadline of April 30th of this year for them to get up to that number. But actually what's been pledged so far is only $4 billion. And so there's a real shortfall in what's been pledged versus what has been calculated as the need. So it's really hard to point to developing countries and sort of expect them to transition to a low-carbon economy if the financial component is just not coming in.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So Rhagu, you've just heard Anjali talk about the Green Climate Fund and how underfunded it is. Is there anyone in the Indian political landscape making the same point?
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<p />RHAGUNANDAN: Yes. In the sense that the so-called developed world owes it to the developing world to help the transition to a low-carbon or zero-carbon economy. But from a specifically Indian point of view, I don't see India standing in the same queue as Burkina Faso asking for Western funds. Which would be I think not the right thing for India to do, because if it does then India would take the lion's share on a per capita basis.
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<p />But there are some fairly large big ticket items of expenditure which India needs to invest in which could do with Western funding. Such as, for example, a shift from road to rail transport will require thousands of kilometers of new rail lines. And that's a very expensive proposition which could do with Green Climate funding.
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<p />So yes, there are enough people talking about it, but I think the dilemma is, does India stand in front of the line, or does it allow the least developed countries, the island states, the African nations, to get a bulk of that money?
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Anjali, why can't countries, developing countries like India, easily transition to renewables? Is this simply about funding?
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<p />APPADURAI: No. I mean, so this is a common argument, that developing countries need to industrialize and develop down a different pathway, a less dirty pathway than the developed countries did it, right. Like, not cars, not industry. Renewable, carbon-free technology. And that's a great idea, but there's so many multiple institutionalized barriers to that. And finance is a huge one. And as we just talked about, the finance is really lacking. The North-South financial transfers are lacking.
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<p />But there's also a really not often talked about barrier of intellectual property rights. And this is a huge point of contention in the UN negotiations around this. Over 90 percent of the patents for clean technology are held in Western countries. Most of them are held in the U.S. So there needs to be an open conversation about transferring those intellectual property rights to the South so that those technologies can actually be invested in, can actually be replicated, can actually become infrastructure, to transition Southern economies to a low-carbon economy. And that's a conversation that the developed countries have repeatedly shut down and repeatedly ignored at the international level, because IPRs, intellectual property rights, are a real point of contention. And they represent actually a lot of money for industry. For private industry in Western countries.
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<p />And that's a huge part of this whole climate mess. It's corporate interests--as countries try to work this out multilaterally, there's a whole big bloc, and that's corporate interests, that really block a lot of progress on this. So that's the unspoken barrier, the elephant in the room. We need to start talking about it. The intellectual property rights are preventing these technologies from being transferred.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Very interesting point. Did you want to just jump in, Rhagu, very quickly?
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<p />RHAGUNANDAN: Yeah, I just wanted to say that the IPR issue is real. It also once again boils down to money. Who pays for the intellectual property rights? And if the corporations in the West want to be paid for those IPRs, then they will eat up a chunk of this Green Climate Fund, which will then further deprive the developing countries of money.
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<p />So it does boil down to dollars and cents at the end. Not too many cents, mostly dollars. But it does boil down to money and the question of who pays for the IPRs. And that is certainly a very serious obstacle.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: All right. Rhagu and Anjali, thank you both for joining us.
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<p />APPADURAI: Thanks, Jessica.
<p />
<p />RHAGUNANDAN: Thank you.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | India's Heat Wave Fueled by Western & Indian Energy Policies | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D13932 | 2015-05-28 | 4left
| 2,469 | DRaghunandan is a member of the Delhi Science Forum and an expert on climate change He was the former President of All India Peoples Science Network and a member of the Low Carbon Path Committee of the Planning Commission Raghu is trained as an Engineer Aviation and Social Scientist Professionally he is engaged in research development and application of technologies for propoor rural enterprises in India He has also published extensively and engages actively in advocacy on Climate Policy both domestic and international and other environmental issues Raghu has served on numerous committees advising the Indian Government in these and other areas Anjali Appadurai is a member of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice an international coalition of peoples movements around the world taking action on energy She is also cofounder of the very recentlylaunched online political platform Tipping Point Collective She has been organizing within and writing about international climate politics and the youth climate movement for several years JESSICA DESVARIEUX PRODUCER TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore India is in the grip of an extreme heatwave that has killed more than 1100 people in the past week Some states have seen temperatures as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit With the extreme heatwave in India some are pointing to its connection to climate change But can we make that connection With us to help us connect the dots are our two guests Joining us from Delhi India is D Raghunandan Rhagu is a member of the Delhi Science Forum which is a public interest organization dedicated to popularizing science and technology policies And also joining us from Vancouver is Anjali Appadurai Anjali is a member of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice Thank you both for joining us ANJALI APPADURAI GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE Thanks Jessica D RAGHUNANDAN DELHI SCIENCE FORUM Thanks DESVARIEUX So Rhagu lets start off with you since youre on the ground there in India I understand that scientists are often reluctant to link extreme weather events like this current heatwave in India to climate change So can you just point us to some specific studies or any sort of evidence that can connect this extreme heat wave to climate change RHAGUNANDAN Yeah Well scientifically the difficulty is in pinpointing a causal relationship between a particular extreme weather event and climate change We know that with climate change and we have figures now showing this we will have more heatwaves every year Slightly higher temperatures each year More extreme rainfall events each year That we know But whether this particular heatwave is because of climate change or because of local climatic or weather events thats a slightly more difficult question to answer with a great deal of certainty DESVARIEUX Rhagu those figures that you mentioned What studies are you talking about RHAGUNANDAN There are a number of meteorological studies in India as well as internationally by the IPCC and by other agencies which show that the number of high rainfall events every year have increased over the past 20 years The number of heatwaves have also increased over the past 20 years But as I said its very difficult to pinpoint whether this particular heatwave is because of climate change or other regional or global weather events DESVARIEUX Okay But we can pinpoint whos being affected by these extreme weather events Anjali can you just talk about some people who are most affected by this heatwave APPADURAI Yes Jessica So the majority of people of thisthe majority of this 1100 casualties of this heatwave were homeless people And the people who are affected first are people of lower incomes laborers who are expected to be working outside in the sunlight So this is a familiar situation we see with climate impacts around the world It really it usually works out this way those lower on the socioeconomic ladder affected first And thats one of the prime characteristics of climate change and how its going to play out in our world in the next few years DESVARIEUX Now lets speak specifically about Indias contribution to carbon emissions India is a heavy consumer of greenhouse gasemitting fossil fuels Rhagu what specific energy policies has India maintained thats contributed to climate change RHAGUNANDAN India is high on fossil fuel energy production In terms of electricity generation for example we are roughly in this country somewhere around 50 to 60 percent of electricity generation is down to coal Now thats the transition which India is trying to make moving towards solar energy generation But its a slow transition given the costs However the flipside is on a per capita basis India still is way way below the global average in terms of energy consumption So in absolute numbers we are high emitters But on per capita basis we are extremely low The US for example has about 16 times the per capita energy consumption as India does DESVARIEUX Is there real momentum you mentioned transitioning to solar Is there real momentum in India to really move towards a greener economy RHAGUNANDAN Yeah There is good momentum on several fronts One of them is a shift towards solar electricity generation and to wind But the obstacle here is costs more than anything else As we all know solar and wind both are more expensive particularly solar than other forms of energy production particularly coal India has set a very ambitious target for solar and maybe we can discuss that a little bit later But the other major driver is savings on energy by large industries And this is prompted not so much by climate considerations as by energy costs in industries like steel and cement The bigger obstacles however are the rising energy expenditures in the transportation sector driven largely by personal transport and the expanding middle class and the failure of India to invest more in rail rather than in road The big challenges I think are in personal transportation as I mentioned but also the resistance comes from the automobile manufacturers as well as from government both of whom seem to think that the automobile sector is a major driver of economic growth in the country as well as housing sector being a major driver And these industries the real estate industry and the automobile industry are resisting energy efficiency policies which could save a lot of energy but which for GDP growth reasons is being held back DESVARIEUX Anjali I want to ask you about the role of the US China and Europe in producing greenhouse gas emissions What level of responsibility have they taken in trying to aid developing countries like India who make the case that they did not produce the brunt of these carbon emissions during industrialization and need help from wealthier nations Has the West and China really stepped up APPADURAI Right Theres an important distinction to make here I think its important to start the starting point should be that okay we have a climate crisis on our hands and 75 percent of the emissions in the atmosphere right now are the result of emissions from the industrialization of the West And that industrialization has gotten the socalled developed countries this is UN language the developed industrialized countries versus the developing countries the developed countries to the level of wealth and human development that theyre at right now So in the last few years in the developing countries where 80 percent of the worlds population resides those countries have started to go through their own industrialization process like China and India are kind of leading the way on that Theyre the worlds largest developing countries And so their emissions are starting to rise in the way that sort of the US and England were rising in their process of industrialization So notably as a side note to that much of the carbon output of countries like China are actually generated as a result of producing goods that are then directly exported to the US so thats something to take into account as well But it just shows you that the problem is its systemic in nature Its the wealthiest essentially in the world who have caused the most emissions thus far And so then theres a question of whos responsible So theres clearly historical responsibility But then theres also an ongoing current responsibility But its important as Rhagu mentioned earlier its important to note on a per capita basis so on a per human basis who is really paying for climate change and who has the responsibility to deal with the issue the most So someone in China is using up to 20 times fewer emissions than someone in the US is for example And theres less historical responsibility there So when it comes to who has the responsibility developed countries unequivocally have the brunt of the responsibility And Chinas not so much in that camp because of the lack of the historical trajectory So thats well established in the UN negotiations Its developed countries are legally obligated to step up and support developing countries not only through having strong domestic targets at home to curb their own emissions but also through the very very important pillar of climate finance And finance can take several different forms but its essentially international transfers to help developing countries not only adapt to existing and ongoing climate impacts but also to help them transition to a renewable economy Because that transition cant happen on its own and out of the blue The world is still very much operating on a Western economic model DESVARIEUX And is that the basis for the Green Climate Fund Anjali APPADURAI Yes The Green Climate Fund is a bit of a its a bit of a honestly an ongoing disaster And it just goes to show the state of climate finance right now Climate finance has really suffered Theres been a severe lack of commitment on the part of the developed world So the GCF the Green Climate Fund has been negotiating for a long time And basically their decision was that the developed countries would work up to a pledge of 100 billion US annually by 2020 And so there was a deadline of April 30th of this year for them to get up to that number But actually whats been pledged so far is only 4 billion And so theres a real shortfall in whats been pledged versus what has been calculated as the need So its really hard to point to developing countries and sort of expect them to transition to a lowcarbon economy if the financial component is just not coming in DESVARIEUX So Rhagu youve just heard Anjali talk about the Green Climate Fund and how underfunded it is Is there anyone in the Indian political landscape making the same point RHAGUNANDAN Yes In the sense that the socalled developed world owes it to the developing world to help the transition to a lowcarbon or zerocarbon economy But from a specifically Indian point of view I dont see India standing in the same queue as Burkina Faso asking for Western funds Which would be I think not the right thing for India to do because if it does then India would take the lions share on a per capita basis But there are some fairly large big ticket items of expenditure which India needs to invest in which could do with Western funding Such as for example a shift from road to rail transport will require thousands of kilometers of new rail lines And thats a very expensive proposition which could do with Green Climate funding So yes there are enough people talking about it but I think the dilemma is does India stand in front of the line or does it allow the least developed countries the island states the African nations to get a bulk of that money DESVARIEUX Anjali why cant countries developing countries like India easily transition to renewables Is this simply about funding APPADURAI No I mean so this is a common argument that developing countries need to industrialize and develop down a different pathway a less dirty pathway than the developed countries did it right Like not cars not industry Renewable carbonfree technology And thats a great idea but theres so many multiple institutionalized barriers to that And finance is a huge one And as we just talked about the finance is really lacking The NorthSouth financial transfers are lacking But theres also a really not often talked about barrier of intellectual property rights And this is a huge point of contention in the UN negotiations around this Over 90 percent of the patents for clean technology are held in Western countries Most of them are held in the US So there needs to be an open conversation about transferring those intellectual property rights to the South so that those technologies can actually be invested in can actually be replicated can actually become infrastructure to transition Southern economies to a lowcarbon economy And thats a conversation that the developed countries have repeatedly shut down and repeatedly ignored at the international level because IPRs intellectual property rights are a real point of contention And they represent actually a lot of money for industry For private industry in Western countries And thats a huge part of this whole climate mess Its corporate interestsas countries try to work this out multilaterally theres a whole big bloc and thats corporate interests that really block a lot of progress on this So thats the unspoken barrier the elephant in the room We need to start talking about it The intellectual property rights are preventing these technologies from being transferred DESVARIEUX Very interesting point Did you want to just jump in Rhagu very quickly RHAGUNANDAN Yeah I just wanted to say that the IPR issue is real It also once again boils down to money Who pays for the intellectual property rights And if the corporations in the West want to be paid for those IPRs then they will eat up a chunk of this Green Climate Fund which will then further deprive the developing countries of money So it does boil down to dollars and cents at the end Not too many cents mostly dollars But it does boil down to money and the question of who pays for the IPRs And that is certainly a very serious obstacle DESVARIEUX All right Rhagu and Anjali thank you both for joining us APPADURAI Thanks Jessica RHAGUNANDAN Thank you DESVARIEUX And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | DRaghunandan/PROPN is/AUX a/DET member/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Delhi/PROPN Science/PROPN Forum/PROPN and/CCONJ an/DET expert/NOUN on/ADP climate/NOUN change/NOUN He/PRON was/AUX the/DET former/ADJ President/PROPN of/ADP All/DET India/PROPN Peoples/PROPN Science/PROPN Network/PROPN and/CCONJ a/DET member/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Low/PROPN Carbon/PROPN Path/PROPN Committee/PROPN of/ADP the/DET Planning/PROPN Commission/PROPN Raghu/PROPN 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<p>Gregory Wilpert a German-American sociologist who earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Brandeis University in 1994. Between 2000 and 2008 he lived in Venezuela, where he taught at the Central University of Venezuela and then worked as a freelance journalist, writing on Venezuelan politics for a wide range of publications and also founded Venezuelanalysis.com, an English-language website about Venezuela. In 2007 he published the book Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chavez Government (Verso Books). He moved back to the U.S. in 2008 because his wife was named Consul General of Venezuela in New York and he taught political science at Brooklyn College. Since 2014 he has been living in Quito, Ecuador where he headed up the launch of teleSUR English and his wife took the position of Venezuelan Ambassador to Ecuador. Since early 2016 he has been working as a producer for The Real News.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
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<p />In Venezuela, protests, new protests, are planned on Saturday. The situation continues to be tense there. Across the United States, pro-opposition groups have called for protest, and as well as there is a lot of support from various groups in support of the Venezuelan government across the United States. Just it's a very complicated situation.
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<p />Now joining us to help us unravel it all in the studio is Gregory Wilpert. Gregory is the founder of Venezuelanalysis.com. He's the author of the book Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chávez Government. He also taught political science at Brooklyn College. His wife is the consul general for Venezuela in New York. And he will soon be heading up the English website for TeleSUR, which is a television network funded by Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
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<p />Thanks for joining us.
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<p />GREGORY WILPERT, FOUNDER, VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM: Hi. Thanks for having me.
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<p />JAY: So, before we get into what's going on, I just--just to be transparent about it all, so you're going to soon be taking up the job at the head of English TeleSUR, a website, which gives you--you'll be directing content and hiring journalists and such. One of the governments that is funding this and certainly one of the governments that was most involved in establishing TeleSUR was Venezuela. Do you find this is going to cramp your style at all in terms of how you do analysis?
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<p />I need to say to the audience, while Greg's wife has been consul general in New York for some time, I've always found Greg to do analysis. He tries to deal with facts. And I have felt him--what's the word?--an honest broker in trying to make sense and analyze what's going on in Venezuela.
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<p />Do you--is this new job going to, you think, change any of that for you?
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<p />WILPERT: Well, I think it might change some things in the sense that TeleSUR certainly has an editorial line and the directors and the editors are expected to follow that editorial line. I don't know yet exactly what it is and to what extent it will limit what I would be saying or presenting, but what I can say right now is that since I don't even know what that editorial line is, since I haven't started the job yet, I still try to be as objective as possible, because I think that's going to serve the interests, actually, of Venezuela and the interests of the region the most, and therefore I have no hesitation to say the things that I think need to be said.
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<p />JAY: Okay. So let's talk about the recent events. Before the recent protests that have been all in the news, the opposition that lost--narrowly lost the last presidential election--and led by Capriles, a governor of Miranda state. And their strategy seemed to be, you know, criticize, try to get the opposition organized, and get ready to contend the next series of elections and not to create this whole kind of destabilizing protest movement.
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<p />López is the leader of this recent protest movement, who just a day or two ago gave himself up for arrest. And I guess we're waiting to see what he's going to be charged with.
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<p />Those protests seem to be much more provocative than the rest of the opposition had been planning. So what spurred this new level of protest, and what does it seem to be about? What is it demanding?
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<p />WILPERT: Well, what it's demanding is one thing, and of course what spurred it is something else, I think. It's demanding right now is that Maduro leaves office as soon as possible--and they're calling it "the exit", in other words, that Maduro leaves office. But what has spurred it, I think, is something that has been really boiling under the surface within the opposition for the past year.
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<p />JAY: Okay. Well, before we get to that, let's--just to be clear, because I see lots of reports talking about regime change, calls for regime change, and Maduro should step down, and so on, but this is an elected government. They're essentially saying to a government that was elected, and in elections that everyone accepted the results of, eventually--and in terms of official observers, as far as I know, everyone said it was a fair vote--they're saying this elected government should step down.
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<p />WILPERT: Yes, they're saying that they should step down, and they're basically calling for Maduro to give up, essentially, to resign, despite the fact that he won the election, the presidential election. He also won the December&#160;8 municipal elections with something like a 10&#160;percent margin. So--I mean, so those arguments really fly in the face of the electoral results.
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<p />JAY: Okay. So what seems to have spurred this now?
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<p />WILPERT: Well, I think it's something that has been boiling under the surface for the past year, that is, ever since Maduro narrowly won the election. And Capriles, actually, was instrumental in calling for violent protests back then. He was telling people to go out on the streets and demonstrate with all their rage. And people did. And, as a matter of fact, something like eight Chávez supporters were killed in the process of those protests.
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<p />The opposition recognized, I think, eventually that these violent protests did not really advance their cause, and kept a relatively low profile, and were hoping to basically show the weakness of the Maduro government in the municipal elections of December&#160;8. They failed, however, to do that.
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<p />And so I think because of that failure, a lot of people within the opposition, that is, the opposition leadership, blamed Capriles for that, for not having shown a stronger leadership, a stronger ability to turn events around against Maduro, especially considering that inflation in the past year was 56&#160;percent. It's basically over twice as high as it had been on average in the previous 15 years or 14 years, and crime was consistently high as well, and there were more and more shortages in basic goods. So those three factors were very important.
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<p />And despite these problems, poverty actually declined in 2013.
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<p />JAY: But these protests are not coming from the poor, by and large.
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<p />WILPERT: No. But that's the reason that Maduro, I think--despite these negative economic factors, there was still some positive--there was still some economic growth going on in 2013. And Maduro managed to turn the argument around, saying that it was actually the opposition, to a large extent, that was responsible for many of the economic problems, particularly the shortages. I can try to explain exactly how those come about [crosstalk]
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<p />JAY: Well, we're going to do a two-part interview here. In the second part, we're going to talk about the economic crisis--why is inflation so high and what's happening with the exchange rates and such. So we'll get into the detail of that in part two.
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<p />WILPERT: Right. So, coming out of the December&#160;8 municipal elections, I think, within the opposition leadership, López and also the other radical right-wing opposition leader, María Corina Machado, recognized this as an opportunity to basically organize a coup, not necessarily against Maduro, but actually a coup against Henrique Capriles. I think one has to see it really as a--.
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<p />JAY: Take over leadership of the opposition.
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<p />WILPERT: Exactly, take over the leadership of the opposition, and to use the economic issues kind of as a springboard for that. And they managed, in a way, to turn things around, at least for them. That is, to some extent I think López and María Corina Machado have been successful in elevating their own profile within the opposition at the expense of ruining the unity of the opposition, I think.
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<p />JAY: And Capriles has actually distanced himself, or at least he did distance himself from these protests. Is he continuing in that position?
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<p />WILPERT: Yes. Actually, just yesterday he held a longer press conference, where he continued to say that we have to stop these kinds of violent confrontations with the police, and he was calling essentially for peace and was distancing himself again from these demonstrations.
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<p />JAY: Now, the United States has been accused of having their hand in this. The Venezuelan government threw out--what is it?--three consuls in the American Embassy in Caracas. Kerry came out and, I think, President Obama came out and called for releasing some of the protesters that had been arrested. What do we know about the American role in all this?
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<p />WILPERT: Not too much. The foreign minister, yes, Jaua, made the announcement about the expulsion of the three diplomats, saying that the evidence that they had against them was essentially a series of email correspondence that they had intercepted that showed that these diplomats were involved in meeting with student leaders and student organizations and essentially were supporting their movement in various ways, financially and also logistically. That was the accusation.
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<p />We haven't seen the emails. They said they had to protect their sources and therefore they weren't going to reveal them. But he did read other earlier, older emails that were available on WikiLeaks, where the U.S. government or the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela essentially did talk about various ways to support opposition movements in Venezuela.
<p />
<p />JAY: Students are usually associated, when they're in the streets, with left-wing causes, left-of-center values, and one normally considers the Venezuelan government as a left-wing, left-of-center government. What are the students doing in the streets and seem to be, you know, to some extent, at the heart of all this?
<p />
<p />WILPERT: Yeah, I think the--.
<p />
<p />JAY: Who are these students?
<p />
<p />WILPERT: Well, I think the Venezuelan student movement, just as so many institutions in Venezuela, is very divided between a left wing and a right wing, and it's certainly the more conservative or moderate student movement that is currently on the streets that is trying to lead this movement--or, actually, follow the lead of López, really.
<p />
<p />But they're essentially the students who come from the private universities, from the elite universities in Venezuela. There's actually many thousands of students more in the Bolivarian University and other universities that haven't participated. But these are really the upper middle class and middle class, you know, mostly upper middle class students that are at the head of this, really.
<p />
<p />JAY: Now, López gave himself up. He's in jail. Has he been--any charges laid? Or we're waiting to hear what the charges are?
<p />
<p />WILPERT: A couple of charges have been dismissed. They dismissed charges about terrorism, and I forget the other one, but treason or something like that. But a number of charges still remain. But no decision has been made as to exactly how they will proceed so far.
<p />
<p />JAY: So where is public opinion on this? The demonstrations so far have been relatively small compared to some of the ones that were in the past. I mean, I remember there were days when the opposition could rally a million people. And what I understand: these could be in the size of ten thousand. It's hard to really know.
<p />
<p />You know, there's been reports--in fact, there was a report on CNN today about some of the images that have come out, and it turns out one of the images that shows how many people are there--and a long, long line of people--turns out that photograph came from Spain. There's another photograph that's supposed to show some police forcing people to have oral sex. That turns to have come from an American pornography site. There's another photograph that's supposed to show something similar in terms of a big protest that actually came from something in Chile. But there's a lot of--it's hard to make sense of what the reality is.
<p />
<p />Do you get a sense of what the numbers are and where public opinion is?
<p />
<p />WILPERT: Well, it is very difficult to make sense of it all, because there's so much disinformation flying around on all sides. And my impression is certainly that--and also from the reports I hear from people in Venezuela directly--is that, yes, it's not massive. There are still--basically what they're doing is repeating an action that took place already in 2004, where basically people block their neighborhood streets, and sometimes major freeways and major roads, and thereby create the sensation that there's a tremendous protest going on because traffic gets backed up for miles and miles. But actually it's just a handful of people who are blocking major streets, or even very minor ones.
<p />
<p />But these protests are mostly taking place in the upper middle class neighborhoods, the same as in--basically, the neighborhoods of the students themselves. And that's what makes this very distinctive, in the sense of a class dimension to these protests. They're not taking place in the poor neighborhoods, where Maduro has his base of support.
<p />
<p />JAY: Okay. So we'll cover more on this as this protest movement develops.
<p />
<p />But all that being said, there really is an economic crisis in Venezuela. Inflation, as you mentioned, is sky high. The exchange rate issues are causing them trouble. There's a problem with affordability on foodstuffs. So in part two of our interview, we're going to try to get at just what are some of the reasons for this economic crisis in Venezuela and whether it's being used, improperly or not, by some of the opposition. And I guess some people might argue that. But one way or the other, there actually is a problem there.
<p />
<p />So we're going to get into that in part two of our interview with Gregory Wilpert on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Venezuela Protests Reveal Rivalry in Opposition Leadership | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11517 | 2014-02-22 | 4left
| 2,471 | Gregory Wilpert a GermanAmerican sociologist who earned a PhD in sociology from Brandeis University in 1994 Between 2000 and 2008 he lived in Venezuela where he taught at the Central University of Venezuela and then worked as a freelance journalist writing on Venezuelan politics for a wide range of publications and also founded Venezuelanalysiscom an Englishlanguage website about Venezuela In 2007 he published the book Changing Venezuela by Taking Power The History and Policies of the Chavez Government Verso Books He moved back to the US in 2008 because his wife was named Consul General of Venezuela in New York and he taught political science at Brooklyn College Since 2014 he has been living in Quito Ecuador where he headed up the launch of teleSUR English and his wife took the position of Venezuelan Ambassador to Ecuador Since early 2016 he has been working as a producer for The Real News PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Baltimore In Venezuela protests new protests are planned on Saturday The situation continues to be tense there Across the United States proopposition groups have called for protest and as well as there is a lot of support from various groups in support of the Venezuelan government across the United States Just its a very complicated situation Now joining us to help us unravel it all in the studio is Gregory Wilpert Gregory is the founder of Venezuelanalysiscom Hes the author of the book Changing Venezuela by Taking Power The History and Policies of the Ch225vez Government He also taught political science at Brooklyn College His wife is the consul general for Venezuela in New York And he will soon be heading up the English website for TeleSUR which is a television network funded by Venezuela Bolivia Ecuador Argentina Nicaragua and Cuba Thanks for joining us GREGORY WILPERT FOUNDER VENEZUELANALYSISCOM Hi Thanks for having me JAY So before we get into whats going on I justjust to be transparent about it all so youre going to soon be taking up the job at the head of English TeleSUR a website which gives youyoull be directing content and hiring journalists and such One of the governments that is funding this and certainly one of the governments that was most involved in establishing TeleSUR was Venezuela Do you find this is going to cramp your style at all in terms of how you do analysis I need to say to the audience while Gregs wife has been consul general in New York for some time Ive always found Greg to do analysis He tries to deal with facts And I have felt himwhats the wordan honest broker in trying to make sense and analyze whats going on in Venezuela Do youis this new job going to you think change any of that for you WILPERT Well I think it might change some things in the sense that TeleSUR certainly has an editorial line and the directors and the editors are expected to follow that editorial line I dont know yet exactly what it is and to what extent it will limit what I would be saying or presenting but what I can say right now is that since I dont even know what that editorial line is since I havent started the job yet I still try to be as objective as possible because I think thats going to serve the interests actually of Venezuela and the interests of the region the most and therefore I have no hesitation to say the things that I think need to be said JAY Okay So lets talk about the recent events Before the recent protests that have been all in the news the opposition that lostnarrowly lost the last presidential electionand led by Capriles a governor of Miranda state And their strategy seemed to be you know criticize try to get the opposition organized and get ready to contend the next series of elections and not to create this whole kind of destabilizing protest movement L243pez is the leader of this recent protest movement who just a day or two ago gave himself up for arrest And I guess were waiting to see what hes going to be charged with Those protests seem to be much more provocative than the rest of the opposition had been planning So what spurred this new level of protest and what does it seem to be about What is it demanding WILPERT Well what its demanding is one thing and of course what spurred it is something else I think Its demanding right now is that Maduro leaves office as soon as possibleand theyre calling it the exit in other words that Maduro leaves office But what has spurred it I think is something that has been really boiling under the surface within the opposition for the past year JAY Okay Well before we get to that letsjust to be clear because I see lots of reports talking about regime change calls for regime change and Maduro should step down and so on but this is an elected government Theyre essentially saying to a government that was elected and in elections that everyone accepted the results of eventuallyand in terms of official observers as far as I know everyone said it was a fair votetheyre saying this elected government should step down WILPERT Yes theyre saying that they should step down and theyre basically calling for Maduro to give up essentially to resign despite the fact that he won the election the presidential election He also won the Decemberamp1608 municipal elections with something like a 10amp160percent margin SoI mean so those arguments really fly in the face of the electoral results JAY Okay So what seems to have spurred this now WILPERT Well I think its something that has been boiling under the surface for the past year that is ever since Maduro narrowly won the election And Capriles actually was instrumental in calling for violent protests back then He was telling people to go out on the streets and demonstrate with all their rage And people did And as a matter of fact something like eight Ch225vez supporters were killed in the process of those protests The opposition recognized I think eventually that these violent protests did not really advance their cause and kept a relatively low profile and were hoping to basically show the weakness of the Maduro government in the municipal elections of Decemberamp1608 They failed however to do that And so I think because of that failure a lot of people within the opposition that is the opposition leadership blamed Capriles for that for not having shown a stronger leadership a stronger ability to turn events around against Maduro especially considering that inflation in the past year was 56amp160percent Its basically over twice as high as it had been on average in the previous 15 years or 14 years and crime was consistently high as well and there were more and more shortages in basic goods So those three factors were very important And despite these problems poverty actually declined in 2013 JAY But these protests are not coming from the poor by and large WILPERT No But thats the reason that Maduro I thinkdespite these negative economic factors there was still some positivethere was still some economic growth going on in 2013 And Maduro managed to turn the argument around saying that it was actually the opposition to a large extent that was responsible for many of the economic problems particularly the shortages I can try to explain exactly how those come about crosstalk JAY Well were going to do a twopart interview here In the second part were going to talk about the economic crisiswhy is inflation so high and whats happening with the exchange rates and such So well get into the detail of that in part two WILPERT Right So coming out of the Decemberamp1608 municipal elections I think within the opposition leadership L243pez and also the other radical rightwing opposition leader Mar237a Corina Machado recognized this as an opportunity to basically organize a coup not necessarily against Maduro but actually a coup against Henrique Capriles I think one has to see it really as a JAY Take over leadership of the opposition WILPERT Exactly take over the leadership of the opposition and to use the economic issues kind of as a springboard for that And they managed in a way to turn things around at least for them That is to some extent I think L243pez and Mar237a Corina Machado have been successful in elevating their own profile within the opposition at the expense of ruining the unity of the opposition I think JAY And Capriles has actually distanced himself or at least he did distance himself from these protests Is he continuing in that position WILPERT Yes Actually just yesterday he held a longer press conference where he continued to say that we have to stop these kinds of violent confrontations with the police and he was calling essentially for peace and was distancing himself again from these demonstrations JAY Now the United States has been accused of having their hand in this The Venezuelan government threw outwhat is itthree consuls in the American Embassy in Caracas Kerry came out and I think President Obama came out and called for releasing some of the protesters that had been arrested What do we know about the American role in all this WILPERT Not too much The foreign minister yes Jaua made the announcement about the expulsion of the three diplomats saying that the evidence that they had against them was essentially a series of email correspondence that they had intercepted that showed that these diplomats were involved in meeting with student leaders and student organizations and essentially were supporting their movement in various ways financially and also logistically That was the accusation We havent seen the emails They said they had to protect their sources and therefore they werent going to reveal them But he did read other earlier older emails that were available on WikiLeaks where the US government or the State Department and the US Embassy in Venezuela essentially did talk about various ways to support opposition movements in Venezuela JAY Students are usually associated when theyre in the streets with leftwing causes leftofcenter values and one normally considers the Venezuelan government as a leftwing leftofcenter government What are the students doing in the streets and seem to be you know to some extent at the heart of all this WILPERT Yeah I think the JAY Who are these students WILPERT Well I think the Venezuelan student movement just as so many institutions in Venezuela is very divided between a left wing and a right wing and its certainly the more conservative or moderate student movement that is currently on the streets that is trying to lead this movementor actually follow the lead of L243pez really But theyre essentially the students who come from the private universities from the elite universities in Venezuela Theres actually many thousands of students more in the Bolivarian University and other universities that havent participated But these are really the upper middle class and middle class you know mostly upper middle class students that are at the head of this really JAY Now L243pez gave himself up Hes in jail Has he beenany charges laid Or were waiting to hear what the charges are WILPERT A couple of charges have been dismissed They dismissed charges about terrorism and I forget the other one but treason or something like that But a number of charges still remain But no decision has been made as to exactly how they will proceed so far JAY So where is public opinion on this The demonstrations so far have been relatively small compared to some of the ones that were in the past I mean I remember there were days when the opposition could rally a million people And what I understand these could be in the size of ten thousand Its hard to really know You know theres been reportsin fact there was a report on CNN today about some of the images that have come out and it turns out one of the images that shows how many people are thereand a long long line of peopleturns out that photograph came from Spain Theres another photograph thats supposed to show some police forcing people to have oral sex That turns to have come from an American pornography site Theres another photograph thats supposed to show something similar in terms of a big protest that actually came from something in Chile But theres a lot ofits hard to make sense of what the reality is Do you get a sense of what the numbers are and where public opinion is WILPERT Well it is very difficult to make sense of it all because theres so much disinformation flying around on all sides And my impression is certainly thatand also from the reports I hear from people in Venezuela directlyis that yes its not massive There are stillbasically what theyre doing is repeating an action that took place already in 2004 where basically people block their neighborhood streets and sometimes major freeways and major roads and thereby create the sensation that theres a tremendous protest going on because traffic gets backed up for miles and miles But actually its just a handful of people who are blocking major streets or even very minor ones But these protests are mostly taking place in the upper middle class neighborhoods the same as inbasically the neighborhoods of the students themselves And thats what makes this very distinctive in the sense of a class dimension to these protests Theyre not taking place in the poor neighborhoods where Maduro has his base of support JAY Okay So well cover more on this as this protest movement develops But all that being said there really is an economic crisis in Venezuela Inflation as you mentioned is sky high The exchange rate issues are causing them trouble Theres a problem with affordability on foodstuffs So in part two of our interview were going to try to get at just what are some of the reasons for this economic crisis in Venezuela and whether its being used improperly or not by some of the opposition And I guess some people might argue that But one way or the other there actually is a problem there So were going to get into that in part two of our 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<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=173308298&amp;src=id"&gt;Gil C&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175809/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Here, at least, is a place to start: intelligence officials have weighed in with an estimate of just how many secret files National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden took with him when he headed for Hong Kong last June. Brace yourself:&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/snowden-still-holding-keys-to-the-kingdom/2013/12/18/b91d29a2-6761-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html" type="external">1.7 million</a>. At least they claim that as the number he or his&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.html" type="external">web crawler</a>&#160;accessed before he left town. Let’s assume for a moment that it’s accurate and add a caveat. Whatever he had with him on those&#160; <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/13/news/la-pn-snowden-nsa-secrets-thumb-drive-20130613" type="external">thumb drives</a>&#160;when he left the agency, Edward Snowden did not take all the NSA’s classified documents. Not by a long shot. He only downloaded a portion of them. We don’t have any idea what percentage, but assumedly millions of NSA secret documents did not get the Snowden treatment.</p>
<p>Such figures should stagger us and what he did take will undoubtedly&#160; <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/" type="external">occupy</a>&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/us/eavesdropping-ensnared-american-law-firm.html" type="external">journalists</a>&#160;for months or years more (and historians long after that). Keep this in mind, however: the NSA is only one of 17 intelligence outfits in what is called the&#160; <a href="http://www.intelligence.gov/mission/member-agencies.html" type="external">US Intelligence Community</a>. Some of the others are as large and well funded, and all of them generate their own troves of secret documents, undoubtedly stretching into the many millions.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" /></p>
<p>And keep something else in mind: that’s just intelligence agencies. If you’re thinking about the full sweep of our national security state (NSS), you also have to include places like the Department of Homeland Security, the Energy Department (responsible for the US nuclear arsenal), and the Pentagon. In other words, we’re talking about the kind of secret documentation that an army of journalists, researchers, and historians wouldn’t have a hope of getting through, not in a century.</p>
<p>We do know that, in 2011, the whole government reportedly classified <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175570/engelhardt_that_makes_no_sense" type="external">92,064,862</a> documents. If accurate and reasonably typical, that means, in the twenty-first century, the NSS has already generated hundreds of millions of documents that could not be read by an American without a security clearance. Of those, thanks to one man (via various journalists), we have had access to a&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files" type="external">tiny percentage</a>&#160;of perhaps 1.7 million of them. Or put another way, you, the voter, the taxpayer, the citizen—in what we still like to think of as a democracy—are automatically excluded from knowing or learning about most of what the national security state does in your name. That’s unless, of course, its officials decide to selectively&#160; <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/02/14-4" type="external">cherry-pick</a>&#160;information they feel you are capable of safely and securely absorbing, or an Edward Snowden releases documents to the world over the bitter protests,&#160; <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/17/ex-cia-director-snowden-should-be-hanged-if-convicted-for-treason/" type="external">death threats</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/rep-mike-rogers-jumps-on-the-traitor-train-20130613" type="external">teeth gnashing</a>&#160;of Washington officialdom and&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/john-bolton-edward-snowden_n_4461196.html" type="external">retired versions</a>&#160;of the same.</p>
<p>Summoned From the Id of the National Security State</p>
<p>So far, even <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/feb/06/three-leakers-and-what-do-about-them/?pagination=false" type="external">among critics</a>, the debate about what to make of Snowden’s act has generally focused on “ <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/07/24/nsa-snowden-airport-release-column/2579943/" type="external">balance</a>“; that is, on what’s the <a href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/articles/american-surveillance-programs" type="external">right equilibrium</a> between an obvious governmental need for secrecy, the security of the country, and an American urge for privacy, freedom, and transparency–for knowing, among other things, what your government is actually doing. Such a framework (“ <a href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2013/08/27/young-americans-on-the-nsa-and-the-balance-of-privacy" type="external">a meaningful balance between privacy and security</a>“) has proven a relatively comfortable one for Washington, which doesn’t mind focusing on the supposedly knotty question of how to define the “limits” of secrecy and whistle-blowing and what “reforms” are needed to bring the two into line. In the present context, however, such a debate seems laughable, if not absurd.</p>
<p>After all, it’s clear from the numbers alone that the urge to envelop the national security state in a blanket of secrecy, to shield its workings from the eyes of its citizens (as well as allies and enemies) has proven essentially boundless, as have the secret ambitions of those running that state. There is no way, at present, to limit the governmental urge for secrecy even in minimal ways, certainly not via secret courts or congressional committees implicated and entangled in the processes of a secret system.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609805046/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />In the face of such boundlessness, perhaps the words “whistleblower” and “leaker”—both traditionally referring to bounded and focused activities—are no longer useful. Though we may not yet have a word to describe what Chelsea (once Bradley) Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden have done, we should probably stop calling them whistleblowers. Perhaps they should instead be considered the creations of an overweening national security state, summoned by us from its id (so to speak) to act as a counterforce to its ambitions. Imagine them as representing the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175733/engelhardt_spying_for_us" type="external">societal unconscious</a>. Only in this way can we explain the boundlessness of their acts. After all, such massive document appropriations are inconceivable without a secret state endlessly in the process of documenting its own darkness.</p>
<p>One thing is for certain, though no one thinks to say it: despite their staggering releases of insider information, when it comes to the true nature and extent of the NSS, we surely remain in the dark. In the feeling that, thanks to Manning and Snowden, we now grasp the depths of that secret state, its secret acts, and the secret documentation that goes with it, we are undoubtedly deluded.</p>
<p>In a sense, valuable as they have been, Snowden’s revelations have helped promote this delusion. In a way that hasn’t happened since the Watergate era of the 1970s, they have given us the feeling that a curtain has finally, definitively been pulled back on the true nature of the Washington system. Behind that curtain, we have indeed glimpsed a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175713/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_you_are_our_secret/" type="external">global-surveillance-state-in-the-making</a> of astounding <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining" type="external">scope</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html" type="external">reach</a>, and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html" type="external">technological proficiency</a>, whose ambitions (and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls" type="external">successes</a>), even when <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-is-collecting-less-than-30-percent-of-us-call-data-officials-say/2014/02/07/234a0e9e-8fad-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html" type="external">not always fully achieved</a>, should take our breath away. And yet while this is accurate enough, it leads us to believe that we now know a great deal about the secret world of Washington. This is an illusion.</p>
<p>Even if we knew what was in all of those 1.7 million NSA documents, they are a drop in the bucket. As of now, we have the revelations of one (marginal) insider who stepped out of the shadows to tell us about part of what a single intelligence agency documented about its own activities. The resulting global debate, controversy, anger, and discussion, Snowden has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/edward-snowden-after-months-of-nsa-revelations-says-his-missions-accomplished/2013/12/23/49fc36de-6c1c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html" type="external">said</a>, represents “mission accomplished” for him. But it shouldn’t be considered mission accomplished for the rest of us.</p>
<p>In Praise of Darkness, the Dangers of Sunshine</p>
<p>To gain a reasonable picture of our national security state, 5, 10, 20 Snowdens, each at a different agency or outfit, would have to step out of the shadows–and that would just be for starters. Then we would need a media that was ready to roll and a Congress not wrapped in “security” and “secrecy” but demanding answers, as the Church committee did in the Watergate era, with subpoenas in hand (and the threat of prison for <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-levin-drone-oversight-20140212,0,2114536.story#axzz2tJfHwapd" type="external">no-shows</a> and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175803/tomgram%3A_pratap_chatterjee,_the_wild_west_of_surveillance/" type="external">perjurers</a>).</p>
<p>Yes, we may have access to basic information about what the NSA has been up to, but remind me: What exactly do you know about the doings of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, with its 16,500 employees, which has in recent years <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dia-to-send-hundreds-more-spies-overseas/2012/12/01/97463e4e-399b-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html" type="external">embarked on</a> “an ambitious plan to assemble an <a href="http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140212/DEFREG02/302120039/Analysis-Defense-Clandestine-Service-Here-Stay?odyssey=nav%7Chead" type="external">espionage network</a> that rivals the CIA in size”? How about the <a href="https://www.nga.mil/Pages/default.aspx" type="external">National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency</a>, with its 16,000 employees, its <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/gregg-easterbrook/2011/01/20/undisciplined-spending-in-the-name-of-defense/" type="external">post-9/11 headquarters</a> (price tag: $1.8 billion) and its control over our system of spy satellites eternally prowling the planetary skies?</p>
<p>The answer is no more than you would have known about the NSA if Snowden hadn’t acted as he did. And by the way, what do you really know about the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/spy-files/more-about-fbi-spying" type="external">FBI</a>, which now, among other things, issues thousands of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/06/what-its-like-to-get-a-national-security-letter.html" type="external">national security letters</a> a year ( <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/16/judge-rules-secret-fbi-letters-unconstitutional/" type="external">16,511</a> in 2011 alone), an <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/01/09/214005/fbi-chief-defends-national-security.html" type="external">unknown number</a> of them for terror investigations? Since their recipients are muzzled from discussing them, we know next to nothing about them or what the Bureau is actually doing. And how’s your info on the CIA, which takes $4 billion more out of the intelligence “ <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/black-budget/" type="external">black budget</a>” than the NSA, runs its own <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/" type="external">private wars</a>, and has even organized its own <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175780/pratap_chatterjee_the_jason_bourne_strategy" type="external">privatized corps</a> of spies as part of the general expansion of US intelligence and espionage abroad? The answer on all of the above is—has to be—remarkably little.</p>
<p>Or take something basic like that old-fashioned, low-tech form of surveillance: <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175718/todd_gitlin_informers_and_agents_provocateurs" type="external">government informers</a> and agents provocateurs. They were commonplace in the 1960s and early 1970s within every oppositional movement. So many decades later, they are with us again. <a href="https://www.aclu.org/maps/spying-first-amendment-activity-state-state" type="external">Thanks to</a> the ACLU, which has mapped scattered reports on situations in which informers made it into at least the local news nationwide, we know that they became part of what <a href="http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/04/1326232/documents-reveal-surveillance.html" type="external">anti-war movements</a> existed, slipped into various aspects of the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175718/todd_gitlin_informers_and_agents_provocateurs" type="external">Occupy movement</a>, and have run riot in local Muslim-American communities. We know as well that these informers come from a wide range of outfits, including the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/nypd-muslim-surveillance" type="external">local police</a>, the <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/28/broadcast_exclusive_declassified_docs_reveal_military" type="external">military</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">the FBI</a>. However, if we know a great deal about NSA snooping and surveillance, we have just about no inside information on the extent of old-style informing, surveilling, and provoking.</p>
<p>One thing couldn’t be clearer, though: the mania for secrecy has grown tremendously in the Obama years. On entering the Oval Office in 2009, Obama <a href="http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20090121/index.htm" type="external">proclaimed</a> a sunshine administration dedicated to “openness” and “transparency.” That announcement now drips with irony. If you want a measure of the kind of secrecy the NSS considers proper and the White House condones these days, check out a recent <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-levin-drone-oversight-20140212,0,2114536.story#axzz2tJfHwapd" type="external">Los Angeles Times piece</a> on the CIA’s drone assassination program (one of the more overt aspects of Washington’s covert world).</p>
<p>That paper recently reported that Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin held a “joint classified hearing” with the Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA, the Pentagon, and their drone campaigns against terror suspects in the backlands of the planet. There was just one catch: CIA officials normally testify only before the House and Senate intelligence committees. In this case, the White House “refused to provide the necessary security clearances for members of the House and Senate armed services committees.” &#160;As a result, it would not let CIA witnesses appear before Levin. Officials, reported the Times, “had little appetite for briefing the 26 senators and 62 House members who sit on the armed services committees on the CIA’s most sensitive operations.”&#160; Sunshine, in other words, is considered potentially dangerous, even in tiny doses, even in Congress.</p>
<p>A Cult of Government Secrecy</p>
<p>In evaluating what may lie behind the many curtains of Washington, history does offer us a small hand. Thanks to the revelations of the 1970s, including a Snowden-style <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/us/burglars-who-took-on-fbi-abandon-shadows.html" type="external">break-in</a> by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/07/fbi-1971-burglary-hold-government-accountable" type="external">antiwar activists</a> at an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, in 1971, that opened a window into the Bureau’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO" type="external">acts of illegality</a>, some now-famous <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/part1.html" type="external">reporting</a>, and the thorough work of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee" type="external">Church committee</a> in the Senate, we have a sense of the enormity of what the US national security state was capable of once enveloped in a penumbra of secrecy (even if, in that era, the accompanying technology could do so much less). In the Johnson and Nixon years, as we now know, the <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-burglary-and-cointelpro-how-citizen-action-exposed-fbis-covert-illegal-program-to-crush-dissent/5364987" type="external">FBI</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_CHAOS" type="external">CIA</a>, the <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/177983/nsa-reform-then-and-now" type="external">NSA</a>, and other acronymic outfits committed a staggering range of misdeeds, provocations, and crimes.</p>
<p>It’s easy to say that post-Watergate “reforms” made such acts a thing of the past. Unfortunately, there’s no reason to believe that. In fact, the nature of that era’s reforms should be reconsidered. After all, one particularly important Congressional response of that moment was to create the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court" type="external">Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court</a>, essentially a judiciary for the secret world which would generate a significant body of law that no American outside the NSS could see.</p>
<p>The irony is again overwhelming. After the shocking headlines, the congressional inquiries, the impeachment proceedings, the ending of two presidencies—one by resignation—and everything else, including black bag jobs, break-ins, buggings, attempted beatings, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/02/fbi-director-hoover-s-dirty-files-excerpt-from-ronald-kessler-s-the-secrets-of-the-fbi.html" type="external">blackmail</a>, massive spying and surveillance, and provocations of every sort, the answer was a secret court. Its judges, appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court alone, are charged with ruling after hearing only <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/fisa-courts-problems-run-deep-and-more-tinkering" type="external">one side</a> of any case involving a governmental desire to snoop or pry or surveil. Unsurprisingly enough, over the three and a half decades of its existence, the court proved a willing <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-foreign-intelligence-surveillance-court/2013/06/07/4700b382-cfec-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_graphic.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost" type="external">rubber stamp</a> for just about any urge of the national security state.</p>
<p>In retrospect, this remedy for widespread government illegality clearly was just another step in the institutionalization of a secret world that looks increasingly like an Orwellian nightmare. In creating the FISA court, Congress functionally took the seat-of-the-pants, extra-Constitutional, extra-legal acts of the Nixon era and put them under the rule of (secret) law.</p>
<p>Today, in the wake of, among other things, the rampant extra-legality of the Global War on Terror–including the setting up of a secret, extrajudicial global prison system of “ <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer" type="external">black sites</a>” where rampant <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1494/tom_engelhardt_george_orwell_meet_franz_kafka" type="external">torture</a> and <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444" type="external">abuse</a> were carried to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse.html" type="external">point of death</a>, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/7789/engelhardt_la_dolce_vita" type="external">illegal kidnappings</a> of terror suspects off <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175729/Engelhardt_luck_was_a_lady" type="external">global streets</a> and their rendition to the prisons of torture regimes, and the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175807/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_the_divine_right_of_president_obama/" type="external">assassination-by-drone</a> of American citizens backed by <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/2116/karen-greenberg_37_questions" type="external">Justice Department legalisms</a>–it’s clear that NSS officials feel they have near total impunity when it comes to whatever they want to do. (Not that their secret acts often <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/11/terrible-toll-secrecy/" type="external">turn out</a> as planned or particularly well in the real world.)&#160; They know that nothing they do, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/holder-rules-out-prosecutions-in-cia-interrogations.html" type="external">however egregious</a>, will be brought before an open court of law and prosecuted. While the rest of us remain inside the legal system, they exist in “ <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175398/engelhardt_post-legal_America" type="external">post-legal America</a>.”&#160; Now, the president claims that he’s <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/mar/06/can-privacy-be-saved/" type="external">preparing</a> a new set of “ <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/reforms-wont-hamper-nsas-efforts-official-says/2014/02/12/19738c8c-9418-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html?wprss=rss_national-security" type="external">reforms</a>” to bring this system under check and back in balance. Watch out!</p>
<p>If tomorrow a series of Edward Snowdens were to appear, each from a different intelligence agency or other outfit in the national security state, one thing would be guaranteed: the shock of the NSA revelations would be multiplied many times over. Protected from the law by a spreading cult of government secrecy, beyond the reach of the citizenry, Congress, or the aboveground judicial system, supported by the White House and a body of developing secret law, knowing that no act undertaken in the name of American “safety” and “security” will ever be prosecuted, the inhabitants of our secret state have been moving in dark and disturbing ways. What we know is already disturbing enough. What we don’t know would surely unnerve us far more.</p>
<p>Shadow government has conquered twenty-first-century Washington. We have the makings of a thug state of the first order.</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, a co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> as well as a history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external">Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050</a>. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | There’s Still So Much We Don’t Know About the US Intelligence Community | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/how-much-still-dont-know-us-intelligence-community/ | 2014-02-20 | 4left
| 2,473 | amplta hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcompicmhtmlid173308298ampampsrcidampgtGil CampltaampgtShutterstock This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website Here at least is a place to start intelligence officials have weighed in with an estimate of just how many secret files National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden took with him when he headed for Hong Kong last June Brace yourselfamp160 17 million At least they claim that as the number he or hisamp160 web crawleramp160accessed before he left town Let8217s assume for a moment that it8217s accurate and add a caveat Whatever he had with him on thoseamp160 thumb drivesamp160when he left the agency Edward Snowden did not take all the NSA8217s classified documents Not by a long shot He only downloaded a portion of them We don8217t have any idea what percentage but assumedly millions of NSA secret documents did not get the Snowden treatment Such figures should stagger us and what he did take will undoubtedlyamp160 occupyamp160 journalistsamp160for months or years more and historians long after that Keep this in mind however the NSA is only one of 17 intelligence outfits in what is called theamp160 US Intelligence Community Some of the others are as large and well funded and all of them generate their own troves of secret documents undoubtedly stretching into the many millions And keep something else in mind that8217s just intelligence agencies If you8217re thinking about the full sweep of our national security state NSS you also have to include places like the Department of Homeland Security the Energy Department responsible for the US nuclear arsenal and the Pentagon In other words we8217re talking about the kind of secret documentation that an army of journalists researchers and historians wouldn8217t have a hope of getting through not in a century We do know that in 2011 the whole government reportedly classified 92064862 documents If accurate and reasonably typical that means in the twentyfirst century the NSS has already generated hundreds of millions of documents that could not be read by an American without a security clearance Of those thanks to one man via various journalists we have had access to aamp160 tiny percentageamp160of perhaps 17 million of them Or put another way you the voter the taxpayer the citizen8212in what we still like to think of as a democracy8212are automatically excluded from knowing or learning about most of what the national security state does in your name That8217s unless of course its officials decide to selectivelyamp160 cherrypickamp160information they feel you are capable of safely and securely absorbing or an Edward Snowden releases documents to the world over the bitter protestsamp160 death threats andamp160 teeth gnashingamp160of Washington officialdom andamp160 retired versionsamp160of the same Summoned From the Id of the National Security State So far even among critics the debate about what to make of Snowden8217s act has generally focused on 8220 balance8220 that is on what8217s the right equilibrium between an obvious governmental need for secrecy the security of the country and an American urge for privacy freedom and transparency8211for knowing among other things what your government is actually doing Such a framework 8220 a meaningful balance between privacy and security8220 has proven a relatively comfortable one for Washington which doesn8217t mind focusing on the supposedly knotty question of how to define the 8220limits8221 of secrecy and whistleblowing and what 8220reforms8221 are needed to bring the two into line In the present context however such a debate seems laughable if not absurd After all it8217s clear from the numbers alone that the urge to envelop the national security state in a blanket of secrecy to shield its workings from the eyes of its citizens as well as allies and enemies has proven essentially boundless as have the secret ambitions of those running that state There is no way at present to limit the governmental urge for secrecy even in minimal ways certainly not via secret courts or congressional committees implicated and entangled in the processes of a secret system In the face of such boundlessness perhaps the words 8220whistleblower8221 and 8220leaker82218212both traditionally referring to bounded and focused activities8212are no longer useful Though we may not yet have a word to describe what Chelsea once Bradley Manning Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have done we should probably stop calling them whistleblowers Perhaps they should instead be considered the creations of an overweening national security state summoned by us from its id so to speak to act as a counterforce to its ambitions Imagine them as representing the societal unconscious Only in this way can we explain the boundlessness of their acts After all such massive document appropriations are inconceivable without a secret state endlessly in the process of documenting its own darkness One thing is for certain though no one thinks to say it despite their staggering releases of insider information when it comes to the true nature and extent of the NSS we surely remain in the dark In the feeling that thanks to Manning and Snowden we now grasp the depths of that secret state its secret acts and the secret documentation that goes with it we are undoubtedly deluded In a sense valuable as they have been Snowden8217s revelations have helped promote this delusion In a way that hasn8217t happened since the Watergate era of the 1970s they have given us the feeling that a curtain has finally definitively been pulled back on the true nature of the Washington system Behind that curtain we have indeed glimpsed a globalsurveillancestateinthemaking of astounding scope reach and technological proficiency whose ambitions and successes even when not always fully achieved should take our breath away And yet while this is accurate enough it leads us to believe that we now know a great deal about the secret world of Washington This is an illusion Even if we knew what was in all of those 17 million NSA documents they are a drop in the bucket As of now we have the revelations of one marginal insider who stepped out of the shadows to tell us about part of what a single intelligence agency documented about its own activities The resulting global debate controversy anger and discussion Snowden has said represents 8220mission accomplished8221 for him But it shouldn8217t be considered mission accomplished for the rest of us In Praise of Darkness the Dangers of Sunshine To gain a reasonable picture of our national security state 5 10 20 Snowdens each at a different agency or outfit would have to step out of the shadows8211and that would just be for starters Then we would need a media that was ready to roll and a Congress not wrapped in 8220security8221 and 8220secrecy8221 but demanding answers as the Church committee did in the Watergate era with subpoenas in hand and the threat of prison for noshows and perjurers Yes we may have access to basic information about what the NSA has been up to but remind me What exactly do you know about the doings of the Pentagon8217s Defense Intelligence Agency with its 16500 employees which has in recent years embarked on 8220an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size8221 How about the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency with its 16000 employees its post911 headquarters price tag 18 billion and its control over our system of spy satellites eternally prowling the planetary skies The answer is no more than you would have known about the NSA if Snowden hadn8217t acted as he did And by the way what do you really know about the FBI which now among other things issues thousands of national security letters a year 16511 in 2011 alone an unknown number of them for terror investigations Since their recipients are muzzled from discussing them we know next to nothing about them or what the Bureau is actually doing And how8217s your info on the CIA which takes 4 billion more out of the intelligence 8220 black budget8221 than the NSA runs its own private wars and has even organized its own privatized corps of spies as part of the general expansion of US intelligence and espionage abroad The answer on all of the above is8212has to be8212remarkably little Or take something basic like that oldfashioned lowtech form of surveillance government informers and agents provocateurs They were commonplace in the 1960s and early 1970s within every oppositional movement So many decades later they are with us again Thanks to the ACLU which has mapped scattered reports on situations in which informers made it into at least the local news nationwide we know that they became part of what antiwar movements existed slipped into various aspects of the Occupy movement and have run riot in local MuslimAmerican communities We know as well that these informers come from a wide range of outfits including the local police the military and the FBI However if we know a great deal about NSA snooping and surveillance we have just about no inside information on the extent of oldstyle informing surveilling and provoking One thing couldn8217t be clearer though the mania for secrecy has grown tremendously in the Obama years On entering the Oval Office in 2009 Obama proclaimed a sunshine administration dedicated to 8220openness8221 and 8220transparency8221 That announcement now drips with irony If you want a measure of the kind of secrecy the NSS considers proper and the White House condones these days check out a recent Los Angeles Times piece on the CIA8217s drone assassination program one of the more overt aspects of Washington8217s covert world That paper recently reported that Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin held a 8220joint classified hearing8221 with the Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA the Pentagon and their drone campaigns against terror suspects in the backlands of the planet There was just one catch CIA officials normally testify only before the House and Senate intelligence committees In this case the White House 8220refused to provide the necessary security clearances for members of the House and Senate armed services committees8221 amp160As a result it would not let CIA witnesses appear before Levin Officials reported the Times 8220had little appetite for briefing the 26 senators and 62 House members who sit on the armed services committees on the CIA8217s most sensitive operations8221amp160 Sunshine in other words is considered potentially dangerous even in tiny doses even in Congress A Cult of Government Secrecy In evaluating what may lie behind the many curtains of Washington history does offer us a small hand Thanks to the revelations of the 1970s including a Snowdenstyle breakin by antiwar activists at an FBI office in Media Pennsylvania in 1971 that opened a window into the Bureau8217s acts of illegality some nowfamous reporting and the thorough work of the Church committee in the Senate we have a sense of the enormity of what the US national security state was capable of once enveloped in a penumbra of secrecy even if in that era the accompanying technology could do so much less In the Johnson and Nixon years as we now know the FBI the CIA the NSA and other acronymic outfits committed a staggering range of misdeeds provocations and crimes It8217s easy to say that postWatergate 8220reforms8221 made such acts a thing of the past Unfortunately there8217s no reason to believe that In fact the nature of that era8217s reforms should be reconsidered After all one particularly important Congressional response of that moment was to create the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court essentially a judiciary for the secret world which would generate a significant body of law that no American outside the NSS could see The irony is again overwhelming After the shocking headlines the congressional inquiries the impeachment proceedings the ending of two presidencies8212one by resignation8212and everything else including black bag jobs breakins buggings attempted beatings blackmail massive spying and surveillance and provocations of every sort the answer was a secret court Its judges appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court alone are charged with ruling after hearing only one side of any case involving a governmental desire to snoop or pry or surveil Unsurprisingly enough over the three and a half decades of its existence the court proved a willing rubber stamp for just about any urge of the national security state In retrospect this remedy for widespread government illegality clearly was just another step in the institutionalization of a secret world that looks increasingly like an Orwellian nightmare In creating the FISA court Congress functionally took the seatofthepants extraConstitutional extralegal acts of the Nixon era and put them under the rule of secret law Today in the wake of among other things the rampant extralegality of the Global War on Terror8211including the setting up of a secret extrajudicial global prison system of 8220 black sites8221 where rampant torture and abuse were carried to the point of death illegal kidnappings of terror suspects off global streets and their rendition to the prisons of torture regimes and the assassinationbydrone of American citizens backed by Justice Department legalisms8211it8217s clear that NSS officials feel they have near total impunity when it comes to whatever they want to do Not that their secret acts often turn out as planned or particularly well in the real worldamp160 They know that nothing they do however egregious will be brought before an open court of law and prosecuted While the rest of us remain inside the legal system they exist in 8220 postlegal America8221amp160 Now the president claims that he8217s preparing a new set of 8220 reforms8221 to bring this system under check and back in balance Watch out If tomorrow a series of Edward Snowdens were to appear each from a different intelligence agency or other outfit in the national security state one thing would be guaranteed the shock of the NSA revelations would be multiplied many times over Protected from the law by a spreading cult of government secrecy beyond the reach of the citizenry Congress or the aboveground judicial system supported by the White House and a body of developing secret law knowing that no act undertaken in the name of American 8220safety8221 and 8220security8221 will ever be prosecuted the inhabitants of our secret state have been moving in dark and disturbing ways What we know is already disturbing enough What we don8217t know would surely unnerve us far more Shadow government has conquered twentyfirstcentury Washington We have the makings of a thug state of the first order Tom Engelhardt a cofounder of the American Empire Project and author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War The End of Victory Culture runs the Nation Institute8217s TomDispatchcom His latest book coauthored with Nick Turse is Terminator Planet The First History of Drone Warfare 20012050 To stay on top of important articles like these sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatchcom here | amplta/PROPN hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcompicmhtmlid173308298ampampsrcidampgtGil/PROPN CampltaampgtShutterstock/PROPN This/DET story/NOUN first/ADV appeared/VERB on/ADP the/DET TomDispatch/PROPN website/NOUN Here/ADV at/ADP least/ADJ is/AUX a/DET place/NOUN to/PART start/VERB intelligence/NOUN officials/NOUN have/AUX weighed/VERB in/ADP with/ADP an/DET estimate/NOUN of/ADP just/ADV how/SCONJ many/ADJ secret/ADJ files/NOUN National/PROPN Security/PROPN Agency/PROPN contractor/NOUN Edward/PROPN Snowden/PROPN took/VERB with/ADP him/PRON when/SCONJ he/PRON headed/VERB for/ADP Hong/PROPN Kong/PROPN last/ADJ June/PROPN Brace/PROPN yourselfamp160/PROPN 17/NUM million/NUM At/ADP least/ADJ they/PRON 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<p>Seif Da'na is Professor and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He specializes in the Middle East and North Africa.</p>
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: This is The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore.
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<p />An Egyptian court has sentenced former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically-elected president of Egypt and a hundred others to death for the 2011 mass jailbreak. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood claims that the verdict is being issued against protesters who participated in the January 25th revolution that was Arab Spring, demanding the overthrow of President Mubarak. Turkish President Erdogan and United States and the EU have denounced this verdict, as has Amnesty International. The sentence is provisional until June 2nd, when the most senior religious authorities, and primarily the Grand Mufti, will announce his final decision.
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<p />With us to discuss all of this is Seif Da'na, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He is also associate editor of Arab Studies Quarterly, and contributor to a well-known publication, Al-Ahram Weekly. Professor Da'na, thank you so much for joining us today.
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<p />SEIF DA'NA, CHAIR, SOCIOLOGY &amp; ANTHROPOLOGY, UWP: Thank you for having me.
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<p />PERIES: Professor Da'na, this appears to be a part of a larger crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood and anyone who is critical of the Sisi government. What is your understanding of all of this?
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<p />DA'NA: Well, the sentencing has two dimensions, really. One is domestic, and essentially it's a part of the conflict between the Egyptian authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood as a movement. And of course, it's intended to suppress any dissent, or to use that sentencing as a warning to any possible dissent in the future, whether from the Muslim Brotherhood or others.
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<p />But also it has a regional dimension, because the Muslim Brotherhood is not only an Egyptian domestic force, it's also a regional power. And the allies of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially Qatar, Turkey, and also Hamas in Palestine and Gaza have some very tense relations with the Egyptian authorities at this point. So this is part of the regional conflict between Egypt on one side and Turkey and Qatar on the other side.
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<p />And also the other aspect is the domestic one. But clearly, the ruling is, the sentencing is very political. I mean, nobody can doubt that, especially if it is compared to what happened actually with Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for over 30 years, and essentially he was found innocent by the Egyptian courts. But there is still [room], and I think the Egyptian legal procedures would enable Sisi, General Sisi, in the future to actually go either direction. Either with carrying out the sentencing, which seems unlikely at this point, or decide against it essentially, or go in the other direction. Not--that is, to not carry out the sentencing. Basically that would depend on the domestic Egyptian conditions and the regional conditions from now until probably November, because there is a UN, the UN Council on Human Rights will be meeting in November. And I think the Egyptian--Egypt will be one of the topics that it will discuss.
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<p />And therefore it's very flexible. I mean, the ruling, the procedures, the legal procedures enable Sisi to--will give Sisi the flexibility to do anything he wishes, at that point.
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<p />PERIES: Now, the Grand Mufti has until June 2nd. What do you think will happen between now and then? And what role does the religious authority play in terms of judicial decisions of this sort?
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<p />DA'NA: Well, the Grand Mufti has--I mean, the role of the Grand Mufti is part of the protocol. But it's more really ceremonial rather than really a real power in this case. In the event that there is a contradiction between--or if the Grand Mufti disagrees with the judge, then according to the regulations the ruling of the judge will be affirmed. Usually there is no disagreement. But in the event that the Grant Mufti disagrees the only possible option is to go to the next step. Which is--and anyway, they're going to go there according to the regulation, which is moving to the next step. Which is the court of appeals.
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<p />And in this case, even if the court of appeals confirms the ruling, and the Grand Mufti still disagrees with that, the primacy goes for the judge's ruling, not for the Grand Mufti. But at the end of the day, a ruling of this nature requires the confirmation of the president of the Republic, in this case Sisi.
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<p />So the Grant Mufti's role is more adding an additional aspect of legitimacy to the ruling, but it is not really essential. It's part of the regulations, but his role is, I mean, doesn't--he cannot really cancel the ruling of the judge. So the judge has more primacy in this issue than the Grand Mufti. But at the end of the day, as I said, it's up to the president of the Republic to confirm or to not confirm the ruling.
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<p />PERIES: So in this decision, the judiciary is playing a role in silencing dissent. I mean, what evidence did they really find that Morsi and these hundred others now convicted and sentenced to death had actually done what the court finds them guilty of?
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<p />DA'NA: Well as I said at the beginning, the ruling is clearly political. Because we have at least five Palestinians included in the list of 100 people who were sentenced to death. Five of them were actually--are actually already dead. Some of them since 2008 and 2009. One of them has been in the Israeli prison since 1996. So obviously the ruling was not very careful. Of course, as I said at the beginning, it wasn't--including Palestinians in this case was intended as a sign against Hamas, as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region. So they were not really careful.
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<p />And if we compare that to the procedures that went against, the legal--the court of Mubarak, before. Where many of the evidence were neglected, many of the events were neglected. This is not really a serious issue. They were not really serious in this case. As I said, it's political.
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<p />But what is really important here is that Morsi has been already sentenced to 20 years for another case last month. Or a few weeks ago. So in the event that the authorities in Egypt decide that they're not going to carry out the sentence, it might--it won't mean anything to Morsi, really, essentially, because he would remain in prison because of the other case.
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<p />So either way, the authorities would have Morsi in prison anyway.
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<p />PERIES: Now, the U.S. has expressed its concern, in quotes, over the sentencing. Could you speak to the diplomatic and military effects this is going to have in terms of the relationship with the United States?
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<p />DA'NA: I think the relationships with the United States between, during the Sisi regime or with the beginning of the Sisi regime, did undergo some changes in the sense that we can sense some sort of tension in the relationship. Sisi has been trying to diversify Egypt's foreign relations, especially with Russia and other countries. But of course the U.S. remains the main power in the region, and Sisi knows that. And Egypt is very interested in a good relationship with the U.S. under Sisi.
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<p />However, Sisi understands that, and that's what a lot of commentators in the region really believe, that the U.S. was actually supporting or interested in the Muslim Brotherhood movement in the region, after they came to power in Egypt in 2013 and Tunisia in 2012. And even they're talking about, even conspiracies, if you like, between the U.S. and the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course, some of this is nonsense. But the issue here is, as I said, Sisi uses his conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood and his attack--not only on the Muslim--well, specifically on the Muslim Brotherhood, as part of this regional conflict that has been going on and is intended to shape the whole region.
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<p />The Muslim Brotherhood is a major force in the struggle over the future of the region, and what kind of Middle East we will have. The region is in a state of formation, or in the phase of being, formation, at this point. We're witnessing the formation of a new region. And the Muslim Brotherhood are a major force in this. Not only in Egypt, but also outside Egypt. And this is why what happens in Egypt will have really regional implications as well. That's why Qatar and Turkey are very vocal against the Egyptian authorities in this case.
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<p />The issue here, as I said, is not about really, it's not really humanitarian concern for Morsi or for the 100, the list of 100 other people as much as it's part of this regional conflict. And since 1991 really in the region, what we've been seeing is that every domestic event seems to be by implication a regional event, because--especially after the collapse of the socialist camp and the Soviet Union, we don't have two regional, two international powers. We only have the U.S., and all conflicts and all tensions are interconnected. So anything domestic would necessarily become regional. And in this case, the Muslim Brotherhood is a good example, especially that they are an Egyptian domestic force and also a regional force.
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<p />PERIES: And what do you think will be the domestic implications of this sentencing? Arab Spring is still fresh in people's mind, and there is enormous support for Muslim Brotherhood in the country. After all, he was the first democratically elected president of Egypt.
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<p />DA'NA: We have already seen some escalations after the sentencing. Three judges were assassinated. And a fourth judge, the assassination of a fourth judge, who is--the fourth one is connected, actually, to one of the cases against the Muslim Brotherhood. Against one of the rulings against the Muslim Brotherhood. Failed. The security discovered that attempt before it was carried out. So it would necessarily lead to escalation. Not only in Egypt, but also in the region as well.
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<p />That--if the sentencing was carried out. Now, as I said, it seems at this point given the regional and Egyptian conditions unlikely that Sisi would go, or the Egyptian authority would go for, would carry out this sentencing. But we don't know how things will unfold from now until maybe November, because after the assassination of the four judges the Egyptian authorities carried out the death sentence against six of the Islamist activists in Egypt. In some way, the way it was carried out was a violation of the Egyptian legal regulations. And it seemed like a reaction to the assassination of the three judges three days ago.
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<p />So at this point, all options are open before the Egyptian authorities. It seems unlikely given the current conditions, because they know it would lead to escalation. We've already seen signs of escalation after the sentencing. And the Muslim Brotherhood is a strong Egyptian force. They would have to think many times before they carry out this sentencing.
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<p />But also, other forces in Egypt see that as a sign of suppressing dissent of all forms in Egypt. Especially that Sisi has been in power almost a year. He will be in power almost a year. And he--there are no achievements for the Egyptian authorities at this point. And the only thing that he can present is facing terrorism, this idea of terrorism in Egypt and in [inaud.] in particular. But there is nothing else that can Sisi actually talk about, any kind of achievement that Sisi can actually present to the Egyptian public.
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<p />So this comes convenient, really, to blame the Muslim Brotherhood, to blame any form of other dissent for all the troubles of Egypt to avoid any blame for the Egyptian current conditions by the people of Egypt against Morsi.
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<p />PERIES: And finally, Professor Da'na, what is the role of Saudi Arabia in all of this?
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<p />DA'NA: Well, Saudi Arabia was essentially part of the anti-Muslim Brotherhood campaign until the war on Yemen started. And until the new king took power after the death of King Abdullah recently. They kind of changed course. The primary target for the Saudi policies at this point is their conflict or tension with Iran, in particular, which is the regional one, really. So in this case, they needed in their coalition to include Qatar, to include Turkey in their coalition. And Qatar and Turkey are primary supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Actually, the Muslim Brotherhood has been Qatar and Turkey's most important tool in their regional power, and regional conflict.
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<p />So Saudi Arabia had to change course because their target now is Iran, not the Muslim Brotherhood. And their coalition is really interesting, because it includes Egypt on the other side, the Sisi regime, which is engaging in a serious conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey and Qatar on the other side. What Sisi did really in this sentencing, or what the Egyptian authorities did in this sentencing, was also sending a message to members of this coalition. Saudi Arabia doesn't mind, really, suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood. They have, actually they were part of the suppression not only of the Muslim Brotherhood but all other dissent in the region. But at this point I think their main concern is Iran. Their main concern is the war in Yemen. And they're interested in any force that will join them.
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<p />And Egypt is an important force. They want Egypt to be on their side. And that's why they will not criticize the Egyptian authorities at this point. But also they're interested in Turkey and Qatar as well. So they're in a very critical position, and I don't expect that they will actually take a side or take a position at this point, with or against the sentencing. Because they don't want to alienate Egypt, an important force, especially if they are planning to go for a ground war with Yemen. We don't know what's going to happen in the future in the war on Yemen. And also they need Turkey's support. They need Qatar's support as part of the Gulf states in the region. So they're in this critical situation at this point.
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<p />But until the war in Yemen started, Saudi Arabia was part of the war on the Muslim Brotherhood, and part of the war on any kind of dissent in the region.
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<p />PERIES: Professor Da'na, thank you so much for joining us today.
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<p />DA'NA: Thank you.
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<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Former President Morsi Sentenced to Death | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D13878 | 2015-05-20 | 4left
| 2,475 | Seif Dana is Professor and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at the University of WisconsinParkside He specializes in the Middle East and North Africa SHARMINI PERIES EXEC PRODUCER TRNN This is The Real News Network Im Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore An Egyptian court has sentenced former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi the first democraticallyelected president of Egypt and a hundred others to death for the 2011 mass jailbreak Members of the Muslim Brotherhood claims that the verdict is being issued against protesters who participated in the January 25th revolution that was Arab Spring demanding the overthrow of President Mubarak Turkish President Erdogan and United States and the EU have denounced this verdict as has Amnesty International The sentence is provisional until June 2nd when the most senior religious authorities and primarily the Grand Mufti will announce his final decision With us to discuss all of this is Seif Dana professor of sociology at the University of WisconsinParkside He is also associate editor of Arab Studies Quarterly and contributor to a wellknown publication AlAhram Weekly Professor Dana thank you so much for joining us today SEIF DANA CHAIR SOCIOLOGY ampamp ANTHROPOLOGY UWP Thank you for having me PERIES Professor Dana this appears to be a part of a larger crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood and anyone who is critical of the Sisi government What is your understanding of all of this DANA Well the sentencing has two dimensions really One is domestic and essentially its a part of the conflict between the Egyptian authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood as a movement And of course its intended to suppress any dissent or to use that sentencing as a warning to any possible dissent in the future whether from the Muslim Brotherhood or others But also it has a regional dimension because the Muslim Brotherhood is not only an Egyptian domestic force its also a regional power And the allies of the Muslim Brotherhood especially Qatar Turkey and also Hamas in Palestine and Gaza have some very tense relations with the Egyptian authorities at this point So this is part of the regional conflict between Egypt on one side and Turkey and Qatar on the other side And also the other aspect is the domestic one But clearly the ruling is the sentencing is very political I mean nobody can doubt that especially if it is compared to what happened actually with Mubarak who ruled Egypt for over 30 years and essentially he was found innocent by the Egyptian courts But there is still room and I think the Egyptian legal procedures would enable Sisi General Sisi in the future to actually go either direction Either with carrying out the sentencing which seems unlikely at this point or decide against it essentially or go in the other direction Notthat is to not carry out the sentencing Basically that would depend on the domestic Egyptian conditions and the regional conditions from now until probably November because there is a UN the UN Council on Human Rights will be meeting in November And I think the EgyptianEgypt will be one of the topics that it will discuss And therefore its very flexible I mean the ruling the procedures the legal procedures enable Sisi towill give Sisi the flexibility to do anything he wishes at that point PERIES Now the Grand Mufti has until June 2nd What do you think will happen between now and then And what role does the religious authority play in terms of judicial decisions of this sort DANA Well the Grand Mufti hasI mean the role of the Grand Mufti is part of the protocol But its more really ceremonial rather than really a real power in this case In the event that there is a contradiction betweenor if the Grand Mufti disagrees with the judge then according to the regulations the ruling of the judge will be affirmed Usually there is no disagreement But in the event that the Grant Mufti disagrees the only possible option is to go to the next step Which isand anyway theyre going to go there according to the regulation which is moving to the next step Which is the court of appeals And in this case even if the court of appeals confirms the ruling and the Grand Mufti still disagrees with that the primacy goes for the judges ruling not for the Grand Mufti But at the end of the day a ruling of this nature requires the confirmation of the president of the Republic in this case Sisi So the Grant Muftis role is more adding an additional aspect of legitimacy to the ruling but it is not really essential Its part of the regulations but his role is I mean doesnthe cannot really cancel the ruling of the judge So the judge has more primacy in this issue than the Grand Mufti But at the end of the day as I said its up to the president of the Republic to confirm or to not confirm the ruling PERIES So in this decision the judiciary is playing a role in silencing dissent I mean what evidence did they really find that Morsi and these hundred others now convicted and sentenced to death had actually done what the court finds them guilty of DANA Well as I said at the beginning the ruling is clearly political Because we have at least five Palestinians included in the list of 100 people who were sentenced to death Five of them were actuallyare actually already dead Some of them since 2008 and 2009 One of them has been in the Israeli prison since 1996 So obviously the ruling was not very careful Of course as I said at the beginning it wasntincluding Palestinians in this case was intended as a sign against Hamas as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region So they were not really careful And if we compare that to the procedures that went against the legalthe court of Mubarak before Where many of the evidence were neglected many of the events were neglected This is not really a serious issue They were not really serious in this case As I said its political But what is really important here is that Morsi has been already sentenced to 20 years for another case last month Or a few weeks ago So in the event that the authorities in Egypt decide that theyre not going to carry out the sentence it mightit wont mean anything to Morsi really essentially because he would remain in prison because of the other case So either way the authorities would have Morsi in prison anyway PERIES Now the US has expressed its concern in quotes over the sentencing Could you speak to the diplomatic and military effects this is going to have in terms of the relationship with the United States DANA I think the relationships with the United States between during the Sisi regime or with the beginning of the Sisi regime did undergo some changes in the sense that we can sense some sort of tension in the relationship Sisi has been trying to diversify Egypts foreign relations especially with Russia and other countries But of course the US remains the main power in the region and Sisi knows that And Egypt is very interested in a good relationship with the US under Sisi However Sisi understands that and thats what a lot of commentators in the region really believe that the US was actually supporting or interested in the Muslim Brotherhood movement in the region after they came to power in Egypt in 2013 and Tunisia in 2012 And even theyre talking about even conspiracies if you like between the US and the Muslim Brotherhood Of course some of this is nonsense But the issue here is as I said Sisi uses his conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood and his attacknot only on the Muslimwell specifically on the Muslim Brotherhood as part of this regional conflict that has been going on and is intended to shape the whole region The Muslim Brotherhood is a major force in the struggle over the future of the region and what kind of Middle East we will have The region is in a state of formation or in the phase of being formation at this point Were witnessing the formation of a new region And the Muslim Brotherhood are a major force in this Not only in Egypt but also outside Egypt And this is why what happens in Egypt will have really regional implications as well Thats why Qatar and Turkey are very vocal against the Egyptian authorities in this case The issue here as I said is not about really its not really humanitarian concern for Morsi or for the 100 the list of 100 other people as much as its part of this regional conflict And since 1991 really in the region what weve been seeing is that every domestic event seems to be by implication a regional event becauseespecially after the collapse of the socialist camp and the Soviet Union we dont have two regional two international powers We only have the US and all conflicts and all tensions are interconnected So anything domestic would necessarily become regional And in this case the Muslim Brotherhood is a good example especially that they are an Egyptian domestic force and also a regional force PERIES And what do you think will be the domestic implications of this sentencing Arab Spring is still fresh in peoples mind and there is enormous support for Muslim Brotherhood in the country After all he was the first democratically elected president of Egypt DANA We have already seen some escalations after the sentencing Three judges were assassinated And a fourth judge the assassination of a fourth judge who isthe fourth one is connected actually to one of the cases against the Muslim Brotherhood Against one of the rulings against the Muslim Brotherhood Failed The security discovered that attempt before it was carried out So it would necessarily lead to escalation Not only in Egypt but also in the region as well Thatif the sentencing was carried out Now as I said it seems at this point given the regional and Egyptian conditions unlikely that Sisi would go or the Egyptian authority would go for would carry out this sentencing But we dont know how things will unfold from now until maybe November because after the assassination of the four judges the Egyptian authorities carried out the death sentence against six of the Islamist activists in Egypt In some way the way it was carried out was a violation of the Egyptian legal regulations And it seemed like a reaction to the assassination of the three judges three days ago So at this point all options are open before the Egyptian authorities It seems unlikely given the current conditions because they know it would lead to escalation Weve already seen signs of escalation after the sentencing And the Muslim Brotherhood is a strong Egyptian force They would have to think many times before they carry out this sentencing But also other forces in Egypt see that as a sign of suppressing dissent of all forms in Egypt Especially that Sisi has been in power almost a year He will be in power almost a year And hethere are no achievements for the Egyptian authorities at this point And the only thing that he can present is facing terrorism this idea of terrorism in Egypt and in inaud in particular But there is nothing else that can Sisi actually talk about any kind of achievement that Sisi can actually present to the Egyptian public So this comes convenient really to blame the Muslim Brotherhood to blame any form of other dissent for all the troubles of Egypt to avoid any blame for the Egyptian current conditions by the people of Egypt against Morsi PERIES And finally Professor Dana what is the role of Saudi Arabia in all of this DANA Well Saudi Arabia was essentially part of the antiMuslim Brotherhood campaign until the war on Yemen started And until the new king took power after the death of King Abdullah recently They kind of changed course The primary target for the Saudi policies at this point is their conflict or tension with Iran in particular which is the regional one really So in this case they needed in their coalition to include Qatar to include Turkey in their coalition And Qatar and Turkey are primary supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood Actually the Muslim Brotherhood has been Qatar and Turkeys most important tool in their regional power and regional conflict So Saudi Arabia had to change course because their target now is Iran not the Muslim Brotherhood And their coalition is really interesting because it includes Egypt on the other side the Sisi regime which is engaging in a serious conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey and Qatar on the other side What Sisi did really in this sentencing or what the Egyptian authorities did in this sentencing was also sending a message to members of this coalition Saudi Arabia doesnt mind really suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood They have actually they were part of the suppression not only of the Muslim Brotherhood but all other dissent in the region But at this point I think their main concern is Iran Their main concern is the war in Yemen And theyre interested in any force that will join them And Egypt is an important force They want Egypt to be on their side And thats why they will not criticize the Egyptian authorities at this point But also theyre interested in Turkey and Qatar as well So theyre in a very critical position and I dont expect that they will actually take a side or take a position at this point with or against the sentencing Because they dont want to alienate Egypt an important force especially if they are planning to go for a ground war with Yemen We dont know whats going to happen in the future in the war on Yemen And also they need Turkeys support They need Qatars support as part of the Gulf states in the region So theyre in this critical situation at this point But until the war in Yemen started Saudi Arabia was part of the war on the Muslim Brotherhood and part of the war on any kind of dissent in the region PERIES Professor Dana thank you so much for joining us today DANA Thank you PERIES And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN 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<p>Amazon's Alexa and other digital assistants are changing the way we get information and control our <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410889,00.asp" type="external">smart homes Opens a New Window.</a>. They are fundamentally altering the way in which we interact with our computing devices. We've only scratched the surface of what voice-activated intelligence can do and, thanks to the <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit" type="external">Alexa Skills Kit Opens a New Window.</a>, anyone can create a skill for Amazon's versatile digital assistant.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Through the Alexa Skills Kit, we're starting to see the potential of devices such as the <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/review/331983/amazon-echo" type="external">Amazon Echo Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/review/343443/amazon-echo-dot" type="external">Amazon Echo Dot Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />, and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/review/343482/amazon-tap" type="external">Amazon Tap Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" /> beyond <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/347812/9-amusing-skills-to-teach-amazon-s-alexa" type="external">amusing parlor tricks Opens a New Window.</a>. Through each new, innovative <a href="https://www.amazon.com/alexa-skills/b/ref=topnav_storetab_a2s?ie=UTF8&amp;node=13727921011" type="external">Alexa skill Opens a New Window.</a> created and added to the list, we're seeing the difference a voice-activated digital assistant can make to the day-to-day operations of your small to midsize business (SMB).</p>
<p>Companies and developers are building more Alexa skills by the day. Setting up an Echo or other connected Alexa device in your office can already start paying dividends for everything from scheduling and productivity to <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2453354,00.asp" type="external">email marketing Opens a New Window.</a> and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2492697,00.asp" type="external">website monitoring Opens a New Window.</a>. Below, we've combed through the current skills catalog and compiled a list of 23 must-have Alexa skills you can enable today for your SMB.</p>
<p>1. Conference ManagerBuilt by <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386331,00.asp" type="external">Vonage</a> <a type="external" href="" />, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vonage-Conference-Manager/dp/B01DOIJKZU/ref=sr_1_274?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486754&amp;sr=1-274" type="external">Conference Manager Opens a New Window.</a> skill syncs with Google Calendar to identify your next conference call and save you the hassle of dialing in. Conference Manager scans your calendar, dials the conference number, enters your meeting or participant code, and then calls you through your Alexa-enabled device. All you need to say is "start my call." The skill currently supports a number of conferencing services, including <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387928,00.asp" type="external">Cisco WebEx Meeting Center Opens a New Window.</a>, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387935,00.asp" type="external">Citrix GoToMeeting Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />, and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2486724,00.asp" type="external">Vonage Business Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />.</p>
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<p>Example command: "Alexa, tell Conference Manager to start my conference call."</p>
<p>2. Email AssistantFor the salesperson or employee who's constantly on the go, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/EasilyDo-Email-Assistant/dp/B01BW5A4EI/ref=sr_1_283?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486790&amp;sr=1-283" type="external">Email Assistant Opens a New Window.</a> skill is an easy way to get travel details. Built by productivity software provider EasilyDo, this skill lets you ask Alexa about your flight, hotel, or car rental details, and parses your inbox to read back travel details. It works with Exchange, Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, and other email providers; though, if you want to connect multiple Gmail or other email accounts, then you'll need to make an EasilyDo account and manually add them. We'd like to see this skill evolve past simple travel details into a more full-fledged, voice-activated email skill, but Email Assistant is a good start.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, ask Email Assistant what time my flight leaves."</p>
<p>3. FreeBusy Scheduling Assistant <a href="https://www.amazon.com/BizLogr-Inc-FreeBusy-Scheduling-Assistant/dp/B017OBE2NI/ref=sr_1_296?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486867&amp;sr=1-296" type="external">FreeBusy Scheduling Assistant Opens a New Window.</a> helps you coordinate meetings and stay on top of your schedule. Once enabled, you can ask Alexa to check if a contact is available at a certain time, and to schedule events or conference calls (though it isn't quite as good at managing conference calls as the aforementioned Conference Manager). It's more useful as a way to quickly check your schedule and avoid conflicts before scheduling a meeting. The skill syncs with a number of calendars, including Exhange, Google Calendar, iCloud, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415466,00.asp" type="external">Microsoft Outlook Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />, and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383731,00.asp" type="external">Microsoft Office 365 Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, ask FreeBusy to see if Juan is free for a phone call on Thursday, February 23."</p>
<p>4. Quick Events <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Creations-Quick-Events/dp/B017YBAFW0/ref=sr_1_294?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486867&amp;sr=1-294" type="external">Quick Events Opens a New Window.</a> lets Alexa add events to your primary Google Calendar. It checks for conflicting events and asks for confirmation before adding an event. Alexa will also prompt you for all of the information it needs to schedule an event within the conversation. Events are scheduled for 50 minutes by default but you can specify any custom length. The skill also supports multi-day events and all-day events.</p>
<p>Example commands: Alexa: "What would you like to add to your calendar?"You: "Add a meeting with Juan."Alexa: "For what day should I schedule the event?"You: "For Tomorrow"Alexa: "At what time should I schedule the event"You: "At 2pm."</p>
<p>5. Chat Bot for Slack <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2477507,00.asp" type="external">Slack</a> <a type="external" href="" /> is addicting. While the popular <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2489110,00.asp" type="external">collaboration Opens a New Window.</a> app doesn't have an official Alexa skill, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/PromptWorks-Chat-Bot-for-Slack/dp/B01FEVJDFM/ref=sr_1_259?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486718&amp;sr=1-259" type="external">Chat Bot for Slack Opens a New Window.</a> skill is a decent stand-in. Once enabled, the skill allows links to your Slack account and lets you post to Slack using your Alexa device by simply saying your message and the channel into which you want your message to post.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, tell Chat Bot I want to post 'My train is delayed' to the #status channel."</p>
<p>6. Edit DocsWhile not created by Google, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Antonio-Cucciniello-Edit-Docs/dp/B01MYOGRD5/ref=sr_1_103?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486218&amp;sr=1-103" type="external">Edit Docs Opens a New Window.</a> skill is a great way to create and edit Google Docs on the fly via Alexa, and to make sure you get that great idea on paper before it's gone. Edit Docs needs to sync with a Gmail account and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2494010,00.asp" type="external">Google Drive Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />, and then the skill lets Alexa list your 10 most recently used files, create or open a <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/review/349586/google-docs-sheets-and-slides" type="external">Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide Opens a New Window.</a>, and edit or add to that file.</p>
<p>Example commands: "Alexa, ask Edit Docs to list my files please.""Alexa, ask Edit Docs to create a document called Ideas." "Alexa, ask Edit Docs to update the file Ideas with…."</p>
<p>7. MastermindThis is one of the hottest Alexa skills available and for good reason. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mastermind-Text-Messaging-Phone-Calls/dp/B01N0HFLPG/ref=sr_1_91?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485939&amp;sr=1-91" type="external">Mastermind Opens a New Window.</a> lets you access your phone's notifications, get and send text messages, initiate phone calls, get caller ID, launch apps, and more. It's a voice-activated productivity and communications powerhouse. The skill is currently in closed beta due to high demand but, when you enable the skill, you'll be added to a waitlist.</p>
<p>Example command: When your phone rings, say "Alexa, Ask Mastermind Who's Calling." To send unwanted calls to voicemail, say "Alexa, Ask Mastermind to Reject Call."</p>
<p>8. Startup SignalOne of Alexa's most natural uses is as an instantaneous source of searchable information. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Signal-Media/dp/B01N9PV17I/ref=sr_1_28?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485095&amp;sr=1-28" type="external">Startup Signal Opens a New Window.</a> focuses that skill to give you real-time business news updates. Once enabled, Alexa will give you news flashes on <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/startups" type="external">startups Opens a New Window.</a>, angel investors, venture capital (VC) firms, corporate investors, and regions related to startups. It's an easy way to stay on top of the business world and make sure your startup or SMB jumps on an opportunity the moment it arises.</p>
<p>Example command: ""Alexa, what's my Flash Briefing?"</p>
<p>9. Voice Metrics <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MUGOGXL/ref=sr_1_112?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486269&amp;sr=1-112" type="external">Voice Metrics Opens a New Window.</a> takes that real-time data briefing and customizes it to whatever business data is top-of-mind for you. The skill requires an Amazon account and a <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496696,00.asp" type="external">Zapier Opens a New Window.</a> account to help you create a custom business briefing. Voice Metrics integrates with services such as Google Sheets, Slack, and any other data source integrated with Zapier to pull data on anything from sales needs and new customers to the status of each department in your company. The skill takes some customization but the data you get in return is worth it.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, ask Voice Metrics for my Briefing."</p>
<p>10. Web AnalyticsOn top of news and curated data, Alexa can also give you real-time website updates. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Online-Impact-Group-Web-Analytics/dp/B01N0R0GFR/ref=sr_1_70?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485290&amp;sr=1-70" type="external">Web Analytics Opens a New Window.</a> syncs with Google Analytics to give you updates on your website's traffic and visitor numbers. Instead of logging into Google Analytics, you can enable this skill to ask Alexa for real-time website traffic numbers at any time. You can also focus your queries further to drill down on metrics such as average session duration and pages per visit.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, ask Web Analytics for the complete report."</p>
<p>11. BMC SoftwareFor any business invested in the BMC Software ecosystem of <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/66383/devops" type="external">DevOps</a>, IT management, or <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2491993,00.asp" type="external">asset management Opens a New Window.</a> software like <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2491952,00.asp" type="external">BMC Track-It! Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />, this skill might be for you. BMC Software is putting together new cloud services in <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496299,00.asp" type="external">Amazon Web Services Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" /> (AWS), and is making the results of these compliance-focused services available through Alexa with the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/BMC-Software-bmc-software/dp/B01N4G78MO/ref=sr_1_47?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485195&amp;sr=1-47" type="external">BMC Software Opens a New Window.</a> skill.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, open BMC. What is my non-compliance?"</p>
<p>12. Expense Tracker <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496149,00.asp" type="external">Expense tracking Opens a New Window.</a> is a necessary tedium for every business. The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/FutureOfVoice-Expense-Tracker/dp/B01DC0VZZI/ref=sr_1_161?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485554&amp;sr=1-161" type="external">Expense Tracker Opens a New Window.</a> Alexa skill creates a financial overview and manages expenses. At this point, it's more personal than business-focused, letting you add expenses to default categories such as clothes, food, fun, household, and work. If your business wants to track specific expenses, then you can create new categories. Alexa will also give you a summary of all your spending per category with the command "Alexa, ask Expense Tracker for my report."</p>
<p>Example commands: "Alexa, ask Expense Tracker to add the category food reimbursement.""Alexa, tell Expense Tracker that I paid 10 dollars for food."</p>
<p>13. Rhino Fleet TrackingIf you have a business that deals with the logistics of drivers, deliveries, and shipment tracking, then the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rhino-Fleet-Tracking/dp/B01NCP616R/ref=sr_1_9?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486484892&amp;sr=1-9" type="external">Rhino Fleet Tracking Opens a New Window.</a> skill is for you. If you have a Rhino Fleet Tracking account, then you can enable this skill to ask Alexa for the locations of your vehicles and drivers. You can also assign drivers to vehicles on the fly and search for drivers who are at a specific landmark.</p>
<p>Example commands:"Alexa, tell Rhino to list my drivers.""Alexa, ask Rhino where Steve is.""Alexa, ask Rhino where device Jeep is.""Alexa, ask Rhino to assign driver Steve to device Jeep."</p>
<p>14. ShopifyIf your business has an <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2484670,00.asp" type="external">e-commerce Opens a New Window.</a> component and uses popular software <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2483762,00.asp" type="external">Shopify Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />, then the company has built an Alexa skill just for you. The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shopify/dp/B01NCM75LX/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485616&amp;sr=1-8" type="external">Shopify skill Opens a New Window.</a> enables Alexa to pull information on orders, inventory, and store performance summaries. Currently, the skill lets you ask for weekly or monthly store summaries, orders and sales reporting data, specific order information, product fulfillment information, average-over-value over specified time periods, and a summary of your best-selling products.</p>
<p>Example commands:"Alexa, ask Shopify to tell me about my store this month.""Alexa, ask Shopify what my sales were this week.""Alexa, ask Shopify for my order breakdown.""Alexa, ask Shopify which products need to be fulfilled this week.""Alexa, ask Shopify what my best-selling products are this month.""Alexa, ask Shopify to find the average order value in September."</p>
<p>15. TFM ToolThe <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dan-Shorstein-TFM-Tool-unofficial/dp/B01NAO4X3R/ref=sr_1_21?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485057&amp;sr=1-21" type="external">TFM Tool Opens a New Window.</a> skill can look up transaction codes based on debit and credit accounts. This tool uses four- digit Speculative Grade Liquidity Ratings (SGLs) to look up transaction codes from the US Treasury Finance Manual (TFM). For any business that needs to regularly look up transaction codes, this skill is a must-have.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, ask TFM Tool for the transaction code to account number 012345."</p>
<p>16. WebHRAlexa can also help you manage your <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2492792,00.asp" type="external">human resources Opens a New Window.</a> (HR). If your business uses the affordable <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2492905,00.asp" type="external">WebHR Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" /> platform, then the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Verge-Inc-WebHR/dp/B01NBPK7NR/ref=sr_1_13?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486484892&amp;sr=1-13" type="external">WebHR Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Verge-Inc-WebHR/dp/B01NBPK7NR/ref=sr_1_13?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486484892&amp;sr=1-13" type="external">skill Opens a New Window.</a> can help you manage employees. The skill lets Alexa surface information on employee demographics, who showed up for work today, upcoming birthdays, staff meetings, employee demographics, and more.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, ask WebHR how many male and female employees we have."</p>
<p>17. Work Time Tracker <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Work-Time-Tracker/dp/B01M9C8V18/ref=sr_1_154?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486494&amp;sr=1-154" type="external">Work Time Tracker Opens a New Window.</a> is a simple skill for tracking work units throughout the day. Once enabled, you can ask Alexa to start tracking for a work unit and stop when you're done. You can then ask for total work times and the skill will give you a summary of all work units. More features are planned, according to the developer.</p>
<p>Example commands: "Alexa ask Time Tracker to start tracking.""Alexa ask Time Tracker to stop tracking.""Alexa ask Time Tracker for total time."</p>
<p>18. Authentic Digital Marketing Tips Digital marketing agency Authentic has built a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Digital-Marketing-Tips/dp/B01MXMAEPX/ref=sr_1_80?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485319&amp;sr=1-80" type="external">Digital Marketing Tips Opens a New Window.</a> skill that can serve up a daily tip, a random tip, or tell you yesterday's marketing tip. For the small business owner who can't afford a marketing department or consulting agency, this skill is an easy way to learn as you go.</p>
<p>Example command: ""Alexa, ask Authentic to give me a random tip."</p>
<p>19. Brand HaikuBased on Joseph Benson's book, Fifty-Seven Brand Haikus, this skill plays 57 concise bits of brand wisdom through Alexa. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/XAPPmedia-Brand-Haiku/dp/B01LXAZPPB/ref=sr_1_118?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485450&amp;sr=1-118" type="external">Brand Haiku Opens a New Window.</a> describes how to build and sustain a brand, and how customers think, behave, and choose brands. These tips go hand-in-hand with the digital marketing skill above for a daily Alexa crash course in marketing your business.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa, ask Brand Haiku to play a haiku."</p>
<p>20. SalesTalkThe <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Skillsai-SalesTalk-Audible-Business-Intelligence/dp/B01MU1W6BE/ref=sr_1_116?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486339&amp;sr=1-116" type="external">Sales Talk Opens a New Window.</a> skill combines <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367263,00.asp" type="external">customer relationship management Opens a New Window.</a> (CRM) and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2491954,00.asp" type="external">business intelligence Opens a New Window.</a> (BI) in one voice-activated package. Developed by BI provider Skillsai, once enabled with an account, you can use this skill to ask Alexa for available sales data such as unit sales or best/worst sales reports. The platform also has an integration available for the WooCommerce WordPress extension.</p>
<p>Example command: " Alexa, ask Sales Talk what my best-selling sales day was this week."</p>
<p>21. Scrum MasterFor all you fans of the <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/50946/scrum" type="external">Scrum</a> agile software methodology, you'll go nuts over this Alexa skill. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Corbin-Page-Scrum-Master/dp/B01MR412HQ/ref=sr_1_94?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486485365&amp;sr=1-94" type="external">Scrum Master Opens a New Window.</a> helps you effectively run a Scrum meeting and get real-time updates from your team as you work on a project.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa ask Scrum Master for the time."</p>
<p>22. Skill FinderThe best way to stay productive with Alexa is to consistently search for, enable, and test out new skills, more of which are added by the day. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Skill-Finder/dp/B01GGW79U4/ref=sr_1_249?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486673&amp;sr=1-249" type="external">Skill Finder Opens a New Window.</a> was developed by Amazon itself, and is by far the easiest way to discover Alexa's newest and top skills. Once enabled, Alexa will give you the "Skill of the Day" and let you search for skills across specific categories in the catalog.</p>
<p>Example commands:"Alexa, tell Skill Finder to give me the 'Skill of the Day."'"Alexa, tell Skill Finder to give me top skills.""Alexa, tell Skill Finder to list categories.""Alexa, tell Skill Finder to list the newest skills in the productivity category."</p>
<p>After Alexa lists a category, you can say "Alexa, tell me more about number three."</p>
<p>23. Task Master <a href="https://www.amazon.com/BDM-Enterprises-Inc-Task-Master/dp/B01N0EYAUA/ref=sr_1_92?s=digital-skills&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486486187&amp;sr=1-92" type="external">Task Master Opens a New Window.</a> is a skill that syncs directly to the popular <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2491165,00.asp" type="external">Wunderlist Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" /> task management app. If you have a Wunderlist account, then you can enable this skill to access your Wunderlist task lists, find out what is due, and add tasks.</p>
<p>Example command: "Alexa ask Task Master to review my inbox. What is due today?"</p>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article/351544/23-must-have-alexa-skills-for-your-small-business" type="external">originally appeared Opens a New Window.</a> on <a href="http://www.pcmag.com" type="external">PCMag.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 23 Must-Have Alexa Skills for Your Small Business | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/15/23-must-have-alexa-skills-for-your-small-business.html | 2017-02-15 | 0right
| 2,477 | Amazons Alexa and other digital assistants are changing the way we get information and control our smart homes Opens a New Window They are fundamentally altering the way in which we interact with our computing devices Weve only scratched the surface of what voiceactivated intelligence can do and thanks to the Alexa Skills Kit Opens a New Window anyone can create a skill for Amazons versatile digital assistant Continue Reading Below Through the Alexa Skills Kit were starting to see the potential of devices such as the Amazon Echo Opens a New Window Amazon Echo Dot Opens a New Window and Amazon Tap Opens a New Window beyond amusing parlor tricks Opens a New Window Through each new innovative Alexa skill Opens a New Window created and added to the list were seeing the difference a voiceactivated digital assistant can make to the daytoday operations of your small to midsize business SMB Companies and developers are building more Alexa skills by the day Setting up an Echo or other connected Alexa device in your office can already start paying dividends for everything from scheduling and productivity to email marketing Opens a New Window and website monitoring Opens a New Window Below weve combed through the current skills catalog and compiled a list of 23 musthave Alexa skills you can enable today for your SMB 1 Conference ManagerBuilt by Vonage the Conference Manager Opens a New Window skill syncs with Google Calendar to identify your next conference call and save you the hassle of dialing in Conference Manager scans your calendar dials the conference number enters your meeting or participant code and then calls you through your Alexaenabled device All you need to say is start my call The skill currently supports a number of conferencing services including Cisco WebEx Meeting Center Opens a New Window Citrix GoToMeeting Opens a New Window and Vonage Business Opens a New Window Advertisement Example command Alexa tell Conference Manager to start my conference call 2 Email AssistantFor the salesperson or employee whos constantly on the go the Email Assistant Opens a New Window skill is an easy way to get travel details Built by productivity software provider EasilyDo this skill lets you ask Alexa about your flight hotel or car rental details and parses your inbox to read back travel details It works with Exchange Gmail iCloud Yahoo and other email providers though if you want to connect multiple Gmail or other email accounts then youll need to make an EasilyDo account and manually add them Wed like to see this skill evolve past simple travel details into a more fullfledged voiceactivated email skill but Email Assistant is a good start Example command Alexa ask Email Assistant what time my flight leaves 3 FreeBusy Scheduling Assistant FreeBusy Scheduling Assistant Opens a New Window helps you coordinate meetings and stay on top of your schedule Once enabled you can ask Alexa to check if a contact is available at a certain time and to schedule events or conference calls though it isnt quite as good at managing conference calls as the aforementioned Conference Manager Its more useful as a way to quickly check your schedule and avoid conflicts before scheduling a meeting The skill syncs with a number of calendars including Exhange Google Calendar iCloud Microsoft Outlook Opens a New Window and Microsoft Office 365 Opens a New Window Example command Alexa ask FreeBusy to see if Juan is free for a phone call on Thursday February 23 4 Quick Events Quick Events Opens a New Window lets Alexa add events to your primary Google Calendar It checks for conflicting events and asks for confirmation before adding an event Alexa will also prompt you for all of the information it needs to schedule an event within the conversation Events are scheduled for 50 minutes by default but you can specify any custom length The skill also supports multiday events and allday events Example commands Alexa What would you like to add to your calendarYou Add a meeting with JuanAlexa For what day should I schedule the eventYou For TomorrowAlexa At what time should I schedule the eventYou At 2pm 5 Chat Bot for Slack Slack is addicting While the popular collaboration Opens a New Window app doesnt have an official Alexa skill the Chat Bot for Slack Opens a New Window skill is a decent standin Once enabled the skill allows links to your Slack account and lets you post to Slack using your Alexa device by simply saying your message and the channel into which you want your message to post Example command Alexa tell Chat Bot I want to post My train is delayed to the status channel 6 Edit DocsWhile not created by Google the Edit Docs Opens a New Window skill is a great way to create and edit Google Docs on the fly via Alexa and to make sure you get that great idea on paper before its gone Edit Docs needs to sync with a Gmail account and Google Drive Opens a New Window and then the skill lets Alexa list your 10 most recently used files create or open a Google Doc Sheet or Slide Opens a New Window and edit or add to that file Example commands Alexa ask Edit Docs to list my files pleaseAlexa ask Edit Docs to create a document called Ideas Alexa ask Edit Docs to update the file Ideas with8230 7 MastermindThis is one of the hottest Alexa skills available and for good reason Mastermind Opens a New Window lets you access your phones notifications get and send text messages initiate phone calls get caller ID launch apps and more Its a voiceactivated productivity and communications powerhouse The skill is currently in closed beta due to high demand but when you enable the skill youll be added to a waitlist Example command When your phone rings say Alexa Ask Mastermind Whos Calling To send unwanted calls to voicemail say Alexa Ask Mastermind to Reject Call 8 Startup SignalOne of Alexas most natural uses is as an instantaneous source of searchable information Startup Signal Opens a New Window focuses that skill to give you realtime business news updates Once enabled Alexa will give you news flashes on startups Opens a New Window angel investors venture capital VC firms corporate investors and regions related to startups Its an easy way to stay on top of the business world and make sure your startup or SMB jumps on an opportunity the moment it arises Example command Alexa whats my Flash Briefing 9 Voice Metrics Voice Metrics Opens a New Window takes that realtime data briefing and customizes it to whatever business data is topofmind for you The skill requires an Amazon account and a Zapier Opens a New Window account to help you create a custom business briefing Voice Metrics integrates with services such as Google Sheets Slack and any other data source integrated with Zapier to pull data on anything from sales needs and new customers to the status of each department in your company The skill takes some customization but the data you get in return is worth it Example command Alexa ask Voice Metrics for my Briefing 10 Web AnalyticsOn top of news and curated data Alexa can also give you realtime website updates Web Analytics Opens a New Window syncs with Google Analytics to give you updates on your websites traffic and visitor numbers Instead of logging into Google Analytics you can enable this skill to ask Alexa for realtime website traffic numbers at any time You can also focus your queries further to drill down on metrics such as average session duration and pages per visit Example command Alexa ask Web Analytics for the complete report 11 BMC SoftwareFor any business invested in the BMC Software ecosystem of DevOps IT management or asset management Opens a New Window software like BMC TrackIt Opens a New Window this skill might be for you BMC Software is putting together new cloud services in Amazon Web Services Opens a New Window AWS and is making the results of these compliancefocused services available through Alexa with the BMC Software Opens a New Window skill Example command Alexa open BMC What is my noncompliance 12 Expense Tracker Expense tracking Opens a New Window is a necessary tedium for every business The Expense Tracker Opens a New Window Alexa skill creates a financial overview and manages expenses At this point its more personal than businessfocused letting you add expenses to default categories such as clothes food fun household and work If your business wants to track specific expenses then you can create new categories Alexa will also give you a summary of all your spending per category with the command Alexa ask Expense Tracker for my report Example commands Alexa ask Expense Tracker to add the category food reimbursementAlexa tell Expense Tracker that I paid 10 dollars for food 13 Rhino Fleet TrackingIf you have a business that deals with the logistics of drivers deliveries and shipment tracking then the Rhino Fleet Tracking Opens a New Window skill is for you If you have a Rhino Fleet Tracking account then you can enable this skill to ask Alexa for the locations of your vehicles and drivers You can also assign drivers to vehicles on the fly and search for drivers who are at a specific landmark Example commandsAlexa tell Rhino to list my driversAlexa ask Rhino where Steve isAlexa ask Rhino where device Jeep isAlexa ask Rhino to assign driver Steve to device Jeep 14 ShopifyIf your business has an ecommerce Opens a New Window component and uses popular software Shopify Opens a New Window then the company has built an Alexa skill just for you The Shopify skill Opens a New Window enables Alexa to pull information on orders inventory and store performance summaries Currently the skill lets you ask for weekly or monthly store summaries orders and sales reporting data specific order information product fulfillment information averageovervalue over specified time periods and a summary of your bestselling products Example commandsAlexa ask Shopify to tell me about my store this monthAlexa ask Shopify what my sales were this weekAlexa ask Shopify for my order breakdownAlexa ask Shopify which products need to be fulfilled this weekAlexa ask Shopify what my bestselling products are this monthAlexa ask Shopify to find the average order value in September 15 TFM ToolThe TFM Tool Opens a New Window skill can look up transaction codes based on debit and credit accounts This tool uses four digit Speculative Grade Liquidity Ratings SGLs to look up transaction codes from the US Treasury Finance Manual TFM For any business that needs to regularly look up transaction codes this skill is a musthave Example command Alexa ask TFM Tool for the transaction code to account number 012345 16 WebHRAlexa can also help you manage your human resources Opens a New Window HR If your business uses the affordable WebHR Opens a New Window platform then the WebHR Opens a New Window skill Opens a New Window can help you manage employees The skill lets Alexa surface information on employee demographics who showed up for work today upcoming birthdays staff meetings employee demographics and more Example command Alexa ask WebHR how many male and female employees we have 17 Work Time Tracker Work Time Tracker Opens a New Window is a simple skill for tracking work units throughout the day Once enabled you can ask Alexa to start tracking for a work unit and stop when youre done You can then ask for total work times and the skill will give you a summary of all work units More features are planned according to the developer Example commands Alexa ask Time Tracker to start trackingAlexa ask Time Tracker to stop trackingAlexa ask Time Tracker for total time 18 Authentic Digital Marketing Tips Digital marketing agency Authentic has built a Digital Marketing Tips Opens a New Window skill that can serve up a daily tip a random tip or tell you yesterdays marketing tip For the small business owner who cant afford a marketing department or consulting agency this skill is an easy way to learn as you go Example command Alexa ask Authentic to give me a random tip 19 Brand HaikuBased on Joseph Bensons book FiftySeven Brand Haikus this skill plays 57 concise bits of brand wisdom through Alexa Brand Haiku Opens a New Window describes how to build and sustain a brand and how customers think behave and choose brands These tips go handinhand with the digital marketing skill above for a daily Alexa crash course in marketing your business Example command Alexa ask Brand Haiku to play a haiku 20 SalesTalkThe Sales Talk Opens a New Window skill combines customer relationship management Opens a New Window CRM and business intelligence Opens a New Window BI in one voiceactivated package Developed by BI provider Skillsai once enabled with an account you can use this skill to ask Alexa for available sales data such as unit sales or bestworst sales reports The platform also has an integration available for the WooCommerce WordPress extension Example command Alexa ask Sales Talk what my bestselling sales day was this week 21 Scrum MasterFor all you fans of the Scrum agile software methodology youll go nuts over this Alexa skill Scrum Master Opens a New Window helps you effectively run a Scrum meeting and get realtime updates from your team as you work on a project Example command Alexa ask Scrum Master for the time 22 Skill FinderThe best way to stay productive with Alexa is to consistently search for enable and test out new skills more of which are added by the day Skill Finder Opens a New Window was developed by Amazon itself and is by far the easiest way to discover Alexas newest and top skills Once enabled Alexa will give you the Skill of the Day and let you search for skills across specific categories in the catalog Example commandsAlexa tell Skill Finder to give me the Skill of the DayAlexa tell Skill Finder to give me top skillsAlexa tell Skill Finder to list categoriesAlexa tell Skill Finder to list the newest skills in the productivity category After Alexa lists a category you can say Alexa tell me more about number three 23 Task Master Task Master Opens a New Window is a skill that syncs directly to the popular Wunderlist Opens a New Window task management app If you have a Wunderlist account then you can enable this skill to access your Wunderlist task lists find out what is due and add tasks Example command Alexa ask Task Master to review my inbox What is due today This article originally appeared Opens a New Window on PCMagcom Opens a New Window | Amazons/NOUN Alexa/PROPN and/CCONJ other/ADJ digital/ADJ assistants/NOUN are/AUX changing/VERB the/DET way/NOUN we/PRON get/VERB information/NOUN and/CCONJ control/VERB our/PRON smart/ADJ homes/NOUN Opens/VERB a/DET New/PROPN Window/PROPN They/PRON are/AUX fundamentally/ADV altering/VERB the/DET way/NOUN in/ADP which/PRON we/PRON interact/VERB with/ADP our/PRON computing/NOUN devices/NOUN We/PRON ve/AUX only/ADV scratched/VERB the/DET surface/NOUN of/ADP what/PRON voiceactivated/ADJ intelligence/NOUN can/AUX do/AUX and/CCONJ thanks/NOUN to/ADP 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<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;search_tracking_id=VzrPufd2LeoKH1eWUF6uyA&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=hand+covering+eye+scary&amp;search_group=&amp;orient=&amp;search_cat=&amp;searchtermx=&amp;photographer_name=&amp;people_gender=&amp;people_age=&amp;people_ethnicity=&amp;people_number=&amp;commercial_ok=&amp;color=&amp;show_color_wheel=1#id=129506198&amp;src=_k_qSB3Tpj8JRSppyA6yjQ-1-15"&gt;DJTaylor&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175776/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>From the time I was little, I went to the movies. They were <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175469/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_movie-made_me/" type="external">my escape</a>, with one exception from which I invariably had to escape. I couldn’t sit through any movie where something or someone threatened to jump out at me with the intent to harm. In such situations, I was incapable of enjoying being scared and there seemed to be no remedy for it. When <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/" type="external">Jaws</a> came out in 1975, I decided that, at age 31, having avoided such movies for years, I was old enough to take it. One tag line in ads for that film was: “Don’t go in the water.” Of the millions who watched Jaws and outlasted the voracious great white shark until the lights came back on, I was that rarity: I didn’t. I really couldn’t go back in the ocean—not for several years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />I don’t want you to think for a second that this represents some kind of elevated moral position on violence or horror; it’s a visceral reaction. I actually wanted to see the baby monster in Alien <a href="http://www.planetvideo.com.au/blog/2009/05/27/alien_xl_05.jpg" type="external">burst out</a> of that human stomach. I just knew I couldn’t take it. In all my years of viewing (and avoidance), only once did I find a solution to the problem. In the early 1990s, a period when I wrote on children’s culture, Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park sparked a dinosaur fad. I had been a dino-nerd of the 1950s and so promised Harper’s Magazine a piece on the craze and the then-being-remodeled dino-wing of New York’s American Museum of Natural History. (Don’t ask me why that essay never appeared. I took scads of notes, interviewed copious scientists at the museum, spent time alone with an Allosaurus skull, did just about everything a writer should do to produce such a piece—except write it. Call it my one memorable case of writer’s block.)</p>
<p>My problem was never scaring myself to death on the page. I read Crichton’s novel without a blink. The question was how to see it when, in 1993, it arrived onscreen. My solution was to let my kids go first, then take them back with me. That way, my son could lean over and whisper, “Dad, in maybe 30 seconds the Velociraptor is going to leap out of the grass.” My heart would already be pounding, my eyes half shut, but somehow, cued that way, I became a Crichton vet.</p>
<p>Of course, gazillions of movie viewers have seen similar films with the usual array of sharks, dinosaurs, anacondas, axe murderers, mutants, zombies, vampires, aliens, or serial killers, and done so with remarkable pleasure. They didn’t bolt. They didn’t imagine having heart attacks on the spot. They didn’t find it unbearable. In some way, they liked it, ensuring that such films remain pots of gold for Hollywood to this day. Which means that they—you—are an alien race to me.</p>
<p>The Sharks, Aliens, and Snakes of Our World</p>
<p>This came to mind recently because I started wondering why, when we step out of those movie theaters, our American world doesn’t scare us more. Why doesn’t it make more of us want to jump out of our skins? These days, our screen lives seem an apocalyptic tinge to them, with all those <a href="http://fpif.org/undead-us/" type="external">zombie war movies</a> and the like. I’m curious, though: Does what should be deeply disturbing, even apocalyptically terrifying, in the present moment strike many of us as the equivalent of so many movie-made terrors— shivers and fears produced in a world so far beyond us that we can do nothing about them?</p>
<p>I’m not talking, of course, about the things that reach directly for your throat and, in their immediacy, scare the hell out of you—not the sharks who took millions of homes in the foreclosure crisis or the aliens who ate so many jobs in recent years or even the snakes who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/us/cut-in-food-stamps-forces-hard-choices-on-poor.html" type="external">snatched food stamps</a> from needy Americans. It’s the overarching dystopian picture I’m wondering about. The question is: Are most Americans still in that movie house just waiting for the lights to come back on?</p>
<p>I mean, we’re living in a country that my parents would barely recognize. It has a frozen, riven, shutdown-driven Congress, professionally gerrymandered into incumbency, endlessly <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/influence/" type="external">lobbied</a>, and seemingly incapable of actually governing. It has a leader whose presidency appears to be <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-ratings-tumble-after-health-care-flaws/2013/11/18/c9cdbc2c-507c-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html?hpid=z1" type="external">imploding</a> before our eyes and whose single accomplishment (according to most pundits), like the website that goes with it, has been unraveling as we watch. Its <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175478/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_1%25_election/" type="external">1% elections</a>, with their <a href="http://www.thewire.com/politics/2013/02/2012-presidential-election-cost-7-billion-dollars/61697/" type="external">multi-billion dollar</a> campaign seasons and staggering infusions of money from the upper reaches of wealth and corporate life, are less and less anybody’s definition of “democratic.”</p>
<p>And while Washington fiddles, inequality is <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/177304/inequality-literally-killing-america#" type="external">on the rise</a>, with so much money floating around in the 1% world that millions of dollars are left over to drive the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-14/warhol-crash-steve-cohen-s-richter-lift-sotheby-s-sale.html" type="external">prices</a> of pieces of art into the stratosphere, even as <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/us-poverty-track-rise-highest-since-1960s-112946547--finance.html" type="external">poverty grows</a> and the army of the poor multiplies. And don’t forget that the national infrastructure—all those highways, bridges, sewer systems, and tunnels that were once the unspoken pride of the country—is <a href="http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/grades/" type="external">visibly fraying</a>.</p>
<p>Up-Armoring America</p>
<p>Meanwhile, to the tune of a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175361/chris_hellman_trillion_dollar" type="external">trillion dollars</a> or more a year, our national treasure has been squandered on the maintenance of a war state, the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175699/david_vine_baseworld_profiteering" type="external">garrisoning</a> of the planet, and the eternal upgrading of “homeland security.” Think about it: so far in the twenty-first century, the US is the only nation to invade a country not on its border. In fact, it invaded two such countries, launching failed wars in which, when all the costs are in, <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/03/28/cost_of_iraq_linda_bilmes_says_iraq_and_afghanistan_wars_could_cost_6_trillion.html" type="external">trillions of dollars</a> will have gone down the drain and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24547256" type="external">hundreds of thousands</a> of Iraqis and Afghans, as well as <a href="http://icasualties.org/" type="external">thousands</a> of Americans, will have died. This country has also led the way in creating the rules of the road for global <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175551/engelhardt_assassin_in_chief" type="external">drone assassination campaigns</a> (no small thing now that up to <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/10/skys-the-limit-for-wide-wild-world-of-drones/?page=1" type="external">87 countries</a> are into drone technology); it has turned significant parts of the planet into free-fire zones and, whenever it seemed convenient, obliterated the idea that other countries have something called “national sovereignty”; it has <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175547/andrew_bacevich_the_golden_age_of_special_operations" type="external">built up</a> its Special Operations forces, tens of thousands of highly trained troops that constitute a secret military within the US military, which are now operational in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175426/nick_turse_the_military's_secret_military" type="external">more than 100 countries</a> and sent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/world/africa/Al-Qaeda-Suspect-Wanted-in-US-Said-to-Be-Taken-in-Libya.html" type="external">into action</a> whenever the White House desires, again with little regard for the sovereignty of other states; it has launched the first set of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175607/karen_greenberg_preparing_for_9/11" type="external">cyber wars</a> in history (against Iran and its nuclear program), has specialized in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/7789/tom_engelhardt_dolce-vita" type="external">kidnapping</a> terror <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-10-06/world/42771116_1_kerry-terrorism-suspects-libyan-government" type="external">suspects</a> off city streets and in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/14/usa.germany" type="external">rural backlands</a> globally, and has a near-monopolistic grip on the world arms trade (a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html" type="external">78%</a> market share according to the latest figures available); its military expenditures are <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/" type="external">greater</a> than the next 13 nations combined; and it continues to build military bases <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175338/nick_turse_pentagon's_planet_of_bases" type="external">across the planet</a> in a historically unprecedented way.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />In the twenty-first century, the power to make war has gravitated ever more decisively into the White House, where the president has a private air force of drones, and two private armies of his own—those special operations types and CIA paramilitaries—to order into battle just about anywhere on the planet. Meanwhile, the real power center in Washington has increasingly come to be located in the national security state (and the allied corporate “ <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/12/the-military-industrial-complex-is-real-and-it-s-bigger-than-ever.html" type="external">complexes</a>” linked to it by that famed “ <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/department-of-defenses-revolving-door-in-full-swing-98813.html" type="external">revolving door</a>” somewhere in the nation’s capital). That state within a state has gone through boom times even as many Americans busted. It has experienced a multi-billion-dollar construction bonanza, including the raising of elaborate new <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/gregg-easterbrook/2011/01/20/undisciplined-spending-in-the-name-of-defense/" type="external">headquarters</a>, scores of <a href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/" type="external">building complexes</a>, massive <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1" type="external">storage facilities</a>, and the like, while the private housing market went to hell. With its share of that trillion-dollar national security budget, its many agencies and outfits have been bolstered even as the general economy descended into a seemingly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/opinion/krugman-a-permanent-slump.html?ref=paulkrugman" type="external">permanent slump</a>.</p>
<p>As everyone is now aware, the security state’s intelligence wing has <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175771/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_a_surveillance_state_scorecard/" type="external">embedded</a> eyes and ears almost everywhere, online and off, here and around the world. The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files" type="external">NSA</a>, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/cia-is-said-to-pay-att-for-call-data.html" type="external">CIA</a>, and <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/11/21/the_obscure_fbi_team_that_does_the_nsa_dirty_work" type="external">other agencies</a> are scooping up just about every imaginable form of human communication, no matter where or in what form it takes place. In the process, American intelligence has “ <a href="http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/11/this-is-how-the-internet-backbone-has-been-turned-into-a-weapon/" type="external">weaponized</a>” the Internet and functionally banished the idea of privacy to some other planet.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the “Defense” Department has grown <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175545/hellman_kramer_war_pay" type="external">ever larger</a> as Washington morphed into a war capital for an unending planetary conflict originally labeled the Global War on Terror. In these years, the “all-volunteer” military has been transformed into something like a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175034/william_astore_whose_military_is_it_anyway_" type="external">foreign legion</a>, another <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805082964/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">1%</a> separated from the rest of society. At the same time, the American way of war has been turned into a profit center for a range of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175507/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_arrival_of_the_warrior_corporation/" type="external">warrior corporations</a> and rent-a-gun outfits that enter combat zones with the military, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175699/david_vine_baseworld_profiteering" type="external">building bases</a>, delivering the mail, and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175036/pratap_chatterjee_inheriting_halliburton_s_army" type="external">providing</a> food and guard services, among other things.</p>
<p>Domestically, the US has grown more militarized as “security” concerns have been woven into every form of travel, terror fears and alerts have become part and parcel of daily life, and everything around us has up-armored. Police forces across the land, heavily invested in highly militarized <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/07/13/radley_balko_once_a_town_gets_a_swat_team_you_want_to_use_it/" type="external">SWAT teams</a>, have donned more military-style uniforms, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/militarization-local-police-america" type="external">acquired</a> armored cars, tanks, MRAPS, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204319004577088891361782010" type="external">drones</a>, helicopters, <a href="http://www.policeone.com/police-products/investigation/video-surveillance/articles/4780384-NYC-cops-skim-for-bombs-using-drone-submarines/" type="external">drone submarines</a>, and other military-style weaponry (often <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/program-1033-military-equipment-police-2011-12" type="external">surplus equipment</a> donated by the Pentagon). Even <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/ohio-state-university-armored-truck_n_3949750.html" type="external">campus cops</a> have up-armored.</p>
<p>In a parallel development, Americans have themselves become more heavily armed and in a more military style. Among the <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2012/12/20/assault_rifle_stats_how_many_assault_rifles_are_there_in_america.html" type="external">300,000,000</a> firearms of all sorts estimated to be floating around the US, there are now reportedly three to four million AR-15 military-style assault rifles. And with all of this has gone a certain unhinged quality, both for those SWAT teams that seem to have a nasty habit of <a href="http://jonathanturley.org/2013/02/21/connecticut-swat-team-raids-home-with-armored-car-shoots-and-kills-unarmed-occupant-and-pay-millions-in-damages-but-lead-officer-given-award-for-his-role-in-the-raid/" type="external">breaking into</a> homes armed to the teeth and wounding or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/25/jose-guerena-arizona-_n_867020.html" type="external">killing</a> people accused of nonviolent crimes, and for ordinary citizens who have made random or mass killings regular news events.</p>
<p>On August 1, 1966, a former Marine sniper <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman" type="external">took to</a> the 28th floor of a tower on the campus of the University of Texas with an M-1 carbine and an automatic shotgun, killing 17, while wounding 32. It was an act that staggered the American imagination, shook the media, led to a commission being formed, and put those SWAT teams in our future. But no one then could have guessed how, from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre" type="external">Columbine</a> high school (13 dead, 24 wounded) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre" type="external">Virginia Tech university</a> (32 dead, 17 wounded) to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting" type="external">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> (26 dead, 20 of them children), the unhinged of our heavily armed nation would make slaughters, as well as random killings even by <a href="http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/oct/22/police-middle-school-shooter-got-gun-home/" type="external">children</a>, all-too-common in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_school_shooting" type="external">schools</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_shooting" type="external">workplaces</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_shooting" type="external">movie theaters</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting" type="external">supermarket parking lots</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/02/us/lax-gunfire/" type="external">airports</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Sikh_temple_shooting" type="external">houses of worship</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Navy_Yard_shooting" type="external">navy yards</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">so on</a>.</p>
<p>And don’t even get me started on imprisonment, a category in which we qualify as the world’s leader with <a href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=107" type="external">2.2 million</a> people behind bars, a 500% increase over the last three decades, or the rise of the punitive spirit in this country. That would include the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175654/" type="external">handcuffing</a> of remarkably young children at their schools for minor infractions and a fierce government <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175526/peter_van_buren_the_whistleblower%27s_piece" type="external">war on whistleblowers</a>—those, that is, who want to tell us something about what’s going on inside the increasingly secret state that runs our American world and that, in 2011, considered <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175570/" type="external">92 million</a> of the documents it generated so potentially dangerous to outside eyes that it classified them.</p>
<p>A Nameless State (of Mind)</p>
<p>Still, don’t call this America a “police state,” not given what that came to mean in the previous century, nor a “totalitarian” state, given what that meant back then. The truth is that we have no appropriate name, label, or descriptive term for ourselves. Consider that a small sign of just how little we’ve come to grips with what we’re becoming. But you don’t really need a name, do you, not if you’re living it? However nameless it may be, tell me the truth: Doesn’t the direction we’re heading in leave you with the urge to jump out of your skin?</p>
<p>And by the way, what I’ve been describing so far isn’t the apocalyptic part of the story, just the everyday framework for American life in 2013. For your basic apocalypse, you need to turn to a subject that, on the whole, doesn’t much interest Washington or the mainstream media. I’m talking, of course, about <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175773/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_a_climate_change-fueled_revolution/" type="external">climate change</a> or what the nightly news loves to call “ <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175716/" type="external">extreme weather</a>,” a subject we generally prefer to put on the back burner while we’re hailing the “good news” that the US may prove to be the <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/11/12/is-the-united-states-the-next-saudi-arabia" type="external">Saudi Arabia</a> of the twenty-first century—that is, hopped up on fossil fuels for the next 50 years; or that green energy really isn’t worth an Apollo-style program of investment and R&amp;D; or that Arctic waters should be <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175577/bannerjee_shell_game_in_the_arctic" type="external">opened</a> to drilling; or that it’s reasonable to bury on the inside pages of the paper with confusing headlines the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/science/slowdown-in-carbon-emissions-worldwide-but-coal-burning-continues-to-grow.html" type="external">latest figures</a> on the record levels of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere and the way the use of coal, the dirtiest of the major fossil fuels, is actually expanding globally; or… but you get the idea. <a href="http://www.boston.com/yourtown/specials/cities_underwater/" type="external">Rising</a> sea levels (see ya, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/us/south-florida-faces-ominous-prospects-from-rising-waters.html" type="external">Florida</a>; so long, <a href="http://www.boston.com/yourtown/specials/boston_under_water/" type="external">Boston</a>), <a href="http://world.time.com/2013/11/18/if-youre-not-worried-about-dengue-fever-heres-why-you-should-be/?xid=rss-topstories" type="external">spreading disease</a>, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175661/debuys_exodus_from_phoenix" type="external">intense droughts</a>, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/from-boulder-colorado-notes-on-a-thousand-year-flood/279851/" type="external">wild floods</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/08/typhoon-haiyan-biggest-storms" type="external">extreme storms</a>, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175573/de_buys_the_west_in_flames" type="external">record fire seasons</a>—I mean, you already know the tune.</p>
<p>You still wanna be scared? Imagine that someone offered you a wager, and let’s be conservative here: continue on your present path and there will be a 10%-20% chance that this planet becomes virtually uninhabitable a century or two from now. Not bad odds, right? Still, I think just about anyone would admit that only a maniac would take such a bet, no matter the odds. Actually, let me amend that: only a maniac or the people who <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175703/engelhardt_terracide_and_the_terrarists" type="external">run</a> the planet’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change" type="external">major energy companies</a>, and the governments (our own included) that help <a href="http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/international/" type="external">fund</a> and advance their activities, and those governments like Russia and Saudi Arabia that are essentially giant energy companies.</p>
<p>Because, hey, realistically speaking, that’s the bet that all of us on planet Earth have taken on.</p>
<p>And just in case you were wondering whether you were still at the movies, you’re not, and the lights aren’t coming back on either.</p>
<p>Now, if that isn’t scary, what is?</p>
<p>Boo!</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> as well as a history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a> (now also in a Kindle edition), runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external">Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050</a>.</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a> or <a href="http://tomdispatch.tumblr.com/" type="external">Tumblr</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Ann Jones’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463710/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return From America’s Wars—The Untold Story</a>.To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Scared to Death: Why Reality Is More Terrifying Than Any Horror Film | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/reality-scarier-horror-movie/ | 2013-11-25 | 4left
| 2,484 | amplta hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcomcatmhtmllangenampampsearch_sourcesearch_formampampsearch_tracking_idVzrPufd2LeoKH1eWUF6uyAampampversionllv1ampampanyorallallampampsafesearch1ampampsearchtermhandcoveringeyescaryampampsearch_groupampamporientampampsearch_catampampsearchtermxampampphotographer_nameampamppeople_genderampamppeople_ageampamppeople_ethnicityampamppeople_numberampampcommercial_okampampcolorampampshow_color_wheel1id129506198ampampsrc_k_qSB3Tpj8JRSppyA6yjQ115ampgtDJTaylorampltaampgtFlickr This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website From the time I was little I went to the movies They were my escape with one exception from which I invariably had to escape I couldn8217t sit through any movie where something or someone threatened to jump out at me with the intent to harm In such situations I was incapable of enjoying being scared and there seemed to be no remedy for it When Jaws came out in 1975 I decided that at age 31 having avoided such movies for years I was old enough to take it One tag line in ads for that film was 8220Don8217t go in the water8221 Of the millions who watched Jaws and outlasted the voracious great white shark until the lights came back on I was that rarity I didn8217t I really couldn8217t go back in the ocean8212not for several years I don8217t want you to think for a second that this represents some kind of elevated moral position on violence or horror it8217s a visceral reaction I actually wanted to see the baby monster in Alien burst out of that human stomach I just knew I couldn8217t take it In all my years of viewing and avoidance only once did I find a solution to the problem In the early 1990s a period when I wrote on children8217s culture Michael Crichton8217s novel Jurassic Park sparked a dinosaur fad I had been a dinonerd of the 1950s and so promised Harper8217s Magazine a piece on the craze and the thenbeingremodeled dinowing of New York8217s American Museum of Natural History Don8217t ask me why that essay never appeared I took scads of notes interviewed copious scientists at the museum spent time alone with an Allosaurus skull did just about everything a writer should do to produce such a piece8212except write it Call it my one memorable case of writer8217s block My problem was never scaring myself to death on the page I read Crichton8217s novel without a blink The question was how to see it when in 1993 it arrived onscreen My solution was to let my kids go first then take them back with me That way my son could lean over and whisper 8220Dad in maybe 30 seconds the Velociraptor is going to leap out of the grass8221 My heart would already be pounding my eyes half shut but somehow cued that way I became a Crichton vet Of course gazillions of movie viewers have seen similar films with the usual array of sharks dinosaurs anacondas axe murderers mutants zombies vampires aliens or serial killers and done so with remarkable pleasure They didn8217t bolt They didn8217t imagine having heart attacks on the spot They didn8217t find it unbearable In some way they liked it ensuring that such films remain pots of gold for Hollywood to this day Which means that they8212you8212are an alien race to me The Sharks Aliens and Snakes of Our World This came to mind recently because I started wondering why when we step out of those movie theaters our American world doesn8217t scare us more Why doesn8217t it make more of us want to jump out of our skins These days our screen lives seem an apocalyptic tinge to them with all those zombie war movies and the like I8217m curious though Does what should be deeply disturbing even apocalyptically terrifying in the present moment strike many of us as the equivalent of so many moviemade terrors8212 shivers and fears produced in a world so far beyond us that we can do nothing about them I8217m not talking of course about the things that reach directly for your throat and in their immediacy scare the hell out of you8212not the sharks who took millions of homes in the foreclosure crisis or the aliens who ate so many jobs in recent years or even the snakes who snatched food stamps from needy Americans It8217s the overarching dystopian picture I8217m wondering about The question is Are most Americans still in that movie house just waiting for the lights to come back on I mean we8217re living in a country that my parents would barely recognize It has a frozen riven shutdowndriven Congress professionally gerrymandered into incumbency endlessly lobbied and seemingly incapable of actually governing It has a leader whose presidency appears to be imploding before our eyes and whose single accomplishment according to most pundits like the website that goes with it has been unraveling as we watch Its 1 elections with their multibillion dollar campaign seasons and staggering infusions of money from the upper reaches of wealth and corporate life are less and less anybody8217s definition of 8220democratic8221 And while Washington fiddles inequality is on the rise with so much money floating around in the 1 world that millions of dollars are left over to drive the prices of pieces of art into the stratosphere even as poverty grows and the army of the poor multiplies And don8217t forget that the national infrastructure8212all those highways bridges sewer systems and tunnels that were once the unspoken pride of the country8212is visibly fraying UpArmoring America Meanwhile to the tune of a trillion dollars or more a year our national treasure has been squandered on the maintenance of a war state the garrisoning of the planet and the eternal upgrading of 8220homeland security8221 Think about it so far in the twentyfirst century the US is the only nation to invade a country not on its border In fact it invaded two such countries launching failed wars in which when all the costs are in trillions of dollars will have gone down the drain and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans as well as thousands of Americans will have died This country has also led the way in creating the rules of the road for global drone assassination campaigns no small thing now that up to 87 countries are into drone technology it has turned significant parts of the planet into freefire zones and whenever it seemed convenient obliterated the idea that other countries have something called 8220national sovereignty8221 it has built up its Special Operations forces tens of thousands of highly trained troops that constitute a secret military within the US military which are now operational in more than 100 countries and sent into action whenever the White House desires again with little regard for the sovereignty of other states it has launched the first set of cyber wars in history against Iran and its nuclear program has specialized in kidnapping terror suspects off city streets and in rural backlands globally and has a nearmonopolistic grip on the world arms trade a 78 market share according to the latest figures available its military expenditures are greater than the next 13 nations combined and it continues to build military bases across the planet in a historically unprecedented way In the twentyfirst century the power to make war has gravitated ever more decisively into the White House where the president has a private air force of drones and two private armies of his own8212those special operations types and CIA paramilitaries8212to order into battle just about anywhere on the planet Meanwhile the real power center in Washington has increasingly come to be located in the national security state and the allied corporate 8220 complexes8221 linked to it by that famed 8220 revolving door8221 somewhere in the nation8217s capital That state within a state has gone through boom times even as many Americans busted It has experienced a multibilliondollar construction bonanza including the raising of elaborate new headquarters scores of building complexes massive storage facilities and the like while the private housing market went to hell With its share of that trilliondollar national security budget its many agencies and outfits have been bolstered even as the general economy descended into a seemingly permanent slump As everyone is now aware the security state8217s intelligence wing has embedded eyes and ears almost everywhere online and off here and around the world The NSA the CIA and other agencies are scooping up just about every imaginable form of human communication no matter where or in what form it takes place In the process American intelligence has 8220 weaponized8221 the Internet and functionally banished the idea of privacy to some other planet Meanwhile the 8220Defense8221 Department has grown ever larger as Washington morphed into a war capital for an unending planetary conflict originally labeled the Global War on Terror In these years the 8220allvolunteer8221 military has been transformed into something like a foreign legion another 1 separated from the rest of society At the same time the American way of war has been turned into a profit center for a range of warrior corporations and rentagun outfits that enter combat zones with the military building bases delivering the mail and providing food and guard services among other things Domestically the US has grown more militarized as 8220security8221 concerns have been woven into every form of travel terror fears and alerts have become part and parcel of daily life and everything around us has uparmored Police forces across the land heavily invested in highly militarized SWAT teams have donned more militarystyle uniforms and acquired armored cars tanks MRAPS drones helicopters drone submarines and other militarystyle weaponry often surplus equipment donated by the Pentagon Even campus cops have uparmored In a parallel development Americans have themselves become more heavily armed and in a more military style Among the 300000000 firearms of all sorts estimated to be floating around the US there are now reportedly three to four million AR15 militarystyle assault rifles And with all of this has gone a certain unhinged quality both for those SWAT teams that seem to have a nasty habit of breaking into homes armed to the teeth and wounding or killing people accused of nonviolent crimes and for ordinary citizens who have made random or mass killings regular news events On August 1 1966 a former Marine sniper took to the 28th floor of a tower on the campus of the University of Texas with an M1 carbine and an automatic shotgun killing 17 while wounding 32 It was an act that staggered the American imagination shook the media led to a commission being formed and put those SWAT teams in our future But no one then could have guessed how from Columbine high school 13 dead 24 wounded and Virginia Tech university 32 dead 17 wounded to Sandy Hook Elementary School 26 dead 20 of them children the unhinged of our heavily armed nation would make slaughters as well as random killings even by children alltoocommon in schools workplaces movie theaters supermarket parking lots airports houses of worship navy yards and so on And don8217t even get me started on imprisonment a category in which we qualify as the world8217s leader with 22 million people behind bars a 500 increase over the last three decades or the rise of the punitive spirit in this country That would include the handcuffing of remarkably young children at their schools for minor infractions and a fierce government war on whistleblowers8212those that is who want to tell us something about what8217s going on inside the increasingly secret state that runs our American world and that in 2011 considered 92 million of the documents it generated so potentially dangerous to outside eyes that it classified them A Nameless State of Mind Still don8217t call this America a 8220police state8221 not given what that came to mean in the previous century nor a 8220totalitarian8221 state given what that meant back then The truth is that we have no appropriate name label or descriptive term for ourselves Consider that a small sign of just how little we8217ve come to grips with what we8217re becoming But you don8217t really need a name do you not if you8217re living it However nameless it may be tell me the truth Doesn8217t the direction we8217re heading in leave you with the urge to jump out of your skin And by the way what I8217ve been describing so far isn8217t the apocalyptic part of the story just the everyday framework for American life in 2013 For your basic apocalypse you need to turn to a subject that on the whole doesn8217t much interest Washington or the mainstream media I8217m talking of course about climate change or what the nightly news loves to call 8220 extreme weather8221 a subject we generally prefer to put on the back burner while we8217re hailing the 8220good news8221 that the US may prove to be the Saudi Arabia of the twentyfirst century8212that is hopped up on fossil fuels for the next 50 years or that green energy really isn8217t worth an Apollostyle program of investment and RampampD or that Arctic waters should be opened to drilling or that it8217s reasonable to bury on the inside pages of the paper with confusing headlines the latest figures on the record levels of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere and the way the use of coal the dirtiest of the major fossil fuels is actually expanding globally or8230 but you get the idea Rising sea levels see ya Florida so long Boston spreading disease intense droughts wild floods extreme storms record fire seasons8212I mean you already know the tune You still wanna be scared Imagine that someone offered you a wager and let8217s be conservative here continue on your present path and there will be a 1020 chance that this planet becomes virtually uninhabitable a century or two from now Not bad odds right Still I think just about anyone would admit that only a maniac would take such a bet no matter the odds Actually let me amend that only a maniac or the people who run the planet8217s major energy companies and the governments our own included that help fund and advance their activities and those governments like Russia and Saudi Arabia that are essentially giant energy companies Because hey realistically speaking that8217s the bet that all of us on planet Earth have taken on And just in case you were wondering whether you were still at the movies you8217re not and the lights aren8217t coming back on either Now if that isn8217t scary what is Boo Tom Engelhardt cofounder of the American Empire Project and author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War The End of Victory Culture now also in a Kindle edition runs the Nation Institute8217s TomDispatchcom His latest book coauthored with Nick Turse is Terminator Planet The First History of Drone Warfare 20012050 Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook or Tumblr Check out the newest Dispatch Book Ann Jones8217s They Were Soldiers How the Wounded Return From America8217s Wars8212The Untold StoryTo stay on top of important articles like these sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatchcom here | amplta/PROPN hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcomcatmhtmllangenampampsearch_sourcesearch_formampampsearch_tracking_idVzrPufd2LeoKH1eWUF6uyAampampversionllv1ampampanyorallallampampsafesearch1ampampsearchtermhandcoveringeyescaryampampsearch_groupampamporientampampsearch_catampampsearchtermxampampphotographer_nameampamppeople_genderampamppeople_ageampamppeople_ethnicityampamppeople_numberampampcommercial_okampampcolorampampshow_color_wheel1id129506198ampampsrc_k_qSB3Tpj8JRSppyA6yjQ115ampgtDJTaylorampltaampgtFlickr/PROPN This/DET story/NOUN first/ADV appeared/VERB on/ADP the/DET TomDispatch/PROPN website/NOUN From/ADP the/DET time/NOUN I/PRON was/AUX little/ADJ I/PRON went/VERB to/ADP the/DET movies/NOUN They/PRON were/AUX my/PRON escape/NOUN with/ADP one/NUM exception/NOUN from/ADP which/PRON I/PRON invariably/ADV 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<p>Dr. Peter Arno is an economist and Senior Fellow and Director of Health Policy Research at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance.</p>
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<p /> KIM BROWN: Welcome to The Real News Network in Baltimore. I'm Kim Brown.
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<p />Even before the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Republicans have been publicly floating ways to chop social health care programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, under the guise that these programs account for much of the nation's debt, and even claim that these programs will go bankrupt in the coming decades.
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<p />Here's then candidate, Donald Trump, speaking on this issue at the New Hampshire Republican Leadership Summit back in April of 2015.
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<p />DONALD TRUMP: Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security. They want to do it on Medicare.They want to do it on Medicaid. And we can't do that. And it's not fair to the people that have been paying in for years and now all of a sudden they want to cut.
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<p />KIIM BROWN: A lot of this falls under the seeming obsession by congressional Republicans, and now new President Donald Trump, to repeal and replace Obamacare, otherwise known as the "Affordable Care Act". Here is candidate Trump again at the third Presidential Debate when asked how he will manage so called entitlement programs.
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<p />MODERATOR: Would President Trump make a deal to save Medicare and Social Security that included both tax increases and benefit cuts in effect a grand bargain on entitlements?
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<p />DONALD TRUMP: I'm cutting taxes. We're going to grow the economy. It's going to grow at a record rate.
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<p />MODERATOR: That's not going to help on entitlements.
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<p />DONALD TRUMP: No. It's going to totally help you. And one thing we have to do. Repeal and replace the disaster known as Obamacare. It's destroying our country, it's destroying our businesses. Our small business and our big business. We have to repeal and replace Obamacare.
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<p />KIM BROWN: Part of the piecemeal plan involved raising the eligibility age of Medicare, currently at age 65, but proposed to be raised up to age 67.
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<p />So, this is the focus of a recently released report by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. The study is titled, analyzing the impact of raising Medicare's eligibility age, with and without the Affordable Care Act, and the result is a huge increase in the number of uninsured persons.
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<p />Today, we're joined by one of the study's authors, Dr. Peter Arno. He is an economist and a Senior Fellow and Director of Health Policy Research at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He's also a Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance. Dr. Arno, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you.
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: Glad to be here. Thank you.
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<p />KIM BROWN: We've seen this from congressional Republicans for some time now, especially I would imagine most recently the middle of 2016 when House Speaker Paul Ryan proposed his budget, his healthcare plan, as it were, not really a healthcare plan, but in the Republican budget about what to do about so-called entitlement programs, and one of those solutions, as it were, is to raise the age for people to be eligible for Medicare. Tell us about what your study found.
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: Well, what we tried to look at was, if you raise the age from the current 65 two years to the age of 67, what would be the impact on men, on women and race and ethnic minorities, and particularly in regard to their insurance status - whether they would have health insurance at all. As you mentioned, the impact is quite dramatic in terms of increasing the rate of uninsured. At the present time, Medicare does such a good job that about 1% of people over the age of 65 today are uninsured. But what we found is that if you raise the age by two years that that 1% that's uninsured today would become closer to 19% if the Affordable Care Act remained in place. And if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, as the Republicans promise, the uninsured rate would rise dramatically to about 37%, or more than one out of three older Americans aged 65 and 66 would become uninsured.
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<p />KIM BROWN: And this could be particularly devastating. After all, the elderly population is among our more vulnerable populations, those more prone to require health care of some sort, especially even the possibility of long-term care, and more expensive healthcare at that. So what would be the financial impact on this group of seniors if this age of eligibility were to be raised?
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: Well, obviously it would impact older Americans directly because the out-of-pocket costs would go up. If you don't have insurance coverage and have to pay for medical care yourself, then clearly your out-of-pocket expenditures would go up.
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<p />Now, many people would just forego care because they couldn't afford it, which would end up with them going to use emergency services and hospital emergency rooms and so on, which would cost even more money, and those costs would be shifted -- if you end up in the hospital, for example -- many of those costs would be cost-shifted to the providers, to the hospitals and the physicians, and they would end up providing care and not being reimbursed.
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<p />So it's a huge burden on the providers and it's a more serious burden on the seniors themselves. And to the extent that they forego care and get sicker, then their health is obviously jeopardized, as well.
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<p />KIM BROWN: And let's talk about the difference, as you mentioned, with these costs -- with the Affordable Care Act in place and without the Affordable Care Act in place. Because there's a big gap here, looking at the numbers. People with the Affordable Care Act, if it were to remain in place -- let's say for example about 19% of men would be uninsured -- but without the Affordable Care Act we're looking at maybe upwards of 34% of men who would not have coverage in this case. This is not a small difference here between with and without the ACA.
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: Right. I mean, it almost doubles, and the reason it goes up so dramatically without the Affordable Care Act is that one of the key things that the ACA has done is by expanding Medicaid to many, many people who formerly had no insurance, they would be picked up by the Medicaid program and for those on the individual market, they're picked up with subsidies in the private exchanges. So without those two things, that's why the numbers for the uninsured would go up so dramatically without the ACA in place.
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<p />But I think it's worth pointing out that even with the ACA in place, the numbers... the increase goes up 17-fold with the ACA in place between what we have today and what would happen if their age is raised.
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<p />So it's a terrible, terrible policy prescription for the future of the American people and for one of its most cherished institutions, being Medicare.
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<p />KIM BROWN: Peter, hypothetically speaking, what would these figures look like if the United States Congress and the President, although highly unlikely, but were it possibly were to happen, if a Medicare for All program was implemented? What would these numbers look like then?
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: Well, I think the easiest way to answer that is just to look at what Medicare does right now for people over the age of 65, and the number of uninsured Americans, as I said, for those over the age of 65, those today who are accessing Medicare, is about 1%. So clearly, Medicare for All is the only rational, sane public policy solution to the future of health care in America. That's my own personal opinion, and I think that anything that we can do to head in that direction would be excellent steps to make.
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<p />KIM BROWN: If the Republican plan were to be enacted -- the repeal and replace of Obamacare obviously seems to be priority number one for the Republican Congress and now this new President -- but also if we were to take a look at how they want to implement this in terms of block grants for states for seniors to access Medicare, how does that look under this scenario?
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: Well, this is where things get quite confusing. We have to separate out Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is essentially for people over the age of 65 or those persons with severe disabilities of any age. Medicaid is a federal/state partnership program mainly for the poor, and of course, it turns out it's the main source of coverage for people needing long-term care or nursing home care in the United States. And the block grant proposal that you mentioned, which would be a fixed per-capita amount of money going to the states, that is being talked about in terms of the Medicaid program. In Medicare, okay, so that's... Medicaid is where the block grants are coming in, and the Republicans, in my view, are moving actually ahead now with this block granting imperative, and they've been wanting to do this for decades, and they've never been able to do it -- that's where Medicaid is going.
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<p />But Medicare, the Ryan plan, the Tom Price plan, those folks that are leading the Republican establishment in terms of health policy, they're talking about voucherizing Medicare -- giving everybody a fixed amount of money to then purchase health insurance on the private market. That's a little bit different from the block granting, and the problem with that, with this voucherizing or "coupon care", as it's called, is that the rate of inflation of health care expenditures is expected to rise much faster than whatever per-capita voucher-coupon amount is set and, therefore, over a few years, individuals, seniors and others, would face the increasing costs of that care, the increasing burden of that care.
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<p />So it's a little complicated, but I think it's useful to sort out. We do have an assault on all these programs, Medicare, Medicaid and, I believe soon, Social Security, as well. So it's useful to sort them out a little bit.
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<p />The study that we did was focused specifically on raising the age in Medicare per se, but I'm happy to answer your questions about the other programs, as well.
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<p />KIM BROWN: Well, as you mentioned, Mr. Price, who was just recently confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary, is in favor of privatization of these social programs, and Peter, I mean, I really have to ask in terms of the cost, the current cost of Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security as they are, I mean, the Republicans repeatedly make this claim that these programs are taking up a large chunk of our national debt, so-called entitlement programs, and also that they will go bankrupt in the coming decades. Has your organization found this to be accurate?
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: No. Absolutely not. None of these programs are going bankrupt at all. It's a misnomer. In fact, you know, I think it's worthwhile putting out this... a statement that Jared Bernstein made, I think either late yesterday or this morning, he put out a call to reporters to call policymakers to task for using these euphemistic terms over and over again, like "going bankrupt" or "cutting Social Security" or "cutting Medicare", and they used the terms like "we're going to fix it" instead of really what they mean is "cutting". So it's a way of disguising in almost Orwellian terms what they really plan on doing.
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<p />Now, the true answer on the healthcare side in terms of the fiscal viability in the long term has to do with how much money we spend on health care and what's driving those costs up. And I think what one of the failures, if you will, of the Affordable Care Act, or at least in its earliest stages, is that it has not fully addressed this issue. And this issue is about prices -- how much we are charged for doctor fees, hospitals, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. That's what's the main driving force, and until we address the causes of those rises in prices and address those prices, the health care will remain a growing fiscal threat.
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<p />But it's not going bankrupt. I mean, Medicare's trust fund, yes, it's going to get wound down because of these rising expenditures -- and not just rising expenditures, but we have 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day for the next several years. So it's more and more people aging into the system that's helping to also drive the expenditures. So, to solve that problem, we need to address prices. High drug prices -- we pay more than double for drug prices than any other developed country, more than double for physician prices than any other developed country.
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<p />So those are the issues that need to be addressed, and the sources of revenue are many. And those also need to be expanded, so that people... higher income individuals -- and this was partially addressed under the Affordable Care Act where higher income and higher wealth individuals paid a little bit of a higher share towards supporting Medicare. I can go on, so you might want to ask a question.
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<p />KIM BROWN: Well, I think that's a good start, Peter. We're going to have to have you back on to get into this some more, because obviously this is all super-complicated, and maybe not as complicated as it's made out to be, but this is something that is going to be on the table. This is a priority of this President and of this Congress, and they are not dragging their feet on this, although they are seemingly not as quick on the draw when it comes to their replacement solutions. But we will certainly be addressing this topic more going forward.
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<p />And for our listeners and our viewers, if you're interested, we will have a link to the study on our site, right here below this interview. It's from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. And the study, it analyzes the impact of raising Medicare's eligibility age with and without the Affordable Care Act and the result is a huge increase in the number of uninsured.
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<p />We've been speaking with Dr. Peter Arno. He's an economist and Senior Fellow and Director of Health Policy Research at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Arno, thanks a lot for your time and for your analysis today.
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<p />DR. PETER ARNO: Appreciate it. Thank you.
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<p />KIM BROWN: Oh, thank you. And thanks for checking out and watching The Real News Network.
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<p />END | Raising Medicare Eligibility to 67 Would Leave Nearly 2 Million Uninsured | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/story%3A18284%3ARaising-Medicare-Eligibility-to-67-Would-Leave-Nearly-2-Million-Uninsured | 2017-02-03 | 4left
| 2,485 | Dr Peter Arno is an economist and Senior Fellow and Director of Health Policy Research at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of MassachusettsAmherst and a Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance KIM BROWN Welcome to The Real News Network in Baltimore Im Kim Brown Even before the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 Republicans have been publicly floating ways to chop social health care programs such as Medicare and Social Security under the guise that these programs account for much of the nations debt and even claim that these programs will go bankrupt in the coming decades Heres then candidate Donald Trump speaking on this issue at the New Hampshire Republican Leadership Summit back in April of 2015 DONALD TRUMP Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security They want to do it on MedicareThey want to do it on Medicaid And we cant do that And its not fair to the people that have been paying in for years and now all of a sudden they want to cut KIIM BROWN A lot of this falls under the seeming obsession by congressional Republicans and now new President Donald Trump to repeal and replace Obamacare otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act Here is candidate Trump again at the third Presidential Debate when asked how he will manage so called entitlement programs MODERATOR Would President Trump make a deal to save Medicare and Social Security that included both tax increases and benefit cuts in effect a grand bargain on entitlements DONALD TRUMP Im cutting taxes Were going to grow the economy Its going to grow at a record rate MODERATOR Thats not going to help on entitlements DONALD TRUMP No Its going to totally help you And one thing we have to do Repeal and replace the disaster known as Obamacare Its destroying our country its destroying our businesses Our small business and our big business We have to repeal and replace Obamacare KIM BROWN Part of the piecemeal plan involved raising the eligibility age of Medicare currently at age 65 but proposed to be raised up to age 67 So this is the focus of a recently released report by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare The study is titled analyzing the impact of raising Medicares eligibility age with and without the Affordable Care Act and the result is a huge increase in the number of uninsured persons Today were joined by one of the studys authors Dr Peter Arno He is an economist and a Senior Fellow and Director of Health Policy Research at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Hes also a Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance Dr Arno we appreciate you joining us Thank you DR PETER ARNO Glad to be here Thank you KIM BROWN Weve seen this from congressional Republicans for some time now especially I would imagine most recently the middle of 2016 when House Speaker Paul Ryan proposed his budget his healthcare plan as it were not really a healthcare plan but in the Republican budget about what to do about socalled entitlement programs and one of those solutions as it were is to raise the age for people to be eligible for Medicare Tell us about what your study found DR PETER ARNO Well what we tried to look at was if you raise the age from the current 65 two years to the age of 67 what would be the impact on men on women and race and ethnic minorities and particularly in regard to their insurance status whether they would have health insurance at all As you mentioned the impact is quite dramatic in terms of increasing the rate of uninsured At the present time Medicare does such a good job that about 1 of people over the age of 65 today are uninsured But what we found is that if you raise the age by two years that that 1 thats uninsured today would become closer to 19 if the Affordable Care Act remained in place And if the Affordable Care Act is repealed as the Republicans promise the uninsured rate would rise dramatically to about 37 or more than one out of three older Americans aged 65 and 66 would become uninsured KIM BROWN And this could be particularly devastating After all the elderly population is among our more vulnerable populations those more prone to require health care of some sort especially even the possibility of longterm care and more expensive healthcare at that So what would be the financial impact on this group of seniors if this age of eligibility were to be raised DR PETER ARNO Well obviously it would impact older Americans directly because the outofpocket costs would go up If you dont have insurance coverage and have to pay for medical care yourself then clearly your outofpocket expenditures would go up Now many people would just forego care because they couldnt afford it which would end up with them going to use emergency services and hospital emergency rooms and so on which would cost even more money and those costs would be shifted if you end up in the hospital for example many of those costs would be costshifted to the providers to the hospitals and the physicians and they would end up providing care and not being reimbursed So its a huge burden on the providers and its a more serious burden on the seniors themselves And to the extent that they forego care and get sicker then their health is obviously jeopardized as well KIM BROWN And lets talk about the difference as you mentioned with these costs with the Affordable Care Act in place and without the Affordable Care Act in place Because theres a big gap here looking at the numbers People with the Affordable Care Act if it were to remain in place lets say for example about 19 of men would be uninsured but without the Affordable Care Act were looking at maybe upwards of 34 of men who would not have coverage in this case This is not a small difference here between with and without the ACA DR PETER ARNO Right I mean it almost doubles and the reason it goes up so dramatically without the Affordable Care Act is that one of the key things that the ACA has done is by expanding Medicaid to many many people who formerly had no insurance they would be picked up by the Medicaid program and for those on the individual market theyre picked up with subsidies in the private exchanges So without those two things thats why the numbers for the uninsured would go up so dramatically without the ACA in place But I think its worth pointing out that even with the ACA in place the numbers the increase goes up 17fold with the ACA in place between what we have today and what would happen if their age is raised So its a terrible terrible policy prescription for the future of the American people and for one of its most cherished institutions being Medicare KIM BROWN Peter hypothetically speaking what would these figures look like if the United States Congress and the President although highly unlikely but were it possibly were to happen if a Medicare for All program was implemented What would these numbers look like then DR PETER ARNO Well I think the easiest way to answer that is just to look at what Medicare does right now for people over the age of 65 and the number of uninsured Americans as I said for those over the age of 65 those today who are accessing Medicare is about 1 So clearly Medicare for All is the only rational sane public policy solution to the future of health care in America Thats my own personal opinion and I think that anything that we can do to head in that direction would be excellent steps to make KIM BROWN If the Republican plan were to be enacted the repeal and replace of Obamacare obviously seems to be priority number one for the Republican Congress and now this new President but also if we were to take a look at how they want to implement this in terms of block grants for states for seniors to access Medicare how does that look under this scenario DR PETER ARNO Well this is where things get quite confusing We have to separate out Medicare and Medicaid Medicare is essentially for people over the age of 65 or those persons with severe disabilities of any age Medicaid is a federalstate partnership program mainly for the poor and of course it turns out its the main source of coverage for people needing longterm care or nursing home care in the United States And the block grant proposal that you mentioned which would be a fixed percapita amount of money going to the states that is being talked about in terms of the Medicaid program In Medicare okay so thats Medicaid is where the block grants are coming in and the Republicans in my view are moving actually ahead now with this block granting imperative and theyve been wanting to do this for decades and theyve never been able to do it thats where Medicaid is going But Medicare the Ryan plan the Tom Price plan those folks that are leading the Republican establishment in terms of health policy theyre talking about voucherizing Medicare giving everybody a fixed amount of money to then purchase health insurance on the private market Thats a little bit different from the block granting and the problem with that with this voucherizing or coupon care as its called is that the rate of inflation of health care expenditures is expected to rise much faster than whatever percapita vouchercoupon amount is set and therefore over a few years individuals seniors and others would face the increasing costs of that care the increasing burden of that care So its a little complicated but I think its useful to sort out We do have an assault on all these programs Medicare Medicaid and I believe soon Social Security as well So its useful to sort them out a little bit The study that we did was focused specifically on raising the age in Medicare per se but Im happy to answer your questions about the other programs as well KIM BROWN Well as you mentioned Mr Price who was just recently confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary is in favor of privatization of these social programs and Peter I mean I really have to ask in terms of the cost the current cost of Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security as they are I mean the Republicans repeatedly make this claim that these programs are taking up a large chunk of our national debt socalled entitlement programs and also that they will go bankrupt in the coming decades Has your organization found this to be accurate DR PETER ARNO No Absolutely not None of these programs are going bankrupt at all Its a misnomer In fact you know I think its worthwhile putting out this a statement that Jared Bernstein made I think either late yesterday or this morning he put out a call to reporters to call policymakers to task for using these euphemistic terms over and over again like going bankrupt or cutting Social Security or cutting Medicare and they used the terms like were going to fix it instead of really what they mean is cutting So its a way of disguising in almost Orwellian terms what they really plan on doing Now the true answer on the healthcare side in terms of the fiscal viability in the long term has to do with how much money we spend on health care and whats driving those costs up And I think what one of the failures if you will of the Affordable Care Act or at least in its earliest stages is that it has not fully addressed this issue And this issue is about prices how much we are charged for doctor fees hospitals pharmaceuticals and medical equipment Thats whats the main driving force and until we address the causes of those rises in prices and address those prices the health care will remain a growing fiscal threat But its not going bankrupt I mean Medicares trust fund yes its going to get wound down because of these rising expenditures and not just rising expenditures but we have 10000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day for the next several years So its more and more people aging into the system thats helping to also drive the expenditures So to solve that problem we need to address prices High drug prices we pay more than double for drug prices than any other developed country more than double for physician prices than any other developed country So those are the issues that need to be addressed and the sources of revenue are many And those also need to be expanded so that people higher income individuals and this was partially addressed under the Affordable Care Act where higher income and higher wealth individuals paid a little bit of a higher share towards supporting Medicare I can go on so you might want to ask a question KIM BROWN Well I think thats a good start Peter Were going to have to have you back on to get into this some more because obviously this is all supercomplicated and maybe not as complicated as its made out to be but this is something that is going to be on the table This is a priority of this President and of this Congress and they are not dragging their feet on this although they are seemingly not as quick on the draw when it comes to their replacement solutions But we will certainly be addressing this topic more going forward And for our listeners and our viewers if youre interested we will have a link to the study on our site right here below this interview Its from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare And the study it analyzes the impact of raising Medicares eligibility age with and without the Affordable Care Act and the result is a huge increase in the number of uninsured Weve been speaking with Dr Peter Arno Hes an economist and Senior Fellow and Director of Health Policy Research at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Dr Arno thanks a lot for your time and for your analysis today DR PETER ARNO Appreciate it Thank you KIM BROWN Oh thank you And thanks for checking out and watching The Real News Network END | Dr/PROPN Peter/PROPN Arno/PROPN is/AUX an/DET economist/NOUN and/CCONJ Senior/PROPN Fellow/PROPN and/CCONJ Director/PROPN of/ADP Health/PROPN Policy/PROPN 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<p>Our latest update shows corporations and stockholders still prospering under Barack Obama’s presidency, while the economy steadily adds more jobs and millions sign up for health insurance under Obamacare.</p>
<p>But wages remain stagnant for those who have jobs, and there are still 3.7 million who have been jobless for six months or more.</p>
<p>U.S. oil production is booming and dependence on oil imports is plunging. But the national debt has now almost exactly doubled under this president, and historically large deficits continue.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>This report follows our <a href="" type="internal">January 2014 update</a> and <a href="" type="internal">previous</a> <a href="" type="internal">quarterly</a> <a href="" type="internal">reports</a> dating back to our <a href="" type="internal">first “Obama’s Numbers” article</a> in October 2012. All figures here reflect the most recent available as of April 10.</p>
<p>Affordable Care Act</p>
<p>Now that the major provisions of “Obamacare” have gone into effect, and the official enrollment period for obtaining private health insurance through the new exchanges has ended, some more or less solid numbers are starting to come in.</p>
<p>According to outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/obamacare-enrollment-numbers-105572.html" type="external">7.5 million people</a> had signed up for privately issued policies through the exchanges by the April 1 deadline. And&#160;that number exceeded what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had originally projected, despite all the early problems with the administration’s HealthCare.gov website.</p>
<p>In addition, the administration issued a report stating that <a href="http://www.medicaid.gov/AffordableCareAct/Medicaid-Moving-Forward-2014/Downloads/February-2014-Enrollment-Report.pdf" type="external">3 million other individuals</a> had signed up for government-issued insurance either through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. That number is as of February, and so is expected to grow in coming months. There is no deadline for signing up for either Medicaid or CHIP.</p>
<p>Most if not all of the Medicaid/CHIP growth is due to the new law. Enrollment grew by 8.3 percent in states that had expanded Medicaid eligibility under the ACA to include people higher up the income scale. But even in states that have not expanded eligibility rules, the report found growth of 1.6 percent. Much of that is thought to be due to people who had been eligible for Medicaid or CHIP all along finally signing up to avoid paying the law’s penalty tax for going without coverage. Some call it <a href="http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2013/11/about-91000-enroll-in-medicaid-as-result-of-aca-woodwork-effect/" type="external">the “woodwork effect”</a> of the ACA — bringing eligible people “out of the woodwork” to sign up.</p>
<p>The exact total of people who have gained new coverage because of Obamacare isn’t known. An April 8 report by the RAND Corp., based on a nationwide poll, estimated that there had been <a href="http://www.rand.org/blog/2014/04/survey-estimates-net-gain-of-9-3-million-american-adults.html" type="external">a net gain of 9.3 million newly insured “adults” as of mid-March</a>, when the poll was being conducted. But that number would of course fail to count the last-minute surge of signups that took place after the poll, and says nothing about children who gained coverage when their parents signed up. The number also goes beyond exchange and Medicaid enrollment, and includes a significant gain in employer-sponsored insurance.</p>
<p>The survey has a large margin of error, plus or minus 3.5 million for the net gain of newly insured. That means there’s a high degree of confidence that the real number is between 5.8 million and 12.8 million.</p>
<p>Jobs &amp; Wages</p>
<p>The economy as of March had <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001" type="external">gained just under 4 million jobs</a> since Obama took office. The <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000" type="external">unemployment rate stood at 6.7 percent</a>, which was 1.1 points lower than when he took office and 3.3 points lower than it was at its worst point during October 2009. Total employment now stands just 437,000 jobs short of the peak number reached a year before Obama became president, just as the great recession of 2007-2009 was beginning.</p>
<p>The numbers remain grim for those without jobs, however. The number of those who have been out of work for at least 27 weeks — the so-called <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13008636" type="external">long-term unemployed</a> — has declined recently to a bit over 3.7 million, but is still 1 million higher than when Obama took office. The <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13008275" type="external">average number of weeks that the unemployed have been without work</a> has also declined recently to 36 weeks, but that’s still 15.8 weeks more than the average for the month he entered the White House.</p>
<p>Even for those who are working, wages have barely kept up with the modest rates of inflation that have marked Obama’s tenure. <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000012" type="external">Real average weekly wages</a> — measured in constant dollars adjusted for inflation — in March were just 0.2 percent above where they were in January 2009.</p>
<p>Stocks &amp; Profits</p>
<p>&#160;The picture has grown much brighter for corporations and their stockholders. Pre-tax <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=CP#" type="external">corporate profits set yet another record</a> in the last three months of 2013, the most recent quarter on record. They were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.9 trillion, which is $1.2 trillion higher than in the recession-wracked final quarter of 2008, just before Obama took office.</p>
<p>That’s a gain of 184 percent during his presidency — and nearly half a trillion dollars (35 percent) higher than the record quarter (July – September quarter of 2006) before he took office.</p>
<p>Stockholders have been prospering also. Since the day Obama took office, the <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=626307&amp;startdate=Jan.+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec.+31%2C+2014&amp;num=30&amp;ei=SizMUtC-GpTK0AGOXA2C+2013&amp;num=30&amp;ei=yOIkUZDBLoOV0QGU9AE" type="external">Standard &amp; Poor’s 500-stock index</a> has more than doubled, rising by 128 percent as of the close of markets on April 10. The <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=983582&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2014&amp;num=30&amp;ei=4yrMUpCDGcLH0QGp5gE" type="external">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a> has also doubled, rising by 103 percent. And the <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=13756934&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2014&amp;num=30&amp;ei=tSzMUpitGLK80QHsaw" type="external">NASDAQ Composite index</a> has nearly tripled, rising by 181 percent.&#160;</p>
<p>Deficits &amp; Debt</p>
<p>The president is fond of saying he’s cut the federal deficit in half. That’s true as far as it goes. But it’s also a fact that the federal debt has just about exactly doubled since he took office.</p>
<p>The deficit — the yearly difference between federal spending and revenue — was <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/45067-HistoricalBudgetData.xlsx" type="external">$1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009</a>, was down to $680 billion in the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, and is <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/45010" type="external">projected to be $514 billion</a> when the current fiscal year ends several months from now, according to figures released Feb. 4 by the CBO. But that’s still high by historical standards — equal to 3 percent of the nation’s projected economic output. It’s nearly double the 1.6 percent average deficit <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/hist01z3.xls" type="external">between World War II and fiscal 2009</a>.</p>
<p>As a result of all this deficit spending, the total debt that the federal government owes to the public has gone up 99.8 percent since the day Obama entered office, rising to <a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current" type="external">$12.6 trillion</a>.</p>
<p>The&#160;total debt — counting money the government owes to itself through the Social Security and other trust funds — has now reached $17.6 trillion, an increase of 65 percent. But it’s the debt owed to the public that economists consider more relevant.</p>
<p>The debt figures alarm budget experts. The CBO’s most recent budget outlook estimated the debt owed to the public would equal 74 percent of GDP by the end of the current fiscal year, and will rise to 79 percent in 2024 under current spending and tax laws. “Such large and growing federal debt could have serious negative consequences,” CBO stated. The continuing deficits and high interest payments could slow down economic growth and even increase the risk of another economic crisis, CBO said.</p>
<p>Food Stamps</p>
<p>The number of people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) has been declining as the economy improves and Congress enacts spending cuts. It hit a record high of nearly 47.8 million people in December 2012 and has gone down by about 1.3 million since then. Nevertheless, the total for January stood at <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htm" type="external">46.5 million</a>, which is an increase of 45.5 percent compared with the month Obama became president.</p>
<p>Gasoline, Oil &amp; Mileage</p>
<p>Gasoline prices have remained in check for the recent portion of Obama’s tenure as president. The national average price for regular gasoline at the pump has fluctuated since the start of 2011 between $3.07 and $3.97 per gallon, <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&amp;s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&amp;f=W" type="external">according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration</a>.&#160; It was $3.60 during the week ending April 7.</p>
<p>And while that most recent price is 95 percent higher than what it was when he took office — when it was unusually depressed as a result of the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s — it is well below the record of $4.11 set in July 2008.</p>
<p>One reason prices haven’t gone higher is the continuing boom in U.S. oil production, which is <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/query/index.cfm?periodType=QUARTERLY&amp;startYear=2008&amp;endYear=2014&amp;formulas=x13x4x78x8x7xg" type="external">up 62 percent during Obama’s tenure</a>, comparing the EIA’s figures for the first three months of 2014 with the final full quarter of 2008, just before Obama entered the White House. Mirroring that figure, U.S. imports of oil from abroad have gone down 52 percent during the same period.</p>
<p>The year before Obama took office, <a href="http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec3_7.pdf" type="external">EIA figures show</a> the U.S. imported 57 percent of the oil it consumed. During the first two months of this year, that figure was down to 28.5 percent and dropping fast.</p>
<p>A related factor is improving automobile fuel efficiency. As of March, the average “sticker” mileage of new cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. was <a href="http://www.umich.edu/~umtriswt/EDI_sales-weighted-mpg.html" type="external">25.4 miles per gallon</a>, an increase of 21 percent since January 2009, according to the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.</p>
<p>Wind &amp; Solar</p>
<p>Wind and solar power have more than tripled during Obama’s presidency. Since he first took office, the amount of electricity produced from these two renewable sources has increased by 221 percent, comparing the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01_a" type="external">most recent 12-month average from the EIA</a> with the totals for 2008. The amount produced by wind turbines is nearly 20 times larger than the amount produced by solar methods, but solar power is increasing more rapidly, having grown more than ten-fold since 2008.</p>
<p>Still, wind and solar taken together account for only <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/" type="external">4.4 percent of all U.S. electrical generation</a>, up from 1.4 percent in 2008.</p>
<p>Exports</p>
<p>In his <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-state-union-address" type="external">2010 State of the Union address</a> the president vowed to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014. But that’s not happening.</p>
<p>As the <a href="http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?reqid=6&amp;step=3&amp;isuri=1&amp;600=1&amp;601=2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008&amp;602=3&amp;603=0&amp;604=91&amp;605=1#reqid=6&amp;step=3&amp;isuri=1&amp;600=1&amp;601=2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008&amp;602=3&amp;603=0&amp;604=91&amp;605=1" type="external">most recent figures available from the U.S. Commerce Department show</a>, seasonally adjusted exports of goods and services have increased just 36 percent, comparing the last three months of 2008 with the last quarter of 2013.</p>
<p>Home Ownership &amp; Housing Starts</p>
<p>Thanks partly to a wave of foreclosures that followed the collapse of the housing bubble, fewer Americans now own their homes than did when Obama took office. The <a href="http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/histtab14a.xls" type="external">home ownership rate</a>, which had already begun to decline during the Bush administration, fell to a seasonally adjusted 65.1 percent in the last three months of 2013, according to Census Bureau figures. That’s 2.4 percentage points lower than it was in the quarter before the Obama presidency began, and 4.3 percentage points below the high-water mark of home ownership set in the second quarter of 2004, when 69.4 percent of Americans lived in their own homes.</p>
<p>To be sure, housing starts are up. The number of <a href="http://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/xls/starts_cust.xls" type="external">new privately owned housing units begun in February</a>, the most recent period for which the Census Bureau has reported, was 85 percent higher than it was in the recession month of January 2009, measured as a seasonally adjusted annual rate. But that hardly represents a housing boom. The rate is still less than 40 percent of what it was during January 2006, the best month of the Bush administration.</p>
<p>Guantanamo Prisoners</p>
<p>Nothing has changed since our last report at the detention facility at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. There are still 155 prisoners, which the Pentagon prefers to call “detainees.” That’s a reduction of just 36 percent from the 242 who were being held when Obama took office — despite an <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ClosureOfGuantanamoDetentionFacilities/" type="external">order Obama signed two days into his presidency</a> directing that the detention facility be closed within one year.</p>
<p>And the war in Afghanistan grinds on. According to <a href="https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/report_oef_month.xhtml#" type="external">official Pentagon figures</a>, the U.S. has suffered a total of 1,686 military fatalities since 2008 in Operation Enduring Freedom.</p>
<p>— by Brooks Jackson</p>
<p>Sebelius, Kathleen. “ <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/blog/2014/04/medicaid-chip-determinations-february.html" type="external">Medicaid Enrollment Grows By More Than 3 Million.</a>” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 4 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>“ <a href="http://www.medicaid.gov/AffordableCareAct/Medicaid-Moving-Forward-2014/Downloads/February-2014-Enrollment-Report.pdf" type="external">Medicaid &amp; CHIP: February 2014 Monthly Applications, Eligibility Determinations, and Enrollment Report</a>.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 4 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Carman, Katherine Grace and Christine Eibner. “ <a href="http://www.rand.org/blog/2014/04/survey-estimates-net-gain-of-9-3-million-american-adults.html" type="external">Survey Estimates Net Gain of 9.3 Million American Adults with Health Insurance.</a>” RAND Corp. 8 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001" type="external">Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National); Total Nonfarm Employment, Seasonally Adjusted.</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000" type="external">Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey; Unemployment Rate, Seasonally Adjusted.</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13008636" type="external">Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey; Number Unemployed for 27 Weeks &amp; Over</a>, Seasonally Adjusted.” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000012" type="external">Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National); Average Weekly Earnings of All Employees, 1982-1984 Dollars.</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. “ <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CP" type="external">Corporate Profits After Tax (without IVA and CCAdj) (CP).</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Census Bureau. “ <a href="http://www.census.gov/econ/currentdata/dbsearch?program=HV&amp;startYear=1956&amp;endYear=2013&amp;categories=RATE&amp;dataType=SAHOR&amp;geoLevel=US&amp;adjusted=1&amp;submit=GET+DATA" type="external">Time Series: Seasonally Adjusted Home Ownership Rate.</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Google Finance. “ <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=626307&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2014&amp;num=30&amp;ei=J6dGU4gnsuzpAfte" type="external">S&amp;P 500</a>.” Historical prices. Accessed 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Google Finance. “ <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=983582&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2014&amp;num=30&amp;ei=66ZGU-jaDoOO6wH8zgE" type="external">Dow Jones Industrial Average</a>.” Historical prices. Accessed 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Google Finance. “ <a href="https://www.google.com/finance/historical?cid=13756934&amp;startdate=Jan+20%2C+2009&amp;enddate=Dec+31%2C+2014&amp;num=30&amp;ei=t6ZGU8C4AtTD6gHZtAE" type="external">NASDAQ Composite</a>.” Historical prices. Accessed 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>Congressional Budget Office. “ <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/45067" type="external">Historical Budget Data—February 2014</a>.” 4 Feb 2014.</p>
<p>Congressional Budget Office. “ <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/45010" type="external">The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024</a>.” 4 Feb 2014.</p>
<p>Office of Management and Budget. <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/historicals" type="external">Historical Tables</a>. “ <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/hist01z3.xls" type="external">Table 1.3—Summary Of Receipts, Outlays, And Surpluses Or Deficits (–) In Current Dollars, Constant (Fy 2009) Dollars, And As Percentages Of Gdp: 1940–2019.</a>” Accessed 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury. “ <a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/current" type="external">The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It.</a>” 10 Jan 2014. Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. “ <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htm" type="external">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Data as of April 4, 2014).</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&amp;s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&amp;f=W" type="external">Weekly U.S. Regular All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices.</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/query/index.cfm?periodType=QUARTERLY&amp;startYear=2008&amp;endYear=2014&amp;formulas=x13x4x78x8x7xg" type="external">U.S. Crude Oil Production</a>.” Accessed 14 Jan 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec3_7.pdf" type="external">Table 3.3a. Monthly Energy Review</a>.” Mar 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Monthly, “ <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01_a" type="external">Table 1.1.A. Net Generation from Renewable Sources: Total (All Sectors), 2004-January 2014.</a>” 21 Mar 2014.</p>
<p>University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. “ <a href="http://www.umich.edu/%7Eumtriswt/EDI_sales-weighted-mpg.html" type="external">Average sales-weighted fuel-economy rating (window sticker) of purchased new vehicles for October 2007 through March 2014.</a>” 2 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Affairs. “ <a href="http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?reqid=6&amp;step=3&amp;isuri=1&amp;600=1&amp;601=2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008&amp;602=3&amp;603=0&amp;604=91&amp;605=1#reqid=6&amp;step=3&amp;isuri=1&amp;600=1&amp;601=2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008&amp;602=3&amp;603=0&amp;604=91&amp;605=1" type="external">Table 1. U.S. International Transactions: Exports of Goods and Services</a>” 19 Mar 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Census Bureau. “ <a href="http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/histtab14a.xls" type="external">Table 14a. Seasonally Adjusted Homeownership Rates for the United States, 1980 to Present.</a>” Accessed 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Census Bureau. “ <a href="http://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/xls/starts_cust.xls" type="external">New Privately Owned Housing Units Started; Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate.</a>” Accessed 10 Apr 2014.</p>
<p>U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System. “ <a href="https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/report_oef_month.xhtml#" type="external">U.S. Military Casualties – Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Casualty Summary by Month.</a>” Data extracted 10 Apr 2014.</p> | Obama’s Numbers (April 2014 Update) | false | https://factcheck.org/2014/04/obamas-numbers-april-2014-update/ | 2014-04-11 | 2least
| 2,486 | Our latest update shows corporations and stockholders still prospering under Barack Obama8217s presidency while the economy steadily adds more jobs and millions sign up for health insurance under Obamacare But wages remain stagnant for those who have jobs and there are still 37 million who have been jobless for six months or more US oil production is booming and dependence on oil imports is plunging But the national debt has now almost exactly doubled under this president and historically large deficits continue amp160 This report follows our January 2014 update and previous quarterly reports dating back to our first 8220Obama8217s Numbers8221 article in October 2012 All figures here reflect the most recent available as of April 10 Affordable Care Act Now that the major provisions of 8220Obamacare8221 have gone into effect and the official enrollment period for obtaining private health insurance through the new exchanges has ended some more or less solid numbers are starting to come in According to outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius 75 million people had signed up for privately issued policies through the exchanges by the April 1 deadline Andamp160that number exceeded what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had originally projected despite all the early problems with the administration8217s HealthCaregov website In addition the administration issued a report stating that 3 million other individuals had signed up for governmentissued insurance either through Medicaid or the Children8217s Health Insurance Program That number is as of February and so is expected to grow in coming months There is no deadline for signing up for either Medicaid or CHIP Most if not all of the MedicaidCHIP growth is due to the new law Enrollment grew by 83 percent in states that had expanded Medicaid eligibility under the ACA to include people higher up the income scale But even in states that have not expanded eligibility rules the report found growth of 16 percent Much of that is thought to be due to people who had been eligible for Medicaid or CHIP all along finally signing up to avoid paying the law8217s penalty tax for going without coverage Some call it the 8220woodwork effect8221 of the ACA 8212 bringing eligible people 8220out of the woodwork8221 to sign up The exact total of people who have gained new coverage because of Obamacare isn8217t known An April 8 report by the RAND Corp based on a nationwide poll estimated that there had been a net gain of 93 million newly insured 8220adults8221 as of midMarch when the poll was being conducted But that number would of course fail to count the lastminute surge of signups that took place after the poll and says nothing about children who gained coverage when their parents signed up The number also goes beyond exchange and Medicaid enrollment and includes a significant gain in employersponsored insurance The survey has a large margin of error plus or minus 35 million for the net gain of newly insured That means there8217s a high degree of confidence that the real number is between 58 million and 128 million Jobs ampamp Wages The economy as of March had gained just under 4 million jobs since Obama took office The unemployment rate stood at 67 percent which was 11 points lower than when he took office and 33 points lower than it was at its worst point during October 2009 Total employment now stands just 437000 jobs short of the peak number reached a year before Obama became president just as the great recession of 20072009 was beginning The numbers remain grim for those without jobs however The number of those who have been out of work for at least 27 weeks 8212 the socalled longterm unemployed 8212 has declined recently to a bit over 37 million but is still 1 million higher than when Obama took office The average number of weeks that the unemployed have been without work has also declined recently to 36 weeks but that8217s still 158 weeks more than the average for the month he entered the White House Even for those who are working wages have barely kept up with the modest rates of inflation that have marked Obama8217s tenure Real average weekly wages 8212 measured in constant dollars adjusted for inflation 8212 in March were just 02 percent above where they were in January 2009 Stocks ampamp Profits amp160The picture has grown much brighter for corporations and their stockholders Pretax corporate profits set yet another record in the last three months of 2013 the most recent quarter on record They were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 19 trillion which is 12 trillion higher than in the recessionwracked final quarter of 2008 just before Obama took office That8217s a gain of 184 percent during his presidency 8212 and nearly half a trillion dollars 35 percent higher than the record quarter July 8211 September quarter of 2006 before he took office Stockholders have been prospering also Since the day Obama took office the Standard ampamp Poor8217s 500stock index has more than doubled rising by 128 percent as of the close of markets on April 10 The Dow Jones Industrial Average has also doubled rising by 103 percent And the NASDAQ Composite index has nearly tripled rising by 181 percentamp160 Deficits ampamp Debt The president is fond of saying he8217s cut the federal deficit in half That8217s true as far as it goes But it8217s also a fact that the federal debt has just about exactly doubled since he took office The deficit 8212 the yearly difference between federal spending and revenue 8212 was 14 trillion in fiscal year 2009 was down to 680 billion in the fiscal year that ended last Sept 30 and is projected to be 514 billion when the current fiscal year ends several months from now according to figures released Feb 4 by the CBO But that8217s still high by historical standards 8212 equal to 3 percent of the nation8217s projected economic output It8217s nearly double the 16 percent average deficit between World War II and fiscal 2009 As a result of all this deficit spending the total debt that the federal government owes to the public has gone up 998 percent since the day Obama entered office rising to 126 trillion Theamp160total debt 8212 counting money the government owes to itself through the Social Security and other trust funds 8212 has now reached 176 trillion an increase of 65 percent But it8217s the debt owed to the public that economists consider more relevant The debt figures alarm budget experts The CBO8217s most recent budget outlook estimated the debt owed to the public would equal 74 percent of GDP by the end of the current fiscal year and will rise to 79 percent in 2024 under current spending and tax laws 8220Such large and growing federal debt could have serious negative consequences8221 CBO stated The continuing deficits and high interest payments could slow down economic growth and even increase the risk of another economic crisis CBO said Food Stamps The number of people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps has been declining as the economy improves and Congress enacts spending cuts It hit a record high of nearly 478 million people in December 2012 and has gone down by about 13 million since then Nevertheless the total for January stood at 465 million which is an increase of 455 percent compared with the month Obama became president Gasoline Oil ampamp Mileage Gasoline prices have remained in check for the recent portion of Obama8217s tenure as president The national average price for regular gasoline at the pump has fluctuated since the start of 2011 between 307 and 397 per gallon according to the US Energy Information Administrationamp160 It was 360 during the week ending April 7 And while that most recent price is 95 percent higher than what it was when he took office 8212 when it was unusually depressed as a result of the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s 8212 it is well below the record of 411 set in July 2008 One reason prices haven8217t gone higher is the continuing boom in US oil production which is up 62 percent during Obama8217s tenure comparing the EIA8217s figures for the first three months of 2014 with the final full quarter of 2008 just before Obama entered the White House Mirroring that figure US imports of oil from abroad have gone down 52 percent during the same period The year before Obama took office EIA figures show the US imported 57 percent of the oil it consumed During the first two months of this year that figure was down to 285 percent and dropping fast A related factor is improving automobile fuel efficiency As of March the average 8220sticker8221 mileage of new cars and light trucks sold in the US was 254 miles per gallon an increase of 21 percent since January 2009 according to the University of Michigan8217s Transportation Research Institute Wind ampamp Solar Wind and solar power have more than tripled during Obama8217s presidency Since he first took office the amount of electricity produced from these two renewable sources has increased by 221 percent comparing the most recent 12month average from the EIA with the totals for 2008 The amount produced by wind turbines is nearly 20 times larger than the amount produced by solar methods but solar power is increasing more rapidly having grown more than tenfold since 2008 Still wind and solar taken together account for only 44 percent of all US electrical generation up from 14 percent in 2008 Exports In his 2010 State of the Union address the president vowed to double US exports by the end of 2014 But that8217s not happening As the most recent figures available from the US Commerce Department show seasonally adjusted exports of goods and services have increased just 36 percent comparing the last three months of 2008 with the last quarter of 2013 Home Ownership ampamp Housing Starts Thanks partly to a wave of foreclosures that followed the collapse of the housing bubble fewer Americans now own their homes than did when Obama took office The home ownership rate which had already begun to decline during the Bush administration fell to a seasonally adjusted 651 percent in the last three months of 2013 according to Census Bureau figures That8217s 24 percentage points lower than it was in the quarter before the Obama presidency began and 43 percentage points below the highwater mark of home ownership set in the second quarter of 2004 when 694 percent of Americans lived in their own homes To be sure housing starts are up The number of new privately owned housing units begun in February the most recent period for which the Census Bureau has reported was 85 percent higher than it was in the recession month of January 2009 measured as a seasonally adjusted annual rate But that hardly represents a housing boom The rate is still less than 40 percent of what it was during January 2006 the best month of the Bush administration Guantanamo Prisoners Nothing has changed since our last report at the detention facility at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba There are still 155 prisoners which the Pentagon prefers to call 8220detainees8221 That8217s a reduction of just 36 percent from the 242 who were being held when Obama took office 8212 despite an order Obama signed two days into his presidency directing that the detention facility be closed within one year And the war in Afghanistan grinds on According to official Pentagon figures the US has suffered a total of 1686 military fatalities since 2008 in Operation Enduring Freedom 8212 by Brooks Jackson Sebelius Kathleen 8220 Medicaid Enrollment Grows By More Than 3 Million8221 US Department of Health and Human Services 4 Apr 2014 8220 Medicaid ampamp CHIP February 2014 Monthly Applications Eligibility Determinations and Enrollment Report8221 US Department of Health and Human Services 4 Apr 2014 Carman Katherine Grace and Christine Eibner 8220 Survey Estimates Net Gain of 93 Million American Adults with Health Insurance8221 RAND Corp 8 Apr 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics 8220 Employment Hours and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey National Total Nonfarm Employment Seasonally Adjusted8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics 8220 Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey Unemployment Rate Seasonally Adjusted8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics 8220 Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey Number Unemployed for 27 Weeks ampamp Over Seasonally Adjusted8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics 8220 Employment Hours and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey National Average Weekly Earnings of All Employees 19821984 Dollars8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis 8220 Corporate Profits After Tax without IVA and CCAdj CP8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 US Census Bureau 8220 Time Series Seasonally Adjusted Home Ownership Rate8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 Google Finance 8220 SampampP 5008221 Historical prices Accessed 10 Apr 2014 Google Finance 8220 Dow Jones Industrial Average8221 Historical prices Accessed 10 Apr 2014 Google Finance 8220 NASDAQ Composite8221 Historical prices Accessed 10 Apr 2014 Congressional Budget Office 8220 Historical Budget Data8212February 20148221 4 Feb 2014 Congressional Budget Office 8220 The Budget and Economic Outlook 2014 to 20248221 4 Feb 2014 Office of Management and Budget Historical Tables 8220 Table 138212Summary Of Receipts Outlays And Surpluses Or Deficits 8211 In Current Dollars Constant Fy 2009 Dollars And As Percentages Of Gdp 1940821120198221 Accessed 10 Apr 2014 US Treasury 8220 The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It8221 10 Jan 2014 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service 8220 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Data as of April 4 20148221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 US Energy Information Administration 8220 Weekly US Regular All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 US Energy Information Administration 8220 US Crude Oil Production8221 Accessed 14 Jan 2014 US Energy Information Administration 8220 Table 33a Monthly Energy Review8221 Mar 2014 US Energy Information Administration Electric Power Monthly 8220 Table 11A Net Generation from Renewable Sources Total All Sectors 2004January 20148221 21 Mar 2014 University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute 8220 Average salesweighted fueleconomy rating window sticker of purchased new vehicles for October 2007 through March 20148221 2 Apr 2014 US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Affairs 8220 Table 1 US International Transactions Exports of Goods and Services8221 19 Mar 2014 US Census Bureau 8220 Table 14a Seasonally Adjusted Homeownership Rates for the United States 1980 to Present8221 Accessed 10 Apr 2014 US Census Bureau 8220 New Privately Owned Housing Units Started Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate8221 Accessed 10 Apr 2014 US Department of Defense Defense Casualty Analysis System 8220 US Military Casualties 8211 Operation Enduring Freedom OEF Casualty Summary by Month8221 Data extracted 10 Apr 2014 | Our/PRON latest/ADJ update/NOUN shows/VERB corporations/NOUN and/CCONJ stockholders/NOUN still/ADV prospering/VERB under/ADP Barack/PROPN Obama8217s/PROPN presidency/NOUN while/SCONJ the/DET economy/NOUN steadily/ADV adds/VERB more/ADJ jobs/NOUN and/CCONJ millions/NOUN sign/VERB up/ADP for/ADP health/NOUN insurance/NOUN under/ADP Obamacare/PROPN But/CCONJ wages/NOUN remain/VERB stagnant/ADJ for/ADP those/PRON who/PRON have/VERB jobs/NOUN and/CCONJ there/PRON are/VERB still/ADV 37/NUM million/NUM who/PRON have/AUX been/AUX jobless/ADJ for/ADP six/NUM months/NOUN or/CCONJ more/ADJ US/PROPN oil/NOUN production/NOUN is/AUX booming/VERB and/CCONJ dependence/NOUN on/ADP oil/NOUN imports/NOUN is/AUX plunging/VERB But/CCONJ the/DET national/ADJ debt/NOUN has/AUX now/ADV almost/ADV exactly/ADV doubled/VERB under/ADP this/DET president/NOUN and/CCONJ historically/ADV large/ADJ deficits/NOUN continue/VERB amp160/VERB This/DET report/NOUN follows/VERB our/PRON January/PROPN 2014/NUM update/NOUN and/CCONJ previous/ADJ quarterly/ADJ reports/NOUN dating/VERB back/ADV to/ADP our/PRON first/ADJ 8220Obama8217s/NUM Numbers8221/PROPN article/NOUN in/ADP October/PROPN 2012/NUM All/DET figures/NOUN here/ADV reflect/VERB the/DET most/ADV recent/ADJ available/ADJ as/ADP of/ADP April/PROPN 10/NUM Affordable/PROPN Care/PROPN Act/PROPN Now/ADV that/SCONJ the/DET major/ADJ provisions/NOUN of/ADP 8220Obamacare8221/NUM have/AUX gone/VERB into/ADP effect/NOUN and/CCONJ the/DET official/ADJ enrollment/NOUN period/NOUN for/ADP obtaining/VERB private/ADJ health/NOUN insurance/NOUN through/ADP the/DET new/ADJ exchanges/NOUN has/AUX ended/VERB some/PRON more/ADV or/CCONJ less/ADV solid/ADJ numbers/NOUN are/AUX starting/VERB to/PART come/VERB in/ADP According/VERB to/ADP outgoing/ADJ Health/PROPN and/CCONJ Human/PROPN Services/PROPN Secretary/PROPN Kathleen/PROPN Sebelius/PROPN 75/NUM million/NUM people/NOUN had/AUX signed/VERB up/ADP for/ADP privately/ADV issued/VERB policies/NOUN through/ADP the/DET exchanges/NOUN by/ADP the/DET April/PROPN 1/NUM deadline/NOUN Andamp160that/DET number/NOUN exceeded/VERB what/PRON the/DET nonpartisan/ADJ Congressional/PROPN Budget/PROPN Office/PROPN had/AUX originally/ADV projected/VERB despite/SCONJ all/DET the/DET early/ADJ problems/NOUN with/ADP the/DET administration8217s/PROPN HealthCaregov/PROPN website/NOUN In/ADP addition/NOUN the/DET administration/NOUN issued/VERB a/DET report/NOUN stating/VERB that/SCONJ 3/NUM million/NUM other/ADJ individuals/NOUN had/AUX signed/VERB up/ADP for/ADP governmentissued/VERB insurance/NOUN either/CCONJ through/ADP Medicaid/PROPN or/CCONJ the/DET Children8217s/PROPN Health/PROPN Insurance/PROPN Program/PROPN That/DET number/NOUN is/AUX as/ADP of/ADP February/PROPN and/CCONJ so/ADV is/AUX expected/VERB to/PART grow/VERB in/ADP coming/ADJ months/NOUN There/PRON is/VERB no/DET deadline/NOUN for/ADP signing/VERB up/ADP for/ADP either/CCONJ Medicaid/PROPN or/CCONJ CHIP/VERB Most/ADV if/SCONJ not/PART all/PRON of/ADP the/DET MedicaidCHIP/NUM growth/NOUN is/AUX due/ADJ to/ADP the/DET new/ADJ law/NOUN Enrollment/PROPN grew/VERB by/ADP 83/NUM percent/NOUN in/ADP states/NOUN that/PRON had/AUX expanded/VERB Medicaid/PROPN eligibility/NOUN under/ADP the/DET ACA/PROPN to/PART include/VERB people/NOUN higher/ADJ up/ADP the/DET income/NOUN scale/NOUN But/CCONJ even/ADV in/ADP states/NOUN that/PRON have/AUX not/PART expanded/VERB eligibility/NOUN rules/NOUN the/DET report/NOUN found/VERB growth/NOUN of/ADP 16/NUM percent/NOUN Much/ADJ of/ADP that/PRON is/AUX thought/VERB to/PART be/AUX due/ADJ to/ADP people/NOUN who/PRON had/AUX been/AUX eligible/ADJ for/ADP Medicaid/PROPN or/CCONJ CHIP/PROPN all/ADV along/ADV finally/ADV signing/VERB up/ADP to/PART avoid/VERB paying/VERB the/DET law8217s/PROPN 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<p>Images: AP/iStock.</p>
<p />
<p>Mother Jones obtained more than 450 police department requests for armored tactical vehicles from the Pentagon. Did your police force request one? Browse all of them <a href="#requests" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>One year ago this week, hundreds of camouflaged officers in Ferguson, Missouri bore down on residents protesting the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown.</p>
<p>Riot cops, their faces sometimes concealed by gas masks, fired off tear gas canisters, and as they stood on top of hulking, mine-resistant vehicles, they appeared to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/us/ferguson-missouri-in-wake-of-clashes-calls-to-demilitarize-police.html?_r=1" type="external">train their assault rifles</a> on the crowds. On some nights, they greeted demonstrators with a storm of rubber bullets.</p>
<p>Images of this chaos provoked a furious debate over the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/23/us/flow-of-money-and-equipment-to-local-police.html?_r=0" type="external">billions of federal dollars</a> that have helped local police forces amass combat style weapons, trucks, and armor. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), echoing concerns <a href="http://time.com/3111474/rand-paul-ferguson-police/" type="external">from across the political spectrum</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/217087-missouri-senator-questions-need-for-militarized-police-forces" type="external">fumed</a> that “lawful, peaceful protesters did not deserve to be treated like enemy combatants.”</p>
<p>Law enforcement agencies responded by stoking old fears. No community, they argued, not even the smallest one, is safe from worst-case scenarios like mass shootings, hostage situations, or terrorist attacks. The use of this military equipment has resulted in “substantial positive impact on public safety and officer safety,” Jim Bueermann, the president of the Police Foundation, a research group, said in a 2014 Senate hearing on police militarization. He cited hostage situations, rescue missions, and heavy-duty shootouts where the vehicles had come in useful.</p>
<p>But in private, police justify these same programs in radically different ways.</p>
<p>Mother Jones obtained more than 450 local requests, filed over two years, for what may be the most iconic piece of equipment in the debate over militarizing local police: the mine resistant ambush protected vehicle, or MRAP. <a href="#footnote" type="external">*</a> And an analysis of these documents reveals that in justifying their requests, very few sheriffs and police chiefs cite active shooters, hostage situations, or terrorism, as police advocates do in public.</p>
<p>Instead, the single most common reason agencies requested a mine-resistant vehicle was to combat drugs. Fully a quarter of the 465 requests projected using the vehicles for drug enforcement. Almost half of all departments indicated that they sit within a region designated by the federal government as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. (Nationwide, only 17 percent of counties are HIDTAs.) One out of six departments were prepared to use the vehicles to serve search or arrest warrants on individuals who had yet to be convicted of a crime. And more than half of the departments indicated they were willing to deploy armored vehicles in a broad range of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) raids.</p>
<p>By contrast, out of the total 465 requests, only 8 percent mention the possibility of a barricaded gunman. For hostage situations, the number is 7 percent, for active shooters, 6 percent. Only a handful mentioned downed officers or the possibility of terrorism.</p>
<p>“This is a great example of how police as an institution talk to each other privately, versus how they talk to the public and journalists who might raise questions about what they’re doing with this equipment,” says Peter Kraska, a professor at Eastern Kentucky University who has studied police militarization for decades. When police are pressured in public, Kraska says, “They’re going to say, ‘How about Columbine?’ or point to all these extremely rare circumstances.”</p>
<p>The requests flowed to <a href="" type="internal">a massive Pentagon program</a>—known as the 1033 program—that has given communities across the country a total of $5.6 billion in combat equipment left over from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon said, 625 MRAPs.&#160;A <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/09/02/342494225/mraps-and-bayonets-what-we-know-about-the-pentagons-1033-program" type="external">2014 NPR analysis</a> found that the Pentagon has also doled out 80,000 assault rifles, 200 grenade launchers, and 12,000 bayonets. In 2012, the program began making MRAPs available. The vehicles <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/09/13/348242448/san-diego-school-district-s-new-15-ton-armored-vehicle-creates-stir" type="external">weigh around 14 tons</a>, and feature armored hulls and tiny, blast-proof windows. “Nothing short of a rocket-propelled grenade will trouble this powerhouse,” one manufacturer <a href="http://www.lencoarmor.com/swat-team-receives-14-tons-of-protection/" type="external">boasted</a>.</p>
<p>The documents reveal that many departments are willing to bring a startling show of force to ordinary communities. One police chief pleaded for a <a href="http://www.lencoarmor.com/law-enforcement/bearcat-variants/" type="external">Lenco BearCat</a>—an armored personnel carrier with blast resistant floors and an optional gun turret—to guard <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195850-de-dewey-beach-pd.html" type="external">a 200-acre beach town in Delaware</a>. In Chesterfield County, South Carolina—population 46,000—the sheriff <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196354-sc-chesterfield-co-so.html" type="external">requested</a> a vehicle that could withstand both roadside bombs and a type of machine gun round that can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LO78Z0tbvw" type="external">shatter concrete</a>. And the Ohio State University Police Department asked for an armored vehicle <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2258903-oh-ohio-state-university-pd.html" type="external">to assist with “football missions.”</a> (The Pentagon <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2013/09/30/ohio-state-university-police-get-ied-resistant-military-vehicle-for-use-on-football-game-days/" type="external">gave Ohio State an MRAP</a> in September 2013, and school police deployed it to football games, the department told a student newspaper, so as to have a “presence.”) Many departments explicitly promised to use MRAPs to deliver <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196295-oh-athens-co-so.html" type="external">drug-related</a> <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195906-id-washington-co-so.html" type="external">search and</a> <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196356-sc-florence-pd.html" type="external">arrest warrants</a>.</p>
<p>The focus on drugs may owe partly to the fact that the Pentagon <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/us/in-washington-second-thoughts-on-arming-police.html?_r=0" type="external">originally launched the 1033 program</a> to help local agencies fight the domestic war on drugs. But starting with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the federal government vastly expanded the program, and created <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/05/18/obama-moves-to-demilitarize-americas-police/" type="external">new, larger funding streams</a> that help agencies purchase new combat equipment, under the guise of readying local police forces for future attacks.</p>
<p>Law enforcement advocates today dispute that police are using their heavy combat equipment primarily for drug enforcement. Jim Pasco, the director of the Fraternal Order of Police, suggests that police departments were probably just writing down what they thought the Pentagon wanted to hear. “In reality, they’re almost exclusively used as defensive tools,” Pasco says. It’s a rare drug enforcement case that would require an MRAP, he adds. “We’re talking barricaded shooters and downed officers.”</p>
<p>But civil rights advocates have observed that SWAT teams—the specialized officers who use these vehicles—are now overwhelmingly deployed for drug raids and search warrants. In <a href="https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/assets/jus14-warcomeshome-report-web-rel1.pdf" type="external">a 2014 report</a> examining 800 raids, the American Civil Liberties Union found that SWAT teams replaced regular uniformed police officers in executing search warrants, mostly on private homes, in 80 percent of cases. The raids disproportionately targeted minority residences, and evidence that the raid would be dangerous for the officers was often scarce. Sixty percent of the raids involved a drug search—meaning the subject of the search warrant had not yet been convicted of a crime—and 36 percent of the raids turned up no contraband at all. Raids for minor drugs charges, the report continued, have frequently resulted in officers killing and maiming unsuspecting residents and even children—including a 19-month-old boy who was injured when an officer chucked a flash-bang grenade into his crib.</p>
<p>“Most will agree that the line between military and local law enforcement needs to be clear,” says Kanya Bennett, an attorney with the ACLU. “And when you’re incorporating military weapons and equipment into day-to-day policing, that line becomes blurred, and it undermines the trust that previously existed between communities and police.”</p>
<p>The documents show just how much that trust has eroded as officers come to see citizens as enemy combatants. <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195858-fl-okeechobee-co-so.html" type="external">A 2013 request</a> from the Okeechobee, Florida sheriff’s department asked for an armored tactical vehicle capable of carrying “multiple troops”—not “officers”—to serve drug-related search warrants. For the sheriff of Bastrop County, Texas, a tactical vehicle would calm his fears of the proliferation of firearms—including, it seems, guns that local citizens own legally. “Subjects may sometimes be armed with high powered rifles and handguns,” <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196395-tx-bastrop-co-so.html" type="external">he wrote</a>, “as most of our citizens own rifles due to a long tradition of hunting and sport.” Two police departments—in <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196460-wa-snoqualmie-pd.html" type="external">Snoqualmie, Washington</a> and <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195798-ca-garden-grove-pd.html" type="external">Garden Grove, California</a>—hinted they would use the vehicles for crowd control.</p>
<p>And in a sign of just how commonplace the use of military grade vehicles has become, <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196287-ny-oswego-pd.html" type="external">multiple</a> <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196255-mn-austin-pd.html" type="external">departments</a> <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195955-la-lake-charles-pd.html" type="external">pointed</a> <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196282-nv-winnemucca-pd.html" type="external">out</a> that they did not have an armored vehicle as a reason they ought to get one. <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196313-oh-oregon-pd.html" type="external">One department</a> stressed that the closest armored truck was 30 minutes away. “That’s an astonishing claim,” Eastern Kentucky’s Kraska says. “Do we have to have a full SWAT team with an armored personnel carrier ready to be deployed in a response time of 10 minutes in every community in the country? Because obviously, that would be very disturbing.”</p>
<p>Only a few dozen of the departments represented here have received an MRAP in response to their requests, according to Pentagon data obtained by the <a href="https://github.com/TheUpshot/Military-Surplus-Gear" type="external">New York Times</a> and the <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/03/the-pentagon-finally-details-its-weapons-for-cops-giveaway" type="external">Marshall Project</a>. But the documents Mother Jones obtained show that nearly all of these departments were placed on the Pentagon’s national priority list of agencies in line to receive MRAPs as they return from overseas.</p>
<p>Some of the agencies waiting in line, however, have a history of questionable SWAT operations.</p>
<p>Take the Kenosha County sheriff’s office, which <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196476-wi-kenosha-co-so.html" type="external">requested an armored tactical vehicle</a> to use as part of a multijurisdictional SWAT team. Two years after making its request, several Kenosha County sheriffs <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/sports/outdoors/better-to-have-left-fawn-alone-b9970749z1-218779141.html" type="external">joined the Department of Natural Resources</a> in a <a href="http://www.wisn.com/news/armed-agents-raid-animal-shelter-for-baby-deer/21272108" type="external">SWAT-like raid</a> on a no-kill animal shelter that was raising a baby deer—Giggles—in violation of the state’s wild animal laws. (The DNR seized and euthanized Giggles.)</p>
<p>Some requests were simply odd.</p>
<p>In 2013, police chief Samuel Mackert of Dewey Beach, Delaware asked for a <a href="http://www.lencoarmor.com/law-enforcement/bearcat-variants/" type="external">Lenco</a> <a href="http://www.lencoarmor.com/law-enforcement/bearcat-variants/" type="external">BearCat</a>. (According to <a href="http://www.lencoarmor.com/salem-police-department-housing-armored-vehicle-on-behalf-of-ileas-lenco-bearcat-available-to-33-southern-illinois-counties/" type="external">a press release</a> on Lenco’s website, “It’s almost like driving a tank.”) “Dewey Beach has been consistently in the top 10 beaches in the US,” <a href="http://Mackert%20wrote" type="external">Mackert wrote</a>. “It covers one square mile, which during summer months explodes in excess of 30,000 in population. The potential to need an armored tactical vehicle,” Mackert continued, “is probable.”</p>
<p>A spokesman for the Dewey Beach police says that since filing the request, the department “has not experienced any situations in which we felt an armored tactical vehicle could have been utilized.” But, he added, “This agency does feel though that an armored vehicle would be a useful asset should the department encounter an active shooter, armed barricaded subjects, or to rescue victims or officers in these types of incidents.”</p>
<p>In 2013, Police Chief David Uhl from Dundee, Michigan <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196240-mi-dundee-pd.html" type="external">asked for a tactical vehicle</a> in part to secure the local Cabela’s, a big box hunting and fishing retailer. Uhl said that the store was the “#1 tourist attraction in the state” and seemed to claim that the Dundee store was Cabela’s largest location. The Detroit Free Press <a href="http://archive.freep.com/article/20140817/NEWS06/308170094/Police-Militarization-Michigan" type="external">reported</a> in 2014 that the Pentagon sent Dundee an MRAP. Dundee police did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Cabela’s says its largest store is in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Law enforcement agencies claimed they needed MRAPs to safeguard <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196379-tn-lavergne-pd.html" type="external">trailer parks</a>, <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195969-me-south-portland-pd.html" type="external">shopping</a> <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195870-ga-banks-co-so.html" type="external">malls</a>, <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195776-ar-hot-springs-pd.html" type="external">theme parks</a>, <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196477-wi-madison-pd.html" type="external">Halloween festivals</a>, and <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196463-wi-brown-co-so.html" type="external">Lambeau Field</a>.</p>
<p>But for every bizarre request, there were legitimate-seeming claims of true danger. A few agencies noted that they had <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195963-md-salisbury-pd.html" type="external">recovered high-powered weapons</a> in raids or claimed run-ins with heavily armed <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196329-ok-guthrie-pd.html" type="external">cartel members</a>. Some sheriffs were distressed about <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195779-ar-pulaski-co-so.html" type="external">white supremacy groups</a> and <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196265-mn-pine-co-so.html" type="external">sovereign</a> <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195775-al-winston-co-so.html" type="external">citizens</a>. A police chief in Centralia, Washington, without giving specifics, said an armored vehicle <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196450-wa-centralia-pd.html#p2" type="external">had once saved his life</a>. Many agencies argued that they couldn’t pay for an armored vehicle any other way.</p>
<p>The Garden Grove police department in southern California <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195798-ca-garden-grove-pd.html" type="external">noted</a> that the city was home to “the largest Mosque west of the Mississippi.” The mosque is always at risk of becoming a target, says Bob Bogue, a lieutenant in the department. In fact, it’s happened before: On the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Bogue says, police apprehended a suspect approaching the mosque with a gun.</p>
<p>But officers arrested the would-be attacker without a single shot fired, making it unclear how an armored vehicle would have helped. And Garden Grove’s <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195798-ca-garden-grove-pd.html" type="external">request</a> for an MRAP suggested a use that seems controversial in light of the Ferguson protests: to respond to civil demonstrations in neighboring Anaheim. Anaheim <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/us/after-night-of-protest-and-arrests-anaheim-vows-to-crack-down.html?_r=0" type="external">experienced widespread protests</a> in 2012 after police officers killed two Latino men in quick succession.</p>
<p>In the future, Bogue said, Garden Grove would be ready to respond such disturbances with an MRAP. The town received a vehicle last year but has yet to put it into use. “What city could you live in that you wouldn’t hope your police department can come help save you?” Bogue asks.</p>
<p>“You just never know from day to day what our job is going to consist of,” says Kent Holcomb, the police chief in Nocona, Texas. Holcomb <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196424-tx-nocona-pd.html" type="external">requested an MRAP</a> to respond to occasional bomb threats in his district. Nocona is still on the waiting list. “The world is changing. With the way people are acting, you can’t predict anything.”</p>
<p>Opponents of police militarization counter that the way law enforcement uses SWAT gear is very predictable. “High stakes scenarios—they’re not where these vehicles are routinely deployed,” Bennett says. She also noted that police consistently overestimate the dangers of routine police tasks: The 2014 ACLU <a href="http://www.aclu.org/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/assets/jus14-warcomeshome-report-web-rel1.pdf" type="external">report</a> found that so-called “high-risk” warrants were often classified that way because an officer believed, without any evidence, that the subject had a gun.</p>
<p>Others point out that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/10/02/once-again-police-work-is-not-getting-more-dangerous/" type="external">local police work has actually grown safer</a> year after year—the result of a precipitous drop in the overall rate of violent crime that has rendered a lot of SWAT equipment unnecessary.</p>
<p>And some police officers agree.</p>
<p>Sheriff Jay Brooks of Chesterfield County, South Carolina is one of them. Brooks’ predecessor, Sam Parker, acquired a 12-ton tank from the Pentagon several years ago. Looking to further augment his fleet, Parker <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2196354-sc-chesterfield-co-so.html" type="external">put in for another tactical vehicle</a>—one with wheels instead of a track—in 2012. His ideal vehicle, he wrote, was “capable of stopping up to a .50 [caliber] round and with blast protection in the underbelly for protection from booby traps or improvised explosive devices.”</p>
<p>Parker <a href="http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=1033359#.Vcbmp0X8_iA" type="external">went to prison</a> last year; he was <a href="http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/former-chesterfield-co-sheriffs-trila-expected-wra/nfcHM/" type="external">convicted</a> on <a href="http://www.scag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Sam-Parker-00308431xD2C78.pdf" type="external">eight counts of public corruption</a>, including embezzlement. And Brooks is busy trying to get rid of the military gear he amassed.</p>
<p>“I do not care for the military look,” Brooks says. “We go to great lengths to make sure we don’t look like a militia instead of a sheriff’s department.” Recently, he parked the tank behind police headquarters where it would be out of sight.</p>
<p>Other departments have reconsidered, too. The campus police department at tiny Cerritos College in California—which wrote in its request that it needed protection from shrapnel—decided that it could rely on Los Angeles police in the event of an emergency, and it withdrew the request, a spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>Brooks says that in the 28 years he has been an officer in Chesterfield, he has never heard of anyone firing a .50 caliber weapon or setting off a roadside bomb.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying it could not happen,” Brooks continues. “But we’re just a regular county. And if we need anything heavy, if we need anything armored, our state law enforcement is one phone call away.”</p>
<p>* The documents Mother Jones obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act, included some requests in which agencies did not specify what type of armored tactical vehicle they preferred.</p>
<p><a href="#footnoteback" type="external">Return to where you left off.</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Search more than 450 local law enforcement requests for mine resistant ambush protected vehicles:</p>
<p>&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/public/search/projectid%3A%2021792-mine-resistant-vehicles-requests%20"&gt;View/search document collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</p> | Documents Reveal the Fearmongering Local Cops Use to Score Military Gear From the Pentagon | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/new-documents-reveal-fearmongering-local-cops-use-score-military-gear-pentagon/ | 2015-08-09 | 4left
| 2,486 | Images APiStock Mother Jones obtained more than 450 police department requests for armored tactical vehicles from the Pentagon Did your police force request one Browse all of them here One year ago this week hundreds of camouflaged officers in Ferguson Missouri bore down on residents protesting the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown Riot cops their faces sometimes concealed by gas masks fired off tear gas canisters and as they stood on top of hulking mineresistant vehicles they appeared to train their assault rifles on the crowds On some nights they greeted demonstrators with a storm of rubber bullets Images of this chaos provoked a furious debate over the billions of federal dollars that have helped local police forces amass combat style weapons trucks and armor Sen Claire McCaskill DMo echoing concerns from across the political spectrum fumed that 8220lawful peaceful protesters did not deserve to be treated like enemy combatants8221 Law enforcement agencies responded by stoking old fears No community they argued not even the smallest one is safe from worstcase scenarios like mass shootings hostage situations or terrorist attacks The use of this military equipment has resulted in 8220substantial positive impact on public safety and officer safety8221 Jim Bueermann the president of the Police Foundation a research group said in a 2014 Senate hearing on police militarization He cited hostage situations rescue missions and heavyduty shootouts where the vehicles had come in useful But in private police justify these same programs in radically different ways Mother Jones obtained more than 450 local requests filed over two years for what may be the most iconic piece of equipment in the debate over militarizing local police the mine resistant ambush protected vehicle or MRAP And an analysis of these documents reveals that in justifying their requests very few sheriffs and police chiefs cite active shooters hostage situations or terrorism as police advocates do in public Instead the single most common reason agencies requested a mineresistant vehicle was to combat drugs Fully a quarter of the 465 requests projected using the vehicles for drug enforcement Almost half of all departments indicated that they sit within a region designated by the federal government as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Nationwide only 17 percent of counties are HIDTAs One out of six departments were prepared to use the vehicles to serve search or arrest warrants on individuals who had yet to be convicted of a crime And more than half of the departments indicated they were willing to deploy armored vehicles in a broad range of Special Weapons and Tactics SWAT raids By contrast out of the total 465 requests only 8 percent mention the possibility of a barricaded gunman For hostage situations the number is 7 percent for active shooters 6 percent Only a handful mentioned downed officers or the possibility of terrorism 8220This is a great example of how police as an institution talk to each other privately versus how they talk to the public and journalists who might raise questions about what they8217re doing with this equipment8221 says Peter Kraska a professor at Eastern Kentucky University who has studied police militarization for decades When police are pressured in public Kraska says 8220They8217re going to say 8216How about Columbine8217 or point to all these extremely rare circumstances8221 The requests flowed to a massive Pentagon program8212known as the 1033 program8212that has given communities across the country a total of 56 billion in combat equipment left over from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan including a spokeswoman for the Pentagon said 625 MRAPsamp160A 2014 NPR analysis found that the Pentagon has also doled out 80000 assault rifles 200 grenade launchers and 12000 bayonets In 2012 the program began making MRAPs available The vehicles weigh around 14 tons and feature armored hulls and tiny blastproof windows 8220Nothing short of a rocketpropelled grenade will trouble this powerhouse8221 one manufacturer boasted The documents reveal that many departments are willing to bring a startling show of force to ordinary communities One police chief pleaded for a Lenco BearCat8212an armored personnel carrier with blast resistant floors and an optional gun turret8212to guard a 200acre beach town in Delaware In Chesterfield County South Carolina8212population 460008212the sheriff requested a vehicle that could withstand both roadside bombs and a type of machine gun round that can shatter concrete And the Ohio State University Police Department asked for an armored vehicle to assist with 8220football missions8221 The Pentagon gave Ohio State an MRAP in September 2013 and school police deployed it to football games the department told a student newspaper so as to have a 8220presence8221 Many departments explicitly promised to use MRAPs to deliver drugrelated search and arrest warrants The focus on drugs may owe partly to the fact that the Pentagon originally launched the 1033 program to help local agencies fight the domestic war on drugs But starting with the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 the federal government vastly expanded the program and created new larger funding streams that help agencies purchase new combat equipment under the guise of readying local police forces for future attacks Law enforcement advocates today dispute that police are using their heavy combat equipment primarily for drug enforcement Jim Pasco the director of the Fraternal Order of Police suggests that police departments were probably just writing down what they thought the Pentagon wanted to hear 8220In reality they8217re almost exclusively used as defensive tools8221 Pasco says It8217s a rare drug enforcement case that would require an MRAP he adds 8220We8217re talking barricaded shooters and downed officers8221 But civil rights advocates have observed that SWAT teams8212the specialized officers who use these vehicles8212are now overwhelmingly deployed for drug raids and search warrants In a 2014 report examining 800 raids the American Civil Liberties Union found that SWAT teams replaced regular uniformed police officers in executing search warrants mostly on private homes in 80 percent of cases The raids disproportionately targeted minority residences and evidence that the raid would be dangerous for the officers was often scarce Sixty percent of the raids involved a drug search8212meaning the subject of the search warrant had not yet been convicted of a crime8212and 36 percent of the raids turned up no contraband at all Raids for minor drugs charges the report continued have frequently resulted in officers killing and maiming unsuspecting residents and even children8212including a 19monthold boy who was injured when an officer chucked a flashbang grenade into his crib 8220Most will agree that the line between military and local law enforcement needs to be clear8221 says Kanya Bennett an attorney with the ACLU 8220And when you8217re incorporating military weapons and equipment into daytoday policing that line becomes blurred and it undermines the trust that previously existed between communities and police8221 The documents show just how much that trust has eroded as officers come to see citizens as enemy combatants A 2013 request from the Okeechobee Florida sheriff8217s department asked for an armored tactical vehicle capable of carrying 8220multiple troops82218212not 8220officers82218212to serve drugrelated search warrants For the sheriff of Bastrop County Texas a tactical vehicle would calm his fears of the proliferation of firearms8212including it seems guns that local citizens own legally 8220Subjects may sometimes be armed with high powered rifles and handguns8221 he wrote 8220as most of our citizens own rifles due to a long tradition of hunting and sport8221 Two police departments8212in Snoqualmie Washington and Garden Grove California8212hinted they would use the vehicles for crowd control And in a sign of just how commonplace the use of military grade vehicles has become multiple departments pointed out that they did not have an armored vehicle as a reason they ought to get one One department stressed that the closest armored truck was 30 minutes away 8220That8217s an astonishing claim8221 Eastern Kentucky8217s Kraska says 8220Do we have to have a full SWAT team with an armored personnel carrier ready to be deployed in a response time of 10 minutes in every community in the country Because obviously that would be very disturbing8221 Only a few dozen of the departments represented here have received an MRAP in response to their requests according to Pentagon data obtained by the New York Times and the Marshall Project But the documents Mother Jones obtained show that nearly all of these departments were placed on the Pentagon8217s national priority list of agencies in line to receive MRAPs as they return from overseas Some of the agencies waiting in line however have a history of questionable SWAT operations Take the Kenosha County sheriff8217s office which requested an armored tactical vehicle to use as part of a multijurisdictional SWAT team Two years after making its request several Kenosha County sheriffs joined the Department of Natural Resources in a SWATlike raid on a nokill animal shelter that was raising a baby deer8212Giggles8212in violation of the state8217s wild animal laws The DNR seized and euthanized Giggles Some requests were simply odd In 2013 police chief Samuel Mackert of Dewey Beach Delaware asked for a Lenco BearCat According to a press release on Lenco8217s website 8220It8217s almost like driving a tank8221 8220Dewey Beach has been consistently in the top 10 beaches in the US8221 Mackert wrote 8220It covers one square mile which during summer months explodes in excess of 30000 in population The potential to need an armored tactical vehicle8221 Mackert continued 8220is probable8221 A spokesman for the Dewey Beach police says that since filing the request the department 8220has not experienced any situations in which we felt an armored tactical vehicle could have been utilized8221 But he added 8220This agency does feel though that an armored vehicle would be a useful asset should the department encounter an active shooter armed barricaded subjects or to rescue victims or officers in these types of incidents8221 In 2013 Police Chief David Uhl from Dundee Michigan asked for a tactical vehicle in part to secure the local Cabela8217s a big box hunting and fishing retailer Uhl said that the store was the 82201 tourist attraction in the state8221 and seemed to claim that the Dundee store was Cabela8217s largest location The Detroit Free Press reported in 2014 that the Pentagon sent Dundee an MRAP Dundee police did not respond to a request for comment A spokesman for Cabela8217s says its largest store is in Hamburg Pennsylvania Law enforcement agencies claimed they needed MRAPs to safeguard trailer parks shopping malls theme parks Halloween festivals and Lambeau Field But for every bizarre request there were legitimateseeming claims of true danger A few agencies noted that they had recovered highpowered weapons in raids or claimed runins with heavily armed cartel members Some sheriffs were distressed about white supremacy groups and sovereign citizens A police chief in Centralia Washington without giving specifics said an armored vehicle had once saved his life Many agencies argued that they couldn8217t pay for an armored vehicle any other way The Garden Grove police department in southern California noted that the city was home to 8220the largest Mosque west of the Mississippi8221 The mosque is always at risk of becoming a target says Bob Bogue a lieutenant in the department In fact it8217s happened before On the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center Bogue says police apprehended a suspect approaching the mosque with a gun But officers arrested the wouldbe attacker without a single shot fired making it unclear how an armored vehicle would have helped And Garden Grove8217s request for an MRAP suggested a use that seems controversial in light of the Ferguson protests to respond to civil demonstrations in neighboring Anaheim Anaheim experienced widespread protests in 2012 after police officers killed two Latino men in quick succession In the future Bogue said Garden Grove would be ready to respond such disturbances with an MRAP The town received a vehicle last year but has yet to put it into use 8220What city could you live in that you wouldn8217t hope your police department can come help save you8221 Bogue asks 8220You just never know from day to day what our job is going to consist of8221 says Kent Holcomb the police chief in Nocona Texas Holcomb requested an MRAP to respond to occasional bomb threats in his district Nocona is still on the waiting list 8220The world is changing With the way people are acting you can8217t predict anything8221 Opponents of police militarization counter that the way law enforcement uses SWAT gear is very predictable 8220High stakes scenarios8212they8217re not where these vehicles are routinely deployed8221 Bennett says She also noted that police consistently overestimate the dangers of routine police tasks The 2014 ACLU report found that socalled 8220highrisk8221 warrants were often classified that way because an officer believed without any evidence that the subject had a gun Others point out that local police work has actually grown safer year after year8212the result of a precipitous drop in the overall rate of violent crime that has rendered a lot of SWAT equipment unnecessary And some police officers agree Sheriff Jay Brooks of Chesterfield County South Carolina is one of them Brooks8217 predecessor Sam Parker acquired a 12ton tank from the Pentagon several years ago Looking to further augment his fleet Parker put in for another tactical vehicle8212one with wheels instead of a track8212in 2012 His ideal vehicle he wrote was 8220capable of stopping up to a 50 caliber round and with blast protection in the underbelly for protection from booby traps or improvised explosive devices8221 Parker went to prison last year he was convicted on eight counts of public corruption including embezzlement And Brooks is busy trying to get rid of the military gear he amassed 8220I do not care for the military look8221 Brooks says 8220We go to great lengths to make sure we don8217t look like a militia instead of a sheriff8217s department8221 Recently he parked the tank behind police headquarters where it would be out of sight Other departments have reconsidered too The campus police department at tiny Cerritos College in California8212which wrote in its request that it needed protection from shrapnel8212decided that it could rely on Los Angeles police in the event of an emergency and it withdrew the request a spokeswoman said Brooks says that in the 28 years he has been an officer in Chesterfield he has never heard of anyone firing a 50 caliber weapon or setting off a roadside bomb 8220I8217m not saying it could not happen8221 Brooks continues 8220But we8217re just a regular county And if we need anything heavy if we need anything armored our state law enforcement is one phone call away8221 The documents Mother Jones obtained under the Freedom of Information Act included some requests in which agencies did not specify what type of armored tactical vehicle they preferred Return to where you left off amp160 Search more than 450 local law enforcement requests for mine resistant ambush protected vehicles ampltbr ampgt amplta hrefhttpswwwdocumentcloudorgpublicsearchprojectid3A2021792mineresistantvehiclesrequests20ampgtViewsearch document collectionampltaampgtampltbr ampgt | Images/PROPN APiStock/NOUN Mother/PROPN Jones/PROPN obtained/VERB more/ADJ than/ADP 450/NUM police/NOUN department/NOUN requests/NOUN for/ADP 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<p>Ali Abunimah is co-founder of the award-winning online publication The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. His latest book is titled The Battle for Justice in Palestine. Based in Chicago, he has written hundreds of articles on the question of Palestine in major publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and for Al Jazeera.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.
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<p />Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress on Tuesday. Here's a little bit of what he said.
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<p />~~~
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<p />BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: In our nearly 4,000 years of history, many have tried repeatedly to destroy the Jewish people. Tomorrow night, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we'll read the Book of Esther. We'll read of a powerful Persian viceral named Haman who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago.
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<p />But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen Esther, exposed the plot and gained for the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies. The plot was foiled. Our people were saved.
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<p />Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian potentate to destroy us. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, spews the oldest hatred, the oldest hatred of anti-Semitism with the newest technology.
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<p />~~~
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<p />JAY: Now joining us to talk about Netanyahu's speech is Ali Abunimah. Ali is cofounder of the award-winning online publication the Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He's the author also of The Battle for Justice in Palestine.
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<p />Thanks for joining us, Ali.
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<p />ALI ABUNIMAH, COFOUNDER, ELECTRONIC INTIFADA: Thank you, Paul.
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<p />JAY: So what do you make of his opening and a thread throughout the speech that this is virtually a struggle of biblical proportions with a source of biblical evil?
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<p />ABUNIMAH: Well, the big irony about that is that Netanyahu tried to present Israel as the modern, rational democratic state and Iran as being a dark, medieval violent, ancient state. He referred to the Persian bazaar, as well as the Bible. But, of course, the irony is that he's presenting these Bible myths to Congress as if they're real history.
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<p />And, of course, part of the purpose of this is to demonize Iran and to place this in a biblical context, which many of the radical Christians in Congress are very receptive to because of their theological view of the world, rather than a modern political view, and so to exclude the possibility of politics, to say nothing you can do with this ancient biblical conflict will make a difference, so don't even try.
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<p />And the other part of it, as I mentioned, was demonizing Iran and relying very much on Islamophobia, which is really at unprecedented heights in this country, again to exclude the possibility of politics.
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<p />JAY: He makes--he equates ISIS with Iran. He says they are competing for leadership of militant Islam. What do you make of that?
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<p />ABUNIMAH: Well, it might appeal to the members of Congress who are, of course, not very well versed in what's actually happening in the region and in the world. But the reality, of course, is that Iran is at war with ISIS, and in geopolitical terms, Iran and the United States are aligned with each other in the war against ISIS. So that's probably not a message that will impress anyone in the White House.
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<p />JAY: Netanyahu's point here, if I understand it correctly, is the reason Iran is fighting ISIS is only so it can be the leader of militant Islam.
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<p />ABUNIMAH: Well, again, that's a position that would only appeal to people without any knowledge of what's happening. Iran is not engaged in a militant struggle to lead militant Islam. It's engaged in a geopolitical struggle to preserve the regime in Iraq, which is also backed by the United States, and also to support the regime in Syria, which--Iran does not want to see it toppled. So, again, these are political conflicts, not ones about religion.
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<p />But this is--again, Netanyahu is appealing to the fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims that has been cultivated in the United States by many of the same members of Congress who are listening to Netanyahu to say it's all this big morass, and if we make a deal with Iran, then we're in effect supporting so-called militant Islam.
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<p />JAY: Yeah. One of the big themes of the speech is that Iran is gobbling up countries, and he goes through the various countries he says they control the capitals of, Lebanon being one. He quotes Nazrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
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<p />~~~
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<p />NETANYAHU: For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nazrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran's chair chief terrorist proxy. He said, if all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world.
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<p />~~~
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<p />JAY: We did a little checking into that quote, it is far as we can tell, Hezbollah denied that Nasrallah ever said that. The editor of the newspaper, The Beirut Star, one of their translators translated a speech where they said Nazrallah said that the editor of The Beirut Star apparently has denounced that, said that's not a correct translation, and that there's in fact no record of Nasrallah saying that. Do you know anything about all of this?
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<p />ABUNIMAH: I believe that's right. And there's a whole industry of producing fake quotes from Hassan Nasrallah and others.
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<p />But the bigger point here is that the reality is that Israel makes deals with Hezbollah indirectly, but they make deals with Hezbollah over ceasefires, over prisoner exchanges, and they know that when they make a deal with Hezbollah, that deal is going to hold. And right now, of course, Israel has a ceasefire deal and sort of rules of engagement with Hezbollah, and which just shows that what Netanyahu says to Congress is very different from how Israel actually behaves, because Israel deals with Hezbollah as a rational actor with which it can make agreements--not a friend, by any means. They are enemies. But they're enemies that make agreements, and by and large Hezbollah abides by them. It's Israel that is constantly, as the UN documents, violating Lebanon's airspace on a regular basis.
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<p />But the bigger point here, what Netanyahu is trying to tell Congress and the American public, is you can't make deals with Iran, these are irrational people, these are crazy people, they're not like us. I mean, there's not much to laugh about in this situation, but it was funny when Netanyahu talked about Iran gobbling up countries. You know, Paul, did you hear Netanyahu burping from swallowing yet more Palestinian land in the West Bank after he talked about Iran gobbling up countries? I thought I heard him burp.
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<p />JAY: Well, his definition of terrorism is anyone the picks up arms in contrary to the military and political strategy. But the Congress was--stood up and stood up and stood up. There were a lot of Republicans. Sixty Democrats didn't show up, although most of them didn't show up 'cause they didn't like the politics of this. I think many of them did stand up last time Netanyahu was in Congress. But there seems to be, at least congressionally, enthusiastic support for all of this rhetoric. But there are some fissures in the American approach to Israel that maybe we haven't seen before. What do you make of them?
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<p />ABUNIMAH: I think that's right. And it's important to put this in perspective. First of all, a piece I wrote for The Huffington Post and The Electronic Intifada a few days ago made a point that I think has been missed in much of this, is that all this talk of rancor between Obama and Netanyahu can obscure the reality that there is no rift between Obama and Netanyahu or the U.S. and Israel when it comes to the Palestinian issue. Netanyahu noted in his speech, as Obama administration officials have done this week, how closely the Obama administration and Israel have worked hand-in-hand against the Palestinians at every level, whether it was the Obama administration's full support, military and diplomatic, for the massacre in Gaza last summer, whether it was the Obama administration's efforts to ensure the impunity of Israeli political and military leaders by sabotaging international investigations.
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<p />Netanyahu acknowledged Obama's full assistance in Israel's war against the Palestinians, and Democratic leaders have gone out and said that too. And many Democrats [incompr.] standing up when Netanyahu applauded Obama's assistance to Israel against the Palestinians. So that hasn't changed. That's not going to change.
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<p />But it's clear that Netanyahu came to Congress to sabotage, to sabotage the Obama administration's diplomacy with Iran. It was very, very clear. I was watching it on CNN. And they said that the response from the White House was swift and harsh--those were the words CNN used. And they said that the White House dismissed this as a repetition of previous talking points and nothing new. And that's all true to an extent.
<p />
<p />But I think what we really have to remember is we have to not just look at the immediate about what's happening, but step back and say, why is Israel in this position where its prime minister can barge into Congress, be welcomed more warmly than an American president, and essentially issue these diktats to the American administration, or try to, and attempt to sabotage U.S. policy in this way?
<p />
<p />And the blame for that, the responsibility for that lies entirely with the American political establishment. It's not even the Israel lobby. Let's put the blame where it lies. It's on the American political establishment that has indulged Israel all along. The Obama administration has indulged Israel from its first day. And the message they've sent time and again is Israel, you can do whatever you want, not just to the Palestinians, but even undermine U.S. plans and interests in the region, and we will have your back. There will be no consequences. The money will continue. The weapons will continue. The brand-new F-35 fighter jets will be coming your way. So the message the Obama administration has sent to Israel is: you can do what you like. And so, in that context, why shouldn't Netanyahu behave this way? Ultimately the responsibility comes back to Obama.
<p />
<p />JAY: And does it not also come back to the very basic approach of the United States to the Middle East--and, of course, not only the Middle East--that the United States policy assumes it must be the hegemon of the Middle East and will have pillars of power, allies, whether it's Israel or Saudi Arabia or Egypt? Once it was Iran, and they would love it to be again. But if you have a fundamental assumption that the United States has to be the uber power here, then you need, you like this, [what] some people have called Israel, as a sort of floating aircraft carrier--land-based aircraft carrier. You need these kinds of military allies to maintain this kind of policy. And then you put yourself into the position that you just described.
<p />
<p />ABUNIMAH: Well, you're right to but the responsibility back on the United States and its imperial project in the Middle East, because that's what it is. And Israel figures into that. Sometimes Israel is an asset to that imperial project, and sometimes it's an obstacle.
<p />
<p />Now, in the case of U.S. and Iranian rapprochement, Israel is something of an obstacle. The U.S. has decided for its own imperial hegemonic reasons that a rapprochement with Iran would be beneficial to the United States, and Israel sees that as a threat to its own position. And we saw that in Netanyahu's call for effectively indeterminate and indefinite sanctions on Iran to continue, basically, forever. So it does come down to that. And when you look at what's happening in the region more broadly, of course, ISIS, this horrific group that's taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq, is its emergence as a direct consequence of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and of U.S. intervention in Syria. And so we see time and again that we're dealing with the consequences of the U.S. trying to maintain its hegemonic position.
<p />
<p />JAY: Do you think the Republicans are overplaying a hand here? Are they not vulnerable, even amongst their own base, to accusations that--this idea that--the tail wagging the dog, that Israel's determining U.S. foreign policy? I mean, I think what we've just talked about, I don't think that's entirely true. It's very much in American strategic interests. At the same time, there is some of that happening right now over Iran. And the Republicans, shouldn't they be a little worried about their own base, who are not necessarily--love Jews so much, to be honest about it?
<p />
<p />ABUNIMAH: Well, there is, of course, within Congress and within the Republican base there is a very large, significant, radical, Christianist tendency. I mean, I've been driving across the country, and when you listen to the FM dial in any part of the country, it's--on the radio, it is just wall-to-wall radical Christianity, fear mongering, antiscience, anti-rationality. This is what's being fed to large sums of people in this country. You realize that when you are exposed to some of this popular media.
<p />
<p />And so, for--of course, that feeds into Christian Zionism, which doesn't require anyone to have great love for Jews, but it does require them to have great love for Israel because of this radical theology which hopes to bring about Armageddon and sees Israel as being central to that plan.
<p />
<p />But I do think that there is a sort of a space for a kind of American nationalist backlash which says that Israel is interfering with U.S. politics, interfering with U.S. foreign policy. And we have seen some of that in the discourse about Netanyahu's speech. It's sort of a I'm more patriotic than thou, or even an I love Israel more than thou, because that argument which says that Netanyahu's speech and the politicizing of support for Israel harms the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
<p />
<p />Of course, I think that support for Israel should be politicized. It is part of politics. But the argument I would make is that U.S. support for Israel is very damaging to millions and millions of human beings who are victims of Israel's apartheid regime, which could not continue, of course, without the bipartisan political support that this had for so long.
<p />
<p />JAY: Alright. Thanks very much for joining us, Ali.
<p />
<p />ABUNIMAH: My pleasure. Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Netanyahu Invokes Biblical Armageddon in US Congress | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D13343 | 2015-03-03 | 4left
| 2,488 | Ali Abunimah is cofounder of the awardwinning online publication The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country A Bold Proposal to End the IsraeliPalestinian Impasse His latest book is titled The Battle for Justice in Palestine Based in Chicago he has written hundreds of articles on the question of Palestine in major publications including The New York Times The Guardian and for Al Jazeera PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress on Tuesday Heres a little bit of what he said BENJAMIN NETANYAHU PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL In our nearly 4000 years of history many have tried repeatedly to destroy the Jewish people Tomorrow night on the Jewish holiday of Purim well read the Book of Esther Well read of a powerful Persian viceral named Haman who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2500 years ago But a courageous Jewish woman Queen Esther exposed the plot and gained for the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies The plot was foiled Our people were saved Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian potentate to destroy us Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei spews the oldest hatred the oldest hatred of antiSemitism with the newest technology JAY Now joining us to talk about Netanyahus speech is Ali Abunimah Ali is cofounder of the awardwinning online publication the Electronic Intifada and author of One Country A Bold Proposal to End the IsraeliPalestinian Impasse Hes the author also of The Battle for Justice in Palestine Thanks for joining us Ali ALI ABUNIMAH COFOUNDER ELECTRONIC INTIFADA Thank you Paul JAY So what do you make of his opening and a thread throughout the speech that this is virtually a struggle of biblical proportions with a source of biblical evil ABUNIMAH Well the big irony about that is that Netanyahu tried to present Israel as the modern rational democratic state and Iran as being a dark medieval violent ancient state He referred to the Persian bazaar as well as the Bible But of course the irony is that hes presenting these Bible myths to Congress as if theyre real history And of course part of the purpose of this is to demonize Iran and to place this in a biblical context which many of the radical Christians in Congress are very receptive to because of their theological view of the world rather than a modern political view and so to exclude the possibility of politics to say nothing you can do with this ancient biblical conflict will make a difference so dont even try And the other part of it as I mentioned was demonizing Iran and relying very much on Islamophobia which is really at unprecedented heights in this country again to exclude the possibility of politics JAY He makeshe equates ISIS with Iran He says they are competing for leadership of militant Islam What do you make of that ABUNIMAH Well it might appeal to the members of Congress who are of course not very well versed in whats actually happening in the region and in the world But the reality of course is that Iran is at war with ISIS and in geopolitical terms Iran and the United States are aligned with each other in the war against ISIS So thats probably not a message that will impress anyone in the White House JAY Netanyahus point here if I understand it correctly is the reason Iran is fighting ISIS is only so it can be the leader of militant Islam ABUNIMAH Well again thats a position that would only appeal to people without any knowledge of whats happening Iran is not engaged in a militant struggle to lead militant Islam Its engaged in a geopolitical struggle to preserve the regime in Iraq which is also backed by the United States and also to support the regime in Syria whichIran does not want to see it toppled So again these are political conflicts not ones about religion But this isagain Netanyahu is appealing to the fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims that has been cultivated in the United States by many of the same members of Congress who are listening to Netanyahu to say its all this big morass and if we make a deal with Iran then were in effect supporting socalled militant Islam JAY Yeah One of the big themes of the speech is that Iran is gobbling up countries and he goes through the various countries he says they control the capitals of Lebanon being one He quotes Nazrallah the leader of Hezbollah NETANYAHU For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state but not the Jewish people listen to Hassan Nazrallah the leader of Hezbollah Irans chair chief terrorist proxy He said if all the Jews gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world JAY We did a little checking into that quote it is far as we can tell Hezbollah denied that Nasrallah ever said that The editor of the newspaper The Beirut Star one of their translators translated a speech where they said Nazrallah said that the editor of The Beirut Star apparently has denounced that said thats not a correct translation and that theres in fact no record of Nasrallah saying that Do you know anything about all of this ABUNIMAH I believe thats right And theres a whole industry of producing fake quotes from Hassan Nasrallah and others But the bigger point here is that the reality is that Israel makes deals with Hezbollah indirectly but they make deals with Hezbollah over ceasefires over prisoner exchanges and they know that when they make a deal with Hezbollah that deal is going to hold And right now of course Israel has a ceasefire deal and sort of rules of engagement with Hezbollah and which just shows that what Netanyahu says to Congress is very different from how Israel actually behaves because Israel deals with Hezbollah as a rational actor with which it can make agreementsnot a friend by any means They are enemies But theyre enemies that make agreements and by and large Hezbollah abides by them Its Israel that is constantly as the UN documents violating Lebanons airspace on a regular basis But the bigger point here what Netanyahu is trying to tell Congress and the American public is you cant make deals with Iran these are irrational people these are crazy people theyre not like us I mean theres not much to laugh about in this situation but it was funny when Netanyahu talked about Iran gobbling up countries You know Paul did you hear Netanyahu burping from swallowing yet more Palestinian land in the West Bank after he talked about Iran gobbling up countries I thought I heard him burp JAY Well his definition of terrorism is anyone the picks up arms in contrary to the military and political strategy But the Congress wasstood up and stood up and stood up There were a lot of Republicans Sixty Democrats didnt show up although most of them didnt show up cause they didnt like the politics of this I think many of them did stand up last time Netanyahu was in Congress But there seems to be at least congressionally enthusiastic support for all of this rhetoric But there are some fissures in the American approach to Israel that maybe we havent seen before What do you make of them ABUNIMAH I think thats right And its important to put this in perspective First of all a piece I wrote for The Huffington Post and The Electronic Intifada a few days ago made a point that I think has been missed in much of this is that all this talk of rancor between Obama and Netanyahu can obscure the reality that there is no rift between Obama and Netanyahu or the US and Israel when it comes to the Palestinian issue Netanyahu noted in his speech as Obama administration officials have done this week how closely the Obama administration and Israel have worked handinhand against the Palestinians at every level whether it was the Obama administrations full support military and diplomatic for the massacre in Gaza last summer whether it was the Obama administrations efforts to ensure the impunity of Israeli political and military leaders by sabotaging international investigations Netanyahu acknowledged Obamas full assistance in Israels war against the Palestinians and Democratic leaders have gone out and said that too And many Democrats incompr standing up when Netanyahu applauded Obamas assistance to Israel against the Palestinians So that hasnt changed Thats not going to change But its clear that Netanyahu came to Congress to sabotage to sabotage the Obama administrations diplomacy with Iran It was very very clear I was watching it on CNN And they said that the response from the White House was swift and harshthose were the words CNN used And they said that the White House dismissed this as a repetition of previous talking points and nothing new And thats all true to an extent But I think what we really have to remember is we have to not just look at the immediate about whats happening but step back and say why is Israel in this position where its prime minister can barge into Congress be welcomed more warmly than an American president and essentially issue these diktats to the American administration or try to and attempt to sabotage US policy in this way And the blame for that the responsibility for that lies entirely with the American political establishment Its not even the Israel lobby Lets put the blame where it lies Its on the American political establishment that has indulged Israel all along The Obama administration has indulged Israel from its first day And the message theyve sent time and again is Israel you can do whatever you want not just to the Palestinians but even undermine US plans and interests in the region and we will have your back There will be no consequences The money will continue The weapons will continue The brandnew F35 fighter jets will be coming your way So the message the Obama administration has sent to Israel is you can do what you like And so in that context why shouldnt Netanyahu behave this way Ultimately the responsibility comes back to Obama JAY And does it not also come back to the very basic approach of the United States to the Middle Eastand of course not only the Middle Eastthat the United States policy assumes it must be the hegemon of the Middle East and will have pillars of power allies whether its Israel or Saudi Arabia or Egypt Once it was Iran and they would love it to be again But if you have a fundamental assumption that the United States has to be the uber power here then you need you like this what some people have called Israel as a sort of floating aircraft carrierlandbased aircraft carrier You need these kinds of military allies to maintain this kind of policy And then you put yourself into the position that you just described ABUNIMAH Well youre right to but the responsibility back on the United States and its imperial project in the Middle East because thats what it is And Israel figures into that Sometimes Israel is an asset to that imperial project and sometimes its an obstacle Now in the case of US and Iranian rapprochement Israel is something of an obstacle The US has decided for its own imperial hegemonic reasons that a rapprochement with Iran would be beneficial to the United States and Israel sees that as a threat to its own position And we saw that in Netanyahus call for effectively indeterminate and indefinite sanctions on Iran to continue basically forever So it does come down to that And when you look at whats happening in the region more broadly of course ISIS this horrific group thats taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq is its emergence as a direct consequence of the US invasion of Iraq and of US intervention in Syria And so we see time and again that were dealing with the consequences of the US trying to maintain its hegemonic position JAY Do you think the Republicans are overplaying a hand here Are they not vulnerable even amongst their own base to accusations thatthis idea thatthe tail wagging the dog that Israels determining US foreign policy I mean I think what weve just talked about I dont think thats entirely true Its very much in American strategic interests At the same time there is some of that happening right now over Iran And the Republicans shouldnt they be a little worried about their own base who are not necessarilylove Jews so much to be honest about it ABUNIMAH Well there is of course within Congress and within the Republican base there is a very large significant radical Christianist tendency I mean Ive been driving across the country and when you listen to the FM dial in any part of the country itson the radio it is just walltowall radical Christianity fear mongering antiscience antirationality This is whats being fed to large sums of people in this country You realize that when you are exposed to some of this popular media And so forof course that feeds into Christian Zionism which doesnt require anyone to have great love for Jews but it does require them to have great love for Israel because of this radical theology which hopes to bring about Armageddon and sees Israel as being central to that plan But I do think that there is a sort of a space for a kind of American nationalist backlash which says that Israel is interfering with US politics interfering with US foreign policy And we have seen some of that in the discourse about Netanyahus speech Its sort of a Im more patriotic than thou or even an I love Israel more than thou because that argument which says that Netanyahus speech and the politicizing of support for Israel harms the USIsraeli relationship Of course I think that support for Israel should be politicized It is part of politics But the argument I would make is that US support for Israel is very damaging to millions and millions of human beings who are victims of Israels apartheid regime which could not continue of course without the bipartisan political support that this had for so long JAY Alright Thanks very much for joining us Ali ABUNIMAH My pleasure Thank you JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Ali/PROPN Abunimah/PROPN is/AUX cofounder/NOUN of/ADP the/DET awardwinning/VERB online/ADJ publication/NOUN The/DET Electronic/PROPN Intifada/PROPN and/CCONJ author/NOUN of/ADP One/PROPN Country/PROPN A/DET Bold/PROPN Proposal/PROPN to/PART End/VERB the/DET IsraeliPalestinian/PROPN Impasse/PROPN His/PRON latest/ADJ book/NOUN is/AUX titled/VERB The/DET Battle/PROPN for/ADP Justice/PROPN in/ADP Palestine/PROPN Based/VERB in/ADP Chicago/PROPN he/PRON has/AUX written/VERB hundreds/NOUN of/ADP articles/NOUN on/ADP the/DET question/NOUN of/ADP Palestine/PROPN in/ADP major/ADJ publications/NOUN including/VERB The/DET New/PROPN York/PROPN Times/PROPN The/DET Guardian/PROPN and/CCONJ for/ADP Al/PROPN Jazeera/PROPN PAUL/PROPN JAY/PROPN SENIOR/PROPN EDITOR/NOUN TRNN/PROPN Welcome/PROPN to/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN 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<p>Photo by David | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>If you’re in the mood, would you consider taking a walk with me and, while we’re at it, thinking a little about America’s wars? Nothing particularly ambitious, mind you, just — if you’re up for it — a stroll to the corner.</p>
<p>Now, admittedly, there’s a small catch here. Where exactly is that corner?&#160; I think the first time I heard about it might have been back in January 2004 and it was located somewhere in Iraq. That was, if you remember, just nine months after American troops triumphantly entered a burning Baghdad and the month after Iraq’s autocratic ruler, Saddam Hussein, was captured near his hometown, Tikrit.&#160; Yet despite President George W. Bush’s unforgettable May 1, 2003, “ <a href="" type="internal">mission accomplished</a>” moment when, from the deck of an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego, he <a href="" type="internal">declared</a> “major combat operations in Iraq… ended,” the American war there somehow never actually stopped.&#160; An insurgency had already flared, U.S. bases were being periodically mortared, and American officials feared that some kind of civil war was in the offing between the country’s formerly reigning Sunni minority and its rising Shiite majority.</p>
<p>It was then that Major General Charles Swannack Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, mentioned that corner (and as you’ll gather from his comments, it wasn’t even the first time he’d brought the subject up).&#160; Here, as New York Times correspondent John Burns <a href="" type="internal">reported</a> it, was Swannack’s assessment of the situation:</p>
<p>“The general, a large, imposing figure renowned among his troops for his no-nonsense ways, began his remarks by reminding the reporters that he had appeared in Baghdad six weeks ago, about the time of the insurgents’ Ramadan offensive, and had said he believed [troops] in his area were ‘turning the corner.’</p>
<p>“Now, he said, ‘I’m here to tell you that we’ve turned that corner. I can also tell you that we are on a glide path towards success, as attacks on our forces have declined by almost 60 percent over the past month.’”</p>
<p>As it happened, Americans would remain on the glide path to that corner of ultimate success for some time, not just in Iraq but in Washington, too.&#160; There, as Rowan Scarborough <a href="" type="internal">reported</a> more than a year later, in March 2005, “in the privacy of their E-ring offices, senior Pentagon officials have begun to entertain thoughts that were unimaginable a year ago: Iraq is turning the corner. ‘This is still a tough fight. We don’t want anyone to think that it is not,’ said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a military analyst who strongly supports Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. ‘But the momentum is in our direction.’”</p>
<p>Corner-less Iraq</p>
<p>Here was the problem: every time American troops actually turned that corner, what they found there were insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and other weaponry, sometimes even <a href="" type="internal">American-produced</a> arms.&#160; In addition, the streets around that corner turned out to be pitted with half-buried improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, those same insurgents could build from instructions on the Internet and that could destroy the most well-armored Humvee for the <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/iraq-can-american-military-stop-deadly-ieds-99133" type="external">price of a pizza</a>.&#160; (Early on, in fact, some of the places down which American troops had to turn were already being given grimly sardonic names like “ <a href="" type="internal">RPG Alley</a>.”) There were, as it happened, so many corners to turn and yet, from 2003 on, seemingly nowhere to go.</p>
<p>I don’t doubt that those of you of a certain age preparing for our little walk are already thinking about a somewhat more perilous image from another war: the infamous “light at the end of the tunnel” that will forever be connected with Vietnam.&#160; That phrase was repeatedly used by Americans to describe the glide path to victory in that conflict and would long be associated with the commander of U.S. forces, <a href="" type="internal">General William Westmoreland</a>. He used it to remarkable effect in 1967, a mere 10 weeks before the enemy launched its devastating Tet Offensive.</p>
<p>However, the general was anything but alone in his choice of imagery.&#160; That “tunnel” was also occupied by a range of top U.S. officials, from President <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/vietnam2-light-in-tunnel.htm" type="external">Lyndon Johnson</a> to National Security Advisor <a href="https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-fact-credibility-gap/" type="external">Walt Rostow</a>.&#160; And it wasn’t the newest of images either.&#160; After all, <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-see-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-in-vietnam" type="external">General Henri Navarre</a> had used it a decade and a half earlier in the French version of that losing war.</p>
<p>For those in the antiwar movement of the era, it was an image that always had a particularly ominous resonance, since you weren’t just heading for “the corner” but deep inside a dark tunnel where, just beyond the light glimmering at its end, it was easy enough to imagine a train bearing down on you.&#160; By the way, lest you think there’s anything especially original about the American military in the twenty-first century, Westmoreland also spoke with hope in 1967 (but assumedly before he found himself in that tunnel) of <a href="https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-fact-credibility-gap/" type="external">how</a> the U.S. “had turned the corner in the war” and how its end had begun “to come into view.”</p>
<p>In Iraq, the light at the end of the corner would prove no more evident than it had been in that Vietnamese tunnel and, as a result, the corner itself simply disappeared.&#160; In fact, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2008, U.S. commander (and Iraq <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176252/tomgram%3A_danny_sjursen%2C_surging_to_failure" type="external">surge</a> general) David Petraeus even <a href="" type="internal">admitted</a>, however reluctantly, that “we haven’t turned any corners, we haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel.”&#160; And soon after that, corners of any sort were largely abandoned (at least as figures of speech).&#160; Or perhaps, thought of another way, the problem of finding a corner, no less any good news on the other side of it, would be solved by a change in tactics in the second iteration of Washington’s Iraq War in this century: the one against the Islamic State.&#160; From <a href="" type="internal">August 2014</a> on, the U.S. Air Force would be called in to play a major role in turning Iraq’s embattled cities, from <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/fallujah-in-ruins/" type="external">Fallujah</a> to <a href="" type="internal">Mosul</a>, into so much <a href="" type="internal">rubble</a>.&#160; No corners, no problems, you might say.</p>
<p>Now, I don’t want you to be disappointed.&#160; I was serious about that walk to the corner, just not in Iraq.&#160; Consider corner-less Iraq no more than background information for the real walk we’re going to take.</p>
<p>But before we leave Iraq, let me mention — and I hope you won’t consider me too much of an optimist for this — that I just might see a little light glimmering at the end of the rubble.&#160; Is it possible that, some 14 years late, America’s mission-accomplished moment is finally arriving?&#160; After all, the “caliphate” of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is history and, in December, President Donald Trump even <a href="" type="internal">declared victory</a> over ISIS.&#160; (“We’ve won in Iraq,” he said without hesitation or qualification.) &#160;No tunnel, no corner, no glimmers of light, just the whole shebang.</p>
<p>Now admittedly, while the so-called caliphate is gone and its militants driven out of the Iraqi and Syrian cities they had occupied, some of its fighters seem to be turning themselves back into guerrilla warriors and suicide bombers — the first post-caliphate bombings in <a href="" type="internal">Baghdad</a> have evidently begun — and aren’t quite acting like they’re down for the count.&#160; Not yet anyway (and let’s not forget as well that, in the years leading to Washington’s “victory,” the Islamic State did somehow manage to turn itself into a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/philippines-declares-end-months-long-isis-siege-marawi-n813161" type="external">global</a> terror <a href="" type="internal">brand</a>).</p>
<p>Still, give me a little leeway here.&#160; I’m just talking about glimmers, and… oh, wait, I should mention one more thing: in neighboring Syria, all a-glimmer itself these days, the U.S. is now seemingly on the brink of <a href="" type="internal">involvement</a> in a whole new war between NATO ally Turkey and the Kurdish forces it’s still backing against ISIS and, talking about what’s glimmering in the distance, a possible future war with Iran also seems to be <a href="" type="internal">lurking</a> just around the next turn of the Trumpian corner.</p>
<p>Still, let’s keep the good news in full view.&#160; U.S. troops are actually being drawn down in Iraq and a mere 14 years after that mission-accomplished moment, some of them are evidently <a href="" type="internal">being sent</a> to the place where that corner-to-be-turned still evidently stands, where for America’s war-fighting generals and other key officials, there have always been corners to turn beyond compare.</p>
<p>“Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan”</p>
<p>So how about taking that little walk of ours somewhere in Afghanistan? After all, a mere 16 years after the Bush administration invaded and liberated that land — at the end of November 2017, to be exact — U.S. commander Army General John Nicholson, who had only recently been <a href="" type="internal">claiming</a> that the fight against the Taliban (and a new branch of ISIS) was “still in a stalemate,” suddenly suggested… yes, you guessed it… that the by-now famous corner, so long sought after, was once again being turned.&#160; He managed to make the point by quoting a recent statement of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, <a href="" type="internal">saying</a>, “Now, looking ahead to 2018, as President Ghani said, he believes we have turned the corner and I agree.&#160; The momentum is now with the Afghan Security Forces and the Taliban cannot win in the face of the pressures that I outlined.&#160; Again, their choices are to reconcile, live in irrelevance, or die.”</p>
<p>If, so many years later, General Nicholson were alone in such a conclusion, you might question his claim, given that the Taliban now control or contest <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42863116" type="external">more Afghan territory</a> than at any time since they were driven from power in 2001; that President Ghani’s government seems <a href="" type="internal">shakier</a> than any since the U.S. “liberated” the country; that the Afghan security forces have been <a href="" type="internal">taking</a> a <a href="" type="internal">beating</a>; and that the capital, Kabul, the heartland of government control, has been a veritable <a href="" type="internal">inferno</a> of <a href="" type="internal">terror attacks</a>. &#160;Still, here’s what gives Nicholson’s statement its power: he’s not alone.&#160; His conclusion has been backed by a remarkable array of knowledgeable officials since at least 2010.</p>
<p>Here’s just a partial list: &#160;U.S. Afghan commander General Stanley McChrystal in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7243964/Operation-Moshtarak-Gen-Stanley-McChrystal-visits-subdued-former-Taliban-capital.html" type="external">February 2010</a> (the U.S. had “turned the corner” in Helmand Province in the embattled poppy-producing southern heartland of the country); Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on <a href="http://archive.defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1579" type="external">June 7, 2011</a> (“I leave Afghanistan today with the belief that if we keep this momentum up, we will deliver a decisive blow to the enemy and turn the corner in this conflict”) and his boss President Barack Obama on the <a href="http://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=64223" type="external">same day</a> (“We’ve broken the Taliban’s momentum, trained Afghan security forces, and are now preparing to turn a corner in our efforts”); Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General General Martin Dempsey in <a href="http://www.jcs.mil/Media/Speeches/Article/571926/gen-dempseys-remarks-and-qa-at-harvard-universitys-john-f-kennedy-jr-forum/" type="external">April 2012</a> (“In my opening months as chairman, I worked with the secretary of defense and the president to fashion a new defense strategy, guidance that would address the security paradox. This guidance is meant to help our military… turn the corner from a decade of focus on stability operations and find a new way forward to address that wider spectrum of threats”); and Gates’s successor, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in <a href="" type="internal">September 2012</a> (“We have turned the corner”); and so it’s gone in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Or put another way, never have so many prospective corners been turned over so many years to so little effect. &#160;Nonetheless, if you’re game, let’s think about heading out in search of just such a corner one more time.&#160; Before we go, though, let me mention one other thing.&#160; Given the experiences of the British and the <a href="" type="internal">Soviets</a>, among others, Afghanistan has long been <a href="" type="internal">called</a> “the graveyard of empires.”&#160; However, for Afghans since 1979, when the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1984/chalmers_johnson_on_the_cia_and_a_blowback_world" type="external">first iteration</a> of America’s wars there began, it has simply been a graveyard. This year, things have already gotten <a href="" type="internal">so bad</a> in Kabul — from attacks on a major hotel and a military academy to a devastating bomb concealed inside an ambulance — that city dwellers have reportedly taken to carrying “ <a href="" type="internal">in case I die</a>” notes with them, lest their bodies be shredded and left unidentifiable by the latest Taliban or ISIS terror assault.</p>
<p>Across the country, in winter — usually a time of little fighting — the war(s) are simply being ratcheted up.&#160; The Trump administration and the Pentagon are sending in more troops (“ <a href="" type="internal">advisers</a>”), more <a href="" type="internal">planes</a>, and more <a href="" type="internal">drones</a>.&#160; The U.S. military has announced soaring numbers of air strikes, <a href="" type="internal">as well</a> as <a href="" type="internal">more bombings</a> (including <a href="" type="internal">record ones</a>) than at any time since 2012 when 100,000, not 14,00-15,000, U.S. troops were in-country.&#160; And the U.S. air commander there, Air Force Major General James Hecker, recently threatened more of them, <a href="" type="internal">claiming</a> that “the Taliban still has not felt the full brunt of American and Afghan air power.”&#160; And yet, according to both <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/us-losing-so-badly-afghanistan-trump-administration-hid-figures-796466" type="external">the Pentagon</a> and a recent <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42863116" type="external">BBC study</a>, the Taliban is now contesting more territory than at any time since 2002 and militants from the ISIS branch there have similarly been spreading to new parts of the country.</p>
<p>Yes, the U.S. military (in support of Afghan security forces) and the Taliban (as well as ISIS) are fighting each other, but functionally, when it comes to ordinary Afghans, they are colluding in killing <a href="" type="internal">striking numbers</a> of <a href="" type="internal">civilians</a> across the country.&#160; In other words, more than a decade and a half later, despite those corners, it all only seems to be getting worse with no end in sight.</p>
<p>After all, in these years, the two groups the Bush administration went after in 2001, al-Qaeda and the Taliban, have somehow morphed into “more than 20 terrorist and insurgent groups” on either side of the Afghani-Pakistani border.&#160; (And in case you doubt those figures, they’re straight out of a recent ill-titled <a href="" type="internal">Pentagon report</a>, “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan.”)&#160; Beyond Afghanistan, in these years, the same process has been repeating itself, as the original al-Qaeda morphed into a whole range of groups (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and so on) and the same thing is now happening to ISIS.</p>
<p>In fact, I’m starting to wonder about almost any corner in much of the Greater Middle East and Africa, which means it’s true: I’m the one who’s hesitating now.&#160; I know what I promised you, but to be honest, I’m having my doubts about this walk of ours.&#160; I’m worried about what exactly will happen if we ever do get to that corner.&#160; Who, after all, wants to <a href="" type="internal">whistle</a> past a graveyard?</p>
<p>So here’s my suggestion.&#160; Why don’t we just postpone our walk for a while?&#160; Bad as things are right now, experience tells us — or at least our military commanders swear to it — that they’ll get better sooner or later.&#160; What if we check back this fall, or maybe early next year, or perhaps sometime in 2020, or even 2021?&#160; By that time, there has to be at least one corner around which we could… well, you know what I’m about to say.&#160; Count on one thing: I’ll be in touch.</p>
<p>This column originally ran on <a href="http://tomdispatch.com" type="external">TomDispatch</a>.</p> | A Trip Down Memory Lane, Pentagon-Style | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/02/15/a-trip-down-memory-lane-pentagon-style/ | 2018-02-15 | 4left
| 2,489 | Photo by David CC BY 20 If you8217re in the mood would you consider taking a walk with me and while we8217re at it thinking a little about America8217s wars Nothing particularly ambitious mind you just 8212 if you8217re up for it 8212 a stroll to the corner Now admittedly there8217s a small catch here Where exactly is that corneramp160 I think the first time I heard about it might have been back in January 2004 and it was located somewhere in Iraq That was if you remember just nine months after American troops triumphantly entered a burning Baghdad and the month after Iraq8217s autocratic ruler Saddam Hussein was captured near his hometown Tikritamp160 Yet despite President George W Bush8217s unforgettable May 1 2003 8220 mission accomplished8221 moment when from the deck of an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego he declared 8220major combat operations in Iraq8230 ended8221 the American war there somehow never actually stoppedamp160 An insurgency had already flared US bases were being periodically mortared and American officials feared that some kind of civil war was in the offing between the country8217s formerly reigning Sunni minority and its rising Shiite majority It was then that Major General Charles Swannack Jr commander of the 82nd Airborne Division mentioned that corner and as you8217ll gather from his comments it wasn8217t even the first time he8217d brought the subject upamp160 Here as New York Times correspondent John Burns reported it was Swannack8217s assessment of the situation 8220The general a large imposing figure renowned among his troops for his nononsense ways began his remarks by reminding the reporters that he had appeared in Baghdad six weeks ago about the time of the insurgents8217 Ramadan offensive and had said he believed troops in his area were 8216turning the corner8217 8220Now he said 8216I8217m here to tell you that we8217ve turned that corner I can also tell you that we are on a glide path towards success as attacks on our forces have declined by almost 60 percent over the past month82178221 As it happened Americans would remain on the glide path to that corner of ultimate success for some time not just in Iraq but in Washington tooamp160 There as Rowan Scarborough reported more than a year later in March 2005 8220in the privacy of their Ering offices senior Pentagon officials have begun to entertain thoughts that were unimaginable a year ago Iraq is turning the corner 8216This is still a tough fight We don8217t want anyone to think that it is not8217 said retired Air Force Lt Gen Thomas McInerney a military analyst who strongly supports Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld 8216But the momentum is in our direction82178221 Cornerless Iraq Here was the problem every time American troops actually turned that corner what they found there were insurgents armed with rocketpropelled grenades RPGs and other weaponry sometimes even Americanproduced armsamp160 In addition the streets around that corner turned out to be pitted with halfburied improvised explosive devices or IEDs those same insurgents could build from instructions on the Internet and that could destroy the most wellarmored Humvee for the price of a pizzaamp160 Early on in fact some of the places down which American troops had to turn were already being given grimly sardonic names like 8220 RPG Alley8221 There were as it happened so many corners to turn and yet from 2003 on seemingly nowhere to go I don8217t doubt that those of you of a certain age preparing for our little walk are already thinking about a somewhat more perilous image from another war the infamous 8220light at the end of the tunnel8221 that will forever be connected with Vietnamamp160 That phrase was repeatedly used by Americans to describe the glide path to victory in that conflict and would long be associated with the commander of US forces General William Westmoreland He used it to remarkable effect in 1967 a mere 10 weeks before the enemy launched its devastating Tet Offensive However the general was anything but alone in his choice of imageryamp160 That 8220tunnel8221 was also occupied by a range of top US officials from President Lyndon Johnson to National Security Advisor Walt Rostowamp160 And it wasn8217t the newest of images eitheramp160 After all General Henri Navarre had used it a decade and a half earlier in the French version of that losing war For those in the antiwar movement of the era it was an image that always had a particularly ominous resonance since you weren8217t just heading for 8220the corner8221 but deep inside a dark tunnel where just beyond the light glimmering at its end it was easy enough to imagine a train bearing down on youamp160 By the way lest you think there8217s anything especially original about the American military in the twentyfirst century Westmoreland also spoke with hope in 1967 but assumedly before he found himself in that tunnel of how the US 8220had turned the corner in the war8221 and how its end had begun 8220to come into view8221 In Iraq the light at the end of the corner would prove no more evident than it had been in that Vietnamese tunnel and as a result the corner itself simply disappearedamp160 In fact in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2008 US commander and Iraq surge general David Petraeus even admitted however reluctantly that 8220we haven8217t turned any corners we haven8217t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel8221amp160 And soon after that corners of any sort were largely abandoned at least as figures of speechamp160 Or perhaps thought of another way the problem of finding a corner no less any good news on the other side of it would be solved by a change in tactics in the second iteration of Washington8217s Iraq War in this century the one against the Islamic Stateamp160 From August 2014 on the US Air Force would be called in to play a major role in turning Iraq8217s embattled cities from Fallujah to Mosul into so much rubbleamp160 No corners no problems you might say Now I don8217t want you to be disappointedamp160 I was serious about that walk to the corner just not in Iraqamp160 Consider cornerless Iraq no more than background information for the real walk we8217re going to take But before we leave Iraq let me mention 8212 and I hope you won8217t consider me too much of an optimist for this 8212 that I just might see a little light glimmering at the end of the rubbleamp160 Is it possible that some 14 years late America8217s missionaccomplished moment is finally arrivingamp160 After all the 8220caliphate8221 of Abu Bakr alBaghdadi is history and in December President Donald Trump even declared victory over ISISamp160 8220We8217ve won in Iraq8221 he said without hesitation or qualification amp160No tunnel no corner no glimmers of light just the whole shebang Now admittedly while the socalled caliphate is gone and its militants driven out of the Iraqi and Syrian cities they had occupied some of its fighters seem to be turning themselves back into guerrilla warriors and suicide bombers 8212 the first postcaliphate bombings in Baghdad have evidently begun 8212 and aren8217t quite acting like they8217re down for the countamp160 Not yet anyway and let8217s not forget as well that in the years leading to Washington8217s 8220victory8221 the Islamic State did somehow manage to turn itself into a global terror brand Still give me a little leeway hereamp160 I8217m just talking about glimmers and8230 oh wait I should mention one more thing in neighboring Syria all aglimmer itself these days the US is now seemingly on the brink of involvement in a whole new war between NATO ally Turkey and the Kurdish forces it8217s still backing against ISIS and talking about what8217s glimmering in the distance a possible future war with Iran also seems to be lurking just around the next turn of the Trumpian corner Still let8217s keep the good news in full viewamp160 US troops are actually being drawn down in Iraq and a mere 14 years after that missionaccomplished moment some of them are evidently being sent to the place where that cornertobeturned still evidently stands where for America8217s warfighting generals and other key officials there have always been corners to turn beyond compare 8220Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan8221 So how about taking that little walk of ours somewhere in Afghanistan After all a mere 16 years after the Bush administration invaded and liberated that land 8212 at the end of November 2017 to be exact 8212 US commander Army General John Nicholson who had only recently been claiming that the fight against the Taliban and a new branch of ISIS was 8220still in a stalemate8221 suddenly suggested8230 yes you guessed it8230 that the bynow famous corner so long sought after was once again being turnedamp160 He managed to make the point by quoting a recent statement of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani saying 8220Now looking ahead to 2018 as President Ghani said he believes we have turned the corner and I agreeamp160 The momentum is now with the Afghan Security Forces and the Taliban cannot win in the face of the pressures that I outlinedamp160 Again their choices are to reconcile live in irrelevance or die8221 If so many years later General Nicholson were alone in such a conclusion you might question his claim given that the Taliban now control or contest more Afghan territory than at any time since they were driven from power in 2001 that President Ghani8217s government seems shakier than any since the US 8220liberated8221 the country that the Afghan security forces have been taking a beating and that the capital Kabul the heartland of government control has been a veritable inferno of terror attacks amp160Still here8217s what gives Nicholson8217s statement its power he8217s not aloneamp160 His conclusion has been backed by a remarkable array of knowledgeable officials since at least 2010 Here8217s just a partial list amp160US Afghan commander General Stanley McChrystal in February 2010 the US had 8220turned the corner8221 in Helmand Province in the embattled poppyproducing southern heartland of the country Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on June 7 2011 8220I leave Afghanistan today with the belief that if we keep this momentum up we will deliver a decisive blow to the enemy and turn the corner in this conflict8221 and his boss President Barack Obama on the same day 8220We8217ve broken the Taliban8217s momentum trained Afghan security forces and are now preparing to turn a corner in our efforts8221 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General General Martin Dempsey in April 2012 8220In my opening months as chairman I worked with the secretary of defense and the president to fashion a new defense strategy guidance that would address the security paradox This guidance is meant to help our military8230 turn the corner from a decade of focus on stability operations and find a new way forward to address that wider spectrum of threats8221 and Gates8217s successor Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in September 2012 8220We have turned the corner8221 and so it8217s gone in Afghanistan Or put another way never have so many prospective corners been turned over so many years to so little effect amp160Nonetheless if you8217re game let8217s think about heading out in search of just such a corner one more timeamp160 Before we go though let me mention one other thingamp160 Given the experiences of the British and the Soviets among others Afghanistan has long been called 8220the graveyard of empires8221amp160 However for Afghans since 1979 when the first iteration of America8217s wars there began it has simply been a graveyard This year things have already gotten so bad in Kabul 8212 from attacks on a major hotel and a military academy to a devastating bomb concealed inside an ambulance 8212 that city dwellers have reportedly taken to carrying 8220 in case I die8221 notes with them lest their bodies be shredded and left unidentifiable by the latest Taliban or ISIS terror assault Across the country in winter 8212 usually a time of little fighting 8212 the wars are simply being ratcheted upamp160 The Trump administration and the Pentagon are sending in more troops 8220 advisers8221 more planes and more dronesamp160 The US military has announced soaring numbers of air strikes as well as more bombings including record ones than at any time since 2012 when 100000 not 140015000 US troops were incountryamp160 And the US air commander there Air Force Major General James Hecker recently threatened more of them claiming that 8220the Taliban still has not felt the full brunt of American and Afghan air power8221amp160 And yet according to both the Pentagon and a recent BBC study the Taliban is now contesting more territory than at any time since 2002 and militants from the ISIS branch there have similarly been spreading to new parts of the country Yes the US military in support of Afghan security forces and the Taliban as well as ISIS are fighting each other but functionally when it comes to ordinary Afghans they are colluding in killing striking numbers of civilians across the countryamp160 In other words more than a decade and a half later despite those corners it all only seems to be getting worse with no end in sight After all in these years the two groups the Bush administration went after in 2001 alQaeda and the Taliban have somehow morphed into 8220more than 20 terrorist and insurgent groups8221 on either side of the AfghaniPakistani borderamp160 And in case you doubt those figures they8217re straight out of a recent illtitled Pentagon report 8220Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan8221amp160 Beyond Afghanistan in these years the same process has been repeating itself as the original alQaeda morphed into a whole range of groups alQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and so on and the same thing is now happening to ISIS In fact I8217m starting to wonder about almost any corner in much of the Greater Middle East and Africa which means it8217s true I8217m the one who8217s hesitating nowamp160 I know what I promised you but to be honest I8217m having my doubts about this walk of oursamp160 I8217m worried about what exactly will happen if we ever do get to that corneramp160 Who after all wants to whistle past a graveyard So here8217s my suggestionamp160 Why don8217t we just postpone our walk for a whileamp160 Bad as things are right now experience tells us 8212 or at least our military commanders swear to it 8212 that they8217ll get better sooner or lateramp160 What if we check back this fall or maybe early next year or perhaps sometime in 2020 or even 2021amp160 By that time there has to be at least one corner around which we could8230 well you know what I8217m about to sayamp160 Count on one thing I8217ll be in touch This column originally ran on TomDispatch | Photo/NOUN by/ADP David/PROPN CC/PROPN BY/PROPN 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<p>Before Maya Ludtke was Maya Ludtke, cherished American daughter, she was an abandoned baby girl in eastern China, when the one child policy and a traditional preference&#160;for boys landed her in an orphanage.&#160;</p>
<p>Maya Ludtke, as infant Chang Yulu, taken in a Chinese orphanage.&#160;</p>
<p>Melissa Ludtke</p>
<p>Now, as a college freshman, she’s teaming up with her adopted mom, journalist Melissa Ludtke, to tell the story of her search for identity, her return to the village of her birth to see what her life might have been like had she stayed, and the bigger story of how China’s one-child policy, and attitudes toward women and girls, drove a wave of some 120,000 international adoptions — most to&#160;the US — of mostly Chinese girls.</p>
<p>The one child policy came out of a belief that if China didn’t curb its population growth, the country would never prosper. Generations of Chinese grew up shaking their heads and muttering, "ren tai duo"&#160;– there are just too many people.&#160;In the early ‘80s, the government stepped in to change this. Three decades of coercion, intimidation, forced abortions&#160;and violations of Chinese women’s privacy, dignity and human rights followed. Women were made to show proof each month that they were having their periods. And if they managed to sneak in an unauthorized pregnancy, they were punished with huge fines, or the destruction of their homes, or the loss of their or their husband’s jobs.</p>
<p />
<p>Maya (left) and Melissa Ludtke, in their living room in Cambridge, MA.</p>
<p>Mary Kay Magistad</p>
<p>In truth, China’s fertility rate had already dropped by half, from almost 6 children per woman to about 3, before the one-child policy started. And even without the policy, it would likely have dropped more — as it’s done in most places around the world&#160;— as women became better educated and had better access to well-paying jobs.</p>
<p>But China’s leaders were impatient, and they pressed ahead. Families, forced to choose, often chose to give up their girls so they could have boys. The result is some 50 million ‘missing’ Chinese girls — girls who were given away, killed in infancy, aborted or abandoned.&#160;China’s orphanages began to fill up with unwanted baby girls. The Chinese government decided to open to international adoptions.&#160;Soon after, Melissa Ludtke, who as a young sports journalist had successfully sued to be able to interview male athletes in their locker rooms, just like her male colleagues, started thinking about breaking another barrier.</p>
<p>“I had very much thought about having a child,” she says. “I had in fact gone and tried to have a child on my own after a relationship ended for me in my late 30s.&#160;And then, a friend of mine, asked me a question one day. She asked, ‘and so, I guess you won’t be a mother,’ since she figured I hadn’t acted on it by this point. And I responded to her immediately, ‘no! I haven’t decided that.’”</p>
<p>The friend put Melissa in touch with an adoption agency that brought her to China, and put nine-month-old Chang Yulu in her care. Chang became Maya, and Maya grew up as an American girl, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Melissa Ludtke, holding her adopted daughter Maya.</p>
<p>Melissa Ludtke</p>
<p>Melissa tried to keep Maya connected with China&#160;and the Chinese part of her identity. So did many of the other parents of adopted Chinese babies. Maya was part of a huge wave of Chinese adoptions — some 80,000 into the United States, 40,000 elsewhere.&#160;Many of the adoptive parents stayed in touch, even organized into more formal groups, and many of the daughters met often.</p>
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<p>Maya Ludtke and other adopted Chinese girls get together in 2005.</p>
<p>Melissa Ludtke</p>
<p />
<p>Same group in 2012.</p>
<p>Melissa Ludtke&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Maya Ludtke strikes a pose as a Chinese fan-dancer.</p>
<p>Melissa Ludtke</p>
<p>Maya, now a 19-year-old college student, says that worked — to a point.</p>
<p>“It was great to have that community of other girls, who were kind of in the same boat as me,” she says. “But of course, growing up, there were moments when perhaps I was a bit embarrassed because my family wasn’t what everyone else’s was, and people would ask questions, and I didn’t always know how to respond, like, ‘is that really your mom?’”</p>
<p>Identity is a complex thing for anybody, that much more so when adopted from a country where ethnic identity is seen as immutable, into a country tolerant of shifting and reinvented identities, of ethnic melting pots and tapestries, and different strands of identity weaving together in different ways over time.</p>
<p>The Ludtkes faced this in a way that surprised them, when Melissa first took Maya back to China, when she was 7 —&#160;back to the town of Xiaxi, in Jiangsu province, where she was born.</p>
<p />
<p>Maya, then age 7, and Melissa Ludtke visit a market in Xiaxi, Jiangsu province, the town where Maya was born.</p>
<p>Melissa Ludtke</p>
<p>“We went into this marketplace there,” Melissa recalls. “And as we walked around, it became clear to me that the whole marketplace had basically stopped, and everyone was staring at us, mostly at me, with the blond hair, in rural China. ... And there I was, holding the hand of a young girl. And — I don’t know. Maybe they thought I had kidnapped her. They couldn’t possibly understand how we had come to be together. And this made Maya so uncomfortable. ... It made us both uncomfortable. And we had this long circle to go around to get out of the marketplace. ...&#160;I had really done a bad job that morning of being her mother in the way I should have been. We went back to Changzhou, and just stayed in the hotel room the rest of the day.”</p>
<p>Melissa says that moment stayed with her, and a decade later, she suggested to Maya that she return to Xiaxi without Melissa, to get to know it on her own terms.</p>
<p>Maya set out with a friend her age, Jennie, another Chinese girl&#160;who’d been adopted out of the same orphanage at the same time. And Melissa, seeing the potential for a journalistic project on identity, the lives of girls in China and the one-child policy, arranged a film crew to follow Maya and Jennie&#160;back to the villages where each was born, finding out what the lives of girls their age were like there, what their lives might have been like if their families has kept them.</p>
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<p><a href="/sections/conflict-justice" type="external">Conflict &amp; Justice</a></p>
<p>December 31, 2015</p>
<p>In <a href="/sections/conflict-justice" type="external">Conflict &amp; Justice</a> <a href="/sections/justice" type="external">Justice</a> <a href="/verticals-listing/global-nation" type="external">Global Nation</a>.</p>
<p>Tagged: <a href="/continent/north-america" type="external">North America</a> <a href="/continent/asia" type="external">Asia</a> <a href="/country/united-states" type="external">United States</a> <a href="/country/south-korea" type="external">South Korea</a> <a href="/person/adam-crapser" type="external">Adam Crapser</a> <a href="/tags/children" type="external">children</a> <a href="/tags/families" type="external">families</a> <a href="/tags/government" type="external">government</a> <a href="/tags/justice" type="external">Justice</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="/sections/business-economics-and-jobs" type="external">Business, Economics and Jobs</a></p>
<p>July 02, 2015</p>
<p>In <a href="/sections/business-economics-and-jobs" type="external">Business, Economics and Jobs</a> <a href="/sections/economics" type="external">Economics</a> <a href="/verticals-listing/across-womens-lives" type="external">Across Women's Lives</a>.</p>
<p>Tagged: <a href="/city/antigua" type="external">Antigua</a> <a href="/continent/north-america" type="external">North America</a> <a href="/country/guatemala" type="external">Guatemala</a> <a href="/tags/adoption" type="external">adoption</a> <a href="/tags/families" type="external">families</a> <a href="/tags/culture" type="external">culture</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="/sections/science-tech-environment" type="external">Science, Tech &amp; Environment</a></p>
<p>July 21, 2015</p>
<p>In <a href="/sections/science-tech-environment" type="external">Science, Tech &amp; Environment</a> <a href="/sections/science" type="external">Science</a> <a href="/verticals-listing/global-nation" type="external">Global Nation</a>.</p>
<p>Tagged: <a href="/continent/north-america" type="external">North America</a> <a href="/continent/asia" type="external">Asia</a> <a href="/country/united-states" type="external">United States</a> <a href="/country/korea" type="external">Korea</a> <a href="/tags/international-adoption" type="external">international adoption</a> <a href="/tags/research" type="external">research</a> <a href="/tags/science" type="external">science</a> <a href="/tags/families" type="external">families</a>.</p>
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<p>The stories, photos and videos from that three-week trip became the backbone of the multimedia project “ <a href="http://touchinghomeinchina.com" type="external">Touching Home in China</a>,” which Melissa has been developing both as an e-book and as a curriculum for schools and community colleges.</p>
<p>"We’re talking now in this country about the need to strengthen the community college system, and it really is the gateway for so many immigrants all over America, into both our society and into higher education," Melissa says. "I think Maya’s and Jennie’s experience of trying to return to a place to try to understand yourself better, raises so many of these questions that so many immigrants who come to this country and are made to feel as ‘other,’ and who think of themselves as ‘other,’ until they find pathways into how ‘other’ becomes ‘us,’ I think this story can be a powerful tool to help them to do that."</p>
<p>One of the videos in "Touching Home" shows Maya, early in her visit to Xiaxi, trying to talk to a group of local women. They ask her, in Chinese, ‘do you understand when we speak to you?’ Maya smiles and looks uncertain. She understands some, but not all. The women seem perplexed. She looks like a Xiaxi girl. Why does she talk funny? Why can’t she understand a basic conversation?</p>
<p>“If I didn’t say anything, I blended in perfectly,” Maya says. “A lot of people were confused only when I opened my mouth and I tried to say something, and then the confusion was about why I sounded so weird. ... I was one of the only foreigners they’d ever seen.”</p>
<p>It’s interesting that Maya, talking about an encounter in the village where she was born, describes herself as a foreigner, and assumes that “seeing” this foreigner was strange for the villagers. But, the villagers actually commented on how she looked like one of them. One woman said, ‘you’ve come home.’ If America is the land of constructed identities, China is one where many people consider identity immutable — especially Chinese identity. If you’re ethnically Chinese, even if you are generations removed, you’re Chinese. And if you’re not ethnically Chinese, you will never be Chinese, no matter how perfectly you speak the language, how well you know the culture or how much you consider China to be home.</p>
<p>Then again, even if you’re ethnically Chinese, it can get complicated. <a href="http://meifong.org" type="external">Mei Fong</a>, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent in China, and author of the book “One Child: China’s most radical experiment” has had her own experience with that.</p>
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<p>Mei Fong, author of "One Child: China's Most Radical Experiment"</p>
<p>Mei Fong</p>
<p>Mei Fong has been thinking a lot about identity, while working on her book, including about female identity. She says she can relate to the unwanted girls in China.&#160;Her father, the 16th of 18 sons — by the&#160;same Chinese-born father, different mothers —&#160;was aghast that he had five daughters, and no sons.</p>
<p>“My father certainly was very, very disappointed,” she says.“He had grown up in a household that had been defined by sons. It had a very proud lineage. And he kept having daughters. His brothers had sons. But he kept, one after another, having daughters. He was an accountant, and he would speak in that terminology. So one of the things he kept telling us was, ‘you guys are liabilities. You are not assets. You are liabilities. Don’t forget that.”</p>
<p>It was attitudes like that, within China, that led to some 50 million missing girls under the 30-plus years of the one-child policy — girls who were selectively aborted, or abandoned, or killed, or hidden, so families could try again, for a boy.</p>
<p>Unintended consequences abound. For starters, there are way more boys than girls, and young men than young women, in the one-child generation.&#160;The usual gender balance at birth, globally, is 105 boys to 100 girls. In China, the national average was close to 120 boys to 100 girls in 2009, before coming down to about 115 to 100 now. In some provinces, and districts, it's much higher. That will make it hard, for a generation, for young men to find wives. In poorer rural areas, there are already 'bachelor villages' facing this challenge.&#160;</p>
<p>On the positive side, attitudes about women and girls in China have been changing fast, as China modernizes. More women were going to college, getting good jobs, making good money, and often — staying in better touch with their parents than their male counterparts do.</p>
<p>Maya seems ambivalent about her own biological parents.&#160;She chose not to try to find them when she was in Xiaxi, though she was touched when locals offered to help. She recalls a day when she and one of the local girls her age were in town.</p>
<p>“And she out of the blue said, ‘there’s the hospital. That’s where I was born.&#160;Maybe you were born there too,” Maya recalls. “So of course, we went inside, and all the doctors stopped what they were doing, to come and see this strange foreigner who said she was born here, and started digging through these old shelves of records, and looking at computer records, to see how many babies came through that day.”</p>
<p>Again — Maya refers to herself as a ‘strange foreigner,’ even though she was from there — possibly, born in that hospital. Maya admits that her own sense of identity shifts over time, and depending on the context, and her visit to the village where she was born is no exception.</p>
<p>“I still think I’m Chinese American, because I have become American,” Maya says. “But I still do feel tied to China. Instead of saying ‘I’m half Chinese and half American’, it’s kind of more – in what areas do you feel Chinese, and in what areas do you feel American? I think for me, growing up, that changed day to day. There were some days when I wanted to be more connected to China. There were some days when I wanted to feel more American. I think it’s a sliding scale, and it’s hard to really say.”</p>
<p>What Maya does say is she’s glad she can share her story, and hopes it prompts other young people to think about identity as a personal journey.</p>
<p>“You have to figure it out for yourself,” she says.“You can’t always have others telling you ’this is what you are.’ It’s really your own identity to form, who you are and who you want to be, and how you want to be defined.”&#160;</p>
<p>In that attitude, Maya is thoroughly American. But she wants to stay in touch with her Chinese side. She’s working on her Chinese language, planning to major in environmental science, and sees the possibility of going back to the land of her birth to help out on that front, for a time.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, China continues to change. The one child policy ended in late 2015. Now, the government says everyone can have two children — after they fill out the right paperwork. The government doesn’t want to entirely get out of people’s personal lives. It’s apparently hard to give up that kind of control once you have it.&#160;</p>
<p>But it turns out it’s harder to turn on the fertility tap than to turn it off. Not only is China’s fertility rate now well below replacement, many young adults, enjoying good jobs and decent money, are staying single longer, and opting to have just one child or no children once they get married.&#160;They say, raising children is hard, and expensive, and anyway – they were only children. Why have more?&#160;At the same time, China’s baby boom generation is starting to roll into retirement, and their grown only children are now tasked with keeping a slowing economy humming along, while supporting an ever-growing older population.</p>
<p>It’s long been asked,&#160;will China grow old before it grows rich? Will it hit the same per capita GDP that developed countries have, which was one of the goals of the one-child policy, or will it get stuck in what’s called the middle-income trap?&#160;At this point, it’s not at all clear.</p> | Born Chinese, raised American, an adoptee explores her identity | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-02-11/born-chinese-raised-american-adoptee-explores-her-identity | 2016-02-11 | 3left-center
| 2,490 | Before Maya Ludtke was Maya Ludtke cherished American daughter she was an abandoned baby girl in eastern China when the one child policy and a traditional preferenceamp160for boys landed her in an orphanageamp160 Maya Ludtke as infant Chang Yulu taken in a Chinese orphanageamp160 Melissa Ludtke Now as a college freshman she8217s teaming up with her adopted mom journalist Melissa Ludtke to tell the story of her search for identity her return to the village of her birth to see what her life might have been like had she stayed and the bigger story of how China8217s onechild policy and attitudes toward women and girls drove a wave of some 120000 international adoptions 8212 most toamp160the US 8212 of mostly Chinese girls The one child policy came out of a belief that if China didn8217t curb its population growth the country would never prosper Generations of Chinese grew up shaking their heads and muttering ren tai duoamp1608211 there are just too many peopleamp160In the early 821680s the government stepped in to change this Three decades of coercion intimidation forced abortionsamp160and violations of Chinese women8217s privacy dignity and human rights followed Women were made to show proof each month that they were having their periods And if they managed to sneak in an unauthorized pregnancy they were punished with huge fines or the destruction of their homes or the loss of their or their husband8217s jobs Maya left and Melissa Ludtke in their living room in Cambridge MA Mary Kay Magistad In truth China8217s fertility rate had already dropped by half from almost 6 children per woman to about 3 before the onechild policy started And even without the policy it would likely have dropped more 8212 as it8217s done in most places around the worldamp1608212 as women became better educated and had better access to wellpaying jobs But China8217s leaders were impatient and they pressed ahead Families forced to choose often chose to give up their girls so they could have boys The result is some 50 million 8216missing8217 Chinese girls 8212 girls who were given away killed in infancy aborted or abandonedamp160China8217s orphanages began to fill up with unwanted baby girls The Chinese government decided to open to international adoptionsamp160Soon after Melissa Ludtke who as a young sports journalist had successfully sued to be able to interview male athletes in their locker rooms just like her male colleagues started thinking about breaking another barrier 8220I had very much thought about having a child8221 she says 8220I had in fact gone and tried to have a child on my own after a relationship ended for me in my late 30samp160And then a friend of mine asked me a question one day She asked 8216and so I guess you won8217t be a mother8217 since she figured I hadn8217t acted on it by this point And I responded to her immediately 8216no I haven8217t decided that82178221 The friend put Melissa in touch with an adoption agency that brought her to China and put ninemonthold Chang Yulu in her care Chang became Maya and Maya grew up as an American girl in Cambridge Massachusetts Melissa Ludtke holding her adopted daughter Maya Melissa Ludtke Melissa tried to keep Maya connected with Chinaamp160and the Chinese part of her identity So did many of the other parents of adopted Chinese babies Maya was part of a huge wave of Chinese adoptions 8212 some 80000 into the United States 40000 elsewhereamp160Many of the adoptive parents stayed in touch even organized into more formal groups and many of the daughters met often Maya Ludtke and other adopted Chinese girls get together in 2005 Melissa Ludtke Same group in 2012 Melissa Ludtkeamp160 Maya Ludtke strikes a pose as a Chinese fandancer Melissa Ludtke Maya now a 19yearold college student says that worked 8212 to a point 8220It was great to have that community of other girls who were kind of in the same boat as me8221 she says 8220But of course growing up there were moments when perhaps I was a bit embarrassed because my family wasn8217t what everyone else8217s was and people would ask questions and I didn8217t always know how to respond like 8216is that really your mom82178221 Identity is a complex thing for anybody that much more so when adopted from a country where ethnic identity is seen as immutable into a country tolerant of shifting and reinvented identities of ethnic melting pots and tapestries and different strands of identity weaving together in different ways over time The Ludtkes faced this in a way that surprised them when Melissa first took Maya back to China when she was 7 8212amp160back to the town of Xiaxi in Jiangsu province where she was born Maya then age 7 and Melissa Ludtke visit a market in Xiaxi Jiangsu province the town where Maya was born Melissa Ludtke 8220We went into this marketplace there8221 Melissa recalls 8220And as we walked around it became clear to me that the whole marketplace had basically stopped and everyone was staring at us mostly at me with the blond hair in rural China And there I was holding the hand of a young girl And 8212 I don8217t know Maybe they thought I had kidnapped her They couldn8217t possibly understand how we had come to be together And this made Maya so uncomfortable It made us both uncomfortable And we had this long circle to go around to get out of the marketplace amp160I had really done a bad job that morning of being her mother in the way I should have been We went back to Changzhou and just stayed in the hotel room the rest of the day8221 Melissa says that moment stayed with her and a decade later she suggested to Maya that she return to Xiaxi without Melissa to get to know it on her own terms Maya set out with a friend her age Jennie another Chinese girlamp160who8217d been adopted out of the same orphanage at the same time And Melissa seeing the potential for a journalistic project on identity the lives of girls in China and the onechild policy arranged a film crew to follow Maya and Jennieamp160back to the villages where each was born finding out what the lives of girls their age were like there what their lives might have been like if their families has kept them Conflict ampamp Justice December 31 2015 In Conflict ampamp Justice Justice Global Nation Tagged North America Asia United States South Korea Adam Crapser children families government Justice Business Economics and Jobs July 02 2015 In Business Economics and Jobs Economics Across Womens Lives Tagged Antigua North America Guatemala adoption families culture Science Tech ampamp Environment July 21 2015 In Science Tech ampamp Environment Science Global Nation Tagged North America Asia United States Korea international adoption research science families The stories photos and videos from that threeweek trip became the backbone of the multimedia project 8220 Touching Home in China8221 which Melissa has been developing both as an ebook and as a curriculum for schools and community colleges We8217re talking now in this country about the need to strengthen the community college system and it really is the gateway for so many immigrants all over America into both our society and into higher education Melissa says I think Maya8217s and Jennie8217s experience of trying to return to a place to try to understand yourself better raises so many of these questions that so many immigrants who come to this country and are made to feel as 8216other8217 and who think of themselves as 8216other8217 until they find pathways into how 8216other8217 becomes 8216us8217 I think this story can be a powerful tool to help them to do that One of the videos in Touching Home shows Maya early in her visit to Xiaxi trying to talk to a group of local women They ask her in Chinese 8216do you understand when we speak to you8217 Maya smiles and looks uncertain She understands some but not all The women seem perplexed She looks like a Xiaxi girl Why does she talk funny Why can8217t she understand a basic conversation 8220If I didn8217t say anything I blended in perfectly8221 Maya says 8220A lot of people were confused only when I opened my mouth and I tried to say something and then the confusion was about why I sounded so weird I was one of the only foreigners they8217d ever seen8221 It8217s interesting that Maya talking about an encounter in the village where she was born describes herself as a foreigner and assumes that 8220seeing8221 this foreigner was strange for the villagers But the villagers actually commented on how she looked like one of them One woman said 8216you8217ve come home8217 If America is the land of constructed identities China is one where many people consider identity immutable 8212 especially Chinese identity If you8217re ethnically Chinese even if you are generations removed you8217re Chinese And if you8217re not ethnically Chinese you will never be Chinese no matter how perfectly you speak the language how well you know the culture or how much you consider China to be home Then again even if you8217re ethnically Chinese it can get complicated Mei Fong a former Wall Street Journal correspondent in China and author of the book 8220One Child China8217s most radical experiment8221 has had her own experience with that Mei Fong author of One Child Chinas Most Radical Experiment Mei Fong Mei Fong has been thinking a lot about identity while working on her book including about female identity She says she can relate to the unwanted girls in Chinaamp160Her father the 16th of 18 sons 8212 by theamp160same Chineseborn father different mothers 8212amp160was aghast that he had five daughters and no sons 8220My father certainly was very very disappointed8221 she says8220He had grown up in a household that had been defined by sons It had a very proud lineage And he kept having daughters His brothers had sons But he kept one after another having daughters He was an accountant and he would speak in that terminology So one of the things he kept telling us was 8216you guys are liabilities You are not assets You are liabilities Don8217t forget that8221 It was attitudes like that within China that led to some 50 million missing girls under the 30plus years of the onechild policy 8212 girls who were selectively aborted or abandoned or killed or hidden so families could try again for a boy Unintended consequences abound For starters there are way more boys than girls and young men than young women in the onechild generationamp160The usual gender balance at birth globally is 105 boys to 100 girls In China the national average was close to 120 boys to 100 girls in 2009 before coming down to about 115 to 100 now In some provinces and districts its much higher That will make it hard for a generation for young men to find wives In poorer rural areas there are already bachelor villages facing this challengeamp160 On the positive side attitudes about women and girls in China have been changing fast as China modernizes More women were going to college getting good jobs making good money and often 8212 staying in better touch with their parents than their male counterparts do Maya seems ambivalent about her own biological parentsamp160She chose not to try to find them when she was in Xiaxi though she was touched when locals offered to help She recalls a day when she and one of the local girls her age were in town 8220And she out of the blue said 8216there8217s the hospital That8217s where I was bornamp160Maybe you were born there too8221 Maya recalls 8220So of course we went inside and all the doctors stopped what they were doing to come and see this strange foreigner who said she was born here and started digging through these old shelves of records and looking at computer records to see how many babies came through that day8221 Again 8212 Maya refers to herself as a 8216strange foreigner8217 even though she was from there 8212 possibly born in that hospital Maya admits that her own sense of identity shifts over time and depending on the context and her visit to the village where she was born is no exception 8220I still think I8217m Chinese American because I have become American8221 Maya says 8220But I still do feel tied to China Instead of saying 8216I8217m half Chinese and half American8217 it8217s kind of more 8211 in what areas do you feel Chinese and in what areas do you feel American I think for me growing up that changed day to day There were some days when I wanted to be more connected to China There were some days when I wanted to feel more American I think it8217s a sliding scale and it8217s hard to really say8221 What Maya does say is she8217s glad she can share her story and hopes it prompts other young people to think about identity as a personal journey 8220You have to figure it out for yourself8221 she says8220You can8217t always have others telling you 8217this is what you are8217 It8217s really your own identity to form who you are and who you want to be and how you want to be defined8221amp160 In that attitude Maya is thoroughly American But she wants to stay in touch with her Chinese side She8217s working on her Chinese language planning to major in environmental science and sees the possibility of going back to the land of her birth to help out on that front for a time Meanwhile China continues to change The one child policy ended in late 2015 Now the government says everyone can have two children 8212 after they fill out the right paperwork The government doesn8217t want to entirely get out of people8217s personal lives It8217s apparently hard to give up that kind of control once you have itamp160 But it turns out it8217s harder to turn on the fertility tap than to turn it off Not only is China8217s fertility rate now well below replacement many young adults enjoying good jobs and decent money are staying single longer and opting to have just one child or no children once they get marriedamp160They say raising children is hard and expensive and anyway 8211 they were only children Why have moreamp160At the same time China8217s baby boom generation is starting to roll into retirement and their grown only children are now tasked with keeping a slowing economy humming along while supporting an evergrowing older population It8217s long been askedamp160will China grow old before it grows rich Will it hit the same per capita GDP that developed countries have which was one of the goals of the onechild policy or will it get stuck in what8217s called the middleincome trapamp160At this point it8217s not at all clear | Before/SCONJ Maya/PROPN Ludtke/PROPN was/AUX Maya/PROPN Ludtke/PROPN cherished/VERB American/ADJ daughter/NOUN she/PRON was/AUX an/DET abandoned/VERB baby/NOUN girl/NOUN in/ADP eastern/ADJ China/PROPN when/SCONJ the/DET one/NUM child/NOUN policy/NOUN and/CCONJ a/DET traditional/ADJ preferenceamp160for/NOUN boys/NOUN landed/VERB her/PRON in/ADP an/DET orphanageamp160/NUM Maya/PROPN Ludtke/PROPN as/SCONJ infant/NOUN Chang/PROPN Yulu/PROPN taken/VERB in/ADP a/DET 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<p>Vijay Prashad is the Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and is also chief editor of LeftWord Books. Vija He is the author of over 18 books among them The Death of a Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016).</p>
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<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
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<p />On Wednesday, President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly, calling for the world to join the U.S. and its partner nations to confront the extremist group ISIS, also known as ISIL.
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<p />Here with us to take a close look at the president's speech and what he did and did not say Wednesday morning is our guest, Vijay Prashad. Vijay joins us from Northampton, Massachusetts. He is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and professor of international studies at Trinity College. His most recent book is The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South.
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<p />Thank you so much for being with us, Vijay.
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<p />VIJAY PRASHAD, PROF. INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, TRINITY COLLEGE: Pleasure. Thanks, Jessica.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Vijay, we already know that the president has ordered airstrikes over Syria for the first time, and the president is now saying that he wants the international community's support to degrade and destroy the extremist group known as ISIS. Let's take a listen to a part of the president's speech.
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<p />BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Too often, we have failed to enforce international norms when it's inconvenient to do so. And we have not confronted forcefully enough the intolerance, sectarianism, and hopelessness that feeds violent extremism in too many parts of the globe.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: We just heard the president say we need to be more forceful--forceful, but also, at the same time, he's saying that the international community has failed to enforce international norms. So what do you make of this? Essentially, is what United States is doing by bombing Syria adhering to international norms?
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<p />PRASHAD: Funny thing for the American president to talk about adhering to international laws. Also, Mr. Obama at the UN said that the large nations should not trample small ones in pursuit of what he called "territorial ambition". These are curious statements coming from the American president at this time. There's no UN resolution that allows the United States to carry out operations in Syria. You'll remember that in Libya in 2011 there was a great hoopla made about the importance of getting a UN resolution. Here there was no attempt to get any resolution. They simply bombed in Syria. The question of international norms or international resolutions, you know, coming from Mr. Obama is not really about whether there are international norms or resolutions to uphold.
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<p />But why is Mr. Obama saying this? What is his audience? It's plain that the American right wing, the Republicans and some sections of the Democratic Party, don't really care about international norms. They believe in the executive authority of the president. They don't even believe the United Nations or international law should play any role vis-à-vis American policymaking.
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<p />And then you have the world community. You know, when they hear things like big countries shouldn't trample small countries, people keep thinking of Iraq. I mean, from 1991 till the present, Iraq sovereignty has been trampled by the United States. However you define territorial ambitions, it need not be a country that's right next to the U.S. for it to exercise its extraterritorial or territorial ambitions. So most people around the world would not see the credibility of that statement.
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<p />I think this particular gesture comes towards the liberal wing of the American population that's maybe a little anxious about this escalation into warfare. You know, there are people who are saying that they voted twice for Mr. Obama and they are now feeling a great sense of regret, not only over Guantanamo, etc., but now perhaps the entry into a new war in West Asia.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Vijay, he also was talking about his strategy for defeating ISIS. Let's take a look to what the president mapped out.
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<p />OBAMA: In this effort, we do not act alone. Nor do we intend to send U.S. troops to occupy foreign lands. Instead, we will support Iraqis and Syrians fighting to reclaim their communities. We will use our military might in a campaign of airstrikes to roll back ISIL. We will train and equip forces fighting against these terrorists on the ground. We will work to cut off their financing, and to stop the flow of fighters into and out of the region. And already over 40 nations have offered to join this coalition.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Vijay, you just heard the president talk about no boots on the ground, we're going to cut funding, and all of these possible tactics. What do you make of this, the president's strategy? Are there some parts of the strategy that you like? Or are there things that he could be doing differently?
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<p />PRASHAD: Well, let's take this from the ground upward rather than from aerial bombardment downward. I think most analysts looking at this from the plane's point of view--we have to do something; now we've bombed the city of, Raqqah, Aleppo, etc. But if you look at it from below, what I think is going to happen is these precipitous airstrikes in Raqqah, and particularly in Aleppo and Idlib, these airstrikes are, I think, going to create a greater sense of unity among the Islamist sections, which had had some divisions. So, rather than play upon the divisions, I think the U.S. airstrikes has united this section of Islamists, and they're going to now fight very hard to maintain their sections and to expand. So this is, of course, going contrary to the stated aims of the United States. So the air campaign, I think, is going to unite people that the U.S., if it was serious about concentrating on the Islamic State, would have done something different to break apart the possibility of unity.
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<p />And then the question of financing and the people coming in to fight, this is all very well. And the United States has been saying that, you know, in a sense, since August. But meanwhile, a principal NATO ally of the United States, Turkey, has not really closed its borders. And all evidence suggests that Turkey has allowed ISIS fighters, when they've been injured, to return into Turkey and to get treated in Turkey's hospitals. So there's very good evidence that the border is porous. I don't really see the credibility in this particular instance of the strategy.
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<p />I think a far more important strategic way to deal with the Islamic State would be to bring some of these regional partners and explain to them that Turkey's own contradictory foreign policy has to end. I mean, if United States is serious, it has leverage over Turkey. And apparently it has not been able to move Turkey sufficiently. That shows (A) the lack of seriousness in terms of this project that Obama has constructed, and (B) it shows a very narrow approach to the politics of the region, having allied simply with the Gulf Arab states in Jordan.
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<p />I mean, how must this play in the region where the United States' major allies are countries not one of which is a democracy? Not one of the Democratic countries has come on board fully and enthusiastically to join a coalition. I mean, the only way Iraq is going to be a full-fledged and dynamic partner to a coalition: if there's a new strategic outlook towards the government in Damascus and Syria. And that is, of course, not going to happen. So the credibility of the strategy strikes me as not very well worked out if you look at it from the ground upwards.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Let's pivot from Obama's speech and talk about some comments that UN Ambassador Samantha Power made on the NBC Sunday morning talkshow Meet the Press. Here's what she said about the administration's strategy of arming, quote-unquote, arming, moderate rebel opposition.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UN: They have pushed ISIL out of strategic areas. The reason that they've lost--the moderate opposition have lost territory over time is that they have been fighting ISIL and taking the fight to ISIL, on the one hand, and then also fighting a regime that is backed by Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, etc. So we think, with an infusion of support, these fighters, who have actually held their own against this wide array of actors fighting all fronts, will be in a much stronger position both to go after ISIL and to put pressure on the regime so we can get back to the negotiating table for a political solution.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Getting back to the negotiating table for a political solution--that's what Samantha Power said. And this is sort of their strategy, Vijay. Do you look at this strategy and think that it's a good one at the end of the day?
<p />
<p />PRASHAD: Well, the question of a moderate opposition is a very important idea to, I mean, investigate. The Obama administration hasn't really laid out what they mean by "moderate opposition". You know, who are the principal partners on the ground? Who is going to, among the groups that are there now, be recognized as moderate? They use, I think, very cliched statements, such as, for instance, there will be robust vetting, things like that. What they mean by these things?
<p />
<p />Over the course of three years, the United States has started and then failed to produce a substantial armed opposition group that they would consider to be moderate. So you can't really have an expectation that three years hence, having turned over much of this creation of a moderate force to Saudi Arabia, that you're going to have a different outcome now. So unless you have an understanding that a moderate resistance force, a rebel force, is not going to be able to be created by Saudi Arabia under the auspices of the United States, it's going to be hard to change the political calculation from the ground downwards, meaning that Mr. Assad is not going to be able to feel like there is a moderate opposition that actually threatens him. Currently, the Assad government looks out at the landscape, sees the rise of ISIS, sees that much of the rebel force has become largely Islamist, and then turns to the West and says, well, you know, they look toward the West and say, well, look, what you have is a terrorist group that's fighting against us. So in this context, I think, to talk about moderate opposition being created to put pressure on Damascus is rather illusionary.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Let's go back to the speech, Vijay, because the president also talk about funding extremism. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />OBAMA: It is time for a new compact among civilized peoples of this world to eradicate war at its most fundamental source, and that is the corruption of young minds by violent ideology.
<p />
<p />That means cutting off the funding that fuels this hate. It's time to end the hypocrisy of those who accumulate wealth through the global economy, and then siphon funds to those who teach children to tear it down.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: So the president is talking about cutting off the funding for those that fuel the hate, and specifically talking about ending the hypocrisy. Who is the president talking about, Vijay?
<p />
<p />PRASHAD: Well, I mean, he reads The New York Times. He reads The Wall Street Journal. He reads The Washington Post. Each of these papers have run stories about how there is so-called private funding coming from the Gulf Arab states. This was there at an early point in the career of the Islamic State of al-Qaeda in Iraq. You know, that's how--it was when it was at a startup position [that] Gulf Arab funding was essential. Of course, now the funding question is not essential, because the Islamic State is able to raise finances through taxation, through theft of banks, and certainly through oil sales from the Omar oilfields in eastern Syria. So right now the question of funding isn't of the essence.
<p />
<p />The most important issue is to seal the border between Turkey and Syria. And, of course, that was not part of his agenda. You know, the United States is facing serious pushback from Turkey, which is not comfortable with the view that the Islamic State is a terrorist organization. If you were to ask me to give you an analogy, I'll give you something that I got from a Kurdish official, who said that in a sense it's looking like turkey is using the Islamic State in the same way as Pakistan used the Taliban in Afghanistan. You know, that's perhaps Turkey's strategy. Mr. Obama needs to make a phone call to Ankara and have a serious conversation about why the current government in Turkey isn't going to seal its border, why it doesn't take a stronger position against the Islamic State. That not being part of his speech reveals the great hole in the Obama strategy.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Vijay, let's switch gears and talk about Israel and Palestine, because the president actually mentioned the Israeli public in his comments towards the end of the speech. Let's take a listen.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />OBAMA: The violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace. And that's something worthy of reflection within Israel, because let's be clear: the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable.
<p />
<p />~~~
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Vijay, you just heard the president criticizing the Israeli public. What do you make of this criticism?
<p />
<p />PRASHAD: Well, I mean, it's important that he said that it's Israelis who are ready to abandon the hard work of peace. You know, that's a very important thing. I don't recall an American president basically coming out and criticizing the Israeli public. I think that's quite significant. And it's equally significant that he talked about--when he said that it's important to reflect about what's happening inside Israel. I think this is something that people like Max Blumenthal in his book Goliath have been pointing out for a long time. There's a right-wing shift in Israeli society, very hard right shift. I think it's good that Mr. Obama, standing there at the GA, made comments like that. It's important that he would say that Israel has a problem it needs to deal with.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Vijay Prashad, joining us from Northampton, Massachusetts.
<p />
<p />Thank you so much for your analysis.
<p />
<p />PRASHAD: Thanks a lot.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Turkish-Syrian Border "The Great Hole" in Obama's UN Speech | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12426 | 2014-09-23 | 4left
| 2,490 | Vijay Prashad is the Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and is also chief editor of LeftWord Books Vija He is the author of over 18 books among them The Death of a Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution University of California Press 2016 JESSICA DESVARIEUX TRNN PRODUCER Welcome to The Real News Network Im Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore On Wednesday President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly calling for the world to join the US and its partner nations to confront the extremist group ISIS also known as ISIL Here with us to take a close look at the presidents speech and what he did and did not say Wednesday morning is our guest Vijay Prashad Vijay joins us from Northampton Massachusetts He is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and professor of international studies at Trinity College His most recent book is The Poorer Nations A Possible History of the Global South Thank you so much for being with us Vijay VIJAY PRASHAD PROF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES TRINITY COLLEGE Pleasure Thanks Jessica DESVARIEUX So Vijay we already know that the president has ordered airstrikes over Syria for the first time and the president is now saying that he wants the international communitys support to degrade and destroy the extremist group known as ISIS Lets take a listen to a part of the presidents speech BARACK OBAMA US PRESIDENT Too often we have failed to enforce international norms when its inconvenient to do so And we have not confronted forcefully enough the intolerance sectarianism and hopelessness that feeds violent extremism in too many parts of the globe DESVARIEUX We just heard the president say we need to be more forcefulforceful but also at the same time hes saying that the international community has failed to enforce international norms So what do you make of this Essentially is what United States is doing by bombing Syria adhering to international norms PRASHAD Funny thing for the American president to talk about adhering to international laws Also Mr Obama at the UN said that the large nations should not trample small ones in pursuit of what he called territorial ambition These are curious statements coming from the American president at this time Theres no UN resolution that allows the United States to carry out operations in Syria Youll remember that in Libya in 2011 there was a great hoopla made about the importance of getting a UN resolution Here there was no attempt to get any resolution They simply bombed in Syria The question of international norms or international resolutions you know coming from Mr Obama is not really about whether there are international norms or resolutions to uphold But why is Mr Obama saying this What is his audience Its plain that the American right wing the Republicans and some sections of the Democratic Party dont really care about international norms They believe in the executive authority of the president They dont even believe the United Nations or international law should play any role vis224vis American policymaking And then you have the world community You know when they hear things like big countries shouldnt trample small countries people keep thinking of Iraq I mean from 1991 till the present Iraq sovereignty has been trampled by the United States However you define territorial ambitions it need not be a country thats right next to the US for it to exercise its extraterritorial or territorial ambitions So most people around the world would not see the credibility of that statement I think this particular gesture comes towards the liberal wing of the American population thats maybe a little anxious about this escalation into warfare You know there are people who are saying that they voted twice for Mr Obama and they are now feeling a great sense of regret not only over Guantanamo etc but now perhaps the entry into a new war in West Asia DESVARIEUX Alright Vijay he also was talking about his strategy for defeating ISIS Lets take a look to what the president mapped out OBAMA In this effort we do not act alone Nor do we intend to send US troops to occupy foreign lands Instead we will support Iraqis and Syrians fighting to reclaim their communities We will use our military might in a campaign of airstrikes to roll back ISIL We will train and equip forces fighting against these terrorists on the ground We will work to cut off their financing and to stop the flow of fighters into and out of the region And already over 40 nations have offered to join this coalition DESVARIEUX So Vijay you just heard the president talk about no boots on the ground were going to cut funding and all of these possible tactics What do you make of this the presidents strategy Are there some parts of the strategy that you like Or are there things that he could be doing differently PRASHAD Well lets take this from the ground upward rather than from aerial bombardment downward I think most analysts looking at this from the planes point of viewwe have to do something now weve bombed the city of Raqqah Aleppo etc But if you look at it from below what I think is going to happen is these precipitous airstrikes in Raqqah and particularly in Aleppo and Idlib these airstrikes are I think going to create a greater sense of unity among the Islamist sections which had had some divisions So rather than play upon the divisions I think the US airstrikes has united this section of Islamists and theyre going to now fight very hard to maintain their sections and to expand So this is of course going contrary to the stated aims of the United States So the air campaign I think is going to unite people that the US if it was serious about concentrating on the Islamic State would have done something different to break apart the possibility of unity And then the question of financing and the people coming in to fight this is all very well And the United States has been saying that you know in a sense since August But meanwhile a principal NATO ally of the United States Turkey has not really closed its borders And all evidence suggests that Turkey has allowed ISIS fighters when theyve been injured to return into Turkey and to get treated in Turkeys hospitals So theres very good evidence that the border is porous I dont really see the credibility in this particular instance of the strategy I think a far more important strategic way to deal with the Islamic State would be to bring some of these regional partners and explain to them that Turkeys own contradictory foreign policy has to end I mean if United States is serious it has leverage over Turkey And apparently it has not been able to move Turkey sufficiently That shows A the lack of seriousness in terms of this project that Obama has constructed and B it shows a very narrow approach to the politics of the region having allied simply with the Gulf Arab states in Jordan I mean how must this play in the region where the United States major allies are countries not one of which is a democracy Not one of the Democratic countries has come on board fully and enthusiastically to join a coalition I mean the only way Iraq is going to be a fullfledged and dynamic partner to a coalition if theres a new strategic outlook towards the government in Damascus and Syria And that is of course not going to happen So the credibility of the strategy strikes me as not very well worked out if you look at it from the ground upwards DESVARIEUX Alright Lets pivot from Obamas speech and talk about some comments that UN Ambassador Samantha Power made on the NBC Sunday morning talkshow Meet the Press Heres what she said about the administrations strategy of arming quoteunquote arming moderate rebel opposition SAMANTHA POWER US AMBASSADOR TO THE UN They have pushed ISIL out of strategic areas The reason that theyve lostthe moderate opposition have lost territory over time is that they have been fighting ISIL and taking the fight to ISIL on the one hand and then also fighting a regime that is backed by Hezbollah Iran Russia etc So we think with an infusion of support these fighters who have actually held their own against this wide array of actors fighting all fronts will be in a much stronger position both to go after ISIL and to put pressure on the regime so we can get back to the negotiating table for a political solution DESVARIEUX Getting back to the negotiating table for a political solutionthats what Samantha Power said And this is sort of their strategy Vijay Do you look at this strategy and think that its a good one at the end of the day PRASHAD Well the question of a moderate opposition is a very important idea to I mean investigate The Obama administration hasnt really laid out what they mean by moderate opposition You know who are the principal partners on the ground Who is going to among the groups that are there now be recognized as moderate They use I think very cliched statements such as for instance there will be robust vetting things like that What they mean by these things Over the course of three years the United States has started and then failed to produce a substantial armed opposition group that they would consider to be moderate So you cant really have an expectation that three years hence having turned over much of this creation of a moderate force to Saudi Arabia that youre going to have a different outcome now So unless you have an understanding that a moderate resistance force a rebel force is not going to be able to be created by Saudi Arabia under the auspices of the United States its going to be hard to change the political calculation from the ground downwards meaning that Mr Assad is not going to be able to feel like there is a moderate opposition that actually threatens him Currently the Assad government looks out at the landscape sees the rise of ISIS sees that much of the rebel force has become largely Islamist and then turns to the West and says well you know they look toward the West and say well look what you have is a terrorist group thats fighting against us So in this context I think to talk about moderate opposition being created to put pressure on Damascus is rather illusionary DESVARIEUX Lets go back to the speech Vijay because the president also talk about funding extremism Lets take a listen to what he had to say OBAMA It is time for a new compact among civilized peoples of this world to eradicate war at its most fundamental source and that is the corruption of young minds by violent ideology That means cutting off the funding that fuels this hate Its time to end the hypocrisy of those who accumulate wealth through the global economy and then siphon funds to those who teach children to tear it down DESVARIEUX So the president is talking about cutting off the funding for those that fuel the hate and specifically talking about ending the hypocrisy Who is the president talking about Vijay PRASHAD Well I mean he reads The New York Times He reads The Wall Street Journal He reads The Washington Post Each of these papers have run stories about how there is socalled private funding coming from the Gulf Arab states This was there at an early point in the career of the Islamic State of alQaeda in Iraq You know thats howit was when it was at a startup position that Gulf Arab funding was essential Of course now the funding question is not essential because the Islamic State is able to raise finances through taxation through theft of banks and certainly through oil sales from the Omar oilfields in eastern Syria So right now the question of funding isnt of the essence The most important issue is to seal the border between Turkey and Syria And of course that was not part of his agenda You know the United States is facing serious pushback from Turkey which is not comfortable with the view that the Islamic State is a terrorist organization If you were to ask me to give you an analogy Ill give you something that I got from a Kurdish official who said that in a sense its looking like turkey is using the Islamic State in the same way as Pakistan used the Taliban in Afghanistan You know thats perhaps Turkeys strategy Mr Obama needs to make a phone call to Ankara and have a serious conversation about why the current government in Turkey isnt going to seal its border why it doesnt take a stronger position against the Islamic State That not being part of his speech reveals the great hole in the Obama strategy DESVARIEUX So Vijay lets switch gears and talk about Israel and Palestine because the president actually mentioned the Israeli public in his comments towards the end of the speech Lets take a listen OBAMA The violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace And thats something worthy of reflection within Israel because lets be clear the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable DESVARIEUX So Vijay you just heard the president criticizing the Israeli public What do you make of this criticism PRASHAD Well I mean its important that he said that its Israelis who are ready to abandon the hard work of peace You know thats a very important thing I dont recall an American president basically coming out and criticizing the Israeli public I think thats quite significant And its equally significant that he talked aboutwhen he said that its important to reflect about whats happening inside Israel I think this is something that people like Max Blumenthal in his book Goliath have been pointing out for a long time Theres a rightwing shift in Israeli society very hard right shift I think its good that Mr Obama standing there at the GA made comments like that Its important that he would say that Israel has a problem it needs to deal with DESVARIEUX Alright Vijay Prashad joining us from Northampton Massachusetts Thank you so much for your analysis PRASHAD Thanks a lot DESVARIEUX And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End 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<p>By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatchThis piece originally appeared at</p>
<p>TomDispatch.</p>
<p>“Do you do this in the United States? There is police action every day in the United States… They don’t call in airplanes to bomb the place.” — Afghan President Hamid Karzai denouncing <a href="http://www.bradenton.com/2012/06/12/4074260/afghan-leader-no-airstrikes-on.html" type="external">U.S. air strikes</a> on homes in his country, June 12, 2012</p>
<p>It was almost closing time when the siege began at a small Wells Fargo Bank branch in a suburb of San Diego, and it was a nightmare.&#160; The three gunmen entered with the intent to rob, but as they herded the 18 customers and bank employees toward a back room, they were spotted by a pedestrian outside who promptly called 911.&#160; Within minutes, police cars were pulling up, the bank was surrounded, and back-up was being called in from neighboring communities.&#160; The gunmen promptly barricaded themselves inside with their hostages, including women and small children, and refused to let anyone leave.</p>
<p />
<p>The police called on the gunmen to surrender, but before negotiations could even begin, shots were fired from within the bank, wounding a police officer.&#160; The events that followed — now known to everyone, thanks to 24/7 news coverage — shocked the nation.&#160; Declaring the bank robbers “terrorist suspects,” the police requested air support from the Pentagon and, soon after, an F-15 from Vandenberg Air Force Base dropped two GBU-38 bombs on the bank, leaving the building a pile of rubble.</p>
<p>All three gunmen died.&#160; Initially, a Pentagon spokesman, who took over messaging from the local police, insisted that “the incident” had ended “successfully” and that all the dead were “suspected terrorists.”&#160; The Pentagon press office issued a statement on other casualties, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18340140" type="external">noting only</a> that, “while conducting a follow-on assessment, the security force discovered two women who had sustained non-life-threatening injuries.&#160; The security force provided medical assistance and transported both women to a local medical facility for treatment.”&#160; It added that it was sending an “assessment team” to the site to investigate reports that others had died as well.</p>
<p>Of course, as Americans quickly learned, the dead actually included five women, seven children, and a visiting lawyer from Los Angeles.&#160; The aftermath was covered in staggering detail.&#160; Relatives of the dead besieged city hall, bitterly complaining about the attack and the deaths of their loved ones.&#160; At a news conference the next morning, while scenes of rescuers digging in the rubble were still being flashed across the country, President Obama <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Afghan-leader-NATO-airstrike-killed-18-civilians-3609833.php" type="external">said</a>: “Such acts are simply unacceptable.&#160; They cannot be tolerated.” In response to a question, he added, “Nothing can justify any airstrike which causes harm to the lives and property of civilians.”&#160;</p>
<p>Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey immediately flew to San Diego to meet with family members of the dead and offer apologies.&#160; Heads rolled in the local police department and in the Pentagon.&#160; Congress called for hearings as well as a Justice Department investigation of possible criminality, and quickly passed a bill offering millions of dollars to the grieving relatives as “solace.”&#160; San Diego began raising money for a memorial to the group already dubbed the Wells Fargo 18.</p>
<p>One week later, at the exact moment of the bombing, church bells rang throughout the San Diego area and Congress observed a minute of silence in honor of the dead.</p>
<p>The Meaning of “Precision”</p>
<p>It couldn’t have been more dramatic and, as you know perfectly well, it couldn’t have happened — not in the U.S. anyway.&#160; But just over a week ago, an <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_20811698/taliban-criminals-escape-from-jail-afghanistan" type="external">analogous “incident”</a> did happen in Afghanistan and it passed largely unnoticed here.&#160; A group of Taliban insurgents reportedly entered a house in a village in Logar Province, south of Kabul, where a wedding ceremony either was or would be in progress.&#160; American and Afghan forces surrounded the house, where 18 members of a single extended family had gathered for the celebration.&#160; When firing broke out (or a grenade was thrown) and both U.S. and Afghan troops were reportedly wounded, they did indeed call in a jet, which dropped a 500-pound bomb, obliterating the residence and everyone inside, including up to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/world/asia/allies-restrict-airstrikes-against-taliban-in-homes.html?ref=asia" type="external">nine children</a>.</p>
<p>This was neither an unheard of mistake, nor an <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175343/tom_engelhardt_alien_visitations" type="external">aberration</a> in America’s Afghan War.&#160; In late December 2001, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jan/07/afghanistan.rorycarroll" type="external">according to reports</a>, a B-52 and two B-1B bombers, using precision-guided weapons, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174954/engelhardt_the_wedding_crashers" type="external">wiped out</a> 110 out of 112 wedding revelers in a small Afghan village.&#160; Over the decade-plus that followed, American air power, piloted and drone, has been wiping out Afghans ( <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/11/more-than-160-children-killed-in-us-strikes/" type="external">Pakistanis</a> and, until relatively recently, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0" type="external">Iraqis</a>) in a similar fashion — usually in or near their homes, sometimes in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/world/asia/27herat.html?ref=world" type="external">striking numbers</a>, always on the assumption that there are bad guys among them.&#160;</p>
<p>For more than a decade, incident after incident, any one of which, in the U.S., would have shaken Americans to their core, led to “investigations” that went nowhere, punishments to no one, rare apologies, and on occasion, the offering of modest “solatium” payments to grieving survivors and relatives.&#160; For such events, of course, 24/7 coverage, like future memorials, was out of the question.&#160;</p>
<p>Cumulatively, they indicate one thing: that, for Americans, the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175092/tom_engelhardt_are_afghan_lives_worth_anything" type="external">value</a> of an Afghan life (or more often Afghan lives) obliterated in the backlands of the planet, thousands of miles from home, is next to nil and of no meaning whatsoever.&#160; Such deaths are just so much unavoidable “collateral damage” from the American way of war — from the post-9/11 approach we have agreed is crucial to make ourselves “safe” from terrorists.</p>
<p>By now, Afghans (and Pakistanis in tribal areas across the border) surely know the rules of the road of the American war: there is no sanctity in public or private rites.&#160; While <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6279616.stm" type="external">funerals</a> have <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/" type="external">been hit</a> repeatedly and at least one baby-naming ceremony was taken out as well, weddings have been the rites of choice for obliteration for reasons the U.S. Air Force has, as far as we know, never taken a moment to consider, no less explain.&#160; This website <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174954/engelhardt_the_wedding_crashers" type="external">counted five weddings</a> blown away (one in Iraq and four in Afghanistan) by mid-2008, and another from that year <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175092/tom_engelhardt_are_afghan_lives_worth_anything" type="external">not reported</a> until 2009.&#160; The latest incident is at least the seventh that has managed, however modestly, to make the news here, but there is no way of knowing what other damage to wedding parties in rural Afghanistan has gone uncounted.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external" />Imagine the uproar in this country if a jet took out a wedding party.&#160; Just consider the attention given every time some mad gunman shoots up a post office, a college campus, or simply an <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2012-06-10/us/us_alabama-university-shooting_1_dawson-gunshot-wound-arrest-warrants?_s=PM:US" type="external">off-campus party</a>, if you want to get an idea.&#160; You might think then that, given the U.S. record of wedding carnage in Afghanistan, which undoubtedly represents some kind of modern wedding-crasher record, there might have been a front-page story, or simply a story, somewhere, anywhere, indicating the repetitive nature of such events.&#160;</p>
<p>And yet, if U.S. carnage in that country gets attention at all, it’s usually only to point out, in self-congratulatory fashion, that the Taliban — with their indiscriminate roadside bombs and their generally undiscriminating suicide bombers — are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/world/asia/afghanistan-civilian-deaths-hit-record-un-says.html" type="external">far worse</a>. &#160;If an American college campus is shot up, what are the odds that the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech won’t be mentioned?&#160; And yet not a single report on the recent deaths in Logar Province has even noted that this is not the first time part of an Afghan wedding party has been taken out by the U.S. Air Force.</p>
<p>Over the years, such incidents, when they rose individually to the level of news, almost invariably followed the same pattern: initial denials by U.S. military or NATO spokespeople that any civilian casualties had occurred and then, if outrage in Afghanistan ratcheted up or the news reports on the incident didn’t die down, a slow back-peddling under pressure, and the launching of an “investigation” or, as in the case of the Logar bombing, a “joint investigation” with Afghan authorities, that seldom led anywhere and often was never heard from or about again.&#160; In the end, in some circumstances, apologies were offered and modest “solatium” payments made to the survivors.</p>
<p>And yet, over the years, amid all the <a href="http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2012/06/06/drones-ops-getting-better-all-the-time/#ixzz1xns7rw49" type="external">praise</a> for the “precision” of American air power, for the ability of the Air Force to bring a bomb or a missile to its target in a fashion that we like to call “surgical,” it is no small thing — explain it as you will — to wipe out parts or all of seven weddings. You might almost think that our wars on the Eurasian continent had been launched as an assault on “family values.”&#160; At the very least, the Afghan War has given a different meaning to the ceremonial phrase “till death do us part.”</p>
<p>The Country Crasher</p>
<p>For years, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/31/115028/karzai-tells-nato-to-stop-airstrikes.html" type="external">bitterly complained</a> about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/world/asia/afghans-say-informant-misled-nato-leading-to-airstrike-on-children.html" type="external">similar air strikes</a> that kill and wound civilians in or near their homes and repeatedly demanded that they be stopped.&#160; In this particular case, he <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/07/us-afghanistan-karzai-idUSBRE8560AY20120607" type="external">cut short</a> a trip to China and returned to Afghanistan to denounce the attack as <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57448710/leon-panetta-in-afghanistan-as-karzai-says-nato-strike-killed-18-civilians/" type="external">“unacceptable.”</a>&#160;Ordinarily, this has meant remarkably little.</p>
<p>In this case, however, the Afghan president, who lacks much real power (hence his old nickname, “the mayor of Kabul”), seems to have the wind at his back.&#160; Perhaps because the Obama administration is on edge about its <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/us-pakistan-beginning-look-more-enemies-170927381.html" type="external">disintegrating relations</a> with Pakistan (thanks, in part, to its <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/an-elusive-apology-that-is-crippling-us-pakistan-ties" type="external">unwillingness</a> to offer an apology for cross-border U.S. air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November); perhaps because the list of recent U.S. blunders and disasters in Afghanistan has grown long and painful — the <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2012/01/11/video-us-marines-laugh-urinate-on-slain-afghans/" type="external">urinating</a> on bodies of dead enemies, the killing of civilians “ <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/11/kill-team-calvin-gibbs-convicted" type="external">for sport</a>,” the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/world/asia/koran-burning-afghanistan-demonstrations.html" type="external">burning</a> of Korans, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/world/asia/afghan-shooting-suspect-identified-as-army-staff-sgt-robert-bales.html" type="external">slaughter</a> of 16 innocent villagers by one American soldier, the rise of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175513/tomgram%3A_ann_jones,_playing_the_game_in_afghanistan" type="external">green-on-blue</a> violence (that is, Afghan army and police <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175509/turse_and_engelhardt_blown_away" type="external">attacks</a> on their American allies); perhaps because of its need to maintain a façade of — if not success, then at least — non-failure in Afghanistan as drawdowns begin there in an election year at home; or perhaps thanks to a combination of all of the above, Karzai’s angry initial response to the Logar wedding killings did not go unnoticed in Washington.&#160;</p>
<p>In fact, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18340140" type="external">initial denials</a> that any civilian deaths had occurred were quickly dropped, the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, promptly apologized to the president, and then, in what might have been a unique act in the Afghan War record, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_20811698/taliban-criminals-escape-from-jail-afghanistan" type="external">went to</a> Logar Province to meet with the provincial governor and apologize directly to grieving relatives. &#160;(“The faces of the people were very sad,” said Mohammad Akbar Stanekzai, a parliamentarian member of a delegation Karzai appointed to investigate the incident.&#160; “They told [General Allen], ‘These incidents don’t just happen once, but two, three, four times and they keep happening.'”)</p>
<p>At the same time, it was announced that there would be a change in the American policy of calling in air strikes on homes and villages in support of U.S. operations.&#160; The Afghans promptly claimed that the Americans had agreed to stop calling in air power at all in their country.&#160; The Americans offered a far vaguer version of the policy change.&#160; Anonymous U.S. military officials in Kabul <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/war-zones/us-military-restricts-airstrikes-on-afghan-homes/2012/06/11/gJQAXDu9UV_story.html" type="external">quickly suggested</a> that it represented only “a subtle shift in the ground realities of the war against the Taliban.”&#160; In fact, it did contain loopholes big enough to slip a B-52 through.&#160; As General Allen put it, “What we have agreed is that we would not use aviation ordnance on civilian dwellings.&#160; Now that doesn’t obviate our inherent right to self-defense. We will always… do whatever we have to do to protect the force.”</p>
<p>It’s easy enough, however, to sense an urge in Washington to calm the waters, not to have one more thing go truly wrong anywhere.&#160; At this very moment, the president and his top officials are undoubtedly praying that the Eurozone doesn’t collapse and that the Af-Pak theater of operations doesn’t disintegrate into chaos or burst into flames in the early months of a planned drawdown of U.S. troops; that, in fact, nothing truly terrible happens — until at least November 7, 2012.&#160;</p>
<p>Karzai has clearly grasped the Obama administration’s present feeling of vulnerability and frustration in the region and, gambler that he is, he promptly <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/06/afghan-karzai-nato-airstrikes.html" type="external">upped the ante</a>.&#160; While the Americans were speaking of those “subtle” changes, he branded American air strikes in Afghanistan an “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/world/asia/afghan-president-karzai-calls-for-an-end-to-airstrikes.html" type="external">illegitimate use of force</a>” and demanded that, when it came to air attacks on Afghan homes, the planes simply be grounded, whatever the dangers to U.S. or Afghan troops. &#160;</p>
<p>Back in 2009, then war commander General Stanley McChrystal <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/does-petraeus-mean-a-return-to-all-out-war/" type="external">ordered</a> a somewhat similar reining in of American air strikes, a position <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/gloves-come-off-afghan-air-war-strikes-spike-172/" type="external">countermanded</a> by the next commander, General David Petraeus, who called the planes back in force.&#160; Now, those air strikes will, to one degree or another, once again be a limited option.&#160; But realistically, air power <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175368/tom_engelhardt_top_gun_no_more" type="external">remains essential</a> to the American way of war, whatever Karzai may demand.&#160; So count on one thing: before this is all over, it will be called in again — and in Afghanistan, weddings will still be celebrated.</p>
<p>In the meantime, after more than a decade of our most recent Afghan War, the Obama administration and the U.S. military are clearly willing to hang out a temporary sign saying: “Washington at work.&#160; Afghans, thank you for your patience…”&#160; Just across the border in Pakistan, however, “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html" type="external">kill lists</a>” are in effect and the air campaign there is being <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/08/obama-endorses-another-escalation-of-cia-drone-strikes-in-pakistan/" type="external">ratcheted up</a>.</p>
<p>In the process, one thing can be said about American firepower: it has been remarkably precise in the way it has <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/hatred_what_drones_sow/?source=newsletter" type="external">destabilized</a> the region.&#160; In December 2001, we first took on the role of wedding crashers.&#160; More than 10 years later, it couldn’t be clearer that we’ve been country crashers, too.&#160;</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> as well as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external">Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050</a>. To listen to Timothy MacBain’s latest Tomcast audio interview in which Engelhardt discusses drone warfare and the Obama administration, click <a href="http://tomdispatch.blogspot.com/2012/06/staying-ahead-of-times.html" type="external">here</a> or download it to your iPod <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=j0SS4Al/iVI&amp;subid=&amp;offerid=146261.1&amp;type=10&amp;tmpid=5573&amp;RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fpodcast%2Ftomcast-from-tomdispatch-com%2Fid357095817" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>[Note for Readers: For their remarkable usefulness (to me) in keeping track of American war-making in the Greater Middle East, I would like to offer a special bow of thanks to three invaluable websites: <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/" type="external">Antiwar.com</a>, Juan Cole’s <a href="http://www.juancole.com/" type="external">Informed Comment</a> blog, and Paul Woodward’s <a href="http://warincontext.org/" type="external">The War in Context</a>.&#160; On military matters, I always keep an eye on Noah Shachtman’s provocative and informative <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/" type="external">Danger Room</a> blog.&#160; For Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular, it’s well worth checking out Foreign Policy’s <a href="http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/dailybrief" type="external">AfPak Daily Brief</a>, a particularly useful summary of press reports on the region.]</p>
<p>To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the&#160; <a href="http://eepurl.com/lsFRj" type="external">latest updates from TomDispatch.com</a>.</p>
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<p>Copyright 2012 Tom Engelhardt</p> | It Couldn’t Happen Here, It Does Happen There | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/it-couldnt-happen-here-it-does-happen-there/ | 2012-06-19 | 4left
| 2,491 | By Tom Engelhardt TomDispatchThis piece originally appeared at TomDispatch 8220Do you do this in the United States There is police action every day in the United States8230 They don8217t call in airplanes to bomb the place8221 8212 Afghan President Hamid Karzai denouncing US air strikes on homes in his country June 12 2012 It was almost closing time when the siege began at a small Wells Fargo Bank branch in a suburb of San Diego and it was a nightmareamp160 The three gunmen entered with the intent to rob but as they herded the 18 customers and bank employees toward a back room they were spotted by a pedestrian outside who promptly called 911amp160 Within minutes police cars were pulling up the bank was surrounded and backup was being called in from neighboring communitiesamp160 The gunmen promptly barricaded themselves inside with their hostages including women and small children and refused to let anyone leave The police called on the gunmen to surrender but before negotiations could even begin shots were fired from within the bank wounding a police officeramp160 The events that followed 8212 now known to everyone thanks to 247 news coverage 8212 shocked the nationamp160 Declaring the bank robbers 8220terrorist suspects8221 the police requested air support from the Pentagon and soon after an F15 from Vandenberg Air Force Base dropped two GBU38 bombs on the bank leaving the building a pile of rubble All three gunmen diedamp160 Initially a Pentagon spokesman who took over messaging from the local police insisted that 8220the incident8221 had ended 8220successfully8221 and that all the dead were 8220suspected terrorists8221amp160 The Pentagon press office issued a statement on other casualties noting only that 8220while conducting a followon assessment the security force discovered two women who had sustained nonlifethreatening injuriesamp160 The security force provided medical assistance and transported both women to a local medical facility for treatment8221amp160 It added that it was sending an 8220assessment team8221 to the site to investigate reports that others had died as well Of course as Americans quickly learned the dead actually included five women seven children and a visiting lawyer from Los Angelesamp160 The aftermath was covered in staggering detailamp160 Relatives of the dead besieged city hall bitterly complaining about the attack and the deaths of their loved onesamp160 At a news conference the next morning while scenes of rescuers digging in the rubble were still being flashed across the country President Obama said 8220Such acts are simply unacceptableamp160 They cannot be tolerated8221 In response to a question he added 8220Nothing can justify any airstrike which causes harm to the lives and property of civilians8221amp160 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey immediately flew to San Diego to meet with family members of the dead and offer apologiesamp160 Heads rolled in the local police department and in the Pentagonamp160 Congress called for hearings as well as a Justice Department investigation of possible criminality and quickly passed a bill offering millions of dollars to the grieving relatives as 8220solace8221amp160 San Diego began raising money for a memorial to the group already dubbed the Wells Fargo 18 One week later at the exact moment of the bombing church bells rang throughout the San Diego area and Congress observed a minute of silence in honor of the dead The Meaning of 8220Precision8221 It couldn8217t have been more dramatic and as you know perfectly well it couldn8217t have happened 8212 not in the US anywayamp160 But just over a week ago an analogous 8220incident8221 did happen in Afghanistan and it passed largely unnoticed hereamp160 A group of Taliban insurgents reportedly entered a house in a village in Logar Province south of Kabul where a wedding ceremony either was or would be in progressamp160 American and Afghan forces surrounded the house where 18 members of a single extended family had gathered for the celebrationamp160 When firing broke out or a grenade was thrown and both US and Afghan troops were reportedly wounded they did indeed call in a jet which dropped a 500pound bomb obliterating the residence and everyone inside including up to nine children This was neither an unheard of mistake nor an aberration in America8217s Afghan Waramp160 In late December 2001 according to reports a B52 and two B1B bombers using precisionguided weapons wiped out 110 out of 112 wedding revelers in a small Afghan villageamp160 Over the decadeplus that followed American air power piloted and drone has been wiping out Afghans Pakistanis and until relatively recently Iraqis in a similar fashion 8212 usually in or near their homes sometimes in striking numbers always on the assumption that there are bad guys among themamp160 For more than a decade incident after incident any one of which in the US would have shaken Americans to their core led to 8220investigations8221 that went nowhere punishments to no one rare apologies and on occasion the offering of modest 8220solatium8221 payments to grieving survivors and relativesamp160 For such events of course 247 coverage like future memorials was out of the questionamp160 Cumulatively they indicate one thing that for Americans the value of an Afghan life or more often Afghan lives obliterated in the backlands of the planet thousands of miles from home is next to nil and of no meaning whatsoeveramp160 Such deaths are just so much unavoidable 8220collateral damage8221 from the American way of war 8212 from the post911 approach we have agreed is crucial to make ourselves 8220safe8221 from terrorists By now Afghans and Pakistanis in tribal areas across the border surely know the rules of the road of the American war there is no sanctity in public or private ritesamp160 While funerals have been hit repeatedly and at least one babynaming ceremony was taken out as well weddings have been the rites of choice for obliteration for reasons the US Air Force has as far as we know never taken a moment to consider no less explainamp160 This website counted five weddings blown away one in Iraq and four in Afghanistan by mid2008 and another from that year not reported until 2009amp160 The latest incident is at least the seventh that has managed however modestly to make the news here but there is no way of knowing what other damage to wedding parties in rural Afghanistan has gone uncounted Imagine the uproar in this country if a jet took out a wedding partyamp160 Just consider the attention given every time some mad gunman shoots up a post office a college campus or simply an offcampus party if you want to get an ideaamp160 You might think then that given the US record of wedding carnage in Afghanistan which undoubtedly represents some kind of modern weddingcrasher record there might have been a frontpage story or simply a story somewhere anywhere indicating the repetitive nature of such eventsamp160 And yet if US carnage in that country gets attention at all it8217s usually only to point out in selfcongratulatory fashion that the Taliban 8212 with their indiscriminate roadside bombs and their generally undiscriminating suicide bombers 8212 are far worse amp160If an American college campus is shot up what are the odds that the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech won8217t be mentionedamp160 And yet not a single report on the recent deaths in Logar Province has even noted that this is not the first time part of an Afghan wedding party has been taken out by the US Air Force Over the years such incidents when they rose individually to the level of news almost invariably followed the same pattern initial denials by US military or NATO spokespeople that any civilian casualties had occurred and then if outrage in Afghanistan ratcheted up or the news reports on the incident didn8217t die down a slow backpeddling under pressure and the launching of an 8220investigation8221 or as in the case of the Logar bombing a 8220joint investigation8221 with Afghan authorities that seldom led anywhere and often was never heard from or about againamp160 In the end in some circumstances apologies were offered and modest 8220solatium8221 payments made to the survivors And yet over the years amid all the praise for the 8220precision8221 of American air power for the ability of the Air Force to bring a bomb or a missile to its target in a fashion that we like to call 8220surgical8221 it is no small thing 8212 explain it as you will 8212 to wipe out parts or all of seven weddings You might almost think that our wars on the Eurasian continent had been launched as an assault on 8220family values8221amp160 At the very least the Afghan War has given a different meaning to the ceremonial phrase 8220till death do us part8221 The Country Crasher For years Afghan President Hamid Karzai has bitterly complained about similar air strikes that kill and wound civilians in or near their homes and repeatedly demanded that they be stoppedamp160 In this particular case he cut short a trip to China and returned to Afghanistan to denounce the attack as 8220unacceptable8221amp160Ordinarily this has meant remarkably little In this case however the Afghan president who lacks much real power hence his old nickname 8220the mayor of Kabul8221 seems to have the wind at his backamp160 Perhaps because the Obama administration is on edge about its disintegrating relations with Pakistan thanks in part to its unwillingness to offer an apology for crossborder US air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November perhaps because the list of recent US blunders and disasters in Afghanistan has grown long and painful 8212 the urinating on bodies of dead enemies the killing of civilians 8220 for sport8221 the burning of Korans the slaughter of 16 innocent villagers by one American soldier the rise of greenonblue violence that is Afghan army and police attacks on their American allies perhaps because of its need to maintain a fa231ade of 8212 if not success then at least 8212 nonfailure in Afghanistan as drawdowns begin there in an election year at home or perhaps thanks to a combination of all of the above Karzai8217s angry initial response to the Logar wedding killings did not go unnoticed in Washingtonamp160 In fact the initial denials that any civilian deaths had occurred were quickly dropped the head of US forces in Afghanistan General John Allen promptly apologized to the president and then in what might have been a unique act in the Afghan War record went to Logar Province to meet with the provincial governor and apologize directly to grieving relatives amp1608220The faces of the people were very sad8221 said Mohammad Akbar Stanekzai a parliamentarian member of a delegation Karzai appointed to investigate the incidentamp160 8220They told General Allen 8216These incidents don8217t just happen once but two three four times and they keep happening8221 At the same time it was announced that there would be a change in the American policy of calling in air strikes on homes and villages in support of US operationsamp160 The Afghans promptly claimed that the Americans had agreed to stop calling in air power at all in their countryamp160 The Americans offered a far vaguer version of the policy changeamp160 Anonymous US military officials in Kabul quickly suggested that it represented only 8220a subtle shift in the ground realities of the war against the Taliban8221amp160 In fact it did contain loopholes big enough to slip a B52 throughamp160 As General Allen put it 8220What we have agreed is that we would not use aviation ordnance on civilian dwellingsamp160 Now that doesn8217t obviate our inherent right to selfdefense We will always8230 do whatever we have to do to protect the force8221 It8217s easy enough however to sense an urge in Washington to calm the waters not to have one more thing go truly wrong anywhereamp160 At this very moment the president and his top officials are undoubtedly praying that the Eurozone doesn8217t collapse and that the AfPak theater of operations doesn8217t disintegrate into chaos or burst into flames in the early months of a planned drawdown of US troops that in fact nothing truly terrible happens 8212 until at least November 7 2012amp160 Karzai has clearly grasped the Obama administration8217s present feeling of vulnerability and frustration in the region and gambler that he is he promptly upped the anteamp160 While the Americans were speaking of those 8220subtle8221 changes he branded American air strikes in Afghanistan an 8220 illegitimate use of force8221 and demanded that when it came to air attacks on Afghan homes the planes simply be grounded whatever the dangers to US or Afghan troops amp160 Back in 2009 then war commander General Stanley McChrystal ordered a somewhat similar reining in of American air strikes a position countermanded by the next commander General David Petraeus who called the planes back in forceamp160 Now those air strikes will to one degree or another once again be a limited optionamp160 But realistically air power remains essential to the American way of war whatever Karzai may demandamp160 So count on one thing before this is all over it will be called in again 8212 and in Afghanistan weddings will still be celebrated In the meantime after more than a decade of our most recent Afghan War the Obama administration and the US military are clearly willing to hang out a temporary sign saying 8220Washington at workamp160 Afghans thank you for your patience82308221amp160 Just across the border in Pakistan however 8220 kill lists8221 are in effect and the air campaign there is being ratcheted up In the process one thing can be said about American firepower it has been remarkably precise in the way it has destabilized the regionamp160 In December 2001 we first took on the role of wedding crashersamp160 More than 10 years later it couldn8217t be clearer that we8217ve been country crashers tooamp160 Tom Engelhardt cofounder of the American Empire Project and author of The United States of Fear as well as The End of Victory Culture runs the Nation Institute8217s TomDispatchcom His latest book coauthored with Nick Turse is Terminator Planet The First History of Drone Warfare 20012050 To listen to Timothy MacBain8217s latest Tomcast audio interview in which Engelhardt discusses drone warfare and the Obama administration click here or download it to your iPod here Note for Readers For their remarkable usefulness to me in keeping track of American warmaking in the Greater Middle East I would like to offer a special bow of thanks to three invaluable websites Antiwarcom Juan Cole8217s Informed Comment blog and Paul Woodward8217s The War in Contextamp160 On military matters I always keep an eye on Noah Shachtman8217s provocative and informative Danger Room blogamp160 For Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular it8217s well worth checking out Foreign Policy8217s AfPak Daily Brief a particularly useful summary of press reports on the region To stay on top of important articles like these sign up to receive theamp160 latest updates from TomDispatchcom Follow TomDispatch on Twitter TomDispatch and join us on Facebook Copyright 2012 Tom Engelhardt | By/ADP Tom/PROPN Engelhardt/PROPN TomDispatchThis/DET piece/NOUN originally/ADV appeared/VERB at/ADP TomDispatch/PROPN 8220Do/NUM you/PRON do/VERB this/PRON in/ADP the/DET United/PROPN States/PROPN There/PRON is/VERB police/NOUN action/NOUN every/DET day/NOUN in/ADP the/DET United/PROPN States8230/PROPN They/PRON don8217/VERB t/PROPN call/VERB in/ADP airplanes/NOUN to/PART bomb/VERB the/DET place8221/PROPN 8212/NUM Afghan/ADJ President/PROPN Hamid/PROPN Karzai/PROPN denouncing/VERB US/PROPN air/NOUN strikes/NOUN on/ADP homes/NOUN in/ADP his/PRON country/NOUN June/PROPN 12/NUM 2012/NUM It/PRON was/AUX almost/ADV closing/VERB time/NOUN when/SCONJ the/DET siege/NOUN began/VERB at/ADP a/DET small/ADJ Wells/PROPN Fargo/PROPN Bank/PROPN branch/NOUN in/ADP a/DET suburb/NOUN of/ADP San/PROPN Diego/PROPN and/CCONJ it/PRON was/AUX a/DET nightmareamp160/PROPN The/DET three/NUM gunmen/NOUN entered/VERB with/ADP the/DET intent/NOUN to/PART rob/VERB but/CCONJ as/SCONJ they/PRON herded/VERB the/DET 18/NUM customers/NOUN and/CCONJ bank/NOUN employees/NOUN toward/ADP a/DET back/NOUN room/NOUN they/PRON were/AUX spotted/VERB by/ADP a/DET pedestrian/NOUN outside/ADP who/PRON promptly/ADV called/VERB 911amp160/NUM Within/ADP minutes/NOUN police/NOUN cars/NOUN were/AUX pulling/VERB up/ADP the/DET bank/NOUN was/AUX surrounded/VERB and/CCONJ backup/NOUN was/AUX being/AUX called/VERB in/ADP from/ADP neighboring/VERB communitiesamp160/NOUN The/DET gunmen/NOUN promptly/ADV barricaded/VERB themselves/PRON inside/ADV with/ADP their/PRON hostages/NOUN including/VERB women/NOUN and/CCONJ small/ADJ children/NOUN and/CCONJ refused/VERB to/PART 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<p /> NAWAZ SHARIF, LEADER, PAKISTAN MUSLIM LEAGUE (N) (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): These big challenges that we face, the difficulties are great. And we will solve these problems, God willing. We aren't afraid.
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<p />HASSAN GHANI, TRNN CORRESPONDENT: Nawaz Sharif--is he the answer to Pakistan's problems, or just more of the same? As usual, it's complicated.
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<p />It was 14 years ago that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government in this parliament was overthrown by General Pervez Musharraf in a military coup. Nawaz Sharif was arrested, and later exiled to Saudi Arabia. Today, in an ironic twist of fate, Nawaz Sharif is back in government, and Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest.
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<p />So although he entered politics under the wing of a general in the 1980s, the leader of Pakistan's new government has a confrontational past with the army.
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<p />The military is immensely powerful in Pakistan, with vast economic interests and huge political influence. In fact, the previous government for the most part allowed the army to dictate foreign policy. Nawaz Sharif says that has to change and power must be restored to the civilian administration. But his approach is likely to be more tactful this time round, tempered by his previous experiences, and the military is expected to be more receptive.
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<p />TALAT HUSSAIN, SENIOR JOURNALIST, EXPRESS NEWS: His relationship with the army in the past has not been all that rosy.
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<p />GHANI: Talat Hussain is one of Pakistan's top journalists, with a reputation for honesty and integrity. His political talk shows and reports from the field are watched by millions of Pakistanis every week. He believes Nawaz Sharif, the military, and public opinion have all evolved, making another ouster of a government led by Sharif highly unlikely.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: The issue with Nawaz Sharif right now is that he has to go beyond his past grudges. There's ample room for him that will allow him to do that, because the army over the last five years has changed remarkably. An independent media, a new judiciary, a very vibrant "in your face" kind of civil society--the old days of coups are gone, the generals being hoity-toity and not listening to you, and "you listen to our command" is gone. It's a completely new Pakistan that way. And Nawaz also knows that.
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<p />But Nawaz also knows that in dealing with hardcore problems, such as counterterrorism, such as stabilizing the Balochistan border, he has to keep the army on its right side. So you would see, I would say, a fairly healthy relationship between Nawaz Sharif and the army, which will also have its change of guard and command in the next couple of months.
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<p />GHANI: One likely bone of contention is Nawaz Sharif's plans to negotiate with Taliban groups operating inside Pakistan to bring an end to the regular bomb attacks and violence that have plagued the country for years. It's a policy shared by Imran Khan, whose party won enough seats in the elections to be a significant force in opposition. But it's also a policy that has polarized Pakistani public opinion.
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<p />ZAHID HUSSAIN, SENIOR EDITOR, NEWSLINE: Well, the military's already shown its skepticism about these negotiations.
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<p />GHANI: Zahid Hussain is an award-winning print journalist who runs Pakistan's Newsline magazine. He also reports for foreign publications, such as The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: In various statements, Taliban have clearly asserted that they do not want--they see democracy as anti-Islam, and they do not recognize the Pakistani constitution we have seen in the past too. TUhere have been negotiations with the Taliban and it never succeeded. There have been five peace agreements with the Taliban in the Tribal Areas, as well as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but it has not worked.
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<p />GHANI: But negotiations are already taking place in neighbouring Afghanistan and now seem inevitable in Pakistan.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: Well the whole world is negotiating with the Taliban. The Americans are negotiating with the Taliban. The Doha, you know, offices are to be opened. I think, if my information is correct, the Northern Alliance and the Taliban have already had a meeting. It's going to be a formal meeting eventually in the next couple of weeks, not even months. The Americans have endorsed it, the Saudis have endorsed it, the Iranians are part of it, the European Union has endorsed it. It's a question of formalizing it. So, it's not just, you know, a political party talking about talking to the Taliban. The whole world is talking to the Taliban. I think Nawaz Sharif, and also in the province where Imran Khan is likely to make his government, they will be the beneficiaries of this peace process, because they wouldn't have to deal with it. The wheels are already rolling. All they have to do is to make sure that they keep on rolling in the right direction.
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<p />GHANI: Sharif has also pledged to bring an end to U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, although he's been vague on when or how. It's an objective he may be able to achieve, with the U.S. looking for Pakistani co-operation as it pulls out of Afghanistan next year.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: The Americans will also be under pressure. They are already from the international community over that issue. It's not a very popular action. And I think probably as the Americans are planning to leave Afghanistan by 2014--and they need Pakistan's support badly for some kind of political settlement with the Taliban. So in this situation Pakistan can pressurize the Americans.
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<p />GHANI: But although in public, in the run-up to the elections, he capitalized on growing anti-U.S. sentiment, Nawaz Sharif has been careful not to overstep the mark, and post-elections he's pledged continued close relations with both the U.S. and U.K. governments.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: One thing is very clear, that it is not going to be hostile relations with the United States. If you look actually at 1996, last government, his relations with United States was not bad. It was a different situation altogether. I don't see any major change in U.S.-Pak relations under Nawaz Sharif.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: He's--he has a constituency that is right of centre, yes. But he was also the one (and people often forget that) who started the first "get Osama Bin Laden" operation in collaboration with the Americans under Bill Clinton, amply documented in Steve Coll's book Ghost Wars. So when people say that, you know, he's kind of pro-Taliban, I am not really too sure of that.
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<p />GHANI: At the same time, Nawaz Sharif has welcomed closer ties with the Chinese, who are already a major investor and trading partner, potentially diluting U.S. influence.
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<p />But the real test of his independence will be whether or not he presses ahead with the planned gas pipeline from Iran. Pakistan certainly needs the gas, but the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have warned against it, the U.S. threatening sanctions. Talat Hussain believes Nawaz Sharif certainly has options. Whether he takes them or not is a different matter.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: What would the Americans do? Tighten the squeeze on Pakistan? Okay, fine. They have $80&#160;billion or $90&#160;billion worth of military equipment to pull out of Pakistan in the next one and a half years. If you want to tighten the squeeze, well, frankly, find another route. They have to leave Afghanistan with a face-saving device. That's why they're talking to the Taliban. Guess what? Who's helping them do that? It's Pakistan. So frankly, it's not exactly the Americans saying, don't go for the Iran gas pipeline, or don't do this.
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<p />The Saudis also frankly have become a distant influence. Pakistan, in the last five years, for different reasons, did rely on the Saudis, but not really in a big way. Pakistan relies on the expat community that is based in Saudi Arabia. But, frankly, considering how their labor policy is changing, a lot of that is going to be shunted out of Saudi Arabia anyways.
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<p />So I think Pakistan is becoming increasingly inward looking, and internal pressures are going to be dictating the terms. And it's not a country without options. You know, really, it's a big country, at a very critical time for global community, when Americans want to leave Afghanistan with a good face, and they want to pull out of Pakistani territory in the need of a support. So we too probably will have a few cards to play. If Nawaz is smart about it, frankly, he can let everybody think that he is the dearest and the closest to them, and secure national interests. I mean, that's the way the game is played.
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<p />GHANI: So what of Nawaz Sharif's decades-long relationship with the House of Saud? Will his personal interests overbear on policymaking?
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: I think Nawaz Sharif has a traditional relationship with the Saudis, and that relationship is going to stay there. But remember, the same Nawaz Sharif family has also done something quite remarkable in the last four or five years, that is, building up a relationship with the Turks. The Turks are really big. And if you were to look at even the family investments, many of those investments have gone into Turkey as well.
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<p />So, you know, it's not that, you know, they are putting all their personal or business eggs or country's policy eggs in one basket of the Saudis, because all politics have been proven to be local. No foreign power, no matter how important it is, can be allowed to hold sway over the domestic needs. If the domestic need is to get gas from Iran, that's how it's going to be.
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<p />So I think Nawaz will also have to fine tune quite a lot of how he conducted the foreign policy, because the imperative of public pressure and delivering services to the people is too much. Gone are the days when you would look at, you know, foreign governments saying do this or don't do that.
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<p />GHANI: The 63-year-old veteran politician is also one of Pakistan's wealthiest industrialists. His party has built significant infrastructure and transport projects in the cities of his provincial heartland, Punjab, which have had a major impact.
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<p />ADVERTISEMENT VOICEOVER: He introduced real change through privatization, deregulation.
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<p />GHANI: But he's also a fan of the free market and wants to privatize the railways and the national airline. He likes grandiose projects which are eye-catching but ultimately benefit relatively few, like his plans to build a bullet train service across the country and the motorway he built during his previous administration.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: He is basically fascinated [by] big projects like this. When he built the motorway, there was huge controversy around that, whether the government should have invested so much money on just motorway, which is being used by, you know, hundreds of cars every day, or that money could have been diverted to other places, more backward areas of the country where you don't have any roads at all.
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<p />GHANI: But although Nawaz Sharif is big business, his party relies for much of its support on rural Pakistan. And having seen the fury of voters against the outgoing government, and with a fierce political competitor like Imran Khan now in opposition, the new administration will have to take reviving the economy seriously.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: He's got a good economic team. And the dichotomy between the rural areas and the urban areas in an agricultural country like Pakistan doesn't quite hold. The urban area's prosperity depends on the produce in the rural areas. So I think he will have to really manage the both. It's not a question of one versus the other; it's really an all-inclusive. Both have to be the wheels that roll the national economy.
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<p />In urban areas, which are very, very important for the present leadership of Pakistan Muslim League (N), Nawaz, that is, there the competition is very stiff with their opponents. They cannot take anything for granted. And the voters' wrath against the previous government has been absolutely breathtaking. And Nawaz Sharif knows that if they continue to misgovern like their predecessors, they will also be shown the door and obliterated, literally obliterated.
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<p />GHANI: Part of his plan to improve government spending is to end the arms race with India. He's tried to build bridges in the past. That will allow him to reduce the country's massive military expenditure. But it's a route fraught with risk, putting him again on a collision course with the country's military establishment.
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<p />Where he can and is likely to succeed is to end load-shedding, or power outages. The incredible mismanagement of Pakistan's electricity supply has meant some cities are crippled, with up to 12 hours of power cuts a day. In rural areas it's worse. The issue was a major rallying point in the election campaign.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: This country is not underproducing. It has enough capacity. It's not an issue of capacity. It's a question of this capacity not being optimally utilized, because the companies that produce electricity and those companies that supply them oil and gas, frankly, they are never paid properly on time. Therefore the cycle of payment is interfering with the cycle of production. So, number one, he needs to get that cycle right. If I understand his close associates well enough, they have been working on it for almost a year now. So in the first 100-days plan that they have, they have a game plan ready. So I think you will see reduction in load-shedding, which is going to be an immediate relief, eight hours of load-shedding reduced to four hours in the first six months--not exactly a bad achievement. But if eight hours of load-shedding is to be degenerating into twelve hours of load-shedding, then Nawaz Sharif would have collapsed in the first year.
<p />
<p />GHANI: And, of course, the ultimate question: what about corruption?
<p />
<p />T. HUSSAIN: I think the barometer of success for Nawaz Sharif, apart from immediately addressing issues like electricity breakdowns, and law and order, and police, and creating some sort of a momentum towards creation of jobs and giving people hope and sustaining--apart from doing these things, the trajectory of his government and policies is going to be very important. If he's seen to be genuinely moving in the direction of eradicating corruption, then, frankly, not many people are going to be asking in the first year, how much corruption have you been able to eradicate, if the progress and the trajectory is good.
<p />
<p />GHANI: Nawaz Sharif knows that Pakistan has changed. Pakistanis expect more from their leaders, and the honeymoon period will soon be over. If he doesn't start delivering quickly, he too, like the outgoing People's Party, will be left staring into the political abyss. Time is not on his side.
<p />
<p />With cameraman Arsal Jalib, this is Hassan Ghani, for The Real News, Islamabad.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Pakistan's New PM Sharif Urges Talks with Taliban | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D767%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10226 | 2013-05-22 | 4left
| 2,494 | NAWAZ SHARIF LEADER PAKISTAN MUSLIM LEAGUE N SUBTITLED TRANSL These big challenges that we face the difficulties are great And we will solve these problems God willing We arent afraid HASSAN GHANI TRNN CORRESPONDENT Nawaz Sharifis he the answer to Pakistans problems or just more of the same As usual its complicated It was 14 years ago that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs government in this parliament was overthrown by General Pervez Musharraf in a military coup Nawaz Sharif was arrested and later exiled to Saudi Arabia Today in an ironic twist of fate Nawaz Sharif is back in government and Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest So although he entered politics under the wing of a general in the 1980s the leader of Pakistans new government has a confrontational past with the army The military is immensely powerful in Pakistan with vast economic interests and huge political influence In fact the previous government for the most part allowed the army to dictate foreign policy Nawaz Sharif says that has to change and power must be restored to the civilian administration But his approach is likely to be more tactful this time round tempered by his previous experiences and the military is expected to be more receptive TALAT HUSSAIN SENIOR JOURNALIST EXPRESS NEWS His relationship with the army in the past has not been all that rosy GHANI Talat Hussain is one of Pakistans top journalists with a reputation for honesty and integrity His political talk shows and reports from the field are watched by millions of Pakistanis every week He believes Nawaz Sharif the military and public opinion have all evolved making another ouster of a government led by Sharif highly unlikely T HUSSAIN The issue with Nawaz Sharif right now is that he has to go beyond his past grudges Theres ample room for him that will allow him to do that because the army over the last five years has changed remarkably An independent media a new judiciary a very vibrant in your face kind of civil societythe old days of coups are gone the generals being hoitytoity and not listening to you and you listen to our command is gone Its a completely new Pakistan that way And Nawaz also knows that But Nawaz also knows that in dealing with hardcore problems such as counterterrorism such as stabilizing the Balochistan border he has to keep the army on its right side So you would see I would say a fairly healthy relationship between Nawaz Sharif and the army which will also have its change of guard and command in the next couple of months GHANI One likely bone of contention is Nawaz Sharifs plans to negotiate with Taliban groups operating inside Pakistan to bring an end to the regular bomb attacks and violence that have plagued the country for years Its a policy shared by Imran Khan whose party won enough seats in the elections to be a significant force in opposition But its also a policy that has polarized Pakistani public opinion ZAHID HUSSAIN SENIOR EDITOR NEWSLINE Well the militarys already shown its skepticism about these negotiations GHANI Zahid Hussain is an awardwinning print journalist who runs Pakistans Newsline magazine He also reports for foreign publications such as The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal Z HUSSAIN In various statements Taliban have clearly asserted that they do not wantthey see democracy as antiIslam and they do not recognize the Pakistani constitution we have seen in the past too TUhere have been negotiations with the Taliban and it never succeeded There have been five peace agreements with the Taliban in the Tribal Areas as well as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but it has not worked GHANI But negotiations are already taking place in neighbouring Afghanistan and now seem inevitable in Pakistan T HUSSAIN Well the whole world is negotiating with the Taliban The Americans are negotiating with the Taliban The Doha you know offices are to be opened I think if my information is correct the Northern Alliance and the Taliban have already had a meeting Its going to be a formal meeting eventually in the next couple of weeks not even months The Americans have endorsed it the Saudis have endorsed it the Iranians are part of it the European Union has endorsed it Its a question of formalizing it So its not just you know a political party talking about talking to the Taliban The whole world is talking to the Taliban I think Nawaz Sharif and also in the province where Imran Khan is likely to make his government they will be the beneficiaries of this peace process because they wouldnt have to deal with it The wheels are already rolling All they have to do is to make sure that they keep on rolling in the right direction GHANI Sharif has also pledged to bring an end to US drone strikes in Pakistan although hes been vague on when or how Its an objective he may be able to achieve with the US looking for Pakistani cooperation as it pulls out of Afghanistan next year Z HUSSAIN The Americans will also be under pressure They are already from the international community over that issue Its not a very popular action And I think probably as the Americans are planning to leave Afghanistan by 2014and they need Pakistans support badly for some kind of political settlement with the Taliban So in this situation Pakistan can pressurize the Americans GHANI But although in public in the runup to the elections he capitalized on growing antiUS sentiment Nawaz Sharif has been careful not to overstep the mark and postelections hes pledged continued close relations with both the US and UK governments Z HUSSAIN One thing is very clear that it is not going to be hostile relations with the United States If you look actually at 1996 last government his relations with United States was not bad It was a different situation altogether I dont see any major change in USPak relations under Nawaz Sharif T HUSSAIN Heshe has a constituency that is right of centre yes But he was also the one and people often forget that who started the first get Osama Bin Laden operation in collaboration with the Americans under Bill Clinton amply documented in Steve Colls book Ghost Wars So when people say that you know hes kind of proTaliban I am not really too sure of that GHANI At the same time Nawaz Sharif has welcomed closer ties with the Chinese who are already a major investor and trading partner potentially diluting US influence But the real test of his independence will be whether or not he presses ahead with the planned gas pipeline from Iran Pakistan certainly needs the gas but the US and Saudi Arabia have warned against it the US threatening sanctions Talat Hussain believes Nawaz Sharif certainly has options Whether he takes them or not is a different matter T HUSSAIN What would the Americans do Tighten the squeeze on Pakistan Okay fine They have 80amp160billion or 90amp160billion worth of military equipment to pull out of Pakistan in the next one and a half years If you want to tighten the squeeze well frankly find another route They have to leave Afghanistan with a facesaving device Thats why theyre talking to the Taliban Guess what Whos helping them do that Its Pakistan So frankly its not exactly the Americans saying dont go for the Iran gas pipeline or dont do this The Saudis also frankly have become a distant influence Pakistan in the last five years for different reasons did rely on the Saudis but not really in a big way Pakistan relies on the expat community that is based in Saudi Arabia But frankly considering how their labor policy is changing a lot of that is going to be shunted out of Saudi Arabia anyways So I think Pakistan is becoming increasingly inward looking and internal pressures are going to be dictating the terms And its not a country without options You know really its a big country at a very critical time for global community when Americans want to leave Afghanistan with a good face and they want to pull out of Pakistani territory in the need of a support So we too probably will have a few cards to play If Nawaz is smart about it frankly he can let everybody think that he is the dearest and the closest to them and secure national interests I mean thats the way the game is played GHANI So what of Nawaz Sharifs decadeslong relationship with the House of Saud Will his personal interests overbear on policymaking T HUSSAIN I think Nawaz Sharif has a traditional relationship with the Saudis and that relationship is going to stay there But remember the same Nawaz Sharif family has also done something quite remarkable in the last four or five years that is building up a relationship with the Turks The Turks are really big And if you were to look at even the family investments many of those investments have gone into Turkey as well So you know its not that you know they are putting all their personal or business eggs or countrys policy eggs in one basket of the Saudis because all politics have been proven to be local No foreign power no matter how important it is can be allowed to hold sway over the domestic needs If the domestic need is to get gas from Iran thats how its going to be So I think Nawaz will also have to fine tune quite a lot of how he conducted the foreign policy because the imperative of public pressure and delivering services to the people is too much Gone are the days when you would look at you know foreign governments saying do this or dont do that GHANI The 63yearold veteran politician is also one of Pakistans wealthiest industrialists His party has built significant infrastructure and transport projects in the cities of his provincial heartland Punjab which have had a major impact ADVERTISEMENT VOICEOVER He introduced real change through privatization deregulation GHANI But hes also a fan of the free market and wants to privatize the railways and the national airline He likes grandiose projects which are eyecatching but ultimately benefit relatively few like his plans to build a bullet train service across the country and the motorway he built during his previous administration Z HUSSAIN He is basically fascinated by big projects like this When he built the motorway there was huge controversy around that whether the government should have invested so much money on just motorway which is being used by you know hundreds of cars every day or that money could have been diverted to other places more backward areas of the country where you dont have any roads at all GHANI But although Nawaz Sharif is big business his party relies for much of its support on rural Pakistan And having seen the fury of voters against the outgoing government and with a fierce political competitor like Imran Khan now in opposition the new administration will have to take reviving the economy seriously T HUSSAIN Hes got a good economic team And the dichotomy between the rural areas and the urban areas in an agricultural country like Pakistan doesnt quite hold The urban areas prosperity depends on the produce in the rural areas So I think he will have to really manage the both Its not a question of one versus the other its really an allinclusive Both have to be the wheels that roll the national economy In urban areas which are very very important for the present leadership of Pakistan Muslim League N Nawaz that is there the competition is very stiff with their opponents They cannot take anything for granted And the voters wrath against the previous government has been absolutely breathtaking And Nawaz Sharif knows that if they continue to misgovern like their predecessors they will also be shown the door and obliterated literally obliterated GHANI Part of his plan to improve government spending is to end the arms race with India Hes tried to build bridges in the past That will allow him to reduce the countrys massive military expenditure But its a route fraught with risk putting him again on a collision course with the countrys military establishment Where he can and is likely to succeed is to end loadshedding or power outages The incredible mismanagement of Pakistans electricity supply has meant some cities are crippled with up to 12 hours of power cuts a day In rural areas its worse The issue was a major rallying point in the election campaign T HUSSAIN This country is not underproducing It has enough capacity Its not an issue of capacity Its a question of this capacity not being optimally utilized because the companies that produce electricity and those companies that supply them oil and gas frankly they are never paid properly on time Therefore the cycle of payment is interfering with the cycle of production So number one he needs to get that cycle right If I understand his close associates well enough they have been working on it for almost a year now So in the first 100days plan that they have they have a game plan ready So I think you will see reduction in loadshedding which is going to be an immediate relief eight hours of loadshedding reduced to four hours in the first six monthsnot exactly a bad achievement But if eight hours of loadshedding is to be degenerating into twelve hours of loadshedding then Nawaz Sharif would have collapsed in the first year GHANI And of course the ultimate question what about corruption T HUSSAIN I think the barometer of success for Nawaz Sharif apart from immediately addressing issues like electricity breakdowns and law and order and police and creating some sort of a momentum towards creation of jobs and giving people hope and sustainingapart from doing these things the trajectory of his government and policies is going to be very important If hes seen to be genuinely moving in the direction of eradicating corruption then frankly not many people are going to be asking in the first year how much corruption have you been able to eradicate if the progress and the trajectory is good GHANI Nawaz Sharif knows that Pakistan has changed Pakistanis expect more from their leaders and the honeymoon period will soon be over If he doesnt start delivering quickly he too like the outgoing Peoples Party will be left staring into the political abyss Time is not on his side With cameraman Arsal Jalib this is Hassan Ghani for The Real News Islamabad End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | NAWAZ/ADJ SHARIF/PROPN LEADER/PROPN PAKISTAN/PROPN MUSLIM/PROPN LEAGUE/PROPN N/PROPN SUBTITLED/PROPN TRANSL/PROPN These/DET big/ADJ challenges/NOUN that/PRON we/PRON face/VERB the/DET difficulties/NOUN are/AUX great/ADJ And/CCONJ we/PRON will/AUX solve/VERB these/DET problems/NOUN God/PROPN willing/ADJ We/PRON are/AUX nt/PART afraid/ADJ HASSAN/PROPN GHANI/PROPN TRNN/PROPN CORRESPONDENT/PROPN Nawaz/PROPN Sharifis/PROPN he/PRON the/DET answer/NOUN to/ADP Pakistans/PROPN problems/NOUN or/CCONJ just/ADV more/ADJ of/ADP the/DET same/ADJ As/ADP usual/ADJ its/PRON complicated/ADJ It/PRON was/AUX 14/NUM years/NOUN ago/ADV that/SCONJ Prime/PROPN 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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington.
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<p />On Friday, the inter-American committee on human rights announced it was going to take up a case of a prisoner at Guantanamo. This is somewhat groundbreaking.
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<p />Now joining us to talk about this is Francisco Quintana. He's deputy program director for the Andean, Caribbean, and Americas region for the Center for Justice and International Law. And he joins us from Washington. Thanks for joining us.
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<p />FRANCISCO QUINTANA, DEPUTY PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CEJIL: Hi. Thank you, Paul, for this opportunity.
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<p />JAY: So what's the significance of this decision by the commission?
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<p />QUINTANA: Well, this is a groundbreaking decision, because this is the first time an international body which analyzes human rights has accepted a case on a Guantanamo detainee. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an international body within the Organization of American States here in Washington, D.C.
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<p />JAY: And I guess it's important that the OAS—the United States is a member, and it's been a matter of quite a bit of controversy over the years, because United States has such influence in the OAS. But this commission is somewhat independent. And talk a bit about the role it plays.
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<p />QUINTANA: Definitely, Paul. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has fought very strongly for its independence. Throughout 50 years, the Inter-American commission has analyzed cases on many of the states in Latin America, and also Canada and the United States. It even has jurisdiction on Cuba. And the commission has never feared of any pressures, or has never taken them into consideration seriously, to stop analyzing human rights violations throughout the hemisphere. And the United States is not an exception. There has been many cases on death penalty, immigration law, and now we have the first case on a Guantanamo detainee.
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<p />JAY: So tell us about the case and what's going to—there's been a report. And what's going to happen next?
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<p />QUINTANA: Well, we are talking about Djamel Ameziane, a citizen from Algeria who has been detained in Guantanamo for ten years without charge or trial. This is a case about right to a fair trial and the prohibition of torture. And also through this case we are looking for accountability for those people responsible of committing this acts.
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<p />JAY: Now, if I understand it, the reason he's in Guantanamo is because he was essentially sold for bounty. He was in Pakistan and he was sold—as many people in Guantanamo were essentially sold—to American forces. But is there any—what evidence is there against him?
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<p />QUINTANA: Well, as you just mentioned, Djamel Ameziane was sold by a bounty, and he was detained—at least, we are arguing that there are three different moments that the commission should analyze. First, during his arrest in Pakistan, day after that, he was sent for one month to a prison in Afghanistan, and he arrived in Guantanamo Bay in February 2002. So we are talking about a person that has been detained for ten years without being charged, without having the opportunity to—that an independent tribunal analyzes the legality of his detention.
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<p />Djamel Ameziane, through his domestic counsel, the CCR, the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, has been trying to exhaust all of the domestic opportunities before tribunals in Washington, D.C., and federal courts, and these remedies have been really unsuccessful or completely denied for him. So he saw the opportunity that we saw with the CCR on the Hill; we saw an opportunity to bring his case towards an international tribunal. And that is what the commission decided last Friday. The case was presented four years ago, and after extensive review of all the information that we presented, last Friday this international body on human rights decided to admit the case.
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<p />And now we are going to move into the second stage of these proceedings. The commission is going to review all our arguments regarding unfair trial, torture, and also the mistreatment that he has received and how this has affected him psychologically, and also his family, how his family has been [crosstalk]
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<p />JAY: Now, is there any indication that the United States will be accountable? I mean, at some point the United States, I suppose, if they're going to be part of this process, has to come and defend what they've been doing.
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<p />QUINTANA: Yeah. Well, that's the position of the United States, and it's a position that has been used in several international forums. For example, when the United States has been declared responsible by other tribunals, they have not responded. But in this case, that is not the importance of the matter. Through the litigation of the case, we will try to tell the story of Djamel and the story of other of hundreds of people that are still detained.
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<p />And the United States has a legal obligation to comply with the decision of the commission. It is good for the United States to respect the decisions of an international body in order to reconstruct their credibility, because having people detained for ten years on indefinite detention really speaks really bad about the United States. So this is one more opportunity that they have in order to regain that credibility.
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<p />JAY: But have they presented some sort of evidence about Djamel? I mean, what do they accuse him of?
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<p />QUINTANA: Well, the evidence that has been presented against Djamel Ameziane is not completely revealed, and that is subject to—. One of the things that we are asking through this international proceeding is to have all the information against Djamel Ameziane. He has not been charged of any crime, so we don't know why he's still there.
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<p />It is also very important—as I just mentioned, there are 171 people remaining in Guantanamo Bay. But out of those 171 people, half of them—almost half of them, 89, have already been cleared for release from executive review task force last year. And this executive review task force had unanimous decisions from all the agencies involved. And the importance of the—and the agencies involved were the CIA, FBI, and the Defense Department. But they are not revealing this information either, so we cannot tell anything else about our client or the other people.
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<p />JAY: But is Djamel on this list of 89?
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<p />QUINTANA: We don't know, because that information, we were told that it's still secret.
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<p />JAY: So did the 89 that have been supposedly cleared for the release—why aren't they releasing them?
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<p />QUINTANA: That is exactly one of the questions that we had the opportunity to ask the United States government one week ago when we met at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in order to review the protective measures that the commission issued ten years ago. So Djamel Ameziane is only one of the cases that the commission has knowledge about Guantanamo, though the other people have been under surveillance of the commission through the protective measure. Djamel Ameziane is the first case that is going to be analyzed.
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<p />And one of the reasons we are requesting Djamel Ameziane not to be sent back to his country is because there is a prohibition under international law not to send people to their countries of origin or to any country where they fear torture or persecution. So the United States has to guarantee that any person that is released and sent to any country, that they do not fear torture or that they do not fear—or that they are not subject to torture or [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />JAY: Right. And Jamail is from Algeria, and he fears repercussions if he's returned to Algeria.
<p />
<p />QUINTANA: That's right. He fears persecution because of the—when he first fled from Algeria in the year 2000, there was political turmoil that was also related to his religious beliefs in Algeria. He has expressed that fear of persecution in Algeria.
<p />
<p />And also one of the effects of having people indefinitely detained in Guantanamo is the stigmatization that this occurs. Our client has expressed that one of the reasons for this persecution in Algeria is because he has been detained in Guantanamo and that he has been pointed out as a suspected terrorist.
<p />
<p />JAY: Right. But one of the government's arguments about these people is that they don't know where to send them, because they can't safely send them back to their own countries, because they fear torture, and nobody else wants them. So they sit in Guantanamo. But it seems a very odd argument to me, in the sense that if the United States arrested these people, held them, and in fact they're not guilty of anything, and you've been holding them for years, isn't there any obligation under international law to actually—you owe these people something, maybe even to give them residence in the United States or something if you can't send them back to their own country?
<p />
<p />QUINTANA: Definitely. That is exactly our position. Under international human rights law you cannot have a person indefinitely detained without an impartial tribunal or an impartial body to review that legality of that detention. And if there are no charges, any person has to be released. So that's exactly what we are looking for. There are some arguments within the domestic U.S. legal system that these people cannot be released because they are—they will endanger the national security, but we have not seen any evidence in that way. So definitely they should be released. Otherwise, they are violating international human rights law through their detention.
<p />
<p />JAY: And what's the process, then, in the commission? So let's say the commission investigates this and they come to the conclusion that this is wrong, Djamel's wrongfully being held in Guantanamo. Then what? I mean, does it go to the OAS? Can there be any sanctions against the United States? How does the commission enforce what decides?
<p />
<p />QUINTANA: Well, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as any international or regional body, they do not have the power to enforce any decision as domestic tribunals will do with the police or through force. So after we've finished this case, we will face the—we will start conversations with the United States government in order to comply with the decision.
<p />
<p />But this decision will be also a landmark that we can use to talk to other governments or talk to the United States Congress in order to do the necessary modifications through cases decided at the commission, or can ask also for reparations for society. So if we are talking about the prohibition on torture, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights can ask the United States government to modify its legislation and practices on this matter so they will have to guarantee Djamel Ameziane and any other individual rapid access to courts in order to review the legality of their detention.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, that was going to be my question. Does the—if you get such a decision from the commission, does it have any bearing or weight within the American judicial system? Can it be used in some way?
<p />
<p />QUINTANA: Definitely it can be used within the judicial system of the United States. And it will create an international precedent. So, Paul, if we are talking about an international body deciding that a person detained for an indefinite time is a violation of human rights, this precedent can be used in any other international forum or in any other national cases. Let me give you just an example. We litigated a couple of years ago some cases against Peru that dealt with amnesties laws, and these precedents, created on a case about Peru, was used by the Argentinian Supreme Court in order to overturn the Argentinian amnesties laws. So through a precedent as Djamel Ameziane's case, we will be creating international standards on fair trial, on the prohibition on torture.
<p />
<p />And one of the things that has to be done in order to comply with these international standards is to investigate at the national level the perpetrators of the violations committed. So, yeah, definitely we expect that national investigations start now or when we have a decision, and that there are modifications to the laws and the practices of the United States in this matter.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, what about the new NDAA law, the new defense appropriation act that had this section that allows for—explicitly allows for military detention of anybody to do with al-Qaeda or the Taliban, or even somehow just associated with it? They can now—the military can now indefinitely arrest and detain such people, even American citizens, although Obama said he wasn't going to do it during his reign. But wouldn't—if you have such legislation on the American books, it seems at odds with what any international tribunal might find.
<p />
<p />QUINTANA: Definitely. We are aware of that legislation. And actually we will be presented—that will be one of our arguments, that we are not talking only about a practice that was established ten years ago, but we are talking about legislation that is permitting these actions. So precisely one of our arguments will be that the commission should ask the U.S. government not to issue such legislation, to overturn it. And this will be a very important precedent for other countries. So our position is that the situation is so grave right now that legislation has been already enacted that permits these practices.
<p />
<p />Also as an example, we litigated a case, or there has been a case from the Inter-American System on Human Rights that decided that Chile, a provision in Chile's constitution was violating the right of freedom of expression by establishing prior censorship. And the Inter-American Court at that moment decided that Chile had to modify its constitution. And the country complied with that decision. So there are many precedents within international—.
<p />
<p />JAY: So we could see at some point, perhaps, this NDAA law come before the court and be ruled that this not just violates the U.S. Constitution, which lots of people argue, but also violates international treaties on the rights of due process.
<p />
<p />QUINTANA: Definitely. And the consequence is that they will have to modify it. The United States government can also be declared responsible before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. The example that I just gave is for other countries that have accepted the competence of the court that is based in Costa Rica, but the United States is only held responsible before the Inter-American Commission here in Washington.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, we'll see if the United States really will be—allow itself to be held accountable to anybody. Thanks very much for joining us, Francisco.
<p />
<p />QUINTANA: Thank you, Paul, for letting us talk about the case of Djamel Ameziane.
<p />
<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | OAS Human Rights Organization Agrees to Hear Gitmo Case, Could Challenge NDAA | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D8178 | 2012-04-09 | 4left
| 2,494 | PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Washington On Friday the interAmerican committee on human rights announced it was going to take up a case of a prisoner at Guantanamo This is somewhat groundbreaking Now joining us to talk about this is Francisco Quintana Hes deputy program director for the Andean Caribbean and Americas region for the Center for Justice and International Law And he joins us from Washington Thanks for joining us FRANCISCO QUINTANA DEPUTY PROGRAM DIRECTOR CEJIL Hi Thank you Paul for this opportunity JAY So whats the significance of this decision by the commission QUINTANA Well this is a groundbreaking decision because this is the first time an international body which analyzes human rights has accepted a case on a Guantanamo detainee The InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights is an international body within the Organization of American States here in Washington DC JAY And I guess its important that the OAS226128148the United States is a member and its been a matter of quite a bit of controversy over the years because United States has such influence in the OAS But this commission is somewhat independent And talk a bit about the role it plays QUINTANA Definitely Paul The InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights has fought very strongly for its independence Throughout 50 years the InterAmerican commission has analyzed cases on many of the states in Latin America and also Canada and the United States It even has jurisdiction on Cuba And the commission has never feared of any pressures or has never taken them into consideration seriously to stop analyzing human rights violations throughout the hemisphere And the United States is not an exception There has been many cases on death penalty immigration law and now we have the first case on a Guantanamo detainee JAY So tell us about the case and whats going to226128148theres been a report And whats going to happen next QUINTANA Well we are talking about Djamel Ameziane a citizen from Algeria who has been detained in Guantanamo for ten years without charge or trial This is a case about right to a fair trial and the prohibition of torture And also through this case we are looking for accountability for those people responsible of committing this acts JAY Now if I understand it the reason hes in Guantanamo is because he was essentially sold for bounty He was in Pakistan and he was sold226128148as many people in Guantanamo were essentially sold226128148to American forces But is there any226128148what evidence is there against him QUINTANA Well as you just mentioned Djamel Ameziane was sold by a bounty and he was detained226128148at least we are arguing that there are three different moments that the commission should analyze First during his arrest in Pakistan day after that he was sent for one month to a prison in Afghanistan and he arrived in Guantanamo Bay in February 2002 So we are talking about a person that has been detained for ten years without being charged without having the opportunity to226128148that an independent tribunal analyzes the legality of his detention Djamel Ameziane through his domestic counsel the CCR the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York has been trying to exhaust all of the domestic opportunities before tribunals in Washington DC and federal courts and these remedies have been really unsuccessful or completely denied for him So he saw the opportunity that we saw with the CCR on the Hill we saw an opportunity to bring his case towards an international tribunal And that is what the commission decided last Friday The case was presented four years ago and after extensive review of all the information that we presented last Friday this international body on human rights decided to admit the case And now we are going to move into the second stage of these proceedings The commission is going to review all our arguments regarding unfair trial torture and also the mistreatment that he has received and how this has affected him psychologically and also his family how his family has been crosstalk JAY Now is there any indication that the United States will be accountable I mean at some point the United States I suppose if theyre going to be part of this process has to come and defend what theyve been doing QUINTANA Yeah Well thats the position of the United States and its a position that has been used in several international forums For example when the United States has been declared responsible by other tribunals they have not responded But in this case that is not the importance of the matter Through the litigation of the case we will try to tell the story of Djamel and the story of other of hundreds of people that are still detained And the United States has a legal obligation to comply with the decision of the commission It is good for the United States to respect the decisions of an international body in order to reconstruct their credibility because having people detained for ten years on indefinite detention really speaks really bad about the United States So this is one more opportunity that they have in order to regain that credibility JAY But have they presented some sort of evidence about Djamel I mean what do they accuse him of QUINTANA Well the evidence that has been presented against Djamel Ameziane is not completely revealed and that is subject to226128148 One of the things that we are asking through this international proceeding is to have all the information against Djamel Ameziane He has not been charged of any crime so we dont know why hes still there It is also very important226128148as I just mentioned there are 171 people remaining in Guantanamo Bay But out of those 171 people half of them226128148almost half of them 89 have already been cleared for release from executive review task force last year And this executive review task force had unanimous decisions from all the agencies involved And the importance of the226128148and the agencies involved were the CIA FBI and the Defense Department But they are not revealing this information either so we cannot tell anything else about our client or the other people JAY But is Djamel on this list of 89 QUINTANA We dont know because that information we were told that its still secret JAY So did the 89 that have been supposedly cleared for the release226128148why arent they releasing them QUINTANA That is exactly one of the questions that we had the opportunity to ask the United States government one week ago when we met at the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights in order to review the protective measures that the commission issued ten years ago So Djamel Ameziane is only one of the cases that the commission has knowledge about Guantanamo though the other people have been under surveillance of the commission through the protective measure Djamel Ameziane is the first case that is going to be analyzed And one of the reasons we are requesting Djamel Ameziane not to be sent back to his country is because there is a prohibition under international law not to send people to their countries of origin or to any country where they fear torture or persecution So the United States has to guarantee that any person that is released and sent to any country that they do not fear torture or that they do not fear226128148or that they are not subject to torture or crosstalk JAY Right And Jamail is from Algeria and he fears repercussions if hes returned to Algeria QUINTANA Thats right He fears persecution because of the226128148when he first fled from Algeria in the year 2000 there was political turmoil that was also related to his religious beliefs in Algeria He has expressed that fear of persecution in Algeria And also one of the effects of having people indefinitely detained in Guantanamo is the stigmatization that this occurs Our client has expressed that one of the reasons for this persecution in Algeria is because he has been detained in Guantanamo and that he has been pointed out as a suspected terrorist JAY Right But one of the governments arguments about these people is that they dont know where to send them because they cant safely send them back to their own countries because they fear torture and nobody else wants them So they sit in Guantanamo But it seems a very odd argument to me in the sense that if the United States arrested these people held them and in fact theyre not guilty of anything and youve been holding them for years isnt there any obligation under international law to actually226128148you owe these people something maybe even to give them residence in the United States or something if you cant send them back to their own country QUINTANA Definitely That is exactly our position Under international human rights law you cannot have a person indefinitely detained without an impartial tribunal or an impartial body to review that legality of that detention And if there are no charges any person has to be released So thats exactly what we are looking for There are some arguments within the domestic US legal system that these people cannot be released because they are226128148they will endanger the national security but we have not seen any evidence in that way So definitely they should be released Otherwise they are violating international human rights law through their detention JAY And whats the process then in the commission So lets say the commission investigates this and they come to the conclusion that this is wrong Djamels wrongfully being held in Guantanamo Then what I mean does it go to the OAS Can there be any sanctions against the United States How does the commission enforce what decides QUINTANA Well the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights as any international or regional body they do not have the power to enforce any decision as domestic tribunals will do with the police or through force So after weve finished this case we will face the226128148we will start conversations with the United States government in order to comply with the decision But this decision will be also a landmark that we can use to talk to other governments or talk to the United States Congress in order to do the necessary modifications through cases decided at the commission or can ask also for reparations for society So if we are talking about the prohibition on torture the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights can ask the United States government to modify its legislation and practices on this matter so they will have to guarantee Djamel Ameziane and any other individual rapid access to courts in order to review the legality of their detention JAY Yeah that was going to be my question Does the226128148if you get such a decision from the commission does it have any bearing or weight within the American judicial system Can it be used in some way QUINTANA Definitely it can be used within the judicial system of the United States And it will create an international precedent So Paul if we are talking about an international body deciding that a person detained for an indefinite time is a violation of human rights this precedent can be used in any other international forum or in any other national cases Let me give you just an example We litigated a couple of years ago some cases against Peru that dealt with amnesties laws and these precedents created on a case about Peru was used by the Argentinian Supreme Court in order to overturn the Argentinian amnesties laws So through a precedent as Djamel Amezianes case we will be creating international standards on fair trial on the prohibition on torture And one of the things that has to be done in order to comply with these international standards is to investigate at the national level the perpetrators of the violations committed So yeah definitely we expect that national investigations start now or when we have a decision and that there are modifications to the laws and the practices of the United States in this matter JAY Well what about the new NDAA law the new defense appropriation act that had this section that allows for226128148explicitly allows for military detention of anybody to do with alQaeda or the Taliban or even somehow just associated with it They can now226128148the military can now indefinitely arrest and detain such people even American citizens although Obama said he wasnt going to do it during his reign But wouldnt226128148if you have such legislation on the American books it seems at odds with what any international tribunal might find QUINTANA Definitely We are aware of that legislation And actually we will be presented226128148that will be one of our arguments that we are not talking only about a practice that was established ten years ago but we are talking about legislation that is permitting these actions So precisely one of our arguments will be that the commission should ask the US government not to issue such legislation to overturn it And this will be a very important precedent for other countries So our position is that the situation is so grave right now that legislation has been already enacted that permits these practices Also as an example we litigated a case or there has been a case from the InterAmerican System on Human Rights that decided that Chile a provision in Chiles constitution was violating the right of freedom of expression by establishing prior censorship And the InterAmerican Court at that moment decided that Chile had to modify its constitution And the country complied with that decision So there are many precedents within international226128148 JAY So we could see at some point perhaps this NDAA law come before the court and be ruled that this not just violates the US Constitution which lots of people argue but also violates international treaties on the rights of due process QUINTANA Definitely And the consequence is that they will have to modify it The United States government can also be declared responsible before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights in Washington DC The example that I just gave is for other countries that have accepted the competence of the court that is based in Costa Rica but the United States is only held responsible before the InterAmerican Commission here in Washington JAY Well well see if the United States really will be226128148allow itself to be held accountable to anybody Thanks very much for joining us Francisco QUINTANA Thank you Paul for letting us talk about the case of Djamel Ameziane JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | PAUL/PROPN JAY/PROPN SENIOR/PROPN EDITOR/NOUN TRNN/PROPN Welcome/PROPN to/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN Network/PROPN I/PRON m/VERB Paul/PROPN Jay/PROPN in/ADP Washington/PROPN On/ADP Friday/PROPN the/DET interAmerican/PROPN committee/NOUN on/ADP human/ADJ 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<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/mar/22/brussels-airport-explosions-live-updates" type="external">Initial reports</a> of two explosions preceded by gunshots and shouting in Arabic In Brussels’s city airport followed by an explosion in a subway station state that up to 30 people have been killed, with more than 230 injured.</p>
<p>The airport has been shut down. Reuters has reported that a suicide attacker was involved. Belgian officials have confirmed a suicide attack was involved. The attacks were <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/latest-least-1-death-reported-brussels-airport-080116802.html" type="external">reportedly</a> carried out at the American Airlines check-in desk. 11 people were killed, and 81 injured in the Zaventem airport attacks.</p>
<p>Another explosion was reported at a subway station in the city after the airport attacks. The city has now shut down subway transportation. 15 were killed, and 55 injured in the subway attack.</p>
<p>Salah Abdelsam, a suspect in the Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris late last year, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35860157" type="external">was arrested</a> days ago in Belgium’s capital city.</p>
<p>All updates Eastern Time:</p>
<p>UPDATE 4:44 - OBAMA GOES TO BASEBALL GAME IN CUBA WITH LEFT-WING ESPN ALLIES</p>
<p>President Barack Obama discusses unfolding events following the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels from a baseball game in Havana, Cuba.</p>
<p>UPDATE 4:20 - THE VIEW AGREES WITH TRUMP?</p>
<p>Left-wing racial agitator Sunny Hostin said, "I am so tired of seeing this senseless death. I thought Donald Trump sounded really reasonable today." "Because we need to be forceful, we can't have these muted responses to terror. I thought Hillary Clinton came out with what seemed to be a very muted response."</p>
<p>Hostin continued in crediting Trump with speaking about Islamic enclaves deemed as "no-go zones" in the Belgian capital.</p>
<p>"Let me also say this about Donald Trump, you know we trash him often here. Bottom line is, in January of this year, he said, 'Brussels is a hell hole. There is something going on, Maria, and it is not good. Where they want Sharia law. Where they want this. Where they want that. You know, there has to be some assimilation. There is no assimilation. You go to Brussels, I was in Brussels a long time ago, twenty years ago, so beautiful, everything was beautiful. Now it's like living in a hell hole.' He said that in January, so he called this," exclaimed Hostin.</p>
<p>"I can't believe I'm feeling this way, but [Donald Trump] seems reasonable today!" said Hostin.</p>
<p>UPDATE 3:13 - #STOPISLAM TOP TWITTER TREND IN U.K.</p>
<p />
<p>UPDATE 2:44 - CLINTON: BUT I HELPED GET OSAMA BIN LADEN!</p>
<p>Flexing her national security bona fides Hillary Clinton claimed to have assisted in guiding President Barack Obama's "gutsy call" to liquidate Osama Bin Laden.</p>
<p>On the subject of identifying Islamic terrorism as such, Clinton dismissed the linguistic games as "semantics," stating that the term implies that Americana the broader West is at warm with Islam and Muslims in their totalities.</p>
<p>UPDATE 2:33 - MORE VIDEO FROM WITHIN THE AIRPORT AFTER THE ATTACK</p>
<p>UPDATE 2:23 - CLINTON: WE NEED MORE CONTROL OF THE INTERNET</p>
<p>Pointing to online recruitment of Muslims to the cause of Islamic terrorism, Hillary Clinton broadly called for expansion of law enforcement powers with respect to internet communications.</p>
<p>Essentially demanding that intelligence efforts be made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAjR4_CbPpQ" type="external">harder, better, and faster</a>, Clinton neglected to touch on irresponsible immigration and multiculturalism politics enshrined across Europe. Also ignored was any examination of the overlap between Islamic terrorism, Islam, and Muslims.</p>
<p>With nebulous rhetoric about "intensifying and broadening" counterterrorism efforts against ISIS, Clinton struggled to call for improved counterterrorism operations without slighting President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>UPDATE 2:16 - BERNIE SANDERS FORGETS TO BLAME "CLIMATE CHANGE"</p>
<p>Changing an <a href="" type="internal">earlier position</a> in which he connected climate change and global terrorism, "democratic socialist" Senator Bernie Sanders called for international unity to combat ISIS in a short statement about the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels.</p>
<p>Full Sanders statement on attacks in Belgium: <a href="https://t.co/61Pn71tCAd" type="external">pic.twitter.com/61Pn71tCAd</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 2:11 - LEFTISTS GRANDSTANDING AND VIRTUE SIGNALING</p>
<p>Hungry for attention, leftists are always pushing banal platitudes in the streets of Brussels.</p>
<p>In photos: The streets of Brussels on lockdown <a href="https://t.co/oa5RrhW1jE" type="external">https://t.co/oa5RrhW1jE</a> <a href="https://t.co/Z9dRlBR3DD" type="external">pic.twitter.com/Z9dRlBR3DD</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 2:07 - THIRD BOMB FOUND AND DESTROYED</p>
<p>Authorities found a third bomb at the airport, which they destroyed in a controlled demolition.</p>
<p>Airport CEO confirms was 3rd bomb at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrusselsAirport?src=hash" type="external">#BrusselsAirport</a> which did not explode. Police detonated in controlled explosion. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrusselsAttacks?src=hash" type="external">#BrusselsAttacks</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 2:00 - GEERT WILDERS: BRUSSELS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG</p>
<p>Leaders of the Dutch Party For Freedom Geert Wilders <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/22/geert-wilders-speaks-to-breitbart-on-brussels/" type="external">warned</a> that the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels are a taste of the future for Europe.</p>
<p>“I fear that we ain’t seen nothing yet. According to Europol 3,000 to 5,000 European jihadists, who went to Syria to fight in the ranks of IS and similar terrorist groups, have meanwhile returned to Western Europe. Some of them hid among the hundreds of thousands of Islamic asylum seekers that entered Europe from Asia and Africa."</p>
<p>“Two of last November’s terrorist in Paris had fought in Syria. So had the terrorist who, last August, attempted to attack the high speed train between Amsterdam and Paris. So had the two terrorists who, in January 2015, massacred the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo. So had the terrorist who, in May 2014, shot four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels”.</p>
<p>UPDATE 1:50 - THE GUARDIAN BLAMES EVERYTHING BUT LEFTISM ITS DANGEROUS IMMIGRATION POLICIES</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/22/bombers-take-advantage-belgiums-history-country-divided" type="external">Aptly describing</a> Belgium as a "weak state" as a result of its bifurcated sense of nationality along linguistic lines - it is essentially a trilingual state - an op-ed at The Guardian makes no mention of irresponssible left-wing immigration and multiculturalism policies.</p>
<p>Given its status as a neo-Marxist newspaper, it also ignores the subject of "political correctness," in which examination of the overlap between Islamic terrorism, Islam, and Muslims is forbidden.</p>
<p>UPDATE 11:47 - CRUZ: "THIS IS A WAR"</p>
<p>"Today's attacks in Brussels underscore that this is a war. This is not an isolated incident. This is not a lone wolf. This is a war with radical Islamic terrorism. ISIS has declared Jihad on Europe and on the United States of America. They have declared their intention to murder as many innocents as possible, and it is long past time that we had a president who will acknowledge this evil, will call it by its name, and utilize the full force and fury of the United States to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, to defeat ISIS."</p>
<p>UPDATE 11:32 - JEFFREY GOLDBERG DEFENDS OBAMA'S HONOR ON TWITTER</p>
<p>In spite of President Barack Obama's inability to countenance the reality of Islamic terrorism, left-wing sycophant and editor at The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg defends his leader's honor in the face of criticism from a somewhat hawkish national security intellectual.</p>
<p>Obama's speeches can change the world for the better, according to Goldberg.</p>
<p>The split screen now running on CNN tells you everything you need to know about Obama's foreign policy. <a href="https://t.co/uFiyn8z9bz" type="external">pic.twitter.com/uFiyn8z9bz</a></p>
<p>. <a href="https://twitter.com/mdubowitz" type="external">@mdubowitz</a> Are you listening to the speech? It's a very good speech, exhorting Cubans to see the benefits of freedom and democracy.</p>
<p>UPDATE 11:27 - MORE VIDEO OF AFTERMATH FROM CNN</p>
<p>UPDATE 11:15 - SITE SAYS ISIS WILL CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY</p>
<p>Rita Katz, head of the SITE intelligence group says ISIS will claim responsibility for the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels.</p>
<p>1) Pro- <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hash" type="external">#ISIS</a> accts/channels campaigning for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brusselsattack?src=hash" type="external">#Brusselsattack</a>: passing hashtags, images, justifications, &amp; threats <a href="https://t.co/uMAsrJ2B4E" type="external">pic.twitter.com/uMAsrJ2B4E</a></p>
<p>2) Pro- <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hash" type="external">#ISIS</a> act: "Today the State of the Caliphate [ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hash" type="external">#ISIS</a>]...is taking revenge <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brussels?src=hash" type="external">#Brussels</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Belgium?src=hash" type="external">#Belgium</a>." [NO official claim though]</p>
<p>3) These reactions suggest that <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hash" type="external">#ISIS</a> likely to claim responsibility for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brusselsattack?src=hash" type="external">#Brusselsattack</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 10:40 - OBAMA SAYS A FEW WORDS, NOT INCLUDING "ISLAMIC/ISLAMIST/MUSLIM"</p>
<p>With a small fraction of the passion displayed when chasing phantoms of "systemic and institutional racism," racism briefly commented on the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels while speaking in Cuba.</p>
<p>"Before I begin, please indulge me. I want to comment on the terrorist attacks that have taken place in Brussels. The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of Belgium, and we stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people. We will do whatever to necessary to support our friend and ally Belgium in bringing to justice those who are responsible, and this is yet another reminder that the world must unite. We must be together, regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism. We can and we will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world."</p>
<p>UPDATE 10:35 - NUCLEAR PLANT IN EASTERN BELGIUM EVACUATED</p>
<p>A nuclear power plant in Tihange in eastern Belgium has been evacuated: <a href="https://t.co/FoOtRwRwT4" type="external">https://t.co/FoOtRwRwT4</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brussels?src=hash" type="external">#Brussels</a> <a href="https://t.co/POxxEXhLW3" type="external">https://t.co/POxxEXhLW3</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 9:55 - FORMER DHS HEAD: BLOCKING ISLAMIC IMMIGRATION IS "PREPOSTEROUS"</p>
<p>Speaking with Fox and Friends, Michael Chertoff claimed that lack of assimilation of Muslims was a driving force behind Islamic terrorism, seemingly attributing differences between the social policies and cultures of America and European countries for the differences in rates of "radicalization" between the countries.</p>
<p>With respect to Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from immigrating and visiting, Chertoff described the idea as "presposterous."</p>
<p>"The idea that you can identify people who are at risk (for becoming Islamic terrorists) based upon their religion or the way they look is completely fallacious," said Chertoff.</p>
<p>UPDATE 9:46 - HUFFINGTON POST WORRIED ABOUT INCONVENIENCE TO OBAMA'S POLITICS</p>
<p>Top political editor at socialist outpost The Huffington Post, Sam Stein, takes to Twitter to express his frustration with political inconveniences to President Barack Obama's endeavors in Cuba resulting from the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels.</p>
<p>Obama just can’t move his focus away from the Middle East/terrorism. His Cuba trip now overshadowed by today’s events.</p>
<p>UPDATE 9:34 - KARL ROVE: "WE DO A PRETTY GOOD JOB" OF SCREENING IMMIGRANTS</p>
<p>Fox News Channel political guru Karl Rove asserts that American authorities are effective at screening persons who enter the country lawfully. He then claims that the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels are evidence of the essentialness of NATO.</p>
<p>UPDATE 9:24 - CNN ANALYST: 25 AGENTS NEEDED TO TRACK 1 JIHADIST</p>
<p>Peter Bergen, a terrorism analyst with left-wing CNN, reports that French authorities need about 25 agents per Islamic terrorist for the purposes of monitoring and surveillance. Specifically referring to Islamic terrorists returning to France after assisting Jihadist movements like ISIS, he notes that this amounts the need for thousands of agents across Europe for this sole purpose.</p>
<p>UPDATE 9:13 - LEFT-WING POLITICO EDITOR PANICKING OVER DONALD TRUMP</p>
<p>Intuitively knowing that Islamic terrorism runs contrary to his publication's left-wing narratives, one of left-wing Politico's editors shows his fear on Twitter.</p>
<p>America may be one major terrorist attack away from Donald Trump as president.</p>
<p>UPDATE 9:05 - MORE VIDEO FROM INSIDE THE SUBWAY TUNNEL AFTER ATTACK</p>
<p>‼Scenes from Metro Arts-Lois and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maelbeek?src=hash" type="external">#Maelbeek</a> stations in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brussels?src=hash" type="external">#Brussels</a>. People have to be evacuated through tunnels. <a href="https://t.co/NeSz6W32hf" type="external">pic.twitter.com/NeSz6W32hf</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 8:59 - TERRORISM ANALYST: "THE NEW NORMAL" FOR EUROPE</p>
<p>Paul Cruikshank, a terrorism analyst at left-wing CNN, declared this and other Islamic terrorist attacks across Europe over recent years as "the new normal."</p>
<p>Stating that about 6000 Muslims had left Europe to join Islamic terrorist movements like ISIS in Syria and Iraq, without about 1500 returning afterwards, Cruikshank surmises that European intelligence services are overwhelmed... they cannot handle the necessary surveillance and monitoring of trained Jihadists.</p>
<p>UPDATE 8:31 - LAURA INGRAHAM: "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" GETS PEOPLE KILLED</p>
<p>Ingraham wonders how many more people have to sacrificed on the left-wing altar of "political correctness" before reasonable measures are taken to defend against Islamic terrorism.</p>
<p>UPDATE 8:18 - FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE: 'CLIMATE CHANGE' BIGGER THREAT THAN TERRORISM</p>
<p>Left-wing Foreign Policy magazine bolsters its leftism with this tweet from eight o'clock this morning.</p>
<p>Obama says climate change is more of a threat than ISIS. Why are Republicans laughing? <a href="https://t.co/c7Iql2Tgvq" type="external">https://t.co/c7Iql2Tgvq</a></p>
<p />
<p>UPDATE 8:05 - DONALD TRUMP: "IT'S NOT OUR FAULT. IT'S THEIR FAULT."</p>
<p>Preemptively rejecting neo-Marxist narratives blaming Islamic terrorism on <a href="" type="internal">income inequality</a>, racial/ethnic/religious discrimination via " <a href="" type="internal">Islamophobia</a>", <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paris-attacks-france-struggles-to-keep-muslims-from-being-radicalized/" type="external">social marginalization</a>, or " <a href="" type="internal">global warming/climate change</a>," and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/17/obama-calls-gop-rhetoric-on-syrian-refugees-a-potent-recruiting-tool-for-isil/" type="external">Republicans</a>, Donald Trump tells Fox And Friends that the fault for these mass murders lies with the perpetrators and their supporters.</p>
<p>"That's the problem with the liberal policies of [Belgium] and this world. It's acting like it's our fault. It's not our fault. It's not our fault, okay? It's their fault."</p>
<p>Segment begins at 10:08.</p>
<p>UPDATE 7:54 - "WE ARE AT WAR"</p>
<p>French Prime Minister (not its head of state) Manuel Valls <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/latest-least-1-death-reported-brussels-airport-080116802.html" type="external">declares</a>, "We are at war."</p>
<p>UPDATE 7:38 - FLASHBACK: GOP RESPONSES TO DONALD TRUMP PROPOSED BAN ON ISLAMIC IMMIGRATION AND VISITATION</p>
<p>With the exception of Senator Ted Cruz, <a href="" type="internal">virtually all</a> of the Republican front-runner's opponents in December castigated the proposed temporary ban on non-American Muslims entering the country as immigrants or visitors.</p>
<p>UPDATE 7:26 - BELGIUM EXPORTS CHOCOLATE AND ISLAMIC TERRORISTS</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/belgium-radical-islam-jihad-molenbeek-isis/416235/" type="external">About 25%</a> of Islamic terrorists joining ISIS from Europe are from Belgium and France.</p>
<p>Belgium <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/15/how-belgium-became-a-terrorism-hotbed.html" type="external">exports</a> a "disproportionate amount of Jihadists," and is connected with many terrorist attacks across the continent.</p>
<p>UPDATE 7:18 - PRIORITIES FROM PARIS'S MAYOR</p>
<p>No word yet on a counterterrorism hashtag campaign from the Obama Administration.</p>
<p>Paris mayor: Eiffel Tower to be lit in colors of the Belgian flag tonight in solidarity with people of Brussels following terror attacks.</p>
<p>UPDATE 7:08 - DONALD TRUMP IS AWAKE</p>
<p>Do you all remember how beautiful and safe a place Brussels wss. Not anymore, it is from a different world! U.S. must be vigilant and smart!</p>
<p>UPDATE 6:54 - VIDEO FROM WITHIN THE SUBWAY TUNNEL</p>
<p>Evacuation du metro juste avant Maelbeek <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/brussels?src=hash" type="external">#brussels</a> traumatisant <a href="https://t.co/5MmRIelAC2" type="external">pic.twitter.com/5MmRIelAC2</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 6:46 - MANGLED RAILCAR IMAGE GOES VIRAL</p>
<p>Notre metro bien connu... Image choquante de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/maelbeek?src=hash" type="external">#maelbeek</a> ... <a href="https://t.co/XhgB71RM0P" type="external">pic.twitter.com/XhgB71RM0P</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 6:39 - SHORT VIDEOS OF PERSONS EXITING THE AIRPORT FROM SKY NEWS</p>
<p>UPDATE 6:37 - AN IMAGE FROM INSIDE THE SUBWAY TUNNEL</p>
<p>Images have emerged of the explosion at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maalbeek?src=hash" type="external">#Maalbeek</a> metro station in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brussels?src=hash" type="external">#Brussels</a> <a href="https://t.co/VpfuULhiMH" type="external">pic.twitter.com/VpfuULhiMH</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 6:23 - MUSLIM AGITATORS PUSHING "PALESTINIAN" CAUSE AT E.U. HEADQUARTERS</p>
<p>Manif devant la commission européenne à <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bruxelles?src=hash" type="external">#Bruxelles</a> en soutien à l'enfant AHMAD <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Manasrah?src=hash" type="external">#Manasrah</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreeAhmadManasrah?src=hash" type="external">#FreeAhmadManasrah</a> <a href="https://t.co/bWWohZWXw3" type="external">pic.twitter.com/bWWohZWXw3</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 6:03 - FLASHBACK: ISLAMIC TERRORIST ATTACK IN BRUSSELS ON MAY 24, 2014</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/world/europe/france-belgium-jewish-shooting/" type="external">About two years ago</a>, an Islamic terrorist named Mehdi Nemmouche murdered three people at a Jewish Museum in the Belgian capital.</p>
<p>UPDATE 6:00 - ISLAM IN BELGIUM</p>
<p>According to Wikipedia, Muslims account for approximately 7% of Belgium's population. In Brussels alone, they account for 25% of the capital city's population.</p>
<p>UPDATE 5:55 - VIDEO OF PEOPLE FLEEING THE BRUSSELS AIRPORT</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash" type="external">#BREAKING</a>: Two loud explosions at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Zaventem?src=hash" type="external">#Zaventem</a> airport in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brussels?src=hash" type="external">#Brussels</a> <a href="https://t.co/JFw9RGLjnh" type="external">pic.twitter.com/JFw9RGLjnh</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 5:48 - IMAGES FROM THE AFTERMATH</p>
<p>Brussels airport attack eyewitness: "We were walking in the debris. It was a war scene" <a href="https://t.co/FCTjbUOnLh" type="external">https://t.co/FCTjbUOnLh</a> <a href="https://t.co/GNmuyozsaB" type="external">pic.twitter.com/GNmuyozsaB</a></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Europe?src=hash" type="external">#Europe</a> is collapsing. Today in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brussels?src=hash" type="external">#Brussels</a> -terror strikes in all its might again. <a href="https://t.co/dqfp9OllDh" type="external">pic.twitter.com/dqfp9OllDh</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 5:45 - BARACK OBAMA DESCRIBES TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS AND ISLAMIC TERRORISTS AS "EXTREMISTS"</p>
<p>President Obama: "We've created partnerships throughout the region to deal with extremism—in Somalia, in Pakistan, in Yemen."</p>
<p>Tea Party extremists caused this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoehnerShutdown?src=hash" type="external">#BoehnerShutdown</a>. Tell <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerBoehner" type="external">@SpeakerBoehner</a> to end it now: <a href="https://t.co/hLq6qOd2lM" type="external">https://t.co/hLq6qOd2lM</a> <a href="https://t.co/WW4soKEibu" type="external">pic.twitter.com/WW4soKEibu</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 5:40 - FLASHBACK TO HILLARY CLINTON</p>
<p>"Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism."</p>
<p>"Repeating the specific words 'radical Islamic terrorism' is just a distraction...Our priority should be how to fight the enemy." —Hillary</p>
<p>UPDATE 5:38 - VIDEO FROM SECURITY CAMERA SHOWS FLASH OF EXPLOSION</p>
<p>תיעוד: רגעי הפיצוץ בתחנת המטרו בבריסל לכל העדכונים על מתקפת הטרור בבלגיה &gt;&gt; <a href="https://t.co/bO9SnxuQqM" type="external">https://t.co/bO9SnxuQqM</a> <a href="https://t.co/4C4uh3oW1q" type="external">pic.twitter.com/4C4uh3oW1q</a></p> | Islamic Terrorists Strike Brussels Airport, Subway; 30 Killed; 230+ Injured (UPDATED) | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4281/breaking-explosions-brussels-airport-subway-13-daily-wire | 2016-03-22 | 0right
| 2,494 | Initial reports of two explosions preceded by gunshots and shouting in Arabic In Brussels8217s city airport followed by an explosion in a subway station state that up to 30 people have been killed with more than 230 injured The airport has been shut down Reuters has reported that a suicide attacker was involved Belgian officials have confirmed a suicide attack was involved The attacks were reportedly carried out at the American Airlines checkin desk 11 people were killed and 81 injured in the Zaventem airport attacks Another explosion was reported at a subway station in the city after the airport attacks The city has now shut down subway transportation 15 were killed and 55 injured in the subway attack Salah Abdelsam a suspect in the Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris late last year was arrested days ago in Belgium8217s capital city All updates Eastern Time UPDATE 444 OBAMA GOES TO BASEBALL GAME IN CUBA WITH LEFTWING ESPN ALLIES President Barack Obama discusses unfolding events following the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels from a baseball game in Havana Cuba UPDATE 420 THE VIEW AGREES WITH TRUMP Leftwing racial agitator Sunny Hostin said I am so tired of seeing this senseless death I thought Donald Trump sounded really reasonable today Because we need to be forceful we cant have these muted responses to terror I thought Hillary Clinton came out with what seemed to be a very muted response Hostin continued in crediting Trump with speaking about Islamic enclaves deemed as nogo zones in the Belgian capital Let me also say this about Donald Trump you know we trash him often here Bottom line is in January of this year he said Brussels is a hell hole There is something going on Maria and it is not good Where they want Sharia law Where they want this Where they want that You know there has to be some assimilation There is no assimilation You go to Brussels I was in Brussels a long time ago twenty years ago so beautiful everything was beautiful Now its like living in a hell hole He said that in January so he called this exclaimed Hostin I cant believe Im feeling this way but Donald Trump seems reasonable today said Hostin UPDATE 313 STOPISLAM TOP TWITTER TREND IN UK UPDATE 244 CLINTON BUT I HELPED GET OSAMA BIN LADEN Flexing her national security bona fides Hillary Clinton claimed to have assisted in guiding President Barack Obamas gutsy call to liquidate Osama Bin Laden On the subject of identifying Islamic terrorism as such Clinton dismissed the linguistic games as semantics stating that the term implies that Americana the broader West is at warm with Islam and Muslims in their totalities UPDATE 233 MORE VIDEO FROM WITHIN THE AIRPORT AFTER THE ATTACK UPDATE 223 CLINTON WE NEED MORE CONTROL OF THE INTERNET Pointing to online recruitment of Muslims to the cause of Islamic terrorism Hillary Clinton broadly called for expansion of law enforcement powers with respect to internet communications Essentially demanding that intelligence efforts be made harder better and faster Clinton neglected to touch on irresponsible immigration and multiculturalism politics enshrined across Europe Also ignored was any examination of the overlap between Islamic terrorism Islam and Muslims With nebulous rhetoric about intensifying and broadening counterterrorism efforts against ISIS Clinton struggled to call for improved counterterrorism operations without slighting President Barack Obama UPDATE 216 BERNIE SANDERS FORGETS TO BLAME CLIMATE CHANGE Changing an earlier position in which he connected climate change and global terrorism democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders called for international unity to combat ISIS in a short statement about the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels Full Sanders statement on attacks in Belgium pictwittercom61Pn71tCAd UPDATE 211 LEFTISTS GRANDSTANDING AND VIRTUE SIGNALING Hungry for attention leftists are always pushing banal platitudes in the streets of Brussels In photos The streets of Brussels on lockdown httpstcooa5RrhW1jE pictwittercomZ9dRlBR3DD UPDATE 207 THIRD BOMB FOUND AND DESTROYED Authorities found a third bomb at the airport which they destroyed in a controlled demolition Airport CEO confirms was 3rd bomb at BrusselsAirport which did not explode Police detonated in controlled explosion BrusselsAttacks UPDATE 200 GEERT WILDERS BRUSSELS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG Leaders of the Dutch Party For Freedom Geert Wilders warned that the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels are a taste of the future for Europe 8220I fear that we ain8217t seen nothing yet According to Europol 3000 to 5000 European jihadists who went to Syria to fight in the ranks of IS and similar terrorist groups have meanwhile returned to Western Europe Some of them hid among the hundreds of thousands of Islamic asylum seekers that entered Europe from Asia and Africa 8220Two of last November8217s terrorist in Paris had fought in Syria So had the terrorist who last August attempted to attack the high speed train between Amsterdam and Paris So had the two terrorists who in January 2015 massacred the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo So had the terrorist who in May 2014 shot four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels8221 UPDATE 150 THE GUARDIAN BLAMES EVERYTHING BUT LEFTISM ITS DANGEROUS IMMIGRATION POLICIES Aptly describing Belgium as a weak state as a result of its bifurcated sense of nationality along linguistic lines it is essentially a trilingual state an oped at The Guardian makes no mention of irresponssible leftwing immigration and multiculturalism policies Given its status as a neoMarxist newspaper it also ignores the subject of political correctness in which examination of the overlap between Islamic terrorism Islam and Muslims is forbidden UPDATE 1147 CRUZ THIS IS A WAR Todays attacks in Brussels underscore that this is a war This is not an isolated incident This is not a lone wolf This is a war with radical Islamic terrorism ISIS has declared Jihad on Europe and on the United States of America They have declared their intention to murder as many innocents as possible and it is long past time that we had a president who will acknowledge this evil will call it by its name and utilize the full force and fury of the United States to defeat radical Islamic terrorism to defeat ISIS UPDATE 1132 JEFFREY GOLDBERG DEFENDS OBAMAS HONOR ON TWITTER In spite of President Barack Obamas inability to countenance the reality of Islamic terrorism leftwing sycophant and editor at The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg defends his leaders honor in the face of criticism from a somewhat hawkish national security intellectual Obamas speeches can change the world for the better according to Goldberg The split screen now running on CNN tells you everything you need to know about Obamas foreign policy pictwittercomuFiyn8z9bz mdubowitz Are you listening to the speech Its a very good speech exhorting Cubans to see the benefits of freedom and democracy UPDATE 1127 MORE VIDEO OF AFTERMATH FROM CNN UPDATE 1115 SITE SAYS ISIS WILL CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY Rita Katz head of the SITE intelligence group says ISIS will claim responsibility for the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels 1 Pro ISIS acctschannels campaigning for Brusselsattack passing hashtags images justifications ampamp threats pictwittercomuMAsrJ2B4E 2 Pro ISIS act Today the State of the Caliphate ISISis taking revenge Brussels Belgium NO official claim though 38194These reactions suggest that ISIS likely to claim responsibility for Brusselsattack UPDATE 1040 OBAMA SAYS A FEW WORDS NOT INCLUDING ISLAMICISLAMISTMUSLIM With a small fraction of the passion displayed when chasing phantoms of systemic and institutional racism racism briefly commented on the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels while speaking in Cuba Before I begin please indulge me I want to comment on the terrorist attacks that have taken place in Brussels The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of Belgium and we stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people We will do whatever to necessary to support our friend and ally Belgium in bringing to justice those who are responsible and this is yet another reminder that the world must unite We must be together regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism We can and we will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world UPDATE 1035 NUCLEAR PLANT IN EASTERN BELGIUM EVACUATED A nuclear power plant in Tihange in eastern Belgium has been evacuated httpstcoFoOtRwRwT4 Brussels httpstcoPOxxEXhLW3 UPDATE 955 FORMER DHS HEAD BLOCKING ISLAMIC IMMIGRATION IS PREPOSTEROUS Speaking with Fox and Friends Michael Chertoff claimed that lack of assimilation of Muslims was a driving force behind Islamic terrorism seemingly attributing differences between the social policies and cultures of America and European countries for the differences in rates of radicalization between the countries With respect to Donald Trumps proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from immigrating and visiting Chertoff described the idea as presposterous The idea that you can identify people who are at risk for becoming Islamic terrorists based upon their religion or the way they look is completely fallacious said Chertoff UPDATE 946 HUFFINGTON POST WORRIED ABOUT INCONVENIENCE TO OBAMAS POLITICS Top political editor at socialist outpost The Huffington Post Sam Stein takes to Twitter to express his frustration with political inconveniences to President Barack Obamas endeavors in Cuba resulting from the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels Obama just can8217t move his focus away from the Middle Eastterrorism His Cuba trip now overshadowed by today8217s events UPDATE 934 KARL ROVE WE DO A PRETTY GOOD JOB OF SCREENING IMMIGRANTS Fox News Channel political guru Karl Rove asserts that American authorities are effective at screening persons who enter the country lawfully He then claims that the Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels are evidence of the essentialness of NATO UPDATE 924 CNN ANALYST 25 AGENTS NEEDED TO TRACK 1 JIHADIST Peter Bergen a terrorism analyst with leftwing CNN reports that French authorities need about 25 agents per Islamic terrorist for the purposes of monitoring and surveillance Specifically referring to Islamic terrorists returning to France after assisting Jihadist movements like ISIS he notes that this amounts the need for thousands of agents across Europe for this sole purpose UPDATE 913 LEFTWING POLITICO EDITOR PANICKING OVER DONALD TRUMP Intuitively knowing that Islamic terrorism runs contrary to his publications leftwing narratives one of leftwing Politicos editors shows his fear on Twitter America may be one major terrorist attack away from Donald Trump as president UPDATE 905 MORE VIDEO FROM INSIDE THE SUBWAY TUNNEL AFTER ATTACK 8252Scenes from Metro ArtsLois and Maelbeek stations in Brussels People have to be evacuated through tunnels pictwittercomNeSz6W32hf UPDATE 859 TERRORISM ANALYST THE NEW NORMAL FOR EUROPE Paul Cruikshank a terrorism analyst at leftwing CNN declared this and other Islamic terrorist attacks across Europe over recent years as the new normal Stating that about 6000 Muslims had left Europe to join Islamic terrorist movements like ISIS in Syria and Iraq without about 1500 returning afterwards Cruikshank surmises that European intelligence services are overwhelmed they cannot handle the necessary surveillance and monitoring of trained Jihadists UPDATE 831 LAURA INGRAHAM POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GETS PEOPLE KILLED Ingraham wonders how many more people have to sacrificed on the leftwing altar of political correctness before reasonable measures are taken to defend against Islamic terrorism UPDATE 818 FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE CLIMATE CHANGE BIGGER THREAT THAN TERRORISM Leftwing Foreign Policy magazine bolsters its leftism with this tweet from eight oclock this morning Obama says climate change is more of a threat than ISIS Why are Republicans laughing httpstcoc7Iql2Tgvq UPDATE 805 DONALD TRUMP ITS NOT OUR FAULT ITS THEIR FAULT Preemptively rejecting neoMarxist narratives blaming Islamic terrorism on income inequality racialethnicreligious discrimination via Islamophobia social marginalization or global warmingclimate change and Republicans Donald Trump tells Fox And Friends that the fault for these mass murders lies with the perpetrators and their supporters Thats the problem with the liberal policies of Belgium and this world Its acting like its our fault Its not our fault Its not our fault okay Its their fault Segment begins at 1008 UPDATE 754 WE ARE AT WAR French Prime Minister not its head of state Manuel Valls declares We are at war UPDATE 738 FLASHBACK GOP RESPONSES TO DONALD TRUMP PROPOSED BAN ON ISLAMIC IMMIGRATION AND VISITATION With the exception of Senator Ted Cruz virtually all of the Republican frontrunners opponents in December castigated the proposed temporary ban on nonAmerican Muslims entering the country as immigrants or visitors UPDATE 726 BELGIUM EXPORTS CHOCOLATE AND ISLAMIC TERRORISTS About 25 of Islamic terrorists joining ISIS from Europe are from Belgium and France Belgium exports a disproportionate amount of Jihadists and is connected with many terrorist attacks across the continent UPDATE 718 PRIORITIES FROM PARISS MAYOR No word yet on a counterterrorism hashtag campaign from the Obama Administration Paris mayor Eiffel Tower to be lit in colors of the Belgian flag tonight in solidarity with people of Brussels following terror attacks UPDATE 708 DONALD TRUMP IS AWAKE Do you all remember how beautiful and safe a place Brussels wss Not anymore it is from a different world US must be vigilant and smart UPDATE 654 VIDEO FROM WITHIN THE SUBWAY TUNNEL Evacuation du metro juste avant Maelbeek brussels traumatisant pictwittercom5MmRIelAC2 UPDATE 646 MANGLED RAILCAR IMAGE GOES VIRAL Notre metro bien connu Image choquante de maelbeek pictwittercomXhgB71RM0P UPDATE 639 SHORT VIDEOS OF PERSONS EXITING THE AIRPORT FROM SKY NEWS UPDATE 637 AN IMAGE FROM INSIDE THE SUBWAY TUNNEL Images have emerged of the explosion at Maalbeek metro station in Brussels pictwittercomVpfuULhiMH UPDATE 623 MUSLIM AGITATORS PUSHING PALESTINIAN CAUSE AT EU HEADQUARTERS Manif devant la commission europ233enne 224 Bruxelles en soutien 224 lenfant AHMAD Manasrah FreeAhmadManasrah pictwittercombWWohZWXw3 UPDATE 603 FLASHBACK ISLAMIC TERRORIST ATTACK IN BRUSSELS ON MAY 24 2014 About two years ago an Islamic terrorist named Mehdi Nemmouche murdered three people at a Jewish Museum in the Belgian capital UPDATE 600 ISLAM IN BELGIUM According to Wikipedia Muslims account for approximately 7 of Belgiums population In Brussels alone they account for 25 of the capital citys population UPDATE 555 VIDEO OF PEOPLE FLEEING THE BRUSSELS AIRPORT BREAKING Two loud explosions at Zaventem airport in Brussels pictwittercomJFw9RGLjnh UPDATE 548 IMAGES FROM THE AFTERMATH Brussels airport attack eyewitness We were walking in the debris It was a war scene httpstcoFCTjbUOnLh pictwittercomGNmuyozsaB Europe is collapsing Today in Brussels terror strikes in all its might again pictwittercomdqfp9OllDh UPDATE 545 BARACK OBAMA DESCRIBES TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS AND ISLAMIC TERRORISTS AS EXTREMISTS President Obama Weve created partnerships throughout the region to deal with extremism8212in Somalia in Pakistan in Yemen Tea Party extremists caused this BoehnerShutdown Tell SpeakerBoehner to end it now httpstcohLq6qOd2lM pictwittercomWW4soKEibu UPDATE 540 FLASHBACK TO HILLARY CLINTON Let8217s be clear Islam is not our adversary Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism Repeating the specific words radical Islamic terrorism is just a distractionOur priority should be how to fight the enemy 8212Hillary UPDATE 538 VIDEO FROM SECURITY CAMERA SHOWS FLASH OF EXPLOSION 15141497150614931491 1512149015061497 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<p>TORONTO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Canada’s main stock index rose on Friday in a broad-based rally that was led by financial and industrial shares, while lower oil prices weighed on energy stocks.</p>
<p>The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&amp;P/TSX composite index unofficially closed up 68.99 points, or 0.42 percent, at 16,353.46. Nine of the index’s 10 main groups ended higher. (Reporting by Fergal Smith Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street’s three major indexes staged a comeback to close around 1 percent higher on Wednesday as investors turned their focus to earnings and away from a trade conflict between the United States and China that wreaked havoc in earlier trading.</p>
<p>After investors fled equities in the morning due to proposed retaliatory tariffs from China, their concerns about a potential trade war eased by the afternoon after Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was in a “negotiation” with China rather than a trade war.</p>
<p>Investors said they were comforted by the fact that any tariffs would not take effect immediately, if at all. Strategists also cited the S&amp;P’s bounce above a key technical support level and said they expect equities to rise further around the first quarter earnings season, due to start in mid-April.</p>
<p>“We’re starting to feel that while markets hate uncertainty, Trump’s bark is worse than his bite when it comes to trade,” said Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, Texas.</p>
<p>“It’s earnings that’s going to lift us off this bottom. It wouldn’t shock me if we chopped around sideways for a little bit before earnings season ... The trade stuff is really a side show. We’re waiting for real economic data like the jobs report Friday and for earnings. For now it’s going to be all about the technicals,” he said.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P opened below its 200-day moving average, a key technical level, but inched above it as the session progressed, and by afternoon was in positive territory.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 230.94 points, or 0.96 percent, to close at 24,264.30, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 30.24 points, or 1.16 percent, to 2,644.69 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 100.83 points, or 1.45 percent, to 7,042.11.</p>
<p>The turnaround marked the first time the S&amp;P had showed gains for two consecutive days since early March.</p>
<p>Despite big swings in stocks, trading activity in U.S. equity options was muted as expectations for strong corporate earnings quelled the urge to load up on contracts that benefit from a surge in market volatility. The Cboe Volatility Index .VIX, the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term volatility for the S&amp;P 500, closed down 1.04 points at 20.06.</p>
<p>The technology sector .SPLRCT rose 1.4 percent with only two of its stocks ending the day in negative territory including Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), which was pummeled after news its chief executive would testify in Congress over a data privacy scandal. It too closed well off its session low with a 0.6 percent drop to $155.10.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>Boeing ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>) was the biggest drag on the Dow due to its exposure to China, and ended the day well off its session lows with a 1 percent decline to $327.44 after falling as low as $311.88.</p>
<p>Farm machinery company Deere &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DE.N" type="external">DE.N</a>) ended down 2.9 percent at $148.57 as it could be hurt by China tariffs if its customers’ exports are curbed.</p>
<p>After being a laggard for much of the session, the S&amp;P 500’s industrials sector .SPLRCI turned positive late in the day to close 0.4 percent higher.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.19-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.95-to-1 ratio favored advancers.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">Dow Jones &amp; Company Inc</a> 24539.1 .DJI Dow Jones Indexes +274.80 (+1.13%) .DJI .SPX .IXIC FB.O BA.N
<p>The S&amp;P 500 posted one new 52-week high and eight new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 94 new lows.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.04 billion shares, compared with the 7.3 billion average for the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Herbert Lash in New York and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar gained and equity markets around the world jumped on Thursday in a relief rally as fears eased of a trade war between China and the United States after Washington expressed a willingness to negotiate.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 5, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>The dollar rose to a three-week high against the Japanese yen and a 10-week peak versus the Swiss franc, two safe-haven assets that investors buy in times of market uncertainty.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury yields rose to one-week highs as rising stock markets were a sign of improving risk appetite amid expectations a growing economy will be confirmed Friday when the closely watched U.S. employment report for March is released.</p>
<p>Major European stock indexes surged 2 percent or more, with Germany's exporter-heavy DAX <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.GDAXI" type="external">.GDAXI</a>, the market most exposed to China, climbing 2.90 percent.</p>
<p>MSCI’s all-country world stock index .MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 47 countries, gained 1.12 percent, led by Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Apple ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>) and Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>).</p>
<p>“Markets seem to be in relief rally mode and part of this is really driven by the fact we’re not really in a trade war yet,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>“This is quite small in terms of the impact to the economy, we still have the runway of tax reform that’s coming along,” Ripley said, referring to boost U.S. President Donald Trump’s new tax code is delivering to corporate earnings.</p>
<p>The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.FTEU3" type="external">.FTEU3</a> of leading regional shares rose 2.47 percent.</p>
<p>On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 324.01 points, or 1.34 percent, to 24,588.31. The S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 25.55 points, or 0.97 percent, to 2,670.24 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 65.37 points, or 0.93 percent, to 7,107.48.</p>
<p>Signs the United States is looking to resolve a trade dispute with China lifted the dollar but limited an advance in oil prices as crude is dollar-priced and a stronger greenback makes oil purchases in other currencies more expensive.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.GDAXI" type="external">Deutsche Boerse AG</a> 12305.19 .GDAXI Xetra +347.29 (+2.90%) .GDAXI AMZN.O AAPL.O FB.O .FTEU3
<p>White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he expects the United States and China to work out differences and trade barriers likely “will come down on both sides.”</p>
<p>The dollar index .DXY rose 0.48 percent, with the euro <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=EUR&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">EUR=</a> down 0.46 percent to $1.2221. The Japanese yen <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=JPY&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">JPY=</a> weakened 0.63 percent versus the greenback at 107.45 per dollar.</p>
<p>Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solution in Washington, said the dollar was boosted by a view that “Washington and Beijing might broker a trade deal that doesn’t torpedo global commerce or damage the world economy.”</p>
<p>U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 43 cents to $63.80 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 gained 51 cents to $68.53.</p> Beijing hits back at U.S. trade tariffs
<p>Gold prices fell as the apparent willingness to resolve a trade dispute reduced demand for bullion as a place to park money. A stronger dollar also crimped gold as it’s more expensive for users of other currencies.</p>
<p>U.S. gold futures GCcv1 fell $11.70 to $1,328.50 an ounce.</p>
<p>Many suspect Washington will likely back down on some fronts after Beijing threatened tariffs on soybeans, the top U.S. agricultural export to China. Threats to such exports are a powerful weapon for Beijing to wield given the potential impact on Iowa and other farming states that backed Trump in the presidential election.</p>
<p>U.S. soybeans Sc1 and corn Cc1 regained ground, following losses of around 2 percent the previous day.</p>
<p>Reporting by Kit Rees; Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Bernadette Baum</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - The S&amp;P 500 on Thursday headed for its best three-day rise since President Donald Trump’s election as technology and industrial shares bolstered a recovery on easing trade war concerns.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., April 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>Shares of Boeing ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>) and Caterpillar ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CAT.N" type="external">CAT.N</a>), among the worst hit on Wednesday after China retaliated with $50 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods such as soybeans, autos, and some types of aircraft, rose 1.7 percent and 3 percent.</p>
<p>“There is a lot of bad news on the trade front built into the market. So the ability of the equity markets to push significantly lower is going to be limited,” said John Brady, senior vice president at R.J. O’Brien &amp; Associates in Chicago.</p>
<p>“We’re going to need brand new, bad news on trade for the equity markets to push lower.”</p>
<p>Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Netflix ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>) - collectively known as the “FANG” group - were up between 1.2 percent and 2.6 percent.</p>
<p>At 12:02 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> was 1.46 percent at 24,617.39. The S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 1.03 percent to 2,671.85 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> rose 0.92 percent to 7,106.54.</p>
<p>If current gains for S&amp;P 500 hold, it would be the best three-day run since Trump’s election victory in November 2016.</p>
<p>Nine of the 11 major S&amp;P sectors were higher, led by a 1.2 percent gain on the material .SPLRCM and the energy .SPNY indexes.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 index showed four new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 47 new highs and 24 new lows.</p>
<p>Facebook shares gained after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company had not seen “any meaningful impact” on usage or ad sales since the data privacy scandal.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">Boeing Co</a> 335.81 BA.N New York Stock Exchange +8.37 (+2.56%) BA.N CAT.N FB.O AMZN.O GOOGL.O
<p>“Zuckerberg is going to testify the Congress next week on the Facebook issues, so probably there’s some bargain hunting in FANG space,” said Brady.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the Dow bounced back from a 500 point fall earlier to close up about 230 points after President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was involved in a “negotiation” with China rather than a trade war.</p>
<p>Economic data on Thursday showed the U.S. trade deficit increased to a near 9-1/2-year high in February, but the shortfall with China narrowed sharply. While exports to China were unchanged in February, imports from the country declined 14.7 percent.</p>
<p>Advanced Micro Devices ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMD.O" type="external">AMD.O</a>) jumped 3.2 percent after Stifel upgraded to “buy”, while Micron Technology ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MU.O" type="external">MU.O</a>) fell 5.3 percent after UBS started with a “sell” rating.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 2.76-to-1 ratio and on the Nasdaq for a 1.90-to-1 ratio.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - It took China just 11 hours to retaliate against the United States for proposing tariffs on some 1,300 Chinese products, but Chinese officials are holding back on taking aim at their largest American import: government debt.</p>
<p>In a tit-for-tat response to the Trump administration’s plan for 25 percent duties on $50 billion of Chinese imports, China hit back with its own list of similar duties on key American imports including soybeans, planes, cars, beef and chemicals. But officials signaled no interest for now in bringing their vast holdings of U.S. Treasuries to the fight.</p>
<p>China held around $1.17 trillion of Treasuries as of the end of January, making it the largest of America's foreign creditors and the No. 2 overall owner of U.S. government bonds after the Federal Reserve. Any move by China to chop its Treasury portfolio could inflict significant harm on U.S. finances and global investors, driving bond yields higher and making it more costly to finance the federal government.(Graphic: Top U.S. trade partners &amp; foreign holders of Treasuries - <a href="http://reut.rs/2CUqQB0" type="external">reut.rs/2CUqQB0</a>)</p>
<a href="http://reut.rs/2CUqQB0" type="external" />
<p>Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief executive of DoubleLine Capital LP, said China can use its Treasury holdings as leverage, but only if they keep holding them.</p>
<p>“It is more effective as a threat. If they sell, they have no threat,” said Gundlach, known as Wall Street’s Bond King.</p>
<p>“It would only escalate the situation and eliminate their leverage.”</p>
<p>Prices on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes slipped on Wednesday, giving back earlier gains on the trade news. Their yield edged up to about 2.81 percent Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>China’s Treasury holdings have dipped in recent months, declining by about $30 billion from $1.20 trillion last August, and they are down about 11 percent from their record high above $1.3 trillion in late 2013, according to U.S government data. In all, foreign governments own $4 trillion, or more than a quarter, of the $14.7 trillion in Treasury securities outstanding.</p>
<p>Asked by a reporter on Wednesday if China would reduce its U.S. Treasury holdings in retaliation, Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao reiterated China’s long-standing policy regarding its foreign exchange reserves, saying it is a responsible investor and that it will safeguard their value.</p>
<p>China’s foreign exchange reserves, the world’s largest, stood at about $3.13 trillion at the end of February, with roughly a third of it held in Treasuries.</p>
<p>“If they wanted to pull the nuclear switch, if they committed to dumping Treasuries, it would have an immediate and temporary impact on money markets in the United States,” said Jeff Klingelhofer, a portfolio manager who oversees more than $6 billion at Thornburg Investment Management Inc. “But I think it is a bigger hit to the sustainability of what they’re trying to accomplish.”</p>
<p>Brad Setser, senior fellow for international economics&#160;at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said China can sell Treasuries and buy lower-yielding European or Japanese debt.</p>
<p>But the effect would likely be to strengthen the yuan against the dollar, weakening the relative desirability of its exports, analysts said. The sale could also tank the value of the Treasuries China retains, with nothing to show for the aggression.</p>
<p>More likely, if China wanted to turn up the heat it would let the yuan depreciate against the U.S. dollar, according to CFR’s Setser, a move that could kneecap the Trump administration’s goal of jump-starting U.S. manufacturing. The yuan weakened by about 0.25 percent on Wednesday but remains near its strongest in two and a half years.</p>
<p>Even if the likelihood of a change in Chinese policy regarding its Treasuries portfolio remains low, investors are sensitive to the risk any big shift would pose to world financial markets, where Treasuries are a global benchmark asset.</p>
<p>A January report that China might halt its purchases of Treasuries forced yields higher, but China disputed the news and said it was only diversifying its foreign exchange reserves to safeguard their value.</p>
<p>Reporting by Kate Duguid and Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Dan Burns and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | CANADA STOCKS-TSX rises, led by financials and railroad stocks Wall Street closes higher as China tariff fears ease Dollar, stocks climb in relief rally over trade spat S&P 500 eyes best three-day gain since Trump's election China, holding Treasuries, keeps 'nuclear option' in U.S. trade war | false | https://reuters.com/article/canada-stocks-close/canada-stocks-tsx-rises-led-by-financials-and-railroad-stocks-idUSL1N1PE1S2 | 2018-01-19 | 2least
| 2,494 | TORONTO Jan 19 Reuters Canada8217s main stock index rose on Friday in a broadbased rally that was led by financial and industrial shares while lower oil prices weighed on energy stocks The Toronto Stock Exchange8217s SampampPTSX composite index unofficially closed up 6899 points or 042 percent at 1635346 Nine of the index8217s 10 main groups ended higher Reporting by Fergal Smith Editing by Chizu Nomiyama Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street8217s three major indexes staged a comeback to close around 1 percent higher on Wednesday as investors turned their focus to earnings and away from a trade conflict between the United States and China that wreaked havoc in earlier trading After investors fled equities in the morning due to proposed retaliatory tariffs from China their concerns about a potential trade war eased by the afternoon after Trump8217s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was in a 8220negotiation8221 with China rather than a trade war Investors said they were comforted by the fact that any tariffs would not take effect immediately if at all Strategists also cited the SampampP8217s bounce above a key technical support level and said they expect equities to rise further around the first quarter earnings season due to start in midApril 8220We8217re starting to feel that while markets hate uncertainty Trump8217s bark is worse than his bite when it comes to trade8221 said Robert Phipps a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin Texas 8220It8217s earnings that8217s going to lift us off this bottom It wouldn8217t shock me if we chopped around sideways for a little bit before earnings season The trade stuff is really a side show We8217re waiting for real economic data like the jobs report Friday and for earnings For now it8217s going to be all about the technicals8221 he said The SampampP opened below its 200day moving average a key technical level but inched above it as the session progressed and by afternoon was in positive territory The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 23094 points or 096 percent to close at 2426430 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 3024 points or 116 percent to 264469 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 10083 points or 145 percent to 704211 The turnaround marked the first time the SampampP had showed gains for two consecutive days since early March Despite big swings in stocks trading activity in US equity options was muted as expectations for strong corporate earnings quelled the urge to load up on contracts that benefit from a surge in market volatility The Cboe Volatility Index VIX the most widely followed barometer of expected nearterm volatility for the SampampP 500 closed down 104 points at 2006 The technology sector SPLRCT rose 14 percent with only two of its stocks ending the day in negative territory including Facebook Inc FBO which was pummeled after news its chief executive would testify in Congress over a data privacy scandal It too closed well off its session low with a 06 percent drop to 15510 Slideshow 7 Images Boeing BAN was the biggest drag on the Dow due to its exposure to China and ended the day well off its session lows with a 1 percent decline to 32744 after falling as low as 31188 Farm machinery company Deere ampamp Co DEN ended down 29 percent at 14857 as it could be hurt by China tariffs if its customers8217 exports are curbed After being a laggard for much of the session the SampampP 5008217s industrials sector SPLRCI turned positive late in the day to close 04 percent higher Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 219to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 295to1 ratio favored advancers Dow Jones ampamp Company Inc 245391 DJI Dow Jones Indexes 27480 113 DJI SPX IXIC FBO BAN The SampampP 500 posted one new 52week high and eight new lows the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 94 new lows Volume on US exchanges was 704 billion shares compared with the 73 billion average for the last 20 trading days Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Herbert Lash in New York and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru Editing by Patrick Graham and James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters The US dollar gained and equity markets around the world jumped on Thursday in a relief rally as fears eased of a trade war between China and the United States after Washington expressed a willingness to negotiate Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York US April 5 2018 REUTERSBrendan McDermid The dollar rose to a threeweek high against the Japanese yen and a 10week peak versus the Swiss franc two safehaven assets that investors buy in times of market uncertainty US Treasury yields rose to oneweek highs as rising stock markets were a sign of improving risk appetite amid expectations a growing economy will be confirmed Friday when the closely watched US employment report for March is released Major European stock indexes surged 2 percent or more with Germanys exporterheavy DAX GDAXI the market most exposed to China climbing 290 percent MSCI8217s allcountry world stock index MIWD00000PUS which tracks shares in 47 countries gained 112 percent led by Amazoncom AMZNO Apple AAPLO and Facebook FBO 8220Markets seem to be in relief rally mode and part of this is really driven by the fact we8217re not really in a trade war yet8221 said Charlie Ripley senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management in Minneapolis 8220This is quite small in terms of the impact to the economy we still have the runway of tax reform that8217s coming along8221 Ripley said referring to boost US President Donald Trump8217s new tax code is delivering to corporate earnings The panEuropean FTSEurofirst 300 index FTEU3 of leading regional shares rose 247 percent On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 32401 points or 134 percent to 2458831 The SampampP 500 SPX gained 2555 points or 097 percent to 267024 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 6537 points or 093 percent to 710748 Signs the United States is looking to resolve a trade dispute with China lifted the dollar but limited an advance in oil prices as crude is dollarpriced and a stronger greenback makes oil purchases in other currencies more expensive Deutsche Boerse AG 1230519 GDAXI Xetra 34729 290 GDAXI AMZNO AAPLO FBO FTEU3 White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he expects the United States and China to work out differences and trade barriers likely 8220will come down on both sides8221 The dollar index DXY rose 048 percent with the euro EUR down 046 percent to 12221 The Japanese yen JPY weakened 063 percent versus the greenback at 10745 per dollar Joe Manimbo senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solution in Washington said the dollar was boosted by a view that 8220Washington and Beijing might broker a trade deal that doesn8217t torpedo global commerce or damage the world economy8221 US crude CLcv1 rose 43 cents to 6380 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 gained 51 cents to 6853 Beijing hits back at US trade tariffs Gold prices fell as the apparent willingness to resolve a trade dispute reduced demand for bullion as a place to park money A stronger dollar also crimped gold as it8217s more expensive for users of other currencies US gold futures GCcv1 fell 1170 to 132850 an ounce Many suspect Washington will likely back down on some fronts after Beijing threatened tariffs on soybeans the top US agricultural export to China Threats to such exports are a powerful weapon for Beijing to wield given the potential impact on Iowa and other farming states that backed Trump in the presidential election US soybeans Sc1 and corn Cc1 regained ground following losses of around 2 percent the previous day Reporting by Kit Rees Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo Editing by Bernadette Baum Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters The SampampP 500 on Thursday headed for its best threeday rise since President Donald Trump8217s election as technology and industrial shares bolstered a recovery on easing trade war concerns Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York US April 4 2018 REUTERSLucas Jackson Shares of Boeing BAN and Caterpillar CATN among the worst hit on Wednesday after China retaliated with 50 billion in tariffs on US goods such as soybeans autos and some types of aircraft rose 17 percent and 3 percent 8220There is a lot of bad news on the trade front built into the market So the ability of the equity markets to push significantly lower is going to be limited8221 said John Brady senior vice president at RJ O8217Brien ampamp Associates in Chicago 8220We8217re going to need brand new bad news on trade for the equity markets to push lower8221 Facebook FBO Amazon AMZNO Alphabet GOOGLO and Netflix NFLXO collectively known as the 8220FANG8221 group were up between 12 percent and 26 percent At 1202 pm ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI was 146 percent at 2461739 The SampampP 500 SPX gained 103 percent to 267185 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC rose 092 percent to 710654 If current gains for SampampP 500 hold it would be the best threeday run since Trump8217s election victory in November 2016 Nine of the 11 major SampampP sectors were higher led by a 12 percent gain on the material SPLRCM and the energy SPNY indexes The SampampP 500 index showed four new 52week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq recorded 47 new highs and 24 new lows Facebook shares gained after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company had not seen 8220any meaningful impact8221 on usage or ad sales since the data privacy scandal Boeing Co 33581 BAN New York Stock Exchange 837 256 BAN CATN FBO AMZNO GOOGLO 8220Zuckerberg is going to testify the Congress next week on the Facebook issues so probably there8217s some bargain hunting in FANG space8221 said Brady On Wednesday the Dow bounced back from a 500 point fall earlier to close up about 230 points after President Donald Trump8217s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was involved in a 8220negotiation8221 with China rather than a trade war Economic data on Thursday showed the US trade deficit increased to a near 912year high in February but the shortfall with China narrowed sharply While exports to China were unchanged in February imports from the country declined 147 percent Advanced Micro Devices AMDO jumped 32 percent after Stifel upgraded to 8220buy8221 while Micron Technology MUO fell 53 percent after UBS started with a 8220sell8221 rating Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 276to1 ratio and on the Nasdaq for a 190to1 ratio Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters It took China just 11 hours to retaliate against the United States for proposing tariffs on some 1300 Chinese products but Chinese officials are holding back on taking aim at their largest American import government debt In a titfortat response to the Trump administration8217s plan for 25 percent duties on 50 billion of Chinese imports China hit back with its own list of similar duties on key American imports including soybeans planes cars beef and chemicals But officials signaled no interest for now in bringing their vast holdings of US Treasuries to the fight China held around 117 trillion of Treasuries as of the end of January making it the largest of Americas foreign creditors and the No 2 overall owner of US government bonds after the Federal Reserve Any move by China to chop its Treasury portfolio could inflict significant harm on US finances and global investors driving bond yields higher and making it more costly to finance the federal governmentGraphic Top US trade partners ampamp foreign holders of Treasuries reutrs2CUqQB0 Jeffrey Gundlach the chief executive of DoubleLine Capital LP said China can use its Treasury holdings as leverage but only if they keep holding them 8220It is more effective as a threat If they sell they have no threat8221 said Gundlach known as Wall Street8217s Bond King 8220It would only escalate the situation and eliminate their leverage8221 Prices on benchmark 10year US Treasury notes slipped on Wednesday giving back earlier gains on the trade news Their yield edged up to about 281 percent Wednesday afternoon China8217s Treasury holdings have dipped in recent months declining by about 30 billion from 120 trillion last August and they are down about 11 percent from their record high above 13 trillion in late 2013 according to US government data In all foreign governments own 4 trillion or more than a quarter of the 147 trillion in Treasury securities outstanding Asked by a reporter on Wednesday if China would reduce its US Treasury holdings in retaliation Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao reiterated China8217s longstanding policy regarding its foreign exchange reserves saying it is a responsible investor and that it will safeguard their value China8217s foreign exchange reserves the world8217s largest stood at about 313 trillion at the end of February with roughly a third of it held in Treasuries 8220If they wanted to pull the nuclear switch if they committed to dumping Treasuries it would have an immediate and temporary impact on money markets in the United States8221 said Jeff Klingelhofer a portfolio manager who oversees more than 6 billion at Thornburg Investment Management Inc 8220But I think it is a bigger hit to the sustainability of what they8217re trying to accomplish8221 Brad Setser senior fellow for international economicsamp160at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York said China can sell Treasuries and buy loweryielding European or Japanese debt But the effect would likely be to strengthen the yuan against the dollar weakening the relative desirability of its exports analysts said The sale could also tank the value of the Treasuries China retains with nothing to show for the aggression More likely if China wanted to turn up the heat it would let the yuan depreciate against the US dollar according to CFR8217s Setser a move that could kneecap the Trump administration8217s goal of jumpstarting US manufacturing The yuan weakened by about 025 percent on Wednesday but remains near its strongest in two and a half years Even if the likelihood of a change in Chinese policy regarding its Treasuries portfolio remains low investors are sensitive to the risk any big shift would pose to world financial markets where Treasuries are a global benchmark asset A January report that China might halt its purchases of Treasuries forced yields higher but China disputed the news and said it was only diversifying its foreign exchange reserves to safeguard their value Reporting by Kate Duguid and Trevor Hunnicutt Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan Editing by Dan Burns and James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | TORONTO/PROPN Jan/PROPN 19/NUM Reuters/PROPN Canada8217s/PROPN main/ADJ stock/NOUN index/NOUN rose/VERB on/ADP Friday/PROPN in/ADP a/DET broadbased/VERB rally/NOUN that/PRON was/AUX led/VERB by/ADP financial/ADJ and/CCONJ industrial/ADJ shares/NOUN while/SCONJ lower/ADJ oil/NOUN prices/NOUN weighed/VERB on/ADP energy/NOUN stocks/NOUN The/DET Toronto/PROPN Stock/PROPN Exchange8217s/PROPN SampampPTSX/PROPN composite/ADJ index/NOUN unofficially/ADV closed/VERB up/ADP 6899/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 042/NUM percent/NOUN at/ADP 1635346/NUM Nine/NUM of/ADP the/DET index8217s/PROPN 10/NUM main/ADJ groups/NOUN ended/VERB higher/ADJ Reporting/NOUN by/ADP Fergal/PROPN Smith/PROPN Editing/PROPN by/ADP Chizu/PROPN Nomiyama/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN NEW/PROPN YORK/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Wall/PROPN Street8217s/PROPN three/NUM major/ADJ indexes/NOUN staged/VERB a/DET comeback/NOUN to/PART close/VERB around/ADV 1/NUM 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<p /> NAWAZ SHARIF, LEADER, PAKISTAN MUSLIM LEAGUE (N) (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): These big challenges that we face, the difficulties are great. And we will solve these problems, God willing. We aren't afraid.
<p />
<p />HASSAN GHANI, TRNN CORRESPONDENT: Nawaz Sharif--is he the answer to Pakistan's problems, or just more of the same? As usual, it's complicated.
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<p />It was 14 years ago that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government in this parliament was overthrown by General Pervez Musharraf in a military coup. Nawaz Sharif was arrested, and later exiled to Saudi Arabia. Today, in an ironic twist of fate, Nawaz Sharif is back in government, and Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest.
<p />
<p />So although he entered politics under the wing of a general in the 1980s, the leader of Pakistan's new government has a confrontational past with the army.
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<p />The military is immensely powerful in Pakistan, with vast economic interests and huge political influence. In fact, the previous government for the most part allowed the army to dictate foreign policy. Nawaz Sharif says that has to change and power must be restored to the civilian administration. But his approach is likely to be more tactful this time round, tempered by his previous experiences, and the military is expected to be more receptive.
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<p />TALAT HUSSAIN, SENIOR JOURNALIST, EXPRESS NEWS: His relationship with the army in the past has not been all that rosy.
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<p />GHANI: Talat Hussain is one of Pakistan's top journalists, with a reputation for honesty and integrity. His political talk shows and reports from the field are watched by millions of Pakistanis every week. He believes Nawaz Sharif, the military, and public opinion have all evolved, making another ouster of a government led by Sharif highly unlikely.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: The issue with Nawaz Sharif right now is that he has to go beyond his past grudges. There's ample room for him that will allow him to do that, because the army over the last five years has changed remarkably. An independent media, a new judiciary, a very vibrant "in your face" kind of civil society--the old days of coups are gone, the generals being hoity-toity and not listening to you, and "you listen to our command" is gone. It's a completely new Pakistan that way. And Nawaz also knows that.
<p />
<p />But Nawaz also knows that in dealing with hardcore problems, such as counterterrorism, such as stabilizing the Balochistan border, he has to keep the army on its right side. So you would see, I would say, a fairly healthy relationship between Nawaz Sharif and the army, which will also have its change of guard and command in the next couple of months.
<p />
<p />GHANI: One likely bone of contention is Nawaz Sharif's plans to negotiate with Taliban groups operating inside Pakistan to bring an end to the regular bomb attacks and violence that have plagued the country for years. It's a policy shared by Imran Khan, whose party won enough seats in the elections to be a significant force in opposition. But it's also a policy that has polarized Pakistani public opinion.
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<p />ZAHID HUSSAIN, SENIOR EDITOR, NEWSLINE: Well, the military's already shown its skepticism about these negotiations.
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<p />GHANI: Zahid Hussain is an award-winning print journalist who runs Pakistan's Newsline magazine. He also reports for foreign publications, such as The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: In various statements, Taliban have clearly asserted that they do not want--they see democracy as anti-Islam, and they do not recognize the Pakistani constitution we have seen in the past too. TUhere have been negotiations with the Taliban and it never succeeded. There have been five peace agreements with the Taliban in the Tribal Areas, as well as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but it has not worked.
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<p />GHANI: But negotiations are already taking place in neighbouring Afghanistan and now seem inevitable in Pakistan.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: Well the whole world is negotiating with the Taliban. The Americans are negotiating with the Taliban. The Doha, you know, offices are to be opened. I think, if my information is correct, the Northern Alliance and the Taliban have already had a meeting. It's going to be a formal meeting eventually in the next couple of weeks, not even months. The Americans have endorsed it, the Saudis have endorsed it, the Iranians are part of it, the European Union has endorsed it. It's a question of formalizing it. So, it's not just, you know, a political party talking about talking to the Taliban. The whole world is talking to the Taliban. I think Nawaz Sharif, and also in the province where Imran Khan is likely to make his government, they will be the beneficiaries of this peace process, because they wouldn't have to deal with it. The wheels are already rolling. All they have to do is to make sure that they keep on rolling in the right direction.
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<p />GHANI: Sharif has also pledged to bring an end to U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, although he's been vague on when or how. It's an objective he may be able to achieve, with the U.S. looking for Pakistani co-operation as it pulls out of Afghanistan next year.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: The Americans will also be under pressure. They are already from the international community over that issue. It's not a very popular action. And I think probably as the Americans are planning to leave Afghanistan by 2014--and they need Pakistan's support badly for some kind of political settlement with the Taliban. So in this situation Pakistan can pressurize the Americans.
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<p />GHANI: But although in public, in the run-up to the elections, he capitalized on growing anti-U.S. sentiment, Nawaz Sharif has been careful not to overstep the mark, and post-elections he's pledged continued close relations with both the U.S. and U.K. governments.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: One thing is very clear, that it is not going to be hostile relations with the United States. If you look actually at 1996, last government, his relations with United States was not bad. It was a different situation altogether. I don't see any major change in U.S.-Pak relations under Nawaz Sharif.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: He's--he has a constituency that is right of centre, yes. But he was also the one (and people often forget that) who started the first "get Osama Bin Laden" operation in collaboration with the Americans under Bill Clinton, amply documented in Steve Coll's book Ghost Wars. So when people say that, you know, he's kind of pro-Taliban, I am not really too sure of that.
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<p />GHANI: At the same time, Nawaz Sharif has welcomed closer ties with the Chinese, who are already a major investor and trading partner, potentially diluting U.S. influence.
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<p />But the real test of his independence will be whether or not he presses ahead with the planned gas pipeline from Iran. Pakistan certainly needs the gas, but the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have warned against it, the U.S. threatening sanctions. Talat Hussain believes Nawaz Sharif certainly has options. Whether he takes them or not is a different matter.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: What would the Americans do? Tighten the squeeze on Pakistan? Okay, fine. They have $80&#160;billion or $90&#160;billion worth of military equipment to pull out of Pakistan in the next one and a half years. If you want to tighten the squeeze, well, frankly, find another route. They have to leave Afghanistan with a face-saving device. That's why they're talking to the Taliban. Guess what? Who's helping them do that? It's Pakistan. So frankly, it's not exactly the Americans saying, don't go for the Iran gas pipeline, or don't do this.
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<p />The Saudis also frankly have become a distant influence. Pakistan, in the last five years, for different reasons, did rely on the Saudis, but not really in a big way. Pakistan relies on the expat community that is based in Saudi Arabia. But, frankly, considering how their labor policy is changing, a lot of that is going to be shunted out of Saudi Arabia anyways.
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<p />So I think Pakistan is becoming increasingly inward looking, and internal pressures are going to be dictating the terms. And it's not a country without options. You know, really, it's a big country, at a very critical time for global community, when Americans want to leave Afghanistan with a good face, and they want to pull out of Pakistani territory in the need of a support. So we too probably will have a few cards to play. If Nawaz is smart about it, frankly, he can let everybody think that he is the dearest and the closest to them, and secure national interests. I mean, that's the way the game is played.
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<p />GHANI: So what of Nawaz Sharif's decades-long relationship with the House of Saud? Will his personal interests overbear on policymaking?
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: I think Nawaz Sharif has a traditional relationship with the Saudis, and that relationship is going to stay there. But remember, the same Nawaz Sharif family has also done something quite remarkable in the last four or five years, that is, building up a relationship with the Turks. The Turks are really big. And if you were to look at even the family investments, many of those investments have gone into Turkey as well.
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<p />So, you know, it's not that, you know, they are putting all their personal or business eggs or country's policy eggs in one basket of the Saudis, because all politics have been proven to be local. No foreign power, no matter how important it is, can be allowed to hold sway over the domestic needs. If the domestic need is to get gas from Iran, that's how it's going to be.
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<p />So I think Nawaz will also have to fine tune quite a lot of how he conducted the foreign policy, because the imperative of public pressure and delivering services to the people is too much. Gone are the days when you would look at, you know, foreign governments saying do this or don't do that.
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<p />GHANI: The 63-year-old veteran politician is also one of Pakistan's wealthiest industrialists. His party has built significant infrastructure and transport projects in the cities of his provincial heartland, Punjab, which have had a major impact.
<p />
<p />ADVERTISEMENT VOICEOVER: He introduced real change through privatization, deregulation.
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<p />GHANI: But he's also a fan of the free market and wants to privatize the railways and the national airline. He likes grandiose projects which are eye-catching but ultimately benefit relatively few, like his plans to build a bullet train service across the country and the motorway he built during his previous administration.
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<p />Z. HUSSAIN: He is basically fascinated [by] big projects like this. When he built the motorway, there was huge controversy around that, whether the government should have invested so much money on just motorway, which is being used by, you know, hundreds of cars every day, or that money could have been diverted to other places, more backward areas of the country where you don't have any roads at all.
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<p />GHANI: But although Nawaz Sharif is big business, his party relies for much of its support on rural Pakistan. And having seen the fury of voters against the outgoing government, and with a fierce political competitor like Imran Khan now in opposition, the new administration will have to take reviving the economy seriously.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: He's got a good economic team. And the dichotomy between the rural areas and the urban areas in an agricultural country like Pakistan doesn't quite hold. The urban area's prosperity depends on the produce in the rural areas. So I think he will have to really manage the both. It's not a question of one versus the other; it's really an all-inclusive. Both have to be the wheels that roll the national economy.
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<p />In urban areas, which are very, very important for the present leadership of Pakistan Muslim League (N), Nawaz, that is, there the competition is very stiff with their opponents. They cannot take anything for granted. And the voters' wrath against the previous government has been absolutely breathtaking. And Nawaz Sharif knows that if they continue to misgovern like their predecessors, they will also be shown the door and obliterated, literally obliterated.
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<p />GHANI: Part of his plan to improve government spending is to end the arms race with India. He's tried to build bridges in the past. That will allow him to reduce the country's massive military expenditure. But it's a route fraught with risk, putting him again on a collision course with the country's military establishment.
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<p />Where he can and is likely to succeed is to end load-shedding, or power outages. The incredible mismanagement of Pakistan's electricity supply has meant some cities are crippled, with up to 12 hours of power cuts a day. In rural areas it's worse. The issue was a major rallying point in the election campaign.
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: This country is not underproducing. It has enough capacity. It's not an issue of capacity. It's a question of this capacity not being optimally utilized, because the companies that produce electricity and those companies that supply them oil and gas, frankly, they are never paid properly on time. Therefore the cycle of payment is interfering with the cycle of production. So, number one, he needs to get that cycle right. If I understand his close associates well enough, they have been working on it for almost a year now. So in the first 100-days plan that they have, they have a game plan ready. So I think you will see reduction in load-shedding, which is going to be an immediate relief, eight hours of load-shedding reduced to four hours in the first six months--not exactly a bad achievement. But if eight hours of load-shedding is to be degenerating into twelve hours of load-shedding, then Nawaz Sharif would have collapsed in the first year.
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<p />GHANI: And, of course, the ultimate question: what about corruption?
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<p />T. HUSSAIN: I think the barometer of success for Nawaz Sharif, apart from immediately addressing issues like electricity breakdowns, and law and order, and police, and creating some sort of a momentum towards creation of jobs and giving people hope and sustaining--apart from doing these things, the trajectory of his government and policies is going to be very important. If he's seen to be genuinely moving in the direction of eradicating corruption, then, frankly, not many people are going to be asking in the first year, how much corruption have you been able to eradicate, if the progress and the trajectory is good.
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<p />GHANI: Nawaz Sharif knows that Pakistan has changed. Pakistanis expect more from their leaders, and the honeymoon period will soon be over. If he doesn't start delivering quickly, he too, like the outgoing People's Party, will be left staring into the political abyss. Time is not on his side.
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<p />With cameraman Arsal Jalib, this is Hassan Ghani, for The Real News, Islamabad.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Pakistan's New PM Sharif Urges Talks with Taliban | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D767%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10226 | 2013-05-22 | 4left
| 2,494 | NAWAZ SHARIF LEADER PAKISTAN MUSLIM LEAGUE N SUBTITLED TRANSL These big challenges that we face the difficulties are great And we will solve these problems God willing We arent afraid HASSAN GHANI TRNN CORRESPONDENT Nawaz Sharifis he the answer to Pakistans problems or just more of the same As usual its complicated It was 14 years ago that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs government in this parliament was overthrown by General Pervez Musharraf in a military coup Nawaz Sharif was arrested and later exiled to Saudi Arabia Today in an ironic twist of fate Nawaz Sharif is back in government and Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest So although he entered politics under the wing of a general in the 1980s the leader of Pakistans new government has a confrontational past with the army The military is immensely powerful in Pakistan with vast economic interests and huge political influence In fact the previous government for the most part allowed the army to dictate foreign policy Nawaz Sharif says that has to change and power must be restored to the civilian administration But his approach is likely to be more tactful this time round tempered by his previous experiences and the military is expected to be more receptive TALAT HUSSAIN SENIOR JOURNALIST EXPRESS NEWS His relationship with the army in the past has not been all that rosy GHANI Talat Hussain is one of Pakistans top journalists with a reputation for honesty and integrity His political talk shows and reports from the field are watched by millions of Pakistanis every week He believes Nawaz Sharif the military and public opinion have all evolved making another ouster of a government led by Sharif highly unlikely T HUSSAIN The issue with Nawaz Sharif right now is that he has to go beyond his past grudges Theres ample room for him that will allow him to do that because the army over the last five years has changed remarkably An independent media a new judiciary a very vibrant in your face kind of civil societythe old days of coups are gone the generals being hoitytoity and not listening to you and you listen to our command is gone Its a completely new Pakistan that way And Nawaz also knows that But Nawaz also knows that in dealing with hardcore problems such as counterterrorism such as stabilizing the Balochistan border he has to keep the army on its right side So you would see I would say a fairly healthy relationship between Nawaz Sharif and the army which will also have its change of guard and command in the next couple of months GHANI One likely bone of contention is Nawaz Sharifs plans to negotiate with Taliban groups operating inside Pakistan to bring an end to the regular bomb attacks and violence that have plagued the country for years Its a policy shared by Imran Khan whose party won enough seats in the elections to be a significant force in opposition But its also a policy that has polarized Pakistani public opinion ZAHID HUSSAIN SENIOR EDITOR NEWSLINE Well the militarys already shown its skepticism about these negotiations GHANI Zahid Hussain is an awardwinning print journalist who runs Pakistans Newsline magazine He also reports for foreign publications such as The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal Z HUSSAIN In various statements Taliban have clearly asserted that they do not wantthey see democracy as antiIslam and they do not recognize the Pakistani constitution we have seen in the past too TUhere have been negotiations with the Taliban and it never succeeded There have been five peace agreements with the Taliban in the Tribal Areas as well as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but it has not worked GHANI But negotiations are already taking place in neighbouring Afghanistan and now seem inevitable in Pakistan T HUSSAIN Well the whole world is negotiating with the Taliban The Americans are negotiating with the Taliban The Doha you know offices are to be opened I think if my information is correct the Northern Alliance and the Taliban have already had a meeting Its going to be a formal meeting eventually in the next couple of weeks not even months The Americans have endorsed it the Saudis have endorsed it the Iranians are part of it the European Union has endorsed it Its a question of formalizing it So its not just you know a political party talking about talking to the Taliban The whole world is talking to the Taliban I think Nawaz Sharif and also in the province where Imran Khan is likely to make his government they will be the beneficiaries of this peace process because they wouldnt have to deal with it The wheels are already rolling All they have to do is to make sure that they keep on rolling in the right direction GHANI Sharif has also pledged to bring an end to US drone strikes in Pakistan although hes been vague on when or how Its an objective he may be able to achieve with the US looking for Pakistani cooperation as it pulls out of Afghanistan next year Z HUSSAIN The Americans will also be under pressure They are already from the international community over that issue Its not a very popular action And I think probably as the Americans are planning to leave Afghanistan by 2014and they need Pakistans support badly for some kind of political settlement with the Taliban So in this situation Pakistan can pressurize the Americans GHANI But although in public in the runup to the elections he capitalized on growing antiUS sentiment Nawaz Sharif has been careful not to overstep the mark and postelections hes pledged continued close relations with both the US and UK governments Z HUSSAIN One thing is very clear that it is not going to be hostile relations with the United States If you look actually at 1996 last government his relations with United States was not bad It was a different situation altogether I dont see any major change in USPak relations under Nawaz Sharif T HUSSAIN Heshe has a constituency that is right of centre yes But he was also the one and people often forget that who started the first get Osama Bin Laden operation in collaboration with the Americans under Bill Clinton amply documented in Steve Colls book Ghost Wars So when people say that you know hes kind of proTaliban I am not really too sure of that GHANI At the same time Nawaz Sharif has welcomed closer ties with the Chinese who are already a major investor and trading partner potentially diluting US influence But the real test of his independence will be whether or not he presses ahead with the planned gas pipeline from Iran Pakistan certainly needs the gas but the US and Saudi Arabia have warned against it the US threatening sanctions Talat Hussain believes Nawaz Sharif certainly has options Whether he takes them or not is a different matter T HUSSAIN What would the Americans do Tighten the squeeze on Pakistan Okay fine They have 80amp160billion or 90amp160billion worth of military equipment to pull out of Pakistan in the next one and a half years If you want to tighten the squeeze well frankly find another route They have to leave Afghanistan with a facesaving device Thats why theyre talking to the Taliban Guess what Whos helping them do that Its Pakistan So frankly its not exactly the Americans saying dont go for the Iran gas pipeline or dont do this The Saudis also frankly have become a distant influence Pakistan in the last five years for different reasons did rely on the Saudis but not really in a big way Pakistan relies on the expat community that is based in Saudi Arabia But frankly considering how their labor policy is changing a lot of that is going to be shunted out of Saudi Arabia anyways So I think Pakistan is becoming increasingly inward looking and internal pressures are going to be dictating the terms And its not a country without options You know really its a big country at a very critical time for global community when Americans want to leave Afghanistan with a good face and they want to pull out of Pakistani territory in the need of a support So we too probably will have a few cards to play If Nawaz is smart about it frankly he can let everybody think that he is the dearest and the closest to them and secure national interests I mean thats the way the game is played GHANI So what of Nawaz Sharifs decadeslong relationship with the House of Saud Will his personal interests overbear on policymaking T HUSSAIN I think Nawaz Sharif has a traditional relationship with the Saudis and that relationship is going to stay there But remember the same Nawaz Sharif family has also done something quite remarkable in the last four or five years that is building up a relationship with the Turks The Turks are really big And if you were to look at even the family investments many of those investments have gone into Turkey as well So you know its not that you know they are putting all their personal or business eggs or countrys policy eggs in one basket of the Saudis because all politics have been proven to be local No foreign power no matter how important it is can be allowed to hold sway over the domestic needs If the domestic need is to get gas from Iran thats how its going to be So I think Nawaz will also have to fine tune quite a lot of how he conducted the foreign policy because the imperative of public pressure and delivering services to the people is too much Gone are the days when you would look at you know foreign governments saying do this or dont do that GHANI The 63yearold veteran politician is also one of Pakistans wealthiest industrialists His party has built significant infrastructure and transport projects in the cities of his provincial heartland Punjab which have had a major impact ADVERTISEMENT VOICEOVER He introduced real change through privatization deregulation GHANI But hes also a fan of the free market and wants to privatize the railways and the national airline He likes grandiose projects which are eyecatching but ultimately benefit relatively few like his plans to build a bullet train service across the country and the motorway he built during his previous administration Z HUSSAIN He is basically fascinated by big projects like this When he built the motorway there was huge controversy around that whether the government should have invested so much money on just motorway which is being used by you know hundreds of cars every day or that money could have been diverted to other places more backward areas of the country where you dont have any roads at all GHANI But although Nawaz Sharif is big business his party relies for much of its support on rural Pakistan And having seen the fury of voters against the outgoing government and with a fierce political competitor like Imran Khan now in opposition the new administration will have to take reviving the economy seriously T HUSSAIN Hes got a good economic team And the dichotomy between the rural areas and the urban areas in an agricultural country like Pakistan doesnt quite hold The urban areas prosperity depends on the produce in the rural areas So I think he will have to really manage the both Its not a question of one versus the other its really an allinclusive Both have to be the wheels that roll the national economy In urban areas which are very very important for the present leadership of Pakistan Muslim League N Nawaz that is there the competition is very stiff with their opponents They cannot take anything for granted And the voters wrath against the previous government has been absolutely breathtaking And Nawaz Sharif knows that if they continue to misgovern like their predecessors they will also be shown the door and obliterated literally obliterated GHANI Part of his plan to improve government spending is to end the arms race with India Hes tried to build bridges in the past That will allow him to reduce the countrys massive military expenditure But its a route fraught with risk putting him again on a collision course with the countrys military establishment Where he can and is likely to succeed is to end loadshedding or power outages The incredible mismanagement of Pakistans electricity supply has meant some cities are crippled with up to 12 hours of power cuts a day In rural areas its worse The issue was a major rallying point in the election campaign T HUSSAIN This country is not underproducing It has enough capacity Its not an issue of capacity Its a question of this capacity not being optimally utilized because the companies that produce electricity and those companies that supply them oil and gas frankly they are never paid properly on time Therefore the cycle of payment is interfering with the cycle of production So number one he needs to get that cycle right If I understand his close associates well enough they have been working on it for almost a year now So in the first 100days plan that they have they have a game plan ready So I think you will see reduction in loadshedding which is going to be an immediate relief eight hours of loadshedding reduced to four hours in the first six monthsnot exactly a bad achievement But if eight hours of loadshedding is to be degenerating into twelve hours of loadshedding then Nawaz Sharif would have collapsed in the first year GHANI And of course the ultimate question what about corruption T HUSSAIN I think the barometer of success for Nawaz Sharif apart from immediately addressing issues like electricity breakdowns and law and order and police and creating some sort of a momentum towards creation of jobs and giving people hope and sustainingapart from doing these things the trajectory of his government and policies is going to be very important If hes seen to be genuinely moving in the direction of eradicating corruption then frankly not many people are going to be asking in the first year how much corruption have you been able to eradicate if the progress and the trajectory is good GHANI Nawaz Sharif knows that Pakistan has changed Pakistanis expect more from their leaders and the honeymoon period will soon be over If he doesnt start delivering quickly he too like the outgoing Peoples Party will be left staring into the political abyss Time is not on his side With cameraman Arsal Jalib this is Hassan Ghani for The Real News Islamabad End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | NAWAZ/ADJ SHARIF/PROPN LEADER/PROPN PAKISTAN/PROPN MUSLIM/PROPN LEAGUE/PROPN N/PROPN SUBTITLED/PROPN TRANSL/PROPN These/DET big/ADJ challenges/NOUN that/PRON we/PRON face/VERB the/DET difficulties/NOUN are/AUX great/ADJ And/CCONJ we/PRON will/AUX solve/VERB these/DET problems/NOUN God/PROPN willing/ADJ We/PRON are/AUX nt/PART afraid/ADJ HASSAN/PROPN GHANI/PROPN TRNN/PROPN CORRESPONDENT/PROPN Nawaz/PROPN Sharifis/PROPN he/PRON the/DET answer/NOUN to/ADP Pakistans/PROPN problems/NOUN or/CCONJ just/ADV more/ADJ of/ADP the/DET same/ADJ As/ADP usual/ADJ its/PRON complicated/ADJ It/PRON was/AUX 14/NUM years/NOUN ago/ADV that/SCONJ Prime/PROPN 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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
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<p />For almost 50 years, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have been in one level of warfare or another with the government of Colombia. And now there is again talk of a peace process.
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<p />Now joining us from Bogotá to talk about the peace process is Forrest Hylton. Forrest is an associate professor of history at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. He was recently awarded a postdoctorial fellowship at New York University's ['tɪmə"mɛnthiən] library. Also he's the author of several books, including Evil Hour in Colombia, Vanishing Acts: A Tragedy, and he's coauthor of Revolutionary Horizons: Past and Present in Bolivian Politics. Thanks for joining us again, Forrest.
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<p />FORREST HYLTON, ASSOCIATE HISTORY PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF THE ANDES (COLOMBIA): Good to be here, Paul.
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<p />JAY: So what are the most recent developments in these negotiations or peace process that is taking place in Colombia?
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<p />HYLTON: Well, we're still a ways off from a peace process, but a French journalist who had been held in FARC custody for 32 days was released, which demonstrates the FARC's commitment to keep its pledge to refrain from kidnapping for the purposes of charging ransom. So it's pretty clear that the FARC is serious about refraining from using kidnapping as a tactic for—either, really, to gain political leverage or, you know, to get money. And FARC alienated an enormous swath of the Colombian public for decades using kidnapping either for political reasons or for the purposes of charging ransom as a tactic. And they have apparently abandoned that tactic, which may indeed open a door to serious negotiations
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<p />JAY: Right. And there was a car bomb that went off recently. What is the story about that?
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<p />HYLTON: The car bomb that went off here in Bogotá two weeks ago was detonated the very day that legislation was introduced to Congress that would regulate kind of the framework for a peace process with the FARC. So the timing was very curious, in the sense that nobody who wishes to see a peace process could possibly have been behind or in favor of that kind of attack. The former minister, Fernando Londoño, who was the immediate target of the attack and was injured in the attack, immediately claimed that the FARC had been behind it, as did former President Álvaro Uribe. And Fernando Londoño is indeed an important public figure on the far right. I believe he has a radio program as well as a newspaper column. And he and the sector of public opinion that he represents would certainly be among the staunchest opponents of any negotiation with the FARC and an end to the war in Colombia on any terms other than those of the victors.
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<p />JAY: Well, is there indication from FARC that they want this kind of process? And if there is some sense they do, why would they want to scuttle it with a car bomb?
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<p />HYLTON: Well, that's the question that people who question the official version of events—that's the question that immediately comes up. The FARC, indeed, at the highest levels, is in favor of advancing some kind of peace negotiations with the current government. It's not clear how far that will get, given that current president Santos will be bucking for reelection in 2014. So it's not clear how far the process is going to get before an election, although if Santos were able to make any kind of progress towards peace before the elections in 2014, that would certainly guarantee his reelection. So I suppose it depends on how much political capital he's willing to risk. But he has made it clear, at least in his public statements, that he thinks the time has come to begin negotiating. And that's very different from the posture of his predecessor, who was adamant about the need to defeat the guerrillas militarily before considering negotiations.
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<p />JAY: Right. Now, just in terms of a little bit of background for the people that aren't too familiar with the story, can you give us a really quick sketch of FARC in terms of its development and what kind of organization, what the character of it is now?
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<p />HYLTON: Well, the FARC is an organization that has lasted for over 50 years. It was originally founded in 1966, but the FARC dates its founding to 1964. And historians can certainly see kind of the origins of the FARC going back even further, the late 1940s, when the Communist Party in Colombia set up self-defense forces that later morphed into guerrilla groups. So the FARC had been around for, you know, a good part of the 20th century in Colombia.
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<p />And they were originally composed almost entirely of frontier kind of—what would you call them?—settlers, frontier settlers. And over time, the FARC morphed from kind of a regionally-based guerrilla organization on the agrarian frontier that was rooted in a base of frontier settlers, it morphed into this gigantic military machine that managed to achieve a presence far beyond kind of the isolated jungle regions where it was born, and expanded throughout the country in the 1980s and '90s. And it was largely taxes from the cocaine trade, as well as kidnapping, that provided money for the expansion of the FARC.
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<p />So the FARC's tactics, in terms of its relationship to the drug trade, as well as kidnapping and extortion, have made the group deeply unpopular with the vast majority of the country's citizens, who live in the cities, not in isolated rural frontier areas. So there's a big disconnect between the FARC and the majority of Colombian public opinion in that respect, and only a peace process could begin to bridge it.
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<p />JAY: In the earlier days of the FARC, it was considered one of the groups that were part of the sort of national liberation struggles in Latin America, and even generally in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with kind of what people would call progressive or even socialist ideals. Is that true of it at some stage? And is there any of that left?
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<p />HYLTON: To the extent that the FARC continues to pledge allegiance to a vision of Colombia as more or less the Sweden of South America, you can say that there is a kind of for social democratic vision, if you like, or for social democratic program. Nationalist social democracy is more or less how I would describe the FARC in terms of program and ideology.
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<p />They were linked at the hip with the Colombian Communist Party for a very, very long time, which is to say, for most of its existence. And they were in fact considered, for better or for worse, to be a component of the Colombian left in the decades when such a thing existed.
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<p />But there's really almost nothing of a Colombian left in the public sphere to speak of, and the FARC certainly are not part of it. In fact, they are one of the reasons why the non-armed left is so weak in Colombia, because the paramilitary right, which is armed to the teeth and linked to military intelligence, as well as, you know, other instances of the military and police apparatus, the paramilitary right has always considered the non-armed left to be fair game in its struggle against the FARC. So the FARC is very much like an elephant that the unarmed Colombian left has had to carry on its back for decade after decade, which is one reason why it's so weak if you compare it to the left in countries like Venezuela or Ecuador or Bolivia.
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<p />JAY: Now, during the time of President Uribe, the relations with Venezuela and Hugo Chávez were pretty sour. There was even times where there was talk of war. Now with President Santos there seems to be a rapprochement with Chávez. But there was always this accusation, certainly from Uribe, at least, that somehow Venezuela and Chávez were secretly supporting FARC and all of that. What do you make of that relationship between Venezuela and FARC? And where are things at now with Santos there?
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<p />HYLTON: It seems to me that, you know, given that they have been saying, more or less since Chávez came to power in '98, that he has ties to the FARC, you would think that those people who sustain that thesis would have been able to come up with some evidence to demonstrate it by now. But so far, since 1998, nobody has been able to come up with any evidence suggesting there are concrete ties between Chávez and the FARC.
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<p />Are there Chavistas, followers of Chávez, particularly at the regional levels along the border with Colombia, who have ties to the FARC? I don't know, but I would imagine that there are. But that's really different than any kind of systematic tie between the Chávez regime and the FARC.
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<p />And that systematic tie, which has never been demonstrated or proven by anyone at any time, remains kind of the heart of the discourse that people like Fernando Londoño and former president Álvaro Uribe use, you know, whenever they say that you really can't negotiate with terrorists, you just have to destroy them, in order to try to scuttle any peace process with the FARC.
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<p />JAY: But President Santos has pulled back on some of that rhetoric himself, even though in his election campaign he practically ran on that, didn't he. But since he's been elected, he's not really accusing Venezuela, Chávez of this anymore. Is that correct?
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<p />HYLTON: That is correct. Santos was Uribe's minister of defense, and he appeared to be a Uribe clone when he ran for president. But as soon as he was elected and took over, he began to make some changes, the most important of which is surely related to foreign policy. Colombia's foreign policy has switched rather dramatically from the time that Álvaro Uribe was president, because under Uribe, Colombia tied its fortunes so closely to those of the United States that it really isolated itself in the hemisphere with respect to other Latin American countries, particularly Brazil and Venezuela, of course. And as soon as Santos entered office, he righted that immediately. And I believe the first place he visited was not the United States but, rather, Brazil, and maybe the second place was Venezuela.
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<p />In any event, Santos is very keen to integrate Colombia into hemispheric developments, including developments that don't pass through the United States. And therefore he's been very active participating in organizations like UNASUR and the Organization of American States. Meanwhile, of course, he's maintained very good ties to the United States as well. So the shift in foreign policy towards tighter integration with its neighbors hasn't come at the expense of Colombia's relations with United States, as evidenced by the passage of the free trade agreement.
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<p />But Santos in many ways does represent continuity with Uribe, in the sense that the lands that were stolen under Uribe have not been redistributed to the people they were stolen from. And in terms of kind of economic policy generally, there really hasn't been much of a shift from Uribe to Santos. Santos is, however, politically quite different than Uribe in terms of being willing to negotiate with the guerrilla under certain conditions, as it was very difficult to imagine conditions under which Uribe would have negotiated other than total surrender.
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<p />JAY: Right. And he also broke with the U.S. on the issue of Cuba at the Summit of the Americas Meeting. He kind of stayed in solidarity with the rest of Latin America over that Cuba should have been at the conference. Is that right?
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<p />HYLTON: That's right. And Santos has also been willing to take something of a leading role in bringing up the issue of legalization of drugs. And he's certainly backed by presidents in Central America, as well as Mexico. But that's a stance that, of course, Álvaro Uribe, his predecessor, would never even have considered. And those who advocate the legalization of drugs were in fact demonized under Uribe.
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<p />So there have been some important changes, especially at the level of kind of hemispheric relations, but also potentially at the political level of negotiations with the FARC under certain conditions, rather than just unilateral surrender, which is what Uribe more or less demanded.
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<p />JAY: Right. And in spite of the fact that Santos is not really accusing Venezuela of supporting and being connected to FARC, it hasn't stopped the U.S. State Department for—when they do—or U.S. politicians, when they do talk about Venezuela, it hasn't stopped them from continually accusing them of being supporters of FARC.
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<p />HYLTON: Well, both Venezuela—both the Venezuelan and the Colombian right are very active in Washington, and they certainly have their supporters in the United States in pushing kind of this line of thinking and interpretation. But, again, it's been a pretty long time since these accusations have been floating around, and there's never been any kind of conclusive evidence at all for anything, you know, not even the kind of yellowcake, you know, that we saw in the run-up to the Iraq War, sort of fabricated truths. We have even seen that. So there really hasn't been a shred of evidence. And Santos has enjoyed very good relations with Chávez so far. And again, there are economic interests at stake which, you know, certainly are much more important to President Santos than the kind of ideological axes that President Uribe was [incompr.] trying to grind.
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<p />JAY: Which is that they're very big trading partners, Colombia and Venezuela.
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<p />HYLTON: That's right. Colombia depends on Venezuela almost as much as it depends on the United States as a consumer market. So bilateral relations, trading relations are extremely important. And Venezuela really has the leverage as the consumer, and Colombia as the producer, in those commercial relations. So Santos is in that sense very much a kind of shrewd strategist of what Colombia's economic interests are. And when I say the country's economic interests, of course what I really mean is the sort of business class here in Colombia. And Santos definitely wants to see the Colombian business class position itself as one of the leaders in Latin America.
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<p />JAY: We'll come back to you soon, as this—if there is a peace process. And we know the vast majority of the Colombian people, and thousands of people, even, in demonstrations, have been demanding an end to this war. And we'll come back to you soon, Forrest, as we follow the story. Thanks very much for joining us.
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<p />HYLTON: Good to be here, Paul.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Who Wants Peace in Colombia? | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D8399 | 2012-06-01 | 4left
| 2,494 | PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Baltimore For almost 50 years the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have been in one level of warfare or another with the government of Colombia And now there is again talk of a peace process Now joining us from Bogot195161 to talk about the peace process is Forrest Hylton Forrest is an associate professor of history at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogot195161 He was recently awarded a postdoctorial fellowship at New York Universitys t201170m201153m201155nthi201153n library Also hes the author of several books including Evil Hour in Colombia Vanishing Acts A Tragedy and hes coauthor of Revolutionary Horizons Past and Present in Bolivian Politics Thanks for joining us again Forrest FORREST HYLTON ASSOCIATE HISTORY PROFESSOR UNIVERSITY OF THE ANDES COLOMBIA Good to be here Paul JAY So what are the most recent developments in these negotiations or peace process that is taking place in Colombia HYLTON Well were still a ways off from a peace process but a French journalist who had been held in FARC custody for 32 days was released which demonstrates the FARCs commitment to keep its pledge to refrain from kidnapping for the purposes of charging ransom So its pretty clear that the FARC is serious about refraining from using kidnapping as a tactic for226128148either really to gain political leverage or you know to get money And FARC alienated an enormous swath of the Colombian public for decades using kidnapping either for political reasons or for the purposes of charging ransom as a tactic And they have apparently abandoned that tactic which may indeed open a door to serious negotiations JAY Right And there was a car bomb that went off recently What is the story about that HYLTON The car bomb that went off here in Bogot195161 two weeks ago was detonated the very day that legislation was introduced to Congress that would regulate kind of the framework for a peace process with the FARC So the timing was very curious in the sense that nobody who wishes to see a peace process could possibly have been behind or in favor of that kind of attack The former minister Fernando Londo195177o who was the immediate target of the attack and was injured in the attack immediately claimed that the FARC had been behind it as did former President 195129lvaro Uribe And Fernando Londo195177o is indeed an important public figure on the far right I believe he has a radio program as well as a newspaper column And he and the sector of public opinion that he represents would certainly be among the staunchest opponents of any negotiation with the FARC and an end to the war in Colombia on any terms other than those of the victors JAY Well is there indication from FARC that they want this kind of process And if there is some sense they do why would they want to scuttle it with a car bomb HYLTON Well thats the question that people who question the official version of events226128148thats the question that immediately comes up The FARC indeed at the highest levels is in favor of advancing some kind of peace negotiations with the current government Its not clear how far that will get given that current president Santos will be bucking for reelection in 2014 So its not clear how far the process is going to get before an election although if Santos were able to make any kind of progress towards peace before the elections in 2014 that would certainly guarantee his reelection So I suppose it depends on how much political capital hes willing to risk But he has made it clear at least in his public statements that he thinks the time has come to begin negotiating And thats very different from the posture of his predecessor who was adamant about the need to defeat the guerrillas militarily before considering negotiations JAY Right Now just in terms of a little bit of background for the people that arent too familiar with the story can you give us a really quick sketch of FARC in terms of its development and what kind of organization what the character of it is now HYLTON Well the FARC is an organization that has lasted for over 50 years It was originally founded in 1966 but the FARC dates its founding to 1964 And historians can certainly see kind of the origins of the FARC going back even further the late 1940s when the Communist Party in Colombia set up selfdefense forces that later morphed into guerrilla groups So the FARC had been around for you know a good part of the 20th century in Colombia And they were originally composed almost entirely of frontier kind of226128148what would you call them226128148settlers frontier settlers And over time the FARC morphed from kind of a regionallybased guerrilla organization on the agrarian frontier that was rooted in a base of frontier settlers it morphed into this gigantic military machine that managed to achieve a presence far beyond kind of the isolated jungle regions where it was born and expanded throughout the country in the 1980s and 90s And it was largely taxes from the cocaine trade as well as kidnapping that provided money for the expansion of the FARC So the FARCs tactics in terms of its relationship to the drug trade as well as kidnapping and extortion have made the group deeply unpopular with the vast majority of the countrys citizens who live in the cities not in isolated rural frontier areas So theres a big disconnect between the FARC and the majority of Colombian public opinion in that respect and only a peace process could begin to bridge it JAY In the earlier days of the FARC it was considered one of the groups that were part of the sort of national liberation struggles in Latin America and even generally in Asia Africa and Latin America with kind of what people would call progressive or even socialist ideals Is that true of it at some stage And is there any of that left HYLTON To the extent that the FARC continues to pledge allegiance to a vision of Colombia as more or less the Sweden of South America you can say that there is a kind of for social democratic vision if you like or for social democratic program Nationalist social democracy is more or less how I would describe the FARC in terms of program and ideology They were linked at the hip with the Colombian Communist Party for a very very long time which is to say for most of its existence And they were in fact considered for better or for worse to be a component of the Colombian left in the decades when such a thing existed But theres really almost nothing of a Colombian left in the public sphere to speak of and the FARC certainly are not part of it In fact they are one of the reasons why the nonarmed left is so weak in Colombia because the paramilitary right which is armed to the teeth and linked to military intelligence as well as you know other instances of the military and police apparatus the paramilitary right has always considered the nonarmed left to be fair game in its struggle against the FARC So the FARC is very much like an elephant that the unarmed Colombian left has had to carry on its back for decade after decade which is one reason why its so weak if you compare it to the left in countries like Venezuela or Ecuador or Bolivia JAY Now during the time of President Uribe the relations with Venezuela and Hugo Ch195161vez were pretty sour There was even times where there was talk of war Now with President Santos there seems to be a rapprochement with Ch195161vez But there was always this accusation certainly from Uribe at least that somehow Venezuela and Ch195161vez were secretly supporting FARC and all of that What do you make of that relationship between Venezuela and FARC And where are things at now with Santos there HYLTON It seems to me that you know given that they have been saying more or less since Ch195161vez came to power in 98 that he has ties to the FARC you would think that those people who sustain that thesis would have been able to come up with some evidence to demonstrate it by now But so far since 1998 nobody has been able to come up with any evidence suggesting there are concrete ties between Ch195161vez and the FARC Are there Chavistas followers of Ch195161vez particularly at the regional levels along the border with Colombia who have ties to the FARC I dont know but I would imagine that there are But thats really different than any kind of systematic tie between the Ch195161vez regime and the FARC And that systematic tie which has never been demonstrated or proven by anyone at any time remains kind of the heart of the discourse that people like Fernando Londo195177o and former president 195129lvaro Uribe use you know whenever they say that you really cant negotiate with terrorists you just have to destroy them in order to try to scuttle any peace process with the FARC JAY But President Santos has pulled back on some of that rhetoric himself even though in his election campaign he practically ran on that didnt he But since hes been elected hes not really accusing Venezuela Ch195161vez of this anymore Is that correct HYLTON That is correct Santos was Uribes minister of defense and he appeared to be a Uribe clone when he ran for president But as soon as he was elected and took over he began to make some changes the most important of which is surely related to foreign policy Colombias foreign policy has switched rather dramatically from the time that 195129lvaro Uribe was president because under Uribe Colombia tied its fortunes so closely to those of the United States that it really isolated itself in the hemisphere with respect to other Latin American countries particularly Brazil and Venezuela of course And as soon as Santos entered office he righted that immediately And I believe the first place he visited was not the United States but rather Brazil and maybe the second place was Venezuela In any event Santos is very keen to integrate Colombia into hemispheric developments including developments that dont pass through the United States And therefore hes been very active participating in organizations like UNASUR and the Organization of American States Meanwhile of course hes maintained very good ties to the United States as well So the shift in foreign policy towards tighter integration with its neighbors hasnt come at the expense of Colombias relations with United States as evidenced by the passage of the free trade agreement But Santos in many ways does represent continuity with Uribe in the sense that the lands that were stolen under Uribe have not been redistributed to the people they were stolen from And in terms of kind of economic policy generally there really hasnt been much of a shift from Uribe to Santos Santos is however politically quite different than Uribe in terms of being willing to negotiate with the guerrilla under certain conditions as it was very difficult to imagine conditions under which Uribe would have negotiated other than total surrender JAY Right And he also broke with the US on the issue of Cuba at the Summit of the Americas Meeting He kind of stayed in solidarity with the rest of Latin America over that Cuba should have been at the conference Is that right HYLTON Thats right And Santos has also been willing to take something of a leading role in bringing up the issue of legalization of drugs And hes certainly backed by presidents in Central America as well as Mexico But thats a stance that of course 194157195129lvaro Uribe his predecessor would never even have considered And those who advocate the legalization of drugs were in fact demonized under Uribe So there have been some important changes especially at the level of kind of hemispheric relations but also potentially at the political level of negotiations with the FARC under certain conditions rather than just unilateral surrender which is what Uribe more or less demanded JAY Right And in spite of the fact that Santos is not really accusing Venezuela of supporting and being connected to FARC it hasnt stopped the US State Department for226128148when they do226128148or US politicians when they do talk about Venezuela it hasnt stopped them from continually accusing them of being supporters of FARC HYLTON Well both Venezuela226128148both the Venezuelan and the Colombian right are very active in Washington and they certainly have their supporters in the United States in pushing kind of this line of thinking and interpretation But again its been a pretty long time since these accusations have been floating around and theres never been any kind of conclusive evidence at all for anything you know not even the kind of yellowcake you know that we saw in the runup to the Iraq War sort of fabricated truths We have even seen that So there really hasnt been a shred of evidence And Santos has enjoyed very good relations with Ch195161vez so far And again there are economic interests at stake which you know certainly are much more important to President Santos than the kind of ideological axes that President Uribe was incompr trying to grind JAY Which is that theyre very big trading partners Colombia and Venezuela HYLTON Thats right Colombia depends on Venezuela almost as much as it depends on the United States as a consumer market So bilateral relations trading relations are extremely important And Venezuela really has the leverage as the consumer and Colombia as the producer in those commercial relations So Santos is in that sense very much a kind of shrewd strategist of what Colombias economic interests are And when I say the countrys economic interests of course what I really mean is the sort of business class here in Colombia And Santos definitely wants to see the Colombian business class position itself as one of the leaders in Latin America JAY Well come back to you soon as this226128148if there is a peace process And we know the vast majority of the Colombian people and thousands of people even in demonstrations have been demanding an end to this war And well come back to you soon Forrest as we follow the story Thanks very much for joining us HYLTON Good to be here Paul JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | PAUL/PROPN JAY/PROPN SENIOR/PROPN EDITOR/NOUN TRNN/PROPN Welcome/PROPN to/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN Network/PROPN I/PRON m/VERB Paul/PROPN Jay/PROPN in/ADP Baltimore/PROPN For/ADP almost/ADV 50/NUM years/NOUN the/DET Revolutionary/PROPN Armed/PROPN Forces/PROPN of/ADP Colombia/PROPN have/AUX been/AUX in/ADP one/NUM level/NOUN of/ADP warfare/NOUN or/CCONJ another/PRON with/ADP the/DET government/NOUN of/ADP Colombia/PROPN And/CCONJ now/ADV there/PRON is/VERB again/ADV talk/NOUN of/ADP a/DET peace/NOUN process/NOUN Now/ADV joining/VERB us/PRON from/ADP Bogot195161/NOUN to/PART talk/VERB about/ADP the/DET peace/NOUN process/NOUN is/AUX 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<p>&lt;a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Iraq"&gt;Wikimedia Commons&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175898/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>I wanted to offer a wry chuckle before we headed into the heavy stuff about Iraq, so I tried to start this article with a suitably ironic formulation. You know, a déjà-vu-all-over-again kinda thing. I even thought about telling you how, in 2011, I contacted a noted author to blurb my book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805096817/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People</a>, and he presciently declined, saying sardonically, “So you’re gonna be the one to write the last book on failure in Iraq?”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" /></p>
<p>I couldn’t do any of that. As someone who cares deeply about this country, I find it beyond belief that Washington has again plunged into the swamp of the Sunni-Shia mess in Iraq. A young soldier now deployed as one of the 1,600 non-boots-on-the-ground there might have been eight years old when the 2003 invasion took place. He probably had to ask his dad about it. After all, less than three years ago, when dad finally came home with his head “ <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/21/world/meast/iraq-us-troops/" type="external">held high</a>,” President Obama <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-foreign-policy-statements-refute-tonight/story?id=25411257" type="external">assured</a> Americans that “we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq.” So what happened in the blink of an eye?</p>
<p>The Sons of Iraq</p>
<p>Sometimes, when I turn on the TV these days, the sense of seeing once again places in Iraq I’d been overwhelms me. After 22 years as a diplomat with the Department of State, I spent 12 long months in Iraq in 2009-2010 as part of the American occupation. My role was to lead two teams in “ <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175448/peter_van_buren_chickening_out_in_iraq" type="external">reconstructing</a>” the nation. In practice, that meant paying for schools that would never be completed, setting up pastry shops on streets without water or electricity, and conducting endless propaganda events on Washington-generated themes of the week (“small business,” “women’s empowerment,” “democracy building.”)</p>
<p>We even organized awkward soccer matches, where American taxpayer money was used to coerce reluctant Sunni teams into facing off against hesitant Shia ones in hopes that, somehow, the chaos created by the American invasion could be ameliorated on the playing field. In an afternoon, we definitively failed to reconcile the millennium-old Sunni-Shia divide we had sparked into ethnic-cleansing-style life in 2003-2004, even if the score was carefully stage managed into a tie by the 82nd Airborne soldiers with whom I worked.</p>
<p>In 2006, the US brokered the ascension to power of Prime Minister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouri_al-Maliki" type="external">Nouri al-Maliki</a>, a Shia politician handpicked to unite Iraq. A bright, shining lie of a plan soon followed. Applying vast amounts of money, Washington’s emissaries created the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/philip-dermer-the-sons-of-iraq-abandoned-by-their-american-allies-1404253303" type="external">Sahwa, or Sons of Iraq</a>, a loose grouping of Sunnis anointed as “moderates” who agreed to temporarily stop killing in return for a promised place at the table in the New(er) Iraq. The “political space” for this was to be created by a massive escalation of the American military effort, which gained a particularly marketable name: the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/thegamble/timeline/" type="external">surge</a>.</p>
<p>I was charged with meeting the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175630/tomgram:_peter_van_buren,_torture_superpower/" type="external">Sahwa leaders</a> in my area. My job back then was to try to persuade them to stay on board just a little longer, even as they came to realize that they’d been had. Maliki’s Shia government in Baghdad, which was already ignoring American entreaties to be inclusive, was hell-bent on ensuring that there would be no Sunni “sons” in its Iraq.</p>
<p>False alliances and double-crosses were not unfamiliar to the Sunni warlords I engaged with. Often, our talk—over endless tiny glasses of sweet, sweet tea stirred with white-hot metal spoons—shifted from the Shia and the Americans to their great-grandfathers’ struggle against the British. Revenge unfolds over generations, they assured me, and memories are long in the Middle East, they warned.</p>
<p>When I left in 2010, the year before the American military finally departed, the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175658/tomgram:_peter_van_buren,_one_day_even_the_drones_will_have_to_land/" type="external">truth</a> on the ground should have been clear enough to anyone with the vision to take it in. Iraq had already been tacitly divided into feuding state-lets controlled by Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds. The Baghdad government had turned into a typical, gleeful third-world kleptocracy fueled by American money, but with a particularly nasty twist: they were also a group of autocrats dedicated to persecuting, marginalizing, degrading, and perhaps one day destroying the country’s Sunni minority.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935462911/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />US influence was fading fast, leaving the State Department, a small military contingent, various spooks, and contractors hidden behind the walls of the billion-dollar embassy (the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174789/the_mother_ship_lands_in_iraq" type="external">largest</a> in the world!) that had been built in a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174789/the_mother_ship_lands_in_iraq" type="external">moment of imperial hubris</a>. The foreign power with the most influence over events was by then <a href="http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/09/29/who_won_the_war_in_iraq_heres_a_big_hint_it_wasnt_the_united_states_0" type="external">Iran</a>, the country the Bush administration had once been determined to take down alongside Saddam Hussein as part of the Axis of Evil. &#160;</p>
<p>The Grandsons of Iraq</p>
<p>The staggering costs of all this— <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/world/middleeast/american-intelligence-officials-said-iraqi-military-had-been-in-decline.html" type="external">$25 billion</a> to train the Iraqi Army, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/iraq-reconstruction_n_2819899.html" type="external">$60 billion</a> for the reconstruction-that-wasn’t, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-iraq-war-anniversary-idUSBRE92D0PG20130314" type="external">$2 trillion</a> for the overall war, almost <a href="http://icasualties.org/" type="external">4,500</a> Americans dead and more than 32,000 wounded, and an Iraqi death toll of more than <a href="https://news.brown.edu/articles/2013/03/warcosts" type="external">190,000</a> (though some estimates go as <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/30/us-iraq-deaths-survey-idUSL3048857920080130" type="external">high as</a> a <a href="http://web.mit.edu/humancostiraq/" type="external">million</a>)—can now be measured against the results. The nine-year attempt to create an American client state in Iraq failed, tragically and completely. The proof of that is on today’s front pages.</p>
<p>According to the crudest possible calculation, we spent blood and got no oil. Instead, America’s war of terror resulted in the dissolution of a Middle Eastern post- <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/bushcheney-created-condit_b_5820916.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592" type="external">Cold War</a> stasis that, curiously enough, had been held together by Iraq’s previous autocratic ruler Saddam Hussein. We released a hornet’s nest of Islamic fervor, sectarianism, fundamentalism, and pan-nationalism. Islamic terror groups grew <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/09/18/intel_chief_al_qaida_cell_in_syria_poses_threat/" type="external">stronger</a> and more <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2756249/Newly-formed-Al-Qaeda-branch-India-botches-terror-attack-mistakenly-trying-capture-Naval-ship-thought-American-aircraft-carrier.html" type="external">diffuse</a> by the year. That horrible lightning over the Middle East that’s left American foreign policy in such an ugly glare will last into our grandchildren’s days. There should have been so many futures. Now, there will be so few as the dead accumulate in the ruins of our hubris. That is all that we won.</p>
<p>Under a new president, elected in 2008 in part on his promise to end American military involvement in Iraq, Washington’s strategy morphed into the more media-palatable mantra of “no boots on the ground.” Instead, backed by aggressive intel and the “surgical” application of drone strikes and other kinds of air power, US covert ops were to link up with the “moderate” elements in Islamic governments or among the rebels opposing them—depending on whether Washington was opting to support a thug government or thug fighters.</p>
<p>The results? Chaos in Libya, highlighted by the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/us-libya-arms-un-idUSBRE93814Y20130409%20%20" type="external">flow</a> of advanced weaponry from the arsenals of the dead autocrat Muammar Gaddafi across the Middle East and significant parts of Africa, chaos in Yemen, chaos in Syria, chaos in Somalia, chaos in Kenya, chaos in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175878/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_christmas_in_july_and_the_collapse_of_america%27s_great_african_experiment/" type="external">South Sudan</a>, and, of course, chaos in Iraq.</p>
<p>And then came the Islamic State (IS) and the new “caliphate,” the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175888/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_escalation_follies/" type="external">child</a> born of a neglectful occupation and an autocratic Shia government out to put the Sunnis in their place once and for all. And suddenly we were heading back into Iraq. What, in August 2014, was initially promoted as a limited humanitarian effort to save the <a href="http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2014/08/13/questions-about-the-yazidis-on-that-iraq-mountain/" type="external">Yazidis</a>, a small religious sect that no one in Washington or anywhere else in this country had previously heard of, quickly morphed into those 1,600 American troops back on the ground in Iraq and American planes in the skies from Kurdistan in the north to <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/welcome_page/?shf=/2014/09/15/239936_us-hits-islamic-state-south-of.html" type="external">south of Baghdad</a>. The Yazidis were either abandoned, or saved, or just not needed anymore. Who knows and who, by then, cared? They had, after all, served their purpose handsomely as the casus belli of this war. Their agony at least had a horrific reality, unlike the supposed attack in the <a href="http://fair.org/media-beat-column/30-year-anniversary-tonkin-gulf-lie-launched-vietnam-war/" type="external">Gulf of Tonkin</a> that propelled a widening war in Vietnam in 1964 or the nonexistent Iraqi <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/09/president-obama-urges-war-without-even-pretending-there-are-wmds/380020/" type="external">WMDs</a> that were the excuse for the invasion of 2003.</p>
<p>The newest Iraq war features Special Operations “trainers,” air strikes against IS fighters using American weapons <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/iraqi-army-left-weapons-hands-terrorists-today/story?id=24070848" type="external">abandoned</a> by the Iraqi Army (now evidently to be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/world/middleeast/us-faces-tough-struggle-on-ground-to-oust-isis.html" type="external">resupplied</a> by Washington), US aircraft taking to the skies from <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20140911-usa-deploy-war-planes-iraq-air-base-erbil-islamic-state/" type="external">inside Iraq</a> as well as a carrier in the Persian Gulf and possibly elsewhere, and an air war across the border <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-airstrikes-syria-destroy-damage-isis-targets-pentagon-says-20140923-story.html" type="external">into Syria</a>. &#160;</p>
<p>It Takes a Lot of Turning Points To Go In a Circle</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-van-buren/why-america-can-never-win_b_5497040.html" type="external">truth</a> on the ground these days is tragically familiar: an Iraq even more divided into feuding state-lets; a Baghdad government kleptocracy about to be reinvigorated by free-flowing American money; and a new Shia prime minister being issued the same 2003-2011 to-do list by Washington: mollify the Sunnis, unify Iraq, and make it snappy. The State Department still stays hidden behind the walls of that billion-dollar embassy. More money will be spent to train the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/mosul-isis-gunmen-middle-east-states" type="external">collapsed</a> Iraqi military. Iran <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/03/19/the-iraq-war-was-it-worth-it/ten-years-after-the-iraq-war-irans-influence-is-strong" type="external">remains</a> the foreign power with the most influence over events.</p>
<p>One odd difference should be noted, however: in the last Iraq war, the Iranians sponsored and directed attacks by Shia militias against American occupation forces (and me); now, its special operatives and combat advisors fight side-by-side with those <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/world/middleeast/shiite-militias-pose-challenge-for-us-in-iraq.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;version=HpSum&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0" type="external">same Shia militias</a> under the cover of American air power. You want real boots on the ground? Iranian forces are already there. It’s certainly an example of how politics makes <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/09/18/all_the_ayatollahs_men_shiite_militias_iran_iraq_islamic_state" type="external">strange bedfellows</a>, but also of what happens when you assemble your “strategy” on the run.</p>
<p>Obama hardly can be blamed for all of this, but he’s done his part to make it worse—and worse it will surely get as his administration once again assumes ownership of the Sunni-Shia fight. The “new” unity plan that will fail follows the pattern of the one that did fail in 2007: use American military force to create a political space for “reconciliation” between once-burned, twice-shy Sunnis and a compromise Shia government that American money tries to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/opinion/can-the-us-count-on-the-new-government-in-baghdad.html?smid=opinion-ios-share&amp;smprod=opinion-ios&amp;_r=0" type="external">nudge</a> into an agreement against Iran’s wishes. Perhaps whatever new Sunni organization is pasted together, however briefly, by American representatives should be called the Grandsons of Iraq.</p>
<p>Just to add to the general eeriness factor, the key people in charge of putting Washington’s plans into effect are distinctly familiar faces. <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/bureau/213058.htm" type="external">Brett McGurk</a>, who served in <a href="http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2013/03/11/comptence-v-loyalty-at-state-the-return-of-mcgurk/" type="external">key Iraq policy positions</a> throughout the Bush and Obama administrations, is again the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-s-man-in-baghdad-key-to-political-deal-1407974548" type="external">point man</a> as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran. McGurk was once called the “ <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-s-man-in-baghdad-key-to-political-deal-1407974548" type="external">Maliki whisperer</a>” for his closeness to the former prime minister. The current American <a href="http://iraq.usembassy.gov/ambassador.html" type="external">ambassador</a>, Robert Stephen Beecroft, was deputy chief of mission, the number two at the Baghdad embassy, back in 2011. Diplomatically, another faux coalition of the (remarkably un)willing is being assembled. And the <a href="http://m.thenation.com/article/181601-whos-paying-pro-war-pundits" type="external">pundits</a> demanding war in a feverish hysteria in Washington are all familiar names, mostly leftovers from the glory days of the 2003 invasion.</p>
<p>Lloyd Austin, the <a href="http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/at-the-helm-of-military-mission-in-iraq-an-invisible-general/?_php=true&amp;_type=blogs&amp;_r=0" type="external">general</a> overseeing America’s new military effort, oversaw the 2011 retreat. General <a href="http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/retired-marine-gen-john-allen-to-coordinate-iraq-syria-effort-1.302601" type="external">John Allen</a>, brought out of military retirement to coordinate the new war in the region—he had recently been a civilian advisor to Secretary of State John <a href="https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/johnkerrytestimony.html" type="external">Kerry</a>—was deputy commander in Iraq’s Anbar province during the surge. Also on the US side, the mercenary <a href="http://www.stripes.com/in-place-of-boots-on-the-ground-us-seeks-contractors-for-iraq-1.301798?utm_content=buffer57f87&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer#.VA0JWx2b_Tk.twitter" type="external">security contractors</a> are <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/13/contractors-ready-to-cash-in-on-isis-war.html" type="external">back</a>, even as President Obama <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/world/americas/obama-sees-iraq-resolution-as-a-legal-basis-for-airstrikes-official-says.html" type="external">cites</a>, without a hint of irony, the ancient 2002 congressional authorization to invade Iraq he <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/02/12/us-usa-politics-obama-idUSN0923153320070212" type="external">opposed</a> as candidate Obama as one of his legal justifications for this year’s war. The Iranians, too, have the same military commander on the ground in Iraq, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/suleimani-was-present-during-battle-for-amerli-2014-9" type="external">Qassem Suleimani</a>, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’s Quds Force. Small world. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-we-know-about-irans-expanding-military-role-in-iraq-2014-9" type="external">Suleimani</a> also helps direct Hezbollah operations inside Syria.</p>
<p>Even the aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf launching air strikes, the USS George H.W. Bush, is fittingly named after the president who first got us deep into Iraq almost a quarter century ago. Just consider that for a moment: we have been in Iraq so long that we now have an aircraft carrier named after the president who launched the adventure.</p>
<p>On a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/world/middleeast/destroying-isis-may-take-3-years-white-house-says.html" type="external">36-month schedule</a> for “destroying” ISIS, the president is already ceding his war to the next president, as was done to him by George W. Bush. That next president may well be Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state as Iraq War 2.0 sputtered to its conclusion. Notably, it was her husband whose administration kept the original Iraq War of 1990-1991 alive via no-fly zones and sanctions. Call that a pedigree of sorts when it comes to fighting in Iraq until hell freezes over.</p>
<p>If there is a summary lesson here, perhaps it’s that there is evidently no hole that can’t be dug deeper. How could it be more obvious, after more than two decades of <a href="http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2014/09/18/iraq-how-many-turning-points-and-milestones-until-we-win/" type="external">empty declarations</a> of victory in Iraq, that genuine “success,” however defined, is impossible? The only way to win is not to play. Otherwise, you’re just a sucker at the geopolitical equivalent of a carnival ringtoss game with a fist full of quarters to trade for a cheap stuffed animal. &#160;</p>
<p>Apocalypse Then—And Now</p>
<p>America’s wars in the Middle East exist in a hallucinatory space where reality is of little import, so if you think you heard all this before, between 2003 and 2010, you did. But for those of us of a certain age, the echoes go back much further. I recently joined a discussion on <a href="http://nieuwsuur.nl/video/697682-vraagtekens-bij-isaanvalsplan-obama.html" type="external">Dutch television</a> where former Republican Congressman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hoekstra" type="external">Pete Hoekstra</a> made a telling slip of the tongue. As we spoke about ISIS, Hoekstra insisted that the US needed to deny them “sanctuary in Cambodia.” He quickly corrected himself to say “Syria,” but the point was made.</p>
<p>We’ve been here before, as the failures of American policy and strategy in Vietnam metastasized into war in Cambodia and Laos to deny sanctuary to North Vietnamese forces. As with ISIS, we were told that they were barbarians who sought to impose an evil philosophy across an entire region. They, too, famously needed to be fought “over there” to prevent them from attacking us here. We didn’t say “the Homeland” back then, but you get the picture.</p>
<p>As the similarities with Vietnam are telling, so is the difference. When the reality of America’s failure in Vietnam finally became so clear that there was no one left to lie to, America’s war there ended and the troops came home. They never went back. America is now fighting the Iraq War for the third time, somehow madly expecting different results, while guaranteeing only failure. To paraphrase a young John Kerry, himself back from <a href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Against_the_War_Statement" type="external">Vietnam</a>, who’ll be the last to die for that endless mistake? It seems as if it will be many years before we know.</p>
<p>Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during the Iraqi reconstruction in his first book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805096817/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">We Me</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805096817/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">a</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805096817/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">nt Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People</a>. A <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_rip,_the_bill_of_rights/" type="external">Tom Dispatch regular</a>, he writes about current events at his blog, <a href="http://www.wemeantwell.com/" type="external">We Meant Well</a>. His latest book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935462911/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent</a>. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | A Former Diplomat Explains Why Our Third War In Iraq Is Doomed | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/diplomat-third-iraq-war-america-cant-win/ | 2014-09-23 | 4left
| 2,495 | amplta hrefhttpcommonswikimediaorgwikiAtlas_of_IraqampgtWikimedia Commonsampltaampgt This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website I wanted to offer a wry chuckle before we headed into the heavy stuff about Iraq so I tried to start this article with a suitably ironic formulation You know a d233j224vualloveragain kinda thing I even thought about telling you how in 2011 I contacted a noted author to blurb my book We Meant Well How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and he presciently declined saying sardonically 8220So you8217re gonna be the one to write the last book on failure in Iraq8221 I couldn8217t do any of that As someone who cares deeply about this country I find it beyond belief that Washington has again plunged into the swamp of the SunniShia mess in Iraq A young soldier now deployed as one of the 1600 nonbootsontheground there might have been eight years old when the 2003 invasion took place He probably had to ask his dad about it After all less than three years ago when dad finally came home with his head 8220 held high8221 President Obama assured Americans that 8220we8217re leaving behind a sovereign stable and selfreliant Iraq8221 So what happened in the blink of an eye The Sons of Iraq Sometimes when I turn on the TV these days the sense of seeing once again places in Iraq I8217d been overwhelms me After 22 years as a diplomat with the Department of State I spent 12 long months in Iraq in 20092010 as part of the American occupation My role was to lead two teams in 8220 reconstructing8221 the nation In practice that meant paying for schools that would never be completed setting up pastry shops on streets without water or electricity and conducting endless propaganda events on Washingtongenerated themes of the week 8220small business8221 8220women8217s empowerment8221 8220democracy building8221 We even organized awkward soccer matches where American taxpayer money was used to coerce reluctant Sunni teams into facing off against hesitant Shia ones in hopes that somehow the chaos created by the American invasion could be ameliorated on the playing field In an afternoon we definitively failed to reconcile the millenniumold SunniShia divide we had sparked into ethniccleansingstyle life in 20032004 even if the score was carefully stage managed into a tie by the 82nd Airborne soldiers with whom I worked In 2006 the US brokered the ascension to power of Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki a Shia politician handpicked to unite Iraq A bright shining lie of a plan soon followed Applying vast amounts of money Washington8217s emissaries created the Sahwa or Sons of Iraq a loose grouping of Sunnis anointed as 8220moderates8221 who agreed to temporarily stop killing in return for a promised place at the table in the Newer Iraq The 8220political space8221 for this was to be created by a massive escalation of the American military effort which gained a particularly marketable name the surge I was charged with meeting the Sahwa leaders in my area My job back then was to try to persuade them to stay on board just a little longer even as they came to realize that they8217d been had Maliki8217s Shia government in Baghdad which was already ignoring American entreaties to be inclusive was hellbent on ensuring that there would be no Sunni 8220sons8221 in its Iraq False alliances and doublecrosses were not unfamiliar to the Sunni warlords I engaged with Often our talk8212over endless tiny glasses of sweet sweet tea stirred with whitehot metal spoons8212shifted from the Shia and the Americans to their greatgrandfathers8217 struggle against the British Revenge unfolds over generations they assured me and memories are long in the Middle East they warned When I left in 2010 the year before the American military finally departed the truth on the ground should have been clear enough to anyone with the vision to take it in Iraq had already been tacitly divided into feuding statelets controlled by Sunnis Shias and Kurds The Baghdad government had turned into a typical gleeful thirdworld kleptocracy fueled by American money but with a particularly nasty twist they were also a group of autocrats dedicated to persecuting marginalizing degrading and perhaps one day destroying the country8217s Sunni minority US influence was fading fast leaving the State Department a small military contingent various spooks and contractors hidden behind the walls of the billiondollar embassy the largest in the world that had been built in a moment of imperial hubris The foreign power with the most influence over events was by then Iran the country the Bush administration had once been determined to take down alongside Saddam Hussein as part of the Axis of Evil amp160 The Grandsons of Iraq The staggering costs of all this8212 25 billion to train the Iraqi Army 60 billion for the reconstructionthatwasn8217t 2 trillion for the overall war almost 4500 Americans dead and more than 32000 wounded and an Iraqi death toll of more than 190000 though some estimates go as high as a million8212can now be measured against the results The nineyear attempt to create an American client state in Iraq failed tragically and completely The proof of that is on today8217s front pages According to the crudest possible calculation we spent blood and got no oil Instead America8217s war of terror resulted in the dissolution of a Middle Eastern post Cold War stasis that curiously enough had been held together by Iraq8217s previous autocratic ruler Saddam Hussein We released a hornet8217s nest of Islamic fervor sectarianism fundamentalism and pannationalism Islamic terror groups grew stronger and more diffuse by the year That horrible lightning over the Middle East that8217s left American foreign policy in such an ugly glare will last into our grandchildren8217s days There should have been so many futures Now there will be so few as the dead accumulate in the ruins of our hubris That is all that we won Under a new president elected in 2008 in part on his promise to end American military involvement in Iraq Washington8217s strategy morphed into the more mediapalatable mantra of 8220no boots on the ground8221 Instead backed by aggressive intel and the 8220surgical8221 application of drone strikes and other kinds of air power US covert ops were to link up with the 8220moderate8221 elements in Islamic governments or among the rebels opposing them8212depending on whether Washington was opting to support a thug government or thug fighters The results Chaos in Libya highlighted by the flow of advanced weaponry from the arsenals of the dead autocrat Muammar Gaddafi across the Middle East and significant parts of Africa chaos in Yemen chaos in Syria chaos in Somalia chaos in Kenya chaos in South Sudan and of course chaos in Iraq And then came the Islamic State IS and the new 8220caliphate8221 the child born of a neglectful occupation and an autocratic Shia government out to put the Sunnis in their place once and for all And suddenly we were heading back into Iraq What in August 2014 was initially promoted as a limited humanitarian effort to save the Yazidis a small religious sect that no one in Washington or anywhere else in this country had previously heard of quickly morphed into those 1600 American troops back on the ground in Iraq and American planes in the skies from Kurdistan in the north to south of Baghdad The Yazidis were either abandoned or saved or just not needed anymore Who knows and who by then cared They had after all served their purpose handsomely as the casus belli of this war Their agony at least had a horrific reality unlike the supposed attack in the Gulf of Tonkin that propelled a widening war in Vietnam in 1964 or the nonexistent Iraqi WMDs that were the excuse for the invasion of 2003 The newest Iraq war features Special Operations 8220trainers8221 air strikes against IS fighters using American weapons abandoned by the Iraqi Army now evidently to be resupplied by Washington US aircraft taking to the skies from inside Iraq as well as a carrier in the Persian Gulf and possibly elsewhere and an air war across the border into Syria amp160 It Takes a Lot of Turning Points To Go In a Circle The truth on the ground these days is tragically familiar an Iraq even more divided into feuding statelets a Baghdad government kleptocracy about to be reinvigorated by freeflowing American money and a new Shia prime minister being issued the same 20032011 todo list by Washington mollify the Sunnis unify Iraq and make it snappy The State Department still stays hidden behind the walls of that billiondollar embassy More money will be spent to train the collapsed Iraqi military Iran remains the foreign power with the most influence over events One odd difference should be noted however in the last Iraq war the Iranians sponsored and directed attacks by Shia militias against American occupation forces and me now its special operatives and combat advisors fight sidebyside with those same Shia militias under the cover of American air power You want real boots on the ground Iranian forces are already there It8217s certainly an example of how politics makes strange bedfellows but also of what happens when you assemble your 8220strategy8221 on the run Obama hardly can be blamed for all of this but he8217s done his part to make it worse8212and worse it will surely get as his administration once again assumes ownership of the SunniShia fight The 8220new8221 unity plan that will fail follows the pattern of the one that did fail in 2007 use American military force to create a political space for 8220reconciliation8221 between onceburned twiceshy Sunnis and a compromise Shia government that American money tries to nudge into an agreement against Iran8217s wishes Perhaps whatever new Sunni organization is pasted together however briefly by American representatives should be called the Grandsons of Iraq Just to add to the general eeriness factor the key people in charge of putting Washington8217s plans into effect are distinctly familiar faces Brett McGurk who served in key Iraq policy positions throughout the Bush and Obama administrations is again the point man as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran McGurk was once called the 8220 Maliki whisperer8221 for his closeness to the former prime minister The current American ambassador Robert Stephen Beecroft was deputy chief of mission the number two at the Baghdad embassy back in 2011 Diplomatically another faux coalition of the remarkably unwilling is being assembled And the pundits demanding war in a feverish hysteria in Washington are all familiar names mostly leftovers from the glory days of the 2003 invasion Lloyd Austin the general overseeing America8217s new military effort oversaw the 2011 retreat General John Allen brought out of military retirement to coordinate the new war in the region8212he had recently been a civilian advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry8212was deputy commander in Iraq8217s Anbar province during the surge Also on the US side the mercenary security contractors are back even as President Obama cites without a hint of irony the ancient 2002 congressional authorization to invade Iraq he opposed as candidate Obama as one of his legal justifications for this year8217s war The Iranians too have the same military commander on the ground in Iraq Qassem Suleimani the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps8217s Quds Force Small world Suleimani also helps direct Hezbollah operations inside Syria Even the aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf launching air strikes the USS George HW Bush is fittingly named after the president who first got us deep into Iraq almost a quarter century ago Just consider that for a moment we have been in Iraq so long that we now have an aircraft carrier named after the president who launched the adventure On a 36month schedule for 8220destroying8221 ISIS the president is already ceding his war to the next president as was done to him by George W Bush That next president may well be Hillary Clinton who was secretary of state as Iraq War 20 sputtered to its conclusion Notably it was her husband whose administration kept the original Iraq War of 19901991 alive via nofly zones and sanctions Call that a pedigree of sorts when it comes to fighting in Iraq until hell freezes over If there is a summary lesson here perhaps it8217s that there is evidently no hole that can8217t be dug deeper How could it be more obvious after more than two decades of empty declarations of victory in Iraq that genuine 8220success8221 however defined is impossible The only way to win is not to play Otherwise you8217re just a sucker at the geopolitical equivalent of a carnival ringtoss game with a fist full of quarters to trade for a cheap stuffed animal amp160 Apocalypse Then8212And Now America8217s wars in the Middle East exist in a hallucinatory space where reality is of little import so if you think you heard all this before between 2003 and 2010 you did But for those of us of a certain age the echoes go back much further I recently joined a discussion on Dutch television where former Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra made a telling slip of the tongue As we spoke about ISIS Hoekstra insisted that the US needed to deny them 8220sanctuary in Cambodia8221 He quickly corrected himself to say 8220Syria8221 but the point was made We8217ve been here before as the failures of American policy and strategy in Vietnam metastasized into war in Cambodia and Laos to deny sanctuary to North Vietnamese forces As with ISIS we were told that they were barbarians who sought to impose an evil philosophy across an entire region They too famously needed to be fought 8220over there8221 to prevent them from attacking us here We didn8217t say 8220the Homeland8221 back then but you get the picture As the similarities with Vietnam are telling so is the difference When the reality of America8217s failure in Vietnam finally became so clear that there was no one left to lie to America8217s war there ended and the troops came home They never went back America is now fighting the Iraq War for the third time somehow madly expecting different results while guaranteeing only failure To paraphrase a young John Kerry himself back from Vietnam who8217ll be the last to die for that endless mistake It seems as if it will be many years before we know Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during the Iraqi reconstruction in his first book We Me a nt Well How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People A Tom Dispatch regular he writes about current events at his blog We Meant Well His latest book is Ghosts of Tom Joad A Story of the 99Percent To stay on top of important articles like these sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatchcom here | amplta/PROPN 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<p>MQ-9 Reaper in flight.&lt;a href="http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/071127-F-2185F-105.jpg"&gt;Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson&lt;/a&gt;/US Air Force photo</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175368/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>When men first made war in the air, the imagery that accompanied them was of knights jousting in the sky. Just check out movies like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_%28film%29" type="external">Wings</a>, which won the first Oscar for Best Picture in 1927 (or any Peanuts cartoon in which Snoopy takes on the Red Baron in a literal “dogfight”). As late as 1986, five years after two American F-14s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Sidra_incident_%281989%29" type="external">shot down</a> two Soviet jets flown by Libyan pilots over the Mediterranean’s Gulf of Sidra, it was still possible to make the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092099/" type="external">Top Gun</a>. In it, Tom Cruise played “Maverick,” a US Naval aviator triumphantly involved in a similar incident. (He shoots down three MiGs.)</p>
<p>Admittedly, by then American air-power films had long been in decline. In Vietnam, the US had used its air superiority to devastating effect, bombing the north and blasting the south, but go to American Vietnam films and, while that US patrol walks endlessly into a South Vietnamese village with mayhem to come, the air is largely devoid of planes.</p>
<p>Consider Top Gun an anomaly. Anyway, it’s been 25 years since that film <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gun#Reception" type="external">topped</a> the box-office—and don’t hold your breath for a repeat at your local multiplex. After all, there’s nothing left to base such a film on.</p>
<p>To put it simply, it’s time for Americans to take the “war” out of “air war.” These days, we need a new set of terms to explain what US air power actually does.</p>
<p>Start this way: American “air superiority” in any war the US now fights is total. In fact, the last time American jets met enemy planes of any sort in any skies was in the First Gulf War in 1991, and since Saddam Hussein’s once powerful air force <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Air_Force#1990s-_Persian_Gulf_War_and_no-fly_zones" type="external">didn’t offer</a> much opposition—most of its planes fled to Iran—that was brief. The last time US pilots faced anything like a serious challenge in the skies was in North Vietnam in the early 1970s. Before that, you have to go back to the Korean War in the early 1950s.</p>
<p>This, in fact, is something American military types take great pride in. Addressing the cadets of the Air Force Academy in early March, for example, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates <a href="http://www.springsmilitarylife.com/blogs/text-of-gates-speech-to-usafa-4mar11.html" type="external">stated</a>: “There hasn’t been a US Air Force airplane lost in air combat in nearly 40 years, or an American soldier attacked by enemy aircraft since Korea.”</p>
<p>And he’s probably right, though it’s also possible that the <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34182338/ns/us_news-military/" type="external">last American plane</a> shot down in aerial combat was US Navy pilot Michael Scott Speiker’s jet in the First Gulf War. (The Navy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Speicher" type="external">continues</a> to claim that the plane was felled by a surface-to-air missile.) As an F-117A Stealth fighter was <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-26-serb-stealth_x.htm" type="external">downed</a> by a surface-to-air missile over Serbia in 1999, it’s been more than 11 years since such a plane was lost due to anything but mechanical malfunction. Yet in those years, the US has remained almost continuously at war somewhere and has used air power extensively, as in its “shock and awe” launch to the invasion of Iraq, which was meant to “decapitate” Saddam Hussein and the rest of the Iraqi leadership. (No plane was lost, nor was an Iraqi leader of any sort taken out in those 50 decapitation attacks, but <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1212-01.htm" type="external">“dozens”</a> of Iraqi civilians died.) You might even say that air power, now <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/gates-karzai-square-off-over-civilian-deaths/#more-42118" type="external">ramping up</a> again in Afghanistan, has continued to be the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608460711/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">American way of war</a>.</p>
<p>From a military point of view, this is something worth bragging about. It’s just that the obvious conclusions are never drawn from it.</p>
<p>The Valor of Pilots</p>
<p>Let’s begin with this: to be a “Top Gun” in the US military today is to be in staggeringly less danger than any American who gets into a car and heads just about anywhere, given this country’s annual toll of about <a href="http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx" type="external">34,000</a> fatal car crashes. In addition, there is far less difference than you might imagine between piloting a drone aircraft from a base thousands of miles away and being inside the cockpit of a fighter jet.</p>
<p>Articles are now regularly written about drone aircraft “piloted” by teams sitting at consoles in places like <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-drone-crews21-2010feb21,0,5789185,full.story" type="external">Creech Air Force Base</a> in Nevada. Meanwhile, their planes are loosing Hellfire missiles thousands of miles away in Afghanistan (or, in the case of CIA “pilots,” in the Pakistani tribal borderlands). Such news accounts often focus on the eerie safety of those pilots in “wartime” and their strange detachment from the actual dangers of war—as, for instance, in the sign those leaving Creech pass that <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article5944961.ece" type="external">warns them</a> to “drive carefully” as this is “the most dangerous part of your day.”</p>
<p>When it comes to pilots in planes flying over Afghanistan, we imagine something quite different—and yet we shouldn’t. Based on the record, those pilots might as well be in Nevada, since there is no enemy that can touch them. They are inviolate unless their own machines betray them and, with the rarest of imaginable exceptions, will remain so.</p>
<p>Nor does anyone here consider it an irony that the <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30657714/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/" type="external">worst charge</a> lodged by US military spokespeople against their guerrilla enemies, whose recruits obviously can’t take to the skies, is that they use <a href="http://blogs.aljazeera.net/asia/2010/02/18/human-shields-afghanistan" type="external">“human shields”</a> as a defense. This <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1894370,00.html#ixzz1GboZJHfL" type="external">transgression</a> against “the law of war” is typical of any outgunned guerrilla force which, in Mao Zedong’s dictum, sees immense benefit in “swimming” in a “sea” of civilians. (If they didn’t do so and fought like members of a regular army, they would, of course, be slaughtered.)</p>
<p>This is considered, however implicitly, a sign of ultimate cowardice. On the other hand, while a drone pilot <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/27/AR2010022703754_pf.html" type="external">cannot (yet) get</a> a combat award citation for “valor,” a jet fighter pilot can and no one—here at least—sees anything strange or cowardly about a form of warfare which guarantees the American side quite literal, godlike invulnerability.</p>
<p>War by its nature is often asymmetrical, as in Libya today, and sometimes hideously one-sided. The retreat that turns into a rout that turns into a slaughter is a relative commonplace of battle. But it cannot be war, as anyone has ever understood the word, if one side is never in danger. And yet that is American air war as it <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/2047/tom_engelhardt_icarus_armed_with_vipers_over_Iraq" type="external">has developed</a> since World War II.</p>
<p>It’s a long path from knightly aerial jousting to air war as… well, what? We have no language for it, because accurate labels would prove deflating, pejorative, and exceedingly uncomfortable. You would perhaps need to speak of cadets at the Air Force Academy being prepared for “air slaughter” or “air assassination,” depending on the circumstances.</p>
<p>From those cadets to Secretary of Defense Gates to reporters covering our wars, no one here is likely to accept the taking of “war” out of air war. And because of that, it is—conveniently—almost impossible for Americans to imagine how American-style war must seem to those in the lands where we fight. &#160;</p>
<p>Apologies All Around</p>
<p>Consider for a moment one form of <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175040" type="external">war-related naming</a> where our language changes all the time. That’s the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175349/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_making_mahem_%28it%27s_spelled_correctly!%29" type="external">naming</a> of our new generations of weaponry. In the case of those drones, the two main ones in US battle zones at the moment are the Predator (as in the sci-fi film) and the Reaper (as in Grim). In both cases, the names imply an urge for slaughter and a sense of superiority verging on immortality.</p>
<p>And yet we don’t take such names seriously. Though we’ve seen the movies (and most Afghans haven’t), we don’t imagine our form of warfare as like that of the Predator, that alien hunter of human prey, or a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175056/Engelhardt_terminator_planet" type="external">Terminator</a>, that machine version of the same. If we did, we would have quite a different picture of ourselves, which would mean quite a different way of thinking about how we make war.</p>
<p>From the point of view of Afghans, Pakistanis, or other potential target peoples, those drones buzzing in the sky must seem very much like real-life versions of Predators or Terminators. They must, that is, seem alien and implacable like so many malign gods. After all, the weaponry from those planes is loosed without recourse; no one on the ground can do a thing to prevent it and little to defend themselves; and often enough the missiles and bombs kill the innocent along with those our warriors consider the guilty.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608460711/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Take a recent event on a distant hillside in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province where 10 boys, including two sets of brothers, were collecting wood for their families on a winter’s day when the predators—this time American helicopters evidently looking for insurgents who had rocketed a nearby American base—arrived. Only one of the boys survived (with wounds) and he evidently described the experience as one of being “hunted”—as the Predator hunts humans or human hunters stalk animals. They “hovered over us,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03afghan.htm" type="external">he said</a>, “scanned us, and we saw a green flash,” then the helicopters rose and began firing.</p>
<p>For this particular nightmare, war commander General David Petraeus apologized directly to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/article/karzai-denounces-us-airstrike-that-killed-civilians" type="external">for years</a> fruitlessly denounced US and NATO air operations that have killed Afghan civilians. When an angered Karzai <a href="http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2011/03/06/civilian-deaths-intolerable-karzai" type="external">refused</a> to accept his apology, Secretary of Defense Gates, on a surprise visit to the country, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703386704576186151967563410.html" type="external">apologized as well</a>, as did <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iVXXRKTuPaiXTft2x8ZOafzvPfhA?docId=CNG.0ba1c2217af7fea4855cf2133828ae3b.c71" type="external">President Obama</a>. And that was that—for the Americans.</p>
<p>Forget for a moment what this incident tells us about a form of warfare in which helicopter pilots, reasonably close to the ground (and modestly more vulnerable than pilots in planes), can’t tell boys with sticks from insurgents with guns. The crucial thing to keep in mind is that, no matter how many apologies may be offered afterwards, this can’t stop. According to the Wall Street Journal, death by helicopter is, in fact, on the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703662804576188313014877124.html" type="external">rise</a>. It’s in the nature of this kind of warfare. In fact, Afghan civilians have repeatedly, even repetitiously, been blown away from the air, with or <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174975/slaughter_lies_and_video_in_afghanistan" type="external">without apologies</a>, since <a href="http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020311/civilian.html" type="external">2001</a>. Over these years, Afghan participants at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174954/tom_engelhardt_the_wedding_crashers" type="external">wedding parties</a>, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6279616.stm" type="external">funerals</a>, and other rites have, for example, been wiped out with relative regularity, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jul/03/afghanistan.lukeharding" type="external">only sometimes</a> with apologies to follow.</p>
<p>In the weeks that preceded the killing of those boys, for instance, a “NATO”—these are usually American—air attack <a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1623076.php/NATO-airstrike-kills-four-Afghan-security-guards-officials-say" type="external">took out</a> four Afghan security guards protecting the work of a road construction firm and wounded a fifth, according to the police chief of Helmand Province; a similar <a href="http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/02/21/nato-killed-afghan-army-soldier-along-with-his-wife-and-four-children.html" type="external">“deeply regrettable incident”</a> took out an Afghan army soldier, his wife, and his four children in Nangarhar Province; and a third, also in Kunar Province, wiped out <a href="http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/08/the_war_over_afghan_civilian_casualties" type="external">65 civilians</a>, including <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/world/asia/28afghan.html?_r=1&amp;ref=world&amp;pagewanted=print" type="external">women and children</a>, according to Afghan government officials. Karzai recently visited a hospital and <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110312/wl_asia_afp/afghanistanunrestnatociviliankarzai" type="external">wept</a> as he held a child wounded in the attack whose leg had been amputated.</p>
<p>The US military did not weep. Instead, it rejected this claim of civilian deaths, insisting as it often does that the dead were “insurgents.” It is now—and this is typical—”investigating” the incident. General Petraeus managed to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/21/AR2011022103256.html?hpid=moreheadlines" type="external">further offend</a> Afghan officials when he visited the presidential palace in Kabul and reportedly claimed that some of the wounded children might have suffered burns not in an air attack but from their parents as punishment for bad behavior and were being counted in the casualty figures only to make them look worse.</p>
<p>Over the years, Afghan civilian casualties from the air have waxed and waned, depending on how much air power American commanders were willing to call in, but they have never ceased. As history tells us, air power and civilian deaths are inextricably bound together. They can’t be separated, no matter how much anyone talks about “surgical” strikes and precision bombing. It’s simply the barbaric essence, the very nature of this kind of war, to kill noncombatants.</p>
<p>One question sometimes raised about such casualties in Afghanistan is this: according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/world/asia/10afghanistan.html" type="external">U.N. statistics</a>, the Taliban (via roadside bombs and suicide bombers) kills far more civilians, including <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12659300" type="external">women</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15afghanistan.html" type="external">children</a>, than do NATO forces, so why do the US-caused deaths stick so in Afghan craws when we periodically investigate, apologize, and even pay survivors for their losses?</p>
<p>New York Times reporter Alissa J. Rubin puzzled over this in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/world/asia/07afghanistan.html" type="external">recent piece</a> and offered the following answer: “[T]hose that are caused by NATO troops appear to reverberate more deeply because of underlying animosity about foreigners in the country.” This seems reasonable as far as it goes, but don’t discount what air power adds to the foreignness of the situation.</p>
<p>Consider what the 20-year-old brother of two of the dead boys from the Kunar helicopter attack <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704728004576176644160681276.html" type="external">told</a> the Wall Street Journal in a phone interview: “The only option I have is to pick up a Kalashnikov, RPG [rocket-propelled grenade], or a suicide vest to fight.”</p>
<p>Whatever the Taliban may be, they remain part of Afghan society. They are there on the ground. They kill and they <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12659300" type="external">commit barbarities</a>, but they suffer, too. In our version of air “war,” however, the killing and the dying are perfectly and precisely, even surgically, separated. We kill, they die. It’s that simple. Sometimes the ones we target to die do so; sometimes others stand in their stead. But no matter. We then deny, argue, investigate, apologize, and continue. We are, in that sense, implacable.</p>
<p>And one more thing: since we are incapable of thinking of ourselves as either predators or Predators, no less <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbZMIP4XUE" type="external">emotionless Terminators</a>, it becomes impossible for us to see that our air “war” on terror is, in reality, a machine <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174917/tom_engelhardt_oops_our_bad" type="external">for creating</a> what we then call “terrorists.” It is part of an American Global War for Terror.</p>
<p>In other words, although air power has long been held up as part of the solution to terrorism, and though the American military now regularly boasts about the enemy <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/team-petraeus-brings-body-counts-back/#more-42182" type="external">body counts</a> it produces, and the precision with which it does so, all of that, even when accurate, is also a kind of delusion—and worse yet, one that transforms us into Predators and Terminators. It’s not a pretty sight.</p>
<p>So count on this: there will be no more Top Guns. No knights of the air. No dogfights and sky-jousts. No valor. Just one-sided slaughter and targeted assassinations. That is where air power has ended up. Live with it.</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608460711/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s</a> (Haymarket Books). To listen to a TomCast audio version of this post, read by Ralph Pochoda, <a href="http://tomdispatch.blogspot.com/2011/03/taking-war-out-of-air-war_16.html" type="external">click here</a> or download it to your iPod, <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tomcast-from-tomdispatch-com/id357095817" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>[Note of thanks: To Bill Astore, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175337/tomgram%3A_william_astore,_we%27re_number_one_%28in_self-promotion%29" type="external">TomDispatch regular</a>, for bringing his expert eye to bear on this post; to Christopher Holmes, superior copyeditor, who is now undoubtedly doing his best to get by in Japan (and is on my mind); to Jason Ditz, of the invaluable website <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/" type="external">Antiwar.com</a>, the rare person who continues to write <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2011/03/15/nato-strike-kills-two-children-in-afghanistans-kunar-province/" type="external">regularly</a> about the civilians who die in America’s wars, and to Ralph Pochoda for doing the <a href="http://tomdispatch.blogspot.com/2011/03/taking-war-out-of-air-war_16.html" type="external">audio version</a> of this piece.]</p> | How Drone Warfare Creates Terrorists | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/how-drone-warfare-creates-terrorists/ | 2011-03-17 | 4left
| 2,495 | MQ9 Reaper in flightamplta hrefhttpwwwafmilsharedmediaphotodbphotos071127F2185F105jpgampgtStaff Sgt Brian FergusonampltaampgtUS Air Force photo This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website When men first made war in the air the imagery that accompanied them was of knights jousting in the sky Just check out movies like Wings which won the first Oscar for Best Picture in 1927 or any Peanuts cartoon in which Snoopy takes on the Red Baron in a literal 8220dogfight8221 As late as 1986 five years after two American F14s shot down two Soviet jets flown by Libyan pilots over the Mediterranean8217s Gulf of Sidra it was still possible to make the movie Top Gun In it Tom Cruise played 8220Maverick8221 a US Naval aviator triumphantly involved in a similar incident He shoots down three MiGs Admittedly by then American airpower films had long been in decline In Vietnam the US had used its air superiority to devastating effect bombing the north and blasting the south but go to American Vietnam films and while that US patrol walks endlessly into a South Vietnamese village with mayhem to come the air is largely devoid of planes Consider Top Gun an anomaly Anyway it8217s been 25 years since that film topped the boxoffice8212and don8217t hold your breath for a repeat at your local multiplex After all there8217s nothing left to base such a film on To put it simply it8217s time for Americans to take the 8220war8221 out of 8220air war8221 These days we need a new set of terms to explain what US air power actually does Start this way American 8220air superiority8221 in any war the US now fights is total In fact the last time American jets met enemy planes of any sort in any skies was in the First Gulf War in 1991 and since Saddam Hussein8217s once powerful air force didn8217t offer much opposition8212most of its planes fled to Iran8212that was brief The last time US pilots faced anything like a serious challenge in the skies was in North Vietnam in the early 1970s Before that you have to go back to the Korean War in the early 1950s This in fact is something American military types take great pride in Addressing the cadets of the Air Force Academy in early March for example Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated 8220There hasn8217t been a US Air Force airplane lost in air combat in nearly 40 years or an American soldier attacked by enemy aircraft since Korea8221 And he8217s probably right though it8217s also possible that the last American plane shot down in aerial combat was US Navy pilot Michael Scott Speiker8217s jet in the First Gulf War The Navy continues to claim that the plane was felled by a surfacetoair missile As an F117A Stealth fighter was downed by a surfacetoair missile over Serbia in 1999 it8217s been more than 11 years since such a plane was lost due to anything but mechanical malfunction Yet in those years the US has remained almost continuously at war somewhere and has used air power extensively as in its 8220shock and awe8221 launch to the invasion of Iraq which was meant to 8220decapitate8221 Saddam Hussein and the rest of the Iraqi leadership No plane was lost nor was an Iraqi leader of any sort taken out in those 50 decapitation attacks but 8220dozens8221 of Iraqi civilians died You might even say that air power now ramping up again in Afghanistan has continued to be the American way of war From a military point of view this is something worth bragging about It8217s just that the obvious conclusions are never drawn from it The Valor of Pilots Let8217s begin with this to be a 8220Top Gun8221 in the US military today is to be in staggeringly less danger than any American who gets into a car and heads just about anywhere given this country8217s annual toll of about 34000 fatal car crashes In addition there is far less difference than you might imagine between piloting a drone aircraft from a base thousands of miles away and being inside the cockpit of a fighter jet Articles are now regularly written about drone aircraft 8220piloted8221 by teams sitting at consoles in places like Creech Air Force Base in Nevada Meanwhile their planes are loosing Hellfire missiles thousands of miles away in Afghanistan or in the case of CIA 8220pilots8221 in the Pakistani tribal borderlands Such news accounts often focus on the eerie safety of those pilots in 8220wartime8221 and their strange detachment from the actual dangers of war8212as for instance in the sign those leaving Creech pass that warns them to 8220drive carefully8221 as this is 8220the most dangerous part of your day8221 When it comes to pilots in planes flying over Afghanistan we imagine something quite different8212and yet we shouldn8217t Based on the record those pilots might as well be in Nevada since there is no enemy that can touch them They are inviolate unless their own machines betray them and with the rarest of imaginable exceptions will remain so Nor does anyone here consider it an irony that the worst charge lodged by US military spokespeople against their guerrilla enemies whose recruits obviously can8217t take to the skies is that they use 8220human shields8221 as a defense This transgression against 8220the law of war8221 is typical of any outgunned guerrilla force which in Mao Zedong8217s dictum sees immense benefit in 8220swimming8221 in a 8220sea8221 of civilians If they didn8217t do so and fought like members of a regular army they would of course be slaughtered This is considered however implicitly a sign of ultimate cowardice On the other hand while a drone pilot cannot yet get a combat award citation for 8220valor8221 a jet fighter pilot can and no one8212here at least8212sees anything strange or cowardly about a form of warfare which guarantees the American side quite literal godlike invulnerability War by its nature is often asymmetrical as in Libya today and sometimes hideously onesided The retreat that turns into a rout that turns into a slaughter is a relative commonplace of battle But it cannot be war as anyone has ever understood the word if one side is never in danger And yet that is American air war as it has developed since World War II It8217s a long path from knightly aerial jousting to air war as8230 well what We have no language for it because accurate labels would prove deflating pejorative and exceedingly uncomfortable You would perhaps need to speak of cadets at the Air Force Academy being prepared for 8220air slaughter8221 or 8220air assassination8221 depending on the circumstances From those cadets to Secretary of Defense Gates to reporters covering our wars no one here is likely to accept the taking of 8220war8221 out of air war And because of that it is8212conveniently8212almost impossible for Americans to imagine how Americanstyle war must seem to those in the lands where we fight amp160 Apologies All Around Consider for a moment one form of warrelated naming where our language changes all the time That8217s the naming of our new generations of weaponry In the case of those drones the two main ones in US battle zones at the moment are the Predator as in the scifi film and the Reaper as in Grim In both cases the names imply an urge for slaughter and a sense of superiority verging on immortality And yet we don8217t take such names seriously Though we8217ve seen the movies and most Afghans haven8217t we don8217t imagine our form of warfare as like that of the Predator that alien hunter of human prey or a Terminator that machine version of the same If we did we would have quite a different picture of ourselves which would mean quite a different way of thinking about how we make war From the point of view of Afghans Pakistanis or other potential target peoples those drones buzzing in the sky must seem very much like reallife versions of Predators or Terminators They must that is seem alien and implacable like so many malign gods After all the weaponry from those planes is loosed without recourse no one on the ground can do a thing to prevent it and little to defend themselves and often enough the missiles and bombs kill the innocent along with those our warriors consider the guilty Take a recent event on a distant hillside in Afghanistan8217s Kunar Province where 10 boys including two sets of brothers were collecting wood for their families on a winter8217s day when the predators8212this time American helicopters evidently looking for insurgents who had rocketed a nearby American base8212arrived Only one of the boys survived with wounds and he evidently described the experience as one of being 8220hunted82218212as the Predator hunts humans or human hunters stalk animals They 8220hovered over us8221 he said 8220scanned us and we saw a green flash8221 then the helicopters rose and began firing For this particular nightmare war commander General David Petraeus apologized directly to Afghan President Hamid Karzai who has for years fruitlessly denounced US and NATO air operations that have killed Afghan civilians When an angered Karzai refused to accept his apology Secretary of Defense Gates on a surprise visit to the country apologized as well as did President Obama And that was that8212for the Americans Forget for a moment what this incident tells us about a form of warfare in which helicopter pilots reasonably close to the ground and modestly more vulnerable than pilots in planes can8217t tell boys with sticks from insurgents with guns The crucial thing to keep in mind is that no matter how many apologies may be offered afterwards this can8217t stop According to the Wall Street Journal death by helicopter is in fact on the rise It8217s in the nature of this kind of warfare In fact Afghan civilians have repeatedly even repetitiously been blown away from the air with or without apologies since 2001 Over these years Afghan participants at wedding parties funerals and other rites have for example been wiped out with relative regularity only sometimes with apologies to follow In the weeks that preceded the killing of those boys for instance a 8220NATO82218212these are usually American8212air attack took out four Afghan security guards protecting the work of a road construction firm and wounded a fifth according to the police chief of Helmand Province a similar 8220deeply regrettable incident8221 took out an Afghan army soldier his wife and his four children in Nangarhar Province and a third also in Kunar Province wiped out 65 civilians including women and children according to Afghan government officials Karzai recently visited a hospital and wept as he held a child wounded in the attack whose leg had been amputated The US military did not weep Instead it rejected this claim of civilian deaths insisting as it often does that the dead were 8220insurgents8221 It is now8212and this is typical82128221investigating8221 the incident General Petraeus managed to further offend Afghan officials when he visited the presidential palace in Kabul and reportedly claimed that some of the wounded children might have suffered burns not in an air attack but from their parents as punishment for bad behavior and were being counted in the casualty figures only to make them look worse Over the years Afghan civilian casualties from the air have waxed and waned depending on how much air power American commanders were willing to call in but they have never ceased As history tells us air power and civilian deaths are inextricably bound together They can8217t be separated no matter how much anyone talks about 8220surgical8221 strikes and precision bombing It8217s simply the barbaric essence the very nature of this kind of war to kill noncombatants One question sometimes raised about such casualties in Afghanistan is this according to UN statistics the Taliban via roadside bombs and suicide bombers kills far more civilians including women and children than do NATO forces so why do the UScaused deaths stick so in Afghan craws when we periodically investigate apologize and even pay survivors for their losses New York Times reporter Alissa J Rubin puzzled over this in a recent piece and offered the following answer 8220Those that are caused by NATO troops appear to reverberate more deeply because of underlying animosity about foreigners in the country8221 This seems reasonable as far as it goes but don8217t discount what air power adds to the foreignness of the situation Consider what the 20yearold brother of two of the dead boys from the Kunar helicopter attack told the Wall Street Journal in a phone interview 8220The only option I have is to pick up a Kalashnikov RPG rocketpropelled grenade or a suicide vest to fight8221 Whatever the Taliban may be they remain part of Afghan society They are there on the ground They kill and they commit barbarities but they suffer too In our version of air 8220war8221 however the killing and the dying are perfectly and precisely even surgically separated We kill they die It8217s that simple Sometimes the ones we target to die do so sometimes others stand in their stead But no matter We then deny argue investigate apologize and continue We are in that sense implacable And one more thing since we are incapable of thinking of ourselves as either predators or Predators no less emotionless Terminators it becomes impossible for us to see that our air 8220war8221 on terror is in reality a machine for creating what we then call 8220terrorists8221 It is part of an American Global War for Terror In other words although air power has long been held up as part of the solution to terrorism and though the American military now regularly boasts about the enemy body counts it produces and the precision with which it does so all of that even when accurate is also a kind of delusion8212and worse yet one that transforms us into Predators and Terminators It8217s not a pretty sight So count on this there will be no more Top Guns No knights of the air No dogfights and skyjousts No valor Just onesided slaughter and targeted assassinations That is where air power has ended up Live with it Tom Engelhardt cofounder of the American Empire Project runs the Nation Institute8217s TomDispatchcom His latest book is The American Way of War How Bush8217s Wars Became Obama8217s Haymarket Books To listen to a TomCast audio version of this post read by Ralph Pochoda click here or download it to your iPod here Note of thanks To Bill Astore TomDispatch regular for bringing his expert eye to bear on this post to Christopher Holmes superior copyeditor who is now undoubtedly doing his best to get by in Japan and is on my mind to Jason Ditz of the invaluable website Antiwarcom the rare person who continues to write regularly about the civilians who die in America8217s wars and to Ralph Pochoda for doing the audio version of this piece | MQ9/PROPN Reaper/PROPN in/ADP flightamplta/NOUN hrefhttpwwwafmilsharedmediaphotodbphotos071127F2185F105jpgampgtStaff/PROPN Sgt/PROPN Brian/PROPN FergusonampltaampgtUS/PROPN Air/PROPN 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<p>Michael Ratner is President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin. He is currently a legal adviser to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. He and CCR brought the first case challenging the Guantanamo detentions and continue in their efforts to close Guantanamo. He taught at Yale Law School, and Columbia Law School, and was President of the National Lawyers Guild. His current books include Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in the Twenty-First Century America, and Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away With Murder.</p>
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<p>NOTE: Mr. Ratner speaks on his own behalf and not for any organization with which he is affiliated.</p> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. And welcome to this week's edition of The Ratner Report with Michael Ratner, who now joins us from New York City.
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<p />Michael's the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin. He's also a board member of The Real News.
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<p />Thanks for joining us again, Michael.
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<p />MICHAEL RATNER, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: The best part of the title is board member of Real News, Paul.
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<p />JAY: Thank you.
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<p />RATNER: That's the only one that matters. The rest of it is—you know. Anyway.
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<p />JAY: Actually, given the work you've done there—. Okay, enough back-patting.
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<p />What are you working on this week? What have you got for us?
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<p />RATNER: Well, I've had a really busy week. It's—again I'm working a lot on WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, looking at Bradley Manning and Jeremy Hammond, who is the alleged hacker of the Stratfor emails.
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<p />This week is the thousandth day that Bradley Manning, the private who allegedly uploaded the Iraq War logs, Afghan War logs, "Collateral Murder" video, State Department cables, uploaded them to WikiLeaks. He has now been in pretrial detention, as we're speaking, 1,003 days. It's a big anniversary. That means he has been in detention almost three years without a trial. He's not been convicted of anything.
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<p />And of course you might say, what's going on here? It's outrageous. The speedy trial rule is 120 days in the military, and somehow he's been there almost ten times that. Well, next week at Fort Meade there is going to be a hearing on whether or not these charges should be dismissed because of the violation [incompr.] violation of the speedy trial rule. We'll see what the judge does. The hearing will be on that. It will also be on this proffer of some kind of plea to a lower charge than he's been charged with. We'll see what happens. It'll be going on in Fort Meade next week.
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<p />The interesting thing, of course, is Bradley Manning has now been in custody, as I said, for over 1,000 days. He's one of the two major sources, apparently, alleged sources, for my client Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.
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<p />The other source—and I was in court today on it, not as the lawyer, but as an observer—is Jeremy Hammond. Jeremy Hammond has now been in custody for almost a year, 355 days or so. And he is alleged to have cracked into the Stratfor emails, of which there 5Â&#160;million, uploaded them to WikiLeaks. Stratfor's a private intelligence company. WikiLeaks had been putting them up regularly. The latest group of them has to do with Latin America, correspondence back and forth with various people in Latin America who are looking at things.
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<p />Some of that Stratfor stuff is very interesting. One piece, of course, is the claim that there's a sealed indictment against my client, Julian Assange; other pieces about, you know, Pakistan knowing the location of binÂ&#160;Laden; other pieces about the Israelis furnishing the Russians with the codes of the military equipment they gave to the country of Georgia so the Russians could disable or shoot down that stuff. So there's a lot of stuff in Stratfor.
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<p />But what you have here, if you look at it, you have two people, Bradley Manning, Jeremy Hammond, both in prison, both in prison for a very long time, Julian Assange in the Ecuador embassy. Julian's actually been in custody now of some sort for eight hundred [incompr.] days. Bradley's ahead by a couple of hundred days. But I'm afraid, I fear that those differences, they'll always remain the same, but they may be less of a proportion. So you have Hammond, Manning, and Julian Assange.
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<p />And today I was at the hearing, and the hearing today in the Manning case was about whether the judge in the case—it's in federal court in Manhattan—ought to recuse herself.
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<p />If you know anything about Hammond, it's, one, that the group he was with, allegedly with, called [incompr.] was a group of supposed hackers who were out there and got busted about a year ago. An informant busted them. And what's interesting: it's again entrapment, because what happened in that case is the FBI actually bought the computer that the documents from Stratfor were uploaded into. So the FBI knew about them taking all these Stratfor documents and then passing them on to WikiLeaks, but somehow the FBI let that happen. Presumably, they wanted to not just entrap Jeremy Hammond, but entrap WikiLeaks as well.
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<p />That was the second thing is the charge against Jeremy Hammond is really serious. It's 37Â&#160;years to life, computer hacking. And what that illustrates is the way this government right now is persecuting people who are trying to make the government or corporations transparent and make our country more democratic. The government doesn't want that. They're giving punitive charges against people, punitive against Jeremy Hammond, punitive, obviously, against Bradley manning, who is facing life imprisonment—actually, it's a death penalty charge possible, although the government says they're not asking for it. And, of course, Julian Assange, if they ever get their hands on him [incompr.] forever, I presume. And, of course, we all know the case of Aaron Swartz, Aaron, who was charged not even as a hacker, was charged for uploading documents [incompr.] or downloading them that he had the authorization to get from JSTOR, persecuted by the Boston U.S. attorney, and eventually, as a result, committed suicide.
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<p />So what we're seeing going on in the country is incredible repression by the government. And the two philosophies here are—on the one hand, the government's philosophy is keep all the secrets we can, do all the dirty tricks and corruption we can, don't expose it, don't let it out. Likewise, with corporations like Stratfor, they want complete opaqueness.
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<p />On the other hand, the group of people who I represent and are out there doing a lot of work, Anonymous and others, they want transparency, they want openness. They believe that democracy needs transparency.
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<p />JAY: I was just going to say, there's apparently a lot of protests that are going to play—or solidarity rallies or something about the Manning case around the world.
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<p />RATNER: There's already been a number of them. There were 40 of them on the actual 1,000th day. And there's probably hundreds of them right now. Bradley Manning has a lot of support, all of these people have a fair amount of support, because there's a lot of people out there who understand that our governments are not about openness and transparency and democracy, but are about closing themselves up. The only people the government wants open are you and me and whatever we do on the internet. In fact, the opposite should be there. We should have privacy, and governments should be transparent.
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<p />So you have Jeremy Hammond in court today making a motion to get rid of the judge. And here's why. It's crazy. The judge's husband is at a law firm called Cahill Gordon in New York, and his email was one of the emails hacked and revealed by Stratfor, or allegedly by the defendant sitting in the courtroom of the woman whose husband's email was looked at—not the content, but at least the name, and then the law firm's client as well; their emails were published. And you would think that that's—you know, a recusal would be there because of bias that the judge might have, or at least the perception of bias.
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<p />We went into court. Lawyers from Jeremy Hammond argued it today. Immediately afterwards, or shortly afterwards—the opinion was obviously written before—the judge issued a 27-page opinion denying the recusal and saying she's going to continue to sit on the case. It's an outrage. I mean, it's just an outrage. Here you have a judge sitting on the case where her husband's email, even though it was a public email, was revealed by a hacker because it was part of the Stratfor intelligence system. It doesn't make any sense to me why that judge is continuing to sit.
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<p />So you have Hammond there. Then you have, as I said, Bradley Manning [incompr.], Julian Assange in the embassy.
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<p />And then yesterday, 20Â&#160;February, you have an incredible document issued by the United States government. It's called—and I'll have to look at it 'cause it has such a crazy name—"Administration's Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets". Now, when I did the press conference yesterday, we thought that might have been in response to China, you know, this allegation that China's getting into our U.S. computers, etc. In fact, of course, it is around China and other countries, but a lot of it goes after people like Jeremy Hammond, WikiLeaks, and other people who are trying to open up government secrets that should not be hidden. And they go in.
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<p />And what's interesting about the document is Holder stands in front of people and has the nerve to say, we think there must be increased enforcement against these kind of groups that are working, really, to open up government secrets. He's putting it in an economic guise to try and sell it and saying these groups are going to try and, you know, commit economic sabotage, which, of course, as far as I can tell has not been the case.
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<p />And one of the fascinating things about the document (and it's 141 pages; you can get it online) is what it says about my client, WikiLeaks. We consider—and WikiLeaks is a publishing company. It publishes information that it gets from sources, whether that source was Bradley Manning or that source was Jeremy Hammond or other people around the world; it publishes like The New York Times. How does it differ from The New York Times? I don't know how it is. But according to Holder in this report—this report is written by one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine government agencies [crosstalk]
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<p />JAY: Just to be clear, when you say, "How does it differ from The New York Times," you're not talking some generality. WikiLeaks published all this stuff through The New York Times and several other major newspapers. So, I mean, they participated in it with WikiLeaks. But WikiLeaks is the only one that's being singled out.
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<p />RATNER: Right. There were four groups when the initial drop of the documents happened, or a certain number, I mean, four people. There's WikiLeaks, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel, and that's who published it. But WikiLeaks somehow is not considered a publisher. I don't know why, why Biden calls them high-tech terrorists, etc.
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<p />What is interesting about this report from Holder, which I'm holding up here, it's eight different groups. What they call WikiLeaks is, quote, "self-styled whistleblowing group". They don't call it a publisher. They don't even call it a whistleblowing group. They say "self-styled." So, what do they really think it is? Do they really think it's what Biden says, high-tech terrorist groups? Are they looking at it like they're going to prosecute it? The answer is—it seems to me, to that is a yes. They're looking at WikiLeaks as a target of some criminal investigation.
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<p />In the same paragraph, they mention another group called LulzSec, L-U-L-Z-S-E-C. That means Lulz Security. That's the group that Jeremy Hammond allegedly belonged to and that allegedly hacked into Stratfor. And they put them all in the same group. They say groups like LulzSec have to be, essentially, prosecuted. In fact, they've already destroyed LulzSec through the informant.
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<p />So what's interesting about this report—and I think it's mandatory reading—is what's going on here is this government has now decided to just shut itself up completely and go after anybody who wants to open up secrets and who had our attorney general standing in front of a huge crowd saying we need increased enforcement. To me what "increased enforcement" here is is putting people like—it is basically saying, we're going to put these people against a wall and just shoot them, because what else can they do? They've already pushed them into life sentences. They've pushed them into, you know, incredibly heavy charges. They already caused one man, Aaron Swartz, to commit suicide. And now they're saying they need increased enforcement.
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<p />I mean, what's going on here is this fight between transparency of the government and government that shuts itself off and doesn't allow the people to know what they're doing and therefore cuts off any chance of democracy. We're at a very, very serious moment.
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<p />JAY: The kind of rhetoric you're quoting Biden with is the kind of justification for using the indefinite internment under the NDAA legislation. Once you start using that kind of language about somebody, why can't the military pick them up and hold them?
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<p />RATNER: That's absolutely right, Paul. And it goes to that kind of language, that if there are terrorists, then the NDAA, National Defense Authorization Act, authorized their detention. And then why can't you drone them to death? You know, we saw that report that China was considering droning a person in their mountains who was a drug dealer. Well, you know, there's been no ruling, no legal ruling that drones can't be used not only in any country in the world and against American citizens, but in this country as well. And, of course, we have used, as people know, we have occasionally, you know, whether it's a MoveOn in Philadelphia—MOVE in Philadelphia, not MoveOn, MOVE, the organization that they dropped a bomb on top of the house, or—you know, they do these kind of things. And you have to worry when Biden is using language like that. And that's why the safest place Julian Assange can be right now, other than in Ecuador, is in the embassy.
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<p />JAY: Right. Alright. Thanks for joining us, Michael.
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<p />RATNER: Thank you, Paul.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Bradley Manning 1000 Days in Jail and more Government Crackdown on Transparency | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D9737%23.USd82lpev0A | 2013-02-22 | 4left
| 2,495 | Michael Ratner is President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights CCR in New York and Chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin He is currently a legal adviser to Wikileaks and Julian Assange He and CCR brought the first case challenging the Guantanamo detentions and continue in their efforts to close Guantanamo He taught at Yale Law School and Columbia Law School and was President of the National Lawyers Guild His current books include Hell No Your Right to Dissent in the TwentyFirst Century America and Who Killed Che How the CIA Got Away With Murder NOTE Mr Ratner speaks on his own behalf and not for any organization with which he is affiliated PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Baltimore And welcome to this weeks edition of The Ratner Report with Michael Ratner who now joins us from New York City Michaels the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and chair of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin Hes also a board member of The Real News Thanks for joining us again Michael MICHAEL RATNER PRESIDENT EMERITUS CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS The best part of the title is board member of Real News Paul JAY Thank you RATNER Thats the only one that matters The rest of it is226128148you know Anyway JAY Actually given the work youve done there226128148 Okay enough backpatting What are you working on this week What have you got for us RATNER Well Ive had a really busy week Its226128148again Im working a lot on WikiLeaks Julian Assange looking at Bradley Manning and Jeremy Hammond who is the alleged hacker of the Stratfor emails This week is the thousandth day that Bradley Manning the private who allegedly uploaded the Iraq War logs Afghan War logs Collateral Murder video State Department cables uploaded them to WikiLeaks He has now been in pretrial detention as were speaking 1003 days Its a big anniversary That means he has been in detention almost three years without a trial Hes not been convicted of anything And of course you might say whats going on here Its outrageous The speedy trial rule is 120 days in the military and somehow hes been there almost ten times that Well next week at Fort Meade there is going to be a hearing on whether or not these charges should be dismissed because of the violation incompr violation of the speedy trial rule Well see what the judge does The hearing will be on that It will also be on this proffer of some kind of plea to a lower charge than hes been charged with Well see what happens Itll be going on in Fort Meade next week The interesting thing of course is Bradley Manning has now been in custody as I said for over 1000 days Hes one of the two major sources apparently alleged sources for my client Julian Assange and WikiLeaks The other source226128148and I was in court today on it not as the lawyer but as an observer226128148is Jeremy Hammond Jeremy Hammond has now been in custody for almost a year 355 days or so And he is alleged to have cracked into the Stratfor emails of which there 5194amp160million uploaded them to WikiLeaks Stratfors a private intelligence company WikiLeaks had been putting them up regularly The latest group of them has to do with Latin America correspondence back and forth with various people in Latin America who are looking at things Some of that Stratfor stuff is very interesting One piece of course is the claim that theres a sealed indictment against my client Julian Assange other pieces about you know Pakistan knowing the location of bin194amp160Laden other pieces about the Israelis furnishing the Russians with the codes of the military equipment they gave to the country of Georgia so the Russians could disable or shoot down that stuff So theres a lot of stuff in Stratfor But what you have here if you look at it you have two people Bradley Manning Jeremy Hammond both in prison both in prison for a very long time Julian Assange in the Ecuador embassy Julians actually been in custody now of some sort for eight hundred incompr days Bradleys ahead by a couple of hundred days But Im afraid I fear that those differences theyll always remain the same but they may be less of a proportion So you have Hammond Manning and Julian Assange And today I was at the hearing and the hearing today in the Manning case was about whether the judge in the case226128148its in federal court in Manhattan226128148ought to recuse herself If you know anything about Hammond its one that the group he was with allegedly with called incompr was a group of supposed hackers who were out there and got busted about a year ago An informant busted them And whats interesting its again entrapment because what happened in that case is the FBI actually bought the computer that the documents from Stratfor were uploaded into So the FBI knew about them taking all these Stratfor documents and then passing them on to WikiLeaks but somehow the FBI let that happen Presumably they wanted to not just entrap Jeremy Hammond but entrap WikiLeaks as well That was the second thing is the charge against Jeremy Hammond is really serious Its 37194amp160years to life computer hacking And what that illustrates is the way this government right now is persecuting people who are trying to make the government or corporations transparent and make our country more democratic The government doesnt want that Theyre giving punitive charges against people punitive against Jeremy Hammond punitive obviously against Bradley manning who is facing life imprisonment226128148actually its a death penalty charge possible although the government says theyre not asking for it And of course Julian Assange if they ever get their hands on him incompr forever I presume And of course we all know the case of Aaron Swartz Aaron who was charged not even as a hacker was charged for uploading documents incompr or downloading them that he had the authorization to get from JSTOR persecuted by the Boston US attorney and eventually as a result committed suicide So what were seeing going on in the country is incredible repression by the government And the two philosophies here are226128148on the one hand the governments philosophy is keep all the secrets we can do all the dirty tricks and corruption we can dont expose it dont let it out Likewise with corporations like Stratfor they want complete opaqueness On the other hand the group of people who I represent and are out there doing a lot of work Anonymous and others they want transparency they want openness They believe that democracy needs transparency JAY I was just going to say theres apparently a lot of protests that are going to play226128148or solidarity rallies or something about the Manning case around the world RATNER Theres already been a number of them There were 40 of them on the actual 1000th day And theres probably hundreds of them right now Bradley Manning has a lot of support all of these people have a fair amount of support because theres a lot of people out there who understand that our governments are not about openness and transparency and democracy but are about closing themselves up The only people the government wants open are you and me and whatever we do on the internet In fact the opposite should be there We should have privacy and governments should be transparent So you have Jeremy Hammond in court today making a motion to get rid of the judge And heres why Its crazy The judges husband is at a law firm called Cahill Gordon in New York and his email was one of the emails hacked and revealed by Stratfor or allegedly by the defendant sitting in the courtroom of the woman whose husbands email was looked at226128148not the content but at least the name and then the law firms client as well their emails were published And you would think that thats226128148you know a recusal would be there because of bias that the judge might have or at least the perception of bias We went into court Lawyers from Jeremy Hammond argued it today Immediately afterwards or shortly afterwards226128148the opinion was obviously written before226128148the judge issued a 27page opinion denying the recusal and saying shes going to continue to sit on the case Its an outrage I mean its just an outrage Here you have a judge sitting on the case where her husbands email even though it was a public email was revealed by a hacker because it was part of the Stratfor intelligence system It doesnt make any sense to me why that judge is continuing to sit So you have Hammond there Then you have as I said Bradley Manning incompr Julian Assange in the embassy And then yesterday 20194amp160February you have an incredible document issued by the United States government Its called226128148and Ill have to look at it cause it has such a crazy name226128148Administrations Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of US Trade Secrets Now when I did the press conference yesterday we thought that might have been in response to China you know this allegation that Chinas getting into our US computers etc In fact of course it is around China and other countries but a lot of it goes after people like Jeremy Hammond WikiLeaks and other people who are trying to open up government secrets that should not be hidden And they go in And whats interesting about the document is Holder stands in front of people and has the nerve to say we think there must be increased enforcement against these kind of groups that are working really to open up government secrets Hes putting it in an economic guise to try and sell it and saying these groups are going to try and you know commit economic sabotage which of course as far as I can tell has not been the case And one of the fascinating things about the document and its 141 pages you can get it online is what it says about my client WikiLeaks We consider226128148and WikiLeaks is a publishing company It publishes information that it gets from sources whether that source was Bradley Manning or that source was Jeremy Hammond or other people around the world it publishes like The New York Times How does it differ from The New York Times I dont know how it is But according to Holder in this report226128148this report is written by one two three four five six seven nine government agencies crosstalk JAY Just to be clear when you say How does it differ from The New York Times youre not talking some generality WikiLeaks published all this stuff through The New York Times and several other major newspapers So I mean they participated in it with WikiLeaks But WikiLeaks is the only one thats being singled out RATNER Right There were four groups when the initial drop of the documents happened or a certain number I mean four people Theres WikiLeaks The New York Times The Guardian and Der Spiegel and thats who published it But WikiLeaks somehow is not considered a publisher I dont know why why Biden calls them hightech terrorists etc What is interesting about this report from Holder which Im holding up here its eight different groups What they call WikiLeaks is quote selfstyled whistleblowing group They dont call it a publisher They dont even call it a whistleblowing group They say selfstyled So what do they really think it is Do they really think its what Biden says hightech terrorist groups Are they looking at it like theyre going to prosecute it The answer is226128148it seems to me to that is a yes Theyre looking at WikiLeaks as a target of some criminal investigation In the same paragraph they mention another group called LulzSec LULZSEC That means Lulz Security Thats the group that Jeremy Hammond allegedly belonged to and that allegedly hacked into Stratfor And they put them all in the same group They say groups like LulzSec have to be essentially prosecuted In fact theyve already destroyed LulzSec through the informant So whats interesting about this report226128148and I think its mandatory reading226128148is whats going on here is this government has now decided to just shut itself up completely and go after anybody who wants to open up secrets and who had our attorney general standing in front of a huge crowd saying we need increased enforcement To me what increased enforcement here is is putting people like226128148it is basically saying were going to put these people against a wall and just shoot them because what else can they do Theyve already pushed them into life sentences Theyve pushed them into you know incredibly heavy charges They already caused one man Aaron Swartz to commit suicide And now theyre saying they need increased enforcement I mean whats going on here is this fight between transparency of the government and government that shuts itself off and doesnt allow the people to know what theyre doing and therefore cuts off any chance of democracy Were at a very very serious moment JAY The kind of rhetoric youre quoting Biden with is the kind of justification for using the indefinite internment under the NDAA legislation Once you start using that kind of language about somebody why cant the military pick them up and hold them RATNER Thats absolutely right Paul And it goes to that kind of language that if there are terrorists then the NDAA National Defense Authorization Act authorized their detention And then why cant you drone them to death You know we saw that report that China was considering droning a person in their mountains who was a drug dealer Well you know theres been no ruling no legal ruling that drones cant be used not only in any country in the world and against American citizens but in this country as well And of course we have used as people know we have occasionally you know whether its a MoveOn in Philadelphia226128148MOVE in Philadelphia not MoveOn MOVE the organization that they dropped a bomb on top of the house or226128148you know they do these kind of things And you have to worry when Biden is using language like that And thats why the safest place Julian Assange can be right now other than in Ecuador is in the embassy JAY Right Alright Thanks for joining us Michael RATNER Thank you Paul JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Michael/PROPN Ratner/PROPN is/AUX President/PROPN Emeritus/PROPN of/ADP the/DET Center/PROPN for/ADP Constitutional/PROPN Rights/PROPN CCR/PROPN in/ADP New/PROPN York/PROPN and/CCONJ Chair/PROPN of/ADP the/DET European/PROPN Center/PROPN for/ADP Constitutional/PROPN and/CCONJ Human/PROPN Rights/PROPN in/ADP Berlin/PROPN He/PRON is/AUX currently/ADV a/DET legal/ADJ adviser/NOUN to/ADP Wikileaks/PROPN and/CCONJ Julian/PROPN Assange/PROPN He/PROPN and/CCONJ CCR/PROPN brought/VERB the/DET first/ADJ case/NOUN challenging/VERB the/DET Guantanamo/PROPN detentions/NOUN and/CCONJ continue/VERB in/ADP their/PRON efforts/NOUN 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<p>Reverend David Alexander Bullock is a religious leader in Detroit. Rev. Bullock's ministry is unique because he is dedicated both to the pulpit and to the classroom. As a preacher he has preached throughout the Midwest, Northeast and Southern United States. As a teacher he has lectured throughout the Midwest and continues to impact the lives of undergraduate college students in both Detroit and Chicago. A native of Boston, Massachusetts; Rev. Bullock was reared in Detroit, Mi, in the home of Reverend Dr. Samuel H. Bullock. After graduating from high school (at the age of 16), Rev. Bullock entered Morehouse College in the fall of 1994. In 1998 Rev. Bullock graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in History. Rev. Bullock then entered the Doctoral program in Philosophy at Wayne State University, where he is currently in the final stages of dissertation preparation. In addition to being a PhD candidate at Wayne State University, Rev. Bullock is also currently a graduate student at the University of Chicago, where he is receiving advanced training in Theology.</p>
<p>Curt Guyette is an award-winning journalist who has been covering Detroit for nearly 20 years. In a position funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, he's now working for the ACLU of Michigan, reporting on issues related to emergency management and open government throughout Michigan.</p>
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore.
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<p />The city of Detroit, Michigan, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on July 18, 2013. It is the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in the U.S. history by debt, estimated at $18-$20 billion. We at The Real News have been covering this issue since then, and we have had a special focus on the water shutoffs.
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<p />But today we're going to focus on one of the very issues that led to the crisis in the first place, the pension system. According to The New York Times, the bankruptcy settlement leaves behind some of the same problems that plunged the city into the crisis in the first place. This is a fundamental problem that could be an issue for other local governments in the coming years. Like many other public systems, it relies on a funding formula that lags the true cost of the pensions and is predicated on a forecasted investment return, a forecast that the judge, Steven W. Rhodes, has questioned during the trial on Detroit's bankruptcy plan.
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<p />Now joining us from Detroit, Michigan, to discuss all of this are our two guests.
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<p />Curt Guyette and Reverend David Alexander Bullock.
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<p />Curt Guyette is a longtime Detroit journalist. He is now working for ACLU of Michigan, covering issues surrounding emergency management and open government.
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<p />David Alexander Bullock is a pastor at the Greater St. Matthews Baptist Church. He's also a teacher, lecturer, artist, and social commentator.
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<p />Thank you both for joining us.
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<p />REV. DAVID ALEXANDER BULLOCK, PASTOR, GTR. ST. MATTHEW BAPT. CHURCH: Thank you for having us.
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<p />CURT GUYETTE, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, ACLU OF MICHIGAN: Nice to be here.
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<p />PERIES: So let's first for our viewers outline some of the grave concerns that the two of you have about the plan itself. And let me start with you, David.
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<p />BULLOCK: Well, one, thank you for having me. We've been concerned about the bankruptcy since its inception, partly because of the way it came into being. The emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, appointed by Governor Rick Snyder, a governor who originally is on record saying that the city of Detroit never would go into bankruptcy, ultimately filed for bankruptcy in lieu of stopping AFSCME, a trade union, from fighting for protections for pensions, and also fighting against work rule changes in city government. So Kevyn Orr preempts that fight, files for bankruptcy, in my opinion primarily to undermine the Michigan Constitution so that now the emergency manager, through the bankruptcy proceedings, with the help of Judge Steven Rhodes, can go in and gut pensions.
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<p />Then another problem with the bankruptcy is this whole question of the financial crisis. The state of Michigan has had a great role in promoting and indeed creating a financial crisis in the city of Detroit, because the state of Michigan has withheld over the past couple of years tax revenue that's supposed to be coming to the city of Detroit. If you add the other layer of trade policy, you see over 600,000 manufacturing jobs have left the state of Michigan from 2000 and 2010, many of those jobs in the automotive industry. So as the population of Detroit declines and as the employment base gets lower and lower, so that you have high unemployment, you have a lowering of the tax base. Add on another layer of the foreclosure crisis: over 100,000 foreclosures in the city of Detroit between 2008 and about 2010, 2011. So as the tax base disintegrates, as there is no employment prospect, you have state tax revenue not coming to the city of Detroit.
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<p />And in lieu of all of those factors, you have a financial crisis. And so now bankruptcy is supposed to fix all of these mitigating circumstances. I would argue that even after bankruptcy you're still going to have a declining population, you're still going to have limited employment, you're still going to have limited tax revenue coming to the city of Detroit. And so how does the city of Detroit move forward without these systemic trends being dealt with?
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<p />PERIES: Curt and you have been following this issue for quite a long time now, since the bankruptcy filing. What are your thoughts on the settlement plan?
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<p />GUYETTE: Well, I'd like to take a step back as well, and even a further step back than the reverend took, which is how we got here, which is that the road to bankruptcy leads through the appointed emergency manager. And voters of Michigan in 2012 rejected the emergency manager law by a pretty considerable margin.
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<p />The emergency manager, for people who don't live in Michigan, the law here allows the state to appoint a manager over financially struggling school districts and cities, and they have just about unlimited power. They can break collective bargaining agreements. They can ignore laws. They can create new laws. And the voters saw this as too far-reaching, and in a referendum they repealed the law. And then what happened was that the Republican-dominated legislature came back a month after that law was repealed and in a lame-duck session enacted a new law that was very similar to the old one. And it's important, because instead of having elected officials be in charge of bankruptcy, you now have a corporate lawyer appointed to take charge of the city and was brought in, and the firm that he was with up until he got appointed as the emergency manager was brought in to be in charge of the bankruptcy. They had clients that were among the creditors, major creditors. So instead of having elected officials from the city in charge of things, you have people from the outside that--in charge of things from the beginning.
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<p />PERIES: Right. Okay. So both of you have identified and given us context in terms of how all of this came about, which is very important, and I thank you for that. All of the media's reporting about the disproportionate application of the $7 billion debt obligation, much of it falling on retirees. Explain that to us.
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<p />Let me start with you, Pastor.
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<p />BULLOCK: Yes [incompr.] classes of creditors. Obviously, the most vulnerable class of creditors is going to be the retirees who depend on their pensions to live. Many of the retirees cannot get another job because they are in their senior years, cannot reenter the workforce, and so live off of their pensions, took a major hit. And I don't care how you describe it. You know, some say there were some shenanigans with the vote. Whether the vote was a fair vote or not, the final verdict is that retirees took a major hit with the reduction of their pensions. And even Judge Steven Rhodes is on record saying that this is going to be harmful for folks over a long period of time, but this is about shared sacrifice.
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<p />Notice now that while the retirees take a hit, I like to describe the bankruptcy as an economic engine for consultants. So you've got over $200 million in consulting fees. Even Mayor Mike Duggan, who's been very silent in this process, recently has raised the question about the amount of money spent on fees to Jones Day, to Conway MacKenzie and other consulting and law firms. And then there's supposed to be $1.7 billion or so coming out of this deal to go to city services, to turn lights on and fix streets and whatever else.
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<p />But the question remains: will this bankruptcy actually benefit citizens in the city of Detroit? How will retirees live off limited pensions in the city of Detroit? And will we see an improvement in city services outside of the very, very valuable territory of Midtown and Downtown? Will the entire town actually benefit from the supposed dollars that are supposed to be freed up by the bankruptcy?
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<p />PERIES: Curt, explain who some of these retirees are. Put some faces to the kinds of people we're talking about here.
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<p />GUYETTE: Well, all sorts of city workers, from the uniformed workers like police and firefighters and ambulance drivers to the people who work at the wastewater treatment plant, city clerks, all those people.
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<p />I think one thing that should be pointed out is that in some ways the biggest hit to retirees in this is not the cut in their pensions but the loss of health care benefits. Previously they had a--able to be on a plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield. They paid 20 percent, the city paid 80 percent. That was completely taken away. And now, instead, most of them are getting a $125 monthly stipend to put toward whatever insurance they can get. And I've talked to people who are saying now they're paying three, four, 500, as much as 1,000 dollars for their monthly medical insurance. And so that works out to hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month. And then the co-pays aren't as good, the coverage for the medicine is not as good. And really, out of the $7 billion that is being saved in this bankruptcy, a little less than $4 billion is in terms of the health care costs. Really.
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<p />And retirees are being hit four different ways in this. For the nonuniform retirees, there's the four and a half percent cut in their pension. There is the massive hit to their health care costs. The cost-of-living adjustments are being taken away completely for the nonuniform employees. And that, between the police and the fire and the nonunion employees, in the years ahead that adds up to more than $1 billion. And then there's this other issue where there was annuity savings that employees could contribute to as part of their retirement, and now the city's saying, well, they were paid too much interest, and so they're doing what they're calling a clawback.
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<p />So the result is that retirees could be losing as much as 20 percent of their pensions. And that's not even including the health care, extra health care costs. So it is significant. And as best as I can figure, about 75 to 80 percent of that $7 billion in savings is coming on the back of retirees.
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<p />PERIES: Pastor, what does this mean to the massive organizing that has been going on against both the water shutoffs and the effects this has on retirees? I mean, we do know Detroit's a very well organized community, and there must be a rebellion on your hands at the moment. What is the community doing to organize and contest these decisions?
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<p />BULLOCK: Well, definitely I must say Detroit, Southeastern Michigan, is a very organized community, history of organizing, grassroots organizing, labor organizing, such a grand tradition. But unfortunately we have not seen the kind of sustained protest in Detroit around these hits that retirees are taking in their pensions, the hits around the destruction of democracy brought by Governor Rick Snyder and the emergency manager, the hits around how public dollars are being used for private development and major land transfers happening under the guise of the bankruptcy, lost the water department water shutoffs. We have not seen the kind of sustained protest that we're seeing in Ferguson.
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<p />And I have and others have asked the question, what's the difference between Ferguson, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan? The issues in Detroit are persistent. They're systematic. They're institutional. And I think what this means is that we must raise the level of our organizing so that we can have the kind of sustained protest, even civil disobedience, that you see in Ferguson in Detroit, Michigan. And unless that happens, I believe, unless we upgrade our movement to that level, then we really won't see resolution and restoration in the city of Detroit.
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<p />PERIES: Right. Curt, what is the ACLU doing about some of these decisions?
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<p />GUYETTE: Well, not a lot in terms of legal work. The primary involvement has been having me write about these issues. And we did write some, we cooperated in a big way on the water shutoff issue.
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<p />But the one thing I think is important to point out is the significance of this bankruptcy case is that it was a landmark decision. Michigan had a very strong constitutional protection for public employee pensions. That's been taken away. And with what's going on, something similar is happening at the same time in t he Stockton, California, bankruptcy. And so people who have public pensions, if they're living in areas that are struggling, they're in trouble. They don't even need to file for bankruptcy. All is they need to do now is go to employee groups and say, look it, you guys don't have any protections anymore; you'd better not go under and agree to what we're saying, or we're going to go to bankruptcy and it might even be worse. The hammers are ready to drop on people all over the country. And they should be very aware of what's happening in Detroit. This is just not an issue for Detroit retirees. This is an issue for public retirees all throughout the country.
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<p />PERIES: Well, we at The Real News will be keeping an eye on the fallout of all of this. And I hope you gentleman join us again to keep us abreast.
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<p />BULLOCK: Thank you so much.
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<p />GUYETTE: Thank you.
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<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | The Post-Bankruptcy Plan for Detroit | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12651 | 2014-11-12 | 4left
| 2,496 | Reverend David Alexander Bullock is a religious leader in Detroit Rev Bullocks ministry is unique because he is dedicated both to the pulpit and to the classroom As a preacher he has preached throughout the Midwest Northeast and Southern United States As a teacher he has lectured throughout the Midwest and continues to impact the lives of undergraduate college students in both Detroit and Chicago A native of Boston Massachusetts Rev Bullock was reared in Detroit Mi in the home of Reverend Dr Samuel H Bullock After graduating from high school at the age of 16 Rev Bullock entered Morehouse College in the fall of 1994 In 1998 Rev Bullock graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in History Rev Bullock then entered the Doctoral program in Philosophy at Wayne State University where he is currently in the final stages of dissertation preparation In addition to being a PhD candidate at Wayne State University Rev Bullock is also currently a graduate student at the University of Chicago where he is receiving advanced training in Theology Curt Guyette is an awardwinning journalist who has been covering Detroit for nearly 20 years In a position funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation hes now working for the ACLU of Michigan reporting on issues related to emergency management and open government throughout Michigan SHARMINI PERIES EXEC PRODUCER TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore The city of Detroit Michigan filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on July 18 2013 It is the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in the US history by debt estimated at 1820 billion We at The Real News have been covering this issue since then and we have had a special focus on the water shutoffs But today were going to focus on one of the very issues that led to the crisis in the first place the pension system According to The New York Times the bankruptcy settlement leaves behind some of the same problems that plunged the city into the crisis in the first place This is a fundamental problem that could be an issue for other local governments in the coming years Like many other public systems it relies on a funding formula that lags the true cost of the pensions and is predicated on a forecasted investment return a forecast that the judge Steven W Rhodes has questioned during the trial on Detroits bankruptcy plan Now joining us from Detroit Michigan to discuss all of this are our two guests Curt Guyette and Reverend David Alexander Bullock Curt Guyette is a longtime Detroit journalist He is now working for ACLU of Michigan covering issues surrounding emergency management and open government David Alexander Bullock is a pastor at the Greater St Matthews Baptist Church Hes also a teacher lecturer artist and social commentator Thank you both for joining us REV DAVID ALEXANDER BULLOCK PASTOR GTR ST MATTHEW BAPT CHURCH Thank you for having us CURT GUYETTE INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER ACLU OF MICHIGAN Nice to be here PERIES So lets first for our viewers outline some of the grave concerns that the two of you have about the plan itself And let me start with you David BULLOCK Well one thank you for having me Weve been concerned about the bankruptcy since its inception partly because of the way it came into being The emergency manager Kevyn Orr appointed by Governor Rick Snyder a governor who originally is on record saying that the city of Detroit never would go into bankruptcy ultimately filed for bankruptcy in lieu of stopping AFSCME a trade union from fighting for protections for pensions and also fighting against work rule changes in city government So Kevyn Orr preempts that fight files for bankruptcy in my opinion primarily to undermine the Michigan Constitution so that now the emergency manager through the bankruptcy proceedings with the help of Judge Steven Rhodes can go in and gut pensions Then another problem with the bankruptcy is this whole question of the financial crisis The state of Michigan has had a great role in promoting and indeed creating a financial crisis in the city of Detroit because the state of Michigan has withheld over the past couple of years tax revenue thats supposed to be coming to the city of Detroit If you add the other layer of trade policy you see over 600000 manufacturing jobs have left the state of Michigan from 2000 and 2010 many of those jobs in the automotive industry So as the population of Detroit declines and as the employment base gets lower and lower so that you have high unemployment you have a lowering of the tax base Add on another layer of the foreclosure crisis over 100000 foreclosures in the city of Detroit between 2008 and about 2010 2011 So as the tax base disintegrates as there is no employment prospect you have state tax revenue not coming to the city of Detroit And in lieu of all of those factors you have a financial crisis And so now bankruptcy is supposed to fix all of these mitigating circumstances I would argue that even after bankruptcy youre still going to have a declining population youre still going to have limited employment youre still going to have limited tax revenue coming to the city of Detroit And so how does the city of Detroit move forward without these systemic trends being dealt with PERIES Curt and you have been following this issue for quite a long time now since the bankruptcy filing What are your thoughts on the settlement plan GUYETTE Well Id like to take a step back as well and even a further step back than the reverend took which is how we got here which is that the road to bankruptcy leads through the appointed emergency manager And voters of Michigan in 2012 rejected the emergency manager law by a pretty considerable margin The emergency manager for people who dont live in Michigan the law here allows the state to appoint a manager over financially struggling school districts and cities and they have just about unlimited power They can break collective bargaining agreements They can ignore laws They can create new laws And the voters saw this as too farreaching and in a referendum they repealed the law And then what happened was that the Republicandominated legislature came back a month after that law was repealed and in a lameduck session enacted a new law that was very similar to the old one And its important because instead of having elected officials be in charge of bankruptcy you now have a corporate lawyer appointed to take charge of the city and was brought in and the firm that he was with up until he got appointed as the emergency manager was brought in to be in charge of the bankruptcy They had clients that were among the creditors major creditors So instead of having elected officials from the city in charge of things you have people from the outside thatin charge of things from the beginning PERIES Right Okay So both of you have identified and given us context in terms of how all of this came about which is very important and I thank you for that All of the medias reporting about the disproportionate application of the 7 billion debt obligation much of it falling on retirees Explain that to us Let me start with you Pastor BULLOCK Yes incompr classes of creditors Obviously the most vulnerable class of creditors is going to be the retirees who depend on their pensions to live Many of the retirees cannot get another job because they are in their senior years cannot reenter the workforce and so live off of their pensions took a major hit And I dont care how you describe it You know some say there were some shenanigans with the vote Whether the vote was a fair vote or not the final verdict is that retirees took a major hit with the reduction of their pensions And even Judge Steven Rhodes is on record saying that this is going to be harmful for folks over a long period of time but this is about shared sacrifice Notice now that while the retirees take a hit I like to describe the bankruptcy as an economic engine for consultants So youve got over 200 million in consulting fees Even Mayor Mike Duggan whos been very silent in this process recently has raised the question about the amount of money spent on fees to Jones Day to Conway MacKenzie and other consulting and law firms And then theres supposed to be 17 billion or so coming out of this deal to go to city services to turn lights on and fix streets and whatever else But the question remains will this bankruptcy actually benefit citizens in the city of Detroit How will retirees live off limited pensions in the city of Detroit And will we see an improvement in city services outside of the very very valuable territory of Midtown and Downtown Will the entire town actually benefit from the supposed dollars that are supposed to be freed up by the bankruptcy PERIES Curt explain who some of these retirees are Put some faces to the kinds of people were talking about here GUYETTE Well all sorts of city workers from the uniformed workers like police and firefighters and ambulance drivers to the people who work at the wastewater treatment plant city clerks all those people I think one thing that should be pointed out is that in some ways the biggest hit to retirees in this is not the cut in their pensions but the loss of health care benefits Previously they had aable to be on a plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield They paid 20 percent the city paid 80 percent That was completely taken away And now instead most of them are getting a 125 monthly stipend to put toward whatever insurance they can get And Ive talked to people who are saying now theyre paying three four 500 as much as 1000 dollars for their monthly medical insurance And so that works out to hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month And then the copays arent as good the coverage for the medicine is not as good And really out of the 7 billion that is being saved in this bankruptcy a little less than 4 billion is in terms of the health care costs Really And retirees are being hit four different ways in this For the nonuniform retirees theres the four and a half percent cut in their pension There is the massive hit to their health care costs The costofliving adjustments are being taken away completely for the nonuniform employees And that between the police and the fire and the nonunion employees in the years ahead that adds up to more than 1 billion And then theres this other issue where there was annuity savings that employees could contribute to as part of their retirement and now the citys saying well they were paid too much interest and so theyre doing what theyre calling a clawback So the result is that retirees could be losing as much as 20 percent of their pensions And thats not even including the health care extra health care costs So it is significant And as best as I can figure about 75 to 80 percent of that 7 billion in savings is coming on the back of retirees PERIES Pastor what does this mean to the massive organizing that has been going on against both the water shutoffs and the effects this has on retirees I mean we do know Detroits a very well organized community and there must be a rebellion on your hands at the moment What is the community doing to organize and contest these decisions BULLOCK Well definitely I must say Detroit Southeastern Michigan is a very organized community history of organizing grassroots organizing labor organizing such a grand tradition But unfortunately we have not seen the kind of sustained protest in Detroit around these hits that retirees are taking in their pensions the hits around the destruction of democracy brought by Governor Rick Snyder and the emergency manager the hits around how public dollars are being used for private development and major land transfers happening under the guise of the bankruptcy lost the water department water shutoffs We have not seen the kind of sustained protest that were seeing in Ferguson And I have and others have asked the question whats the difference between Ferguson Missouri and Detroit Michigan The issues in Detroit are persistent Theyre systematic Theyre institutional And I think what this means is that we must raise the level of our organizing so that we can have the kind of sustained protest even civil disobedience that you see in Ferguson in Detroit Michigan And unless that happens I believe unless we upgrade our movement to that level then we really wont see resolution and restoration in the city of Detroit PERIES Right Curt what is the ACLU doing about some of these decisions GUYETTE Well not a lot in terms of legal work The primary involvement has been having me write about these issues And we did write some we cooperated in a big way on the water shutoff issue But the one thing I think is important to point out is the significance of this bankruptcy case is that it was a landmark decision Michigan had a very strong constitutional protection for public employee pensions Thats been taken away And with whats going on something similar is happening at the same time in t he Stockton California bankruptcy And so people who have public pensions if theyre living in areas that are struggling theyre in trouble They dont even need to file for bankruptcy All is they need to do now is go to employee groups and say look it you guys dont have any protections anymore youd better not go under and agree to what were saying or were going to go to bankruptcy and it might even be worse The hammers are ready to drop on people all over the country And they should be very aware of whats happening in Detroit This is just not an issue for Detroit retirees This is an issue for public retirees all throughout the country PERIES Well we at The Real News will be keeping an eye on the fallout of all of this And I hope you gentleman join us again to keep us abreast BULLOCK Thank you so much GUYETTE Thank you PERIES And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network 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<p>No one doubts that Avigdor Lieberman is a thug. His ultimata (“Those who think that through concessions they will gain respect and peace are wrong,” etc, New York Times Thursday, April 2, 2009) were designed to shock. On this site Neve Gordon’s revelations of Lieberman’s many corruptions, his beating of a 12-year-old child, his exhortation to bomb Gaza as the US bombed Hiroshima, supply further ugly evidence against the man, and fuel the flash-fires burning through the Internet in the wake of his appointment as Israel’s foreign minister.</p>
<p>So he should be denounced by all means, but it is certain that the problems attaching to his name are not going away. On the contrary — particularly given President Obama’s repudiation of Lieberman during the President’s speech in Ankara, Turkey, and his avowed loyalty to a ‘two-state solution’ – these problems will appear in a different form, specifically in regard to the nature of the “two states” under the guidance of Obama, Netanyahu &amp; Co.</p>
<p>If the Lieberman appointment wasn’t specifically designed to have him play bad cop to everyone else’s good cop, it’s certainly turning out that way. A recent J Street petition urges me and thousands of on-line others to denounce Lieberman as a threat to “our community’s values,” and also to endorse J Street’s offer of “our best wishes and congratulations . . . pledging to help Benjamin Netanyahu’s government where possible, and push when necessary, to achieve the goal of real peace and security for Israel, the Palestinians, and the whole Middle East.”</p>
<p>This is truly a dangerous path. Three years ago, Lieberman proposed annexing to the northern West Bank parts of the Galilee with large Arab populations. At the heart of this region is Wadi Ara, described in a US media account a few years ago as “a seasonal riverbed adjacent to the West Bank.” With a majority Arab population, Wadi Ara has been Israel’s ever since Ben-Gurion wrenched an agreement from Jordan’s King Abdullah that he cede the land as part of the post-war armistice agreement.</p>
<p>The area’s story goes back farther. During a 2005 US trip, Shimon Peres suggested to American listeners that US “disengagement funds” (your tax dollars at work after the famed Gaza “pull-out”) should be employed to “develop” Wadi Ara – that is, to resettle the “dispossessed” Gaza settlers there. This echoed Irving Howe’s suggestion in The New York Times Book Review &#160;(May, 16,1982), that more Jews be sent to the “under-populated Galilee” – “under-populated,” that is, in the sense that New York was “under-populated” by whites until the gentrification projects of the housing “boom years.”</p>
<p>Lieberman set the Peres idea on its head with his “land-swap” notion but both proposals have in common their preoccupation with the “the demographic issue.” On this, just about all of Israel – and much of so called “liberal Jewish” America – is united, extreme-right through left, the devil being only in the details how to resolve it for good.</p>
<p>Lieberman’s suggestion was deemed “illegal” by Israeli scholars, but it has found sympathetic supporters ever since. As it stands now, it could easily trot forward as a “two-state solution” under US-Israeli aegis. 1 <a href="#_edn1" type="external" /> This is what is ignored in the hysteria about Lieberman’s actual appointment: “transfer,” long an Israeli option, may actually take place in the near future. (Lieberman’s has been called “soft transfer”)</p>
<p>In the Washington Post February, 2006, Henry Kissinger enthusiastically endorsed the idea without mentioning Lieberman by name: “The most logical outcome would be to trade Israeli settlement blocs around Jerusalem . . . for some equivalent territories in present-day Israel with significant Arab populations. The rejection of such an approach . . . which would contribute greatly to stability and to demographic balance reflects a determination to keep incendiary issues permanently open.”</p>
<p>Incendiary issues” no doubt include Wadi Ara Arabs’ bitter resistance to the “land swap” notion. “Stability” and “demographic balance” are code for the purity of the Jewish state, once it’s been relieved of its “demographic problem,” and once potentially fractious Arabs have come under the boot of the Palestinian Authority, the US-Israel regional puppet.</p>
<p>Around the same time Kissinger wrote his commentary, Israel National News reported that Knesset member Otniel Schneller of Kadima, “considered to be one of the people closest and most loyal to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,” had proposed something similar to Lieberman’s “swap” idea. Schneller’s plan was “more gradual.” The annexed, former Israeli Arab citizens would still be of the Jewish state. Their land, however, would belong to the Palestinian Authority and they wouldn’t be allowed to resettle anywhere else in Israel. 2 <a href="#_edn2" type="external" /></p>
<p>A more recent recruit to this bandwagon is Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has said a “Palestinian state” could “be the national answer to the Palestinians” in the territories and those “who live in different refugee camps or in Israel.”</p>
<p>One assumes that this plan will keep popping up and that (the incendiary Lieberman kept tidily in the wings while his shoot-from-the-mouth behavior distracts the attention of “the left”) that it could well come to fruition. The New York Times’ Ethan Bronner reported February 12 that “the left” likes Lieberman’s “willingness to create two states, one Jewish, one Palestinian, which would involve yielding areas that are now part of Israel.” Note Bronner’s use of “willingness” and “yielding,” suggesting his own tacit endorsement of Israel’s magnanimity. (Bronner, of course, quoted no Arab voices from Wadi Ara, nor did he mention that what Israel would yield is land inhabited by untermenschen. At best the vast majority of Israelis consider the Arabs to be people who need “help” — as in the suggestion 32 years ago by Irving Howe’s disciple, Michael Walzer, that the indigenous people are “marginal to the nation.” His solution was “helping people to leave who have to leave.” 3 <a href="#_edn3" type="external" /></p>
<p>Again, there’s no need to ask the people of Wadi Ara and such “Arab” areas how they feel because, after all, the land isn’t theirs to begin with. The Jewish National Fund controls more than 90 percent of Israel’s land and the JNF must use charitable funds in ways that “directly or indirectly [benefit] . . . persons of Jewish religion, race or origin.” The JNF is “recognized by the Government of Israel and the World Zionist Organization as the exclusive instrument for the development of Israel’s lands.” Such development is open, forever, only to Jews. 4 <a href="#_edn4" type="external" /></p>
<p>And so, amidst much celebration (hand-shakes on the White House lawn, etc.) the new “two-state” solution could well be realized in the not-so-distant future. A Palestinian ghetto would exist alongside a Jewish state, which would of course include the settlements. “The demographic problem” bedeviling Zionists ever since two rabbis returned in the 19th century with the report that the bride was “beautiful but married to another man,” would vanish. Now and then, on a distant hilltop, a lone goatherd might appear, nostalgically suggesting “simpler” and more “traditional” times. Palestinian embroidery would be sold at appointed places, to adorn the persons and furniture of pure Jews commuting back and forth to a now purely Jewish Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from, say, purely Jewish Maale Adumim. American readers wearing exquisite Navajo turquoise jewelry – this writer among them – will recognize these images.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>How could it have come to this? Surely not for want of countless early warning signals. Here, for example, is Moshe Dayan in an interview with BBC reporter, Alan Hart, May 14, 1973:</p>
<p>Alan Hart – Why are you seeking to establish more and more settlements? The Arabs think that your goal is to stay in Transjordan for eternity.</p>
<p>Dayan – That’s right. In fact I think that Israelis should stay in Transjordan for eternity and till the end of time.</p>
<p>Hart—Arabs listening to you now, including President Sadat, will say: “There you are! Dayan has confirmed that he’s only after territorial expansion…</p>
<p>Dayan—OK, if you think the desire to feel at home throughout all of Transjordan is an expansionist ambition. If that’s what you call being “expansionist,” then I’m an expansionist.”</p>
<p>–from Amnon Kapeliouk’s Israel: la fin des mythes (Israel: an end to all myths), Editions Albin Michel, 1975 (translation mine.)</p>
<p>Nor should one forget Dayan’s 1967 comment to colleagues about what they should tell the Palestinians: “[Y]ou shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever prefers—may leave…” 5 <a href="#_edn5" type="external" /> Or, farther back in time, Chaim Weizmann’s remarks about the 1917 Balfour declaration, on record with the Jewish Agency Executive: “[W]ith regard to the Arab question – the British told me that there are several hundred thousand negroes there but that this matter has no significance.” In Fateful Triangle, Noam Chomsky quotes US journalist Vincent Sheean, who “arrived in Palestine as an avid Zionist in 1929, [and who] left a few months later a harsh critic of the Zionist enterprise largely because of the attitudes among the Jewish settlers towards what they called the ‘uncivilized race’ of ‘savages’ and ‘Red Indians,’ ‘squatters for thirteen centuries’…” 6 <a href="#_edn6" type="external" /></p>
<p>In Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel’s Security &amp; Foreign Policy, (University of Michigan Press, 2006), Israeli security and foreign policy analyst Zeev Maoz shows that Israel was conceived through deliberate policy choices as a “Sparta state.” All of its governments from Ben Gurion forward have relied on Zeev Jabotinsky’s “Iron Wall” doctrine. This doctrine translates as military blows “to convince the Arabs of the futility and illogic of their dreams. Over time, the Arabs will come to accept the Jewish state and to make peace with it.”7 <a href="#_edn7" type="external" />&#160; (See this writer’s review at <a href="" type="internal">http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20927</a>.) The destruction of Gaza this past winter is the latest of such actions designed to persuade the natives that their dreams are futile and illogical.</p>
<p>It cannot be over-emphasized that without the US, Israel could not have gotten to this point. 8 <a href="#_edn8" type="external" /> President Obama is turning out to be more of the same. Announcing the appointment of George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy, Obama said:</p>
<p>Senator Mitchell will . . . help Israel reach a broader peace with the Arab world. Let me be clear: America is committed to Israel’s security. And we will always support Israel’s right to defend itself against legitimate threats. . . To be a genuine party to peace, the quartet has made it clear that Hamas must meet clear conditions: recognize Israel’s right to exist; renounce violence; and abide by past agreements. . . I should add that the Arab peace initiative contains constructive elements that could help advance these efforts. Now is the time for Arab states to act on the initiative’s promise by supporting the Palestinian government under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, taking steps towards normalizing relations with Israel, and by standing up to extremism that threatens us all.&#160; (Emphasis mine.) 9 <a href="#_edn9" type="external" /></p>
<p>The emphases on Israel’s “right to defend itself,” the requirement that Hamas toe the quartet’s line, the underscoring of the US-Israel puppet regime – all this is obvious. What is not so obvious is Obama’s deliberate choice to eviscerate the Arab League’s 2002 proposal, the body of which requires Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders with some modifications.&#160; Obama quotes a corollary to the proposal, a small paragraph requiring Arab states to “normalize” relations with Israel – the corollary has as its premise that first Israel must make real (not bogus) land concessions. This was the solution almost reached at the Israeli-Palestinian talks in Taba, Egypt in 2001: Ehud Barak withdrew. 10 <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Just so, Israel refused in 1971 what was then a dazzling prospect, President Anwar Sadat’s offer of full peace. Egypt was the regional Arab super-power, and peace with it would have ensured future treaties with other Arab countries. (The Palestinians were not considered by Sadat, who was interested only in Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai, which it had taken in 1967.) The consequence of Israel’s rejection, a choice of expansionism over security — one that Henry Kissinger, backing Golda Meir, enabled —&#160; was the Yom Kippur War. This cost Israel the lives of three thousand Israeli soldiers; a “staggering” loss of equipment (Zeev Maoz’s term); $10 billion in overall damages. On at least two occasions Israel armed its nuclear warheads, bringing the region to the brink of nuclear war. 11 <a href="#_edn11" type="external" /></p>
<p>Israel rejected security for expansionism at Oslo as well, no matter what the “generous offer” myths may say. It continues to do so as I write. More bad news floods our e-mail boxes about the rotting concentration camp in Gaza. US-Israel apparently intends to make it an international charity case, an occasional shooting gallery for WMD testing in dense urban areas, or both. At the same time, bad news comes from the West Bank, where arrests and kidnapping of Palestinians, the shooting of international solidarity workers, home demolitions, settler pogroms, further annexations in East Jerusalem, and all the rest of it, continue at a brisk and unimpeded pace. Such is US-Israel’s history. Such is the present. In all of this Avigdor Lieberman is merely an exclamation mark. Those who want change should focus on the larger picture.</p>
<p>ELLEN CANTAROW can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p>1. <a href="#_ednref1" type="external" />I am indebted to Noam Chomsky’s essay, “Good News, Iraq and Beyond,” for ideas about the Lieberman “land swap” and some of the politicians who embraced it. See&#160; <a href="" type="internal">http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/17048</a></p>
<p>2. Ibid.</p>
<p>3. “Nationalism, Internationalism, and the Jews: the chimera of a binational state,” in Irving Howe &amp; Carl Gershman, Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East (Bantam, 1972).</p>
<p>4. “Good News, Iraq and Beyond.” Chomsky discusses a recent (only partly successful) challenge to the JNF’s blatantly racist practices.</p>
<p>5. <a href="#_ednref5" type="external" /> Noam Chomsky, Fateful Triangle (South End Press, 1983, 1989), p. 481. Dayan made this statement in a September, 1967 meeting, suggesting what his colleagues should tell Palestinians. The original sources is Yossi Beilin. Shimon Peres protested that that Israel should preserve its moral stand, and Dayan replied, “Ben Gurion said that anyone who approaches the Zionist problem in a moral aspect is not a Zionist.”</p>
<p>6. <a href="#_ednref6" type="external" /> Ibid.</p>
<p>7. <a href="#_ednref7" type="external" />Zeev Maoz, Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel’s Security &amp; Foreign Policy (University of Michigan, 2006) p. 9</p>
<p>8. <a href="#_ednref8" type="external" /> A crucial article recently posted at Znet, by Irene Gendzier, proves through her analysis of a rich assortment of quotes by US officials, that in 1948 everyone in US power knew precisely what was happening to Palestine’s Arab population. They looked on – some with horror, some with skepticism. Those who saw in Israel the prospect of a future Spartan guarantor of US “interests” (post-British-French hegemony in the region and access to its oil) looked on with cold curiosity. After 1967 the deal was, so to speak, signed, sealed and delivered.</p>
<p>9. <a href="#_ednref9" type="external" />&#160;“President Barack Obama Delivers Remarks to State Department Employees,” The Washington Post,&#160; January 22, 2009&#160; <a href="" type="internal">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012202550.html</a></p>
<p>10. <a href="" type="internal" /> See Ran HaCohen’s portrait of Barak, whose record is equally as appalling as Lieberman’s, at <a href="" type="internal">http://anti-war.com/hacohen/?articleid=12110</a> ) Also see Idith Zerta and Akiva Eldar’s essential Lords of the Land: The War Over Israel’s Settlements In The Occupied Territories, 1967 – 2007, for rich descriptions of Barak’s affection for the most extreme of Israel’s right-wing religious nationalist settlers.</p>
<p>11. <a href="#_ednref11" type="external" /> Maoz, p. 417.</p> | Israel’s Master Plan for Transfer | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/04/09/israel-s-master-plan-for-transfer/ | 2009-04-09 | 4left
| 2,499 | No one doubts that Avigdor Lieberman is a thug His ultimata 8220Those who think that through concessions they will gain respect and peace are wrong8221 etc New York Times Thursday April 2 2009 were designed to shock On this site Neve Gordon8217s revelations of Lieberman8217s many corruptions his beating of a 12yearold child his exhortation to bomb Gaza as the US bombed Hiroshima supply further ugly evidence against the man and fuel the flashfires burning through the Internet in the wake of his appointment as Israel8217s foreign minister So he should be denounced by all means but it is certain that the problems attaching to his name are not going away On the contrary 8212 particularly given President Obama8217s repudiation of Lieberman during the President8217s speech in Ankara Turkey and his avowed loyalty to a 8216twostate solution8217 8211 these problems will appear in a different form specifically in regard to the nature of the 8220two states8221 under the guidance of Obama Netanyahu ampamp Co If the Lieberman appointment wasn8217t specifically designed to have him play bad cop to everyone else8217s good cop it8217s certainly turning out that way A recent J Street petition urges me and thousands of online others to denounce Lieberman as a threat to 8220our community8217s values8221 and also to endorse J Street8217s offer of 8220our best wishes and congratulations pledging to help Benjamin Netanyahu8217s government where possible and push when necessary to achieve the goal of real peace and security for Israel the Palestinians and the whole Middle East8221 This is truly a dangerous path Three years ago Lieberman proposed annexing to the northern West Bank parts of the Galilee with large Arab populations At the heart of this region is Wadi Ara described in a US media account a few years ago as 8220a seasonal riverbed adjacent to the West Bank8221 With a majority Arab population Wadi Ara has been Israel8217s ever since BenGurion wrenched an agreement from Jordan8217s King Abdullah that he cede the land as part of the postwar armistice agreement The area8217s story goes back farther During a 2005 US trip Shimon Peres suggested to American listeners that US 8220disengagement funds8221 your tax dollars at work after the famed Gaza 8220pullout8221 should be employed to 8220develop8221 Wadi Ara 8211 that is to resettle the 8220dispossessed8221 Gaza settlers there This echoed Irving Howe8217s suggestion in The New York Times Book Review amp160May 161982 that more Jews be sent to the 8220underpopulated Galilee8221 8211 8220underpopulated8221 that is in the sense that New York was 8220underpopulated8221 by whites until the gentrification projects of the housing 8220boom years8221 Lieberman set the Peres idea on its head with his 8220landswap8221 notion but both proposals have in common their preoccupation with the 8220the demographic issue8221 On this just about all of Israel 8211 and much of so called 8220liberal Jewish8221 America 8211 is united extremeright through left the devil being only in the details how to resolve it for good Lieberman8217s suggestion was deemed 8220illegal8221 by Israeli scholars but it has found sympathetic supporters ever since As it stands now it could easily trot forward as a 8220twostate solution8221 under USIsraeli aegis 1 This is what is ignored in the hysteria about Lieberman8217s actual appointment 8220transfer8221 long an Israeli option may actually take place in the near future Lieberman8217s has been called 8220soft transfer8221 In the Washington Post February 2006 Henry Kissinger enthusiastically endorsed the idea without mentioning Lieberman by name 8220The most logical outcome would be to trade Israeli settlement blocs around Jerusalem for some equivalent territories in presentday Israel with significant Arab populations The rejection of such an approach which would contribute greatly to stability and to demographic balance reflects a determination to keep incendiary issues permanently open8221 Incendiary issues8221 no doubt include Wadi Ara Arabs8217 bitter resistance to the 8220land swap8221 notion 8220Stability8221 and 8220demographic balance8221 are code for the purity of the Jewish state once it8217s been relieved of its 8220demographic problem8221 and once potentially fractious Arabs have come under the boot of the Palestinian Authority the USIsrael regional puppet Around the same time Kissinger wrote his commentary Israel National News reported that Knesset member Otniel Schneller of Kadima 8220considered to be one of the people closest and most loyal to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert8221 had proposed something similar to Lieberman8217s 8220swap8221 idea Schneller8217s plan was 8220more gradual8221 The annexed former Israeli Arab citizens would still be of the Jewish state Their land however would belong to the Palestinian Authority and they wouldn8217t be allowed to resettle anywhere else in Israel 2 A more recent recruit to this bandwagon is Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who has said a 8220Palestinian state8221 could 8220be the national answer to the Palestinians8221 in the territories and those 8220who live in different refugee camps or in Israel8221 One assumes that this plan will keep popping up and that the incendiary Lieberman kept tidily in the wings while his shootfromthemouth behavior distracts the attention of 8220the left8221 that it could well come to fruition The New York Times8217 Ethan Bronner reported February 12 that 8220the left8221 likes Lieberman8217s 8220willingness to create two states one Jewish one Palestinian which would involve yielding areas that are now part of Israel8221 Note Bronner8217s use of 8220willingness8221 and 8220yielding8221 suggesting his own tacit endorsement of Israel8217s magnanimity Bronner of course quoted no Arab voices from Wadi Ara nor did he mention that what Israel would yield is land inhabited by untermenschen At best the vast majority of Israelis consider the Arabs to be people who need 8220help8221 8212 as in the suggestion 32 years ago by Irving Howe8217s disciple Michael Walzer that the indigenous people are 8220marginal to the nation8221 His solution was 8220helping people to leave who have to leave8221 3 Again there8217s no need to ask the people of Wadi Ara and such 8220Arab8221 areas how they feel because after all the land isn8217t theirs to begin with The Jewish National Fund controls more than 90 percent of Israel8217s land and the JNF must use charitable funds in ways that 8220directly or indirectly benefit persons of Jewish religion race or origin8221 The JNF is 8220recognized by the Government of Israel and the World Zionist Organization as the exclusive instrument for the development of Israel8217s lands8221 Such development is open forever only to Jews 4 And so amidst much celebration handshakes on the White House lawn etc the new 8220twostate8221 solution could well be realized in the notsodistant future A Palestinian ghetto would exist alongside a Jewish state which would of course include the settlements 8220The demographic problem8221 bedeviling Zionists ever since two rabbis returned in the 19th century with the report that the bride was 8220beautiful but married to another man8221 would vanish Now and then on a distant hilltop a lone goatherd might appear nostalgically suggesting 8220simpler8221 and more 8220traditional8221 times Palestinian embroidery would be sold at appointed places to adorn the persons and furniture of pure Jews commuting back and forth to a now purely Jewish Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from say purely Jewish Maale Adumim American readers wearing exquisite Navajo turquoise jewelry 8211 this writer among them 8211 will recognize these images How could it have come to this Surely not for want of countless early warning signals Here for example is Moshe Dayan in an interview with BBC reporter Alan Hart May 14 1973 Alan Hart 8211 Why are you seeking to establish more and more settlements The Arabs think that your goal is to stay in Transjordan for eternity Dayan 8211 That8217s right In fact I think that Israelis should stay in Transjordan for eternity and till the end of time Hart8212Arabs listening to you now including President Sadat will say 8220There you are Dayan has confirmed that he8217s only after territorial expansion8230 Dayan8212OK if you think the desire to feel at home throughout all of Transjordan is an expansionist ambition If that8217s what you call being 8220expansionist8221 then I8217m an expansionist8221 8211from Amnon Kapeliouk8217s Israel la fin des mythes Israel an end to all myths Editions Albin Michel 1975 translation mine Nor should one forget Dayan8217s 1967 comment to colleagues about what they should tell the Palestinians 8220You shall continue to live like dogs and whoever prefers8212may leave82308221 5 Or farther back in time Chaim Weizmann8217s remarks about the 1917 Balfour declaration on record with the Jewish Agency Executive 8220With regard to the Arab question 8211 the British told me that there are several hundred thousand negroes there but that this matter has no significance8221 In Fateful Triangle Noam Chomsky quotes US journalist Vincent Sheean who 8220arrived in Palestine as an avid Zionist in 1929 and who left a few months later a harsh critic of the Zionist enterprise largely because of the attitudes among the Jewish settlers towards what they called the 8216uncivilized race8217 of 8216savages8217 and 8216Red Indians8217 8216squatters for thirteen centuries821782308221 6 In Defending the Holy Land A Critical Analysis of Israel8217s Security ampamp Foreign Policy University of Michigan Press 2006 Israeli security and foreign policy analyst Zeev Maoz shows that Israel was conceived through deliberate policy choices as a 8220Sparta state8221 All of its governments from Ben Gurion forward have relied on Zeev Jabotinsky8217s 8220Iron Wall8221 doctrine This doctrine translates as military blows 8220to convince the Arabs of the futility and illogic of their dreams Over time the Arabs will come to accept the Jewish state and to make peace with it82217 amp160 See this writer8217s review at httpwwwzcommunicationsorgznetviewArticle20927 The destruction of Gaza this past winter is the latest of such actions designed to persuade the natives that their dreams are futile and illogical It cannot be overemphasized that without the US Israel could not have gotten to this point 8 President Obama is turning out to be more of the same Announcing the appointment of George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy Obama said Senator Mitchell will help Israel reach a broader peace with the Arab world Let me be clear America is committed to Israel8217s security And we will always support Israel8217s right to defend itself against legitimate threats To be a genuine party to peace the quartet has made it clear that Hamas must meet clear conditions recognize Israel8217s right to exist renounce violence and abide by past agreements I should add that the Arab peace initiative contains constructive elements that could help advance these efforts Now is the time for Arab states to act on the initiative8217s promise by supporting the Palestinian government under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad taking steps towards normalizing relations with Israel and by standing up to extremism that threatens us allamp160 Emphasis mine 9 The emphases on Israel8217s 8220right to defend itself8221 the requirement that Hamas toe the quartet8217s line the underscoring of the USIsrael puppet regime 8211 all this is obvious What is not so obvious is Obama8217s deliberate choice to eviscerate the Arab League8217s 2002 proposal the body of which requires Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders with some modificationsamp160 Obama quotes a corollary to the proposal a small paragraph requiring Arab states to 8220normalize8221 relations with Israel 8211 the corollary has as its premise that first Israel must make real not bogus land concessions This was the solution almost reached at the IsraeliPalestinian talks in Taba Egypt in 2001 Ehud Barak withdrew 10 Just so Israel refused in 1971 what was then a dazzling prospect President Anwar Sadat8217s offer of full peace Egypt was the regional Arab superpower and peace with it would have ensured future treaties with other Arab countries The Palestinians were not considered by Sadat who was interested only in Israel8217s withdrawal from the Sinai which it had taken in 1967 The consequence of Israel8217s rejection a choice of expansionism over security 8212 one that Henry Kissinger backing Golda Meir enabled 8212amp160 was the Yom Kippur War This cost Israel the lives of three thousand Israeli soldiers a 8220staggering8221 loss of equipment Zeev Maoz8217s term 10 billion in overall damages On at least two occasions Israel armed its nuclear warheads bringing the region to the brink of nuclear war 11 Israel rejected security for expansionism at Oslo as well no matter what the 8220generous offer8221 myths may say It continues to do so as I write More bad news floods our email boxes about the rotting concentration camp in Gaza USIsrael apparently intends to make it an international charity case an occasional shooting gallery for WMD testing in dense urban areas or both At the same time bad news comes from the West Bank where arrests and kidnapping of Palestinians the shooting of international solidarity workers home demolitions settler pogroms further annexations in East Jerusalem and all the rest of it continue at a brisk and unimpeded pace Such is USIsrael8217s history Such is the present In all of this Avigdor Lieberman is merely an exclamation mark Those who want change should focus on the larger picture ELLEN CANTAROW can be reached at ecantarowcomcastnet Notes 1 I am indebted to Noam Chomsky8217s essay 8220Good News Iraq and Beyond8221 for ideas about the Lieberman 8220land swap8221 and some of the politicians who embraced it Seeamp160 httpwwwzcommunicationsorgzmagviewArticle17048 2 Ibid 3 8220Nationalism Internationalism and the Jews the chimera of a binational state8221 in Irving Howe ampamp Carl Gershman Israel the Arabs and the Middle East Bantam 1972 4 8220Good News Iraq and Beyond8221 Chomsky discusses a recent only partly successful challenge to the JNF8217s blatantly racist practices 5 Noam Chomsky Fateful Triangle South End Press 1983 1989 p 481 Dayan made this statement in a September 1967 meeting suggesting what his colleagues should tell Palestinians The original sources is Yossi Beilin Shimon Peres protested that that Israel should preserve its moral stand and Dayan replied 8220Ben Gurion said that anyone who approaches the Zionist problem in a moral aspect is not a Zionist8221 6 Ibid 7 Zeev Maoz Defending the Holy Land A Critical Analysis of Israel8217s Security ampamp Foreign Policy University of Michigan 2006 p 9 8 A crucial article recently posted at Znet by Irene Gendzier proves through her analysis of a rich assortment of quotes by US officials that in 1948 everyone in US power knew precisely what was happening to Palestine8217s Arab population They looked on 8211 some with horror some with skepticism Those who saw in Israel the prospect of a future Spartan guarantor of US 8220interests8221 postBritishFrench hegemony in the region and access to its oil looked on with cold curiosity After 1967 the deal was so to speak signed sealed and delivered 9 amp1608220President Barack Obama Delivers Remarks to State Department Employees8221 The Washington Postamp160 January 22 2009amp160 httpwwwwashingtonpostcomwpdyncontentarticle20090122AR2009012202550html 10 See Ran HaCohen8217s portrait of Barak whose record is equally as appalling as Lieberman8217s at httpantiwarcomhacohenarticleid12110 Also see Idith Zerta and Akiva Eldar8217s essential Lords of the Land The War Over Israel8217s Settlements In The Occupied Territories 1967 8211 2007 for rich descriptions of Barak8217s affection for the most extreme of Israel8217s rightwing religious nationalist settlers 11 Maoz p 417 | No/DET one/NOUN doubts/VERB that/SCONJ Avigdor/PROPN Lieberman/PROPN is/AUX a/DET thug/NOUN His/PRON ultimata/ADJ 8220Those/NUM who/PRON think/VERB that/SCONJ through/ADP concessions/NOUN they/PRON will/AUX gain/VERB respect/NOUN and/CCONJ peace/NOUN are/AUX wrong8221/NOUN etc/X New/PROPN York/PROPN Times/PROPN Thursday/PROPN April/PROPN 2/NUM 2009/NUM were/AUX designed/VERB to/PART shock/VERB On/ADP this/DET site/NOUN Neve/PROPN Gordon8217s/ADJ revelations/NOUN of/ADP Lieberman8217s/PROPN many/ADJ corruptions/NOUN his/PRON beating/NOUN of/ADP a/DET 12yearold/NUM child/NOUN his/PRON exhortation/NOUN to/PART bomb/VERB Gaza/PROPN as/SCONJ the/DET US/PROPN bombed/VERB Hiroshima/PROPN supply/VERB further/ADJ ugly/ADJ evidence/NOUN against/ADP the/DET man/NOUN and/CCONJ fuel/VERB the/DET flashfires/NOUN burning/VERB through/ADP the/DET Internet/NOUN in/ADP the/DET wake/NOUN of/ADP his/PRON appointment/NOUN 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<p>I receive this question almost more than any other: Why don't you support Donald Trump? I've met the man, his camp asked me to introduce him at CPAC in 2015, he was perfectly amiable. He's been on my radio and TV programs more than any other primary candidate. I just can't get on board with his lack of consistency or his policies. So, to answer the question: A bulleted list of items that helped shape my opinion on the Republican primary candidate. All information is public domain as reported in the press, easily found everywhere online. You're certainly welcome to your own opinion, but this is what contributed to mine. As I give courtesy to diverse opinion on the topic, so do I expect it in return.</p>
<p />
<p>—&gt; Trump says he will “hire the best minds” as president but according to the news items below, apparently did not vet his own business partners.</p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/memory-lapse-trump-seeks-distance-advisor-past-ties/story?id=34600826" type="external">Trump and Felix Sater</a>:</p>
<p>Though he touts his outstanding memory, when Donald Trump was asked under oath about his dealings with a twice-convicted Russian émigré who served prison time and had documented mafia connections, the real estate mogul was at a loss.</p>
<p>Even though the man, Felix Sater, had played a role in a number of high-profile Trump-branded projects across the country.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>... Donald Trump has also been seeking to minimize his past business ties with Sater, the Russian émigré who appeared in photos with Trump, and carried a Trump Organization business card with the title “Senior Advisor to Donald Trump.”</p>
<p><a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/29c255c0b69a48258ecae69a61612537/trump-picked-stock-fraud-felon-senior-adviser" type="external">More</a>:</p>
<p>After Sater's criminal history and past ties to organized crime came to light in 2007, Trump distanced himself from Sater.</p>
<p>Less than three years later, however, Trump tapped Sater for a business development role that came with the title of senior adviser to Donald Trump. Sater received Trump Organization business cards and was given an office within the Trump Organization's headquarters, on the same floor as Trump's own.</p>
<p>**Interestingly, Sater has a connection to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/398456/loretta-lynch-responds-reporting-allegations-she-slighted-victims-rights-ryan-lovelace" type="external">Lynch aided Sater</a>:</p>
<p>Lynch’s office appeared to have let self-professed criminals walk free in exchange for their cooperation, watched impassively as they committed further crimes, and intentionally kept the victims of those crimes in the dark — denying them their legal right to seek restitution.</p>
<p>In 2013, former federal judge Paul Cassell testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and encouraged them to look at how Lynch’s office had handled a stock fraud case. That case involved Felix Sater, a convicted fraudster with ties to the mafia. Utah senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Lynch to respond to Cassell’s testimony. He also asked whether Lynch had complied with federal laws that ensure restitution is provided to crime victims.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/4/loretta-lynchs-office-cheated-stock-fraud-victims-/?page=all" type="external">Washington Examiner on the Lynch-Sater arrangement</a>.</p>
<p>More on Trump's deals <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/26/inside-donald-trumps-empire-why-he-wont-run-for-president.html" type="external">from Wayne Barrett</a>:</p>
<p>One associate who was an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a massive 2000 stock swindle—and escaped prison only by helping to convict 19 others, including six members of New York crime families</p>
<p>• Two associates who served prison time on cocaine charges • Another partner prosecuted for trafficking underage girls after a dramatic helicopter raid on a yacht off the Turkish coast • A pending lawsuit against Trump Soho that alleges daughter Ivanka, among others, made fraudulent misrepresentations</p>
<p>Barrett's experience with writing about Trump?</p>
<p>“While I was reporting that book in 1990, I was muscled out of Trump Castle and handcuffed overnight to a wall at the Atlantic City jail. I haven’t done much reporting about him since the book, but when his numbers shot to the top in recent presidential polls, I took another look and asked his office for an interview. His response was a letter threatening a libel suit. Trump did sue Tim O’Brien, who was a research assistant on my Trump book, when Tim wrote a sequel in 2005. Now the national editor of the Huffington Post, O’Brien finally prevailed after years of litigation. I obtained—and not from O’Brien—a copy of the two-day deposition Trump gave in that lawsuit. The December 2007 transcript is a road map of the dark paths Trump’s business career has taken in recent years.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/26/inside-donald-trumps-empire-why-he-wont-run-for-president.html" type="external">MORE</a>:</p>
<p>Trump Soho, Trump Fort Lauderdale, Trump Las Olas, summary: Trump’s business partner on these projects is Bayrock Group, which is headquartered in Trump Tower. The partnership dates back to 2005. Felix Sater, whose father is a reputed Russian mob boss, is a top Bayrock executive. <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/26/inside-donald-trumps-empire-why-he-wont-run-for-president.html" type="external">As the Daily Beast reported</a>, in 2000 Felix was named an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a massive stock swindle “which resulted in19 guilty pleas and the conviction of six mobsters – including the nephew of Carmine “the Snake” Persico and the brother-in-law of Sammy “the Bull” Gravano.” The founding chairman of Bayrock is Tevfik Arif, who has reputed Russian organized crime ties. In 2010 he was charged in Turkey for smuggling underage girls into the country for prostitution. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-real-estate-tamir-sapir-drenched-in-debt.html" type="external">Another principal in the deal is Russian émigré Tamir Sapir, who also lives in Trump Tower</a>. Sapir’s executive vice president and top aide, Fred Contini, pled guilty in 2004 to “participating in a racketeering conspiracy with the Gambino crime family for 13 years.”</p>
<p>As for the charges against Arif:</p>
<p>At an April hearing, a judge dismissed the charges against Arif, though four lesser-known businessmen directly implicated in bringing the girls aboard were convicted. A final report on the reasons for the dismissal has yet to be issued, though the fact that the women refused to testify, denied they were prostitutes, and immediately left Turkey did weaken the prosecution.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/26/inside-donald-trumps-empire-why-he-wont-run-for-president.html" type="external">Additionally</a>:</p>
<p>The Trump family has also gone into business with two convicted cocaine traffickers, one in Turkey and another in Philadelphia. Engin Yesil, whose development company was said to “ own the Turkey rights” for a $500 million project called Trump Towers Istanbul, was sentenced to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/17/opinion/grinding-into-dust.html" type="external">a six-year prison term</a> on cocaine charges in the U.S. 20 years ago. He says now that he <a href="http://www.sabah.com.tr/Ekonomi/2009/11/25/yesil_insaat_ile_doganin_trump_tower_tartismasi" type="external">“delegated” his Trump “royalties”</a> to Dogan Holdings, a giant Turkish developer and media company that was just fined an extraordinary $2.5 billion for dodging corporate taxes in Turkey for years. When asked in the O’Brien deposition about the Istanbul project, Donald deferred to his son, who he said was handling the deal. In 2009, <a href="http://www.propertyturkeyforsale.com/istanbul-trump-towers-residences-in-sisli-up-for-sale-news-i602390.html" type="external">Ivanka did a huge press event in Istanbul</a>, announcing that 45 percent of the units were already committed.</p>
<p>Trump Tower Philadelphia also involves a former cocaine dealer, Raoul Goldberg, aka Goldberger. Sentenced to 46 months in prison in 2000 on the coke conviction, he was technically on probation when he brought the site for the 45-story tower to Trump in 2005. And even though it’s only a license and management deal for Trump, Ivanka and Donald Jr. were so involved that they worked on spa and restaurant deals for the complex. Goldberg, who has suddenly “disappeared” from the project just as Felix Sater did, <a href="http://www.phillymag.com/articles/philadelphia_magazine_wheres_donald/" type="external">told Philadelphia Magazine in 2006</a>that he talked to Ivanka or Donald Jr. “every day.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/26/inside-donald-trumps-empire-why-he-wont-run-for-president.html" type="external">Read Barrett's entire piece</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.phillymag.com/articles/philadelphia-magazine-wheres-donald/" type="external">Info on Goldberg here</a> (bold my emphasis):</p>
<p>What he would not say was how he knows Donald Trump, who his investors are, or who his family—whom he credits for getting him into the real estate business—is. This is probably because his family was named “Goldberger,” not Goldberg. Until 2003, when he still went by the name Raoul Goldberger, he was primarily known as an up-and-coming drug trafficker who had been busted after a yearlong federal investigation for attempting to ship tens of thousands of ecstasy pills from Belgium.</p>
<p><a href="http://nypost.com/1999/04/30/upper-west-side-bust-kos-ecstasy-drug-ring-feds/" type="external">NY Post has an additional write-up</a>.</p>
<p>Trump Tower Toronto, summary: Trump partner is Alex Shnaider, who heads up the Midland Group. Shnaider, a well-connected Russian with deep ties in Ukraine, is <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/the-invisible-man/article18228210/?page=all" type="external">the son-in-law</a> of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=r3ahCgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA194&amp;lpg=PA194&amp;dq=Boris+Birshtein+partner+Sergei+Mikhailov&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=5f2nxIuT2r&amp;sig=r1Zzw4Gozw5EJNQzTPJULomPvQw&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiT6syNj4XLAhXLNSYKHRDBClIQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Boris%20Birshtein%20partner%20Sergei%20Mikhailov&amp;f=false" type="external">Boris Birshtein, a business partner with Sergei Mikhailov</a>, <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-mobster-mikhailov-putin-wristwatch/26613480.html" type="external">reputed leader of the notorious Solnsteva gang</a>, a Russia-based crime syndicate.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-mobster-mikhailov-putin-wristwatch/26613480.html" type="external">More</a>:</p>
<p>Sergei Mikhailov, widely believed to be a leader of the powerful Solntsevo organized crime group, boasts on his website that Putin awarded him the prestigious timepiece on May 14.</p>
<p>As evidence of the accolade, Mikhailov has posted photographs of the watch, which is embossed with Russia's double-headed eagle and Putin's signature, with an accompanying certificate purportedly signed by the Russian president.</p>
<p><a href="http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/28/how-close-was-donald-trump-to-the-mob/" type="external">The Federalist has more on Trump's mob connections here</a>:</p>
<p>Trump’s association and business dealings with known mafia figures was not limited to his Atlantic City projects. In New York City, several of his buildings were built by S&amp;A Concrete Co., a concern partly owned by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, the boss of the Genovese crime family. In addition to this business relationship, Trump and Salerno were both represented by high-power attorney Roy Cohn. In his book, Barrett cites an anonymous source who confirms that on at least one occasion Trump and Salerno had a sit-down in Cohn’s apartment. Trump has denied this claim in the past.</p>
<p>Is it reasonable to assume that Trump had no idea that S&amp;A was run by Salerno’s Genovese borgata when Trump’s own attorney was so closely linked to that organization? After all, if Trump (who likes to point out that he has “one of the highest IQs”) is as smart as he would have everyone believe, how could he have been so naive?</p>
<p>Additionally:</p>
<p>Another issue that needs to be addressed in Trump’s New York operations is the use of undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit Teller building, which made way for the Trump Tower. Only a handful of union workers from Housewreckers Local 95 were employed on the site, the vast majority were illegal Polish alien workers, toiling under inhumane conditions, and wildly underpaid. Trump and his associates were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/27/nyregion/judge-says-trump-tower-builders-cheated-union-on-pension-funds.html%22" type="external">found guilty</a> in 1991 of conspiring to avoid paying pension and welfare fund contributions.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/242088-trump-gave-at-least-100k-to-clinton-foundation" type="external">Trump donated six figures to the Clinton Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; While the tea party fought McConnell in Kentucky and tried to rally for Matt Bevin, <a href="http://theresurgent.com/in-2013-and-2014-donald-trump-was-funding-john-boehner-mitch-mcconnell-against-the-tea-party/" type="external">Trump backed McConnell and every establishment GOP organization</a> that sought to stamp out the conservative movement.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/03/donald-trump-donated-heavily-to-democrats-especially-during-election-which-put-reid-and-pelosi-in-power/" type="external">Trump donated more to Democrats than Republicans</a> in the 2006 election cycle. More:</p>
<p>Overall in the 2006 election cycle, Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr., donated $77,200 to Democrats versus only $24,250 on Republicans. Looking back to the 2004 cycle, the pair donated $40,500 to Democrats and only $17,250 to the GOP.</p>
<p>A large share of Trump’s donations to Democrats were given to congressional committees dedicated specifically to gaining majority control of Congress. And that they did. Democrats took control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 by gaining 31 seats in the House and increasing the Democratic caucus in the Senate by six.</p>
<p>Records show that in June 2006, Trump donated $20,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That was in addition to the $5,000 he sent in April 2005 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. At the same time, Trump Jr. gave the two Democratic committees a total of $22,500.</p>
<p>While the Trumps spent nearly $50,000 to elect congressional Democrats, they donated only $1,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRSC).</p>
<p>But perhaps the worst outcome that election for Republicans was that Pelosi and Reid became Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, respectively. The pair made a formidable team and did heavy lifting to ensure that Obama was elected in 2008 and that much of his agenda — including Obamacare — was put in place.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-donald-trump-helped-democrats-pass-obamacare/2015/06/22/002f4c7c-18ea-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html" type="external">Trump helped to pass Obamacare by donations</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; Of Obamacare, Trump told Anderson Cooper (and has referenced this in previous debates): “ <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-i-like-obamacares-individual-mandate/article/2001172" type="external">I like the mandate</a>.” ( <a href="http://therightscoop.com/donald-trump-really-said-this-i-like-the-obamacare-mandate/" type="external">VIDEO</a>)</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/does-donald-trump-put-his-money-where-his-mouth-is-campaign-contributions-say-hes-fired/" type="external">Trump donated heavily to the DCCC, DSCC</a>, and Democrat heavyweights who brought us open borders, Obamacare, and tried to erode 2A rights. The <a href="http://atr.rollcall.com/dccc-names-first-16-candidates-red-blue-program/" type="external">DCCC is known for running Democrats in Republican primaries</a>. Trump donated heavily to Chuck Schumer, Rahm Emanuel, Terry MacAuliffe, Dick Durbin, and Harry Reid</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/01/23/donald-trump-immigration-fight-advocating-amnesty/" type="external">Trump advocated for amnesty</a> during Gang of Eight while conservatives fought against it.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/that-time-donald-trump-had-a-meeting-with-dreamers-and-said#.lcNgenP4q" type="external">In 2013 he met with “DREAMer” activists</a>, listened to their stories concerning illegal alien status and told them “You've convinced me.” ( <a href="http://nbclatino.com/2013/08/22/donald-trump-tells-immigrant-advocates-youve-convinced-me/" type="external">More</a>) He also reportedly told them:</p>
<p>“You know, the truth is I have a lot of illegals working for me in Miami,” he told them, using the term for undocumented immigrants those in the meeting found offensive. “You know in Miami, my golf course is tended by all these Hispanics — if it wasn’t for them my lawn wouldn’t be the lawn it is; it’s the best lawn,” Pacheco recalled Trump saying.”</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/politics/trump-is-accused-of-financially-threatening-woman-170253552.html" type="external">Trump is accused of financially threatening a woman</a> during a secret deposition over his controversial and legally-mired Trump University, which has been called a “ <a href="https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2016/02/16/donald-trumps-record-of-business-failures-and-bluster/" type="external">worthless scam</a>.”</p>
<p>Trump University collapsed in a blizzard of lawsuits in 2010, and in 2013 the New York attorney general sued Trump University for $40 million for allegedly defrauding students.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2016/02/19/trump-in-2002-i-guess-id-invade-iraq/" type="external">Trump lied about opposing the Iraq war</a> during his truther-esque rant against Bush at the South Carolina primary debate. ( <a href="http://therightscoop.com/this-trump-audio-from-2002-completely-contradicts-his-saying-he-was-against-the-iraq-war/" type="external">AUDIO</a>) ( <a href="http://soopermexican.com/2016/02/14/trump-completely-changes-bush-lied-answer-to-exact-same-question-to-exact-same-anchor-12-hours-apart/" type="external">VIDEO</a>) ( <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-on-there-being-zero-proof-he-opposed-iraq-before-the-w#.pgYj3gxz5" type="external">MORE</a>) ( <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-one-day-into-iraq-invasion-it-looks-like-a-tremendous#.rbJvZgYkZ" type="external">STILL MORE</a>)</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/10/08/trump.transcript/" type="external">Trump said he doesn't agree with NRA</a> on everything during an interview with Larry King:</p>
<p>KING: You agree with the NRA?</p>
<p>TRUMP: I don't agree entirely, but I do agree that you should have the power to have a weapon, because other people do and other people are not necessarily…</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2016/02/18/donald-trumps-puctuated-evolution-on-gun" type="external">Trump not entirely consistent on 2A rights</a>. I want to believe his evolution is sincere, <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/07/robert-farago/trump-lies-about-2000-call-for-assault-weapons-ban/" type="external">but it's difficult</a> as some of his remarks to the contrary are recent.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-boycott-apple-until-they-help-fbi-access-shooter-n522031" type="external">Trump came out weak this week on privacy rights</a>. Many have said that the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/02/18/why-you-should-side-with-apple-not-the-fbi-in-the-san-bernardino-iphone-case/" type="external">FBI's request would render everyone's iPhones vulnerable</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; While Cruz took out a relatively modest loan against his assets in comparison to Trump, <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2016/01/22/every-bank-wall-street-owns-donald-trump/" type="external">Trump is “owned by every bank on Wall Street.”</a> Note: <a href="http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/01/21/know-else-received-loans-citibank-goldman-sachs-donald-trump/" type="external">Donald Trump is a Goldman Sachs shareholder</a>:</p>
<p>As for Goldman Sachs, Trump is himself a shareholder in Goldman Sachs, which means he has a direct financial interest in its success. One would think that would make Trump even less enthusiastic about protecting me from Goldman Sachs (whatever that means) than Cruz would.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/deferments-helped-trump-dodge-vietnam" type="external">Trump is accused of “draft dodging.”</a> ” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/questions-linger-about-trumps-draft-deferments-during-vietnam-war/2015/07/21/257677bc-2fdd-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html" type="external">Questions linger</a>,” says The Washington Post, about his deferments reportedly due to bone spurs in his heel, which, says NY Daily News, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/alyssa-katz-donald-trump-treated-bone-spurs-article-1.2299678" type="external">could have been treated</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/pulse/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-does-do-wonderful-things" type="external">Trump repeatedly defends Planned Parenthood and its public funding</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; Circulated fake Coburn quote; <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/coburn-trump-circulated-quote-attacking-cruz-absolute-fabrication/article/2583379" type="external">camp continued even after Coburn condemned</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/28/trump-retweets-conspiracy-theory-on-twitter-gets-slammed-by-al-waleed.html" type="external">Tried to float conspiracy theory about a Saudi Prince and Fox</a>; said Prince reminded Trump how he bailed him out.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/269806-trump-ill-be-neutral-on-israel-and-palestine" type="external">Trump wants to be “neutral” on Israel and Palestine</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/08/19/donald-trumps-abuse-of-eminent-domain/" type="external">Supportive of eminent domain abuse</a>.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/17/politics/ted-cruz-donald-trump-marco-rubio-south-carolina/" type="external">Trump threatens frivilous, progressive lawfare</a> over videos featuring his past remarks.</p>
<p>—&gt; <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/19/trump-on-obamacare-i-like-the-mandate-video/" type="external">Trump expressed support for the health care mandate</a>: “I like the mandate” at the CNN South Carolina candidate townhall. Trump's own health care proposal, says Washington Examiner, <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2582007" type="external">requires more government than Obamacare requires</a>.</p>
<p>I just don't believe that the guy is a consistent conservative. And it's OK for me to believe that.</p>
<p>Now can we get back to fighting the left?</p> | How I Came To My Opinion On Donald Trump | true | http://danaloeschradio.com/how-i-came-to-my-opinion-on-donald-trump | 2016-02-19 | 0right
| 2,500 | I receive this question almost more than any other Why dont you support Donald Trump Ive met the man his camp asked me to introduce him at CPAC in 2015 he was perfectly amiable Hes been on my radio and TV programs more than any other primary candidate I just cant get on board with his lack of consistency or his policies So to answer the question A bulleted list of items that helped shape my opinion on the Republican primary candidate All information is public domain as reported in the press easily found everywhere online Youre certainly welcome to your own opinion but this is what contributed to mine As I give courtesy to diverse opinion on the topic so do I expect it in return 8212ampgt Trump says he will 8220hire the best minds8221 as president but according to the news items below apparently did not vet his own business partners Trump and Felix Sater Though he touts his outstanding memory when Donald Trump was asked under oath about his dealings with a twiceconvicted Russian 233migr233 who served prison time and had documented mafia connections the real estate mogul was at a loss Even though the man Felix Sater had played a role in a number of highprofile Trumpbranded projects across the country Donald Trump has also been seeking to minimize his past business ties with Sater the Russian 233migr233 who appeared in photos with Trump and carried a Trump Organization business card with the title 8220Senior Advisor to Donald Trump8221 More After Saters criminal history and past ties to organized crime came to light in 2007 Trump distanced himself from Sater Less than three years later however Trump tapped Sater for a business development role that came with the title of senior adviser to Donald Trump Sater received Trump Organization business cards and was given an office within the Trump Organizations headquarters on the same floor as Trumps own Interestingly Sater has a connection to Attorney General Loretta Lynch Lynch aided Sater Lynch8217s office appeared to have let selfprofessed criminals walk free in exchange for their cooperation watched impassively as they committed further crimes and intentionally kept the victims of those crimes in the dark 8212 denying them their legal right to seek restitution In 2013 former federal judge Paul Cassell testified before the House Judiciary Committee and encouraged them to look at how Lynch8217s office had handled a stock fraud case That case involved Felix Sater a convicted fraudster with ties to the mafia Utah senator Orrin Hatch a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Lynch to respond to Cassell8217s testimony He also asked whether Lynch had complied with federal laws that ensure restitution is provided to crime victims Washington Examiner on the LynchSater arrangement More on Trumps deals from Wayne Barrett One associate who was an 8220unindicted coconspirator8221 in a massive 2000 stock swindle8212and escaped prison only by helping to convict 19 others including six members of New York crime families 8226 Two associates who served prison time on cocaine charges 8226 Another partner prosecuted for trafficking underage girls after a dramatic helicopter raid on a yacht off the Turkish coast 8226 A pending lawsuit against Trump Soho that alleges daughter Ivanka among others made fraudulent misrepresentations Barretts experience with writing about Trump 8220While I was reporting that book in 1990 I was muscled out of Trump Castle and handcuffed overnight to a wall at the Atlantic City jail I haven8217t done much reporting about him since the book but when his numbers shot to the top in recent presidential polls I took another look and asked his office for an interview His response was a letter threatening a libel suit Trump did sue Tim O8217Brien who was a research assistant on my Trump book when Tim wrote a sequel in 2005 Now the national editor of the Huffington Post O8217Brien finally prevailed after years of litigation I obtained8212and not from O8217Brien8212a copy of the twoday deposition Trump gave in that lawsuit The December 2007 transcript is a road map of the dark paths Trump8217s business career has taken in recent years8221 MORE Trump Soho Trump Fort Lauderdale Trump Las Olas summary Trump8217s business partner on these projects is Bayrock Group which is headquartered in Trump Tower The partnership dates back to 2005 Felix Sater whose father is a reputed Russian mob boss is a top Bayrock executive As the Daily Beast reported in 2000 Felix was named an 8220unindicted coconspirator8221 in a massive stock swindle 8220which resulted in19 guilty pleas and the conviction of six mobsters 8211 including the nephew of Carmine 8220the Snake8221 Persico and the brotherinlaw of Sammy 8220the Bull8221 Gravano8221 The founding chairman of Bayrock is Tevfik Arif who has reputed Russian organized crime ties In 2010 he was charged in Turkey for smuggling underage girls into the country for prostitution Another principal in the deal is Russian 233migr233 Tamir Sapir who also lives in Trump Tower Sapir8217s executive vice president and top aide Fred Contini pled guilty in 2004 to 8220participating in a racketeering conspiracy with the Gambino crime family for 13 years8221 As for the charges against Arif At an April hearing a judge dismissed the charges against Arif though four lesserknown businessmen directly implicated in bringing the girls aboard were convicted A final report on the reasons for the dismissal has yet to be issued though the fact that the women refused to testify denied they were prostitutes and immediately left Turkey did weaken the prosecution Additionally The Trump family has also gone into business with two convicted cocaine traffickers one in Turkey and another in Philadelphia Engin Yesil whose development company was said to 8220 own the Turkey rights8221 for a 500 million project called Trump Towers Istanbul was sentenced to a sixyear prison term on cocaine charges in the US 20 years ago He says now that he 8220delegated8221 his Trump 8220royalties8221 to Dogan Holdings a giant Turkish developer and media company that was just fined an extraordinary 25 billion for dodging corporate taxes in Turkey for years When asked in the O8217Brien deposition about the Istanbul project Donald deferred to his son who he said was handling the deal In 2009 Ivanka did a huge press event in Istanbul announcing that 45 percent of the units were already committed Trump Tower Philadelphia also involves a former cocaine dealer Raoul Goldberg aka Goldberger Sentenced to 46 months in prison in 2000 on the coke conviction he was technically on probation when he brought the site for the 45story tower to Trump in 2005 And even though it8217s only a license and management deal for Trump Ivanka and Donald Jr were so involved that they worked on spa and restaurant deals for the complex Goldberg who has suddenly 8220disappeared8221 from the project just as Felix Sater did told Philadelphia Magazine in 2006that he talked to Ivanka or Donald Jr 8220every day8221 Read Barretts entire piece Info on Goldberg here bold my emphasis What he would not say was how he knows Donald Trump who his investors are or who his family8212whom he credits for getting him into the real estate business8212is This is probably because his family was named 8220Goldberger8221 not Goldberg Until 2003 when he still went by the name Raoul Goldberger he was primarily known as an upandcoming drug trafficker who had been busted after a yearlong federal investigation for attempting to ship tens of thousands of ecstasy pills from Belgium NY Post has an additional writeup Trump Tower Toronto summary Trump partner is Alex Shnaider who heads up the Midland Group Shnaider a wellconnected Russian with deep ties in Ukraine is the soninlaw of Boris Birshtein a business partner with Sergei Mikhailov reputed leader of the notorious Solnsteva gang a Russiabased crime syndicate More Sergei Mikhailov widely believed to be a leader of the powerful Solntsevo organized crime group boasts on his website that Putin awarded him the prestigious timepiece on May 14 As evidence of the accolade Mikhailov has posted photographs of the watch which is embossed with Russias doubleheaded eagle and Putins signature with an accompanying certificate purportedly signed by the Russian president The Federalist has more on Trumps mob connections here Trump8217s association and business dealings with known mafia figures was not limited to his Atlantic City projects In New York City several of his buildings were built by SampampA Concrete Co a concern partly owned by Anthony 8220Fat Tony8221 Salerno the boss of the Genovese crime family In addition to this business relationship Trump and Salerno were both represented by highpower attorney Roy Cohn In his book Barrett cites an anonymous source who confirms that on at least one occasion Trump and Salerno had a sitdown in Cohn8217s apartment Trump has denied this claim in the past Is it reasonable to assume that Trump had no idea that SampampA was run by Salerno8217s Genovese borgata when Trump8217s own attorney was so closely linked to that organization After all if Trump who likes to point out that he has 8220one of the highest IQs8221 is as smart as he would have everyone believe how could he have been so naive Additionally Another issue that needs to be addressed in Trump8217s New York operations is the use of undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit Teller building which made way for the Trump Tower Only a handful of union workers from Housewreckers Local 95 were employed on the site the vast majority were illegal Polish alien workers toiling under inhumane conditions and wildly underpaid Trump and his associates were found guilty in 1991 of conspiring to avoid paying pension and welfare fund contributions 8212ampgt Trump donated six figures to the Clinton Foundation 8212ampgt While the tea party fought McConnell in Kentucky and tried to rally for Matt Bevin Trump backed McConnell and every establishment GOP organization that sought to stamp out the conservative movement 8212ampgt Trump donated more to Democrats than Republicans in the 2006 election cycle More Overall in the 2006 election cycle Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr donated 77200 to Democrats versus only 24250 on Republicans Looking back to the 2004 cycle the pair donated 40500 to Democrats and only 17250 to the GOP A large share of Trump8217s donations to Democrats were given to congressional committees dedicated specifically to gaining majority control of Congress And that they did Democrats took control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 by gaining 31 seats in the House and increasing the Democratic caucus in the Senate by six Records show that in June 2006 Trump donated 20000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee That was in addition to the 5000 he sent in April 2005 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee At the same time Trump Jr gave the two Democratic committees a total of 22500 While the Trumps spent nearly 50000 to elect congressional Democrats they donated only 1000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee NRSC But perhaps the worst outcome that election for Republicans was that Pelosi and Reid became Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader respectively The pair made a formidable team and did heavy lifting to ensure that Obama was elected in 2008 and that much of his agenda 8212 including Obamacare 8212 was put in place 8212ampgt Trump helped to pass Obamacare by donations 8212ampgt Of Obamacare Trump told Anderson Cooper and has referenced this in previous debates 8220 I like the mandate8221 VIDEO 8212ampgt Trump donated heavily to the DCCC DSCC and Democrat heavyweights who brought us open borders Obamacare and tried to erode 2A rights The DCCC is known for running Democrats in Republican primaries Trump donated heavily to Chuck Schumer Rahm Emanuel Terry MacAuliffe Dick Durbin and Harry Reid 8212ampgt Trump advocated for amnesty during Gang of Eight while conservatives fought against it 8212ampgt In 2013 he met with 8220DREAMer8221 activists listened to their stories concerning illegal alien status and told them 8220Youve convinced me8221 More He also reportedly told them 8220You know the truth is I have a lot of illegals working for me in Miami8221 he told them using the term for undocumented immigrants those in the meeting found offensive 8220You know in Miami my golf course is tended by all these Hispanics 8212 if it wasn8217t for them my lawn wouldn8217t be the lawn it is it8217s the best lawn8221 Pacheco recalled Trump saying8221 8212ampgt Trump is accused of financially threatening a woman during a secret deposition over his controversial and legallymired Trump University which has been called a 8220 worthless scam8221 Trump University collapsed in a blizzard of lawsuits in 2010 and in 2013 the New York attorney general sued Trump University for 40 million for allegedly defrauding students 8212ampgt Trump lied about opposing the Iraq war during his trutheresque rant against Bush at the South Carolina primary debate AUDIO VIDEO MORE STILL MORE 8212ampgt Trump said he doesnt agree with NRA on everything during an interview with Larry King KING You agree with the NRA TRUMP I dont agree entirely but I do agree that you should have the power to have a weapon because other people do and other people are not necessarily8230 8212ampgt Trump not entirely consistent on 2A rights I want to believe his evolution is sincere but its difficult as some of his remarks to the contrary are recent 8212ampgt Trump came out weak this week on privacy rights Many have said that the FBIs request would render everyones iPhones vulnerable 8212ampgt While Cruz took out a relatively modest loan against his assets in comparison to Trump Trump is 8220owned by every bank on Wall Street8221 Note Donald Trump is a Goldman Sachs shareholder As for Goldman Sachs Trump is himself a shareholder in Goldman Sachs which means he has a direct financial interest in its success One would think that would make Trump even less enthusiastic about protecting me from Goldman Sachs whatever that means than Cruz would 8212ampgt Trump is accused of 8220draft dodging8221 8221 Questions linger8221 says The Washington Post about his deferments reportedly due to bone spurs in his heel which says NY Daily News could have been treated 8212ampgt Trump repeatedly defends Planned Parenthood and its public funding 8212ampgt Circulated fake Coburn quote camp continued even after Coburn condemned 8212ampgt Tried to float conspiracy theory about a Saudi Prince and Fox said Prince reminded Trump how he bailed him out 8212ampgt Trump wants to be 8220neutral8221 on Israel and Palestine 8212ampgt Supportive of eminent domain abuse 8212ampgt Trump threatens frivilous progressive lawfare over videos featuring his past remarks 8212ampgt Trump expressed support for the health care mandate 8220I like the mandate8221 at the CNN South Carolina candidate townhall Trumps own health care proposal says Washington Examiner requires more government than Obamacare requires I just dont believe that the guy is a consistent conservative And its OK for me to believe that Now can we get back to fighting the left | I/PRON receive/VERB this/DET question/NOUN almost/ADV more/ADJ than/ADP any/DET other/ADJ Why/SCONJ do/AUX nt/PART you/PRON support/VERB Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN I/PRON ve/AUX met/VERB the/DET man/NOUN his/PRON camp/NOUN asked/VERB me/PRON to/PART introduce/VERB him/PRON at/ADP CPAC/PROPN in/ADP 2015/NUM he/PRON was/AUX perfectly/ADV amiable/ADJ He/PRON s/AUX been/AUX on/ADP my/PRON radio/NOUN and/CCONJ TV/NOUN programs/NOUN more/ADJ than/ADP any/DET other/ADJ primary/ADJ candidate/NOUN I/PRON just/ADV ca/AUX nt/PART get/VERB on/ADP board/NOUN with/ADP his/PRON lack/NOUN of/ADP consistency/NOUN or/CCONJ his/PRON policies/NOUN So/ADV 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<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street fell on Thursday as losses in industrials and interest-rate sensitive sectors offset marginal gains in tech stocks.</p>
<p>Utilities .SPLRCU and real estate .SPLRCR dipped 0.6 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively. The two sectors, which are considered bond proxies, fell as yields on 10-year Treasury notes hit a 10-month high.</p>
<p>Boeing Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>), a high-flying stock of late, fell 3.1 percent, alongside General Electric Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">GE.N</a>), which dropped 3.3 percent. Those two stocks weighed most heavily on the Dow, which sagged just a day after closing above 26,000 for the first time. They also contributed to the 0.6 percent decline in the industrials sector .SPLRCI.</p>
<p>“We’ll continue to see a tug-of-war between how fast the economy grows and how fast interest rates rise,” said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis. “It’s likely to lead to more volatility in 2018 than we saw in 2017.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 97.84 points, or 0.37 percent, to 26,017.81, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> lost 4.53 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,798.03 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 2.23 points, or 0.03 percent, to 7,296.05.</p>
<p>Investors are keeping a close eye on corporate earnings reports, given the rise in stock valuations.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of enthusiasm about what tax reform will do, what repatriation will do,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut. “Today, there’s just a bit of consolidation after a strong run-up.”</p>
<p>Morgan Stanley ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MS.N" type="external">MS.N</a>) wrapped up earnings season for the big U.S. banks with a better-than-expected quarterly profit, driving modest gains in its shares.</p>
<p>Bank of New York Mellon Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BK.N" type="external">BK.N</a>) fell 4.4 percent after the custodian bank said it expected to book more in severance costs in 2018. It was the second-biggest decliner on the S&amp;P.</p>
<p>Alcoa Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AA.N" type="external">AA.N</a>) tumbled 7.0 percent after the aluminum producer’s earnings missed analysts’ estimates.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., January 12, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>IBM and American Express shares were lower after the market close on Thursday following their quarterly earnings reports.</p>
<p>The possibility of a government shutdown also loomed, though Warne said she believed it would have more impact on Wall Street’s performance if an agreement was not reached by the end of Friday.</p>
<p>The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to advance a bill for debate that would temporarily extend funding. The government is operating on its third temporary funding extension since the 2018 fiscal year began on Oct. 1.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.64-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.74-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">Boeing Co</a> 337.48 BA.N New York Stock Exchange +10.12 (+3.09%) BA.N GE.N .DJI .SPX .IXIC
<p>The S&amp;P 500 posted 84 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 127 new highs and 25 new lows.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.93 billion shares, compared to the 6.3 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Lisa Shumaker</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Thursday as investors anticipated a strong earnings season and as U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that a military strike on Syria may not be imminent ratcheted down geopolitical worries.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 has now recouped nearly all its losses from earlier this year.</p>
<p>Trump said in a tweet on Thursday that a possible attack on Syria could occur “very soon or not so soon at all,” easing fears of confrontation with Russia.</p>
<p>That lifted U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR, leading to a 1.8 percent increase in financial stocks .SPSY, which had the biggest percentage advance among the S&amp;P’s 11 major sectors.</p>
<p>The technology sector .SPLRCT rose 1.3 percent, adding the most gains to the S&amp;P.</p>
<p>“We’re hearing less talk of firing missiles and less talk of trade war,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee. “Earnings are coming up and expectations are high.”</p>
<p>Strong quarterly results from BlackRock Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BLK.N" type="external">BLK.N</a>) and Delta Air Lines Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DAL.N" type="external">DAL.N</a>) added to the sanguine mood.</p>
<p>Delta topped profit estimates, sending its shares 2.9 percent higher and boosting other airline stocks.</p>
<p>BlackRock gained 1.5 percent after the asset manager’s quarterly profit rose more than expected.</p>
<p>The earnings season begins in earnest on Friday with reports from JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>), Citigroup Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=C.N" type="external">C.N</a>) and Wells Fargo &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">WFC.N</a>).</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>Analysts expect quarterly profit for S&amp;P 500 companies to rise 18.4 percent from a year ago, in what would be the biggest gain in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>“People are looking forward to earnings season,” said Tracie McMillion, head of global asset allocation strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “Market participants are not wanting to miss out if (earnings are) as good as the forecasts say they will be.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 293.6 points, or 1.21 percent, to 24,483.05, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 21.8 points, or 0.83 percent, to 2,663.99, and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 71.22 points, or 1.01 percent, to 7,140.25.</p>
<p>Investor sentiment was also boosted by the weekly U.S. initial jobless claims report, which pointed to sustained labor market strength.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BLK.N" type="external">BlackRock Inc</a> 533.01 BLK.N New York Stock Exchange +7.70 (+1.47%) BLK.N DAL.N JPM.N C.N WFC.N
<p>Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) was a notable laggard among technology stocks, falling 1.5 percent following a 5.3 percent gain over the past two days when Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress on the social network’s data security.</p>
<p>Bed Bath &amp; Beyond Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BBBY.O" type="external">BBBY.O</a>) shares dived 20.0 percent after the company’s full-year profit forecast missed estimates.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 1.20-to-1 ratio and on the Nasdaq, for a 1.84-to-1 ratio.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.12 billion shares, compared to the 7.27 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s March exports unexpected fell 2.7 percent from a year earlier, the first drop since February last year, while imports grew 14.4 percent, more than expected, customs data showed on Friday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers being loaded onto Xin Da Yang Zhou ship from Shanghai, China at Pier J at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, U.S., April 4, 2018. REUTERS/Bob Riha Jr./File Photo
<p>That left the country with a rare trade deficit of $4.98 billion for the month, also the first since last February.</p>
<p>Analysts polled by Reuters had expected March shipments from the world’s largest exporter to have risen 10.0 percent, slowing sharply from a 44.5 percent spike in the previous month which was believed to be heavily distorted by seasonal factors.</p>
<p>Import growth had been expected to pick up to 10.0 percent, after slowing sharply to 6.3 percent in February.</p>
<p>Analysts expected China would record a trade surplus of $27.21 billion for last month, from February’s surplus of $33.75 billion.</p>
<p>For the first quarter, exports rose 14.1 percent, and imports rose 18.9 percent on-year.</p>
<p>China’s trade performance has got off to a strong start this year, following through on a solid rebound in 2017, thanks to sustained demand at home and abroad.</p>
<p>But the export outlook is being clouded by an escalating trade dispute with the United States, which could disrupt China’s shipments and its supply chains, while a cooling property market may curb China’s demand for imported raw materials such as iron ore.</p>
<p>Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kim Coghill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Genuine Parts Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GPC.N" type="external">GPC.N</a>) said on Thursday it would spin off its wholesale distribution business S.P. Richards and merge it with Essendant ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ESND.O" type="external">ESND.O</a>) in a tax-free transaction for shareholders, as it focuses on its industrial and auto parts businesses.</p>
<p>The combined company will have more products and resources, giving its customers - mainly independent dealers - a one-stop shop as they grapple with intense competition from e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) and big-box stores.</p>
<p>“This combination of our customer centric companies creates a stronger partner to support those dealers and help them to be more competitive with all the other options available to customers in the industry,” Essendant Chief Executive Officer Ric Phillips said on a call with analysts.</p>
<p>Essendant’s shares jumped 18 percent to $10.00, while those of Genuine Parts were up about 1 percent at $90.17 in morning trading.</p>
<p>Illinois-based Essendant is a wholesale distributor of workplace items including janitorial supplies, while Atlanta, Georgia-based S.P. Richards distributes products ranging from office furniture to school supplies.</p>
<p>The combined entity will be called Essendant and headed by Phillips. S.P. Richards CEO Rick Toppin will become chief operating officer of the new company. Essendant had a market capitalization of about $323.5 million as of Wednesday’s close.</p>
<p>Genuine Parts, one of the leading U.S. car parts distributors, said the deal implied a valuation of about $680 million for S.P. Richards.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GPC.N" type="external">Genuine Parts Co</a> 90.13 GPC.N New York Stock Exchange +0.47 (+0.52%) GPC.N ESND.O AMZN.O
<p>Genuine Parts will get $347 million in cash and its shareholders 51 percent of the newly-formed combined company. Structured as a Reverse Morris Trust deal, the transaction will be tax-free for the companies’ shareholders.</p>
<p>The company has been evaluating options for the S.P. Richards business, which has been pressured by weak demand for office supplies.</p>
<p>Essendant has also been hit as large customers source products directly from manufacturers. Its net sales declined 6.2 percent to $5.04 billion in 2017, while adjusted profit fell more than 50 percent.</p>
<p>Genuine Parts has been focusing on its auto parts and industrial businesses. Last year, the company completed a deal to buy London-based Alliance Automotive Group and took a stake in Australia’s Inenco Group.</p>
<p>Citigroup Global Markets Inc was the financial adviser for Essendant, while J.P. Morgan advised Genuine Parts.</p>
<p>Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street led stocks higher globally on Thursday, more than offsetting declines in Asia, as an expected strong earnings season took front seat after U.S. President Donald Trump cast doubt over the timing of his threatened strike on Syria.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>The risk of clashes between Western powers and Russia in Syria over an alleged chemical attack eased somewhat as Trump reworded his Wednesday threat that missiles “will be coming” while taunting Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.</p>
<p>Trump wrote on Thursday that an attack on Syria “could be very soon or not so soon at all.” Later, he said decisions will be made “fairly soon.”</p>
<p>Investors turned their focus to U.S. corporate earnings as BlackRock ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BLK.N" type="external">BLK.N</a>), the world’s largest asset manager, reported quarterly profit above Wall Street estimates with its shares up 1.5 percent.</p>
<p>BlackRock’s results boosted bank shares .SPXBK, which were the largest gainers on Thursday, likely on bets that increased exchange traded funds trading will benefit their bottom lines. Higher U.S. Treasury yields also gave banks support.</p>
<p>Analysts expect quarterly profit for U.S. benchmark S&amp;P 500 index companies to rise 18.4 percent from a year ago, the biggest gain in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.</p>
<p>“We’re hearing less talk of firing missiles and less talk of trade war. Earnings are coming up and expectations are high,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee. The stock market, he said, is “returning to normal.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 293.6 points, or 1.21 percent, to 24,483.05, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 21.8 points, or 0.83 percent, to 2,663.99 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 71.22 points, or 1.01 percent, to 7,140.25.</p>
<p>The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.FTEU3" type="external">.FTEU3</a> rose 0.67 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.37 percent.</p>
<p>Emerging market stocks rose 0.11 percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.27 percent lower, while Japan's Nikkei <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.N225" type="external">.N225</a> lost 0.12 percent.</p>
<p>The higher risk appetite as geopolitical tensions eased boosted U.S. Treasury yields. The safe-haven Japanese yen also fell.</p>
<p>“There is less immediate concern about military strikes or action in Syria,” said Jim Vogel, interest rates strategist at FTN Financial in Memphis.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t move it to the back-burner, but it allows you to look around and trade other things and that gives room for rates to rise just a little bit from their sort of cramped or compressed levels,” he said.</p>
<p>Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR last fell 14/32 in price to yield 2.8413 percent, from 2.79 percent late on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last fell 26/32 in price to yield 3.0455 percent, from 3.005 percent late on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Oil prices fell initially as geopolitical concerns eased somewhat, but later rose, supported partly by shrinking global oil inventories.</p> The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Tilman Blasshofer
<p>OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo told Reuters in New Delhi the global oil glut has effectively shrunk by nine-tenths since the start of 2017.</p>
<p>“We have seen an accelerated shrinkage of stocks in storage from unparalleled highs of about 400 million barrels to about 43 million above the five-year average,” Barkindo said.</p>
<p>U.S. crude CLc1 rose 0.43 percent to $67.11 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $72.09, up 0.04 percent on the day.</p>
<p>Both are at levels not seen since 2014.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: Middle East tensions drive crude prices - <a href="https://reut.rs/2ILpqMy" type="external">reut.rs/2ILpqMy</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2ILpqMy" type="external" />
<p>The U.S. dollar index .DXY was on track to snap a four-day losing streak as it rose 0.21 percent, with the euro <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=EUR&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">EUR=</a> down 0.3 percent to $1.2328.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BLK.N" type="external">BlackRock Inc</a> 533.01 BLK.N New York Stock Exchange +7.70 (+1.47%) BLK.N .DJI .SPX .IXIC .FTEU3
<p>“It’s a reversal of the safe-haven trade that lifted the yen and the Swiss franc earlier in the week,” said Karl Schamotta, director of global product and market strategy at Cambridge Global Payments in Toronto.</p>
<p>The Japanese yen weakened 0.43 percent versus the greenback at 107.27 per dollar, while the dollar was up 0.48 percent against the Swiss franc <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=CHF&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">CHF=</a>.</p>
<p>Sterling <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=GBP&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">GBP=</a> was last trading at $1.4227, up 0.36 percent on the day.</p>
<p>Safe-haven gold XAU= fell from an 11-week high as the dollar edged higher and investors booked profits.</p>
<p>Spot gold XAU= dropped 1.3 percent to $1,335.06 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCc1 fell 1.61 percent to $1,334.60 an ounce.</p>
<p>Copper CMCU3 lost 1.86 percent to $6,821.00 a ton.</p>
<p>Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, April Joyner, Chuck Mikolajczak, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Wall St. pauses rally as utilities, industrials fall Wall Street gains on earnings optimism, waning Syria jitters China's March exports unexpectedly fall 2.7 percent; rare trade deficit of $4.98 billion Genuine Parts to merge S.P. Richards business with Essendant Stocks, U.S. dollar rise as Trump amends previous comments on Syria | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/wall-st-pauses-rally-as-utilities-industrials-fall-idUSKBN1F71NW | 2018-01-18 | 2least
| 2,503 | NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street fell on Thursday as losses in industrials and interestrate sensitive sectors offset marginal gains in tech stocks Utilities SPLRCU and real estate SPLRCR dipped 06 percent and 10 percent respectively The two sectors which are considered bond proxies fell as yields on 10year Treasury notes hit a 10month high Boeing Co BAN a highflying stock of late fell 31 percent alongside General Electric Co GEN which dropped 33 percent Those two stocks weighed most heavily on the Dow which sagged just a day after closing above 26000 for the first time They also contributed to the 06 percent decline in the industrials sector SPLRCI 8220We8217ll continue to see a tugofwar between how fast the economy grows and how fast interest rates rise8221 said Kate Warne investment strategist at Edward Jones in St Louis 8220It8217s likely to lead to more volatility in 2018 than we saw in 20178221 The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI fell 9784 points or 037 percent to 2601781 the SampampP 500 SPX lost 453 points or 016 percent to 279803 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC dropped 223 points or 003 percent to 729605 Investors are keeping a close eye on corporate earnings reports given the rise in stock valuations 8220There8217s a lot of enthusiasm about what tax reform will do what repatriation will do8221 said Michael O8217Rourke chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich Connecticut 8220Today there8217s just a bit of consolidation after a strong runup8221 Morgan Stanley MSN wrapped up earnings season for the big US banks with a betterthanexpected quarterly profit driving modest gains in its shares Bank of New York Mellon Corp BKN fell 44 percent after the custodian bank said it expected to book more in severance costs in 2018 It was the secondbiggest decliner on the SampampP Alcoa Corp AAN tumbled 70 percent after the aluminum producer8217s earnings missed analysts8217 estimates Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York US January 12 2018 REUTERSLucas Jackson IBM and American Express shares were lower after the market close on Thursday following their quarterly earnings reports The possibility of a government shutdown also loomed though Warne said she believed it would have more impact on Wall Street8217s performance if an agreement was not reached by the end of Friday The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to advance a bill for debate that would temporarily extend funding The government is operating on its third temporary funding extension since the 2018 fiscal year began on Oct 1 Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 264to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 174to1 ratio favored decliners Boeing Co 33748 BAN New York Stock Exchange 1012 309 BAN GEN DJI SPX IXIC The SampampP 500 posted 84 new 52week highs and 12 new lows the Nasdaq Composite recorded 127 new highs and 25 new lows Volume on US exchanges was 693 billion shares compared to the 63 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru Editing by Nick Zieminski and Lisa Shumaker Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters US stocks climbed on Thursday as investors anticipated a strong earnings season and as US President Donald Trump8217s suggestion that a military strike on Syria may not be imminent ratcheted down geopolitical worries The SampampP 500 has now recouped nearly all its losses from earlier this year Trump said in a tweet on Thursday that a possible attack on Syria could occur 8220very soon or not so soon at all8221 easing fears of confrontation with Russia That lifted US Treasury yields US10YTRR leading to a 18 percent increase in financial stocks SPSY which had the biggest percentage advance among the SampampP8217s 11 major sectors The technology sector SPLRCT rose 13 percent adding the most gains to the SampampP 8220We8217re hearing less talk of firing missiles and less talk of trade war8221 said Michael Antonelli managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W Baird in Milwaukee 8220Earnings are coming up and expectations are high8221 Strong quarterly results from BlackRock Inc BLKN and Delta Air Lines Inc DALN added to the sanguine mood Delta topped profit estimates sending its shares 29 percent higher and boosting other airline stocks BlackRock gained 15 percent after the asset manager8217s quarterly profit rose more than expected The earnings season begins in earnest on Friday with reports from JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN Citigroup Inc CN and Wells Fargo ampamp Co WFCN Slideshow 3 Images Analysts expect quarterly profit for SampampP 500 companies to rise 184 percent from a year ago in what would be the biggest gain in seven years according to Thomson Reuters IBES 8220People are looking forward to earnings season8221 said Tracie McMillion head of global asset allocation strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in WinstonSalem North Carolina 8220Market participants are not wanting to miss out if earnings are as good as the forecasts say they will be8221 The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 2936 points or 121 percent to 2448305 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 218 points or 083 percent to 266399 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 7122 points or 101 percent to 714025 Investor sentiment was also boosted by the weekly US initial jobless claims report which pointed to sustained labor market strength BlackRock Inc 53301 BLKN New York Stock Exchange 770 147 BLKN DALN JPMN CN WFCN Facebook Inc FBO was a notable laggard among technology stocks falling 15 percent following a 53 percent gain over the past two days when Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress on the social network8217s data security Bed Bath ampamp Beyond Inc BBBYO shares dived 200 percent after the company8217s fullyear profit forecast missed estimates Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 120to1 ratio and on the Nasdaq for a 184to1 ratio Volume on US exchanges was 612 billion shares compared to the 727 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York Editing by Nick Zieminski and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles BEIJING Reuters China8217s March exports unexpected fell 27 percent from a year earlier the first drop since February last year while imports grew 144 percent more than expected customs data showed on Friday FILE PHOTO Shipping containers being loaded onto Xin Da Yang Zhou ship from Shanghai China at Pier J at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach California US April 4 2018 REUTERSBob Riha JrFile Photo That left the country with a rare trade deficit of 498 billion for the month also the first since last February Analysts polled by Reuters had expected March shipments from the world8217s largest exporter to have risen 100 percent slowing sharply from a 445 percent spike in the previous month which was believed to be heavily distorted by seasonal factors Import growth had been expected to pick up to 100 percent after slowing sharply to 63 percent in February Analysts expected China would record a trade surplus of 2721 billion for last month from February8217s surplus of 3375 billion For the first quarter exports rose 141 percent and imports rose 189 percent onyear China8217s trade performance has got off to a strong start this year following through on a solid rebound in 2017 thanks to sustained demand at home and abroad But the export outlook is being clouded by an escalating trade dispute with the United States which could disrupt China8217s shipments and its supply chains while a cooling property market may curb China8217s demand for imported raw materials such as iron ore Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk Editing by Kim Coghill Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters Genuine Parts Co GPCN said on Thursday it would spin off its wholesale distribution business SP Richards and merge it with Essendant ESNDO in a taxfree transaction for shareholders as it focuses on its industrial and auto parts businesses The combined company will have more products and resources giving its customers mainly independent dealers a onestop shop as they grapple with intense competition from ecommerce giant Amazoncom Inc AMZNO and bigbox stores 8220This combination of our customer centric companies creates a stronger partner to support those dealers and help them to be more competitive with all the other options available to customers in the industry8221 Essendant Chief Executive Officer Ric Phillips said on a call with analysts Essendant8217s shares jumped 18 percent to 1000 while those of Genuine Parts were up about 1 percent at 9017 in morning trading Illinoisbased Essendant is a wholesale distributor of workplace items including janitorial supplies while Atlanta Georgiabased SP Richards distributes products ranging from office furniture to school supplies The combined entity will be called Essendant and headed by Phillips SP Richards CEO Rick Toppin will become chief operating officer of the new company Essendant had a market capitalization of about 3235 million as of Wednesday8217s close Genuine Parts one of the leading US car parts distributors said the deal implied a valuation of about 680 million for SP Richards Genuine Parts Co 9013 GPCN New York Stock Exchange 047 052 GPCN ESNDO AMZNO Genuine Parts will get 347 million in cash and its shareholders 51 percent of the newlyformed combined company Structured as a Reverse Morris Trust deal the transaction will be taxfree for the companies8217 shareholders The company has been evaluating options for the SP Richards business which has been pressured by weak demand for office supplies Essendant has also been hit as large customers source products directly from manufacturers Its net sales declined 62 percent to 504 billion in 2017 while adjusted profit fell more than 50 percent Genuine Parts has been focusing on its auto parts and industrial businesses Last year the company completed a deal to buy Londonbased Alliance Automotive Group and took a stake in Australia8217s Inenco Group Citigroup Global Markets Inc was the financial adviser for Essendant while JP Morgan advised Genuine Parts Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru editing by Patrick Graham and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street led stocks higher globally on Thursday more than offsetting declines in Asia as an expected strong earnings season took front seat after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over the timing of his threatened strike on Syria Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York US April 12 2018 REUTERSLucas Jackson The risk of clashes between Western powers and Russia in Syria over an alleged chemical attack eased somewhat as Trump reworded his Wednesday threat that missiles 8220will be coming8221 while taunting Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar alAssad Trump wrote on Thursday that an attack on Syria 8220could be very soon or not so soon at all8221 Later he said decisions will be made 8220fairly soon8221 Investors turned their focus to US corporate earnings as BlackRock BLKN the world8217s largest asset manager reported quarterly profit above Wall Street estimates with its shares up 15 percent BlackRock8217s results boosted bank shares SPXBK which were the largest gainers on Thursday likely on bets that increased exchange traded funds trading will benefit their bottom lines Higher US Treasury yields also gave banks support Analysts expect quarterly profit for US benchmark SampampP 500 index companies to rise 184 percent from a year ago the biggest gain in seven years according to Thomson Reuters IBES 8220We8217re hearing less talk of firing missiles and less talk of trade war Earnings are coming up and expectations are high8221 said Michael Antonelli managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W Baird in Milwaukee The stock market he said is 8220returning to normal8221 The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 2936 points or 121 percent to 2448305 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 218 points or 083 percent to 266399 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 7122 points or 101 percent to 714025 The panEuropean FTSEurofirst 300 index FTEU3 rose 067 percent and MSCIs gauge of stocks across the globe MIWD00000PUS gained 037 percent Emerging market stocks rose 011 percent MSCIs broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan MIAPJ0000PUS closed 027 percent lower while Japans Nikkei N225 lost 012 percent The higher risk appetite as geopolitical tensions eased boosted US Treasury yields The safehaven Japanese yen also fell 8220There is less immediate concern about military strikes or action in Syria8221 said Jim Vogel interest rates strategist at FTN Financial in Memphis 8220It doesn8217t move it to the backburner but it allows you to look around and trade other things and that gives room for rates to rise just a little bit from their sort of cramped or compressed levels8221 he said Benchmark 10year Treasury notes US10YTRR last fell 1432 in price to yield 28413 percent from 279 percent late on Wednesday The 30year bond US30YTRR last fell 2632 in price to yield 30455 percent from 3005 percent late on Wednesday Oil prices fell initially as geopolitical concerns eased somewhat but later rose supported partly by shrinking global oil inventories The German share price index DAX board is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt Germany March 21 2018 REUTERSTilman Blasshofer OPEC SecretaryGeneral Mohammad Barkindo told Reuters in New Delhi the global oil glut has effectively shrunk by ninetenths since the start of 2017 8220We have seen an accelerated shrinkage of stocks in storage from unparalleled highs of about 400 million barrels to about 43 million above the fiveyear average8221 Barkindo said US crude CLc1 rose 043 percent to 6711 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at 7209 up 004 percent on the day Both are at levels not seen since 2014 GRAPHIC Middle East tensions drive crude prices reutrs2ILpqMy The US dollar index DXY was on track to snap a fourday losing streak as it rose 021 percent with the euro EUR down 03 percent to 12328 BlackRock Inc 53301 BLKN New York Stock Exchange 770 147 BLKN DJI SPX IXIC FTEU3 8220It8217s a reversal of the safehaven trade that lifted the yen and the Swiss franc earlier in the week8221 said Karl Schamotta director of global product and market strategy at Cambridge Global Payments in Toronto The Japanese yen weakened 043 percent versus the greenback at 10727 per dollar while the dollar was up 048 percent against the Swiss franc CHF Sterling GBP was last trading at 14227 up 036 percent on the day Safehaven gold XAU fell from an 11week high as the dollar edged higher and investors booked profits Spot gold XAU dropped 13 percent to 133506 an ounce US gold futures GCc1 fell 161 percent to 133460 an ounce Copper CMCU3 lost 186 percent to 682100 a ton Reporting by Rodrigo Campos April Joyner Chuck Mikolajczak Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Gertrude ChavezDreyfuss in New York Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | NEW/PROPN YORK/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Wall/PROPN Street/PROPN fell/VERB on/ADP Thursday/PROPN as/ADP losses/NOUN in/ADP industrials/NOUN and/CCONJ interestrate/VERB sensitive/ADJ sectors/NOUN offset/VERB marginal/ADJ gains/NOUN in/ADP tech/NOUN stocks/NOUN Utilities/PROPN SPLRCU/PROPN and/CCONJ real/ADJ estate/NOUN SPLRCR/PROPN dipped/VERB 06/NUM percent/NOUN and/CCONJ 10/NUM percent/NOUN respectively/ADV The/DET two/NUM sectors/NOUN which/PRON are/AUX considered/VERB bond/NOUN proxies/NOUN fell/VERB as/ADP yields/NOUN on/ADP 10year/NUM Treasury/PROPN notes/NOUN hit/VERB a/DET 10month/NUM high/ADJ Boeing/PROPN Co/PROPN BAN/PROPN a/DET highflying/VERB stock/NOUN of/ADP late/ADJ fell/VERB 31/NUM percent/NOUN alongside/ADP General/PROPN Electric/PROPN Co/PROPN GEN/PROPN which/PRON dropped/VERB 33/NUM percent/NOUN Those/DET two/NUM stocks/NOUN weighed/VERB most/ADV heavily/ADV on/ADP the/DET Dow/PROPN which/PRON sagged/VERB just/ADV a/DET day/NOUN after/ADP closing/VERB above/ADP 26000/NUM for/ADP the/DET first/ADJ time/NOUN They/PRON also/ADV contributed/VERB to/ADP the/DET 06/NUM percent/NOUN decline/NOUN in/ADP the/DET industrials/NOUN sector/NOUN SPLRCI/PROPN 8220We8217ll/PROPN continue/VERB to/PART see/VERB a/DET tugofwar/NOUN between/ADP how/SCONJ fast/ADV the/DET economy/NOUN grows/VERB and/CCONJ how/SCONJ fast/ADJ interest/NOUN rates/NOUN rise8221/PART said/VERB Kate/PROPN Warne/PROPN investment/NOUN strategist/NOUN at/ADP Edward/PROPN Jones/PROPN in/ADP St/PROPN Louis/PROPN 8220It8217s/PROPN likely/ADJ to/PART lead/VERB to/ADP more/ADJ volatility/NOUN in/ADP 2018/NUM than/SCONJ we/PRON saw/VERB in/ADP 20178221/NUM The/DET Dow/PROPN Jones/PROPN Industrial/PROPN Average/PROPN DJI/PROPN fell/VERB 9784/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 037/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 2601781/NUM the/DET SampampP/PROPN 500/NUM SPX/PROPN lost/VERB 453/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 016/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 279803/NUM and/CCONJ the/DET Nasdaq/PROPN Composite/PROPN IXIC/PROPN dropped/VERB 223/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 003/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 729605/NUM Investors/NOUN are/AUX keeping/VERB a/DET close/ADJ eye/NOUN on/ADP corporate/ADJ earnings/NOUN reports/NOUN given/VERB the/DET rise/NOUN in/ADP stock/NOUN valuations/NOUN 8220There8217s/NUM a/DET lot/NOUN of/ADP enthusiasm/NOUN about/ADP what/PRON tax/NOUN reform/NOUN will/AUX do/AUX what/PRON repatriation/NOUN will/AUX do8221/VERB said/VERB Michael/PROPN O8217Rourke/PROPN chief/ADJ market/NOUN strategist/NOUN at/ADP JonesTrading/PROPN in/ADP Greenwich/PROPN Connecticut/PROPN 8220Today/NOUN there8217s/PROPN just/ADV a/DET bit/NOUN of/ADP consolidation/NOUN after/SCONJ a/DET strong/ADJ runup8221/PROPN Morgan/PROPN Stanley/PROPN MSN/PROPN wrapped/VERB up/ADP earnings/NOUN season/NOUN for/ADP the/DET big/ADJ US/PROPN banks/NOUN with/ADP a/DET betterthanexpected/VERB quarterly/ADJ profit/NOUN driving/VERB modest/ADJ gains/NOUN in/ADP its/PRON shares/NOUN Bank/PROPN of/ADP New/PROPN York/PROPN Mellon/PROPN Corp/PROPN BKN/PROPN fell/VERB 44/NUM percent/NOUN after/SCONJ the/DET custodian/PROPN bank/PROPN said/VERB it/PRON expected/VERB to/PART book/VERB more/ADJ in/ADP severance/NOUN costs/NOUN in/ADP 2018/NUM It/PRON was/AUX the/DET secondbiggest/ADJ decliner/NOUN on/ADP the/DET SampampP/PROPN Alcoa/PROPN Corp/PROPN AAN/PROPN tumbled/VERB 70/NUM percent/NOUN after/SCONJ the/DET aluminum/NOUN producer8217s/NUM earnings/NOUN missed/VERB analysts8217/PROPN estimates/VERB Traders/NOUN work/VERB on/ADP the/DET floor/NOUN of/ADP the/DET New/PROPN York/PROPN Stock/PROPN Exchange/PROPN shortly/ADV after/SCONJ the/DET opening/NOUN 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since/SCONJ February/PROPN last/ADJ year/NOUN while/SCONJ imports/NOUN grew/VERB 144/NUM percent/NOUN more/ADJ than/SCONJ expected/VERB customs/NOUN data/NOUN showed/VERB on/ADP Friday/PROPN FILE/NOUN PHOTO/PROPN Shipping/NOUN containers/NOUN being/AUX loaded/VERB onto/ADP Xin/PROPN Da/PROPN Yang/PROPN Zhou/PROPN ship/NOUN from/ADP Shanghai/PROPN China/PROPN at/ADP Pier/PROPN J/PROPN at/ADP the/DET Port/PROPN of/ADP Long/PROPN Beach/PROPN in/ADP Long/PROPN Beach/PROPN California/PROPN US/PROPN April/PROPN 4/NUM 2018/NUM REUTERSBob/PROPN Riha/PROPN JrFile/PROPN Photo/PROPN That/PRON left/VERB the/DET country/NOUN with/ADP a/DET rare/ADJ trade/NOUN deficit/NOUN of/ADP 498/NUM billion/NUM for/ADP the/DET month/NOUN also/ADV the/DET first/ADJ since/SCONJ last/ADJ February/PROPN Analysts/NOUN polled/VERB by/ADP Reuters/PROPN had/AUX expected/VERB March/PROPN shipments/NOUN from/ADP the/DET world8217s/PROPN largest/ADJ exporter/NOUN to/PART have/AUX risen/VERB 100/NUM percent/NOUN 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against/ADP the/DET Swiss/ADJ franc/NOUN CHF/PROPN Sterling/PROPN GBP/PROPN was/AUX last/ADJ trading/NOUN at/ADP 14227/NUM up/ADV 036/NUM percent/NOUN on/ADP the/DET day/NOUN Safehaven/PROPN gold/NOUN XAU/PROPN fell/VERB from/ADP an/DET 11week/NUM high/ADJ as/SCONJ the/DET dollar/NOUN edged/VERB higher/ADJ and/CCONJ investors/NOUN booked/VERB profits/NOUN Spot/PROPN gold/NOUN XAU/PROPN dropped/VERB 13/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 133506/NUM an/DET ounce/NOUN US/PROPN gold/NOUN futures/NOUN GCc1/NOUN fell/VERB 161/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 133460/NUM an/DET ounce/NOUN Copper/PROPN CMCU3/PROPN lost/VERB 186/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 682100/NUM a/DET ton/NOUN Reporting/NOUN by/ADP Rodrigo/PROPN Campos/PROPN April/PROPN Joyner/PROPN Chuck/PROPN Mikolajczak/PROPN Saqib/PROPN Iqbal/PROPN Ahmed/PROPN and/CCONJ Gertrude/PROPN ChavezDreyfuss/PROPN in/ADP New/PROPN York/PROPN Editing/PROPN by/ADP Nick/PROPN Zieminski/PROPN and/CCONJ Dan/PROPN Grebler/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN |
<p>We have capped this explainer. Major developments will be covered on our main <a href="" type="internal">political blog</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE 36: Monday, April 22, 1:59 p.m. EDT: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is <a href="http://legaltimes.typepad.com/wp-content/uploads/marathon-complaint.pdf" type="external">charged</a> with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against people and property resulting in death.</p>
<p>UPDATE 35: Monday, April 22, 1:26 p.m. EDT: Multiple sources are <a href="http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/metro/Source-Bomb-suspect-arraigned-in-hospital-bed/-/11971628/19835528/-/dv1s2q/-/index.html" type="external">reporting</a> that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arraigned at his hospital bed, and that the complaint against him was sealed.</p>
<p>UPDATE 34: Saturday, April 20, 1:01 p.m. EDT: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in a heavily guarded hospital room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As press attention turns to deciphering the bombers’ motives and the coming trial, Josh Gerstein of Politico has written a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/no-miranda-rights-for-now-for-bombing-suspect-90362.html" type="external">piece</a> explaining some legal issues surrounding the case, including the pre-trial interrogation rules facing federal prosecutors and whether Tsarnaev may face the death penalty; Slate‘s Emily Bazelon <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/04/dzhokhar_tsarnaev_and_miranda_rights_the_public_safety_exception_and_terrorism.html?utm_source=tw&amp;utm_medium=sm&amp;utm_campaign=button_chunky" type="external">explains</a> the history and law behind the “public safety exemption” to the Miranda rules under which Tsarnaev is being questioned.</p>
<p>UPDATE 33: Friday, April 19, 11:12 p.m. EDT: <a href="http://boston.barstoolsports.com/around-barstool/unreal-footage-from-a-stoolie-who-lived-on-the-street-of-the-watertown-shoot-out/" type="external">BarstoolSports.com</a> has posted dramatic amateur video of a pitched fire fight, said to be a recording of police closing in on Tsarnaev’s boat hiding place on Friday evening.</p>
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<p>And a <a href="http://i.imgur.com/XDuMHCY.jpg" type="external">photo has surfaced</a> that appears to show law enforcement officials administering medical care to the suspect shortly after his arrest.</p>
<p>UPDATE 32: Friday, April 19, 10:34 p.m. EDT: Tsarnaev was not given a Miranda warning because of the “public-safety exemption in cases of national security and potential charges involving acts of terrorism,” United States Attorney <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/no-miranda-rights-for-now-for-bombing-suspect-90362.html" type="external">Carmen Ortiz said</a>. But the Obama administration is emphatic about giving Tsarnaev a civilian trial, <a href="https://twitter.com/swin24/status/325434587830439936" type="external">according to NBC correspondent Pete Williams</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE 31: Friday, April 19, 10:14 p.m. EDT: Following a press conference held by Mass. Governor Deval Patrick and law enforcement, President Obama delivered a statement addressing the capture of Tsarnaev, the tragedy in Boston, and also the <a href="" type="internal">explosion at the West, Texas fertilizer plant</a> on Wednesday. “All in all, this has been a tough week, but we have seen the character of our country,” Obama said.</p>
<p>Here’s the video and a <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/19/statement-president" type="external">link</a> to the full statement.</p>
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<p>UPDATE 30: Friday, April 19, 10:00 p.m. EDT: According to the Boston Police Department, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in serious condition. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.</p>
<p>UPDATE 29: Friday, April 19, 9:42 p.m. EDT: The FBI wanted poster for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been updated with “ <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/alert/dzhokar-tsarnaev" type="external">Captured</a>“:</p>
<p>UPDATE 28: Friday, April 19, 8:45 p.m. EDT: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been taken into custody. He was found hiding in a boat resting on a trailer in a Watertown backyard.</p>
<p>UPDATE 27: Friday, April 19, 7:15 p.m. EDT: Moments after law enforcement officials lifted the city’s lockdown, an exchange of gunfire was heard in Watertown. The Boston Globe and local television are now reporting that police have cornered a suspect.</p>
<p>UPDATE 26: Friday, April 19, 2:09 p.m. EDT: Here is the FBI wanted <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/alert/dzhokar-tsarnaev" type="external">poster</a> for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, suspect in the Boston Marathon attack:</p>
<p>UPDATE 25: Friday, April 19, 1:08 p.m. EDT: At noon on Friday, Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC with five other Muslim community leaders. While they emphasized that the suspects’ motive are not yet known, CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad said in a prepared statement that, “as God tells us in the Quran, if you murder one person, it is as if you murdered all of humanity.” He stressed that, “we’re very angry,” and another participant stated that, “unfortunately every faith in it has heretical elements…but nobody can separate us from being Americans.”</p>
<p>When asked by Mother Jones about the <a href="" type="internal">Al Qaeda prophecy video</a> posted by a YouTube user by the name of deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a CAIR spokesman responded: “I mean, it’s Al Qaeda-inspired stuff, man. It’s a lot of crazy on the internet.”</p>
<p>The group also thanked “the media for not jumping to any conclusions.” ( <a href="" type="internal">This is debatable</a>.)</p>
<p>UPDATE 24: Friday, April 19, 12:45 p.m. EDT: Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick just held a press conference in which he urged Bostonians to stay in their homes, and warned that the crime scene may go through the weekend.</p>
<p>UPDATE 23: Friday, April 19, 12:15 p.m. EDT: <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/this-might-be-djohar-tsarnaevs-actual-twitter-account" type="external">BuzzFeed is reporting</a> that <a href="https://twitter.com/J_tsar/" type="external">this</a> is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Twitter account. Here are some highlights:</p>
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<p>update: Mother Jones has <a href="" type="internal">a story</a> on what these Tweets tell us about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The Tweets include statements about Islam, observations on pop culture, and trash-talk about women.</p>
<p>UPDATE 22: Friday, April 19, 12:15 p.m. EDT: The suspects’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, pleads for his nephew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is still on the loose, to turn himself in. <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbc-news/51596468/#51596468" type="external">From NBC</a>:</p>
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<p>Visit NBCNews.com for <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com" type="external">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" type="external">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" type="external">news about the economy</a></p>
<p>UPDATE 21: Friday, April 19, 12:10 p.m. EDT: <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50145202n" type="external">CBS reports</a> that the suspects’ uncle said that the older brother,&#160;Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was “a loser.” Watch:</p>
<p>UPDATE 20: Friday, April 19, 12:00 p.m. EDT:&#160; <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/chechen-president-blames-american-upbringing-for-suspected-b" type="external">BuzzFeed reports</a> that the Chechen&#160;president, Ramzan Kadyrov, has released a statement on the bombings, blaming the suspects’ American&#160;upbringing.</p>
<p>Tragic events have taken place in Boston. A terrorist attack killed people. We have already expressed our condolences to the people of the city and to the American people. Today, the media reports, one Tsarnaev was killed as [police] tried to arrest him. It would be appropriate if he was detained and investigated, and the circumstances and the extent of his guilt determined. Apparently, the security services needed to calm down the society by any means necessary.</p>
<p>Any attempt to draw a connection between Chechnya and Tsarnaevs — if they are guilty — is futile. They were raised in the United States, and their attitudes and beliefs were formed there. It is necessary to seek the roots of this evil in America. The whole world must struggle against terrorism — that we know better than anyone else. We hope for the recovery of all the victims, and we mourn with the Americans.</p>
<p>Also, the president of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/19/watertown-manhunt-fbi-search-for-boston-marathon-bomber-suspect-two/" type="external">released a statement</a> about the patient who died here this morning:</p>
<p>Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center received an unknown male patient with significant injuries at 1:20 this morning.</p>
<p>After he arrived, he suffered a trauma arrest and expired at 1:35 a.m.</p>
<p>We have no information on the identity of the patient and cannot speculate on whether he has any connection to any criminal activity. Nor are we prepared to speak to the exact nature of his injuries.</p>
<p>Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is open for business. But we will be restricting access to some entrances to ensure the safety of our patients, staff and visitors.</p>
<p>UPDATE 19: Friday, April 19, 11:50 a.m. EDT:&#160;The Boston Police Department is reporting that the vehicle associated with the armed&#160;carjacking&#160;by the two suspects in&#160;Cambridge&#160;has been located.</p>
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<p>UPDATE 18: Friday, April 19, 11:33 a.m. EDT: A former schoolmate of Boston bombing suspect speaks out. (Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still at large.)</p>
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<p>UPDATE 17: Friday, April 19, 11:19 a.m. EDT: Mother Jones has <a href="" type="internal">posted a wrestling photo</a> of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev:</p>
<p>Former classmates <a href="" type="internal">react to the news</a>: “I cant believe i went through 4 years of high school and was friends with someone who carried out a terrorist attack,” one wrote on Facebook.</p>
<p>UPDATE 16: Friday, April 19, 11:15 a.m. EDT: Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is believed to be on foot:</p>
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<p>UPDATE 15: Friday, April 19, 11:13 a.m. EDT: CBS Boston interviewed Ruslan Tsarni, said to be the uncle of suspects in the bombings:</p>
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<p>UPDATE 14: Friday, April 19, 11:05 a.m. EDT: A spokesman for the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth stated that a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is “a registered student on campus.” The university has announced that the campus will be closed today and evacuated.</p>
<p>UPDATE 13: Friday, April 19, 10:37 a.m. EDT: A user by the name of&#160;Tamerlan Tsarnaev has <a href="" type="internal">posted a video</a> to his YouTube playlist extolling an extremist religious prophecy associated with Al Qaeda. It is not clear yet whether the user is the same Tsarnaev as the deceased bombing suspect.</p>
<p>UPDATE 12: Friday, April 19, 6:37 a.m. EDT: <a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17817173-one-boston-marathon-suspect-killed-second-suspect-his-brother-on-loose-after-firefight?lite" type="external">NBC</a> and the Associated Press report that the remaining suspect is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old resident of Cambridge. The deceased suspect, who was killed in a firefight with police this morning, is his 20 26-year old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev. According to NBC, “both men had international ties, had been in the United States about a year and had military experience.” Meanwhile, much of the Boston area has been locked down—with schools closed and authorities asking businesses not to open—and thousands of police have been called in for a manhunt involving a door-to-door search in Watertown.</p>
<p>UPDATE 11: Friday, April 19, 6:37 a.m. EDT: Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/19/177885868/shots-explosions-heard-as-boston-manhunt-continues?sc=tw&amp;cc=share" type="external">told&#160;reporters</a> Friday morning that the remaining suspect was someone the police&#160;“believe this to be a terrorist,” and “a person who’s come here to kill people.”</p>
<p>UPDATE 10: Friday, April 19, 6:17 a.m. EDT: Around 5:20 a.m., doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston held a press conference announced that a patient who had been brought in at 1:20 a.m. under police guard with “multiple injuries, a combination of blast, potentially gunshot wounds.” Doctors said they were “unable to count” the number of gunshot wounds the patient had. They spent 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to revive the patient, but he was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. The surgeon who treated the patient was asked whether he believed him&#160;to be the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, he responded that “You give the best care to every patient that comes to you, regardless of who it may or may not be.”</p>
<p>UPDATE 9: Friday, April 19, 5:44&#160;a.m. EDT:&#160;Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis <a href="http://twitpic.com/ckdlym" type="external">tweeted an image of what he said</a> was “the latest picture of the suspect” in the Boston Marathon bombing around 5:40 a.m. Friday morning. It appears to be an image of suspect #2. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/person-custody-watertown-mass/story?id=18994511#.UXETVitASns" type="external">Police told ABC News&#160;earlier that the image</a> was taken by a security camera during a hold-up of a 7-11 in Cambridge.</p>
<p>UPDATE 8: Friday, April 19, 4:32&#160;a.m. EDT:&#160;Boston police confirmed in a press conference Friday morning that the explosions and gunfire Friday night in Cambridge, Boston, and Watertown, Massachusetts were connected to the Boston Marathon suspects whose photos were released&#160;Thursday afternoon. The suspect pictured in the black hat is reported dead, while the suspect with the white hat is reportedly still at large. Police have established a 20-block perimeter around where they believe the suspect is.</p>
<p>The Middlesex County District Attorney’s office&#160;released the following statement:</p>
<p>Police are investigating a fatal shooting of MIT campus police officer by two men who then committed an armed&#160;carjacking&#160;in Cambridge, Middlesex Acting District Attorney&#160;MichaelPelgro, Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, and MIT Police Chief John&#160;DiFavaannounced this evening.&#160;</p>
<p>At approximately 10:20 p.m. April 18, police received reports of shots fired on the MIT campus. At 10:30 p.m., an MIT campus police officer was found shot in his vehicle in the area of Vassar and Main streets. According to authorities, the officer was found evidencing multiple gunshot wounds.&#160;</p>
<p>He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced deceased. Authorities launched an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the shooting. The investigation determined that two males were involved in this shooting.</p>
<p>A short time later, police received reports of an armed&#160;carjacking&#160;by two males in the area of Third Street in Cambridge. The victim was&#160;carjacked&#160;at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half hour. The victim was released at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. He was not injured.&#160;</p>
<p>Police immediately began a search for the vehicle and were in pursuit of the vehicle into Watertown.</p>
<p>At that time, explosive devices were reportedly thrown from car by the suspects. The suspects and police also exchanged gunfire in the area of Dexter and Laurel streets. During this pursuit, an&#160;MBTA&#160;Police officer was seriously injured and transported to the hospital.&#160; During the pursuit, one suspect was critically injured and transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased. An extensive manhunt is ongoing in the Watertown area for the second suspect, who is believed to be armed and dangerous.</p>
<p>UPDATE 7, Friday, April 19, 2:25 a.m. EDT: The FBI has just <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/news/updates-on-investigation-into-multiple-explosions-in-boston/updates-on-investigation-into-multiple-explosions-in-boston" type="external">released two more photos</a> of the suspects showing an “up close” view of their faces.</p>
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<p>UPDATE 6, Friday, April 19, 1:40 a.m. EDT: A police officer was shot and killed at MIT this evening. Another officer was wounded, a high-speed chase took place, and the local police <a href="http://tunein.com/radio/Boston-Police-Fire-and-EMS-Scanner-s146109/" type="external">scanner reports</a>&#160;automatic weapons fire and grenades. One suspect has been taken into custody, the other is at large. It is not known whether&#160;this event is related to the Boston marathon bombings. <a href="" type="internal">We have more details on&#160;this incident in a separate post</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE 5, Friday, April 19, 12:40 a.m. EDT: A photo that first got broad attention on Reddit, and whose authenticity was debated by journalists on Twitter for hours, appears to be legitimate. It shows a new, high-resolution shot of suspect #2 (white hat, far left). The New York Times reports: “Shortly after finishing the Boston Marathon this week David Green, 49, was walking to meet friends when two bombs exploded in front of him as he faced east on the corner of Fairfield and Boylston Streets. He <a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/suspect-number-2.JPG" type="external">snapped a photograph</a> with his iPhone before rushing to help those wounded. It was time-stamped at 2:50:15 p.m.”</p>
<p />
<p>The debate over the photo’s veracity ended when it was established he posted it on Facebook on Monday, long&#160;before the FBI released its cache of photos and videos. See a very large file of the photo <a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/suspect-number-2.JPG" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE 4, Thursday, April 18, 10:30 p.m. EDT: Bloomberg has a major scoop: Jeff Bauman, the young runner who lost both his legs in the explosion and whose iconic photo has come to symbolize the tragedy, woke up in the hospital and helped ID the suspects.</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>UPDATE 3, Thursday, April 18, 10:20 p.m. EDT:&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/boston-blasts/index.html" type="external">CNN reports</a> that “other footage, still unreleased, shows that the two suspects stayed at the scene to watch the carnage unfold, a federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation…’When the bombs blow up, when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground, the two suspects walk away pretty casually,’ said the official, who has seen the unreleased video. ‘They acted differently than everyone else,’ he added.”</p>
<p>UPDATE 2, Thursday, April 18, 10:15 p.m. EDT: Journalists, Redditors, and citizens across the country are sharing and in some cases claiming to add to the photos the FBI has released:</p>
<p />
<p>UPDATE, Thursday, April 18, 5:45 p.m. EDT: One of the suspects’ hats may be this Bridgestone Golf hat:</p>
<p>ORIGINAL POST: The FBI has released images of two “persons of interest.” “No one should approach them…Do not take action on your own,” they said during the press briefing. Here is the FBI’s YouTube clip of the two individuals; each had a backpack:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The bureau <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/news/updates-on-investigation-into-multiple-explosions-in-boston/updates-on-investigation-into-multiple-explosions-in-boston" type="external">posted</a> the photos online:</p>
<p /> | Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Charged With Using WMD | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-photos-video/ | 2013-04-18 | 4left
| 2,503 | We have capped this explainer Major developments will be covered on our main political blog UPDATE 36 Monday April 22 159 pm EDT Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against people and property resulting in death UPDATE 35 Monday April 22 126 pm EDT Multiple sources are reporting that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arraigned at his hospital bed and that the complaint against him was sealed UPDATE 34 Saturday April 20 101 pm EDT Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in a heavily guarded hospital room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center As press attention turns to deciphering the bombers8217 motives and the coming trial Josh Gerstein of Politico has written a piece explaining some legal issues surrounding the case including the pretrial interrogation rules facing federal prosecutors and whether Tsarnaev may face the death penalty Slate8216s Emily Bazelon explains the history and law behind the 8220public safety exemption8221 to the Miranda rules under which Tsarnaev is being questioned UPDATE 33 Friday April 19 1112 pm EDT BarstoolSportscom has posted dramatic amateur video of a pitched fire fight said to be a recording of police closing in on Tsarnaev8217s boat hiding place on Friday evening And a photo has surfaced that appears to show law enforcement officials administering medical care to the suspect shortly after his arrest UPDATE 32 Friday April 19 1034 pm EDT Tsarnaev was not given a Miranda warning because of the 8220publicsafety exemption in cases of national security and potential charges involving acts of terrorism8221 United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz said But the Obama administration is emphatic about giving Tsarnaev a civilian trial according to NBC correspondent Pete Williams UPDATE 31 Friday April 19 1014 pm EDT Following a press conference held by Mass Governor Deval Patrick and law enforcement President Obama delivered a statement addressing the capture of Tsarnaev the tragedy in Boston and also the explosion at the West Texas fertilizer plant on Wednesday 8220All in all this has been a tough week but we have seen the character of our country8221 Obama said Here8217s the video and a link to the full statement UPDATE 30 Friday April 19 1000 pm EDT According to the Boston Police Department Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in serious condition He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital UPDATE 29 Friday April 19 942 pm EDT The FBI wanted poster for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been updated with 8220 Captured8220 UPDATE 28 Friday April 19 845 pm EDT Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been taken into custody He was found hiding in a boat resting on a trailer in a Watertown backyard UPDATE 27 Friday April 19 715 pm EDT Moments after law enforcement officials lifted the city8217s lockdown an exchange of gunfire was heard in Watertown The Boston Globe and local television are now reporting that police have cornered a suspect UPDATE 26 Friday April 19 209 pm EDT Here is the FBI wanted poster for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suspect in the Boston Marathon attack UPDATE 25 Friday April 19 108 pm EDT At noon on Friday Council on American8211Islamic Relations CAIR held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC with five other Muslim community leaders While they emphasized that the suspects8217 motive are not yet known CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad said in a prepared statement that 8220as God tells us in the Quran if you murder one person it is as if you murdered all of humanity8221 He stressed that 8220we8217re very angry8221 and another participant stated that 8220unfortunately every faith in it has heretical elements8230but nobody can separate us from being Americans8221 When asked by Mother Jones about the Al Qaeda prophecy video posted by a YouTube user by the name of deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev a CAIR spokesman responded 8220I mean it8217s Al Qaedainspired stuff man It8217s a lot of crazy on the internet8221 The group also thanked 8220the media for not jumping to any conclusions8221 This is debatable UPDATE 24 Friday April 19 1245 pm EDT Massachusetts Gov Deval Patrick just held a press conference in which he urged Bostonians to stay in their homes and warned that the crime scene may go through the weekend UPDATE 23 Friday April 19 1215 pm EDT BuzzFeed is reporting that this is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev8217s Twitter account Here are some highlights update Mother Jones has a story on what these Tweets tell us about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev The Tweets include statements about Islam observations on pop culture and trashtalk about women UPDATE 22 Friday April 19 1215 pm EDT The suspects8217 uncle Ruslan Tsarni pleads for his nephew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who is still on the loose to turn himself in From NBC Visit NBCNewscom for breaking news world news and news about the economy UPDATE 21 Friday April 19 1210 pm EDT CBS reports that the suspects8217 uncle said that the older brotheramp160Tamerlan Tsarnaev was 8220a loser8221 Watch UPDATE 20 Friday April 19 1200 pm EDTamp160 BuzzFeed reports that the Chechenamp160president Ramzan Kadyrov has released a statement on the bombings blaming the suspects8217 Americanamp160upbringing Tragic events have taken place in Boston A terrorist attack killed people We have already expressed our condolences to the people of the city and to the American people Today the media reports one Tsarnaev was killed as police tried to arrest him It would be appropriate if he was detained and investigated and the circumstances and the extent of his guilt determined Apparently the security services needed to calm down the society by any means necessary Any attempt to draw a connection between Chechnya and Tsarnaevs 8212 if they are guilty 8212 is futile They were raised in the United States and their attitudes and beliefs were formed there It is necessary to seek the roots of this evil in America The whole world must struggle against terrorism 8212 that we know better than anyone else We hope for the recovery of all the victims and we mourn with the Americans Also the president of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center released a statement about the patient who died here this morning Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center received an unknown male patient with significant injuries at 120 this morning After he arrived he suffered a trauma arrest and expired at 135 am We have no information on the identity of the patient and cannot speculate on whether he has any connection to any criminal activity Nor are we prepared to speak to the exact nature of his injuries Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is open for business But we will be restricting access to some entrances to ensure the safety of our patients staff and visitors UPDATE 19 Friday April 19 1150 am EDTamp160The Boston Police Department is reporting that the vehicle associated with the armedamp160carjackingamp160by the two suspects inamp160Cambridgeamp160has been located UPDATE 18 Friday April 19 1133 am EDT A former schoolmate of Boston bombing suspect speaks out Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still at large UPDATE 17 Friday April 19 1119 am EDT Mother Jones has posted a wrestling photo of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Former classmates react to the news 8220I cant believe i went through 4 years of high school and was friends with someone who carried out a terrorist attack8221 one wrote on Facebook UPDATE 16 Friday April 19 1115 am EDT Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is believed to be on foot UPDATE 15 Friday April 19 1113 am EDT CBS Boston interviewed Ruslan Tsarni said to be the uncle of suspects in the bombings UPDATE 14 Friday April 19 1105 am EDT A spokesman for the University of MassachusettsDartmouth stated that a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is 8220a registered student on campus8221 The university has announced that the campus will be closed today and evacuated UPDATE 13 Friday April 19 1037 am EDT A user by the name ofamp160Tamerlan Tsarnaev has posted a video to his YouTube playlist extolling an extremist religious prophecy associated with Al Qaeda It is not clear yet whether the user is the same Tsarnaev as the deceased bombing suspect UPDATE 12 Friday April 19 637 am EDT NBC and the Associated Press report that the remaining suspect is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a 19yearold resident of Cambridge The deceased suspect who was killed in a firefight with police this morning is his 20 26year old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev According to NBC 8220both men had international ties had been in the United States about a year and had military experience8221 Meanwhile much of the Boston area has been locked down8212with schools closed and authorities asking businesses not to open8212and thousands of police have been called in for a manhunt involving a doortodoor search in Watertown UPDATE 11 Friday April 19 637 am EDT Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis toldamp160reporters Friday morning that the remaining suspect was someone the policeamp1608220believe this to be a terrorist8221 and 8220a person who8217s come here to kill people8221 UPDATE 10 Friday April 19 617 am EDT Around 520 am doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston held a press conference announced that a patient who had been brought in at 120 am under police guard with 8220multiple injuries a combination of blast potentially gunshot wounds8221 Doctors said they were 8220unable to count8221 the number of gunshot wounds the patient had They spent 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to revive the patient but he was pronounced dead at 135 am The surgeon who treated the patient was asked whether he believed himamp160to be the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing he responded that 8220You give the best care to every patient that comes to you regardless of who it may or may not be8221 UPDATE 9 Friday April 19 544amp160am EDTamp160Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis tweeted an image of what he said was 8220the latest picture of the suspect8221 in the Boston Marathon bombing around 540 am Friday morning It appears to be an image of suspect 2 Police told ABC Newsamp160earlier that the image was taken by a security camera during a holdup of a 711 in Cambridge UPDATE 8 Friday April 19 432amp160am EDTamp160Boston police confirmed in a press conference Friday morning that the explosions and gunfire Friday night in Cambridge Boston and Watertown Massachusetts were connected to the Boston Marathon suspects whose photos were releasedamp160Thursday afternoon The suspect pictured in the black hat is reported dead while the suspect with the white hat is reportedly still at large Police have established a 20block perimeter around where they believe the suspect is The Middlesex County District Attorney8217s officeamp160released the following statement Police are investigating a fatal shooting of MIT campus police officer by two men who then committed an armedamp160carjackingamp160in Cambridge Middlesex Acting District Attorneyamp160MichaelPelgro Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas and MIT Police Chief Johnamp160DiFavaannounced this eveningamp160 At approximately 1020 pm April 18 police received reports of shots fired on the MIT campus At 1030 pm an MIT campus police officer was found shot in his vehicle in the area of Vassar and Main streets According to authorities the officer was found evidencing multiple gunshot woundsamp160 He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced deceased Authorities launched an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the shooting The investigation determined that two males were involved in this shooting A short time later police received reports of an armedamp160carjackingamp160by two males in the area of Third Street in Cambridge The victim wasamp160carjackedamp160at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half hour The victim was released at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge He was not injuredamp160 Police immediately began a search for the vehicle and were in pursuit of the vehicle into Watertown At that time explosive devices were reportedly thrown from car by the suspects The suspects and police also exchanged gunfire in the area of Dexter and Laurel streets During this pursuit anamp160MBTAamp160Police officer was seriously injured and transported to the hospitalamp160 During the pursuit one suspect was critically injured and transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased An extensive manhunt is ongoing in the Watertown area for the second suspect who is believed to be armed and dangerous UPDATE 7 Friday April 19 225 am EDT The FBI has just released two more photos of the suspects showing an 8220up close8221 view of their faces amp160 amp160 amp160 UPDATE 6 Friday April 19 140 am EDT A police officer was shot and killed at MIT this evening Another officer was wounded a highspeed chase took place and the local police scanner reportsamp160automatic weapons fire and grenades One suspect has been taken into custody the other is at large It is not known whetheramp160this event is related to the Boston marathon bombings We have more details onamp160this incident in a separate post UPDATE 5 Friday April 19 1240 am EDT A photo that first got broad attention on Reddit and whose authenticity was debated by journalists on Twitter for hours appears to be legitimate It shows a new highresolution shot of suspect 2 white hat far left The New York Times reports 8220Shortly after finishing the Boston Marathon this week David Green 49 was walking to meet friends when two bombs exploded in front of him as he faced east on the corner of Fairfield and Boylston Streets He snapped a photograph with his iPhone before rushing to help those wounded It was timestamped at 25015 pm8221 The debate over the photo8217s veracity ended when it was established he posted it on Facebook on Monday longamp160before the FBI released its cache of photos and videos See a very large file of the photo here UPDATE 4 Thursday April 18 1030 pm EDT Bloomberg has a major scoop Jeff Bauman the young runner who lost both his legs in the explosion and whose iconic photo has come to symbolize the tragedy woke up in the hospital and helped ID the suspects amp160 UPDATE 3 Thursday April 18 1020 pm EDTamp160 CNN reports that 8220other footage still unreleased shows that the two suspects stayed at the scene to watch the carnage unfold a federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation82308217When the bombs blow up when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground the two suspects walk away pretty casually8217 said the official who has seen the unreleased video 8216They acted differently than everyone else8217 he added8221 UPDATE 2 Thursday April 18 1015 pm EDT Journalists Redditors and citizens across the country are sharing and in some cases claiming to add to the photos the FBI has released UPDATE Thursday April 18 545 pm EDT One of the suspects8217 hats may be this Bridgestone Golf hat ORIGINAL POST The FBI has released images of two 8220persons of interest8221 8220No one should approach them8230Do not take action on your own8221 they said during the press briefing Here is the FBI8217s YouTube clip of the two individuals each had a backpack The bureau posted the photos online | We/PRON have/AUX capped/VERB this/DET explainer/NOUN Major/ADJ developments/NOUN will/AUX be/AUX covered/VERB on/ADP our/PRON main/ADJ political/ADJ blog/NOUN UPDATE/NOUN 36/NUM Monday/PROPN April/PROPN 22/NUM 159/NUM pm/NOUN EDT/PROPN Dzhokhar/PROPN Tsarnaev/PROPN is/AUX charged/VERB with/ADP conspiring/VERB to/PART use/VERB a/DET weapon/NOUN of/ADP mass/ADJ destruction/NOUN against/ADP people/NOUN and/CCONJ property/NOUN resulting/VERB in/ADP death/NOUN UPDATE/PROPN 35/NUM Monday/PROPN April/PROPN 22/NUM 126/NUM pm/NOUN EDT/PROPN Multiple/ADJ sources/NOUN are/AUX reporting/VERB that/SCONJ Boston/PROPN Marathon/PROPN bombing/NOUN suspect/VERB Dzhokhar/PROPN Tsarnaev/PROPN was/AUX 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<p>By William J. Astore, TomDispatchThis piece first appeared at TomDispatch. Read Tom Engelhardt’s introduction <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176037/tomgram%3A_william_astore%2C_time_to_hold_military_boots_to_the_fire/#more" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/nyregion/25west.html" type="external">Thomas Jefferson Hall</a>, West Point’s library and learning center, prominently features two quotations for cadets to mull over. In the first, Jefferson&#160; <a href="http://www.poplarforest.org/Democracy-Lafayette/washingtonletter.htm" type="external">writes</a>&#160;George Washington in 1788: “The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace.” In the second, Jefferson&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/19/why-neoconservatives-should-love-west-point-even-more-than-they-do-now/" type="external">writes</a>&#160;Thomas Leiper in 1815: “I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will be.”</p>
<p>Two centuries ago, Jefferson’s points were plain and clear, and they remain so today: while this country desired peace, it had to be prepared to wage war; and yet the more it avoided resorting to raw military power, the more it would prosper.</p>
<p>Have America’s military officers and politicians learned these lessons? Obviously not. In the twenty-first century, the U.S. unquestionably ranks number one on this planet in its preparations for waging war — we got that message loud and clear — but we’re also number one in using that power aggressively around the globe, weakening our nation in the process, just as Jefferson warned.</p>
<p />
<p>Of course, the world today is a more complex and crowded place than in Jefferson’s time and this country, long a regional, even an isolationist power, is now an imperial and global superpower that quite literally <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176033/best_of_tomdispatch%3A_chalmers_johnson_on_garrisoning_the_planet/" type="external">garrisons</a> the planet.&#160; That said, Jefferson’s lessons should still be salutary ones, especially when you consider that the U.S. military has not had a convincing victory in a major “hot” war since 1945.</p>
<p>There are undoubtedly many reasons for this, but I want to focus on two: what cadets at America’s military academies really learn and the self-serving behavior of America’s most senior military officers, many of whom are academy graduates. Familiar as they may be with those words of Jefferson, they have consistently ignored or misapplied them, facilitating our current state of endless war and national decline.&#160; &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>America’s Military Academies: High Ideals, Cynical Graduates</p>
<p>America’s military academies are supposed to educate and inspire leaders of strong character and impeccable integrity.&#160; They’re supposed to be showcases for America’s youth, shining symbols of national service.&#160; Ultimately, they’re supposed to forge strong military leaders who will win America’s wars (assuming those wars can’t be avoided, as Jefferson might have added).&#160; So how’s their main mission going?&#160;</p>
<p>I taught at the Air Force Academy for six years, and I’ve talked to former cadets as well as fellow officers who taught at Arm’s West Point and the Navy’s Annapolis.&#160; Here are a few reflections on the <a href="http://contraryperspective.com/2014/12/19/more-thoughts-on-americas-military-academies/" type="external">flaws</a> of these institutions:</p>
<p>1. In reality, the unstated primary mission of the three military academies is to turn raw cadets into career officers dedicated and devoted to their particular branch of service.&#160; On the other hand, service to the American people is, at best, an abstract concept.&#160; More afterthought than thought, it is certainly mentioned but hardly a value consistently instilled.</p>
<p>Careerism and parochialism are hardly unique to military academies.&#160; Still, as one former cadet wrote me, it’s surprising to encounter them so openly in institutions dedicated to “service before self.”&#160; More than a few of his peers, he added, were motivated primarily by a desire for “a stable, well-paying career.”&#160; While a perfectly respectable personal goal, to be sure, it’s a less than desirable one at academies theoretically dedicated to selfless, even sacrificial service.</p>
<p>2. The academic curriculum is structured to prepare cadets for the technical demands of their first jobs, meaning that it’s heavily <a href="http://contraryperspective.com/2014/12/17/americas-military-academies-are-seriously-flawed/" type="external">weighted toward STEM</a> (science/technology/engineering/math).&#160; Despite the presence of a Cadet Honor Code, the humanities and questions of ethics play too small a role in the intellectual and moral development of the students.</p>
<p>3. Cadets quickly learn that excelling within the system is the surest path to coveted opportunities — increasingly scarce pilot slots, Special Ops schools, or the like — after graduation.&#160; Educationally speaking, they are driven by the idea of advancement within the conformist norms defined by their particular academy and branch of service.&#160; A system that rewards energetic displays of conformity also tends to generate mediocrity as well as cynicism.&#160; As one former cadet put it to me, “There is something deeper and more perverse here as well: The ‘golden boys’ [in the eyes of Academy officialdom] got the coveted slots but were generally hated by their cynical peers.&#160; Cynicism seems to define the Academy experience.”</p>
<p>A former colleague of mine had this comment: “The [military] academies don’t make great people and they don’t always make good people better. &#160;I have seen them turn off a few really good people, however.”</p>
<p>4. Because the academies are considered prestige institutions as well as symbols of rectitude and their reputations are always at stake, few risks are taken.&#160; Misconduct, when it occurs, is frequently hushed up “for the good of the Academy.”&#160; Scandals involving&#160; <a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/07/12107246-78-air-force-academy-cadets-accused-of-cheating-on-math-test?lite" type="external">cheating</a>, <a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16039249-reported-sex-assaults-leap-23-percent-at-us-military-academies?lite" type="external">sexual assaults</a>, and <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/03/airforce.religion/" type="external">religious discrimination</a> have often been made worse by not being dealt with openly and honestly.&#160; Cadets know this, which is another reason many emerge from their education as cynics when it comes to the high ideals the academies are supposed to instill.</p>
<p>5. As schools, they are remarkably insular, insider outfits often run by academy graduates whose goals tend to be narrow and sometimes even bizarrely parochial.&#160; For example, I knew of one superintendent (a three-star general) at the Air Force Academy whose number one goal was a winning football program.&#160; In that sense, he certainly reflected American society: think of the civilian college presidents who desire just that for their institutions.&#160; But military academies are supposed to be about creating leaders, not winning football trophies — and the two bear remarkably little relationship to each other no matter how many times the Duke of Wellington is <a href="http://oupacademic.tumblr.com/post/57740288322/misquotation-the-battle-of-waterloo-was-won-on" type="external">(mis)quoted</a> about the Battle of Waterloo being won on the playing fields of Eton.</p>
<p>6. Finally, there’s a strong emphasis at all the academies on simply keeping cadets busy.&#160; To the point where — especially in their first year — they’re often sleep-deprived and staggering into class.&#160; Theoretically, this is meant to be a test both of their commitment to military life and their ability to handle pressure.&#160; Whether they learn anything meaningful while dazed or sleeping in class is not discussed.&#160; Whether this is a smart way to develop creative and strong-minded leaders is also not up for consideration.</p>
<p>As one former cadet put it: busywork and demanding rituals that sometime cross the line and become <a href="http://gazette.com/article/146671" type="external">hazing</a> are embraced in military education as a “rite of passage.” &#160;The idea “that we [cadets] suffered through something and prevailed is an immensely powerful psychological ‘badge’ which leads to pride (or arrogance) and confidence (or hubris).”</p>
<p>Add up the indoctrination and the training, the busywork in classrooms and the desire to excel in big-time collegiate sports, and what you tend to graduate is a certain number of hyper-motivated true believers and a mass of go-along cynics — young men and women who have learned to subsume their doubts and misgivings, even as they trim their sails in the direction of the prevailing winds.</p>
<p>While the cadets are encouraged to over-identify with their particular academy and service branch, they’re also encouraged to self-identify as “ <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-astore/our-militarys-disturbing_b_664543.html" type="external">warriors</a>,” as, that is, an elite apart from and superior to the civilians they’re supposed to serve.&#160; That this country was founded on civilian control of the military may be given lip service, but in the age of the ascendant national security state, the deeper sentiments embedded in an academy education are ever more distant from a populace that plays <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175314" type="external">next to no part</a> in America’s wars.</p>
<p>That the classic civilian-military nexus, which was supposed to serve and promote democracy, has turned out to have a few glitches in our time should surprise no one.&#160; After all, President Dwight Eisenhower <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-astore/dwight-eisenhower-memorial_b_1270232.html" type="external">warned us</a> about what was coming back in 1961.&#160; As Ike noticed, the way it was working — the way it still works today — is that senior officers in the military too often become tools of the armaments industry (his “military-industrial complex”) even as they identify far too closely with the parochial interests of their particular service branch.&#160; Add to this the distinctly twenty-first-century emphasis on being <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174957" type="external">warriors</a>, not citizen-soldiers, and you have the definition of a system of self-perpetuating and self-serving <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175404/" type="external">militarism</a> rather than military service.</p>
<p>To the extent that the military academies not only fail to curb this behavior but essentially encourage it, they are failing our democracy.&#160;</p>
<p>America’s Senior Officers: Lots of Ribbon Candy, No Sweetness of Victory</p>
<p>In my <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174845" type="external">first article</a> for TomDispatch back in 2007, I wrote about America’s senior military leaders, men like the celebrated David Petraeus. No matter how impressive, even <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/king-davids-war-20110202" type="external">kingly</a>, they looked in their uniforms <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/09/12/washington/20070912_PETRAEUS_GRAPHIC.html" type="external">festooned</a> with ribbons, badges, and medals of all sorts, colors, and sizes, their performance on the battlefield didn’t exactly bring to mind rainstorms of ribbon candy. So why, I wondered then, and wonder still, are America’s senior military officers so generally lauded and applauded? What have they done to deserve those chests full of honors and the endless praise in Washington and elsewhere in this country?</p>
<p>By giving our commanders so many pats on the back (and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175912/tomgram%3A_rory_fanning,_why_do_we_keep_thanking_the_troops/" type="external">thanking the troops</a> so effusively and repeatedly), it’s possible that we’ve prevented the development of an American-style <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174859" type="external">stab-in-the-back</a> theory — that hoary yet dangerous myth that a military only loses wars when the troops are betrayed by the homefront. In the process, however, we’ve written them what is essentially a blank check. We’ve given them authority without accountability. They wage “our” wars ( <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175854/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_a_record_of_unparalleled_failure/" type="external">remarkably unsuccessfully</a>), but never have to take the blame for defeats. &#160;Unlike President Harry Truman, famous for keeping a sign on his desk that read “ <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/10/buck-stops-here-clinton-obama-truman.html" type="external">the buck stops here</a>,” the buck <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/11/general-failure/309148/" type="external">never stops with them</a>.</p>
<p>Think about two of America’s most celebrated generals of the twenty-first century, Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal and how they fell publicly from grace.&#160; Both were West Point grads, both were celebrated as “heroes,” despite the fact that their military “surges” in Iraq and Afghanistan proved fragile and reversible.&#160; They fell only because Petraeus was caught with his pants down (in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeus_scandal" type="external">an extramarital affair</a> with a fawning biographer), while McChrystal ran afoul of the president by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-astore/mcchrystal-must-go_b_621691.html" type="external">tolerating</a> an atmosphere that <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622" type="external">undermined</a> his civilian chain of command.</p>
<p>And here, perhaps, is the strangest thing of all: even as America’s wars continue to go poorly by any reasonable measure, no prominent high-ranking officer has yet stepped forward either to take responsibility or in protest.&#160; You have to look to the lower ranks, to <a href="http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/a-failure-in-generalship/" type="external">lieutenant colonels</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16686541" type="external">captains</a> and <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military-july-dec04-armor_12-9/" type="external">specialists</a> (and, in the case of Chelsea Manning, to lowly <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bradley-manning-sentenced-35-years-leaking-secrets/story?id=20021288" type="external">privates</a>), for straight talk and the courage to buck the system.&#160; Name one prominent general or admiral, fed up with the lamentable results of America’s wars, who has either taken responsibility for them or resigned for cause.&#160; Yup — I can’t either.&#160; (This is not to suggest that the military lacks senior officers of integrity.&#160; Recall the way General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki" type="external">Eric Shinseki</a> broke ranks with the Bush administration in testimony before Congress about the size of a post-invasion force needed to secure Iraq, or General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Taguba" type="external">Antonio Taguba</a>’s integrity in overseeing a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/06/25/the-generals-report" type="external">thorough investigation</a> of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.&#160; Their good deeds did not go unpunished.)</p>
<p>Authority without accountability means no one is responsible.&#160; And if no one is responsible, the system can keep chugging along, course largely unaltered, no matter what happens.&#160; This is exactly what it’s been doing for years now in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Can we connect this behavior to the faults of the service academies?&#160; Careerism.&#160; Parochialism.&#160; Technocratic tendencies.&#160; Elitism.&#160; A focus on image rather than on substance.&#160; Lots of busywork and far too much praise for our <a href="http://contraryperspective.com/2013/09/18/americas-ascetic-warrior-generals/" type="external">ascetic warrior-heroes</a>, results be damned.&#160; A tendency to close ranks rather than take responsibility.&#160; Buck-passing, not bucking the system.&#160; The urge to get those golden slots on graduation and the desire for <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/11/21/11839/generals-no-longer-retire-vermont-they-lobby-contractors-washington" type="external">golden parachutes</a> into a lucrative world of <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/12/26/defense_firms_lure_retired_generals/" type="external">corporate boards</a> and consultancies after “retirement,” not to speak of those <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html" type="external">glowing appearances</a> as <a href="http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&amp;backgroundid=00310" type="external">military experts</a> on major TV and cable networks.</p>
<p>By <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/10/29/163185980/should-the-generals-get-fired-more-often" type="external">failing to hold</a> military boots to the fire, we’ve largely avoided unpleasantness between the military and its civilian leadership, not to speak of the American public. But — and here’s the rub — 70 years of mediocrity since World War II and 14 years of failure since 9/11 should have resulted in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176034/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_what_it_means_when_you_kill_people_on_the_other_side_of_the_planet_and_no_one_notices/" type="external">anti-war protests</a>, Congressional hearings, and public controversy. It should have created public discord, as it did during the Vietnam War, when dissent was a sign of a healthy democracy and an engaged citizenry. Nowadays, in place of protest, we hear the praise, the applause, the thank-yous followed by yet another bombastic rendition of “God Bless America.” Let’s face it. Our military has failed us, but haven’t we failed it, too?&#160;</p>
<p>Listening Again to Jefferson</p>
<p>America’s military academies are supposed to be educating and developing leaders of character.&#160; If they’re not doing that, why have them?&#160; America’s senior military leaders are supposed to be winning wars, not losing them. (Please feel free to name one recent victory by the U.S. military that hasn’t been of the Pyrrhic variety.)&#160; So why do we idolize them?&#160; And why do we fail to hold them accountable?</p>
<p>These are more than rhetorical questions.&#160; They cut to the heart of an American culture that celebrates its military cadets as its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/19/why-neoconservatives-should-love-west-point-even-more-than-they-do-now/" type="external">finest young citizens</a>, a culture that lauds its generals even as they <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/11/general-failure/309148/" type="external">fail to accept responsibility</a> for wars that end not in victory but — well, come to think of it, they just never end.</p>
<p>The way forward: I don’t have to point the way because Thomas Jefferson already did.&#160; Just read his quotations in the West Point library: we need to become a peace-loving nation again; we need to act as if war were our last resort, not our first impulse; we need to recognize that war is corrosive to democracy and that the more military power is exercised the weaker we grow as a democratic society.&#160;</p>
<p>Jefferson’s wisdom, enshrined at West Point, shouldn’t be entombed there.&#160; We need a new generation of cadets — and a few renegade generals of my generation as well — who want to serve us by not going to war, who know that a military is a burden to democracy even when victorious, and especially when it’s not.&#160; Otherwise, we’re in trouble in ways we haven’t yet begun to imagine.</p>
<p>William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), is a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175998/tomgram%3A_william_astore,_america%27s_mutant_military/" type="external">TomDispatch regular</a>.&#160; The co-author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hindenburg-German-Militarism-Military-Profiles/dp/1574886533" type="external">Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism</a>, he writes for and edits the blog <a href="http://contraryperspective.com/" type="external">The Contrary Perspective</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Nick Turse’s&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608464636/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa</a>, and Tom Engelhardt’s latest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2015 William J. Astore</p> | The Shared Failings of America’s Military Academies and Senior Officers | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-shared-failings-of-americas-military-academies-and-senior-officers/ | 2015-08-19 | 4left
| 2,504 | By William J Astore TomDispatchThis piece first appeared at TomDispatch Read Tom Engelhardt8217s introduction here Thomas Jefferson Hall West Point8217s library and learning center prominently features two quotations for cadets to mull over In the first Jeffersonamp160 writesamp160George Washington in 1788 8220The power of making war often prevents it and in our case would give efficacy to our desire of peace8221 In the second Jeffersonamp160 writesamp160Thomas Leiper in 1815 8220I hope our wisdom will grow with our power and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be8221 Two centuries ago Jefferson8217s points were plain and clear and they remain so today while this country desired peace it had to be prepared to wage war and yet the more it avoided resorting to raw military power the more it would prosper Have America8217s military officers and politicians learned these lessons Obviously not In the twentyfirst century the US unquestionably ranks number one on this planet in its preparations for waging war 8212 we got that message loud and clear 8212 but we8217re also number one in using that power aggressively around the globe weakening our nation in the process just as Jefferson warned Of course the world today is a more complex and crowded place than in Jefferson8217s time and this country long a regional even an isolationist power is now an imperial and global superpower that quite literally garrisons the planetamp160 That said Jefferson8217s lessons should still be salutary ones especially when you consider that the US military has not had a convincing victory in a major 8220hot8221 war since 1945 There are undoubtedly many reasons for this but I want to focus on two what cadets at America8217s military academies really learn and the selfserving behavior of America8217s most senior military officers many of whom are academy graduates Familiar as they may be with those words of Jefferson they have consistently ignored or misapplied them facilitating our current state of endless war and national declineamp160 amp160amp160 America8217s Military Academies High Ideals Cynical Graduates America8217s military academies are supposed to educate and inspire leaders of strong character and impeccable integrityamp160 They8217re supposed to be showcases for America8217s youth shining symbols of national serviceamp160 Ultimately they8217re supposed to forge strong military leaders who will win America8217s wars assuming those wars can8217t be avoided as Jefferson might have addedamp160 So how8217s their main mission goingamp160 I taught at the Air Force Academy for six years and I8217ve talked to former cadets as well as fellow officers who taught at Arm8217s West Point and the Navy8217s Annapolisamp160 Here are a few reflections on the flaws of these institutions 1 In reality the unstated primary mission of the three military academies is to turn raw cadets into career officers dedicated and devoted to their particular branch of serviceamp160 On the other hand service to the American people is at best an abstract conceptamp160 More afterthought than thought it is certainly mentioned but hardly a value consistently instilled Careerism and parochialism are hardly unique to military academiesamp160 Still as one former cadet wrote me it8217s surprising to encounter them so openly in institutions dedicated to 8220service before self8221amp160 More than a few of his peers he added were motivated primarily by a desire for 8220a stable wellpaying career8221amp160 While a perfectly respectable personal goal to be sure it8217s a less than desirable one at academies theoretically dedicated to selfless even sacrificial service 2 The academic curriculum is structured to prepare cadets for the technical demands of their first jobs meaning that it8217s heavily weighted toward STEM sciencetechnologyengineeringmathamp160 Despite the presence of a Cadet Honor Code the humanities and questions of ethics play too small a role in the intellectual and moral development of the students 3 Cadets quickly learn that excelling within the system is the surest path to coveted opportunities 8212 increasingly scarce pilot slots Special Ops schools or the like 8212 after graduationamp160 Educationally speaking they are driven by the idea of advancement within the conformist norms defined by their particular academy and branch of serviceamp160 A system that rewards energetic displays of conformity also tends to generate mediocrity as well as cynicismamp160 As one former cadet put it to me 8220There is something deeper and more perverse here as well The 8216golden boys8217 in the eyes of Academy officialdom got the coveted slots but were generally hated by their cynical peersamp160 Cynicism seems to define the Academy experience8221 A former colleague of mine had this comment 8220The military academies don8217t make great people and they don8217t always make good people better amp160I have seen them turn off a few really good people however8221 4 Because the academies are considered prestige institutions as well as symbols of rectitude and their reputations are always at stake few risks are takenamp160 Misconduct when it occurs is frequently hushed up 8220for the good of the Academy8221amp160 Scandals involvingamp160 cheating sexual assaults and religious discrimination have often been made worse by not being dealt with openly and honestlyamp160 Cadets know this which is another reason many emerge from their education as cynics when it comes to the high ideals the academies are supposed to instill 5 As schools they are remarkably insular insider outfits often run by academy graduates whose goals tend to be narrow and sometimes even bizarrely parochialamp160 For example I knew of one superintendent a threestar general at the Air Force Academy whose number one goal was a winning football programamp160 In that sense he certainly reflected American society think of the civilian college presidents who desire just that for their institutionsamp160 But military academies are supposed to be about creating leaders not winning football trophies 8212 and the two bear remarkably little relationship to each other no matter how many times the Duke of Wellington is misquoted about the Battle of Waterloo being won on the playing fields of Eton 6 Finally there8217s a strong emphasis at all the academies on simply keeping cadets busyamp160 To the point where 8212 especially in their first year 8212 they8217re often sleepdeprived and staggering into classamp160 Theoretically this is meant to be a test both of their commitment to military life and their ability to handle pressureamp160 Whether they learn anything meaningful while dazed or sleeping in class is not discussedamp160 Whether this is a smart way to develop creative and strongminded leaders is also not up for consideration As one former cadet put it busywork and demanding rituals that sometime cross the line and become hazing are embraced in military education as a 8220rite of passage8221 amp160The idea 8220that we cadets suffered through something and prevailed is an immensely powerful psychological 8216badge8217 which leads to pride or arrogance and confidence or hubris8221 Add up the indoctrination and the training the busywork in classrooms and the desire to excel in bigtime collegiate sports and what you tend to graduate is a certain number of hypermotivated true believers and a mass of goalong cynics 8212 young men and women who have learned to subsume their doubts and misgivings even as they trim their sails in the direction of the prevailing winds While the cadets are encouraged to overidentify with their particular academy and service branch they8217re also encouraged to selfidentify as 8220 warriors8221 as that is an elite apart from and superior to the civilians they8217re supposed to serveamp160 That this country was founded on civilian control of the military may be given lip service but in the age of the ascendant national security state the deeper sentiments embedded in an academy education are ever more distant from a populace that plays next to no part in America8217s wars That the classic civilianmilitary nexus which was supposed to serve and promote democracy has turned out to have a few glitches in our time should surprise no oneamp160 After all President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about what was coming back in 1961amp160 As Ike noticed the way it was working 8212 the way it still works today 8212 is that senior officers in the military too often become tools of the armaments industry his 8220militaryindustrial complex8221 even as they identify far too closely with the parochial interests of their particular service branchamp160 Add to this the distinctly twentyfirstcentury emphasis on being warriors not citizensoldiers and you have the definition of a system of selfperpetuating and selfserving militarism rather than military service To the extent that the military academies not only fail to curb this behavior but essentially encourage it they are failing our democracyamp160 America8217s Senior Officers Lots of Ribbon Candy No Sweetness of Victory In my first article for TomDispatch back in 2007 I wrote about America8217s senior military leaders men like the celebrated David Petraeus No matter how impressive even kingly they looked in their uniforms festooned with ribbons badges and medals of all sorts colors and sizes their performance on the battlefield didn8217t exactly bring to mind rainstorms of ribbon candy So why I wondered then and wonder still are America8217s senior military officers so generally lauded and applauded What have they done to deserve those chests full of honors and the endless praise in Washington and elsewhere in this country By giving our commanders so many pats on the back and thanking the troops so effusively and repeatedly it8217s possible that we8217ve prevented the development of an Americanstyle stabintheback theory 8212 that hoary yet dangerous myth that a military only loses wars when the troops are betrayed by the homefront In the process however we8217ve written them what is essentially a blank check We8217ve given them authority without accountability They wage 8220our8221 wars remarkably unsuccessfully but never have to take the blame for defeats amp160Unlike President Harry Truman famous for keeping a sign on his desk that read 8220 the buck stops here8221 the buck never stops with them Think about two of America8217s most celebrated generals of the twentyfirst century Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal and how they fell publicly from graceamp160 Both were West Point grads both were celebrated as 8220heroes8221 despite the fact that their military 8220surges8221 in Iraq and Afghanistan proved fragile and reversibleamp160 They fell only because Petraeus was caught with his pants down in an extramarital affair with a fawning biographer while McChrystal ran afoul of the president by tolerating an atmosphere that undermined his civilian chain of command And here perhaps is the strangest thing of all even as America8217s wars continue to go poorly by any reasonable measure no prominent highranking officer has yet stepped forward either to take responsibility or in protestamp160 You have to look to the lower ranks to lieutenant colonels and captains and specialists and in the case of Chelsea Manning to lowly privates for straight talk and the courage to buck the systemamp160 Name one prominent general or admiral fed up with the lamentable results of America8217s wars who has either taken responsibility for them or resigned for causeamp160 Yup 8212 I can8217t eitheramp160 This is not to suggest that the military lacks senior officers of integrityamp160 Recall the way General Eric Shinseki broke ranks with the Bush administration in testimony before Congress about the size of a postinvasion force needed to secure Iraq or General Antonio Taguba8217s integrity in overseeing a thorough investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraibamp160 Their good deeds did not go unpunished Authority without accountability means no one is responsibleamp160 And if no one is responsible the system can keep chugging along course largely unaltered no matter what happensamp160 This is exactly what it8217s been doing for years now in Iraq Afghanistan and elsewhere Can we connect this behavior to the faults of the service academiesamp160 Careerismamp160 Parochialismamp160 Technocratic tendenciesamp160 Elitismamp160 A focus on image rather than on substanceamp160 Lots of busywork and far too much praise for our ascetic warriorheroes results be damnedamp160 A tendency to close ranks rather than take responsibilityamp160 Buckpassing not bucking the systemamp160 The urge to get those golden slots on graduation and the desire for golden parachutes into a lucrative world of corporate boards and consultancies after 8220retirement8221 not to speak of those glowing appearances as military experts on major TV and cable networks By failing to hold military boots to the fire we8217ve largely avoided unpleasantness between the military and its civilian leadership not to speak of the American public But 8212 and here8217s the rub 8212 70 years of mediocrity since World War II and 14 years of failure since 911 should have resulted in antiwar protests Congressional hearings and public controversy It should have created public discord as it did during the Vietnam War when dissent was a sign of a healthy democracy and an engaged citizenry Nowadays in place of protest we hear the praise the applause the thankyous followed by yet another bombastic rendition of 8220God Bless America8221 Let8217s face it Our military has failed us but haven8217t we failed it tooamp160 Listening Again to Jefferson America8217s military academies are supposed to be educating and developing leaders of characteramp160 If they8217re not doing that why have themamp160 America8217s senior military leaders are supposed to be winning wars not losing them Please feel free to name one recent victory by the US military that hasn8217t been of the Pyrrhic varietyamp160 So why do we idolize themamp160 And why do we fail to hold them accountable These are more than rhetorical questionsamp160 They cut to the heart of an American culture that celebrates its military cadets as its finest young citizens a culture that lauds its generals even as they fail to accept responsibility for wars that end not in victory but 8212 well come to think of it they just never end The way forward I don8217t have to point the way because Thomas Jefferson already didamp160 Just read his quotations in the West Point library we need to become a peaceloving nation again we need to act as if war were our last resort not our first impulse we need to recognize that war is corrosive to democracy and that the more military power is exercised the weaker we grow as a democratic societyamp160 Jefferson8217s wisdom enshrined at West Point shouldn8217t be entombed thereamp160 We need a new generation of cadets 8212 and a few renegade generals of my generation as well 8212 who want to serve us by not going to war who know that a military is a burden to democracy even when victorious and especially when it8217s notamp160 Otherwise we8217re in trouble in ways we haven8217t yet begun to imagine William J Astore a retired lieutenant colonel USAF is a TomDispatch regularamp160 The coauthor of Hindenburg Icon of German Militarism he writes for and edits the blog The Contrary Perspectiveamp160 Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook Check out the newest Dispatch Book Nick Turse8217samp160 Tomorrow8217s Battlefield US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa and Tom Engelhardt8217s latest book Shadow Government Surveillance Secret Wars and a Global Security State in a SingleSuperpower World Copyright 2015 William J Astore | By/ADP William/PROPN J/PROPN Astore/PROPN 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<p>During the 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly emphasized that our country was run terribly and needed a businessman at its helm. Upon winning the White House, he&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/11/22/trump-organization-white-house/94292010/" type="external">insisted</a>&#160;that the problem had been solved, adding, “In theory, I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly. There’s never been a case like this.”</p>
<p>Sure enough, while Hillary Clinton spent her time excoriating her opponent for not releasing his tax returns, Americans ultimately embraced the candidate who had proudly and openly dodged their exposure. And why not? It’s in the American ethos to disdain “the man” — especially the taxman. In an election turned reality TV show, who could resist watching a larger-than-life conman who had taken money from the government?</p>
<p>Now, give him credit. As president, The Donald has done just what he promised the American people he would do: run the country like he ran his businesses. At one point, he even&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-calls-country-company_us_58cc3373e4b0ec9d29dbf949" type="external">displayed</a>&#160;confusion about distinguishing between them when he said of the United States: “We’re a very powerful company—country.”</p>
<p>Of course, as Hillary Clinton rarely bothered to point out, he ran many of them using excess debt, deception, and distraction, while a number of the ones he guided personally (as opposed to just licensing them the use of his name)—including&#160; his&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/nyregion/donald-trump-atlantic-city.html" type="external">five Atlantic City casinos</a>,&#160; <a href="http://time.com/4343030/donald-trump-failures/" type="external">his airline</a>, and a&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/11/22/trump-organization-white-house/94292010/" type="external">mortgage company</a>—he ran into the ground and then ditched. He escaped relatively unscathed financially, while his investors and countless workers and small businesses to whom he owed money were left holding the bag. We may never fully know what lurks deep within those tax returns of his, but we already know that they were “creative” in nature. As he likes to&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-lean-toward-clinton-among-one-group-of-undecided-north-carolina-voters/2016/09/27/ff271b2e-8469-11e6-92c2-14b64f3d453f_story.html?utm_term=.9354f1405fa3" type="external">put it</a>, not paying taxes “makes me smart.”</p>
<p />
<p>To complete the analogy Trump made during the election campaign, he’s running the country on the very same instincts he used with those businesses and undoubtedly with just the same sense of self-protectiveness. Take the corporate tax policy he advocates that’s being promoted by his&#160; <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/320122-steve-mnuchin-foreclosure-king-now-runs-your-us" type="external">bank-raider</a>-turned-Treasury-secretary, Steve Mnuchin. It’s focused on lowering the tax rate for multinational corporations from 35% to 15%, further aiding the profitability of companies that already routinely squirrel away profits and hide losses in the crevices of tax havens far removed from public disclosure.</p>
<p>We, as citizens, already bear the brunt of&#160; <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/revenues/" type="external">89%</a>&#160;of U.S. tax revenues today. If adopted, the new tax structure would simply throw yet more of the government’s bill in our laps. Against this backdrop, the math of middle-class tax relief doesn’t work out—not unless you were to cut&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/us/politics/trump-budget-winners-losers.html" type="external">$4.3 trillion</a>&#160;from the overall budget for just the kinds of items non-billionaires count on like Medicaid, education, housing assistance, and job training.</p>
<p>Or put another way, Trump’s West Wing is now advocating the very policy he railed against in the election campaign when he was still championing the everyday man. By promoting tax reform for mega-corporations and the moguls who run them, he’s neglecting the “forgotten” white working class that sent him to the Oval Office to “drain the swamp.”</p>
<p>Since entering the White House, he’s also begun to isolate our country from the global economy, essentially pushing other nations to engage in more trade with each other, not the United States. Whether physically&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/politics/trump-pushes-prime-minister-nato-summit/index.html" type="external">shoving</a>&#160;aside the leader of Montenegro, engaging in tweet-storms with the&#160; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-responds-to-trumps-tweets-on-border-wall-nafta/" type="external">President of Mexico</a> over his “ <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-california-campaign-20160602-snap-story.html" type="external">big, fat, beautiful wall</a>,” or&#160; <a href="https://news.vice.com/story/trump-hangs-up-on-the-australian-prime-minister-after-tense-talks" type="external">hanging up</a>&#160;on the prime minister of Australia, Trump has seemingly forgotten that diplomacy and trade matter to the actual American economy. His version of “America First” has taken aim at immigrants, multinational trade agreements,&#160; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/04/wall-street-sees-opportunity-in-trumps-massive-deregulation-movement.html" type="external">regulations</a>, and the&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/18/trump-pushes-reform-in-united-nations-debut-calls-for-changing-business-as-usual/" type="external">U.N.</a> Calvin Coolidge acted in a somewhat similar (if far less flamboyant) manner and you remember where that led: to the devastating crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s.</p>
<p>What’s In a Shell?</p>
<p>As a new report by&#160; <a href="http://www.citizenvox.org/2017/09/05/president-trump-inc-report/" type="external">Public Citizen</a>&#160;makes clear, the glimpses we’ve gotten of inner Trumpworld from the president’s limited financial disclosures indicate that his business dealings, by design, couldn’t be more complex, shadowy, or filled with corporate subterfuge.&#160; He excels, among other things, at using shell companies to hide the Trump Organization’s profits (and losses) in the corporate labyrinth that makes up his empire. And even though the supposedly blind trust run by his sons is designed to shield him from that imperial entity’s decision-making, it still potentially allows him maneuver room to increase his own fortune and glean profits along the way.</p>
<p>So, what’s in such a shell? The answer: another shell, a company that usually has no employees, no offices, and no traceable capital.&#160; Think of such entities as financial gargoyles. They offer no real benefits to the economy, create no jobs, and do nothing to make America great again. However, they have the potential to do a great deal for the bottom lines of Donald Trump and his offspring.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Think of the corporate shell game he’s been engaged in as his oyster.&#160; After all, anonymous buyers now make up the majority of those gobbling up pieces of his empire. Two years prior to his presidential victory, only 4% of the companies affiliated with people buying his properties were limited-liability, or LLC corporations, which are secretive in nature. Following his victory, that number jumped to 70%.</p>
<p>What that means in plain English is that there’s simply no way of knowing who most of those investing in Trump properties actually are, what countries they come from, how they made their fortunes, or whether there might be any conflicts between their buy-ins to Trumpworld and the national interest of this country.</p>
<p>Trump Lawsuits Meet Pennsylvania Avenue</p>
<p>Secret as so many of his dealings may be, there’s a very public aspect to them that Donald Trump has brought directly into the White House: his&#160; <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/05/05/trump-has-been-sued-times-federal-court-since-inauguration-day/E4AqZBYaKYHtzwfQ3k9hdM/story.html" type="external">pattern of being sued</a>. He’s already been sued 134 times in federal court since he assumed the presidency. (Barack Obama had 26 suits against him and George W. Bush seven at the same moment in their presidencies.)</p>
<p>In other words, one of the nation’s most litigious billionaires is in the process of becoming its most litigious president. A pre-election&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/01/donald-trump-lawsuits-legal-battles/84995854/" type="external">analysis</a>&#160;in&#160;USA Today&#160;found that Trump and his businesses had been “involved in at least&#160;3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts” over the previous three&#160;decades. That volume of lawsuits was unprecedented for a presidential candidate, let alone a president.</p>
<p>It’s fair to say that the public will, in one fashion or another, bear some of the expenses from such lawsuits, as it will, of course, from a lengthening list of ongoing federal investigations, including&#160; <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cnn-mueller-probes-trump-russian-business-ties" type="external">those</a>&#160;into Trump’s business dealings with wealthy Russian businessmen and their various affiliates. According to&#160; <a href="https://www.citizen.org/system/files/case_documents/president_trump_inc.pdf" type="external">Public Citizen</a>, Trump formed at least 49 new business entities since announcing his candidacy (including some that were created after he was sworn in as CEO-in-chief). Of those 49, about half were related to projects in foreign countries, including Argentina, India, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. Since entering the Oval Office, Trump has met with leaders from each of those countries. And while it’s hardly atypical of a President to meet with foreign leaders, in this case there can be little doubt that national policy overlaps with private interests big time.</p>
<p>As Public Citizen concluded, “Although just prior to being inaugurated as president, Trump announced plans to ‘separate’ himself from his business empire, he still maintains ownership in his corporations and merely reshuffled his businesses into holding companies that are held by a trust that is controlled by Trump himself.” It added that he now has an ongoing stake of some sort in more than 500 businesses. Three-quarters of them are legally registered in Delaware, the largest tax-shelter state in the country.&#160; So expect plenty more trouble and suits and investigations to come.</p>
<p>The Era of Golf-plomacy</p>
<p>Trump has always had a knack for promoting his own properties.&#160; Now, however, he gets to do it on our dime. Indeed, we taxpayers&#160; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-s-mar-lago-travel-triggers-cost-ethics-concerns-n743541" type="external">fork over</a>&#160;a million dollars or more every time the president simply takes a trip to visit his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida, his National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, or any of his other properties. During his first 241 days in office, he spent&#160; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/how-much-time-trump-spending-trump-properties-n753366" type="external">79 days</a>&#160;visiting his properties.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a near-army of his well-connected friends and wannabe friends have been sharpening their golf games at Trump locales.&#160;At least&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/06/trump-gets-millions-golf-members-ceos-and-lobbyists-get-access-president/632505001/" type="external">50 executives</a>&#160;of companies that bagged sweetheart government contracts, as well as 21 lobbyists and trade group officials, are members of Trump golf courses in Florida, New Jersey, and Virginia. As the president’s son Eric Trump&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/us/politics/trump-golf-courses.html" type="external">told</a> The New York Times,&#160;“I think our brand is the hottest it has ever been.”</p>
<p>They’re not just paying for golf, of course; they’re paying for access. About&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/06/trump-gets-millions-golf-members-ceos-and-lobbyists-get-access-president/632505001/" type="external">two-thirds</a>&#160;of them “happened” to be golfing during one of those 58 days when Trump, too, was present. It doesn’t take an investigative reporter to show that whatever happens on a Trump golf course undoubtedly does not stay there. And keep in mind that the upkeep of the Trump entourage that travels from D.C. to those clubs with him is at least partially&#160; <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-mar-a-lago-taxpayers-billed-20170915-story.html" type="external">funded</a>&#160;by us taxpayers, too.</p>
<p>Trump may tilt isolationist when it comes to countries that&#160; <a href="https://wonkette.com/610982/trump-bans-immigration-from-muslim-countries-without-trump-hotels" type="external">don’t put money</a> into his clubs and hotel suites, but the nations that do tend to be in big with him. To take one example, Saudi Arabia, the first stop on his first foreign tour, recently disclosed that it had spent&#160; <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=saudi+lobbyists+Trump+hotels&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS614US614&amp;oq=saudi+lobbyists+Trump+hotels&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57.4432j0j8&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8" type="external">$270,000</a>&#160;for lodgings and food at the new Trump International Hotel just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Trump’s lawyers have pledged to donate any money foreign governments pay that hotel to the Treasury Department. Yet,&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-donations/despite-vow-trump-organization-not-tracking-all-profits-from-foreign-governments-idUSKBN18K2EP" type="external">so far</a>&#160;at least, Treasury’s website has no such line item and the money promised for 2017 has now been&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-dc-hotel-turns-2-million-profit-in-four-months/2017/08/10/23bd97f0-7e02-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.4baf67705110" type="external">pushed</a>&#160;into 2018. Keep something else in mind: the Trump family forecast that it would lose about $2 million on that hotel in 2017. So far, it has&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-dc-hotel-turns-2-million-profit-in-four-months/2017/08/10/23bd97f0-7e02-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.4baf67705110" type="external">made</a>&#160;nearly a cool $2 million profit there instead.</p>
<p>While gaining unprecedented international coverage for his family-owned, for-profit business locales, Trump has created an ethical boundary problem previously unknown in the history of American governments. After all, we, the people, functionally pay taxes to his business empire to host foreign dignitaries, to feed them and provide appropriate security.&#160; In this context, the president has made a point of having official state visits at his properties, which ensures that we taxpayers get hit for expenses when, say, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stay at Mar-a-Lago. Though the president&#160; <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2017/02/trump-shinzo-abe-mar-a-lago-visit-234854" type="external">swore</a>&#160;he would cover Abe’s stay, there’s no evidence that it was more than a “fake claim.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Trump brand rolls on abroad.&#160; Though his election campaign took up the banner of isolationism, the Trump Organization didn’t.&#160; Not for a second.&#160; On January 11th, days before placing his hand on the Bible to “defend the Constitution,” Trump proudly&#160; <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article172443417.html" type="external">noted</a>&#160;that he “was offered $2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the Middle East … And I turned it down. I didn’t have to turn it down because, as you know, I have a no-conflict situation because I’m president… But I don’t want to take advantage of something.”</p>
<p>He also&#160; <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article172443417.html" type="external">promised</a>&#160;that he wouldn’t compromise his office by working privately with foreign entities.&#160; His business empire, however, made no such promises. &#160;And despite his claims, Dubai has turned out to be ripe for a deal.&#160; This August, the Trump Organization&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/trump/status/893841118328172544" type="external">announced a new venture</a>&#160;there (via Twitter of course): Trump Estates Park Residences. It is to be “a collection of luxury villas with exclusive access to” the already thriving Trump International Golf Course in Dubai, a Trump-branded (though not Trump-owned) part of an&#160; <a href="http://www.zawya.com/mena/en/story/Dubais_Damac_launches_new_Trumpbranded_villas-ZAWYA20170730135029/" type="external">ongoing partnership</a>&#160;with the Dubai-based real-estate firm DAMAC. Its president, Hussain Sajwani, is well known for his close relationship with the Trump family. Units in the swanky abode are&#160; <a href="http://www.zawya.com/mena/en/story/Dubais_Damac_launches_new_Trumpbranded_villas-ZAWYA20170730135029/" type="external">expected to</a>&#160;start at about $800,000 each.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, DAMAC&#160; <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-company-enters-major-golf-deal-china-gov-article-1.3487019" type="external">gave</a>&#160;a $32 million contract to the Middle Eastern subsidiary of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation to build part of Trump World Golf Club, also in Dubai. That’s the same China that Trump regularly chides for&#160; <a href="https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&amp;q=trump+anti+china&amp;oq=trump+anti+china&amp;gs_l=psy-ab.3..0.1578.3300.0.3503.16.9.0.0.0.0.338.705.2j3-2.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..12.4.703...0i131k1.0.GtUoXcU8FYs" type="external">not working</a>&#160;with us properly. The course is scheduled to open in 2018.</p>
<p>So buckle your seatbelts. U.S. foreign policy and the Trump Organization’s business ventures will remain in a unique and complex relationship with each other in the coming years as the president and his children take the people who elected him for a global ride.</p>
<p>His Real Inner Circle</p>
<p>President Trump has made it abundantly clear that sworn loyalty is the route to staying in his favor. Unwavering dedication to the administration, but also to the Trump Organization, and above all to him is the definition of job security in Washington in 2017. Take the latest addition to his communications team, Hope Hicks, who has rocketed into her new career by making devotion to the Trump brand, including&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/style/hope-hicks-donald-trump.html?_r=0" type="external">defense</a>&#160;of daughter Ivanka, a central facet of her professional life.&#160; The 28-year-old Hicks has now been anointed the new White House communications director.</p>
<p>But she doesn’t have as much job security as one other group: The Donald’s personal legal team.&#160; For make no mistake, Trump’s financial dealings lie at the heart of his presidency, raising conflicts of a sort not seen at least since Warren Harding was president in the 1920s, if ever. And yet, even though they should be secure through at least 2020 and possibly beyond, one little slip about Russia in the&#160; <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/us/politics/trump-lawyers-white-house-russia-mcgahn-ty-cobb.html?_r=0&amp;referer=" type="external">wrong D.C. restaurant</a>&#160;could see any one of them ushered out the door.</p>
<p>In 2011, the Supreme Court’s&#160;Citizens United&#160;decision rendered corporations&#160;people. It erased crucial campaign finance and lobbying restrictions, and elevated billionaires to the top ranks of the American political game. It was a stunning moment—until now. Donald Trump’s presidency is doing something even more remarkable. The billionaire who became our president has already left&#160;Citizens United&#160;in a ditch.&#160; He’s created not just a political campaign but a White House in which it’s no longer possible to imagine barriers between lobbying efforts, government decisions, and personal interest, or for that matter profits and policy.</p>
<p>In November, after the election, Trump&#160; <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/trump-the-president-cant-have-a-conflict-of-interest-231760" type="external">announced</a>&#160;that “the law’s totally on my side, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.” Recently, however, the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to government transparency,&#160; <a href="https://sunlightfoundation.com/2017/07/13/how-were-tracking-president-trumps-conflicts-of-interest/" type="external">revealed</a>&#160;530 active Trumpian conflicts of interest and that’s after only eight months in office.</p>
<p>Theoretically, we still live in a republic, but the question is: Who exactly represents whom in Washington? By now, I think we can take a reasonable guess. When the inevitable conflicts arise and Donald Trump must choose between business and country, between himself and the American people, who do you think will get the pink slip? Who will be paying for the intermeshing of the two? Who, like the investors in his bankrupt casinos, will be left holding the bag? At this point, we’re all in the Washington casino and it sure as hell isn’t going to be Donald Trump who takes the financial hit. After all, the house always wins.</p> | Donald Trump’s New Casino: the White House | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/white-house-donald-trumps-new-casino/ | 2017-09-25 | 4left
| 2,504 | During the 2016 election campaign Donald Trump repeatedly emphasized that our country was run terribly and needed a businessman at its helm Upon winning the White House heamp160 insistedamp160that the problem had been solved adding 8220In theory I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly There8217s never been a case like this8221 Sure enough while Hillary Clinton spent her time excoriating her opponent for not releasing his tax returns Americans ultimately embraced the candidate who had proudly and openly dodged their exposure And why not It8217s in the American ethos to disdain 8220the man8221 8212 especially the taxman In an election turned reality TV show who could resist watching a largerthanlife conman who had taken money from the government Now give him credit As president The Donald has done just what he promised the American people he would do run the country like he ran his businesses At one point he evenamp160 displayedamp160confusion about distinguishing between them when he said of the United States 8220We8217re a very powerful company8212country8221 Of course as Hillary Clinton rarely bothered to point out he ran many of them using excess debt deception and distraction while a number of the ones he guided personally as opposed to just licensing them the use of his name8212includingamp160 hisamp160 five Atlantic City casinosamp160 his airline and aamp160 mortgage company8212he ran into the ground and then ditched He escaped relatively unscathed financially while his investors and countless workers and small businesses to whom he owed money were left holding the bag We may never fully know what lurks deep within those tax returns of his but we already know that they were 8220creative8221 in nature As he likes toamp160 put it not paying taxes 8220makes me smart8221 To complete the analogy Trump made during the election campaign he8217s running the country on the very same instincts he used with those businesses and undoubtedly with just the same sense of selfprotectiveness Take the corporate tax policy he advocates that8217s being promoted by hisamp160 bankraiderturnedTreasurysecretary Steve Mnuchin It8217s focused on lowering the tax rate for multinational corporations from 35 to 15 further aiding the profitability of companies that already routinely squirrel away profits and hide losses in the crevices of tax havens far removed from public disclosure We as citizens already bear the brunt ofamp160 89amp160of US tax revenues today If adopted the new tax structure would simply throw yet more of the government8217s bill in our laps Against this backdrop the math of middleclass tax relief doesn8217t work out8212not unless you were to cutamp160 43 trillionamp160from the overall budget for just the kinds of items nonbillionaires count on like Medicaid education housing assistance and job training Or put another way Trump8217s West Wing is now advocating the very policy he railed against in the election campaign when he was still championing the everyday man By promoting tax reform for megacorporations and the moguls who run them he8217s neglecting the 8220forgotten8221 white working class that sent him to the Oval Office to 8220drain the swamp8221 Since entering the White House he8217s also begun to isolate our country from the global economy essentially pushing other nations to engage in more trade with each other not the United States Whether physicallyamp160 shovingamp160aside the leader of Montenegro engaging in tweetstorms with theamp160 President of Mexico over his 8220 big fat beautiful wall8221 oramp160 hanging upamp160on the prime minister of Australia Trump has seemingly forgotten that diplomacy and trade matter to the actual American economy His version of 8220America First8221 has taken aim at immigrants multinational trade agreementsamp160 regulations and theamp160 UN Calvin Coolidge acted in a somewhat similar if far less flamboyant manner and you remember where that led to the devastating crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s What8217s In a Shell As a new report byamp160 Public Citizenamp160makes clear the glimpses we8217ve gotten of inner Trumpworld from the president8217s limited financial disclosures indicate that his business dealings by design couldn8217t be more complex shadowy or filled with corporate subterfugeamp160 He excels among other things at using shell companies to hide the Trump Organization8217s profits and losses in the corporate labyrinth that makes up his empire And even though the supposedly blind trust run by his sons is designed to shield him from that imperial entity8217s decisionmaking it still potentially allows him maneuver room to increase his own fortune and glean profits along the way So what8217s in such a shell The answer another shell a company that usually has no employees no offices and no traceable capitalamp160 Think of such entities as financial gargoyles They offer no real benefits to the economy create no jobs and do nothing to make America great again However they have the potential to do a great deal for the bottom lines of Donald Trump and his offspringamp160amp160 Think of the corporate shell game he8217s been engaged in as his oysteramp160 After all anonymous buyers now make up the majority of those gobbling up pieces of his empire Two years prior to his presidential victory only 4 of the companies affiliated with people buying his properties were limitedliability or LLC corporations which are secretive in nature Following his victory that number jumped to 70 What that means in plain English is that there8217s simply no way of knowing who most of those investing in Trump properties actually are what countries they come from how they made their fortunes or whether there might be any conflicts between their buyins to Trumpworld and the national interest of this country Trump Lawsuits Meet Pennsylvania Avenue Secret as so many of his dealings may be there8217s a very public aspect to them that Donald Trump has brought directly into the White House hisamp160 pattern of being sued He8217s already been sued 134 times in federal court since he assumed the presidency Barack Obama had 26 suits against him and George W Bush seven at the same moment in their presidencies In other words one of the nation8217s most litigious billionaires is in the process of becoming its most litigious president A preelectionamp160 analysisamp160inamp160USA Todayamp160found that Trump and his businesses had been 8220involved in at leastamp1603500 legal actions in federal and state courts8221 over the previous threeamp160decades That volume of lawsuits was unprecedented for a presidential candidate let alone a president It8217s fair to say that the public will in one fashion or another bear some of the expenses from such lawsuits as it will of course from a lengthening list of ongoing federal investigations includingamp160 thoseamp160into Trump8217s business dealings with wealthy Russian businessmen and their various affiliates According toamp160 Public Citizen Trump formed at least 49 new business entities since announcing his candidacy including some that were created after he was sworn in as CEOinchief Of those 49 about half were related to projects in foreign countries including Argentina India Saudi Arabia and Indonesia Since entering the Oval Office Trump has met with leaders from each of those countries And while it8217s hardly atypical of a President to meet with foreign leaders in this case there can be little doubt that national policy overlaps with private interests big time As Public Citizen concluded 8220Although just prior to being inaugurated as president Trump announced plans to 8216separate8217 himself from his business empire he still maintains ownership in his corporations and merely reshuffled his businesses into holding companies that are held by a trust that is controlled by Trump himself8221 It added that he now has an ongoing stake of some sort in more than 500 businesses Threequarters of them are legally registered in Delaware the largest taxshelter state in the countryamp160 So expect plenty more trouble and suits and investigations to come The Era of Golfplomacy Trump has always had a knack for promoting his own propertiesamp160 Now however he gets to do it on our dime Indeed we taxpayersamp160 fork overamp160a million dollars or more every time the president simply takes a trip to visit his MaraLago private club in Florida his National Golf Club in Bedminster New Jersey or any of his other properties During his first 241 days in office he spentamp160 79 daysamp160visiting his properties Meanwhile a neararmy of his wellconnected friends and wannabe friends have been sharpening their golf games at Trump localesamp160At leastamp160 50 executivesamp160of companies that bagged sweetheart government contracts as well as 21 lobbyists and trade group officials are members of Trump golf courses in Florida New Jersey and Virginia As the president8217s son Eric Trumpamp160 told The New York Timesamp1608220I think our brand is the hottest it has ever been8221 They8217re not just paying for golf of course they8217re paying for access Aboutamp160 twothirdsamp160of them 8220happened8221 to be golfing during one of those 58 days when Trump too was present It doesn8217t take an investigative reporter to show that whatever happens on a Trump golf course undoubtedly does not stay there And keep in mind that the upkeep of the Trump entourage that travels from DC to those clubs with him is at least partiallyamp160 fundedamp160by us taxpayers too Trump may tilt isolationist when it comes to countries thatamp160 don8217t put money into his clubs and hotel suites but the nations that do tend to be in big with him To take one example Saudi Arabia the first stop on his first foreign tour recently disclosed that it had spentamp160 270000amp160for lodgings and food at the new Trump International Hotel just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House Trump8217s lawyers have pledged to donate any money foreign governments pay that hotel to the Treasury Department Yetamp160 so faramp160at least Treasury8217s website has no such line item and the money promised for 2017 has now beenamp160 pushedamp160into 2018 Keep something else in mind the Trump family forecast that it would lose about 2 million on that hotel in 2017 So far it hasamp160 madeamp160nearly a cool 2 million profit there instead While gaining unprecedented international coverage for his familyowned forprofit business locales Trump has created an ethical boundary problem previously unknown in the history of American governments After all we the people functionally pay taxes to his business empire to host foreign dignitaries to feed them and provide appropriate securityamp160 In this context the president has made a point of having official state visits at his properties which ensures that we taxpayers get hit for expenses when say Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stay at MaraLago Though the presidentamp160 sworeamp160he would cover Abe8217s stay there8217s no evidence that it was more than a 8220fake claim8221 Meanwhile the Trump brand rolls on abroadamp160 Though his election campaign took up the banner of isolationism the Trump Organization didn8217tamp160 Not for a secondamp160 On January 11th days before placing his hand on the Bible to 8220defend the Constitution8221 Trump proudlyamp160 notedamp160that he 8220was offered 2 billion to do a deal in Dubai with a very very very amazing man a great great developer from the Middle East 8230 And I turned it down I didn8217t have to turn it down because as you know I have a noconflict situation because I8217m president8230 But I don8217t want to take advantage of something8221 He alsoamp160 promisedamp160that he wouldn8217t compromise his office by working privately with foreign entitiesamp160 His business empire however made no such promises amp160And despite his claims Dubai has turned out to be ripe for a dealamp160 This August the Trump Organizationamp160 announced a new ventureamp160there via Twitter of course Trump Estates Park Residences It is to be 8220a collection of luxury villas with exclusive access to8221 the already thriving Trump International Golf Course in Dubai a Trumpbranded though not Trumpowned part of anamp160 ongoing partnershipamp160with the Dubaibased realestate firm DAMAC Its president Hussain Sajwani is well known for his close relationship with the Trump family Units in the swanky abode areamp160 expected toamp160start at about 800000 each Meanwhile DAMACamp160 gaveamp160a 32 million contract to the Middle Eastern subsidiary of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation to build part of Trump World Golf Club also in Dubai That8217s the same China that Trump regularly chides foramp160 not workingamp160with us properly The course is scheduled to open in 2018 So buckle your seatbelts US foreign policy and the Trump Organization8217s business ventures will remain in a unique and complex relationship with each other in the coming years as the president and his children take the people who elected him for a global ride His Real Inner Circle President Trump has made it abundantly clear that sworn loyalty is the route to staying in his favor Unwavering dedication to the administration but also to the Trump Organization and above all to him is the definition of job security in Washington in 2017 Take the latest addition to his communications team Hope Hicks who has rocketed into her new career by making devotion to the Trump brand includingamp160 defenseamp160of daughter Ivanka a central facet of her professional lifeamp160 The 28yearold Hicks has now been anointed the new White House communications director But she doesn8217t have as much job security as one other group The Donald8217s personal legal teamamp160 For make no mistake Trump8217s financial dealings lie at the heart of his presidency raising conflicts of a sort not seen at least since Warren Harding was president in the 1920s if ever And yet even though they should be secure through at least 2020 and possibly beyond one little slip about Russia in theamp160 wrong DC restaurantamp160could see any one of them ushered out the door In 2011 the Supreme Court8217samp160Citizens Unitedamp160decision rendered corporationsamp160people It erased crucial campaign finance and lobbying restrictions and elevated billionaires to the top ranks of the American political game It was a stunning moment8212until now Donald Trump8217s presidency is doing something even more remarkable The billionaire who became our president has already leftamp160Citizens Unitedamp160in a ditchamp160 He8217s created not just a political campaign but a White House in which it8217s no longer possible to imagine barriers between lobbying efforts government decisions and personal interest or for that matter profits and policy In November after the election Trumpamp160 announcedamp160that 8220the law8217s totally on my side the president can8217t have a conflict of interest8221 Recently however the Sunlight Foundation a nonprofit dedicated to government transparencyamp160 revealedamp160530 active Trumpian conflicts of interest and that8217s after only eight months in office Theoretically we still live in a republic but the question is Who exactly represents whom in Washington By now I think we can take a reasonable guess When the inevitable conflicts arise and Donald Trump must choose between business and country between himself and the American people who do you think will get the pink slip Who will be paying for the intermeshing of the two Who like the investors in his bankrupt casinos will be left holding the bag At this point we8217re all in the Washington casino and it sure as hell isn8217t going to be Donald Trump who takes the financial hit After all the house always wins | 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<p>Lia Tarachansky is an Israeli-Russian journalist and documentary filmmaker who previously reported for The Real News Network on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Born in the Soviet Union, Tarachansky grew up in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. She is the director of <a href="http://www.naretivproductions.com" type="external">On the Side of the Road</a>, a documentary on Israel's biggest taboo - the events of 1948 when the state was created. Tarachansky previously worked as a Newsroom Producer in The Real News' Washington D.C. and Toronto Headquarters, and her work appeared on BBC, Al Jazeera, USA Today, Canadian Dimension Magazine and others.</p>
<p>Khamis A. Elessi MSc, MD, Palestinian Board in PM&amp;R. He had his medical education and clinical training in various countries (Philippines, Israel and the UK) with two years in British hospitals. He has chaired the medical rehab team at Elwafa Med Rehab Hospital in Gaza for the last 15 years and mainly worked in the field of Neuro-Rehabilitation and Pain Management. Now he is full time Assistant Professor at the College of Medicine in the Islamic University-Gaza where he founded the first Palestinian EBM unit to promote EBM throughout Gaza Strip.</p>
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<p /> ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Anton Woronczuk in Baltimore.
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<p />The fighting has resumed between Israel and Gaza after the 72 hour ceasefire expired Friday morning. The UN has reported that a ten-year-old from Gaza City was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City shortly after the ceasefire ended, and several Israelis were reportedly wounded by mortar shrapnel.
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<p />With negotiations in Cairo at a standstill, we're now joined by our two guests.
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<p />Joining us from Gaza City is Dr. Khamis Elessi. Dr.. Elessi is an assistant professor at the Islamic University's College of Medicine in Gaza city.
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<p />Also joining us, from Tel Aviv, is our Middle East correspondent Lia Tarachansky.
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<p />Thank you both for joining us.
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<p />DR. KHAMIS ELESSI, ASS'T PROF. MEDICINE, ISLAMIC UNIV., GAZA: Thank you.
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<p />LIA TARACHANSKY, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, THE REAL NEWS NETWORK: Thank you.
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<p />WORONCZUK: So, Lia, let's start with you. The 72 hour ceasefire that expired on Friday was the longest since Operation Protective Edge began. Why was the ceasefire not extended?
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<p />TARACHANSKY: Well, there's a lot of rumors and a lot of leaked information about why the ceasefire was not extended. The Palestinian side is blaming the Israelis for dragging their feet. The Israeli side is blaming the Palestinians for wanting too much. In the meantime, the Europeans--Germany, France, and England--have proposed their own conditions for a stable ceasefire. And so you have here a lot of different sides pushing for the ceasefire to be extended and a lot of different sides pulling for it to fall apart.
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<p />What we do know for a fact is that a lot of pressure has been exerted on the Jordanians, as the newest members of the UN Security Council, to pressure for some kind of resolution to pressure Israel into stopping its war on Gaza. So far that hasn't worked.
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<p />WORONCZUK: Okay. And Dr. Elessi, you are in Gaza City right now. What is your sense of the level of support for Hamas now that the fighting has resumed?
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<p />ELESSI: [I won't lie. (?)] You can't gauge exactly what level, but from the people who have lost their loved ones and they have lost their homes, those kind of people, they tend to support somebody who will assist this sort of actions and will some sort take revenge for their big losses. And when you're speaking about almost 2,000 Palestinian dead, most, the vast majority of them, are women and children. And when you speak about almost 10,000 Palestinian injuries, of course, you can imagine the kind of sentiment in the hearts of those people who have lost everything, not forgetting about more than 20,000 homes which have been partially or totally destroyed. So the more killing you have in this streets, the more hatred will be implanted in the hearts of the people who have lost everything. And I think this will create more and more support for militant resistance against Israel.
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<p />TARACHANSKY: One person was killed next to Ramallah, a young man from the soccer team in al-Am'ari Camp, making him the 16th person to die in West Bank protests in solidarity with Gaza. And when a Hamas spokesperson was delivering his speech today, my sources in the West Bank report that there's now almost total support for Hamas's stance that either Israel accept 100 percent of their demands or nothing at all.
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<p />WORONCZUK: And what about in Israel, Lia? What is public opinion surrounding the negotiations, as well as support for the resumption of fighting?
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<p />TARACHANSKY: So in Israel you get a very varied response. In the middle of the war, which most Israelis now consider to be over, even though it they never ended--it's now the 33rd day, and we're seeing that fighting is resuming--maybe to a lower extent, but it's definitely resuming, and there was never any truce signed. So the war is definitely not over.
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<p />But for most Israelis who didn't experience what the Gazans went through, most of our lives have continued as normal, except for those in the south who have been under the heaviest barrage of rockets. So even though 18 rockets were sent already by noon this morning, one of them injuring four people, most Israelis are completely oblivious to the reality that the Gazans are living as a result of Israeli bombardment. And so it's very easy for public opinion to support a war or to reject it.
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<p />What we saw in the middle of the war is that almost 87 percent of Israelis said that they were against a ceasefire until the goals of the war are achieved. Now, the goals of the war have changed along the operation every time. First the government was saying that the purpose is to restore quiet, whatever that means. Then they were saying that the goal of the operation is to stop the rockets. Then one of the rockets hit near the airport, causing European at American airlines to cut their flights to Israel, costing Israel billions in tourism dollars, and then they changed the language from rockets to tunnels, halfway through the war. Now when a ceasefire went into effect on August 2, the first time, one of the Israeli high generals went on air saying that all of the tunnels have been destroyed, something which is not even remotely true, something which he is alone in saying and which now has been running as a sort of echo chamber, while there's been no proof given whatsoever to that, when just the day before, a top Israeli security official was saying that there is no way to really know how many tunnels exist and how to destroy all of them. So in the mind of most Israelis, hearing again and again the repeating of this rumor, the tunnels have been destroyed or that all the tunnels have been destroyed, coupled with seeing the Israeli reservists evacuate the Gaza Strip completely, half of them being sent home, in the minds of the Israelis the war seems to be over.
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<p />WORONCZUK: Okay. And, Khamis, we understand that the Islamic University in Gaza, where you teach medicine, was bombed last week. Can you talk about the effects of the assault on the educational institutions and medical services in Gaza?
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<p />ELESSI: Of course. The Islamic University is one of the institutions which has been affected by this inhumane war against Gaza Strip, because the part of the society who's paying the highest price for this inhumane war is the civilian population. Just imagine. The Islamic University is a university with more than 21,000 students. Seventy percent are female students and almost 40 percent or 35 percent are male students. And this university is considered to be the top one university in all over Palestine over the last seven years, and considered to be the number ten all over the Arab world. And [incompr.] have harvested international metals and prizes worldwide for their excellence. And the university has 58 different programs, from arts to poetry, architecture, and engineering and medicine and science and medical technology, so all different courses. Just imagine when now the students will go back to their seats in the university. They will find one of the major buildings has been attacked or demolished.
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<p />Not only this, but the the education atmosphere should be a conducive atmosphere for students to study and learn and aspire to improve their knowledge, not an atmosphere of attack and just giving them a sense that they are in the military zone. Imagine when a university's being attacked how much more, because not [incompr.] were attacked, but schools, UNRWA schools, under the flag of the UN, were attacked, [certain (?)] schools were attacked, and more than 45 Palestinians were killed inside the UN schools in the presence of UN staff, unfortunately.
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<p />Not only this, but also the ambulance cars--we have almost 17 paramedics have been killed. Two doctors were killed. Many hospitals, nine hospitals, have been attacked. Four clinics have been attacked. Thirteen schools were demolished. More than 52 mosques were demolished completely. And 130 mosques were demolished partially.
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<p />So it's a war in everything. It's a war on humans and stones, bricks, culture, poetry, history. It's not a war on militia, because the one who's paying the biggest price are the civilian population. Unfortunately, the civilian population, hatred inside their hearts will breed more hatred. And I think the one who's [guiding (?)] this war and the one who's guiding this war is [guiding (?)] the whole area into more and more anger and more and more cycle of violence in the future, because hatred will only breed hatred.
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<p />And can you imagine, when you're living with your family in your flat or you're living in one apartment--. And just to give our American brothers and sisters a sense of view of what Gaza Strip looks like, Gaza is a tiny strip of land located by the Mediterranean 5 kilometers wide by 40 kilometers long. And because of this tiny area, 2.2 million people are living in this area. And most of the families are extended families, meaning the father living in the first floor, his family living in the second floor, his second son in the third floor, and so on and so forth. So you have buildings, seven-floor buildings, six-floor buildings, with the same family. Just imagine when you're living with your extended family and all of a sudden, one-ton bomb or two ton-bomb just dropped on top of your home without any warning, without you doing anything wrong. You're just sitting there. And the whole family just vanishes. Due to these relentless and inhumane bombings, we have 75 families completely were vanished from the civil registry here, and more than 500 families other [were affected (?)].
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<p />Just today, in addition to the child that you mentioned in the beginning of your program who was killed this morning, we have four people who were killed this afternoon. They're cousins from Abu /hada/ family in Khan Yunis. They were attacked near the market. They were going shopping with their friends. So six were injured from the same family and three were killed.
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<p />Another attack, in Zatoun area, where 22 members of the same family were buried under the rubble. And they're still retrieve the bodies of the injured and the dead people killed this morning. So this war is not exempting any part of Gaza Strip to be immune against attack, which make it an inhumane war, a war in civilization, a war in people who are just civilians, [merely (?)] civilians. When you're speaking about 450 kids under the age of 16 being massacred over one month, this is completely a heinous crime against humanity, when you're speaking about more than 260 women being killed, when you're speaking about elderly above the age of 80--we have more than 90 who were killed. This is unbelievable. And I think President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron from the U.K. and all world leaders should act and act now to stop this crazy war and stop it once and for all.
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<p />TARACHANSKY: So another thing that gives this war the sense that it's over, at least on the Israeli side, is that the army today started investigations into various incidents that were controversial during the war. This is something Israel does every time after a military operation, and the internal army investigations, as you can assume, have 96 percent dismissal rate, which means that almost none of the investigations ever lead to an actual investigator going and doing the research. Most of them just get dismissed. In Cast Lead, the only soldier that ever went to jail for anything committed during the war--and you have to remember there was a widespread violations of the laws of international warfare, both according to the UN and according to Human Rights Watch--only one soldier went to jail for six months for stealing a credit card from a Palestinian family. So these investigations are not very promising. And there was again, of course, violations of the laws of warfare in this war.
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<p />And another very important thing happened is that the parliament is going to pass in the coming weeks a new law that will redefine Gaza from a hostile territory, which is how Israel defines the Gaza Strip today and which is why it can hold, by its own laws, the siege on the Gaza Strip, it's going to now classify it an enemy territory, therefore clearing itself of any violations that were done to the people of Gaza and basically making any claims for reparations for damage to homes that were hit accidentally invalid. And this law, whenever it's going to pass into effect, this reckless reclassification, in the current version of the proposal it is going to go into effect retroactively, starting on July 7, the day before the war started. So, basically what we're having here is that Israel launched a full-blown assault on the Gaza Strip, having killed--73 percent of the people killed are civilians. Of them 260 are women, 79 are elderly, and more than 430 children. And according to the current loss of warfare, in Israel at least, if you are a civilian that was hit accidentally or your home was destroyed accidentally, you can claim damages. Now Israel is saying, we're clearing ourselves of all responsibility; no one will be able to hold us accountable for anything we did, because we are now calling Gaza an enemy territory, and in effect we're putting the law into effect retroactively.
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<p />WORONCZUK: Okay. Lia Tarachansky, and Dr. Khamis Elessi, thank you both for joining us.
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<p />ELESSI: Thank you very much. Thank you.
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<p />WORONCZUK: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Gazan Doctor: Entire Families Have Vanished In Operation Protective Edge | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12223 | 2014-08-08 | 4left
| 2,505 | Lia Tarachansky is an IsraeliRussian journalist and documentary filmmaker who previously reported for The Real News Network on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories Born in the Soviet Union Tarachansky grew up in a settlement in the occupied West Bank She is the director of On the Side of the Road a documentary on Israels biggest taboo the events of 1948 when the state was created Tarachansky previously worked as a Newsroom Producer in The Real News Washington DC and Toronto Headquarters and her work appeared on BBC Al Jazeera USA Today Canadian Dimension Magazine and others Khamis A Elessi MSc MD Palestinian Board in PMampampR He had his medical education and clinical training in various countries Philippines Israel and the UK with two years in British hospitals He has chaired the medical rehab team at Elwafa Med Rehab Hospital in Gaza for the last 15 years and mainly worked in the field of NeuroRehabilitation and Pain Management Now he is full time Assistant Professor at the College of Medicine in the Islamic UniversityGaza where he founded the first Palestinian EBM unit to promote EBM throughout Gaza Strip ANTON WORONCZUK TRNN PRODUCER Welcome to The Real News Network Im Anton Woronczuk in Baltimore The fighting has resumed between Israel and Gaza after the 72 hour ceasefire expired Friday morning The UN has reported that a tenyearold from Gaza City was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City shortly after the ceasefire ended and several Israelis were reportedly wounded by mortar shrapnel With negotiations in Cairo at a standstill were now joined by our two guests Joining us from Gaza City is Dr Khamis Elessi Dr Elessi is an assistant professor at the Islamic Universitys College of Medicine in Gaza city Also joining us from Tel Aviv is our Middle East correspondent Lia Tarachansky Thank you both for joining us DR KHAMIS ELESSI ASST PROF MEDICINE ISLAMIC UNIV GAZA Thank you LIA TARACHANSKY MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT THE REAL NEWS NETWORK Thank you WORONCZUK So Lia lets start with you The 72 hour ceasefire that expired on Friday was the longest since Operation Protective Edge began Why was the ceasefire not extended TARACHANSKY Well theres a lot of rumors and a lot of leaked information about why the ceasefire was not extended The Palestinian side is blaming the Israelis for dragging their feet The Israeli side is blaming the Palestinians for wanting too much In the meantime the EuropeansGermany France and Englandhave proposed their own conditions for a stable ceasefire And so you have here a lot of different sides pushing for the ceasefire to be extended and a lot of different sides pulling for it to fall apart What we do know for a fact is that a lot of pressure has been exerted on the Jordanians as the newest members of the UN Security Council to pressure for some kind of resolution to pressure Israel into stopping its war on Gaza So far that hasnt worked WORONCZUK Okay And Dr Elessi you are in Gaza City right now What is your sense of the level of support for Hamas now that the fighting has resumed ELESSI I wont lie You cant gauge exactly what level but from the people who have lost their loved ones and they have lost their homes those kind of people they tend to support somebody who will assist this sort of actions and will some sort take revenge for their big losses And when youre speaking about almost 2000 Palestinian dead most the vast majority of them are women and children And when you speak about almost 10000 Palestinian injuries of course you can imagine the kind of sentiment in the hearts of those people who have lost everything not forgetting about more than 20000 homes which have been partially or totally destroyed So the more killing you have in this streets the more hatred will be implanted in the hearts of the people who have lost everything And I think this will create more and more support for militant resistance against Israel TARACHANSKY One person was killed next to Ramallah a young man from the soccer team in alAmari Camp making him the 16th person to die in West Bank protests in solidarity with Gaza And when a Hamas spokesperson was delivering his speech today my sources in the West Bank report that theres now almost total support for Hamass stance that either Israel accept 100 percent of their demands or nothing at all WORONCZUK And what about in Israel Lia What is public opinion surrounding the negotiations as well as support for the resumption of fighting TARACHANSKY So in Israel you get a very varied response In the middle of the war which most Israelis now consider to be over even though it they never endedits now the 33rd day and were seeing that fighting is resumingmaybe to a lower extent but its definitely resuming and there was never any truce signed So the war is definitely not over But for most Israelis who didnt experience what the Gazans went through most of our lives have continued as normal except for those in the south who have been under the heaviest barrage of rockets So even though 18 rockets were sent already by noon this morning one of them injuring four people most Israelis are completely oblivious to the reality that the Gazans are living as a result of Israeli bombardment And so its very easy for public opinion to support a war or to reject it What we saw in the middle of the war is that almost 87 percent of Israelis said that they were against a ceasefire until the goals of the war are achieved Now the goals of the war have changed along the operation every time First the government was saying that the purpose is to restore quiet whatever that means Then they were saying that the goal of the operation is to stop the rockets Then one of the rockets hit near the airport causing European at American airlines to cut their flights to Israel costing Israel billions in tourism dollars and then they changed the language from rockets to tunnels halfway through the war Now when a ceasefire went into effect on August 2 the first time one of the Israeli high generals went on air saying that all of the tunnels have been destroyed something which is not even remotely true something which he is alone in saying and which now has been running as a sort of echo chamber while theres been no proof given whatsoever to that when just the day before a top Israeli security official was saying that there is no way to really know how many tunnels exist and how to destroy all of them So in the mind of most Israelis hearing again and again the repeating of this rumor the tunnels have been destroyed or that all the tunnels have been destroyed coupled with seeing the Israeli reservists evacuate the Gaza Strip completely half of them being sent home in the minds of the Israelis the war seems to be over WORONCZUK Okay And Khamis we understand that the Islamic University in Gaza where you teach medicine was bombed last week Can you talk about the effects of the assault on the educational institutions and medical services in Gaza ELESSI Of course The Islamic University is one of the institutions which has been affected by this inhumane war against Gaza Strip because the part of the society whos paying the highest price for this inhumane war is the civilian population Just imagine The Islamic University is a university with more than 21000 students Seventy percent are female students and almost 40 percent or 35 percent are male students And this university is considered to be the top one university in all over Palestine over the last seven years and considered to be the number ten all over the Arab world And incompr have harvested international metals and prizes worldwide for their excellence And the university has 58 different programs from arts to poetry architecture and engineering and medicine and science and medical technology so all different courses Just imagine when now the students will go back to their seats in the university They will find one of the major buildings has been attacked or demolished Not only this but the the education atmosphere should be a conducive atmosphere for students to study and learn and aspire to improve their knowledge not an atmosphere of attack and just giving them a sense that they are in the military zone Imagine when a universitys being attacked how much more because not incompr were attacked but schools UNRWA schools under the flag of the UN were attacked certain schools were attacked and more than 45 Palestinians were killed inside the UN schools in the presence of UN staff unfortunately Not only this but also the ambulance carswe have almost 17 paramedics have been killed Two doctors were killed Many hospitals nine hospitals have been attacked Four clinics have been attacked Thirteen schools were demolished More than 52 mosques were demolished completely And 130 mosques were demolished partially So its a war in everything Its a war on humans and stones bricks culture poetry history Its not a war on militia because the one whos paying the biggest price are the civilian population Unfortunately the civilian population hatred inside their hearts will breed more hatred And I think the one whos guiding this war and the one whos guiding this war is guiding the whole area into more and more anger and more and more cycle of violence in the future because hatred will only breed hatred And can you imagine when youre living with your family in your flat or youre living in one apartment And just to give our American brothers and sisters a sense of view of what Gaza Strip looks like Gaza is a tiny strip of land located by the Mediterranean 5 kilometers wide by 40 kilometers long And because of this tiny area 22 million people are living in this area And most of the families are extended families meaning the father living in the first floor his family living in the second floor his second son in the third floor and so on and so forth So you have buildings sevenfloor buildings sixfloor buildings with the same family Just imagine when youre living with your extended family and all of a sudden oneton bomb or two tonbomb just dropped on top of your home without any warning without you doing anything wrong Youre just sitting there And the whole family just vanishes Due to these relentless and inhumane bombings we have 75 families completely were vanished from the civil registry here and more than 500 families other were affected Just today in addition to the child that you mentioned in the beginning of your program who was killed this morning we have four people who were killed this afternoon Theyre cousins from Abu hada family in Khan Yunis They were attacked near the market They were going shopping with their friends So six were injured from the same family and three were killed Another attack in Zatoun area where 22 members of the same family were buried under the rubble And theyre still retrieve the bodies of the injured and the dead people killed this morning So this war is not exempting any part of Gaza Strip to be immune against attack which make it an inhumane war a war in civilization a war in people who are just civilians merely civilians When youre speaking about 450 kids under the age of 16 being massacred over one month this is completely a heinous crime against humanity when youre speaking about more than 260 women being killed when youre speaking about elderly above the age of 80we have more than 90 who were killed This is unbelievable And I think President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron from the UK and all world leaders should act and act now to stop this crazy war and stop it once and for all TARACHANSKY So another thing that gives this war the sense that its over at least on the Israeli side is that the army today started investigations into various incidents that were controversial during the war This is something Israel does every time after a military operation and the internal army investigations as you can assume have 96 percent dismissal rate which means that almost none of the investigations ever lead to an actual investigator going and doing the research Most of them just get dismissed In Cast Lead the only soldier that ever went to jail for anything committed during the warand you have to remember there was a widespread violations of the laws of international warfare both according to the UN and according to Human Rights Watchonly one soldier went to jail for six months for stealing a credit card from a Palestinian family So these investigations are not very promising And there was again of course violations of the laws of warfare in this war And another very important thing happened is that the parliament is going to pass in the coming weeks a new law that will redefine Gaza from a hostile territory which is how Israel defines the Gaza Strip today and which is why it can hold by its own laws the siege on the Gaza Strip its going to now classify it an enemy territory therefore clearing itself of any violations that were done to the people of Gaza and basically making any claims for reparations for damage to homes that were hit accidentally invalid And this law whenever its going to pass into effect this reckless reclassification in the current version of the proposal it is going to go into effect retroactively starting on July 7 the day before the war started So basically what were having here is that Israel launched a fullblown assault on the Gaza Strip having killed73 percent of the people killed are civilians Of them 260 are women 79 are elderly and more than 430 children And according to the current loss of warfare in Israel at least if you are a civilian that was hit accidentally or your home was destroyed accidentally you can claim damages Now Israel is saying were clearing ourselves of all responsibility no one will be able to hold us accountable for anything we did because we are now calling Gaza an enemy territory and in effect were putting the law into effect retroactively WORONCZUK Okay Lia Tarachansky and Dr Khamis Elessi thank you both for joining us ELESSI Thank you very much Thank you WORONCZUK And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Lia/PROPN Tarachansky/PROPN is/AUX an/DET IsraeliRussian/PROPN journalist/NOUN and/CCONJ documentary/NOUN filmmaker/NOUN who/PRON previously/ADV reported/VERB for/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN Network/PROPN on/ADP Israel/PROPN and/CCONJ the/DET occupied/ADJ Palestinian/ADJ territories/NOUN Born/VERB in/ADP the/DET Soviet/PROPN Union/PROPN Tarachansky/PROPN grew/VERB up/ADP in/ADP a/DET settlement/NOUN in/ADP the/DET occupied/VERB West/PROPN Bank/PROPN She/PRON is/AUX the/DET director/NOUN of/ADP On/ADP the/DET Side/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Road/PROPN a/DET documentary/NOUN on/ADP Israels/PROPN biggest/ADJ taboo/NOUN the/DET events/NOUN of/ADP 1948/NUM when/SCONJ the/DET state/NOUN 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<p>Jeff Halper is the co-founder and director of ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He was born in 1946 in Minnesota and emigrated to Israel in 1973. Since then he has been a tireless advocate for justice and civil rights for all Israelis and Palestinians. He spent ten years as a community worker in Jerusalem aiding low-income Mizrahi families. He co-founded ICAHD in 1997 to help resist Israel's strategy of house demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He is the author of three books, Between Redemption and Revival: The Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century, An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Possession, Redeeming Israel, and Obstacles to Peace: A Reframing of the Palestinian - Israeli Conflict. In 2006 Dr. Halper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing ICAHD's work "to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence" and "to build equality between their people by recognizing and celebrating their common humanity."</p>
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<p /> ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Anton Woronczuk in Baltimore.
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<p />A hundred thousand Gazan residents were warned to evacuate their homes as Israel prepared to launch more airstrikes against this Gaza Strip and called for an additional 8,000 reservists to participate in a now nine-day-long offensive against the Gaza Strip. Palestinian deaths have reached 214, according to sources cited by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and four boys were reportedly killed on a Gaza beach due to shelling from an Israeli naval ship. This comes a day after Hamas objected the Egyptian-proposed ceasefire, saying it would only agree if Israel ended its blockade on the Gaza Strip, allowed an opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and released Hamas prisoners, who were rearrested during IDF raids throughout the West Bank last month. And the latest report for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 79 schools and 23 health facilities and Gaza have sustained damage, and at least 25,000 children whose families experienced death, injury, or loss of homes are in need of specialized psychosocial support.
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<p />Here to give an analysis of the situation is Jeff Halper. He is the cofounder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He is also the author of many books, including An Israeli and Palestine: Resisting Possession, Redeeming Israel and Obstacles to Peace: A Reframing of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
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<p />Thanks for joining us, Jeff.
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<p />JEFF HALPER, COFOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, ICAHD: Thanks for having me.
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<p />WORONCZUK: So you're in Jerusalem right now. Let's get the latest update on what's going on now that Hamas rejected the ceasefire.
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<p />HALPER: Well, the latest update is Hamas is throwing more rockets towards Israel, and Israel's retaliating. You know, the Israeli strategy is disproportionate response, so that Israel is hitting Gaza with everything it has. And as you just mentioned, there were four kids playing on the beach in Gaza that were killed by artillery shells from the Navy, so that this is really an attack that continues on a densely populated Palestinian population center. So it just goes on and on and on with no real [incompr.] Israel I don't think knows where it's going with this. I don't know why Israel actually started this whole thing. But it seems to be just kind of pointless violence.
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<p />WORONCZUK: And now with the international media mostly focused on what's going on with Gaza, has there been anything going on in the West Bank that's of interest?
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<p />HALPER: Well, the West Bank is always going on. The levels of violence are higher or lower. Of course, they were very high a couple of weeks ago in the wake of the kidnappings, when you had a military operation called Operation Brother's Keeper that really had nothing to do with searching for the teens that were kidnapped, especially 'cause it was know that they were dead even at the beginning, but it was trying to impose a kind of reign of terror on the Palestinians. Now in the last few days there's been a tremendous rise in house demolitions of Palestinians all over the West Bank.
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<p />So in a sense--I just wrote an article about this on Mondoweiss--the message of Israel in general to the Palestinians, whether it's a military operation in the West Bank that really continues or whether it's the military operation in Gaza which continues is you have three choices: you can submit to us, you can get out of this country, or you can die. And in this equation, there is no more political process. Israel is disabusing the Palestinians of the illusion that they're a side, that they have anything to say, that they'll ever have a state. As a matter of fact, a couple of days ago Netanyahu finally came out and said, yes, there will never be a Palestinian state, so that this is all really a campaign to break the Palestinian resistance and to simply say, it's over, you are going to be imprisoned, there's no more peace process, it's over, and you can either submit or you can get out if you want to or you die. And those are the options--no more political options on the table.
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<p />WORONCZUK: So, Jeff, in Israel, what's the popular support for the ongoing campaign, and as well for a potential ground invasion?
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<p />HALPER: Well, there's tremendous support in Israel for the campaign that's going on. According to the polls, more than 80 percent of the Israeli Jewish public supports the operation as it's been so far, and more than half of the Israeli Jewish population supports a ground invasion, something like what happened in Operation Cast Lead in 2008. So there's really--the support goes way beyond left-right differences, and it goes way into the more liberal Zionist camp, I would say.
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<p />And the problem is, of course, that Israelis don't really see the whole picture. When we talk about the conflict here, we begin with the occupation, that there's an occupation, and in that context the Palestinians are resisting. Now, you can accept or not accept their forms of resistance, whether or not Hamas should be throwing rockets on Israeli civilian populations, but nevertheless it's in the context of the political struggle, their struggle for liberation against a 47-year-old occupation. But Israelis don't start there. Israelis don't think of occupation. We don't use the word occupation. And so they start with the symptoms. In other words, they begin with the Hamas rockets. They begin with what they call a terrorist attack. They begin with the violence or with--and it's not resistance, because if you don't have that context, it's simply an attack. It's like I'm walking down the street, and all of a sudden somebody mugs me. In other words, there's no political context for the way Israelis look at these things, and in that situation, then it makes sense, of course: they're throwing rockets at us; we have to stop it. You see? Rather than saying, well, why are they throwing rockets at us, or what do we have to do to stop it that addresses the grievances of the Palestinians themselves? So the whole operation, just like the whole discourse in Israel, has been completely depoliticized. And that's why the Israeli public really doesn't understand the conflict itself and what's happening.
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<p />WORONCZUK: Okay. And so last weekend it was also reported that leftist demonstrators in Tel Aviv were beaten by right-wing counterprotesters.
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<p />HALPER: That's right.
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<p />WORONCZUK: Do you think that this is representative of the hostility that the Israeli left faces?
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<p />HALPER: No, it's very representative. We work in a very hostile environment, obviously, for the reasons I gave, in other words, if you don't see it as an occupation and the Arabs--because we also don't use the word Palestinians, because we don't want to give recognition and distinctiveness and legitimacy to another collective in this country that are called Palestinians. So if you look at Arabs as our enemies, as our permanent enemies, and there's no political context, they're simply attacking us because that's the way they are or because we're Jews, which is the other way to look at it, then leftists that are talking about living with them or making peace with them or we should be like them or trying to understand where they're coming from are the enemies. In other words, we're sympathizing with and supporting the enemies of Israel at a time of war. And therefore we become the enemies of the people as well.
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<p />And it's very difficult to be a leftist here, because even our protest isn't understood by the Israeli public. They don't see, again, the context to it. They don't hear what we're saying. The media certainly doesn't reflect our views at all. If you look at the TV, it's all military experts that are explaining what's going on. And so the attack on the leftists in Tel Aviv, I mean, it's more violent than usual.
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<p />I think what's happened--and I think it's true with Netanyahu as well--is that the genie's out of the bottle now. With the end of a political process, Netanyahu saying there will be no Palestinian state at all, everything is possible. Now it's simply a matter of violence. You can hate Arabs, you can say anything you want to about Arabs, you can beat up leftists, you can admit that we're not going to go to a political solution--everything is out. And in a sense what's coming out now, the violence and the hatred and the racism and the commitment to continuing the occupation, this is all--it's been under the surface all this time. And Israel's been very careful to control it and present its image as a Western democracy and so on.
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<p />Now, in a sense, that's over, and Israel feels it's won. And now its job, like I said, is to control the Palestinians, to really pacify the Palestinians. And it doesn't have to care anymore about public opinion in the world. It can say and do what it wants to do. And that--I think the attack on the leftists very much reflects the whole atmosphere of hatred and fear and of triumphalism that we won that Netanyahu projects all the time.
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<p />WORONCZUK: And what about the traditional leftist parties in the Knesset? What role are they playing in this as well?
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<p />HALPER: They're really not playing a role at all. In other words--they're not really leftist parties, either. They're kind of central, center-left, maybe. They're Zionist center-left liberal parties. And, you know, I mean, they say we shouldn't have a ground invasion. That's about the--they're not really attacking the military, the bombardment of Gaza. But they're saying we shouldn't have a ground invasion, which is about as far as they go. In other words, they're also not putting it into context. The Labor Party that was in power all during the Oslo peace process, except for a year or so when Netanyahu was in office, never seriously pursued the two-state solution.
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<p />So I would say the idea today of one Israel that controls the Palestinians without any political horizon of a two-state solution is--there's a consensus. It isn't agreed upon by the center-left. They'll say, yes, we want a two-state solution, but they did nothing to pursue it when they were in office, and now that it's gone, they can't, obviously, admit that it's gone, because that's really the end of Zionism: Israel becomes an apartheid state, and the whole country controlling millions of Palestinians. So their in a sense complicit. They're stuck. The center-left here has to keep supporting an illusionary two-state solution, because it can't go anywhere else and it can't admit that Israel is a permanent apartheid state. So the left has really in some ways neutralized itself.
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<p />WORONCZUK: Okay, Jeff. And to wrap up, what do you think the outcome of the IDF raids in the West Bank and this ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip, what do you think the outcome will be for the occupation?
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<p />HALPER: Well, I think the outcome--I think we're in the middle of--I think it's in the middle of a process that began with the failure of the Kerry initiative. I think the immediate outcome is going to be, again, trying to defeat the Palestinians, trying to pacify them. And, you know, there'll be a lot more violence. It'll be much more difficult for Palestinians.
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<p />But I think it's a part of a bigger collapse. I see the Palestinian authority that's kind of keeping the lid on right now. It's really Israel's policeman. The Palestinian Authority, I think, is going to leave the scene. It's either going to collapse or it's going to resign or it's going to leave the scene. And in that situation, then Israel is going to have to reoccupy, I think. You know, Lieberman was talking now it's trying to urge the government to reoccupy Gaza, not simply attack it, but to reoccupy it permanently. And I think Israel's going to have to do that with the rest of the West Bank.
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<p />And from the Israeli point of view, we win. Now the whole country is ours, and the Palestinians are pacified. But I think in the bigger picture, the global picture, it creates an absolutely unsustainable situation. I don't think the world, including the American-Jewish community in the end, I think, cannot accept a new apartheid state in the world. They can't accept--especially if it's an Israeli-Jewish state. And I think it'll just increase the pressures. And I think BDS will play its role.
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<p />And I'm hoping and I think that maybe in the next few months or so we'll see a complete collapse of the situation. And that will open new possibilities for resolving a conflict that don't exist today. Especially what I'm trying to work on is the idea of one democratic state. I think that's the only way out of this conflict. And Israel is the one that's eliminated the two-state solution and has created one state in this--there is one state already. Now we have to make it one state where everyone has equality. That's the job. And I think in a sense Israel is overplaying its hand. You know, when you're so far powerful you can do anything you want, you don't know when to stop. And I think Israel has overplayed its hand. This collapse is happening. And in the end I think it's going to prove unsustainable for Israel. So I'm actually kind of optimistic that this terrible time we're going through is going to lead to possibilities, especially a one-state solution, that don't exist today.
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<p />WORONCZUK: Okay. Jeff Halper, cofounder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
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<p />Thanks for joining us.
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<p />HALPER: Thank you for having me on.
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<p />WORONCZUK: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Occupation of Palestinian Territories Likely to Intensify in Coming Months | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12118 | 2014-07-16 | 4left
| 2,505 | Jeff Halper is the cofounder and director of ICAHD the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions He was born in 1946 in Minnesota and emigrated to Israel in 1973 Since then he has been a tireless advocate for justice and civil rights for all Israelis and Palestinians He spent ten years as a community worker in Jerusalem aiding lowincome Mizrahi families He cofounded ICAHD in 1997 to help resist Israels strategy of house demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory He is the author of three books Between Redemption and Revival The Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century An Israeli in Palestine Resisting Possession Redeeming Israel and Obstacles to Peace A Reframing of the Palestinian Israeli Conflict In 2006 Dr Halper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize citing ICAHDs work to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence and to build equality between their people by recognizing and celebrating their common humanity ANTON WORONCZUK TRNN PRODUCER Welcome to The Real News Network Im Anton Woronczuk in Baltimore A hundred thousand Gazan residents were warned to evacuate their homes as Israel prepared to launch more airstrikes against this Gaza Strip and called for an additional 8000 reservists to participate in a now ninedaylong offensive against the Gaza Strip Palestinian deaths have reached 214 according to sources cited by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and four boys were reportedly killed on a Gaza beach due to shelling from an Israeli naval ship This comes a day after Hamas objected the Egyptianproposed ceasefire saying it would only agree if Israel ended its blockade on the Gaza Strip allowed an opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and released Hamas prisoners who were rearrested during IDF raids throughout the West Bank last month And the latest report for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 79 schools and 23 health facilities and Gaza have sustained damage and at least 25000 children whose families experienced death injury or loss of homes are in need of specialized psychosocial support Here to give an analysis of the situation is Jeff Halper He is the cofounder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions He is also the author of many books including An Israeli and Palestine Resisting Possession Redeeming Israel and Obstacles to Peace A Reframing of the PalestinianIsraeli Conflict Thanks for joining us Jeff JEFF HALPER COFOUNDER AND DIRECTOR ICAHD Thanks for having me WORONCZUK So youre in Jerusalem right now Lets get the latest update on whats going on now that Hamas rejected the ceasefire HALPER Well the latest update is Hamas is throwing more rockets towards Israel and Israels retaliating You know the Israeli strategy is disproportionate response so that Israel is hitting Gaza with everything it has And as you just mentioned there were four kids playing on the beach in Gaza that were killed by artillery shells from the Navy so that this is really an attack that continues on a densely populated Palestinian population center So it just goes on and on and on with no real incompr Israel I dont think knows where its going with this I dont know why Israel actually started this whole thing But it seems to be just kind of pointless violence WORONCZUK And now with the international media mostly focused on whats going on with Gaza has there been anything going on in the West Bank thats of interest HALPER Well the West Bank is always going on The levels of violence are higher or lower Of course they were very high a couple of weeks ago in the wake of the kidnappings when you had a military operation called Operation Brothers Keeper that really had nothing to do with searching for the teens that were kidnapped especially cause it was know that they were dead even at the beginning but it was trying to impose a kind of reign of terror on the Palestinians Now in the last few days theres been a tremendous rise in house demolitions of Palestinians all over the West Bank So in a senseI just wrote an article about this on Mondoweissthe message of Israel in general to the Palestinians whether its a military operation in the West Bank that really continues or whether its the military operation in Gaza which continues is you have three choices you can submit to us you can get out of this country or you can die And in this equation there is no more political process Israel is disabusing the Palestinians of the illusion that theyre a side that they have anything to say that theyll ever have a state As a matter of fact a couple of days ago Netanyahu finally came out and said yes there will never be a Palestinian state so that this is all really a campaign to break the Palestinian resistance and to simply say its over you are going to be imprisoned theres no more peace process its over and you can either submit or you can get out if you want to or you die And those are the optionsno more political options on the table WORONCZUK So Jeff in Israel whats the popular support for the ongoing campaign and as well for a potential ground invasion HALPER Well theres tremendous support in Israel for the campaign thats going on According to the polls more than 80 percent of the Israeli Jewish public supports the operation as its been so far and more than half of the Israeli Jewish population supports a ground invasion something like what happened in Operation Cast Lead in 2008 So theres reallythe support goes way beyond leftright differences and it goes way into the more liberal Zionist camp I would say And the problem is of course that Israelis dont really see the whole picture When we talk about the conflict here we begin with the occupation that theres an occupation and in that context the Palestinians are resisting Now you can accept or not accept their forms of resistance whether or not Hamas should be throwing rockets on Israeli civilian populations but nevertheless its in the context of the political struggle their struggle for liberation against a 47yearold occupation But Israelis dont start there Israelis dont think of occupation We dont use the word occupation And so they start with the symptoms In other words they begin with the Hamas rockets They begin with what they call a terrorist attack They begin with the violence or withand its not resistance because if you dont have that context its simply an attack Its like Im walking down the street and all of a sudden somebody mugs me In other words theres no political context for the way Israelis look at these things and in that situation then it makes sense of course theyre throwing rockets at us we have to stop it You see Rather than saying well why are they throwing rockets at us or what do we have to do to stop it that addresses the grievances of the Palestinians themselves So the whole operation just like the whole discourse in Israel has been completely depoliticized And thats why the Israeli public really doesnt understand the conflict itself and whats happening WORONCZUK Okay And so last weekend it was also reported that leftist demonstrators in Tel Aviv were beaten by rightwing counterprotesters HALPER Thats right WORONCZUK Do you think that this is representative of the hostility that the Israeli left faces HALPER No its very representative We work in a very hostile environment obviously for the reasons I gave in other words if you dont see it as an occupation and the Arabsbecause we also dont use the word Palestinians because we dont want to give recognition and distinctiveness and legitimacy to another collective in this country that are called Palestinians So if you look at Arabs as our enemies as our permanent enemies and theres no political context theyre simply attacking us because thats the way they are or because were Jews which is the other way to look at it then leftists that are talking about living with them or making peace with them or we should be like them or trying to understand where theyre coming from are the enemies In other words were sympathizing with and supporting the enemies of Israel at a time of war And therefore we become the enemies of the people as well And its very difficult to be a leftist here because even our protest isnt understood by the Israeli public They dont see again the context to it They dont hear what were saying The media certainly doesnt reflect our views at all If you look at the TV its all military experts that are explaining whats going on And so the attack on the leftists in Tel Aviv I mean its more violent than usual I think whats happenedand I think its true with Netanyahu as wellis that the genies out of the bottle now With the end of a political process Netanyahu saying there will be no Palestinian state at all everything is possible Now its simply a matter of violence You can hate Arabs you can say anything you want to about Arabs you can beat up leftists you can admit that were not going to go to a political solutioneverything is out And in a sense whats coming out now the violence and the hatred and the racism and the commitment to continuing the occupation this is allits been under the surface all this time And Israels been very careful to control it and present its image as a Western democracy and so on Now in a sense thats over and Israel feels its won And now its job like I said is to control the Palestinians to really pacify the Palestinians And it doesnt have to care anymore about public opinion in the world It can say and do what it wants to do And thatI think the attack on the leftists very much reflects the whole atmosphere of hatred and fear and of triumphalism that we won that Netanyahu projects all the time WORONCZUK And what about the traditional leftist parties in the Knesset What role are they playing in this as well HALPER Theyre really not playing a role at all In other wordstheyre not really leftist parties either Theyre kind of central centerleft maybe Theyre Zionist centerleft liberal parties And you know I mean they say we shouldnt have a ground invasion Thats about thetheyre not really attacking the military the bombardment of Gaza But theyre saying we shouldnt have a ground invasion which is about as far as they go In other words theyre also not putting it into context The Labor Party that was in power all during the Oslo peace process except for a year or so when Netanyahu was in office never seriously pursued the twostate solution So I would say the idea today of one Israel that controls the Palestinians without any political horizon of a twostate solution istheres a consensus It isnt agreed upon by the centerleft Theyll say yes we want a twostate solution but they did nothing to pursue it when they were in office and now that its gone they cant obviously admit that its gone because thats really the end of Zionism Israel becomes an apartheid state and the whole country controlling millions of Palestinians So their in a sense complicit Theyre stuck The centerleft here has to keep supporting an illusionary twostate solution because it cant go anywhere else and it cant admit that Israel is a permanent apartheid state So the left has really in some ways neutralized itself WORONCZUK Okay Jeff And to wrap up what do you think the outcome of the IDF raids in the West Bank and this ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip what do you think the outcome will be for the occupation HALPER Well I think the outcomeI think were in the middle ofI think its in the middle of a process that began with the failure of the Kerry initiative I think the immediate outcome is going to be again trying to defeat the Palestinians trying to pacify them And you know therell be a lot more violence Itll be much more difficult for Palestinians But I think its a part of a bigger collapse I see the Palestinian authority thats kind of keeping the lid on right now Its really Israels policeman The Palestinian Authority I think is going to leave the scene Its either going to collapse or its going to resign or its going to leave the scene And in that situation then Israel is going to have to reoccupy I think You know Lieberman was talking now its trying to urge the government to reoccupy Gaza not simply attack it but to reoccupy it permanently And I think Israels going to have to do that with the rest of the West Bank And from the Israeli point of view we win Now the whole country is ours and the Palestinians are pacified But I think in the bigger picture the global picture it creates an absolutely unsustainable situation I dont think the world including the AmericanJewish community in the end I think cannot accept a new apartheid state in the world They cant acceptespecially if its an IsraeliJewish state And I think itll just increase the pressures And I think BDS will play its role And Im hoping and I think that maybe in the next few months or so well see a complete collapse of the situation And that will open new possibilities for resolving a conflict that dont exist today Especially what Im trying to work on is the idea of one democratic state I think thats the only way out of this conflict And Israel is the one thats eliminated the twostate solution and has created one state in thisthere is one state already Now we have to make it one state where everyone has equality Thats the job And I think in a sense Israel is overplaying its hand You know when youre so far powerful you can do anything you want you dont know when to stop And I think Israel has overplayed its hand This collapse is happening And in the end I think its going to prove unsustainable for Israel So Im actually kind of optimistic that this terrible time were going through is going to lead to possibilities especially a onestate solution that dont exist today WORONCZUK Okay Jeff Halper cofounder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Thanks for joining us HALPER Thank you for having me on WORONCZUK And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Jeff/PROPN Halper/PROPN is/AUX the/DET cofounder/NOUN and/CCONJ director/NOUN of/ADP ICAHD/PROPN the/DET Israeli/PROPN Committee/PROPN Against/ADP House/PROPN Demolitions/PROPN He/PRON was/AUX born/VERB in/ADP 1946/NUM in/ADP Minnesota/PROPN and/CCONJ emigrated/VERB to/ADP Israel/PROPN in/ADP 1973/NUM Since/SCONJ then/ADV he/PRON has/AUX been/AUX a/DET tireless/ADJ advocate/NOUN for/ADP justice/NOUN and/CCONJ civil/ADJ rights/NOUN for/ADP all/DET Israelis/PROPN and/CCONJ Palestinians/PROPN He/PRON spent/VERB ten/NUM years/NOUN as/ADP a/DET community/NOUN worker/NOUN in/ADP Jerusalem/PROPN aiding/VERB lowincome/NOUN Mizrahi/PROPN families/NOUN He/PRON cofounded/VERB ICAHD/PROPN in/ADP 1997/NUM to/PART help/VERB resist/VERB Israels/PROPN strategy/NOUN of/ADP house/NOUN 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<p>Recently, a memory of my son as a small boy came back to me. He was, in those days, terrified of clowns. Something about their strange, mask-like, painted faces unnerved him utterly, chilled him to the bone. To the rest of us, they were comic, but to him — or so I came to imagine anyway — they were emanations from hell.</p>
<p>Those circus memories of long ago seem relevant to me today because, in November 2016, the American electorate, or a near majority of them anyway, chose to send in the clowns.&#160; They voted willingly, knowingly, for the man with that strange orange thing on his head, the result — we now know,&#160; <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ivanka-reveals-the-truth-about-trumps-hairand-mocks-it-too" type="external">thanks to</a>&#160;his daughter — of voluntary “scalp reduction surgery.”&#160; They voted for the man with the eerily red face, an unearthly shade seldom seen since the perfection of Technicolor.&#160; They voted for the overweight man who reputedly ate little but Big Macs (for fear of being&#160; <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/trump-eats-mcdonalds-because-afraid-poison-donald-fast-food-obsession-769796" type="external">poisoned</a>), while swinging one-handed from a political trapeze with fingers of a particularly&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/01/are-donald-trumps-fingers-weirdly-short-an-investigation/?utm_term=.090ff5ecd136" type="external">contestable size</a>.&#160; They voted for the man who never came across a superlative he couldn’t apply to himself.&#160; Of his first presidential moment, he&#160; <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/donald-trump-lies-200-days" type="external">claimed</a>&#160;“the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe”; he declared himself “the&#160; <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423003/trumps-superlatives-mark-antonio-wright" type="external">greatest jobs</a>&#160;president that God ever created”; he swore to reporters that he was “the&#160; <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/15/16891996/trump-least-racist" type="external">least racist</a>&#160;person you have ever interviewed”; he offered his version of modesty by&#160; <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/donald-trump-lies-200-days" type="external">insisting</a>&#160;that, “with the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office”; and when his mental state was challenged, he responded that his “two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,”&#160; <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-really-smart-latest-twitter-greatest-assets-mental-stability-dementia-fire-and-fury-a8145326.html" type="external">adding</a>, “I think that [I] would qualify as not smart, but genius… and a very stable genius at that!”</p>
<p>Of course, none of this is news to you, not if you have a screen in your life (or more likely your hand) — the very definition of twenty-first-century modernity.&#160; In fact, by the time this piece comes out, you’ll undoubtedly have a new set of examples to cite.&#160; After all, these days that essentially is the news: him and any outrageous thing he wants to say and not much else, which means that he&#160;is&#160;indisputably the greatest, possibly in the history of the universe, when it comes to yanking just about anybody’s chain.</p>
<p>And you certainly don’t need me to go on about that strange skill of his, since every time he says or tweets anything over the top or grotesque beyond belief, the media’s all over it 24/7. No one, for instance, could doubt that never in our history has the word “shithole” (or, in some cases, “ <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/368745-gop-senators-say-they-do-not-recall-trump-referring-to-shithole" type="external">s–hole</a>”) or even “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/16/the-trump-shithole-countries-flap-takes-an-even-more-ridiculous-turn/?utm_term=.32411b80bc5e" type="external">shithouse</a>” been used more frequently than in the wake of the president’s recent wielding of it (or them or&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/trump-vulgarity-debate.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news" type="external">one or the other</a>) for unnamed African countries and Haiti in a White House meeting on immigration. That meeting proved an&#160; <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/01/15/how-the-trump-administration-ambushed-a-bipartisan-deal-on-daca/" type="external">ambush</a>&#160;and a half, only spiraling further out of control when, in its wake, the president denied ever using the word “shithole” and was&#160; <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/01/14/sen_david_perdue_ridiculous_to_call_trump_a_racist.html" type="external">backed</a>&#160;by Republican attendees evidently so desperate to curry favor that they pretended they hadn’t heard the word, which, by now, just about everyone on Earth has heard or seen in English or some&#160; <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-01-12/how-countries-around-world-translated-trump" type="external">translation</a>&#160;thereof.</p>
<p />
<p>Since he rode down that Trump Tower escalator into our political lives in June 2015, this sort of thing and more or less nothing else has largely been “the news.”&#160; It goes without saying — which won’t stop me from saying it — that not since Nebuchadnezzar’s words were first scratched onto a cuneiform tablet has more focus been put on the passing words, gestures, and expressions of a single human being. And that’s the truest news about the news of this era.&#160; It’s been consumed by a single news hog.&#160; Which means that Donald Trump has already won, no matter what happens, since he continues to be treated as if he were the only three-ring circus in town, as if he were in himself that classic big-top Volkswagen&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clown_car" type="external">filled to the brim</a> with clowns.</p>
<p>The Imperial Presidency Exposed</p>
<p>Who could deny that much of the attention he’s received has been based on the absurdity, exaggeration, unsettling clownishness of it all, right down to the&#160; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/20/bannon-scaramucci-spicer-where-are-they-now" type="external">zany crew</a>&#160;of subsidiary clowns who have helped keep him pumped up and cable newsed in the Oval Office?</p>
<p>In early October 2016, I&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176195/" type="external">suggested</a>&#160;that a certain segment of voters in the white heartland, feeling their backs against the economic wall and the nation in decline — Donald Trump being our first true&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176133/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_has_the_american_age_of_decline_begun/" type="external">declinist candidate</a>&#160;(hence that “again” in&#160; <a href="https://shop.donaldjtrump.com/products/official-donald-trump-make-america-great-again-cap-red" type="external">MAGA</a>) — was prepared to send a “suicide bomber” into the White House.&#160; And I suggested as well that they were willing to do so even if the ceiling collapsed on them.&#160; (Had I thought of it at the time, I would have added that much of the mainstream media also had its back to the wall with its status and finances in decline, staffs shrinking, and fears rising that it might be eaten alive by social media.&#160; As a result, some of its&#160; <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/les-moonves-trump-cbs-220001" type="external">key players</a>&#160;were similarly inclined to escort that suicide bomber Washington-wards, no matter what fell or whom it hit.)</p>
<p>In retrospect, that has, I think, proven an accurate assessment, but like all authors I reserve the right to change my imagery in midstream, which brings me back to my son’s childhood fear of clowns.&#160; At least for me, that now catches the most essential aspect of the age of Trump: its clownishness.&#160; And despite the fact that The Donald is often treated by his opponents as a laughing matter, an absurdity, a jokester (and a joke) in the Oval Office, I don’t mean&#160;those&#160;clowns, the ones that leave you rolling in the aisles.&#160; I mean my son’s clowns, the death’s-head ones whose absurd versions of the gestures of everyday life leave you chilled to the bone, genuinely afraid.</p>
<p>Donald Trump fits that image exactly because — though you wouldn’t know it from the usual coverage of him — he isn’t at all unique (except in the details, except in the exaggeration of it all).&#160; What makes him so clownish, in the sense I’m describing, is that he offers a chillingly exaggerated, wildly&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/asia/north-korea-un-sanctions-nuclear-missile-united-nations.html" type="external">fiery-and-furious</a>&#160;version of the very imperial American presidency we’ve come to know over these last seven decades: the one that has long ridden herd on a nuclear apocalypse; that killed millions on its journey to nowhere in Southeast Asia in the previous century; that hasn’t been able to stop itself from overseeing more than a quarter-century of war-making — two wars, to be exact — in Afghanistan of all places; that, in its pursuit of its never-ending “war” on terror, has made war on so much else as well, turning significant parts of the planet into zones of&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176369/" type="external">increasing chaos</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176094/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_tomorrow%27s_news_today/" type="external">failed states</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html" type="external">fleeing populations</a>, and wholesale destruction; the one whose “ <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176310/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_bombing_the_rubble/" type="external">precision</a>” military — the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been&#160; <a href="https://airwars.org/news/airwars-annual-assessment-2017/" type="external">termed</a>&#160;the&#160;“most precise campaign in history”&#160;—&#160;has helped transform cities from&#160; <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/fallujah-in-ruins/" type="external">Ramadi</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/10/sense-claustrophobia-pervades-iraq-fallujah-171013105048019.html" type="external">Fallujah</a>&#160;to&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176280/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_globalization_of_misery/" type="external">Mosul</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4997038/The-ruins-Raqqa-Shocking-images-devastation.html" type="external">Raqqa</a> into landscapes that, in their indiscriminate wreckage, look like Stalingrad after the battle in World War II (and that now is threatening to develop a “ <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/09/us-to-loosen-nuclear-weapons-policy-and-develop-more-usable-warheads" type="external">precision</a>” version of nuclear war as well); and that has, in this century, overseen the creation of “ <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21596553-benefits-shale-oil-are-bigger-many-americans-realise-policy-has-yet-catch" type="external">Saudi America</a>” on a planet in which it was already easy enough to grasp that fossil fuels were doing the kinds of damage to the human environment that nothing short of a giant asteroid or&#160; <a href="http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockToonSciAmJan2010.pdf" type="external">nuclear war</a>&#160;might otherwise do.</p>
<p>From his&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176373/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_tweeting_while_rome_burns/" type="external">America First policies</a>&#160;to his&#160; <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/17/16893408/donald-trumps-2018-plan" type="external">reported desire</a>&#160;to see (and make use of) terrorist attacks on this country, the man who has declared climate change a&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/world/asia/china-trump-climate-change.html" type="external">Chinese hoax</a>,&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/asia/north-korea-un-sanctions-nuclear-missile-united-nations.html" type="external">threatened</a> to loose “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” described other countries in language once considered unpresidential by presidents who nonetheless&#160; <a href="http://fpif.org/u-s-treated-poor-countries-like-shitholes-decades/" type="external">treated</a>&#160;the very same countries like “shitholes,” and given “his” generals a remarkably free hand to “win” the war on terror is but an eerily clownish version of all that has gone before.&#160; He has, in a sense, ripped away the façade of dignity from the imperial presidency and let us glimpse just what is truly imperial (and imperious) about it.&#160; He continues to show us in new ways quite an old reality: how terrifying a force for destruction, possibly even on a planetary level, U.S. power can be.</p>
<p>And just in case you don’t think that Volkswagen of Trump’s (or maybe I mean that private plane with the&#160; <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-luxury-jet_us_57e6bc0ee4b08d73b8319f15" type="external">golden bathroom fixtures</a>) is filled with other clowns whose acts should similarly chill you to the bone, let’s skip Scott Pruitt as he&#160; <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/14/16142150/scott-pruitt-epa-secrecy-republican" type="external">secretly</a> dismantles the Environmental Protection Agency and so many protections for our health, the Energy Department’s Rick Perry as he&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/business/rick-perry-energy-photographer.html" type="external">embraces</a>&#160;the CEOs of Big Energy, that&#160; <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10012018/trump-offshore-oil-drilling-leases-florida-legal-questions-zinke-california-new-york-oregon" type="external">future oil-spill</a> king, the Interior Department’s Ryan Zinke, and the rest of the domestic wrecking crew, and turn instead to “his” generals — the ones from America’s losing wars — that President Trump has made ascendant in Washington.</p>
<p>And even then, let’s skip their urge to create smaller,&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176353/" type="external">more “usable”</a>&#160;nuclear weapons (a process started in the Obama years), or&#160; <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-nuclear-weapons-nonproliferation-ae67ee0498b3/" type="external">hike</a>&#160;the nuclear budget, or redefine ever more situations, including&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/pentagon-nuclear-review-cyberattack-trump.html" type="external">cyber attacks</a>&#160;on the U.S., as potential nuclear ones; and let’s skip as well their eagerness, from&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/pentagon-niger-drones.html" type="external">Niger</a>to&#160; <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Trump-Triples-Drone-Strikes-on-Yemen-Kills-More-Civilians-20171221-0002.html" type="external">Yemen</a>,&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/24/politics/us-strikes-libya-trump/index.html" type="external">Libya</a>&#160;to&#160; <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/trump-doubles-us-forces-somalia-fight-isis-and-al-shabab-most-black-hawk-down-716923" type="external">Somalia</a>, to expand and heighten the war on terror in an exaggerated version of exactly what we’ve been living through these past 16 years. Let’s concentrate instead on just one place, the ur-location for that war, the country about which those&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/26/the-u-s-was-supposed-to-leave-afghanistan-by-2017-now-it-might-take-decades/?utm_term=.d8c071aa4ab8" type="external">in the Pentagon</a>&#160;are no longer speaking of war at all but of “ <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/petraeus-afghan-war-generational-struggle-will-not-end-soon" type="external">generational struggle</a>”: Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The Graveyard of Empires</p>
<p>Think of it: 28 years after the Soviet army limped out of that infamous “graveyard of empires” at the end of a decade-long struggle in which the U.S. had backed the most extreme groups of Islamic fundamentalists (including a rich young Saudi by the name of Osama bin Laden), 16 years after the U.S. returned to invade and “liberate” Afghanistan, they’re still at it. In December, with Donald Trump&#160; <a href="https://swarajyamag.com/insta/aadhaar-hearings-begin-supreme-court-to-decide-if-unique-identifiers-are-legal" type="external">l</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/23/us-air-wars-trump" type="external">ifting</a>&#160;various constraints on U.S. military commanders there, the generals were, for instance, sending in the planes.&#160; That month there were more U.S. air strikes — 455 in a winter period of minimal fighting — than not just the previous December (65) but December 2012 (about 200) when 100,000 U.S. troops were still in-country.&#160; The phrase of this moment among U.S. military officers in Afghanistan,&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-new-us-air-blitz-in-afghanistan-isnt-stopping-for-winter-but-will-it-stop-the-taliban/2018/01/16/c9bb874c-f4cd-11e7-9af7-a50bc3300042_story.html?utm_term=.4605d18cb3cd" type="external">according to</a>&#160;Max Bearak of the&#160;Washington Post: “We’re at a turning point.”&#160; Another: “The gloves are off.”&#160; (Admittedly, no U.S. commander has as yet reported&#160; <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/vietnam2-light-in-tunnel.htm" type="external">seeing</a>&#160;“the light at the end of the tunnel,” but don’t rule it out.)</p>
<p>In the meantime, drones of both the armed and unarmed surveillance variety are being&#160; <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-turn-military-focus-on-afghanistan-as-isis-battles-ebb-1515685110" type="external">reassigned</a>&#160;to Afghanistan in rising numbers (as well as more helicopters, ground vehicles, and artillery). With the recent announcement that 1,000 more personnel will soon head for that country, U.S. troop strength continues to grow, bringing the numbers of American advisers, trainers, and Special Operations forces there up to perhaps 15,000 or more (as opposed to the&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/world/asia/afghanistan-troop-totals.html" type="external">11,000</a>&#160;or so when Donald Trump entered the Oval Office).</p>
<p>In addition, the military has&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-new-us-air-blitz-in-afghanistan-isnt-stopping-for-winter-but-will-it-stop-the-taliban/2018/01/16/c9bb874c-f4cd-11e7-9af7-a50bc3300042_story.html?utm_term=.4605d18cb3cd" type="external">plans</a>&#160;to double the size of Afghanistan’s own special ops forces and triple the size of its air force, while the head of U.S. Central Command, General Joseph Votel, is&#160; <a href="http://time.com/5085376/afghanistan-us-military-strategy/" type="external">calling for</a>&#160;far more aggressive actions by those American-advised Afghan security forces in the upcoming spring fighting season.&#160; (To put this in perspective, a 2008 U.S. military&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176322/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_last_men_standing/" type="external">plan</a>&#160;to spend billions of dollars ensuring that the Afghan air force was fully staffed, supplied, trained, and “self-sufficient” by 2015 ended seven years later with it in a “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/world/asia/us-is-struggling-in-its-effort-to-build-an-afghan-air-force.html" type="external">woeful state</a>” of disrepair and near ruin.)&#160; Meanwhile, as part of this ramp-up of operations, the Navy is planning to&#160; <a href="http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17571/us-navy-wants-to-hire-contractors-to-fly-their-own-mq-9-reaper-drones-in-afghanistan" type="external">hire</a>&#160;drone-maker General Atomics to fly that company’s surveillance drones in Afghanistan in what’s being termed “a ‘surge’ of intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance capabilities.”</p>
<p>If all of this sounds faintly familiar to you, I’m not surprised. In fact, if you’ve already stopped paying attention — as most Americans on the nonexistent “home front” seem to have done when it comes to most of America’s wars of this era — I just want you to know that I completely understand.&#160; Sixteen repetitive years later, with the Taliban again in control of something close to&#160; <a href="https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/09/lwj-map-assessment-taliban-controls-or-contests-45-of-afghan-districts.php" type="external">half</a>&#160;of Afghanistan, your response couldn’t be more all-American.&#160; Surges, turning points, more aggressive actions, you’ve heard it all before — and when it comes to Afghanistan, the odds are that you’ll hear it all again.</p>
<p>And don’t for a moment think that this doesn’t add up to another version of sending in the clowns.</p>
<p>If you don’t believe that retired General James Mattis, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, and retired General James Kelly, aka the secretary of defense, the national security adviser, and the White House chief of staff, respectively, are clowns, if you’re still convinced that they’re the “ <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/10/26/trump-adult-supervision/" type="external">adults</a>” in the Trumpian playroom, check out Afghanistan and think again.&#160; But don’t blame them either.&#160; What else can a clown do, once those giant floppy shoes are on their feet, their faces are painted, and the bulbous red nose is in place, but act the part?&#160; So many years later, they simply can’t imagine another way to think about the world of American war.&#160; They only know what they know.&#160; Give them a horn and they’ll honk it; give them Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy and they’ll still honk that horn.</p>
<p>For the last decade and a half, through invasions and occupations, surges and counterinsurgency operations, bombing runs and drone strikes, commando raids and training missions, they and their colleagues in the U.S. high command have helped spread terror movements across&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176369/" type="external">significant parts of the planet</a>, while playing a major role in creating a series of failing or failed states across the Greater Middle East and Africa.&#160; They’ve helped uproot whole populations and transform major cities into spectacles of ruin.&#160; Think of this as their twenty-first-century destiny.&#160; They’ve proven to be key actors in what has become an American&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176210/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_through_the_gates_of_hell/" type="external">empire of chaos</a>&#160;or perhaps simply an&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175787/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_washington%27s_wedding_album_from_hell/" type="external">empire</a>&#160;of&#160; <a href="https://news.antiwar.com/2018/01/19/ngo-us-led-coalition-civilian-killings-tripled-in-iraq-and-syria-in-2017/" type="external">graveyards</a>.</p>
<p>They can’t help themselves.&#160; Forgive them, Father, for they are clowns led by the greatest clownster-in-chief in the history of this country.&#160; Yes, he makes even them uncomfortable because no one can pull the curtains back from the reality of the imperial presidency in quite the way he can.&#160; No one can showcase our grim American world, tweet by outrageous tweet, in quite his fashion.</p>
<p>And yes, it can all look ludicrous as hell, but don’t laugh.&#160; Don’t even think about it.&#160; Not now, not when we’re all at the circus watching those emanations from hell perform. Instead, be chilled — chilled to the bone.&#160; Absurd as every pratfall may be, it’s distinctly a vision from hell, an all-American vision for the ages.</p> | Send In the Clowns | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/send-in-the-clowns-2/ | 2018-01-27 | 4left
| 2,505 | Recently a memory of my son as a small boy came back to me He was in those days terrified of clowns Something about their strange masklike painted faces unnerved him utterly chilled him to the bone To the rest of us they were comic but to him 8212 or so I came to imagine anyway 8212 they were emanations from hell Those circus memories of long ago seem relevant to me today because in November 2016 the American electorate or a near majority of them anyway chose to send in the clownsamp160 They voted willingly knowingly for the man with that strange orange thing on his head the result 8212 we now knowamp160 thanks toamp160his daughter 8212 of voluntary 8220scalp reduction surgery8221amp160 They voted for the man with the eerily red face an unearthly shade seldom seen since the perfection of Technicoloramp160 They voted for the overweight man who reputedly ate little but Big Macs for fear of beingamp160 poisoned while swinging onehanded from a political trapeze with fingers of a particularlyamp160 contestable sizeamp160 They voted for the man who never came across a superlative he couldn8217t apply to himselfamp160 Of his first presidential moment heamp160 claimedamp1608220the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration period both in person and around the globe8221 he declared himself 8220theamp160 greatest jobsamp160president that God ever created8221 he swore to reporters that he was 8220theamp160 least racistamp160person you have ever interviewed8221 he offered his version of modesty byamp160 insistingamp160that 8220with the exception of the late great Abraham Lincoln I can be more presidential than any president that8217s ever held this office8221 and when his mental state was challenged he responded that his 8220two greatest assets have been mental stability and being like really smart8221amp160 adding 8220I think that I would qualify as not smart but genius8230 and a very stable genius at that8221 Of course none of this is news to you not if you have a screen in your life or more likely your hand 8212 the very definition of twentyfirstcentury modernityamp160 In fact by the time this piece comes out you8217ll undoubtedly have a new set of examples to citeamp160 After all these days that essentially is the news him and any outrageous thing he wants to say and not much else which means that heamp160isamp160indisputably the greatest possibly in the history of the universe when it comes to yanking just about anybody8217s chain And you certainly don8217t need me to go on about that strange skill of his since every time he says or tweets anything over the top or grotesque beyond belief the media8217s all over it 247 No one for instance could doubt that never in our history has the word 8220shithole8221 or in some cases 8220 s8211hole8221 or even 8220 shithouse8221 been used more frequently than in the wake of the president8217s recent wielding of it or them oramp160 one or the other for unnamed African countries and Haiti in a White House meeting on immigration That meeting proved anamp160 ambushamp160and a half only spiraling further out of control when in its wake the president denied ever using the word 8220shithole8221 and wasamp160 backedamp160by Republican attendees evidently so desperate to curry favor that they pretended they hadn8217t heard the word which by now just about everyone on Earth has heard or seen in English or someamp160 translationamp160thereof Since he rode down that Trump Tower escalator into our political lives in June 2015 this sort of thing and more or less nothing else has largely been 8220the news8221amp160 It goes without saying 8212 which won8217t stop me from saying it 8212 that not since Nebuchadnezzar8217s words were first scratched onto a cuneiform tablet has more focus been put on the passing words gestures and expressions of a single human being And that8217s the truest news about the news of this eraamp160 It8217s been consumed by a single news hogamp160 Which means that Donald Trump has already won no matter what happens since he continues to be treated as if he were the only threering circus in town as if he were in himself that classic bigtop Volkswagenamp160 filled to the brim with clowns The Imperial Presidency Exposed Who could deny that much of the attention he8217s received has been based on the absurdity exaggeration unsettling clownishness of it all right down to theamp160 zany crewamp160of subsidiary clowns who have helped keep him pumped up and cable newsed in the Oval Office In early October 2016 Iamp160 suggestedamp160that a certain segment of voters in the white heartland feeling their backs against the economic wall and the nation in decline 8212 Donald Trump being our first trueamp160 declinist candidateamp160hence that 8220again8221 inamp160 MAGA 8212 was prepared to send a 8220suicide bomber8221 into the White Houseamp160 And I suggested as well that they were willing to do so even if the ceiling collapsed on themamp160 Had I thought of it at the time I would have added that much of the mainstream media also had its back to the wall with its status and finances in decline staffs shrinking and fears rising that it might be eaten alive by social mediaamp160 As a result some of itsamp160 key playersamp160were similarly inclined to escort that suicide bomber Washingtonwards no matter what fell or whom it hit In retrospect that has I think proven an accurate assessment but like all authors I reserve the right to change my imagery in midstream which brings me back to my son8217s childhood fear of clownsamp160 At least for me that now catches the most essential aspect of the age of Trump its clownishnessamp160 And despite the fact that The Donald is often treated by his opponents as a laughing matter an absurdity a jokester and a joke in the Oval Office I don8217t meanamp160thoseamp160clowns the ones that leave you rolling in the aislesamp160 I mean my son8217s clowns the death8217shead ones whose absurd versions of the gestures of everyday life leave you chilled to the bone genuinely afraid Donald Trump fits that image exactly because 8212 though you wouldn8217t know it from the usual coverage of him 8212 he isn8217t at all unique except in the details except in the exaggeration of it allamp160 What makes him so clownish in the sense I8217m describing is that he offers a chillingly exaggerated wildlyamp160 fieryandfuriousamp160version of the very imperial American presidency we8217ve come to know over these last seven decades the one that has long ridden herd on a nuclear apocalypse that killed millions on its journey to nowhere in Southeast Asia in the previous century that hasn8217t been able to stop itself from overseeing more than a quartercentury of warmaking 8212 two wars to be exact 8212 in Afghanistan of all places that in its pursuit of its neverending 8220war8221 on terror has made war on so much else as well turning significant parts of the planet into zones ofamp160 increasing chaosamp160 failed statesamp160 fleeing populations and wholesale destruction the one whose 8220 precision8221 military 8212 the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria has beenamp160 termedamp160theamp1608220most precise campaign in history8221amp1608212amp160has helped transform cities fromamp160 Ramadiamp160andamp160 Fallujahamp160toamp160 Mosulamp160andamp160 Raqqa into landscapes that in their indiscriminate wreckage look like Stalingrad after the battle in World War II and that now is threatening to develop a 8220 precision8221 version of nuclear war as well and that has in this century overseen the creation of 8220 Saudi America8221 on a planet in which it was already easy enough to grasp that fossil fuels were doing the kinds of damage to the human environment that nothing short of a giant asteroid oramp160 nuclear waramp160might otherwise do From hisamp160 America First policiesamp160to hisamp160 reported desireamp160to see and make use of terrorist attacks on this country the man who has declared climate change aamp160 Chinese hoaxamp160 threatened to loose 8220fire and fury like the world has never seen8221 described other countries in language once considered unpresidential by presidents who nonethelessamp160 treatedamp160the very same countries like 8220shitholes8221 and given 8220his8221 generals a remarkably free hand to 8220win8221 the war on terror is but an eerily clownish version of all that has gone beforeamp160 He has in a sense ripped away the fa231ade of dignity from the imperial presidency and let us glimpse just what is truly imperial and imperious about itamp160 He continues to show us in new ways quite an old reality how terrifying a force for destruction possibly even on a planetary level US power can be And just in case you don8217t think that Volkswagen of Trump8217s or maybe I mean that private plane with theamp160 golden bathroom fixtures is filled with other clowns whose acts should similarly chill you to the bone let8217s skip Scott Pruitt as heamp160 secretly dismantles the Environmental Protection Agency and so many protections for our health the Energy Department8217s Rick Perry as heamp160 embracesamp160the CEOs of Big Energy thatamp160 future oilspill king the Interior Department8217s Ryan Zinke and the rest of the domestic wrecking crew and turn instead to 8220his8221 generals 8212 the ones from America8217s losing wars 8212 that President Trump has made ascendant in Washington And even then let8217s skip their urge to create smalleramp160 more 8220usable8221amp160nuclear weapons a process started in the Obama years oramp160 hikeamp160the nuclear budget or redefine ever more situations includingamp160 cyber attacksamp160on the US as potential nuclear ones and let8217s skip as well their eagerness fromamp160 Nigertoamp160 Yemenamp160 Libyaamp160toamp160 Somalia to expand and heighten the war on terror in an exaggerated version of exactly what we8217ve been living through these past 16 years Let8217s concentrate instead on just one place the urlocation for that war the country about which thoseamp160 in the Pentagonamp160are no longer speaking of war at all but of 8220 generational struggle8221 Afghanistan The Graveyard of Empires Think of it 28 years after the Soviet army limped out of that infamous 8220graveyard of empires8221 at the end of a decadelong struggle in which the US had backed the most extreme groups of Islamic fundamentalists including a rich young Saudi by the name of Osama bin Laden 16 years after the US returned to invade and 8220liberate8221 Afghanistan they8217re still at it In December with Donald Trumpamp160 l iftingamp160various constraints on US military commanders there the generals were for instance sending in the planesamp160 That month there were more US air strikes 8212 455 in a winter period of minimal fighting 8212 than not just the previous December 65 but December 2012 about 200 when 100000 US troops were still incountryamp160 The phrase of this moment among US military officers in Afghanistanamp160 according toamp160Max Bearak of theamp160Washington Post 8220We8217re at a turning point8221amp160 Another 8220The gloves are off8221amp160 Admittedly no US commander has as yet reportedamp160 seeingamp1608220the light at the end of the tunnel8221 but don8217t rule it out In the meantime drones of both the armed and unarmed surveillance variety are beingamp160 reassignedamp160to Afghanistan in rising numbers as well as more helicopters ground vehicles and artillery With the recent announcement that 1000 more personnel will soon head for that country US troop strength continues to grow bringing the numbers of American advisers trainers and Special Operations forces there up to perhaps 15000 or more as opposed to theamp160 11000amp160or so when Donald Trump entered the Oval Office In addition the military hasamp160 plansamp160to double the size of Afghanistan8217s own special ops forces and triple the size of its air force while the head of US Central Command General Joseph Votel isamp160 calling foramp160far more aggressive actions by those Americanadvised Afghan security forces in the upcoming spring fighting seasonamp160 To put this in perspective a 2008 US militaryamp160 planamp160to spend billions of dollars ensuring that the Afghan air force was fully staffed supplied trained and 8220selfsufficient8221 by 2015 ended seven years later with it in a 8220 woeful state8221 of disrepair and near ruinamp160 Meanwhile as part of this rampup of operations the Navy is planning toamp160 hireamp160dronemaker General Atomics to fly that company8217s surveillance drones in Afghanistan in what8217s being termed 8220a 8216surge8217 of intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities8221 If all of this sounds faintly familiar to you I8217m not surprised In fact if you8217ve already stopped paying attention 8212 as most Americans on the nonexistent 8220home front8221 seem to have done when it comes to most of America8217s wars of this era 8212 I just want you to know that I completely understandamp160 Sixteen repetitive years later with the Taliban again in control of something close toamp160 halfamp160of Afghanistan your response couldn8217t be more allAmericanamp160 Surges turning points more aggressive actions you8217ve heard it all before 8212 and when it comes to Afghanistan the odds are that you8217ll hear it all again And don8217t for a moment think that this doesn8217t add up to another version of sending in the clowns If you don8217t believe that retired General James Mattis Lieutenant General HR McMaster and retired General James Kelly aka the secretary of defense the national security adviser and the White House chief of staff respectively are clowns if you8217re still convinced that they8217re the 8220 adults8221 in the Trumpian playroom check out Afghanistan and think againamp160 But don8217t blame them eitheramp160 What else can a clown do once those giant floppy shoes are on their feet their faces are painted and the bulbous red nose is in place but act the partamp160 So many years later they simply can8217t imagine another way to think about the world of American waramp160 They only know what they knowamp160 Give them a horn and they8217ll honk it give them Hamlet8217s 8220to be or not to be8221 soliloquy and they8217ll still honk that horn For the last decade and a half through invasions and occupations surges and counterinsurgency operations bombing runs and drone strikes commando raids and training missions they and their colleagues in the US high command have helped spread terror movements acrossamp160 significant parts of the planet while playing a major role in creating a series of failing or failed states across the Greater Middle East and Africaamp160 They8217ve helped uproot whole populations and transform major cities into spectacles of ruinamp160 Think of this as their twentyfirstcentury destinyamp160 They8217ve proven to be key actors in what has become an Americanamp160 empire of chaosamp160or perhaps simply anamp160 empireamp160ofamp160 graveyards They can8217t help themselvesamp160 Forgive them Father for they are clowns led by the greatest clownsterinchief in the history of this countryamp160 Yes he makes even them uncomfortable because no one can pull the curtains back from the reality of the imperial presidency in quite the way he canamp160 No one can showcase our grim American world tweet by outrageous tweet in quite his fashion And yes it can all look ludicrous as hell but don8217t laughamp160 Don8217t even think about itamp160 Not now not when we8217re all at the circus watching those emanations from hell perform Instead be chilled 8212 chilled to the boneamp160 Absurd as every pratfall may be it8217s distinctly a vision from hell an allAmerican vision for the ages | Recently/ADV a/DET memory/NOUN of/ADP my/PRON son/NOUN as/ADP a/DET small/ADJ boy/NOUN came/VERB back/ADV to/ADP me/PRON He/PRON was/AUX in/ADP those/DET days/NOUN 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<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/768971192/"&gt;The U.S. Army&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175412/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_president%27s_military_mantra/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>It’s already gone, having barely outlasted its moment—just long enough for the media to suggest that no one thought it added up to much.</p>
<p>Okay, it was a <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57624.html" type="external">little more</a> than the <a href="http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/06/28/obama-troop-cuts-went-beyond-largest-withdrawal-offered-top-general" type="external">military wanted</a>, something less than Joe Biden <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/with-afghan-timetable-in-place-two-senior-officials-are-moving-on-20110628" type="external">would have liked</a>, not enough for the growing crew of <a href="http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201106240475" type="external">anti-war congressional types</a>, but way too much for John <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/06/23/20110623afghan-side0623.html" type="external">McCain</a>, Lindsey <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-peyronnin/the-tide-of-war_b_882917.html" type="external">Graham</a>, &amp; Co.</p>
<p>I’m talking about the 13 minutes of <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/22/president-obama-way-forward-afghanistan" type="external">“remarks”</a> on “the way forward in Afghanistan” that President Obama <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/22/remarks-president-way-forward-afghanistan" type="external">delivered</a> in the East Room of the White House two Wednesday nights ago.</p>
<p>Tell me you weren’t holding your breath wondering whether the 33,000 surge troops he ordered into Afghanistan as 2009 ended would be removed in a 12-month, 14-month, or 18-month span. Tell me you weren’t gripped with anxiety about whether 3,000, 5,000, 10,000, or 15,000 American soldiers would come out this year (leaving either 95,000, 93,000, 88,000, or 83,000 behind)?</p>
<p>You weren’t? Well, if so, you were in good company.</p>
<p>Billed as the beginning of the end of the Afghan War, it should have been big and it couldn’t have been smaller. The patented Obama words were meant to soar, starting with a George W. Bush-style invocation of 9/11 and ending with the usual copious blessings upon this country and our military. But on the evidence, they couldn’t have fallen flatter. I doubt I was alone in thinking that it was like seeing Ronald Reagan on an unimaginably bad day in an ad <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_in_America" type="external">captioned</a> “It’s never going to be morning again in America.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Idolator President</p>
<p>If you clicked Obama off that night or let the event slide instantly into your mental trash can, I don’t blame you. Still, the president’s Afghan remarks shouldn’t be sent down the memory hole quite so quickly.</p>
<p>For one thing, while the mainstream media’s pundits and talking heads are always raring to discuss his policy remarks, the words that frame them are generally ignored—and yet the discomfort of the moment can’t be separated from them. So start with this: whether by inclination, political calculation, or some mix of the two, our president has become a rhetorical idolator.</p>
<p>These days he can barely open his mouth without also bowing down before the US military in ways that once would have struck Americans as embarrassing, if not incomprehensible. In addition, he regularly prostrates himself before this country’s special mission to the world and never ceases to emphasize that the United States is indeed an exception among nations. Finally, in a way once alien to American presidents, he <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2009/01/sorry-to-hear-obama-talking-this-way/9308/" type="external">invokes</a> God’s blessing upon the military and the country as regularly as you brush your teeth.</p>
<p>Think of these as the triumvirate without which no Obama foreign-policy moment would be complete: greatest military, greatest nation, our God. And in this he follows directly, if awkwardly, in Bush’s footsteps.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t claim that Americans had never had such thoughts before, only that presidents didn’t feel required to say them in a mantra-like way just about every time they appeared in public. Sometimes, of course, when you feel a compulsion to say the same things ad nauseam, you display weakness, not strength; you reveal the most fantastic of fantasy worlds, not a deeper reality.</p>
<p>The president’s recent Afghan remarks were, in this sense, par for the course. As he plugged his plan to bring America’s “long wars” to what he called “a responsible end,” he insisted that “[l]ike generations before, we must embrace America’s singular role in the course of human events.” He then painted this flattering word portrait of us:</p>
<p>“We’re a nation that brings our enemies to justice while adhering to the rule of law, and respecting the rights of all our citizens. We protect our own freedom and prosperity by extending it to others. We stand not for empire, but for self-determination… and when our union is strong no hill is too steep, no horizon is beyond our reach… we are bound together by the creed that is written into our founding documents, and a conviction that the United States of America is a country that can achieve whatever it sets out to accomplish.”</p>
<p>I know, I know. You’re wondering whether you just mainlined into a Sarah Palin speech and your eyes are glazing over. But hang in there, because that’s just a start. For example, in an Obama speech of any sort, what America’s soldiers never lack is the extra adjective. They aren’t just soldiers, but “our extraordinary men and women in uniform.” They aren’t just Americans, but “patriotic Americans.” (Since when did an American president have to describe American soldiers as, of all things, “patriotic”?) And in case you missed the point that, in their extraordinariness and their outsized patriotism they are better than other Americans, he made sure to acknowledge them as the ones we “draw inspiration from.”</p>
<p>In a country that now “supports the troops” with <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175276/william_astore_wars_don%27t_make_heroes" type="external">bumper-sticker fervor</a> but pays next to no attention to the wars they fight, perhaps Obama is simply striving to be the premier twenty-first-century American. Still, you have to wonder what such presidential fawning, omnipresent enough to be boilerplate, really represents. The strange thing is we hear this sort of thing all the time. And yet no one ever comments on it.</p>
<p>Oh, and let’s not forget that no significant White House moment ends these days without the president bestowing God’s blessing on the globe’s most extraordinary nation and its extraordinary fighters, or as he put it in his Afghan remarks: “May God bless our troops. And may God bless the United States of America.”</p>
<p>The day after he revealed his drawdown plan to the nation, the president <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/23/news/la-pn-obama-afghanistan-fort-drum-20110623" type="external">traveled to</a> Ft. Drum in New York State to thank soldiers from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division for their multiple deployments to Afghanistan. Before those extraordinary and patriotic Americans, he quite naturally doubled down.</p>
<p>Summoning another tic of this presidential moment (and of the Bush one before it), he <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/06/23/thanking-10th-mountain-division" type="external">told them</a> that they were part of “the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175337/tomgram%3A_william_astore,_we%27re_number_one_%28in_self-promotion%29" type="external">finest fighting force</a> in the world.” Even that evidently seemed inadequate, so he upped the hyperbole. “I have no greater job,” he told them, “nothing gives me more honor than serving as your commander in chief. To all of you who are potentially going to be redeployed, just know that your commander in chief has your back… God bless you, God bless the United States of America, climb to glory.”</p>
<p>As ever, all of this was overlooked. Nowhere did a single commentator wonder, for instance, whether an American president was really supposed to feel that being commander in chief offered greater “honor” than being president of a nation of citizens. In another age, such a statement would have registered as, at best, bizarre. These days, no one even blinks.</p>
<p>And yet who living in this riven, confused, semi-paralyzed country of ours truly believes that, in 2011, Americans can achieve whatever we set out to accomplish? Who thinks that, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175114/nick_turse_what_the_u.s._military_can%27t_do" type="external">not having</a> won a war in memory, the US military is incontestably the finest fighting force now or ever (and on a “climb to glory” at that), or that this country is at present specially blessed by God, or that ours is a mission of selfless kindheartedness on planet Earth?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608460711/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Obama’s remarks have no wings these days because they are ever more divorced from reality. Perhaps because this president in fawning mode is such an uncomfortable sight, and because Americans generally feel so ill-at-ease about their relationship to our wars, however, such remarks are neither attacked nor defended, discussed nor debated, but as if by some unspoken agreement simply ignored.</p>
<p>Here, in any case, is what they aren’t: effective rallying cries for a nation in need of unity. Here’s what they may be: strange, defensive artifacts of an imperial power in visible decline, part of what might be imagined as the Great American Unraveling. But hold that thought a moment. After all, the topic of the president’s remarks was Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The Unreal War</p>
<p>If Obama framed his Afghan remarks in a rhetoric of militarized super-national surrealism, then what he had to say about the future of the war itself was deceptive in the extreme—not lies perhaps, but full falsehoods half told. Consider just the two most important of them: that his “surge” consisted only of 33,000 American troops and that “by next summer,” Americans are going to be so on the road to leaving Afghanistan that it isn’t funny.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it just ain’t so. First of all, the real Obama surge was minimally almost 55,000 and possibly 66,000 troops, depending on how you count them. When he came into office in January 2009, there were about 32,000 American troops in Afghanistan. Another <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120204279.html" type="external">11,000</a> had been designated to go in the last days of the Bush administration, but only departed in the first Obama months. In March 2009, the president announced his own “ <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-a-New-Strategy-for-Afghanistan-and-Pakistan/" type="external">new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan</a>” and dispatched 21,700 more troops. Then, in December 2009 in a televised speech to the nation from West Point, he <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175172/tomgram%3A__meet_the_commanded-in-chief" type="external">announced</a> that another 30,000 would be going. (With “support troops,” it turned out to be 33,000.)</p>
<p>In other words, in September 2012, 14 months from now, only about half the actual troop surge of the Obama years will have been withdrawn. In addition, though seldom discussed, the Obama “surge” was <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175176/tomgram:__state_of_surge,_afghanistan/" type="external">hardly restricted to troops</a>. There was a much ballyhooed “ <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112004043.html" type="external">civilian surge</a>” of State Department and aid types that more than tripled the “civilian” effort in Afghanistan. Their drawdown was recently <a href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/23/clinton_civilian_surge_will_also_be_drawn_down" type="external">addressed</a> by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but only in the vaguest of terms.</p>
<p>Then there was a major surge of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/world/asia/02strategy.html" type="external">CIA personnel</a> (along with US special operations forces), and there’s <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/this-is-the-end-of-counterinsurgency-in-afghanistan/" type="external">no indication</a> whatsoever that anyone in Washington intends reductions there, or in the <a href="http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones" type="external">drone surge</a> that went with it. As a troop drawdown begins, CIA agents, those <a href="http://hamptonroads.com/2011/06/afghanistan-drawdown-means-more-work-seals" type="external">special ops forces</a>, and the <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/will-petraeus-rein-in-the-drone-war/" type="external">drones</a> are clearly slated to remain at or beyond a surge peak.</p>
<p>Finally, there was a surge in <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125971465513072063.html" type="external">private contractors</a>—hired foreign guns and hired Afghans—tens of thousands of them. It goes unmentioned, as does the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175204/nick_turse_america%27s_shadowy_baseworld" type="external">surge in base building</a>, which has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cost-of-war-in-afghanistan-will-be-major-factor-in-troop-reduction-talks/2011/05/27/AGR8z2EH_story_2.html" type="external">yet to end</a>, and the surge in massive <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175320/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_war_to_the_horizon/" type="external">citadel-style embassy building</a> in the region, which is assumedly ongoing.</p>
<p>All of this makes mincemeat of the idea that we are in the process of ending the Afghan war. I know the president said, “Our mission will change from combat to support. By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security.” And that was a foggy enough formulation that you might be forgiven for imagining more or less everything will be over “by 2014″—which, by the way, means not January 1st, but December 31st of that year.</p>
<p>If what <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175324/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_general_petraeus%27s_two_campaigns/" type="external">we know of US plans</a> in Afghanistan plays out, however, December 31, 2014, will be the date for the departure of the last of the full Obama surge of 64,000 troops. In other words, almost five years after Obama entered office, more than 13 years after the Bush administration launched its invasion, we could find ourselves back to or just below something close to Bush-era troop levels. Tens of thousands of US forces would still be in Afghanistan, some of them “combat troops” officially relabeled ( <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20012367-503544.html" type="external">as in Iraq</a>) for less warlike activity. All would be part of an American “support” mission that would include huge numbers of “trainers” for the Afghan security forces and also US special forces operatives and CIA types engaged in “counterterror” activities in the country and region.</p>
<p>The US general in charge of training the Afghan military recently suggested that his mission wouldn’t be done <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/six-more-years-u-s-general-wants-to-train-afghans-until-2017" type="external">until 2017</a> (and no one who knows anything about the country believes that an effective Afghan Army will be in place then either). In addition, although the president didn’t directly mention this in his speech, the Obama administration has been involved in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/us-afghanistan-secret-talks-on-security-partnership" type="external">quiet talks</a> with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to nail down a “strategic partnership” agreement that would allow American troops, spies, and air power to hunker down as <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/us-wants-joint-bases-in-afghanistan-gates-says/2011/06/08/AGGiFaMH_print.html" type="external">“tenants”</a> on some of the giant bases we’ve built. There they would evidently remain for years, if not <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/14/US-Afghan-presence-may-last-for-decades/UPI-50291308036600/" type="external">decades</a> (as some reports have it).</p>
<p>In other words, on December 31, 2014, if all goes as planned, the US will be girding for years more of wildly expensive war, even if in a slimmed down form. This is the reality, as American planners imagine it, behind the president’s speech.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Overstretched Empire</p>
<p>Of course, it’s not for nothing that we regularly speak of the best laid plans going awry, something that applies doubly, as in Afghanistan, to the worst laid plans. It’s increasingly apparent that our disastrous wars are, as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry recently admitted, “ <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/12/Kerry-Cost-of-Afghan-war-unsustainable/UPI-10481307892104/" type="external">unsustainable</a>.” After all, just the cost of providing air conditioning to US personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan—$20 billion a year—is <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning?ps=cprs" type="external">more than</a> NASA’s total budget.</p>
<p>Yes, despite Washington’s long lost dreams of a Pax Americana in the Greater Middle East, some of its wars there are still being planned as if for a near-eternity, while others are being <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/09/world/middleeast/09intel.html" type="external">intensified</a>. Those wars are still fueled by <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175402/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_100%25_doctrine_in_washington/" type="external">overblown fears</a> of terrorism; encouraged by a National Security Complex funded to the tune of more than <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175361/tomgram%3A_chris_hellman,_%241.2_trillion_for_national_security/" type="external">$1.2 trillion</a> annually by an atmosphere of permanent armed crisis; and run by a military that, after a decade of not-so-creative destruction, can’t stop doing what it knows how to do best (which isn’t winning a war).</p>
<p>Though Obama claims that the United States is no empire, all of this gives modern meaning to the term “overstretched empire.” And it’s not really much of a mystery what happens to overextemded imperial powers that find themselves fighting “little” wars they can’t win, while their treasuries head south.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175410/tomgram%3A_andrew_bacevich%2C_war_fever_subsides_in_washington/" type="external">growing unease</a> in Washington about America’s wars reflects a dawning sense of genuine crisis, a sneaking suspicion even among hawkish Republicans that they preside ineffectually over a great power in precipitous decline.</p>
<p>Think, then, of the president’s foreign-policy-cum-war speeches as ever more unconvincing attempts to cover the suppurating wound that is Washington’s global war policy. If you want to take the temperature of the present crisis, you can do it through Obama’s words. The less they ring true, the more discordant they seem in the face of reality, the more he fawns and repeats his various mantras, the more uncomfortable he makes you feel, the more you have the urge to look away, the deeper the crisis.</p>
<p>What will he say when the Great American Unraveling truly begins?</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. His latest book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608460711/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s</a> (Haymarket Books). To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:Join/signupId:43308/acctId:25612" type="external">here</a>.</p> | The End of the Afghan War: Don’t Hold Your Breath | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/war-afghanistan-withdrawal/ | 2011-06-30 | 4left
| 2,506 | amplta hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotossoldiersmediacenter768971192ampgtThe US ArmyampltaampgtFlickr This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website It8217s already gone having barely outlasted its moment8212just long enough for the media to suggest that no one thought it added up to much Okay it was a little more than the military wanted something less than Joe Biden would have liked not enough for the growing crew of antiwar congressional types but way too much for John McCain Lindsey Graham ampamp Co I8217m talking about the 13 minutes of 8220remarks8221 on 8220the way forward in Afghanistan8221 that President Obama delivered in the East Room of the White House two Wednesday nights ago Tell me you weren8217t holding your breath wondering whether the 33000 surge troops he ordered into Afghanistan as 2009 ended would be removed in a 12month 14month or 18month span Tell me you weren8217t gripped with anxiety about whether 3000 5000 10000 or 15000 American soldiers would come out this year leaving either 95000 93000 88000 or 83000 behind You weren8217t Well if so you were in good company Billed as the beginning of the end of the Afghan War it should have been big and it couldn8217t have been smaller The patented Obama words were meant to soar starting with a George W Bushstyle invocation of 911 and ending with the usual copious blessings upon this country and our military But on the evidence they couldn8217t have fallen flatter I doubt I was alone in thinking that it was like seeing Ronald Reagan on an unimaginably bad day in an ad captioned 8220It8217s never going to be morning again in America8221 amp160 Idolator President If you clicked Obama off that night or let the event slide instantly into your mental trash can I don8217t blame you Still the president8217s Afghan remarks shouldn8217t be sent down the memory hole quite so quickly For one thing while the mainstream media8217s pundits and talking heads are always raring to discuss his policy remarks the words that frame them are generally ignored8212and yet the discomfort of the moment can8217t be separated from them So start with this whether by inclination political calculation or some mix of the two our president has become a rhetorical idolator These days he can barely open his mouth without also bowing down before the US military in ways that once would have struck Americans as embarrassing if not incomprehensible In addition he regularly prostrates himself before this country8217s special mission to the world and never ceases to emphasize that the United States is indeed an exception among nations Finally in a way once alien to American presidents he invokes God8217s blessing upon the military and the country as regularly as you brush your teeth Think of these as the triumvirate without which no Obama foreignpolicy moment would be complete greatest military greatest nation our God And in this he follows directly if awkwardly in Bush8217s footsteps I wouldn8217t claim that Americans had never had such thoughts before only that presidents didn8217t feel required to say them in a mantralike way just about every time they appeared in public Sometimes of course when you feel a compulsion to say the same things ad nauseam you display weakness not strength you reveal the most fantastic of fantasy worlds not a deeper reality The president8217s recent Afghan remarks were in this sense par for the course As he plugged his plan to bring America8217s 8220long wars8221 to what he called 8220a responsible end8221 he insisted that 8220like generations before we must embrace America8217s singular role in the course of human events8221 He then painted this flattering word portrait of us 8220We8217re a nation that brings our enemies to justice while adhering to the rule of law and respecting the rights of all our citizens We protect our own freedom and prosperity by extending it to others We stand not for empire but for selfdetermination8230 and when our union is strong no hill is too steep no horizon is beyond our reach8230 we are bound together by the creed that is written into our founding documents and a conviction that the United States of America is a country that can achieve whatever it sets out to accomplish8221 I know I know You8217re wondering whether you just mainlined into a Sarah Palin speech and your eyes are glazing over But hang in there because that8217s just a start For example in an Obama speech of any sort what America8217s soldiers never lack is the extra adjective They aren8217t just soldiers but 8220our extraordinary men and women in uniform8221 They aren8217t just Americans but 8220patriotic Americans8221 Since when did an American president have to describe American soldiers as of all things 8220patriotic8221 And in case you missed the point that in their extraordinariness and their outsized patriotism they are better than other Americans he made sure to acknowledge them as the ones we 8220draw inspiration from8221 In a country that now 8220supports the troops8221 with bumpersticker fervor but pays next to no attention to the wars they fight perhaps Obama is simply striving to be the premier twentyfirstcentury American Still you have to wonder what such presidential fawning omnipresent enough to be boilerplate really represents The strange thing is we hear this sort of thing all the time And yet no one ever comments on it Oh and let8217s not forget that no significant White House moment ends these days without the president bestowing God8217s blessing on the globe8217s most extraordinary nation and its extraordinary fighters or as he put it in his Afghan remarks 8220May God bless our troops And may God bless the United States of America8221 The day after he revealed his drawdown plan to the nation the president traveled to Ft Drum in New York State to thank soldiers from the Army8217s 10th Mountain Division for their multiple deployments to Afghanistan Before those extraordinary and patriotic Americans he quite naturally doubled down Summoning another tic of this presidential moment and of the Bush one before it he told them that they were part of 8220the finest fighting force in the world8221 Even that evidently seemed inadequate so he upped the hyperbole 8220I have no greater job8221 he told them 8220nothing gives me more honor than serving as your commander in chief To all of you who are potentially going to be redeployed just know that your commander in chief has your back8230 God bless you God bless the United States of America climb to glory8221 As ever all of this was overlooked Nowhere did a single commentator wonder for instance whether an American president was really supposed to feel that being commander in chief offered greater 8220honor8221 than being president of a nation of citizens In another age such a statement would have registered as at best bizarre These days no one even blinks And yet who living in this riven confused semiparalyzed country of ours truly believes that in 2011 Americans can achieve whatever we set out to accomplish Who thinks that not having won a war in memory the US military is incontestably the finest fighting force now or ever and on a 8220climb to glory8221 at that or that this country is at present specially blessed by God or that ours is a mission of selfless kindheartedness on planet Earth Obama8217s remarks have no wings these days because they are ever more divorced from reality Perhaps because this president in fawning mode is such an uncomfortable sight and because Americans generally feel so illatease about their relationship to our wars however such remarks are neither attacked nor defended discussed nor debated but as if by some unspoken agreement simply ignored Here in any case is what they aren8217t effective rallying cries for a nation in need of unity Here8217s what they may be strange defensive artifacts of an imperial power in visible decline part of what might be imagined as the Great American Unraveling But hold that thought a moment After all the topic of the president8217s remarks was Afghanistan The Unreal War If Obama framed his Afghan remarks in a rhetoric of militarized supernational surrealism then what he had to say about the future of the war itself was deceptive in the extreme8212not lies perhaps but full falsehoods half told Consider just the two most important of them that his 8220surge8221 consisted only of 33000 American troops and that 8220by next summer8221 Americans are going to be so on the road to leaving Afghanistan that it isn8217t funny Unfortunately it just ain8217t so First of all the real Obama surge was minimally almost 55000 and possibly 66000 troops depending on how you count them When he came into office in January 2009 there were about 32000 American troops in Afghanistan Another 11000 had been designated to go in the last days of the Bush administration but only departed in the first Obama months In March 2009 the president announced his own 8220 new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan8221 and dispatched 21700 more troops Then in December 2009 in a televised speech to the nation from West Point he announced that another 30000 would be going With 8220support troops8221 it turned out to be 33000 In other words in September 2012 14 months from now only about half the actual troop surge of the Obama years will have been withdrawn In addition though seldom discussed the Obama 8220surge8221 was hardly restricted to troops There was a much ballyhooed 8220 civilian surge8221 of State Department and aid types that more than tripled the 8220civilian8221 effort in Afghanistan Their drawdown was recently addressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but only in the vaguest of terms Then there was a major surge of CIA personnel along with US special operations forces and there8217s no indication whatsoever that anyone in Washington intends reductions there or in the drone surge that went with it As a troop drawdown begins CIA agents those special ops forces and the drones are clearly slated to remain at or beyond a surge peak Finally there was a surge in private contractors8212hired foreign guns and hired Afghans8212tens of thousands of them It goes unmentioned as does the surge in base building which has yet to end and the surge in massive citadelstyle embassy building in the region which is assumedly ongoing All of this makes mincemeat of the idea that we are in the process of ending the Afghan war I know the president said 8220Our mission will change from combat to support By 2014 this process of transition will be complete and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security8221 And that was a foggy enough formulation that you might be forgiven for imagining more or less everything will be over 8220by 201482438212which by the way means not January 1st but December 31st of that year If what we know of US plans in Afghanistan plays out however December 31 2014 will be the date for the departure of the last of the full Obama surge of 64000 troops In other words almost five years after Obama entered office more than 13 years after the Bush administration launched its invasion we could find ourselves back to or just below something close to Bushera troop levels Tens of thousands of US forces would still be in Afghanistan some of them 8220combat troops8221 officially relabeled as in Iraq for less warlike activity All would be part of an American 8220support8221 mission that would include huge numbers of 8220trainers8221 for the Afghan security forces and also US special forces operatives and CIA types engaged in 8220counterterror8221 activities in the country and region The US general in charge of training the Afghan military recently suggested that his mission wouldn8217t be done until 2017 and no one who knows anything about the country believes that an effective Afghan Army will be in place then either In addition although the president didn8217t directly mention this in his speech the Obama administration has been involved in quiet talks with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to nail down a 8220strategic partnership8221 agreement that would allow American troops spies and air power to hunker down as 8220tenants8221 on some of the giant bases we8217ve built There they would evidently remain for years if not decades as some reports have it In other words on December 31 2014 if all goes as planned the US will be girding for years more of wildly expensive war even if in a slimmed down form This is the reality as American planners imagine it behind the president8217s speech amp160 Overstretched Empire Of course it8217s not for nothing that we regularly speak of the best laid plans going awry something that applies doubly as in Afghanistan to the worst laid plans It8217s increasingly apparent that our disastrous wars are as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry recently admitted 8220 unsustainable8221 After all just the cost of providing air conditioning to US personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan821220 billion a year8212is more than NASA8217s total budget Yes despite Washington8217s long lost dreams of a Pax Americana in the Greater Middle East some of its wars there are still being planned as if for a neareternity while others are being intensified Those wars are still fueled by overblown fears of terrorism encouraged by a National Security Complex funded to the tune of more than 12 trillion annually by an atmosphere of permanent armed crisis and run by a military that after a decade of notsocreative destruction can8217t stop doing what it knows how to do best which isn8217t winning a war Though Obama claims that the United States is no empire all of this gives modern meaning to the term 8220overstretched empire8221 And it8217s not really much of a mystery what happens to overextemded imperial powers that find themselves fighting 8220little8221 wars they can8217t win while their treasuries head south The growing unease in Washington about America8217s wars reflects a dawning sense of genuine crisis a sneaking suspicion even among hawkish Republicans that they preside ineffectually over a great power in precipitous decline Think then of the president8217s foreignpolicycumwar speeches as ever more unconvincing attempts to cover the suppurating wound that is Washington8217s global war policy If you want to take the temperature of the present crisis you can do it through Obama8217s words The less they ring true the more discordant they seem in the face of reality the more he fawns and repeats his various mantras the more uncomfortable he makes you feel the more you have the urge to look away the deeper the crisis What will he say when the Great American Unraveling truly begins Tom Engelhardt cofounder of the American Empire Project and the author of The End of Victory Culture runs the Nation Institute8217s TomDispatchcom His latest book is The American Way of War How Bush8217s Wars Became Obama8217s Haymarket Books To stay on top of important articles like these sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatchcom here | amplta/VERB hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotossoldiersmediacenter768971192ampgtThe/PROPN US/PROPN ArmyampltaampgtFlickr/PROPN This/DET story/NOUN first/ADV appeared/VERB on/ADP the/DET TomDispatch/PROPN website/NOUN It8217s/PROPN already/ADV gone/VERB having/AUX barely/ADV outlasted/VERB its/PRON moment8212just/NOUN long/ADV enough/ADV for/SCONJ the/DET media/NOUN to/PART suggest/VERB that/SCONJ no/DET one/NOUN thought/VERB it/PRON added/VERB up/ADP to/ADP much/ADV Okay/INTJ it/PRON was/AUX a/DET little/ADJ more/ADJ than/SCONJ the/DET military/NOUN wanted/VERB something/PRON less/ADJ than/ADP Joe/PROPN Biden/PROPN would/AUX have/AUX liked/VERB not/PART enough/ADJ for/ADP the/DET growing/VERB crew/NOUN of/ADP antiwar/ADJ congressional/ADJ types/NOUN but/CCONJ way/ADV too/ADV much/ADV for/ADP John/PROPN McCain/PROPN Lindsey/PROPN Graham/PROPN 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<p><a href="#one" type="external">Kenya’s Unquiet Ghosts</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Antelope or Rhino: Choose One</a></p>
<p>LAW AND JUSTICE <a type="external" href="">Kenya’s Unquiet Ghosts</a></p>
<p>Fresh from decades of strongman Daniel arap Moi’s iron-fisted rule, Kenya is looking to purge the demons of its past. As the London Guardian reports, its new leaders have announced plans to set up a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,12689,895120,00.html" type="external">truth and reconciliation commission</a>, modeled on South Africa’s efforts to confront apartheid’s legacy.</p>
<p />
<p>“‘We need to reconcile society. Revenge and recrimination or retribution will not help this country,’ Mr Odinga said after touring secret chambers used by the government of the former president Daniel arap Moi to torture dissidents.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>‘We are going to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to carry out investigations to give people an opportunity to forgive each other,’ he said. ‘It can call the present president, even the former president … to testify before it.'”</p>
<p>The country’s colonial-era ghosts, too, are being stirred up. The government has announced that the leader of the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule in the 1950s, Dedan Kimathi, will be <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/13/1044927740939.html" type="external">exhumed from his prison grave</a> and given a state funeral, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Still reviled among Kenya’s whites, the Mau Mau rebels waged an often vicious campaign against the British settler population. Authorities hung Kimathi for treason 46 years ago.</p>
<p>ENVIRONMENT <a type="external" href="">Antelope or Rhino: Choose One</a></p>
<p>Well meaning conservationists out to save the rhino have accidentally driven an Asian antelope to the <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993376" type="external">brink of extinction</a>, reports Fred Pearce in New Scientist.</p>
<p>A decade ago over a million saiga antelopes roamed the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan. The population seemed so secure that the World Wildlife Federation actively promoted using saiga horn as an alternative to the horn of endangered rhino, which is used in Chinese fever medicine. The plan worked a little too well, and poachers whittled the antelope’s number to less than 30,000. Biologists say it is the most sudden and dramatic population crash of a large mammal ever seen.</p>
<p>As conservationists now launch an emergency appeal to rescue wild herds of the saiga, WWF ecologist Esmond Martin is unapologetic.</p>
<p>“I supported the use of saiga antelope horn as a substitute for rhino horn in the early 1980’s. In my opinion it was the correct policy at the time. But I stopped around 1995, when I read about the start of the sharp decline in saiga populations.”</p>
<p><a href="#one" type="external">Undermining Organic</a> <a href="#two" type="external">The GOP’s Gun Gambit</a></p>
<p>POLITICS <a type="external" href="">Undermining Organic</a></p>
<p>An overlooked, one-sentence provision found in the gargantuan spending bill passed in Congress this Thursday would relax the USDA’s standards on organic-labeling. According to Andrew Mollison of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the clause, snuck in by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) would <a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/saturday/business_e3d40d0c430c12ff1091.html" type="external">allow organic labels to appear on meat even for livestock raised on non-organic feed</a>. Now, reports Mollison, the Bush administration and USDA are distancing themselves from the rider, even as the President is poised to sign the bill. Democrats Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) announced they would seek legislation to counteract the clause.</p>
<p>Deal’s chief of staff Chris Riley responds:</p>
<p />
<p>”The point is, if there is ample 100-percent organic feed available, and it isn’t too pricey, and that’s reported by the Agriculture Department, this language becomes null and void.”</p>
<p>An editorial for the St. Petersburg Times argues that, of all the discreet provisions slipped into the 3,000-page budget, this was one of the “sleaziest,” with <a href="http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/17/Opinion/Organic_food_s_rotten.shtml" type="external">a plan that would help “a single Georgia chicken farmer but threaten the integrity of the entire $10-billion organic food industry.”</a> Rep. Deal</p>
<p />
<p>“had tried before to undermine the rules that determine when poultry products can be advertised as organic. (The USDA organic label on meat means the animals were raised on food grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or sewage sludge and not injected with hormones or antibiotics.) Last year, Deal tried to get the Agriculture Department to make an exception for Georgia’s Fieldale Farms, allowing it to use conventional feed and still slap the organic label on its product.”</p>
<p>The Times adds that Deal, who received $4,000 in contributions from Fieldale, failed in his first attempt and, therefore, resorted to a more clandestine strategy.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">The GOP’s Gun Gambit</a></p>
<p>As it turns out, riders <a href="/news/dbriefing/2003/02/we_295_05.html" type="external">gutting environmental regulations</a> aren’t the only nasty surprises tucked into the new White House budget. As The Chicago Sun-Times‘ Lynn Sweet reports, another eleventh-hour addition to the massive spending bill would allow the government to <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cong14.html" type="external">keep secret</a> the names of gun shops whose guns were used in crimes. Oklahoma Republican Ernest Istook Jr. snuck the measure into the bill and, with the clock ticking, most expect it to pass with the rider intact. Gun control advocates like the Brady Campaign <a href="http://www.jointogether.org/gv/news/alerts/reader/0,2061,556653,%2000.html" type="external">slammed</a> Istook’s last-minute sleight of hand:</p>
<p />
<p>“‘Preventing access to ATF gun tracing and multiple sales data would make it almost impossible for the public to detect patterns in crime gun sales by specific dealers. Giving ATF such special treatment only serves to protect crooked gun dealers and to prevent victims of gun violence from seeking justice.'”</p>
<p><a href="#one" type="external">Manufactured Memories</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Stop or I’ll Shoot!</a></p>
<p>LAW AND JUSTICE <a type="external" href="">Manufactured Memories</a></p>
<p>Casting doubt on some of law enforcement’s most cherished interrogation techniques, scientists have found it frighteningly easy to plant <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=379382" type="external">false memories</a> in people’s minds.</p>
<p>As the London Independent‘s Steve Connor reports, researchers convinced nearly 40 percent of test subjects that they shook hands with Bugs Bunny while on a childhood visit to Disneyland — an impossibility, of course, because Bugs is owned by a rival corporation. According to the lead researcher, the study shows how easily the mind can be manipulated, and how easy it is for police to persuade people they have seen things they didn’t.</p>
<p />
<p>“‘There are some methods of interrogation that are unwittingly or even deliberately suggestive. But there are some situations where law enforcement agencies essentially lie to people that they are interviewing. They say things like “another witness claims to have seen you there” … some sort of lies that they think will lead to a confession,’ she said.”</p>
<p />
<p>ENVIRONMENT <a type="external" href="">Stop or I’ll Shoot!</a></p>
<p>Activists are fighting a federal policy that <a href="http://www.wweek.com/flatfiles/News3625.lasso" type="external">traps and kills bears</a> that damage trees in private timberlands in Oregon, The Willamette Week‘s Taylor Clark reports. Timber harvesters claim that the bears cause significant harm to the trees, reducing the value of their investment, while conservationists say the government should not be spending federal money to kill bears.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, timber companies contacted the Agriculture Department about black bears eating bark off the trees for the sap, and damaging their harvest. Known as girdling, bears can kill a tree or slow its growth rate and cause pest infestations. Conservationists say there are non-lethal ways to keep bears from eating and destroying trees, such as pruning the trees, making sure other food sources such as berries are plentiful and maintaining areas with tree diversity. In any case, critics ask, why should taxpayers foot the bill?</p>
<p />
<p>“‘Any corporation should plan on having certain losses,’ Thieme protests. ‘Why aren’t these services being paid for directly? These funds come from you and me.'”</p>
<p><a href="#one" type="external">A Dove in the Mix</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Confronting Child Prostitution</a> <a href="#three" type="external">Fight or Flight?</a></p>
<p>POLITICS <a type="external" href="">A Dove in the Mix</a></p>
<p>The “six-pack” of Democratic candidates for president in 2004 is rapidly growing, with a pool that now include its first potential anti-war hero. Glen Johnson reports in the Boston Globe, that <a href="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/050/nation/Storm_cleanup_delays_growth_of_a_crowded_Democratic_field+.shtml" type="external">Ohio Representative Dennis J. Kucinich and former senator Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois are the next hopefuls to join the fray, as numbers seven and eight, respectively</a>. Moseley-Braun would become not only the lone woman in the group, but the lone black woman. Kucinich, celebrated by the left for his vocal opposition to war in Iraq, bills himself as “an FDR Democrat,” who is will bring the party back to its populist roots.</p>
<p>Not only celebrated for his stance on the war, asserts John Nichols in the Madison Capital Times, Kucinich is also <a href="http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=tct:2003:02:18:199717:EDITORIAL" type="external">a leader in efforts to modernize food labels</a>. He has been</p>
<p />
<p>“the most outspoken advocate in Congress for labeling food products that have been genetically altered or that contain genetically modified organisms.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>By framing the debate over food labeling as a battle between farmers and consumers on one side and agribusiness conglomerates that oppose labeling and other forms of regulation on the other, Kucinich could push the dialogue about food safety and food quality to a point where it has never before been in presidential politics.”</p>
<p>Additionally, the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s Tom Diemer notes that, with the congressman’s move to run, he has made <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1045488643215370.xml" type="external">an about-face from his previous opposition to abortion rights for women</a>. In campaign stops in Iowa this week, Kucinich announced his decision to be a pro-choice candidate. Up until now in Congress, he has “generally voted against abortion rights,” observes Diemer, “and has consistently opposed federal funding of abortion for poor women, a record he acknowledged at a later stop in Iowa City.”</p>
<p>Diemer suggests that Kucinich’s “evolution appeared to recognize that an anti-abortion position would hurt him in early presidential primaries.”</p>
<p>GLOBAL ECONOMY <a type="external" href="">Confronting Child Prostitution</a></p>
<p>Long a hub for the international drug trade, post-apartheid South Africa has also become a center for the child sex market, according to a new United Nations study.</p>
<p>As the Associated Press reports, the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town are now <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&amp;cid=553&amp;ncid=751&amp;e=%209&amp;u=/ap/20030218/ap_wo_en_he/af_gen_un_south_africa_child_abuse" type="external">awash in child prostitutes</a>, who hail from across Africa and as far afield as Eastern Europe and Thailand. The causes, the report concludes, are as varied as the victims: endemic poverty, widespread hunger and apartheid’s brutal legacy have all combined with geography to make South Africa a locus for one of globalization’s most sinister side-effects.</p>
<p />
<p>“‘Hatred has accumulated. Violence has accumulated. The traditional relations of family harmony were seriously damaged by decades of oppression and contempt, and their present manifestations in devious forms are shocking,’ the report said.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, for the first time ever, the Russian parliament is mulling laws aimed at <a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/02/19/002.html" type="external">outlawing human trafficking and slavery</a>, The Moscow Times‘ Nabi Abdullaev reports. It’s no secret that Russian gangs control much of the global sex trade and, a parliament member notes, the new legislation would be a long-overdue first step in confronting the problem.</p>
<p />
<p>“‘This is a very serious problem for Russia, which has became an active supplier of slaves to customers here and in foreign countries,’ she said in an interview Tuesday. ‘Slaves are used on farms and they are forced to work as prostitutes. Women are forced to bear babies for childless couples.'”</p>
<p />
<p>GLOBAL ECONOMY <a type="external" href="">Fight or Flight?</a></p>
<p>Aerospace behemoth Boeing is moving away from commercial manufacturing in favor of taxpayer-supported defense contracting, Daniel Gross of Slate reports. In the wake of Sept. 11, Boeing, once largely supported by sales of commmercial jetliners, now relies heavily on the military and pentagon for funding — a move Gross refers to as <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2078812/" type="external">“a stealth government bailout.”</a> He finds that commercial sales have decreased sharply since 1999, while defense contracts now account for over half of the company’s revenues, making Boeing the nation’s second-largest defense contractor.</p>
<p>Current proposed revenue sources include the use of Boeing’s satellite technology for smart bombs and a Pentagon budget proposal to lease Boeing 767’s as refueling tankers opposed by several lawmakers, including John McCain, who alleges that doling out money to the aviation giant “has nothing to do with national defense and everything to do with taking care of Boeing.”</p>
<p>According to Gross,</p>
<p />
<p>“[t]he $27 billion proposal raised the ire of both Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels and Sen. John McCain. After all, the military typically doesn’t lease airplanes, especially ones that can last a few decades. And it would plainly be cheaper to improve existing tankers.”</p>
<p><a href="#one" type="external">Upending Africa’s AIDS Equation</a> <a href="#two" type="external">Return of the Sioux</a> <a href="#three" type="external">Bush Stymies WTO Drug Talks</a></p>
<p>HEALTH <a type="external" href="">Upending Africa’s AIDS Equation</a></p>
<p>Since the 1980s, conventional wisdom has held that unsafe sex fueled HIV’s spread across Africa, the disease borne along by long-distance truck drivers, roadside prostitutes and poor, uneducated populations. A new study, however, suggests that this oft-repeated story may be <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,899621,00.html" type="external">more myth than reality</a>, the London Guardian reports.</p>
<p>Indeed, researchers now say that unsafe sex — previously thought to account for 90 percent of all African HIV cases — is the cause of only about one third of infections. Instead, these experts say, health care practices like reusing dirty needles are far bigger culprits than anyone had imagined. While the study’s conclusions are highly controversial, they could lead to huge changes in the way Africa combats the AIDS epidemic.</p>
<p />
<p>“Dr Gisselquist said that he had found no reliable study to back up the 1988 estimate that 90% of HIV infections were sexually transmitted. He added that the figure ‘did not fit the data available at the time’, and suggested epidemiology and propaganda had become entwined.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>They said that their findings have ‘major ramifications for current and future HIV control in Africa, whose focus has been almost exclusively on sexual risk reduction and condom use.'”</p>
<p />
<p>US NEWS <a type="external" href="">Return of the Sioux</a></p>
<p>In a surprising and perhaps unprecedented development, many American Indians are returning to the Plains of their ancestors. Laurent Belsie reports in the Christian Science Monitor that <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0220/p01s02-ussc.html" type="external">Lakota Sioux are migrating back to South Dakota — from all corners of the country — in significant numbers</a>, repopulating the American frontier as whites continue to thin their own ranks.</p>
<p>“Just as the buffalo are returning to the rural Great Plains,” observes Belsie, “native Americans are staging a dramatic demographic comeback – thanks to high birthrates and the return of many who want to reconnect with their land and culture.” South Dakota’s Sioux population has nearly doubled since 1990, growing at a rate nearly four times the national growth rate.</p>
<p>The influx, suggests Belsie, defies economic logic, as most of the Indian reservations are beset by rampant poverty and unemployment rates at around 10 percent, with limited opportunity on the horizon. The trend, rather, comes from a desire among Lakota to reconnect with their culture. And, as the Lakota return, many are engaging in buffalo ranching, a practise more cultural and environmental than economic.</p>
<p>According to the 2000 federal census, <a href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bf/_lang=en_vt_name=DEC_2000_PL_U_QTPL_geo_id=04000US46.html" type="external">American Indians number more than 62,000 in South Dakota</a>, almost 9 percent of the total population.</p>
<p>GLOBAL ECONOMY <a type="external" href="">Bush Stymies WTO Drug Talks</a></p>
<p>World Trade Organization efforts to provide impoverished countries with access to inexpensive drugs have been inhibited by the Bush administration’s backing of the pharmaceutical industry, the London Guardian‘s Charlotte Denny reports. At this week’s conference in Geneva, the US blocked the required unanimous approval for the organization’s drug proposal when American representatives <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,898527,00.html" type="external">balked</a> at allowing under-developed countries the right to import generic versions of patented medications.</p>
<p>Currently, manufacturers of generic drugs in developing countries can mass produce inexpensive versions of patented medicines — in order to treat such illnesses as AIDS and tuberculosis — after paying a fee to the drugs’ initial producer. But countries without manufacturing ability are restricted by strict import laws. The US and its heavily-funded pharmaceutical lobby remain adamant that loosening these restrictions would “help generics manufacturers in India and Brazil to steal their markets,” Denny writes.</p>
<p /> | Mother Jones Daily: Briefing | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/02/mother-jones-daily-briefing-9/ | 2003-02-17 | 4left
| 2,507 | Kenya8217s Unquiet Ghosts Antelope or Rhino Choose One LAW AND JUSTICE Kenya8217s Unquiet Ghosts Fresh from decades of strongman Daniel arap Moi8217s ironfisted rule Kenya is looking to purge the demons of its past As the London Guardian reports its new leaders have announced plans to set up a truth and reconciliation commission modeled on South Africa8217s efforts to confront apartheid8217s legacy 82208216We need to reconcile society Revenge and recrimination or retribution will not help this country8217 Mr Odinga said after touring secret chambers used by the government of the former president Daniel arap Moi to torture dissidents 8230 8216We are going to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to carry out investigations to give people an opportunity to forgive each other8217 he said 8216It can call the present president even the former president 8230 to testify before it8221 The country8217s colonialera ghosts too are being stirred up The government has announced that the leader of the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule in the 1950s Dedan Kimathi will be exhumed from his prison grave and given a state funeral The Sydney Morning Herald reports Still reviled among Kenya8217s whites the Mau Mau rebels waged an often vicious campaign against the British settler population Authorities hung Kimathi for treason 46 years ago ENVIRONMENT Antelope or Rhino Choose One Well meaning conservationists out to save the rhino have accidentally driven an Asian antelope to the brink of extinction reports Fred Pearce in New Scientist A decade ago over a million saiga antelopes roamed the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan The population seemed so secure that the World Wildlife Federation actively promoted using saiga horn as an alternative to the horn of endangered rhino which is used in Chinese fever medicine The plan worked a little too well and poachers whittled the antelope8217s number to less than 30000 Biologists say it is the most sudden and dramatic population crash of a large mammal ever seen As conservationists now launch an emergency appeal to rescue wild herds of the saiga WWF ecologist Esmond Martin is unapologetic 8220I supported the use of saiga antelope horn as a substitute for rhino horn in the early 19808217s In my opinion it was the correct policy at the time But I stopped around 1995 when I read about the start of the sharp decline in saiga populations8221 Undermining Organic The GOP8217s Gun Gambit POLITICS Undermining Organic An overlooked onesentence provision found in the gargantuan spending bill passed in Congress this Thursday would relax the USDA8217s standards on organiclabeling According to Andrew Mollison of the Atlanta JournalConstitution the clause snuck in by Rep Nathan Deal RGa would allow organic labels to appear on meat even for livestock raised on nonorganic feed Now reports Mollison the Bush administration and USDA are distancing themselves from the rider even as the President is poised to sign the bill Democrats Sen Patrick Leahy DVt and Rep Sam Farr DCalif announced they would seek legislation to counteract the clause Deal8217s chief of staff Chris Riley responds 8221The point is if there is ample 100percent organic feed available and it isn8217t too pricey and that8217s reported by the Agriculture Department this language becomes null and void8221 An editorial for the St Petersburg Times argues that of all the discreet provisions slipped into the 3000page budget this was one of the 8220sleaziest8221 with a plan that would help 8220a single Georgia chicken farmer but threaten the integrity of the entire 10billion organic food industry8221 Rep Deal 8220had tried before to undermine the rules that determine when poultry products can be advertised as organic The USDA organic label on meat means the animals were raised on food grown without pesticides synthetic fertilizers or sewage sludge and not injected with hormones or antibiotics Last year Deal tried to get the Agriculture Department to make an exception for Georgia8217s Fieldale Farms allowing it to use conventional feed and still slap the organic label on its product8221 The Times adds that Deal who received 4000 in contributions from Fieldale failed in his first attempt and therefore resorted to a more clandestine strategy The GOP8217s Gun Gambit As it turns out riders gutting environmental regulations aren8217t the only nasty surprises tucked into the new White House budget As The Chicago SunTimes8216 Lynn Sweet reports another eleventhhour addition to the massive spending bill would allow the government to keep secret the names of gun shops whose guns were used in crimes Oklahoma Republican Ernest Istook Jr snuck the measure into the bill and with the clock ticking most expect it to pass with the rider intact Gun control advocates like the Brady Campaign slammed Istook8217s lastminute sleight of hand 82208216Preventing access to ATF gun tracing and multiple sales data would make it almost impossible for the public to detect patterns in crime gun sales by specific dealers Giving ATF such special treatment only serves to protect crooked gun dealers and to prevent victims of gun violence from seeking justice8221 Manufactured Memories Stop or I8217ll Shoot LAW AND JUSTICE Manufactured Memories Casting doubt on some of law enforcement8217s most cherished interrogation techniques scientists have found it frighteningly easy to plant false memories in people8217s minds As the London Independent8216s Steve Connor reports researchers convinced nearly 40 percent of test subjects that they shook hands with Bugs Bunny while on a childhood visit to Disneyland 8212 an impossibility of course because Bugs is owned by a rival corporation According to the lead researcher the study shows how easily the mind can be manipulated and how easy it is for police to persuade people they have seen things they didn8217t 82208216There are some methods of interrogation that are unwittingly or even deliberately suggestive But there are some situations where law enforcement agencies essentially lie to people that they are interviewing They say things like 8220another witness claims to have seen you there8221 8230 some sort of lies that they think will lead to a confession8217 she said8221 ENVIRONMENT Stop or I8217ll Shoot Activists are fighting a federal policy that traps and kills bears that damage trees in private timberlands in Oregon The Willamette Week8216s Taylor Clark reports Timber harvesters claim that the bears cause significant harm to the trees reducing the value of their investment while conservationists say the government should not be spending federal money to kill bears In the 1980s timber companies contacted the Agriculture Department about black bears eating bark off the trees for the sap and damaging their harvest Known as girdling bears can kill a tree or slow its growth rate and cause pest infestations Conservationists say there are nonlethal ways to keep bears from eating and destroying trees such as pruning the trees making sure other food sources such as berries are plentiful and maintaining areas with tree diversity In any case critics ask why should taxpayers foot the bill 82208216Any corporation should plan on having certain losses8217 Thieme protests 8216Why aren8217t these services being paid for directly These funds come from you and me8221 A Dove in the Mix Confronting Child Prostitution Fight or Flight POLITICS A Dove in the Mix The 8220sixpack8221 of Democratic candidates for president in 2004 is rapidly growing with a pool that now include its first potential antiwar hero Glen Johnson reports in the Boston Globe that Ohio Representative Dennis J Kucinich and former senator Carol MoseleyBraun of Illinois are the next hopefuls to join the fray as numbers seven and eight respectively MoseleyBraun would become not only the lone woman in the group but the lone black woman Kucinich celebrated by the left for his vocal opposition to war in Iraq bills himself as 8220an FDR Democrat8221 who is will bring the party back to its populist roots Not only celebrated for his stance on the war asserts John Nichols in the Madison Capital Times Kucinich is also a leader in efforts to modernize food labels He has been 8220the most outspoken advocate in Congress for labeling food products that have been genetically altered or that contain genetically modified organisms 8230 By framing the debate over food labeling as a battle between farmers and consumers on one side and agribusiness conglomerates that oppose labeling and other forms of regulation on the other Kucinich could push the dialogue about food safety and food quality to a point where it has never before been in presidential politics8221 Additionally the Cleveland Plain Dealer8216s Tom Diemer notes that with the congressman8217s move to run he has made an aboutface from his previous opposition to abortion rights for women In campaign stops in Iowa this week Kucinich announced his decision to be a prochoice candidate Up until now in Congress he has 8220generally voted against abortion rights8221 observes Diemer 8220and has consistently opposed federal funding of abortion for poor women a record he acknowledged at a later stop in Iowa City8221 Diemer suggests that Kucinich8217s 8220evolution appeared to recognize that an antiabortion position would hurt him in early presidential primaries8221 GLOBAL ECONOMY Confronting Child Prostitution Long a hub for the international drug trade postapartheid South Africa has also become a center for the child sex market according to a new United Nations study As the Associated Press reports the streets of Johannesburg and Cape Town are now awash in child prostitutes who hail from across Africa and as far afield as Eastern Europe and Thailand The causes the report concludes are as varied as the victims endemic poverty widespread hunger and apartheid8217s brutal legacy have all combined with geography to make South Africa a locus for one of globalization8217s most sinister sideeffects 82208216Hatred has accumulated Violence has accumulated The traditional relations of family harmony were seriously damaged by decades of oppression and contempt and their present manifestations in devious forms are shocking8217 the report said8221 Meanwhile for the first time ever the Russian parliament is mulling laws aimed at outlawing human trafficking and slavery The Moscow Times8216 Nabi Abdullaev reports It8217s no secret that Russian gangs control much of the global sex trade and a parliament member notes the new legislation would be a longoverdue first step in confronting the problem 82208216This is a very serious problem for Russia which has became an active supplier of slaves to customers here and in foreign countries8217 she said in an interview Tuesday 8216Slaves are used on farms and they are forced to work as prostitutes Women are forced to bear babies for childless couples8221 GLOBAL ECONOMY Fight or Flight Aerospace behemoth Boeing is moving away from commercial manufacturing in favor of taxpayersupported defense contracting Daniel Gross of Slate reports In the wake of Sept 11 Boeing once largely supported by sales of commmercial jetliners now relies heavily on the military and pentagon for funding 8212 a move Gross refers to as 8220a stealth government bailout8221 He finds that commercial sales have decreased sharply since 1999 while defense contracts now account for over half of the company8217s revenues making Boeing the nation8217s secondlargest defense contractor Current proposed revenue sources include the use of Boeing8217s satellite technology for smart bombs and a Pentagon budget proposal to lease Boeing 7678217s as refueling tankers opposed by several lawmakers including John McCain who alleges that doling out money to the aviation giant 8220has nothing to do with national defense and everything to do with taking care of Boeing8221 According to Gross 8220the 27 billion proposal raised the ire of both Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels and Sen John McCain After all the military typically doesn8217t lease airplanes especially ones that can last a few decades And it would plainly be cheaper to improve existing tankers8221 Upending Africa8217s AIDS Equation Return of the Sioux Bush Stymies WTO Drug Talks HEALTH Upending Africa8217s AIDS Equation Since the 1980s conventional wisdom has held that unsafe sex fueled HIV8217s spread across Africa the disease borne along by longdistance truck drivers roadside prostitutes and poor uneducated populations A new study however suggests that this oftrepeated story may be more myth than reality the London Guardian reports Indeed researchers now say that unsafe sex 8212 previously thought to account for 90 percent of all African HIV cases 8212 is the cause of only about one third of infections Instead these experts say health care practices like reusing dirty needles are far bigger culprits than anyone had imagined While the study8217s conclusions are highly controversial they could lead to huge changes in the way Africa combats the AIDS epidemic 8220Dr Gisselquist said that he had found no reliable study to back up the 1988 estimate that 90 of HIV infections were sexually transmitted He added that the figure 8216did not fit the data available at the time8217 and suggested epidemiology and propaganda had become entwined 8230 They said that their findings have 8216major ramifications for current and future HIV control in Africa whose focus has been almost exclusively on sexual risk reduction and condom use8221 US NEWS Return of the Sioux In a surprising and perhaps unprecedented development many American Indians are returning to the Plains of their ancestors Laurent Belsie reports in the Christian Science Monitor that Lakota Sioux are migrating back to South Dakota 8212 from all corners of the country 8212 in significant numbers repopulating the American frontier as whites continue to thin their own ranks 8220Just as the buffalo are returning to the rural Great Plains8221 observes Belsie 8220native Americans are staging a dramatic demographic comeback 8211 thanks to high birthrates and the return of many who want to reconnect with their land and culture8221 South Dakota8217s Sioux population has nearly doubled since 1990 growing at a rate nearly four times the national growth rate The influx suggests Belsie defies economic logic as most of the Indian reservations are beset by rampant poverty and unemployment rates at around 10 percent with limited opportunity on the horizon The trend rather comes from a desire among Lakota to reconnect with their culture And as the Lakota return many are engaging in buffalo ranching a practise more cultural and environmental than economic According to the 2000 federal census American Indians number more than 62000 in South Dakota almost 9 percent of the total population GLOBAL ECONOMY Bush Stymies WTO Drug Talks World Trade Organization efforts to provide impoverished countries with access to inexpensive drugs have been inhibited by the Bush administration8217s backing of the pharmaceutical industry the London Guardian8216s Charlotte Denny reports At this week8217s conference in Geneva the US blocked the required unanimous approval for the organization8217s drug proposal when American representatives balked at allowing underdeveloped countries the right to import generic versions of patented medications Currently manufacturers of generic drugs in developing countries can mass produce inexpensive versions of patented medicines 8212 in order to treat such illnesses as AIDS and tuberculosis 8212 after paying a fee to the drugs8217 initial producer But countries without manufacturing ability are restricted by strict import laws The US and its heavilyfunded pharmaceutical lobby remain adamant that loosening these restrictions would 8220help generics manufacturers in India and Brazil to steal their markets8221 Denny writes | Kenya8217s/PROPN Unquiet/PROPN Ghosts/PROPN Antelope/PROPN or/CCONJ Rhino/PROPN Choose/VERB One/NUM LAW/NOUN AND/CCONJ JUSTICE/NOUN Kenya8217s/PROPN Unquiet/PROPN Ghosts/PROPN Fresh/PROPN from/ADP decades/NOUN of/ADP strongman/NOUN Daniel/PROPN arap/PROPN Moi8217s/PROPN ironfisted/ADJ rule/NOUN Kenya/PROPN is/AUX looking/VERB to/PART purge/VERB the/DET demons/NOUN of/ADP its/PRON past/NOUN As/SCONJ the/DET London/PROPN Guardian/PROPN reports/VERB its/PRON new/ADJ leaders/NOUN have/AUX announced/VERB plans/NOUN to/PART set/VERB up/ADP a/DET truth/NOUN and/CCONJ reconciliation/NOUN commission/NOUN modeled/VERB on/ADP South/ADJ Africa8217s/ADJ efforts/NOUN to/PART confront/VERB apartheid8217s/NUM legacy/NOUN 82208216We/NUM need/NOUN to/PART reconcile/VERB society/NOUN Revenge/PROPN and/CCONJ recrimination/NOUN or/CCONJ retribution/NOUN will/AUX not/PART help/VERB this/DET country8217/NOUN Mr/PROPN Odinga/PROPN said/VERB after/ADP touring/VERB secret/ADJ chambers/NOUN 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<p>Robert MacLean lost his job for leaking "classified" government documents—that only became classified after he was fired.Mark Avery/ZUMA</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175814/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>The Obama administration has just opened a new front in its ongoing&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175719/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_obama's_war_on_whistleblowers_finds_another_target/" type="external">war on whistleblowers</a>. It’s taking its case against one man, former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Air Marshal Robert MacLean, all the way to the Supreme Court. So hold on, because we’re going back down the rabbit hole with the Most Transparent Administration ever.</p>
<p>Despite&#160; <a href="http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/06/16/going-through-the-proper-channels-to-blow-the-whistle-on-secret-surveillance-programs/" type="external">all the talk</a>&#160;by Washington insiders about how whistleblowers like Edward Snowden should work through the system rather than bring their concerns directly into the public sphere, MacLean is living proof of the hell of trying to do so. Through the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice (DOJ) wants to use MacLean’s case to further limit what kinds of information can qualify for statutory whistleblowing protections. If the DOJ gets its way, only information that the government thinks is appropriate—a contradiction in terms when it comes to whistleblowing—could be revealed. Such a restriction would gut the legal protections of the Whistleblower Protection Act and have a chilling effect on future acts of conscience.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175814/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Having lost its case against MacLean in the lower courts, the DOJ is&#160; <a href="http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/2013/2pet/7pet/2013-0894.pet.aa.pdf" type="external">seeking</a>&#160;to win in front of the Supreme Court. If heard by the Supremes—and there’s no guarantee of that—this would represent that body’s first&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/supreme-court-considers-whistleblower-protections_n_4262447.html" type="external">federal</a>&#160;whistleblower case of the post-9/11 era. And if it were to rule for the government, even more information about an out-of-control executive branch will disappear under the dark umbrella of “national security.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, should the court rule against the government, or simply turn down the case, whistleblowers like MacLean will secure a little more protection than they’ve had so far in the Obama years. Either way, an important message will be sent at a moment when revelations of government wrongdoing have moved from the status of obscure issue to front-page news.</p>
<p>The issues in the MacLean case—who is entitled to whistleblower protection, what use can be made of retroactive classification to hide previously unclassified information, how many informal classification categories the government can create bureaucratically, and what role the Constitution and the Supreme Court have in all this–are arcane and complex. But stay with me. Understanding the depths to which the government is willing to sink to punish one man who blew the whistle tells us the world about Washington these days and, as they say, the devil is in the details.</p>
<p>Robert MacLean, Whistleblower</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175697/" type="external">MacLean’s case</a> is simple—and complicated.</p>
<p>Here’s the simple part: MacLean was an air marshal, flying armed aboard American aircraft as the last defense against a terror attack. In July 2003, all air marshals received a briefing about a possible hijacking plot. Soon after, the TSA, which oversees the marshals, sent an unencrypted, open-air text message to their cell phones cancelling several months of missions for cost-cutting reasons. Fearing that such cancelations in the midst of a hijacking alert might create a dangerous situation for the flying public, MacLean worked his way through the system. He first brought his concerns to his supervisor and then to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. Each responded that nothing could be done.</p>
<p>After hitting a dead end, and hoping that public pressure might force the TSA to change its policy, MacLean talked anonymously to a reporter who broadcast a critical story. After 11 members of Congress pitched in, the TSA reversed itself. A year later, MacLean appeared on TV in disguise to criticize agency dress and boarding policies that he felt made it easier for passengers to recognize marshals who work undercover. (On your next flight keep an eye out for the young man in khakis with a fanny pack and a large watch, often wearing a baseball cap and eyeing boarders from a first class seat.) This time the TSA recognized MacLean’s voice and discovered that he had also released the unclassified 2003 text message. He was fired in April 2006.</p>
<p>When MacLean contested his dismissal through internal government channels, he discovered that, months after firing him, the TSA had retroactively classified the text message he had leaked. Leaking classified documents is more than cause enough to fire a federal worker, and that might have been the end of it. MacLean, however, was no typical cubicle-dwelling federal employee. An Air Force veteran, he asserted his status as a <a href="http://www.osc.gov/documents/pubs/post_wbr.htm" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.osc.gov/documents/pubs/post_wbr.htm" type="external">protected whistleblower</a> and has spent the last seven years marching through the system trying to get his job back.</p>
<p>How Everything in Government Became Classified</p>
<p>The text message MacLean leaked was retroactively classified as “security sensitive information” (SSI), a designation that had been around for years but whose usage the TSA only codified via <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/foia/mgmt_directive_110561_sensitive_security_information.pdf" type="external">memo</a> in November 2003. When it comes to made-up classifications, that agency’s set of them proved to be only one of <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg35279/pdf/CHRG-110hhrg35279.pdf" type="external">28 known</a> versions that now exist within the government bureaucracy. In truth, no one is sure how many varieties of <a href="http://www.llrx.com/features/whistleblowing.htm" type="external">pseudo-classifications</a> even exist under those multiple policies, or how many documents they cover as there are no established <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg35279/pdf/CHRG-110hhrg35279.pdf" type="external">reporting requirements</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805096817/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />By law there are officially only three levels of governmental classification: confidential, secret, and top secret. Other indicators, such as <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=NOFORN" type="external">NOFORN</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information_in_the_United_States#Handling_caveats" type="external">ORCON</a>, seen for instance on some of the NSA documents Edward Snowden released, are called “handling instructions,” although they, too, function as unofficial categories of classification. Each of the three levels of official classification has its own <a href="https://www.fas.org/sgp/library/quist2/chap_7.html" type="external">formal definition</a> and criteria for use. It is theoretically possible to question the level of classification of a document. However much they may be ignored, there are standards for their <a href="http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20050302/" type="external">declassification</a> and various supervisors can also shift levels of classification as a final report, memo, or briefing takes shape. The system is designed, at least in theory and occasionally in practice, to have some modicum of accountability and reviewability.</p>
<p>The government’s post-9/11 desire to classify more and more information ran head on into the limits of classification as enacted by Congress. The response by various agencies was to invent a proliferation of designations like SSI that would sweep unclassified information under the umbrella of classification and confer on ever more unclassified information a (sort of) classified status. In the case of the TSA, the agency even admits on its own website that a document with an SSI stamp is <a href="http://www.tsa.gov/stakeholders/ssi-frequently-asked-questions" type="external">unclassified</a>, but prohibits its disclosure anyway.</p>
<p>Imagine the equivalent at home: you arbitrarily establish a classification called Spouse Sensitive Information that prohibits your partner from seeing the family bank statements. And if all this is starting to make no sense, then you can better understand the topsy-turvy world Robert MacLean found himself in.</p>
<p>MacLean Wins a Battle in Court</p>
<p>In 2013, after a long series of civil service and legal wrangles, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down a <a href="http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/11-3231.Opinion.4-24-2013.1.PDF" type="external">decision</a> confirming the government’s right to retroactively classify information. This may make some sense–if you squint hard enough from a Washington perspective. Imagine a piece of innocuous information already released that later takes on national security significance. A retroactive classification can’t get the toothpaste back in the tube, but bureaucratically speaking it would at least prevent more toothpaste from being squeezed out. The same ruling, of course, could also be misused to ensnare someone like MacLean who shared unclassified information.</p>
<p>The court also decided that, retrospective classification or not, MacLean was indeed entitled to protection under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower_Protection_Act" type="external">Whistleblower Protection Act</a> of 1989. That act generally limits its protections to “ <a href="http://www.osc.gov/documents/pubs/post_wbr.htm" type="external">disclosures not specifically prohibited by law</a>,” typically held to mean unclassified material. This, the court insisted, was the category MacLean fit into and so could not be fired. The court avoided the question of whether or not someone could be fired for disclosing retroactively classified information and focused on whether a made-up category like SSI was “classified” at all.</p>
<p>The court affirmed that laws passed by Congress creating formal classifications like “top secret” trump regulations made up by executive branch bureaucrats. In other words, as the Constitution intended, the legislative branch makes the laws and serves as a check and balance on the executive branch. Congress says what is classified and that say-so cannot be modified via an executive branch memo. One of MacLean’s <a href="http://www.whistleblower.org/" type="external">lawyers</a> <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175697/" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175697/" type="external">hailed</a> the court’s decision as restoring “enforceability for the Whistleblower Protection Act’s public free speech rights. It ruled that only Congress has the authority to remove whistleblower rights. Agency-imposed restraints are not relevant for whistleblower protection rights.”</p>
<p>The ruling made it clear that the TSA had fired MacLean in retaliation for a legally protected act of whistleblowing. He should have been offered his job back the next day.</p>
<p>Not a Happy Ending But a Sad New Beginning</p>
<p>No such luck. Instead, on January 27, 2014, the Department of Justice <a href="http://whistleblowingtoday.org/2014/01/breaking-doj-petitions-us-supreme-court-review-of-maclean-whistleblower-case/" type="external">petitioned</a> the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s decision. If it has its way, the next time a troublesome whistleblower emerges, the executive need only retroactively slap a non-reviewable pseudo-classification on whatever information has been revealed and fire the employee. The department is, then, asking the Supreme Court to grant the executive branch the practical power to decide whether or not a whistleblower is entitled to legal protection. The chilling effect is obvious.</p>
<p>In addition, the mere fact that the DOJ is seeking to bring the case via a petition is significant. Such petitions, called writs of certiorari, or certs, ask that the Supreme Court overturn a lower court’s decision. Through the cert process, the court sets its own agenda. Some <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/faq.aspx" type="external">10,000 certs</a> are submitted in a typical year. Most lack merit and are quickly set aside without comment. Typically, fewer than 100 of those 10,000 are chosen to move forward for a possibly precedent-setting decision. However, only a tiny number of all the certs filed are initiated by the government; on average, just <a href="http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/wp-content/uploads/schools/law/bclawreview/pdf/51_5/01_cordray.pdf" type="external">15</a> in a Supreme Court term.</p>
<p>It’s undoubtedly a measure of the importance the Obama administration gives to preserving secrecy above all else that it has chosen to take such an aggressive stance against MacLean—especially given the desperately low odds of success. It will be several months before we know whether the court will hear the case.</p>
<p>This Is War</p>
<p>MacLean is simply trying to get his old air marshal job back by proving he was wrongly fired for an act of whistleblowing. For the rest of us, however, this is about much more than where MacLean goes to work.</p>
<p>The Obama administration’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175500/" type="external">attacks</a> on whistleblowers are well documented. It has charged more of them— <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175812/tomgram%3A_karen_greenberg%2C_obama%27s_commandments/" type="external">seven</a>—under the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175500/" type="external">Espionage Act</a> than all past presidencies combined. In addition, it recently pressured State Department whistleblower Stephen Kim into a <a href="https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2014/02/guilty-plea-fox-news-leak-case-shows-why-espionage-act-prosecutions-are-inherently" type="external">guilty plea</a> (in return for a lighter sentence) by threatening him with the full force of that act. His case was even more controversial because the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/07/us-usa-security-kim-idUSBREA161JH20140207" type="external">FBI named</a> Fox News’s James Rosen as a co-conspirator for receiving information from Kim as part of his job as a journalist. None of this is accidental, coincidental, or haphazard. It’s a pattern. And it’s meant to be. This is war.</p>
<p>MacLean’s case is one more battle in that war. By taking the extraordinary step of going to the Supreme Court, the executive branch wants, by fiat, to be able to turn an unclassified but embarrassing disclosure today into a prohibited act tomorrow, and then use that to get rid of an employee. They are, in essence, putting whistleblowers in the untenable position of having to predict the future. The intent is clearly to silence them before they speak on the theory that the easiest leak to stop is the one that never happens. A frightened, cowed workforce is likely to be one result; another–falling into the category of unintended consequences–might be to force more potential whistleblowers to take the Manning/Snowden path.</p>
<p>The case against MacLean also represents an attempt to broaden executive power in another way. At the moment, only Congress can “prohibit actions under the law,” something unique to it under the Constitution. In its case against MacLean, the Justice Department seeks to establish the right of the executive and its agencies to create their own pseudo-categories of classification that can be used to prohibit actions not otherwise prohibited by law. In other words, it wants to trump Congress. Regulation made by memo would then stand above the law in prosecuting–or effectively persecuting–whistleblowers. A person of conscience like MacLean could be run out of his job by a memo.</p>
<p>In seeking to claim more power over whistleblowers, the executive also seeks to overturn another principle of law that goes by the term ex post facto. Laws are implemented on a certain day and at a certain time. Long-held practice says that one cannot be punished later for an act that was legal when it happened. Indeed, ex post facto criminal laws are expressly forbidden by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law" type="external">Constitution</a>. This prohibition was written in direct response to the injustices of British rule at a time when Parliamentary laws could indeed criminalize actions retrospectively. While some leeway exists today in the US for ex post facto actions in <a href="http://www.casebriefsummary.com/calder-v-bull/" type="external">civil</a> cases and when it comes to <a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14879258853492825339&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr" type="external">sex crimes</a> against children, the issue as it affects whistleblowers brushes heavily against the Constitution and, in a broader sense, against what is right and necessary in a democracy.</p>
<p>When a government is of, by, and for the people, when an educated citizenry (in Thomas Jefferson’s <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/101727376" type="external">words</a>) is essential to a democracy, it is imperative that we all know what the government does in our name. How else can we determine how to vote, who to support, or what to oppose? Whistleblowers play a crucial role in this process. When the government willfully seeks to conceal its actions, someone is required to step up and act with courage and selflessness.</p>
<p>That our current government has been willing to fight for more than seven years–maybe all the way to the Supreme Court–to weaken legal whistleblowing protections tells a tale of our times. That it seeks to silence whistleblowers at a moment when their disclosures are just beginning to reveal the scope of our <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175792/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_we_have_to_destroy_our_constitution_to_save_it/" type="external">unconstitutional national security state</a> is cause for great concern. That the government demands whistleblowers work within the system and then seeks to modify that same system to thwart them goes beyond hypocrisy.</p>
<p>This is the very definition of post-Constitutional America where legality and illegality blur–and always in the government’s favor; where the founding principles of our nation only apply when, as, and if the executive sees fit. The devil is indeed in the details.</p>
<p>Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement in Iraq in his first book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805096817/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People</a>. A <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175807/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_the_divine_right_of_president_obama/" type="external">TomDispatch regular</a>, he writes about current events at his blog, <a href="http://www.wemeantwell.com/" type="external">We Meant Well</a>. His next book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935462911/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent</a>, will be available in April. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | The War on Whistleblowers May Have a “Chilling Effect on Future Acts of Conscience” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/war-on-whistleblowers-robert-maclean-fired-department-justice-supreme-court/ | 2014-03-04 | 4left
| 2,508 | Robert MacLean lost his job for leaking classified government documents8212that only became classified after he was firedMark AveryZUMA This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website The Obama administration has just opened a new front in its ongoingamp160 war on whistleblowers It8217s taking its case against one man former Transportation Security Administration TSA Air Marshal Robert MacLean all the way to the Supreme Court So hold on because we8217re going back down the rabbit hole with the Most Transparent Administration ever Despiteamp160 all the talkamp160by Washington insiders about how whistleblowers like Edward Snowden should work through the system rather than bring their concerns directly into the public sphere MacLean is living proof of the hell of trying to do so Through the Supreme Court the Department of Justice DOJ wants to use MacLean8217s case to further limit what kinds of information can qualify for statutory whistleblowing protections If the DOJ gets its way only information that the government thinks is appropriate8212a contradiction in terms when it comes to whistleblowing8212could be revealed Such a restriction would gut the legal protections of the Whistleblower Protection Act and have a chilling effect on future acts of conscience Having lost its case against MacLean in the lower courts the DOJ isamp160 seekingamp160to win in front of the Supreme Court If heard by the Supremes8212and there8217s no guarantee of that8212this would represent that body8217s firstamp160 federalamp160whistleblower case of the post911 era And if it were to rule for the government even more information about an outofcontrol executive branch will disappear under the dark umbrella of 8220national security8221 On the other hand should the court rule against the government or simply turn down the case whistleblowers like MacLean will secure a little more protection than they8217ve had so far in the Obama years Either way an important message will be sent at a moment when revelations of government wrongdoing have moved from the status of obscure issue to frontpage news The issues in the MacLean case8212who is entitled to whistleblower protection what use can be made of retroactive classification to hide previously unclassified information how many informal classification categories the government can create bureaucratically and what role the Constitution and the Supreme Court have in all this8211are arcane and complex But stay with me Understanding the depths to which the government is willing to sink to punish one man who blew the whistle tells us the world about Washington these days and as they say the devil is in the details Robert MacLean Whistleblower MacLean8217s case is simple8212and complicated Here8217s the simple part MacLean was an air marshal flying armed aboard American aircraft as the last defense against a terror attack In July 2003 all air marshals received a briefing about a possible hijacking plot Soon after the TSA which oversees the marshals sent an unencrypted openair text message to their cell phones cancelling several months of missions for costcutting reasons Fearing that such cancelations in the midst of a hijacking alert might create a dangerous situation for the flying public MacLean worked his way through the system He first brought his concerns to his supervisor and then to the Department of Homeland Security8217s inspector general Each responded that nothing could be done After hitting a dead end and hoping that public pressure might force the TSA to change its policy MacLean talked anonymously to a reporter who broadcast a critical story After 11 members of Congress pitched in the TSA reversed itself A year later MacLean appeared on TV in disguise to criticize agency dress and boarding policies that he felt made it easier for passengers to recognize marshals who work undercover On your next flight keep an eye out for the young man in khakis with a fanny pack and a large watch often wearing a baseball cap and eyeing boarders from a first class seat This time the TSA recognized MacLean8217s voice and discovered that he had also released the unclassified 2003 text message He was fired in April 2006 When MacLean contested his dismissal through internal government channels he discovered that months after firing him the TSA had retroactively classified the text message he had leaked Leaking classified documents is more than cause enough to fire a federal worker and that might have been the end of it MacLean however was no typical cubicledwelling federal employee An Air Force veteran he asserted his status as a protected whistleblower and has spent the last seven years marching through the system trying to get his job back How Everything in Government Became Classified The text message MacLean leaked was retroactively classified as 8220security sensitive information8221 SSI a designation that had been around for years but whose usage the TSA only codified via memo in November 2003 When it comes to madeup classifications that agency8217s set of them proved to be only one of 28 known versions that now exist within the government bureaucracy In truth no one is sure how many varieties of pseudoclassifications even exist under those multiple policies or how many documents they cover as there are no established reporting requirements By law there are officially only three levels of governmental classification confidential secret and top secret Other indicators such as NOFORN and ORCON seen for instance on some of the NSA documents Edward Snowden released are called 8220handling instructions8221 although they too function as unofficial categories of classification Each of the three levels of official classification has its own formal definition and criteria for use It is theoretically possible to question the level of classification of a document However much they may be ignored there are standards for their declassification and various supervisors can also shift levels of classification as a final report memo or briefing takes shape The system is designed at least in theory and occasionally in practice to have some modicum of accountability and reviewability The government8217s post911 desire to classify more and more information ran head on into the limits of classification as enacted by Congress The response by various agencies was to invent a proliferation of designations like SSI that would sweep unclassified information under the umbrella of classification and confer on ever more unclassified information a sort of classified status In the case of the TSA the agency even admits on its own website that a document with an SSI stamp is unclassified but prohibits its disclosure anyway Imagine the equivalent at home you arbitrarily establish a classification called Spouse Sensitive Information that prohibits your partner from seeing the family bank statements And if all this is starting to make no sense then you can better understand the topsyturvy world Robert MacLean found himself in MacLean Wins a Battle in Court In 2013 after a long series of civil service and legal wrangles the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down a decision confirming the government8217s right to retroactively classify information This may make some sense8211if you squint hard enough from a Washington perspective Imagine a piece of innocuous information already released that later takes on national security significance A retroactive classification can8217t get the toothpaste back in the tube but bureaucratically speaking it would at least prevent more toothpaste from being squeezed out The same ruling of course could also be misused to ensnare someone like MacLean who shared unclassified information The court also decided that retrospective classification or not MacLean was indeed entitled to protection under the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 That act generally limits its protections to 8220 disclosures not specifically prohibited by law8221 typically held to mean unclassified material This the court insisted was the category MacLean fit into and so could not be fired The court avoided the question of whether or not someone could be fired for disclosing retroactively classified information and focused on whether a madeup category like SSI was 8220classified8221 at all The court affirmed that laws passed by Congress creating formal classifications like 8220top secret8221 trump regulations made up by executive branch bureaucrats In other words as the Constitution intended the legislative branch makes the laws and serves as a check and balance on the executive branch Congress says what is classified and that sayso cannot be modified via an executive branch memo One of MacLean8217s lawyers hailed the court8217s decision as restoring 8220enforceability for the Whistleblower Protection Act8217s public free speech rights It ruled that only Congress has the authority to remove whistleblower rights Agencyimposed restraints are not relevant for whistleblower protection rights8221 The ruling made it clear that the TSA had fired MacLean in retaliation for a legally protected act of whistleblowing He should have been offered his job back the next day Not a Happy Ending But a Sad New Beginning No such luck Instead on January 27 2014 the Department of Justice petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court8217s decision If it has its way the next time a troublesome whistleblower emerges the executive need only retroactively slap a nonreviewable pseudoclassification on whatever information has been revealed and fire the employee The department is then asking the Supreme Court to grant the executive branch the practical power to decide whether or not a whistleblower is entitled to legal protection The chilling effect is obvious In addition the mere fact that the DOJ is seeking to bring the case via a petition is significant Such petitions called writs of certiorari or certs ask that the Supreme Court overturn a lower court8217s decision Through the cert process the court sets its own agenda Some 10000 certs are submitted in a typical year Most lack merit and are quickly set aside without comment Typically fewer than 100 of those 10000 are chosen to move forward for a possibly precedentsetting decision However only a tiny number of all the certs filed are initiated by the government on average just 15 in a Supreme Court term It8217s undoubtedly a measure of the importance the Obama administration gives to preserving secrecy above all else that it has chosen to take such an aggressive stance against MacLean8212especially given the desperately low odds of success It will be several months before we know whether the court will hear the case This Is War MacLean is simply trying to get his old air marshal job back by proving he was wrongly fired for an act of whistleblowing For the rest of us however this is about much more than where MacLean goes to work The Obama administration8217s attacks on whistleblowers are well documented It has charged more of them8212 seven8212under the Espionage Act than all past presidencies combined In addition it recently pressured State Department whistleblower Stephen Kim into a guilty plea in return for a lighter sentence by threatening him with the full force of that act His case was even more controversial because the FBI named Fox News8217s James Rosen as a coconspirator for receiving information from Kim as part of his job as a journalist None of this is accidental coincidental or haphazard It8217s a pattern And it8217s meant to be This is war MacLean8217s case is one more battle in that war By taking the extraordinary step of going to the Supreme Court the executive branch wants by fiat to be able to turn an unclassified but embarrassing disclosure today into a prohibited act tomorrow and then use that to get rid of an employee They are in essence putting whistleblowers in the untenable position of having to predict the future The intent is clearly to silence them before they speak on the theory that the easiest leak to stop is the one that never happens A frightened cowed workforce is likely to be one result another8211falling into the category of unintended consequences8211might be to force more potential whistleblowers to take the ManningSnowden path The case against MacLean also represents an attempt to broaden executive power in another way At the moment only Congress can 8220prohibit actions under the law8221 something unique to it under the Constitution In its case against MacLean the Justice Department seeks to establish the right of the executive and its agencies to create their own pseudocategories of classification that can be used to prohibit actions not otherwise prohibited by law In other words it wants to trump Congress Regulation made by memo would then stand above the law in prosecuting8211or effectively persecuting8211whistleblowers A person of conscience like MacLean could be run out of his job by a memo In seeking to claim more power over whistleblowers the executive also seeks to overturn another principle of law that goes by the term ex post facto Laws are implemented on a certain day and at a certain time Longheld practice says that one cannot be punished later for an act that was legal when it happened Indeed ex post facto criminal laws are expressly forbidden by the Constitution This prohibition was written in direct response to the injustices of British rule at a time when Parliamentary laws could indeed criminalize actions retrospectively While some leeway exists today in the US for ex post facto actions in civil cases and when it comes to sex crimes against children the issue as it affects whistleblowers brushes heavily against the Constitution and in a broader sense against what is right and necessary in a democracy When a government is of by and for the people when an educated citizenry in Thomas Jefferson8217s words is essential to a democracy it is imperative that we all know what the government does in our name How else can we determine how to vote who to support or what to oppose Whistleblowers play a crucial role in this process When the government willfully seeks to conceal its actions someone is required to step up and act with courage and selflessness That our current government has been willing to fight for more than seven years8211maybe all the way to the Supreme Court8211to weaken legal whistleblowing protections tells a tale of our times That it seeks to silence whistleblowers at a moment when their disclosures are just beginning to reveal the scope of our unconstitutional national security state is cause for great concern That the government demands whistleblowers work within the system and then seeks to modify that same system to thwart them goes beyond hypocrisy This is the very definition of postConstitutional America where legality and illegality blur8211and always in the government8217s favor where the founding principles of our nation only apply when as and if the executive sees fit The devil is indeed in the details Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement in Iraq in his first book We Meant Well How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People A TomDispatch regular he writes about current events at his blog We Meant Well His next book Ghosts of Tom Joad A Story of the 99Percent will be available in April To stay on top of important articles like these sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatchcom here | Robert/PROPN MacLean/PROPN lost/VERB his/PRON job/NOUN for/ADP leaking/VERB classified/ADJ government/NOUN documents8212that/PRON only/ADV became/VERB classified/VERB after/SCONJ he/PRON was/AUX firedMark/ADJ AveryZUMA/NOUN This/DET story/NOUN first/ADV appeared/VERB on/ADP the/DET TomDispatch/PROPN website/NOUN The/DET Obama/PROPN administration/NOUN has/AUX just/ADV opened/VERB a/DET new/ADJ 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<p>By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatchThis piece first appeared at TomDispatch. Read Tom Engelhardt’s introduction <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175905/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_washington_wields_the_oil_weapon/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>It was heinous. It was underhanded.&#160; It was beyond the bounds of international morality. It was an attack on the American way of life.&#160; It was what you might expect from unscrupulous Arabs.&#160; It was “the oil weapon” — and back in 1973, it was directed at the United States. Skip ahead four decades and it’s smart, it’s effective, and it’s the American way.&#160; The Obama administration has appropriated it as a major tool of foreign policy, a new way to go to war with nations it considers hostile without relying on planes, missiles, and troops.&#160; It is, of course, that very same oil weapon.</p>
<p>Until recently, the use of the term “ <a href="http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-103/issue-17/general-interest/the-oil-weapon-past-present-and-future.html" type="external">the oil weapon</a>” has largely been identified with the efforts of Arab producers to dissuade the United States from supporting Israel by cutting off the flow of petroleum. The most memorable example of its use was the&#160; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis" type="external">embargo</a>&#160;imposed by Arab members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on oil exports to the United States during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, causing scarcity in the U.S., long lines at American filling stations, and a global economic recession.</p>
<p>After suffering enormously from that embargo, Washington took a number of steps to disarm the oil weapon and prevent its reuse. These included an increased emphasis on domestic oil production and the establishment of a mutual aid arrangement overseen by the&#160; <a href="http://www.iea.org/" type="external">International Energy Agency</a>&#160;(IEA) that obliged participating nations to share their oil with any member state subjected to an embargo.</p>
<p />
<p>So consider it a surprising reversal that, having tested out the oil weapon against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq with&#160; <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n14/andrew-cockburn/worth-it" type="external">devastating effect</a>&#160;back in the 1990s, Washington is now the key country brandishing that same weapon, using trade sanctions and other means to curb the exports of energy-producing states it categorizes as hostile.&#160; The Obama administration has taken this aggressive path even at the risk of curtailing global energy supplies.</p>
<p>When first employed, the oil weapon was intended to exploit the industrial world’s heavy dependence on petroleum imports from the Middle East. Over time, however, those producing countries became ever more dependent on oil revenues to finance their governments and enrich their citizens.&#160; Washington now seeks to exploit this by selectively denying access to world oil markets, whether through sanctions or the use of force, and so depriving hostile producing powers of operating revenues.</p>
<p>The most dramatic instance of this came on September 23rd, when American aircraft <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/middleeast/us-and-allies-hit-isis-targets-in-syria.html" type="external">bombed</a> refineries and other oil installations in areas of Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also known as ISIL or IS). &#160;An extremist insurgent movement that has declared a new “caliphate,” ISIS is not, of course, a major oil producer, but it has taken control of oil fields and refineries that once were operated by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in eastern Syria. The revenue generated by these fields, reportedly <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/34e874ac-3dad-11e4-b782-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Ei81A7ij" type="external">$1 to $2 million</a> daily, is being used by ISIS to generate a significant share of its operating expenses. This has given that movement the wherewithal to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/europe/turkey-is-a-steady-source-of-isis-recruits.html" type="external">finance</a> the further recruitment and support of thousands of foreign fighters, even as it sustains a high tempo of combat operations.</p>
<p>Black-market dealers in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey have evidently been <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/18/business/al-khatteeb-isis-oil-iraq/" type="external">assisting</a> ISIS in this effort, purchasing the crude at a discount and selling at global market rates, now hovering at about $90 per barrel. Ironically, this clandestine export network was initially established <a href="file://localhost/was%20http/::www.ft.com:intl:cms:s:2:34e874ac-3dad-11e4-b782-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Ei81A7ij" type="external" /> in the 1990s by Saddam Hussein’s regime to evade U.S. sanctions on Iraq.</p>
<p>The Islamic State has proven <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/18/business/al-khatteeb-isis-oil-iraq/" type="external">adept</a> indeed at exploiting the fields under its control, even selling the oil to agents of opposing forces, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/middleeast/rebels-in-syria-claim-control-of-resources.html" type="external">including</a> the Assad regime. To stop this flow, Washington launched what is planned to be a <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/24/world/meast/us-airstrikes/index.html" type="external">long-term air campaign</a> against those fields and their associated infrastructure. By bombing them, President Obama evidently hopes to curtail the movement’s export earnings and thereby diminish its combat capabilities. These strikes, he <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/09/23/president-obama-delivers-statement-airstrikes-syria" type="external">declared</a> in announcing the bombing campaign, are intended to “take out terrorist targets” and “cut off ISIL’s financing.”</p>
<p>It is too early to assess the impact of the air strikes on ISIS’s capacity to pump and sell oil.&#160; However, since the movement has been producing only <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/34e874ac-3dad-11e4-b782-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Ei81A7ij" type="external">about 80,000 barrels</a> per day (roughly 1/1,000th of worldwide oil consumption), the attacks, if successful, are not expected to have any significant impact on a global market already increasingly glutted, in part because of an <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175889/michael_klare_oil_is_back" type="external">explosion</a> of drilling in that “new Saudi Arabia,” the United States.</p>
<p>As it happens, though, the Obama administration is also wielding the oil weapon against two of the world’s leading producers, Iran and Russia. These efforts, which include embargoes and trade sanctions, are likely to have a far greater impact on world output, reflecting White House confidence that, in the pursuit of U.S. strategic interests, anything goes.</p>
<p>Fighting the Iranians</p>
<p>In the case of Iran, Washington has moved aggressively to curtail Tehran’s ability to finance its extensive nuclear program both by blocking its access to Western oil-drilling technology and by curbing its export sales. Under the <a href="http://fas.org/news/iran/1996/31623339-31627980.htm" type="external">Iran Sanctions Act</a>, foreign firms that invest in the Iranian oil industry are barred from access to U.S. financial markets and subject to other penalties. In addition, the Obama administration has put <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/world/asia/us-presses-south-korea-to-reduce-oil-imports-from-iran.html" type="external">immense pressure</a> on major oil-importing countries, including China, India, South Korea, and the European powers, to reduce or eliminate their purchases from Iran.</p>
<p>These <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iran" type="external">measures</a>, which involve tough restrictions on financial transactions related to Iranian oil exports, have had a significant impact on that country’s oil output. By some estimates, those exports have <a href="http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=IR" type="external">fallen</a> by one million barrels per day, which also represents a significant contraction in global supplies. As a result, Iran’s income from oil exports is estimated to have fallen from $118 billion in 2011-2012 to $56 billion in 2013-2014, while pinching ordinary Iranians in a multitude of ways.</p>
<p>In earlier times, when global oil supplies were tight, a daily loss of one million barrels would have meant widespread scarcity and a possible global recession. The Obama administration, however, assumes that only Iran is likely to suffer in the present situation. Credit this mainly to the recent upsurge in North American energy production (largely achieved through the use of hydro-fracking to extract oil and natural gas from buried shale deposits) and the increased availability of crude from other non-OPEC sources. According to the most recent data from the Department of Energy (DoE), U.S. crude output <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/" type="external">rose</a> from 5.7 million barrels per day in 2011 to 8.4 million barrels in the second quarter of 2014, a remarkable 47% gain.&#160; And this is to be no flash in the pan.&#160; The DoE predicts that domestic output will rise to some 9.6 million barrels per day in 2020, putting the U.S. back in the top league of global producers.</p>
<p>For the Obama administration, the results of this are clear.&#160; Not only will American reliance on imported oil be significantly reduced, but with the U.S. absorbing ever less of the non-domestic supply, import-dependent countries like India, Japan, China, and South Korea should be able to satisfy their needs even if Iranian energy production keeps falling. As a result, Washington has been able to secure <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/12/japan-reduce-iran-oil-imports-supporting-us/" type="external">greater cooperation</a> from such countries in observing the Iranian sanctions — something they would no doubt have been reluctant to do if global supplies were less abundant.</p>
<p>There is another factor, no less crucial, in the aggressive use of the oil weapon as an essential element of foreign policy.&#160; The increase in domestic crude output has imbued American leaders with a new sense of energy omnipotence, allowing them to contemplate the decline in Iranian exports without trepidation. In an April 2013 <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/24/remarks-tom-donilon-national-security-advisor-president-launch-columbia-" type="external">speech</a> at Columbia University, Tom Donilon, then Obama’s national security adviser, publicly expressed this outlook with particular force. “America’s new energy posture allows us to engage from a position of greater strength,” he avowed. “Increasing U.S. energy supplies act as a cushion that helps reduce our vulnerability to global supply disruptions and price shocks. It also affords us a stronger hand in pursuing and implementing our international security goals.”</p>
<p>This “stronger hand,” he made clear, was reflected in U.S. dealings with Iran. To put pressure on Tehran, he noted, “The United States engaged in tireless diplomacy to persuade consuming nations to end or significantly reduce their consumption of Iranian oil.” At the same time, “the substantial increase in oil production in the United States and elsewhere meant that international sanctions and U.S. and allied efforts could remove over 1 million barrels per day of Iranian oil while minimizing the burdens on the rest of the world.” It was this happy circumstance, he suggested, that had forced Iran to the negotiating table.</p>
<p>Fighting Vladimir Putin</p>
<p>The same outlook apparently governs U.S. policy toward Russia.</p>
<p>Prior to Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its covert intervention in eastern Ukraine, major Western oil companies, including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Total of France, were pursuing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/business/international/for-western-oil-companies-expanding-in-russia-is-a-dance-around-sanctions.html" type="external">elaborate plans</a> to begin production in Russian-controlled sectors of the Black Sea and the Arctic Ocean, mainly in collaboration with state-owned or state-controlled firms like Gazprom and Rosneft. There were, for instance, a number of expansive <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/business/global/exxon-and-rosneft-partner-in-russian-oil-deal.html" type="external">joint ventures</a> between Exxon and Rosneft to drill in those energy-rich waters.&#160;</p>
<p>“These agreements,” Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon, <a href="http://www.rosneft.com/news/pressrelease/30082011.html" type="external">said</a> proudly in 2012 on inking the deal, “are important milestones in this strategic relationship… Our focus now will move to technical planning and execution of safe and environmentally responsible exploration activities with the goal of developing significant new energy supplies to meet growing global demand.” Seen as a boon for American energy corporations and the oil-dependent global economy, these and similar endeavors were largely welcomed by U.S. officials.</p>
<p>Such collaborations between U.S. companies and Russian state enterprises were then viewed as conferring significant <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/business/energy-environment/potential-crackdown-on-russia-risks-also-punishing-western-oil-companies.html" type="external">benefits</a> on both sides. Exxon and other Western companies were being given access to vast new reserves — a powerful lure at a time when many of their existing fields in other parts of the world were in decline. For the Russians, who were also <a href="http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=RS" type="external">facing</a> significant declines in their existing fields, access to advanced Western drilling technology offered the promise of exploiting otherwise difficult-to-reach areas in the Arctic and <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174829/michael_klare_tough_oil_on_tap" type="external">“tough” drilling environments</a> elsewhere.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, key figures on both sides have <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/european-companies-strike-out-against-tougher-russian-sanctions-1573266" type="external">sought to insulate</a> these arrangements from the new sanctions being imposed on Russia in response to its incursions in Ukraine. Tillerson, in particular, has sought to persuade U.S. leaders to exempt its deals with Rosneft from any such measures. “Our views are being heard at the highest levels,” he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/business/international/for-western-oil-companies-expanding-in-russia-is-a-dance-around-sanctions.html" type="external">indicated</a> in June.</p>
<p>As a result of such pressures, Russian energy companies were not covered in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/obama-orders-freeze-on-assets-of-people-who-impeded-democracy-in-ukraine/2014/03/06/5ae8f68e-a534-11e3-8466-d34c451760b9_story.html" type="external">first round</a> of U.S. sanctions imposed on various firms and individuals. After Russia intervened in eastern Ukraine, however, the White House moved on to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/11/new-russia-sanctions-obama-ukraine/15449511/" type="external">tougher sanctions</a>, including measures aimed at the energy sector. On September 12th, the Treasury Department announced that it was imposing strict constraints on the transfer of U.S. technology to Rosneft, Gazprom, and other Russian firms for the purpose of drilling in the Arctic. These measures, the department <a href="http://time.com/3340324/obama-russia-putin-ukraine-sanctions/" type="external">noted</a>, “will impede Russia’s ability to develop so-called frontier or unconventional oil resources, areas in which Russian firms are heavily dependent on U.S. and western technology.”</p>
<p>The impact of these new measures cannot yet be assessed. Russian officials <a href="http://www.bne.eu/content/story/rosneft-claims-new-oilfield-victory-despite-us-sanctions" type="external">scoffed</a> at them, insisting that their companies will proceed in the Arctic anyway. Nevertheless, Obama’s decision to target their drilling efforts represents a dramatic turn in U.S. policy, risking a future contraction in global oil supplies if Russian companies prove unable to offset declines at their existing fields.</p>
<p>The New Weapon of Choice</p>
<p>As these recent developments indicate, the Obama administration has come to view the oil weapon as a valuable tool of power and influence. It appears, in fact, that Washington may be in the process of replacing the threat of invasion or, as with the Soviet Union in the Cold War era, nuclear attack, as its favored response to what it views as overseas provocation. (Not surprisingly, the Russians <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/181399/patriotic-heresy-vs-new-cold-war" type="external">look</a> on the Ukrainian crisis, which is taking place on their border, in quite a different light.)&#160; Whereas full-scale U.S. military action — that is, anything beyond air strikes, drone attacks, and the sending in of special ops forces — seems unlikely in the current political environment, top officials in the Obama administration clearly believe that oil combat is an effective and acceptable means of coercion — so long, of course, as it remains in American hands.</p>
<p>That Washington is prepared to move in this direction reflects not only the recent surge in U.S. crude oil output, but also a sense that energy, in this time of globalization, constitutes a strategic asset of unparalleled importance. To control oil flows across the planet and deny market access to recalcitrant producers is increasingly a major objective of American foreign policy.</p>
<p>Yet, given Washington’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175854/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_a_record_of_unparalleled_failure/" type="external">lack of success</a> when using direct military force in these last years, it remains an open question whether the oil weapon will, in the end, prove any more satisfactory in offering strategic advantage to the United States. The Iranians, for instance, have indeed come to the negotiating table, but a favorable outcome on the nuclear talks there appears increasingly remote; with or without oil, ISIS continues to score battlefield victories; and Moscow displays no inclination to end its involvement in Ukraine. Nonetheless, in the absence of other credible options, President Obama and his key officials seem determined to wield the oil weapon.</p>
<p>As with any application of force, however, use of the oil weapon entails substantial risk. For one thing, despite the rise in domestic crude production, the U.S. will remain dependent on oil imports for the foreseeable future and so could still suffer if other countries were to deny it exports. More significant is the possibility that this new version of the oil wars Washington has been fighting since the 1990s could someday result in a genuine contraction in global supplies, driving prices skyward and so threatening the health of the U.S. economy. And who’s to say that, seeing Washington’s growing reliance on aggressive oil tactics to impose its sway, other countries won’t find their own innovative ways to wield the oil weapon to their advantage and to Washington’s ultimate detriment?&#160;</p>
<p>As with the introduction of drones, the United States now enjoys a temporary advantage in energy warfare. By unleashing such weapons on the world, however, it only ensures that others will seek to match our advantage and turn it against us.</p>
<p>Michael T. Klare, a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175889/michael_klare_oil_is_back" type="external">TomDispatch regular</a>, is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250023971/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The Race for What’s Left</a>.&#160; A documentary movie version of his book Blood and Oil is available from <a href="http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&amp;key=124" type="external">the Media Education Foundation</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Rebecca Solnit’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463869/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Men Explain Things to Me</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2014 Michael T. Klare</p> | Obama’s New Oil Wars | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/obamas-new-oil-wars/ | 2014-10-10 | 4left
| 2,508 | By Michael T Klare TomDispatchThis piece first appeared at TomDispatch Read Tom Engelhardt8217s introduction here It was heinous It was underhandedamp160 It was beyond the bounds of international morality It was an attack on the American way of lifeamp160 It was what you might expect from unscrupulous Arabsamp160 It was 8220the oil weapon8221 8212 and back in 1973 it was directed at the United States Skip ahead four decades and it8217s smart it8217s effective and it8217s the American wayamp160 The Obama administration has appropriated it as a major tool of foreign policy a new way to go to war with nations it considers hostile without relying on planes missiles and troopsamp160 It is of course that very same oil weapon Until recently the use of the term 8220 the oil weapon8221 has largely been identified with the efforts of Arab producers to dissuade the United States from supporting Israel by cutting off the flow of petroleum The most memorable example of its use was theamp160 embargoamp160imposed by Arab members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC on oil exports to the United States during the ArabIsraeli war of 1973 causing scarcity in the US long lines at American filling stations and a global economic recession After suffering enormously from that embargo Washington took a number of steps to disarm the oil weapon and prevent its reuse These included an increased emphasis on domestic oil production and the establishment of a mutual aid arrangement overseen by theamp160 International Energy Agencyamp160IEA that obliged participating nations to share their oil with any member state subjected to an embargo So consider it a surprising reversal that having tested out the oil weapon against Saddam Hussein8217s Iraq withamp160 devastating effectamp160back in the 1990s Washington is now the key country brandishing that same weapon using trade sanctions and other means to curb the exports of energyproducing states it categorizes as hostileamp160 The Obama administration has taken this aggressive path even at the risk of curtailing global energy supplies When first employed the oil weapon was intended to exploit the industrial world8217s heavy dependence on petroleum imports from the Middle East Over time however those producing countries became ever more dependent on oil revenues to finance their governments and enrich their citizensamp160 Washington now seeks to exploit this by selectively denying access to world oil markets whether through sanctions or the use of force and so depriving hostile producing powers of operating revenues The most dramatic instance of this came on September 23rd when American aircraft bombed refineries and other oil installations in areas of Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS also known as ISIL or IS amp160An extremist insurgent movement that has declared a new 8220caliphate8221 ISIS is not of course a major oil producer but it has taken control of oil fields and refineries that once were operated by the regime of Bashar alAssad in eastern Syria The revenue generated by these fields reportedly 1 to 2 million daily is being used by ISIS to generate a significant share of its operating expenses This has given that movement the wherewithal to finance the further recruitment and support of thousands of foreign fighters even as it sustains a high tempo of combat operations Blackmarket dealers in Iran Iraq Syria and Turkey have evidently been assisting ISIS in this effort purchasing the crude at a discount and selling at global market rates now hovering at about 90 per barrel Ironically this clandestine export network was initially established in the 1990s by Saddam Hussein8217s regime to evade US sanctions on Iraq The Islamic State has proven adept indeed at exploiting the fields under its control even selling the oil to agents of opposing forces including the Assad regime To stop this flow Washington launched what is planned to be a longterm air campaign against those fields and their associated infrastructure By bombing them President Obama evidently hopes to curtail the movement8217s export earnings and thereby diminish its combat capabilities These strikes he declared in announcing the bombing campaign are intended to 8220take out terrorist targets8221 and 8220cut off ISIL8217s financing8221 It is too early to assess the impact of the air strikes on ISIS8217s capacity to pump and sell oilamp160 However since the movement has been producing only about 80000 barrels per day roughly 11000th of worldwide oil consumption the attacks if successful are not expected to have any significant impact on a global market already increasingly glutted in part because of an explosion of drilling in that 8220new Saudi Arabia8221 the United States As it happens though the Obama administration is also wielding the oil weapon against two of the world8217s leading producers Iran and Russia These efforts which include embargoes and trade sanctions are likely to have a far greater impact on world output reflecting White House confidence that in the pursuit of US strategic interests anything goes Fighting the Iranians In the case of Iran Washington has moved aggressively to curtail Tehran8217s ability to finance its extensive nuclear program both by blocking its access to Western oildrilling technology and by curbing its export sales Under the Iran Sanctions Act foreign firms that invest in the Iranian oil industry are barred from access to US financial markets and subject to other penalties In addition the Obama administration has put immense pressure on major oilimporting countries including China India South Korea and the European powers to reduce or eliminate their purchases from Iran These measures which involve tough restrictions on financial transactions related to Iranian oil exports have had a significant impact on that country8217s oil output By some estimates those exports have fallen by one million barrels per day which also represents a significant contraction in global supplies As a result Iran8217s income from oil exports is estimated to have fallen from 118 billion in 20112012 to 56 billion in 20132014 while pinching ordinary Iranians in a multitude of ways In earlier times when global oil supplies were tight a daily loss of one million barrels would have meant widespread scarcity and a possible global recession The Obama administration however assumes that only Iran is likely to suffer in the present situation Credit this mainly to the recent upsurge in North American energy production largely achieved through the use of hydrofracking to extract oil and natural gas from buried shale deposits and the increased availability of crude from other nonOPEC sources According to the most recent data from the Department of Energy DoE US crude output rose from 57 million barrels per day in 2011 to 84 million barrels in the second quarter of 2014 a remarkable 47 gainamp160 And this is to be no flash in the panamp160 The DoE predicts that domestic output will rise to some 96 million barrels per day in 2020 putting the US back in the top league of global producers For the Obama administration the results of this are clearamp160 Not only will American reliance on imported oil be significantly reduced but with the US absorbing ever less of the nondomestic supply importdependent countries like India Japan China and South Korea should be able to satisfy their needs even if Iranian energy production keeps falling As a result Washington has been able to secure greater cooperation from such countries in observing the Iranian sanctions 8212 something they would no doubt have been reluctant to do if global supplies were less abundant There is another factor no less crucial in the aggressive use of the oil weapon as an essential element of foreign policyamp160 The increase in domestic crude output has imbued American leaders with a new sense of energy omnipotence allowing them to contemplate the decline in Iranian exports without trepidation In an April 2013 speech at Columbia University Tom Donilon then Obama8217s national security adviser publicly expressed this outlook with particular force 8220America8217s new energy posture allows us to engage from a position of greater strength8221 he avowed 8220Increasing US energy supplies act as a cushion that helps reduce our vulnerability to global supply disruptions and price shocks It also affords us a stronger hand in pursuing and implementing our international security goals8221 This 8220stronger hand8221 he made clear was reflected in US dealings with Iran To put pressure on Tehran he noted 8220The United States engaged in tireless diplomacy to persuade consuming nations to end or significantly reduce their consumption of Iranian oil8221 At the same time 8220the substantial increase in oil production in the United States and elsewhere meant that international sanctions and US and allied efforts could remove over 1 million barrels per day of Iranian oil while minimizing the burdens on the rest of the world8221 It was this happy circumstance he suggested that had forced Iran to the negotiating table Fighting Vladimir Putin The same outlook apparently governs US policy toward Russia Prior to Russia8217s seizure of Crimea and its covert intervention in eastern Ukraine major Western oil companies including BP Chevron ExxonMobil and Total of France were pursuing elaborate plans to begin production in Russiancontrolled sectors of the Black Sea and the Arctic Ocean mainly in collaboration with stateowned or statecontrolled firms like Gazprom and Rosneft There were for instance a number of expansive joint ventures between Exxon and Rosneft to drill in those energyrich watersamp160 8220These agreements8221 Rex Tillerson the CEO of Exxon said proudly in 2012 on inking the deal 8220are important milestones in this strategic relationship8230 Our focus now will move to technical planning and execution of safe and environmentally responsible exploration activities with the goal of developing significant new energy supplies to meet growing global demand8221 Seen as a boon for American energy corporations and the oildependent global economy these and similar endeavors were largely welcomed by US officials Such collaborations between US companies and Russian state enterprises were then viewed as conferring significant benefits on both sides Exxon and other Western companies were being given access to vast new reserves 8212 a powerful lure at a time when many of their existing fields in other parts of the world were in decline For the Russians who were also facing significant declines in their existing fields access to advanced Western drilling technology offered the promise of exploiting otherwise difficulttoreach areas in the Arctic and 8220tough8221 drilling environments elsewhere Not surprisingly key figures on both sides have sought to insulate these arrangements from the new sanctions being imposed on Russia in response to its incursions in Ukraine Tillerson in particular has sought to persuade US leaders to exempt its deals with Rosneft from any such measures 8220Our views are being heard at the highest levels8221 he indicated in June As a result of such pressures Russian energy companies were not covered in the first round of US sanctions imposed on various firms and individuals After Russia intervened in eastern Ukraine however the White House moved on to tougher sanctions including measures aimed at the energy sector On September 12th the Treasury Department announced that it was imposing strict constraints on the transfer of US technology to Rosneft Gazprom and other Russian firms for the purpose of drilling in the Arctic These measures the department noted 8220will impede Russia8217s ability to develop socalled frontier or unconventional oil resources areas in which Russian firms are heavily dependent on US and western technology8221 The impact of these new measures cannot yet be assessed Russian officials scoffed at them insisting that their companies will proceed in the Arctic anyway Nevertheless Obama8217s decision to target their drilling efforts represents a dramatic turn in US policy risking a future contraction in global oil supplies if Russian companies prove unable to offset declines at their existing fields The New Weapon of Choice As these recent developments indicate the Obama administration has come to view the oil weapon as a valuable tool of power and influence It appears in fact that Washington may be in the process of replacing the threat of invasion or as with the Soviet Union in the Cold War era nuclear attack as its favored response to what it views as overseas provocation Not surprisingly the Russians look on the Ukrainian crisis which is taking place on their border in quite a different lightamp160 Whereas fullscale US military action 8212 that is anything beyond air strikes drone attacks and the sending in of special ops forces 8212 seems unlikely in the current political environment top officials in the Obama administration clearly believe that oil combat is an effective and acceptable means of coercion 8212 so long of course as it remains in American hands That Washington is prepared to move in this direction reflects not only the recent surge in US crude oil output but also a sense that energy in this time of globalization constitutes a strategic asset of unparalleled importance To control oil flows across the planet and deny market access to recalcitrant producers is increasingly a major objective of American foreign policy Yet given Washington8217s lack of success when using direct military force in these last years it remains an open question whether the oil weapon will in the end prove any more satisfactory in offering strategic advantage to the United States The Iranians for instance have indeed come to the negotiating table but a favorable outcome on the nuclear talks there appears increasingly remote with or without oil ISIS continues to score battlefield victories and Moscow displays no inclination to end its involvement in Ukraine Nonetheless in the absence of other credible options President Obama and his key officials seem determined to wield the oil weapon As with any application of force however use of the oil weapon entails substantial risk For one thing despite the rise in domestic crude production the US will remain dependent on oil imports for the foreseeable future and so could still suffer if other countries were to deny it exports More significant is the possibility that this new version of the oil wars Washington has been fighting since the 1990s could someday result in a genuine contraction in global supplies driving prices skyward and so threatening the health of the US economy And who8217s to say that seeing Washington8217s growing reliance on aggressive oil tactics to impose its sway other countries won8217t find their own innovative ways to wield the oil weapon to their advantage and to Washington8217s ultimate detrimentamp160 As with the introduction of drones the United States now enjoys a temporary advantage in energy warfare By unleashing such weapons on the world however it only ensures that others will seek to match our advantage and turn it against us Michael T Klare a TomDispatch regular is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author most recently of The Race for What8217s Leftamp160 A documentary movie version of his book Blood and Oil is available from the Media Education Foundation Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook Check out the newest Dispatch Book Rebecca Solnit8217s Men Explain Things to Me Copyright 2014 Michael T Klare | By/ADP Michael/PROPN T/PROPN Klare/PROPN TomDispatchThis/DET piece/NOUN first/ADV appeared/VERB at/ADP TomDispatch/PROPN Read/PROPN Tom/PROPN Engelhardt8217s/PROPN introduction/NOUN here/ADV It/PRON was/AUX heinous/ADJ It/PRON was/AUX underhandedamp160/PROPN It/PRON was/AUX beyond/ADP the/DET bounds/NOUN of/ADP international/ADJ morality/NOUN It/PRON was/AUX an/DET attack/NOUN on/ADP the/DET American/ADJ way/NOUN of/ADP lifeamp160/NOUN It/PRON was/AUX what/PRON you/PRON might/AUX expect/VERB from/ADP unscrupulous/ADJ Arabsamp160/PUNCT It/PRON was/AUX 8220the/DET oil/NOUN weapon8221/PROPN 8212/NUM and/CCONJ back/ADV in/ADP 1973/NUM it/PRON was/AUX directed/VERB at/ADP the/DET United/PROPN States/PROPN Skip/PROPN ahead/ADV four/NUM decades/NOUN and/CCONJ it8217s/PROPN smart/ADJ it8217s/PROPN effective/ADJ and/CCONJ it8217s/PROPN the/DET American/PROPN wayamp160/PROPN The/DET Obama/PROPN administration/NOUN has/AUX appropriated/VERB it/PRON as/ADP a/DET major/ADJ tool/NOUN of/ADP foreign/ADJ policy/NOUN a/DET new/ADJ way/NOUN to/PART go/VERB to/ADP war/NOUN with/ADP nations/NOUN it/PRON considers/VERB hostile/ADJ without/ADP relying/VERB on/ADP planes/NOUN missiles/NOUN and/CCONJ troopsamp160/NOUN 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<p>Nii Akuetteh is an independent analyst of African &amp; international affairs, seen regularly on Al Jazeera and many other global TV outlets and published frequently, especially by Pambazuka News. He is the former Executive Director of Africa Action, and he was a professor of African Studies at Georgetown University.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington.
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<p />If in Africa, the conflict in Mali is one of the most intense and perhaps most dangerous. Now joining us to talk about what's going on in Mali is Nii Akuetteh. He's an independent analyst of African international affairs. He writes often in Pambazuka News. He was former executive director of Africa Action, was a professor of African studies at Georgetown University. Thanks for joining us again, Nii.
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<p />NII AKUETTEH, FORMER DIRECTOR, AFRICA ACTION: It's my pleasure.
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<p />JAY: So give us the basic, again, historical context of Mali, and then get into what the current conflict is.
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<p />AKUETTEH: Certainly. Mali is a big country in West Africa. It's 15 million people. Most of them are in the south of the country, but the larger territorial portion of Mali is the northern part. But it extends into the heart of the Sahara, the biggest desert in the world, and therefore, because it's a desert terrain, there isn't—few of the people live there. It borders several African countries, but the key ones would be Algeria and Niger and Burkina Faso, because it shares the Sahara Desert with those countries.
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<p />The big issue—there are a couple of big issues that have led to the recent problems. The people who live in the northern segment, one of the ethnic groups there are the Tuaregs. They had been fighting against the central government, which is where the capitalists were in the south, in Bamako. And, of course, like practically all African countries, you've got many different ethnic groups.
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<p />So the Tuaregs, who are a desert people, light-skinned, they have been pushing to—initially, to autonomy, going all the way back. Now, Mali was a colony of the French, and they got independence in 1960. In 1958, before independence, the Tuaregs had been lobbying the French, saying that they did not want to live under a government of the darker peoples in the south. Ever since then they have been pushing and fighting sporadically. It has flared into wars maybe three or four times. And then last January—fast forward to three months ago, January 17—the Tuaregs started their most serious war. And this time they said they weren't going for autonomy, they wanted independence. And they started fighting greatly against the government in the south.
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<p />Now, one of the most interesting reasons why this time the fight is so intense and has been harder to contend for the government is that Bamako, the—. Mali borders Algeria, but right after the Algeria border is the border with Libya. And every analyst says that the Tuaregs had gone into Libya, fought for Gaddafi. When Gaddafi fell, about 2,000 of them trooped back into Mali hardened fighters with big, sophisticated weapons. And so what happened was that they were winning the war in northern Mali, and then the other big event that happened was that the soldiers of the national government in Mali were very unhappy with their president, a president called Amadou Toumani Touré, who had a good reputation because he had pushed democracy—and I had actually had the fortune of meeting, and I have good opinion of him. But his soldiers were very unhappy because, they said, he wasn't fighting the war effectively. So last month, March 22, they overthrew him because they said he was weak.
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<p />JAY: And what did that really mean when they say he was weak and not effective? I mean, did the army wanted to be more brutal against the north? Or what does that mean?
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<p />AKUETTEH: Well, yes, they wanted the war prosecuted more effectively, basically because in the face-to-face confrontation, the army, the Malian army, lost to the Tuaregs. In several battles they lost a few small settlements and towns. But also the word got back that the Malian soldiers, who were complaining that they didn't have equipment—and apparently a number of them were captured and their throats were slit. So it became a big issue in the capital, in Bamako. Many women marched, saying that the president was allowing their husbands to be killed defenselessly. So there was animosity in the general populace. But I'll emphasize again that my own opinion of the president is pretty good. And this was in March.
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<p />Now, he had scheduled elections for this month. It would have been April 29 when there will be elections. And he was not standing, because being a good democratic president, he was not standing; he was handing over. But these soldiers, junior soldiers, overthrew him.
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<p />And here is the worst part from my point of view. Within ten days of overthrowing him, the Tuaregs won the entire north. Now, so people who are saying that they didn't—the war was being fought badly and they wanted to take over and fight the war better, they actually lost very quickly. And therefore the Tuaregs actually declared the north of Mali as an independent state. They call it Azawad. So now Mali has been split.
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<p />From my point of view, the good thing is that no country internationally likes this declaration of independence. Nobody has recognized—not the U.S., not the Security Council, not the Europeans, and certainly not the Africans. So the African Union, which is the continental body, as well as ECOWAS, a regional body in West Africa, they pushed back very hard against both the Tuaregs declaring a new state and against the junior soldiers in Bamako who are taking over. They are led by a captain called Captain Amadou Sanogo.
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<p />Now, the interesting thing about him are two things. Number one, he was trained by the United States. Since 2004, he had been to the U.S. for four cycles of training. He took over. And one of the things that dismays me is that if you look at the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, over and over he has made statements that seem to say that, well, we understand the soldiers; they had grievances. And to me this is very shocking, because the U.S. [incompr.] the language of democracy. The Africans and the West Africans have all said that the era of coups is over, no soldier should take over. If a soldier is unhappy with his president, he can complain through channels, and if the worst comes to the worst, he can run for office. So the two—you've got junior soldiers who have taken over and therefore lost the north of the country. The West Africans try hard to push them back.
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<p />JAY: Explain a bit about the elites in control in each place. Like, start with the north. What kind—they call Awaz—if I saying it correctly—Azawad. What kind of society do they want to build? Who's running that show?
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<p />AKUETTEH: I think that's a great question, because right now, over the decades, when the Tuaregs have been fighting, they seem to—the face of the rebellion. But since they took over and on April 6 declared their new state of Azawad, it's clear that they are not in control. The few journalists who have made it there—and Al Jazeera has been one of them, and they have had people talking on camera—it turns out that you have got the Tuareg group who declared Azawad, sort of the political leadership, and their group is called the MNLA. But in addition you've got a jihadist group, AQIM, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, who actually likely came from Algeria. But the two countries share their border, and this is the middle of the desert, so it's not clear where the border is. They have shown up. And, in fact, that is America's great concern. So they are worried about those. But now another group broke out from the Islamic group, and they said, rather than attacking the West, what they want to do is impose sharia in the north.
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<p />So the Tuaregs who took over, it's clear they are not in full control. They've made alliances with Ansar Dine, the group that wants to impose sharia. But there also the jihadists who basically just want to fight the West and fight the United States. So what they have done, even though they've declared a country, you've got—it's not clear who is in control. There is no real control. And it's a huge area, and it is desert.
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<p />The other thing is that three, four years ago, the U.S. had made Mali a major partner. AFRICOM, the United States Africa Command, they had targeted Mali, and they had actually made Mali a very close partner, so—because of the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, to help them fight. And so one of the most interesting thing is that when the Tuaregs started attacking Mali again in January, AFRICOM sat on its hands. And this was very intriguing and very disturbing that they sort of turned their backs on the government in Bamako.
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<p />And the other criticism that people have thrown out is that, you know, the U.S. got involved in Libya. Everybody knew that weapons were flowing everywhere. And the fact that thousands of—at least hundreds of—I mean, fighters from Libya who get all the way into Mali, and the U.S. would not see them, it is—it raises questions. And when you add to the fact the soldiers who took over were trained in the U.S. and that some State Department officials have been saying, well, they have grievances—all of which makes it extremely suspicious when you look at it. And at the end of the day, it's not even in U.S. interests that the Tuaregs have taken over, because, as we said, the Islamic groups who are anti-American and make no bones about it, they are now showing their faces. We can see them clearly, and they have taken over. They are showing their flags. And some of them are telling women to put on a hijab and headscarves and all the kinds of sharia and Islamic law things. So what has happened in Mali is so dangerous for Mali itself. But because of its border—.
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<p />And finally, Paul, if I might add this, one way to look at the Tuaregs: to think of the Tuaregs in Mali like the Kurds in the Middle East. They are a desert people who move around, and so they are in several countries. And so the neighboring countries are very worried that if the Tuaregs in Mali can take over and declare their own country, it will give ideas to the Tuaregs in Algeria, and especially the Tuaregs in Niger.
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<p />JAY: Okay. When you say it's very suspicious, I mean, it sounds like you're suggesting that in terms of establishing AFRICOM in Mali, the U.S. kind of wanted to get rid of this president and maybe didn't mind if the north was taken over, at least for a while, in order to create a situation—is that what you're suggesting?—where the military, what, takes control. And, like, when you say "suspicious", what are you suspicious of?
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<p />AKUETTEH: Yes, here is what I'm suspicious of. First of all, I mean, all of it doesn't make good sense to me, because it seems to me U.S. interests, what has happened, on the one hand, you see them doing things both by omission and commission that do make me suspicious. And one is that how is it that they didn't keep better eyes on the weapons and fighters flowing into the north? Secondly, how can officials in the State Department be talking about what they've called grievances, that the soldiers who took over had grievances?
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<p />And then here is a man who was trained here in the United States. And when we look at the U.S. record in Latin America, the School of the Americas had a habit of training soldiers. They go back and they overthrew their governments. In terms of this president, Amadou Toumani Touré, who was overthrown and then was forced to sign over the few remaining weeks of his presidency—. And now, by the way, I'm relieved that he has left Mali and is now—the last we heard, he's safe in Senegal. He was a close friend of the United States. But in recent months, it looks like some something might happened, and the United States were not too happy with him, because you haven't seen the kind of support that you would expect a strong American ally to get if he was under attack. This is what makes me suspicious that they did not support somebody who had been a close ally of theirs in fighting al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
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<p />JAY: Just finally, what is the overall interest here in Mali in terms of resources or geopolitics? What's at stake?
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<p />AKUETTEH: I think it is, number one, security, because it's a border area shared by many countries. And, of course, security from the U.S. point of view is dealing with al-Qaeda. And you do have an al-Qaeda group in that area called al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. So those security [incompr.] have been important to the U.S., and not just the U.S., but Western Europe, too, because the groups have been kidnapping Westerners and holding them to ransom. And, of course, the U.S. would like to contain them before they plan anything that arrives in the United States. So security is important.
<p />
<p />There is also a question of drug-running, because recently we know that drug runners from Latin America have gone through West Africa, through the Sahara Desert, to get to Europe. And Mali's right in the middle of that path. There have been such instances. Now, of course, some people have also said there's prospecting for oil and gold in the area. So those are also issues. But from my reading, I think that security issue is number one.
<p />
<p />JAY: But the U.S. does have an objective to strengthen AFRICOM's presence in Mali.
<p />
<p />AKUETTEH: Absolutely they do, although that is something that some of us objected to, saying that the best way to fight even, quote, "terrorists" and the war on terror was not to arm African countries to go after the terrorists, but to deal with local grievances. You have the breakup of Mali, you have the coup in Bamako, and then you have the issues of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and sharia in the north, and you have the bordering countries very worried about it. So I think it's a very dangerous situation.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thank you very much for joining us, Nii.
<p />
<p />AKUETTEH: Pleasure.
<p />
<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | AFRICOM and the Conflict in Mali | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D8244 | 2012-05-03 | 4left
| 2,508 | Nii Akuetteh is an independent analyst of African ampamp international affairs seen regularly on Al Jazeera and many other global TV outlets and published frequently especially by Pambazuka News He is the former Executive Director of Africa Action and he was a professor of African Studies at Georgetown University PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Washington If in Africa the conflict in Mali is one of the most intense and perhaps most dangerous Now joining us to talk about whats going on in Mali is Nii Akuetteh Hes an independent analyst of African international affairs He writes often in Pambazuka News He was former executive director of Africa Action was a professor of African studies at Georgetown University Thanks for joining us again Nii NII AKUETTEH FORMER DIRECTOR AFRICA ACTION Its my pleasure JAY So give us the basic again historical context of Mali and then get into what the current conflict is AKUETTEH Certainly Mali is a big country in West Africa Its 15 million people Most of them are in the south of the country but the larger territorial portion of Mali is the northern part But it extends into the heart of the Sahara the biggest desert in the world and therefore because its a desert terrain there isnt226128148few of the people live there It borders several African countries but the key ones would be Algeria and Niger and Burkina Faso because it shares the Sahara Desert with those countries The big issue226128148there are a couple of big issues that have led to the recent problems The people who live in the northern segment one of the ethnic groups there are the Tuaregs They had been fighting against the central government which is where the capitalists were in the south in Bamako And of course like practically all African countries youve got many different ethnic groups So the Tuaregs who are a desert people lightskinned they have been pushing to226128148initially to autonomy going all the way back Now Mali was a colony of the French and they got independence in 1960 In 1958 before independence the Tuaregs had been lobbying the French saying that they did not want to live under a government of the darker peoples in the south Ever since then they have been pushing and fighting sporadically It has flared into wars maybe three or four times And then last January226128148fast forward to three months ago January 17226128148the Tuaregs started their most serious war And this time they said they werent going for autonomy they wanted independence And they started fighting greatly against the government in the south Now one of the most interesting reasons why this time the fight is so intense and has been harder to contend for the government is that Bamako the226128148 Mali borders Algeria but right after the Algeria border is the border with Libya And every analyst says that the Tuaregs had gone into Libya fought for Gaddafi When Gaddafi fell about 2000 of them trooped back into Mali hardened fighters with big sophisticated weapons And so what happened was that they were winning the war in northern Mali and then the other big event that happened was that the soldiers of the national government in Mali were very unhappy with their president a president called Amadou Toumani Tour195169 who had a good reputation because he had pushed democracy226128148and I had actually had the fortune of meeting and I have good opinion of him But his soldiers were very unhappy because they said he wasnt fighting the war effectively So last month March 22 they overthrew him because they said he was weak JAY And what did that really mean when they say he was weak and not effective I mean did the army wanted to be more brutal against the north Or what does that mean AKUETTEH Well yes they wanted the war prosecuted more effectively basically because in the facetoface confrontation the army the Malian army lost to the Tuaregs In several battles they lost a few small settlements and towns But also the word got back that the Malian soldiers who were complaining that they didnt have equipment226128148and apparently a number of them were captured and their throats were slit So it became a big issue in the capital in Bamako Many women marched saying that the president was allowing their husbands to be killed defenselessly So there was animosity in the general populace But Ill emphasize again that my own opinion of the president is pretty good And this was in March Now he had scheduled elections for this month It would have been April 29 when there will be elections And he was not standing because being a good democratic president he was not standing he was handing over But these soldiers junior soldiers overthrew him And here is the worst part from my point of view Within ten days of overthrowing him the Tuaregs won the entire north Now so people who are saying that they didnt226128148the war was being fought badly and they wanted to take over and fight the war better they actually lost very quickly And therefore the Tuaregs actually declared the north of Mali as an independent state They call it Azawad So now Mali has been split From my point of view the good thing is that no country internationally likes this declaration of independence Nobody has recognized226128148not the US not the Security Council not the Europeans and certainly not the Africans So the African Union which is the continental body as well as ECOWAS a regional body in West Africa they pushed back very hard against both the Tuaregs declaring a new state and against the junior soldiers in Bamako who are taking over They are led by a captain called Captain Amadou Sanogo Now the interesting thing about him are two things Number one he was trained by the United States Since 2004 he had been to the US for four cycles of training He took over And one of the things that dismays me is that if you look at the State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland over and over he has made statements that seem to say that well we understand the soldiers they had grievances And to me this is very shocking because the US incompr the language of democracy The Africans and the West Africans have all said that the era of coups is over no soldier should take over If a soldier is unhappy with his president he can complain through channels and if the worst comes to the worst he can run for office So the two226128148youve got junior soldiers who have taken over and therefore lost the north of the country The West Africans try hard to push them back JAY Explain a bit about the elites in control in each place Like start with the north What kind226128148they call Awaz226128148if I saying it correctly226128148Azawad What kind of society do they want to build Whos running that show AKUETTEH I think thats a great question because right now over the decades when the Tuaregs have been fighting they seem to226128148the face of the rebellion But since they took over and on April 6 declared their new state of Azawad its clear that they are not in control The few journalists who have made it there226128148and Al Jazeera has been one of them and they have had people talking on camera226128148it turns out that you have got the Tuareg group who declared Azawad sort of the political leadership and their group is called the MNLA But in addition youve got a jihadist group AQIM alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who actually likely came from Algeria But the two countries share their border and this is the middle of the desert so its not clear where the border is They have shown up And in fact that is Americas great concern So they are worried about those But now another group broke out from the Islamic group and they said rather than attacking the West what they want to do is impose sharia in the north So the Tuaregs who took over its clear they are not in full control Theyve made alliances with Ansar Dine the group that wants to impose sharia But there also the jihadists who basically just want to fight the West and fight the United States So what they have done even though theyve declared a country youve got226128148its not clear who is in control There is no real control And its a huge area and it is desert The other thing is that three four years ago the US had made Mali a major partner AFRICOM the United States Africa Command they had targeted Mali and they had actually made Mali a very close partner so226128148because of the alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to help them fight And so one of the most interesting thing is that when the Tuaregs started attacking Mali again in January AFRICOM sat on its hands And this was very intriguing and very disturbing that they sort of turned their backs on the government in Bamako And the other criticism that people have thrown out is that you know the US got involved in Libya Everybody knew that weapons were flowing everywhere And the fact that thousands of226128148at least hundreds of226128148I mean fighters from Libya who get all the way into Mali and the US would not see them it is226128148it raises questions And when you add to the fact the soldiers who took over were trained in the US and that some State Department officials have been saying well they have grievances226128148all of which makes it extremely suspicious when you look at it And at the end of the day its not even in US interests that the Tuaregs have taken over because as we said the Islamic groups who are antiAmerican and make no bones about it they are now showing their faces We can see them clearly and they have taken over They are showing their flags And some of them are telling women to put on a hijab and headscarves and all the kinds of sharia and Islamic law things So what has happened in Mali is so dangerous for Mali itself But because of its border226128148 And finally Paul if I might add this one way to look at the Tuaregs to think of the Tuaregs in Mali like the Kurds in the Middle East They are a desert people who move around and so they are in several countries And so the neighboring countries are very worried that if the Tuaregs in Mali can take over and declare their own country it will give ideas to the Tuaregs in Algeria and especially the Tuaregs in Niger JAY Okay When you say its very suspicious I mean it sounds like youre suggesting that in terms of establishing AFRICOM in Mali the US kind of wanted to get rid of this president and maybe didnt mind if the north was taken over at least for a while in order to create a situation226128148is that what youre suggesting226128148where the military what takes control And like when you say suspicious what are you suspicious of AKUETTEH Yes here is what Im suspicious of First of all I mean all of it doesnt make good sense to me because it seems to me US interests what has happened on the one hand you see them doing things both by omission and commission that do make me suspicious And one is that how is it that they didnt keep better eyes on the weapons and fighters flowing into the north Secondly how can officials in the State Department be talking about what theyve called grievances that the soldiers who took over had grievances And then here is a man who was trained here in the United States And when we look at the US record in Latin America the School of the Americas had a habit of training soldiers They go back and they overthrew their governments In terms of this president Amadou Toumani Tour195169 who was overthrown and then was forced to sign over the few remaining weeks of his presidency226128148 And now by the way Im relieved that he has left Mali and is now226128148the last we heard hes safe in Senegal He was a close friend of the United States But in recent months it looks like some something might happened and the United States were not too happy with him because you havent seen the kind of support that you would expect a strong American ally to get if he was under attack This is what makes me suspicious that they did not support somebody who had been a close ally of theirs in fighting alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb JAY Just finally what is the overall interest here in Mali in terms of resources or geopolitics Whats at stake AKUETTEH I think it is number one security because its a border area shared by many countries And of course security from the US point of view is dealing with alQaeda And you do have an alQaeda group in that area called alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb So those security incompr have been important to the US and not just the US but Western Europe too because the groups have been kidnapping Westerners and holding them to ransom And of course the US would like to contain them before they plan anything that arrives in the United States So security is important There is also a question of drugrunning because recently we know that drug runners from Latin America have gone through West Africa through the Sahara Desert to get to Europe And Malis right in the middle of that path There have been such instances Now of course some people have also said theres prospecting for oil and gold in the area So those are also issues But from my reading I think that security issue is number one JAY But the US does have an objective to strengthen AFRICOMs presence in Mali AKUETTEH Absolutely they do although that is something that some of us objected to saying that the best way to fight even quote terrorists and the war on terror was not to arm African countries to go after the terrorists but to deal with local grievances You have the breakup of Mali you have the coup in Bamako and then you have the issues of alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and sharia in the north and you have the bordering countries very worried about it So I think its a very dangerous situation JAY Thank you very much for joining us Nii AKUETTEH Pleasure JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN 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<p>National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans’ role in causing climate change in drafts of a long-awaited report on sea level rise and storm surge, contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science.</p>
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<p>The research for the first time projects the risks from rising seas and flooding at 118 coastal national park sites, including the National Mall, the original Jamestown settlement and the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Originally drafted in the summer of 2016 yet still not released to the public, the National Park Service report is intended to inform officials and the public about how to protect park resources and visitors from climate change.</p>
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<p>Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting obtained and analyzed 18 versions of the scientific report. In changes dated Feb. 6, a park service official crossed out the word “anthropogenic,” the term for people’s impact on nature, in five places. Three references to “human activities” causing climate change also were removed.</p>
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<p>The 87-page report, which was written by a University of Colorado Boulder scientist, has been held up for at least 10 months, according to documents obtained by Reveal. The delay has prevented park managers from having access to the best data in situations such as reacting to hurricane forecasts, safeguarding artifacts from floodwaters or deciding where to locate new buildings.</p>
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<p>The omissions reflect a broader crackdown on climate science at federal agencies, including removal of references to human impacts, since President Donald Trump took office. Trump previously called climate change <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/" type="external">a Chinese hoax</a>, took steps to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-climate-usa-paris/u-s-submits-formal-notice-of-withdrawal-from-paris-climate-pact-idUSKBN1AK2FM" type="external">withdraw from an international agreement</a> to cut greenhouse gases and moved toward reversing President Barack Obama’s policies to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/climate/clean-power-plan.html" type="external">regulate power plant emissions</a>.</p>
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<p>The word “anthropogenic,” the term for people’s impact on nature, was removed from the executive summary of the sea level rise report for the National Park Service.</p>
<p>Critics say the National Park Service’s editing of the report reflects unprecedented political interference in government science at the Interior Department, which oversees the park service.</p>
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<p>Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist and dean of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, said the deletions are “shocking from a scientific point of view, but also from a policy point of view.”</p>
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<p>“To remove a very critical part of the scientific understanding is nothing short of political censorship and has no place in science,” he said. “Censorship of this kind is something you’d see in Russia or some totalitarian regime. It has no place in America.”</p>
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<p>Several scientists said the editing appears to violate a National Park Service <a href="https://www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DO_79.pdf" type="external">policy</a> designed to protect science from political influence.</p>
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<p>“It looks like a pretty clear-cut, blatant violation of what we generally would consider to be scientific integrity,” said Jane Lubchenco, who led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Obama.</p>
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<p>National Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson said the agency would not comment on the editing of a report that had not yet been released. He said that it was premature to report on it and that it would be released soon.</p>
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<p>A reference to “human activities” causing climate change was deleted from the report.</p>
<p>Zinke testified at a Senate committee hearing <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?442348-1/interior-secretary-ryan-zinke-testifies-fiscal-year-2019-budget" type="external">last month</a> that the Interior Department has not changed any scientific documents.</p>
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<p>“There is no incident, no incident at all that I know that we ever changed a comma on a document itself. Now we may have on a press release,” Zinke told the senators. “And I challenge you, any member, to find a document that we’ve actually changed on a report.”</p>
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<p>Zinke’s press secretary said no one at the Interior Department was available to comment about the report.</p>
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<p>A hallmark of the Trump administration is equivocation about climate change to downplay the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels are warming the planet.</p>
<p />
<p>Columbia University’s <a href="http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/silencing-science-tracker/" type="external">Silencing Science Tracker</a> &#160;documents more than 100 instances of government trying to restrict research or public information about climate change. Among them are reports on climate change that have been <a href="http://100days.envirodatagov.org/changing-digital-climate/" type="external">stripped</a> from government websites. Climate change was <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-15/fema-strips-mention-of-climate-change-from-its-strategic-plan" type="external">removed</a> from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s strategic plan. Environmental Protection Agency employees were issued <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/epa-climate-adaptation_us_5abbb5e3e4b04a59a31387d7" type="external">talking points</a> that promote an <a href="https://apnews.com/40c6c4fac94d4732ba88baf08612f360" type="external">inaccurate message</a> about gaps in climate science and downplay the role of human activities in global warming.</p>
<p />
<p>The edited national parks report “is probably the biggest scientific integrity violation at the Department of Interior, by far … because this is an actual scientific report,” said Joel Clement, who was the Interior Department’s top climate change official in the Obama administration. He <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/05/politics/interior-whistleblower-resigns/index.html" type="external">resigned</a> in October after Zinke reassigned him to an oil and gas accounting office and now is a senior fellow for the Union of Concerned Scientists working on scientific integrity issues.</p>
<p />
<p>“By taking the words out, they are depowering the (climate change) issue,” Clement said. “It’s a horrible thing for reports to be suppressed and for the words to be changed.”</p>
<p>Censored words and phrases</p>
<p>The report, titled, “Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Projections for the National Park Service,” reveals that national treasures will face severe flooding if global greenhouse gases keep increasing. Some of its projections, according to the drafts, include:</p>
<p />
<p>● In North Carolina, the Wright Brothers National Memorial has the highest projected increase in sea level among parks nationwide – 2.69 feet by 2100 under a scenario of high growth of greenhouse gases. Along with Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras national seashores, the memorial could face significant permanent flooding. “Future storm surges will be exacerbated by future sea level rise nationwide; this could be especially dangerous for the Southeast Region where they already experience hurricane-strength storms,” the report says.</p>
<p />
<p>● In Virginia, three parks – <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/safeguarding-our-cultural-past-future-climate-change-stories-jamestown" type="external">Colonial National Historical Park</a>, home of Historic Jamestowne; Fort Monroe National Monument; and Petersburg National Battlefield – face the biggest potential sea level increases in the park service’s Northeast region – 2.66 feet by 2100.</p>
<p />
<p>● Parks in the Washington, D.C., region could experience some of the greatest sea level increases – 2.62 feet by 2100. “Storm surge flooding on top of this sea level rise would have widespread impacts,” the report says.</p>
<p />
<p>● If a Category 2 hurricane hit Florida’s Everglades National Park, the entire park could be flooded, with most of it under several feet of water.</p>
<p />
<p>Reveal obtained almost 2,000 pages of drafts of the report showing tracked changes and dating back to August 2016 – along with dozens of pages of other documents about the report and preparations to release it – in response to a public records request to the state of Colorado.</p>
<p />
<p>The lead author, University of Colorado geological sciences research associate Maria Caffrey, worked full time on the report on contract with the park service from 2013 through 2017.</p>
<p />
<p>Caffrey declined to discuss the editing and long delay in releasing her report, instead referring questions to the park service. Asked whether she has been pressured to delete the terms “anthropogenic” and “human activities,” she replied, “I don’t really want to get into that today.”</p>
<p />
<p>“I would be very disappointed if there were words being attributed to me that I didn’t write,” she said. “I don’t think politics should come into this in any way.”</p>
<p />
<p>Although references to human-induced change were deleted, data and maps showing the severity of impacts on the parks were unchanged.</p>
<p />
<p>In drafts dated January 2017 to May 2017, the executive summary starts: “Changing relative sea levels and the potential for increasing storm surges due to anthropogenic climate change present challenges to national park managers.”</p>
<p />
<p>But editing dated Feb. 6, 2018, changed that to: “Ongoing changes in relative sea levels and the potential for increasing storm surges present challenges to national park managers.”</p>
<p />
<p>In a section about 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, one of the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/news/UpdatedCostliest.pdf" type="external">costliest storms</a> to hit the U.S., this sentence was deleted: “This single storm cannot be attributed to anthropogenic climate change, but the storm surge occurred over a sea whose level had risen due to climate change.”</p>
<p />
<p>An entire sentence was removed from the report’s section on Hurricane Sandy.</p>
<p>The introduction also was substantially altered in February. These two sentences were deleted: “While sea levels have been gradually rising since the last glacial maximum approximately 21,000 years ago, anthropogenic climate change has significantly increased the rate of global sea level rise. Human activities continue to release carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, causing the Earth’s atmosphere to warm.”</p>
<p />
<p>Other scientists who reviewed the draft reports said the deletions about the cause of climate change were alarming.</p>
<p />
<p>“It’s hiding from the public the reality of the causes and the possible options to choose or influence what scenario plays out,” Lubchenco said.</p>
<p />
<p>Some of the editing apparently remained in play. Caffrey has pushed back on at least some of the deletions, according to a March draft.</p>
<p />
<p>Editing notes in a draft obtained by Reveal indicate that many of the deletions were made by Larry Perez, a career public information officer who coordinates the park service’s climate change response program.</p>
<p />
<p>Perez declined to comment on why the changes were made. Watchdog groups say that in some cases, career officials within the administration may be self-censoring to avoid angering Trump appointees. In others cases, they may be responding to verbal orders from superiors who have been told to avoid creating records that eventually could be made public.</p>
<p />
<p>The National Park Service’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/policy/DOrders/DO_79.pdf" type="external">scientific integrity policy</a> prohibits managers from engaging in “dishonesty, fraud, misrepresentation, coercive manipulation, censorship, or other misconduct that alters the content, veracity, or meaning or that may affect the planning, conduct, reporting, or application of scientific and scholarly activities.” It also requires employees to differentiate between their opinions or assumptions and solid science.</p>
<p />
<p>Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said “the edits are glaringly in violation” of the science cited in the report and “such alterations violate” the policy.</p>
<p />
<p>“The individual who edited the document is making a personal opinion/assumption that runs counter to the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions responsible for sea level rise are of anthropogenic origin and that the threat to the National Park Service assets arises primarily from human activities,” said McNutt, who led the U.S. Geological Survey, the Interior Department’s main scientific agency, from 2009 to 2013.</p>
<p />
<p>Clement, who worked for seven years as a high-ranking director in the Interior Department, said it would be unusual for such editing to occur without an order from a top supervisor.</p>
<p />
<p>“I can’t imagine a career man or woman would take those steps without some sort of direction,” he said.</p>
<p />
<p>The editing seemed to cross a line that Zinke drew during last month’s hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.</p>
<p />
<p>Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, pressed Zinke about censoring science. She asked him about department officials <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/interior-department-agency-removes-climate-change-language-from-news-release/2017/05/22/774c122a-3f23-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_term=.3910f7aef654" type="external">deleting</a> this line from a press release about a newly published scientific article: “Global climate change drives sea-level rise, increasing the frequency of coastal flooding.”</p>
<p />
<p>In his <a href="https://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/3/full-committee-hearing-to-examine-the-presidents-doi-budget-request" type="external">testimony</a>, Zinke differentiated editing press releases from altering scientific reports. He also rebuffed suggestions that he considers references to climate change unacceptable, saying “man has been an influencer” on the warming climate.</p>
<p />
<p>Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska and the committee’s chairwoman, summarized Zinke’s comments: “I think you were pretty clear … that within the department, you’re not altering the reports that are coming out from the agencies.”</p>
<p>Why the deletions matter</p>
<p>Caffrey, the park service report’s lead author, said it’s crucial that the report address the human role in climate change. One of her key findings is that decisions about reducing greenhouse gases will determine how much peril the coastal national parks face from sea level rise and storm surge.</p>
<p />
<p>The report calculates projected sea level rise in 2030, 2050 and 2100 under four scenarios for global emissions. For instance, projections for the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington in 2100 range from 1.74 feet to 2.62 feet. The low end envisions a future in which people burn significantly less coal and other fossil fuels, while the upper number reflects increases in use.</p>
<p />
<p>“What scenario we choose to follow in the future will have a significant impact on how we protect our resources, like the National Park Service resources,” Caffrey said. “I feel it’s an important part to include in the report because it’s an essential part of those findings.”</p>
<p />
<p>In an October 2016 webinar for park staff about her research, Caffrey showed an aerial photo that depicts Washington in 2100 if global emissions rise and a Category 3 hurricane hits the city. The National Mall and Constitution Avenue are flooded. Water surrounds museums.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>This rendering depicts an aerial view of a flooded National Mall area in Washington, D.C., in 2100 if global emissions rise and a Category 3 hurricane hits the city. It was included in an October 2016 webinar by University of Colorado Boulder’s Maria Caffrey, the lead author of the sea level rise report for the National Park Service. Credit: Courtesy of Maria Caffrey.</p>
<p>“We can see the results could potentially be quite catastrophic,” Caffrey said in an interview.</p>
<p />
<p>The report is intended to be released with an interactive website that would allow the public and park managers to visualize rising waters in their favorite parks.</p>
<p />
<p>“You can zoom in and move around and see the underlying infrastructure and see what’s at risk,” said William Manley, a University of Colorado Boulder research scientist who worked on data, maps and the online viewer.</p>
<p />
<p>“The data and the viewer, if released, would help park decision-makers to see more clearly what decisions they should make to avoid costly mistakes,” he said. In addition, “the maps and information would be helpful to resource managers in preparation for any storms that were forecasted.”</p>
<p />
<p>Destruction from last summer’s Hurricane Irma includes wrecked boats on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. If a long-delayed National Park Service science report had been released last year, it might have helped park managers know which areas were likely to flood. Credit: National Park Service</p>
<p>For instance, if the report had been released by late last summer, park managers could have consulted it when Hurricanes Irma and Maria, both Category 5 storms, headed toward the U.S. Virgin Islands in September. The <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/125040673@N03/albums/72157645441681012" type="external">storm surge maps</a> for Virgin Islands National Park could have shown managers which areas were likely to flood. The interactive viewer possibly could have helped evacuation planning.</p>
<p />
<p>“It’s becoming clearer and clearer to most Americans that weather patterns are changing, climate change is a real phenomenon, and it’s affecting things they care about, people they love and places that they love,” said Lubchenco, the former NOAA administrator.</p>
<p />
<p>“I think what we are seeing is an effort to undermine that realization in a very subtle way. And it’s very dangerous. It’s counter to the best interests of a fully democratic society.”</p>
<p />
<p>This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/" type="external">revealnews.org</a> and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/podcast" type="external">revealnews.org/podcast</a>.</p>
<p /> | Wipeout: Human Role in Climate Change Removed From Science Report | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/wipeout-human-role-in-climate-change-removed-from-science-report/ | 2018-04-16 | 4left
| 2,509 | National Park Service officials have deleted every mention of humans8217 role in causing climate change in drafts of a longawaited report on sea level rise and storm surge contradicting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke8217s vow to Congress that his department is not censoring science The research for the first time projects the risks from rising seas and flooding at 118 coastal national park sites including the National Mall the original Jamestown settlement and the Wright Brothers National Memorial Originally drafted in the summer of 2016 yet still not released to the public the National Park Service report is intended to inform officials and the public about how to protect park resources and visitors from climate change Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting obtained and analyzed 18 versions of the scientific report In changes dated Feb 6 a park service official crossed out the word 8220anthropogenic8221 the term for people8217s impact on nature in five places Three references to 8220human activities8221 causing climate change also were removed The 87page report which was written by a University of Colorado Boulder scientist has been held up for at least 10 months according to documents obtained by Reveal The delay has prevented park managers from having access to the best data in situations such as reacting to hurricane forecasts safeguarding artifacts from floodwaters or deciding where to locate new buildings The omissions reflect a broader crackdown on climate science at federal agencies including removal of references to human impacts since President Donald Trump took office Trump previously called climate change a Chinese hoax took steps to withdraw from an international agreement to cut greenhouse gases and moved toward reversing President Barack Obama8217s policies to regulate power plant emissions The word 8220anthropogenic8221 the term for people8217s impact on nature was removed from the executive summary of the sea level rise report for the National Park Service Critics say the National Park Service8217s editing of the report reflects unprecedented political interference in government science at the Interior Department which oversees the park service Jonathan Overpeck a climate scientist and dean of the University of Michigan8217s School for Environment and Sustainability said the deletions are 8220shocking from a scientific point of view but also from a policy point of view8221 8220To remove a very critical part of the scientific understanding is nothing short of political censorship and has no place in science8221 he said 8220Censorship of this kind is something you8217d see in Russia or some totalitarian regime It has no place in America8221 Several scientists said the editing appears to violate a National Park Service policy designed to protect science from political influence 8220It looks like a pretty clearcut blatant violation of what we generally would consider to be scientific integrity8221 said Jane Lubchenco who led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Obama National Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson said the agency would not comment on the editing of a report that had not yet been released He said that it was premature to report on it and that it would be released soon A reference to 8220human activities8221 causing climate change was deleted from the report Zinke testified at a Senate committee hearing last month that the Interior Department has not changed any scientific documents 8220There is no incident no incident at all that I know that we ever changed a comma on a document itself Now we may have on a press release8221 Zinke told the senators 8220And I challenge you any member to find a document that we8217ve actually changed on a report8221 Zinke8217s press secretary said no one at the Interior Department was available to comment about the report A hallmark of the Trump administration is equivocation about climate change to downplay the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels are warming the planet Columbia University8217s Silencing Science Tracker amp160documents more than 100 instances of government trying to restrict research or public information about climate change Among them are reports on climate change that have been stripped from government websites Climate change was removed from the Federal Emergency Management Agency8217s strategic plan Environmental Protection Agency employees were issued talking points that promote an inaccurate message about gaps in climate science and downplay the role of human activities in global warming The edited national parks report 8220is probably the biggest scientific integrity violation at the Department of Interior by far 8230 because this is an actual scientific report8221 said Joel Clement who was the Interior Department8217s top climate change official in the Obama administration He resigned in October after Zinke reassigned him to an oil and gas accounting office and now is a senior fellow for the Union of Concerned Scientists working on scientific integrity issues 8220By taking the words out they are depowering the climate change issue8221 Clement said 8220It8217s a horrible thing for reports to be suppressed and for the words to be changed8221 Censored words and phrases The report titled 8220Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Projections for the National Park Service8221 reveals that national treasures will face severe flooding if global greenhouse gases keep increasing Some of its projections according to the drafts include 9679 In North Carolina the Wright Brothers National Memorial has the highest projected increase in sea level among parks nationwide 8211 269 feet by 2100 under a scenario of high growth of greenhouse gases Along with Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras national seashores the memorial could face significant permanent flooding 8220Future storm surges will be exacerbated by future sea level rise nationwide this could be especially dangerous for the Southeast Region where they already experience hurricanestrength storms8221 the report says 9679 In Virginia three parks 8211 Colonial National Historical Park home of Historic Jamestowne Fort Monroe National Monument and Petersburg National Battlefield 8211 face the biggest potential sea level increases in the park service8217s Northeast region 8211 266 feet by 2100 9679 Parks in the Washington DC region could experience some of the greatest sea level increases 8211 262 feet by 2100 8220Storm surge flooding on top of this sea level rise would have widespread impacts8221 the report says 9679 If a Category 2 hurricane hit Florida8217s Everglades National Park the entire park could be flooded with most of it under several feet of water Reveal obtained almost 2000 pages of drafts of the report showing tracked changes and dating back to August 2016 8211 along with dozens of pages of other documents about the report and preparations to release it 8211 in response to a public records request to the state of Colorado The lead author University of Colorado geological sciences research associate Maria Caffrey worked full time on the report on contract with the park service from 2013 through 2017 Caffrey declined to discuss the editing and long delay in releasing her report instead referring questions to the park service Asked whether she has been pressured to delete the terms 8220anthropogenic8221 and 8220human activities8221 she replied 8220I don8217t really want to get into that today8221 8220I would be very disappointed if there were words being attributed to me that I didn8217t write8221 she said 8220I don8217t think politics should come into this in any way8221 Although references to humaninduced change were deleted data and maps showing the severity of impacts on the parks were unchanged In drafts dated January 2017 to May 2017 the executive summary starts 8220Changing relative sea levels and the potential for increasing storm surges due to anthropogenic climate change present challenges to national park managers8221 But editing dated Feb 6 2018 changed that to 8220Ongoing changes in relative sea levels and the potential for increasing storm surges present challenges to national park managers8221 In a section about 20128217s Hurricane Sandy one of the costliest storms to hit the US this sentence was deleted 8220This single storm cannot be attributed to anthropogenic climate change but the storm surge occurred over a sea whose level had risen due to climate change8221 An entire sentence was removed from the report8217s section on Hurricane Sandy The introduction also was substantially altered in February These two sentences were deleted 8220While sea levels have been gradually rising since the last glacial maximum approximately 21000 years ago anthropogenic climate change has significantly increased the rate of global sea level rise Human activities continue to release carbon dioxide CO2 in the atmosphere causing the Earth8217s atmosphere to warm8221 Other scientists who reviewed the draft reports said the deletions about the cause of climate change were alarming 8220It8217s hiding from the public the reality of the causes and the possible options to choose or influence what scenario plays out8221 Lubchenco said Some of the editing apparently remained in play Caffrey has pushed back on at least some of the deletions according to a March draft Editing notes in a draft obtained by Reveal indicate that many of the deletions were made by Larry Perez a career public information officer who coordinates the park service8217s climate change response program Perez declined to comment on why the changes were made Watchdog groups say that in some cases career officials within the administration may be selfcensoring to avoid angering Trump appointees In others cases they may be responding to verbal orders from superiors who have been told to avoid creating records that eventually could be made public The National Park Service8217s scientific integrity policy prohibits managers from engaging in 8220dishonesty fraud misrepresentation coercive manipulation censorship or other misconduct that alters the content veracity or meaning or that may affect the planning conduct reporting or application of scientific and scholarly activities8221 It also requires employees to differentiate between their opinions or assumptions and solid science Marcia McNutt president of the National Academy of Sciences said 8220the edits are glaringly in violation8221 of the science cited in the report and 8220such alterations violate8221 the policy 8220The individual who edited the document is making a personal opinionassumption that runs counter to the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions responsible for sea level rise are of anthropogenic origin and that the threat to the National Park Service assets arises primarily from human activities8221 said McNutt who led the US Geological Survey the Interior Department8217s main scientific agency from 2009 to 2013 Clement who worked for seven years as a highranking director in the Interior Department said it would be unusual for such editing to occur without an order from a top supervisor 8220I can8217t imagine a career man or woman would take those steps without some sort of direction8221 he said The editing seemed to cross a line that Zinke drew during last month8217s hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Sen Mazie Hirono a Democrat from Hawaii pressed Zinke about censoring science She asked him about department officials deleting this line from a press release about a newly published scientific article 8220Global climate change drives sealevel rise increasing the frequency of coastal flooding8221 In his testimony Zinke differentiated editing press releases from altering scientific reports He also rebuffed suggestions that he considers references to climate change unacceptable saying 8220man has been an influencer8221 on the warming climate Sen Lisa Murkowski a Republican from Alaska and the committee8217s chairwoman summarized Zinke8217s comments 8220I think you were pretty clear 8230 that within the department you8217re not altering the reports that are coming out from the agencies8221 Why the deletions matter Caffrey the park service report8217s lead author said it8217s crucial that the report address the human role in climate change One of her key findings is that decisions about reducing greenhouse gases will determine how much peril the coastal national parks face from sea level rise and storm surge The report calculates projected sea level rise in 2030 2050 and 2100 under four scenarios for global emissions For instance projections for the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington in 2100 range from 174 feet to 262 feet The low end envisions a future in which people burn significantly less coal and other fossil fuels while the upper number reflects increases in use 8220What scenario we choose to follow in the future will have a significant impact on how we protect our resources like the National Park Service resources8221 Caffrey said 8220I feel it8217s an important part to include in the report because it8217s an essential part of those findings8221 In an October 2016 webinar for park staff about her research Caffrey showed an aerial photo that depicts Washington in 2100 if global emissions rise and a Category 3 hurricane hits the city The National Mall and Constitution Avenue are flooded Water surrounds museums amp160 amp160 amp160 This rendering depicts an aerial view of a flooded National Mall area in Washington DC in 2100 if global emissions rise and a Category 3 hurricane hits the city It was included in an October 2016 webinar by University of Colorado Boulder8217s Maria Caffrey the lead author of the sea level rise report for the National Park Service Credit Courtesy of Maria Caffrey 8220We can see the results could potentially be quite catastrophic8221 Caffrey said in an interview The report is intended to be released with an interactive website that would allow the public and park managers to visualize rising waters in their favorite parks 8220You can zoom in and move around and see the underlying infrastructure and see what8217s at risk8221 said William Manley a University of Colorado Boulder research scientist who worked on data maps and the online viewer 8220The data and the viewer if released would help park decisionmakers to see more clearly what decisions they should make to avoid costly mistakes8221 he said In addition 8220the maps and information would be helpful to resource managers in preparation for any storms that were forecasted8221 Destruction from last summer8217s Hurricane Irma includes wrecked boats on St John US Virgin Islands If a longdelayed National Park Service science report had been released last year it might have helped park managers know which areas were likely to flood Credit National Park Service For instance if the report had been released by late last summer park managers could have consulted it when Hurricanes Irma and Maria both Category 5 storms headed toward the US Virgin Islands in September The storm surge maps for Virgin Islands National Park could have shown managers which areas were likely to flood The interactive viewer possibly could have helped evacuation planning 8220It8217s becoming clearer and clearer to most Americans that weather patterns are changing climate change is a real phenomenon and it8217s affecting things they care about people they love and places that they love8221 said Lubchenco the former NOAA administrator 8220I think what we are seeing is an effort to undermine that realization in a very subtle way And it8217s very dangerous It8217s counter to the best interests of a fully democratic society8221 This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area Learn more at revealnewsorg and subscribe to the Reveal podcast produced with PRX at revealnewsorgpodcast | National/PROPN Park/PROPN Service/PROPN officials/NOUN have/AUX deleted/VERB every/DET mention/NOUN of/ADP humans8217/PROPN role/NOUN in/ADP causing/VERB climate/NOUN change/NOUN in/ADP drafts/NOUN of/ADP a/DET longawaited/VERB report/NOUN on/ADP sea/NOUN level/NOUN rise/NOUN and/CCONJ storm/NOUN surge/NOUN contradicting/VERB Interior/PROPN Secretary/PROPN Ryan/PROPN Zinke8217s/PROPN vow/NOUN to/ADP Congress/PROPN that/SCONJ his/PRON department/NOUN is/AUX not/PART censoring/VERB science/NOUN The/DET research/NOUN for/ADP the/DET first/ADJ time/NOUN projects/VERB the/DET risks/NOUN from/ADP rising/VERB seas/NOUN and/CCONJ flooding/NOUN at/ADP 118/NUM coastal/ADJ national/ADJ park/NOUN sites/NOUN including/VERB the/DET National/PROPN Mall/PROPN the/DET original/ADJ Jamestown/PROPN settlement/NOUN and/CCONJ the/DET 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<p>As the Hillary Clinton campaign slogged toward victory in the long primary campaign against Sen. Bernie Sanders, word came from WikiLeaks that it had scored a <a href="https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/" type="external">trove of hacked emails</a> to and from the Democratic National Committee. Among other things, they proved that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, along with their organizations, had been working hand-in-glove to skew the primaries in Clinton’s favor.</p>
<p>The day before the party’s convention opened in Philadelphia on July 24, Wasserman-Schultz had to resign her post or face a floor revolt. Sanders delegates were so angry at what they were learning from WikiLeaks about the sabotage of their candidate that <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/27/hundreds_of_sanders_delegates_walk_off" type="external">hundreds walked out</a> on the second day of the convention, tossing away their delegate credentials over the security fence and vowing never to support Clinton.</p>
<p>In short order, the DNC and the Obama administration-led intelligence establishment began claiming, with no hard evidence, that the source of WikiLeaks’ explosive emails was “the Russians.” While denied by WikiLeaks, it was a charge that Clinton made ad nauseum on the campaign trail and in her three televised debates with Trump, using it as an all-purpose excuse for tough questions about her <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-trump-clinton-foundation-2016-9" type="external">self-dealing as secretary of State</a>, her lucrative off-the-record speeches to Wall Street bankers, or the DNC’s thumb on the scale in the primaries.</p>
<p>Mainstream news organizations were quick to adopt this “Russia did it” trope, which despite the lack of proof has only grown more widely accepted since Trump’s stunning election-night victory.</p>
<p>The Washington Post ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html?utm_term=.e88d9e6bb24c" type="external">11/24/16</a>) says that 200 websites on a list produced by a shadowy group are “routine peddlers of Russian propaganda”—but editors later insist that they didn’t print the list themselves.</p>
<p>Then the Washington Post ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html" type="external">11/24/16</a>) took things a giant step further, publishing an explosive exposé claiming that, as its headline put it, “Russian Propaganda Effort Helped Spread ‘Fake News’ During Election, Experts Say.”</p>
<p>The Post’s story was based on a long list of online news sites purported to be either working directly for Moscow or else “useful idiots” unwittingly spreading Russian propaganda. Incredibly, the list included respected sites like Polk Award-winner Robert Parry’s <a href="http://consortiumnews.com/" type="external">Consortium News</a>, former LA journalist Robert Sheer’s <a href="http://truthdig.com/" type="external">Truthdig</a>, the news aggregator site <a href="http://truth-out.org/" type="external">Truth-Out.org</a> and the highly regarded financial news site <a href="http://nakedcapitalism.com/" type="external">Naked Capitalism</a>.</p>
<p>The aim of the conspiracy that involved these and scores of other sites was reportedly to boost Trump’s chances of winning the the presidency, while simultaneously undermining American support for democracy and creating “the appearance of international tensions” and “fear of looming hostilities with nuclear-armed Russia.”</p>
<p>Post technology reporter Craig Timberg reported that a “nonpartisan” team of &#160;“experts” calling themselves PropOrNot used “sophisticated” but unexplained analytical tools and methodologies to identify “more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans.”</p>
<p>Timberg added, “On Facebook, PropOrNot estimates that stories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign were viewed more than 213 million times.”</p>
<p>These numbers, not verified by PropOrNot, sound wildly exaggerated. After all, there are only 250 million adult Americans, probably less than half of whom use Facebook. Meanwhile, some of the sites on that list of propaganda peddlers would be pleased to have daily hits reach five figures.</p>
<p>Washington Post‘s Craig Timberg: Russian propaganda was aimed at “sowing distrust in US democracy and its leaders.”</p>
<p>Many of the stories circulated by these sites, Timberg charged, were “fake,” containing just enough truth to seem credible. He explained how Russia’s</p>
<p>increasingly sophisticated propaganda machinery—including thousands of botnets, teams of paid human “trolls,” and networks of websites and social-media accounts—were echoed and amplified by right-wing sites across the internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers.</p>
<p>Never mind that reputable US journalists left and right needed no Russian guidance to suspect Clinton’s private email setup was <a href="https://shadowproof.com/2016/06/13/hillary-clinton-clearly-broke-the-law-obama-has-been-prosecuting-people-for-breaking/" type="external">illegal</a>, or that her health might be <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/31/no-reports-on-clintons-health-are-not-conspiracy-theories-commentary.html" type="external">cause for concern</a>. Or that a candidate who had received millions of dollars for &#160;speeches delivered in secret to top global bankers would be willing to give them a lead role in setting economic policy (as <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2009/12/13/obamas-big-sellout-president-has-packed-his-economic-team-wall-street-insiders" type="external">President Obama did</a> on assuming office in 2008.)</p>
<p>And certainly Clinton herself, with her campaign calls for establishment of a US-enforced no-fly zone over Syria and for more US troops and offensive armaments along Russia’s borders, was doing quite well without Russian help ramping up voters’ fears of a new Cold War or worse.</p>
<p>The PropOrNot approach conflates these well-grounded concerns with spurious stories of the <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news" type="external">sex-trafficking pizza parlor</a> ilk t0 form a single disinformation juggernaut. As the organization’s “executive director” told the Post:</p>
<p>The way that this propaganda apparatus supported Trump was equivalent to some massive amount of a media buy…. It was like Russia was running a super PAC for Trump’s campaign…. It worked.</p>
<p>“Executive director” here is in quotes because, in a staggering lapse of journalistic ethics and standards, the Post allowed PropOrNot’s entire staff to remain anonymous. Nor did Post editors require Timberg to afford any of the sites PropOrNot maligned as Russian propaganda tools a chance to respond—a basic requirement of responsible journalism.</p>
<p>In what surely has to be one of the weakest excuses ever offered for granting anonymity while making defamatory statements about others, Timberg wrote that this was to protect PropOrNot’s members from “being targeted by Russia’s legions of skilled hackers.”</p>
<p>Efforts by FAIR to elicit comment from Timberg or his superiors, national editor Cameron Barr and editor Marty Baron, were unsuccessful. They referred questions to Post VP for communications and events Kris Coratti, who would only email this justification for not giving the sites on the blacklist a chance to respond: “The Post did not name any of the sites on PropOrNot’s list of organizations.”</p>
<p>The Washington Post‘s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html" type="external">editor’s note</a>.</p>
<p>Almost two weeks after its article ran, the Post ran a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html?utm_term=.ace2adff67d2" type="external">sort of correction</a> in the form of an editorial comment in italics pasted on top of the online edition of Timberg’s November 24 piece (where only those looking for the by then old original story would find it). In that note, the editors say that the paper</p>
<p>did not name any of the sites [on PropOrNot’s blacklist], does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so. Since publication of the Post’s story, PropOrNot has removed some of those sites from its list.</p>
<p>Of course, the damage was already done, as the original article achieved widespread circulation via the Post’s wire service; it would be up to all those news organizations that bought and ran the story, or reported their own versions of it, to make any correction.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the facile dodge of “we didn’t name the sites” ignores the reality that the Post had prominently showcased PropOrNot and let its name vouch for the heretofore unknown group’s credibility. The paper didn’t have to run the list; anyone with a smartphone could do a Google search, find PropOrNot’s website as the first listing, go to the homepage and find a link button headed “The List.”</p>
<p>And apparently plenty of readers did that. While thanks to the Post’s grant of anonymity, PropOrNot’s hidden principals remained safe from inquiring reporters and Russian hackers alike, editors of sites named on its McCarthyite hit list quickly found themselves deluged with venomous calls and emails. As Jeffrey St. Clair, a co-founder and editor of CounterPunch.org, another site listed prominently as a propaganda tool, recalls, “The morning after the Post published its article, I found 1,000 emails in my inbox, mostly hate mail and death threats.”</p>
<p>Timberg tried to lend his credulous article a sheen of credibility by including a second source of other “independent analysts” also making claims of an epic Russian propaganda conspiracy, but this was a study by the <a href="http://www.fpri.org/" type="external">Foreign Policy Research Institute</a> (FPRI), a hoary relic of the ’50s <a href="http://www.fpri.org/article/2016/07/everything-old-new-russia-returns-nicaragua/" type="external">still mired in McCarthyite thinking</a> and run by Russophobe veterans of the Reagan and Bush administrations. At least FPRI’s funding, leadership and the study’s authors were identified, but no one could mistake them or the organization for being “independent.”</p>
<p>In any event, the Post’s story was really all about PropOrNot’s list and, in contrast to FPRI, the organization remains fully opaque. What is PropOrNot trying to hide? One possibility: The Pentagon. The Defense Department is, after all, spending billions of dollars a year on information warfare, and has, under Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, been promoting the idea of Russia as an existential threat to the US.</p>
<p>One indication of some level of Pentagon involvement is the curious role of Joel Harding, whose own blog <a href="https://toinformistoinfluence.com/about/" type="external">identifies</a> him as a retired longtime military intelligence officer specializing in “information operations, strategic communication and cyberwarfare”—in other words, psychological warfare and propaganda. Harding, who &#160;&#160;denied (via an email conversation with me) any connection to the 30 or 40 “volunteers” alleged to be working at PropOrNot, is nonetheless the only named “analyst” whose work is cited as a rationale for listing any of the sites on PropOrNot’s list. (The other sites just feature links to the sites themselves.)</p>
<p>One of the sites Harding “ <a href="https://toinformistoinfluence.com/2015/11/08/russian-proxy-news-site-exposed-yournewswire/" type="external">analyzed</a>” for PropOrNot and labeled as a major purveyor of Russian propaganda was an obscure site called YourNewsWire.com, which features some news about the US and Russia, as well as conspiracy theories about vaccine links to autism and proof of an afterlife.</p>
<p>Joel Harding’s blog ( <a href="https://toinformistoinfluence.com/2016/09/02/russia-useful-idiots-proliferate-russian-propaganda/" type="external">9/2/16</a>), on the basis of which PropOrNot listed CounterPunch as a purveyor of Russian propaganda. It was later removed from the list.</p>
<p>The other was a remarkably shoddy September 2 <a href="https://toinformistoinfluence.com/2016/09/02/russia-useful-idiots-proliferate-russian-propaganda/" type="external">analysis</a> of an article in CounterPunch, in which Harding mocked one the contributor whose self-identification as a socialist contradicted, in Harding’s view, CounterPunch’s claim be the “voice of the authentic American left” — without mentioning or perhaps noticing that the author’s bio also mentioned he was a Canadian. When CounterPunch editor Joshua Frank wrote to PropOrNot complain about his site’s being labeled as Russian propaganda (he attached a <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/02/why-we-need-to-oppose-all-foreign-military-intervention-in-syria/" type="external">story</a> he had written criticizing Russia’s role in Syria), PropOrNot said they would remove CounterPunch from their list.</p>
<p>What makes him appear to be more closely allied with or part of PropOrNot’s anonymous team than he admits, however, is a bylined <a href="https://toinformistoinfluence.com/2016/11/18/russian-propaganda-sites-is-it-propaganda-or-not/" type="external">article</a> that appeared on his own site on November 18, six days before PropOrNot’s public debut in the Washington Post. Under the prescient headline “Russian Propaganda Sites: Is It Propaganda or Not?,” Harding offered a preview of the as yet unannounced PropOrNot.com’s “List,” itself dated November 9. This preview list contained 178 names, a bit shorter than the final list’s 200.</p>
<p>While claiming no connection to PropOrNot, Harding said via email, without elaborating, that “some of its people may have been students of mine.” Harding said during this email conversation that he was on his way to the commissary at the US Army’s Ft. Belvoir, a suburban DC base that’s home to <a href="https://www.army.mil/inscom" type="external">INSCOM</a>, the Army’s “information operations” command, and <a href="http://www.arcyber.army.mil/Pages/USCyberCommand.aspx" type="external">ARCYBER</a>, its cyber command post.</p>
<p>Could PropOrNot possibly be linked to a US military psychological warfare program? Hard to say, harder to prove. But it’s a question worth exploring.</p>
<p>The New Yorker‘s Adrian Chen ( <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-propaganda-about-russian-propaganda" type="external">12/1/16</a>) notes that PropOrNot’s criteria for “Russian propaganda” would encompass “nearly every news outlet in the world.”</p>
<p>Adrian Chen, a staff writer at the New Yorker ( <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-propaganda-about-russian-propaganda" type="external">12/1/16</a>), offered interesting insight into the genesis of Timberg’s Washington Post article. He said he had received an anonymous email from “The PropOrNot team” in late October saying that as a “newly-formed independent team of computer scientists, statisticians, national security professionals, journalists and political activists, dedicated to identifying propaganda—particularly Russian propaganda targeting a US audience,” they had developed a list of 200 such news sites. They said that they had brought it to the attention of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who had recommended they contact Chen.</p>
<p>Chen said he was wary of dealing with an unidentified group, and so claimed he was “too busy.” They asked if he would connect them with “folks at the NYTimes, WaPo, WSJ and anyone else who you think would be interested.” He passed.</p>
<p>The Post’s Timberg, however, took the bait, and after his piece appeared, the Post promoted it aggressively. Between the Washington Post’s wire service and AP, it spread virally to many other newsrooms and papers across the country, running as the lead story on November 25 in the <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/-Russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say.html" type="external">Philadelphia Inquirer</a> and prominently, too, at <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/25/reports-russian-operation-boosted-fake-news-phenomenon/94424206/" type="external">USA Today</a>, and getting mentions on <a href="http://markets.cbsnews.com/Report-Russian-propaganda-effort-spread-fake-news/1de1983fcca14613/" type="external">CBS</a>, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/russian-propaganda-effort-behind-flood-fake-news-preceded-election/" type="external">PBS</a>, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/report-russian-propaganda-effort-spread-fake-news-43778444" type="external">ABC</a> and other news programs.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, however, alternative media were quick to fight back. The Intercept ( <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgracefully-promotes-a-mccarthyite-blacklist-from-a-new-hidden-and-very-shady-group/" type="external">11/26/16</a>) ran a blistering accusation of the Post that accused the paper of promoting an organization that “embodies the toxic essence of Joseph McCarthy, but without the courage to attach individual names to the blacklist.”</p>
<p>Matt Taibbi, in <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/washington-post-blacklist-story-is-shameful-disgusting-w452543" type="external">Rolling Stone</a>, condemned Timberg’s “astonishingly lazy report,” adding, of the Post’s use of a shadowy group to malign 200 news sites without a single identified spokesperson, “Most high school papers wouldn’t touch sources like these.”</p>
<p>By November 30, PropOrNot, saying it had been challenged by many journalists, but still remaining anonymous, issued a press release announcing that &#160;it was “reviewing” its methodology. The group said that it would stop listing news sites that were open about who they were and that were running actual news. They also said they would stop using techies to evaluate whether news sites were propaganda organs or not.</p>
<p>The Post, however, despite its “editor’s note” preface, is still standing by a tawdry story reminiscent of Red Channels in the 1950s. So is Timberg, who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/effort-to-combat-foreign-propaganda-advances-in-congress/2016/11/30/9147e1ac-e221-47be-ab92-9f2f7e69d452_story.html?utm_term=.629f784c9fb9" type="external">on November 30</a>enthusiastically cited his earlier piece in reporting on a House/Senate conference working on the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, that approves $160 million to “identify propaganda and counter its effects.”</p>
<p>Timberg wrote that the measure, originally produced last spring, had earlier focussed upon propaganda in foreign countries, but he says, enthusiastically linking to his own article of six days earlier: “The context shifted in recent months as independent experts [those PropOrNot guys!] warned that Russia was carrying out an intensive propaganda campaign during the US election season.”</p>
<p>That should make the folks behind PropOrNot happy. On their own site, while claiming they aren’t trying to censor anybody, they <a href="http://www.propornot.com/p/frequently-asked-questions.html" type="external">call on the FBI and DOJ</a> to open “formal investigations by the US government, because…we strongly suspect that some of the individuals involved have violated the Espionage Act, the Foreign Agent Registration Act and other related laws.”</p>
<p>The irony is that in purporting to expose Russian propaganda manipulation of the media, the Washington Post has provided a graphic demonstration of how the whole propaganda thing works.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time (Common Courage Press, 2003), an investigative book about the Mumia Abu-Jamal case. He is a founding member of <a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/" type="external">ThisCantBeHappening!</a>, an independent online alternative newspaper.</p>
<p>Messages can be sent to the Washington Post at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>, or via Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost" type="external">@washingtonpost</a>. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.</p>
<p>CORRECTION: Matt Taibbi’s name was misspelled.</p> | Rather Than Exposing Propaganda, WaPo Shows How It’s Done | true | http://fair.org/home/rather-than-exposing-propaganda-wapo-shows-how-its-done/ | 2016-12-08 | 4left
| 2,510 | As the Hillary Clinton campaign slogged toward victory in the long primary campaign against Sen Bernie Sanders word came from WikiLeaks that it had scored a trove of hacked emails to and from the Democratic National Committee Among other things they proved that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta along with their organizations had been working handinglove to skew the primaries in Clinton8217s favor The day before the party8217s convention opened in Philadelphia on July 24 WassermanSchultz had to resign her post or face a floor revolt Sanders delegates were so angry at what they were learning from WikiLeaks about the sabotage of their candidate that hundreds walked out on the second day of the convention tossing away their delegate credentials over the security fence and vowing never to support Clinton In short order the DNC and the Obama administrationled intelligence establishment began claiming with no hard evidence that the source of WikiLeaks8217 explosive emails was 8220the Russians8221 While denied by WikiLeaks it was a charge that Clinton made ad nauseum on the campaign trail and in her three televised debates with Trump using it as an allpurpose excuse for tough questions about her selfdealing as secretary of State her lucrative offtherecord speeches to Wall Street bankers or the DNC8217s thumb on the scale in the primaries Mainstream news organizations were quick to adopt this 8220Russia did it8221 trope which despite the lack of proof has only grown more widely accepted since Trump8217s stunning electionnight victory The Washington Post 112416 says that 200 websites on a list produced by a shadowy group are 8220routine peddlers of Russian propaganda82218212but editors later insist that they didn8217t print the list themselves Then the Washington Post 112416 took things a giant step further publishing an explosive expos233 claiming that as its headline put it 8220Russian Propaganda Effort Helped Spread 8216Fake News8217 During Election Experts Say8221 The Post8217s story was based on a long list of online news sites purported to be either working directly for Moscow or else 8220useful idiots8221 unwittingly spreading Russian propaganda Incredibly the list included respected sites like Polk Awardwinner Robert Parry8217s Consortium News former LA journalist Robert Sheer8217s Truthdig the news aggregator site TruthOutorg and the highly regarded financial news site Naked Capitalism The aim of the conspiracy that involved these and scores of other sites was reportedly to boost Trump8217s chances of winning the the presidency while simultaneously undermining American support for democracy and creating 8220the appearance of international tensions8221 and 8220fear of looming hostilities with nucleararmed Russia8221 Post technology reporter Craig Timberg reported that a 8220nonpartisan8221 team of amp1608220experts8221 calling themselves PropOrNot used 8220sophisticated8221 but unexplained analytical tools and methodologies to identify 8220more than 200 websites as routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans8221 Timberg added 8220On Facebook PropOrNot estimates that stories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign were viewed more than 213 million times8221 These numbers not verified by PropOrNot sound wildly exaggerated After all there are only 250 million adult Americans probably less than half of whom use Facebook Meanwhile some of the sites on that list of propaganda peddlers would be pleased to have daily hits reach five figures Washington Post8216s Craig Timberg Russian propaganda was aimed at 8220sowing distrust in US democracy and its leaders8221 Many of the stories circulated by these sites Timberg charged were 8220fake8221 containing just enough truth to seem credible He explained how Russia8217s increasingly sophisticated propaganda machinery8212including thousands of botnets teams of paid human 8220trolls8221 and networks of websites and socialmedia accounts8212were echoed and amplified by rightwing sites across the internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers Never mind that reputable US journalists left and right needed no Russian guidance to suspect Clinton8217s private email setup was illegal or that her health might be cause for concern Or that a candidate who had received millions of dollars for amp160speeches delivered in secret to top global bankers would be willing to give them a lead role in setting economic policy as President Obama did on assuming office in 2008 And certainly Clinton herself with her campaign calls for establishment of a USenforced nofly zone over Syria and for more US troops and offensive armaments along Russia8217s borders was doing quite well without Russian help ramping up voters8217 fears of a new Cold War or worse The PropOrNot approach conflates these wellgrounded concerns with spurious stories of the sextrafficking pizza parlor ilk t0 form a single disinformation juggernaut As the organization8217s 8220executive director8221 told the Post The way that this propaganda apparatus supported Trump was equivalent to some massive amount of a media buy8230 It was like Russia was running a super PAC for Trump8217s campaign8230 It worked 8220Executive director8221 here is in quotes because in a staggering lapse of journalistic ethics and standards the Post allowed PropOrNot8217s entire staff to remain anonymous Nor did Post editors require Timberg to afford any of the sites PropOrNot maligned as Russian propaganda tools a chance to respond8212a basic requirement of responsible journalism In what surely has to be one of the weakest excuses ever offered for granting anonymity while making defamatory statements about others Timberg wrote that this was to protect PropOrNot8217s members from 8220being targeted by Russia8217s legions of skilled hackers8221 Efforts by FAIR to elicit comment from Timberg or his superiors national editor Cameron Barr and editor Marty Baron were unsuccessful They referred questions to Post VP for communications and events Kris Coratti who would only email this justification for not giving the sites on the blacklist a chance to respond 8220The Post did not name any of the sites on PropOrNot8217s list of organizations8221 The Washington Post8216s editor8217s note Almost two weeks after its article ran the Post ran a sort of correction in the form of an editorial comment in italics pasted on top of the online edition of Timberg8217s November 24 piece where only those looking for the by then old original story would find it In that note the editors say that the paper did not name any of the sites on PropOrNot8217s blacklist does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot8217s findings regarding any individual media outlet nor did the article purport to do so Since publication of the Post8217s story PropOrNot has removed some of those sites from its list Of course the damage was already done as the original article achieved widespread circulation via the Post8217s wire service it would be up to all those news organizations that bought and ran the story or reported their own versions of it to make any correction Meanwhile the facile dodge of 8220we didn8217t name the sites8221 ignores the reality that the Post had prominently showcased PropOrNot and let its name vouch for the heretofore unknown group8217s credibility The paper didn8217t have to run the list anyone with a smartphone could do a Google search find PropOrNot8217s website as the first listing go to the homepage and find a link button headed 8220The List8221 And apparently plenty of readers did that While thanks to the Post8217s grant of anonymity PropOrNot8217s hidden principals remained safe from inquiring reporters and Russian hackers alike editors of sites named on its McCarthyite hit list quickly found themselves deluged with venomous calls and emails As Jeffrey St Clair a cofounder and editor of CounterPunchorg another site listed prominently as a propaganda tool recalls 8220The morning after the Post published its article I found 1000 emails in my inbox mostly hate mail and death threats8221 Timberg tried to lend his credulous article a sheen of credibility by including a second source of other 8220independent analysts8221 also making claims of an epic Russian propaganda conspiracy but this was a study by the Foreign Policy Research Institute FPRI a hoary relic of the 821750s still mired in McCarthyite thinking and run by Russophobe veterans of the Reagan and Bush administrations At least FPRI8217s funding leadership and the study8217s authors were identified but no one could mistake them or the organization for being 8220independent8221 In any event the Post8217s story was really all about PropOrNot8217s list and in contrast to FPRI the organization remains fully opaque What is PropOrNot trying to hide One possibility The Pentagon The Defense Department is after all spending billions of dollars a year on information warfare and has under Defense Secretary Ashton Carter been promoting the idea of Russia as an existential threat to the US One indication of some level of Pentagon involvement is the curious role of Joel Harding whose own blog identifies him as a retired longtime military intelligence officer specializing in 8220information operations strategic communication and cyberwarfare82218212in other words psychological warfare and propaganda Harding who amp160amp160denied via an email conversation with me any connection to the 30 or 40 8220volunteers8221 alleged to be working at PropOrNot is nonetheless the only named 8220analyst8221 whose work is cited as a rationale for listing any of the sites on PropOrNot8217s list The other sites just feature links to the sites themselves One of the sites Harding 8220 analyzed8221 for PropOrNot and labeled as a major purveyor of Russian propaganda was an obscure site called YourNewsWirecom which features some news about the US and Russia as well as conspiracy theories about vaccine links to autism and proof of an afterlife Joel Harding8217s blog 9216 on the basis of which PropOrNot listed CounterPunch as a purveyor of Russian propaganda It was later removed from the list The other was a remarkably shoddy September 2 analysis of an article in CounterPunch in which Harding mocked one the contributor whose selfidentification as a socialist contradicted in Harding8217s view CounterPunch8217s claim be the 8220voice of the authentic American left8221 8212 without mentioning or perhaps noticing that the author8217s bio also mentioned he was a Canadian When CounterPunch editor Joshua Frank wrote to PropOrNot complain about his site8217s being labeled as Russian propaganda he attached a story he had written criticizing Russia8217s role in Syria PropOrNot said they would remove CounterPunch from their list What makes him appear to be more closely allied with or part of PropOrNot8217s anonymous team than he admits however is a bylined article that appeared on his own site on November 18 six days before PropOrNot8217s public debut in the Washington Post Under the prescient headline 8220Russian Propaganda Sites Is It Propaganda or Not8221 Harding offered a preview of the as yet unannounced PropOrNotcom8217s 8220List8221 itself dated November 9 This preview list contained 178 names a bit shorter than the final list8217s 200 While claiming no connection to PropOrNot Harding said via email without elaborating that 8220some of its people may have been students of mine8221 Harding said during this email conversation that he was on his way to the commissary at the US Army8217s Ft Belvoir a suburban DC base that8217s home to INSCOM the Army8217s 8220information operations8221 command and ARCYBER its cyber command post Could PropOrNot possibly be linked to a US military psychological warfare program Hard to say harder to prove But it8217s a question worth exploring The New Yorker8216s Adrian Chen 12116 notes that PropOrNot8217s criteria for 8220Russian propaganda8221 would encompass 8220nearly every news outlet in the world8221 Adrian Chen a staff writer at the New Yorker 12116 offered interesting insight into the genesis of Timberg8217s Washington Post article He said he had received an anonymous email from 8220The PropOrNot team8221 in late October saying that as a 8220newlyformed independent team of computer scientists statisticians national security professionals journalists and political activists dedicated to identifying propaganda8212particularly Russian propaganda targeting a US audience8221 they had developed a list of 200 such news sites They said that they had brought it to the attention of Sen Ron Wyden DOre who had recommended they contact Chen Chen said he was wary of dealing with an unidentified group and so claimed he was 8220too busy8221 They asked if he would connect them with 8220folks at the NYTimes WaPo WSJ and anyone else who you think would be interested8221 He passed The Post8217s Timberg however took the bait and after his piece appeared the Post promoted it aggressively Between the Washington Post8217s wire service and AP it spread virally to many other newsrooms and papers across the country running as the lead story on November 25 in the Philadelphia Inquirer and prominently too at USA Today and getting mentions on CBS PBS ABC and other news programs Meanwhile however alternative media were quick to fight back The Intercept 112616 ran a blistering accusation of the Post that accused the paper of promoting an organization that 8220embodies the toxic essence of Joseph McCarthy but without the courage to attach individual names to the blacklist8221 Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone condemned Timberg8217s 8220astonishingly lazy report8221 adding of the Post8217s use of a shadowy group to malign 200 news sites without a single identified spokesperson 8220Most high school papers wouldn8217t touch sources like these8221 By November 30 PropOrNot saying it had been challenged by many journalists but still remaining anonymous issued a press release announcing that amp160it was 8220reviewing8221 its methodology The group said that it would stop listing news sites that were open about who they were and that were running actual news They also said they would stop using techies to evaluate whether news sites were propaganda organs or not The Post however despite its 8220editor8217s note8221 preface is still standing by a tawdry story reminiscent of Red Channels in the 1950s So is Timberg who on November 30enthusiastically cited his earlier piece in reporting on a HouseSenate conference working on the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that approves 160 million to 8220identify propaganda and counter its effects8221 Timberg wrote that the measure originally produced last spring had earlier focussed upon propaganda in foreign countries but he says enthusiastically linking to his own article of six days earlier 8220The context shifted in recent months as independent experts those PropOrNot guys warned that Russia was carrying out an intensive propaganda campaign during the US election season8221 That should make the folks behind PropOrNot happy On their own site while claiming they aren8217t trying to censor anybody they call on the FBI and DOJ to open 8220formal investigations by the US government because8230we strongly suspect that some of the individuals involved have violated the Espionage Act the Foreign Agent Registration Act and other related laws8221 The irony is that in purporting to expose Russian propaganda manipulation of the media the Washington Post has provided a graphic demonstration of how the whole propaganda thing works amp160 Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time Common Courage Press 2003 an investigative book about the Mumia AbuJamal case He is a founding member of ThisCantBeHappening an independent online alternative newspaper Messages can be sent to the Washington Post at letterswashpostcom or via Twitter washingtonpost Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective CORRECTION Matt Taibbi8217s name was misspelled | As/SCONJ the/DET Hillary/PROPN Clinton/PROPN campaign/NOUN slogged/VERB toward/ADP victory/NOUN in/ADP the/DET long/ADJ primary/ADJ campaign/NOUN against/ADP Sen/PROPN Bernie/PROPN Sanders/PROPN word/NOUN came/VERB from/ADP WikiLeaks/PROPN that/SCONJ it/PRON had/AUX scored/VERB a/DET trove/NOUN of/ADP hacked/VERB emails/NOUN to/ADP and/CCONJ from/ADP the/DET Democratic/PROPN National/PROPN Committee/PROPN Among/ADP other/ADJ things/NOUN they/PRON proved/VERB that/SCONJ DNC/PROPN chair/NOUN Debbie/PROPN Wasserman/PROPN Schultz/PROPN and/CCONJ Clinton/PROPN campaign/NOUN chair/NOUN John/PROPN Podesta/PROPN along/ADP with/ADP their/PRON organizations/NOUN had/AUX 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<p>Shir Hever is an economist working at The Real News Network. His economic research focuses on Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory; international aid to the Palestinians and to Israel; the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy; and the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel. His first book: Political Economy of Israel's Occupation: Repression Beyond Exploitation, was published by Pluto Press.</p>
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore.
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<p />The 50 day war on Gaza has cost the Israeli economy tremendously from various aspects. Very little attention has been paid to the debates that are going on within Israel, in terms of the cost of this war.
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<p />Joining us today from Göttingen, Germany, is Shir Hever. Shir is an economic researcher in the Alternative Information Center, a Palestine-Israel organization active in Jerusalem and in Beit Sahour.
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<p />Shir, thanks for joining us today.
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<p />SHIR HEVER, ECONOMIST, ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER: Thanks for having me, Sharmini.
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<p />PERIES: Shir, so shed some light on what's going on in terms of the debates within Israel about the cost of this war.
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<p />HEVER: So Israel is in a crisis of standard of living, which has accumulated over many years now. And, in fact, a lot of Israelis are protesting and have protested very vigorously against the drop in income or the stagnating income while cost of living is going up so sharply. And, in fact, this has altered the Israeli political situation. So now there are big political parties in the parliament and in the government who have made promises to try to improve the situation.
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<p />And what's amazing is how the entire public debate in Israel has seemed to forgotten this debate, the economic debate that existed merely days before the war against Gaza started. And in that debate, there was a very heated argument between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense about cutting the defense budget. Israel is spending more on defense as a proportion of its total public expenses than any country in the world, or at least any developed country. And this has taken a very heavy burden on the population. There has been an attempt to try to cut down the cost of the military. And the army has threatened that they're going to not be able to provide Israelis with enough security. They basically tried to scare the public about various menaces. And when it seemed that the Ministry of Finance is maybe going to win, that's exactly when the conflict erupted, first with this operation Brother's Keeper, in which Israel invaded the West Bank. Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu, wanted to blame Hamas for this escalation. So he diverted the aggression towards Gaza. That's actually what started this 50 day onslaught on Gaza known as Protective Edge. And now all of this debate has been forgotten. Everybody forgets that this all started with the attempt of the Ministry of Defense to protect their own budgets. And the situation now is that the debates that we see in the news are not about whether the defense budget can be cut or how much can it be cut, but how much is it going to be increased.
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<p />PERIES: And from your perspective, this is also an opportunity for Israel to receive more foreign aid from the United States and other countries now in terms of addressing--for example, they got money for the iron shield, yes?
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<p />HEVER: They did put pressure on the United States to give them more money for the Iron Dome system. And during the war, they've actually kept on importing ammunition from the United States as they were shelling the Gaza Strip, shelling civilian neighborhoods.
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<p />But I think actually the opposite has happened, because the United States has become somewhat concerned that this sort of violence, this level of violence is not sustainable. The United States is very interested in--or the United States government, at least, is very interested in selling its weaponry in the Middle East. But they're not interested in destabilizing this sort of status quo that Israel is able to use American weapons to maintain its hegemony in the region.
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<p />Now, if Israel is spending to much money and using too much violence and getting too much international criticism over its actions, then the United States government becomes concerned. Barack Obama actually disallowed a shipment of antitank missiles to the Israeli army. I should say, antitank missiles are not used against tanks of Hamas, because the Hamas Party obviously do not have any tanks, but they are often used against residential buildings and bunkers. So he ordered to stop a shipment of these missiles while the fighting was going on. This caused quite a lot of panic in the Israeli army. So they were hoping that this would not become a precedent, because if the United States will start making restrictions on the kinds of weaponry that it's willing to sell to the Israeli army, then the dominance of the Israeli army in the region is clearly at stake.
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<p />PERIES: And, Shir, what does this mean in terms of the impact on the Israeli economy and what people are experiencing?
<p />
<p />HEVER: So here we have the Israeli government coming to believe that Gaza is a soft target and that they can just bombard Gaza, and as the very cynical term goes, mow the lawn every couple of years and also experiment with new Israeli weapons and so on. This has indeed happened in the last four attacks of Israel against Gaza. This time, the Hamas Party said they're not just going to take this lying down, and they're going to try to fight back, even against overwhelming odds by the Israeli army, and that they refused, actually, to accept the Israeli terms for a ceasefire. Israel simply demanded sort of a surrender. Hamas wouldn't take that option. So that turned into a 50 day war. And a 50 day war is something the Israeli economy was not prepared for. The Israeli government did not wish it. And it affected every aspect of the Israeli economy. There has been massive damage to the area--economic damage, I mean; not so much physical damage, but economic damage to the areas surrounding the Gaza Strip, where people were afraid to go to the factories, so the factories stopped working. Farms have stopped working as well and produce was not harvested. And there has been a slowdown in the shopping habits of Israelis. There's been fewer cars being bought, fewer houses being bought. Tourism has taken a very serious hit. So more than 25 percent reduction in tourism. And for 50 days of slowdown of the economy, that has very long term impact on the Israeli economy.
<p />
<p />So, in addition to that, we cannot forget the impact of the international boycott movement against Israel, boycott, divestment, and sanctions, because every time Israel is using so much violence, more and more people joined this movement. And there have been some very large successes of that movement to make the Israeli economy accountable for the crimes committed by the Israeli government and the Israeli army. And we should also not forget the cost of the defense budget. And that's something that now, as the government is facing with trying to restore the economy and trying to compensate--there are over 3,000 demands for compensations from Israeli businesses and farms for damage inflicted during the war. But instead of being able to compensate these factories and farms, the Israeli government has announced a widespread cut that is planned for all of the ministries--health, education, transportation, everything--in order to finance a massive increase in the Ministry of Defense. And that shows that this war has really been unsustainable for the Israeli economy.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And how are they financing this war?
<p />
<p />HEVER: So, actually, they don't have a source to finance this war. Right now--well, the first idea was just to increase the deficit, meaning to borrow, use borrowing to finance the war. That would increase Israel's budget deficit to a level where the Israeli credit rating by international credit rating agency, is certainly going to drop. And that's something the Israeli government is very worried about, because, of course, if you increase your debt and at the same time your credit rating drops, you're going to pay a very high interest rate on the debt that you've accumulated. And that's going to mean that a larger part of the Israeli budget is actually going just to pay the interest and to service the debt rather than to provide those services, the public services that are so direly needed.
<p />
<p />A lot of Israelis realize this. This is not just some kind of secret that only economists are aware of. This is something that's very well understood by the general public. And because of that, many Israelis are leaving. And, in fact, right after the end--well, it's not really an end of this particular war; it's more of a ceasefire. But right after the ceasefire has been announced, there has been a poll among young Israelis, and a third of young Israelis responded that if they have the chance, they would rather leave Israel.
<p />
<p />PERIES: Shir, I guess the entire international community is wondering whether the divestment campaign has had any real impact in the Israeli economy. Has it?
<p />
<p />HEVER: Every time Israel attacks Palestinians and kills innocent civilians, this motivates a lot of people around the world to join the BDS movement. BDS stands for boycott, divestment, sanctions. And indeed this is now no longer a secret inside Israel. Every Israeli knows what BDS is. They know that this is one of the prices that the Israeli economy has to pay for these attacks. And during this Operation Protective Edge, there's been more people joining the BDS movement and more campaigns of the BDS that have been successful than ever before. We've seen even cargo ships of the Israeli shipping company, Zim, which were prevented from docking in several ports in North America. And this is something that is very concerning for Israeli companies. So, of course, this is a very important impact and part of that cost of the war on the Israeli economy.
<p />
<p />PERIES: Shir, can you give us some specific examples of how the BDS campaign is having effect on the Israeli economy on the ground, in terms of real, everyday life?
<p />
<p />HEVER: So most Israeli citizens have some kind of financial savings scheme, for example a pension plan or an insurance plan, which is part of, for example, their monthly payment or deductions from their salary. And these large institutional investors invest a very large proportion of their money into these massive Israeli corporations that dominate and monopolize the Israeli economy.
<p />
<p />These are the same corporations that are actually targeted very effectively by the BDS movement. Some of these corporations or the ownership of these corporations, being so concerned about the BDS movement and the fact that there's so much criticism, are trying to move their investments outside of Israel and abroad, and they're doing that very fast. Some of them, particularly [?], they are the biggest--well, at least in the top five or six capital owners in Israel, they have made their shift of investment outside of Israel so fast that they made very bad investment decisions and got almost to the verge of bankruptcy. And that means that every Israeli citizen who's invested into these corporations through their pension fund or through their insurance scheme suddenly lose money. They actually lose money from this. Israelis don't like to talk about this. The Israeli newspapers, economic newspapers, don't really like to talk about this. They try to frame it in other terms, to say that it has nothing to do with the occupation, nothing to do with the war; it's because of the international financial crisis. But the truth of the matter is that those companies that are within the crosshairs of the BDS movement, that are being made accountable by the international community for their involvement in the occupation and for their support of the Israeli government and its crimes, are also the same companies that have the biggest losses.
<p />
<p />PERIES: Shir, finally, does the Israeli state have anything to gain financially from reconstructing and redevelopment of Gaza?
<p />
<p />HEVER: Right now we see that the biggest voice inside Israel that calls on the Israeli government to allow reconstruction of Gaza, to allow the entry of construction materials and so on, so that some of the damage can be eased, is the defense sector, which is very surprising. I mean, these are the same people who called for use of maximum amount of violence, maximum amount of ammunition against the people in Gaza, against civilians, against the population, half of which are children. Now they're saying we have to be generous, we have to help them rebuild, we have to help restore them. And the reason is exactly that the defense industry in Israel understands that they need this enemy that they can attack again. If the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is allowed to unfold and expand, then this is going to transform the whole political situation and Israel might not be able to launch another attack. And that's something that the Israeli military elite are very concerned about. If Israel cannot launch another attack, they have a serious problem.
<p />
<p />Now, the Israeli military-industrial complex needs enemies, and they tried to put Iran as an enemy. But that's a problem, because Iran can defend itself, and because the international political situation doesn't allow Israel to just willy-nilly attack Iran without provocation. They tried to make Lebanon their enemy and attack Lebanon, but the Hezbollah in Lebanon are actually able to defend Lebanon quite effectively, and in the war of 2006 they delivered a painful humiliation to the Israeli army, which was, again, a war that cost Israel more than the Israeli society and government were willing to absorb. And so Gaza remained the sort of soft target, the target that they believe they can just attack again and again every two years or so in order to test their weapons and then sell these weapons and so on and make a profit. I'm not so sure this can continue like this, because the Hamas Party basically said there is no sacrifice they're not willing to make in order to make this difficult for Israel, and they were willing to keep on fighting for 50 days, which is something that nobody expected. And so I think that the profits of these Israeli military-industrial companies are now at risk.
<p />
<p />PERIES: Well, Shir, thank you so much for joining us.
<p />
<p />HEVER: Thank you, Sharmini, for having me.
<p />
<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Israel Facing Major Economic Consequences for 50 Day War on Gaza | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12361 | 2014-09-10 | 4left
| 2,510 | Shir Hever is an economist working at The Real News Network His economic research focuses on Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory international aid to the Palestinians and to Israel the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy and the boycott divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel His first book Political Economy of Israels Occupation Repression Beyond Exploitation was published by Pluto Press SHARMINI PERIES EXEC PRODUCER TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore The 50 day war on Gaza has cost the Israeli economy tremendously from various aspects Very little attention has been paid to the debates that are going on within Israel in terms of the cost of this war Joining us today from G246ttingen Germany is Shir Hever Shir is an economic researcher in the Alternative Information Center a PalestineIsrael organization active in Jerusalem and in Beit Sahour Shir thanks for joining us today SHIR HEVER ECONOMIST ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER Thanks for having me Sharmini PERIES Shir so shed some light on whats going on in terms of the debates within Israel about the cost of this war HEVER So Israel is in a crisis of standard of living which has accumulated over many years now And in fact a lot of Israelis are protesting and have protested very vigorously against the drop in income or the stagnating income while cost of living is going up so sharply And in fact this has altered the Israeli political situation So now there are big political parties in the parliament and in the government who have made promises to try to improve the situation And whats amazing is how the entire public debate in Israel has seemed to forgotten this debate the economic debate that existed merely days before the war against Gaza started And in that debate there was a very heated argument between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense about cutting the defense budget Israel is spending more on defense as a proportion of its total public expenses than any country in the world or at least any developed country And this has taken a very heavy burden on the population There has been an attempt to try to cut down the cost of the military And the army has threatened that theyre going to not be able to provide Israelis with enough security They basically tried to scare the public about various menaces And when it seemed that the Ministry of Finance is maybe going to win thats exactly when the conflict erupted first with this operation Brothers Keeper in which Israel invaded the West Bank Netanyahu Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted to blame Hamas for this escalation So he diverted the aggression towards Gaza Thats actually what started this 50 day onslaught on Gaza known as Protective Edge And now all of this debate has been forgotten Everybody forgets that this all started with the attempt of the Ministry of Defense to protect their own budgets And the situation now is that the debates that we see in the news are not about whether the defense budget can be cut or how much can it be cut but how much is it going to be increased PERIES And from your perspective this is also an opportunity for Israel to receive more foreign aid from the United States and other countries now in terms of addressingfor example they got money for the iron shield yes HEVER They did put pressure on the United States to give them more money for the Iron Dome system And during the war theyve actually kept on importing ammunition from the United States as they were shelling the Gaza Strip shelling civilian neighborhoods But I think actually the opposite has happened because the United States has become somewhat concerned that this sort of violence this level of violence is not sustainable The United States is very interested inor the United States government at least is very interested in selling its weaponry in the Middle East But theyre not interested in destabilizing this sort of status quo that Israel is able to use American weapons to maintain its hegemony in the region Now if Israel is spending to much money and using too much violence and getting too much international criticism over its actions then the United States government becomes concerned Barack Obama actually disallowed a shipment of antitank missiles to the Israeli army I should say antitank missiles are not used against tanks of Hamas because the Hamas Party obviously do not have any tanks but they are often used against residential buildings and bunkers So he ordered to stop a shipment of these missiles while the fighting was going on This caused quite a lot of panic in the Israeli army So they were hoping that this would not become a precedent because if the United States will start making restrictions on the kinds of weaponry that its willing to sell to the Israeli army then the dominance of the Israeli army in the region is clearly at stake PERIES And Shir what does this mean in terms of the impact on the Israeli economy and what people are experiencing HEVER So here we have the Israeli government coming to believe that Gaza is a soft target and that they can just bombard Gaza and as the very cynical term goes mow the lawn every couple of years and also experiment with new Israeli weapons and so on This has indeed happened in the last four attacks of Israel against Gaza This time the Hamas Party said theyre not just going to take this lying down and theyre going to try to fight back even against overwhelming odds by the Israeli army and that they refused actually to accept the Israeli terms for a ceasefire Israel simply demanded sort of a surrender Hamas wouldnt take that option So that turned into a 50 day war And a 50 day war is something the Israeli economy was not prepared for The Israeli government did not wish it And it affected every aspect of the Israeli economy There has been massive damage to the areaeconomic damage I mean not so much physical damage but economic damage to the areas surrounding the Gaza Strip where people were afraid to go to the factories so the factories stopped working Farms have stopped working as well and produce was not harvested And there has been a slowdown in the shopping habits of Israelis Theres been fewer cars being bought fewer houses being bought Tourism has taken a very serious hit So more than 25 percent reduction in tourism And for 50 days of slowdown of the economy that has very long term impact on the Israeli economy So in addition to that we cannot forget the impact of the international boycott movement against Israel boycott divestment and sanctions because every time Israel is using so much violence more and more people joined this movement And there have been some very large successes of that movement to make the Israeli economy accountable for the crimes committed by the Israeli government and the Israeli army And we should also not forget the cost of the defense budget And thats something that now as the government is facing with trying to restore the economy and trying to compensatethere are over 3000 demands for compensations from Israeli businesses and farms for damage inflicted during the war But instead of being able to compensate these factories and farms the Israeli government has announced a widespread cut that is planned for all of the ministrieshealth education transportation everythingin order to finance a massive increase in the Ministry of Defense And that shows that this war has really been unsustainable for the Israeli economy PERIES And how are they financing this war HEVER So actually they dont have a source to finance this war Right nowwell the first idea was just to increase the deficit meaning to borrow use borrowing to finance the war That would increase Israels budget deficit to a level where the Israeli credit rating by international credit rating agency is certainly going to drop And thats something the Israeli government is very worried about because of course if you increase your debt and at the same time your credit rating drops youre going to pay a very high interest rate on the debt that youve accumulated And thats going to mean that a larger part of the Israeli budget is actually going just to pay the interest and to service the debt rather than to provide those services the public services that are so direly needed A lot of Israelis realize this This is not just some kind of secret that only economists are aware of This is something thats very well understood by the general public And because of that many Israelis are leaving And in fact right after the endwell its not really an end of this particular war its more of a ceasefire But right after the ceasefire has been announced there has been a poll among young Israelis and a third of young Israelis responded that if they have the chance they would rather leave Israel PERIES Shir I guess the entire international community is wondering whether the divestment campaign has had any real impact in the Israeli economy Has it HEVER Every time Israel attacks Palestinians and kills innocent civilians this motivates a lot of people around the world to join the BDS movement BDS stands for boycott divestment sanctions And indeed this is now no longer a secret inside Israel Every Israeli knows what BDS is They know that this is one of the prices that the Israeli economy has to pay for these attacks And during this Operation Protective Edge theres been more people joining the BDS movement and more campaigns of the BDS that have been successful than ever before Weve seen even cargo ships of the Israeli shipping company Zim which were prevented from docking in several ports in North America And this is something that is very concerning for Israeli companies So of course this is a very important impact and part of that cost of the war on the Israeli economy PERIES Shir can you give us some specific examples of how the BDS campaign is having effect on the Israeli economy on the ground in terms of real everyday life HEVER So most Israeli citizens have some kind of financial savings scheme for example a pension plan or an insurance plan which is part of for example their monthly payment or deductions from their salary And these large institutional investors invest a very large proportion of their money into these massive Israeli corporations that dominate and monopolize the Israeli economy These are the same corporations that are actually targeted very effectively by the BDS movement Some of these corporations or the ownership of these corporations being so concerned about the BDS movement and the fact that theres so much criticism are trying to move their investments outside of Israel and abroad and theyre doing that very fast Some of them particularly they are the biggestwell at least in the top five or six capital owners in Israel they have made their shift of investment outside of Israel so fast that they made very bad investment decisions and got almost to the verge of bankruptcy And that means that every Israeli citizen whos invested into these corporations through their pension fund or through their insurance scheme suddenly lose money They actually lose money from this Israelis dont like to talk about this The Israeli newspapers economic newspapers dont really like to talk about this They try to frame it in other terms to say that it has nothing to do with the occupation nothing to do with the war its because of the international financial crisis But the truth of the matter is that those companies that are within the crosshairs of the BDS movement that are being made accountable by the international community for their involvement in the occupation and for their support of the Israeli government and its crimes are also the same companies that have the biggest losses PERIES Shir finally does the Israeli state have anything to gain financially from reconstructing and redevelopment of Gaza HEVER Right now we see that the biggest voice inside Israel that calls on the Israeli government to allow reconstruction of Gaza to allow the entry of construction materials and so on so that some of the damage can be eased is the defense sector which is very surprising I mean these are the same people who called for use of maximum amount of violence maximum amount of ammunition against the people in Gaza against civilians against the population half of which are children Now theyre saying we have to be generous we have to help them rebuild we have to help restore them And the reason is exactly that the defense industry in Israel understands that they need this enemy that they can attack again If the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is allowed to unfold and expand then this is going to transform the whole political situation and Israel might not be able to launch another attack And thats something that the Israeli military elite are very concerned about If Israel cannot launch another attack they have a serious problem Now the Israeli militaryindustrial complex needs enemies and they tried to put Iran as an enemy But thats a problem because Iran can defend itself and because the international political situation doesnt allow Israel to just willynilly attack Iran without provocation They tried to make Lebanon their enemy and attack Lebanon but the Hezbollah in Lebanon are actually able to defend Lebanon quite effectively and in the war of 2006 they delivered a painful humiliation to the Israeli army which was again a war that cost Israel more than the Israeli society and government were willing to absorb And so Gaza remained the sort of soft target the target that they believe they can just attack again and again every two years or so in order to test their weapons and then sell these weapons and so on and make a profit Im not so sure this can continue like this because the Hamas Party basically said there is no sacrifice theyre not willing to make in order to make this difficult for Israel and they were willing to keep on fighting for 50 days which is something that nobody expected And so I think that the profits of these Israeli militaryindustrial companies are now at risk PERIES Well Shir thank you so much for joining us HEVER Thank you Sharmini for having me PERIES And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Shir/PROPN Hever/PROPN is/AUX an/DET economist/NOUN working/VERB at/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN Network/PROPN His/PRON economic/ADJ research/NOUN focuses/VERB on/ADP Israeli/ADJ occupation/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Palestinian/ADJ territory/NOUN international/ADJ aid/NOUN to/ADP the/DET Palestinians/PROPN and/CCONJ to/ADP Israel/PROPN the/DET effects/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Israeli/ADJ occupation/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Palestinian/ADJ territories/NOUN on/ADP the/DET Israeli/ADJ 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<p>Photo by DonkeyHotey | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
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<p>Standing outside a just-concluded Donald Trump rally in Everett, Washington on August 30, Chuck and Denise, a middle-aged couple from Tacoma, said on the inside, “There was every nationality, every age range, young, old, Black, white.”</p>
<p>Chuck explained why they backed Trump “We’re old-fashioned. We need law and order back. Trump says he’s going to build the wall. The flies come in. The mosquitoes come in.”</p>
<p>I exchanged glances with my companion, Alexander Reid Ross, a journalist who studies the right.</p>
<p>Denise chimed in about Syrian Refugees. It’s a “huge” issue, she said. “It bothers me we are letting in 200,000 refugees. We have no idea what they’re doing. They are probably affiliated with ISIS. They were raised to hate us.” (By September 2016, <a href="" type="internal">12,391 Syrian refugees</a> had been resettled in the United States in the prior year.)</p>
<p>Chuck chimed in, “We’re opposed to Islam.” Alexander asked if they were Christian. They said yes, explaining they were non-denominational. Denise walked back their response, saying, “We’re opposed to radical Islam, the militants.”</p>
<p>Chuck was worried about coming to the rally. “We didn’t know about Black Lives Matter, if they would have guns.”</p>
<p>Denise complained about “Billboards we can’t read.” She said they welcomed Hispanics in their neighborhood, “But don’t try to twist it around and make it look like Mexico.”</p>
<p>Chuck was exasperated because he couldn’t express his opinion. “We’re the furthest thing from racist, but you end up looking like the biggest racist on the block.”</p>
<p>Inside the rally the 10,000-person capacity arena was two-thirds full and well over 99 percent white. Trump said slowly to cheers, “We’re going to take back the White House.” It was a play on “Take back America,” the Tea Party movement’s rallying cry of aggrieved whites.</p>
<p>Trump continued, “We will rebuild our inner cities and provide safety and peace to all of our citizens. American values and culture will be cherished and celebrated once again.”</p>
<p>John, 24, a waiter from Bend, Oregon, which has a Black population of . <a href="" type="internal">5 percent</a>, said before the rally he didn’t like Trump because the media “painted him as racist and sexist.” After seeing him, John said, “It’s the opposite. I have a lot more respect for him. He has empathy. He talked about African-American children and inner cities.”</p>
<p>Blake Von Mittman, 21, a proud nationalist and member of the white supremacist Alt-Right, said, “I want prosperity for all the races in this country. We are cradling Blacks and minorities like they are daisies. The media should unify all the races.” He doesn’t mind people celebrating their culture, but, “They should celebrate privately, and not make it a national holiday like Black History Month or quinceañeras. It’s disgusting.”</p>
<p>He said of Nigel Farage, the ethno-nationalist leader of the the U.K. Independence Party, “He represents a more revolutionary-type mindset in the best possible way.” Von Mittman added, “I’ve never been a racist. I love all the races. Illegal immigration is a plague.”</p>
<p>Across the country, Trump fans express similar ideas in their own words. After 18 months of an extraordinarily bitter, divisive, and even traumatic election, it seems there is nothing new to say. But the media have utterly failed to capture the essence of what Trump represents and why he has attracted such an intense following.</p>
<p>Trumpism boils down to one idea: ethnic cleansing. When he says, “Make America Great Again,” his followers understand he is really saying, “Make America White Again.”</p>
<p>While much of Trump’s platform is an ad hoc stream of viciousness, his core ideas involve eliminating entire groups from the public sphere. Millions would be physically removed. “Illegals” and Mexicans will be sent packing (the two are interchangeable in the minds of many supporters). He wants to shut off Muslim immigration through “ <a href="" type="internal">extreme vetting</a>,” Muslims here should be <a href="" type="internal">forced to register</a> with the government and <a href="" type="internal">some mosques shut down</a>.</p>
<p>His website is even more radical. He has mentioned reducing immigration to “ <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/features/trump_presidency_would_devastate_the_left.html" type="external">moderate historical averages</a>,” which could only be accomplished by terminating immigration for decades or booting out 27 million immigrants. Now <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/immigration/?/positions/immigration-reform" type="external">he says he would</a> “Suspend the issuance of visas to any place where adequate screening cannot occur, until proven and effective vetting mechanisms can be put into place.” This wording is so broad—no country can prove its screening is 100 percent effective—that Trump might be able to impose the type of severe controls under the 1924 National Origins Act that <a href="" type="internal">banned nearly all immigration</a> from non-European countries. (Ironically, Mexicans were allowed in because they could be exploited as cheap labor, while bans on Asian immigration began in 1882 with the <a href="" type="internal">Chinese Exclusion Act</a>.)</p>
<p>Trump’s followers are clearly motivated by class and racial resentments, just as race and class are inseparable in the American experience. At a Trump rally last spring in Eugene, Oregon, the justifications his supporters gave for deporting 11 million immigrants all involved jobs or taxes―and it was always stated in racial and nationalist terms. To Trump and his supporters, undocumented immigrants are parasites and responsible for major economic and social problems, not the 1%.</p>
<p><a href="http://inthesetimes.com/article/19119/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-eugene-oregon-speech" type="external">Supporters said</a>:</p>
<p>“Immigration is the biggest thing—not coming to this country and sucking us dry.”</p>
<p>“You can’t just walk over the border and suck off the system—you get food stamps, health care.”</p>
<p>“I hope he’ll build the job economy back up and I hope he’ll put up the wall, just for the illegals.”</p>
<p>“[I am] working to support other people’s way of life.”</p>
<p>Trump incites nativism and xenophobia simultaneously by claiming every other nation takes advantage of America through the “ <a href="" type="internal">worst trade deals</a>,” through sending their <a href="" type="internal">worst people</a>, and getting a <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/trump-nato-countries-are-taking-advantage-of-the-u-s-731286595534" type="external">free ride</a> through military alliances. His supporters in Eugene echoed this with comments like:</p>
<p>“America [needs] to stop being taken advantage of like China does.”</p>
<p>“It’s time to take America back, bring our jobs back.”</p>
<p>“Bring back jobs, instead of losing jobs to others.”</p>
<p>“Illegal immigrants are driving down wages for lower-class workers.”</p>
<p>Trump presents trade, jobs, religion, and culture as a zero-sum game, and this attitudes trickles down to his grassroots. At a <a href="" type="internal">Trump victory party</a> in Portland, Oregon, Jon Lovell, a construction worker, told me of a rental house he had renovated and how he tried to encourage the owner to “rent to a white family” instead of Hispanics.</p>
<p>Most Trump supporters don’t mention Muslims, but if asked they invariably favor a “temporary ban” and can’t or won’t say when it will be lifted. In Everett, Roger Birgen a retired navy vet, backed a ban, saying of Muslims, &#160;“Don’t bring your religion and force it on me.” To cheers from the crowd, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPfautohnMw" type="external">Trump recited the “snake poem,”</a> comparing Syrian refugees to poisonous reptiles. (It’s in the vein of the <a href="http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/roughingit/map/chiharte.html" type="external">Heathen Chinee Poem</a> that was wildly popular during 19th century anti-Asian hysteria.)</p>
<p>The millions on board the Trump train believe Muslims and Mexicans are mortal threats to the nation’s safety, economic health, and cultural survival. From this perspective, the logical, indeed only sensible, solution is to cleanse the Republic of foreign goods, foreign entanglements, and foreign peoples.</p>
<p>Trump’s sinister tales are well-suited for his audience. A massive <a href="" type="internal">Gallup survey</a> of more than 26,000 Trump fans concluded, “The racial and ethnic isolation of whites at the zip code level is one of the strongest predictors of Trump support.” Likewise, a New York Times <a href="" type="internal">analysis of census data</a> found the second-strongest indicator of support were among those who listed their ancestry as “American.” Then there is the fact that as the <a href="" type="internal">density of a county increases</a>, which correlates with diversity, so does the likelihood that it goes Democratic. His voters <a href="" type="internal">skew older</a> with greatest support among those over 65.</p>
<p>Add in weak economies and <a href="" type="internal">declining life expectancies</a> among middle-aged whites in many Trump strongholds, and this creates a scenario of whites who romanticize a racially pure past, live in homogeneous communities today, and envision their future slipping away. Trump has convinced many they’ve been robbed of birthright privileges that can only be regained by defeating alien threats. But Trump is not merely a mirror for what exists. Given Bernie Sanders’ considerable support in much of the Midwest now tilting toward the reality TV star, Trump is a lens focusing specific wavelengths of racialized rage.</p>
<p>When Trump supporters are asked, “When was America last great?”, a few point to the 1970s or 1980s, which is bygone enough to have acquired a rose-tinted nostalgia for younger voters. Many say the 1950s, but just as many want to turn the clock back to before FDR, the early 20th century, or even late 19th century. These are all times when legal apartheid and racial terror dominated the lives of Blacks, Chicanos, and Native Americans. And it’s likely no coincidence that those longing to return to the early 1900s idealize a time when <a href="" type="internal">life expectancy</a> was 33 years for African-Americans.</p>
<p>Ethnic cleansing sounds extreme because it evokes images of armed bands of grim-faced men from the Balkans to the Congo violently displacing communities. But afflicted by national amnesia, we forget ethnic cleansing defines every era of American history and the most extreme forms, such as the genocide of Native Americans and Jim Crow, have been official policy.</p>
<p>There are many other examples. The 19th century was marked by anti-Chinese and anti-Catholic pogroms. <a href="http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-exhibit-refuses-to-forget-one-of-the-worst-periods-of-state-sanctioned-violence/" type="external">Scholars</a> say in the 1910s the Texas Rangers massacred “hundreds—if not thousands—of Mexican-Americans” in the state. This was also the dawn of the “great migration” of African-Americans leaving the South for booming cities in the North. Racial and labor tensions led to scores of race riots during World War One and after, though many should be labeled pogroms. White vigilantes aided by local law enforcement who murdered hundreds of African-Americans in <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/peopleevents/e_estlouis.html" type="external">East St. Louis</a> in 1917, up to 300 in <a href="http://tulsahistory.org/learn/online-exhibits/the-tulsa-race-riot/" type="external">Tulsa, Oklahoma</a> in 1921, 237 people in <a href="" type="internal">Elaine, Arkansas</a> in 1919, and an unknown number in <a href="" type="internal">Rosewood, Florida</a> in 1923.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, thousands of towns from Maine to California and Texas to Minnesota were convulsed by ethnic cleansing. James Loewen, a sociologist at the University of Illinois, calls these whites-only burgs <a href="http://sundown.tougaloo.edu/sundowntowns.php" type="external">sundown towns</a>, “because some of them posted signs at their city limits reading, typically, ‘Nigger, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On You In ___.’” Chinese, Jews, and other groups were often excluded as well “by force, law, or custom.” Loewen <a href="http://sundown.tougaloo.edu/content.php?file=sundowntowns-whitemap.html" type="external">lists thousands</a> of possible sundown towns. Cleveland, for example, is ringed by <a href="http://sundown.tougaloo.edu/sundowntownsshow.php?state=OH" type="external">many such towns</a> like Brunswick, Cuyahoga Falls, Broadview Heights, Hudson, and Chagrin Falls that are 99 percent white to this day.</p>
<p>In this light, Trump’s schizophrenic language about African-Americans makes sense. He is, of course, not trying to appeal to Black voters. Some polls have recorded <a href="" type="internal">zero</a> <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293752-trumps-popularity-with-african-american-voters-polling-at" type="external">percent</a> support from African-Americans because of his <a href="" type="internal">racist history</a> and his description of their current lives “ <a href="" type="internal">hellish</a>.” He wants his followers to believe he and by extension they care about Black life and progress, as John, the waiter from Bend, Oregon, expressed. The aim is to inoculate his campaign against charges of racism even though that’s it’s defining appeal. He <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-donald-trump-accuses-hillary-clinton-of-1472152942-htmlstory.html" type="external">tells his audiences</a>, “When Democratic policies fail, they are left with only this one tired argument: ‘You’re racist, you’re racist, you’re racist.’ It’s a tired disgusting argument.”</p>
<p>Even as Trump’s followers deny they are racist, he nurtures their racism. His support aligns closely with <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/is-hillary-clinton-right-about-trump-supporters-this-is-what-the-polling-data-says-2b37625a1df3#.221k3fkm6" type="external">racist</a> <a href="" type="internal">attitudes</a>. Supporters say they like Trump because “He speaks the way I speak,” and “I like the idea he is not P.C. When he says something, I can understand him.” What they mean is like Trump they can now make bigoted statements about entire groups of people, the definition of racism, and pose as fearless truth-tellers instead of being shunned as dimwitted racists.</p>
<p>More significant, Trump’s hucksterism distracts from how he seeks to delegitimize Black political activity. He <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-black-lives-matter-calls-for-killing-police/" type="external">blames</a> Black Lives Matter for police killings, has said as president he would <a href="" type="internal">investigate</a> the movement, and turned his RNC coronation into a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/minstrel-show" type="external">minstrel show</a> with Black speakers bellowing, “ <a href="" type="internal">All Lives Matter</a>” and “ <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288258-sheriff-thrills-convention-blue-lives-matter" type="external">Blue Lives Matter</a>.” His “law and order” and “silent majority” slogans are taken from Nixon’s successful 1968 campaign that whipped up white resentment against the Black freedom struggle.</p>
<p>Trump’s falsehoods about <a href="" type="internal">voter fraud</a> in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago are loud dog whistles to his white nationalist base. The right’s history of trying to eliminate Black political power has <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id-history.aspx" type="external">intensified</a> in the last decade. On top off restrictive I.D. laws and barriers to early voting, Trump is <a href="" type="internal">encouraging</a> supporters to engage in outright <a href="" type="internal">intimidation</a> of minority voters, which is strikingly reminiscent of <a href="" type="internal">Reconstruction-era suppression</a> of Black voters.</p>
<p>This is another component of Trump’s ethnic cleansing: banish African-American voices and issues to the margins as much as possible. It has a long historical lineage. Every time there are Black political or social gains, such as with Reconstruction, the Great Migration, or the Civil Rights Era, there is a violent white reaction aided and encouraged by demagogic politicians. This time is no different except Trump has been in the forefront of the backlash. He staked his candidacy on delegitimizing the first Black president, demonized Black Lives Matter, and suggested using <a href="" type="internal">stop-and-frisk nationwide</a>, in effect further criminalizing Blacks and Latinos.</p>
<p>If Trump is elected, he would likely have a Republican Congress and could solidify a hard-right Supreme Court majority, leaving <a href="" type="internal">few checks</a>. He would have more power than George W. Bush and a far more extreme agenda. More significant, Trumpism isn’t about a static set of policies, it is a dynamic. Because he would rule like he campaigned, Trump would constantly pick fights to draw attention away from his disastrous policies. With a base clamoring for entire groups to be forced out of the country or public life, Trump would likely deliver with mass roundups and deportations of undocumented immigrants, bans on Muslims, and intensified repression of African-Americans. Racist vigilantes would have a White House that would look the other and social approval to carry out more extreme measures.</p>
<p>If Trump loses, ethnic cleansing would be impossible to implement without state power. It will be far less dangerous, but not disappear. States will try to carry out discriminatory policies, such as Arizona and Alabama have. And it will burst out as politicized mass shooters like Dylan Roof.</p>
<p>It’s already happening. A Kansas militia calling itself “The Crusaders” was thwarted in October from <a href="" type="internal">allegedly perpetrating an Oklahoma City-style massacre on Somali immigrants</a>. They planned to time the attack to the day after the election so as not to affect it, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations put the <a href="" type="internal">blame squarely on Trump</a> for encouraging “domestic terrorist groups to commit acts of terrorism and violence against our community.” The three white militiamen arrested referred to Somalis as “cockroaches” and wanted to kill them because they “represent a threat to American society.” They hoped a bloodbath would “wake up” a lot more people to “decide they want this country back.”</p>
<p>Those words could have come straight out of Donald Trump’s mouth.</p>
<p>Alexander Reid Ross contributed to this report. An earlier version of this article was published by <a href="" type="internal">Telesur English</a>.</p> | Donald Trump’s Plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ is Ethnic Cleansing | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/11/07/donald-trumps-plan-to-make-america-great-again-is-ethnic-cleansing/ | 2016-11-07 | 4left
| 2,510 | Photo by DonkeyHotey CC BY 20 Standing outside a justconcluded Donald Trump rally in Everett Washington on August 30 Chuck and Denise a middleaged couple from Tacoma said on the inside 8220There was every nationality every age range young old Black white8221 Chuck explained why they backed Trump 8220We8217re oldfashioned We need law and order back Trump says he8217s going to build the wall The flies come in The mosquitoes come in8221 I exchanged glances with my companion Alexander Reid Ross a journalist who studies the right Denise chimed in about Syrian Refugees It8217s a 8220huge8221 issue she said 8220It bothers me we are letting in 200000 refugees We have no idea what they8217re doing They are probably affiliated with ISIS They were raised to hate us8221 By September 2016 12391 Syrian refugees had been resettled in the United States in the prior year Chuck chimed in 8220We8217re opposed to Islam8221 Alexander asked if they were Christian They said yes explaining they were nondenominational Denise walked back their response saying 8220We8217re opposed to radical Islam the militants8221 Chuck was worried about coming to the rally 8220We didn8217t know about Black Lives Matter if they would have guns8221 Denise complained about 8220Billboards we can8217t read8221 She said they welcomed Hispanics in their neighborhood 8220But don8217t try to twist it around and make it look like Mexico8221 Chuck was exasperated because he couldn8217t express his opinion 8220We8217re the furthest thing from racist but you end up looking like the biggest racist on the block8221 Inside the rally the 10000person capacity arena was twothirds full and well over 99 percent white Trump said slowly to cheers 8220We8217re going to take back the White House8221 It was a play on 8220Take back America8221 the Tea Party movement8217s rallying cry of aggrieved whites Trump continued 8220We will rebuild our inner cities and provide safety and peace to all of our citizens American values and culture will be cherished and celebrated once again8221 John 24 a waiter from Bend Oregon which has a Black population of 5 percent said before the rally he didn8217t like Trump because the media 8220painted him as racist and sexist8221 After seeing him John said 8220It8217s the opposite I have a lot more respect for him He has empathy He talked about AfricanAmerican children and inner cities8221 Blake Von Mittman 21 a proud nationalist and member of the white supremacist AltRight said 8220I want prosperity for all the races in this country We are cradling Blacks and minorities like they are daisies The media should unify all the races8221 He doesn8217t mind people celebrating their culture but 8220They should celebrate privately and not make it a national holiday like Black History Month or quincea241eras It8217s disgusting8221 He said of Nigel Farage the ethnonationalist leader of the the UK Independence Party 8220He represents a more revolutionarytype mindset in the best possible way8221 Von Mittman added 8220I8217ve never been a racist I love all the races Illegal immigration is a plague8221 Across the country Trump fans express similar ideas in their own words After 18 months of an extraordinarily bitter divisive and even traumatic election it seems there is nothing new to say But the media have utterly failed to capture the essence of what Trump represents and why he has attracted such an intense following Trumpism boils down to one idea ethnic cleansing When he says 8220Make America Great Again8221 his followers understand he is really saying 8220Make America White Again8221 While much of Trump8217s platform is an ad hoc stream of viciousness his core ideas involve eliminating entire groups from the public sphere Millions would be physically removed 8220Illegals8221 and Mexicans will be sent packing the two are interchangeable in the minds of many supporters He wants to shut off Muslim immigration through 8220 extreme vetting8221 Muslims here should be forced to register with the government and some mosques shut down His website is even more radical He has mentioned reducing immigration to 8220 moderate historical averages8221 which could only be accomplished by terminating immigration for decades or booting out 27 million immigrants Now he says he would 8220Suspend the issuance of visas to any place where adequate screening cannot occur until proven and effective vetting mechanisms can be put into place8221 This wording is so broad8212no country can prove its screening is 100 percent effective8212that Trump might be able to impose the type of severe controls under the 1924 National Origins Act that banned nearly all immigration from nonEuropean countries Ironically Mexicans were allowed in because they could be exploited as cheap labor while bans on Asian immigration began in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act Trump8217s followers are clearly motivated by class and racial resentments just as race and class are inseparable in the American experience At a Trump rally last spring in Eugene Oregon the justifications his supporters gave for deporting 11 million immigrants all involved jobs or taxes8213and it was always stated in racial and nationalist terms To Trump and his supporters undocumented immigrants are parasites and responsible for major economic and social problems not the 1 Supporters said 8220Immigration is the biggest thing8212not coming to this country and sucking us dry8221 8220You can8217t just walk over the border and suck off the system8212you get food stamps health care8221 8220I hope he8217ll build the job economy back up and I hope he8217ll put up the wall just for the illegals8221 8220I am working to support other people8217s way of life8221 Trump incites nativism and xenophobia simultaneously by claiming every other nation takes advantage of America through the 8220 worst trade deals8221 through sending their worst people and getting a free ride through military alliances His supporters in Eugene echoed this with comments like 8220America needs to stop being taken advantage of like China does8221 8220It8217s time to take America back bring our jobs back8221 8220Bring back jobs instead of losing jobs to others8221 8220Illegal immigrants are driving down wages for lowerclass workers8221 Trump presents trade jobs religion and culture as a zerosum game and this attitudes trickles down to his grassroots At a Trump victory party in Portland Oregon Jon Lovell a construction worker told me of a rental house he had renovated and how he tried to encourage the owner to 8220rent to a white family8221 instead of Hispanics Most Trump supporters don8217t mention Muslims but if asked they invariably favor a 8220temporary ban8221 and can8217t or won8217t say when it will be lifted In Everett Roger Birgen a retired navy vet backed a ban saying of Muslims amp1608220Don8217t bring your religion and force it on me8221 To cheers from the crowd Trump recited the 8220snake poem8221 comparing Syrian refugees to poisonous reptiles It8217s in the vein of the Heathen Chinee Poem that was wildly popular during 19th century antiAsian hysteria The millions on board the Trump train believe Muslims and Mexicans are mortal threats to the nation8217s safety economic health and cultural survival From this perspective the logical indeed only sensible solution is to cleanse the Republic of foreign goods foreign entanglements and foreign peoples Trump8217s sinister tales are wellsuited for his audience A massive Gallup survey of more than 26000 Trump fans concluded 8220The racial and ethnic isolation of whites at the zip code level is one of the strongest predictors of Trump support8221 Likewise a New York Times analysis of census data found the secondstrongest indicator of support were among those who listed their ancestry as 8220American8221 Then there is the fact that as the density of a county increases which correlates with diversity so does the likelihood that it goes Democratic His voters skew older with greatest support among those over 65 Add in weak economies and declining life expectancies among middleaged whites in many Trump strongholds and this creates a scenario of whites who romanticize a racially pure past live in homogeneous communities today and envision their future slipping away Trump has convinced many they8217ve been robbed of birthright privileges that can only be regained by defeating alien threats But Trump is not merely a mirror for what exists Given Bernie Sanders8217 considerable support in much of the Midwest now tilting toward the reality TV star Trump is a lens focusing specific wavelengths of racialized rage When Trump supporters are asked 8220When was America last great8221 a few point to the 1970s or 1980s which is bygone enough to have acquired a rosetinted nostalgia for younger voters Many say the 1950s but just as many want to turn the clock back to before FDR the early 20th century or even late 19th century These are all times when legal apartheid and racial terror dominated the lives of Blacks Chicanos and Native Americans And it8217s likely no coincidence that those longing to return to the early 1900s idealize a time when life expectancy was 33 years for AfricanAmericans Ethnic cleansing sounds extreme because it evokes images of armed bands of grimfaced men from the Balkans to the Congo violently displacing communities But afflicted by national amnesia we forget ethnic cleansing defines every era of American history and the most extreme forms such as the genocide of Native Americans and Jim Crow have been official policy There are many other examples The 19th century was marked by antiChinese and antiCatholic pogroms Scholars say in the 1910s the Texas Rangers massacred 8220hundreds8212if not thousands8212of MexicanAmericans8221 in the state This was also the dawn of the 8220great migration8221 of AfricanAmericans leaving the South for booming cities in the North Racial and labor tensions led to scores of race riots during World War One and after though many should be labeled pogroms White vigilantes aided by local law enforcement who murdered hundreds of AfricanAmericans in East St Louis in 1917 up to 300 in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921 237 people in Elaine Arkansas in 1919 and an unknown number in Rosewood Florida in 1923 Meanwhile thousands of towns from Maine to California and Texas to Minnesota were convulsed by ethnic cleansing James Loewen a sociologist at the University of Illinois calls these whitesonly burgs sundown towns 8220because some of them posted signs at their city limits reading typically 8216Nigger Don8217t Let The Sun Go Down On You In ___82178221 Chinese Jews and other groups were often excluded as well 8220by force law or custom8221 Loewen lists thousands of possible sundown towns Cleveland for example is ringed by many such towns like Brunswick Cuyahoga Falls Broadview Heights Hudson and Chagrin Falls that are 99 percent white to this day In this light Trump8217s schizophrenic language about AfricanAmericans makes sense He is of course not trying to appeal to Black voters Some polls have recorded zero percent support from AfricanAmericans because of his racist history and his description of their current lives 8220 hellish8221 He wants his followers to believe he and by extension they care about Black life and progress as John the waiter from Bend Oregon expressed The aim is to inoculate his campaign against charges of racism even though that8217s it8217s defining appeal He tells his audiences 8220When Democratic policies fail they are left with only this one tired argument 8216You8217re racist you8217re racist you8217re racist8217 It8217s a tired disgusting argument8221 Even as Trump8217s followers deny they are racist he nurtures their racism His support aligns closely with racist attitudes Supporters say they like Trump because 8220He speaks the way I speak8221 and 8220I like the idea he is not PC When he says something I can understand him8221 What they mean is like Trump they can now make bigoted statements about entire groups of people the definition of racism and pose as fearless truthtellers instead of being shunned as dimwitted racists More significant Trump8217s hucksterism distracts from how he seeks to delegitimize Black political activity He blames Black Lives Matter for police killings has said as president he would investigate the movement and turned his RNC coronation into a minstrel show with Black speakers bellowing 8220 All Lives Matter8221 and 8220 Blue Lives Matter8221 His 8220law and order8221 and 8220silent majority8221 slogans are taken from Nixon8217s successful 1968 campaign that whipped up white resentment against the Black freedom struggle Trump8217s falsehoods about voter fraud in Philadelphia St Louis and Chicago are loud dog whistles to his white nationalist base The right8217s history of trying to eliminate Black political power has intensified in the last decade On top off restrictive ID laws and barriers to early voting Trump is encouraging supporters to engage in outright intimidation of minority voters which is strikingly reminiscent of Reconstructionera suppression of Black voters This is another component of Trump8217s ethnic cleansing banish AfricanAmerican voices and issues to the margins as much as possible It has a long historical lineage Every time there are Black political or social gains such as with Reconstruction the Great Migration or the Civil Rights Era there is a violent white reaction aided and encouraged by demagogic politicians This time is no different except Trump has been in the forefront of the backlash He staked his candidacy on delegitimizing the first Black president demonized Black Lives Matter and suggested using stopandfrisk nationwide in effect further criminalizing Blacks and Latinos If Trump is elected he would likely have a Republican Congress and could solidify a hardright Supreme Court majority leaving few checks He would have more power than George W Bush and a far more extreme agenda More significant Trumpism isn8217t about a static set of policies it is a dynamic Because he would rule like he campaigned Trump would constantly pick fights to draw attention away from his disastrous policies With a base clamoring for entire groups to be forced out of the country or public life Trump would likely deliver with mass roundups and deportations of undocumented immigrants bans on Muslims and intensified repression of AfricanAmericans Racist vigilantes would have a White House that would look the other and social approval to carry out more extreme measures If Trump loses ethnic cleansing would be impossible to implement without state power It will be far less dangerous but not disappear States will try to carry out discriminatory policies such as Arizona and Alabama have And it will burst out as politicized mass shooters like Dylan Roof It8217s already happening A Kansas militia calling itself 8220The Crusaders8221 was thwarted in October from allegedly perpetrating an Oklahoma Citystyle massacre on Somali immigrants They planned to time the attack to the day after the election so as not to affect it and the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations put the blame squarely on Trump for encouraging 8220domestic terrorist groups to commit acts of terrorism and violence against our community8221 The three white militiamen arrested referred to Somalis as 8220cockroaches8221 and wanted to kill them because they 8220represent a threat to American society8221 They hoped a bloodbath would 8220wake up8221 a lot more people to 8220decide they want this country back8221 Those words could have come straight out of Donald Trump8217s mouth Alexander Reid Ross contributed to this report An earlier version of this article was published by Telesur English | Photo/NOUN by/ADP DonkeyHotey/PROPN CC/PROPN BY/PROPN 20/NUM Standing/NOUN outside/ADP a/DET justconcluded/ADJ Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN rally/NOUN 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<p>Rex Features/AP</p>
<p>When James Comey goes to Capitol Hill Thursday, he’ll tell the Senate intelligence committee that President Donald Trump asked&#160;him to drop any&#160;investigation into whether former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn made false statements to the FBI, <a href="" type="internal">according to Comey’s prepared statement</a>. Comey, who was in charge of the bureau at the time, says&#160; <a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/documents/os-jcomey-060817.pdf" type="external">he had no intention of complying</a> with Trump’s request.</p>
<p>But the Flynn&#160;probe reportedly goes far beyond alleged false statements. It has&#160;now apparently been taken over by Robert Mueller, who was appointed as special counsel last month after Trump abruptly fired Comey. And that’s&#160;just one piece of what Mueller will be doing. As special counsel, he’ll oversee the widening federal investigation of&#160;Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and the Kremlin—an investigation that Trump has called a “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/us/politics/trump-back-on-twitter-complains-of-witch-hunt.html" type="external">witch hunt</a>.”</p>
<p>Moreover, Mueller won’t be alone. Half a dozen other entities in two branches of government are looking into aspects of the scandal. Here’s a breakdown of the ongoing investigations, who is conducting them, and what they might be looking at:</p>
<p>On March 20, <a href="" type="internal">Comey confirmed</a>&#160;that the FBI&#160;“is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.” He&#160;said that the probe “includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” Comey described the probe as a counterintelligence investigation that would also include an “assessment of whether any crimes were committed.” He added that he couldn’t reveal any additional information about “what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining.” According to Comey’s <a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/documents/os-jcomey-060817.pdf" type="external">prepared&#160;testimony</a> for Thursday’s hearing, he informed Trump&#160;that as of early April, the president&#160;himself was not “personally” under investigation. But various news reports citing unnamed sources have suggested that the FBI is looking into a number of Trump associates and their&#160;possible connections to Russian interests.</p>
<p>Jared Kushner.&#160;On May 25, <a href="" type="internal">the Washington Post and NBC reported</a> that Kushner—Trump’s son-in-law and one of his closest advisers—had come under scrutiny from the FBI. A day later, the Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?tid=sm_fb&amp;utm_term=.a73835b7df47" type="external">reported</a> that according to intercepted Russian communications, Kushner had proposed to the Russian ambassador the establishment of a “secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin.” Jamie Gorelick, Kushner’s attorney, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/us/politics/kushner-talked-to-russian-envoy-about-creating-secret-channel-with-kremlin.html" type="external">told the New York Times</a>that Kushner didn’t recall the alleged conversations with the Russian ambassador. The&#160;Times cited anonymous sources as saying that Kushner’s actions “are under scrutiny as part of the investigation” but that Kushner “is not currently the subject of a criminal investigation.” Several days after that, the Times reported that FBI investigators were&#160;looking into a December <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/us/politics/jared-kushner-russia-investigation.html" type="external">meeting</a> between Kushner and Sergey N. Gorkov, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin who runs a Russian bank that’s currently the target of US sanctions. The Times cited “current and former officials” who said the&#160;meeting “may have been part of an effort by Mr. Kushner to establish a direct line to Mr. Putin outside established diplomatic channels.”</p>
<p>Paul Manafort.&#160;Manafort is a long-time Trump friend who joined his presidential campaign in March 2016. He served as campaign chairman from May to August 2016, when he resigned <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html" type="external">amid reports</a> that he may have&#160;received&#160;undisclosed cash payments from former pro-Russian Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych—an accusation Manafort denied. The FBI, in conjunction with the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/05/11/with-james-comey-gone-these-three-fbi-and-doj-officials-are-running-the-russia-trump-probe/" type="external">Department of Justice’s National Security Division</a>, is investigating Manafort’s communications and financial relationships with pro-Russian Ukranian politicians, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html?_r=0" type="external">according to the New York Times</a>. In April, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/manafort-is-expected-to-register-as-a-foreign-agent/2017/04/12/6c7cdd58-1fb0-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html" type="external">it was reported that</a> Manafort would retroactively register as a foreign agent under the requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) due to his past work on behalf of Ukraine. It’s unclear whether&#160;the FARA registrations are part of any ongoing investigation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-trump-adviser-paul-manaforts-bank-records-sought-in-probe-1494637248" type="external">Federal</a> ( <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul-manafort-real-estate-dealings-under-investigation-new-york-state" type="external">and state</a>) investigators are also reportedly examining matters related to Manafort’s banking records&#160;real estate deals, but it’s unclear whether that has anything to do with the Trump-Russia investigation. <a href="https://apnews.com/d43ef4166da6400ab45140978854bbbb/ap-exclusive-us-probes-banking-ex-trump-campaign-chief" type="external">According to the Associated Press</a>, Treasury officials are looking into transactions Manafort conducted&#160;using a Cypriot bank—an investigation that pre-dates the Trump/Russia probe. ( <a href="http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/03/28/cyprus-still-haunted-money-laundering-claims/" type="external">Cyprus has long been seen as a money-laundering hub</a>.) The AP noted that in statement about the payments, Manafort “characterized them as a normal practice.”</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/866728832954454020" type="external">On May 22, NBC News reported</a> that Manafort had turned over documents that had been requested by the Senate intelligence committee. According to Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni, “Mr. Manafort has not been contacted by any authorities other than the United States Congress and officials responsible for FARA guidance, and he is cooperating with those inquiries.”</p>
<p>Michael Flynn.&#160;The disgraced former national security adviser was fired <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/14/flynn-sets-record-with-only-24-days-as-nsc-chief-the-average-tenure-is-about-2-6-years/" type="external">just 24 days into Trump’s term</a> after the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/national-security-adviser-flynn-discussed-sanctions-with-russian-ambassador-despite-denials-officials-say/2017/02/09/f85b29d6-ee11-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.f2d8ee240f40" type="external">reported</a> that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence when he denied having discussed US sanctions with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period.&#160;Flynn&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/flynn-in-fbi-interview-denied-discussing-sanctions-with-russian-ambassador/2017/02/16/e3e1e16a-f3d5-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.130eca42fc9a" type="external">reportedly</a> made similar statements to&#160;FBI investigators, which could potentially be a crime.&#160;In his prepared testimony for Thursday’s hearing, Comey states that Trump asked him to “drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador”—a request that Comey says he had no intention of honoring.</p>
<p>The FBI and DOJ&#160; <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/james-comey-mike-flynn-subpoenas" type="external">are also reportedly investigating</a> payments Flynn received from entities and business interests connected to Russia and Turkey. Flynn&#160;was paid $45,000 for attending a 2015 gala and conference for RT, a Russian state media organization. (About $11,000 of that payment went to Flynn’s booking agency.)&#160;He also was paid <a href="" type="internal">$530,000 last year</a> by a Dutch company to work as&#160;a foreign agent for Turkish interests—but he didn’t register&#160;as a foreign agent. (Flynn retroactively registered in March, but it is illegal to be a foreign agent without filing with the DOJ.) Prosecutors have reportedly <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/09/politics/grand-jury-fbi-russia/index.html" type="external">issued grand jury subpoenas</a> to Flynn associates related to this work.</p>
<p>Flynn <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/michael-flynn-immunity-testimony/" type="external">has asked Congress to grant him immunity</a>&#160;in exchange for cooperating with congressional investigators, but the Senate intelligence committee <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/senate-intelligence-committee-rejects-immunity-michael-flynn-n741061" type="external">reportedly</a> turned down that request. Flynn’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>Carter Page.&#160;Page, a low-level foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, has been on the FBI’s radar since 2013, when the agency discovered <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/carter-page-russia-trump.html" type="external">Russian spies were trying to recruit him</a>. In the summer of 2016, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-obtained-fisa-warrant-to-monitor-former-trump-adviser-carter-page/2017/04/11/620192ea-1e0e-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html" type="external">according to the Washington Post</a>, the FBI “obtained a secret court order” to monitor Page’s communications “after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia.” Page did not respond to a request for comment, but he <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/carter-page-dodges-questions-on-russian-meddling-but-maintains-innocence/" type="external">has called</a> allegations that he played any role in Russian meddling “completely false and misleading.”</p>
<p>Roger Stone.&#160;Stone is a self-proclaimed political “dirty trickster” who <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/sources-roger-stone-quit-wasnt-fired-by-donald-trump-in-campaign-shakeup-121177" type="external">briefly served on Trump’s presidential campaign</a> before becoming an informal adviser. In March,&#160;the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/roger-stone-donald-trump-russia.html" type="external">reported</a> that Stone had been drawn into the FBI investigation of possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia. Stone claimed in August 2016 to have had back-channel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/782443074874138624" type="external">On October 1, 2016</a>, he tweeted, “Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.”&#160; <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2016/10/07/wikileaks_releases_excerpts_of_hillary_clinton_s_wall_street_speeches.html" type="external">Six days later</a>, WikiLeaks began publishing Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails—emails that the US intelligence community concluded were stolen by hackers working with the Russian government.&#160;Stone didn’t reply to a request for comment, but he has denied participating in any collusion with Russia. “They can call me a dirty trickster,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/11/roger-stone-is-the-man-the-media-cant-ignore/" type="external">he said during a May 11 television interview</a>. “But there’s one trick that’s not in my bag: treason.”</p>
<p>It’s unclear whether Mueller will fold all of these threads into one massive investigation or whether he will decide that some fall outside his purview. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s <a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/967231/download" type="external">memo</a> announcing Mueller’s appointment said simply that Mueller’s&#160;investigation would include “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” On June 2, however, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-flynn-turkey-exclusive-idUSKBN18T276" type="external">Reuters reported</a> that Mueller would also be taking over the investigation into Flynn’s work on behalf of Turkish interests, suggesting that Mueller may have a fairly expansive view of&#160;his authority.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/18/donald-trump-special-prosecutor-questions-238536" type="external">In addition</a>, as Politico notes, “Mueller’s mandate seems broad enough to capture matters like Trump’s alleged entreaties to Comey to end the inquiry into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.” If Mueller does investigate whether Trump’s interactions with, and subsequent firing of, Comey amounts to obstruction of justice, Rosenstein may have to recuse himself. That’s because Rosenstein, who Mueller now reports to, had conversations with Trump about Comey before the firing was announced, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/31/rosenstein-mueller-trump-russia-probe-238953" type="external">potentially making him a witness</a> in the case.</p>
<p>There are currently multiple&#160;probes underway in the US Senate:</p>
<p>The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.&#160;The intel committee’s investigation was launched in order to provide the public with “a full understanding of the scope of Russian intelligence activities impacting the United States,” according to <a href="https://www.burr.senate.gov/press/releases/joint-statement-on-committee-inquiry-into-russian-intelligence-activities" type="external">a January 13 statement</a> from the committee. The scope of that review includes the US intelligence that went into producing <a href="https://www.dni.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf" type="external">the January 6 CIA/NSA/FBI assessment</a> regarding Russian meddling in 2016 election; potential connections between Russia and people associated with US presidential campaigns; and Russian “active measures”—information warfare tactics—used to interfere with US politics. Comey will appear before the committee on Thursday to discuss his interactions with Trump.</p>
<p>On May 30, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-investigation-expands-include-donald-trumps-personal-attorney/story?id=47646601" type="external">ABC News reported</a> that the Senate investigation had expanded to include Michael Cohen, one of Trump’s personal attorneys. “I have been served with a subpoena and intend to fully comply,” Cohen told Mother Jones in a text message. “As to the sum and substance of the subpoena, I believe it is improper to discuss at this time.” Cohen also said that as of June 5, he had not been contacted by the FBI.</p>
<p>The committee has also issued subpoenas for documents to Manafort, Stone, and Flynn. Manafort and Stone have&#160;complied and <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/866728832954454020" type="external">turned over documents</a>. On May 22, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/ap-source-michael-flynn-to-decline-senate-intel-committee-subpoena-invoke-5th-amendment-later-today/2017/05/22/a284a0a4-3ef3-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb_story.html" type="external">Flynn declined to provide documents</a>, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination; he subsequently agreed to provide some documents to the committee.</p>
<p>The Senate Judiciary Committee.&#160;The Judiciary Committee’s crime and terrorism subcommittee, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/25/politics/congress-russia-investigations/" type="external">chaired by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)</a>, is carrying out a <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/317622-sen-judiciary-launches-russian-election-interference-investigation" type="external">lower-profile inquiry</a> aimed at shining “a light on Russian activities to undermine democracy.” The subcommittee <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/michael-flynn-grassley-feinstein-235072" type="external">has asked for</a> a briefing on Flynn’s firing. It has also requested transcripts of Flynn’s intercepted calls with the Russian ambassador and the FBI’s summaries of those calls.</p>
<p>The Senate Armed Services Committee. The Armed Services Committee&#160;has held two hearings on Russian hacking—one in <a href="https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/17-01-05-foreign-cyber-threats-to-the-united-states" type="external">January</a> and one in <a href="https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/17-05-10-us-special-operations-capabilities-to-counter-russian-influence-and-unconventional-warfare-operations-in-the-grey-zone" type="external">May</a>. But a committee spokesperson tells Mother Jones that the hearings were part of the committee’s normal oversight work and not part of any distinct investigation.</p>
<p>The House has its own ongoing investigations:</p>
<p>The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The House intel committee <a href="http://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=767" type="external">is looking at a number of questions</a>: What were the cyber-related activities undertaken by the Russian government to meddle in the election? Did any of those activities include connections between Trump associates and the Russian government? What did the US government do about the Russian active measures, and what should it do&#160;going forward?</p>
<p>However, the Republicans who control the committee seem to be mostly interested in protecting the Trump administration&#160;from criticism; they’ve been particularly focused on investigating how information about Flynn’s actions&#160;and other aspects of the scandal was leaked to the press. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), was eventually forced to <a href="" type="internal">recuse himself</a> from the investigation amid mounting criticism over his coordination with the White House.</p>
<p>Since Nunes stepped aside, the committee has requested documents and an interview from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/us/politics/michael-caputo-house-committee-russia-trump.html" type="external">Michael Caputo</a>, a communications adviser to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/us/politics/michael-caputo-house-committee-russia-trump.html" type="external">Trump campaign who has worked in Russia</a>. Caputo denies participating in any collusion with the Russian government and has accused the House committee of smearing him. He&#160;declined to comment to Mother Jones.</p>
<p>On May 31, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/31/house-intelligence-committee-issues-subpoenas-russia-probe/102359046/" type="external">the committee issued</a>&#160;subpoenas&#160;for records from Flynn and Cohen. That same day, Nunes—despite his recusal— <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-un-recusal-of-devin-nunes/528882/" type="external">issued his own subpoenas</a>&#160;for information related to the “ <a href="" type="internal">unmasking</a>” of Trump associates whose identities appeared in US intelligence reports.</p>
<p>The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.&#160;The House oversight committee, currently chaired by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), is investigating aspects of the scandal.&#160;Chaffetz and Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/25/politics/michael-flynn-house-oversight-committee/" type="external">have said</a> that Flynn may have broken the law by not properly disclosing the payments he received from foreign interests associated with Russia and Turkey.</p>
<p>After the&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/james-comey-trump-flynn-russia-investigation.html" type="external">New York Times&#160;revealed</a>&#160;that Comey had written a series of memos, including one alleging that Trump had asked him to shut down any&#160;FBI investigation of Flynn, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/oversight-committee-chairman-full-steam-ahead-on-his-panels-russia-probe/2017/05/17/abcf6f98-3b4e-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html" type="external">Chaffetz quickly announced that he would subpoena those memos</a>. Chaffetz has also asked the the Department of Justice’s inspector general to review Comey’s firing. Chaffetz is set to leave Congress at the end of June, paving the way for a new Republican— <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/jason-chaffetz-set-to-announce-he-will-leave-congress-in-june/2017/05/18/45488fae-3bdd-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html" type="external">likely Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.)</a>—to take charge of the committee. Gowdy led the House Benghazi hearings that hounded former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>The House Judiciary Committee.&#160;Democrats on the Judiciary Committee <a href="https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-judiciary-gop-vote-kill-trump-conflicts-russia-ties-resolution" type="external">tried to force that committee</a> to conduct its own review of Trump’s “conflicts of interest and alleged ties to Russia,” but Republicans blocked the effort.</p>
<p>One key question is how Mueller’s investigation will impact all these congressional inquiries. His&#160;appointment might complicate Congress’ work, <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/rosenstein-briefing-russia-trump-criminal-investigation-611793" type="external">according to Graham</a>, who has argued that since Mueller may be conducting a criminal investigation, key witnesses would be less likely to cooperate with the congressional committees. “I think it pretty well at a minimum limits it, maybe just takes us out of the game,” <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/334168-russia-probes-in-limbo-after-special-prosecutor-announcement" type="external">Graham told reporters</a>. Other lawmakers see it differently. “We have two very different missions,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/18/what-the-special-counsel-can-and-cant-do-with-his-investigation.html" type="external">told MSNBC</a>. “[Mueller] will focus on whether or not criminal charges are appropriate. We’re focused on counterintelligence policy. And we can impose sanctions on Russia. The special counsel can’t impose sanctions on Russia. So we still have an extremely important role to play.”</p>
<p>A key point to keep in mind: Whatever Mueller uncovers&#160;as part of his investigation&#160;may never&#160;become public, unless he secures an indictment—and even then, he would likely only release information directly relevant to the criminal case. The congressional investigative process, on the other hand, is designed to be as transparent&#160;as possible, giving the public its best chance to learn about what actually happened during the 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>Inspectors general in two separate departments are also conducting investigations that potentially&#160;relate to the&#160;Trump-Russia scandal:</p>
<p>The Department of Defense: The <a href="https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/IG%20Ltr%20to%20Chaffetz.pdf" type="external">DOD Inspector General’s office informed Congress that as part of its own investigation</a> into Flynn, it is examining whether he obtained sufficient approval “prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government.” Presumably, the IG’s probe includes the payments Flynn received from Russian and&#160;Turkish interests.&#160;Cummings <a href="https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/cummings-releases-three-new-docs-on-flynn" type="external">issued a statement</a> on April 27, which included a letter showing that the <a href="https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/DIA%20Counsel%20Letter%20to%20Flynn.10.8.2014.pdf" type="external">Defense Intelligence Agency had warned Flynn</a>&#160;in October 2014 that taking money from foreign governments could violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause.</p>
<p>The Department of Justice: As part of an investigation into Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email case, the DOJ’s inspector general <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/12/justice-department-inspector-general-to-investigate-pre-election-actions-by-department-and-fbi/" type="external">is looking into</a>whether anyone within the FBI inappropriately leaked information about the Clinton investigation. Chaffetz <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/politics/jason-chaffetz-james-comey-firing-investigation/" type="external">has also asked</a> the inspector general to investigate Comey’s firing, though it’s unclear whether that is happening.</p> | Here’s a Guide to Every Trump-Russia Investigation | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/trump-russia-investigation-guide-comey-mueller/ | 2017-06-07 | 4left
| 2,510 | Rex FeaturesAP When James Comey goes to Capitol Hill Thursday he8217ll tell the Senate intelligence committee that President Donald Trump askedamp160him to drop anyamp160investigation into whether former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn made false statements to the FBI according to Comey8217s prepared statement Comey who was in charge of the bureau at the time saysamp160 he had no intention of complying with Trump8217s request But the Flynnamp160probe reportedly goes far beyond alleged false statements It hasamp160now apparently been taken over by Robert Mueller who was appointed as special counsel last month after Trump abruptly fired Comey And that8217samp160just one piece of what Mueller will be doing As special counsel he8217ll oversee the widening federal investigation ofamp160Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and the Kremlin8212an investigation that Trump has called a 8220 witch hunt8221 Moreover Mueller won8217t be alone Half a dozen other entities in two branches of government are looking into aspects of the scandal Here8217s a breakdown of the ongoing investigations who is conducting them and what they might be looking at On March 20 Comey confirmedamp160that the FBIamp1608220is investigating the Russian government8217s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election8221 Heamp160said that the probe 8220includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia8217s efforts8221 Comey described the probe as a counterintelligence investigation that would also include an 8220assessment of whether any crimes were committed8221 He added that he couldn8217t reveal any additional information about 8220what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining8221 According to Comey8217s preparedamp160testimony for Thursday8217s hearing he informed Trumpamp160that as of early April the presidentamp160himself was not 8220personally8221 under investigation But various news reports citing unnamed sources have suggested that the FBI is looking into a number of Trump associates and theiramp160possible connections to Russian interests Jared Kushneramp160On May 25 the Washington Post and NBC reported that Kushner8212Trump8217s soninlaw and one of his closest advisers8212had come under scrutiny from the FBI A day later the Post reported that according to intercepted Russian communications Kushner had proposed to the Russian ambassador the establishment of a 8220secret and secure communications channel between Trump8217s transition team and the Kremlin8221 Jamie Gorelick Kushner8217s attorney told the New York Timesthat Kushner didn8217t recall the alleged conversations with the Russian ambassador Theamp160Times cited anonymous sources as saying that Kushner8217s actions 8220are under scrutiny as part of the investigation8221 but that Kushner 8220is not currently the subject of a criminal investigation8221 Several days after that the Times reported that FBI investigators wereamp160looking into a December meeting between Kushner and Sergey N Gorkov an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin who runs a Russian bank that8217s currently the target of US sanctions The Times cited 8220current and former officials8221 who said theamp160meeting 8220may have been part of an effort by Mr Kushner to establish a direct line to Mr Putin outside established diplomatic channels8221 Paul Manafortamp160Manafort is a longtime Trump friend who joined his presidential campaign in March 2016 He served as campaign chairman from May to August 2016 when he resigned amid reports that he may haveamp160receivedamp160undisclosed cash payments from former proRussian Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych8212an accusation Manafort denied The FBI in conjunction with the Department of Justice8217s National Security Division is investigating Manafort8217s communications and financial relationships with proRussian Ukranian politicians according to the New York Times In April it was reported that Manafort would retroactively register as a foreign agent under the requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act FARA due to his past work on behalf of Ukraine It8217s unclear whetheramp160the FARA registrations are part of any ongoing investigation Federal and state investigators are also reportedly examining matters related to Manafort8217s banking recordsamp160real estate deals but it8217s unclear whether that has anything to do with the TrumpRussia investigation According to the Associated Press Treasury officials are looking into transactions Manafort conductedamp160using a Cypriot bank8212an investigation that predates the TrumpRussia probe Cyprus has long been seen as a moneylaundering hub The AP noted that in statement about the payments Manafort 8220characterized them as a normal practice8221 On May 22 NBC News reported that Manafort had turned over documents that had been requested by the Senate intelligence committee According to Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni 8220Mr Manafort has not been contacted by any authorities other than the United States Congress and officials responsible for FARA guidance and he is cooperating with those inquiries8221 Michael Flynnamp160The disgraced former national security adviser was fired just 24 days into Trump8217s term after the Washington Post reported that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence when he denied having discussed US sanctions with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition periodamp160Flynnamp160 reportedly made similar statements toamp160FBI investigators which could potentially be a crimeamp160In his prepared testimony for Thursday8217s hearing Comey states that Trump asked him to 8220drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador82218212a request that Comey says he had no intention of honoring The FBI and DOJamp160 are also reportedly investigating payments Flynn received from entities and business interests connected to Russia and Turkey Flynnamp160was paid 45000 for attending a 2015 gala and conference for RT a Russian state media organization About 11000 of that payment went to Flynn8217s booking agencyamp160He also was paid 530000 last year by a Dutch company to work asamp160a foreign agent for Turkish interests8212but he didn8217t registeramp160as a foreign agent Flynn retroactively registered in March but it is illegal to be a foreign agent without filing with the DOJ Prosecutors have reportedly issued grand jury subpoenas to Flynn associates related to this work Flynn has asked Congress to grant him immunityamp160in exchange for cooperating with congressional investigators but the Senate intelligence committee reportedly turned down that request Flynn8217s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment Carter Pageamp160Page a lowlevel foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign has been on the FBI8217s radar since 2013 when the agency discovered Russian spies were trying to recruit him In the summer of 2016 according to the Washington Post the FBI 8220obtained a secret court order8221 to monitor Page8217s communications 8220after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power in this case Russia8221 Page did not respond to a request for comment but he has called allegations that he played any role in Russian meddling 8220completely false and misleading8221 Roger Stoneamp160Stone is a selfproclaimed political 8220dirty trickster8221 who briefly served on Trump8217s presidential campaign before becoming an informal adviser In Marchamp160the New York Times reported that Stone had been drawn into the FBI investigation of possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia Stone claimed in August 2016 to have had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange On October 1 2016 he tweeted 8220WednesdayHillaryClinton is done Wikileaks8221amp160 Six days later WikiLeaks began publishing Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta8217s emails8212emails that the US intelligence community concluded were stolen by hackers working with the Russian governmentamp160Stone didn8217t reply to a request for comment but he has denied participating in any collusion with Russia 8220They can call me a dirty trickster8221 he said during a May 11 television interview 8220But there8217s one trick that8217s not in my bag treason8221 It8217s unclear whether Mueller will fold all of these threads into one massive investigation or whether he will decide that some fall outside his purview Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein8217s memo announcing Mueller8217s appointment said simply that Mueller8217samp160investigation would include 8220any links andor coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump8221 and 8220any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation8221 On June 2 however Reuters reported that Mueller would also be taking over the investigation into Flynn8217s work on behalf of Turkish interests suggesting that Mueller may have a fairly expansive view ofamp160his authority In addition as Politico notes 8220Mueller8217s mandate seems broad enough to capture matters like Trump8217s alleged entreaties to Comey to end the inquiry into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn8221 If Mueller does investigate whether Trump8217s interactions with and subsequent firing of Comey amounts to obstruction of justice Rosenstein may have to recuse himself That8217s because Rosenstein who Mueller now reports to had conversations with Trump about Comey before the firing was announced potentially making him a witness in the case There are currently multipleamp160probes underway in the US Senate The Senate Select Committee on Intelligenceamp160The intel committee8217s investigation was launched in order to provide the public with 8220a full understanding of the scope of Russian intelligence activities impacting the United States8221 according to a January 13 statement from the committee The scope of that review includes the US intelligence that went into producing the January 6 CIANSAFBI assessment regarding Russian meddling in 2016 election potential connections between Russia and people associated with US presidential campaigns and Russian 8220active measures82218212information warfare tactics8212used to interfere with US politics Comey will appear before the committee on Thursday to discuss his interactions with Trump On May 30 ABC News reported that the Senate investigation had expanded to include Michael Cohen one of Trump8217s personal attorneys 8220I have been served with a subpoena and intend to fully comply8221 Cohen told Mother Jones in a text message 8220As to the sum and substance of the subpoena I believe it is improper to discuss at this time8221 Cohen also said that as of June 5 he had not been contacted by the FBI The committee has also issued subpoenas for documents to Manafort Stone and Flynn Manafort and Stone haveamp160complied and turned over documents On May 22 Flynn declined to provide documents citing his Fifth Amendment right against selfincrimination he subsequently agreed to provide some documents to the committee The Senate Judiciary Committeeamp160The Judiciary Committee8217s crime and terrorism subcommittee chaired by Sen Lindsey Graham RSC is carrying out a lowerprofile inquiry aimed at shining 8220a light on Russian activities to undermine democracy8221 The subcommittee has asked for a briefing on Flynn8217s firing It has also requested transcripts of Flynn8217s intercepted calls with the Russian ambassador and the FBI8217s summaries of those calls The Senate Armed Services Committee The Armed Services Committeeamp160has held two hearings on Russian hacking8212one in January and one in May But a committee spokesperson tells Mother Jones that the hearings were part of the committee8217s normal oversight work and not part of any distinct investigation The House has its own ongoing investigations The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence The House intel committee is looking at a number of questions What were the cyberrelated activities undertaken by the Russian government to meddle in the election Did any of those activities include connections between Trump associates and the Russian government What did the US government do about the Russian active measures and what should it doamp160going forward However the Republicans who control the committee seem to be mostly interested in protecting the Trump administrationamp160from criticism they8217ve been particularly focused on investigating how information about Flynn8217s actionsamp160and other aspects of the scandal was leaked to the press The committee8217s chairman Rep Devin Nunes RCalif was eventually forced to recuse himself from the investigation amid mounting criticism over his coordination with the White House Since Nunes stepped aside the committee has requested documents and an interview from Michael Caputo a communications adviser to the Trump campaign who has worked in Russia Caputo denies participating in any collusion with the Russian government and has accused the House committee of smearing him Heamp160declined to comment to Mother Jones On May 31 the committee issuedamp160subpoenasamp160for records from Flynn and Cohen That same day Nunes8212despite his recusal8212 issued his own subpoenasamp160for information related to the 8220 unmasking8221 of Trump associates whose identities appeared in US intelligence reports The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reformamp160The House oversight committee currently chaired by Rep Jason Chaffetz RUtah is investigating aspects of the scandalamp160Chaffetz and Rep Elijah Cummings Md the ranking Democrat on the committee have said that Flynn may have broken the law by not properly disclosing the payments he received from foreign interests associated with Russia and Turkey After theamp160 New York Timesamp160revealedamp160that Comey had written a series of memos including one alleging that Trump had asked him to shut down anyamp160FBI investigation of Flynn Chaffetz quickly announced that he would subpoena those memos Chaffetz has also asked the the Department of Justice8217s inspector general to review Comey8217s firing Chaffetz is set to leave Congress at the end of June paving the way for a new Republican8212 likely Rep Trey Gowdy SC8212to take charge of the committee Gowdy led the House Benghazi hearings that hounded former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton The House Judiciary Committeeamp160Democrats on the Judiciary Committee tried to force that committee to conduct its own review of Trump8217s 8220conflicts of interest and alleged ties to Russia8221 but Republicans blocked the effort One key question is how Mueller8217s investigation will impact all these congressional inquiries Hisamp160appointment might complicate Congress8217 work according to Graham who has argued that since Mueller may be conducting a criminal investigation key witnesses would be less likely to cooperate with the congressional committees 8220I think it pretty well at a minimum limits it maybe just takes us out of the game8221 Graham told reporters Other lawmakers see it differently 8220We have two very different missions8221 Sen Susan Collins RMaine told MSNBC 8220Mueller will focus on whether or not criminal charges are appropriate We8217re focused on counterintelligence policy And we can impose sanctions on Russia The special counsel can8217t impose sanctions on Russia So we still have an extremely important role to play8221 A key point to keep in mind Whatever Mueller uncoversamp160as part of his investigationamp160may neveramp160become public unless he secures an indictment8212and even then he would likely only release information directly relevant to the criminal case The congressional investigative process on the other hand is designed to be as transparentamp160as possible giving the public its best chance to learn about what actually happened during the 2016 presidential election Inspectors general in two separate departments are also conducting investigations that potentiallyamp160relate to theamp160TrumpRussia scandal The Department of Defense The DOD Inspector General8217s office informed Congress that as part of its own investigation into Flynn it is examining whether he obtained sufficient approval 8220prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government8221 Presumably the IG8217s probe includes the payments Flynn received from Russian andamp160Turkish interestsamp160Cummings issued a statement on April 27 which included a letter showing that the Defense Intelligence Agency had warned Flynnamp160in October 2014 that taking money from foreign governments could violate the Constitution8217s emoluments clause The Department of Justice As part of an investigation into Comey8217s handling of the Hillary Clinton email case the DOJ8217s inspector general is looking intowhether anyone within the FBI inappropriately leaked information about the Clinton investigation Chaffetz has also asked the inspector general to investigate Comey8217s firing though it8217s unclear whether that is happening | Rex/PROPN FeaturesAP/NOUN When/SCONJ James/PROPN Comey/PROPN goes/VERB to/ADP Capitol/PROPN Hill/PROPN Thursday/PROPN he8217ll/PROPN tell/VERB the/DET Senate/PROPN intelligence/NOUN committee/NOUN that/PRON President/PROPN Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN askedamp160him/PRON to/PART drop/VERB anyamp160investigation/NUM into/ADP whether/SCONJ former/ADJ National/PROPN Security/PROPN Adviser/PROPN Michael/PROPN Flynn/PROPN made/VERB false/ADJ 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<p>Elizabeth (Liza) Goitein co-directs the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program, which seeks to advance effective national security policies that respect constitutional values and the rule of law. Before joining the Brennan Center, Liza served as counsel to Senator Russell Feingold, Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. Her writing has been featured in major newspapers including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as prominent outlets such as Roll Call, the National Law Journal, Salon, POLITICO, Time, and the Huffington Post. She has appeared on national television and radio shows including the The Rachel Maddow Show, The Today Show, All In with Chris Hayes, Up with Steve Kornacki, PBS NewsHour, and National Public Radio's Morning Edition and On The Media. Liza graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for the Hon. Michael Daly Hawkins on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: went to see Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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<p />Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
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<p />In January, according to Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that the head of the CIA, John Brennan, came to her and told her some of her staffers may have broken the law by getting access to secret documents that had been revealed to Senate investigators but, according to Brennan, shouldn't have been shown to Senate staffers, and that might be illegal. Why did he make this trip? Why did he tell Dianne Feinstein this? Because it led to Dianne Feinstein coming to the conclusion and finding out that the CIA had actually been spying on Senate computers, and had even removed records from those--and files from those computers.
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<p />Now joining us to give us some background and discuss all of this and joining us now from New York is Elizabeth Goitein. She's codirector of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.
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<p />Thanks for joining us very much, Elizabeth.
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<p />ELIZABETH GOITEIN, CO-DIR., LIBERTY AND NAT'L SECURITY PROGRAM, BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE: Thank you.
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<p />JAY: So why the heck does Brennan go and say this to Feinstein? I mean, look at the hornets nest he let loose.
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<p />GOITEIN: That's right. Well, he believes or the CIA believes that the Senate staff, the committee staff, may have committed a crime in some way, shape, or form. We don't really know the details of that, because John Brennan went to Senator Feinstein, he did not go to the American public. All we're getting is leaks, essentially, from CIA officials to reporters.
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<p />But from what we can piece together, the CIA believes and it filed a crimes report with the Justice Department that Senate committee staff, while investigating the CIA's torture program, in some way it got unauthorized access to a document or a set of documents which was a draft CIA review of the very same torture program.
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<p />And what's so interesting about all of this is that this draft review basically said a lot of the same things, it's been reported, as the Senate's own review, namely, the brutality of these so-called enhanced interrogation techniques were not justified by any security benefit. The CIA does not like the fact that Senate staffers obtained these draft reports, and the CIA believes that this was unauthorized.
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<p />There's a very different story coming out of the Senate Intelligence Committee, though.
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<p />JAY: Yeah. Dianne Feinstein, in her statement on March&#160;11, essentially said this is actually all meant just to intimidate the Senate committee, never--and she also went on to say that much of it, of what the CIA has done is likely to be illegal. Here's a few quotes from her speech.
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<p />SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, CHAIR, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: As I have detailed, the CIA has previously withheld and destroyed information about its Detention and Interrogation Program, including its decision in 2005 to destroy interrogation videotapes over the objections of the Bush White House and the Director of National Intelligence.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;. My letter also laid out my concern about the legal and constitutional implications of the CIA's actions. Based on what Director Brennan has informed us, I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution, including the Speech and Debate clause. It may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government function.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;. Besides the constitutional implications, the CIA's search may also have violated the Fourth Amendment, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as Executive Order 12333, which prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance.
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<p />~~~
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<p />JAY: So she's straightforwardly accusing the CIA and the leadership, which means John Brennan, of breaking the law in what they've done in terms of trying to prevent the Senate from talking about, perhaps releasing this 6,300-page report the Senate has produced detailing the activities of the CIA's torture program. But many people think that that 6,300 pages also contains information that would also raise the issue of legal liability of various people in the CIA, and that would also, again, include John Brennan.
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<p />GOITEIN: Right. Well, first things first. Senator Feinstein denied that her staff had in some way broken into the CIA's computer system or otherwise gotten unauthorized access to this draft CIA review. She says that the CIA actually provided these documents to the Senate staff. They may have done so inadvertently, but they did that. And so their access was in fact authorized.
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<p />But in investigating how the staff actually got these documents, the CIA was monitoring or searching the staff's computer network, a dedicated computer network for the staff. And that's where Senator Feinstein is saying that the CIA overstepped, constitutionally overstepped, violated the separation of powers by secretly spying on Senate investigators. And if her version of events is correct, she's absolutely right. I mean, that would be a crisis of constitutional proportions if that's really what the executive branch did.
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<p />And, as you say, all of this kerfuffle is over a document that potentially reveals very serious, potentially criminal wrongdoing by the CIA. So you can see why the stakes are so high.
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<p />JAY: And, again, John Brennan was part of this when he was in the CIA in the early 2000s.
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<p />Now, this document, the 6,300 pages, if it went public, a lot of this would become clear. It's been suggested that President Obama has not declassified this document, because even though he claims or says he's in support of declassifying it, he seems to neglect the fact that he's the one that could do it. Of course, the Senate could do it, too, but it's a far more complicated process.
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<p />GOITEIN: That's exactly right. I mean, the president without question has the ability to declassify the report in a minute. All he would have to do is sign a piece of paper, essentially. He could declassify the report.
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<p />At that point, it would become very hard for the Senate Intelligence Committee to claim some kind of reason to continue to keep the report non-public. That would sort of remove any possible excuse for the committee to keep the report secret.
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<p />But right now--but the president has not done that. Right now the Senate Intelligence Committee's rules allow it to declassify the document, but the president, the executive branch, does not recognize the committee's authority to do that. So that would be picking a huge fight if the committee were to do that. And, also, there are members of the committee who don't want this report to be public. And so it's not clear that there would even be the votes on the committee to get the report out there.
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<p />JAY: Does it have to be unanimous?
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<p />GOITEIN: That's a good question. I don't think so, but I could be wrong.
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<p />JAY: Yeah, we're checking into that rule. But someone who was involved in it told us it has to be unanimous, so it makes it even more difficult.
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<p />GOITEIN: Interesting. Yeah.
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<p />JAY: We may be wrong. We're checking that.
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<p />But let's go back to Feinstein in all of this. You know, people on the Hill and people in the know have practically considered Dianne Feinstein a mole of the CIA on the Hill because she's been so pro-CIA, protecting them on all the intelligence gathering and various things. Now she's--some of the language she's using couldn't be stronger. Why is she finally standing up to the CIA this way?
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<p />GOITEIN: Well, the only thing that she defends more strongly than the prerogatives of the intelligence community are the institutional prerogatives of the Intelligence Committee. And I believe that she takes it quite personally--I think she may have even said that--when her committee is thwarted or lied to or misled or in other ways messed with by the agencies that the committee is supposed to be overseeing. And there are at least two examples of that that I think are relevant here. First, she mentioned in her speech that when the committee was briefed about the interrogation techniques back in 2006, they were not given the full story, and that later, when they found out, in 2007, that there was more to these interrogation techniques than they had originally been informed about, I think that kind of got her started. And then I think all of this has culminated with the alleged spying/monitoring/searching of the staff's dedicated computer networks by the CIA. I think that is a level of interference with the committee's activities that she is not willing to tolerate.
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<p />JAY: But does it seem to you that she would have sat on all of this and let the report not be declassified if Brennan hadn't gone to her and taken up a stick and poked her in the eye?
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<p />GOITEIN: Well, I'm not sure that that is the case. I think that she certainly wouldn't have gone to the floor and, you know, made this entire thing public. I think the issue of whether or not actually the report itself becomes public, it's really been a game of hot potato between the executive branch and the committee because it is such a loaded document. And the responsibility involved in actually getting this to the American public is something that, frankly, both the committee and the administration seem to be trying to take off the table.
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<p />JAY: Well, I take your point that perhaps Senator Feinstein, as much as she does not want to weaken the CIA, even less does she want to weaken the Senate. And this goes to the core of whether the Senate is going to have the power to have some civilian oversight of the CIA.
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<p />But it seems to me President Obama is kind of so far avoiding being the target in all this. But if President Obama--and many people think he's been trying to protect John Brennan and perhaps other people in the CIA--but don't you think--at least I think, from what I'm learning of this, all of this, that there's someone else that President Obama is trying to defend, and it's more important to defend this person than to defend the principle of civilian oversight. And that person is President Obama, because if this thing goes public and people realize the extent of the illegality, who the heck has been protecting them and didn't--and who knew this, meaning the president, didn't turn this over to Holder, didn't prosecute, the same way he wouldn't prosecute Bush and Cheney, that this makes his whole lack of prosecution become greatly egregious, and he's protecting himself more than anyone, including protecting, as I say, the principle of civilian oversight.
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<p />GOITEIN: I would agree that he's protecting himself, but for a slightly different reason. I think if this report were to be made public, there would be real issues of legal jeopardy for CIA officials, potentially, anyway, and, you know, far beyond the potential, you know, criminality that has come up before and the Justice Department has decided not to investigate. This report could sort of blow the lid on that. And to the extent that there might be legal jeopardy for CIA officials, the CIA is going to revolt, I think, if that is made public. And if President Obama's protecting himself because a revolt by the intelligence community is not something he wants on his hands, you can hardly blame him for that.
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<p />JAY: Yeah. If anyone watched Scandal and--what is it? B13? The ones that are going to spy on and discipline the president. I'm not sure if I have the name of the agency right. That may be somewhat exaggerated, but one can imagine what Obama might be looking at if the whole intelligence community--. Yeah.
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<p />GOITEIN: Yeah. I mean, the intelligence community is sort of the 800-pound gorilla in the room. It's--to mix my metaphors, it's sort of the tail that wags the dog of the government, of national security policy, and there's no president that wants to stand up to the intelligence community. It's too powerful, it's too--.
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<p />JAY: Yeah. I take your point and I agree with you, but I would just add: knowing what's in that report--and more or less, President Obama has to have known all of this--he still appoints John Brennan to be head of the CIA. So, you know, there's political fallout here as well.
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<p />GOITEIN: He's involved. He's trying to say he's not involved. He even said the other day, well, I'm not going to wade into this. He's in it. He's very much in it. It's his CIA. And the reason why--apparently, the reason why the CIA apparently believes that the staffers were not supposed to have this document is because it was subject to executive privilege. Executive privilege is a presidential privilege. It has to be asserted by the president. So this is all in his wheelhouse, whether he likes it or not.
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<p />JAY: And when Feinstein says the CIA's trying to intimidate us, perhaps that's what John Brennan's visit was all about, to try to keep a lid on all this. And I guess one--it's very interesting. Knowing all of this, Feinstein does blow the lid off it.
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<p />GOITEIN: Right. I mean, she thinks it's time for a confrontation. This has come to a head, and it has come to a head in a very spectacular and sensational way, there's no question.
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<p />JAY: Alright. Thanks very much for joining us, Elizabeth.
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<p />GOITEIN: Thank you.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | CIA vs. Senate: Who Is Obama Protecting? | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11598 | 2014-03-14 | 4left
| 2,511 | Elizabeth Liza Goitein codirects the Brennan Center for Justices Liberty and National Security Program which seeks to advance effective national security policies that respect constitutional values and the rule of law Before joining the Brennan Center Liza served as counsel to Senator Russell Feingold Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice Her writing has been featured in major newspapers including the New York Times the Wall Street Journal the Washington Post USA Today the Boston Globe the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as prominent outlets such as Roll Call the National Law Journal Salon POLITICO Time and the Huffington Post She has appeared on national television and radio shows including the The Rachel Maddow Show The Today Show All In with Chris Hayes Up with Steve Kornacki PBS NewsHour and National Public Radios Morning Edition and On The Media Liza graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for the Hon Michael Daly Hawkins on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN went to see Dianne Feinstein chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Baltimore In January according to Dianne Feinstein the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee that the head of the CIA John Brennan came to her and told her some of her staffers may have broken the law by getting access to secret documents that had been revealed to Senate investigators but according to Brennan shouldnt have been shown to Senate staffers and that might be illegal Why did he make this trip Why did he tell Dianne Feinstein this Because it led to Dianne Feinstein coming to the conclusion and finding out that the CIA had actually been spying on Senate computers and had even removed records from thoseand files from those computers Now joining us to give us some background and discuss all of this and joining us now from New York is Elizabeth Goitein Shes codirector of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School Thanks for joining us very much Elizabeth ELIZABETH GOITEIN CODIR LIBERTY AND NATL SECURITY PROGRAM BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE Thank you JAY So why the heck does Brennan go and say this to Feinstein I mean look at the hornets nest he let loose GOITEIN Thats right Well he believes or the CIA believes that the Senate staff the committee staff may have committed a crime in some way shape or form We dont really know the details of that because John Brennan went to Senator Feinstein he did not go to the American public All were getting is leaks essentially from CIA officials to reporters But from what we can piece together the CIA believes and it filed a crimes report with the Justice Department that Senate committee staff while investigating the CIAs torture program in some way it got unauthorized access to a document or a set of documents which was a draft CIA review of the very same torture program And whats so interesting about all of this is that this draft review basically said a lot of the same things its been reported as the Senates own review namely the brutality of these socalled enhanced interrogation techniques were not justified by any security benefit The CIA does not like the fact that Senate staffers obtained these draft reports and the CIA believes that this was unauthorized Theres a very different story coming out of the Senate Intelligence Committee though JAY Yeah Dianne Feinstein in her statement on Marchamp16011 essentially said this is actually all meant just to intimidate the Senate committee neverand she also went on to say that much of it of what the CIA has done is likely to be illegal Heres a few quotes from her speech SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN CHAIR SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE As I have detailed the CIA has previously withheld and destroyed information about its Detention and Interrogation Program including its decision in 2005 to destroy interrogation videotapes over the objections of the Bush White House and the Director of National Intelligenceamp160amp160amp160 My letter also laid out my concern about the legal and constitutional implications of the CIAs actions Based on what Director Brennan has informed us I have grave concerns that the CIAs search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution including the Speech and Debate clause It may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government functionamp160amp160amp160 Besides the constitutional implications the CIAs search may also have violated the Fourth Amendment the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as Executive Order 12333 which prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance JAY So shes straightforwardly accusing the CIA and the leadership which means John Brennan of breaking the law in what theyve done in terms of trying to prevent the Senate from talking about perhaps releasing this 6300page report the Senate has produced detailing the activities of the CIAs torture program But many people think that that 6300 pages also contains information that would also raise the issue of legal liability of various people in the CIA and that would also again include John Brennan GOITEIN Right Well first things first Senator Feinstein denied that her staff had in some way broken into the CIAs computer system or otherwise gotten unauthorized access to this draft CIA review She says that the CIA actually provided these documents to the Senate staff They may have done so inadvertently but they did that And so their access was in fact authorized But in investigating how the staff actually got these documents the CIA was monitoring or searching the staffs computer network a dedicated computer network for the staff And thats where Senator Feinstein is saying that the CIA overstepped constitutionally overstepped violated the separation of powers by secretly spying on Senate investigators And if her version of events is correct shes absolutely right I mean that would be a crisis of constitutional proportions if thats really what the executive branch did And as you say all of this kerfuffle is over a document that potentially reveals very serious potentially criminal wrongdoing by the CIA So you can see why the stakes are so high JAY And again John Brennan was part of this when he was in the CIA in the early 2000s Now this document the 6300 pages if it went public a lot of this would become clear Its been suggested that President Obama has not declassified this document because even though he claims or says hes in support of declassifying it he seems to neglect the fact that hes the one that could do it Of course the Senate could do it too but its a far more complicated process GOITEIN Thats exactly right I mean the president without question has the ability to declassify the report in a minute All he would have to do is sign a piece of paper essentially He could declassify the report At that point it would become very hard for the Senate Intelligence Committee to claim some kind of reason to continue to keep the report nonpublic That would sort of remove any possible excuse for the committee to keep the report secret But right nowbut the president has not done that Right now the Senate Intelligence Committees rules allow it to declassify the document but the president the executive branch does not recognize the committees authority to do that So that would be picking a huge fight if the committee were to do that And also there are members of the committee who dont want this report to be public And so its not clear that there would even be the votes on the committee to get the report out there JAY Does it have to be unanimous GOITEIN Thats a good question I dont think so but I could be wrong JAY Yeah were checking into that rule But someone who was involved in it told us it has to be unanimous so it makes it even more difficult GOITEIN Interesting Yeah JAY We may be wrong Were checking that But lets go back to Feinstein in all of this You know people on the Hill and people in the know have practically considered Dianne Feinstein a mole of the CIA on the Hill because shes been so proCIA protecting them on all the intelligence gathering and various things Now shessome of the language shes using couldnt be stronger Why is she finally standing up to the CIA this way GOITEIN Well the only thing that she defends more strongly than the prerogatives of the intelligence community are the institutional prerogatives of the Intelligence Committee And I believe that she takes it quite personallyI think she may have even said thatwhen her committee is thwarted or lied to or misled or in other ways messed with by the agencies that the committee is supposed to be overseeing And there are at least two examples of that that I think are relevant here First she mentioned in her speech that when the committee was briefed about the interrogation techniques back in 2006 they were not given the full story and that later when they found out in 2007 that there was more to these interrogation techniques than they had originally been informed about I think that kind of got her started And then I think all of this has culminated with the alleged spyingmonitoringsearching of the staffs dedicated computer networks by the CIA I think that is a level of interference with the committees activities that she is not willing to tolerate JAY But does it seem to you that she would have sat on all of this and let the report not be declassified if Brennan hadnt gone to her and taken up a stick and poked her in the eye GOITEIN Well Im not sure that that is the case I think that she certainly wouldnt have gone to the floor and you know made this entire thing public I think the issue of whether or not actually the report itself becomes public its really been a game of hot potato between the executive branch and the committee because it is such a loaded document And the responsibility involved in actually getting this to the American public is something that frankly both the committee and the administration seem to be trying to take off the table JAY Well I take your point that perhaps Senator Feinstein as much as she does not want to weaken the CIA even less does she want to weaken the Senate And this goes to the core of whether the Senate is going to have the power to have some civilian oversight of the CIA But it seems to me President Obama is kind of so far avoiding being the target in all this But if President Obamaand many people think hes been trying to protect John Brennan and perhaps other people in the CIAbut dont you thinkat least I think from what Im learning of this all of this that theres someone else that President Obama is trying to defend and its more important to defend this person than to defend the principle of civilian oversight And that person is President Obama because if this thing goes public and people realize the extent of the illegality who the heck has been protecting them and didntand who knew this meaning the president didnt turn this over to Holder didnt prosecute the same way he wouldnt prosecute Bush and Cheney that this makes his whole lack of prosecution become greatly egregious and hes protecting himself more than anyone including protecting as I say the principle of civilian oversight GOITEIN I would agree that hes protecting himself but for a slightly different reason I think if this report were to be made public there would be real issues of legal jeopardy for CIA officials potentially anyway and you know far beyond the potential you know criminality that has come up before and the Justice Department has decided not to investigate This report could sort of blow the lid on that And to the extent that there might be legal jeopardy for CIA officials the CIA is going to revolt I think if that is made public And if President Obamas protecting himself because a revolt by the intelligence community is not something he wants on his hands you can hardly blame him for that JAY Yeah If anyone watched Scandal andwhat is it B13 The ones that are going to spy on and discipline the president Im not sure if I have the name of the agency right That may be somewhat exaggerated but one can imagine what Obama might be looking at if the whole intelligence community Yeah GOITEIN Yeah I mean the intelligence community is sort of the 800pound gorilla in the room Itsto mix my metaphors its sort of the tail that wags the dog of the government of national security policy and theres no president that wants to stand up to the intelligence community Its too powerful its too JAY Yeah I take your point and I agree with you but I would just add knowing whats in that reportand more or less President Obama has to have known all of thishe still appoints John Brennan to be head of the CIA So you know theres political fallout here as well GOITEIN Hes involved Hes trying to say hes not involved He even said the other day well Im not going to wade into this Hes in it Hes very much in it Its his CIA And the reason whyapparently the reason why the CIA apparently believes that the staffers were not supposed to have this document is because it was subject to executive privilege Executive privilege is a presidential privilege It has to be asserted by the president So this is all in his wheelhouse whether he likes it or not JAY And when Feinstein says the CIAs trying to intimidate us perhaps thats what John Brennans visit was all about to try to keep a lid on all this And I guess oneits very interesting Knowing all of this Feinstein does blow the lid off it GOITEIN Right I mean she thinks its time for a confrontation This has come to a head and it has come to a head in a very spectacular and sensational way theres no question JAY Alright Thanks very much for joining us Elizabeth GOITEIN Thank you JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Elizabeth/PROPN Liza/PROPN Goitein/PROPN codirects/VERB the/DET Brennan/PROPN Center/PROPN for/ADP Justices/PROPN Liberty/PROPN and/CCONJ National/PROPN Security/PROPN Program/PROPN which/PRON seeks/VERB to/PART advance/VERB effective/ADJ national/ADJ security/NOUN policies/NOUN that/PRON respect/VERB constitutional/ADJ values/NOUN and/CCONJ the/DET rule/NOUN of/ADP law/NOUN Before/ADP joining/VERB the/DET Brennan/PROPN Center/PROPN Liza/PROPN served/VERB as/ADP counsel/NOUN to/ADP Senator/PROPN Russell/PROPN Feingold/PROPN Chairman/PROPN of/ADP the/DET Constitution/PROPN Subcommittee/PROPN of/ADP the/DET 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<p>LJUBLJANA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Slovenian banks face risks to their income due to low interest rates, with net interest margins falling to their lowest level ever in September, the country’s central bank said.</p>
<p>A Bank of Slovenia report released on Monday said, however, that the risks in the past six months have not changed sufficiently to endanger the country’s financial stability.</p>
<p>Slovenia narrowly avoided an international bank bailout in 2013 when the government poured more than 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) into its local lenders to prevent them from collapsing under a large amount of bad loans.</p>
<p>The net interest margin for Slovenia’s banking sector, which remains about 45 percent government controlled, fell to 1.82 percent in September, its lowest rate ever.</p>
<p>“The rising imbalance between the maturity of banks’ investments and banks’ sources of income presents a risk to stability of their financing which could strongly increase in case of shocks in the financial and real sectors of the economy,” the central bank said.</p>
<p>“The fast growth of prices on the real estate market is also calling for attention regarding possible increase of excessive risks that could threaten the stability of the banking and the financial systems,” it added.</p>
<p>Banks have raid their lending standards in the past years which is why rising real estate prices are not a high risk at present, while lending risks fell in 2017, the central banks said, mainly due to lower bad loans and an improved economy.</p>
<p>“Banks’ liquidity in 2017 was favourable... banks remain strong regarding their capital adequacy,” it said.</p>
<p>Slovenia returned to growth a year after rescuing its banks and the government expects exports and investments to drive 3.9 percent growth this year versus 4.4 percent in 2017.</p>
<p>Strong economic growth has resulted in a rise in real estate prices with the price of flats up by over 6 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2017 according to the national Surveying and Mapping Authority.</p>
<p>Some of the biggest banks in Slovenia are still state-owned, with the remainder mostly owned by foreign banks and investors, including U.S. investment firm Apollo Global Management, France’s bank Societe Generale, Italy’s Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, Russia’s Sberbank and Austria’s Sparkasse and Addiko Bank. ($1 = 0.8170 euros) (Reporting by Marja Novak; editing by Alexander Smith)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street surged on Thursday, bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous, holiday-shortened week as technology stocks rebounded, but the S&amp;P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years.</p>
<p>The year started strong, but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters, fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China, and a selloff in the tech sector.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: S&amp;P Quarterly performance during bull market - <a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external">reut.rs/2pUJYLR</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external" />
<p>Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the S&amp;P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT closed up 2.2 percent after reaching a session high of 3.2 percent, helping push the S&amp;P 500 up 1.4 percent, with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying.</p>
<p>“All the fears now look overblown. Interest rates, the concern about tariffs, we’re going to get into a trade war,” said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York. “But now clearer heads are prevailing. If anything this is a buying opportunity.”</p>
<p>Technology gains were led by Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) shares.</p>
<p>“Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market. And we’re in a bull market,” said Cote.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 254.69 points, or 1.07 percent, to close at 24,103.11, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 35.87 points, or 1.38 percent, to 2,640.87 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 114.22 points, or 1.64 percent, to 7,063.45.</p>
<p>Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45-year low.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>In other data, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year. The index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, has been below the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target since mid-2012.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) closed up 1.1 percent, recovering from a 4.6 percent drop after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday, claiming without evidence that the company pays “little to no taxes to state &amp; local governments.”</p>
<p>Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world’s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances, averting a trade war.</p>
<p>But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a four-month low in March and reduce holdings of U.S. stocks to the lowest in nearly two years, according to a Reuters poll.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.79 FB.O Nasdaq +6.76 (+4.42%) FB.O INTC.O GOOGL.O MSFT.O .DJI
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.66-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.23-to-1 ratio favored advancers.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.49 billion shares, compared to the 7.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York; Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. retailer Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) is in early-stage talks with health insurer Humana Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HUM.N" type="external">HUM.N</a>) about developing closer ties, with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.</p> Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. REUTERS/John Gress/Files
<p>Should the talks lead to a tieup, it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months, following CVS Health Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CVS.N" type="external">CVS.N</a>) $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AET.N" type="external">AET.N</a>) and Cigna Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CI.N" type="external">CI.N</a>) $54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ESRX.O" type="external">ESRX.O</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary, two of the sources said. While the conversations have focused on new partnerships, an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed, the sources added.</p>
<p>The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Humana and Walmart declined to comment.</p>
<p>Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of $264 billion and $37 billion, respectively.</p>
<p>An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) in online shopping.</p>
<p>Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector. Earlier this year, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BRKa.N" type="external">BRKa.N</a>) and JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>), said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their U.S. employees.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">Walmart Inc</a> 88.97 WMT.N New York Stock Exchange +1.20 (+1.37%) WMT.N HUM.N CVS.N AET.N CI.N
<p>“The risks (for Walmart) of becoming entangled in the complex U.S. healthcare industry are considerable, especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market,” Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail, wrote in a note.</p>
<p>“The hammering out of any agreement, which would be Walmart’s largest ever corporate deal, would, of itself, be an enormous distraction,” Saunders added.</p>
<p>Walmart currently has a co-branded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores. The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers.</p>
<p>Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana’s patient population, expanding low-level medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits. They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records.</p>
<p>Humana’s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people, a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition.</p>
<p>Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans - where individuals sign up directly with Humana - rose about 1 percent to 2.86 million, as of Dec. 31. Employer or other group-based Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441,400.</p>
<p>Last month, Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations.</p>
<p>Reporting by Carl O'Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares rose on Thursday ahead of the expected release next week of the company’s quarterly auto production data, while a senior executive urged workers at the automaker to hit a weekly production target of 2,500 Model 3 sedans by the end of March.</p> A Tesla Model 3 sedan, its first car aimed at the mass market, is displayed during its launch in Hawthorne, California, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Joe White/File Photo
<p>Quickly ramping up Model 3 production is crucial for the Silicon Valley electric vehicle maker. The company’s profitability depends on delivering the new sedans to customers on a waiting list that Tesla has said now numbers about 500,000 advance reservation holders.</p>
<p>Tesla shares recovered to $266.13, up 3 percent, Thursday after a sell-off prompted by a Moody’s debt downgrade and news that safety regulators are investigating a Model X-involved fatality.</p>
<p>In an email to employees viewed by Reuters, Tesla Senior Vice President of Engineering Doug Fields wrote that production of Tesla vehicles is “well into the 200’s on every single line.”</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-recall/tesla-voluntarily-recalls-early-model-s-vehicles-over-power-steering-bolts-idUSKBN1H5381" type="external">Tesla voluntarily recalls early Model S vehicles over power steering bolts</a>
<p>Field gave reasons why Tesla needs to get to 2,500 vehicles a week, including: “There are an incredible number of people who ‘short’ Tesla stock, which means they profit when we fail. And lately the story is the same: ‘Tesla can’t do high-volume production’. I find that personally insulting, and you should too. Let’s make them regret ever betting against us.”</p>
<p>Tesla must “quickly break through the 300 cars/day barrier, and keep going,” the email continued.</p>
<p>Tesla did not immediately comment on the email, which was previously reported by Bloomberg News.</p>
<p>Doubts that Tesla could meet its production targets and concerns about cash reserves were behind Moody’s downgrade of Tesla last week. The ratings agency cited the likelihood of a new capital raise, which it estimated at over $2 billion, in part to cover approximately $1.2 billion in convertible bonds coming due by March 2019.</p>
<p>The downgrade, together with a fatality involving a Model X that is currently being investigated by safety regulators, sent shares down 12 percent for the week, even after Thursday’s rebound. That made it Tesla’s worst week in nine months.</p>
<p>Tesla shares are still above the $255.73 level, the price when Tesla last announced a capital raise in March last year to raise $1.15 billion.</p>
<p>Moody’s and other analysts have predicted Tesla will soon have to sell more shares to replenish cash reserves and pay for expansion of Model 3 production and new vehicles such as the Tesla Semi electric commercial truck and a compact sport utility vehicle.</p>
<p>As of Dec. 31, Tesla had $3.4 billion in cash and securities. Moody’s estimated approximately $500 million in cash was needed for normal operations and forecast cash burn this year of about $2 billion.</p>
<p>Beyond the $2 billion that Moody’s predicted Tesla would seek in the near-term, it said the company would likely need to raise additional capital during the second half of 2019.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to build 10,000 Model 3s per week by some point in 2018 after meeting a 5,000-per week target by the end of the second quarter. Tesla built only 2,425 Model 3s in its fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Barclays analyst Brian Johnson warned in a note to investors on Thursday that Tesla could engage in a Model 3 “burst rate” of production that could send shares up, but would not be sustainable.</p>
<p>Writing by Alexandria Sage and Joe White; Edting by Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HOUSTON (Reuters) - A recent drought in oil company mergers and acquisitions could be coming to an end over a new Texas range war: U.S. shale producers are building miles-long horizontal wells that are running into their rivals’ land holdings.</p> FILE PHOTO -- A pump jack stands idle in Dewitt County, Texas January 13, 2016. Picture taken on January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Anna Driver/File Photo
<p>This week, U.S. shale producer Concho Resources Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CXO.N" type="external">CXO.N</a>) said longer horizontal wells are among the factors spurring its $8 billion deal for rival RSP Permian Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RSPP.N" type="external">RSPP.N</a>), with well spacing and sharing infrastructure needs also playing roles. RSP Permian controlled the land adjacent to its own in many cases.</p>
<p>The average length of U.S. shale wells has grown by roughly 1,500 feet, or 25 percent, in the past three years to 7,213 feet, according to RS Energy Group, an energy investment data provider. Producers are drilling longer shale wells - some exceed three miles - to extract more crude from each well.</p>
<p>Oil company M&amp;A fell in the wake of the 2014 oil price crash and more producers refocused on their best holdings. The value of U.S. oil producer deals last year was less than half the $137.7 billion in 2013, according to data provider PLS Inc. That could be changing in West Texas’s Permian, the largest U.S. oilfield, where checkerboard-like leases dating to land grants made to railroads in the 19th century are hemming in producers.</p>
<p>“Consolidating acreage is going to be extremely meaningful,” said Brook Papau, managing director of RS Energy. “We’ll see more deals.”</p>
<p>Smaller companies with prime acreage, especially on the Permian’s western edge, could be buyout candidates, including Abraxas Petroleum ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AXAS.O" type="external">AXAS.O</a>), Lilis Energy LLEX.A and Jagged Peak Energy ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JAG.N" type="external">JAG.N</a>), industry analysts have told Reuters.</p>
<p>Shared transport systems, such as oil and gas gathering and water disposal, also are driving the need for scale and property acquisitions in addition to horizontal wells, called laterals, Concho Chief Executive Tim Leach said this week.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CXO.N" type="external">Concho Resources Inc</a> 150.33 CXO.N New York Stock Exchange +7.08 (+4.94%) CXO.N RSPP.N AXAS.O JAG.N CVX.N
<p>“Long laterals and (avoiding) the parent-child relationship” where close well spacing reduces output, drove the deal, said Leach. “Large, contiguous blocks of acreage are strategic,” he told investors.</p>
<p>After dropping 8.7 percent on the steep purchase price, Concho shares on Thursday retraced much of the fall, rising 5 percent to $150.33.</p>
<p>“The investment community has consistently espoused the merits of consolidation within a highly fragmented business,” said Simmons &amp; Co analyst David Kistler in a note to clients praising the Concho-RSP deal.</p>
<p>Still, M&amp;A is not the only way to get more adjacent land. Chevron Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CVX.N" type="external">CVX.N</a>) last year swapped or sold more than 60,000 acres in the Permian Basin.</p>
<p>The deals, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a February earnings call, “create value by consolidating land positions, allowing longer laterals and other infrastructure efficiencies.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Andrea Ricci</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Slovenian central bank flags low interest rate risk to banks U.S. stocks jump in upbeat end to tumultuous quarter Walmart talking with Humana on closer ties; acquisition possible: sources Tesla shares recover as company pushes to hit Model 3 target As shale wells grow longer, buyouts attract hemmed in oil producers | false | https://reuters.com/article/slovenia-banks/slovenian-central-bank-flags-low-interest-rate-risk-to-banks-idUSL8N1PH4AR | 2018-01-22 | 2least
| 2,511 | LJUBLJANA Jan 22 Reuters Slovenian banks face risks to their income due to low interest rates with net interest margins falling to their lowest level ever in September the country8217s central bank said A Bank of Slovenia report released on Monday said however that the risks in the past six months have not changed sufficiently to endanger the country8217s financial stability Slovenia narrowly avoided an international bank bailout in 2013 when the government poured more than 3 billion euros 37 billion into its local lenders to prevent them from collapsing under a large amount of bad loans The net interest margin for Slovenia8217s banking sector which remains about 45 percent government controlled fell to 182 percent in September its lowest rate ever 8220The rising imbalance between the maturity of banks8217 investments and banks8217 sources of income presents a risk to stability of their financing which could strongly increase in case of shocks in the financial and real sectors of the economy8221 the central bank said 8220The fast growth of prices on the real estate market is also calling for attention regarding possible increase of excessive risks that could threaten the stability of the banking and the financial systems8221 it added Banks have raid their lending standards in the past years which is why rising real estate prices are not a high risk at present while lending risks fell in 2017 the central banks said mainly due to lower bad loans and an improved economy 8220Banks8217 liquidity in 2017 was favourable banks remain strong regarding their capital adequacy8221 it said Slovenia returned to growth a year after rescuing its banks and the government expects exports and investments to drive 39 percent growth this year versus 44 percent in 2017 Strong economic growth has resulted in a rise in real estate prices with the price of flats up by over 6 percent yearonyear in the first half of 2017 according to the national Surveying and Mapping Authority Some of the biggest banks in Slovenia are still stateowned with the remainder mostly owned by foreign banks and investors including US investment firm Apollo Global Management France8217s bank Societe Generale Italy8217s Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo Russia8217s Sberbank and Austria8217s Sparkasse and Addiko Bank 1 08170 euros Reporting by Marja Novak editing by Alexander Smith Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street surged on Thursday bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous holidayshortened week as technology stocks rebounded but the SampampP 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years The year started strong but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China and a selloff in the tech sector GRAPHIC SampampP Quarterly performance during bull market reutrs2pUJYLR Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the SampampP 500 information technology index SPLRCT closed up 22 percent after reaching a session high of 32 percent helping push the SampampP 500 up 14 percent with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying 8220All the fears now look overblown Interest rates the concern about tariffs we8217re going to get into a trade war8221 said Doug Cote chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York 8220But now clearer heads are prevailing If anything this is a buying opportunity8221 Technology gains were led by Facebook FBO Intel INTCO Alphabet GOOGLO and Microsoft MSFTO shares 8220Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market And we8217re in a bull market8221 said Cote The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 25469 points or 107 percent to close at 2410311 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 3587 points or 138 percent to 264087 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 11422 points or 164 percent to 706345 Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45year low Slideshow 4 Images In other data core personal consumption expenditures PCE rose by 16 percent yearonyear The index the Federal Reserve8217s preferred measure of inflation has been below the US central bank8217s 2 percent target since mid2012 Amazoncom AMZNO closed up 11 percent recovering from a 46 percent drop after US President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday claiming without evidence that the company pays 8220little to no taxes to state ampamp local governments8221 Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world8217s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances averting a trade war But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a fourmonth low in March and reduce holdings of US stocks to the lowest in nearly two years according to a Reuters poll Facebook Inc 15979 FBO Nasdaq 676 442 FBO INTCO GOOGLO MSFTO DJI Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 366to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 223to1 ratio favored advancers Volume on US exchanges was 749 billion shares compared to the 729 billion average over the last 20 trading days Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak Editing by James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US retailer Walmart Inc WMTN is in earlystage talks with health insurer Humana Inc HUMN about developing closer ties with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility people familiar with the matter said on Thursday Shopping carts are seen outside a new WalMart Express store in Chicago July 26 2011 REUTERSJohn GressFiles Should the talks lead to a tieup it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months following CVS Health Corp8217s CVSN 69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc AETN and Cigna Corp8217s CIN 54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ESRXO Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary two of the sources said While the conversations have focused on new partnerships an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed the sources added The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential Humana and Walmart declined to comment Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of 264 billion and 37 billion respectively An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart which is the world8217s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazoncom Inc AMZNO in online shopping Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector Earlier this year Amazon Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKaN and JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their US employees Walmart Inc 8897 WMTN New York Stock Exchange 120 137 WMTN HUMN CVSN AETN CIN 8220The risks for Walmart of becoming entangled in the complex US healthcare industry are considerable especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market8221 Neil Saunders managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail wrote in a note 8220The hammering out of any agreement which would be Walmart8217s largest ever corporate deal would of itself be an enormous distraction8221 Saunders added Walmart currently has a cobranded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana8217s patient population expanding lowlevel medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records Humana8217s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans where individuals sign up directly with Humana rose about 1 percent to 286 million as of Dec 31 Employer or other groupbased Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441400 Last month Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations Reporting by Carl ODonnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Tesla Inc shares rose on Thursday ahead of the expected release next week of the company8217s quarterly auto production data while a senior executive urged workers at the automaker to hit a weekly production target of 2500 Model 3 sedans by the end of March A Tesla Model 3 sedan its first car aimed at the mass market is displayed during its launch in Hawthorne California March 31 2016 REUTERSJoe WhiteFile Photo Quickly ramping up Model 3 production is crucial for the Silicon Valley electric vehicle maker The company8217s profitability depends on delivering the new sedans to customers on a waiting list that Tesla has said now numbers about 500000 advance reservation holders Tesla shares recovered to 26613 up 3 percent Thursday after a selloff prompted by a Moody8217s debt downgrade and news that safety regulators are investigating a Model Xinvolved fatality In an email to employees viewed by Reuters Tesla Senior Vice President of Engineering Doug Fields wrote that production of Tesla vehicles is 8220well into the 2008217s on every single line8221 Related Coverage Tesla voluntarily recalls early Model S vehicles over power steering bolts Field gave reasons why Tesla needs to get to 2500 vehicles a week including 8220There are an incredible number of people who 8216short8217 Tesla stock which means they profit when we fail And lately the story is the same 8216Tesla can8217t do highvolume production8217 I find that personally insulting and you should too Let8217s make them regret ever betting against us8221 Tesla must 8220quickly break through the 300 carsday barrier and keep going8221 the email continued Tesla did not immediately comment on the email which was previously reported by Bloomberg News Doubts that Tesla could meet its production targets and concerns about cash reserves were behind Moody8217s downgrade of Tesla last week The ratings agency cited the likelihood of a new capital raise which it estimated at over 2 billion in part to cover approximately 12 billion in convertible bonds coming due by March 2019 The downgrade together with a fatality involving a Model X that is currently being investigated by safety regulators sent shares down 12 percent for the week even after Thursday8217s rebound That made it Tesla8217s worst week in nine months Tesla shares are still above the 25573 level the price when Tesla last announced a capital raise in March last year to raise 115 billion Moody8217s and other analysts have predicted Tesla will soon have to sell more shares to replenish cash reserves and pay for expansion of Model 3 production and new vehicles such as the Tesla Semi electric commercial truck and a compact sport utility vehicle As of Dec 31 Tesla had 34 billion in cash and securities Moody8217s estimated approximately 500 million in cash was needed for normal operations and forecast cash burn this year of about 2 billion Beyond the 2 billion that Moody8217s predicted Tesla would seek in the nearterm it said the company would likely need to raise additional capital during the second half of 2019 Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to build 10000 Model 3s per week by some point in 2018 after meeting a 5000per week target by the end of the second quarter Tesla built only 2425 Model 3s in its fourth quarter Barclays analyst Brian Johnson warned in a note to investors on Thursday that Tesla could engage in a Model 3 8220burst rate8221 of production that could send shares up but would not be sustainable Writing by Alexandria Sage and Joe White Edting by Tom Brown Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles HOUSTON Reuters A recent drought in oil company mergers and acquisitions could be coming to an end over a new Texas range war US shale producers are building mileslong horizontal wells that are running into their rivals8217 land holdings FILE PHOTO A pump jack stands idle in Dewitt County Texas January 13 2016 Picture taken on January 13 2016 REUTERSAnna DriverFile Photo This week US shale producer Concho Resources Inc CXON said longer horizontal wells are among the factors spurring its 8 billion deal for rival RSP Permian Inc RSPPN with well spacing and sharing infrastructure needs also playing roles RSP Permian controlled the land adjacent to its own in many cases The average length of US shale wells has grown by roughly 1500 feet or 25 percent in the past three years to 7213 feet according to RS Energy Group an energy investment data provider Producers are drilling longer shale wells some exceed three miles to extract more crude from each well Oil company MampampA fell in the wake of the 2014 oil price crash and more producers refocused on their best holdings The value of US oil producer deals last year was less than half the 1377 billion in 2013 according to data provider PLS Inc That could be changing in West Texas8217s Permian the largest US oilfield where checkerboardlike leases dating to land grants made to railroads in the 19th century are hemming in producers 8220Consolidating acreage is going to be extremely meaningful8221 said Brook Papau managing director of RS Energy 8220We8217ll see more deals8221 Smaller companies with prime acreage especially on the Permian8217s western edge could be buyout candidates including Abraxas Petroleum AXASO Lilis Energy LLEXA and Jagged Peak Energy JAGN industry analysts have told Reuters Shared transport systems such as oil and gas gathering and water disposal also are driving the need for scale and property acquisitions in addition to horizontal wells called laterals Concho Chief Executive Tim Leach said this week Concho Resources Inc 15033 CXON New York Stock Exchange 708 494 CXON RSPPN AXASO JAGN CVXN 8220Long laterals and avoiding the parentchild relationship8221 where close well spacing reduces output drove the deal said Leach 8220Large contiguous blocks of acreage are strategic8221 he told investors After dropping 87 percent on the steep purchase price Concho shares on Thursday retraced much of the fall rising 5 percent to 15033 8220The investment community has consistently espoused the merits of consolidation within a highly fragmented business8221 said Simmons ampamp Co analyst David Kistler in a note to clients praising the ConchoRSP deal Still MampampA is not the only way to get more adjacent land Chevron Corp CVXN last year swapped or sold more than 60000 acres in the Permian Basin The deals Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a February earnings call 8220create value by consolidating land positions allowing longer laterals and other infrastructure efficiencies8221 Reporting by Ernest Scheyder Editing by Andrea Ricci Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | LJUBLJANA/PROPN Jan/PROPN 22/NUM Reuters/PROPN Slovenian/ADJ banks/NOUN face/VERB risks/NOUN to/ADP their/PRON income/NOUN due/ADP to/ADP low/ADJ interest/NOUN rates/NOUN with/ADP net/ADJ interest/NOUN margins/NOUN falling/VERB to/ADP their/PRON lowest/ADJ level/NOUN ever/ADV in/ADP September/PROPN the/DET country8217s/PROPN central/ADJ bank/NOUN said/VERB A/DET Bank/PROPN of/ADP 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<p>(Removes extraneous text in paragraph 8)</p>
<p>* Bank stocks follow Treasury yields higher</p>
<p>* GE slips after revealing regulatory probe</p>
<p>* Dollar slides on Mnuchin’s remarks</p>
<p>* Indexes down: Dow 0.01 pct, S&amp;P 0.28 pct, Nasdaq 0.76 pct</p>
<p>By Sruthi Shankar</p>
<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross called China’s 2025 technology strategy a “direct threat” and hinted at action against Beijing, stirring fears of a tit-for-tat trade war.</p>
<p>Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ross said U.S. trade authorities were investigating whether there is a case for taking action over China’s infringements of intellectual property.</p>
<p>That was enough to reverse an upbeat morning on New York markets, which had been buoyed by the prospect of a weaker dollar boosting the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers.</p>
<p>The dollar fell about 0.9 percent against a basket of currencies after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin welcomed the currency’s weakness.</p>
<p>“There is commentary coming from Davos ... about China,” Michael Antonelli, managing director, institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.</p>
<p>“But I would lean towards the fact that the market has come so far so fast. If we continue to hit lower today, I think then we have come to a buying exhaustion point.”</p>
<p>Worries about a protectionist stance have added to the dollar’s woes after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels on Monday.</p>
<p>Bank stocks were among the gainers, tracking a rise in U.S. Treasury yields following the dip in dollar. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs rose about 1 percent.</p>
<p>At 12:44 p.m. ET (1744 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 3.44 points, or 0.01 percent, at 26,214.25 and the S&amp;P 500 was down 7.9 points, or 0.28 percent, at 2,831.23.The Nasdaq Composite was down 56.83 points, or 0.76 percent, at 7,403.46.</p>
<p>“At the point we’re right now, it’s not going to take much to see some short-term reversals, whether it’s Wilbur Ross comments or whether it’s people using excuse to take some profits,” said Ryan Larson, head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago.</p>
<p>In corporate earnings, General Electric fell 2.6 percent after the company revealed a regulatory investigation of a multibillion-dollar insurance charge.</p>
<p>The company in its earnings report forecast further weakening of its troubled power business and reported a $10 billion loss and a 5-percent fall in revenue.</p>
<p>Abbott Laboratories jumped 3.6 percent after quarterly profit and 2018 adjusted earnings forecast beat estimates.</p>
<p>United Continental tumbled 11 percent after the airline said it plans to increase capacity, likely threatening its profit margin. American Airlines fell 7.4 percent while Delta Air Lines dropped 5.9 percent.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,758 to 1,085. On the Nasdaq, 1,984 issues fell and 915 advanced. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Herb Lash in New York.; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced modestly on Tuesday as higher oil prices lifted the energy sector, but another slump in Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) shares curbed gains.</p>
<p>Oil prices rose more than 2 percent to touch a three-week high, driven by tensions in the Middle East and the possibility of further declines in Venezuelan crude output.</p>
<p>Those gains helped the S&amp;P energy index .SPNY rise 0.84 percent, making it easily the best performing of the 11 major S&amp;P 500 sectors.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) shares ended down 2.6 percent, well above earlier lows. The social media company said on Tuesday it faced questions from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission about how its users’ personal data was mined by a political consultancy hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign.</p>
<p>The stock has fallen about 9 percent over the past two sessions, its biggest two-day decline since February 2016, a drop that has weighed heavily on equities.</p>
<p>U.S. and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of how the consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, gained access to the data and why Facebook failed to inform its users, raising broader industry questions about consumer privacy and whether tougher regulation is on the horizon.</p>
<p>“The negative part would be they are going to haul them in front of Congress now and we’ll see do they create new laws, are there new regulations that could stunt the growth of the company? That is really what the fear is,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>Facebook was not the only social media stock or fund taking a hit on Tuesday. Shares of Snap Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNAP.N" type="external">SNAP.N</a>) fell 2.56 percent, while Twitter Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWTR.N" type="external">TWTR.N</a>) shares tumbled 10.38 percent. The Global X Social Media ETF ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SOCL.O" type="external">SOCL.O</a>) lost 0.9 percent.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 116.36 points, or 0.47 percent, to 24,727.27, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 4.02 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,716.94 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 20.06 points, or 0.27 percent, to 7,364.30.</p>
<p>Oracle ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ORCL.N" type="external">ORCL.N</a>) dropped 9.4 percent after the business software maker reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 168.15 FB.O Nasdaq -4.41 (-2.56%) FB.O SNAP.N TWTR.N SOCL.O .DJI
<p>Financial stocks .SPSY edged up 0.21 percent as investors awaited a near-certain interest rate hike at the end of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Market participants largely expect a total of three rate hikes this year, although some have not ruled out the possibility the U.S. central bank will hike four times.</p>
<p>“We are finally normalizing, after years we talked about the Fed holding it down and the market only going up because of the Fed. Now let’s see what the market can do – can it stand on its own two legs?” said Saluzzi, referring to the low interest rate environment the Fed put into effect after the financial crisis.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.26 billion shares, compared with the 7.17 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.28-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.26-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed to their highest level in three weeks on Tuesday as tension in the Middle East and the possibility of further falls in Venezuelan output helped offset the impact of growing U.S. crude production.</p> FILE PHOTO: A motorist holds a fuel pump at a Gulf petrol station in London April 18, 2006. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo
<p>Brent crude LCOc1 futures for May delivery rose $1.37 to $67.42 a barrel, a 2.07 percent gain. The global benchmark rose to $67.88 during the session, its highest level since late February.</p>
<p>U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures for April delivery rose $1.34 to settle at $63.40 a barrel, a 2.2 percent gain. WTI traded between $62.08 and $63.81.</p>
<p>The more active May U.S. crude futures CLc2 rose $1.41 to settle at $63.54 a barrel.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: Russia vs Saudi vs U.S. oil production - <a href="http://reut.rs/2G7AK80" type="external">reut.rs/2G7AK80</a>)</p>
<p>Prices extended gains in post-settlement trading after data from the American Petroleum Institute showed a surprise draw in U.S. crude inventories.</p>
<p>Stocks fell 2.7 million barrels in the week ended March 16 to 425.3 million barrels, according to the API, compared with analysts’ expectations for an increase of 2.6 million barrels. Government inventory data is due on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT).</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: World oil supply and demand balance - <a href="http://reut.rs/2FIxGvP" type="external">reut.rs/2FIxGvP</a>)</p>
<p>Geopolitical risks were top of mind on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia called the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers a “flawed agreement” on Monday, on the eve of a meeting between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the accord between Tehran and six world powers, raising the prospect of new sanctions that could hurt Iran’s oil industry.</p>
<p>“There’s an expectation that (Trump and Prince Mohammed) are going to take a harder line on Iran, and that’s bringing prices up,” said Phil Flynn, a senior energy analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.</p>
<p>Worries about falling production in Venezuela, whose output has been halved since 2005 to below 2 million barrels per day (bpd) PRODN-VE due to the country’s economic crisis, also supported oil markets.</p>
<p>The International Energy Agency said last week Venezuela was “vulnerable to an accelerated decline” and that the Latin American country could trigger a renewed drawdown in stocks.</p>
<p>However, increased output in the United States, Canada and Brazil has capped oil price gains. U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has risen more than a fifth since mid-2016, to 10.38 million bpd.</p>
<p>The ramped-up production threatens to undermine cuts made by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in an effort to draw down a global supply glut.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: U.S. vs Venezuela oil production since 2005 - <a href="http://reut.rs/2FWXdBH" type="external">reut.rs/2FWXdBH</a>)</p>
<p>Appetite for U.S. crude is adding to the headache facing OPEC. A widening discount of WTI to Brent crude makes it more attractive for foreign refiners to process U.S. oil. Brent is the benchmark for several Middle East and other global crudes.</p>
<p>The premium of Brent crude to WTI WTCLc1-LCOc1 rose above $4 a barrel on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange RBc1 rose 2.1 percent on Tuesday to settle at $1.9659 a gallon, the highest level since August 2017.</p>
<p>Data from market intelligence firm Genscape showed gasoline inventories in the New York Harbor region fell by about 1.1 million barrels last week, traders who saw the data said.</p>
<p>Heating oil futures HOc1 rose 2.2 percent to finish at $1.9495 a gallon, their highest settle since late February.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CRM.N" type="external">CRM.N</a>) is in advanced discussions to acquire U.S. software maker MuleSoft Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MULE.N" type="external">MULE.N</a>), people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, as it looks to expand its offerings beyond customer relationship management software.</p> FILE PHOTO - The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco, California, U.S. October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lily Jamali/File Photo
<p>The acquisition, which the sources said could be worth more than $6 billion, would be Salesforce’s biggest ever deal, illustrating Chief Executive Marc Benioff’s push to supplement the company’s cloud-based portfolio with new technology.</p>
<p>A deal could be announced as soon as this week, the sources said, cautioning that negotiations had not been finalized and that an agreement was not certain.</p>
<p>The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Salesforce and MuleSoft declined to comment.</p>
<p>MuleSoft shares jumped more than 20 percent to $39.88 after Reuters reported the talks, giving the company a market value of $5.3 billion. Salesforce shares were up 0.3 percent at $125.31.</p>
<p>Based in San Francisco, MuleSoft makes software that automatically integrates disparate data, devices and applications to help companies’ networks run faster. It could help Salesforce win business from customers which are not yet ready to transition their systems to the cloud.</p>
<p>Buying MuleSoft would help Salesforce build a larger enterprise apps ecosystem around its own products, Barclays Plc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BARC.L" type="external">BARC.L</a>) analysts wrote in a research note, adding that MuleSoft could command a premium given its rapid growth and good fit.</p>
<p>Salesforce Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm, led a $128 million funding round in MuleSoft in 2015.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CRM.N" type="external">Salesforce.com Inc</a> 125.12 CRM.N New York Stock Exchange +0.14 (+0.11%) CRM.N MULE.N BARC.L KO.N MCD.N
<p>MuleSoft has more than 1,000 customers, including Coca-Cola Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KO.N" type="external">KO.N</a>), McDonald’s Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MCD.N" type="external">MCD.N</a>), Spotify and Unilever ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ULVR.L" type="external">ULVR.L</a>). It went public about a year ago.</p>
<p>Salesforce holds more than 18 percent of the global customer relationship management software market, followed by Oracle Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ORCL.N" type="external">ORCL.N</a>) with 9.4 percent, according to 2016 figures provided by research firm IDC.</p>
<p>Alphabet Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) Google acquired a competitor of MuleSoft called Apigee Corp in a $625 million deal in 2016.</p>
<p>Salesforce has benefited from companies switching to cloud-based services due to the lower costs and high level of scalability. Last month, it posted a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street targets, fueled by growth in its cloud-based sales and marketing software.</p>
<p>Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Rigby and Meredith Mazzilli</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Toys ‘R’ Us said at a bankruptcy court hearing on Tuesday that it was working hard to maximize payments to suppliers and lenders, as it starts to shutter 735 big-box toy stores across the United States.</p> FILE PHOTO - People pass by Toys R Us store at Times Square in New York, U.S., March 9, 2018. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo
<p>More than 50 suppliers, including Barbie maker Mattel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MAT.O" type="external">MAT.O</a>) and Lego, have objected in some form to the proceedings by the storied toy retailer to liquidate its U.S. business, putting 30,000 jobs at risk.</p>
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us had been trying to reorganize under U.S. Chapter 11 but last week said those efforts had failed and it was quickly running out of cash. It is also winding down its U.K business, but is looking for a buyer for operations in Canada, Europe and Asia.</p>
<p>Some trade vendors are demanding the company return any unpaid inventory rather than selling it and using going out of business sales to pay secured lenders and bankruptcy lawyers, at their cost, court papers showed.</p>
<p>“We’re making every effort to make sure (trade vendors) will be paid in full,” Lazard’s David Kurtz, who is advising Toys ‘R’ Us, testified at a hearing at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia.</p>
<p>The company is seeking approval for a March 26 deadline for bids for each of its foreign businesses, minus U.K., followed by an auction on March 29.</p>
<p>It is also seeking approval for a series of U.S. liquidation procedures including a halt to more than $450 million in supplier payments as part of a plan that experts told Reuters could cause many small toy makers to disappear.</p>
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us was the last remaining specialty toy retailer in the United States. Hundreds of companies relied on its big-box stores as a showcase for both innovative toys as well as classics.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MAT.O" type="external">Mattel Inc</a> 12.97 MAT.O Nasdaq -0.25 (-1.89%) MAT.O
<p>Under trade agreements, vendors were required to ship goods to Toys ‘R’ Us on unsecured trade credit.</p>
<p>In a court filing, Lego said any “wind-down must be implemented in a manner that is fair and equitable to all” of the company’s creditors.</p>
<p>The U.S. Trustee, a bankruptcy watchdog, has also objected, saying that while it is “resigned” to the company’s future, it is concerned about certain of the procedures and relief proposed as part of the liquidation.</p>
<p>Toys ‘R’ Us financial advisor Bill Kosturos of Alvarez &amp; Marsal was also testifying at the hearing before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips, which could run into Wednesday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | REFILE-US STOCKS-Wall St heads lower after Wilbur Ross comments on China Wall Street advances on energy bump; Facebook woes continues Oil rises to three-week high on Mideast tensions, Venezuela concerns Exclusive: Salesforce in advanced talks to buy MuleSoft - sources Toys 'R' Us says 'making every effort' to pay vendors | false | https://reuters.com/article/usa-stocks/refile-us-stocks-wall-st-heads-lower-after-wilbur-ross-comments-on-china-idUSL4N1PJ51V | 2018-01-24 | 2least
| 2,511 | Removes extraneous text in paragraph 8 Bank stocks follow Treasury yields higher GE slips after revealing regulatory probe Dollar slides on Mnuchin8217s remarks Indexes down Dow 001 pct SampampP 028 pct Nasdaq 076 pct By Sruthi Shankar Jan 24 Reuters US stocks fell on Wednesday after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross called China8217s 2025 technology strategy a 8220direct threat8221 and hinted at action against Beijing stirring fears of a titfortat trade war Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos Ross said US trade authorities were investigating whether there is a case for taking action over China8217s infringements of intellectual property That was enough to reverse an upbeat morning on New York markets which had been buoyed by the prospect of a weaker dollar boosting the competitiveness of US manufacturers The dollar fell about 09 percent against a basket of currencies after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin welcomed the currency8217s weakness 8220There is commentary coming from Davos about China8221 Michael Antonelli managing director institutional sales trading at Robert W Baird in Milwaukee 8220But I would lean towards the fact that the market has come so far so fast If we continue to hit lower today I think then we have come to a buying exhaustion point8221 Worries about a protectionist stance have added to the dollar8217s woes after US President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels on Monday Bank stocks were among the gainers tracking a rise in US Treasury yields following the dip in dollar JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs rose about 1 percent At 1244 pm ET 1744 GMT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 344 points or 001 percent at 2621425 and the SampampP 500 was down 79 points or 028 percent at 283123The Nasdaq Composite was down 5683 points or 076 percent at 740346 8220At the point we8217re right now it8217s not going to take much to see some shortterm reversals whether it8217s Wilbur Ross comments or whether it8217s people using excuse to take some profits8221 said Ryan Larson head of US equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago In corporate earnings General Electric fell 26 percent after the company revealed a regulatory investigation of a multibilliondollar insurance charge The company in its earnings report forecast further weakening of its troubled power business and reported a 10 billion loss and a 5percent fall in revenue Abbott Laboratories jumped 36 percent after quarterly profit and 2018 adjusted earnings forecast beat estimates United Continental tumbled 11 percent after the airline said it plans to increase capacity likely threatening its profit margin American Airlines fell 74 percent while Delta Air Lines dropped 59 percent Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1758 to 1085 On the Nasdaq 1984 issues fell and 915 advanced Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru Additional reporting by Herb Lash in New York Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US stocks advanced modestly on Tuesday as higher oil prices lifted the energy sector but another slump in Facebook Inc FBO shares curbed gains Oil prices rose more than 2 percent to touch a threeweek high driven by tensions in the Middle East and the possibility of further declines in Venezuelan crude output Those gains helped the SampampP energy index SPNY rise 084 percent making it easily the best performing of the 11 major SampampP 500 sectors Facebook Inc FBO shares ended down 26 percent well above earlier lows The social media company said on Tuesday it faced questions from the US Federal Trade Commission about how its users8217 personal data was mined by a political consultancy hired by President Donald Trump8217s campaign The stock has fallen about 9 percent over the past two sessions its biggest twoday decline since February 2016 a drop that has weighed heavily on equities US and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of how the consultancy Cambridge Analytica gained access to the data and why Facebook failed to inform its users raising broader industry questions about consumer privacy and whether tougher regulation is on the horizon 8220The negative part would be they are going to haul them in front of Congress now and we8217ll see do they create new laws are there new regulations that could stunt the growth of the company That is really what the fear is8221 said Joe Saluzzi comanager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham New Jersey Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York US March 19 2018 REUTERSLucas Jackson Facebook was not the only social media stock or fund taking a hit on Tuesday Shares of Snap Inc SNAPN fell 256 percent while Twitter Inc TWTRN shares tumbled 1038 percent The Global X Social Media ETF SOCLO lost 09 percent The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 11636 points or 047 percent to 2472727 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 402 points or 015 percent to 271694 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 2006 points or 027 percent to 736430 Oracle ORCLN dropped 94 percent after the business software maker reported lowerthanexpected quarterly revenue Facebook Inc 16815 FBO Nasdaq 441 256 FBO SNAPN TWTRN SOCLO DJI Financial stocks SPSY edged up 021 percent as investors awaited a nearcertain interest rate hike at the end of the Federal Reserve8217s twoday meeting on Wednesday Market participants largely expect a total of three rate hikes this year although some have not ruled out the possibility the US central bank will hike four times 8220We are finally normalizing after years we talked about the Fed holding it down and the market only going up because of the Fed Now let8217s see what the market can do 8211 can it stand on its own two legs8221 said Saluzzi referring to the low interest rate environment the Fed put into effect after the financial crisis Volume on US exchanges was 626 billion shares compared with the 717 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 128to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 126to1 ratio favored decliners Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak Editing by Jonathan Oatis Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Oil prices climbed to their highest level in three weeks on Tuesday as tension in the Middle East and the possibility of further falls in Venezuelan output helped offset the impact of growing US crude production FILE PHOTO A motorist holds a fuel pump at a Gulf petrol station in London April 18 2006 REUTERSLuke MacGregorFile Photo Brent crude LCOc1 futures for May delivery rose 137 to 6742 a barrel a 207 percent gain The global benchmark rose to 6788 during the session its highest level since late February US West Texas Intermediate WTI crude CLc1 futures for April delivery rose 134 to settle at 6340 a barrel a 22 percent gain WTI traded between 6208 and 6381 The more active May US crude futures CLc2 rose 141 to settle at 6354 a barrel GRAPHIC Russia vs Saudi vs US oil production reutrs2G7AK80 Prices extended gains in postsettlement trading after data from the American Petroleum Institute showed a surprise draw in US crude inventories Stocks fell 27 million barrels in the week ended March 16 to 4253 million barrels according to the API compared with analysts8217 expectations for an increase of 26 million barrels Government inventory data is due on Wednesday at 1030 am EDT 1430 GMT GRAPHIC World oil supply and demand balance reutrs2FIxGvP Geopolitical risks were top of mind on Tuesday Saudi Arabia called the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers a 8220flawed agreement8221 on Monday on the eve of a meeting between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Donald Trump Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the accord between Tehran and six world powers raising the prospect of new sanctions that could hurt Iran8217s oil industry 8220There8217s an expectation that Trump and Prince Mohammed are going to take a harder line on Iran and that8217s bringing prices up8221 said Phil Flynn a senior energy analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago Worries about falling production in Venezuela whose output has been halved since 2005 to below 2 million barrels per day bpd PRODNVE due to the country8217s economic crisis also supported oil markets The International Energy Agency said last week Venezuela was 8220vulnerable to an accelerated decline8221 and that the Latin American country could trigger a renewed drawdown in stocks However increased output in the United States Canada and Brazil has capped oil price gains US crude oil production COUTTEIA has risen more than a fifth since mid2016 to 1038 million bpd The rampedup production threatens to undermine cuts made by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in an effort to draw down a global supply glut GRAPHIC US vs Venezuela oil production since 2005 reutrs2FWXdBH Appetite for US crude is adding to the headache facing OPEC A widening discount of WTI to Brent crude makes it more attractive for foreign refiners to process US oil Brent is the benchmark for several Middle East and other global crudes The premium of Brent crude to WTI WTCLc1LCOc1 rose above 4 a barrel on Tuesday Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange RBc1 rose 21 percent on Tuesday to settle at 19659 a gallon the highest level since August 2017 Data from market intelligence firm Genscape showed gasoline inventories in the New York Harbor region fell by about 11 million barrels last week traders who saw the data said Heating oil futures HOc1 rose 22 percent to finish at 19495 a gallon their highest settle since late February Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore Editing by Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters Salesforcecom Inc CRMN is in advanced discussions to acquire US software maker MuleSoft Inc MULEN people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday as it looks to expand its offerings beyond customer relationship management software FILE PHOTO The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco California US October 12 2016 REUTERSLily JamaliFile Photo The acquisition which the sources said could be worth more than 6 billion would be Salesforce8217s biggest ever deal illustrating Chief Executive Marc Benioff8217s push to supplement the company8217s cloudbased portfolio with new technology A deal could be announced as soon as this week the sources said cautioning that negotiations had not been finalized and that an agreement was not certain The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential Salesforce and MuleSoft declined to comment MuleSoft shares jumped more than 20 percent to 3988 after Reuters reported the talks giving the company a market value of 53 billion Salesforce shares were up 03 percent at 12531 Based in San Francisco MuleSoft makes software that automatically integrates disparate data devices and applications to help companies8217 networks run faster It could help Salesforce win business from customers which are not yet ready to transition their systems to the cloud Buying MuleSoft would help Salesforce build a larger enterprise apps ecosystem around its own products Barclays Plc BARCL analysts wrote in a research note adding that MuleSoft could command a premium given its rapid growth and good fit Salesforce Ventures the company8217s venture capital arm led a 128 million funding round in MuleSoft in 2015 Salesforcecom Inc 12512 CRMN New York Stock Exchange 014 011 CRMN MULEN BARCL KON MCDN MuleSoft has more than 1000 customers including CocaCola Co KON McDonald8217s Corp MCDN Spotify and Unilever ULVRL It went public about a year ago Salesforce holds more than 18 percent of the global customer relationship management software market followed by Oracle Corp ORCLN with 94 percent according to 2016 figures provided by research firm IDC Alphabet Inc8217s GOOGLO Google acquired a competitor of MuleSoft called Apigee Corp in a 625 million deal in 2016 Salesforce has benefited from companies switching to cloudbased services due to the lower costs and high level of scalability Last month it posted a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street targets fueled by growth in its cloudbased sales and marketing software Reporting by Liana B Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco Editing by Bill Rigby and Meredith Mazzilli Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters Toys 8216R8217 Us said at a bankruptcy court hearing on Tuesday that it was working hard to maximize payments to suppliers and lenders as it starts to shutter 735 bigbox toy stores across the United States FILE PHOTO People pass by Toys R Us store at Times Square in New York US March 9 2018 REUTERSEduardo MunozFile Photo More than 50 suppliers including Barbie maker Mattel MATO and Lego have objected in some form to the proceedings by the storied toy retailer to liquidate its US business putting 30000 jobs at risk Toys 8216R8217 Us had been trying to reorganize under US Chapter 11 but last week said those efforts had failed and it was quickly running out of cash It is also winding down its UK business but is looking for a buyer for operations in Canada Europe and Asia Some trade vendors are demanding the company return any unpaid inventory rather than selling it and using going out of business sales to pay secured lenders and bankruptcy lawyers at their cost court papers showed 8220We8217re making every effort to make sure trade vendors will be paid in full8221 Lazard8217s David Kurtz who is advising Toys 8216R8217 Us testified at a hearing at US Bankruptcy Court in Richmond Virginia The company is seeking approval for a March 26 deadline for bids for each of its foreign businesses minus UK followed by an auction on March 29 It is also seeking approval for a series of US liquidation procedures including a halt to more than 450 million in supplier payments as part of a plan that experts told Reuters could cause many small toy makers to disappear Toys 8216R8217 Us was the last remaining specialty toy retailer in the United States Hundreds of companies relied on its bigbox stores as a showcase for both innovative toys as well as classics Mattel Inc 1297 MATO Nasdaq 025 189 MATO Under trade agreements vendors were required to ship goods to Toys 8216R8217 Us on unsecured trade credit In a court filing Lego said any 8220winddown must be implemented in a manner that is fair and equitable to all8221 of the company8217s creditors The US Trustee a bankruptcy watchdog has also objected saying that while it is 8220resigned8221 to the company8217s future it is concerned about certain of the procedures and relief proposed as part of the liquidation Toys 8216R8217 Us financial advisor Bill Kosturos of Alvarez ampamp Marsal was also testifying at the hearing before US Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips which could run into Wednesday Reporting by Tracy Rucinski Editing by David Gregorio Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Removes/NOUN extraneous/ADJ text/NOUN in/ADP paragraph/NOUN 8/NUM Bank/PROPN stocks/NOUN follow/VERB Treasury/PROPN yields/NOUN higher/ADJ GE/PROPN slips/VERB after/ADP revealing/VERB regulatory/ADJ probe/NOUN Dollar/NOUN slides/VERB on/ADP Mnuchin8217s/ADJ remarks/NOUN Indexes/PROPN down/ADP Dow/PROPN 001/NUM pct/NOUN SampampP/PROPN 028/NUM pct/NOUN Nasdaq/PROPN 076/NUM pct/NOUN By/ADP Sruthi/PROPN Shankar/PROPN Jan/PROPN 24/NUM Reuters/PROPN US/PROPN stocks/NOUN fell/VERB on/ADP Wednesday/PROPN after/SCONJ Commerce/PROPN Secretary/PROPN Wilbur/PROPN Ross/PROPN called/VERB China8217s/PROPN 2025/NUM technology/NOUN strategy/NOUN a/DET 8220direct/NOUN threat8221/PROPN and/CCONJ hinted/VERB at/ADP action/NOUN against/ADP 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and/CCONJ Meredith/PROPN Mazzilli/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Toys/PROPN 8216R8217/NOUN Us/PROPN said/VERB at/ADP a/DET bankruptcy/NOUN court/NOUN hearing/NOUN on/ADP Tuesday/PROPN that/SCONJ it/PRON was/AUX working/VERB hard/ADV to/PART maximize/VERB payments/NOUN to/ADP suppliers/NOUN and/CCONJ lenders/NOUN as/SCONJ it/PRON starts/VERB to/PART shutter/VERB 735/NUM bigbox/PROPN toy/NOUN stores/NOUN across/ADP the/DET United/PROPN States/PROPN FILE/PROPN PHOTO/PROPN People/PROPN pass/VERB by/ADP Toys/NOUN R/VERB Us/PROPN store/NOUN at/ADP Times/PROPN Square/PROPN in/ADP New/PROPN York/PROPN US/PROPN March/PROPN 9/NUM 2018/NUM REUTERSEduardo/PROPN MunozFile/PROPN Photo/PROPN More/ADJ than/ADP 50/NUM suppliers/NOUN including/VERB Barbie/PROPN maker/NOUN Mattel/PROPN MATO/PROPN and/CCONJ Lego/PROPN have/AUX objected/VERB in/ADP some/DET form/NOUN to/ADP the/DET proceedings/NOUN by/ADP the/DET storied/VERB 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bankruptcy/NOUN watchdog/NOUN has/AUX also/ADV objected/VERB saying/VERB that/SCONJ while/SCONJ it/PRON is/AUX 8220resigned8221/NUM to/ADP the/DET company8217s/PROPN future/NOUN it/PRON is/AUX concerned/ADJ about/ADP certain/ADJ of/ADP the/DET procedures/NOUN and/CCONJ relief/NOUN proposed/VERB as/ADP part/NOUN of/ADP the/DET liquidation/NOUN Toys/NOUN 8216R8217/NOUN Us/PROPN financial/ADJ advisor/NOUN Bill/PROPN Kosturos/PROPN of/ADP Alvarez/PROPN ampamp/PROPN Marsal/PROPN was/AUX also/ADV testifying/VERB at/ADP the/DET hearing/NOUN before/ADP US/PROPN Bankruptcy/PROPN Judge/PROPN Keith/PROPN Phillips/PROPN which/PRON could/AUX run/VERB into/ADP Wednesday/PROPN Reporting/NOUN by/ADP Tracy/PROPN Rucinski/PROPN Editing/PROPN by/ADP David/PROPN Gregorio/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSCO.L" type="external">TSCO.L</a>) said on Monday it will cut a net 800 jobs from its UK business in its latest move to simplify operations and achieve targeted cost savings.</p> FILE PHOTO: A company logo is pictured outside a Tesco supermarket in Altrincham northern England, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
<p>The supermarket group, the UK’s largest private sector employer with a staff of over 310,000, said the role of “people manager” and “compliance manager” will be removed from large UK stores and fulfillment centers, as will the role of “customer experience manager” from 226 stores.</p>
<p>These changes will affect 1,700 Tesco workers who will be offered alternative roles within the business where possible.</p>
<p>Tesco said it would, however, create 900 new roles - “people partners”, “learning partners” and “colleague relations partners” - who will work across multiple sites, in distribution, stores and fulfillment.</p>
<p>A new “colleague administration role” will also be created to support management teams in each large store and fulfillment center.</p>
<p>Tesco set out a plan in October 2016 to reduce operating costs by 1.5 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) over three years through efficiencies in its distribution network and stores and from procurement savings.</p>
<p>It needs the savings to help achieve its target of a group operating margin of 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent by the 2019-20 financial year, up from 2.3 percent in 2016-17.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSCO.L" type="external">Tesco PLC</a> 205.9 TSCO.L London Stock Exchange +0.30 (+0.15%) TSCO.L
<p>“We recognize these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future,” said Matt Davies, Tesco’s UK and Ireland CEO.</p>
<p>Last June, Tesco cut 1,200 jobs at its head office and 1,100 jobs in Cardiff, with the closure of a customer service center. In February it cut 1,700 deputy managers at “Express” convenience stores and in January last year cut a net 500 jobs from its distribution network.</p>
<p>Shares in Tesco, which disappointed with a Christmas trading update earlier this month, were down 0.3 percent at 207.2 pence at 1511 GMT.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.7184 pounds)</p>
<p>Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Adrian Croft</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. retailer Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) is in early-stage talks with health insurer Humana Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HUM.N" type="external">HUM.N</a>) about developing closer ties, with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.</p> Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. REUTERS/John Gress/Files
<p>Should the talks lead to a tieup, it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months, following CVS Health Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CVS.N" type="external">CVS.N</a>) $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AET.N" type="external">AET.N</a>) and Cigna Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CI.N" type="external">CI.N</a>) $54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ESRX.O" type="external">ESRX.O</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary, two of the sources said. While the conversations have focused on new partnerships, an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed, the sources added.</p>
<p>The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Humana and Walmart declined to comment.</p>
<p>Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of $264 billion and $37 billion, respectively.</p>
<p>An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) in online shopping.</p>
<p>Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector. Earlier this year, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BRKa.N" type="external">BRKa.N</a>) and JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>), said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their U.S. employees.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">Walmart Inc</a> 88.97 WMT.N New York Stock Exchange +1.20 (+1.37%) WMT.N HUM.N CVS.N AET.N CI.N
<p>“The risks (for Walmart) of becoming entangled in the complex U.S. healthcare industry are considerable, especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market,” Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail, wrote in a note.</p>
<p>“The hammering out of any agreement, which would be Walmart’s largest ever corporate deal, would, of itself, be an enormous distraction,” Saunders added.</p>
<p>Walmart currently has a co-branded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores. The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers.</p>
<p>Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana’s patient population, expanding low-level medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits. They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records.</p>
<p>Humana’s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people, a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition.</p>
<p>Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans - where individuals sign up directly with Humana - rose about 1 percent to 2.86 million, as of Dec. 31. Employer or other group-based Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441,400.</p>
<p>Last month, Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations.</p>
<p>Reporting by Carl O'Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street surged on Thursday, bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous, holiday-shortened week as technology stocks rebounded, but the S&amp;P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years.</p>
<p>The year started strong, but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters, fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China, and a selloff in the tech sector.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: S&amp;P Quarterly performance during bull market - <a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external">reut.rs/2pUJYLR</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external" />
<p>Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the S&amp;P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT closed up 2.2 percent after reaching a session high of 3.2 percent, helping push the S&amp;P 500 up 1.4 percent, with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying.</p>
<p>“All the fears now look overblown. Interest rates, the concern about tariffs, we’re going to get into a trade war,” said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York. “But now clearer heads are prevailing. If anything this is a buying opportunity.”</p>
<p>Technology gains were led by Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) shares.</p>
<p>“Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market. And we’re in a bull market,” said Cote.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 254.69 points, or 1.07 percent, to close at 24,103.11, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 35.87 points, or 1.38 percent, to 2,640.87 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 114.22 points, or 1.64 percent, to 7,063.45.</p>
<p>Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45-year low.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>In other data, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year. The index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, has been below the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target since mid-2012.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) closed up 1.1 percent, recovering from a 4.6 percent drop after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday, claiming without evidence that the company pays “little to no taxes to state &amp; local governments.”</p>
<p>Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world’s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances, averting a trade war.</p>
<p>But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a four-month low in March and reduce holdings of U.S. stocks to the lowest in nearly two years, according to a Reuters poll.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.79 FB.O Nasdaq +6.76 (+4.42%) FB.O INTC.O GOOGL.O MSFT.O .DJI
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.66-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.23-to-1 ratio favored advancers.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.49 billion shares, compared to the 7.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York; Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares rose on Thursday ahead of the expected release next week of the company’s quarterly auto production data, while a senior executive urged workers at the automaker to hit a weekly production target of 2,500 Model 3 sedans by the end of March.</p> A Tesla Model 3 sedan, its first car aimed at the mass market, is displayed during its launch in Hawthorne, California, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Joe White/File Photo
<p>Quickly ramping up Model 3 production is crucial for the Silicon Valley electric vehicle maker. The company’s profitability depends on delivering the new sedans to customers on a waiting list that Tesla has said now numbers about 500,000 advance reservation holders.</p>
<p>Tesla shares recovered to $266.13, up 3 percent, Thursday after a sell-off prompted by a Moody’s debt downgrade and news that safety regulators are investigating a Model X-involved fatality.</p>
<p>In an email to employees viewed by Reuters, Tesla Senior Vice President of Engineering Doug Fields wrote that production of Tesla vehicles is “well into the 200’s on every single line.”</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-recall/tesla-voluntarily-recalls-early-model-s-vehicles-over-power-steering-bolts-idUSKBN1H5381" type="external">Tesla voluntarily recalls early Model S vehicles over power steering bolts</a>
<p>Field gave reasons why Tesla needs to get to 2,500 vehicles a week, including: “There are an incredible number of people who ‘short’ Tesla stock, which means they profit when we fail. And lately the story is the same: ‘Tesla can’t do high-volume production’. I find that personally insulting, and you should too. Let’s make them regret ever betting against us.”</p>
<p>Tesla must “quickly break through the 300 cars/day barrier, and keep going,” the email continued.</p>
<p>Tesla did not immediately comment on the email, which was previously reported by Bloomberg News.</p>
<p>Doubts that Tesla could meet its production targets and concerns about cash reserves were behind Moody’s downgrade of Tesla last week. The ratings agency cited the likelihood of a new capital raise, which it estimated at over $2 billion, in part to cover approximately $1.2 billion in convertible bonds coming due by March 2019.</p>
<p>The downgrade, together with a fatality involving a Model X that is currently being investigated by safety regulators, sent shares down 12 percent for the week, even after Thursday’s rebound. That made it Tesla’s worst week in nine months.</p>
<p>Tesla shares are still above the $255.73 level, the price when Tesla last announced a capital raise in March last year to raise $1.15 billion.</p>
<p>Moody’s and other analysts have predicted Tesla will soon have to sell more shares to replenish cash reserves and pay for expansion of Model 3 production and new vehicles such as the Tesla Semi electric commercial truck and a compact sport utility vehicle.</p>
<p>As of Dec. 31, Tesla had $3.4 billion in cash and securities. Moody’s estimated approximately $500 million in cash was needed for normal operations and forecast cash burn this year of about $2 billion.</p>
<p>Beyond the $2 billion that Moody’s predicted Tesla would seek in the near-term, it said the company would likely need to raise additional capital during the second half of 2019.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to build 10,000 Model 3s per week by some point in 2018 after meeting a 5,000-per week target by the end of the second quarter. Tesla built only 2,425 Model 3s in its fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Barclays analyst Brian Johnson warned in a note to investors on Thursday that Tesla could engage in a Model 3 “burst rate” of production that could send shares up, but would not be sustainable.</p>
<p>Writing by Alexandria Sage and Joe White; Edting by Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co is poised to shine light into a sizable part of its financial black box, an area that governs how it estimates revenue from long-term contracts.</p> The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
<p>The 126-year-old, Boston-based industrial conglomerate is due to publish figures soon that analysts say should help explain why it receives less cash from earnings than the industry average. The company has indicated it may release the figures by the end of this month.</p>
<p>The increased disclosure stems from new accounting standards that require companies to reveal more about how they estimate revenue from such long-term contracts, known as contract assets.</p>
<p>Companies typically use the cost of providing services as a basis for revenue estimates, but the process can lead to over- or under-estimating the value of the contracts, experts say.</p>
<p>GE’s contract asset tally has soared 70 percent to $28.8 billion in 2017, from $16.9 billion in 2014, most of it in its power and aviation units. The majority of the total reflects revenue GE has already booked but for which it has not billed customers, which creates the gap between profit and cash flow, according to GE’s regulatory filings.</p>
<p>GE’s accounting is under scrutiny after earnings swung to a loss last year and GE said its 2018 results would be at the low end of its forecasted range. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also is looking into GE’s accounting for contract assets, raising investor concern. GE has said it is not overly concerned about the investigation.</p>
<p>GE said in February that it expects to take a $4.2 billion accounting charge as it switches to the new standard. Some analysts think the charge could be higher, since competitors of GE’s power business say the company is signing long-term service contracts at low prices to win equipment sales.</p> The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Baden, Switzerland November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
<p>“That’s what the competitors have been grousing,” Deane Dray, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>If the charge is close to what GE disclosed, it could bolster GE Chief Executive John Flannery’s credibility, which has been dented by falling profit and a charge for old insurance policies revealed in January.</p>
<p>GE also is restating financial results for 2016 and 2017 so that 2018 results will be comparable. The company’s financial situation has prompted talk that it might raise capital. Its shares rose on Tuesday after reports that billionaire investor Warren Buffett may buy a stake after selling last year.</p>
<p>GE declined to comment on the Buffett reports. It said it chose to restate prior earnings - a more exacting standard under the new rules - because it will allow investors to compare 2018 results with the prior years on the same basis. “We chose that approach because we believe that it is the most helpful to our investors,” GE spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Matthew Lewis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Tesco UK to cut net 800 jobs in cost-cutting drive Walmart talking with Humana on closer ties; acquisition possible: sources U.S. stocks jump in upbeat end to tumultuous quarter Tesla shares recover as company pushes to hit Model 3 target GE charge, restatement may help explain cash issues | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-tesco-redundancies/tesco-uk-to-cut-net-800-jobs-in-cost-cutting-drive-idUSKBN1FB23Q | 2018-01-22 | 2least
| 2,512 | LONDON Reuters Britain8217s biggest retailer Tesco TSCOL said on Monday it will cut a net 800 jobs from its UK business in its latest move to simplify operations and achieve targeted cost savings FILE PHOTO A company logo is pictured outside a Tesco supermarket in Altrincham northern England April 16 2016 REUTERSPhil NobleFile Photo The supermarket group the UK8217s largest private sector employer with a staff of over 310000 said the role of 8220people manager8221 and 8220compliance manager8221 will be removed from large UK stores and fulfillment centers as will the role of 8220customer experience manager8221 from 226 stores These changes will affect 1700 Tesco workers who will be offered alternative roles within the business where possible Tesco said it would however create 900 new roles 8220people partners8221 8220learning partners8221 and 8220colleague relations partners8221 who will work across multiple sites in distribution stores and fulfillment A new 8220colleague administration role8221 will also be created to support management teams in each large store and fulfillment center Tesco set out a plan in October 2016 to reduce operating costs by 15 billion pounds 21 billion over three years through efficiencies in its distribution network and stores and from procurement savings It needs the savings to help achieve its target of a group operating margin of 35 percent to 40 percent by the 201920 financial year up from 23 percent in 201617 Tesco PLC 2059 TSCOL London Stock Exchange 030 015 TSCOL 8220We recognize these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future8221 said Matt Davies Tesco8217s UK and Ireland CEO Last June Tesco cut 1200 jobs at its head office and 1100 jobs in Cardiff with the closure of a customer service center In February it cut 1700 deputy managers at 8220Express8221 convenience stores and in January last year cut a net 500 jobs from its distribution network Shares in Tesco which disappointed with a Christmas trading update earlier this month were down 03 percent at 2072 pence at 1511 GMT 1 07184 pounds Reporting by James Davey Editing by Adrian Croft Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US retailer Walmart Inc WMTN is in earlystage talks with health insurer Humana Inc HUMN about developing closer ties with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility people familiar with the matter said on Thursday Shopping carts are seen outside a new WalMart Express store in Chicago July 26 2011 REUTERSJohn GressFiles Should the talks lead to a tieup it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months following CVS Health Corp8217s CVSN 69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc AETN and Cigna Corp8217s CIN 54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ESRXO Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary two of the sources said While the conversations have focused on new partnerships an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed the sources added The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential Humana and Walmart declined to comment Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of 264 billion and 37 billion respectively An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart which is the world8217s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazoncom Inc AMZNO in online shopping Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector Earlier this year Amazon Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKaN and JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their US employees Walmart Inc 8897 WMTN New York Stock Exchange 120 137 WMTN HUMN CVSN AETN CIN 8220The risks for Walmart of becoming entangled in the complex US healthcare industry are considerable especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market8221 Neil Saunders managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail wrote in a note 8220The hammering out of any agreement which would be Walmart8217s largest ever corporate deal would of itself be an enormous distraction8221 Saunders added Walmart currently has a cobranded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana8217s patient population expanding lowlevel medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records Humana8217s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans where individuals sign up directly with Humana rose about 1 percent to 286 million as of Dec 31 Employer or other groupbased Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441400 Last month Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations Reporting by Carl ODonnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street surged on Thursday bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous holidayshortened week as technology stocks rebounded but the SampampP 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years The year started strong but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China and a selloff in the tech sector GRAPHIC SampampP Quarterly performance during bull market reutrs2pUJYLR Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the SampampP 500 information technology index SPLRCT closed up 22 percent after reaching a session high of 32 percent helping push the SampampP 500 up 14 percent with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying 8220All the fears now look overblown Interest rates the concern about tariffs we8217re going to get into a trade war8221 said Doug Cote chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York 8220But now clearer heads are prevailing If anything this is a buying opportunity8221 Technology gains were led by Facebook FBO Intel INTCO Alphabet GOOGLO and Microsoft MSFTO shares 8220Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market And we8217re in a bull market8221 said Cote The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 25469 points or 107 percent to close at 2410311 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 3587 points or 138 percent to 264087 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 11422 points or 164 percent to 706345 Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45year low Slideshow 4 Images In other data core personal consumption expenditures PCE rose by 16 percent yearonyear The index the Federal Reserve8217s preferred measure of inflation has been below the US central bank8217s 2 percent target since mid2012 Amazoncom AMZNO closed up 11 percent recovering from a 46 percent drop after US President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday claiming without evidence that the company pays 8220little to no taxes to state ampamp local governments8221 Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world8217s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances averting a trade war But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a fourmonth low in March and reduce holdings of US stocks to the lowest in nearly two years according to a Reuters poll Facebook Inc 15979 FBO Nasdaq 676 442 FBO INTCO GOOGLO MSFTO DJI Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 366to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 223to1 ratio favored advancers Volume on US exchanges was 749 billion shares compared to the 729 billion average over the last 20 trading days Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak Editing by James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Tesla Inc shares rose on Thursday ahead of the expected release next week of the company8217s quarterly auto production data while a senior executive urged workers at the automaker to hit a weekly production target of 2500 Model 3 sedans by the end of March A Tesla Model 3 sedan its first car aimed at the mass market is displayed during its launch in Hawthorne California March 31 2016 REUTERSJoe WhiteFile Photo Quickly ramping up Model 3 production is crucial for the Silicon Valley electric vehicle maker The company8217s profitability depends on delivering the new sedans to customers on a waiting list that Tesla has said now numbers about 500000 advance reservation holders Tesla shares recovered to 26613 up 3 percent Thursday after a selloff prompted by a Moody8217s debt downgrade and news that safety regulators are investigating a Model Xinvolved fatality In an email to employees viewed by Reuters Tesla Senior Vice President of Engineering Doug Fields wrote that production of Tesla vehicles is 8220well into the 2008217s on every single line8221 Related Coverage Tesla voluntarily recalls early Model S vehicles over power steering bolts Field gave reasons why Tesla needs to get to 2500 vehicles a week including 8220There are an incredible number of people who 8216short8217 Tesla stock which means they profit when we fail And lately the story is the same 8216Tesla can8217t do highvolume production8217 I find that personally insulting and you should too Let8217s make them regret ever betting against us8221 Tesla must 8220quickly break through the 300 carsday barrier and keep going8221 the email continued Tesla did not immediately comment on the email which was previously reported by Bloomberg News Doubts that Tesla could meet its production targets and concerns about cash reserves were behind Moody8217s downgrade of Tesla last week The ratings agency cited the likelihood of a new capital raise which it estimated at over 2 billion in part to cover approximately 12 billion in convertible bonds coming due by March 2019 The downgrade together with a fatality involving a Model X that is currently being investigated by safety regulators sent shares down 12 percent for the week even after Thursday8217s rebound That made it Tesla8217s worst week in nine months Tesla shares are still above the 25573 level the price when Tesla last announced a capital raise in March last year to raise 115 billion Moody8217s and other analysts have predicted Tesla will soon have to sell more shares to replenish cash reserves and pay for expansion of Model 3 production and new vehicles such as the Tesla Semi electric commercial truck and a compact sport utility vehicle As of Dec 31 Tesla had 34 billion in cash and securities Moody8217s estimated approximately 500 million in cash was needed for normal operations and forecast cash burn this year of about 2 billion Beyond the 2 billion that Moody8217s predicted Tesla would seek in the nearterm it said the company would likely need to raise additional capital during the second half of 2019 Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to build 10000 Model 3s per week by some point in 2018 after meeting a 5000per week target by the end of the second quarter Tesla built only 2425 Model 3s in its fourth quarter Barclays analyst Brian Johnson warned in a note to investors on Thursday that Tesla could engage in a Model 3 8220burst rate8221 of production that could send shares up but would not be sustainable Writing by Alexandria Sage and Joe White Edting by Tom Brown Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters General Electric Co is poised to shine light into a sizable part of its financial black box an area that governs how it estimates revenue from longterm contracts The logo of General Electric Co is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia neighbouring Monterrey Mexico May 12 2017 REUTERSDaniel Becerril The 126yearold Bostonbased industrial conglomerate is due to publish figures soon that analysts say should help explain why it receives less cash from earnings than the industry average The company has indicated it may release the figures by the end of this month The increased disclosure stems from new accounting standards that require companies to reveal more about how they estimate revenue from such longterm contracts known as contract assets Companies typically use the cost of providing services as a basis for revenue estimates but the process can lead to over or underestimating the value of the contracts experts say GE8217s contract asset tally has soared 70 percent to 288 billion in 2017 from 169 billion in 2014 most of it in its power and aviation units The majority of the total reflects revenue GE has already booked but for which it has not billed customers which creates the gap between profit and cash flow according to GE8217s regulatory filings GE8217s accounting is under scrutiny after earnings swung to a loss last year and GE said its 2018 results would be at the low end of its forecasted range The US Securities and Exchange Commission also is looking into GE8217s accounting for contract assets raising investor concern GE has said it is not overly concerned about the investigation GE said in February that it expects to take a 42 billion accounting charge as it switches to the new standard Some analysts think the charge could be higher since competitors of GE8217s power business say the company is signing longterm service contracts at low prices to win equipment sales The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Baden Switzerland November 15 2017 REUTERSArnd Wiegmann 8220That8217s what the competitors have been grousing8221 Deane Dray analyst at RBC Capital Markets said on Wednesday If the charge is close to what GE disclosed it could bolster GE Chief Executive John Flannery8217s credibility which has been dented by falling profit and a charge for old insurance policies revealed in January GE also is restating financial results for 2016 and 2017 so that 2018 results will be comparable The company8217s financial situation has prompted talk that it might raise capital Its shares rose on Tuesday after reports that billionaire investor Warren Buffett may buy a stake after selling last year GE declined to comment on the Buffett reports It said it chose to restate prior earnings a more exacting standard under the new rules because it will allow investors to compare 2018 results with the prior years on the same basis 8220We chose that approach because we believe that it is the most helpful to our investors8221 GE spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said Reporting by Alwyn Scott Editing by Matthew Lewis Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | LONDON/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Britain8217s/ADJ biggest/ADJ retailer/NOUN Tesco/PROPN TSCOL/PROPN said/VERB on/ADP Monday/PROPN it/PRON will/AUX cut/VERB a/DET net/ADJ 800/NUM jobs/NOUN from/ADP its/PRON UK/PROPN business/NOUN in/ADP its/PRON latest/ADJ move/NOUN to/PART simplify/VERB operations/NOUN and/CCONJ achieve/VERB targeted/VERB cost/NOUN savings/NOUN FILE/NOUN PHOTO/PROPN A/DET company/NOUN logo/NOUN is/AUX pictured/VERB outside/ADP a/DET Tesco/PROPN supermarket/NOUN in/ADP Altrincham/PROPN 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<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSCO.L" type="external">TSCO.L</a>) said on Monday it will cut a net 800 jobs from its UK business in its latest move to simplify operations and achieve targeted cost savings.</p> FILE PHOTO: A company logo is pictured outside a Tesco supermarket in Altrincham northern England, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
<p>The supermarket group, the UK’s largest private sector employer with a staff of over 310,000, said the role of “people manager” and “compliance manager” will be removed from large UK stores and fulfillment centers, as will the role of “customer experience manager” from 226 stores.</p>
<p>These changes will affect 1,700 Tesco workers who will be offered alternative roles within the business where possible.</p>
<p>Tesco said it would, however, create 900 new roles - “people partners”, “learning partners” and “colleague relations partners” - who will work across multiple sites, in distribution, stores and fulfillment.</p>
<p>A new “colleague administration role” will also be created to support management teams in each large store and fulfillment center.</p>
<p>Tesco set out a plan in October 2016 to reduce operating costs by 1.5 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) over three years through efficiencies in its distribution network and stores and from procurement savings.</p>
<p>It needs the savings to help achieve its target of a group operating margin of 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent by the 2019-20 financial year, up from 2.3 percent in 2016-17.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSCO.L" type="external">Tesco PLC</a> 205.9 TSCO.L London Stock Exchange +0.30 (+0.15%) TSCO.L
<p>“We recognize these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future,” said Matt Davies, Tesco’s UK and Ireland CEO.</p>
<p>Last June, Tesco cut 1,200 jobs at its head office and 1,100 jobs in Cardiff, with the closure of a customer service center. In February it cut 1,700 deputy managers at “Express” convenience stores and in January last year cut a net 500 jobs from its distribution network.</p>
<p>Shares in Tesco, which disappointed with a Christmas trading update earlier this month, were down 0.3 percent at 207.2 pence at 1511 GMT.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.7184 pounds)</p>
<p>Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Adrian Croft</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. retailer Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) is in early-stage talks with health insurer Humana Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HUM.N" type="external">HUM.N</a>) about developing closer ties, with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.</p> Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. REUTERS/John Gress/Files
<p>Should the talks lead to a tieup, it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months, following CVS Health Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CVS.N" type="external">CVS.N</a>) $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AET.N" type="external">AET.N</a>) and Cigna Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CI.N" type="external">CI.N</a>) $54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ESRX.O" type="external">ESRX.O</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary, two of the sources said. While the conversations have focused on new partnerships, an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed, the sources added.</p>
<p>The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Humana and Walmart declined to comment.</p>
<p>Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of $264 billion and $37 billion, respectively.</p>
<p>An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) in online shopping.</p>
<p>Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector. Earlier this year, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BRKa.N" type="external">BRKa.N</a>) and JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>), said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their U.S. employees.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">Walmart Inc</a> 88.97 WMT.N New York Stock Exchange +1.20 (+1.37%) WMT.N HUM.N CVS.N AET.N CI.N
<p>“The risks (for Walmart) of becoming entangled in the complex U.S. healthcare industry are considerable, especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market,” Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail, wrote in a note.</p>
<p>“The hammering out of any agreement, which would be Walmart’s largest ever corporate deal, would, of itself, be an enormous distraction,” Saunders added.</p>
<p>Walmart currently has a co-branded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores. The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers.</p>
<p>Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana’s patient population, expanding low-level medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits. They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records.</p>
<p>Humana’s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people, a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition.</p>
<p>Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans - where individuals sign up directly with Humana - rose about 1 percent to 2.86 million, as of Dec. 31. Employer or other group-based Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441,400.</p>
<p>Last month, Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations.</p>
<p>Reporting by Carl O'Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares rose on Thursday ahead of the expected release next week of the company’s quarterly auto production data, while a senior executive urged workers at the automaker to hit a weekly production target of 2,500 Model 3 sedans by the end of March.</p> A Tesla Model 3 sedan, its first car aimed at the mass market, is displayed during its launch in Hawthorne, California, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Joe White/File Photo
<p>Quickly ramping up Model 3 production is crucial for the Silicon Valley electric vehicle maker. The company’s profitability depends on delivering the new sedans to customers on a waiting list that Tesla has said now numbers about 500,000 advance reservation holders.</p>
<p>Tesla shares recovered to $266.13, up 3 percent, Thursday after a sell-off prompted by a Moody’s debt downgrade and news that safety regulators are investigating a Model X-involved fatality.</p>
<p>In an email to employees viewed by Reuters, Tesla Senior Vice President of Engineering Doug Fields wrote that production of Tesla vehicles is “well into the 200’s on every single line.”</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-recall/tesla-voluntarily-recalls-early-model-s-vehicles-over-power-steering-bolts-idUSKBN1H5381" type="external">Tesla voluntarily recalls early Model S vehicles over power steering bolts</a>
<p>Field gave reasons why Tesla needs to get to 2,500 vehicles a week, including: “There are an incredible number of people who ‘short’ Tesla stock, which means they profit when we fail. And lately the story is the same: ‘Tesla can’t do high-volume production’. I find that personally insulting, and you should too. Let’s make them regret ever betting against us.”</p>
<p>Tesla must “quickly break through the 300 cars/day barrier, and keep going,” the email continued.</p>
<p>Tesla did not immediately comment on the email, which was previously reported by Bloomberg News.</p>
<p>Doubts that Tesla could meet its production targets and concerns about cash reserves were behind Moody’s downgrade of Tesla last week. The ratings agency cited the likelihood of a new capital raise, which it estimated at over $2 billion, in part to cover approximately $1.2 billion in convertible bonds coming due by March 2019.</p>
<p>The downgrade, together with a fatality involving a Model X that is currently being investigated by safety regulators, sent shares down 12 percent for the week, even after Thursday’s rebound. That made it Tesla’s worst week in nine months.</p>
<p>Tesla shares are still above the $255.73 level, the price when Tesla last announced a capital raise in March last year to raise $1.15 billion.</p>
<p>Moody’s and other analysts have predicted Tesla will soon have to sell more shares to replenish cash reserves and pay for expansion of Model 3 production and new vehicles such as the Tesla Semi electric commercial truck and a compact sport utility vehicle.</p>
<p>As of Dec. 31, Tesla had $3.4 billion in cash and securities. Moody’s estimated approximately $500 million in cash was needed for normal operations and forecast cash burn this year of about $2 billion.</p>
<p>Beyond the $2 billion that Moody’s predicted Tesla would seek in the near-term, it said the company would likely need to raise additional capital during the second half of 2019.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to build 10,000 Model 3s per week by some point in 2018 after meeting a 5,000-per week target by the end of the second quarter. Tesla built only 2,425 Model 3s in its fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Barclays analyst Brian Johnson warned in a note to investors on Thursday that Tesla could engage in a Model 3 “burst rate” of production that could send shares up, but would not be sustainable.</p>
<p>Writing by Alexandria Sage and Joe White; Edting by Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co is poised to shine light into a sizable part of its financial black box, an area that governs how it estimates revenue from long-term contracts.</p> The logo of General Electric Co. is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
<p>The 126-year-old, Boston-based industrial conglomerate is due to publish figures soon that analysts say should help explain why it receives less cash from earnings than the industry average. The company has indicated it may release the figures by the end of this month.</p>
<p>The increased disclosure stems from new accounting standards that require companies to reveal more about how they estimate revenue from such long-term contracts, known as contract assets.</p>
<p>Companies typically use the cost of providing services as a basis for revenue estimates, but the process can lead to over- or under-estimating the value of the contracts, experts say.</p>
<p>GE’s contract asset tally has soared 70 percent to $28.8 billion in 2017, from $16.9 billion in 2014, most of it in its power and aviation units. The majority of the total reflects revenue GE has already booked but for which it has not billed customers, which creates the gap between profit and cash flow, according to GE’s regulatory filings.</p>
<p>GE’s accounting is under scrutiny after earnings swung to a loss last year and GE said its 2018 results would be at the low end of its forecasted range. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also is looking into GE’s accounting for contract assets, raising investor concern. GE has said it is not overly concerned about the investigation.</p>
<p>GE said in February that it expects to take a $4.2 billion accounting charge as it switches to the new standard. Some analysts think the charge could be higher, since competitors of GE’s power business say the company is signing long-term service contracts at low prices to win equipment sales.</p> The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Baden, Switzerland November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
<p>“That’s what the competitors have been grousing,” Deane Dray, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>If the charge is close to what GE disclosed, it could bolster GE Chief Executive John Flannery’s credibility, which has been dented by falling profit and a charge for old insurance policies revealed in January.</p>
<p>GE also is restating financial results for 2016 and 2017 so that 2018 results will be comparable. The company’s financial situation has prompted talk that it might raise capital. Its shares rose on Tuesday after reports that billionaire investor Warren Buffett may buy a stake after selling last year.</p>
<p>GE declined to comment on the Buffett reports. It said it chose to restate prior earnings - a more exacting standard under the new rules - because it will allow investors to compare 2018 results with the prior years on the same basis. “We chose that approach because we believe that it is the most helpful to our investors,” GE spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Matthew Lewis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street surged on Thursday, bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous, holiday-shortened week as technology stocks rebounded, but the S&amp;P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years.</p>
<p>The year started strong, but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters, fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China, and a selloff in the tech sector.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: S&amp;P Quarterly performance during bull market - <a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external">reut.rs/2pUJYLR</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external" />
<p>Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the S&amp;P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT closed up 2.2 percent after reaching a session high of 3.2 percent, helping push the S&amp;P 500 up 1.4 percent, with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying.</p>
<p>“All the fears now look overblown. Interest rates, the concern about tariffs, we’re going to get into a trade war,” said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York. “But now clearer heads are prevailing. If anything this is a buying opportunity.”</p>
<p>Technology gains were led by Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) shares.</p>
<p>“Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market. And we’re in a bull market,” said Cote.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 254.69 points, or 1.07 percent, to close at 24,103.11, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 35.87 points, or 1.38 percent, to 2,640.87 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 114.22 points, or 1.64 percent, to 7,063.45.</p>
<p>Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45-year low.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>In other data, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year. The index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, has been below the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target since mid-2012.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) closed up 1.1 percent, recovering from a 4.6 percent drop after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday, claiming without evidence that the company pays “little to no taxes to state &amp; local governments.”</p>
<p>Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world’s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances, averting a trade war.</p>
<p>But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a four-month low in March and reduce holdings of U.S. stocks to the lowest in nearly two years, according to a Reuters poll.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.79 FB.O Nasdaq +6.76 (+4.42%) FB.O INTC.O GOOGL.O MSFT.O .DJI
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.66-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.23-to-1 ratio favored advancers.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.49 billion shares, compared to the 7.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York; Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Tesco UK to cut net 800 jobs in cost-cutting drive Walmart talking with Humana on closer ties; acquisition possible: sources Tesla shares recover as company pushes to hit Model 3 target GE charge, restatement may help explain cash issues U.S. stocks jump in upbeat end to tumultuous quarter | false | https://reuters.com/article/tesco-redundancies/tesco-uk-to-cut-net-800-jobs-in-cost-cutting-drive-idUSL8N1PH57T | 2018-01-22 | 2least
| 2,512 | LONDON Reuters Britain8217s biggest retailer Tesco TSCOL said on Monday it will cut a net 800 jobs from its UK business in its latest move to simplify operations and achieve targeted cost savings FILE PHOTO A company logo is pictured outside a Tesco supermarket in Altrincham northern England April 16 2016 REUTERSPhil NobleFile Photo The supermarket group the UK8217s largest private sector employer with a staff of over 310000 said the role of 8220people manager8221 and 8220compliance manager8221 will be removed from large UK stores and fulfillment centers as will the role of 8220customer experience manager8221 from 226 stores These changes will affect 1700 Tesco workers who will be offered alternative roles within the business where possible Tesco said it would however create 900 new roles 8220people partners8221 8220learning partners8221 and 8220colleague relations partners8221 who will work across multiple sites in distribution stores and fulfillment A new 8220colleague administration role8221 will also be created to support management teams in each large store and fulfillment center Tesco set out a plan in October 2016 to reduce operating costs by 15 billion pounds 21 billion over three years through efficiencies in its distribution network and stores and from procurement savings It needs the savings to help achieve its target of a group operating margin of 35 percent to 40 percent by the 201920 financial year up from 23 percent in 201617 Tesco PLC 2059 TSCOL London Stock Exchange 030 015 TSCOL 8220We recognize these are difficult changes to make but they are necessary to ensure our business remains competitive and set up for the future8221 said Matt Davies Tesco8217s UK and Ireland CEO Last June Tesco cut 1200 jobs at its head office and 1100 jobs in Cardiff with the closure of a customer service center In February it cut 1700 deputy managers at 8220Express8221 convenience stores and in January last year cut a net 500 jobs from its distribution network Shares in Tesco which disappointed with a Christmas trading update earlier this month were down 03 percent at 2072 pence at 1511 GMT 1 07184 pounds Reporting by James Davey Editing by Adrian Croft Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US retailer Walmart Inc WMTN is in earlystage talks with health insurer Humana Inc HUMN about developing closer ties with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility people familiar with the matter said on Thursday Shopping carts are seen outside a new WalMart Express store in Chicago July 26 2011 REUTERSJohn GressFiles Should the talks lead to a tieup it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months following CVS Health Corp8217s CVSN 69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc AETN and Cigna Corp8217s CIN 54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ESRXO Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary two of the sources said While the conversations have focused on new partnerships an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed the sources added The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential Humana and Walmart declined to comment Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of 264 billion and 37 billion respectively An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart which is the world8217s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazoncom Inc AMZNO in online shopping Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector Earlier this year Amazon Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKaN and JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their US employees Walmart Inc 8897 WMTN New York Stock Exchange 120 137 WMTN HUMN CVSN AETN CIN 8220The risks for Walmart of becoming entangled in the complex US healthcare industry are considerable especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market8221 Neil Saunders managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail wrote in a note 8220The hammering out of any agreement which would be Walmart8217s largest ever corporate deal would of itself be an enormous distraction8221 Saunders added Walmart currently has a cobranded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana8217s patient population expanding lowlevel medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records Humana8217s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans where individuals sign up directly with Humana rose about 1 percent to 286 million as of Dec 31 Employer or other groupbased Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441400 Last month Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations Reporting by Carl ODonnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Tesla Inc shares rose on Thursday ahead of the expected release next week of the company8217s quarterly auto production data while a senior executive urged workers at the automaker to hit a weekly production target of 2500 Model 3 sedans by the end of March A Tesla Model 3 sedan its first car aimed at the mass market is displayed during its launch in Hawthorne California March 31 2016 REUTERSJoe WhiteFile Photo Quickly ramping up Model 3 production is crucial for the Silicon Valley electric vehicle maker The company8217s profitability depends on delivering the new sedans to customers on a waiting list that Tesla has said now numbers about 500000 advance reservation holders Tesla shares recovered to 26613 up 3 percent Thursday after a selloff prompted by a Moody8217s debt downgrade and news that safety regulators are investigating a Model Xinvolved fatality In an email to employees viewed by Reuters Tesla Senior Vice President of Engineering Doug Fields wrote that production of Tesla vehicles is 8220well into the 2008217s on every single line8221 Related Coverage Tesla voluntarily recalls early Model S vehicles over power steering bolts Field gave reasons why Tesla needs to get to 2500 vehicles a week including 8220There are an incredible number of people who 8216short8217 Tesla stock which means they profit when we fail And lately the story is the same 8216Tesla can8217t do highvolume production8217 I find that personally insulting and you should too Let8217s make them regret ever betting against us8221 Tesla must 8220quickly break through the 300 carsday barrier and keep going8221 the email continued Tesla did not immediately comment on the email which was previously reported by Bloomberg News Doubts that Tesla could meet its production targets and concerns about cash reserves were behind Moody8217s downgrade of Tesla last week The ratings agency cited the likelihood of a new capital raise which it estimated at over 2 billion in part to cover approximately 12 billion in convertible bonds coming due by March 2019 The downgrade together with a fatality involving a Model X that is currently being investigated by safety regulators sent shares down 12 percent for the week even after Thursday8217s rebound That made it Tesla8217s worst week in nine months Tesla shares are still above the 25573 level the price when Tesla last announced a capital raise in March last year to raise 115 billion Moody8217s and other analysts have predicted Tesla will soon have to sell more shares to replenish cash reserves and pay for expansion of Model 3 production and new vehicles such as the Tesla Semi electric commercial truck and a compact sport utility vehicle As of Dec 31 Tesla had 34 billion in cash and securities Moody8217s estimated approximately 500 million in cash was needed for normal operations and forecast cash burn this year of about 2 billion Beyond the 2 billion that Moody8217s predicted Tesla would seek in the nearterm it said the company would likely need to raise additional capital during the second half of 2019 Chief Executive Elon Musk has promised to build 10000 Model 3s per week by some point in 2018 after meeting a 5000per week target by the end of the second quarter Tesla built only 2425 Model 3s in its fourth quarter Barclays analyst Brian Johnson warned in a note to investors on Thursday that Tesla could engage in a Model 3 8220burst rate8221 of production that could send shares up but would not be sustainable Writing by Alexandria Sage and Joe White Edting by Tom Brown Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters General Electric Co is poised to shine light into a sizable part of its financial black box an area that governs how it estimates revenue from longterm contracts The logo of General Electric Co is pictured at the Global Operations Center in San Pedro Garza Garcia neighbouring Monterrey Mexico May 12 2017 REUTERSDaniel Becerril The 126yearold Bostonbased industrial conglomerate is due to publish figures soon that analysts say should help explain why it receives less cash from earnings than the industry average The company has indicated it may release the figures by the end of this month The increased disclosure stems from new accounting standards that require companies to reveal more about how they estimate revenue from such longterm contracts known as contract assets Companies typically use the cost of providing services as a basis for revenue estimates but the process can lead to over or underestimating the value of the contracts experts say GE8217s contract asset tally has soared 70 percent to 288 billion in 2017 from 169 billion in 2014 most of it in its power and aviation units The majority of the total reflects revenue GE has already booked but for which it has not billed customers which creates the gap between profit and cash flow according to GE8217s regulatory filings GE8217s accounting is under scrutiny after earnings swung to a loss last year and GE said its 2018 results would be at the low end of its forecasted range The US Securities and Exchange Commission also is looking into GE8217s accounting for contract assets raising investor concern GE has said it is not overly concerned about the investigation GE said in February that it expects to take a 42 billion accounting charge as it switches to the new standard Some analysts think the charge could be higher since competitors of GE8217s power business say the company is signing longterm service contracts at low prices to win equipment sales The logo of General Electric is seen at its plant in Baden Switzerland November 15 2017 REUTERSArnd Wiegmann 8220That8217s what the competitors have been grousing8221 Deane Dray analyst at RBC Capital Markets said on Wednesday If the charge is close to what GE disclosed it could bolster GE Chief Executive John Flannery8217s credibility which has been dented by falling profit and a charge for old insurance policies revealed in January GE also is restating financial results for 2016 and 2017 so that 2018 results will be comparable The company8217s financial situation has prompted talk that it might raise capital Its shares rose on Tuesday after reports that billionaire investor Warren Buffett may buy a stake after selling last year GE declined to comment on the Buffett reports It said it chose to restate prior earnings a more exacting standard under the new rules because it will allow investors to compare 2018 results with the prior years on the same basis 8220We chose that approach because we believe that it is the most helpful to our investors8221 GE spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said Reporting by Alwyn Scott Editing by Matthew Lewis Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street surged on Thursday bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous holidayshortened week as technology stocks rebounded but the SampampP 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years The year started strong but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China and a selloff in the tech sector GRAPHIC SampampP Quarterly performance during bull market reutrs2pUJYLR Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the SampampP 500 information technology index SPLRCT closed up 22 percent after reaching a session high of 32 percent helping push the SampampP 500 up 14 percent with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying 8220All the fears now look overblown Interest rates the concern about tariffs we8217re going to get into a trade war8221 said Doug Cote chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York 8220But now clearer heads are prevailing If anything this is a buying opportunity8221 Technology gains were led by Facebook FBO Intel INTCO Alphabet GOOGLO and Microsoft MSFTO shares 8220Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market And we8217re in a bull market8221 said Cote The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 25469 points or 107 percent to close at 2410311 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 3587 points or 138 percent to 264087 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 11422 points or 164 percent to 706345 Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45year low Slideshow 4 Images In other data core personal consumption expenditures PCE rose by 16 percent yearonyear The index the Federal Reserve8217s preferred measure of inflation has been below the US central bank8217s 2 percent target since mid2012 Amazoncom AMZNO closed up 11 percent recovering from a 46 percent drop after US President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday claiming without evidence that the company pays 8220little to no taxes to state ampamp local governments8221 Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world8217s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances averting a trade war But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a fourmonth low in March and reduce holdings of US stocks to the lowest in nearly two years according to a Reuters poll Facebook Inc 15979 FBO Nasdaq 676 442 FBO INTCO GOOGLO MSFTO DJI Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 366to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 223to1 ratio favored advancers Volume on US exchanges was 749 billion shares compared to the 729 billion average over the last 20 trading days Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak Editing by James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | LONDON/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Britain8217s/ADJ biggest/ADJ retailer/NOUN Tesco/PROPN TSCOL/PROPN said/VERB on/ADP Monday/PROPN it/PRON will/AUX cut/VERB a/DET net/ADJ 800/NUM jobs/NOUN from/ADP its/PRON UK/PROPN business/NOUN in/ADP its/PRON latest/ADJ move/NOUN to/PART simplify/VERB operations/NOUN and/CCONJ achieve/VERB targeted/VERB cost/NOUN savings/NOUN FILE/NOUN PHOTO/PROPN A/DET company/NOUN logo/NOUN is/AUX pictured/VERB outside/ADP a/DET Tesco/PROPN supermarket/NOUN in/ADP Altrincham/PROPN northern/PROPN England/PROPN April/PROPN 16/NUM 2016/NUM REUTERSPhil/NOUN NobleFile/PROPN Photo/PROPN The/DET supermarket/NOUN group/NOUN the/DET UK8217s/PROPN largest/ADJ private/ADJ sector/NOUN employer/NOUN with/ADP a/DET staff/NOUN of/ADP over/ADP 310000/NUM said/VERB the/DET role/NOUN of/ADP 8220people/NOUN manager8221/NOUN and/CCONJ 8220compliance/NOUN manager8221/PROPN will/AUX be/AUX removed/VERB from/ADP large/ADJ UK/PROPN stores/NOUN and/CCONJ fulfillment/NOUN centers/NOUN as/SCONJ will/AUX the/DET role/NOUN of/ADP 8220customer/NOUN experience/NOUN manager8221/NOUN from/ADP 226/NUM stores/NOUN These/DET changes/NOUN will/AUX affect/VERB 1700/NUM Tesco/PROPN workers/NOUN who/PRON will/AUX be/AUX offered/VERB alternative/ADJ roles/NOUN within/ADP the/DET business/NOUN where/SCONJ possible/ADJ Tesco/PROPN said/VERB it/PRON would/AUX however/ADV create/VERB 900/NUM new/ADJ roles/NOUN 8220people/NOUN partners8221/NOUN 8220learning/VERB partners8221/PROPN and/CCONJ 8220colleague/NUM relations/NOUN partners8221/PROPN who/PRON will/AUX work/VERB across/ADP multiple/ADJ sites/NOUN in/ADP distribution/NOUN stores/NOUN and/CCONJ fulfillment/NOUN A/DET new/ADJ 8220colleague/PROPN administration/NOUN role8221/PROPN will/AUX also/ADV be/AUX created/VERB to/PART support/VERB management/NOUN teams/NOUN in/ADP each/DET large/ADJ store/NOUN and/CCONJ fulfillment/NOUN center/NOUN Tesco/PROPN set/VERB out/ADP a/DET plan/NOUN in/ADP October/PROPN 2016/NUM to/PART reduce/VERB operating/NOUN costs/NOUN by/ADP 15/NUM billion/NUM pounds/NOUN 21/NUM billion/NUM over/ADP three/NUM years/NOUN through/ADP efficiencies/NOUN in/ADP its/PRON distribution/NOUN network/NOUN and/CCONJ stores/NOUN and/CCONJ from/ADP procurement/NOUN savings/NOUN It/PRON needs/VERB the/DET savings/NOUN to/PART help/VERB achieve/VERB its/PRON target/NOUN of/ADP a/DET group/NOUN operating/VERB margin/NOUN of/ADP 35/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 40/NUM percent/NOUN by/ADP the/DET 201920/NUM financial/ADJ year/NOUN 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<p>At 6:11 p.m. on September 6, 2010, San Bruno, Calif. 911 received an urgent call. A gas station had just exploded and a fire with flames reaching 300 feet was raging through the neighborhood. The explosion was so large that residents suspected an airplane crash. But the real culprit was found underground: a ruptured pipeline spewing natural gas caused a blast that left behind a 72 foot long crater, killed eight people, and injured more than fifty.</p>
<p>Over 2,000 miles away in Michigan, workers were still cleaning up another pipeline accident, which spilled 840,000 gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. Estimated to cost $800 million, the accident is the most expensive pipeline spill in U.S. history.</p>
<p>Over the last few years a series of incidents have brought pipeline safety to national – and presidential – attention. As Obama begins his second term he will likely make a key decision on the controversial <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/keystone-xl-pipeline/" type="external">Keystone XL pipeline</a>, a proposed pipeline extension to transport crude from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>The administration first delayed the permit for the pipeline on <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/10/statement-president-state-departments-keystone-xl-pipeline-announcement" type="external">environmental grounds</a>, but has left the door open to future proposals for Keystone’s northern route. Construction on the southern route <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/16/nation/la-na-nn-keystone-xl-pipeline-20120816" type="external">is already underway</a>, sparking <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/us/protesters-gather-at-keystone-xl-site-in-texas.html" type="external">fierce opposition</a> from some landowners and environmentalists.</p>
<p><a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8199/8200736460_d4789f579a.jpg" type="external" />The problem, protesters say, is that any route will pose hazards to the public. While pipeline operator TransCanada has declared that Keystone will be the <a href="http://www.transcanada.com/6059.html" type="external">safest pipeline ever built</a> in North America, critics are skeptical.</p>
<p>“It's inevitable that as pipelines age, as they are exposed to the elements, eventually they are going to spill,” said Tony Iallonardo of the <a href="http://www.nwf.org/" type="external">National Wildlife Federation</a>. “They’re ticking time bombs."</p>
<p>Critics of the Keystone proposal point to the hundreds of pipeline accidents that occur every year. They charge that system wide, antiquated pipes, minimal oversight and inadequate precautions put the public and the environment at increasing risk. Pipeline operators point to billions of dollars spent on new technologies and a gradual improvement over the last two decades as proof of their commitment to safety.</p>
<p>Pipelines are generally regarded as a safe way to transport fuel, a far better alternative to tanker trucks or freight trains. The risks inherent in transporting fuel through pipelines are analogous to the risks inherent in traveling by airplane. Airplanes are safer than cars, which kill about 70 times as many people a year (highway accidents killed about <a href="http://www.ntsb.gov/data/index.html" type="external">33,000 people in 2010</a>, while aviation accidents killed 472). But when an airplane crashes, it is much more deadly than any single car accident, demands much more attention, and initiates large investigations to determine precisely what went wrong.</p>
<p>The same holds true for pipelines. Based on <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ir_17.htm" type="external">fatality statistics</a> from 2005 through 2009, oil pipelines are roughly 70 times as safe as trucks, which killed four times as many people during those years, despite transporting only a tiny fraction of fuel shipments. But when a pipeline does fail, the consequences can be catastrophic (though typically less so than airplane accidents), with the very deadliest accidents garnering media attention and sometimes leading to a federal investigation.</p>
<p>While both air travel and pipelines are safer than their road alternatives, the analogy only extends so far. Airplanes are replaced routinely and older equipment is monitored regularly for airworthiness and replaced when it reaches its safety limits. Pipelines, on the other hand, can stay underground, carrying highly pressurized gas and oil for decades – even up to a century and beyond. And while airplanes have strict and uniform regulations and safety protocols put forth by the Federal Aviation Administration, such a uniform set of standards does not exist for pipelines.</p>
<p>Critics maintain that while they’re relatively safe, pipelines should be safer. In many cases, critics argue, pipeline accidents could have been prevented with proper regulation from the government and increased safety measures by the industry. The 2.5 million miles of America’s pipelines suffer hundreds of leaks and ruptures every year, costing lives and money. As existing lines grow older, critics warn that the risk of accidents on those lines will only increase.</p>
<p>While states with the most pipeline mileage – like Texas, California, and Louisiana – also have the most incidents, breaks occur throughout the far-flung network of pipelines. Winding under city streets and countryside, these lines stay invisible most of the time. Until they fail.</p>
<p>Since 1986, pipeline accidents have killed more than 500 people, injured over 4,000, and cost nearly seven billion dollars in property damages. Using government data, ProPublica has mapped thousands of these incidents in a <a href="http://projects.propublica.org/pipelines/" type="external">new interactive news application</a>, which provides detailed information about the cause and costs of reported incidents going back nearly three decades.</p>
<p>Pipelines break for many reasons – from the slow deterioration of corrosion to equipment or weld failures to construction workers <a href="http://www.call811.com/" type="external">hitting pipes</a> with their excavation equipment. Unforeseen natural disasters also lead to dozens of incidents a year. This year Hurricane Sandy <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20121104_Million-plus_in_N_J__still_lack_power.html" type="external">wreaked havoc</a> on the natural gas pipelines on New Jersey’s barrier islands. From Bay Head to Long Beach Island, falling trees, dislodged homes and flooding caused more than 1,600 pipeline leaks. All leaks have been <a href="http://www.njng.com/safety/hurricane-sandy-updates/index.asp" type="external">brought under control</a> and no one was harmed, according to a New Jersey Natural Gas spokeswoman. But the company was forced to shut down service to the region, leaving 28,000 people without gas, and it may be months before they get it back.</p>
<p>One of the biggest problems contributing to leaks and ruptures is pretty simple: pipelines are getting older. More than half of the nation's pipelines are at least <a href="http://opsweb.phmsa.dot.gov/pipelineforum/docs/Secretarys%20Infrastructure%20Report_Revised%20per%20PHC_103111.pdf" type="external">50 years old</a>. Last year in Allentown Pa., a natural gas pipeline exploded underneath a city street, killing five people who lived in the houses above and igniting a fire that damaged 50 buildings. The pipeline – made of cast iron – had been installed in 1928.</p>
<p>Not all old pipelines are doomed to fail, but time is a big contributor to corrosion, a leading cause of pipeline failure. Corrosion has caused between 15 and 20 percent of all reported “ <a href="http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/comm/reports/safety/sigpsi.html" type="external">significant incidents</a>,” which is bureaucratic parlance for an incident that resulted in a death, injury or extensive property damage. That’s over 1,400 incidents since 1986.</p>
<p>Corrosion is also cited as a chief concern of opponents of the Keystone XL extension. The new pipeline would transport <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120626/dilbit-primer-diluted-bitumen-conventional-oil-tar-sands-Alberta-Kalamazoo-Keystone-XL-Enbridge" type="external">a type of crude called diluted bitumen</a>, or “dilbit.” Keystone’s critics <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/energy/tarsandssafetyrisks.asp" type="external">make the case</a> that the chemical makeup of this heavier type of oil is much more corrosive than conventional oil, and over time could weaken the pipeline.</p>
<p>Operator TransCanada says that the Keystone XL pipeline <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120626/dilbit-primer-diluted-bitumen-conventional-oil-tar-sands-Alberta-Kalamazoo-Keystone-XL-Enbridge" type="external">will transport crude similar</a> to what’s been piped into the U.S. for more than a decade, and that the new section of pipeline will be built and tested to meet all federal safety requirements. And in fact, none of the 14 spills that happened in the existing Keystone pipeline since 2010 were caused by corrosion, according to <a href="http://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/documents/organization/181185.pdf" type="external">an investigation</a> by the State Department.</p>
<p>The specific effects of dilbit on pipelines – and whether the heavy crude would actually lead to more accidents – is not definitively understood by scientists. The National Academies of Science is currently in the middle of <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49461" type="external">study on dilbit</a> and pipeline corrosion, due out by next year. In the meantime, TransCanada has already begun construction of the southern portion of the line, but has no assurance it will get a permit from the Obama administration to build the northern section. (NPR has <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/keystone-xl-pipeline/" type="external">a detailed map</a> of the existing and proposed routes.)</p>
<p>Little Government Regulation for Thousands of Miles</p>
<p>While a slew of federal and state agencies oversee some aspect of America’s pipelines, the bulk of government monitoring and enforcement falls to a small agency within the Department of Transportation called the <a href="http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/" type="external">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration</a> – pronounced “FIM-sa” by insiders. The agency only requires that seven percent of natural gas lines and 44 percent of all hazardous liquid lines be subject to their rigorous inspection criteria and inspected regularly. The rest of the regulated pipelines are still inspected, according to a PHMSA official, but less often.</p>
<p>The inconsistent rules and inspection regime come in part from a historical accident. In the 60's and 70's, <a href="http://phmsa.dot.gov/pipeline/state-programs" type="external">two laws</a> established a federal role in pipeline safety and set national rules for new pipelines. For example, operators were required to conduct more stringent testing to see whether pipes could withstand high pressures, and had to meet new specifications for how deep underground pipelines must be installed.</p>
<p>But the then-new rules mostly didn’t apply to pipelines already built – such as the pipeline that exploded in San Bruno. That pipeline, which burst open along a defective seam weld, would never have passed modern high-pressure requirements <a href="http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2011/PAR1101.pdf" type="external">according to a federal investigation</a>. But because it was installed in 1956, it was never required to.</p>
<p>"No one wanted all the companies to dig up and retest their pipelines," explained Carl Weimer, executive director of the <a href="http://www.pstrust.org/" type="external">Pipeline Safety Trust</a>, a public charity that promotes fuel transportation safety. So older pipes were essentially grandfathered into less testing, he said.</p>
<p>Later reforms in the 1990’s mandated more testing for oil pipelines, and today PHMSA requires operators to test pipelines in "high consequence" areas, which include population centers or areas near drinking water. But many old pipelines in rural areas aren’t covered by the same strict regulations.</p>
<p>Some types of pipelines – such as the “gathering” lines that connect wells to process facilities or larger transmission lines – lack any PHMSA regulation at all. <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-388" type="external">A GAO report</a> estimates that of the roughly 230,000 miles of gathering lines, only 24,000 are federally regulated. Because many of these lines operate at lower pressures and generally go through remote areas, says the GAO, the government collects no data on ruptures or spills, and has no enforced standards for pipeline strength, welds, or underground depth on the vast majority of these pipes.</p>
<p>The problem, <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/many_hazards_from_natural_gas.html" type="external">critics argue</a>, is that today’s gathering lines no longer match their old description. Driven in part by the rising demands of hydraulic fracturing, operators have built thousands of miles of new lines to transport gas from fracked wells. Despite the fact that these lines are often just as wide as transmission lines (some up to 2 feet in diameter) and can operate under the same high pressures, they receive little oversight.</p>
<p>Operators use a risk-based system to maintain their pipelines – instead of treating all pipelines equally, they focus safety efforts on the lines deemed most risky, and those that would cause the most harm if they failed. The problem is that each company use different criteria, so "it's a nightmare for regulators," Weimer said.</p>
<p>However, Andrew Black, the president of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines, a trade group whose members include pipeline operators, said that a one-size-fits-all approach would actually make pipelines less safe, because operators (not to mention pipelines) differ so widely.</p>
<p>"Different operators use different pipe components, using different construction techniques, carrying different materials over different terrains," he said. Allowing operators to develop their own strategies for each pipeline is critical to properly maintaining its safety, he contended.</p>
<p>Limited Resources Leave Inspections to Industry</p>
<p>Critics say that PHMSA lacks the resources to <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/marcellus-shale/20111210_Federal_pipeline_oversight_agency_was_troubled_from_the_start.html" type="external">adequately monitor</a> the millions of miles of pipelines over which it does have authority. The agency has funding for only 137 inspectors, and often employs even less than that (in 2010 the agency had 110 inspectors on staff). A <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R41536.pdf" type="external">Congressional Research Service report</a> found a “long-term pattern of understaffing” in the agency’s pipeline safety program. According to the report, between 2001 and 2009 the agency reported a staffing shortfall of an average of 24 employees a year.</p>
<p>A New York Times investigation last year found that the agency is chronically short of inspectors because it just <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/business/energy-environment/agency-struggles-to-safeguard-pipeline-system.html?ref=danfrosch" type="external">doesn’t have enough money</a> to hire more, possibly due to competition from the pipeline companies themselves, who often hire away PHMSA inspectors for their corporate safety programs, according to the CRS.</p>
<p>Given the limitations of government money and personnel, it is often the industry that inspects its own pipelines. Although federal and state inspectors review paperwork and conduct audits, most on-site pipeline inspections are done by inspectors on the company’s dime.</p>
<p>The industry’s relationship with PHMSA may go further than inspections, critics say. The agency has adopted, at least in part, dozens of safety standards <a href="http://washingtonindependent.com/94743/oil-and-gas-industry-writes-its-own-pipeline-standards" type="external">written by the oil and natural gas industry</a>.</p>
<p>"This isn't like the fox guarding the hen house," said Weimer. "It's like the fox designing the hen house."</p>
<p>Operators point out that defining their own standards allows the inspection system to tap into real-world expertise. Adopted standards go through a rulemaking process that gives stakeholders and the public a chance to comment and suggest changes, according to the agency.</p>
<p>Questions have also been raised about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/17/17greenwire-critics-fault-oil-and-gas-pipeline-regulators-i-9153.html" type="external">ties between</a> agency officials and the companies they regulate. Before joining the agency in 2009, PHMSA administrator Cynthia Quarterman worked as a legal counsel for Enbridge Energy, the operator involved in the Kalamazoo River accident. But under her leadership, the agency has also brought <a href="http://phmsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/PHMSA/DownloadableFiles/Press%20Releases/Record%20Enforcement%20Orders%20Closed_02-08-12.pdf" type="external">a record number</a> of enforcement cases against operators, and imposed <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20120911/NEWS05/309110050/Enbridge-pays-3-7M-penalty-in-10-oil-spill" type="external">the highest civil penalty</a> in the agency’s history on the company she once represented.</p>
<p>Proposed Solutions Spark Debate</p>
<p>How to adequately maintain the diversity of pipelines has proved to be a divisive issue – critics arguing for more automatic tests and safety measures and companies pointing to the high cost of such additions.</p>
<p>One such measure is the widespread installation of automatic or remote-controlled shutoff valves, which can quickly stop the flow of gas or oil in an emergency. These valves could help avoid a situation like that after the Kalamazoo River spill, which took operators 17 hours from the initial rupture to find and manually shut off. Operators use these valves already on most new pipelines, but argue that replacing all valves would not be cost-effective and false alarms would unnecessarily shut down fuel supplies. The CRS estimates that even if automatic valves were only required on pipelines in highly populated areas, replacing manual valves with automatic ones could cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.</p>
<p>Other measures focus on preventing leaks and ruptures in the first place. The industry already uses <a href="http://www.buckeye.com/pipelineawareness/keepingyousafepipelinesecurity/smartpigs/tabid/106/default.aspx" type="external">robotic devices called "smart pigs"</a> to crawl through a pipeline, clearing debris and taking measurements to <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5627707" type="external">detect any problems</a>. But not all pipelines can accommodate smart pigs, and operators don’t routinely run the devices through every line.</p>
<p>Just last month, a smart pig detected a “small anomaly” in the existing Keystone pipeline, prompting TransCanada to shut down the entire line. Environmentalists pointed out that this is not the first time TransCananda has called for a shut down, and won’t be the last.</p>
<p>“The reason TransCanada needs to keep shutting down Keystone,” the director of the National Wildlife Federation contended <a href="http://blog.nwf.org/2012/10/original-keystone-pipeline-shuts-down-safety-a-concern/" type="external">in a statement</a>, “is because pipelines are inherently dangerous.”</p>
<p>Last January, <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/congress-moves-toward-tougher-stand-on-pipeline-safety-but-is-it-enough" type="external">Obama signed a bill</a> that commissioned <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hconres93enr/pdf/BILLS-112hconres93enr.pdf" type="external">several new studies</a> to evaluate some of these proposed safety measures, although his decision on extending the Keystone pipeline may come long before those studies are completed.</p> | How Safe Are America's Pipelines? | true | http://occupy.com/article/how-safe-are-americas-pipelines | 4left
| 2,513 | At 611 pm on September 6 2010 San Bruno Calif 911 received an urgent call A gas station had just exploded and a fire with flames reaching 300 feet was raging through the neighborhood The explosion was so large that residents suspected an airplane crash But the real culprit was found underground a ruptured pipeline spewing natural gas caused a blast that left behind a 72 foot long crater killed eight people and injured more than fifty Over 2000 miles away in Michigan workers were still cleaning up another pipeline accident which spilled 840000 gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010 Estimated to cost 800 million the accident is the most expensive pipeline spill in US history Over the last few years a series of incidents have brought pipeline safety to national 8211 and presidential 8211 attention As Obama begins his second term he will likely make a key decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline a proposed pipeline extension to transport crude from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico The administration first delayed the permit for the pipeline on environmental grounds but has left the door open to future proposals for Keystone8217s northern route Construction on the southern route is already underway sparking fierce opposition from some landowners and environmentalists The problem protesters say is that any route will pose hazards to the public While pipeline operator TransCanada has declared that Keystone will be the safest pipeline ever built in North America critics are skeptical 8220Its inevitable that as pipelines age as they are exposed to the elements eventually they are going to spill8221 said Tony Iallonardo of the National Wildlife Federation 8220They8217re ticking time bombs Critics of the Keystone proposal point to the hundreds of pipeline accidents that occur every year They charge that system wide antiquated pipes minimal oversight and inadequate precautions put the public and the environment at increasing risk Pipeline operators point to billions of dollars spent on new technologies and a gradual improvement over the last two decades as proof of their commitment to safety Pipelines are generally regarded as a safe way to transport fuel a far better alternative to tanker trucks or freight trains The risks inherent in transporting fuel through pipelines are analogous to the risks inherent in traveling by airplane Airplanes are safer than cars which kill about 70 times as many people a year highway accidents killed about 33000 people in 2010 while aviation accidents killed 472 But when an airplane crashes it is much more deadly than any single car accident demands much more attention and initiates large investigations to determine precisely what went wrong The same holds true for pipelines Based on fatality statistics from 2005 through 2009 oil pipelines are roughly 70 times as safe as trucks which killed four times as many people during those years despite transporting only a tiny fraction of fuel shipments But when a pipeline does fail the consequences can be catastrophic though typically less so than airplane accidents with the very deadliest accidents garnering media attention and sometimes leading to a federal investigation While both air travel and pipelines are safer than their road alternatives the analogy only extends so far Airplanes are replaced routinely and older equipment is monitored regularly for airworthiness and replaced when it reaches its safety limits Pipelines on the other hand can stay underground carrying highly pressurized gas and oil for decades 8211 even up to a century and beyond And while airplanes have strict and uniform regulations and safety protocols put forth by the Federal Aviation Administration such a uniform set of standards does not exist for pipelines Critics maintain that while they8217re relatively safe pipelines should be safer In many cases critics argue pipeline accidents could have been prevented with proper regulation from the government and increased safety measures by the industry The 25 million miles of America8217s pipelines suffer hundreds of leaks and ruptures every year costing lives and money As existing lines grow older critics warn that the risk of accidents on those lines will only increase While states with the most pipeline mileage 8211 like Texas California and Louisiana 8211 also have the most incidents breaks occur throughout the farflung network of pipelines Winding under city streets and countryside these lines stay invisible most of the time Until they fail Since 1986 pipeline accidents have killed more than 500 people injured over 4000 and cost nearly seven billion dollars in property damages Using government data ProPublica has mapped thousands of these incidents in a new interactive news application which provides detailed information about the cause and costs of reported incidents going back nearly three decades Pipelines break for many reasons 8211 from the slow deterioration of corrosion to equipment or weld failures to construction workers hitting pipes with their excavation equipment Unforeseen natural disasters also lead to dozens of incidents a year This year Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the natural gas pipelines on New Jersey8217s barrier islands From Bay Head to Long Beach Island falling trees dislodged homes and flooding caused more than 1600 pipeline leaks All leaks have been brought under control and no one was harmed according to a New Jersey Natural Gas spokeswoman But the company was forced to shut down service to the region leaving 28000 people without gas and it may be months before they get it back One of the biggest problems contributing to leaks and ruptures is pretty simple pipelines are getting older More than half of the nations pipelines are at least 50 years old Last year in Allentown Pa a natural gas pipeline exploded underneath a city street killing five people who lived in the houses above and igniting a fire that damaged 50 buildings The pipeline 8211 made of cast iron 8211 had been installed in 1928 Not all old pipelines are doomed to fail but time is a big contributor to corrosion a leading cause of pipeline failure Corrosion has caused between 15 and 20 percent of all reported 8220 significant incidents8221 which is bureaucratic parlance for an incident that resulted in a death injury or extensive property damage That8217s over 1400 incidents since 1986 Corrosion is also cited as a chief concern of opponents of the Keystone XL extension The new pipeline would transport a type of crude called diluted bitumen or 8220dilbit8221 Keystone8217s critics make the case that the chemical makeup of this heavier type of oil is much more corrosive than conventional oil and over time could weaken the pipeline Operator TransCanada says that the Keystone XL pipeline will transport crude similar to what8217s been piped into the US for more than a decade and that the new section of pipeline will be built and tested to meet all federal safety requirements And in fact none of the 14 spills that happened in the existing Keystone pipeline since 2010 were caused by corrosion according to an investigation by the State Department The specific effects of dilbit on pipelines 8211 and whether the heavy crude would actually lead to more accidents 8211 is not definitively understood by scientists The National Academies of Science is currently in the middle of study on dilbit and pipeline corrosion due out by next year In the meantime TransCanada has already begun construction of the southern portion of the line but has no assurance it will get a permit from the Obama administration to build the northern section NPR has a detailed map of the existing and proposed routes Little Government Regulation for Thousands of Miles While a slew of federal and state agencies oversee some aspect of America8217s pipelines the bulk of government monitoring and enforcement falls to a small agency within the Department of Transportation called the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration 8211 pronounced 8220FIMsa8221 by insiders The agency only requires that seven percent of natural gas lines and 44 percent of all hazardous liquid lines be subject to their rigorous inspection criteria and inspected regularly The rest of the regulated pipelines are still inspected according to a PHMSA official but less often The inconsistent rules and inspection regime come in part from a historical accident In the 60s and 70s two laws established a federal role in pipeline safety and set national rules for new pipelines For example operators were required to conduct more stringent testing to see whether pipes could withstand high pressures and had to meet new specifications for how deep underground pipelines must be installed But the thennew rules mostly didn8217t apply to pipelines already built 8211 such as the pipeline that exploded in San Bruno That pipeline which burst open along a defective seam weld would never have passed modern highpressure requirements according to a federal investigation But because it was installed in 1956 it was never required to No one wanted all the companies to dig up and retest their pipelines explained Carl Weimer executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust a public charity that promotes fuel transportation safety So older pipes were essentially grandfathered into less testing he said Later reforms in the 19908217s mandated more testing for oil pipelines and today PHMSA requires operators to test pipelines in high consequence areas which include population centers or areas near drinking water But many old pipelines in rural areas aren8217t covered by the same strict regulations Some types of pipelines 8211 such as the 8220gathering8221 lines that connect wells to process facilities or larger transmission lines 8211 lack any PHMSA regulation at all A GAO report estimates that of the roughly 230000 miles of gathering lines only 24000 are federally regulated Because many of these lines operate at lower pressures and generally go through remote areas says the GAO the government collects no data on ruptures or spills and has no enforced standards for pipeline strength welds or underground depth on the vast majority of these pipes The problem critics argue is that today8217s gathering lines no longer match their old description Driven in part by the rising demands of hydraulic fracturing operators have built thousands of miles of new lines to transport gas from fracked wells Despite the fact that these lines are often just as wide as transmission lines some up to 2 feet in diameter and can operate under the same high pressures they receive little oversight Operators use a riskbased system to maintain their pipelines 8211 instead of treating all pipelines equally they focus safety efforts on the lines deemed most risky and those that would cause the most harm if they failed The problem is that each company use different criteria so its a nightmare for regulators Weimer said However Andrew Black the president of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines a trade group whose members include pipeline operators said that a onesizefitsall approach would actually make pipelines less safe because operators not to mention pipelines differ so widely Different operators use different pipe components using different construction techniques carrying different materials over different terrains he said Allowing operators to develop their own strategies for each pipeline is critical to properly maintaining its safety he contended Limited Resources Leave Inspections to Industry Critics say that PHMSA lacks the resources to adequately monitor the millions of miles of pipelines over which it does have authority The agency has funding for only 137 inspectors and often employs even less than that in 2010 the agency had 110 inspectors on staff A Congressional Research Service report found a 8220longterm pattern of understaffing8221 in the agency8217s pipeline safety program According to the report between 2001 and 2009 the agency reported a staffing shortfall of an average of 24 employees a year A New York Times investigation last year found that the agency is chronically short of inspectors because it just doesn8217t have enough money to hire more possibly due to competition from the pipeline companies themselves who often hire away PHMSA inspectors for their corporate safety programs according to the CRS Given the limitations of government money and personnel it is often the industry that inspects its own pipelines Although federal and state inspectors review paperwork and conduct audits most onsite pipeline inspections are done by inspectors on the company8217s dime The industry8217s relationship with PHMSA may go further than inspections critics say The agency has adopted at least in part dozens of safety standards written by the oil and natural gas industry This isnt like the fox guarding the hen house said Weimer Its like the fox designing the hen house Operators point out that defining their own standards allows the inspection system to tap into realworld expertise Adopted standards go through a rulemaking process that gives stakeholders and the public a chance to comment and suggest changes according to the agency Questions have also been raised about the ties between agency officials and the companies they regulate Before joining the agency in 2009 PHMSA administrator Cynthia Quarterman worked as a legal counsel for Enbridge Energy the operator involved in the Kalamazoo River accident But under her leadership the agency has also brought a record number of enforcement cases against operators and imposed the highest civil penalty in the agency8217s history on the company she once represented Proposed Solutions Spark Debate How to adequately maintain the diversity of pipelines has proved to be a divisive issue 8211 critics arguing for more automatic tests and safety measures and companies pointing to the high cost of such additions One such measure is the widespread installation of automatic or remotecontrolled shutoff valves which can quickly stop the flow of gas or oil in an emergency These valves could help avoid a situation like that after the Kalamazoo River spill which took operators 17 hours from the initial rupture to find and manually shut off Operators use these valves already on most new pipelines but argue that replacing all valves would not be costeffective and false alarms would unnecessarily shut down fuel supplies The CRS estimates that even if automatic valves were only required on pipelines in highly populated areas replacing manual valves with automatic ones could cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars Other measures focus on preventing leaks and ruptures in the first place The industry already uses robotic devices called smart pigs to crawl through a pipeline clearing debris and taking measurements to detect any problems But not all pipelines can accommodate smart pigs and operators don8217t routinely run the devices through every line Just last month a smart pig detected a 8220small anomaly8221 in the existing Keystone pipeline prompting TransCanada to shut down the entire line Environmentalists pointed out that this is not the first time TransCananda has called for a shut down and won8217t be the last 8220The reason TransCanada needs to keep shutting down Keystone8221 the director of the National Wildlife Federation contended in a statement 8220is because pipelines are inherently dangerous8221 Last January Obama signed a bill that commissioned several new studies to evaluate some of these proposed safety measures although his decision on extending the Keystone pipeline may come long before those studies are completed | At/ADP 611/NUM pm/NOUN on/ADP September/PROPN 6/NUM 2010/NUM San/PROPN Bruno/PROPN Calif/PROPN 911/NUM received/VERB an/DET urgent/ADJ call/NOUN A/DET gas/NOUN station/NOUN had/AUX just/ADV exploded/VERB and/CCONJ a/DET fire/NOUN with/ADP flames/NOUN reaching/VERB 300/NUM feet/NOUN was/AUX raging/VERB through/ADP the/DET neighborhood/NOUN The/DET explosion/NOUN was/AUX so/ADV large/ADJ that/SCONJ residents/NOUN suspected/VERB an/DET airplane/NOUN crash/NOUN But/CCONJ the/DET real/ADJ culprit/NOUN was/AUX found/VERB underground/ADV a/DET ruptured/ADJ pipeline/NOUN spewing/VERB natural/ADJ gas/NOUN caused/VERB a/DET blast/NOUN that/PRON left/VERB behind/ADP a/DET 72/NUM foot/NOUN long/ADJ crater/NOUN killed/VERB eight/NUM people/NOUN and/CCONJ injured/VERB more/ADJ than/ADP fifty/NUM Over/ADP 2000/NUM miles/NOUN away/ADV in/ADP Michigan/PROPN workers/NOUN were/AUX still/ADV cleaning/VERB up/ADP another/DET pipeline/NOUN accident/NOUN which/PRON spilled/VERB 840000/NUM gallons/NOUN of/ADP crude/ADJ oil/NOUN into/ADP the/DET Kalamazoo/PROPN River/PROPN in/ADP 2010/NUM Estimated/VERB to/PART cost/VERB 800/NUM million/NUM the/DET accident/NOUN is/AUX the/DET most/ADV 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are/AUX safer/ADJ than/ADP cars/NOUN which/PRON kill/VERB about/ADV 70/NUM times/NOUN as/ADV many/ADJ people/NOUN a/DET year/NOUN highway/NOUN accidents/NOUN killed/VERB about/ADV 33000/NUM people/NOUN in/ADP 2010/NUM while/SCONJ aviation/NOUN accidents/NOUN killed/VERB 472/NUM But/CCONJ when/SCONJ an/DET airplane/NOUN crashes/VERB it/PRON is/AUX much/ADV more/ADV deadly/ADJ than/SCONJ any/DET single/ADJ car/NOUN accident/NOUN demands/VERB much/ADV more/ADJ attention/NOUN and/CCONJ initiates/VERB large/ADJ investigations/NOUN to/PART determine/VERB precisely/ADV what/PRON went/VERB wrong/ADV The/DET same/ADJ holds/VERB true/ADJ for/ADP pipelines/NOUN Based/VERB on/ADP fatality/NOUN statistics/NOUN from/ADP 2005/NUM through/ADP 2009/NUM oil/NOUN pipelines/NOUN are/AUX roughly/ADV 70/NUM times/NOUN as/ADV safe/ADJ as/ADP trucks/NOUN which/PRON killed/VERB four/NUM times/NOUN as/ADV many/ADJ people/NOUN during/ADP those/DET years/NOUN despite/SCONJ transporting/VERB only/ADV a/DET tiny/ADJ fraction/NOUN of/ADP fuel/NOUN shipments/NOUN But/CCONJ when/SCONJ a/DET pipeline/NOUN does/AUX fail/VERB the/DET consequences/NOUN can/AUX be/AUX catastrophic/ADJ though/SCONJ typically/ADV less/ADV so/ADV than/ADP airplane/NOUN accidents/NOUN with/ADP the/DET very/ADV deadliest/ADJ accidents/NOUN garnering/VERB media/NOUN attention/NOUN and/CCONJ sometimes/ADV leading/VERB to/ADP a/DET federal/ADJ investigation/NOUN While/SCONJ both/DET air/NOUN travel/NOUN and/CCONJ pipelines/NOUN are/AUX safer/ADJ than/ADP their/PRON road/NOUN alternatives/NOUN the/DET analogy/NOUN only/ADV extends/VERB so/ADV far/ADV Airplanes/NOUN are/AUX replaced/VERB routinely/ADV and/CCONJ older/ADJ equipment/NOUN is/AUX monitored/VERB regularly/ADV for/ADP airworthiness/NOUN and/CCONJ replaced/VERB when/SCONJ it/PRON reaches/VERB its/PRON safety/NOUN limits/VERB Pipelines/PROPN on/ADP the/DET other/ADJ hand/NOUN can/AUX stay/VERB underground/ADV carrying/VERB highly/ADV pressurized/VERB gas/NOUN and/CCONJ oil/NOUN for/ADP decades/NOUN 8211/NUM even/ADV up/ADP to/ADP a/DET century/NOUN and/CCONJ beyond/ADP And/CCONJ while/SCONJ airplanes/NOUN have/VERB strict/ADJ and/CCONJ uniform/ADJ regulations/NOUN and/CCONJ safety/NOUN protocols/NOUN put/VERB forth/ADP by/ADP the/DET Federal/PROPN Aviation/PROPN Administration/PROPN such/DET a/DET uniform/NOUN set/NOUN of/ADP standards/NOUN does/AUX not/PART exist/VERB for/ADP pipelines/NOUN Critics/NOUN maintain/VERB that/SCONJ while/SCONJ they8217re/NUM relatively/ADV safe/ADJ pipelines/NOUN should/AUX be/AUX safer/ADJ In/ADP many/ADJ cases/NOUN critics/NOUN argue/VERB pipeline/NOUN accidents/NOUN could/AUX have/AUX been/AUX prevented/VERB with/ADP proper/ADJ regulation/NOUN from/ADP the/DET government/NOUN and/CCONJ increased/VERB safety/NOUN measures/NOUN by/ADP the/DET industry/NOUN The/DET 25/NUM million/NUM miles/NOUN of/ADP America8217s/PROPN pipelines/NOUN suffer/VERB hundreds/NOUN of/ADP leaks/NOUN and/CCONJ ruptures/NOUN every/DET year/NOUN costing/VERB lives/NOUN and/CCONJ money/NOUN As/SCONJ existing/VERB lines/NOUN grow/VERB older/ADJ critics/NOUN warn/VERB that/SCONJ the/DET risk/NOUN of/ADP accidents/NOUN on/ADP those/DET lines/NOUN will/AUX only/ADV increase/VERB While/SCONJ states/NOUN with/ADP the/DET most/ADJ pipeline/NOUN mileage/NOUN 8211/NUM like/ADP Texas/PROPN California/PROPN and/CCONJ Louisiana/PROPN 8211/NUM also/ADV have/VERB the/DET most/ADJ incidents/NOUN breaks/NOUN occur/VERB throughout/ADP the/DET farflung/NOUN network/NOUN of/ADP pipelines/NOUN Winding/VERB under/ADP city/NOUN streets/NOUN and/CCONJ countryside/VERB these/DET lines/NOUN stay/VERB invisible/ADJ most/ADJ of/ADP the/DET time/NOUN Until/SCONJ they/PRON fail/VERB Since/SCONJ 1986/NUM pipeline/NOUN accidents/NOUN have/AUX killed/VERB more/ADJ than/ADP 500/NUM people/NOUN injured/VERB over/ADP 4000/NUM and/CCONJ cost/VERB nearly/ADV seven/NUM billion/NUM dollars/NOUN in/ADP property/NOUN damages/NOUN Using/VERB 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<p>PHILADELPHIA — The 2016 Democratic National Convention is underway, and&#160;the factual inaccuracies on the first night focused on income, college tuition and&#160;something the Republican ticket had said or done.</p>
<p>Note to Readers</p>
<p>This story was written with the help of the entire staff, including some of those based in Philadelphia who are at the convention site. As we did for the Republican National Convention, we intend to vet the major speeches at the Democratic National Convention for factual accuracy, applying the same standards to both.</p>
<p>Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said Donald Trump “would cut taxes for the richest Americans at the expense of the middle class.” The wealthiest Americans would receive the largest tax cuts under Trump’s tax plan, but everyone would get some tax relief. Middle-income Americans would receive average tax cuts of about $2,700&#160;in 2017&#160;under Trump’s plan, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/tax-reform" type="external">Trump’s plan</a> would, among other things, consolidate the current seven income tax brackets into four, with a top marginal rate of 25 percent (it’s currently 39.6 percent).</p>
<p>According to an analysis of the plan by the nonpartisan&#160; <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/analysis-donald-trumps-tax-plan/full" type="external">Tax Policy Center</a>, Trump’s proposal would “reduce taxes throughout the income distribution.” Nonetheless, the biggest cuts would come for the wealthiest Americans, in both raw dollars and as a percentage of income, the Tax Policy Center found. The top 1 percent, for example, would get an average tax cut of more than&#160;$275,000 (about 17.5 percent of after-tax income) in 2017.</p>
<p>But middle-income people would see a tax cut, too. “Middle-income households would receive an average tax cut of about $2,700,or about 5 percent of after-tax income,” the Tax Policy Center concluded.</p>
<p>An analysis by the <a href="http://taxfoundation.org/article/details-and-analysis-donald-trump-s-tax-plan" type="external">Tax Foundation</a>&#160;reached a similar&#160;conclusion — the biggest gains in after-tax income would accrue to the wealthiest taxpayers under Trump’s proposal. But the plan “would cut taxes and lead to higher after-tax incomes for taxpayers at all levels of income.”</p>
<p>The Tax Foundation&#160;analyzed the plan’s impact with (dynamic) and without (static) taking into account the expected effect on the economy. On a static basis, middle-income taxpayers — between the&#160;30th to 80th percentiles — would see an increase in their after-tax adjusted gross income of between 3 percent and 8.3 percent. Taking into account the positive effects on the economy that the tax cuts could be expected to stimulate, the Tax Foundation found middle-income taxpayers — between the 30th to 70th percentiles — would see a nearly 20 percent increase in after-tax adjusted gross income.</p>
<p>The Tax Foundation cautioned that the loss in revenue under Trump’s plan — even with expected benefits to the economy — would “increase the federal government’s deficit by over $10 trillion” over 10 years. One could argue that such large tax cuts might lead to spending cuts that disproportionately affect middle-income taxpayers. But Trump has not been specific about where he would begin making spending cuts.</p>
<p>Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy claimed that GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence “signed a law that would have forced women to hold funerals for fetuses, even in some cases, for a miscarriage.”&#160;That’s not so.</p>
<p>The controversial anti-abortion <a href="https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/bills/house/1337#digest-heading" type="external">bill Malloy referred to</a>, which Indiana Gov. Pence signed into law March 24, contained a provision stating that an aborted or miscarried fetus “must be cremated or interred,” and that the hospital or abortion facility (not the mother, as Malloy suggested) is responsible for the disposition.</p>
<p>Some <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/trumps-vp-pick-passed-law-requiring-funerals-aborted-fetuses" type="external">have characterized this</a> as fetuses receiving&#160;“what amounts to a funeral.” But that’s incorrect.</p>
<p>The word “funeral” refers to a ceremony, not to the burial or cremation that follows. For example, <a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/funeral?s=t" type="external">Dictionary.com defines “funeral”</a> as “the ceremonies for a dead person prior to burial or cremation.” (Emphasis added is ours.)</p>
<p>And in fact, the Indiana law required no funeral ceremony. It even specified that the parents would not be required to provide a name for the fetus. A <a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/30/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-indiana-abortion-law/86556662/" type="external">federal judge blocked the law</a> from going into effect late last month.</p>
<p>Sen. Bernie Sanders said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton “will ​guarantee”​ free tuition at in-state public colleges or universities for families with incomes of $125,000 a year or less. But free tuition would not be guaranteed. States must put up matching funds for free tuition.</p>
<p>Also, the free-tuition plan would be phased in and not available to families earning as much as $125,000 until 2021.</p>
<p>Sanders mentioned the free-tuition plan in his speech as an example of how Clinton has adopted some of his ideas for the general election in a show of unity after the contentious primary.</p>
<p>Sanders: During the primary campaign, Secretary Clinton and I both focused on [college debt] but with different approaches. Recently, however, we have come together on a proposal that will revolutionize higher education in America. It will guarantee that the children of any family in this country with an annual income of $125,000 a year or less – 83 percent of our population – will be able to go to a public college or university tuition free.</p>
<p>Clinton announced <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/college/" type="external">her plan</a> on July 6, but her plan calls for states to “step up and invest in higher education.” The New York Times&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/us/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-education.html" type="external">wrote</a> that “the federal government would provide tuition grants to states that agree to put up some matching money.”</p>
<p>The paper noted that “some experts said details of the initiative — including exactly how it would work and be paid for — were sketchy, and raised concerns that some states would decline to contribute money.”</p>
<p>More recently, Times&#160;columnist Kevin Carey <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/upshot/the-trouble-with-hillary-clintons-free-tuition-plan.html" type="external">wrote</a>,&#160;“States will be able to opt out of the Clinton plan, just as a significant number have chosen not to accept large federal subsidies to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.”</p>
<p>Also, free tuition would be gradually phased in, beginning with families earning $85,000 or less. “By 2021, families with income up to $125,000 will pay no tuition at in-state four-year public colleges and universities,” <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/college/" type="external">Clinton’s plan says</a>.</p>
<p>So Sanders overstates the impact of Clinton’s plan when he says it&#160;“will ​guarantee”​ free tuition for families with incomes of $125,000 a year or less. Actually, the plan “could eventually provide free in-state tuition to eligible students,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/us/politics/clinton-sanders-tuition-plan.html?_r=0" type="external">as the Times&#160;writes</a>.</p>
<p>Two speakers claimed&#160;that Trump had said that wages are “too high” in the United States. Not exactly.&#160;Trump said that in response to a question about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.</p>
<p>Sen. Casey said that Trump said, “Wages in America, quote, are too high,” and&#160;Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York repeated the talking point, saying, “Donald Trump actually stood on a debate stage and said that wages are ‘too high.’”</p>
<p>At a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/10/well-be-annotating-the-gop-debate-here/" type="external">Nov. 10, 2015, debate</a> hosted by Fox Business Network, Trump was asked if he was “sympathetic” to those who were calling for a $15 minimum wage. He responded that he “can’t be” because the country “is being beaten on every front economically.” He went on to say, “taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is.” The “it” was the federal minimum wage.</p>
<p>Here’s the question and Trump’s full answer:</p>
<p>Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, Nov. 10, 2015: Mr. Trump, as the leading presidential candidate on this stage and one whose tax plan exempts couples making up to $50,000 a year from paying any federal income taxes at all, are you sympathetic to the protesters cause since a $15 wage works out to about $31,000 a year?</p>
<p>Trump: I can’t be Neil. And the and the reason I can’t be is that we are a country that is being beaten on every front economically, militarily. There is nothing that we do now to win. We don’t win anymore. Our taxes are too high. I’ve come up with a tax plan that many, many people like very much. It’s going to be a tremendous plan. I think it’ll make our country and our economy very dynamic.</p>
<p>But, taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum. But we can not do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it.</p>
<p>Cavuto: So do not raise the minimum wage?</p>
<p>Trump: I would not do it.</p>
<p>Trump was criticized for the comment and was asked about it two days later on Fox News. Trump <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2015/11/13/donald-trump-on-immigration-strategy-deportation-will-be-done-in-very-humane/" type="external">said</a>, “And they said should we increase the minimum wage? And I’m saying that if we’re going to compete with other countries, we can’t do that because the wages would be too high. …&#160;The question was about the minimum wage. I’m not talking about wages being too high, I’m talking about minimum wage.”</p>
<p>Trump’s original statement may not have been clearly worded, but the context, and his explanation two days later, show he was talking about a $15 minimum wage being too high, not all wages in the U.S. in general.</p>
<p>Sanders continued to strain the facts about inequality of income and wealth, as&#160; <a href="" type="internal">he had</a> done <a href="" type="internal">throughout</a>his <a href="" type="internal">campaign</a>.</p>
<p>Wealth: Sanders said the “top one-tenth of 1&#160;percent now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.”</p>
<p>That’s a hotly debated claim. Sanders referred to a study by economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics and Political Science, <a href="https://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2014.pdf" type="external">first published in October 2014</a>. Their study indeed concluded that as of 2012, the top 0.1 percent of American households held 22 percent of the nation’s personal wealth, while the bottom 90 percent held 23 percent.</p>
<p>However, as <a href="" type="internal">we reported last year</a>, Saez and Zucman’s&#160;work has been criticized by economists at the Federal Reserve Board, which has conducted its own studies of the wealth held by U.S. households since the 1960s.</p>
<p>The Fed’s survey data put the share of wealth <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/notes/feds-notes/2015/increase-in-wealth-concentration-1989-2013-20150605.html#f13" type="external">held by the top 0.1 percent at 14 percent</a>, not 22 percent, and the Fed said that group’s share had grown at only half the rate that the Saez-Zucman study stated.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in a <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/feds/2015/files/2015030pap.pdf" type="external">paper published in 2015,</a> four Fed economists argue that the Saez-Zucman methodology has an “upward bias.” It is based on inferring wealth from the income reported on federal tax returns, but the Fed economists argue that this fails to capture untaxed cash benefits to middle-income families, such as employer-paid health insurance and employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare.</p>
<p>Income: Sanders also said the “top 1 percent in recent years has earned 85 percent of all new income.” But that’s no longer so, even according to Saez and Zucman.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2015.pdf" type="external">June 2016</a> update by Saez now puts the percentage of income growth captured by the top 1 percent from 1993&#160;to 2015 at 52 percent. That’s barely half — far below the 85 percent figure Sanders gave.</p>
<p>That same study also found “robust income growth for all groups” between 2013 and 2015, and said that for the bottom 99 percent, “incomes grew by 3.9% from 2014 to 2015, the best annual growth rate since 1999.”</p>
<p>So there is indeed evidence of large inequalities in the distribution of wealth and the growth of incomes. But Sanders exaggerates by using outdated or questionable data.</p>
<p>Rep.&#160;Joe Kennedy III said Americans’ wages “have not budged in 40 years,” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, his former law professor, said wages were “flat.” In fact, wages have had a roller-coaster ride during that time, and have been rising for years.</p>
<p>Kennedy:&#160;[Elizabeth Warren] taught us that [the law’s] impact lay not in classrooms or textbooks, but in a society where wages have not budged in 40 years.</p>
<p>Wages have more than “budged,” plunging in the 1970s and 1980s, and more recently showing strong growth.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>It’s true that real (inflation-adjusted) average weekly wages for rank-and-file, nonsupervisory workers were still 3.2 percent lower in June 2016 than they were 40 years earlier, in June 1976, according to the most <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000031" type="external">recent data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>But they were anything but stagnant in the interim, dropping 16.6 percent between January 1976 to the low point in January 1996.</p>
<p>Since then, weekly paychecks for nonsupervisory workers have regained nearly all that loss, and the upward trend continues.</p>
<p>Warren repeated Kennedy’s&#160;claim during her own speech, saying that “wages stay flat” in America.</p>
<p>Warren:&#160;I mean look around — Americans bust their tails, some working two or three jobs, but wages stay flat.</p>
<p>Actually, real average weekly earnings climbed 8.6 percent in the past eight years, and 4.5 percent in the past four years.</p>
<p>Kennedy and Warren are not the&#160;only politicians to have made&#160;this incorrect claim recently. “Flat wages” is also a Clinton claim, as we wrote previously <a href="" type="internal">here</a>and <a href="" type="internal">here</a>, and&#160;we flagged Trump on&#160;his statement that “wages have not been raised” <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>— Robert Farley, with Eugene Kiely, Brooks Jackson,&#160;Lori Robertson and Jenna Wang</p>
<p>“ <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/college/" type="external">Making college debt-free and taking on student debt</a>.” Press release. Hillary for America. Undated, accessed&#160;26 Jul 2016.</p>
<p>Saul, Stephanie and Matt Flegenheimer. “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/us/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-education.html" type="external">Hillary Clinton Embraces Ideas From Bernie Sanders’s College Tuition Plan</a>.” New York Times. 6 Jul 2016.</p>
<p>Carey, Kevin. “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/upshot/the-trouble-with-hillary-clintons-free-tuition-plan.html" type="external">The Trouble With Hillary Clinton’s Free Tuition Plan</a>.”&#160; New York Times. 19 Jul 2016.</p>
<p>Hulse, Carl. “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/us/politics/clinton-sanders-tuition-plan.html?_r=0" type="external">Candidates Join Clinton in Push for Tuition Plan Inspired by Sanders</a>.”&#160;New York Times. 13 Jul 2016.</p>
<p>Donald J. Trump for President. “ <a href="https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/trump-tax-reform.pdf" type="external">The Goals Of Donald J. Trump’s Tax Plan</a>.” Accessed 25 Jul 2016.</p>
<p>Nunns, Jim, et al. “ <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/analysis-donald-trumps-tax-plan/full" type="external">Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tax Plan</a>.” Tax Policy Center. 22 Dec 2015.</p>
<p>Cole, Alan. “ <a href="http://taxfoundation.org/article/details-and-analysis-donald-trump-s-tax-plan" type="external">Details and Analysis of Donald Trump’s Tax Plan</a>.” Tax Foundation. 29 Sep 2015.</p>
<p>Farley, Robert. “ <a href="" type="internal">Trump on Clinton’s Tax Plans</a>.” FactCheck.org. 28 Jun 2016.</p>
<p>FoxNews.com. <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2015/11/13/donald-trump-on-immigration-strategy-deportation-will-be-done-in-very-humane/" type="external">“Special Report with Bret Baier” transcript</a>. 12 Nov 2015.</p>
<p>WashingtonPost.com. “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/10/well-be-annotating-the-gop-debate-here/" type="external">Who said what and what it meant: The 4th GOP debate, annotated</a>.” 10 Nov 2015.</p>
<p>Saez, Emmanuel and Gabriel Zucman “ <a href="https://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/SaezZucman2014.pdf" type="external">Wealth Inequality in the United States Since 1913; Evidence From Capitalized Income Tax Data</a>” National Bureau of Economic Research. Oct 2014.</p>
<p>Bricker, Jesse and Alice Henriques, Jacob Krimmel, and John Sabelhaus. “ <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/notes/feds-notes/2015/increase-in-wealth-concentration-1989-2013-20150605.html#f13" type="external">The Increase in Wealth Concentration, 1989-2013</a>.” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Jun 2015.</p>
<p>Bricker, Jesse and Alice Henriques, Jacob Krimmel, and John Sabelhaus. “ <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/feds/2015/files/2015030pap.pdf" type="external">Measuring Income and Wealth at the Top Using Administrative and Survey Data</a>.” Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-030. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. April 2015.</p>
<p>Saez, Emmanuel. “ <a href="http://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2014.pdf" type="external">Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (Updated with 2015 preliminary estimates</a>.” 25 Jun 2016.</p>
<p>“ <a href="https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/bills/house/1337#document-51b52d50" type="external">House Enrolled Act No. 1337</a>.” Indiana General Assembly.</p>
<p>Levintova,&#160;Hannah.&#160;“ <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/trumps-vp-pick-passed-law-requiring-funerals-aborted-fetuses" type="external">Pence Signed a Law Requiring Burial or Cremation for Aborted Fetuses</a>.” Mother Jones. 15 Jul 2015.</p>
<p>Wang, Stephanie. “ <a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/30/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-indiana-abortion-law/86556662/" type="external">Judge halts Indiana’s new abortion law</a>.” Indianapolis Star. 30 Jun 2016.</p>
<p>Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National); <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000031" type="external">Average Weekly Earnings of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees, 1982-1984 Dollars</a>.” Data extracted 26 Jul 2016.</p> | Democratic Convention Day 1 | false | https://factcheck.org/2016/07/democratic-convention-day-1/ | 2016-07-26 | 2least
| 2,514 | PHILADELPHIA 8212 The 2016 Democratic National Convention is underway andamp160the factual inaccuracies on the first night focused on income college tuition andamp160something the Republican ticket had said or done Note to Readers This story was written with the help of the entire staff including some of those based in Philadelphia who are at the convention site As we did for the Republican National Convention we intend to vet the major speeches at the Democratic National Convention for factual accuracy applying the same standards to both Pennsylvania Sen Bob Casey said Donald Trump 8220would cut taxes for the richest Americans at the expense of the middle class8221 The wealthiest Americans would receive the largest tax cuts under Trump8217s tax plan but everyone would get some tax relief Middleincome Americans would receive average tax cuts of about 2700amp160in 2017amp160under Trump8217s plan according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center Trump8217s plan would among other things consolidate the current seven income tax brackets into four with a top marginal rate of 25 percent it8217s currently 396 percent According to an analysis of the plan by the nonpartisanamp160 Tax Policy Center Trump8217s proposal would 8220reduce taxes throughout the income distribution8221 Nonetheless the biggest cuts would come for the wealthiest Americans in both raw dollars and as a percentage of income the Tax Policy Center found The top 1 percent for example would get an average tax cut of more thanamp160275000 about 175 percent of aftertax income in 2017 But middleincome people would see a tax cut too 8220Middleincome households would receive an average tax cut of about 2700or about 5 percent of aftertax income8221 the Tax Policy Center concluded An analysis by the Tax Foundationamp160reached a similaramp160conclusion 8212 the biggest gains in aftertax income would accrue to the wealthiest taxpayers under Trump8217s proposal But the plan 8220would cut taxes and lead to higher aftertax incomes for taxpayers at all levels of income8221 The Tax Foundationamp160analyzed the plan8217s impact with dynamic and without static taking into account the expected effect on the economy On a static basis middleincome taxpayers 8212 between theamp16030th to 80th percentiles 8212 would see an increase in their aftertax adjusted gross income of between 3 percent and 83 percent Taking into account the positive effects on the economy that the tax cuts could be expected to stimulate the Tax Foundation found middleincome taxpayers 8212 between the 30th to 70th percentiles 8212 would see a nearly 20 percent increase in aftertax adjusted gross income The Tax Foundation cautioned that the loss in revenue under Trump8217s plan 8212 even with expected benefits to the economy 8212 would 8220increase the federal government8217s deficit by over 10 trillion8221 over 10 years One could argue that such large tax cuts might lead to spending cuts that disproportionately affect middleincome taxpayers But Trump has not been specific about where he would begin making spending cuts Connecticut Gov Dannel Malloy claimed that GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence 8220signed a law that would have forced women to hold funerals for fetuses even in some cases for a miscarriage8221amp160That8217s not so The controversial antiabortion bill Malloy referred to which Indiana Gov Pence signed into law March 24 contained a provision stating that an aborted or miscarried fetus 8220must be cremated or interred8221 and that the hospital or abortion facility not the mother as Malloy suggested is responsible for the disposition Some have characterized this as fetuses receivingamp1608220what amounts to a funeral8221 But that8217s incorrect The word 8220funeral8221 refers to a ceremony not to the burial or cremation that follows For example Dictionarycom defines 8220funeral8221 as 8220the ceremonies for a dead person prior to burial or cremation8221 Emphasis added is ours And in fact the Indiana law required no funeral ceremony It even specified that the parents would not be required to provide a name for the fetus A federal judge blocked the law from going into effect late last month Sen Bernie Sanders said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton 8220will 8203guarantee82218203 free tuition at instate public colleges or universities for families with incomes of 125000 a year or less But free tuition would not be guaranteed States must put up matching funds for free tuition Also the freetuition plan would be phased in and not available to families earning as much as 125000 until 2021 Sanders mentioned the freetuition plan in his speech as an example of how Clinton has adopted some of his ideas for the general election in a show of unity after the contentious primary Sanders During the primary campaign Secretary Clinton and I both focused on college debt but with different approaches Recently however we have come together on a proposal that will revolutionize higher education in America It will guarantee that the children of any family in this country with an annual income of 125000 a year or less 8211 83 percent of our population 8211 will be able to go to a public college or university tuition free Clinton announced her plan on July 6 but her plan calls for states to 8220step up and invest in higher education8221 The New York Timesamp160 wrote that 8220the federal government would provide tuition grants to states that agree to put up some matching money8221 The paper noted that 8220some experts said details of the initiative 8212 including exactly how it would work and be paid for 8212 were sketchy and raised concerns that some states would decline to contribute money8221 More recently Timesamp160columnist Kevin Carey wroteamp1608220States will be able to opt out of the Clinton plan just as a significant number have chosen not to accept large federal subsidies to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act8221 Also free tuition would be gradually phased in beginning with families earning 85000 or less 8220By 2021 families with income up to 125000 will pay no tuition at instate fouryear public colleges and universities8221 Clinton8217s plan says So Sanders overstates the impact of Clinton8217s plan when he says itamp1608220will 8203guarantee82218203 free tuition for families with incomes of 125000 a year or less Actually the plan 8220could eventually provide free instate tuition to eligible students8221 as the Timesamp160writes Two speakers claimedamp160that Trump had said that wages are 8220too high8221 in the United States Not exactlyamp160Trump said that in response to a question about raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour Sen Casey said that Trump said 8220Wages in America quote are too high8221 andamp160Sen Kirsten Gillibrand of New York repeated the talking point saying 8220Donald Trump actually stood on a debate stage and said that wages are 8216too high82178221 At a Nov 10 2015 debate hosted by Fox Business Network Trump was asked if he was 8220sympathetic8221 to those who were calling for a 15 minimum wage He responded that he 8220can8217t be8221 because the country 8220is being beaten on every front economically8221 He went on to say 8220taxes too high wages too high we8217re not going to be able to compete against the world I hate to say it but we have to leave it the way it is8221 The 8220it8221 was the federal minimum wage Here8217s the question and Trump8217s full answer Fox News8217 Neil Cavuto Nov 10 2015 Mr Trump as the leading presidential candidate on this stage and one whose tax plan exempts couples making up to 50000 a year from paying any federal income taxes at all are you sympathetic to the protesters cause since a 15 wage works out to about 31000 a year Trump I can8217t be Neil And the and the reason I can8217t be is that we are a country that is being beaten on every front economically militarily There is nothing that we do now to win We don8217t win anymore Our taxes are too high I8217ve come up with a tax plan that many many people like very much It8217s going to be a tremendous plan I think it8217ll make our country and our economy very dynamic But taxes too high wages too high we8217re not going to be able to compete against the world I hate to say it but we have to leave it the way it is People have to go out they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum But we can not do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world We just can8217t do it Cavuto So do not raise the minimum wage Trump I would not do it Trump was criticized for the comment and was asked about it two days later on Fox News Trump said 8220And they said should we increase the minimum wage And I8217m saying that if we8217re going to compete with other countries we can8217t do that because the wages would be too high 8230amp160The question was about the minimum wage I8217m not talking about wages being too high I8217m talking about minimum wage8221 Trump8217s original statement may not have been clearly worded but the context and his explanation two days later show he was talking about a 15 minimum wage being too high not all wages in the US in general Sanders continued to strain the facts about inequality of income and wealth asamp160 he had done throughouthis campaign Wealth Sanders said the 8220top onetenth of 1amp160percent now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent8221 That8217s a hotly debated claim Sanders referred to a study by economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics and Political Science first published in October 2014 Their study indeed concluded that as of 2012 the top 01 percent of American households held 22 percent of the nation8217s personal wealth while the bottom 90 percent held 23 percent However as we reported last year Saez and Zucman8217samp160work has been criticized by economists at the Federal Reserve Board which has conducted its own studies of the wealth held by US households since the 1960s The Fed8217s survey data put the share of wealth held by the top 01 percent at 14 percent not 22 percent and the Fed said that group8217s share had grown at only half the rate that the SaezZucman study stated Furthermore in a paper published in 2015 four Fed economists argue that the SaezZucman methodology has an 8220upward bias8221 It is based on inferring wealth from the income reported on federal tax returns but the Fed economists argue that this fails to capture untaxed cash benefits to middleincome families such as employerpaid health insurance and employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare Income Sanders also said the 8220top 1 percent in recent years has earned 85 percent of all new income8221 But that8217s no longer so even according to Saez and Zucman A June 2016 update by Saez now puts the percentage of income growth captured by the top 1 percent from 1993amp160to 2015 at 52 percent That8217s barely half 8212 far below the 85 percent figure Sanders gave That same study also found 8220robust income growth for all groups8221 between 2013 and 2015 and said that for the bottom 99 percent 8220incomes grew by 39 from 2014 to 2015 the best annual growth rate since 19998221 So there is indeed evidence of large inequalities in the distribution of wealth and the growth of incomes But Sanders exaggerates by using outdated or questionable data Repamp160Joe Kennedy III said Americans8217 wages 8220have not budged in 40 years8221 and Sen Elizabeth Warren his former law professor said wages were 8220flat8221 In fact wages have had a rollercoaster ride during that time and have been rising for years Kennedyamp160Elizabeth Warren taught us that the law8217s impact lay not in classrooms or textbooks but in a society where wages have not budged in 40 years Wages have more than 8220budged8221 plunging in the 1970s and 1980s and more recently showing strong growth It8217s true that real inflationadjusted average weekly wages for rankandfile nonsupervisory workers were still 32 percent lower in June 2016 than they were 40 years earlier in June 1976 according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics But they were anything but stagnant in the interim dropping 166 percent between January 1976 to the low point in January 1996 Since then weekly paychecks for nonsupervisory workers have regained nearly all that loss and the upward trend continues Warren repeated Kennedy8217samp160claim during her own speech saying that 8220wages stay flat8221 in America Warrenamp160I mean look around 8212 Americans bust their tails some working two or three jobs but wages stay flat Actually real average weekly earnings climbed 86 percent in the past eight years and 45 percent in the past four years Kennedy and Warren are not theamp160only politicians to have madeamp160this incorrect claim recently 8220Flat wages8221 is also a Clinton claim as we wrote previously hereand here andamp160we flagged Trump onamp160his statement that 8220wages have not been raised8221 here 8212 Robert Farley with Eugene Kiely Brooks Jacksonamp160Lori Robertson and Jenna Wang 8220 Making college debtfree and taking on student debt8221 Press release Hillary for America Undated accessedamp16026 Jul 2016 Saul Stephanie and Matt Flegenheimer 8220 Hillary Clinton Embraces Ideas From Bernie Sanders8217s College Tuition Plan8221 New York Times 6 Jul 2016 Carey Kevin 8220 The Trouble With Hillary Clinton8217s Free Tuition Plan8221amp160 New York Times 19 Jul 2016 Hulse Carl 8220 Candidates Join Clinton in Push for Tuition Plan Inspired by Sanders8221amp160New York Times 13 Jul 2016 Donald J Trump for President 8220 The Goals Of Donald J Trump8217s Tax Plan8221 Accessed 25 Jul 2016 Nunns Jim et al 8220 Analysis of Donald Trump8217s Tax Plan8221 Tax Policy Center 22 Dec 2015 Cole Alan 8220 Details and Analysis of Donald Trump8217s Tax Plan8221 Tax Foundation 29 Sep 2015 Farley Robert 8220 Trump on Clinton8217s Tax Plans8221 FactCheckorg 28 Jun 2016 FoxNewscom 8220Special Report with Bret Baier8221 transcript 12 Nov 2015 WashingtonPostcom 8220 Who said what and what it meant The 4th GOP debate annotated8221 10 Nov 2015 Saez Emmanuel and Gabriel Zucman 8220 Wealth Inequality in the United States Since 1913 Evidence From Capitalized Income Tax Data8221 National Bureau of Economic Research Oct 2014 Bricker Jesse and Alice Henriques Jacob Krimmel and John Sabelhaus 8220 The Increase in Wealth Concentration 198920138221 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Jun 2015 Bricker Jesse and Alice Henriques Jacob Krimmel and John Sabelhaus 8220 Measuring Income and Wealth at the Top Using Administrative and Survey Data8221 Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015030 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System April 2015 Saez Emmanuel 8220 Striking it Richer The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States Updated with 2015 preliminary estimates8221 25 Jun 2016 8220 House Enrolled Act No 13378221 Indiana General Assembly Levintovaamp160Hannahamp1608220 Pence Signed a Law Requiring Burial or Cremation for Aborted Fetuses8221 Mother Jones 15 Jul 2015 Wang Stephanie 8220 Judge halts Indiana8217s new abortion law8221 Indianapolis Star 30 Jun 2016 Bureau of Labor Statistics 8220Employment Hours and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey National Average Weekly Earnings of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees 19821984 Dollars8221 Data extracted 26 Jul 2016 | PHILADELPHIA/PROPN 8212/NUM The/DET 2016/NUM Democratic/PROPN National/PROPN Convention/PROPN is/AUX underway/ADJ andamp160the/DET factual/ADJ inaccuracies/NOUN on/ADP the/DET first/ADJ night/NOUN focused/VERB on/ADP income/NOUN college/NOUN tuition/NOUN andamp160something/VERB the/DET Republican/ADJ ticket/NOUN had/AUX said/VERB or/CCONJ done/VERB Note/PROPN to/ADP Readers/NOUN This/DET story/NOUN was/AUX written/VERB with/ADP the/DET help/NOUN 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<p>The federal government’s finances were dismal even before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was enacted. That is why lawmakers who pushed for its passage felt compelled to try to calm worried Americans by claiming that the law would cut projected federal budget deficits in addition to covering the uninsured. <a href="#Note1" type="external">[1]</a></p>
<p>And, in fact, the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) official estimate shows that PPACA’s health care provisions <a href="#Note2" type="external">[2]</a> would cut projected deficits by $124 billion over the period from 2010 to 2019. <a href="#Note3" type="external">[3]</a> But that cost estimate is not the whole story — not by a long shot. A close examination of what CBO said, as well as other evidence, makes it clear that the deficit reduction associated with PPACA is based on budget gimmicks, sleights of hand, accounting tricks, and completely implausible assumptions. A more honest accounting reveals the new law as a trillion-dollar budget buster.</p>
<p>Summary</p>
<p>CBO must assume that current law will be enacted as written, even in cases where this is improbable. For instance, PPACA makes $575 billion in projected cuts to Medicare, threatening seniors’ access to care. <a href="#Note4" type="external">[4]</a> Regarding these and the existing planned cuts in payments to physicians under what is known as the “sustainable growth rate” formula, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote:</p>
<p>[C]urrent law now includes a number of policies that might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time. For example, PPACA and the Reconciliation Act reduced payments to many Medicare providers relative to what the government would have paid under prior law. On the basis of those cuts in payment rates and the existing “sustainable growth rate” [SGR] mechanism that governs Medicare’s payments to physicians, CBO projects that Medicare spending (per beneficiary, adjusted for overall inflation) will increase significantly more slowly during the next two decades than it has increased during the past two decades. If those provisions would have subsequently been modified or implemented incompletely, then the budgetary effects of repealing PPACA and the relevant provisions of the Reconciliation Act could be quite different — but CBO cannot forecast future changes in law or assume such changes in its estimates. <a href="#Note5" type="external">[5]</a></p>
<p>Medicare’s Chief Actuary echoed this concern in his own analysis. <a href="#Note6" type="external">[6]</a> If Medicare savings do not materialize, new spending under PPACA will be added to the deficit.</p>
<p>As noted by Elmendorf, Medicare’s payments to physicians are scheduled to be cut as well under the SGR formula. There is bipartisan agreement to stop this from happening. But the “doc fix” costs billions, requiring Congress to scramble to find an offset. Without it, physicians would face a 25 percent (and growing) Medicare payment reduction, restricting seniors’ access to care as more doctors become unable to serve Medicare patients. Congress has never allowed this to happen, even as it has insisted on paying for the “fix” with offsets.</p>
<p>While pushing PPACA through Congress, President Obama took the position that it was no longer necessary to pay for the “doc fix.” He proposed to add its costs to the national debt, but he did not want those costs to count against PPACA, because they would explode the myth of deficit reduction. So his solution was to pass the “doc fix” in separate legislation. But it does not matter to taxpayers if the President’s ideas are passed in one bill or many. All that matters is the total cost. And the President’s total bill for health care — with an unfinanced “doc fix” — shows massive deficits, not deficit reduction.</p>
<p>CBO further assumes that all cuts to existing programs and new revenues created by PPACA are used to pay for new spending. In reality, this will not be the case. PPACA increases Medicare taxes and imposes cuts in Medicare that are double-counted as offsets for new programs, but are also pledged to extend Medicare’s solvency. <a href="#Note7" type="external">[7]</a> They cannot do both.</p>
<p>Another source of double-counted savings is the CLASS Act, which creates a new, federally run long-term care insurance program. Beneficiaries will begin paying premiums in 2011 but will not receive benefits for five years. This frontloads revenue and creates the illusion of $70 billion to pay for new spending under PPACA. In reality, premium payments from CLASS will be used to pay out benefits in later years. <a href="#Note8" type="external">[8]</a> Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) called this “a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of.” <a href="#Note9" type="external">[9]</a></p>
<p>Savings within Medicare and CLASS revenues can be spent only once. If they are used to increase Medicare’s solvency and pay for the CLASS program, new spending in PPACA will be added to the deficit.</p>
<p>PPACA also creates a new subsidy program for low- and middle-income Americans to purchase insurance in the new health exchanges. CBO predicts that 19 million Americans will benefit from this generous new entitlement program at a cost of $460 billion by 2019. But the new law includes substantial incentives for employers to drop existing coverage and allow employees to instead purchase taxpayer-subsidized coverage. <a href="#Note10" type="external">[10]</a> Former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin points out that many businesses could drop their employee health plan, raise wages to make up for the lost benefit, pay the employer penalty for not offering insurance, and still come out ahead. <a href="#Note11" type="external">[11]</a> These incentives, exacerbated by the various new insurance rules that will cause a faster rate of growth in employer plan premiums, will cause the cost of the subsidy program to greatly exceed initial projections.</p>
<p>Finally, the CBO scoring of PPACA looks only at the first 10 years of the law’s enactment. This, however, includes just six years of full spending, as the costliest provisions do not go into effect until 2014. This also allows PPACA to meet the requirements of the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rule, which requires legislation to exhibit deficit neutrality over a 10-year window. In theory, PAYGO should maintain levels of deficit spending. In actuality, it has had little success at halting the addition of new spending to the deficit, since new programs can create savings in one decade but run trillions in deficits the next and still meet PAYGO requirements.</p>
<p>The CLASS program alone is an excellent example of how easy it is to create a new and completely insolvent program without violating PAYGO. Experts — including the CBO Director, Medicare’s Chief Actuary, and the American Academy of Actuaries — have all concluded that CLASS is unsustainable and will go bankrupt. Despite this, Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl writes that, perversely, “repealing CLASS would violate the ‘pay as you go’ law against expanding budget deficits. This is because ‘pay-go’ focuses only on the 10-year $70 billion ‘cost’ of repeal and ignores the trillions of dollars that would be saved thereafter.” <a href="#Note12" type="external">[12]</a></p>
<p>The reality is that the new health care law will result in trillions in unaffordable deficit spending.</p>
<p>Impact</p>
<p>It Will Increase the Federal Deficit. In 2010, the federal deficit was $1.3 trillion. While the average historical deficit is 2.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), by 2050, the budget gap is projected to exceed 20 percent of GDP. <a href="#Note13" type="external">[13]</a> This trend is set to continue as the population ages and the baby boomer generation retires, causing the cost of programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to soar.</p>
<p>Rising health care costs further add to growth in entitlement spending. Creating a new entitlement program and expanding an existing one will hasten the arrival of inevitable financial collapse. <a href="#Note14" type="external">[14]</a> The deficit-reducing provisions of PPACA are either unrealistic or unsustainable.</p>
<p>It Delays Progress to Repair Existing Unsustainable Entitlement Programs. Claims that the new health care law will reduce the deficit are irresponsible and delay meaningful action. To truly reduce deficit spending, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security must be reformed. The sooner a solution is adopted, the better: current beneficiaries would experience greater stability and future beneficiaries would have more time to adjust to change.</p>
<p>PPACA made significant cuts to Medicare, but these can either increase the program’s solvency or pay for new spending — not both. Moreover, the new law increased Medicare payroll taxes and extended them to apply to investment income, but it will use the additional revenue to pay for non-Medicare spending. This sets a dangerous precedent that could further increase the insolvency of the program. The provisions create the illusion of Medicare reform, but the changes are the wrong ones and will only give lawmakers another excuse to further avoid addressing the long-term health of entitlement programs.</p>
<p>It Promises Future Increases in Taxes and Penalties. As mentioned earlier, PPACA creates enormous incentives for certain employers to drop their employer-sponsored coverage. The employer penalty included in the law ($2,000 per employee) is low enough to allow employers to drop coverage, pay the penalty, and come out ahead. John C. Goodman, President of the National Center for Policy Analysis, writes, “As more employers dump their employees onto the exchange and as the cost to taxpayers rises, the potential pressure to increase the fine will become inexorable.” <a href="#Note15" type="external">[15]</a> Larger penalties would harm businesses’ ability to create jobs, raise wages, or keep their current workers.</p>
<p>It Puts Future Generations on the Hook. Once Americans rely on the new subsidies in order to afford coverage, Congress will have a hard time walking back the generous program. To pay for it, Congress can either raise taxes or add to the deficit. Of course, deficit spending is not free; it merely delays paying for programs, requiring tomorrow’s taxpayers — currently unable to vote — to pay for current citizens’ benefits. <a href="#Note16" type="external">[16]</a></p>
<p>A New Direction</p>
<p>If Congress is serious about reducing the deficit and controlling spending, lawmakers should set aside easily manipulated rules like PAYGO and require scoring that reveals the true long-term impact of legislation. This would make it more difficult for legislation like PPACA, which increases the size of government and creates unsustainable new spending, to become law. To reduce the deficit, PPACA must be repealed.</p>
<p>Budget process reform should enforce policy changes that reduce the size of the federal government, reduce out-of-control federal spending, and prohibit any tax increase on the American people. <a href="#Note17" type="external">[17]</a> Congress should prominently disclose long-term entitlement program obligations in the budget resolution to provide a more accurate picture of the federal government’s commitments. Scoring of policy changes should also look at long-term effects on the government’s total unfunded obligations to give lawmakers a more accurate understanding of the true cost of any piece of legislation. In so doing, the reality of PPACA’s 10-year scoring would have been revealed.</p>
<p>Congress should also establish mechanisms to equitably assess and enforce changes in spending and revenues. CBO’s current spending baseline assumes that laws that authorize spending will continue despite scheduled expiration dates. However, CBO assumes that laws relating to taxes will expire as scheduled. A new enforcement strategy must consider both spending and revenue on the same baseline in order to be effective.</p>
<p>Finally, mandatory spending on entitlements should be put on a long-term budget. Entitlement spending is currently on autopilot, allowing open-ended growth. Left unchecked, entitlement spending will eventually crowd-out other priorities. Instead, these programs should be put on a limited budget, and Congress should regularly examine their spending and take steps to keep the programs within their limits. Automatic adjustments or triggers should be put in place to reduce spending if Congress fails to act. This will force lawmakers to put these programs on stable financial footing. Medicare should be transformed to a limited, defined-contribution system that allows seniors to seek better value by purchasing a health care plan that suits their needs in the private market. <a href="#Note18" type="external">[18]</a> Medicaid reform should limit taxpayer funding but give states greater flexibility to administer their respective programs while also creating the opportunity for beneficiaries to receive better quality coverage in the private market.</p>
<p>James C. Capretta is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Kathryn Nix is a Research Assistant in the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[1]Congress cannot build sound market-based health care reform on the foundation of a flawed health care law. Therefore, the health care law must be repealed in its entirety.</p>
<p>The House of Representatives has taken a major step towards full repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA-otherwise known as “Obamacare”). Until full repeal occurs, Congress must continue to focus on the core failures and consequences of PPACA and block its implementation to allow time to achieve repeal and lay the groundwork for a new market-based direction for health care reform.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[2]Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Public Law 111-148, and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Public Law 111-152.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[3]Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, Congressional Budget Office, letter to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives, March 20, 2010, at <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/113xx/doc11379/AmendReconProp.pdf" type="external">http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/113xx/doc11379/AmendReconProp.pdf</a> (January 13, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[4]Robert E. Moffit, “Obamacare and Medicare Provider Cuts: Jeopardizing Seniors’ Access,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 3105, January 19, 2011, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/01/Obamacare-and-Medicare-Provider-Cuts-Jeopardizing-Seniors-Access" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/01/Obamacare-and-Medicare-Provider-Cuts-Jeopardizing-Seniors-Access</a>.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[5]Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, Congressional Budget Office, letter to John Boehner, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives, January 6, 2011, at <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/120xx/doc12040/01-06-PPACA_Repeal.pdf" type="external">http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/120xx/doc12040/01-06-PPACA_Repeal.pdf</a> (January 10, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[6]See Richard S. Foster, Chief Actuary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “Estimated Financial Effects of the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,’ As Amended,” April 22, 2010, p. 9, at <a href="http://www.politico.com/static/PPM130_oact_memorandum_on_financial_impact_of_ppaca_as_enacted.html" type="external">http://www.politico.com/static/PPM130_oact_memorandum_on_financial_impact_of_ppaca_as_enacted.html</a> (January 13, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[7]See U.S. Senate Budget Committee Republicans, “Budget Perspective: The Real Deficit Effect of the Democrats’ Health Package,” March 23, 2010, at <a href="http://budget.senate.gov/republican/pressarchive/2010-03-23BudgetPerspective.pdf" type="external">http://budget.senate.gov/republican/pressarchive/2010-03-23BudgetPerspective.pdf</a> (January 13, 2011); Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “2010 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplemental Medical Insurance Trust Funds,” August 5, 2010, at <a href="https://www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2010.pdf" type="external">https://www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2010.pdf</a> (January 13, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[8]See Brian Blase, “No CLASS: How Congress Saddled Taxpayers with Another Costly Entitlement,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2444, July 29, 2010, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/07/No-CLASS-How-Congress-Saddled-Taxpayers-with-Another-Costly-Entitlement" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/07/No-CLASS-How-Congress-Saddled-Taxpayers-with-Another-Costly-Entitlement</a>.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[9]Lori Montgomery, “Proposed Long-Term Insurance Program Raises Questions,” The Washington Post, October 27, 2009, at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102701417.html" type="external">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102701417.html</a> (January 13, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[10]See Brian Blase and Paul Winfree, “Obamacare and Health Subsidies: Expanding Perverse Incentives for Employers and Employees,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 3112, January 20, 2011, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/01/Obamacare-and-Health-Subsidies-Expanding-Perverse-Incentives-for-Employers-and-Employees" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/01/Obamacare-and-Health-Subsidies-Expanding-Perverse-Incentives-for-Employers-and-Employees</a>.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[11]Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Cameron Smith, “Labor Markets and Health Care Reform: New Results,” American Action Forum, May 2010, at <a href="http://americanactionforum.org/files/LaborMktsHCRAAF5-27-10.pdf" type="external">http://americanactionforum.org/files/LaborMktsHCRAAF5-27-10.pdf</a> (January 13, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[12]Brian Riedl, “CLASS Is the Next Huge Taxpayer Bailout,” Heritage Foundation Commentary, July 26, 2010, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Commentary/2010/07/CLASS-is-the-Next-Huge-Taxpayer-Bailout" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/Research/Commentary/2010/07/CLASS-is-the-Next-Huge-Taxpayer-Bailout</a> (January 13, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[13]The Heritage Foundation, “Federal Budget Deficits Will Reach Levels Never Seen Before in the U.S.,” 2010 Budget Chart Book, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/federal-budget-deficits" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/federal-budget-deficits</a>.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[14]PPACA adds a total of 16 million Americans to Medicaid by 2019. See Elmendorf, letter to Pelosi, March 20, 2010.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[15]John C. Goodman, “The $6-an-Hour Minimum Wage,” John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog, October 18, 2010, at <a href="http://healthblog.ncpa.org/the-6-an-hour-min-wage/?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=HA#more-13959" type="external">http://healthblog.ncpa.org/the-6-an-hour-min-wage/?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=HA#more-13959</a> (January 13, 2011).</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[16]See James C. Capretta, “Obamacare: Impact on Future Generations,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 2921, June 1, 2010, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/06/ObamaCare-Impact-on-Future-Generations" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/06/ObamaCare-Impact-on-Future-Generations</a>.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[17]See Alison Acosta Fraser, “Any Stimulus Legislation Must Include Budget Reforms to Address Long-Term Challenges,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 2199, January 9, 2009, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/01/Any-Stimulus-Legislation-Must-Include-Budget-Reforms-to-Address-Long-Term-Challenges" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/01/Any-Stimulus-Legislation-Must-Include-Budget-Reforms-to-Address-Long-Term-Challenges</a>.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />[18]See Robert Moffit and James C. Capretta, “Medicare Reform: A New Vision for a Better Program,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2500, December 13, 2010, at <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/12/How-to-Fix-Medicare-A-New-Vision-for-a-Better-Program" type="external">http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/12/How-to-Fix-Medicare-A-New-Vision-for-a-Better-Program</a>.</p> | Obamacare and the Budget: Playing Games with Numbers | false | https://eppc.org/publications/obamacare-and-the-budget-playing-games-with-numbers/ | 1right-center
| 2,514 | The federal government8217s finances were dismal even before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act PPACA was enacted That is why lawmakers who pushed for its passage felt compelled to try to calm worried Americans by claiming that the law would cut projected federal budget deficits in addition to covering the uninsured 1 And in fact the Congressional Budget Office8217s CBO official estimate shows that PPACA8217s health care provisions 2 would cut projected deficits by 124 billion over the period from 2010 to 2019 3 But that cost estimate is not the whole story 8212 not by a long shot A close examination of what CBO said as well as other evidence makes it clear that the deficit reduction associated with PPACA is based on budget gimmicks sleights of hand accounting tricks and completely implausible assumptions A more honest accounting reveals the new law as a trilliondollar budget buster Summary CBO must assume that current law will be enacted as written even in cases where this is improbable For instance PPACA makes 575 billion in projected cuts to Medicare threatening seniors8217 access to care 4 Regarding these and the existing planned cuts in payments to physicians under what is known as the 8220sustainable growth rate8221 formula CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote Current law now includes a number of policies that might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time For example PPACA and the Reconciliation Act reduced payments to many Medicare providers relative to what the government would have paid under prior law On the basis of those cuts in payment rates and the existing 8220sustainable growth rate8221 SGR mechanism that governs Medicare8217s payments to physicians CBO projects that Medicare spending per beneficiary adjusted for overall inflation will increase significantly more slowly during the next two decades than it has increased during the past two decades If those provisions would have subsequently been modified or implemented incompletely then the budgetary effects of repealing PPACA and the relevant provisions of the Reconciliation Act could be quite different 8212 but CBO cannot forecast future changes in law or assume such changes in its estimates 5 Medicare8217s Chief Actuary echoed this concern in his own analysis 6 If Medicare savings do not materialize new spending under PPACA will be added to the deficit As noted by Elmendorf Medicare8217s payments to physicians are scheduled to be cut as well under the SGR formula There is bipartisan agreement to stop this from happening But the 8220doc fix8221 costs billions requiring Congress to scramble to find an offset Without it physicians would face a 25 percent and growing Medicare payment reduction restricting seniors8217 access to care as more doctors become unable to serve Medicare patients Congress has never allowed this to happen even as it has insisted on paying for the 8220fix8221 with offsets While pushing PPACA through Congress President Obama took the position that it was no longer necessary to pay for the 8220doc fix8221 He proposed to add its costs to the national debt but he did not want those costs to count against PPACA because they would explode the myth of deficit reduction So his solution was to pass the 8220doc fix8221 in separate legislation But it does not matter to taxpayers if the President8217s ideas are passed in one bill or many All that matters is the total cost And the President8217s total bill for health care 8212 with an unfinanced 8220doc fix8221 8212 shows massive deficits not deficit reduction CBO further assumes that all cuts to existing programs and new revenues created by PPACA are used to pay for new spending In reality this will not be the case PPACA increases Medicare taxes and imposes cuts in Medicare that are doublecounted as offsets for new programs but are also pledged to extend Medicare8217s solvency 7 They cannot do both Another source of doublecounted savings is the CLASS Act which creates a new federally run longterm care insurance program Beneficiaries will begin paying premiums in 2011 but will not receive benefits for five years This frontloads revenue and creates the illusion of 70 billion to pay for new spending under PPACA In reality premium payments from CLASS will be used to pay out benefits in later years 8 Senator Kent Conrad DND called this 8220a Ponzi scheme of the first order the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of8221 9 Savings within Medicare and CLASS revenues can be spent only once If they are used to increase Medicare8217s solvency and pay for the CLASS program new spending in PPACA will be added to the deficit PPACA also creates a new subsidy program for low and middleincome Americans to purchase insurance in the new health exchanges CBO predicts that 19 million Americans will benefit from this generous new entitlement program at a cost of 460 billion by 2019 But the new law includes substantial incentives for employers to drop existing coverage and allow employees to instead purchase taxpayersubsidized coverage 10 Former CBO director Douglas HoltzEakin points out that many businesses could drop their employee health plan raise wages to make up for the lost benefit pay the employer penalty for not offering insurance and still come out ahead 11 These incentives exacerbated by the various new insurance rules that will cause a faster rate of growth in employer plan premiums will cause the cost of the subsidy program to greatly exceed initial projections Finally the CBO scoring of PPACA looks only at the first 10 years of the law8217s enactment This however includes just six years of full spending as the costliest provisions do not go into effect until 2014 This also allows PPACA to meet the requirements of the payasyougo PAYGO rule which requires legislation to exhibit deficit neutrality over a 10year window In theory PAYGO should maintain levels of deficit spending In actuality it has had little success at halting the addition of new spending to the deficit since new programs can create savings in one decade but run trillions in deficits the next and still meet PAYGO requirements The CLASS program alone is an excellent example of how easy it is to create a new and completely insolvent program without violating PAYGO Experts 8212 including the CBO Director Medicare8217s Chief Actuary and the American Academy of Actuaries 8212 have all concluded that CLASS is unsustainable and will go bankrupt Despite this Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl writes that perversely 8220repealing CLASS would violate the 8216pay as you go8217 law against expanding budget deficits This is because 8216paygo8217 focuses only on the 10year 70 billion 8216cost8217 of repeal and ignores the trillions of dollars that would be saved thereafter8221 12 The reality is that the new health care law will result in trillions in unaffordable deficit spending Impact It Will Increase the Federal Deficit In 2010 the federal deficit was 13 trillion While the average historical deficit is 29 percent of gross domestic product GDP by 2050 the budget gap is projected to exceed 20 percent of GDP 13 This trend is set to continue as the population ages and the baby boomer generation retires causing the cost of programs such as Medicare Medicaid and Social Security to soar Rising health care costs further add to growth in entitlement spending Creating a new entitlement program and expanding an existing one will hasten the arrival of inevitable financial collapse 14 The deficitreducing provisions of PPACA are either unrealistic or unsustainable It Delays Progress to Repair Existing Unsustainable Entitlement Programs Claims that the new health care law will reduce the deficit are irresponsible and delay meaningful action To truly reduce deficit spending Medicare Medicaid and Social Security must be reformed The sooner a solution is adopted the better current beneficiaries would experience greater stability and future beneficiaries would have more time to adjust to change PPACA made significant cuts to Medicare but these can either increase the program8217s solvency or pay for new spending 8212 not both Moreover the new law increased Medicare payroll taxes and extended them to apply to investment income but it will use the additional revenue to pay for nonMedicare spending This sets a dangerous precedent that could further increase the insolvency of the program The provisions create the illusion of Medicare reform but the changes are the wrong ones and will only give lawmakers another excuse to further avoid addressing the longterm health of entitlement programs It Promises Future Increases in Taxes and Penalties As mentioned earlier PPACA creates enormous incentives for certain employers to drop their employersponsored coverage The employer penalty included in the law 2000 per employee is low enough to allow employers to drop coverage pay the penalty and come out ahead John C Goodman President of the National Center for Policy Analysis writes 8220As more employers dump their employees onto the exchange and as the cost to taxpayers rises the potential pressure to increase the fine will become inexorable8221 15 Larger penalties would harm businesses8217 ability to create jobs raise wages or keep their current workers It Puts Future Generations on the Hook Once Americans rely on the new subsidies in order to afford coverage Congress will have a hard time walking back the generous program To pay for it Congress can either raise taxes or add to the deficit Of course deficit spending is not free it merely delays paying for programs requiring tomorrow8217s taxpayers 8212 currently unable to vote 8212 to pay for current citizens8217 benefits 16 A New Direction If Congress is serious about reducing the deficit and controlling spending lawmakers should set aside easily manipulated rules like PAYGO and require scoring that reveals the true longterm impact of legislation This would make it more difficult for legislation like PPACA which increases the size of government and creates unsustainable new spending to become law To reduce the deficit PPACA must be repealed Budget process reform should enforce policy changes that reduce the size of the federal government reduce outofcontrol federal spending and prohibit any tax increase on the American people 17 Congress should prominently disclose longterm entitlement program obligations in the budget resolution to provide a more accurate picture of the federal government8217s commitments Scoring of policy changes should also look at longterm effects on the government8217s total unfunded obligations to give lawmakers a more accurate understanding of the true cost of any piece of legislation In so doing the reality of PPACA8217s 10year scoring would have been revealed Congress should also establish mechanisms to equitably assess and enforce changes in spending and revenues CBO8217s current spending baseline assumes that laws that authorize spending will continue despite scheduled expiration dates However CBO assumes that laws relating to taxes will expire as scheduled A new enforcement strategy must consider both spending and revenue on the same baseline in order to be effective Finally mandatory spending on entitlements should be put on a longterm budget Entitlement spending is currently on autopilot allowing openended growth Left unchecked entitlement spending will eventually crowdout other priorities Instead these programs should be put on a limited budget and Congress should regularly examine their spending and take steps to keep the programs within their limits Automatic adjustments or triggers should be put in place to reduce spending if Congress fails to act This will force lawmakers to put these programs on stable financial footing Medicare should be transformed to a limited definedcontribution system that allows seniors to seek better value by purchasing a health care plan that suits their needs in the private market 18 Medicaid reform should limit taxpayer funding but give states greater flexibility to administer their respective programs while also creating the opportunity for beneficiaries to receive better quality coverage in the private market James C Capretta is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Kathryn Nix is a Research Assistant in the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation amp160 1Congress cannot build sound marketbased health care reform on the foundation of a flawed health care law Therefore the health care law must be repealed in its entirety The House of Representatives has taken a major step towards full repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act PPACAotherwise known as 8220Obamacare8221 Until full repeal occurs Congress must continue to focus on the core failures and consequences of PPACA and block its implementation to allow time to achieve repeal and lay the groundwork for a new marketbased direction for health care reform 2Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 Public Law 111148 and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 Public Law 111152 3Douglas W Elmendorf Director Congressional Budget Office letter to Nancy Pelosi Speaker US House of Representatives March 20 2010 at httpwwwcbogovftpdocs113xxdoc11379AmendReconProppdf January 13 2011 4Robert E Moffit 8220Obamacare and Medicare Provider Cuts Jeopardizing Seniors8217 Access8221 Heritage Foundation WebMemo No 3105 January 19 2011 at httpwwwheritageorgResearchReports201101ObamacareandMedicareProviderCutsJeopardizingSeniorsAccess 5Douglas W Elmendorf Director Congressional Budget Office letter to John Boehner Speaker US House of Representatives January 6 2011 at httpwwwcbogovftpdocs120xxdoc120400106PPACA_Repealpdf January 10 2011 6See Richard S Foster Chief Actuary Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 8220Estimated Financial Effects of the 8216Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act8217 As Amended8221 April 22 2010 p 9 at httpwwwpoliticocomstaticPPM130_oact_memorandum_on_financial_impact_of_ppaca_as_enactedhtml January 13 2011 7See US Senate Budget Committee Republicans 8220Budget Perspective The Real Deficit Effect of the Democrats8217 Health Package8221 March 23 2010 at httpbudgetsenategovrepublicanpressarchive20100323BudgetPerspectivepdf January 13 2011 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 82202010 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplemental Medical Insurance Trust Funds8221 August 5 2010 at httpswwwcmsgovReportsTrustFundsdownloadstr2010pdf January 13 2011 8See Brian Blase 8220No CLASS How Congress Saddled Taxpayers with Another Costly Entitlement8221 Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No 2444 July 29 2010 at httpwwwheritageorgResearchReports201007NoCLASSHowCongressSaddledTaxpayerswithAnotherCostlyEntitlement 9Lori Montgomery 8220Proposed LongTerm Insurance Program Raises Questions8221 The Washington Post October 27 2009 at httpwwwwashingtonpostcomwpdyncontentarticle20091027AR2009102701417html January 13 2011 10See Brian Blase and Paul Winfree 8220Obamacare and Health Subsidies Expanding Perverse Incentives for Employers and Employees8221 Heritage Foundation WebMemo No 3112 January 20 2011 at httpwwwheritageorgResearchReports201101ObamacareandHealthSubsidiesExpandingPerverseIncentivesforEmployersandEmployees 11Douglas HoltzEakin and Cameron Smith 8220Labor Markets and Health Care Reform New Results8221 American Action Forum May 2010 at httpamericanactionforumorgfilesLaborMktsHCRAAF52710pdf January 13 2011 12Brian Riedl 8220CLASS Is the Next Huge Taxpayer Bailout8221 Heritage Foundation Commentary July 26 2010 at httpwwwheritageorgResearchCommentary201007CLASSistheNextHugeTaxpayerBailout January 13 2011 13The Heritage Foundation 8220Federal Budget Deficits Will Reach Levels Never Seen Before in the US8221 2010 Budget Chart Book at httpwwwheritageorgbudgetchartbookfederalbudgetdeficits 14PPACA adds a total of 16 million Americans to Medicaid by 2019 See Elmendorf letter to Pelosi March 20 2010 15John C Goodman 8220The 6anHour Minimum Wage8221 John Goodman8217s Health Policy Blog October 18 2010 at httphealthblogncpaorgthe6anhourminwageutm_sourcenewsletterampamputm_mediumemailampamputm_campaignHAmore13959 January 13 2011 16See James C Capretta 8220Obamacare Impact on Future Generations8221 Heritage Foundation WebMemo No 2921 June 1 2010 at httpwwwheritageorgResearchReports201006ObamaCareImpactonFutureGenerations 17See Alison Acosta Fraser 8220Any Stimulus Legislation Must Include Budget Reforms to Address LongTerm Challenges8221 Heritage Foundation WebMemo No 2199 January 9 2009 at httpwwwheritageorgResearchReports200901AnyStimulusLegislationMustIncludeBudgetReformstoAddressLongTermChallenges 18See Robert Moffit and James C Capretta 8220Medicare Reform A New Vision for a Better Program8221 Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No 2500 December 13 2010 at httpwwwheritageorgResearchReports201012HowtoFixMedicareANewVisionforaBetterProgram | The/DET federal/ADJ government8217s/NOUN finances/NOUN were/AUX dismal/ADJ even/ADV before/SCONJ the/DET Patient/PROPN Protection/PROPN and/CCONJ Affordable/PROPN Care/PROPN Act/PROPN PPACA/PROPN was/AUX enacted/VERB That/PRON is/AUX why/SCONJ lawmakers/NOUN who/PRON pushed/VERB for/ADP its/PRON passage/NOUN felt/AUX compelled/VERB to/PART try/VERB to/PART calm/VERB worried/VERB Americans/PROPN by/ADP claiming/VERB that/SCONJ the/DET law/NOUN would/AUX cut/VERB projected/VERB federal/ADJ budget/NOUN deficits/NOUN in/ADP addition/NOUN to/ADP covering/VERB the/DET uninsured/ADJ 1/NUM And/CCONJ in/ADP fact/NOUN the/DET Congressional/PROPN Budget/PROPN Office8217s/PROPN CBO/PROPN official/ADJ estimate/NOUN shows/VERB that/SCONJ PPACA8217s/PROPN health/NOUN care/NOUN provisions/NOUN 2/NUM would/AUX cut/VERB projected/VERB deficits/NOUN by/ADP 124/NUM billion/NUM 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<p>Paul Joseph Watson <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com" type="external">Prison Planet.com</a> Sunday, June 20, 2010</p>
<p />
<p>Editor’s note: Paul Joseph Watson will present an emergency special video report on this issue which will be available to <a href="http://prisonplanet.tv/" type="external">Prison Planet.tv members</a> later today. Alex Jones will also present an emergency bulletin <a href="" type="internal">during his live Sunday show</a>, which broadcasts from 4-6PM CST.</p>
<p>There can now be no doubt whatsoever that the BP oil spill was purposefully contrived, either through deliberate negligence or outright sabotage, and is now being used to further the Obama administration’s political agenda. Criminal investigations into the government and BP’s role in the disaster need to be launched by state authorities in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi immediately, while local authorities also need to call emergency legislative sessions in order to take over emergency response efforts from the feds before the crisis gets much worse.</p>
<p>While BP CEO Tony Hayward is <a href="http://www.metro.co.uk/news/831815-tony-haywards-yacht-trip-was-height-of-arrogance" type="external">busy watching yacht races</a>, Barack Obama, who took two vacations immediately after the oil spill, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/104313-obama-hits-golf-course-with-biden-on-another-hot-humid-weekend" type="external">spends his time playing golf</a>. If this disaster is on a par 9/11 as Obama claims then why is he fiddling while Rome burns? Every effort to find a solution to this crisis while cleaning up the mess has been lackluster and half-hearted. The federal government’s hyped rhetoric about how bad the consequences of this spill will be has not been matched with the appropriate action to combat the problem.</p>
<p>In hindsight, it’s becoming clear that the government has deliberately botched the response and prevented local authorities from doing their jobs, just as <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2005/060905femasabotaging.htm" type="external">FEMA deliberately sabotaged the state response to Hurricane Katrina</a> in order to make the crisis worse and create the pretext for a police state response, gun confiscation and ultimately more federal power.</p>
<p><a href="http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2010/06/15/efforts-to-repel-gulf-oil-spill-are-described-as-chaotic/" type="external">Numerous reports</a> have surfaced of locals and state authorities being <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/15/eveningnews/main6487600.shtml" type="external">prevented by BP contractors and the U.S. Coast Guard from helping</a> to address the devastation the spill has created in the region.</p>
<p>“(Louisiana) Governor Bobby Jindal had ordered the state’s fleet of sixteen vacuum barges to clean up oil in the Louisiana marshes. On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the barges and ordered them to stop the cleanup. Ostensibly, the Coast Guard wanted to “inspect” the barges — but then it didn’t inspect them. It just ordered them back to dock and then did nothing,” <a href="http://www.fortliberty.org/feds-block-oil-spill-cleanup-again.html" type="external">reports Fort Liberty</a>.</p>
<p>Just as happened with Katrina, BP in alliance with the feds have erected an ‘information blockade’ around the oil spill. <a href="http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2010/06/17/video-evidence-of-more-media-restrictions-on-bp-oil-spill-beaches/" type="external">Reporters have been harassed, threatened with arrest and prevented</a> from accessing the affected areas. Oil spill clean up workers have been gagged from talking about their experiences. <a href="http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/2010/06/15/bp-oil-spill-what-is-the-jones-act.htm" type="external">Foreign ships have been prevented from helping</a> in the clean up process. Every effort has been made to stop the truth about the oil spill from being uncovered – almost everything we learn about the situation comes directly from BP or the federal government. This strictly enforced cover-up shows that authorities are more concerned about protecting their information lock down than actually cleaning up the spill.</p>
<p />
<p>This is part of what the Pentagon calls “psychological information warfare” and it is intended to deceive and confuse the enemy (the American people) so that they don’t uncover the truth.</p>
<p>The Jones Act, which forbids foreign ships from operating between U.S. ports, can be waived in in cases of national emergencies or in cases of strategic interest. Belgian company DEME contends that it has the specialist vessels to fix the oil leak within two to four months, technology the U.S. does not have. By taking bids on a contract to fix the oil leak from international companies, Obama could have the problem solved within a matter of weeks, but <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-real-reason-america-refused-international-help-on-the-oil-spill-2010-6" type="external">he immediately refused the help</a> of “thirteen entities that had offered the U.S. oil spill assistance within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion.” This is another clear example of the government’s motivation to allow the crisis to drag on indefinitely until they can use it to ram through their environmental agenda, which we shall cover shortly.</p>
<p>Every indication points to the oil spill having been deliberately caused, either by negligence or sabotage, by a combination of BP executives and those who hold the reigns of power in the Obama administration. This goes beyond Obama himself, who is merely there to read the teleprompter and employ his fine acting skills in selling the agenda that the globalists hope to enforce on the back of this contrived crisis.</p>
<p>On May 27, the New York Times reported on how just days before the explosion, BP chose to use a salt-water solution to seal the cement around the casing pipe which was known to be a far riskier option that the stronger heavy drilling fluid.</p>
<p>The choice of using a weaker salt-water solution, in light of the safety concerns surrounding the oil well in the weeks and months before the explosion, prompted heated arguments between a BP official and crew members employed by Transocean, the rig’s owner, on the morning of the blast, according to Douglas H. Brown, the chief mechanic for the Deepwater Horizon.</p>
<p>“Workers from the rig and company officials have said that hours before the explosion, gases were leaking through the cement, which had been set in place by the oil services contractor, Halliburton. Investigators have said these leaks were the likely cause of the explosion,” <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/37370432/BP_Used_Riskier_Method_to_Seal_Oil_Well_Before_Blast" type="external">reported the Times</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hSsGsiZ18JYxHwuLGeC7Tu4T2nLwD9FK91N02" type="external">Halliburton is named in the majority of some two dozen lawsuits</a> filed since the explosion by Gulf Coast people and businesses who claim that the company is to blame for the disaster.</p>
<p>Halliburton’s role in improperly sealing the well with a riskier option, and the consternation this caused amongst workers on the rig, is shocking given the fact that just 11 days before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, Halliburton, the world’s second largest oilfield services corporation, surprised some by acquiring Boots &amp; Coots, a relatively small but vastly experienced oil well control company, for the sum of $240 million dollars.</p>
<p>Halliburton is profiting from the oil spill it helped cause because Boots &amp; Coots is now “under contract to BP – to help stop the Gulf oil spill,” <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0618/As-oil-firms-grow-response-may-slow-to-crises-like-Gulf-oil-spill" type="external">reports the Christian Science Monitor</a>.</p>
<p>“Could Halliburton have known that an oil disaster was on the horizon, and planned in advance to profit from it? News reports indicate they could have,” <a href="http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0618/halliburton-making-money-oil-spill/" type="external">reports Raw Story</a>.</p>
<p>“The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30rig.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">New York Times reported</a>in May that BP was concerned about the rig’s well casing — which Halliburton worked on — as early as June of 2009. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/us/06rig.html?pagewanted=3" type="external">The Times also reported</a> that a Halliburton employee warned BP three weeks before the explosion that BP’s use of cement for the well casing was “against [Halliburton’s] best practices.”</p>
<p>Given that it was in the process of acquiring a company that would receive millions of dollars in oil spill clean up contracts, was Halliburton’s overriding motivation to properly fix the well or to ensure it remained unstable?</p>
<p>BP itself was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February, right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill, according to information uncovered by congressional investigators.</p>
<p>The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” <a href="http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-17/bp-struggled-with-cracks-in-gulf-well-as-early-as-february-documents-show.html" type="external">according to the report</a>.</p>
<p>The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.</p>
<p>“The company attempted a “cement squeeze,” which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures, according to a well activity report. Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid, known as “mud,” into the surrounding rocks,” states the report.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/attorney-deepwater-horizon-managers-knew-about-oil-rig-problem-before-explosion.html" type="external">As we previously highlighted</a>, eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20. A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston. According to the witness, Harrell was screaming, “Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”</p>
<p>The fact that BP managers were aware of problems with the rig and were seemingly unconcerned about fixing them, in addition to Halliburton’s clear financial motivation in improperly sealing the cap, only lends more weight to the already startling indications of some having foreknowledge of the disaster.</p>
<p>On page 37 of <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/32663286/Deepwater-Horizon-Interim-Incident-Investigation-BP-s-Washington-Briefing" type="external">British Petroleum’s own investigative report</a> into the oil spill, it is stated that the Hydraulic Control System on equipment designed to automatically seal the well in an emergency was modified without BP’s knowledge sometime before the explosion.</p>
<p>Highly suspicious stock and share trades by people connected to BP before the explosion indicate some extent of foreknowledge.</p>
<p><a href="http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&amp;site=radiopatriot.wordpress.com&amp;url=http%3A//rawstory.com/rs/2010/0602/month-oil-spill-goldman-sachs-sold-250-million-bp-stock/&amp;sref=http%3A//radiopatriot.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/bp-oil-shares-sell-off-what-did-goldman-sachs-know-and-when-did-they-know-it/" type="external">Goldman Sachs dumped 44%</a> of its shares in BP Oil during the first quarter of 2010 – shares that subsequently lost 36 percent of their value, equating to $96 million. The current chairman of Goldman Sachs is Bilderberg luminary Peter Sutherland, who is also the former chairman of British Petroleum.</p>
<p>Furthermore, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7804922/BP-chief-Tony-Hayward-sold-shares-weeks-before-oil-spill.html" type="external">as reported by the London Telegraph on June 5th</a>, Tony Hayward, the current BP CEO sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the spill.</p>
<p>So we have clear evidence of foreknowledge, allied with brazen financial motivation on behalf of several directly connected parties to sabotage the oil well, or in the very least ensure that negligent safety procedures increased the likelihood of an explosion, allied with the fact that the well was indeed improperly sealed by these same parties, much to the anger of the people working on the rig.</p>
<p>But the motivation for allowing the well to blow and prolonging the crisis isn’t merely financial, it’s political too. The motto for the people who pull the strings inside the Obama administration, people like Rahm Emanuel and Hillary Clinton is to ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ – and Obama himself has certainly taken that to heart over the course of the last two months.</p>
<p>The elite are still desperate to impose a consumption tax on Americans as part of the move towards a “post-industrial revolution” and the kind of nightmare “green economy” that has left Spain with a 20 per cent unemployment rate. <a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/spains-green-policies-an-economic-disaster/" type="external">In a so-called green economy, over 2.2 jobs are lost for every “green job” created.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://infowars.net/articles/june2010/140610Green.htm" type="external">The Obama administration has aggressively exploited the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico</a> to manufacture an artificial urgency in an effort to speed the passage of cap and trade in pursuit of a “green economy,” <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2007/280307globalistslove.htm" type="external">an agenda firmly supported</a>by the transnational oil corporations Obama is claiming to be reigning in. <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Once-a-government-pet-BP-now-a-capitalist-tool-95942659.html" type="external">British Petroleum is one of the founding members of the cap and trade lobby</a>, and has consistently “lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.”</p>
<p>Indeed, BP has been a faithful supporter of John Kerry’s climate legislation because the company has “explicitly backed” a “higher gas tax”. If Obama is able to exploit the oil spill to ram through his cap and trade program, BP stands to profit to the tune of billions. Allowing the crisis to worsen in pursuit of this goal is mutually beneficial to both the Obama administration and British Petroleum.</p>
<p>Obama’s “Agenda is to exaggerate the significance of the oil spill crisis to massive proportions, for two reasons,” <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100043493/barack-obama-turns-the-oil-spill-into-his-poor-mans-911-to-revive-cap-and-trade-climate-legislation/" type="external">writes the Telegraph’s Gerald Warner</a>. “The first is that, the more Americans can be persuaded to regard the accident as a monumental, historic disaster, the less his patent impotence in the face of it will appear blameworthy. His second reason is that, in accordance with the Emanuel doctrine (never let a good crisis go to waste), he sees this as an opportunity to breathe new life into his moribund Cap-and-Trade climate change legislation.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-plans-to-sneak-through-carbon-tax-by-stealth.html" type="external">Obama has now indicated that he will push for cap and trade to be added</a> to a weaker energy bill after the mid-term elections in November. Every week that the oil spill crisis drags on, Obama’s political capital for the purpose of pushing a carbon tax increases in the name of ‘reducing dependence on oil’. The government has every interest in seeing the crisis worsen, not merely to justify cap and trade but also to <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/27/nation/la-na-arctic-20100527" type="external">mothball plans for new exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic</a>, something to which the administration had never wanted to fully commit. . As a result of the oil spill, which every action of the federal government has made worse, that drilling has now been postponed.</p>
<p>Another benefit of the oil spill is that it serves as a convenient distraction and a cover for a number of other stories, primarily the gearing up for a military attack on Iran, which now seems likely <a href="" type="internal">as we learn that</a> more than twelve U.S. and Israeli warships, including an aircraft carrier, passed through the Suez Canal on Friday and are headed for the Red Sea.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0617/BP-oil-disaster-How-much-oil-is-left" type="external">The underwater oil field still holds as much as 97 per cent of its oil</a>, 2 billion gallons of oil, meaning that this disaster could be prolonged for anything up to four years. Even worse, if studies into the <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/archives/peak_oil/index.htm" type="external">abiotic nature of oil in the Gulf region</a> hold true, the crisis could be never-ending.</p>
<p>Given the multitude of alarming examples of foreknowledge, motivation for sabotage, and clear evidence of deliberate malfeasance and negligence, state authorities in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi need to immediately launch a mammoth criminal investigation into the role of BP, Halliburton and the federal government in causing the oil spill disaster, as well as their continuing cover-up of the true nature of the crisis, in addition to their efforts to block local authorities as well as foreign companies from helping to both stop the oil leak and clean up the devastation it has caused.</p>
<p>————————————————————</p>
<p>We encourage readers to contact the office of the Governor in these three states, as well as local legislative offices, in order to bring attention to this urgent matter and create momentum behind a criminal investigation into the disaster. Please be polite in your communications and invite local authorities to look into the evidence presented in this article.</p>
<p>Office of Governor Charlie Crist</p>
<p>State of Florida</p>
<p>The Capitol</p>
<p>400 S. Monroe St.</p>
<p>Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001</p>
<p>Email the Governor: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Email the Lt. Governor: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Telephone:</p>
<p>Citizen Services Hotline: (850) 488-4441</p>
<p>Executive Office of the Governor Switchboard: (850) 488-7146</p>
<p>[Office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time]</p>
<p>Fax: (850) 487-0801</p>
<p>————————————————————</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gov.la.gov/index.cfm?md=form&amp;tmp=email_governor" type="external">Email Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal</a></p>
<p>Mailing address:</p>
<p>PO Box 94004</p>
<p>Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004</p>
<p>Main line: 225-342-7015 or Toll Free at 866-366-1121</p>
<p>————————————————————</p>
<p>Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour</p>
<p>Telephone: 1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150</p>
<p>Mail: P.O. Box 139, Jackson, Mississippi 39205</p>
<p>Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]." type="external">[email protected].</a></p> | States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | true | http://infowars.com/states-need-to-launch-criminal-investigation-into-bp-federal-governments-role-in-oil-spill/ | 2010-06-20 | 0right
| 2,514 | Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planetcom Sunday June 20 2010 Editor8217s note Paul Joseph Watson will present an emergency special video report on this issue which will be available to Prison Planettv members later today Alex Jones will also present an emergency bulletin during his live Sunday show which broadcasts from 46PM CST There can now be no doubt whatsoever that the BP oil spill was purposefully contrived either through deliberate negligence or outright sabotage and is now being used to further the Obama administration8217s political agenda Criminal investigations into the government and BP8217s role in the disaster need to be launched by state authorities in Florida Louisiana and Mississippi immediately while local authorities also need to call emergency legislative sessions in order to take over emergency response efforts from the feds before the crisis gets much worse While BP CEO Tony Hayward is busy watching yacht races Barack Obama who took two vacations immediately after the oil spill spends his time playing golf If this disaster is on a par 911 as Obama claims then why is he fiddling while Rome burns Every effort to find a solution to this crisis while cleaning up the mess has been lackluster and halfhearted The federal government8217s hyped rhetoric about how bad the consequences of this spill will be has not been matched with the appropriate action to combat the problem In hindsight it8217s becoming clear that the government has deliberately botched the response and prevented local authorities from doing their jobs just as FEMA deliberately sabotaged the state response to Hurricane Katrina in order to make the crisis worse and create the pretext for a police state response gun confiscation and ultimately more federal power Numerous reports have surfaced of locals and state authorities being prevented by BP contractors and the US Coast Guard from helping to address the devastation the spill has created in the region 8220Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had ordered the state8217s fleet of sixteen vacuum barges to clean up oil in the Louisiana marshes On Wednesday the US Coast Guard intercepted the barges and ordered them to stop the cleanup Ostensibly the Coast Guard wanted to 8220inspect8221 the barges 8212 but then it didn8217t inspect them It just ordered them back to dock and then did nothing8221 reports Fort Liberty Just as happened with Katrina BP in alliance with the feds have erected an 8216information blockade8217 around the oil spill Reporters have been harassed threatened with arrest and prevented from accessing the affected areas Oil spill clean up workers have been gagged from talking about their experiences Foreign ships have been prevented from helping in the clean up process Every effort has been made to stop the truth about the oil spill from being uncovered 8211 almost everything we learn about the situation comes directly from BP or the federal government This strictly enforced coverup shows that authorities are more concerned about protecting their information lock down than actually cleaning up the spill This is part of what the Pentagon calls 8220psychological information warfare8221 and it is intended to deceive and confuse the enemy the American people so that they don8217t uncover the truth The Jones Act which forbids foreign ships from operating between US ports can be waived in in cases of national emergencies or in cases of strategic interest Belgian company DEME contends that it has the specialist vessels to fix the oil leak within two to four months technology the US does not have By taking bids on a contract to fix the oil leak from international companies Obama could have the problem solved within a matter of weeks but he immediately refused the help of 8220thirteen entities that had offered the US oil spill assistance within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion8221 This is another clear example of the government8217s motivation to allow the crisis to drag on indefinitely until they can use it to ram through their environmental agenda which we shall cover shortly Every indication points to the oil spill having been deliberately caused either by negligence or sabotage by a combination of BP executives and those who hold the reigns of power in the Obama administration This goes beyond Obama himself who is merely there to read the teleprompter and employ his fine acting skills in selling the agenda that the globalists hope to enforce on the back of this contrived crisis On May 27 the New York Times reported on how just days before the explosion BP chose to use a saltwater solution to seal the cement around the casing pipe which was known to be a far riskier option that the stronger heavy drilling fluid The choice of using a weaker saltwater solution in light of the safety concerns surrounding the oil well in the weeks and months before the explosion prompted heated arguments between a BP official and crew members employed by Transocean the rig8217s owner on the morning of the blast according to Douglas H Brown the chief mechanic for the Deepwater Horizon 8220Workers from the rig and company officials have said that hours before the explosion gases were leaking through the cement which had been set in place by the oil services contractor Halliburton Investigators have said these leaks were the likely cause of the explosion8221 reported the Times Halliburton is named in the majority of some two dozen lawsuits filed since the explosion by Gulf Coast people and businesses who claim that the company is to blame for the disaster Halliburton8217s role in improperly sealing the well with a riskier option and the consternation this caused amongst workers on the rig is shocking given the fact that just 11 days before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded Halliburton the world8217s second largest oilfield services corporation surprised some by acquiring Boots ampamp Coots a relatively small but vastly experienced oil well control company for the sum of 240 million dollars Halliburton is profiting from the oil spill it helped cause because Boots ampamp Coots is now 8220under contract to BP 8211 to help stop the Gulf oil spill8221 reports the Christian Science Monitor 8220Could Halliburton have known that an oil disaster was on the horizon and planned in advance to profit from it News reports indicate they could have8221 reports Raw Story 8220The New York Times reportedin May that BP was concerned about the rig8217s well casing 8212 which Halliburton worked on 8212 as early as June of 2009 The Times also reported that a Halliburton employee warned BP three weeks before the explosion that BP8217s use of cement for the well casing was 8220against Halliburton8217s best practices8221 Given that it was in the process of acquiring a company that would receive millions of dollars in oil spill clean up contracts was Halliburton8217s overriding motivation to properly fix the well or to ensure it remained unstable BP itself was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill according to information uncovered by congressional investigators The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP 8220was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles 64 kilometers off the Louisiana coast8221 according to the report The fissures which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13 could have played a role in the disaster though this is a question still being explored by investigators Improperly sealed the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft 8220The company attempted a 8220cement squeeze8221 which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures according to a well activity report Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid known as 8220mud8221 into the surrounding rocks8221 states the report As we previously highlighted eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20 A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston According to the witness Harrell was screaming 8220Are you fucking happy Are you fucking happy The rig8217s on fire I told you this was gonna happen8221 The fact that BP managers were aware of problems with the rig and were seemingly unconcerned about fixing them in addition to Halliburton8217s clear financial motivation in improperly sealing the cap only lends more weight to the already startling indications of some having foreknowledge of the disaster On page 37 of British Petroleum8217s own investigative report into the oil spill it is stated that the Hydraulic Control System on equipment designed to automatically seal the well in an emergency was modified without BP8217s knowledge sometime before the explosion Highly suspicious stock and share trades by people connected to BP before the explosion indicate some extent of foreknowledge Goldman Sachs dumped 44 of its shares in BP Oil during the first quarter of 2010 8211 shares that subsequently lost 36 percent of their value equating to 96 million The current chairman of Goldman Sachs is Bilderberg luminary Peter Sutherland who is also the former chairman of British Petroleum Furthermore as reported by the London Telegraph on June 5th Tony Hayward the current BP CEO sold 16314 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the spill So we have clear evidence of foreknowledge allied with brazen financial motivation on behalf of several directly connected parties to sabotage the oil well or in the very least ensure that negligent safety procedures increased the likelihood of an explosion allied with the fact that the well was indeed improperly sealed by these same parties much to the anger of the people working on the rig But the motivation for allowing the well to blow and prolonging the crisis isn8217t merely financial it8217s political too The motto for the people who pull the strings inside the Obama administration people like Rahm Emanuel and Hillary Clinton is to 8216never let a good crisis go to waste8217 8211 and Obama himself has certainly taken that to heart over the course of the last two months The elite are still desperate to impose a consumption tax on Americans as part of the move towards a 8220postindustrial revolution8221 and the kind of nightmare 8220green economy8221 that has left Spain with a 20 per cent unemployment rate In a socalled green economy over 22 jobs are lost for every 8220green job8221 created The Obama administration has aggressively exploited the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to manufacture an artificial urgency in an effort to speed the passage of cap and trade in pursuit of a 8220green economy8221 an agenda firmly supportedby the transnational oil corporations Obama is claiming to be reigning in British Petroleum is one of the founding members of the cap and trade lobby and has consistently 8220lobbied for tax hikes greenhouse gas restraints the stimulus bill the Wall Street bailout and subsidies for oil pipelines solar panels natural gas and biofuels8221 Indeed BP has been a faithful supporter of John Kerry8217s climate legislation because the company has 8220explicitly backed8221 a 8220higher gas tax8221 If Obama is able to exploit the oil spill to ram through his cap and trade program BP stands to profit to the tune of billions Allowing the crisis to worsen in pursuit of this goal is mutually beneficial to both the Obama administration and British Petroleum Obama8217s 8220Agenda is to exaggerate the significance of the oil spill crisis to massive proportions for two reasons8221 writes the Telegraph8217s Gerald Warner 8220The first is that the more Americans can be persuaded to regard the accident as a monumental historic disaster the less his patent impotence in the face of it will appear blameworthy His second reason is that in accordance with the Emanuel doctrine never let a good crisis go to waste he sees this as an opportunity to breathe new life into his moribund CapandTrade climate change legislation8221 Obama has now indicated that he will push for cap and trade to be added to a weaker energy bill after the midterm elections in November Every week that the oil spill crisis drags on Obama8217s political capital for the purpose of pushing a carbon tax increases in the name of 8216reducing dependence on oil8217 The government has every interest in seeing the crisis worsen not merely to justify cap and trade but also to mothball plans for new exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic something to which the administration had never wanted to fully commit As a result of the oil spill which every action of the federal government has made worse that drilling has now been postponed Another benefit of the oil spill is that it serves as a convenient distraction and a cover for a number of other stories primarily the gearing up for a military attack on Iran which now seems likely as we learn that more than twelve US and Israeli warships including an aircraft carrier passed through the Suez Canal on Friday and are headed for the Red Sea The underwater oil field still holds as much as 97 per cent of its oil 2 billion gallons of oil meaning that this disaster could be prolonged for anything up to four years Even worse if studies into the abiotic nature of oil in the Gulf region hold true the crisis could be neverending Given the multitude of alarming examples of foreknowledge motivation for sabotage and clear evidence of deliberate malfeasance and negligence state authorities in Florida Louisiana and Mississippi need to immediately launch a mammoth criminal investigation into the role of BP Halliburton and the federal government in causing the oil spill disaster as well as their continuing coverup of the true nature of the crisis in addition to their efforts to block local authorities as well as foreign companies from helping to both stop the oil leak and clean up the devastation it has caused 82128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212 We encourage readers to contact the office of the Governor in these three states as well as local legislative offices in order to bring attention to this urgent matter and create momentum behind a criminal investigation into the disaster Please be polite in your communications and invite local authorities to look into the evidence presented in this article Office of Governor Charlie Crist State of Florida The Capitol 400 S Monroe St Tallahassee FL 323990001 Email the Governor CharlieCristMyFloridacom Email the Lt Governor JeffKottkampMyFloridacom Telephone Citizen Services Hotline 850 4884441 Executive Office of the Governor Switchboard 850 4887146 Office hours are 800 am to 500 pm Eastern Time Fax 850 4870801 82128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212 Email Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Mailing address PO Box 94004 Baton Rouge LA 708049004 Main line 2253427015 or Toll Free at 8663661121 82128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212 Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour Telephone 18774050733 or 6013593150 Mail PO Box 139 Jackson Mississippi 39205 Email governorgovernorstatemsus | Paul/PROPN Joseph/PROPN Watson/PROPN Prison/PROPN Planetcom/PROPN Sunday/PROPN June/PROPN 20/NUM 2010/NUM Editor8217s/PROPN note/NOUN Paul/PROPN Joseph/PROPN Watson/PROPN will/AUX present/VERB an/DET emergency/NOUN special/ADJ video/NOUN report/NOUN on/ADP this/DET issue/NOUN which/PRON will/AUX be/AUX available/ADJ to/ADP Prison/PROPN Planettv/PROPN members/NOUN later/ADV 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The/DET Capitol/PROPN 400/NUM S/PROPN Monroe/PROPN St/PROPN Tallahassee/PROPN FL/PROPN 323990001/NUM Email/PROPN the/DET Governor/PROPN CharlieCristMyFloridacom/NOUN Email/PROPN the/DET Lt/PROPN Governor/PROPN JeffKottkampMyFloridacom/PROPN Telephone/PROPN Citizen/PROPN Services/PROPN Hotline/PROPN 850/NUM 4884441/NUM Executive/PROPN Office/PROPN of/ADP the/DET Governor/PROPN Switchboard/PROPN 850/NUM 4887146/NUM Office/PROPN hours/NOUN are/AUX 800/NUM am/NOUN to/ADP 500/NUM pm/NOUN Eastern/PROPN Time/PROPN Fax/PROPN 850/NUM 4870801/NUM 82128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212/NUM Email/PROPN Louisiana/PROPN Governor/PROPN Bobby/PROPN Jindal/PROPN Mailing/PROPN address/NOUN PO/NOUN Box/PROPN 94004/NUM Baton/PROPN Rouge/PROPN LA/PROPN 708049004/NUM Main/ADJ line/NOUN 2253427015/NUM or/CCONJ Toll/PROPN Free/PROPN at/ADP 8663661121/NUM 82128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212821282128212/NUM Mississippi/PROPN Governor/PROPN Haley/PROPN Barbour/PROPN Telephone/PROPN 18774050733/NUM or/CCONJ 6013593150/NUM Mail/PROPN PO/NOUN Box/PROPN 139/NUM Jackson/PROPN Mississippi/PROPN 39205/NUM Email/PROPN governorgovernorstatemsus/NOUN |
<p>Photo by Max Goldberg | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.</p>
<p>— From “This be the Verse” by Philip Larkin</p>
<p>When it comes to playing the role of an idiot, Donald Trump, Jr. is certainly no <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Myshkin" type="external">Prince Myshkin</a>. He doesn’t even rise to the level of Faulkner’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_and_the_Fury" type="external">Benjy Compson</a>. Still, it may be possible to squeeze out a little bit of empathy for the man-child of Park Avenue.</p>
<p>Yes, I know, in most respects Micro-Donald is an utterly unappetizing specimen of humanity, who&#160;flies around the planet slaughtering rare species&#160;(such as this <a href="" type="internal">endangered leopard</a>) for&#160;bloody selfies. But the boy is the progeny&#160;of Donald Trump and who among us would want to endure the torments of that brand of child-rearing? By all accounts, Trump’s parenting skills were stern, cold and brutal. There were no games of catch in Central Park, no camping trips to the Adirondacks, no help with homework.</p>
<p>“When I spent time with my father it wasn’t playing ball in the backyard,” Donnie told the New York Times in 2010. “I came to his office and listened to him do business or sat in on meetings.”</p>
<p>For most of Donnie’s childhood, he rarely saw his father or mother. He was nurtured by Irish nannies and Ivana’s mother and then shipped off to The Hill, a boarding school for the children of elites in Potsdown, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Don’s sister Ivanka, whom Trump seems smitten by, described what it was like when Daddy decided to&#160;play his satyr-like pranks with the kids, often on the ski slopes in Aspen.&#160;“We were sort of bred to be competitive,” Ivanka recalled. “Dad encourages it. I remember skiing with him and we were racing. I was ahead, and he reached his ski pole out and pulled me back.” But for the grace of Odin, Ivanka, Eric and Don could have ended up as slopekill like that other wayward scion&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Michael Kennedy</a>.</p>
<p>When Micro-Donald was twelve, he had to endure the tabloid spectacle of his father excoriating his mother, Ivana, in the press, while squiring the Georgia beauty queen Marla Maples. Later, he learned that his mother had accused his father of <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-wife-donald-trump-made-me-feel-violated-during-sex" type="external">sexually assaulting her</a> (an accusation later withdrawn as part of&#160;a legal settlement.) For years afterwards, the son kept himself at a chilly distance from his despotic father. Many children raised in similarly frigid circumstances development so-called “attachment disorders” and end up torturing animals. Donald Jr. started <a href="" type="internal">killing them</a>.</p>
<p>Then when young Donald followed his father’s footsteps to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, a thawing in relations ensued. Sadly, this familial warming proved more of a short-term heat spell rather than a true change in climate. According to an account from Micro-Donald’s dorm-mate, <a href="" type="internal">a man called Scott Melker</a>, there came a time when word spread through the dorm that Donald Trump himself would be visiting to take his son to a Yankees game. Many of the dorm’s residents crowded together near young Donald’s room to catch a glimpse of the tycoon.</p>
<p>Daddy Trump cut his way through the crowd of students and knocked on Micro-Donald’s door. Donnie answered with a smile, proudly wearing his Yankee jersey. This fashion crime enraged Trump, who slapped Donnie so hard in the face that his son crumpled to the floor. The father looked down on his fallen son and, according to Melker, sneered: “Put on a suit and meet me outside.”</p>
<p>His friends noticed a change in Donnie after that brutal interaction with good old dad. He started drowning his shame with booze and fed his gnawing rage by blasting away at ungulates and predators. After graduation, Micro-Donald drifted away from Manhattan to Colorado, where he worked for some time as a bartender. In 20o1, he was busted for public drunkenness in New Orleans.</p>
<p>But like many neglected and abused children, Micro-Donald soon headed back east, seeking approval and affection from his icy&#160;and tyrannical father.&#160;“To be fairly candid,” Donnie told New York magazine in 2004.&#160;“I used to drink a lot and party pretty hard, and it wasn’t something that I was particularly good at. I mean, I was good at it, but I couldn’t do it in moderation. About two years ago, I quit drinking entirely. I have too much of an opportunity to make something of myself, be successful in my own right. Why blow it?”</p>
<p>For the next few years, Micro-Donald toiled in the anterooms of Trump Tower working on minor real estate deals, making occasional appearances on “The Apprentice,” trying to please Daddy by playing golf more than fishing, and learning how to dress for success. It was during this training period that father introduced son to the woman who would become Donnie’s&#160;wife, the blonde model and beauty contestant&#160;Vanessa Kay Haydon. The Made-for-Reality-TV couple was&#160;married in 2005 at Mar-a-Lago.</p>
<p>Now rehabilitated, Junior was sent forth into the world to stamp the Trump brand on golf courses, casinos, and gaudy towers from Dubai to Panama City. Along the way, the tycoon-in-training often let slip family secrets, such as his boastful statement in 2008 about the Trump Organization’s business dealings in Russia. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia,” Donnie said. “There’s indeed a lot of money coming for new-builds and resale reflecting a trend in the Russian economy and, of course, the weak dollar versus the ruble.”</p>
<p>By that time, Micro-Donald had made at least six trips&#160;to Russia, negotiating deals ranging from the promotion of Trump Super Premium Vodka to a failed Russian reality show starring a mixed martial arts fighter. Quality stuff. He made his first expedition to Russia in 2006, where he was introduced to Russian oligarchs by&#160;Felix Sater, a Russian-born real estate magnate and Trump business associate. Among the Russian bigwigs Junior met on that maiden trip was&#160;Aras&#160;Agalarov,&#160;&#160;the Moscow construction kingpin&#160;and father of pop star Emin Agalarov, represented by the rotund impresario Rod Goldstone.</p>
<p>All of this is by way of saying that Don Jr. had much more experience in Russia than his father. He knows the lay of the land, the players and the politics. It was Don Jr. who arranged the Miss Universe&#160;contest in Moscow in 2013 and tried to&#160;negotiated a deal to build a new Trump tower in the Russian capital, alas another doomed venture. In other words, Little Donny might be an idiot, but he is not a naive idiot. Not about deal-making in Russia, anyway.</p>
<p>So what was going through Micro-Don’s mind when he saw the subject heading in Rod Goldstone’s email: “Russia – Clinton – private and confidential.” Was there a flash of excitement? Did he say to himself? Now I might have something that will really impress him, something that might elevate me in his esteem above that nosy Jared, his sibling-in-law rival? Or as he read deeper into the message, and absorbed the explicit, almost too explicit, offer from an emissary of the&#160;Russian Government of&#160;“documents and information that would incriminate Hillary,” did some other notion&#160;begin to form in his subconscious?</p>
<p>When Don Jr. agreed to the fateful meeting in Trump Tower with a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Moscow&#160;lawyer&#160;with tenuous ties to the Kremlin</a>&#160;and a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">former Russian military intelligence officer</a> bearing gifts and decided to rope Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner into it, did he think he had finally found the ticket to an improbable victory for his father? Or did some other motive begin to percolate in the Oedipal depths of his psyche, tempting him with the idea that in&#160;one wild stroke he could sow&#160;the seeds for the future fall of the house of Trump?</p>
<p>As attractive as that notion is in a literary sense, such a revenge play authored by Jr. is&#160;also improbable. The hubris&#160;of the Trump family is surpassed only by their stupidity. As a brood, they are too dumb for Greek tragedy.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Roaming Charges</p>
<p>+ Trump in Paris on Bastille Day? Where’s Robespierre when you need him?</p>
<p>To defend the oppressed against their oppressors, to plead the cause of the weak against the strong who exploit and crush them, this is the duty of all hearts that have not been spoiled by egoism and corruption… It is so sweet to devote oneself to one’s fellows that I do not know how there can be so many unfortunates still without support or defenders. As for me, my life’s task will be to help those who suffer and to pursue through my avenging speech those who take pleasure in the pain of others. How happy I will be if my feeble efforts are crowned with success and if, at the price of my devotion and sacrifices, my reputation is not tarnished by the crimes of the oppressors I will fight.</p>
<p>+&#160;The GOP response to Mini-Donald’s smoking email chain reminds me of the party’s response to the Presidential Daily Briefing presented to Bush a month prior to 9/11 titled: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.” It didn’t say when, how, where, why or the exact time of day, did it….?</p>
<p>+&#160;We interrupt your RussiaGate© binge for an important announcement from the planet… “ <a href="" type="internal">I’m dying!</a>“</p>
<p>+ Squint your eyes and scan the map for the patches of yellow. Those represent the counties where minimum-wage workers might be able to afford an apartment.</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>+&#160;&#160;According to a new Harvard study, more than&#160; <a href="" type="internal">38 million American families</a> can’t afford their housing, an increase of 146 percent in the past 16 years…</p>
<p>+ A new poll suggests that <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/341865-poll-73-percent-of-democrats-would-give-up-drinking-for-trump" type="external">73 percent of Democrats</a> would give up drinking in order to witness the impeachment of Donald Trump. Now this might lower the cost of alcohol for the rest of us, but it’s not enough. If they would pledge to give up eating, we might have a deal–though they would be required to sign a DNR order.</p>
<p>+ In 2016, more than <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en-gb/campaigns/environmental-activists/defenders-earth/" type="external">200 environmental activists</a> were murdered around the globe, many of them indigenous people trying to defend their villages, forests and rivers from mining, timber and oil companies. It’s the deadliest year on record for defenders of the planet.</p>
<p>+&#160;Too bad one of the Evangelicals who assembled in the Oval Office to <a href="" type="internal">lay their hands upon Trump</a> didn’t bring a rattlesnake to test the resolve of his faith.</p>
<p>+ Aramis Alaya was the first African-American to be elected as a state attorney in Florida. This week <a href="" type="internal">a video</a> emerged of her being racially profiled by Orlando cops, stopped and interrogated for no apparent reason other than that she was a black woman driving an expensive-looking car. The cops only back off after Alaya showed them her ID.&#160;How many times a day do these stops happen across America 100? 1000? 5,000?</p>
<p>+ The Kremlin this week proposed recruiting <a href="" type="internal">Henry Kissinger</a> to act as a mediator between Trump and Putin. In carving up the world to suit American interests, Kissinger has always favored an alliance with Russia over China. Did Moscow Center clear this initiative with the ghosts of Ho Chi Minh and Salvador Allende….?</p>
<p>+&#160;The elites will never forgive Lula, who was convicted this week in Brazil on politically-driven charges of corruption in office. At least they didn’t assassinate him…yet.</p>
<p>+ A new study shows yet again that closing medical marijuana dispensaries actually increases local crime rates. But the war on drugs goes on,&#160;impervious to facts, logic and reason….</p>
<p>+ The senator from Citibank, Chuck Schumer, is calling for a war on <a href="" type="internal">snortable chocolate</a>. If this takes the shape of other Democratic Party-launched “drug” wars it’s possible predict the sentences:&#160;Eat it: Chuck will call you for a donation;&#160;Snort it: get 1 to 5;&#160;Smoke it: get 15 to life.</p>
<p>+ Rep. Steve King, the reliable geyser of bile from Iowa, proposed this week that construction of Trump’s border wall should financed from the money saved by eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood and Food Stamps. Does he come up with these quips in church?</p>
<p>+ Come back, Tupac, your country needs you…</p>
<p />
<p>+&#160;If we are going to remove Confederate monuments from the public sphere, can someone please aim a wrecking ball at Jefferson B. Sessions?</p>
<p>+ This week the New York Times published a demeaning column by David Brooks titled “We are Ruining America.”&#160;If I had been the headline writer for the NYT op-ed page, I’d have titled the&#160;column “How David Brooks is Ruining America.” The toxic off-gassing from each of his ponderous scribblings despoils a few more precious acres of the Republic.</p>
<p>+ In 1960, JFK won 70 percent of the vote in King County, Texas, home of the town of Guthrie, which has a degree of international fame&#160;from being a locale in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. In 2016, Hillary Clinton managed to convince only five voters in the entire county to cast their ballots for her. No Russians in sight.</p>
<p>+ Whether they are gunning down people or dogs, <a href="" type="internal">police lie</a>…</p>
<p>+ In the 1920s, a British “Black and Tan” cop from Galway named Douglas Duff became police chief of Jerusalem and quickly went to work torturing Palestinian prisoners. During his brutal interrogations, Duff became an early adopter of <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/how-britain-brought-waterboarding-palestine?utm_content=buffer74763&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" type="external">&#160;the waterboarding method</a>, writing in his memoir about how a&#160;prisoner was&#160;“held down, flat on his back, while a thin-spouted coffee pot poured a trickle of water up his nose.”</p>
<p>+ On Sunday, Army vet name Justin Walters shot his wife in upper state New York and then opened fire when police arrived at the scene, killing NY state trooper Joel Davis. Walters was arrested&#160;and is now in custody, facing two charges of murder. Blacks and Hispanics rarely survive those kinds of encounters.&#160;White men are the top killers of American police, yet, they are almost always taken alive.&#160;From 1980 to 2013, there 2,269 officers were slain&#160;in non-traffic related&#160;incidents. The 52 percent of the killers were white, and 41 percent were black.</p>
<p>+ The White House transcripts of Trump’s speech before the G-20 referred&#160;Chinese President Xi Jinping as the <a href="" type="internal">leader of Taiwan</a>. Worse, Trump persists in calling him President Eleven.</p>
<p>+&#160;Time to go <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/hilary-aked/did-radioheads-thom-yorke-swear-fans-waving-palestinian-flags" type="external">Radioheadless</a>….</p>
<p>+&#160;Partying like <a href="" type="internal">a Kennedy</a> was much like partying with Trump–only with booze &#160;…</p>
<p>+ Sen. <a href="" type="internal">Orrin Hatch</a>: “Had we not had the filibuster…this country would have gone straight to socialism.” Time for the nuclear option, Mitch!</p>
<p>+&#160;Taxi driver: “Why do you use colored musicians?”</p>
<p>George Shearing: “What color are they?”</p>
<p />
<p>Booked Up</p>
<p>What I’m reading this week…</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Democracy in Chains</a> by Nancy MacLean</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">The House of Names</a>&#160;by Colm Toibin</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1781689849/counterpunchmaga" type="external">A Peoples’ History of the French Revolution</a>: Eric Hazan</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Sound Grammar</p>
<p>What I’m listening to this week…</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Juke Joint at the End of the World</a> by Randall Bramblett</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Live at Oberlin College</a> by Mississippi John Hurt</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Diaspora</a> by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Sweet Baby</a> by Cornell Campbell</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Morphogenesis</a> by Steve Coleman’s Natal Eclipse</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Terrible to Watch</p>
<p>James Baldwin: “A person does not lightly elect to oppose his society. One would much rather be at home among one’s compatriots than be mocked and detested by them. And there is a level on which the mockery of people, even their hatred, is moving, because it is so blind: It is terrible to watch people cling to their captivity and insist on their own destruction.”</p> | The Idiot’s Tale: Signifying What, Exactly? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/07/14/the-idiots-tale-signifying-what/ | 2017-07-14 | 4left
| 2,515 | Photo by Max Goldberg CC BY 20 They fuck you up your mum and dad They may not mean to but they do They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra just for you 8212 From 8220This be the Verse8221 by Philip Larkin When it comes to playing the role of an idiot Donald Trump Jr is certainly no Prince Myshkin He doesn8217t even rise to the level of Faulkner8217s Benjy Compson Still it may be possible to squeeze out a little bit of empathy for the manchild of Park Avenue Yes I know in most respects MicroDonald is an utterly unappetizing specimen of humanity whoamp160flies around the planet slaughtering rare speciesamp160such as this endangered leopard foramp160bloody selfies But the boy is the progenyamp160of Donald Trump and who among us would want to endure the torments of that brand of childrearing By all accounts Trump8217s parenting skills were stern cold and brutal There were no games of catch in Central Park no camping trips to the Adirondacks no help with homework 8220When I spent time with my father it wasn8217t playing ball in the backyard8221 Donnie told the New York Times in 2010 8220I came to his office and listened to him do business or sat in on meetings8221 For most of Donnie8217s childhood he rarely saw his father or mother He was nurtured by Irish nannies and Ivana8217s mother and then shipped off to The Hill a boarding school for the children of elites in Potsdown Pennsylvania Don8217s sister Ivanka whom Trump seems smitten by described what it was like when Daddy decided toamp160play his satyrlike pranks with the kids often on the ski slopes in Aspenamp1608220We were sort of bred to be competitive8221 Ivanka recalled 8220Dad encourages it I remember skiing with him and we were racing I was ahead and he reached his ski pole out and pulled me back8221 But for the grace of Odin Ivanka Eric and Don could have ended up as slopekill like that other wayward scionamp160 Michael Kennedy When MicroDonald was twelve he had to endure the tabloid spectacle of his father excoriating his mother Ivana in the press while squiring the Georgia beauty queen Marla Maples Later he learned that his mother had accused his father of sexually assaulting her an accusation later withdrawn as part ofamp160a legal settlement For years afterwards the son kept himself at a chilly distance from his despotic father Many children raised in similarly frigid circumstances development socalled 8220attachment disorders8221 and end up torturing animals Donald Jr started killing them Then when young Donald followed his father8217s footsteps to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania a thawing in relations ensued Sadly this familial warming proved more of a shortterm heat spell rather than a true change in climate According to an account from MicroDonald8217s dormmate a man called Scott Melker there came a time when word spread through the dorm that Donald Trump himself would be visiting to take his son to a Yankees game Many of the dorm8217s residents crowded together near young Donald8217s room to catch a glimpse of the tycoon Daddy Trump cut his way through the crowd of students and knocked on MicroDonald8217s door Donnie answered with a smile proudly wearing his Yankee jersey This fashion crime enraged Trump who slapped Donnie so hard in the face that his son crumpled to the floor The father looked down on his fallen son and according to Melker sneered 8220Put on a suit and meet me outside8221 His friends noticed a change in Donnie after that brutal interaction with good old dad He started drowning his shame with booze and fed his gnawing rage by blasting away at ungulates and predators After graduation MicroDonald drifted away from Manhattan to Colorado where he worked for some time as a bartender In 20o1 he was busted for public drunkenness in New Orleans But like many neglected and abused children MicroDonald soon headed back east seeking approval and affection from his icyamp160and tyrannical fatheramp1608220To be fairly candid8221 Donnie told New York magazine in 2004amp1608220I used to drink a lot and party pretty hard and it wasn8217t something that I was particularly good at I mean I was good at it but I couldn8217t do it in moderation About two years ago I quit drinking entirely I have too much of an opportunity to make something of myself be successful in my own right Why blow it8221 For the next few years MicroDonald toiled in the anterooms of Trump Tower working on minor real estate deals making occasional appearances on 8220The Apprentice8221 trying to please Daddy by playing golf more than fishing and learning how to dress for success It was during this training period that father introduced son to the woman who would become Donnie8217samp160wife the blonde model and beauty contestantamp160Vanessa Kay Haydon The MadeforRealityTV couple wasamp160married in 2005 at MaraLago Now rehabilitated Junior was sent forth into the world to stamp the Trump brand on golf courses casinos and gaudy towers from Dubai to Panama City Along the way the tycoonintraining often let slip family secrets such as his boastful statement in 2008 about the Trump Organization8217s business dealings in Russia 8220We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia8221 Donnie said 8220There8217s indeed a lot of money coming for newbuilds and resale reflecting a trend in the Russian economy and of course the weak dollar versus the ruble8221 By that time MicroDonald had made at least six tripsamp160to Russia negotiating deals ranging from the promotion of Trump Super Premium Vodka to a failed Russian reality show starring a mixed martial arts fighter Quality stuff He made his first expedition to Russia in 2006 where he was introduced to Russian oligarchs byamp160Felix Sater a Russianborn real estate magnate and Trump business associate Among the Russian bigwigs Junior met on that maiden trip wasamp160Arasamp160Agalarovamp160amp160the Moscow construction kingpinamp160and father of pop star Emin Agalarov represented by the rotund impresario Rod Goldstone All of this is by way of saying that Don Jr had much more experience in Russia than his father He knows the lay of the land the players and the politics It was Don Jr who arranged the Miss Universeamp160contest in Moscow in 2013 and tried toamp160negotiated a deal to build a new Trump tower in the Russian capital alas another doomed venture In other words Little Donny might be an idiot but he is not a naive idiot Not about dealmaking in Russia anyway So what was going through MicroDon8217s mind when he saw the subject heading in Rod Goldstone8217s email 8220Russia 8211 Clinton 8211 private and confidential8221 Was there a flash of excitement Did he say to himself Now I might have something that will really impress him something that might elevate me in his esteem above that nosy Jared his siblinginlaw rival Or as he read deeper into the message and absorbed the explicit almost too explicit offer from an emissary of theamp160Russian Government ofamp1608220documents and information that would incriminate Hillary8221 did some other notionamp160begin to form in his subconscious When Don Jr agreed to the fateful meeting in Trump Tower with aamp160 Moscowamp160lawyeramp160with tenuous ties to the Kremlinamp160and aamp160 former Russian military intelligence officer bearing gifts and decided to rope Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner into it did he think he had finally found the ticket to an improbable victory for his father Or did some other motive begin to percolate in the Oedipal depths of his psyche tempting him with the idea that inamp160one wild stroke he could sowamp160the seeds for the future fall of the house of Trump As attractive as that notion is in a literary sense such a revenge play authored by Jr isamp160also improbable The hubrisamp160of the Trump family is surpassed only by their stupidity As a brood they are too dumb for Greek tragedy Roaming Charges Trump in Paris on Bastille Day Where8217s Robespierre when you need him To defend the oppressed against their oppressors to plead the cause of the weak against the strong who exploit and crush them this is the duty of all hearts that have not been spoiled by egoism and corruption8230 It is so sweet to devote oneself to one8217s fellows that I do not know how there can be so many unfortunates still without support or defenders As for me my life8217s task will be to help those who suffer and to pursue through my avenging speech those who take pleasure in the pain of others How happy I will be if my feeble efforts are crowned with success and if at the price of my devotion and sacrifices my reputation is not tarnished by the crimes of the oppressors I will fight amp160The GOP response to MiniDonald8217s smoking email chain reminds me of the party8217s response to the Presidential Daily Briefing presented to Bush a month prior to 911 titled 8220Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US8221 It didn8217t say when how where why or the exact time of day did it8230 amp160We interrupt your RussiaGate169 binge for an important announcement from the planet8230 8220 I8217m dying8220 Squint your eyes and scan the map for the patches of yellow Those represent the counties where minimumwage workers might be able to afford an apartment amp160 amp160amp160According to a new Harvard study more thanamp160 38 million American families can8217t afford their housing an increase of 146 percent in the past 16 years8230 A new poll suggests that 73 percent of Democrats would give up drinking in order to witness the impeachment of Donald Trump Now this might lower the cost of alcohol for the rest of us but it8217s not enough If they would pledge to give up eating we might have a deal8211though they would be required to sign a DNR order In 2016 more than 200 environmental activists were murdered around the globe many of them indigenous people trying to defend their villages forests and rivers from mining timber and oil companies It8217s the deadliest year on record for defenders of the planet amp160Too bad one of the Evangelicals who assembled in the Oval Office to lay their hands upon Trump didn8217t bring a rattlesnake to test the resolve of his faith Aramis Alaya was the first AfricanAmerican to be elected as a state attorney in Florida This week a video emerged of her being racially profiled by Orlando cops stopped and interrogated for no apparent reason other than that she was a black woman driving an expensivelooking car The cops only back off after Alaya showed them her IDamp160How many times a day do these stops happen across America 100 1000 5000 The Kremlin this week proposed recruiting Henry Kissinger to act as a mediator between Trump and Putin In carving up the world to suit American interests Kissinger has always favored an alliance with Russia over China Did Moscow Center clear this initiative with the ghosts of Ho Chi Minh and Salvador Allende8230 amp160The elites will never forgive Lula who was convicted this week in Brazil on politicallydriven charges of corruption in office At least they didn8217t assassinate him8230yet A new study shows yet again that closing medical marijuana dispensaries actually increases local crime rates But the war on drugs goes onamp160impervious to facts logic and reason8230 The senator from Citibank Chuck Schumer is calling for a war on snortable chocolate If this takes the shape of other Democratic Partylaunched 8220drug8221 wars it8217s possible predict the sentencesamp160Eat it Chuck will call you for a donationamp160Snort it get 1 to 5amp160Smoke it get 15 to life Rep Steve King the reliable geyser of bile from Iowa proposed this week that construction of Trump8217s border wall should financed from the money saved by eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood and Food Stamps Does he come up with these quips in church Come back Tupac your country needs you8230 amp160If we are going to remove Confederate monuments from the public sphere can someone please aim a wrecking ball at Jefferson B Sessions This week the New York Times published a demeaning column by David Brooks titled 8220We are Ruining America8221amp160If I had been the headline writer for the NYT oped page I8217d have titled theamp160column 8220How David Brooks is Ruining America8221 The toxic offgassing from each of his ponderous scribblings despoils a few more precious acres of the Republic In 1960 JFK won 70 percent of the vote in King County Texas home of the town of Guthrie which has a degree of international fameamp160from being a locale in Jack Kerouac8217s On the Road In 2016 Hillary Clinton managed to convince only five voters in the entire county to cast their ballots for her No Russians in sight Whether they are gunning down people or dogs police lie8230 In the 1920s a British 8220Black and Tan8221 cop from Galway named Douglas Duff became police chief of Jerusalem and quickly went to work torturing Palestinian prisoners During his brutal interrogations Duff became an early adopter of amp160the waterboarding method writing in his memoir about how aamp160prisoner wasamp1608220held down flat on his back while a thinspouted coffee pot poured a trickle of water up his nose8221 On Sunday Army vet name Justin Walters shot his wife in upper state New York and then opened fire when police arrived at the scene killing NY state trooper Joel Davis Walters was arrestedamp160and is now in custody facing two charges of murder Blacks and Hispanics rarely survive those kinds of encountersamp160White men are the top killers of American police yet they are almost always taken aliveamp160From 1980 to 2013 there 2269 officers were slainamp160in nontraffic relatedamp160incidents The 52 percent of the killers were white and 41 percent were black The White House transcripts of Trump8217s speech before the G20 referredamp160Chinese President Xi Jinping as the leader of Taiwan Worse Trump persists in calling him President Eleven amp160Time to go Radioheadless8230 amp160Partying like a Kennedy was much like partying with Trump8211only with booze amp1608230 Sen Orrin Hatch 8220Had we not had the filibuster8230this country would have gone straight to socialism8221 Time for the nuclear option Mitch amp160Taxi driver 8220Why do you use colored musicians8221 George Shearing 8220What color are they8221 Booked Up What I8217m reading this week8230 Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean The House of Namesamp160by Colm Toibin A Peoples8217 History of the French Revolution Eric Hazan amp160 Sound Grammar What I8217m listening to this week8230 Juke Joint at the End of the World by Randall Bramblett Live at Oberlin College by Mississippi John Hurt Diaspora by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Sweet Baby by Cornell Campbell Morphogenesis by Steve Coleman8217s Natal Eclipse amp160 Terrible to Watch James Baldwin 8220A person does not lightly elect to oppose his society One would much rather be at home among one8217s compatriots than be mocked and detested by them And there is a level on which the mockery of people even their hatred is moving because it is so blind It is terrible to watch people cling to their captivity and insist on their own destruction8221 | Photo/NOUN by/ADP Max/PROPN Goldberg/PROPN CC/PROPN BY/PROPN 20/NUM They/PRON fuck/VERB you/PRON up/ADP your/PRON mum/NOUN and/CCONJ dad/NOUN They/PRON may/AUX not/PART mean/VERB to/ADP but/CCONJ they/PRON do/AUX They/PRON fill/VERB you/PRON with/ADP the/DET faults/NOUN they/PRON had/VERB And/CCONJ add/VERB some/DET extra/ADJ just/ADV for/ADP you/PRON 8212/NUM From/ADP 8220This/PRON be/AUX the/DET Verse8221/PROPN by/ADP Philip/PROPN Larkin/PROPN When/SCONJ it/PRON comes/VERB to/ADP playing/VERB the/DET role/NOUN of/ADP an/DET idiot/NOUN Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN Jr/PROPN is/AUX certainly/ADV no/DET Prince/PROPN Myshkin/PROPN He/PRON doesn8217/PROPN t/NOUN even/ADV rise/VERB to/ADP the/DET level/NOUN of/ADP Faulkner8217s/PROPN Benjy/PROPN Compson/PROPN Still/ADV it/PRON may/AUX be/AUX possible/ADJ to/PART squeeze/VERB out/ADP a/DET little/ADJ bit/NOUN of/ADP empathy/NOUN for/ADP the/DET manchild/NOUN of/ADP Park/PROPN Avenue/PROPN Yes/INTJ I/PRON know/VERB in/ADP most/ADJ respects/NOUN MicroDonald/PROPN is/AUX an/DET utterly/ADV unappetizing/ADJ specimen/NOUN of/ADP humanity/NOUN whoamp160flies/NOUN around/ADP the/DET planet/NOUN slaughtering/VERB rare/ADJ speciesamp160such/NOUN as/SCONJ this/DET endangered/VERB leopard/NOUN foramp160bloody/NUM selfies/NOUN But/CCONJ the/DET boy/NOUN is/AUX the/DET progenyamp160of/PROPN Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN and/CCONJ who/PRON among/ADP us/PRON would/AUX want/VERB to/PART endure/VERB the/DET torments/NOUN of/ADP that/DET brand/NOUN of/ADP childrearing/NOUN By/ADP all/DET accounts/NOUN Trump8217s/DET parenting/NOUN skills/NOUN were/AUX stern/ADJ cold/ADJ and/CCONJ brutal/NOUN There/PRON were/VERB no/DET games/NOUN of/ADP catch/NOUN in/ADP Central/PROPN Park/PROPN no/DET camping/NOUN trips/NOUN to/ADP the/DET Adirondacks/PROPN no/DET help/NOUN with/ADP homework/NOUN 8220When/ADV I/PRON spent/VERB time/NOUN with/ADP my/PRON father/NOUN it/PRON wasn8217/VERB t/NOUN playing/VERB ball/NOUN in/ADP the/DET backyard8221/PROPN Donnie/PROPN told/VERB the/DET New/PROPN York/PROPN Times/PROPN in/ADP 2010/NUM 8220I/NOUN came/VERB to/ADP his/PRON office/NOUN and/CCONJ listened/VERB to/ADP him/PRON do/VERB business/NOUN or/CCONJ sat/VERB in/ADP on/ADP meetings8221/PROPN For/ADP most/ADJ of/ADP Donnie8217s/ADJ childhood/NOUN he/PRON rarely/ADV saw/VERB his/PRON father/NOUN or/CCONJ mother/NOUN He/PRON was/AUX nurtured/VERB by/ADP Irish/ADJ nannies/NOUN and/CCONJ Ivana8217s/PROPN mother/NOUN and/CCONJ then/ADV shipped/VERB off/ADP to/ADP The/DET Hill/PROPN a/DET boarding/NOUN school/NOUN for/ADP the/DET children/NOUN of/ADP elites/NOUN in/ADP Potsdown/PROPN Pennsylvania/PROPN Don8217s/PRON sister/NOUN Ivanka/PROPN whom/PRON Trump/PROPN seems/VERB smitten/ADJ by/ADP described/VERB what/PRON it/PRON was/AUX like/INTJ when/SCONJ Daddy/PROPN decided/VERB toamp160play/VERB his/PRON satyrlike/ADJ pranks/NOUN with/ADP the/DET kids/NOUN often/ADV on/ADP the/DET ski/NOUN slopes/NOUN in/ADP Aspenamp1608220We/NOUN were/AUX sort/ADV of/ADV bred/VERB to/PART be/AUX competitive8221/PROPN Ivanka/PROPN recalled/VERB 8220Dad/NUM encourages/VERB it/PRON I/PRON remember/VERB skiing/VERB with/ADP him/PRON and/CCONJ we/PRON were/AUX racing/VERB I/PRON was/AUX ahead/ADV and/CCONJ he/PRON reached/VERB his/PRON ski/ADJ pole/NOUN out/ADP and/CCONJ pulled/VERB me/PRON back8221/PROPN But/CCONJ for/ADP the/DET grace/NOUN of/ADP Odin/PROPN Ivanka/PROPN Eric/PROPN and/CCONJ Don/PROPN could/AUX have/AUX ended/VERB up/ADP as/ADV slopekill/ADJ like/ADP that/DET other/ADJ wayward/ADJ scionamp160/NOUN Michael/PROPN Kennedy/PROPN When/SCONJ MicroDonald/PROPN was/AUX twelve/NUM he/PRON had/VERB to/PART endure/VERB the/DET tabloid/ADJ spectacle/NOUN of/ADP his/PRON father/NOUN excoriating/VERB his/PRON mother/NOUN Ivana/PROPN in/ADP the/DET press/NOUN while/SCONJ squiring/VERB the/DET Georgia/PROPN beauty/NOUN queen/NOUN Marla/PROPN Maples/PROPN Later/ADV he/PRON learned/VERB that/SCONJ his/PRON mother/NOUN had/AUX accused/VERB his/PRON father/NOUN of/ADP sexually/ADV assaulting/VERB her/PRON an/DET accusation/NOUN later/ADV withdrawn/VERB as/ADP part/NOUN ofamp160a/VERB legal/ADJ settlement/NOUN For/ADP years/NOUN afterwards/ADV the/DET son/NOUN kept/VERB himself/PRON at/ADP a/DET chilly/ADJ distance/NOUN from/ADP his/PRON despotic/ADJ father/NOUN Many/ADJ children/NOUN raised/VERB in/ADP similarly/ADV frigid/ADJ circumstances/NOUN development/NOUN socalled/VERB 8220attachment/NOUN disorders8221/PROPN and/CCONJ end/VERB up/ADP torturing/VERB animals/NOUN Donald/PROPN Jr/PROPN started/VERB killing/VERB them/PRON Then/ADV when/SCONJ young/ADJ Donald/PROPN followed/VERB his/PRON father8217s/PROPN footsteps/NOUN to/ADP the/DET Wharton/PROPN School/PROPN of/ADP Business/PROPN at/ADP the/DET University/PROPN of/ADP Pennsylvania/PROPN a/DET thawing/NOUN in/ADP relations/NOUN ensued/VERB Sadly/ADV this/DET familial/ADJ warming/NOUN proved/VERB more/ADJ of/ADP a/DET shortterm/NOUN heat/NOUN spell/NOUN rather/ADV than/ADP a/DET true/ADJ change/NOUN in/ADP climate/NOUN According/VERB to/ADP an/DET account/NOUN from/ADP MicroDonald8217s/PROPN dormmate/VERB a/DET man/NOUN called/VERB Scott/PROPN Melker/PROPN there/ADV came/VERB a/DET time/NOUN when/SCONJ word/NOUN spread/VERB through/ADP the/DET dorm/NOUN that/PRON Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN himself/PRON would/AUX be/AUX visiting/VERB to/PART take/VERB his/PRON son/NOUN to/ADP a/DET Yankees/PROPN game/NOUN Many/ADJ of/ADP the/DET dorm8217s/PROPN residents/NOUN crowded/VERB together/ADV near/ADP young/ADJ Donald8217s/PROPN room/NOUN to/PART catch/VERB a/DET glimpse/NOUN of/ADP the/DET tycoon/NOUN Daddy/PROPN Trump/PROPN cut/VERB his/PRON way/NOUN through/ADP the/DET crowd/NOUN of/ADP students/NOUN and/CCONJ knocked/VERB on/ADP MicroDonald8217s/PROPN door/NOUN Donnie/PROPN answered/VERB with/ADP a/DET smile/NOUN proudly/ADV wearing/VERB his/PRON Yankee/PROPN jersey/NOUN This/DET fashion/NOUN crime/NOUN enraged/VERB Trump/PROPN who/PRON slapped/VERB Donnie/PROPN so/ADV hard/ADV in/ADP the/DET face/NOUN that/PRON his/PRON son/NOUN crumpled/VERB to/ADP the/DET floor/NOUN The/DET father/NOUN looked/VERB down/ADP on/ADP his/PRON fallen/VERB son/NOUN and/CCONJ according/VERB to/ADP Melker/PROPN sneered/VERB 8220Put/NUM on/ADP a/DET suit/NOUN and/CCONJ meet/VERB me/PRON outside8221/ADV His/PRON friends/NOUN noticed/VERB a/DET change/NOUN in/ADP Donnie/PROPN after/ADP that/DET brutal/ADJ interaction/NOUN with/ADP good/ADJ old/ADJ dad/NOUN He/PRON started/VERB drowning/VERB his/PRON shame/NOUN with/ADP booze/NOUN and/CCONJ fed/VERB his/PRON gnawing/VERB rage/NOUN by/ADP blasting/VERB away/ADV at/ADP ungulates/NOUN and/CCONJ predators/NOUN After/SCONJ graduation/NOUN MicroDonald/PROPN drifted/VERB away/ADV from/ADP Manhattan/PROPN to/ADP Colorado/PROPN where/SCONJ he/PRON worked/VERB for/ADP some/DET time/NOUN as/ADP a/DET bartender/NOUN In/ADP 20o1/NUM he/PRON was/AUX busted/VERB for/ADP public/ADJ drunkenness/NOUN in/ADP New/PROPN Orleans/PROPN But/CCONJ like/ADP many/ADJ neglected/VERB and/CCONJ abused/VERB children/NOUN MicroDonald/PROPN soon/ADV headed/VERB back/ADP east/ADV seeking/VERB approval/NOUN and/CCONJ affection/NOUN from/ADP his/PRON icyamp160and/NUM tyrannical/ADJ fatheramp1608220To/NOUN be/VERB fairly/ADV candid8221/VERB Donnie/PROPN told/VERB New/PROPN York/PROPN magazine/NOUN in/ADP 2004amp1608220I/NUM used/VERB to/PART drink/VERB a/DET lot/NOUN and/CCONJ party/NOUN pretty/ADV hard/ADV and/CCONJ it/PRON wasn8217/VERB t/VERB something/PRON that/PRON I/PRON was/AUX particularly/ADV good/ADJ at/ADP I/PRON mean/VERB I/PRON was/AUX good/ADJ at/ADP it/PRON but/CCONJ I/PRON couldn8217/VERB t/NOUN do/VERB it/PRON in/ADP moderation/NOUN About/ADP two/NUM years/NOUN ago/ADV I/PRON quit/VERB drinking/VERB entirely/ADV I/PRON have/VERB too/ADV much/ADJ of/ADP an/DET opportunity/NOUN to/PART make/VERB something/PRON of/ADP myself/PRON be/AUX successful/ADJ in/ADP my/PRON own/ADJ right/NOUN Why/SCONJ blow/VERB it8221/NOUN For/ADP the/DET next/ADJ few/ADJ years/NOUN MicroDonald/PROPN toiled/VERB in/ADP the/DET anterooms/NOUN of/ADP Trump/PROPN Tower/PROPN working/VERB on/ADP minor/ADJ real/ADJ estate/NOUN deals/NOUN making/VERB occasional/ADJ appearances/NOUN on/ADP 8220The/NUM Apprentice8221/PROPN trying/VERB to/PART please/VERB Daddy/NOUN by/ADP playing/VERB golf/NOUN more/ADV than/ADP fishing/VERB and/CCONJ learning/VERB how/SCONJ to/PART dress/VERB for/ADP success/NOUN It/PRON was/AUX during/ADP this/DET training/NOUN period/NOUN that/PRON father/PROPN introduced/VERB son/NOUN to/ADP the/DET woman/NOUN who/PRON would/AUX become/VERB Donnie8217samp160wife/NOUN the/DET blonde/ADJ model/NOUN and/CCONJ beauty/NOUN contestantamp160Vanessa/NOUN Kay/PROPN Haydon/PROPN The/DET MadeforRealityTV/PROPN couple/NOUN wasamp160married/VERB in/ADP 2005/NUM at/ADP MaraLago/PROPN Now/ADV rehabilitated/VERB Junior/PROPN was/AUX sent/VERB forth/ADV into/ADP the/DET world/NOUN to/PART stamp/VERB the/DET Trump/PROPN brand/NOUN on/ADP golf/NOUN courses/NOUN casinos/NOUN and/CCONJ gaudy/ADJ towers/NOUN from/ADP Dubai/PROPN to/ADP Panama/PROPN City/PROPN Along/ADP the/DET way/NOUN the/DET tycoonintraining/NOUN often/ADV let/VERB slip/VERB family/NOUN secrets/NOUN such/ADJ as/ADP his/PRON boastful/ADJ statement/NOUN in/ADP 2008/NUM about/ADP the/DET Trump/PROPN Organization8217s/ADJ business/NOUN dealings/NOUN in/ADP Russia/PROPN 8220We/NUM see/VERB a/DET lot/NOUN of/ADP money/NOUN pouring/VERB in/ADP from/ADP Russia8221/PROPN Donnie/PROPN said/VERB 8220There8217s/NUM indeed/ADV a/DET lot/NOUN of/ADP money/NOUN coming/VERB for/ADP newbuilds/NOUN and/CCONJ resale/NOUN reflecting/VERB a/DET trend/NOUN in/ADP the/DET Russian/ADJ economy/NOUN and/CCONJ of/ADP course/NOUN the/DET weak/ADJ dollar/NOUN versus/ADP the/DET ruble8221/NOUN By/ADP that/DET time/NOUN MicroDonald/PROPN had/AUX made/VERB at/ADP least/ADJ six/NUM tripsamp160to/NOUN Russia/PROPN negotiating/VERB deals/NOUN ranging/VERB from/ADP the/DET promotion/NOUN of/ADP Trump/PROPN Super/PROPN Premium/PROPN Vodka/PROPN to/ADP a/DET failed/VERB Russian/ADJ reality/NOUN show/NOUN starring/VERB a/DET mixed/ADJ martial/ADJ arts/NOUN fighter/NOUN Quality/PROPN stuff/NOUN He/PRON made/VERB his/PRON first/ADJ expedition/NOUN to/ADP Russia/PROPN in/ADP 2006/NUM where/SCONJ he/PRON was/AUX introduced/VERB to/ADP Russian/ADJ oligarchs/NOUN byamp160Felix/NOUN Sater/PROPN a/DET Russianborn/PROPN real/ADJ estate/NOUN magnate/NOUN and/CCONJ Trump/PROPN business/NOUN associate/NOUN Among/ADP the/DET Russian/ADJ bigwigs/NOUN Junior/PROPN met/VERB on/ADP that/DET maiden/NOUN trip/NOUN wasamp160Arasamp160Agalarovamp160amp160the/ADP Moscow/PROPN construction/NOUN kingpinamp160and/PROPN father/PROPN of/ADP 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<p>President Barack Obama met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley in the Oval Office on Tuesday <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/01/politics/obama-mitch-mcconnell-supreme-court-nomination/index.html" type="external">to discuss</a> a contentious issue: his plans to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. The meeting was the latest round in a campaign to compel McConnell to allow the Senate to consider a nominee this year, an effort in which Obama and his aides have tried to crack Republican obstruction by invoking the wisdom of one of the party’s icons. In 1988, after two of Ronald Reagan’s nominees were rejected by the Senate, Reagan warned about the consequences for the country should the seat continue to go unfilled, saying, “Every day that passes with the Supreme Court below full strength impairs the people’s business in that crucially important body.” It’s a line that the Obama team has been echoing a lot.</p>
<p>The stakes for the fight over Scalia’s replacement are undeniably high. But on Second Amendment issues specifically, policymakers and courts already often found themselves operating in limbo before Scalia died —&#160;and had been since 2008. That was the year that the Supreme Court, with Scalia writing for the majority, affirmed the right to bear arms for all individuals in District of Columbia v. Heller.</p>
<p>While his <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-290.pdf" type="external">ruling</a> was a monumental win for gun rights advocates, Scalia also used the opinion to caution that the boundaries of the Second Amendment remain unfixed, and could only be set by decisions in future cases. “[S]ince this case represents this court’s first in-depth examination of the Second Amendment, one should not expect it to clarify the entire field,” he wrote.</p>
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<p>In the years since, lower courts have tried to figure out how far gun regulations can go without stepping on the toes of the Second Amendment. Their conclusions have been the most significantly divided on four particular questions. And since the Supreme Court has declined to hear an <a href="" type="internal">overwhelming majority</a> of the Second Amendment cases brought since Heller, the lower courts and the lawmakers who take guidance from them could spend years wrangling with those matters without any firm guidance from the Supreme Court — no matter who eventually assumes Scalia’s former seat.</p>
<p>Though Scalia’s opinion in Heller established the right for individuals to bear arms, it includes this famous caveat: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.” That sentence left open the possibility that some gun regulations could pass muster, without spelling out the criteria for constitutionality.</p>
<p>Judges generally rely on such tests to evaluate regulations or bans that potentially diminish fundamental rights, like the freedom of speech or religion. This kind of assessment is called strict scrutiny. The constitutional law scholar Gerald Gunther described the yardstick as <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/strict_scrutiny" type="external">“strict in theory, fatal in fact,”</a> since most regulations cannot pass strict scrutiny, which favors the protection of a constitutional right.</p>
<p>A more lenient test is called intermediate scrutiny, and it gives regulations more leeway. The measurement only requires that lawmakers have an important purpose for creating a rule, and that the rule actually helps advance the government’s goals.</p>
<p>One of the key questions that has percolated since the Heller decision is whether gun regulations should be evaluated under strict scrutiny or intermediate scrutiny. The Fourth Circuit tackled the issue last month, when it examined Maryland’s statewide ban on assault weapons. The regulation — part of the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/16/omalley-signs-maryland-gun-control-measure-law/?page=all" type="external">Firearms Safety Act</a> that then-Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre — prohibits the manufacture, purchase, or sale of 60 types of assault weapons (including the AR-15 and AK-47), as well as high-capacity magazines that carry more than 10 rounds. &#160;</p>
<p>In a Supreme Court case where convicted domestic abusers want their gun rights restored, the Justice raised concerns about protecting the Second Amendment.</p>
<p>by <a href="" type="internal">Olivia Li</a></p>
<p>In its <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=18307459536574325962&amp;q=kolbe+v.+hogan&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6,33&amp;as_vis=1" type="external">opinion</a> in the case, Kolbe v. Hogan,&#160;the Fourth Circuit ruled that Maryland’s law must be subjected to strict scrutiny,&#160;sending the ban back to a lower court.&#160;The judges said that the state’s ban was an affront to what Scalia called the “core” purpose of the Second Amendment: “the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.” As a consequence, the court found that the ban was likely unconstitutional. “We are compelled by Heller … to conclude that the burden is substantial and strict scrutiny is the applicable standard of review,” wrote Justice William Byrd Traxler, Jr.</p>
<p>The Kolbe ruling was the first time a circuit court had used strict scrutiny to evaluate a gun ban. The <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-20/gun-laws-upheld-but-it-s-complicated" type="external">Second Circuit used intermediate scrutiny</a> when it upheld New York and Connecticut’s assault weapons bans late last year. The <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/46AD1BE68518069B85257EC400534ABB/$file/14-7071-1573768.pdf" type="external">D.C. Circuit issued a similar ruling</a>on the district’s own assault weapons law around the same time. And though the&#160; <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=106840924096945386&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr" type="external">Sixth Circuit instructed a lower court in Tennessee</a> to use strict scrutiny to evaluate a federal gun prohibition for the mentally ill, that order is now <a href="http://www.sixthcircuitappellateblog.com/recent-cases/fourth-circuit-joins-sixth-circuit-in-applying-strict-scrutiny-to-gun-restriction/" type="external">being reconsidered</a>.</p>
<p>The uncertainty surrounding judicial scrutiny affects all kinds of gun regulations, not just assault weapons bans. Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who wrote an amicus brief in Heller,&#160;points out: “Whatever your gun law is, you need a standard of review.”&#160;The Fourth Circuit’s recent ruling means no such clear standard is in place, throwing the question into the legal purgatory of the “circuit split,” when multiple courts just below the Supreme Court disagree on a key issue. The Supreme Court tends to look for such discrepancies when figuring out which cases it should hear. As Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2016/02/the_supreme_court_may_finally_have_to_take_a_new_gun_case.single.html" type="external">notes</a>, the Kolbe decision “sets the wheels in motion for another major gun fight at the high court,” though there’s no indication that the fight will reach the justices anytime soon.</p>
<p>A month after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, when a gunman equipped with a semiautomatic rifle fired <a href="http://www.cbs46.com/story/21814424/154-shots-in-5-minutes-sandy-hook-warrants-released" type="external">154 rounds in five minutes</a> at a Connecticut elementary school, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the <a href="http://programs.governor.ny.gov/nysafeact/gun-reform" type="external">SAFE Act</a>, the state’s landmark gun policy bill. The legislation banned future sales of assault weapons and magazines that can hold more than 10&#160;rounds. A few months later, Connecticut passed a <a href="https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&amp;bill_num=1160&amp;which_year=2013" type="external">similar law</a>, which included a list of 183 assault weapon models that were banned by the state.</p>
<p>Some experts think the <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-290.pdf" type="external">Heller</a> decision allowed for the prohibition of assault-style weapons, five years before Sandy Hook happened. As the court wrote at the time, “We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’”</p>
<p>But are AR-15s and AK-47s “unusual weapons?” In the decade leading up to the bans in New York and Connecticut, millions of these so-called black rifles had already been manufactured and sold in the U.S. The distinction is crucial, as Heller supported the right to bear arms that are in common use, or guns “typically possessed by law-abiding citizens.”</p>
<p>In 2013, New York and Connecticut gun rights advocates challenged their states’ assault weapons bans. Their cases ultimately wound up in the Second Circuit, which had a difficult time determining whether black rifles fit Scalia’s definition of “common use,” or should be prohibited under his classification of “dangerous weapons.” Statistical evidence was inconclusive: Black rifles are in wide circulation, but not as widely owned as handguns. They also possess more firepower than handguns, but handguns are used <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/GUIC.PDF" type="external">more frequently in crimes</a>. Unable to answer those questions, the Second Circuit assumed — for the sake of argument — that black rifles qualified as being in common use, while ultimately holding that the bans were constitutional because assault weapons are not a typical means of self-defense. An AR-15, the Second Circuit <a href="http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/c02a2bb7-1730-48ac-b247-f883eef5f3c9/3/doc/14-36_14-319_opn.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/c02a2bb7-1730-48ac-b247-f883eef5f3c9/3/hilite/" type="external">wrote</a>, has capacities far beyond that of a handgun, which Scalia called the “quintessential self-defense weapon.”</p>
<p>Since it viewed black rifles as falling outside the realm of typical self-defense weapons, the Second Circuit concluded that Connecticut and New York’s assault weapons bans did not undermine residents’ right to bear arms. The court upheld the bans this October. The Connecticut Citizens’ Defense League, a plaintiff against Connecticut’s assault weapons ban, challenged that decision last month in a <a href="http://ccdl.us/blog/uploads/2016/02/Shew-v-Malloy-SCOTUS-Petition-as-filed-CCDL.pdf" type="external">petition</a> to the Supreme Court. The group cited as support for its argument the Fourth’s Circuit’s decision to utilize strict scrutiny in striking down Maryland’s assault weapon ban.</p>
<p>Heller firmly established the right to use a gun to defend one’s home. What it did not address was whether gun owners have a right to carry a weapon in public for self-defense. In 2009, this issue was brought before the California courts. The plaintiffs in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16699306652731612622&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr" type="external">Peruta v. County of San Diego</a> argue that the county’s permitting scheme for carrying concealed weapons in public is unjust and unconstitutional. The County of San Diego requires a resident to show “good cause” — meaning they must face an unusual threat of violence, such as stalking — in order to obtain a concealed handgun license. Wanting a license for general self-defense is not enough. &#160;</p>
<p>The plaintiffs point out that the county’s permitting policies, coupled with <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/10/local/la-me-brown-guns-20111011" type="external">California’s statewide ban on open-carry</a>, mean that San Diego residents have no lawful way to arm themselves in public. They went on to argue that applicants who were denied licenses in San Diego because they couldn’t show “good cause” were barred from exercising a core aspect of their Second Amendment rights: namely, the right to self defense. Their case made it all the way to the Ninth Circuit, where the panel of judges assigned to the case did as their counterparts elsewhere. They looked to Heller for guidance, and came away empty-handed.</p>
<p>Where Scalia’s Heller opinion did address public carry, it implied that lawmakers could enact limits without violating the right to bear arms: The Second Amendment, Scalia wrote, “is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For instance, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment …” But overall, the Ninth Circuit justices concluded that Heller does not speak “explicitly or precisely to the scope of the Second Amendment right outside the home or to what it takes to ‘infringe’ it.”</p>
<p>In the absence of an unmistakable road map, the Ninth Circuit panel took a different kind of cue from Scalia, turning to historical sources. Based on those records, the circuit judges reasoned that at the time the Second Amendment was written, the word “bear” was a synonym of “carry.” Hence, the court concluded, the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to self-defense in public. In February 2014, the court declared San Diego’s “good cause” requirement unconstitutional, saying it destroyed the right to bear arms “under the guise of regulating it.”</p>
<p>The County asked the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its decision, which the <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/behind-the-9th-circuit-bench-the-judges-ruling-on-concealed-guns/" type="external">full court</a> did in June of last year. But the court has yet to issue a second ruling. Meanwhile, two separate cases tackle the same question. Like San Diego County, the District of Columbia requires gun owners seeking a concealed carry permit to have good reason for needing a weapon to protect themselves outside the home. And as in California, the D.C. law is now being challenged in federal court. Since <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6595725860193302445&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6,33&amp;as_vis=1" type="external">some circuit courts</a> elsewhere have found that the right to bear arms covers public carry while simultaneously stating that “good cause” permit processes are permissible, clarity on the underlying question of how much latitude state and local policymakers have in writing their concealed carry rules may remain elusive. &#160;</p>
<p>With <a href="http://guptawessler.com/practice-areas/appellate-practice/" type="external">several other challenges</a> to gun laws pending in the Ninth Circuit, California has become the epicenter of Second Amendment litigation. In one of those additional cases, gun rights advocates are contesting regulations for guns made and sold in the state.</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">The Trace previously reported</a>, the production of firearms, unlike any other consumer product, is not subject to federal oversight. Some states have stepped into this regulatory void to make guns safer by requiring gun makers to test their weapons for malfunctions and to incorporate safety features. California’s scheme is the <a href="http://smartgunlaws.org/the-california-model-twenty-years-of-putting-safety-first/" type="external">most robust</a>, partly to protect residents against a repeat of the public safety hazard caused in the 1980s and 1990s by the so-called “Ring of Fire.” Operating just outside Los Angeles, the notorious group of gunmakers produced cheap handguns popular with criminals. The companies’ guns were <a href="https://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/vprp/pdf/RingofFire1994.pdf" type="external">3.4 times more likely to be used in crimes</a> than guns made by other manufacturers.</p>
<p>To rid the market of these weapons, California created a roster of approved handgun models in <a href="http://www.guns.com/2016/01/06/californias-incredible-shrinking-handgun-roster-turns-16/" type="external">2001</a>. The list included guns that met the state’s performance standards — such as not being prone to malfunction — and excluded both the “Ring of Fire” weapons and some semiautomatic handguns from other manufacturers. California also requires all semiautomatic guns to be built with a mechanism that blocks firing when the magazine is removed and indicators that inform a user when the weapon is loaded. The features help prevent accidental discharges, which <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf" type="external">killed over 500 people in 2013</a>. Finally, the state also has passed a unique microstamping law. Not only must the serial number, make, and model be etched onto the exterior of the firearm, but new firearms must also “microstamp” those figures onto shell casings when the weapon fires, which helps law enforcement trace crime guns to their original owners.</p>
<p>The implementation of California’s microstamping mandate has been stalled by an ongoing lawsuit called <a href="http://michellawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Pena_Appellants-Opening-Brief.pdf" type="external">Pena v. Lindley</a>. The plaintiffs, joined by Calguns, a California lobbying group that represents retailers with a federal firearms license, has taken its challenge to the Ninth Circuit. California’s regulatory scheme is unconstitutional, they believe, because it prevents residents from buying firearms that Heller held are in “common use.” They also argue that California’s handgun roster and the state’s extensive safety requirements took so many guns off of the California market as to make it anti-competitive, thereby limiting buyers’ choices.</p>
<p>The plaintiffs cite an interesting detail from Heller to make their point: The very handgun at issue in the original D.C. case — a High Standard 9-shot revolver — is not on California’s list of approved guns. In other words, California prohibits the very types of guns that Heller said individuals could own for the defense of one’s home. (Hundreds of other handgun models are on <a href="http://certguns.doj.ca.gov/safeguns_resp.asp" type="external">the approved gun list</a>, however.)</p>
<p>The case could ultimately impact other states that have a roster of approved firearms or safety requirements. Maryland was the first to create such a roster in <a href="http://cnsmaryland.org/2013/02/22/history-of-gun-legislation-in-maryland/" type="external">1988</a>. Massachusetts followed ten years later. After Heller struck down Washington D.C.’s handgun ban in <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/19/AR2009061901822.html" type="external">2008</a>, the district <a href="http://smartgunlaws.org/design-safety-standards-for-handguns-in-washington-d-c/" type="external">based its list</a> of approved firearms off of the rosters used in California and Massachusetts. And <a href="http://smartgunlaws.org/gun-design-safety-standards-policy-summary/" type="external">five</a> other states also require firearms manufacturers to meet safety standards.</p>
<p>The Ninth Circuit has yet to hear arguments on the case or write its opinion, but Calguns has already <a href="http://www.ijreview.com/2015/02/254416-federal-judge-make-major-ruling-law-become-target-gun-rights-groups/" type="external">said</a> it will try to take its case to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>For now, because of the broad legal territory that Scalia left uncharted in Heller, our confused, sometimes contradictory <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/opinion/effective-firearms-regulation-is-constitutional.html?_r=2" type="external">“Swiss-cheese system of firearms regulation”</a> will persist.</p>
<p>[Photo:&#160;AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta]</p> | The Four Big Gun Rights Questions the Supreme Court May Have to Sort Out | false | https://thetrace.org/2016/03/important-gun-rights-questions-supreme-court-might-answer/ | 2016-03-02 | 3left-center
| 2,515 | President Barack Obama met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley in the Oval Office on Tuesday to discuss a contentious issue his plans to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court The meeting was the latest round in a campaign to compel McConnell to allow the Senate to consider a nominee this year an effort in which Obama and his aides have tried to crack Republican obstruction by invoking the wisdom of one of the party8217s icons In 1988 after two of Ronald Reagan8217s nominees were rejected by the Senate Reagan warned about the consequences for the country should the seat continue to go unfilled saying 8220Every day that passes with the Supreme Court below full strength impairs the people8217s business in that crucially important body8221 It8217s a line that the Obama team has been echoing a lot The stakes for the fight over Scalia8217s replacement are undeniably high But on Second Amendment issues specifically policymakers and courts already often found themselves operating in limbo before Scalia died 8212amp160and had been since 2008 That was the year that the Supreme Court with Scalia writing for the majority affirmed the right to bear arms for all individuals in District of Columbia v Heller While his ruling was a monumental win for gun rights advocates Scalia also used the opinion to caution that the boundaries of the Second Amendment remain unfixed and could only be set by decisions in future cases 8220Since this case represents this court8217s first indepth examination of the Second Amendment one should not expect it to clarify the entire field8221 he wrote Subscribe to receive The Trace8217s newsletters on important gun news and analysis In the years since lower courts have tried to figure out how far gun regulations can go without stepping on the toes of the Second Amendment Their conclusions have been the most significantly divided on four particular questions And since the Supreme Court has declined to hear an overwhelming majority of the Second Amendment cases brought since Heller the lower courts and the lawmakers who take guidance from them could spend years wrangling with those matters without any firm guidance from the Supreme Court 8212 no matter who eventually assumes Scalia8217s former seat Though Scalia8217s opinion in Heller established the right for individuals to bear arms it includes this famous caveat 8220Like most rights the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited8221 That sentence left open the possibility that some gun regulations could pass muster without spelling out the criteria for constitutionality Judges generally rely on such tests to evaluate regulations or bans that potentially diminish fundamental rights like the freedom of speech or religion This kind of assessment is called strict scrutiny The constitutional law scholar Gerald Gunther described the yardstick as 8220strict in theory fatal in fact8221 since most regulations cannot pass strict scrutiny which favors the protection of a constitutional right A more lenient test is called intermediate scrutiny and it gives regulations more leeway The measurement only requires that lawmakers have an important purpose for creating a rule and that the rule actually helps advance the government8217s goals One of the key questions that has percolated since the Heller decision is whether gun regulations should be evaluated under strict scrutiny or intermediate scrutiny The Fourth Circuit tackled the issue last month when it examined Maryland8217s statewide ban on assault weapons The regulation 8212 part of the Firearms Safety Act that thenGovernor Martin O8217Malley signed into law in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre 8212 prohibits the manufacture purchase or sale of 60 types of assault weapons including the AR15 and AK47 as well as highcapacity magazines that carry more than 10 rounds amp160 In a Supreme Court case where convicted domestic abusers want their gun rights restored the Justice raised concerns about protecting the Second Amendment by Olivia Li In its opinion in the case Kolbe v Hoganamp160the Fourth Circuit ruled that Maryland8217s law must be subjected to strict scrutinyamp160sending the ban back to a lower courtamp160The judges said that the state8217s ban was an affront to what Scalia called the 8220core8221 purpose of the Second Amendment 8220the right of lawabiding responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home8221 As a consequence the court found that the ban was likely unconstitutional 8220We are compelled by Heller 8230 to conclude that the burden is substantial and strict scrutiny is the applicable standard of review8221 wrote Justice William Byrd Traxler Jr The Kolbe ruling was the first time a circuit court had used strict scrutiny to evaluate a gun ban The Second Circuit used intermediate scrutiny when it upheld New York and Connecticut8217s assault weapons bans late last year The DC Circuit issued a similar rulingon the district8217s own assault weapons law around the same time And though theamp160 Sixth Circuit instructed a lower court in Tennessee to use strict scrutiny to evaluate a federal gun prohibition for the mentally ill that order is now being reconsidered The uncertainty surrounding judicial scrutiny affects all kinds of gun regulations not just assault weapons bans Adam Winkler a UCLA law professor who wrote an amicus brief in Helleramp160points out 8220Whatever your gun law is you need a standard of review8221amp160The Fourth Circuit8217s recent ruling means no such clear standard is in place throwing the question into the legal purgatory of the 8220circuit split8221 when multiple courts just below the Supreme Court disagree on a key issue The Supreme Court tends to look for such discrepancies when figuring out which cases it should hear As Slate8217s Dahlia Lithwick notes the Kolbe decision 8220sets the wheels in motion for another major gun fight at the high court8221 though there8217s no indication that the fight will reach the justices anytime soon A month after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting when a gunman equipped with a semiautomatic rifle fired 154 rounds in five minutes at a Connecticut elementary school New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the SAFE Act the state8217s landmark gun policy bill The legislation banned future sales of assault weapons and magazines that can hold more than 10amp160rounds A few months later Connecticut passed a similar law which included a list of 183 assault weapon models that were banned by the state Some experts think the Heller decision allowed for the prohibition of assaultstyle weapons five years before Sandy Hook happened As the court wrote at the time 8220We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of 8216dangerous and unusual weapons82178221 But are AR15s and AK47s 8220unusual weapons8221 In the decade leading up to the bans in New York and Connecticut millions of these socalled black rifles had already been manufactured and sold in the US The distinction is crucial as Heller supported the right to bear arms that are in common use or guns 8220typically possessed by lawabiding citizens8221 In 2013 New York and Connecticut gun rights advocates challenged their states8217 assault weapons bans Their cases ultimately wound up in the Second Circuit which had a difficult time determining whether black rifles fit Scalia8217s definition of 8220common use8221 or should be prohibited under his classification of 8220dangerous weapons8221 Statistical evidence was inconclusive Black rifles are in wide circulation but not as widely owned as handguns They also possess more firepower than handguns but handguns are used more frequently in crimes Unable to answer those questions the Second Circuit assumed 8212 for the sake of argument 8212 that black rifles qualified as being in common use while ultimately holding that the bans were constitutional because assault weapons are not a typical means of selfdefense An AR15 the Second Circuit wrote has capacities far beyond that of a handgun which Scalia called the 8220quintessential selfdefense weapon8221 Since it viewed black rifles as falling outside the realm of typical selfdefense weapons the Second Circuit concluded that Connecticut and New York8217s assault weapons bans did not undermine residents8217 right to bear arms The court upheld the bans this October The Connecticut Citizens8217 Defense League a plaintiff against Connecticut8217s assault weapons ban challenged that decision last month in a petition to the Supreme Court The group cited as support for its argument the Fourth8217s Circuit8217s decision to utilize strict scrutiny in striking down Maryland8217s assault weapon ban Heller firmly established the right to use a gun to defend one8217s home What it did not address was whether gun owners have a right to carry a weapon in public for selfdefense In 2009 this issue was brought before the California courts The plaintiffs in Peruta v County of San Diego argue that the county8217s permitting scheme for carrying concealed weapons in public is unjust and unconstitutional The County of San Diego requires a resident to show 8220good cause8221 8212 meaning they must face an unusual threat of violence such as stalking 8212 in order to obtain a concealed handgun license Wanting a license for general selfdefense is not enough amp160 The plaintiffs point out that the county8217s permitting policies coupled with California8217s statewide ban on opencarry mean that San Diego residents have no lawful way to arm themselves in public They went on to argue that applicants who were denied licenses in San Diego because they couldn8217t show 8220good cause8221 were barred from exercising a core aspect of their Second Amendment rights namely the right to self defense Their case made it all the way to the Ninth Circuit where the panel of judges assigned to the case did as their counterparts elsewhere They looked to Heller for guidance and came away emptyhanded Where Scalia8217s Heller opinion did address public carry it implied that lawmakers could enact limits without violating the right to bear arms The Second Amendment Scalia wrote 8220is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose For instance concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment 82308221 But overall the Ninth Circuit justices concluded that Heller does not speak 8220explicitly or precisely to the scope of the Second Amendment right outside the home or to what it takes to 8216infringe8217 it8221 In the absence of an unmistakable road map the Ninth Circuit panel took a different kind of cue from Scalia turning to historical sources Based on those records the circuit judges reasoned that at the time the Second Amendment was written the word 8220bear8221 was a synonym of 8220carry8221 Hence the court concluded the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to selfdefense in public In February 2014 the court declared San Diego8217s 8220good cause8221 requirement unconstitutional saying it destroyed the right to bear arms 8220under the guise of regulating it8221 The County asked the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its decision which the full court did in June of last year But the court has yet to issue a second ruling Meanwhile two separate cases tackle the same question Like San Diego County the District of Columbia requires gun owners seeking a concealed carry permit to have good reason for needing a weapon to protect themselves outside the home And as in California the DC law is now being challenged in federal court Since some circuit courts elsewhere have found that the right to bear arms covers public carry while simultaneously stating that 8220good cause8221 permit processes are permissible clarity on the underlying question of how much latitude state and local policymakers have in writing their concealed carry rules may remain elusive amp160 With several other challenges to gun laws pending in the Ninth Circuit California has become the epicenter of Second Amendment litigation In one of those additional cases gun rights advocates are contesting regulations for guns made and sold in the state As The Trace previously reported the production of firearms unlike any other consumer product is not subject to federal oversight Some states have stepped into this regulatory void to make guns safer by requiring gun makers to test their weapons for malfunctions and to incorporate safety features California8217s scheme is the most robust partly to protect residents against a repeat of the public safety hazard caused in the 1980s and 1990s by the socalled 8220Ring of Fire8221 Operating just outside Los Angeles the notorious group of gunmakers produced cheap handguns popular with criminals The companies8217 guns were 34 times more likely to be used in crimes than guns made by other manufacturers To rid the market of these weapons California created a roster of approved handgun models in 2001 The list included guns that met the state8217s performance standards 8212 such as not being prone to malfunction 8212 and excluded both the 8220Ring of Fire8221 weapons and some semiautomatic handguns from other manufacturers California also requires all semiautomatic guns to be built with a mechanism that blocks firing when the magazine is removed and indicators that inform a user when the weapon is loaded The features help prevent accidental discharges which killed over 500 people in 2013 Finally the state also has passed a unique microstamping law Not only must the serial number make and model be etched onto the exterior of the firearm but new firearms must also 8220microstamp8221 those figures onto shell casings when the weapon fires which helps law enforcement trace crime guns to their original owners The implementation of California8217s microstamping mandate has been stalled by an ongoing lawsuit called Pena v Lindley The plaintiffs joined by Calguns a California lobbying group that represents retailers with a federal firearms license has taken its challenge to the Ninth Circuit California8217s regulatory scheme is unconstitutional they believe because it prevents residents from buying firearms that Heller held are in 8220common use8221 They also argue that California8217s handgun roster and the state8217s extensive safety requirements took so many guns off of the California market as to make it anticompetitive thereby limiting buyers8217 choices The plaintiffs cite an interesting detail from Heller to make their point The very handgun at issue in the original DC case 8212 a High Standard 9shot revolver 8212 is not on California8217s list of approved guns In other words California prohibits the very types of guns that Heller said individuals could own for the defense of one8217s home Hundreds of other handgun models are on the approved gun list however The case could ultimately impact other states that have a roster of approved firearms or safety requirements Maryland was the first to create such a roster in 1988 Massachusetts followed ten years later After Heller struck down Washington DC8217s handgun ban in 2008 the district based its list of approved firearms off of the rosters used in California and Massachusetts And five other states also require firearms manufacturers to meet safety standards The Ninth Circuit has yet to hear arguments on the case or write its opinion but Calguns has already said it will try to take its case to the Supreme Court For now because of the broad legal territory that Scalia left uncharted in Heller our confused sometimes contradictory 8220Swisscheese system of firearms regulation8221 will persist Photoamp160AP PhotoManuel Balce Ceneta | President/PROPN Barack/PROPN Obama/PROPN met/VERB with/ADP Senate/PROPN Majority/PROPN Leader/PROPN Mitch/PROPN McConnell/PROPN and/CCONJ Judiciary/PROPN 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<p />
<p>Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has taken on a new urgency and gotten closer to the Oval Office over the past few weeks. His prosecutors are reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/us/politics/mueller-russia-investigation.html" type="external">planning to indict</a> Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman whose financial entanglements with Russians forced his resignation last summer. Mueller is also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/us/politics/mueller-trump-russia.html" type="external">reportedly seeking</a> White House documents relating to several of Trump’s most controversial actions and has begun <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/29/special-counsel-investigators-start-questioning-white-house-staffers.html" type="external">questioning</a> current and former White House staff.</p>
<p>But when Trump sits down with Fox News host Sean Hannity <a href="https://twitter.com/maxwelltani/status/917448037332668417" type="external">this Wednesday</a> for his 70th appearance on Hannity's program (including interviews with guest hosts and correspondents)*&#160;since he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015, he can rest assured that he won’t need to answer tough questions about Mueller’s investigation. Hannity’s devotion to the president has taken an authoritarian turn in recent months, as Trump has come under heavy legal and media scrutiny over whether his electoral victory was due in part to efforts by the Russian government to bolster his campaign.</p>
<p>Media Matters reviewed Hannity’s opening monologues on his Fox broadcast from mid-May through the end of August, analyzing the segments for a wide range of factors, including his coverage of the Russia story. (Mid-May is when Mueller was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-investigation.html" type="external">named</a> special counsel and Hannity began <a href="" type="internal">promoting the conspiracy theory</a> that a murdered Democratic staffer, not Russian hackers, had stolen Democratic emails.) Hannity’s nightly monologue sets the tone for the remainder of his show, laying out many of the themes and arguments he will discuss with his panels of largely agreeable guests. These 61 monologues across 16 weeks reveal the stories Hannity believed were most important to relate to his Trump-supporting audience -- and the increasingly dark and conspiratorial messages he’s been feeding them. Media Matters also reviewed Hannity’s guests over the same period.</p>
<p>In this study:</p>
<p>In Sean Hannity’s 61 Fox News opening monologues from May 15 through September 1:</p>
<p>Hannity’s top guest over the term of the study was Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s personal lawyers for the Russia probe, who appeared in 37 episodes of the program.</p>
<p>You can read part two of this series, on Hannity's treatment of the "five forces" he says are aligned against Trump, <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>Like <a href="" type="internal">the other hosts</a> Trump has turned to for on-camera interviews in recent months, Hannity is a loyal sycophant. The Fox host was effectively a wholly owned subsidiary of Team Trump during the 2016 election, providing the candidate a platform for incredibly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8HvYgk1_bs" type="external">obsequious interviews</a>, <a href="" type="internal">channeling his talking points</a> with little sense of independent thought, and even <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/sean-hannity-in-trouble-with-fox-after-participating-in-trump-ad" type="external">appearing</a> in a Trump campaign ad. Hannity <a href="" type="internal">drew criticism from his colleagues</a> in the right-wing press for putting loyalty to Trump above party or ideology, and he earned <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/who-does-sean-hannity-even-work-for-now-fox-news-or-donald-trump" type="external">rebukes from Fox</a> for putting support for Trump before the network’s standards. But Trump won, and now Hannity <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/us/politics/donald-trump-white-house.html" type="external">advises</a> the president of the United States while simultaneously serving as his biggest media booster. Trump in turn uses public rallies to <a href="" type="internal">gush over</a> the Fox host’s “honest” coverage.</p>
<p>Hannity responded by turning his <a href="" type="internal">broadcast into a forum</a> to undermine <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/06/29/levin-good-to-know-where-liberals-finally-draw-line-sekulow-speaks-out-about-scandals-that-need-investigation.html" type="external">what he terms</a> “black-helicopter, tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories about so-called Trump-Russia collusion,” while arguing that the president’s foes have committed crimes that must be investigated.</p>
<p>In show after show, Hannity has been poisoning the well for Mueller’s “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/08/03/president-trumps-attorney-reacts-to-mueller-impaneling-grand-jury-gingrich-trump-system-is-working-despite-deep-state.html" type="external">deeply corrupt</a>” investigation and laying the groundwork to support the president if he seeks an authoritarian recourse. In Hannity’s telling, there is no evidence to support the idea of Trump-Russia collusion, making the investigation a conspiracy to destroy the president masterminded by Democrats and the media, who are unwilling to investigate the “real” criminals. These include Hillary Clinton, not only for her private email server but because her campaign supposedly “colluded” with both Ukraine and Russia, and the “deep state” officials who “unmasked” Trump associates who communicated with foreign people.</p>
<p>Hannity is priming his <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/29/sean-hannity-rachel-maddow-ratings-243307" type="external">3 million-strong</a> audience to applaud Trump if he fires the special counsel or to treat the investigation as illegitimate if it is allowed to move forward, while preparing them to cheer if the president’s Justice Department takes action against his political foes. If Trump moves to further <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/143984/were-brink-authoritarian-crisis" type="external">undermine the rule of law</a>, as he has repeatedly suggested <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/how-trump-can-make-his-authoritarian-fantasies-real.html" type="external">he might</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/how-trump-can-make-his-authoritarian-fantasies-real.html" type="external">d</a>o, he will do so with the fervent support of the Fox host and his viewers.</p>
<p>Hannity’s much-maligned effort to <a href="" type="internal">champion the conspiracy theory</a> that the late Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered because he was a source for WikiLeaks is the most widely publicized symptom of the host’s willingness to cross any line to undermine the Russia story. As the host made clear, he was dredging up these conspiracy theories and victimizing Rich’s family specifically because he thought it would clear Trump. “If it was true that Seth Rich gave WikiLeaks the DNC emails,” Hannity <a href="" type="internal">said</a> on May 18, “wouldn't that blow the whole Russia collusion narrative that the media has pushing out of the water?”</p>
<p>Hannity’s story <a href="" type="internal">fell apart</a>, to his complete disgrace. But in the weeks and months that followed, Hannity continued to make undermining that “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/05/24/newt-gingrich-why-not-look-into-democrats-relationships-with-russia.html" type="external">Russia collusion narrative</a>” his top priority.</p>
<p>Over the course of the 16 weeks of monologues we reviewed, as the Mueller investigation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/us/politics/robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-investigation.html" type="external">began</a> and a <a href="" type="internal">host of reporting</a> raised new questions about the unethical and potentially illegal behavior of Trump and his associates, Hannity regularly assured his viewers that there was no evidence to suggest Trump had colluded with Russia and that reports to the contrary were “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/06/26/gingrich-congress-should-have-obama-testify-under-oath-levin-collusion-is-among-democrats.html" type="external">conspiracy theories</a>.” Hannity made such statements in 31 of the 61 monologues.</p>
<p>Jay Sekulow, a <a href="https://www.axios.com/meet-trumps-tv-lawyer-2439950933.html" type="external">conservative litigator</a> with a nationally syndicated radio show who became a member of the legal team representing Trump in the Russia probe in June, appeared in a whopping 37 episodes of Hannity’s Fox program over the course of the study, the most of any guest on the show. Sekulow uses those regular appearances to further the host’s effort to clear his client of any misdeeds, as well as to <a href="" type="internal">accuse Comey</a> and other critics of the president of breaking the law.</p>
<p>Sekulow, a fixture on right-wing TV and sometime <a href="" type="internal">guest host</a> on Hannity’s radio show <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/19/jay-sekulow-trumps-unlikely-lawyer/?utm_term=.811c1b669881" type="external">with</a> “virtually no experience in law enforcement investigations or white-collar matters,” was <a href="https://www.axios.com/meet-trumps-tv-lawyer-2439950933.html" type="external">hired</a> to serve as “the omnipresent TV face of Trump's defense” because the president believed he’s good at defending him on TV. It’s likely that one of the places Trump saw Sekulow <a href="" type="internal">making that defense</a> was on Hannity; in the weeks before he started making media appearances as a member of Trump’s legal team, the lawyer went on that show to push Seth Rich conspiracy theories, to falsely claim Trump had been “vindicated” by Comey’s congressional testimony, and to baselessly and repeatedly accuse the “pathetic” former FBI director of breaking the law.</p>
<p>While Sekulow made appearances on all the news networks to discuss the Russia probe early in his tenure as Trump’s lawyer, CNN <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/14/media/jay-sekulow-fox-news-loretta-lynch/index.html" type="external">reported</a> on August 14 that “recently, Sekulow has only been on Fox News,” where he has “been especially prominent on Hannity's show.” In that safe space, Sekulow was free not only to defend Trump, but also to accuse Democrats of a host of crimes. (Hannity also said in April 2017 that he had <a href="" type="internal">hired</a> Sekulow as his own personal lawyer due to what Hannity described as an allegation that he had been surveilled by the Obama administration.)</p>
<p>Hannity’s second most regular guest was Fox’s Gregg Jarrett, who appeared in 36 episodes of the program over the term of the study. Once a lesser-known network anchor, Jarrett recently emerged as the leading <a href="" type="internal">Trump legal defender</a> who isn’t on his payroll. Like Sekulow, he uses his appearances on Hannity to put forward <a href="" type="internal">legally dubious explanations</a> of why the Trump team’s actions have been acceptable while claiming that the president’s opponents and investigators have broken the law. Jarrett has falsely claimed that even if the president or his team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, they wouldn’t have broken any laws; called for Mueller’s removal; accused Comey of obstructing justice through his interactions with the president; and called for a special prosecutor to review Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.</p>
<p />
<p>Hannity criticized Mueller in 12 of the 61 monologues, 20 percent of the total. According to the Fox host, Mueller “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/13/sean-hannity-pull-plug-on-mueller-comey-witch-hunt.html" type="external">is really aimed</a> at stopping the president, delegitimizing him and hopefully, in the minds of some, making sure he gets thrown out of office.” <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/06/20/levin-challenges-mueller-whats-your-intention-gorka-us-wants-to-crush-isis-not-war-with-russia.html" type="external">He is</a> “out of control” and “needs to be stopped” because of his investigative “mission creep.” It “is time to start investigating the investigator,” Hannity <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/07/14/sean-hannity-calls-for-an-investigation-into-special-counsel-robert-mueller/" type="external">claimed</a> in July, adding, “Did he break the law? Is he being unethical? ... Does that need to be a case of recusal?” He also <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/08/03/president-trumps-attorney-reacts-to-mueller-impaneling-grand-jury-gingrich-trump-system-is-working-despite-deep-state.html" type="external">called</a> Mueller’s investigation “deeply corrupt.”</p>
<p>Echoing the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/22/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-authority/index.html" type="external">president</a>, Hannity <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/08/03/president-trumps-attorney-reacts-to-mueller-impaneling-grand-jury-gingrich-trump-system-is-working-despite-deep-state.html" type="external">termed</a> the Mueller investigation a “witch hunt” a total of 19 times in 11 monologues. According to the Fox host, Mueller is <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/08/02/unmasking-probe-expands-to-rhodes-mueller-scrutiny-grows-sanders-stephen-miller-put-jim-acosta-in-his-place.html" type="external">engaged</a> in “the construction of one of the biggest political witch hunts in the history of this country,” which Hannity <a href="" type="internal">claims</a> is “politically motivated.”</p>
<p>On June 12, Hannity began accusing Mueller of having a “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcneAvCoVZU" type="external">conflict of interest</a>” because the investigation involves questions of whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey, whom Hannity describes as Mueller’s “longtime friend.” Citing <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/12/gregg-jarrett-are-muller-and-comey-now-acting-in-concert-as-co-special-counsel.html" type="external">Jarrett</a>, Hannity claimed that this friendship violates federal law and requires Mueller’s recusal. Trump himself <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/23/trump-says-comey-mueller-friendship-bothersome.html" type="external">pushed the claim</a> in a Fox appearance soon after. Hannity frequently repeated the charge, making it in 15 monologues over the course of the study, 25 percent of the total. But the pair are reportedly <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/wireStory/trump-labors-make-mueller-comey-tie-key-talking-48241952" type="external">not close</a>, and government ethics experts <a href="http://www.snopes.com/comey-mueller-besties/" type="external">have said</a> that the Comey-Mueller relationship “doesn’t rise to the level of an illegal conflict.”</p>
<p>Hannity has also scrutinized the purported conflicts of Mueller’s team, highlighting political donations some of the lawyers had made to Democrats in 13 monologues to claim that they cannot be impartial. Terming the team a “Democratic hit squad,” Hannity <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/08/02/unmasking-probe-expands-to-rhodes-mueller-scrutiny-grows-sanders-stephen-miller-put-jim-acosta-in-his-place.html" type="external">asked</a> his audience on August 2, “Are we really to believe tonight that Mueller couldn’t find nonpartisan people who have not openly supported Democrats?”</p>
<p>The Trump legal team and White House staff <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/us/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-russia-investigation.html" type="external">similarly sought</a> to use such information to discredit the investigation, but a Justice Department review in August <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/08/robert-mueller-counsel-financial-records-241414" type="external">found</a> “no apparent conflicts of interest” for any member of the team.</p>
<p>Based on the bogus charges discussed above, Hannity has pressed for Mueller to step down or for his investigation’s termination in seven monologues. “It is time to now shut down this political witch hunt that is really aimed at stopping the president, delegitimizing him and hopefully, in the minds of some, making sure he gets thrown out of office,” Hannity <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/13/sean-hannity-pull-plug-on-mueller-comey-witch-hunt.html" type="external">said</a> in June. “It's that serious.”</p>
<p>Not finding it sufficient to claim that Trump did not collude with Russia, Hannity has frequently claimed that, in fact, it was Clinton who was guilty of the “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/06/27/ingraham-trumps-victory-has-been-hurdle-for-cnn-did-fbi-retaliate-against-michael-flynn.html" type="external">real collusion</a>” with Russia, making that argument in 25 monologues, 41 percent of the total.</p>
<p>Hannity’s conclusion is largely based on two things: the <a href="" type="internal">campaign-era conservative myth</a> that Clinton personally approved the sale of a uranium mining company to the Russian government (the State Department actually <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/30/donald-trump/donald-trump-inaccurately-suggests-clinton-got-pai/" type="external">had one vote</a> on a nine-member panel that approved the deal, and the department representative said that Clinton was not consulted), and that former President Bill Clinton “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/07/12/sean-hannity-media-frenzy-targets-trump-ignores-dem-scandals.html" type="external">doubled his speaking fees in Moscow</a>” (Hannity uses that exact phrase in eight different monologues; while Clinton was paid $500,000 by a Russian company to deliver a speech, he <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/mar/28/fact-checking-donald-trumps-tweets-about-hillary-c/" type="external">regularly delivered speeches</a> for such fees during that period).</p>
<p>None of this makes any sense, and it is at odds with the views of the U.S. intelligence community, which <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/politics/the-intelligence-community-report-on-russian-activities-in-the-2016-election/2153/" type="external">found</a> that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the aim of harming Clinton’s campaign because “Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”</p>
<p>On Saturday, July 8, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner-manafort.html" type="external">first reported</a> that the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. had in June 2016 “arranged a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan with a Russian lawyer who has connections to the Kremlin.” Over the next few days, it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html" type="external">became clear</a> that Trump Jr. had set up the meeting -- which Manafort and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a top campaign official, also attended -- after being informed that the lawyer would provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian “government’s support” for the Trump campaign.</p>
<p>In response to this damning bombshell, Hannity began claiming that not only was the Donald Jr. meeting much ado about nothing, but that the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/07/10/will-feud-between-media-trump-ever-die-down-cruz-wants-no-recess-until-health-care-passed.html" type="external">real scandal</a> was that “Clinton allies” had been purportedly colluding with Ukrainian government officials to influence the election. The claim, based on a <a href="" type="internal">fallacious reading</a> of a January Politico story, was <a href="" type="internal">widely rejected</a> elsewhere in the press, though it was championed by Hannity’s pro-Trump colleagues. Hannity first made this argument in his July 10 monologue, the first after the Times story was published; he repeated it in his next five consecutive monologues and in 11 of his next 17 monologues.</p>
<p>Hannity criticized Comey in 23 monologues, 38 percent of the total. The Fox host has <a href="" type="internal">said</a>the former FBI director “deserved to be fired,” calling him an “utter and complete failure” and a “national embarrassment” who “disrespected the Constitution,” and <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/05/18/herman-cain-let-president-know-have-his-back-hannity-remembers-roger-ailes.html" type="external">saying he is</a> “obviously disgruntled,” has “a vendetta now against the president,” and is “angling for his multimillion-dollar book deal, a miniseries, prime-time interviews, a movie,” and a gig with MSNBC. Hannity also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&amp;v=5Y4mDiwc7RM" type="external">said</a> Comey “is nothing more than a calculating, cunning partisan political hack who has thrived in the D.C. swamp.”</p>
<p>Hannity not only frequently declares that Trump is innocent of any crime and that the investigation into his actions and those of his associates should be halted, but he also suggests that the president’s accusers and critics are the real criminals, and that investigations are needed to bring them to justice.</p>
<p>He made such claims about:</p>
<p>Hannity also frequently alleges that Obama administration officials and members of the nefarious “deep state” <a href="" type="internal">unlawfully “unmasked”</a> the names of Trump associates who communicated with foreign persons, doing so in 14 monologues, 23 percent of the total. The Fox host uses this claim to argue that the focus on the Trump-Russia probe is misplaced, pointing to the“unmasking” as the true crime worthy of investigation. As Hannity <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/07/24/sununu-need-chorus-support-for-trump-agenda.html" type="external">put it</a>on July 24: “The only crime that we know was committed in this whole Russia collusion wild goose chase is the unmasking and leaking of raw intelligence about Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and giving his name to The Washington Post. That is a violation of the Espionage Act. That's a felony. That's a crime. That needs to be investigated.”</p>
<p>Media Matters identified all Sean Hannity opening monologues based on Nexis transcripts between May 16, 2017, and September 1, 2017. Two coders independently assessed each monologue for whether it included the following criteria, with a third coder breaking deadlocks:</p>
<p>Media Matters also reviewed episodes of Hannity’s show during the period and identified each guest the program hosted.</p>
<p>Rob Savillo and Shelby Jamerson contributed research.</p> | Study: Hannity’s treatment of Trump's Russia scandal takes an authoritarian turn | true | https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/10/09/study-hannity-s-treatment-trumps-russia-scandal-takes-authoritarian-turn/218177 | 2017-10-09 | 4left
| 2,515 | Special counsel Robert Mueller8217s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has taken on a new urgency and gotten closer to the Oval Office over the past few weeks His prosecutors are reportedly planning to indict Paul Manafort President Donald Trump8217s former campaign chairman whose financial entanglements with Russians forced his resignation last summer Mueller is also reportedly seeking White House documents relating to several of Trump8217s most controversial actions and has begun questioning current and former White House staff But when Trump sits down with Fox News host Sean Hannity this Wednesday for his 70th appearance on Hannitys program including interviews with guest hosts and correspondentsamp160since he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015 he can rest assured that he won8217t need to answer tough questions about Mueller8217s investigation Hannity8217s devotion to the president has taken an authoritarian turn in recent months as Trump has come under heavy legal and media scrutiny over whether his electoral victory was due in part to efforts by the Russian government to bolster his campaign Media Matters reviewed Hannity8217s opening monologues on his Fox broadcast from midMay through the end of August analyzing the segments for a wide range of factors including his coverage of the Russia story MidMay is when Mueller was named special counsel and Hannity began promoting the conspiracy theory that a murdered Democratic staffer not Russian hackers had stolen Democratic emails Hannity8217s nightly monologue sets the tone for the remainder of his show laying out many of the themes and arguments he will discuss with his panels of largely agreeable guests These 61 monologues across 16 weeks reveal the stories Hannity believed were most important to relate to his Trumpsupporting audience and the increasingly dark and conspiratorial messages he8217s been feeding them Media Matters also reviewed Hannity8217s guests over the same period In this study In Sean Hannity8217s 61 Fox News opening monologues from May 15 through September 1 Hannity8217s top guest over the term of the study was Jay Sekulow one of Trump8217s personal lawyers for the Russia probe who appeared in 37 episodes of the program You can read part two of this series on Hannitys treatment of the five forces he says are aligned against Trump here Like the other hosts Trump has turned to for oncamera interviews in recent months Hannity is a loyal sycophant The Fox host was effectively a wholly owned subsidiary of Team Trump during the 2016 election providing the candidate a platform for incredibly obsequious interviews channeling his talking points with little sense of independent thought and even appearing in a Trump campaign ad Hannity drew criticism from his colleagues in the rightwing press for putting loyalty to Trump above party or ideology and he earned rebukes from Fox for putting support for Trump before the network8217s standards But Trump won and now Hannity advises the president of the United States while simultaneously serving as his biggest media booster Trump in turn uses public rallies to gush over the Fox host8217s 8220honest8221 coverage Hannity responded by turning his broadcast into a forum to undermine what he terms 8220blackhelicopter tinfoilhat conspiracy theories about socalled TrumpRussia collusion8221 while arguing that the president8217s foes have committed crimes that must be investigated In show after show Hannity has been poisoning the well for Mueller8217s 8220 deeply corrupt8221 investigation and laying the groundwork to support the president if he seeks an authoritarian recourse In Hannity8217s telling there is no evidence to support the idea of TrumpRussia collusion making the investigation a conspiracy to destroy the president masterminded by Democrats and the media who are unwilling to investigate the 8220real8221 criminals These include Hillary Clinton not only for her private email server but because her campaign supposedly 8220colluded8221 with both Ukraine and Russia and the 8220deep state8221 officials who 8220unmasked8221 Trump associates who communicated with foreign people Hannity is priming his 3 millionstrong audience to applaud Trump if he fires the special counsel or to treat the investigation as illegitimate if it is allowed to move forward while preparing them to cheer if the president8217s Justice Department takes action against his political foes If Trump moves to further undermine the rule of law as he has repeatedly suggested he might do he will do so with the fervent support of the Fox host and his viewers Hannity8217s muchmaligned effort to champion the conspiracy theory that the late Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered because he was a source for WikiLeaks is the most widely publicized symptom of the host8217s willingness to cross any line to undermine the Russia story As the host made clear he was dredging up these conspiracy theories and victimizing Rich8217s family specifically because he thought it would clear Trump 8220If it was true that Seth Rich gave WikiLeaks the DNC emails8221 Hannity said on May 18 8220wouldnt that blow the whole Russia collusion narrative that the media has pushing out of the water8221 Hannity8217s story fell apart to his complete disgrace But in the weeks and months that followed Hannity continued to make undermining that 8220 Russia collusion narrative8221 his top priority Over the course of the 16 weeks of monologues we reviewed as the Mueller investigation began and a host of reporting raised new questions about the unethical and potentially illegal behavior of Trump and his associates Hannity regularly assured his viewers that there was no evidence to suggest Trump had colluded with Russia and that reports to the contrary were 8220 conspiracy theories8221 Hannity made such statements in 31 of the 61 monologues Jay Sekulow a conservative litigator with a nationally syndicated radio show who became a member of the legal team representing Trump in the Russia probe in June appeared in a whopping 37 episodes of Hannity8217s Fox program over the course of the study the most of any guest on the show Sekulow uses those regular appearances to further the host8217s effort to clear his client of any misdeeds as well as to accuse Comey and other critics of the president of breaking the law Sekulow a fixture on rightwing TV and sometime guest host on Hannity8217s radio show with 8220virtually no experience in law enforcement investigations or whitecollar matters8221 was hired to serve as 8220the omnipresent TV face of Trumps defense8221 because the president believed he8217s good at defending him on TV It8217s likely that one of the places Trump saw Sekulow making that defense was on Hannity in the weeks before he started making media appearances as a member of Trump8217s legal team the lawyer went on that show to push Seth Rich conspiracy theories to falsely claim Trump had been 8220vindicated8221 by Comey8217s congressional testimony and to baselessly and repeatedly accuse the 8220pathetic8221 former FBI director of breaking the law While Sekulow made appearances on all the news networks to discuss the Russia probe early in his tenure as Trump8217s lawyer CNN reported on August 14 that 8220recently Sekulow has only been on Fox News8221 where he has 8220been especially prominent on Hannitys show8221 In that safe space Sekulow was free not only to defend Trump but also to accuse Democrats of a host of crimes Hannity also said in April 2017 that he had hired Sekulow as his own personal lawyer due to what Hannity described as an allegation that he had been surveilled by the Obama administration Hannity8217s second most regular guest was Fox8217s Gregg Jarrett who appeared in 36 episodes of the program over the term of the study Once a lesserknown network anchor Jarrett recently emerged as the leading Trump legal defender who isn8217t on his payroll Like Sekulow he uses his appearances on Hannity to put forward legally dubious explanations of why the Trump team8217s actions have been acceptable while claiming that the president8217s opponents and investigators have broken the law Jarrett has falsely claimed that even if the president or his team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election they wouldn8217t have broken any laws called for Mueller8217s removal accused Comey of obstructing justice through his interactions with the president and called for a special prosecutor to review Hillary Clinton8217s use of a private email server Hannity criticized Mueller in 12 of the 61 monologues 20 percent of the total According to the Fox host Mueller 8220 is really aimed at stopping the president delegitimizing him and hopefully in the minds of some making sure he gets thrown out of office8221 He is 8220out of control8221 and 8220needs to be stopped8221 because of his investigative 8220mission creep8221 It 8220is time to start investigating the investigator8221 Hannity claimed in July adding 8220Did he break the law Is he being unethical Does that need to be a case of recusal8221 He also called Mueller8217s investigation 8220deeply corrupt8221 Echoing the president Hannity termed the Mueller investigation a 8220witch hunt8221 a total of 19 times in 11 monologues According to the Fox host Mueller is engaged in 8220the construction of one of the biggest political witch hunts in the history of this country8221 which Hannity claims is 8220politically motivated8221 On June 12 Hannity began accusing Mueller of having a 8220 conflict of interest8221 because the investigation involves questions of whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey whom Hannity describes as Mueller8217s 8220longtime friend8221 Citing Jarrett Hannity claimed that this friendship violates federal law and requires Mueller8217s recusal Trump himself pushed the claim in a Fox appearance soon after Hannity frequently repeated the charge making it in 15 monologues over the course of the study 25 percent of the total But the pair are reportedly not close and government ethics experts have said that the ComeyMueller relationship 8220doesn8217t rise to the level of an illegal conflict8221 Hannity has also scrutinized the purported conflicts of Mueller8217s team highlighting political donations some of the lawyers had made to Democrats in 13 monologues to claim that they cannot be impartial Terming the team a 8220Democratic hit squad8221 Hannity asked his audience on August 2 8220Are we really to believe tonight that Mueller couldn8217t find nonpartisan people who have not openly supported Democrats8221 The Trump legal team and White House staff similarly sought to use such information to discredit the investigation but a Justice Department review in August found 8220no apparent conflicts of interest8221 for any member of the team Based on the bogus charges discussed above Hannity has pressed for Mueller to step down or for his investigation8217s termination in seven monologues 8220It is time to now shut down this political witch hunt that is really aimed at stopping the president delegitimizing him and hopefully in the minds of some making sure he gets thrown out of office8221 Hannity said in June 8220Its that serious8221 Not finding it sufficient to claim that Trump did not collude with Russia Hannity has frequently claimed that in fact it was Clinton who was guilty of the 8220 real collusion8221 with Russia making that argument in 25 monologues 41 percent of the total Hannity8217s conclusion is largely based on two things the campaignera conservative myth that Clinton personally approved the sale of a uranium mining company to the Russian government the State Department actually had one vote on a ninemember panel that approved the deal and the department representative said that Clinton was not consulted and that former President Bill Clinton 8220 doubled his speaking fees in Moscow8221 Hannity uses that exact phrase in eight different monologues while Clinton was paid 500000 by a Russian company to deliver a speech he regularly delivered speeches for such fees during that period None of this makes any sense and it is at odds with the views of the US intelligence community which found that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the aim of harming Clinton8217s campaign because 8220Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for Presidentelect Trump8221 On Saturday July 8 The New York Times first reported that the president8217s son Donald Trump Jr had in June 2016 8220arranged a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan with a Russian lawyer who has connections to the Kremlin8221 Over the next few days it became clear that Trump Jr had set up the meeting which Manafort and Jared Kushner Trump8217s soninlaw and a top campaign official also attended after being informed that the lawyer would provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian 8220government8217s support8221 for the Trump campaign In response to this damning bombshell Hannity began claiming that not only was the Donald Jr meeting much ado about nothing but that the real scandal was that 8220Clinton allies8221 had been purportedly colluding with Ukrainian government officials to influence the election The claim based on a fallacious reading of a January Politico story was widely rejected elsewhere in the press though it was championed by Hannity8217s proTrump colleagues Hannity first made this argument in his July 10 monologue the first after the Times story was published he repeated it in his next five consecutive monologues and in 11 of his next 17 monologues Hannity criticized Comey in 23 monologues 38 percent of the total The Fox host has saidthe former FBI director 8220deserved to be fired8221 calling him an 8220utter and complete failure8221 and a 8220national embarrassment8221 who 8220disrespected the Constitution8221 and saying he is 8220obviously disgruntled8221 has 8220a vendetta now against the president8221 and is 8220angling for his multimilliondollar book deal a miniseries primetime interviews a movie8221 and a gig with MSNBC Hannity also said Comey 8220is nothing more than a calculating cunning partisan political hack who has thrived in the DC swamp8221 Hannity not only frequently declares that Trump is innocent of any crime and that the investigation into his actions and those of his associates should be halted but he also suggests that the president8217s accusers and critics are the real criminals and that investigations are needed to bring them to justice He made such claims about Hannity also frequently alleges that Obama administration officials and members of the nefarious 8220deep state8221 unlawfully 8220unmasked8221 the names of Trump associates who communicated with foreign persons doing so in 14 monologues 23 percent of the total The Fox host uses this claim to argue that the focus on the TrumpRussia probe is misplaced pointing to the8220unmasking8221 as the true crime worthy of investigation As Hannity put iton July 24 8220The only crime that we know was committed in this whole Russia collusion wild goose chase is the unmasking and leaking of raw intelligence about Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and giving his name to The Washington Post That is a violation of the Espionage Act Thats a felony Thats a crime That needs to be investigated8221 Media Matters identified all Sean Hannity opening monologues based on Nexis transcripts between May 16 2017 and September 1 2017 Two coders independently assessed each monologue for whether it included the following criteria with a third coder breaking deadlocks Media Matters also reviewed episodes of Hannity8217s show during the period and identified each guest the program hosted Rob Savillo and Shelby Jamerson contributed research | Special/ADJ counsel/NOUN Robert/PROPN Mueller8217s/PROPN investigation/NOUN into/ADP Russian/ADJ interference/NOUN in/ADP the/DET 2016/NUM presidential/ADJ election/NOUN has/AUX taken/VERB on/ADP a/DET new/ADJ urgency/NOUN and/CCONJ gotten/VERB closer/ADJ to/ADP the/DET Oval/PROPN Office/PROPN over/ADP the/DET past/ADJ few/ADJ weeks/NOUN His/PRON prosecutors/NOUN are/AUX reportedly/ADV planning/VERB to/PART indict/VERB Paul/PROPN Manafort/PROPN President/PROPN Donald/PROPN Trump8217s/PROPN former/ADJ campaign/NOUN chairman/NOUN whose/DET financial/ADJ entanglements/NOUN with/ADP Russians/PROPN forced/VERB his/PRON resignation/NOUN last/ADJ summer/NOUN Mueller/PROPN is/AUX also/ADV reportedly/ADV seeking/VERB White/PROPN House/PROPN documents/NOUN relating/VERB to/ADP several/ADJ of/ADP Trump8217s/ADJ most/ADV controversial/ADJ actions/NOUN and/CCONJ has/AUX begun/VERB questioning/VERB current/ADJ and/CCONJ former/ADJ White/PROPN House/PROPN staff/NOUN But/CCONJ when/SCONJ Trump/PROPN sits/VERB 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<p>On the evening of January 15, the Roosevelt Neighborhood Center in downtown Charleston, West Virginia, was packed with attendees overflowing into the hallways. People from the state capital voiced numerous concerns about using their water, even though West Virginia American Water had deemed it safe to use. One participant demonstrated to the audience how she was showering – she had bought a Coleman camp shower, essentially a plastic bag filled with boiled water that she could hang from a wall, twisting a valve on the bag to let water come out in a steady stream.</p>
<p>My hosts in Charleston had been bathing out of town, not using their own shower for five days. Even though bans on using water in the affected West Virginia counties have been lifted, making it technically safe to drink and bathe in, the 300,000 affected residents&#160; <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/another-chapter-coal-s-trail-pollution-1391351714" type="external">aren’t taking their local government or the water company at their word</a>. Since January 9, when a chemical storage facility run by Freedom Industries&#160; <a href="http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/01/wv-chemical-spill-update-governor-pleads-help/" type="external">spilled 10,000 gallons</a>&#160;of the toxic coal-processing chemical MCHM (4-methylcyclohexane methanol) along with another chemical, PPH, and the cancer-causing agent&#160; <a href="http://rt.com/usa/west-virginia-chemical-cancer-373/" type="external">formaldehyde</a>&#160;into the Elk River, municipal water supplies for approximately 6 percent of the state have been tainted.</p>
<p>The spill – which wasn’t discovered until people in the Charleston area had gone to the hospital reporting nausea, eye irritation and vomiting – is the latest example of corporate malfeasance allowed to run wild. The privately-owned West Virginia American Water Company was woefully unprepared to contain the spill. And the privately-owned Freedom Industries, which spilled the chemicals, mysteriously&#160; <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/west-virginia-chemical-spill-mystery-who-runs-freedom-industries" type="external">went into bankruptcy</a>&#160;shortly after the accident. Even after the ban on water use was lifted, government officials&#160; <a href="http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/01/fallout-continues-west-virginia-chemical-spill/" type="external">advised pregnant women not to drink the water</a>, raising further suspicions of the untruths that have been told to the public.</p>
<p>Factor in a state regulatory body that for years has been heavily compromised by the coal industry, and the picture that emerges is a perfect storm of disaster for West Virginians. Now, the spill is leading some state natives to question the fate of the coal industry that has long sustained them economically – and causing organizers to take the state’s subpar regulation of extractive industry into their own hands.</p>
<p>No Data Available</p>
<p>There is still very little known about the MCHM chemical agent that affected drinking water for over a quarter of a million West Virginians. The Washington Post reported that the 15-page material safety data sheet on the Tennessee-manufactured chemical&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/west-virginia-chemical-spill-in-elk-river-poses-a-new-chemistry-test-for-lawmakers/2014/01/19/993d5a66-7ed7-11e3-93c1-0e888170b723_story.html" type="external">contains the phrase “no data available” 152 times</a>.</p>
<p>Even more alarming, the Centers for Disease Control only tested one ingredient of crude MCHM, having no readily available data for the other ingredients in the chemical compound.</p>
<p>“I’ve been on the ground in every major water-related disaster since the BP oil spill, and I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Scott Smith, the chief scientist for Water Defense.</p>
<p>According to Smith, Water Defense is using the same testing labs for their water samples used by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Freedom Industries. While their results are still forthcoming, Smith said West Virginia’s government has performed similar tests but has refused to share results with the public. Water Defense executive director John Pratt says the results of Water Defense’s lab tests on West Virginia water will soon be available on&#160; <a href="http://waterdefense.org/" type="external">Water Defense's website</a>.</p>
<p>Accountability Deflected</p>
<p>This is the second time in four months West Virginians have had their water supplies tainted by the coal industry. In the small community of Van, an hour South of Charleston in rural Boone County, the local water supply comes from the Little Coal River, one of the Elk River’s tributaries. The Pond Fork of the Little Coal River&#160; <a href="http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/BREAKING-NEWS-ALERT-Incident-Turns-River-White-in-Boone-County-222519061.html?device=phone" type="external">turned white in fall of 2013</a>&#160;after Patriot Coal spilled 2,400 gallons of BT50D – a dust suppressant used on train cars transporting coal.</p>
<p>Van, a hamlet of 211 people as of three years ago, is a very coal-conscious town. The main road where most of the town’s residents live is adorned with lawn signs akin to campaign lawn signs – except instead of advertising a candidate they simply say, “friends of coal.” While West Virginians are all too familiar with the deadly consequences of coal, regulation of the industry continues to be a political lightning rod for the state’s elected officials.</p>
<p><a href="http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx134/Clifton_Santiago/van3_zps856e4d71.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>Days after Freedom Industries’ spill in the Elk River, West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, a democrat,&#160; <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/environmentalists-blame-coal-industry-to-west-virginia-chemical-spill/1832072.html" type="external">jumped to the coal industry’s defense</a>, saying, “This was not a coal company. This was a chemical supplier where the leak occurred. As far as I know, there are no coal mines within miles of this particular incident.”</p>
<p>Rather than giving his constituents a definitive answer on whether or not they can safely use their water, Tomblin has since said it’s up to the individual discretion of residents&#160; <a href="http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201401200041" type="external">to decide whether or not their drinking water is safe</a>.</p>
<p>Tomblin and Joe Manchin, West Virginia’s junior U.S. Senator, have been eager to treat coal mining operations, and the chemical storage facilities that assist in the coal burning and cleaning process, as separate entities rather than two heads of the same beast. Both Tomblin and Manchin are&#160; <a href="http://www.freelancestar.com/2014-01-21/articles/27596/wva-legislators-propose-new-chemical-storage-bill/" type="external">supporting new state legislation</a>&#160;that would impose new regulations on chemical storage facilities like the one owned by Freedom Industries, which had not been inspected since 1991.</p>
<p>But their slick, band-aid approach to a more systemic problem is unlikely to pass muster, especially since both politicians depend on the coal industry for continued financial support in future elections.</p>
<p>Tomblin won the 2012 gubernatorial election with tens of thousands of dollars from the coal industry.&#160; <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/bennett-hatfield/" type="external">Bennett K. Hatfield</a>, CEO and chairman of Patriot Coal, which spilled BT50D in the Pond Fork river in late 2013,&#160; <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=2171967254" type="external">twice donated</a>&#160;the&#160; <a href="http://www.sos.wv.gov/elections/campaignfinance/Pages/Instructions_Contributions.aspx" type="external">maximum</a>&#160;$1,000 contribution to Tomblin’s campaign.</p>
<p>Tomblin also received&#160; <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=2171966505" type="external">two separate $1,000 donations</a>&#160;from Kevin S. Crutchfield,&#160; <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=2414179&amp;ticker=ANR" type="external">CEO of Alpha Natural Resources</a>. Alpha&#160; <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-29/alpha-natural-agrees-to-buy-massey-energy-for-8-5-billion-in-cash-stock.html" type="external">in 2011 bought</a>the notorious Massey Energy, which was known for the Upper Big Branch mine blast that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners in 2010. Alpha’s president, Kurt Kost, also&#160; <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=2171968164" type="external">donated $1,000</a>&#160;to Tomblin’s campaign. Tomblin additionally&#160; <a href="http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=2171971613" type="external">received $500</a>&#160;from James Clifford Forrest III, the owner of Freedom Industries.</p>
<p>According to Opensecrets.org, Manchin’s list of top campaign donors features&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2014&amp;cid=N00032838&amp;type=I" type="external">a laundry list of coal companies and energy lobbyists</a>. Patriot Coal put $48,400 in Manchin’s war chest, making the corporation his #9 donor. Alpha Natural Resources was his 11th most generous benefactor, donating $43,298 to Manchin’s campaign committee in the last cycle.</p>
<p>Both Manchin and Tomblin are dutiful defenders of the coal industry on a national scale as well. As governor, Manchin took Obama’s EPA to court in November of 2010 over the revocation of a mountaintop removal mining permit. Tomblin, after taking Manchin’s place, continued the lawsuit and&#160; <a href="http://www.register-herald.com/local/x1221291190/Tomblin-organizes-coal-rally" type="external">organized a “Rally for Coal” in 2011</a>. Tomblin and Manchin both&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/earl-ray-tomblin-west-virginia_n_1386112.html" type="external">made a career</a>&#160;out of labeling the EPA as an intrusive government force – though the&#160; <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/01/29/268201454/how-industrial-chemical-regulation-failed-west-virginia" type="external">actual history</a>&#160;of government inspections and enforcement of regulations has been barely noticeable in the state for decades.</p>
<p>Coal’s Future in West Virginia</p>
<p>Early in the morning on January 16, West Virginia American Water announced on its website that Van’s water ban had been lifted. Residents were told to flush out their water systems for 15 minutes with hot water, and 5 minutes for cold water. I walked the streets that day with gallon jugs of water I had bought in Maryland, looking for residents flushing out their water, knocking on doors to trade water for interviews.</p>
<p>Richard Bishop was flushing out his hot water when he let me into his home, where a strong aroma of licorice lingered from the faucet. Bishop used to mine in West Virginia’s mountains, but lost his job along with thousands of other miners over the years as&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/29/29greenwire-study-worlds-peak-coal-moment-has-arrived-70121.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">peak mineable coal approached in 2011</a>. Now working as a truck driver, Bishop doesn’t fault the coal industry for the chemical spill poisoning his water supply.</p>
<p>Instead, he blames what he feels are the burdensome government regulations that require chemicals like 4-MCHM to be used to clean coal before transport.</p>
<p>“My papaw was in the mines, my dad was in the mines. Back then, you didn’t have chemicals spilled in the river,” Bishop said. “You may breathe in a little coal dust if you worked near the mines, but that didn’t kill nobody, at least not until the ‘80s and ‘90s.”</p>
<p>On January 18, Bishop sent me several pictures of murky water in his sink that came from his faucet, writing, "The dishes I sat in the water, I had already pre-cleaned by wiping. I didn’t add anything to the water, I went to bed. When I seen the sink this morning, it had this weird glittery film on it, oil like, and something was separated from the water at about 1/4” deep."</p>
<p><a href="http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx134/Clifton_Santiago/bishopwater2_zpsd06fd8b2.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>"I have left water sitting in my sink a thousand times even with soap and bleach in it, and I haven’t ever seen anything like this in it," Bishop continued. "I even ran water into it, and it still didn’t break up the film. They told us the water is safe, we have more than flushed lines, and it is still like this."</p>
<p>69-year-old Nedra Abbott, a 33-year resident of Van, has a son who used to work in the coal mines until he was laid off in the mid-2000s. After he took a job at a nearby correctional facility, his former employer offered him a temporary job, which he turned down. I asked Abbott if she thought the coal industry had a future in West Virginia.</p>
<p>“Don’t seem to right now, does it?” Abbott said. “I think this has opened everybody’s eyes that wasn’t…You can’t live without water.”</p>
<p>Abbott also ruminated on the prospect of the potential loss of life in the event that a similar spill happens in the future and nobody is told about the danger to their water supply.</p>
<p>“It could happen anywhere there’s a chemical plant. Think about how easy it is to put poison in the water," she said. "You could just wipe out a lot of people, you know? You think about it, and it’s scary.”</p>
<p>Following directions from Bishop, I drove about four miles down the road from Van, where clear water devoid of odor flows freely from a natural spring. Locals call this “Spring Holler.” Even now, empty water bottles are clustered around the mouth of the spring, indicating recent use by locals.</p>
<p><a href="http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx134/Clifton_Santiago/van4_zpsa0b1149d.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>“My dad and papaw all used that spring to draw water when they were young,” Bishop said. “It’s probably about the only water from here I’ll trust for awhile.”</p>
<p>Echoing Bishop, West Virginians' concerns about the safety of their water are now coming home to roost even for Gov. Tomblin. In a recent letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Tomblin acknowledged that businesses are still continuing to lose a projected $1 million in daily revenue as they continue to depend on bottled water. In a stark description, recognizing the degree to which his constituents distrust local water supplies, Tomblin wrote:</p>
<p>"Many people no longer view their tap water as safe and are continuing to demand bottled water to meet their potable water needs. It is impossible to predict when this will change, if ever."</p>
<p>People Regulate the Mines</p>
<p>Dustin White, an organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), is now spearheading a bold campaign after the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) failed to do an adequate job regulating the coal industry.</p>
<p>The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), passed in 1977, granted states an autonomous role in overseeing their own mining regulations, given that each coal mining state confronts different geography and topographical characteristics. White is helping organize a new effort called West Virginia Citizen Action for Real Enforcement (CARE), petitioning for section 733 of SMCRA to be used by the people to self-regulate – by getting the federal EPA to step in where the state DEP did not.</p>
<p>“The West Virginia delegation at the state and federal level is leading an onslaught on the state EPA to take away all regulatory authority,” White said. “We’re not asking the people to go to the DEP: we’re the citizens who are affected demanding the EPA take action.”</p>
<p>Coincidentally, almost two weeks before Freedom Industries’ spill of 4-MCHM, PPH and formaldehyde,&#160; <a href="http://www.wvillustrated.com/story/24334823/office-of-surface-mining-reclamation-and-enforcement-respond-to-citizen-petition-outlining-regulatory-failings" type="external">CARE highlighted 19 specific instances</a>&#160;of failed regulation by the state DEP in a 733 SMCRA petition. The federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) is due to respond to five of those claims.</p>
<p>So far, the OSMRE has promised to investigate claims of the DEP failing to address flooding concerns in granting permits where storm water runoff is a factor; the DEP’s failure to issue SMCRA violations where harmful pollutants have been discharged; its failure to regulate selenium pollution; its failure to identify all of the harm to watersheds in its cumulative hydrologic impact analysis results, and claims that the DEP did not follow through on properly protecting soil in mandated reclamation efforts on mining sites. The recent tainting of water in nine counties may elicit even more investigations from OSMRE.</p>
<p>CARE is already getting West Virginians to take on the state’s regulatory apparatus. According to OVEC project coordinator Vivian Stockman,&#160; <a href="http://www.charlestondailymail.com/News/statehouse/201401300103" type="external">2,000 signatures have been submitted</a>&#160;in support of federal intervention into the DEP – whose head is appointed by the coal-friendly Gov. Tomblin. Activists also recently descended on the state capitol to deliver&#160; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/203779986/Letter-to-Tomblin" type="external">a letter to Tomblin’s office</a>&#160;demanding a meeting with the governor to address their concerns with regulatory failure.</p>
<p><a href="http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx134/Clifton_Santiago/wvcare_zpsc75e5c76.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>(Photo courtesy of WV CARE Campaign's&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wvcarecampaign" type="external">Facebook page</a>)</p>
<p>Failure of the Deregulation Agenda</p>
<p>Much like the case of the chemical plant that exploded in early 2013 near West, Texas, leveling that entire community, the lack of dutiful regulation of West Virginia’s chief industry ultimately led to the tainting of drinking water for 300,000 people in the state. The chemical storage facility recently acquired by Freedom Industries hadn’t been inspected&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/13/headlines/no_inspections_at_west_virginia_plant_behind_chemical_leak_since_1991" type="external">since 1991</a>. The chemical plant in West, Texas, hadn’t been inspected&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/texas-fertilizer-plant-ha_n_3113117.html" type="external">since 1985</a>.</p>
<p>The explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the cost of the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was also the result of a failed agenda of government deregulation – in that case, the Minerals Management Service under the Bush and Cheney administration, which was tasked with regulating the offshore oil drilling industry but actually allowed oil companies to&#160; <a href="http://www.newswithviews.com/Emord/jonathan316.htm" type="external">fill in safety inspection forms in pencil</a>, only to be sent back to federal regulators to go back over in pen. The MMS is also famous for a scandal in 2008 where members of an MMS regional office in Colorado were&#160; <a href="http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2008/09/sleaze_sex_cocaineand_oh_yeah.php" type="external">literally caught in bed</a>&#160;with oil industry executives.</p>
<p>The facts are clear: incidents like the Elk River chemical disaster in West Virginia, the chemical fertilizer blast in Texas, and the BP oil spill in the Gulf will inevitably continue until state regulatory bodies can do their job, free of pressure from corporate conglomerates and the politicians they sponsor. Americans have a choice to make when it comes to governance – because as we now know, the next industrial disaster is just around the corner.</p>
<p /> | Exclusive: Why West Virginia No Longer Trusts Its Water, Government or Coal Industry | true | http://occupy.com/article/exclusive-why-west-virginia-no-longer-trusts-its-water-government-or-coal-industry | 4left
| 2,516 | On the evening of January 15 the Roosevelt Neighborhood Center in downtown Charleston West Virginia was packed with attendees overflowing into the hallways People from the state capital voiced numerous concerns about using their water even though West Virginia American Water had deemed it safe to use One participant demonstrated to the audience how she was showering 8211 she had bought a Coleman camp shower essentially a plastic bag filled with boiled water that she could hang from a wall twisting a valve on the bag to let water come out in a steady stream My hosts in Charleston had been bathing out of town not using their own shower for five days Even though bans on using water in the affected West Virginia counties have been lifted making it technically safe to drink and bathe in the 300000 affected residentsamp160 aren8217t taking their local government or the water company at their word Since January 9 when a chemical storage facility run by Freedom Industriesamp160 spilled 10000 gallonsamp160of the toxic coalprocessing chemical MCHM 4methylcyclohexane methanol along with another chemical PPH and the cancercausing agentamp160 formaldehydeamp160into the Elk River municipal water supplies for approximately 6 percent of the state have been tainted The spill 8211 which wasn8217t discovered until people in the Charleston area had gone to the hospital reporting nausea eye irritation and vomiting 8211 is the latest example of corporate malfeasance allowed to run wild The privatelyowned West Virginia American Water Company was woefully unprepared to contain the spill And the privatelyowned Freedom Industries which spilled the chemicals mysteriouslyamp160 went into bankruptcyamp160shortly after the accident Even after the ban on water use was lifted government officialsamp160 advised pregnant women not to drink the water raising further suspicions of the untruths that have been told to the public Factor in a state regulatory body that for years has been heavily compromised by the coal industry and the picture that emerges is a perfect storm of disaster for West Virginians Now the spill is leading some state natives to question the fate of the coal industry that has long sustained them economically 8211 and causing organizers to take the state8217s subpar regulation of extractive industry into their own hands No Data Available There is still very little known about the MCHM chemical agent that affected drinking water for over a quarter of a million West Virginians The Washington Post reported that the 15page material safety data sheet on the Tennesseemanufactured chemicalamp160 contains the phrase 8220no data available8221 152 times Even more alarming the Centers for Disease Control only tested one ingredient of crude MCHM having no readily available data for the other ingredients in the chemical compound 8220I8217ve been on the ground in every major waterrelated disaster since the BP oil spill and I8217ve never seen anything like this before8221 said Scott Smith the chief scientist for Water Defense According to Smith Water Defense is using the same testing labs for their water samples used by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Freedom Industries While their results are still forthcoming Smith said West Virginia8217s government has performed similar tests but has refused to share results with the public Water Defense executive director John Pratt says the results of Water Defense8217s lab tests on West Virginia water will soon be available onamp160 Water Defenses website Accountability Deflected This is the second time in four months West Virginians have had their water supplies tainted by the coal industry In the small community of Van an hour South of Charleston in rural Boone County the local water supply comes from the Little Coal River one of the Elk River8217s tributaries The Pond Fork of the Little Coal Riveramp160 turned white in fall of 2013amp160after Patriot Coal spilled 2400 gallons of BT50D 8211 a dust suppressant used on train cars transporting coal Van a hamlet of 211 people as of three years ago is a very coalconscious town The main road where most of the town8217s residents live is adorned with lawn signs akin to campaign lawn signs 8211 except instead of advertising a candidate they simply say 8220friends of coal8221 While West Virginians are all too familiar with the deadly consequences of coal regulation of the industry continues to be a political lightning rod for the state8217s elected officials Days after Freedom Industries8217 spill in the Elk River West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin a democratamp160 jumped to the coal industry8217s defense saying 8220This was not a coal company This was a chemical supplier where the leak occurred As far as I know there are no coal mines within miles of this particular incident8221 Rather than giving his constituents a definitive answer on whether or not they can safely use their water Tomblin has since said it8217s up to the individual discretion of residentsamp160 to decide whether or not their drinking water is safe Tomblin and Joe Manchin West Virginia8217s junior US Senator have been eager to treat coal mining operations and the chemical storage facilities that assist in the coal burning and cleaning process as separate entities rather than two heads of the same beast Both Tomblin and Manchin areamp160 supporting new state legislationamp160that would impose new regulations on chemical storage facilities like the one owned by Freedom Industries which had not been inspected since 1991 But their slick bandaid approach to a more systemic problem is unlikely to pass muster especially since both politicians depend on the coal industry for continued financial support in future elections Tomblin won the 2012 gubernatorial election with tens of thousands of dollars from the coal industryamp160 Bennett K Hatfield CEO and chairman of Patriot Coal which spilled BT50D in the Pond Fork river in late 2013amp160 twice donatedamp160theamp160 maximumamp1601000 contribution to Tomblin8217s campaign Tomblin also receivedamp160 two separate 1000 donationsamp160from Kevin S Crutchfieldamp160 CEO of Alpha Natural Resources Alphaamp160 in 2011 boughtthe notorious Massey Energy which was known for the Upper Big Branch mine blast that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners in 2010 Alpha8217s president Kurt Kost alsoamp160 donated 1000amp160to Tomblin8217s campaign Tomblin additionallyamp160 received 500amp160from James Clifford Forrest III the owner of Freedom Industries According to Opensecretsorg Manchin8217s list of top campaign donors featuresamp160 a laundry list of coal companies and energy lobbyists Patriot Coal put 48400 in Manchin8217s war chest making the corporation his 9 donor Alpha Natural Resources was his 11th most generous benefactor donating 43298 to Manchin8217s campaign committee in the last cycle Both Manchin and Tomblin are dutiful defenders of the coal industry on a national scale as well As governor Manchin took Obama8217s EPA to court in November of 2010 over the revocation of a mountaintop removal mining permit Tomblin after taking Manchin8217s place continued the lawsuit andamp160 organized a 8220Rally for Coal8221 in 2011 Tomblin and Manchin bothamp160 made a careeramp160out of labeling the EPA as an intrusive government force 8211 though theamp160 actual historyamp160of government inspections and enforcement of regulations has been barely noticeable in the state for decades Coal8217s Future in West Virginia Early in the morning on January 16 West Virginia American Water announced on its website that Van8217s water ban had been lifted Residents were told to flush out their water systems for 15 minutes with hot water and 5 minutes for cold water I walked the streets that day with gallon jugs of water I had bought in Maryland looking for residents flushing out their water knocking on doors to trade water for interviews Richard Bishop was flushing out his hot water when he let me into his home where a strong aroma of licorice lingered from the faucet Bishop used to mine in West Virginia8217s mountains but lost his job along with thousands of other miners over the years asamp160 peak mineable coal approached in 2011 Now working as a truck driver Bishop doesn8217t fault the coal industry for the chemical spill poisoning his water supply Instead he blames what he feels are the burdensome government regulations that require chemicals like 4MCHM to be used to clean coal before transport 8220My papaw was in the mines my dad was in the mines Back then you didn8217t have chemicals spilled in the river8221 Bishop said 8220You may breathe in a little coal dust if you worked near the mines but that didn8217t kill nobody at least not until the 821680s and 821690s8221 On January 18 Bishop sent me several pictures of murky water in his sink that came from his faucet writing The dishes I sat in the water I had already precleaned by wiping I didn8217t add anything to the water I went to bed When I seen the sink this morning it had this weird glittery film on it oil like and something was separated from the water at about 148221 deep I have left water sitting in my sink a thousand times even with soap and bleach in it and I haven8217t ever seen anything like this in it Bishop continued I even ran water into it and it still didn8217t break up the film They told us the water is safe we have more than flushed lines and it is still like this 69yearold Nedra Abbott a 33year resident of Van has a son who used to work in the coal mines until he was laid off in the mid2000s After he took a job at a nearby correctional facility his former employer offered him a temporary job which he turned down I asked Abbott if she thought the coal industry had a future in West Virginia 8220Don8217t seem to right now does it8221 Abbott said 8220I think this has opened everybody8217s eyes that wasn8217t8230You can8217t live without water8221 Abbott also ruminated on the prospect of the potential loss of life in the event that a similar spill happens in the future and nobody is told about the danger to their water supply 8220It could happen anywhere there8217s a chemical plant Think about how easy it is to put poison in the water she said You could just wipe out a lot of people you know You think about it and it8217s scary8221 Following directions from Bishop I drove about four miles down the road from Van where clear water devoid of odor flows freely from a natural spring Locals call this 8220Spring Holler8221 Even now empty water bottles are clustered around the mouth of the spring indicating recent use by locals 8220My dad and papaw all used that spring to draw water when they were young8221 Bishop said 8220It8217s probably about the only water from here I8217ll trust for awhile8221 Echoing Bishop West Virginians concerns about the safety of their water are now coming home to roost even for Gov Tomblin In a recent letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Tomblin acknowledged that businesses are still continuing to lose a projected 1 million in daily revenue as they continue to depend on bottled water In a stark description recognizing the degree to which his constituents distrust local water supplies Tomblin wrote Many people no longer view their tap water as safe and are continuing to demand bottled water to meet their potable water needs It is impossible to predict when this will change if ever People Regulate the Mines Dustin White an organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition OVEC is now spearheading a bold campaign after the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection DEP failed to do an adequate job regulating the coal industry The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act SMCRA passed in 1977 granted states an autonomous role in overseeing their own mining regulations given that each coal mining state confronts different geography and topographical characteristics White is helping organize a new effort called West Virginia Citizen Action for Real Enforcement CARE petitioning for section 733 of SMCRA to be used by the people to selfregulate 8211 by getting the federal EPA to step in where the state DEP did not 8220The West Virginia delegation at the state and federal level is leading an onslaught on the state EPA to take away all regulatory authority8221 White said 8220We8217re not asking the people to go to the DEP we8217re the citizens who are affected demanding the EPA take action8221 Coincidentally almost two weeks before Freedom Industries8217 spill of 4MCHM PPH and formaldehydeamp160 CARE highlighted 19 specific instancesamp160of failed regulation by the state DEP in a 733 SMCRA petition The federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement OSMRE is due to respond to five of those claims So far the OSMRE has promised to investigate claims of the DEP failing to address flooding concerns in granting permits where storm water runoff is a factor the DEP8217s failure to issue SMCRA violations where harmful pollutants have been discharged its failure to regulate selenium pollution its failure to identify all of the harm to watersheds in its cumulative hydrologic impact analysis results and claims that the DEP did not follow through on properly protecting soil in mandated reclamation efforts on mining sites The recent tainting of water in nine counties may elicit even more investigations from OSMRE CARE is already getting West Virginians to take on the state8217s regulatory apparatus According to OVEC project coordinator Vivian Stockmanamp160 2000 signatures have been submittedamp160in support of federal intervention into the DEP 8211 whose head is appointed by the coalfriendly Gov Tomblin Activists also recently descended on the state capitol to deliveramp160 a letter to Tomblin8217s officeamp160demanding a meeting with the governor to address their concerns with regulatory failure Photo courtesy of WV CARE Campaignsamp160 Facebook page Failure of the Deregulation Agenda Much like the case of the chemical plant that exploded in early 2013 near West Texas leveling that entire community the lack of dutiful regulation of West Virginia8217s chief industry ultimately led to the tainting of drinking water for 300000 people in the state The chemical storage facility recently acquired by Freedom Industries hadn8217t been inspectedamp160 since 1991 The chemical plant in West Texas hadn8217t been inspectedamp160 since 1985 The explosion of BP8217s Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the cost of the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was also the result of a failed agenda of government deregulation 8211 in that case the Minerals Management Service under the Bush and Cheney administration which was tasked with regulating the offshore oil drilling industry but actually allowed oil companies toamp160 fill in safety inspection forms in pencil only to be sent back to federal regulators to go back over in pen The MMS is also famous for a scandal in 2008 where members of an MMS regional office in Colorado wereamp160 literally caught in bedamp160with oil industry executives The facts are clear incidents like the Elk River chemical disaster in West Virginia the chemical fertilizer blast in Texas and the BP oil spill in the Gulf will inevitably continue until state regulatory bodies can do their job free of pressure from corporate conglomerates and the politicians they sponsor Americans have a choice to make when it comes to governance 8211 because as we now know the next industrial disaster is just around the corner | On/ADP the/DET evening/NOUN of/ADP January/PROPN 15/NUM the/DET Roosevelt/PROPN Neighborhood/PROPN Center/PROPN in/ADP downtown/NOUN Charleston/PROPN West/PROPN Virginia/PROPN was/AUX packed/VERB with/ADP attendees/NOUN overflowing/VERB into/ADP the/DET hallways/NOUN People/NOUN from/ADP the/DET state/NOUN capital/NOUN voiced/VERB numerous/ADJ concerns/NOUN about/ADP using/VERB 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had/AUX gone/VERB to/ADP the/DET hospital/NOUN reporting/VERB nausea/NOUN eye/NOUN irritation/NOUN and/CCONJ vomiting/VERB 8211/NUM is/AUX the/DET latest/ADJ example/NOUN of/ADP corporate/ADJ malfeasance/NOUN allowed/VERB to/PART run/VERB wild/ADJ The/DET privatelyowned/VERB West/PROPN Virginia/PROPN American/PROPN Water/PROPN Company/PROPN was/AUX woefully/ADV unprepared/ADJ to/PART contain/VERB the/DET spill/NOUN And/CCONJ the/DET privatelyowned/VERB Freedom/PROPN Industries/PROPN which/PRON spilled/VERB the/DET chemicals/NOUN mysteriouslyamp160/NOUN went/VERB into/ADP bankruptcyamp160shortly/ADV after/ADP the/DET accident/NOUN Even/ADV after/SCONJ the/DET ban/NOUN on/ADP water/NOUN use/NOUN was/AUX lifted/VERB government/NOUN officialsamp160/PROPN advised/VERB pregnant/ADJ women/NOUN not/PART to/PART drink/VERB the/DET water/NOUN raising/VERB further/ADJ suspicions/NOUN of/ADP the/DET untruths/NOUN that/PRON have/AUX been/AUX told/VERB to/ADP the/DET public/ADJ Factor/PROPN in/ADP 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have/AUX had/VERB their/PRON water/NOUN supplies/NOUN tainted/VERB by/ADP the/DET coal/NOUN industry/NOUN In/ADP the/DET small/ADJ community/NOUN of/ADP Van/PROPN an/DET hour/NOUN South/PROPN of/ADP Charleston/PROPN in/ADP rural/ADJ Boone/PROPN County/PROPN the/DET local/ADJ water/NOUN supply/NOUN comes/VERB from/ADP the/DET Little/PROPN Coal/PROPN River/PROPN one/NUM of/ADP the/DET Elk/PROPN River8217s/PROPN tributaries/NOUN The/DET Pond/PROPN Fork/PROPN of/ADP the/DET Little/PROPN Coal/PROPN Riveramp160/NUM turned/VERB white/ADJ in/ADP fall/NOUN of/ADP 2013amp160after/NOUN Patriot/PROPN Coal/PROPN spilled/VERB 2400/NUM gallons/NOUN of/ADP BT50D/NOUN 8211/NUM a/DET dust/NOUN suppressant/NOUN used/VERB on/ADP train/NOUN cars/NOUN transporting/VERB coal/NOUN Van/PROPN a/DET hamlet/NOUN of/ADP 211/NUM people/NOUN as/ADP of/ADP three/NUM years/NOUN ago/ADV is/AUX a/DET very/ADV coalconscious/ADJ town/NOUN The/DET main/ADJ road/NOUN where/SCONJ most/ADJ of/ADP the/DET town8217s/PROPN residents/NOUN live/VERB is/AUX adorned/VERB with/ADP lawn/NOUN signs/NOUN akin/ADJ to/PART campaign/VERB lawn/NOUN signs/NOUN 8211/NUM except/SCONJ instead/ADV of/ADP advertising/VERB a/DET candidate/NOUN they/PRON simply/ADV say/VERB 8220friends/NOUN of/ADP coal8221/PROPN While/SCONJ West/PROPN Virginians/PROPN are/AUX all/ADV too/ADV familiar/ADJ with/ADP the/DET deadly/ADJ consequences/NOUN of/ADP coal/NOUN regulation/NOUN of/ADP the/DET industry/NOUN continues/VERB to/PART be/AUX a/DET political/ADJ lightning/NOUN rod/NOUN for/ADP the/DET state8217s/PROPN elected/VERB officials/NOUN Days/NOUN after/SCONJ Freedom/PROPN Industries8217/PROPN spill/NOUN in/ADP the/DET Elk/PROPN River/PROPN West/PROPN Virginia/PROPN Governor/PROPN Earl/PROPN Ray/PROPN Tomblin/PROPN a/DET democratamp160/NOUN jumped/VERB to/ADP the/DET coal/NOUN industry8217s/PROPN defense/NOUN saying/VERB 8220This/PRON was/AUX not/PART a/DET coal/NOUN company/NOUN This/PRON was/AUX a/DET chemical/ADJ supplier/NOUN where/SCONJ the/DET leak/NOUN occurred/VERB As/ADV far/ADV as/SCONJ I/PRON know/VERB there/PRON are/VERB no/DET coal/NOUN mines/NOUN within/ADP miles/NOUN of/ADP this/DET particular/ADJ incident8221/NOUN Rather/ADV than/ADP giving/VERB his/PRON constituents/NOUN a/DET definitive/ADJ answer/NOUN on/ADP whether/SCONJ or/CCONJ not/PART they/PRON can/AUX safely/ADV use/VERB their/PRON water/NOUN Tomblin/PROPN has/AUX since/ADV said/VERB it8217s/NOUN up/ADP to/ADP the/DET individual/ADJ discretion/NOUN of/ADP residentsamp160/PROPN to/PART decide/VERB whether/SCONJ or/CCONJ not/PART their/PRON drinking/NOUN water/NOUN is/AUX safe/ADJ Tomblin/PROPN and/CCONJ Joe/PROPN Manchin/PROPN West/PROPN Virginia8217s/PROPN junior/ADJ US/PROPN Senator/PROPN have/AUX been/AUX eager/ADJ to/PART treat/VERB coal/NOUN mining/NOUN operations/NOUN and/CCONJ the/DET chemical/NOUN storage/NOUN facilities/NOUN that/PRON assist/VERB in/ADP the/DET coal/NOUN burning/NOUN and/CCONJ cleaning/NOUN process/NOUN as/ADP 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<p>Jan 17 (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (London Branch):</p>
<p>* LEHMAN BROTHERS HOLDINGS SAYS LEHMAN AFFILIATES TO EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES TO MONETIZE THEIR CLAIMS AGAINST LEHMAN BROTHERS Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HAVANA (Reuters) - Miguel Diaz-Canel was proposed in Cuba's parliament on Wednesday as the sole candidate to replace Raul Castro as president, which will make him the island's first non-Castro leader since the 1959 revolution.</p> Cuba's President Raul Castro (C-L) and First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel (C-R) arrive for a session of the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, April 18, 2018. Irene Perez/Courtesy of Cubadebate/Handout via Reuters
<p>Castro, 86, is stepping down after 10 years in office. The National Assembly was due to vote later in the day on the proposal to replace him with Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old engineer who is currently first vice president.</p>
<p>Diaz-Canel, born after the revolution, embraces technology and appears socially liberal. Also a stalwart of the ruling Communist Party, he is considered a safe bet to inherit the ideological mantle of Castro and other elderly leaders who helped Fidel Castro oust U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.</p> Cuba's President Raul Castro takes part in a session of the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
<p>The new president is likely to be cautious at first, seeking to consolidate support among conservatives despite desire among young Cubans for faster development. He is unlikely to challenge one-party rule.</p>
<p>While this week's assembly is promoting younger leaders of government, Castro and other elders of the revolution will likely retain a degree of power on the Caribbean island as senior leaders of the Communist Party until a party congress set for 2021.</p>
<p>Wearing a dark suit in place of military fatigues, Castro sat near Diaz-Canel as an official read out the names of proposed leaders to the 604 legislators gathered at a convention center in a Havana suburb.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>Castro became president in 2008 when his brother, Fidel Castro, formally handed over power as his health deteriorated. Fidel Castro died in 2016 aged 90.</p>
<p>Raul Castro brought change, significantly thawing relations with the United States for the first time since the revolution took the island on a sharply leftward path. He also introduced market reforms to one of the world's last Soviet-style centrally planned economies.</p>
<p>But Cuba's economy remains smaller than it was in 1985, when it had the support of Communist ally, the Soviet Union, and some Cubans are pessimistic about their lives improving.</p>
<p>The economy is suffering the effects of a crisis in oil benefactor Venezuela. Relations with the United States are strained anew under President Donald Trump and Cuba has few allies in the region.</p>
<p>The rubber-stamp assembly will vote on another 30 other members of Cuba's state council along with the replacement for Castro.</p>
<p>The new president and state council are due to be sworn in on Thursday.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by Sarah Marsh and Frances Kerry</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Wall Street edged higher in a volatile session on Wednesday as industrial stocks gained on strong results from some marquee companies and a jump in oil prices boosted energy stocks.</p> FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>The gains were kept in check by technology stocks, which were hit by a 7.6 percent slump in IBM ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=IBM.N" type="external">IBM.N</a>) after the company's margins missed estimates as well as declines in semiconductor stocks.</p>
<p>No. 3 U.S. railroad operator CSX Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CSX.O" type="external">CSX.O</a>) jumped 6.3 percent after topping profit estimates. The news lifted shares other railroads and powered a 1.9 percent jump in the Dow Jones Transport index .DJT.</p>
<p>United Airlines ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=UAL.N" type="external">UAL.N</a>) gained 6.5 percent and lifted other airline stocks after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher fares.</p>
<p>"Even though it's early in the earnings season, what you're seeing is what folks were hoping - it is in line with expectations," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at GlobAlt Investments in Atlanta.</p>
<p>"The growth rate is coming in slightly higher as companies report above expectations, but it hasn't been super high."</p>
<p>Earnings at the S&amp;P 500 companies are estimated to grow 18.6 percent in the first quarter, the biggest increase in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>At 12:29 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> was unchanged at 24,787.15 and the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> rose 0.30 percent to 2,714.53.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> gained 0.43 percent to 7,312.41, lifted by consumer discretionary stocks including Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) and Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>).</p>
<p>Tesla rose 2.4 percent after a report that the company was aiming to ramp up production of Model 3 cars to reach its goal.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=IBM.N" type="external">International Business Machines Corp</a> 148.8 IBM.N New York Stock Exchange -12.11 (-7.53%) IBM.N CSX.O UAL.N .DJI .SPX
<p>The CBOE Volatility index .VIX was up 0.51 points at 15.76, marking its first rise after closing lower for six days in a row.</p>
<p>Oil prices jumped about 2 percent, on a decline in U.S. crude inventories and after sources signaled top exporter Saudi Arabia wants to see crude prices closer to $100 a barrel. The S&amp;P energy sector .SPSY was up 1.6 percent and led the gainers among the 11 major S&amp;P indexes. [O/R]</p>
<p>Lam Research fell 4.6 percent after the chip equipment maker kept its full-year shipment forecast unchanged, which analysts said could imply a slowdown in demand.</p>
<p>Other chip stocks including Applied Materials ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMAT.O" type="external">AMAT.O</a>) and MKS Instruments ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MKSI.O" type="external">MKSI.O</a>) also fell, and the broader Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX was down 0.5 percent.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 1.79-to-1 ratio, and on the Nasdaq, for a 1.77-to-1 ratio.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday was inspecting the wrecked engine of a Southwest Airlines Co jet that blew up in mid air, killing a passenger in the first deadly U.S. commercial airline accident in nine years.</p>
<p>The engine explosion, which occurred about 20 minutes after the Dallas-bound Southwest Flight 1380 with 149 on board took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport, sent pieces of shrapnel flying, including one that shattered a window near the plane's left wing, killing bank executive Jennifer Riordan, 43.</p>
<p>An NTSB inspection crew pored over the Boeing 737-700 and its CFM56 engine, made by a partnership of France's Safran and General Electric. It was the second time that style of engine had failed on a Southwest jet in the past two years, prompting airlines around the world to step up inspections.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-pennsylvania-airplane-inspection/cfm-international-deploying-some-40-technicians-to-assist-southwest-in-engine-inspections-idUSKBN1HP2GI" type="external">CFM International deploying some 40 technicians to assist Southwest in engine inspections</a>
<a href="/article/us-pennsylvania-airplane-inspection-sout/southwest-not-inspecting-all-cfm-engines-source-says-idUSKBN1HP2MA" type="external">Southwest not inspecting all CFM engines, source says</a>
<p>Passengers described scenes of panic as a piece of shrapnel from the engine shattered a window on the aircraft, almost sucking a female passenger out. Witnesses speaking with Philadelphia media identified Riordan as the passenger nearly sucked out the window.</p>
<p>Videos posed on social media showed passengers grabbing for oxygen masks and screaming as the plane, piloted by 56-year-old Tammie Jo Shults, a former fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy, prepared for its descent into Philadelphia.</p>
<p>"All I could think of in that moment was, I need to communicate with my loved ones," passenger Marty Martinez told ABC's Good Morning America on Wednesday. During the incident, he logged on to the plane's in-flight WiFi service to send messages to his family.</p>
<p>"I thought, these are my last few moments on Earth and I want people to know what happened," said Martinez, who live-streamed the plane's descent into Philadelphia on Facebook.</p>
<p>Southwest Airlines experienced an unrelated safety incident early on Wednesday when a Phoenix-bound flight was forced to land at Nashville airport shortly after takeoff because of bird strike.</p>
<p>The airline said it would inspect the fan blades of CFM56 engines on all of its 737 jets within 30 days. Minimal flight disruptions may result, it said.</p>
<p>NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said on Tuesday at the Philadelphia airport that a preliminary investigation found an engine fan blade missing, having apparently broken off, and that there was metal fatigue at the point where it would normally be attached.</p> Emergency personnel monitor the damaged engine of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, which diverted to the Philadelphia International Airport this morning after the airline crew reported damage to one of the aircraft's engines, on a runway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S. April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Mark Makela
<p>Pieces of the engine including its cowling - the smooth metal exterior that covers its inner workings - were found about 60 miles (97 km) away from Philadelphia airport, Sumwalt said.</p>
<p>Sumwalt said the investigation could take 12 to 15 months to complete. NTSB officials said they would next brief the media on their investigation at 4:30 p.m. ET (2030 GMT).</p>
<p>In August 2016, a Southwest flight made a safe emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, after a fan blade separated from the same type of engine and debris ripped a hole above the left wing. That incident prompted the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to propose last year that similar fan blades undergo ultrasonic inspections and be replaced if they failed.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>Riordan's death was the first in a U.S. commercial aviation accident since 2009, according to NTSB statistics.</p>
<p>Riordan was a Wells Fargo banking executive and well-known community volunteer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to a Wells Fargo official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Additional reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Peter Graff, Bernadette Baum and Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called snap elections for June 24, saying economic challenges and the war in Syria meant his country must switch quickly to the powerful executive presidency that comes into effect with the new vote.</p>
<p>The presidential and parliamentary elections will take place under a state of emergency that has been in place since a July 2016 attempted coup and was extended by parliament on Wednesday for another three months. (Graphic: Turkey Lira - <a href="https://reut.rs/2JWArvS" type="external">reut.rs/2JWArvS</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2JWArvS" type="external" />
<p>In 15 years of rule as prime minister and then president, Erdogan has transformed a poor, sprawling country at the eastern edge of Europe into a major emerging market. Yet Turkey's rapid economic growth has also come with increased authoritarianism, with Erdogan accelerating a security crackdown since the failed coup in which tens of thousands have been arrested. (Graphic: Turkey Interest Rates and Inflation - <a href="https://reut.rs/2HbjhsF" type="external">reut.rs/2HbjhsF</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2HbjhsF" type="external" />
<p>Last year he narrowly won a referendum to change the constitution and create the executive presidency, which will come into effect with the next presidential vote.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-turkey-politics-opposition/turkish-main-opposition-calls-for-end-of-emergency-rule-after-early-election-announcement-idUSKBN1HP1YX" type="external">Turkish main opposition calls for end of emergency rule after early election announcement</a>
<a href="/article/us-turkey-politics-economy/turkeys-simsek-says-early-election-to-decrease-uncertainty-speed-up-reforms-idUSKBN1HP2A8" type="external">Turkey's Simsek says early election to decrease uncertainty, speed up reforms</a>
<p>The government had repeatedly denied reports that it would bring forward the elections, which were not due until Nov. 2019, but in a speech broadcast live on television Erdogan said Turkey should put political uncertainty behind it.</p>
<p>Citing its military operations in neighboring Syria and the need to make important decisions on investments and the economy, which is unlikely to maintain last year's sharp growth, he said it was necessary "to remove the election issue from our agenda".</p>
<p>Turkey must "switch to the new executive system in order to take steps for our country's future in a stronger way," he said in an address from the presidential palace in Ankara, flanked by rows of Turkish flags.</p>
<p>The announcement was made after he held talks with the head of the nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahceli, who a day earlier had floated the prospect of an early election.</p>
<p>Bahceli's small MHP party is expected to form an alliance with Erdogan's AK Party in the parliamentary election.</p>
<p>Three hours after Erdogan's declaration, the High Electoral Board said it had completed all preparations for early elections and was waiting for approval from parliament, where the AKP has a majority.</p> STATE OF EMERGENCY
<p>The main opposition CHP party called for an immediate end to the emergency, which allows Erdogan and the government to bypass parliament in passing new laws and allows them to suspend rights and freedoms.</p>
<p>"There cannot be an election under emergency rule," CHP spokesman Bulent Tezcan said. "The country needs to brought out of the emergency rule regime starting today."</p>
<p>The United Nations last month called for an end to the emergency and accused Ankara of mass arrests, arbitrary sacking and other abuses. Some 160,000 people have been detained and a similar number of civil servants dismissed since the failed putsch, it said.</p>
<p>Media outlets have been shut down and scores of journalists have also been jailed.</p>
<p>The top European Union official handling now-stalled talks on Turkey joining the EU said Tuesday that Ankara was moving rapidly away from the path of membership - Brussels' bluntest criticism yet of what it sees as a Turkey's shift towards authoritarianism.</p>
<p>Turkey's parliament last month passed a law revamping electoral regulations that the opposition has said could open the door to fraud and jeopardize the fairness of voting. The law grants the High Electoral Board the authority to merge electoral districts and move ballot boxes to other districts.</p> LIRA FIRMS
<p>Turkey's lira firmed against the dollar after Erdogan's announcement and was at 4.0189 at 1500 GMT. The yield on Turkey's benchmark bond fell some 10 basis points and the main stock index jumped more than 2 percent.</p>
<p>Some investors had already been factoring in the prospect of early elections, saying the government would struggle to keep the economy going at its current breakneck pace - it expanded at 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter - until late next year.</p> Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, April 18, 2018. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS
<p>The economy is likely to expand 4.1 percent this year, well short of the government's target of 5.5 percent, a Reuters poll showed. Such a slowdown could hurt Erdogan, who has built much of his reputation on his stewardship of the economy, above all his record of delivering roads, hospitals and public services to millions of pious poor and middle-class people.</p>
<p>Investor concerns about double-digit inflation and Erdogan's pressure on the central bank to keep rates down have sent the lira to a series of record lows. The currency's sell-off may have figured in the call for early elections, some investors said.</p>
<p>"A continued depreciation of the currency would likely negatively impact voter behavior and may jeopardize Erdogan's plans for victory," said Paul Greer, a portfolio manager at Fidelity International in London.</p>
<p>"We read the early election announcement as a recognition from the government of a need for a tighter monetary and fiscal adjustment sooner rather than later."</p>
<p>Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, with additional reporting by Sujata Rao and Karin Strohecker in London; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Dominic Evans and Mark Heinrich</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Lehman Affiliates to Explore Opportunities to Monetize Their Claims against Lehman Brothers Holdings Diaz-Canel formally proposed to replace Castro as Cuban president Energy, industrial stocks lift Wall Street, IBM drags U.S. inspectors probe deadly Southwest jet engine explosion Turkey's Erdogan declares early elections on June 24 | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-lehman-affiliates-to-explore-oppor/brief-lehman-affiliates-to-explore-opportunities-to-monetize-their-claims-against-lehman-brothers-holdings-idUSFWN1PC0YX | 2018-01-17 | 2least
| 2,517 | Jan 17 Reuters Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc London Branch LEHMAN BROTHERS HOLDINGS SAYS LEHMAN AFFILIATES TO EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES TO MONETIZE THEIR CLAIMS AGAINST LEHMAN BROTHERS Source text for Eikon Further company coverage Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles HAVANA Reuters Miguel DiazCanel was proposed in Cubas parliament on Wednesday as the sole candidate to replace Raul Castro as president which will make him the islands first nonCastro leader since the 1959 revolution Cubas President Raul Castro CL and First VicePresident Miguel DiazCanel CR arrive for a session of the National Assembly in Havana Cuba April 18 2018 Irene PerezCourtesy of CubadebateHandout via Reuters Castro 86 is stepping down after 10 years in office The National Assembly was due to vote later in the day on the proposal to replace him with DiazCanel a 57yearold engineer who is currently first vice president DiazCanel born after the revolution embraces technology and appears socially liberal Also a stalwart of the ruling Communist Party he is considered a safe bet to inherit the ideological mantle of Castro and other elderly leaders who helped Fidel Castro oust USbacked dictator Fulgencio Batista Cubas President Raul Castro takes part in a session of the National Assembly in Havana Cuba April 18 2018 REUTERSAlexandre Meneghini The new president is likely to be cautious at first seeking to consolidate support among conservatives despite desire among young Cubans for faster development He is unlikely to challenge oneparty rule While this weeks assembly is promoting younger leaders of government Castro and other elders of the revolution will likely retain a degree of power on the Caribbean island as senior leaders of the Communist Party until a party congress set for 2021 Wearing a dark suit in place of military fatigues Castro sat near DiazCanel as an official read out the names of proposed leaders to the 604 legislators gathered at a convention center in a Havana suburb Slideshow 6 Images Castro became president in 2008 when his brother Fidel Castro formally handed over power as his health deteriorated Fidel Castro died in 2016 aged 90 Raul Castro brought change significantly thawing relations with the United States for the first time since the revolution took the island on a sharply leftward path He also introduced market reforms to one of the worlds last Sovietstyle centrally planned economies But Cubas economy remains smaller than it was in 1985 when it had the support of Communist ally the Soviet Union and some Cubans are pessimistic about their lives improving The economy is suffering the effects of a crisis in oil benefactor Venezuela Relations with the United States are strained anew under President Donald Trump and Cuba has few allies in the region The rubberstamp assembly will vote on another 30 other members of Cubas state council along with the replacement for Castro The new president and state council are due to be sworn in on Thursday Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington Editing by Sarah Marsh and Frances Kerry Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters Wall Street edged higher in a volatile session on Wednesday as industrial stocks gained on strong results from some marquee companies and a jump in oil prices boosted energy stocks FILE PHOTO Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York US March 29 2018 REUTERSBrendan McDermid The gains were kept in check by technology stocks which were hit by a 76 percent slump in IBM IBMN after the companys margins missed estimates as well as declines in semiconductor stocks No 3 US railroad operator CSX Corp CSXO jumped 63 percent after topping profit estimates The news lifted shares other railroads and powered a 19 percent jump in the Dow Jones Transport index DJT United Airlines UALN gained 65 percent and lifted other airline stocks after reporting a betterthanexpected quarterly profit helped by higher fares Even though its early in the earnings season what youre seeing is what folks were hoping it is in line with expectations said Thomas Martin senior portfolio manager at GlobAlt Investments in Atlanta The growth rate is coming in slightly higher as companies report above expectations but it hasnt been super high Earnings at the SampampP 500 companies are estimated to grow 186 percent in the first quarter the biggest increase in seven years according to Thomson Reuters data At 1229 pm ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI was unchanged at 2478715 and the SampampP 500 SPX rose 030 percent to 271453 The Nasdaq Composite IXIC gained 043 percent to 731241 lifted by consumer discretionary stocks including Amazon AMZNO and Tesla TSLAO Tesla rose 24 percent after a report that the company was aiming to ramp up production of Model 3 cars to reach its goal International Business Machines Corp 1488 IBMN New York Stock Exchange 1211 753 IBMN CSXO UALN DJI SPX The CBOE Volatility index VIX was up 051 points at 1576 marking its first rise after closing lower for six days in a row Oil prices jumped about 2 percent on a decline in US crude inventories and after sources signaled top exporter Saudi Arabia wants to see crude prices closer to 100 a barrel The SampampP energy sector SPSY was up 16 percent and led the gainers among the 11 major SampampP indexes OR Lam Research fell 46 percent after the chip equipment maker kept its fullyear shipment forecast unchanged which analysts said could imply a slowdown in demand Other chip stocks including Applied Materials AMATO and MKS Instruments MKSIO also fell and the broader Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index SOX was down 05 percent Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 179to1 ratio and on the Nasdaq for a 177to1 ratio Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru Editing by Shounak Dasgupta Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday was inspecting the wrecked engine of a Southwest Airlines Co jet that blew up in mid air killing a passenger in the first deadly US commercial airline accident in nine years The engine explosion which occurred about 20 minutes after the Dallasbound Southwest Flight 1380 with 149 on board took off from New Yorks LaGuardia Airport sent pieces of shrapnel flying including one that shattered a window near the planes left wing killing bank executive Jennifer Riordan 43 An NTSB inspection crew pored over the Boeing 737700 and its CFM56 engine made by a partnership of Frances Safran and General Electric It was the second time that style of engine had failed on a Southwest jet in the past two years prompting airlines around the world to step up inspections Related Coverage CFM International deploying some 40 technicians to assist Southwest in engine inspections Southwest not inspecting all CFM engines source says Passengers described scenes of panic as a piece of shrapnel from the engine shattered a window on the aircraft almost sucking a female passenger out Witnesses speaking with Philadelphia media identified Riordan as the passenger nearly sucked out the window Videos posed on social media showed passengers grabbing for oxygen masks and screaming as the plane piloted by 56yearold Tammie Jo Shults a former fighter pilot for the US Navy prepared for its descent into Philadelphia All I could think of in that moment was I need to communicate with my loved ones passenger Marty Martinez told ABCs Good Morning America on Wednesday During the incident he logged on to the planes inflight WiFi service to send messages to his family I thought these are my last few moments on Earth and I want people to know what happened said Martinez who livestreamed the planes descent into Philadelphia on Facebook Southwest Airlines experienced an unrelated safety incident early on Wednesday when a Phoenixbound flight was forced to land at Nashville airport shortly after takeoff because of bird strike The airline said it would inspect the fan blades of CFM56 engines on all of its 737 jets within 30 days Minimal flight disruptions may result it said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said on Tuesday at the Philadelphia airport that a preliminary investigation found an engine fan blade missing having apparently broken off and that there was metal fatigue at the point where it would normally be attached Emergency personnel monitor the damaged engine of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 which diverted to the Philadelphia International Airport this morning after the airline crew reported damage to one of the aircrafts engines on a runway in Philadelphia Pennsylvania US April 17 2018 REUTERSMark Makela Pieces of the engine including its cowling the smooth metal exterior that covers its inner workings were found about 60 miles 97 km away from Philadelphia airport Sumwalt said Sumwalt said the investigation could take 12 to 15 months to complete NTSB officials said they would next brief the media on their investigation at 430 pm ET 2030 GMT In August 2016 a Southwest flight made a safe emergency landing in Pensacola Florida after a fan blade separated from the same type of engine and debris ripped a hole above the left wing That incident prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration to propose last year that similar fan blades undergo ultrasonic inspections and be replaced if they failed Slideshow 6 Images Riordans death was the first in a US commercial aviation accident since 2009 according to NTSB statistics Riordan was a Wells Fargo banking executive and wellknown community volunteer from Albuquerque New Mexico according to a Wells Fargo official who spoke on condition of anonymity Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Brendan OBrien in Milwaukee Additional reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru Writing by Scott Malone Editing by Peter Graff Bernadette Baum and Susan Thomas Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles ANKARA Reuters Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called snap elections for June 24 saying economic challenges and the war in Syria meant his country must switch quickly to the powerful executive presidency that comes into effect with the new vote The presidential and parliamentary elections will take place under a state of emergency that has been in place since a July 2016 attempted coup and was extended by parliament on Wednesday for another three months Graphic Turkey Lira reutrs2JWArvS In 15 years of rule as prime minister and then president Erdogan has transformed a poor sprawling country at the eastern edge of Europe into a major emerging market Yet Turkeys rapid economic growth has also come with increased authoritarianism with Erdogan accelerating a security crackdown since the failed coup in which tens of thousands have been arrested Graphic Turkey Interest Rates and Inflation reutrs2HbjhsF Last year he narrowly won a referendum to change the constitution and create the executive presidency which will come into effect with the next presidential vote Related Coverage Turkish main opposition calls for end of emergency rule after early election announcement Turkeys Simsek says early election to decrease uncertainty speed up reforms The government had repeatedly denied reports that it would bring forward the elections which were not due until Nov 2019 but in a speech broadcast live on television Erdogan said Turkey should put political uncertainty behind it Citing its military operations in neighboring Syria and the need to make important decisions on investments and the economy which is unlikely to maintain last years sharp growth he said it was necessary to remove the election issue from our agenda Turkey must switch to the new executive system in order to take steps for our countrys future in a stronger way he said in an address from the presidential palace in Ankara flanked by rows of Turkish flags The announcement was made after he held talks with the head of the nationalist MHP party Devlet Bahceli who a day earlier had floated the prospect of an early election Bahcelis small MHP party is expected to form an alliance with Erdogans AK Party in the parliamentary election Three hours after Erdogans declaration the High Electoral Board said it had completed all preparations for early elections and was waiting for approval from parliament where the AKP has a majority STATE OF EMERGENCY The main opposition CHP party called for an immediate end to the emergency which allows Erdogan and the government to bypass parliament in passing new laws and allows them to suspend rights and freedoms There cannot be an election under emergency rule CHP spokesman Bulent Tezcan said The country needs to brought out of the emergency rule regime starting today The United Nations last month called for an end to the emergency and accused Ankara of mass arrests arbitrary sacking and other abuses Some 160000 people have been detained and a similar number of civil servants dismissed since the failed putsch it said Media outlets have been shut down and scores of journalists have also been jailed The top European Union official handling nowstalled talks on Turkey joining the EU said Tuesday that Ankara was moving rapidly away from the path of membership Brussels bluntest criticism yet of what it sees as a Turkeys shift towards authoritarianism Turkeys parliament last month passed a law revamping electoral regulations that the opposition has said could open the door to fraud and jeopardize the fairness of voting The law grants the High Electoral Board the authority to merge electoral districts and move ballot boxes to other districts LIRA FIRMS Turkeys lira firmed against the dollar after Erdogans announcement and was at 40189 at 1500 GMT The yield on Turkeys benchmark bond fell some 10 basis points and the main stock index jumped more than 2 percent Some investors had already been factoring in the prospect of early elections saying the government would struggle to keep the economy going at its current breakneck pace it expanded at 73 percent in the fourth quarter until late next year Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Ankara Turkey April 18 2018 Murat CetinmuhurdarPresidential PalaceHandout via REUTERS The economy is likely to expand 41 percent this year well short of the governments target of 55 percent a Reuters poll showed Such a slowdown could hurt Erdogan who has built much of his reputation on his stewardship of the economy above all his record of delivering roads hospitals and public services to millions of pious poor and middleclass people Investor concerns about doubledigit inflation and Erdogans pressure on the central bank to keep rates down have sent the lira to a series of record lows The currencys selloff may have figured in the call for early elections some investors said A continued depreciation of the currency would likely negatively impact voter behavior and may jeopardize Erdogans plans for victory said Paul Greer a portfolio manager at Fidelity International in London We read the early election announcement as a recognition from the government of a need for a tighter monetary and fiscal adjustment sooner rather than later Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu with additional reporting by Sujata Rao and Karin Strohecker in London Writing by David Dolan Editing by Dominic Evans and Mark Heinrich Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Jan/PROPN 17/NUM Reuters/PROPN Lehman/PROPN Brothers/PROPN Holdings/PROPN Inc/PROPN London/PROPN Branch/PROPN LEHMAN/PROPN BROTHERS/PROPN HOLDINGS/PROPN SAYS/VERB LEHMAN/PROPN AFFILIATES/PROPN TO/PART EXPLORE/VERB OPPORTUNITIES/NOUN TO/PART MONETIZE/VERB THEIR/PRON CLAIMS/NOUN AGAINST/ADP LEHMAN/PROPN BROTHERS/PROPN Source/PROPN text/NOUN for/ADP Eikon/PROPN Further/PROPN company/NOUN coverage/NOUN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN HAVANA/PROPN Reuters/PROPN 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Karin/PROPN Strohecker/PROPN in/ADP London/PROPN Writing/NOUN by/ADP David/PROPN Dolan/PROPN Editing/PROPN by/ADP Dominic/PROPN Evans/PROPN and/CCONJ Mark/PROPN Heinrich/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN |
<p>* Sees 2018 net profit at $8.9 mln vs $26.3 mln loss street view</p>
<p>* Forecasts 2018 revenue at $4.9 bln vs $4 bln 2017 estimate (Recasts, adds 2017 revenue estimate, bonds sales plan)</p>
<p>JAKARTA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia is targeting a modest net profit this year as passenger numbers and revenue increase, its finance director said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Revenue in 2018 is expected to rise to $4.9 billion from an estimated 2017 revenue of around $4 billion, finance director Helmi Imam Satriyono told reporters, with the airline forecast to report a net profit of $8.9 million.</p>
<p>Garuda shares rose 2 percent on Tuesday. The consensus forecast from three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S was a loss of $26.3 million in 2018.</p>
<p>The airline is expected to release its 2017 earnings results next month. It reported a $222 million net loss for in the first nine months of 2017.</p>
<p>Garuda estimates it will report an 11 percent rise in passenger numbers this year, up from 24 million passengers carried last year, Satriyono said.</p>
<p>Garuda’s chief executive Pahala Mansury said last month the company’s international traffic declined late last year due to Bali’s Mount Agung eruption, but domestic flights had held up.</p>
<p>Satriyono added that the company is planning to issue $750 million in global bonds to refinance old debt, as well as separate 2 trillion rupiah ($150.21 million) in bonds to finance operational expenses and business expansion.</p>
<p>“At the latest we hope to issue them in June,” Satriyono said.</p>
<p>Garuda unit PT Garuda Maintenance Facility AeroAsia said on Monday it would pick Air France-KLM’s maintenance, repair and overhaul unit as a strategic investor after narrowing down a list of potential partners.</p>
<p>Garuda’s CEO had estimated in October that GMF AeroAsia could raise $200 million from selling a 20 percent stake to a strategic buyer. ($1 = 13,315 rupiah) (Reporting by Cindy Silviana; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy and Jamie Freed; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly $300 million from its existing lenders, including some of the biggest U.S. banks, after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.</p>
<p>During that time, the company’s investment bank, Lazard Ltd ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">LAZ.N</a>), approached more than 30 possible lenders, according to court documents.</p>
<p>“The vast majority of lenders contacted, however, indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers,” said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers.</p>
<p>Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems, according to court records. Without the funds, Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value.</p>
<p>The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February.</p>
<p>Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures.</p>
<p>Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy, but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted, buyers were scarce.</p>
<p>The company’s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>), Wells Fargo &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">WFC.N</a>), JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>) and Deutsche Bank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>), according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing, which the company said will allow it to cancel $775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May.</p>
<p>Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RF.N" type="external">RF.N</a>), BB&amp;T Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BBT.N" type="external">BBT.N</a>), Synovus Financial Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNV.N" type="external">SNV.N</a>) and Fifth Third Bancorp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FITB.O" type="external">FITB.O</a>) have also committed to help fund Remington’s bankruptcy loans, court documents show. An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments, another lender, is also providing funds.</p>
<p>Bank of America, Regions, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment.</p>
<p>BB&amp;T declined to comment on its lending relationships. The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders, who have a wide range of opinions.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a pro-gun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., January 19, 2013. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo
<p>“We’re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities,” the bank said.</p>
<p>The others, along with Remington, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand, according to court filings.</p>
<p>The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls. With the election of Donald Trump, who has said he strongly supports gun ownership, the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">Lazard Ltd</a> 52.33 LAZ.N New York Stock Exchange -0.21 (-0.40%) LAZ.N BAC.N WFC.N JPM.N DBKGn.DE
<p>Remington, which said in January it was nearly out of cash, plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses, including payroll, during its bankruptcy filing.</p>
<p>Remington’s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Their identities were redacted in court documents.</p>
<p>The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans, saying that the sums are commercially sensitive, according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware.</p>
<p>The court records also showed that Remington’s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting.</p>
<p>The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>), Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DKS.N" type="external">DKS.N</a>) and Kroger Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KR.N" type="external">KR.N</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation, including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of “dealer” under current gun laws. Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were re-enacted it would have an adverse effect on the business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>FRANKFURT/ZURICH (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GSK.L" type="external">GSK.L</a>) is buying Novartis ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NOVN.S" type="external">NOVN.S</a>) out of their consumer healthcare joint venture for $13 billion, taking full control of products including Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol headache tablets, muscle gel Voltaren, and Nicotinell patches.</p>
<p>GSK’s biggest move since Emma Walmsley became chief executive last year follows the British drugmaker’s decision last week to quit the race to buy Pfizer’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PFE.N" type="external">PFE.N</a>) consumer healthcare business, endangering an auction the U.S. company hoped would bring in as much as $20 billion.</p>
<p>Consumer remedies sold over the counter have lower margins than prescription drugs, but they are typically well-known brands with customers.</p>
<p>“The proposed transaction addresses one of our key capital allocation priorities and will allow GSK shareholders to capture the full value of one of the world’s leading consumer healthcare businesses,” Walmsley said in a statement on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Although some pharmaceuticals groups have been keen to hold consumer care products, intense price competition online, mainly from Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), as well as cheaper store-brand products, have led others to doubt their stable returns longer-term.</p>
<p>The British group’s shares jumped 6.1 percent, outperforming a 2 percent gain in the STOXX Europe 600 Health Care .SXDP.</p>
<p>GSK said that as well as ending the Novartis venture it would start a strategic review of Horlicks and other consumer nutrition products, sparking another potential industry shake-up. The review will include an assessment of its majority stake in India-listed GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GLSM.NS" type="external">GLSM.NS</a>).</p>
<p>“The decision not to pay up for Pfizer’s consumer assets will have led GSK CEO Emma Walmsley to remove uncertainty by bringing all the consumer revenues in-house and assisting toward efficient capital allocation,” said Ketan Patel, co-manager of the Amity UK Fund at EdenTree Investment Management, who holds GSK shares.</p>
<p>“Long-term investors will welcome the greater clarity this brings to both companies.”</p>
<p>GSK said that the purchase would boost adjusted earnings and cash flows.</p>
<p>Pfizer has been struggling to sell its consumer healthcare business after GSK and Reckitt Benckiser ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RB.L" type="external">RB.L</a>) both dropped out of the bidding, while differences in price expectations have also hobbled German drugmaker Merck KGaA’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MRCG.DE" type="external">MRCG.DE</a>) attempts to sell its consumer products unit.</p>
<p>And GSK’s call for bids for its consumer healthcare nutrition brands - with a regional focus on India - could detract attention from Merck’s asset, which relies heavily on sales of vitamins and dietary supplements in emerging markets.</p> Slideshow (2 Images) NOVARTIS SHARES RISE
<p>Barclays analysts said Glaxo was paying less than 17 times expected 2018 core earnings for the joint venture stake, while sources have told Reuters that both Merck and Pfizer had asked for up to 20 times for their respective assets.</p>
<p>Yet analysts at Baader Helvea welcomed the cash price fetched by Novartis as “excellent news” for the Swiss company, whose shares opened 1.9 percent higher.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bank analysts said the move decluttered Novartis’s portfolio, but cautioned that the Swiss group was being too vague about what it would do with the cash.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GSK.L" type="external">GlaxoSmithKline PLC</a> 1354.0 GSK.L London Stock Exchange +65.80 (+5.11%) GSK.L NOVN.S PFE.N AMZN.O GLSM.NS
<p>“The time&#160;is&#160;right for Novartis to divest&#160;a&#160;non-core asset at an&#160;attractive price,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said.</p>
<p>Novartis said the money would be used by Novartis to expand its business organically as well as for bolt-on acquisitions.</p>
<p>In an interview before the deal was announced, Narasimhan ruled out large acquisitions by the Basel-based company.</p>
<p>“We want to focus our M&amp;A efforts on bolt on acquisitions that have either new technologies or products that fit into our core therapeutic areas,” he told CNBC in an interview recorded on Sunday.</p>
<p>For Narasimhan, a Harvard trained medical doctor, the disposal is among his first moves as CEO, a role he took on less than two months ago when he replaced Joe Jimenez.</p>
<p>He is now emphasizing the use of technology to boost returns on research investment but Novartis is currently also reviewing its Alcon eye care unit for a possible spinoff to shareholders, which could come in early 2019.</p>
<p>Under the 2014 deal to pool their consumer assets, Novartis had the right so sell its 36.5 percent stake to Glaxo from this month. The transaction is set to complete in the second quarter, subject to necessary approvals.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-novartis-gsk-margins/gsk-says-very-confident-about-consumer-margin-goal-of-at-least-20-percent-idUSKBN1H317X" type="external">GSK says very confident about consumer margin goal of at least 20 percent</a>
<p>($1 = 0.7029 pounds)</p>
<p>additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London, Michael Shields in Zurich; editing by Alexander Smith and Louise Heavens</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Akzo Nobel will sell its chemicals business in a 10.1 billion euro ($12.6 billion) deal to buyers led by Carlyle Group, the maker of Dulux paints said on Tuesday, making good on a promise made as it fought off a takeover last year.</p>
<p>The sale of the Specialty Chemicals operation to Carlyle and Singapore’s GIC [GIC.UL] sovereign wealth fund for a slightly better than expected price will allow Akzo to focus on its main paints and coatings business.</p>
<p>It delivers one of the biggest commitments made by Akzo Nobel in its defense against a 26 billion euro ($32 billion) takeover offer from U.S. rival PPG Industries last year.</p>
<p>It may also help to repair strained relationships with shareholders unhappy with the rejection of the bid.</p>
<p>Akzo Nobel CEO Thierry Vanlancker, who took charge last July after the bid battle, expects 7.5 billion euros in net proceeds from the sale. The 10.1 billion euro valuation includes debt.</p>
<p>The division being sold produces an array of chemicals used in plastic packaging, tissue paper, cleaning materials, pharmaceuticals, food products, salts and adhesives.</p>
<p>The 7.5 billion euro total will be returned to shareholders, Vanlancker told Reuters, with the company deciding on the distribution through dividends or share buybacks in the coming months.</p>
<p>The deal leaves Akzo as “one of the top 3 largest paints and coatings companies in the world,” Vanlancker said.</p>
<p>He said Akzo must now deliver on a goal to achieve a 15 percent margin on sales by 2020, after that measure fell to 9.4 percent last year.</p>
<p>That goal will mainly be delivered through cost savings and efficiency measures, Vanlancker said, as overall sales growth in the paints and coatings market is expected to remain modest.</p>
<p>“We will be looking at size (acquisition) opportunities as they come along”, Vanlancker said. “But size is really not top of mind, it’s performance of the business.”</p>
<p>The remaining Akzo business will have 35,700 employees, while Speciality Chemicals employs around 10,000.</p> FILE PHOTO: General view of the outside of AkzoNobel's new paint factory in Ashington, Britain September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo DEFENSE PLAN
<p>Akzo will try to strengthen its position in promising markets such as powder coatings, which showed 10 percent global growth last year, the CEO said. Akzo also expects its sales of decorative paints in China and Europe to increase.</p>
<p>Shares rose 2.9 percent to 77.28 euros by 1300 GMT. That is still well short of the figure of around 95 euros in the cash and share offer from PPG last year.</p>
<p>Analyst Wim Hoste of KBC said the sale price for Specialty Chemicals represented a multiple of 9.8 times core earnings, “which is a bit higher ... than we were banking on.”</p>
<p>Bankers advising potential buyers had said they expected the business to fetch an enterprise value of 8-9 times the unit’s expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).</p>
<p>Carlyle had been vying for the asset with U.S. private equity firm Apollo and its consortium partner, Dutch fund PGGM, as well as Dutch investor Hal Investments, and Advent International partnered with Bain Capital Private Equity, people familiar with the matter had told Reuters.</p>
<p>Akzo first announced plans to sell the business last April, when PPG was in full pursuit. Many shareholders were dismayed as Akzo’s boards appeared uninterested in talks with PPG and when they ultimately rejected the U.S. company’s best offer.</p>
<p>With support from Dutch politicians, Akzo argued a takeover was not in the interest of other stakeholders, including employees.</p>
<p>Shareholders sued unsuccessfully to have chairman Antony Burgmans removed. Akzo’s CEO and chief financial officer both resigned last year on health grounds. Burgmans is due to retire after next month’s annual meeting, with former Maersk CEO Nils Andersen nominated to take his place.</p>
<p>Vanlancker said Akzo had extracted promises from Carlyle to keep the chemicals company’s head offices in the Netherlands, though it made no commitment to retain all of the business’s 2,500 employees in the Netherlands.</p>
<p>The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be concluded before the end of the year, Akzo said.</p>
<p>Lazard, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC advised Akzo Nobel on the sale. ($1 = 0.8023 euros)</p>
<p>Reporting by Toby Sterling and Bart Meijer; Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | UPDATE 1-Airline Garuda Indonesia expects small profit in 2018 vs loss seen by analysts U.S. banks provide rescue financing for gunmaker Remington GSK buys out Novartis in $13 billion consumer healthcare shake-up Akzo Nobel reshapes business with 10 billion euro sale | false | https://reuters.com/article/indonesia-garuda-indonesia/update-1-airline-garuda-indonesia-expects-small-profit-in-2018-vs-loss-seen-by-analysts-idUSL4N1PI2EF | 2018-01-23 | 2least
| 2,517 | Sees 2018 net profit at 89 mln vs 263 mln loss street view Forecasts 2018 revenue at 49 bln vs 4 bln 2017 estimate Recasts adds 2017 revenue estimate bonds sales plan JAKARTA Jan 23 Reuters Flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia is targeting a modest net profit this year as passenger numbers and revenue increase its finance director said on Tuesday Revenue in 2018 is expected to rise to 49 billion from an estimated 2017 revenue of around 4 billion finance director Helmi Imam Satriyono told reporters with the airline forecast to report a net profit of 89 million Garuda shares rose 2 percent on Tuesday The consensus forecast from three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters IBES was a loss of 263 million in 2018 The airline is expected to release its 2017 earnings results next month It reported a 222 million net loss for in the first nine months of 2017 Garuda estimates it will report an 11 percent rise in passenger numbers this year up from 24 million passengers carried last year Satriyono said Garuda8217s chief executive Pahala Mansury said last month the company8217s international traffic declined late last year due to Bali8217s Mount Agung eruption but domestic flights had held up Satriyono added that the company is planning to issue 750 million in global bonds to refinance old debt as well as separate 2 trillion rupiah 15021 million in bonds to finance operational expenses and business expansion 8220At the latest we hope to issue them in June8221 Satriyono said Garuda unit PT Garuda Maintenance Facility AeroAsia said on Monday it would pick Air FranceKLM8217s maintenance repair and overhaul unit as a strategic investor after narrowing down a list of potential partners Garuda8217s CEO had estimated in October that GMF AeroAsia could raise 200 million from selling a 20 percent stake to a strategic buyer 1 13315 rupiah Reporting by Cindy Silviana Writing by Fransiska Nangoy and Jamie Freed Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly 300 million from its existing lenders including some of the biggest US banks after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy During that time the company8217s investment bank Lazard Ltd LAZN approached more than 30 possible lenders according to court documents 8220The vast majority of lenders contacted however indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers8221 said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems according to court records Without the funds Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland Florida in February Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted buyers were scarce The company8217s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp BACN Wells Fargo ampamp Co WFCN JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN and Deutsche Bank AG DBKGnDE according to court documents Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing which the company said will allow it to cancel 775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation RFN BBampampT Corp BBTN Synovus Financial Corp SNVN and Fifth Third Bancorp FITBO have also committed to help fund Remington8217s bankruptcy loans court documents show An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments another lender is also providing funds Bank of America Regions Deutsche Bank JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment BBampampT declined to comment on its lending relationships The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders who have a wide range of opinions FILE PHOTO A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a progun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix Arizona US January 19 2013 REUTERSJoshua LottFile Photo 8220We8217re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities8221 the bank said The others along with Remington did not immediately respond to a request for comment The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand according to court filings The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls With the election of Donald Trump who has said he strongly supports gun ownership the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt Lazard Ltd 5233 LAZN New York Stock Exchange 021 040 LAZN BACN WFCN JPMN DBKGnDE Remington which said in January it was nearly out of cash plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses including payroll during its bankruptcy filing Remington8217s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy Their identities were redacted in court documents The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans saying that the sums are commercially sensitive according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington Delaware The court records also showed that Remington8217s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc WMTN Dick8217s Sporting Goods Inc DKSN and Kroger Co KRN Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017 according to court documents Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of 8220dealer8221 under current gun laws Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were reenacted it would have an adverse effect on the business Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles FRANKFURTZURICH Reuters GlaxoSmithKline GSKL is buying Novartis NOVNS out of their consumer healthcare joint venture for 13 billion taking full control of products including Sensodyne toothpaste Panadol headache tablets muscle gel Voltaren and Nicotinell patches GSK8217s biggest move since Emma Walmsley became chief executive last year follows the British drugmaker8217s decision last week to quit the race to buy Pfizer8217s PFEN consumer healthcare business endangering an auction the US company hoped would bring in as much as 20 billion Consumer remedies sold over the counter have lower margins than prescription drugs but they are typically wellknown brands with customers 8220The proposed transaction addresses one of our key capital allocation priorities and will allow GSK shareholders to capture the full value of one of the world8217s leading consumer healthcare businesses8221 Walmsley said in a statement on Tuesday Although some pharmaceuticals groups have been keen to hold consumer care products intense price competition online mainly from Amazon AMZNO as well as cheaper storebrand products have led others to doubt their stable returns longerterm The British group8217s shares jumped 61 percent outperforming a 2 percent gain in the STOXX Europe 600 Health Care SXDP GSK said that as well as ending the Novartis venture it would start a strategic review of Horlicks and other consumer nutrition products sparking another potential industry shakeup The review will include an assessment of its majority stake in Indialisted GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare GLSMNS 8220The decision not to pay up for Pfizer8217s consumer assets will have led GSK CEO Emma Walmsley to remove uncertainty by bringing all the consumer revenues inhouse and assisting toward efficient capital allocation8221 said Ketan Patel comanager of the Amity UK Fund at EdenTree Investment Management who holds GSK shares 8220Longterm investors will welcome the greater clarity this brings to both companies8221 GSK said that the purchase would boost adjusted earnings and cash flows Pfizer has been struggling to sell its consumer healthcare business after GSK and Reckitt Benckiser RBL both dropped out of the bidding while differences in price expectations have also hobbled German drugmaker Merck KGaA8217s MRCGDE attempts to sell its consumer products unit And GSK8217s call for bids for its consumer healthcare nutrition brands with a regional focus on India could detract attention from Merck8217s asset which relies heavily on sales of vitamins and dietary supplements in emerging markets Slideshow 2 Images NOVARTIS SHARES RISE Barclays analysts said Glaxo was paying less than 17 times expected 2018 core earnings for the joint venture stake while sources have told Reuters that both Merck and Pfizer had asked for up to 20 times for their respective assets Yet analysts at Baader Helvea welcomed the cash price fetched by Novartis as 8220excellent news8221 for the Swiss company whose shares opened 19 percent higher Deutsche Bank analysts said the move decluttered Novartis8217s portfolio but cautioned that the Swiss group was being too vague about what it would do with the cash GlaxoSmithKline PLC 13540 GSKL London Stock Exchange 6580 511 GSKL NOVNS PFEN AMZNO GLSMNS 8220The timeamp160isamp160right for Novartis to divestamp160aamp160noncore asset at anamp160attractive price8221 Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said Novartis said the money would be used by Novartis to expand its business organically as well as for bolton acquisitions In an interview before the deal was announced Narasimhan ruled out large acquisitions by the Baselbased company 8220We want to focus our MampampA efforts on bolt on acquisitions that have either new technologies or products that fit into our core therapeutic areas8221 he told CNBC in an interview recorded on Sunday For Narasimhan a Harvard trained medical doctor the disposal is among his first moves as CEO a role he took on less than two months ago when he replaced Joe Jimenez He is now emphasizing the use of technology to boost returns on research investment but Novartis is currently also reviewing its Alcon eye care unit for a possible spinoff to shareholders which could come in early 2019 Under the 2014 deal to pool their consumer assets Novartis had the right so sell its 365 percent stake to Glaxo from this month The transaction is set to complete in the second quarter subject to necessary approvals Related Coverage GSK says very confident about consumer margin goal of at least 20 percent 1 07029 pounds additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London Michael Shields in Zurich editing by Alexander Smith and Louise Heavens Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles AMSTERDAM Reuters Akzo Nobel will sell its chemicals business in a 101 billion euro 126 billion deal to buyers led by Carlyle Group the maker of Dulux paints said on Tuesday making good on a promise made as it fought off a takeover last year The sale of the Specialty Chemicals operation to Carlyle and Singapore8217s GIC GICUL sovereign wealth fund for a slightly better than expected price will allow Akzo to focus on its main paints and coatings business It delivers one of the biggest commitments made by Akzo Nobel in its defense against a 26 billion euro 32 billion takeover offer from US rival PPG Industries last year It may also help to repair strained relationships with shareholders unhappy with the rejection of the bid Akzo Nobel CEO Thierry Vanlancker who took charge last July after the bid battle expects 75 billion euros in net proceeds from the sale The 101 billion euro valuation includes debt The division being sold produces an array of chemicals used in plastic packaging tissue paper cleaning materials pharmaceuticals food products salts and adhesives The 75 billion euro total will be returned to shareholders Vanlancker told Reuters with the company deciding on the distribution through dividends or share buybacks in the coming months The deal leaves Akzo as 8220one of the top 3 largest paints and coatings companies in the world8221 Vanlancker said He said Akzo must now deliver on a goal to achieve a 15 percent margin on sales by 2020 after that measure fell to 94 percent last year That goal will mainly be delivered through cost savings and efficiency measures Vanlancker said as overall sales growth in the paints and coatings market is expected to remain modest 8220We will be looking at size acquisition opportunities as they come along8221 Vanlancker said 8220But size is really not top of mind it8217s performance of the business8221 The remaining Akzo business will have 35700 employees while Speciality Chemicals employs around 10000 FILE PHOTO General view of the outside of AkzoNobels new paint factory in Ashington Britain September 12 2017 REUTERSPhil NobleFile Photo DEFENSE PLAN Akzo will try to strengthen its position in promising markets such as powder coatings which showed 10 percent global growth last year the CEO said Akzo also expects its sales of decorative paints in China and Europe to increase Shares rose 29 percent to 7728 euros by 1300 GMT That is still well short of the figure of around 95 euros in the cash and share offer from PPG last year Analyst Wim Hoste of KBC said the sale price for Specialty Chemicals represented a multiple of 98 times core earnings 8220which is a bit higher than we were banking on8221 Bankers advising potential buyers had said they expected the business to fetch an enterprise value of 89 times the unit8217s expected earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization EBITDA Carlyle had been vying for the asset with US private equity firm Apollo and its consortium partner Dutch fund PGGM as well as Dutch investor Hal Investments and Advent International partnered with Bain Capital Private Equity people familiar with the matter had told Reuters Akzo first announced plans to sell the business last April when PPG was in full pursuit Many shareholders were dismayed as Akzo8217s boards appeared uninterested in talks with PPG and when they ultimately rejected the US company8217s best offer With support from Dutch politicians Akzo argued a takeover was not in the interest of other stakeholders including employees Shareholders sued unsuccessfully to have chairman Antony Burgmans removed Akzo8217s CEO and chief financial officer both resigned last year on health grounds Burgmans is due to retire after next month8217s annual meeting with former Maersk CEO Nils Andersen nominated to take his place Vanlancker said Akzo had extracted promises from Carlyle to keep the chemicals company8217s head offices in the Netherlands though it made no commitment to retain all of the business8217s 2500 employees in the Netherlands The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be concluded before the end of the year Akzo said Lazard JPMorgan Chase and HSBC advised Akzo Nobel on the sale 1 08023 euros Reporting by Toby Sterling and Bart Meijer Editing by Jason Neely and Keith Weir Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Sees/VERB 2018/NUM net/ADJ profit/NOUN at/ADP 89/NUM mln/NOUN vs/ADP 263/NUM mln/NOUN loss/NOUN street/NOUN view/VERB Forecasts/PROPN 2018/NUM revenue/NOUN at/ADP 49/NUM bln/NOUN vs/ADP 4/NUM bln/NOUN 2017/NUM estimate/NOUN Recasts/PROPN adds/VERB 2017/NUM revenue/NOUN estimate/NOUN 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<p>Marc Steiner is the host of the Marc Steiner Show, as well as president and founder of the Center of Emerging Media.&#160;http://www.steinershow.org/</p>
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<p /> MARC STEINER, RADIO HOST, WEAA 88.9 FM: Hello. I'm Marc Steiner. And welcome to The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, and on The Real News Network. And it's our pleasure today to talk with Emory Douglas, who was the minister of culture in the Black Panther Party, one of the world's noted artists and graphic designers, who joins us here in the studios in Baltimore. He's made another trip through town.
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<p />Good to have you with us, Emory. Welcome.
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<p />EMORY DOUGLAS, FMR. MINISTER OF CULTURE, BLACK PANTHER PARTY: Good to be here.
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<p />STEINER: For people inside as you were inside the party, the Black Panther Party--you stayed in to the end of it, right?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes.
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<p />STEINER: You were there from, like, '67 all the way to--.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes, yeah, three months after it started, yes, until about three months before it demised, into 1981, '80, '81.
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<p />STEINER: So if you can kind of--you know, if you were, like, teaching a class to young people about the Black Panther Party, how would you describe its effect on the consciousness of the people at the moment in the community where people are working, but also its effect now, like, the reverberations through the 21st century? How would you reflect on that?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Well, it was an enlightening, educational process for the community to begin to expose to them in relationship to the contradictions between what the government should have been doing and wasn't doing in their interests. And they begin to see that through the social programs, as well as through talking about revolution and change at the same time. Out of that you expose them to other historical markers in the world in relationship to revolutions that took place in Latin America, in Cuba, and what was going on in Vietnam, and being a part of that, those conferences, antiwar conferences that the place in Montreal and our travels. And people begin to see our newspaper and identify with us across the country. So we were leading by example, and they were inspired by that, because of the very foundation of what we were doing in the community. So in that context, we were in the vanguard of being a spark of inspiration and enlightenment.
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<p />STEINER: You know, I'm watching you tell these stories, and it's you as in others--the spark is still there. That hasn't gone out.
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<p />DOUGLAS: No, no, no, no. Yeah.
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<p />STEINER: That hasn't gone out.
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<p />DOUGLAS: No, no. No, no.
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<p />STEINER: Why do you think that is? I mean, 'cause many people can see you say all these people who were revolutionaries in the '60s, how they've gotten old and it's not there anymore, they're working on Wall Street, but--.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Well, what a part of revolution is, too, is taking care of your kids and making sure they grow up and become enlightened and informed. So that was a part of the process for me also, past the Black Panther Party.
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<p />But at the same time, /dwʌns/ doing that also there was always this interest in that history. So what I--people begin to ask for me to travel around and do presentations, talk about the retrospective history of the artwork in the context of what the organization was about. And so I continue to do that to this very day.
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<p />STEINER: Let's get into that part. This is the part that your role in all this as minister of culture--you were named minister of culture.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah. I was--
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<p />STEINER: Right?
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<p />DOUGLAS: --initially a revolutionary artist.
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<p />STEINER: Right.
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<p />DOUGLAS: That's how it first came about. And that came about when the second issue of the Black Panther paper, which was when we went to Sacramento--that was called the May Day paper. And the reason why it was called the May Day paper: 'cause that was the--May 1st was the workers' day. But because--we went on May Day, which was on a Sunday. So May Day was on--we couldn't go on--we had to go on a Monday, because the capital wasn't open on--. So that's why that paper was called May Day paper. And so it was on that paper, and I got involved with that particular paper.
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<p />And how I got involved was when Huey and Bobby were working on the first issue and they were trying to recruit Eldridge Cleaver into the party. And they used to come to a place called the Black House in San Francisco. And they were sitting downstairs, where no activity, cultural thing going on that evening there. And I seen Bobby working on that first one. He had typed it out on a legal size sheet of paper like you have there, and he was doing it with markers. And I still had a lot of my stuff from City College, artwork and materials. So I told him I could go home and get my materials, come back and help you to improve the quality of it. It took me about half an hour to go and come back. When I come back, he's finished, and he said, well, we were glad you wanted to help, but we finished with this one, and we're kind of surprised that
<p />I came back, but you seem to be committed, 'cause you've been coming around. So we're going to start this newspaper, and we want you to be the revolutionary artist. And then they had this whole vision about the paper, telling our story from our perspective and our point of view. It could be like a double-edged sword--it could praise you on the one side, and it also can criticize you on the other. And so that was the beginning of the paper. They said I would be doing the artwork.
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<p />Eventually I became to do artwork for the paper. At first it was production work, cutting and pasting, laying it out. And then, about the third or fourth issue, I begin to do cartoons and stuff for the paper. Initially it was the pig caricatures, that Huey and Bobby had begun defining the police as a pig.
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<p />STEINER: But you drew the first ones.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He asked me to do the--drew the first--yeah, the first one. And then the first one I drew was on four hoofs. And because of being--have--been had to--thing of critiquing my work from being in City College and evaluating how--the quality of it, how you can improve it, it came to my mind, why not couldn't I stand it up on two hoofs, keep the snorting detail and the flies that were going around, and put the badge and the belt on, and it took on a life of its own. It became the symbol of oppression of people around the world, not just in Black Panther Party, but just--it transcended the Black Panther Party as an icon.
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<p />STEINER: I mean, 'cause it's an amazing thing when we think about that, because that figure is iconic,--
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<p />DOUGLAS: Mhm.
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<p />STEINER: --the figure of the pig that--
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes.
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<p />STEINER: --that you drew and how people took that up. What do you think about that figure now, reflecting back on it?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Well, I think at the time it was a very powerful, very dynamic image. And it had a lot of psychological impact. A lot of people don't know, in Oakland, because of that you had the Oakland police and the San Francisco police try to--call the pig bowl, when they used to play football against each other, try to clean it up. And they had that for many years. Oh, yeah.
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<p />Then it became a misdemeanor--and it still is in some states--to call the police a pig. So it had an impact symbolically or what it represented in the culture of how we were talking about. Of course, in other cultures in some ways it was irreverent, because it's a food source or what have you. But in the context of what we were talking about, it was meant--had a whole different meaning, the context, yeah.
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<p />STEINER: So this whole idea of being this kind of revolutionary artist--and I was thinking about el agitador gráfico, the graphic revolutionary agitator, and that's a role you played. And all these kind of covers for the Black Panther paper and all the other artwork you did, they really had an effect on people. Sometimes they had maybe more of an effect than the words themselves.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Well, Huey and them always had his understanding that the black community learned through observation and participation that there weren't--a large majority at that time wasn't a reading community, that they learned, like I said, through [operation participation (?)]. So he thought that [if] we have a lot of visuals in the paper that they would identify, or if they've seen photographs and they had just the captions, so on them they would read the caption or the headline and they would see the photograph and they could get the gist of what was going on, as opposed to long, drawn-out essays or editorials, which a lot of people read, but a lot of people wouldn't read them.
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<p />STEINER: So I think this is really important in a lot of ways, because your work, your graphics, some of the montages [incompr.] photographs, and drawings as well, visually interpreted a revolutionary movement and visually interpreted the conditions people lived in. Some of your pieces were about what people had to live like in the inner cities and in poor communities. And you put those out there, as well as these images of revolutionaries [incompr.] revolutionary pictures. So, I mean, those are the things that kind of grab people's conscience, I think, in many ways. It's almost like when you look at the world of the internet and the video productions and how that just goes--it takes over. Your work did that before all that.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Mhm.
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<p />STEINER: See what I'm saying?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes.
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<p />STEINER: So there's a real connection between that and the work you did.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah, there is, but a lot of young people didn't [incompr.] they'd go take a sidebar and come back. If I was--I was doing a thing with Kathleen Cleaver a couple of years back in Oakland, and you had a young person who came up, 'cause we was talking about information and getting out stuff and what we did. And he raised his hand, and he said, well, you didn't have computers then. How did you get your information out?
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<p />STEINER: How did it go viral with no computer, right?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah. And we told him flyers, newspapers.
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<p />STEINER: But that did, I mean, your stuff, because your images--talk a bit about this now, 'cause your images, you signed all your pieces, right?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes.
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<p />STEINER: Right?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Mhm.
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<p />STEINER: But you saw them as the work for the people,--
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<p />DOUGLAS: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
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<p />STEINER: --even though you signed your own name to it.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yes. Mhm.
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<p />STEINER: But, like, Cubans and others actually took your work, didn't give you credit. You didn't seem to care.
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<p />DOUGLAS: No, no.
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<p />STEINER: Right?
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<p />DOUGLAS: No.
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<p />STEINER: But used your work, and it traveled the world.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Because it was an honor and a humbling honor to be them acknowledging the work itself and acknowledging the organization who wished--inspired the work, and wanting and showing that they were showing solidarity in the relationship to what we were about and what we were doing in relationship to the overall struggle of revolutionary struggle that was going on around the world. And so in that context it was a very exciting time to see the work being appreciated in that context.
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<p />STEINER: Did you have a sense then, because your work now is going across the globe in all these art exhibitions a few years back--you brought it here to Baltimore, the Maryland Institute College of Art, where you had that exhibit and that whole big affair around your exhibit of all your work over the years, and that's gone across the globe. But back then, in the midst of that revolutionary struggle in the '60s and '70s here and around the globe, did you have that sense of what your work meant then?
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<p />DOUGLAS: In that context of then I did, but not--.
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<p />STEINER: You did in that--. Yeah. Right.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah, because the people you know and if what it did humbled you and also makes you realize that you have to--and how do people appreciate it, and it was a reflection of them they'd seen in the artwork and their feelings and what they--concerns they had about what was going on in the world around them and broader. And so in that context you know that it was something relevant that people appreciated. And so you had to make sure you had to keep that standard and the art would have to always reflect that in some kind of way. So in that context you got [incompr.] they would appreciate it, and then there were Panthers who would always tell you what they liked about it and how they appreciated it and how--I remember Panthers telling me in New York, when we had the New Museum of Contemporary Art, we had a reception after, and he said in Harlem that he used to sell the paper and turn it over and sell it, because every week people wanted to see what the cartoon art was on the back.
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<p />STEINER: Your work.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah. So it had an impact in that sense that--how people identify with it, because they seen themselves in it. They became the heroes in the artwork itself.
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<p />STEINER: The people became the hero in the artwork,--
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Yes.
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<p />STEINER: --because of the images you created out of the people, what you saw, what you brought to light with your pen.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Yes. And they could see their uncles in it, they could see their fathers or their brothers and sisters in the art, in some of the images and stuff, yeah.
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<p />STEINER: Emory, though, this has been a huge honor to see you once again in Baltimore.
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<p />DOUGLAS: It's my pleasure to be here. I'm glad to be here.
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<p />STEINER: And coming to The Real News studios here to do this for Real News and for The Marc Steiner Show. And we'll be linking to all the places they can see your artwork and even more.
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<p />Former minister of culture for the Black Panther Party from the beginnings, almost, until the end of the party and has never stopped his work.
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<p />Thank you so much, Emory Douglas, for coming by our studios.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Oh, thank you. Glad to be here.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | The Life and Times of Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture in the Black Panther Party (2/3) | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12672 | 2014-11-18 | 4left
| 2,518 | Marc Steiner is the host of the Marc Steiner Show as well as president and founder of the Center of Emerging Mediaamp160httpwwwsteinershoworg MARC STEINER RADIO HOST WEAA 889 FM Hello Im Marc Steiner And welcome to The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA 889 FM The Voice of the Community and on The Real News Network And its our pleasure today to talk with Emory Douglas who was the minister of culture in the Black Panther Party one of the worlds noted artists and graphic designers who joins us here in the studios in Baltimore Hes made another trip through town Good to have you with us Emory Welcome EMORY DOUGLAS FMR MINISTER OF CULTURE BLACK PANTHER PARTY Good to be here STEINER For people inside as you were inside the party the Black Panther Partyyou stayed in to the end of it right DOUGLAS Yes STEINER You were there from like 67 all the way to DOUGLAS Yes yeah three months after it started yes until about three months before it demised into 1981 80 81 STEINER So if you can kind ofyou know if you were like teaching a class to young people about the Black Panther Party how would you describe its effect on the consciousness of the people at the moment in the community where people are working but also its effect now like the reverberations through the 21st century How would you reflect on that DOUGLAS Well it was an enlightening educational process for the community to begin to expose to them in relationship to the contradictions between what the government should have been doing and wasnt doing in their interests And they begin to see that through the social programs as well as through talking about revolution and change at the same time Out of that you expose them to other historical markers in the world in relationship to revolutions that took place in Latin America in Cuba and what was going on in Vietnam and being a part of that those conferences antiwar conferences that the place in Montreal and our travels And people begin to see our newspaper and identify with us across the country So we were leading by example and they were inspired by that because of the very foundation of what we were doing in the community So in that context we were in the vanguard of being a spark of inspiration and enlightenment STEINER You know Im watching you tell these stories and its you as in othersthe spark is still there That hasnt gone out DOUGLAS No no no no Yeah STEINER That hasnt gone out DOUGLAS No no No no STEINER Why do you think that is I mean cause many people can see you say all these people who were revolutionaries in the 60s how theyve gotten old and its not there anymore theyre working on Wall Street but DOUGLAS Well what a part of revolution is too is taking care of your kids and making sure they grow up and become enlightened and informed So that was a part of the process for me also past the Black Panther Party But at the same time dw652ns doing that also there was always this interest in that history So what Ipeople begin to ask for me to travel around and do presentations talk about the retrospective history of the artwork in the context of what the organization was about And so I continue to do that to this very day STEINER Lets get into that part This is the part that your role in all this as minister of cultureyou were named minister of culture DOUGLAS Yeah I was STEINER Right DOUGLAS initially a revolutionary artist STEINER Right DOUGLAS Thats how it first came about And that came about when the second issue of the Black Panther paper which was when we went to Sacramentothat was called the May Day paper And the reason why it was called the May Day paper cause that was theMay 1st was the workers day But becausewe went on May Day which was on a Sunday So May Day was onwe couldnt go onwe had to go on a Monday because the capital wasnt open on So thats why that paper was called May Day paper And so it was on that paper and I got involved with that particular paper And how I got involved was when Huey and Bobby were working on the first issue and they were trying to recruit Eldridge Cleaver into the party And they used to come to a place called the Black House in San Francisco And they were sitting downstairs where no activity cultural thing going on that evening there And I seen Bobby working on that first one He had typed it out on a legal size sheet of paper like you have there and he was doing it with markers And I still had a lot of my stuff from City College artwork and materials So I told him I could go home and get my materials come back and help you to improve the quality of it It took me about half an hour to go and come back When I come back hes finished and he said well we were glad you wanted to help but we finished with this one and were kind of surprised that I came back but you seem to be committed cause youve been coming around So were going to start this newspaper and we want you to be the revolutionary artist And then they had this whole vision about the paper telling our story from our perspective and our point of view It could be like a doubleedged swordit could praise you on the one side and it also can criticize you on the other And so that was the beginning of the paper They said I would be doing the artwork Eventually I became to do artwork for the paper At first it was production work cutting and pasting laying it out And then about the third or fourth issue I begin to do cartoons and stuff for the paper Initially it was the pig caricatures that Huey and Bobby had begun defining the police as a pig STEINER But you drew the first ones DOUGLAS Yeah yeah yeah He asked me to do thedrew the firstyeah the first one And then the first one I drew was on four hoofs And because of beinghavebeen had tothing of critiquing my work from being in City College and evaluating howthe quality of it how you can improve it it came to my mind why not couldnt I stand it up on two hoofs keep the snorting detail and the flies that were going around and put the badge and the belt on and it took on a life of its own It became the symbol of oppression of people around the world not just in Black Panther Party but justit transcended the Black Panther Party as an icon STEINER I mean cause its an amazing thing when we think about that because that figure is iconic DOUGLAS Mhm STEINER the figure of the pig that DOUGLAS Yes STEINER that you drew and how people took that up What do you think about that figure now reflecting back on it DOUGLAS Well I think at the time it was a very powerful very dynamic image And it had a lot of psychological impact A lot of people dont know in Oakland because of that you had the Oakland police and the San Francisco police try tocall the pig bowl when they used to play football against each other try to clean it up And they had that for many years Oh yeah Then it became a misdemeanorand it still is in some statesto call the police a pig So it had an impact symbolically or what it represented in the culture of how we were talking about Of course in other cultures in some ways it was irreverent because its a food source or what have you But in the context of what we were talking about it was meanthad a whole different meaning the context yeah STEINER So this whole idea of being this kind of revolutionary artistand I was thinking about el agitador gr225fico the graphic revolutionary agitator and thats a role you played And all these kind of covers for the Black Panther paper and all the other artwork you did they really had an effect on people Sometimes they had maybe more of an effect than the words themselves DOUGLAS Well Huey and them always had his understanding that the black community learned through observation and participation that there werenta large majority at that time wasnt a reading community that they learned like I said through operation participation So he thought that if we have a lot of visuals in the paper that they would identify or if theyve seen photographs and they had just the captions so on them they would read the caption or the headline and they would see the photograph and they could get the gist of what was going on as opposed to long drawnout essays or editorials which a lot of people read but a lot of people wouldnt read them STEINER So I think this is really important in a lot of ways because your work your graphics some of the montages incompr photographs and drawings as well visually interpreted a revolutionary movement and visually interpreted the conditions people lived in Some of your pieces were about what people had to live like in the inner cities and in poor communities And you put those out there as well as these images of revolutionaries incompr revolutionary pictures So I mean those are the things that kind of grab peoples conscience I think in many ways Its almost like when you look at the world of the internet and the video productions and how that just goesit takes over Your work did that before all that DOUGLAS Mhm STEINER See what Im saying DOUGLAS Yes STEINER So theres a real connection between that and the work you did DOUGLAS Yeah there is but a lot of young people didnt incompr theyd go take a sidebar and come back If I wasI was doing a thing with Kathleen Cleaver a couple of years back in Oakland and you had a young person who came up cause we was talking about information and getting out stuff and what we did And he raised his hand and he said well you didnt have computers then How did you get your information out STEINER How did it go viral with no computer right DOUGLAS Yeah And we told him flyers newspapers STEINER But that did I mean your stuff because your imagestalk a bit about this now cause your images you signed all your pieces right DOUGLAS Yes STEINER Right DOUGLAS Mhm STEINER But you saw them as the work for the people DOUGLAS Oh yeah absolutely STEINER even though you signed your own name to it DOUGLAS Oh yeah Oh yeah Yes Mhm STEINER But like Cubans and others actually took your work didnt give you credit You didnt seem to care DOUGLAS No no STEINER Right DOUGLAS No STEINER But used your work and it traveled the world DOUGLAS Because it was an honor and a humbling honor to be them acknowledging the work itself and acknowledging the organization who wishedinspired the work and wanting and showing that they were showing solidarity in the relationship to what we were about and what we were doing in relationship to the overall struggle of revolutionary struggle that was going on around the world And so in that context it was a very exciting time to see the work being appreciated in that context STEINER Did you have a sense then because your work now is going across the globe in all these art exhibitions a few years backyou brought it here to Baltimore the Maryland Institute College of Art where you had that exhibit and that whole big affair around your exhibit of all your work over the years and thats gone across the globe But back then in the midst of that revolutionary struggle in the 60s and 70s here and around the globe did you have that sense of what your work meant then DOUGLAS In that context of then I did but not STEINER You did in that Yeah Right DOUGLAS Yeah because the people you know and if what it did humbled you and also makes you realize that you have toand how do people appreciate it and it was a reflection of them theyd seen in the artwork and their feelings and what theyconcerns they had about what was going on in the world around them and broader And so in that context you know that it was something relevant that people appreciated And so you had to make sure you had to keep that standard and the art would have to always reflect that in some kind of way So in that context you got incompr they would appreciate it and then there were Panthers who would always tell you what they liked about it and how they appreciated it and howI remember Panthers telling me in New York when we had the New Museum of Contemporary Art we had a reception after and he said in Harlem that he used to sell the paper and turn it over and sell it because every week people wanted to see what the cartoon art was on the back STEINER Your work DOUGLAS Yeah So it had an impact in that sense thathow people identify with it because they seen themselves in it They became the heroes in the artwork itself STEINER The people became the hero in the artwork DOUGLAS Yes Yes STEINER because of the images you created out of the people what you saw what you brought to light with your pen DOUGLAS Yes Yes And they could see their uncles in it they could see their fathers or their brothers and sisters in the art in some of the images and stuff yeah STEINER Emory though this has been a huge honor to see you once again in Baltimore DOUGLAS Its my pleasure to be here Im glad to be here STEINER And coming to The Real News studios here to do this for Real News and for The Marc Steiner Show And well be linking to all the places they can see your artwork and even more Former minister of culture for the Black Panther Party from the beginnings almost until the end of the party and has never stopped his work Thank you so much Emory Douglas for coming by our studios DOUGLAS Oh thank you Glad to be here End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Marc/PROPN Steiner/PROPN is/AUX the/DET host/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Marc/PROPN Steiner/PROPN Show/PROPN as/ADV well/ADV as/ADP president/NOUN and/CCONJ founder/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Center/PROPN of/ADP Emerging/PROPN Mediaamp160httpwwwsteinershoworg/NOUN MARC/PROPN STEINER/PROPN RADIO/PROPN HOST/NOUN WEAA/NOUN 889/NUM FM/PROPN Hello/INTJ I/PRON m/VERB Marc/PROPN Steiner/PROPN And/CCONJ welcome/VERB to/ADP The/DET Marc/PROPN Steiner/PROPN Show/PROPN on/ADP WEAA/NOUN 889/NUM FM/NOUN The/DET Voice/PROPN of/ADP the/DET Community/PROPN and/CCONJ on/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN Network/PROPN And/CCONJ its/PRON our/PRON 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<p>Anyone hoping that the departure of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon would signal a course correction — a pivot away from the Trump administration’s short (but prolific) history of ethno-nationalist pandering — must have been dismayed by the president’s performance last Tuesday night in Phoenix.</p>
<p>For seventy-six excruciating minutes, in sweltering one-hundred-degree heat <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trump-speech-in-phoenix-draws-big-crowd-protests/2017/08/22/1037afcc-8799-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html" type="external">that dropped</a> police officers, protesters, and #MAGA loyalists alike, Trump expelled more hot air of his own: pitch-perfect racist dog whistles, bemoaning the fate of Confederate monuments (“They are trying to take away our history and our heritage!”); meandering diatribes about the American lügenpresse (“If you want to discover the source of the division in our country, look no further than the fake news and the crooked media, which would rather get ratings and clicks than tell the truth. I mean, the New York Times has written some stories.”); a teaser campaign for his presidential pardon of Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-joe-arpaio-verdict-20170706-story.html" type="external">who faces</a> six whole months of potential jail time for failing to obey a 2011 court order against racial profiling (“I’ll make a prediction. I think he’s going to be just fine, Okay? But — but I won’t do it tonight, because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”); plus the usual obsessional monologue over his crowd sizes; some petulant grudge litigation; the standard Two Minutes Hate for Hillary; and a little jingoism to warm up. <a href="http://time.com/4912055/donald-trump-phoenix-arizona-transcript/" type="external">It was all there</a>.</p>
<p>Trump said these things not because he is his “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/11/trump-just-made-some-very-strange-comments-about-stephen-k-bannon/" type="external">own strategist</a>” — as he put it to the New York Post during Bannon’s precarious near-exit last April — but because Bannon’s work here is done. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNeJmLAsBo" type="external">The circle is now complete.</a></p>
<p>Having scouted for a presidential candidate to champion his far-right simulacra of economic populism, producing documentaries on Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as a means of currying favor and testing their potential, all the while pivoting Breitbart’s editorial policy toward preferred candidates, Bannon finally found his man in Trump and has affixed him in place. “Bannon,” as former Breitbart spokesperson Kurt Bardella <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-frontline-interview-kurt-bardella/" type="external">told PBS Frontline</a>, “has been someone who’s been looking for a figurehead to attach himself to for a very long time.”</p>
<p>Years before he formally entered the Trump campaign, Bannon operated a <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/breitbart-staffers-believe-trump-has-given-money-to-site-for?utm_term=.umzgWRLER#.adMNazjlz" type="external">payola scheme</a> at Breitbart to signal-boost pro-Trump media narratives. He boasted to friends in private emails about being Trump’s secret “ <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/breitbart-boss-stephen-bannon-bragged-in-2015-im-trumps-campaign-manager" type="external">campaign manager</a>” and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bannon-flattered-and-coaxed-trump-on-policies-key-to-the-alt-right/2016/11/15/53c66362-ab69-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html?utm_term=.47c1d53c6ad6" type="external">publicly coached him</a> on policy and messaging during hours of interviews on Breitbart‘s SiriusXM radio show.</p>
<p>One Republican operative, speaking to the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/how-climate-change-saved-steve-bannons-job" type="external">phrased it best</a>:</p>
<p>“Imagine you have a seventy-something-year-old very strong personality in the family,” the Republican said. “And he’s got his golfing buddy who is his best friend. And they go off golfing and drinking and smoking cigars. What he really wants to do is smoke cigars. But the family is telling him, ‘Smoking cigars is really bad for you and the doctor told you not to do it.’ He’s, like, ‘I know, I know.’</p>
<p>“So when he’s around his family, he’s, like, ‘Look, I’m not smoking cigars!’ And then he goes off with his golf buddy. And guess what they do? They fucking light up cigars, because that’s actually who he is and what he thinks. And Bannon is like his golfing buddy that he goes and smokes cigars with. That’s actually who he is.”</p>
<p>The new White House chief of staff, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/24/john-kelly-trump-control-241967" type="external">can attempt</a> to cordon the president off from as many Infowars clips and Mike Cernovich posts as possible, but he has already lost the battle for Trump’s “heart and mind.”</p>
<p>And so, after a tactically offensive, lib-triggering engagement in the West Wing, Bannon has decamped one month ahead of schedule: an eight- to twelve-month <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/steve-bannon-trump-white-house.html?mcubz=1" type="external">tour of duty</a> that he only half-jokingly set for himself <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/politics/trump-white-house-aides-strategy.html" type="external">as far back as February</a>.</p>
<p>Bannon is now a “ <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/08/18/populist-hero-stephen-k-bannon-returns-home-breitbart/" type="external">populist hero</a>” to his fans and Breitbart News, the billionaire-backed, far-right opinion machine to which Bannon has since returned, as its once and future executive chairman. Bannon told allies that he had hoped to ram through as many key policy proposals as possible while his opponents remained <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/politics/trump-white-house-aides-strategy.html?mcubz=1" type="external">on the defensive</a> — a frequently ham-fisted and performative exercise seemingly intended more to excite Trump’s base, and troll his critics, than to actually affect governance.</p>
<p>And yet, executive decisions were made. Goals were met.</p>
<p>Acting in concert with Scott Pruitt, Trump’s mission-negating head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bannon <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/31/trump-paris-climate-agreement-239008" type="external">spent months scheduling meetings</a> between the president, conservative activists, and fossil fuel industry executives to ensure US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord; the pair outmaneuvered not merely Jared and Ivanka, but a powerful faction within Trump’s own cabinet, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/31/trump-paris-climate-agreement-239008" type="external">including</a> Goldman Sachs alum Gary Cohn and former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.</p>
<p>Despite the ongoing battle over Trump’s travel ban, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/07/17/immigration-arrests-up-deportations-down-under-trump/484437001/" type="external">arrests</a> of undocumented immigrants continue to escalate, swelling detention centers and log-jamming federal immigration courts with tens of thousands of additional human bodies&#160;— among them <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-deportations-exclusiv-idUSKBN1902I4" type="external">the parents of American-born children</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/world/asia/south-korea-adoptions-phillip-clay-adam-crapser.html?mcubz=1" type="external">American-raised adults</a> adopted by US citizens decades ago. Elsewhere, the plan that Bannon <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-wh-strategist-vows-a-daily-fight-for-deconstruction-of-the-administrative-state/2017/02/23/03f6b8da-f9ea-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html?utm_term=.97c68f09635d" type="external">once described as</a> the “deconstruction of the administrative state” proceeds apace, in federal agencies too numerous to mention, now staffed by former industry lobbyists and lawyers, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-conservatives-heritage-foundation-235845" type="external">Heritage Foundation apparatchiks</a>, and even a few of the empty suits bested by Trump in the Republican primary.</p>
<p>(The main agenda items on Bannon’s checklist that failed to gain traction were those already defined as “long shots” given establishment Republican control in both houses of Congress. Namely, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/07/26/steve-bannon-pushing-for-44-percent-marginal-tax-rate-on-the-very-rich/" type="external">a hike</a> in the top income tax rate to 44 percent for Americans earning more than $5 million per year, a policy idea that multiple Republican legislators and White House officials described as <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/07/31/steve-bannon-tax-cuts-paul-ryan/" type="external">off the table</a>; and what Bannon <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steve-bannon-trump-tower-interview-trumps-strategist-plots-new-political-movement-948747" type="external">once described</a> as “a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan” to be fueled by “negative interest rates throughout the world” and Reagan-esque deficit spending. But — as with the Trump administration’s baffling opening volley of <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/08/23/trumps-inability-to-hit-his-own-deadlines-is-becoming-darkly-comical/" type="external">executive orders</a> — these failures help prop up the narrative arch that his movement so desperately wants to believe: that their Kek-annointed God-Emperor and his renegade band of deplorables roared into the capital, guns blazing, and were foiled ultimately not by their own incompetence, but by their pernicious foes in the “deep state.”)</p>
<p>Having secured clear wins for himself and Breitbart’s self-described populist-nationalists — victories admittedly obscured by months of back-biting leaks and Trump’s own bizarre pronouncements — Bannon reports that he’s left&#160;the White House feeling “jacked up.”</p>
<p>“I’ve got my hands back on my weapons,” he told the Weekly Standard, delivering his preferred narrative spin on the exit. “I built a fucking machine at Breitbart. And now I’m about to go back, knowing what I know, and we’re about to rev that machine up.”</p>
<p>What Bannon knows now, of course, is whatever classified material he has managed to ingest with the benefit of a top-level security clearance and an open invitation to sit in on National Security Council meetings — a privilege that Bannon managed to retain <a href="https://twitter.com/jenniferjjacobs/status/849703416683167748" type="external">even after his removal</a> from the council’s principals committee in early April.</p>
<p>While, legally, Bannon is now duty-bound by a <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/347206-bannons-security-clearance-a-challenge-outside-the-white-house-experts" type="external">lifetime non-disclosure agreement</a> with the federal government, it’s unclear how aggressively those strictures will be policed by Bannon’s longtime ally, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (Recall that Sessions was seen partying with Bannon and UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage <a href="https://news.vice.com/story/steve-bannon-breitbart-white-house" type="external">as early as September 2014</a> at Breitbart’s DC townhouse. Sessions has enjoyed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-hard-line-actions-have-an-intellectual-godfather-jeff-sessions/2017/01/30/ac393f66-e4d4-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?utm_term=.1a33f84e45dd" type="external">years of praise</a> from both Breitbart News and Bannon himself, who has described the former Alabama senator as a “clearinghouse for policy and philosophy” in service of their mutual race-baiting nationalism.)</p>
<p>Unambiguously, Bannon is required by law both to report any leak of classified material that he knows of, and to preclear any item of classified material that Breitbart News wishes to publish. How Bannon will reconcile this with his reprised role as a news media executive is anyone’s guess. But Bannon has managed in the past to juggle multiple senior-level positions to maximize a kind of media-brand arbitrage in the service of his political aims.</p>
<p>While simultaneously helming Breitbart and the ostensibly nonpartisan, nonprofit Government Accountability Institute (both funded by his political patrons, Robert and Rebekah Mercer), Bannon <a href="" type="internal">managed to get</a> research-intensive and ideologically slanted news items placed in several major outlets, including the New York Times. So, it would not be surprising to see Bannon concocting even more baroque cut-out arrangements to anonymize and launder any new information he found damaging to <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/10/heres-the-memo-that-blew-up-the-nsc/" type="external">his own private enemies</a> operating within the Trump administration: “globalist” bureaucrats, “cultural Marxists,” etc.</p>
<p>One of the few certainties following Bannon’s ouster is that the so-called “ <a href="https://news.vice.com/story/trump-folder-positive-news-white-house" type="external">propaganda document</a>” — a surreal twenty to twenty-five page dossier of positive news coverage, flattering cable news screencaps, and gushing pro-Trump tweets, delivered twice daily to the president — is now sure to become a whole lot thinner.</p>
<p>Loaded for bear and <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/ben-shapiro-warns-of-war-bannon-is-a-deeply-vengeful-guy/" type="external">nursing deep-seated grudges</a>, the Steve Bannon who is returning to the reins at Breitbart News is going to mark a sharp decline in Trump’s <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/six-months-in-trump-is-historically-unpopular/" type="external">already historically low</a> approval ratings, as the site gleefully fuels media narratives designed to incite Trump’s <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trumps-base-is-shrinking/" type="external">already isolated</a> base of core supporters. (Within hours of Bannon’s ouster, Breitbart‘s senior editor-at-large, Joel Pollak, had <a href="https://twitter.com/joelpollak/status/898595085247324161" type="external">declared</a> “#WAR” on Twitter. They are already <a href="http://splinternews.com/breitbart-is-trying-to-tell-me-something-about-ivanka-t-1798309782" type="external">gunning hard for Ivanka</a>.)</p>
<p>Although Trump has hastily attempted to ameliorate the situation — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/us/politics/trump-bannon-cohn-trade-afghanistan.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news" type="external">making a phone call</a> to Bannon on his last day, which went unanswered, and <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898964640817983488" type="external">declaring on Twitter</a> the next day that Bannon will be “a tough and smart new voice at Breitbart News” — the battle lines have already been drawn by his former media tactician. “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” Bannon told the <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/bannon-the-trump-presidency-that-we-fought-for-and-won-is-over./article/2009355" type="external">Weekly Standard</a>, part of a media push that has seen many Bannon <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2017/08/18/is-trump-now-leading-a-democratic-white-house-n2370531" type="external">surrogates and allies</a> describing this new phase of the Trump presidency as a “Democratic White House.”</p>
<p>The administrative reality within the executive branch, however, is probably a lot less dire for Bannon’s supporters — and far grimmer for opponents hoping to celebrate his departure. Bannon leaves behind a series of key appointments, both well-known and unknown, who are likely to keep their heads down, dutifully busying themselves with the enactment of their shared policy agenda.</p>
<p>At the CIA, new director and former Tea Party congressman Mike Pompeo upholds Bannon’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/01/us/stephen-bannon-war-with-radical-islam.html?mcubz=1" type="external">fevered, medieval outlook</a> on radical Islam and its purported existential threat to “Western civilization.” As Pompeo <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-waterboarding-new-york-times-still-in-favour-a7438976.html" type="external">told a church group</a> in his former Kansas district, he regards the “struggle against radical Islam” as “the kind of struggle this country has not faced since its great wars.” Pompeo’s views on the CIA’s infamous torture programs ( <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/politics/mike-pompeo-surprised-torture-memo/index.html" type="external">lax</a>) and the Iran nuclear deal ( <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-07-18/trump-just-came-very-close-to-killing-the-iran-deal" type="external">hawkish</a>) are also perfectly aligned with Trump’s departing chief strategist.</p>
<p>Jeff Sessions is assuredly going to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/civil-rights-sessions/528126/" type="external">continue hobbling</a> the Justice Department’s civil rights division — as doing so constitutes the linchpin of the Republican Party’s reelection strategy in the coming years, along with controlling the 2020 US Census and expanding mega-donor fundraising. (Needless to say, this new direction at the DOJ was an&#160;idea from&#160;Sessions’ “clearinghouse for policy and philosophy,” one that aligned him with Bannon <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/03/09/519415023/what-is-steve-bannon-and-jeff-sessions-shared-vision-for-remaking-america" type="external">in the first place</a>.)</p>
<p>Likewise: it is doubtful that Bannon’s premature exit will spur any changes in the work of the antigovernment wrecking crews he helped appoint at the EPA, the Department of Energy, the Food and Drug Administration, and elsewhere.</p>
<p>While a purge of Bannon allies appears ongoing inside the White House itself, with <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/politics/gorka-credentials/index.html" type="external">scholar-manqué</a> Sebastian Gorka summarily <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/politics/sebastian-gorka-leaves-white-house.html?mcubz=1" type="external">fired/resigned</a> and former Breitbart reporter Julia Hahn <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/898618466734833664" type="external">rumored to be next</a>&#160;— even their departures leave them simply back at Breitbart HQ (or somewhere else) burnishing newly minted credentials like “former deputy assistant to president of the United States” for their cable news chyrons. Having cultivated a solid rapport with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller will remain <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannons-ideological-allies-inside-the-white-house-are-souring-on-him" type="external">committed to fostering</a> the president’s most white nationalist tendencies, without his “ <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannons-ideological-allies-inside-the-white-house-are-souring-on-him" type="external">glory hog</a>” of a former mentor, Steve Bannon, to rock the boat. And then there is Trump himself, whose nativist rhetoric and deeply personal sense of white aggrievement <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/140956/inside-trumps-breitbart-brain" type="external">predates</a> his relationship with Bannon by decades.</p>
<p>Although both men would deny it, you could look at Trump’s public criticism of the (wholly invented) “alt-left” after Charlottesville as the capstone achievement of Bannon’s tenure: a sitting president redefining America’s partisan divide as located somewhere between Trump’s screamingly xenophobic, ethno-nationalist fan base, and literally everyone else. Bannon, <a href="https://www.axios.com/what-steve-bannon-thinks-about-charlottesville-2473751951.html" type="external">Axios reports</a>, was positively elated by Trump’s outburst — an improvisation that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-charlottesville-white-nationalists.html" type="external">most Trump aides acknowledge</a>&#160;represented their boss’s beliefs in their purest form. Reportedly, Bannon described it as a “defining moment” of Trump’s presidency, the moment where Trump officially aligned himself with “his people.”</p>
<p>Bannon leaves the West Wing with real power in two of the few remaining pathways to the president still beyond the reach of his new disciplinarian, John Kelly: Donald Trump’s cell phone, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/25/politics/donald-trump-phone-outsiders/index.html" type="external">which he uses daily</a> to seek advice from trusted outsiders, and the cable TV news cycle from which he cannot look away.</p>
<p>Over the past year, Bannon’s opponents have been caught with two, dialectically&#160;opposed, and mostly useless, cartoon depictions of their foe. Bannon was either the dark wizard of white racial resentment, pouring poison into Trump’s ear, Rasputin-like, with the skill of a <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/media/317599-time-cover-labels-bannon-the-great-manipulator" type="external">great manipulator</a>; or he was merely a self-aggrandizing slob, the piss-drunk granddad whose only lasting impact on the presidency was likely to be unreported property damage or a&#160;persistent necrotic odor. These caricatures — while a boon to activist morale and fundraising emails — have offered little in the way of explanation for Bannon’s political successes or his recent ouster.</p>
<p>The following thumbnail sketch is as useful as any: Steve Bannon is a malfunctioning piece of military hardware, a former navy man nursing an armchair obsession with military tactics and a Manichean worldview, both perfectly in line with the binary outlook inculcated in Trump by his father, a world divided into <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-choice-2016/transcript/" type="external">killers and losers</a>. You see these shared sympathies in Trump’s penchant for hiring retired generals to cabinet positions traditionally reserved for civilians. You see them in the way Bannon refers to his team at Breitbart as a “ <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-bannon-right-idUSKCN1AY2JQ" type="external">killing machine</a>,” his “ <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37971742" type="external">fight club</a>.”</p>
<p>Both Trump and Bannon bear more than a passing resemblance in their vision and demeanor to the prestige TV visage of Tony Soprano: a North Jersey mafia don plopped on his couch in front of the History Channel, revisiting World War II with a bowl of ice cream. These are shrewd men who are, nevertheless, comically paranoid and self-indulgent. Neither man is temperamentally suited to the broad administrative duties of national office — but Bannon differs from Trump in that he has always been smart enough to know that, devoting himself instead to destructive termite activities in furtherance of his goals.</p>
<p>“I see Steve as being Patton,” Tim Watkins, Steve Bannon’s producer on the Ronald Reagan documentary In the Face of Evil, once put it to me in a telephone interview. “I wouldn’t want Steve running diplomacy, but I sure would love his strategy and tactics in the field to help me win a war.”</p> | The Bannon Ultimatum | true | https://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/steve-bannon-removal-trump-administration | 2018-10-06 | 4left
| 2,519 | Anyone hoping that the departure of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon would signal a course correction 8212 a pivot away from the Trump administration8217s short but prolific history of ethnonationalist pandering 8212 must have been dismayed by the president8217s performance last Tuesday night in Phoenix For seventysix excruciating minutes in sweltering onehundreddegree heat that dropped police officers protesters and MAGA loyalists alike Trump expelled more hot air of his own pitchperfect racist dog whistles bemoaning the fate of Confederate monuments 8220They are trying to take away our history and our heritage8221 meandering diatribes about the American l252genpresse 8220If you want to discover the source of the division in our country look no further than the fake news and the crooked media which would rather get ratings and clicks than tell the truth I mean the New York Times has written some stories8221 a teaser campaign for his presidential pardon of Joe Arpaio the former Arizona sheriff who faces six whole months of potential jail time for failing to obey a 2011 court order against racial profiling 8220I8217ll make a prediction I think he8217s going to be just fine Okay But 8212 but I won8217t do it tonight because I don8217t want to cause any controversy8221 plus the usual obsessional monologue over his crowd sizes some petulant grudge litigation the standard Two Minutes Hate for Hillary and a little jingoism to warm up It was all there Trump said these things not because he is his 8220 own strategist8221 8212 as he put it to the New York Post during Bannon8217s precarious nearexit last April 8212 but because Bannon8217s work here is done The circle is now complete Having scouted for a presidential candidate to champion his farright simulacra of economic populism producing documentaries on Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as a means of currying favor and testing their potential all the while pivoting Breitbart8217s editorial policy toward preferred candidates Bannon finally found his man in Trump and has affixed him in place 8220Bannon8221 as former Breitbart spokesperson Kurt Bardella told PBS Frontline 8220has been someone who8217s been looking for a figurehead to attach himself to for a very long time8221 Years before he formally entered the Trump campaign Bannon operated a payola scheme at Breitbart to signalboost proTrump media narratives He boasted to friends in private emails about being Trump8217s secret 8220 campaign manager8221 and publicly coached him on policy and messaging during hours of interviews on Breitbart8216s SiriusXM radio show One Republican operative speaking to the New Yorker8217s Ryan Lizza phrased it best 8220Imagine you have a seventysomethingyearold very strong personality in the family8221 the Republican said 8220And he8217s got his golfing buddy who is his best friend And they go off golfing and drinking and smoking cigars What he really wants to do is smoke cigars But the family is telling him 8216Smoking cigars is really bad for you and the doctor told you not to do it8217 He8217s like 8216I know I know8217 8220So when he8217s around his family he8217s like 8216Look I8217m not smoking cigars8217 And then he goes off with his golf buddy And guess what they do They fucking light up cigars because that8217s actually who he is and what he thinks And Bannon is like his golfing buddy that he goes and smokes cigars with That8217s actually who he is8221 The new White House chief of staff retired Marine Corps general John Kelly can attempt to cordon the president off from as many Infowars clips and Mike Cernovich posts as possible but he has already lost the battle for Trump8217s 8220heart and mind8221 And so after a tactically offensive libtriggering engagement in the West Wing Bannon has decamped one month ahead of schedule an eight to twelvemonth tour of duty that he only halfjokingly set for himself as far back as February Bannon is now a 8220 populist hero8221 to his fans and Breitbart News the billionairebacked farright opinion machine to which Bannon has since returned as its once and future executive chairman Bannon told allies that he had hoped to ram through as many key policy proposals as possible while his opponents remained on the defensive 8212 a frequently hamfisted and performative exercise seemingly intended more to excite Trump8217s base and troll his critics than to actually affect governance And yet executive decisions were made Goals were met Acting in concert with Scott Pruitt Trump8217s missionnegating head of the Environmental Protection Agency EPA Bannon spent months scheduling meetings between the president conservative activists and fossil fuel industry executives to ensure US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord the pair outmaneuvered not merely Jared and Ivanka but a powerful faction within Trump8217s own cabinet including Goldman Sachs alum Gary Cohn and former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson Despite the ongoing battle over Trump8217s travel ban arrests of undocumented immigrants continue to escalate swelling detention centers and logjamming federal immigration courts with tens of thousands of additional human bodiesamp1608212 among them the parents of Americanborn children and Americanraised adults adopted by US citizens decades ago Elsewhere the plan that Bannon once described as the 8220deconstruction of the administrative state8221 proceeds apace in federal agencies too numerous to mention now staffed by former industry lobbyists and lawyers Heritage Foundation apparatchiks and even a few of the empty suits bested by Trump in the Republican primary The main agenda items on Bannon8217s checklist that failed to gain traction were those already defined as 8220long shots8221 given establishment Republican control in both houses of Congress Namely a hike in the top income tax rate to 44 percent for Americans earning more than 5 million per year a policy idea that multiple Republican legislators and White House officials described as off the table and what Bannon once described as 8220a trilliondollar infrastructure plan8221 to be fueled by 8220negative interest rates throughout the world8221 and Reaganesque deficit spending But 8212 as with the Trump administration8217s baffling opening volley of executive orders 8212 these failures help prop up the narrative arch that his movement so desperately wants to believe that their Kekannointed GodEmperor and his renegade band of deplorables roared into the capital guns blazing and were foiled ultimately not by their own incompetence but by their pernicious foes in the 8220deep state8221 Having secured clear wins for himself and Breitbart8217s selfdescribed populistnationalists 8212 victories admittedly obscured by months of backbiting leaks and Trump8217s own bizarre pronouncements 8212 Bannon reports that he8217s leftamp160the White House feeling 8220jacked up8221 8220I8217ve got my hands back on my weapons8221 he told the Weekly Standard delivering his preferred narrative spin on the exit 8220I built a fucking machine at Breitbart And now I8217m about to go back knowing what I know and we8217re about to rev that machine up8221 What Bannon knows now of course is whatever classified material he has managed to ingest with the benefit of a toplevel security clearance and an open invitation to sit in on National Security Council meetings 8212 a privilege that Bannon managed to retain even after his removal from the council8217s principals committee in early April While legally Bannon is now dutybound by a lifetime nondisclosure agreement with the federal government it8217s unclear how aggressively those strictures will be policed by Bannon8217s longtime ally Attorney General Jeff Sessions Recall that Sessions was seen partying with Bannon and UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage as early as September 2014 at Breitbart8217s DC townhouse Sessions has enjoyed years of praise from both Breitbart News and Bannon himself who has described the former Alabama senator as a 8220clearinghouse for policy and philosophy8221 in service of their mutual racebaiting nationalism Unambiguously Bannon is required by law both to report any leak of classified material that he knows of and to preclear any item of classified material that Breitbart News wishes to publish How Bannon will reconcile this with his reprised role as a news media executive is anyone8217s guess But Bannon has managed in the past to juggle multiple seniorlevel positions to maximize a kind of mediabrand arbitrage in the service of his political aims While simultaneously helming Breitbart and the ostensibly nonpartisan nonprofit Government Accountability Institute both funded by his political patrons Robert and Rebekah Mercer Bannon managed to get researchintensive and ideologically slanted news items placed in several major outlets including the New York Times So it would not be surprising to see Bannon concocting even more baroque cutout arrangements to anonymize and launder any new information he found damaging to his own private enemies operating within the Trump administration 8220globalist8221 bureaucrats 8220cultural Marxists8221 etc One of the few certainties following Bannon8217s ouster is that the socalled 8220 propaganda document8221 8212 a surreal twenty to twentyfive page dossier of positive news coverage flattering cable news screencaps and gushing proTrump tweets delivered twice daily to the president 8212 is now sure to become a whole lot thinner Loaded for bear and nursing deepseated grudges the Steve Bannon who is returning to the reins at Breitbart News is going to mark a sharp decline in Trump8217s already historically low approval ratings as the site gleefully fuels media narratives designed to incite Trump8217s already isolated base of core supporters Within hours of Bannon8217s ouster Breitbart8216s senior editoratlarge Joel Pollak had declared 8220WAR8221 on Twitter They are already gunning hard for Ivanka Although Trump has hastily attempted to ameliorate the situation 8212 making a phone call to Bannon on his last day which went unanswered and declaring on Twitter the next day that Bannon will be 8220a tough and smart new voice at Breitbart News8221 8212 the battle lines have already been drawn by his former media tactician 8220The Trump presidency that we fought for and won is over8221 Bannon told the Weekly Standard part of a media push that has seen many Bannon surrogates and allies describing this new phase of the Trump presidency as a 8220Democratic White House8221 The administrative reality within the executive branch however is probably a lot less dire for Bannon8217s supporters 8212 and far grimmer for opponents hoping to celebrate his departure Bannon leaves behind a series of key appointments both wellknown and unknown who are likely to keep their heads down dutifully busying themselves with the enactment of their shared policy agenda At the CIA new director and former Tea Party congressman Mike Pompeo upholds Bannon8217s fevered medieval outlook on radical Islam and its purported existential threat to 8220Western civilization8221 As Pompeo told a church group in his former Kansas district he regards the 8220struggle against radical Islam8221 as 8220the kind of struggle this country has not faced since its great wars8221 Pompeo8217s views on the CIA8217s infamous torture programs lax and the Iran nuclear deal hawkish are also perfectly aligned with Trump8217s departing chief strategist Jeff Sessions is assuredly going to continue hobbling the Justice Department8217s civil rights division 8212 as doing so constitutes the linchpin of the Republican Party8217s reelection strategy in the coming years along with controlling the 2020 US Census and expanding megadonor fundraising Needless to say this new direction at the DOJ was anamp160idea fromamp160Sessions8217 8220clearinghouse for policy and philosophy8221 one that aligned him with Bannon in the first place Likewise it is doubtful that Bannon8217s premature exit will spur any changes in the work of the antigovernment wrecking crews he helped appoint at the EPA the Department of Energy the Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere While a purge of Bannon allies appears ongoing inside the White House itself with scholarmanqu233 Sebastian Gorka summarily firedresigned and former Breitbart reporter Julia Hahn rumored to be nextamp1608212 even their departures leave them simply back at Breitbart HQ or somewhere else burnishing newly minted credentials like 8220former deputy assistant to president of the United States8221 for their cable news chyrons Having cultivated a solid rapport with Trump8217s soninlaw Jared Kushner senior policy adviser Stephen Miller will remain committed to fostering the president8217s most white nationalist tendencies without his 8220 glory hog8221 of a former mentor Steve Bannon to rock the boat And then there is Trump himself whose nativist rhetoric and deeply personal sense of white aggrievement predates his relationship with Bannon by decades Although both men would deny it you could look at Trump8217s public criticism of the wholly invented 8220altleft8221 after Charlottesville as the capstone achievement of Bannon8217s tenure a sitting president redefining America8217s partisan divide as located somewhere between Trump8217s screamingly xenophobic ethnonationalist fan base and literally everyone else Bannon Axios reports was positively elated by Trump8217s outburst 8212 an improvisation that most Trump aides acknowledgeamp160represented their boss8217s beliefs in their purest form Reportedly Bannon described it as a 8220defining moment8221 of Trump8217s presidency the moment where Trump officially aligned himself with 8220his people8221 Bannon leaves the West Wing with real power in two of the few remaining pathways to the president still beyond the reach of his new disciplinarian John Kelly Donald Trump8217s cell phone which he uses daily to seek advice from trusted outsiders and the cable TV news cycle from which he cannot look away Over the past year Bannon8217s opponents have been caught with two dialecticallyamp160opposed and mostly useless cartoon depictions of their foe Bannon was either the dark wizard of white racial resentment pouring poison into Trump8217s ear Rasputinlike with the skill of a great manipulator or he was merely a selfaggrandizing slob the pissdrunk granddad whose only lasting impact on the presidency was likely to be unreported property damage or aamp160persistent necrotic odor These caricatures 8212 while a boon to activist morale and fundraising emails 8212 have offered little in the way of explanation for Bannon8217s political successes or his recent ouster The following thumbnail sketch is as useful as any Steve Bannon is a malfunctioning piece of military hardware a former navy man nursing an armchair obsession with military tactics and a Manichean worldview both perfectly in line with the binary outlook inculcated in Trump by his father a world divided into killers and losers You see these shared sympathies in Trump8217s penchant for hiring retired generals to cabinet positions traditionally reserved for civilians You see them in the way Bannon refers to his team at Breitbart as a 8220 killing machine8221 his 8220 fight club8221 Both Trump and Bannon bear more than a passing resemblance in their vision and demeanor to the prestige TV visage of Tony Soprano a North Jersey mafia don plopped on his couch in front of the History Channel revisiting World War II with a bowl of ice cream These are shrewd men who are nevertheless comically paranoid and selfindulgent Neither man is temperamentally suited to the broad administrative duties of national office 8212 but Bannon differs from Trump in that he has always been smart enough to know that devoting himself instead to destructive termite activities in furtherance of his goals 8220I see Steve as being Patton8221 Tim Watkins Steve Bannon8217s producer on the Ronald Reagan documentary In the Face of Evil once put it to me in a telephone interview 8220I wouldn8217t want Steve running diplomacy but I sure would love his strategy and tactics in the field to help me win a war8221 | Anyone/PRON hoping/VERB that/SCONJ the/DET departure/NOUN of/ADP White/PROPN House/PROPN chief/ADJ strategist/NOUN Steve/PROPN Bannon/PROPN would/AUX signal/VERB a/DET course/NOUN correction/NOUN 8212/NUM a/DET pivot/NOUN away/ADV from/ADP the/DET Trump/PROPN administration8217s/PROPN short/ADJ but/CCONJ prolific/ADJ history/NOUN of/ADP ethnonationalist/NOUN pandering/VERB 8212/NUM must/AUX have/AUX been/AUX dismayed/VERB by/ADP the/DET president8217s/PRON performance/NOUN last/ADJ Tuesday/PROPN night/NOUN in/ADP Phoenix/PROPN For/ADP seventysix/NOUN excruciating/VERB minutes/NOUN in/ADP sweltering/VERB onehundreddegree/NOUN heat/NOUN that/PRON dropped/VERB police/NOUN officers/NOUN protesters/NOUN and/CCONJ MAGA/PROPN 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<p>President Obama peppered his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation with facts, which were mostly right but sometimes cherry-picked, strained or otherwise misleading.</p>
<p>We also scoured the Republican response delivered by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. He doctored a Thomas Jefferson quote — omitting Jefferson’s endorsement of government action to protect people from injury. McDonnell also overstated the speed with which the national debt is growing.</p>
<p>This was the president’s first State of the Union address, but not his first speech to a joint session of Congress. We found a number of errors in <a href="" type="internal">his first one on Feb. 24, 2009</a>, and also in his <a href="" type="internal">health care speech Sept. 9</a> (when a GOP House member shouted "you lie").</p>
<p>This time Republicans merely scoffed and grumbled at some of Obama’s statements. And while we found Obama strained the facts or cited uncertain statistics at times, we uncovered nothing we could show to be false.</p>
<p />
<p>How Many Jobs?</p>
<p>The president said the stimulus bill was responsible for "about 2 million" jobs, but that’s far from certain. Other estimates put the total as low as 800,000.</p>
<p>Obama: Because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed.</p>
<p>The 2 million jobs estimate comes from the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/100113-economic-impact-arra-second-quarterly-report.pdf" type="external">latest report of the White House Council of Economic Advisers</a>. It said: "CEA estimates that as of the fourth quarter of 2009, the [stimulus bill] has raised employment relative to what it otherwise would have been by 1½ to 2 million." So his own economic advisers say the number could be as low as 1.5 million, but Obama took the higher number in their range. And the CEA report also cited fourth-quarter estimates from others, including the Congressional Budget Office and private economic forecasting firms, most of which are lower than the 2 million figure Obama used. The other estimates for job creation are:</p>
<p>Furthermore, it’s difficult to say definitively what the employment situtation would have been without the legislation, and the CEA report acknowledges that, saying: "As we have emphasized, measuring what a policy action has contributed to growth and employment is inherently difficult because we do not observe what would have occurred without the policy. Therefore, it must be understood that our estimates are subject to substantial margins of error."</p>
<p>Hopeful on Health Care</p>
<p>Obama touted an optimistic — and highly uncertain — estimate on how the Senate health care bill could affect the deficit:</p>
<p>Obama: And according to the Congressional Budget Office – the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress – our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades.</p>
<p>It’s true that the CBO’s admittedly rough estimate said the bill could reduce the deficit below its projected level by “as much as” about $1 trillion over 20 years — but it also said the reduction could be half of that amount. And it noted the estimate is subject to a great deal of uncertainty.</p>
<p>CBO normally gives estimates for 10-year periods, and the nonpartisan entity doesn’t like to go beyond that. It <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10870/12-20-Reid_Letter_Managers_Correction1.pdf" type="external">said</a> the Senate bill could produce a net deficit reduction of $132 billion over 2010-2019. For the next decade, CBO said the reduction would be “in a broad range between one-quarter percent and one-half percent of GDP.” Senate Democrats <a href="http://budget.senate.gov/democratic/charts/2009/FS_122209health.pdf" type="external">estimated</a> that would mean a reduction of $650 billion to $1.3 trillion.</p>
<p>But CBO emphasized how squishy that large range is: “The imprecision of that calculation reflects the even greater degree of uncertainty that attends to it.” Plus, the numbers count on a reduction in the growth of Medicare spending, of which CBO isn’t so confident. “It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care,” CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote.</p>
<p>Stretching Deficit Facts?</p>
<p>Republicans laughed when Obama described the huge deficits he had inherited when he took office.</p>
<p>Obama: At the beginning of the last decade, the year 2000, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. (Applause.) By the time I took office, we had a one-year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. All this was before I walked in the door. (Laughter and applause.)</p>
<p>Now — just stating the facts.</p>
<p>Despite the Republican scoffing, Obama’s claims are backed up by the historical record — mostly.</p>
<p>So the president actually understated matters regarding annual surpluses and deficits for years past, but he may have strained the facts when he spoke of what was being predicted for future years at the time he assumed office. He said he inherited a projected 10-year deficit of $8 trillion. But at the time, CBO projected only a $3.1 trillion deficit over 10 years (Table 4, page 15).</p>
<p>In fairness, that CBO figure assumed that all of President Bush’s tax cuts would be allowed to expire on schedule. And in reality, Obama and congressional Democrats supported extending many of the cuts, while Republicans supported extending all of them. Extending all of the Bush tax cuts would add another $2.9 trillion to that ( <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9958/01-08-Outlook_Testimony.pdf" type="external">Table 7, page 22</a>), for a total of $6 trillion — still short of Obama’s claim.</p>
<p>His figure is based on a "baseline" projection issued Feb. 20 by his own Office of Management and Budget ( <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Summary_Tables2.pdf" type="external">Table S-2, page 115</a>). The OMB projected a 10-year deficit of $8.9 trillion, including the <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29231790/" type="external">$787 billion stimulus package</a> that Obama had just signed.</p>
<p>So it’s fair to say that Obama was facing an ocean of red ink when he took office, but it could have been anywhere between $3.1 trillion (CBO’s unrealistically low estimate) to a bit over $8 trillion (OMB’s estimate minus Obama’s stimulus bill).</p>
<p>Clarification, Feb. 5: Obama was correct to say the deficit already was being projected at "over $1 trillion" when he took office. But CBO would have projected it at somewhat under $1 trillion had it used the same accounting method for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that was used by both the Bush and Obama administrations. CBO said its $1.2 trillion deficit projection for fiscal year 1999 included $240 billion in losses on mortgages held by those two government-sponsored but privately owned entities, which had been placed in a federal conservatorship in September 2008. "If it [the administration] chose to continue to treat them as nongovernmental entities, CBO would estimate the 2009 deficit to total $966 billion," <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9958/01-08-Outlook_Testimony.pdf" type="external">CBO said in its Jan. 9, 2009 review</a>. And that’s what happened. The official year-end deficit figures, based on monthly statements from the Treasury Department, reflect only the cash that the government has pumped into the two entities and do not include their mortgage losses, as CBO explained in a <a href="http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10878/01-13-FannieFreddie.pdf" type="external">background paper</a> released January 2010.</p>
<p>Foreign Corporations Donating?</p>
<p>The president claimed that "foreign corporations" could begin spending big money to influence U.S. elections under a recent Supreme Court decision.</p>
<p>Obama: Last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections.</p>
<p>Justice Samuel Alito, who with the other justices sat at the very front of the chamber last night, was seen shaking his head and <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/01/alito-mouths-not-true-at-obama.html?hpid=topnews" type="external">mouthing what appeared to be the words "not true"</a> as Obama said this. Alito joined the majority in the 5-4 <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf" type="external">Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission</a> decision issued by the Court last week, which knocked down restrictions on corporate spending on elections.</p>
<p>But it’s unclear whether the court’s opinion will lead to allowing foreign-based corporations to buy campaign ads and engage in other electioneering activities. There is still a law <a href="http://fec.gov/law/feca/feca.pdf" type="external">barring foreign corporations</a> from spending money in connection with U.S. elections (see 2 U.S.C. 441e(a)(1) and (b)(1), with definition of "foreign principal" in 22 U.S.C. 611(b)(3)), and that’s a matter likely to be litigated further. The court’s most recent decision explicitly didn’t deal with that question. But strictly speaking, Obama couched his claim as something "I believe," making it a statement of opinion and not of fact. So whether his view turns out to be right remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Taxes</p>
<p>The president correctly pointed out that he signed a number of tax cuts for individuals and businesses as part of the stimulus package, and also said this:</p>
<p>Obama: And we haven’t raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime.</p>
<p>That’s true, according to Bob Williams of the Tax Policy Center. But it’s not the whole story. As Obama himself later said, tax increases are coming, at least for some:</p>
<p>Obama: To help working families, we’ll extend our middle-class tax cuts. But at a time of record deficits, we will not continue tax cuts for oil companies, for investment fund managers, and for those making over $250,000 a year. We just can’t afford it.</p>
<p>K St. to the White House: Road Almost Closed</p>
<p>Obama touted his efforts to change Washington’s ways.</p>
<p>Obama: [W]e’ve excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.</p>
<p>Obama, by executive order last January, did put in place the federal government’s first-ever <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Ethics-Commitments-By-Executive-Branch-Personnel" type="external">reverse-revolving door policy</a>, which says that anyone who has lobbied within the previous two years can’t join a part of the administration that he or she lobbied.</p>
<p>The order allows for waivers, however, and several have been granted. For instance, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/10/Ethics-Update/" type="external">Jocelyn Frye</a>, who used to lobby on employment and gender discrimination, became director of policy and projects for Michelle Obama; Cecilia Muñoz, who formerly lobbied for the National Council of La Raza, was appointed White House director of intergovernmental affairs and former Raytheon lobbyist <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/lynn_waiver_final.PDF" type="external">William Lynn</a> became deputy secretary of defense.</p>
<p>Obama might have been trying to leave himself some wiggle room when he specified "policymaking jobs." But Lynn’s job sounds to us like it involves policymaking. And it’s hard to claim that Ron Kirk, the United States trade representative, doesn’t have a policymaking role. Kirk didn’t need a waiver because he was a lobbyist — for Merrill Lynch and others — <a href="" type="external">in Texas</a>, not Washington, but Obama made no such distinction in his statement Wednesday night.</p>
<p>The Republican Response – Doctoring Jefferson</p>
<p>Delivering the Republican response from the Virginia Statehouse, Gov. Bob McDonnell used a slightly doctored quote that he attributed to an early predecessor, Thomas Jefferson, the second governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia:</p>
<p>McDonnell: It was Thomas Jefferson who called for "a wise and frugal Government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry … and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." He was right.</p>
<p>That’s a selective paraphrase of what Jefferson actually said in his <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jefinau1.asp" type="external">first inaugural address</a>, when he was sworn in as the nation’s third president. What Jefferson really said was:</p>
<p>Jefferson, March 4, 1801: Still one thing more, fellow-citizens — a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.</p>
<p>So Jefferson first said a wise government "shall restrain men from injuring one another," something that could today be taken as an endorsement of government regulation. By leaving that part out, McDonnell made Jefferson — founder of what has become the modern Democratic Party — sound a good bit more like an anti-tax, anti-regulation Republican than he was in reality.</p>
<p>Wrong on the Debt</p>
<p>McDonnell also made incorrect claims about the expected growth of the national debt.</p>
<p>McDonnell: The amount of this debt is on pace to double in five years, and triple in 10.</p>
<p>That’s an outdated Republican talking point that failed to account for the most recent <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/01-26-Outlook.pdf" type="external">Congressional Budget Office report</a>, issued several hours before McDonnell spoke and <a href="http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/28/cbo-chief-warns-of-long-slow-recovery/?feat=home_headlines" type="external">discussed in Senate testimony</a>earlier in the day. CBO’s latest figures show the public debt increasing from $7.5 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2009 (which ended Sept. 30) to $11.6 trillion in 2014 and $14.3 trillion in 2019. That’s an increase of about 55 percent in five years and 91 percent in 10 years, far less than the doubling and tripling of which McDonnell spoke.&#160;</p>
<p>McDonnell is even further off the mark if counting what’s called the "gross" debt, which includes money the government owes to itself, chiefly in IOUs held by the Social Security trust funds. CBO’s latest report includes a table ( <a href="http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/AppendixD.shtml#1098531" type="external">Table D-2</a>) showing the gross debt at $11.9 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009, and expected to rise to $16.7 trillion in five years and $20.6 trillion in 10 years. That figures out to be increases of 40 percent and 73 percent.</p>
<p>McDonnell also claimed:</p>
<p>McDonnell: The federal debt is already over $100,000 per household.</p>
<p>That’s only true if one looks at gross debt. The Census Bureau <a href="" type="external">estimates</a>there are 117 million U.S. households. Dividing that figure into the gross debt — also known as " <a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np" type="external">total public debt outstanding</a>" — does indeed yield a figure of $105,143. But using the figure that economists generally find more relevant — "debt held by the public" — the debt works out to be a less dramatic number — $66,531 per household.</p>
<p>— by Brooks Jackson, Viveca Novak, D’Angelo Gore, Lori Robertson, Justin Bank and Jess Henig</p>
<p>Update, Jan. 29: A section of our story was missing when we originally posted it. We have added the section, headed "K St. to the White House: Road Almost Closed," just before our analysis of the Republican response.</p>
<p>Correction, Feb. 3: In the original version of this story, we conflated the citations for two related statutes having to do with prohibiting foreign corporations from spending money in U.S. elections. We have fixed the error.</p>
<p>Council of Economic Advisers. " <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/100113-economic-impact-arra-second-quarterly-report.pdf" type="external">The Economic Impact of the American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009; Second Quarterly Report</a>." 13 Jan 2010.</p>
<p>Congressional Budget Office. “ <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/26xx/doc2685/11-2000-mbr.pdf" type="external">Monthly Budget Review</a>.” 14 Nov 2000.</p>
<p>Office of Management and Budget. “ <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Summary_Tables2.pdf" type="external">Budget of the United States Government; Summary Tables, Table S–2.</a>” 20 Feb 2009.</p>
<p>U.S. Senate. <a href="http://budget.senate.gov/democratic/charts/2009/FS_122209health.pdf" type="external">Floor Statement by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) on Senate Health Plan</a>. 22 Dec 2009.</p>
<p>Congressional Budget Office. <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10870/12-20-Reid_Letter_Managers_Correction1.pdf" type="external">Letter to Sen. Harry Reid</a>. 20 Dec 2009.</p>
<p>Federal Election Commission. <a href="http://fec.gov/law/feca/feca.pdf" type="external">Federal Campaign Laws</a>, p. 86. April 2008.</p>
<p>Barnes, Robert. " <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/01/alito-mouths-not-true-at-obama.html?hpid=topnews" type="external">Alito’s State of the Union Moment</a>." The Washington Post. 27 Jan 2010.</p>
<p>U.S. Office of Government Ethics. <a href="http://www.usoge.gov/directors_corner/pledge_waivers.aspx" type="external">Executive Agency Ethics Pledge Waivers</a>. Accessed 28 Jan 2010.</p>
<p>The White House. <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/EthicsPledgeWaiversReleasedbytheWhiteHouse" type="external">Ethics Pledge Waivers Released by the White House</a>. Accessed 28 Jan 2010.</p> | Obama’s State of the Union Address | false | https://factcheck.org/2010/01/obamas-state-of-the-union-address/ | 2010-01-28 | 2least
| 2,520 | President Obama peppered his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation with facts which were mostly right but sometimes cherrypicked strained or otherwise misleading We also scoured the Republican response delivered by Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell He doctored a Thomas Jefferson quote 8212 omitting Jefferson8217s endorsement of government action to protect people from injury McDonnell also overstated the speed with which the national debt is growing This was the president8217s first State of the Union address but not his first speech to a joint session of Congress We found a number of errors in his first one on Feb 24 2009 and also in his health care speech Sept 9 when a GOP House member shouted you lie This time Republicans merely scoffed and grumbled at some of Obama8217s statements And while we found Obama strained the facts or cited uncertain statistics at times we uncovered nothing we could show to be false How Many Jobs The president said the stimulus bill was responsible for about 2 million jobs but that8217s far from certain Other estimates put the total as low as 800000 Obama Because of the steps we took there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed The 2 million jobs estimate comes from the latest report of the White House Council of Economic Advisers It said CEA estimates that as of the fourth quarter of 2009 the stimulus bill has raised employment relative to what it otherwise would have been by 1189 to 2 million So his own economic advisers say the number could be as low as 15 million but Obama took the higher number in their range And the CEA report also cited fourthquarter estimates from others including the Congressional Budget Office and private economic forecasting firms most of which are lower than the 2 million figure Obama used The other estimates for job creation are Furthermore it8217s difficult to say definitively what the employment situtation would have been without the legislation and the CEA report acknowledges that saying As we have emphasized measuring what a policy action has contributed to growth and employment is inherently difficult because we do not observe what would have occurred without the policy Therefore it must be understood that our estimates are subject to substantial margins of error Hopeful on Health Care Obama touted an optimistic 8212 and highly uncertain 8212 estimate on how the Senate health care bill could affect the deficit Obama And according to the Congressional Budget Office 8211 the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress 8211 our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as 1 trillion over the next two decades It8217s true that the CBO8217s admittedly rough estimate said the bill could reduce the deficit below its projected level by 8220as much as8221 about 1 trillion over 20 years 8212 but it also said the reduction could be half of that amount And it noted the estimate is subject to a great deal of uncertainty CBO normally gives estimates for 10year periods and the nonpartisan entity doesn8217t like to go beyond that It said the Senate bill could produce a net deficit reduction of 132 billion over 20102019 For the next decade CBO said the reduction would be 8220in a broad range between onequarter percent and onehalf percent of GDP8221 Senate Democrats estimated that would mean a reduction of 650 billion to 13 trillion But CBO emphasized how squishy that large range is 8220The imprecision of that calculation reflects the even greater degree of uncertainty that attends to it8221 Plus the numbers count on a reduction in the growth of Medicare spending of which CBO isn8217t so confident 8220It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved and if so whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care8221 CBO Director Douglas W Elmendorf wrote Stretching Deficit Facts Republicans laughed when Obama described the huge deficits he had inherited when he took office Obama At the beginning of the last decade the year 2000 America had a budget surplus of over 200 billion Applause By the time I took office we had a oneyear deficit of over 1 trillion and projected deficits of 8 trillion over the next decade Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars two tax cuts and an expensive prescription drug program On top of that the effects of the recession put a 3 trillion hole in our budget All this was before I walked in the door Laughter and applause Now 8212 just stating the facts Despite the Republican scoffing Obama8217s claims are backed up by the historical record 8212 mostly So the president actually understated matters regarding annual surpluses and deficits for years past but he may have strained the facts when he spoke of what was being predicted for future years at the time he assumed office He said he inherited a projected 10year deficit of 8 trillion But at the time CBO projected only a 31 trillion deficit over 10 years Table 4 page 15 In fairness that CBO figure assumed that all of President Bush8217s tax cuts would be allowed to expire on schedule And in reality Obama and congressional Democrats supported extending many of the cuts while Republicans supported extending all of them Extending all of the Bush tax cuts would add another 29 trillion to that Table 7 page 22 for a total of 6 trillion 8212 still short of Obama8217s claim His figure is based on a baseline projection issued Feb 20 by his own Office of Management and Budget Table S2 page 115 The OMB projected a 10year deficit of 89 trillion including the 787 billion stimulus package that Obama had just signed So it8217s fair to say that Obama was facing an ocean of red ink when he took office but it could have been anywhere between 31 trillion CBO8217s unrealistically low estimate to a bit over 8 trillion OMB8217s estimate minus Obama8217s stimulus bill Clarification Feb 5 Obama was correct to say the deficit already was being projected at over 1 trillion when he took office But CBO would have projected it at somewhat under 1 trillion had it used the same accounting method for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that was used by both the Bush and Obama administrations CBO said its 12 trillion deficit projection for fiscal year 1999 included 240 billion in losses on mortgages held by those two governmentsponsored but privately owned entities which had been placed in a federal conservatorship in September 2008 If it the administration chose to continue to treat them as nongovernmental entities CBO would estimate the 2009 deficit to total 966 billion CBO said in its Jan 9 2009 review And that8217s what happened The official yearend deficit figures based on monthly statements from the Treasury Department reflect only the cash that the government has pumped into the two entities and do not include their mortgage losses as CBO explained in a background paper released January 2010 Foreign Corporations Donating The president claimed that foreign corporations could begin spending big money to influence US elections under a recent Supreme Court decision Obama Last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests 8211 including foreign corporations 8211 to spend without limit in our elections Justice Samuel Alito who with the other justices sat at the very front of the chamber last night was seen shaking his head and mouthing what appeared to be the words not true as Obama said this Alito joined the majority in the 54 Citizens United v Federal Election Commission decision issued by the Court last week which knocked down restrictions on corporate spending on elections But it8217s unclear whether the court8217s opinion will lead to allowing foreignbased corporations to buy campaign ads and engage in other electioneering activities There is still a law barring foreign corporations from spending money in connection with US elections see 2 USC 441ea1 and b1 with definition of foreign principal in 22 USC 611b3 and that8217s a matter likely to be litigated further The court8217s most recent decision explicitly didn8217t deal with that question But strictly speaking Obama couched his claim as something I believe making it a statement of opinion and not of fact So whether his view turns out to be right remains to be seen Taxes The president correctly pointed out that he signed a number of tax cuts for individuals and businesses as part of the stimulus package and also said this Obama And we haven8217t raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person Not a single dime That8217s true according to Bob Williams of the Tax Policy Center But it8217s not the whole story As Obama himself later said tax increases are coming at least for some Obama To help working families we8217ll extend our middleclass tax cuts But at a time of record deficits we will not continue tax cuts for oil companies for investment fund managers and for those making over 250000 a year We just can8217t afford it K St to the White House Road Almost Closed Obama touted his efforts to change Washington8217s ways Obama We8217ve excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions Obama by executive order last January did put in place the federal government8217s firstever reverserevolving door policy which says that anyone who has lobbied within the previous two years can8217t join a part of the administration that he or she lobbied The order allows for waivers however and several have been granted For instance Jocelyn Frye who used to lobby on employment and gender discrimination became director of policy and projects for Michelle Obama Cecilia Mu241oz who formerly lobbied for the National Council of La Raza was appointed White House director of intergovernmental affairs and former Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn became deputy secretary of defense Obama might have been trying to leave himself some wiggle room when he specified policymaking jobs But Lynn8217s job sounds to us like it involves policymaking And it8217s hard to claim that Ron Kirk the United States trade representative doesn8217t have a policymaking role Kirk didn8217t need a waiver because he was a lobbyist 8212 for Merrill Lynch and others 8212 in Texas not Washington but Obama made no such distinction in his statement Wednesday night The Republican Response 8211 Doctoring Jefferson Delivering the Republican response from the Virginia Statehouse Gov Bob McDonnell used a slightly doctored quote that he attributed to an early predecessor Thomas Jefferson the second governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia McDonnell It was Thomas Jefferson who called for a wise and frugal Government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry 8230 and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned He was right That8217s a selective paraphrase of what Jefferson actually said in his first inaugural address when he was sworn in as the nation8217s third president What Jefferson really said was Jefferson March 4 1801 Still one thing more fellowcitizens 8212 a wise and frugal Government which shall restrain men from injuring one another shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned This is the sum of good government and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities So Jefferson first said a wise government shall restrain men from injuring one another something that could today be taken as an endorsement of government regulation By leaving that part out McDonnell made Jefferson 8212 founder of what has become the modern Democratic Party 8212 sound a good bit more like an antitax antiregulation Republican than he was in reality Wrong on the Debt McDonnell also made incorrect claims about the expected growth of the national debt McDonnell The amount of this debt is on pace to double in five years and triple in 10 That8217s an outdated Republican talking point that failed to account for the most recent Congressional Budget Office report issued several hours before McDonnell spoke and discussed in Senate testimonyearlier in the day CBO8217s latest figures show the public debt increasing from 75 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2009 which ended Sept 30 to 116 trillion in 2014 and 143 trillion in 2019 That8217s an increase of about 55 percent in five years and 91 percent in 10 years far less than the doubling and tripling of which McDonnell spokeamp160 McDonnell is even further off the mark if counting what8217s called the gross debt which includes money the government owes to itself chiefly in IOUs held by the Social Security trust funds CBO8217s latest report includes a table Table D2 showing the gross debt at 119 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009 and expected to rise to 167 trillion in five years and 206 trillion in 10 years That figures out to be increases of 40 percent and 73 percent McDonnell also claimed McDonnell The federal debt is already over 100000 per household That8217s only true if one looks at gross debt The Census Bureau estimatesthere are 117 million US households Dividing that figure into the gross debt 8212 also known as total public debt outstanding 8212 does indeed yield a figure of 105143 But using the figure that economists generally find more relevant 8212 debt held by the public 8212 the debt works out to be a less dramatic number 8212 66531 per household 8212 by Brooks Jackson Viveca Novak D8217Angelo Gore Lori Robertson Justin Bank and Jess Henig Update Jan 29 A section of our story was missing when we originally posted it We have added the section headed K St to the White House Road Almost Closed just before our analysis of the Republican response Correction Feb 3 In the original version of this story we conflated the citations for two related statutes having to do with prohibiting foreign corporations from spending money in US elections We have fixed the error Council of Economic Advisers The Economic Impact of the American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009 Second Quarterly Report 13 Jan 2010 Congressional Budget Office 8220 Monthly Budget Review8221 14 Nov 2000 Office of Management and Budget 8220 Budget of the United States Government Summary Tables Table S821128221 20 Feb 2009 US Senate Floor Statement by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad DND on Senate Health Plan 22 Dec 2009 Congressional Budget Office Letter to Sen Harry Reid 20 Dec 2009 Federal Election Commission Federal Campaign Laws p 86 April 2008 Barnes Robert Alito8217s State of the Union Moment The Washington Post 27 Jan 2010 US Office of Government Ethics Executive Agency Ethics Pledge Waivers Accessed 28 Jan 2010 The White House Ethics Pledge Waivers Released by the 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<p>I routinely set my morning alarms for an hour earlier than I actually need to get out of bed if I want to get to wherever I’m going on time.</p>
<p>That way, I can snooze off and on, cuddle with my cats (who always choose to nap around my sleeping position in such a way that traps me – why do they do that?), and traverse around the Internet to see what my smarty-pants activist friends said while I slept.</p>
<p>And one recent morning, I woke up to find a notification on <a href="https://twitter.com/fyeahmfabello" type="external">Twitter</a> that seemed banal at first. It was <a href="https://twitter.com/catherinebouris" type="external">my friend Cathy</a>, tagging me to say, “They link you in this article!” I thought, maybe, that this was cause for celebration.</p>
<p>Until I actually read the tweet.</p>
<p>Which was along the lines of “Skinny-shaming, ‘thin privilege,’ and the deliberate mockery of mental illness.” I felt some type of way about thin privilege being in quotation marks, as if it’s a mythical creature or a <a href="https://twitter.com/jaythenerdkid/status/695793584344162308" type="external">phrase that people just made up</a> to be difficult.</p>
<p>And since I’ve written about <a href="" type="internal">skinny-shaming</a>, <a href="" type="internal">thin privilege</a> (no quotation marks), and <a href="" type="internal">mental health,</a> I had the sinking feeling that maybe this wasn’t going to be an article that I approved of.</p>
<p>And, lo and behold, of course it wasn’t.</p>
<p>The basic premise was this: If you believe that thin privilege exists, then you’re unconcerned with how skinny-shaming is tied to public disdain for anorexia, and as such, you don’t care about eating disorders.</p>
<p>And it used my articles – mine! – to make this point. The author linked to my work, as if to say, “See? This bitch doesn’t give a shit about eating disorders.”</p>
<p>Me – who is an <a href="http://www.ravishly.com/2015/07/07/love-pizza-how-my-anorexia-revealed-itself" type="external">eating disorder survivor</a>. Me, whose bulk of her career was built off of doing <a href="" type="internal">body</a> <a href="" type="internal">acceptance</a> <a href="" type="internal">and</a> <a href="" type="internal">eating</a> <a href="" type="internal">disorder</a> <a href="" type="internal">recovery</a> <a href="" type="internal">activist</a> <a href="" type="internal">work</a>. Me.</p>
<p>Needless to say, I screamed internally. Then externally. And then I realized something.</p>
<p>On approximately a weekly basis, I receive e-mails from all over the world that express similar sentiments: that thin privilege is a crock, that skinny-shaming matters, that these conversations leave out the experiences of people with eating disorders. They go on for paragraphs – and even pages – about how wrong I am, stuffing words in my mouth and then yelling at me for their being there.</p>
<p>And I often have to write back to these e-mails to say, “I never said that.” Because I didn’t.</p>
<p>But it seems that my words are triggering deep-seated emotional pain – the repression of which is suddenly unleashed when folks see the words thin privilege. And that emotional pain is so strong, so real, that it obstructs the lens through which folks read entire articles.</p>
<p>Which means that clearly, there’s some stuff left to unpack here.</p>
<p>So here are the four most common objections that I get to the conversation about thin privilege – the four arguments that are often sold to me by others as my own words, the four interpretations that come from a place of hurt.</p>
<p>And here’s why we’re not saying those things. Like, at all.</p>
<p>Let’s get this one out of the way first because it seems to be a common objection every single time someone brings up <a href="" type="internal">privilege</a> as a social phenomenon in any context: “My life hasn’t been easy!”</p>
<p>Whether the privilege you’ve got is <a href="" type="internal">male</a>, <a href="" type="internal">white</a>, <a href="" type="internal">straight</a>, <a href="" type="internal">cis</a>, <a href="" type="internal">able-bodied</a>, <a href="" type="internal">middle-upper class</a>, a slew of others, or a combination of a bunch, you probably really, really, really hate having it pointed out to you.</p>
<p>And I don’t blame you. To be honest, I don’t like it either.</p>
<p>It’s not fun – especially in a society that so desperately loves a good underdog story – to admit that we may have gotten a head start in life based on identities or positions that we hold.</p>
<p>After all, we’ve worked hard for what we’ve got in life, and it can feel accusatory to have privilege thrown in your face.</p>
<p>But having privilege doesn’t mean that you haven’t struggled, that life isn’t hard sometimes, that you’ve had everything handed to you on a proverbial silver platter.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privilege_(social_inequality)" type="external">Privilege</a> is simply a set of social advantages, often that we’re born with, that allow us more access to resources and power, giving us a head start in life. And privilege is complicated by other intersections of identity – because we can be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality" type="external">privileged in some ways and marginalized in others.</a></p>
<p>Privilege just means that the struggles that we have aren’t connected to the identity or experience in question.</p>
<p>That is, my life is hard sometimes. But it’s not hard because I’m thin.</p>
<p>And acknowledging the truth that we are all affected by this constellation of social identity doesn’t mean that we haven’t faced barriers in our lives. It’s simply admitting that there are some obstacles that we have not faced.</p>
<p>So when we say that you have thin privilege, it doesn’t mean that your life has been a piece of cake. Life isn’t particularly easy for anyone – and it’s entirely possible to be stereotyped, held in prejudice, and discriminated against based on your body type.</p>
<p>But because being thin, in and of itself, isn’t an oppression, we’re just noting that your thinness is one way in which life is a little bit easier for you than it is for other people, whose <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD5f8GuNuGQ" type="external">starting place</a> is a bit further back than yours.&#160;</p>
<p>“If thin privilege is a thing,” you might think, “then that invalidates the body image struggles that I’ve endured, and it negates the body acceptance journey that I’ve had to undertake. It implies that it must have been easy for me.”</p>
<p>But – trust me – that’s not true.</p>
<p>The truth of the matter is that all people have struggled with their body at one point or another. Even those with positive body image have had off days, because that’s just natural and normal.</p>
<p>Our culture gives us very limited views of what it means to “look” like a woman and to “look” like a man. And it doesn’t really offer gender non-confirming or agender people any rulebook whatsoever.</p>
<p>So it’s no wonder we’re all scrambling to make peace with our vessels.</p>
<p>Shit, I have bad body image days all the time, and I sure as hell share about them – with my friends, all over social media, and (usually crying and exaggerating) to my partner.</p>
<p>Being thin doesn’t absolve me from the social pressures to be more beautiful, according to cultural standards – and it doesn’t absolve you either! There are days when we hate ourselves and want (and deserve) support. And that’s okay.</p>
<p>Where privilege comes in is in recognizing where you have it and where you don’t.</p>
<p>For example, as a woman, I’m marginalized – and as such, society throws a whole lot of bullshit at me in reference to my appearance. But I’m also white – and since <a href="" type="internal">white is the standard of beauty</a>, I’m cut some slack there. Women of color are thrown a double whammy of bullshit: Not only are their bodies all wrong, but their skin color is, too.</p>
<p>Similarly, I’m thin – and so I don’t have to deal with the double whammy that fat women do.&#160;</p>
<p>Thin privilege is basically the acknowledgment of that lack of a double whammy.</p>
<p>“But wait,” you might say. “Yeah, okay, I’m thin. But I’m not skinny. I’m not model-thin. So there’s still a pressure on me to be thinner.”</p>
<p>You’re right. I, as a size eight, would be <a href="" type="internal">considered plus-size</a> by the modeling world. So I get your argument about feeling like you’re still not thin “enough,” even if you’re comparably, conventionally thin.</p>
<p>But just because you’re not model-thin doesn’t mean you’re not still thin. And that matters – because it doesn’t really matter how thin you are to benefit from thin privilege.</p>
<p>Are you going to struggle with your body? Yeah. You are. Especially if you’re a woman or other gender minority. Just recognize that that struggle is rooted in patriarchy (which I talk about <a href="" type="internal">here</a>), and not doubly in the thin ideal.</p>
<p>Let me say this so clearly and unequivocally that no one can ever accuse me of saying the opposite again: It is never, under any circumstance, okay for any person to body-shame another person.</p>
<p>Skinny-shaming is not okay, has never been okay, will never be okay.</p>
<p>If you’ve ever been told that “real women have curves,” that “only dogs want bones,” that you should “eat a cheeseburger,” I’m sorry. Because all of that – and the other examples that come pouring into my inbox – is awful and unacceptable, and you deserve much more love and support in your life.</p>
<p>Also, skinny-shaming can be a little complicated when we apply a cultural, rather than individual, lens to it.</p>
<p>Body-shaming works as a way to keep the cultural elite in power by putting down the attributes associated with those who are seen as “less-than.” That’s why now – at a time when, generally speaking, in our part of the world, <a href="" type="internal">we’ve been socialized</a> to believe that food isn’t scarce – we have fat-shaming.</p>
<p>It’s a way to say, “Haha! I have the wealth and power necessary to have access to [whatever it is most people don’t have access to], and you don’t. Oh, and you’re ugly and unlovable on top of it.”</p>
<p>As such, it’s also been used to keep those with less social power – like women, people of color, and trans folk – with less social power. By always pushing marginalized people to chase after a beauty ideal that’s based exactly in the power that they don’t have, you effectively keep those people down.</p>
<p>And right now, in our current sociocultural landscape, the body type that we’re keeping down is those of fat people. I mean, you don’t see the news exalting a “War On Thinness,” do you?</p>
<p>When we fat-shame, we’re adding to the dominant paradigm that fat bodies are bad – thereby keeping thin people in power, by allowing us to define what’s normal and preferable, and by giving us more access to resources (think: fashionable clothes and <a href="" type="internal">relative comfort on airplanes</a>, for example).</p>
<p>That’s thin privilege.</p>
<p>As for women who are pegged as “too skinny” by society and who, oftentimes, pay that price institutionally as well, I’m creating a more in-depth resource on that soon. Stay tuned. But, in short: You’ve still got thin privilege.</p>
<p>So when we talk about the differences between fat-shaming and skinny-shaming, we’re not saying that one is bad and the other is acceptable. We’re saying that one keeps people oppressed by fatphobic institutions, and the other one doesn’t. Not better or worse. Just different.</p>
<p>And we should stop doing both.</p>
<p>I can’t believe I even have to say this, especially given my personal, academic, and professional experiences, but just to be clear: Believing in the existence of thin privilege does not – under any circumstance – imply that illness, whether physical or mental, doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>In fact, it matters a fucking lot.</p>
<p>It matters that post- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beauty_Myth" type="external">The-Beauty-Myth</a>, post- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Us_Softly" type="external">Killing-Us-Softly</a>, our culture awakened to the understanding that <a href="" type="internal">our desire</a> for thin female bodies is highly socially constructed and wielded in painful ways by the advertising industry.</p>
<p>It matters because in throwing our middle fingers in the air against the toxic modeling industry standards of thinness, we also said, “Fuck eating disorders!”</p>
<p>And, indeed, fuck eating disorders.</p>
<p>But because patriarchy loves <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t0UvvYs3AE" type="external">pitting women against one another</a>, what that unfortunately translated to was a derision of bodies that “look” eating disordered. Hence “Ugh, she looks anorexic” being part of our cultural lexicon.</p>
<p>That is to say: Despite thin privilege, thin people (and especially particularly thin women) have been scoffed at for the past couple of decades – and so have people with eating disorders, which <a href="" type="internal">we often think of as one in the same</a>. And I totally get how pressing the notion of thin privilege can feel like flippantly ignoring that.</p>
<p>But there are two incredibly important things to note here: first, that eating disorders and body types have next-to-no overlap; secondly, as frustrating as it is, that you can experience thin privilege and neuroatypical marginalization simultaneously.</p>
<p>Eating disorders and thin privilege are actually entirely intertwined – so far so that they’re inseparable. Because fatphobia upholds both.</p>
<p>Cultural hatred of fat (especially in the form of <a href="" type="internal">diet culture</a>) allows eating disorders to thrive. And cultural hatred of fat idealizes thinness. But, in reality, there’s no way to “look” like you have an eating disorder.</p>
<p>Eating disorders are about food. Hence the name. They’re about our relationships to what we eat and the thoughts and behaviors that we associate with eating.</p>
<p>Any body type can exhibit the symptoms of any eating disorder. There’s no overlap (except for the inclusion of weight-loss criteria in anorexia diagnoses – but even that can be circumvented).</p>
<p>If anything, this actually creates a horrible situation where thin people with eating disorders (particularly anorexia and bulimia) benefit from this association: They’re <a href="" type="internal">more likely to be taken seriously</a> and to be given potentially life-saving diagnoses.</p>
<p>And that, in fact, is how it’s possible to be marginalized by disability or neuroatypicality, while also benefitting from thin privilege: Because although you have an eating disorder, which is absolutely atrocious, you’re still <a href="" type="internal">more likely to be seen</a> as having an eating disorder in a thin body – which, in turn, can help you.</p>
<p>These ideas – that thin privilege exists and that eating disordered people deserve support and respect – aren’t in opposition. They actually work together to create a whole web of problems.</p>
<p>So when we say that you have thin privilege, we’re not saying that your eating disorder doesn’t matter. We’re saying that they can exist simultaneously – and that one doesn’t negate the other.</p>
<p>( <a href="" type="internal">If you think that you</a> or <a href="" type="internal">someone you love</a> <a href="" type="internal">might have an eating disorder,</a> help is available to you through the <a href="http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org" type="external">National Eating Disorder Association</a>.)</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Thin privilege is real. And it’s also, understandably, hard to accept. We’ve all hurt – some more than others – and it can be painful or annoying to have someone suggest that your hurt is insignificant, just because some people hurt more.</p>
<p>But I promise that’s not what we’re saying.</p>
<p>We care about you – your health, your happiness. But we also think it’s important for people to recognize the ways in which they benefit in this world, so that we can all work toward eradicating those hierarchies.</p>
<p>When we talk about thin privilege – even when we’re pointing out yours – we’re extending an invitation to join us.</p>
<p>Because recognizing our privileges is the first step in making the world a more just place.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Melissa A. Fabello, Co-Managing Editor of Everyday Feminism, is a body acceptance activist and sexuality scholar&#160;living in Philadelphia. She enjoys rainy days, tattoos, yin yoga, and Jurassic Park.&#160;She holds a B.S. in English Education from Boston University and an M.Ed. in Human Sexuality from Widener University. She is currently working on her PhD. She can be reached on Twitter <a href="https://www.twitter.com/fyeahmfabello" type="external">@fyeahmfabello</a>.</p>
<p>Filed Under: <a href="" type="internal">Articles</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Posts</a> Tagged With: <a href="" type="internal">Health &amp; Body</a></p> | 4 Things We’re Not Saying When We Say ‘Thin Privilege’ | true | http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/05/thin-privilege-not-saying/ | 2016-05-09 | 4left
| 2,521 | I routinely set my morning alarms for an hour earlier than I actually need to get out of bed if I want to get to wherever I8217m going on time That way I can snooze off and on cuddle with my cats who always choose to nap around my sleeping position in such a way that traps me 8211 why do they do that and traverse around the Internet to see what my smartypants activist friends said while I slept And one recent morning I woke up to find a notification on Twitter that seemed banal at first It was my friend Cathy tagging me to say 8220They link you in this article8221 I thought maybe that this was cause for celebration Until I actually read the tweet Which was along the lines of 8220Skinnyshaming 8216thin privilege8217 and the deliberate mockery of mental illness8221 I felt some type of way about thin privilege being in quotation marks as if it8217s a mythical creature or a phrase that people just made up to be difficult And since I8217ve written about skinnyshaming thin privilege no quotation marks and mental health I had the sinking feeling that maybe this wasn8217t going to be an article that I approved of And lo and behold of course it wasn8217t The basic premise was this If you believe that thin privilege exists then you8217re unconcerned with how skinnyshaming is tied to public disdain for anorexia and as such you don8217t care about eating disorders And it used my articles 8211 mine 8211 to make this point The author linked to my work as if to say 8220See This bitch doesn8217t give a shit about eating disorders8221 Me 8211 who is an eating disorder survivor Me whose bulk of her career was built off of doing body acceptance and eating disorder recovery activist work Me Needless to say I screamed internally Then externally And then I realized something On approximately a weekly basis I receive emails from all over the world that express similar sentiments that thin privilege is a crock that skinnyshaming matters that these conversations leave out the experiences of people with eating disorders They go on for paragraphs 8211 and even pages 8211 about how wrong I am stuffing words in my mouth and then yelling at me for their being there And I often have to write back to these emails to say 8220I never said that8221 Because I didn8217t But it seems that my words are triggering deepseated emotional pain 8211 the repression of which is suddenly unleashed when folks see the words thin privilege And that emotional pain is so strong so real that it obstructs the lens through which folks read entire articles Which means that clearly there8217s some stuff left to unpack here So here are the four most common objections that I get to the conversation about thin privilege 8211 the four arguments that are often sold to me by others as my own words the four interpretations that come from a place of hurt And here8217s why we8217re not saying those things Like at all Let8217s get this one out of the way first because it seems to be a common objection every single time someone brings up privilege as a social phenomenon in any context 8220My life hasn8217t been easy8221 Whether the privilege you8217ve got is male white straight cis ablebodied middleupper class a slew of others or a combination of a bunch you probably really really really hate having it pointed out to you And I don8217t blame you To be honest I don8217t like it either It8217s not fun 8211 especially in a society that so desperately loves a good underdog story 8211 to admit that we may have gotten a head start in life based on identities or positions that we hold After all we8217ve worked hard for what we8217ve got in life and it can feel accusatory to have privilege thrown in your face But having privilege doesn8217t mean that you haven8217t struggled that life isn8217t hard sometimes that you8217ve had everything handed to you on a proverbial silver platter Privilege is simply a set of social advantages often that we8217re born with that allow us more access to resources and power giving us a head start in life And privilege is complicated by other intersections of identity 8211 because we can be privileged in some ways and marginalized in others Privilege just means that the struggles that we have aren8217t connected to the identity or experience in question That is my life is hard sometimes But it8217s not hard because I8217m thin And acknowledging the truth that we are all affected by this constellation of social identity doesn8217t mean that we haven8217t faced barriers in our lives It8217s simply admitting that there are some obstacles that we have not faced So when we say that you have thin privilege it doesn8217t mean that your life has been a piece of cake Life isn8217t particularly easy for anyone 8211 and it8217s entirely possible to be stereotyped held in prejudice and discriminated against based on your body type But because being thin in and of itself isn8217t an oppression we8217re just noting that your thinness is one way in which life is a little bit easier for you than it is for other people whose starting place is a bit further back than yoursamp160 8220If thin privilege is a thing8221 you might think 8220then that invalidates the body image struggles that I8217ve endured and it negates the body acceptance journey that I8217ve had to undertake It implies that it must have been easy for me8221 But 8211 trust me 8211 that8217s not true The truth of the matter is that all people have struggled with their body at one point or another Even those with positive body image have had off days because that8217s just natural and normal Our culture gives us very limited views of what it means to 8220look8221 like a woman and to 8220look8221 like a man And it doesn8217t really offer gender nonconfirming or agender people any rulebook whatsoever So it8217s no wonder we8217re all scrambling to make peace with our vessels Shit I have bad body image days all the time and I sure as hell share about them 8211 with my friends all over social media and usually crying and exaggerating to my partner Being thin doesn8217t absolve me from the social pressures to be more beautiful according to cultural standards 8211 and it doesn8217t absolve you either There are days when we hate ourselves and want and deserve support And that8217s okay Where privilege comes in is in recognizing where you have it and where you don8217t For example as a woman I8217m marginalized 8211 and as such society throws a whole lot of bullshit at me in reference to my appearance But I8217m also white 8211 and since white is the standard of beauty I8217m cut some slack there Women of color are thrown a double whammy of bullshit Not only are their bodies all wrong but their skin color is too Similarly I8217m thin 8211 and so I don8217t have to deal with the double whammy that fat women doamp160 Thin privilege is basically the acknowledgment of that lack of a double whammy 8220But wait8221 you might say 8220Yeah okay I8217m thin But I8217m not skinny I8217m not modelthin So there8217s still a pressure on me to be thinner8221 You8217re right I as a size eight would be considered plussize by the modeling world So I get your argument about feeling like you8217re still not thin 8220enough8221 even if you8217re comparably conventionally thin But just because you8217re not modelthin doesn8217t mean you8217re not still thin And that matters 8211 because it doesn8217t really matter how thin you are to benefit from thin privilege Are you going to struggle with your body Yeah You are Especially if you8217re a woman or other gender minority Just recognize that that struggle is rooted in patriarchy which I talk about here and not doubly in the thin ideal Let me say this so clearly and unequivocally that no one can ever accuse me of saying the opposite again It is never under any circumstance okay for any person to bodyshame another person Skinnyshaming is not okay has never been okay will never be okay If you8217ve ever been told that 8220real women have curves8221 that 8220only dogs want bones8221 that you should 8220eat a cheeseburger8221 I8217m sorry Because all of that 8211 and the other examples that come pouring into my inbox 8211 is awful and unacceptable and you deserve much more love and support in your life Also skinnyshaming can be a little complicated when we apply a cultural rather than individual lens to it Bodyshaming works as a way to keep the cultural elite in power by putting down the attributes associated with those who are seen as 8220lessthan8221 That8217s why now 8211 at a time when generally speaking in our part of the world we8217ve been socialized to believe that food isn8217t scarce 8211 we have fatshaming It8217s a way to say 8220Haha I have the wealth and power necessary to have access to whatever it is most people don8217t have access to and you don8217t Oh and you8217re ugly and unlovable on top of it8221 As such it8217s also been used to keep those with less social power 8211 like women people of color and trans folk 8211 with less social power By always pushing marginalized people to chase after a beauty ideal that8217s based exactly in the power that they don8217t have you effectively keep those people down And right now in our current sociocultural landscape the body type that we8217re keeping down is those of fat people I mean you don8217t see the news exalting a 8220War On Thinness8221 do you When we fatshame we8217re adding to the dominant paradigm that fat bodies are bad 8211 thereby keeping thin people in power by allowing us to define what8217s normal and preferable and by giving us more access to resources think fashionable clothes and relative comfort on airplanes for example That8217s thin privilege As for women who are pegged as 8220too skinny8221 by society and who oftentimes pay that price institutionally as well I8217m creating a more indepth resource on that soon Stay tuned But in short You8217ve still got thin privilege So when we talk about the differences between fatshaming and skinnyshaming we8217re not saying that one is bad and the other is acceptable We8217re saying that one keeps people oppressed by fatphobic institutions and the other one doesn8217t Not better or worse Just different And we should stop doing both I can8217t believe I even have to say this especially given my personal academic and professional experiences but just to be clear Believing in the existence of thin privilege does not 8211 under any circumstance 8211 imply that illness whether physical or mental doesn8217t matter In fact it matters a fucking lot It matters that post TheBeautyMyth post KillingUsSoftly our culture awakened to the understanding that our desire for thin female bodies is highly socially constructed and wielded in painful ways by the advertising industry It matters because in throwing our middle fingers in the air against the toxic modeling industry standards of thinness we also said 8220Fuck eating disorders8221 And indeed fuck eating disorders But because patriarchy loves pitting women against one another what that unfortunately translated to was a derision of bodies that 8220look8221 eating disordered Hence 8220Ugh she looks anorexic8221 being part of our cultural lexicon That is to say Despite thin privilege thin people and especially particularly thin women have been scoffed at for the past couple of decades 8211 and so have people with eating disorders which we often think of as one in the same And I totally get how pressing the notion of thin privilege can feel like flippantly ignoring that But there are two incredibly important things to note here first that eating disorders and body types have nexttono overlap secondly as frustrating as it is that you can experience thin privilege and neuroatypical marginalization simultaneously Eating disorders and thin privilege are actually entirely intertwined 8211 so far so that they8217re inseparable Because fatphobia upholds both Cultural hatred of fat especially in the form of diet culture allows eating disorders to thrive And cultural hatred of fat idealizes thinness But in reality there8217s no way to 8220look8221 like you have an eating disorder Eating disorders are about food Hence the name They8217re about our relationships to what we eat and the thoughts and behaviors that we associate with eating Any body type can exhibit the symptoms of any eating disorder There8217s no overlap except for the inclusion of weightloss criteria in anorexia diagnoses 8211 but even that can be circumvented If anything this actually creates a horrible situation where thin people with eating disorders particularly anorexia and bulimia benefit from this association They8217re more likely to be taken seriously and to be given potentially lifesaving diagnoses And that in fact is how it8217s possible to be marginalized by disability or neuroatypicality while also benefitting from thin privilege Because although you have an eating disorder which is absolutely atrocious you8217re still more likely to be seen as having an eating disorder in a thin body 8211 which in turn can help you These ideas 8211 that thin privilege exists and that eating disordered people deserve support and respect 8211 aren8217t in opposition They actually work together to create a whole web of problems So when we say that you have thin privilege we8217re not saying that your eating disorder doesn8217t matter We8217re saying that they can exist simultaneously 8211 and that one doesn8217t negate the other If you think that you or someone you love might have an eating disorder help is available to you through the National Eating Disorder Association Thin privilege is real And it8217s also understandably hard to accept We8217ve all hurt 8211 some more than others 8211 and it can be painful or annoying to have someone suggest that your hurt is insignificant just because some people hurt more But I promise that8217s not what we8217re saying We care about you 8211 your health your happiness But we also think it8217s important for people to recognize the ways in which they benefit in this world so that we can all work toward eradicating those hierarchies When we talk about thin privilege 8211 even when we8217re pointing out yours 8211 we8217re extending an invitation to join us Because recognizing our privileges is the first step in making the world a more just place Melissa A Fabello CoManaging Editor of Everyday Feminism is a body acceptance activist and sexuality scholaramp160living in Philadelphia She enjoys rainy days tattoos yin yoga and Jurassic Parkamp160She holds a BS in English Education from Boston University and an MEd in Human Sexuality from Widener University She is currently working on her PhD She can be reached on Twitter fyeahmfabello Filed Under Articles Posts Tagged With Health ampamp Body | I/PRON routinely/ADV set/VERB my/PRON morning/NOUN alarms/NOUN for/ADP an/DET hour/NOUN earlier/ADV than/SCONJ I/PRON actually/ADV 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<p>House Speaker John Boehner exaggerated when he said the 2.3 percent medical device excise tax in the Affordable Care Act “is costing us tens of thousands of jobs that are being shipped overseas.” It’s true that companies have announced the elimination of several thousand positions — worldwide, not just in the U.S. — but there is no evidence that the number has reached the “tens of thousands” or that all those jobs are going overseas.</p>
<p>Medical device companies say the tax is only partially to blame for workforce reductions that have been announced so far, and investments overseas are being driven in large part by growth in “emerging markets,” such as China, India, Brazil and Russia.</p>
<p>Costing U.S. ‘Tens of Thousands of Jobs’?</p>
<p>The 2.3 percent <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/Medical-Device-Excise-Tax:-Frequently-Asked-Questions" type="external">medical device excise tax</a> went into effect Jan. 1, 2013, so it has been in effect for less than a year. Since <a href="http://www.irs.gov/publications/p535/ch05.html#en_US_2012_publink1000208805" type="external">the IRS permits businesses to deduct</a> “all excise taxes that are ordinary and necessary expenses” of a business, <a href="http://www.risk-compliance-association.com/Moodys_to_the_members_of_the_International_Association_of_Risk_and_Compliance_Professionals_July_2_2012.pdf" type="external">Moody’s Investors Service estimates</a> that the net tax effect is about 1.5 percent — not the full 2.3 percent.</p>
<p>The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation says the tax is expected to raise about <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43290" type="external">$29 billion</a> in the first 10 years.</p>
<p>The tax is imposed on clinical medical devices — such as CAT scan machines, stents, defibrillators and other devices sold to hospitals and other health care providers. It makes no difference if the device is manufactured abroad or in the U.S., since the tax is added to all sales in the U.S. The tax does not apply to <a href="https://ilibrary.isuppli.com/Download/Open/448562/abstract---consumer-medical-devices-production-yearbook---2013.pdf?ReferrerView=Detail" type="external">consumer medical devices</a>, which are those purchased directly by consumers — such as <a href="" type="internal">hearing aids, wheelchairs and contact lenses</a>.</p>
<p>Boehner addressed the impact of the tax in <a href="http://0-www.gpo.gov.librus.hccs.edu/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2013-09-30/pdf/CREC-2013-09-30.pdf" type="external">floor remarks on the eve of a government shutdown</a> and a day after the <a href="http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/113/house/1/497" type="external">House voted</a> to <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hjres59eah/pdf/BILLS-113hjres59eah.pdf" type="external">amend the Senate budget resolution and repeal the medical device excise tax</a>.</p>
<p>Boehner, Sept. 30: The House has done its work. We passed a bill Saturday night, sent it to the United States Senate, that would delay Obamacare for one year and would eliminate permanently the medical device tax that is costing us tens of thousands of jobs that are being shipped overseas.</p>
<p>There are two claims here that we will review: that the tax is costing the United States “tens of thousands of jobs” and those jobs are being “shipped overseas.”</p>
<p>We asked Boehner’s office what evidence he has that U.S. medical device companies are shipping tens of thousands of jobs overseas, but we received no response.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />However, Boehner and other critics of the medical device excise tax have pointed to an <a href="http://www.chi.org/uploadedFiles/Industry_at_a_glance/090711EmploymentEffectofTaxonMedicalDeviceIndustryFINAL.pdf" type="external">industry study</a> written by <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/furchtgott-roth.htm" type="external">Diana Furchtgott-Roth</a>, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, and her husband, <a href="http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&amp;eid=HaroldFurchtgottRoth" type="external">Harold</a>, who is a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. The study, released in September 2011, said that “the tax could result in job losses in excess of 43,000.” It also said that U.S. manufacturers “will be more likely to close plants in the United States and replace them with plants in foreign countries.”</p>
<p>First, let’s take a look at the number of jobs that may have been affected so far. It may be that the law results in the loss of “tens of thousands of jobs” in the U.S., but there is no evidence that that is the case now — even from the tax’s most ardent critics.</p>
<p>We contacted the Advanced Medical Technology Association, or AdvaMed, which is lobbying to repeal the tax. A spokeswoman from the industry trade group — which frequently <a href="http://advamed.org/issues/19/medical-device-tax" type="external">cites the Furchtgott-Roth study warning of 43,000 job losses</a> — told us it had no hard data on the impact of the law so far.</p>
<p>In an email to us, AdvaMed spokeswoman Wanda Moebius wrote: “Given the size of the industry (more than 5,000 companies) and the fact that 73 percent of them have fewer than 20 employees, it’s really hard to capture that number. … The fact that so many device companies are small, not publicly traded companies makes it very hard to get that kind of data.”</p>
<p>Moebius did, however, provide us with a package of news articles about the “effects of the device tax.”</p>
<p>We reviewed the clips sent to us by AdvaMed, and a list of companies affected by the law that was compiled by the Republican National Committee’s research team. The RNC <a href="http://www.gop.com/news/research/democrats-taxing-shutdown-strategy/" type="external">posted its list Sept. 30 — the day that Boehner made his remarks</a>. Even at face value, the two lists combined don’t add up to even 10,000 jobs, let alone “tens of thousands,” as Boehner said.</p>
<p>The lists show that 12 large companies announced that they have or will eliminate at most a total of 8,725 positions — but not all of the jobs are in the U.S. and some positions are unfilled. Also, most of the companies did not blame the workforce reductions entirely on the tax, and, in a few cases, there was no mention of the tax as a reason at all for the layoffs. There are many factors at play that cause companies to restructure their operations — from consolidating operations after acquisitions to dealing with new market forces unleashed by a new federal law that puts increased emphasis on the delivery of more cost-effective treatments.</p>
<p>One company on AdvaMed’s list denied the tax is the cause of either layoffs or moving operations overseas. Covidien <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/covidien-plantclosure-idUSnWNAB119720120913" type="external">announced in September of last year</a> that it would close a South Carolina plant and move its operations to Costa Rica, resulting in 595 layoffs at the U.S. plant. <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-05-09/opinions/35454641_1_medical-devices-state-and-local-taxes-stryker" type="external">Columnist George Will last year</a> and, more recently, <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2013-03-21/pdf/CREC-2013-03-21-pt1-PgS2053-7.pdf#page=1" type="external">Sen. Kelly Ayotte on the Senate floor</a> in March of this year blamed the tax.</p>
<p>However, <a href="http://www.thesunchronicle.com/mansfield/covidien-denies-layoffs-report/article_a55f54db-b925-5b86-b246-136f2178e487.html?mode=story" type="external">Covidien issued a statement in 2012</a> that read: “While we believe the medical device tax may hurt investment in innovation and research and development, Covidien has never cited the device tax as a reason for laying off employees or transferring production to other locations.” Covidien spokeswoman Lisa Clemence told us in an email that “there has been no change in our position since that statement was issued.”</p>
<p>In another case, the announced job losses were more than offset by large job gains elsewhere in the company because of continued growth.</p>
<p>For example, AdvaMed and the RNC both list Stryker Corp. as laying off 1,000 employees in 2012. The RNC links to a Nov. 12, 2012, story in the Kalamazoo Gazette that carried the headline, “ <a href="http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2012/11/stryker_corp_to_complete_layof.html" type="external">Stryker Corp. to complete planned layoffs of 1,000 workers by end of 2012</a>.” AdvaMed quoted a <a href="http://blog.heritage.org/2012/12/18/medical-device-tax-is-latest-proof-that-taxes-matter/" type="external">Dec. 18, 2012, blog post on the conservative Heritage Foundation website</a> about the medical device tax that said, “For instance, Stryker Corporation of Kalamazoo, Michigan, announced it will lay off about 1,000 workers — about 5 percent of its workforce — because of the tax.”</p>
<p>But Stryker didn’t solely blame the tax for its restructuring plans and layoffs. And, nearly two years later, Stryker has actually increased its workforce — not reduced it — by 13 percent.</p>
<p><a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=118965&amp;p=irol-newsArticle_pf&amp;ID=1629222" type="external">When it announced the plans in November 2011</a>, the company said: “The targeted reductions and other restructuring activities are being initiated to provide efficiencies and realign resources in advance of the new Medical Device Excise Tax scheduled to begin in 2013, as well as to allow for continued investment in strategic areas and drive growth despite the ongoing challenging economic environment and market slowdown in elective procedures.” It also said there would be a 5 percent reduction in its “global workforce,” not just in the U.S.</p>
<p>So, the reductions were not all in the U.S., and there were other reasons for the decision, including freeing up capital for investments in growth areas.</p>
<p>The new business strategy apparently is paying off.</p>
<p>The company’s annual reports filed <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/310764/000031076413000054/syk10k12312012.htm" type="external">this</a> and <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/310764/000031076412000031/d10-k.htm" type="external">last year</a> show that it had 21,241 employees as of Dec. 31, 2011, and approximately 22,010 employees as of Dec. 31, 2012. In an email, Stryker spokeswoman Jo Johnson told us it now has 24,000 employees -– which is 2,759 employees more than it had as of Dec. 31, 2011, a month after the layoffs were announced. Johnson said the “5% workforce reduction described in our press release in November 2011” was completed in 2012. Asked about the increase in employees, she said, “As our global business continues to grow, we do grow our workforce to support the needs of our broad customer base.”</p>
<p>Stryker did not disclose in November 2011 where the layoffs would occur, and Johnson did not answer our question about the impact that the restructuring had on its U.S. workforce. It did close two plants in western New York that it had <a href="http://www.stryker.com/en-us/corporate/AboutUs/History/index.htm" type="external">acquired from Gaymar Industries in 2010</a>. According to <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2012/06/25/stryker-files-notice-for-closings.html" type="external">Buffalo Business First</a>, a business website, the plant closings resulted in 107 layoffs — which the company disclosed in notices filed with the state in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN). But Stryker filed no such notices in its home state of Michigan, state officials told us in an email and phone call.</p>
<p>Shipping Jobs Overseas?</p>
<p>There is also no evidence for the second part of Boehner’s claim — that the “tens of thousands” of U.S. jobs “are being shipped overseas.”</p>
<p>It is true that some U.S.-based multinational companies, including Boston Scientific, are making major investments in foreign countries that will create jobs abroad, even as they announce workforce reductions in the U.S. The overseas investments are not a direct result of the tax, although there could be an indirect impact.</p>
<p>As we mentioned earlier, the tax is imposed on all clinical medical devices sold in the U.S., whether those devices are manufactured in India or Indiana. Having said that, if a company sells more devices in India than the United States, then less of its revenues will be subject to the additional tax. As <a href="http://www.risk-compliance-association.com/Moodys_to_the_members_of_the_International_Association_of_Risk_and_Compliance_Professionals_July_2_2012.pdf" type="external">Moody’s explained,</a> companies that will be the least affected are those with “relatively strong free cash flow” and “lower percentages of affected US revenues.” Conversely, those most affected would be those with weak cash flow and a higher percentages of U.S. sales.</p>
<p>The incentive to increase sales abroad comes at a time when the industry is trying to capitalize on “emerging markets” known collectively as BRIC — that is, Brazil, Russia, India and China. So it is hard to separate the impact of the tax from the impact of natural market forces.</p>
<p>An industry trade magazine called <a href="http://www.mddionline.com/blog/devicetalk/breaking-down-brics-analysis-emerging-markets-medtech" type="external">Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry said</a> in a July blog post: “It is becoming ever more apparent that the importance of the BRIC nations comes not only from their sheer geographical size, but also from their large populations and the high annual growth rates of their respective medical device markets.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.boyle-associates.com/medical-device-emerging-markets-html/" type="external">JP Boyle &amp; Associates, an executive search consulting firm, says</a> the industrialized markets, including the U.S., will continue to grow — but not as fast as the emerging markets. “By all estimates these [industrialized] markets will continue to grow due to an aging global population. However this growth will be at rates that are much slower than those of emerging markets.”</p>
<p>So, the focus on expanding facilities abroad has to do in large part with business opportunities in these emerging foreign markets – not simply an effort to flee a new U.S. tax.</p>
<p>Let’s look at Boston Scientific — which both AdvaMed and the RNC cite as an example of companies laying off workers because of the medical device excise tax.</p>
<p>It’s true that the company has announced two waves of workforce reductions since 2011 as part of a restructuring of the company, <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2013/01/29/boston-scientific-plans-job-cuts-tops-view/0hdG9add1OkYbF90IgCRMP/story.html" type="external">according to the Associated Press story cited by the RNC</a>. The AP says the company announced an elimination of 1,200 to 1,400 positions in 2011 and then an additional 900 to 1,000 positions in January of this year. That’s a total of, at most, 2,400 positions, the most of any company on the lists provided by AdvaMed and the RNC. AP said the reductions “will include layoffs as well as the elimination of unfilled positions,” and the company hadn’t decided where the reductions would occur. <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/885725/000088572513000007/a2012form10k.htm" type="external">As of Dec. 31, 2012</a>, the Massachusetts-based company had 14,000 U.S. and 10,000 international employees for a total of 24,000, and about half of its net sales were in foreign countries.</p>
<p>The AP article also said the workforce reductions&#160;would “reduce annual operating expenses, before taxes, by about $340 million to $375 million by the end of this year” — far more than the excise tax will cost the company this year. Boston Scientific <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/885725/000088572513000007/a2012form10k.htm" type="external">reported in its latest annual report</a> filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission in February that it expects to pay about $80 million this year as a result of the excise tax. What will the company do with the savings, besides pay the medical excise tax? The AP says, “The company expects to reinvest a big portion of that savings in areas where it expects future growth, like the emerging markets of China and Brazil.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boston-scientific-announces-five-year-150-million-investment-in-china-to-accelerate-commercial-expansion-126243003.html" type="external">company on July 27, 2011, announced</a> that it would invest $150 million over five years to build a manufacturing plant and training center in China. The company said it “estimates that its target market in China currently exceeds $1 billion and is growing approximately 20 percent annually.” It also noted “the Chinese government’s commitment to spend $125 billion on its healthcare system in the next five years. We think the time is right to make additional investments to help fuel our growth, help us win global share, gain access to diverse talent and bring our less-invasive therapies to more patients in China.”</p>
<p>Elsevier Business Intelligence, a trade website, published a June 2012 report called “ <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=0CDsQFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mckinsey.com%2F~%2Fmedia%2FMcKinsey%2Fdotcom%2Fclient_service%2FPharma%2520and%2520Medical%2520Products%2FPMP%2520NEW%2FPDFs%2FMedical_device_growth_in_emerging_markets_InVivo_1206.ashx&amp;ei=ut9OUor6LLe44AO43IBw&amp;usg=AFQjCNFoCKoOvVdVFBZPtdnQDdGoF31vPA&amp;bvm=bv.53537100,d.dmg" type="external">Medical Device Growth in Emerging Markets: Lessons From Other Industries</a>” that singled out Boston Scientific’s announced plans for China as an example of smart business practices. “Other players need to quickly follow suit to build their local commercial presence in a way that attracts and retains talent,” the report said.</p>
<p>So, is it accurate to say that the medical device excise tax has forced Boston Scientific to build in China? No. But that’s what Republican Sen. John Barrasso did in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I218Jf-vEJY&amp;feature=youtu.be" type="external">floor speech on May 17, 2012</a>, emphasizing the fact that the company is located in Boston, Mass., as if the decision to build abroad was foreign to a multinational company that already has six international plants and manufactures nearly 60 percent of its products abroad. He said of Boston Scientific: “They’re building a $150 million factory — it’s called Boston Scientific — in China. That’s the result of what we see with this health care law, and the impact of what this administration is doing to jobs in America.”</p>
<p>That’s simply wrong.</p>
<p>We don’t mean to minimize the loss of any U.S. jobs, and we certainly don’t take a position on whether the tax should be repealed. But Boehner and Barrasso are both exaggerating the impact of the tax to date. Boston Scientific itself told its investors in its most recent annual report that it is “unclear what the full impact will be from the law.”</p>
<p>— Eugene Kiely</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Boehner and the Medical Device Tax | false | https://factcheck.org/2013/10/boehner-and-the-medical-device-tax/ | 2013-10-09 | 2least
| 2,522 | House Speaker John Boehner exaggerated when he said the 23 percent medical device excise tax in the Affordable Care Act 8220is costing us tens of thousands of jobs that are being shipped overseas8221 It8217s true that companies have announced the elimination of several thousand positions 8212 worldwide not just in the US 8212 but there is no evidence that the number has reached the 8220tens of thousands8221 or that all those jobs are going overseas Medical device companies say the tax is only partially to blame for workforce reductions that have been announced so far and investments overseas are being driven in large part by growth in 8220emerging markets8221 such as China India Brazil and Russia Costing US 8216Tens of Thousands of Jobs8217 The 23 percent medical device excise tax went into effect Jan 1 2013 so it has been in effect for less than a year Since the IRS permits businesses to deduct 8220all excise taxes that are ordinary and necessary expenses8221 of a business Moody8217s Investors Service estimates that the net tax effect is about 15 percent 8212 not the full 23 percent The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation says the tax is expected to raise about 29 billion in the first 10 years The tax is imposed on clinical medical devices 8212 such as CAT scan machines stents defibrillators and other devices sold to hospitals and other health care providers It makes no difference if the device is manufactured abroad or in the US since the tax is added to all sales in the US The tax does not apply to consumer medical devices which are those purchased directly by consumers 8212 such as hearing aids wheelchairs and contact lenses Boehner addressed the impact of the tax in floor remarks on the eve of a government shutdown and a day after the House voted to amend the Senate budget resolution and repeal the medical device excise tax Boehner Sept 30 The House has done its work We passed a bill Saturday night sent it to the United States Senate that would delay Obamacare for one year and would eliminate permanently the medical device tax that is costing us tens of thousands of jobs that are being shipped overseas There are two claims here that we will review that the tax is costing the United States 8220tens of thousands of jobs8221 and those jobs are being 8220shipped overseas8221 We asked Boehner8217s office what evidence he has that US medical device companies are shipping tens of thousands of jobs overseas but we received no response However Boehner and other critics of the medical device excise tax have pointed to an industry study written by Diana FurchtgottRoth a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and her husband Harold who is a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute The study released in September 2011 said that 8220the tax could result in job losses in excess of 430008221 It also said that US manufacturers 8220will be more likely to close plants in the United States and replace them with plants in foreign countries8221 First let8217s take a look at the number of jobs that may have been affected so far It may be that the law results in the loss of 8220tens of thousands of jobs8221 in the US but there is no evidence that that is the case now 8212 even from the tax8217s most ardent critics We contacted the Advanced Medical Technology Association or AdvaMed which is lobbying to repeal the tax A spokeswoman from the industry trade group 8212 which frequently cites the FurchtgottRoth study warning of 43000 job losses 8212 told us it had no hard data on the impact of the law so far In an email to us AdvaMed spokeswoman Wanda Moebius wrote 8220Given the size of the industry more than 5000 companies and the fact that 73 percent of them have fewer than 20 employees it8217s really hard to capture that number 8230 The fact that so many device companies are small not publicly traded companies makes it very hard to get that kind of data8221 Moebius did however provide us with a package of news articles about the 8220effects of the device tax8221 We reviewed the clips sent to us by AdvaMed and a list of companies affected by the law that was compiled by the Republican National Committee8217s research team The RNC posted its list Sept 30 8212 the day that Boehner made his remarks Even at face value the two lists combined don8217t add up to even 10000 jobs let alone 8220tens of thousands8221 as Boehner said The lists show that 12 large companies announced that they have or will eliminate at most a total of 8725 positions 8212 but not all of the jobs are in the US and some positions are unfilled Also most of the companies did not blame the workforce reductions entirely on the tax and in a few cases there was no mention of the tax as a reason at all for the layoffs There are many factors at play that cause companies to restructure their operations 8212 from consolidating operations after acquisitions to dealing with new market forces unleashed by a new federal law that puts increased emphasis on the delivery of more costeffective treatments One company on AdvaMed8217s list denied the tax is the cause of either layoffs or moving operations overseas Covidien announced in September of last year that it would close a South Carolina plant and move its operations to Costa Rica resulting in 595 layoffs at the US plant Columnist George Will last year and more recently Sen Kelly Ayotte on the Senate floor in March of this year blamed the tax However Covidien issued a statement in 2012 that read 8220While we believe the medical device tax may hurt investment in innovation and research and development Covidien has never cited the device tax as a reason for laying off employees or transferring production to other locations8221 Covidien spokeswoman Lisa Clemence told us in an email that 8220there has been no change in our position since that statement was issued8221 In another case the announced job losses were more than offset by large job gains elsewhere in the company because of continued growth For example AdvaMed and the RNC both list Stryker Corp as laying off 1000 employees in 2012 The RNC links to a Nov 12 2012 story in the Kalamazoo Gazette that carried the headline 8220 Stryker Corp to complete planned layoffs of 1000 workers by end of 20128221 AdvaMed quoted a Dec 18 2012 blog post on the conservative Heritage Foundation website about the medical device tax that said 8220For instance Stryker Corporation of Kalamazoo Michigan announced it will lay off about 1000 workers 8212 about 5 percent of its workforce 8212 because of the tax8221 But Stryker didn8217t solely blame the tax for its restructuring plans and layoffs And nearly two years later Stryker has actually increased its workforce 8212 not reduced it 8212 by 13 percent When it announced the plans in November 2011 the company said 8220The targeted reductions and other restructuring activities are being initiated to provide efficiencies and realign resources in advance of the new Medical Device Excise Tax scheduled to begin in 2013 as well as to allow for continued investment in strategic areas and drive growth despite the ongoing challenging economic environment and market slowdown in elective procedures8221 It also said there would be a 5 percent reduction in its 8220global workforce8221 not just in the US So the reductions were not all in the US and there were other reasons for the decision including freeing up capital for investments in growth areas The new business strategy apparently is paying off The company8217s annual reports filed this and last year show that it had 21241 employees as of Dec 31 2011 and approximately 22010 employees as of Dec 31 2012 In an email Stryker spokeswoman Jo Johnson told us it now has 24000 employees 8211 which is 2759 employees more than it had as of Dec 31 2011 a month after the layoffs were announced Johnson said the 82205 workforce reduction described in our press release in November 20118221 was completed in 2012 Asked about the increase in employees she said 8220As our global business continues to grow we do grow our workforce to support the needs of our broad customer base8221 Stryker did not disclose in November 2011 where the layoffs would occur and Johnson did not answer our question about the impact that the restructuring had on its US workforce It did close two plants in western New York that it had acquired from Gaymar Industries in 2010 According to Buffalo Business First a business website the plant closings resulted in 107 layoffs 8212 which the company disclosed in notices filed with the state in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act WARN But Stryker filed no such notices in its home state of Michigan state officials told us in an email and phone call Shipping Jobs Overseas There is also no evidence for the second part of Boehner8217s claim 8212 that the 8220tens of thousands8221 of US jobs 8220are being shipped overseas8221 It is true that some USbased multinational companies including Boston Scientific are making major investments in foreign countries that will create jobs abroad even as they announce workforce reductions in the US The overseas investments are not a direct result of the tax although there could be an indirect impact As we mentioned earlier the tax is imposed on all clinical medical devices sold in the US whether those devices are manufactured in India or Indiana Having said that if a company sells more devices in India than the United States then less of its revenues will be subject to the additional tax As Moody8217s explained companies that will be the least affected are those with 8220relatively strong free cash flow8221 and 8220lower percentages of affected US revenues8221 Conversely those most affected would be those with weak cash flow and a higher percentages of US sales The incentive to increase sales abroad comes at a time when the industry is trying to capitalize on 8220emerging markets8221 known collectively as BRIC 8212 that is Brazil Russia India and China So it is hard to separate the impact of the tax from the impact of natural market forces An industry trade magazine called Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry said in a July blog post 8220It is becoming ever more apparent that the importance of the BRIC nations comes not only from their sheer geographical size but also from their large populations and the high annual growth rates of their respective medical device markets8221 JP Boyle ampamp Associates an executive search consulting firm says the industrialized markets including the US will continue to grow 8212 but not as fast as the emerging markets 8220By all estimates these industrialized markets will continue to grow due to an aging global population However this growth will be at rates that are much slower than those of emerging markets8221 So the focus on expanding facilities abroad has to do in large part with business opportunities in these emerging foreign markets 8211 not simply an effort to flee a new US tax Let8217s look at Boston Scientific 8212 which both AdvaMed and the RNC cite as an example of companies laying off workers because of the medical device excise tax It8217s true that the company has announced two waves of workforce reductions since 2011 as part of a restructuring of the company according to the Associated Press story cited by the RNC The AP says the company announced an elimination of 1200 to 1400 positions in 2011 and then an additional 900 to 1000 positions in January of this year That8217s a total of at most 2400 positions the most of any company on the lists provided by AdvaMed and the RNC AP said the reductions 8220will include layoffs as well as the elimination of unfilled positions8221 and the company hadn8217t decided where the reductions would occur As of Dec 31 2012 the Massachusettsbased company had 14000 US and 10000 international employees for a total of 24000 and about half of its net sales were in foreign countries The AP article also said the workforce reductionsamp160would 8220reduce annual operating expenses before taxes by about 340 million to 375 million by the end of this year8221 8212 far more than the excise tax will cost the company this year Boston Scientific reported in its latest annual report filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission in February that it expects to pay about 80 million this year as a result of the excise tax What will the company do with the savings besides pay the medical excise tax The AP says 8220The company expects to reinvest a big portion of that savings in areas where it expects future growth like the emerging markets of China and Brazil8221 Indeed the company on July 27 2011 announced that it would invest 150 million over five years to build a manufacturing plant and training center in China The company said it 8220estimates that its target market in China currently exceeds 1 billion and is growing approximately 20 percent annually8221 It also noted 8220the Chinese government8217s commitment to spend 125 billion on its healthcare system in the next five years We think the time is right to make additional investments to help fuel our growth help us win global share gain access to diverse talent and bring our lessinvasive therapies to more patients in China8221 Elsevier Business Intelligence a trade website published a June 2012 report called 8220 Medical Device Growth in Emerging Markets Lessons From Other Industries8221 that singled out Boston Scientific8217s announced plans for China as an example of smart business practices 8220Other players need to quickly follow suit to build their local commercial presence in a way that attracts and retains talent8221 the report said So is it accurate to say that the medical device excise tax has forced Boston Scientific to build in China No But that8217s what Republican Sen John Barrasso did in a floor speech on May 17 2012 emphasizing the fact that the company is located in Boston Mass as if the decision to build abroad was foreign to a multinational company that already has six international plants and manufactures nearly 60 percent of its products abroad He said of Boston Scientific 8220They8217re building a 150 million factory 8212 it8217s called Boston Scientific 8212 in China That8217s the result of what we see with this health care law and the impact of what this administration is doing to jobs in America8221 That8217s simply wrong We don8217t mean to minimize the loss of any US jobs and we certainly don8217t take a position on whether the tax should be repealed But Boehner and Barrasso are both exaggerating the impact of the tax to date Boston Scientific itself told its investors in its most recent annual report that it is 8220unclear what the full impact will be from the law8221 8212 Eugene Kiely amp160 | House/PROPN Speaker/PROPN John/PROPN Boehner/PROPN exaggerated/VERB when/SCONJ he/PRON said/VERB the/DET 23/NUM percent/NOUN medical/ADJ 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<p><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-65930245/stock-photo-flags-us-uk-eu-and-israel-in-front-of-the-granite-facade.html?src=csl_recent_image-3" type="external">Shutterstock</a></p>
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<p>How can the Palestine solidarity movement win? What demands should it make in order to achieve the maximum amount of justice within the constraints of what is politically feasible? And how should it frame those demands in order to reach a broad public?</p>
<p />
<p>These are questions of political judgment rather than science. But sound political judgment will be rooted, so far as possible, in a clear-eyed assessment of current (or incipient) public opinion. A movement that wants to persuade a mainstream audience will position itself within or just beyond the spectrum of mainstream public opinion, taking care not to isolate itself by adopting language and demands that lack political resonance.</p>
<p>What in the end matters, moreover, is not merely public opinion but public opinion mobilized and expressed in the realm of formal politics.</p>
<p>The Swedish government’s decision in October 2014 to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/sweden-officially-recognises-state-palestine" type="external">unilaterally recognize the State of Palestine</a> triggered a succession of European parliamentary motions urging governments to follow suit. Lawmakers in the <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/backbench-business-committee/news/mps-debate-palestine-and-israel/" type="external">UK</a>, <a href="http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/cri/2014-2015/20150082.asp#P385135" type="external">France</a> and <a href="http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail2014121000052?opendocument" type="external">Ireland</a> called for immediate recognition, while Portuguese MPs urged recognition ‘ <a href="http://tinyurl.com/p92jl7r" type="external">in coordination with the European Union</a>.’ Weaker motions were passed in <a href="http://tinyurl.com/p8nokyh" type="external">Spain</a>1, <a href="http://www.dekamer.be/doc/PCRA/pdf/54/ap030.pdf" type="external">Belgium</a>2 and <a href="http://parlamento17.openpolis.it/votazione/camera/moz-speranza-e-a-1-745/16537" type="external">Italy</a>, while in <a href="http://www.thelocal.dk/20141212/denmark-votes-against-recognizing-palestine" type="external">Denmark</a> a <a href="http://tinyurl.com/m2yovty" type="external">resolution</a> calling for immediate recognition was rejected.[For footnotes, see the final page.]</p>
<p>This wave of European support for Palestinian statehood, which came after the <a href="http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_kerry_initiative_the_next_round" type="external">collapse</a> of the U.S.-sponsored diplomatic process last April and in the wake of Israel’s bloody summer offensive in Gaza, demonstrated the degree to which anger at Israel’s behavior had filtered through to Europe’s political classes. As <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm141013/debtext/141013-0003.htm" type="external">Sir Edward Leigh</a>, a member of Parliament, or MP, for the Conservatives observed during the U.K. House of Commons debate in October:</p>
<p>Virtually everyone who has spoken — not just lefties waving placards in Trafalgar Square, but virtually every Conservative MP — has said that now is the time to recognize the justice of the Palestinians’ cause.</p>
<p>Israel is “losing the argument and public opinion not only in Britain but also in Europe and … the United States,” U.K. <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm141202/debtext/141202-0001.htm" type="external">Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond</a> warned in December.</p>
<p>The principal task now for activists in Palestine and abroad is to ensure that this growing frustration with Israel redounds to the Palestinians’ benefit. The resolutions listed above and, still more so, the parliamentary debates they generated offer valuable strategic insights on this score.</p>
<p>One prominent strategic debate within the Palestine solidarity movement concerns whether to call for a two-state or a one-state solution.</p>
<p>But to judge by the mainstream resolutions for recognizing Palestine3 tabled in parliaments across Europe, legislators do not share this preoccupation. A one-state solution does not feature in the mainstream debate:</p>
<p />
<p>This will not surprise most proponents of a one-state strategy. Much of the appeal of that approach lies precisely in its opposition to what is perceived to be a hopeless and cynical establishment consensus.</p>
<p>Indeed, advocacy for a two-state settlement is increasingly viewed within the Palestine solidarity movement as being somehow unambitious, conservative or even — ugh! — liberal.</p>
<p>But is this true?</p>
<p>A number of European legislative bodies considered, in addition to the most popular resolution for recognition of Palestine, alternative motions that took a more “radical” (i.e., more strongly “pro-Palestinian”) line.4</p>
<p>But even here, at the most “pro-Palestinian” end of the parliamentary spectrum, there was no controversy over the desired political framework:</p>
<p>A one-state solution does not feature even at the most “radical,” most “pro-Palestinian” end of the mainstream political spectrum.</p>
<p>An examination of the debate transcripts confirms this picture.5</p>
<p>In France, those most in favor of recognition, most critical of Israel and most emphatically supportive of Palestinian rights — these groups being one and the same — backed a two-state settlement and presented recognition as promotive of it.6 Thus, François Asensi of the Democratic and Republican Left, or the GDR, a grouping of primarily French Communist Party members and other left-wing lawmakers, proclaimed his “profound and unshakable conviction” that “a lasting peace” requires “the immediate recognition of Palestine as a sovereign and independent state within the 1967 borders, and with East Jerusalem as its capital,” while the chair of the grouping that introduced the motion (the center-left Socialist, Republican and Citizen group) insisted that “peace is inconceivable without mutual recognition” — this means “recognition of the state of Palestine” and “full recognition of the state of Israel by all parties.” A vote to recognize Palestine, Asensi stressed, is “a vote for the security of the state of Israel.”</p>
<p>In Denmark, the socialist Red-Green Alliance emphasized that recognition is directed against “the occupation, not against Israel,” and indeed represents “an acceptance of Israel.”7 The Socialist People’s Party likewise framed recognition as “an instrument to revive … negotiations” for “a two-state solution.” Calls for a two-state settlement were also pervasive in the Belgian Federal Parliament.8 Wouter De Vriendt of Ecolo, a green party, one of the most “pro-Palestinian” of the members who participated, insisted that recognition “is no more than the confirmation of the internationally recognized borders of 1967.”</p>
<p>In the House of Commons, Grahame M. Morris, the chairman of Labour Friends of Palestine chairman, who tabled the recognition motion, described a “two-state solution” as “the only viable solution.”</p>
<p>Most participants explicitly endorsed a two-state settlement:</p>
<p>“Every speaker has spoken in favor of a two-state solution,” Jonathan Ashworth of the Labour Party observed. “All sides want a two-state solution,” Julie Elliott, also of Labour, agreed. “I think that all of us in this House, to a man and a woman, recognize the state of Israel and its right to exist,” Alan Duncan of the Conservative Party said.</p>
<p>None of the participants rejected the two-state position. Where a one-state solution was mentioned, it was strictly as a nightmare scenario that might materialize should a two-state solution fail. A one-state outcome was described variously as: “disastrous”; “morally repugnant and politically untenable”; “a continuation … of war and violence” that would entail “genocide and ethnic cleansing”; and “in no one’s interests.”</p>
<p>These statements were made by supporters of Palestinian recognition; the “one-state solution” to which they mostly referred was the Israeli right’s vision of a Greater Israel — evidently, the only version deemed politically relevant enough to warrant discussion. Notably, in a later debate on Palestine, George Galloway of the Respect Party — perhaps the Commons’ most severe critic of Israel — <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2014-12-01b.1.0&amp;s=speaker%3A10218#g11.1" type="external">did not call for a one-state solution</a>, confining his remarks strictly to the occupation and associated violations of international law.</p>
<p>The debate in Ireland’s Dáil Éireann is particularly instructive.9 Of all the parliamentary discussions, it was by some distance the most harshly critical of Israel. “Apartheid” accusations abounded, several members demanded “economic sanctions” against what one termed the “racist Zionist state,” and more than one accused Israel of “genocide.” Yet even here, at the most “pro-Palestinian” end of the most stridently “pro-Palestinian” assembly, most members backed two states. Sinn Féin’s motion itself framed recognition as a “contribution to securing” a two-state solution, and during the debate, Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin declared:</p>
<p>As the Irish people suffered centuries of colonization and occupation, we … identify with the circumstances confronting the Palestinian people, but that does not mean that we are anti-Israel. On the contrary, our desire is to see two sovereign states established.</p>
<p>In fact, just four members across all seven legislative sessions10 — all of them from Ireland — referred to a one-state solution in a positive or neutral light. Of these, two called for a two-state settlement.11 Thus, only two lawmakers — in Ireland, and across Europe — called for an alternative to the two-state settlement.12</p>
<p>In short, the one-state solution embraced by elements of the Palestine solidarity movement does not feature in the mainstream debate.</p>
<p>The new heroes of the European Left — Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain — are, incidentally, no exception. Syriza calls for a Palestinian state “ <a href="http://links.org.au/node/2888" type="external">on the 1967 borders</a>.” Podemos has yet to endorse a framework for settling the conflict, but its general secretary calls for peace “based on international law” and Israel’s withdrawal to its <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/17/the_next_syriza_as_greece_rejects" type="external">pre-June 1967 borders</a>.</p>
<p>If European legislators overwhelmingly endorse a two-state settlement, their grievances against Israel likewise focus overwhelmingly on Israel’s behavior outside its legal borders. Israel’s conduct in the occupied territories is its Achilles’ heel.</p>
<p>Across the seven parliaments examined, members’ frustration with Israel was fueled above all by the settlements and by its violence in Gaza.</p>
<p>By contrast, the Palestinian refugees and discrimination within Israel had relatively little resonance.</p>
<p>This suggests a further drawback to one-state advocacy: It encourages activists to direct their fire toward grievances that have little mainstream resonance, rather than concentrating it where Israel is most vulnerable.</p>
<p>While Europe’s legislative bodies broadly concurred on their objections to Israel’s conduct and their proposed solution to the conflict, this is not to say that lawmakers agreed on everything. Indeed, disputes were frequent and often heated. But it is important to understand the axes along which they ran.</p>
<p>The mainstream debate is not between two-states and one-state, but between advocates of a two-state settlement based on international law and advocates of a counterfeit two-state settlement on terms that deny Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Few legislators declared as explicitly as the U.K.’s Hugh Robertson of the Conservatives their preference for “the Kerry peace plan” as a “basis for restarting negotiations” and their <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm141013/debtext/141013-0003.htm" type="external">concomitant view</a> that “[we] will have to form a new border, probably based on the wall.”13 But the contributions of many lawmakers were ambiguous and hence potentially compatible with both positions.</p>
<p>More “radical,” “pro-Palestinian” representatives were more likely to insist on the importance of international law as the basis for negotiations. Thus, Asensi of the GDR criticized the Oslo process of bilateral negotiations between fundamentally unequal parties — “Can the prisoner negotiate his freedom?” — and urged “a new approach based on international law”:</p>
<p>Today, we have no other choice but to return to the path of law. The creation of a Palestinian state is provided for in resolutions 242 and 1860 of the U.N. Security Council, which define this occupied state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital … Its legality was confirmed by the opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2004.</p>
<p>Richard Burden of Labour (and Labour Friends of Palestine) similarly argued that, while “a negotiated settlement is so important,” “principles are important, too”: “First, we should act according to international law and insist that the parties involved do so as well.”</p>
<p>The other significant division splitting supporters of a two-state settlement pits those who demand effective and immediate measures to realize it against those who determinedly block all attempts to buttress rhetoric with action. In Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain, leftist parliamentary formations drafted resolutions that differed from the majority text by calling for more immediate and more effectual governmental action to have the two-state solution implemented. In Denmark, Christian Juhl of the Red-Green Alliance exclaimed:</p>
<p>[Soon I will] have heard from all parties: We agree on a two-state solution, and we will work towards a two-state solution, but it should not be right now, and it should not be this initiative.</p>
<p>Morris of Labour Friends of Palestine was <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm141013/debtext/141013-0002.htm" type="external">equally frustrated</a>: “We hear a great deal of talk about the two-state solution,” he observed, pointedly, but “in politics, talk often comes cheap.” Consistently, then, those elements of the mainstream debate that are most critical of Israel are to be found arguing for material pressure on Israel in the service of a two-state settlement <a href="http://www.eccpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Letter-to-HR-VP-Mogherini-RE-Suspension-EU-Israel-Association-Agreement-22.pdf" type="external">based on international law</a>, against those who favor either no material pressure on Israel (and thus de facto endorse the status quo) or who endorse a settlement on terms that violate Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Those are the politically relevant arguments, and this is where the solidarity movement must intervene.</p>
<p>Far from being conservative or defeatist, advocacy for a two-state settlement based on international law and the international consensus is at the most “radical,” most critical end of the mainstream political spectrum. It represents not the minimum but the maximum we can aim for while remaining within the parameters of mainstream debate.</p>
<p>Of course, public opinion might change, but, as of now, there is no evidence that it’s changing toward a one-state solution, and it is highly improbable that a consensus that has crystallized over a 40-year period and is stronger now than ever before, will change any time soon. Nor is it clear that Palestinians now living under the boot of Israel’s military can afford to wait as the decades-long struggle for world opinion is first undone and then waged anew, from scratch.</p>
<p><a href="http://jamiesternweiner.com" type="external">Jamie Stern-Weiner</a> is a researcher and editor for Spinwatch and OR Books, respectively, and is founding co-editor of <a href="http://www.newleftproject.org" type="external">New Left Project</a>. His writing has appeared in MERIP, openDemocracy, VICE, Jadaliyya and Le Monde Diplomatique. The author is grateful to Norman, Michaela, Filipe and Cleo for their generous assistance.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Footnotes:</p>
<p>1. p. 49: <a href="http://www.congreso.es/portal/page/portal/Congreso/PopUpCGI?CMD=VERLST&amp;BASE=pu10&amp;DOCS=1-1&amp;DOCORDER=LIFO&amp;QUERY=(BOCG-10-D-566.CODI.)#(P%E1gina49)" type="external">link</a>.</p>
<p>2. pp. 75-76: <a href="http://www.dekamer.be/doc/PCRA/pdf/54/ap030.pdf" type="external">link</a>.</p>
<p>3. I.e., those resolutions that, in each parliament, either passed or came closest to passing.</p>
<p>4. Proposed in Belgium by the two main center-left parties ( <a href="http://www.dekamer.be/flwb/pdf/54/0626/54k0626001.pdf" type="external">PS</a>, <a href="http://www.dekamer.be/flwb/pdf/54/0555/54k0555001.pdf" type="external">sp.a</a>), the <a href="http://www.dekamer.be/flwb/pdf/54/0652/54k0652001.pdf" type="external">Greens</a> and the <a href="http://www.dekamer.be/flwb/pdf/54/0719/54k0719001.pdf" type="external">Francophone Democratic Federalists</a>; in Italy by <a href="http://parlamento17.openpolis.it/atto/documento/id/68182" type="external">Left Ecology Freedom</a> and the <a href="http://parlamento17.openpolis.it/atto/documento/id/68182" type="external">Five Star Movement</a>; in Portugal by the <a href="http://app.parlamento.pt/webutils/docs/doc.pdf?path=6148523063446f764c3246795a5868774d546f334e7a67774c336470626d6c7561574e7059585270646d467a4c31684a535339305a58683062334d76634770794d5445324d53315953556b755a47396a&amp;fich=pjr1161-xii.doc&amp;inline=true" type="external">Communist Party</a>, <a href="http://app.parlamento.pt/webutils/docs/doc.pdf?path=6148523063446f764c3246795a5868774d546f334e7a67774c336470626d6c7561574e7059585270646d467a4c31684a535339305a58683062334d76634770794d5445324e79315953556b755a47396a&amp;fich=pjr1167-xii.doc&amp;inline=true" type="external">Left Bloc</a> and <a href="http://app.parlamento.pt/webutils/docs/doc.pdf?path=6148523063446f764c3246795a5868774d546f334e7a67774c336470626d6c7561574e7059585270646d467a4c31684a535339305a58683062334d76634770794d5445334e43315953556b755a47396a&amp;fich=pjr1174-xii.doc&amp;inline=true" type="external">Greens</a>; and in Spain by the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/nhc3mhg" type="external">Mixed Group, United Left, Catalonia Greens and Aragonese Union</a> (pp. 6-7).</p>
<p>5. The following discussion and figures are based on debate transcripts for Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the U.K., i.e., not Portugal.</p>
<p>6. The National Assembly discussion spread over two sessions, one on <a href="http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/cri/2014-2015/20150077.asp#P380821" type="external">November 28, 2014</a>, the other on <a href="http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/cri/2014-2015/20150082.asp#P385135" type="external">December 2, 2014</a>.</p>
<p>7. Folketinget, “ <a href="http://tinyurl.com/olccgna" type="external">Meeting no. 34 – Proposal B 21</a>” (December 11, 2014).</p>
<p>8. De Kamer, “ <a href="http://www.dekamer.be/doc/PCRI/html/54/ip030x.html" type="external">Plenary Session – Afternoon</a>” (February 5, 2015). There was one exception — Filip Dewinter of the far-right Vlaams Belang, who, while conceding that Palestinians have the right to state, added that it can just as well be “in Jordan” or elsewhere.</p>
<p>9. The debate took place over two sessions, on <a href="http://tinyurl.com/lzsokzl" type="external">December 9, 2014</a>, and <a href="http://tinyurl.com/nqent7s" type="external">December 10, 2014</a>.</p>
<p>10. The author did not examine the transcripts of the Portuguese debate.</p>
<p>11. Deputy Maureen O’Sullivan, an Independent, noted that she had “met Palestinians” who are considering “a one-state solution with power sharing” but stated, “I accept … the right of the people of Israel to a state.” Deputy Thomas Pringle urged the government to contribute to “a real and lasting peace based on the 1967 borders,” which, he speculated, might be a stepping-stone toward a one-state solution further down the line: “While, ultimately, a single-state solution is the best, perhaps by recognizing each other’s 1967 borders, we might achieve a single state at some stage in the future.”</p>
<p>12. Step forward Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett, of the People Before Profit Alliance, who maintained that “one state … is the only viable solution,” and Deputy Paul Murphy, of the Socialist Party, who called for “a new intifada” by Palestinians, “Jewish workers” and “people across the wider region” to “overthrow” the “barbaric … Israeli regime.” The Socialist Party and the PBPA together occupy three of the Dáil’s 166 seats.</p>
<p>13. Robertson voted in favor of the recognition motion.</p> | The Struggle for Palestine: What’s Winnable, What’s Not | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-struggle-for-palestine-whats-winnable-whats-not/ | 2015-04-08 | 4left
| 2,522 | amp160 Shutterstock amp160 How can the Palestine solidarity movement win What demands should it make in order to achieve the maximum amount of justice within the constraints of what is politically feasible And how should it frame those demands in order to reach a broad public These are questions of political judgment rather than science But sound political judgment will be rooted so far as possible in a cleareyed assessment of current or incipient public opinion A movement that wants to persuade a mainstream audience will position itself within or just beyond the spectrum of mainstream public opinion taking care not to isolate itself by adopting language and demands that lack political resonance What in the end matters moreover is not merely public opinion but public opinion mobilized and expressed in the realm of formal politics The Swedish government8217s decision in October 2014 to unilaterally recognize the State of Palestine triggered a succession of European parliamentary motions urging governments to follow suit Lawmakers in the UK France and Ireland called for immediate recognition while Portuguese MPs urged recognition 8216 in coordination with the European Union8217 Weaker motions were passed in Spain1 Belgium2 and Italy while in Denmark a resolution calling for immediate recognition was rejectedFor footnotes see the final page This wave of European support for Palestinian statehood which came after the collapse of the USsponsored diplomatic process last April and in the wake of Israel8217s bloody summer offensive in Gaza demonstrated the degree to which anger at Israel8217s behavior had filtered through to Europe8217s political classes As Sir Edward Leigh a member of Parliament or MP for the Conservatives observed during the UK House of Commons debate in October Virtually everyone who has spoken 8212 not just lefties waving placards in Trafalgar Square but virtually every Conservative MP 8212 has said that now is the time to recognize the justice of the Palestinians8217 cause Israel is 8220losing the argument and public opinion not only in Britain but also in Europe and 8230 the United States8221 UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned in December The principal task now for activists in Palestine and abroad is to ensure that this growing frustration with Israel redounds to the Palestinians8217 benefit The resolutions listed above and still more so the parliamentary debates they generated offer valuable strategic insights on this score One prominent strategic debate within the Palestine solidarity movement concerns whether to call for a twostate or a onestate solution But to judge by the mainstream resolutions for recognizing Palestine3 tabled in parliaments across Europe legislators do not share this preoccupation A onestate solution does not feature in the mainstream debate This will not surprise most proponents of a onestate strategy Much of the appeal of that approach lies precisely in its opposition to what is perceived to be a hopeless and cynical establishment consensus Indeed advocacy for a twostate settlement is increasingly viewed within the Palestine solidarity movement as being somehow unambitious conservative or even 8212 ugh 8212 liberal But is this true A number of European legislative bodies considered in addition to the most popular resolution for recognition of Palestine alternative motions that took a more 8220radical8221 ie more strongly 8220proPalestinian8221 line4 But even here at the most 8220proPalestinian8221 end of the parliamentary spectrum there was no controversy over the desired political framework A onestate solution does not feature even at the most 8220radical8221 most 8220proPalestinian8221 end of the mainstream political spectrum An examination of the debate transcripts confirms this picture5 In France those most in favor of recognition most critical of Israel and most emphatically supportive of Palestinian rights 8212 these groups being one and the same 8212 backed a twostate settlement and presented recognition as promotive of it6 Thus Fran231ois Asensi of the Democratic and Republican Left or the GDR a grouping of primarily French Communist Party members and other leftwing lawmakers proclaimed his 8220profound and unshakable conviction8221 that 8220a lasting peace8221 requires 8220the immediate recognition of Palestine as a sovereign and independent state within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital8221 while the chair of the grouping that introduced the motion the centerleft Socialist Republican and Citizen group insisted that 8220peace is inconceivable without mutual recognition8221 8212 this means 8220recognition of the state of Palestine8221 and 8220full recognition of the state of Israel by all parties8221 A vote to recognize Palestine Asensi stressed is 8220a vote for the security of the state of Israel8221 In Denmark the socialist RedGreen Alliance emphasized that recognition is directed against 8220the occupation not against Israel8221 and indeed represents 8220an acceptance of Israel82217 The Socialist People8217s Party likewise framed recognition as 8220an instrument to revive 8230 negotiations8221 for 8220a twostate solution8221 Calls for a twostate settlement were also pervasive in the Belgian Federal Parliament8 Wouter De Vriendt of Ecolo a green party one of the most 8220proPalestinian8221 of the members who participated insisted that recognition 8220is no more than the confirmation of the internationally recognized borders of 19678221 In the House of Commons Grahame M Morris the chairman of Labour Friends of Palestine chairman who tabled the recognition motion described a 8220twostate solution8221 as 8220the only viable solution8221 Most participants explicitly endorsed a twostate settlement 8220Every speaker has spoken in favor of a twostate solution8221 Jonathan Ashworth of the Labour Party observed 8220All sides want a twostate solution8221 Julie Elliott also of Labour agreed 8220I think that all of us in this House to a man and a woman recognize the state of Israel and its right to exist8221 Alan Duncan of the Conservative Party said None of the participants rejected the twostate position Where a onestate solution was mentioned it was strictly as a nightmare scenario that might materialize should a twostate solution fail A onestate outcome was described variously as 8220disastrous8221 8220morally repugnant and politically untenable8221 8220a continuation 8230 of war and violence8221 that would entail 8220genocide and ethnic cleansing8221 and 8220in no one8217s interests8221 These statements were made by supporters of Palestinian recognition the 8220onestate solution8221 to which they mostly referred was the Israeli right8217s vision of a Greater Israel 8212 evidently the only version deemed politically relevant enough to warrant discussion Notably in a later debate on Palestine George Galloway of the Respect Party 8212 perhaps the Commons8217 most severe critic of Israel 8212 did not call for a onestate solution confining his remarks strictly to the occupation and associated violations of international law The debate in Ireland8217s D225il 201ireann is particularly instructive9 Of all the parliamentary discussions it was by some distance the most harshly critical of Israel 8220Apartheid8221 accusations abounded several members demanded 8220economic sanctions8221 against what one termed the 8220racist Zionist state8221 and more than one accused Israel of 8220genocide8221 Yet even here at the most 8220proPalestinian8221 end of the most stridently 8220proPalestinian8221 assembly most members backed two states Sinn F233in8217s motion itself framed recognition as a 8220contribution to securing8221 a twostate solution and during the debate Gerry Adams of Sinn F233in declared As the Irish people suffered centuries of colonization and occupation we 8230 identify with the circumstances confronting the Palestinian people but that does not mean that we are antiIsrael On the contrary our desire is to see two sovereign states established In fact just four members across all seven legislative sessions10 8212 all of them from Ireland 8212 referred to a onestate solution in a positive or neutral light Of these two called for a twostate settlement11 Thus only two lawmakers 8212 in Ireland and across Europe 8212 called for an alternative to the twostate settlement12 In short the onestate solution embraced by elements of the Palestine solidarity movement does not feature in the mainstream debate The new heroes of the European Left 8212 Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain 8212 are incidentally no exception Syriza calls for a Palestinian state 8220 on the 1967 borders8221 Podemos has yet to endorse a framework for settling the conflict but its general secretary calls for peace 8220based on international law8221 and Israel8217s withdrawal to its preJune 1967 borders If European legislators overwhelmingly endorse a twostate settlement their grievances against Israel likewise focus overwhelmingly on Israel8217s behavior outside its legal borders Israel8217s conduct in the occupied territories is its Achilles8217 heel Across the seven parliaments examined members8217 frustration with Israel was fueled above all by the settlements and by its violence in Gaza By contrast the Palestinian refugees and discrimination within Israel had relatively little resonance This suggests a further drawback to onestate advocacy It encourages activists to direct their fire toward grievances that have little mainstream resonance rather than concentrating it where Israel is most vulnerable While Europe8217s legislative bodies broadly concurred on their objections to Israel8217s conduct and their proposed solution to the conflict this is not to say that lawmakers agreed on everything Indeed disputes were frequent and often heated But it is important to understand the axes along which they ran The mainstream debate is not between twostates and onestate but between advocates of a twostate settlement based on international law and advocates of a counterfeit twostate settlement on terms that deny Palestinian rights Few legislators declared as explicitly as the UK8217s Hugh Robertson of the Conservatives their preference for 8220the Kerry peace plan8221 as a 8220basis for restarting negotiations8221 and their concomitant view that 8220we will have to form a new border probably based on the wall822113 But the contributions of many lawmakers were ambiguous and hence potentially compatible with both positions More 8220radical8221 8220proPalestinian8221 representatives were more likely to insist on the importance of international law as the basis for negotiations Thus Asensi of the GDR criticized the Oslo process of bilateral negotiations between fundamentally unequal parties 8212 8220Can the prisoner negotiate his freedom8221 8212 and urged 8220a new approach based on international law8221 Today we have no other choice but to return to the path of law The creation of a Palestinian state is provided for in resolutions 242 and 1860 of the UN Security Council which define this occupied state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital 8230 Its legality was confirmed by the opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2004 Richard Burden of Labour and Labour Friends of Palestine similarly argued that while 8220a negotiated settlement is so important8221 8220principles are important too8221 8220First we should act according to international law and insist that the parties involved do so as well8221 The other significant division splitting supporters of a twostate settlement pits those who demand effective and immediate measures to realize it against those who determinedly block all attempts to buttress rhetoric with action In Belgium Italy Portugal and Spain leftist parliamentary formations drafted resolutions that differed from the majority text by calling for more immediate and more effectual governmental action to have the twostate solution implemented In Denmark Christian Juhl of the RedGreen Alliance exclaimed Soon I will have heard from all parties We agree on a twostate solution and we will work towards a twostate solution but it should not be right now and it should not be this initiative Morris of Labour Friends of Palestine was equally frustrated 8220We hear a great deal of talk about the twostate solution8221 he observed pointedly but 8220in politics talk often comes cheap8221 Consistently then those elements of the mainstream debate that are most critical of Israel are to be found arguing for material pressure on Israel in the service of a twostate settlement based on international law against those who favor either no material pressure on Israel and thus de facto endorse the status quo or who endorse a settlement on terms that violate Palestinian rights Those are the politically relevant arguments and this is where the solidarity movement must intervene Far from being conservative or defeatist advocacy for a twostate settlement based on international law and the international consensus is at the most 8220radical8221 most critical end of the mainstream political spectrum It represents not the minimum but the maximum we can aim for while remaining within the parameters of mainstream debate Of course public opinion might change but as of now there is no evidence that it8217s changing toward a onestate solution and it is highly improbable that a consensus that has crystallized over a 40year period and is stronger now than ever before will change any time soon Nor is it clear that Palestinians now living under the boot of Israel8217s military can afford to wait as the decadeslong struggle for world opinion is first undone and then waged anew from scratch Jamie SternWeiner is a researcher and editor for Spinwatch and OR Books respectively and is founding coeditor of New Left Project His writing has appeared in MERIP openDemocracy VICE Jadaliyya and Le Monde Diplomatique The author is grateful to Norman Michaela Filipe and Cleo for their generous assistance __ Footnotes 1 p 49 link 2 pp 7576 link 3 Ie those resolutions that in each parliament either passed or came closest to passing 4 Proposed in Belgium by the two main centerleft parties PS spa the Greens and the Francophone Democratic Federalists in Italy by Left Ecology Freedom and the Five Star Movement in Portugal by the Communist Party Left Bloc and Greens and in Spain by the Mixed Group United Left Catalonia Greens and Aragonese Union pp 67 5 The following discussion and figures are based on debate transcripts for Belgium Denmark France Ireland Italy Spain and the UK ie not Portugal 6 The National Assembly discussion spread over two sessions one on November 28 2014 the other on December 2 2014 7 Folketinget 8220 Meeting no 34 8211 Proposal B 218221 December 11 2014 8 De Kamer 8220 Plenary Session 8211 Afternoon8221 February 5 2015 There was one exception 8212 Filip Dewinter of the farright Vlaams Belang who while conceding that Palestinians have the right to state added that it can just as well be 8220in Jordan8221 or elsewhere 9 The debate took place over two sessions on December 9 2014 and December 10 2014 10 The author did not examine the transcripts of the Portuguese debate 11 Deputy Maureen O8217Sullivan an Independent noted that she had 8220met Palestinians8221 who are considering 8220a onestate solution with power sharing8221 but stated 8220I accept 8230 the right of the people of Israel to a state8221 Deputy Thomas Pringle urged the government to contribute to 8220a real and lasting peace based on the 1967 borders8221 which he speculated might be a steppingstone toward a onestate solution further down the line 8220While ultimately a singlestate solution is the best perhaps by recognizing each other8217s 1967 borders we might achieve a single state at some stage in the future8221 12 Step forward Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance who maintained that 8220one state 8230 is the only viable solution8221 and Deputy Paul Murphy of the Socialist Party who called for 8220a new intifada8221 by Palestinians 8220Jewish workers8221 and 8220people across the wider region8221 to 8220overthrow8221 the 8220barbaric 8230 Israeli regime8221 The Socialist Party and the PBPA together occupy three of the D225il8217s 166 seats 13 Robertson voted in favor of the recognition motion | amp160/PROPN Shutterstock/PROPN amp160/PROPN How/SCONJ can/AUX the/DET Palestine/PROPN solidarity/NOUN movement/NOUN win/VERB What/DET demands/NOUN should/AUX it/PRON make/VERB in/ADP order/NOUN to/PART achieve/VERB the/DET maximum/ADJ amount/NOUN of/ADP justice/NOUN within/ADP the/DET constraints/NOUN of/ADP what/PRON is/AUX politically/ADV feasible/ADJ And/CCONJ how/SCONJ should/AUX it/PRON frame/VERB those/DET demands/NOUN in/ADP order/NOUN to/PART reach/VERB a/DET broad/ADJ public/NOUN These/PRON are/AUX 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<p />
<p><a href="#one" type="external">A Ba’athist Rebirth?</a> SWAT raids on Saddam’s die-hards? If only it were that simple.</p>
<p><a href="#two" type="external">Helping the Hardliners</a> Bush is saying nice things about student demonstrations in Iran. Bush may be making things worse.</p>
<p><a href="#three" type="external">The Right’s Media Rant</a> Still celebrating over the New York Times’ shame, neocons propose new antidotes to the ‘liberal’ press.</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">A Ba’athist Rebirth?</a> Iraqi Ba’athists seem, at least according to recent reports, to be putting up more of a fight now than when American troops first rolled into Baghdad, more than two months ago.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, US forces launched a series of new search-and-destroy operations — the biggest since George W. Bush’s aircraft carrier photo-op victory speech last month — in the so-called “Sunni Triangle” surrounding Baghdad. The reasons for the new sweeps are obvious: American troops have been coming under increasingly heavy, well-organized fire in the last few weeks, and convoys are now being <a href="http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=Breaking&amp;storyId=74%207671" type="external">ambushed</a> and soldiers shot with alarming regularity. Since the end of major combat in May, <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=415869" type="external">40 have been killed</a>.</p>
<p>Who, exactly, is behind all of these attacks is less clear, however. For its part, the US military <a href="http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=%2020030656.txt" type="external">appears to have little doubt</a>. Desert Scorpion, its latest operation, is “designed to identify and defeat selected Ba’ath party loyalists, terrorist organizations and criminal elements,” according to Central Command in Doha. And to be sure, some Sunnis do pine for the ancien regime. “ <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=415869" type="external">Hell with Saddam is better than paradise with the Americans</a>,” reads a freshly painted slogan on a burnt-out tank in the central town of Baquba, the London Independent‘s Patrick Cockburn reports.</p>
<p>But to label all resistance “Ba’athist” is a gross oversimplification, many observers say — especially because American heavy-handedness seems to be <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;cid=574&amp;ncid=721&amp;e=1&amp;u=/nm/20030613/wl_nm/iraq_crackdown_dc" type="external">creating more enemies by the day</a>. In a particularly egregious example last month, US soldiers shot and killed four teenagers in Samarra, a town north of Baghdad. Their crime? <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2969704.stm" type="external">Firing guns during a wedding parade</a>. It was just a terrible mistake on the Americans’ part, of course, a mistake borne of cultural disconnect and nervous trigger fingers, but a mistake with potentially serious consequences. The tactics of the new anti-Ba’athist sweeps — round-ups carried out by US soldiers, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60042-2003Jun14?language=printer" type="external">shouting in English and guided by score-settling informers</a> — have also provoked outrage, the London Guardian‘s Richard Norton-Taylor and Rory McCarthy note. Ultimately, these new iron-fist operations might achieve <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,976486,00.html" type="external">the exact opposite of their intent</a>, and further harden Iraqi sentiment against the US occupation.</p>
<p />
<p>“Hostile residents are not shy of threatening more attacks, insisting they are not Saddam loyalists but angry at the US military occupation. Aggressive house searches and the killing by US troops of 18 protesters in a demonstration last month have provoked fury. Soldiers on the ground say the attacks they are facing, mostly from rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, are disciplined and skilled, not the random shootings of angry civilians. American generals admit that though the attacks may be locally organised there is no evidence yet of a reformed Ba’ath party centrally coordinating the assaults.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>The US and Britain said they came to liberate Iraq and protect its people. The failure to understand how Iraqis would respond may be rooted in arrogance. It is also a colossal failure in intelligence which may prove to be at least as important as the inability to find any of Iraq’s banned weapons. The commander of British forces in the war, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, admitted as much in remarkably frank evidence to MPs this week. Asked about the problems of ‘policing’ Iraq, and the number of forces needed to do the job, he replied: ‘I’m not sure we understand yet.'”</p>
<p>In fact, three months in, US forces still seem to have precious little understanding of the country they occupy. “Hearts and Minds” operations are <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,978166,00.html" type="external">greeted with Iraqi derision</a> and, as the Washington Post‘s Anthony Shadid reports, even the distribution of food aid has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60042-2003Jun14?language=printer" type="external">sparked anger</a> throughout the Sunni heartland.</p>
<p />
<p>“U.S. soldiers tossed military meals and bottles of water to the crowd. ‘They treated us like monkeys — who’s the first one who can jump up and catch the food,’ said Mohammed, who was captured by Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and kept as a prisoner for 11 years.”</p>
<p>While most of the organized resistance is coming from the Sunni strongholds of central Iraq, that may change. The Shi’ites, too, are increasingly angry over the occupation, as the London Telegraph‘s Peter Foster reports. In the southern city of Basra over the weekend, 10,000 protesters rained stones on a British convoy while chanting, “ <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/16/wirq116.xml&amp;sSheet=/news/2003/06/16/ixnewstop.html" type="external">Answer our demands or you will regret it</a>.”</p>
<p>Well, it is a military occupation, after all. No one ever promised it would be all sweetness and light. Right?</p>
<p>Oh, wait. <a href="http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/886068.asp" type="external">Dick Cheney</a> did. So did <a href="http://www.washingtonfile.net/2003/Feb/Feb21/EUR509.HTM" type="external">Paul Wolfowitz</a>. And <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/Primetime/iraq_bushtranscript030501.html" type="external">George W. Bush</a> …</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Helping the Hardliners</a> After six days of protests in Iran, students and their pro-democracy supporters continue to withstand an onslaught of arrests and beatings from the Ayatollah Khameini’s police. President Bush, on a break from his Maine vacation, tried to be helpful by making comments <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/16/international/middleeast/16IRAN.html" type="external">in support</a> of the demonstrations. Bush announced Sunday: “This is the beginning of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran which I think is positive.” (Interesting that the president didn’t have the same insight in March when millions of people across the globe were protesting a potential war on Iraq. Nor has this been his take on anti-occupation demonstrations in Iraq.)</p>
<p>Given the political reality on the ground in Tehran, President Bush’s comments, however heartfelt, may only hinder the progress of the Iranian-led democracy movement. Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hamid Rezi Asefi, pointed to Bush’s statements as evidence that Americans in Washington were orchestrating these “hooligans'” demonstrations. Bush’s pro-democracy comments also drew sharp criticism from the nation’s state-controlled newspaper, the Tehran Times. The editors there griped about <a href="http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=6/17/03&amp;Cat=14&amp;Num=1" type="external">Bush’s interference</a> in Iran’s domestic concerns:</p>
<p />
<p>“George Bush’s interfering remarks about Iran are nothing new. The Iranian people have experienced much interference and witnessed numerous hostile measures by the United States over the past two decades. In fact this type of rhetoric, based on a misconception of U.S. interests and the White House’s interventionist policy, has become routine.”</p>
<p>The Tehran Times is far from an expression of popular feeling in Iran. But its comments do illustrate that an occupying power might not be in the best position to fend off accusations of interference.</p>
<p>Regardless of Bush, the student protesters are evidence of important shifts in Iran, and their position may be gaining some ground. The protesters are the most vocal tip of a demographic iceberg in Iran, where 70 percent of the population is under 30. This younger generation did not participate in the clerics’ revolution, and seems fed up. Some have even mustered the gumption to call for Khameini’s execution — under a regime where any criticism of the Ayatollah can land you behind bars. In May over 120 lawmakers published an open letter calling on Khameinei to accept the reform the students are pushing before “the whole establishment and the country’s independence and territorial integrity are jeopardised.” Student actions are being met with strong support from thousands of ordinary Iranians. Demonstrations have spread to several smaller cities outside Tehran.</p>
<p>So the demonstrations do represent an important indication of popular feeling. But Monday’s editorial in the Christian Science Monitor notes that although the demonstrations have once again brought Iranian students into the international spotlight, the students are <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0616/p08s03-comv.html" type="external">not about to initiate drastic reform</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“These latest protests, like those in 1999, which also turned violent, reveal more about the weakness of the reform movement than its strength. They are confined largely to universities, and incited mainly by Persian-language satellite broadcasts sent by exiles in Los Angeles. And the spark this time was a move to privatize universities, hardly the stuff to drive a revolution.</p>
<p>Rebellion in Iran may be years away, yet the US needs action soon. Iran might have a nuclear device within a few years. For now, the best course is direct diplomacy and urging other nations to push Iran for more democracy and an end to support for terrorists.”</p>
<p>It’s unclear what course Bush is setting. According to <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EF17Ak01.html" type="external">Hooman Peimani</a> of Asia Times, Bush’s recent statements may fit in with a larger, menacing pattern:</p>
<p />
<p>American allegations on Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons program are not something new. In fact they have been around since the early 1980s. Nor are the accusations of Tehran backing terrorists. What is new about them is Washington’s trying so hard to create an unfounded sense of urgency to justify its regime change in Iran, just as it did in the months preceding its March attack on Iraq. This is notwithstanding the fact that factors such as Iran’s social, economic and political developments as well as its strong military force benefiting from a home-grown military industry make any foreign-orchestrated plan for regime change unrealistic.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>There is not yet any strong evidence to suggest that this wave of protests – which have run for six days – could lead to a popular pro-democracy movement capable of replacing the existing theocracy with a democracy.</p>
<p>Against a background of two years of anti-Iranian propaganda and a few months of talks of a regime change in Iran, Washington’s clear expression of support for the Iranian students has only provided grounds for Tehran’s suppression of their protests under the pretext of neutralizing an American plan to destabilize Iran.</p>
<p>Despite what the American government claims, its policy towards Iran has not and will not likely help foster democracy in that country. However, as an external factor, it will certainly damage the Iranian people’s bid for democracy and for a domestically-planned regime change.”</p>
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">The Right’s Media Rant</a> It all started with Jayson Blair. Blair is <a href="http://www.townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/printpb20030616.shtml" type="external">conservative America’s archetypal liberal villain</a> — a young, successful member of the big-shot press who is also a big fat liar. Oh, and he was black — making him an archetypal liberal, multicultural villian. Despite the many remaining brilliant journalists of color, the right’s pillar publications still purport that any editorial oversight at the New York Times was the result of an “almost blind devotion to liberalism’s god of ‘diversity’ in the newsroom,” as Pat Buchanan writes in Townhall.</p>
<p>Yes, on the conservative right, it’s open season once again on the mythic “liberal media.” Apparently, according to Buchanan, “Big Media” is, and always has been, a “fortress of liberalism.” But not to worry. Pat and his cohorts have solutions. Aside from doing away with the implementation of racial diversity in the media, gender politics ought be jettisoned as well. The good old boy’s call for ‘fair and unbiased coverage’ is best evidenced by William Kristol of the Weekly Standard, who somehow manages to simultaneously criticize America’s well-to-do elite and charge that said elite deserves more voice in the media:</p>
<p />
<p>“At [Kristol’s ideal newspaper of record], too, ‘diversity’ would be understood not merely in terms of skin color. Jayson Blair was a middle-class kid from suburban D.C., who attended a fine state school — not presumably an under-represented class at the New York Times. Yet he was Howell Raines’s idea, and totem — and a badly exploited totem — of ‘diversity.’</p>
<p>The first-rate paper we need would have real diversity — of background, of experience, but especially of viewpoint. It wouldn’t, for example, suppress columns by its own sportswriters who happened not to be entranced by the top brass’s project of transforming an all-men’s golf club.”</p>
<p>Interesting that for Kristol, a diversity of viewpoints at the New York Times would primarily mean the inclusion of a column in support of a rich, all-male country club. But his first point is well-taken — all media, right and left, would do well to expand the socioeconomic diversity of its newsrooms. A plug for an all-male golf club hardly seems an example of the kind of true diversity that might be missing.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there are new allegations of plagiarism against another New York Times star, this time one of the cowgirls at the media circus. David Frum of the National Review plays <a type="external" href="">knight in shining armor for his wife</a>, Danielle Crittenden. Frum accuses columnist Maureen Dowd of plagiarising Crittenden’s work. He calls Dowd the author of “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/opinion/15DOWD.html" type="external">trademark gaseous columns</a> about popular culture turning its back on the accomplishments of feminism, etc., etc.”</p>
<p>According to the valiant Frum, one of Dowd’s points was pulled directly from his honey’s NPR broadcast:</p>
<p />
<p>“As [Dowd’s] column trudged wearily to its end, there unexpectedly appeared an unusual thought, vividly phrased: ‘There’s even a retro trend among women toward deserting the fast track for a pleasant life of sitting around Starbucks gabbing with their girlfriends, baby strollers beside them ….’</p>
<p>Now compare Dowd’s words to these, broadcast on National Public Radio’s ‘Morning Edition’ two weeks ago:</p>
<p>‘You see them at Starbucks at two o’clock on a weekday afternoon, pushing a stroller and balancing a latte, with a slight look of bewilderment on their faces, as if to say, How did I end up here? … Yet forty years after the launch of the women’s movement, this is exactly what many former career women find themselves doing.'”</p>
<p>As a plagiarism case, this is far from cut and dry. But why is Frum the one making the accusation? Does Crittenden need her husband to come to her defense while he sets the record straight about those pesky proponents of feminism?</p>
<p>But it’s not just Dowd — aside from being a royal pain in the collective Republican neck, Hillary Rodham Clinton is <a href="http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/asullivan.htm" type="external">naught but a media-savvy liar</a>, according to the Right. Comparing the former first lady to one of Howell Raines’ minions, Andrew Sullivan opines in the Washington Times that Mrs.Clinton has either been neglecting her political duties or not giving her ghostwriters credit:</p>
<p />
<p>“Of course, politicians deploying ghostwriters to pen their memoirs is common practice. They all do it. But most do it honestly… John McCain credited his co-author/ghost-writer on the book cover. But the junior senator from New York had none of that with her first book, ‘It Takes A Village,’ and she’ll have none of it with this one either. In other words, the lies begin on the cover.”</p>
<p>What a relief then, that the American public is too smart to buy any of the liberal media bias (except maybe a record-breaking number of Hillary’s book). According to Buchanan, “in the populist and democratic media — the op-ed pages, the Internet, cable TV, talk radio — where people have a variety of voices from which to choose — conservatives prevail.”</p>
<p>Except that, democratically speaking, the dreaded and liberal New York Times is still one of the top selling papers in the States. This, according to theWeekly Standard’s Kristol, is evidence of the how the liberal media and its confounding desire to represent women and people of color have doomed the nation:</p>
<p />
<p>“Fundamental regime change at the New York Times is not in the cards. Inspections and sanctions won’t work. Even the French can’t help. The Times is irredeemable. The question is whether a new newspaper of record will replace it.”</p>
<p>What’s next? Preemptive strikes on alternative weeklies?</p>
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<p /> | Daily MoJo | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/06/daily-mojo-9/ | 2003-06-17 | 4left
| 2,522 | A Ba8217athist Rebirth SWAT raids on Saddam8217s diehards If only it were that simple Helping the Hardliners Bush is saying nice things about student demonstrations in Iran Bush may be making things worse The Right8217s Media Rant Still celebrating over the New York Times8217 shame neocons propose new antidotes to the 8216liberal8217 press A Ba8217athist Rebirth Iraqi Ba8217athists seem at least according to recent reports to be putting up more of a fight now than when American troops first rolled into Baghdad more than two months ago Over the weekend US forces launched a series of new searchanddestroy operations 8212 the biggest since George W Bush8217s aircraft carrier photoop victory speech last month 8212 in the socalled 8220Sunni Triangle8221 surrounding Baghdad The reasons for the new sweeps are obvious American troops have been coming under increasingly heavy wellorganized fire in the last few weeks and convoys are now being ambushed and soldiers shot with alarming regularity Since the end of major combat in May 40 have been killed Who exactly is behind all of these attacks is less clear however For its part the US military appears to have little doubt Desert Scorpion its latest operation is 8220designed to identify and defeat selected Ba8217ath party loyalists terrorist organizations and criminal elements8221 according to Central Command in Doha And to be sure some Sunnis do pine for the ancien regime 8220 Hell with Saddam is better than paradise with the Americans8221 reads a freshly painted slogan on a burntout tank in the central town of Baquba the London Independent8216s Patrick Cockburn reports But to label all resistance 8220Ba8217athist8221 is a gross oversimplification many observers say 8212 especially because American heavyhandedness seems to be creating more enemies by the day In a particularly egregious example last month US soldiers shot and killed four teenagers in Samarra a town north of Baghdad Their crime Firing guns during a wedding parade It was just a terrible mistake on the Americans8217 part of course a mistake borne of cultural disconnect and nervous trigger fingers but a mistake with potentially serious consequences The tactics of the new antiBa8217athist sweeps 8212 roundups carried out by US soldiers shouting in English and guided by scoresettling informers 8212 have also provoked outrage the London Guardian8216s Richard NortonTaylor and Rory McCarthy note Ultimately these new ironfist operations might achieve the exact opposite of their intent and further harden Iraqi sentiment against the US occupation 8220Hostile residents are not shy of threatening more attacks insisting they are not Saddam loyalists but angry at the US military occupation Aggressive house searches and the killing by US troops of 18 protesters in a demonstration last month have provoked fury Soldiers on the ground say the attacks they are facing mostly from rocketpropelled grenades and mortars are disciplined and skilled not the random shootings of angry civilians American generals admit that though the attacks may be locally organised there is no evidence yet of a reformed Ba8217ath party centrally coordinating the assaults 8230 The US and Britain said they came to liberate Iraq and protect its people The failure to understand how Iraqis would respond may be rooted in arrogance It is also a colossal failure in intelligence which may prove to be at least as important as the inability to find any of Iraq8217s banned weapons The commander of British forces in the war Air Marshal Brian Burridge admitted as much in remarkably frank evidence to MPs this week Asked about the problems of 8216policing8217 Iraq and the number of forces needed to do the job he replied 8216I8217m not sure we understand yet8221 In fact three months in US forces still seem to have precious little understanding of the country they occupy 8220Hearts and Minds8221 operations are greeted with Iraqi derision and as the Washington Post8216s Anthony Shadid reports even the distribution of food aid has sparked anger throughout the Sunni heartland 8220US soldiers tossed military meals and bottles of water to the crowd 8216They treated us like monkeys 8212 who8217s the first one who can jump up and catch the food8217 said Mohammed who was captured by Iran in the IranIraq war and kept as a prisoner for 11 years8221 While most of the organized resistance is coming from the Sunni strongholds of central Iraq that may change The Shi8217ites too are increasingly angry over the occupation as the London Telegraph8216s Peter Foster reports In the southern city of Basra over the weekend 10000 protesters rained stones on a British convoy while chanting 8220 Answer our demands or you will regret it8221 Well it is a military occupation after all No one ever promised it would be all sweetness and light Right Oh wait Dick Cheney did So did Paul Wolfowitz And George W Bush 8230 Helping the Hardliners After six days of protests in Iran students and their prodemocracy supporters continue to withstand an onslaught of arrests and beatings from the Ayatollah Khameini8217s police President Bush on a break from his Maine vacation tried to be helpful by making comments in support of the demonstrations Bush announced Sunday 8220This is the beginning of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran which I think is positive8221 Interesting that the president didn8217t have the same insight in March when millions of people across the globe were protesting a potential war on Iraq Nor has this been his take on antioccupation demonstrations in Iraq Given the political reality on the ground in Tehran President Bush8217s comments however heartfelt may only hinder the progress of the Iranianled democracy movement Iran8217s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Rezi Asefi pointed to Bush8217s statements as evidence that Americans in Washington were orchestrating these 8220hooligans8221 demonstrations Bush8217s prodemocracy comments also drew sharp criticism from the nation8217s statecontrolled newspaper the Tehran Times The editors there griped about Bush8217s interference in Iran8217s domestic concerns 8220George Bush8217s interfering remarks about Iran are nothing new The Iranian people have experienced much interference and witnessed numerous hostile measures by the United States over the past two decades In fact this type of rhetoric based on a misconception of US interests and the White House8217s interventionist policy has become routine8221 The Tehran Times is far from an expression of popular feeling in Iran But its comments do illustrate that an occupying power might not be in the best position to fend off accusations of interference Regardless of Bush the student protesters are evidence of important shifts in Iran and their position may be gaining some ground The protesters are the most vocal tip of a demographic iceberg in Iran where 70 percent of the population is under 30 This younger generation did not participate in the clerics8217 revolution and seems fed up Some have even mustered the gumption to call for Khameini8217s execution 8212 under a regime where any criticism of the Ayatollah can land you behind bars In May over 120 lawmakers published an open letter calling on Khameinei to accept the reform the students are pushing before 8220the whole establishment and the country8217s independence and territorial integrity are jeopardised8221 Student actions are being met with strong support from thousands of ordinary Iranians Demonstrations have spread to several smaller cities outside Tehran So the demonstrations do represent an important indication of popular feeling But Monday8217s editorial in the Christian Science Monitor notes that although the demonstrations have once again brought Iranian students into the international spotlight the students are not about to initiate drastic reform 8220These latest protests like those in 1999 which also turned violent reveal more about the weakness of the reform movement than its strength They are confined largely to universities and incited mainly by Persianlanguage satellite broadcasts sent by exiles in Los Angeles And the spark this time was a move to privatize universities hardly the stuff to drive a revolution Rebellion in Iran may be years away yet the US needs action soon Iran might have a nuclear device within a few years For now the best course is direct diplomacy and urging other nations to push Iran for more democracy and an end to support for terrorists8221 It8217s unclear what course Bush is setting According to Hooman Peimani of Asia Times Bush8217s recent statements may fit in with a larger menacing pattern American allegations on Tehran8217s pursuit of a nuclear weapons program are not something new In fact they have been around since the early 1980s Nor are the accusations of Tehran backing terrorists What is new about them is Washington8217s trying so hard to create an unfounded sense of urgency to justify its regime change in Iran just as it did in the months preceding its March attack on Iraq This is notwithstanding the fact that factors such as Iran8217s social economic and political developments as well as its strong military force benefiting from a homegrown military industry make any foreignorchestrated plan for regime change unrealistic 8230 There is not yet any strong evidence to suggest that this wave of protests 8211 which have run for six days 8211 could lead to a popular prodemocracy movement capable of replacing the existing theocracy with a democracy Against a background of two years of antiIranian propaganda and a few months of talks of a regime change in Iran Washington8217s clear expression of support for the Iranian students has only provided grounds for Tehran8217s suppression of their protests under the pretext of neutralizing an American plan to destabilize Iran Despite what the American government claims its policy towards Iran has not and will not likely help foster democracy in that country However as an external factor it will certainly damage the Iranian people8217s bid for democracy and for a domesticallyplanned regime change8221 The Right8217s Media Rant It all started with Jayson Blair Blair is conservative America8217s archetypal liberal villain 8212 a young successful member of the bigshot press who is also a big fat liar Oh and he was black 8212 making him an archetypal liberal multicultural villian Despite the many remaining brilliant journalists of color the right8217s pillar publications still purport that any editorial oversight at the New York Times was the result of an 8220almost blind devotion to liberalism8217s god of 8216diversity8217 in the newsroom8221 as Pat Buchanan writes in Townhall Yes on the conservative right it8217s open season once again on the mythic 8220liberal media8221 Apparently according to Buchanan 8220Big Media8221 is and always has been a 8220fortress of liberalism8221 But not to worry Pat and his cohorts have solutions Aside from doing away with the implementation of racial diversity in the media gender politics ought be jettisoned as well The good old boy8217s call for 8216fair and unbiased coverage8217 is best evidenced by William Kristol of the Weekly Standard who somehow manages to simultaneously criticize America8217s welltodo elite and charge that said elite deserves more voice in the media 8220At Kristol8217s ideal newspaper of record too 8216diversity8217 would be understood not merely in terms of skin color Jayson Blair was a middleclass kid from suburban DC who attended a fine state school 8212 not presumably an underrepresented class at the New York Times Yet he was Howell Raines8217s idea and totem 8212 and a badly exploited totem 8212 of 8216diversity8217 The firstrate paper we need would have real diversity 8212 of background of experience but especially of viewpoint It wouldn8217t for example suppress columns by its own sportswriters who happened not to be entranced by the top brass8217s project of transforming an allmen8217s golf club8221 Interesting that for Kristol a diversity of viewpoints at the New York Times would primarily mean the inclusion of a column in support of a rich allmale country club But his first point is welltaken 8212 all media right and left would do well to expand the socioeconomic diversity of its newsrooms A plug for an allmale golf club hardly seems an example of the kind of true diversity that might be missing Meanwhile there are new allegations of plagiarism against another New York Times star this time one of the cowgirls at the media circus David Frum of the National Review plays knight in shining armor for his wife Danielle Crittenden Frum accuses columnist Maureen Dowd of plagiarising Crittenden8217s work He calls Dowd the author of 8220 trademark gaseous columns about popular culture turning its back on the accomplishments of feminism etc etc8221 According to the valiant Frum one of Dowd8217s points was pulled directly from his honey8217s NPR broadcast 8220As Dowd8217s column trudged wearily to its end there unexpectedly appeared an unusual thought vividly phrased 8216There8217s even a retro trend among women toward deserting the fast track for a pleasant life of sitting around Starbucks gabbing with their girlfriends baby strollers beside them 82308217 Now compare Dowd8217s words to these broadcast on National Public Radio8217s 8216Morning Edition8217 two weeks ago 8216You see them at Starbucks at two o8217clock on a weekday afternoon pushing a stroller and balancing a latte with a slight look of bewilderment on their faces as if to say How did I end up here 8230 Yet forty years after the launch of the women8217s movement this is exactly what many former career women find themselves doing8221 As a plagiarism case this is far from cut and dry But why is Frum the one making the accusation Does Crittenden need her husband to come to her defense while he sets the record straight about those pesky proponents of feminism But it8217s not just Dowd 8212 aside from being a royal pain in the collective Republican neck Hillary Rodham Clinton is naught but a mediasavvy liar according to the Right Comparing the former first lady to one of Howell Raines8217 minions Andrew Sullivan opines in the Washington Times that MrsClinton has either been neglecting her political duties or not giving her ghostwriters credit 8220Of course politicians deploying ghostwriters to pen their memoirs is common practice They all do it But most do it honestly8230 John McCain credited his coauthorghostwriter on the book cover But the junior senator from New York had none of that with her first book 8216It Takes A Village8217 and she8217ll have none of it with this one either In other words the lies begin on the cover8221 What a relief then that the American public is too smart to buy any of the liberal media bias except maybe a recordbreaking number of Hillary8217s book According to Buchanan 8220in the populist and democratic media 8212 the oped pages the Internet cable TV talk radio 8212 where people have a variety of voices from which to choose 8212 conservatives prevail8221 Except that democratically speaking the dreaded and liberal New York Times is still one of the top selling papers in the States This according to theWeekly Standard8217s Kristol is evidence of the how the liberal media and its confounding desire to represent women and people of color have doomed the nation 8220Fundamental regime change at the New York Times is not in the cards Inspections and sanctions won8217t work Even the French can8217t help The Times is irredeemable The question is whether a new newspaper of record will replace it8221 What8217s next Preemptive strikes on alternative weeklies | A/DET Ba8217athist/ADJ Rebirth/PROPN SWAT/PROPN raids/NOUN on/ADP Saddam8217s/PROPN diehards/NOUN If/SCONJ only/ADV it/PRON were/AUX that/ADV simple/ADJ Helping/VERB the/DET Hardliners/PROPN Bush/PROPN is/AUX 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particularly/ADV egregious/ADJ example/NOUN last/ADJ month/NOUN US/PROPN soldiers/NOUN shot/VERB and/CCONJ killed/VERB four/NUM teenagers/NOUN in/ADP Samarra/PROPN a/DET town/NOUN north/ADV of/ADP Baghdad/PROPN Their/PRON crime/NOUN Firing/VERB guns/NOUN during/ADP a/DET wedding/NOUN parade/NOUN It/PRON was/AUX just/ADV a/DET terrible/ADJ mistake/NOUN on/ADP the/DET Americans8217/PROPN part/NOUN of/ADP course/NOUN a/DET mistake/NOUN borne/NOUN of/ADP cultural/ADJ disconnect/NOUN and/CCONJ nervous/ADJ trigger/NOUN fingers/NOUN but/CCONJ a/DET mistake/NOUN with/ADP potentially/ADV serious/ADJ consequences/NOUN The/DET tactics/NOUN of/ADP the/DET new/ADJ antiBa8217athist/NOUN sweeps/VERB 8212/NUM roundups/NOUN carried/VERB out/ADP by/ADP US/PROPN soldiers/NOUN shouting/VERB in/ADP English/PROPN and/CCONJ guided/VERB by/ADP scoresettling/VERB informers/NOUN 8212/NUM have/AUX also/ADV provoked/VERB outrage/NOUN the/DET London/PROPN Guardian8216s/PROPN Richard/PROPN NortonTaylor/PROPN 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<p>Today will be a big day at the <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/" type="external">U.S. Supreme Court</a> as the court ends this term's work. Possible events today included an anticipated judicial retirement and a ruling on the constitutionality of government Ten Commandments displays. We should also&#160;learn&#160;whether the Court will hear appeals in an important journalism case.</p>
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<p><a href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050625/D8AURV100.html" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050625/D8AURV100.html" type="external">The Associated Press reminds us:</a></p>
<p>Traditionally there is an air of suspense as the justices meet for the final time before breaking for three months. Justices usually wait until then to resolve blockbuster cases.</p>
<p>Added to that is the expectation that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is presiding over the court for the last time. Rehnquist has thyroid cancer and many court experts believe his retirement is imminent.</p>
<p>"There's enormous drama and anticipation. Is he going to announce his resignation? Are we going to spend this summer in a confirmation fight?" said Erwin Chemerinsky, a Duke law professor ...</p>
<p>Justices have a few cases left to resolve, including two of the most-watched of the term: the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/01/scotus.ten.commandments/" type="external">Ten Commandments appeals from Texas and Kentucky</a> and a case that will determine the liability of Internet file-sharing services for clients' illegal swapping of songs and movies.</p>
<p>Also Monday, justices are expected to announce whether they will hear appeals from two journalists who may face jail time for refusing to reveal sources in the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity.</p>
<p>Lawyers for Time magazine's <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52895-2004Aug9.html" type="external">Matthew Cooper</a> and The New York Times' <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sources26jun26,0,7584121.story?coll=la-home-nation" type="external">Judith Miller</a> have asked the court to clarify protections reporters have in keeping sources confidential. The cases could not be heard until December.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court term already has covered cases involving the execution of teenage killers, state bans on Internet orders from out-of-state wineries and federal sentencing rules.</p>
<p>Overshadowing it all, however, has been Rehnquist's health and questions about the future of the court, which has not had a vacancy for 11 years, a modern record.</p>
<p>"More people are paying attention to the court than they have in years even though the docket has not been earthshaking," said Vikram Amar, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings and a former Supreme Court clerk. "It changes the importance of this year in Supreme Court history."</p>
<p>Rehnquist Resources</p>
<p>Retirement announcements often come at the end of the judicial term.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pdf" type="external">The official Court background said:</a></p>
<p>William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 1, 1924. He married Natalie Cornell, now deceased, and has three children&#160;-- James, Janet and Nancy. From 1943–1946 he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces. He received a B.A., M.A., and LL.B. from Stanford University and an M.A. from Harvard University. He served as a law clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1951 and 1952 Terms, and practiced law in Phoenix, Arizona from 1953–1969. He served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel from 1969–1971. President Nixon nominated him to the Supreme Court, and he took his seat as an Associate Justice on January 7, 1972. Nominated as Chief Justice by President Reagan, he assumed that office on September 26, 1986.</p>
<p>Here are more in-depth profiles on him from:</p>
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<p>Timeline for 10 Commandments Decisions</p>
<p>This issue has been around for a long time. ReligionLink.org compiled a timeline:</p>
<p>1950s: The <a href="http://www.foe.com/" type="external">Fraternal Order of Eagles</a> placed Ten Commandments monuments in public parks, at schools, and in front of city and state municipal buildings around the country as gifts to honor individuals, respected groups, and special events. Many of these monoliths are the subject of lawsuits. The first was donated in 1955 in Milwaukee, Wis., in a public event involving "Ten Commandments" director Cecil B. DeMille and actor Yul Brenner, who played Pharaoh Ramses in the film. • 1980: In <a href="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/faclibrary/case.aspx?case=Stone_v_Graham" type="external">Stone v. Graham</a>, The U.S. Supreme Court found unconstitutional a Kentucky law requiring the posting of the commandments in classrooms. It is the only time the Supreme Court has addressed the issue. • May 2001: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider a Ten Commandments case from Elkhart, Ind., though Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would like to address the issue. In August, a federal judge ordered city officials to remove Elkhart's Ten Commandments monument. The city spent $63,000 in legal fees before moving it to private property. The case may be important because, some say, in declining to hear it the Supreme Court may be indicating that it is not, at this point, going to tamper with the decisions of lower courts to bar the monuments from public land. Read a May 29, 2001, Associated Press <a href="http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=14020" type="external">story</a> posted on the Freedom Forum website.• February 2002: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon, who wanted to display a 7-foot stone monument of the Ten Commandments at the state capitol. Read a Feb. 26, 2002 BBC news <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1841285.stm" type="external">story</a> about the appeal.• October 2002: The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Kentucky legislative directive to put a Ten Commandments monument on Frankfort's state capitol grounds was unconstitutional. This case stands out because it was decided on a higher level court than most other such cases.• November 2002: U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson rules that the 5,300-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments placed in the rotunda of the Alabama state Judicial Building by Chief Justice Roy Moore violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and must be removed.• August 22, 2003: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended for defying a federal court order to move the Ten Commandments monument.• November 3, 2003: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore ( <a href="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/faclibrary/case.aspx?case=Moore_v_Glassroth" type="external">Moore v. Glassroth</a>). Lower federal courts had ruled that Moore violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. • November 12, 2003: Workers removed the granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.• November 13, 2003: Alabama's judicial ethics panel removed Chief Justice Roy Moore from office for defying a federal judge's order to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building. Read a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/11/13/moore.tencommandments/" type="external">Nov. 14, 2003, CNN.com</a> story.• October 5, 2004: The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an appeal of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, upholding a decision by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary that removed him from office.• October 12, 2004: The U.S. Supreme Court said it will consider the constitutionality of posting the Ten Commandments on government land and in government buildings. It will hear arguments in February on two cases: <a href="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/faclibrary/case.aspx?case=Van_Orden_v_Perry&amp;88" type="external">Van Orden v. Perry</a>, in which a homeless man contends that the a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds is an unconstitutional attempt to establish state-sponsored religion, and <a href="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/faclibrary/case.aspx?case=McCreary_County_Ky_v_ACLU_of_Kentucky" type="external">McCreary County v. ACLU</a>, in which a lower court ruled that the Ten Commandments could not be posted in Kentucky courtrooms. Read an <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135165,00.html" type="external">Oct. 12, 2004, Associated Press story</a>&#160;posted by Fox News.</p>
<p>Gas prices skyrocketing</p>
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<p>Interestingly, the price of gasoline still <a href="http://www.opisnet.com/supply/headlines.asp" type="external">has not had much effect on consumption</a>. A <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-06-23-oil-usat_x.htm" type="external">USA Today</a> story included this perspective:</p>
<p>"Fifty-dollar oil hasn't had any effect on consumption, and $60 oil probably won't, either," says Mary Novak of Global Insight. "The reason is there's no substitute. If you have a job, you're going to drive to work. If you're planning a summer vacation, OK, it might cost you $100 for gas, but does that mean you're not going?"</p>
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<p>Usually diesel prices are lower than gasoline. Not now. World demand has pushed diesel prices even higher. Truckers, especially,&#160;are hurting. So are metro bus departments,&#160;companies that operate heavy equipment, and people with diesel cars. <a href="http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp" type="external">See resources from the U.S.&#160;Department of Energy's&#160;Energy Information Administration.</a></p>
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<p>There is a connection between the gasoline stories above and this story. <a href="http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0506/24/F01-226492.htm" type="external">The Detroit News</a> reports:</p>
<p>During the past [week], numerous U.S. carriers, including Northwest Airlines, have kicked off the summer with fare hikes as high as 3 percent only to rescind them Thursday after competitors refused to follow their lead.</p>
<p>For now, all major U.S. carriers have settled on a $5 increase on one-way tickets and $10 for a round-trip. The hikes will help generate new revenue but will still leave most airlines posting millions of dollars in quarterly losses.</p>
<p>Also, the prices of flights to Europe are sky-high.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-06-22-fares-usat_x.htm" type="external">USA Today</a> says:</p>
<p>Travelers leaving on Saturday from any gateway city in the eastern USA will pay $1,000 to $2,000 round trip for coach flights to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam or Frankfurt, Germany.</p>
<p>Travelers to London will pay more than $1,000 round trip unless they fly from New York.</p>
<p>"The Atlantic is very strong this summer, and it's surprising people," said Graham Atkinson, United's senior vice president of worldwide sales. "It's difficult to get a seat in economy in peak weeks and on weekends."</p>
<p>Bargain fares to Europe in June, July and August are close to non-existent. London is the cheapest gateway because it has more flights than other capitals and two major airports. From there, travelers can take a train or a European low-fare carrier elsewhere. Flying Tuesdays and Wednesdays is cheaper than weekends.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/" type="external">Last week's Supreme Court ruling</a> that allows governments to seize private land for profitable use by other private landowners is nothing short of remarkable.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/politics/23wire-scotus.html?incamp=article_popular&amp;pagewanted=print" type="external">As Justice Sandra Day&#160;O'Connor, who issued one of the four dissenting votes, put it</a>,&#160;"Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."</p>
<p>I think there is a real opportunity to get local with this story.</p>
<p>In every community I have lived, there have been fights over eminent domain issues.</p>
<p>State parks and national parks often have a rich history of such battles where somebody had to move so the public could enjoy the open space. " <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/60minutes/main575343.shtml" type="external">60 Minutes" produced a memorable story on this topic some time back.</a></p>
<p>What ever happened to those people in your community who, over the decades, fought highway construction? What happened to old communities in your town that were torn apart by eminent domain? It would be worth going back into your archives to find the people who put up historic fights to preserve their homes.</p>
<p>In some cities, entire communities have been displaced to build stadiums and interstates. Is there evidence that such eminent domain authority has been used in your city to condemn property most frequently owned by the poor or by minorities?</p>
<p>This ruling goes far beyond the traditional practice of appropriating private lands for public use&#160;to build highways, sewer lines or even parks. It allows cities, for example, to seize a private home so a developer can build a shopping center.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.castlecoalition.org/whats_new/archive_clips.shtml" type="external">Don't be mistaken. These fights have cropped up all over the country as urban land gets scarce and expensive.</a>&#160;A group called the Castle Coalition tracks these fights nationwide. Another group called <a href="http://www.ij.org/private_property/connecticut/6_23_05pr.html" type="external">Institute for Justice</a> fights eminent domain cases nationwide.</p>
<p>Land owners along Florida's coasts have long been concerned that local governments might condemn private property and allow hotel and condo developers to take over the land in order to boost property taxes. This ruling, for example,&#160;would open the door for that kind of government action.The practice of eminent domain is rooted in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which allows governments to take away private property as long as "just compensation" is paid and the land is preserved for "public use."</p>
<p>The Fifth Amendment, usually&#160;remembered as the one that gives you the right to remain silent, contains a good bit more. <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment05/" type="external">Here it is:</a></p>
<p>No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.</p>
<p><a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment05/14.html#1" type="external">Findlaw.com has a marvelous section that will help you if you want to know more about the case law behind this practice.</a></p>
<p>The Court determined that "public use" now includes promoting economic development and job creation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-06-23-property-seizures-inside_x.htm" type="external">USA Today quoted Frank Schnidman</a>, senior fellow at the <a href="http://www.cuesfau.org/" type="external">Catanese Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University:</a>&#160;"Local governments will be less reluctant to condemn private property."</p>
<p>He continued: "What this says is no single-family home in America is safe from condemnation if government decides to build a condominium that will generate more taxes."</p>
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<p>The Rev. Billy Graham finished what <a href="http://news.google.com/news?q=billy%20graham&amp;hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-08,GGLD:en&amp;sa=N&amp;tab=wn" type="external">he described as his last crusade in the United States</a> this weekend in New York. I can imagine that you could find many local clergy in your town who have personal stories about how Graham's ministries shaped their own theology or personal experiences.</p>
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<p>Here is something to keep your eyes on. In Canada, <a href="http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.com/projects/sativex/" type="external">there is now an under-the-tongue spray that contains THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.</a> This spray, called Sativex, is, <a href="http://www.gwpharm.com/" type="external">for Canadians, a legal alternative</a> to medicinal marijuana.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=45213" type="external">Advertising Age reports</a> that consumers, especially young consumers, don't care&#160;whether or not&#160;the products they buy are made in the States.</p>
<p>It could be an interesting story around the Fourth of July.</p>
<p>The online survey of 1,133 adults, fielded in late May by Aegis Group's Synovate, shows consumers tend to respect the quality and value of U.S.-made goods, and they rank the quality of domestic auto brands in a tie for second (even with Japan, close behind German brands). In a rating of which consumer-electronics brands are most innovative, three U.S. computer names new to that space -- Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple -- scored in the top five.</p>
<p>American-made goods and car brands tend to have a downward economic skew, getting the best marks from poorer and less-educated consumers. Adults who have a high school diploma or live in households with income below $25,000 put U.S. car quality tops in the world, and they're most likely to seek out "Made in USA" products in everyday shopping.</p>
<p>Comparing attitudes across regions of the country, Southerners gave the highest-quality grade to domestic cars and were slightly more likely than residents of other regions to scope out U.S. consumer goods.</p>
<p>We are always looking for your great ideas. <a href="" type="internal">Send Al</a> a few sentences and hot links.</p>
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<p>Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.</p>
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| 2,523 | Today will be a big day at the US Supreme Court as the court ends this terms work Possible events today included an anticipated judicial retirement and a ruling on the constitutionality of government Ten Commandments displays We should alsoamp160learnamp160whether the Court will hear appeals in an important journalism case The Associated Press reminds us Traditionally there is an air of suspense as the justices meet for the final time before breaking for three months Justices usually wait until then to resolve blockbuster cases Added to that is the expectation that Chief Justice William H Rehnquist is presiding over the court for the last time Rehnquist has thyroid cancer and many court experts believe his retirement is imminent Theres enormous drama and anticipation Is he going to announce his resignation Are we going to spend this summer in a confirmation fight said Erwin Chemerinsky a Duke law professor Justices have a few cases left to resolve including two of the mostwatched of the term the Ten Commandments appeals from Texas and Kentucky and a case that will determine the liability of Internet filesharing services for clients illegal swapping of songs and movies Also Monday justices are expected to announce whether they will hear appeals from two journalists who may face jail time for refusing to reveal sources in the leak of an undercover CIA officers identity Lawyers for Time magazines Matthew Cooper and The New York Times Judith Miller have asked the court to clarify protections reporters have in keeping sources confidential The cases could not be heard until December The Supreme Court term already has covered cases involving the execution of teenage killers state bans on Internet orders from outofstate wineries and federal sentencing rules Overshadowing it all however has been Rehnquists health and questions about the future of the court which has not had a vacancy for 11 years a modern record More people are paying attention to the court than they have in years even though the docket has not been earthshaking said Vikram Amar a law professor at the University of California Hastings and a former Supreme Court clerk It changes the importance of this year in Supreme Court history Rehnquist Resources Retirement announcements often come at the end of the judicial term The official Court background said William H Rehnquist Chief Justice of the United States was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin October 1 1924 He married Natalie Cornell now deceased and has three childrenamp160 James Janet and Nancy From 194382111946 he served in the US Army Air Forces He received a BA MA and LLB from Stanford University and an MA from Harvard University He served as a law clerk for Justice Robert H Jackson of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1951 and 1952 Terms and practiced law in Phoenix Arizona from 195382111969 He served as Assistant Attorney General Office of Legal Counsel from 196982111971 President Nixon nominated him to the Supreme Court and he took his seat as an Associate Justice on January 7 1972 Nominated as Chief Justice by President Reagan he assumed that office on September 26 1986 Here are more indepth profiles on him from Timeline for 10 Commandments Decisions This issue has been around for a long time ReligionLinkorg compiled a timeline 1950s The Fraternal Order of Eagles placed Ten Commandments monuments in public parks at schools and in front of city and state municipal buildings around the country as gifts to honor individuals respected groups and special events Many of these monoliths are the subject of lawsuits The first was donated in 1955 in Milwaukee Wis in a public event involving Ten Commandments director Cecil B DeMille and actor Yul Brenner who played Pharaoh Ramses in the film 8226 1980 In Stone v Graham The US Supreme Court found unconstitutional a Kentucky law requiring the posting of the commandments in classrooms It is the only time the Supreme Court has addressed the issue 8226 May 2001 The US Supreme Court declined to consider a Ten Commandments case from Elkhart Ind though Chief Justice William H Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would like to address the issue In August a federal judge ordered city officials to remove Elkharts Ten Commandments monument The city spent 63000 in legal fees before moving it to private property The case may be important because some say in declining to hear it the Supreme Court may be indicating that it is not at this point going to tamper with the decisions of lower courts to bar the monuments from public land Read a May 29 2001 Associated Press story posted on the Freedom Forum website8226 February 2002 The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Indiana Gov Frank OBannon who wanted to display a 7foot stone monument of the Ten Commandments at the state capitol Read a Feb 26 2002 BBC news story about the appeal8226 October 2002 The Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Kentucky legislative directive to put a Ten Commandments monument on Frankforts state capitol grounds was unconstitutional This case stands out because it was decided on a higher level court than most other such cases8226 November 2002 US District Judge Myron Thompson rules that the 5300pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments placed in the rotunda of the Alabama state Judicial Building by Chief Justice Roy Moore violates the First Amendments Establishment Clause and must be removed8226 August 22 2003 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended for defying a federal court order to move the Ten Commandments monument8226 November 3 2003 The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal from suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore Moore v Glassroth Lower federal courts had ruled that Moore violated the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution 8226 November 12 2003 Workers removed the granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building8226 November 13 2003 Alabamas judicial ethics panel removed Chief Justice Roy Moore from office for defying a federal judges order to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building Read a Nov 14 2003 CNNcom story8226 October 5 2004 The US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore upholding a decision by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary that removed him from office8226 October 12 2004 The US Supreme Court said it will consider the constitutionality of posting the Ten Commandments on government land and in government buildings It will hear arguments in February on two cases Van Orden v Perry in which a homeless man contends that the a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds is an unconstitutional attempt to establish statesponsored religion and McCreary County v ACLU in which a lower court ruled that the Ten Commandments could not be posted in Kentucky courtrooms Read an Oct 12 2004 Associated Press storyamp160posted by Fox News Gas prices skyrocketing Interestingly the price of gasoline still has not had much effect on consumption A USA Today story included this perspective Fiftydollar oil hasnt had any effect on consumption and 60 oil probably wont either says Mary Novak of Global Insight The reason is theres no substitute If you have a job youre going to drive to work If youre planning a summer vacation OK it might cost you 100 for gas but does that mean youre not going Usually diesel prices are lower than gasoline Not now World demand has pushed diesel prices even higher Truckers especiallyamp160are hurting So are metro bus departmentsamp160companies that operate heavy equipment and people with diesel cars See resources from the USamp160Department of Energysamp160Energy Information Administration There is a connection between the gasoline stories above and this story The Detroit News reports During the past week numerous US carriers including Northwest Airlines have kicked off the summer with fare hikes as high as 3 percent only to rescind them Thursday after competitors refused to follow their lead For now all major US carriers have settled on a 5 increase on oneway tickets and 10 for a roundtrip The hikes will help generate new revenue but will still leave most airlines posting millions of dollars in quarterly losses Also the prices of flights to Europe are skyhigh USA Today says Travelers leaving on Saturday from any gateway city in the eastern USA will pay 1000 to 2000 round trip for coach flights to Paris Rome Amsterdam or Frankfurt Germany Travelers to London will pay more than 1000 round trip unless they fly from New York The Atlantic is very strong this summer and its surprising people said Graham Atkinson Uniteds senior vice president of worldwide sales Its difficult to get a seat in economy in peak weeks and on weekends Bargain fares to Europe in June July and August are close to nonexistent London is the cheapest gateway because it has more flights than other capitals and two major airports From there travelers can take a train or a European lowfare carrier elsewhere Flying Tuesdays and Wednesdays is cheaper than weekends Last weeks Supreme Court ruling that allows governments to seize private land for profitable use by other private landowners is nothing short of remarkable As Justice Sandra Dayamp160OConnor who issued one of the four dissenting votes put itamp160Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a RitzCarlton any home with a shopping mall or any farm with a factory I think there is a real opportunity to get local with this story In every community I have lived there have been fights over eminent domain issues State parks and national parks often have a rich history of such battles where somebody had to move so the public could enjoy the open space 60 Minutes produced a memorable story on this topic some time back What ever happened to those people in your community who over the decades fought highway construction What happened to old communities in your town that were torn apart by eminent domain It would be worth going back into your archives to find the people who put up historic fights to preserve their homes In some cities entire communities have been displaced to build stadiums and interstates Is there evidence that such eminent domain authority has been used in your city to condemn property most frequently owned by the poor or by minorities This ruling goes far beyond the traditional practice of appropriating private lands for public useamp160to build highways sewer lines or even parks It allows cities for example to seize a private home so a developer can build a shopping center Dont be mistaken These fights have cropped up all over the country as urban land gets scarce and expensiveamp160A group called the Castle Coalition tracks these fights nationwide Another group called Institute for Justice fights eminent domain cases nationwide Land owners along Floridas coasts have long been concerned that local governments might condemn private property and allow hotel and condo developers to take over the land in order to boost property taxes This ruling for exampleamp160would open the door for that kind of government actionThe practice of eminent domain is rooted in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution which allows governments to take away private property as long as just compensation is paid and the land is preserved for public use The Fifth Amendment usuallyamp160remembered as the one that gives you the right to remain silent contains a good bit more Here it is No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the Militia when in actual service in time of War or public danger nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself nor be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation Findlawcom has a marvelous section that will help you if you want to know more about the case law behind this practice The Court determined that public use now includes promoting economic development and job creation USA Today quoted Frank Schnidman senior fellow at the Catanese Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic Universityamp160Local governments will be less reluctant to condemn private property He continued What this says is no singlefamily home in America is safe from condemnation if government decides to build a condominium that will generate more taxes The Rev Billy Graham finished what he described as his last crusade in the United States this weekend in New York I can imagine that you could find many local clergy in your town who have personal stories about how Grahams ministries shaped their own theology or personal experiences Here is something to keep your eyes on In Canada there is now an underthetongue spray that contains THC the active ingredient in marijuana This spray called Sativex is for Canadians a legal alternative to medicinal marijuana Advertising Age reports that consumers especially young consumers dont careamp160whether or notamp160the products they buy are made in the States It could be an interesting story around the Fourth of July The online survey of 1133 adults fielded in late May by Aegis Groups Synovate shows consumers tend to respect the quality and value of USmade goods and they rank the quality of domestic auto brands in a tie for second even with Japan close behind German brands In a rating of which consumerelectronics brands are most innovative three US computer names new to that space Dell HewlettPackard Apple scored in the top five Americanmade goods and car brands tend to have a downward economic skew getting the best marks from poorer and lesseducated consumers Adults who have a high school diploma or live in households with income below 25000 put US car quality tops in the world and theyre most likely to seek out Made in USA products in everyday shopping Comparing attitudes across regions of the country Southerners gave the highestquality grade to domestic cars and were slightly more likely than residents of other regions to scope out US consumer goods We are always looking for your great ideas Send Al a few sentences and hot links Editors Note Als Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites as well as original concepts and analysis When the information comes directly from another source it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible if new Stringnavigatortype4ampampampampnew StringnavigatorversionindexOf41 setTimeout necessary for Netscape4 to render button windowsetTimeoutMM_showHideLayersrightsLinkNSlyrshow 500 else 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<p><a href="#one" type="external">Insiders Outed</a> On both sides of the Atlantic, the government may have mistreated those who dared to give whistleblowing evidence to the press.</p>
<p><a href="#two" type="external">Abu Mazen Goes To Washington</a> If he’s going to quell anger on the Palestinian street, Abbas needs to make headway at the White House.</p>
<p><a href="#three" type="external">Jessica’s Real World.</a> Pfc. Lynch’s homecoming has the look and feel of reality TV.</p>
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<p><a type="external" href="">Insiders Outed</a> What happens to <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=425679" type="external">insiders who blow the whistle</a> on the government’s distortions and lies, in the U.S. and Britain?</p>
<p>Amidst a continuing swirl of accusations of media sensationalism and a mad rush to place blame, Great Britain is still reeling from the suicide of Dr. David Kelly, one of the countries top biological weapons scientists. The BBC and the government are trading vicious blows. Kelly admitted at a parliamental inquiry that he had spoken with the BBC‘s Andrew Gilligan, and Gilligan then named Kelly as one of the primary sources for a report alleging that the British government had “sexed up” information about Iraq’s capabilities. The scientist was found dead in the woods near his home last Thursday. His death, ruled a suicide, was the result of a rapid sequence of events and has prompted a <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0722/p06s01-woeu.html" type="external">judicial inquiry</a>. The suicide seems to be the result of the stress of finding himself at the eye of the BBC/Blair storm.</p>
<p>Now denying that he ever authorized the leak of Kelly’s name, Blair is scrambling to create some semblance of order. Some sources in Britain seek to <a href="http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/stories/Detail_LinkStory=63302.html" type="external">blame the BBC</a>, claiming that Gilligan’s reporting was as “sexed-up” as the dossier itself. But the <a href="http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=792452003" type="external">latest bad guy</a> is the British Ministry of Defense’s Geoff Hoon, as Gethin Chamberlain of the UK’s Scotsman reports:</p>
<p>“Although the BBC faces stiff questions about the accuracy of its reporting, the spotlight has swung back on to the question of how Dr. Kelly’s name was made public, with fingers pointed firmly at the [Ministry of Defense (MoD)].</p>
<p>The decision to name Dr. Kelly is believed to have been taken on 9 July, at a meeting attended by Mr. Hoon and Sir Kevin Tebbit, the MoD’s chief civil servant. They are understood to have agreed Dr Kelly’s identity should be confirmed if journalists came up with his name, and, crucially, that they would also be told if they had provided the wrong name, allowing journalists to whittle down their list of possibilities. The decision was a break with normal practice and critics claim it was designed to force Dr. Kelly into the open to undermine the BBC.”</p>
<p>The government, in turn, is throwing the blame right back at the BBC. Gerald Kaufman, the British chairman of the culture, media and sport committee <a href="http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/stories/Detail_LinkStory=63302.html" type="external">told</a> the Manchester News that “None of this would have happened if it had not been for the BBC story.” Kelly’s family would say only that “Events over recent weeks made David’s life intolerable and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/20/1058639647991.html" type="external">all those involved</a> should reflect long and hard.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlanic, a separate but similar storm over a governmental whistleblower is brewing. When former diplomat and US ambassador Joseph Wilson went to the New York Times with info about false uranium claims in President Bush’s State of the Union address, he probably didn’t expect a warm response from the White House — but he probably also didn’t expect the administration to <a href="http:/news/dailymojo/2003/07/we_479_05.html#three" type="external">strike back at his family</a>. In an attack on Wilson’s credibility, the White House denied the significance of Wilson’s CIA-sponsored trip to Niger. In that trip, Wilson reported that he found no evidence that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium. But despite the White House’s downplaying, Wilson’s revelations still caused a bit of an uproar.</p>
<p>Then the plot thickens. It seems that two senior White House officials leaked the following crucial fact to the press: Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was an undercover operative for the CIA’s weapons of mass destruction department. Conservative columnist Bob Novak outed her. Novak hoped to undermine Wilson’s credibility by implying that his trip to Niger was simply a favor done him by friends of his wife. Instead, Novak may in fact have served as the vehicle for his “senior official” sources to break the law — and in doing so, he may have <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0722-04.htm" type="external">endangered the lives of Plame and everyone with whom she’s had contact in the course of her research</a>. Newsday’s Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce report:</p>
<p>“‘When it gets to the point of an administration official acting to do career damage, and possibly actually endanger someone, that’s mean, that’s petty, it’s irresponsible, and it ought to be sanctioned,’ said Frank Anderson, former CIA Near East Division chief.</p>
<p>A current intelligence official said that blowing the cover of an undercover officer could affect the officer’s future assignments and put them and everyone they dealt with overseas in the past at risk.</p>
<p>‘If what the two senior administration officials said is true,’ Wilson said, ‘they will have compromised an entire career of networks, relationships and operations.’ What’s more, it would mean that ‘this White House has taken an asset out of the’ weapons of mass destruction fight, ‘not to mention putting at risk any contacts she might have had where the services are hostile.'”</p>
<p>In the worst case scenario, the British and American governments look frighteningly eager to punish whistleblowers who draw attention to the haphazardly-constructed case for war. Two American officials may have broken the law and endangered both sources and intelligence workers. A British official has killed himself. Wilson’s take on his situation sums it up:</p>
<p>“‘This might be seen as a smear on me and my reputation,’ Wilson said, ‘but what it really is is an attempt to keep anybody else from coming forward’ to reveal similar intelligence lapses.”</p>
<p>It’s ironic that in both cases, the pressure to save face led both countries to alienate key contributors to their weapons of mass destruction programs — individuals who were working to help justify the nations’ case for war. Plame and Kelly were both civil servants, with long careers in the service of their countries. Paul Vallely of London’s Independent points out:</p>
<p>“Whatever the truth, there can be little doubt that the pressure of events combined to a level intolerable for Dr Kelly — and that a good man and faithful public servant died as yet more collateral damage of this questionable war and the spin used to distract public attention from the real issues of whether war was justified.”</p>
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<p><a type="external" href="">Abu Mazen Goes to Washington</a> While the press’s attention is focused on Liberia and Saddam Hussein’s sons, Palestinians and Israelis have come to another crossroads in their negotiations. The American roadmap does not demand that Israel release any of the 6,000 Palestinians now behind Israeli bars. But in order for Abbas to gain some credibility on the Palestinian street, and in order to ensure that the Islamic militants don’t break the current ceasefire, releasing <a href="http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/320944.html" type="external">Hamas and Islamic Jihad</a> prisoners is crucial.</p>
<p>For the past few weeks Palestinians have been <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=320154&amp;contrassID=2&amp;subContrassID=4&amp;sbSubContrassID=0&amp;listSrc=Y" type="external">filling the streets</a> demanding that Israel release prisoners. Families marched through refugee camps demanding that their brothers, sons, uncles and fathers be released from Israeli prisons. Today Ariel Sharon’s government agreed to release a “couple hundred” prisoners in an attempt to <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/23/israel.prisoners/" type="external">boost the street image of Palestinian prime minister</a>. Mahmoud Abbas’ image is crucial — the Palestinian public is particularly wary of their American-appointed leader. The pressure is mounting on Abbas as he heads to Washington to meet with President Bush. Palestinian analysts are predicting that if Abbas does not gain Bush’s support on key issues like prisoner release, he could face the wrath of the Palestinian Parliament — a body that could <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;cid=540&amp;ncid=736&amp;e=1&amp;u=/ap/20030723/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians" type="external">vote him out of office</a>.</p>
<p>The Jordan Times writes in its Wednesday editorial that <a href="http://www.jordantimes.com/Wed/opinion/opinion1.htm" type="external">President Bush must pressure the Sharon administration</a> to comply with its half of the roadmap.</p>
<p>“Not only it is of paramount importance that Bush understand what helps and what damages Abu Mazen [aka Mahmoud Abbas], he must also understand that only through Israeli concessions Abu Mazen can strengthen his own position and restore Palestinians’ hopes in a meaningful peace process.</p>
<p>The US must increase pressure on Sharon to deliver on what he promised in Aqaba and what is stipulated in the text of the roadmap. Because it is that text — reservations or no reservations — that both Sharon and Abu Mazen publicly endorsed in good faith.</p>
<p>In this context, Bush must directly interfere in ongoing negotiations on the future of thousands of Palestinian refugees and in granting Arafat freedom of movement.</p>
<p>If Sharon was serious in Aqaba, he should now deliver on Arafat’s freedom of movement and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners. If he is not willing to do it on his own, Bush must make him do it.”</p>
<p>Israel still has not <a href="http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/July/11o/Israeli%20Settlements%20Still%20Expanding%20Unchecked,%20Jonathan%20Cook.htm" type="external">stopped settlement construction</a> or removed all the settlements built since the demise of Oslo — both acts required by the <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/20062.htm" type="external">roadmap</a>. Israeli troops have left the center of many Palestinian cities, but troops have remained stationed on many urban peripheries. And as Amira Hass writes in Ha’aretz daily Palestinian life is still as <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=320988&amp;contrassID=2&amp;subContrassID=4&amp;sbSubContrassID=0&amp;listSrc=Y" type="external">difficult as always</a>.</p>
<p>The next week of meetings in Washington is incredibly important, and as the Jordan Times points out Abbas is not the only world leader who stands to gain from this weekend’s negotiations. President Bush also has a tainted image in the Middle East, and sticking up for the Palestinians seems to touch a soft spot in the heart of the Arab world.</p>
<p>“If Abu Mazen has a lot at stake in this crucial trip to Washington, so does Bush.</p>
<p>The president cannot afford to lose yet more credibility in the Arab world after he personally committed to the success of the Aqaba process. He went to war against Iraq thinking that if the Arab masses hated him for his determination to make war, they would like him once he wins it. He now says he won the Iraq war. But Arabs still don’t like him, and the liberated ‘Iraqis’ like him even less.</p>
<p>Abu Mazen’s visit offers Bush an opportunity to prove that he meant business when he flew to Aqaba last month and that peace making, and not only war mongering, has a place in his foreign policy book.”</p>
<p>President Bush is scheduled to meet with prime minister Sharon on July 29, which leaves him just a few days to ponder his next move.</p>
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<p><a type="external" href="">Jessica’s Real World</a> Private Jessica Lynch is in the headlines again, but this time, it’s for her made-for-TV homecoming. Lynch was flown to Elizabeth, West Virginia in a Blackhawk helicopter, and then driven by motorcade to her hometown of Palestine. With a <a href="http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=5069" type="external">fistful of medals</a> and perhaps even a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32091-2003Jul22.html" type="external">book deal</a> in the making, Lynch returned from a Washington hospital to a crowd of well-wishers sporting <a href="http://www.sunspot.net/bal-te.jessica23jul23,0,1272481.story?coll=bal-home-headlines" type="external">“Jessi”</a> T-shirts and pins. It’s an all-American, heroic <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/06/20/nyt.kristof/" type="external">“Saving Private Jessica”</a> saga, but still tinged with all-American reality-TV flavor.</p>
<p>Today’s headlines about Lynch, who is often called “America’s Sweetheart” in the press, run the gamut — covering everything from her <a href="http://www.nypost.com/commentary/1317.htm" type="external">love life</a> to her <a href="http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=1371993" type="external">mom’s pie</a>. The headlines, though sometimes endearingly hokey, almost all miss one crucial point: Lynch’s story has been drastically exaggerated at best, and deliberately distorted, at worst.</p>
<p>The Pentagon released a report earlier this month admitting that Lynch was not <a href="http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&amp;storyID=3130273" type="external">shot or stabbed</a> and that her injuries were not, in fact, sustained in a heroic battle — as was first reported. Lynch was actually injured, Reuters reports, when the Humvee she was travelling in crashed into a truck. Her maintenance unit had gotten lost, and had blundered into an ambush. Lynch didn’t blast her way out of the situation, her weapon jammed. The Iraqi hospital that Lynch was supposedly “rescued” from actually housed Lynch in the <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=426794" type="external">cleanest ward</a> in the hospital and treated her rather well, the Independent reports. Many of these facts came out in a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/3028585.stm" type="external">BBC report</a>, last May, a report did much towards unraveling of the ultra-heroic version of Lynch’s travails.</p>
<p>But in the past few days, stories covering the Pentagon report, or exploring the possibility that Lynch’s story was stage-managed to manipulate public opinion, have been elbowed out by the headlines heralding her triumphant return. Reuters quotes media experts on the seeming complacency of Americans today — who appear <a href="http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&amp;storyID=3130273" type="external">eager to believe just about anything</a>:</p>
<p>“[W]hen the 20-year-old supply clerk arrives by Blackhawk helicopter to the embrace of family and friends, media critics say the TV cameras will not show the return of an injured soldier so much as a reality-TV drama co-produced by U.S. government propaganda and credulous reporters.</p>
<p>‘It no longer matters in America whether something is true or false. The population has been conditioned to accept anything: sentimental stories, lies, atomic bomb threats,’ said John MacArthur, the publisher of Harper’s magazine.”</p>
<p>Perhaps, writes The Times of London’s Elaine Monaghan, an act of desperation led certain higher-ups to <a href="http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2003/07/23/fWorld182.raw.html" type="external">cast</a> Jessica in the leading role as a symbol of American superiority:</p>
<p>“As the Army surgeon general pinned a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and the Prisoner of War Medal on her lapel before she left hospital, the words of the anonymous U.S. officials still rang untrue. Desperate for a symbol to sugar-coat the war, they cast her as the lead in a battle of good against evil.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>The wheelchair that she still needs after 102 days in a Washington military hospital is a legacy of the wrong turn that her convoy took on March 23, and a subsequent Iraqi attack.</p>
<p>But to Americans, she remains a symbol of moral superiority in an ongoing conflict.”</p>
<p>KOMO TV’s Ken Schram sums the melodrama up nicely as a tale of a small-town girl <a href="http://www.komotv.com/stories/26190.htm" type="external">exploited</a> by the media and the government:</p>
<p>“Exploited by the media, manipulated by the government, Jessica Lynch had the look of a deer caught in the headlights as she faced the world via satellite trucks and camera lenses.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Having done nothing heroic beyond surviving, Jessica Lynch is but one soldier around which a sentimental story was concocted.</p>
<p>And even after that story was shown to be false, the luster of the lie stayed with her because it made good TV, sold newspapers and gave the government a piece of propaganda to play with.</p>
<p>Jessica Lynch is but one soldier from a small town, unaware that the world is too full of big city slickers with news credentials, and government offices who have their own reasons to create heroes.”</p>
<p>The verdict is still out, however, on just how spin-off schlock the American public will be willing to swallow. One TV movie has already been canned. Jessica Lynch was <a href="/news/dailymojo/2003/25/we_434_05.html#four" type="external">originally approached</a> with a host of book and TV movie deals from all the corporate media monoliths. But the BBC is now reporting that <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3083235.stm" type="external">CBS has already backed down</a> from its movie offer. The company had suggested the movie to Lynch’s family in the same letter in which it proposed a documentary. Of that marriage of factual and fictitious proposals, chairman Leslie Moonves now says, “Maybe that went over the line. That was not respecting, possibly, the sanctity of CBS News.”</p>
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<p /> | Daily MoJo | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/07/daily-mojo-2-2/ | 2003-07-24 | 4left
| 2,523 | amp160 Insiders Outed On both sides of the Atlantic the government may have mistreated those who dared to give whistleblowing evidence to the press Abu Mazen Goes To Washington If he8217s going to quell anger on the Palestinian street Abbas needs to make headway at the White House Jessica8217s Real World Pfc Lynch8217s homecoming has the look and feel of reality TV Insiders Outed What happens to insiders who blow the whistle on the government8217s distortions and lies in the US and Britain Amidst a continuing swirl of accusations of media sensationalism and a mad rush to place blame Great Britain is still reeling from the suicide of Dr David Kelly one of the countries top biological weapons scientists The BBC and the government are trading vicious blows Kelly admitted at a parliamental inquiry that he had spoken with the BBC8216s Andrew Gilligan and Gilligan then named Kelly as one of the primary sources for a report alleging that the British government had 8220sexed up8221 information about Iraq8217s capabilities The scientist was found dead in the woods near his home last Thursday His death ruled a suicide was the result of a rapid sequence of events and has prompted a judicial inquiry The suicide seems to be the result of the stress of finding himself at the eye of the BBCBlair storm Now denying that he ever authorized the leak of Kelly8217s name Blair is scrambling to create some semblance of order Some sources in Britain seek to blame the BBC claiming that Gilligan8217s reporting was as 8220sexedup8221 as the dossier itself But the latest bad guy is the British Ministry of Defense8217s Geoff Hoon as Gethin Chamberlain of the UK8217s Scotsman reports 8220Although the BBC faces stiff questions about the accuracy of its reporting the spotlight has swung back on to the question of how Dr Kelly8217s name was made public with fingers pointed firmly at the Ministry of Defense MoD The decision to name Dr Kelly is believed to have been taken on 9 July at a meeting attended by Mr Hoon and Sir Kevin Tebbit the MoD8217s chief civil servant They are understood to have agreed Dr Kelly8217s identity should be confirmed if journalists came up with his name and crucially that they would also be told if they had provided the wrong name allowing journalists to whittle down their list of possibilities The decision was a break with normal practice and critics claim it was designed to force Dr Kelly into the open to undermine the BBC8221 The government in turn is throwing the blame right back at the BBC Gerald Kaufman the British chairman of the culture media and sport committee told the Manchester News that 8220None of this would have happened if it had not been for the BBC story8221 Kelly8217s family would say only that 8220Events over recent weeks made David8217s life intolerable and all those involved should reflect long and hard8221 Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlanic a separate but similar storm over a governmental whistleblower is brewing When former diplomat and US ambassador Joseph Wilson went to the New York Times with info about false uranium claims in President Bush8217s State of the Union address he probably didn8217t expect a warm response from the White House 8212 but he probably also didn8217t expect the administration to strike back at his family In an attack on Wilson8217s credibility the White House denied the significance of Wilson8217s CIAsponsored trip to Niger In that trip Wilson reported that he found no evidence that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium But despite the White House8217s downplaying Wilson8217s revelations still caused a bit of an uproar Then the plot thickens It seems that two senior White House officials leaked the following crucial fact to the press Wilson8217s wife Valerie Plame was an undercover operative for the CIA8217s weapons of mass destruction department Conservative columnist Bob Novak outed her Novak hoped to undermine Wilson8217s credibility by implying that his trip to Niger was simply a favor done him by friends of his wife Instead Novak may in fact have served as the vehicle for his 8220senior official8221 sources to break the law 8212 and in doing so he may have endangered the lives of Plame and everyone with whom she8217s had contact in the course of her research Newsday8217s Timothy M Phelps and Knut Royce report 82208216When it gets to the point of an administration official acting to do career damage and possibly actually endanger someone that8217s mean that8217s petty it8217s irresponsible and it ought to be sanctioned8217 said Frank Anderson former CIA Near East Division chief A current intelligence official said that blowing the cover of an undercover officer could affect the officer8217s future assignments and put them and everyone they dealt with overseas in the past at risk 8216If what the two senior administration officials said is true8217 Wilson said 8216they will have compromised an entire career of networks relationships and operations8217 What8217s more it would mean that 8216this White House has taken an asset out of the8217 weapons of mass destruction fight 8216not to mention putting at risk any contacts she might have had where the services are hostile8221 In the worst case scenario the British and American governments look frighteningly eager to punish whistleblowers who draw attention to the haphazardlyconstructed case for war Two American officials may have broken the law and endangered both sources and intelligence workers A British official has killed himself Wilson8217s take on his situation sums it up 82208216This might be seen as a smear on me and my reputation8217 Wilson said 8216but what it really is is an attempt to keep anybody else from coming forward8217 to reveal similar intelligence lapses8221 It8217s ironic that in both cases the pressure to save face led both countries to alienate key contributors to their weapons of mass destruction programs 8212 individuals who were working to help justify the nations8217 case for war Plame and Kelly were both civil servants with long careers in the service of their countries Paul Vallely of London8217s Independent points out 8220Whatever the truth there can be little doubt that the pressure of events combined to a level intolerable for Dr Kelly 8212 and that a good man and faithful public servant died as yet more collateral damage of this questionable war and the spin used to distract public attention from the real issues of whether war was justified8221 Abu Mazen Goes to Washington While the press8217s attention is focused on Liberia and Saddam Hussein8217s sons Palestinians and Israelis have come to another crossroads in their negotiations The American roadmap does not demand that Israel release any of the 6000 Palestinians now behind Israeli bars But in order for Abbas to gain some credibility on the Palestinian street and in order to ensure that the Islamic militants don8217t break the current ceasefire releasing Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners is crucial For the past few weeks Palestinians have been filling the streets demanding that Israel release prisoners Families marched through refugee camps demanding that their brothers sons uncles and fathers be released from Israeli prisons Today Ariel Sharon8217s government agreed to release a 8220couple hundred8221 prisoners in an attempt to boost the street image of Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas8217 image is crucial 8212 the Palestinian public is particularly wary of their Americanappointed leader The pressure is mounting on Abbas as he heads to Washington to meet with President Bush Palestinian analysts are predicting that if Abbas does not gain Bush8217s support on key issues like prisoner release he could face the wrath of the Palestinian Parliament 8212 a body that could vote him out of office The Jordan Times writes in its Wednesday editorial that President Bush must pressure the Sharon administration to comply with its half of the roadmap 8220Not only it is of paramount importance that Bush understand what helps and what damages Abu Mazen aka Mahmoud Abbas he must also understand that only through Israeli concessions Abu Mazen can strengthen his own position and restore Palestinians8217 hopes in a meaningful peace process The US must increase pressure on Sharon to deliver on what he promised in Aqaba and what is stipulated in the text of the roadmap Because it is that text 8212 reservations or no reservations 8212 that both Sharon and Abu Mazen publicly endorsed in good faith In this context Bush must directly interfere in ongoing negotiations on the future of thousands of Palestinian refugees and in granting Arafat freedom of movement If Sharon was serious in Aqaba he should now deliver on Arafat8217s freedom of movement and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners If he is not willing to do it on his own Bush must make him do it8221 Israel still has not stopped settlement construction or removed all the settlements built since the demise of Oslo 8212 both acts required by the roadmap Israeli troops have left the center of many Palestinian cities but troops have remained stationed on many urban peripheries And as Amira Hass writes in Ha8217aretz daily Palestinian life is still as difficult as always The next week of meetings in Washington is incredibly important and as the Jordan Times points out Abbas is not the only world leader who stands to gain from this weekend8217s negotiations President Bush also has a tainted image in the Middle East and sticking up for the Palestinians seems to touch a soft spot in the heart of the Arab world 8220If Abu Mazen has a lot at stake in this crucial trip to Washington so does Bush The president cannot afford to lose yet more credibility in the Arab world after he personally committed to the success of the Aqaba process He went to war against Iraq thinking that if the Arab masses hated him for his determination to make war they would like him once he wins it He now says he won the Iraq war But Arabs still don8217t like him and the liberated 8216Iraqis8217 like him even less Abu Mazen8217s visit offers Bush an opportunity to prove that he meant business when he flew to Aqaba last month and that peace making and not only war mongering has a place in his foreign policy book8221 President Bush is scheduled to meet with prime minister Sharon on July 29 which leaves him just a few days to ponder his next move Jessica8217s Real World Private Jessica Lynch is in the headlines again but this time it8217s for her madeforTV homecoming Lynch was flown to Elizabeth West Virginia in a Blackhawk helicopter and then driven by motorcade to her hometown of Palestine With a fistful of medals and perhaps even a book deal in the making Lynch returned from a Washington hospital to a crowd of wellwishers sporting 8220Jessi8221 Tshirts and pins It8217s an allAmerican heroic 8220Saving Private Jessica8221 saga but still tinged with allAmerican realityTV flavor Today8217s headlines about Lynch who is often called 8220America8217s Sweetheart8221 in the press run the gamut 8212 covering everything from her love life to her mom8217s pie The headlines though sometimes endearingly hokey almost all miss one crucial point Lynch8217s story has been drastically exaggerated at best and deliberately distorted at worst The Pentagon released a report earlier this month admitting that Lynch was not shot or stabbed and that her injuries were not in fact sustained in a heroic battle 8212 as was first reported Lynch was actually injured Reuters reports when the Humvee she was travelling in crashed into a truck Her maintenance unit had gotten lost and had blundered into an ambush Lynch didn8217t blast her way out of the situation her weapon jammed The Iraqi hospital that Lynch was supposedly 8220rescued8221 from actually housed Lynch in the cleanest ward in the hospital and treated her rather well the Independent reports Many of these facts came out in a BBC report last May a report did much towards unraveling of the ultraheroic version of Lynch8217s travails But in the past few days stories covering the Pentagon report or exploring the possibility that Lynch8217s story was stagemanaged to manipulate public opinion have been elbowed out by the headlines heralding her triumphant return Reuters quotes media experts on the seeming complacency of Americans today 8212 who appear eager to believe just about anything 8220When the 20yearold supply clerk arrives by Blackhawk helicopter to the embrace of family and friends media critics say the TV cameras will not show the return of an injured soldier so much as a realityTV drama coproduced by US government propaganda and credulous reporters 8216It no longer matters in America whether something is true or false The population has been conditioned to accept anything sentimental stories lies atomic bomb threats8217 said John MacArthur the publisher of Harper8217s magazine8221 Perhaps writes The Times of London8217s Elaine Monaghan an act of desperation led certain higherups to cast Jessica in the leading role as a symbol of American superiority 8220As the Army surgeon general pinned a Purple Heart a Bronze Star and the Prisoner of War Medal on her lapel before she left hospital the words of the anonymous US officials still rang untrue Desperate for a symbol to sugarcoat the war they cast her as the lead in a battle of good against evil 8230 The wheelchair that she still needs after 102 days in a Washington military hospital is a legacy of the wrong turn that her convoy took on March 23 and a subsequent Iraqi attack But to Americans she remains a symbol of moral superiority in an ongoing conflict8221 KOMO TV8217s Ken Schram sums the melodrama up nicely as a tale of a smalltown girl exploited by the media and the government 8220Exploited by the media manipulated by the government Jessica Lynch had the look of a deer caught in the headlights as she faced the world via satellite trucks and camera lenses 8230 Having done nothing heroic beyond surviving Jessica Lynch is but one soldier around which a sentimental story was concocted And even after that story was shown to be false the luster of the lie stayed with her because it made good TV sold newspapers and gave the government a piece of propaganda to play with Jessica Lynch is but one soldier from a small town unaware that the world is too full of big city slickers with news credentials and government offices who have their own reasons to create heroes8221 The verdict is still out however on just how spinoff schlock the American public will be willing to swallow One TV movie has already been canned Jessica Lynch was originally approached with a host of book and TV movie deals from all the corporate media monoliths But the BBC is now reporting that CBS has already backed down from its movie offer The company had suggested the movie to Lynch8217s family in the same letter in which it proposed a documentary Of that marriage of factual and fictitious proposals chairman Leslie Moonves now says 8220Maybe that went over the line That was not respecting possibly the sanctity of CBS News8221 | amp160/PROPN Insiders/NOUN Outed/VERB On/ADP both/DET sides/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Atlantic/PROPN the/DET government/NOUN may/AUX have/AUX mistreated/VERB those/PRON who/PRON dared/VERB to/PART give/VERB whistleblowing/NOUN evidence/NOUN to/ADP the/DET press/NOUN Abu/PROPN Mazen/PROPN Goes/VERB To/ADP Washington/PROPN If/SCONJ he8217s/PROPN going/VERB to/PART quell/VERB anger/NOUN on/ADP the/DET Palestinian/ADJ street/NOUN Abbas/PROPN needs/VERB to/PART make/VERB headway/NOUN at/ADP the/DET White/PROPN House/PROPN Jessica8217s/PROPN Real/PROPN World/PROPN Pfc/PROPN Lynch8217s/PROPN homecoming/NOUN has/VERB the/DET look/NOUN and/CCONJ feel/VERB of/ADP reality/NOUN TV/NOUN Insiders/PROPN Outed/VERB What/PRON happens/VERB to/ADP insiders/NOUN who/PRON blow/VERB the/DET whistle/NOUN on/ADP the/DET 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<p>The 2008 presidential election was the most expensive on record, with candidates, parties, and outside groups <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/10/us-election-will-cost-53-billi.html" type="external">dropping $5.3 billion</a>. This year’s contest promises to break that record, due in part to the new rules of political fundraising: Donors can pour unlimited cash into outside-spending groups that can freely boost or attack the candidates of their choice. Which means that wealthy donors who have maxed out on their gifts to candidates or just want <a href="" type="internal">a lot more bang for their political buck</a> can write massive checks to any of <a href="" type="internal">the new super-PACs</a> that are popping up as proxies for politicians and parties.</p>
<p>Throughout the year, we’ll be keeping tabs on these superdonors (many of them couples who double up or spread out their gifts). As primary season heats up, we’ve tallied the current top 20 political givers based on donation data collected by the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php" type="external">Center for Responsive Politics</a>.</p>
<p>Here’s a quick look at how they’re giving, starting with their partisan tilt:&#160;17 out of 20 are giving to Republican or conservative groups and candiates.</p>
<p />
<p>And half of the top 20 are major donors to the pro-Mitt Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future:</p>
<p />
<p>The full list:</p>
<p>With a net worth of more than $21 billion, casino mogul Sheldon is listed by Forbes as the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheldon-adelson/" type="external">eighth-richest person</a> in&#160;America. His recent <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/billionaire-adelson-gives-millions-to-gingrich-super-pac/2012/01/07/gIQAXI6rhP_story.html" type="external">$5 million donation</a> to the pro-Newt Gingrich super-PAC Winning Our Future has secured his spot as the 2012 election cycle’s most generous donor (for now). In keeping with Gingrich’s <a href="" type="internal">scorched-earth primary strategy</a>, Adelson’s massive gift is funding a round of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/us/politics/pro-gingrich-pac-plans-tv-ads-against-romney.html?_r=2&amp;hp" type="external">harsh attack ads against Mitt Romney</a>. The chairman and CEO&#160;of the Las Vegas Sands casino chain, Adelson previously contributed to conservative outside-spending groups, including the now-defunct <a href="" type="internal">Freedom’s Watch</a> and Gingrich’s shuttered 527 group, <a href="" type="internal">American Solutions Winning the Future</a>. In a 2008 <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones article</a>, a Nevada Republican operative described him as “a very aggressive, strong-minded, passionate person”; in another MoJo story, a <a href="" type="internal">union leader called</a> the famously anti-labor Adelson “probably one of the most litigious people on the planet.”Total giving for 2012 race: $5,224,800 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $5,010,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $214,800</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bob is the founder of Perry Homes, one of America’s top homebuilders. He’s worth a reported $650 million and is a longtime Republican power player, though <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5844156/" type="external">“not a schmoozer at all.”</a> During the 2004 election, Perry gave nearly $4.5 million to the John Kerry-smearing group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He has also <a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/03/political-moneyman-bob-perry-o.html" type="external">bankrolled every member</a> of the Texas Supreme Court, which ruled for him in a defective-home lawsuit. (He was ultimately ordered to pay $51 million.) In the 2012 election cycle, the Perrys have given $2.5 million to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads super-PAC, $500,000 to the pro-Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future, and $250,000 to the Republican Governors Association.</p>
<p>Total giving for 2012 race: $3,337,600 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $3,250,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $87,600</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/12/how-20-year-old-katzenberg-memo-changed" type="external">former head of Walt Disney’s film division</a>, Jeffrey is the CEO of DreamWorks Animation, the world’s largest animation studio. A <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/141/the-redemption-of-an-ogre.html" type="external">2009 Fast Company profile</a> noted his reputation for “relentless ambition and a hypercontrolling management style.” In the 2012 election cycle, he has given $2 million to the pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA Action. As in the last election, Jeffrey is a major bundler for the Obama campaign. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401491.html?nav=hcmodule" type="external">He described soliciting money</a> for Obama as “the single easiest fundraising phone call that I have ever made, ever.”Total giving for 2012 race: $2,173,100 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $2,000,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $173,100</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Jerry, 80, is the former CEO of the Spanish-language network Univision, which he sold for $13.7 billion in 2007. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/a-jerrold-perenchio/" type="external">He is worth a reported $2.3 billion</a> and is one of Malibu’s biggest private landowners. He was previously a talent agent for Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and other stars. His wife, Margaret, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/garden/19portrait.html" type="external">is a portrait artist</a> who has painted celebrities including Salma Hayek. In the 2012 election cycle, the Perenchios have dished out <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2012&amp;cmte=C00487363" type="external">$2 million</a> to Rove’s American Crossroads. Total giving for 2012 race: $2,128,300 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $2,000,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $128,300</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/robert-rowling/" type="external">Reportedly worth $4.7 billion</a>, the 57-year-old Robert owns TRT Holdings, whose assets include the Tana Exploration oil company, a Mexican dollar-store chain, and Gold’s Gym. He and his wife, Terry, live in the legendarily conservative Dallas suburb of <a href="" type="internal">Highland Park</a>. He has given millions of dollars to state and national Republicans over the years; as a bundler to George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign, he was named a “Bush Pioneer.” In the 2012 election cycle, he has given <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2012&amp;cmte=C00487363" type="external">$1 million</a> to American Crossroads (a prior donation <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2010/10/26/golds-gym-franchises-revolt-against-billionaire-owner-for-funding-rove-group/" type="external">prompted protests</a> from San Francisco branches of Gold’s Gym).Total giving for 2012 race: $1,101,600 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $1,000,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $101,600</p>
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<p>A <a href="http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/June-2011/The-File-on-Citadels-Ken-Griffin/" type="external">hedge fund power couple</a>, Ken and Anne Griffin are, respectively, the <a href="http://www.citadelgroup.com/about/corporate-leadership.php" type="external">founder and CEO of Citadel</a> and the <a href="http://www.americanbanker.com/magazine/119_10/anne-dias-griffin-1002114-1.html?zkPrintable=true" type="external">founder and managing partner of Aragon Global Management</a>, one of the nation’s largest hedge funds headed by a woman. Noted art aficionados, they own works by Monet, Degas, and Cezanne, and paid $80 million for a Jasper Johns painting. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/ken-griffin/" type="external">Reportedly worth $2.3 billion</a>, Ken bundled money for both Obama and John McCain during the 2008 election. In the 2012 election cycle, the couple has given $500,000 to the Republican Governors Association, $300,000 to Rove’s American Crossroads, and $150,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth. Bonus: Charles Koch named them as part of a <a href="" type="internal">list of elite donors</a> who have pledged $1 million to his and his brother David’s conservative fundraising machine. Total giving for 2012 race: $1,089,000 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $950,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $139,000</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/john-paulson/" type="external">With a net worth of $15.5 billion</a>, John, a phenomenally successful hedge funds manager, is America’s 17th-richest person. After riding out the market collapse, Paulson made $4.9 billion in 2010— <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/business/john-paulsons-golden-touch-turns-leaden.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">Wall Street’s biggest-ever single payday</a>. Occupy Wall Street protested outside his 28,500-square foot Manhattan mansion in October 2011. The following month <a href="http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-30/wall_street/30457813_1_john-paulson-sweet-deal-nursery-school" type="external">he issued a letter apologizing</a> for Paulson Funds’ poor recent performance, then personally bailed it out to the tune of $4 million. In the 2012 election cycle, Paulson has given $1 million to the pro-Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future. He and his wife Jenny have also given $9,600 to Massachusetts <a href="" type="internal">Sen. Scott Brown</a>. Total giving for 2012 race: $1,075,600 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $1,005,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $70,600</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.baincapital.com/team/74/Paul_Edgerley" type="external">Since 1990</a>, Paul has served as a managing director of Bain Capital, the private investment firm <a href="" type="internal">cofounded by Mitt Romney</a>. Previously, he did <a href="http://people.forbes.com/profile/paul-b-edgerley/74500" type="external">consulting and managerial work</a> alongside Romney at Bain &amp; Company. Sandra also worked at Bain &amp; Company <a href="http://www.tbf.org/AboutTBF/AboutTBFDetail.aspx?id=15176" type="external">before leaving</a> to focus on philanthropic interests. The Edgerleys are longtime Republican boosters in Massachusetts. In the 2012 election cycle, the couple has donated $1 million to Restore Our Future.Total giving for 2012 race: $1,015,000 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $1,000,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $15,000</p>
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<p>Edward is a retired managing director at Bain Capital, and Jill is a former comedy writer who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/14/style/weddings-jill-davis-edward-conard.html" type="external">previously worked for David Letterman</a>. They are prominent Romney supporters, as they were in 2008. In August, following complaints from election watchdogs, <a href="http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/08/06/edward_conard_mystery_romney_donor_behind_w_spann_llc_comes_forw.html" type="external">Edward revealed</a> that he was behind a mysterious $1 million donation, given by a previously unheard-of company called W Spann, to the Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future. Total giving for 2012 race: $1,005,000 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $1,000,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $5,000</p>
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<p>This reclusive media mogul is a major Democratic fundraiser. A former reporter, <a href="http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/alumni/hallofachievement.aspx?id=116927" type="external">he runs the Newsweb Corporation</a>, which publishes alternative and ethnic newspapers. In 2002, he made more than $420 million selling a TV station to Rupert Murdoch. A <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-06-07/news/0506070274_1_gay-rights-activist-politics-fred-eychaner" type="external">2005 Chicago Tribune profile</a> reported that he “drives a 1999 Ford Escort, flies coach, owns just three suits and sometimes stays at budget motels.” In the 2012 election cycle, Eychaner has given $500,000 to the pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA Action, $100,000 to the House Majority PAC, $100,000 to the Democratic Governors Association, and $50,000 to the Gay &amp; Lesbian Victory Fund. Total giving for 2012 race: $791,800 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $750,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $41,800</p>
<p>For the past four decades, J.W. “Bill” Marriott Jr. has served as CEO of Marriott International, the hotel franchise and property management company founded by his father. (In December 2011 <a href="http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/2011/12/marriott-international-ceo-bill-marriott-arne-sorenson/584699/1" type="external">he announced his intention to step down</a>.) He is <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-marriott/" type="external">reportedly worth $1.3 billion</a>. His brother, Richard, is also in the hotel business and is a major political donor. <a href="http://www.marriott.com/corporateinfo/culture/heritageJWMarriottJR.mi" type="external">Bill chairs the President’s Export Council</a>, which advises the executive branch on national and global trade. In the 2012 election cycle, he and his wife, Donna, have donated $500,000 to the pro-Romney super-PAC Restore Our Future. Total giving for 2012 race: $657,687 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $510,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $147,687</p>
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<p>John heads the John Templeton Foundation, a nonprofit focused on answering “the Big Questions of human purpose.” ( <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_48/b3961604.htm" type="external">Critics say</a> it seeks to lend scientific legitimacy to matters of faith.) The foundation was started by his late father, <a href="http://www.skepdic.com/essays/templeton.html" type="external">Sir John</a>, a mutual fund billionaire. In 2009 it reportedly had $1.7 billion in assets. In the 2012 election cycle, John and his wife, Josephine, have donated $232,000 to the College Republican National Committee, $200,000 to the anti-Obama super-PAC Raising Red, $100,000 to Rove’s American Crossroads, $55,000 to the Republican Governors Association, and $5,000 to Rick Santorum. Bonus: Charles Koch named them as part a <a href="" type="internal">list of elite donors</a> who have pledged $1 million to his and his brother David’s conservative fundraising machine. Total giving for 2012 race: $633,000 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $597,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $36,000</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires/list?page=8" type="external">Worth a reported $1.7 billion</a>, the media-shy founder of Moore Capital Management has a reputation as one of the world’s <a href="https://www.futuresindustry.org/louis-moore-bacon.asp" type="external">top hedge fund traders</a>. In the 2012 election cycle, Bacon has given $500,000 to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future. Total giving for 2012 race: $580,300 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $500,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $80,300</p>
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<p>Richard has <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washbizblog/2008/06/bill_and_richard_marriott.html" type="external">split his father’s hotel-industry fortune</a> with his brother Bill. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-marriott/" type="external">Worth a reported $1.4 billion</a>, Richard runs Host Hotels, the world’s biggest lodging investment trust. In the 2012 cycle, Richard and his wife, Nancy, have given <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2012&amp;cmte=C00490045" type="external">$500,000</a> to Restore Our Future. Total giving for 2012 race: $556,200 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $510,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $46,200</p>
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<p>The Davises serve as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the New Balance shoe company. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/jim-davis/" type="external">Reportedly worth $1.8 billion</a>, Jim is one of the <a href="http://www.majorleaguelacrosse.com/founders/" type="external">founders of Major League Lacrosse</a> and is a major donor to collegiate athletics programs. In the 2012 election cycle, he has given to <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2012&amp;cmte=C00490045" type="external">$500,000</a> to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future. <a href="http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/new-balance-walks-away-mitt-romney-contribution" type="external">New Balance has issued a letter</a> explaining that Davis’ donation to Restore Our Future “was a private donation and not a contribution from New Balance” and distanced the company from Romney’s stance against gay marriage. Total giving for 2012 race: $542,300 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $500,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $42,300</p>
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<p>Bing is a film producer ( <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0893382/" type="external">Shine a Light</a>), script writer ( <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257568/" type="external">Kangaroo Jack</a>), and the founder of Shangri-La Music. He <a href="http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/steve_bing.htm" type="external">inherited a $600 million real estate fortune</a> when he turned 18. Described as one of Bill Clinton’s <a href="http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2009/09/steve_bing_the_very_rich_frien.php" type="external">“best friends,”</a> Bing has donated millions to the Clinton Global Initiative and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8260264&amp;page=1#.TutW9tRrOkM" type="external">paid $200,000</a> to fly the former president to North Korea to bring home two detained American journalists in 2009. Bing was worth an estimated $590 million in 2009; a movie producer <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/03/30/steve-bing-takes-a-hit.print.html" type="external">told the Daily Beast</a> that he “treats money as if there are no consequences to losing it.” A major donor to Democratic causes, in the 2012 election cycle he has given $250,000 and $150,000 to the liberal super-PACs Majority PAC and American Bridge 21st Century, respectively. Total giving for 2012 race: $495,800 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $410,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $85,800</p>
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<p>Gary is the developer behind <a href="http://thevillages.com/AboutUs/aboutus.htm" type="external">The Villages</a>, a master-planned retirement community in central Florida. Described as a “mystery man” <a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-10-05/news/villages05_1_morse-villages-kelly" type="external">by the Orlando Sentinel,</a> he is a longtime Republican donor. <a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-10-05/news/lvillages05_1_morse-villages-mystery-man" type="external">He has said</a> “excessive and inefficient regulation” is the main obstacle to his business. He has thrown his support behind Mitt Romney; in turn, <a href="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/10/photos-romney-gets-warm-welcome-at-villages.html" type="external">Romney has campaigned at The Villages</a>, a common stop for GOP candidates. Gary and his wife, Renee, have contributed <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2012&amp;cmte=C00490045" type="external">$250,000</a> to Restore Our Future and $5,000 to the Romney-affiliated PAC Free and Strong America. Total giving for 2012 race: $425,000 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $265,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $160,000</p>
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<p>The Friesses founded the investment firm <a href="http://www.brandywinefunds.com/bfunds.nsf/homepage" type="external">Friess Associates</a> in 1974; in 2001, <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2001-08-30/business/25297659_1_friess-associates-foster-friess-stock-funds" type="external">they sold a majority share for $247 million</a>. At a celebration of his and Lynn’s 70th birthdays in Jackson Hole, they astounded guests by <a href="http://wyofile.com/2011/01/foster-friess/" type="external">handing out $7.7 million</a> to the nonprofits of their choice. With their son, the couple runs a family foundation focused on <a href="http://fosterfriess.com/the-team/" type="external">“encouraging private-sector solutions.”</a> Foster <a href="http://wyofile.com/2011/01/foster-friess/" type="external">has said,</a> “If you look at the solutions that government comes up with, they’re almost always an unmitigated disaster.” During the 2012 election cycle, the couple has given to Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Tim Pawlenty—and $250,000 to the conservative Movement Fund. Bonus: Charles Koch named them as part a <a href="" type="internal">list of elite donors</a> who have pledged $1 million to his and his brother David’s conservative fundraising machine. Total giving for 2012 race: $403,100 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $270,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $133,100</p>
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<p>The Groffs <a href="http://www.nwexc.com/about+northwest+excavating.html" type="external">own Northwest Excavating</a>, a Southern California construction equipment rental and digging company. The couple maintains a low public profile but has contributed heavily to Republican federal candidates since the mid-2000s. In the 2012 election cycle, they have given $100,000 to Restore Our Future. Total giving for 2012 race: $392,900 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $110,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $282,900</p>
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<p>Robert Mercer is co-CEO of the <a href="http://www.hoovers.com/company/Renaissance_Technologies_LLC/rrtrfyi-1.html" type="external">$15 billion</a> hedge fund company Renaissance Technologies. In 2009, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/hedge-fund-hotshot-robert-mercer-files-lawsuit-2m-model-train-accusing-builder-overcharge-article-1.368624" type="external">according to the New York Daily News,</a> he accused a builder of overcharging him $2 million for a construction project in his mansion—a “museum-quality” model train display “about half the size of a basketball court.” During the 2010 midterms, <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/wealthy_financier_is_mysteriou.html" type="external">Mercer was outed as the funder</a> behind $300,000 worth of attack ads targeting Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). In the 2012 election cycle, he and his wife Diana have given $150,000 to the Republican National Lawyers Association and $100,000 to the free-market super-PAC Club for Growth Action. Total giving for 2012 race: $384,100 • Giving to outside-spending groups: $260,000 • Giving to candidates and parties: $124,100</p>
<p>Source of donation data: <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php" type="external">Center for Responsive</a> <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php" type="external">Politics</a>. Outside spending groups include super-PACs, PACs, and 527 groups.</p>
<p>Front page image of Sheldon Adelson and Jeffrey Katzenberg: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sheldon_Adelson_21_June_2010.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a>; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63750402@N07/5956611994/" type="external">Fortune Live Media</a>/Flickr</p>
<p>Photo credits: 1. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sheldon_Adelson_21_June_2010.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a>; 2. <a href="http://bobperry.us/" type="external">Bob Perry</a>; 3. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63750402@N07/5956611994/" type="external">Fortune Live Media</a>/Flickr; 5. Joe Klein/ZUMA; 6. <a href="http://www.childrensmemorial.org/newsroom/release01072010.aspx" type="external">Childrens Memorial Hospital</a>; 7. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IevnJTFAItY" type="external">stnoyes1</a>/YouTube; 8. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D7BrZJUV_0" type="external">Kstate</a>/YouTube; 11. Ron Sachs/ZUMA; 12. <a href="http://www.templeton.org/who-we-are/our-team/board-of-trustees/dr-jack-templeton" type="external">John Templeton Foundation</a>; 13. Jodi Jones/ZUMA; 14. Marriott; 15. <a href="http://www.newbalance.com/company/leadership/jim-davis/" type="external">New Balance</a>; 16. Rick Mackler/ZUMA; 18. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/resolutemediagroup/6329774298/" type="external">Voices Empower with Alice Linahan</a>/Flickr; 19. <a href="http://www.nwexc.com/about+northwest+excavating.html" type="external">Northwest Excavating</a>&#160;</p>
<p /> | The 20 Biggest Donors of the 2012 Election (So Far) | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/top-donors-2012-election-romney-obama-gingrich/ | 2012-01-10 | 4left
| 2,523 | The 2008 presidential election was the most expensive on record with candidates parties and outside groups dropping 53 billion This year8217s contest promises to break that record due in part to the new rules of political fundraising Donors can pour unlimited cash into outsidespending groups that can freely boost or attack the candidates of their choice Which means that wealthy donors who have maxed out on their gifts to candidates or just want a lot more bang for their political buck can write massive checks to any of the new superPACs that are popping up as proxies for politicians and parties Throughout the year we8217ll be keeping tabs on these superdonors many of them couples who double up or spread out their gifts As primary season heats up we8217ve tallied the current top 20 political givers based on donation data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics Here8217s a quick look at how they8217re giving starting with their partisan tiltamp16017 out of 20 are giving to Republican or conservative groups and candiates And half of the top 20 are major donors to the proMitt Romney superPAC Restore Our Future The full list With a net worth of more than 21 billion casino mogul Sheldon is listed by Forbes as the eighthrichest person inamp160America His recent 5 million donation to the proNewt Gingrich superPAC Winning Our Future has secured his spot as the 2012 election cycle8217s most generous donor for now In keeping with Gingrich8217s scorchedearth primary strategy Adelson8217s massive gift is funding a round of harsh attack ads against Mitt Romney The chairman and CEOamp160of the Las Vegas Sands casino chain Adelson previously contributed to conservative outsidespending groups including the nowdefunct Freedom8217s Watch and Gingrich8217s shuttered 527 group American Solutions Winning the Future In a 2008 Mother Jones article a Nevada Republican operative described him as 8220a very aggressive strongminded passionate person8221 in another MoJo story a union leader called the famously antilabor Adelson 8220probably one of the most litigious people on the planet8221Total giving for 2012 race 5224800 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 5010000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 214800 amp160 Bob is the founder of Perry Homes one of America8217s top homebuilders He8217s worth a reported 650 million and is a longtime Republican power player though 8220not a schmoozer at all8221 During the 2004 election Perry gave nearly 45 million to the John Kerrysmearing group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth He has also bankrolled every member of the Texas Supreme Court which ruled for him in a defectivehome lawsuit He was ultimately ordered to pay 51 million In the 2012 election cycle the Perrys have given 25 million to Karl Rove8217s American Crossroads superPAC 500000 to the proRomney superPAC Restore Our Future and 250000 to the Republican Governors Association Total giving for 2012 race 3337600 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 3250000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 87600 amp160 The former head of Walt Disney8217s film division Jeffrey is the CEO of DreamWorks Animation the world8217s largest animation studio A 2009 Fast Company profile noted his reputation for 8220relentless ambition and a hypercontrolling management style8221 In the 2012 election cycle he has given 2 million to the proObama superPAC Priorities USA Action As in the last election Jeffrey is a major bundler for the Obama campaign He described soliciting money for Obama as 8220the single easiest fundraising phone call that I have ever made ever8221Total giving for 2012 race 2173100 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 2000000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 173100 amp160 Jerry 80 is the former CEO of the Spanishlanguage network Univision which he sold for 137 billion in 2007 He is worth a reported 23 billion and is one of Malibu8217s biggest private landowners He was previously a talent agent for Marlon Brando Elizabeth Taylor and other stars His wife Margaret is a portrait artist who has painted celebrities including Salma Hayek In the 2012 election cycle the Perenchios have dished out 2 million to Rove8217s American Crossroads Total giving for 2012 race 2128300 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 2000000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 128300 amp160 Reportedly worth 47 billion the 57yearold Robert owns TRT Holdings whose assets include the Tana Exploration oil company a Mexican dollarstore chain and Gold8217s Gym He and his wife Terry live in the legendarily conservative Dallas suburb of Highland Park He has given millions of dollars to state and national Republicans over the years as a bundler to George W Bush8217s 2004 campaign he was named a 8220Bush Pioneer8221 In the 2012 election cycle he has given 1 million to American Crossroads a prior donation prompted protests from San Francisco branches of Gold8217s GymTotal giving for 2012 race 1101600 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 1000000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 101600 amp160 A hedge fund power couple Ken and Anne Griffin are respectively the founder and CEO of Citadel and the founder and managing partner of Aragon Global Management one of the nation8217s largest hedge funds headed by a woman Noted art aficionados they own works by Monet Degas and Cezanne and paid 80 million for a Jasper Johns painting Reportedly worth 23 billion Ken bundled money for both Obama and John McCain during the 2008 election In the 2012 election cycle the couple has given 500000 to the Republican Governors Association 300000 to Rove8217s American Crossroads and 150000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth Bonus Charles Koch named them as part of a list of elite donors who have pledged 1 million to his and his brother David8217s conservative fundraising machine Total giving for 2012 race 1089000 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 950000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 139000 amp160 With a net worth of 155 billion John a phenomenally successful hedge funds manager is America8217s 17thrichest person After riding out the market collapse Paulson made 49 billion in 20108212 Wall Street8217s biggestever single payday Occupy Wall Street protested outside his 28500square foot Manhattan mansion in October 2011 The following month he issued a letter apologizing for Paulson Funds8217 poor recent performance then personally bailed it out to the tune of 4 million In the 2012 election cycle Paulson has given 1 million to the proRomney superPAC Restore Our Future He and his wife Jenny have also given 9600 to Massachusetts Sen Scott Brown Total giving for 2012 race 1075600 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 1005000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 70600 amp160 Since 1990 Paul has served as a managing director of Bain Capital the private investment firm cofounded by Mitt Romney Previously he did consulting and managerial work alongside Romney at Bain ampamp Company Sandra also worked at Bain ampamp Company before leaving to focus on philanthropic interests The Edgerleys are longtime Republican boosters in Massachusetts In the 2012 election cycle the couple has donated 1 million to Restore Our FutureTotal giving for 2012 race 1015000 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 1000000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 15000 amp160 Edward is a retired managing director at Bain Capital and Jill is a former comedy writer who previously worked for David Letterman They are prominent Romney supporters as they were in 2008 In August following complaints from election watchdogs Edward revealed that he was behind a mysterious 1 million donation given by a previously unheardof company called W Spann to the Romney superPAC Restore Our Future Total giving for 2012 race 1005000 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 1000000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 5000 amp160 This reclusive media mogul is a major Democratic fundraiser A former reporter he runs the Newsweb Corporation which publishes alternative and ethnic newspapers In 2002 he made more than 420 million selling a TV station to Rupert Murdoch A 2005 Chicago Tribune profile reported that he 8220drives a 1999 Ford Escort flies coach owns just three suits and sometimes stays at budget motels8221 In the 2012 election cycle Eychaner has given 500000 to the proObama superPAC Priorities USA Action 100000 to the House Majority PAC 100000 to the Democratic Governors Association and 50000 to the Gay ampamp Lesbian Victory Fund Total giving for 2012 race 791800 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 750000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 41800 For the past four decades JW 8220Bill8221 Marriott Jr has served as CEO of Marriott International the hotel franchise and property management company founded by his father In December 2011 he announced his intention to step down He is reportedly worth 13 billion His brother Richard is also in the hotel business and is a major political donor Bill chairs the President8217s Export Council which advises the executive branch on national and global trade In the 2012 election cycle he and his wife Donna have donated 500000 to the proRomney superPAC Restore Our Future Total giving for 2012 race 657687 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 510000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 147687 amp160 John heads the John Templeton Foundation a nonprofit focused on answering 8220the Big Questions of human purpose8221 Critics say it seeks to lend scientific legitimacy to matters of faith The foundation was started by his late father Sir John a mutual fund billionaire In 2009 it reportedly had 17 billion in assets In the 2012 election cycle John and his wife Josephine have donated 232000 to the College Republican National Committee 200000 to the antiObama superPAC Raising Red 100000 to Rove8217s American Crossroads 55000 to the Republican Governors Association and 5000 to Rick Santorum Bonus Charles Koch named them as part a list of elite donors who have pledged 1 million to his and his brother David8217s conservative fundraising machine Total giving for 2012 race 633000 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 597000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 36000 amp160 Worth a reported 17 billion the mediashy founder of Moore Capital Management has a reputation as one of the world8217s top hedge fund traders In the 2012 election cycle Bacon has given 500000 to the proRomney Restore Our Future Total giving for 2012 race 580300 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 500000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 80300 amp160 Richard has split his father8217s hotelindustry fortune with his brother Bill Worth a reported 14 billion Richard runs Host Hotels the world8217s biggest lodging investment trust In the 2012 cycle Richard and his wife Nancy have given 500000 to Restore Our Future Total giving for 2012 race 556200 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 510000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 46200 amp160 The Davises serve as chair and vice chair respectively of the New Balance shoe company Reportedly worth 18 billion Jim is one of the founders of Major League Lacrosse and is a major donor to collegiate athletics programs In the 2012 election cycle he has given to 500000 to the proRomney Restore Our Future New Balance has issued a letter explaining that Davis8217 donation to Restore Our Future 8220was a private donation and not a contribution from New Balance8221 and distanced the company from Romney8217s stance against gay marriage Total giving for 2012 race 542300 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 500000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 42300 amp160 Bing is a film producer Shine a Light script writer Kangaroo Jack and the founder of ShangriLa Music He inherited a 600 million real estate fortune when he turned 18 Described as one of Bill Clinton8217s 8220best friends8221 Bing has donated millions to the Clinton Global Initiative and paid 200000 to fly the former president to North Korea to bring home two detained American journalists in 2009 Bing was worth an estimated 590 million in 2009 a movie producer told the Daily Beast that he 8220treats money as if there are no consequences to losing it8221 A major donor to Democratic causes in the 2012 election cycle he has given 250000 and 150000 to the liberal superPACs Majority PAC and American Bridge 21st Century respectively Total giving for 2012 race 495800 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 410000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 85800 amp160amp160 Gary is the developer behind The Villages a masterplanned retirement community in central Florida Described as a 8220mystery man8221 by the Orlando Sentinel he is a longtime Republican donor He has said 8220excessive and inefficient regulation8221 is the main obstacle to his business He has thrown his support behind Mitt Romney in turn Romney has campaigned at The Villages a common stop for GOP candidates Gary and his wife Renee have contributed 250000 to Restore Our Future and 5000 to the Romneyaffiliated PAC Free and Strong America Total giving for 2012 race 425000 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 265000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 160000 amp160 The Friesses founded the investment firm Friess Associates in 1974 in 2001 they sold a majority share for 247 million At a celebration of his and Lynn8217s 70th birthdays in Jackson Hole they astounded guests by handing out 77 million to the nonprofits of their choice With their son the couple runs a family foundation focused on 8220encouraging privatesector solutions8221 Foster has said 8220If you look at the solutions that government comes up with they8217re almost always an unmitigated disaster8221 During the 2012 election cycle the couple has given to Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich Mitt Romney Rick Santorum Rick Perry and Tim Pawlenty8212and 250000 to the conservative Movement Fund Bonus Charles Koch named them as part a list of elite donors who have pledged 1 million to his and his brother David8217s conservative fundraising machine Total giving for 2012 race 403100 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 270000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 133100 amp160 The Groffs own Northwest Excavating a Southern California construction equipment rental and digging company The couple maintains a low public profile but has contributed heavily to Republican federal candidates since the mid2000s In the 2012 election cycle they have given 100000 to Restore Our Future Total giving for 2012 race 392900 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 110000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 282900 amp160 Robert Mercer is coCEO of the 15 billion hedge fund company Renaissance Technologies In 2009 according to the New York Daily News he accused a builder of overcharging him 2 million for a construction project in his mansion8212a 8220museumquality8221 model train display 8220about half the size of a basketball court8221 During the 2010 midterms Mercer was outed as the funder behind 300000 worth of attack ads targeting Rep Peter DeFazio DOre In the 2012 election cycle he and his wife Diana have given 150000 to the Republican National Lawyers Association and 100000 to the freemarket superPAC Club for Growth Action Total giving for 2012 race 384100 8226 Giving to outsidespending groups 260000 8226 Giving to candidates and parties 124100 Source of donation data Center for Responsive Politics Outside spending groups include superPACs PACs and 527 groups Front page image of Sheldon Adelson and Jeffrey Katzenberg Wikimedia Commons Fortune Live MediaFlickr Photo credits 1 Wikimedia Commons 2 Bob Perry 3 Fortune Live MediaFlickr 5 Joe KleinZUMA 6 Childrens Memorial Hospital 7 stnoyes1YouTube 8 KstateYouTube 11 Ron SachsZUMA 12 John Templeton Foundation 13 Jodi JonesZUMA 14 Marriott 15 New Balance 16 Rick MacklerZUMA 18 Voices Empower with Alice LinahanFlickr 19 Northwest Excavatingamp160 | The/DET 2008/NUM presidential/ADJ election/NOUN was/AUX the/DET most/ADV expensive/ADJ on/ADP record/NOUN with/ADP candidates/NOUN parties/NOUN and/CCONJ outside/ADJ groups/NOUN dropping/VERB 53/NUM billion/NUM This/DET year8217s/NUM contest/NOUN promises/NOUN to/PART break/VERB that/DET record/NOUN due/ADP in/ADP part/NOUN to/ADP the/DET new/ADJ rules/NOUN of/ADP political/ADJ fundraising/NOUN Donors/NOUN can/AUX pour/VERB unlimited/ADJ cash/NOUN into/ADP outsidespending/VERB groups/NOUN that/PRON can/AUX freely/ADV boost/VERB or/CCONJ attack/VERB the/DET candidates/NOUN of/ADP their/PRON choice/NOUN Which/PRON means/VERB that/SCONJ wealthy/ADJ donors/NOUN who/PRON have/AUX maxed/VERB out/ADP on/ADP their/PRON gifts/NOUN to/ADP candidates/NOUN or/CCONJ just/ADV want/VERB a/DET lot/NOUN more/ADJ bang/NOUN for/ADP their/PRON political/ADJ buck/NOUN can/AUX write/VERB massive/ADJ checks/NOUN to/ADP any/PRON of/ADP the/DET new/ADJ superPACs/NOUN that/PRON are/AUX popping/VERB up/ADP as/ADP proxies/NOUN for/ADP politicians/NOUN and/CCONJ parties/NOUN Throughout/ADP the/DET year/NOUN we8217ll/PROPN 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<p>DUBAI, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Citigroup has received a commencement letter from Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority that will formally allow the bank to launch investment banking business in the kingdom, the bank said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Citigroup Saudi Arabia also held its inaugural board meeting in Riyadh, it said in a statement. It obtained a capital markets licence in April enabling its return to the kingdom after an absence of almost 13 years.</p>
<p>“Saudi Arabia is a regional economic leader and a strategically important market for Citi,” Citigroup chief executive Mike Corbat said. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Andrew Torchia)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - A grocery industry veteran who led U.K. retailer Tesco Plc’s online operation was named president of Walmart’s Jet.com e-commerce business in the retail behemoth’s latest move to grab a bigger piece of the intensely competitive sector.</p> A logo of Walmart is seen in one of the stores in Monterrey, Mexico November 28, 2016. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo
<p>Simon Belsham will oversee all operations including grocery and general merchandise and join Walmart’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) U.S. e-commerce leadership team, according to an internal email sent on Monday by Marc Lore, the head of Walmart’s e-commerce business, to Jet employees and seen by Reuters.</p>
<p>Walmart acquired Jet for $3.3 billion in August 2016, a deal that was widely considered a watershed moment for its then-struggling e-commerce operation as it got access to both technology and talent through Jet founder Lore and his team.</p>
<p>Walmart’s e-commerce success has been erratic. Online sales increased 23 percent in the most recent quarter, less than half the rate of growth in each of the previous three quarters. Walmart’s stock got walloped after the news.</p>
<p>Belsham’s hiring comes amid fierce competition in the grocery sector. Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) purchased Whole Foods Market for $13.4 billion last year, and rivals like Target Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TGT.N" type="external">TGT.N</a>), Costco Wholesale Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=COST.O" type="external">COST.O</a>) and Kroger Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KR.N" type="external">KR.N</a>) are joining the costly battle for customers who want groceries without leaving their couches.</p>
<p>Walmart is aggressively ramping up its online grocery business. It has said it will expand home delivery service to more than 100 U.S. cities and offer curbside grocery pickup at 2,200 stores by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Jet’s focus on groceries is likely to help Walmart win with urban millennial customers - Jet’s key demographic.</p>
<p>“With Jet grocery being an integral part of the strategy, Simon brings incredible experience in scaling grocery delivery and his unique background in converging technology and retail,” Lore said in the email.</p>
<p>Belsham spent seven years at Tesco ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSCO.L" type="external">TSCO.L</a>), building up its online grocery operation for Britain and 10 markets across central Europe and Asia. He also developed a general merchandise platform for Ocado, a UK-based web retailer that sells groceries.</p>
<p>Most recently, Belsham worked as chief executive officer of venture-backed Notonthehighstreet.com, according to the email.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">Walmart Inc</a> 87.5 WMT.N New York Stock Exchange +2.08 (+2.44%) WMT.N AMZN.O TGT.N COST.O KR.N
<p>He will succeed Liza Landsman, who left the company in March, a little more than a year after she was promoted to the job. Belsham will start on March 26, report to Lore and be based at Jet’s New Jersey headquarters, according to the email.</p>
<p>Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on a Feb. 20 earnings conference call the online retailer will not grow as quickly as it did in the early days but will be well-positioned in select markets.</p>
<p>Belsham will also need to ensure that Jet is differentiated from the parent brand and offer shoppers specialty goods that cannot be bought elsewhere - a strategy on which Lore has focused in the past year.</p>
<p>Belsham said in a statement he has long admired the founders of both Walmart and Jet.</p>
<p>“In my view, there is no business better positioned to take advantage of the opportunity ahead than the combination of Walmart and Jet,” Belsham said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Nandita Bose in New York; Editing by Vanessa O'Connell and Jeffrey Benkoe</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly $300 million from its existing lenders, including some of the biggest U.S. banks, after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.</p>
<p>During that time, the company’s investment bank, Lazard Ltd ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">LAZ.N</a>), approached more than 30 possible lenders, according to court documents.</p>
<p>“The vast majority of lenders contacted, however, indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers,” said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers.</p>
<p>Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems, according to court records. Without the funds, Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value.</p>
<p>The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February.</p>
<p>Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures.</p>
<p>Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy, but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted, buyers were scarce.</p>
<p>The company’s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>), Wells Fargo &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">WFC.N</a>), JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>) and Deutsche Bank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>), according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing, which the company said will allow it to cancel $775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May.</p>
<p>Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RF.N" type="external">RF.N</a>), BB&amp;T Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BBT.N" type="external">BBT.N</a>), Synovus Financial Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNV.N" type="external">SNV.N</a>) and Fifth Third Bancorp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FITB.O" type="external">FITB.O</a>) have also committed to help fund Remington’s bankruptcy loans, court documents show. An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments, another lender, is also providing funds.</p>
<p>Bank of America, Regions, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment.</p>
<p>BB&amp;T declined to comment on its lending relationships. The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders, who have a wide range of opinions.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a pro-gun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., January 19, 2013. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo
<p>“We’re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities,” the bank said.</p>
<p>The others, along with Remington, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand, according to court filings.</p>
<p>The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls. With the election of Donald Trump, who has said he strongly supports gun ownership, the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">Lazard Ltd</a> 52.54 LAZ.N New York Stock Exchange +1.77 (+3.49%) LAZ.N BAC.N WFC.N JPM.N DBKGn.DE
<p>Remington, which said in January it was nearly out of cash, plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses, including payroll, during its bankruptcy filing.</p>
<p>Remington’s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Their identities were redacted in court documents.</p>
<p>The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans, saying that the sums are commercially sensitive, according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware.</p>
<p>The court records also showed that Remington’s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting.</p>
<p>The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>), Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DKS.N" type="external">DKS.N</a>) and Kroger Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KR.N" type="external">KR.N</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation, including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of “dealer” under current gun laws. Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were re-enacted it would have an adverse effect on the business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>ULSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">005380.KS</a>) union chief warned its workers may face a similar crisis to the one hitting General Motors’ ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) South Korean unit as sales in key markets slide, adding that electric cars were ‘evil’ and will destroy jobs.</p> Ha Bu-young, Hyundai Motor's South Korean union chief speaks during an interview with Reuters in Ulsan, South Korea, March 23, 2018. Picture taken March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Hyunjoo Jin
<p>South Korea’s auto industry, known for its robust unions whose workers tend to be paid more and have better benefits than their compatriots in other sectors, has come to a crossroads.</p>
<p>Blaming high labor costs and falling sales, General Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) plans to close one of its plants in the country by May and is weighing options for its three other factories.</p>
<p>“We’re feeling job anxiety. We’re feeling a sense of crisis,” Ha Bu-young, the head of the Hyundai Motor union, South Korea’s biggest and most powerful union, told Reuters in an interview late last week.</p>
<p>He said that at three of Hyundai’s five plants in Ulsan, the world’s biggest car factory complex, some workers had been asked to take longer holidays as sales of sedans and older model SUVs like the Santa Fe slow in the United States and other markets.</p>
<p>Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=000270.KS" type="external">000270.KS</a>) were also hit by diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing last year, leading to a slump in sales in the world’s biggest auto market. The two automakers have flagged only modest global sales growth in 2018. &#160;</p>
<p>Longer term, Ha worries about the advent of electric cars, which when they go mainstream could wreak havoc on traditional auto jobs as they don’t require engines and transmissions.</p>
<p>Hyundai’s union has predicted a drastic shift into electric cars could lead to a loss of 70 percent of Hyundai jobs in a worst case scenario.</p>
<p>“Electric cars are disasters. They are evil. We are very nervous,” he said.</p>
<p>Ha said the union is studying how cars of the future might be built without slashing headcount and has proposed the automaker revive a committee to review the impact of new vehicles and new technology on jobs.</p>
<p>He also noted that some 30,000 workers out of 50,000 union members will retire in 15 years, which could cushion the impact that cars of the future could have on staffing levels.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">Hyundai Motor Co</a> 150500.0 005380.KS Korea Stock Exchange +1,000.00 (+0.67%) 005380.KS GM.N 000270.KS FREE TRIPS TO EUROPE
<p>At GM’s South Korean unit, the threat of potential plant closures has led its union to offer to freeze wages and skip bonuses while about 15 percent of its employees have applied for a voluntary redundancy package.</p>
<p>While there is a sense of crisis at Hyundai’s union, the situation is not that dire.</p>
<p>Hyundai’s management has proposed the scaling back of some benefits such as free week-long trips to Europe for 500 workers annually as well as support for some employees’ sporting events - a proposal that the union plans to oppose, a union official said.</p>
<p>But the union will for the first time seek pay raises for temporary workers this year that are higher than those of full-time auto workers, responding to criticism that regular auto works are generously paid.</p>
<p>It will ask for a 7.4 percent wage increase for temporary workers versus a 5.3 percent wage raise for regular workers, Ha said, in line with a policy advocated by the umbrella union for South Korea’s metal workers.</p>
<p>Last year Hyundai’s union initially demanded annual wage increases of 7 percent for its full-time workers and won a raise of less than 5 percent after tense negotiations that involved strikes.</p>
<p>The shift towards improving pay for non-full time workers could invite opposition within the union, said Ha, adding that he was trying to right old wrongs.</p>
<p>Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures slipped on Monday as investors cashed in some profits from last week’s rally but concerns about Saudi-Iran tensions kept losses in check.</p> FILE PHOTO: An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland, Texas, U.S., May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo
<p>Brent crude futures LCOc1 slipped 33 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at $70.12 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 also lost half a percent, or 33 cents, to end at $65.55.</p>
<p>Last week, Brent gained 6.4 percent and WTI rose 5.7 percent, the strongest weekly gains since July.</p>
<p>“I don’t see anything extraordinarily bearish in the market today. I think some folks here are just ... happy to take profits,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.</p>
<p>Although crude and product futures slipped on Monday, most share prices for energy companies, especially refiners, were up, Yawger said. The S&amp;P Energy Index .SPNY was up more than 1 percent.</p>
<p>Global stocks came off six-week lows on reports that the United States and China would begin trade talks, easing fears of a trade war. Analysts had been concerned that a trade war could hurt oil demand.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China.</p>
<p>“The (oil) market is pulling back after pushing strongly high last week. I think the $70 level in Brent, $67 for WTI ... start to trigger worries of increased U.S. production levels,” said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.</p>
<p>The number of active U.S. oil rigs rose to a three-year high of 804 last week, implying further rises in future production. C-OUT-T-EIA</p>
<p>“With U.S. crude production likely to be close to 10.5 million barrels per day by now and NGL (natural gas liquids) output also increasing strongly, there is a clear chance that year-on-year supply growth in the U.S. could at least temporarily hit 2 million bpd over the summer months,” JBC analysts wrote.</p>
<p>The market found support from rising Middle East tensions.</p>
<p>Saudi air defenses shot down ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia on Sunday, some of which targeted Saudi capital Riyadh.</p>
<p>In Asia, Shanghai crude oil futures made a strong debut in terms of volume as investors and commodity merchants bought into the world’s newest financial oil trading instrument.</p>
<p>Hedge funds and other money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to March 20 after two weeks of cutting bullish bets, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Citigroup set to launch investment banking business in Saudi Arabia Exclusive: Tesco veteran to head Walmart's Jet.com as U.S. grocery wars flare U.S. banks provide rescue financing for gunmaker Remington Hyundai union head fears GM-like crisis; says electric cars destroy jobs Oil prices dip on profit taking after last week's rally | false | https://reuters.com/article/citigroup-saudi/citigroup-set-to-launch-investment-banking-business-in-saudi-arabia-idUSL8N1PI1VZ | 2018-01-23 | 2least
| 2,523 | DUBAI Jan 23 Reuters Citigroup has received a commencement letter from Saudi Arabia8217s Capital Market Authority that will formally allow the bank to launch investment banking business in the kingdom the bank said on Tuesday Citigroup Saudi Arabia also held its inaugural board meeting in Riyadh it said in a statement It obtained a capital markets licence in April enabling its return to the kingdom after an absence of almost 13 years 8220Saudi Arabia is a regional economic leader and a strategically important market for Citi8221 Citigroup chief executive Mike Corbat said Reporting by Saeed Azhar Editing by Andrew Torchia Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters A grocery industry veteran who led UK retailer Tesco Plc8217s online operation was named president of Walmart8217s Jetcom ecommerce business in the retail behemoth8217s latest move to grab a bigger piece of the intensely competitive sector A logo of Walmart is seen in one of the stores in Monterrey Mexico November 28 2016 REUTERSDaniel BecerrilFile Photo Simon Belsham will oversee all operations including grocery and general merchandise and join Walmart8217s WMTN US ecommerce leadership team according to an internal email sent on Monday by Marc Lore the head of Walmart8217s ecommerce business to Jet employees and seen by Reuters Walmart acquired Jet for 33 billion in August 2016 a deal that was widely considered a watershed moment for its thenstruggling ecommerce operation as it got access to both technology and talent through Jet founder Lore and his team Walmart8217s ecommerce success has been erratic Online sales increased 23 percent in the most recent quarter less than half the rate of growth in each of the previous three quarters Walmart8217s stock got walloped after the news Belsham8217s hiring comes amid fierce competition in the grocery sector Amazoncom Inc AMZNO purchased Whole Foods Market for 134 billion last year and rivals like Target Corp TGTN Costco Wholesale Corp COSTO and Kroger Co KRN are joining the costly battle for customers who want groceries without leaving their couches Walmart is aggressively ramping up its online grocery business It has said it will expand home delivery service to more than 100 US cities and offer curbside grocery pickup at 2200 stores by the end of the year Jet8217s focus on groceries is likely to help Walmart win with urban millennial customers Jet8217s key demographic 8220With Jet grocery being an integral part of the strategy Simon brings incredible experience in scaling grocery delivery and his unique background in converging technology and retail8221 Lore said in the email Belsham spent seven years at Tesco TSCOL building up its online grocery operation for Britain and 10 markets across central Europe and Asia He also developed a general merchandise platform for Ocado a UKbased web retailer that sells groceries Most recently Belsham worked as chief executive officer of venturebacked Notonthehighstreetcom according to the email Walmart Inc 875 WMTN New York Stock Exchange 208 244 WMTN AMZNO TGTN COSTO KRN He will succeed Liza Landsman who left the company in March a little more than a year after she was promoted to the job Belsham will start on March 26 report to Lore and be based at Jet8217s New Jersey headquarters according to the email Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on a Feb 20 earnings conference call the online retailer will not grow as quickly as it did in the early days but will be wellpositioned in select markets Belsham will also need to ensure that Jet is differentiated from the parent brand and offer shoppers specialty goods that cannot be bought elsewhere a strategy on which Lore has focused in the past year Belsham said in a statement he has long admired the founders of both Walmart and Jet 8220In my view there is no business better positioned to take advantage of the opportunity ahead than the combination of Walmart and Jet8221 Belsham said Reporting by Nandita Bose in New York Editing by Vanessa OConnell and Jeffrey Benkoe Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly 300 million from its existing lenders including some of the biggest US banks after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy During that time the company8217s investment bank Lazard Ltd LAZN approached more than 30 possible lenders according to court documents 8220The vast majority of lenders contacted however indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers8221 said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems according to court records Without the funds Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland Florida in February Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted buyers were scarce The company8217s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp BACN Wells Fargo ampamp Co WFCN JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN and Deutsche Bank AG DBKGnDE according to court documents Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing which the company said will allow it to cancel 775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation RFN BBampampT Corp BBTN Synovus Financial Corp SNVN and Fifth Third Bancorp FITBO have also committed to help fund Remington8217s bankruptcy loans court documents show An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments another lender is also providing funds Bank of America Regions Deutsche Bank JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment BBampampT declined to comment on its lending relationships The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders who have a wide range of opinions FILE PHOTO A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a progun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix Arizona US January 19 2013 REUTERSJoshua LottFile Photo 8220We8217re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities8221 the bank said The others along with Remington did not immediately respond to a request for comment The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand according to court filings The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls With the election of Donald Trump who has said he strongly supports gun ownership the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt Lazard Ltd 5254 LAZN New York Stock Exchange 177 349 LAZN BACN WFCN JPMN DBKGnDE Remington which said in January it was nearly out of cash plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses including payroll during its bankruptcy filing Remington8217s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy Their identities were redacted in court documents The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans saying that the sums are commercially sensitive according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington Delaware The court records also showed that Remington8217s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc WMTN Dick8217s Sporting Goods Inc DKSN and Kroger Co KRN Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017 according to court documents Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of 8220dealer8221 under current gun laws Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were reenacted it would have an adverse effect on the business Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles ULSAN South Korea Reuters Hyundai Motor8217s 005380KS union chief warned its workers may face a similar crisis to the one hitting General Motors8217 GMN South Korean unit as sales in key markets slide adding that electric cars were 8216evil8217 and will destroy jobs Ha Buyoung Hyundai Motors South Korean union chief speaks during an interview with Reuters in Ulsan South Korea March 23 2018 Picture taken March 23 2018 REUTERSHyunjoo Jin South Korea8217s auto industry known for its robust unions whose workers tend to be paid more and have better benefits than their compatriots in other sectors has come to a crossroads Blaming high labor costs and falling sales General Motors GMN plans to close one of its plants in the country by May and is weighing options for its three other factories 8220We8217re feeling job anxiety We8217re feeling a sense of crisis8221 Ha Buyoung the head of the Hyundai Motor union South Korea8217s biggest and most powerful union told Reuters in an interview late last week He said that at three of Hyundai8217s five plants in Ulsan the world8217s biggest car factory complex some workers had been asked to take longer holidays as sales of sedans and older model SUVs like the Santa Fe slow in the United States and other markets Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors 000270KS were also hit by diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing last year leading to a slump in sales in the world8217s biggest auto market The two automakers have flagged only modest global sales growth in 2018 amp160 Longer term Ha worries about the advent of electric cars which when they go mainstream could wreak havoc on traditional auto jobs as they don8217t require engines and transmissions Hyundai8217s union has predicted a drastic shift into electric cars could lead to a loss of 70 percent of Hyundai jobs in a worst case scenario 8220Electric cars are disasters They are evil We are very nervous8221 he said Ha said the union is studying how cars of the future might be built without slashing headcount and has proposed the automaker revive a committee to review the impact of new vehicles and new technology on jobs He also noted that some 30000 workers out of 50000 union members will retire in 15 years which could cushion the impact that cars of the future could have on staffing levels Hyundai Motor Co 1505000 005380KS Korea Stock Exchange 100000 067 005380KS GMN 000270KS FREE TRIPS TO EUROPE At GM8217s South Korean unit the threat of potential plant closures has led its union to offer to freeze wages and skip bonuses while about 15 percent of its employees have applied for a voluntary redundancy package While there is a sense of crisis at Hyundai8217s union the situation is not that dire Hyundai8217s management has proposed the scaling back of some benefits such as free weeklong trips to Europe for 500 workers annually as well as support for some employees8217 sporting events a proposal that the union plans to oppose a union official said But the union will for the first time seek pay raises for temporary workers this year that are higher than those of fulltime auto workers responding to criticism that regular auto works are generously paid It will ask for a 74 percent wage increase for temporary workers versus a 53 percent wage raise for regular workers Ha said in line with a policy advocated by the umbrella union for South Korea8217s metal workers Last year Hyundai8217s union initially demanded annual wage increases of 7 percent for its fulltime workers and won a raise of less than 5 percent after tense negotiations that involved strikes The shift towards improving pay for nonfull time workers could invite opposition within the union said Ha adding that he was trying to right old wrongs Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin Editing by Soyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Crude oil futures slipped on Monday as investors cashed in some profits from last week8217s rally but concerns about SaudiIran tensions kept losses in check FILE PHOTO An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland Texas US May 3 2017 REUTERSErnest ScheyderFile Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1 slipped 33 cents or 05 percent to settle at 7012 a barrel US West Texas Intermediate WTI crude futures CLc1 also lost half a percent or 33 cents to end at 6555 Last week Brent gained 64 percent and WTI rose 57 percent the strongest weekly gains since July 8220I don8217t see anything extraordinarily bearish in the market today I think some folks here are just happy to take profits8221 said Bob Yawger director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York Although crude and product futures slipped on Monday most share prices for energy companies especially refiners were up Yawger said The SampampP Energy Index SPNY was up more than 1 percent Global stocks came off sixweek lows on reports that the United States and China would begin trade talks easing fears of a trade war Analysts had been concerned that a trade war could hurt oil demand US President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion of imports from China 8220The oil market is pulling back after pushing strongly high last week I think the 70 level in Brent 67 for WTI start to trigger worries of increased US production levels8221 said Gene McGillian manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford Connecticut The number of active US oil rigs rose to a threeyear high of 804 last week implying further rises in future production COUTTEIA 8220With US crude production likely to be close to 105 million barrels per day by now and NGL natural gas liquids output also increasing strongly there is a clear chance that yearonyear supply growth in the US could at least temporarily hit 2 million bpd over the summer months8221 JBC analysts wrote The market found support from rising Middle East tensions Saudi air defenses shot down ballistic missiles fired by Yemen8217s Iranaligned Houthi militia on Sunday some of which targeted Saudi capital Riyadh In Asia Shanghai crude oil futures made a strong debut in terms of volume as investors and commodity merchants bought into the world8217s newest financial oil trading instrument Hedge funds and other money managers raised their net long US crude futures and options positions in the week to March 20 after two weeks of cutting bullish bets the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission CFTC said on Friday Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | DUBAI/PROPN Jan/PROPN 23/NUM Reuters/PROPN Citigroup/PROPN has/AUX received/VERB a/DET commencement/NOUN letter/NOUN from/ADP Saudi/PROPN Arabia8217s/PROPN Capital/PROPN Market/PROPN Authority/PROPN that/PRON will/AUX formally/ADV allow/VERB the/DET bank/NOUN to/PART launch/VERB investment/NOUN banking/NOUN business/NOUN in/ADP the/DET kingdom/NOUN the/DET bank/NOUN said/VERB on/ADP Tuesday/PROPN Citigroup/PROPN Saudi/PROPN Arabia/PROPN also/ADV held/VERB its/PRON inaugural/ADJ board/NOUN meeting/NOUN in/ADP Riyadh/PROPN it/PRON said/VERB in/ADP a/DET statement/NOUN It/PRON obtained/VERB a/DET capital/NOUN markets/NOUN licence/NOUN in/ADP April/PROPN enabling/VERB its/PRON return/NOUN to/ADP the/DET kingdom/NOUN after/ADP an/DET absence/NOUN of/ADP almost/ADV 13/NUM years/NOUN 8220Saudi/PROPN Arabia/PROPN is/AUX a/DET regional/ADJ economic/ADJ leader/NOUN and/CCONJ a/DET strategically/ADV important/ADJ market/NOUN for/ADP Citi8221/PROPN Citigroup/PROPN chief/NOUN executive/NOUN Mike/PROPN Corbat/PROPN said/VERB Reporting/VERB by/ADP Saeed/PROPN Azhar/PROPN Editing/PROPN by/ADP Andrew/PROPN Torchia/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN Reuters/PROPN A/DET grocery/NOUN industry/NOUN veteran/NOUN who/PRON led/VERB UK/PROPN retailer/NOUN Tesco/PROPN Plc8217s/PROPN online/ADJ operation/NOUN was/AUX named/VERB president/NOUN of/ADP Walmart8217s/PROPN Jetcom/PROPN ecommerce/VERB business/NOUN in/ADP the/DET retail/ADJ behemoth8217s/PROPN latest/ADJ move/NOUN to/PART grab/VERB a/DET bigger/ADJ piece/NOUN of/ADP the/DET intensely/ADV competitive/ADJ sector/NOUN A/DET logo/NOUN of/ADP Walmart/PROPN is/AUX seen/VERB in/ADP one/NUM of/ADP the/DET stores/NOUN in/ADP Monterrey/PROPN Mexico/PROPN November/PROPN 28/NUM 2016/NUM REUTERSDaniel/PROPN BecerrilFile/PROPN Photo/PROPN Simon/PROPN Belsham/PROPN will/AUX oversee/VERB all/DET operations/NOUN including/VERB grocery/NOUN and/CCONJ general/ADJ merchandise/NOUN and/CCONJ join/VERB Walmart8217s/PROPN WMTN/PROPN US/PROPN ecommerce/VERB leadership/NOUN team/NOUN according/VERB to/ADP an/DET internal/ADJ email/NOUN sent/VERB on/ADP Monday/PROPN by/ADP Marc/PROPN Lore/PROPN the/DET head/NOUN of/ADP Walmart8217s/PROPN ecommerce/VERB business/NOUN to/ADP Jet/VERB employees/NOUN and/CCONJ seen/VERB by/ADP Reuters/PROPN Walmart/PROPN acquired/VERB Jet/NOUN for/ADP 33/NUM billion/NUM in/ADP August/PROPN 2016/NUM a/DET deal/NOUN that/PRON was/AUX widely/ADV considered/VERB a/DET watershed/ADJ moment/NOUN for/ADP its/PRON thenstruggling/VERB ecommerce/NOUN operation/NOUN as/SCONJ it/PRON got/VERB access/NOUN to/ADP both/DET technology/NOUN and/CCONJ talent/NOUN through/ADP Jet/NOUN founder/NOUN Lore/PROPN and/CCONJ his/PRON team/NOUN Walmart8217s/PROPN ecommerce/VERB success/NOUN has/AUX been/AUX erratic/ADJ Online/ADJ sales/NOUN increased/VERB 23/NUM percent/NOUN in/ADP the/DET most/ADV recent/ADJ quarter/NOUN less/ADJ than/ADP half/DET the/DET rate/NOUN of/ADP growth/NOUN in/ADP each/PRON of/ADP the/DET previous/ADJ three/NUM quarters/NOUN Walmart8217s/PROPN stock/NOUN got/AUX walloped/VERB after/ADP the/DET news/NOUN Belsham8217s/PROPN hiring/NOUN comes/VERB amid/ADP fierce/ADJ competition/NOUN in/ADP the/DET grocery/NOUN sector/NOUN Amazoncom/PROPN Inc/PROPN AMZNO/PROPN purchased/VERB Whole/PROPN Foods/PROPN Market/PROPN for/ADP 134/NUM billion/NUM last/ADJ year/NOUN and/CCONJ rivals/NOUN like/ADP Target/PROPN Corp/PROPN TGTN/NOUN Costco/PROPN Wholesale/PROPN Corp/PROPN COSTO/PROPN and/CCONJ Kroger/PROPN Co/PROPN KRN/PROPN are/AUX joining/VERB the/DET costly/ADJ battle/NOUN for/ADP customers/NOUN who/PRON want/VERB groceries/NOUN without/ADP leaving/VERB their/PRON couches/NOUN Walmart/PROPN is/AUX aggressively/ADV ramping/VERB up/ADP its/PRON online/ADJ grocery/NOUN business/NOUN It/PRON has/AUX said/VERB it/PRON will/AUX expand/VERB home/NOUN delivery/NOUN service/NOUN to/ADP more/ADJ than/ADP 100/NUM US/PROPN cities/NOUN and/CCONJ offer/VERB curbside/ADJ grocery/NOUN pickup/NOUN at/ADP 2200/NUM stores/NOUN by/ADP the/DET end/NOUN of/ADP the/DET year/NOUN Jet8217s/PROPN focus/VERB on/ADP groceries/NOUN is/AUX likely/ADJ to/PART help/VERB Walmart/PROPN win/VERB with/ADP urban/ADJ millennial/ADJ customers/NOUN Jet8217s/PROPN key/ADJ demographic/ADJ 8220With/PROPN Jet/NOUN grocery/NOUN being/AUX an/DET integral/ADJ part/NOUN of/ADP the/DET strategy/NOUN Simon/PROPN brings/VERB incredible/ADJ experience/NOUN in/ADP scaling/VERB grocery/NOUN delivery/NOUN and/CCONJ his/PRON unique/ADJ background/NOUN in/ADP converging/VERB technology/NOUN and/CCONJ retail8221/PROPN Lore/PROPN said/VERB in/ADP the/DET email/NOUN Belsham/PROPN spent/VERB seven/NUM years/NOUN at/ADP Tesco/PROPN TSCOL/PROPN building/VERB up/ADP its/PRON online/ADJ grocery/NOUN operation/NOUN for/ADP Britain/PROPN and/CCONJ 10/NUM markets/NOUN across/ADP central/ADJ Europe/PROPN and/CCONJ Asia/PROPN He/PRON also/ADV developed/VERB a/DET general/ADJ merchandise/NOUN platform/NOUN for/ADP Ocado/PROPN a/DET UKbased/PROPN web/NOUN retailer/NOUN that/PRON sells/VERB groceries/NOUN Most/ADV recently/ADV Belsham/PROPN worked/VERB as/ADP chief/ADJ executive/ADJ officer/NOUN of/ADP venturebacked/VERB Notonthehighstreetcom/PROPN according/VERB to/ADP the/DET email/NOUN Walmart/PROPN Inc/PROPN 875/NUM WMTN/PROPN New/PROPN York/PROPN Stock/PROPN Exchange/PROPN 208/NUM 244/NUM WMTN/ADJ AMZNO/NOUN TGTN/NOUN COSTO/VERB KRN/PROPN He/PRON will/AUX succeed/VERB Liza/PROPN Landsman/PROPN who/PRON left/VERB the/DET company/NOUN in/ADP March/PROPN a/DET little/ADJ more/ADJ than/ADP a/PRON year/NOUN after/SCONJ she/PRON was/AUX promoted/VERB to/ADP the/DET job/NOUN Belsham/PROPN will/AUX start/VERB on/ADP March/PROPN 26/NUM report/NOUN to/ADP Lore/PROPN and/CCONJ be/AUX based/VERB at/ADP Jet8217s/PROPN New/PROPN Jersey/PROPN headquarters/NOUN according/VERB to/ADP the/DET email/NOUN Walmart/PROPN CEO/PROPN Doug/PROPN McMillon/PROPN said/VERB on/ADP a/DET Feb/PROPN 20/NUM earnings/NOUN conference/NOUN call/VERB the/DET online/ADJ retailer/NOUN will/AUX not/PART grow/VERB as/ADV quickly/ADV as/SCONJ it/PRON did/VERB in/ADP the/DET early/ADJ days/NOUN but/CCONJ will/AUX be/AUX wellpositioned/VERB in/ADP select/ADJ markets/NOUN Belsham/PROPN will/AUX also/ADV need/VERB to/PART ensure/VERB that/SCONJ Jet/PROPN is/AUX differentiated/VERB from/ADP the/DET parent/NOUN brand/NOUN and/CCONJ offer/VERB shoppers/NOUN specialty/NOUN goods/NOUN that/PRON can/AUX not/PART be/AUX bought/VERB elsewhere/ADV a/DET strategy/NOUN on/ADP which/PRON Lore/PROPN has/AUX focused/VERB in/ADP the/DET past/ADJ year/NOUN 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<p>(Reuters) - General Dynamics Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GD.N" type="external">GD.N</a>) said on Wednesday the U.S. administration’s lack of appointees at the Pentagon and failure of Congress to pass a federal budget contributed to the aerospace and defense company missing analysts’ sales expectations.</p> FILE PHOTO: A General Dynamics sign is shown at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego, California, U.S. October 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
<p>Although revenue grew to $8.28 billion from $7.65 billion last year, it was below expectations for $8.38 billion.</p>
<p>General Dynamics Chief Executive Phebe Novakovic said on a call with analysts the company was not able to convert its backlog of orders into revenue quickly enough last year, blaming the new administration and the use by Congress of Continuing Resolutions in lieu of a federal budget.</p>
<p>She said the situation had changed later in 2017 and during 2018, growth would come back in the company’s information systems and technology business unit. The business was hit because its shorter sales-cycle service contracts likely slowed when the contracting process stalled.</p>
<p>Shares rose 2.3 percent in morning trading after Novakovic’s call with analysts, after falling in premarket trading.</p>
<p>Last August, Novakovic said during her company’s quarterly earnings conference call that “without these (Pentagon) appointments, it is difficult to process contracts” and to make progress on defense-related projects. By mid-2017, the Pentagon had yet to fill many positions.</p>
<p>The Pentagon and White House did not immediately provide comment.</p>
<p>General Dynamics beat expectations for fourth-quarter profit, helped by higher sales for its combat systems unit that makes tanks.</p>
<p>Sales in the combat systems unit rose 7.6 percent to $5.95 billion. In December, the General Dynamics unit was awarded a $2.6 billion contract for upgrading M1A1 configured Abrams vehicles and for upgrading M1A1 vehicles.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GD.N" type="external">General Dynamics Corp</a> 225.38 GD.N New York Stock Exchange +1.48 (+0.66%) GD.N
<p>Sales in the aerospace division, its biggest, rose 4 percent to $8.13 billion as it delivered 30 Gulfstream aircraft in the quarter, up from 28 a year earlier.</p>
<p>General Dynamics is expected to benefit from a move by the U.S. military to increase spending after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis unveiled the “National Defense Strategy” on Friday that put countering China and Russia at the center of a new strategy.</p>
<p>Shares of U.S. defense companies have rallied since November on U.S. President Donald Trump’s election promise to spend more on defense.</p>
<p>Earnings from continuing operations rose to $636 million, or $2.10 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $570 million, or $1.89 per share, a year earlier.</p>
<p>The company recorded a $119 million one-time, non-cash charge in the quarter related to U.S. tax changes.</p>
<p>Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington and Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Bernadette Baum</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) - A hush settled over financial markets on Wednesday as investors counted down to a likely hike in U.S. interest rates and guidance on how many more to expect this year, while trade war fears kept export nations’ currencies on edge.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man looks at an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
<p>MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS edged up 0.5 percent after a run of losses, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street.</p>
<p>Chinese shares were a bit more buoyant with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.HSI" type="external">.HSI</a> gaining 1.2 percent as real estate firms posted stellar profits.</p>
<p>E-Mini futures for the S&amp;P 500 ESc1 inched up 0.1 percent, while FTSE futures FFIc1 were off a fraction.</p>
<p>Markets are convinced the Federal Reserve will announce a quarter point hike at 1800 GMT, but are less sure if it will signal three or four for the year as a whole.</p>
<p>“A significant weighting toward four hikes this year may well cause both equity and bond markets to sell off,” Jonathan Sheridan, analyst at FIIG Securities in Sydney, said.</p>
<p>“The concerns here are that the Fed overshoots with raising rates into a faltering economy,” Sheridan added.</p>
<p>“If this opinion takes hold then we may well see falling longer term rates and a flatter yield curve, and it would also be negative for equities as it increases the chances of a recession.”</p>
<p>The Fed has raised rates five times since it began tightening policy in late 2015. Yet the dollar has not really responded, ending 2017 down about 10 percent against a basket of currencies. .DXY</p>
<p>“We remind readers that every single FOMC rate hike this cycle has been a ‘dovish hike’ and the USD has declined on the day(s) post the rise,” Richard Grace, chief currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia wrote in a note to clients.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the dollar index held near three-week highs around at 90.267 .DXY. Against the Japanese yen <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=JPY&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">JPY=</a>, the greenback hovered near a one-week top at 106.46.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: Developed market currencies against the Dollar - <a href="http://reut.rs/2FYAg0X" type="external">reut.rs/2FYAg0X</a>)</p> TRADE WAR FEARS
<p>Another major overhang for financial markets is the specter of a global trade war.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to unveil up to $60 billion in import duties on Chinese goods by Friday. The move comes after Trump imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum earlier this month.</p>
<p>Investors are worried Trump’s actions could escalate into a full-blown trade war if China and other countries retaliate with similar or harsher measures, threatening global growth.</p>
<p>To add to these concerns, a meeting of finance ministers and central banks of the world’s 20 biggest economies this week failed to diffuse the threat.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.HSI" type="external">Hang Seng Indexes Co Ltd</a> 31866.77 .HSI Hong Kong Stock +316.84 (+1.00%) .HSI
<p>The so-called G20 agreed only to stand by an ambiguous declaration on trade from 2017 and “recognized” the need for more “dialogue and actions”.</p>
<p>The currencies of export-heavy nations such as the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars were on the defensive after being knocked down to multi-month lows.</p>
<p>The Aussie <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=AUD&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">AUD=D4</a> fell to a three-month trough of $0.7679 overnight while the kiwi dollar <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=NZD&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">NZD=D4</a> hit the lowest since early January. The Canadian dollar <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=CAD&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">CAD=D4</a> held at $1.3029 from Monday's low of $1.3124, a level not seen since mid-2017.</p>
<p>Equity analysts have also turned increasingly downbeat.</p>
<p>“Cracks in the bull case are starting to emerge,” said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, citing the bank’s March fund manager survey.</p>
<p>“The threat of a trade war returns to the top of the list of tail risks most commonly cited by investors, followed by inflation and a slowdown in global growth,” he added.</p>
<p>“Investors have yet to act on these fears, however, as rates and earnings are keeping the bulls bullish.”</p>
<p>Among major commodities, oil prices were lifted by tensions in the Middle East and healthy demand. [O/R]</p>
<p>U.S. crude CLc1 rose 15 cents to $63.69 per barrel. Brent LCOc1 gained 16 cents to $67.58.</p>
<p>Spot gold added 0.2 percent to $1,313.31 an ounce XAU=.</p>
<p>Reporting by Swati Pandey, Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Himani Sarkar</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced modestly on Tuesday as higher oil prices lifted the energy sector, but another slump in Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) shares curbed gains.</p>
<p>Oil prices rose more than 2 percent to touch a three-week high, driven by tensions in the Middle East and the possibility of further declines in Venezuelan crude output.</p>
<p>Those gains helped the S&amp;P energy index .SPNY rise 0.84 percent, making it easily the best performing of the 11 major S&amp;P 500 sectors.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) shares ended down 2.6 percent, well above earlier lows. The social media company said on Tuesday it faced questions from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission about how its users’ personal data was mined by a political consultancy hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign.</p>
<p>The stock has fallen about 9 percent over the past two sessions, its biggest two-day decline since February 2016, a drop that has weighed heavily on equities.</p>
<p>U.S. and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of how the consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, gained access to the data and why Facebook failed to inform its users, raising broader industry questions about consumer privacy and whether tougher regulation is on the horizon.</p>
<p>“The negative part would be they are going to haul them in front of Congress now and we’ll see do they create new laws, are there new regulations that could stunt the growth of the company? That is really what the fear is,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>Facebook was not the only social media stock or fund taking a hit on Tuesday. Shares of Snap Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNAP.N" type="external">SNAP.N</a>) fell 2.56 percent, while Twitter Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWTR.N" type="external">TWTR.N</a>) shares tumbled 10.38 percent. The Global X Social Media ETF ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SOCL.O" type="external">SOCL.O</a>) lost 0.9 percent.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 116.36 points, or 0.47 percent, to 24,727.27, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 4.02 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,716.94 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 20.06 points, or 0.27 percent, to 7,364.30.</p>
<p>Oracle ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ORCL.N" type="external">ORCL.N</a>) dropped 9.4 percent after the business software maker reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 168.15 FB.O Nasdaq -4.41 (-2.56%) FB.O SNAP.N TWTR.N SOCL.O .DJI
<p>Financial stocks .SPSY edged up 0.21 percent as investors awaited a near-certain interest rate hike at the end of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Market participants largely expect a total of three rate hikes this year, although some have not ruled out the possibility the U.S. central bank will hike four times.</p>
<p>“We are finally normalizing, after years we talked about the Fed holding it down and the market only going up because of the Fed. Now let’s see what the market can do – can it stand on its own two legs?” said Saluzzi, referring to the low interest rate environment the Fed put into effect after the financial crisis.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.26 billion shares, compared with the 7.17 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.28-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.26-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday, lifted by tensions in the Middle East and healthy demand, although rising U.S. output continued to weigh on markets.</p> FILE PHOTO: An oil well pump jack is seen at an oil field supply yard near Denver, Colorado, U.S., February 2, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo
<p>U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $63.80 a barrel at 0230 GMT, up 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their previous close.</p>
<p>Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $67.71 per barrel, up 29 cents, or 0.4 percent.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday arrived in Washington for a state visit, raising speculation the United States could reimpose sanctions on Iran, following rewnewed criticism of the 2015 nuclear deal.</p>
<p>“The presence of the Saudi Crown Prince... in Washington and his clear agenda to ramp up pressure on Iran, has for me, been the key driver... of oil, which rose strongly,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader.</p>
<p>Analysts also pointed to the nomination of Mike Pompeo as new U.S. Secretary of State as a risk to oil markets, given he fiercely opposed the 2015 pact as a member of Congress.</p>
<p>“The nomination of Mike Pompeo for U.S. Secretary of State ... raises the likelihood of oil trade disruptions,” U.S. bank Citi said in a note.</p>
<p>Should the United States reimpose sanctions against Iran, energy consultancy FGE said that would likely result in a 250,000 to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) drop in its exports by year-end.</p>
<p>Analysts also pointed to healthy economic growth and a weak dollar as oil price drivers.</p>
<p>In a sign of healthy demand, U.S. crude stocks fell by 2.7 million barrels in the week ended March 16 to 425.3 million, the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“The global economy is humming, and robust demand solidly underpins commodity prices,” said Norbert Ruecker, head of macro and commodity Research at Swiss bank Julius Baer.</p>
<p>Despite this, he said seasonally low demand at the end of the northern hemisphere winter season meant he had “a rather cautious near-term outlook on commodities.”</p>
<p>Looming over oil markets has been surging U.S. crude production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has risen by more than a fifth since mid-2016, to 10.38 million bpd, overtaking top exporter Saudi Arabia and putting the United States within reach of Russia’s 11 million bpd.</p>
<p>Still, some U.S. producers are holding back expansion in order to prevent a price crash.</p>
<p>“Larger players are holding back capital expenditures in an attempt to avoid past mistakes,” said consultancy FGE.</p>
<p>Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Richard Pullin</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CRM.N" type="external">CRM.N</a>) said on Tuesday it would buy U.S. software maker MuleSoft Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MULE.N" type="external">MULE.N</a>) for about $5.90 billion in a cash-and-stock deal, illustrating CEO Marc Benioff’s push to bolster the company’s cloud-based portfolio with new technology.</p> FILE PHOTO - The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco, California, U.S. October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lily Jamali
<p>MuleSoft shareholders would get $36 in cash and 0.0711 of a Salesforce share, or $44.89 per share, representing a premium of 36 percent to Mulesoft’s Monday close.</p>
<p>MuleSoft shares were up 5 percent in extended trading after rising 27 percent during the day. Salesforce shares were down more than 2 percent after the bell.</p>
<p>Including debt, the deal was valued at $6.5 billion, the companies said in a joint statement.</p>
<p>“It is really a natural fit for Salesforce to own Mule,” Steve Koenig, analyst at Wedbush Securities said.</p>
<p>“Salesforce usually helps customers move to the cloud and digitally transform their business that often starts with CRM, so having Mule helps eliminate friction as customers transform their business and to provide a more complete solution,” he said.</p>
<p>MuleSoft listed on the New York Stock Exchange on March 17 last year at $17 apiece. It closed up 40 percent on the first day of trading, giving it a market value of nearly $3 billion.</p>
<p>Salesforce Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm, led a $128 million funding round in MuleSoft in 2015.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CRM.N" type="external">Salesforce.com Inc</a> 125.12 CRM.N New York Stock Exchange +0.14 (+0.11%) CRM.N MULE.N ORCL.N KO.N MCD.N
<p>Salesforce holds more than 18 percent of the global customer relationship management software market, followed by Oracle Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ORCL.N" type="external">ORCL.N</a>) with 9.4 percent, according to 2016 figures provided by research firm IDC.</p>
<p>MuleSoft makes software that provides enterprises with tools to automatically integrate various applications, devices and disparate data to help businesses networks run faster. It counts Coca-Cola Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KO.N" type="external">KO.N</a>), McDonald’s Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MCD.N" type="external">MCD.N</a>), Salesforce and Spotify ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SPOT.N" type="external">SPOT.N</a>) among its customers.</p>
<p>Reuters had reported about the deal earlier on Tuesday.</p>
<p>BofA Merrill Lynch is Salesforce’s financial adviser and Goldman Sachs advised MuleSoft.</p>
<p>Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | General Dynamics cites slow government action for sales miss Caution the watchword as Fed ponders rate pace Wall Street advances on energy bump; Facebook woes continues Oil prices rise on Middle East tensions, healthy demand Salesforce to buy MuleSoft for $5.9 billion | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-general-dynamics-results/general-dynamics-cites-slow-government-action-for-sales-miss-idUSKBN1FD1PE | 2018-01-24 | 2least
| 2,523 | Reuters General Dynamics Corp GDN said on Wednesday the US administration8217s lack of appointees at the Pentagon and failure of Congress to pass a federal budget contributed to the aerospace and defense company missing analysts8217 sales expectations FILE PHOTO A General Dynamics sign is shown at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego California US October 17 2016 REUTERSMike BlakeFile Photo Although revenue grew to 828 billion from 765 billion last year it was below expectations for 838 billion General Dynamics Chief Executive Phebe Novakovic said on a call with analysts the company was not able to convert its backlog of orders into revenue quickly enough last year blaming the new administration and the use by Congress of Continuing Resolutions in lieu of a federal budget She said the situation had changed later in 2017 and during 2018 growth would come back in the company8217s information systems and technology business unit The business was hit because its shorter salescycle service contracts likely slowed when the contracting process stalled Shares rose 23 percent in morning trading after Novakovic8217s call with analysts after falling in premarket trading Last August Novakovic said during her company8217s quarterly earnings conference call that 8220without these Pentagon appointments it is difficult to process contracts8221 and to make progress on defenserelated projects By mid2017 the Pentagon had yet to fill many positions The Pentagon and White House did not immediately provide comment General Dynamics beat expectations for fourthquarter profit helped by higher sales for its combat systems unit that makes tanks Sales in the combat systems unit rose 76 percent to 595 billion In December the General Dynamics unit was awarded a 26 billion contract for upgrading M1A1 configured Abrams vehicles and for upgrading M1A1 vehicles General Dynamics Corp 22538 GDN New York Stock Exchange 148 066 GDN Sales in the aerospace division its biggest rose 4 percent to 813 billion as it delivered 30 Gulfstream aircraft in the quarter up from 28 a year earlier General Dynamics is expected to benefit from a move by the US military to increase spending after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis unveiled the 8220National Defense Strategy8221 on Friday that put countering China and Russia at the center of a new strategy Shares of US defense companies have rallied since November on US President Donald Trump8217s election promise to spend more on defense Earnings from continuing operations rose to 636 million or 210 per share in the quarter ended Dec 31 from 570 million or 189 per share a year earlier The company recorded a 119 million onetime noncash charge in the quarter related to US tax changes Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington and Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru Editing by Arun Koyyur and Bernadette Baum Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles SYDNEY Reuters A hush settled over financial markets on Wednesday as investors counted down to a likely hike in US interest rates and guidance on how many more to expect this year while trade war fears kept export nations8217 currencies on edge FILE PHOTO A man looks at an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo Japan February 9 2018 REUTERSToru Hanai MSCI8217s broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan MIAPJ0000PUS edged up 05 percent after a run of losses tracking overnight gains on Wall Street Chinese shares were a bit more buoyant with Hong Kongs Hang Seng index HSI gaining 12 percent as real estate firms posted stellar profits EMini futures for the SampampP 500 ESc1 inched up 01 percent while FTSE futures FFIc1 were off a fraction Markets are convinced the Federal Reserve will announce a quarter point hike at 1800 GMT but are less sure if it will signal three or four for the year as a whole 8220A significant weighting toward four hikes this year may well cause both equity and bond markets to sell off8221 Jonathan Sheridan analyst at FIIG Securities in Sydney said 8220The concerns here are that the Fed overshoots with raising rates into a faltering economy8221 Sheridan added 8220If this opinion takes hold then we may well see falling longer term rates and a flatter yield curve and it would also be negative for equities as it increases the chances of a recession8221 The Fed has raised rates five times since it began tightening policy in late 2015 Yet the dollar has not really responded ending 2017 down about 10 percent against a basket of currencies DXY 8220We remind readers that every single FOMC rate hike this cycle has been a 8216dovish hike8217 and the USD has declined on the days post the rise8221 Richard Grace chief currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia wrote in a note to clients On Wednesday the dollar index held near threeweek highs around at 90267 DXY Against the Japanese yen JPY the greenback hovered near a oneweek top at 10646 GRAPHIC Developed market currencies against the Dollar reutrs2FYAg0X TRADE WAR FEARS Another major overhang for financial markets is the specter of a global trade war US President Donald Trump is expected to unveil up to 60 billion in import duties on Chinese goods by Friday The move comes after Trump imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum earlier this month Investors are worried Trump8217s actions could escalate into a fullblown trade war if China and other countries retaliate with similar or harsher measures threatening global growth To add to these concerns a meeting of finance ministers and central banks of the world8217s 20 biggest economies this week failed to diffuse the threat Hang Seng Indexes Co Ltd 3186677 HSI Hong Kong Stock 31684 100 HSI The socalled G20 agreed only to stand by an ambiguous declaration on trade from 2017 and 8220recognized8221 the need for more 8220dialogue and actions8221 The currencies of exportheavy nations such as the Australian New Zealand and Canadian dollars were on the defensive after being knocked down to multimonth lows The Aussie AUDD4 fell to a threemonth trough of 07679 overnight while the kiwi dollar NZDD4 hit the lowest since early January The Canadian dollar CADD4 held at 13029 from Mondays low of 13124 a level not seen since mid2017 Equity analysts have also turned increasingly downbeat 8220Cracks in the bull case are starting to emerge8221 said Michael Hartnett chief investment strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch citing the bank8217s March fund manager survey 8220The threat of a trade war returns to the top of the list of tail risks most commonly cited by investors followed by inflation and a slowdown in global growth8221 he added 8220Investors have yet to act on these fears however as rates and earnings are keeping the bulls bullish8221 Among major commodities oil prices were lifted by tensions in the Middle East and healthy demand OR US crude CLc1 rose 15 cents to 6369 per barrel Brent LCOc1 gained 16 cents to 6758 Spot gold added 02 percent to 131331 an ounce XAU Reporting by Swati Pandey Editing by Simon CameronMoore and Himani Sarkar Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US stocks advanced modestly on Tuesday as higher oil prices lifted the energy sector but another slump in Facebook Inc FBO shares curbed gains Oil prices rose more than 2 percent to touch a threeweek high driven by tensions in the Middle East and the possibility of further declines in Venezuelan crude output Those gains helped the SampampP energy index SPNY rise 084 percent making it easily the best performing of the 11 major SampampP 500 sectors Facebook Inc FBO shares ended down 26 percent well above earlier lows The social media company said on Tuesday it faced questions from the US Federal Trade Commission about how its users8217 personal data was mined by a political consultancy hired by President Donald Trump8217s campaign The stock has fallen about 9 percent over the past two sessions its biggest twoday decline since February 2016 a drop that has weighed heavily on equities US and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of how the consultancy Cambridge Analytica gained access to the data and why Facebook failed to inform its users raising broader industry questions about consumer privacy and whether tougher regulation is on the horizon 8220The negative part would be they are going to haul them in front of Congress now and we8217ll see do they create new laws are there new regulations that could stunt the growth of the company That is really what the fear is8221 said Joe Saluzzi comanager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham New Jersey Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York US March 19 2018 REUTERSLucas Jackson Facebook was not the only social media stock or fund taking a hit on Tuesday Shares of Snap Inc SNAPN fell 256 percent while Twitter Inc TWTRN shares tumbled 1038 percent The Global X Social Media ETF SOCLO lost 09 percent The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 11636 points or 047 percent to 2472727 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 402 points or 015 percent to 271694 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 2006 points or 027 percent to 736430 Oracle ORCLN dropped 94 percent after the business software maker reported lowerthanexpected quarterly revenue Facebook Inc 16815 FBO Nasdaq 441 256 FBO SNAPN TWTRN SOCLO DJI Financial stocks SPSY edged up 021 percent as investors awaited a nearcertain interest rate hike at the end of the Federal Reserve8217s twoday meeting on Wednesday Market participants largely expect a total of three rate hikes this year although some have not ruled out the possibility the US central bank will hike four times 8220We are finally normalizing after years we talked about the Fed holding it down and the market only going up because of the Fed Now let8217s see what the market can do 8211 can it stand on its own two legs8221 said Saluzzi referring to the low interest rate environment the Fed put into effect after the financial crisis Volume on US exchanges was 626 billion shares compared with the 717 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 128to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 126to1 ratio favored decliners Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak Editing by Jonathan Oatis Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles SINGAPORE Reuters Oil prices rose on Wednesday lifted by tensions in the Middle East and healthy demand although rising US output continued to weigh on markets FILE PHOTO An oil well pump jack is seen at an oil field supply yard near Denver Colorado US February 2 2015 REUTERSRick WilkingFile Photo US West Texas Intermediate WTI crude futures CLc1 were at 6380 a barrel at 0230 GMT up 26 cents or 04 percent from their previous close Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at 6771 per barrel up 29 cents or 04 percent Saudi Arabia8217s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday arrived in Washington for a state visit raising speculation the United States could reimpose sanctions on Iran following rewnewed criticism of the 2015 nuclear deal 8220The presence of the Saudi Crown Prince in Washington and his clear agenda to ramp up pressure on Iran has for me been the key driver of oil which rose strongly8221 said Greg McKenna chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader Analysts also pointed to the nomination of Mike Pompeo as new US Secretary of State as a risk to oil markets given he fiercely opposed the 2015 pact as a member of Congress 8220The nomination of Mike Pompeo for US Secretary of State raises the likelihood of oil trade disruptions8221 US bank Citi said in a note Should the United States reimpose sanctions against Iran energy consultancy FGE said that would likely result in a 250000 to 500000 barrels per day bpd drop in its exports by yearend Analysts also pointed to healthy economic growth and a weak dollar as oil price drivers In a sign of healthy demand US crude stocks fell by 27 million barrels in the week ended March 16 to 4253 million the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday 8220The global economy is humming and robust demand solidly underpins commodity prices8221 said Norbert Ruecker head of macro and commodity Research at Swiss bank Julius Baer Despite this he said seasonally low demand at the end of the northern hemisphere winter season meant he had 8220a rather cautious nearterm outlook on commodities8221 Looming over oil markets has been surging US crude production COUTTEIA which has risen by more than a fifth since mid2016 to 1038 million bpd overtaking top exporter Saudi Arabia and putting the United States within reach of Russia8217s 11 million bpd Still some US producers are holding back expansion in order to prevent a price crash 8220Larger players are holding back capital expenditures in an attempt to avoid past mistakes8221 said consultancy FGE Reporting by Henning Gloystein editing by Richard Pullin Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters Salesforcecom Inc CRMN said on Tuesday it would buy US software maker MuleSoft Inc MULEN for about 590 billion in a cashandstock deal illustrating CEO Marc Benioff8217s push to bolster the company8217s cloudbased portfolio with new technology FILE PHOTO The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco California US October 12 2016 REUTERSLily Jamali MuleSoft shareholders would get 36 in cash and 00711 of a Salesforce share or 4489 per share representing a premium of 36 percent to Mulesoft8217s Monday close MuleSoft shares were up 5 percent in extended trading after rising 27 percent during the day Salesforce shares were down more than 2 percent after the bell Including debt the deal was valued at 65 billion the companies said in a joint statement 8220It is really a natural fit for Salesforce to own Mule8221 Steve Koenig analyst at Wedbush Securities said 8220Salesforce usually helps customers move to the cloud and digitally transform their business that often starts with CRM so having Mule helps eliminate friction as customers transform their business and to provide a more complete solution8221 he said MuleSoft listed on the New York Stock Exchange on March 17 last year at 17 apiece It closed up 40 percent on the first day of trading giving it a market value of nearly 3 billion Salesforce Ventures the company8217s venture capital arm led a 128 million funding round in MuleSoft in 2015 Salesforcecom Inc 12512 CRMN New York Stock Exchange 014 011 CRMN MULEN ORCLN KON MCDN Salesforce holds more than 18 percent of the global customer relationship management software market followed by Oracle Corp ORCLN with 94 percent according to 2016 figures provided by research firm IDC MuleSoft makes software that provides enterprises with tools to automatically integrate various applications devices and disparate data to help businesses networks run faster It counts CocaCola Co KON McDonald8217s Corp MCDN Salesforce and Spotify SPOTN among its customers Reuters had reported about the deal earlier on Tuesday BofA Merrill Lynch is Salesforce8217s financial adviser and Goldman Sachs advised MuleSoft Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru Editing by Shounak Dasgupta Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Reuters/PROPN General/PROPN Dynamics/PROPN Corp/PROPN GDN/PROPN said/VERB on/ADP Wednesday/PROPN the/DET US/PROPN administration8217s/NUM lack/NOUN of/ADP appointees/NOUN at/ADP the/DET Pentagon/PROPN and/CCONJ failure/NOUN of/ADP Congress/PROPN to/PART pass/VERB a/DET federal/ADJ budget/NOUN contributed/VERB to/ADP the/DET aerospace/NOUN and/CCONJ defense/NOUN company/NOUN missing/VERB analysts8217/NOUN sales/NOUN expectations/NOUN FILE/NOUN PHOTO/PROPN A/PROPN General/PROPN Dynamics/PROPN sign/NOUN is/AUX shown/VERB at/ADP the/DET International/PROPN Association/PROPN of/ADP Chiefs/PROPN of/ADP Police/PROPN conference/NOUN in/ADP San/PROPN Diego/PROPN California/PROPN 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<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Netflix Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>) quarterly results on Monday may offer an advanced preview of whether Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) and other heavyweights behind much of the U.S. stock market’s record-breaking rally can keep delivering.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., January 8, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Wall Street on Friday shrugged off a looming U.S. government shutdown and propelled the S&amp;P 500 to a record high as investors focused on upcoming quarterly reports.</p>
<p>Republicans and Democrats appeared to harden their positions on Sunday as both sides hunkered down for what could be a prolonged fight, with the shutdown in its second day. There appeared to be no clear path for a quick end to the crisis.</p>
<p>Many of the largest companies - Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Amazon.com - have outperformed the broader market in the first 13 trading days of 2018, with investors betting strong earnings growth will justify tech valuations at their highest levels in a decade.</p>
<p>Netflix, which is due to report its quarterly results on Monday after the stock market closes, has jumped nearly 15 percent this year, outpacing the S&amp;P 500’s 5 percent increase.</p>
<p>Netflix’s 53 percent surge in 2017, along with rallies by Amazon.com and Silicon Valley’s largest tech companies, helped propel the stock market to new highs.</p>
<p>“Netflix is going to be a great early indicator of risk appetite for these high-volatility growth names,” said Wedbush trader Joel Kulina. “Netflix’s drivers are very company-specific, but if this stock can deliver, there’s no reason this whole market can’t keep going higher.”</p>
<p>The Los Gatos, California-based company faces increasing competition from streaming services including Amazon.com’s Prime Video and moves by traditional media companies. But investors remain optimistic about its ability to beat expectations.</p>
<p>Its stock recently traded at 95 times expected earnings for the next 12 months, versus AMC Entertainment ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMC.N" type="external">AMC.N</a>) at 44 times earnings and Time Warner Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWX.N" type="external">TWX.N</a>) at 14 times earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>Underscoring investors’ willingness to pay premium prices for fast-growing stocks, Phil Blancato, head of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York, recently helped a client buy $1.5 million worth of shares in Facebook, Amazon.com, Apple, Netflix and Google parent company Alphabet as investments for his grandchildren.</p>
<p>“I said, ‘You’re crazy,’ but he was very direct, he wanted the FAANG stocks,” Blancato said, using a widely used Wall Street acronym for those companies.</p>
<p>Analysts on average expect S&amp;P 500 technology companies to deliver a 15.9 percent increase in earnings for the December quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Earnings for the entire S&amp;P 500 are seen rising 12.2 percent, bolstered by lower unemployment and fatter wages.</p>
<p>Technology investors during the reporting season just under way are also eager to hear company executives explain how their bottom lines will be affected by corporate tax cuts passed by Congress in December, and whether they plan to repatriate overseas profits.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">Netflix Inc</a> 280.29 NFLX.O Nasdaq -15.06 (-5.10%) NFLX.O FB.O AMZN.O MSFT.O AAPL.O
<p>Apple said on Wednesday it would make about $38 billion in one-time tax payments on its overseas cash, and investors want to know how much of the $252 billion held abroad Apple will bring home and potentially spend on dividends, share buybacks or acquisitions.</p>
<p>In its third-quarter earnings released on Oct. 16, Netflix reported it had added more global subscribers than analysts expected. In response, its stock hit a record high in after-hours trade before dipping the following day.</p>
<p>In October, Netflix hiked U.S. prices for the first time since 2015, potentially providing more cash to produce original content but also increasing the risk of losing customers.</p>
<p>Netflix has forecast adding 6.3 million subscribers worldwide in the December quarter, which would bring its global customer base to nearly 115.6 million.</p>
<p>Analysts on average expect a 32.5 percent jump in revenue to $3.28 billion, and net income of $186.3 million, up 179 percent. Analysts expect earnings per share of 41 cents.</p>
<p>After the market closed on Friday, the U.S. Senate was racing to avert a government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline on a stopgap spending measure amid lingering disagreements between Democrats and Republicans. Investors have said they are not worried about a major pullback in shares, even if lawmakers fail to strike a deal.</p>
<p>Up 42 percent in the past 12 months, the S&amp;P 500 information technology index is trading more than 19 times expected earnings, its highest since 2008, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>Facebook will post quarterly results on Jan. 31, followed by Amazon.com, Apple and Alphabet on Feb 1. Nvidia ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NVDA.O" type="external">NVDA.O</a>), which surged 81 percent in 2017 and replaced Qualcomm ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=QCOM.O" type="external">QCOM.O</a>) as the most valuable U.S. chipmaker after Intel Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), reports on Feb 7.</p>
<p>Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Richard Chang and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street shares plunged on Monday as investors fled technology stocks amid resurgent trade war worries, with key indexes trading below their 200-day moving averages and the S&amp;P 500 closing below that pivotal technical level for the first time since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016.</p>
<p>The first trading day of the second quarter began with a broad selloff concentrated in the technology and consumer discretionary sectors, as losses by Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), among others, took center stage from retaliatory trade measures China unveiled on Sunday.</p>
<p>With the S&amp;P 500 in a 10 percent correction from its record high in late January, investors were increasingly concerned a nine-year bull market might be in danger of ending.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-stocks-instant/instant-view-stocks-tumble-led-by-tech-pullback-and-trade-fears-idUSKCN1H91HA" type="external">Instant View: Stocks tumble, led by tech pullback and trade fears</a>
<p>“It’s more complicated than just a tech selloff. What’s hurting everything is that the S&amp;P went through its 200-day moving average,” said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. “That attracts momentum sellers and they don’t care what the fundamentals are.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 458.92 points, or 1.9 percent, to end at 23,644.19 after dipping below its 200-day moving average. The S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> fell 58.99 points, or 2.23 percent, to 2,581.88 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 193.33 points, or 2.74 percent, to 6,870.12.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) was the biggest drag on the S&amp;P 500, down 5.2 percent, as President Donald Trump continued his twitter attacks on the online retailer.</p>
<p>All 11 major sectors of the S&amp;P 500 closed lower, with the biggest losses seen by the consumer discretionary .SPLRCD and technology .SPLRCT indexes, which were down 2.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.</p>
<p>The tech-heavy Nasdaq was dragged lower by Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), Apple Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>).</p>
<p>Shares of Tesla Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) ended the day down 5.1 percent after the company was reported to be making 2,000 Model 3s per week, missing its 2,500 target.</p>
<p>The electric automaker’s losses extend last week’s near 14-percent decline as investigations of a fatal California crash and a Moody’s credit downgrade weighed on the stock.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Health insurer Humana Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HUM.N" type="external">HUM.N</a>) shares closed up 4.4 percent on news it was in talks with Walmart ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) to expand their partnership or possibly be acquired by the retailer. Walmart stock fell 3.8 percent.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR fell to two-month lows as investors fled sliding stocks for safety ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report.</p>
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 4.17-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 4.14-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1371.99 AMZN.O Nasdaq -75.35 (-5.21%) AMZN.O TSLA.O MSFT.O .DJI .SPX
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.71 billion shares, compared to the 7.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - General Electric Co’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">GE.N</a>) healthcare unit said on Monday it would sell its information technology business to private equity firm Veritas Capital for $1.05 billion in cash as it sharpens its focus on smart diagnostics and connected devices.</p> FILE PHOTO - The ticker and logo for General Electric Co. is displayed on a screen at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. on June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
<p>The information technology business houses its financial management, ambulatory care and workforce management software assets, GE said in a statement.</p>
<p>The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2018.</p>
<p>GE said in February it had a “line of sight” on the first $4 billion in asset sales under its plans for $20 billion in disposals, as it tries to shore up its financial performance.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GE.N" type="external">General Electric Co</a> 13.12 GE.N New York Stock Exchange -0.36 (-2.67%) GE.N .DJI
<p>As part of the plan, the company is looking to sell its transportation unit, which makes railway locomotives and the iconic lighting division that makes bulbs for consumers.</p>
<p>Morgan Stanley and Keval Health are GE’s financial advisers, while Goldman Sachs &amp; Co. and William Blair &amp; Co advised Veritas Capital.</p>
<p>Shares of the U.S. industrial conglomerate were down 2.6 percent at $13.14 in line with the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> which fell 2 percent on Monday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Shares of Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) fell 6 percent on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes.</p> FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
<p>“Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon,” Trump tweeted.</p>
<p>“They lose a fortune, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country...not a level playing field!”</p>
<p>Shares of the company were down 5.9 percent at $1,362.48, wiping out nearly $45 billion from its market value.</p>
<p>Trump has been vocal about his opposition to Amazon’s use of the postal service and Monday’s tweet adds to investor worries that the company could see more regulation.</p>
<p>Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Trump tweeted that if the post office “increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 billion.”</p>
<p>The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in November reported a decline in annual revenue, hurt by a drop in first-class and marketing mail, offset partly by an increase in package delivery.</p>
<p>The postal service has also been posting losses mainly because of payments, more than $5 billion a year as mandated by Congress to prefund the service’s future retirees’ healthcare.</p>
<p>The passage of postal reform legislation could alleviate USPS’s pension obligations, give it more pricing power and allow the agency to be more competitive, analysts said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1371.99 AMZN.O Nasdaq -75.35 (-5.21%) AMZN.O UPS.N FDX.N
<p>“We believe the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has gained share from Amazon which is helping the USPS stay afloat,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.</p>
<p>Details of Amazon’s payments to the USPS are not publicly known, but some Wall Street analysts have estimated it pays the postal service roughly half what it would to United Parcel Service Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=UPS.N" type="external">UPS.N</a>) or FedEx Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FDX.N" type="external">FDX.N</a>) to deliver a package.</p>
<p>“President Trump’s comments are consistent with industry sources we have spoken to in the shipping industry, who often label Amazon’s deal with the USPS as a sweetheart deal,” DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte wrote in a note.</p>
<p>“An argument, however, could be made that the USPS was losing billions before it expanded its service offerings for Amazon and would, still, likely lose billions if Amazon discontinued its use of the USPS tomorrow,” Forte said.</p>
<p>Trump last Thursday accused Amazon of not paying enough tax, making the postal system lose money and putting small retailers out of business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Bernard Orr</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped on Tuesday amid escalating trade tensions and worries over the fading outlook for global tech giants, but investors held their nerves to focus instead on prospects for stronger world growth.</p> FILE PHOTO: A visitor is seen as market prices are reflected in a glass window at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan, February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
<p>MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4 percent on Tuesday, compared with losses of more than 2 percent on each of the three Wall Street indices overnight.</p>
<p>The U.S. dollar steadied against the safe haven yen after declining for three straight days and gold, which is often seen as a store of value during times of financial or political uncertainty, inched lower.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasuries saw a bit of selling too with yields on 10-year notes off two-month lows.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, E-Mini futures for the S&amp;P 500 climbed 0.4 percent and Dow futures were also up 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>“Markets are being supported by global growth, most indicators that have come out recently are pretty solid,” said Shane Oliver, Sydney-based chief investment strategist at AMP Capital.</p>
<p>“Asian investors have looked at the noise recently and said ‘well there is nothing really new in all this’,” Oliver added. “Cool heads are prevailing.”</p>
<p>Asian shares were mostly in the red, albeit off early lows.</p>
<p>Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.9 percent, having gone as deep as 1.6 percent at the open. China’s Shanghai Composite index eased 0.4 percent and the blue-chip CSI300 was off 0.7 percent.</p>
<p>Technology shares were hit hard on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked Amazon.com over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes.</p>
<p>The selling added to what has been a rough patch for technology shares this year. Facebook, Apple and some of their peers had a woeful last quarter as investors reassessed high U.S. stock valuations in light of a cocktail of negative factors.</p>
<p>So called FANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google - have been largely responsible for a multi-year bull run in world shares, although the threat of government regulation has raised worries about their outlook.</p>
<p>Investors were also on the backfoot as China imposed extra tariffs on 128 U.S. products, deepening a dispute between the world’s two biggest economies and stoking concerns about the impact on global growth.</p>
<p>China’s tit-for-tat tariffs hurt the U.S. dollar, although it saw some buying during early Asian trading on Tuesday to last trade at 105.88 yen, from a three-week peak of 107.01.</p>
<p>The dollar index was still a shade softer against a basket of currencies.</p>
<p>Oil prices ticked higher after falling more than 3.7 percent on Monday although rising Russian output and the escalating U.S.-China trade dispute still weighed. [O/R]</p>
<p>Brent crude inched 16 cents higher to $67.80 a barrel. U.S. crude rose 13 cents to $63.14.</p>
<p>Spot gold ticked lower to $1,338.91.</p>
<p>Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Wall Street Week Ahead: Where Netflix goes, Big Tech may follow Wall Street tumbles on tech sector, trade war worries GE Healthcare to sell IT unit to Veritas for $1.05 billion Amazon shares fall 6 percent as Trump renews attack Asian investors stay calm amid Wall Street sell-off | false | https://reuters.com/article/usa-stocks-weekahead/update-1-wall-st-week-ahead-where-netflix-goes-big-tech-may-follow-idUSL1N1PG049 | 2018-01-19 | 2least
| 2,523 | SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Netflix Inc8217s NFLXO quarterly results on Monday may offer an advanced preview of whether Facebook Inc FBO Amazoncom Inc AMZNO and other heavyweights behind much of the US stock market8217s recordbreaking rally can keep delivering Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York US January 8 2018 REUTERSBrendan McDermid Wall Street on Friday shrugged off a looming US government shutdown and propelled the SampampP 500 to a record high as investors focused on upcoming quarterly reports Republicans and Democrats appeared to harden their positions on Sunday as both sides hunkered down for what could be a prolonged fight with the shutdown in its second day There appeared to be no clear path for a quick end to the crisis Many of the largest companies Microsoft Corp MSFTO Apple Inc AAPLO Alphabet Inc GOOGLO and Amazoncom have outperformed the broader market in the first 13 trading days of 2018 with investors betting strong earnings growth will justify tech valuations at their highest levels in a decade Netflix which is due to report its quarterly results on Monday after the stock market closes has jumped nearly 15 percent this year outpacing the SampampP 5008217s 5 percent increase Netflix8217s 53 percent surge in 2017 along with rallies by Amazoncom and Silicon Valley8217s largest tech companies helped propel the stock market to new highs 8220Netflix is going to be a great early indicator of risk appetite for these highvolatility growth names8221 said Wedbush trader Joel Kulina 8220Netflix8217s drivers are very companyspecific but if this stock can deliver there8217s no reason this whole market can8217t keep going higher8221 The Los Gatos Californiabased company faces increasing competition from streaming services including Amazoncom8217s Prime Video and moves by traditional media companies But investors remain optimistic about its ability to beat expectations Its stock recently traded at 95 times expected earnings for the next 12 months versus AMC Entertainment AMCN at 44 times earnings and Time Warner Inc TWXN at 14 times earnings according to Thomson Reuters data Underscoring investors8217 willingness to pay premium prices for fastgrowing stocks Phil Blancato head of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York recently helped a client buy 15 million worth of shares in Facebook Amazoncom Apple Netflix and Google parent company Alphabet as investments for his grandchildren 8220I said 8216You8217re crazy8217 but he was very direct he wanted the FAANG stocks8221 Blancato said using a widely used Wall Street acronym for those companies Analysts on average expect SampampP 500 technology companies to deliver a 159 percent increase in earnings for the December quarter according to Thomson Reuters IBES Earnings for the entire SampampP 500 are seen rising 122 percent bolstered by lower unemployment and fatter wages Technology investors during the reporting season just under way are also eager to hear company executives explain how their bottom lines will be affected by corporate tax cuts passed by Congress in December and whether they plan to repatriate overseas profits Netflix Inc 28029 NFLXO Nasdaq 1506 510 NFLXO FBO AMZNO MSFTO AAPLO Apple said on Wednesday it would make about 38 billion in onetime tax payments on its overseas cash and investors want to know how much of the 252 billion held abroad Apple will bring home and potentially spend on dividends share buybacks or acquisitions In its thirdquarter earnings released on Oct 16 Netflix reported it had added more global subscribers than analysts expected In response its stock hit a record high in afterhours trade before dipping the following day In October Netflix hiked US prices for the first time since 2015 potentially providing more cash to produce original content but also increasing the risk of losing customers Netflix has forecast adding 63 million subscribers worldwide in the December quarter which would bring its global customer base to nearly 1156 million Analysts on average expect a 325 percent jump in revenue to 328 billion and net income of 1863 million up 179 percent Analysts expect earnings per share of 41 cents After the market closed on Friday the US Senate was racing to avert a government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline on a stopgap spending measure amid lingering disagreements between Democrats and Republicans Investors have said they are not worried about a major pullback in shares even if lawmakers fail to strike a deal Up 42 percent in the past 12 months the SampampP 500 information technology index is trading more than 19 times expected earnings its highest since 2008 according to Thomson Reuters data Facebook will post quarterly results on Jan 31 followed by Amazoncom Apple and Alphabet on Feb 1 Nvidia NVDAO which surged 81 percent in 2017 and replaced Qualcomm QCOMO as the most valuable US chipmaker after Intel Corp INTCO reports on Feb 7 Reporting by Noel Randewich Editing by Richard Chang and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street shares plunged on Monday as investors fled technology stocks amid resurgent trade war worries with key indexes trading below their 200day moving averages and the SampampP 500 closing below that pivotal technical level for the first time since Britain8217s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016 The first trading day of the second quarter began with a broad selloff concentrated in the technology and consumer discretionary sectors as losses by Amazoncom AMZNO Tesla TSLAO and Microsoft MSFTO among others took center stage from retaliatory trade measures China unveiled on Sunday With the SampampP 500 in a 10 percent correction from its record high in late January investors were increasingly concerned a nineyear bull market might be in danger of ending Related Coverage Instant View Stocks tumble led by tech pullback and trade fears 8220It8217s more complicated than just a tech selloff What8217s hurting everything is that the SampampP went through its 200day moving average8221 said Brian Battle director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago 8220That attracts momentum sellers and they don8217t care what the fundamentals are8221 The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI fell 45892 points or 19 percent to end at 2364419 after dipping below its 200day moving average The SampampP 500 SPX fell 5899 points or 223 percent to 258188 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC dropped 19333 points or 274 percent to 687012 Amazoncom AMZNO was the biggest drag on the SampampP 500 down 52 percent as President Donald Trump continued his twitter attacks on the online retailer All 11 major sectors of the SampampP 500 closed lower with the biggest losses seen by the consumer discretionary SPLRCD and technology SPLRCT indexes which were down 28 percent and 25 percent respectively The techheavy Nasdaq was dragged lower by Microsoft MSFTO Intel INTCO Apple Inc AAPLO Facebook FBO and Alphabet GOOGLO Shares of Tesla Inc TSLAO ended the day down 51 percent after the company was reported to be making 2000 Model 3s per week missing its 2500 target The electric automaker8217s losses extend last week8217s near 14percent decline as investigations of a fatal California crash and a Moody8217s credit downgrade weighed on the stock Slideshow 2 Images Health insurer Humana Inc8217s HUMN shares closed up 44 percent on news it was in talks with Walmart WMTN to expand their partnership or possibly be acquired by the retailer Walmart stock fell 38 percent US Treasury yields US10YTRR fell to twomonth lows as investors fled sliding stocks for safety ahead of Friday8217s closely watched jobs report Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 417to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 414to1 ratio favored decliners Amazoncom Inc 137199 AMZNO Nasdaq 7535 521 AMZNO TSLAO MSFTO DJI SPX Volume on US exchanges was 771 billion shares compared to the 729 billion average over the last 20 trading days Additional reporting by Sinead Carew Editing by James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters General Electric Co8217s GEN healthcare unit said on Monday it would sell its information technology business to private equity firm Veritas Capital for 105 billion in cash as it sharpens its focus on smart diagnostics and connected devices FILE PHOTO The ticker and logo for General Electric Co is displayed on a screen at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York City US on June 30 2016 REUTERSBrendan McDermidFile Photo The information technology business houses its financial management ambulatory care and workforce management software assets GE said in a statement The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2018 GE said in February it had a 8220line of sight8221 on the first 4 billion in asset sales under its plans for 20 billion in disposals as it tries to shore up its financial performance General Electric Co 1312 GEN New York Stock Exchange 036 267 GEN DJI As part of the plan the company is looking to sell its transportation unit which makes railway locomotives and the iconic lighting division that makes bulbs for consumers Morgan Stanley and Keval Health are GE8217s financial advisers while Goldman Sachs ampamp Co and William Blair ampamp Co advised Veritas Capital Shares of the US industrial conglomerate were down 26 percent at 1314 in line with the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI which fell 2 percent on Monday Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru Editing by Anil DSilva Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters Shares of Amazoncom Inc AMZNO fell 6 percent on Monday after US President Donald Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes FILE PHOTO Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City January 29 2016 REUTERSMike SegarFile Photo 8220Only fools or worse are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon8221 Trump tweeted 8220They lose a fortune and this will be changed Also our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the countrynot a level playing field8221 Shares of the company were down 59 percent at 136248 wiping out nearly 45 billion from its market value Trump has been vocal about his opposition to Amazon8217s use of the postal service and Monday8217s tweet adds to investor worries that the company could see more regulation Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for a comment On Saturday Trump tweeted that if the post office 8220increased its parcel rates Amazon8217s shipping costs would rise by 26 billion8221 The US Postal Service USPS in November reported a decline in annual revenue hurt by a drop in firstclass and marketing mail offset partly by an increase in package delivery The postal service has also been posting losses mainly because of payments more than 5 billion a year as mandated by Congress to prefund the service8217s future retirees8217 healthcare The passage of postal reform legislation could alleviate USPS8217s pension obligations give it more pricing power and allow the agency to be more competitive analysts said Amazoncom Inc 137199 AMZNO Nasdaq 7535 521 AMZNO UPSN FDXN 8220We believe the US Postal Service USPS has gained share from Amazon which is helping the USPS stay afloat8221 Morgan Stanley analysts wrote Details of Amazon8217s payments to the USPS are not publicly known but some Wall Street analysts have estimated it pays the postal service roughly half what it would to United Parcel Service Inc UPSN or FedEx Corp FDXN to deliver a package 8220President Trump8217s comments are consistent with industry sources we have spoken to in the shipping industry who often label Amazon8217s deal with the USPS as a sweetheart deal8221 DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte wrote in a note 8220An argument however could be made that the USPS was losing billions before it expanded its service offerings for Amazon and would still likely lose billions if Amazon discontinued its use of the USPS tomorrow8221 Forte said Trump last Thursday accused Amazon of not paying enough tax making the postal system lose money and putting small retailers out of business Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru Editing by Arun Koyyur Bernard Orr Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles SYDNEY Reuters Asian shares slipped on Tuesday amid escalating trade tensions and worries over the fading outlook for global tech giants but investors held their nerves to focus instead on prospects for stronger world growth FILE PHOTO A visitor is seen as market prices are reflected in a glass window at the Tokyo Stock Exchange TSE in Tokyo Japan February 6 2018 REUTERSToru HanaiFile Photo MSCI8217s broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan fell 04 percent on Tuesday compared with losses of more than 2 percent on each of the three Wall Street indices overnight The US dollar steadied against the safe haven yen after declining for three straight days and gold which is often seen as a store of value during times of financial or political uncertainty inched lower US Treasuries saw a bit of selling too with yields on 10year notes off twomonth lows Meanwhile EMini futures for the SampampP 500 climbed 04 percent and Dow futures were also up 02 percent 8220Markets are being supported by global growth most indicators that have come out recently are pretty solid8221 said Shane Oliver Sydneybased chief investment strategist at AMP Capital 8220Asian investors have looked at the noise recently and said 8216well there is nothing really new in all this82178221 Oliver added 8220Cool heads are prevailing8221 Asian shares were mostly in the red albeit off early lows Japan8217s Nikkei was down 09 percent having gone as deep as 16 percent at the open China8217s Shanghai Composite index eased 04 percent and the bluechip CSI300 was off 07 percent Technology shares were hit hard on Monday after US President Donald Trump attacked Amazoncom over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes The selling added to what has been a rough patch for technology shares this year Facebook Apple and some of their peers had a woeful last quarter as investors reassessed high US stock valuations in light of a cocktail of negative factors So called FANG stocks Facebook Amazon Netflix and Google have been largely responsible for a multiyear bull run in world shares although the threat of government regulation has raised worries about their outlook Investors were also on the backfoot as China imposed extra tariffs on 128 US products deepening a dispute between the world8217s two biggest economies and stoking concerns about the impact on global growth China8217s titfortat tariffs hurt the US dollar although it saw some buying during early Asian trading on Tuesday to last trade at 10588 yen from a threeweek peak of 10701 The dollar index was still a shade softer against a basket of currencies Oil prices ticked higher after falling more than 37 percent on Monday although rising Russian output and the escalating USChina trade dispute still weighed OR Brent crude inched 16 cents higher to 6780 a barrel US crude rose 13 cents to 6314 Spot gold ticked lower to 133891 Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | SAN/PROPN FRANCISCO/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Netflix/PROPN Inc8217s/PROPN NFLXO/VERB quarterly/ADJ results/NOUN on/ADP Monday/PROPN may/AUX offer/VERB an/DET advanced/ADJ preview/NOUN of/ADP whether/SCONJ Facebook/PROPN Inc/PROPN FBO/PROPN Amazoncom/PROPN Inc/PROPN AMZNO/PROPN and/CCONJ other/ADJ heavyweights/NOUN behind/ADP much/ADJ of/ADP the/DET US/PROPN stock/NOUN market8217s/PROPN recordbreaking/NOUN rally/NOUN 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<p>Dimitri Lascaris is a lawyer, journalist and activist. After working in the New York and Paris offices of a major Wall Street law firm, Dimitri became a class action lawyer in Canada. His practice focused on shareholder rights, environmental wrongs and human rights. In 2012, Canadian Lawyer Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential lawyers in Canada, and in 2013, Canadian Business Magazine named him one of the 50 most influential persons in Canadian business. Dimitri ran for the Green Party in Canada�s 2015 federal election and has served as the Justice Critic in the Green Party of Canada shadow cabinet.</p>
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<p /> KIM BROWN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Kim Brown, in Baltimore.
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<p />The government of Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has been portrayed as being quite popular in Canada. However, recent policy decisions and polls suggest that the government is perhaps, more out of touch with popular sentiment that is usually portrayed in the media.
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<p />For example, last week Trudeau announced that he will not pursue a reform of Canada's electoral system, something that he had promised repeatedly, prior to becoming Prime Minister. Also, a new Ekos poll, that is about to be released, shows that Canadians are far more supportive of Palestinians than Trudeau is himself.
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<p />And joining us to discuss Trudeau's defiance of popular sentiment in Canada is Dimitri Lascaris. Dimitri is a lawyer, journalist and activist. He's also a Board Member here at The Real News. Dimitri, thank you so much for being here.
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<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Thanks for having me, Kim.
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<p />KIM BROWN: So, first let's begin with the electoral system change that Trudeau promised, but is now no longer pursuing. So, what was this change about, and why did he decide to abandon the effort?
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<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: In Canada, we have a system called, "First Past the Post", which means essentially a winner-take-all system. So, in an electoral district, which we call ridings here, if you have, for example, four or five candidates, the candidate who garners the most votes -- even if it's much less than the majority of the votes -- becomes the representative of the riding, the MP. And all the other votes, basically get wasted. They don't have any impact on the composition of our parliament.
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<p /> So, there was a lot of pressure for this system to be changed, because so many votes were not effectively being taken into account, in the distribution of seats in the parliament. And the system that best accomplishes that is, "Proportional Representation".
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<p />Now, sensing that there was this strong public sentiment for this change to a fairer electoral system, in the 2015 election, which brought Justin Trudeau to power, he said very clearly, and repeatedly, that this was going to be the last election that we conducted under the, First Past the Post system. And he would see to it that before the next election, we would have a system that "Makes every vote count".
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<p />Those were his words, and to this day you can see that promise in the Liberal Party electoral platform. However, after spending millions of dollars, what he did was he came to power; he put together a committee, to study what kind of system should be put in place, to replace the old system. The experts, millions of dollars were spent, months' of work was put into it, numerous experts were consulted on electoral reform.
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<p />Overwhelmingly, their testimony was that Proportional Representation, which is used widely across the world -- including in many western democracies -- that that was the best system, the fairer system. He heard from 100's of thousands of Canadian on this issue. Approximately 70% of them said that they wanted proportional representation, and then in the last second, he just basically ditched the whole thing.
<p />
<p />And all of that time, money, expertise, and input from Canadians was wasted. I think the reason, quite simply, why he did it -- the real reason -- is because no party stands to lose more in a Proportional Representation system, than the Liberal Party.
<p />
<p />Effectively what would happen, is that seats would get re-distributed from the Liberal Party to smaller parties, like the Green Party, and the NDP. And the Liberal Party would no longer be able to command a majority, which it currently has, with less than 40% of the popular vote -- a system that has prevailed over and over again in Canadian elections. That was, I think, the real reason.
<p />
<p />What he told people, was that there wasn't a consensus. You know, in other words, that there wasn't complete agreement across the country on a new system. Well, since when do we set the bar that high, for adopting a program of legislative reform, whatever the subject of that reform may be? Why does there have to be complete agreement? Isn't it enough that 70% of the Canadians, who gave their input, said that they wanted a system of Proportional Representation?
<p />
<p />So, frankly... and oh, he articulated some other excuses, but none of them really hold water. Like, he expressed a fear of an extremist party having power. But you look at what's happening to the Conservative Party now, one of their candidates is Kelly Leitch, another one is a fellow by the name of Kevin O'Leary, a Canadian who appears on reality TV in the United States, each of whom could easily be characterized, and fairly be characterized, as extreme right wing in their politics. They could quite easily become the leader of the Conservative Party.
<p />
<p />And under the First Past the Post system, that party could acquire a majority government with much less than a majority vote, even with substantially less than 40% of the vote. So, in fact, it's the current system, which creates a risk of an extremist coming to power, a heightened risk, not a system of Proportional Representation.
<p />
<p />KIM BROWN: So, apparently, the New Democratic Party, the NDP, and the Greens, are insisting that a referendum be held on changing the electoral system. So, what are they proposing to do in this referendum, exactly?
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Well, I think that they... first of all, people would... You could approach this referendum in any number of ways. You could simply ask people, do they want to change the electoral system - yes or no? You could ask people -- you could give people a series of options. You could say do you want a First Past the Post, option two - do you want a Proportional Representation; option three - do you want another system, for example, one that is known as Ranked Ballot? And you could allow them to choose from a menu of options.
<p />
<p />There's a number of ways in which you could approach the referendum. Another way to do it is to adopt a system, provisionally, for one election, and give the country the experience of operating under that new system. And then conduct a referendum on whether they liked that system. And I believe that this was tried in other jurisdictions, it may have been New Zealand.
<p />
<p />So, you know, there are a lot of ways you could slice and dice a referendum. The advantage of it of course, is you get direct input from the populace about what they want to do with the electoral system. But Justin Trudeau wants nothing to do with a referendum. He says that he's concerned that it's going to be divisive, and that at this time, you know, we don't need to have a divisive debate about this.
<p />
<p />But in fact, what he has done, which is to completely abandon the promise that he clearly made in the election, to make this the last election under First Past the Post, is itself divisive. And it's created a great deal of antipathy, and a lot of people feel betrayed, because they voted for the Liberal Party precisely for that reason. They thought that this was going to get them a new and fairer electoral system.
<p />
<p />KIM BROWN: So, the other issue that I mentioned in the introduction is the new Ekos poll that shows that Canadians believe that sanctioning Israel, for human rights violations is reasonable.
<p />
<p /> However, Trudeau has repeatedly declared unwavering and unconditional support for Israel. So, first what can you tell us about the poll's findings?
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Well, the poll was conducted by Ekos Research Associates -- its results have been published in two parts -- the first part, I discussed it on The Real News a couple of weeks ago. Its principle finding was that far more Canadians view the Israeli government negatively than view it positively. And the vast majority, a nexus of 90%, said that they do not believe that criticizing Israeli government policy is necessarily anti-Semitic.
<p />
<p />It's often claimed in this country that criticizing Israel is anti-Semitic, and clearly that's not a view shared by Canadian people. The second part looked at the question of how the government should deal with Israel's persistent, decade's long human rights abuses, and asked people, first of all, if they thought that sanctioning the government, sanctioning Israel, was a reasonable measure to ensure its compliance with international law, 66% of Canadians said yes. Remarkably, 75% of the supporters of Justin Trudeau's own party also said yes.
<p />
<p />We also asked Canadians what they think about the boycott movement, the Palestinian call for a boycott, and whether that was a reasonable measure to ensure compliance with international law? The numbers there were even more striking, 78% of Canadians said they thought it was a reasonable measure, and 88% of the supporters of Justin Trudeau's own party said that they thought that that would be reasonable.
<p />
<p />Now, Justin Trudeau is radically at odds with, not only Canadian opinion, but with the opinion of the people who support his own Party. In the time that he has been in power, which is less than 18 months, his government has voted against something in excess of 20 Resolutions that were either critical of the Israeli government, or supportive of Palestinian rights, at the United Nations.
<p />
<p />It has not voted in favor of one such resolution. And on each occasion the Resolution in question passed with an overwhelming level of international support. In addition, the Trudeau government was refusing, up until very recently, to criticize Israel's adoption of a settlement regulation law. Which effectively purports to legalize its settlements, that are a clear violation of international law.
<p />
<p />And only when forced, did it issue a statement, very quietly, in which the government of Canada said that this law, which is really an affront to the Palestinian people's human rights, and to the will of the international community, was unhelpful. That's all that the Trudeau government could bring itself to say, that it was unhelpful.
<p />
<p />You know, you couldn't really imagine a more dramatic contrast between public opinion on this issue, and government policy. Justin Trudeau has talked repeatedly about having social license to pursue his agenda, and how important it is to have social license.
<p />
<p />Well, when it comes to electoral reform, and when it comes to Palestinian rights, just two issues of others we could talk about, he has no social license whatsoever, to pursue his agenda, and that doesn't seem to be deterring him at all.
<p />
<p />KIM BROWN: So, why is Trudeau ignoring popular opinion on this issue too? And what does he have to gain from this unwavering support for Israel?
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Well, I think he's ignoring it because he can. You know, we have, one problem that we have, is an electoral system that really doesn't allow the populaces will to be reflected in the distribution of votes in Parliament. So, the two issues are kind of linked. We need to have an electoral system which better reflects the popular will, if we want to see government policy better reflect the popular will.
<p />
<p />The other is, we have a media in this country that aren't telling people just how bad our government's policies are, with respect to such things, as climate change, or Palestinian rights. The corporate media do a terrible job of reporting on that. There's been almost no coverage at all of Canada's voting record under the Trudeau government at the United Nations.
<p />
<p />And, you know, in terms of what he stands to gain from it, well, frankly I think that's a question that's impossible to answer. There really is no apparent benefit to the government of Canada, to any political party, given these poll numbers, of pursuing this agenda, particularly with respect to Palestinian rights.
<p />
<p />In fact, one would think, looking at the poll numbers, that parties would be of the view that they stand to gain voter support, by being more vigorous in their defense of Palestinian rights. What is driving Justin Trudeau to pursue this extraordinarily pro-Netanyahu agenda? You know, that's... I can't read the man's mind, perhaps it's some level of Christian Zionism, perhaps it's a paralyzing fear of being stigmatized as an anti-Semite by the Zionist Lobby, I don't know.
<p />
<p />All I know, is that it's utterly irrational. It's not in the self-interest of any party to be so deferential to the Israeli government, and it certainly isn't the right thing to do.
<p />
<p />KIM BROWN: Well, another related issue is, that boycotts of Israel for its human rights violations is increasingly being portrayed as anti-Semitic, including with Canada's Parliament. Last year the Parliament voted to condemn individuals and groups that supported boycotts of Israel.
<p />
<p />So, what does popular opinion say about this, Dimitri?
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Well, remarkably, you know, given that the vast majority of the Members of Parliament, all of whom were Liberals and Conservatives, voted in favor of that motion. A majority of Canadians actually opposed that motion. 53% said they are against it, 21% said they are neither for it, nor against it, and only 26% said they supported it. 55% of the supporters of Justin Trudeau's own party said they opposed the motion, and only 20% said that they supported it.
<p />
<p />It remarkably, even 1/3 of Conservative Party supporters, opposed this motion, and only 46%, less than a majority, support the anti-BDS motion, despite the fact the Conservative Party leadership is about as pro-Israel a leadership as you can find in the Western world. The predecessor government, under Conservative Steven Harper, was widely regarded as the most pro-Israel state in the world during his 10 years in office.
<p />
<p />And yet, even the supporters of his own party, 1/3 of them are opposed to the anti-BDS motion. And this really, I think, you couldn't demonstrate more dramatically what a disconnect there is. At least with respect to the issue of Palestinian rights between Canadian public opinion, and the views of the political elites in this country. And by that I mean the leadership of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party.
<p />
<p />KIM BROWN: Indeed. Well, we've been joined today with Dimitri Lascaris. He is a lawyer, journalist and activist. He's also a Board Member here at The Real News. Dimitri, we appreciate your reporting today, thank you.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Thank you, Kim.
<p />
<p />KIM BROWN: And thank you for watching The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />
<p />-------------------------
<p />END | Breaking Campaign Promise, Trudeau Abandons Move to Democratize Electoral System | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/story%3A18557%3ABreaking-Campaign-Promise%252C-Trudeau-Abandons-Move-to-Democratize-Electoral-System | 2017-03-02 | 4left
| 2,524 | Dimitri Lascaris is a lawyer journalist and activist After working in the New York and Paris offices of a major Wall Street law firm Dimitri became a class action lawyer in Canada His practice focused on shareholder rights environmental wrongs and human rights In 2012 Canadian Lawyer Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential lawyers in Canada and in 2013 Canadian Business Magazine named him one of the 50 most influential persons in Canadian business Dimitri ran for the Green Party in Canada65533s 2015 federal election and has served as the Justice Critic in the Green Party of Canada shadow cabinet KIM BROWN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Kim Brown in Baltimore The government of Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been portrayed as being quite popular in Canada However recent policy decisions and polls suggest that the government is perhaps more out of touch with popular sentiment that is usually portrayed in the media For example last week Trudeau announced that he will not pursue a reform of Canadas electoral system something that he had promised repeatedly prior to becoming Prime Minister Also a new Ekos poll that is about to be released shows that Canadians are far more supportive of Palestinians than Trudeau is himself And joining us to discuss Trudeaus defiance of popular sentiment in Canada is Dimitri Lascaris Dimitri is a lawyer journalist and activist Hes also a Board Member here at The Real News Dimitri thank you so much for being here DIMITRI LASCARIS Thanks for having me Kim KIM BROWN So first lets begin with the electoral system change that Trudeau promised but is now no longer pursuing So what was this change about and why did he decide to abandon the effort DIMITRI LASCARIS In Canada we have a system called First Past the Post which means essentially a winnertakeall system So in an electoral district which we call ridings here if you have for example four or five candidates the candidate who garners the most votes even if its much less than the majority of the votes becomes the representative of the riding the MP And all the other votes basically get wasted They dont have any impact on the composition of our parliament So there was a lot of pressure for this system to be changed because so many votes were not effectively being taken into account in the distribution of seats in the parliament And the system that best accomplishes that is Proportional Representation Now sensing that there was this strong public sentiment for this change to a fairer electoral system in the 2015 election which brought Justin Trudeau to power he said very clearly and repeatedly that this was going to be the last election that we conducted under the First Past the Post system And he would see to it that before the next election we would have a system that Makes every vote count Those were his words and to this day you can see that promise in the Liberal Party electoral platform However after spending millions of dollars what he did was he came to power he put together a committee to study what kind of system should be put in place to replace the old system The experts millions of dollars were spent months of work was put into it numerous experts were consulted on electoral reform Overwhelmingly their testimony was that Proportional Representation which is used widely across the world including in many western democracies that that was the best system the fairer system He heard from 100s of thousands of Canadian on this issue Approximately 70 of them said that they wanted proportional representation and then in the last second he just basically ditched the whole thing And all of that time money expertise and input from Canadians was wasted I think the reason quite simply why he did it the real reason is because no party stands to lose more in a Proportional Representation system than the Liberal Party Effectively what would happen is that seats would get redistributed from the Liberal Party to smaller parties like the Green Party and the NDP And the Liberal Party would no longer be able to command a majority which it currently has with less than 40 of the popular vote a system that has prevailed over and over again in Canadian elections That was I think the real reason What he told people was that there wasnt a consensus You know in other words that there wasnt complete agreement across the country on a new system Well since when do we set the bar that high for adopting a program of legislative reform whatever the subject of that reform may be Why does there have to be complete agreement Isnt it enough that 70 of the Canadians who gave their input said that they wanted a system of Proportional Representation So frankly and oh he articulated some other excuses but none of them really hold water Like he expressed a fear of an extremist party having power But you look at whats happening to the Conservative Party now one of their candidates is Kelly Leitch another one is a fellow by the name of Kevin OLeary a Canadian who appears on reality TV in the United States each of whom could easily be characterized and fairly be characterized as extreme right wing in their politics They could quite easily become the leader of the Conservative Party And under the First Past the Post system that party could acquire a majority government with much less than a majority vote even with substantially less than 40 of the vote So in fact its the current system which creates a risk of an extremist coming to power a heightened risk not a system of Proportional Representation KIM BROWN So apparently the New Democratic Party the NDP and the Greens are insisting that a referendum be held on changing the electoral system So what are they proposing to do in this referendum exactly DIMITRI LASCARIS Well I think that they first of all people would You could approach this referendum in any number of ways You could simply ask people do they want to change the electoral system yes or no You could ask people you could give people a series of options You could say do you want a First Past the Post option two do you want a Proportional Representation option three do you want another system for example one that is known as Ranked Ballot And you could allow them to choose from a menu of options Theres a number of ways in which you could approach the referendum Another way to do it is to adopt a system provisionally for one election and give the country the experience of operating under that new system And then conduct a referendum on whether they liked that system And I believe that this was tried in other jurisdictions it may have been New Zealand So you know there are a lot of ways you could slice and dice a referendum The advantage of it of course is you get direct input from the populace about what they want to do with the electoral system But Justin Trudeau wants nothing to do with a referendum He says that hes concerned that its going to be divisive and that at this time you know we dont need to have a divisive debate about this But in fact what he has done which is to completely abandon the promise that he clearly made in the election to make this the last election under First Past the Post is itself divisive And its created a great deal of antipathy and a lot of people feel betrayed because they voted for the Liberal Party precisely for that reason They thought that this was going to get them a new and fairer electoral system KIM BROWN So the other issue that I mentioned in the introduction is the new Ekos poll that shows that Canadians believe that sanctioning Israel for human rights violations is reasonable However Trudeau has repeatedly declared unwavering and unconditional support for Israel So first what can you tell us about the polls findings DIMITRI LASCARIS Well the poll was conducted by Ekos Research Associates its results have been published in two parts the first part I discussed it on The Real News a couple of weeks ago Its principle finding was that far more Canadians view the Israeli government negatively than view it positively And the vast majority a nexus of 90 said that they do not believe that criticizing Israeli government policy is necessarily antiSemitic Its often claimed in this country that criticizing Israel is antiSemitic and clearly thats not a view shared by Canadian people The second part looked at the question of how the government should deal with Israels persistent decades long human rights abuses and asked people first of all if they thought that sanctioning the government sanctioning Israel was a reasonable measure to ensure its compliance with international law 66 of Canadians said yes Remarkably 75 of the supporters of Justin Trudeaus own party also said yes We also asked Canadians what they think about the boycott movement the Palestinian call for a boycott and whether that was a reasonable measure to ensure compliance with international law The numbers there were even more striking 78 of Canadians said they thought it was a reasonable measure and 88 of the supporters of Justin Trudeaus own party said that they thought that that would be reasonable Now Justin Trudeau is radically at odds with not only Canadian opinion but with the opinion of the people who support his own Party In the time that he has been in power which is less than 18 months his government has voted against something in excess of 20 Resolutions that were either critical of the Israeli government or supportive of Palestinian rights at the United Nations It has not voted in favor of one such resolution And on each occasion the Resolution in question passed with an overwhelming level of international support In addition the Trudeau government was refusing up until very recently to criticize Israels adoption of a settlement regulation law Which effectively purports to legalize its settlements that are a clear violation of international law And only when forced did it issue a statement very quietly in which the government of Canada said that this law which is really an affront to the Palestinian peoples human rights and to the will of the international community was unhelpful Thats all that the Trudeau government could bring itself to say that it was unhelpful You know you couldnt really imagine a more dramatic contrast between public opinion on this issue and government policy Justin Trudeau has talked repeatedly about having social license to pursue his agenda and how important it is to have social license Well when it comes to electoral reform and when it comes to Palestinian rights just two issues of others we could talk about he has no social license whatsoever to pursue his agenda and that doesnt seem to be deterring him at all KIM BROWN So why is Trudeau ignoring popular opinion on this issue too And what does he have to gain from this unwavering support for Israel DIMITRI LASCARIS Well I think hes ignoring it because he can You know we have one problem that we have is an electoral system that really doesnt allow the populaces will to be reflected in the distribution of votes in Parliament So the two issues are kind of linked We need to have an electoral system which better reflects the popular will if we want to see government policy better reflect the popular will The other is we have a media in this country that arent telling people just how bad our governments policies are with respect to such things as climate change or Palestinian rights The corporate media do a terrible job of reporting on that Theres been almost no coverage at all of Canadas voting record under the Trudeau government at the United Nations And you know in terms of what he stands to gain from it well frankly I think thats a question thats impossible to answer There really is no apparent benefit to the government of Canada to any political party given these poll numbers of pursuing this agenda particularly with respect to Palestinian rights In fact one would think looking at the poll numbers that parties would be of the view that they stand to gain voter support by being more vigorous in their defense of Palestinian rights What is driving Justin Trudeau to pursue this extraordinarily proNetanyahu agenda You know thats I cant read the mans mind perhaps its some level of Christian Zionism perhaps its a paralyzing fear of being stigmatized as an antiSemite by the Zionist Lobby I dont know All I know is that its utterly irrational Its not in the selfinterest of any party to be so deferential to the Israeli government and it certainly isnt the right thing to do KIM BROWN Well another related issue is that boycotts of Israel for its human rights violations is increasingly being portrayed as antiSemitic including with Canadas Parliament Last year the Parliament voted to condemn individuals and groups that supported boycotts of Israel So what does popular opinion say about this Dimitri DIMITRI LASCARIS Well remarkably you know given that the vast majority of the Members of Parliament all of whom were Liberals and Conservatives voted in favor of that motion A majority of Canadians actually opposed that motion 53 said they are against it 21 said they are neither for it nor against it and only 26 said they supported it 55 of the supporters of Justin Trudeaus own party said they opposed the motion and only 20 said that they supported it It remarkably even 13 of Conservative Party supporters opposed this motion and only 46 less than a majority support the antiBDS motion despite the fact the Conservative Party leadership is about as proIsrael a leadership as you can find in the Western world The predecessor government under Conservative Steven Harper was widely regarded as the most proIsrael state in the world during his 10 years in office And yet even the supporters of his own party 13 of them are opposed to the antiBDS motion And this really I think you couldnt demonstrate more dramatically what a disconnect there is At least with respect to the issue of Palestinian rights between Canadian public opinion and the views of the political elites in this country And by that I mean the leadership of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party KIM BROWN Indeed Well weve been joined today with Dimitri Lascaris He is a lawyer journalist and activist Hes also a Board Member here at The Real News Dimitri we appreciate your reporting today thank you DIMITRI LASCARIS Thank you Kim KIM BROWN And thank you for watching The Real News Network END | Dimitri/PROPN Lascaris/PROPN is/AUX a/DET lawyer/NOUN journalist/NOUN and/CCONJ activist/NOUN After/ADP working/VERB in/ADP the/DET New/PROPN York/PROPN and/CCONJ Paris/PROPN offices/NOUN of/ADP a/DET major/ADJ Wall/PROPN Street/PROPN law/NOUN firm/NOUN Dimitri/PROPN became/VERB a/DET class/NOUN action/NOUN lawyer/NOUN in/ADP Canada/PROPN His/PRON practice/NOUN focused/VERB on/ADP shareholder/NOUN rights/NOUN environmental/ADJ wrongs/NOUN and/CCONJ human/ADJ rights/NOUN In/ADP 2012/NUM Canadian/PROPN 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said/VERB that/SCONJ they/PRON supported/VERB it/PRON It/PRON remarkably/ADV even/ADV 13/NUM of/ADP Conservative/PROPN Party/PROPN supporters/NOUN opposed/VERB this/DET motion/NOUN and/CCONJ only/ADV 46/NUM less/ADJ than/ADP a/DET majority/NOUN support/VERB the/DET antiBDS/ADJ motion/NOUN despite/SCONJ the/DET fact/NOUN the/DET Conservative/PROPN Party/PROPN leadership/NOUN is/AUX about/ADP as/ADP proIsrael/PROPN a/DET leadership/NOUN as/SCONJ you/PRON can/AUX find/VERB in/ADP the/DET Western/ADJ world/NOUN The/DET predecessor/NOUN government/NOUN under/ADP Conservative/PROPN Steven/PROPN Harper/PROPN was/AUX widely/ADV regarded/VERB as/ADP the/DET most/ADV proIsrael/PROPN state/NOUN in/ADP the/DET world/NOUN during/ADP his/PRON 10/NUM years/NOUN in/ADP office/NOUN And/CCONJ yet/ADV even/ADV the/DET supporters/NOUN of/ADP his/PRON own/ADJ party/NOUN 13/NUM of/ADP them/PRON are/AUX opposed/VERB to/ADP the/DET antiBDS/ADJ motion/NOUN And/CCONJ this/PRON really/ADV I/PRON think/VERB you/PRON could/AUX nt/PART demonstrate/VERB more/ADV dramatically/ADV what/PRON a/DET disconnect/NOUN there/PRON is/VERB At/ADP least/ADJ with/ADP respect/NOUN to/ADP the/DET issue/NOUN of/ADP Palestinian/ADJ rights/NOUN between/ADP Canadian/ADJ public/ADJ opinion/NOUN and/CCONJ the/DET views/NOUN of/ADP the/DET political/ADJ elites/NOUN in/ADP this/DET country/NOUN And/CCONJ by/ADP that/PRON I/PRON mean/VERB the/DET leadership/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Conservative/PROPN Party/PROPN and/CCONJ the/DET Liberal/PROPN Party/PROPN KIM/PROPN BROWN/PROPN Indeed/ADV Well/INTJ we/PRON ve/AUX been/AUX joined/VERB today/NOUN with/ADP Dimitri/PROPN Lascaris/PROPN He/PRON is/AUX a/DET lawyer/NOUN journalist/NOUN and/CCONJ activist/NOUN He/PRON s/VERB also/ADV a/DET Board/PROPN Member/PROPN here/ADV at/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN Dimitri/PROPN we/PRON appreciate/VERB your/PRON reporting/NOUN today/NOUN thank/VERB you/PRON DIMITRI/NOUN LASCARIS/PROPN Thank/VERB you/PRON Kim/PROPN KIM/PROPN BROWN/PROPN And/CCONJ thank/VERB you/PRON for/ADP watching/VERB The/DET Real/PROPN News/PROPN Network/PROPN END/PROPN |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) -</p>
<p>* General Dynamics Corp is expected to show a rise in quarterly revenue when it reports results on January 24.</p>
<p>* The Falls Church, Virginia-based company is expected to report a 2.1 percent increase in revenue to $8.40 billion from $8.23 billion a year ago, according to the mean estimate of 15 analysts, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>* The analyst mean estimate for General Dynamics Corp is for earnings of $2.38 per share. For the same quarter last year, the company reported earnings of $2.62 per share.</p>
<p>* The current average analyst rating on the shares is “buy” and the breakdown of recommendations is 15 “strong buy” or “buy,” 4 “hold” and 2 “sell” or “strong sell.”</p>
<p>* The Starmine predicted earnings surprise, the difference between Wall Street’s mean estimate and Starmine’s estimate of its highest rated analysts, is positive for General Dynamics at 0.52 percent; predicted revenue surprise is negative at 0.27 percent.</p>
<p>* The mean earnings estimate of analysts was unchanged in the last three months.</p>
<p>* The earnings announcement is scheduled for January 24 at 01:30 p.m. GMT.</p>
<p>* General Dynamics Corp belongs to the S&amp;P 500. This summary was generated 01:30 p.m. GMT.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday, reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody’s Investors Service, federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production.</p>
<p>Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 7.7 percent at $257.78. On Tuesday, Tesla tumbled 8.2 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, a second federal regulator, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), said it was sending a team to California to investigate the crash.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-stock-options/extreme-bearish-options-on-tesla-making-money-as-stock-dives-idUSKBN1H434B" type="external">Extreme bearish options on Tesla making money as stock dives</a>
<a href="/article/us-tesla-crash/u-s-auto-safety-agency-to-probe-fatal-tesla-california-crash-idUSKBN1H42X1" type="external">U.S. auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla California crash</a>
<p>Late on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2, citing “the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle.” It also noted “liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds.”</p>
<p>Tesla has $230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019.</p>
<p>Moody’s said its negative outlook “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>It said Tesla’s weekly production target is now 2,500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March, down sharply from its year-earlier target of 5,000 per week by the end of 2017. Tesla’s weekly target for the end of June is 5,000.</p>
<p>Tesla declined to comment on the downgrade. The company plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week.</p>
<p>Tesla shares have experienced big swings in the past, as worries about losses have vied with enthusiasm for Chief Executive Elon Musk’s ambitious plans.</p>
<p>The sell-off has left Tesla’s stock market value at $44 billion, below General Motors Co’s $49 billion. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla has at times had a larger market value than GM, the largest U.S. automaker by vehicle sales.</p> A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton, just outside London, Britain, February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
<p>Since the end of February, the median analyst price target for Tesla has dipped by $10 to $356, about 37 percent higher than Wednesday’s price, according to Thomson Reuters data. Nomura Securities analyst Romit Shah has the highest Tesla price target, $500, or nearly double the current price. All the targets were set before the March 23 crash.</p>
<p>In last week’s accident in which the Tesla struck a highway median, it was unclear if the vehicle’s automated control system called Autopilot was driving, the NTSB and police said.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old driver of the Tesla died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, Tesla said in a blog post it does “not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash,” but added that data shows Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged “roughly 85,000 times ... and there has never been an accident that we know of.” The statement did not say if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Alexandria Sage and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fund managers have begun to ditch so-called FANG stocks that powered the U.S. stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodity-related shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in late-cycle recoveries.</p>
<p>Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Netflix Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>), and Google-parent Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent year-to-date will spill over into all of the FANG stocks, imperiling the broad market’s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other mega-cap technology stocks tumbled 6.3 percent, the biggest decline since September 2014.</p>
<p>Facebook rose as much as 1.5 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red, one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress. Amazon.com dropped 4 percent, while Netflix fell 5 percent. Google-parent Alphabet was slightly positive.</p>
<p>“There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies, and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation” that will likely eat into their profit margins, said Michael Cuggino, a portfolio manager of the $17-billion Permanent Portfolio funds.</p>
<p>Cuggino, who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook, said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth.</p>
<p>Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year, helping power the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> to a nearly 20-percent gain. Yet those gains have left the broad S&amp;P 500 trading at a high trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 21.7, leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republican-led corporate tax cut at the end of 2017.</p>
<p>“Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 2018,” said Douglas Kass, president of Seabreeze Capital Management.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is now down 2.2 percent for the year, and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 2872.87 it reached on Jan. 26.</p> Slideshow (2 Images) UNFRIENDED
<p>Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies.</p>
<p>Connor Browne, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazon.com last year after both companies blew through his price targets. He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EPD.N" type="external">EPD.N</a>) and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OSG.N" type="external">OSG.N</a>) that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil.</p>
<p>“We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world, there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities,” he said.</p>
<p>Even after the selloff, FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market. Netflix trades at a P/E of 210 and Amazon.com trades at a P/E of 327. Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet, both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns, now trade at valuations near 52-week lows.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.271 FB.O Nasdaq +6.24 (+4.08%) FB.O AMZN.O NFLX.O GOOGL.O .SPX
<p>The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past. Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011, contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016. Since then, the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloud-based services.</p>
<p>Margaret Patel, a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds, said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RTN.N" type="external">RTN.N</a>) that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the U.S. and overseas. At the same time, she is increasing her exposure of non-FANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ADBE.O" type="external">ADBE.O</a>) and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent sell-off in the sector.</p>
<p>“It’s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) shares fell almost 5 percent on Wednesday, wiping more than $30 billion off its market value, after news website Axios reported that U.S. President Donald Trump is obsessed with the world’s largest online retailer and wants to rein in its growing power.</p> The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
<p>Trump has talked about using antitrust law to “go after” the company because he is worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business by Amazon, Axios reported, citing five sources it said had discussed the issue with him.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-amazon-com-trump/no-u-s-policy-changes-on-amazon-at-the-moment-white-house-official-idUSKBN1H42IY" type="external">No U.S. policy changes on Amazon at the moment: White House official</a>
<p>Trump also wants to change Amazon’s tax treatment, the Axios report said, an issue the president raised publicly last year when he called for an internet tax for online retailers, even though Amazon already collects sales tax on items it sells direct to customers.</p>
<p>“The president has said many times before he’s always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this is no different,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, when asked about the Axios report. “He’s always going to look at different ways, but there aren’t any specific policies on the table at this time.”</p>
<p>Trump has been complaining about Amazon in private, believing the company has become too powerful, another administration official confirmed to Reuters.</p>
<p>The official said Trump links this to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos’ private ownership of the Washington Post, which he has called “fake news” for its critical coverage of his administration. Trump regards the newspaper as a mouthpiece for Bezos’ business interests, calling it #AmazonWashingtonPost on Twitter.</p> The logo of the web service Amazon is pictured in this June 8, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/Illustration
<p>Amazon did not reply to a request for comment on the Axios report.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">Amazon.com Inc</a> 1419.8 AMZN.O Nasdaq -11.62 (-0.81%) AMZN.O FB.O FAVORITE TARGET
<p>Trump has criticized Amazon over taxes and jobs in the past, without offering evidence. The president urging the use of antitrust law to selectively thwart a company would be unprecedented, according to Jeffrey Jacobovitz of the law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.</p>
<p>Amazon’s stock, which fell as low as $1,386.17 on Wednesday, was last down 4.6 percent at $1,427.83. The shares have nearly quadrupled over the last three years.</p>
<p>Tech stocks have been under pressure after Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) acknowledged this month that user data had been improperly harvested by a consultancy.</p>
<p>“With Facebook and regulatory worries, the last thing nervous tech investors wanted to see was news that Trump is targeting Bezos and Amazon over the coming months as this remains a lingering cloud over the stock and heightens the risk profile in the eyes of the Street,” GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Diane Bartz and Amanda Becker in Washington; Sinead Carew in New York; writing by Chris Sanders; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(This version of the March 27 story corrects to “Minneapolis” from “Helena, Montana” in paragraph 3)</p>
<p>By Sruthi Shankar and Sweta Singh</p>
<p>(Reuters) - The S&amp;P 500 and the Dow rose on Tuesday, led by gains in industrial and consumer staple shares, while weakness in technology stocks dragged down the Nasdaq.</p>
<p>Stocks have been volatile in the session after the main U.S. indexes notched their best day in 2-1/2 years on Monday on waning concerns of a trade war between the United States and China.</p>
<p>“Right now, the biggest driver in the market seems to be around the trade news and it is looking more like some of these tariff discussions are negotiations rather than strong protectionist measures,” said Lisa Erickson, head of traditional investments at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>“But there’s going to be continued volatility in the short term and a lot of it will depend on how the fundamental news flow comes out.”</p>
<p>U.S. stocks suffered their worst declines of the year last week after President Donald Trump moved to impose tariffs on Chinese imports of up to $60 billion.</p>
<p>But the sentiment has improved after reports that the countries were willing to renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances.</p>
<p>At 13:00 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> was up 0.67 percent at 24,365.61 and the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> rose 0.29 percent to 2,666.16.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> fell 0.33 percent at 7,196.70.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) dropped 2.3 percent as it continued to be weighed down by data privacy issues. The company faces an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to explain how it allowed data of 50 million users get into the hands of a political consultancy.</p>
<p>“Tech and FANG are still trying to figure out what the way forward is, and the market is dealing with the aftermath of a massive rally. It’s hard to maintain that kind of momentum,” said Michael Antonelli, managing director, institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.</p>
<p>Another weak spot in the tech space was Nvidia ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NVDA.O" type="external">NVDA.O</a>), which fell 2.8 percent after the company temporarily suspended self-driving tests across the globe.</p>
<p>Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) shares dropped nearly 4 percent after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board opened a field investigation of a fatal Tesla crash and major vehicle fire near Mountain View, California, last week.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">Dow Jones &amp; Company Inc</a> 24113.73 .DJI Dow Jones Indexes +265.31 (+1.11%) .DJI .SPX .IXIC FB.O NVDA.O
<p>Twitter ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWTR.N" type="external">TWTR.N</a>) fell more than 7 percent after short-seller Citron Research said it was short on the stock, adding that the company was “most vulnerable” to privacy regulations.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 1.38-to-1 ratio and for a 1.20-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | General Dynamics Corp expected to post earnings of $2.38 a share - summary Tesla shares dive again, stung by fatal crash, credit downgrade FANG stocks' bite has U.S. fund managers looking for alternatives Amazon shares fall after report Trump wants to curb its power Wall Street wavers after strong rally, tech stocks struggle | false | https://reuters.com/article/general-dynamics-results-preview/general-dynamics-corpexpected-to-postearnings-of-238-a-share-summary-idUSL8N1PH4B0 | 2018-01-22 | 2least
| 2,524 | Jan 22 Reuters General Dynamics Corp is expected to show a rise in quarterly revenue when it reports results on January 24 The Falls Church Virginiabased company is expected to report a 21 percent increase in revenue to 840 billion from 823 billion a year ago according to the mean estimate of 15 analysts according to Thomson Reuters data The analyst mean estimate for General Dynamics Corp is for earnings of 238 per share For the same quarter last year the company reported earnings of 262 per share The current average analyst rating on the shares is 8220buy8221 and the breakdown of recommendations is 15 8220strong buy8221 or 8220buy8221 4 8220hold8221 and 2 8220sell8221 or 8220strong sell8221 The Starmine predicted earnings surprise the difference between Wall Street8217s mean estimate and Starmine8217s estimate of its highest rated analysts is positive for General Dynamics at 052 percent predicted revenue surprise is negative at 027 percent The mean earnings estimate of analysts was unchanged in the last three months The earnings announcement is scheduled for January 24 at 0130 pm GMT General Dynamics Corp belongs to the SampampP 500 This summary was generated 0130 pm GMT Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody8217s Investors Service federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 77 percent at 25778 On Tuesday Tesla tumbled 82 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the US National Transportation Safety Board NTSB opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23 On Wednesday a second federal regulator the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration NHTSA said it was sending a team to California to investigate the crash Related Coverage Extreme bearish options on Tesla making money as stock dives US auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla California crash Late on Tuesday Moody8217s Investors Service downgraded Tesla8217s credit rating to B3 from B2 citing 8220the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company8217s Model 3 electric vehicle8221 It also noted 8220liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds8221 Tesla has 230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and 920 million in March 2019 Moody8217s said its negative outlook 8220reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large nearterm capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall8221 It said Tesla8217s weekly production target is now 2500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March down sharply from its yearearlier target of 5000 per week by the end of 2017 Tesla8217s weekly target for the end of June is 5000 Tesla declined to comment on the downgrade The company plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week Tesla shares have experienced big swings in the past as worries about losses have vied with enthusiasm for Chief Executive Elon Musk8217s ambitious plans The selloff has left Tesla8217s stock market value at 44 billion below General Motors Co8217s 49 billion Palo Alto Californiabased Tesla has at times had a larger market value than GM the largest US automaker by vehicle sales A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton just outside London Britain February 7 2018 REUTERSHannah McKay Since the end of February the median analyst price target for Tesla has dipped by 10 to 356 about 37 percent higher than Wednesday8217s price according to Thomson Reuters data Nomura Securities analyst Romit Shah has the highest Tesla price target 500 or nearly double the current price All the targets were set before the March 23 crash In last week8217s accident in which the Tesla struck a highway median it was unclear if the vehicle8217s automated control system called Autopilot was driving the NTSB and police said The 38yearold driver of the Tesla died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash Late Tuesday Tesla said in a blog post it does 8220not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash8221 but added that data shows Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged 8220roughly 85000 times and there has never been an accident that we know of8221 The statement did not say if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Alexandria Sage and Noel Randewich in San Francisco Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Fund managers have begun to ditch socalled FANG stocks that powered the US stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodityrelated shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in latecycle recoveries Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc FBO Amazoncom Inc AMZNO Netflix Inc NFLXO and Googleparent Alphabet Inc GOOGLO say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent yeartodate will spill over into all of the FANG stocks imperiling the broad market8217s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place On Tuesday an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other megacap technology stocks tumbled 63 percent the biggest decline since September 2014 Facebook rose as much as 15 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress Amazoncom dropped 4 percent while Netflix fell 5 percent Googleparent Alphabet was slightly positive 8220There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation8221 that will likely eat into their profit margins said Michael Cuggino a portfolio manager of the 17billion Permanent Portfolio funds Cuggino who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year helping power the SampampP 500 SPX to a nearly 20percent gain Yet those gains have left the broad SampampP 500 trading at a high trailing pricetoearnings ratio of 217 leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republicanled corporate tax cut at the end of 2017 8220Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 20188221 said Douglas Kass president of Seabreeze Capital Management The SampampP 500 is now down 22 percent for the year and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 287287 it reached on Jan 26 Slideshow 2 Images UNFRIENDED Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies Connor Browne a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazoncom last year after both companies blew through his price targets He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP EPDN and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc OSGN that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil 8220We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities8221 he said Even after the selloff FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market Netflix trades at a PE of 210 and Amazoncom trades at a PE of 327 Facebook and Googleparent Alphabet both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns now trade at valuations near 52week lows Facebook Inc 159271 FBO Nasdaq 624 408 FBO AMZNO NFLXO GOOGLO SPX The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past Microsoft Corp MSFTO reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011 contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016 Since then the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloudbased services Margaret Patel a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co RTNN that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the US and overseas At the same time she is increasing her exposure of nonFANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ADBEO and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent selloff in the sector 8220It8217s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector8221 she said Reporting by David Randall Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles WASHINGTON Reuters Amazoncom Inc AMZNO shares fell almost 5 percent on Wednesday wiping more than 30 billion off its market value after news website Axios reported that US President Donald Trump is obsessed with the world8217s largest online retailer and wants to rein in its growing power The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in LauwinPlanque northern France February 20 2017 REUTERSPascal Rossignol Trump has talked about using antitrust law to 8220go after8221 the company because he is worried about momandpop retailers being put out of business by Amazon Axios reported citing five sources it said had discussed the issue with him Related Coverage No US policy changes on Amazon at the moment White House official Trump also wants to change Amazon8217s tax treatment the Axios report said an issue the president raised publicly last year when he called for an internet tax for online retailers even though Amazon already collects sales tax on items it sells direct to customers 8220The president has said many times before he8217s always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this is no different8221 said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders when asked about the Axios report 8220He8217s always going to look at different ways but there aren8217t any specific policies on the table at this time8221 Trump has been complaining about Amazon in private believing the company has become too powerful another administration official confirmed to Reuters The official said Trump links this to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos8217 private ownership of the Washington Post which he has called 8220fake news8221 for its critical coverage of his administration Trump regards the newspaper as a mouthpiece for Bezos8217 business interests calling it AmazonWashingtonPost on Twitter The logo of the web service Amazon is pictured in this June 8 2017 illustration photo REUTERSCarlos JassoIllustration Amazon did not reply to a request for comment on the Axios report Amazoncom Inc 14198 AMZNO Nasdaq 1162 081 AMZNO FBO FAVORITE TARGET Trump has criticized Amazon over taxes and jobs in the past without offering evidence The president urging the use of antitrust law to selectively thwart a company would be unprecedented according to Jeffrey Jacobovitz of the law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP Amazon8217s stock which fell as low as 138617 on Wednesday was last down 46 percent at 142783 The shares have nearly quadrupled over the last three years Tech stocks have been under pressure after Facebook Inc FBO acknowledged this month that user data had been improperly harvested by a consultancy 8220With Facebook and regulatory worries the last thing nervous tech investors wanted to see was news that Trump is targeting Bezos and Amazon over the coming months as this remains a lingering cloud over the stock and heightens the risk profile in the eyes of the Street8221 GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives said Additional reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru Diane Bartz and Amanda Becker in Washington Sinead Carew in New York writing by Chris Sanders editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles This version of the March 27 story corrects to 8220Minneapolis8221 from 8220Helena Montana8221 in paragraph 3 By Sruthi Shankar and Sweta Singh Reuters The SampampP 500 and the Dow rose on Tuesday led by gains in industrial and consumer staple shares while weakness in technology stocks dragged down the Nasdaq Stocks have been volatile in the session after the main US indexes notched their best day in 212 years on Monday on waning concerns of a trade war between the United States and China 8220Right now the biggest driver in the market seems to be around the trade news and it is looking more like some of these tariff discussions are negotiations rather than strong protectionist measures8221 said Lisa Erickson head of traditional investments at US Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis 8220But there8217s going to be continued volatility in the short term and a lot of it will depend on how the fundamental news flow comes out8221 US stocks suffered their worst declines of the year last week after President Donald Trump moved to impose tariffs on Chinese imports of up to 60 billion But the sentiment has improved after reports that the countries were willing to renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances At 1300 pm ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI was up 067 percent at 2436561 and the SampampP 500 SPX rose 029 percent to 266616 The Nasdaq Composite IXIC fell 033 percent at 719670 Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York US March 26 2018 REUTERSBrendan McDermid Facebook FBO dropped 23 percent as it continued to be weighed down by data privacy issues The company faces an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission to explain how it allowed data of 50 million users get into the hands of a political consultancy 8220Tech and FANG are still trying to figure out what the way forward is and the market is dealing with the aftermath of a massive rally It8217s hard to maintain that kind of momentum8221 said Michael Antonelli managing director institutional sales trading at Robert W Baird in Milwaukee Another weak spot in the tech space was Nvidia NVDAO which fell 28 percent after the company temporarily suspended selfdriving tests across the globe Tesla TSLAO shares dropped nearly 4 percent after the US National Transportation Safety Board opened a field investigation of a fatal Tesla crash and major vehicle fire near Mountain View California last week Dow Jones ampamp Company Inc 2411373 DJI Dow Jones Indexes 26531 111 DJI SPX IXIC FBO NVDAO Twitter TWTRN fell more than 7 percent after shortseller Citron Research said it was short on the stock adding that the company was 8220most vulnerable8221 to privacy regulations Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 138to1 ratio and for a 120to1 ratio on the Nasdaq Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Sweta Singh in Bengaluru Editing by Anil DSilva Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Jan/PROPN 22/NUM Reuters/PROPN General/PROPN Dynamics/PROPN Corp/PROPN is/AUX expected/VERB to/PART show/VERB a/DET rise/NOUN in/ADP quarterly/ADJ revenue/NOUN when/SCONJ it/PRON reports/VERB results/NOUN on/ADP January/PROPN 24/NUM The/DET Falls/PROPN Church/PROPN Virginiabased/PROPN company/NOUN is/AUX expected/VERB to/PART report/VERB a/DET 21/NUM percent/NOUN increase/NOUN in/ADP revenue/NOUN to/ADP 840/NUM billion/NUM from/ADP 823/NUM billion/NUM a/DET year/NOUN ago/ADV according/VERB to/ADP the/DET mean/ADJ estimate/NOUN of/ADP 15/NUM analysts/NOUN 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<p>Omar S. Dahi is an associate professor of economics. He received his B.A. in economics from California State University at Long Beach, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of economic development and international trade, with a special focus on South-South economic cooperation, and on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News. I'm Paul Jay.
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<p />Israel has been accused of bombing inside of Syria. According to the Associated Press, Israel bombed a convoy, perhaps—the accusations say—carrying arms from Syria to Lebanon. But the Syrian government say that's not what happened at all. They say a defense installation near Damascus was hit. Of course, the Israeli army is saying nothing, as they usually do in such situations.
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<p />But it suggests a broader question facing Israel: what is their attitude towards Syria? They're concerned about arms going to Hezbollah in Lebanon, in which case they would like to weaken the Syrian government of Assad. On the other hand, they're perhaps even more concerned about the fall of Assad and what comes next.
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<p />Now joining us to discuss Israel's attitude towards Syria is Omar Dahi. He's an assistant professor of economics at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He's also an editor at The Middle East Report.
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<p />Thanks very much for joining us, Omar.
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<p />OMAR DAHI, ASSISTANT PROF. ECONOMICS, HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE: Thanks for having me.
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<p />JAY: So what do you make of Israel's posture? Their rhetoric still more or less is about the downfall of Assad. But do they really want that?
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<p />DAHI: I don't think so. And from the beginning of the Syrian uprising, they've actually been very measured and careful in what they said. And I believe, although it's hard to tell for sure, that there's close coordination between the U.S. and Israel on this subject, as there is on most subjects that relate to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, specifically those that might relate to Israel.
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<p />And I think over the years there are many things that the Syrian regime does that Israel doesn't like. It provides support to Hezbollah, a resistance organization that has been very effective in fighting Israel in Lebanon and resisting Israeli attacks against Lebanon. They provide support, up until very recently, they provide a base for a political bureau for Hamas inside Syria. So they provide support for oppositional groups, Palestinian oppositional groups.
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<p />At the same time, they've been very pragmatic and practical and have had a de facto peace agreement with Israel since the 1973 War, even though it's not an official peace agreement. But they have been very effective in maintaining calm over the Israeli border and essentially trying to rein in any groups that might try to destabilize this peace agreement.
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<p />And I think from the beginning of the uprising, what they had in mind seeing was Syria getting weaker, Syria being destroyed, Syria being subjected to more sanctions and under siege globally. So in many ways the status quo still very much serves Israeli interests.
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<p />The danger is that the Assad regime might actually collapse and you suddenly find the northern border of Israel, after being silent for 30&#160;years, be filled with all sorts of heterogeneous groups from the Free Syrian Army, but other groups related to al-Qaeda, that might use it as a springboard for launching attacks against Israel. And I think that's the most preoccupying concern from their perspective.
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<p />JAY: It seems to me Israel's, you know, quote-unquote "interest", if you—based on the mindset of the current leadership of Israel, at any rate, would be a civil war that never ends. As long as you keep Syria in mostly chaos, but not enough where Assad actually falls, then you can do what they're accused of doing yesterday, which is you can take out military installations you don't like, or you could bomb convoys going to Lebanon, stuff they couldn't have done prior to all the chaos. On the other hand, as you're suggesting, they don't want Assad to actually fall, because what may come next may be al-Qaeda forces or whatever kinds of forces that might be much more active against Israel. And by extension, this seems to be what the Americans want, which is a complete disaster for the Syrian people, which is a civil war that never ends. It's almost like, you know, Lebanon at its worst.
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<p />DAHI: Exactly. And over the past two years there's been a lot of weapons going from Lebanon into Syria that obviously haven't been attacked by Israel. They don't mind that, as long as it's going into Syria, that it's going to be—being used to fight inside the civil war. But weapons going from east to west into Lebanon that may be used by Hezbollah in a war perhaps with Israel, that's a problem to them.
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<p />In addition to what you just said, another goal that comes out of weakening Syria is weakening the link between Iran and Hezbollah, further isolating Iran, further sort of removing that link that strengthened Hezbollah and strengthened Iran together. And as you know, over the past several years Israel has made isolating and even bombing Iran a foreign-policy priority.
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<p />JAY: And I wonder if isolating Hezbollah isn't even a more urgent priority, in the sense that, you know, is Israel really going to get into a war with Iran? It's—one wonders. But the possibility of another war with Hezbollah is quite real.
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<p />DAHI: Absolutely. And I think they can—they've been watching this situation carefully and they can take what they can get. If they can—if they have a chance to strike at Syria, to further weaken Syrian infrastructure, particularly military infrastructure, they're likely to do so. We're not exactly sure what they hit.
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<p />But the general trend seems to be that the regime needs to be strong enough to contain the uprising. And I think you see the pressure from the U.S. and the agreement between the U.S. and Russia to come to a sort of political settlement heading in that direction. The political settlement will likely keep elements of the regime in power, specifically the army, and then include members of the opposition as part of a transitional government.
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<p />JAY: So if Russia, the United States—and you throw in the other powers, you know, Israel, but even Turkey, Qatar, the Saudis—seem to just want to keep fueling this thing, if it's in all of their interests, more or less, to let this war just keep going, is there any sense of a response from the Syrian people that this is a completely no-win situation for the Syrians?
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<p />DAHI: I think so. And over the past week you've seen two very interesting initiatives that are meant to counter this sort of endless war. The first was that there was two oppositional group summits, one that took place in Paris and one that took place in Geneva.
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<p />The one that took place in Paris was the national coalition of Syrian revolutionary forces, which is the new umbrella group that is supported by the West and which is mainly composed of Islamists and Liberal forces.
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<p />The one that took place in Geneva are the oppositional groups that are called the forces for democratic change, and they include mostly left-wing groups, and independent Kurdish groups as well, who have been more independent of Western patronage and who have been calling for dialog, or at least negotiations, with the regime. Their final goal was negotiations with the regime to achieve a political settlement.
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<p />But the interesting thing was that the head of the Syrian National Coalition came out yesterday and called for negotiations with the regime to end the bloodshed out of concern for the total destruction that's happening in the country. And he was attacked by some, but there was an overwhelming response of people who thought that now the time has finally come to enter into negotiations with the Syrian regime.
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<p />Now, of course, it's not been simply the opposition that's been rejecting negotiations. The Syrian regime has been calling for dialog, but they want dialog on their own terms that preserve the regime.
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<p />But the point is, there has to be something that breaks the stalemate. And you see for the first time real direction from the political leadership of the opposition groups towards that end.
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<p />JAY: So is there any sense of a negotiation with Assad still there? That's always been the position, that there's no talking as long as Assad's still there. But there seems to be no break on the side of the Syrian elite that they're going to hang tough with Assad. And what was the speech he made recently? I think it was at an opera house where he sort of laid out a plan for what a resolution might look like.
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<p />DAHI: Yeah. The speech, he called for a plan where there'd be a dialog or negotiations with some opposition groups that he said are not out for the destruction of the country, and that they would form a committee that would then lay a new constitution.
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<p />But I think aside from the speech that he gave, which is mostly a condemnation of the opposition and mostly, basically, a promise that Syria's going to be stronger and that the regime is winning and so forth, there are other changes that are happening in the position of Russia. So you see a change in the Russian position over the last couple of months saying that we are not committed to Assad himself, that we are not particularly wedded to the Syrian regime remaining the way it is forever.
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<p />And from the other hand, you see the U.S. stopping to blame Russia. If you noticed last year, all of the U.S. pronouncements was taking advantage of the Syrian situation to blame Russia and China for everything that's happening. That has stopped, and you've seen much more condemnation of the regime itself and increasing awareness of what the U.S. says are terrorist groups and jihadis among the Syrian opposition.
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<p />JAY: But if the obstacle to any kind of negotiation has been Assad has to go, the meeting in Geneva, did they take any different position on that? I mean, are they willing to talk to an Assad-led regime?
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<p />DAHI: What they're proposing is a transitional government with full powers (what that means remains to be seen) that removes the powers of the presidency. So they will be a transitional government. The president's powers will be stripped of him. He might remain ceremonial for a period of six months, and then there'll be fresh elections. So the idea is that he's not—he doesn't step down first, that he steps down at the end of the transitional period.
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<p />Now, of course, any of these scenarios, for them to happen there has to be a willingness by the parties fighting on the ground to accept this. Otherwise, this is all a moot point.
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<p />JAY: And to what extent are the people in Geneva representing people fighting on the ground?
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<p />DAHI: The people in Geneva don't really represent the people fighting on the ground. The people in Paris, the Syrian National Coalition of revolutionary forces claim to have the representation of the people on the ground. They can't force them to immediately drop their weapons. But in the end, the increasing tendency has been by the supporters of those rebel groups, the ones who supply them with weapons, on putting the squeeze on. Over the last period of several months, you've seen increasingly the rebel groups, the Free Syrian Army complaining that all the arms, the equipment, is basically trickling down, and they're being squeezed by their funders, many of whom are in the Gulf, to basically unify under one command that can be controlled more easily.
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<p />JAY: I'm reading that the Saudis are continuing to really fuel the jihadist forces and are not interested in any kind of negotiation or resolution, and as long as—and the jihadist forces, I understand, are not feeling very represented by the people that were in the Western-recognized coalition that they've now—that the Americans and others have recognized. So if it turns out that most of the fighting is kind of being pushed by the jihadists, it sounds like the only ones the jihadists are answering to are the Saudis.
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<p />DAHI: That's true, although I don't know and it's not clear that most of the fighting's being fueled by them. They're certainly strong enough to do a lot of damage, and they're certainly capable of fighting the Syrian regime for a long time. But if other segments of Syrian society, ones such as the Free Syrian Army groups that have not been directly controlled by the Saudis, if you can slowly isolate those groups, I think you can come to a resolution.
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<p />Expecting the violence to just end until a resolution happens is impossible in my view. We have to have the start of a political process and then try to isolate or marginalize the groups that are simply refusing entering into any negotiations.
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<p />You're absolutely right. The Saudi Arabian officials have come out in the last week and called for more armament of the rebels. And you see here a split between Qatar and Saudi Arabia on that front.
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<p />JAY: And if Assad were to agree with this, which I—so far there's no indication, but a kind of dignified way out is more or less what the Geneva proposal is. But if he was to agree with it, do the people that met in Geneva have enough popular support to be able to have this process without being called traitors and this and that?
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<p />DAHI: It's tough. It depends on how the process unfolds. I think if there's a clear change on the ground—for example, one of the conditions that the head of the Syrian National Coalition asked for was the release of over 160,000 prisoners. If those prisoners are released, that's a real, tangible sign of progress. You have tens of thousands of people in areas that don't have any humanitarian access. If the regime pulls back, stops bombing these areas, and allows humanitarian aid to enter them, that's a tangible sign of progress.
<p />
<p />I think in order for people to jump on the bandwagon of a solution, they have to see some tangible steps. And I think these small steps may restore the trust of the political oppositional leadership, may allow people to put their trust in their political oppositional leadership that will allow them to enter into serious negotiations with the regime. If [unintel.] enter negotiations without any change in the behavior of the regime, that's not going to actually be considered legitimate.
<p />
<p />JAY: Alright. Thanks very much for joining us, Omar.
<p />
<p />DAHI: Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Syrian Left Opposition Groups Propose Plan to End an Endless War | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D9610%23.UQvDJUrjn0A | 2013-02-01 | 4left
| 2,525 | Omar S Dahi is an associate professor of economics He received his BA in economics from California State University at Long Beach and his MA and PhD in economics from the University of Notre Dame Indiana His research and teaching interests are in the areas of economic development and international trade with a special focus on SouthSouth economic cooperation and on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Im Paul Jay Israel has been accused of bombing inside of Syria According to the Associated Press Israel bombed a convoy perhaps226128148the accusations say226128148carrying arms from Syria to Lebanon But the Syrian government say thats not what happened at all They say a defense installation near Damascus was hit Of course the Israeli army is saying nothing as they usually do in such situations But it suggests a broader question facing Israel what is their attitude towards Syria Theyre concerned about arms going to Hezbollah in Lebanon in which case they would like to weaken the Syrian government of Assad On the other hand theyre perhaps even more concerned about the fall of Assad and what comes next Now joining us to discuss Israels attitude towards Syria is Omar Dahi Hes an assistant professor of economics at Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts Hes also an editor at The Middle East Report Thanks very much for joining us Omar OMAR DAHI ASSISTANT PROF ECONOMICS HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE Thanks for having me JAY So what do you make of Israels posture Their rhetoric still more or less is about the downfall of Assad But do they really want that DAHI I dont think so And from the beginning of the Syrian uprising theyve actually been very measured and careful in what they said And I believe although its hard to tell for sure that theres close coordination between the US and Israel on this subject as there is on most subjects that relate to US foreign policy in the Middle East specifically those that might relate to Israel And I think over the years there are many things that the Syrian regime does that Israel doesnt like It provides support to Hezbollah a resistance organization that has been very effective in fighting Israel in Lebanon and resisting Israeli attacks against Lebanon They provide support up until very recently they provide a base for a political bureau for Hamas inside Syria So they provide support for oppositional groups Palestinian oppositional groups At the same time theyve been very pragmatic and practical and have had a de facto peace agreement with Israel since the 1973 War even though its not an official peace agreement But they have been very effective in maintaining calm over the Israeli border and essentially trying to rein in any groups that might try to destabilize this peace agreement And I think from the beginning of the uprising what they had in mind seeing was Syria getting weaker Syria being destroyed Syria being subjected to more sanctions and under siege globally So in many ways the status quo still very much serves Israeli interests The danger is that the Assad regime might actually collapse and you suddenly find the northern border of Israel after being silent for 30amp160years be filled with all sorts of heterogeneous groups from the Free Syrian Army but other groups related to alQaeda that might use it as a springboard for launching attacks against Israel And I think thats the most preoccupying concern from their perspective JAY It seems to me Israels you know quoteunquote interest if you226128148based on the mindset of the current leadership of Israel at any rate would be a civil war that never ends As long as you keep Syria in mostly chaos but not enough where Assad actually falls then you can do what theyre accused of doing yesterday which is you can take out military installations you dont like or you could bomb convoys going to Lebanon stuff they couldnt have done prior to all the chaos On the other hand as youre suggesting they dont want Assad to actually fall because what may come next may be alQaeda forces or whatever kinds of forces that might be much more active against Israel And by extension this seems to be what the Americans want which is a complete disaster for the Syrian people which is a civil war that never ends Its almost like you know Lebanon at its worst DAHI Exactly And over the past two years theres been a lot of weapons going from Lebanon into Syria that obviously havent been attacked by Israel They dont mind that as long as its going into Syria that its going to be226128148being used to fight inside the civil war But weapons going from east to west into Lebanon that may be used by Hezbollah in a war perhaps with Israel thats a problem to them In addition to what you just said another goal that comes out of weakening Syria is weakening the link between Iran and Hezbollah further isolating Iran further sort of removing that link that strengthened Hezbollah and strengthened Iran together And as you know over the past several years Israel has made isolating and even bombing Iran a foreignpolicy priority JAY And I wonder if isolating Hezbollah isnt even a more urgent priority in the sense that you know is Israel really going to get into a war with Iran Its226128148one wonders But the possibility of another war with Hezbollah is quite real DAHI Absolutely And I think they can226128148theyve been watching this situation carefully and they can take what they can get If they can226128148if they have a chance to strike at Syria to further weaken Syrian infrastructure particularly military infrastructure theyre likely to do so Were not exactly sure what they hit But the general trend seems to be that the regime needs to be strong enough to contain the uprising And I think you see the pressure from the US and the agreement between the US and Russia to come to a sort of political settlement heading in that direction The political settlement will likely keep elements of the regime in power specifically the army and then include members of the opposition as part of a transitional government JAY So if Russia the United States226128148and you throw in the other powers you know Israel but even Turkey Qatar the Saudis226128148seem to just want to keep fueling this thing if its in all of their interests more or less to let this war just keep going is there any sense of a response from the Syrian people that this is a completely nowin situation for the Syrians DAHI I think so And over the past week youve seen two very interesting initiatives that are meant to counter this sort of endless war The first was that there was two oppositional group summits one that took place in Paris and one that took place in Geneva The one that took place in Paris was the national coalition of Syrian revolutionary forces which is the new umbrella group that is supported by the West and which is mainly composed of Islamists and Liberal forces The one that took place in Geneva are the oppositional groups that are called the forces for democratic change and they include mostly leftwing groups and independent Kurdish groups as well who have been more independent of Western patronage and who have been calling for dialog or at least negotiations with the regime Their final goal was negotiations with the regime to achieve a political settlement But the interesting thing was that the head of the Syrian National Coalition came out yesterday and called for negotiations with the regime to end the bloodshed out of concern for the total destruction thats happening in the country And he was attacked by some but there was an overwhelming response of people who thought that now the time has finally come to enter into negotiations with the Syrian regime Now of course its not been simply the opposition thats been rejecting negotiations The Syrian regime has been calling for dialog but they want dialog on their own terms that preserve the regime But the point is there has to be something that breaks the stalemate And you see for the first time real direction from the political leadership of the opposition groups towards that end JAY So is there any sense of a negotiation with Assad still there Thats always been the position that theres no talking as long as Assads still there But there seems to be no break on the side of the Syrian elite that theyre going to hang tough with Assad And what was the speech he made recently I think it was at an opera house where he sort of laid out a plan for what a resolution might look like DAHI Yeah The speech he called for a plan where thered be a dialog or negotiations with some opposition groups that he said are not out for the destruction of the country and that they would form a committee that would then lay a new constitution But I think aside from the speech that he gave which is mostly a condemnation of the opposition and mostly basically a promise that Syrias going to be stronger and that the regime is winning and so forth there are other changes that are happening in the position of Russia So you see a change in the Russian position over the last couple of months saying that we are not committed to Assad himself that we are not particularly wedded to the Syrian regime remaining the way it is forever And from the other hand you see the US stopping to blame Russia If you noticed last year all of the US pronouncements was taking advantage of the Syrian situation to blame Russia and China for everything thats happening That has stopped and youve seen much more condemnation of the regime itself and increasing awareness of what the US says are terrorist groups and jihadis among the Syrian opposition JAY But if the obstacle to any kind of negotiation has been Assad has to go the meeting in Geneva did they take any different position on that I mean are they willing to talk to an Assadled regime DAHI What theyre proposing is a transitional government with full powers what that means remains to be seen that removes the powers of the presidency So they will be a transitional government The presidents powers will be stripped of him He might remain ceremonial for a period of six months and then therell be fresh elections So the idea is that hes not226128148he doesnt step down first that he steps down at the end of the transitional period Now of course any of these scenarios for them to happen there has to be a willingness by the parties fighting on the ground to accept this Otherwise this is all a moot point JAY And to what extent are the people in Geneva representing people fighting on the ground DAHI The people in Geneva dont really represent the people fighting on the ground The people in Paris the Syrian National Coalition of revolutionary forces claim to have the representation of the people on the ground They cant force them to immediately drop their weapons But in the end the increasing tendency has been by the supporters of those rebel groups the ones who supply them with weapons on putting the squeeze on Over the last period of several months youve seen increasingly the rebel groups the Free Syrian Army complaining that all the arms the equipment is basically trickling down and theyre being squeezed by their funders many of whom are in the Gulf to basically unify under one command that can be controlled more easily JAY Im reading that the Saudis are continuing to really fuel the jihadist forces and are not interested in any kind of negotiation or resolution and as long as226128148and the jihadist forces I understand are not feeling very represented by the people that were in the Westernrecognized coalition that theyve now226128148that the Americans and others have recognized So if it turns out that most of the fighting is kind of being pushed by the jihadists it sounds like the only ones the jihadists are answering to are the Saudis DAHI Thats true although I dont know and its not clear that most of the fightings being fueled by them Theyre certainly strong enough to do a lot of damage and theyre certainly capable of fighting the Syrian regime for a long time But if other segments of Syrian society ones such as the Free Syrian Army groups that have not been directly controlled by the Saudis if you can slowly isolate those groups I think you can come to a resolution Expecting the violence to just end until a resolution happens is impossible in my view We have to have the start of a political process and then try to isolate or marginalize the groups that are simply refusing entering into any negotiations Youre absolutely right The Saudi Arabian officials have come out in the last week and called for more armament of the rebels And you see here a split between Qatar and Saudi Arabia on that front JAY And if Assad were to agree with this which I226128148so far theres no indication but a kind of dignified way out is more or less what the Geneva proposal is But if he was to agree with it do the people that met in Geneva have enough popular support to be able to have this process without being called traitors and this and that DAHI Its tough It depends on how the process unfolds I think if theres a clear change on the ground226128148for example one of the conditions that the head of the Syrian National Coalition asked for was the release of over 160000 prisoners If those prisoners are released thats a real tangible sign of progress You have tens of thousands of people in areas that dont have any humanitarian access If the regime pulls back stops bombing these areas and allows humanitarian aid to enter them thats a tangible sign of progress I think in order for people to jump on the bandwagon of a solution they have to see some tangible steps And I think these small steps may restore the trust of the political oppositional leadership may allow people to put their trust in their political oppositional leadership that will allow them to enter into serious negotiations with the regime If unintel enter negotiations without any change in the behavior of the regime thats not going to actually be considered legitimate JAY Alright Thanks very much for joining us Omar DAHI Thank you JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Omar/PROPN S/PROPN Dahi/PROPN is/AUX an/DET associate/ADJ professor/NOUN of/ADP economics/NOUN He/PRON received/VERB his/PRON BA/PROPN in/ADP economics/NOUN from/ADP California/PROPN State/PROPN University/PROPN at/ADP Long/PROPN Beach/PROPN and/CCONJ his/PRON MA/NOUN and/CCONJ PhD/NOUN in/ADP economics/NOUN from/ADP the/DET University/PROPN of/ADP Notre/PROPN Dame/PROPN Indiana/PROPN His/PRON research/NOUN and/CCONJ teaching/NOUN interests/NOUN are/AUX in/ADP the/DET areas/NOUN of/ADP economic/ADJ development/NOUN and/CCONJ international/ADJ trade/NOUN with/ADP a/DET special/ADJ focus/NOUN 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<p>Republican incumbent Norm Coleman headed into the Minnesota U.S. Senate recount leading Democratic challenger Al Franken by more than 200 votes. But on Jan. 5, the state Canvassing Board certified recount results showing Franken received 225 more votes than Coleman in the general election, out of nearly 2.9 million votes cast. How did this happen?</p>
<p>Unlike many right-leaning blogs and commentators, Coleman makes no claim of partisan funny business by the five members of the Canvassing Board, which has only one clearly identified Democrat.&#160;Coleman’s lawyer once praised the panel’s makeup, in fact.</p>
<p>Coleman’s appeal challenging the board’s certification, which a three-judge panel began hearing Jan. 26, lays out his theory:&#160;"Not every valid vote has been counted, and some have been counted twice." Coleman&#160;raises several issues, among them: duplicate ballots, "missing" ballots, "improperly" rejected absentee ballots and discrepancies in rulings made on ballots concerning voter intent.</p>
<p>The outcome of this squeaky-close race now rests with the courts. But even if Coleman wins on all points it’s far from certain that he would gain enough votes to change the outcome. When the Canvassing Board was forced to count some disputed absentee ballots, for example, it was Franken who won a majority of them. Now Coleman wants even more rejected absentee ballots opened and counted, but nobody can say if he would get a higher percentage of those, or if he would just see Franken’s margin increase.</p>
<p>In our Analysis section, we take a look at each issue.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>After nearly 12 weeks of post-election wrangling, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/38344479.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQD_3c7Ok:iUvckD8EQD_3c7Ok:iUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyUr" type="external">a three-judge panel began hearing Coleman’s challenge</a> in a Minnesota court on Jan. 26.&#160; He’s contesting the Jan. 5 ruling by the state Canvassing Board, which unanimously certified&#160;recount&#160;results putting&#160;Franken ahead by 225 votes. The trial – technically called an "election contest" – could take weeks.</p>
<p>Coleman <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/22197/colemans-fight-to-regain-seat-not-just-about-me" type="external">announced</a> his intention to sue claiming: "Not every valid vote has been counted, and some have been counted twice." His petition claims that 654 absentee ballots from mostly Republican areas were wrongly rejected, that up to 150 votes in predominantly Democratic areas were counted twice, and that Franken benefited from the handling of 133 "missing" ballots in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/38296304.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUxWoW_oD:EaDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU" type="external">burden is on Coleman</a> to prove all these claims, and even if he wins on each point it’s not clear whether he would gain enough votes to change the outcome. In each case, Franken would probably gain some more votes, too.</p>
<p>150 Votes Counted Twice?</p>
<p>The <a href="http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/Notice_of_Contest.pdf" type="external">Coleman campaign claims</a> that in some precincts ballots were counted twice, while the Franken campaign says there’s no definitive proof that double-counting occurred. The Canvassing Board and the state Supreme Court both have said they lacked the jurisdiction to determine whether or not this happened.&#160; One Canvassing Board member and the city elections director for Minneapolis acknowledged double-counting may have occurred.</p>
<p>What’s this about? According to Minnesota <a href="https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=206.86" type="external">state law</a>, if a ballot is damaged or defective and cannot be read by an electronic tabulating machine on Election Day, election officials are to make a duplicate copy of the ballot and feed that into the machine instead. They are to label it as a "duplicate," and preserve the original ballot in a separate envelope.</p>
<p>Prior to the recount, both campaigns <a href="http://www.sos.state.mn.us/docs/december_16_2008_state_canvassing_board_minutes.pdf" type="external">agreed</a> to count originals instead of duplicates. But lawyers for the Coleman campaign claim that about 150 duplicate ballots were counted in addition to their originals. They say some precincts recorded a greater number of votes during the recount than there were during the original count on Election Night.&#160; Second, according to the campaign,&#160;some originals could not be matched with their corresponding duplicate during the recount.&#160;</p>
<p>The Canvassing Board <a href="http://wcco.com/politics/franken.senate.race.2.891127.html" type="external">rejected</a> the Coleman campaign’s challenge of "double-counted" ballots, telling the campaign that it lacked the jurisdiction to make a decision. Coleman went to court over this issue and lost the first round. The state’s highest court <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36692169.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUycaEacyU" type="external">rejected</a> the petition. A <a href="http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/OrderA082206-1224.pdf" type="external">written decision</a> from Associate Justice Alan C. Page said that the issue would need to be decided at a trial, where evidence could be presented:</p>
<p>Justice Page, Dec. 24, 2008: Because the resolution of petitioner’s claim that double-counting of votes will result from including unmatched original damaged ballots in the recount is better suited to an evidentiary hearing and fact-finding, the decision of the State Canvassing Board to reject challenges to unmatched original damaged ballots counted in the recount was not in error and the relief requested by petitioner is denied.</p>
<p>Were some votes actually counted twice? The Franken campaign <a href="http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/ResponseFrankenFrankenforSenate.pdf" type="external">filed a response</a> that said that Coleman’s camp provided no proof that this actually happened, and that there could be other explanations for discrepancies between the number of original and duplicate ballots and the Election Night vote total and recount totals.&#160; However, election officials have acknowledged problems in the recount process. The St. Paul Pioneer Press quoted Canvassing Board member Justice G. Barry Anderson, a Republican, saying: "I think it’s a very good likelihood that there is double counting here." The Pioneer Press also quoted Minneapolis City Election Director Cindy Reichert, a Democrat, saying, "I agree that there is a big issue here."</p>
<p>Should this issue be decided in Coleman’s favor it would probably eat into Franken’s lead somewhat. According to the Pioneer Press, of the 150 ballots the Coleman camp alleges were double-counted, about 100 of them were from "Franken-friendly" Minneapolis.</p>
<p>133 Missing Ballots?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>The issue of "missing" ballots came up when election officials <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35492669.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O" type="external">discovered</a> a discrepancy between Election Day results and recount results for Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1 . During the hand recount, canvassers tallied a total of 133 fewer ballots than had been recorded during the Election Day count. Some election officials believed the ballots had been placed in an envelope that had gone missing. A search turned up no additional ballots, however. Cindy Reichert, the city’s elections director, said at one point she suspected that election workers had fed some absentee ballots through the counting machines twice, but later <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35492669.html?page=2&amp;c=y" type="external">backed away</a> from that theory.</p>
<p>Minneapolis election officials eventually <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35728824.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUec7PaP3E77K_0c::D3aDhUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU" type="external">called off</a> the days-long search for the "missing" ballots. The Star Tribune reported that city officials once considered subtracting the "extra" votes from both Franken’s and Coleman’s totals, with the candidates losing 80 votes and 34 votes, respectively. But the state Canvassing Board, over the objection of the Coleman campaign, unanimously <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36043514.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUT" type="external">decided</a> to go with the Election Day results instead of ones reached during the recount.&#160; As a result of the board’s decision, Franken netted an additional 46 votes.</p>
<p>Update, Jan. 30: One of our readers asked for clarification on whether an envelope containing ballots was found to be missing. There is evidence that one envelope likely went astray somehow. Recount officials found Election-Day ballots in four white envelopes numbered 2/5, 3/5, 4/5 and 5/5, but nothing numbered 1/5. One election judge said he recalled seeing five white envelopes, but he couldn’t be certain. In Cindy Reichert’s <a href="http://www.sos.state.mn.us/docs/letter_from_minneapolis.pdf" type="external">full explanation</a> of the missing ballots, she wrote that eventually Minneapolis election officials "determined definitively that the ballots were missing."</p>
<p>654 Absentee Ballots</p>
<p>At issue here are absentee ballots that were never opened or counted because they were not accepted by local election judges. Under state law, absentee ballots must meet several <a href="https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=203B.12" type="external">legal requirements</a>&#160; before they can be counted. For example, an absentee envelope will not be opened and the vote not counted if the name and address on the return envelope are not the same as the information provided on the absentee ballot application.</p>
<p>Just before the recount began, the Franken campaign <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/34607244.html?elr=KArksUUUU" type="external">asked</a> the state Canvassing Board to consider reviewing thousands of "improperly"&#160;rejected absentee ballots. Coleman objected, and the Canvassing Board <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/26/minnesota.recount/index.html" type="external">denied</a> the Franken request. But on Dec. 24 the Minnesota Supreme Court <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36406524.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU" type="external">ruled</a> in Franken’s favor, saying that absentee ballots should be counted if everybody – local officials, the Franken campaign and the Coleman campaign – agreed that they had been rejected improperly in the first place.</p>
<p>Local election officials came up with a total of nearly 1,350 absentee ballots that they believed should be opened and counted. But the Franken and Coleman campaigns could only agree on 933 of those. When they were opened and counted, Franken received 52 percent of them, for a total net gain of 176 votes, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/37047159.html" type="external">according to</a> the Star Tribune.</p>
<p>Coleman then <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36833124.html" type="external">requested</a> that 654 additional ballots be opened and counted as well. These ballots are reported to be from suburban and rural areas likely to favor Coleman. The court <a href="http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/Order.1.5.09.pdf" type="external">denied</a> Coleman’s request but said he could raise the issue again during trial.</p>
<p>More recently, Coleman asked the three-judge panel to <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/38235094.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUxWoW_oD:EaDUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyU" type="external">reconsider all previously rejected absentee ballots</a> to find any that were wrongly omitted.&#160; The campaign claims that local election officials used inconsistent standards when accepting and rejecting some ballots. Coleman lawyer Joe Friedberg says he’ll ask the judges to review each envelope, a total of as many as 11,000 still-uncounted votes. Whether this process would eventually gain more votes for Franken or for Coleman, however, is something impossible to predict.</p>
<p>Partisanship?</p>
<p>The Coleman campaign also has complained about "inconsistencies" in the way the Canvassing Board ruled on ballot challenges. It <a href="http://www.colemanforsenate.com/blog-post/495/inconsistencies-in-allocation-of-ballots" type="external">posted</a> two such examples, and said: "In an election that is this breathtakingly close, such inconsistencies matter to the overall credibility of the count."</p>
<p>A review of some of the ballots <a href="http://senaterecount.startribune.com/ballots/" type="external">available</a> online at StarTribune.com, confirms that there were indeed some discrepancies. Some ballots that had ovals filled in for Coleman and also had an X through them (possibly indicating an attempt to void the choice), were <a href="http://senaterecount.startribune.com/ballots/index.php?review_date=2008-12-19&amp;index=40" type="external">counted for</a> Coleman, while others <a href="http://senaterecount.startribune.com/ballots/index.php?review_date=2008-12-16&amp;index=25" type="external">were not</a>. And in some instances, where the same kind of markings were made on ballots for Franken, the votes <a href="http://senaterecount.startribune.com/ballots/index.php?review_date=2008-12-18&amp;index=9" type="external">were</a> counted in his favor. But some questionable calls went <a href="http://senaterecount.startribune.com/ballots/index.php?review_date=2008-12-16&amp;index=147" type="external">against</a> Franken, too.</p>
<p>So far, the Coleman campaign has stopped short of making public allegations of partisan election-stealing of the sort seen in some <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/franken_stealing_election/2008/11/12/150391.html" type="external">right-leaning news sites</a>. And we find no evidence of any partisan tilt in the Canvassing Board’s makeup or rulings. For one thing, <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2008/Nov/13/key_panel_named_in_minnesota_senate_race_recount.html" type="external">the five-member board is bipartisan</a>. It includes two men who were appointed to the state supreme court by Minnesota’s Republican governor, Tim <a href="" type="internal" /> Pawlenty. They are Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson. A third member, Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin, was elected to that post in a nonpartisan election in 1986, and hasn’t publicly discussed what her party leanings, if any, might be. A fourth member is Ramsey County Assistant Chief Judge&#160; Edward Cleary, who was appointed in 2002 by then-Gov. Jesse Ventura, an Independence Party member. The only clearly identified Democrat on the board is Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. And although Ritchie helped choose the panel’s members, Coleman’s lead lawyer, Fritz Knaak, said at the time: "The people of this state should feel good about who’s on the panel."</p>
<p>Furthermore, the board never divided along partisan lines. According to board member Cleary, " <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2009/01/06/5639/recount_judge_blasts_wall_street_journal" type="external">all of our major votes were unanimous</a>."</p>
<p>It’s worth mentioning that the three-judge panel selected by Justice Page to oversee the trial is <a href="http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/01/alan_page_annou.php" type="external">made up</a> of Democratic, Republican and Independent appointees.</p>
<p>Where Are We Now?</p>
<p>So far Minnesota’s only current senator is Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat elected in 2006. And it could be weeks before she gets some help. After Coleman sued, Franken <a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/01/12/1742270.aspx" type="external">requested</a> that an election certificate be issued declaring him the winner anyway.&#160; But his request was denied. Gov. Pawlenty issued a <a href="http://www.governor.state.mn.us/mediacenter/pressreleases/PROD009295.html" type="external">statement</a> saying that he couldn’t issue an election certificate to Franken because of state law:</p>
<p>Pawlenty, Jan. 12: I have a duty to follow state law and our statutes are clear on this issue. I am prohibited from issuing a certificate of election until the election contest in the courts has been resolved.</p>
<p>Pawlenty’s statement cites Minnesota state law which explains&#160;that election certificates&#160;are not to be issued until seven days after the certification of election results, but that in the case of an election contest:&#160;"shall not be issued until a court of proper jurisdiction has finally determined the contest."</p>
<p>And Secretary of State Ritchie&#160;– a Democrat&#160;– agreed. He followed with a <a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_11435320" type="external">statement</a> of his own saying that even if Pawlenty signed the election certificate before the election contest was decided, he would not:</p>
<p>Ritchie, Jan. 12: Minnesota law is very clear on when a certificate of election can be issued. Neither the governor nor I may sign a certificate of election in the U.S. Senate race until all election contests have reached a final determination. Even if the governor issues a certificate of election prior to the conclusion of the contest phase, I will not sign it.</p>
<p>After being denied by both Ritchie and Pawlenty, the Franken campaign <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/37445384.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUec7PaP3E77K_0c::D3aDhUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyU" type="external">filed</a> a petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court, claiming that the governor and secretary of state were obligated to issue a certificate. The state Supreme Court <a href="http://www.mncourts.gov/Documents/0/Public/Other/2008%20Elections/Order.1.14.09.pdf" type="external">said</a> that it will address Franken’s request for an election certificate, but not before Feb. 5.</p>
<p>Franken, looking to avoid dragging out the process any longer, filed a motion to dismiss the Coleman election contest altogether. But on Jan. 22, the motion was <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/38147149.html?elr=KArksUUUU" type="external">rejected</a> by the three-judge panel. It’s now on the Coleman campaign to show proof to back up all of its claims. The saga continues.</p>
<p>–by D’Angelo Gore</p>
<p>Update, April 16: On April 13, some three months after the trial began, the three-judge panel ruled in favor of Franken, saying that he won the election by 312 votes. Coleman’s attorney said he would appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court. For more, see our <a href="" type="internal">post</a> on The FactCheck Wire.</p>
<p>Doyle, Pat and Kevin Duchschere. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/37148069.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUxWoW_oD:EaDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU" type="external">Coleman goes to court over Senate recount</a>." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 7 Jan. 2009</p>
<p>Associated Press. " <a href="http://wcco.com/politics/franken.senate.race.2.891127.html" type="external">Franken Opens 1st Lead In Minn. Senate Rac</a>e." wcco.com, 19 Dec. 2008</p>
<p>Doyle, Pat. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36692169.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUycaEacyU" type="external">Coleman suffers setback in court</a>." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 24 Dec. 2008</p>
<p>Duchschere, Kevin, Mike Kaszuba and Mark Brunswick. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/34607244.html?elr=KArksUUUU" type="external">Franken asks to have rejected absentee ballots be considered</a>." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 17 Nov. 2008</p>
<p>Associated Press. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/38296304.html" type="external">Burden in Minn. Senate trial falls on Colema</a>n." 25 Jan. 2009</p>
<p>Minnesota State Canvassing Board. “Minutes.” 16 Dec. 2009 – 19 Dec. 2009.</p>
<p>Doyle, Pat. “ <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/38147149.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUs" type="external">Franken’s request to dismiss Coleman suit is denied</a>.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, 22 Jan. 2009</p>
<p>Brauer, David. " <a href="http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2009/01/06/5639/recount_judge_blasts_wall_street_journal" type="external">Recount judge blasts Wall Street Journal</a>." MinnPost.com, 6 Jan. 2009</p>
<p>Norm Coleman for U.S Senate. “ <a href="http://www.colemanforsenate.com/blog-post/495/inconsistencies-in-allocation-of-ballots" type="external">Inconsistencies In Allocation Of Ballots</a>.” ColemanforSenate.com (Blog), 23 Dec. 2008</p>
<p>Doyle, Pat. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/36406524.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU" type="external">Minnesota Supreme Court: Count rejected absentee ballots</a>." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 18 Dec. 2008</p>
<p>Brunswick, Mark and Bob Von Sternberg. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35728824.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUec7PaP3E77K_0c::D3aDhUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU" type="external">Senate recount: Minneapolis gives up on 133 ballots, but they still have pull</a>." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8 Dec. 2008</p>
<p>Kaszuba, Mike, Bob Von Sternberg and Mark Brunswick. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35492669.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUX" type="external">Franken’s campaign protests 133 mystery ballots from Minneapolis</a>." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3 Dec. 2008</p>
<p>Duchschere, Kevin and Mike Kaszuba. " <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/37047159.html" type="external">Senate race certification set for Monday with Franken up 225 votes</a>." Minneapolis Star Tribune, 4 Jan. 2009</p>
<p>Stassen-Berger, Rachel E. "A tiny, tiny margin, with a handful to go." St. Paul Pioneer Press, 18 Dec. 2008</p>
<p>Stassen-Berger, Rachel E. "Franken: Put me in Senate, now!; Ritchie, Pawlenty: No." TwinCities.com, 12, Jan. 2009</p>
<p>Stassen-Berger, Rachel E. "Ballots counted more than once loom as an issue in Minnesota U.S. Senate recount." St. Paul Pioneer Press, 17 Dec. 2008</p> | Mining the Minnesota Recount | false | https://factcheck.org/2009/01/mining-the-minnesota-recount/ | 2009-01-28 | 2least
| 2,525 | Republican incumbent Norm Coleman headed into the Minnesota US Senate recount leading Democratic challenger Al Franken by more than 200 votes But on Jan 5 the state Canvassing Board certified recount results showing Franken received 225 more votes than Coleman in the general election out of nearly 29 million votes cast How did this happen Unlike many rightleaning blogs and commentators Coleman makes no claim of partisan funny business by the five members of the Canvassing Board which has only one clearly identified Democratamp160Coleman8217s lawyer once praised the panel8217s makeup in fact Coleman8217s appeal challenging the board8217s certification which a threejudge panel began hearing Jan 26 lays out his theoryamp160Not every valid vote has been counted and some have been counted twice Colemanamp160raises several issues among them duplicate ballots missing ballots improperly rejected absentee ballots and discrepancies in rulings made on ballots concerning voter intent The outcome of this squeakyclose race now rests with the courts But even if Coleman wins on all points it8217s far from certain that he would gain enough votes to change the outcome When the Canvassing Board was forced to count some disputed absentee ballots for example it was Franken who won a majority of them Now Coleman wants even more rejected absentee ballots opened and counted but nobody can say if he would get a higher percentage of those or if he would just see Franken8217s margin increase In our Analysis section we take a look at each issue After nearly 12 weeks of postelection wrangling a threejudge panel began hearing Coleman8217s challenge in a Minnesota court on Jan 26amp160 He8217s contesting the Jan 5 ruling by the state Canvassing Board which unanimously certifiedamp160recountamp160results puttingamp160Franken ahead by 225 votes The trial 8211 technically called an election contest 8211 could take weeks Coleman announced his intention to sue claiming Not every valid vote has been counted and some have been counted twice His petition claims that 654 absentee ballots from mostly Republican areas were wrongly rejected that up to 150 votes in predominantly Democratic areas were counted twice and that Franken benefited from the handling of 133 missing ballots in Minneapolis The burden is on Coleman to prove all these claims and even if he wins on each point it8217s not clear whether he would gain enough votes to change the outcome In each case Franken would probably gain some more votes too 150 Votes Counted Twice The Coleman campaign claims that in some precincts ballots were counted twice while the Franken campaign says there8217s no definitive proof that doublecounting occurred The Canvassing Board and the state Supreme Court both have said they lacked the jurisdiction to determine whether or not this happenedamp160 One Canvassing Board member and the city elections director for Minneapolis acknowledged doublecounting may have occurred What8217s this about According to Minnesota state law if a ballot is damaged or defective and cannot be read by an electronic tabulating machine on Election Day election officials are to make a duplicate copy of the ballot and feed that into the machine instead They are to label it as a duplicate and preserve the original ballot in a separate envelope Prior to the recount both campaigns agreed to count originals instead of duplicates But lawyers for the Coleman campaign claim that about 150 duplicate ballots were counted in addition to their originals They say some precincts recorded a greater number of votes during the recount than there were during the original count on Election Nightamp160 Second according to the campaignamp160some originals could not be matched with their corresponding duplicate during the recountamp160 The Canvassing Board rejected the Coleman campaign8217s challenge of doublecounted ballots telling the campaign that it lacked the jurisdiction to make a decision Coleman went to court over this issue and lost the first round The state8217s highest court rejected the petition A written decision from Associate Justice Alan C Page said that the issue would need to be decided at a trial where evidence could be presented Justice Page Dec 24 2008 Because the resolution of petitioner8217s claim that doublecounting of votes will result from including unmatched original damaged ballots in the recount is better suited to an evidentiary hearing and factfinding the decision of the State Canvassing Board to reject challenges to unmatched original damaged ballots counted in the recount was not in error and the relief requested by petitioner is denied Were some votes actually counted twice The Franken campaign filed a response that said that Coleman8217s camp provided no proof that this actually happened and that there could be other explanations for discrepancies between the number of original and duplicate ballots and the Election Night vote total and recount totalsamp160 However election officials have acknowledged problems in the recount process The St Paul Pioneer Press quoted Canvassing Board member Justice G Barry Anderson a Republican saying I think it8217s a very good likelihood that there is double counting here The Pioneer Press also quoted Minneapolis City Election Director Cindy Reichert a Democrat saying I agree that there is a big issue here Should this issue be decided in Coleman8217s favor it would probably eat into Franken8217s lead somewhat According to the Pioneer Press of the 150 ballots the Coleman camp alleges were doublecounted about 100 of them were from Frankenfriendly Minneapolis 133 Missing Ballots The issue of missing ballots came up when election officials discovered a discrepancy between Election Day results and recount results for Minneapolis Ward 3 Precinct 1 During the hand recount canvassers tallied a total of 133 fewer ballots than had been recorded during the Election Day count Some election officials believed the ballots had been placed in an envelope that had gone missing A search turned up no additional ballots however Cindy Reichert the city8217s elections director said at one point she suspected that election workers had fed some absentee ballots through the counting machines twice but later backed away from that theory Minneapolis election officials eventually called off the dayslong search for the missing ballots The Star Tribune reported that city officials once considered subtracting the extra votes from both Franken8217s and Coleman8217s totals with the candidates losing 80 votes and 34 votes respectively But the state Canvassing Board over the objection of the Coleman campaign unanimously decided to go with the Election Day results instead of ones reached during the recountamp160 As a result of the board8217s decision Franken netted an additional 46 votes Update Jan 30 One of our readers asked for clarification on whether an envelope containing ballots was found to be missing There is evidence that one envelope likely went astray somehow Recount officials found ElectionDay ballots in four white envelopes numbered 25 35 45 and 55 but nothing numbered 15 One election judge said he recalled seeing five white envelopes but he couldn8217t be certain In Cindy Reichert8217s full explanation of the missing ballots she wrote that eventually Minneapolis election officials determined definitively that the ballots were missing 654 Absentee Ballots At issue here are absentee ballots that were never opened or counted because they were not accepted by local election judges Under state law absentee ballots must meet several legal requirementsamp160 before they can be counted For example an absentee envelope will not be opened and the vote not counted if the name and address on the return envelope are not the same as the information provided on the absentee ballot application Just before the recount began the Franken campaign asked the state Canvassing Board to consider reviewing thousands of improperlyamp160rejected absentee ballots Coleman objected and the Canvassing Board denied the Franken request But on Dec 24 the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Franken8217s favor saying that absentee ballots should be counted if everybody 8211 local officials the Franken campaign and the Coleman campaign 8211 agreed that they had been rejected improperly in the first place Local election officials came up with a total of nearly 1350 absentee ballots that they believed should be opened and counted But the Franken and Coleman campaigns could only agree on 933 of those When they were opened and counted Franken received 52 percent of them for a total net gain of 176 votes according to the Star Tribune Coleman then requested that 654 additional ballots be opened and counted as well These ballots are reported to be from suburban and rural areas likely to favor Coleman The court denied Coleman8217s request but said he could raise the issue again during trial More recently Coleman asked the threejudge panel to reconsider all previously rejected absentee ballots to find any that were wrongly omittedamp160 The campaign claims that local election officials used inconsistent standards when accepting and rejecting some ballots Coleman lawyer Joe Friedberg says he8217ll ask the judges to review each envelope a total of as many as 11000 stilluncounted votes Whether this process would eventually gain more votes for Franken or for Coleman however is something impossible to predict Partisanship The Coleman campaign also has complained about inconsistencies in the way the Canvassing Board ruled on ballot challenges It posted two such examples and said In an election that is this breathtakingly close such inconsistencies matter to the overall credibility of the count A review of some of the ballots available online at StarTribunecom confirms that there were indeed some discrepancies Some ballots that had ovals filled in for Coleman and also had an X through them possibly indicating an attempt to void the choice were counted for Coleman while others were not And in some instances where the same kind of markings were made on ballots for Franken the votes were counted in his favor But some questionable calls went against Franken too So far the Coleman campaign has stopped short of making public allegations of partisan electionstealing of the sort seen in some rightleaning news sites And we find no evidence of any partisan tilt in the Canvassing Board8217s makeup or rulings For one thing the fivemember board is bipartisan It includes two men who were appointed to the state supreme court by Minnesota8217s Republican governor Tim Pawlenty They are Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and Associate Justice G Barry Anderson A third member Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin was elected to that post in a nonpartisan election in 1986 and hasn8217t publicly discussed what her party leanings if any might be A fourth member is Ramsey County Assistant Chief Judgeamp160 Edward Cleary who was appointed in 2002 by thenGov Jesse Ventura an Independence Party member The only clearly identified Democrat on the board is Secretary of State Mark Ritchie And although Ritchie helped choose the panel8217s members Coleman8217s lead lawyer Fritz Knaak said at the time The people of this state should feel good about who8217s on the panel Furthermore the board never divided along partisan lines According to board member Cleary all of our major votes were unanimous It8217s worth mentioning that the threejudge panel selected by Justice Page to oversee the trial is made up of Democratic Republican and Independent appointees Where Are We Now So far Minnesota8217s only current senator is Amy Klobuchar a Democrat elected in 2006 And it could be weeks before she gets some help After Coleman sued Franken requested that an election certificate be issued declaring him the winner anywayamp160 But his request was denied Gov Pawlenty issued a statement saying that he couldn8217t issue an election certificate to Franken because of state law Pawlenty Jan 12 I have a duty to follow state law and our statutes are clear on this issue I am prohibited from issuing a certificate of election until the election contest in the courts has been resolved Pawlenty8217s statement cites Minnesota state law which explainsamp160that election certificatesamp160are not to be issued until seven days after the certification of election results but that in the case of an election contestamp160shall not be issued until a court of proper jurisdiction has finally determined the contest And Secretary of State Ritchieamp1608211 a Democratamp1608211 agreed He followed with a statement of his own saying that even if Pawlenty signed the election certificate before the election contest was decided he would not Ritchie Jan 12 Minnesota law is very clear on when a certificate of election can be issued Neither the governor nor I may sign a certificate of election in the US Senate race until all election contests have reached a final determination Even if the governor issues a certificate of election prior to the conclusion of the contest phase I will not sign it After being denied by both Ritchie and Pawlenty the Franken campaign filed a petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court claiming that the governor and secretary of state were obligated to issue a certificate The state Supreme Court said that it will address Franken8217s request for an election certificate but not before Feb 5 Franken looking to avoid dragging out the process any longer filed a motion to dismiss the Coleman election contest altogether But on Jan 22 the motion was rejected by the threejudge panel It8217s now on the Coleman campaign to show proof to back up all of its claims The saga continues 8211by D8217Angelo Gore Update April 16 On April 13 some three months after the trial began the threejudge panel ruled in favor of Franken saying that he won the election by 312 votes Coleman8217s attorney said he would appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court For more see our post on The FactCheck Wire Doyle Pat and Kevin Duchschere Coleman goes to court over Senate recount Minneapolis Star Tribune 7 Jan 2009 Associated Press Franken Opens 1st Lead In Minn Senate Race wccocom 19 Dec 2008 Doyle Pat Coleman suffers setback in court Minneapolis Star Tribune 24 Dec 2008 Duchschere Kevin Mike Kaszuba and Mark Brunswick Franken asks to have rejected absentee ballots be considered Minneapolis Star Tribune 17 Nov 2008 Associated Press Burden in Minn Senate trial falls on Coleman 25 Jan 2009 Minnesota State Canvassing Board 8220Minutes8221 16 Dec 2009 8211 19 Dec 2009 Doyle Pat 8220 Franken8217s request to dismiss Coleman suit is denied8221 Minneapolis Star Tribune 22 Jan 2009 Brauer David Recount judge blasts Wall Street Journal MinnPostcom 6 Jan 2009 Norm Coleman for US Senate 8220 Inconsistencies In Allocation Of Ballots8221 ColemanforSenatecom Blog 23 Dec 2008 Doyle Pat Minnesota Supreme Court Count rejected absentee ballots Minneapolis Star Tribune 18 Dec 2008 Brunswick Mark and Bob Von Sternberg Senate recount Minneapolis gives up on 133 ballots but they still have pull Minneapolis Star Tribune 8 Dec 2008 Kaszuba Mike Bob Von Sternberg and Mark Brunswick Franken8217s campaign protests 133 mystery ballots from Minneapolis Minneapolis Star Tribune 3 Dec 2008 Duchschere Kevin and Mike Kaszuba Senate race certification set for Monday with Franken up 225 votes Minneapolis Star Tribune 4 Jan 2009 StassenBerger Rachel E A tiny tiny margin with a handful to go St Paul Pioneer Press 18 Dec 2008 StassenBerger Rachel E Franken Put me in Senate now Ritchie Pawlenty No TwinCitiescom 12 Jan 2009 StassenBerger Rachel E Ballots counted more than once loom as an issue in Minnesota US Senate recount St Paul Pioneer Press 17 Dec 2008 | Republican/ADJ incumbent/NOUN Norm/PROPN Coleman/PROPN headed/VERB into/ADP the/DET Minnesota/PROPN US/PROPN Senate/PROPN recount/NOUN 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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. And in Washington a battle continues. No, it's not just the debt ceiling battle. There is another battle taking place that's not getting so much attention but in the long run may be actually more significant, and that's the battle over whether there'll be any real regulation about speculation in commodities trading. That's things like oil and, perhaps even more importantly, food. The Dodd-Frank bill allowed for some kind of regulation, but there's a behind-the-scenes fight taking place whether that regulation is going to be meaningful or just some nice words on paper. Now joining us to talk about the regulatory battle, but also the whole issue of the price of food, is Jayati Ghosh. Jayati teaches at JNU in New Delhi, at the university there, and she's a renowned global expert on commodities trading and speculation. Thanks for joining us, Jayati.
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<p />JAYATI GHOSH, JNU, NEW DELHI: It's a pleasure to talk to you.
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<p />JAY: So why don't we start now from where we were last time we talked, which is just a little less than a year ago? We talked about the beginnings of a new food bubble in prices. So did the bubble take place? And where are we now?
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<p />GHOSH: Well, very much so. In fact, from about the beginning of 2010 to February 2011 we had a very significant increase in food prices, something like 40 percent overall, and in some commodities, like wheat, a doubling between just June and December. The prices peaked in February this year, but they've been very volatile since then, they've been up and down. And it's really not clear at the moment which direction they'll go in.
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<p />JAY: So if we look back and analyze why that bubble took place, how much did that have to do with real issues of supply and demand, drought, and/or flooding and this sort of thing, and how much had to do with speculation?
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<p />GHOSH: Well, the tragic story is that once again it was entirely, almost, but certainly dominantly driven by speculative activity, by the financialization of the commodities markets. And a classic example of that is actually what happened in the wheat market. If you remember, around June we started hearing stories of how they are going to be--there's a drought in Russia, there's a bad harvest in Ukraine, we're going to face all kinds of difficulties in terms of global wheat. And between June and December, the wheat price in global trade doubled. Okay? It turns out afterwards, now that we have the data, the FAO data are telling us that actually wheat production in the world as a whole increased over those six months, and wheat demand in the whole world hardly increased at all. So there was really no real demand-and-supply reason for those massive changes in wheat price.
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<p />JAY: When this speculation takes place, and you had certain investors betting long, and, let's say, either because they're also owners of these commodities, some of the big players are actual commodity owners, they own wheat and such, but still someone has to bet against them on the other side to play--to make the bet. So how do they get people to--how are they able to kind of create this atmosphere, on the one hand, that prices are going to go up, on the other hand, find somebody that can bet that they're going to go down?
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<p />GHOSH: Well, it's really that you have--it's not necessarily that you have to keep finding somebody that is betting that they're going to go down, because what you really do is shift the market sentiment on expectation that the price will rise. And then the ones who really can make money are the ones who get out before the crash, which is inevitable once people realize that there isn't really a real movement. This is the nature of bubbles, that you can create a bubble because either a significant player shifts in and moves the price up a little bit, or because you have media sentiment that is making everyone believe that, yes, this is a period of rising prices because of all these other real economy factors, and then, having created that sentiment, you ride the wave. And if you're able to jump off before the wave bursts on the shore, then you're the one who makes the profits.
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<p />JAY: Now--. Sorry. Go ahead.
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<p />GHOSH: Yes. Now all the retail investors who've been following you are the ones who are holding the losses.
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<p />JAY: Now, how much does hoarding have to do with this? I'm reading stories in the financial press about, for example, boats filled with oil sitting off the coast, waiting for the spot market to go up before they'll land the boat. There's a recent story about Glencore had--has a boat filled with Gulf oil. They're paying $16,000 a day to rent the oil tanker, but they don't want to bring it ashore until they wait for oil prices to go higher again. The--we read that Glencore and Goldman Sachs are doing it in nickel. They're renting or owning now enormous wharehouses--I'm sorry, not nickel; aluminum--where they're storing aluminum, waiting for the price of aluminum to go up. How much does that--do we know if that affects food as well?
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<p />GHOSH: I think it's probably affecting the foods, especially the grains, as well. The trouble is that we really have no information on private stockholding at all. We have no idea how much is being held by big companies, where it's being held, how it's being held. And this is in fact one of the things which allows a lot of rumor and speculative activity to run free in the markets. You know, if I could tell you, there are basically three big changes in the latest bubble that we've experienced compared to the previous bubble. You remember the previous bubble, 2007-08?
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<p />JAY: Yes.
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<p />GHOSH: The latest bubble that we've had last year, and which is really ongoing in a way right now, has a couple of other features. The first is that, you know, the OTC trade, that is, the over-the-counter trade, the completely deregulated activity, that has declined quite significantly. And that's probably because financial players are realizing that the Dodd-Frank bill, and maybe European Union legislation, is going to force them to abandon over-the-counter trading. So they're moving onto regulated exchanges. But in the regulated exchanges, because the position limits are set very high or because there are many other things that actually do not effectively regulate these players, you're still able to influence the market in all kinds of ways. The third thing that is happening is that it's no longer just the financial players who are causing these kinds of price movements. Earlier, we have said that, you know, there are index traders, there are banks like Goldman Sachs who have huge commodities divisions. There are other such agents that are really entering the market and who are purely financial, who have no interest in holding the commodity. Now there's a growing proportion of people who are in it for the speculative gain, for the change in price, but they're also holders of commodities. So that has really complicated the picture.
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<p />JAY: And there's nothing that I know of in any of the regulatory proposals or regimes that are being discussed that would actually force any kind of disclosure. Is there, in terms of what's being held, what's being hoarded? 'Cause it seems to me there's sort of a relationship between the speculative activity and the hoarding. Like, you know, if you're going to--if you own a commodity and then you bet long on the commodity, it's in your interest to hold on to that commodity and kind of force the market up, and then you get the speculative psychological bubble that takes place, which also then affects well, why would I sell now? I saw an interesting story about just an ordinary rice wholesaler, I guess you could say, in India, and it was in a documentary he was interviewed, and he had a big storehouse filled with rice, and he was saying, well, why should I sell it? I looked at the future markets, and I know the price of rice is expected to go up in three months, so why wouldn't I wait three months before I sell my rice? I mean, does that not play a role?
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<p />GHOSH: Oh, absolutely. But, you know, in fact, that used to be the traditional form of speculation, hoarding. That used to be how people did speculate in commodities. That was the only way you could do it is by holding on to it in the expectation of the price rise. And in India, in fact, we have things like anti-hoarding laws and, you know, the usual target whenever these prices rise is to go out there and attack what are called the godowns. They're the warehouses of traders and others who would be hoarding these commodities to wait for the price increase. The difficulty today is that we really have very large multinational players. We have no idea what their level of stock holding is, because there is no disclosure requirement as such in any particular market. And in any case, if these are global players, you really don't know where they're holding it and in what form. And these are interacting with the financial play. In fact, often it's the same commercial player who is doing both, if you like, the commercial holding of that stock and the speculative activity.
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<p />JAY: Now, one of the places where this fight's--regulatory fight's taking place right now is, as I said, in Washington, the Dodd-Frank bill, and there's a big fight over whether there should be real position limits or not. Can you explain what that's about?
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<p />GHOSH: It's defined in terms of the volume of the commodity that you are buying. And the idea behind a position limit is actually to ensure that no single player can unduly influence the market. The difficulty is in terms of how you define the position limit, because it's been a--earlier regulators were going along with the idea that, oh, if you're a commercial trader, you should have very large--the sky is the limit for your position limit, because, you know, after all, you will be needing this, and you are--you are engaged in it only for your commercial activity.
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<p />JAY: Well, this is an example of that would be in airlines that tries to hedge the price of jet fuel, so they buy a lot of--which seems to have some legitimacy to it.
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<p />GHOSH: Yes, exactly. You know. So you will say, alright, if you're an airline company, you're going to need a lot of aviation fuel, so, you know, we--the sky is the limit. I think we have to get over that now. We have to say, well, your position limit is maybe a year's demand for the aviation fuel. Or if you are a large trading company, let's say, a Cargill or Glencore or one of these, your position limit would be six months' worth of your turnover in a particular commodity, something like that. We'd have to [crosstalk]
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<p />JAY: Which is to try to say, if it's part of the actual hedging of real selling is one thing; if it's really just about speculative pressure, it's another.
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<p />GHOSH: That's right.
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<p />JAY: And where are we at in that fight? I--it really is not getting--it's getting so little attention here in the United States, but it's actually--there's a--the battle's taking place as we speak, is it not?
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<p />GHOSH: It is. And what is really scary about this battle is that so much of it happens behind closed doors, because this is not now about the law. It's not about legislators. It's really about the rules and regulations. And so these are things which are decided on by people in the Securities and Exchange Commission or people in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or it's really decided by people who can be very susceptible to financial lobbies.
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<p />JAY: And the lobbies--the lobbying's enormous.
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<p />GHOSH: Oh, absolutely, and they're very active, and they're very energetic in trying to make sure that the rules are such that they can carry on doing what they're doing.
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<p />JAY: So if people are thinking, well, what can I do about it, I guess, in terms of what demands people might make on their politicians, what would you suggest?
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<p />GHOSH: I would say that the politicians, the public at large, have to demand from all of these regulatory commissions a very, very clear description of the exact rules and regulations that they are putting in place. And, well, of course it requires huge financial and legal literacy among the public at large, but at least they have to be organizations from civil society or groups that actually look through those to figure out what they really mean and whether they will be successful in enforcing the kind of regulation that is required. There is really no public knowledge, either about the nature of these rules or the implications of these rules.
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<p />JAY: And should there not also be some questions raised, either whether it's in antitrust legislation or even some issues of public ownership, how much concentration of ownership there is in food? For--I was just--for example, I follow this company Glencore, and one of the investors in it--. Glencore is apparently the biggest commodities trader-owner in the world right now. And the sultan of Brunei, apparently, is one of the larger investors. And the sultan of Brunei, not only does he own a big piece of Glencore, which is a major owner of Russian wheat and foodstuffs and other kinds of commodities all over the world, but he also just turned around with his sovereign wealth fund and bought the biggest poultry producer in Turkey. There seems to be a real scramble to buy up the--who makes and produces the world's food.
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<p />GHOSH: Yes. Well, you know, this has been one of the very concentrated sectors now in the world for a while, really over the last two decades. In the United States there are really four or five major producers who are controlling about 85 percent of commodities trade. And the point is that they're not just what is called horizontally concentrated, but they're vertically concentrated. That is to say, these big companies control every part of the commodity, you know, process: the production; the--you know, they give inputs; they buy the output; they go all the way down to retail trade. And now, increasingly, they are the ones active in the futures market as well.
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<p />JAY: Thanks very much for joining us, Jayati.
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<p />GHOSH: Thank you. It was a pleasure.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End of Transcript
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Speculation Drove Wheat Prices up While Supply Expanded | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D7064 | 2011-07-20 | 4left
| 2,526 | PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Washington And in Washington a battle continues No its not just the debt ceiling battle There is another battle taking place thats not getting so much attention but in the long run may be actually more significant and thats the battle over whether therell be any real regulation about speculation in commodities trading Thats things like oil and perhaps even more importantly food The DoddFrank bill allowed for some kind of regulation but theres a behindthescenes fight taking place whether that regulation is going to be meaningful or just some nice words on paper Now joining us to talk about the regulatory battle but also the whole issue of the price of food is Jayati Ghosh Jayati teaches at JNU in New Delhi at the university there and shes a renowned global expert on commodities trading and speculation Thanks for joining us Jayati JAYATI GHOSH JNU NEW DELHI Its a pleasure to talk to you JAY So why dont we start now from where we were last time we talked which is just a little less than a year ago We talked about the beginnings of a new food bubble in prices So did the bubble take place And where are we now GHOSH Well very much so In fact from about the beginning of 2010 to February 2011 we had a very significant increase in food prices something like 40 percent overall and in some commodities like wheat a doubling between just June and December The prices peaked in February this year but theyve been very volatile since then theyve been up and down And its really not clear at the moment which direction theyll go in JAY So if we look back and analyze why that bubble took place how much did that have to do with real issues of supply and demand drought andor flooding and this sort of thing and how much had to do with speculation GHOSH Well the tragic story is that once again it was entirely almost but certainly dominantly driven by speculative activity by the financialization of the commodities markets And a classic example of that is actually what happened in the wheat market If you remember around June we started hearing stories of how they are going to betheres a drought in Russia theres a bad harvest in Ukraine were going to face all kinds of difficulties in terms of global wheat And between June and December the wheat price in global trade doubled Okay It turns out afterwards now that we have the data the FAO data are telling us that actually wheat production in the world as a whole increased over those six months and wheat demand in the whole world hardly increased at all So there was really no real demandandsupply reason for those massive changes in wheat price JAY When this speculation takes place and you had certain investors betting long and lets say either because theyre also owners of these commodities some of the big players are actual commodity owners they own wheat and such but still someone has to bet against them on the other side to playto make the bet So how do they get people tohow are they able to kind of create this atmosphere on the one hand that prices are going to go up on the other hand find somebody that can bet that theyre going to go down GHOSH Well its really that you haveits not necessarily that you have to keep finding somebody that is betting that theyre going to go down because what you really do is shift the market sentiment on expectation that the price will rise And then the ones who really can make money are the ones who get out before the crash which is inevitable once people realize that there isnt really a real movement This is the nature of bubbles that you can create a bubble because either a significant player shifts in and moves the price up a little bit or because you have media sentiment that is making everyone believe that yes this is a period of rising prices because of all these other real economy factors and then having created that sentiment you ride the wave And if youre able to jump off before the wave bursts on the shore then youre the one who makes the profits JAY Now Sorry Go ahead GHOSH Yes Now all the retail investors whove been following you are the ones who are holding the losses JAY Now how much does hoarding have to do with this Im reading stories in the financial press about for example boats filled with oil sitting off the coast waiting for the spot market to go up before theyll land the boat Theres a recent story about Glencore hadhas a boat filled with Gulf oil Theyre paying 16000 a day to rent the oil tanker but they dont want to bring it ashore until they wait for oil prices to go higher again Thewe read that Glencore and Goldman Sachs are doing it in nickel Theyre renting or owning now enormous wharehousesIm sorry not nickel aluminumwhere theyre storing aluminum waiting for the price of aluminum to go up How much does thatdo we know if that affects food as well GHOSH I think its probably affecting the foods especially the grains as well The trouble is that we really have no information on private stockholding at all We have no idea how much is being held by big companies where its being held how its being held And this is in fact one of the things which allows a lot of rumor and speculative activity to run free in the markets You know if I could tell you there are basically three big changes in the latest bubble that weve experienced compared to the previous bubble You remember the previous bubble 200708 JAY Yes GHOSH The latest bubble that weve had last year and which is really ongoing in a way right now has a couple of other features The first is that you know the OTC trade that is the overthecounter trade the completely deregulated activity that has declined quite significantly And thats probably because financial players are realizing that the DoddFrank bill and maybe European Union legislation is going to force them to abandon overthecounter trading So theyre moving onto regulated exchanges But in the regulated exchanges because the position limits are set very high or because there are many other things that actually do not effectively regulate these players youre still able to influence the market in all kinds of ways The third thing that is happening is that its no longer just the financial players who are causing these kinds of price movements Earlier we have said that you know there are index traders there are banks like Goldman Sachs who have huge commodities divisions There are other such agents that are really entering the market and who are purely financial who have no interest in holding the commodity Now theres a growing proportion of people who are in it for the speculative gain for the change in price but theyre also holders of commodities So that has really complicated the picture JAY And theres nothing that I know of in any of the regulatory proposals or regimes that are being discussed that would actually force any kind of disclosure Is there in terms of whats being held whats being hoarded Cause it seems to me theres sort of a relationship between the speculative activity and the hoarding Like you know if youre going toif you own a commodity and then you bet long on the commodity its in your interest to hold on to that commodity and kind of force the market up and then you get the speculative psychological bubble that takes place which also then affects well why would I sell now I saw an interesting story about just an ordinary rice wholesaler I guess you could say in India and it was in a documentary he was interviewed and he had a big storehouse filled with rice and he was saying well why should I sell it I looked at the future markets and I know the price of rice is expected to go up in three months so why wouldnt I wait three months before I sell my rice I mean does that not play a role GHOSH Oh absolutely But you know in fact that used to be the traditional form of speculation hoarding That used to be how people did speculate in commodities That was the only way you could do it is by holding on to it in the expectation of the price rise And in India in fact we have things like antihoarding laws and you know the usual target whenever these prices rise is to go out there and attack what are called the godowns Theyre the warehouses of traders and others who would be hoarding these commodities to wait for the price increase The difficulty today is that we really have very large multinational players We have no idea what their level of stock holding is because there is no disclosure requirement as such in any particular market And in any case if these are global players you really dont know where theyre holding it and in what form And these are interacting with the financial play In fact often its the same commercial player who is doing both if you like the commercial holding of that stock and the speculative activity JAY Now one of the places where this fightsregulatory fights taking place right now is as I said in Washington the DoddFrank bill and theres a big fight over whether there should be real position limits or not Can you explain what thats about GHOSH Its defined in terms of the volume of the commodity that you are buying And the idea behind a position limit is actually to ensure that no single player can unduly influence the market The difficulty is in terms of how you define the position limit because its been aearlier regulators were going along with the idea that oh if youre a commercial trader you should have very largethe sky is the limit for your position limit because you know after all you will be needing this and you areyou are engaged in it only for your commercial activity JAY Well this is an example of that would be in airlines that tries to hedge the price of jet fuel so they buy a lot ofwhich seems to have some legitimacy to it GHOSH Yes exactly You know So you will say alright if youre an airline company youre going to need a lot of aviation fuel so you know wethe sky is the limit I think we have to get over that now We have to say well your position limit is maybe a years demand for the aviation fuel Or if you are a large trading company lets say a Cargill or Glencore or one of these your position limit would be six months worth of your turnover in a particular commodity something like that Wed have to crosstalk JAY Which is to try to say if its part of the actual hedging of real selling is one thing if its really just about speculative pressure its another GHOSH Thats right JAY And where are we at in that fight Iit really is not gettingits getting so little attention here in the United States but its actuallytheres athe battles taking place as we speak is it not GHOSH It is And what is really scary about this battle is that so much of it happens behind closed doors because this is not now about the law Its not about legislators Its really about the rules and regulations And so these are things which are decided on by people in the Securities and Exchange Commission or people in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or its really decided by people who can be very susceptible to financial lobbies JAY And the lobbiesthe lobbyings enormous GHOSH Oh absolutely and theyre very active and theyre very energetic in trying to make sure that the rules are such that they can carry on doing what theyre doing JAY So if people are thinking well what can I do about it I guess in terms of what demands people might make on their politicians what would you suggest GHOSH I would say that the politicians the public at large have to demand from all of these regulatory commissions a very very clear description of the exact rules and regulations that they are putting in place And well of course it requires huge financial and legal literacy among the public at large but at least they have to be organizations from civil society or groups that actually look through those to figure out what they really mean and whether they will be successful in enforcing the kind of regulation that is required There is really no public knowledge either about the nature of these rules or the implications of these rules JAY And should there not also be some questions raised either whether its in antitrust legislation or even some issues of public ownership how much concentration of ownership there is in food ForI was justfor example I follow this company Glencore and one of the investors in it Glencore is apparently the biggest commodities traderowner in the world right now And the sultan of Brunei apparently is one of the larger investors And the sultan of Brunei not only does he own a big piece of Glencore which is a major owner of Russian wheat and foodstuffs and other kinds of commodities all over the world but he also just turned around with his sovereign wealth fund and bought the biggest poultry producer in Turkey There seems to be a real scramble to buy up thewho makes and produces the worlds food GHOSH Yes Well you know this has been one of the very concentrated sectors now in the world for a while really over the last two decades In the United States there are really four or five major producers who are controlling about 85 percent of commodities trade And the point is that theyre not just what is called horizontally concentrated but theyre vertically concentrated That is to say these big companies control every part of the commodity you know process the production theyou know they give inputs they buy the output they go all the way down to retail trade And now increasingly they are the ones active in the futures market as well JAY Thanks very much for joining us Jayati GHOSH Thank you It was a pleasure JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End of Transcript DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | PAUL/PROPN JAY/PROPN SENIOR/PROPN EDITOR/NOUN TRNN/PROPN Welcome/PROPN to/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN 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<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Inc:</p>
<p>* KINDER MORGAN SEES PLACEMENT OF $3.2 BILLION OF GROWTH PROJECTS IN COMMERCIAL SERVICE DURING 2018 ‍​</p>
<p>* KINDER MORGAN - IN 2018, EXPECT TO FUND ALL INVESTMENT NEEDS, OTHER THAN DEBT MATURITIES, WITH INTERNAL CASH FLOW</p>
<p>* KINDER MORGAN - U.S. TAX REFORM TO HAVE ONE-TIME, NON-CASH NEGATIVE IMPACT OF ABOUT $1.4 BILLION TO GAAP EARNINGS</p>
<p>* KINDER MORGAN SAYS INITIATED $2 BILLION BUYBACK IN DEC 2017, 1 MONTH AHEAD OF ORIGINAL TARGET‍​</p>
<p>* KINDER MORGAN SEES TOTAL SUSTAINING CAPITAL EXPENDITURES OF $664 MILLION FOR 2018 Source text : ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2n67y63" type="external">bit.ly/2n67y63</a>) Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CRM.N" type="external">CRM.N</a>) is in advanced discussions to acquire U.S. software maker MuleSoft Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MULE.N" type="external">MULE.N</a>), people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, as it looks to expand its offerings beyond customer relationship management software.</p> FILE PHOTO - The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco, California, U.S. October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lily Jamali/File Photo
<p>The acquisition, which the sources said could be worth more than $6 billion, would be Salesforce’s biggest ever deal, illustrating Chief Executive Marc Benioff’s push to supplement the company’s cloud-based portfolio with new technology.</p>
<p>A deal could be announced as soon as this week, the sources said, cautioning that negotiations had not been finalized and that an agreement was not certain.</p>
<p>The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Salesforce and MuleSoft declined to comment.</p>
<p>MuleSoft shares jumped more than 20 percent to $39.88 after Reuters reported the talks, giving the company a market value of $5.3 billion. Salesforce shares were up 0.3 percent at $125.31.</p>
<p>Based in San Francisco, MuleSoft makes software that automatically integrates disparate data, devices and applications to help companies’ networks run faster. It could help Salesforce win business from customers which are not yet ready to transition their systems to the cloud.</p>
<p>Buying MuleSoft would help Salesforce build a larger enterprise apps ecosystem around its own products, Barclays Plc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BARC.L" type="external">BARC.L</a>) analysts wrote in a research note, adding that MuleSoft could command a premium given its rapid growth and good fit.</p>
<p>Salesforce Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm, led a $128 million funding round in MuleSoft in 2015.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CRM.N" type="external">Salesforce.com Inc</a> 125.12 CRM.N New York Stock Exchange -- (--%) CRM.N MULE.N BARC.L KO.N MCD.N
<p>MuleSoft has more than 1,000 customers, including Coca-Cola Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KO.N" type="external">KO.N</a>), McDonald’s Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MCD.N" type="external">MCD.N</a>), Spotify and Unilever ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ULVR.L" type="external">ULVR.L</a>). It went public about a year ago.</p>
<p>Salesforce holds more than 18 percent of the global customer relationship management software market, followed by Oracle Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ORCL.N" type="external">ORCL.N</a>) with 9.4 percent, according to 2016 figures provided by research firm IDC.</p>
<p>Alphabet Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) Google acquired a competitor of MuleSoft called Apigee Corp in a $625 million deal in 2016.</p>
<p>Salesforce has benefited from companies switching to cloud-based services due to the lower costs and high level of scalability. Last month, it posted a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street targets, fueled by growth in its cloud-based sales and marketing software.</p>
<p>Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Rigby and Meredith Mazzilli</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German conglomerate Bayer won EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its $62.5 billion buy of U.S. peer Monsanto, the latest in a trio of mega mergers that will reshape the agrochemicals industry.</p> European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference at the EU Commission's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
<p>The tie-up is set to create a company with control of more than a quarter of the world’s seed and pesticides market.</p>
<p>Driven by shifting weather patterns, competition in grain exports and a faltering global farm economy, Dow and Dupont, and ChemChina [CNNCC.UL] and Syngenta had earlier led a wave of consolidation in the sector.</p>
<p>Both deals secured EU approval only after the companies offered substantial asset sales to boost rivals.</p>
<p>Environmental and farming groups have opposed all three deals, worried about their power and their advantage in digital farming data, which can tell farmers how and when to till, sow, spray, fertilize and pick crops based on algorithms.</p>
<p>The European Commission said Bayer addressed its concerns with its offer to sell a swathe of assets to boost rival BASF, confirming a Reuters story on Feb. 28.</p>
<p>“Our decision ensures that there will be effective competition and innovation in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture markets also after this merger,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.</p>
<p>“In particular, we have made sure that the number of global players actively competing in these markets stays the same.”</p> European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference at the EU Commission's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
<p>Vestager said the Commission, which received more than a million petitions concerning the deal, had been thorough by examining more than 2,000 different product markets and 2.7 million internal documents to produce a 1,285-page ruling.</p>
<p>Bayer has already reached a deal to sell certain seed and herbicide assets for 5.9 billion euros ($7.2 billion) to BASF and to give it a license to its global digital farming data. It will also divest its vegetable seeds business to BASF.</p>
<p>The Commission is due to rule on the BASF deal by April 16.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>Online campaigns group Avaaz criticized the EU approval.</p>
<p>“This is a marriage made in hell. The Commission ignored a million people who called on them to block this deal, and caved in to lobbying to create a mega-corporation which will dominate our food supply,” Avaaz legal director Nick Flynn said.</p>
<p>U.S.-incorporated Avaaz, funded by its members, is active in climate change, poverty, conflict and corruption issues.</p>
<p>The Greens grouping in the European Parliament echoed the sentiment, saying smaller players in the agriculture industry needed to be helped too.</p>
<p>“The agriculture industry is already far too concentrated, giving a handful of massive firms a stranglehold on food production. Merging two of the biggest players only makes a bad situation worse,” Greens spokesman Bart Staes said.</p>
<p>China has given conditional approval to the Bayer, Monsanto deal, which has won a green light in Brazil. It is currently being reviewed by U.S. and Russian antitrust authorities.</p>
<p>Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Robin Emmott and David Evans</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - World shares fell on Wednesday and the dollar eased off three-week highs as markets awaited a likely increase in U.S. interest rates and guidance on how many more to expect for this year.</p> The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Tilman Blasshofer
<p>Markets were also spooked by signs of a brewing global trade war - a Wall Street Journal report saying China was planning counter-measures against U.S. trade tariffs. European shares fell and investors scurried for the safety of German government bonds and the Japanese yen.</p>
<p>And equity futures indicated that U.S. stocks, which have been roiled by a hefty selloff in technology shares this week, are set for another weak session ESC1.</p>
<p>The selloff wiped some $50 billion off the value of social media giant Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), leaving investors on edge as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise U.S. rates for the first time this year.</p>
<p>The Facebook losses, caused by uproar over the alleged misuse of user data, have filtered through the tech sector, with shares in Twitter ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TWTR.N" type="external">TWTR.N</a>) falling more than 10 percent on Tuesday.</p>
<p>A pan-European equity index fell almost 0.3 percent, its early weakness accelerating after the WSJ report on China and a tech shares index reversing an early bounce. The yen, typically bought during times of stress, rose to the day's high versus the dollar around 106.26 <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=JPY&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">JPY=</a>.</p>
<p>“So far, we have seen low-level (trade) skirmishes, which are not material enough to affect the world economy. But if we see retaliation, and significant trade disruptions, it’s a different order or magnitude, could begin to affect global growth forecasts,” said Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments.</p>
<p>The tech selloff is a serious setback to markets just as they recover from an early-February selloff, Milligan said, noting tech had been “the leading light of U.S. and Asian equity markets for over a year.”</p>
<p>MSCI’s all-country equity index flatlined MIWD00000PUS&gt;, and is now 6 percent off January’s record highs, pressured by the trade war fears and the possibility that the Fed will tighten policy more than expected.</p>
<p>The U.S. central bank has raised borrowing costs five times since late 2015. Markets are pricing in three rate increases this year, but some reckon policymakers might squeeze in a fourth, triggering a bond and equity selloff.</p>
<p>The 1800 GMT announcement will also be the first under new Fed chair Jerome Powell.</p>
<p>“We might have significant changes in communication compared with what we’ve seen under (previous chair Janet) Yellen,” said Chris Scicluna, head of economic research at Daiwa Capital Markets.</p> FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo
<p>“The economic situation post-tax cuts also justifies a significant shift upwards in the dot plot,” he added, referring to fears the Fed’s de facto policy forecast chart will signal four rate rises rather than three because of the effects of U.S. tax reforms.</p>
<p>Those expectations had sent the dollar to nearly three-week highs on Tuesday, but it eased back a quarter percent against a basket of currencies .DXY on Wednesday, having lost almost half a percent this month.</p>
<p>The dollar’s weakness — it fell 10 percent last year — is at least partly down to U.S. capital seeking to invest overseas amid robust world growth. Milligan said that would continue unless trade skirmishes started hurting the world economy or U.S. growth accelerated further.</p>
<p>“To get the dollar higher, we will need a combination of the Fed being more aggressive and signaling more changes for 2019,” he said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 168.15 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O TWTR.N TRADE WAR FEARS
<p>The WSJ report on potential Chinese tariffs comes as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to announce on Friday up to $60 billion in import duties on Chinese goods. He imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum earlier this month.</p>
<p>This week’s meeting of finance ministers and central banks of the world’s 20 biggest economies failed to diffuse tensions, with the G20 said only it “recognised” the need for more “dialogue and actions”.</p>
<p>The currencies of export-heavy nations such as the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars and most emerging currencies fell.</p>
<p>The Aussie <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=AUD&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">AUD=D4</a> traded near three-month troughs against the dollar of $0.7679 and the Kiwi <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=NZD&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">NZD=D4</a> hit its lowest since early January. The Canadian dollar <a href="/finance/currencies/quote?srcCurr=CAD&amp;destCurr=USD" type="external">CAD=D4</a> held at $1.3029 after dropping to $1.3124 on Monday, its weakest since mid-2017.</p>
<p>The Mexican peso was up almost 1 percent against the dollar after reports the United States had dropped a demand that vehicles imported from Canada and Mexico should contain 50 percent U.S. content.</p>
<p>Fears of a trade war have also weighed on commodity prices, though tensions in the Middle East supported oil, lifting Brent futures LCOc1 almost half a percent.</p>
<p>Copper prices in Shanghai fell to their lowest in almost six month, their fourth straight day of losses SCFcv1.</p> Related Video
<p>The WSJ report fueled some buying of German bonds, pushing the 10-year yield off the day’s highs. The yield was just one basis point higher on the day at 0.59 percent DE10YT=RR.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sujata Rao; Additional reporting by Swati Pandey in Sydney and Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Editing by Larry King</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Weinstein Company’s bankruptcy filing will not protect ex-Chairman Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault, an attorney for the studio told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary Walrath on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“We are not here to protect Harvey Weinstein,” attorney Paul Zumbro said. “(The Weinstein Company) filing for bankruptcy relief in no way affects anyone’s ability to pursue civil or criminal claims against Harvey Weinstein.”</p>
<p>Weinstein, who co-founded the company with his brother Bob and once was one of Hollywood’s most influential men, has been accused of sexual misconduct including rape by more than 70 women. He has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. It has been unclear how his alleged victims would be treated in a potential bankruptcy filing.</p>
<p>The Weinstein Company filed for bankruptcy late Monday after it spent months looking for a buyer or investor. Texas private equity firm Lantern Capital agreed to buy the Company out of bankruptcy for $310 million, setting the floor for other bidders in a court-supervised auction scheduled for later this spring.</p>
<p>The bankruptcy will halt victim’s lawsuits against the company and any sexual misconduct claims would likely be compensated only after secured creditors are paid in full. A failed offer for the studio from former Obama administration official Maria Contreras-Sweet included an $80 million to $90 million compensation fund that would supplement any insurance payouts victims would receive.</p>
<p>As part of the bankruptcy filing, the Weinstein Company said it released anyone “who suffered or witnessed any form of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein” from nondisclosure agreements.</p>
<p>“Since October, it has been reported that Harvey Weinstein used non-disclosure agreements as a secret weapon to silence his accusers. Effective immediately, those ‘agreements’ end,” the company said in an emailed statement.</p> FILE PHOTO - Harvey Weinstein speaks at the UBS 40th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, December 5, 2012. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
<p>In court Tuesday, the film studio also received approval to tap some of its bankruptcy loan to make payroll for its remaining employees.</p>
<p>The Weinstein Company, which has won 28 Academy Awards, owns a film library of 277 feature films that have generated over $2 billion in aggregate box office receipts worldwide.</p>
<p>Yet the company said in court papers it has lost about 25 percent of its workforce and many of its longtime business partners since October 2017, when accusations against Harvey Weinstein became public.</p>
<p>“It is an understatement to say that the last six months have been trying for the company,” Chief Restructuring Officer Robert Del Genio said in court papers.</p>
<p>The studio has spent months looking for a buyer or investor. Before the deal with Contreras-Sweet failed, the company had tried securing rescue financing from other investors.</p>
<p>Lions Gate Entertainment Corp had made an earlier offer for some of the company’s assets, as had Qatar-owned film company Miramax, which was founded by Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein. Both could be among potential bidders in the auction.</p>
<p>Movie producer Killer Content also said bankruptcy would be the best option for the company and that it may be interested in the studio’s assets in a bankruptcy auction.</p>
<p>Launched in October 2005, the studio produced and distributed critically acclaimed hits including “The King’s Speech” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” as well as TV series such as long-running fashion reality competition “Project Runway.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Kinder Morgan Sees Placement Of $3.2 Bln Of Growth Projects In Commercial Service During 2018 Exclusive: Salesforce in advanced talks to buy MuleSoft - sources Bayer wins EU approval for $62.5 billion Monsanto buy World shares and dollar slip as jitters build on Fed, trade and tech Weinstein Co says its bankruptcy filing won't protect ex-chairman | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-kinder-morgan-sees-placement-of-32/brief-kinder-morgan-sees-placement-of-32-bln-of-growth-projects-in-commercial-service-during-2018-idUSFWN1PJ0VP | 2018-01-24 | 2least
| 2,526 | Jan 24 Reuters Kinder Morgan Inc KINDER MORGAN SEES PLACEMENT OF 32 BILLION OF GROWTH PROJECTS IN COMMERCIAL SERVICE DURING 2018 82058203 KINDER MORGAN IN 2018 EXPECT TO FUND ALL INVESTMENT NEEDS OTHER THAN DEBT MATURITIES WITH INTERNAL CASH FLOW KINDER MORGAN US TAX REFORM TO HAVE ONETIME NONCASH NEGATIVE IMPACT OF ABOUT 14 BILLION TO GAAP EARNINGS KINDER MORGAN SAYS INITIATED 2 BILLION BUYBACK IN DEC 2017 1 MONTH AHEAD OF ORIGINAL TARGET82058203 KINDER MORGAN SEES TOTAL SUSTAINING CAPITAL EXPENDITURES OF 664 MILLION FOR 2018 Source text bitly2n67y63 Further company coverage Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters Salesforcecom Inc CRMN is in advanced discussions to acquire US software maker MuleSoft Inc MULEN people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday as it looks to expand its offerings beyond customer relationship management software FILE PHOTO The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco California US October 12 2016 REUTERSLily JamaliFile Photo The acquisition which the sources said could be worth more than 6 billion would be Salesforce8217s biggest ever deal illustrating Chief Executive Marc Benioff8217s push to supplement the company8217s cloudbased portfolio with new technology A deal could be announced as soon as this week the sources said cautioning that negotiations had not been finalized and that an agreement was not certain The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential Salesforce and MuleSoft declined to comment MuleSoft shares jumped more than 20 percent to 3988 after Reuters reported the talks giving the company a market value of 53 billion Salesforce shares were up 03 percent at 12531 Based in San Francisco MuleSoft makes software that automatically integrates disparate data devices and applications to help companies8217 networks run faster It could help Salesforce win business from customers which are not yet ready to transition their systems to the cloud Buying MuleSoft would help Salesforce build a larger enterprise apps ecosystem around its own products Barclays Plc BARCL analysts wrote in a research note adding that MuleSoft could command a premium given its rapid growth and good fit Salesforce Ventures the company8217s venture capital arm led a 128 million funding round in MuleSoft in 2015 Salesforcecom Inc 12512 CRMN New York Stock Exchange CRMN MULEN BARCL KON MCDN MuleSoft has more than 1000 customers including CocaCola Co KON McDonald8217s Corp MCDN Spotify and Unilever ULVRL It went public about a year ago Salesforce holds more than 18 percent of the global customer relationship management software market followed by Oracle Corp ORCLN with 94 percent according to 2016 figures provided by research firm IDC Alphabet Inc8217s GOOGLO Google acquired a competitor of MuleSoft called Apigee Corp in a 625 million deal in 2016 Salesforce has benefited from companies switching to cloudbased services due to the lower costs and high level of scalability Last month it posted a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street targets fueled by growth in its cloudbased sales and marketing software Reporting by Liana B Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco Editing by Bill Rigby and Meredith Mazzilli Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles BRUSSELS Reuters German conglomerate Bayer won EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its 625 billion buy of US peer Monsanto the latest in a trio of mega mergers that will reshape the agrochemicals industry European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference at the EU Commissions headquarters in Brussels Belgium March 21 2018 REUTERSFrancois Lenoir The tieup is set to create a company with control of more than a quarter of the world8217s seed and pesticides market Driven by shifting weather patterns competition in grain exports and a faltering global farm economy Dow and Dupont and ChemChina CNNCCUL and Syngenta had earlier led a wave of consolidation in the sector Both deals secured EU approval only after the companies offered substantial asset sales to boost rivals Environmental and farming groups have opposed all three deals worried about their power and their advantage in digital farming data which can tell farmers how and when to till sow spray fertilize and pick crops based on algorithms The European Commission said Bayer addressed its concerns with its offer to sell a swathe of assets to boost rival BASF confirming a Reuters story on Feb 28 8220Our decision ensures that there will be effective competition and innovation in seeds pesticides and digital agriculture markets also after this merger8221 European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement 8220In particular we have made sure that the number of global players actively competing in these markets stays the same8221 European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference at the EU Commissions headquarters in Brussels Belgium March 21 2018 REUTERSFrancois Lenoir Vestager said the Commission which received more than a million petitions concerning the deal had been thorough by examining more than 2000 different product markets and 27 million internal documents to produce a 1285page ruling Bayer has already reached a deal to sell certain seed and herbicide assets for 59 billion euros 72 billion to BASF and to give it a license to its global digital farming data It will also divest its vegetable seeds business to BASF The Commission is due to rule on the BASF deal by April 16 Slideshow 2 Images Online campaigns group Avaaz criticized the EU approval 8220This is a marriage made in hell The Commission ignored a million people who called on them to block this deal and caved in to lobbying to create a megacorporation which will dominate our food supply8221 Avaaz legal director Nick Flynn said USincorporated Avaaz funded by its members is active in climate change poverty conflict and corruption issues The Greens grouping in the European Parliament echoed the sentiment saying smaller players in the agriculture industry needed to be helped too 8220The agriculture industry is already far too concentrated giving a handful of massive firms a stranglehold on food production Merging two of the biggest players only makes a bad situation worse8221 Greens spokesman Bart Staes said China has given conditional approval to the Bayer Monsanto deal which has won a green light in Brazil It is currently being reviewed by US and Russian antitrust authorities Reporting by Foo Yun Chee editing by Robin Emmott and David Evans Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles LONDON Reuters World shares fell on Wednesday and the dollar eased off threeweek highs as markets awaited a likely increase in US interest rates and guidance on how many more to expect for this year The German share price index DAX board is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt Germany March 21 2018 REUTERSTilman Blasshofer Markets were also spooked by signs of a brewing global trade war a Wall Street Journal report saying China was planning countermeasures against US trade tariffs European shares fell and investors scurried for the safety of German government bonds and the Japanese yen And equity futures indicated that US stocks which have been roiled by a hefty selloff in technology shares this week are set for another weak session ESC1 The selloff wiped some 50 billion off the value of social media giant Facebook FBO leaving investors on edge as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise US rates for the first time this year The Facebook losses caused by uproar over the alleged misuse of user data have filtered through the tech sector with shares in Twitter TWTRN falling more than 10 percent on Tuesday A panEuropean equity index fell almost 03 percent its early weakness accelerating after the WSJ report on China and a tech shares index reversing an early bounce The yen typically bought during times of stress rose to the days high versus the dollar around 10626 JPY 8220So far we have seen lowlevel trade skirmishes which are not material enough to affect the world economy But if we see retaliation and significant trade disruptions it8217s a different order or magnitude could begin to affect global growth forecasts8221 said Andrew Milligan head of global strategy at Aberdeen Standard Investments The tech selloff is a serious setback to markets just as they recover from an earlyFebruary selloff Milligan said noting tech had been 8220the leading light of US and Asian equity markets for over a year8221 MSCI8217s allcountry equity index flatlined MIWD00000PUSampgt and is now 6 percent off January8217s record highs pressured by the trade war fears and the possibility that the Fed will tighten policy more than expected The US central bank has raised borrowing costs five times since late 2015 Markets are pricing in three rate increases this year but some reckon policymakers might squeeze in a fourth triggering a bond and equity selloff The 1800 GMT announcement will also be the first under new Fed chair Jerome Powell 8220We might have significant changes in communication compared with what we8217ve seen under previous chair Janet Yellen8221 said Chris Scicluna head of economic research at Daiwa Capital Markets FILE PHOTO A US Dollar note is seen in this June 22 2017 illustration photo REUTERSThomas WhiteIllustrationFile Photo 8220The economic situation posttax cuts also justifies a significant shift upwards in the dot plot8221 he added referring to fears the Fed8217s de facto policy forecast chart will signal four rate rises rather than three because of the effects of US tax reforms Those expectations had sent the dollar to nearly threeweek highs on Tuesday but it eased back a quarter percent against a basket of currencies DXY on Wednesday having lost almost half a percent this month The dollar8217s weakness 8212 it fell 10 percent last year 8212 is at least partly down to US capital seeking to invest overseas amid robust world growth Milligan said that would continue unless trade skirmishes started hurting the world economy or US growth accelerated further 8220To get the dollar higher we will need a combination of the Fed being more aggressive and signaling more changes for 20198221 he said Facebook Inc 16815 FBO Nasdaq 000 000 FBO TWTRN TRADE WAR FEARS The WSJ report on potential Chinese tariffs comes as US President Donald Trump prepares to announce on Friday up to 60 billion in import duties on Chinese goods He imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum earlier this month This week8217s meeting of finance ministers and central banks of the world8217s 20 biggest economies failed to diffuse tensions with the G20 said only it 8220recognised8221 the need for more 8220dialogue and actions8221 The currencies of exportheavy nations such as the Australian New Zealand and Canadian dollars and most emerging currencies fell The Aussie AUDD4 traded near threemonth troughs against the dollar of 07679 and the Kiwi NZDD4 hit its lowest since early January The Canadian dollar CADD4 held at 13029 after dropping to 13124 on Monday its weakest since mid2017 The Mexican peso was up almost 1 percent against the dollar after reports the United States had dropped a demand that vehicles imported from Canada and Mexico should contain 50 percent US content Fears of a trade war have also weighed on commodity prices though tensions in the Middle East supported oil lifting Brent futures LCOc1 almost half a percent Copper prices in Shanghai fell to their lowest in almost six month their fourth straight day of losses SCFcv1 Related Video The WSJ report fueled some buying of German bonds pushing the 10year yield off the day8217s highs The yield was just one basis point higher on the day at 059 percent DE10YTRR Reporting by Sujata Rao Additional reporting by Swati Pandey in Sydney and Dhara Ranasinghe in London Editing by Larry King Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORKCHICAGO Reuters The Weinstein Company8217s bankruptcy filing will not protect exChairman Harvey Weinstein who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault an attorney for the studio told US Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary Walrath on Tuesday 8220We are not here to protect Harvey Weinstein8221 attorney Paul Zumbro said 8220The Weinstein Company filing for bankruptcy relief in no way affects anyone8217s ability to pursue civil or criminal claims against Harvey Weinstein8221 Weinstein who cofounded the company with his brother Bob and once was one of Hollywood8217s most influential men has been accused of sexual misconduct including rape by more than 70 women He has denied having nonconsensual sex with anyone It has been unclear how his alleged victims would be treated in a potential bankruptcy filing The Weinstein Company filed for bankruptcy late Monday after it spent months looking for a buyer or investor Texas private equity firm Lantern Capital agreed to buy the Company out of bankruptcy for 310 million setting the floor for other bidders in a courtsupervised auction scheduled for later this spring The bankruptcy will halt victim8217s lawsuits against the company and any sexual misconduct claims would likely be compensated only after secured creditors are paid in full A failed offer for the studio from former Obama administration official Maria ContrerasSweet included an 80 million to 90 million compensation fund that would supplement any insurance payouts victims would receive As part of the bankruptcy filing the Weinstein Company said it released anyone 8220who suffered or witnessed any form of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein8221 from nondisclosure agreements 8220Since October it has been reported that Harvey Weinstein used nondisclosure agreements as a secret weapon to silence his accusers Effective immediately those 8216agreements8217 end8221 the company said in an emailed statement FILE PHOTO Harvey Weinstein speaks at the UBS 40th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York December 5 2012 REUTERSCarlo Allegri In court Tuesday the film studio also received approval to tap some of its bankruptcy loan to make payroll for its remaining employees The Weinstein Company which has won 28 Academy Awards owns a film library of 277 feature films that have generated over 2 billion in aggregate box office receipts worldwide Yet the company said in court papers it has lost about 25 percent of its workforce and many of its longtime business partners since October 2017 when accusations against Harvey Weinstein became public 8220It is an understatement to say that the last six months have been trying for the company8221 Chief Restructuring Officer Robert Del Genio said in court papers The studio has spent months looking for a buyer or investor Before the deal with ContrerasSweet failed the company had tried securing rescue financing from other investors Lions Gate Entertainment Corp had made an earlier offer for some of the company8217s assets as had Qatarowned film company Miramax which was founded by Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein Both could be among potential bidders in the auction Movie producer Killer Content also said bankruptcy would be the best option for the company and that it may be interested in the studio8217s assets in a bankruptcy auction Launched in October 2005 the studio produced and distributed critically acclaimed hits including 8220The King8217s Speech8221 and 8220Silver Linings Playbook8221 as well as TV series such as longrunning fashion reality competition 8220Project Runway8221 Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru Editing by Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Jan/PROPN 24/NUM Reuters/PROPN Kinder/PROPN Morgan/PROPN Inc/PROPN KINDER/PROPN MORGAN/PROPN SEES/PROPN PLACEMENT/PROPN OF/ADP 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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. And in Washington a battle continues. No, it's not just the debt ceiling battle. There is another battle taking place that's not getting so much attention but in the long run may be actually more significant, and that's the battle over whether there'll be any real regulation about speculation in commodities trading. That's things like oil and, perhaps even more importantly, food. The Dodd-Frank bill allowed for some kind of regulation, but there's a behind-the-scenes fight taking place whether that regulation is going to be meaningful or just some nice words on paper. Now joining us to talk about the regulatory battle, but also the whole issue of the price of food, is Jayati Ghosh. Jayati teaches at JNU in New Delhi, at the university there, and she's a renowned global expert on commodities trading and speculation. Thanks for joining us, Jayati.
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<p />JAYATI GHOSH, JNU, NEW DELHI: It's a pleasure to talk to you.
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<p />JAY: So why don't we start now from where we were last time we talked, which is just a little less than a year ago? We talked about the beginnings of a new food bubble in prices. So did the bubble take place? And where are we now?
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<p />GHOSH: Well, very much so. In fact, from about the beginning of 2010 to February 2011 we had a very significant increase in food prices, something like 40 percent overall, and in some commodities, like wheat, a doubling between just June and December. The prices peaked in February this year, but they've been very volatile since then, they've been up and down. And it's really not clear at the moment which direction they'll go in.
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<p />JAY: So if we look back and analyze why that bubble took place, how much did that have to do with real issues of supply and demand, drought, and/or flooding and this sort of thing, and how much had to do with speculation?
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<p />GHOSH: Well, the tragic story is that once again it was entirely, almost, but certainly dominantly driven by speculative activity, by the financialization of the commodities markets. And a classic example of that is actually what happened in the wheat market. If you remember, around June we started hearing stories of how they are going to be--there's a drought in Russia, there's a bad harvest in Ukraine, we're going to face all kinds of difficulties in terms of global wheat. And between June and December, the wheat price in global trade doubled. Okay? It turns out afterwards, now that we have the data, the FAO data are telling us that actually wheat production in the world as a whole increased over those six months, and wheat demand in the whole world hardly increased at all. So there was really no real demand-and-supply reason for those massive changes in wheat price.
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<p />JAY: When this speculation takes place, and you had certain investors betting long, and, let's say, either because they're also owners of these commodities, some of the big players are actual commodity owners, they own wheat and such, but still someone has to bet against them on the other side to play--to make the bet. So how do they get people to--how are they able to kind of create this atmosphere, on the one hand, that prices are going to go up, on the other hand, find somebody that can bet that they're going to go down?
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<p />GHOSH: Well, it's really that you have--it's not necessarily that you have to keep finding somebody that is betting that they're going to go down, because what you really do is shift the market sentiment on expectation that the price will rise. And then the ones who really can make money are the ones who get out before the crash, which is inevitable once people realize that there isn't really a real movement. This is the nature of bubbles, that you can create a bubble because either a significant player shifts in and moves the price up a little bit, or because you have media sentiment that is making everyone believe that, yes, this is a period of rising prices because of all these other real economy factors, and then, having created that sentiment, you ride the wave. And if you're able to jump off before the wave bursts on the shore, then you're the one who makes the profits.
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<p />JAY: Now--. Sorry. Go ahead.
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<p />GHOSH: Yes. Now all the retail investors who've been following you are the ones who are holding the losses.
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<p />JAY: Now, how much does hoarding have to do with this? I'm reading stories in the financial press about, for example, boats filled with oil sitting off the coast, waiting for the spot market to go up before they'll land the boat. There's a recent story about Glencore had--has a boat filled with Gulf oil. They're paying $16,000 a day to rent the oil tanker, but they don't want to bring it ashore until they wait for oil prices to go higher again. The--we read that Glencore and Goldman Sachs are doing it in nickel. They're renting or owning now enormous wharehouses--I'm sorry, not nickel; aluminum--where they're storing aluminum, waiting for the price of aluminum to go up. How much does that--do we know if that affects food as well?
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<p />GHOSH: I think it's probably affecting the foods, especially the grains, as well. The trouble is that we really have no information on private stockholding at all. We have no idea how much is being held by big companies, where it's being held, how it's being held. And this is in fact one of the things which allows a lot of rumor and speculative activity to run free in the markets. You know, if I could tell you, there are basically three big changes in the latest bubble that we've experienced compared to the previous bubble. You remember the previous bubble, 2007-08?
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<p />JAY: Yes.
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<p />GHOSH: The latest bubble that we've had last year, and which is really ongoing in a way right now, has a couple of other features. The first is that, you know, the OTC trade, that is, the over-the-counter trade, the completely deregulated activity, that has declined quite significantly. And that's probably because financial players are realizing that the Dodd-Frank bill, and maybe European Union legislation, is going to force them to abandon over-the-counter trading. So they're moving onto regulated exchanges. But in the regulated exchanges, because the position limits are set very high or because there are many other things that actually do not effectively regulate these players, you're still able to influence the market in all kinds of ways. The third thing that is happening is that it's no longer just the financial players who are causing these kinds of price movements. Earlier, we have said that, you know, there are index traders, there are banks like Goldman Sachs who have huge commodities divisions. There are other such agents that are really entering the market and who are purely financial, who have no interest in holding the commodity. Now there's a growing proportion of people who are in it for the speculative gain, for the change in price, but they're also holders of commodities. So that has really complicated the picture.
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<p />JAY: And there's nothing that I know of in any of the regulatory proposals or regimes that are being discussed that would actually force any kind of disclosure. Is there, in terms of what's being held, what's being hoarded? 'Cause it seems to me there's sort of a relationship between the speculative activity and the hoarding. Like, you know, if you're going to--if you own a commodity and then you bet long on the commodity, it's in your interest to hold on to that commodity and kind of force the market up, and then you get the speculative psychological bubble that takes place, which also then affects well, why would I sell now? I saw an interesting story about just an ordinary rice wholesaler, I guess you could say, in India, and it was in a documentary he was interviewed, and he had a big storehouse filled with rice, and he was saying, well, why should I sell it? I looked at the future markets, and I know the price of rice is expected to go up in three months, so why wouldn't I wait three months before I sell my rice? I mean, does that not play a role?
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<p />GHOSH: Oh, absolutely. But, you know, in fact, that used to be the traditional form of speculation, hoarding. That used to be how people did speculate in commodities. That was the only way you could do it is by holding on to it in the expectation of the price rise. And in India, in fact, we have things like anti-hoarding laws and, you know, the usual target whenever these prices rise is to go out there and attack what are called the godowns. They're the warehouses of traders and others who would be hoarding these commodities to wait for the price increase. The difficulty today is that we really have very large multinational players. We have no idea what their level of stock holding is, because there is no disclosure requirement as such in any particular market. And in any case, if these are global players, you really don't know where they're holding it and in what form. And these are interacting with the financial play. In fact, often it's the same commercial player who is doing both, if you like, the commercial holding of that stock and the speculative activity.
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<p />JAY: Now, one of the places where this fight's--regulatory fight's taking place right now is, as I said, in Washington, the Dodd-Frank bill, and there's a big fight over whether there should be real position limits or not. Can you explain what that's about?
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<p />GHOSH: It's defined in terms of the volume of the commodity that you are buying. And the idea behind a position limit is actually to ensure that no single player can unduly influence the market. The difficulty is in terms of how you define the position limit, because it's been a--earlier regulators were going along with the idea that, oh, if you're a commercial trader, you should have very large--the sky is the limit for your position limit, because, you know, after all, you will be needing this, and you are--you are engaged in it only for your commercial activity.
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<p />JAY: Well, this is an example of that would be in airlines that tries to hedge the price of jet fuel, so they buy a lot of--which seems to have some legitimacy to it.
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<p />GHOSH: Yes, exactly. You know. So you will say, alright, if you're an airline company, you're going to need a lot of aviation fuel, so, you know, we--the sky is the limit. I think we have to get over that now. We have to say, well, your position limit is maybe a year's demand for the aviation fuel. Or if you are a large trading company, let's say, a Cargill or Glencore or one of these, your position limit would be six months' worth of your turnover in a particular commodity, something like that. We'd have to [crosstalk]
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<p />JAY: Which is to try to say, if it's part of the actual hedging of real selling is one thing; if it's really just about speculative pressure, it's another.
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<p />GHOSH: That's right.
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<p />JAY: And where are we at in that fight? I--it really is not getting--it's getting so little attention here in the United States, but it's actually--there's a--the battle's taking place as we speak, is it not?
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<p />GHOSH: It is. And what is really scary about this battle is that so much of it happens behind closed doors, because this is not now about the law. It's not about legislators. It's really about the rules and regulations. And so these are things which are decided on by people in the Securities and Exchange Commission or people in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or it's really decided by people who can be very susceptible to financial lobbies.
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<p />JAY: And the lobbies--the lobbying's enormous.
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<p />GHOSH: Oh, absolutely, and they're very active, and they're very energetic in trying to make sure that the rules are such that they can carry on doing what they're doing.
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<p />JAY: So if people are thinking, well, what can I do about it, I guess, in terms of what demands people might make on their politicians, what would you suggest?
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<p />GHOSH: I would say that the politicians, the public at large, have to demand from all of these regulatory commissions a very, very clear description of the exact rules and regulations that they are putting in place. And, well, of course it requires huge financial and legal literacy among the public at large, but at least they have to be organizations from civil society or groups that actually look through those to figure out what they really mean and whether they will be successful in enforcing the kind of regulation that is required. There is really no public knowledge, either about the nature of these rules or the implications of these rules.
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<p />JAY: And should there not also be some questions raised, either whether it's in antitrust legislation or even some issues of public ownership, how much concentration of ownership there is in food? For--I was just--for example, I follow this company Glencore, and one of the investors in it--. Glencore is apparently the biggest commodities trader-owner in the world right now. And the sultan of Brunei, apparently, is one of the larger investors. And the sultan of Brunei, not only does he own a big piece of Glencore, which is a major owner of Russian wheat and foodstuffs and other kinds of commodities all over the world, but he also just turned around with his sovereign wealth fund and bought the biggest poultry producer in Turkey. There seems to be a real scramble to buy up the--who makes and produces the world's food.
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<p />GHOSH: Yes. Well, you know, this has been one of the very concentrated sectors now in the world for a while, really over the last two decades. In the United States there are really four or five major producers who are controlling about 85 percent of commodities trade. And the point is that they're not just what is called horizontally concentrated, but they're vertically concentrated. That is to say, these big companies control every part of the commodity, you know, process: the production; the--you know, they give inputs; they buy the output; they go all the way down to retail trade. And now, increasingly, they are the ones active in the futures market as well.
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<p />JAY: Thanks very much for joining us, Jayati.
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<p />GHOSH: Thank you. It was a pleasure.
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<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End of Transcript
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Speculation Drove Wheat Prices up While Supply Expanded | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D7064 | 2011-07-20 | 4left
| 2,526 | PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in Washington And in Washington a battle continues No its not just the debt ceiling battle There is another battle taking place thats not getting so much attention but in the long run may be actually more significant and thats the battle over whether therell be any real regulation about speculation in commodities trading Thats things like oil and perhaps even more importantly food The DoddFrank bill allowed for some kind of regulation but theres a behindthescenes fight taking place whether that regulation is going to be meaningful or just some nice words on paper Now joining us to talk about the regulatory battle but also the whole issue of the price of food is Jayati Ghosh Jayati teaches at JNU in New Delhi at the university there and shes a renowned global expert on commodities trading and speculation Thanks for joining us Jayati JAYATI GHOSH JNU NEW DELHI Its a pleasure to talk to you JAY So why dont we start now from where we were last time we talked which is just a little less than a year ago We talked about the beginnings of a new food bubble in prices So did the bubble take place And where are we now GHOSH Well very much so In fact from about the beginning of 2010 to February 2011 we had a very significant increase in food prices something like 40 percent overall and in some commodities like wheat a doubling between just June and December The prices peaked in February this year but theyve been very volatile since then theyve been up and down And its really not clear at the moment which direction theyll go in JAY So if we look back and analyze why that bubble took place how much did that have to do with real issues of supply and demand drought andor flooding and this sort of thing and how much had to do with speculation GHOSH Well the tragic story is that once again it was entirely almost but certainly dominantly driven by speculative activity by the financialization of the commodities markets And a classic example of that is actually what happened in the wheat market If you remember around June we started hearing stories of how they are going to betheres a drought in Russia theres a bad harvest in Ukraine were going to face all kinds of difficulties in terms of global wheat And between June and December the wheat price in global trade doubled Okay It turns out afterwards now that we have the data the FAO data are telling us that actually wheat production in the world as a whole increased over those six months and wheat demand in the whole world hardly increased at all So there was really no real demandandsupply reason for those massive changes in wheat price JAY When this speculation takes place and you had certain investors betting long and lets say either because theyre also owners of these commodities some of the big players are actual commodity owners they own wheat and such but still someone has to bet against them on the other side to playto make the bet So how do they get people tohow are they able to kind of create this atmosphere on the one hand that prices are going to go up on the other hand find somebody that can bet that theyre going to go down GHOSH Well its really that you haveits not necessarily that you have to keep finding somebody that is betting that theyre going to go down because what you really do is shift the market sentiment on expectation that the price will rise And then the ones who really can make money are the ones who get out before the crash which is inevitable once people realize that there isnt really a real movement This is the nature of bubbles that you can create a bubble because either a significant player shifts in and moves the price up a little bit or because you have media sentiment that is making everyone believe that yes this is a period of rising prices because of all these other real economy factors and then having created that sentiment you ride the wave And if youre able to jump off before the wave bursts on the shore then youre the one who makes the profits JAY Now Sorry Go ahead GHOSH Yes Now all the retail investors whove been following you are the ones who are holding the losses JAY Now how much does hoarding have to do with this Im reading stories in the financial press about for example boats filled with oil sitting off the coast waiting for the spot market to go up before theyll land the boat Theres a recent story about Glencore hadhas a boat filled with Gulf oil Theyre paying 16000 a day to rent the oil tanker but they dont want to bring it ashore until they wait for oil prices to go higher again Thewe read that Glencore and Goldman Sachs are doing it in nickel Theyre renting or owning now enormous wharehousesIm sorry not nickel aluminumwhere theyre storing aluminum waiting for the price of aluminum to go up How much does thatdo we know if that affects food as well GHOSH I think its probably affecting the foods especially the grains as well The trouble is that we really have no information on private stockholding at all We have no idea how much is being held by big companies where its being held how its being held And this is in fact one of the things which allows a lot of rumor and speculative activity to run free in the markets You know if I could tell you there are basically three big changes in the latest bubble that weve experienced compared to the previous bubble You remember the previous bubble 200708 JAY Yes GHOSH The latest bubble that weve had last year and which is really ongoing in a way right now has a couple of other features The first is that you know the OTC trade that is the overthecounter trade the completely deregulated activity that has declined quite significantly And thats probably because financial players are realizing that the DoddFrank bill and maybe European Union legislation is going to force them to abandon overthecounter trading So theyre moving onto regulated exchanges But in the regulated exchanges because the position limits are set very high or because there are many other things that actually do not effectively regulate these players youre still able to influence the market in all kinds of ways The third thing that is happening is that its no longer just the financial players who are causing these kinds of price movements Earlier we have said that you know there are index traders there are banks like Goldman Sachs who have huge commodities divisions There are other such agents that are really entering the market and who are purely financial who have no interest in holding the commodity Now theres a growing proportion of people who are in it for the speculative gain for the change in price but theyre also holders of commodities So that has really complicated the picture JAY And theres nothing that I know of in any of the regulatory proposals or regimes that are being discussed that would actually force any kind of disclosure Is there in terms of whats being held whats being hoarded Cause it seems to me theres sort of a relationship between the speculative activity and the hoarding Like you know if youre going toif you own a commodity and then you bet long on the commodity its in your interest to hold on to that commodity and kind of force the market up and then you get the speculative psychological bubble that takes place which also then affects well why would I sell now I saw an interesting story about just an ordinary rice wholesaler I guess you could say in India and it was in a documentary he was interviewed and he had a big storehouse filled with rice and he was saying well why should I sell it I looked at the future markets and I know the price of rice is expected to go up in three months so why wouldnt I wait three months before I sell my rice I mean does that not play a role GHOSH Oh absolutely But you know in fact that used to be the traditional form of speculation hoarding That used to be how people did speculate in commodities That was the only way you could do it is by holding on to it in the expectation of the price rise And in India in fact we have things like antihoarding laws and you know the usual target whenever these prices rise is to go out there and attack what are called the godowns Theyre the warehouses of traders and others who would be hoarding these commodities to wait for the price increase The difficulty today is that we really have very large multinational players We have no idea what their level of stock holding is because there is no disclosure requirement as such in any particular market And in any case if these are global players you really dont know where theyre holding it and in what form And these are interacting with the financial play In fact often its the same commercial player who is doing both if you like the commercial holding of that stock and the speculative activity JAY Now one of the places where this fightsregulatory fights taking place right now is as I said in Washington the DoddFrank bill and theres a big fight over whether there should be real position limits or not Can you explain what thats about GHOSH Its defined in terms of the volume of the commodity that you are buying And the idea behind a position limit is actually to ensure that no single player can unduly influence the market The difficulty is in terms of how you define the position limit because its been aearlier regulators were going along with the idea that oh if youre a commercial trader you should have very largethe sky is the limit for your position limit because you know after all you will be needing this and you areyou are engaged in it only for your commercial activity JAY Well this is an example of that would be in airlines that tries to hedge the price of jet fuel so they buy a lot ofwhich seems to have some legitimacy to it GHOSH Yes exactly You know So you will say alright if youre an airline company youre going to need a lot of aviation fuel so you know wethe sky is the limit I think we have to get over that now We have to say well your position limit is maybe a years demand for the aviation fuel Or if you are a large trading company lets say a Cargill or Glencore or one of these your position limit would be six months worth of your turnover in a particular commodity something like that Wed have to crosstalk JAY Which is to try to say if its part of the actual hedging of real selling is one thing if its really just about speculative pressure its another GHOSH Thats right JAY And where are we at in that fight Iit really is not gettingits getting so little attention here in the United States but its actuallytheres athe battles taking place as we speak is it not GHOSH It is And what is really scary about this battle is that so much of it happens behind closed doors because this is not now about the law Its not about legislators Its really about the rules and regulations And so these are things which are decided on by people in the Securities and Exchange Commission or people in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or its really decided by people who can be very susceptible to financial lobbies JAY And the lobbiesthe lobbyings enormous GHOSH Oh absolutely and theyre very active and theyre very energetic in trying to make sure that the rules are such that they can carry on doing what theyre doing JAY So if people are thinking well what can I do about it I guess in terms of what demands people might make on their politicians what would you suggest GHOSH I would say that the politicians the public at large have to demand from all of these regulatory commissions a very very clear description of the exact rules and regulations that they are putting in place And well of course it requires huge financial and legal literacy among the public at large but at least they have to be organizations from civil society or groups that actually look through those to figure out what they really mean and whether they will be successful in enforcing the kind of regulation that is required There is really no public knowledge either about the nature of these rules or the implications of these rules JAY And should there not also be some questions raised either whether its in antitrust legislation or even some issues of public ownership how much concentration of ownership there is in food ForI was justfor example I follow this company Glencore and one of the investors in it Glencore is apparently the biggest commodities traderowner in the world right now And the sultan of Brunei apparently is one of the larger investors And the sultan of Brunei not only does he own a big piece of Glencore which is a major owner of Russian wheat and foodstuffs and other kinds of commodities all over the world but he also just turned around with his sovereign wealth fund and bought the biggest poultry producer in Turkey There seems to be a real scramble to buy up thewho makes and produces the worlds food GHOSH Yes Well you know this has been one of the very concentrated sectors now in the world for a while really over the last two decades In the United States there are really four or five major producers who are controlling about 85 percent of commodities trade And the point is that theyre not just what is called horizontally concentrated but theyre vertically concentrated That is to say these big companies control every part of the commodity you know process the production theyou know they give inputs they buy the output they go all the way down to retail trade And now increasingly they are the ones active in the futures market as well JAY Thanks very much for joining us Jayati GHOSH Thank you It was a pleasure JAY And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End of Transcript DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | PAUL/PROPN JAY/PROPN SENIOR/PROPN EDITOR/NOUN TRNN/PROPN Welcome/PROPN to/ADP The/DET Real/PROPN 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<p>(Reuters) - Biotech deal activity exploded on Monday with French drugmaker Sanofi and U.S.-based Celgene spending a combined total of more than $20 billion to add new products for hemophilia and cancer to their medicine cabinets.</p>
<p>The acquisitions will fuel expectations for a busy year of mergers and acquisitions (M&amp;A) as large drugmakers snap up promising assets from smaller rivals to help revive growth.</p>
<p>Sanofi agreed to buy U.S. hemophilia expert Bioverativ for $11.6 billion, its biggest deal for seven years, while Celgene is paying about $9 billion for the 90 percent of cancer specialist Juno Therapeutics it does not already own.</p>
<p>The two cash deals were agreed at a prices of $105 and $87 per share respectively. Shares in Bioverativ leaped 63 percent in early U.S. trading and Juno jumped 27 percent, reflecting the offers, while Sanofi fell 4 percent. Celgene was little changed.</p>
<p>Other biotech stocks were driven higher by the takeover news, with rivals to Juno including Bluebird Bio , Sangamo Therapeutics and Cellectis each gaining around 10 percent.</p>
<p>“The signs are good for biotech deal activity in 2018,” said Chris Stirling, head of KPMG’s global life sciences practice.</p>
<p>Big companies are under pressure from declining sales of older treatments and many are struggling to find sufficient high-value replacements from within their own laboratories, making buying in products and know-how an attractive option.</p>
<p>“It takes a long time to introduce technology that makes a significant difference, and in the interim CEOs are looking at any way to get their hands on product where they believe they can make a decent return,” Stirling said. “They’ve got to be seen to be doing things, otherwise they really struggle to convince investors.”</p>
<p>Both Sanofi and Celgene had been seen as likely multibillion-dollar acquirers.</p> BUSY START
<p>The French group, which faces mounting competition in its key diabetes unit, lost out on buying U.S. cancer firm Medivation to Pfizer in 2016, and also missed acquiring Swiss-based Actelion, which was bought by Johnson &amp; Johnson last year.</p>
<p>Celgene, meanwhile, needs to dilute its reliance on cancer drug Revlimid. It had been widely tipped as a buyer for Juno, whose technology is at the cutting edge of cancer treatment.</p>
<p>Juno is one of several pioneers of a system to modify immune cells to fight tumors and its JCAR017 product is likely to reach the market in 2019, behind rival approval treatments from Novartis and Gilead.</p> FILE PHOTO: A scientist prepares protein samples for analysis in a lab at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, Britain, July 15, 2013. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo
<p>Gilead only recently jumped into the space after acquiring Kite Pharma last year for $12 billion in one of the few standout deals during a relatively subdued year for biotech M&amp;A.</p>
<p>Despite the late start, Celgene believes JCAR017 could have peak annual sales of $3 billion and it sees the acquisition being “incrementally additive” to net product sales in 2020. Following setbacks at Juno, Celgene is paying less than the $93 a share it stumped up for just under 10 percent of the company in 2015.</p>
<p>Sanofi expects Bioverativ, which was spun off from Biogen last year, can deliver commercial success despite rapid changes in the $10 billion hemophilia market posed by a novel drug from Roche and the potential of gene therapy to provide a one-time cure.</p>
<p>Those changes have spooked some investors but Sanofi is betting that the factor replacement therapies made by Bioverativ will remain the standard of care for many years and it expects the deal to boost earnings immediately.</p>
<p>Monday’s two big acquisitions build on an already busy start for 2018 biotech M&amp;A, with Celgene earlier agreeing to acquire privately-held Impact Biomedicines for as much as $7 billion, including $1.1 billion upfront, and Novo Nordisk bidding $3.1 billion for Belgium’s Ablynx.</p> FILE PHOTO:A scientist prepares protein samples for analysis in a lab at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, July 15, 2013. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo.
<p>Separate reports this month by consultancy EY and law firm Baker McKenzie both predicted a significant rise in life sciences M&amp;A in 2018, helped by U.S. tax changes that may lift big companies’ appetite for deals.</p>
<p>Lazard advised Sanofi on its deal, while Guggenheim Securities and J.P. Morgan worked for Bioverativ. J.P. Morgan also worked for Celgene and Morgan Stanley for Juno.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Tamara Mathias, Matthias Blamont and Shubham Kalia; Editing by Edmund Blair and Alexander Smith</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. retailer Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>) is in early-stage talks with health insurer Humana Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=HUM.N" type="external">HUM.N</a>) about developing closer ties, with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.</p> Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. REUTERS/John Gress/Files
<p>Should the talks lead to a tieup, it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months, following CVS Health Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CVS.N" type="external">CVS.N</a>) $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AET.N" type="external">AET.N</a>) and Cigna Corp’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=CI.N" type="external">CI.N</a>) $54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ESRX.O" type="external">ESRX.O</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary, two of the sources said. While the conversations have focused on new partnerships, an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed, the sources added.</p>
<p>The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. Humana and Walmart declined to comment.</p>
<p>Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of $264 billion and $37 billion, respectively.</p>
<p>An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart, which is the world’s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) in online shopping.</p>
<p>Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector. Earlier this year, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BRKa.N" type="external">BRKa.N</a>) and JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>), said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their U.S. employees.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">Walmart Inc</a> 88.97 WMT.N New York Stock Exchange +1.20 (+1.37%) WMT.N HUM.N CVS.N AET.N CI.N
<p>“The risks (for Walmart) of becoming entangled in the complex U.S. healthcare industry are considerable, especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market,” Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail, wrote in a note.</p>
<p>“The hammering out of any agreement, which would be Walmart’s largest ever corporate deal, would, of itself, be an enormous distraction,” Saunders added.</p>
<p>Walmart currently has a co-branded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores. The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers.</p>
<p>Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana’s patient population, expanding low-level medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits. They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records.</p>
<p>Humana’s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people, a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition.</p>
<p>Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans - where individuals sign up directly with Humana - rose about 1 percent to 2.86 million, as of Dec. 31. Employer or other group-based Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441,400.</p>
<p>Last month, Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations.</p>
<p>Reporting by Carl O'Donnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street surged on Thursday, bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous, holiday-shortened week as technology stocks rebounded, but the S&amp;P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years.</p>
<p>The year started strong, but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters, fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China, and a selloff in the tech sector.</p>
<p>(GRAPHIC: S&amp;P Quarterly performance during bull market - <a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external">reut.rs/2pUJYLR</a>)</p>
<a href="https://reut.rs/2pUJYLR" type="external" />
<p>Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the S&amp;P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT closed up 2.2 percent after reaching a session high of 3.2 percent, helping push the S&amp;P 500 up 1.4 percent, with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying.</p>
<p>“All the fears now look overblown. Interest rates, the concern about tariffs, we’re going to get into a trade war,” said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York. “But now clearer heads are prevailing. If anything this is a buying opportunity.”</p>
<p>Technology gains were led by Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>), Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) shares.</p>
<p>“Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market. And we’re in a bull market,” said Cote.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 254.69 points, or 1.07 percent, to close at 24,103.11, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 35.87 points, or 1.38 percent, to 2,640.87 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 114.22 points, or 1.64 percent, to 7,063.45.</p>
<p>Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45-year low.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>In other data, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year. The index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, has been below the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target since mid-2012.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) closed up 1.1 percent, recovering from a 4.6 percent drop after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday, claiming without evidence that the company pays “little to no taxes to state &amp; local governments.”</p>
<p>Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world’s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances, averting a trade war.</p>
<p>But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a four-month low in March and reduce holdings of U.S. stocks to the lowest in nearly two years, according to a Reuters poll.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.79 FB.O Nasdaq +6.76 (+4.42%) FB.O INTC.O GOOGL.O MSFT.O .DJI
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.66-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.23-to-1 ratio favored advancers.</p>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.49 billion shares, compared to the 7.29 billion average over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York; Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fund managers have begun to ditch so-called FANG stocks that powered the U.S. stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodity-related shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in late-cycle recoveries.</p>
<p>Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Netflix Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>), and Google-parent Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent year-to-date will spill over into all of the FANG stocks, imperiling the broad market’s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other mega-cap technology stocks tumbled 6.3 percent, the biggest decline since September 2014.</p>
<p>Facebook rose as much as 1.5 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red, one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress. Amazon.com dropped 4 percent, while Netflix fell 5 percent. Google-parent Alphabet was slightly positive.</p>
<p>“There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies, and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation” that will likely eat into their profit margins, said Michael Cuggino, a portfolio manager of the $17-billion Permanent Portfolio funds.</p>
<p>Cuggino, who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook, said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth.</p>
<p>Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year, helping power the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> to a nearly 20-percent gain. Yet those gains have left the broad S&amp;P 500 trading at a high trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 21.7, leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republican-led corporate tax cut at the end of 2017.</p>
<p>“Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 2018,” said Douglas Kass, president of Seabreeze Capital Management.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is now down 2.2 percent for the year, and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 2872.87 it reached on Jan. 26.</p> Slideshow (2 Images) UNFRIENDED
<p>Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies.</p>
<p>Connor Browne, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazon.com last year after both companies blew through his price targets. He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EPD.N" type="external">EPD.N</a>) and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OSG.N" type="external">OSG.N</a>) that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil.</p>
<p>“We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world, there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities,” he said.</p>
<p>Even after the selloff, FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market. Netflix trades at a P/E of 210 and Amazon.com trades at a P/E of 327. Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet, both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns, now trade at valuations near 52-week lows.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.79 FB.O Nasdaq +6.76 (+4.42%) FB.O AMZN.O NFLX.O GOOGL.O .SPX
<p>The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past. Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011, contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016. Since then, the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloud-based services.</p>
<p>Margaret Patel, a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds, said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RTN.N" type="external">RTN.N</a>) that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the U.S. and overseas. At the same time, she is increasing her exposure of non-FANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ADBE.O" type="external">ADBE.O</a>) and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent sell-off in the sector.</p>
<p>“It’s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Biotech M&A takes off as Sanofi and Celgene spend $20 billion Walmart talking with Humana on closer ties; acquisition possible: sources U.S. stocks jump in upbeat end to tumultuous quarter FANG stocks' bite has U.S. fund managers looking for alternatives | false | https://reuters.com/article/biotech-ma/wrapup-2-biotech-ma-takes-off-as-sanofi-and-celgene-spend-20-billion-idUSL8N1PH3KS | 2018-01-22 | 2least
| 2,527 | Reuters Biotech deal activity exploded on Monday with French drugmaker Sanofi and USbased Celgene spending a combined total of more than 20 billion to add new products for hemophilia and cancer to their medicine cabinets The acquisitions will fuel expectations for a busy year of mergers and acquisitions MampampA as large drugmakers snap up promising assets from smaller rivals to help revive growth Sanofi agreed to buy US hemophilia expert Bioverativ for 116 billion its biggest deal for seven years while Celgene is paying about 9 billion for the 90 percent of cancer specialist Juno Therapeutics it does not already own The two cash deals were agreed at a prices of 105 and 87 per share respectively Shares in Bioverativ leaped 63 percent in early US trading and Juno jumped 27 percent reflecting the offers while Sanofi fell 4 percent Celgene was little changed Other biotech stocks were driven higher by the takeover news with rivals to Juno including Bluebird Bio Sangamo Therapeutics and Cellectis each gaining around 10 percent 8220The signs are good for biotech deal activity in 20188221 said Chris Stirling head of KPMG8217s global life sciences practice Big companies are under pressure from declining sales of older treatments and many are struggling to find sufficient highvalue replacements from within their own laboratories making buying in products and knowhow an attractive option 8220It takes a long time to introduce technology that makes a significant difference and in the interim CEOs are looking at any way to get their hands on product where they believe they can make a decent return8221 Stirling said 8220They8217ve got to be seen to be doing things otherwise they really struggle to convince investors8221 Both Sanofi and Celgene had been seen as likely multibilliondollar acquirers BUSY START The French group which faces mounting competition in its key diabetes unit lost out on buying US cancer firm Medivation to Pfizer in 2016 and also missed acquiring Swissbased Actelion which was bought by Johnson ampamp Johnson last year Celgene meanwhile needs to dilute its reliance on cancer drug Revlimid It had been widely tipped as a buyer for Juno whose technology is at the cutting edge of cancer treatment Juno is one of several pioneers of a system to modify immune cells to fight tumors and its JCAR017 product is likely to reach the market in 2019 behind rival approval treatments from Novartis and Gilead FILE PHOTO A scientist prepares protein samples for analysis in a lab at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton Britain July 15 2013 REUTERSStefan WermuthFile Photo Gilead only recently jumped into the space after acquiring Kite Pharma last year for 12 billion in one of the few standout deals during a relatively subdued year for biotech MampampA Despite the late start Celgene believes JCAR017 could have peak annual sales of 3 billion and it sees the acquisition being 8220incrementally additive8221 to net product sales in 2020 Following setbacks at Juno Celgene is paying less than the 93 a share it stumped up for just under 10 percent of the company in 2015 Sanofi expects Bioverativ which was spun off from Biogen last year can deliver commercial success despite rapid changes in the 10 billion hemophilia market posed by a novel drug from Roche and the potential of gene therapy to provide a onetime cure Those changes have spooked some investors but Sanofi is betting that the factor replacement therapies made by Bioverativ will remain the standard of care for many years and it expects the deal to boost earnings immediately Monday8217s two big acquisitions build on an already busy start for 2018 biotech MampampA with Celgene earlier agreeing to acquire privatelyheld Impact Biomedicines for as much as 7 billion including 11 billion upfront and Novo Nordisk bidding 31 billion for Belgium8217s Ablynx FILE PHOTOA scientist prepares protein samples for analysis in a lab at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton July 15 2013 REUTERSStefan WermuthFile Photo Separate reports this month by consultancy EY and law firm Baker McKenzie both predicted a significant rise in life sciences MampampA in 2018 helped by US tax changes that may lift big companies8217 appetite for deals Lazard advised Sanofi on its deal while Guggenheim Securities and JP Morgan worked for Bioverativ JP Morgan also worked for Celgene and Morgan Stanley for Juno Additional reporting by Tamara Mathias Matthias Blamont and Shubham Kalia Editing by Edmund Blair and Alexander Smith Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US retailer Walmart Inc WMTN is in earlystage talks with health insurer Humana Inc HUMN about developing closer ties with the acquisition of Humana being discussed as one possibility people familiar with the matter said on Thursday Shopping carts are seen outside a new WalMart Express store in Chicago July 26 2011 REUTERSJohn GressFiles Should the talks lead to a tieup it would be the latest deal to bring together a retail chain and a health insurer in the last few months following CVS Health Corp8217s CVSN 69 billion deal to acquire Aetna Inc AETN and Cigna Corp8217s CIN 54 billion deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co ESRXO Walmart approached Humana earlier this month and the deliberations are preliminary two of the sources said While the conversations have focused on new partnerships an acquisition of Humana by Walmart is also something being discussed the sources added The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential Humana and Walmart declined to comment Walmart and Humana have market capitalizations of 264 billion and 37 billion respectively An acquisition of Humana would represent a significant strategic shift for Walmart which is the world8217s largest retailer and has been focused on fending off Amazoncom Inc AMZNO in online shopping Amazon has also been looking at entering the healthcare sector Earlier this year Amazon Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKaN and JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN said they would form a company aimed at cutting healthcare costs for their US employees Walmart Inc 8897 WMTN New York Stock Exchange 120 137 WMTN HUMN CVSN AETN CIN 8220The risks for Walmart of becoming entangled in the complex US healthcare industry are considerable especially at a time when Walmart is grappling with the competitive challenges of a rapidly shifting retail market8221 Neil Saunders managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail wrote in a note 8220The hammering out of any agreement which would be Walmart8217s largest ever corporate deal would of itself be an enormous distraction8221 Saunders added Walmart currently has a cobranded Medicare drug plan with Humana that steers patients to Walmart stores The partnership offers a prescription drug plan that can save up to 20 percent in drug costs for customers Closer ties between the two companies could allow Walmart to tap into Humana8217s patient population expanding lowlevel medical services in its pharmacies to avoid ER visits They could allow it to better manage prescription drug use though access to medical records Humana8217s biggest business is managing Medicare Advantage health plans for older and disabled people a heavily regulated business that Walmart would have to take on in an acquisition Memberships in retail Medicare Advantage plans where individuals sign up directly with Humana rose about 1 percent to 286 million as of Dec 31 Employer or other groupbased Medicare Advantage membership climbed 24 percent to 441400 Last month Walmart reported a sharp drop in profit and online sales growth during the critical holiday period and forecast annual profit at the lower end of expectations Reporting by Carl ODonnell and Greg Roumeliotis in New York Additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Michele Gershberg in New York Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street surged on Thursday bringing an upbeat end to a tumultuous holidayshortened week as technology stocks rebounded but the SampampP 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their biggest quarterly declines in more than two years The year started strong but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters fears of an escalating import tariff dispute between the United States and China and a selloff in the tech sector GRAPHIC SampampP Quarterly performance during bull market reutrs2pUJYLR Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday and the SampampP 500 information technology index SPLRCT closed up 22 percent after reaching a session high of 32 percent helping push the SampampP 500 up 14 percent with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying 8220All the fears now look overblown Interest rates the concern about tariffs we8217re going to get into a trade war8221 said Doug Cote chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York 8220But now clearer heads are prevailing If anything this is a buying opportunity8221 Technology gains were led by Facebook FBO Intel INTCO Alphabet GOOGLO and Microsoft MSFTO shares 8220Tech will always lead the charge in a bull market And we8217re in a bull market8221 said Cote The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 25469 points or 107 percent to close at 2410311 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 3587 points or 138 percent to 264087 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 11422 points or 164 percent to 706345 Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to a more than 45year low Slideshow 4 Images In other data core personal consumption expenditures PCE rose by 16 percent yearonyear The index the Federal Reserve8217s preferred measure of inflation has been below the US central bank8217s 2 percent target since mid2012 Amazoncom AMZNO closed up 11 percent recovering from a 46 percent drop after US President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday claiming without evidence that the company pays 8220little to no taxes to state ampamp local governments8221 Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world8217s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances averting a trade war But worries that retaliatory tariffs would harm the global economy led investors to cut equity exposure to a fourmonth low in March and reduce holdings of US stocks to the lowest in nearly two years according to a Reuters poll Facebook Inc 15979 FBO Nasdaq 676 442 FBO INTCO GOOGLO MSFTO DJI Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 366to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 223to1 ratio favored advancers Volume on US exchanges was 749 billion shares compared to the 729 billion average over the last 20 trading days Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York Additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak Editing by James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Fund managers have begun to ditch socalled FANG stocks that powered the US stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodityrelated shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in latecycle recoveries Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc FBO Amazoncom Inc AMZNO Netflix Inc NFLXO and Googleparent Alphabet Inc GOOGLO say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent yeartodate will spill over into all of the FANG stocks imperiling the broad market8217s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place On Tuesday an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other megacap technology stocks tumbled 63 percent the biggest decline since September 2014 Facebook rose as much as 15 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress Amazoncom dropped 4 percent while Netflix fell 5 percent Googleparent Alphabet was slightly positive 8220There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation8221 that will likely eat into their profit margins said Michael Cuggino a portfolio manager of the 17billion Permanent Portfolio funds Cuggino who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year helping power the SampampP 500 SPX to a nearly 20percent gain Yet those gains have left the broad SampampP 500 trading at a high trailing pricetoearnings ratio of 217 leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republicanled corporate tax cut at the end of 2017 8220Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 20188221 said Douglas Kass president of Seabreeze Capital Management The SampampP 500 is now down 22 percent for the year and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 287287 it reached on Jan 26 Slideshow 2 Images UNFRIENDED Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies Connor Browne a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazoncom last year after both companies blew through his price targets He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP EPDN and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc OSGN that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil 8220We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities8221 he said Even after the selloff FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market Netflix trades at a PE of 210 and Amazoncom trades at a PE of 327 Facebook and Googleparent Alphabet both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns now trade at valuations near 52week lows Facebook Inc 15979 FBO Nasdaq 676 442 FBO AMZNO NFLXO GOOGLO SPX The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past Microsoft Corp MSFTO reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011 contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016 Since then the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloudbased services Margaret Patel a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co RTNN that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the US and overseas At the same time she is increasing her exposure of nonFANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ADBEO and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent selloff in the sector 8220It8217s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector8221 she said Reporting by David Randall Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Reuters/PROPN Biotech/PROPN deal/NOUN activity/NOUN exploded/VERB on/ADP Monday/PROPN with/ADP French/ADJ drugmaker/NOUN Sanofi/PROPN and/CCONJ USbased/PROPN Celgene/PROPN spending/VERB a/DET combined/VERB total/NOUN of/ADP more/ADJ than/ADP 20/NUM billion/NUM to/PART add/VERB new/ADJ products/NOUN for/ADP hemophilia/NOUN and/CCONJ cancer/NOUN to/ADP 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trading/NOUN and/CCONJ Juno/PROPN jumped/VERB 27/NUM percent/NOUN reflecting/VERB the/DET offers/NOUN while/SCONJ Sanofi/PROPN fell/VERB 4/NUM percent/NOUN Celgene/PROPN was/AUX little/ADV changed/VERB Other/ADJ biotech/ADJ stocks/NOUN were/AUX driven/VERB higher/ADJ by/ADP the/DET takeover/NOUN news/NOUN with/ADP rivals/NOUN to/ADP Juno/PROPN including/VERB Bluebird/PROPN Bio/PROPN Sangamo/PROPN Therapeutics/PROPN and/CCONJ Cellectis/PROPN each/PRON gaining/VERB around/ADV 10/NUM percent/NOUN 8220The/NUM signs/NOUN are/AUX good/ADJ for/ADP biotech/ADJ deal/NOUN activity/NOUN in/ADP 20188221/NUM said/VERB Chris/PROPN Stirling/PROPN head/NOUN of/ADP KPMG8217s/PROPN global/ADJ life/NOUN sciences/NOUN practice/NOUN Big/ADJ companies/NOUN are/AUX under/ADP pressure/NOUN from/ADP declining/VERB sales/NOUN of/ADP older/ADJ treatments/NOUN and/CCONJ many/ADJ are/AUX struggling/VERB to/PART find/VERB sufficient/ADJ highvalue/NOUN replacements/NOUN from/ADP within/ADP their/PRON own/ADJ 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to/ADP a/DET long/ADJ period/NOUN of/ADP underperformance/NOUN that/PRON kept/VERB the/DET stock/NOUN below/ADP the/DET high/NOUN it/PRON reached/VERB in/ADP 1999/NUM until/ADP 2016/NUM Since/SCONJ then/ADV the/DET stock/NOUN is/AUX up/ADV nearly/ADV 60/NUM percent/NOUN on/ADP the/DET strength/NOUN of/ADP its/PRON cloudbased/VERB services/NOUN Margaret/PROPN Patel/PROPN a/DET senior/ADJ portfolio/NOUN manager/NOUN at/ADP Wells/PROPN Fargo/PROPN Funds/PROPN said/VERB that/SCONJ she/PRON has/AUX been/AUX adding/VERB to/ADP defense/NOUN stocks/NOUN like/ADP Raytheon/PROPN Co/PROPN RTNN/PROPN that/PRON should/AUX benefit/VERB from/ADP increasing/VERB military/ADJ spending/NOUN in/ADP both/CCONJ the/DET US/PROPN and/CCONJ overseas/ADV At/ADP the/DET same/ADJ time/NOUN she/PRON is/AUX increasing/VERB her/PRON exposure/NOUN of/ADP nonFANG/NOUN technology/NOUN stocks/NOUN like/ADP Adobe/PROPN Systems/PROPN Inc/PROPN ADBEO/PROPN and/CCONJ Microsoft/PROPN that/PRON have/AUX been/AUX hurt/VERB by/ADP the/DET recent/ADJ selloff/NOUN in/ADP the/DET sector/NOUN 8220It8217s/PROPN very/ADV hard/ADV to/PART see/VERB another/DET sector/NOUN that/PRON still/ADV has/VERB all/DET the/DET fundamental/ADJ drivers/NOUN for/ADP growing/VERB much/ADV faster/ADV than/ADP any/DET other/ADJ sector8221/NOUN she/PRON said/VERB Reporting/VERB by/ADP David/PROPN Randall/PROPN Editing/PROPN by/ADP Jennifer/PROPN Ablan/PROPN and/CCONJ Nick/PROPN Zieminski/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN |
<p>Jan 23 (Reuters) - Beijing Huaye Capital Holdings Co Ltd :</p>
<p>* SAYS Q4 CONTRACT SALES DOWN 8.9 PERCENT Y/Y AT 734 MILLION YUAN ($114.62 million)</p>
<p>* SAYS 2017 CONTRACT SALES DOWN 37.8 PERCENT Y/Y AT 2.8 BILLION YUAN Source text in Chinese: <a href="http://bit.ly/2rrV91w" type="external">bit.ly/2rrV91w</a> Further company coverage: ($1 = 6.4040 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly $300 million from its existing lenders, including some of the biggest U.S. banks, after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.</p>
<p>During that time, the company’s investment bank, Lazard Ltd ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">LAZ.N</a>), approached more than 30 possible lenders, according to court documents.</p>
<p>“The vast majority of lenders contacted, however, indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers,” said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers.</p>
<p>Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems, according to court records. Without the funds, Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value.</p>
<p>The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February.</p>
<p>Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures.</p>
<p>Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy, but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted, buyers were scarce.</p>
<p>The company’s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>), Wells Fargo &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">WFC.N</a>), JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>) and Deutsche Bank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>), according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing, which the company said will allow it to cancel $775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May.</p>
<p>Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RF.N" type="external">RF.N</a>), BB&amp;T Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BBT.N" type="external">BBT.N</a>), Synovus Financial Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNV.N" type="external">SNV.N</a>) and Fifth Third Bancorp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FITB.O" type="external">FITB.O</a>) have also committed to help fund Remington’s bankruptcy loans, court documents show. An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments, another lender, is also providing funds.</p>
<p>Bank of America, Regions, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment.</p>
<p>BB&amp;T declined to comment on its lending relationships. The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders, who have a wide range of opinions.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a pro-gun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., January 19, 2013. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo
<p>“We’re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities,” the bank said.</p>
<p>The others, along with Remington, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand, according to court filings.</p>
<p>The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls. With the election of Donald Trump, who has said he strongly supports gun ownership, the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">Lazard Ltd</a> 52.54 LAZ.N New York Stock Exchange +1.77 (+3.49%) LAZ.N BAC.N WFC.N JPM.N DBKGn.DE
<p>Remington, which said in January it was nearly out of cash, plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses, including payroll, during its bankruptcy filing.</p>
<p>Remington’s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Their identities were redacted in court documents.</p>
<p>The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans, saying that the sums are commercially sensitive, according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware.</p>
<p>The court records also showed that Remington’s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting.</p>
<p>The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>), Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DKS.N" type="external">DKS.N</a>) and Kroger Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KR.N" type="external">KR.N</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation, including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of “dealer” under current gun laws. Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were re-enacted it would have an adverse effect on the business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures slipped on Monday as investors cashed in some profits from last week’s rally but concerns about Saudi-Iran tensions kept losses in check.</p> FILE PHOTO: An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland, Texas, U.S., May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photo
<p>Brent crude futures LCOc1 slipped 33 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at $70.12 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 also lost half a percent, or 33 cents, to end at $65.55.</p>
<p>Last week, Brent gained 6.4 percent and WTI rose 5.7 percent, the strongest weekly gains since July.</p>
<p>“I don’t see anything extraordinarily bearish in the market today. I think some folks here are just ... happy to take profits,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.</p>
<p>Although crude and product futures slipped on Monday, most share prices for energy companies, especially refiners, were up, Yawger said. The S&amp;P Energy Index .SPNY was up more than 1 percent.</p>
<p>Global stocks came off six-week lows on reports that the United States and China would begin trade talks, easing fears of a trade war. Analysts had been concerned that a trade war could hurt oil demand.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China.</p>
<p>“The (oil) market is pulling back after pushing strongly high last week. I think the $70 level in Brent, $67 for WTI ... start to trigger worries of increased U.S. production levels,” said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.</p>
<p>The number of active U.S. oil rigs rose to a three-year high of 804 last week, implying further rises in future production. C-OUT-T-EIA</p>
<p>“With U.S. crude production likely to be close to 10.5 million barrels per day by now and NGL (natural gas liquids) output also increasing strongly, there is a clear chance that year-on-year supply growth in the U.S. could at least temporarily hit 2 million bpd over the summer months,” JBC analysts wrote.</p>
<p>The market found support from rising Middle East tensions.</p>
<p>Saudi air defenses shot down ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia on Sunday, some of which targeted Saudi capital Riyadh.</p>
<p>In Asia, Shanghai crude oil futures made a strong debut in terms of volume as investors and commodity merchants bought into the world’s newest financial oil trading instrument.</p>
<p>Hedge funds and other money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to March 20 after two weeks of cutting bullish bets, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>ULSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">005380.KS</a>) union chief warned its workers may face a similar crisis to the one hitting General Motors’ ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) South Korean unit as sales in key markets slide, adding that electric cars were ‘evil’ and will destroy jobs.</p> Ha Bu-young, Hyundai Motor's South Korean union chief speaks during an interview with Reuters in Ulsan, South Korea, March 23, 2018. Picture taken March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Hyunjoo Jin
<p>South Korea’s auto industry, known for its robust unions whose workers tend to be paid more and have better benefits than their compatriots in other sectors, has come to a crossroads.</p>
<p>Blaming high labor costs and falling sales, General Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) plans to close one of its plants in the country by May and is weighing options for its three other factories.</p>
<p>“We’re feeling job anxiety. We’re feeling a sense of crisis,” Ha Bu-young, the head of the Hyundai Motor union, South Korea’s biggest and most powerful union, told Reuters in an interview late last week.</p>
<p>He said that at three of Hyundai’s five plants in Ulsan, the world’s biggest car factory complex, some workers had been asked to take longer holidays as sales of sedans and older model SUVs like the Santa Fe slow in the United States and other markets.</p>
<p>Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=000270.KS" type="external">000270.KS</a>) were also hit by diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing last year, leading to a slump in sales in the world’s biggest auto market. The two automakers have flagged only modest global sales growth in 2018. &#160;</p>
<p>Longer term, Ha worries about the advent of electric cars, which when they go mainstream could wreak havoc on traditional auto jobs as they don’t require engines and transmissions.</p>
<p>Hyundai’s union has predicted a drastic shift into electric cars could lead to a loss of 70 percent of Hyundai jobs in a worst case scenario.</p>
<p>“Electric cars are disasters. They are evil. We are very nervous,” he said.</p>
<p>Ha said the union is studying how cars of the future might be built without slashing headcount and has proposed the automaker revive a committee to review the impact of new vehicles and new technology on jobs.</p>
<p>He also noted that some 30,000 workers out of 50,000 union members will retire in 15 years, which could cushion the impact that cars of the future could have on staffing levels.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">Hyundai Motor Co</a> 149500.0 005380.KS Korea Stock Exchange -- (--%) 005380.KS GM.N 000270.KS FREE TRIPS TO EUROPE
<p>At GM’s South Korean unit, the threat of potential plant closures has led its union to offer to freeze wages and skip bonuses while about 15 percent of its employees have applied for a voluntary redundancy package.</p>
<p>While there is a sense of crisis at Hyundai’s union, the situation is not that dire.</p>
<p>Hyundai’s management has proposed the scaling back of some benefits such as free week-long trips to Europe for 500 workers annually as well as support for some employees’ sporting events - a proposal that the union plans to oppose, a union official said.</p>
<p>But the union will for the first time seek pay raises for temporary workers this year that are higher than those of full-time auto workers, responding to criticism that regular auto works are generously paid.</p>
<p>It will ask for a 7.4 percent wage increase for temporary workers versus a 5.3 percent wage raise for regular workers, Ha said, in line with a policy advocated by the umbrella union for South Korea’s metal workers.</p>
<p>Last year Hyundai’s union initially demanded annual wage increases of 7 percent for its full-time workers and won a raise of less than 5 percent after tense negotiations that involved strikes.</p>
<p>The shift towards improving pay for non-full time workers could invite opposition within the union, said Ha, adding that he was trying to right old wrongs.</p>
<p>Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street scored its best day in 2-1/2 years and the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its third-biggest point gain ever on Monday, as trade war fears eased on reports the United States and China are willing to renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances.</p>
<p>The rally, fueled by technology stocks, came on the heels of the indexes' worst weekly performance since January 2016, the S&amp;P 500's <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gain making up for less than half of the prior week's near 6 percent loss.</p>
<p>“We saw a really good rally because of potential talks with China,” said Dennis Dick, Head of Markets Structure, Proprietary Trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. “People are taking advantage of the huge dip last week.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think you’re out of the woods yet. There’s political uncertainty,” Dick added.</p>
<p>Last week’s drop was fueled in part by tensions surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to levy tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports, in addition to those imposed on solar panels, steel and aluminum.</p>
<p>But tensions were calmed as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang repeated pledges to maintain trade negotiations and ease access to American businesses.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday he believed Washington could reach agreement with China on some issues but tariffs would not be put on hold “unless we have an acceptable agreement that the president signs off on.”</p>
<p>“It’s clearly the easing of trade tensions. The comments by Steve Mnuchin late yesterday gave room for negotiation with China,” said Oliver Pursche, Chief Market Strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York.</p>
<p>But China did call for unity among World Trade Organization members to prevent the United States from “wrecking” the WTO, and urged opposition to Trump’s tariffs targeting China’s alleged intellectual property theft.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> rose 669.4 points, or 2.84 percent, to 24,202.6. The two larger point gains for the Dow were in October 2008. The S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 70.29 points, or 2.72 percent, to 2,658.55 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 227.88 points, or 3.26 percent, to 7,220.54. 7,220.54</p>
<p>The three major U.S. indexes saw their best percentage gains since Aug. 26, 2015.</p>
<p>All 11 major sectors of the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> closed in positive territory, led by technology .SPLRCT and finance .SPSY indexes, up 4.0 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">Standard &amp; Poor's Corp</a> 2658.55 .SPX Chicago Board Options Exchange +70.29 (+2.72%) .SPX .DJI .IXIC MSFT.O INTC.O
<p>The tech sector saw its biggest daily percentage gain since August 2015 and financials had their best day since November 2016.</p>
<p>Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) pulled the indexes higher, gaining 7.6 percent. Morgan Stanley upped its price target on the tech company’s stock, saying its market value could hit $1 trillion on improved margins and growth in cloud computing.</p>
<p>Intel ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=INTC.O" type="external">INTC.O</a>) advanced 6.3 percent after brokerage Raymond James upgraded the technology to “market perform”.</p>
<p>Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) closed up 0.4 percent following several days of declines as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced it was investigating how the company allowed data of 50 million users to get into the hands of Cambridge Analytica.</p>
<p>The Cboe Volatility Index .VIX, the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term volatility for the S&amp;P 500, finished down 3.84 points at 21.03.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.04-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.27-to-1 ratio favored advancers.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-stocks-instantview/wall-street-rebounds-on-hopes-for-u-s-china-talks-on-trade-idUSKBN1H22LX" type="external">Wall Street rebounds on hopes for U.S.-China talks on trade</a>
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.30 billion shares, below the 7.35 billion average for the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephen Culp; Editing by James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Beijing Huaye Capital's Q4, 2017 Contract Sales Down Y/Y U.S. banks provide rescue financing for gunmaker Remington Oil prices dip on profit taking after last week's rally Hyundai union head fears GM-like crisis; says electric cars destroy jobs Wall Street roars back as trade war fears fade | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-beijing-huaye-capitals-q4-2017-con/brief-beijing-huaye-capitals-q4-2017-contract-sales-down-y-y-idUSH9N1PD02P | 2018-01-23 | 2least
| 2,527 | Jan 23 Reuters Beijing Huaye Capital Holdings Co Ltd SAYS Q4 CONTRACT SALES DOWN 89 PERCENT YY AT 734 MILLION YUAN 11462 million SAYS 2017 CONTRACT SALES DOWN 378 PERCENT YY AT 28 BILLION YUAN Source text in Chinese bitly2rrV91w Further company coverage 1 64040 Chinese yuan renminbi Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly 300 million from its existing lenders including some of the biggest US banks after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy During that time the company8217s investment bank Lazard Ltd LAZN approached more than 30 possible lenders according to court documents 8220The vast majority of lenders contacted however indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers8221 said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems according to court records Without the funds Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland Florida in February Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted buyers were scarce The company8217s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp BACN Wells Fargo ampamp Co WFCN JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN and Deutsche Bank AG DBKGnDE according to court documents Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing which the company said will allow it to cancel 775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation RFN BBampampT Corp BBTN Synovus Financial Corp SNVN and Fifth Third Bancorp FITBO have also committed to help fund Remington8217s bankruptcy loans court documents show An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments another lender is also providing funds Bank of America Regions Deutsche Bank JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment BBampampT declined to comment on its lending relationships The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders who have a wide range of opinions FILE PHOTO A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a progun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix Arizona US January 19 2013 REUTERSJoshua LottFile Photo 8220We8217re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities8221 the bank said The others along with Remington did not immediately respond to a request for comment The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand according to court filings The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls With the election of Donald Trump who has said he strongly supports gun ownership the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt Lazard Ltd 5254 LAZN New York Stock Exchange 177 349 LAZN BACN WFCN JPMN DBKGnDE Remington which said in January it was nearly out of cash plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses including payroll during its bankruptcy filing Remington8217s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy Their identities were redacted in court documents The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans saying that the sums are commercially sensitive according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington Delaware The court records also showed that Remington8217s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc WMTN Dick8217s Sporting Goods Inc DKSN and Kroger Co KRN Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017 according to court documents Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of 8220dealer8221 under current gun laws Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were reenacted it would have an adverse effect on the business Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Crude oil futures slipped on Monday as investors cashed in some profits from last week8217s rally but concerns about SaudiIran tensions kept losses in check FILE PHOTO An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland Texas US May 3 2017 REUTERSErnest ScheyderFile Photo Brent crude futures LCOc1 slipped 33 cents or 05 percent to settle at 7012 a barrel US West Texas Intermediate WTI crude futures CLc1 also lost half a percent or 33 cents to end at 6555 Last week Brent gained 64 percent and WTI rose 57 percent the strongest weekly gains since July 8220I don8217t see anything extraordinarily bearish in the market today I think some folks here are just happy to take profits8221 said Bob Yawger director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York Although crude and product futures slipped on Monday most share prices for energy companies especially refiners were up Yawger said The SampampP Energy Index SPNY was up more than 1 percent Global stocks came off sixweek lows on reports that the United States and China would begin trade talks easing fears of a trade war Analysts had been concerned that a trade war could hurt oil demand US President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion of imports from China 8220The oil market is pulling back after pushing strongly high last week I think the 70 level in Brent 67 for WTI start to trigger worries of increased US production levels8221 said Gene McGillian manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford Connecticut The number of active US oil rigs rose to a threeyear high of 804 last week implying further rises in future production COUTTEIA 8220With US crude production likely to be close to 105 million barrels per day by now and NGL natural gas liquids output also increasing strongly there is a clear chance that yearonyear supply growth in the US could at least temporarily hit 2 million bpd over the summer months8221 JBC analysts wrote The market found support from rising Middle East tensions Saudi air defenses shot down ballistic missiles fired by Yemen8217s Iranaligned Houthi militia on Sunday some of which targeted Saudi capital Riyadh In Asia Shanghai crude oil futures made a strong debut in terms of volume as investors and commodity merchants bought into the world8217s newest financial oil trading instrument Hedge funds and other money managers raised their net long US crude futures and options positions in the week to March 20 after two weeks of cutting bullish bets the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission CFTC said on Friday Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles ULSAN South Korea Reuters Hyundai Motor8217s 005380KS union chief warned its workers may face a similar crisis to the one hitting General Motors8217 GMN South Korean unit as sales in key markets slide adding that electric cars were 8216evil8217 and will destroy jobs Ha Buyoung Hyundai Motors South Korean union chief speaks during an interview with Reuters in Ulsan South Korea March 23 2018 Picture taken March 23 2018 REUTERSHyunjoo Jin South Korea8217s auto industry known for its robust unions whose workers tend to be paid more and have better benefits than their compatriots in other sectors has come to a crossroads Blaming high labor costs and falling sales General Motors GMN plans to close one of its plants in the country by May and is weighing options for its three other factories 8220We8217re feeling job anxiety We8217re feeling a sense of crisis8221 Ha Buyoung the head of the Hyundai Motor union South Korea8217s biggest and most powerful union told Reuters in an interview late last week He said that at three of Hyundai8217s five plants in Ulsan the world8217s biggest car factory complex some workers had been asked to take longer holidays as sales of sedans and older model SUVs like the Santa Fe slow in the United States and other markets Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors 000270KS were also hit by diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing last year leading to a slump in sales in the world8217s biggest auto market The two automakers have flagged only modest global sales growth in 2018 amp160 Longer term Ha worries about the advent of electric cars which when they go mainstream could wreak havoc on traditional auto jobs as they don8217t require engines and transmissions Hyundai8217s union has predicted a drastic shift into electric cars could lead to a loss of 70 percent of Hyundai jobs in a worst case scenario 8220Electric cars are disasters They are evil We are very nervous8221 he said Ha said the union is studying how cars of the future might be built without slashing headcount and has proposed the automaker revive a committee to review the impact of new vehicles and new technology on jobs He also noted that some 30000 workers out of 50000 union members will retire in 15 years which could cushion the impact that cars of the future could have on staffing levels Hyundai Motor Co 1495000 005380KS Korea Stock Exchange 005380KS GMN 000270KS FREE TRIPS TO EUROPE At GM8217s South Korean unit the threat of potential plant closures has led its union to offer to freeze wages and skip bonuses while about 15 percent of its employees have applied for a voluntary redundancy package While there is a sense of crisis at Hyundai8217s union the situation is not that dire Hyundai8217s management has proposed the scaling back of some benefits such as free weeklong trips to Europe for 500 workers annually as well as support for some employees8217 sporting events a proposal that the union plans to oppose a union official said But the union will for the first time seek pay raises for temporary workers this year that are higher than those of fulltime auto workers responding to criticism that regular auto works are generously paid It will ask for a 74 percent wage increase for temporary workers versus a 53 percent wage raise for regular workers Ha said in line with a policy advocated by the umbrella union for South Korea8217s metal workers Last year Hyundai8217s union initially demanded annual wage increases of 7 percent for its fulltime workers and won a raise of less than 5 percent after tense negotiations that involved strikes The shift towards improving pay for nonfull time workers could invite opposition within the union said Ha adding that he was trying to right old wrongs Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin Editing by Soyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street scored its best day in 212 years and the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its thirdbiggest point gain ever on Monday as trade war fears eased on reports the United States and China are willing to renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances The rally fueled by technology stocks came on the heels of the indexes worst weekly performance since January 2016 the SampampP 500s SPX gain making up for less than half of the prior weeks near 6 percent loss 8220We saw a really good rally because of potential talks with China8221 said Dennis Dick Head of Markets Structure Proprietary Trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas 8220People are taking advantage of the huge dip last week8221 8220I don8217t think you8217re out of the woods yet There8217s political uncertainty8221 Dick added Last week8217s drop was fueled in part by tensions surrounding US President Donald Trump8217s move to levy tariffs on up to 60 billion of Chinese imports in addition to those imposed on solar panels steel and aluminum But tensions were calmed as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang repeated pledges to maintain trade negotiations and ease access to American businesses US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday he believed Washington could reach agreement with China on some issues but tariffs would not be put on hold 8220unless we have an acceptable agreement that the president signs off on8221 8220It8217s clearly the easing of trade tensions The comments by Steve Mnuchin late yesterday gave room for negotiation with China8221 said Oliver Pursche Chief Market Strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York But China did call for unity among World Trade Organization members to prevent the United States from 8220wrecking8221 the WTO and urged opposition to Trump8217s tariffs targeting China8217s alleged intellectual property theft Slideshow 6 Images The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI rose 6694 points or 284 percent to 242026 The two larger point gains for the Dow were in October 2008 The SampampP 500 SPX gained 7029 points or 272 percent to 265855 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 22788 points or 326 percent to 722054 722054 The three major US indexes saw their best percentage gains since Aug 26 2015 All 11 major sectors of the SampampP 500 SPX closed in positive territory led by technology SPLRCT and finance SPSY indexes up 40 percent and 32 percent respectively Standard ampamp Poors Corp 265855 SPX Chicago Board Options Exchange 7029 272 SPX DJI IXIC MSFTO INTCO The tech sector saw its biggest daily percentage gain since August 2015 and financials had their best day since November 2016 Microsoft MSFTO pulled the indexes higher gaining 76 percent Morgan Stanley upped its price target on the tech company8217s stock saying its market value could hit 1 trillion on improved margins and growth in cloud computing Intel INTCO advanced 63 percent after brokerage Raymond James upgraded the technology to 8220market perform8221 Facebook FBO closed up 04 percent following several days of declines as the US Federal Trade Commission announced it was investigating how the company allowed data of 50 million users to get into the hands of Cambridge Analytica The Cboe Volatility Index VIX the most widely followed barometer of expected nearterm volatility for the SampampP 500 finished down 384 points at 2103 Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 304to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 227to1 ratio favored advancers Related Coverage Wall Street rebounds on hopes for USChina talks on trade Volume on US exchanges was 730 billion shares below the 735 billion average for the last 20 trading days Reporting by Stephen Culp Editing by James Dalgleish Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Jan/PROPN 23/NUM Reuters/PROPN Beijing/PROPN Huaye/PROPN Capital/PROPN Holdings/PROPN Co/PROPN Ltd/PROPN SAYS/VERB Q4/NOUN CONTRACT/NOUN SALES/NOUN DOWN/ADV 89/NUM PERCENT/NOUN YY/PROPN AT/PROPN 734/NUM MILLION/NUM YUAN/NOUN 11462/NUM million/NUM SAYS/VERB 2017/NUM CONTRACT/NOUN SALES/NOUN DOWN/ADV 378/NUM PERCENT/NOUN YY/PROPN AT/PROPN 28/NUM BILLION/NUM YUAN/PROPN Source/PROPN text/NOUN in/ADP Chinese/ADJ bitly2rrV91w/PROPN Further/ADJ company/NOUN coverage/NOUN 1/NUM 64040/NUM Chinese/ADJ yuan/NOUN renminbi/NOUN Reporting/VERB by/ADP Hong/PROPN Kong/PROPN newsroom/NOUN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN Reuters/PROPN US/PROPN gunmaker/NOUN Remington/PROPN Outdoor/PROPN Co/PROPN has/AUX obtained/VERB commitments/NOUN for/ADP nearly/ADV 300/NUM million/NUM from/ADP its/PRON existing/VERB lenders/NOUN including/VERB some/PRON of/ADP the/DET biggest/ADJ US/PROPN banks/NOUN after/SCONJ new/ADJ sources/NOUN of/ADP funding/NOUN dried/VERB up/ADP in/ADP the/DET months/NOUN leading/VERB up/ADP to/ADP its/PRON filing/NOUN for/ADP Chapter/NOUN 11/NUM bankruptcy/NOUN During/ADP that/DET time/NOUN the/DET company8217s/PROPN investment/PROPN bank/PROPN Lazard/PROPN Ltd/PROPN LAZN/PROPN approached/VERB more/ADJ than/ADP 30/NUM possible/ADJ lenders/NOUN according/VERB to/ADP court/NOUN documents/NOUN 8220The/NUM vast/ADJ majority/NOUN of/ADP lenders/NOUN contacted/VERB however/ADV indicated/VERB they/PRON were/AUX reluctant/ADJ to/PART provide/VERB financing/NOUN to/ADP firearms/NOUN manufacturers8221/PROPN said/VERB Lazard/PROPN banker/NOUN Ari/PROPN 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comments/NOUN by/ADP Steve/PROPN Mnuchin/PROPN late/ADJ yesterday/NOUN gave/VERB room/NOUN for/ADP negotiation/NOUN with/ADP China8221/PROPN said/VERB Oliver/PROPN Pursche/PROPN Chief/PROPN Market/PROPN Strategist/PROPN at/ADP Bruderman/PROPN Asset/PROPN Management/PROPN in/ADP New/PROPN York/PROPN But/CCONJ China/PROPN did/AUX call/VERB for/ADP unity/NOUN among/ADP World/PROPN Trade/PROPN Organization/PROPN members/NOUN to/PART prevent/VERB the/DET United/PROPN States/PROPN from/ADP 8220wrecking8221/NUM the/DET WTO/PROPN and/CCONJ urged/VERB opposition/NOUN to/ADP Trump8217s/PROPN tariffs/NOUN targeting/VERB China8217s/PROPN alleged/VERB intellectual/ADJ property/NOUN theft/NOUN Slideshow/PROPN 6/NUM Images/NOUN The/DET Dow/PROPN Jones/PROPN Industrial/PROPN Average/PROPN DJI/PROPN rose/VERB 6694/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 284/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 242026/NUM The/DET two/NUM larger/ADJ point/NOUN gains/NOUN for/ADP the/DET Dow/PROPN were/AUX in/ADP October/PROPN 2008/NUM The/DET SampampP/PROPN 500/NUM SPX/PROPN gained/VERB 7029/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 272/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 265855/NUM and/CCONJ the/DET Nasdaq/PROPN Composite/PROPN IXIC/PROPN added/VERB 22788/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 326/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 722054/NUM 722054/NUM The/DET three/NUM major/ADJ US/PROPN indexes/NOUN saw/VERB their/PRON best/ADJ percentage/NOUN gains/NOUN since/SCONJ Aug/PROPN 26/NUM 2015/NUM All/DET 11/NUM major/ADJ sectors/NOUN of/ADP the/DET SampampP/PROPN 500/NUM SPX/PROPN closed/VERB in/ADP positive/ADJ territory/NOUN led/VERB by/ADP technology/NOUN SPLRCT/PROPN and/CCONJ finance/VERB SPSY/PROPN indexes/VERB up/ADV 40/NUM percent/NOUN and/CCONJ 32/NUM percent/NOUN respectively/ADV Standard/ADJ ampamp/NOUN Poors/PROPN Corp/PROPN 265855/NUM SPX/PROPN Chicago/PROPN Board/PROPN Options/PROPN Exchange/PROPN 7029/NUM 272/NUM SPX/PROPN DJI/PROPN IXIC/NOUN MSFTO/PROPN INTCO/NUM The/DET tech/NOUN sector/NOUN saw/VERB its/PRON biggest/ADJ daily/ADJ percentage/NOUN gain/NOUN since/SCONJ August/PROPN 2015/NUM and/CCONJ financials/NOUN had/VERB their/PRON best/ADJ day/NOUN since/SCONJ November/PROPN 2016/NUM Microsoft/PROPN MSFTO/PROPN pulled/VERB the/DET indexes/NOUN higher/ADV gaining/VERB 76/NUM percent/NOUN Morgan/PROPN Stanley/PROPN upped/VERB its/PRON price/NOUN target/NOUN on/ADP the/DET tech/NOUN company8217s/PROPN stock/NOUN saying/VERB its/PRON market/NOUN value/NOUN could/AUX hit/VERB 1/NUM trillion/NUM on/ADP improved/VERB margins/NOUN and/CCONJ growth/NOUN in/ADP cloud/NOUN computing/VERB Intel/PROPN INTCO/PROPN advanced/ADJ 63/NUM percent/NOUN after/SCONJ brokerage/NOUN Raymond/PROPN James/PROPN upgraded/VERB the/DET technology/NOUN to/ADP 8220market/NUM perform8221/PROPN Facebook/PROPN FBO/PROPN closed/VERB up/ADP 04/NUM percent/NOUN following/VERB several/ADJ days/NOUN of/ADP declines/NOUN as/SCONJ the/DET US/PROPN Federal/PROPN Trade/PROPN Commission/PROPN announced/VERB it/PRON was/AUX investigating/VERB how/SCONJ the/DET company/NOUN allowed/VERB data/NOUN of/ADP 50/NUM million/NUM users/NOUN to/PART get/VERB into/ADP the/DET hands/NOUN of/ADP Cambridge/PROPN Analytica/PROPN The/DET Cboe/PROPN Volatility/PROPN Index/PROPN VIX/PROPN the/DET most/ADV widely/ADV followed/VERB barometer/NOUN of/ADP expected/VERB nearterm/NOUN volatility/NOUN for/ADP the/DET SampampP/PROPN 500/NUM finished/VERB down/ADV 384/NUM points/NOUN at/ADP 2103/NUM Advancing/VERB issues/NOUN outnumbered/VERB declining/VERB ones/NOUN on/ADP the/DET NYSE/PROPN by/ADP a/DET 304to1/NUM ratio/NOUN on/ADP Nasdaq/PROPN a/DET 227to1/NUM ratio/NOUN favored/VERB advancers/NOUN Related/PROPN Coverage/PROPN Wall/PROPN Street/PROPN rebounds/VERB on/ADP hopes/NOUN for/ADP USChina/PROPN talks/NOUN on/ADP trade/NOUN Volume/NOUN on/ADP US/PROPN exchanges/NOUN was/AUX 730/NUM billion/NUM shares/NOUN below/ADP the/DET 735/NUM billion/NUM average/NOUN for/ADP the/DET last/ADJ 20/NUM trading/NOUN days/NOUN Reporting/VERB by/ADP Stephen/PROPN Culp/PROPN Editing/PROPN by/ADP James/PROPN Dalgleish/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN |
<p>Jan 22 (Reuters) - * Wynn Resorts Ltd posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.40 per share. The mean expectation of 15 analysts for the quarter ended December 31 was for earnings of $1.37 per share. * Revenue rose 29.89 percent to $1.69 billion from a year ago; analysts expected $1.57 billion. * Wynn Resorts Ltd’s Reported EPS for the quarter was $4.77. * The mean earnings estimate of analysts had risen by about 5.51 percent in the last three months. * In the last 30 days two analysts have negatively revised estimates and three analysts have revised estimates upward. * Wynn Resorts Ltd shares had risen by 6.6 percent this quarter and gained 6.6 percent so far this year. * The Las Vegas, Nevada-based company reported quarterly net income of $491.68 million, an increase of $377.9 million over the same period a year ago. * Wynn Resorts Ltd is a member of the NASDAQ Composite Index. This summary was generated 02:45 p.m. GMT.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street jumped on Thursday, and was on track to end a holiday-shortened and tumultuous week in positive territory as investors returned to technology stocks.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>As March drew to a close, however, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> and the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> were on pace for their worst quarterly declines in more than two years.</p>
<p>“Markets are closing out a weak quarter as they adjust to a new regime of higher rates, potential higher inflation and political uncertainty,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York. “Fundamentals, however, like economic growth and equity valuations, remain supportive.”</p>
<p>The year started strong, but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters, fears of a global trade war, and a selloff in the tech sector.</p>
<p>Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday as the S&amp;P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT rose 2.5 percent and helped push the S&amp;P 500 more than 1 percent higher, with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying.</p>
<p>Technology gains were led by Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Apple ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" type="external">AAPL.O</a>), Alphabet ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) and Microsoft ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) shares.</p>
<p>“Tech recovered after a weak few days as the sector remains one of the few to offer very strong growth in the near future,” said Carter.</p>
<p>At 2:13PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> was up 365.84 points, or 1.53 percent, at 24,214.26, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> gained 41.9 points, or 1.61 percent, to 2,646.9 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> added 136.93 points, or 1.97 percent, to 7,086.15.</p>
<p>Trading volume was light ahead of the long holiday weekend.</p>
<p>Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to more than a 45-year low.</p>
<a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">Standard &amp; Poor's Corp</a> 2654.26 .SPX Chicago Board Options Exchange +49.26 (+1.89%) .SPX .DJI FB.O AAPL.O GOOGL.O
<p>In other data, core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year. The price index is the U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, and has been below the central bank’s 2 percent target since mid-2012.</p>
<p>Amazon.com ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) climbed 1.0 percent, recovering from a 4.6 percent drop after President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday, claiming without evidence that the company pays “little to no taxes to state &amp; local governments.”</p>
<p>Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world’s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances, averting a trade war.</p>
<p>But trade war fears led global investors to cut their equity exposure to a four-month low in March and reduce their holdings of U.S. stocks to the lowest in nearly two years, according to a Reuters poll.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 5.03-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.57-to-1 ratio favored advancers.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephen Culp; Editing by Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday, reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody’s Investors Service, federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production.</p>
<p>Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 7.7 percent at $257.78. On Tuesday, Tesla tumbled 8.2 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, a second federal regulator, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), said it was sending a team to California to investigate the crash.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-tesla-stock-options/extreme-bearish-options-on-tesla-making-money-as-stock-dives-idUSKBN1H434B" type="external">Extreme bearish options on Tesla making money as stock dives</a>
<a href="/article/us-tesla-crash/u-s-auto-safety-agency-to-probe-fatal-tesla-california-crash-idUSKBN1H42X1" type="external">U.S. auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla California crash</a>
<p>Late on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Tesla’s credit rating to B3 from B2, citing “the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company’s Model 3 electric vehicle.” It also noted “liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds.”</p>
<p>Tesla has $230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019.</p>
<p>Moody’s said its negative outlook “reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.”</p>
<p>It said Tesla’s weekly production target is now 2,500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March, down sharply from its year-earlier target of 5,000 per week by the end of 2017. Tesla’s weekly target for the end of June is 5,000.</p>
<p>Tesla declined to comment on the downgrade. The company plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week.</p>
<p>Tesla shares have experienced big swings in the past, as worries about losses have vied with enthusiasm for Chief Executive Elon Musk’s ambitious plans.</p>
<p>The sell-off has left Tesla’s stock market value at $44 billion, below General Motors Co’s $49 billion. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla has at times had a larger market value than GM, the largest U.S. automaker by vehicle sales.</p> A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton, just outside London, Britain, February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
<p>Since the end of February, the median analyst price target for Tesla has dipped by $10 to $356, about 37 percent higher than Wednesday’s price, according to Thomson Reuters data. Nomura Securities analyst Romit Shah has the highest Tesla price target, $500, or nearly double the current price. All the targets were set before the March 23 crash.</p>
<p>In last week’s accident in which the Tesla struck a highway median, it was unclear if the vehicle’s automated control system called Autopilot was driving, the NTSB and police said.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old driver of the Tesla died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, Tesla said in a blog post it does “not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash,” but added that data shows Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged “roughly 85,000 times ... and there has never been an accident that we know of.” The statement did not say if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Alexandria Sage and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street closed lower after a rocky session on Wednesday as gains in consumer staples and healthcare were offset by a sharp drop in Amazon shares and a continuing slide in technology stocks.</p>
<p>All three major U.S. indexes ended the day in negative territory following Tuesday’s late-session tech-driven sell-off following Monday’s rally as traders moved to defensive stocks after recent weeks’ heightened volatility.</p>
<p>“People should expect what’s happening given the kind of volatility we’ve seen as well as the fact that we’re kind of in a news vacuum prior to quarterly earnings,” Chuck Carlson, chief executive at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana, said. “It’s a market that’s really looking for the next leadership.”</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9.29 points, or 0.04 percent, to 23,848.42, the S&amp;P 500 lost 7.62 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,605 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 59.58 points, or 0.85 percent, to 6,949.23.</p>
<p>Online retailer Amazon.com was down as much as 6.7 percent, losing more than $53 billion in market value after a report that President Donald Trump indicated he wanted to rein in the company. The stock later pared its loses to end the day down 4.4 percent.</p>
<p>Shares of automaker Tesla slumped 7.7 percent, extending recent losses, following a credit downgrade and news that officials are investigating a fatal crash and fire in California.</p>
<p>Countering those losses were gains for consumer staples, real estate, telecom, and healthcare.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P Energy index posted the biggest loss of the 11 major S&amp;P sectors, ending 1.99 percent lower as crude prices fell after data showed a surprise build in U.S. stocks.</p>
<p>The markets shrugged off a report from the U.S. Commerce Department that the U.S. economy slowed less than previously reported in the fourth quarter as consumer spending grew at its fastest quarterly pace in three years. GDP expanded at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the last three months of 2017, ahead of the previously reported 2.5 percent.</p>
<p>Strong economic data could invite a more hawkish approach by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year with respect to further interest rate hikes.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>“I’m not surprised by the economic data,” said Carlson. “But the market right now is looking past that from a valuation standpoint.”</p>
<p>Stocks had jumped earlier in the week as trade war fears ebbed following comments from officials in the United States and China that implied the world’s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances.</p>
<p>China is expected to announce a list of tariffs on U.S. imports in retaliation against the expected tariff proposals from the U.S. on Chinese goods.</p>
<p>Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.12-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.22-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p> A woman passes by the Nasdaq Market Site in Times Square in New York City, U.S., February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.96 billion shares, compared to the 7.36 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.</p>
<p>Reporting by Stephen Culp; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fund managers have begun to ditch so-called FANG stocks that powered the U.S. stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodity-related shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in late-cycle recoveries.</p>
<p>Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), Netflix Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NFLX.O" type="external">NFLX.O</a>), and Google-parent Alphabet Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent year-to-date will spill over into all of the FANG stocks, imperiling the broad market’s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other mega-cap technology stocks tumbled 6.3 percent, the biggest decline since September 2014.</p>
<p>Facebook rose as much as 1.5 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red, one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress. Amazon.com dropped 4 percent, while Netflix fell 5 percent. Google-parent Alphabet was slightly positive.</p>
<p>“There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies, and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation” that will likely eat into their profit margins, said Michael Cuggino, a portfolio manager of the $17-billion Permanent Portfolio funds.</p>
<p>Cuggino, who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook, said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth.</p>
<p>Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year, helping power the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> to a nearly 20-percent gain. Yet those gains have left the broad S&amp;P 500 trading at a high trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 21.7, leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republican-led corporate tax cut at the end of 2017.</p>
<p>“Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 2018,” said Douglas Kass, president of Seabreeze Capital Management.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is now down 2.2 percent for the year, and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 2872.87 it reached on Jan. 26.</p> Slideshow (2 Images) UNFRIENDED
<p>Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies.</p>
<p>Connor Browne, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazon.com last year after both companies blew through his price targets. He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=EPD.N" type="external">EPD.N</a>) and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=OSG.N" type="external">OSG.N</a>) that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil.</p>
<p>“We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world, there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities,” he said.</p>
<p>Even after the selloff, FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market. Netflix trades at a P/E of 210 and Amazon.com trades at a P/E of 327. Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet, both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns, now trade at valuations near 52-week lows.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 161.11 FB.O Nasdaq +8.08 (+5.28%) FB.O AMZN.O NFLX.O GOOGL.O .SPX
<p>The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past. Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>) reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011, contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016. Since then, the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloud-based services.</p>
<p>Margaret Patel, a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds, said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RTN.N" type="external">RTN.N</a>) that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the U.S. and overseas. At the same time, she is increasing her exposure of non-FANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=ADBE.O" type="external">ADBE.O</a>) and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent sell-off in the sector.</p>
<p>“It’s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Wynn Resorts Ltd reports results for the quarter ended December 31 - summary U.S. stocks jump in upbeat end to tumultuous quarter Tesla shares dive again, stung by fatal crash, credit downgrade Wall Street closes lower in rocky session on Amazon losses FANG stocks' bite has U.S. fund managers looking for alternatives | false | https://reuters.com/article/wynn-resorts-results-summary/wynn-resorts-ltdreports-results-for-the-quarter-endeddecember-31-summary-idUSL8N1PH4ZI | 2018-01-22 | 2least
| 2,527 | Jan 22 Reuters Wynn Resorts Ltd posted quarterly adjusted earnings of 140 per share The mean expectation of 15 analysts for the quarter ended December 31 was for earnings of 137 per share Revenue rose 2989 percent to 169 billion from a year ago analysts expected 157 billion Wynn Resorts Ltd8217s Reported EPS for the quarter was 477 The mean earnings estimate of analysts had risen by about 551 percent in the last three months In the last 30 days two analysts have negatively revised estimates and three analysts have revised estimates upward Wynn Resorts Ltd shares had risen by 66 percent this quarter and gained 66 percent so far this year The Las Vegas Nevadabased company reported quarterly net income of 49168 million an increase of 3779 million over the same period a year ago Wynn Resorts Ltd is a member of the NASDAQ Composite Index This summary was generated 0245 pm GMT Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street jumped on Thursday and was on track to end a holidayshortened and tumultuous week in positive territory as investors returned to technology stocks Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange NYSE in New York US March 26 2018 REUTERSBrendan McDermid As March drew to a close however the SampampP 500 SPX and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI were on pace for their worst quarterly declines in more than two years 8220Markets are closing out a weak quarter as they adjust to a new regime of higher rates potential higher inflation and political uncertainty8221 said David Carter chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York 8220Fundamentals however like economic growth and equity valuations remain supportive8221 The year started strong but early gains evaporated as the markets entered a correction over interest rate jitters fears of a global trade war and a selloff in the tech sector Tech stocks reversed course on Thursday as the SampampP 500 information technology index SPLRCT rose 25 percent and helped push the SampampP 500 more than 1 percent higher with the Dow and Nasdaq also rallying Technology gains were led by Facebook FBO Apple AAPLO Alphabet GOOGLO and Microsoft MSFTO shares 8220Tech recovered after a weak few days as the sector remains one of the few to offer very strong growth in the near future8221 said Carter At 213PM ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI was up 36584 points or 153 percent at 2421426 the SampampP 500 SPX gained 419 points or 161 percent to 26469 and the Nasdaq Composite IXIC added 13693 points or 197 percent to 708615 Trading volume was light ahead of the long holiday weekend Investors were unfazed by economic reports showing a slight increase in consumer spending and initial jobless claims dropping to more than a 45year low Standard ampamp Poors Corp 265426 SPX Chicago Board Options Exchange 4926 189 SPX DJI FBO AAPLO GOOGLO In other data core personal consumption expenditures PCE rose by 16 percent yearonyear The price index is the US Federal Reserve8217s preferred inflation measure and has been below the central bank8217s 2 percent target since mid2012 Amazoncom AMZNO climbed 10 percent recovering from a 46 percent drop after President Donald Trump criticized the online retailer via Twitter early Thursday claiming without evidence that the company pays 8220little to no taxes to state ampamp local governments8221 Stocks shot up earlier in the week as comments from officials in the United States and China suggested the world8217s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances averting a trade war But trade war fears led global investors to cut their equity exposure to a fourmonth low in March and reduce their holdings of US stocks to the lowest in nearly two years according to a Reuters poll Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 503to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 357to1 ratio favored advancers Reporting by Stephen Culp Editing by Susan Thomas Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Tesla Inc shares fell sharply again on Wednesday reeling from a credit downgrade of the electric car maker by Moody8217s Investors Service federal probes of a fatal crash and concerns about Model 3 production Shares tumbled 9 percent before ending down 77 percent at 25778 On Tuesday Tesla tumbled 82 percent to its lowest close in almost a year after the US National Transportation Safety Board NTSB opened a field investigation into a fatal crash and vehicle fire in California on March 23 On Wednesday a second federal regulator the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration NHTSA said it was sending a team to California to investigate the crash Related Coverage Extreme bearish options on Tesla making money as stock dives US auto safety agency to probe fatal Tesla California crash Late on Tuesday Moody8217s Investors Service downgraded Tesla8217s credit rating to B3 from B2 citing 8220the significant shortfall in the production rate of the company8217s Model 3 electric vehicle8221 It also noted 8220liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds8221 Tesla has 230 million in convertible bonds maturing in November 2018 and 920 million in March 2019 Moody8217s said its negative outlook 8220reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large nearterm capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall8221 It said Tesla8217s weekly production target is now 2500 Model 3 vehicles by the end of March down sharply from its yearearlier target of 5000 per week by the end of 2017 Tesla8217s weekly target for the end of June is 5000 Tesla declined to comment on the downgrade The company plans to provide an update on Model 3 production next week Tesla shares have experienced big swings in the past as worries about losses have vied with enthusiasm for Chief Executive Elon Musk8217s ambitious plans The selloff has left Tesla8217s stock market value at 44 billion below General Motors Co8217s 49 billion Palo Alto Californiabased Tesla has at times had a larger market value than GM the largest US automaker by vehicle sales A Tesla dealership is seen in West Drayton just outside London Britain February 7 2018 REUTERSHannah McKay Since the end of February the median analyst price target for Tesla has dipped by 10 to 356 about 37 percent higher than Wednesday8217s price according to Thomson Reuters data Nomura Securities analyst Romit Shah has the highest Tesla price target 500 or nearly double the current price All the targets were set before the March 23 crash In last week8217s accident in which the Tesla struck a highway median it was unclear if the vehicle8217s automated control system called Autopilot was driving the NTSB and police said The 38yearold driver of the Tesla died at a nearby hospital shortly after the crash Late Tuesday Tesla said in a blog post it does 8220not yet know what happened in the moments leading up to the crash8221 but added that data shows Tesla owners have driven the same stretch of highway with Autopilot engaged 8220roughly 85000 times and there has never been an accident that we know of8221 The statement did not say if the crashed vehicle was in Autopilot mode Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Alexandria Sage and Noel Randewich in San Francisco Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Wall Street closed lower after a rocky session on Wednesday as gains in consumer staples and healthcare were offset by a sharp drop in Amazon shares and a continuing slide in technology stocks All three major US indexes ended the day in negative territory following Tuesday8217s latesession techdriven selloff following Monday8217s rally as traders moved to defensive stocks after recent weeks8217 heightened volatility 8220People should expect what8217s happening given the kind of volatility we8217ve seen as well as the fact that we8217re kind of in a news vacuum prior to quarterly earnings8221 Chuck Carlson chief executive at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond Indiana said 8220It8217s a market that8217s really looking for the next leadership8221 The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 929 points or 004 percent to 2384842 the SampampP 500 lost 762 points or 029 percent to 2605 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5958 points or 085 percent to 694923 Online retailer Amazoncom was down as much as 67 percent losing more than 53 billion in market value after a report that President Donald Trump indicated he wanted to rein in the company The stock later pared its loses to end the day down 44 percent Shares of automaker Tesla slumped 77 percent extending recent losses following a credit downgrade and news that officials are investigating a fatal crash and fire in California Countering those losses were gains for consumer staples real estate telecom and healthcare The SampampP Energy index posted the biggest loss of the 11 major SampampP sectors ending 199 percent lower as crude prices fell after data showed a surprise build in US stocks The markets shrugged off a report from the US Commerce Department that the US economy slowed less than previously reported in the fourth quarter as consumer spending grew at its fastest quarterly pace in three years GDP expanded at a 29 percent annual rate in the last three months of 2017 ahead of the previously reported 25 percent Strong economic data could invite a more hawkish approach by the US Federal Reserve this year with respect to further interest rate hikes Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York US March 19 2018 REUTERSLucas Jackson 8220I8217m not surprised by the economic data8221 said Carlson 8220But the market right now is looking past that from a valuation standpoint8221 Stocks had jumped earlier in the week as trade war fears ebbed following comments from officials in the United States and China that implied the world8217s two largest economies would renegotiate tariffs and trade imbalances China is expected to announce a list of tariffs on US imports in retaliation against the expected tariff proposals from the US on Chinese goods Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 112to1 ratio on Nasdaq a 122to1 ratio favored decliners A woman passes by the Nasdaq Market Site in Times Square in New York City US February 7 2018 REUTERSBrendan McDermid Volume on US exchanges was 696 billion shares compared to the 736 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days Reporting by Stephen Culp Editing by Nick Zieminski and Susan Thomas Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters Fund managers have begun to ditch socalled FANG stocks that powered the US stock market to record highs in January and are slowly rotating into commodityrelated shares and other value stocks which typically outperform in latecycle recoveries Portfolio managers holding shares of Facebook Inc FBO Amazoncom Inc AMZNO Netflix Inc NFLXO and Googleparent Alphabet Inc GOOGLO say they are increasingly concerned that the data scandal that has sent shares of Facebook down nearly 15 percent yeartodate will spill over into all of the FANG stocks imperiling the broad market8217s momentum at a time when there are no clear companies or sectors to take their place On Tuesday an index which tracks the FANG stocks along with six other megacap technology stocks tumbled 63 percent the biggest decline since September 2014 Facebook rose as much as 15 percent in early trading Wednesday before falling into the red one day after sources told Reuters that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before Congress Amazoncom dropped 4 percent while Netflix fell 5 percent Googleparent Alphabet was slightly positive 8220There are legitimate concerns over the business models of these companies and I expect that they will be ironed out in legislation8221 that will likely eat into their profit margins said Michael Cuggino a portfolio manager of the 17billion Permanent Portfolio funds Cuggino who would not say whether he was selling any of his shares in Facebook said that commodity and industrial stocks look more attractive now given rising inflation and continued global economic growth Each FANG company rose more than 33 percent last year helping power the SampampP 500 SPX to a nearly 20percent gain Yet those gains have left the broad SampampP 500 trading at a high trailing pricetoearnings ratio of 217 leaving it overpriced despite a boost to margins from the Republicanled corporate tax cut at the end of 2017 8220Rising volatility and changing market leadership are now pointing towards the possible conclusion that the stock market peaked in late January 20188221 said Douglas Kass president of Seabreeze Capital Management The SampampP 500 is now down 22 percent for the year and down nearly 10 percent below the high of 287287 it reached on Jan 26 Slideshow 2 Images UNFRIENDED Fund managers say that the high valuation of FANG stocks and the likelihood of regulation are pushing them into traditional value stocks like energy and defense companies Connor Browne a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management said that he sold his shares of Netflix and Amazoncom last year after both companies blew through his price targets He used those gains instead to increase positions in energy stocks such as pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners LP EPDN and crude oil shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc OSGN that stand to benefit from the recovery in the price of oil 8220We noticed that in all of this excitement over the FANGs taking over the world there are parts of the economy that seem really out of favor and offer more compelling opportunities8221 he said Even after the selloff FANG stocks continue to trade at higher valuations than the broad market Netflix trades at a PE of 210 and Amazoncom trades at a PE of 327 Facebook and Googleparent Alphabet both of which have been directly linked with privacy concerns now trade at valuations near 52week lows Facebook Inc 16111 FBO Nasdaq 808 528 FBO AMZNO NFLXO GOOGLO SPX The overhang of increased government oversight has sunk the fortunes of large technology companies in the past Microsoft Corp MSFTO reached a settlement in an antitrust case with the Department of Justice in 2002 that lasted until 2011 contributing to a long period of underperformance that kept the stock below the high it reached in 1999 until 2016 Since then the stock is up nearly 60 percent on the strength of its cloudbased services Margaret Patel a senior portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Funds said that she has been adding to defense stocks like Raytheon Co RTNN that should benefit from increasing military spending in both the US and overseas At the same time she is increasing her exposure of nonFANG technology stocks like Adobe Systems Inc ADBEO and Microsoft that have been hurt by the recent selloff in the sector 8220It8217s very hard to see another sector that still has all the fundamental drivers for growing much faster than any other sector8221 she said Reporting by David Randall Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | Jan/PROPN 22/NUM Reuters/PROPN Wynn/PROPN Resorts/PROPN Ltd/PROPN posted/VERB quarterly/ADJ adjusted/VERB earnings/NOUN of/ADP 140/NUM per/ADP share/NOUN The/DET mean/ADJ expectation/NOUN of/ADP 15/NUM analysts/NOUN for/ADP the/DET quarter/NOUN ended/VERB December/PROPN 31/NUM was/AUX for/ADP earnings/NOUN of/ADP 137/NUM per/ADP share/NOUN Revenue/NOUN rose/VERB 2989/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 169/NUM billion/NUM from/ADP a/DET year/NOUN ago/ADV analysts/NOUN expected/VERB 157/NUM billion/NUM Wynn/PROPN Resorts/PROPN Ltd8217s/PROPN Reported/VERB EPS/PROPN for/ADP the/DET quarter/NOUN was/AUX 477/NUM The/DET mean/ADJ earnings/NOUN estimate/NOUN of/ADP analysts/NOUN had/AUX risen/VERB by/ADP about/ADV 551/NUM percent/NOUN in/ADP the/DET last/ADJ three/NUM months/NOUN In/ADP the/DET last/ADJ 30/NUM days/NOUN two/NUM analysts/NOUN have/AUX negatively/ADV revised/VERB estimates/NOUN and/CCONJ three/NUM analysts/NOUN have/AUX revised/VERB estimates/NOUN upward/ADJ Wynn/PROPN Resorts/PROPN Ltd/PROPN shares/NOUN had/AUX risen/VERB by/ADP 66/NUM percent/NOUN this/DET quarter/NOUN and/CCONJ gained/VERB 66/NUM percent/NOUN so/ADV far/ADV this/DET year/NOUN The/DET Las/PROPN Vegas/PROPN Nevadabased/PROPN company/NOUN reported/VERB quarterly/ADJ net/ADJ income/NOUN of/ADP 49168/NUM million/NUM an/DET increase/NOUN of/ADP 3779/NUM million/NUM over/ADP the/DET same/ADJ period/NOUN a/DET year/NOUN ago/ADV Wynn/PROPN Resorts/PROPN Ltd/PROPN is/AUX a/DET member/NOUN of/ADP the/DET NASDAQ/PROPN Composite/PROPN Index/PROPN This/DET summary/NOUN was/AUX generated/VERB 0245/NUM pm/NOUN GMT/PROPN Our/PRON Standards/PROPN The/DET Thomson/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Trust/PROPN Principles/PROPN NEW/PROPN YORK/PROPN Reuters/PROPN Wall/PROPN Street/PROPN jumped/VERB on/ADP Thursday/PROPN and/CCONJ was/AUX on/ADP track/NOUN to/PART end/VERB a/DET holidayshortened/ADJ and/CCONJ tumultuous/ADJ week/NOUN in/ADP positive/ADJ territory/NOUN as/SCONJ investors/NOUN returned/VERB to/ADP technology/NOUN stocks/NOUN Traders/NOUN work/VERB on/ADP the/DET floor/NOUN of/ADP the/DET New/PROPN York/PROPN Stock/PROPN Exchange/PROPN NYSE/PROPN in/ADP New/PROPN York/PROPN US/PROPN March/PROPN 26/NUM 2018/NUM REUTERSBrendan/PROPN McDermid/PROPN As/SCONJ March/PROPN drew/VERB to/ADP a/DET close/NOUN however/ADV the/DET SampampP/PROPN 500/NUM SPX/PROPN and/CCONJ the/DET Dow/PROPN Jones/PROPN Industrial/PROPN Average/PROPN DJI/PROPN were/AUX on/ADP pace/NOUN for/ADP their/PRON worst/ADJ quarterly/ADJ declines/NOUN in/ADP more/ADJ than/ADP two/NUM years/NOUN 8220Markets/NUM are/AUX closing/VERB out/ADP a/DET weak/ADJ quarter/NOUN as/SCONJ 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push/VERB the/DET SampampP/PROPN 500/NUM more/ADJ than/ADP 1/NUM percent/NOUN higher/ADJ with/ADP the/DET Dow/PROPN and/CCONJ Nasdaq/PROPN also/ADV rallying/VERB Technology/PROPN gains/NOUN were/AUX led/VERB by/ADP Facebook/PROPN FBO/PROPN Apple/PROPN AAPLO/PROPN Alphabet/PROPN GOOGLO/PROPN and/CCONJ Microsoft/PROPN MSFTO/PROPN shares/VERB 8220Tech/NUM recovered/VERB after/ADP a/DET weak/ADJ few/ADJ days/NOUN as/SCONJ the/DET sector/NOUN remains/VERB one/NUM of/ADP the/DET few/ADJ to/PART offer/VERB very/ADV strong/ADJ growth/NOUN in/ADP the/DET near/ADJ future8221/PROPN said/VERB Carter/PROPN At/ADP 213PM/PROPN ET/PROPN the/DET Dow/PROPN Jones/PROPN Industrial/PROPN Average/PROPN DJI/PROPN was/AUX up/ADV 36584/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 153/NUM percent/NOUN at/ADP 2421426/NUM the/DET SampampP/PROPN 500/NUM SPX/PROPN gained/VERB 419/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 161/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 26469/NUM and/CCONJ the/DET Nasdaq/PROPN Composite/PROPN IXIC/PROPN added/VERB 13693/NUM points/NOUN or/CCONJ 197/NUM percent/NOUN to/ADP 708615/NUM Trading/NOUN volume/NOUN was/AUX light/ADJ ahead/ADV of/ADP the/DET long/ADJ holiday/NOUN weekend/NOUN Investors/NOUN were/AUX unfazed/VERB by/ADP economic/ADJ reports/NOUN showing/VERB a/DET slight/ADJ increase/NOUN in/ADP consumer/NOUN spending/NOUN and/CCONJ initial/ADJ jobless/ADJ claims/NOUN dropping/VERB to/ADP more/ADJ than/ADP a/DET 45year/PROPN low/ADJ Standard/PROPN ampamp/NOUN Poors/PROPN Corp/PROPN 265426/NUM SPX/PROPN Chicago/PROPN Board/PROPN Options/PROPN Exchange/PROPN 4926/NUM 189/NUM SPX/PROPN DJI/PROPN FBO/PROPN AAPLO/NOUN GOOGLO/NOUN In/ADP other/ADJ data/NOUN core/NOUN personal/ADJ consumption/NOUN expenditures/NOUN PCE/PROPN rose/VERB by/ADP 16/NUM percent/NOUN yearonyear/NOUN The/DET price/NOUN index/NOUN is/AUX the/DET US/PROPN Federal/PROPN Reserve8217s/PROPN preferred/ADJ inflation/NOUN measure/NOUN and/CCONJ has/AUX been/AUX below/ADP the/DET central/ADJ bank8217s/PROPN 2/NUM percent/NOUN target/NOUN since/SCONJ mid2012/PROPN Amazoncom/PROPN AMZNO/PROPN climbed/VERB 10/NUM percent/NOUN recovering/VERB from/ADP a/DET 46/NUM percent/NOUN drop/NOUN after/SCONJ President/PROPN Donald/PROPN Trump/PROPN criticized/VERB the/DET online/ADJ retailer/NOUN via/ADP Twitter/PROPN early/ADJ Thursday/PROPN claiming/VERB without/ADP evidence/NOUN that/SCONJ the/DET company/NOUN pays/VERB 8220little/NOUN to/ADP no/DET taxes/NOUN to/PART state/NOUN ampamp/NOUN local/ADJ governments8221/PROPN Stocks/NOUN shot/VERB up/ADP earlier/ADV in/ADP the/DET week/NOUN as/SCONJ comments/NOUN from/ADP officials/NOUN in/ADP the/DET United/PROPN States/PROPN and/CCONJ China/PROPN suggested/VERB the/DET world8217s/PROPN two/NUM largest/ADJ economies/NOUN would/AUX renegotiate/VERB tariffs/NOUN and/CCONJ trade/NOUN imbalances/NOUN averting/VERB a/DET trade/NOUN war/NOUN But/CCONJ trade/NOUN war/NOUN fears/NOUN led/VERB global/ADJ investors/NOUN to/PART cut/VERB their/PRON equity/NOUN exposure/NOUN to/ADP a/DET fourmonth/ADJ 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<p>Yves Smith has written the popular and trenchant financial blog "Naked Capitalism" since 2006. Yves has spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry and currently heads Aurora Advisors, a New York-based management consulting firm specializing in corporate finance advisory and financial services. Prior experience includes Goldman Sachs (in corporate finance), McKinsey &amp; Co., and Sumitomo Bank (as head of mergers and acquisitions). Yves has written for publications in the United States and Australia, including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Slate, The Conference Board Review, Institutional Investor, The Daily Deal and the Australian Financial Review. Yves is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in New York City. Joining us again now is Yves Smith. She's the founder of NakedCapitalism.com, and she's the author of ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism. Thanks for joining us.
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<p />YVES SMITH, AUTHOR: Paul, thanks so much.
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<p />JAY: So in Washington this debate between austerity versus stimulus, although right now everybody seems to be on the cut-the-deficit bandwagon, there's a--some people are saying we need more stimulus. Talk about this back-and-forth, this debate. What's your view of it?
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<p />SMITH: Well, on the one hand, right now the evidence is really clear that more stimulus is warranted, even though stimulus has managed to become a bad word in America. And to sort of back up a little bit, that's because stimulus has been abused. And we have people who are called Keynesians that Keynes would have been unhappy with a lot of their prescriptions, and that Keynes actually did believe in running more or less a balanced budget over time. He actually believed in having surpluses when the economy was robust and in stimulating when the economy was weak. Now, interestingly, we've gotten ourselves in a position where stimulus has been applied even in times when the economy was nominally strong, which would suggest the economy maybe wasn't really in such good shape in good times after all. You know, now people are talking about issues like structural unemployment, which is really a code word for maybe we should accept high unemployment all the time, instead of saying what's really wrong with America's competitive model and have we backed ourselves in a bit of a corner.
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<p />JAY: So let's talk about the limits, what some people have called the limits of Keynesianism--or maybe it's the limits of the people who are now espousing Keynesianism. There is a point where you--if--let's say you do have stimulus--and right now it seems completely off the table, given where politics in Washington is right now, in terms of more stimulus programs. But say even you do have more stimulus. Then what? In the sense that the underlying problem of the lack of demand, how does that change? Because once the stimulus dollars are spent, even if it generates a certain amount of economic activity, what's that underlying reason why there needed to be so much stimulus in the first place?
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<p />SMITH: Well, we've gotten into an economic model that--some people date it to the 1970s, other people date it to the 1980s--where, historically, policymakers were concerned with average worker wages. That was the--you know, jobs and average worker wages, and politicians knew that that was what would get them reelected. And what happened in the period of the stagflation of the '70s is that people began groping for different economic models. And that was what led what's called the Chicago school, also called neoclassical economics, to really come to the fore, because they'd been in the wilderness and people were really looking for, you know, any new ideas. But what happened is we then went to a model where everything that--anything that came out of, quote, "free markets", even though free markets is--conveniently means something different, depending what context it's in. But we have this kind of nebulous, flexible, free markets concept. But the idea is that anything that happens out of market activity is deemed to be virtuous, so if we go to less regulation, which--corporate interests took this free markets mantra and used it to justify deregulation--if we as a result of deregulated activity suddenly have a big trade deficit, well, we shouldn't worry: that's really the result of free markets, and somehow it will correct itselves. Well, in the old economic model, sustained trade deficit would have been recognized as, gee, US demand is supporting foreign workers, there is something wrong with this picture, and there would have been a big debate around it. Now, who knows what the remedies would've been, but that problem would not have [been] allowed to go very far. And yet it's a fact that we've allowed that problem to persist and get larger, which is why, then, we've had so much debt accumulation in this economy: when you run a really big trade deficit, that basically--basically it's almost like going to the bank, going and getting credit from your local grocery store. You wind up importing capital, and that's usually in the form of borrowing. In theory, they could also buy all our real estate, the foreigners, but they have tended instead to buy US debt. And what happened over this, again, period starting roughly in the early 1980s is you see consumers loading up on debt. You see it in the '80s bumping up a little bit. And then we had a recession at the end of the '80s, and so it drops, but it still is up on a trendline basis. Then in the 1990s it goes up a little more. Nineteen ninety-nine, it shoots to the moon. You suddenly see this rapid acceleration in consumer debt. Consumer debt is not economically productive. You know, it's one thing if you're a business, or even if you're the government--you know, the government's bad name to the contrary, in fact, for example, government investment in technology spending has been found to have a 30 to 40 percent return on investment. You know, well-targeted government investment can even be profitable. But consumer spending is consumer spending. I mean, buying more house does not make the economy more productive, and yet that's basically what happened is, to substitute for the fact that average workers were not getting more money, everybody had a higher standard of living by this, you know, basically 30-year pattern of loading up on more debt.
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<p />JAY: So if the underlying problem is lack of real wages, and as we--I think it's mostly accepted, productivity has certainly gone up in the last 15, 20 years. Some people, I think, have said it's doubled, I think, over the last couple of decades, where wages have remained mostly stagnant. Then the issue of stimulus, while it's better than deep depression, doesn't deal with that underlying problem.
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<p />SMITH: That's right. The effective stimulus is not getting enough to the right people. And it's very--that shift you're mentioning is also very dramatic. Basically, in the last decade, decade and a half, you've seen a huge split between the wage share of GDP growth and the profit share. It used to be, historically, in every expansion, you would see most of the growth in GDP going to wages, either in the form of wage increases or just hiring more people. Typically, for every dollar of GDP growth, you would see between $0.58 and--it was usually--I think $0.60 or $0.65 was the peak--the average was in around $0.62 of every dollar of GDP growth would go to worker wages in some form. In the last upturn that we had, the one prior to the crisis, the wage share was only $0.27. It was off-the-charts low.
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<p />JAY: So what are some structural changes that could be made? If what's good for the overall economy, the overall society, is that wages go up, how does that get achieved?
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<p />SMITH: One way would be, for example, we've got a tremendous amount of tax subsidies for activities that are really very questionable. One that has been fought (and the battle has been lost, which is very disappointing) is that, for example, the people who run private equity funds and hedge funds, by any standards, what they do is labor income. You know, these guys--but these guys can--the way they can structure their funds is so that all the money they make from their work is taxed at capital gains rates. Why should guys who are rich and that attach themselves to capital but are making that money via working get the benefits of a capital gains rate? That's just an offense to common sense. Similarly, you know, we have the fact that we had the Bush tax cuts, which also gave--you know, for example, Warren Buffett complained about the Bush tax cuts. He said, my tax rate is now lower than my secretary's. There's something wrong with this picture. You had other breaks for capital as opposed to labor, and look what we got out of it. We got--you know, the economic results of the Bush tax cut were that we got--I mean, not that you can pin it solely on the Bush tax cuts, but certainly it was associated with a set of economic policies that produced a bubble and a bust, that, again, was not economically positive.
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<p />JAY: And doesn't unemployment insurance itself help to raise wages? I was talking to a guy who's a foreman in a grinder manufacturing place in Massachusetts. They have, like, 3,000 employees. And they had 100 jobs going, they were trying to hire 100 more people, and they could only fill about 50 of them.
<p />
<p />SMITH: Right.
<p />
<p />JAY: And I said, well, how come? He said, well, a lot of people we had previously laid off are now on unemployment insurance, and they don't want to come back, 'cause they can sit at home on unemployment insurance. And I said, well, how much are the jobs paying? I think it was, like, about $11 or $11 and change. It was only about--like, if--maybe $2.50 to $3.00 more than the unemployment insurance. So you figure that, well, the person now has to pay for gas, has to get to work, back, take the bus, all the other costs. I said to him, well, then, why don't you raise the wage? And then there won't be such--if there's a bigger spread between unemployment insurance and your wage, you'll be able to hire people.
<p />
<p />SMITH: Right. One--well, but that points to a somewhat different issue. I mean, you're right, but there has been--there have been a--.
<p />
<p />JAY: [inaudible] isn't that a good thing that it would force [inaudible]
<p />
<p />SMITH: Well, exactly, and that's one way of addressing it. I mean, the fact is--but this is one thing that's also happened in this economy, that people have gotten the idea that, gee, the economy is so weak, therefore we should be able to pay people even lower wages. And when--in fact, if people have skills, people with skills are basically going to say, no, I'm not going to be exploited. You know. And a lot of people in their jobs have a sense of sort of where their job fits into the total profits of the company, you know, in terms of if I do this much work and the final product cost is X and I know they're not selling the product for any less and I know they're still selling a lot of product, why should it come out of my hide?
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, they've [inaudible] created public opinion against people wanting higher wages.
<p />
<p />SMITH: Yes.
<p />
<p />JAY: Like, you're being greedy, so you're causing the economic crisis, 'cause you want higher wages.
<p />
<p />SMITH: As opposed to it's the managements, which have now--I mean, it's become accepted in this country that labor has no bargaining power. And you see it even in big corporations. I mean, everybody I know who still has a job at a large company, they're now doing what--1.5 to 2 jobs, what would have been 1.5 to 2 jobs 10 years ago.
<p />
<p />JAY: And they're getting major manufacturers buying into this GM model of two-tier wages, where the new workers are going to start at half the wage or even less than half the wage of what had been achieved by older workers. Some people are saying the only real way to deal with both the wage side and the unemployment side, because more people working does force wages up, is some kind of direct government jobs program, where they simply--the government goes and hires people for infrastructure projects and such. What's your view of that?
<p />
<p />SMITH: I mean, that's one possibility. I think there's a lot of resistance in the country because we spent 20 years breeding for not very competent government. You know, the people who are very talented tend to go into government only to get their ticket punched and then get a more lucrative private sector job. There are countries all around the world that do a very competent job of running good public sector projects. And in fact, the US, you know, we built the Hoover Dam. We electrified the Tennessee Valley. You know, those were extremely productive projects. And with the US having very bad infrastructure right now, you know, again, by a global standard, there are plenty of opportunities for well-targeted expenditure. It will be very profitable to the economy. Another way for the government to go about it would be to fund more basic research. I mean, for example, people in the US somehow have blocked out of their mind the fact that we have a very successful pharmaceuticals industry is because we have a National Institutes of Health that funds a tremendous amount of basic research into medicine and health. And similarly, in Australia they have a group called the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and they've picked ten industry sectors that they regard as a priority. And they have what basically amounts to a big government think tank to both do some basic research but also what amounts to applied research to help get ideas that will make their industries more competitive. You know, we like to pretend in America that we don't do industrial policy, which is crazy. I mean, we have a very heavily subsidized defense industry. As I mentioned, we have subsidized health care. We have--.
<p />
<p />JAY: Agriculture.
<p />
<p />SMITH: Agriculture. You know. But we can't talk about doing industrial policy intelligently. Instead, we pretend it doesn't exist and do it badly.
<p />
<p />JAY: And everything's mostly now about the short-term buck.
<p />
<p />SMITH: Correct.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks for joining us.
<p />
<p />SMITH: Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network. Talking about short-term bucks, we have a donate button here and a donate button there, and we need some short-term bucks if we're going to keep doing this work. Thank you.
<p />
<p />End of Transcript
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Stimulus And Tax Cuts Not a Long-Term Solution | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D6004 | 2010-12-26 | 4left
| 2,527 | Yves Smith has written the popular and trenchant financial blog Naked Capitalism since 2006 Yves has spent more than 25 years in the financial services industry and currently heads Aurora Advisors a New Yorkbased management consulting firm specializing in corporate finance advisory and financial services Prior experience includes Goldman Sachs in corporate finance McKinsey ampamp Co and Sumitomo Bank as head of mergers and acquisitions Yves has written for publications in the United States and Australia including The New York Times The Christian Science Monitor Slate The Conference Board Review Institutional Investor The Daily Deal and the Australian Financial Review Yves is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School PAUL JAY SENIOR EDITOR TRNN Welcome to The Real News Network Im Paul Jay in New York City Joining us again now is Yves Smith Shes the founder of NakedCapitalismcom and shes the author of ECONned How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism Thanks for joining us YVES SMITH AUTHOR Paul thanks so much JAY So in Washington this debate between austerity versus stimulus although right now everybody seems to be on the cutthedeficit bandwagon theres asome people are saying we need more stimulus Talk about this backandforth this debate Whats your view of it SMITH Well on the one hand right now the evidence is really clear that more stimulus is warranted even though stimulus has managed to become a bad word in America And to sort of back up a little bit thats because stimulus has been abused And we have people who are called Keynesians that Keynes would have been unhappy with a lot of their prescriptions and that Keynes actually did believe in running more or less a balanced budget over time He actually believed in having surpluses when the economy was robust and in stimulating when the economy was weak Now interestingly weve gotten ourselves in a position where stimulus has been applied even in times when the economy was nominally strong which would suggest the economy maybe wasnt really in such good shape in good times after all You know now people are talking about issues like structural unemployment which is really a code word for maybe we should accept high unemployment all the time instead of saying whats really wrong with Americas competitive model and have we backed ourselves in a bit of a corner JAY So lets talk about the limits what some people have called the limits of Keynesianismor maybe its the limits of the people who are now espousing Keynesianism There is a point where youiflets say you do have stimulusand right now it seems completely off the table given where politics in Washington is right now in terms of more stimulus programs But say even you do have more stimulus Then what In the sense that the underlying problem of the lack of demand how does that change Because once the stimulus dollars are spent even if it generates a certain amount of economic activity whats that underlying reason why there needed to be so much stimulus in the first place SMITH Well weve gotten into an economic model thatsome people date it to the 1970s other people date it to the 1980swhere historically policymakers were concerned with average worker wages That was theyou know jobs and average worker wages and politicians knew that that was what would get them reelected And what happened in the period of the stagflation of the 70s is that people began groping for different economic models And that was what led whats called the Chicago school also called neoclassical economics to really come to the fore because theyd been in the wilderness and people were really looking for you know any new ideas But what happened is we then went to a model where everything thatanything that came out of quote free markets even though free markets isconveniently means something different depending what context its in But we have this kind of nebulous flexible free markets concept But the idea is that anything that happens out of market activity is deemed to be virtuous so if we go to less regulation whichcorporate interests took this free markets mantra and used it to justify deregulationif we as a result of deregulated activity suddenly have a big trade deficit well we shouldnt worry thats really the result of free markets and somehow it will correct itselves Well in the old economic model sustained trade deficit would have been recognized as gee US demand is supporting foreign workers there is something wrong with this picture and there would have been a big debate around it Now who knows what the remedies wouldve been but that problem would not have been allowed to go very far And yet its a fact that weve allowed that problem to persist and get larger which is why then weve had so much debt accumulation in this economy when you run a really big trade deficit that basicallybasically its almost like going to the bank going and getting credit from your local grocery store You wind up importing capital and thats usually in the form of borrowing In theory they could also buy all our real estate the foreigners but they have tended instead to buy US debt And what happened over this again period starting roughly in the early 1980s is you see consumers loading up on debt You see it in the 80s bumping up a little bit And then we had a recession at the end of the 80s and so it drops but it still is up on a trendline basis Then in the 1990s it goes up a little more Nineteen ninetynine it shoots to the moon You suddenly see this rapid acceleration in consumer debt Consumer debt is not economically productive You know its one thing if youre a business or even if youre the governmentyou know the governments bad name to the contrary in fact for example government investment in technology spending has been found to have a 30 to 40 percent return on investment You know welltargeted government investment can even be profitable But consumer spending is consumer spending I mean buying more house does not make the economy more productive and yet thats basically what happened is to substitute for the fact that average workers were not getting more money everybody had a higher standard of living by this you know basically 30year pattern of loading up on more debt JAY So if the underlying problem is lack of real wages and as weI think its mostly accepted productivity has certainly gone up in the last 15 20 years Some people I think have said its doubled I think over the last couple of decades where wages have remained mostly stagnant Then the issue of stimulus while its better than deep depression doesnt deal with that underlying problem SMITH Thats right The effective stimulus is not getting enough to the right people And its verythat shift youre mentioning is also very dramatic Basically in the last decade decade and a half youve seen a huge split between the wage share of GDP growth and the profit share It used to be historically in every expansion you would see most of the growth in GDP going to wages either in the form of wage increases or just hiring more people Typically for every dollar of GDP growth you would see between 058 andit was usuallyI think 060 or 065 was the peakthe average was in around 062 of every dollar of GDP growth would go to worker wages in some form In the last upturn that we had the one prior to the crisis the wage share was only 027 It was offthecharts low JAY So what are some structural changes that could be made If whats good for the overall economy the overall society is that wages go up how does that get achieved SMITH One way would be for example weve got a tremendous amount of tax subsidies for activities that are really very questionable One that has been fought and the battle has been lost which is very disappointing is that for example the people who run private equity funds and hedge funds by any standards what they do is labor income You know these guysbut these guys canthe way they can structure their funds is so that all the money they make from their work is taxed at capital gains rates Why should guys who are rich and that attach themselves to capital but are making that money via working get the benefits of a capital gains rate Thats just an offense to common sense Similarly you know we have the fact that we had the Bush tax cuts which also gaveyou know for example Warren Buffett complained about the Bush tax cuts He said my tax rate is now lower than my secretarys Theres something wrong with this picture You had other breaks for capital as opposed to labor and look what we got out of it We gotyou know the economic results of the Bush tax cut were that we gotI mean not that you can pin it solely on the Bush tax cuts but certainly it was associated with a set of economic policies that produced a bubble and a bust that again was not economically positive JAY And doesnt unemployment insurance itself help to raise wages I was talking to a guy whos a foreman in a grinder manufacturing place in Massachusetts They have like 3000 employees And they had 100 jobs going they were trying to hire 100 more people and they could only fill about 50 of them SMITH Right JAY And I said well how come He said well a lot of people we had previously laid off are now on unemployment insurance and they dont want to come back cause they can sit at home on unemployment insurance And I said well how much are the jobs paying I think it was like about 11 or 11 and change It was only aboutlike ifmaybe 250 to 300 more than the unemployment insurance So you figure that well the person now has to pay for gas has to get to work back take the bus all the other costs I said to him well then why dont you raise the wage And then there wont be suchif theres a bigger spread between unemployment insurance and your wage youll be able to hire people SMITH Right Onewell but that points to a somewhat different issue I mean youre right but there has beenthere have been a JAY inaudible isnt that a good thing that it would force inaudible SMITH Well exactly and thats one way of addressing it I mean the fact isbut this is one thing thats also happened in this economy that people have gotten the idea that gee the economy is so weak therefore we should be able to pay people even lower wages And whenin fact if people have skills people with skills are basically going to say no Im not going to be exploited You know And a lot of people in their jobs have a sense of sort of where their job fits into the total profits of the company you know in terms of if I do this much work and the final product cost is X and I know theyre not selling the product for any less and I know theyre still selling a lot of product why should it come out of my hide JAY Well theyve inaudible created public opinion against people wanting higher wages SMITH Yes JAY Like youre being greedy so youre causing the economic crisis cause you want higher wages SMITH As opposed to its the managements which have nowI mean its become accepted in this country that labor has no bargaining power And you see it even in big corporations I mean everybody I know who still has a job at a large company theyre now doing what15 to 2 jobs what would have been 15 to 2 jobs 10 years ago JAY And theyre getting major manufacturers buying into this GM model of twotier wages where the new workers are going to start at half the wage or even less than half the wage of what had been achieved by older workers Some people are saying the only real way to deal with both the wage side and the unemployment side because more people working does force wages up is some kind of direct government jobs program where they simplythe government goes and hires people for infrastructure projects and such Whats your view of that SMITH I mean thats one possibility I think theres a lot of resistance in the country because we spent 20 years breeding for not very competent government You know the people who are very talented tend to go into government only to get their ticket punched and then get a more lucrative private sector job There are countries all around the world that do a very competent job of running good public sector projects And in fact the US you know we built the Hoover Dam We electrified the Tennessee Valley You know those were extremely productive projects And with the US having very bad infrastructure right now you know again by a global standard there are plenty of opportunities for welltargeted expenditure It will be very profitable to the economy Another way for the government to go about it would be to fund more basic research I mean for example people in the US somehow have blocked out of their mind the fact that we have a very successful pharmaceuticals industry is because we have a National Institutes of Health that funds a tremendous amount of basic research into medicine and health And similarly in Australia they have a group called the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and theyve picked ten industry sectors that they regard as a priority And they have what basically amounts to a big government think tank to both do some basic research but also what amounts to applied research to help get ideas that will make their industries more competitive You know we like to pretend in America that we dont do industrial policy which is crazy I mean we have a very heavily subsidized defense industry As I mentioned we have subsidized health care We have JAY Agriculture SMITH Agriculture You know But we cant talk about doing industrial policy intelligently Instead we pretend it doesnt exist and do it badly JAY And everythings mostly now about the shortterm buck SMITH Correct JAY Thanks for joining us SMITH Thank you JAY Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network Talking about shortterm bucks we have a donate button here and a donate button there and we need some shortterm bucks if were going to keep doing this work Thank you End of Transcript 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<p>Mother Jones illustrationBullit Marquez/AP; KREMLL/Getty</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176351/" type="external">story</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Until recently, few of us woke up worrying about the threat of nuclear war. Such dangers seemed like Cold War relics, associated with outmoded practices like building fallout shelters and “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_1jkLxhh20" type="external">duck and cover</a>” drills.</p>
<p>But give Donald Trump credit: When it comes to nukes, he’s gotten our attention. He’s prompted renewed concern, if not outright alarm, about the possibility that such weaponry could actually be used for the first time since the&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176031/tomgram%3A_christian_appy%2C_america%27s_hiroshima_and_nagasaki_70_years_later/" type="external">6th</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176032/tomgram%3A_susan_southard,_under_the_mushroom_cloud_--_nagasaki_after_nuclear_war/" type="external">9th</a>&#160;of August 1945. That’s what happens when the man in the Oval Office begins <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/08/trump-north-korea-warning-241409" type="external">&#160;threatening</a>&#160;to rain “fire and fury like the world has never seen” on another country or, as he did in his presidential campaign,&#160; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-cnn-debate-2015-12" type="external">claim</a>&#160;cryptically that, when it comes to nuclear weapons, “the devastation is very important to me.”</p>
<p>Trump’s pronouncements are at least as unnerving as President Ronald Reagan’s infamous “ <a href="https://www.biography.com/news/ronald-reagan-bombing-in-5-minutes-joke" type="external">joke</a>” that “we begin bombing [the Soviet Union] in five minutes” or the&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/28/books/unthinkable-chitchat.html" type="external">comment</a>&#160;of a Reagan aide that, “with enough shovels,” the United States could survive a superpower nuclear exchange.</p>
<p>Whether in the 1980s or today, a tough-guy attitude on nuclear weapons, combined with an apparent ignorance about their world-ending potential, adds up to a toxic brew.&#160; An unprecedented global anti-nuclear movement—spearheaded by the&#160; <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/096701068101200414" type="external">European Nuclear Disarmament</a>&#160;campaign and, in the United States, the&#160; <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2010_12/LookingBack" type="external">Nuclear Freeze</a>&#160;campaign—helped turn President Reagan around, so much so that he later&#160; <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_07-08/Reagan" type="external">agreed to</a>&#160;substantial nuclear cuts and&#160; <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/war-must-never-be-fought-0" type="external">acknowledged</a>&#160;that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”</p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether anything could similarly influence Donald Trump. One thing is certain, however: The president has plenty of nuclear weapons to back up his aggressive rhetoric—more than&#160; <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat" type="external">4,000</a>&#160;in the active US stockpile, when a mere handful could&#160; <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/many-nukes-world-could-destroy/" type="external">obliterate</a>&#160;North Korea at the cost of&#160; <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/how-many-would-die-if-trump-went-war-north-korea-672246" type="external">millions of lives</a>. Indeed, a few hundred nuclear warheads could do the same for even the largest of nations. Those 4,000, if ever used, could essentially destroy the planet.</p>
<p>In other words, in every sense of the term, our nuclear arsenal already represents overkill on an almost unimaginable scale. Independent experts from US war colleges&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/opinion/24schaub.html" type="external">suggest</a>&#160;that about 300 warheads would be more than enough to deter any country from launching a nuclear attack on the United States.</p>
<p>Despite this, Donald Trump is all in (and more) on the Pentagon’s plan— <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175933/tomgram%3A_james_carroll,_the_pentagon_as_president_obama%27s_great_white_whale/" type="external">developed under</a>&#160;Barack Obama—to build a new generation of nuclear-armed bombers, submarines, and missiles, as well as new generations of warheads to go with them. The cost of this “ <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-wittner/the-trillion-dollar-question_b_9481432.html" type="external">modernization</a>” program? The Congressional Budget Office recently pegged it at&#160; <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/11/01/global-zero-responds-ballooning-costs-rebuilding-us-nuclear-arsenal" type="external">$1.7 trillion</a>&#160;over the next three decades, adjusted for inflation. As Derek Johnson, director of the antinuclear organization Global Zero, has&#160; <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/11/01/global-zero-responds-ballooning-costs-rebuilding-us-nuclear-arsenal" type="external">noted</a>, “That’s money we don’t have for an arsenal we don’t need.”</p>
<p>Why the desire for so many nukes? There is, in fact, a dirty little secret behind the massive US arsenal: It has more to do with the power and profits of weapons makers than it does with any imaginable strategic considerations.</p>
<p>It may not surprise you to learn that there’s nothing new about the influence the nuclear weapons lobby has over Pentagon spending priorities. The successful machinations of the makers of strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, intended to keep tax dollars flowing their way, date back to the dawn of the nuclear age and are the primary reason President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined the term “ <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp" type="external">military-industrial complex</a>” and warned of its dangers in his 1961 farewell address.</p>
<p>Without the development of such weapons, that complex simply would not exist in its present form. The&#160; <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/the-costs-of-the-manhattan-project/" type="external">Manhattan Project</a>, the vast endeavor that produced the first workable nukes during World War II, was one of the largest government-funded research and manufacturing projects in history. Today’s&#160; <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/us-nuclear-weapons-policy/us-nuclear-weapons-facilities.html#.Wfy41raZPUo" type="external">nuclear warhead complex</a>&#160;is still largely built around facilities and locations dating back to that time.</p>
<p>The Manhattan Project was the first building block of the permanent arms establishment that came to dominate in Washington. The nuclear arms race against that other superpower, the Soviet Union, was crucial to the rationale for a permanent war state.&#160; In those years, it was the key to sustaining the building, funding, and institutionalizing of the arms establishment.</p>
<p>As Eisenhower noted in that farewell address of his, “a permanent arms industry of vast proportions” had developed for a simple enough reason. In a nuclear age, America had to be ready ahead of time. As he put it, “We can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense.” And that was for a simple enough reason: In an era of potential nuclear war, any society could be destroyed in a matter of hours. There would be no time, as in the past, to mobilize or prepare after the fact.</p>
<p>In addition, there were some very specific ways in which the quest for more nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles drove Eisenhower to give that farewell address. One of his biggest fights was over whether to build a new nuclear bomber. The Air Force and the arms industry were desperate to do so. Eisenhower thought it a&#160; <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/stealth-bombers-flying-aircraft-carriers-5-killer-weapons-19148" type="external">waste of money</a>, given all the other nuclear delivery vehicles the US was building at the time. He even cancelled the bomber, only to find himself forced to revive it under immense pressure from the arms lobby. In the process, he lost the larger struggle to rein in the nation’s nuclear buildup and corral the burgeoning military-industrial complex.</p>
<p>At the same time, there were rumblings in the intelligence community, the military establishment, the media, and Congress about a “missile gap” with the Soviet Union. The notion was that Moscow had somehow jumped ahead of the United States in developing and building intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). There was no definitive intelligence to substantiate the claim (and it was later proved to be false). However, a wave of worst-case scenarios leaked by or promoted by intelligence analysts and eagerly backed by industry propaganda made that missile gap part of the everyday news of the time.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Such fears were then&#160; <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2011_05/Thielmann" type="external">exaggerated</a>&#160;further, thanks to hawkish journalists of the era like Joseph Alsop and prominent Democratic senators like John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, as well as Stuart Symington, who just happened to be a friend and former colleague of an executive at the aircraft manufacturing company Convair, which, in turn, just happened to make ICBMs. As a result, he&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eisenhower-Missile-Cornell-Studies-Security/dp/0801427975" type="external">lobbied</a>&#160;hard on behalf of a Pentagon plan to build more of that corporation’s Atlas ballistic missiles, while Kennedy would famously make the nonexistent missile gap a central theme of his successful 1960 campaign for the presidency.</p>
<p>Eisenhower couldn’t have been more clear-eyed about all of this. He&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eisenhower-Missile-Cornell-Studies-Security/dp/0801427975" type="external">saw</a>&#160;the missile gap for the fiction it was or, as he put it, a “useful piece of political demagoguery” for his opponents. “Munitions makers,” he&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eisenhower-Missile-Cornell-Studies-Security/dp/0801427975" type="external">insisted</a>, “are making tremendous efforts towards getting more contracts and in fact seem to be exerting undue influence over the senators.”</p>
<p>Once Kennedy took office, it became all too apparent that there was&#160; <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/what-missile-gap/309484/" type="external">no missile gap</a>, but by then it hardly mattered. The damage had been done. Billions of dollars more were flowing into the nuclear-industrial complex to build up an American arsenal of ICBMs already unmatched on the planet.</p>
<p>The techniques that the arms lobby and its allies in government used more than half a century ago to promote sky-high nuclear weapons spending continue to be wielded to this day. The 21st-century arms complex employs tools of influence that Kennedy and his compatriots would have found familiar indeed—including&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?Ind=D" type="external">millions of dollars</a>&#160;in campaign contributions that flow to members of Congress and the continual&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying.php?cycle=2018&amp;ind=D" type="external">employment</a>&#160;of 700 to 1,000 lobbyists to influence them; that’s nearly two arms lobbyists for every member of Congress. Much of this sort of activity remains focused on ensuring that nuclear weapons of all types are amply financed and that the funding for the new generations of the bombers, submarines, and missiles that will deliver them stays on track.</p>
<p>When traditional lobbying methods don’t get the job done, the industry’s argument of last resort is jobs—in particular, jobs in the states and districts of key members of Congress. This process is aided by the fact that nuclear weapons facilities are spread remarkably widely&#160; <a href="https://www.ciponline.org/images/uploads/publications/Hartung_IPR_0612_NuclearLobbyReport_Final.pdf" type="external">across the country</a>.&#160; There are labs in California and New Mexico; a testing and research site in Nevada; a warhead assembly and disassembly plant in Texas; a factory in Kansas City, Missouri, that builds nonnuclear parts for such weapons; and a plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, that produces weapon-grade uranium. There are factories or bases for ICBMs, bombers, and ballistic missile submarines in Connecticut, Georgia, Washington State, California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Wyoming. Such a nuclear geography ensures that a striking number of congressional representatives will automatically favor more spending on nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>In reality, the jobs argument is deeply flawed. As the experts know, virtually any other activity into which such funding flowed would create significantly more jobs than Pentagon spending. A&#160; <a href="https://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_study/PERI_military_spending_2011.pdf" type="external">study</a>&#160;by economists at the University of Massachusetts, for example, found infrastructure investment would create one and one-half times as many jobs as Pentagon funding and education spending twice as many.</p>
<p>In most cases it hasn’t seemed to matter that the jobs claims for weapons spending are grotesquely exaggerated and better alternatives litter the landscape. The argument remains remarkably potent in states and communities that are particularly dependent on the Pentagon. Perhaps unsurprisingly, members of Congress from such areas are disproportionately represented on the committees that decide how much will be spent on nuclear and conventional weaponry.</p>
<p>Another way the nuclear weapons industry (and the rest of the military-industrial complex) tries to control and focus public debate is by funding hawkish think tanks. The advantage to weapons makers is that those institutions and their “experts” can serve as front groups while posing as objective policy analysts. Think of it as intellectual money laundering.</p>
<p>One of the most effective&#160; <a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/gaffney_frank/" type="external">industry-funded think tanks</a>&#160;in terms of promoting costly, ill-advised policies has undoubtedly been Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy. In 1983, when President Ronald Reagan&#160; <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/president-reagan-calls-for-launching-star-wars-initiative-march-23-1983-236259" type="external">first announced</a>&#160;his Strategic Defense Initiative (a.k.a. “Star Wars”), the high-tech space weapons system that was either meant to defend the country against a future Soviet first strike or—depending on how you looked at it—free the country to use its nuclear weapons without fear of retaliation, Gaffney was its biggest booster. More recently, he has become a&#160; <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr" type="external">prominent purveyor</a>&#160;of Islamophobia, but the impact of his promotional work for Star Wars continues to be felt in weapons contracts to this day.</p>
<p>Gaffney served in the Reagan-era Pentagon, but left because even that administration wasn’t anti-Soviet enough for his tastes once the president and his advisers began to discuss things like reducing nuclear weapons in Europe. It didn’t take him long to&#160; <a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/tangledweb.html" type="external">set up</a>&#160;his center with funding from Boeing, Lockheed, and other defense contractors.</p>
<p>Just as George W. Bush was entering the White House, another industry-backed think tank, the&#160; <a href="http://www.nipp.org/" type="external">National Institute for Public Policy</a>, released a&#160; <a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/execsummaryaboutface.html" type="external">report</a>&#160;on nuclear weapons policy that would be adopted almost wholesale for the new administration’s first key nuclear posture review. It advocated such things as increasing the number of countries targeted by US nukes and building a new, more “usable” bunker-busting nuclear weapon. At that time, NIPP&#160; <a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/execsummaryaboutface.html" type="external">had</a>&#160;an executive from Boeing on its board. Its director was Keith Payne, who would become infamous in the annals of nuclear policy for co-authoring a 1980 <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2003/05/rumsfelds_dr_strangelove.html" type="external">&#160;article</a>&#160;at&#160;Foreign Policy&#160;entitled “Victory Is Possible,” suggesting that the United States could actually win a nuclear war, losing “only” 30 million to 40 million people. This is the kind of expert the nuclear weapons complex funded to promulgate its views.</p>
<p>Then there’s the&#160; <a href="http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/" type="external">Lexington Institute</a>, a think tank that never met a weapons system it didn’t like. Lexington front man Loren Thompson is frequently quoted in news stories on defense issues, but it is rarely disclosed that he is&#160; <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/playing-defense-but-at-a-price-046155" type="external">funded</a>&#160;by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and other nuclear weapons contractors.</p>
<p>These are just a small sampling of research and advocacy groups that take money from weapons contractors. That universe ranges from organizations on the right such as the&#160; <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/09/15/heritage-foundation/" type="external">Heritage Foundation</a>&#160;to Democratic-leaning outfits like the&#160; <a href="https://www.cnas.org/" type="external">Center for a New American Security</a>, co-founded by former Obama administration Under Secretary of Defense for Policy&#160;Michèle&#160;Flournoy—who was&#160;considered a potential secretary of defense nominee had Hillary Clinton taken the White House in 2016.</p>
<p>And you may not be surprised to learn that Donald Trump is no piker when it comes to colluding with the weapons industry. His strong preference for populating his administration with former arms industry executives is so blatant that Sen. John McCain recently&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/mccain-says-no-more-defense-industry-execs-for-top-dod-posts/2017/11/02/582af8b2-bfe7-11e7-9294-705f80164f6e_story.html?utm_term=.120f95c309a4" type="external">pledged</a>&#160;to oppose any new nominees with industry ties.</p>
<p>Examples include Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a former board member at General Dynamics; White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who worked for a number of defense firms and was an adviser to DynCorp, a private security firm that has done everything from (poorly) training the Iraqi police to contracting with the Department of Homeland Security; former Boeing executive and now Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan; former Lockheed Martin executive John Rood, nominated as undersecretary of defense for policy; former Raytheon Vice President Mark Esper, newly confirmed as secretary of the Army; Heather Wilson, a former consultant to Lockheed Martin, who is now secretary of the Air Force; Ellen Lord, a former CEO for the aerospace company Textron, who is undersecretary of defense for acquisition; and National Security Council Chief of Staff Keith Kellogg, a former employee of the major defense and intelligence contractor CACI, where he dealt with “ground combat systems” among other things.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that these high-profile industry figures are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the corporate&#160; <a href="https://bracingviews.com/2017/11/07/business-as-usual-at-the-pentagon/" type="external">revolving door</a>&#160;that has been installed in the Pentagon&#160;for decades, as journalist Lee Fang has&#160; <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/03/21/revolving-door-military/" type="external">documented</a>&#160;in the&#160;Intercept.</p>
<p>Given the composition of his national security team and Trump’s love of all things nuclear, what can we expect from his administration on this front? In addition to the $1.7 trillion nuclear build-up, Trump’s&#160; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-mini-nuke-posture-review-make-war-more-likely-2017-10" type="external">impending nuclear posture review</a>&#160;seems to include proposals for dangerous new weapons like a “low-yield,” purportedly more usable nuclear warhead. He’s spoken privately with his team about expanding the arsenal in a staggering fashion—the equivalent of a&#160; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/trump-wanted-dramatic-increase-nuclear-arsenal-meeting-military-leaders-n809701" type="external">10-fold</a>&#160;increase. He’s wholeheartedly&#160; <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/smr/space-missile-defense/2017/08/10/trump-pledges-billions-increase-in-missile-defense-spending/" type="external">embraced</a>&#160;missile defense spending, pledging to put billions of dollars more into that overfunded, under-producing set of programs. And of course, he is assiduously trying to undermine the Iran nuclear deal, one of the&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-iran-deal-is-working-heres-how-we-know/2017/09/29/d138b070-a44c-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html?utm_term=.089792f48141" type="external">most effective</a>&#160;arms control agreements of recent times, and so threatening to open the door to a new nuclear arms race in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Unless the nuclear spending spree being pushed by President Trump as the best thing since the invention of golf is stopped thanks to public opposition, the rise of an antinuclear movement, or congressional action, we’re in trouble. The nuclear weapons lobby will again have won the day—just as it did almost 60 years ago, despite the opposition of a popular president and decorated war hero.</p>
<p>And Donald Trump, “ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html" type="external">bone spurs</a>” and all, is no Dwight D. Eisenhower.</p>
<p>This article was adapted from the author’s essay “Nuclear Politics”&#160;in the collection&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620972468/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation</a>, edited by Helen Caldicott.</p> | The Sway of the Nuclear Arms Industry Over Donald Trump and Congress Is Terrifying | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/devastation-very-important-nuclear-weapons-industry-donald-trump-1/ | 2017-11-18 | 4left
| 2,527 | Mother Jones illustrationBullit MarquezAP KREMLLGetty This story originally appeared on TomDispatchcomamp160 Until recently few of us woke up worrying about the threat of nuclear war Such dangers seemed like Cold War relics associated with outmoded practices like building fallout shelters and 8220 duck and cover8221 drills But give Donald Trump credit When it comes to nukes he8217s gotten our attention He8217s prompted renewed concern if not outright alarm about the possibility that such weaponry could actually be used for the first time since theamp160 6thamp160andamp160 9thamp160of August 1945 That8217s what happens when the man in the Oval Office begins amp160threateningamp160to rain 8220fire and fury like the world has never seen8221 on another country or as he did in his presidential campaignamp160 claimamp160cryptically that when it comes to nuclear weapons 8220the devastation is very important to me8221 Trump8217s pronouncements are at least as unnerving as President Ronald Reagan8217s infamous 8220 joke8221 that 8220we begin bombing the Soviet Union in five minutes8221 or theamp160 commentamp160of a Reagan aide that 8220with enough shovels8221 the United States could survive a superpower nuclear exchange Whether in the 1980s or today a toughguy attitude on nuclear weapons combined with an apparent ignorance about their worldending potential adds up to a toxic brewamp160 An unprecedented global antinuclear movement8212spearheaded by theamp160 European Nuclear Disarmamentamp160campaign and in the United States theamp160 Nuclear Freezeamp160campaign8212helped turn President Reagan around so much so that he lateramp160 agreed toamp160substantial nuclear cuts andamp160 acknowledgedamp160that 8220a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought8221 It remains to be seen whether anything could similarly influence Donald Trump One thing is certain however The president has plenty of nuclear weapons to back up his aggressive rhetoric8212more thanamp160 4000amp160in the active US stockpile when a mere handful couldamp160 obliterateamp160North Korea at the cost ofamp160 millions of lives Indeed a few hundred nuclear warheads could do the same for even the largest of nations Those 4000 if ever used could essentially destroy the planet In other words in every sense of the term our nuclear arsenal already represents overkill on an almost unimaginable scale Independent experts from US war collegesamp160 suggestamp160that about 300 warheads would be more than enough to deter any country from launching a nuclear attack on the United States Despite this Donald Trump is all in and more on the Pentagon8217s plan8212 developed underamp160Barack Obama8212to build a new generation of nucleararmed bombers submarines and missiles as well as new generations of warheads to go with them The cost of this 8220 modernization8221 program The Congressional Budget Office recently pegged it atamp160 17 trillionamp160over the next three decades adjusted for inflation As Derek Johnson director of the antinuclear organization Global Zero hasamp160 noted 8220That8217s money we don8217t have for an arsenal we don8217t need8221 Why the desire for so many nukes There is in fact a dirty little secret behind the massive US arsenal It has more to do with the power and profits of weapons makers than it does with any imaginable strategic considerations It may not surprise you to learn that there8217s nothing new about the influence the nuclear weapons lobby has over Pentagon spending priorities The successful machinations of the makers of strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles intended to keep tax dollars flowing their way date back to the dawn of the nuclear age and are the primary reason President Dwight D Eisenhower coined the term 8220 militaryindustrial complex8221 and warned of its dangers in his 1961 farewell address Without the development of such weapons that complex simply would not exist in its present form Theamp160 Manhattan Project the vast endeavor that produced the first workable nukes during World War II was one of the largest governmentfunded research and manufacturing projects in history Today8217samp160 nuclear warhead complexamp160is still largely built around facilities and locations dating back to that time The Manhattan Project was the first building block of the permanent arms establishment that came to dominate in Washington The nuclear arms race against that other superpower the Soviet Union was crucial to the rationale for a permanent war stateamp160 In those years it was the key to sustaining the building funding and institutionalizing of the arms establishment As Eisenhower noted in that farewell address of his 8220a permanent arms industry of vast proportions8221 had developed for a simple enough reason In a nuclear age America had to be ready ahead of time As he put it 8220We can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense8221 And that was for a simple enough reason In an era of potential nuclear war any society could be destroyed in a matter of hours There would be no time as in the past to mobilize or prepare after the fact In addition there were some very specific ways in which the quest for more nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles drove Eisenhower to give that farewell address One of his biggest fights was over whether to build a new nuclear bomber The Air Force and the arms industry were desperate to do so Eisenhower thought it aamp160 waste of money given all the other nuclear delivery vehicles the US was building at the time He even cancelled the bomber only to find himself forced to revive it under immense pressure from the arms lobby In the process he lost the larger struggle to rein in the nation8217s nuclear buildup and corral the burgeoning militaryindustrial complex At the same time there were rumblings in the intelligence community the military establishment the media and Congress about a 8220missile gap8221 with the Soviet Union The notion was that Moscow had somehow jumped ahead of the United States in developing and building intercontinental ballistic missiles ICBMs There was no definitive intelligence to substantiate the claim and it was later proved to be false However a wave of worstcase scenarios leaked by or promoted by intelligence analysts and eagerly backed by industry propaganda made that missile gap part of the everyday news of the time Such fears were thenamp160 exaggeratedamp160further thanks to hawkish journalists of the era like Joseph Alsop and prominent Democratic senators like John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson as well as Stuart Symington who just happened to be a friend and former colleague of an executive at the aircraft manufacturing company Convair which in turn just happened to make ICBMs As a result heamp160 lobbiedamp160hard on behalf of a Pentagon plan to build more of that corporation8217s Atlas ballistic missiles while Kennedy would famously make the nonexistent missile gap a central theme of his successful 1960 campaign for the presidency Eisenhower couldn8217t have been more cleareyed about all of this Heamp160 sawamp160the missile gap for the fiction it was or as he put it a 8220useful piece of political demagoguery8221 for his opponents 8220Munitions makers8221 heamp160 insisted 8220are making tremendous efforts towards getting more contracts and in fact seem to be exerting undue influence over the senators8221 Once Kennedy took office it became all too apparent that there wasamp160 no missile gap but by then it hardly mattered The damage had been done Billions of dollars more were flowing into the nuclearindustrial complex to build up an American arsenal of ICBMs already unmatched on the planet The techniques that the arms lobby and its allies in government used more than half a century ago to promote skyhigh nuclear weapons spending continue to be wielded to this day The 21stcentury arms complex employs tools of influence that Kennedy and his compatriots would have found familiar indeed8212includingamp160 millions of dollarsamp160in campaign contributions that flow to members of Congress and the continualamp160 employmentamp160of 700 to 1000 lobbyists to influence them that8217s nearly two arms lobbyists for every member of Congress Much of this sort of activity remains focused on ensuring that nuclear weapons of all types are amply financed and that the funding for the new generations of the bombers submarines and missiles that will deliver them stays on track When traditional lobbying methods don8217t get the job done the industry8217s argument of last resort is jobs8212in particular jobs in the states and districts of key members of Congress This process is aided by the fact that nuclear weapons facilities are spread remarkably widelyamp160 across the countryamp160 There are labs in California and New Mexico a testing and research site in Nevada a warhead assembly and disassembly plant in Texas a factory in Kansas City Missouri that builds nonnuclear parts for such weapons and a plant in Oak Ridge Tennessee that produces weapongrade uranium There are factories or bases for ICBMs bombers and ballistic missile submarines in Connecticut Georgia Washington State California Ohio Massachusetts Louisiana North Dakota and Wyoming Such a nuclear geography ensures that a striking number of congressional representatives will automatically favor more spending on nuclear weapons In reality the jobs argument is deeply flawed As the experts know virtually any other activity into which such funding flowed would create significantly more jobs than Pentagon spending Aamp160 studyamp160by economists at the University of Massachusetts for example found infrastructure investment would create one and onehalf times as many jobs as Pentagon funding and education spending twice as many In most cases it hasn8217t seemed to matter that the jobs claims for weapons spending are grotesquely exaggerated and better alternatives litter the landscape The argument remains remarkably potent in states and communities that are particularly dependent on the Pentagon Perhaps unsurprisingly members of Congress from such areas are disproportionately represented on the committees that decide how much will be spent on nuclear and conventional weaponry Another way the nuclear weapons industry and the rest of the militaryindustrial complex tries to control and focus public debate is by funding hawkish think tanks The advantage to weapons makers is that those institutions and their 8220experts8221 can serve as front groups while posing as objective policy analysts Think of it as intellectual money laundering One of the most effectiveamp160 industryfunded think tanksamp160in terms of promoting costly illadvised policies has undoubtedly been Frank Gaffney8217s Center for Security Policy In 1983 when President Ronald Reaganamp160 first announcedamp160his Strategic Defense Initiative aka 8220Star Wars8221 the hightech space weapons system that was either meant to defend the country against a future Soviet first strike or8212depending on how you looked at it8212free the country to use its nuclear weapons without fear of retaliation Gaffney was its biggest booster More recently he has become aamp160 prominent purveyoramp160of Islamophobia but the impact of his promotional work for Star Wars continues to be felt in weapons contracts to this day Gaffney served in the Reaganera Pentagon but left because even that administration wasn8217t antiSoviet enough for his tastes once the president and his advisers began to discuss things like reducing nuclear weapons in Europe It didn8217t take him long toamp160 set upamp160his center with funding from Boeing Lockheed and other defense contractors Just as George W Bush was entering the White House another industrybacked think tank theamp160 National Institute for Public Policy released aamp160 reportamp160on nuclear weapons policy that would be adopted almost wholesale for the new administration8217s first key nuclear posture review It advocated such things as increasing the number of countries targeted by US nukes and building a new more 8220usable8221 bunkerbusting nuclear weapon At that time NIPPamp160 hadamp160an executive from Boeing on its board Its director was Keith Payne who would become infamous in the annals of nuclear policy for coauthoring a 1980 amp160articleamp160atamp160Foreign Policyamp160entitled 8220Victory Is Possible8221 suggesting that the United States could actually win a nuclear war losing 8220only8221 30 million to 40 million people This is the kind of expert the nuclear weapons complex funded to promulgate its views Then there8217s theamp160 Lexington Institute a think tank that never met a weapons system it didn8217t like Lexington front man Loren Thompson is frequently quoted in news stories on defense issues but it is rarely disclosed that he isamp160 fundedamp160by Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman and other nuclear weapons contractors These are just a small sampling of research and advocacy groups that take money from weapons contractors That universe ranges from organizations on the right such as theamp160 Heritage Foundationamp160to Democraticleaning outfits like theamp160 Center for a New American Security cofounded by former Obama administration Under Secretary of Defense for Policyamp160Mich232leamp160Flournoy8212who wasamp160considered a potential secretary of defense nominee had Hillary Clinton taken the White House in 2016 And you may not be surprised to learn that Donald Trump is no piker when it comes to colluding with the weapons industry His strong preference for populating his administration with former arms industry executives is so blatant that Sen John McCain recentlyamp160 pledgedamp160to oppose any new nominees with industry ties Examples include Secretary of Defense James Mattis a former board member at General Dynamics White House Chief of Staff John Kelly who worked for a number of defense firms and was an adviser to DynCorp a private security firm that has done everything from poorly training the Iraqi police to contracting with the Department of Homeland Security former Boeing executive and now Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan former Lockheed Martin executive John Rood nominated as undersecretary of defense for policy former Raytheon Vice President Mark Esper newly confirmed as secretary of the Army Heather Wilson a former consultant to Lockheed Martin who is now secretary of the Air Force Ellen Lord a former CEO for the aerospace company Textron who is undersecretary of defense for acquisition and National Security Council Chief of Staff Keith Kellogg a former employee of the major defense and intelligence contractor CACI where he dealt with 8220ground combat systems8221 among other things Keep in mind that these highprofile industry figures are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the corporateamp160 revolving dooramp160that has been installed in the Pentagonamp160for decades as journalist Lee Fang hasamp160 documentedamp160in theamp160Intercept Given the composition of his national security team and Trump8217s love of all things nuclear what can we expect from his administration on this front In addition to the 17 trillion nuclear buildup Trump8217samp160 impending nuclear posture reviewamp160seems to include proposals for dangerous new weapons like a 8220lowyield8221 purportedly more usable nuclear warhead He8217s spoken privately with his team about expanding the arsenal in a staggering fashion8212the equivalent of aamp160 10foldamp160increase He8217s wholeheartedlyamp160 embracedamp160missile defense spending pledging to put billions of dollars more into that overfunded underproducing set of programs And of course he is assiduously trying to undermine the Iran nuclear deal one of theamp160 most effectiveamp160arms control agreements of recent times and so threatening to open the door to a new nuclear arms race in the Middle East Unless the nuclear spending spree being pushed by President Trump as the best thing since the invention of golf is stopped thanks to public opposition the rise of an antinuclear movement or congressional action we8217re in trouble The nuclear weapons lobby will again have won the day8212just as it did almost 60 years ago despite the opposition of a popular president and decorated war hero And Donald Trump 8220 bone spurs8221 and all is no Dwight D Eisenhower This article was adapted from the author8217s essay 8220Nuclear Politics8221amp160in the collectionamp160 Sleepwalking to Armageddon The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation edited by Helen Caldicott | Mother/PROPN Jones/PROPN illustrationBullit/VERB MarquezAP/PROPN KREMLLGetty/PROPN This/DET story/NOUN originally/ADV appeared/VERB on/ADP TomDispatchcomamp160/PROPN Until/SCONJ recently/ADV few/ADJ of/ADP us/PRON woke/VERB up/ADP worrying/VERB about/ADP the/DET threat/NOUN of/ADP nuclear/ADJ war/NOUN Such/ADJ 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<p />
<p><a href="#one" type="external">State of the Uranium</a> Bush has been forced to admit that he made a gaffe in his pre-war State of the Union, and the Democrats are actually trying to use it against him, this time.</p>
<p><a href="#two" type="external">The GOP Master Plan</a> It may be no surprise that Republicans are plotting to take over Washington — but the thing is, it’s working.</p>
<p><a href="#three" type="external">On Slavery and Security</a> At the nexus of West Africa’s slave trade, Bush spoke of the evils of slavery. Too bad the locals weren’t allowed to hear it.</p>
<p><a href="#four" type="external">Paying for Filipino Peace</a> The US is backing peace talks with Muslim separatists with millions of dollars in aid.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="">State of the Uranium</a> One of the more prominent casualties in the war on Iraq seems to be the body of evidence for Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, and the victim is in real danger of giving up the ghost (despite Bush’s best efforts to staunch the bleeding). The latest blow? In as roundabout a way as possible, the White House has conceded that part of Bush’s State of the Union address in January, where he made the case for war, was <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23777-2003Jul7.html?nav=hptop_tb" type="external">wrong</a>. Bush claimed that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger, in an effort to start building nuclear weapons. The evidence he used was, to put it bluntly, phony.</p>
<p>Bush’s case for war was largely based on the idea that Saddam was a hair’s breadth away from achieving either nuclear capabilities, chemical and biological weapons, or both, and that therefore it was too dangerous to let him alone. The evidence that Bush cited for the nuclear weapons was a British dossier. The dossier, in turn, proved to be based on a crude forgery that the CIA had already debunked. As the Washington Post reports:</p>
<p>“The administration’s statement capped months of turmoil over the uranium episode during which senior officials have been forced to defend the president’s remarks in the face of growing reports that they were based on faulty intelligence.</p>
<p>As part of his case against Iraq, Bush said in his State of the Union speech on Jan. 28 that ‘the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.’</p>
<p>The International Atomic Energy Agency told the U.N. Security Council in March that the uranium story — which centered on documents alleging Iraqi efforts to buy the material from Niger — was based on forged documents. Although the administration did not dispute the IAEA’s conclusion, it launched the war against Iraq later that month.</p>
<p>It subsequently emerged that the CIA the previous year had dispatched a respected former senior diplomat, Joseph C. Wilson, to Niger to investigate the allegation and that Wilson had reported back that officials in Niger denied the story. The administration never made Wilson’s mission public, and questions have been raised over the past month over how the CIA characterized his conclusion in its classified intelligence reports inside the administration.”</p>
<p>The claims and counterclaims are becoming increasingly complicated. The White House spin goes something like this: OK, fine, the evidence was forged, and the president should not have said what he said. He simply made a bad judgement call based on what he knew at the time.</p>
<p>But Wilson says that he went to Niger on order from the Office of the Vice President, and that the top reaches of the Bush administration must have heard about the phoniness he discovered. There are reports from other intelligence sources, cited by NPR and the New York Times <a href="http://www.hillnews.com/marshall/062503.aspx" type="external">that suggest that the Vice President’s Office did, in fact, know the uranium evidence was bogus</a>. As Josh Marshall writes for The Hill:</p>
<p />
<p>I’m willing to believe the president didn’t know. Presidents, after all, rely on their top advisors. But it seems clear that many of his chief advisors must have known.</p>
<p>The only other explanation is extreme incompetence at the vice president’s office or a desire to believe that was so great that it overrode all the evidence.</p>
<p>Fifteen years ago, the president’s father was widely ridiculed for claiming he was ‘out of the loop’ on key points about the Iran-contra affair. Now his son and all his top advisers are claiming they were similarly ‘out of the loop’ on a key point about the centerpiece of their entire foreign policy agenda.</p>
<p>To paraphrase Bob Dole’s 1996 election zinger, where’s the ridicule?”</p>
<p>No ridicule, yet, but the Democrats, perhaps emboldened by Bush’s steady slow-but-steady slippage in the polls, do finally trying seem to be trying to get some traction on this issue. The presidential hopefuls are issuing statements, and this is <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/09/judy.desk.democrats/" type="external">just the beginning of the piling-on</a>, as Judy Desk reports for Inside Politics:</p>
<p />
<p>And Democratic presidential contenders released a series of smirking statements:</p>
<p>Congressman Richard Gephardt of Missouri declared that Bush needs to rein in his rhetoric. ‘This president has a pattern of using excessive language in his speeches and off-the-cuff remarks. This continued recklessness represents a failure of presidential leadership,’ he said.</p>
<p>Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, a relentless critic of the administration’s intelligence operation, says the whole thing begs one question: ‘Mr. President, what else don’t we know?'”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, over at The Nation, David Corn, cites further evidence, from the former deputy director of the CIA, that <a href="http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&amp;pid=800" type="external">Bush misrepresented the evidence to make his case for war</a>. The former CIA leader gave interviews to major papers right before the holiday weekend (timing that Corn thinks is important), and told them that while analysts had reason to believe Saddam Hussein wanted weapons of mass destruction, there was little hard evidence that he actually possessed them. It’s a nuance, but it’s a crucial nuance. The president made the case for war based unequivocally on the existence of the weapons, not the tyrant’s ill intentions:</p>
<p />
<p>In other words, Bush lied.</p>
<p>Bush had said that intelligence gathered by the United States and other nations had determined — ‘no doubt’ — that Hussein possessed WMDs, and he had declared that the Iraqi dictator was ‘dealing’ with al Qaeda. Kerr’s statements undermined these vital assertions Bush had made to justify the war.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">The GOP Master Plan</a> Republican Party groupie, Grover Norquist, has been chatting it up with reporters, pronouncing that Republicans have paved there way for “decades of dominance” in the House and the Senate. As Chris Suellentrop of Slate points out, such statements from Norquist are <a href="http://slate.msn.com/id/2085277/" type="external">nothing new</a>. The real problem is not Norquist’s doomsday prophecies, but rather what is actually happening on the ground.</p>
<p>In Texas for instance, Republicans have been finagling a re-districting scheme to gain up to <a href="/news/dailymojo/2003/07/we_473_03.html#two" type="external">five seats in the state House</a>, thus ending the narrow Democratic majority. The fiasco has been dragging on for months, and try as they might the Texas Dems have been unable to put the issue to bed. The Republican effort — inspired by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — is not just a bad idea for Texas, but a terrible national precedent. The Washington Post comments that such a move could inspire other states to engage in their own mid-term, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55772-2003Jul1.html?nav=hptoc_eo" type="external">never-ending redistricting wars</a>. That would be enough to give the entire nation a severe bureaucratic headache, as well as take a significant toll on the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>But it’s not just the Texas Republicans who are deep into the planning of a major takeover. Washington Republicans have been designing a foolproof plan to exile the Dems to a political gulag for the upcoming years. In his feature in the Washington Monthly, Nicholas Confessore draws an alarming picture of the little-noticed Republicans lobbying the lobbyists. The GOP has been nuzzling its way into the heart of <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0307.confessore.html" type="external">Washington’s lobbyist district</a>. For years K Street was known for its bipartisan atmosphere, but after the 1994 takeover of Congress, Republicans began focusing their efforts on undermining this arrangement. Every week lobbyists gather with elected Republicans to discuss the latest K street job openings and whom they should support for each position. Rick Santorum, Republican senator from Pennsylvania, oversees these meetings and ensures that lobbyists know which candidate the GOP favors. Needless to say, Santorum is not in the business of vying for eligible Dems — it’s a solely Republican show. The lobbyist organizations have become a crucial part of an increasingly powerful Republican political machine. Confessore writes:</p>
<p>“The corporate lobbyists who once ran the show, loyal only to the parochial interests of their employer, are being replaced by party activists who are loyal first and foremost to the GOP. Through them, Republican leaders can now marshal armies of lobbyists, lawyers, and public relations experts–not to mention enormous amounts of money–to meet the party’s goals. Ten years ago, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the political donations of 19 key industry sectors–including accounting, pharmaceuticals, defense, and commercial banks–were split about evenly between the parties. Today, the GOP holds a two-to-one advantage in corporate cash.</p>
<p>That shift in large part explains conservatives’ extraordinary legislative record over the last few years. Democrats, along with the press, have watched in mounting disbelief as President Bush, lacking either broad majorities in Congress or a strong mandate from voters, has enacted startlingly bold domestic policies–from two major tax cuts for the rich, to a rollback of workplace safety and environmental standards, to media ownership rules that favor large conglomerates. The secret to Bush’s surprising legislative success is the GOP’s increasing control of Beltway influence-peddlers. K Street used to be a barrier to sweeping change in Washington. The GOP has turned it into a weapon.”</p>
<p>Good material for a John Grisham conspiracy flick, but seriously scary stuff for a democracy. Norquist and company might try to argue that the Democratic Party once had a similar arrangement — Republicans balked at Democratic rule through 1994… But as Confessore points out, the Dems always had to dance between pleasing both their labor and corporate interests. What the Republican takeover of K street promises is a machine “premised on a unity of interests between party and industry, which means the GOP can ask for–and demand–total loyalty.” The world Confessore describes, in other words, is one where the GOP wouldn’t be ruled by corporate interests, nor would the corporate interests be ruled by the GOP. They would be one, to rule the rest of us (insert conspiracy theme music here…).</p>
<p>Confessore compares the current Republicans to William McKinley’s Republicans, over a century ago (and notes that Karl Rove is a fan of McKinley’s), who consolidated power with the help of the industrial barons of the time. He notes that change and reform eventually came when the people elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But only after The Great Depression.</p>
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<p><a type="external" href="">On Slavery and Security</a> By most accounts, President Bush’s speech at Senegal’s <a href="http://webworld.unesco.org/goree/" type="external">Goree Island</a>, site of a former slave castle and the first stop on his African tour, was a model of <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200307080377.html" type="external">heartfelt eloquence</a>. Pronouncing slavery a “sin,” Bush came closer than any American president ever has to apologizing for America’s role in the slave trade.</p>
<p>No one who actually lives on the island got to hear it, though. As Reuters reports, Goree’s residents were <a href="http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&amp;storyID=3055276" type="external">rounded up at dawn</a> and herded into the island’s football stadium, where they were kept until Bush’s departure for the mainland about six hours later. As a result, the normally bustling tourist island was totally deserted during Bush’s speech.</p>
<p />
<p>“As the sun rose over Goree before Bush’s arrival, the only people to be seen on the main beach were U.S. officials and secret service agents. Frogmen swam through the shallows and hoisted themselves up to peer into brightly painted pirogues.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>On Tuesday, shutters on the yellow and red colonial-style houses remained shut. The cafes were closed and the narrow pier deserted, apart from security agents manning a metal detector, near the sandy beach. A gunship patrolled offshore.”</p>
<p>The White House insisted it had nothing to do with closing down the island and temporarily imprisoning its residents — a decision apparently made for security reasons. Regardless of who ordered the round-up, locals were angry with Bush. Naturally enough, some compared his visit to that of Bill Clinton’s five years earlier, and Bush came up short.</p>
<p />
<p>“‘We understand that you have to have security measures, since September 11, but to dump us in another place…? We had to leave at 6 a.m. I didn’t have time to bathe, and the bread did not arrive,’ the father-of-four said.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>‘When Clinton came, he shook hands, people danced,’ said former Mayor Urbain Alexandre Diagne.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a type="external" href="">Paying for a Filipino Peace</a> Francis Ricciardone, the US Ambassador to the Philippines, announced Tuesday that the US will provide the country with financial aid if <a href="http://www.inq7.net/nat/2003/jul/09/nat_3-1.htm" type="external">a peace agreement is reached between the Philippine government and a faction of radical Islamic rebels</a> known as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF. The announcement comes just as Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and MILF officials have agreed to resume peace talks in Malaysia, reports Juliet Labog-Javellana of the Philippines’ Inquirer News Service.</p>
<p>The US is already enthusiastically involved in Arroyo’s fight against Muslim militants. The US sends nearly $74 million in aid to the country, much of which goes to military training, with a focus on the island of Mindanao, where the approximately 13,000-strong anti-government MILF force resides. In addition, Glen Martin of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/06/MN274481.DTL" type="external">the US provides training, weapons, helicopters and occasional air support</a> to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The program has seen some tactical success, and the US has been recently spurred to stay involved because some recently captured militants have alleged that MILF has ties to Al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has now <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/07/09/2003058660" type="external">adopted a softer approach</a> — she agreed to lift arrest warrants on some MILF rebels in order to begin peace talks. The US’s offer of aid is its endorsment of those talks.</p>
<p>According to Ed Usman of the Manila Bulletin, Muslim leaders and MILF officials have long encouraged US participation in the peace process, stating that ” <a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/news.php?search=yes&amp;art=35784&amp;sect=12&amp;fname=MTNN/2003-07/MT03070835784o.txt" type="external">the US government has to rectify its blunders</a> against [the Muslims of Mindanao].” Muslims feel that in helping the AFP fight the rebels, the US has helped the Philippine government step on their rights. The US occupied of the Philippines began shortly after the second World War and lasted until 1992, when the people kicked US troops out. Many Filipinos (not just Muslims) are skeptical of further American involvement in the country — efforts by the US to join forces with the AFP in May prompted protests and an eventual pull-out by the Philippine Senate, Martin reports. For now, the US promises military support in Mindanao and neighboring Basilian, where rebellions have also taken place and more aid if and only if a ceasefire occurs. Martin reports:</p>
<p />
<p>“Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Philippine military’s Southern Command Base in Zamboanga, said the Basilan campaign defined an effective strategy for dealing with Islamic militants in the Philippines: Give troops the intensive training they need to fight effectively, unleash them for relentless pursuit and simultaneously provide aid to the civilian population.</p>
<p>Although this approach is not unlike policies that have failed to eliminate entrenched insurgencies around the world, from Vietnam to Colombia, Kyamko remains optimistic about its prospects.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Daily MoJo | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/07/daily-mojo-14/ | 2003-07-10 | 4left
| 2,527 | State of the Uranium Bush has been forced to admit that he made a gaffe in his prewar State of the Union and the Democrats are actually trying to use it against him this time The GOP Master Plan It may be no surprise that Republicans are plotting to take over Washington 8212 but the thing is it8217s working On Slavery and Security At the nexus of West Africa8217s slave trade Bush spoke of the evils of slavery Too bad the locals weren8217t allowed to hear it Paying for Filipino Peace The US is backing peace talks with Muslim separatists with millions of dollars in aid State of the Uranium One of the more prominent casualties in the war on Iraq seems to be the body of evidence for Saddam8217s weapons of mass destruction and the victim is in real danger of giving up the ghost despite Bush8217s best efforts to staunch the bleeding The latest blow In as roundabout a way as possible the White House has conceded that part of Bush8217s State of the Union address in January where he made the case for war was wrong Bush claimed that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger in an effort to start building nuclear weapons The evidence he used was to put it bluntly phony Bush8217s case for war was largely based on the idea that Saddam was a hair8217s breadth away from achieving either nuclear capabilities chemical and biological weapons or both and that therefore it was too dangerous to let him alone The evidence that Bush cited for the nuclear weapons was a British dossier The dossier in turn proved to be based on a crude forgery that the CIA had already debunked As the Washington Post reports 8220The administration8217s statement capped months of turmoil over the uranium episode during which senior officials have been forced to defend the president8217s remarks in the face of growing reports that they were based on faulty intelligence As part of his case against Iraq Bush said in his State of the Union speech on Jan 28 that 8216the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa8217 The International Atomic Energy Agency told the UN Security Council in March that the uranium story 8212 which centered on documents alleging Iraqi efforts to buy the material from Niger 8212 was based on forged documents Although the administration did not dispute the IAEA8217s conclusion it launched the war against Iraq later that month It subsequently emerged that the CIA the previous year had dispatched a respected former senior diplomat Joseph C Wilson to Niger to investigate the allegation and that Wilson had reported back that officials in Niger denied the story The administration never made Wilson8217s mission public and questions have been raised over the past month over how the CIA characterized his conclusion in its classified intelligence reports inside the administration8221 The claims and counterclaims are becoming increasingly complicated The White House spin goes something like this OK fine the evidence was forged and the president should not have said what he said He simply made a bad judgement call based on what he knew at the time But Wilson says that he went to Niger on order from the Office of the Vice President and that the top reaches of the Bush administration must have heard about the phoniness he discovered There are reports from other intelligence sources cited by NPR and the New York Times that suggest that the Vice President8217s Office did in fact know the uranium evidence was bogus As Josh Marshall writes for The Hill I8217m willing to believe the president didn8217t know Presidents after all rely on their top advisors But it seems clear that many of his chief advisors must have known The only other explanation is extreme incompetence at the vice president8217s office or a desire to believe that was so great that it overrode all the evidence Fifteen years ago the president8217s father was widely ridiculed for claiming he was 8216out of the loop8217 on key points about the Irancontra affair Now his son and all his top advisers are claiming they were similarly 8216out of the loop8217 on a key point about the centerpiece of their entire foreign policy agenda To paraphrase Bob Dole8217s 1996 election zinger where8217s the ridicule8221 No ridicule yet but the Democrats perhaps emboldened by Bush8217s steady slowbutsteady slippage in the polls do finally trying seem to be trying to get some traction on this issue The presidential hopefuls are issuing statements and this is just the beginning of the pilingon as Judy Desk reports for Inside Politics And Democratic presidential contenders released a series of smirking statements Congressman Richard Gephardt of Missouri declared that Bush needs to rein in his rhetoric 8216This president has a pattern of using excessive language in his speeches and offthecuff remarks This continued recklessness represents a failure of presidential leadership8217 he said Sen Bob Graham of Florida a relentless critic of the administration8217s intelligence operation says the whole thing begs one question 8216Mr President what else don8217t we know8221 Meanwhile over at The Nation David Corn cites further evidence from the former deputy director of the CIA that Bush misrepresented the evidence to make his case for war The former CIA leader gave interviews to major papers right before the holiday weekend timing that Corn thinks is important and told them that while analysts had reason to believe Saddam Hussein wanted weapons of mass destruction there was little hard evidence that he actually possessed them It8217s a nuance but it8217s a crucial nuance The president made the case for war based unequivocally on the existence of the weapons not the tyrant8217s ill intentions In other words Bush lied Bush had said that intelligence gathered by the United States and other nations had determined 8212 8216no doubt8217 8212 that Hussein possessed WMDs and he had declared that the Iraqi dictator was 8216dealing8217 with al Qaeda Kerr8217s statements undermined these vital assertions Bush had made to justify the war8221 The GOP Master Plan Republican Party groupie Grover Norquist has been chatting it up with reporters pronouncing that Republicans have paved there way for 8220decades of dominance8221 in the House and the Senate As Chris Suellentrop of Slate points out such statements from Norquist are nothing new The real problem is not Norquist8217s doomsday prophecies but rather what is actually happening on the ground In Texas for instance Republicans have been finagling a redistricting scheme to gain up to five seats in the state House thus ending the narrow Democratic majority The fiasco has been dragging on for months and try as they might the Texas Dems have been unable to put the issue to bed The Republican effort 8212 inspired by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay 8212 is not just a bad idea for Texas but a terrible national precedent The Washington Post comments that such a move could inspire other states to engage in their own midterm neverending redistricting wars That would be enough to give the entire nation a severe bureaucratic headache as well as take a significant toll on the Democratic Party But it8217s not just the Texas Republicans who are deep into the planning of a major takeover Washington Republicans have been designing a foolproof plan to exile the Dems to a political gulag for the upcoming years In his feature in the Washington Monthly Nicholas Confessore draws an alarming picture of the littlenoticed Republicans lobbying the lobbyists The GOP has been nuzzling its way into the heart of Washington8217s lobbyist district For years K Street was known for its bipartisan atmosphere but after the 1994 takeover of Congress Republicans began focusing their efforts on undermining this arrangement Every week lobbyists gather with elected Republicans to discuss the latest K street job openings and whom they should support for each position Rick Santorum Republican senator from Pennsylvania oversees these meetings and ensures that lobbyists know which candidate the GOP favors Needless to say Santorum is not in the business of vying for eligible Dems 8212 it8217s a solely Republican show The lobbyist organizations have become a crucial part of an increasingly powerful Republican political machine Confessore writes 8220The corporate lobbyists who once ran the show loyal only to the parochial interests of their employer are being replaced by party activists who are loyal first and foremost to the GOP Through them Republican leaders can now marshal armies of lobbyists lawyers and public relations experts8211not to mention enormous amounts of money8211to meet the party8217s goals Ten years ago according to the Center for Responsive Politics the political donations of 19 key industry sectors8211including accounting pharmaceuticals defense and commercial banks8211were split about evenly between the parties Today the GOP holds a twotoone advantage in corporate cash That shift in large part explains conservatives8217 extraordinary legislative record over the last few years Democrats along with the press have watched in mounting disbelief as President Bush lacking either broad majorities in Congress or a strong mandate from voters has enacted startlingly bold domestic policies8211from two major tax cuts for the rich to a rollback of workplace safety and environmental standards to media ownership rules that favor large conglomerates The secret to Bush8217s surprising legislative success is the GOP8217s increasing control of Beltway influencepeddlers K Street used to be a barrier to sweeping change in Washington The GOP has turned it into a weapon8221 Good material for a John Grisham conspiracy flick but seriously scary stuff for a democracy Norquist and company might try to argue that the Democratic Party once had a similar arrangement 8212 Republicans balked at Democratic rule through 19948230 But as Confessore points out the Dems always had to dance between pleasing both their labor and corporate interests What the Republican takeover of K street promises is a machine 8220premised on a unity of interests between party and industry which means the GOP can ask for8211and demand8211total loyalty8221 The world Confessore describes in other words is one where the GOP wouldn8217t be ruled by corporate interests nor would the corporate interests be ruled by the GOP They would be one to rule the rest of us insert conspiracy theme music here8230 Confessore compares the current Republicans to William McKinley8217s Republicans over a century ago and notes that Karl Rove is a fan of McKinley8217s who consolidated power with the help of the industrial barons of the time He notes that change and reform eventually came when the people elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt But only after The Great Depression On Slavery and Security By most accounts President Bush8217s speech at Senegal8217s Goree Island site of a former slave castle and the first stop on his African tour was a model of heartfelt eloquence Pronouncing slavery a 8220sin8221 Bush came closer than any American president ever has to apologizing for America8217s role in the slave trade No one who actually lives on the island got to hear it though As Reuters reports Goree8217s residents were rounded up at dawn and herded into the island8217s football stadium where they were kept until Bush8217s departure for the mainland about six hours later As a result the normally bustling tourist island was totally deserted during Bush8217s speech 8220As the sun rose over Goree before Bush8217s arrival the only people to be seen on the main beach were US officials and secret service agents Frogmen swam through the shallows and hoisted themselves up to peer into brightly painted pirogues 8230 On Tuesday shutters on the yellow and red colonialstyle houses remained shut The cafes were closed and the narrow pier deserted apart from security agents manning a metal detector near the sandy beach A gunship patrolled offshore8221 The White House insisted it had nothing to do with closing down the island and temporarily imprisoning its residents 8212 a decision apparently made for security reasons Regardless of who ordered the roundup locals were angry with Bush Naturally enough some compared his visit to that of Bill Clinton8217s five years earlier and Bush came up short 82208216We understand that you have to have security measures since September 11 but to dump us in another place8230 We had to leave at 6 am I didn8217t have time to bathe and the bread did not arrive8217 the fatheroffour said 8230 8216When Clinton came he shook hands people danced8217 said former Mayor Urbain Alexandre Diagne8221 Paying for a Filipino Peace Francis Ricciardone the US Ambassador to the Philippines announced Tuesday that the US will provide the country with financial aid if a peace agreement is reached between the Philippine government and a faction of radical Islamic rebels known as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF The announcement comes just as Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and MILF officials have agreed to resume peace talks in Malaysia reports Juliet LabogJavellana of the Philippines8217 Inquirer News Service The US is already enthusiastically involved in Arroyo8217s fight against Muslim militants The US sends nearly 74 million in aid to the country much of which goes to military training with a focus on the island of Mindanao where the approximately 13000strong antigovernment MILF force resides In addition Glen Martin of the San Francisco Chronicle writes the US provides training weapons helicopters and occasional air support to the Armed Forces of the Philippines AFP The program has seen some tactical success and the US has been recently spurred to stay involved because some recently captured militants have alleged that MILF has ties to AlQaeda Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has now adopted a softer approach 8212 she agreed to lift arrest warrants on some MILF rebels in order to begin peace talks The US8217s offer of aid is its endorsment of those talks According to Ed Usman of the Manila Bulletin Muslim leaders and MILF officials have long encouraged US participation in the peace process stating that 8221 the US government has to rectify its blunders against the Muslims of Mindanao8221 Muslims feel that in helping the AFP fight the rebels the US has helped the Philippine government step on their rights The US occupied of the Philippines began shortly after the second World War and lasted until 1992 when the people kicked US troops out Many Filipinos not just Muslims are skeptical of further American involvement in the country 8212 efforts by the US to join forces with the AFP in May prompted protests and an eventual pullout by the Philippine Senate Martin reports For now the US promises military support in Mindanao and neighboring Basilian where rebellions have also taken place and more aid if and only if a ceasefire occurs Martin reports 8220Maj Gen Roy Kyamko commander of the Philippine military8217s Southern Command Base in Zamboanga said the Basilan campaign defined an effective strategy for dealing with Islamic militants in the Philippines Give troops the intensive training they need to fight effectively unleash them for relentless pursuit and simultaneously provide aid to the civilian population Although this approach is not unlike policies that have failed to eliminate entrenched insurgencies around the world from Vietnam to Colombia Kyamko remains optimistic about its prospects8221 | State/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Uranium/PROPN Bush/PROPN has/AUX been/AUX forced/VERB to/PART admit/VERB that/SCONJ he/PRON made/VERB a/DET gaffe/NOUN in/ADP his/PRON prewar/NOUN State/PROPN of/ADP the/DET Union/PROPN and/CCONJ the/DET Democrats/PROPN are/AUX actually/ADV trying/VERB to/PART use/VERB it/PRON against/ADP him/PRON this/DET time/NOUN The/DET GOP/PROPN 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<p />
<p>Bernie Sanders’ entry into the Democratic presidential primaries should be seen as his final decisive step away from the democratic socialism he professes to support. He will raise some progressive demands in the primaries and then endorse the corporate Democrat, Hillary Clinton. Nothing changes.</p>
<p>Sanders is violating the first principle of socialist politics: class independence. The socialist movement learned that principle long ago when the business classes sold out the workers in the democratic revolutions of 1848 that swept across Europe and parts of Latin America.</p>
<p>Drawing out the lesson from these failed revolutions that the middle-class proprietors and professionals could not be trusted as allies of the workers in the battle for democracy and workers’ rights,&#160; <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm" type="external">Karl Marx told exiled German revolutionaries in London in 1850</a>&#160;that the workers needed to form their own party to look out for their own interests:</p>
<p>Even where there is no prospect whatsoever of them being elected, the workers must put up their own candidates in order to preserve their independence, to count their forces and to bring before the public their own revolutionary attitude and party standpoint. In this connection, they must not allow themselves to be seduced by such arguments as, for example, that by so doing they are splitting the Democratic Party and making it possible for the reactionaries to win. The ultimate intention of all such phrases is to dupe the proletariat. The advance which the proletarian party is bound to make by such independent action is infinitely more important than the disadvantages that might be incurred by the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body.</p>
<p>The Democratic Party that Marx was referring to in his 1850 speech was the most pro-democracy of the German parties based in the business and professional classes, which were fighting for universal suffrage against the ruling feudal landed aristocracy, but stopped fighting for workers' rights once propertied men had the vote. But the argument applies just as well to the Democratic Party in the U.S. today--a party that poses as the champion of working people, but serves business interests.</p>
<p>Sanders has now gone into coalition with the billionaire class he professes to oppose and that finances the Democratic party. Sanders won't see the billionaire's money. But he has made it crystal clear that he will support their candidate by promising to support the winner of the Democratic presidential nomination.</p>
<p>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</p>
<p>Unfortunately, too many self-professed socialists in the U.S. have abandoned the socialist principle of independent political action. They argue instead that whether or not to support a Democrat or an independent candidate is a question of tactics, not principle.</p>
<p>That was not the case when the United States had a viable Socialist Party. The political independence of the Socialist Party is a major reason why it was viable, why it had power, why it elected many of its candidates, why it was central to the political dialogue of the country. After the demoralizing and self-defeating experience of fusion (cross-endorsing the more progressive Democratic and Republican candidates) that undermined and ultimately destroyed the Greenback Labor and People's Parties of the recently past Populist era, the Socialist Party of America put into its constitution a ban against endorsing the candidates of the capitalist parties.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1904/sp_wkingclss.htm" type="external">In his opening campaign speech as the party's 1904 presidential candidate</a>, Eugene Debs said:</p>
<p>The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles. With either of those parties in power, one thing is always certain, and that is that the capitalist class is in the saddle and the working class under the saddle.</p>
<p>As a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sanders does a disservice to Debs' memory and his commitment to working-class political independence by displaying a Debs portrait in his office. By choosing to run for president in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders has shown he is no Eugene Debs.</p>
<p>Sanders is confusing people about what socialism is. Socialism is not so much a social theory, a platform of policies or social ownership of the means of production. Socialism is, above all, the movement of the working class for their own freedom and power in a full democracy.</p>
<p>Sanders' policies are pretty good on working-class economic justice demands and climate action, and not so good on foreign policy and militarism. But his positions on the issues is secondary to the question of whether his politics are helping the working class act for itself or subsume itself under the big business interests in charge of the Democratic Party. By entering the Democratic primaries with the promise of supporting Clinton as the lesser evil to the Republicans, Sanders is not helping the working class to organize, speak and act for itself.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1886/letters/86_11_29.htm" type="external">As Frederick Engels told socialists in the U.S.</a>&#160;when the labor movement in New York City nominated the non-socialist but progressive reformer Henry George for mayor in 1886:</p>
<p>The first great step of importance for every country newly entering into the movement is always the organization of the workers as an independent political party, no matter how, so long as it is a distinct workers' party. And this step has been taken, far more rapidly than we had a right to hope, and that is the main thing. That the first program of this party is still confused and highly deficient, that it has set up the banner of Henry George, these are inevitable evils but also only transitory ones. The masses must have time and opportunity to develop, and they can only have the opportunity when they have their own movement--no matter in what form, so long as it is only their own movement--in which they are driven further by their own mistakes and learn wisdom by hurting themselves.</p>
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<p>The independent left was a force to be reckoned with in U.S. politics from the 1840s through the 1930s. The Liberty Party, the Free Soil Party and the Radical Republicans carried the banners of abolition, land reform, labor rights and Reconstruction from the 1840s through 1870s. With the post-Civil War industrialization and rapid expansion of industrial workers, the surviving radicals of the pre-war reform movements formed the populist farmer-labor Greenback Labor and People's Parties of the 1880s and 1890s.</p>
<p>With collapse of Populism into the Democratic Party, its radicals were central to the formation of the Socialist Party of America, as well as regionally based Labor, Farmer-Labor and Progressive Parties between 1900 and 1936, which came close to establishing a major third party on the left with a farmer-labor popular base. Together, they elected hundreds of local officials, scores of state officials and dozens of members of Congress. The Farmer-Labor and Progressive parties of the Upper Midwest in the 1930s had two governors, three U.S. Senators, 12 members of the House, and scores of state and local elected officials.</p>
<p>Those successes fueled widespread agitation for an independent labor party based on unions, which reached a peak as the 1936 election approached. Unfortunately, the unions and the Communist Party's Popular Front policy led most of labor and the left into the Democratic Party's New Deal Coalition in 1936--from which they never emerged afterward in a major way.</p>
<p>By failing to act on its own and speak for itself in U.S. elections, the left committed political suicide. It lost its independent voice and its platform from which to be heard. The public doesn't hear from the left in elections. They only hear from pro-capitalist Democrats, who most of “the left” promotes as the lesser evil to the Republicans.</p>
<p>By trying to get Democratic politicians to say and do what the left wants them to say and do, the left has been engaged in a pathetic and hopeless attempt at political ventriloquism. It is dependent politics, powerless politics. It has been 80 years--20 presidential election cycles--since the left largely disappeared itself into the Democratic Party. It is way past time to draw the lesson of this experience: the left won't regain power and public significance until it breaks with the Democrats and acts independently for itself.</p>
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<p>Sanders has attracted significant money and energy from progressives. In the first 24 hours after his announcement, his campaign reported raising $1.5 million from 35,000 donors and signing up over 100,000 volunteers. So the independent left is now debating how to relate to the Sanders campaign.</p>
<p>Some argue that we should just build movements outside the electoral arena for now, and that when they get big enough, an independent left party will emerge from them. Social movements making demands on the system are simply lobbying the Democrats in the absence of an independent left electoral alternative. An independent left party is needed so the Democrats are forced to respond to movement demands or lose votes to the left. Movements ebb and flow. A party is needed to keep activists organized and engaged during the downturns in social movements and provide organized support and perspectives when movements expand.</p>
<p>Some even argue that the Sanders campaign&#160;is&#160;a movement. We've heard that claim before with the candidacies of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama. Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report aptly described these candidates as “sheepdogs...charged with herding activists and voters back into the Democratic fold who might otherwise drift leftward and outside of the Democratic party.”</p>
<p>No self-activating movements or organizations came out of these campaigns, and there is no reason to expect the Sanders campaign will be any different. The Sanders campaign is enlisting people in an election campaign, not an ongoing political organization. The Sanders campaign may be a bridge for some to positions as Democratic operatives, as it was for some in previous sheepdog campaigns. But it is not building a political organization that is independent and opposed to the capitalist parties.</p>
<p>The group Socialist Alternative has&#160; <a href="http://www.socialistalternative.org/2015/05/09/bernie-sanders-independent-campaign/" type="external">welcomed Sanders' Democratic candidacy</a>, while calling on him to continue running as an independent after the Democratic primaries. Socialist Alternative's position is naïve at best--or worse, deliberately misleading. There is no way that Sanders will break with the Democrats on the presidential race. We should take him at his word: he's backing the Democratic candidate. Sanders has a long record of supporting Democrats for president, including Gore, Kerry and Obama, while harshly criticizing independent challengers on the left like Ralph Nader.</p>
<p>It's one thing to tell Sanders supporters they need a Plan B--an independent left candidate--when he loses the primaries. It's another to spread illusions that Sanders can be persuaded to be that candidate.</p>
<p>If Sanders wanted to do it, he would have paid petitioners out now getting him independent ballot lines in the 50 states and D.C. He doesn't, and he won't. If he did, the Democrats would bar him from the debates and primary ballots for being disloyal to the Democrats. Some states, such as Michigan, have sore-loser provisions that would prevent him from running as an independent after running as a Democrat. It's disappointing to see Socialist Alternative spread illusions that Sanders will ever break with Clinton after the primaries, or that he even could do so as a practical matter of getting on the ballot.</p>
<p>From an independent socialist point of view, all the money and time going into Sanders' handoff to Clinton is time and money that could be going into getting Jill Stein's Green Party candidacy on every ballot in the country--the only independent left campaign in 2016 with any prospect for doing so. The Greens have 21 ballot lines already and most of the rest can be secured by petitioning in 2015. Doing so now would leave 2016 for campaigning.</p>
<p>One of the weaknesses of recent independent campaigns by Ralph Nader and the Greens is that the ballot access drive did not really begin until the year of the election, making the campaign mostly a desperate scramble to simply get on the ballot. With most ballot lines secured in 2015, the campaign could focus in 2016 on broadcasting its message and on field organizing to build local organizations, register new voters, identify supporting voters, pull them to the polls on Election Day, and continue after the election with local movement and electoral activity.</p>
<p>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</p>
<p>The independent left should be talking to progressives who have decided to support Sanders. We should talk about why independent politics is the best way to build progressive power, about the Democratic Party as the historic graveyard of progressive movements, and about the need in 2016 for a progressive alternative when Sanders folds and endorses Clinton. I don't expect many will be persuaded to quit the Sanders campaign before the primaries. But I do expect that many of them will want a Plan B, a progressive alternative to Clinton, after the primaries.</p>
<p>I had a similar scenario develop in during my 2014 Green Party campaign for governor of New York. Zephyr Teachout, a liberal Democrat running a primary challenge against the more conservative Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo, attracted the support of progressives in the Democratic Party and won a respectable 34 percent of the primary vote. Analysis of the general election results shows that about half of Teachout's vote came to the Greens in the general election, and that it constituted about half of the Green vote. Our 5 percent showing was the best ever in New York for an independent left candidate for governor, except for the Socialists, who received 5.7 percent in 1918 and 5.6 percent in 1920.</p>
<p>If Stein's Green campaign can draw a significant segment of Sanders supporters to it after the primaries, it could help the Green Party to make a quantum leap in the vote it receives in 2016 over previous elections. That would provide momentum for local, state and congressional elections in the coming years.</p>
<p>While the Debsian Socialists of a century ago were clear about their independence from the Democratic Party, they were also clear about wanting to draw progressives in the Democratic Party into the Socialist Party.&#160; <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1904/sp_wkingclss.htm" type="external">As Debs stated in that same 1904 opening campaign speech</a>&#160;quoted above:</p>
<p>Where but to the Socialist Party can these progressive people turn? They are now without a party and the only genuine Democratic Party in the field is the Socialist Party, and every true Democrat should thank Wall Street for driving him out of a party that is democratic in name only, and into one that is democratic in fact.</p>
<p>Progressives in the Democratic Party are going to need a Plan B after Bernie Sanders throws his support to Clinton in about 10 months, after the March primaries seal the nomination for her. We should be building Plan B now.</p>
<p>* Howie Hawkins&#160;is a veteran activist, working Teamster and leader of the Green Party nationally and in his home state of New York. Last November, his campaign for governor against incumbent Democrat Andrew Cuomo won 200,000 votes, nearly 5 percent of the total--the most successful left-wing independent campaign in New York in more than 50 years.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="http://socialistworker.org/2015/05/26/bernie-sanders-is-no-eugene-debs" type="external">Socialist Worker</a> and is reprinted with permission of the author.</p>
<p><a href="/filter/tips" type="external">More information about formatting options</a></p> | Bernie Sanders is no Eugene Debs | true | http://newpol.org/content/bernie-sanders-no-eugene-debs | 2015-05-27 | 4left
| 2,528 | Bernie Sanders8217 entry into the Democratic presidential primaries should be seen as his final decisive step away from the democratic socialism he professes to support He will raise some progressive demands in the primaries and then endorse the corporate Democrat Hillary Clinton Nothing changes Sanders is violating the first principle of socialist politics class independence The socialist movement learned that principle long ago when the business classes sold out the workers in the democratic revolutions of 1848 that swept across Europe and parts of Latin America Drawing out the lesson from these failed revolutions that the middleclass proprietors and professionals could not be trusted as allies of the workers in the battle for democracy and workers8217 rightsamp160 Karl Marx told exiled German revolutionaries in London in 1850amp160that the workers needed to form their own party to look out for their own interests Even where there is no prospect whatsoever of them being elected the workers must put up their own candidates in order to preserve their independence to count their forces and to bring before the public their own revolutionary attitude and party standpoint In this connection they must not allow themselves to be seduced by such arguments as for example that by so doing they are splitting the Democratic Party and making it possible for the reactionaries to win The ultimate intention of all such phrases is to dupe the proletariat The advance which the proletarian party is bound to make by such independent action is infinitely more important than the disadvantages that might be incurred by the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body The Democratic Party that Marx was referring to in his 1850 speech was the most prodemocracy of the German parties based in the business and professional classes which were fighting for universal suffrage against the ruling feudal landed aristocracy but stopped fighting for workers rights once propertied men had the vote But the argument applies just as well to the Democratic Party in the US todaya party that poses as the champion of working people but serves business interests Sanders has now gone into coalition with the billionaire class he professes to oppose and that finances the Democratic party Sanders wont see the billionaires money But he has made it crystal clear that he will support their candidate by promising to support the winner of the Democratic presidential nomination Unfortunately too many selfprofessed socialists in the US have abandoned the socialist principle of independent political action They argue instead that whether or not to support a Democrat or an independent candidate is a question of tactics not principle That was not the case when the United States had a viable Socialist Party The political independence of the Socialist Party is a major reason why it was viable why it had power why it elected many of its candidates why it was central to the political dialogue of the country After the demoralizing and selfdefeating experience of fusion crossendorsing the more progressive Democratic and Republican candidates that undermined and ultimately destroyed the Greenback Labor and Peoples Parties of the recently past Populist era the Socialist Party of America put into its constitution a ban against endorsing the candidates of the capitalist parties In his opening campaign speech as the partys 1904 presidential candidate Eugene Debs said The Republican and Democratic parties or to be more exact the RepublicanDemocratic party represent the capitalist class in the class struggle They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles With either of those parties in power one thing is always certain and that is that the capitalist class is in the saddle and the working class under the saddle As a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Sanders does a disservice to Debs memory and his commitment to workingclass political independence by displaying a Debs portrait in his office By choosing to run for president in the Democratic primary Bernie Sanders has shown he is no Eugene Debs Sanders is confusing people about what socialism is Socialism is not so much a social theory a platform of policies or social ownership of the means of production Socialism is above all the movement of the working class for their own freedom and power in a full democracy Sanders policies are pretty good on workingclass economic justice demands and climate action and not so good on foreign policy and militarism But his positions on the issues is secondary to the question of whether his politics are helping the working class act for itself or subsume itself under the big business interests in charge of the Democratic Party By entering the Democratic primaries with the promise of supporting Clinton as the lesser evil to the Republicans Sanders is not helping the working class to organize speak and act for itself As Frederick Engels told socialists in the USamp160when the labor movement in New York City nominated the nonsocialist but progressive reformer Henry George for mayor in 1886 The first great step of importance for every country newly entering into the movement is always the organization of the workers as an independent political party no matter how so long as it is a distinct workers party And this step has been taken far more rapidly than we had a right to hope and that is the main thing That the first program of this party is still confused and highly deficient that it has set up the banner of Henry George these are inevitable evils but also only transitory ones The masses must have time and opportunity to develop and they can only have the opportunity when they have their own movementno matter in what form so long as it is only their own movementin which they are driven further by their own mistakes and learn wisdom by hurting themselves The independent left was a force to be reckoned with in US politics from the 1840s through the 1930s The Liberty Party the Free Soil Party and the Radical Republicans carried the banners of abolition land reform labor rights and Reconstruction from the 1840s through 1870s With the postCivil War industrialization and rapid expansion of industrial workers the surviving radicals of the prewar reform movements formed the populist farmerlabor Greenback Labor and Peoples Parties of the 1880s and 1890s With collapse of Populism into the Democratic Party its radicals were central to the formation of the Socialist Party of America as well as regionally based Labor FarmerLabor and Progressive Parties between 1900 and 1936 which came close to establishing a major third party on the left with a farmerlabor popular base Together they elected hundreds of local officials scores of state officials and dozens of members of Congress The FarmerLabor and Progressive parties of the Upper Midwest in the 1930s had two governors three US Senators 12 members of the House and scores of state and local elected officials Those successes fueled widespread agitation for an independent labor party based on unions which reached a peak as the 1936 election approached Unfortunately the unions and the Communist Partys Popular Front policy led most of labor and the left into the Democratic Partys New Deal Coalition in 1936from which they never emerged afterward in a major way By failing to act on its own and speak for itself in US elections the left committed political suicide It lost its independent voice and its platform from which to be heard The public doesnt hear from the left in elections They only hear from procapitalist Democrats who most of 8220the left8221 promotes as the lesser evil to the Republicans By trying to get Democratic politicians to say and do what the left wants them to say and do the left has been engaged in a pathetic and hopeless attempt at political ventriloquism It is dependent politics powerless politics It has been 80 years20 presidential election cyclessince the left largely disappeared itself into the Democratic Party It is way past time to draw the lesson of this experience the left wont regain power and public significance until it breaks with the Democrats and acts independently for itself Sanders has attracted significant money and energy from progressives In the first 24 hours after his announcement his campaign reported raising 15 million from 35000 donors and signing up over 100000 volunteers So the independent left is now debating how to relate to the Sanders campaign Some argue that we should just build movements outside the electoral arena for now and that when they get big enough an independent left party will emerge from them Social movements making demands on the system are simply lobbying the Democrats in the absence of an independent left electoral alternative An independent left party is needed so the Democrats are forced to respond to movement demands or lose votes to the left Movements ebb and flow A party is needed to keep activists organized and engaged during the downturns in social movements and provide organized support and perspectives when movements expand Some even argue that the Sanders campaignamp160isamp160a movement Weve heard that claim before with the candidacies of Jesse Jackson Al Sharpton Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report aptly described these candidates as 8220sheepdogscharged with herding activists and voters back into the Democratic fold who might otherwise drift leftward and outside of the Democratic party8221 No selfactivating movements or organizations came out of these campaigns and there is no reason to expect the Sanders campaign will be any different The Sanders campaign is enlisting people in an election campaign not an ongoing political organization The Sanders campaign may be a bridge for some to positions as Democratic operatives as it was for some in previous sheepdog campaigns But it is not building a political organization that is independent and opposed to the capitalist parties The group Socialist Alternative hasamp160 welcomed Sanders Democratic candidacy while calling on him to continue running as an independent after the Democratic primaries Socialist Alternatives position is na239ve at bestor worse deliberately misleading There is no way that Sanders will break with the Democrats on the presidential race We should take him at his word hes backing the Democratic candidate Sanders has a long record of supporting Democrats for president including Gore Kerry and Obama while harshly criticizing independent challengers on the left like Ralph Nader Its one thing to tell Sanders supporters they need a Plan Ban independent left candidatewhen he loses the primaries Its another to spread illusions that Sanders can be persuaded to be that candidate If Sanders wanted to do it he would have paid petitioners out now getting him independent ballot lines in the 50 states and DC He doesnt and he wont If he did the Democrats would bar him from the debates and primary ballots for being disloyal to the Democrats Some states such as Michigan have soreloser provisions that would prevent him from running as an independent after running as a Democrat Its disappointing to see Socialist Alternative spread illusions that Sanders will ever break with Clinton after the primaries or that he even could do so as a practical matter of getting on the ballot From an independent socialist point of view all the money and time going into Sanders handoff to Clinton is time and money that could be going into getting Jill Steins Green Party candidacy on every ballot in the countrythe only independent left campaign in 2016 with any prospect for doing so The Greens have 21 ballot lines already and most of the rest can be secured by petitioning in 2015 Doing so now would leave 2016 for campaigning One of the weaknesses of recent independent campaigns by Ralph Nader and the Greens is that the ballot access drive did not really begin until the year of the election making the campaign mostly a desperate scramble to simply get on the ballot With most ballot lines secured in 2015 the campaign could focus in 2016 on broadcasting its message and on field organizing to build local organizations register new voters identify supporting voters pull them to the polls on Election Day and continue after the election with local movement and electoral activity The independent left should be talking to progressives who have decided to support Sanders We should talk about why independent politics is the best way to build progressive power about the Democratic Party as the historic graveyard of progressive movements and about the need in 2016 for a progressive alternative when Sanders folds and endorses Clinton I dont expect many will be persuaded to quit the Sanders campaign before the primaries But I do expect that many of them will want a Plan B a progressive alternative to Clinton after the primaries I had a similar scenario develop in during my 2014 Green Party campaign for governor of New York Zephyr Teachout a liberal Democrat running a primary challenge against the more conservative Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo attracted the support of progressives in the Democratic Party and won a respectable 34 percent of the primary vote Analysis of the general election results shows that about half of Teachouts vote came to the Greens in the general election and that it constituted about half of the Green vote Our 5 percent showing was the best ever in New York for an independent left candidate for governor except for the Socialists who received 57 percent in 1918 and 56 percent in 1920 If Steins Green campaign can draw a significant segment of Sanders supporters to it after the primaries it could help the Green Party to make a quantum leap in the vote it receives in 2016 over previous elections That would provide momentum for local state and congressional elections in the coming years While the Debsian Socialists of a century ago were clear about their independence from the Democratic Party they were also clear about wanting to draw progressives in the Democratic Party into the Socialist Partyamp160 As Debs stated in that same 1904 opening campaign speechamp160quoted above Where but to the Socialist Party can these progressive people turn They are now without a party and the only genuine Democratic Party in the field is the Socialist Party and every true Democrat should thank Wall Street for driving him out of a party that is democratic in name only and into one that is democratic in fact Progressives in the Democratic Party are going to need a Plan B after Bernie Sanders throws his support to Clinton in about 10 months after the March primaries seal the nomination for her We should be building Plan B now Howie Hawkinsamp160is a veteran activist working Teamster and leader of the Green Party nationally and in his home state of New York Last November his campaign for governor against incumbent Democrat Andrew Cuomo won 200000 votes nearly 5 percent of the totalthe most successful leftwing independent campaign in New York in more than 50 years This article originally appeared in Socialist Worker and is reprinted with permission of the author More information about formatting options | Bernie/PROPN Sanders8217/PROPN entry/NOUN into/ADP the/DET Democratic/ADJ presidential/ADJ primaries/NOUN should/AUX be/AUX seen/VERB as/ADP his/PRON final/ADJ decisive/ADJ step/NOUN away/ADV from/ADP the/DET democratic/ADJ socialism/NOUN he/PRON professes/VERB to/PART support/VERB He/PRON will/AUX raise/VERB some/DET progressive/ADJ demands/NOUN in/ADP the/DET primaries/NOUN and/CCONJ then/ADV endorse/VERB the/DET corporate/ADJ Democrat/PROPN Hillary/PROPN Clinton/PROPN Nothing/PROPN changes/VERB Sanders/PROPN is/AUX violating/VERB the/DET first/ADJ 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<p>Thomas Andrews Drake (born 1957) is a former senior official of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, computer software expert, linguist, management and leadership specialist, and whistleblower. In 2010 the government alleged that he 'mishandled' documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. His defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project.</p>
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<p /> JAISAL NOOR, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore. And welcome to part two of our discussion with Thomas Drake.
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<p />He is a former National Security Agency senior executive. He blew the whistle on multibillion-dollar fraud and a vast Fourth Amendment-violating secret surveillance and data mining program that he says fundamentally weakened national security and eroded civil liberties. He was charged under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration and faced 35 years in prison. The criminal case against him ultimately collapsed and the charges were dropped.
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<p />Thank you for joining us again, Mr. Drake.
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<p />THOMAS DRAKE, WHISTLEBLOWER AND FMR. NSA SENIOR EXEC.: Thank you for having me.
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<p />NOOR: So, Mr. Drake, you won the Sam Adams Award in 2011, and this year's Sam Adams Award has just been awarded to Edward Snowden, a man that you've said did an amazing act of civil disobedience. Can you tell us exactly why Edward Snowden is a whistleblower and why you support him? And talk about how your own personal journey affects your view of what Edward Snowden has done.
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<p />DRAKE: Well, I feel extraordinary kinship with Edward Snowden, and I consider him a fellow whistleblower. And he's also an NSA whistleblower. It seems like there's been a lot of whistleblowers from NSA over the past number of years in terms of just the numbers from NSA alone compared to some of the other parts of government.
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<p />You know, NSA is an organization, an intelligence agency with extraordinary power. And his disclosures to date--I believe there's going to be many, many more, but his disclosures to date reveal a vast industrial-scale leviathan surveillance system, and it's in every nook and cranny of our lives.
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<p />And, you know, General Hayden was right when over ten years ago he said that NSA needed to own the net. Well, I don't think people realize what he truly meant by owning the net.
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<p />And so Edward Snowden has blown the whistle on what I fundamentally believe is the total violation of the Constitution in terms of people's civil liberties and people's privacy and their individual rights.
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<p />It doesn't seem to matter what the constraints are. In fact, there are no constraints. Effectively you have an NSA that simply regards all data as suspect no matter what its source, whether it's a citizen or whether it's a bad guy or whether it's a foreign national. It's all--essentially becomes all the same to them, because, as I was told after 9/11, we just need the data, Mr.&#160;Drake.
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<p />And so he's done an extraordinary service to the world in disclosing this, NSA's secret surveillance program, as well as their relationships and agreements to acquire even more information or have access to even more information from other countries. In particular, what I find particularly egregious is information that involves individual citizens of other countries as well.
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<p />So I called it--I've called what he did a magnificent act--I think I said that in a different interview and in my own writings about all of this--a magnificent act of civil disobedience. But he is a whistleblower. He was exposed to information that in his mind he had a reasonable belief, based on his understanding of law and what NSA's charter was, and its constraints rose to the level of violating the law.
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<p />In this case I'll go even further, as well as he has, and say that it violates the Constitution. There is nothing in any of the legal regimes, as broad as they are, that authorize the government in secret without any public debate to have vast access, basically bulk data access and conduct the data mining against that information, bulk data access of just extraordinary amount of records on individuals. No suspicion, no cause, probable cause that they've done something wrong. They just want the data in case they need it. So you really have the inverse of the Fourth Amendment, where it's seize first in secret and we'll figure it out and search it all later.
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<p />NOOR: Now, Snowden's critics have said that he should have gone through the proper channels. Based on your own experience of going through the proper channels, what do you make of such criticism?
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<p />DRAKE: Well, people don't--they do not understand the history nor--I'm a prime example of what happens. I went through every channel that existed under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, which allowed contractors as well as government employees to go to Congress or the Department of Defense with what they suspected was government wrongdoing. The fact remains that my whistleblowing within NSA, as well as to Congress several times over two 9/11 congressional investigations, as well as a Department of Defense Office of Inspector General investigation all exposed me. In fact, I experienced severe retaliation and reprisal and retribution by virtue of having cooperated as a material witness with those other government agencies looking at NSA.
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<p />It's clear that Edward Snowden well knew the plight of whistleblowers attempting to bring light to a very dark side of our government, the secret side of our government. And I believe if he had gone through the, quote-unquote, proper channels, he would have been stopped a long time ago and probably never would have had the opportunity to disclose in the public interest--remember, that's the distinction; Whistleblowing's in the public interest--to reporters and journalists in the manner that he did. He also knew--he knew that if he remained in the United States, that his ability to stay free was going to be very, very short-lived. And so in order to reserve at least his freedom as long as possible, he had to escape the country.
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<p />NOOR: So you were prosecuted by the Obama administration for your leaks and trying to--for you trying to speak out. The Obama administration has launched the "Insider Threat" program in October 2011, which was recently revealed by McClatchy newspapers. Can you talk about what your response is to this new revelation by McClatchy?
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<p />DRAKE: Yeah. I mean, this administration, I mean, it's a war on truth-tellers and whistleblowers. The whistleblowers are fair game. There's no protection for whistleblowing. The insider threat, whistleblowers are regarded as one of the primary threats. The administration wants to make sure they're snuffed out. I mean, it's--what can I say? I mean, it's extraordinary what this--I mean, this administration has gone after more whistleblowers in terms of charging them and truth-tellers, charging them under the Espionage Act, the Espionage Act of all things, than all other administrations combined. I mean, it's just an extraordinary development in our history. And clearly he, Obama and company, have no quarter for those who dare speak truth to or of power. And so they want to hammer him, hammer him good.
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<p />I mean, I personally faced 35 years in prison. When you're facing page spending that much of the rest of your life in prison, you come to appreciate how precious those freedoms are. And I sit here in this interview with you as a free man. I can't begin to tell you what freedom means, especially since I was able to keep my freedoms. So it obviously--I was deeply impacted. My life was completely destroyed. I've had to rebuild it.
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<p />And yet, you know, we have a government, apparently it holds itself exempt from the Constitution, holds itself exempt from oversight and public interest. You have this other side of government which I've said it's the state religion of--you know, it's--the state religion of the government is national security. And you don't question it. You don't speak ill will of it. And the last thing you do is hold up a mirror, because you hold up a mirror, you get criminalized.
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<p />I mean, you're already seeing what's happening. You know, the investigations of AP, the warrant that was signed by Attorney General Holder on James Rosen from Fox News where they actually were able to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant based on a probable cause affidavit that he was aiding and abetting in a conspiracy to omit a crime. And that crime was espionage. I mean, this is a war on journalism. This is a war on the First Amendment. And they're using the Fourth to erode the First. And those are the two primary amendments in which this country had its first American Revolution.
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<p />NOOR: Now, Glenn Greenwald told Democracy Now! today that he spoke with Snowden on Saturday and Snowden reported that he is pleased his greatest fear did not come true, namely that his revelations would not prompt a national debate.
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<p />Now, Snowden came forward in spite of all the prosecutions, as you meant, the historic prosecutions of whistleblowers, including yourself. In your judgment, what do you think will be the most profound consequence of Snowden's leaks?
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<p />DRAKE: I think it's fundamentally his revelations. I think it's the specific evidence that shows beyond any reasonable doubt--in fact, I believe it's probable cause evidence that we have, you know, a state-sponsored agency in league with a number of other government agencies--and that main agency's called NSA--involved in unconstitutional conduct against its own people and against the citizens and nations overseas. And I think that will be--history is not kind when it comes to surveillance states. History is not kind to democracies that decide in the claimed best interest of the public that they're going to engage in lots of secret activities away from the public eye and away from public discussion/debate.
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<p />We're now having the debate, that debate about liberty and security. We're having that debate for the first time. It's a debate we've never really had in this country. And that's all because of Edward Snowden's disclosures. The president himself looked forward to the debate, but his answer is to go after him with everything he's got, including, you know, the force-down of the Bolivian--the president of Bolivia's airplane--unprecedented that the United States would go that far just on simply an accusation that it was harboring Edward Snowden, when in fact that was not the truth.
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<p />NOOR: Polls released since Snowden's revelations have been pretty mixed overall, with many Americans saying that despite the revelations, they trust Obama or that they feel this surveillance, even though it might be unconstitutional, it might violate the law, it's still necessary to protect us, because America is under attack. There's people that want to get us, and that this is necessary to keep us safe. Last question for you is: what would you tell people that make those arguments?
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<p />DRAKE: Well, wake up to history. I mean, it's the boiling frog syndrome. I mean, how many of your rights are you going to give up for the sake of security? Benjamin Franklin said it best. You know, those who seek safety, you give up a little security for safety are going to lose both. That's precisely what's happening here.
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<p />I mean, I recognize the role of government. Remember, I used to work in the system. I fully recognize that there are threats. But you don't have to turn all of your civil liberties over and erode them for the sake of security. It's not necessary. And the very best of American ingenuity and innovation was all ready to go well before 9/11 to precisely take care of that. And, in fact, I would actually argue that the fundamental basis of our national security is not secrecy; it's actually our own rights and liberties. That's what's worth defending. That's what's worth fighting for. That's what's worth standing up for. And that's what I continue to do, you know, with my voice and my pen and in partnership and in cooperation with others.
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<p />A lot's at stake here. There really is. And if history is any indication at all, if the '70s were any indication at all, the government is not going to stop. It's kind of the Catch-22. They're going to say: who's going to stop us now? And what are they going to do with all this information? I mean, this is incredible amounts of information being pulled together from all kinds of, you know, different providers, internet service providers, banks, credit card companies. You name it, the government is increasingly getting full access to all of it. What will they do with all that information in secret? That's a fundamental question.
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<p />Is it really worth the price? We've spent trillions since 9/11 on, quote-unquote, national and homeland security. Is it really worth the price? I don't think it is.
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<p />And so I fear for the constitutional republic and I fear for the future of our own democracy. You cannot have a secret government operating inside of the shell of the Constitution without something giving. And what's giving is what it means to be an American. And what is giving is the heart of democracy. That's what's giving. And I think don't think the price is worth it, I really don't, especially when it was all unnecessary. We never had to go to the dark side after 9/11. We never had to institutionalize a secret court system like we have now, which is essentially a rubberstamp of what the government wants to do and wants to get away with. All unnecessary.
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<p />And I believe the government is suffering a pathological condition called hoarding. It simply wants to have all the data 'cause it never knows when it might need it again, it never knows when it might want to use it again. And so they just want it all.
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<p />And it's really troubling in this--I mean, I never imagined that I would actually be in an interview with you back in the '70s, as bad as the '70s were. I never imagined that I would be facing 35 years of prison. In fact, at one point I was threatened with spending the rest of my life in prison if I didn't cooperate with the government investigation. That's not a democracy. That's certainly not a republic. And it's not the oath that I took four times in my government career to support and defend. What I didn't imagine is that I took that oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. I didn't realize that the primary enemy that I ultimately faced was domestic, and that would be my own government.
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<p />NOOR: Thomas Drake, thank you so much for joining us.
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<p />DRAKE: You're welcome. Thanks for having me on your show.
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<p />NOOR: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Former NSA Exec: Government Spying Violates Constitution | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10422 | 2013-07-08 | 4left
| 2,528 | Thomas Andrews Drake born 1957 is a former senior official of the US National Security Agency NSA decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran computer software expert linguist management and leadership specialist and whistleblower In 2010 the government alleged that he mishandled documents one of the few such Espionage Act cases in US history His defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project JAISAL NOOR TRNN PRODUCER Welcome to The Real News Network Im Jaisal Noor in Baltimore And welcome to part two of our discussion with Thomas Drake He is a former National Security Agency senior executive He blew the whistle on multibilliondollar fraud and a vast Fourth Amendmentviolating secret surveillance and data mining program that he says fundamentally weakened national security and eroded civil liberties He was charged under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration and faced 35 years in prison The criminal case against him ultimately collapsed and the charges were dropped Thank you for joining us again Mr Drake THOMAS DRAKE WHISTLEBLOWER AND FMR NSA SENIOR EXEC Thank you for having me NOOR So Mr Drake you won the Sam Adams Award in 2011 and this years Sam Adams Award has just been awarded to Edward Snowden a man that youve said did an amazing act of civil disobedience Can you tell us exactly why Edward Snowden is a whistleblower and why you support him And talk about how your own personal journey affects your view of what Edward Snowden has done DRAKE Well I feel extraordinary kinship with Edward Snowden and I consider him a fellow whistleblower And hes also an NSA whistleblower It seems like theres been a lot of whistleblowers from NSA over the past number of years in terms of just the numbers from NSA alone compared to some of the other parts of government You know NSA is an organization an intelligence agency with extraordinary power And his disclosures to dateI believe theres going to be many many more but his disclosures to date reveal a vast industrialscale leviathan surveillance system and its in every nook and cranny of our lives And you know General Hayden was right when over ten years ago he said that NSA needed to own the net Well I dont think people realize what he truly meant by owning the net And so Edward Snowden has blown the whistle on what I fundamentally believe is the total violation of the Constitution in terms of peoples civil liberties and peoples privacy and their individual rights It doesnt seem to matter what the constraints are In fact there are no constraints Effectively you have an NSA that simply regards all data as suspect no matter what its source whether its a citizen or whether its a bad guy or whether its a foreign national Its allessentially becomes all the same to them because as I was told after 911 we just need the data Mramp160Drake And so hes done an extraordinary service to the world in disclosing this NSAs secret surveillance program as well as their relationships and agreements to acquire even more information or have access to even more information from other countries In particular what I find particularly egregious is information that involves individual citizens of other countries as well So I called itIve called what he did a magnificent actI think I said that in a different interview and in my own writings about all of thisa magnificent act of civil disobedience But he is a whistleblower He was exposed to information that in his mind he had a reasonable belief based on his understanding of law and what NSAs charter was and its constraints rose to the level of violating the law In this case Ill go even further as well as he has and say that it violates the Constitution There is nothing in any of the legal regimes as broad as they are that authorize the government in secret without any public debate to have vast access basically bulk data access and conduct the data mining against that information bulk data access of just extraordinary amount of records on individuals No suspicion no cause probable cause that theyve done something wrong They just want the data in case they need it So you really have the inverse of the Fourth Amendment where its seize first in secret and well figure it out and search it all later NOOR Now Snowdens critics have said that he should have gone through the proper channels Based on your own experience of going through the proper channels what do you make of such criticism DRAKE Well people dontthey do not understand the history norIm a prime example of what happens I went through every channel that existed under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act which allowed contractors as well as government employees to go to Congress or the Department of Defense with what they suspected was government wrongdoing The fact remains that my whistleblowing within NSA as well as to Congress several times over two 911 congressional investigations as well as a Department of Defense Office of Inspector General investigation all exposed me In fact I experienced severe retaliation and reprisal and retribution by virtue of having cooperated as a material witness with those other government agencies looking at NSA Its clear that Edward Snowden well knew the plight of whistleblowers attempting to bring light to a very dark side of our government the secret side of our government And I believe if he had gone through the quoteunquote proper channels he would have been stopped a long time ago and probably never would have had the opportunity to disclose in the public interestremember thats the distinction Whistleblowings in the public interestto reporters and journalists in the manner that he did He also knewhe knew that if he remained in the United States that his ability to stay free was going to be very very shortlived And so in order to reserve at least his freedom as long as possible he had to escape the country NOOR So you were prosecuted by the Obama administration for your leaks and trying tofor you trying to speak out The Obama administration has launched the Insider Threat program in October 2011 which was recently revealed by McClatchy newspapers Can you talk about what your response is to this new revelation by McClatchy DRAKE Yeah I mean this administration I mean its a war on truthtellers and whistleblowers The whistleblowers are fair game Theres no protection for whistleblowing The insider threat whistleblowers are regarded as one of the primary threats The administration wants to make sure theyre snuffed out I mean itswhat can I say I mean its extraordinary what thisI mean this administration has gone after more whistleblowers in terms of charging them and truthtellers charging them under the Espionage Act the Espionage Act of all things than all other administrations combined I mean its just an extraordinary development in our history And clearly he Obama and company have no quarter for those who dare speak truth to or of power And so they want to hammer him hammer him good I mean I personally faced 35 years in prison When youre facing page spending that much of the rest of your life in prison you come to appreciate how precious those freedoms are And I sit here in this interview with you as a free man I cant begin to tell you what freedom means especially since I was able to keep my freedoms So it obviouslyI was deeply impacted My life was completely destroyed Ive had to rebuild it And yet you know we have a government apparently it holds itself exempt from the Constitution holds itself exempt from oversight and public interest You have this other side of government which Ive said its the state religion ofyou know itsthe state religion of the government is national security And you dont question it You dont speak ill will of it And the last thing you do is hold up a mirror because you hold up a mirror you get criminalized I mean youre already seeing whats happening You know the investigations of AP the warrant that was signed by Attorney General Holder on James Rosen from Fox News where they actually were able to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant based on a probable cause affidavit that he was aiding and abetting in a conspiracy to omit a crime And that crime was espionage I mean this is a war on journalism This is a war on the First Amendment And theyre using the Fourth to erode the First And those are the two primary amendments in which this country had its first American Revolution NOOR Now Glenn Greenwald told Democracy Now today that he spoke with Snowden on Saturday and Snowden reported that he is pleased his greatest fear did not come true namely that his revelations would not prompt a national debate Now Snowden came forward in spite of all the prosecutions as you meant the historic prosecutions of whistleblowers including yourself In your judgment what do you think will be the most profound consequence of Snowdens leaks DRAKE I think its fundamentally his revelations I think its the specific evidence that shows beyond any reasonable doubtin fact I believe its probable cause evidence that we have you know a statesponsored agency in league with a number of other government agenciesand that main agencys called NSAinvolved in unconstitutional conduct against its own people and against the citizens and nations overseas And I think that will behistory is not kind when it comes to surveillance states History is not kind to democracies that decide in the claimed best interest of the public that theyre going to engage in lots of secret activities away from the public eye and away from public discussiondebate Were now having the debate that debate about liberty and security Were having that debate for the first time Its a debate weve never really had in this country And thats all because of Edward Snowdens disclosures The president himself looked forward to the debate but his answer is to go after him with everything hes got including you know the forcedown of the Bolivianthe president of Bolivias airplaneunprecedented that the United States would go that far just on simply an accusation that it was harboring Edward Snowden when in fact that was not the truth NOOR Polls released since Snowdens revelations have been pretty mixed overall with many Americans saying that despite the revelations they trust Obama or that they feel this surveillance even though it might be unconstitutional it might violate the law its still necessary to protect us because America is under attack Theres people that want to get us and that this is necessary to keep us safe Last question for you is what would you tell people that make those arguments DRAKE Well wake up to history I mean its the boiling frog syndrome I mean how many of your rights are you going to give up for the sake of security Benjamin Franklin said it best You know those who seek safety you give up a little security for safety are going to lose both Thats precisely whats happening here I mean I recognize the role of government Remember I used to work in the system I fully recognize that there are threats But you dont have to turn all of your civil liberties over and erode them for the sake of security Its not necessary And the very best of American ingenuity and innovation was all ready to go well before 911 to precisely take care of that And in fact I would actually argue that the fundamental basis of our national security is not secrecy its actually our own rights and liberties Thats whats worth defending Thats whats worth fighting for Thats whats worth standing up for And thats what I continue to do you know with my voice and my pen and in partnership and in cooperation with others A lots at stake here There really is And if history is any indication at all if the 70s were any indication at all the government is not going to stop Its kind of the Catch22 Theyre going to say whos going to stop us now And what are they going to do with all this information I mean this is incredible amounts of information being pulled together from all kinds of you know different providers internet service providers banks credit card companies You name it the government is increasingly getting full access to all of it What will they do with all that information in secret Thats a fundamental question Is it really worth the price Weve spent trillions since 911 on quoteunquote national and homeland security Is it really worth the price I dont think it is And so I fear for the constitutional republic and I fear for the future of our own democracy You cannot have a secret government operating inside of the shell of the Constitution without something giving And whats giving is what it means to be an American And what is giving is the heart of democracy Thats whats giving And I think dont think the price is worth it I really dont especially when it was all unnecessary We never had to go to the dark side after 911 We never had to institutionalize a secret court system like we have now which is essentially a rubberstamp of what the government wants to do and wants to get away with All unnecessary And I believe the government is suffering a pathological condition called hoarding It simply wants to have all the data cause it never knows when it might need it again it never knows when it might want to use it again And so they just want it all And its really troubling in thisI mean I never imagined that I would actually be in an interview with you back in the 70s as bad as the 70s were I never imagined that I would be facing 35 years of prison In fact at one point I was threatened with spending the rest of my life in prison if I didnt cooperate with the government investigation Thats not a democracy Thats certainly not a republic And its not the oath that I took four times in my government career to support and defend What I didnt imagine is that I took that oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic I didnt realize that the primary enemy that I ultimately faced was domestic and that would be my own government NOOR Thomas Drake thank you so much for joining us DRAKE Youre welcome Thanks for having me on your show NOOR And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Thomas/PROPN Andrews/PROPN Drake/PROPN born/VERB 1957/NUM is/AUX a/DET former/ADJ senior/ADJ official/NOUN of/ADP the/DET US/PROPN National/PROPN Security/PROPN Agency/PROPN NSA/PROPN decorated/VERB United/PROPN States/PROPN Air/PROPN Force/PROPN and/CCONJ United/PROPN States/PROPN Navy/PROPN veteran/NOUN computer/NOUN software/NOUN expert/NOUN linguist/ADJ management/NOUN and/CCONJ leadership/NOUN specialist/NOUN and/CCONJ whistleblower/NOUN In/ADP 2010/NUM the/DET government/NOUN alleged/VERB that/SCONJ he/PRON mishandled/VERB 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<p>By Nick Turse / <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176223/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_washington%27s_america-first_commandos_in_africa/#more" type="external">TomDispatch</a></p>
<p>Al-Qaeda doesn’t care about borders. Neither does the Islamic State or Boko Haram. Brigadier General Donald Bolduc thinks the same way.&#160;</p>
<p>“[T]errorists, criminals, and non-state actors aren’t bound by arbitrary borders,” the commander of Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA) <a href="http://www.african-defense.com/defense-news/operating-and-building-capacity-in-the-gray-zone/" type="external">told</a> an interviewer early this fall.&#160; “That said, everything we do is not organized around recognizing traditional borders. In fact, our whole command philosophy is about enabling cross-border solutions, implementing multi-national, collective actions and empowering African partner nations to work across borders to solve problems using a regional approach.”</p>
<p>A SOCAFRICA planning document obtained by TomDispatch offers a window onto the scope of these “multi-national, collective actions” carried out by America’s most elite troops in Africa. The declassified but heavily redacted secret report, covering the years 2012-2017 and acquired via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), details nearly 20 programs and activities — from training exercises to security cooperation engagements — utilized by SOCAFRICA across the continent. This wide array of low-profile missions, in addition to named operations and quasi-wars, attests to the growing influence and sprawling nature of U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) in Africa.</p>
<p />
<p>How U.S. military engagement will proceed under the Trump administration remains to be seen.&#160; The president-elect has said or tweeted <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/625478235804073984" type="external">little</a> about <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/351642052854951936" type="external">Africa</a> in recent years (aside from long trading in baseless <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther.html" type="external">claims</a> that the current president was <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/05/trump-obama-born-in-kenya-124569" type="external">born</a> there).&#160; Given his choice for national security adviser, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/us/politics/in-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn-experience-meets-a-prickly-past.html?_r=0" type="external">Michael Flynn</a> — a former director of intelligence for <a href="http://www.defenseone.com/business/2013/10/exclusive-interview-dia-director-flynn-why-al-qaeda-still-growth-market/72794/" type="external">Joint Special Operations Command</a> who believes that the United States is in a “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-national-security-adviser-donald-trump.html" type="external">world war</a>” with Islamic militants — there is good reason to believe that Special Operations Command Africa will continue its border-busting missions across that continent.&#160; That, in turn, means that Africa is likely to remain crucial to America’s nameless global war on terror.</p>
<p>Publicly, the command <a href="http://www.africom.mil/about-the-command/our-team/u-s-special-operations-command-africa" type="external">claims</a> that it conducts its operations to “promote regional stability and prosperity,” while Bolduc emphasizes that its missions are geared toward serving the needs of African allies.&#160; The FOIA files make clear, however, that U.S. interests are the command’s principal and primary concern — a policy in keeping with the America First mindset and mandate of incoming commander-in-chief Donald J. Trump — and that support to “partner nations” is prioritized to suit American, not African, needs and policy goals.</p>
<p>Shades of Gray</p>
<p>Bolduc is fond of <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/07/11/in-africa-u-s-military-sees-enemies-everywhere/" type="external">saying</a> that his troops — Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets, among others — operate in the “ <a href="https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/a-view-from-the-ct-foxhole-brigadier-general-donald-c-bolduc-commander-special-operations-command-africa" type="external">gray zone</a>,” or what he calls “the spectrum of conflict between war and peace.”&#160; Another of his favored <a href="https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/a-view-from-the-ct-foxhole-brigadier-general-donald-c-bolduc-commander-special-operations-command-africa" type="external">stock phrases</a> is: “In Africa, we are not the kinetic solution” — that is, not pulling triggers and dropping bombs. &#160; <a href="http://www.africom.mil/NewsByCategory/article/27769/african-european-special-operations-forces-plan-future-cooperation" type="external">He</a> also regularly <a href="https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/a-view-from-the-ct-foxhole-brigadier-general-donald-c-bolduc-commander-special-operations-command-africa" type="external">takes pains</a> to <a href="http://www.african-defense.com/defense-news/operating-and-building-capacity-in-the-gray-zone/" type="external">say</a> that “we are not at war in Africa — but our African partners certainly are.”</p>
<p>That is not entirely true.&#160;</p>
<p>Earlier this month, in fact, a White House report made it <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwih5-DHpOfQAhXKRSYKHcY1CiUQFggaMAA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse.gov%2Fsites%2Fwhitehouse.gov%2Ffiles%2Fdocuments%2FLegal_Policy_Report.pdf&amp;usg=AFQjCNEoF7_YHqvhjof789ipGTiztroUYw&amp;bvm=bv.141320020,d.eWE" type="external">clear</a>, for instance, that “the United States is currently using military force” in Somalia.&#160; At about the same moment, the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/27/us/politics/obama-expands-war-with-al-qaeda-to-include-shabab-in-somalia.html" type="external">revealed</a> an imminent Obama administration plan to deem al-Shabab “to be part of the armed conflict that Congress authorized against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to senior American officials,” strengthening President-elect Donald Trump’s authority to carry out missions there in 2017 and beyond.</p>
<p>As part of its long-fought shadow war against al-Shabab militants, the U.S. has carried out <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/09/us-raid-al-shabaab-somalia-navy-seals" type="external">commando</a> <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-special-operations-forces-involved-somalia-raid-defense-officials-n534886" type="external">raids</a> and <a href="https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-life-and-death-of-objective-peckham/" type="external">drone assassinations</a> there (with the latter <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2016/10/11/us-accused-killing-22-somali-soldiers-civilians/" type="external">markedly increasing</a> in 2015-2016). On December 5th, President Obama <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/05/letter-president-supplemental-6-month-war-powers-letter" type="external">issued</a> his latest biannual “war powers” letter to Congress which noted that the military had not only “conducted strikes in defense of U.S. forces” there, but also in defense of local allied troops.&#160; The president also acknowledged that U.S. personnel “occasionally accompany regional forces, including Somali and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces, during counterterrorism operations.”</p>
<p>Obama’s war powers letter also <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/05/letter-president-supplemental-6-month-war-powers-letter" type="external">mentioned</a> American deployments in Cameroon, Djibouti, and Niger, efforts aimed at countering Joseph Kony’s murderous Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa, a long-running mission by military observers in Egypt, and a continuing deployment of forces supporting “the security of U.S. citizens and property” in rapidly deteriorating South Sudan.&#160;</p>
<p>The president offered only two sentences on U.S. military activities in Libya, although a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-24420767" type="external">long-running</a> special ops and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/pentagon-confirms-predator-drone-strike-libya/story?id=13442570" type="external">drone</a> <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/thanks-to-italy-the-us-is-launching-drone-strikes-against-the-islamic-state-in-libya" type="external">campaign</a> there has been joined by a full-scale American air war, dubbed Operation Odyssey Lightning, against Islamic State militants, especially those in the city of Sirte.&#160; Since August 1st, in fact, the United States has carried out nearly 500 air strikes in Libya, according to figures <a href="http://www.africom.mil/media-room/pressrelease/28535/u-s-airstrikes-in-support-of-gna-dec-5" type="external">supplied</a> by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).</p>
<p>Odyssey Lightning is, in fact, no outlier.&#160; While the “primary named operations” involving America’s elite forces in Africa have been redacted from the declassified secret files in TomDispatch’s possession, a November 2015 briefing by Bolduc, obtained via a separate FOIA request, reveals that his command was then involved in seven such operations on the continent.&#160; These likely included at least some of the following: Enduring Freedom-Horn of Africa, <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oef-djibouti.htm" type="external">Octave Shield</a>, and/or <a href="https://theintercept.com/document/2015/10/14/small-footprint-operations-5-13/#page-3" type="external">Juniper Garret</a>, all aimed at East Africa; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175844/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_how_%22benghazi%22_birthed_the_new_normal_in_africa/" type="external">New Normal</a>, an effort to secure U.S. embassies and assets around the continent; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175818/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_american_proxy_wars_in_africa" type="external">Juniper Micron</a>, a U.S.-backed French and African mission to stabilize Mali (following a 2012 coup there by a U.S.-trained officer and the chaos that followed); <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/nation/2013/09/12/operation-observant-compass-kony/2804225/" type="external">Observant Compass</a>, the long-running effort to decimate the Lord’s Resistance Army (which recently retired AFRICOM chief General David Rodriguez <a href="http://www.stripes.com/news/africom-boss-scrutinizes-us-role-in-hunt-for-warlord-kony-1.405757" type="external">derided</a> as expensive and strategically unimportant); and <a href="http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/198097.pdf" type="external">Juniper Shield</a>, a wide-ranging effort (formerly known as Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara) <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjE8q6Hs8bPAhWFFj4KHXIwCLYQFggiMAE&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fcomptroller.defense.gov%2FPortals%2F45%2FDocuments%2Fdefbudget%2Ffy2016%2FOCOTF_CJ_Book_March_2015_Final.pdf&amp;usg=AFQjCNFyTxINdVL6Qvq5Uu_urJF5K_yDbA&amp;bvm=bv.134495766,d.dmo" type="external">aimed</a> at Algeria, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Tunisia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal.&#160; A 2015 briefing document by SOCAFRICA’s parent unit, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), also lists an ongoing “gray zone” conflict in <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/emergingthreatp10_large.jpg" type="external">Uganda</a>.</p>
<p>On any given day, between 1,500 and 1,700 American special operators and support personnel are deployed somewhere on the continent.&#160; Over the course of a year they conduct missions in more than 20 countries.&#160; According to Bolduc’s November 2015 briefing, Special Operations Command Africa carries out 78 separate “mission sets.”&#160; These include <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=3&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwj46aCn7cbPAhWDVh4KHUwbDK8QFggrMAI&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.house.gov%2Fmeetings%2FAS%2FAS26%2F20160301%2F104552%2FHHRG-114-AS26-Wstate-VotelJ-20160301.pdf&amp;usg=AFQjCNFdJQxCGf556pUDvIJ16BuBfo5fzQ&amp;bvm=bv.134495766,d.dmo" type="external">activities</a> that range from enhancing “partner capability and capacity” to the sharing of intelligence.</p>
<p>Mission Creep</p>
<p>Most of what Bolduc’s troops do involves working alongside and mentoring local allies.&#160; SOCAFRICA’s showcase effort, for instance, is Flintlock, an annual training exercise in Northwest Africa involving elite American, European, and African forces, which provides the command with a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/world/africa/african-training-exercise-turns-urgent-as-threats-grow.html?_r=0" type="external">plethora</a> of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303824204579421063632222426" type="external">publicity</a>.&#160; More than 1,700 military personnel from 30-plus nations <a href="http://www.usaraf.army.mil/NEWS/NEWS_160216_flint16.html" type="external">took part</a> in Flintlock 2016.&#160; Next year, according to Bolduc, the exercise is expected “to grow to include SOF from more countries, [as well as] more interagency partners.”&#160;</p>
<p>While the information has been redacted, the SOCAFRICA strategic planning document — produced in 2012 and scheduled to be fully declassified in 2037 — indicates the existence of one or more other training exercises.&#160; Bolduc recently <a href="http://www.african-defense.com/defense-news/operating-and-building-capacity-in-the-gray-zone/" type="external">mentioned</a> two: <a href="http://www.africom.mil/NewsByCategory/article/27769/african-european-special-operations-forces-plan-future-cooperation" type="external">Silent Warrior</a> and <a href="http://www.africom.mil/NewsByCategory/article/28119/epic-guardian-2016-to-promote-cooperation-interoperability" type="external">Epic Guardian</a>.&#160; In the past, the command has also taken part in exercises like Silver Eagle 10 and <a href="http://www.usaraf.army.mil/NEWS/NEWS_120709_botswana_piper.html" type="external">Eastern Piper 12</a>.&#160; (U.S. Africa Command did not respond to requests for comment on these exercises or other questions related to this article.)</p>
<p>Such exercises are, however, just a small part of the SOCAFRICA story.&#160; Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) missions are a larger one.&#160; Officially authorized to enable U.S. special operators to “practice skills needed to conduct a variety of missions, including foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism,” JCETs actually serve as a backdoor method of expanding U.S. military influence and contacts in Africa, since they <a href="http://www.samm.dsca.mil/chapter/chapter-10" type="external">allow</a> for “incidental-training benefits” to “accrue to the foreign friendly forces at no cost.”&#160; As a result, JCETs play an important role in forging and sustaining military relationships across the continent. &#160;Just how many of these missions the U.S. conducts in Africa is apparently unknown — even to the military commands involved.&#160; As TomDispatch <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176182/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_what_the_u.s._military_doesn%27t_know_%28and_neither_do_you%29" type="external">reported</a> earlier this year, according to SOCOM, the U.S. conducted 19 JCETs in 2012, 20 in 2013, and 20, again, in 2014.&#160; AFRICOM, however, claims that there were nine JCETs in 2012, 18 in 2013, and 26 in 2014.</p>
<p>Whatever the true number, JCETs are a crucial cog in the SOCAFRICA machine.&#160; “During a JCET, exercise or training event, a special forces unit might train a partner force in a particular tactical skill and can quickly ascertain if the training audience has adopted the capability,” explained Brigadier General Bolduc. “Trainers can objectively measure competency, then exercise… that particular skill until it becomes a routine.”&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>In addition, SOCAFRICA also utilizes a confusing tangle of State Department and Pentagon programs and activities, aimed at local allies that operate under a crazy quilt of funding schemes, monikers, and acronyms.&#160; These include deployments of Mobile Training Teams, Joint Planning Advisory Teams, Joint Military Education Teams, Civil Military Support Elements, as well as Military Information Support Teams that engage in what once was called <a href="https://www.wired.com/2010/06/military-mulls-new-name-of-psychological-ops-miso/" type="external">psychological operations</a>, or <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/07/02/128268471/army-adds-miso-to-alphabet-soup" type="external">psyops</a> — that is, programs designed to “inform and influence foreign target audiences as appropriately authorized.”</p>
<p>Special Operations Command Africa also utilizes an almost mind-numbing &#160;panoply of “ <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiciLr6x87PAhVFLB4KHdRsDDgQFggkMAE&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rand.org%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Frand%2Fpubs%2Ftechnical_reports%2F2010%2FRAND_TR734.sum.pdf&amp;usg=AFQjCNH11VXnYJJQ3jx3dX2_7jmC-m58Pg&amp;bvm=bv.135258522,d.dmo" type="external">security cooperation</a> programs” and other training activities including Section 1207(n) (also known as the Transitional Authorities for East Africa and Yemen, which provides equipment, training, and other aid to the militaries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Yemen “to conduct counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda affiliates, and al-Shabab” and “enhance the capacity of national military forces participating in the African Union Mission in Somalia”); the Global Security Contingency Fund (designed to enhance the “capabilities of a country’s national military forces, and other national security forces that conduct border and maritime security, internal defense, and counterterrorism operations”); the Partnership for Regional East Africa Counterterrorism (or PREACT, designed to build counterterror capacities and foster military and law enforcement efforts in East African countries, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda); and, among others, the Trans-Sahel Counterterrorism Partnership, the Global Peace Operations Initiative, the Special Operations to Combat Terrorism, the Combatting Terrorism Fellowship, and another known as Counter-Narcotic Terrorism. &#160;</p>
<p>Like Africa’s terror groups and Bolduc’s special ops troops, the almost 20 initiatives utilized by SOCAFRICA — a sprawling mass of programs that overlie and intersect with each other — have a border-busting quality to them.&#160; What they don’t have is clear records of success.&#160; A 2013 RAND Corporation analysis called such capacity-building programs “a tangled web, with holes, overlaps, and confusions.” A 2014 RAND study <a href="http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR350.html" type="external">analyzing</a> U.S. security cooperation (SC) found that there “was no statistically significant correlation between SC and change in countries’ fragility in Africa or the Middle East.”&#160; A 2016 RAND report on “defense institution building” in Africa <a href="http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1232.html" type="external">noted</a> a “poor understanding of partner interests” by the U.S. military.</p>
<p>“We’re supporting African military professionalization and capability-building efforts, we’re supporting development and governance via civil affairs and military information support operations teams,” Bolduc insisted publicly. “[A]ll programs must be useful to the partner nation (not the foreign agenda) and necessary to advance the partner nations’ capabilities. If they don’t pass this simple test… we need to focus on programs that do meet the African partner nation’s needs.”</p>
<p>The 2012 SOCAFRICA strategic planning document obtained by TomDispatch reveals, however, that Special Operations Command Africa’s primary aim is not fostering African development, governance, or military professionalization.&#160; “SOCAFRICA’s foremost objective is the prevention of an attack against America or American interests,” according to the declassified secret report.&#160; In other words, a “foreign agenda,” not the needs of African partner nations, is what’s driving the elite force’s border-busting missions.</p>
<p>American Aims vs. African Needs</p>
<p>Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw cautioned that because SOCAFRICA and AFRICOM have both changed commanders since the 2012 document was issued, it was likely out of date. &#160;“I recommend you contact SOCAFRICA,” he advised.&#160; That command failed to respond to multiple requests for information or comment.&#160; There are, however, no indications that it has actually altered its “foremost objective,” while Bolduc’s public comments suggest that the U.S. military’s engagement in the region is going strong.&#160;</p>
<p>“Our partners and [forward deployed U.S. personnel] recognize the arbitrary nature of borders and understand the only way to combat modern-day threats like ISIS, AQIM [al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb], Boko Haram, and myriad others is to leverage the capabilities of SOF professionals working in concert,” said Bolduc.&#160; “Borders may be notional and don’t protect a country from the spread of violent extremism… but neither do oceans, mountains… or distance.”</p>
<p>In reality, however, oceans and distance have kept most Americans <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/05/viral-image/fact-checking-comparison-gun-deaths-and-terrorism-/" type="external">safe</a> from terrorist organizations like AQIM and Boko Haram.&#160; The same cannot be said for those who live in the nations menaced by these groups.&#160; In Africa, terrorist organizations and attacks have spiked alongside the increase in U.S. Special Operations missions there.&#160; In 2006, the percentage of forward-stationed special operators on the continent <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176042/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_nothing_succeeds_like_failure" type="external">hovered</a> at 1% of total globally deployed SOF forces.&#160; By 2014, that number had hit 10% — a jump of 900% in less than a decade.&#160; During that same span, according to information from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, terror incidents in Africa <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?page=2&amp;casualties_type=b&amp;casualties_max=&amp;start_yearonly=2006&amp;end_yearonly=2014&amp;dtp2=all&amp;region=11&amp;count=100&amp;expanded=yes&amp;charttype=line&amp;chart=overtime&amp;ob=GTDID&amp;od=asc#results-table" type="external">increased</a> precipitously — from just over 100 per year to nearly 2,400 annually.&#160; During the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176182/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_what_the_u.s._military_doesn%27t_know_%28and_neither_do_you%29" type="external">same period</a>, the number of transnational terrorist organizations and illicit groups operating on the continent jumped from one to, according to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/07/11/in-africa-u-s-military-sees-enemies-everywhere/" type="external">Bolduc’s reckoning</a>, nearly 50.</p>
<p>Correlation may not equal causation, but SOCAFRICA’s efforts have coincided with significantly worsening terrorist violence and the growth and spread of terror groups.&#160; And it shouldn’t be a surprise.&#160; While Bolduc publicly talks up the needs of African nations, his border-busting commandos operate under a distinctive America-first mandate and a mindset firmly in keeping with that of the incoming commander-in-chief.&#160; “My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security above all else. It has to be first,” Donald Trump <a href="http://time.com/4309786/read-donald-trumps-america-first-foreign-policy-speech/" type="external">said</a> earlier this year in a major foreign policy speech.&#160; Kicking off his victory tour earlier this month, the president-elect echoed this theme.&#160; “From now on, it’s going to be America first. Okay? America first. We’re going to put ourselves first,” he <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-pledges-america-first-speech-victory-tour-n691021" type="external">told</a> a crowd in Cincinnati, Ohio.</p>
<p>In Africa, the most elite troops soon to be under his command have, in fact, been operating this way for years.&#160; “[W]e will prioritize and focus our operational efforts in those areas where the threat[s] to United States interests are most grave,” says the formerly secret SOCAFRICA document. &#160;“Protecting America, Americans, and American interests is our overarching objective and must be reflected in everything we do.”</p>
<p>Nick Turse is the managing editor of&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176214/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_life%27s_no_picnic_in_trump%27s_secret_%28service%29_garden/" type="external">TomDispatch</a>,&#160;a fellow at the Nation Institute, and a contributing writer for The Intercept. His book&#160;“Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa”&#160;recently received an&#160; <a href="https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/news/ru-n-faculty-and-alumni-win-prestigous-2016-american-book-award" type="external">American Book Award</a>. His latest book is&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Next-Time-They%C2%92ll-Come-Count/dp/1608466485?ie=UTF8&amp;ref_=nosim&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">“Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan.”</a>&#160;His website is <a href="http://www.nickturse.com/" type="external">NickTurse.com</a>.</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on <a href="https://twitter.com/TomDispatch" type="external">Twitter</a> and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Nick Turse’s&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608466485/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">“Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead,”</a> and Tom Engelhardt’s latest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">“Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.”</a></p>
<p>Copyright 2016 Nick Turse</p> | Washington's America-First Commandos in Africa | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/washingtons-america-first-commandos-in-africa/ | 2016-12-21 | 4left
| 2,529 | By Nick Turse TomDispatch AlQaeda doesn8217t care about borders Neither does the Islamic State or Boko Haram Brigadier General Donald Bolduc thinks the same wayamp160 8220Terrorists criminals and nonstate actors aren8217t bound by arbitrary borders8221 the commander of Special Operations Command Africa SOCAFRICA told an interviewer early this fallamp160 8220That said everything we do is not organized around recognizing traditional borders In fact our whole command philosophy is about enabling crossborder solutions implementing multinational collective actions and empowering African partner nations to work across borders to solve problems using a regional approach8221 A SOCAFRICA planning document obtained by TomDispatch offers a window onto the scope of these 8220multinational collective actions8221 carried out by America8217s most elite troops in Africa The declassified but heavily redacted secret report covering the years 20122017 and acquired via the Freedom of Information Act FOIA details nearly 20 programs and activities 8212 from training exercises to security cooperation engagements 8212 utilized by SOCAFRICA across the continent This wide array of lowprofile missions in addition to named operations and quasiwars attests to the growing influence and sprawling nature of US Special Operations forces SOF in Africa How US military engagement will proceed under the Trump administration remains to be seenamp160 The presidentelect has said or tweeted little about Africa in recent years aside from long trading in baseless claims that the current president was born thereamp160 Given his choice for national security adviser Michael Flynn 8212 a former director of intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command who believes that the United States is in a 8220 world war8221 with Islamic militants 8212 there is good reason to believe that Special Operations Command Africa will continue its borderbusting missions across that continentamp160 That in turn means that Africa is likely to remain crucial to America8217s nameless global war on terror Publicly the command claims that it conducts its operations to 8220promote regional stability and prosperity8221 while Bolduc emphasizes that its missions are geared toward serving the needs of African alliesamp160 The FOIA files make clear however that US interests are the command8217s principal and primary concern 8212 a policy in keeping with the America First mindset and mandate of incoming commanderinchief Donald J Trump 8212 and that support to 8220partner nations8221 is prioritized to suit American not African needs and policy goals Shades of Gray Bolduc is fond of saying that his troops 8212 Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets among others 8212 operate in the 8220 gray zone8221 or what he calls 8220the spectrum of conflict between war and peace8221amp160 Another of his favored stock phrases is 8220In Africa we are not the kinetic solution8221 8212 that is not pulling triggers and dropping bombs amp160 He also regularly takes pains to say that 8220we are not at war in Africa 8212 but our African partners certainly are8221 That is not entirely trueamp160 Earlier this month in fact a White House report made it clear for instance that 8220the United States is currently using military force8221 in Somaliaamp160 At about the same moment the New York Times revealed an imminent Obama administration plan to deem alShabab 8220to be part of the armed conflict that Congress authorized against the perpetrators of the Sept 11 2001 terrorist attacks according to senior American officials8221 strengthening Presidentelect Donald Trump8217s authority to carry out missions there in 2017 and beyond As part of its longfought shadow war against alShabab militants the US has carried out commando raids and drone assassinations there with the latter markedly increasing in 20152016 On December 5th President Obama issued his latest biannual 8220war powers8221 letter to Congress which noted that the military had not only 8220conducted strikes in defense of US forces8221 there but also in defense of local allied troopsamp160 The president also acknowledged that US personnel 8220occasionally accompany regional forces including Somali and African Union Mission in Somalia AMISOM forces during counterterrorism operations8221 Obama8217s war powers letter also mentioned American deployments in Cameroon Djibouti and Niger efforts aimed at countering Joseph Kony8217s murderous Lord8217s Resistance Army LRA in Central Africa a longrunning mission by military observers in Egypt and a continuing deployment of forces supporting 8220the security of US citizens and property8221 in rapidly deteriorating South Sudanamp160 The president offered only two sentences on US military activities in Libya although a longrunning special ops and drone campaign there has been joined by a fullscale American air war dubbed Operation Odyssey Lightning against Islamic State militants especially those in the city of Sirteamp160 Since August 1st in fact the United States has carried out nearly 500 air strikes in Libya according to figures supplied by US Africa Command AFRICOM Odyssey Lightning is in fact no outlieramp160 While the 8220primary named operations8221 involving America8217s elite forces in Africa have been redacted from the declassified secret files in TomDispatch8217s possession a November 2015 briefing by Bolduc obtained via a separate FOIA request reveals that his command was then involved in seven such operations on the continentamp160 These likely included at least some of the following Enduring FreedomHorn of Africa Octave Shield andor Juniper Garret all aimed at East Africa New Normal an effort to secure US embassies and assets around the continent Juniper Micron a USbacked French and African mission to stabilize Mali following a 2012 coup there by a UStrained officer and the chaos that followed Observant Compass the longrunning effort to decimate the Lord8217s Resistance Army which recently retired AFRICOM chief General David Rodriguez derided as expensive and strategically unimportant and Juniper Shield a wideranging effort formerly known as Operation Enduring FreedomTrans Sahara aimed at Algeria Burkina Faso Morocco Tunisia Chad Mali Mauritania Niger Nigeria and Senegalamp160 A 2015 briefing document by SOCAFRICA8217s parent unit US Special Operations Command SOCOM also lists an ongoing 8220gray zone8221 conflict in Uganda On any given day between 1500 and 1700 American special operators and support personnel are deployed somewhere on the continentamp160 Over the course of a year they conduct missions in more than 20 countriesamp160 According to Bolduc8217s November 2015 briefing Special Operations Command Africa carries out 78 separate 8220mission sets8221amp160 These include activities that range from enhancing 8220partner capability and capacity8221 to the sharing of intelligence Mission Creep Most of what Bolduc8217s troops do involves working alongside and mentoring local alliesamp160 SOCAFRICA8217s showcase effort for instance is Flintlock an annual training exercise in Northwest Africa involving elite American European and African forces which provides the command with a plethora of publicityamp160 More than 1700 military personnel from 30plus nations took part in Flintlock 2016amp160 Next year according to Bolduc the exercise is expected 8220to grow to include SOF from more countries as well as more interagency partners8221amp160 While the information has been redacted the SOCAFRICA strategic planning document 8212 produced in 2012 and scheduled to be fully declassified in 2037 8212 indicates the existence of one or more other training exercisesamp160 Bolduc recently mentioned two Silent Warrior and Epic Guardianamp160 In the past the command has also taken part in exercises like Silver Eagle 10 and Eastern Piper 12amp160 US Africa Command did not respond to requests for comment on these exercises or other questions related to this article Such exercises are however just a small part of the SOCAFRICA storyamp160 Joint Combined Exchange Training JCET missions are a larger oneamp160 Officially authorized to enable US special operators to 8220practice skills needed to conduct a variety of missions including foreign internal defense unconventional warfare and counterterrorism8221 JCETs actually serve as a backdoor method of expanding US military influence and contacts in Africa since they allow for 8220incidentaltraining benefits8221 to 8220accrue to the foreign friendly forces at no cost8221amp160 As a result JCETs play an important role in forging and sustaining military relationships across the continent amp160Just how many of these missions the US conducts in Africa is apparently unknown 8212 even to the military commands involvedamp160 As TomDispatch reported earlier this year according to SOCOM the US conducted 19 JCETs in 2012 20 in 2013 and 20 again in 2014amp160 AFRICOM however claims that there were nine JCETs in 2012 18 in 2013 and 26 in 2014 Whatever the true number JCETs are a crucial cog in the SOCAFRICA machineamp160 8220During a JCET exercise or training event a special forces unit might train a partner force in a particular tactical skill and can quickly ascertain if the training audience has adopted the capability8221 explained Brigadier General Bolduc 8220Trainers can objectively measure competency then exercise8230 that particular skill until it becomes a routine8221amp160 amp160 In addition SOCAFRICA also utilizes a confusing tangle of State Department and Pentagon programs and activities aimed at local allies that operate under a crazy quilt of funding schemes monikers and acronymsamp160 These include deployments of Mobile Training Teams Joint Planning Advisory Teams Joint Military Education Teams Civil Military Support Elements as well as Military Information Support Teams that engage in what once was called psychological operations or psyops 8212 that is programs designed to 8220inform and influence foreign target audiences as appropriately authorized8221 Special Operations Command Africa also utilizes an almost mindnumbing amp160panoply of 8220 security cooperation programs8221 and other training activities including Section 1207n also known as the Transitional Authorities for East Africa and Yemen which provides equipment training and other aid to the militaries of Djibouti Ethiopia Kenya and Yemen 8220to conduct counterterrorism operations against alQaeda alQaeda affiliates and alShabab8221 and 8220enhance the capacity of national military forces participating in the African Union Mission in Somalia8221 the Global Security Contingency Fund designed to enhance the 8220capabilities of a country8217s national military forces and other national security forces that conduct border and maritime security internal defense and counterterrorism operations8221 the Partnership for Regional East Africa Counterterrorism or PREACT designed to build counterterror capacities and foster military and law enforcement efforts in East African countries including Djibouti Ethiopia Kenya Somalia Tanzania and Uganda and among others the TransSahel Counterterrorism Partnership the Global Peace Operations Initiative the Special Operations to Combat Terrorism the Combatting Terrorism Fellowship and another known as CounterNarcotic Terrorism amp160 Like Africa8217s terror groups and Bolduc8217s special ops troops the almost 20 initiatives utilized by SOCAFRICA 8212 a sprawling mass of programs that overlie and intersect with each other 8212 have a borderbusting quality to themamp160 What they don8217t have is clear records of successamp160 A 2013 RAND Corporation analysis called such capacitybuilding programs 8220a tangled web with holes overlaps and confusions8221 A 2014 RAND study analyzing US security cooperation SC found that there 8220was no statistically significant correlation between SC and change in countries8217 fragility in Africa or the Middle East8221amp160 A 2016 RAND report on 8220defense institution building8221 in Africa noted a 8220poor understanding of partner interests8221 by the US military 8220We8217re supporting African military professionalization and capabilitybuilding efforts we8217re supporting development and governance via civil affairs and military information support operations teams8221 Bolduc insisted publicly 8220All programs must be useful to the partner nation not the foreign agenda and necessary to advance the partner nations8217 capabilities If they don8217t pass this simple test8230 we need to focus on programs that do meet the African partner nation8217s needs8221 The 2012 SOCAFRICA strategic planning document obtained by TomDispatch reveals however that Special Operations Command Africa8217s primary aim is not fostering African development governance or military professionalizationamp160 8220SOCAFRICA8217s foremost objective is the prevention of an attack against America or American interests8221 according to the declassified secret reportamp160 In other words a 8220foreign agenda8221 not the needs of African partner nations is what8217s driving the elite force8217s borderbusting missions American Aims vs African Needs Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw cautioned that because SOCAFRICA and AFRICOM have both changed commanders since the 2012 document was issued it was likely out of date amp1608220I recommend you contact SOCAFRICA8221 he advisedamp160 That command failed to respond to multiple requests for information or commentamp160 There are however no indications that it has actually altered its 8220foremost objective8221 while Bolduc8217s public comments suggest that the US military8217s engagement in the region is going strongamp160 8220Our partners and forward deployed US personnel recognize the arbitrary nature of borders and understand the only way to combat modernday threats like ISIS AQIM alQaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Boko Haram and myriad others is to leverage the capabilities of SOF professionals working in concert8221 said Bolducamp160 8220Borders may be notional and don8217t protect a country from the spread of violent extremism8230 but neither do oceans mountains8230 or distance8221 In reality however oceans and distance have kept most Americans safe from terrorist organizations like AQIM and Boko Haramamp160 The same cannot be said for those who live in the nations menaced by these groupsamp160 In Africa terrorist organizations and attacks have spiked alongside the increase in US Special Operations missions thereamp160 In 2006 the percentage of forwardstationed special operators on the continent hovered at 1 of total globally deployed SOF forcesamp160 By 2014 that number had hit 10 8212 a jump of 900 in less than a decadeamp160 During that same span according to information from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland terror incidents in Africa increased precipitously 8212 from just over 100 per year to nearly 2400 annuallyamp160 During the same period the number of transnational terrorist organizations and illicit groups operating on the continent jumped from one to according to Bolduc8217s reckoning nearly 50 Correlation may not equal causation but SOCAFRICA8217s efforts have coincided with significantly worsening terrorist violence and the growth and spread of terror groupsamp160 And it shouldn8217t be a surpriseamp160 While Bolduc publicly talks up the needs of African nations his borderbusting commandos operate under a distinctive Americafirst mandate and a mindset firmly in keeping with that of the incoming commanderinchiefamp160 8220My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security above all else It has to be first8221 Donald Trump said earlier this year in a major foreign policy speechamp160 Kicking off his victory tour earlier this month the presidentelect echoed this themeamp160 8220From now on it8217s going to be America first Okay America first We8217re going to put ourselves first8221 he told a crowd in Cincinnati Ohio In Africa the most elite troops soon to be under his command have in fact been operating this way for yearsamp160 8220We will prioritize and focus our operational efforts in those areas where the threats to United States interests are most grave8221 says the formerly secret SOCAFRICA document amp1608220Protecting America Americans and American interests is our overarching objective and must be reflected in everything we do8221 Nick Turse is the managing editor ofamp160 TomDispatchamp160a fellow at the Nation Institute and a contributing writer for The Intercept His bookamp1608220Tomorrow8217s Battlefield US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa8221amp160recently received anamp160 American Book Award His latest book isamp160 8220Next Time They8217ll Come to Count the Dead War and Survival in South Sudan8221amp160His website is NickTursecom Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook Check out the newest Dispatch Book Nick Turse8217samp160 8220Next Time They8217ll Come to Count the Dead8221 and Tom Engelhardt8217s latest book 8220Shadow Government Surveillance Secret Wars and a Global Security State in a SingleSuperpower World8221 Copyright 2016 Nick Turse | By/ADP Nick/PROPN Turse/PROPN TomDispatch/PROPN AlQaeda/PROPN doesn8217/PROPN t/NOUN care/NOUN about/ADP borders/NOUN Neither/CCONJ does/VERB the/DET Islamic/PROPN State/PROPN or/CCONJ Boko/PROPN Haram/PROPN Brigadier/PROPN General/PROPN Donald/PROPN Bolduc/PROPN thinks/VERB the/DET same/ADJ wayamp160/PROPN 8220Terrorists/NUM criminals/NOUN and/CCONJ nonstate/NOUN actors/NOUN aren8217/PROPN t/PROPN bound/VERB by/ADP arbitrary/ADJ borders8221/NOUN the/DET commander/NOUN of/ADP Special/PROPN Operations/PROPN Command/PROPN Africa/PROPN SOCAFRICA/PROPN told/VERB an/DET interviewer/NOUN early/ADV this/PRON fallamp160/NOUN 8220That/PROPN said/VERB 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<p>DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev - the first Russian official to suggest a possibility of a joint oil output deal with OPEC two years ago in Davos - said Moscow and Riyadh should be coordinating oil policies for many more years.</p> Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, smiles during the Reuters Russia Investment Summit in Moscow September 14, 2011. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov
<p>He also told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that Russia should embark on reforms such as cutting state presence in its economy after the presidential election in March, in which the current leader Vladimir Putin is widely anticipated to be re-elected.</p>
<p>Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Katya Golubkova</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - OPEC and Russia are working on a long-term deal to cooperate on oil supply curbs that could extend controls over world oil supplies by major exporters for many years to come.</p> Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman attends the Annual Horse Race ceremony, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, December 30, 2017. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS
<p>Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Reuters that Riyadh and Moscow were considering extending an alliance on oil curbs that began in January 2017 after oil prices crashed.</p>
<p>“We are working to shift from a year-to-year agreement to a 10-20 year agreement,” the crown prince told Reuters in interview in New York.”We have agreement on the big picture, but not yet on the detail.”&#160;</p> The Russian flag and the OPEC logo are seen before a news conference in Vienna, Austria, October 24, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
<p>Top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia recruited Russia and other producers to collaborate with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries when oil prices collapsed from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016.</p>
<p>Crude has recovered to $70 but fast-rising output from U.S. shale producers has capped prices.</p>
<p>Russia, never a member of OPEC, has worked alongside OPEC during previous oil gluts, dating back to 1990, but a 10-20 year deal between the two would be unprecedented.</p>
<p>The crown prince said a flotation of 5 percent of state Saudi oil company Aramco could take place at the end of 2018 or early 2019, depending on market conditions.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Stephen Adler; Editing by Frances Kerry</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>ULSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">005380.KS</a>) union chief warned its workers may face a similar crisis to the one hitting General Motors’ ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) South Korean unit as sales in key markets slide, adding that electric cars were ‘evil’ and will destroy jobs.</p> Ha Bu-young, Hyundai Motor's South Korean union chief speaks during an interview with Reuters in Ulsan, South Korea, March 23, 2018. Picture taken March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Hyunjoo Jin
<p>South Korea’s auto industry, known for its robust unions whose workers tend to be paid more and have better benefits than their compatriots in other sectors, has come to a crossroads.</p>
<p>Blaming high labor costs and falling sales, General Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GM.N" type="external">GM.N</a>) plans to close one of its plants in the country by May and is weighing options for its three other factories.</p>
<p>“We’re feeling job anxiety. We’re feeling a sense of crisis,” Ha Bu-young, the head of the Hyundai Motor union, South Korea’s biggest and most powerful union, told Reuters in an interview late last week.</p>
<p>He said that at three of Hyundai’s five plants in Ulsan, the world’s biggest car factory complex, some workers had been asked to take longer holidays as sales of sedans and older model SUVs like the Santa Fe slow in the United States and other markets.</p>
<p>Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=000270.KS" type="external">000270.KS</a>) were also hit by diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing last year, leading to a slump in sales in the world’s biggest auto market. The two automakers have flagged only modest global sales growth in 2018. &#160;</p>
<p>Longer term, Ha worries about the advent of electric cars, which when they go mainstream could wreak havoc on traditional auto jobs as they don’t require engines and transmissions.</p>
<p>Hyundai’s union has predicted a drastic shift into electric cars could lead to a loss of 70 percent of Hyundai jobs in a worst case scenario.</p>
<p>“Electric cars are disasters. They are evil. We are very nervous,” he said.</p>
<p>Ha said the union is studying how cars of the future might be built without slashing headcount and has proposed the automaker revive a committee to review the impact of new vehicles and new technology on jobs.</p>
<p>He also noted that some 30,000 workers out of 50,000 union members will retire in 15 years, which could cushion the impact that cars of the future could have on staffing levels.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">Hyundai Motor Co</a> 154000.0 005380.KS Korea Stock Exchange +4,500.00 (+3.01%) 005380.KS GM.N 000270.KS FREE TRIPS TO EUROPE
<p>At GM’s South Korean unit, the threat of potential plant closures has led its union to offer to freeze wages and skip bonuses while about 15 percent of its employees have applied for a voluntary redundancy package.</p>
<p>While there is a sense of crisis at Hyundai’s union, the situation is not that dire.</p>
<p>Hyundai’s management has proposed the scaling back of some benefits such as free week-long trips to Europe for 500 workers annually as well as support for some employees’ sporting events - a proposal that the union plans to oppose, a union official said.</p>
<p>But the union will for the first time seek pay raises for temporary workers this year that are higher than those of full-time auto workers, responding to criticism that regular auto works are generously paid.</p>
<p>It will ask for a 7.4 percent wage increase for temporary workers versus a 5.3 percent wage raise for regular workers, Ha said, in line with a policy advocated by the umbrella union for South Korea’s metal workers.</p>
<p>Last year Hyundai’s union initially demanded annual wage increases of 7 percent for its full-time workers and won a raise of less than 5 percent after tense negotiations that involved strikes.</p>
<p>The shift towards improving pay for non-full time workers could invite opposition within the union, said Ha, adding that he was trying to right old wrongs.</p>
<p>Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>FRANKFURT/ZURICH (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GSK.L" type="external">GSK.L</a>) is buying Novartis ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=NOVN.S" type="external">NOVN.S</a>) out of their consumer healthcare joint venture for $13 billion, taking full control of products including Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol headache tablets, muscle gel Voltaren, and Nicotinell patches.</p>
<p>GSK’s biggest move since Emma Walmsley became chief executive last year follows the British drugmaker’s decision last week to quit the race to buy Pfizer’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=PFE.N" type="external">PFE.N</a>) consumer healthcare business, endangering an auction the U.S. company hoped would bring in as much as $20 billion.</p>
<p>Consumer remedies sold over the counter have lower margins than prescription drugs, but they are typically well-known brands with customers.</p>
<p>“The proposed transaction addresses one of our key capital allocation priorities and will allow GSK shareholders to capture the full value of one of the world’s leading consumer healthcare businesses,” Walmsley said in a statement on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Although some pharmaceuticals groups have been keen to hold consumer care products, intense price competition online, mainly from Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>), as well as cheaper store-brand products, have led others to doubt their stable returns longer-term.</p>
<p>The British group’s shares jumped 6.1 percent, outperforming a 2 percent gain in the STOXX Europe 600 Health Care .SXDP.</p>
<p>GSK said that as well as ending the Novartis venture it would start a strategic review of Horlicks and other consumer nutrition products, sparking another potential industry shake-up. The review will include an assessment of its majority stake in India-listed GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GLSM.NS" type="external">GLSM.NS</a>).</p>
<p>“The decision not to pay up for Pfizer’s consumer assets will have led GSK CEO Emma Walmsley to remove uncertainty by bringing all the consumer revenues in-house and assisting toward efficient capital allocation,” said Ketan Patel, co-manager of the Amity UK Fund at EdenTree Investment Management, who holds GSK shares.</p>
<p>“Long-term investors will welcome the greater clarity this brings to both companies.”</p>
<p>GSK said that the purchase would boost adjusted earnings and cash flows.</p>
<p>Pfizer has been struggling to sell its consumer healthcare business after GSK and Reckitt Benckiser ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RB.L" type="external">RB.L</a>) both dropped out of the bidding, while differences in price expectations have also hobbled German drugmaker Merck KGaA’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MRCG.DE" type="external">MRCG.DE</a>) attempts to sell its consumer products unit.</p>
<p>And GSK’s call for bids for its consumer healthcare nutrition brands - with a regional focus on India - could detract attention from Merck’s asset, which relies heavily on sales of vitamins and dietary supplements in emerging markets.</p> Slideshow (2 Images) NOVARTIS SHARES RISE
<p>Barclays analysts said Glaxo was paying less than 17 times expected 2018 core earnings for the joint venture stake, while sources have told Reuters that both Merck and Pfizer had asked for up to 20 times for their respective assets.</p>
<p>Yet analysts at Baader Helvea welcomed the cash price fetched by Novartis as “excellent news” for the Swiss company, whose shares opened 1.9 percent higher.</p>
<p>Deutsche Bank analysts said the move decluttered Novartis’s portfolio, but cautioned that the Swiss group was being too vague about what it would do with the cash.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GSK.L" type="external">GlaxoSmithKline PLC</a> 1349.2 GSK.L London Stock Exchange +61.00 (+4.74%) GSK.L NOVN.S PFE.N AMZN.O GLSM.NS
<p>“The time&#160;is&#160;right for Novartis to divest&#160;a&#160;non-core asset at an&#160;attractive price,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said.</p>
<p>Novartis said the money would be used by Novartis to expand its business organically as well as for bolt-on acquisitions.</p>
<p>In an interview before the deal was announced, Narasimhan ruled out large acquisitions by the Basel-based company.</p>
<p>“We want to focus our M&amp;A efforts on bolt on acquisitions that have either new technologies or products that fit into our core therapeutic areas,” he told CNBC in an interview recorded on Sunday.</p>
<p>For Narasimhan, a Harvard trained medical doctor, the disposal is among his first moves as CEO, a role he took on less than two months ago when he replaced Joe Jimenez.</p>
<p>He is now emphasizing the use of technology to boost returns on research investment but Novartis is currently also reviewing its Alcon eye care unit for a possible spinoff to shareholders, which could come in early 2019.</p>
<p>Under the 2014 deal to pool their consumer assets, Novartis had the right so sell its 36.5 percent stake to Glaxo from this month. The transaction is set to complete in the second quarter, subject to necessary approvals.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-novartis-gsk-margins/gsk-says-very-confident-about-consumer-margin-goal-of-at-least-20-percent-idUSKBN1H317X" type="external">GSK says very confident about consumer margin goal of at least 20 percent</a>
<p>($1 = 0.7029 pounds)</p>
<p>additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London, Michael Shields in Zurich; editing by Alexander Smith and Louise Heavens</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly $300 million from its existing lenders, including some of the biggest U.S. banks, after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.</p>
<p>During that time, the company’s investment bank, Lazard Ltd ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">LAZ.N</a>), approached more than 30 possible lenders, according to court documents.</p>
<p>“The vast majority of lenders contacted, however, indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers,” said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers.</p>
<p>Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems, according to court records. Without the funds, Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value.</p>
<p>The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February.</p>
<p>Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures.</p>
<p>Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy, but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted, buyers were scarce.</p>
<p>The company’s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BAC.N" type="external">BAC.N</a>), Wells Fargo &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WFC.N" type="external">WFC.N</a>), JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=JPM.N" type="external">JPM.N</a>) and Deutsche Bank AG ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DBKGn.DE" type="external">DBKGn.DE</a>), according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing, which the company said will allow it to cancel $775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May.</p>
<p>Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=RF.N" type="external">RF.N</a>), BB&amp;T Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BBT.N" type="external">BBT.N</a>), Synovus Financial Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNV.N" type="external">SNV.N</a>) and Fifth Third Bancorp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FITB.O" type="external">FITB.O</a>) have also committed to help fund Remington’s bankruptcy loans, court documents show. An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments, another lender, is also providing funds.</p>
<p>Bank of America, Regions, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment.</p>
<p>BB&amp;T declined to comment on its lending relationships. The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders, who have a wide range of opinions.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a pro-gun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., January 19, 2013. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo
<p>“We’re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities,” the bank said.</p>
<p>The others, along with Remington, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand, according to court filings.</p>
<p>The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls. With the election of Donald Trump, who has said he strongly supports gun ownership, the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=LAZ.N" type="external">Lazard Ltd</a> 52.26 LAZ.N New York Stock Exchange -0.28 (-0.53%) LAZ.N BAC.N WFC.N JPM.N DBKGn.DE
<p>Remington, which said in January it was nearly out of cash, plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses, including payroll, during its bankruptcy filing.</p>
<p>Remington’s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Their identities were redacted in court documents.</p>
<p>The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans, saying that the sums are commercially sensitive, according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware.</p>
<p>The court records also showed that Remington’s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting.</p>
<p>The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=WMT.N" type="external">WMT.N</a>), Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=DKS.N" type="external">DKS.N</a>) and Kroger Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=KR.N" type="external">KR.N</a>).</p>
<p>Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation, including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of “dealer” under current gun laws. Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were re-enacted it would have an adverse effect on the business.</p>
<p>Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Russia's RDIF head says Russia-OPEC cooperation should last for years Exclusive: OPEC, Russia consider 10-20 year oil alliance - Saudi Crown Prince Hyundai union head fears GM-like crisis; says electric cars destroy jobs GSK buys out Novartis in $13 billion consumer healthcare shake-up U.S. banks provide rescue financing for gunmaker Remington | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-russia/russias-rdif-head-says-russia-opec-cooperation-should-last-for-years-idUSKBN1FC0M9 | 2018-01-23 | 2least
| 2,529 | DAVOS Switzerland Reuters The head of Russia8217s Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev the first Russian official to suggest a possibility of a joint oil output deal with OPEC two years ago in Davos said Moscow and Riyadh should be coordinating oil policies for many more years Kirill Dmitriev chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund smiles during the Reuters Russia Investment Summit in Moscow September 14 2011 REUTERSDenis Sinyakov He also told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that Russia should embark on reforms such as cutting state presence in its economy after the presidential election in March in which the current leader Vladimir Putin is widely anticipated to be reelected Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov editing by Katya Golubkova Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles NEW YORK Reuters OPEC and Russia are working on a longterm deal to cooperate on oil supply curbs that could extend controls over world oil supplies by major exporters for many years to come Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman attends the Annual Horse Race ceremony in Riyadh Saudi Arabia December 30 2017 Bandar AlgaloudCourtesy of Saudi Royal CourtHandout via REUTERS Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Reuters that Riyadh and Moscow were considering extending an alliance on oil curbs that began in January 2017 after oil prices crashed 8220We are working to shift from a yeartoyear agreement to a 1020 year agreement8221 the crown prince told Reuters in interview in New York8221We have agreement on the big picture but not yet on the detail8221amp160 The Russian flag and the OPEC logo are seen before a news conference in Vienna Austria October 24 2016 REUTERSLeonhard Foeger Top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia recruited Russia and other producers to collaborate with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries when oil prices collapsed from over 100 a barrel in 2014 to below 30 in 2016 Crude has recovered to 70 but fastrising output from US shale producers has capped prices Russia never a member of OPEC has worked alongside OPEC during previous oil gluts dating back to 1990 but a 1020 year deal between the two would be unprecedented The crown prince said a flotation of 5 percent of state Saudi oil company Aramco could take place at the end of 2018 or early 2019 depending on market conditions Additional reporting by Stephen Adler Editing by Frances Kerry Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles ULSAN South Korea Reuters Hyundai Motor8217s 005380KS union chief warned its workers may face a similar crisis to the one hitting General Motors8217 GMN South Korean unit as sales in key markets slide adding that electric cars were 8216evil8217 and will destroy jobs Ha Buyoung Hyundai Motors South Korean union chief speaks during an interview with Reuters in Ulsan South Korea March 23 2018 Picture taken March 23 2018 REUTERSHyunjoo Jin South Korea8217s auto industry known for its robust unions whose workers tend to be paid more and have better benefits than their compatriots in other sectors has come to a crossroads Blaming high labor costs and falling sales General Motors GMN plans to close one of its plants in the country by May and is weighing options for its three other factories 8220We8217re feeling job anxiety We8217re feeling a sense of crisis8221 Ha Buyoung the head of the Hyundai Motor union South Korea8217s biggest and most powerful union told Reuters in an interview late last week He said that at three of Hyundai8217s five plants in Ulsan the world8217s biggest car factory complex some workers had been asked to take longer holidays as sales of sedans and older model SUVs like the Santa Fe slow in the United States and other markets Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors 000270KS were also hit by diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing last year leading to a slump in sales in the world8217s biggest auto market The two automakers have flagged only modest global sales growth in 2018 amp160 Longer term Ha worries about the advent of electric cars which when they go mainstream could wreak havoc on traditional auto jobs as they don8217t require engines and transmissions Hyundai8217s union has predicted a drastic shift into electric cars could lead to a loss of 70 percent of Hyundai jobs in a worst case scenario 8220Electric cars are disasters They are evil We are very nervous8221 he said Ha said the union is studying how cars of the future might be built without slashing headcount and has proposed the automaker revive a committee to review the impact of new vehicles and new technology on jobs He also noted that some 30000 workers out of 50000 union members will retire in 15 years which could cushion the impact that cars of the future could have on staffing levels Hyundai Motor Co 1540000 005380KS Korea Stock Exchange 450000 301 005380KS GMN 000270KS FREE TRIPS TO EUROPE At GM8217s South Korean unit the threat of potential plant closures has led its union to offer to freeze wages and skip bonuses while about 15 percent of its employees have applied for a voluntary redundancy package While there is a sense of crisis at Hyundai8217s union the situation is not that dire Hyundai8217s management has proposed the scaling back of some benefits such as free weeklong trips to Europe for 500 workers annually as well as support for some employees8217 sporting events a proposal that the union plans to oppose a union official said But the union will for the first time seek pay raises for temporary workers this year that are higher than those of fulltime auto workers responding to criticism that regular auto works are generously paid It will ask for a 74 percent wage increase for temporary workers versus a 53 percent wage raise for regular workers Ha said in line with a policy advocated by the umbrella union for South Korea8217s metal workers Last year Hyundai8217s union initially demanded annual wage increases of 7 percent for its fulltime workers and won a raise of less than 5 percent after tense negotiations that involved strikes The shift towards improving pay for nonfull time workers could invite opposition within the union said Ha adding that he was trying to right old wrongs Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin Editing by Soyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles FRANKFURTZURICH Reuters GlaxoSmithKline GSKL is buying Novartis NOVNS out of their consumer healthcare joint venture for 13 billion taking full control of products including Sensodyne toothpaste Panadol headache tablets muscle gel Voltaren and Nicotinell patches GSK8217s biggest move since Emma Walmsley became chief executive last year follows the British drugmaker8217s decision last week to quit the race to buy Pfizer8217s PFEN consumer healthcare business endangering an auction the US company hoped would bring in as much as 20 billion Consumer remedies sold over the counter have lower margins than prescription drugs but they are typically wellknown brands with customers 8220The proposed transaction addresses one of our key capital allocation priorities and will allow GSK shareholders to capture the full value of one of the world8217s leading consumer healthcare businesses8221 Walmsley said in a statement on Tuesday Although some pharmaceuticals groups have been keen to hold consumer care products intense price competition online mainly from Amazon AMZNO as well as cheaper storebrand products have led others to doubt their stable returns longerterm The British group8217s shares jumped 61 percent outperforming a 2 percent gain in the STOXX Europe 600 Health Care SXDP GSK said that as well as ending the Novartis venture it would start a strategic review of Horlicks and other consumer nutrition products sparking another potential industry shakeup The review will include an assessment of its majority stake in Indialisted GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare GLSMNS 8220The decision not to pay up for Pfizer8217s consumer assets will have led GSK CEO Emma Walmsley to remove uncertainty by bringing all the consumer revenues inhouse and assisting toward efficient capital allocation8221 said Ketan Patel comanager of the Amity UK Fund at EdenTree Investment Management who holds GSK shares 8220Longterm investors will welcome the greater clarity this brings to both companies8221 GSK said that the purchase would boost adjusted earnings and cash flows Pfizer has been struggling to sell its consumer healthcare business after GSK and Reckitt Benckiser RBL both dropped out of the bidding while differences in price expectations have also hobbled German drugmaker Merck KGaA8217s MRCGDE attempts to sell its consumer products unit And GSK8217s call for bids for its consumer healthcare nutrition brands with a regional focus on India could detract attention from Merck8217s asset which relies heavily on sales of vitamins and dietary supplements in emerging markets Slideshow 2 Images NOVARTIS SHARES RISE Barclays analysts said Glaxo was paying less than 17 times expected 2018 core earnings for the joint venture stake while sources have told Reuters that both Merck and Pfizer had asked for up to 20 times for their respective assets Yet analysts at Baader Helvea welcomed the cash price fetched by Novartis as 8220excellent news8221 for the Swiss company whose shares opened 19 percent higher Deutsche Bank analysts said the move decluttered Novartis8217s portfolio but cautioned that the Swiss group was being too vague about what it would do with the cash GlaxoSmithKline PLC 13492 GSKL London Stock Exchange 6100 474 GSKL NOVNS PFEN AMZNO GLSMNS 8220The timeamp160isamp160right for Novartis to divestamp160aamp160noncore asset at anamp160attractive price8221 Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said Novartis said the money would be used by Novartis to expand its business organically as well as for bolton acquisitions In an interview before the deal was announced Narasimhan ruled out large acquisitions by the Baselbased company 8220We want to focus our MampampA efforts on bolt on acquisitions that have either new technologies or products that fit into our core therapeutic areas8221 he told CNBC in an interview recorded on Sunday For Narasimhan a Harvard trained medical doctor the disposal is among his first moves as CEO a role he took on less than two months ago when he replaced Joe Jimenez He is now emphasizing the use of technology to boost returns on research investment but Novartis is currently also reviewing its Alcon eye care unit for a possible spinoff to shareholders which could come in early 2019 Under the 2014 deal to pool their consumer assets Novartis had the right so sell its 365 percent stake to Glaxo from this month The transaction is set to complete in the second quarter subject to necessary approvals Related Coverage GSK says very confident about consumer margin goal of at least 20 percent 1 07029 pounds additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London Michael Shields in Zurich editing by Alexander Smith and Louise Heavens Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles Reuters US gunmaker Remington Outdoor Co has obtained commitments for nearly 300 million from its existing lenders including some of the biggest US banks after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy During that time the company8217s investment bank Lazard Ltd LAZN approached more than 30 possible lenders according to court documents 8220The vast majority of lenders contacted however indicated they were reluctant to provide financing to firearms manufacturers8221 said Lazard banker Ari Lefkovits in the papers Most of the banks providing the bankruptcy funding were lenders to Remington before its current financial problems according to court records Without the funds Remington may have been forced to go out of business and the banks could have seen their investment crash in value The company and its investors have been under heightened scrutiny after 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland Florida in February Remington filed for bankruptcy one day after hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to demand tighter gun control measures Banks often sell troubled loans to hedge funds when a borrower is heading into bankruptcy but one source told Reuters that even as the Remington loans were heavily discounted buyers were scarce The company8217s bankruptcy lenders include Bank of America Corp BACN Wells Fargo ampamp Co WFCN JPMorgan Chase ampamp Co JPMN and Deutsche Bank AG DBKGnDE according to court documents Remington disclosed the loan details in its Sunday bankruptcy filing which the company said will allow it to cancel 775 million of debt and bring it out of Chapter 11 as soon as May Smaller banks Regions Financial Corporation RFN BBampampT Corp BBTN Synovus Financial Corp SNVN and Fifth Third Bancorp FITBO have also committed to help fund Remington8217s bankruptcy loans court documents show An affiliate of investment manager Franklin Templeton Investments another lender is also providing funds Bank of America Regions Deutsche Bank JPMorgan and Synovus declined to comment BBampampT declined to comment on its lending relationships The bank said part of its consideration is to listen to its clients and stakeholders who have a wide range of opinions FILE PHOTO A man walks with his Remington 870 Express 12 gauge shotgun during a progun and Second Amendment protest outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix Arizona US January 19 2013 REUTERSJoshua LottFile Photo 8220We8217re deeply concerned with the increasing amount of gun violence in our schools and communities8221 the bank said The others along with Remington did not immediately respond to a request for comment The company ran into trouble after borrowing to ramp up production in 2016 in anticipation of greater industry demand according to court filings The expectation of higher sales was in part driven by fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency and tighter gun controls With the election of Donald Trump who has said he strongly supports gun ownership the firearms industry was stuck with a glut of weapons and higher levels of debt Lazard Ltd 5226 LAZN New York Stock Exchange 028 053 LAZN BACN WFCN JPMN DBKGnDE Remington which said in January it was nearly out of cash plans to tap the loans from the banks to help pay corporate expenses including payroll during its bankruptcy filing Remington8217s bondholders are also providing some of the bankruptcy loan and will receive a stake in the company when it exits bankruptcy Their identities were redacted in court documents The company also asked the court to seal the letters detailing the fees the lenders will earn from the loans saying that the sums are commercially sensitive according to filings in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington Delaware The court records also showed that Remington8217s business faces new hurdles in the wake of the Florida shooting The company cited a risk to its business from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers such Walmart Inc WMTN Dick8217s Sporting Goods Inc DKSN and Kroger Co KRN Walmart accounted for 11 percent of Remington sales in 2017 according to court documents Remington also said sales could be hurt by more government regulation including enhanced background checks and a broader definition of 8220dealer8221 under current gun laws Remington said if the 1994 federal assault weapons ban were reenacted it would have an adverse effect on the business Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington Delaware and Jessica DiNapoli in New York Our Standards The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles | DAVOS/VERB Switzerland/PROPN Reuters/PROPN The/DET head/NOUN of/ADP Russia8217s/PROPN Direct/PROPN Investment/PROPN Fund/PROPN Kirill/PROPN Dmitriev/PROPN the/DET first/ADJ Russian/ADJ official/NOUN to/PART suggest/VERB a/DET possibility/NOUN of/ADP a/DET joint/ADJ oil/NOUN output/NOUN deal/NOUN with/ADP 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<p>Marc Steiner is the host of the Marc Steiner Show, as well as president and founder of the Center of Emerging Media.&#160;http://www.steinershow.org/</p>
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<p /> MARC STEINER, RADIO HOST, WEAA 88.9 FM: Hello. I'm Marc Steiner. And welcome to The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, and on The Real News Network. And it's our pleasure today to talk with Emory Douglas, who was the minister of culture in the Black Panther Party, one of the world's noted artists and graphic designers, who joins us here in the studios in Baltimore. He's made another trip through town.
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<p />Good to have you with us, Emory. Welcome.
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<p />EMORY DOUGLAS, FMR. MINISTER OF CULTURE, BLACK PANTHER PARTY: Good to be here.
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<p />STEINER: How are you?
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<p />DOUGLAS: I'm doing fine.
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<p />STEINER: You're looking good. Good to have you here.
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<p />So I want to take a step backwards, because the--a couple of assumptions that I want to make. One assumption is that people even know who you are or who I am, so let's not make that assumption.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Okay.
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<p />STEINER: So I want to go backwards a bit. I mean, you were born in Michigan.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes.
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<p />STEINER: Way before the Panther--before you joined the Black Panther Party.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Oh, absolutely.
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<p />STEINER: So give us a little rundown of your life, 'cause he moved to the Bay Area with your family when you were just--.
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<p />DOUGLAS: In 1951.
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<p />STEINER: When you were a kid.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes, when I was a kid. And I moved to San Francisco because I had asthma as a child, and the doctor thought the weather would be better in California, and my mother had a sister who lived in San Francisco. And so that's why we came to California.
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<p />And when I grew up in San Francisco, particularly all over [incompr.] areas of San Francisco, I went to school there, high school, somewhat high school, but was incarcerated as a youngster.
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<p />STEINER: You went to juvenile prison, right?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah, but I always say that and other activity that I was involved in was because it was illegitimate activity that wasn't sanctioned by the state. Okay?
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<p />STEINER: Exactly.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah.
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<p />STEINER: Exactly.
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<p />So how old were you when you went to prison as a kid?
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<p />DOUGLAS: First when I was about 13, 14 years old, gambling with the older guys.
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<p />STEINER: Just, like, shooting dice or something on the corner.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah, shooting dice, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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<p />STEINER: And they busted you and put you in jail for that.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
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<p />STEINER: But then something happened. I mean, you were in prison for a while, and then a transition happened somehow in your life, where you went to college and started studying graphics and--.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah.
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<p />STEINER: What was that bridge like?
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<p />DOUGLAS: Well, in the process of being in the detention centers, youth detention centers, I used to like to draw. And I used to do a lot of abstract drawing, nothing that relevant to any type of figures or social issues per se. But when I decided to go to college, my mother, who was legally blind, ran the concession stand that was at the juvenile center, because these were concession stands that were run by the state, and they--for people who were handicapped. And so she used to run that particular concession stand.
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<p />STEINER: Your mom.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah.
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<p />STEINER: While you are inside.
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<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Yes. Yes. And so that's why I knew everybody who was ever in there, 'cause she knew everybody who'd come to visit folks and stuff.
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<p />And so what happened is that the counselor realized that I was going to college, and he told my mother. She made the suggestion I would take up art. When I went to take the--talk to the counselor at San Francisco City College, the counselor told me to take up commercial art, as opposed to fine arts or something like that. And when you take up commercial arts, you learn the figure drawing, you learn lettering, you know, all the prepress operations, design, all those elements that go into--filmmaking, all that; you get a basic understanding in all those things at that time.
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<p />And so it was--San Francisco City College was considered one of the best junior colleges for the arts. And they were always comparing their work to what was being done on a professional level and always competing with the four-year colleges, the art institutes, and what have you in relationship to the quality of work that was being done.
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<p />STEINER: So that's where you got involved in politics first? Is that what--.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Yeah. Well, first I got there, because when I went there, this was beginning of the black conscience movement, the black power movement, and you have young black African Americans all across the country beginning to find themselves--Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, SNCC--and [beginning] to change the names of the negro students associations to the black--
<p />
<p />STEINER: That's what you called it then.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: --yeah--to the black students associations. And so that was one of the first things that happened when I went to City College. I was involved with that there. And you were called a communist, everything else, simply because you wanted to define yourself and your organizational name and what have you.
<p />
<p />STEINER: But you weren't a Russian revolutionary yet.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: No, no. I was becoming more aware and more conscious, yes.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Right. So was it around that time that you also met--is that when you met Huey Newton and the rest of the team?
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Well, at first I got involved going up to San Francisco State, because it was about 15 minutes away and they used to have--all the black arts and cultural activity used to go on there, because they were the second black student union in the United States that was formed at that time.
<p />
<p />STEINER: At San Francisco State.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: At San Francisco State, yeah. And they used to have Amiri Baraka, Stokely; Sonia Sanchez was out there, Ed Bullins, all the playwrights and stuff were out there. And so I used to go out there for the cultural activity. And when they bought Amiri Baraka out there (then known as LeRoi Jones), I asked to do his props for the backdrops, simple backdrops.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Design them.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yeah, design them, yeah. And so he agreed. And so I was doing that in the black arts movement. And in the process of doing that, there was activists who were also out of state who knew of the artwork I was doing for the black arts movement--flyers and things of that nature. So they call this meeting and wanted me to come to the meeting in regards to bringing Malcolm X's widow to the Bay Area to honor her. And they wanted me to do the poster for that event.
<p />
<p />And so, when I went there, they were talking about some brothers coming from--possibly to do security to the next meeting.
<p />
<p />STEINER: And what year was this we're talking?
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: This was January 1967. This is about three months after the Black Panther Party has started, October 1966. And so that week when they came--next week they came over, that was Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and Little Bobby Hutton. And they came over and had agreed to do the security. It was after that meeting that I knew all along that's what I wanted to be a part of.
<p />
<p />STEINER: What was it that pulled you into [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Well, because of the high levels of frustrations, the police abuse rampant across the country, young black African-American men being murdered and brutalized. You had over 307 rebellions by that time across the country in the United States. So all this and the bigotry that you're confronted with and the whole bit was going on. So, therefore, respecting--had this amazing respect for Dr. King, but as young people, we always felt that they we want to do otherwise.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Right.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Push a little harder, be a little bit more militant, and--.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Yes.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Right.
<p />
<p />So I'm curious. This is a little digression. How did you not end up in Vietnam?
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Well, I never wanted to go to Vietnam, really.
<p />
<p />STEINER: I didn't either.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: And I never wanted to go to war. I used to listen to my uncles and I used to [incompr.] all of them talk how when they were in Germany and all the stuff that they had to go through while they were in the service. And so I never had wanted to really go into the service. I remember when I was--I was so bad as a youngster, prior to turning adult, that my mom [always said (?)] [incompr.] go in the service, get you some training. And I used to go to take the test, but I used to always fail it.
<p />
<p />STEINER: On purpose.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: On purpose. Then one time I went and I tried to fail it and I passed it, but I got a hardship because I told them I had a bad toe and the whole bit.
<p />
<p />STEINER: They believed you?
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Well. Yeah.
<p />
<p />STEINER: So here we are in 1967, and you're starting to align yourself with the Panthers and kind of enamored of their work. And this is very early in the beginning of the Panthers. It was a small group who were starting out. So what was your introduction that? 'Cause--again let me step back for a minute, 'cause I think a lot of people heard the name Black Panther. And, like, I don't want to make any assumptions here as well. They hear about the Black Panther Party. They may have heard Huey P. Newton's name, and they associate it with all kinds of things. But most people don't really understand what the Black Panther Party was, what the heart of it was, what drew the Emory Douglases of the world to the party, and what it meant at that moment in time, in '67 and '68.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Well, there was one because of--mentioned it previously--was regards to the police abuse. There was--young people were confronted with it across the country. It was one of the driving forces of a lot of people who were wanting to do something. And here you're seeing this organization of young people like yourself who are out there beginning to put together an organization that began to--people, seeing just on the superficial level of just the visual of them, became attracted to that organization and wanted to be a part of. That with myself was one of my guiding reasons for wanting to join, 'cause they believed in self-defense, which is a constitutional right--the Second Amendment of the Constitution gave me the right to bear arms. And they carried that out in a organized manner, a very disciplined and very organized manner. And that was the first phase of the Black Panther Party. But there's also the phase of dealing with the social programs, the political solidarity, the political aspect of the things that we were in, and international politics as well.
<p />
<p />STEINER: But the Panthers were--I mean, people see the Panthers as a revolutionary organization, not just kind of a civil rights pushing for change group. It was a revolutionary organization.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. It was basically [incompr.] human rights internationally.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Right.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Uh-huh.
<p />
<p />STEINER: And talk a bit about the insides. I know that everybody inside when they joined was not a Marxist, but Marxism played a role--
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Oh, absolutely.
<p />
<p />STEINER: --in what--the definition of that party and the people in it, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton and the rest.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Well, they were able to communicate in a way that--like, not speaking in a dogma way, but speaking in a way that even a child can understand it. So therefore it transcended better, because by leading by example, putting into practice what they were talking about, having the political education classes, and breaking it down to the cadres in the party made it [that] therefore people were able to communicate in a way that was relevant to the environment in which they came out of.
<p />
<p />STEINER: So, I mean, being in that, in the Black Panther Party at that moment--again, I just want to get a sense [of] the kind of the visceral, emotional kind of feel of the moment, because I think people don't realize what was going on, the sense of a revolution and why people felt solidarity here and across the globe, and especially inside the Black Panther Party, which was targeted. And many of your brothers and sisters were killed, I mean, not so much jailed, but murdered and mowed down by the police.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes.
<p />
<p />STEINER: So that's what you're in the middle of.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Yes. As we evolved, again, around '68, '69, yes. Lil' Bobby Hutton was the first Panther who was murdered, two days after Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. You had the murder of John Huggins and Alprentice Carter on the UCLA campus, January 1969. Then you go on to December, where on December 4 you had the murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago. Four days later, you have the 16-hour standoff and the five-hour shootout in L.A. So there was a concerted effort to destroy and discredit the Black Panther Party in its very infant stages of the organization, because it seemed the impact that it was beginning to have on young people across the country, African Americans--but it was transcending that. You had others who were beginning to become inspired by what we were about. You had Red Guard, which were Asian Americans, the I Wor Kuen, which were Asian American. You had the Young Lords, Puerto Ricans. And you had Young Patriots, who were in--
<p />
<p />STEINER: In Chicago.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: --in Chicago, yeah.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Right. Appalachian white kids.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Yes. Yes. And [incompr.] solidarity [incompr.] SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, opposed to the war in Vietnam. So here we are making these alliances and beginning to become a force. Even though we maybe be a speck of dust in the context of everything, we were a force in that context.
<p />
<p />STEINER: Emory Douglas, it has been a huge honor to see you once again in Baltimore.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: It's my pleasure to be here. I'm glad to be here.
<p />
<p />STEINER: And coming to The Real News studios here to do this for Real News and for The Marc Steiner Show. And we'll be linking to all the places they can see your artwork and even more.
<p />
<p />Former minister of culture for the Black Panther Party from the beginnings, almost, until the end of the party and has never stopped his work.
<p />
<p />Thank you so much, Emory Douglas, for coming by our studios.
<p />
<p />DOUGLAS: Oh, thank you. Glad to be here.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | The Life and Times of Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture in the Black Panther Party (1/3) | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D12658 | 2014-11-14 | 4left
| 2,529 | Marc Steiner is the host of the Marc Steiner Show as well as president and founder of the Center of Emerging Mediaamp160httpwwwsteinershoworg MARC STEINER RADIO HOST WEAA 889 FM Hello Im Marc Steiner And welcome to The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA 889 FM The Voice of the Community and on The Real News Network And its our pleasure today to talk with Emory Douglas who was the minister of culture in the Black Panther Party one of the worlds noted artists and graphic designers who joins us here in the studios in Baltimore Hes made another trip through town Good to have you with us Emory Welcome EMORY DOUGLAS FMR MINISTER OF CULTURE BLACK PANTHER PARTY Good to be here STEINER How are you DOUGLAS Im doing fine STEINER Youre looking good Good to have you here So I want to take a step backwards because thea couple of assumptions that I want to make One assumption is that people even know who you are or who I am so lets not make that assumption DOUGLAS Okay STEINER So I want to go backwards a bit I mean you were born in Michigan DOUGLAS Yes STEINER Way before the Pantherbefore you joined the Black Panther Party DOUGLAS Oh absolutely STEINER So give us a little rundown of your life cause he moved to the Bay Area with your family when you were just DOUGLAS In 1951 STEINER When you were a kid DOUGLAS Yes when I was a kid And I moved to San Francisco because I had asthma as a child and the doctor thought the weather would be better in California and my mother had a sister who lived in San Francisco And so thats why we came to California And when I grew up in San Francisco particularly all over incompr areas of San Francisco I went to school there high school somewhat high school but was incarcerated as a youngster STEINER You went to juvenile prison right DOUGLAS Yeah but I always say that and other activity that I was involved in was because it was illegitimate activity that wasnt sanctioned by the state Okay STEINER Exactly DOUGLAS Yeah STEINER Exactly So how old were you when you went to prison as a kid DOUGLAS First when I was about 13 14 years old gambling with the older guys STEINER Just like shooting dice or something on the corner DOUGLAS Yeah shooting dice yeah yeah yeah yeah STEINER And they busted you and put you in jail for that DOUGLAS Oh yeah yeah Yeah STEINER But then something happened I mean you were in prison for a while and then a transition happened somehow in your life where you went to college and started studying graphics and DOUGLAS Yeah STEINER What was that bridge like DOUGLAS Well in the process of being in the detention centers youth detention centers I used to like to draw And I used to do a lot of abstract drawing nothing that relevant to any type of figures or social issues per se But when I decided to go to college my mother who was legally blind ran the concession stand that was at the juvenile center because these were concession stands that were run by the state and theyfor people who were handicapped And so she used to run that particular concession stand STEINER Your mom DOUGLAS Yeah STEINER While you are inside DOUGLAS Yes Yes Yes And so thats why I knew everybody who was ever in there cause she knew everybody whod come to visit folks and stuff And so what happened is that the counselor realized that I was going to college and he told my mother She made the suggestion I would take up art When I went to take thetalk to the counselor at San Francisco City College the counselor told me to take up commercial art as opposed to fine arts or something like that And when you take up commercial arts you learn the figure drawing you learn lettering you know all the prepress operations design all those elements that go intofilmmaking all that you get a basic understanding in all those things at that time And so it wasSan Francisco City College was considered one of the best junior colleges for the arts And they were always comparing their work to what was being done on a professional level and always competing with the fouryear colleges the art institutes and what have you in relationship to the quality of work that was being done STEINER So thats where you got involved in politics first Is that what DOUGLAS Yes Yeah Well first I got there because when I went there this was beginning of the black conscience movement the black power movement and you have young black African Americans all across the country beginning to find themselvesStokely Carmichael H Rap Brown SNCCand beginning to change the names of the negro students associations to the black STEINER Thats what you called it then DOUGLAS yeahto the black students associations And so that was one of the first things that happened when I went to City College I was involved with that there And you were called a communist everything else simply because you wanted to define yourself and your organizational name and what have you STEINER But you werent a Russian revolutionary yet DOUGLAS No no I was becoming more aware and more conscious yes STEINER Right So was it around that time that you also metis that when you met Huey Newton and the rest of the team DOUGLAS Well at first I got involved going up to San Francisco State because it was about 15 minutes away and they used to haveall the black arts and cultural activity used to go on there because they were the second black student union in the United States that was formed at that time STEINER At San Francisco State DOUGLAS At San Francisco State yeah And they used to have Amiri Baraka Stokely Sonia Sanchez was out there Ed Bullins all the playwrights and stuff were out there And so I used to go out there for the cultural activity And when they bought Amiri Baraka out there then known as LeRoi Jones I asked to do his props for the backdrops simple backdrops STEINER Design them DOUGLAS Yeah design them yeah And so he agreed And so I was doing that in the black arts movement And in the process of doing that there was activists who were also out of state who knew of the artwork I was doing for the black arts movementflyers and things of that nature So they call this meeting and wanted me to come to the meeting in regards to bringing Malcolm Xs widow to the Bay Area to honor her And they wanted me to do the poster for that event And so when I went there they were talking about some brothers coming frompossibly to do security to the next meeting STEINER And what year was this were talking DOUGLAS This was January 1967 This is about three months after the Black Panther Party has started October 1966 And so that week when they camenext week they came over that was Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and Little Bobby Hutton And they came over and had agreed to do the security It was after that meeting that I knew all along thats what I wanted to be a part of STEINER What was it that pulled you into crosstalk DOUGLAS Well because of the high levels of frustrations the police abuse rampant across the country young black AfricanAmerican men being murdered and brutalized You had over 307 rebellions by that time across the country in the United States So all this and the bigotry that youre confronted with and the whole bit was going on So therefore respectinghad this amazing respect for Dr King but as young people we always felt that they we want to do otherwise STEINER Right DOUGLAS Yes STEINER Push a little harder be a little bit more militant and DOUGLAS Yes Yes STEINER Right So Im curious This is a little digression How did you not end up in Vietnam DOUGLAS Well I never wanted to go to Vietnam really STEINER I didnt either DOUGLAS And I never wanted to go to war I used to listen to my uncles and I used to incompr all of them talk how when they were in Germany and all the stuff that they had to go through while they were in the service And so I never had wanted to really go into the service I remember when I wasI was so bad as a youngster prior to turning adult that my mom always said incompr go in the service get you some training And I used to go to take the test but I used to always fail it STEINER On purpose DOUGLAS On purpose Then one time I went and I tried to fail it and I passed it but I got a hardship because I told them I had a bad toe and the whole bit STEINER They believed you DOUGLAS Well Yeah STEINER So here we are in 1967 and youre starting to align yourself with the Panthers and kind of enamored of their work And this is very early in the beginning of the Panthers It was a small group who were starting out So what was your introduction that Causeagain let me step back for a minute cause I think a lot of people heard the name Black Panther And like I dont want to make any assumptions here as well They hear about the Black Panther Party They may have heard Huey P Newtons name and they associate it with all kinds of things But most people dont really understand what the Black Panther Party was what the heart of it was what drew the Emory Douglases of the world to the party and what it meant at that moment in time in 67 and 68 DOUGLAS Yes Well there was one because ofmentioned it previouslywas regards to the police abuse There wasyoung people were confronted with it across the country It was one of the driving forces of a lot of people who were wanting to do something And here youre seeing this organization of young people like yourself who are out there beginning to put together an organization that began topeople seeing just on the superficial level of just the visual of them became attracted to that organization and wanted to be a part of That with myself was one of my guiding reasons for wanting to join cause they believed in selfdefense which is a constitutional rightthe Second Amendment of the Constitution gave me the right to bear arms And they carried that out in a organized manner a very disciplined and very organized manner And that was the first phase of the Black Panther Party But theres also the phase of dealing with the social programs the political solidarity the political aspect of the things that we were in and international politics as well STEINER But the Panthers wereI mean people see the Panthers as a revolutionary organization not just kind of a civil rights pushing for change group It was a revolutionary organization DOUGLAS Yes It was basically incompr human rights internationally STEINER Right DOUGLAS Yes Uhhuh STEINER And talk a bit about the insides I know that everybody inside when they joined was not a Marxist but Marxism played a role DOUGLAS Oh absolutely STEINER in whatthe definition of that party and the people in it Bobby Seale and Huey Newton and the rest DOUGLAS Yes Well they were able to communicate in a way thatlike not speaking in a dogma way but speaking in a way that even a child can understand it So therefore it transcended better because by leading by example putting into practice what they were talking about having the political education classes and breaking it down to the cadres in the party made it that therefore people were able to communicate in a way that was relevant to the environment in which they came out of STEINER So I mean being in that in the Black Panther Party at that momentagain I just want to get a sense of the kind of the visceral emotional kind of feel of the moment because I think people dont realize what was going on the sense of a revolution and why people felt solidarity here and across the globe and especially inside the Black Panther Party which was targeted And many of your brothers and sisters were killed I mean not so much jailed but murdered and mowed down by the police DOUGLAS Yes STEINER So thats what youre in the middle of DOUGLAS Yes Yes As we evolved again around 68 69 yes Lil Bobby Hutton was the first Panther who was murdered two days after Dr King was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee You had the murder of John Huggins and Alprentice Carter on the UCLA campus January 1969 Then you go on to December where on December 4 you had the murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago Four days later you have the 16hour standoff and the fivehour shootout in LA So there was a concerted effort to destroy and discredit the Black Panther Party in its very infant stages of the organization because it seemed the impact that it was beginning to have on young people across the country African Americansbut it was transcending that You had others who were beginning to become inspired by what we were about You had Red Guard which were Asian Americans the I Wor Kuen which were Asian American You had the Young Lords Puerto Ricans And you had Young Patriots who were in STEINER In Chicago DOUGLAS in Chicago yeah STEINER Right Appalachian white kids DOUGLAS Yes Yes And incompr solidarity incompr SDS Students for a Democratic Society opposed to the war in Vietnam So here we are making these alliances and beginning to become a force Even though we maybe be a speck of dust in the context of everything we were a force in that context STEINER Emory Douglas it has been a huge honor to see you once again in Baltimore DOUGLAS Its my pleasure to be here Im glad to be here STEINER And coming to The Real News studios here to do this for Real News and for The Marc Steiner Show And well be linking to all the places they can see your artwork and even more Former minister of culture for the Black Panther Party from the beginnings almost until the end of the party and has never stopped his work Thank you so much Emory Douglas for coming by our studios DOUGLAS Oh thank you Glad to be here End DISCLAIMER Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy | Marc/PROPN Steiner/PROPN is/AUX the/DET host/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Marc/PROPN Steiner/PROPN Show/PROPN as/ADV well/ADV as/ADP president/NOUN and/CCONJ founder/NOUN of/ADP the/DET Center/PROPN of/ADP Emerging/PROPN Mediaamp160httpwwwsteinershoworg/NOUN MARC/PROPN STEINER/PROPN RADIO/PROPN HOST/NOUN WEAA/NOUN 889/NUM 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<p>President Obama exaggerates the potential benefits of his ambitious plan for universal preschool, as he first outlined in the State of the Union and repeated elsewhere since then:</p>
<p>In both cases, Obama is extrapolating the results of small, expensive programs and applying them to universal state programs.</p>
<p>Academics who have studied preschool programs say it is too soon to know the long-term results of statewide universal programs, but evidence suggests Obama’s plan to include all 4-year-old kids — including those from middle-income families — would not see nearly as dramatic results. For example, a study of the Georgia program — which Obama touts as an example of cost-effective universal preschool — found that “disadvantaged children residing in small towns and rural areas” benefited the most. But, the study’s author tells us, “We just haven’t seen the same types of gains for all kids when programs become available more broadly.”</p>
<p>It also remains to be seen exactly how universal Obama’s proposal will end up being.</p>
<p>According to the details of his plan released by the White House, Obama “is proposing a new federal-state partnership to provide all low- and moderate-income four-year old children [those from families at or below 200 percent of poverty level] with high-quality preschool, while also expanding these programs to reach additional children from middle class families.” However, it continues to tout “preschool for all.” The full extent of Obama’s plan may not become apparent until he releases a proposed budget in mid-March.</p>
<p>In his <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/02/12/Transcript-of-Obama-SOTU/UPI-47101360721778/?spt=hs&amp;or=tn" type="external">State of the Union address</a>, President Obama unveiled a bold plan to make preschool available to all 4-year-old children.</p>
<p>Obama, Feb. 12: You know, study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than three in ten 4-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>So, tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America.</p>
<p>That’s something we should be able to do.</p>
<p>Every dollar we invest in high-quality early childhood education can save more than seven dollars later on, by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children — like Georgia or Oklahoma — studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own. We know this works. So let’s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.</p>
<p>Two days later, Obama gave <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/14/remarks-president-early-childhood-education-decatur-ga" type="external">a speech</a> on early childhood education at the Decatur Community Recreation Center in Georgia, again proposing to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America.” And he again touted its benefits.</p>
<p>Obama, Feb. 14: Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for the poor children who need it the most, the lack of access to a great preschool education can have an impact on their entire lives. And we all pay a price for that. And as I said, this is not speculation. Study after study shows the achievement gap starts off very young. Kids who, when they go into kindergarten, their first day, if they already have a lot fewer vocabulary words, they don’t know their numbers and their shapes and have the capacity for focus, they’re going to be behind that first day. And it’s very hard for them to catch up over time. …</p>
<p>Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on — boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, reducing violent crime. In states like Georgia that have made it a priority to educate our youngest children, states like Oklahoma, students don’t just show up in kindergarten and first grade more prepared to learn, they’re also more likely to grow up reading and doing math at grade level, graduating from high school, holding a job, even forming more stable families.</p>
<p>Hope is found in what works. This works. We know it works. If you are looking for a good bang for your educational buck, this is it right here.</p>
<p>At our request, the White House sent along a handful of studies to back up the president’s claims.</p>
<p>In regard to Obama’s claims about a cost-to-benefit ratio of 1-to-7, the White House pointed specifically to <a href="http://heckman.uchicago.edu/sites/heckman.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Heckman_etal_2010_RateofRtn-to-Perry.pdf" type="external">a study</a>led by James J. Heckman at the University of Chicago of the Perry Preschool Program in Ypsilanti, Mich., that concluded “each dollar invested returns in present value terms 7 to 12 dollars back to society.”</p>
<p>The Perry program targeted disadvantaged African-American youth in the early 1960s, and academics tracked the progress of 123 students — including a control group that did not get into the program — through age 40. The two-year program cost about $19,000 per student in today’s dollars, and included in-home visits (participants had to have stay-at-home mothers).</p>
<p>That’s far different than any universal preschool program currently run by any state.</p>
<p>Most state programs cost around <a href="http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11722.pdf" type="external">$6,100 per student</a>, and are one-year programs (such as the president talked about in his State of the Union address). In addition, the results in Perry are for “disadvantaged students.” Other studies suggest the benefits that accrue to middle-income students are far less dramatic.</p>
<p>We reached out to Heckman’s office, which referred our questions to Rich Neimand, president of the <a href="http://www.neimandcollaborative.com/theteam.html" type="external">Neimand Collaborative</a>. Neimand said “high-quality” preschool “is directly linked to adult outcomes” and all students can benefit from it. But, he added, “disadvantaged children are least likely to receive it,” and “if funds are limited then the priority should be placed on disadvantaged children because it provides the greatest economic return.”</p>
<p>We asked if it was fair to extend the results observed from the Perry program to that of universal preschool, which Obama did without saying that’s what he’d done. Neimand responded via email: “To the best of our knowledge, there has been no evidence-based scientific research on the value of universal pre-school. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that universal has no value.”</p>
<p>There are disagreements in academia about the long-term effects of preschool programs. The biggest effort, the Head Start program — which provides a comprehensive approach including preschool, health care, nutrition and parent outreach —&#160; has shown “initial positive impacts,” according to <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/head_start_report.pdf" type="external">a study</a> done for the Obama administration last year. But, the study said that “by the end of 3rd grade there were very few impacts found for either cohort in any of the four domains of cognitive, social-emotional, health and parenting practices.”</p>
<p>And the studies cited by the White House — which you can view <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/head_start_report.pdf" type="external">here</a>, <a href="http://jenni.uchicago.edu/human-inequality/papers/Heckman_final_all_wp_2007-03-22c_jsb.pdf" type="external">here</a>, <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6040/360" type="external">here</a> and <a href="http://www.highscope.org/Content.asp?ContentId=219" type="external">here</a> — were either studies of programs that targeted low-income disadvantaged students, or concluded that the positive effects are largest for disadvantaged students.</p>
<p>Georgia and Oklahoma</p>
<p>Obama also overreached when he linked the programs in Georgia and Oklahoma to studies that “show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own.” The oldest students in the Georgia program are now just 20 years old, and the Oklahoma students are even younger. So Obama isn’t talking about them, when he cites the ability to “hold a job” and “form more stable families of their own.”</p>
<p>Studies of the Georgia program have shown promising academic results, especially in the few years after preschool, and particularly for disadvantaged students.</p>
<p>In 2008, <a href="http://www.human.cornell.edu/bio.cfm?netid=mdf98" type="external">Maria Donovan Fitzpatrick</a>, then a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University, did a <a href="http://www-siepr.stanford.edu/Papers/pdf/08-05.pdf" type="external">research paper</a> looking at&#160; the program in Georgia, the first state, as Obama said, to offer universal preschool. She concluded that while the economic benefits for disadvantaged children were clear, they were less so for middle-income kids.</p>
<p>Fitzpatrick, 2008: For disadvantaged children residing in small towns and rural areas, Universal Pre-K availability increases both reading and mathematics test scores at fourth grade as well as the probability of students being on-grade for their age. Increases in some measures of achievement also were seen among other groups, though the patterns were less uniform across outcome measures.</p>
<p>One of the key qualifiers is that the best results were seen for “disadvantaged children residing in small towns and rural areas.” The same level of results were not achieved by middle-income students, for example.</p>
<p>In fact, Fitzpatrick concluded:</p>
<p>Fitzpatrick, 2008: The costs of the program today ($302 million in 2007-2008) greatly outweigh the benefits in terms of potential increased taxable revenue. This is a very simple cost benefit analysis and should therefore be interpreted with caution. However, it is at least suggestive that the government’s scarce resources would be better spent on more targeted early childhood interventions that have been shown to be more cost efficient, particularly if the goal is to increase wages through test scores.</p>
<p>“We just haven’t seen the same types of gains for all kids when programs become available more broadly,” said Fitzpatrick in a phone interview with FactCheck.org. “We don’t really know what the returns are yet from a universal program.”</p>
<p>If there are limited resources, and in government that is always the case, the question is whether it would make more sense to invest a smaller amount of money per student for a mediocre program for all students or a larger amount of money for a more targeted program, said Fitzpatrick, now an assistant professor at Cornell University. The evidence seems to support the latter, she said.</p>
<p>Most of the claims about the benefits of preschool are based on research on the <a href="http://www.highscope.org/content.asp?contentid=219" type="external">Perry preschool program</a> and the <a href="http://projects.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/#intervention" type="external">Carolina Abecedarian Project</a> in Chapel Hill, N.C, which also targeted children from low-income families.</p>
<p>But those were costly programs. According to a Perry program report, the program cost <a href="http://www.highscope.org/file/Research/PerryProject/Perry-SRCD_2003.pdf" type="external">$14,716 per student</a> in 2001 dollars, which now adjusted for inflation would be just over $19,000. And the Abecedarian program was even more expensive: <a href="http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11722.pdf" type="external">about $90,000 per child</a> in 2010 dollars, or nearly $95,000 today.</p>
<p>By comparison, the Georgia program currently costs about $4,000 to $5,000 per student, Fitzgerald said, and is in line with what other states are paying for preschool.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brown-center-chalkboard/posts/2013/01/23-prek-whitehurst" type="external">a story on preschool written last month</a>, Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, argued against just the kind of comparisons that Obama made.</p>
<p>“In my view, generalizations to state pre-K programs from research findings on Perry and Abecedarian are prodigious leaps of faith,” wrote <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/whitehurstg" type="external">Whitehurst</a>, a former education official under George W. Bush.</p>
<p>For starters, he said, the two programs were multiyear programs, whereas the state programs are one-year programs for 4-year-olds. The cost of those programs was much higher than any current state program, he added. And the two programs were “run by very experienced, committed teams, whereas widely deployed present day preschool programs are, well, widely deployed.”</p>
<p>It’s relevant to talk about the results of the Perry program, as long as you note that’s what you’re talking about, Whitehurst told us in a phone interview. Whitehurst said Obama was “at best misleading” when using the results from studies of those small programs in the same sentence as the universal programs in Oklahoma and Georgia.</p>
<p>“Not only is that an unjustified reference,” Whitehurst said, “it’s also contradicted by what little research we have.”</p>
<p>By and large, he said, “middle-income kids are already prepared for kindergarten. … The impact is always greatest for kids who are farthest behind.”</p>
<p>That’s why a program targeted to kids from low-income families may make economic sense, while a universal program may not, Whitehurst said.</p>
<p>Interestingly, while Obama proposed preschool for all and talked about the burden of preschool costs on middle-class families, the details of the proposal unveiled by the White House in <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/13/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-plan-early-education-all-americans" type="external">a fact sheet</a>on Feb. 13 suggest the federal focus is primarily on children from low-income families.</p>
<p>According to the plan, Obama is proposing “a cost sharing partnership with all 50 states, to extend federal funds to expand high-quality public preschool to reach all low- and moderate-income four-year olds from families at or below 200 percent of poverty.”</p>
<p>Dollars would be allocated based on states’ “share of four-year olds from low- and moderate-income families.” In addition, the proposal includes “an incentive for states to broaden participation in their public preschool program for additional middle-class families,” which states may decide to offer as a “sliding-scale arrangement.” The full extent of Obama’s financial commitment to the plan won’t be known until he unveils his proposed budget, which is <a href="http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130211/AGENCY01/302110001/2014-budget-released-mid-March-memo-says" type="external">expected to be released</a> in mid-March.</p>
<p>So, in fact, the president’s plan does seem to target dollars to reach disadvantaged, low-income students. But in his State of the Union address, Obama exaggerated the effects of universal preschool by comparing results from small, expensive programs targeted to disadvantaged youth to a universal program for which such results are unproven.</p>
<p>— by Robert Farley</p>
<p>Transcript of <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/02/12/Transcript-of-Obama-SOTU/UPI-47101360721778/?spt=hs&amp;or=tn" type="external">Obama’s State of the Union Address</a>. UPI.com. 12 Feb 2013.</p>
<p>White House Website. <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/14/remarks-president-early-childhood-education-decatur-ga" type="external">Remarks by the President on Early Childhood Education — Decatur, GA</a>. 14 Feb 2013.</p>
<p>Heckman, James J.; Moon, Seong Hyeok Moon; Pinto, Rodrigo; Savelyev, Peter A.; and Yavitz, Adam. “ <a href="http://heckman.uchicago.edu/sites/heckman.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Heckman_etal_2010_RateofRtn-to-Perry.pdf" type="external">The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program</a>.” Journal of Public Economics. 18 Nov 2009.</p>
<p>Levine, Phillip B. and Zimmerman, David J.” <a href="http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11722.pdf" type="external">Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty When Resources are Limited</a>.” National Bureau of Economic Research. Aug 2010.</p>
<p>Puma, Michael, Bell, Stephen, Cook, Ronna, Camilla Heid, Camilla, Broene, Pam, Jenkins, Frank, Andrew Mashburn, Andrew and Downer, Jason. <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/head_start_report.pdf" type="external">Third Grade Follow-up to the Head Start Impact Study, Final Report</a>. For the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Oct 2012.</p>
<p>Heckman, James J. and Masterov, Dimitriy V. “ <a href="http://jenni.uchicago.edu/human-inequality/papers/Heckman_final_all_wp_2007-03-22c_jsb.pdf" type="external">The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children</a>.” 22 Mar 2007.</p>
<p>Reynolds, Arthur J., Temple, Judy A., Ou, Suh-Ruu, Arteaga, Irma A. and White, Barry A. “ <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6040/360" type="external">School-Based Early Childhood Education and Age-28 Well-Being: Effects by Timing, Dosage, and Subgroups</a>.” Science. 15 Jul 2011.</p>
<p>Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W. S., Belfield, C. R., and Nores, M. “ <a href="http://www.highscope.org/Content.asp?ContentId=219" type="external">Lifetime effects: The HighScope Perry Preschool study through age 40</a>.” HighScope Educational Research Foundation. 2005.</p>
<p>Fitzpatrick, Maria Donovan. “ <a href="http://www-siepr.stanford.edu/Papers/pdf/08-05.pdf" type="external">Starting School at Four: The Effect of Universal Pre-Kindergarten on Children’s Academic Achievement</a>.” Stanford University. December 2008.</p>
<p><a href="http://projects.fpg.unc.edu/~abc/#intervention" type="external">The Carolina Abecedarian Project</a>. University of North Carolina.</p>
<p>Schweinhart, Lawrence J. “ <a href="http://www.highscope.org/file/Research/PerryProject/Perry-SRCD_2003.pdf" type="external">Benefits, Costs, and Explanation of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program</a>.” High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. 26 Apr 2003.</p>
<p>Whitehurst, Grover J. “Russ.” “ <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brown-center-chalkboard/posts/2013/01/23-prek-whitehurst" type="external">Can We Be Hard-Headed About Preschool? A Look at Universal and Targeted Pre-K</a>.” The Brown Center Chalkboard. Brookings Institution. 23 Jan 2013.</p>
<p>White House Website. “ <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/13/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-plan-early-education-all-americans" type="external">Fact Sheet President Obama’s Plan for Early Education for all Americans</a>.” 13 Feb 2013.</p>
<p>Reilly, Sean. “ <a href="http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130211/AGENCY01/302110001/2014-budget-released-mid-March-memo-says" type="external">2014 budget to be released in mid-March, memo says</a>.” Federal Times. 11 Feb 2013.</p> | Obama’s Preschool Stretch | false | https://factcheck.org/2013/02/obamas-preschool-stretch/ | 2013-02-20 | 2least
| 2,529 | President Obama exaggerates the potential benefits of his ambitious plan for universal preschool as he first outlined in the State of the Union and repeated elsewhere since then In both cases Obama is extrapolating the results of small expensive programs and applying them to universal state programs Academics who have studied preschool programs say it is too soon to know the longterm results of statewide universal programs but evidence suggests Obama8217s plan to include all 4yearold kids 8212 including those from middleincome families 8212 would not see nearly as dramatic results For example a study of the Georgia program 8212 which Obama touts as an example of costeffective universal preschool 8212 found that 8220disadvantaged children residing in small towns and rural areas8221 benefited the most But the study8217s author tells us 8220We just haven8217t seen the same types of gains for all kids when programs become available more broadly8221 It also remains to be seen exactly how universal Obama8217s proposal will end up being According to the details of his plan released by the White House Obama 8220is proposing a new federalstate partnership to provide all low and moderateincome fouryear old children those from families at or below 200 percent of poverty level with highquality preschool while also expanding these programs to reach additional children from middle class families8221 However it continues to tout 8220preschool for all8221 The full extent of Obama8217s plan may not become apparent until he releases a proposed budget in midMarch In his State of the Union address President Obama unveiled a bold plan to make preschool available to all 4yearold children Obama Feb 12 You know study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning the better he or she does down the road But today fewer than three in ten 4yearolds are enrolled in a highquality preschool program Most middleclass parents can8217t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool And for poor kids who need help the most this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives So tonight I propose working with states to make highquality preschool available to every single child in America That8217s something we should be able to do Every dollar we invest in highquality early childhood education can save more than seven dollars later on by boosting graduation rates reducing teen pregnancy even reducing violent crime In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children 8212 like Georgia or Oklahoma 8212 studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level graduate high school hold a job form more stable families of their own We know this works So let8217s do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind Let8217s give our kids that chance Two days later Obama gave a speech on early childhood education at the Decatur Community Recreation Center in Georgia again proposing to 8220make highquality preschool available to every child in America8221 And he again touted its benefits Obama Feb 14 Most middleclass parents can8217t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool And for the poor children who need it the most the lack of access to a great preschool education can have an impact on their entire lives And we all pay a price for that And as I said this is not speculation Study after study shows the achievement gap starts off very young Kids who when they go into kindergarten their first day if they already have a lot fewer vocabulary words they don8217t know their numbers and their shapes and have the capacity for focus they8217re going to be behind that first day And it8217s very hard for them to catch up over time 8230 Every dollar we invest in highquality early education can save more than seven dollars later on 8212 boosting graduation rates reducing teen pregnancy reducing violent crime In states like Georgia that have made it a priority to educate our youngest children states like Oklahoma students don8217t just show up in kindergarten and first grade more prepared to learn they8217re also more likely to grow up reading and doing math at grade level graduating from high school holding a job even forming more stable families Hope is found in what works This works We know it works If you are looking for a good bang for your educational buck this is it right here At our request the White House sent along a handful of studies to back up the president8217s claims In regard to Obama8217s claims about a costtobenefit ratio of 1to7 the White House pointed specifically to a studyled by James J Heckman at the University of Chicago of the Perry Preschool Program in Ypsilanti Mich that concluded 8220each dollar invested returns in present value terms 7 to 12 dollars back to society8221 The Perry program targeted disadvantaged AfricanAmerican youth in the early 1960s and academics tracked the progress of 123 students 8212 including a control group that did not get into the program 8212 through age 40 The twoyear program cost about 19000 per student in today8217s dollars and included inhome visits participants had to have stayathome mothers That8217s far different than any universal preschool program currently run by any state Most state programs cost around 6100 per student and are oneyear programs such as the president talked about in his State of the Union address In addition the results in Perry are for 8220disadvantaged students8221 Other studies suggest the benefits that accrue to middleincome students are far less dramatic We reached out to Heckman8217s office which referred our questions to Rich Neimand president of the Neimand Collaborative Neimand said 8220highquality8221 preschool 8220is directly linked to adult outcomes8221 and all students can benefit from it But he added 8220disadvantaged children are least likely to receive it8221 and 8220if funds are limited then the priority should be placed on disadvantaged children because it provides the greatest economic return8221 We asked if it was fair to extend the results observed from the Perry program to that of universal preschool which Obama did without saying that8217s what he8217d done Neimand responded via email 8220To the best of our knowledge there has been no evidencebased scientific research on the value of universal preschool However that doesn8217t necessarily mean that universal has no value8221 There are disagreements in academia about the longterm effects of preschool programs The biggest effort the Head Start program 8212 which provides a comprehensive approach including preschool health care nutrition and parent outreach 8212amp160 has shown 8220initial positive impacts8221 according to a study done for the Obama administration last year But the study said that 8220by the end of 3rd grade there were very few impacts found for either cohort in any of the four domains of cognitive socialemotional health and parenting practices8221 And the studies cited by the White House 8212 which you can view here here here and here 8212 were either studies of programs that targeted lowincome disadvantaged students or concluded that the positive effects are largest for disadvantaged students Georgia and Oklahoma Obama also overreached when he linked the programs in Georgia and Oklahoma to studies that 8220show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level graduate high school hold a job form more stable families of their own8221 The oldest students in the Georgia program are now just 20 years old and the Oklahoma students are even younger So Obama isn8217t talking about them when he cites the ability to 8220hold a job8221 and 8220form more stable families of their own8221 Studies of the Georgia program have shown promising academic results especially in the few years after preschool and particularly for disadvantaged students In 2008 Maria Donovan Fitzpatrick then a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University did a research paper looking atamp160 the program in Georgia the first state as Obama said to offer universal preschool She concluded that while the economic benefits for disadvantaged children were clear they were less so for middleincome kids Fitzpatrick 2008 For disadvantaged children residing in small towns and rural areas Universal PreK availability increases both reading and mathematics test scores at fourth grade as well as the probability of students being ongrade for their age Increases in some measures of achievement also were seen among other groups though the patterns were less uniform across outcome measures One of the key qualifiers is that the best results were seen for 8220disadvantaged children residing in small towns and rural areas8221 The same level of results were not achieved by middleincome students for example In fact Fitzpatrick concluded Fitzpatrick 2008 The costs of the program today 302 million in 20072008 greatly outweigh the benefits in terms of potential increased taxable revenue This is a very simple cost benefit analysis and should therefore be interpreted with caution However it is at least suggestive that the government8217s scarce resources would be better spent on more targeted early childhood interventions that have been shown to be more cost efficient particularly if the goal is to increase wages through test scores 8220We just haven8217t seen the same types of gains for all kids when programs become available more broadly8221 said Fitzpatrick in a phone interview with FactCheckorg 8220We don8217t really know what the returns are yet from a universal program8221 If there are limited resources and in government that is always the case the question is whether it would make more sense to invest a smaller amount of money per student for a mediocre program for all students or a larger amount of money for a more targeted program said Fitzpatrick now an assistant professor at Cornell University The evidence seems to support the latter she said Most of the claims about the benefits of preschool are based on research on the Perry preschool program and the Carolina Abecedarian Project in Chapel Hill NC which also targeted children from lowincome families But those were costly programs According to a Perry program report the program cost 14716 per student in 2001 dollars which now adjusted for inflation would be just over 19000 And the Abecedarian program was even more expensive about 90000 per child in 2010 dollars or nearly 95000 today By comparison the Georgia program currently costs about 4000 to 5000 per student Fitzgerald said and is in line with what other states are paying for preschool In a story on preschool written last month Grover J 8220Russ8221 Whitehurst director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution argued against just the kind of comparisons that Obama made 8220In my view generalizations to state preK programs from research findings on Perry and Abecedarian are prodigious leaps of faith8221 wrote Whitehurst a former education official under George W Bush For starters he said the two programs were multiyear programs whereas the state programs are oneyear programs for 4yearolds The cost of those programs was much higher than any current state program he added And the two programs were 8220run by very experienced committed teams whereas widely deployed present day preschool programs are well widely deployed8221 It8217s relevant to talk about the results of the Perry program as long as you note that8217s what you8217re talking about Whitehurst told us in a phone interview Whitehurst said Obama was 8220at best misleading8221 when using the results from studies of those small programs in the same sentence as the universal programs in Oklahoma and Georgia 8220Not only is that an unjustified reference8221 Whitehurst said 8220it8217s also contradicted by what little research we have8221 By and large he said 8220middleincome kids are already prepared for kindergarten 8230 The impact is always greatest for kids who are farthest behind8221 That8217s why a program targeted to kids from lowincome families may make economic sense while a universal program may not Whitehurst said Interestingly while Obama proposed preschool for all and talked about the burden of preschool costs on middleclass families the details of the proposal unveiled by the White House in a fact sheeton Feb 13 suggest the federal focus is primarily on children from lowincome families According to the plan Obama is proposing 8220a cost sharing partnership with all 50 states to extend federal funds to expand highquality public preschool to reach all low and moderateincome fouryear olds from families at or below 200 percent of poverty8221 Dollars would be allocated based on states8217 8220share of fouryear olds from low and moderateincome families8221 In addition the proposal includes 8220an incentive for states to broaden participation in their public preschool program for additional middleclass families8221 which states may decide to offer as a 8220slidingscale arrangement8221 The full extent of Obama8217s financial commitment to the plan won8217t be known until he unveils his proposed budget which is expected to be released in midMarch So in fact the president8217s plan does seem to target dollars to reach disadvantaged lowincome students But in his State of the Union address Obama exaggerated the effects of universal preschool by comparing results from small expensive programs targeted to disadvantaged youth to a universal program for which such results are unproven 8212 by Robert Farley Transcript of Obama8217s State of the Union Address UPIcom 12 Feb 2013 White House Website Remarks by the President on Early Childhood Education 8212 Decatur GA 14 Feb 2013 Heckman James J Moon Seong Hyeok Moon Pinto Rodrigo Savelyev Peter A and Yavitz Adam 8220 The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program8221 Journal of Public Economics 18 Nov 2009 Levine Phillip B and Zimmerman David J8221 Targeting Investments in Children Fighting Poverty When Resources are Limited8221 National Bureau of Economic Research Aug 2010 Puma Michael Bell Stephen Cook Ronna Camilla Heid Camilla Broene Pam Jenkins Frank Andrew Mashburn Andrew and Downer Jason Third Grade Followup to the Head Start Impact Study Final Report For the US Department of Health and Human Services Oct 2012 Heckman James J and Masterov Dimitriy V 8220 The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children8221 22 Mar 2007 Reynolds Arthur J Temple Judy A Ou SuhRuu Arteaga Irma A and White Barry A 8220 SchoolBased Early Childhood Education and Age28 WellBeing Effects by Timing Dosage and Subgroups8221 Science 15 Jul 2011 Schweinhart L J Montie J Xiang Z Barnett W S Belfield C R and Nores M 8220 Lifetime effects The HighScope Perry Preschool study through age 408221 HighScope Educational Research Foundation 2005 Fitzpatrick Maria Donovan 8220 Starting School at Four The Effect of Universal PreKindergarten on Children8217s Academic Achievement8221 Stanford University December 2008 The Carolina Abecedarian Project University of North Carolina Schweinhart Lawrence J 8220 Benefits Costs and Explanation of the HighScope Perry Preschool Program8221 HighScope Educational Research Foundation 26 Apr 2003 Whitehurst Grover J 8220Russ8221 8220 Can We Be HardHeaded About Preschool A Look at Universal and Targeted PreK8221 The Brown Center Chalkboard Brookings Institution 23 Jan 2013 White House Website 8220 Fact Sheet President Obama8217s Plan for Early Education for all Americans8221 13 Feb 2013 Reilly Sean 8220 2014 budget to be released in midMarch memo says8221 Federal Times 11 Feb 2013 | President/PROPN Obama/PROPN exaggerates/VERB the/DET potential/ADJ benefits/NOUN of/ADP his/PRON ambitious/ADJ plan/NOUN for/ADP universal/ADJ preschool/NOUN as/SCONJ he/PRON 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<p>Civilians on the ground are not the only ones being traumatized. (U.S. Air Force / Flickr) &#160;</p>
<p>This post first appeared at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a>.</p>
<p>The U.S. drone war across much of the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa is in crisis and not because civilians are dying or the target list for that war or the right to wage it just about anywhere on the planet are in question in Washington. Something far more basic is at stake: drone pilots are quitting in record numbers.</p>
<p>There are roughly 1,000 such drone pilots, known in the trade as “18Xs,” working for the U.S. Air Force today. Another 180 pilots graduate annually from a&#160; <a href="http://www.holloman.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123289389" type="external">training program</a>&#160;that takes about a year to complete at Holloman and Randolph Air Force bases in, respectively, New Mexico and Texas. As it happens, in those same 12 months, about 240 trained pilots&#160; <a href="http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=5344" type="external">quit</a>&#160;and the Air Force is at a loss to explain the phenomenon. (The better-known U.S. Central Intelligence Agency drone assassination program is also&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/17/former_drone_operators_reveal_air_force" type="external">flown</a>&#160;by Air Force pilots loaned out for the covert missions.)</p>
<p>On January 4, 2015, the&#160;Daily Beast&#160;revealed an undated internal&#160; <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/04/exclusive-u-s-drone-fleet-at-breaking-point-air-force-says.html" type="external">memo</a>&#160;to Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh from General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle stating that pilot “outflow increases will damage the readiness and combat capability of the MQ-1/9 [Predator and Reaper] enterprise for years to come” and added that he was “extremely concerned.” Eleven days later, the issue got top billing at a special high-level briefing on the state of the Air Force. Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James joined Welsh to address the matter. “This is a force that is under significant stress—significant stress from what is an unrelenting pace of operations,” she&#160; <a href="http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5571" type="external">told</a>&#160;the media.</p>
<p>In theory, drone pilots have a cushy life. Unlike soldiers on duty in “war zones,” they can continue to live with their families here in the United States. No muddy foxholes or sandstorm-swept desert barracks under threat of enemy attack for them. Instead, these new techno-warriors&#160; <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-curious-stressful-life-of-a-us-military-drone-pilot" type="external">commute to work</a>&#160;like any office employees and sit in front of computer screens wielding joysticks, playing what most people would consider a glorified video game.</p>
<p>They typically “fly” missions over Afghanistan and Iraq where they are tasked with collecting photos and video feeds, as well as watching over U.S. soldiers on the ground. A select few are deputized to fly CIA assassination missions over Pakistan, Somalia, or Yemen where they are ordered to kill “high value targets” from the sky. In recent months, some of these pilots have also taken part in the new war in the Syrian and Iraqi borderlands, conducting&#160; <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/u-s-drone-strike-hits-isis-firing-position-northern-iraq-n178656" type="external">deadly strikes</a>&#160;on militants of ISIL.</p>
<p>Each of these&#160; <a href="http://www.wired.com/2012/02/air-force-drones/" type="external">combat air patrols</a>&#160;involves three to four drones, usually Hellfire-missile-armed Predators and Reapers built by southern California’s General Atomics, and each takes as many as&#160; <a href="http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/485358/rpa-community-launches-65th-combat-air-patrol.aspx" type="external">180 staff members</a>&#160;to fly them. In addition to pilots, there are camera operators, intelligence and communications experts, and maintenance workers. (The newer Global Hawk surveillance patrols need as many as 400 support staff.)</p>
<p>The Air Force is currently under orders to staff 65 of these regular “combat air patrols” around the clock as well as to support a Global Response Force on call for emergency military and humanitarian missions. For all of this, there should ideally be 1,700 trained pilots. Instead, facing an accelerating dropout rate that recently drove this figure below 1,000, the Air Force has had to press regular cargo and jet pilots as well as reservists into becoming instant drone pilots in order to keep up with the Pentagon’s enormous appetite for real-time video feeds from around the world.</p>
<p>The Air Force explains the departure of these drone pilots in the simplest of terms. They are leaving because they are overworked. The pilots themselves say that it’s humiliating to be scorned by their Air Force colleagues as second-class citizens. Some have also come forward to claim that the horrors of war, seen up close on video screens, day in, day out, are inducing an unprecedented, long-distance version of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).</p>
<p>But is it possible that a brand-new form of war—by remote control—is also spawning a brand-new, as yet unlabeled, form of psychological strain? Some have called drone war a “ <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/30/deadly-drones-us-cowards-war" type="external">coward's war</a>” (an opinion that, according to&#160; <a href="http://www.bariatwan.com/english/?p=307" type="external">reports</a>&#160;from among the drone-traumatized in places like Yemen and Pakistan, is seconded by its victims). Could it be that the feeling is even shared by drone pilots themselves, that a sense of dishonor in fighting from behind a screen thousands of miles from harm’s way is having an unexpected impact of a kind psychologists have never before witnessed?</p>
<p>There can be no question that drone pilots&#160; <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/drone-pilots-reaper-photo-essay" type="external">resent</a>&#160;the way other Air Force pilots see them as second-class citizens. "It's tough working night shifts watching your buddies do great things in the field while you're turning circles in the sky," a drone instructor named Ryan told&#160;Mother Jones&#160;magazine. His colleagues, he says, call themselves the “lost generation.”</p>
<p>“Everyone else thinks that the whole program or the people behind it are a joke, that we are video-game warriors, that we're Nintendo warriors,” Brandon Bryant, a former drone camera operator who worked at Nellis Air Force Base,&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/25/a_drone_warriors_torment_ex_air" type="external">told</a>&#160;Democracy Now.</p>
<p>Certainly, there is nothing second-class about the work tempo of drone life. Pilots log 900-1,800 hours a year compared to a maximum of 300 hours annually for regular Air Force pilots. And the pace is unrelenting. “A typical person doing this mission over the last seven or eight years has worked either six or seven days a week, twelve hours a day,” General Welsh&#160; <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/01/24/379550383/the-drone-war-hits-a-bottleneck-too-many-targets-not-enough-pilots" type="external">told</a>&#160;NPR recently. “And that one- or two-day break at the end of it is really not enough time to take care of that family and the rest of your life.”</p>
<p>The pilots wholeheartedly agree. "It's like when your engine temperature gauge is running just below the red area on your car’s dashboard, but instead of slowing down and relieving the stress on the engine, you put the pedal to the floor," one drone pilot&#160; <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/02/02/more-missions-for-reaper-pilots/22752129/" type="external">told&#160;</a>Air Force Times. "You are sacrificing the engine to get a short burst of speed with no real consideration to the damage being caused."</p>
<p>The Air Force has come up with a pallid interim “solution.” It is planning to offer experienced drone pilots a daily raise of about $50. There's one problem, though: since so many pilots leave the service early, only a handful have enough years of experience to qualify for this bonus. Indeed, the Air Force&#160; <a href="http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/02/13/fewer-than-10-pilots-to-receive-monthly-bonus-incentive.html" type="external">concedes</a>&#160;that just 10 of them will be able to claim the extra bounty this year, striking testimony to the startling levels of job turnover among such pilots.</p>
<p>Most 18Xs say that their jobs are tougher and significantly more upfront and personal than those of the far more glamorous jet pilots. “[A] Predator operator is so much more involved in what is going on than your average fast-moving jetfighter pilot, or your B-52, B-1, B-2 pilots, who will never even see their target,” Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Black, a former Air Force drone pilot&#160; <a href="http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/weapon-drones-industry-demand-465/" type="external">says</a>. “A Predator pilot has been watching his target[s], knows them intimately, knows where they are, and knows what’s around them."</p>
<p>Some say that the drone war has driven them over the edge. "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile? How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Heather Linebaugh, a former drone imagery analyst,&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/29/drones-us-military" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;in the&#160;Guardian. "When you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a small video, embedded in your head, forever on repeat, causing psychological pain and suffering that many people will hopefully never experience."</p>
<p>"It was horrifying to know how easy it was. I felt like a coward because I was halfway across the world and the guy never even knew I was there,” Bryant&#160; <a href="http://knprnews.org/post/former-nellis-afb-drone-operator-first-kill-ptsd-being-shunned-fellow-airmen" type="external">told</a>&#160;KNPR Radio in Nevada. "I felt like I was haunted by a legion of the dead. My physical health was gone, my mental health was crumbled. I was in so much pain I was ready to eat a bullet myself."</p>
<p>Many drone pilots, however, defend their role in targeted killings. “We’re not killing people for the fun of it. It would be the same if we were the guys on the ground,” mission controller Janet Atkins&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/24/drone-warfare-life-on-the-new-frontline" type="external">told</a>&#160;Chris Woods of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. “You have to get to [the enemy] somehow or all of you will die.”</p>
<p>Others like Bruce Black are proud of their work. “I was shooting two weeks after I got there and saved hundreds of people, including Iraqis and Afghanis," he&#160; <a href="http://www.daily-times.com/four_corners-news/ci_24600432/retired-military-drone-operator-shares-experience-remote-piloting" type="external">told</a>&#160;his hometown newspaper in New Mexico. "We'd go down to Buffalo Wild Wings, drink beer and debrief. It was surreal. It didn't take long for you to realize how important the work is. The value that the weapon system brings to the fight is not apparent till you're there. People have a hard time sometimes seeing that."&#160;</p>
<p>So whom does one believe? Janet Atkins and Bruce Black, who claim that drone pilots are overworked heroes? Or Brandon Bryant and Heather Linebaugh, who claim that remotely directed targeted killings caused them mental health crises?</p>
<p>Military psychologists have been asked to investigate the phenomenon. A team of psychologists at the School of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio has published a series of studies on drone pilot stress. One&#160; <a href="http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a548103.pdf" type="external">2011 study</a>&#160;concluded that nearly half of them had "high operational stress." A number also exhibited "clinical distress"—that is, anxiety, depression, or stress severe enough to affect them in their personal lives.</p>
<p>Wayne Chappelle, a lead author in a number of these studies, nonetheless concludes that the problem is mostly a matter of overwork caused by the chronic shortage of pilots. His studies appear to show that post-traumatic stress levels are actually lower among drone pilots than in the general population. Others, however,&#160; <a href="https://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/pages-from-pages-from-msmr_mar_2013_external_causes_of_tbi.pdf" type="external">question</a>&#160;these numbers. Jean Otto and Bryant Webber of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, caution that the lack of stress reports may only “reflect artificial underreporting of the concerns of pilots due to the career-threatening effects of [mental health] diagnoses, [which] include removal from flying status, loss of flight pay, and diminished competitiveness for promotion.”</p>
<p>One thing is clear: the pilots are not just killing “bad guys” and they know it because, as Black points out, they see everything that happens before, during, and after a drone strike.</p>
<p>Indeed, the only&#160; <a href="http://documents.latimes.com/transcript-of-drone-attack" type="external">detailed transcript</a>&#160;of an actual Air Force drone surveillance mission and targeted killing to be publicly released illustrates this all too well. The logs recorded idle chatter on February 21, 2010, between drone operators at Creech Air Force base in Nevada coordinating with video analysts at Air Force special operations headquarters in Okaloosa, Florida, and with Air Force pilots in a rural part of Daikondi province in central Afghanistan. On that day, three vehicles were seen traveling in a pre-dawn convoy carrying about a dozen people each. Laboring under the mistaken belief that the group were “insurgents” out to kill some nearby U.S. soldiers on a mission, the drone team decided to attack.</p>
<p>Controller: “We believe we may have a high-level Taliban commander.”&#160;</p>
<p>Camera operator: “Yeah, they called a possible weapon on the military-age male mounted in the back of the truck.”</p>
<p>Intelligence coordinator: “Screener said at least one child near SUV.”</p>
<p>Controller: “Bullshit! Where? I don’t think they have kids out this hour. I know they’re shady, but come on!”</p>
<p>Camera operator “A sweet [expletive]! Geez! Lead vehicle on the run and bring the helos in!”</p>
<p>Moments later, Kiowa helicopter pilots descended and fired Hellfire missiles at the vehicle.</p>
<p>Controller: “Take a look at this one. It was hit pretty good. It’s a little toasty! That truck is so dead!”</p>
<p>Within 20 minutes, after the survivors of the attack had surrendered, the transcript recorded the sinking feelings of the drone pilots as they spotted women and children in the convoy and could not find any visual evidence of weapons.</p>
<p>A subsequent on-the-ground investigation established that not one of the people killed was anything other than an ordinary villager. "Technology can occasionally give you a false sense of security that you can see everything, that you can hear everything, that you know everything," Air Force Major General James Poss, who oversaw an investigation into the incident, later&#160; <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/10/world/la-fg-afghanistan-drone-20110410/4" type="external">told</a>&#160;the&#160;Los Angeles Times.</p>
<p>Of course, Obama administration officials claim that such incidents are rare. In June 2011, when CIA Director John Brennan was still the White House counterterrorism adviser, he addressed the issue of civilian deaths in drone strikes and made this bold&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/asia/12drones.html" type="external">claim</a>: “Nearly for the past year, there hasn’t been a single collateral death, because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we’ve been able to develop.”</p>
<p>His claim and similar official ones like it are, politely put, hyperbolic. “You Never Die Twice,” a&#160; <a href="http://www.reprieve.org/uploads/2/6/3/3/26338131/2014_11_24_pub_you_never_die_twice_-_multiple_kills_in_the_us_drone_program.pdf" type="external">new report</a>&#160;by Jennifer Gibson of Reprieve, a British-based human rights organization, settles the question quickly by showing that some men on the White House “kill list” of terror suspects to be taken out have “'died' as many as seven times."</p>
<p>Gibson adds, “We found 41 names of men who seemed to have achieved the impossible. This raises a stark question. With each failed attempt to assassinate a man on the kill list, who filled the body bag in his place?” In fact, Reprieve discovered that, in going after those 41 “targets” numerous times, an estimated 1,147 people were killed in Pakistan by drones. Typical was the present leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In two strikes against “him” over the years,&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147" type="external">according to</a>&#160;Reprieve, 76 children and 29 adults have died, but not al-Zawahiri.</p>
<p>Back in the United States, a combination of lower-class status in the military, overwork, and psychological trauma appears to be taking its mental toll on drone pilots. During the Vietnam War, soldiers would desert, flee to Canada, or even “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fragging-Soldiers-Assaulted-Officers-Southeast/dp/0896727157" type="external">frag</a>”—kill—their officers. But what do you do when you’ve had it with your war, but your battle station is a cubicle in Nevada and your weapon is a keyboard?</p>
<p>Is it possible that, like their victims in Pakistan and Yemen who say that they are going mad from the constant buzz of drones overhead and the fear of sudden death without warning, drone pilots, too, are fleeing into the night as soon as they can? Since the Civil War in the U.S., war of every modern sort has produced mental disturbances that have been given a variety of labels, including what we today call PTSD. In a way, it would be surprising if a completely new form of warfare didn’t produce a new form of disturbance.</p>
<p>We don’t yet know just what this might turn out to be, but it bodes ill for the form of battle that the White House and Washington are most proud of—the well-advertised, sleek, new, robotic, no-casualty, precision conflict that now dominates the war on terror. Indeed if the pilots themselves are dropping out of desktop killing, can this new way of war survive?</p> | Why Are Drone Pilots Quitting In Huge Numbers? | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17718/drone_pilots | 2015-03-10 | 4left
| 2,529 | your email your name recipients email comma separated message captcha Civilians on the ground are not the only ones being traumatized US Air Force Flickr amp160 This post first appeared at TomDispatch The US drone war across much of the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa is in crisis and not because civilians are dying or the target list for that war or the right to wage it just about anywhere on the planet are in question in Washington Something far more basic is at stake drone pilots are quitting in record numbers There are roughly 1000 such drone pilots known in the trade as 822018Xs8221 working for the US Air Force today Another 180 pilots graduate annually from aamp160 training programamp160that takes about a year to complete at Holloman and Randolph Air Force bases in respectively New Mexico and Texas As it happens in those same 12 months about 240 trained pilotsamp160 quitamp160and the Air Force is at a loss to explain the phenomenon The betterknown US Central Intelligence Agency drone assassination program is alsoamp160 flownamp160by Air Force pilots loaned out for the covert missions On January 4 2015 theamp160Daily Beastamp160revealed an undated internalamp160 memoamp160to Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh from General Herbert 8220Hawk8221 Carlisle stating that pilot 8220outflow increases will damage the readiness and combat capability of the MQ19 Predator and Reaper enterprise for years to come8221 and added that he was 8220extremely concerned8221 Eleven days later the issue got top billing at a special highlevel briefing on the state of the Air Force Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James joined Welsh to address the matter 8220This is a force that is under significant stress8212significant stress from what is an unrelenting pace of operations8221 sheamp160 toldamp160the media In theory drone pilots have a cushy life Unlike soldiers on duty in 8220war zones8221 they can continue to live with their families here in the United States No muddy foxholes or sandstormswept desert barracks under threat of enemy attack for them Instead these new technowarriorsamp160 commute to workamp160like any office employees and sit in front of computer screens wielding joysticks playing what most people would consider a glorified video game They typically 8220fly8221 missions over Afghanistan and Iraq where they are tasked with collecting photos and video feeds as well as watching over US soldiers on the ground A select few are deputized to fly CIA assassination missions over Pakistan Somalia or Yemen where they are ordered to kill 8220high value targets8221 from the sky In recent months some of these pilots have also taken part in the new war in the Syrian and Iraqi borderlands conductingamp160 deadly strikesamp160on militants of ISIL Each of theseamp160 combat air patrolsamp160involves three to four drones usually Hellfiremissilearmed Predators and Reapers built by southern California8217s General Atomics and each takes as many asamp160 180 staff membersamp160to fly them In addition to pilots there are camera operators intelligence and communications experts and maintenance workers The newer Global Hawk surveillance patrols need as many as 400 support staff The Air Force is currently under orders to staff 65 of these regular 8220combat air patrols8221 around the clock as well as to support a Global Response Force on call for emergency military and humanitarian missions For all of this there should ideally be 1700 trained pilots Instead facing an accelerating dropout rate that recently drove this figure below 1000 the Air Force has had to press regular cargo and jet pilots as well as reservists into becoming instant drone pilots in order to keep up with the Pentagon8217s enormous appetite for realtime video feeds from around the world The Air Force explains the departure of these drone pilots in the simplest of terms They are leaving because they are overworked The pilots themselves say that it8217s humiliating to be scorned by their Air Force colleagues as secondclass citizens Some have also come forward to claim that the horrors of war seen up close on video screens day in day out are inducing an unprecedented longdistance version of posttraumatic stress syndrome PTSD But is it possible that a brandnew form of war8212by remote control8212is also spawning a brandnew as yet unlabeled form of psychological strain Some have called drone war a 8220 cowards war8221 an opinion that according toamp160 reportsamp160from among the dronetraumatized in places like Yemen and Pakistan is seconded by its victims Could it be that the feeling is even shared by drone pilots themselves that a sense of dishonor in fighting from behind a screen thousands of miles from harm8217s way is having an unexpected impact of a kind psychologists have never before witnessed There can be no question that drone pilotsamp160 resentamp160the way other Air Force pilots see them as secondclass citizens Its tough working night shifts watching your buddies do great things in the field while youre turning circles in the sky a drone instructor named Ryan toldamp160Mother Jonesamp160magazine His colleagues he says call themselves the 8220lost generation8221 8220Everyone else thinks that the whole program or the people behind it are a joke that we are videogame warriors that were Nintendo warriors8221 Brandon Bryant a former drone camera operator who worked at Nellis Air Force Baseamp160 toldamp160Democracy Now Certainly there is nothing secondclass about the work tempo of drone life Pilots log 9001800 hours a year compared to a maximum of 300 hours annually for regular Air Force pilots And the pace is unrelenting 8220A typical person doing this mission over the last seven or eight years has worked either six or seven days a week twelve hours a day8221 General Welshamp160 toldamp160NPR recently 8220And that one or twoday break at the end of it is really not enough time to take care of that family and the rest of your life8221 The pilots wholeheartedly agree Its like when your engine temperature gauge is running just below the red area on your car8217s dashboard but instead of slowing down and relieving the stress on the engine you put the pedal to the floor one drone pilotamp160 toldamp160Air Force Times You are sacrificing the engine to get a short burst of speed with no real consideration to the damage being caused The Air Force has come up with a pallid interim 8220solution8221 It is planning to offer experienced drone pilots a daily raise of about 50 Theres one problem though since so many pilots leave the service early only a handful have enough years of experience to qualify for this bonus Indeed the Air Forceamp160 concedesamp160that just 10 of them will be able to claim the extra bounty this year striking testimony to the startling levels of job turnover among such pilots Most 18Xs say that their jobs are tougher and significantly more upfront and personal than those of the far more glamorous jet pilots 8220A Predator operator is so much more involved in what is going on than your average fastmoving jetfighter pilot or your B52 B1 B2 pilots who will never even see their target8221 Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Black a former Air Force drone pilotamp160 says 8220A Predator pilot has been watching his targets knows them intimately knows where they are and knows what8217s around them Some say that the drone war has driven them over the edge How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile How many men have you seen crawl across a field trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs Heather Linebaugh a former drone imagery analystamp160 wroteamp160in theamp160Guardian When you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a small video embedded in your head forever on repeat causing psychological pain and suffering that many people will hopefully never experience It was horrifying to know how easy it was I felt like a coward because I was halfway across the world and the guy never even knew I was there8221 Bryantamp160 toldamp160KNPR Radio in Nevada I felt like I was haunted by a legion of the dead My physical health was gone my mental health was crumbled I was in so much pain I was ready to eat a bullet myself Many drone pilots however defend their role in targeted killings 8220We8217re not killing people for the fun of it It would be the same if we were the guys on the ground8221 mission controller Janet Atkinsamp160 toldamp160Chris Woods of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism 8220You have to get to the enemy somehow or all of you will die8221 Others like Bruce Black are proud of their work 8220I was shooting two weeks after I got there and saved hundreds of people including Iraqis and Afghanis heamp160 toldamp160his hometown newspaper in New Mexico Wed go down to Buffalo Wild Wings drink beer and debrief It was surreal It didnt take long for you to realize how important the work is The value that the weapon system brings to the fight is not apparent till youre there People have a hard time sometimes seeing thatamp160 So whom does one believe Janet Atkins and Bruce Black who claim that drone pilots are overworked heroes Or Brandon Bryant and Heather Linebaugh who claim that remotely directed targeted killings caused them mental health crises Military psychologists have been asked to investigate the phenomenon A team of psychologists at the School of Aerospace Medicine at WrightPatterson Air Force Base in Ohio has published a series of studies on drone pilot stress Oneamp160 2011 studyamp160concluded that nearly half of them had high operational stress A number also exhibited clinical distress8212that is anxiety depression or stress severe enough to affect them in their personal lives Wayne Chappelle a lead author in a number of these studies nonetheless concludes that the problem is mostly a matter of overwork caused by the chronic shortage of pilots His studies appear to show that posttraumatic stress levels are actually lower among drone pilots than in the general population Others howeveramp160 questionamp160these numbers Jean Otto and Bryant Webber of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences caution that the lack of stress reports may only 8220reflect artificial underreporting of the concerns of pilots due to the careerthreatening effects of mental health diagnoses which include removal from flying status loss of flight pay and diminished competitiveness for promotion8221 One thing is clear the pilots are not just killing 8220bad guys8221 and they know it because as Black points out they see everything that happens before during and after a drone strike Indeed the onlyamp160 detailed transcriptamp160of an actual Air Force drone surveillance mission and targeted killing to be publicly released illustrates this all too well The logs recorded idle chatter on February 21 2010 between drone operators at Creech Air Force base in Nevada coordinating with video analysts at Air Force special operations headquarters in Okaloosa Florida and with Air Force pilots in a rural part of Daikondi province in central Afghanistan On that day three vehicles were seen traveling in a predawn convoy carrying about a dozen people each Laboring under the mistaken belief that the group were 8220insurgents8221 out to kill some nearby US soldiers on a mission the drone team decided to attack Controller 8220We believe we may have a highlevel Taliban commander8221amp160 Camera operator 8220Yeah they called a possible weapon on the militaryage male mounted in the back of the truck8221 Intelligence coordinator 8220Screener said at least one child near SUV8221 Controller 8220Bullshit Where I don8217t think they have kids out this hour I know they8217re shady but come on8221 Camera operator 8220A sweet expletive Geez Lead vehicle on the run and bring the helos in8221 Moments later Kiowa helicopter pilots descended and fired Hellfire missiles at the vehicle Controller 8220Take a look at this one It was hit pretty good It8217s a little toasty That truck is so dead8221 Within 20 minutes after the survivors of the attack had surrendered the transcript recorded the sinking feelings of the drone pilots as they spotted women and children in the convoy and could not find any visual evidence of weapons A subsequent ontheground investigation established that not one of the people killed was anything other than an ordinary villager Technology can occasionally give you a false sense of security that you can see everything that you can hear everything that you know everything Air Force Major General James Poss who oversaw an investigation into the incident lateramp160 toldamp160theamp160Los Angeles Times Of course Obama administration officials claim that such incidents are rare In June 2011 when CIA Director John Brennan was still the White House counterterrorism adviser he addressed the issue of civilian deaths in drone strikes and made this boldamp160 claim 8220Nearly for the past year there hasn8217t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency precision of the capabilities that we8217ve been able to develop8221 His claim and similar official ones like it are politely put hyperbolic 8220You Never Die Twice8221 aamp160 new reportamp160by Jennifer Gibson of Reprieve a Britishbased human rights organization settles the question quickly by showing that some men on the White House 8220kill list8221 of terror suspects to be taken out have 8220died as many as seven times Gibson adds 8220We found 41 names of men who seemed to have achieved the impossible This raises a stark question With each failed attempt to assassinate a man on the kill list who filled the body bag in his place8221 In fact Reprieve discovered that in going after those 41 8220targets8221 numerous times an estimated 1147 people were killed in Pakistan by drones Typical was the present leader of alQaeda Ayman alZawahiri In two strikes against 8220him8221 over the yearsamp160 according toamp160Reprieve 76 children and 29 adults have died but not alZawahiri Back in the United States a combination of lowerclass status in the military overwork and psychological trauma appears to be taking its mental toll on drone pilots During the Vietnam War soldiers would desert flee to Canada or even 8220 frag82218212kill8212their officers But what do you do when you8217ve had it with your war but your battle station is a cubicle in Nevada and your weapon is a keyboard Is it possible that like their victims in Pakistan and Yemen who say that they are going mad from the constant buzz of drones overhead and the fear of sudden death without warning drone pilots too are fleeing into the night as soon as they can Since the Civil War in the US war of every modern sort has produced mental disturbances that have been given a variety of labels including what we today call PTSD In a way it would be surprising if a completely new form of warfare didn8217t produce a new form of disturbance We don8217t yet know just what this might turn out to be but it bodes ill for the form of battle that the White House and Washington are most proud of8212the welladvertised sleek new robotic nocasualty precision conflict that now dominates the war on terror Indeed if the pilots themselves are dropping out of desktop killing can this new way of war survive | your/PRON email/NOUN your/PRON name/NOUN recipients/NOUN email/NOUN comma/NOUN separated/VERB message/NOUN captcha/NOUN Civilians/PROPN on/ADP the/DET ground/NOUN are/AUX not/PART the/DET only/ADJ ones/NOUN being/AUX traumatized/VERB US/PROPN Air/PROPN Force/PROPN Flickr/PROPN amp160/NOUN This/DET post/NOUN first/ADV appeared/VERB at/ADP TomDispatch/PROPN The/DET US/PROPN drone/NOUN war/NOUN across/ADP much/ADJ of/ADP the/DET Greater/PROPN Middle/PROPN East/PROPN and/CCONJ 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because/SCONJ of/ADP the/DET exceptional/ADJ proficiency/NOUN precision/NOUN of/ADP the/DET capabilities/NOUN that/PRON we8217ve/PROPN been/VERB able/ADJ to/PART develop8221/VERB His/PRON claim/NOUN and/CCONJ similar/ADJ official/ADJ ones/NOUN like/ADP it/PRON are/AUX politely/ADV put/VERB hyperbolic/ADJ 8220You/NUM Never/ADV Die/VERB Twice8221/PROPN aamp160/NOUN new/ADJ reportamp160by/PROPN Jennifer/PROPN Gibson/PROPN of/ADP Reprieve/PROPN a/DET Britishbased/PROPN human/ADJ rights/NOUN organization/NOUN settles/VERB the/DET question/NOUN quickly/ADV by/ADP showing/VERB that/SCONJ some/DET men/NOUN on/ADP the/DET White/PROPN House/PROPN 8220kill/NOUN list8221/PROPN of/ADP terror/NOUN suspects/NOUN to/PART be/AUX taken/VERB out/ADP have/AUX 8220died/VERB as/ADV many/ADJ as/ADP seven/NUM times/NOUN Gibson/PROPN adds/VERB 8220We/NOUN found/VERB 41/NUM names/NOUN of/ADP men/NOUN who/PRON seemed/VERB to/PART have/AUX achieved/VERB the/DET impossible/ADJ This/PRON raises/VERB a/DET stark/ADJ question/NOUN With/ADP each/DET failed/VERB attempt/NOUN to/PART assassinate/VERB a/DET man/NOUN on/ADP the/DET kill/NOUN list/NOUN who/PRON filled/VERB the/DET body/NOUN bag/NOUN in/ADP his/PRON place8221/NOUN In/ADP fact/NOUN Reprieve/PROPN discovered/VERB that/SCONJ in/ADP going/VERB after/ADP those/DET 41/NUM 8220targets8221/NOUN numerous/ADJ times/NOUN an/DET estimated/VERB 1147/NUM people/NOUN were/AUX killed/VERB in/ADP Pakistan/PROPN by/ADP drones/NOUN Typical/PROPN was/AUX the/DET present/ADJ leader/NOUN of/ADP alQaeda/PROPN Ayman/PROPN alZawahiri/PROPN In/ADP two/NUM strikes/NOUN against/ADP 8220him8221/NUM over/ADP the/DET yearsamp160/NOUN according/VERB toamp160Reprieve/NOUN 76/NUM children/NOUN and/CCONJ 29/NUM adults/NOUN have/AUX died/VERB but/CCONJ not/PART alZawahiri/PROPN Back/ADV in/ADP the/DET United/PROPN States/PROPN a/DET combination/NOUN of/ADP lowerclass/NOUN status/NOUN in/ADP the/DET military/ADJ overwork/NOUN and/CCONJ psychological/ADJ trauma/NOUN 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can/AUX Since/SCONJ the/DET Civil/PROPN War/PROPN in/ADP the/DET US/PROPN war/NOUN of/ADP every/DET modern/ADJ sort/NOUN has/AUX produced/VERB mental/ADJ disturbances/NOUN that/PRON have/AUX been/AUX given/VERB a/DET variety/NOUN of/ADP labels/NOUN including/VERB what/PRON we/PRON today/NOUN call/VERB PTSD/ADJ In/ADP a/DET way/NOUN it/PRON would/AUX be/AUX surprising/ADJ if/SCONJ a/DET completely/ADV new/ADJ form/NOUN of/ADP warfare/NOUN didn8217/PROPN t/NOUN produce/VERB a/DET new/ADJ form/NOUN of/ADP disturbance/NOUN We/PRON don8217/VERB t/NOUN yet/ADV know/VERB just/ADV what/PRON this/PRON might/AUX turn/VERB out/ADP to/PART be/AUX but/CCONJ it/PRON bodes/VERB ill/ADJ for/ADP the/DET form/NOUN of/ADP battle/NOUN that/PRON the/DET White/PROPN House/PROPN and/CCONJ Washington/PROPN are/AUX most/ADV proud/ADJ of8212the/DET welladvertised/VERB sleek/ADJ new/ADJ robotic/ADJ nocasualty/NOUN precision/NOUN conflict/NOUN that/PRON now/ADV dominates/VERB the/DET war/NOUN on/ADP terror/NOUN 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<p>The headquarters of the National Security Agency in Maryland. &lt;a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/116850025@N07/12388639744/in/photolist-jSK1YY-cFhPDb-9XE9R5-awYzb-buwS46-buwS4k-mRKKTA-c4LToS-bsqPJN-bsqPGy-eaPVLF-a9mwsR-eaPVgR-eaPVwr-eaPVoX-eaPUVt-eaVwSG-eaVxoy-bvAx35-eaVwLm-eaVxEG-8HnAJ8-8HnAHT-bFkHdD-5FLqDf-6EYEBP-bS2unk-bD7Lo3-5FK1PS-bz9ogX-bD7LoG-bmZcMD-5FEHVH-7EAk5g-7FhCTS-ct8j4f-7EE9gj-7FhCzS-8oE6J-7tr6ag-eHMCKp-bMY3te-9rmduS-npiToe-bq789o-bGDGtc-bNfJuk-bB1pH9-bA9d9Y-h9x2Xe"&gt;CreativeTime Reports&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175901/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>What are the odds? You put about <a href="http://fas.org/irp/budget/" type="external">$68 billion</a> annually into a maze of <a href="http://www.intelligence.gov/mission/member-agencies.html" type="external">17</a> major intelligence outfits. You build them <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/gregg-easterbrook/2011/01/20/undisciplined-spending-in-the-name-of-defense/" type="external">glorious headquarters</a>. You create a global surveillance state <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175713/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_you_are_our_secret/" type="external">for the ages</a>. You listen in on your citizenry and gather their communications in staggering quantities. Your employees even <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/tech/web/nsa-spying-video-games/" type="external">morph</a> into avatars and enter video-game landscapes, lest any Americans betray a penchant for evil deeds while in entertainment mode. You collect information on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/nsa-porn-muslims_n_4346128.html" type="external">visits</a> to porn sites just in case, one day, blackmail might be useful. You pass around <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/07/17/3461559/snowden-nude-photos/" type="external">naked photos</a> of them just for… well, the salacious hell of it. Your employees even use aspects of the system you’ve created to <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/08/23/nsa-officers-sometimes-spy-on-love-interests/" type="external">stalk</a> former lovers and, within your arcane world, that act of “spycraft” gains its own name: LOVEINT.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" /></p>
<p>You <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/nsa-surveillance-world-leaders-calls" type="external">listen in</a> on foreign leaders and politicians across the planet. You bring on board <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/nsa-leak-contractors_n_3418876.html?1370919691" type="external">hundreds of thousands</a> of crony corporate employees, creating the <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/06/10/digital_blackwater_meet_the_contractors_who_analyze_your_personal_data/" type="external">sinews</a> of an intelligence-corporate complex of the first order. You <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html" type="external">break into</a> the “backdoors” of the data centers of major Internet outfits to collect user accounts. You create <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175780/tomgram%3A_pratap_chatterjee,_the_jason_bourne_strategy/" type="external">new outfits</a> within outfits, including an ever-expanding secret military and intelligence crew <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175426/nick_turse_a_secret_war_in_120_countries" type="external">embedded</a> inside the military itself (and not counted among those 17 agencies). Your leaders <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/james-clappers-least-untruthful-statement-to-the-senate/2013/06/11/e50677a8-d2d8-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_blog.html" type="external">lie</a> to Congress and the American people without, as far as we can tell, a flicker of self-doubt. Your acts are subject to <a href="http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/fisa/fisc.html" type="external">secret courts</a>, which only hear your versions of events and regularly <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/06/13/191226106/fisa-court-appears-to-be-rubberstamp-for-government-requests" type="external">rubberstamp</a> them—and whose judgments and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-of-nsa.html" type="external">substantial body</a> of lawmaking are far too secret for Americans to know about.</p>
<p>You have put <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175570/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_national_security_complex_and_you/" type="external">extraordinary effort</a> into ensuring that information about your world and the millions of documents you produce doesn’t make it into our world. You even have the legal ability to gag American <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters" type="external">organizations</a> and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/national-security-technology-and-liberty/national-security-letters" type="external">citizens</a> who might speak out on subjects that would displease you (and they can’t say that their mouths have been shut). You <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/01/04/the-nsa-refuses-to-deny-spying-on-members-of-congress/" type="external">undoubtedly</a> <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/technology/200709-sensenbrenner-pushes-for-info-on-congressional-spying" type="external">spy</a> on Congress. You <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/cia-admits-it-improperly-hacking-senate-computers-20140731" type="external">hack into</a> congressional computer systems. And if whistleblowers inside your world try to tell the American public anything unauthorized about what you’re doing, you <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175500/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_in_washington,_fear_the_silence,_not_the_noise/" type="external">prosecute</a> them under the Espionage Act, as if they were spies for a foreign power (which, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175733/engelhardt_spying_for_us" type="external">in a sense</a>, they are, since you treat the American people as if they were a foreign population). You do everything to wreck their lives and—should one escape your grasp—you hunt him <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bolivian-presidents-plane-forced-to-land-in-austria-in-hunt-for-snowden/2013/07/03/c281c2f4-e3eb-11e2-a11e-c2ea876a8f30_story.html" type="external">implacably</a> to the ends of the Earth.</p>
<p>As for your top officials, when their moment is past, the revolving door is theirs to spin through into a lucrative mirror life in the intelligence-corporate complex. &#160;</p>
<p>What They Didn’t Know</p>
<p>Think of the world of the “US Intelligence Community,” or IC, as a near-perfect closed system and rare success story in twenty-first-century Washington. In a capital riven by fierce political disagreements, just about everyone agrees on the absolute, total, and ultimate importance of that “community” and whatever its top officials might decide in order to keep this country safe and secure.</p>
<p>Yes, everything you’ve done has been in the name of national security and the safety of Americans. And as we’ve discovered, there is never enough security, not at least when it comes to one thing: the fiendish ability of “terrorists” to threaten this country. Admittedly, terrorist attacks would rank above <a href="http://oceana.org/en/our-work/protect-marine-wildlife/sharks/learn-act/shark-attack-statistics" type="external">shark attacks</a>, but not much else on a list of post-9/11 American dangers. And for this, you take profuse credit—for, that is, the fact that there has never been a “second 9/11.” In addition, you take credit for breaking up all sorts of terror plans and plots aimed at this country, including an amazing <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/claim-on-attacks-thwarted-by-nsa-spreads-despite-lack-of-evidence" type="external">54</a> of them reportedly foiled using the phone and email “metadata” of Americans gathered by the NSA. As it happens, a distinguished panel appointed by President Obama, with security clearances that allowed them to examine these spectacular claims in detail, found that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/23/obama-cant-point-to-a-single-time-the-nsa-call-records-program-prevented-a-terrorist-attack/" type="external">not a single one</a> had merit.</p>
<p>Whatever the case, while taxpayer dollars flowed into your coffers, no one considered it a problem that the country lacked 17 overlapping outfits bent on preventing approximately <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm" type="external">400,000</a> deaths by firearms in the same years; nor 17 interlocked agencies dedicated to safety on our roads, where more than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year" type="external">450,000</a> Americans have died since 9/11. (An American, it has been calculated, is <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/youre-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-a-toddler-than-a-terrorist.html" type="external">1,904</a> times more likely to die in a car accident than in a terrorist attack.) Almost all the money and effort have instead been focused on the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/americans-are-as-likely-to-be-killed-by-their-own-furniture-as-by-terrorism/258156/" type="external">microscopic number</a> of terrorist plots—some spurred on by <a href="" type="internal">FBI plants</a>—that have occurred on American soil in that period. On the conviction that Americans must be shielded from them above all else and on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175402/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_100%25_doctrine_in_washington/" type="external">fear</a> that 9/11 bred in this country, you’ve built an intelligence structure unlike any other on the planet when it comes to size, reach, and labyrinthine complexity.</p>
<p>It’s quite an achievement, especially when you consider its one downside: it has a terrible record of getting anything right in a timely way. Never have so many had access to so much information about our world and yet been so unprepared for whatever happens in it.</p>
<p>When it comes to getting ahead of the latest developments on the planet, the ones that might really mean something to the government it theoretically serves, the IC is—as best we can tell from the record it largely prefers to hide—almost always behind the 8-ball. It seems to have been caught off guard regularly enough to defy any imaginable odds.</p>
<p>Think about it, and think hard. Since 9/11 (which might be considered the intelligence equivalent of original sin when it comes to missing the mark), what exactly are the triumphs of a system the likes of which the world has never seen before? One and only one event is sure to come immediately to mind: the tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden. (Hey, Hollywood promptly made a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175636/tomgram%3A_karen_greenberg,_how_zero_dark_thirty_brought_back_the_bush_administration_/" type="external">movie</a> out of it!) Though he was by then essentially a toothless figurehead, an icon of jihadism and little else, the raid that killed him is the single obvious triumph of these years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Otherwise, globally from the Egyptian spring and the Syrian disaster to the crisis in Ukraine, American intelligence has, as far as we can tell, regularly been one step late and one assessment short, when not simply blindsided by events. As a result, the Obama administration often seems in a state of eternal surprise at developments across the globe. Leaving aside the issue of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senate-report-attack-on-us-compound-in-benghazi-could-have-been-prevented/2014/01/15/5e197224-7de9-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html" type="external">intelligence failures</a> in the death of an American ambassador in Benghazi, for instance, is there any indication that the IC offered President Obama a warning on Libya before he decided to intervene and topple that country’s autocrat, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011? What we know is that he was <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-03/news/ct-oped-0403-chapman-20110403_1_president-obama-benghazi-barack-obama" type="external">told</a>, incorrectly <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/04/14/false_pretense_for_war_in_libya/" type="external">it seems</a>, that there would be a “bloodbath,” possibly amounting to a genocidal act, if Gaddafi’s troops reached the city of Benghazi.</p>
<p>Might an agency briefer have suggested what any reading of the results of America’s twenty-first century military actions across the Greater Middle East would have taught an observant analyst with no access to inside information: that the fragmentation of Libyan society, the growth of Islamic militancy (as elsewhere in the region), and chaos would likely follow? We have to assume not, though today the catastrophe of Libya and the destabilization of a far wider region of Africa is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/world/africa/militias-seize-control-of-libyan-capital.html" type="external">obvious</a>.</p>
<p>Let’s focus for a moment, however, on a case where more is known. I’m thinking of the development that only recently riveted the Obama administration and sent it tumbling into America’s third Iraq war, causing literal <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175898/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_back_to_the_future_in_iraq/" type="external">hysteria</a> in Washington. Since June, the most successful terror group in history has emerged full blown in Syria and Iraq, amid a surge in jihadi recruitment across the Greater Middle East and Africa. The Islamic State (IS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which sprang to life during the US occupation of that country, has set up a mini-state, a “caliphate,” in the heart of the Middle East. Part of the territory it captured was, of course, in the very country the US garrisoned and occupied for eight years, in which it had assumedly developed countless sources of information and recruited agents of all sorts. And yet, by all accounts, when IS’s militants suddenly swept across northern Iraq, the CIA in particular found itself high and dry.</p>
<p>The IC seems not to have <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-spies-missed-urgency-of-islamic-state-threat-in-iraq-1407717475" type="external">predicted</a> the group’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/world/middleeast/obama-fault-is-shared-in-misjudging-of-isis-threat.html" type="external">rapid growth or spread</a>; nor, though there was at least some prior knowledge of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/world/middleeast/american-intelligence-officials-said-iraqi-military-had-been-in-decline.html" type="external">decline</a> of the Iraqi army, did anyone imagine that such an American created, trained, and armed force would so summarily collapse. <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/06/12/jihadist_gains_in_iraq_blindside_american_spies" type="external">Unforeseen</a> was the way its officers would desert their troops who would, in turn, shed their uniforms and flee Iraq’s major northern cities, abandoning all their American equipment to Islamic State militants.</p>
<p>Nor could the intelligence community even settle on a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-intelligence-agencies-remain-uncertain-about-danger-posed-by-islamic-state/2014/09/13/23245e84-3aa6-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html" type="external">basic figure</a> for how many of those militants there were. In fact, in part because IS assiduously uses couriers for its messaging instead of cell phones and emails, until a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/15/iraq-isis-arrest-jihadists-wealth-power" type="external">chance arrest</a> of a key militant in June, the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/1/cia-blamed-iraq-intel-failure-isis-rise/?page=all" type="external">CIA</a> and the rest of the IC evidently knew next to nothing about the group or its leadership, had no serious assessment of its strength and goals, nor any <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/09/james_clapper_on_how_we_undere.html" type="external">expectation</a> that it would sweep through and take most of Sunni Iraq. And that should be passing strange. After all, it now turns out that much of the future leadership of IS had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/world/middleeast/army-know-how-seen-as-factor-in-isis-successes.html" type="external">spent time together</a> in the US military’s Camp Bucca prison just years earlier.</p>
<p>All you have to do is follow the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brenner/intelligence-failure-in-i_b_5544340.html" type="external">surprised comments</a> of various top administration officials, including the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/14/isis-still-baffles-us-intelligence-agencies.html" type="external">president</a>, as ISIS made its mark and declared its caliphate, to grasp just how ill-prepared 17 agencies and $68 billion can leave you when your world turns upside down. &#160;</p>
<p>Producing Subprime Intelligence as a Way of Life</p>
<p>In some way, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/series/the-snowden-files" type="external">remarkable NSA revelations</a> of Edward Snowden may have skewed our view of American intelligence. The question, after all, isn’t simply: Who did they listen in on or surveil or gather communications from? It’s also: What did they find out? What did they draw from the mountains of information, the billions of bits of intelligence data that they were <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-boundless-informant-global-datamining" type="external">collecting</a> from individual countries monthly (Iran, 14 billion; Pakistan, 13.5 billion; Jordan, 12.7 billion, etc.)? What was their “intelligence”? And the answer seems to be that, thanks to the mind-boggling number of outfits doing America’s intelligence work and the <a href="http://www.wired.com/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/" type="external">yottabytes</a> of data they sweep up, the IC is a morass of information overload, data flooding, and collective blindness as to how our world works.</p>
<p>You might say that the American intelligence services encourage the idea that the world is only knowable in an atmosphere of big data and a penumbra of secrecy. As it happens, an open and open-minded assessment of the planet and its dangers would undoubtedly tell any government so much more. In that sense, the system bolstered and elaborated since 9/11 seems as close to worthless in terms of bang for the buck as any you could imagine. Which means, in turn, that we outsiders should view with a jaundiced eye the latest fear-filled estimates and overblown “predictions” from the IC that, as now with the tiny ( <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/28/u-s-officials-invented-terror-group-justify-bombing-syria/" type="external">possibly fictional</a>) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/world/middleeast/us-isis-syria.html" type="external">terror group</a> Khorasan, regularly fill our media with nightmarish images of American destruction.</p>
<p>If the IC’s post-9/11 effectiveness were being assessed on a corporate model, it’s hard not to believe that at least 15 of the agencies and outfits in its “community” would simply be axed and the other two downsized. (If the Republicans in Congress came across this kind of institutional tangle and record of failure in domestic civilian agencies, they would go after it with a meat cleaver.) I suspect that the government could learn far more about this planet by anteing up some modest sum to hire a group of savvy observers using only open-source information. For an absolute pittance, they would undoubtedly get a distinctly more actionable vision of how our world functions and its possible dangers to Americans. But of course we’ll never know. Instead, whatever clever analysts, spooks, and operatives exist in the maze of America’s spy and surveillance networks will surely remain buried there, while the overall system produces vast reams of subprime intelligence.</p>
<p>Clearly, having a labyrinth of 17 overlapping, paramilitarized, deeply secretive agencies doing versions of the same thing is the definition of counterproductive madness. Not surprisingly, the one thing the US intelligence community has resembled in these years is the US military, which since 9/11 has <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175854/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_a_record_of_unparalleled_failure/" type="external">failed to win</a> a war or accomplish more or less anything it set out to do.</p>
<p>On the other hand, all of the above assumes that the purpose of the IC is primarily to produce successful “intelligence” that leaves the White House a step ahead of the rest of the world. What if, however, it’s actually a system organized on the basis of failure? What if any work-product disaster is for the IC another kind of win.</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s worth thinking of those overlapping agencies as a fiendishly clever Rube Goldberg-style machine organized around the principle that failure is the greatest success of all. After all, in the system as it presently exists, every failure of intelligence is just another indication that more security, more secrecy, more surveillance, more spies, more drones are needed; only when you fail, that is, do you get more money for further expansion.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the twenty-first-century version of intelligence began amid a catastrophic failure: much crucial information about the 9/11 hijackers and hijackings was ignored or simply lost in the labyrinth. That failure, of course, led to one of the great intelligence expansions, or even explosions, in history. (And mind you, no figure in authority in the national security world was axed, demoted, or penalized in any way for 9/11 and a number of them were later given <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174840/engelhardt_freedom_as_theft" type="external">awards</a> and promoted.) However they may fail, when it comes to their budgets, their power, their reach, their secrecy, their careers, and their staying power, they have succeeded impressively.</p>
<p>You could, of course, say that the world is simply a hard place to know and the future, with its eternal surprises, is one territory that no country, no military, no set of intelligence agencies can <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175633/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_apocalypse_when/" type="external">occupy</a>, no matter how much they invest in doing so. An inability to predict the lay of tomorrow’s land may, in a way, be par for the course. If so, however, remind me: Why exactly are we supporting 17 versions of intelligence gathering to the tune of at least $68 billion a year?</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> as well as a history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>. He runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. His new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608463656/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World</a> (Haymarket Books), has just been published. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | America Spends $68 Billion a Year on 17 Major Intelligence Agencies. So Why Do We Keep Getting Caught Off-Guard? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/america-intelligence-off-guard-isis-arab-spring/ | 2014-10-01 | 4left
| 2,530 | The headquarters of the National Security Agency in Maryland amplta hrefhttpswwwflickrcomphotos116850025N0712388639744inphotolistjSK1YYcFhPDb9XE9R5awYzbbuwS46buwS4kmRKKTAc4LToSbsqPJNbsqPGyeaPVLFa9mwsReaPVgReaPVwreaPVoXeaPUVteaVwSGeaVxoybvAx35eaVwLmeaVxEG8HnAJ88HnAHTbFkHdD5FLqDf6EYEBPbS2unkbD7Lo35FK1PSbz9ogXbD7LoGbmZcMD5FEHVH7EAk5g7FhCTSct8j4f7EE9gj7FhCzS8oE6J7tr6ageHMCKpbMY3te9rmduSnpiToebq789obGDGtcbNfJukbB1pH9bA9d9Yh9x2XeampgtCreativeTime ReportsampltaampgtFlickr This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website What are the odds You put about 68 billion annually into a maze of 17 major intelligence outfits You build them glorious headquarters You create a global surveillance state for the ages You listen in on your citizenry and gather their communications in staggering quantities Your employees even morph into avatars and enter videogame landscapes lest any Americans betray a penchant for evil deeds while in entertainment mode You collect information on visits to porn sites just in case one day blackmail might be useful You pass around naked photos of them just for8230 well the salacious hell of it Your employees even use aspects of the system you8217ve created to stalk former lovers and within your arcane world that act of 8220spycraft8221 gains its own name LOVEINT You listen in on foreign leaders and politicians across the planet You bring on board hundreds of thousands of crony corporate employees creating the sinews of an intelligencecorporate complex of the first order You break into the 8220backdoors8221 of the data centers of major Internet outfits to collect user accounts You create new outfits within outfits including an everexpanding secret military and intelligence crew embedded inside the military itself and not counted among those 17 agencies Your leaders lie to Congress and the American people without as far as we can tell a flicker of selfdoubt Your acts are subject to secret courts which only hear your versions of events and regularly rubberstamp them8212and whose judgments and substantial body of lawmaking are far too secret for Americans to know about You have put extraordinary effort into ensuring that information about your world and the millions of documents you produce doesn8217t make it into our world You even have the legal ability to gag American organizations and citizens who might speak out on subjects that would displease you and they can8217t say that their mouths have been shut You undoubtedly spy on Congress You hack into congressional computer systems And if whistleblowers inside your world try to tell the American public anything unauthorized about what you8217re doing you prosecute them under the Espionage Act as if they were spies for a foreign power which in a sense they are since you treat the American people as if they were a foreign population You do everything to wreck their lives and8212should one escape your grasp8212you hunt him implacably to the ends of the Earth As for your top officials when their moment is past the revolving door is theirs to spin through into a lucrative mirror life in the intelligencecorporate complex amp160 What They Didn8217t Know Think of the world of the 8220US Intelligence Community8221 or IC as a nearperfect closed system and rare success story in twentyfirstcentury Washington In a capital riven by fierce political disagreements just about everyone agrees on the absolute total and ultimate importance of that 8220community8221 and whatever its top officials might decide in order to keep this country safe and secure Yes everything you8217ve done has been in the name of national security and the safety of Americans And as we8217ve discovered there is never enough security not at least when it comes to one thing the fiendish ability of 8220terrorists8221 to threaten this country Admittedly terrorist attacks would rank above shark attacks but not much else on a list of post911 American dangers And for this you take profuse credit8212for that is the fact that there has never been a 8220second 9118221 In addition you take credit for breaking up all sorts of terror plans and plots aimed at this country including an amazing 54 of them reportedly foiled using the phone and email 8220metadata8221 of Americans gathered by the NSA As it happens a distinguished panel appointed by President Obama with security clearances that allowed them to examine these spectacular claims in detail found that not a single one had merit Whatever the case while taxpayer dollars flowed into your coffers no one considered it a problem that the country lacked 17 overlapping outfits bent on preventing approximately 400000 deaths by firearms in the same years nor 17 interlocked agencies dedicated to safety on our roads where more than 450000 Americans have died since 911 An American it has been calculated is 1904 times more likely to die in a car accident than in a terrorist attack Almost all the money and effort have instead been focused on the microscopic number of terrorist plots8212some spurred on by FBI plants8212that have occurred on American soil in that period On the conviction that Americans must be shielded from them above all else and on the fear that 911 bred in this country you8217ve built an intelligence structure unlike any other on the planet when it comes to size reach and labyrinthine complexity It8217s quite an achievement especially when you consider its one downside it has a terrible record of getting anything right in a timely way Never have so many had access to so much information about our world and yet been so unprepared for whatever happens in it When it comes to getting ahead of the latest developments on the planet the ones that might really mean something to the government it theoretically serves the IC is8212as best we can tell from the record it largely prefers to hide8212almost always behind the 8ball It seems to have been caught off guard regularly enough to defy any imaginable odds Think about it and think hard Since 911 which might be considered the intelligence equivalent of original sin when it comes to missing the mark what exactly are the triumphs of a system the likes of which the world has never seen before One and only one event is sure to come immediately to mind the tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden Hey Hollywood promptly made a movie out of it Though he was by then essentially a toothless figurehead an icon of jihadism and little else the raid that killed him is the single obvious triumph of these years Otherwise globally from the Egyptian spring and the Syrian disaster to the crisis in Ukraine American intelligence has as far as we can tell regularly been one step late and one assessment short when not simply blindsided by events As a result the Obama administration often seems in a state of eternal surprise at developments across the globe Leaving aside the issue of intelligence failures in the death of an American ambassador in Benghazi for instance is there any indication that the IC offered President Obama a warning on Libya before he decided to intervene and topple that country8217s autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 What we know is that he was told incorrectly it seems that there would be a 8220bloodbath8221 possibly amounting to a genocidal act if Gaddafi8217s troops reached the city of Benghazi Might an agency briefer have suggested what any reading of the results of America8217s twentyfirst century military actions across the Greater Middle East would have taught an observant analyst with no access to inside information that the fragmentation of Libyan society the growth of Islamic militancy as elsewhere in the region and chaos would likely follow We have to assume not though today the catastrophe of Libya and the destabilization of a far wider region of Africa is obvious Let8217s focus for a moment however on a case where more is known I8217m thinking of the development that only recently riveted the Obama administration and sent it tumbling into America8217s third Iraq war causing literal hysteria in Washington Since June the most successful terror group in history has emerged full blown in Syria and Iraq amid a surge in jihadi recruitment across the Greater Middle East and Africa The Islamic State IS an offshoot of alQaeda in Iraq which sprang to life during the US occupation of that country has set up a ministate a 8220caliphate8221 in the heart of the Middle East Part of the territory it captured was of course in the very country the US garrisoned and occupied for eight years in which it had assumedly developed countless sources of information and recruited agents of all sorts And yet by all accounts when IS8217s militants suddenly swept across northern Iraq the CIA in particular found itself high and dry The IC seems not to have predicted the group8217s rapid growth or spread nor though there was at least some prior knowledge of the decline of the Iraqi army did anyone imagine that such an American created trained and armed force would so summarily collapse Unforeseen was the way its officers would desert their troops who would in turn shed their uniforms and flee Iraq8217s major northern cities abandoning all their American equipment to Islamic State militants Nor could the intelligence community even settle on a basic figure for how many of those militants there were In fact in part because IS assiduously uses couriers for its messaging instead of cell phones and emails until a chance arrest of a key militant in June the CIA and the rest of the IC evidently knew next to nothing about the group or its leadership had no serious assessment of its strength and goals nor any expectation that it would sweep through and take most of Sunni Iraq And that should be passing strange After all it now turns out that much of the future leadership of IS had spent time together in the US military8217s Camp Bucca prison just years earlier All you have to do is follow the surprised comments of various top administration officials including the president as ISIS made its mark and declared its caliphate to grasp just how illprepared 17 agencies and 68 billion can leave you when your world turns upside down amp160 Producing Subprime Intelligence as a Way of Life In some way the remarkable NSA revelations of Edward Snowden may have skewed our view of American intelligence The question after all isn8217t simply Who did they listen in on or surveil or gather communications from It8217s also What did they find out What did they draw from the mountains of information the billions of bits of intelligence data that they were collecting from individual countries monthly Iran 14 billion Pakistan 135 billion Jordan 127 billion etc What was their 8220intelligence8221 And the answer seems to be that thanks to the mindboggling number of outfits doing America8217s intelligence work and the yottabytes of data they sweep up the IC is a morass of information overload data flooding and collective blindness as to how our world works You might say that the American intelligence services encourage the idea that the world is only knowable in an atmosphere of big data and a penumbra of secrecy As it happens an open and openminded assessment of the planet and its dangers would undoubtedly tell any government so much more In that sense the system bolstered and elaborated since 911 seems as close to worthless in terms of bang for the buck as any you could imagine Which means in turn that we outsiders should view with a jaundiced eye the latest fearfilled estimates and overblown 8220predictions8221 from the IC that as now with the tiny possibly fictional terror group Khorasan regularly fill our media with nightmarish images of American destruction If the IC8217s post911 effectiveness were being assessed on a corporate model it8217s hard not to believe that at least 15 of the agencies and outfits in its 8220community8221 would simply be axed and the other two downsized If the Republicans in Congress came across this kind of institutional tangle and record of failure in domestic civilian agencies they would go after it with a meat cleaver I suspect that the government could learn far more about this planet by anteing up some modest sum to hire a group of savvy observers using only opensource information For an absolute pittance they would undoubtedly get a distinctly more actionable vision of how our world functions and its possible dangers to Americans But of course we8217ll never know Instead whatever clever analysts spooks and operatives exist in the maze of America8217s spy and surveillance networks will surely remain buried there while the overall system produces vast reams of subprime intelligence Clearly having a labyrinth of 17 overlapping paramilitarized deeply secretive agencies doing versions of the same thing is the definition of counterproductive madness Not surprisingly the one thing the US intelligence community has resembled in these years is the US military which since 911 has failed to win a war or accomplish more or less anything it set out to do On the other hand all of the above assumes that the purpose of the IC is primarily to produce successful 8220intelligence8221 that leaves the White House a step ahead of the rest of the world What if however it8217s actually a system organized on the basis of failure What if any workproduct disaster is for the IC another kind of win Perhaps it8217s worth thinking of those overlapping agencies as a fiendishly clever Rube Goldbergstyle machine organized around the principle that failure is the greatest success of all After all in the system as it presently exists every failure of intelligence is just another indication that more security more secrecy more surveillance more spies more drones are needed only when you fail that is do you get more money for further expansion Keep in mind that the twentyfirstcentury version of intelligence began amid a catastrophic failure much crucial information about the 911 hijackers and hijackings was ignored or simply lost in the labyrinth That failure of course led to one of the great intelligence expansions or even explosions in history And mind you no figure in authority in the national security world was axed demoted or penalized in any way for 911 and a number of them were later given awards and promoted However they may fail when it comes to their budgets their power their reach their secrecy their careers and their staying power they have succeeded impressively You could of course say that the world is simply a hard place to know and the future with its eternal surprises is one territory that no country no military no set of intelligence agencies can occupy no matter how much they invest in doing so An inability to predict the lay of tomorrow8217s land may in a way be par for the course If so however remind me Why exactly are we supporting 17 versions of intelligence gathering to the tune of at least 68 billion a year Tom Engelhardt is a cofounder of the American Empire Project and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War The End of Victory Culture He runs the Nation Institute8217s TomDispatchcom His new book Shadow Government Surveillance Secret Wars and a Global Security State in a SingleSuperpower World Haymarket Books has just been published To stay on top of important articles like these sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatchcom here | The/DET headquarters/NOUN of/ADP the/DET National/PROPN Security/PROPN Agency/PROPN in/ADP Maryland/PROPN amplta/NOUN hrefhttpswwwflickrcomphotos116850025N0712388639744inphotolistjSK1YYcFhPDb9XE9R5awYzbbuwS46buwS4kmRKKTAc4LToSbsqPJNbsqPGyeaPVLFa9mwsReaPVgReaPVwreaPVoXeaPUVteaVwSGeaVxoybvAx35eaVwLmeaVxEG8HnAJ88HnAHTbFkHdD5FLqDf6EYEBPbS2unkbD7Lo35FK1PSbz9ogXbD7LoGbmZcMD5FEHVH7EAk5g7FhCTSct8j4f7EE9gj7FhCzS8oE6J7tr6ageHMCKpbMY3te9rmduSnpiToebq789obGDGtcbNfJukbB1pH9bA9d9Yh9x2XeampgtCreativeTime/NOUN 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