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Trauma and the Black community
A dive into national oppression, violence and trauma in Jacksonville, Florida
Analysis by Christina Kittle |
Read more articles in Anti-racism
Jacksonville Community Action Committee building opposition to police crimes. (Fight Back! News)
Jacksonville, FL - The United States has a notorious history with the national oppression of Black people. In the South, remnants of slave society exist as a constant reminder of this - Confederate street names, school names and monuments are physical reminders one encounters daily - but we see it also manifest in the social structure of the Black Belt South – the historically constituted nation of Black people in the United States.
The Black Belt South originally referred to the dark, rich soil geographically native to the region. The use of Black slave labor to cultivate this soil, however, changed the meaning of the term. Even after the abolition of slavery, the majority of Black families were left in the area with no land reform or resources to relocate. Since reparations were never distributed to former slaves or their descendants, many Black individuals and families were stuck in Deep South plantation culture, despite being ‘free.’ This poor start to ‘freedom,’ mixed with lingering racism harbored by the plantation owners who faced no retribution for their crimes against Black people, have impacted the Black Belt in the form of extreme social and economic repression.
The Black Belt has the highest concentration of African American and Caribbean American Black residents. It is also home to the lowest wages, lowest education rates and highest poverty rates in the country. These implications can be examined through the structure of Jacksonville, Florida – a city near the southern portion of the Black Belt.
Jacksonville, Florida is a hub for violence, and the numbers prove it. In the city’s 2017 homicide report, the number one cause of death was getting shot, while the second cause was getting shot by the police.
Jacksonville’s 2018 back-to-school season saw two mass shootings. Raines High School experienced a mass shooting during a football game against rival team Lee High School on August 24. Two days later at the Jacksonville Landing, a well-known landmark downtown, another mass shooting took place during a Madden NFL video game tournament.
Both incidents were carried out by young men, and both happened on the same weekend. Individually, however, they received very different coverage, coverage that mirrors how the U.S. media portrays whites positively and Blacks negatively. The coverage of each story reflects the racist national oppression of Blacks in Jacksonville and the Black Belt.
Consolidation, poverty, and the Black community
Raines High School sits north of Jacksonville’s 45th Street and Moncrief Road, also known as Jacksonville’s Northside. Historically, Blacks make up the majority of Jacksonville’s Northside – and this continues to be the case today. From the late 1800s to the early 1960s, before Urban Renewal plans hit neighborhoods in an attempt to ‘desegregate,’ the Northside experienced a Black renaissance. The area was formerly known as Sugar Hill.
Regarded as a ‘prestigious, upscale suburb,’ Sugar Hill included present-day Davis Street, Jefferson Street, Moncrief Road, and 8th Street. The neighborhood economically benefited by having a Black-owned hospital, George A. Brewster Hospital & School of Nurse Training, the Duval Medical Center, as well as a Black higher learning center prior to 1924 called the Cookman Institute. The Darnell Cookman School still stands on the intersection of present day Davis Street and 8th Street as a middle and high school.
Sugar Hill’s prosperity, however, came to an abrupt end with the addition of the Interstate-95 expressway in 1960. The expressway cut through the neighborhood and required the demolition of Black-owned homes and businesses in Sugar Hill during its construction.
For the Black-owned businesses not demolished by construction, the new interstate redirected traffic completely over and away from the neighborhood. Potential customers would no longer know these businesses even existed unless they took an exit. With the end of legal segregation and the passing of Civil Rights legislation, city politicians argued there was “no longer a need for a Black hospital.” In 1966, Brewster Hospital closed, which also landed a devastating economic blow to the area.
These actions arrived just three years before the city’s historic Consolidation Plan. The Consolidation Plan aimed to consolidate the outer suburbs of Jacksonville, which were predominantly white, under the same leadership as the urban core of Jacksonville, which was predominantly Black. This was a form of voter suppression. With consolidation efforts officially passing in 1968, Jacksonville’s Black leadership began to dissipate as white votes poured in from the surrounding areas suddenly recognized as Duval County. Jacksonville is the largest city in the United States by land area because of this consolidation.
These economic and political attacks have created many problems for Black people in Jacksonville, ranging from material difficulties to mental health issues. The conditions on the Northside remain desperate in the wake of natural disasters, like Hurricane Irma in 2017, which flooded out the Ken Knight Drive area ; the area received no aid from the city to rebuild. All of these forms of oppression forced upon the Black community often leads to individuals suffering from complex trauma. Complex trauma is a psychological disorder that can develop in response to prolonged, repeated negative experiences from which the individual has little or no chance of escape.
Present-day crime and city spending
Most violent crimes in Jacksonville are shootings. In a very failed effort to combat this, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office attempts to out-police violent gun crime. Since there is no way to actually ‘out-police’ crime - what the city sees instead is that police shootings rank as the number-two cause of homicide in Jacksonville.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams asks for more funding around the same time of year (back-to-school season/election and budget season) based on the idea that more cops will help “crack down on crime.” However there have been no conclusive studies to prove this claim. The recent spike in violent crime in Jacksonville, despite city council leaders voting to increase the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) budget by $4.4 million and add 80 new officers in 2017, further illustrates that there is no correlation between more cops and less crime.
Crime results from the failures of the current system, which can only be swept away with a radical restructuring of society that places poor and working people in charge. The rich and powerful create the material conditions that lead to crime by depriving people of access to basic human needs. We can fight for increased spending on after-school programs, greater investments in public health and infrastructure, better job opportunities, public transportation and accessible mental health treatment as important ways to reduce crime as we fight for a better world.
The 2018-2019 Jacksonville city budget, which passed despite several organized community speakouts against it, adds $30 million in additional funding to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Many people, particularly the Black community, expressed through several ways that $30 million could be better spent on programs and infrastructure that actually reduce crime rates.
Activists with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC), some of whom are members of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), led community members and other activist organizations in demanding city leaders redirect funds to social programs such as after school and other youth programs, rehabilitation centers and accessible mental health. However, the city, once again, voted to allocate funds towards disproportionately over-policing the Jacksonville area. They ignored the growing tide of activists fighting for community control of the police and an elected civilian police accountability council that could hold the police accountable for their crimes.
Racist reporting and lack of urgency
Early in 2018 Jacksonville made national news for the JSO inaccurately reporting five attacks on Black transgender and queer people, which included four fatalities. JSO’s investigation did not comply with the Matthew Shepard, James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act, which is a federal law mandating that police recognize the perceived identity of a victim, regardless of their legal name and gender marker. JSO failed to comply with this in their reporting, despite community activists and advocates informing them of the discrepancy.
This was incredibly disrespectful towards Black transgender people. It also allowed important evidence to disappear during the most critical hours of the investigation. For the first investigation, the police asked witnesses if they knew “DeVonne Walker,” while everyone knew her as Celine Walker. The Black transgender community, though small, suffered incredible trauma from both her death and the lack of urgency for justice and respect shown by JSO. This was repeated again and again after the four attacks on the same community that followed. Not only did the police fail to bring justice, but they insulted the victims again and again.
“The Black LGBT community is scared right now,” said the director of Coalition for Consent, a local gender liberation group led by Black and oppressed nationality activists. “It’s traumatic to see so many attacks back to back, but considering that there was no warning from officials or police about the targeting of Black transgender people really adds a disturbing aspect. It shows how much Black lives matter to them. If it were any other group of people, there would be warnings issued to help protect that community.”
A terrible aspect to these cases – one often seen in police reports about murdered Black people – is the suggestive language used by the police. It is not uncommon for reports to suggest that victims ‘deserved’ their fate in some way when it is a Black death in question.
For the Black transgender attacks in Jacksonville, it is important to note that an extension of the 2009 Matthew Shepard, James Byrd Jr. Act also claims that victims have a right to an investigation even if they were engaged in illicit acts such as sex work or drug dealing.
Despite these federal protections, reports from the JSO heavily suggested that Celine Walker was engaged in sex work because she was found in a hotel room. By adding this to the public reports, it muted the urgency in finding her killer. It suggested to the public that somehow, she deserved her fate because of her perceived lifestyle choices.
This is the same type of reporting we saw in 2016 when 22-year-old Vernell Bing was shot by Officer Tyler Laundreville on 9th and Liberty Street – an area formerly part of Sugar Hill. Initial police reports mentioned drugs and firearms were involved. Though later reports admitted that neither were actually present at the scene of Bing’s murder, the initial statements stuck in the media. This allowed JSO to paint Bing as a ‘thug’ and allowed Laundreville to keep his position on the force. This was one of the first local cases that started the fight for community control of the police in Jacksonville and demonstrated the need for a police accountability council.
Keegan Roberts, a Black working-class father, was murdered in his own front yard by a racist vigilante neighbor. Police reports said he had marijuana on him at the time of his death. This was an unnecessary addition since he was not being targeted by the police at all for anything illegal. Keegan was killed by his white neighbor over a small piece of litter. Keegan’s neighbor walked over to Keegan’s side of the street and murdered him while hurling racial slurs at Keegan and Keegan’s pregnant wife because he believed Keegan was responsible for a small piece of trash that had blown onto his lawn. The attempt to suggest that victim had drugs on him is a common tactic to deny the killer’s accountability. It also reinforces the notion that Keegan somehow deserved to be killed on his own property over a piece of trash. Neither the cops, the state attorney, or other city leaders have to do anything because Keegan ‘deserved it.’
Jacksonville also made national news in 2017 from an award-winning article by the Florida Times Union and Pro Publica titled “Walking While Black” which exposed illegal stop and frisk procedures and racial profiling of Jacksonville’s Black community. When asked by the JCAC if this was common practice by the JSO against Black civilians, Undersheriff Pat Ivey did not even seem to realize that stop-and-frisks were illegal. He admitted that they were a common method used by JSO to stop people and search them.
Overpoliced, facing discrimination and impoverished, the Black community in Jacksonville battles these conditions and all the problems they bring. Suffering from police crimes and a general lack of urgency when justice is needed, the community must also fight to hold the police accountable to the community.
Violent crimes: The double standard
According to Child Poverty as a Potential Developmental Trauma: Shame, Self-Esteem, and Redignification of Childhood, children living in extreme poverty suffer from trauma. Extreme poverty, with unaffordable childcare options, little to no after school youth programs, and parents working 50 hour work weeks, negatively impact children. Extreme poverty also leads to whole communities suffering from high crime rates as people struggle to survive. When crime is on the rise like it is in Jacksonville, the material conditions that cause crime must be addressed. In Jacksonville these conditions continue to be ignored, and more violent outbursts are seen, often targeting young people.
Black ‘gang’ violence was immediately associated with the shooting at Raines High School on the Northside by the police and media. This paints a negative picture of everyone involved, including the victims. The shooter at The Landing, a young white male gamer, was immediately deemed mentally ill. This dampens the call for accountability around the white shooter. These are dangerous reports in a city with a strong history of racism and demonstrate a double standard.
Tweets from the white shooter at The Landing revealed a hatred of women, hatred of humanity in general, and reverence for other mass killers like the Columbine, Colorado shooters. Media reports paint a picture of a lonely young man let down by society. As outlined above, Black youth are let down by society more often than not, but most mass shooters are white males. The fact is that mental illness does not correlate to violent crime.
Both shooters are murderers and must still be held accountable for their actions. Prevention should be taken more seriously, and care must be taken when reporting tragedies like these to avoid racist stereotypes and stereotypes against those who suffer from mental illness. It is wrong to associate violent crime with mental illness while ignoring the real material reasons behind everything. The rich and powerful are to blame for creating the conditions which produce crime. Only when the working class is in power can these conditions be swept away.
National oppression and the struggle for liberation
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, humans first have physiological needs that must be met, i.e.: food, water and shelter, and then the next set of needs that must be met are safety and belonging. People need these requirements to be met, but when we do a breakdown of the Black community in Jacksonville, homelessness and unemployment rates suggest that many people go without basic needs. According to the 2012 Homeless Coalition Report, the homeless population is 55% Black while only accounting for 24% of the total population in Duval, Nassau and Clay counties.
While food, water and shelter are inaccessible to many Black people, particularly those in Jacksonville’s urban core, everyone suffers. For children living in poverty, some reports say they are three times as likely as an adult combat war veteran to suffer from complex post-traumatic stress disorder. According to the Florida Times Union, 23% of Duval County is under the age of 18. A quarter of those under the age of 18 live below the poverty line. Of those living below the poverty line, 58% are Black and 32% are white. Poverty, homelessness, limited job opportunities, high unemployment rates and racism leave the Black community much less prosperous than it was back in the days of Sugar Hill. These factors especially affect the youth struggling to survive in these conditions.
Cities like Jacksonville need to make sure that the basic needs of the community are met from the physiological (food, water, shelter) to psychological (safety and belonging). It is clearly not in the interest of the rich and powerful who rule society to ensure that basic human needs are met. It is up to the working class and oppressed nations, like the Black Belt nation, to fight to change society from the ground up and win political power away from the 1%.
In the Black Belt South, the struggle for self-determination faces political, economic, historical and mental oppression. It is only through militant, dedicated organizing efforts that the people’s movements are growing and cities like Jacksonville are organizing and fighting back.
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Procedure : 2016/2754(RSP)
Document selected : B8-0770/2016
B8-0770/2016
See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B8-0755/2016
PE596.936v01-00
with request for inclusion in the agenda for a debate on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law
pursuant to Rule 135 of the Rules of Procedure
on the situation of prisoners of conscience in Tajikistan (2016/2754(RSP))
Urmas Paet, Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, Marielle de Sarnez, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Valentinas Mazuronis, Beatriz Becerra Basterrechea, Petras Auštrevičius, Filiz Hyusmenova, Pavel Telička, Nedzhmi Ali, Dita Charanzová, Martina Dlabajová, José Inácio Faria, Fredrick Federley, Nathalie Griesbeck, Marian Harkin, Ivan Jakovčić, Louis Michel, Javier Nart, Maite Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz, Carolina Punset, Frédérique Ries, Robert Rochefort, Marietje Schaake, Jasenko Selimovic, Hannu Takkula, Ivo Vajgl, Hilde Vautmans, Cecilia Wikström, Paavo Väyrynen, María Teresa Giménez Barbat, Ulrike Müller on behalf of the ALDE Group
NB: This motion for a resolution is available in the original language only.
European Parliament resolution on the situation of prisoners of conscience in Tajikistan (2016/2754(RSP))
B8‑0770/2016
The European Parliament,
-having regard to its previous resolution on Tajikistan of 17 September 2009,
-having regard to its report on the implementation and review of the EU-Central Asia Strategy of 13 April 2016,
-having regard to the Council conclusions on the EU Strategy for Central Asia of 22 June 2015,
-having regard to the EU-Tajikistan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement of 1 January 2010,
-having regard to art. 7, 8 and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
-having regard to art. 9, 10 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
-having regard to The United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers;
-having regard to Tajikistan's Action Plan for implementation of the recommendations issued by the Committee against Torture of August 2013;
-having regard to Freedom House's annual scoreboard;
-having regard to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index;
-having regard to Rule 135 of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas on 17 September 2009, the European Parliament gave its assent to a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the EC and the Republic of Tajikistan; whereas PCA was signed in 2004 and came into force on 1 January 2010;
B. whereas since 1992, the EU - Tajikistan cooperation has expanded to a large amount of areas, among others human rights and democracy;
C. whereas the EU has a vital interest in stepping up political, economic and security cooperation with the Central Asian region via a strong and open EU‑Tajikistan relationship based on rule of law, democracy and human rights;
D. Whereas Tajikistan, according to Freedom House, is characterized by intolerance of political pluralism, misuse of the court system to neutralize voices of dissent, widespread violations of human rights, and a corrupt and non-transparent judicial system where torture is used as a means to extract confessions;
E. Whereas Tajikistan, according to Transparency International, ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in the world;
F. Whereas a serious governmental crackdown on opposition activists, lawyers and journalists following peaceful criticism of the government has taken place in Tajikistan in recent years;
G. Whereas Abubakr Azizkhodzhaev was detained in February 2016 for publicly speaking out about corruption and nepotism at the very highest level of government in Tajikistan and has allegedly been the subject of mistreatment and torture and has had very limited access to his family during his detention;
H. Whereas several lawyers, among others Shukhrat Kudratov, Fakhriddin Zokirov, Buzurgmehr Yorov, Nuriddin Makhkamov, Dilbar Dodojonova and the sons of opposition lawyer Izkhak Tabarov, Firuz and Daler Tabarov, have been arrested or imprisoned since 2014;
I. Whereas the opposition parties Group 24 and the moderate Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan were forcedly closed in October 2014 and September 2015, respectively;
J. Whereas the leader of Group 24, Umarali Kuvvatov, was shot dead in his exile in Istanbul in March 2015, and other opposition figures have been harassed or kidnapped outside Tajikistan;
K. Whereas the law "on public Associations" makes it mandatory for NGOs to declare all grants received from donors abroad or from international organisations to a specialized register at the Ministry of Justice; whereas public foundations, which are not covered by the Law “On Public Associations” but registered with tax authorities, are also affected with the Tax Committee having recently started rejecting registration applications and referring them to the Ministry of Justice, having no competence over them according to national law;
L. Whereas a new law on the Bar Association adopted in November 2015 requires all lawyers to renew their legal licences with the Ministry of Justice and to retake the bar examination every five years; whereas lawyers are concerned that the test is used to exclude those defending politically sensitive cases;
M. Whereas the government uses restrictive media legislation and regulations to curb independent reporting and is frequently blocking online media outlets and social media networks;
1. Stresses the importance of relations between the EU and Tajikistan and of strengthening cooperation in all areas; highlights the EU interest in a sustainable relationship with Tajikistan in terms of political and economic cooperation;
2. Deeply regrets the lack of respect for basic standards on human rights, rule of law and independence of and fairness in the judicial system in Tajikistan;
3. Calls on Tajikistan to comply with its international human rights and rule of law commitments, to guarantee the transparency in court proceedings and a right to a fair trial, and to review the newly adopted Law on the Bar Association; reminds Tajikistan that even in the pursuit of security operations, the fundamental freedoms of Tajik citizens must be guaranteed.
4. Condemns the harassment and persecution of critical journalists, independent media and private citizens expressing their points of view and the use of politically motivated charges against these critics; condemns the restrictions against civil society organisations, notably those receiving foreign funding; equally condemns the blocking of social media;
5. Calls for the immediate release of Abubakr Azizkhodzhaev, Shukhrat Kudratov, Buzurgmehr Yorov, Nuriddin Makhkamov and Dilbar Dodojonova and for the release of all other lawyers, activists, journalists and others critical of the government imprisoned and detained on politically motivated charges;
6. Calls for a fully independent investigation of the arrest and subsequent conditions during imprisonment of Abubakr Azizkhodzhaev and calls for all officials found responsible for any mistreatment to be held accountable;
7. Strongly condemns the widespread use of torture and mistreatment in the judicial system in Tajikistan and urges the Tajik government to implement its Action Plan for implementation of the recommendations issued by the Committee against Torture of August 2013;
8. Calls on the Tajik government to ensure that all lawyers, including those defending human rights activists, IRPT members, victims of torture and clients accused of extremism, are able to conduct their work freely, without fear of threats or harassment;
9. Strongly urges the Tajik authorities to engage actively in the fight against corruption, nepotism and misuse of power;
10. Calls on the VP/High Representative and the EEAS to closely monitor developments in Tajikistan, to prioritise the promotion of democratic transformation and respect for human rights in Tajikistan and to offer assistance where needed and asked for;
11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Member States' governments and parliaments, the President, government and parliament of Tajikistan, and the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
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Kings and Camels: An American in Saudi Arabia
Grant C. Butler
First published in 1960, “Kings and Camels” is a straightforward account of how an American went to work in Saudi Arabia and came home to America to realize how little the average American appreciated the strategic importance of the area and, more crucially still, how little he understood the people in the area. Butler presents his material in the form of an informal account of his personal experiences in the Middle East, both while he lived there, working for the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO), and as a successful lecturer and writer who has returned to the area often.The book goes behind the scenes in the Arab world, and into private audience with the legendary Ibn Saud. It explains Islam, the religion of the Arabs. It introduces the reader to the desert Bedouin, and the Arab of the cities. It focuses on human interest, on the Americans who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia. Above all, the book’s emphasis is on the cultivation of understanding between the American and Arab peoples. It points out how vital such understanding is to Saudi Arabia, to the Arabs themselves, and to Americans.
Grant C. Butler worked in oil industry public relations for ten years, both in the Middle East and in the United States. He also gave thousands of lectures on the Arabs and the Middle East across America, and his articles and stories appeared in the Chicago Herald-American, the Los Angeles Times and The Christian Science Monitor.
Paperback • 152mm x 229mm • 136 pages • £12.95 • ISBN 9781859642009
Freya Stark in the Levant
The Architecture of Ottoman Istanbul
Garnet Publishing Ltd is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 2587010. Registered office: Garnet Publishing Ltd, 8 Southern Court, South Street, Reading, Berkshire RG1 4QS. VAT Registration Number: 569924090
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(603) 430-2970 info@iac-llc.net
Main Street, Concord, New Hampshire
Municipal Projects
SHOWN ABOVE: State House, Concord, NH (1857).
Recording features of the Captain Peter Robertson House in front of State House on Main Street, Concord..
In 2013, completed a Phase I Intensive Archaeological Investigation in front of the State House Plaza, beneath the broad sidewalk along Main Street in Concord, New Hampshire as part of the Concord Downtown Street Improvement Project. Partially funded by a TIGER grant and the City of Concord, the project focused on improving the streetscape, parking options and sidewalk amenities along Main Street.
A review of historic maps reveals that this open frontage has been maintained since the State House was built in 1819 and has endured through modifications to the building and grounds in the 1860s. Before the State House was constructed, the home of Captain Peter Robertson (a captain in the War of 1812) stood at the corner of Park Street and Main Street. Alleged to have been built in 1792, Capt Robertson’s house reportedly stood on the “north-east part” of the two-acre lot and moved in 1816 to make room for the State House. Remnants of the house or associated deposits may remain beneath the modern surface. In addition, there is the possibility that intact pre-Contact Native American archaeological resources may be present directly beneath modern concrete.
Feature 11 foundation stone associated with he Captain Peter Robertson House, c. 1792-1816.
The Phase IB intensive archaeological investigation resulted in the discovery of elements of the foundation that supported the Peter Robertson House. Diagnostic artifacts were consistent with an occupation date of ca. 1800 to 1815 but did not shed any light on the construction date of the house, said to range between 1792 and ca. 1810. These foundation stones were set directly into alluvial deposits and were no more than two courses high, representing the basal elements of the foundation. It may be that backyard deposits associated with the Captain Peter Robertson House are present beneath the lawn in front of the State House, outside of the boundaries of the project area.
The area was also evaluated with moderate sensitivity for Pre-Contact archaeological resources, as it is located on a broad floodplain approximately 400 m (1,300 ft) west of the Merrimack River. Archaeologists recovered one secondary flake of tan, mica-heavy rhyolite from the interface of the sub-base material and an oxidized B horizon, and it may be there was a more extensive Pre-Contact archaeological resource that was stripped away during the construction of the State House plaza. IAC did not see any thermal features or other evidence of Pre-Contact activity in any of the testholes.
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Portsmouth African Burial Ground Memorial Park Award
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Contact Us About Your Project
Email: info@iac-llc.net
Lab Location:
801 Islington St. Suite 31
© 2018. Independent Archaeological Consulting, LLC.
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Air Force Materiel Command Infrastructure Assessments
Under contract to the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Hardlines Design Company (HDC) assessed over 520 buildings located in Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and California; and created a manual with a computerized program and database to assist facility planners with future assessments.
The assessments covered the Air Force’s five infrastructure classifications: Buildings, Utilities, Pavements and Grounds, Airfields, and Water and Wastewater Treatment Systems. In each classification, the team analyzed subcomponents that are integral to the system’s overall physical condition. For example, the overall score that a building component received was determined by a weighted average of all associated subcomponent ratings. The condition of the total building, and hence installation infrastructure, was determined by the mathematical average of all associated rating systems.
The main purpose of the study was to perform a facility infrastructure condition study and to develop a baseline for evaluating the physical condition of the base. During the site survey, HDC also recorded deficiencies noted during the inspections to justify the numerical condition rating given to each inspected subcomponent.
Air Force Materiel Command
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by pattyhap1863 on May 12, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Posted In: Author-Pattyhap1863, Theoretical
~Written By Pattyhap1863~
The word poltergeist means ‘noisy ghost’ in German, and that is exactly how this entity manifests, by making noises or throwing objects. Many scientists believe that living human beings can produce this kind of activity. The explanation behind this suggests that pent-up energy that comes from stress, repressed anger, emotional trauma or the transition during puberty is what actually is witnessed during a poltergeist manifestation. However, some accounts show that a haunting can also begin with poltergeist activity and later progress until actual apparitions are glimpsed or photographed. How to tell, therefore, if it is a real ghost or if it can be rationally explained?
Poltergeists have been known to exist for centuries. In ancient times, however, most of this activity was blamed on witches and demons. How else could the ‘Bell Witch’ have come to existence? What frightened and tormented the Bell family could have indeed been the daughter’s suppressed emotional stress or anger while going through the stages of puberty. It’s curious that the ‘witch attacks’ were clearly centered on her most of the times. In those days, magic and demons were said to be the cause of anything unexplainable, and therefore the family did believe that they were under a curse that had turned their lives into a living nightmare. This ‘entity’ even promised to return seven years later and it then appeared to John Bell Jr. However, it failed to appear 107 years later as it had promised him, and the ‘witch’ has not been seen or heard of since. Nevertheless, there are reports of ‘ghosts’ haunting the area where the Bells used to live. This mystery lives on, and continues to fascinate hundreds of people.
An Artist’s rendition of Betsy Bell, originally published in 1894 (Wikimedia Commons)
Other famous poltergeist cases include the haunting of Borley rectory, and the famous Fox sisters. In both cases, one cannot help but wonder whether the poltergeist activity is indeed an indicator of a real haunting or that of a troubled family. In the case of the Fox sisters, for example, Margaret confessed to an audience of 2,000 people to having been the one who caused the rappings by cracking her toe! The story behind Borely Rectory, however, is more complicated. It was known to have been one of the most haunted places in England before it burned to the ground in 1939. Many people suspect that Reverend Bull’s children living in the rectory at the time probably invented what they witnessed or Reverend Guy Smith’s adopted child subconsciously produced the poltergeist attacks on her mother, Marianne. Whatever the case, there was a great deal of controversy surrounding Borley Rectory then and the place continues to be visited by people in hopes of catching a glimpse or photograph of the famous ghostly nun.
There is one case that also caused a lot of stir in the UK, and this is the case of the Enfield Poltergeist. This happened in the seventies, and there are photographs of the girls (especially the oldest, Janet) being thrown around the room or levitating. Also to note is the huge amount of evidence collected at the time. You can find all the evidence and read everything that was done to keep track of the phenomena at
http://www.zurichmansion.org/ghosts/video2.html#List%20of%20visitors%20to%20the%20house
This is to date, one of the most documented cases in the history of poltergeists. Even though people truly believe that the girls were haunted, there are many others who think that they were hoaxing it all. On the other hand, this just may be another case of the girls subconsciously producing the attacks on themselves, which could be the most likely logical explanation of the phenomena. One example of this is the case of the Rosenheim Polgergeist, where it was discovered later that Annemarie Schneider was going through a severe personal relationship trauma and suffered from neuroses. This only confirms that poltergeists may indeed be directly related to a person’s suppressed anxieties and emotional stress. What also must be noted here is that they could be ghosts, but ghosts that find it easier to focus on and manifest through emotionally disturbed people. In any case, poltergeists are truly an interesting journey into the unknown and should be researched in order to better understand the paranormal.
Noisy and aggressive ghosts that focus on certain young people, objects mysteriously appearing and disappearing, violent attacks and even shadowy apparitions all seem to point to poltergeist activity. And, even though poltergeists may be disproved, explained away or ‘buried’, they will continue to manifest and frighten us for many years to come.
Please make sure to visit Patyhap1863’s website by clicking the banner below!
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کد خبر: 235346تاریخ: 1397/9/15 12:23
Number of injured in Chabahar blast stands at 40
Head of the Medical Emergency Center of Iranshahr Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health-Medicare Services Mohammad Naseh said on Thursday that the number of injured people in the terrorist attacks stood at 40 while two people were killed.
Ten out of these 40 received outpatient medical treatment and were released while 30 others were hospitalized for medical care, he said, according to IRNA.
Two of the injured people are in a very critical situation and have been transferred to the operation room, he said.
The source, who wanted not to be named, said the driver of a Toyota Van, laden with explosives, tried to run into the police headquarters in Chabahar, but police were brave and vigilant enough to take timely action and prevent him to do so.
The suicide bomber then blew himself up at around 09:55 hours local time on Thursday and as a result, two police forces were martyred and the suicide attacker was killed, according to the official.
لینک مطلب: http://www.iran-daily.com/News/235346.html
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MainAll NewsInside IsraelTel Aviv Stops Rent-a-Bike Service on Yom Kippur
Tel Aviv Stops Rent-a-Bike Service on Yom Kippur
Tel Aviv mayor orders city-sponsored bicycle rental company to cease operations. The company rented bicycles for Yom Kippur.
The city of Tel Aviv has decided to discontinue its Yom Kippur bicycle rental service.
On Tuesday, Mayor Ron Huldai ordered that the city-sponsored “Tlat Ofan” (lit. tricycle) company cease its activities. The company had rented bicycles to residents who wished to use them during Yom Kippur.
On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, religious Jews fast and attend prayer services in the synagogue throughout the day. Many secular Israelis fast as well and, while they do not attend synagogue services, most Israelis refrain from driving cars out of respect for the sacred day. This has resulted in a habit of riding bicycles along city streets in place of cars.
Huldai’s decision was praised by Tel Aviv City Council member Binyamin Babayof of the Shas party. Babayof told Arutz Sheva individuals will still be able to ride bicycles in the streets on Yom Kippur, but that it will no longer be sponsored by the municipality.
“We asked that they take the holiest day of the year into account and not create provocations,” Babayof said. “Thankfully the mayor understood the significance of the matter.”
Babayof insisted that despite the decision there is absolutely no religious coercion in Tel Aviv.
“I’d be happy if everyone was in the synagogues on Yom Kippur, but we do not impose this on anyone,” he said. “However, there is a big difference between that and renting out bikes on Yom Kippur. Just as there is no public transportation on Yom Kippur, there’s no reason to operate a bike rental service.”
Babayof noted that Tel Aviv is a mixed city and as such there’s no reason not to take into account the needs of all populations.
“This is a mixed city: there are people who are elderly or disabled and each has his own needs,” he said. “I am a religious man and have the needs of a religious man.”
Tags:Tel Aviv, Yom Kippur, Bicycles, Ron Huldai
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MainAll NewsDefense/SecurityTerrorist Hospitalized Due to Hunger Strike
Terrorist Hospitalized Due to Hunger Strike
Ahmed Saadat, secretary general of the PFLP, hospitalized after refusing to accept food for 13 days.
Terrorist Prisoners (illustrative)
A Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist who has been on hunger strike for nearly two weeks was transferred on Sunday to the hospital wing of an Israeli prison near Tel Aviv, AFP reported.
Ahmed Saadat, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), began refusing food on April 17. The hunger strike is part of a mass hunger strike by terrorist prisoners and it is now being observed by least 1,350 such prisoners held in Israel.
Saadat was sentenced in 2008 to 30 years in prison for heading the PFLP. The PFLP is the same terror group that assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001. Saadat is suspected of planning the murder.
“Ahmed Saadat was transferred to the hospital wing of Ramle prison but we don't have any details about his condition,” Khalida Jarrar, a PFLP's MP in the Palestinian Authority government, told AFP.
Jarrar, said that Saadat, who was being held in Rimon prison in the southern Negev desert, had been refusing food for 13 days after starting an open-ended hunger strike along with some 1,200 other prisoners, a number which has since grown.
“Israel is responsible for his life because he is in an Israeli prison,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) confirmed that Saadat, who is in his late 50s, had been transferred to Ramle prison on Friday, saying it was a cautionary measure and describing his health as “good.”
“He was transferred to the prison medical facility due to his advanced age, in order to enable closer supervision,” Sivan Weizman told AFP. “He is in good condition.”
The mass hunger strike has been seen as another PR ploy for media attention by the Palestinian Authority for its unilateral demands for a state within Israel’s borders.
Israel recently released Khader Adnan, a Palestinian Authority terrorist prisoner who went on a 66-day hunger strike over his administrative detention.
Adnan, who had been hospitalized and released after his health deteriorated during the strike, was freed when Israel caved in to the pressure and agreed not to renew his administrative detention order.
Another terrorist prisoner, Hana Shalbi, had been previously released following a 43-day hunger strike.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said that Saadat's case will be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly.
Meshaal told journalists in Cairo that he had agreed on the course of action in talks with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
AFP quoted Meshaal as having said he was in “full coordination” with Abbas on the issue of the hunger-striking prisoners.
Meanwhile, the PA’s minister of prisoners, Issa Qaraqaa, told AFP that contacts were under way between the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Arab countries and the European Union to try to resolve the issue of the hunger striking prisoners in Israeli jails.
Tags:Terror, PFLP, hunger strike, Ahmed Saadat, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
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US Obsession With the Importance of the Mideast and Solving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
By Ivan Eland
Secretary of State John Kerry, bringing intensive Henry Kissinger-like shuttle diplomacy back into fashion to make another one of the periodic post-1948 U.S. attempts to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict once and for all, instead would better be compared to Wile E. Coyotes attempt to catch the ever-elusive Road Runner. Will the United States and its government officials never learn from the lessons of prior failures?
Kerry has made five trips to the Middle East since becoming secretary and is feverishly trying to prod the reluctant Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks, discontinued since 2010, before a likely divisive United Nations debate on the Middle East begins in September. The question of why is never asked.
It is just assumed that a superpower needs to shepherd, coax, and even bribe the two recalcitrant parties to do what is in their best interest to do anyway. For example, merely to entice Israel back to peace talks, the United States is apparently again bribing Israel with even greater U.S. guarantees of its security than already exist. But again, why should the United States go bankrupt to bring the resisting parties to the negotiating table?
Traditionally, the two contradictory pillars of U.S. policy toward the Middle East have been securing supplies of oil from Arab nations and support for Israel. Both have been presented as issues strategic to the United States, but that doesnt make it so. In my book, No War for Oil: U.S. Dependency and the Middle East, I debunk the myth that oil is any more strategic than any other product and argue that the oil market, free from military force or intimidation, is the cheapest way for the United States to get adequate supplies of the commodity. Despite all of the hype, Palestine also is not strategic to the United States and never has been. Even during the Cold War when having friends in the Middle East seemed vital, and continuing today, being an ally of Israel has meant diminished relations with all other countries of the region. Deep down, lobbying from domestic pressure groups in the United States, not a strategic imperative, has driven slavish U.S. support for Israel. Also, these domestic pressure groups demand that the United States continually beat its head against a wall to broker a chimerical Israeli peace with the Palestinians (and supposedly the Arab world), giving Israel a cover to steal Palestinian land.
The pro-Israel domestic pressure groups have tried to make any empathy for the Palestinian plight within the United States taboo and have tried to label any scrutiny or criticism of their own activities as anti-Semitic, which of course is ridiculous. In fact, the pro-Israel lobby consists of Jews, fundamentalist Christians, neo-conservative hawks, and others.
Thus, the pro-Israel lobby ensures that Americans never hear that the Arab peoples of Palestine were promised their independence at least twice by the British Empire, but then had some of their land pledged to others by those same Brits and most of the rest stolen at gunpoint by the state of Israel on more than one occasion. Most Palestinians want at least some of their land returnedthe radicals are demanding it all back.
Yet whether Palestinians like it or not, Israel is now a fact of life and is too powerful to be dispensed with anytime soon. But slavish and lavish U.S. military and political support for Israel allows its government to obstruct the peace process by continuing to grab as much Palestinian land through the settlement of occupied territory, a violation of international law. In addition, some Palestinians still entertain fantasies, even with American domestic pro-Israeli pressure groups ever more powerful, that the U.S. government can pressure Israel to make concessions that will end in a comprehensive peace or even can be an honest broker in the peace process.
A distant third goal of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, especially when it does not run counter to the two prior main objectives of U.S. policy (which it often does), is to spread liberal democracy in the region. Of late, that has not worked out too well, especially if imposed by U.S. military actionas the examples of Iraq and Libya demonstrate. Even when the United States reluctantly supports democratic movements, such as those in Tunisia and Egypt, liberal democracy may not be the endpoint. For example, recent developments in Egyptwith a sizeable minority of the population justifiably concerned about their rights at the hands of the majority of fundamentalist Islamistsshow that arriving at liberal democracy from democracy may be a difficult and destabilizing prospect. The lesson from this messy process is not that the United States should intervene and remain until liberal democracies take hold in developing nations, but that the process is so chaotic that the United States should stay out of these nations, especially in the Middle East.
This recommendation will be hard for the government of a swaggering superpower to stomach but may be critical to restoring Americas finances and thus preserving U.S. great power status for future generations.
Ivan Eland is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Director of the Institutes Center on Peace & Liberty.
Defense and Foreign PolicyDiplomacy and Foreign AidEnergyEnergy and the EnvironmentInternational Economics and DevelopmentNorth Africa and The Middle East
Wind Power Sources Remain More Fantasy than Reality
California Wildfires: Key Recommendations to Prevent Future Disasters
New Study Admits Even Modest Carbon Tax Would Hurt the Next Two Generations
Forget Paris: On the Second Anniversary of Trumps Pullout
Markets Can Handle Climate Change
The Province of Alberta Shows Dangers of a Carbon Tax Deal
FROM Ivan Eland
War and the Rogue Presidency
Restoring the Republic after Congressional Failure
Eleven Presidents
Promises vs. Results in Achieving Limited Government
Recarving Rushmore
Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty
No War for Oil
U.S. Dependency and the Middle East
Partitioning for Peace
An Exit Strategy for Iraq
Recarving Rushmore (First Edition)
The Empire Has No Clothes (Updated Edition)
U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed
The Empire Has No Clothes (First Edition)
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Hank Walter, Reporter, Speechwriter, Tenor, Poet, Dies at 88
Hank Walter
1963 “Blackout”
Henry “Hank” C. Walter, beloved Inner Circle member and past president, died Nov. 17, 2016 after a brief illness. He was a day shy of his 89th birthday.
Hank became a member of the Inner Circle in 1956, during Mayor Robert Wagner’s tenure, and served as president in 1963.
Here is more about his life from an obituary prepared by his family:
He began his newsman career at the World Telegram & Sun, starting as a copy boy in 1953 and rising in the ranks to City Hall Reporter by 1963, ensconced in the famed, smoky Room 9 in City Hall, which was reserved for the press. Hank wrote feature articles and two columns, Taxpayers Troubles and Heard Around City Hall, under the name Henry Walter.
In 1962, he became Press Secretary for Robert Morgenthau, during his run for Governor against Nelson Rockefeller. coordinating statewide with reporters, and writing releases and speeches.
In 1963, Hank became the first Director of Public Information of the brand-new NYC City Department of Highways. With Commissioner John T. Carroll, he helped organize the Department, formulate policy and wrote press releases and speeches.
Next, Hank became Director of Editorial Research for WMCA Radio, joining the new, wildly popular WMCA Good Guys top-40 show. Promoted, he became Director of Public Affairs for WMCA Radio and the Straus Broadcasting Group.
Between the songs played by the famous Good Guys disc jockeys, Hank wrote and produced most of the editorials, documentaries, public service announcements and special features, reading many on the air.
Hank Walter, center, sharing bows onstage with fellow Inner Circle members in a recent show.
He supervised the station’s Call For Action service, where 50 volunteers helped solve the problems of hundreds of New Yorkers each week, a precursor to today’s 311.
He wrote the WMCA Buyer’s Tip of the Day; a daily community bulletin board, What’s Happening; a thrice-weekly ombudsman report, and a weekly interview show, Inside the Issue.
In addition, Hank’s documentaries and editorials won 19 journalism awards for WMCA, They included “An Eye For An Eye,” (death penalty); “Slumlords, Incorporated”; “Buyer, Beware! – Why The Poor Stay Poor,” and a series on migrant housing, with labor organizer Cesar Chavez. Awards included the Edward R. Murrow Documentary Award, the first Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award for Radio Journalism, and the first Silurian Award for Radio Documentary.
When the station moved over to a talk show format in 1970, Hank became the speechwriter of NYC Comptroller Abraham D. Beame. When Mayor Beame won City Hall in 1974, Hank stayed with him as speechwriter, and was appointed Special Assistant to the Mayor.
In 1978, after Mayor Ed Koch took office, Hank became speechwriter for Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin, retiring in 1989 when he announced his bid for Mayor.
Other affiliations include the Society of the Silurians; the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, Past President, Trustee and writer of historical articles for it’s newsletter, The Ferryman; the Newspaper Guild of New York, serving as a delegate during the press strike of 1962-1963; a volunteer at Cabrini’s Nursing Home; a member of the Sacred Heart Parish in Dobbs Ferry, serving as Eucharistic Minister and singing in the choir, with his wife of 63 years.
He graduated from St. Henry’s Prep, PA, and next received a Jesuit education at St. Joseph’s University, PA. He then served in the Army during the end of World War II, trained in radio communications.
Poetry lived in the core of his heart and he was a prolific poet, self-publishing in 2015 a small sample, titled “Growing Older”. He was an avid stamp collector, gardener, traveler and historian, and took great joy in the complex beauties of both nature, humanity and God, and in showing and teaching his children about them.
November 21, 1953, Hank married the love of his life, Mary Rita Casey, a fellow graduate student at Fordham University. Mary, who moved to New York from West Roxbury, MA, survives him, and is heartbroken. Hank is also survived and mourned by their eight children: Mary, Paul, Elizabeth, John, Ann, Mark, Catherine and Ruth; their spouses: Rick, Jack, Peter, Jezebel and Kevin; their grandchildren: Cody (and his wife Lori), Rose, Nicholas, Emily, Gabriel, William, Timothy, Claire, Kevin, Andrew and Laura; their great-grandaughter, Josie; and lifelong friends Patrick Barrett and Frank DeFillippo.
Tagged 2014 Inner Circle SHow, 2015 inner circle show, Abe Beame, Bill de Blasio, city government, City Hall, Ed Koch, edward i. koch, Hank Walter, inner circle, inner circle show, John Lindsay, Mayor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, mayor of new york, Mayor Robert Wagner, mayors, media, New York City events, news, news media, parody, Politics, reporters, Room 9, Room Nine, satire, song and dance, World Telegram & Sun.
« Carl Pelleck, Past IC President, Dies at 84
“TRUMPED! de Blasio to the Rescue?” 2017 Show Title »
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Newsman, Author, Teacher Mickey Carroll Dies
By Flip O'Brien December 7, 2017 August 9, 2018 News
Mickey Carroll on stage.
Backstage: Mickey Carroll, Eric Shawn, Molly Gordy, Jim Harney.
Mickey Carroll, friend, raconteur, past president of the Inner Circle, voice of the Quinnipiac University Poll and one of the finest reporters of his era, died Dec. 6, 2017 in his family home in New Jersey after a short illness, according to his family. He was 86 years old.
Mickey joined the Inner Circle in 1965, hailing from the New York Herald Tribune. He served as president in 1974 during the administration of Mayor Abe Beame.
He covered politics for more than 40 years for the Trib, the New York Times, Newsday and the other newspapers. Since 1995, Mickey was the voice of the Quinnipiac Poll, providing analysis of results of national polls and surveys in New York, New Jersey and other states. He was the perfect sound bite: colorful, politically-insightful and delivered with a vintage New Yawk accent.
He also taught Journalism at Quinnipiac, Columbia University, New York University and Montclair State University.
“Mickey Carroll was a reporter in the finest tradition of American journalism, a dedicated educator and a knowledgeable commentator on the American political scene,” said Quinnipiac University President John L. Lahey. “He educated thousands in the classroom and millions through his reporting and his work with the poll.”
“Saddened by the passing of Mickey Carroll,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a tweet. “He was a gentlemen who cared deeply about the truth and about New York. He will be missed.”
“1974 Marked Down to 1973” Mickey Carroll was president that year, 1974.
“All of us in the Inner Circle will deeply miss Mickey,” said IC President Polly Kreisman. “He had some great roles in our shows, and he always approached his performances like his reporting – he was prepared, talented and creative.”
Mickey Carroll is at the far right rear against the brick wall in a dark jacket at the moment Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas in 1963.
As a reporter at the Trib, Mickey was sent to Dallas the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He is seen in one of the historic photos of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. “I may have shouted the last words he was ever to hear,” he wrote in 2013. “How about it, Lee?”
His comprehensive reporting of the killings led him to be a firm believer in the Warren Commission Report. But always the demanding reporter, he complained the Warren report was so badly written that many people believed the conspiracy theorists instead.
Mickey wrote books about the Kennedy assassination, covered Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Ala., and authored a book on the Iran hostage situation in 1979-80.
Maurice “Mickey” Carroll was raised in Rutherford, N.J. He attended Notre Dame University and served in the U.S. Army. He was married for 30 years to popular Daily News columnist Beth Fallon (IC president in 1988), who died in 2006. He is survived by his former wife, Peggy, with whom he remained very close; his son, New Jersey Assembly member Michael Carroll, daughters Eileen and Elizabeth, 10 grandchildren and a sister, Anne Shannon. Another son, Patrick, died in 2005.
Tagged City Hall, inner circle, inner circle show, JFK, Kennedy assassination, lee harvey oswald, Mayor, mickey carroll, Politics, reporters.
« Inner Circle Carolers Coming to Town
Inner Circle Carolers Sing for Children in Newark Hospital »
Bob Wiener
I met Mickey in 1961 when I was a young reporter at the Star-Ledger. Unlike the rest of the seasoned veterans who chose to ignore the new kid straight out of Rutgers, Mickey summoned me to the copy desk, where he was moonlighting on weekends, and said, “C’ere kid. Wanna learn how to write headlines?”
I said “yes,” and it began a friendship that lasted through the decades.
He was always helpful to me, first at the Ledger, then whenever I’d run into him on a story. I especially appreciated his cynical sense of humor and his curmudgeonly ways.
When Congressman Ted Weiss, the liberal icon from the Upper West Side, died in 1992, Mickey and I sat next to each other at the funeral. As Weiss was being heralded by politician after politician, Mickey sat grumpily.
When I asked what his problem was, he said “when I go to a funeral I want ritual. None of this political bullshit.”
In recent years, when I needed polling data for election stories, he was always my first call. He gave me the data along with pithy comments and spicy analysis that other pollsters seemed to lack.
I remember his being lots of fun at Inner Circle rehearsals and subway rides uptown.
So long, Mickey. It ain’t gonna be the same without you.
Frank Lombardi
I want to join in your appreciation of Mickey Carroll, who was one of the “originals” of New York journalism during my era in it with the Daily News. On top of the losses of Larry Sutton and Gabe Pressman, it’s enough for a hermit like me to want to dig deeper into my cave, but I just couldn’t resist adding my sympathies about Mickey. In between bullshitting with Saint Peter, I’m sure he’s writing the lead story in that great eternal press room.
Polly Kreisman
From Jamie DeLoma, who teaches social media at Quinnipiac University:
America lost an important voice this week. A strong voice. A wise voice. An experienced voice. America lost Mickey Carroll — and I lost a dear friend and a generous mentor.
Mickey, whose storied journalism career spanned decades and included political reporting for The New York Times, was a fount of insight and a source of laughter.
He played a key role in making the Quinnipiac Poll the internationally recognized pulse of American politics — and guided me through my career with patience, passion and persistence. I smile as I reflect on the years of advice he’s shared with me. He had an uncanny sense of humor — a staple in New York City’s storied Inner Circle.
His legacy as a journalist, a historian and as an educator will be honored for generations — through my work as well as that of my peers and the institutions he helped build and strengthen. At a time when journalism and strong communications is paramount to our democracy’s future, he laid a strong foundation for on which it to stand.
Mickey, I miss you already — but am grateful you found me worthy to nurture and guide. You will never be forgotten.
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The Mistake on the Lake
Why are we all still okay with the Cleveland Indians brand?
Last year, the Cleveland Indians were surreptitiously gifted the 2019 MLB All Star Game in exchange for dropping one of the most racist logos in professional sports history — Chief Wahoo. The team actually had to be bribed to do something they should have willingly and proudly done on their own decades ago. And that, to me, is embarrassing.
But it doesn’t end there. Even though the team no longer officially uses the Chief Wahoo logo, the team’s moniker itself is still problematic. We have many similarly named teams, like the Atlanta Braves or the Kansas City Chiefs, but at least those are cloaked in some semblance of valor or status — however hollow. The shame with those brands is somewhat hidden, easier for us to all ignore. But with the Indians, it’s just so bluntly, nakedly racist.
Maybe what this problem lacks is a little context. Imagine for a minute if the Cleveland Indians existed alongside other racially-charged team names and it’s easier to see exactly what this brand is doing and why it’s harmful.
Aren’t these all ridiculous? Inappropriate? It’s laughable to think a team named the Jews or the Orientals could exist in 2019, right? And yet the Cleveland Indians not only continue to exist, they’re playing host to one of baseball’s most prestigious events this year. And we’re all supposed to ignore the fact they’ve long been one of the most reprehensible brands in pro sports.
The aim of this project is of course to shock, but perhaps the most shocking thing is that many would look at these other logos and be more shocked. How are these logos any different from what Cleveland did for so long? The truth is they’re not. We’re rightly outraged at racist depictions of Blacks, Asians, Jews, and others, but why are we somehow alright with bigotry towards Native Americans? Looking at them all side-by-side, these should all be viewed with the same amount of scorn. One or a few of these are not worse than the others. You’re either outraged at all of them or none of them.
If anything, the decades-long acceptance of this brand is more an indictment on all of us. We all stood by, not batting an eye whenever we saw the Chief Wahoo on SportsCenter. We never even stopped to think when we saw white men wearing full-feathered headdress banging drums in the stands at Jacobs Field. Long ago I guess it was just decided that Native Americans were not worthy of our attention or concern. Which is why, despite Cleveland’s bregudged removal of the Chief Wahoo logo from their uniforms, you’ll no doubt still see the racist depiction during broadcasts of the week’s events. Whether worn by fans in the stands or on signs in and around the stadium, the full ugliness of the brand is still on display. I guess that’s just a reminder that it will be a long, long time –– if ever –– before we can scrub stains like this from our society. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stop trying.
No race, creed, or religion should endure the ridicule faced by the Native Americans in professional sports. Can you imagine the uproar after a professional sports team displayed any of these fictional logos on their uniforms, television broadcasts, fan merchandise, and every other brand touchpoint each and every night? Well you don’t have to imagine anything because the Cleveland Indians have been doing this same thing, largely without much of the uproar, for the past 90 years.
The entirety of the Cleveland Indians brand is so unapologetically prejudiced, the driving mantra behind the ownership’s tacit resistance to change —until, that is, Major League Baseball finally stepped in with an ultimatum and a shiny ASG as reward. In an age where brands are posting mea culpas left and right on social media for even the smallest slight towards humanity, how the team proudly paraded their identity in public for so long is in some ways impressive.
But with Cleveland now somewhat half-assedly acquiescing by removing Chief Wahoo from their uniforms, they’ve put the brand in limbo — nothing about it is interesting, from the typography to the uniforms, and the name feels so unnecessary at this point. It’s just an odd reminder of the team’s long history of cultural misappropriation. A better move would have been a full-on re-brand preceded by a heartfelt apology, encouraging education on the issue and spurring fans to rid the city of the terrible logo. A chance for everyone to move on and start something new that the entire city and country can be proud of.
Instead, the brand remains largely intact while we all continue on… not caring. Until one day, when finally enough people will care, or maybe the right people will start to care. And then future generations will look back on us with pity, like we judge the blissfully unaware generations before us who drove around without seat belts, smoked cigarettes, and lived in lead-painted houses.
Sports teams used to demean entire races of people? What were they thinking?
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Bradford City vs Liverpool Preview: Where to Watch, Live Stream, Kick Off Time & Team News
Following on from their resounding 6-0 victory over Tranmere Rovers on Thursday, Liverpool will face League Two side Bradford City on Sunday in their final pre-season fixture before they go on tour to the United States to face the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla.
2018/19 was a wildly successful year for the Reds. They came agonisingly close to winning the league, losing once as they finished just a single point behind Manchester City, before defeating Tottenham in the Champions League final to win the competition for the sixth time.
Now, the target this season is that Liverpool bring home the Premier League trophy that has eluded them for so long.
Bradford City, on the other hand, had a devastating season. After years of finishing in the top half of League One and even getting to the play-off final in 2017, they finished rock bottom and barely put up a fight as they suffered relegation to League Two. With Gary Bowyer at the helm, their fans will be hoping for promotion back at the first time of asking.
Check out 90min's preview of the game below.
When Is Kick Off? Sunday 14 July
What Time Is Kick Off? 15:00 (BST)
Where Is it Played? Valley Parade
TV Channel/Live Stream? LFC TV
Referee? TBC
Liverpool will be without some of their key players for Sunday's match. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum and Andrew Robertson are expected to return to pre-season training this weekend but are unlikely to appear.
Sadio Mané is still at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal. Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Alisson will also not be involved following the recent conclusion of their respective international duties.
Sepp van den Berg didn't feature against Tranmere as he was waiting to receive international clearance and is unlikely to get it in time for Sunday, while Xherdan Shaqiri is still injured.
As for Bradford City, they should have a full squad at their disposal ahead of the match.
Predicted Lineups
Bradford City O'Donnell; Henley, O'Connor, French, Riley; Akpan, Anderson, Colville; Scannell, Doyle, Donaldson.
Liverpool Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Gomez, Larouci; Milner, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Wilson, Brewster, Kent.
The last time these two faced each other was nearly two decades ago back when Bradford City were in the Premier League. Liverpool beat Bradford 2-0 back in May 2001 and the Bantams were relegated to the second tier that season.
The clubs have met a total of 30 times throughout their history, with most of these coming in the old English Division One. Liverpool have won a total of 21 times, Bradford have won seven, while there have only been two draws.
Liverpool go into this game off the back of a superb win against Tranmere Rovers and a great run of form towards the end of last season. Out of their last ten games, Liverpool have lost just once, that being the 3-0 defeat to Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semi final back in May.
Bradford, despite their relegation last year, are unbeaten in their last five. They won their first two pre-season matches, against Guiseley and Brighouse Town respectively, and avoided defeat in their last three games in League One.
Here's how each team has performed over their last five games.
Bradford City Liverpool
Brighouse Town 0-2 Bradford City (9/7) Tranmere Rovers 0-6 Liverpool (11/7)
Guiseley 0-2 Bradford City (6/7) Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Liverpool (1/6)
Bradford City 0-0 AFC Wimbledon (4/5) Liverpool 2-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (12/5)
Scunthorpe United 2-3 Bradford City (27/4) Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona (7/5)
Bradford City 1-1 Gillingham (22/4) Newcastle United 2-3 Liverpool (4/5)
Despite Bradford City's relatively good form and the number of absences Liverpool will have, the quality is obviously in the Reds' favour. Expect this to be a drubbing.
Prediction: Bradford City 0-5 Liverpool
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Home » Context of 'February 12, 2002: Bush Official: Decision Made to Overthrow Hussein'
Context of 'February 12, 2002: Bush Official: Decision Made to Overthrow Hussein'
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1787: US Government Crafted to Ensure Presidential Powers Limited by Congress, Courts
After the failure of the US federal government under the Articles of Confederation, the men working to shape the new American government—later termed the “Founders”—determine that the new government must have a president with power equal to that of Congress and the Supreme Court. The federal government itself has far more power under the new Constitution than it had under the Articles, but many Founders worry that the government will have, or take upon itself, the power to constrain or even destroy individual rights and freedoms. The government, therefore, will have strict limitations on its functions, and will be divided into three co-equal branches. Debate over whether the new government should have a single president or an executive council rages, but eventually the Founders decide that a single president could best act decisively in times of crisis. However, Congress has the strength to curtail presidential power via legislation and oversight. One of the Founders’ most crucial decisions is to give Congress, not the president, the power to declare war and commit military troops to battle. Congress must also authorize any military actions that fall short of actual war, the creation and maintenance of armies, and exercise control over how the president can call on the armed forces in emergencies. Finally, the Founders, all too aware that until the English Revolution of 1688, the King of England could use his “prerogative powers” to dispense with a law that he felt unnecessary, move to ensure that the US president cannot use a similar usurpation of power to override Congressional legislation, writing in the Constitution that the president must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” In 2007, reporter Charlie Savage, drawing on James Madison’s Federalist Papers, will write: “Knowing that it was inevitable that from time to time foolish, corrupt, or shortsighted individuals would win positions of responsibility in the government, the Founders came up with a system that would limit anyone’s ability to become a tyrant or to otherwise wreck the country. And over the next century and a half, the system worked as the Founders had designed it to work.” [Savage, 2007, pp. 14-16]
Entity Tags: James Madison, Charlie Savage
Late 1930s - 1950s: Neoconservative Philosophy Grows from Communist Intellectuals’ Disenchantment with Soviet Ideology
The philosophy that becomes known as “neoconservativism” traces its roots to leftist ideologues in New York City who, before World War II, begin sorting themselves into two camps: those who support Franklin D. Roosevelt’s economic “New Deal” policies, and more radical individuals who consider themselves followers of Soviet communism. Many of these radical leftists are Jews who, staunchly opposed to Nazi-style fascism, find themselves finding more and more fault with Stalinist Russia. In their eyes, Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union has betrayed the ideals of the original Russian Revolution, and has instead created a monstrous regime that is as bad towards Jews and other ethnic and cultural minorities as Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini. The betrayal they feel towards the Soviet Union, author J. Peter Scoblic will later write, cannot be overestimated. Seminal movement figures such as Irving Kristol (see 1965) lead a small cadre of academics and intellectuals far away from their former leftist-Communist ideology, instead embracing what Scoblic will call “an ardent nationalism” that they see as “the only feasible counterweight to the Soviet monster.” The USSR is as evil as Nazi Germany, they believe, and as committed to world domination as the Nazis. Therefore, the USSR cannot be negotiated with in any form or fashion, only opposed, and, hopefully, destroyed. During the 1950s, Scoblic will write, “these intellectuals adopted a strict good-versus-evil outlook—and a scorn for radical elements of the American Left—that was not unlike that of the ex-communists… who were defining modern conservatism.” But unlike their conservative counterparts, Kristol’s neoconservatives either espouse a more liberal social construct similar to Roosevelt’s New Deal, or care little one way or the other about the entire skein of issues surrounding economic and social policy. The neoconservatives will drive themselves even farther right during the social upheaval of the 1960s, and, according to Scoblic, will hold leftist leaders in contempt in part because they remind the neoconservatives of their Stalinist compatriots of thirty years ago, colleagues whom they have long since abandoned and held in scorn. The fact that some antiwar New Left figures will support Soviet, Chinese, and Vietnamese communism will further enrage the neoconservatives. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 83-85]
Entity Tags: J. Peter Scoblic, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Irving Kristol
Timeline Tags: Neoconservative Influence
September 11, 1941: Construction on the Pentagon Begins
Brehon B. Somervell. [Source: Public domain]Construction begins on the Pentagon. The structure was conceived at the request of Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell in 1941, in order to provide a temporary solution to the growing US War Department’s critical shortage of space. The groundbreaking ceremony takes place on September 11, 1941. [Fine, 1972, pp. 265-266, 348-351, 431-432, 434; PR Web, 1/16/2018] Exactly 60 years later, Flight 77 will crash into the Pentagon as part of the 9/11 attacks (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Pentagon, Brehon B. Somervell
1945-1975: NSA’s Operation Shamrock Secretly Monitors US Citizens’ Overseas Communications
The NSA, working with British intelligence, begins secretly intercepting and reading millions of telegraph messages between US citizens and international senders and recipients. The clandestine program, called Operation Shamrock and part of a larger global surveillance network collectively known as Echelon (see April 4, 2001 and Before September 11, 2001), begins shortly after the end of World War II, and continues through 1975, when it is exposed by the “Church Committee,” the Senate investigation of illegal activities by US intelligence organizations (see April, 1976). [Telepolis, 7/25/2000] The program actually predates the NSA, originating with the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) then continuing when that turned into NSA (see 1952). [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006] The program operates in tandem with Project Minaret (see 1967-1975). Together, the two programs spy on both foreign sources and US citizens, especially those considered “unreliable,” such as civil rights leaders and antiwar protesters, and opposition figures such as politicians, diplomats, businessmen, trades union leaders, non-government organizations like Amnesty International, and senior officials of the Catholic Church. The NSA receives the cooperation of such telecommunications firms as Western Union, RCA, and ITT. [Telepolis, 7/25/2000] (Those companies are never required to reveal the extent of their involvement with Shamrock; on the recommendations of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and presidential chief of staff Dick Cheney, in 1975 President Ford extends executive privilege to those companies, precluding them from testifying before Congress.) [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006] In the 1960s, technological advances make it possible for computers to search for keywords in monitored messages instead of having human analysts read through all communications. In fact, the first global wide-area network, or WAN, is not the Internet, but the international network connecting signals intelligence stations and processing centers for US and British intelligence organizations, including the NSA, and making use of sophisticated satellite systems such as Milstar and Skynet. (The NSA also builds and maintains one of the world’s first e-mail networks, completely separate from public e-mail networks, and highly secret.) At the program’s height, it operates out of a front company in Lower Manhattan code-named LPMEDLEY, and intercepts 150,000 messages a month. In August 1975, NSA director Lieutenant General Lew Allen testifies to the House of Representatives’ investigation of US intelligence activities, the Pike Committee (see January 29, 1976), that “NSA systematically intercepts international communications, both voice and cable.” He also admits that “messages to and from American citizens have been picked up in the course of gathering foreign intelligence,” and acknowledges that the NSA uses “watch lists” of US citizens “to watch for foreign activity of reportable intelligence interest.” [Telepolis, 7/25/2000] The Church Committee’s final report will will call Shamrock “probably the largest government interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken.” [Church Committee, 4/23/1976] Shortly after the committee issues its report, the NSA terminates the program. Since 1978, the NSA and other US intelligence agencies have been restrained in their wiretapping and surveillance of US citizens by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (see 1978). Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, who will become the NSA’s director in 1977, and who testifies before the Church Committee as director of Naval Intelligence, will later say that he worked actively to help pass FISA: “I became convinced that for almost anything the country needed to do, you could get legislation to put it on a solid foundation. There was the comfort of going out and saying in speeches, ‘We don’t target US citizens, and what we do is authorized by a court.’” [Pensito Review, 5/13/2006] Shamrock is considered unconstitutional by many US lawmakers, and in 1976 the Justice Department investigates potential criminal offenses by the NSA surrounding Shamrock. Part of the report will be released in 1980; that report will confirm that the Shamrock data was used to further the illegal surveillance activities of US citizens as part of Minaret. [Telepolis, 7/25/2000]
After 9/11, the NSA will once again escalate its warrantless surveillance of US citizens, this time monitoring and tracking citizens’ phone calls and e-mails (see After September 11, 2001). It will also begin compiling an enormous database of citizens’ phone activities, creating a “data mine” of information on US citizens, ostensibly for anti-terrorism purposes (see October 2001).
Entity Tags: Western Union, Pike Committee, National Security Agency, Bobby Ray Inman, Church Committee, International Telephone and Telegraph, Radio Corporation of America
1950-1954: Government Establishes Secret Site-R at Raven Rock
With the approval of President Harry S. Truman, the US government constructs a massive 200,000-square-foot underground facility along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, about seven miles north of Camp David and about 65 miles north of Washington, DC. Site-R at Raven Rock, officially known as the Alternate Joint Communications Center, is one of 96 bunkers being assembled around the nation’s capital in preparation for a potential nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union (see 1950-1962). Site-R is designed to serve as a complete backup to the Pentagon in times of war and is complete with state-of-the-art technology, alternate command posts, war rooms, and living spaces for top officials. The subterranean fortress resembles a small city, with all the basic necessities for sustaining a population in the thousands for months at a time. The site is equipped with its own self-generating power supply, offices, medical clinic, fire department, mail service center, dining halls, and dormitories. The facility is said to have its own a chapel, two fishing lakes, a barbershop, a drug store, and even a bowling alley. There are also rumors that an underground tunnel connects Site-R to Camp David less than 10 miles to the south. Decades later, Vice President Dick Cheney and other high-ranking officials will relocate to Site-R in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (see (11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and September 12, 2001-2002). [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/7/1985; Washington Post, 5/31/1992; New York Times, 12/2/2000; Gannett News Service, 6/25/2002; Knight Ridder, 7/20/2004]
Entity Tags: Harry S. Truman, Site R, Camp David
March 1960-August 1960: CIA Consider Plan to Sabotage Castro Speeches
The CIA’s Technical Services Division (TSD) considers plans to undermine Fidel Castro’s charismatic appeal by sabotaging his speeches. At one point, there is discussion of spraying Castro’s broadcasting studio with a hallucinogenic chemical. The plan is taken of the shelf because the chemical is deemed unreliable. During this period, the TSD laces a box of cigars with a chemical that would produce temporary disorientation, hoping that he will smoke one of the cigars before giving a speech. In another instance, the TSD comes up with a scheme to dust Castro’s shoes with thallium salts during a trip outside of Cuba. The salts would cause his beard to fall out. The plan is abandoned when Castro cancels the trip. [US Congress, 12/18/1975]
Entity Tags: Fidel Castro, Technical Services Division (TSD)
Timeline Tags: US-Cuba (1959-2005)
Early 1961-June 1965: CIA Works with Cuban Official on Plan to Assassinate Castro
The CIA works with a high-level Cuban official, codenamed “AM/LASH,” on a plan to assassinate Fidel Castro and overthrow his government. In June 1965, the CIA ends its contact with AM/LASH and his associates, citing security concerns. [US Congress, 12/18/1975; Central Intelligence Agency Inspector General, 1/1996]
1962: Cold-War Thriller Notes Plane-as-Weapon Scenario; Features Neoconservative Defense Planner
The illustration for the DVD of the 1964 film. [Source: Sony Pictures]Fail-Safe, a military thriller by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler about over-confidence in the reliability of military technology, is published at the height of the Cold War. The book’s plot hinges on a computer error sending American nuclear bombers to destroy Moscow, and the efforts of the US president and his advisers to call them back before they can complete their mission. The book notes that US military strategists believe that civilian planes as well as military planes are matters of concern, as a civilian pilot could try “hara-kiri over New-York or Montreal.” The idea of using a civilian plane to destroy a target is obviously of real concern to military planners.
Neoconservative Prototype - One distinctive character in the book is Walter Groteschele, a famous “nuclear philosopher” and anti-communist hawk who has argued that nuclear weapons are not just for deterrence but for actual use. The pre-emptive use of nuclear bombs would kills millions, he acknowledges, but the US would still win the war. Groteschele is Jewish and his hard-line views are in reaction to Jewish helplessness during the Holocaust. Jewish neoconservatives have often linked their views with the Holocaust (see Early 1970s). In the novel, Groteschele argues that the president should not attempt to call back the bombers, but should instead let them finish off the Soviets. [Burdick and Wheeler, 1962]
Film Versions - In 1964, the novel will be made into a film; [Sidney Lumet, 1964] in 2000, the novel will be adapted for television. [Stephen Frears, 2000]
Entity Tags: Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler
Early 1963: CIA Plans to Assassinate Castro with Exploding Sea Shell and Poisoned Diving Suit
The CIA’s Task Force W devises two plans to assassinate Fidel Castro. The first one, involving an exploding sea shell that would be placed where Castro regularly dives, is dismissed by the CIA’s Technical Services Division (TSD) as impractical. In the second plan, James Donovan (who has been negotiating with Castro for the release of prisoners taken during the Bay of Pigs operation) would present Castro with a contaminated diving suit. TSD decides to give the plan a try. It purchases a diving suit and laces its breathing apparatus with tubercule bacillus. The suit itself is dusted with a fungus that is known to cause a chronic skin disease. But the suit never leaves the laboratory. [US Congress, 12/18/1975; Central Intelligence Agency Inspector General, 1/1996]
Entity Tags: Technical Services Division (TSD), James Donovan, Fidel Castro
1965: Former RAND Analyst Gathers Young, Nascent Neoconservatives
Albert Wohlstetter in 1969. [Source: Bettmann / Corbis]Albert Wohlstetter, a professor at the University of Chicago, gathers a cadre of fiery young intellectuals around him, many of whom are working and associating with the magazine publisher Irving Kristol (see 1965). Wohlstetter’s group includes Richard Perle, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Paul Wolfowitz. Wohlstetter, himself a protege of the Machiavellian academic Leo Strauss, is often considered the “intellectual godfather” of modern neoconservatism. Formerly an analyst at the RAND Corporation, Wohlstetter wielded a powerful influence on the US’s foreign policy during the heyday of the Cold War. Wohlstetter, who is believed to be one of several analysts who became a model for director Stanley Kubrick’s title character in the 1968 film Dr. Strangelove, added dramatic phrases like “fail-safe” and “second strike” capability to the US nuclear lexicon, and pushed to increase the US’s military might over what he saw as the imminent and lethal threat of Soviet nuclear strikes and the Soviet Union’s plans for global hegemony. He was such a powerful figure in his hundreds of briefings that he projected far more certainty than his facts actually supported. Though his facts and statistics were often completely wrong, he was so relentless and strident that his ideas gained more credence than they may have warranted. By 1965, he is known in some circles as a “mad genius” who is now collecting and molding young minds to follow in his footsteps. Author Craig Unger writes in 2007, “To join Team Wohlstetter, apparently, one had to embrace unquestioningly his worldviews, which eschewed old-fashioned intelligence as a basis for assessing the enemy’s intentions and military capabilities in favor of elaborate statistical models, probabilities, reasoning, systems analysis, and game theory developed at RAND.” An analyst with the Federation of Atomic Scientists will write in November 2003: “This methodology exploited to the hilt the iron law of zero margin for error.… Even a small probability of vulnerability, or a potential future vulnerability, could be presented as a virtual state of emergency.” Or as one-time Wohlstetter acolyte Jude Wanninski will later put it, “[I]f you look down the road and see a war with, say, China, twenty years off, go to war now.” Unger will observe, “It was a principle his acolytes would pursue for decades to come—with disastrous results.” [Unger, 2007, pp. 42-46]
Entity Tags: University of Chicago, Stanley Kubrick, Richard Perle, Zalmay M. Khalilzad, RAND Corporation, Leo Strauss, Albert Wohlstetter, Paul Wolfowitz, Irving Kristol, Federation of Atomic Scientists, Craig Unger, Jude Wanninski
1967-1975: Project MINARET Illegally Monitors American ‘Subversives’
US intelligence agencies, including the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI, run a clandestine and highly illegal surveillance operation called Project MINARET that uses “watch lists” to electronically and physically spy on “subversive” activities by civil rights and antiwar leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Jane Fonda, Malcolm X, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and Joan Baez—all members of Richard Nixon’s infamous “enemies list.” [Patrick S. Poole, 8/15/2000; Pensito Review, 5/13/2006] MINARET operates in tandem with a much more extensive electronic surveillance operation, SHAMROCK, run by the NSA (see 1945-1975). Almost 6,000 foreigners and nearly 1,700 organizations and US citizens are monitored as part of MINARET. In August 1975, NSA director Lew Allen testifies before the Senate’s investigative commission on US intelligence activities, the Church Committee (see April, 1976), that the NSA has issued over 3,900 reports on the US citizens on MINARET’s watch lists, and the NSA’s Office of Security Services has maintained reports on at least 75,000 citizens between 1952 and 1975, reports that later became part of MINARET’s operations. MINARET, like SHAMROCK, will be terminated shortly after the Church Committee goes public with its information about the illegal surveillance program. [Bamford, 1983; Pensito Review, 5/13/2006]
Entity Tags: Malcolm Little, Central Intelligence Agency, Church Committee, Lew Allen, National Security Agency, Martin Luther King, Jr., Office of Security Services, Joan Baez
1969: Cheney Hired by Rumsfeld to Serve as Aide
Dick Cheney. [Source: Boston Globe]Dick Cheney, a long-term college student who avoided the Vietnam War by securing five student deferments [Washington Post, 1/17/2006] and now a Congressional aide, is hired by Donald Rumsfeld, who had been a congressman but resigned to run the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). Cheney is a young staff assistant to Representative Bill Steiger (R-WI), who took Cheney under his wing and taught him what he knew of the ins and outs of Washington bureaucracy. There are two versions of how Cheney comes to Rumsfeld’s attention. Rumsfeld sends a letter to Steiger asking for advice on how to run the OEO. The official story has Cheney spying the letter and writing a ten-page policy memo on how to run a federal agency, a memo that so impresses Steiger that he recommends Cheney to Rumsfeld’s attention. Authors Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein will write, “A more plausible version has Steiger (who died in 1978) assigning Cheney the task of collecting information on the OEO for Rumsfeld.” Either way, Rumsfeld is so taken with the memo that he hires Cheney on the spot. Rumsfeld, who is also an assistant to President Nixon, takes Cheney with him to morning and afternoon meetings in the White House. Cheney later says these meetings taught him “what [a president] has to do in the course of a day.” [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 24-25]
Entity Tags: Jake Bernstein, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard M. Nixon, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Office of Economic Opportunity, Lou Dubose, Bill Steiger
Timeline Tags: Nixon and Watergate, Neoconservative Influence
Late 1969: Neoconservatives Escape Punishment for Leaking Classified Information
Richard Perle, a young neoconservative just hired for the staff of Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA—see Early 1970s), is given a classified CIA report on alleged past Soviet treaty violations by CIA analyst David Sullivan. Apparently Sullivan leaks the report to pressure the US government to take a harder stance on the Soviet Union. Sullivan quits before an incensed CIA Director Stansfield Turner can fire him. Turner urges Jackson to fire Perle, but Jackson not only refuses, he also hires Sullivan for his staff. Sullivan and Perle establish an informal right-wing network called “the Madison Group” after their usual meeting place, the Madison Hotel Coffee Shop. [CounterPunch, 2/28/2004]
Entity Tags: Richard Perle, ’Madison Group’, David Sullivan, Central Intelligence Agency, Stansfield Turner, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson
Early 1970s: Neoconservatives Coalesce around Conservative Democratic Senator
Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson. [Source: US Congress]The recently formed neoconservatives, bound together by magazine publisher Irving Kristol (see 1965), react with horror to the ascendancy of the “McGovern liberals” in the Democratic Party, and turn to conservative senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) for leadership. Jackson calls himself a “muscular Democrat”; others call him “the Senator from Boeing” for his strong support of the US defense industry. Jackson merges a strong support of labor and civil rights groups with a harsh Cold War opposition to the Soviet Union. Jackson assembles a staff of bright, young, ideologically homogeneous staffers who will later become some of the most influential and powerful neoconservatives of their generation, including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Elliott Abrams, Abram Shulsky, and Paul Wolfowitz. Jackson’s office—“the bunker,” to staffers—becomes a home for disaffected, ambitious young conservative ideologues with a missionary zeal for change. Jackson presides over the cadre in an almost fatherly fashion.
History of Two Dictators - Many of Jackson’s neoconservative disciples came of age either fighting two foreign dictators—Stalin and/or Hitler—or growing up with family members who fought against them. [Unger, 2007, pp. 35-41] Wolfowitz’s father’s family perished in the Holocaust; he will later say that what happened to European Jews during World War II “shaped a lot of my views.” [New York Times, 4/22/2002] Feith will tell the New Yorker in 2005, “[My] family got wiped out by Hitler, and… all this stuff about working things out—well, talking to Hitler to resolve the problem didn’t make any sense.” Most neoconservatives like Feith and Wolfowitz tend to look to military solutions as a first, not a last, resort. To them, compromise means appeasement, just as Britain’s Neville Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler. Stefan Halper, a White House and State Department official in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, will say of the neoconservatives, “It is use force first and diplomacy down the line.”
Former Trotskyites - On the other hand, many neoconservatives come to the movement from the hardline, socialist left, often from organizations that supported Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky (see Late 1930s - 1950s). Trotskyites accused Stalin of betraying the purity of the Communist vision as declaimed by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. “I can see psychologically why it would not be difficult for them to become [conservative] hard-liners,” says Harvard Sovietologist Richard Pipes, himself a hardliner whose son, Daniel Pipes, will become an influential neoconservative. “It was in reaction to the betrayal.” Many neoconservatives like Stephen Schwartz, a writer for the Weekly Standard, still consider themselves to be loyal disciples of Trotsky. Richard Perle is a Trotskyite socialist when he joins Jackson’s staff, and will always practice what author Craig Unger calls “an insistent, uncompromising, hard-line Bolshevik style” of policy and politics. Like Trotsky, Unger writes, the neoconservatives pride themselves on being skilled bureaucratic infighters, and on trusting no one except a small cadre of like-minded believers. Disagreement is betrayal, and political struggles are always a matter of life and death. [Unger, 2007, pp. 35-41]
Entity Tags: Stefan Halper, Stephen Schwartz, Richard Pipes, Richard Perle, Neville Chamberlain, Abram Shulsky, Douglas Feith, Daniel Pipes, Craig Unger, Paul Wolfowitz, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, Elliott Abrams, Leon Trotsky, Irving Kristol
October 1970: FBI Wiretap Records Perle Disclosing Classified Information to Israeli Officials
An FBI wiretap at the Israeli Embassy in Washington picks up Richard Perle, an aide to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA—see Early 1970s), discussing classified information with an Israeli official. This is the second time Perle has been involved in providing classified information to Israel (see Late 1969). This data was given to Perle by National Security Council staff member Helmut “Hal” Sonnenfeldt, who has been under investigation since 1967 for providing classified documents to the Israelis. [Atlantic Monthly, 5/1982; American Conservative, 3/24/2003; CounterPunch, 2/28/2004]
Entity Tags: Helmut Sonnenfeldt, Richard Perle, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson
Timeline Tags: US International Relations, Neoconservative Influence
1972: Neoconservative Senator Attempts to Block Trade Relations with USSR
Hardline Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA), one of the political fathers of the burgeoning neoconservative movement (see Early 1970s), attempts to derail trade negotiations with the Soviet Union by proposing an amendment that would deny trade relations with countries that did not allow free emigration, a shot at the Soviets, who force emigrating Jews to pay an “exit tax.” When Secretary of State Henry Kissinger complains that Jackson is damaging negotiations with the Soviets, Jackson retorts, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a secretary of state who doesn’t take the Soviet point of view?” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 83]
Entity Tags: Henry A. Kissinger, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson
May 26, 1972: US, USSR Enter Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
The US and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM) Treaty. It will be ratified by the US Senate in August 1972, and will go into force in October 1972. Originally, the treaty agrees that each nation can have only two ABM deployment areas, located so that those areas cannot provide a nationwide ABM defense or become the basis for developing one. In essence, the ABM Treaty prevents either nation from developing a missile defense system (see March 23, 1983), and allows each country the likelihood of destroying the other with an all-out nuclear barrage. The treaty puts in place the doctrine of MAD, or Mutual Assured Destruction, which states that because both nations can obliterate the other in a nuclear exchange, neither one will trigger such a strike. In 1976, an addendum to the treaty further limits the number of ABM deployment areas from two to one; the Soviets will deploy a rudimentary ABM system around Moscow, but the US never does, and even deactivates its single ABM site near Grand Forks, North Dakota. In 2001, US President George W. Bush will unilaterally withdraw from the treaty (see December 13, 2001 and June 14, 2002). [Federation of American Scientists, 1/15/2008]
Entity Tags: Nixon administration, George W. Bush
Summer 1972 and After: Neoconservatives Work to Toughen US Policy towards Soviet Union
Neoconservatives see Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern’s floundering campaign and eventual landslide defeat (see November 7, 1972) as emblematic of, in author Craig Unger’s words, everything that is wrong with the “defeatist, isolationist policies of the liberals who had captured the Democratic Party.” If the neoconservatives had had their way, their favorite senator, Henry “Scoop” Jackson (see Early 1970s), would have won the nomination. But the Vietnam War has put hawkish Cold Warriors like Jackson in disfavor in the party, and Jackson was set aside for the disastrous McGovern candidacy. The Republicans offer little interest themselves for the neoconservatives. Richard Nixon is enamored of one of their most hated nemeses, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, whose “realpolitik” did nothing to excite their ideological impulses. And under Nixon, the icy Cold War is slowly thawing, with summit meetings, bilateral commissions, and arms limitations agreements continually bridging the gap between the US and the neoconservatives’ implacable foe, the Soviet Union. In Nixon’s second term, the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM)—populated by Democratic neoconservatives like Jackson, Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Nixon’s domestic adviser), Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ben Wattenberg, and James Woolsey, and joined by 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey, will pressure Nixon to adopt a tough “peace through strength” policy towards the Soviet Union. Although it will take time, and the formation of countless other organizations with similar memberships and goals, this group of neoconservatives and hawkish hardliners will succeed in marginalizing Congress, demonizing their enemies, and taking over the entire foreign policy apparatus of the US government. [Unger, 2007, pp. 47-48]
Entity Tags: Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Richard M. Nixon, James Woolsey, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, Ben Wattenberg, Coalition for a Democratic Majority, Irving Kristol, George S. McGovern, Craig Unger, Henry A. Kissinger, Daniel Patrick Moynihan
November 7, 1972: Nixon Wins Landslide Re-Election Victory
New York Times headline announcing Nixon victory. [Source: New York Times]Richard Nixon defeats Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern in the largest landslide in modern electoral history. Nixon wins over 60 percent of the votes and 49 of the 50 states. [Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, 7/3/2007] Democrats retain control of the House and Senate. Nixon’s victory breaches traditional Democratic strongholds in the Northeast, and his “Southern strategy” creates a “Solid South” of Republican support. Harry Dent, a White House aide involved in the “Southern strategy” of targeting conservative Democrats who once supported segregationist candidate George Wallace (see May 15, 1972), says, “[T]he Southern strategy is working—in fact, it’s working all over the country.” Democrats, on the other hard, were sharply divided throughout the campaign, with many traditional Democratically aligned organizations such as trade unions refusing to back the McGovern candidacy, problems with finding and keeping a suitable vice-presidential running mate, and McGovern surviving a challenge to his primary victory at the Democratic convention. [Washington Post, 11/8/1972] The simmering Watergate investigations apparently have little drag on the Nixon re-election efforts.
Entity Tags: Richard M. Nixon, George S. McGovern, George C. Wallace, Harry Dent
1973: Neoconservative Aids Colleague to Gain Position with Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
Richard Perle, a senior staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and an aide to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (see Early 1970s), uses his position to help fellow neoconservative Paul Wolfowitz gain a position with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). Neoconservatives such as Perle and Wolfowitz do not believe in either arms control or disarmament (see 1965 and August 15, 1974). In 2004, author Stephen Green will write, “Wolfowitz also brought to ACDA a strong attachment to Israel’s security, and a certain confusion about his obligation to US national security” (see 1978). [CounterPunch, 2/28/2004]
Entity Tags: Stephen Green, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Paul Wolfowitz, Senate Armed Services Committee, Richard Perle
June 4-5, 1974: Neoconservatives, Cold Warriors Begin Attacking Government Policies, Findings towards Soviet Union
A group of conservative strategic thinkers and policymakers attends a dinner party in Santa Monica, California. It is at this dinner party that the notorious “Team B” intelligence analysis team will be formed (see Early 1976). The cohost of the gathering is Albert Wohlstetter (see 1965), the eminent neoconservative academic and policy analyst. The next day, the guests join fellow conservative ideologues at a Beverly Hills conference called “Arms Competition and Strategic Doctrine.” Wohlstetter uses selectively declassified intelligence data to accuse the Pentagon of systematically underestimating Soviet military might. Wohlstetter will soon publish his arguments in the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy magazine, and Strategic Review. In July, respected Cold War figure Paul Nitze will use Wohlstetter’s assertions in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee to accuse Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the CIA of dangerously underestimating both the Soviet Union’s military strength and its intentions. Some old-line Cold Warriors—many of whom find themselves in sympathy with the upstart neoconservatives—begin attacking both the CIA’s intelligence reporting and the US-Soviet policy of detente. Author Craig Unger will write, “This was the beginning of a thirty-year fight against the national security apparatus in which the [neoconservatives] mastered the art of manipulating intelligence in order to implement hard-line, militaristic policies.” [Unger, 2007, pp. 48-49]
Entity Tags: US Department of Defense, Paul Nitze, House Armed Services Committee, Craig Unger, ’Team B’, Henry A. Kissinger, Albert Wohlstetter, Central Intelligence Agency
June 15, 1974: ’All the President’s Men’ Published
Cover for ‘All the President’s Men.’ [Source: Amazon (.com)]Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward publish the book All the President’s Men, documenting their 26-month coverage of the Watergate scandal. The Post will win a Pulitzer Prize for its Watergate reporting and the book will be made into an Oscar-winning film of the same name. Between the book and the film, All the President’s Men will become the touchstone for defining the complex, multilayered Watergate conspiracy. [Washington Post, 1996]
Entity Tags: Washington Post, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward
Timeline Tags: Nixon and Watergate
June 20, 1974 and After: Defense Secretary Attempts to Undermine Arms Negotiations
James Schlesinger. [Source: Central Intelligence Agency]Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, an opponent of arms limitations agreements with the Soviet Union, attempts to scuttle the SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) negotiations between the two countries by telling the National Security Council that the Pentagon will not support any SALT agreement that does not guarantee US superiority in nuclear weapons. In a follow-up to his declaration, he writes a letter to neoconservative Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA—see Early 1970s) essentially advocating Jackson’s hardline approach to dealing with the USSR, a position that undermines that of President Ford. During the Vladivostok negotiations between Ford and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev (see November 23, 1974), he encourages Ford to hold out for an agreement that mandates numerical equality between the two sides for the simple reason that he does not believe the Soviets will agree. Author J. Peter Scoblic calls this the “foreshadowing of a tactic that would be used by arms control opponents in the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 80]
Entity Tags: Leonid Brezhnev, US Department of Defense, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, J. Peter Scoblic, James R. Schlesinger
August 8, 1974: Nixon Resigns Presidency
Richard Nixon announcing his resignation to the country. [Source: American Rhetoric.com]President Richard Nixon, forced to resign because of the Watergate scandal, begins his last day in office. The morning is marked by “burn sessions” in several rooms of the White House, where aides burn what author Barry Werth calls “potentially troublesome documents” in fireplaces. Nixon’s chief of staff, Alexander Haig, is preparing for the transition in his office, which is overflowing with plastic bags full of shredded documents. Haig says all of the documents are duplicates. Haig presents Nixon with a one-line letter of resignation—“I hereby resign the office of president of the United States”—and Nixon signs it without comment. Haig later describes Nixon as “haggard and ashen,” and recalls, “Nothing of a personal nature was said… By now, there was not much that could be said that we did not already understand.” Nixon gives his resignation speech at 9 p.m. [White House, 8/8/1974; White House, 8/8/1974; American Rhetoric, 2001; Werth, 2006, pp. 3-8] On August 7, Haig told Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski that Congress would certainly pass a resolution halting any legal actions against Nixon. But, watching Nixon’s televised resignation speech, Jaworski thinks, “Not after that speech, Al.” Nixon refuses to accept any responsibility for any of the myriad crimes and illicit actions surrounding Watergate, and merely admits to some “wrong” judgments. Without some expression of remorse and acceptance of responsibility, Jaworski doubts that Congress will do anything to halt any criminal actions against Nixon. [Werth, 2006, pp. 30-31] Instead of accepting responsibility, Nixon tells the nation that he must resign because he no longer has enough support in Congress to remain in office. To leave office before the end of his term “is abhorrent to every instinct in my body,” he says, but “as president, I must put the interests of America first.” Jaworski makes a statement after the resignation speech, declaring that “there has been no agreement or understanding of any sort between the president or his representatives and the special prosecutor relating in any way to the president’s resignation.” Jaworski says that his office “was not asked for any such agreement or understanding and offered none.” [Washington Post, 8/9/1974]
Entity Tags: Nixon administration, Leon Jaworski, Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Barry Werth
August 9, 1974: Gerald Ford Replaces Nixon as President
Gerald Ford takes the oath of office. [Source: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library]Vice President Gerald Ford prepares to take over the presidency from the resigning Richard Nixon (see August 8, 1974). Ford’s transition team suggests that, in line with Ford’s own views, Ford not appoint a chief of staff at this time. “However,” says the team’s memo, “there should be someone who could rapidly and efficiently organize the new staff organization, but who will not be perceived or eager to be chief of staff.” Ford writes “Rumsfeld” in the margin of the memo. Donald Rumsfeld is a former Navy pilot and Nixon aide. Rumsfeld has been the US ambassador to NATO and, thusly, was out of Washington and untainted by Watergate. Rumsfeld harbors presidential ambitions of his own and has little use for a staff position, even such a powerful position as a president’s chief of staff. [Werth, 2006, pp. 7-8] Rumsfeld believes that Ford’s first task is to establish a “legitimate government” as far from the taint of Watergate as possible—a difficult task considering Ford is retaining Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the rest of the Nixon cabinet, Haig, and virtually the entire White House staff, although plans are for Haig and most of the White House staff to gracefully exit in a month. [Werth, 2006, pp. 21] Shortly after noon, Ford takes the oath of office for the presidency, becoming the first president in US history to enter the White House as an appointed, rather than an elected, official. Ford tells the nation: “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.… I assume the presidency under extraordinary circumstances.… This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.” [Politico, 8/9/2007]
Entity Tags: Henry A. Kissinger, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Donald Rumsfeld, Richard M. Nixon
August 14, 1974: Haig Pushes Rumsfeld for White House Chief of Staff
Alexander Haig, President Nixon’s chief of staff, is briefly staying on at the White House to ease the transition into the new, hastily assembled Ford staff. Haig, knowing that President Ford will not consider retaining him in the position, believes that Donald Rumsfeld, the US ambassador to NATO, might be the person Ford needs to head his staff (see August 9, 1974). (Nixon held Rumsfeld in grudging admiration, referring to him as a “ruthless little b_stard,” but had sent him to Europe and NATO headquarters because he did not like Rumsfeld’s obvious ambition.) Although Ford is not sold on having a chief of staff at all, Haig believes Ford needs someone with Rumsfeld’s “strong personality and fine administrat[ive skills]” to help him establish himself. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, whom Ford is retaining, sees Rumsfeld as, in Kissinger’s words, an exemplar of a “special Washington phenomenon: the skilled full-time politician bureaucrat in whom ambition, ability, and substance fuse seamlessly.” Ford has a good relationship with Rumsfeld, who in the 1960s led an insurgency among House Republicans to replace Minority Leader Charles Halleck with Ford. He views Rumsfeld as something of a maverick, and wants someone not beholden to the entrenched Nixon loyalists remaining in the White House as well as someone with a good relationship with Congressional Republicans. Rumsfeld fits the bill. Rumsfeld, a former Navy pilot, will later write that Ford “had to provide sufficient change to make the transition from what many perceived to be an illegitimate White House and administration to a legitimate administration. It was a bit like climbing into an airplane, at 30,000 feet, going 500 miles an hour, and having to change part of the crew.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 60-61; Unger, 2007, pp. 49-52] (Rumsfeld will, in turn, ask his own former assistant, Dick Cheney, to once again join him as his assistant in the Ford White House—see 1969). Ford’s longtime aide and speech writer Robert Hartmann will be equally blunt in his own recollections: “The Nixon-to-Ford transition was superbly planned. It was not a failure. It just never happened.” [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 26]
Entity Tags: Robert Hartmann, Nixon administration, Henry A. Kissinger, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Donald Rumsfeld, Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
August 15, 1974: Neoconservatives Begin Moving to Influence US Foreign Policies
Conservative Democratic senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) meets with President Ford as part of a discussion about the standoff with the Soviet Union over trade and emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel. Jackson—hawkish, defense-minded, and solidly pro-Israel—sees the standoff as an opportunity to undercut Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Jackson is a forerunner of what in later years will be called “neoconservatism” (see 1965), an ideology mostly espoused by a group of Democratic lawmakers and intellectuals who have abandoned their support for Rooseveltian New Deal economics and multilateralist foreign policies (see Early 1970s). Jackson and his outspoken pro-Israel aide, Richard Perle, view Kissinger as far too conciliatory and willing to negotiate with the Communist bloc. Jackson and Perle see the Soviet Union, not the Israeli-Palestine conflict, as the chief threat to US interests in the Middle East and the control of that region’s oil fields. They see a strong, powerful Israel as essential to their plans for US domination of the region. Jackson resists a proposed compromise on the number of Soviet Jews the USSR will allow to emigrate to Israel—the Soviets offer 55,000 and Jackson insists on 75,000—and many in the meeting feel that Jackson is being deliberately recalcitrant. “It made mo sense to me because it was sure to be counterproductive,” Ford later writes, “but he would not bend, and the only reason is politics.” For his part, Kissinger respects Jackson’s political abilities, but to his mind, Perle is a “ruthless… little b_stard.” Kissinger knows that Republican hawks as well as the burgeoning neoconservative movement will pressure Ford to abandon Richard Nixon’s policies of moderating relations with the Soviet Union and Communist China. But, author Barry Werth writes in 2006: “what Kissinger and now Ford would chronically underestimate was the neoconservatives’ argument that the United States should not so much seek to coexist with the Soviet system as to overthrow it through direct confrontation. Or the extent to which the neoconservatives would go to exaggerate a foreign threat and stir up fear.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 77-79]
Entity Tags: Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Richard M. Nixon, Barry Werth, Richard Perle, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, Henry A. Kissinger
August 16-17, 1974: Rockefeller Asked to Accept Vice Presidency
Republican political adviser and corporate lobbyist Bryce Harlow recommends former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller over former ambassador and current Republican National Committee chairman George H.W. Bush to serve as vice president (see August 20, 1974). Bush may be a better choice for party harmony, Harlow says, but that choice would be considered indecisive and overly partisan. On the other hand, Rockefeller, a liberal Republican, would be considered a “bold” choice and “would be hailed by the media normally most hostile to Republicans.” Rockefeller’s selection would also “encourage estranged groups to return to the Party and would signal that the new president will not be captive of any political faction.”
Watergate Allegations against Rockefeller - Rockefeller’s naming as vice president, strongly supported by President Ford, is briefly held up by unfounded allegations that Rockefeller hired thugs to disrupt the 1972 Democratic National Convention, and that the papers to prove the allegations were stolen from the offices of convicted Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt. The charges are leveled by an elderly anti-Communist activist named Hamilton Long. The story leaks to the press, and Ford, taking no chances, orders the FBI to investigate Rockefeller, Bush, and senior staff aide Donald Rumsfeld for possible selection as the vice president. Long’s allegations prove baseless when Watergate investigators locate the safety deposit boxes in which Long says the documents are stored, and find the boxes empty.
Ford Offers VP - After learning that Rockefeller is free of any Watergate taint, Ford privately asks him to accept the vice presidency. Rockefeller will have strong influence on the Ford administration’s domestic and economic policies, Ford promises, and, additionally, Rockefeller will be Ford’s vice presidential choice in the 1976 presidential elections. The last obstacle is the press, which is all but convinced that the White House is involved in another Watergate cover-up, this time with Ford at the helm. A White House source tells reporters that the so-called “Rockefeller Papers” are nothing more than a hoax concocted by “right-wing extremists who decided it would be useful to blacken the name of Governor Rockefeller.” The explanations by press secretary Jerald terHorst, himself a former reporter, and terHorst’s acceptance of the blame for giving confusing and somewhat misleading information about the Rockefeller allegations, somewhat mollifies the press. White House counsel Robert Hartmann recalls the Long incident and its handling as an example of the inexperience of the Ford staff and of Ford himself. “[W]e were all babes in the White House,” he later writes. “We had done the right thing and truthfully told what we had done, but it was unfair to Rockefeller to give presidential credence to Long’s hearsay. And of course, the press castigated us for that the next day.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 93-105]
Entity Tags: Robert Hartmann, Nelson Rockefeller, Hamilton Long, Jerald terHorst, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bryce Harlow, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, E. Howard Hunt, Ford administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Donald Rumsfeld
August 18, 1974: Bush Connection to Nixon Campaign ‘Slush Fund’ Revealed
Unaware that President Ford has already asked Nelson Rockefeller to be his vice president (see August 16-17, 1974), the media continues to speculate on who Ford will choose for the position. Newsweek reports that George H.W. Bush “has slipped badly because of alleged irregularities in the financing of his 1970 Senate race.” White House sources tell the magazine, “there was potential embarrassment in reports that the Nixon White House had funneled about $100,000 from a secret fund known as the ‘Townhouse Operation’” into Bush’s losing Texas Senate campaign, which itself failed to report about $40,000 of the money. The news rocks Bush, who is waiting for Ford’s phone call while vacationing at the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. (It is unclear who leaked the Bush information or why. Bush always believes it was Ford’s political adviser Melvin Laird; future Ford biographer James Cannon is equally sure it was Ford’s senior aide Donald Rumsfeld, a dark horse candidate for the position.) The “Townhouse Operation” is an early Nixon administration campaign machination (see Early 1970). Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski is investigating the fund; the nomination of Bush over Rockefeller would almost certainly lead Jaworski to discover that up to 18 other GOP Senate candidates received money from the same slush fund. Jaworski will manage to keep Bush’s name out of his final report, but even had Ford not already chosen Rockefeller as his vice president, the Watergate taint is lethal to Bush’s chance at the position. [Werth, 2006, pp. 114-116]
Entity Tags: Townhouse Operation, Nelson Rockefeller, Leon Jaworski, Donald Rumsfeld, George Herbert Walker Bush, Melvin Laird, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, James Cannon
August 20, 1974: Rockefeller Publicly Named Vice Presidential Selection
President Ford announces the selection of former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, a moderately liberal Republican, as his vice president. Ford gives Richard Nixon a courtesy call to inform him of the selection before making the public announcement. Nixon seems “very pleased,” Ford will later write. “He said Nelson’s name and experience in foreign policy would help me internationally, and that he was fully qualified to be president should something happen to me. The extreme right wing, he continued, would be very upset, but I shouldn’t worry because I couldn’t please them anyway.” Ford then telephones George H.W. Bush, who is bitterly disappointed at being passed over. To make the public announcement, Ford enters the Oval Office with Rockefeller at his side. Ford characterizes the decision to select Rockefeller as “a tough call for a tough job.” Rockefeller must be confirmed by the Senate, but no one expects any difficulties on that score. Rockefeller does cause a stir by confirming that Ford has “every intention” of running for president in 1976, though Rockefeller will not confirm that he will also be on the ticket. Most Republicans outside of the hard-core right applaud Rockefeller’s selection. House Minority Leader John Rhodes (R-AZ), a longtime Ford ally, chides the extremists: “I can’t believe conservative Republicans feel broadening the base of the party is a bad thing—unless they want to keep on losing and keep being a minority—and I just can’t subscribe to that way of thinking.” The mainstream media approves of Rockefeller as well, with CBS’s Eric Sevareid calling the new Ford-Rockefeller administration a triumph of “common sense.” He goes on to say the two are so popular that Democrats, “more deeply divided than the Republicans,” may find themselves in for a “long stretch in the political wilderness.… They thought they could run against Nixon for the next twenty [years]. But as things stand now they can’t run against Nixon even this year.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 138-143]
Entity Tags: Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Eric Sevareid, George Herbert Walker Bush, John Rhodes, Nelson Rockefeller
August 24, 1974: Reagan Energizes Conservative Republicans
Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford at a Los Angeles hotel, October 1974. [Source: David Hume Kennerly / Vanity Fair]The Republican governor of California, Ronald Reagan, has until now been undecided whether to run for president in 1976 against Ford. But Nelson Rockefeller’s nomination as vice president (see August 20, 1974) galvanizes Reagan and his team. Conservative Republicans begin gathering under Reagan’s banner to oppose what they see as an unacceptably left-leaning 1976 ticket of Ford and Rockefeller. Reagan is not universally popular in the GOP: Richard Nixon thought him “strange” and not “pleasant to be around.” For his part, Reagan has until now staunchly supported Nixon throughout the Watergate debacle, but has begun exhorting young conservatives to forget Nixon and embrace conservative ideology. At a Maryland fund-raising party, Reagan tells the crowd that the Ford administration must reassert what he calls the “mandate of 1972,” when Nixon trounced Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern in the most lopsided victory in modern US history. By re-electing Nixon so overwhelmingly, Reagan says, “voters rejected an invitation to Utopia and reaffirmed the basic values from which our system was built. They voted for fiscal responsibility and individual determination of their own destinies.… They repudiated the idea that government should grow bigger and bigger, that we should embrace more costly programs to alleviate human misery—programs that somehow never succeed no matter how much money is spent on them. The mandate of 1972 was a matter of the people vs. big government. The people, I believe, have given the government a mandate which they expect to be enforced.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 180-181]
Entity Tags: Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Ford administration, George S. McGovern, Nelson Rockefeller
September 8, 1974: Ford Pardons Nixon
Ford delivering the televised address in which he announces the pardon of Nixon. [Source: Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum]At 11:01 a.m., President Ford delivers a statement announcing the pardon of former President Richard Nixon to a bank of television cameras and reporters. He calls Watergate and Nixon’s travails “an American tragedy in which we have all played a part.” He says that to withhold a pardon would subject Nixon, and the country, to a drawn-out legal proceeding that would take a year or more, and “[u]gly passions would again be aroused.” The American people would be even more polarized, and the opinions of foreign nations towards the US would sink even further as the highly public testimonies and possible trial of Nixon played out on television and in the press. It is doubtful that Nixon could ever receive a fair trial, Ford says. But Nixon’s fate is not Ford’s ultimate concern, he says, but the fate of the country. His duty to the “laws of God” outweigh his duty to the Constitution, Ford says, and he must “be true to my own convictions and my own conscience. My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot continue to prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed.… [O]nly I, as president, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book.… I do believe with all my heart and mind and spirit that I, not as president, but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy.” Nixon and his family have “suffered enough,” Ford continues, “and will continue to suffer no matter what I do.” Thereby, Ford proclaims a “full, free and absolute pardon upon Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he… has committed or may have committed or taken part in” duiring his presidency. On camera, Ford signs the pardon document. [Werth, 2006, pp. 320-321]
Entity Tags: Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Richard M. Nixon
September 10, 1974: Senate Opposes More Pardons; House Demands Information on Nixon Pardon
The Senate votes 55-24 to pass a resolution opposing any more Watergate pardons (see September 8, 1974) until defendants can be tried, rendered a verdict, and exhaust their appeals process, if appropriate. The House of Representatives passes two resolutions asking the White House to submit “full and complete information and facts” regarding the pardon for former President Richard Nixon. [Werth, 2006, pp. 332] In the following months, Congress, angry at the crimes that engendered the pardon, will impose restrictions on the presidency designed to ensure that none of President Nixon’s excesses can ever again take place, a series of restrictions that many in the Ford White House find objectionable. None object more strenuously than Deputy Chief of Staff Dick Cheney. [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 28]
Entity Tags: US Congress, Ford administration, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Richard M. Nixon
September 16-Late September, 1974: Haig Takes Command of US Forces in Europe; Threatens to Expose Ford Officials
President Ford names outgoing chief of staff Alexander Haig to be supreme allied commander in Europe, provoking an outcry in Congress and unprecedented demands that Haig be confirmed for the post by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) says, “I’d like to put him under oath to learn his role in the Nixon pardon” (see September 8, 1974). Haig will not be compelled to testify before the committee, but he weathers another scare, this one from inside the White House. Haig is told by former Nixon White House lawyer Fred Buzhardt, who now works for Ford, that the group preparing Ford for his upcoming House testimony on the pardon (see Mid-October 1974) has “prepared sworn testimony for the president that could very well result in your indictment,” as Haig will later write. Haig storms to the White House, reads the testimony, and demands an immediate audience with Ford. White House staffers refuse him. Haig then threatens to announce his knowledge of “a secret effort by Ford people to hurry Nixon out of the presidency behind Ford’s back.” Haig gets the meeting. He learns that Ford has not read the testimony, and decides that Buzhardt’s threat is hollow. [Werth, 2006, pp. 335-336]
Entity Tags: Richard M. Nixon, William Proxmire, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Fred Buzhardt, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr
September 21, 1974 and After: Rumsfeld, Cheney Take Power in White House
Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld speaking to reporters, 1975. [Source: Gaylinkcontent (.com)]President Ford asks Donald Rumsfeld to replace the outgoing Alexander Haig at the White House (see September 16-Late September, 1974). Rumsfeld has long been Haig’s choice to replace him (see August 14, 1974). Ford does not want to give Rumsfeld the official title of “chief of staff,” and instead wants Rumsfeld as “staff coordinator.” The difference is academic. Ford wants the aggressive, bureaucratically savvy Rumsfeld to help him regain control over a White House that is, in the words of author Barry Werth, “riven with disunity, disorganization, and bad blood.” Rumsfeld agrees, and names former Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney as his deputy (who makes himself valuable by initially doing the lowest forms of bureaucratic scutwork). Rumsfeld and Cheney will eventually wield almost Nixonian power in Ford’s White House, successfully blocking the “in-house liberal,” Vice President Rockefeller, from exerting any real influence, and hobbling Henry Kissinger’s almost-limitless influence.
Blocking of Rockefeller and Kissinger for Ideological and Political Reasons - Rumsfeld begins his in-house assault in classic fashion: trying to cause tension between Kissinger and White House officials by snitching on Kissinger to any White House official who will listen. Kissinger eventually tells Ford: “Don’t listen to [Rumsfeld], Mr. President. He’s running for president in 1980.” Rumsfeld and Cheney do their best to open the White House to hardline defense hawks and the even more hardline neoconservatives led by Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) and Jackson’s aide, Richard Perle. (Though Rumsfeld and Cheney are not considered neoconservatives in a strict sense, their aims are almost identical—see June 4-5, 1974). Kissinger’s efforts to win a negotiated peace between Israel and Palestine in the Middle East are held in contempt by Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the neoconservatives; using Ford’s press secretary Ron Nessen as a conduit, Rumsfeld and Cheney leak information about the negotiations to the press, helping to cripple the entire peace process. Rumsfeld and Cheney have larger personal plans as well: they want to secure the White House for Rumsfeld, perhaps as early as 1976, but certainly by 1980. One of their methods of winning support is to undercut Kissinger as much as possible; they believe they can win support among the GOP’s right wing by thwarting Kissinger’s “realpolitik” foreign policy stratagems.
Rumsfeld as 'Wizard of Oz' - According to the chief of Ford’s Economic Policy Board, William Seidman, Rumsfeld’s bureaucratic machinations remind him of the Wizard of Oz: “He thought he was invisible behind the curtain as he worked the levers, but in reality everyone could see what he was doing.” Rumsfeld and Cheney will make their most open grasp for power in orchestrating the “Halloween Massacre” (see November 4, 1975 and After). [Werth, 2006, pp. 336-337; Unger, 2007, pp. 49-52]
Entity Tags: William Seidman, Ron Nessen, Richard Perle, Barry Werth, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, Henry A. Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
Mid-October 1974: Ford Denies Any Pardon Deal
President Ford testifies before a House subcommittee about his pardon of President Nixon (see September 8, 1974). When told, “People question whether or not in fact there was a deal” between Nixon and Ford—the presidency traded for a pardon—Ford replies, “There was no deal, period, under no circumstances.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 333] Ford’s testimony is “only the second time in history that the president had ever done that,” Deputy Chief of Staff Dick Cheney will later recall, marveling at Ford’s near-unprecedented agreement. Cheney is incorrect; not only did Abraham Lincoln testify before the House Judiciary Committee in 1862 about a news leak, but both George Washington and Woodrow Wilson had also testified before Congress. [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 28]
Entity Tags: Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Richard M. Nixon
November 23, 1974: Vladivostok SALT II Negotiations Give US, USSR Numerical Parity in Nuclear Arms; US Conservatives Oppose Deal
Ford and Brezhnev in Vladivostok, 1974. [Source: Public domain]President Gerald Ford meets with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev in Vladivostok. Ford, attempting to restart the moribund SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitations Talks) negotiations, finds Brezhnev willing to deal. The Soviet Union offers to sign off on one of two options: equal ceilings (allowing each side the same number of long- and short-range ballistic missiles and heavy bombers), or what he calls “offsetting asymmetries,” which would allow the US to have more MIRV—Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle—missiles while the Soviets have more launch vehicles. Most American experts believe the “offsetting asymmetries” option is better for the US—leaving the USSR with measurably fewer MIRV launchers, warheads, and payload capacity, or “throw weight.” However, Ford, knowing he will have to get the deal past neoconservative Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA—see Early 1970s) and his call for numerical equality, reaches an agreement with Brezhnev that both the US and USSR will be allowed 2,400 long-range delivery systems, of which 1,320 will be MIRVs. Author J. Peter Scoblic calls the deal “yet another instance of right-wing opposition to arms control undermining not only nuclear stability but the stated goals of conservatives—in this case, a US advantage in MIRVs.” When Ford returns to Washington with the deal, hardline right-wingers will fiercely oppose the deal on the grounds that the numerical equality in launch vehicles gives the USSR an untenable advantage. “[T]he agreement recognizes and in effect freezes Soviet superiority in nuclear firepower,” says New York Senator James Buckley, the only member of the Conservative Party ever to hold a Senate seat. Governor Ronald Reagan, a voluble opponent of any arms-control deals, says, incorrectly, that the Vladivostok agreement gives the Soviet Union the opportunity to have a “ten-to-one” advantage in throw weight. Though the Vladivostok agreement becomes part of the overall SALT II negotiations (see June 18, 1979-Winter 1979), conservatives among both parties will stiffen their opposition to the deal. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 78-79]
Entity Tags: James Buckley, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, J. Peter Scoblic, Leonid Brezhnev
December 19, 1974 and After: Rockefeller Sworn in as Vice President; Influence Blocked by Rumsfeld, Right-Wingers
Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president (see August 20, 1974). [Rockefeller Family Archives, 6/7/2007]
Bad Blood and Confirmation Difficulties - Rockefeller has trouble even before taking office. Branded as a liberal by many in the Republican Party, and winning as many enemies as friends with his outsized ego and gladhanding demeanor, Rockefeller garnered swift and obdurate resistance particularly from the right wing both outside the White House (see August 24, 1974) and in (see September 21, 1974 and After). During the Senate’s confirmation hearings, many Democrats and some Republicans relished forcing Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest men in the country, to open his finances to public scrutiny. Even President Ford privately expresses his astonishment. “Can you imagine?” he asked during the hearings. “Nelson lost $30 million in one year and it didn’t make any difference.” When it was revealed that Rockefeller had given huge personal contributions to lawmakers and government officials—including Secretary of State Henry Kissinger—in the form of “loans” that never needed repaying, the Senate hearings became even more inquisitorial. The hearings dragged on for months until Ford personally intervened, telling House and Senate leaders that it was “in the national interest that you confirm Rockefeller, and I’m asking you to move as soon as possible.” [US Senate, 7/7/2007]
Cheney Wanted Reagan - Deputy Chief of Staff Dick Cheney, far more conservative than either Ford or Rockefeller, opposes Rockefeller’s influence from the start, and works with his boss, Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, to minimize Rockefeller’s influence. In 1986, Cheney will say that Ford “should have thought of Ronald Reagan as vice president in the summer of 1974, if you are talking strictly in political terms.” [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 38]
Domestic Squabbles - Both Ford and Rockefeller want the new vice president to be what Ford calls “a full partner” in his administration, particularly on domestic issues. Ford appoints him to chair the Domestic Council, but behind the scenes, Rockefeller’s implacable enemy, Rumsfeld, who sees Rockefeller as a “New Deal” economic liberal, blocks his influence at every term, both from personal and ideological dislike and from a desire to keep power in the White House to himself and his small, close-knit aides. (Cheney, ever attentive to indirect manipulations, inflames Rumsfeld’s dislike of Rockefeller even further by suggesting to his nakedly ambitious boss that if Rockefeller was too successful in implementing domestic policy, he would be perceived as “the man responsible for drafting the agenda of 1976,” thus limiting Rumsfeld’s chances of being named vice president in Ford’s re-election campaign (see November 4, 1975 and After). When Rockefeller tries to implement Ford’s suggested policy that domestic policymakers report to Ford through Rockefeller, Rumsfeld interferes. When Rockefeller names one of his trusted assistants, James Cannon, to head the Domestic Council, Rumsfeld slashes the Council’s budget almost to zero. When Rockefeller proposes a $100 billion Energy Independence Authority, with the aim to reduce and perhaps even end the nation’s dependency on foreign energy sources, Rumsfeld joins Ford’s economic and environmental advisers to block its creation. When Rockefeller proposes an idea for the president to Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld hands it off to Cheney, who ensures that it dies a quiet, untraceable bureaucratic death.
Rockefeller Neutralized - Cheney later recalls that Rockefeller “came to a point where he was absolutely convinced that Don Rumsfeld and myself were out to scuttle whatever new initiatives he could come up with.” Rumsfeld and other Ford staffers ensure that Rockefeller is not involved in key policy meetings; when Ford proposes large cuts in federal taxes and spending, Rockefeller complains, “This is the most important move the president has made, and I wasn’t even consulted.” Asked what he is allowed to do as vice president, Rockefeller answers: “I go to funerals. I go to earthquakes.” He says, only half sardonically, that redesigning the vice-presidential seal is “the most important thing I’ve done.” [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 38-39; US Senate, 7/7/2007]
Following in Rockefeller's Footsteps - Ironically, when Cheney becomes vice president in 2001, he uses what Rockefeller intended to do as a model for his own, extremely powerful vice presidency. James Cannon, who came into the Ford administration with Rockefeller, will marvel in 2006, “Cheney is now doing what he and Rumsfeld blocked Rockefeller from doing—influencing policy.” [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 39-40]
Entity Tags: Ronald Reagan, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Ford administration, Donald Rumsfeld, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Henry A. Kissinger, James Cannon
December 21, 1974: New York Times Reveals CIA Spied on US Citizens for Decades
1974 New York Times headline. [Source: New York Times]The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has repeatedly, and illegally, spied on US citizens for years, reveals investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in a landmark report for the New York Times. Such operations are direct violations of the CIA’s charter and the law, both of which prohibit the CIA from operating inside the United States. Apparently operating under orders from Nixon officials, the CIA has conducted electronic and personal surveillance on over 10,000 US citizens, as part of an operation reporting directly to then-CIA Director Richard Helms. In an internal review in 1973, Helms’s successor, James Schlesinger, also found dozens of instances of illegal CIA surveillance operations against US citizens both past and present (see 1973). Many Washington insiders wonder if the revelation of the CIA surveillance operations tie in to the June 17, 1972 break-in of Democratic headquarters at Washington’s Watergate Hotel by five burglars with CIA ties. Those speculations were given credence by Helms’s protests during the Congressional Watergate hearings that the CIA had been “duped” into taking part in the Watergate break-in by White House officials.
Program Beginnings In Dispute - One official believes that the program, a successor to the routine domestic spying operations during the 1950s and 1960s, was sparked by what he calls “Nixon’s antiwar hysteria.” Helms himself indirectly confirmed the involvement of the Nixon White House, during his August 1973 testimony before the Senate Watergate investigative committee (see August 1973).
Special Operations Carried Out Surveillance - The domestic spying was carried out, sources say, by one of the most secretive units in CI, the special operations branch, whose employees carry out wiretaps, break-ins, and burglaries as authorized by their superiors. “That’s really the deep-snow section,” says one high-level intelligence expert. The liaison between the special operations unit and Helms was Richard Ober, a longtime CI official. “Ober had unique and very confidential access to Helms,” says a former CIA official. “I always assumed he was mucking about with Americans who were abroad and then would come back, people like the Black Panthers.” After the program was revealed in 1973 by Schlesinger, Ober was abruptly transferred to the National Security Council. He wasn’t fired because, says one source, he was “too embarrassing, too hot.” Angleton denies any wrongdoing.
Supposition That Civil Rights Movement 'Riddled' With Foreign Spies - Moscow, who relayed information about violent underground protesters during the height of the antiwar movement, says that black militants in the US were trained by North Koreans, and says that both Yasser Arafat, of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and the KGB were involved to some extent in the antiwar movement, a characterization disputed by former FBI officials as based on worthless intelligence from overseas. For Angleton to make such rash accusations is, according to one member of Congress, “even a better story than the domestic spying.” A former CIA official involved in the 1969-70 studies by the agency on foreign involvement in the antiwar movement says that Angleton believes foreign agents are indeed involved in antiwar and civil rights organizations, “but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
'Cesspool' of Illegality Distressed Schlesinger - According to one of Schlesinger’s former CIA associates, Schlesinger was distressed at the operations. “He found himself in a cesspool,” says the associate. “He was having a grenade blowing up in his face every time he turned around.” Schlesinger, who stayed at the helm of the CIA for only six months before becoming secretary of defense, informed the Department of Justice (DOJ) about the Watergate break-in, as well as another operation by the so-called “plumbers,” their burglary of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office after Ellsberg released the “Pentagon Papers” to the press. Schlesinger began a round of reforms of the CIA, reforms that have been continued to a lesser degree by Colby. (Some reports suggest that CIA officials shredded potentially incriminating documents after Schlesinger began his reform efforts, but this is not known for sure.) Intelligence officials confirm that the spying did take place, but, as one official says, “Anything that we did was in the context of foreign counterintelligence and it was focused at foreign intelligence and foreign intelligence problems.”
'Huston Plan' - But the official also confirms that part of the illegal surveillance was carried out as part of the so-called “Huston plan,” an operation named for former White House aide Tom Charles Huston (see July 26-27, 1970) that used electronic and physical surveillance, along with break-ins and burglaries, to counter antiwar and civil rights protests, “fomented,” as Nixon believed, by so-called black extremists. Nixon and other White House officials have long denied that the Huston plan was ever implemented. “[O]bviously,” says one government intelligence official, the CIA’s decision to create and maintain dossiers on US citizens “got a push at that time.…The problem was that it was handled in a very spooky way. If you’re an agent in Paris and you’re asked to find out whether Jane Fonda is being manipulated by foreign intelligence services, you’ve got to ask yourself who is the real target. Is it the foreign intelligence services or Jane Fonda?” Huston himself denies that the program was ever intended to operate within the United States, and implies that the CIA was operating independently of the White House. Government officials try to justify the surveillance program by citing the “gray areas” in the law that allows US intelligence agencies to encroach on what, by law, is the FBI’s bailiwick—domestic surveillance of criminal activities—when a US citizen may have been approached by foreign intelligence agents. And at least one senior CIA official says that the CIA has the right to engage in such activities because of the need to protect intelligence sources and keep secrets from being revealed.
Surveillance Program Blatant Violation of Law - But many experts on national security law say the CIA program is a violation of the 1947 law prohibiting domestic surveillance by the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Vanderbilt University professor Henry Howe Ransom, a leading expert on the CIA, says the 1947 statute is a “clear prohibition against any internal security functions under any circumstances.” Ransom says that when Congress enacted the law, it intended to avoid any possibility of police-state tactics by US intelligence agencies; Ransom quotes one Congressman as saying, “We don’t want a Gestapo.” Interestingly, during his 1973 confirmation hearings, CIA Director Colby said he believed the same thing, that the CIA has no business conducting domestic surveillance for any purpose at any time: “I really see less of a gray area [than Helms] in that regard. I believe that there is really no authority under that act that can be used.” Even high-level government officials were not aware of the CIA’s domestic spying program until very recently. “Counterintelligence!” exclaimed one Justice Department official upon learning some details of the program. “They’re not supposed to have any counterintelligence in this country. Oh my God. Oh my God.” A former FBI counterterrorism official says he was angry upon learning of the program. “[The FBI] had an agreement with them that they weren’t to do anything unless they checked with us. They double-crossed me all along.” Many feel that the program stems, in some regards, from the long-standing mistrust between the CIA and the FBI. How many unsolved burglaries and other crimes can be laid at the feet of the CIA and its domestic spying operation is unclear. In 1974, Rolling Stone magazine listed a number of unsolved burglaries that its editors felt might be connected with the CIA. And Senator Howard Baker (R-TN), the vice chairman of the Senate Watergate investigative committee, has alluded to mysterious links between the CIA and the Nixon White House. On June 23, 1972, Nixon told his aide, H.R. Haldeman, “Well, we protected Helms from a hell of a lot of things.” [New York Times, 12/22/1974 ]
Entity Tags: US Department of Justice, William Colby, Seymour Hersh, Rolling Stone, Richard Ober, Tom Charles Huston, Richard M. Nixon, Daniel Ellsberg, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Richard Helms, Central Intelligence Agency, Black Panthers, Howard Baker, James Angleton, New York Times, H.R. Haldeman, KGB, James R. Schlesinger, Jane Fonda, Henry Howe Ransom
Timeline Tags: Civil Liberties, Nixon and Watergate
Early 1975: Vice President Rockefeller Investigates CIA; Blocks Democrats from Getting Information for Better Investigation
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller (see December 19, 1974 and After) is instrumental in keeping Senate Democrats from finding out too much about the intelligence community’s excesses. When the New York Times reveals the existence of a decades-old illegal domestic surveillance program run by the CIA (see December 21, 1974), President Ford heads off calls from Democrats to investigate the program by appointing the “Rockefeller Commission” to investigate in the Democrats’ stead. Senate Democrats, unimpressed with the idea, create the Church Committee to investigate the intelligence community (see April, 1976). Rockefeller is adept at keeping critical documents out of the hands of the Church Committee and the press. When Senator Frank Church asks for materials from the White House, he is told that the Rockefeller Commission has them; when he asks Rockefeller for the papers, he is told that he cannot have them because only the president can authorize access. One Church aide later calls Rockefeller “absolutely brilliant” in denying them access in a friendly manner. “He winked and smiled and said, ‘Gee, I want to help you but, of course I can’t—not until we’ve finished our work and the president approves it,’” the aide recalls. Senator John Tower (R-TX), the vice chairman of the committee, will later reflect, “We were very skillfully finessed.” But even Rockefeller, who has his own history of involvement with the CIA, is taken aback at the excesses of the CIA, particularly its history of assassinating foreign leaders. Rockefeller will eventually turn that information over to the Church Committee, giving that body some of the most explosive evidence as yet made public against the agency. [US Senate, 7/7/2007]
Entity Tags: John Tower, Church Committee, Nelson Rockefeller, Central Intelligence Agency, Frank Church, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, ’Rockefeller Commission’
May 15, 1975 and After: Investigations Probe Operation Shamrock, Lead to Passage of FISA Law
Bella Abzug. [Source: Spartacus Educational]Staffers from the Church Committee (see April, 1976), slated with investigating illegal surveillance operations conducted by the US intelligence community, approach the NSA for information about Operation Shamrock (see 1945-1975). The NSA ostensibly closes Shamrock down the very same day the committee staffers ask about the program. Though the Church Committee focuses on a relatively narrow review of international cables, the Pike Committee in the House (see January 29, 1976) is much more far-ranging. The Pike Committee tries and fails to subpoena AT&T, which along with Western Union collaborated with the government in allowing the NSA to monitor international communications to and from the US. The government protects AT&T by declaring it “an agent of the United States acting under contract with the Executive Branch.” A corollary House subcommittee investigation led by Bella Abzug (D-NY)—who believes that Operation Shamrock continues under a different name—leads to further pressure on Congress to pass a legislative remedy. The Ford administration’s counterattack is given considerable assistance by a young lawyer at the Justice Department named Antonin Scalia. The head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Scalia’s arguments in favor of continued warrantless surveillance and the unrestricted rights and powers of the executive branch—opposed by, among others, Scalia’s boss, Attorney General Edward Levi—do not win out this time; Ford’s successor, Jimmy Carter, ultimately signs into law the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (see 1978). But Scalia’s incisive arguments win the attention of powerful Ford officials, particularly Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld’s assistant, Dick Cheney. [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 36-37] Scalia will become a Supreme Court Justice in 1986 (see September 26, 1986).
Entity Tags: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Church Committee, Bella Abzug, Antonin Scalia, AT&T, Donald Rumsfeld, Ford administration, National Security Agency, Western Union, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., Edward Levi, Office of Legal Counsel (DOJ), Pike Committee, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, US Department of Justice
May 25, 1975: Journalist Reveals US Spy Program; Cheney Recommends Burglaries and Indictments as Retaliation
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh publishes an explosive story in the New York Times, revealing that US submarines are tapping into Soviet communications cables inside the USSR’s three-mile territorial limit. Hersh notes that his inside sources gave him the information in hopes that it would modify administration policy: they believe that using submarines in this manner violates the spirit of detente and is more risky than using satellites to garner similar information. The reaction inside both the Pentagon and the White House is predictably agitated. Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, traveling in Europe with President Ford, delegates his deputy Dick Cheney to formulate the administration’s response. Cheney goes farther than most administration officials would have predicted. He calls a meeting with Attorney General Edward Levi and White House counsel Philip Buchan to discuss options. Cheney’s first thought is to either engineer a burglary of Hersh’s home to find classified documents, or to obtain search warrants and have Hersh’s home legally ransacked. He also considers having a grand jury indict Hersh and the Times over their publication of classified information. “Will we get hit with violating the 1st amendment to the constitution[?]” Cheney writes in his notes of the discussion. Levi manages to rein in Cheney; since the leak and the story do not endanger the spying operations, the White House ultimately decides to let the matter drop rather than draw further attention to it. Interestingly, Cheney has other strings to his bow; he writes in his notes: “Can we take advantage of [the leak] to bolster our position on the Church committee investigation (see April, 1976)? To point out the need for limits on the scope of the investigation?” [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 34-35]
Entity Tags: Seymour Hersh, US Department of Defense, Ford administration, Edward Levi, Donald Rumsfeld, Church Committee, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Philip Buchan, New York Times, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr
November 4, 1975 and After: ’Halloween Massacre’ Places Rumsfeld, Cheney in Power
President Ford fires a number of Nixon holdovers and replaces them with “my guys… my own team,” both to show his independence and to prepare for a bruising 1976 primary battle with Ronald Reagan. The wholesale firings and reshufflings are dubbed the “Halloween Massacre.” Donald Rumsfeld becomes secretary of defense, replacing James Schlesinger (see November 4, 1975). George H. W. Bush replaces William Colby as director of the CIA. Henry Kissinger remains secretary of state, but his position as national security adviser is given to Brent Scowcroft. Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld’s deputy chief of staff, moves up to become the youngest chief of staff in White House history. Perhaps the most controversial decision is to replace Nelson Rockefeller as Ford’s vice-presidential candidate for the 1976 elections. Ford’s shake-up is widely viewed as his cave-in to Republican Party hardliners. He flounders in his defense of his new staffers: for example, when Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) asks him why he thinks Rumsfeld is qualified to run the Pentagon, Ford replies, “He was a pilot in the Korean War.” The ultimate winner in the shake-up is Rumsfeld, who instigated the moves from behind the scenes and gains the most from them. Rumsfeld quickly wins a reputation in Washington as a political opportunist, gunning for the vice presidency in 1976 and willing to do whatever is necessary to get it. Rockefeller tells Ford: “Rumsfeld wants to be president of the United States. He has given George Bush the deep six by putting him in the CIA, he has gotten me out.… He was third on your [vice-presidential] list (see August 16-17, 1974) and now he has gotten rid of two of us.… You are not going to be able to put him on the [ticket] because he is defense secretary, but he is not going to want anybody who can possibly be elected with you on that ticket.… I have to say I have a serious question about his loyalty to you.” Later, Ford will write of his sharp regret in pushing Rockefeller off the ticket: “I was angry at myself for showing cowardice in not saying to the ultraconservatives: It’s going to be Ford and Rockefeller, whatever the consequences.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 340-341] “It was the biggest political mistake of my life,” Ford later says. “And it was one of the few cowardly things I did in my life.” [US Senate, 7/7/2007]
Entity Tags: Ronald Reagan, William Colby, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, James R. Schlesinger, Barry Goldwater, Donald Rumsfeld, Brent Scowcroft, George Herbert Walker Bush, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Henry A. Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller
November 20, 1975: Congress Finds at Least Eight CIA Plots to Assassinate Castro
The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations releases its report, “Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders,” which finds “concrete evidence of at least eight plots involving the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro from 1960 to 1965.” [US Congress, 12/18/1975]
Entity Tags: Fidel Castro, US Congress
Early 1976: Rumsfeld Persuades Ford to Abandon SALT II
President Ford and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign a communique relating to the SALT negotiations in November 1974. [Source: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library / Public domain]Newly ensconsced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, after making a series of speeches attacking Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s policy of detente with the Soviet Union, waits until Kissinger is away visiting his Soviet counterparts in Moscow to persuade President Ford to shelve the second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), the ongoing series of negotiations between the US and USSR to limit nuclear arms. “Rumsfeld won that very intense, intense political battle,” recalls Melvin Goodman, the head of the CIA’s Office of Soviet Affairs at the time. The move serves several purposes: to undercut Kissinger, Rumsfeld’s rival (see September 21, 1974 and After); to push Rumsfeld’s own Cold War, hawkish agenda (see June 4-5, 1974); and to set up a move to get Rumsfeld and a coterie of neoconservatives, including Paul Wolfowitz, in a position to either influence or counteract the CIA. The idea is to, in essence, hijack the US’s national security apparatus and find intelligence that will support their much harsher, antagonistic view of US-Soviet relations—and to push their belief that the US can fight and win a nuclear war. [Unger, 2007, pp. 53]
Entity Tags: Henry A. Kissinger, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Melvin A. Goodman
January 29, 1976: Pike Committee Report Criticizing US Intelligence Agencies Is Suppressed
Representative Otis Pike. [Source: Spartacus Educational]A House of Representatives committee, popularly known as the Pike Committee after its chairman, Otis Pike (D-NY), investigates questionable US intelligence activities. The committee operates in tandem with the Senate’s investigation of US intelligence activities, the Church Committee (see April, 1976). Pike, a decorated World War II veteran, runs a more aggressive—some say partisan—investigation than the more deliberate and politically balanced Church Committee, and receives even less cooperation from the White House than does the Church investigation. After a contentious year-long investigation marred by inflammatory accusations and charges from both sides, Pike refuses demands from the CIA to redact huge portions of the report, resulting in an accusation from CIA legal counsel Mitchell Rogovin that the report is an “unrelenting indictment couched in biased, pejorative and factually erroneous terms.” Rogovin also tells the committee’s staff director, Searle Field, “Pike will pay for this, you wait and see…. There will be a political retaliation…. We will destroy him for this.” (It is hard to know exactly what retaliation will be carried out against Pike, who will resign from Congress in 1978.)
Battle to Release Report - On January 23, 1976, the investigative committee voted along party lines to release the report unredacted, sparking a tremendous outcry among Republicans, who are joined by the White House and CIA Director William Colby in an effort to suppress the report altogether. On January 26, the committee’s ranking Republican, Robert McCory, makes a speech saying that the report, if released, would endanger national security. On January 29, the House votes 246 to 124 not to release the report until it “has been certified by the President as not containing information which would adversely affect the intelligence activities of the CIA.” A furious Pike retorts, “The House just voted not to release a document it had not read. Our committee voted to release a document it had read.” Pike threatens not to release the report at all because “a report on the CIA in which the CIA would do the final rewrite would be a lie.” The report will never be released, though large sections of it will be leaked within days to reporter Daniel Schorr of the Village Voice, and printed in that newspaper. Schorr himself will be suspended from his position with CBS News and investigated by the House Ethics Committee (Schorr will refuse to disclose his source, and the committee will eventually decide, on a 6-5 vote, not to bring contempt of Congress charges against him). [Spartacus Educational, 2/16/2006] The New York Times will follow suit and print large portions of the report as well. The committee was led by liberal Democrats such as Pike and Ron Dellums (D-CA), who said even before the committee first met, “I think this committee ought to come down hard and clear on the side of stopping any intelligence agency in this country from utilizing, corrupting, and prostituting the media, the church, and our educational system.” The entire investigation is marred by a lack of cooperation from the White House and the CIA. [Gerald K. Haines, 1/20/2003]
Final Draft Accuses White House, CIA of 'Stonewalling,' Deception - The final draft of the report says that the cooperation from both entities was “virtually nonexistent,” and accuses both of practicing “foot dragging, stonewalling, and deception” in their responses to committee requests for information. CIA archivist and historian Gerald Haines will later write that the committee was thoroughly deceived by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who officially cooperated with the committee but, according to Haines, actually “worked hard to undermine its investigations and to stonewall the release of documents to it.” [Spartacus Educational, 2/16/2006] The final report accuses White House officials of only releasing the information it wanted to provide and ignoring other requests entirely. One committee member says that trying to get information out of Colby and other CIA officials was like “pulling teeth.” For his part, Colby considers Pike a “jackass” and calls his staff “a ragtag, immature, and publicity-seeking group.” The committee is particularly unsuccessful in obtaining information about the CIA’s budget and expenditures, and in its final report, observes that oversight of the CIA budget is virtually nonexistent. Its report is harsh in its judgments of the CIA’s effectiveness in a number of foreign conflicts, including the 1973 Mideast war, the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam, the 1974 coups in Cyprus and Portugal, the 1974 testing of a nuclear device by India, and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union, all of which the CIA either got wrong or failed to predict. The CIA absolutely refused to provide any real information to either committee about its involvement in, among other foreign escapades, its attempt to influence the 1972 elections in Italy, covert actions in Angola, and covert aid to Iraqi Kurds from 1972 through 1975. The committee found that covert actions “were irregularly approved, sloppily implemented, and, at times, had been forced on a reluctant CIA by the President and his national security advisers.” Indeed, the Pike Committee’s final report lays more blame on the White House than the CIA for its illegal actions, with Pike noting that “the CIA does not go galloping off conducting operations by itself…. The major things which are done are not done unilaterally by the CIA without approval from higher up the line.… We did find evidence, upon evidence, upon evidence where the CIA said: ‘No, don’t do it.’ The State Department or the White House said, ‘We’re going to do it.’ The CIA was much more professional and had a far deeper reading on the down-the-road implications of some immediately popular act than the executive branch or administration officials.… The CIA never did anything the White House didn’t want. Sometimes they didn’t want to do what they did.” [Gerald K. Haines, 1/20/2003]
Entity Tags: William Colby, Village Voice, Otis G. Pike, Robert McCory, Pike Committee, US Department of State, New York Times, Mitchell Rogovin, Ron Dellums, House Ethics Committee, Gerald Haines, Church Committee, Searle Field, Daniel Schorr, Henry A. Kissinger, Central Intelligence Agency, CBS News
February 28, 1976: Ford Limits US Intelligence Agencies’ Abilities to Spy on US Citizens, Bans Political Assassinations
President Ford issues Executive Order 11905, which limits the power of the CIA, the NSA, and military intelligence to engage in surveillance of US citizens. Perhaps its most well-known provision is a total ban on “political assassinations” by US government personnel. [Gerald R. Ford, 2/18/1976; Roberts, 2008, pp. 38] The provision is sparked by the Church Commission’s finding (see April, 1976) that assassination is “unacceptable in our society,” and a political embarassment, especially botched attempts such as the CIA’s efforts to kill Cuba’s Fidel Castro. [Grant J. Lilly, 4/6/2006]
Entity Tags: Church Commission, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency
April, 1976: Church Committee Reports on Domestic Surveillance and Other Illegal Activities by US Intelligence Agencies
Senator Frank Church. [Source: Wally McNamee / Corbis]A Senate committee tasked to investigate the activities of US intelligence organizations finds a plethora of abuses and criminal behaviors, and recommends strict legal restraints and firm Congressional oversight. The “Church Committee,” chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID), a former Army intelligence officer with a strong understanding of the necessity for intelligence-gathering, notes in its final report that the CIA in particular had been overly cooperative with the Nixon administration in spying on US citizens for political purposes (see December 21, 1974); US intelligence agencies had also gone beyond the law in assassination attempts on foreign government officials in, among other places, Africa, Latin America, and Vietnam. Church himself accused the CIA of providing the White House with what, in essence, is a “private army,” outside of Congressional oversight and control, and called the CIA a “rogue elephant rampaging out of control.” The committee will reveal the existence of hitherto-unsuspected operations such as HT Lingual, which had CIA agents secretly opening and reading US citizens’ international mail, and other operations which included secret, unauthorized wiretaps, dossier compilations, and even medical experiments. For himself, Church, the former intelligence officer, concluded that the CIA should conduct covert operations only “in a national emergency or in cases where intervention is clearly in tune with our traditional principles,” and restrain the CIA from intervening in the affairs of third-world nations without oversight or consequence. CIA director William Colby is somewhat of an unlikely ally to Church; although he does not fully cooperate with either the Church or Pike commissions, he feels that the CIA’s image is badly in need of rehabilitation. Indeed, Colby later writes, “I believed that Congress was within its constitutional rights to undertake a long-overdue and thoroughgoing review of the agency and the intelligence community. I did not share the view that intelligence was solely a function of the Executive Branch and must be protected from Congressional prying. Quite the contrary.” Conservatives later blame the Church Commission for “betray[ing] CIA agents and operations,” in the words of American Spectator editor R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr, referencing the 1975 assassination of CIA station chief Richard Welch in Greece. The chief counsel of the Church Committee accuses CIA defenders and other conservatives of “danc[ing] on the grave of Richard Welch in the most cynical way.” It is documented fact that the Church Commission exposed no agents and no operations, and compromised no sources; even Colby’s successor, George H.W. Bush, later admits that Welch’s death had nothing to do with the Church Committee. (In 1980, Church will lose re-election to the Senate in part because of accusations of his committee’s responsibility for Welch’s death by his Republican opponent, Jim McClure.) [American Prospect, 11/5/2001; History Matters Archive, 3/27/2002; Assassination Archives and Research Center, 11/23/2002]
Final Report Excoriates CIA - The Committee’s final report concludes, “Domestic intelligence activity has threatened and undermined the Constitutional rights of Americans to free speech, association and privacy. It has done so primarily because the Constitutional system for checking abuse of power has not been applied.” The report is particularly critical of the CIA’s successful, and clandestine, manipulation of the US media. It observes: “The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets.” The report identifies over 50 US journalists directly employed by the CIA, along with many others who were affiliated and paid by the CIA, and reveals the CIA’s policy to have “their” journalists and authors publish CIA-approved information, and disinformation, overseas in order to get that material disseminated in the United States. The report quotes the CIA’s Chief of the Covert Action Staff as writing, “Get books published or distributed abroad without revealing any US influence, by covertly subsidizing foreign publicans or booksellers.…Get books published for operational reasons, regardless of commercial viability.…The advantage of our direct contact with the author is that we can acquaint him in great detail with our intentions; that we can provide him with whatever material we want him to include and that we can check the manuscript at every stage…. [The agency] must make sure the actual manuscript will correspond with our operational and propagandistic intention.” The report finds that over 1,000 books were either published, subsidized, or sponsored by the CIA by the end of 1967; all of these books were published in the US either in their original form or excerpted in US magazines and newspapers. “In examining the CIA’s past and present use of the US media,” the report observes, “the Committee finds two reasons for concern. The first is the potential, inherent in covert media operations, for manipulating or incidentally misleading the American public. The second is the damage to the credibility and independence of a free press which may be caused by covert relationships with the US journalists and media organizations.”
CIA Withheld Info on Kennedy Assassination, Castro Plots, King Surveillance - The committee also finds that the CIA withheld critical information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy from the Warren Commission, information about government assassination plots against Fidel Castro of Cuba (see, e.g., November 20, 1975, Early 1961-June 1965, March 1960-August 1960, and Early 1963); and that the FBI had conducted a counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) against Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Mafia boss Sam Giancana was slated to testify before the committee about his organization’s ties to the CIA, but before he could testify, he was murdered in his home—including having six bullet wounds in a circle around his mouth. Another committee witness, union leader Jimmy Hoffa, disappeared before he could testify. Hoffa’s body has never been found. Mafia hitman Johnny Roselli was murdered before he could testify before the committee: in September 1976, the Washington Post will print excerpts from Roselli’s last interview, with journalist Jack Anderson, before his death; Anderson will write, “When [Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey] Oswald was picked up, the underworld conspirators feared he would crack and disclose information that might lead to them. This almost certainly would have brought a massive US crackdown on the Mafia. So Jack Ruby was ordered to eliminate Oswald.” (Anderson’s contention has not been proven.) The murders of Giancana and Roselli, and the disappearance and apparent murder of Hoffa, will lead to an inconclusive investigation by the House of the assassinations of Kennedy and King. [Spartacus Educational, 12/18/2002]
Leads to FISA - The findings of the Church Committee will inspire the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) (see 1978), and the standing committees on intelligence in the House and Senate. [Assassination Archives and Research Center, 11/23/2002]
Simultaneous Investigation in House - The Church Committee operates alongside another investigative body in the House of Representatives, the Pike Committee (see January 29, 1976).
Church Committee Smeared After 9/11 - After the 9/11 attacks, conservative critics will once again bash the Church Committee; former Secretary of State James Baker will say within hours of the attacks that the Church report had caused the US to “unilaterally disarm in terms of our intelligence capabilities,” a sentiment echoed by the editorial writers of the Wall Street Journal, who will observe that the opening of the Church hearings was “the moment that our nation moved from an intelligence to anti-intelligence footing.” Perhaps the harshest criticism will come from conservative novelist and military historian Tom Clancy, who will say, “The CIA was gutted by people on the political left who don’t like intelligence operations. And as a result of that, as an indirect result of that, we’ve lost 5,000 citizens last week.” [Gerald K. Haines, 1/20/2003]
Entity Tags: Washington Post, Tom Clancy, William Colby, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Richard M. Nixon, HT Lingual, George Herbert Walker Bush, Jack Anderson, Frank Church, Church Committee, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sam Giancana, Jack Ruby, James R. Hoffa, Pike Committee, Martin Luther King, Jr., James A. Baker, Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy, Jim McClure, Johnny Roselli, Warren Commission
November 1976: Carter Defeats Ford for Presidency; Cheney Helped Lose Re-Election Bid for Ford
Jimmy Carter celebrates his presidential victory. [Source: PBS]Gerald Ford loses the presidency to Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter, an obscure Georgia governor who contrasts himself to the Nixon and Ford administrations by promising “never to tell a lie to the American people.” The Republican Party’s widening rift between its moderate and conservative wings dooms Ford’s chances at being elected to the office he has held by appointment for over two years (see August 9, 1974). [Werth, 2006, pp. 342] Ford’s de facto campaign chairman, Chief of Staff Dick Cheney, contributes heavily to Ford’s loss. Unready for the stresses and demands of a presidential campaign, Cheney nevertheless wrested control from Ford’s ostensible chairman, Bo Calloway, and promptly alienated campaign workers and staffers. Press secretary Ron Nessen will later write, “Some reporters privately started calling him the Grand Teuton, a complex pun referring to his mountainous home state of Wyoming and the Germanic style of his predecessor in the Nixon administration, H. R. Haldeman.” Cheney tried throughout the campaign to move Ford farther to the right than the president was willing to go; even with his attempts, Ford’s primary challenge from Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA) did much to peel away the right-wing Republican base, while Cheney did little to reassure the liberal and moderate Republicans whom many feel are Ford’s natural base. Cheney succeeded in persuading Ford to adopt a convention platform much farther to the right than Ford, and his supporters, wanted; in particular, the Reaganesque “Morality in Foreign Policy Plank,” which stated, “we shall go forward as a united people to forge a lasting peace in the world based upon our deep belief in the rights of man, the rule of law, and guidance by the hand of God,” alienated many more secular Republicans, who were not comfortable with the aggressive Christianity and implied imperialism contained in the statement. (Ultimately, it took the intervention of James Baker, a veteran Republican “fixer” and close friend of the Bush family, to head off disaster at the nominating convention.) Ford aide James Cannon will say that Cheney “was in over his head.” Had Cheney’s former boss Donald Rumsfeld stayed as chief of staff instead of moving to the Pentagon (see November 4, 1975 and After), Cannon believes Ford would have won a second term. [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 40]
Entity Tags: Ron Nessen, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Ronald Reagan, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., James Cannon, James Baker, Bo Calloway, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, H.R. Haldeman, Donald Rumsfeld
Late November 1976: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Embraces ‘Team B’ Findings
Donald Rumsfeld. [Source: US Defense Department]Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wholeheartedly embraces the “Team B” intelligence analysis of the Soviet nuclear and military threat (see Early 1976), regardless of the fact that the team’s reports are riddled with errors (see November 1976 and November 1976). “No doubt exists about the capabilities of the Soviet armed forces,” he proclaims after reading the team’s final report. “The Soviet Union has been busy. They’ve been busy in terms of their level of effort; they’ve been busy in terms of the actual weapons they’re producing; they’ve been busy in terms of expanding production rates; they’ve been busy in terms of expanding their industrial capacity to produce additional weapons at additional rates.” [Unger, 2007, pp. 57]
Entity Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, ’Team B’
1977-1981: Nationalities Working Group Advocates Using Militant Islam Against Soviet Union
In 1977 Zbigniew Brzezinski, as President Carter’s National Security Adviser, forms the Nationalities Working Group (NWG) dedicated to the idea of weakening the Soviet Union by inflaming its ethnic tensions. The Islamic populations are regarded as prime targets. Richard Pipes, the father of Daniel Pipes, takes over the leadership of the NWG in 1981. Pipes predicts that with the right encouragement Soviet Muslims will “explode into genocidal fury” against Moscow. According to Richard Cottam, a former CIA official who advised the Carter administration at the time, after the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1978, Brzezinski favored a “de facto alliance with the forces of Islamic resurgence, and with the Republic of Iran.” [Dreyfuss, 2005, pp. 241, 251 - 256]
Entity Tags: Richard Pipes, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Nationalities Working Group
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, US International Relations, Neoconservative Influence, War in Afghanistan
Early 1977: Arms Control Proponent’s Nomination Sparks Conservative Opposition
Paul Warnke, at a 1986 press conference. [Source: Terry Ashe/Time and Life Pictures / Getty Images]President Carter’s nomination of Paul Warnke to head the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) galvanizes opposition from conservatives throughout Washington.
Long Record of Opposing Arms Buildup - Warnke, a trial lawyer who began his political career as general counsel to the secretary of defense under President Johnson and established himself as an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, has a long record of favoring negotiations with the Soviet Union over confrontation. His 1975 article in Foreign Affairs magazine, “Apes on a Treadmill,” ridiculed the conservative idea that the only way to counter the Soviet nuclear threat is to build ever more nuclear weapons, and earned the lasting enmity of those same conservatives. “We can be first off the treadmill,” he wrote. “That’s the only victory the arms race has to offer.” Carter also wants Warnke to head the administration’s negotiating team in the SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) with the Soviets. [New York Times, 11/1/2001; Scoblic, 2008, pp. 101]
Conservative, Neoconservative Counterattack Creates Grassroots Element - The Committee on the Present Danger (CPD—see 1976) leads the opposition to Warnke’s nomination. Even before Warnke is officially nominated, neoconservatives Penn Kemble and Joshua Muravchik write and circulate an anonymous memo around Washington accusing Warnke of favoring “unilateral abandonment by the US of every weapons system which is subject to negotiation at SALT.” The memo also cites the conclusions of the Team B analysts (see November 1976) to deride Warnke’s arguments against nuclear superiority. Shortly after the memo, one of the CPD’s associate groups, the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM) creates a “grassroots” organization, the Emergency Coalition Against Unilateral Disarmament (ECAUD), that actually functions out of the CDM offices in Washington. ECAUD, though an offshoot of the CDM, has a leadership made up of conservatives, including the American Conservative Union’s James Roberts, the Republican National Committee’s Charles Black, and the Conservative Caucus’s Howard Phillips. The directors of Young Americans for Freedom, the Young Republican National Federation, and the American Security Council (see 1978) are on the steering committee. And the executive director is Morton Blackwell, a hard-right conservative who works with direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie. In 2008, author J. Peter Scoblic will write, “Thus were the views of neoconservatives, hawks, and traditional conservatives given a populist base.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 101-102]
Contentious Confirmation Hearings - Scoblic describes the opposition to Warnke at his Senate confirmation hearings as “vicious.” Eminent Cold War foreign policy expert Paul Nitze (see January 1976) lambasts Warnke, calling his ideas “demonstrably unsound… absolutely asinine… screwball, arbitrary, and fictitious.” Neoconservative Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) gives over his first Senate speech to blasting Warnke; Moynihan’s Senate colleague, neoconservative leader Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA—see Early 1970s) joins Moynihan in criticizing Warnke’s nomination, as does Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). Another conservative congressman accuses Warnke, falsely, of working with both Communists and terrorists: according to the congressman, Warnke is in collusion with “the World Peace Council, a Moscow-directed movement which advocates the disarmament of the West as well as support for terrorist groups.” Heritage Foundation chief Paul Weyrich uses Viguerie’s mass-mailing machine to send 600,000 letters to voters urging them to tell their senators to vote “no” on Warnke. [New York Times, 11/1/2001; Scoblic, 2008, pp. 103-104]
Warnke Confirmed, but Resistance Established - Warnke is confirmed by a 70-29 vote for the ACDA, and by a much slimmer 58-40 vote to head the US SALT II negotiating team. The New York Times’s Anthony Lewis later writes of “a peculiar, almost venomous intensity in some of the opposition to Paul Warnke; it is as if the opponents have made him a symbol of something they dislike so much that they want to destroy him.… [I]t signals a policy disagreement so fundamental that any imaginable arms limitation agreement with the Soviet Union will face powerful resistance. And it signals the rise of a new militant coalition on national security issues.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 104]
Effective Negotiator - Warnke will resign his position in October 1978. Though he will constantly be under fire from Congressional conservatives, and will frequently battle with administration hawks such as National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, he will earn the respect of both American and Soviet negotiators. In 1979, disarmament scholar Duncan Clarke will write that the Soviets come to regard Warnke as one of the toughest of American negotiators, with one Soviet official saying: “We always wondered why Americans would pay so much for good trial attorneys. Now we know.” Warnke will have a strong influence on the eventual shape of the final SALT II agreement (see June 18, 1979-Winter 1979). [New York Times, 11/1/2001; Scoblic, 2008, pp. 104] Upon his death in 2001, fellow negotiator Ralph Earle will say, “Arms control will be forever on the agenda due in large part to Paul and his articulation of the importance of the issues.” [Arms Control Today, 1/1/2002]
Entity Tags: Duncan Clarke, Zbigniew Brzezinski, World Peace Council, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Coalition for a Democratic Majority, Charles Black, Barry Goldwater, ’Team B’, Anthony Lewis, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Richard Viguerie, Ralph Earle, Penn Kemble, Paul Weyrich, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., James Roberts, Johnson administration, J. Peter Scoblic, Howard Phillips, Joshua Muravchik, Paul Nitze, Paul Warnke, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, Committee on the Present Danger, Emergency Coalition Against Unilateral Disarmament, Morton Blackwell
April 13, 1977: Frost Pins Tape Erasure on Nixon
In his first interview session with former President Richard Nixon about Watergate (see April 13-15, 1977), David Frost asks about what then-chief of staff H. R. Haldeman knew on June 20, 1972 (see June 20, 1972), when he and Nixon discussed Watergate in the conversation that would later be erased from Nixon’s secret recordings (see November 21, 1973).
Avoiding Questions - Nixon tries to accuse Frost of putting words in his mouth; Frost refuses to be baited. Nixon then uses diversion, addressing not the June 20 conversation, but instead spinning out a discourse focusing on his lack of advance knowledge of the break-in and accusing the media of pinning unwarranted blame on him. Frost lets him speak, then focuses again on the conversation: “So we come back to, what did Haldeman tell you during the eighteen-and-a-half minute gap?” Nixon dodges the known material in that conversation—the suggested “public relations offensive” to evade criticism and investigation of the burglary, and instead says that he and Haldeman were worried that the Democrats had bugged the Executive Office Building.
Questions about Stennis's Hearing - He tries to segue into a digression about charges of Democratic eavesdropping from the 1950s, but Frost pulls him back, and asks why he offered to allow only one senator, Mississippi Democrat John Stennis (see October 19, 1973), to hear the tapes. Stennis was “alas, partially deaf and very old.” Frost notes that the sound quality of the tapes was often poor, and adds, “If you and [Nixon’s personal secretary] Rose Mary Woods could not hear them clearly, Senator Stennis was not an ideal choice.” Nixon tries to turn Frost’s question into a challenge to Stennis’s intellect and even his integrity, but Frost repeats: “His hearing is crucial. You’ve just said so.” Nixon retorts that he has never noticed a problem with Stennis’s hearing, and even if Stennis had hearing problems, “[a]fter all, there’s an invention called hearing aids…” Frost is clearly enjoying Nixon’s marked discomfiture, but is unaware that he is making a gaffe of his own: Stennis has, by all accounts, perfectly good hearing. However, Nixon knows nothing of Frost’s error, and writhes under Frost’s relentless questioning about Stennis’s alleged inability to adequately hear everything on the tapes. (Frost’s gaffe will not be noticed at the time and will first be revealed in James Reston Jr.‘s 2007 book on the interviews, The Conviction of Richard Nixon.)
Who Erased the Tape? - Frost focuses on the question of who exactly erased the June 20 tape. It has been determined that only three people could have possibly erased the tape: Stephen Bull, Nixon’s assistant; Rose Mary Woods, Nixon’s secretary; and Nixon himself. No one was ever indicted for the crime of destruction of evidence because Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski was unable to determine who of the three might have actually performed the erasure. Nixon tells Frost that it could have been rogue Secret Service agents who erased the tape, but that charge falls flat under its own weight of implausibility. Bull had offered to take a lie detector test in denying that he erased the tape. And if Woods had erased the tape, it would have undoubtedly been by accident. The tape was subjected to at least five separate manual erasures, making an accidental erasure unlikely at best. That leaves Nixon as the most likely suspect. Nixon refuses to admit to erasing anything, and Frost says, “So you’re asking us to take an awful lot on trust, aren’t you?”
Avoiding Perjury Charges - After further dodging and weaving, Nixon finally falls back on a legal reason why he won’t answer the question: he had already testified under oath to a grand jury that he had not erased the tape; that Woods most likely erased the tape by accident. Being pardoned for his crimes during his presidency by Gerald Ford (see September 8, 1974) wouldn’t cover his lying under oath after his resignation, he says, and he isn’t going to give a jury a chance to charge him with perjury. [Reston, 2007, pp. 118-122]
Interview Airs in May - This interview will air on US television stations on May 4, 1977. [Television News Archive, 5/4/1977]
Entity Tags: Richard M. Nixon, Stephen Bull, John Stennis, James Reston, Jr, David Frost, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, H.R. Haldeman, Leon Jaworski, Rose Mary Woods
1978: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Becomes Law
Following the revelations of the Church Committee’s investigation into the excesses of the CIA (see April, 1976), and the equally revealing New York Times article documenting the CIA’s history of domestic surveillance against US citizens for political purposes (see December 21, 1974), Congress passes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In essence, FISA prohibits physical and electronic surveillance against US citizens except in certain circumstances affecting national security, under certain guidelines and restrictions, with court warrants issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), operating within the Department of Justice as well as with criminal warrants. FISA restricts any surveillance of US citizens (including US corporations and permanent foreign residents) to those suspected of having contact with “foreign powers” and terrorist organizations. FISA gives a certain amount of leeway for such surveillance operations, requiring that the administration submit its evidence for warrantless surveillance to FISC within 24 hours of its onset and keeping the procedures and decisions of FISC secret from the public. [Electronic Frontier Foundation, 9/27/2001; Legal Information Institute, 11/30/2004] On September 14, 2001, Congress will pass a revision of FISA that extends the time period for warrantless surveillance to 72 hours. The revision, part of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2002, will also lower the standard for the issuance of wiretap warrants and make legal “John Doe,” or generic, warrants that can be used without naming a particular target. FISA revisions will also expand the bounds of the technologies available to the government for electronic and physical surveillance, and broaden the definitions of who can legally be monitored. [US Senate, 9/14/2001; Senator Jane Harman, 2/1/2006]
Entity Tags: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, New York Times, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, US Department of Justice, Church Committee
1979: Meeting Held in Turkey Discussing US-Turkey Alliance
Albert Wohlstetter, the ideological father of neoconservatism (see 1965), arranges a meeting in Istanbul bringing together 13 Americans, 13 Turks, and 13 Europeans. Wohlstetter’s protege, Richard Perle, is possibly present. The policies discussed at the meeting later become the basis of the Turgut Ozal administration’s pro-American policies in Turkey (see September 1980) (see December 1983). [American Enterprise Institute, 11/22/2003] Wohlstetter, a professor at the University of Chicago, is a mentor to Perle and Paul Wolfowitz. [Think Tank, 11/14/2002] He sees Turkey as “a US staging post for Middle East contingencies and as a strategic ally of Israel.” [Evriviades, 1999]
Entity Tags: Paul Wolfowitz, Albert Wohlstetter, Richard Perle
April 1, 1979-Present: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Secretly Dedicated to Continuity of Government Program
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), known best as a relief agency for victims of natural disasters, is secretly dedicated to the highly classified Continuity of Government (COG) program, which is meant to ensure the survival of the federal government in times of national emergency. Upon its establishment, FEMA absorbs the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (DCPA) and the Federal Preparedness Agency (FPA), which were previously responsible for the top-secret plans (see April 1, 1979). During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, FEMA’s budget and workforce are overwhelming geared towards the COG program (see 1982-1991 and February 1993). FEMA remains in charge of overseeing the government’s continuity plans up to present day. According to FEMA’s website, the agency’s Office of National Continuity Programs (NCP) is currently the “Lead Agent for the Federal Executive Branch on matters concerning continuity of national operations under the gravest of conditions.” [fema.gov, 6/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Office of National Continuity Programs, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, Federal Preparedness Agency
June 18, 1979-Winter 1979: US, USSR Sign SALT II Agreement; Senate Refuses to Ratify
US President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) agreement in Vienna, after years of fitful negotiations. The basic outline of the accords is not much different from the agreement reached between Brezhnev and President Ford five years earlier (see November 23, 1974).
Conservative Opposition - The Senate must ratify the treaty before it becomes binding; Republicans and conservative Democrats alike oppose the treaty. Neoconservative Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA—see Early 1970s) compares Carter to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (who allowed the Nazis to occupy part of Czechoslovakia in 1938) in accusing Carter of “appeasement in its purest form” towards the Soviet Union. Members of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD—see 1976) appear before the Senate 17 times to argue against ratification. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies against it, calling instead for a $44 billion increase in defense spending and once again evoking the specter of Nazi Germany: “Our nation’s situation is much more dangerous today than it has been at any time since Neville Chamberlain left Munich, setting the stage for World War II.” The American Security Council launches “Peace Through Strength Week” (see November 12, 1979). And Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA), embarking on his presidential campaign, warns the nation that the Soviets could just “take us with a phone call,” forcing us to obey an ultimatum: “Look at the difference in our relative strengths. Now, here’s what we want.… Surrender or die.”
Familiar Arguments - In 2008, author J. Peter Scoblic will write that the arguments advanced against the SALT II treaty are the same as advanced so many times before (see August 15, 1974), including during the infamous “Team B” exercise (see November 1976). The Soviet Union believes it can win a nuclear war, opponents insist, and a treaty such as the one signed by Carter and Brezhnev merely plays into the Soviets’ hands. Once the US loses its significant advantage in nuclear payloads, the likelihood increases that the USSR incinerates American missile silos and dares the US to respond—the US might get off a volley of its remaining missiles, but the Soviets will then launch a second strike that will destroy America’s cities. And that US strike will have limited impact because of what critics call the Soviets’ extensive, sophisticated civil defense program. The US will have no other choice than to, in Scoblic’s words, “meekly submit to Soviet will.” SALT II plays into what the CPD calls the Soviet goal of not waging a nuclear war, but winning “political predominance without having to fight.” Scoblic will note, “An argument that had started on the fringes of the far Right was now being made with total seriousness by a strong cross-section of foreign policy experts, backed by significant public support.” Scoblic then calls the arguments “fatuous… grounded in zero-sum thinking.” The facts do not support the arguments. It is inconceivable, he will observe, that the US would absorb a devastating first strike without immediately launching its own overwhelming counterstrike. And for the critics to accept the tales of “extensive” Soviet civil defense programs, Scoblic argues, is for them to be “remarkably credulous of Soviet propaganda.” No matter what the Soviets did first, the US could kill upwards of 75 million Soviet citizens with its single strike, a circumstance the USSR was unlikely to risk. And, Scoblic will note, subsequent studies later prove the conservatives’ arguments completely groundless (see 1994).
Senate Fails to Ratify - By late 1979, the arguments advanced by Congressional conservatives, combined with other events (such as the “discovery” of a clutch of Soviet troops in Cuba) derails the chance of SALT II being ratified in the Senate. When the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan (see December 8, 1979), Carter withdraws the treaty from further consideration. Scoblic will note that by this point in his presidency, Carter has abandoned any pretense of attempting to reduce nuclear armaments (see Mid-January, 1977); in fact, “[h]is nuclear policies increasingly resembled those of Team B, the Committee on the Present Danger, and groups like the Emergency Coalition Against Unilateral Disarmament” (see Early 1977 and Late 1979-1980). Carter notes that such a treaty as the SALT II accord is the single most important goal of US foreign policy: “Especially now, in a time of great tension, observing the mutual constraints imposed by the terms of these treaties, [SALT I and II] will be in the best interest of both countries and will help to preserve world peace.… That effort to control nuclear weapons will not be abandoned.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 105-109, 117]
Entity Tags: Ronald Reagan, Committee on the Present Danger, American Security Council, ’Team B’, Donald Rumsfeld, Emergency Coalition Against Unilateral Disarmament, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, J. Peter Scoblic, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., Leonid Brezhnev
Late 1979: MEK Expelled from Iran
The Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) is expelled from Iran and takes refuge in Iraq. In exile, the group develops an overseas support structure and creates the National Liberation Army (NLA), which acquires tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy artillery. The group will receive support from Saddam Hussein until he is toppled by a US invasion in 2003 (see March 19, 2003). [US Department of State, 4/30/2003]
Entity Tags: People’s Mujahedin of Iran, Saddam Hussein
Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran
1980s: National Program Office Establishes Secret Line of Presidential Succession
The National Program Office (NPO), which is responsible for the highly classified Continuity of Government program, establishes a secret line of presidential succession for certain “narrowly defined” emergency situations. According to the traditional legal line of succession, should the president of the United States be killed or incapacitated, he is to be replaced by the vice president, followed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, then by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, then each cabinet member from the Secretary of State down. The alternative succession plan developed by the NPO, known officially as the Presidential Successor Support System, or “PS cubed,” would suspend these traditional rules and allow a small group of officials to appoint a new government. A source with knowledge of the plan says it would “suspend that natural succession and these individuals would have the right to appoint, virtually appoint, a new government.” The program, according to author James Mann, calls for “setting aside the legal rules of presidential succession in some circumstances, in favor of a secret procedure for putting in place a new ‘president’ and his staff.” The idea is to “concentrate on speed, to preserve ‘continuity of government,’ and to avoid cumbersome procedures; the speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and the rest of Congress would play a greatly diminished role.” The alternative succession plan allows the presidency, the vice presidency, and each cabinet position to be filled by individuals from both inside and outside the active government. In 1991, CNN will list the names of several people that may assume power should the plan be put into action, including Dick Cheney, Howard Baker, Richard Helms, Jeane Kirkpatrick, James Schlesinger, Edwin Meese, Dick Thornburgh, and Tip O’Neill. Some participants say the alternative succession plan is absolutely necessary to ensure the survival of the federal government, but others argue the secrecy of the program undermines its credibility. “If no one knows in advance what the line of succession is meant to be,” says a constitutional scholar from Duke University, “then almost by hypothesis no one will have any reason to believe that those who claim to be exercising that authority in fact possess it.” [CNN Special Assignment, 11/17/1991; Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004]
Entity Tags: Jeane Kirkpatrick, Edwin Meese, James R. Schlesinger, Thomas Phillip ‘Tip’ O’Neill, Jr, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Richard Helms, National Program Office, Richard Thornburgh, Howard Baker
November 18, 1980: Cheney Urges Reagan’s Chief of Staff to Push for ‘Restoration’ of Presidential Powers
Incoming presidential chief of staff James Baker asks a former chief of staff, Dick Cheney (see November 4, 1975 and After), for advice on handling the job. Baker takes four pages of handwritten notes covering his conversation with Cheney. Most of the notes cover mundane topics such as personnel and managing the president’s schedule. But Cheney offers at least one piece of policy advice. According to Baker’s notes: “Pres. seriously weakened in recent yrs. Restore power & auth [authority] to Exec Branch—Need strong ldr’ship. Get rid of War Powers Act—restore independent rights.” Baker notes Cheney’s emphasis of this last idea by marking it with two double lines and six asterisks, and a note in the margin, “Central theme we ought to push.” [Savage, 2007, pp. 43]
Entity Tags: Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, James A. Baker
1981-1992: Cheney and Rumsfeld Practice Secret Continuity of Government Plan, Later Activated on 9/11
Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, along with then-President Gerald Ford, April 28, 1975. [Source: David Hume Kennerly / Gerald R. Ford Library] (click image to enlarge)Throughout the 1980s, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are key players in one of the most highly classified programs of the Reagan administration. Presently, Cheney is working as a Republican congressman, while Rumsfeld is head of the pharmaceutical company G. D. Searle. At least once per year, they both leave their day jobs for periods of three or four days. They head to Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, DC, and along with 40 to 60 federal officials and one member of the Reagan Cabinet are taken to a remote location within the US, such as an underground bunker. While they are gone, none of their work colleagues, or even their wives, knows where they are. They are participating in detailed planning exercises for keeping government running during and after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
Unconstitutional 'Continuity of Government' - This highly secret “Continuity of Government” (COG) program is known as Project 908. The idea is that if the US were under a nuclear attack, three teams would be sent from Washington to separate locations around the US to prepare to take leadership of the country. If somehow one team was located and hit with a nuclear weapon, the second or third team could take its place. Each of the three teams includes representatives from the State Department, Defense Department, CIA, and various domestic-policy agencies. The program is run by a new government agency called the National Program Office. Based in the Washington area, it has a budget of hundreds of million dollars a year, which grows to $1 billion per year by the end of Reagan’s first term in office. Within the National Security Council, the “action officer” involved in the COG program is Oliver North, who is a key figure in the mid-1980s Iran-Contra scandal. Reagan’s Vice President, George H. W. Bush, also supervises some of the program’s efforts. As well as Cheney and Rumsfeld, other known figures involved in the COG exercises include Kenneth Duberstein, who serves for a time as President Reagan’s chief of staff, and future CIA Director James Woolsey. Another regular participant is Richard Clarke, who on 9/11 will be the White House chief of counterterrorism (see (1984-2004)). The program, though, is extraconstitutional, as it establishes a process for designating a new US president that is nowhere authorized in the US Constitution or federal law. After George H. W. Bush is elected president in 1988 and the effective end of the Soviet Union in 1989, the exercises continue. They will go on after Bill Clinton is elected president, but will then be based around the threat posed by terrorists, rather than the Soviet Union (see 1992-2000). According to journalist James Mann, the participation of Rumsfeld and Cheney in these exercises demonstrates a broader truth about them: “Over three decades, from the Ford administration onward, even when they were out of the executive branch of government, they were never too far away; they stayed in touch with its defense, military, and intelligence officials and were regularly called upon by those officials. Cheney and Rumsfeld were, in a sense, a part of the permanent, though hidden, national security apparatus of the United States.” [Mann, 2004, pp. 138-145; Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004; Washington Post, 4/7/2004; Cockburn, 2007, pp. 85]
No Role for Congress - According to one participant, “One of the awkward questions we faced was whether to reconstitute Congress after a nuclear attack. It was decided that no, it would be easier to operate without them.” Thus the decision is made to abandon the Constitutional framework of the nation’s government if this plan is ever activated. [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 198]
Reactivated after 9/11 - The plan they rehearse for in the COG exercises will be activated, supposedly for the first time, in the hours during and after the 9/11 attacks (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 3/1/2002] Mann subsequently comments, “The program is of particular interest today because it helps to explain the thinking and behavior of the second Bush Administration in the hours, days, and months after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.” [Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004]
Entity Tags: Richard A. Clarke, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Oliver North, National Program Office, James Woolsey, Kenneth Duberstein, Donald Rumsfeld, George Herbert Walker Bush
Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, 9/11 Timeline, Civil Liberties
Early 1981 and After: Reagan Categorically Opposed to Arms Control Agreements with Soviet Union; Advisers Reflect Oppositional Agenda
In conjunction with his huge peacetime military buildup (see Early 1981 and After), President Reagan strongly opposes any sort of arms control or limitation discussions with the Soviet Union.
Rostow to ACDA - As a member of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD—see 1976), Reagan had spoken out against the SALT II arms control treaty with the USSR (see June 18, 1979-Winter 1979), calling it “fatally flawed.” He has opposed every significant arms limitation agreement since 1963, no matter whether it was negotiated by Republican or Democratic administrations. To continue his opposition, Reagan appoints Eugene Rostow to head the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). Rostow, a fellow CPD member, is flatly opposed to any sort of arms control or disarmament agreement with the Soviet Union, and had led the CPD fight against the SALT II agreement. “Arms control thinking drives out sound thinking,” he told the Senate. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 118-120] During his confirmation hearings, Rostow tells Senate questioners that the US could certainly survive a nuclear war, and gives World War II-era Japan as an example—that nation “not only survived but flourished after a nuclear attack.” When asked if the world could survive a full nuclear attack of thousands of nuclear warheads instead of the two that Japan had weathered, Rostow says that even though the casualties might be between “ten million… and one hundred million… [t]he human race is very resilient.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 126] Rostow’s aide at the ACDA, Colin Gray, says that “victory is possible” in a nuclear war provided the US is prepared to fight. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 127]
Burt to State Department - Reagan names Richard Burt to head the State Department’s Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, the State Department’s primary liaison with the Defense Department. Burt, a former New York Times reporter, is one of the few journalists synpathetic to the CPD, and recently called the SALT agreement “a favor to the Russians.” Just before joining the Reagan administration, Burt called for reductions in nuclear arms controls: “Arms control has developed the same kind of mindless momentum associated with other large-scale government pursuits. Conceptual notions of limited durability, such as the doctrine of mutual assured destruction [MAD], have gained bureaucratic constituencies and have thus been prolonged beyond their usefulness. There are strong reasons for believing that arms control is unlikely to possess much utility in the coming decade.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 118-120; US Department of State, 2008]
Perle to Defense Department - Perhaps the most outspoken opponent of arms control is neoconservative Richard Perle, named as assistant defense secretary for international security affairs. Perle, until recently the national security adviser to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA—see Early 1970s), will quickly become, in author J. Peter Scoblic’s words, “the administration’s chief arms control obstructionist, dubbed ‘the Prince of Darkness’ by his enemies.” Perle once said: “The sense that we and the Russians could compose our differences, reduce them to treaty constraints… and then rely on compliance to produce a safer world. I don’t agree with any of that.” Now Perle is poised to act on his beliefs. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 118-120]
Vice President Bush - Although seen as a pragmatist and not a hardline conservative (see January 1981 and After), Vice President George H. W. Bush is also optimistic about the chances of the US coming out on top after a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. During the 1980 campaign, he told a reporter: “You have a survivability of command and control, survivability of industrial potential, protection of a percentage of your citizens, and you have a capability that inflicts more damage on the opposition tham it inflicts on you. That’s the way you can have a winner.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 126-127]
Other Appointees - Perle’s immediate supervisor in Defense is Fred Ikle, who headed ACDA in 1973 and helped battle back part of the original SALT agreement. Ikle will be primarily responsible for the Pentagon’s “five-year plan” that envisions a “protracted nuclear war” as a viable option (see March 1982). Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger considers the standoff between the US and the Soviet Union akin to the situation between Britain and Nazi Germany in 1938, with himself and his ideological confreres as Britain’s Winston Churchill and any attempt at arms control as nothing but appeasement. Energy Secretary James B. Edwards says of a hypothetical nuclear war, “I want to come out of it number one, not number two.” Pentagon official Thomas Jones tells a reporter that the US could handily survive a nuclear exchange, and fully recover within two to four years, if the populace digs plenty of holes, cover them with wooden doors, and bury the structures under three feet of dirt. “If there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it,” he says. Reagan’s second National Security Adviser, William Clark, will, according to Reagan official and future Secretary of State George Shultz, “categorically oppos[e] US-Soviet contacts” of any kind. Some of the administration’s more pragmatic members, such as Reagan’s first Secretary of State Alexander Haig, will have limited access to Reagan and be cut off from many policy-making processes by Reagan’s more hardline senior officials and staffers. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 118-120, 127; Air Force Magazine, 3/2008]
Entity Tags: George Herbert Walker Bush, Fred C. Ikle, Committee on the Present Danger, Colin Gray, Caspar Weinberger, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Eugene V. Rostow, US Department of State, William Clark, Thomas Jones, Richard Burt, Richard Perle, Reagan administration, James B. Edwards, Ronald Reagan, J. Peter Scoblic, US Department of Defense, Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, George Shultz
April 1981 and After: Reagan Opposes Nuclear Weapons; Aides Thwart Efforts to Begin Arms Reductions
President Reagan, recuperating from surgery to remove an assassin’s bullet, tells bedside visitor Terence Cardinal Cooke that God spared his life so that he might “reduce the threat of nuclear war.”
Censored Letter to Brezhnev - The day after his conversation with Cooke, Reagan pens a letter to Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev calling for “disarmament” and a “world without nuclear weapons.” Brezhnev does not read Reagan’s words; Reagan’s aides, horrified at the letter, rewrite it and strip out all the phrases calling for a reduction in nuclear weapons before sending it to Brezhnev.
Aides Refuse to Draw up Plans for Disarmament - In the following weeks, Reagan will call nuclear weapons “horrible” and “inherently evil,” and order his aides to draw up plans for their elimination. His aides will refuse to deliver those plans; one adviser, Richard Burt (see Early 1981 and After), will exclaim: “He can’t have a world without nuclear weapons! Doesn’t he understand the realities?”
Wants to Stop Nuclear Armageddon - Reagan believes in the literal Biblical story of Armageddon—the End Times—and believes that it will come about through the use of nuclear weapons. Unlike some conservative Christians (and some of his advisers), he does not relish the prospect, and in fact believes it is his task to prevent it from happening.
Plans to Reduce Nuclear Arms Based on Prescience, Ignorance - Author J. Peter Scoblic will note it is difficult to reconcile the view of Reagan as an advocate of nuclear disarmament with the confrontational, sometimes apocalyptic rhetoric and actions by him and his administration (see Early 1981 and After, Early 1981 and After, September 1981 through November 1983, March 1982, and Spring 1982), but Scoblic will write: “Each of these efforts, however, can also be interpreted as a sincere, if misguided, product of Reagan’s hatred of nuclear weapons. Reagan believed that the Soviets would reduce their atomic arsenal only if they were faced with the prospect of an arms race.” Reagan realizes—ahead of many of his advisers—that the USSR was moving towards a calamitous economic crisis, and believes that the Soviets will choose to step back from further rounds of escalation in order to save their economy from complete collapse. He also believes, with some apparent conflict in logic, that the only way to reduce US nuclear arms is to increase the nation’s military arsenal. “Reagan emphasized time and again, that the aim of his arms build-up was to attain deep cuts in nuclear weapons,” biographer Paul Lettow will write. “[M]ost people did not listen to what he was actually saying.” Scoblic cites what he calls Reagan’s profound ignorance of nuclear strategy and tactical capabilities as another driving force behind Reagan’s vision of nuclear disarmament. He is not aware that submarines and long-range bombers carry nuclear missiles; he believes that submarine-based nuclear missiles can be called back once in flight. Both ideas are wrong. He tells foreign policy adviser Brent Scowcroft that he did not realize the primary threat from the Soviet Union was that its gigantic arsenal of ICBMs might obliterate the US’s own ICBM stockpile. When journalists ask him how the MX missile program (see 1981) that he has asserted will rectify the threat to American ICBMs, as he has asserted, he confesses that he does not know. And he honestly does not seem to understand that his administration’s confrontational, sometimes overtly belligerent actions (see May 1982 and After, June 8, 1982, March 23, 1983, and November 2-11, 1983) cause apprehension and even panic among the Soviet military and political leadership. Scoblic will write that like other hardline conservatives, “Reagan could not believe that anyone could perceive the United States as anything but righteous.”
'Subject to Manipulation' - Reagan’s desire for a reduction in nuclear arms is not matched by any depth of understanding of the nuclear weapons issues. Therefore, Scoblic will observe, “[h]e was susceptible to manipulation by advisers who shared his militant anti-communism but not his distaste for nuclear deterrence and who wanted neither arms reduction nor arms control.” When he names George Shultz as his secretary of state in mid-1982, he gains a key ally in his plans for nuclear reduction and a counterweight to arms-race advocates such as Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and other hardliners who have worked (and continue to work) to sabotage the administration’s arms negotiations with the Soviet Union. He gains another ally when he replaces National Security Adviser William Clark with the more pragmatic Robert McFarlane. Both Shultz and McFarlane will support Reagan’s desire to begin sincere negotiations with the USSR on reducing nuclear arms, as does his wife, Nancy Reagan, who wants her husband to be remembered by history as reducing, not increasing, the risk of nuclear war. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 136-138]
Entity Tags: Robert C. McFarlane, Leonid Brezhnev, J. Peter Scoblic, George Shultz, Caspar Weinberger, Brent Scowcroft, Nancy Reagan, Richard Burt, Terence Cardinal Cooke, Ronald Reagan, William Clark, Paul Lettow
June 7, 1981: Iraqi Nuclear Facility Obliterated by Israel
Osirak nuclear facility. [Source: GlobalSecurity.org] (click image to enlarge)On the order of Prime Minister Menachem Begin and after heated debate among Israeli leaders, Israeli warplanes strike the Osirak (also spelled Osiraq) Tammuz I nuclear plant at al-Tuwaitha near Baghdad, destroying it and dealing a severe setback to Iraq’s nuclear program. Israel claims it fears Iraq is building a nuclear weapon with which to strike it. Osirak is a French-made nuclear reactor, which is near completion but lacks any nuclear fuel, thereby raising no danger of any radioactive link. Ariel Sharon, concurrently Defense Minister and a proponent of the strike, later says, “This was perhaps the most difficult decision which faced any [Israeli] government during all the years of the state’s existence.” The Israeli government states after the strike, “The atomic bombs which that reactor was capable of producing, whether from enriched uranium or from plutonium, would be of the Hiroshima size. Thus a mortal danger to the people of Israel progressively arose.… Under no circumstances will we allow an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction against our people.” The reactor is slated to be completed by September, 1981, though it would be years before it could produce any nuclear-grade fissionable material. Iraq denies the reactor is developed to produce nuclear weapons, though the construction of the plant gives credence to claims that Iraq is more interested in building a weapon than generating electricity. (After the strike, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein says, “Any state in the world which really wants peace… should help the Arabs in one way or another to acquire atomic bombs,” giving further credence to suspicions that Hussein wanted to build a nuclear weapon.) The Israeli strike follows up a September 1980 raid on the Osirak facility by Iranian warplanes (see September 30, 1980). Publicly, Iran and Israel are dire enemies, but Israel has begun secretly selling US-made arms to Iran as a way to counterbalance the threat posed by Iraq (see 1981). [BBC, 7/7/1981; New Yorker, 11/2/1992; Institute for Strategic Studies, 5/1995] In 1984, Brookings Institution fellow Lucien Vandenbroucke will write, “Ironically, Israel’s raid may prove to be a brilliant tactical success achieved at the expense of the country’s long-term interests. Certainly, the attack set Iraq’s nuclear program back several years. But the strike also ushered in a de facto Israeli claim to nuclear monopoly in the Middle East, a move that in the long run generally promises to encourage the larger Arab world on the nuclear path.… In the decision-making process, Israeli fears and the propensity to rely on worst-case analyses seem to have prevailed. The advocates of the strike focused on the unreasonable, rather than the reasonable, aspects of Iraqi behavior, and thus even a limited prospect that Iraq might soon acquire a nuclear bomb became more of a risk than they were prepared to accept.” [GlobalSecurity (.org), 10/1984]
Entity Tags: Brookings Institution, Saddam Hussein, Lucien Vandenbroucke, Menachem Begin
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, Niger Uranium and Plame Outing
September 1981 through November 1983: Hardliners Block INF Arms Agreement
Reagan officials reopen the stalled Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) arms limitation talks with the Soviet Union, against the advice of President Reagan’s more hardline officials (see January 1981 and After). The talks center on the Soviets’ SS-20 missile, designed to strike European targets. In return, then-President Carter had agreed to deploy US intermediate-range nuclear missiles—Pershing II’s and Tomahawks—in West Germany and Italy by 1983. According to author J. Peter Scoblic, the missiles have little real military value, as American ICBMs, submarine-based nuclear missiles, and long-range bombers could destroy Soviet targets with near-impunity. They do, however, have some political significance, mostly in helping tie European security to US security. Carter had agreed to open talks with the Soviets to get rid of the SS-20s entirely.
Hardliners Sabotage Talks - The more pragmatic Reagan officials succeed in reopening the talks; Reagan hardliners, thwarted in stopping the talks, set about sabotaging them in any way available. When arguments in favor of delays and “further study” finally fail, they pressure Reagan to offer an agreement they know the Soviets will refuse: the so-called “zero option,” which originates with Defense Department official Richard Perle (see Early 1981 and After). Perle says that the Soviets should remove all of the SS-20s, and in return, the US will not deploy its Pershings and Tomahawks—in essence, having the Soviets concede something for essentially nothing. State Department officials suggest a fallback position in case the Soviets reject Perle’s offering; in his turn, Perle appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee and compares anyone who opposes his zero-sum offering to Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1938.
'Walk in the Woods' - When the Soviets reject Perle’s option, Reagan hardliners argue that the government should accept no compromise. The head of the INF negotiation team, Paul Nitze—a Cold War figure who has come out against arms control (see January 1976) but is not fully trusted by the hardline ideologues because of his history as an arms negotiator—wants a compromise. In official negotiations, he sticks to the all-or-nothing position of Perle, but opens private, informal negotiations with his Soviet counterpart, Yuli Kvitsinsky. One afternoon in 1982, Nitze and Kvitsinsky go for what later becomes known as their “walk in the woods.” Sitting together on a log during an afternoon rainstorm, the two hammer out an agreement that greatly favors the US—mandating a 67 percent reduction in Soviet SS-20s and allowing the US to deploy an equal number of Tomahawks. Not only would the Soviets have to reduce their already-deployed contingent of missiles and the US be allowed to deploy missiles, because the Tomahawks carry more independent warheads than the SS-20s, the US would have a significant advantage in firepower. The deal also sets limits on SS-20 deployments in Asia, and forbids the Soviets from developing ground-launched cruise missiles. In return, the US would agree not to deploy its Pershing missiles.
Hardliners Block Agreement - Perle and his hardline allies in the Reagan administration succeed in blocking acceptance of the Nitze-Kvitsinsky agreement. As author J. Peter Scoblic later writes, “Perle’s ideological obstructionism—concisely conveyed in his disparagement of Nitze as ‘an inverterate problem-solver’—reached fantastic heights.” Perle first tried to block Reagan from even learning the details of the agreement, and lied to Reagan, asserting falsely that the Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed the agreement. Perle, in conjunction with Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, eventually convinces Reagan to stick to the “zero option.” Perle argues against pressure from key US allies such as Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, telling Reagan, “We can’t just do something; we’ve got to stand there—and stand firm.” In 1983, Perle tells Weinberger that it would be better for the US to deploy no missiles at all than to accept the agreement. Scoblic will write: “In other words, he argued that foregoing deployment in return for nothing was better than foregoing deployment in exchange for something. The position made no sense, but the Reagan team held firm to it, once again preventing the adoption of a viable arms control deal.” When the US deploys Pershing missiles in Europe in November 1983, the Soviets walk out of the talks. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 120-123]
Entity Tags: Richard Perle, Margaret Thatcher, Joint Chiefs of Staff, J. Peter Scoblic, Caspar Weinberger, Paul Nitze, Ronald Reagan, Reagan administration, Senate Armed Services Committee, US Department of State, Yuli Kvitsinsky
Between 1981 and 1989: Officials Airborne in ‘Doomsday’ Plane for Three Days during Exercise
An E-4B Airborne Command Post. [Source: US Air Force] (click image to enlarge)During the 1980s, top-secret exercises are regularly held, testing a program called Continuity of Government (COG) that would keep the federal government functioning during and after a nuclear war (see 1981-1992). The program includes a special plane called the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP). This is a modified Boeing 747, based at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, DC that has its own conference room and special communications gear. Nicknamed the “Doomsday” plane, it could act as an airborne command post from where a president could run the country during a nuclear war. One of the COG exercises run by the Reagan administration involves a team of officials actually staying aloft in the NEACP for three days straight. The team cruises across the US, and up and down the coasts, periodically being refueled in mid-air. [Schwartz, 1998; Mann, 2004, pp. 144] Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld participate in the COG exercises, though whether they are aboard the NEACP in this particular one is unknown. [Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004] The plan that is being rehearsed for in the exercises will be activated in response to the 9/11 attacks (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Also on 9/11, three Doomsday planes (then known as “National Airborne Operations Center” planes) will be in the air, due to an exercise taking place that morning called Global Guardian (see Before 9:00 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Schwartz, 1998; Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/2002]
Entity Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney
February 1982: Article in Israeli Journal Says Israel Should Exploit Internal Tensions of Arab States
The winter issue of Kivunim, a “A Journal for Judaism and Zionism,” publishes “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” by Oded Yinon. The paper, published in Hebrew, rejects the idea that Israel should carry through with the Camp David accords and seek peace. Instead, Yinon suggests that the Arab States should be destroyed from within by exploiting their internal religious and ethnic tensions: “Lebanon’s total dissolution into five provinces serves as a precedent for the entire Arab world including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian peninsula and is already following that track. The dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel’s primary target on the Eastern front in the long run, while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short term target. Syria will fall apart, in accordance with its ethnic and religious structure, into several states such as in present day Lebanon.” [Kivunim, 2/1982]
Entity Tags: Oded Yinon
Timeline Tags: Alleged Use of False Flag Attacks
March 1982: Neoconservative Fired for Giving Classified Information to Israeli Official
Douglas Feith, a neoconservative (see Early 1970s) serving as a Middle East analyst for the National Security Council, is fired after becoming the focus of an FBI inquiry into his giving classified NSC information to an Israeli embassy official in Washington. [CounterPunch, 2/28/2004] (Feith has always been a hardline advocate for Israel; his father, Dalck Feith, was a hardline Republican who, in his youth, was active in the militant Zionist youth movement Betar, the predecessor of Israel’s Likud Party. Both Feith and his father will be honored by the hard-right, Likud-aligned Zionist Organization of America.) [Inter Press Service, 11/7/2003] In 1992, Feith will write of his belief that the US and Israel should freely share technology; author Stephen Green will write regarding Feith’s leak of classified information to Israel that “what [Feith] had neglected to say… was that he thought that individuals could decide on their own whether the sharing of classified information was ‘technical cooperation,’ an unauthorized disclosure, or a violation of US Code 794c, the ‘Espionage Act.’” Feith is almost immediately rehired by fellow neoconservative Richard Perle to serve as Perle’s “special counsel” (see Mid-1982); Feith will work for Perle until 1986, when he forms what Green will call “a small but influential law firm… based in Israel.” [CounterPunch, 2/28/2004]
Entity Tags: National Security Council, Dalck Feith, Betar, Douglas Feith, Likud, Richard Perle, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Stephen Green
May 1982 and After: START Talks Supplant SALT Negotiations, Make No Progress
President Reagan, giving a speech at his alma mater, Eureka College, renames the US-USSR SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) negotiations START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks). The renamed negotiations reflect profound dissension within the administration for and against arms limitation talks (see January 1981 and After and Early 1981 and After). State Department official Richard Burt, formerly opposed to arms negotiations, wants to ramp up the SALT talks and seek reductions in warheads and launchers. Defense Department official Richard Perle, the neoconservative who is working to block another arms limitation with the Soviet Union (see September 1981 through November 1983), wants to focus on payloads and “throw weight.” The administration’s compromise between the two positions—START—“ma[kes] no sense whatsoever,” according to author J. Peter Scoblic.
Initial Proposal Unacceptable to Soviets - START’s initial position—reducing each side’s deployment to 850 nuclear missiles and 5,000 warheads, of which no more than 2,500 can be on ICBMs—sounds like a significant reduction on paper, but many experts on all sides of the nuclear arms issue worry that such an agreement, putting so many warheads on so few missiles, would actually encourage each side to consider a first strike in a crisis. Arms control proponent Paul Warnke says, “If the Russians accept Mr. Reagan’s proposal, he’ll be forced to reject it himself.” But because of the disparity in missile configurations between the US and the Soviets, such an agreement would require the Soviets to drastically reduce their nuclear arsenal by 60 percent, while the US would lose almost nothing; therefore, the Soviets would never agree to such a proposal. Scoblic will note that as an opening gambit this proposal might be successful, if the Americans were prepared to back down somewhat and give the Soviets something. But the US negotiators have no intention of backing down. The Soviets are keenly interested in the US agreeing to reduce the number of cruise missiles it has deployed, but Reagan signs a National Security Directive forbidding US negotiators from even discussing the idea until the Soviets made significant concessions on “throw weight,” essentially tying his negotiators’ hands.
Chief US Negotiator Insults Soviets - The negotiations are made more difficult by the US team’s chief negotiator, Edward Rowny. Rowny, a former national security adviser to hardline Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), does not believe in diplomacy with anyone, particularly the Soviets. According to Scoblic, Rowny believes in “telling it like it is” to his Soviet counterparts, which Scoblic calls “insulting one’s negotiating opponents.” As he has no real negotiating latitude, Rowny’s diplomacy consists of little more than insults towards his Soviet counterparts. He tells them they do not understand the issues, boasts of his own Polish (i.e. anti-Russian) heritage, even stages walkouts over the seating arrangements. Rowny feels that he is opening a new era in negotiations, but in reality, the START talks are making no progress. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 123-124]
Entity Tags: Paul Warnke, Edward Rowny, J. Peter Scoblic, Jesse Helms, Ronald Reagan, Richard Burt, Richard Perle
Late 1982: Congress Insists START Talks Show Progress
Disgusted with the Reagan administration’s failure to make even the most basic progress in the START arms negotiations with the Soviet Union (see May 1982 and After), and viewing the administration’s position as not only untenable but dangerous, Congress steps in and threatens to withhold funding for the MX missile (see 1981) if something is not done. In return, President Reagan appoints a blue-ribbon panel to study the negotiations and recommend alternatives (see January 1983-April 1983). [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 124]
Entity Tags: Ronald Reagan, Reagan administration
Early 1983: Tensions Mount between US, USSR in ‘Cold War II’
One of five secret, underground ‘control rooms’ built by East German intelligence to help coordinate a Soviet counterattack against a US first strike. [Source: Central Intelligence Agency]By the beginning of 1983, the world seems closer to a nuclear holocaust than it has since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The idea of detente between the US and the Soviet Union has been all but abandoned, and European allies of the US use the term “Cold War II” to describe the new, chilly relations between the two superpowers. French President Francois Mitterrand compares the situation to the 1962 Cuban crisis and the 1948 confrontation over Berlin. American Cold War expert George Kennen says that the confrontation has the “familiar characteristics, the unfailing characteristics, of a march toward war—that and nothing else.” While there is little confrontation between the two in a military sense, the tensions are largely manifested in the rhetoric of the two sides, with President Reagan calling the USSR an “evil empire” (see March 8, 1983) and declaring that American democracy will leave Soviet communism on “the ash-heap of history” (see June 8, 1982). In return, Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov calls Reagan “insane” and “a liar.” The Soviet propaganda machine releases a storm of invective against Reagan and the US in general, comparing Reagan to Adolf Hitler and America to Nazi Germany. CIA analyst Benjamin Fischer will later write, “Such hyperbole was more a consequence than a cause of tension, but it masked real fears” (see May 1981). The Soviets are particularly worried about the US’s intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), the Pershing IIs, to be deployed throughout Europe (see September 1981 through November 1983), as well as the Americans’ new cruise missiles, the Tomahawks. Once those missiles are in place, the US, if it so desired, could destroy most of the Soviets’ own ballistic missile sites with only four to six minutes’ warning. The Soviets’ own plans for pre-emptive strikes against the US have the destruction of the European Pershing and Tomahawk emplacements as a top priority. [Fischer, 3/19/2007]
Entity Tags: Francois Mitterrand, Benjamin Fischer, Yuri Andropov, George Kennen, Ronald Reagan
March 23, 1983: President Reagan Announces ‘Star Wars’ Missile Defense Program
Strategic Defense Initiative logo. [Source: United States Missile Defense Agency]President Reagan announces his proposal for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, later nicknamed “Star Wars”), originally conceived two years earlier (see 1981). SDI is envisioned as a wide-ranging missile defense system that, if it works, will protect the United States from nuclear attacks from the Soviet Union or other countries with ballistic missiles, essentially rendering nuclear weapons, in Reagan’s words, “impotent and obsolete.” Reagan says, “I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.” Soviet leader Yuri Andropov’s response is unprececented in its anger (see March 27, 1983); Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrinyn says SDI will “open a new phase in the arms race.” [PBS, 2000; Scoblic, 2008, pp. 129]
US Hardliners 'Ecstatic' - Hardliners in and out of the Reagan administration are, in author J. Peter Scoblic’s characterization, “ecstatic, seeing SDI as the ultimate refutation of [the principle of] mutual assured destruction and therefore of the status quo, which left [the US] unable to seek victory over the Soviet Union.” The day after the speech, Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) sends Reagan a one-sentence letter: “That was the best statement I have heard from any president.”
'Less Suicidal' Adjunct to First Strike - Scoblic will write that if SDI is implemented as envisioned, “[a]lthough the Soviets would still be able to inflict enough damage that a first strike by the United States would be suicidal, it would be ‘less suicidal’ to the extent that such a concept made sense, which some Reagan officials believed it did. In short, SDI was a better adjunct to a first strike than it was a standalone defense. That made it critically destabilizing, which is why missile defense had been outlawed by [earlier treaties] in the first place.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 129-130]
Entity Tags: Strategic Defense Initiative, J. Peter Scoblic, Ronald Reagan, Anatoly Dobrinyn, Barry Goldwater, Yuri Andropov
April 1983-December 1983: Reagan Hardliners Continue to Obstruct, Sabotage Arms Negotiation Talks
The Reagan administration ignores the recommendations of a panel of experts named, at Congress’s behest, to provide alternatives to the stalled START arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union (see January 1983-April 1983). Spurred by hardliners in the administration, President Reagan instead instructs his negotiators to offer, not one unacceptable alternative, as initially offered to the Soviets (see May 1982 and After), but two unacceptable alternatives: either accept drastic limits on “throw weights,” or payloads, of their nuclear missiles, or accept harsh reductions in the number of ICBMs they can deploy, which will also reduce Soviet throw weight. The Soviets retort that the US is again trying to force them to disarm without agreeing to any reductions in their own nuclear arsenal. One Soviet official observes, “Your idea of ‘flexibility’ is to give a condemned man the choice between the rope and the ax.”
'Firing' the Executive Branch - Congressional leaders have had enough of the administration’s obstructionism, and brings in panel leader Brent Scowcroft to craft an alternative. In his 1984 book Deadly Gambits, future State Department official Strobe Talbott will write, “The Legislative Branch had, in effect, fired the Executive Branch for gross incompetence in arms control.” Scowcroft writes a proposal that enables both the US and USSR to reduce their nuclear arsenals with a measure of equivalence, taking into account the disparities between the two.
Misrepresenting the Proposal - The administration accepts Scowcroft’s proposal with some minor amendments, but the Soviets balk at the agreement, in part because chief US negotiator Edward Rowny, a hardliner who opposes arms negotiations on ideological grounds, misrepresents the proposal to his Soviet colleagues. The “basic position of this administration has not changed,” Rowny declares. In turn, the Soviets declare, “Ambassador Rowny is not a serious man.” When the talks come to their scheduled end in December 1983, the Soviets depart without setting a date for resumption.
More 'Sophisticated' Obstructionism - In 2008, author J. Peter Scoblic will write of the negotiations: “The conservative position had by now become far more sophisticated. By never rejecting negotiations outright, the administration could always claim that it was pursuing them with vigor, and if critics complained that its proposals were nonnegotiable, it could simply, if disingenuously, claim that it wanted to substantively reduce nuclear arsenals, not just perpetuate the status quo.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 124-125]
Entity Tags: Reagan administration, Ronald Reagan, Strobe Talbott, Brent Scowcroft, Edward Rowny, J. Peter Scoblic
December 1983 and After: Reagan Refocuses on Disarmament, Improving Relations with Soviet Union
Though President Reagan has long vowed to reduce the number of nuclear weapons between the US and Soviet Union (see April 1981 and After and March-April 1982), because of a variety of factors—his recalcitrant anti-communism (see May 27, 1981, June 8, 1982, and March 8, 1983), his belief that escalating the arms race between the two countries would force the Soviets to give up their attempt to stay abreast of the Americans (see Early 1981 and After, Early 1981 and After, and Spring 1982), and his aides’ success at sabotaging the US-Soviet arms negotiations (see January 1981 and After, September 1981 through November 1983, May 1982 and After, and April 1983-December 1983)—recent events (see November 2-11, 1983 and November 20, 1983) have convinced him that he must fundamentally change the way he approaches the US’s dealings with the Soviets. He tells reporters that he will no longer refer to the USSR as “the focus of evil.” He drops what is known as “the standard threat speech” and begins speaking more frequently and openly of nuclear disarmament, to the dismay of many of his hardline advisers. In one speech, he says: “The fact that neither of us likes the other system is no reason to refuse to talk. Living in this nuclear age makes it imperative that we do talk.” Speechwriter Jack Matlock, a pragmatist recently put in charge of the National Security Council’s Soviet affairs desk, wins Reagan’s approval to insert a quote from a speech by President Kennedy: “So let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.” He stops using terms like “conflict” in favor of terms such as “misunderstandings.” The rhetoric of “good vs evil,” of “us vs them,” is set aside in favor of discussions of mutual interests and problem solving. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 138-139]
Entity Tags: Ronald Reagan, Jack Matlock, National Security Council
(1984-2004): Richard Clarke Participates in Secret Continuity of Government Exercises
Richard Clarke, who will be the counterterrorism “tsar” on 9/11, regularly participates in a series of highly secret “Continuity of Government” (COG) exercises. [Washington Post, 4/7/2004] Throughout the 1980s, the COG exercises rehearse how to keep the federal government running during and after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (see 1981-1992). After the fall of the Soviet Union, the exercises continue, but based instead around a possible terrorist attack on the United States (see 1992-2000). [Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004] In 2004, Clarke will reveal that he has participated regularly in these exercises over the previous 20 years. He recalls that he had “gone off into caves in mountains in remote locations and spent days on end in miserable conditions, pretending that the rest of the world had blown up, and going through the questions, going through the drill.” He adds: “Everyone there play acts that it’s really happened. You can’t go outside because of the radioactivity. You can’t use the phones because they’re not connected to anything.” He also describes the COG plan requiring coded communications, saying: “There’s an elaborate system for the people in this network, first of all, to verify each other’s identity. That person on the other end has a certain password and information that they have to pass for us to believe that they’re who they say they are.” [Washington Post, 4/7/2004; ABC News, 4/25/2004] Clarke was a senior analyst at the State Department since 1979, and rises to prominence during the Reagan administration when he becomes deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence. [Washington Post, 3/13/2003; BBC, 3/22/2004] After being a member of the National Security Council since 1992, in 1998 he is appointed as counterterrorism “tsar” (see May 22, 1998). [9/11 Commission, 3/24/2004 ; New York Review of Books, 5/13/2004; Independent, 6/14/2004] According to journalist James Mann, the COG program is of particular interest because it helps explain the thinking and behavior of the Bush administration “in the hours, days, and months after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.” [Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004] On the morning of 9/11, Clarke is in fact responsible for activating the COG plan, the first time it is ever implemented (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 8; ABC News, 4/25/2004] Also participating in the COG exercises, at least throughout at 1980s, are Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who on 9/11 are the vice president and secretary of defense, respectively. [Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004]
Entity Tags: Richard A. Clarke
1985: Neoconservatives Meet Iraqi Exile Chalabi
Eminent academic, foreign policy analyst, and neoconservative Albert Wohlstetter (see 1965) introduces his proteges Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz to Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi (see 1992-1996), who is already plotting to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Wolfowitz and Perle will become key players in the run-up to the US’s 2003 invasion of Iraq (see Late December 2000 and Early January 2001). [Unger, 2007, pp. 44]
Entity Tags: Albert Wohlstetter, Ahmed Chalabi, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Saddam Hussein
April 19, 1985 and After: Prominent Neoconservative Becomes Influential State Department Official
Secretary of State George Shultz offers prominent neoconservative and State Department official Elliott Abrams (see Early 1970s) the position of assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs (ARA), overseeing the department’s South and Central American issues and initiatives, as well as those for the Caribbean. Abrams accepts and, according to State Department notes of the meeting, promises to “manage the emergence of EA [Abrams] as King of LA [Latin America].” Abrams begins his duties in July 1985, and quickly becomes one of the State Department’s most vocal supporters of Nicaragua’s Contra movement, often appearing before Congress as an emissary of the Reagan administration to ask for funds for the insurgent group. [Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters: Chapter 25: United States v. Elliott Abrams: November 1986, 8/4/1993]
Entity Tags: George Shultz, Contras, Reagan administration, US Department of State, Elliott Abrams
Timeline Tags: Iran-Contra Affair
August 23, 1985 - December 1985: Justice Department Moves to Include Presidential Signing Statements in Legislative Histories
Steven Calabresi joins the Justice Department. Calabresi is a young conservative lawyer who has clerked for appeals court Robert Bork, who failed to secure a position on the Supreme Court just months before (see July 1-October 23, 1987). Calabresi, a co-founder of the Federalist Society of conservative lawyers and judges, joins forces with another ambitious young Justice Department lawyer, John Harrison, and the two begin working to expand the power of the president. Calabresi and Harrison decide that an aggressive use of presidential signing statements can advance the president’s authority to the detriment of the legislative and judicial branches. Unfazed by a recent judicial rejection of just such signing statement usage (see 1984-1985), Calabresi and Harrison write a memo to Attorney General Edwin Meese advocating the issuing of more signing statements as part of a larger strategy to increase the president’s influence over the law. Calabresi and Harrison are interested in how what they call “activist judges” use the legislative history of a bill that became law to interpret that law’s meaning in subsequent judicial actions. The two lawyers believe that by issuing signing statements, the president can create a parallel record of presidential interpretations of potentially ambiguous laws to help guide judicial decisions. Meese approves of the idea, and in December has the West Publishing Company, which prints the US Code Congressional and Administration News, the standard collection of bills’ legislative history, begin including presidential signing statements in its publications. In 2007, author Charlie Savage will call Meese’s move “a major step in increasing the perceived legitimacy of the device.” [Savage, 2007, pp. 232] In 2007, Calabresi will say: “I initially thought of signing statements as presidential legislative history. I’ve subsequently come to think of them as being important vehicles by which presidents can control subordinates in the executive branch. They subsequently came to be important to the unitary executive [theory of presidential power].” [Savage, 2007, pp. 234]
Entity Tags: John Harrison, Charlie Savage, Federalist Society, West Publishing Company, US Department of Justice, Edwin Meese, Robert Bork, Steven Calabresi, US Supreme Court
Fall 1985: Valerie Plame Joins CIA, Receives Elite Training
Valerie Plame, the 22-year old daughter of a military family that followed its Air Force father around the globe during her childhood, joins the CIA. She is one of only 250 or so recruits accepted in the elite Career Trainee Program, a relatively new program installed by CIA Director William Casey and future director Robert Gates. These recruits receive intensive training in everything from academics, government and political structures, and paramilitary operations. Plame is one of the first women accepted in the program. She acquits herself very well in training, winning the respect of her fellow recruits. Classmate Larry Johnson, who will himself go on to a long career in the agency, will later recall of the young woman he knows only as “Val P.”: “She didn’t try to pretend to be something that she was not. She didn’t shoot her mouth off. Looking back, for her age, how so damn young she was, she was remarkably mature, and very serious. It was clear she wanted to be taken seriously.” Only three recruits from the “survivors” of the original class of 250 will go on to work as NOCs—nonofficial covered officers. Plame will be one of those three. [Wilson, 2007, pp. 315-317]
Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Valerie Plame Wilson, Larry C. Johnson
Timeline Tags: Niger Uranium and Plame Outing
September 16, 1985: Presidential Directive Lays Out Government Plan for Responding to National Emergencies
President Ronald Reagan signs a directive that contributes to the modern era of “continuity planning,” which will ensure the maintenance of a functioning government in the event of a catastrophic attack on Washington, DC. This Continuity of Government (COG) plan will be activated for the first time on 9/11, in response to the terrorist attacks that day (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 3/1/2002; ABC News, 4/25/2004] National Security Decision Directive 188 (NSDD 188), “Government Coordination for National Security Emergency Preparedness,” states that it is the policy of the United States to have capabilities at all levels of government to respond to a range of national security emergencies, “from major natural calamities to hostile attacks on the nation.” The US policy “includes an emergency mobilization preparedness program which provides an effective capability to meet defense and essential civilian needs during those emergencies.” The National Security Council (NSC) is assigned as the “principal forum” where the national security emergency preparedness policy will be considered, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is to “assist in the implementation of this policy through a coordinating role with the other federal agencies.” NSDD 188 also assigns responsibility for continuity planning to an interagency panel that includes the Office of Management and Budget, and the Defense, Treasury, and Justice Departments. [US President, 9/16/1985; Washington Post, 3/1/2002] A subsequent executive order in 1988 will apply the COG plan to “any national security emergency situation that might confront the nation” (see November 18, 1988), and a presidential directive in 1998 will update it to specifically deal with the emerging threat posed by terrorists (see Early 1998 and October 21, 1998). [US President, 11/18/1988; Clarke, 2004, pp. 166-167 and 170; Washington Post, 6/4/2006]
Entity Tags: Ronald Reagan
October 1985: Justice Department Official Advocates Increased Use of Presidential Signing Statements
Ralph Tarr, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, drafts a memo explaining how the White House has issued signing statements up until now (see August 23, 1985 - December 1985), and makes recommendations on how to improve the process. Tarr, acting at the behest of an aide to Attorney General Edwin Meese, issues what author Charlie Savage will call “a prescient seven-page manifesto.” Tarr writes that signing statements are “presently underutilized and could become far more important as a tool of presidential management of the agencies, a device for preserving issues of importance in the ongoing struggle for power with Congress, and an aid to statutory interpretation for the courts.” Tarr writes that signing statements have the potential to be used as a threat “with which to negotiate concessions from Congress.” The statements can also be used to tell executive branch agencies how to interpret a law: “The president can direct agencies to ignore unconstitutional provisions or to read provisions in a way that eliminates constitutional or policy problems. This direction permits the president to seize the initiative in creating what will eventually be the agency’s interpretation.” [Savage, 2007, pp. 232-233]
Entity Tags: Edwin Meese, Charlie Savage, Ralph Tarr, Reagan administration, Office of Legal Counsel (DOJ)
November 16-19, 1985: ’Fireside Summit’ between Reagan and Gorbachev Paves Way for Further Negotiations
Reagan and Gorbachev at the Geneva summit meeting. [Source: Ronald Reagan Library]The long-awaited summit meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev takes place in Geneva. The meeting, later known as the “fireside summit,” comes after months of Gorbachev’s reforms in the USSR—“glasnost,” or openness to government transparency; “perestroika,” a retooling of the moribund Stalinist economy; and a dogged anti-alcohol campaign, among others. Gorbachev has packed the Kremlin with officials such as new Foreign Minister Edvard Shevardnadze and chief economist Alexander Yakovlev, who back his reform campaigns. (Yakolev has even proposed democratization of the Soviet Communist Party.) Reagan and Gorbachev have exchanged several letters which have helped build relations between the two leaders. Reagan, unlike some of his hardline advisers, is excited about the summit, and has diligently prepared, even holding mock debates with National Security Council member Jack Matlock playing Gorbachev. Reagan has also quietly arranged—without the knowledge of his recalcitrant hardline advisers—for an extension of the scheduled 15-minute private meeting between himself and Gorbachev. The two actually talk for five hours. Nothing firm is agreed upon during this first meeting, but as Reagan later recalls, it marks a “fresh start” in US-Soviet relations. Gorbachev returns to the USSR promoting his and Reagan’s agreement on the need to reduce nuclear arms; Reagan presents the summit as a “victory” in which he did not back down to Soviet pressure, but instead emphasized the need for the Soviets to honor basic human rights for their citizens. Gorbachev realizes that Reagan’s abhorrence of nuclear weapons and his desire for a reduction in nuclear arms (see April 1981 and After) is personal and not shared by many of his administration’s officials, much less the US defense industry. As a result, he focuses on personal contacts and appeals to Reagan, and puts less stock in formal negotiations between the two. [National Security Archive, 11/22/2005; Scoblic, 2008, pp. 139-140; Margaret Thatcher Foundation, 1/23/2008]
Entity Tags: Soviet Communist Party, Alexander Yakovlev, Edvard Shevardnadze, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jack Matlock, Ronald Reagan
January 1986: Gorbachev Proposes Drastic Reductions in US, Soviet Nuclear Arsenals
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, following up on the successful “fireside summit” between himself and Ronald Reagan (see November 16-19, 1985), sends Reagan a letter calling for drastic reductions in US and Soviet nuclear weapons. He proposes the complete eradication of all nuclear weapons by the year 2000. He proposes cutting strategic arsenals by half, banning space-based weapons outright, and halting nuclear testing. He also proposes the complete dismantlement of all intermediate-range systems in Europe—in essence accepting the US’s “zero option” that was such a sticking point in earlier negotiations (see September 1981 through November 1983). [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 139-140] One administration hardliner, chief arms negotiator Edward Rowny (see May 1982 and After), warns Reagan that the Soviets are inherently untrustworthy and begs him “not to go soft on this.” Instead of giving Rowny what he wants, Reagan launches into what Rowny will later recall as a Martin Luther King-like speech: “I have a dream. I have a dream of a world without nuclear weapons. I want our children and grandchildren particularly to be free of those weapons.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 143]
Entity Tags: Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, Edward Rowny
February 6, 1986 and After: Justice Department Recommends Incremental Increase in Use of Signing Statements
Justice Department lawyer Samuel Alito, a member of the department’s Litigation Strategy Working Group, writes a memo advocating the creation of a pilot project designed to increase the frequency and impact of presidential signing statements (see August 23, 1985 - December 1985 and October 1985). The rationale is to use signing statements to “increase the power of the executive to shape the law.” Alito focuses on the use of signing statements to parallel the legislative history of a bill, a relatively modest view, but still recognizes the potentially revolutionary nature of the idea. He writes that signing statements must be used incrementally, so as not to draw undue attention from civil libertarians and key Congressional members. “[D]ue to the novelty of the procedure and the potential increase of presidential power,” he writes, “[C]ongress is likely to resent the fact that the president will get the last word on questions of interpretation.” Alito suggests that President Reagan begin issuing signing statements only on bills affecting the Justice Department, and later issue such statements for bills that affect other areas of the federal government. “As an introductory step, our interpretative statements should be of moderate size and scope,” he writes. “Only relatively important questions should be addressed. We should concentrate on points of true ambiguity, rather than issuing interpretations that may seem to conflict with those of Congress. The first step will be to convince the courts that presidential signing statements are valuable interpretive tools.” President Reagan will issue signing statements that challenge, interpret, or actually rewrite 95 sections of bills, far more than any other president. His successor, George H. W. Bush, will challenge 232 sections of bills. [Savage, 2007, pp. 233-234]
Entity Tags: Litigation Strategy Working Group, George Herbert Walker Bush, Samuel Alito, US Department of Justice, Ronald Reagan
July 23, 1986: CIA Director: Vice President Should Ask Hussein to Increase Bombing of Iran
George H.W. Bush. [Source: George Herbert Walker Bush.net]CIA Director William Casey meets with Vice President George Bush (himself a former CIA director). Casey is a hardline conservative, nominally at odds with the more traditional, moneyed conservatism of Bush, but Casey has learned to trust Bush’s abilities. “Casey knew there was nobody in government who could keep a secret better,” a former CIA official will observe. “He knew that Bush was someone who could keep his confidence and be trusted. Bush had the same capacity as Casey to receive a briefing and give no hint that he was in the know.” Casey wants Bush to run a secret errand to Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, as part of a scheme Casey has concocted to force the hand of Iran (see July 23, 1986). Specifically, Casey wants Bush to have Hussein step up his bombing of Iranian territory. Bush is already going to the Middle East to, as Bush told reporters, “advance the peace process.” Casey’s idea is to force Iran’s hand by having Hussein escalate his air strikes into the heart of that nation; in return, Iran would have to turn to the US for missiles and other air defense weapons. That would give the US leverage in negotiating with Iran for the release of the US hostages it holds. Two Reagan administration officials later say that Casey is also playing two rival policy factions within the administration (see January 14, 1984). Bush complies with Casey’s request; in doing so, Bush, as reporters Murray Waas and Craig Unger will write in 1992, puts himself “directly in the center of action—in a role at the very point where a series of covert initiatives with Iraq and Iran converge[s].” [New Yorker, 11/2/1992; Affidavit. United States v. Carlos Cardoen, et al. [Charge that Teledyne Wah Chang Albany illegally provided a proscribed substance, zirconium, to Cardoen Industries and to Iraq], 1/31/1995 ; MSNBC, 8/18/2002]
Entity Tags: William Casey, Central Intelligence Agency, George Herbert Walker Bush
October 11-12, 1986: Reagan, Gorbachev Almost Conclude Agreement to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons; Negotiations Founder on US Missile Defense Program
Gorbachev and Reagan at the Reykjavik summit. [Source: Ronald Reagan Library]President Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, Iceland, for a second summit, to follow on the success of their first meeting almost a year before (see November 16-19, 1985). They base their discussion on Gorbachev’s January proposals of deep cuts in the two nations’ nuclear arsenals (see January 1986).
Elimination of All Nuclear Weapons by 1996 - Gorbachev and his negotiators begin by reiterating Gorbachev’s proposals for a 50 percent cut in all nuclear weapons, deep reductions in Soviet ICBMs, and the elimination of all European-based intermediate nuclear weapons. Reagan and his negotiators counter with a proposal for both sides to destroy half of their nuclear ballistic missiles in the next five years, and the rest to be destroyed over the next five, leaving both sides with large arsenals of cruise missiles and bomber-based weapons. Gorbachev ups the ante, proposing that all nuclear weapons be destroyed within 10 years. Reagan responds that it would be fine with him “if we eliminated all nuclear weapons,” implicitly including all tactical nuclear weapons in Europe and everywhere else. Gorbachev says, “We can do that,” and Secretary of State George Shultz says, “Let’s do it.”
Agreement Founders on SDI - The heady moment is lost when the two sides fail to reach an agreement on SDI—the Americans’ “Star Wars” missile defense system (see March 23, 1983). Gorbachev cannot accept any major reductions in nuclear weapons if the US has a viable missile defense system; Reagan is convinced that SDI would allow both sides to eliminate their nuclear weapons, and offers the SDI technology to the Soviets. Gorbachev finds Reagan’s offer naive, since there is no guarantee that future presidents would honor the deal. Reagan, in another example of his ignorance of the mechanics of the US nuclear program (see April 1981 and After), does not seem to realize that even a completely effective SDI program would not defend against Soviet cruise missiles and long-range bombers, and therefore would not end the threat of nuclear destruction for either side. Author J. Peter Scoblic will later write, “[SDI] would have convinced the Soviet Union that the United States sought a first-strike capability, since the Americans were so far ahead in cruise missile and stealth bomber technology.” Gorbachev does not ask that the US abandon SDI entirely, but simply observe the terms of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty (see May 26, 1972) and confine SDI research to the laboratory. Reagan refuses. Gorbachev says that if this is the US’s position, then they would have to “forget everything they discussed.” Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze breaks in, saying that the two nations are “so close” to making history that “if future generations read the minutes of these meetings, and saw how close we had come but how we did not use these opportunities, they would never forgive us.” But the agreement is not to be.
Participants' Reactions - As Shultz later says, “Reykjavik was too bold for the world.” Shultz tells reporters that he is “deeply disappointed” in the results, and no longer sees “any prospect” for a third summit. Gorbachev tells reporters that Reagan’s insistence on retaining SDI had “frustrated and scuttled” the opportunity for an agreement. Gorbachev says he told Reagan that the two countries “were missing a historic chance. Never had our positions been so close together.” Reagan says as he is leaving Iceland that “though we put on the table the most far-reaching arms control proposal in history, the general secretary [Gorbachev] rejected it.” Scoblic will later write, “In the end, ironically, it was Reagan’s utopianism, hitched as it was to a missile shield, that preserved the status quo.” [Washington Post, 10/13/1986; Scoblic, 2008, pp. 140-142]
Hardline Sabotage - One element that contributes to the failure of the negotiations is the efforts to undermine the talks by hardline advisers Richard Perle and Ken Adelman, who tell Reagan that confining SDI to research facilities would destroy the program. Perle and Adelman are lying, but Reagan, not knowing any better, believes them, and insists that SDI remain in development. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 143-144]
Going Too Far? - Reagan’s negotiators, even the most ardent proponents of nuclear reduction, are shocked that he almost agreed to give up the US’s entire nuclear arsenal—with Shultz’s encouragement. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Francois Mitterand are horrified at the prospect, given that NATO’s nuclear arsenal in Europe is the only real counterweight to the huge Red Army so close to the borders of Western European nations. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 140-142]
Failure of Trust - The US-Soviet talks may well have foundered on an inability of either side to trust the other one to the extent necessary to implement the agreements. During the talks, Soviet aide Gyorgy Arbatov tells US negotiator Paul Nitze that the proposals would require “an exceptional level of trust.” Therefore, Arbatov says, “we cannot accept your position.” [National Security Archives, 3/12/2008]
Entity Tags: Paul Nitze, J. Peter Scoblic, Kenneth Adelman, Gyorgy Arbatov, George Shultz, Francois Mitterand, Margaret Thatcher, Richard Perle, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev
November 1986: US Supports Iraqi Ballistic Missile Development
Map showing the strike radii of various Iraqi ballistic missiles. [Source: CIA] (click image to enlarge)US intelligence learns that Iraq’s Saad 16 research center is attempting to develop ballistic missiles. This information is relayed by the Defense Department’s Undersecretary for Trade Security Policy, Stephen Bryen, to the Commerce Department’s (CD) Assistant Secretary for Trade Administration. In spite of this, the Commerce Department will subsequently approve more than $1 million in computer sales to the Iraqi research center over the next four years. In 1991, the House Committee on Government Operations will report that 40 percent of the equipment at the Saad 16 research center had come from the US. [Washington Post, 3/11/1991; US Congress, 7/2/1991]
Entity Tags: US Department of Commerce, Stephen Bryen
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion, US-Iraq 1980s
1987-2004: Richard Perle Serves as Member of Defense Policy Board
Richard Perle serves as a member of the Defense Policy Board, an unpaid but influential position in the Pentagon. [Inter Press Service, 6/29/2004]
Entity Tags: Richard Perle
June 2, 1987: Former Assistant Secretary of State Admits to Lying about Foreign Funding of Contras
Former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, in testimony before the Iran-Contra committee, admits he previously lied under oath when he denied the existence of third-party funding of the Nicaraguan Contras. In fact, Abrams himself had facilitated the funding of the Contras by the Sultan of Brunei (see June 11, 1986). Abrams will eventually plead guilty to lying to Congress, but will never see the inside of a jail cell, as President George H. W. Bush will pardon him (see December 25, 1992). During questioning, Republican committee member Dick Cheney (R-WY) praises Abrams’s service, saying, “I do personally believe you have an extremely bright future in the public arena in the United States.” When Cheney becomes vice president in the Bush-Cheney White House, he will name Abrams as deputy national security adviser (see June 2001). [Dubose and Bernstein, 2006, pp. 74-75]
Entity Tags: Elliott Abrams, Bush administration (41), Contras, Joint House-Senate Iran-Contra Committee, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, George Herbert Walker Bush
July 1-October 23, 1987: Bork’s Nomination to Supreme Court Fails
Robert Bork. [Source: National Constitution Center]The controversial nomination of conservative judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court is defeated in the US Senate. Bork is denied a seat on the Court in a 58-42 vote, because his views are thought to be extremist and even some Republicans vote against him.
'Right-Wing Zealot' - Bork, nominated by President Reagan as one of the sitting judges who most completely reflects Reagan’s judiciary philosophy (see 1985-1986), is characterized even by administration officials as a “right-wing zealot.” Reagan also wants a nominee to placate the hard right over their disaffection caused by the brewing Iran-Contra scandal. However, to make him more palatable for the majority of Americans, Reagan officials attempt to repackage Bork as a moderate conservative. Senate Judiciary Committee member Edward Kennedy (D-MA) attacks Bork’s political philosophy, saying before the committee hearings: “[In Bork’s America] women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is the—and is often the only—protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.… No justice would be better than this injustice.” Kennedy’s words provoke complaint, but the characterization of Bork is based on his lengthy record of court verdicts and his large body of judicial writings.
Racial Equality Issues - Although there is no evidence to suggest that Bork is himself a racist, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean will write that “his positions on civil rights were an anathema to all who cared about equality in America.” Constitutional law professor Herman Schwartz will write in 2004, “Bork condemned the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause decisions outlawing the poll tax (to him it was just ‘a very small tax’), the decision establishing the one-person, one-vote principle, abolishing school segregation in the District of Columbia, barring courts from enforcing racially restrictive housing covenants, preventing a state from sterilizing certain criminals or interfering with the right to travel, and prohibiting discrimination against out-of-wedlock children…. Bork’s hostility to governmental action on behalf of minorities did not stop with his critique of court action. In 1963 he criticized a section of the proposed Civil Rights Act of 1964 that required white businesses to serve blacks as resting on a principle of ‘unsurpassed ugliness.’”
Ready to Fight - The Reagan administration understands that Bork’s nomination is opposed; on July 1, the day of his announced nomination, the media reports that Reagan will try to ensure Bork’s confirmation by waging an “active campaign.” Even Senate-savvy James Baker, Reagan’s chief of staff, is uncertain about Bork’s chances at being confirmed, and further worries that even if Bork wins the fight, the cost to Reagan’s political capital will be too high.
His Own Worst Enemy - Conservatives Justice Department official Terry Eastland will later say Senate Democrats sabotage Bork’s chances at faring well in the confirmation hearings, even positioning his table to ensure the least favorable angles for Bork on television. However, the public’s opinion of Bork is unfavorable, and Dean will write: “[I]t was not the position of his chair in the hearing room that made Bork look bad, but rather his arrogance, his hubris, and his occasional cold-bloodedness, not to mention his equivocations and occasional ‘confirmation conversions,’ where he did what no one else could do. He made himself a terrible witness who did not appear to be truthful.” The confirmation conversions even surprise some of his supporters, as Bork abandons his previous stances that the First Amendment only applies to political speech, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause does not apply to women. The Senate Judiciary Committee passes Bork’s nomination along to the full Senate, where Bork is defeated 58-42.
The Verb 'To Bork' - In 2007, Dean will write, “Bork’s defeat made him both a martyr and a verb,” and quotes conservative pundit William Safire as writing that “to bork” someone means to viciously attack a political figure, particularly by misrepresenting that figure in the media. [Dean, 2007, pp. 137-143]
Entity Tags: Herman Schwartz, US Department of Justice, Gregory Peck, Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy, US Supreme Court, William Safire, Ronald Reagan, James A. Baker, Senate Judiciary Committee, Terry Eastland, Robert Bork, John Dean
November 1987: Company Head Approached, Threatened after Reporting Problems in Doomsday Program
Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Army Corps of Engineers, and a Maryland-based company, Brogan Associates Incorporated, approach Fred Westerman, a retired 20-year Army intelligence veteran and current head of the government-contracted security firm Security Evaluations Incorporated. Westerman recently reported irregularities within the highly secretive Continuity of Government program against the wishes of his superiors (see 1986-1987). The group comes to Westerman’s offices and allegedly orders him to hand over important corporate files. Westerman will later allege that FEMA security operations specialist Robert Lorenz and Army Corps of Engineers officer Gerald Boggs order him to hand over corporate documents, communications, records, invoices, and checkbooks to Brogan Associates president Arthur Hutchins. Boggs allegedly notifies Westerman that refusal will result in termination of his company’s contract with the government, while Lorenz reportedly threatens to put Westerman’s company out of business. Westerman refuses to turn over the records, and, according to Westerman, FEMA will burglarize his offices in search of the files (see Late 1987). Systems Evaluations’ contract with the government will be canceled shortly thereafter (see December 1987). Westerman will file a lawsuit against the government (see November 1988), but it will be frozen when the Justice Department opens an investigation of him (see November 1988) and will later be sealed after an in-depth report highlighting Westerman’s case is published by a major magazine (see August 8, 1989). Westerman will lose another contract, along with his security clearances, in 1990 (see 1990), and by November 1991, he will be unemployable, several hundred thousand dollars in debt, and unable to gain any restitution from the government (see November 1991). [Associated Press, 9/11/1989]
Entity Tags: Fred Westerman, Brogan Associates Incorporated, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Robert Lorenz, Systems Evaluations Incorporated, US Army Corps of Engineers, Gerald Boggs
Late 1987: FEMA Allegedly Burglarizes Doomsday Contractor
Members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency allegedly burglarize the offices of Systems Evaluations Incorporated, a government-contracted security firm working on the highly classified Continuity of Government program (see 1985). The head of the company, Fred Westerman, recently reported to federal officials several irregularities within the classified project (see 1986-1987) and was subsequently ordered to hand over corporate materials to a competitor, although he refused (see November 1987). Systems Evaluations’ contract will soon be canceled (see December 1987) and the Justice Department will open an investigation of the company shortly after Westerman files a lawsuit against the government seeking restitution (see November 1988 and November 1988). Westerman’s lawsuit will be frozen and sealed (see August 8, 1989), his contracts with the government will be canceled (see December 1987 and 1990), his security clearances will be stripped, and by 1991 he will be left unemployable, in debt, and unable to gain any restitution from the government (see November 1991). [Associated Press, 9/11/1989]
Entity Tags: Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Program Office, Systems Evaluations Incorporated, Fred Westerman
December 7-8, 1987: Reagan, Gorbachev Sign Arms Reduction Treaty
Gorbachev and Reagan sign the INF treaty. [Source: Ronald Reagan Library]US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a fundamental disarmament agreement. The two sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which has been stalled for years (see September 1981 through November 1983). The INF Treaty eliminates an entire class of intermediate-range nuclear ballistic missiles. It also provides for on-site verifications for each side (which agrees with Reagan’s signature quote, “Trust but verify”). And it marks the first real multi-lateral reduction of nuclear weapons, even if it is only a 5 percent reduction.
Strong Approval from American Public - Reagan’s approval ratings, weakened by public outrage over the Iran-Contra affair, rebound, and Gorbachev becomes a celebrity to many Americans (he causes a near-riot in Washington when, the day before signing the treaty, he spontaneously leaps out of his limousine and wades into the gathered crowd of well-wishers). Altogether, some 80 percent of Americans support the treaty.
Unable to Continue Longer-Range Negotiations - Reagan wants to build on the INF agreement to reopen the similarly moribund START negotiations (see May 1982 and After), but recognizes that there is not enough time left in his administration to accomplish such a long-term goal. Instead, he celebrates his status as the first American president to begin reducing nuclear arms by scheduling a visit to the Soviet Union.
Conservative Opposition - Hardline conservatives protest Gorbachev’s visit to Washington, and the signing of the treaty, in the strongest possible terms. When Reagan suggests that Gorbachev address a joint session of Congress, Congressional Republicans, led by House member Dick Cheney (R-WY—see 1983), rebel. Cheney says: “Addressing a joint meeting of Congress is a high honor, one of the highest honors we can accord anyone. Given the fact of continuing Soviet aggression in Afghanistan, Soviet repression in Eastern Europe, and Soviet actions in Africa and Central America, it is totally inappropriate to confer this honor upon Gorbachev. He is an adversary, not an ally.” Conservative Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Committee is more blunt in his assessment of the treaty agreement: “Reagan is a weakened president, weakened in spirit as well as in clout, and not in a position to make judgments about Gorbachev at this time.” Conservative pundit William F. Buckley calls the treaty a “suicide pact.” Fellow conservative pundit George Will calls Reagan “wildly wrong” in his dealings with the Soviets. Conservatives gather to bemoan what they call “summit fever,” accusing Reagan of “appeasement” both of communists and of Congressional liberals, and protesting Reagan’s “cutting deals with the evil empire” (see March 8, 1983). They mount a letter-writing campaign, generating some 300,000 letters, and launch a newspaper ad campaign that compares Reagan to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Steven Symms (R-ID) try to undercut the treaty by attempting to add amendments that would make the treaty untenable; Helms will lead a filibuster against the treaty as well.
Senate Ratification and a Presidential Rebuke - All the protests from hardline opponents of the treaty come to naught. When the Senate votes to ratify the treaty, Reagan says of his conservative opposition, “I think that some of the people who are objecting the most and just refusing even to accede to the idea of ever getting an understanding, whether they realize it or not, those people, basically, down in their deepest thoughts, have accepted that war is inevitable and that there must come to be a war between the superpowers.” [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 142-145]
Entity Tags: Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jesse Helms, George Will, Free Congress Committee, Neville Chamberlain, Steven Symms, Paul Weyrich, William F. Buckley, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney
1988: Reagan Abandoned, Mocked by Hardline Conservatives
As the end of President Reagan’s final term approaches, conservatives and hardliners have radically changed their view of him. They originally saw him as one of their own—a crusader for good against evil, obstinately opposed to communism in general and to any sort of arms reduction agreement with the Soviet Union in specific. But recent events—Reagan’s recent moderation in rhetoric towards the Soviets (see December 1983 and After), the summits with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (see November 16-19, 1985 and October 11-12, 1986), and the recent arms treaties with the Soviets (see Early 1985 and December 7-8, 1987) have soured them on Reagan. Hardliners had once held considerable power in the Reagan administration (see January 1981 and After and Early 1981 and After), but their influence has steadily waned, and their attempts to sabotage and undermine arms control negotiations (see April 1981 and After, September 1981 through November 1983, May 1982 and After, and April 1983-December 1983), initially quite successful, have grown less effective and more desperate (see Before November 16, 1985). Attempts by administration hardliners to get “soft” officials such as Secretary of State George Shultz fired do not succeed. Conservative pundits such as George Will and William Safire lambast Reagan, with Will accusing him of “moral disarmament” and Safire mocking Reagan’s rapport with Gorbachev: “He professed to see in Mr. Gorbachev’s eyes an end to the Soviet goal of world domination.” It will not be until after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall (see November 9, 1989 and After) that conservatives will revise their opinion of Reagan, in the process revising much of history in the process. [Scoblic, 2008, pp. 143-145]
Entity Tags: George Will, George Shultz, William Safire, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan
January 25, 1988: Orchestrated Bush-Rather Interview Helps Solidify Bush’s Campaign Chances
Dan Rather interviews Vice President Bush, watching him on a monitor. Neither Rather nor the CBS viewers can see Bush’s consultant Roger Ailes off-camera. [Source: Media Research Center]Roger Ailes, a former media consultant to the Nixon administration (see Summer 1970), comes up with a bold plan to help his new client, Vice President George H.W. Bush, who is running for president. Bush is neck-deep in the Iran-Contra scandal (see Before July 28, 1986, August 6, 1987, and December 25, 1992) and, as reporter Tim Dickinson will later write, comes across as “effete” in comparison to his predecessor Ronald Reagan. Ailes decides to use an interview with combative CBS News reporter Dan Rather to bolster his client’s image. Ailes insists that the interview be done live, instead of in the usual format of being recorded and then edited for broadcast. Dickinson will later write, “That not only gave the confrontation the air of a prizefight—it enabled Ailes himself to sit just off-camera in Bush’s office, prompting his candidate with cue cards.” Rather is in the CBS studio in New York and has no idea Ailes is coaching Bush. As planned, Bush begins the interview aggressively, falsely accusing Rather of misleading him by focusing the interview on Iran-Contra. (It is true that CBS had not informed the Bush team that it would air a report on the Iran-Contra investigation as a lead-in to the Bush interview, a scheduling that some in the Bush team see as a “bait-and-switch.”) When Rather begins to press Bush, Ailes flashes a cue card: “walked off the air.” This is a set piece that Bush and Ailes have worked out beforehand, based on an embarrassing incident in Rather’s recent past, when Rather angrily walked off the CBS set after learning that his newscast had been pre-empted by a women’s tennis match. Clenching his fist, Ailes mouths at Bush: “Go! Go! Just kick his ass!” Bush fires his rejoinder: “It’s not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set?” In their 1989 book The Acting President: Ronald Reagan and the Supporting Players Who Helped Him Create the Illusion That Held America Spellbound, CBS host Bob Schieffer and co-author Gary Paul Gates will write: “What people in the bureau and viewers at home could not see was that the response had not been entirely spontaneous. As the interview progressed, the crafty Ailes had stationed himself beside the camera. If Bush seemed to be struggling for a response, Ailes would write out a key word in huge letters on his yellow legal pad and hold it just beneath the camera in Bush’s line of vision. Just before Bush had shouted that it was not fair to judge his career on Iran, Ailes had written out on his legal pad the words.… Three times during the interview, Bush’s answer had come after Ailes had prompted him with key words or phrases scribbled on the legal pad.” Dickinson will later write: “It was the mother of all false equivalencies: the fleeting petulance of a news anchor pitted against the high crimes of a sitting vice president. But it worked as TV.” Ailes’s colleague Roger Stone, who worked with Ailes on the 1968 Nixon campaign, will later say of the interview: “That bite of Bush telling Rather off played over and over and over again. It was a perfect example of [Ailes] understanding the news cycle, the dynamics of the situation, and the power of television.” [Associated Press, 7/6/1989; NewsBusters, 1/25/2008; Rolling Stone, 5/25/2011] After the interview is concluded, Bush leaps to his feet and, with the microphone still live, says: “The b_stard didn’t lay a glove on me.… Tell your g_ddamned network that if they want to talk to me to raise their hands at a press conference. No more Mr. Inside stuff after that.” The unexpected aggression from Bush helps solidify his standing with hardline Republicans. The interview gives more “proof” to those same hardliners that the media is hopelessly liberal, “their” candidates cannot expect to be treated fairly, and that the only way for them to “survive” encounters with mainstream media figures is through aggression and intimidation. [Salon, 1/26/2011] Conservative commentator Rich Noyes will write in 2008 that Bush’s jab at Rather exposed the reporter’s “liberal bias,” though he will fail to inform his readers of Ailes’s off-camera coaching. [NewsBusters, 1/25/2008]
Entity Tags: Rich Noyes, CBS News, Bob Schieffer, Dan Rather, George Herbert Walker Bush, Tim Dickinson, Gary Paul Gates, Roger Stone, Roger Ailes, Ronald Reagan
March 24, 1988 - Late 1990: Future Oklahoma City Bombers Join Army
Entrance to Fort Riley, Kansas. [Source: US Military (.com)]Terry Nichols, a 33-year-old Michigan farmer and house husband described as “aimless” by his wife Lana, joins the US Army in Detroit. He is the oldest recruit in his platoon and his fellow recruits call him “Grandpa.” During basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Nichols meets fellow recruits Timothy McVeigh (see 1987-1988), who joined the Army in Buffalo, New York, and Arizona native Michael Fortier. All three share an interest in survivalism, guns, and hating the government, particularly Nichols and McVeigh; unit member Robin Littleton later recalls, “Terry and Tim in boot camp went together like magnets.” For McVeigh, Nichols is like the older brother he never had; for Nichols, he enjoys taking McVeigh under his wing. Nichols also tells McVeigh about using ammonium nitrate to make explosives he and his family used to blow up tree stumps on the farm. The three are members of what the Army calls a “Cohort,” or Cohesion Operation Readiness and Training unit, which generally keeps soldiers together in the same unit from boot camp all the way through final deployment. It is in the Army that McVeigh and Nichols become enamored of the novel The Turner Diaries (see 1978), which depicts a United States racially “cleansed” of minorities and other “undesirables” (McVeigh is already familiar with the novel—see 1987-1988). All three are sent to the 11 Bravo Infantry division in Fort Riley, Kansas, where they are finally separated into different companies; McVeigh goes to tank school, where he learns to operate a Bradley fighting vehicle as well as becoming an outstanding marksman. [New York Times, 5/4/1995; New York Times, 5/28/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 91-95; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 30; Nicole Nichols, 2003] McVeigh later says he joined the Army because he was disillusioned with the “I am better than you because I have more money” mindset some people have, and because he was taken with the Army’s advertisement that claimed, “We do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day.” [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] Fellow unit member Specialist Ted Thorne will later recall: “Tim and I both considered ourselves career soldiers. We were going to stay in for the 20-plus years, hopefully make sergeant major. It was the big picture of retirement.” [Serrano, 1998, pp. 31]
Nichols Leaves Army, Tells of Plans to Form 'Own Military Organization' - In the spring of 1989, Nichols, who planned on making a career of military service, leaves the Army due to issues with an impending divorce and child care, but his friendship with McVeigh persists. Fellow soldier Glen Edwards will later say that he found Nichols’s choice to serve in the Army unusual, considering his virulent hatred of the US government: “He said the government made it impossible for him to make a living as a farmer. I thought it strange that a 32-year-old man would be complaining about the government, yet was now employed by the government. Nichols told me he signed up to pull his 20 years and get a retirement pension.” Before Nichols leaves, he tells Edwards that he has plans for the future, and Edwards is welcome to join in. Edwards will later recall, “He told me he would be coming back to Fort Riley to start his own military organization” with McVeigh and Fortier. “He said he could get any kind of weapon and any equipment he wanted. I can’t remember the name of his organization, but he seemed pretty serious about it.” [New York Times, 5/28/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 96, 101]
McVeigh Continues Army Career, Described as 'Strange,' 'Racist,' but 'Perfect Soldier' - McVeigh does not leave the Army so quickly. He achieves the rank of sergeant and becomes something of a “model soldier.” He plans on becoming an Army Ranger. However, few get to know him well; only his closest friends, such as Nichols, know of his passion for firearms, his deep-seated racism, or his hatred for the government. McVeigh does not see Nichols during the rest of his Army stint, but keeps in touch through letters and phone calls. Friends and fellow soldiers will describe McVeigh as a man who attempts to be the “perfect soldier,” but who becomes increasingly isolated during his Army career; the New York Times will describe him as “retreating into a spit-and-polish persona that did not admit nights away from the barracks or close friendships, even though he was in a ‘Cohort’ unit that kept nearly all the personnel together from basic training through discharge.” His friends and colleagues will recall him as being “strange and uncommunicative” and “coldly robotic,” and someone who often gives the least desirable assignments to African-American subordinates, calling them “inferior” and using racial slurs. An infantryman in McVeigh’s unit, Marion “Fritz” Curnutte, will later recall: “He played the military 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All of us thought it was silly. When they’d call for down time, we’d rest, and he’d throw on a ruck sack and walk around the post with it.” A fellow soldier, Todd Regier, will call McVeigh an exemplary soldier, saying: “As far as soldiering, he never did anything wrong. He was always on time. He never got into trouble. He was perfect. I thought he would stay in the Army all his life. He was always volunteering for stuff that the rest of us wouldn’t want to do, guard duties, classes on the weekend.” Sergeant Charles Johnson will later recall, “He was what we call high-speed and highly motivated.” McVeigh also subscribes to survivalist magazines and other right-wing publications, such as Guns & Ammo and his favorite, Soldier of Fortune (SoF), and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home (see November 1991 - Summer 1992). Regier will later tell a reporter: “He was real different. Kind of cold. He wasn’t enemies with anyone. He was kind of almost like a robot. He never had a date when I knew him in the Army. I never saw him at a club. I never saw him drinking. He never had good friends. He was a robot. Everything was for a purpose.” [New York Times, 5/4/1995; Stickney, 1996, pp. 86; Serrano, 1998, pp. 30; Nicole Nichols, 2003] McVeigh is taken with the increasing number of anti-government articles and advertisements in SoF, particularly the ones warning about what it calls the impending government imposition of martial law and tyranny, and those telling readers how to build bombs and other items to use in “defending” themselves from government aggression. [Serrano, 1998, pp. 27-28] McVeigh is not entirely “by the book”; he knows his friend Michael Fortier is doing drugs, but does not report him to their superior officers. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] McVeigh is promoted to sergeant faster than his colleagues; this is when he begins assigning the undesirable tasks to the four or five black specialists in the group, tasks that would normally be performed by privates. “It was well known, pretty much throughout the platoon, that he was making the black specialists do that work,” Regier will recall. “He was a racist. When he talked he’d mention those words, like n_gger. You pretty much knew he was a racist.” The black soldiers complain to a company commander, earning McVeigh a reprimand. Sergeant Anthony Thigpen will later confirm Regier’s account, adding that McVeigh generally refuses to socialize with African-Americans, and only reluctantly takes part in company functions that include non-whites. Captain Terry Guild will later say McVeigh’s entire company has problems with racial polarization, “[a]nd his platoon had some of the most serious race problems. It was pretty bad.” In April 1989, McVeigh is sent to Germany for two weeks for a military “change-up program.” While there, he is awarded the German equivalent of the expert infantryman’s badge. In November 1989, he goes home for Thanksgiving with Fortier, and meets Fortier’s mother Irene. In late 1990, McVeigh signs a four-year reenlistment agreement with the Army. [New York Times, 5/4/1995]
McVeigh Goes on to Serve in Persian Gulf War - McVeigh will serve two tours of duty in the Persian Gulf War, serving honorably and winning medals for his service (see January - March 1991 and After). Nichols and McVeigh will later be convicted of planning and executing the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Entity Tags: Ted Thorne, Terry Guild, Todd Regier, Terry Lynn Nichols, Robin Littleton, Michael Joseph Fortier, Charles Johnson, Glen Edwards, Marion (“Fritz”) Curnutte, Anthony Thigpen, Timothy James McVeigh, US Department of the Army
November 1988: Retired Army Officer, Company Head Files Lawsuit against Army, FEMA
Retired 20-year Army intelligence veteran Fred Westerman, who now heads the security firm Systems Evaluations Incorporated (see 1985) and last year reported abuses inside the highly secretive Continuity of Government (COG) program (see 1986-1987), files a lawsuit in the US Court of Claims against the Army, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), two other unidentified federal agencies, and a private company believed to be Brogan Associates Incorporated. A government contract maintained by Systems Associates was canceled last year after Westerman reported irregularities inside the clandestine COG program (see December 1987 and November 1987). The suit states that government officials targeted Westerman for surveillance and wiretaps shortly after he reported abuses inside the COG program. The lawsuit also alleges that FEMA burglarized his corporate offices (see Late 1987) and officials from the Army, FEMA, and Brogan Associates came to Systems Evaluations demanding corporate files shortly prior to the break-in (see November 1987). The lawsuit also alleges Westerman’s company is still owed half a million dollars in expenses. The suit will be frozen due to an investigation of Westerman’s business (see November 1988) and sealed by a US district judge shortly after an in-depth story on the COG program referring to Westerman’s case is published in a major magazine (see August 8, 1989). In 1990, Westerman will lose another contract, along with his security clearances (see 1990). By November 1991, he will be unemployable, several hundred thousand dollars in debt, and unable to gain any restitution from the government (see November 1991). [Emerson, 8/7/1989; San Francisco Chronicle, 8/8/1989; Associated Press, 9/11/1989; CNN Special Assignment, 11/17/1991]
Entity Tags: National Program Office, Brogan Associates Incorporated, Fred Westerman, US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Systems Evaluations Incorporated
November 18, 1988: Presidential Order Details Government Agencies’ Responsibilities in National Emergencies
President Ronald Reagan signs a directive that details the US government’s plan for dealing with national emergencies, including a nuclear attack against the country. Executive Order 12656, “Assignment of Emergency Preparedness Responsibilities,” sets out the specific responsibilities of federal departments and agencies in national security emergencies. [US President, 11/18/1988] It deals with the nation’s Continuity of Government (COG) plan, which would ensure the federal government continued to function should such an emergency occur. [Washington Post, 3/1/2002; Atlantic Monthly, 3/2004] The order states, “The policy of the United States is to have sufficient capabilities at all levels of government to meet essential defense and civilian needs during any national security emergency.” It defines a “national security emergency” as “any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.” The order directs the head of every federal department and agency to “ensure the continuity of essential functions” during such an emergency by, among other things, “providing for succession to office and emergency delegation of authority.” According to Executive Order 12656, the National Security Council is “the principal forum for consideration of national security emergency preparedness policy,” and the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is to “assist in the implementation of national security emergency preparedness policy by coordinating with the other federal departments and agencies and with State and local governments.” [US President, 11/18/1988] The COG plan this directive deals with will be activated for the first time on 9/11, in response to the terrorist attacks that day (see (Between 9:45 a.m. and 9:56 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Washington Post, 3/1/2002; ABC News, 4/25/2004] Author Peter Dale Scott will later comment that, by applying the COG plan to “any national security emergency,” Executive Order 12656 means that the attacks of 9/11 will meet the requirements for the plan to be put into action. [Scott, 2007, pp. 185-186] In fact, a presidential directive in 1998 will update the COG plan specifically to deal with the threat posed by terrorists (see Early 1998 and October 21, 1998). [Clarke, 2004, pp. 166-167 and 170; Washington Post, 6/4/2006]
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Day After Tomorrow, The
Head Cheeze
1 NTSC
Roland Emmerich seems to have a bone to pick with humanity. He's like a genocidal Irwin Allen, not content with placing a city, state, or entire country in harm's way. No, Emmerich wants nothing less than global devastation of the highest order. In Independence Day his alien invaders vapourised landmarks, fried skyskrapers, and left major cities in ruins. In The Day After Tomorrow, the human race should only be so fortunate. This time out, Emmerich isn't content with extraterrestrial surgical strikes, or giant lizards stomping through gymnasiums.
This time...it's personal.
Jack Hall (Quaid), a paleoclimatologist (say that ten times fast!), warns the world of a series of super storms that will usher in the new ice age as a result of global warming. His claims are scoffed at by the U.S. vice president (Kenneth Walsh, portraying the closest thing to a human villain in the film) at an international summit, but his predictions are soon realised as cities around the world begin to experience bizarre weather anomalies. At first, they are greeted as freak incidents (Tokyo residents being bludgeoned by basketball sized chunks of ice notwithstanding), but when Los Angeles becomes tornado alley, the U.K. an uninhabitable ice box, and New York completely flooded and frozen, the president is ready to listen to Jack. Meanwhile, Jack's son Sam is trapped in New York, and his father makes a harrowing trek up the icey east coast to rescue him.
The Day After Tomorrow is a great piece of eye candy, with an epic story and spectacular special effects, but, once the focus shifts toward it's main characters, the film becomes a third-rate survival drama/love story. Much like Independence Day, once the initial excitement of the destruction is over, things get slow and melodramatic. Jack seeks to redeem himself by rescuing his son. Jack struggles with whether or not to tell Lucy (Sela Ward) that he loves her. I guess Emmerich is trying to show us that, even in the face of extinction, human beings are essentially...well...humans being. Despite the horrible situation Jack finds himself in, there is always room for love, and it's never too late to say you're sorry. It's actually typical disaster movie fare that you'll find in everything from "The Poseidon Adventure" to "The Towering Inferno", and, while this film is of a decidedly bigger scale, it still embraces those conventions.
While the script itself is a bit weak, no one will be lining up for this film expecting David Mamet, and, thankfully, the melodramatic lulls in the movie are few and far between. The movie's politics are obvious, as the U.S. government's lax environmental policies are blamed for the global chaos. It's an obvious swipe at the Bush administration for it's pull-out from the Kyoto treaty, and the film's president is depicted as an imbecilic puppet to his Vice President (just like in real life!!). While I've usually no time or patience for filmmakers who preach their partisan politics on my dime (hello, Michael Moore), Emmerich gets a pass here seeing as how his vision of global warming is science fiction that completely ignores the "science", rendering it little more than a harmless diversion. Still, if people take any of this to heart maybe the world will be better for it.
Audio/Video: Holy mackerel, this one looks good. I’ve seen this film several times (or at least chunks of it; I really just usually tune in for the massive destruction, and then check out when the whole “human drama” thing kicks in), but I never in my wildest dreams imagined that it could look so good. I saw TDAT in theaters, and it looks even better on my bigscreen at home. The opening sequence, where the “camera” does a flyover of the glaciers felt like watching a bloody IMAX film. Unreal! The transfer perfectly handles the contrasts between the glaring whites of the new ice age to the dark gothic interiors of New York City, and everything in between. And the sound…oh, my…the sound. The DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 track provides a better-than-cinema experience through and through. Kudos to Fox for this one!
TDAT sports a mix of new and old extras in its BD debut, including several carry-overs from the special edition DVD, as well as some all new BD features, including an interactive trivia game, global warning trivia track, and nifty new menus. The standard def features include commentary by director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon; commentary by co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, director of photography Ueli Steiger, film editor David Brenner and film production designer Barry Chusid; Deleted scenes with optional commentary by director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon.
EXTRAS :The BD extras are a fun diversion, but the standard def deleted scenes are a bit of a letdown once you see the film in all of its majestic HD glory! The lack of featurettes doesn't help the overall score any.
Whether you believe the "science" behind the film or not, you CAN believe your own eyes (and ears), and The Day After Tomorrow is yet another reference quality disc for the medium. Fox has managed to take a movie I've always considered something of a guilty pleasure, and turned it into a must-see (and see again!) treat for the senses!
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Scorpion Tales
Blackgloves
2 PAL
Geoffrey Palmer
This short-lived anthology series of mystery stories and taut thrillers anticipated Anglia’s better known “Tales of the Unexpected”, which started up the following year – even down to the animated flames in the titles which accompany Cyril Ornadel’s tense, driving theme music. With writers such as Jeremy Burnham and Bob Baker and Dave Martin providing such a diverse set of stories, producer and director David Reid (“The Power Game”) oversaw what turns out to have been an intriguing set of teledramas with high quality performances and unpredictable ‘sting in the tail’ conclusions. Shot in-studio and on videotape, with exteriors shot on 16mm film -- as was the norm in the seventies (apart from “Easterman”, where the exteriors look to have been shot on video as well) -- these six dramas are well worth revisiting for a more nuanced approach to the kind of macabre themes that the more famous Roald Dahl series would often visit in the following years.
The two-disc set is a web exclusive, available only from www.Networkdvd.co.uk.
EASTERMAN
The series kicks into high gear immediately, beginning with this gritty character-led crime drama about a boozy cop on the eve of his retirement, forced to confront his jaded past when a murderer makes him the subject of his vendetta of violence. With a script by Ian Kennedy Martin, whose best known work in TV detective dramas such as “The Sweeney” and “Juliet Bravo” this tough, downbeat teleplay -- set in a series of murky locations such as backstreet gay pick-up joints and derelict airfields -- is in perfect synch with; and with direction by series producer David Reid, who would go on to oversee many episodes of Hammer’s anthology series “Hammer House of Horror”, this opening drama is immediately notable for the quality of its performances and its inventive, top-drawer casting, led by veteran actor Trevor Howard in the lead role of Detective Chief Inspector George Mavor.
Howard’s is a searing, powerhouse performance: the clearly alcoholic Inspector Mavor is a weary, cynical, shambolic mess; watery-eyed and red faced, he’s marking the days until his coming retirement in nine months, but is soon galvanised back into action after a police clerk in his former division -- now headed by Superintendent Cummings ( an unusually restrained Patrick Allen) -- is badly beaten and abandoned at a well-known haunt for gay men, with a note attached to him from someone called Easterman, addressed to Mavor.
A few days later, a lag is murdered in prison and another note implicates Mavor in the motive. Forced to pour back over the past case histories and records of his fast-receding life as a policeman, and to re-open old wounds with his ex-wife (in case she’s later used by the mystery villain as a bargaining chip to get to him), Mavor, as portrayed by Howard, emerges as a man for whom the police force was the only thing he’d ever believed in, but for whom that belief has long since dissipated in a haze of booze and prescription drugs. The intensity with which he upbraids an incompetent police pathologist in one scene makes it clear that caring too much has driven him to the edge of self-destruction and has engendered an uneasy relationship with his police colleagues, too; but he comes to share an intense relationship with his nemesis, played by “Bullman” actor Don Henderson (still in possession of ‘that’ haircut!), who blames him for the death of his homosexual lover.
The drama is laden with a typically seventies ambivalence towards homosexuality, which is associated here with obsession and madness, as well as religious mania; and the intensity of the connection between Mavor and Easterman is played up with some heavy-handed symbolism that even the jaded cop himself isn’t entirely oblivious to, after Easterman arranges a rendezvous in order simply to threaten the hard-bitten cop by forcing the barrel of his rifle into his mouth, creating a deliberately suggestive image. The denouement seems something of a let-down at first, in view of the series title, but is probably all the stronger for not forcing itself to conform to the obvious ‘sting in the tale’ motif.
Written by the “Doctor Who” writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin, and starring a young Jack Warner (“Wycliffe”), who looks here uncannily like David Tennant, “Killing” starts out by giving the impression that it’s going to be one of those embarrassing retro-seventies stories about intelligent computers taking over the world: a theme that’s a bit hard to take seriously for today’s audience when the height of computer technology circa 1978 consists here of a room-full of giant mainframes, running programmes on massive spinning reels of tape that probably constituted less computing power in their entirety than the average modern desktop. The episode ends with an up-front thank you to Sperry UNIVAC for its computer advice. Add to this the fact that the computer room over which Warner’s character, Mark Hawkins – a computer programmer working for a large banking corporation – presides, seems to make almost as much noise as a jumbo jet taking off, and any attempt to attribute advanced powers of artificial intelligence to such an outmoded antiquity (by today’s standards) of a machine cannot help but look utterly ridiculous. The blinking DOS display screens and the whirring, clicking and general humming activity of this cumbersome computing dinosaur were all meant to look mightily impressive back then, and probably would have done to a 1978 audience; but to us, it all looks -- and is -- hopelessly quaint, of course.
Luckily, the focus of Baker and Martin’s quirky story turns out to be slightly different from what one is at first led to expect, although it is still somewhat quaint seeing as how the idea behind the mystery tries to suggest novelty at the prospect of Hawkins illicitly using his bank’s computer facilities in order to gamble huge sums of the bank’s money on the world’s stock exchange markets. Well, who would ever think of doing something like that?
When his company unexpectedly decides to ditch its current system and upgrade to a cheaper but more powerful one, it calls in expert Martha Fredricks (Angela Down) to work alongside Hawkins in shutting the old system down in preparation for its replacement. But Fredricks’ tenacity soon uncovers hints of Mark’s scheme, and a game of wits ensues between the two as Martha becomes determined to figure out how he’s been getting away with it. Meanwhile, Martha’s marriage is under strain: her earning power is considerably more than that of her police officer husband, Ross (Michael O’Hagan), who’s training to be a corporate lawyer on the Open University; and the late nights spent at the office with Mark, attempting to solve the clues left in the computer in relation to what her secretive colleague has been up to, leads to suspicion taking root in the mind of the already jealous spouse.
In fact, this story does feature something of a puzzle that gradually becomes a flirtation between minds rather than bodies: the commands used in Mark’s moneymaking computer programme have a certain double entendre to them and the dance of wits between he and Martha is an intellectualised courtship of sorts, played out in printer readouts and command prompts, which soon takes on its full significance during the latter course of the story. This is a fairly breezy episode, efficiently directed by Don Leaver and with Warner and Downs (who take most of the screen time) playing nicely off each other as two very different types of white collar worker who reach a common understanding by the end of a story of intellectual deception and intrigue.
THE GREAT ALBERT
Directed by series producer David Reid, this ironical tale of a young boy’s dabblings with the supernatural takes the series into regions that appear at first to mark out a similar imaginative territory as writer John Peacock’s better known screen work: he adapted Dennis Wheatley’s “To The Devil, A Daughter” and wrote the disturbing thriller “Straight On Till Morning” for Hammer, a few years prior to this, later going on to an involvement with “Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense” as story editor and writer on one episode. This particular story turns out to be a sly and macabre take on domestic horrors viewed through the eyes of a neglected child, who sees all the very real terrors around him filtered by a protective sieve of superstition and magical thinking. Centring as it does on an innocent and naive protagonist, who comes into contact with real malevolence; the story has certain thematic similarities to “Straight on Till Morning”, and is similarly cruel in its picturing of psychological torment being visited upon, in this case, a young child.
When book dealer Peter Ward (Kenneth Gilbert) comes into possession of a rare volume of diabolical spells -- an ancient grimoire by Albertus Magnus, a famed alchemist of the Middle Ages -- his lonely son Matthew (Max Harris) steals one of the Photostat copies from his father’s study and sets about learning the devilish magic it contains, in a last ditch attempt to set right his parents’ loveless marriage and restore the crumbling family life he sees around him.
When the first simple rain spell he casts appears to work, Matthew (who, until now, has obtained precious few results by praying to a William Holman Hunt print of Jesus that hangs on his bedroom wall) decides that a spell which purports to bring the Devil to his aid should be far more successful in convincing his father to abandon a mooted trip to America than his previous prayers. However, Matthew’s vindictive stepmother (Lynn Farleigh) has her own plans. After Peter refuses to give her the divorce she craves, she and her lover, Oliver (Paul Freeman), plot to murder him on the eve of his trip, unaware that Matthew is in the garden casting the ancient spell from the book that’s meant to summon the Devil. When he sees his father’s bloody corpse through the living room window with Oliver standing over it holding a dagger, he becomes convinced that his mum’s new friend is the diabolical one -- Satan himself!
Max Harris makes for a suitably cherub faced schoolboy hero, and the screenplay is excellent at evoking the upset youngster’s superstitious mind-set, as it becomes a release and an escape from the turmoil of his parents’ embittered relationship. The murder of the husband, and the attempt by the shrewish Farleigh and the menacing Freeman to cover it up, is pure melodrama, but suspensefully conveyed with some Hitchcockian business involving a trunk, left in full view centre screen in the library, inside which, it is heavily hinted, the body of the husband has – “Rope”-like -- been deposited. Matthew’s harsh confrontation with the non-supernatural reality of the situation at the end is, if anything, even more disturbing than any notion that his fantasy world of magic and Devil-conjuring spells might have ever been a reality.
THE GHOST IN THE PALE BLUE DRESS
Jeremy Burnham is quite an important figure in the TV of the sixties and seventies. Starting as an actor, he can be glimpsed in many well-known sixties shows such as “The Persuaders” and “The Saint”, and he was a recurring and recognisable face in many episodes of “The Avengers”; after turning to screenwriting, he went on to pen several episodes of the latter series, and is today perhaps best remembered for having scripted the cult children’s supernatural series “Children of the Stones” and “Raven”. He also worked on the anthology shows for Hammer: “Hammer House of Horror” and “Hammer House of mystery and Suspense”, so it is perhaps not surprising that he should be involved with this series too, with show producer David Reid once again directing this episode, which is the first to take a more traditional twist-in-the-tail tack, of the sort that came to define Roald Dahl's “Tales of the Unexpected” the following year.
“The Ghost in the Pale Blue Dress” is a stagy episode and its plot relies on a series of twists and unexpected plot revelations that appear to give each of the characters who are attempting to get one up on the other the upper hand over the course of the story, before one final revelation in the final minutes reveals the ultimate end game. It’s a style that’s become overfamiliar during the intervening years, and so this is the one tale that doesn’t capture the imagination quite as well as some of the others in the series; but the story is at least given ample time to breathe and develop in the fifty minute format, rather than the twenty-five minutes afforded to “Tales of the Unexpected”.
The episode starts off with a family rivalry between the chairman of a prestigious merchant bank – Sir Wilfred (“Robin’s Nest” star Tony Britton) and his arrogant and ambitious son Toby Grafton (Brian Stirner), who wants to remove his father from his position and take up the post himself. Grafton’s fiancée Karen (Sandra Payne) decides to try and settle the family feud, but when she pays Sir Wilfred a visit he reacts strangely towards her, insisting that she persuade Toby to attend a dinner party at the family home, and specifying that she should also come, but dressed in a pale blue dress. It emerges that Karen is the spitting image of Sir Wilfred’s long dead wife – and also Toby’s mother! – Gwen.
After making a clumsy pass at her in his study, Sir Wilfred makes a speech at the dinner party, in front of all the other guests, in which he claims that his son’s coming marriage is a sham – merely part of a scheme by his son to destabilise him – and that Toby is in reality a homosexual. He begs Karen not to fall into his son’s trap! The rivalry escalates to court action, and the marriage looks increasingly in jeopardy, despite Toby’s claims that he really does love Karen. But a series of revelations and counter-revelations soon shows that all is very much not what it seems.
This oedipal drama with a dash of romantic Gothic, reminiscent of the work of Daphne du Maurier, has a lot of intriguing elements and is engaging enough while never really catching flame. There is a timely political subtext to the various machinations of some of the protagonists, involving an apparent clash of attitudes to how the running of this venerable institution of a bank should be approached -- with the father favouring a traditional solid, trustworthy approach, and the go-getting, proto-Thatcherite son demanding that the bank should be aiming to maximise its profits by getting more involved in stock market speculations. Sir Wilfred’s anti-tax rant at the end of the episode is a further sign of the new mood in the Britain of 1978, a mood which was about to transform the country for over a decade. Here, it’s merely the pretext for an ultimately trivial game of wits, with the Grafton family fortune the ultimate, rather clichéd, stakes.
CRIMES OF PERSUATION
Directed by Shaun O’Riordan (who’d previously helmed many an episode of Brian Clemens’ anthology series, “Thriller”, and went on to direct the cult sci-fi classic “Sapphire and Steel”), and beautifully written by Nicholas Palmer, this episode takes the most advantage of the extended hour-long format in order to slowly uncoil and eventually reveal where it’s truly heading. For an unusually long time, it’s quite hard to see at first what this episode is really about -- unlike most of these single episode thrillers, which are set up pretty quickly in the first act and then spend the rest of the run- time playing things out in an orderly fashion until a last act twist.
Here though, we are presented with several seemingly completely unrelated strands that only gradually converge to produce a conclusion of, not so much a twist, as a cruel, jet-black irony. Although it’s slowly paced and deliberate if not decidedly stately at times, and is probably rather stagey by today’s TV standards, this is one of my favourites out of all six episodes. The initial elements revolve around a hideously smug right wing MP, Sir Robert Haines (Anthony Bate) who makes crowd-pleasing calls on TV for the return of capital punishment for terrorist crimes, but is all the time privately wining and dining a rich Arab exile (a blacked-up Christopher Benjamin) who the Government hope to one day help back into power, even though his regime was previously noted for its use of torture and for taking political prisoners. Meanwhile, a middle-aged woman shows a young student around a London flat she is letting. The rooms are rather dark and dingy, and furnished with lots of nick-knacks and old-fashioned ornaments, and the contrast between the earnest trendiness of the student and the frumpy dowdiness of the prospective landlady couldn’t be more evident. Nevertheless, Haines the MP later turns up at the same flat, and it emerges that the woman, Jean Newman (Susan Engel) is his mistress of ten years. What happens next is best not revealed, but out of two rather disparate strands -- with Haines deciding to break-off his affair with Newman while a terrorist plot against Haines’ Arab associate is being planned -- a sudden and shocking denouement is brought about when the two elements meet in a sudden riot of violence.
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCE
Once seen, this is possibly the most memorable episode out of the six, directed by stalwart of some of the early videotaped episodes of “The Avengers”, Bill Bain, and written by Brian Phelan, it’s a chilling tale of paranoia and brainwashing about an ex-Navy man, Lieutenant James White (David Robb) who blithely sets out one morning for a military training course he’s agreed to go on at the behest of his former captain, commodore Jacobs (Stephen Murray), with sealed instructions that he is not to open until he arrives at the compound. After a difficult journey in which he discovers someone has sabotaged his car by putting sugar in the petrol tank and he is offered a lift by a friendly traveller who seems to already know an awful lot about him, White is to be plunged into a nightmare -- the envelope turns out to contain military intelligence secrets and he is accused of being a spy!
But Is this all really just part of the aforementioned training exercise -- or could it be real after all?
This is an ingenious little tale that really grasps the nature of paranoia and manages to make you feel almost as confused and disorientated as its unfortunate protagonist. Like him, you have no idea what is going on for most of the time, and no way of knowing who is to be trusted; whether the whole thing is one big game, or if more sinister forces are at work. The crunch moment comes when a sleep-deprived and disorientated White is allowed home to visit his wife but the sense of paranoia comes with him, leading up to another bleak and ironic conclusion. Like the previous episode, the paranoia of the right wing politics of the late seventies plays a role in the background to this story. The episode was broadcast in a period where a lot of shadowy right wing groups like GB75, The Middle Class Association and the Thatcher-associated NAF where convinced that the country was about to be overrun by Marxists and anarchists; some of these groups even thought a military coup might not be out of the question, if the worst came to the worst! The story captures a surreal nightmarish quality similar to that of “The Prisoner”, but with an edgier, more disturbing tone that remains even at the very end: for even when the details of what has apparently really been going on are revealed, you’re still left with the protagonist’s nagging doubt and residual suspicions.
The series only ran for one season and, as was the norm for its time, plays host to some very low production values. The writing is generally of a high quality, the acting frequently excellent and the stories consistently unusual and suspenseful. The image quality is pretty good considering the series hasn’t undergone much restoration. The six plays are presented across two discs, with the second also containing a short gallery of production stills. At the moment, the set is only available from www.Networkdvd.co.uk as one of their web exclusives.
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Martin Carthy and a rediscovered folk song treasury
The longer I spend in Lush Places, my enchanted village home in Dorset, the more I realise that there is some kind of magic at work here.
Serendipitous things seem to happen all the time and the latest one has unearthed something of a local treasure – A CD featuring fourteen comedy songs by traditional singers and recorded in the village in the mid-1980s.
The Wooden Leg’d Parson was rediscovered by folk legend Martin Carthy, who passed it on to record producer Simon Emmerson from The Imagined Village, who lives here in Lush Places. Now, Simon has a box of them to sell, at £10 a time. If you know him, get in touch with him. If you don’t, get in touch with me and I’ll send you one.
Doug and Sam Phillips
Listening to the laughs in the pub as Doug and Sam Phillips entertained the locals with comedy songs, it feels like you’re right there with them. Those Dorset dialects are magnificent. Some delightful times and tunes with people no longer with us.
There’s the lovely, wobbly voice of old Bill House, who has a penchant for anything with a wooden leg, the mellow tones of Norman House on two tracks, contributions from Norman Faires and Gordon Hayes and a great song sung by Norman Gray. It’s called The Comical Cock and I think Mr Grigg’s going to try to learn the words for harvest supper.
George Hirst
Bill House
I know several of the songs because they were also sung by my late uncle, George Withers. As serendipity would have it, according to an obituary comment on the Mudcat Café website, he went down a storm at the National Folk Festival when he sang his song about the MBE, standing on the same stage with Martin Carthy MBE.
‘Eliza Carthy nearly fell off her chair laughing as indeed did the entire audience,’ the writer says.
This CD slice of history is brought to us by Nick and Mally Dow, who collected traditional songs from Broadwindsor, Beaminster and Dorchester.
Says Nick: ‘The White Lion was run by old Dick Corbett for many years. He was an ex-service man and a character. His pal Flash Phelps was more than a bit of a villain.
Flash Phelps and Dick Corbett
'The other regulars were Doug and Sam Phillips, who sang music hall songs. There was a barrel of Taunton Cider on the bar, served on gravity, and a barmy parrot that was in the process of changing sex.’
Nick says he was accused of being the wrong man to do the recordings because he was emotionally involved with the singers.
‘Well that's an understatement. I was head over heels in love with Dorset folk songs and Dorset.’
Just the man for the job then.
Now Simon, who on this blog is known as Ding Dong Daddy, is hoping to recreate the CD at one of the folk sessions he runs in the White Lion. All I can say to that is, please count me in.
You can find out more about the recordings from the Real West Dorset website. And you can hear them – and others - on the British Library website. This is a real, international treasury. Not only did I find recordings of my dear old Uncle George, I also found interviews with my late Auntie Glad, about her childhood days in Somerset in the early part of the 20th century. Classic stuff. Priceless.
But don’t forget, if you’d like The Wooden Leg’d Parson CD – and, honestly, why wouldn’t you – give Ding Dong Daddy or me a shout.
That’s about it.
Posted by maddie at February 14, 2014
Labels: Beaminster, British Museum, Broadwindsor, Dorchester, Dorset folk songs, Eliza Carthy, Imagined Village, Martin Carthy, White Lion
The Greek odyssey sets sail once more
Martin Carthy and a rediscovered folk song treasur...
You can ring my bell. Or perhaps not.
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Outdoor Advocates
The creation of an outdoor recreation industry office established Colorado as a leader in one of the nation’s most critical economic segments.
The most striking thing about Colorado’s outdoor recreation manufacturers is how interconnected they are. Snowboard maker Never Summer shares its manufacturing facility in Denver with ski company Icelantic. Likewise, knife company Spyderco, located in Golden, Colo., teamed up with Never Summer to create a limited edition snowboard and knife set aimed at firefighters.
It’s not uncommon for local manufacturers to do business with one another, but Colorado is finding new ways to foster these kinds of symbiotic relationships. Two organizations – one public and one private – are leading that charge.
Something Independent is a group that combines leadership, lifestyle and commerce by promoting interconnections between companies and celebrates achievement. The organization is perhaps best known for its Wright Awards, an annual event that honors Colorado entrepreneurs who developed inspired business ideas. From his vantage point as the organization’s co-founder, Chuck Sullivan has witnessed how mashing different industries together in the same room can start a conversation and lead to greater business connections. “Little things like that can spark big opportunities,” he says. “Colorado is on the cusp of something that has been here for a long time.”
Outdoor Attitude
The “something” Sullivan is talking about begins with the allure of the outdoors spirit that has made Colorado the second-fastest growing state in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. As more people flock to Colorado’s mountain peaks and hiking trails the demand for supporting businesses has grown. The state is a natural home for manufacturers of outdoor supplies, gear and fashion, and companies are finding ways to further cement the outdoors and conservation into their DNA.
Eco Brands Group, parent company of Green Guru Gear, turns recycled materials such as wetsuits from SeaWorld and discarded banners from events such as the Democratic National Convention into backpacks and cycling gear. Spyderco workers take their lunch breaks at the top of an adjacent mountain peak and when the company rebuilt its manufacturing facility in 2015 it designed the building to let in more natural light. Fishing reel maker Mayfly Outdoors is leading a cleanup project on the Upcompahgre River as part of the development of a new business park centered on outdoor-focused companies.
The outdoor lifestyle ingrained in those businesses gives life to a fiercely independent mindset. Many of companies started out as small businesses and take pride in high quality over high volume and sleek marketing. You won’t find big-name athletes like Shaun White on Never Summer boards. Instead of investing in marketing, the company directs its dollars to its materials and facility. “Never Summer always focuses on putting the best materials in the world in our products,” Director of Manufacturing BJ Slater says.
Never Summer’s commitment to quality is one of the reasons Icelantic chose it to manufacture its skis. The relationship helped establish Icelantic as one of the top ski designers in Colorado and the company opened its first retail store last summer, expanding its offerings into clothing and accessories.
Similarly, Spyderco prides itself on making high-quality knives that will never go out of style. “When we’re cloning people on the moon we’ll still need knives or some kind of cutting tool,” owner Eric Glesser says.
The availability of support manufacturers is a critical draw for startups. When bag and pack maker Topo Designs was ready to expand beyond a two-man operation based in Fort Collins, Colo., it was not necessarily looking for a manufacturer in the United States. But it found a capable partner in Axxes Industries Sew Shop, located in nearby Louisville, Colo. Topo is now Axxes’ primary customer and the two businesses are growing together. “We see the advantages of it,” Topo co-founder Mark Hansen says. “We like what we sell and we like the ability come here and check on it.”
Economic Force
The kinds of connections being formed among Colorado manufacturers are representative of national growth in outdoor recreation. The Outdoor Industry Association estimates that outdoor recreation generates $646 billion in consumer spending and accounts for 6.1 million jobs across the country. Recognition of the rising importance of the outdoor industry led Congress to pass the Outdoor REC Act in December, which instructs the U.S. Department of Commerce along with the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, to analyze the contributions of the outdoor recreation industry and account for those jobs as part of the nation’s gross domestic product. The bill was designed to put outdoor recreation on equal footing with other major industries.
The push that led the federal government to recognize the outdoor industry as a key contributor to the nation’s economy began in states like Colorado. In 2015, Colorado became the second state to establish an outdoor recreation industry office, following Utah in 2013. Luis Benitez, an outdoor enthusiast who has climbed Mt. Everest six times, was chosen to head the department an advocate on behalf of the state’s outdoor businesses.
Since then, Benitez has worked to capture industry innovation in the state and ensure Colorado is represented in the larger conversation around outdoor recreation. “My goal is to change how the trades are seen both in our community and the country,” he says.
Among his first acts as the director of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office was to travel across the state on a listening tour. Benitez learned of the hurdles faced by large and small businesses alike in securing financing and finding qualified employees, but he also saw how parts of the outdoor industry were segmented. Companies that had the potential to work together in Colorado didn’t know about one another.
“Unfortunately a lot of what happens in our industry happens in a silo,” Benitez says. “That’s the hard part.” So Benitez began to focus on silo busting. The Colorado Outdoor Recreation Office created a network and database of outdoor related businesses and manufacturers to help companies find each other.
Benitez is also tackling the other hurdles to growth for outdoor equipment makers. The Outdoor Recreation Office is working with Colorado Mountain College to develop education programs to fill skills gaps, such as an associate’s degree for cut and sew or snowboard shaping, that better reflect the experience of people entering the industry’s workforce. Likewise, the Colorado School of Mines is developing education paths for 3-D printing and metal work. “A lot of people in our industry chose an outdoor education. They chose not to get a four-year degree, they chose alternative apprenticeships,” Benitez adds.
Talent is the backbone of a budding business’ reputation, but it also needs financing. An upstart company designing the next great snowboard of bicycle out of a garage often relies on organic funding from friends, family or fans. Taking the businesses to the next level and mass market can be financially prohibitive without proper backing.
Benitez is working with banks and on the state level to push for programs that will offer funding to outdoor recreation businesses. In December, the Economic Development Council of Colorado indicated interest in pursing the idea, Benitez says. “We’re working really hard to shift that paradigm so they [outdoor recreation businesses] can have access to funding,” he adds.
Creating Collaboration
Having a statewide perspective on the industry enables Colorado to be more strategic in how it creates economic development. In the past, individual towns have competed against one other to lure manufacturers and create jobs. That might be a win for a local community, but it’s a zero-net economic gain at the state level.
Benitez doesn’t believe competition for existing jobs is the way to build the industry. Instead, by looking at outdoor recreation from a state and national level he says government can create better policies and incentives to drive overall growth. “The outdoor industry is potentially bigger than the auto industry and the pharmaceutical industry combined,” Benitez explains. “We can’t do the shell game. We need to deepen the footprint across the country.”
The success of the outdoor recreation industry offices in Colorado and Utah has more states taking notice. In early 2016, Washington became the third state to establish the department and 11 more are considering similar positions, including Montana, Wyoming and Oregon. The expansion of state-level offices will undoubtedly cut into Colorado’s advantage, but Benitez contends the competition will only help Colorado as it lifts the entire outdoor recreation market. “I believe the more states we have the more of a voice we have,” he says.
As the outdoor industry becomes more entrenched at the state and national level, Benitez says it will be important for his colleagues to share their strategies to help set each other up for success. “There needs to be a willingness from all the states to build best practices,” he explains.
Tags: manufacturing,, Colorado, outdoor
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Representative Projects
Mary Kay Judy
Architectural & Cultural Heritage Conservation
Contact: info@marykayjudy.com
Mary Kay Judy, Principal, is an award winning Architectural Conservator and Preservation Consultant with over twenty years of national and international practice in the field. Her career has focused on both the documentation of architectural history and technical conservation treatments for long-term, sustainable preservation.
After a decade practicing in New York City's most respected preservation architecture firms, she created an independent consultancy to provide clients with a full range of specialized technical conservation and advisory design services to guide restoration projects from initial investigation through construction administration.
The practice serves a diverse client base including private home owners, corporations, religious congregations, co-operatives and condominiums, NGO's, A&E firms, educational institutions and governmental authorities.
Ms. Judy is an established preservation educator and has lectured internationally on architectural conservation case studies and the politics of preservation. Her writing on these subjects has appeared in a variety of publications including the National Trust Preservation Forum Journal and the Journal of Architectural Conservation.
She is a two-time Asian Cultural Council Humanitarian Fellow, and has been a conservation grant recipient of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Association for Preservation Technology and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).
Ms. Judy has a M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a B.A. in Architectural History from the University of Cincinnati. Mary Kay Judy, Architectural & Cultural Heritage Conservation, is a certified “Woman Business Enterprise” (WBE) based in New York City.
Jean Prouve's "Maison Tropicale" circa 1951 exhibited on the banks of the East River in 2007, inspiration for the article "Moving Modern: Modern Architecture as Moveable Heritage,"by Mary Kay Judy in NTHP Forum Journal Fall 2011.
info@marykayjudy.com | New York City
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Visit Resources for Child Custody & Support
Child Custody & Support?
Child Custody and Support FAQs
Best Interest of the Child
Q: My husband currently has custody of our three children, but he is suffering from a mental disease which I think is negatively affecting them. Can I obtain physical custody of my three children?
A: In deciding whether you can obtain physical custody, the court will look at a series of factors, none of which are controlling. While your husband’s mental condition is a factor, the court will also look at your children’s best interests. For example, in a case with similar facts, a four year old was separated from his siblings because the court felt that the parent’s mental disease would be more detrimental to him than to the siblings who were older and could understand what was wrong with their parent who had the mental disease.
Q: My wife and I made an agreement over two years ago that each of our two sons would live with one of us. Will a court require them to both live in one household?
A: It depends on which “best interest” factors the courts will place emphasis. Courts have upheld the separation where it did not cause any physical, mental, or emotional adverse effects.
Q: My husband and I have been at each other’s throats for the past two years. We do not get along like a married couple should. The only thing we have in common now is our children whom we both dearly love. When we divorce, who is going to get custody of our children?
A: In determining whether you and your husband can obtain joint physical or legal custody, the court will look at what is in the best interests of your children based on a series of factors such as your ability to get along, the geographic distance between you and your spouse, and your financial status, among others. As to the lack of communication between you and your husband, if the tension between you seems more permanent in nature, the court may award sole physical custody to only one of you, although visitation rights will be granted to the other. If you and your husband want to share physical and legal custody, then it is better for you both to begin to communicate with each other.
Q: What will happen to my custody rights if I prevent my ex-spouse from seeing our children or move to Canada with them without telling my ex-spouse?
A: The court will look at the best interests of the child in its totality in determining the fair outcome. For example, if you decide to move to Canada with your children without informing your spouse, the court may see you as denying a “natural and legal right” to visitation and therefore not acting in the “best interests of the child.” As a result, you may lose custody of your children. Similarly, it could likely be the same outcome if you purposefully exclude your spouse from seeing your children.
Q: When would a lifestyle change generally threaten or harm a child?
A: Every case is different and what a judge would consider a change in circumstance depends on his or her viewpoint. Generally though, where a custodial parent begins to work late at night, leaving his or her minor child at home alone, the non-custodial parent may have a right to request a custody modification. Alternatively, where a non-custodial parent begins to drink heavily, the custodial parent may request a modification of the visitation order allowing the child to visit only when the non-custodial parent is sober.
Q: My husband received custody of our children after we divorced because I cheated on him. Will my cheating have any effect on my visitation rights?
A: The court will look at the best interests of the child in determining your visitation rights. Nevertheless, your visitation rights should not be denied solely on the ground of your marital misconduct. The only way it may be denied is if there are exceptional circumstances that may be injurious to your children’s welfare.
Q: What are the child support consequences to me if my 15 year old daughter just had a baby but has no money to take care of him?
A: As a grandparent, you can be held responsible for the support of the child if neither parent has any income and are minors. Therefore, your support of your daughter will be expanded to the extent that your daughter, and the baby’s father, have insufficient money to fulfill their child support obligations.
Q: What is not considered actual income?
A: It does not include benefits received from public assistance programs, including temporary cash assistance, Supplemental Security Income, food stamps, and transitional emergency, medical, and housing assitance.
Q: What expenses are generally included in determining child support payments?
A: Your children’s expenses can be broken down into two categories: discretionary and basic obligations. Discretionary expenses are recreational activities such as karate classes while basic obligations, which are split between the parents, include day care and braces. Discretionary expenses are not included in calculating each parent’s support obligations.
Q: For the past year, I have been paying $400 in child support per month, when I was only required to pay $300. Can I get the $1200 of overpayment back?
A: No. The court will not order the money to be returned for something that was your fault.
Q: My son’s father is very wealthy, but I am not at all. I want to obtain child support payments for my son who has always lived with me. How much support am I entitled to receive?
A: You are likely entitled to an amount equal to the standard of living your son would have enjoyed if you and your son’s father would have remained together. In terms of finances, the law does not distinguish between children whose parents were married and those whose were not. Therefore, if your son would have enjoyed a better standard of living if you had remained with his father, then your son is entitled to that same amount of support.
Q: I recently moved to a rural area with my second wife where the level of income is significantly lower than where I previously lived. I cannot afford to make the regular child support payments which I am required to make. Will I be considered to have voluntarily impoverished myself?
A: Whether your move will be problematic depends on various factors including whether you continued in the same occupation after your move and how long after your divorce you moved. Most likely, your move will not be a problem since a court cannot control where you will live (i.e., living in the highest wage earning area) and would not want to use the child support payments as a restriction on your mobility.
Q: My ex-husband has been, and wants to be, a student his entire life. He was a student before we married and before we had any children. He has never worked and has been supported by family and friends his whole life. Will the court consider him to have voluntarily impoverished himself, eventhough he has no income to reduce?
A: The answer depends on whether your ex-husband chose to remain a student and unemployed his entire life. If so, it is likely that he will be found to have voluntarily impoverished himself. On the other hand, if your ex-husband made efforts to alter his life after the birth of your children by finding steady income while studying, then it is possible he will not be considered to have voluntarily impoverished himself. Generally, however, a parent who decides to live in poverty cannot preclude his or her child from enjoying the necessities of life and, instead, must try and change their lifestyle to meet their support obligation.
Q: I want to quit my high-salaried job and pursue the job that has been my dream since I was a child. The new job pays about minimum wage. How will this affect my child support obligations?
A: It would depend on the significance of the change in salary, which in this case seems quite dramatic, and/or your history of making child support payments on time. By changing jobs, if you cause your income to drop, for example, from $80,000 per year to $20,000 per year and/or if you have a history of avoiding support payments in the past, a court may be forced to order you to pay child support based on a potential income, i.e., the court will impute income to you as though you were continuing in the high salaried job.
Q: I and my wife agreed in our divorce that I would pay $100 per month of child support until each child of ours reached the age of 21. The eldest child just turned 18 and, at the same time, we agreed to increase support payments to $350. What is the effect of his turning 18?
A: The primary effect will be that the modification will be void as applied to your eldest. Since the age of majority in Maryland is 18, the modification of child support of $350 will only apply to your other children. As to your eldest, the payments will continue to be $100 per month.
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John McCain’s parting gift
During 60 years in public service, first in the Navy and more recently as a United States senator, John McCain made many sacrifices and did enormous good for us, his fellow Americans.
Before passing on to his reward, he rendered one more very great service. He reminded us who we are.
McCain, who died last week, wrote a letter to us during his final days. It was released this week.
Much of it is an expression of thankfulness for his family and his nation. “I am the luckiest person on earth,” he wrote.
Then he reminded us: “We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world.”
We take away from that greatness “when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all corners or the world,” he went on.
Perhaps McCain was puzzled by the readiness of many — throughout the ideological spectrum — to fear other Americans as much or more than we do sworn foreign enemies.
Our differences of opinion can be harsh. But, as McCain reminded us, “we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement.”
Precisely.
“Do not despair of present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here,” McCain wrote.
“Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history,” he added.
His last letter — ending with “God bless America” — confirms McCain’s stature as a hero and patriot.
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DAVID N. PEPPERELL
MUSIC INDUSTRY PEOPLE - AUSTRALIA
David N Pepperell
Music Journalist Music Retailer Musician Songwriter
David N Pepperell (AKA Doctor Pepper) is an Australian music journalist who has been a feature of the Melbourne music scene since the mid 1960’s. Born 26th December 1945 David is a Baby Boomer.
Never one to be an “observer” David through himself headlong into the developing counter-culture and its developing music scene in Melbourne during the 1960’s. His early influences included writers, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, William Boroughs and Terry Southern.
He fronted a short-lived group called The Union, which had one release, in 1965, The Thump which was co-written by David and Trevor Lunn. The Union consisted of Trevor Lunn: lead guitar, vocals; Ken Lincoln: rhythm guitar, vocals; John McKay: bass, vocals; Neville Lunn: drums and David on lead vocals.
Tribute to The Thumpin' Tum nightclub (Photo collage on video) featuring 'The Union' with David N Pepperell on lead vocals
However David’s contribution to the music scene may have been short lived as a singer, but he had some success as a songwriter and even more success as a rock journalist.
He was a senior contributor to one of Australia’s first real underground publications – SCRAG, published by Swinburne Students Union. It was for a period of about 9 months, a hot bed of political and social sedition during the heat of the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations before conservative elements of the student council rebelled and took it over.
He was also was a regular contributor to Planet Weekly Music Paper , Go-Set, and Juke (writing as Doctor Pepper). he also contributed to Rolling Stone, Digger, Nation Review, Ear for Music and Metro, all of which which covered the years 1971 to 1981. In recent years has contributed to the Toorak Times.
He co-wrote the tracks “Primal Park” recorded by Mondo Rock, “Whose Gonna Love You Tonight” recorded by Ross Wilson and “I Might Be A Punk” recorded by Norman Gunston.
Along with his close friend Keith Glass, he opened up Melbourne’s first import record shop – Archie and Jugheads which was a runaway success. It was the first Import Record Shop in Australia, opening 31st March 1971.
It broke the back of the record company monopoly and "got the music to the people”. It closed in 1978. However David remained in music retail for some time later working the Virgin Megastore in Bourke street, Blockbuster Music, Readings, Discurio, Batman's and his own record shops, Subterranean Records in the early 1980's and Dr. Pepper's Jazz Junction which was located in the Port Phillip Arcade until it closed in the late 1990's.
Images: Archie N Jugheads Record Store (left) with David N Pepperell & Keith Glass / 'The Union' band photo (right)
However working in stores and the success he was having as a “rock-journalist” and columnist began to take its toll and he began to slow down and now lives a quiter life in a Melbourne South-eastern suburb.
His written published material includes “RAPHAEL ALIAS” published in 1976 by Outback Press and EAST GATE – WEST GATE published by Nosukomo in 1991, Both these books are out of publication by greatly sought after.
In October of 2015 he co-compiled and co-wrote with Colin Talbot the successful “100 Greatest Australian Singles of the '60”.
He is considered as an integral part of the promotion of the Australian music scene particluarly in the 1970's.
Interview with Rob Greaves on Tagg (Part 1) - https://tagg.com.au/listen-to-older-voices-david-pepperell-part-1/
Interview with Rob Greaves on Tagg (Part 3) - https://tagg.com.au/listen-to-older-voices-david-dr-pepper-pepperell-part-3/
Booktopia link to 100 Greatest Australian Singles of the 60's book - https://www.booktopia.com.au/100-greatest-australian-singles-of-the-60s-david-n-pepperell/prod9781922129529.html
David N Pepperell - Personal Member Profile on Music Industrapedia
Parent Category Page Links: Music Industry People - Australia
Please contribute any writings or images to this page if you have more information or history to share with the Music Industrapedia Community on DAVID N. PEPPERELL / DOCTOR PEPPER. Please visit our Contributions page for details
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Finally, a Win
For the first time in a very long while, I had to worry about how I was going to get to see a Notre Dame game. When the Irish are it home, it's no problem; they're always on NBC. Their road games are usually televised on ABC or ESPN, but they are also usually playing decent football. Since they were 0-5 and playing UCLA in the Rose Bowl, the game was only being telecast to the west coast and South Bend. Fortunately, the Internet stepped in and saved the day. I was able to watch the game on ESPN360.com. For streaming video is was surprisingly good quality and there were little to no issues with the feed. I think it may have skipped once or twice, but never during a play so I didn't miss a thing - even the same crappy commercials over and over.
Luckily, I was distracted enough with just figuring out how to watch the game, that I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about how well the Irish were going to play. UCLA was a 21 point favorite and the Bruins' players were trash-talking all week about how they were going to destroy the Irish. I didn't really have much hope that Notre Dame would be able to do much to keep that from happening.
The offense came out and struggled once again, but the defense looked fired up and was making the UCLA offense look a lot like ours. At halftime the Irish trailed 6-3 but they had knocked out UCLA's quarterback leaving them with a walk-on taking the snaps. In the second half, the defense stepped it up a notch and forced about 55 turnovers - Maurice Crum was personally responsible for 50 of those. The Irish scored 17 points in the third quarter - one touchdown scored by the defense, the other set up by an interception deep in UCLA territory - and put away the Bruins for good. In the fourth quarter the offense went into clock-killing mode and pretty much ran the ball on every play. Unfortunately, this didn't result in much yardage but the Irish never turned the ball over and just played a field position game to hang on.
Final score Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6.
All I have to say is: 'Bout damn time! We knew going into this season that the Irish had a brutal opening schedule (Georgia Tech, at Michigan, at Penn St.) and would probably start out with more losses than wins, but everyone pointed to the Michigan State and Purdue games as ones we could win before we got past USC on October 20th. When we didn't win those, 0-8 became a distinct possibility. I even began to discuss the possibility of losing to one (or more) of the last four teams on our schedule (Navy, Air Force, Duke, at Stanford). The season looked to be worse than we could have possibly imagined. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. A very, very dim light, but it's there. The Irish managed to pull together to win a game they weren't supposed to and gain a little confidence in the process. I'm not saying that the Irish have saved their season - because there's nothing to be saved at this point - but I do believe this is a sign that this team still has life and can rack up a few more wins before the season is over.
Next week the Irish face #4 Boston College in South Bend, followed by #10 (really?!) USC. The last time Notre Dame was #1, BC managed to stroll into South Bend and knock the Irish off of their perch. Maybe the Irish can return the favor on Saturday. USC just got beat at home by Stanford (suddenly that final game doesn't look so easy) and definitely has it's flaws. Plus, the last time a heavily favored USC team came to Notre Dame, they needed the Bush Push to beat the Irish. Sure, both of these games could turn into three touchdown blowouts but if the breaks go the right way the Irish could keep them close enough to pull out a miracle - especially if the defense is able to play the way they did against UCLA.
Of course, I'm probably just on a high from the win. Or maybe the win just gave me hope. That's all we really have, right?
Labels: football, notre dame
Fart?
Jeff TV
Semi-Random Thoughts on Notre Dame Football
Baseball and Technology
My Other Football Team
5 Years of pH
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Groundbreaking Held for Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute
PITTSBURGH—Officials from the University of Pittsburgh and Sichuan University in China participated in a groundbreaking ceremony on July 2 at the Sichuan University campus in Chengdu to launch construction of a 100,000-square-foot building that will house the Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute, a joint engineering institute to educate undergraduate students and foster collaborative research.
The partnership between Pitt and Sichuan University was established in 2013. Pitt is one of only five U.S. universities to have entered into a large-scale partnership agreement with a Chinese university; the others are Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, New York University, and the University of Michigan. Sichuan University is the premier university in western China, located in Chengdu within the Sichuan Province, and it is consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in China.
With emphases on advanced sustainable manufacturing and educational innovation, the institute will initially offer three undergraduate degree programs: industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and materials science and engineering. Students in the institute will be recruited from the United States, China, and possibly other countries, with the first class in fall 2015 expected to comprise 100 students. Enrollment is projected to grow to a final total of 1,600.
Students will spend the first two years of the program immersed in the Pitt curriculum in China with the option of transferring to the Pittsburgh campus during their third year in the program. Students who transfer to Pitt directly after their sophomore year will earn a bachelor’s degree from both Sichuan University and Pitt, and all students will receive an institute certificate upon completion of their studies. Qualified students will also be able to continue their graduate studies at Pitt.
Faculty from around the world will be recruited to teach at the institute. All faculty members will undergo rigorous training to ensure that they will provide appropriate course content in an active learning format. Pitt faculty interested in a semester or yearlong sabbatical to teach in the institute will be considered. All Pitt-curriculum-based courses will be taught in the English language. Sichuan University will cover not only the institute’s operating costs but also faculty start-up funds.
About the Swanson School of Engineering
The University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering is one of the oldest engineering programs in the United States. The Swanson School has excelled in basic and applied research during the past decade and is at the forefront of 21st-century technology, including energy systems, sustainability, bioengineering, microsystems and nanosystems, computational modeling, and advanced materials development. Approximately 120 faculty members serve more than 3,200 undergraduate and graduate students in six departments, including bioengineering, chemical and petroleum engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, and mechanical engineering and materials science. In 2011, the Swanson School was the top-ranked U.S. school in the percentage of doctoral degrees awarded to women in engineering, according to a ranking based on 2010-11 data from the American Society for Engineering Education.
About Sichuan University
Sichuan University is one of the oldest national universities in China and is ranked No. 8 among Chinese universities in Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities. It is a research university with a wide range of disciplines covering 11 categories: agriculture, economy, education, engineering, history, law, liberal arts, management, medicine, philosophy, and science. There are more than 40,000 undergraduate students, 20,000 master’s degree and PhD candidates, and 1,000 foreign students and students from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Sichuan University has established contacts and cooperative relationships with more than 150 renowned colleges and universities as well as research institutes from 42 countries and regions.
7/22/14/klf/cjhm
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Startseite › Programmes › Das Recht, das Töten zu verweigern › KDV-Alarme (englisch)
EGYPT: Imprisoned pacifist blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad on thirst strike after three weeks of hunger strike
14 Sep 2011 – warresisters
Maikel Nabil SanadMaikel Nabil Sanad, the imprisoned pacifist blogger and conscientious objector sentenced to three years' imprisonment for "insulting the military" on 10 April 2011 (see co-alert, 11 April 2011), escalated his hunger strike to include a thirst strike on 12 September 2011, after three weeks of hunger strike. He began the hunger strike in protest against his continued imprisonment on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 (see co-alert, 24 August 2011). He was moved to solitary confinement on 25 August 2011, but the prison authorities initially refused to transfer him to the prison hospital (see co-alert, 25 August 2011). On 30 August, he also refused to drink, therefore escalating the hunger strike to a hunger and thirst strike. He was transferred to the prison hospital after he fell into coma a few days later, and interrupted his thirst strike after suffering a renal colic after four days.
However, on 12 September, after three weeks of hunger strike, he again began a thirst strike, demanding his immediate release.
In a statement on his hunger strike, he declared that his hunger strike is in protest against the severe injustice he is subjected to, namely his unfair trial in front of a military court, the slow processing of his appeal, and the difference of treatment in the cases of Asmaa Mahfouz and Louie Nagati (who had their charges dropped on 18 August 2011) and in his case.
He demanded that the injustice his is suffering is being investigated by the prosecutor, and also requested to be transferred to the prison hospital. He ends his statement: "I will no longer accept injustice, and if my death is the price I have to pay to put an end to this injustice by the military, I am prepared to pay it."
Maikel Nabil Sanad's sentence is based on article 184 of the Egyptian penal code, which criminalizes "insulting the People’s Assembly, the Shura Council or any State Authority, or the Army or the Courts", and article 102, "spreading false information".
Egypt is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial in article 14, and freedom of opinion and expression in article 19. The interim constitution of Egypt also guarantees the right to freedom of expression, and the freedom of the press.
In his writings, Maikel Nabil Sanad made use of his right to freedom of opinion and expression. This includes his right to criticise the role of the military during and after the revolution. On 21 July 2011, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations passed a new General Comment 34 on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. It writes: "States parties should not prohibit criticism of institutions, such as the army or the administration." (see http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/GC34.pdf). The sentencing and imprisonment of Maikel Nabil Sanad is in clear violation of the interpretation of article 19 ICCPR, as shown in General Comment 34.
Human Rights Watch reports that military courts are currently trying numerous protesters. In an case from 15 August 2011, six protesters faced charges of "insulting the military" before a military tribunal for chanting "antagonistic" slogans about Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the de facto ruler of the country, in addition to charges of assaulting a police officer. The military court sentenced Hassan Bahgat to six months in prison in another case, 3779/2011, for insulting the military in Tahrir square on 6 August 2011.
War Resisters' International is extremely concerned about Maikel Nabil Sanad's health. He is now refusing to eat and to drink. His friends and relatives report that his health is poor, that he is suffering from brain pain and is shaking all the time.
Today, his family was again denied a visit, although Maikel Nabil Sanad had stated that he would accept and welcome visits. Bothayna Kamel, a presidential candidate, accompanied Maikel's brother Mark, and was also denied a visit.
War Resisters' International calls for urgent letters of support to Maikel Nabil Sanad:
El-Marg prison
El-Kalag
El-Khanka
Qalyubeya
War Resisters' International calls for urgent letters of protest to the Egyptian authorities.
Director of Military Judiciary
Major-General Ahmed Abd Allah
Military Judicial Department
Fax: +202 2 402 4468 / +202 2 411 3452 (ask for fax)
Military General Attorney
Major-General Medhat Radwan
+202 2 412 0980 (ask for fax)
Minister of Defence
His Excellency Muhammad Tantawi
mmc@afmic.gov.eg ; mod@afmic.gov.eg
Fax: +20 2 2 5748 822
A protest email can be sent at http://wri-irg.org/node/13703.
War Resisters' International calls on the Egyptian authorities to respond to Maikel Nabil Sanad's hunger and thirst strike by releasing him immediately.
Andreas Speck
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Using Mobile Phone Face Recognition To Diagnose Rare Diseases
In Market Access by Cameron March 26, 2014
Earlier this month Healthcare’s Grand H@ckfest took place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of MIT’s H@cking Medicine initiative. The hackathon gathered entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, and medical professionals together to create innovative and accessible healthcare tech to improve all aspects of healthcare.
At the gathering there was a team dedicated to producing a piece of technology designed to improve the lives of rare disease patients. The rare disease group, lead by The Global Genes Project, were handed the foundations of a new mobile phone app called Recogynz.
Recogynz makes use of advances in face recognition technology developed in the security sector to identify facial characteristics that are often associated with particular rare diseases using a mobile phone camera.
The hackathon represented beginning of the final stages of development Recogynz, whose developer author and geneticist Sharon Moalem, MD, PhD, has sunk seven years of development and a substantial sum of money into the project.
The work of the rare disease group to improve image capture and re-jig the diagnostic algorithms allowed the app to diagnose three rare conditions based entirely upon facial features captured using a mobile phone camera: Marfan’s, Kabuki and Waardenburg syndromes.
Another set of students began to explore the use of the phone’s camera to track eye movements with a view to identifying any underlying neuromuscular diseases.
Whilst the app is far from finished, it represents a future in which it is cheap and simple to diagnose many rare diseases.
One of the greatest barriers to a rare disease diagnosis, which can often take around 7 years, is a lack of knowledge on the front line of health care.
This app can allow patients to be diagnosed without their GPs necessarily having to have been educated about the particular disease. This could dramatically reduce the time to a diagnosis, without overwhelming the small infrastructure provided by rare disease experts across the world.
Right now the tool does only relative facial comparisons… I know it can do so much more and this hackathon will be what we need to take it to the next level—and ideally, arm doctors with crucial knowledge to help patients”Sharon Moalem, MD, PhD
Connect with us on Google.
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The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh
The Blinds is binge-able. It has the same addictive quality that the best TV shows have these days, along with a big cast of characters and a killer premise. I listened to the audio version, but if I’d gone with print I would have snarfed it in a few hours. Love books that don’t feel like a retread of old ground? Well, I can guarantee you you haven’t already read a book like this.
Well, in some ways maybe you have. The Blinds is instantly recognizable as a Western. There’s a jaded lawman, some lowlifes and criminals, a fight to protect territory from outsiders, and several noble sacrifices for the greater good. There are even old-fashioned shootouts. But that’s where the similarities end. The Blinds is an isolated town in Texas where nobody knows their own past. All the residents have had a medical procedure to selectively erase their memories, either because they committed violent crimes or witnessed one. When they arrive in their new home, they each choose a new name from lists of movie stars and vice presidents. Then they settle into life with the other townspeople, never knowing what terrible acts lay behind them and never leaving the Blinds again. The sheriff, Calvin Cooper, likes to say that the gate only opens one way. Once you leave, you’re out for good, and the residents know nothing good is waiting for them out in the real world. The Blinds is safe, a refuge—until people start turning up dead, the first in an apparent suicide and the second in what is obviously not. It’s odd that two people have been shot in quick succession when no one is supposed to have access to a gun.
I love reading about people with secrets in their past, and The Blinds delivers a town full of them. I’d probably recommend the print version over the audio, not just because you’ll be able to get to all the answers faster, but because the male narrator used an affected, breathy voice for the female police officer, and not only was it annoying as hell, it didn’t fit her character at all. He also had an odd habit of shouting all the dialogue—literally raising his voice as if trying to speak to the farthest corner of a crowded room anytime a character was speaking. Despite those irritations, I was absolutely enthralled by The Blinds. I will be surprised if it doesn’t end up on my short list of favorites for the year.
Newer:Southland by Nina RevoyrOlder:Leona: The Die is Cast by Jenny Rogneby
TagsAudiobooks Still Count as Reading, Cops With Chips on Their Shoulders, Don't Cheapen This You Ignorant Slut, Mysterious Deaths, Seeking Atonement
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Alice Temple
A Londoner by birth, Alice Temple has done and been a variety of things in her life. She is notable for having been the first female UK and European BMX champion, was an ’80’s club kid staple alongside Boy George and London’s Blitz Kids, a top fashion model shot by the world’s finest such as Mario Testino and Bruce Weber and of course, an acclaimed musician.
Alice Temple began her music career with collaborator Eg White (Adele, Florence & The Machine, Kylie Minogue) at the age of twenty. Their project, Eg and Alice released only one critically-lauded album of elegant, romantic pop called '24 Years of Hunger' in 1991 (Q Magazine has named the album one of the Best of the 20th Century).
After a short stint in Los Angeles, Alice returned to London. While writing and collaborating with Eg, Alice caught the attention of James Lavelle, one half of trip hop pioneers, UNKLE, an experimental electronic project with DJ Shadow. She was brought in to contribute to UNKLE’s 1998 'Psyence Fiction’ album on Mo Wax which featured contributions from Thom Yorke, Badly Drawn Boy, Richard Ashcroft and Mike D. Alice’s piece for the Top 10 album, "Bloodstain," won her critical acclaim.
She returned to working with Eg, and together they put together her 1999 solo debut 'Hang Over', released on V2.
In 2005, Alice joined forces with actress, writer, musician Lucie Barât to form The Fay Wrays.
2018 sees the long-awaited release of 'The End' via Brooklyn indie, Peace Bisquit. Alice delivers a searing new set of self-produced, soul baring and lyrical indie pop with a venerable, take-no-prisoners bite. For the trainspotters and fans, the album also includes a couple favorite selections from Alice’s previous self-released full length,'Be With You In A Minute' which is long out of print and no longer available.
Of the new album, Alice concedes,”The concept for making 'The End' was simple. Just me in my bedroom writing songs about how I was feeling at the moment. That goes for the style of each song as well. It’s all about moods and feelings.”
Alice Temple’s
Unkle - Bloodstain (feat Alice Temple)
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Green Editions
The Journal of the San Juan Islands
The Golden Rule stops in Friday Harbor
Heather Spaulding
Tue Sep 6th, 2016 5:21pm
In 1958, four Quakers sailed on the boat the Golden Rule into the Marshall Islands’ nuclear testing zone, igniting a global anti-nuclear weapon protest movement. The Quakers spent 60 days in prison, but the world heard the message loud and clear.
“That incident sparked the treaty that banned nuclear testing everywhere except underground,” said Gerry Condon, vice-president of Veterans For Peace.
As part of a month-long tour, the Golden Rule docked at the Port of Friday Harbor last Wednesday. Crew members welcomed guests on board from 10 a.m. -5 p.m., gave the history of the boat, and discussed the mission of Veterans For Peace. Veterans For Peace has become an international organization, with chapters in at least 100 cities, according to Condon. Their mission is to educate others about the high cost of war, to abolish nuclear weapons and war in general. It is made up primarily of Vietnam veterans, but also of veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and most recently, veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
From Friday Harbor, the Golden Rule, captained by islander Terry Lush, visited Victoria B.C. to participate in a boat show. They also made a pit stop on Orcas Island, Sept. 5 and 6, before they headed to Port Townsend. Now they are making their way to their home port of Eureka, Calif.
Since its journey in 1958, the Golden Rule, has passed through many owners’ hands and eventually sunk in Humbolt Bay California after a large storm. Shipyard owner Leroy Zerlang dredged up the Golden Rule in 2010. With two giant holes in its side, the 30 foot sailboat was in rough condition.
“Zerlang was going to buy some whiskey and burn it,” said Michael Gonzales, Veteran for Peace member and permanent Golden Rule crew, who labored five years to restore it, “but decided, fortunately, to wait and look up the boat’s history.”
Veterans For Peace also caught wind that the Golden Rule was in need of repair, and, according to Gonzales, made a deal with Zerlang. The agreement was that if Zerlang provided space for the vessel for one year, Veterans for Peace would restore it. The restoration ended up taking five years, but the Golden Rule is sailing once again.
The nuclear treaty signed by President John F. Kennedy five years after the Quakers Marshall Island protest is known as the Limited Test Ban Treaty and also encouraged nuclear disarmament. Unfortunately, world-wide disarmament has not gotten far. Condon said Russia and the U.S. have thousands of nuclear warheads pointed at each other. These weapons, he explained, are hair- triggered, meaning that if they sense a nuclear weapon has been launched by the opposition, they will have the ability to immediately fire back. As with any technology, there have been glitches and false alarms, but these have so far, have been caught, Condon said. He also went on to add that Banger, Wash., with its eight trident nuclear submarines, is one of the biggest nuclear bases in the country if not the world.
“If something does happen,” Conden said, “the Puget Sound will be the number one target.”
Conden also mentioned that recently, the Obama administration has pushed to modernize U.S. nuclear weapons in a proposal that would cost about one trillion dollars. This, Condon warned, would create more agile and active weapons that are more likely to be used.
“We are in greater danger than ever before of a nuclear war,” said Condon.
The true cost of vacation rentals | Letter
Does it feel to you like those short-term vacation rental properties are…
Banned burn, dead deer, stop sign sliders | Sheriff’s Log
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office responded to the following. June 26…
State ferry Hyak has sailed into retirement
Submitted by Washington State Ferries After nearly 52 years in the Washington…
Sanctuary proposed for captive orcas
Feared by whalers who watched them feed off dead whales they were…
Jul 14th, 2019 by
The Women’s Fund honors women and remembers Joyce Sobel
Submitted by the San Juan Island Community Foundation The Joyce L. Sobel…
© 2019, The Journal of the San Juan Islands and Sound Publishing, Inc.
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Posts Tagged ‘UKIP’
A Brief Thought on Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage, by far the most extreme of the mainstream cheerleaders for Brexit and certainly the political leader most comfortable with brushing shoulders with actual racism and fascism in his utterances, has resigned from the leadership of UKIP, the United Kingdom Independence Party. In UKIP’s moment of triumph, pyrrhic though it may be, Farage has stepped down from the party with which he is synonymous. It’s the latest in a series of resignations and retreats which have claimed the man who called the referendum, David Cameron, the man who led the Conservatives campaigning to Leave, Boris Johnson, and now the man who led the only political party to campaign in its entirety for Leave.
Where will Farage go? With Farage having met with media baron Rupert Murdoch the day before his resignation, speculation has inevitably turned to the possibility that his incredibly high media profile over the past few years (far outstripping anything justified by UKIP’s actual political representation) will now translate into a media job. It would make sense in many ways. Farage is nothing if not intensely egotistical (he’s dramatically stepped down as UKIP leader in the past, only to return to the job within days) and it’s hard to imagine that at this, the moment of his triumph, he would disappear from public life. A media role would let him maintain his profile and do what he loves best – lobbing grenades from the sidelines as Britain’s political establishment tries to sort out the mess (whenever they stop making new messes and get around to actually sorting anything out).
Regardless of what Farage does next – and it is also possible (if a little out of character) that he’ll fade away for a little while to spend more time with his £80,000 MEP salary – he won’t be gone for long. His departure now is a calculated one. Unlike Boris Johnson, who never intended for a Leave victory and whose best-laid plans were thrown into disarray by it (and by Michael Gove stabbing him in the back), Farage likely believed that Leave could win the referendum all along. He’s got a plan, not for Brexit – nobody had a plan for Brexit – but for himself and his future career.
Farage is a rabble-rouser, and he knows that the rabble he has roused is going to stay roused. Brexit isn’t going to deliver what Leave voters want, not least because what many Leave voters actually want is impossible by any means short of a full embrace of fascist authoritarianism. Britain will muddle through somehow – economically and politically damaged, perhaps outside the EU, and perhaps with the UK no longer intact. Migrants will still be there, though. Businesses owned and staffed by non-white people will still be there. EU regulations will mostly still be there. The people who have been left behind by successive waves of neoliberal policymaking over the past 35 years will, if anything, be even worse off than before. Their vote to leave the EU won’t have changed their economic misery or removed the visible manifestations of the immigration which they blame for that misery. Their anger with politics, with governments, with elites and with all of the institutions which make up the British state will only intensify and curdle as they come around to the belief that the politicians have screwed them again. They voted to leave, and the politicians found a mealy-mouthed way to wriggle out of it. The people, the real people, the proper English people, spoke, and all those lying experts and self-serving intellectuals and greedy politicians just found a way to ignore it.
Nigel Farage will be right there to nod, to listen and to focus that outrage, fear and fury – just like he did prior to the referendum. He wants to be out of politics for now, because he doesn’t want to be seen to have anything to do with the stitch-up that’s inevitably coming. In his absence, UKIP will likely fall into a terminal decline. It’s never truly been more than the Nigel Farage Party, with other senior figures like Douglas Carswell and Neil Hamilton having none of his profile, his charisma, or his political nous. It doesn’t matter; UKIP was a vehicle and has served its purpose for now. Farage gets to play the tired, noble statesman who has achieved his purpose, slide out of politics (whether into the media or into temporary obscurity is a moot point) and ready himself to step back in down the line. He’ll be just as outraged as the Leave voters. He worked so hard for this result, to secure the UK’s independence, and those grasping, sleazy politicians in Westminster have undermined it all and ignored the voice of the real English people. He will be the perfect chalice to hold their anger, their frustration and their hate, and they will power him onwards to whatever his next political goal may be.
We’re not done with Nigel Farage. The people currently scorning him for running away from his responsibilities as the UK falls asunder aren’t the people who matter; they’ve never understood or been in thrall to the cult of Farage the Everyman, Farage the Proper Englishman, Farage Who Only Says What Everyone Is Thinking. Those who have believed in him this far won’t see his resignation now as any kind of cowardice or betrayal – hasn’t he earned a rest, after putting it to those smug Eurocrats and Westminster slimeballs for so long? – and will embrace him with open arms and ample spittle-flecked fury when he returns.
Needless to say, it’s not exactly reassuring that the politician who has most openly flirted with fascism is the only one who actually seems to have a game plan…
politics, UK
brexit douglas carswell EU EU referendum european union farage neil hamilton nigel farage uk uk politics UKIP
No Confidence – and not just in Corbyn
Five days after Brexit, the impact of the UK’s vote to leave the EU is becoming clearer. Nowhere is that impact being felt more keenly than at the top of the country’s major political parties. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has quit – declining to trigger the Article 50 negotiations on EU exit, stating that this would be a decision for his successor, and reportedly saying to aides in Number 10, “why should I have to do the hard shit?” For a move being hailed in some quarters as a scheming act of political calculation deserving of a sub-plot on Game of Thrones, it looks remarkably like a surly table-flip from a man who had just lost a very foolish bet. The Conservative party finds itself in disarray. People like George Osbourne and Boris Johnson, whose support for Leave was entirely designed to undermine Cameron and vacate the Prime Minister’s job for himself, have recognised the the land-mine that Cameron chucked underneath the chair as he departed and are backing rapidly away from the top job. Meanwhile, political lightweights barely deserving of the term “mediocrity”, like fatuous NHS hatchet-man Jeremy Hunt, witlessly toss their hats into the ring.
While the Tories were fractured throughout the campaign and now find themselves split more deeply than ever before, Labour backed the Remain campaign with fairly solid party unity. My former MP, serial dissenter Kate Hoey, was one of only a handful of Labour MPs to rebel and support Leave; 99.2% of Labour MPs supported Remain. Given the anger, fear and upset over the Leave vote, the disorganisation of the leaderless and rudderless Conservatives, and the potential for striking strong alliances with strongly pro-remain local parties in Scotland and Northern Ireland, you’d think that Labour would be out there making plenty of hay in the bright sunshine, wouldn’t you?
Well, you’d think that. Instead, most of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet has resigned, and a vote of no confidence in the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been passed by a huge margin. 172 MPs voted no confidence, to 40 who supported Corbyn (13 abstained, and 4 MPs spoiled their ballots, which I hope was a slightly pointless protest and not an indication that Labour has four elected MPs who don’t know how ballot papers work). Corbyn says he won’t resign. There’ll probably be a leadership challenge. Just as the Conservatives find themselves in crisis, Labour has found a way to sink into an even deeper crisis.
Of course they have. We’re talking about Labour, a party riven right down the middle by a deeper divide than Tory Euroskeptics could ever create; the divide between the shiny-faced, PR-groomed New Labour generation, and the frumpy, stubborn and sincere old socialists. The former group are career politicians who, though often possessed of fine qualities and beliefs, fundamentally pursue little other than re-election, and believe fervently in the pursuit of politics through opinion polling, focus groups and post-modern campaign methods. The latter are generally drawn from activist or trade union backgrounds and see their socialist beliefs as a hill worth dying on; hardened by Labour’s years in the electoral wilderness in the 80s and 90s, they regard electoral failure as a price worth paying for staying true to their principles.
Right now, one of the old socialists is in charge of the Labour party for the first time in a generation. Corbyn was voted in by a huge margin by a combination of long-term rank-and-file Labour members and a wave of newcomers shocked by the Conservatives’ 2015 election victory and enthused by Corbyn’s sincere, unpolished approach. The party loves Corbyn – polls of Labour members suggest he’s actually grown in popularity since his landslide election. Labour MPs, on the other hand, hate him. They’re mostly drawn from the ranks of New Labour and remain starry-eyed over the success of the Blair era, thus innately suspicious of the resurrected spectre of 80s and 90s Old Labour – but even among those who aren’t, their immediate concerns and motivations are simple; they want to keep their jobs. They want to be re-elected. To the MPs who make up the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), the principles and policies of the Labour leadership play second fiddle to the leadership’s ability to retain its seats in parliament.
Ever since Corbyn took the helm of the Labour party, he’s struggled to maintain control of the PLP. Some MPs are loyal to him because they genuinely believe in him and his principles. Others are loyal because they respect the position of leader and the decision of the party members. On the other side, some are intrinsically, vehemently opposed to him because they disagree with his principles and positions. In the middle rests the majority of the PLP – who fear that Corbyn can’t win an election, but were willing to hold their peace and give him a shot at the leadership, since the next election wasn’t scheduled until 2020.
It’s now extremely unlikely that the next election will be in 2020. Brexit has upended all political calculations. By far the most likely outcome is a general election before the end of this year. The new Conservative leader will not only face an impossible decision regarding the EU exit trigger, he or she will also be seen to lack a mandate to govern. That will be even more the case if, as is likely, it’s one of the party’s rather less impressive specimens at the helm, with “big beasts” like Boris Johnson, George Osbourne and Theresa May keeping their distance from the poisoned chalice.
When Jeremy Corbyn took over Labour and the centrist / right-leaning sides of the party and the media brayed with horror about his consigning the party to electoral purgatory, I argued that Corbyn’s job was not, for now, to win elections. With five years to the next election, his job was to move the Overton Window of Britain’s political conversation; to shift the range of “acceptable” policies and positions, which has drifted inexorably rightwards since the late 1970s, back towards the centre-left. He needed to make it possible to discuss economic inequality, workers’ rights, trade unions, the social compact and redistributive justice without being automatically labelled a “loony leftie” – so a leader, himself or another, championing those things in 2020 could actually stand to win an election. The only way to do that is to keep discussing those things, to be called a “loony leftie” and far worse so many times that the words lose their meaning and your views start to become not crazy, or wild-eyed, but a regular part of political discourse.
That approach takes time. Labour has run out of time. An election in 2016 could, some argue, see Labour wiped out in northern seats that voted strongly to leave the EU. Even with the Tories crisis-struck and infighting, Labour hasn’t had the time or opportunity required to shunt the national debate to the left; Labour MPs fear for their seats even in the most favourable electoral climate for them in a generation. So they want Corbyn gone; they want someone more traditionally “electable”, more slick in presentation, more willing to listen to focus groups and do what’s needed to win an election today, not to change a national conversation in five years’ time.
They’re not wrong. I believe that Britain’s political debate has been utterly poisoned by a shift to the right that has made voices of fascism and authoritarianism more valid and credible than voices calling for centre-leftist redistribution and justice. I believe that the only way Labour reclaims its heartland districts and the trust of the British working classes is by re-embracing social democracy and being willing to grit its teeth and champion unpopular things like trade unions and workers’ rights, fighting through the scorn until they’re re-established as a pillar of British society. I believe that a leader like Corbyn, for all his failings, could play a vital role in that slow, difficult and necessary process.
I also believe in political realities, though, and the political reality is that Corbyn lacks authority within his own party and has yet to make significant headway on making his arguments sound valid to the electorate. Those plotting against Corbyn are despicable opportunists in many regards, but even while finding their nakedly careerist ambitions contemptible (Hilary Benn, a profoundly unimpressive politician who owes his entire career to the fact that his father was Labour stalwart Tony Benn, is a particularly egregious example) it’s hard to deny that they have a point. Labour going into a 2016 election under Corbyn poses a profound risk not only to the Labour Party and their seats, but to the people they are meant to represent.
Consider; whatever Conservative party emerges from its current mess will almost certainly be more right-wing and illiberal than its current incarnation. It’s unlikely to win many extra seats in the election – it’s more likely to slide backwards, and Labour may even win some seats from them. However, emboldened by Brexit, the even more aggressively far-right UKIP could win several seats, granting the far-right party more MPs from traditional Labour heartlands. The Tories, losing their slim majority, would face another coalition – either with their old partners, the Liberal Democrats, whom Cameron used effectively to hold back the right-wingers in his own party during the last coalition government, or with UKIP. With the right wing in control of the Conservative party, unleashed by Brexit and Cameron’s resignation, they’re unlikely to countenance another coalition with the Lib Dems; a nightmare coalition of a right-leaning Conservative party, the borderline fascist UKIP and the Ulster Unionists seems perhaps the most likely outcome of a Labour stumble in the 2016 General Election.
That would spell catastrophe for the UK as a whole, but even more so for the British working classes whom Labour is tasked, often thanklessly, to represent. The further austerity and erosion of rights for workers, tenants and consumers that would result would be nothing short of obscene; the damage to Britain’s hard-won and fragile social cohesion between diverse ethnic groups would be absolute, and absolutely heart-breaking.
Corbyn was the right leader for Labour when the task was to drag the party, and then the British people, back to firm centre-left ground – when stubbornness and a willingness to shrug off unpopularity were the key requirements for the role. Corbyn hasn’t changed, but the job has. The job now is to mitigate the damage of Brexit and to avoid plunging Britain into an even deeper crisis at the likely impending election. Corbyn isn’t the man for that job. While the disloyalty and scheming of those who have plotted against him from the outset should never be forgotten (we can hope that several of them will be de-selected by their local parties in retribution), many of the 172 who voted against him this week have done so out of genuine fear not just for their own jobs but for the future of the UK. Corbyn is the right man, but this is the wrong time.
Sadly, the very stubbornness that made him perfect for the job of changing the Labour party is now preventing him from doing the decent thing and stepping down. Labour’s best hope is a quick challenge, a decent new leader (Angela Eagle wouldn’t be a bad choice, all things considered) and a rapid healing process allowing them to get this behind them before the Conservatives get their house sufficiently in order to consider a general election. The Corbyn “project” will have to be paused – but the alternative is so very much worse.
Angela Eagle Boris Johnson brexit conservatives corbyn david cameron EU referendum jeremy corbyn Jeremy Hunt labour labour party Theresa May tories UKIP
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Plant fire occludes air near El Paso, Texas
A recycling plant in Montana Vista, Texas, burned the morning of Oct. 10, emanating thick black smoke that hung over the community.
Authorities were alerted at 8:27 a.m. of a fire at Chico's Recycling, about 18 miles east of El Paso. Responders from all fire departments in the county were asked to respond to the blaze, the El Paso Times reported. Upon arrival, the facility was completely engulfed in flames.
"Good thing that nobody was working yet," said Adalberto Pong, an employee at a nearby plant. "Everything was starting to burn real fast, so I just told him to leave everything. We just backed away before the Fire Department came."
With the closest fire hydrant being a half mile away, fire suppression had to be handled with water supplied by tankers. Firefighters from San Elizario, Clint, Fabens, Socorro, Montana Vista and El Paso work to put out the blaze, which, by nighttime, was still flaring up due to hot spots. El Paso sheriff Deputy Angelica Becarra said the facility looked to be "a total loss."
It is unknown what initially caused the fire, but propane tanks on the property may have supplied fuel. Along with electronics and piles of scrap metal, tires burned in the blaze, producing heavy black smoke. The smoke was so voluminous that officials worried nearby homes would experience damage. About 15 nearby residents were evacuated, Fox affiliate reported.
"It's bad. The fire is everywhere, the smoke is everywhere, and it's bad for the animals, too," said Jazmine Jean, a nearby resident. Although the plant is located in a sparsely populated section of town, some of Jean's neighbors and family members were evacuated.
Reports indicated that officials waited for hot spots to clear before investigating the cause of the blaze. Despite the concern, no smoke damage to nearby homes was reported.
← West, Texas fertilizer plant fined, but shutdown stalls investigation
Owner discovers hazelnut processing plant set ablaze →
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150 Years of SAIC
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
150 Years of Artists, Designers, and Scholars
Cruel Nature
SAIC faculty Jim Trainor often animates the dark side of the animal kingdom.
SAIC Associate Professor Jim Trainor (Film, Video, New Media, and Animation) talks about his work as an animator and his fascination with the somewhat disturbing, unharmonious animal kingdom. He also reveals a behind-the-scenes look into his new live-action, feature-length film, The Pink Egg.
More Artists, Designers, and Scholars
fvnma
The Cannes Winner
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (MFA 1998, HON 2011) is leading a new generation of Thai filmmakers.
150th Anniversary Celebration
Mitchell Lecture Series
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world's most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design, as well as access to world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC's undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O'Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, and LeRoy Neiman. Learn more at saic.edu.
36 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, IL, 60603
© 2015 School of the Art Institute of Chicago
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South African High Commission - Lilongwe, Malawi
The South African High Commission in Lilongwe have just moved into their new building. Construction took just under 2.5 years.
As an embassy/chancery, the building had to take into account the high security necessary. At the same time as a consulate, it had to interact with the general public. This was achieved through the use of privacy thresholds. As one goes deeper into the building, the privacy increases. The earlier parts of the building try to be as 'friendly' as possible as they interact with the general public.
The intention was also to embrace and be a positive addition to the Lilongwe environment. The roof overhangs and deep recessed fit in with the climate. The use of a similar local facebrick blends it in as a local building, rather than as a foreign intrusion. With it being lit up from the inside, the building gives something to the cityscape at night.
architectureZA
Affirmative Action and BEE Status
Norman Eaton Award
© 2019 Aziz Tayob Architects
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Gender bias in autism
Researchers uncover a genetic glitch that affects boys, but not girls
TORONTO – Boys and girls are not affected equally when it comes to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – it affects four times more males than females. In their search to find genes linked to ASD, a team of international researchers led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and McMaster University have uncovered a key genetic clue to explaining the gender bias. The study is published in the April 12 advance online edition of The American Journal of Human Genetics.
The researchers analyzed the genes of more than 1,600 people with ASD. The analysis pointed to an alteration in the SHANK1 gene. The SHANK gene family is coded for proteins involved in the formation and function of neural synapses in the brain. SHANK2 and SHANK3 genes have previously been linked to ASD and intellectual disability.
In this study, investigators also identified six people from the same family who carried the SHANK1 mutation. The most significant finding was that only the four males with the genetic change had ASD, while the female carriers did not. Another male from a different family also had a SHANK1 mutation and ASD.
“Now we have more insight as to why males could be more susceptible to ASD than females,” says Dr. Stephen Scherer, Senior Scientist and Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics at SickKids and the McLaughlin Centre at the University of Toronto. “This study indicates that there may be a protective factor preventing these female carriers from developing ASD.”
Scherer says that if researchers can determine why SHANK1 females are being protected from ASD, then this “protective factor may one day be used to prevent or treat the disorder.”
Dr. Peter Szatmari at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University is the co-author of the study.
Funding was provided by the University of Toronto McLaughlin Centre, NeuroDevNet, Genome Canada/Ontario Genomics Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, Autism Speaks and SickKids Foundation.
Scherer holds the GlaxoSmithKline-CIHR Pathfinder Chair in Genetics and Genomics at the University of Toronto and SickKids.
About The Hospital for Sick Children
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is recognized as one of the world’s foremost paediatric health-care institutions and is Canada’s leading centre dedicated to advancing children’s health through the integration of patient care, research and education. Founded in 1875 and affiliated with the University of Toronto, SickKids is one of Canada’s most research-intensive hospitals and has generated discoveries that have helped children globally. Its mission is to provide the best in complex and specialized family-centred care; pioneer scientific and clinical advancements; share expertise; foster an academic environment that nurtures health-care professionals; and champion an accessible, comprehensive and sustainable child health system. SickKids is proud of its vision for Healthier Children. A Better World. For more information, please visit www.sickkids.ca.
About SickKids Centre for Research and Learning
The SickKids Centre for Research and Learning will bring together researchers from different scientific disciplines and a variety of clinical perspectives, to accelerate discoveries, new knowledge and their application to child health — a different concept from traditional research building designs. The facility will physically connect SickKids science, discovery and learning activities to its clinical operations. Designed by award-winning architects Diamond + Schmitt Inc. and HDR Inc. with a goal to achieve LEED® Gold Certification for sustainable design, the Centre will create an architectural landmark as the eastern gateway to Toronto’s Discovery District. The SickKids Centre for Research and Learning is funded by a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Government of Ontario, philanthropist Peter Gilgan and community support for the ongoing fundraising campaign. For more information, please visit www.sickkidsfoundation.com/bepartofit.
Matet Nebres
The Hospital for Sick Children
email: matet.nebres@sickkids.ca
Caitlin McNamee-Lamb
email: caitlin.mcnamee-lamb@sickkids.ca
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Senator EGGLESTON (Western Australia) (15:12): Senator Cameron says that we do not believe in climate change. That is quite wrong, Senator Cameron. I came from the south‐west of Western Australia, and I assure you that I believe in climate change. There has been a great decline in rainfall over the last 20 years, but climate change has been going on over the millions of years of the earth's history. The ocean has risen and fallen, there was once a land bridge to Indonesia and I went to Barrow Island last year where they can identify seven different sea levels over the last couple of thousand years. So climate change is real, but the argument is about what has caused it. For example, there are changes in the earth's orbit, sunspots and so on.
(Western Australia) (15:12): Senator Cameron says that we do not believe in climate change. That is quite wrong, Senator Cameron. I came from the south‐west of Western Australia, and I assure you that I believe in climate change. There has been a great decline in rainfall over the last 20 years, but climate change has been going on over the millions of years of the earth's history. The ocean has risen and fallen, there was once a land bridge to Indonesia and I went to Barrow Island last year where they can identify seven different sea levels over the last couple of thousand years. So climate change is real, but the argument is about what has caused it. For example, there are changes in the earth's orbit, sunspots and so on.
It is no doubt true that over the last few centuries there has been an increase in carbon levels, and we on this side do not in any way disagree with the idea of reducing pollution and making the earth a cleaner, greener place. I heard Senator Singh this morning telling us that there was no doubt that the science was settled, but it is a funny thing: I read a lot of articles by scientists who do not agree with the IPCC, and there is a lot of evidence that a lot of their findings were based on pretty shonky assumptions.
The ALP in the Senate this afternoon are crowing about the benefits that this carbon tax will produce. I can understand their euphoria, but it may be just a little premature because the passage of this bill in no way changes the validity of the facts, of which the coalition has been warning the Senate, about the adverse effects that this carbon tax might bring. The ALP seems to be so blinded by their euphoria that they have given no serious consideration to the facts which have been raised by the coalition about the consequences of this tax. I thought I might go through a few of them now.
There is no doubt at all that a carbon tax will impose an extra cost across the board on the Australian economy and on consumers. In fact it is undisputed that Australians, who will pay $9 billion in carbon tax each year, will see their electricity prices go up and up. There will be a 10 per cent increase in electricity bills across the board in the first year alone, a nine per cent increase in gas bills in the first year alone, higher marginal tax rates for low‐ and middle‐income earners and a $4.3 billion hit on the budget bottom line. Let us look at industry. A carbon tax will impose extra burdens on Australian industry. There is no doubt about it: it will make Australian industry less competitive.
Our competitors around the world do not have to pay carbon taxes, because none of our major trade competitors have carbon taxes. As far as the iron ore industry goes, we are already seeing investment go to West Africa. Chinese and Australian industry is going to new mines in West Africa. One of the more naive aspects of the current government is that they do not seem to understand that the mining industry is an international industry and the miners will go to the places where the costs are lowest—and naturally they look at their bottom line. If in Australia we are going to have a carbon tax and soon a mining tax, they will not stay here; they will go to the places where the costs are lower.
The Minerals Council of Australia last year said that the carbon tax will cost some 23,000 jobs plus secondary jobs in local businesses. That is a lot of jobs. I wonder how those people will feel about the ALP's actions today when there is no pay cheque to take home. We are told a carbon tax will progress to an emissions trading scheme in 2015. But, let us face it: none of our major trading partners have emissions trading schemes. The Chinese do not; nor do the South Koreans, the Japanese or the United States. We are going to set up this enormous scheme in 2015 and there will be no one to trade with. It will be the poor old Australian taxpayers who will have to bear the burden of the cost of that. I wonder if you will rue what you have done— (Time expired)
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July 9, 2018 in Destinations, Europe by Sunny Jansen
What to see and do in Venice, Italy
Wandering through Venice, you will see that this former trade republic had its gaze on the east. You feel the proximity of the sea and the presence of Arab culture. Herbs and precious materials, but also slaves came to Venice through Constantinople and Alexandria, as did the Byzantine architecture. No city in Central Europe is influenced by the Orient as Venice. For more than a thousand years, Venice stood as a powerful maritime power, until Napoleon’s troops put an end to the independence. Now it is a city full of dragons, winged lions and magical sea creatures, which still breathes its glorious past. The city of canals is a magical place floating somewhere between past and present, between dream and reality.
The current basilica is the third church on this site. It dates back to around 1060. The basilica was built to provide a last resting place for the remains of St. Mark, who had been robbed from Alexandria in 828. The mosaics in this basilica tell like a comic strip how the Venetians stole the relics of the city pattern of Alexandria, a story full of ruse and deception, and brought them to Venice. This action provided Venice the awe of competing maritime powers. The nearby Campanile of San Marco served as a lighthouse, landmark and public address system. Executions, sessions of the senate and church services were announced here.
This Doge’s Palace is located on San Marco square. For centuries it was the home of the leader of Venice and the power center of the city. The facade is beautiful and the rooms are richly decorated. The Doge’s Palace and the prison were connected by the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri). Casanova and Galileo Galilei were once locked up here.
Canal Grande
Nothing is more fun than stepping into the vaporetto on arrival and making an exploration boat tour on the Canal Grande. The canal is between 30 and 70 meters wide and approximately 5 meters deep. Originally it is the course of an old river, possibly a branch of the Brenta, which swung between the swampy islands on which Venice was later built. Since the Middle Ages it is the central waterway of the city. There are many palaces along the Grand Canal, such as the Palace Ca’Dario, a cursed palace. The Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute is the most spectacular church on the canal. There are four bridges over the Grand Canal, with the Rialto Bridge as a major draw.
Campaniles
Venice has several bell towers that you can climb. The campanile of San Marco square is always very busy. It is better to go to the campanile of San Giorgo Maggiore. Here it is quieter and more important; the view is even more beautiful. You will see the city lying in the lagoon and the elongated lidos (beach walls) that separate the lagoon from the open sea. The city is at your feet with a map like a fish.
Rialto Bridge
Venice has 435 bridges that connect the 116 islands. That is not so much: Amsterdam has 1231 bridges, Berlin 1700 and Hamburg even 2500. Still, somehow Venice feels like nothing but bridges. The bridge you really must visit is the Rialto Bridge. This bridge and the Grand Canal are Venices landmarks. The view on the bridge is best from the water. Another of Venice great bridges to discover is the Bridge of Sighs, an enclosed bridge made of white limestone.
You have to go to Burano, an island full of colored houses in bright neon. Burano is also known for its lace. There are many lace makers still active. There is a wonderful legend on this side. A siren tried to seduce a fisherman. He did not follow her to the depths of the sea and out of anger she gave him a whip with her tail. The foaming seawater solidified and became a beautiful bridal veil that the fisherman gave to his fiancée. The other Burano women also wanted such a veil, and since that time, lace dressers are trying to outdo the bridal veil of the siren.
Murano is usually described as an island in the Lagoon of Venice, but like Venice itself it is a collection of islands, connected by bridges. Murano is located about 1.5 kilometers north of Venice. It is famous for its glassware. In 1291, all glass blowers from Venice were forced to move to Murano because of the fire risk. Even today, glass is still the most important industry on Murano.
Dead island San Michele
The island of San Michele is the cemetery of Venice. This dead island has been given the cemetery status by order of Napoleon. Under his regime, the inhabitants of Venice were now to be buried outside the city, and this island was most suitable for it. Now it is a true, but macabre open-air museum.
Galleria dell’Academia
The Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice offers an extensive collection of Venetian and Italian paintings, starring Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, Titian, Canaletto, Veronese and Da Vinci. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It used to be the art academy, it was not until later that the doors also opened to the general public. The collections as well as the building are worth a visit.
Ride a gondola
Riding a gondola is very expensive (80 euro for 40 minutes), but there is a more affordable alternative. You can also take the traghetto over the Canale Grande. This is a gondola that is used to carry passengers from one side of the canal to another. It is a short and functional ride, but it only costs 2 euros per transfer. And you’ve been in a gondola anyway.
Meander the winding streets of Venice
Getting lost is often the best adventure of all and nowhere is that more true than in Venice!
This is the best tip I can give for Venice: take your time to walk around. Get lost in all the small alleys and let the city lead you. This way you will encounter the most beautiful places. Just walk, wander and cool down with gelato every now and then. My favorite area to wander is Dorsoduro. It’s the highest land area in the city but more importantly, it’s quiet there and it’s a gorgeous area to walk around and get lost in!
Tags: Basilica di San Marco, Bridge of Sighs, Burano, Canal Grande, Dead island San Michele, Europe, Galleria dell’Academia, gondola, Italy, Murano, Palazzo Ducale, Ponte dei Sospiri, Rialto Bridge, San Giorgo Maggiore, Venice
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Venice city by the sea →
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Arabic Streets Signs In Dearborn, MI.
Indicates Islamic Takeover
Last week the Islamic City council voted to install Sharia Law.
See articles below.
The Lessons of Lexington
April 19, 2015 Craig Seibert
Today, April 19th, is the 240th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. Once known as Patriot’s Day, this day has been viewed as the commencement of the American War forIndependence. It is also the day that produced “the shot that was heard ‘round the world”. Paul Revere galloped his midnight ride late in the evening of April 18th. Yet, there is much about this day that has not been taught for over 100 years.
Above all, keep in mind that the battle is not yet over. Not a day passes without the struggle for liberty beginning anew. The guns of Lexington resound today as loudly as they did 240 years ago.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/04/the_lessons_of_lexington_.html
Watch Video.
American Veteran Michelle Manhart Picks Up US Flag from Desecration at Georgia University – Gets Arrested at Valdosta State University.
“This first picture is what was going on at Valdosta “State” University for 3 days…The campus refused to do anything about it … So this woman decided to get the flag and give it the respect it deserved…She just wanted to remove it and dispose of it properly…The American flag represents our Freedom why would you want to walk on that??? Please repost as much as possible make this go viral people need to see the truth…I wonder if “Donors” of VSU are ok with this blatant disrespect of the flag.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zJHdeMv4Kc
Islamic Jihad in America
http://i0.wp.com/www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/home-depot-sensitivity-training-muslims-detroit-michigan-islam.jpg?resize=350%2C200
Zero Assimilation in Dearborn, MI. Islamic takeover of town.
Arabic Streets Signs In American City Indicates Islamic Takeover
How would you feel if you drove into a town here in the United States and found that many of the street signs were in Arabic only with no English wording? Then you look around and discover that many of the signs on businesses were also in Arabic.
Not possible you say? Think again! Welcome to Dearborn, Michigan.
Steve Tarani, author and speaker recounts what he saw when he rode with a member of the Detroit Metro SWAT Police as they drove around Detroit and into Dearborn:
“The street signs suddenly went from English to Arabic. There wasn’t a single English word on any shop or any street sign. And in fact, these little yellow signs were posted all along the edges. Jeremy said to me, ‘this is it. We don’t go past this line.’ And I said to Jeremy, ‘what do you mean? You guys are Detroit Metro. You’re the SWAT team. You can go anywhere you want. What if you get a call over there?’ He said ‘this is it, it’s hazardous for our team if we go past this line.’”
http://libertyalliance.com/arabic-streets-signs-in-american-city-indicates-islamic-takeover/
Repeat from posting Last Week.
Dearborn , MI implements Sharia law.
In a surprise weekend vote, the city council of Dearborn, Michigan voted 4-3 to become the first US city to officially implement all aspects of Sharia Law.
http://nationalreport.net/city-michigan-first-fully-implement-sharia-law/
Navy SEAL Benjamin Smith says Obama is a Muslim & Drops Koran Quran on Ground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eMcy_AORrQ
The American Muslim Brotherhood President – Barack Hussein Obama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1XZeuugMt0
New Jersey: Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” throws lit firecrackers at synagogue
APRIL 14, 2015 1:24 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/04/new-jersey-muslim-screaming-allahu-akbar-throws-lit-firecrackers-at-synagogue?
A leading national security advisor and Islamic law expert explains how and why America is losing to jihadists
Major Stephen Coughlin (Ret.), a decorated intelligence officer known as the Pentagon’s leading expert on Islamic law has authored a forthcoming book, “Catastrophic Failure:BlindfoldingAmerica in the Face of the Jihad,” that serves as a damning indictment of America’s national security establishment in the face of the global jihad, and provides a chilling message to the American people.
http://counterjihadreport.com/2015/04/13/listen-a-leading-national-security-advisor-and-islamic-law-expert-explains-how-and-why-america-is-losing-to-jihadists/
Christians Are Being Systematically Purged From The U.S. Military
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/04/christians-are-being-systematically-purged-from-the-u-s-military/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute postpones ‘American Sniper’ showing after Muslim outcry
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/13/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute-postpones-america/
Florida college (Barry University) suspends student for exposing their radical islamic support.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/07/florida-college-suspends-student-for-exposing-their-radical-islamic-support/
Shoebat Exposes Hillary’s Clinton Foundation And How It Is Mired In Muslim Brotherhood Connections; Washington Post Up In Arms And Fails To Refute It
Repeat: Exposes Hillary’s Clinton Foundation And How It Is Mired In Muslim Brotherhood Connections;
America was was about the POTUS Islamic connections and they voted for him twice. America is now being warned about Hillary’s Muslim Brotherhood connections.
by Shoebat Foundation on March 2, 2015
http://shoebat.com/2015/03/02/shoebat-exposes-hillarys-clinton-foundation-and-how-it-is-mired-in-muslim-brotherhood-connections-washington-post-up-in-arms-and-fails-to-refute-it/
Islamic Worldwide Jihad
Isis in Afghanistan: Group claims responsibility for Jalalabad suicide bombing that killed 35
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-in-afghanistan-group-claims-responsibility-for-jalalabad-suicide-bombing-that-killed-30-10186561.html
Thousands of Iraqis flee as Islamic State makes gains in Sunni heartland
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/thousands-of-iraqis-flee-as-islamic-state-makes-gains-in-sunni-heartland/2015/04/17/b143d9aa-e44d-11e4-ae0f-f8c46aa8c3a4_story.html
U.S. Southern Border Still unsecured and dangerous
Shocking images from cameras on Texas-Mexico border capture steady stream of illegal immigrants sneaking into the United States with packages of drugs and guns
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3042805/Shocking-images-cameras-Texas-Mexico-border-capture-steady-stream-illegal-immigrants-sneaking-United-States-packages-drugs-guns.html
Obscure Immigration Program Hurts U.S. Residents — Both Young and Old
Makes it much cheaper to hire a foreigner than an equally qualified American.
http://cis.org/north/obscure-immigration-program-hurts-us-residents-both-young-and-old
Rhetoric based on video of shooting before it has been parsed frame by frame which reveal the new info on the cop getting tasered.
White police officer shoots unarmed black man in the back 8 times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4f45msfgpM
Video released showing Michael Slager tasing man during 2014 stop
Officer Slager tasers motorist a year ago.
http://www.wistv.com/story/28789384/man-files-lawsuit-against-michael-slager-for-excessive-force-in-2014-traffic-stop
*Update* Game Changer OR Paradigm Shift ? – Walter Scott Shooting: Enhanced Video Shows Officer Slager With Taser Darts…
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/04/12/game-changer-or-paradigm-shift-walter-scott-shooting-enhanced-video-shows-officer-slager-with-taser-darts/
Walk and see Christian influence in DC
http://hawthornephoto.com/walk.htm
Student’s MOTHER leaves teacher unconscious in school hall after ‘kicking and strangling’ her to the ground – as other kids piled in
Attack occurred Wednesday at AlvertaB.GraySchultzMiddle School inHempstead,New York
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3043038/Teacher-left-unconscious-school-hallway-parent-34-14-year-old-niece-strangled-punched-kicked-ground.html
Spartanburg update: Elected officials want the facts on resettlement ‘plan’
Posted by Ann Corcoran on April 19, 2015
Elected officials at the state and local level are doing exactly what they should do—gather the facts, present them to the public and then get a consensus of the community if the community wants to encourage the resettlement of third worlders to their town.
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/spartanburg-update-elected-officials-want-the-facts-on-resettlement-plan/
Why Jihad Watch?
Why Jihad Watch? Because non-Muslims in the West, as well as in India, China, Russia, and the world over, are facing a concerted effort by Islamic jihadists, the motives and goals of whom are largely ignored by the Western media, to destroy their societies and impose Islamic law upon them — and to commit violence to that end even while their overall goal remains out of reach. That effort goes under the general rubric of jihad.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/why-jihad-watch
Free Clint Lorance
Clint has been sentenced to 20 years confinement, forfeiture of all pay, and dismissal from the Army. We are currently working on the appeal for Clint.
https://www.facebook.com/freeclintlorance
The Case against Clint Lorance
In July 2012, while serving as a Rifle Platoon leader in a remote sector of Kandahar Province Afghanistan, First Lieutenant Clint Lorance’s platoon embarked on what was seemingly a normal combat patrol. Clint’s patrol, consisting of 16 US Infantrymen, 5 Afghan National Army Soldiers, and 1 US Interpreter, left their Strong Point early in the morning on July 02, 2012 to a neighboring village. The platoon knew this village all too well, as only days before, one of their brothers, a US Soldier, had been shot in the neck in this very village.
http://www.freeclintlorance.com/case.html
Quote from Sun Tzu
“Once you let the enemy into your country it is very hard to get them out.”
By Sun Tzu
http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=sun%20tzu%20art%20of%20war
Call your representatives in Congress and tell them to stop the Refugee Resettlement program for Muslims
Find and contact your Senator and House Representative
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
Government Agencies and Elected Officials
Find contact information for federal, state, local, or tribal governments and elected officials.
http://www.usa.gov/Agencies.shtml
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I
can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will
not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do,
I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God,
I will do.” ~ Edward Everett Hale
Ron Bass
Follow the UPA on
http://twitter.com/ronbassUPA
www.facebook.com/UPA.RonBass
Subscribe to the UPA Report
http://eepurl.com/Mfp3X
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(423) 989-8000 (423) 989-8402 info@upm-inc.com
About UPM
Commercial Manufacturing
UPM Leadership Team
John M. Gregory
Chairman and CEO of Gregory Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc.
Serving as Chairman and CEO for Gregory Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc., John M. Gregory is a pioneer in specialty pharmaceuticals. In 2002, John received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, honored as the winner in the Health Sciences category. After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in pharmacy, John and his wife, Joan, moved to Bastian, Virginia, where he opened the town’s first retail pharmacy. Seeing an opportunity to expand, in 1984 John co-founded General Injectables and Vaccines (GIV), a company that supplied injectables and vaccine products directly to physicians’ offices. As president and CEO, John turned GIV into a successful enterprise with 550 employees and annual revenues exceeding $150 million annually. With a small initial investment in their pockets and a lot of debt on their shoulders, John and his brothers purchased a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Bristol, Tennessee, in 1993. Under John’s leadership as chairman and CEO from 1993-2001, King Pharmaceuticals grew from a 90-employee family business to an S&P 500 Index company on the New York Stock Exchange with revenues exceeding $1 billion.
James E. Gregory
James E. Gregory served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of UPM from 2004 to 2007. After retiring in January, 2008, he was reappointed to this position in October, 2009. Gregory previously worked for King Pharmaceuticals from 1995 to 2000 as Executive Vice President and General Manager of King’s Bristol, Tennessee manufacturing facility. He served in various consulting capacities at King from 2000 to 2003 and served on the Board of Directors in 2002 and 2003. Gregory served from 1982 to 1995 as a senior administrator in the court systems of Phoenix, Arizona and Washington, D.C. He was deputy executive officer in charge of business operations of the District of Columbia Court System from 1990 to 1995. Gregory has a B. A. from the University of Maryland and a masters in public administration from American University.
Chris Curtin
Mr. Curtin serves as UPM’s Chief Operating Officer. He has 40 years of industry experience in both domestic and international markets related to Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Pharmaceutical Technology and Engineering. Mr. Curtin has held executive management positions at Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert, King Pharmaceuticals, Graceway Pharmaceuticals, Rockward Pharmaceutical Consultants, Actient Pharmaceuticals and mostly recently Lynwood Pharmaceuticals. He has developed and installed quality systems as well as managed and remediated a consent decree. He has overseen the design, construction and validation of multiple pharmaceutical facilities and utility systems covering all dosage forms both in the US and OUS. While at Parke Davis/Warner Lambert he held VP positions for Sterile Operations in areas of Quality, Manufacturing and Technical Services. While serving King Pharmaceuticals as Executive Vice President Quality Operations, he was responsible for the Quality Operations of five US based manufacturing sites covering all dosage forms. At Graceway Pharmaceuticals as Executive Vice President Technical Operations , Mr. Curtin was responsible for all Quality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and Engineering Operations for US, Canada and Mexico. This included oversight of 7 CMO’s producing sterile, solid and semi-solid dosage forms at US and OUS sites. Serving as Executive Vice President Technical Operations for Rockward Pharmaceutical Consulting he advised private equity firms on potential Pharma Acquisitions and transactions. He also served as Vice President of Quality for Actient Pharma and in this role he developed and established quality systems for the company and its products. While at Lynwood Pharma he held position of Executive Vice President, Technical Operations and was responsible quality and manufacturing systems and strategies for implementing the plans for development of multiple ANDA’s for solid and semi solid products. Mr. Curtin has spoken both domestically and internationally on topics of validation and qualification, design of HVAC systems, validation strategy for vaccine products, environmental monitoring and sterilization processes.
Patrick D. Hatem
Vice President, Manufacturing
Mr. Hatem serves as UPM’s Vice President of Manufacturing. He brings 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience with perspective as both a contract provider and contract grantor. He has built a strong technical and compliance background having worked in Product Development, Analytical Development, Quality Control, Validation, Technical Services, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. His pharmaceutical career started in 1991 supporting the development of ANDA products at Roxane Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio. He then grew into Quality roles at ICN Pharmaceuticals supporting the manufacture and supply of ICN products worldwide. In 1998 he moved into the contract services business at AAI in Wilmington, North Carolina holding roles of increasing responsibility from providing contract validation services to contract manufacturing. Prior to joining UPM Mr. Hatem directed Manufacturing and Supply Chain for Osmotica Pharmaceutical to support and direct the successful launch of the company’s NDA and ANDA products for North American, South American, European and Asian marketing partners for both domestic and foreign markets. Mr. Hatem holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Ohio Dominican College.
Dan Rutledge
Vice President of Quality Assuarance
Mr. Rutledge serves as UPM’s Vice President of Quality Assurance. He has 39 years of industry experience related to Bench Chemistry, Quality Control Management, Quality Assurance Management, Pharmaceutical Technology Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Validation. He has experience with sterile, solid dosage, liquid, cream and ointment products. Beginning in 1977 he held various Quality Control roles as a Bench Chemist, Analytical Development Chemist and as Vice President of Quality Control for King Pharmaceuticals sterile facility in Rochester, Michigan. Since 2001 he has held various executive management positions at Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert, King Pharmaceuticals, Graceway Pharmaceuticals, Actient Pharmaceuticals, Rockward Pharmaceutical Consultants and Lynwood Pharmaceuticals. Within these executive management roles he was directly responsible for implementing and managing all key pharmaceutical quality systems for Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Pharmaceutical Technology. He has 20 years of experience in CMO quality systems that support contract customers, as well as the experience of being a customer of CMO’s. Most recently as Sr. Vice President of Quality Operations at Lynwood Pharmaceuticals he was responsible for implementing quality systems and for overseeing the development of ANDA’s for solid and semi solid products. Mr. Rutledge received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan.
Herschel Blessing
Vice President, Inventory Management
Herschel Blessing joined UPM as Vice President of Logistics in 2013. Mr. Blessing oversees distribution and inventory management and brings a wealth of experience in distribution and logistics having previously served as Senior Vice President, Logistics, for Graceway Pharmaceuticals, LLC from 2007 through 2011. His previous background includes serving as Executive Vice President of Logistics at SJ Strategic Investments and as Executive Vice President of Distribution at King Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Blessing has over twenty (20) years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
John Bowles
Vice President, General Counsel
Mr. Bowles joined UPM as Vice President and General Counsel in 2013. Prior to joining UPM, Mr. Bowles served as Vice President and Corporate Counsel for Graceway Pharmaceuticals from 2007 through 2012. Mr. Bowles primarily works in the fields of corporate law and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Bowles has overseen and handled multiple complex transactions and has appeared before the State Department, the United States Food & Drug Administration and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Bowles was Associate General Counsel for Asahi’s North America operations from 2002 through 2007. Mr. Bowles received a J.D. from The University of Tennessee College of Law in 1994 and worked in private practice prior to joining Asahi in 2002.
Daniel Dixon
Vice President of Quality Control
Mr. Dixon serves as UPM’s Vice President of Quality Control. Prior to joining UPM Pharmaceuticals, his industry experience includes diverse projects from throughout the product lifecycle, research, manufacturing and quality assurance, holding advanced positions after serving in the U.S. Army Medical Division. Mr. Dixon has enthusiastically devoted 20 years to work in natural polymers, pharmaceutical excipients and analytical method R&D, Laboratory and Chemical Process Automation, Bench Chemistry, Chemical Formulations, Laboratory Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Quality Engineering, Process Improvement, Software Design, Manufacturing, Process Scale-up and Process/Software Validations. This experience encompasses both pharmaceutical and medical device regulated testing and manufacture. Mr. Dixon is the co-inventor on six patents. He holds an A.A.S. in Chemical Technology from Northeast State Community College, both a B.S. and M.S. in Analytical/Polymer Chemistry from East Tennessee State University while continuing his studies in Computer Science and Education. Most recently, He served in advanced Quality Control/Quality Assurance positions for Colgate Palmolive and Dentsply Sirona.
UPM Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
info@upm-inc.com
All works © UPM Pharmaceuticals 2016
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You Are Here: Peis, Britta
You Are Here:Peis, Britta
Dr. rer. nat., Universitätsprofessorin
Britta Peis
Chair of Management Science
Building: 3011
Kackertstr. 7
Email: britta.peis@oms.rwth-aachen.de
Britta Peis was born in Winterberg in 1975. She studied sport sciences at the German Sport University Cologne and mathematics at the University of Cologne. She received her doctoral degree from the Center for Applied Mathematics at the latter in 2006, having worked and studied there since 2002. After subsequently holding a position at TU Dortmund University’s Chair of Discrete Optimization, Britta Peis joined the research group “Combinatorial Optimization and Graph Algorithms” at TU Berlin University in 2007. From October 2010 to April 2011, she held the position of interim Professor of Mathematical Optimization at Magdeburg’s Otto von Guericke University. In September 2013, Britta Peis joined the School of Business and Economics at RWTH Aachen University as Professor of Management Science.
Combinatorial optimization
Discrete algorithmic mathematics
Routing and scheduling
Robust optimization
Algorithmic game theory
T. Harks, M. Klimm and B. Peis (2018): Sensitivity Analysis for Convex Separable Optimization over Integral Polymatroids. SIAM Journal on Optimization 2018, (accepted for publication).
T. Harks, B. Peis, D. Schmand, B. Tauer and L. Vargas Koch (2018): Competitive Packet Routing with Priority Lists. ACM Trans. Econ. Comput. 6, 1, Article 4 (March 2018).
C. Gottschalk, A. M. C. A. Koster, F. Liers, B. Peis, D. Schmand and A. Wierz (2017): Robust Flows over Time: Models and Complexity Results. Mathematical Programming, pp. 1-31.
J. Matuschke, S.T. McCormick, G. Oriolo, B. Peis and M. Skutella (2017): Protection of flows under targeted attacks. Operations Research Letters 45 (1), pp. 53-59.
S. Fujishige, M.X. Goemans, T. Harks, B. Peis and R. Zenklusen (2017): Matroids are immune to Braess paradox. Mathematics of Operations Research 42 (3), pp. 745-761.
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You are currently viewing: Overview
The Holocaust was the systematic murder of an estimated six million Jews by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime during the second world war. As a result, nearly two-thirds of all European Jews were exterminated by the end of the war, making Hitler’s “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” the most widely documented case of genocide in the history of mankind.
The persecution and genocide were carried out in methodical stages. Even before World War 2 started, various legislation to remove Jews from German society had begun. After Hitler took power in 1933, anti-Semitic legislation was soon to follow. The first measure taken by the Nazis was to make the lives of Jewish citizens as miserable as possible. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were a great example of this; they were the initial steps to taken to exclude Jewish citizens from German society. Further legislation would eventually remove Jews from public and professional positions, as well as alienate them from the arts and sciences. At the end of 1938, the Reich supported what came to be known as Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass. During the Kristallnacht, Jewish homes and businesses were ransacked by German Storm troopers and civilians, leaving the streets covered in pieces of smashed glass and utter chaos. An estimated 30,000 Jewish citizens were also rounded up and taken to concentration camps. Many historians agree that the Night of Broken Glass was the beginning of the Holocaust.
As the Nazis conquered more of Europe, so did the number of Jews under its control grow. Between 1939 and 1941, all the Jews that resided in Poland, France, Italy and the Ukraine were rounded up and put into concentration camps. Life in these camps was deplorable. Hard labor, starvation, disease, torture and random killings were all part of the daily life in these camps. The Ghettos set up in Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic states were not much better. Very few Jews escaped the Nazi grip had on them. Between Hitler’s brutal police force known as The Gestapo and the mandate that harboring Jews would result in a death sentence for any citizen that was caught, sadly there was no escape.
As the war dragged on, so did the annihilation of the Jewish people. Many concentration camps became death camps. Special task forces known as Einsatzgruppen began wiping out entire Jewish communities in newly conquered lands. Many concentration camps began using gas chambers as a more “efficient” method to carry out Hitler’s Final Solution. Some of the more well known of these camps were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Bergen-Belsen, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Belzec.
Even with the German war effort winding down, the Nazis continued their destruction of the Jewish population. In fact, as the Soviets closed in from the east and coalition Allied forces closed in from the west, Hitler ordered a more hastened approach to his genocidal plan. As occupied Nazi lands began to fall to the Allies, the gas chambers and incinerators were working day and night. Not only were the Nazis eliminating what was left of the population of these camps, but they were trying to eliminate evidence of their heinous crimes. Many of these camp sites were reduced to rubble or hastily converted to farmland in an attempt to cover up years of mass murder.
With the fall of the Third Reich and Hitler’s subsequent death, years of horror came to an end. The liberation of each of these camps revealed a glimpse of the pure hatred of the Nazis. Amongst its victims were 6 million Jews and an estimated 5 to 8 million non-Jews. These victims were made up of Slavs, Ethnic Poles, Serbs, Soviet POWs, Romani, disabled and mentally ill, homosexuals, left wing politicians, Freemasons, and Jehovah Witnesses. The exact number of victims will never be known. Many German political figures and SS members were charged with crimes against humanity and put on trial after the war. A large number of them were found guilty and hanged for their crimes. There are still many unanswered questions surrounding the Holocaust; mainly:
Who knew about it?
When did they know?
How could this happen?
The first two questions we may never know the answer to; the last one we must find an answer for so history does not ever repeat itself.
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Rajasthan BJP chief Madan Lal Saini dies at AIIMS
Monday - June 24, 2019 8:42 pm , Category : INDIA
New Delhi, June 24 (IANS) Rajasthan BJP Chief Madan Lal Saini, who was admitted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here last week, died on Monday, a hospital official said. He was 75.
"Saini was admitted in the hospital on June 22. He passed away today (Monday) evening around 7 p.m," an AIIMS official told IANS, adding that the BJP leader was "having some blood-related issues".
Saini was appointed as the party's Rajasthan chief last year, months before the state went to assembly polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah and Rajasthan Chief Ashok Gehlot condoled the death of Saini.
"The passing away of Shri Madanlal Saini Ji is a major loss for the BJP family. He contributed to strengthening the Party in Rajasthan. He was widely respected for his congenial nature and community service efforts. My thoughts are with his family and supporters. Om Shanti," the Prime Minister tweeted.
"Just received the saddening news of Madan Lal Saini's death. Saini, who held several posts in the party was a true public servant whose whole life was devoted to the party and society. He was instrumental in strengthening the BJP in Rajasthan.
"The demise of Madan Lal Saini is an imperfect loss to the BJP family. I express my condolences to the bereaved family in this hour of grief and pray to the Lord for the peace of the departed soul," Amit Shah said in a series of tweets.
"Shocked and saddened to hear about the passing away of Madan Lal Sainiji, President of BJP Rajasthan. My thoughts and prayers are with his family members. May God give them strength to bear this loss. May his soul rest in peace," Gehlot tweeted.
--IANS aks/vd
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Macleod hopefuls not listening to residents
Votes for the Conservative nominee in the Macleod riding byelection are tabulated today, and the story of the campaign is not "hopefuls listen to residents."
The entire campaign has been usurped by the National Firearms Association, Canada's version of the National Rifle Association south of the 49th parallel. It has also been grabbed by right-wing media outlets trying to make a name for themselves in a new market. No surprise, as the agenda had already been pushed by right-wing provincial opposition leader Danielle Smith, who represents a section of Macleod provincially.
In the middle of it all, the residents of Macleod seem to have been left out in the frigid cold of February.
The main topics discussed should have been the backlog of our bumper crops due to rail competition, oil and gas markets, and flood mitigation. Other topics could have included innovations in our area in agriculture and small enterprise, the geographical and demographical diversity and "how can you represent people in Okotoks beside people in Crowsnest Pass or Lomond", or even the value the Conservative government places on veterans.
But they weren't. The "High River Gun Grab" was. And it was the only thing some candidates were talking about.
This seems odd, as every gun owner affected by the actions of the RCMP have never been unhappy about how the guns were handled, only the violent invasion of their privacy. A valid point and an important issue, but by no means is it the only issue nomination hopefuls should be discussing. It is also in stark contrast to the gun-toting whackadoodle image the NFA is portraying Macleod conservatives as. Perhaps the NFA forgot about the story of the "Nose Hill Gentleman"?
Scott Wagner spoke with me twice, and seemed to have a decent grasp on the issues, and although I didn't fully agree with them, kudos goes to him for making a concerted effort to connect with me (he is a very intelligent fellow). Phil Rowland's wife bombarded me with robocalls in the last week. Melissa Mathieson never once contacted me. I can't tell if I prefer Mathieson's or Rowland's tactic.
I was concerned about John Barlow at first, recalling that he ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 2012 Alberta election. I also recalled how he presented himself in those forums. He was strong, articulate, and didn't shy from confrontation. He did, however, leave me wondering if he could be a positive force, or if he would fall victim to the childish bickering that we now see in both provincial and federal houses.
When he called me, I asked him about how he felt the tone of his provincial campaign went. He explained to me he was disappointed with how the Progressive Conservative party lowered themselves to the point where issues were no longer their focal point.
He hit the nail on the head. The issues must be forefront. And Barlow knew the major issues, and also knew some less obvious issues that matter to our residents. Barlow is the only one of these four nomination hopefuls who did not bow to the whims of a lobby group and right-wing media. He has his thumb on the pulse of the constituency, and stuck to talking about the issues, not just in person, but also in the media. With regards to the NFA's focal point, he stuck to his word; he said if new information came out suggesting an inquiry was warranted, he'd stand behind it, so when it did, he stood behind it.
A politician that stands by his/her word should be considered a valuable asset. But even more valuable is one who refuses to let lobbyists dictate the agenda, and rather let constituents dictate it.
And as a side-note, if you knew the level of discourse Barlow and his family was exposed to on his campaign Facebook page on the matter of the guns in High River, you would understand why I use the term "gun-toting whackadoodle".
So today is the last day for Conservative members to cast their ballots for their nominee. After today, we will know if Macleod conservatives really are the gun-toting whackadoodles the NFA paints them as, or if they thoughtfully consider more than just a single issue with an eye to the future.
And I, for one, am no gun-toting whackadoodle.
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Queens Of The Stone Age – Lullabies To Paralyze (Interscope)
Like the Cave In album of this year, Lullabies… is a good album, but one with qualification. While a new band releasing this record would impress me for being so good, the fact that this is QOTSA comes with the weight of the classic Rated R, not to mention the final three Kyuss albums.
In the light of this past, the listener is forced to see this album as a disappointment. Many would attribute this to the loss of Nick Oliveri, who provided a dynamic counterpoint (he's crazy and noisy) to the smoother Josh Homme, as well as being one of the two constants since the formation of the band.
I would disagree, as Oliveri played on their last album, Songs For The Deaf, and that wasn’t great either. The problem, as with this album, is that there is just too much of it.
Rarely is an album of 14+ songs at 60+ minutes an essential one. Soundgarden managed it twice at the height of their powers in the mid-90s (Superunknown and Down on the Upside), but Homme is no Chris Cornell, it would seem. Even on those latter albums were songs that could have been cut.
So this album is a victim of its own ambition. The first half certainly contains good songs, but absolutely nothing happens in the second half until the excellent conclusion that is ‘The Long Slow Goodbye’ – an epic and sweeping modern rock great.
The nail in the coffin of this album would be that the good first half – catchy though it is, is never actually exciting. No ‘Avon’ on this, nor a ‘No-One Knows’, or ‘Auto Pilot’ for that matter. As good as this album can be at times, very little would be good enough to feature on …R.
by throughsilver at Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Labels: 2005, music, Queens Of The Stone Age
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How Taylor Swift and Katy Perry Finally Reconnected
Taylor Swift via YouTube
Taylor Swift revealed in a new interview with BBC Radio how she and Katy Perry reconciled and how Perry's cameo in her music video for "You Need To Calm Down" came to be.
During Swift’s 2018 Reputation Tour, Perry made the first move toward reconciliation by sending Swift an olive branch and handwritten letter. Since then, things have only gotten better for the pair. Swift revealed that she and Perry saw each other for the first time since the feud at a party. “When we saw each other, it was just very clear to both of us that everything was different, that we had grown up, and that we had grown past allowing ourselves to be pitted against each other, and it just was very, very clear that we remembered how much we had in common,” Swift said.
As for the music video, the reunion was Swift's idea. “When I thought of this concept for the video, and I wrote the treatment, I thought of this idea and I thought, ‘You know what, I'm just going to ask her if she would be interested in this and I would totally be fine if she’d rather keep it private and keep it between us,’” Swift explained. “But I sent it to her and she said, ‘I would love for us to be a symbol of redemption and forgiveness.’ And, I feel the same way about it.”
The burger and fries idea didn’t come to Swift until Perry wore a burger suit to the Met Gala after party. “I was like, ‘That is amazing!’” Swift laughed. “Because it's so very punk rock to me… that's really cool and funny. And, I was thinking we're going to have this moment in the video and if it’s too on-the-nose — if it's too like us wearing normal clothes and hugging — it won't really fit into this video because this video is very wacky and very surreal and fun and playful.”
Swift asked Perry if they could be burger and fries together as “a metaphor for two people who belong together.” She pitched it to Perry as “two people who are like a perfect pair.” Perry was on board immediately: “She thought it was really funny and so we did it. I think the metaphor of us being, like, searching for someone who you have something in common with and then seeing them, and having it be visually represented is funny.”
Taylor Swift's Most Memorable Music Video Looks
Source: How Taylor Swift and Katy Perry Finally Reconnected
Filed Under: Katy Perry, Taylor Swift
Categories: Celebrity News, Music News, News
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Chevron tax refund request denied
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling in which U.S. District Judge Saundra Armstrong of Oakland had allowed the refund.
The dispute had to do with refund claims originally filed by Texaco Inc., which was acquired by Chevron in 2001.
Texaco claimed it overpaid taxes for the years 1988 and 1990 through 1992 because it should have gotten a deduction related to a $1.25 billion settlement it reached with the U.S. Energy Department in 1988.
The settlement payment was for Texaco's alleged overcharging of customers for crude oil and refined oil products between 1973 and 1981.
The oil company said it should have gotten a deduction discounting the sales revenue that it later had to hand over to the Energy Department in the settlement.
But a three-judge panel of the appeals court said the language of the U.S. revenue code was "clear and unambiguous" in saying that Texaco wasn't entitled to deductions for payments related to past years' inventory sales.
A spokesperson for Chevron was not immediately available for comment.
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Man of Constant Sorrow Lyrics
I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow Ringtone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. There exist a number of versions of the song that differ in their lyrics and melodies. The Lives and Music of the Stanley Brothers.
Downloading free ringtones to your mobile phone, konami games for android you agree to the terms of free use of all provided music for your phone. We are confident that our site will find the ringtone to your phone and make it unique and original among his own kind. The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia.
Folk and Country Music of Kentucky Reprint ed. It was the band's only chart single. Only the best music we have compiled on a single resource. Arthur performed the song playing his guitar and accompanied by banjoist Dock Boggs.
The song has since been covered by many singers, from the Norwegian girl-group Katzenjammer to the winner of the eighth season of The Voice Sawyer Fredericks.
Mike Seeger's Life and Musical Journey. Assault on precinct Luverne? Others ringtones and music for mobile phone. The fiddle and mandolin of the early version were also replaced by guitar, and a verse was omitted.
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The recording by Emry Arthur is largely consistent with Burnett's lyrics, with minor differences. The Films and Video of Bob Dylan. The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. Public interest in the song was renewed after the release of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?
University Press of Mississippi. University of Illinois Press. The date of its composition, or at least of the editing of certain lyrics by Burnett, can be fixed at about if Burnett did write the song.
I am a man of constant sorrow
In the film, it was a hit for the Soggy Bottom Boys, and would later become a real hit off-screen. The song was popularized by The Stanley Brothers who recorded the song in the s, and many versions were recorded in the s, most notably by Bob Dylan. The Roots of Country Rock. University Press of Kentucky.
There are many variations in the lyrics in different versions of the songs. Free ringtones and tunes to your cellphone on this site are gathered from free sources and made available for non-commercial purposes, for reference. The arrangement of the song in the recording however was their own and they performed the song in a faster tempo. The Music of the Stanley Brothers.
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The Definitive Guide to Country Music. The University of North Carolina Press. On the Subjects of Popular Music ebook ed. Workman Publishing Company. Ralph Stanley sang the solo all the way through in the version, but in the version he was joined by other members of the band in added refrains.
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Program Committee Co-Chairs Announced for DH2020
The DH 2020 Ottawa Program Committee Co-Chairs are Laura Estill and Jennifer Guiliano.
Dr. Laura Estill will join the English department of St. Francis Xavier University (Canada) as an Associate Professor this Fall. Her research interests include the reception of early modern plays (in print, manuscript, and online), digital pedagogy, supporting and crediting interdisciplinary digital research, critical analysis of digital tools, and digital bibliography. With Diane Jakacki and Michael Ullyot, she edited Early Modern Studies after the Digital Turn (2016). Her digital humanities publications have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ), Digital Studies/Champ Numérique (written with Luis Meneses and with Michelle Levy, respectively), and Scholarly and Research Communication, as well as in book chapters in Shakespeare's Language in Digital Media (co-written with Andie Silva) and Doing Digital Humanities 2 (forthcoming).
Dr. Jennifer Guiliano currently holds a position as Associate Professor (effective July 2018) in the Department of History and affiliated faculty in Native American Studies and American Studies at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She has served as a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant and Program Manager at the Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (2008-2010) and as Associate Director of the Center for Digital Humanities (2010-2011) and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Carolina. She most recently held a position as Assistant Director at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland where she also served as an adjunct instructor in the Department of History and the Digital Cultures program in the Honor’s College. Dr. Guiliano currently serves on President (2016-2018) of the Association for Computing in the Humanities (ACH) and a member of both the Steering Committee and Implementation Committee for the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations. She is co-director with Trevor Muñoz of the Humanities Intensive Teaching + Learning Initiative (HILT) and as co-author with Simon Appleford of DevDH.org, a resource for digital humanities project development.
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I can’t believe this beautiful light in our lives, the wild and crazy, beautiful , smart immeasurably talented young lady Who just happens to have a heart bigger than the Milky Way galaxy My oldest daughter My heart and soul ..... Is 22 today We love you to the end of the universe!!! You’re gonna slay this year!!!!!!
A post shared by Tim McGraw (@thetimmcgraw) on May 5, 2019 at 10:05am PDT
You Won’t Believe How Grown Up Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s Oldest Daughter Looks!
Wendy Hermanson
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's oldest daughter, Gracie, turned 22 on Sunday (May 5), and her dad took the opportunity to show off how grown up and beautiful his eldest child has become.
For those who have been following the McGraw family for years, it's quite the shock to see the little girl grow into a young woman, as he displays in a photo montage on social media. Fans can see how she progresses in age to the present (where she looks an awful lot like both of her famous parents).
It's apparently shocking to McGraw himself, as he notes he can't believe his "heart and soul," the girl he describes as having "a heart bigger than the Milky Way galaxy," is 22 years old.
Gracie is a talented artist in her own right, and her father has encouraged her to pursue music. In fact, he even put her on one of his albums: The pair sing on "Here Tonight," a duet from 2015's Damn Country Music.
Tim McGraw Wants Daughter Gracie to Do Music
Gracie is older sister to Maggie and Audrey, the latter of whom turned 17 in December and will be the last child to leave the nest. McGraw shared with Taste of Country Nights last year that his wife of 22 years is having a hard time accepting that they'll soon be empty-nesters.
"It's toughest on mom, because she is the one ... they always want mom to do stuff for them. Sometimes she just misses them and doing things for them everyday and doing things moms do," he admits. "I think it’s really tough on her sometimes."
See Tim & Faith's Cutest Pictures Together Through the Years:
Source: You Won’t Believe How Grown Up Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s Oldest Daughter Looks!
Filed Under: faith hill, Tim McGraw
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Goodfellas (1990)
Martin Scorsese was inspired by Jules and Jim (1962), in particular the use of voice-over and freeze-frame.
Jump to: Spoilers (17)
According to Henry Hill, whose life was the basis for the book and film, Joe Pesci's portrayal of Tommy DeSimone was ninety to ninety-nine percent accurate, with one notable exception. The real Tommy DeSimone was a massively built, strapping man.
According to Nicholas Pileggi, some mobsters were hired as extras to lend authenticity to scenes. The mobsters gave fake Social Security numbers to Warner Brothers, and it is unknown how they received their paychecks.
In the documentary, The Real Goodfella (2006), which aired in the UK, Henry Hill claimed that Robert De Niro would phone him seven to eight times a day to discuss certain things about Jimmy's character, such as how Jimmy would hold his cigarette, et cetera.
Ray Liotta's mother died of cancer during filming. Liotta says that he used his anger over losing his mother for certain scenes, the pistol-whipping scene in particular.
Al Pacino was offered the role of Jimmy Conway, but he turned it down, due to fears of typecasting. Ironically, that same year, Pacino ended up playing an even more stereotyped gangster, Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990). He admits he regrets this decision.
Robert De Niro wanted to use real money for the scene where Jimmy hands out money, because he didn't like the way fake money felt in his hands. The prop master gave De Niro $5,000 of his own money. At the end of each take, no one was allowed to leave the set until all the money was returned and counted.
Martin Scorsese first got wind of Nicholas Pileggi's book "Wiseguy" when he was handed the galley proofs. Although Scorsese had sworn off making another gangster movie, he immediately cold-called the writer and told him, "I've been waiting for this book my entire life." To which Pileggi replied, "I've been waiting for this phone call my entire life."
According to Ray Liotta, Martin Scorsese was so involved in every detail of the cast's wardrobe that he tied Liotta's tie himself to make sure it was accurate for the film's setting.
The studio was initially very nervous about the film, due to its extreme violence and language. The film reportedly received the worst preview response in the studio's history. Martin Scorsese said that "the numbers were so low, it was funny." Nevertheless, the film was released without alteration to overwhelming critical acclaim, cementing Scorsese's reputation as one of America's foremost filmmakers.
Ray Liotta turned down the part of Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) in order to make this movie.
When Paulie confronts Henry after Hill's released from prison, Paul Sorvino improvised the slap to Ray Liotta's face, hence Liotta's reaction.
Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay, and over the course of the twelve drafts it took to reach the ideal script, the reporter realized "the visual styling had to be completely redone. So we decided to share credit." They decided which sections of the book they liked, and put them together like building blocks. Scorsese persuaded Pileggi that they did not need to follow a traditional narrative structure. Scorsese wanted to take the gangster film, and deal with it episode by episode, but start in the middle and move backwards and forwards. Scorsese would compact scenes, and realized that if they were kept short, "the impact after about an hour and a half would be terrific."
Martin Scorsese reportedly didn't want Ray Liotta to have contact with the real Henry Hill before filming, because he had never directed Liotta before, and didn't want Hill to influence Liotta.
For the scene where Sonny Bunz complains to Paulie, Martin Scorsese secretly told Tony Darrow to improvise more lines for his character without telling Paul Sorvino. Sorvino's confused reaction was real.
The character of "Fat Andy", whom Henry introduces us to in the bar, was played by Louis Eppolito, an ex-NYPD detective whose father, uncle, and cousin had all been in the Mafia. In 2005, Eppolito and his police partner were arrested and charged with racketeering, obstruction of justice, extortion, and up to eight murders. They were both sentenced to life imprisonment, plus eighty years.
After Joe Pesci's mother saw the film, she told her son that the movie was good, then asked him if he had to curse so much.
The movie's line "As far back as I could remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster." was voted as number twenty of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
The dinner scene with Tommy's mother was almost completely improvised by the cast members, including Tommy asking his mother if he could borrow her butcher's knife and Jimmy's "hoof" comment. Also there is a painting on the wall in the background of The Last Supper. Martin Scorsese previously directed The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
In 2014, the Lufthansa heist was solved, and most of the still-surviving members were arrested.
The "f" word and its derivatives are used 321 times, for an average of 2.04 per minute. About half of them are said by Joe Pesci. At the time of the films' release, this was the most profanity of any movie in history. It is currently the fifteenth most f-bomb laden film ever released. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) is third on the list, also directed by Martin Scorsese. The script only called for the word to be used seventy times, but much of the dialogue was improvised during shooting, where the expletives piled up.
Tony Darrow (Sonny Bunz, the owner of the Bamboo Lounge) worked in the real-life Bamboo Lounge, where Henry Hill, and the people, on whom the film's characters are based, would hang out.
Paul Sorvino wanted to drop out of the role of Paul "Paulie" Cicero three days before filming began, because he felt that he lacked the cold personality to play the character. He called his agent and asked to be released from the film. Sorvino's agent told him to think about it for one day before making a final decision. That night, Sorvino looked in the mirror and was frightened by the look on his face. He realized that that look was the look he needed to play Paulie.
The painting that Joe Pesci's character's mother brings out was actually painted by "Wiseguy" author Nicholas Pileggi's mother.
Jimmy Burke, on whom Jimmy Conway was based, would've been eligible for parole in 2004. He died of lung cancer in 1996, while still in prison.
The "How am I funny?" scene is based on something that actually happened to Joe Pesci. While working in a restaurant, a young Pesci apparently told a mobster that he was funny, a compliment that was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response. Pesci relayed the anecdote to Martin Scorsese, who decided to include it in the film. Scorsese didn't include the scene in the shooting script, so that Pesci and Ray Liotta's interactions would elicit genuinely surprised reactions from the supporting cast.
Every one of Robert De Niro's outfits had a watch and a pinkie ring to go with it.
The first scene filmed was the Morrie's Wigs commercial. Martin Scorsese was inspired by a low-budget commercial that ran in New York City for a replacement window company. Scorsese contacted the company and found that the spokesperson in the ad was Stephen R. Pacca, who owned the company and created the ad himself. Pacca was hired to write, direct, and edit the commercial for Morrie's Wigs, so it could look like an authentic local ad.
According to Debi Mazar, when her character trips after meeting Henry, it was actually Mazar tripping over the camera dolly track. Martin Scorsese liked it, because it looked like she was overwhelmed by Henry, and left it in the film.
It was claimed that at the time, the real gangster Jimmy Burke was so happy to have Robert De Niro play him that he telephoned him from prison to give him a few pointers. Nicholas Pileggi denies this, saying De Niro and Burke had never spoken, but admitted that there were men around the set all the time who had known all of the principal characters very well.
At Martin Scorsese's request, associates of the actual people were always on the set of the film, giving helpful and essential information about the life, people, settings, and moods.
Although Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay (and received Oscar nominations for doing so), much of the film's eventual dialogue was improvised by the cast.
Ray Liotta came into view for the main lead after Martin Scorsese saw him in Something Wild (1986) and Field of Dreams (1989), and especially loved his "explosive energy" in the former film. However, according to Liotta, the casting process took over a year, in which he had to audition several times. The deal was finally sealed during the Venice Film Festival, which Liotta and Scorsese were visiting. Scorsese was protected by bodyguards after receiving several threats from religious groups, due to his controversial The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). When Liotta wanted to take the opportunity to talk to Scorsese about the role again, the bodyguards kept pushing him back. When Scorsese noticed that Liotta remained very calm under this, he knew he had found the right leading man, because the real Henry Hill was also better known for being a calm and silent observer than an aggressive responder.
While driving to and from the set, Ray Liotta listened to cassettes of interviews that Nicholas Pileggi did with Henry Hill. Liotta noted that Hill casually discussed murders and other crimes while eating potato chips.
According to Joe Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Martin Scorsese let the cast do whatever they wanted. He made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines the cast came up with that he liked best, and put them into a revised script, from which the cast worked, during principal photography.
The long tracking shot in the Copa took seven takes. One take was ruined because Henny Youngman forgot his lines. According to Illeana Douglas, Scorsese was inspired by the long Steadicam shot in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987).
One of the little girls who plays Henry and Karen's daughters (specifically, the one in Karen's arms, who was too shy to give Paulie a kiss when they arrive at his house for dinner) is Lorraine Bracco's daughter with Harvey Keitel, Stella.
According to Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Tina Sinatra put a fake severed horse head in his trailer, an homage to The Godfather (1972), as an initiation into Mafioso films.
The M.P.A.A. ordered ten frames of blood removed from the film before granting it an R rating.
For the famous "Layla" montage, Martin Scorsese played the "piano coda" section of the song during the shooting of each scene, so that certain bars of the piano piece would match up with certain shots.
Bobby Vinton was played by his son Robbie Vinton, who lip-synched to his father's recording.
Louis Eppolito wrote "Mafia Cop", a true story about growing up in a mafia family, and becoming an NYPD officer. In April 2006, he was convicted of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, and racketeering, for working as a mafia informant and hitman. The conviction was overturned, due to a technicality, then reinstated on appeal in 2008. In 2009, he was sentenced to life plus eighty years in prison.
Robert De Niro was so obsessed with authenticity, that during the infamous dinner scene, he asked how the real Jimmy would apply his ketchup. This eventually got passed to Henry Hill, who informed De Niro. As such, the way De Niro rubs the bottle of ketchup is how the real Jimmy Burke did so in real-life.
While directing his mother Catherine Scorsese, Martin did not tell her that her character's son Tommy DeVito had just killed someone, and the body was in the trunk of his car. He only told her that her son was home for dinner, and to cook for them. James Conway is eating an Irish meal.
Nicholas Pileggi talked to Henry Hill constantly while writing the script with Martin Scorsese. He says the voice-overs are the key to the movie, and that they are almost exact quotes from Hill.
In the DVD commentary for the film, Henry Hill said that he still had nightmares about when he, Tommy, and Jimmy murdered Billy Batts.
Ray Liotta had said on a documentary special that his first person narration for the film was often done by him actually saying his narration to another person in a room. That way it felt more authentic, and made it easier for him to tell a story.
At the end of the movie, when Tommy fires a couple of rounds at the camera for no apparent reason, he's duplicating the final scene in The Great Train Robbery (1903).
The later life of Henry Hill, after he enters the Witness Protection Program, was also adapted, more humorously, into My Blue Heaven (1990) the same year. Appropriately, that film was written by Nora Ephron, who is Nicholas Pileggi's wife.
Joe Pesci was in his forties at the time of filming, though Tommy DeSimone, Pesci's character's inspiration was in his twenties.
At first, producer Irwin Winkler disagreed when Martin Scorsese cast Ray Liotta as Henry Hill. One night, Liotta approached Winkler in a restaurant and asked for a minute alone. They walked into the bar area, and Liotta told Winkler why he thought he was good for the role. Winkler called Scorsese the next day and told him to go ahead.
Ranked number two on the American Film Institute's list of the ten greatest films in the genre "Gangster" in June 2008.
Joe Pesci's Oscar acceptance speech is the sixth shortest in the Academy's history. All Pesci said was "it's my privilege, thank you", later admitting that he didn't say very much, because he genuinely felt that he didn't have a chance of winning. (The shortest acceptance speeches are "Thank you", made by Patty Duke in 1963 when she won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Miracle Worker (1962), "Thank you", made by Louie Psihoyos in 2010 when he won Best Documentary for The Cove (2009). Gloria Graham and Alfred Newman both said "Thank you very much" in 1963, and William Holden who said "Thank you. Thank you", in 1954. "Thank you. Very much indeed", was all that Alfred Hitchcock said when he won an Honorary Oscar in 1968, putting him one letter longer than Pesci.)
Henry states that he and Jimmy could never be "made", because they weren't of full Italian descent. This rule was changed in 2000 by the Commission (the five New York City families). A man can now be "made", provided his father is of Italian descent, and his last name is Italian. Nevertheless, this would still exclude Henry and Jimmy, as Henry's father in the film was Irish; while Jimmy's surname, Conway, is not Italian.
After the real Henry Hill's death on June 12, 2012, Ray Liotta claimed that he only had a few meetings with Hill, and never got to know him well.
According to Martin Scorsese, Marlon Brando tried to persuade him to not make the film.
In the book "Wiseguy", Henry Hill noted how Mafia-run neighborhoods were interestingly safe. On one occasion, an old lady was followed closely by a thug who later forced himself in her apartment. Hill said the entire neighborhood was watching, and within a minute, numerous people rushed over to the lady's apartment and grabbed the thug and assaulted him.
The long tracking shot through the Copacabana nightclub came about because of a practical problem: the filmmakers could not get permission to go in the short way, and this forced them to go round the back. Martin Scorsese decided to film the sequence in one unbroken shot in order to symbolize that Henry's entire life was ahead of him, commenting, "It's his seduction of her (Karen), and it's also the lifestyle seducing him". This sequence was shot eight times.
Robert De Niro was offered either the role of Jimmy "The Gent" Conway, or Tommy DeVito. He chose the former.
Lorraine Bracco demanded real jewelry to be used for Karen's dresser. The production designer rented expensive gold and stones that were protected by armed guards.
The name "Tommy DeVito" is a nod to Tommy DeVito, the lead guitarist of The Four Seasons, with whom Joe Pesci was friends.
Henry Hill was paid roughly $550,000 for the film. According to Hill, it was chump change compared to the $15,000 to $40,000 a week he made during his gangster days. He claims he blew almost all of his mob money on partying and a "degenerate" gambling problem.
In 2000, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for the National Film Registry, for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant".
According to Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese knew exactly how he wanted the movie to look from the beginning. They wrote scenes with certain shots and camera angles in mind.
The film's name was changed from "Wiseguy" to avoid confusion with both the television series Wiseguy (1987) and Brian De Palma's similarly titled film, Wise Guys (1986). Charles Scorsese, Catherine Scorsese, and Frank Vincent appear in Wise Guys (1986) and this movie.
In the movie, Henry and Tommy are seen together many times. In real life, Henry's best pal, in his younger years, was Paulie, Jr., son of mob chief Paul "Paulie" Vario (renamed Paul "Paulie" Cicero in the movie).
Martin Scorsese liked Lorraine Bracco, largely due to how well she related to Karen, having grown up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. (She's not Jewish, though.)
Mike Starr (Frenchy) played the same role in The 10 Million Dollar Getaway (1991), a Jimmy Burke (Conway) telling of the Lufthansa heist portion of this movie.
Martin Scorsese originally wanted to use Frank Sinatra's version of "My Way" at the end. However, Sinatra would not allow Scorsese to acquire the rights to his version of the song. He had to use the version by Sid Vicious instead.
Michael Ballhaus said that the scene when Henry walks across the street to beat Karen's neighbor in the face, with the butt of his gun, was the most violent scene that he felt he had ever filmed in his career.
Lorraine Bracco found the shoot to be an emotionally difficult one, because it was such a male dominated cast, and she realized if she did not make her "work important, it would probably end up on the cutting room floor".
During one of the final scenes, Henry Hill opens his front door and picks up a newspaper. Close inspection reveals that the newspaper is the Youngstown Vindicator. Martin Scorsese included it as an homage to Youngstown, Ohio, which has been called "Mobtown, USA".
Ray Liotta has said Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci "were the glitter and I was the glue."
Henry Hill's testimony against some of the most powerful Lucchese crime family associates led to over fifty convictions. As Hill learned at the very beginning of his career, Mafia rule number one is "never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut." In 2010, he told The Telegraph he has no idea why he was allowed to live as long as he did. "It's surreal, totally surreal, to be here. I never thought I'd reach this wonderful age." He theorized that he hadn't been murdered, because "there's nobody from my era alive." Following his death in 2012, The Guardian hypothesized that fame or bureaucratic disorganization in the criminal underworld might have been the reason.
When Karen sees Janice Rossi in the prison visitor registry, the name below is listed as "Ballibusteros".
The film was met with very positive reviews and scored some major award nominations, but it took a few years to catch on as a critical classic. However, Roger Ebert was an early adopter when it came to calling this movie an all-time great, writing, "no finer film has ever been made about organized crime, not even The Godfather (1972)", all the way back in 1990.
Christopher Serrone, who played young Henry, wore blue contact lenses to match Ray Liotta's blue eyes. Serrone's eyes are actually brown.
The film takes place from 1955 to 1980.
The film has forty-three songs in it, the equivalent of about four albums. Martin Scorsese had thought about all the songs and where they would appear long before he started filming, "three years before he shot the film", to be precise, according to music editor Christopher Brooks.
Voted number one in Total Film's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time list (November 2005).
Lorraine Bracco's two real-life daughters played Judy Hill at different ages. Margaux Guerard played Judy at age ten, and Stella Keitel played her at age four or five.
The movie's line "How am I funny?" was voted as the #87 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
Henry Hill, convicted of another crime, eventually spent fourteen years in prison after getting his immunity.
Martin Scorsese saw this as the third film in an unplanned trilogy of films that examined the lives of Italian-Americans "from slightly different angles".
Joe Pesci and his character's name-sake Tommy DeVito are both featured as characters in the musical and film Jersey Boys (2014). At one point in that film, Joey (Pesci) remarks "Funny how?", just like Tommy in this film.
Tuddy walked with a limp because of a prosthetic leg. He lost the real one in the Korean War.
When Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco filmed the scene where Karen points a gun in Henry's face, during one take, Liotta threw Bracco off the bed, and the gun flew out of Bracco's hand and hit director of photography Michael Ballhaus in the head.
John Malkovich was considered for Jimmy Conway, but turned it down. Three years later, he took the role of Mitch Leary in In the Line of Fire (1993), which, coincidentally, Robert De Niro turned down, along with Jack Nicholson.
Ray Liotta was intimidated by Robert De Niro. He really wanted De Niro to like him. De Niro put Liotta at ease, saying, "Don't worry about it. This is all going to work out."
Barry Sonnenfeld took over as cinematographer for the last few days of filming, as Michael Ballhaus had to leave to shoot Postcards from the Edge (1990).
Henry's last day as a wiseguy was the hardest part of the film for Martin Scorsese to shoot, because he wanted to properly show Henry's state of anxiety, paranoia, and racing thoughts caused by cocaine and amphetamine intoxication, which is difficult for an actor (who had never been under their influence) to accurately portray.
The cast did not meet Henry Hill during the film's shoot, until a few weeks before it premiered. Ray Liotta met him in an undisclosed city; Hill had seen the film, and told the actor that he loved it.
Originally, Martin Scorsese planned to make this before The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). When funding for the religious film finally materialized, he decided to postpone this film.
Jimmy Conway was based on gangster Jimmy Burke, who was born James Conway.
In the scene where Henry and Karen are on the floor of their bedroom, and Henry points the gun to her face, when he gets up, he accidentally steps on her hand.
According to Ray Liotta on the Special Edition DVD, Sean Penn was also considered for Henry Hill.
The film's soundtrack did not include many of the songs featured in the film, most of them being the tracks played during the lengthy scene where Henry rushes around trying to make his drug deal. The songs sampled during the scene are, in order, "Jump Into the Fire" by Harry Nilsson, "Memo From Turner" by Mick Jagger, "Magic Bus" by The Who (from the Live at Leeds album), "Monkey Man" by The Rolling Stones, "Mannish Boy" by Muddy Waters, "What is Life" by George Harrison, "Mannish Boy" again, and "Toad" by Cream.
The last film Martin Scorsese shot in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, until his return to 1.85:1 with his 3-D film Hugo (2011).
According to the book "Wiseguy", Paul Vario was so secretive about the Lufthansa heist that he did not even reveal to his own brother that his crew was responsible for the heist. When his brother Tuddy mentioned the large score was made by some crew, Henry Hill was amazed by Paul Vario's secrecy and silence.
Voted number six on Empire magazine's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (September 2008).
Martin Scorsese is a big fan of the Copacabana. He went there on his prom night.
When it came to the relationship between Henry and Karen, Lorraine Bracco saw no difference between an abused wife and her character.
Paul Sorvino had no problem finding the voice and walk of his character, but found it challenging finding "that kernel of coldness and absolute hardness that is antithetical to my nature, except when my family is threatened."
Alec Baldwin auditioned for the role of Henry Hill.
When Frank Vincent went to meet Martin Scorsese about being cast in the film, Scorsese asked Vincent which character he wanted to play, and he said he wanted the role of Paulie. Scorsese then said "Don't play Paulie, play Billy Batts."
In a interview for Reddit, Kevin Corrigan revealed how he was cast. Corrigan first learned about the film in 1989, when he read about it a magazine. He called his agent, told him he was a big fan of Martin Scorsese, and insisted that he become a part of this movie. He auditioned for Scorsese a month later, and before leaving, told Scorsese how much he loved his work. Corrigan said "Filming Goodfellas, for me, was like getting to be a bat boy for the Yankees during the World Series. I didn't feel like an actual player on the team, but I was given a job to do, and I was allowed to be on the field. It was the greatest feeling I had up to that point. I was twenty."
While the film showed one visit from Karen Hill to see Henry Hill in the prison visitor area. In reality, Karen had visited Henry numerous times on the outskirts of the prison grounds. This was due to Henry's job in the prison, where he worked on the prison grounds as a farm hand that did rough and odd jobs. They even had a picnic together one night, where she brought him rare meats and wine.
Jimmy Conway actually went by the name "Jimmy Burke". In the book "Wiseguy", the only known piece of information on Jimmy's actual family is that he "was born to a woman named Conway".
Ray Liotta joked that Warner Brothers would have rather cast Eddie Murphy than him, because of how little-known he was.
"GoodFellas" began filming on Monday, May 1,1989.
According to Irwin Winkler, Tom Cruise "was discussed" for the role of Henry Hill, and according to producer Barbara De Fina, Madonna was "in the mix" to the extent that Martin Scorsese scouted her at a performance of David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow" on Broadway.
While Robert De Niro was not yet committed to the project, Martin Scorsese courted William Petersen for the role of Jimmy Conway. Petersen turned it down.
According to Lorraine Bracco, Martin Scorsese told her to think of Karen as the "movie star" of the group.
In October 2014, Frank Sivero filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Simpsons (1989) for using his looks and mannerisms to create a little-seen Springfield mob associate named Louie. According to Sivero, The Simpsons (1989) writers lived next door to him in Sherman Oaks in 1989. Louie debuted on the show during the episode The Simpsons: Bart the Murderer (1991). As of 2017, he has appeared in twenty-one episodes.
Ray Liotta was thirty-five when filming. His character (Henry Hill) was supposed to be twenty-one when he first started dating Karen in the film.
In the book "Wiseguy", Henry Hill noted that, despite Paul Vario being a big and overbearing man, he could move really fast. He mentioned that Vario once successfully chased someone with a baseball bat.
Nicholas Pileggi said that he and Martin Scorsese each wrote their own outline for the screenplay. Pileggi said that when they read each other's outlines, they realized that they were both very similar.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #92 Greatest USA Movie of All Time.
According to Edward McDonald, in the last courtroom scene, the original person who was going to portray the judge was white. However, Martin Scorsese found out that when that real trial was held, the judge was black. So Scorsese decided to have a black man portray the judge for accuracy, and also because Scorsese was always criticized for portraying black people in a negative way in his films.
A few scenes include taxis with a real phone number on the side. They're from Four Ones, a real cab service in Glendale, Queens, New York.
The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company's groundbreaking gangster film short The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) influenced Martin Scorsese's gangster films Goodfellas (1990) and Gangs of New York (2002). Scorcese chose it for his 2005 tribute at Beaubourg (1977) in Paris, France. Biograph, the oldest movie company in America, is still in business.
In the movie, Henry and Tommy hung around a lot. In the book though, Tommy and Henry knew each other, but, the latter actually hung out more with Paulie, Jr., son of mob chief Paul "Paulie" Vario, who is Paul "Paulie" Cicero in the movie.
This was the first film from the 90's to be inducted into the National Film Registry.
In the book, "Wiseguy", Henry Hill said he often supported Karen Hill and the family from prison by dealing in drugs using contacts he made in prison. Karen was even involved in smuggling drugs when she visited the prison. Since Henry was in jail when Karen went to visit the people that owed Henry money, they refused to pay or pled poverty. Henry sent the money he made in prison to support Karen and their children.
Unusually for a R-rated movie, this was spoofed as a weekday afternoon cartoon segment from Animaniacs (1993) called "Goodfeathers", about three pigeons, Squit, Bobby, and Pesto, resembling Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci, respectively, in the streets of New York City trying to survive. Not only do they look and sound like the three leads, but there's even voice-over narration, and a statue of Martin Scorsese. The cartoon also incorporated a spoof of The Godfather (1972), with the character of "The Godpigeon", who was drawn to resemble Marlon Brando, and speak in unintelligible mumbles that only Bobby can understand.
Siskel & Ebert named this as their favorite movie of 1990.
According to the book "Wiseguy", when Henry Hill angrily approached Karen's jealous neighbor who harassed her, the neighbor was with two of his brothers who each owned Corvettes. In the film, only one Corvette is present. Karen Hill's account of the event in the book was Henry had to be escorted in his car by police cars out of the neighborhood after the incident.
Joseph Bono has a small role as a gangster in this movie and Raging Bull (1980). Guido, Bono's character in Raging Bull (1980), only has a couple of lines. During the pool scene, Guido hears about a guy who was hitting on Vickie. He says, "That's the same guy..? I gotta break his legs... No, I'll catch him." In this movie, Bono has a cameo as a mobster named Mikey Franzese, who appears briefly as the camera pans through the Bamboo Lounge near the start of the movie. Mikey's only line was: "I haven't saw that guy. Yeah, I wanna see him."
In the scene when Paul Sorvino slaps Ray Liotta, he didn't know this was going to happen and so Liotta's reaction is real. Sorvino improvised slapping Liotta.
The painting that Tommy's mother shows to Tommy, Jimmy, and Henry, is based on a picture from the November 1978 National Geographic.
Ellen Barkin was considered for the role of Karen Hill.
While Tommy, Henry, and Jimmy are having a late supper at the home of Tommy's mother, Jimmy can be seen pouring ketchup on his meal. This is accurate, and Henry remembers Jimmy liking ketchup over all his meals, including his steaks.
Director of photography Michael Ballhaus said that the reason that he decided to shoot the film was because it was directed by Martin Scorsese, and he filmed it as a favor to him. He also said that had it been directed by someone else that he would not have filmed it. He also said that the material was not something that he would normally be interested in filming.
Film critic Roger Ebert named this movie "the best mob movie ever".
John Gotti's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, was not a fan of the film, and told Newsday in 1990 that John Gotti wouldn't have liked it either, saying, "He is too intelligent to waste his time to see nonsensical movies like that."
When the camera cranes up to reveal the dead bodies in the pink Cadillac, the piano exit of Derek & The Dominos' "Layla" starts to play. Originally played in C major, the tape speed of the coda was increased during mixing. The resulting pitch is somewhere between C and C sharp.
Chuck Low, who plays Morris Kessler, is actually Robert De Niro's real estate agent, appeared in other De Niro films including "The Mission."
The casting session was held at Rao's Restaurant in New York City.
Robert De Niro pored over Nicholas Pileggi's unused research to prepare for his role.
In the movie, mob chief Paulie had a brother named Tuddy. While this is true, Paulie actually had one older brother Lenny, and a few younger brothers, the youngest of whom was Tuddy; Paulie was the second eldest.
Legend has it, "Never rat on your friends and keep your mouth shut" is part of a secret Mafia pledge recited by members of the criminal organization at the beginning of their meetings.
This was the first Martin Scorsese film for which Saul Bass designed the titles.
The final scene in which Tommy (Joe Pesci) fires at the camera or audience , is a Scorsese l'homage to "The Great Train Robbery" in which "The Bandit" does the same.
The real Jimmy Burke was friends with Tommy's father and uncle.
The young "extra" carrying a J&B box off the truck and into the Bamboo Lounge is Glenn Taranto.
The phone number for Morrie's wig shop is 555-HAIR (555-4247).
Robert de Niro gets top billing (over Ray Liotta) in the film's opening credits, despite having much less screen time and despite the fact that Liotta is the film's narrator and main character.
The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.
Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Frank Vincent appeared in Cop Land (1997).
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
To research her role, Lorraine Bracco tried to get close to a mob wife, but was unable to, because they exist in a very tight-knit community. She decided not to meet the real Karen because she "thought it would be better if the creation came from me. I used her life with her parents as an emotional guideline for the role."
Compton's Most Wanted sampled the lines, "For most of the guys, killings got to be accepted.. Murder was the only way that everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked, everybody knew the rules" and "But sometimes, even the people who didn't get out of line, they got whacked. Hits just became a hazard for some of the guys. Shooting people was a normal thing, no big deal" for their song "Def Wish II".
Robert De Niro and Chuck Low also appear in The King of Comedy (1982), The Mission (1986) and Sleepers (1996).
First of two films starring Illena Doglas and Robert De Niro also directed by Martin Scorsese, the second one being Cape Fear(1991)
Suzanne Shepherd (Karen's mom) and Mike Starr (Frenchy) appeared in "Uncle Buck" (1989).
The helicopter that follows Henry around all day before getting arrested was an Aérospatiale AS355 TwinStar.
Sean Penn was considered for the role of Henry Hill.
The character James Conway is James (Jimmy) "The Gent" Burke's real birth name.
Joe Pesci and Samuel L. Jackson appeared in Betsy's Wedding (1990).
Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine, played Tommy's mother. She and the cast ad-libbed the dinner scene. Scorsese's father, Charles, played Vinny the prisoner, who put too many onions in the tomato sauce, and later murdered Tommy.
After the premiere, Henry Hill went around and revealed his true identity. In response, the government kicked him out of the Federal Witness Protection Program.
During filming of the scene in which his character is killed by Joe Pesci, Michael Imperioli broke a glass in his hand and had to be rushed to the emergency room. When doctors saw what appeared to be a gun-shot wound in his chest, they tried to treat it. When Imperioli told them what was really up, he was made to wait for three hours. Martin Scorsese told Imperioli that some day he'd be telling that story on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992). The prediction came true in March, 2000.
The scene in which Tommy kills Spider was mostly improvised. The only line that was said as scripted was Spider's "Why don't you go fuck yourself, Tommy".
When Henry and Karen Hill are negotiating to enter the Witness Protection Program, former U.S. Attorney Edward McDonald played himself, reenacting what he did in reality.
Henry states that Tommy was shot in the face so that his mother could not give him an open-casket funeral. Tommy's real-life counterpart, Tommy DeSimone, was killed in January 1979. His remains have never been recovered.
In January 2014, several New York City organized crime figures were arrested as part of a federal investigation into a series of unsolved crimes, the most famous of which is the central caper in Goodfellas (1990), the 1978 Lufthansa robbery at JFK Airport that netted over $6 million in cash and jewelry.
Joe Pesci didn't judge his character, but found the scene where he kills Spider, for talking back to his character, hard to do, because he had trouble justifying the action, until he forced himself to feel the way Tommy did.
As he enters the Witness Protection program, Henry requests not to be sent to a place that is cold. In the final scene, Henry is shown picking up the Youngstown Vindicator, which is the newspaper for Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown gets below freezing temperatures in the wintertime, so Henry's request was apparently not granted.
In the book "Wiseguy", Henry Hill cites a few reasons why Tommy was killed. The main reason, of course, was because he killed Billy Batts and a guy named Foxy. Another chilling reason is probably because he once stated that mob chief Paulie "didn't like having Tommy around".
The film left out a crime that eventually became a national sports controversy: Boston College's 1978-1979 point-shaving scandal. The only reference in the film is when Morrie asks, just before he is killed, "Did you hear about the points we were shaving up in Boston?"
Late in his life, Henry Hill launched a website devoted to the film and life in the mob, called GoodfellaHenry.com. Many of the people visiting the site derided Hill as a snitch. Hill died in 2012. As of fall 2016, the site is still up selling memorabilia from the film.
Body count: ten.
In this film, Frank Vincent is killed by Joe Pesci. Both appeared in Casino (1995), where Pesci is killed by Vincent at the end. Off-screen, however, the two go way back, having started their entertainment careers as bandmates and equal halves of a comedy duo in the late 1960s. But it was their appearances in the low-budget Mafia film The Death Collector (1976) which got the duo noticed by Robert De Niro and, ultimately, Martin Scorsese.
The house where Tommy was killed is located at 80th Street and Shore Road, in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. The interior of the house was re-created on a soundstage after the scenes shot on-location were deemed unacceptable.
Martin Scorsese's father appeared in the film. He is one of the two men who take Tommy DeVito to be killed. He is not the one who pulled the trigger. He later appeared in prison, where he made spaghetti sauce. The character played by Martin Scorsese's mother is often seen making spaghetti sauce outside of prison. Off-camera, they pressed the collars on all of the suits.
Billy Batts (Frank Vincent) is killed by Tommy (Joe Pesci) in this movie. In "Casino" (1995), karma comes full circle, as Frank Marino (Frank Vincent) is the one that killed Nicky (Joe Pesci).
My Top 50 Films Of All Time
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AP Top News
States suing Trump administration, company over 3D guns
By MICHAEL RUBINKAMJuly 31, 2018
FILE - In this May 10, 2013, file photo, Cody Wilson holds what he calls a Liberator pistol that was completely made on a 3-D-printer at his home in Austin, Texas. Eight states filed suit Monday, July 30, 2018, against the Trump administration over its decision to allow a Texas company to publish downloadable blueprints for a 3D-printed gun, contending the hard-to-trace plastic weapons are a boon to terrorists and criminals and threaten public safety. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)
Eight states are filing suit against the Trump administration over its decision to allow a Texas company to publish downloadable blueprints for a 3D-printed gun, contending the hard-to-trace plastic weapons are a boon to terrorists and criminals and threaten public safety.
The suit, filed Monday in Seattle, asks a judge to block the federal government’s late-June settlement with Defense Distributed, which allowed the company to make the plans available online. Officials say that 1,000 people have already downloaded blueprints for AR-15 rifles.
“I have a question for the Trump Administration: Why are you allowing dangerous criminals easy access to weapons?” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. “These downloadable guns are unregistered and very difficult to detect, even with metal detectors, and will be available to anyone regardless of age, mental health or criminal history.”
Joining the suit were Democratic attorneys general in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Maryland, New York and the District of Columbia. Separately, attorneys general in 21 states urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday to withdraw from the settlement with Defense Distributed, saying it “creates an imminent risk to public safety.”
People can use the blueprints to manufacture a plastic gun using a 3D printer. But gun industry experts have expressed doubt that criminals would go to the trouble, since the printers needed to make the guns are very expensive, the guns themselves tend to disintegrate quickly and traditional firearms are easy to come by.
Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, first published downloadable designs for a 3D-printed firearm in 2013. It was downloaded about 100,000 times until the State Department ordered him to cease, contending it violated federal export laws since some of the blueprints were downloaded by people outside the United States.
The State Department reversed course in late June, agreeing to allow Wilson to resume posting the blueprints. The files were published on Friday.
The company filed its own suit in Texas on Sunday, asserting that it’s the victim of an “ideologically-fueled program of intimidation and harassment” that violates the company’s First Amendment rights.
The company’s attorney, Josh Blackman, called it an “easy case.”
States are free to enact gun control measures, but “what they can’t do is censor the speech of another citizen in another state, and they can’t regulate the commerce of another citizen in another state when that commerce is authorized by a federal government license,” Blackman said in an interview Monday. “It’s a violation of the First Amendment, it’s unconscionable and we’re going to fight it to the very end.”
Defense Distributed agreed to temporarily block Pennsylvania residents from downloading the plans after state officials went to federal court in Philadelphia on Sunday seeking an emergency order. The company said it has also blocked access to users in New Jersey and Los Angeles.
Associated Press writer Lisa Marie Pane contributed to this story.
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Militant groups
Pakistan arrests 6 for collecting funds for militant groups
MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say six people have been arrested for allegedly collecting funds for two outlawed militant organizations.
Muhammad Ashraf, an official with the Punjabi police’s counterterrorism department, said Saturday that the arrests were part of crackdown against terror financing in the province.
He said those arrested were raising money for Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but did not disclose the amount of money recovered.
The Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility a deadly Feb. 14 suicide attack in the Indian-held portion of the disputed Kashmir region. The bombing sharply raised tensions between India and Pakistan and brought the two nuclear rivals to the brink of war.
The leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed was added to the United Nations’ sanctions blacklist earlier this month.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been involved in the killing of minority Shiites.
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WILLIAM CLAIRE
THE RELEVANCE OF LITERARY MAGAZINES
William Claire is the founding editor and publisher of “Voyages”, a national literary magazine, of which Anaïs Nin has been a contributor and ad visor. His poems have appeared in “The Antioch Review”, “Nation”, “American Scholar”, “New Republic”, “New York Quarterly”, and elsewhere. He appears contained and proper in a dark blue suit. His voice is deep and friendly.
Anaïs introduces him:
I first met Bill Claire through “Voyages”. The title appealed to me very much and I was pleased to be put on the advisory board. The magazine always had beautiful photographs and articles about the poets. Bill Claire, himself, would send you poems occasionally on yellow paper while he was attending interminable meetings, as a lobbyist for peace. He was a poet too and very modest about it. (To Claire) I don’t think you published your own things in your magazine?
WILLIAM CLAIRE: Nothing.
ANAÏS: That’s being over-modest.
WILLIAM CLAIRE: I’m delighted to be here but Miss Steloff is a very tough act to follow. I hope everybody has been to The Gotham. I’ve been a book nut all of my life and have been in every used book store in the United States and some abroad, and consider The Gotham Book Mart certainly the best in the country – and for literary magazine people, it’s everything.
Frances: I’ve seen you there.
WILLIAM: “Voyages” for six years has always sold out at The Gotham Book Mart, which is not true in any other store so it’s wonderful to share the morning with you.
Anaïs was of great value to my magazine as an advisory editor from the beginning. She was not at all like another famous man whom I wrote to of my dreams for starting a magazine and his being an advisory editor. I said there had never been anything like this in Washington where I live. He wrote back and said he’d be delighted to be an advisory editor if I took his advice. I wrote back and said sure, “What’s your advice?”
He said, “Don’t start a literary magazine.” But he did become an advisory editor and a very good one. But the importance of Anaïs was that through her I was put in touch with several writers whom I published: Marguerite Young – on whom I hope to do a special issue some day, because she is one of the most compelling writers of our time; – Daisy Aldan, E.M. Esker on the West Coast, poet Natalie Robbins from New York, Wayne McEvilly in Mexico, and several others who have given a certain flavor to the magazine.
(To Anaïs) I’m deeply grateful to you for that. You kept me in touch with writers all over the world. Some I haven’t published. I never had the feeling that if you sent me a piece there was any compulsion to publish it and so some were sent back. But unlike any other advisory editor you have contributed to the flavor of the magazine, for which I am deeply grateful.
Now about the possible importance of literary magazines in our society in early days I published in much the same way Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, described in connection with some drawings that he published in magazines:
In a world cluttered and programmed with an infinity of practical signs and consequential digits referring to business, law, government, and war, one who makes such non-descript marks as these is conscious of a special vocation to be inconsequent, to be outside the sequence, and to remain firmly alien to the program. In effect these writings are decidedly hopeful in their own way insofar as they stand outside all processes of production, marketing, consumption and destruction, which does not mean however that they cannot be bought. Nevertheless it is clear that these are not legal marks nor are they illegal marks since as far as law is concerned they are perfectly inconsequent. And to be perfectly inconsequent in terms of the supposed consequential matters is to me the essence of a literary magazine. This presumes that the more advanced a technological society becomes, the more important individual endeavors are, in a practical sense. Not only for the purpose of one’s sanity but also because it is the only way civilization, if it deserves to advance at all, might proceed.
At another level, Primus St. John, a black poet friend of mine from the inner-city, once wrote me, ‘WHEN THE WORLD GETS YOU DOWN, FOOL IT WITH A POEM.’ The same point of view applies to all your endeavors from pottery to painting.
Unfortunately, little magazines have to deal with outside influences like distributors, post offices, whose increasing rates threaten to drive many of them out of business, and others who would like to exploit the magazine for one purpose or another. Even in a private endeavor with a total sense of independence, you have to deal with those who would want in some way to subvert it or to have you sell out. And there is nothing that disturbs the Establishment more than something they cannot understand and there’s no conceivable way for them to understand a little magazine.
In reaction to this, however, some editors tend to become overly political. They become anarchists and act as if they are always marching against the Czar. And it’s very difficult to march against the Czar with a mimeograph machine. You just can’t win. So if I ever have another magazine and publish a manifesto I will probably have a blank page. I think it’s good to rant and rave against the established forces, but I’m increasingly inclined to think that it would be just better to fill the world with poems, with stories, with photographs and make that kind of presence without preaching and I dare say often without politics. Although a magazine needs to resist even the pressures to resist, the best ones seem to move beyond the reflections of an individual’s tastes and whatever limitations that might entail.
In the five or six years since I’ve had the good ship “Voyages” going, we’ve had many interesting trips. But I come here this weekend hoping to find from all of you possible new areas in which I may move, new areas that I would like to explore. Just as Wallace Stevens had a poem about “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”, so I have developed 10 commandments for a literary magazine: These are not the ‘shalt nots” of childhood repression, but 10 commandments for this gathering this weekend. Here they are:
1. Thou shalt try to discover new writers who are saying new things, or old things in new ways.
2. Thou shalt try to discover experienced writers who are saying old or new things in a way that is unique.
3. Thou shalt try to get experienced or old writers to say things that they didn’t know they were capable of saying.
4. Thou shalt keep the magazine open to experimentation and styles of writing that you might not necessarily agree with.
5. Thou shalt provide writers with space in which to move about. Poems are not fillers in a magazine and deserve a full page.
6. Make each issue a new event and have each issue evolve in the process of development … For my own protection I should mention that several years ago I did an issue devoted to women writers.
7. Thou shalt attempt to produce a magazine that has good paper, printing, and design, which hopefully people will want to keep, not throw away like “The New York Times” or “Atlantic Monthly”.
8. Thou shalt try to remain totally outside the commercial realm if possible and even the academic one, with all due apologies.
9. Also be wary of people with subsidies because my early experience was that the larger the subsidy, the more poems this person had to be published in a closet or drawer.
10. And, finally, thou shalt remember in the end that society will probably never admit that there is a price for this kind of magazine since it follows no prescribed rules, fits into no easy compartment, never, I hope, comes out on a regular basis; and the magazine to the best of its ability affirms continuing openness to new methods of expression and independence from any form of regimentation and generally tries to preserve its real virtue – humor – and the opportunity for hope that new writers can say whatever it is they have to say.
That is all I really want to say, but in connection with the question of treating the woman writer as woman rather than just as poet or artist, I’d like to add that recently I was talking with Gloria Steinem about her magazine, “Ms”, and told her that I thought that she was missing most of the good writing that was going on in America by women, if not all. I mentioned unfamiliar names to her and simply said, “try to find these.” I fear that possibly the women’s thing may become exploitable by people who have the profit motive. When I did the woman’s issue, I wrote the following note:
In a country as startlingly surrealistic as the United States, it is rarely a good idea to try to develop themes in anything at all. When that subject might happen to be woman, the whole notion of a unifying concept becomes absurd. This issue of “Voyages” started out to be a woman issue, but the notion was abandoned. No overview or underview of any kind is intended here although it will soon be obvious that most of the contributions happen to be by or about women. We are honored to call special attention to the American poet, Josephine Miles of California and Jane Cooper of New York City. Ms. Miles is the kind of well known poet about whom enough good things can never be said and Ms. Cooper is just on the verge of establishing herself through the publication of her first book due in 1969.
This is the real sense of satisfaction: we did a special feature on Jane Cooper and six months later she won the Lamont Poetry Prize for her first book. So that’s the real joy in literary magazines. It’s nice to have the established writers and the famous writers but to … now I did not discover her … give writers like her special treatment before her first book, is something I like to remember. Then I had a long piece by Carolyn Gordon and Harry Peebles on Twiggy, of all people to show how outdated this is, although this article isn’t dated. I was also extremely proud to publish the section by Anaïs on the relationship of her work to her famous Diaries. As I wrote:
If anybody could symbolize all of the finest qualities of the feminine gender, Anaïs Nin is that person. Her extraordinary role in literature is just beginning to be felt, although she has been in fact an international hero to writers and artists since the 1930’s. There are too many other fine writers in this issue to single out by name but we hope the careful reader will note the divergence of styles, the various geographical background, and both the strangeness and sometimes startling clarity of some of the material. If it all seems too diverse, too strange, and ultimately lacking in any theme, so often goes the journey of the mind.
This was my effort some five years ago of bringing together various women writers. I’m just trying to say I’m all for you.
Chapter Six, part 2 | Table of Contents
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Science & Quality
Meet the brilliant minds behind Algalif's ingredient solutions. Our scientists are passionate about microalgae and natural astaxanthin.
Haraldur Gardarsson, Ph.D.
Haraldur has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He has held numerous academic positions throughout his career, most recently as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Iceland. Haraldur joined the Algalif team in 2015, where he quickly rose through the ranks to Quality Control Manager.
Sigurbjörn J. Björnsson
Sigurbjörn has a M.Sc. degree in Strategic Management from the University of Iceland. He has 15 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including audits, writing SOPs, working on deviations, CAPAs and validation projects. Sigurbjörn joined Algalif in 2015 and has been responsible for establishing a GMP culture in the company.
Ingólfur Gunnarsson, Ph.D.
Head of Cultivation
Ingólfur has a Ph.D. in biotechnology from the Technical University of Denmark, and has been a member of the Algalif team since his graduation. He is the Head of Cultivation at Algalif, where he is responsible for culture scale-up, contamination control and growth optimisation.
Jan Eric Jessen, M.Sc.
Cultivation Specialist
Jan Eric has a M.Sc. degree in biotechnology from the University of Akureyri in Iceland. Prior to joining Algalif, he worked as Project Manager of Laboratories at the University of Akureyri. He is currently a Cultivation Specialist at Algalif, where he is responsible for laboratory scale-up of production cultures.
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Wordsearches
Concept maps
Other histories
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Alpha History
A portrait of Washington in his early 30s, before his revolutionary war service
George Washington (1732-1799) was an American military commander, politician, statesman and the best-known leader of the American Revolution. During his lifetime Washington served as an officer in the Virginian colonial militia, a member of the colonial gentry, a delegate to the Virginian House of Burgesses, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, chairman of the Philadelphia constitutional convention and the first president of the United States. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that without George Washington, the American Revolution may have taken an entirely different route. His contribution seems even more remarkable, given that as late as 1762 Washington was seeking a commission in the British regular army. Had London not rejected his overtures, Washington may well have ended up fighting against the Continental Army, rather than commanding it.
George Washington was born in Virginia in 1732, the third son of a prosperous tobacco planter. His two older brothers were educated in England, however, the death of his father in 1743 meant Washington was denied this opportunity. He instead trained as a surveyor, marking the start of a lifelong interest in land and speculation. By adulthood, Washington was a striking figure, possessed of a booming voice and imposing height (at six foot two inches or 188 centimetres he was significantly taller than most colonial American men). In 1753, with Anglo-French frontier tensions building, Washington was commissioned in the Virginian militia and sent to protect British wilderness settlements. Despite carrying instructions to avoid confrontation, Washington ambushed a French patrol and triggered a retaliatory attack against the British-held Fort Necessity. His men were surrounded and captured, forcing Washington to sign an embarrassing admission of liability. This early military escapade marked a flashpoint in the French and Indian War.
Washington served the duration of the war then returned to his plantation at Mount Vernon. There he became a successful tobacco planter while experimenting with wheat, hemp and rye (he used the latter to produce and sell whiskey). Mount Vernon was tended by up to 300 African-American slaves, half of them owned by Washington. Contemporary accounts suggest Washington treated slaves better than other owners, though he had low regard for their intellectual capacity. In 1758 Washington was elected to the Virginia legislature and the following year married Martha Custis, a wealthy widow whose fortune passed to her new husband.
George Washington’s mansion at Mount Vernon, Virginia
Like many of the colonial gentry, Washington had mixed feelings about England. He was proudly loyal to the king and parliament and a great admirer of British imperial, military and naval strength. But Washington was privately frustrated by his commercial dealings with English companies, which gave him poor prices for exports yet charged exorbitantly for manufactured goods. Washington also claimed substantial tracts of land in the western territories in 1763, only to see these claims thwarted by the royal proclamation later that year. Washington’s response to the 1765 Stamp Act was lukewarm. He said little about it in public or in the legislature; he chose not to attend the debates which led to the Virginia Resolves, claiming to have important planting at Mount Vernon. Privately Washington seemed to believe the Stamp Act was just a policy error that would be corrected in due course.
“In the sixteen years since Washington’s first election to the Burgesses [Virginia assembly] he had displayed anything but an overwhelming interest in the issues that concerned legislators. He was repeatedly re-elected, but his legislative performance was lacklustre at best. In some years he had not bothered to attend even a single assembly session. His disinterest should not come as a surprise. He had commenced his legislative service without ever having enunciated his views on any public issue, save for those that affected him directly… What chiefly interested him was amassing and protecting his personal fortune.”
John E. Ferling, historian
Washington’s position was hardened by London’s continued attempts to extract revenue from her American colonies. The Townshend duties stirred the Virginian to greater action – not least because they affected his own business interests. In 1769 Washington sat on a committee that encouraged a continent-wide boycott of English imports; the committee’s objective was to deny trade to British companies “till ruin stares them in the face”. By now, Washington was openly describing British policies as a deliberate attempt to drive the colonies to subservience. “Our lordly masters in Great Britain”, Washington wrote in 1769, “will only be satisfied with the deprivation of American freedom.” Washington was one of the first to suggest the possibility of taking up arms, albeit as a last resort. Like most moderates Washington did not support the destruction of private property at the centre of the Boston Tea Party; he even suggested that Massachusetts should provide compensation. But he deplored the Coercive Acts, which he called “despotic measures”, an “invasion of our rights and privileges”, part of a “regular systematic plan [to] fix the shackles of slavery upon us”.
Washington in uniform, early in the war
By the end of 1774, Washington the critic of British policy had become Washington the revolutionary. He led the passing of anti-British resolves in his native county of Fairfax, then won a nomination to the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He took a back seat in the debates but supported the Congress’ motions for colonial association and non-importation. Washington’s moment came during the second Continental Congress, a month after the fighting at Lexington and Concord. Washington attended Congress in his Virginia colonel’s uniform, as if to signal his readiness for war and to remind other delegates of his military experience. Washington was appointed the commander-in-chief of the newly-formed Continental Army. His appointment was partly political, a move to bind the populous and wealthy Virginia to the war.
Washington receives command of the Continental Army, 1775
After receiving his commission Washington joined the Continental Army outside Boston. His first inspection revealed the enormity of the challenge confronting him. Washington’s ‘army’ ranged from part-time militiamen to angry farmers; they were eager to fight but lacked military discipline, training, understanding of command structures or procedures. Most Continental officers had been elected by the men and were poorly trained or unfit to lead. The Continentals lacked stores, weapons, munitions, tents, blankets and other necessities of war. It would take months for Washington to shape these men – whom he initially referred to as “dirty nasty people” – into anything resembling a professional military force. Assuming the duties of more junior officers, Washington implemented military routines, posted daily orders, organised drills, coached his officers and trained the men. An admirer of the British army and its discipline, Washington was not averse to using corporal punishment to impose order. He authorised his officers to employ flogging for a wide range of offences, ordering that afterwards the backs of flogged men be “well washed with salt and water”.
Washington was also a determined advocate for his men and conscious of their needs, particularly when dealing with the Continental Congress, state assemblies or wealthy donors. For much of the war, Washington lobbied for more men with longer enlistments, more foreign volunteers and mercenaries, more weapons and munitions, more money, food, livestock, wagons, uniforms, boots and blankets. He hated this because it distracted him from the true business of military command, but he recognised its importance. These heavy burdens and frustrations, coupled with a string of military defeats in 1776, took a huge psychological toll on the general. Yet though Washington could be moody and short-tempered in private, he was careful to avoid displays of anger, emotion or exasperation, both in public and in correspondence, because he knew the eyes of America were upon him.
© Alpha History 2015. Content on this page may not be republished or distributed without permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use.
This page was written by Steve Thompson and Jennifer Llewellyn. To reference this page, use the following citation:
S. Thompson & J. Llewellyn, “George Washington”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], https://alphahistory.com/americanrevolution/george-washington/.
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AIA|LA Statement on Tragic Death of LA Firefighter
Last week's LA Times article, "Architect of Hollywood Hills mansion damaged in fire, is charged in firefighter's death," stirred discussion, particularly among architects, as the individual who designed the home was not a licensed architect. Aside from requesting that the LA Times retract the word "architect" from the article, the [AIA|LA], in conjunction with [AIACC] Executive Vice President, Paul Welch, Hon. AIA, have released the following statement... — AIA|LA
Previously: Architect charged for the death of a firefighter
Statement from AIA|LA...
The recent Los Angeles Times article concerning the negligent activities of an individual purporting to be an architect, and how those activities resulted in the tragic death of Los Angeles Firefighter Glenn Allen, serve to remind us all that the profession of architecture is about much more than aesthetics.
The profession of architecture is carefully regulated in the state of California by the California Architects Board (CAB). While the title of "architect" is easily understood by the public, unfortunately, we find many examples of misuse of the term. Despite the Los Angeles Police Department, Fire Department, Building Department, and District Attorney's Office identifying Gehard Albert Becker as an architect, and Mr. Becker identifying himself an architect, a query of the California Architects Board's (CAB) records confirms that Mr. Becker is not, nor was he ever, licensed to practice architecture in California.
Although Mr. Becker claims that he is an architect in Germany, California law is very clear that an individual must be licensed by the CAB to use the title Architect (Business & Professions Code section 5500) and legally practice architecture in California. Any use of the term in relation to the built environment by an individual not licensed to practice architecture in California is a violation of the Architects Practice Act (Business & Professions Code section 5536 a, b, and c).
The AIA|LA is the voice of the architecture profession in Los Angeles, we are dedicated to serving and empowering our members through advocacy, educational and outreach programs as well as educating the public on the value and importance of architecture. This tragedy serves to remind us that each day, millions of Californians live, work, and play in safe environments designed by licensed architects; that the decisions of architects impact not only the eye and the mind, but the body as well; and that the health, safety, and welfare of the public is serious business best left to licensed professionals.
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firearchitect titlecrimelegalaiaaia|lagerhard becker
Hello, AIA of Los Angeles, Before posturing and getting all emotional, do check and make sure you have all your facts. The issue is not whether he was licensed in california or not but it is illegal for a state to forbid a person from accurately describing that the person has a license in another country. That may simply be known on the person's website for which he does practice in Germany. Internet is a public domain that transcend and is in fact not legally part of u.s. Jurisdiction as it is an international public domain. So, a client who would hired him knew he was a foreign architect. The violation occurs if the person conducts services in contract using the architect title or referring o services as architectural services as he advertises offering of architectural services to california. I would advise caution with posturing to make yourself sound intelligent, important and an authority while making yourself sound like a dumbass. Has it occured the newspaper don't make distinction between architects and building designers and they legally do't have to nor do they legally have to check if a person is licenses. They never have and never will check. Newspaper reporters do not have time nor does the editors. The licensing boards can not legally pursue fining the newspaper and publishers. Newspapers and such are expression of speech and falls into constitutional domain of freedom of speech. Be sure... Ok.
Mar 3, 12 6:03 am
snook_dude
Ya I guess the guy couldn't get his IDP finalized...cause no one read german in the NCARB office....just kidding.
Donna Sink
So Rick B should the newspaper also not bother to check if a doctor whose incompetence kills a patient is actually a doctor or not? Because, you know, they don't have time?
Mar 3, 12 8:10 pm
Rick b or not to b....that is the question. What is wrong with a journalist checking to see if a guy is registered with the department of consumer protection to see if the a proclaimed architect is registered with the state of California. Who cares if he is registered in Germany if he is doing work in California.
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Sadler's Wells Theatre ArchiveSadler's Wells Theatre records deposited by Sadler's Wells Theatre and other individualsPublicity records and publicationsPress cuttings (chronological)1980 (Aug-Dec). Press cuttings. Miscellaneous
1980 (Aug-Dec). Press cuttings. Miscellaneous
Bookmark:https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb1032-s/swt/s/swt/2/7/1/30
Islington Local History Centre Special Collections
GB 1032 S/SWT/2/7/1/30
Miscellaneous press cuttings relating to Sadler's Wells Theatre.
Sadler's Wells Theatre ArchiveS/SWT
Sadler's Wells Theatre records purchased and collected by Finsbury LibrariesS/SWT/1
Sadler's Wells Theatre records deposited by Sadler's Wells Theatre and other individualsS/SWT/2
General management recordsS/SWT/2/1
Financial recordsS/SWT/2/2
Property and legal recordsS/SWT/2/3
Ballet recordsS/SWT/2/4
Opera recordsS/SWT/2/5
Visiting company production recordsS/SWT/2/6
Publicity records and publicationsS/SWT/2/7
Press cuttings (chronological)S/SWT/2/7/1
1969-1972 Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/1
1969-1983. Sadlers Wells Theatre CuttingsS/SWT/2/7/1/2
1972 (Jan-July). Press cuttings: dance, opera, mime, S.W. Appeal, miscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/3
1972-1980. Press Cuttings MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/4
1973 (Jan-May). Press cuttings. Dance, opera, miscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/5
1973 (Feb-Dec). Press cuttings. Opera, danceS/SWT/2/7/1/6
1973 (May-Aug). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/7
1973 (Oct-Dec). Press cuttings. Dance, opera.S/SWT/2/7/1/8
1974 Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/9
1974 Press cuttings. Dance Theatre HarlemS/SWT/2/7/1/10
1974 (Feb-Apr). Press cuttings. Dance, puppetry, opera, miscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/11
1974 (May-Jun). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/12
1974 (Jun-Dec). Press cuttings. Dance and operaS/SWT/2/7/1/13
1974-1975 (Aug 74-Feb 75). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/14
1975. Press Cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/15
1975 (Jan-Apr). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/16
1975. Press cuttings. D'Oyly CarteS/SWT/2/7/1/17
1975 (July-Dec). Press cuttings. Mime, dance, opera, miscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/18
1976 (Feb-July). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/19
1976 (June-Dec). Press cuttings. Dance, opera, puppetryS/SWT/2/7/1/20
1976 (July-Aug). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/21
1977 (Jan-Jul). Press cuttings. Miscellaneous, opera, dance.S/SWT/2/7/1/23
1977-78 (Jul 77-Jan 78). Press cuttings. Opera, danceS/SWT/2/7/1/24
1977 (Jul-Oct). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/25
1978-79 (Jul 78-Feb 79). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/26
1979 (Jan-Jun). Press cuttings. Dance, opera, puppetryS/SWT/2/7/1/27
1979 (Jul-Dec). Press cuttings. Dance, operaS/SWT/2/7/1/28
1980 (Jan-July). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/29
1980 (Aug-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/30
1981 (Jan-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/31
1982. Press cuttings. Reference code assigned but nil cuttingsS/SWT/2/7/1/32
1985. Reference code assigned but nil cuttingsS/SWT/2/7/1/35
1986 (Feb-Jul). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/36
1986-87 (Aug 86-May 87). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/37
1987 (Jun-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/38
1988 (Jan-Jun). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/39
1988 (Jul-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/40
1989 (Jan-Apr). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/41
1989 (May). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/42
1989 (Jun-Aug). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/43
1991 (Jan-May/Jun). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/47
1991 (May/Jun-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/48
1991-92 (Sept 91 - Jan 92). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/49
1992 (Feb-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/50
1995 (Jan-May). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/53
1995 (May-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/54
1996 (Jan-Mar). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/55
1996 (Mar-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/56
1998 (Jan-Sept). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/58
1998 (Oct-Dec). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/59
1999 (Apr-Jun). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/61
1999 (Jul-Sept). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/62
2002-10. Press cuttings. Reference code assigned but nil cuttingsS/SWT/2/7/1/66
1929-1962 (oversize). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/68
1970 (oversize). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/71
1978-79 (oversize). Press cuttings. MiscellaneousS/SWT/2/7/1/79
1949-1958 press cuttings from London Musical EventsS/SWT/2/7/1/81
1957-1967 Yorkshire Post Reviews by Ernest BradburyS/SWT/2/7/1/82
Press cuttings (subjects)S/SWT/2/7/2
Press releasesS/SWT/2/7/3
PostersS/SWT/2/7/4
Programmes (chronological)S/SWT/2/7/5
Production flyers and leafletsS/SWT/2/7/6
Season brochuresS/SWT/2/7/7
Other leaflets and ephemeraS/SWT/2/7/8
PeriodicalsS/SWT/2/7/9
Sadler’s Wells Opera BooksS/SWT/2/7/10
Sadler’s Wells Ballet BooksS/SWT/2/7/11
Other Sadler's Wells publicationsS/SWT/2/7/12
Commemorative Sadler's Wells PublicationsS/SWT/2/7/13
Illustrations and photographsS/SWT/2/8
External papers & publications relating to Sadler's WellsS/SWT/2/9
Miscellaneous papersS/SWT/2/10
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Pan Tao. Revelation
June 21 − August 2 • Pearl Lam Gallery, Hong Kong, 601-605 Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Hong Kong
Gallery Pearl Lam in Hong Kong presents a solo exhibition of the Chinese artist Pani Tao "Revelation"where works created from the 1970s to the present are shown. The author is one of the first artists in modern China who studied abstract painting. This project covers the original artistic experiments of the artist in the historical context of modern Chinese art.
Pan Tao was born in 1934 in Shanghai. She studied at the National Art School of Hangzhou, and two years later moved to the painting department of the Central Academy of Arts and graduated from the graduate school in 1955. After that, she remained at the academy as a teacher. The author’s approaches were not welcomed by conservative forces in the artistic world. But Pan Tao continued to work in her field of art, promoting the complex and rich modernist studies of two generations of artists - before and after 1949. Over the past four decades, it has achieved impressive results. Today, in his 80 years, Ban Tao continues to create.
September 11, 2019 − February 2, 2020 • Tate Britain, Millbank, London, United Kingdom
William Blake. Painter
A new look at the visionary, poet and artist offers the Tate Britain gallery in London. The exhibition “William Blake. Artist "will present the most complete since 2001 review of the master's works and open it as a visualist in the 21st century
January 31 − September 15 • Mauritshuis, Plein 29, The Hague
Rembrandt and Mauritshuis
The Mauritshuis in The Hague has one of the most famous and important collections of paintings by Rembrandt in the world. The museum will display all eighteen canvases from the collection, which are or were attributed to the master. Among them are
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Daniel Swinton is the President of TNG, LLC. Daniel consults frequently with colleges, universities and PreK-12 on issues of Title IX, the Violence Against Women Act and sexual violence, alcohol and other drugs, behavioral intervention, bystander intervention, student conduct policies and procedures, hearing board training, mediation and legal issues in education. Daniel often serves institutions as an external investigation support provider for issues of sexual misconduct and other complex student conduct matters as well as employment concerns, retaliation and harassment. He also serves as an expert witness in cases of sexual assault, Title IX, negligence, academic integrity and civil rights. He has authored a number of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics ranging from student conduct to civil rights investigations. Daniel is also a frequent presenter and invited speaker at national and regional conferences. Prior to his work with TNG, he served as Assistant Dean and Director of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity at Vanderbilt University.
Daniel serves as Vice President of ATIXA (The Association for Title IX Administrators) and on the Advisory Board of NaBITA (National Behavioral Intervention Team Association). He has also served on the Board for the Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA), having served as its President in 2011-2012.
Daniel received his Bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, his law degree (J.D.) from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU and a doctorate (Ed.D.) in higher education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. He is a member of the Tennessee State Bar.
He has also been interviewed and/or featured by The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, USA Today, Inside Higher Ed, Student Affairs Today, and the Washington Post, as well as other publications and sources.
Through TNG, Daniel provides specialized consulting, seminars and training on:
Sexual Assault and Harassment (Title IX Training)
Student Conduct and Hearing Board Training
K-12 Specific Concerns
Civil Rights Investigations
Harassment and Discrimination Policies and Procedures
Hazing Prevention and Greek Conduct Board Training
Student Drinking and Drugs Programs
Student Conduct Code Review
Behavioral Intervention Teams
Title IX Compliance for Colleges, Universities, and K-12 (including policy and procedure analysis and development) for:
Sexual Harassment Workshops
Sexual Assault & Sexual Misconduct Issues
Panel Training
Conduct/Hearing Board Training
Competency Based Models
Procedure & Protocol Development
Student Conduct Program Development
Academic Integrity & Honor Code Development & Implementation
Mediation and Conflict Resolution
To invite Daniel to your campus, please contact Megan Birster, Director of Client Development, at 610-993-0229, ext. 1015.
If you’d like to speak with Daniel directly, please email Daniel.Swinton@tngconsulting.com.
Daniel C. Swinton, J.D., Ed.D. media sheet
Page not found | ATIXA
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Date: Sunday 17 March 1985
Operator: Saudi Arabian Airlines
Registration: registration unknown
C/n / msn:
Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15
Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 21
Passengers: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 76
Aircraft damage: Minor
Aircraft fate: Repaired
Location: Dhahran International Airport (DHA) ( Saudi Arabia)
Phase: En route (ENR)
Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport: Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED/OEJN), Saudi Arabia
Destination airport: Riyadh-King Khalid International Airport (RUH/OERK), Saudi Arabia
A Saudi Arabian Boeing 737 aircraft with 76 passengers and 21 crew members aboard was hijacked by a lone male armed with a hand grenade. The aircraft was en route from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Kuwait via Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The hijacker commandeered the aircraft just prior to landing in Riyadh and demanded to be taken to another destination. The pilot told the hijacker that the aircraft would have to refuel in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia before it could continue. While in Dhahran, the hijacker released everyone except the pilot and co-pilot. When the hijacker refused to surrender to Saudi Arabian security officials, the aircraft was stormed and, after throwing the grenade, he was shot and killed. There were no other casualties and damage to the aircraft was reported as slight.
Plane stormed
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport to Riyadh-King Khalid International Airport as the crow flies is 847 km (529 miles).
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Temple Solel event celebrates Leonard Bernstein’s legacy
Front & Center
Pictured above: Leonard Bernstein and Gail Dubinbaum.
To honor what would have been Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, Temple Solel is presenting a special concert on the anniversary of Bernstein’s death, Oct. 14.
“It’s an event that Solel is putting on in conjunction with The Phoenix Opera,” says Todd Herzog, cantorial soloist at Temple Solel. “John Massaro brought the idea to us and we decided to move forward with it.”
John Massaro and his wife, Gail Dubinbaum are the founders of The Phoenix Opera. John has also been the music director and played piano for High Holiday services at Temple Solel for many years, and Gail has performed as a substitute cantor from time to time.
John Massaro
During this special concert, John will be the pianist, Gail will be the host and narrator, and Todd will perform along with Rabbi Emily Langowitz and several members of The Phoenix Opera.
The evening will be “a mixture of his more popular music, like ‘West Side Story,’ along with a couple of more classical pieces,” says Todd. There are 15 pieces on the schedule.
“We are very thrilled to be doing this because we’ve been affiliated with Temple Solel for many years,” says Gail. “A lot is going into this program that’s different. I like being the walking, talking program guide and giving people insight into what they are hearing.” Gail will share fascinating information on Bernstein, his compositions, the backstory on the compositions and his affiliations with Gershwin and Copland and how they influenced his music.
Gail will also share a few personal anecdotes from the many times she had the privilege of performing with “Maestro Bernstein,” as she calls him.
The first time Gail met Leonard Bernstein, she was living in New York, singing with the Metropolitan Opera, when she was hired by the LA Philharmonic to be the mezzo-soprano soloist for Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony.
Since Bernstein did not know her, and he was not in the habit of conducting people that he had not personally put his stamp of approval on, she was contacted by his manager, Harry Kraut.
Rabbi Emily Langowitz
“Mr. Kraut said that Mr. Bernstein wanted to hear me live to audition,” remembers Gail. So she was sent the musical score, and a few days later she and her accompanist (her husband, John) arrived at Bernstein’s apartment.
“John and I went into his music room with all of the pictures, from everyone in the world, all over the piano and all of his scores…it was intimidating, like you have no idea,” says Gail.
Bernstein walked into the room, smoking and wearing a short robe, and sat about six feet from where Gail stood.
“I start singing Jeremiah for him, and at one point he jumped up and said, ‘No that’s wrong!’ ” says Gail. Harry had sent them the wrong orchestral score!
“I continued singing and about half-way through Bernstein put up his hands and said, ‘Stop, stop!’ and I thought, ‘I’m going to die right now,’ ” says Gail. “He said, ‘No, I can’t say this. No, I shouldn’t say this. OK, I’ll say this. That is the most beautiful I’ve ever heard this sung.’ ”
That is how Gail got the chance to sing the Jeremiah Symphony with Leonard Bernstein for the first time at the Hollywood Bowl. She went on to perform with him in Boston and Pittsburg, the latter location was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the creation of Jeremiah.
“I sang with Bernstein many, many times and it was always an honor – and thrilling,” says Gail.
Todd Herzog
Yet there was one opportunity to perform with Bernstein that Gail did not get to do, and has regretted ever since.
She was invited by Bernstein to sing at a private concert for a rededication of a room in the Vatican. There would be a private concert for the Pope and then an open-air concert that would be broadcast by the Italian radio.
“I was in a production with the Metropolitan Opera at the time, and they would not let me out of my contract,” says Gail. “Bernstein was going to fly me overnight on the Concord and get me into Rome the next day to sing at this concert. That didn’t happen, which was heartbreaking for many reasons.”
When she told Bernstein that she couldn’t go, he said that they would just have to get the “second best” singer to perform. That turned out to be Gail’s idol – world-renowned mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig.
One of Gail’s prized possessions is a limerick that Bernstein wrote on the back of her music one day. She had asked for his autograph, and instead, he wrote this:
There once was a man from Yale,
who was burning to sing like Gail.
He said my desi’ah’
to sing Jeremiah,
is such that
I rue being male.
Love always!
“That I keep in my music room,” she says. “It’s one of the best things I have in my collection of mementos from my career.”
Love Always! Lenny
When: 7 pm, Sunday, Oct. 14
Where: Temple Solel, 6805 E. McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley
Tickets: $10 students, $25 general admission ($18 advance purchase by Oct. 1), $50 VIP includes a meet-the-artist champagne reception following the concert
Information: 480-991-7414 or templesolel.org/events
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NCAA Women’s Tournament: #6 South Dakota State Upsets #3 Syracuse
Dave Eggen/Inertia
After knocking on the door twice before, South Dakota State will play in the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament after upsetting third-seeded Syracuse on their home floor, 75-64.
SDSU, the number-six seed got a big second half from Madison Guebert, whose three-point shooting keyed a fourth quarter run that ran the Jacks win streak to 18 straight, the longest current streak in the nation.
Guebert finished with 20 points and was 6-of-10 from behind the arc.
The Jackrabbits got off to a quick start in the first quarter with Myah Selland scoring four points in the first two minutes to give SDSU a four-point advantage. Selland finished with 17 points.
Syracuse went on a run later with seven straight points from Kiara Lewis and the Orange led by four points after the first quarter, shooting 63 percent in the first ten minutes.
The Jacks started the second quarter cold allowing Syracuse to push the lead to 11 with 4:03 left as Lewis scored nine points off the bench in the first half.
SDSU got great bench play from Paiton Burkhard who scored nine of her own in the first 20 minutes.
The Jackrabbit defense tightened late in the first half, turning the Orange over, keying a 9-0 SDSU run to end the half with State down 38-36. The Jacks forced eight first half turnovers.
In a game of runs, South Dakota State used a big 13-0 spurt in the third quarter to grab a nine-point advantage, but Syracuse used a tenacious full court press and zone defense to start the fourth quarter with ten unanswered points to swing the momentum back in their favor.
But then Guebert starting heating up, hitting back-to-back three-pointers as the Jackrabbits reeled off eight straight points to grab a lead they would never relinquish.
South Dakota State (28-6) now plays third-seeded Oregon in Portland, Friday (March 29) night. The Jackrabbits hosted the Ducks back in December and led by as many as nine points in the third quarter before being outscored 25-9 to end the game in a 87-79 loss. The Jacks turned it over 14 times in that game.
Source: NCAA Women’s Tournament: #6 South Dakota State Upsets #3 Syracuse
Filed Under: College Sports, NCAA Tournament, SDSU, South Dakota State Jackrabbits, Summit League
Categories: Articles, Sports
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KENYA: Dandora dump-site
2013 - Dandora dumpsite, Nairobi, Kenya - A boy weighs recyclables on a scale in Dandora Dumpsite, one of the largest and most toxic in Africa. Located near slums in the east of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the open dump site was created in 1975 and covers 30 acres. The site receives 2,000 tonnes of unfiltered garbage daily, including hazardous chemical and hospital wastes. It is a source of survival for many people living in the surrounding slums, however it also harms children and adults'...
2013 - Dandora dumpsite, Nairobi, Kenya - A boy weighs recyclables on a scale in Dandora Dumpsite, one of the largest and most toxic in Africa. Located near slums in the east of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the open dump site was created in 1975 and covers 30 acres. The site receives 2,000 tonnes of unfiltered garbage daily, including hazardous chemical and hospital wastes. It is a source of survival for many people living in the surrounding slums, however it also harms children and adults' health in the area and pollutes the Kenyan capital. Photo credit: Benedicte Desrus
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Bay Area Transit News
Your Source for the Bay Area's Latest Transportation News
Transit Guide/System Maps
Bay Area Transit in 2016: What Can We Expect to Happen?
Overall, 2015 was a decently quiet year for the Bay Area's transportation. Both BART and MUNI badly need new fleets, and VTA and BART are in the process of building BART's Silicon Valley Extension.
BART's Warm Springs Station, in south Fremont, never opened, although projections earlier said it would by the end of 2015. Warm Springs is expected to open this year instead.
MUNI is still working on the Central Subway, which will extend the T Third Street to Chinatown and dissolve the merge between the T and the K Ingleside.
So to put 2015 in terms, progress was made, but nothing major happened. No extensions were opened, and no new fleet began operation. But, since 2016 has begun, what can we expect from this New Year? What can we predict will happen within 365 days from now? Well, let's try to find out:
Let's start with Bay Area Rapid Transit. BART is expanding rapidly. Extensions to Warm Springs, San Jose and eBART to Antioch are well underway, with plenty of other opportunities to expand further (Livermore, Brentwood, etc.)
But when are these extensions going to be finished? BART's extension to Warm Springs was supposed to open by the end of 2015, but we know now that didn't happen. In fact, the new station has yet to even begin the test phase.
Now, Warm Springs/South Fremont Station is not projected to open until late 2016, and the whole project is behind schedule.
The rest of BART's extension, past Warm Springs to Milpitas and Berryessa, is not due to open until 2018, since construction south of Warm Springs is part of a second phase of construction, with Warm Springs being the first phase.
A furthur extension south to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara is planned, but has failed to gain necessary funding. So, we have no idea when this extension will be built.
But what about eBART to Antioch? eBART has barely begun construction, and the only work being carried out at this point is a third platform at Pittsburg/Bay Point for eBART trains to stop at. Thus, eBART is not set to open until 2018.
Let's move on to MUNI. A few key things occurred last year, including MUNI Forward, the new E Embarcadero, and MUNI Mobile, but 2015 was relatively quiet for San Francisco's Municipal Railway
This year, several very important changes are supposed to be carried out. The most important has to be the delivery of MUNI's brand-new Metro cars, which will take over the disastrous current Breda light rail vehicles.
MUNI's new cars will begin service this year, and eventually, the total number of cars is set to be 175, MUNI will more than double its current fleet. What's more exciting is that these new cars are being built locally - in Sacramento, by Siemens.
Other smaller changes include the addition of weekday service to the E Embarcadero and a few more additions to MUNI Forward, slowly revolutionizing the MUNI system.
The Central Subway will also continue construction, but is not projected to open until 2019. When opened, the T Third Street may become the busiest MUNI Metro line.
VTA, as well as MUNI, is going to have to deal with some of the biggest crowds in America on February 7th, when Super Bowl 50 comes to the Bay Area.
If you're wishing for slightly more recent news, how about new buses in three days? On January 4th, VTA's new buses will be rolled out across the system. And if you've ever ridden in one of MUNI's new buses, you'll know exactly what VTA's new buses look and feel like without looking at one, because they're exactly the same.
Built by New Flyer, 29 new 60-foot articulated buses are going into service on VTA's Rapid 522 line, as well as the future Alum Rock-Santa Clara bus rapid transit corridor.
And for even more recent news, VTA's Day Pass has been eliminated as of today, January 1st. So for anyone who constantly used the Day Pass, too bad! Use Clipper!
VTA, as well as BART, is currently building the Silicon Valley Extension. Milpitas Station is on the rise, but is not expected to open for business until 2018, as well as Berryessa Station, in East San Jose.
AC Transit also had a relatively inactive 2015 year. One of the most exciting things to happen was the testing of brand-new double decker buses on select routes, which we actually got the chance to ride on.
If purchased, these eye-catching buses from England and Scotland (they're used in London!) will be used primarily on AC Transit's transbay lines, such as the F and O. Why? Well, ridership is growing, and these double decker bulky buses can seat up to 80 people, compared to the normal 36.
As exciting as these new English-accent-built buses are, they wouldn't enter service until 2017. In fact, these buses haven't even been purchased yet. But if they are, AC Transit will become the sixth carrier to run double deckers, behind Seattle, Davis, San Luis Obispo (one bus), Las Vegas, and Snohomish County, Washington.
For now, 2016 remains fairly uneventful for AC Transit. There will always be the occasional service change, including a current proposed one on changes to Transbay Lines F and J, but for now, nothing crazy is going on.
And what about CalTrain? Last year brought about... not much. New MetroLink cars from Los Angeles were brought up to the Bay Area for extra use on CalTrain, and the modernization of bridges and overpasses continued, but 2015 was mostly inactive.
2016 promises to fulfill a little more excitement and action, as CalTrain inches closer to the complete electrification of the system by 2020.
This year, CalTrain will implement a new signal system called the Communications Based Overlay Signal System, or CBOSS. CBOSS will eliminate the chance of train-to-train collisions by monitoring a train's every move and ensuring that trains are safe distances from other trains around them.
CBOSS can detect areas where workers are present, or where there is an approaching curve or workers along the tracks. CBOSS gives the operator critical information, like the current speed limit, the train's current speed, and the acknowledgment of a signal change.
If a train operator fails to acknowledge a signal change, CBOSS will automatically apply the brakes to bring the train to a safe stop. CBOSS also all but eliminates the risk of a train overshooting a station platform.
CBOSS can also detect when there's a system failure, such as a crossing that fails to go down, and will slow the train to an adaquate speed through the failure "zone."
CBOSS plays a critical role in the complete electrification of the system by 2020, and ensures safety for the future. When the California High-Speed Rail Authority is built, CBOSS will prevent collisions between high-speed trains, freight trains, and CalTrain, which will all share the same track.
The other two heavy rail systems in the Bay Area, Capitol Corridor and ACE, should stay relatively similar from now to the end of 2016, apart from heavily increasing ridership on both systems.
Past Oakland, farther east, public transit is often looked down upon. The further-out East Bay was always designed for the car, with wide streets and highways leading to the larger Bay Area cities.
But the further-out East Bay is one of the fastest-growing regions in the Bay Area, especially the Tri-Valley. The only heavily used transit system in the East Bay past Oakland is BART, really.
But with the East Bay growing rapidly, we'll have to see how much public transit (County Connection, WHEELS, Tri Delta Transit, etc.) in the East Bay plays a factor in shaping the way people get around.
Ridership on these systems is growing, but the total number of passengers is miniscule compared to other systems closer to the large cities. So, these less-ridden transit systems must further encourage people to leave their cars at home in 2016. It's a necessity for the growth of the East Bay.
Same goes for the North Bay, especially The VINE and Marin Transit. The VINE experienced a sharp decrease in total number of passengers in 2012, at just half a million. In 2014, that number rebounded back up to almost 1,000,000.
Marin Transit, Golden Gate Transit and The VINE all took a beating in the recession, but are slowly catching up to their previous ridership once again.
Ridership is expected to keep rising through 2016, but it's still necessary to (try to) convince people to use public transport instead. Routes that would most benefit the common rider must be carefully examined and carried out, if these smaller, lesser-known transit systems seek to gain more passengers.
So that, in a nutshell, is what 2016 may look like for Bay Area transit systems. For now, we can only predict what will happen, but 2016 has much potential to be an exciting year, with many more exciting projects expected to come out in the distant future.
Categories: San Francisco, East Bay, South Bay
BART (119)
MUNI (74)
AC Transit (47)
CalTrain (27)
VTA (21)
SamTrans (3)
Golden Gate Transit (9)
Marin Transit (0)
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Amtrak/Capitol Corridor (4)
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East Bay (143)
North Bay (9)
South Bay (29)
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Rod Stewart and Living the Expat Life
David Holzer tries to decide whether to see Sir Rod Stewart at the Budapest Arena on January 29. He likes the ageing rocker, but does he want to go simply because Stewart is English and Holzer is feeling the need to reconnect with his own Englishness?
Singer Rod Stewart performing at Jones Beach Theater on July 18, 2017 in Wantagh, New York.
Actually, Stewart may well call himself British. He’s Scottish on his father’s side and fiercely proud of his ancestry. Despite this, he’s as English as they come. But, like the Rolling Stones, Bowie and others of his generation of rock and roll peacocks who made it to the topper most of the popper most in the early 1970s, he left the UK in 1974 when the government raised taxes for high earners to around 90%.
At the time, Stewart claimed to the music press, who thought he was betraying the land of his birth, “It’s just not worth living in England any more”.
Ironically, in that same year Stewart told US magazine Rolling Stone that his reason for emigrating was because he didn’t want to be a performer for the rest of his life. Today, he is 72 and shows no sign of retiring. Which is good for the people of Budapest.
For the better part of his career, Stewart has been known as a flashy, dynamic stage performer. Now, by all accounts, he’s slowed down and can’t quite hit the notes he used to. But the essence of the Rod hasn’t changed. Despite being knighted, he still dresses like a rocker, with his hair teased into signature drowned rooster spikes. His voice is still a melodic rasp.
According to recent reviews of his shows, Stewart still kicks footballs into the crowd from the stage – exactly as he did in the early days. Unlike the wild and crazy days of the 1970s, this is accompanied by warnings to his somewhat more mature audience to beware of low-flying balls.
Apart from the fun and games, Stewart’s show adds up to a stroll through a back catalogue that contains the amount of hits you’d expect from an artist who’s apparently sold around 100 million records.
So, if you’re a fan from the early days, you’ll probably get to listen to classics like “Maggie May”. If you got into Sir Rod when he went rather more unabashedly showbiz, you’ll hear the silly but impossible to dislike “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, which was remixed and re-released in August last year featuring American band DNCE.
At the more tasteful end of the spectrum, Sir Rod will no doubt also offer up chestnuts like “I Get a Kick Out of You” or “Fly me to The Moon” that feature on his five hugely successful Great American Songbook albums.
Despite being hugely successful in the United States, Sir Rod recently moved back to the United Kingdom. The reason he gave was that England has always been in his heart. In common with so many other performers and people in the rock and roll and film industries, he’s managed to live most of the last 40 or so years in the States without appearing to have been affected by the experience one bit.
As someone who’s lived outside of the United Kingdom for the past 15 years, I’ve always been fascinated and amused by how the Sir Rods of this world are fanatical about staying connected to Blighty. I wonder if he’s one of those people who must have a jar of Marmite in the cupboard at all times.
Like it or Loathe it
For the uninitiated, Marmite is a sticky brown paste made from yeast extract, a by-product of brewing, with an extremely strong, salty flavor. A little of it goes a very long way. Introduced in 1902, it is part of English life but it also polarizes opinion – in the same way as does “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” you could say.
Since 1996, Marmite has built its advertising around the idea that you either love or hate it. This has led to what’s called the “Marmite effect” entering English pop culture.
If you’re not English, you may well have no idea what Marmite is. Even if you do, it’s pretty hard to describe. When I was growing up, Marmite was ubiquitous. I would imagine more for its supposed nutritional value than the taste. And, despite the levels of salt it contains, Marmite really is good for you. It’s rich in vitamin B and almost gluten free.
What’s interesting is that Marmite seems to be as popular as it ever was. In 2016, Tesco refused to stock Marmite when makers Unilever announced it would put up the price. Tesco triumphed in the pricing dispute (called, of course, Marmitegate) and the result was that the spread reappeared on the supermarket’s shelves. After the victory, shoppers bought an extra 130,000 jars in a few days.
It’s thanks to Tesco that Hungarians and anyone in this country who’s curious can try Marmite. They certainly stock it at my local store. But, although Hungarians do clearly like salt, I’m not so sure what they’d make of Marmite. I can’t say that I’ve been tempted to buy a jar.
Because, for me, one of the great joys of living in another country is diving deep into its cuisine. Especially as I haven’t got much further than Szeged’s superb fish soup or the lángos from our local market and I’m yet to acquire a taste for tejföl – Hungarian sour cream.
And with this in mind, perhaps I should give Rod Stewart a miss and check out Algiers, the experimental American band playing at A38 Ship on the same night. I have no idea whether Algiers is any good or not, but the A38 is a venue, set in a reconditioned Ukrainian stone-carrier ship moored on the Danube, that looks intriguing.
Find out more about A38 Ship at www.a38.hu. Tickets for Sir Rod might still be available at www.ticketpro.hu. Good luck!
Eurostat: Hungary generates highest home price growth
House prices, as measured by the House Price Index, rose by 4% in both the euro area and the EU in the first quarter of 2019 compared with the same quarter of the previous year, the statistical body of the European Union, Eurostat says.
Ecofin recommends Hungary rein in gov’t expenditures
European Union finance and economy ministers have recommended Hungary take steps to keep government expenditures in check in order to meet its medium-term budgetary objective, state news wire MTI reported. Hungary continues to dispute the recommendations.
Hungary joint 11th on Henley Passport Index
The Hungarian passport has been ranked joint 11th alongside Estonia on the 2019 Henley Passport Index, a global ranking of 199 passports according to the travel freedom of citizens that hold them, compiled by Henley & Partners, the global citizenship and residence advisory firm said in a press release.
Henley & Partners
Hungarian ITC bootcamps mull regional expansion
Due to remarkable success on the local market, Hungarian ITC bootcamps are targeting regional expansion. Offering super-fast IT and programming education, these institutions have found a partial solution to one of the biggest staffing problems in Hungary.
Hungary signs deal on Trieste Port
Hungary has signed an agreement regarding the establishment of a port and logistics base in Trieste, northeast Italy, aiming to facilitate the access of Hungarian companies to export markets, according to media reports.
Szijjártó
First-half general govʼt deficit at 39.1% of full-year target
Hungaryʼs cash flow-based general government, excluding local councils, ran a deficit of HUF 390 billion, or 39.1% of the full-year target at the end of June, the Ministry of Finance said in a preliminary release on Monday, state news wire MTI reported.
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You may hate Facebook but it’s still the future of social networks
Some people would like you to think that Facebook has a “teenager” problem. You shouldn’t listen to them. VentureBeat directs our attention to a new study conducted by curator startup Niche, which surveyed roughly 7,000 teenagers and found 61% of them used Facebook on a daily basis, more than any other social networking service.
YouTube was the second-most used app among teenagers, as 55% said they used it daily, followed by the Facebook-owned Instagram at 51%. The popular Snapchat, which some analysts have said poses a potential threat to Facebook when it comes to usage among teens, is used daily by 46% of teenagers.
What this means is that, despite dire predictions that Facebook will disappear over the next few years, the company’s place as the top social networking firm seems secure. Even if people stop using Facebook proper as much as they do now, the company still has both the hugely popular Instagram and WhatsApp to lean on. So while Facebook may not get the same high marks for customer satisfaction that Apple and Google get, there’s little danger of the company falling apart anytime soon.
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Weight restrictions to increase to 80,000 pounds on Boca Grande Causeway
■ BY MARCY SHORTUSE
For the first time in decades, the Boca Grande Causeway is allowing vehicles exceeding 40,000 pounds to cross the swing bridge, after having approved the increase at their quarterly meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 16.
The process in getting there, however, was somewhat rocky.
Public comment was taken nearer the beginning of the meeting, at the beginning of “old business” on the agenda, while the actual agenda item was discussed by the board at the very end of the meeting. That didn’t dissuade numerous island residents and business owners from standing and addressing the board with their concerns.
“I fully support the normalization of the weight limit to the 80,000-pound weight for several reasons,” said island resident Tom Bowers. “The higher limit should significantly reduce the quantity of truck traffic. That’s something we’re concerned about right now. Looking forward, I understand there’s a big project on the Isles to do, and that golf course project will require enormous amounts of concrete.”
He continued. “We need Hudson’s. We need The Barnichol. They satisfy our shopping needs, and we need to support them. We paid a lot of money for this bridge. It’s a beautiful bridge. I assume part of the money we spent was to increase the weight limit to 80,000 pounds.”
The golf course project Bowers was referring to is a new wastewater plant being built by the Gasparilla Island Water Association, located on The Gasparilla Inn & Club’s golf course. In November of 2014, GIWA Executive Director Bonnie Pringle addressed the GIBA board and told them that if the weight limit wasn’t raised to 80,000 pounds in the future, the project could cost twice as much as planned. This cost would be passed on to island water customers.
Bill Caldwell, GIWA’s vice president, addressed the board at the November 16 meeting. “As Mr. Bowers mentioned, we have a huge undertaking,” he said. “Once we get into building, we will have four or five hundred yards of concrete that need to be continuously poured, preferably all at once. At the current weight limit, we could only transport two yards at a time; with the new limit we could do five trucks to one. That’s 250 trucks vs. 50 trucks. It’s the same with the dirt. We could be shipping 700 trucks of dirt in comparison to 2,800 truckloads worth.” Bart deStefano, owner of the South Beach Bar & Grille, had just finished telling the board how much more he was paying for garbage pickup since the larger garbage trucks couldn’t come on the island because of weight restrictions, when business owner Kevin Kelley stood up to speak.
GIBA board member David Hayes had asked deStefano what size truck was needed to suit the restaurant’s needs, but it wasn’t until after deStefano sat down and Kelley began to address the board that GIBA board member Lee Major interrupted him and sent the meeting into a different direction by bringing up a point of order regarding ethics and board member David Hayes.
“There are provisions in our bylaws which are taken almost directly from state statute, enabling the Authority in dealing with conflicts of interest,” Major said, apparently pointing out Hayes’ participation in the weight limit conversation. “Our bylaws say that anyone who is going to get financial benefit from any matter in front of the board is not to participate in or vote on that matter. My understanding from what I’ve heard is that you are in the process of pursuing the sale of a house and purchase of a lot in Hill Tide (Estates). I don’t want the board to get entangled in another dealing with the ethics committee in Tallahassee. If I’m mistaken, please correct me.”
“This is all taken care of,” GIBA Chairman Ginger Watkins said, and she allowed Kelley to continue with his comment. At the end of public comment, the meeting continued (see highlight box) until the last old business item, which was the weight restriction. Watkins began the conversation by saying, “First thing we’re going to do is talk about the issues you brought up today.
The GIBA staff, from the guy on the commercial scales to Kathy sitting upstairs reading the computer, have spent two years looking at every car and truck that has come on this island.” Hayes stopped her and said, “I don’t think I should be listening to this.”
Watkins said that it was all right, Hayes could listen to the presentation. He just could not vote. The reason for Hayes’ concern was brought up at the end of the weight restriction presentation. He and board member Drew Tucker had to recuse themselves from voting on the matter, as both could be perceived as having a conflict of interest. Tucker lives on Boca Grande Isles, which is accessible only by a bridge that is in need of repair. Hayes had prepared a statement for the board in light of the fact that someone had notified GIBA’s attorney that he, too, had a conflict of interest, having purchased a lot in Hill Tide. Before Hayes could recuse himself, though, Major confronted him.
“It’s your decision. I’m not accusing you of anything, I merely bring it up because the board got swept up in the last dispute we had with the guys in Tallahassee, and they showed considerable antipathy toward this board. I just want it to be on record that we’re aware of this, and whatever your decision is, is your decision.”
Hayes responded to that allegation. “Let me straighten out one thing. This has been unbelievable. I met the folks at Hill Tide and got a brochure. I haven’t done anything but give them a deposit to reserve the lot. Suddenly it got to where I was building a concrete house, and that was why I want to raise the weight limits. Maybe it was the same person who called Rob (Berntsson, GIBA’s attorney), because I got a call from him at 9 p.m. on a Wednesday and he told me someone said I had bought a lot and was building a house, and I had to tell him I just reserved one. Someone must be following me around or something. There are no secrets on this island. How could someone even know all this about me? Someone has too much time on their hands if that’s what they’re doing. If I ever thought for a second that reserving a lot was going to (be an) ethics violation of what we do on this board, I wouldn’t have even done it. I’m getting out of this vote. This hurts me a lot, this boils my blood, but I won’t spend $10,000 on a case to defend myself. I’ll get it on the second one.”
Hayes said he has made his feelings known many times about the weight restriction. “It’s no secret how I feel,” he said. He then officially recused himself. Hayes has been a staunch supporter of raising the weight limits since the beginning, and he is one of the only board members to do so.
At GIBA’s quarterly meeting in April of this year, Hayes vehemently addressed his fellow board members and asked why any of them would consider keeping the weight limit at 40,000 pounds. It was at that meeting that the board approved a “special exception” permit for businesses that needed to have more than 40,000 pounds hauled over the bridge. It was a special exception that required a $500 deposit and a $100 charge per trip for overweight vehicles, and business owners who attended the meeting made it clear they were not happy with the option.
At that April meeting, Major said he didn’t even want special exceptions, and he said there were many on the island who agreed with him. He was unable to offer up who the people were or why they felt that way. He said he felt the only reason the bridge was built to the 80,000-pound specification was to obtain financing through a State Infrastructure Bank loan, which required it.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Watkins said there was still a quorum of voting members, three in all after Tucker and Hayes recused themselves. Watkins proposed a motion to increase the weight limit to 80,000 pounds. The audience broke out in applause. “I want my motion to include, though, that we as GIBA will pay for two inspections a year by the FDOT until we have gone through a two-year period and evaluated every pinion, every piece of peeling paint, every piece of the bridge that could be affected by this 80,000-pound weight limit. We have done so much work on the bridge that I don’t think a two-year period with four inspections is too much. If at any point we see any deterioration in the bridge because we went to 80,000 pounds we need to re-evaluate the decision.” “That’s a budget matter, it doesn’t need to be in the motion,” said board member Gay Darsie. “I’m in favor of going to 80,000 pounds, but I have the advantage of sitting next to Peter, and I’ve been querying him about the pinions and the issues there.”
Darsie was referring to a comment made by Engineering Committee Chairman Peter Strong, who said an FDOT inspection about a month ago found that the main pinion gear was moving and separating by as much as one-half of an inch when the bridge was opening. “We opened and closed that bridge eight to 10 times in an hour,” he said. “We need to understand why. The primary impact is that it knocks all the grease off the gear. Maybe we just need to grease it more frequently.
Another problem they found is that the main large bearing block that holds the pinion gear is meant to be rigidly fixed to the bridge structure. For some reason it is moving when the bridge starts opening, and it makes a noise like someone is hammering on the bridge with a 30-pound sledgehammer. We know these blocks that hold the gears are meant to be rigid, but they’re not. You can physically see it move, and you can see the cracked paint around it. “Do what you want with the weight limit, but I would recommend that, whatever decision you make, you wait until we understand more about these problems. We should know more in about a month, maybe a month and a half.
The first step is to have the design engineer work on it. Once he gives his opinion, we will go to the contractor and see what his position is.” Darsie said a temporary policy until January might be in order. Then, assuming that was successful, the decision on raising the weight limit could be made. Advisory board member Bill Klettke asked what effect, if any, would raising weight limits have on those two issues.
“If the bridge is not open when traffic is going across, is that having an impact on this gear box?” he asked. “Something is causing the structure to move within itself, and they should not be moving relative to each other,” Strong responded: “I would not make the assumption it’s caused by something only when it’s opening and closing. We don’t know what it is. The engineers don’t know what it is. I need to give them time to at least get their reports in and evaluate if this is an issue.”
If multiple trucks cross the bridge at one time, there’s more stress than one heavy truck going over the bridge at a time.
“Six weeks ago we didn’t have a single problem. If we were having this meeting six weeks ago. we wouldn’t be saying any of this. But we do have a problem. Nobody knows what it is, nobody knows what’s causing it.” This isn’t the first issue the engineering committee has addressed. During the April quarterly meeting, Strong’s report included information about a “quirk” regarding the bridge vibrating sporadically when it was opening, called mechanical resonance. That is the tendency of a mechanical system to sway when the frequency of its oscillations matches the system’s natural frequency of vibration. It has been known to cause catastrophic failure in improperly constructed structures, including bridges.
At that time, Strong said the vibration could actually be felt when you were standing on it as it opened. Watkins said GIBA called for the FDOT inspection, which is not obligatory because these are private bridges. They do have a warranty on the bridge, however, and they wanted the inspection before there was no warranty left. Discussion then evolved into having special exceptions with a $500 flat fee for overweight trucks, and to waive the $100 trip charge.
“I think we can monitor it with 80,000, with the caveat of holding traffic,” Watkins said.
Major then spoke. “I do want to make a couple of comments,” he said. “This vote is not a slam dunk. I do have one issue with something somebody said about the people who didn’t want the tour buses (referring to a statement made by an audience member earlier on that, in actuality, a potential problem with tour buses the board had addressed in earlier meetings was not true at all). Maybe it is a red herring; maybe it won’t ever happen and maybe it will. There’s no way to tell now.
From what Peter said, the bridge was built to 80,000 because engineering standards required it. Even though the SIB did not set weight limits, we had to set engineering standards to get the loan. The bridge is certainly sturdy enough to carry 80,000 pounds, but the mechanism itself is not the concrete that will hold an almost infinite amount of weight. “To one degree or another, it’s hard to say that putting more weight on the bridge won’t affect the life of it.
Obviously, the more wear on the machinery, the faster it will wear out. The main thing is, we are controlling how many of these heavy trucks are on the span and the pivot at once. We will have to continue to do that, whether we have a permit or not. There seems to be some effort involved in controlling that. For that reason, it might make sense to continue to have some sort of permit system on those trucks to control all this stuff that we didn’t have to control before. I think if I were in favor of something, it would be more along the lines of a permit system but not a per-load system.”
Watkins said a one-time or annual fee might be in order. Klettke asked what the point of that was. “You’re envisioning that we will always be regulating traffic so any vehicle over 40,000 pounds would be checked?” Klettke asked. It’s always going to be an issue, Major responded. “Three of those vehicles is the equivalent of 60 cars on that pivot at the same time,” Major said. “It’s not a one-way bridge,” K
evin Kelley said from the audience. “It’s built for 80,000 pounds on two lanes.”
“That is indeterminate,” Strong contradicted.
“You’re blowing smoke,” said another audience member, as Watkins attempted to call the meeting to order again.
It is indeterminate what the holding power of the bridge is,” Strong continued. “It was built to take vehicles of 80,000 pounds. We don’t know how many that is. Lee is saying let’s take a conservative position.” Eventually Major, Darsie and Watkins all voted unanimously for the weight restriction change, provided that only one vehicle over 40,000 pounds be on the bridge at one time.
The audience cheered. “Praise the Lord!” Hayes said.
Bill Caldwell
Boca Grande Causeway
Gasparilla Island Water Association
GIBA Board member David Hayes
Ginger Watkins
GIWA Executive Director Bonnie Pringle
Newer PostTurkey Hoop Shoot action this Saturday
Older PostIngrid Bergman documentary to be featured, Bergman’s daughter to attend
Boca Grande Weekly Fishing Report – August, 2012
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Profile Adair Newman
Profile, The News, Uncategorized
Adair Newman appreciates spending peaceful days in Boca Grande. She lives on the island with her daughter, Carol Stewart, and her son-in-law, Doug. Carol is a Broker/Associate at Michael Saunders Real Estate.
Adair was born in Milwaukie, Oregon, just south of Portland.
When she was 19, she signed up for a cadet nursing program that the government was offering.
“The government established a special nursing program because there was a shortage during the war,” Adair said. “The tuition, books and our uniforms were all free.”
There was no requirement to go overseas for those who signed up for the 36-month program. There just happened to be a dire shortage of nurses in the United States at that time.
“I found the courses and the hands-on practice to be very interesting, and it was challenging work,” she said.
Initially, Adair was interesting in taking classes in pediatric nursing. She also took courses in psychiatry and worked as an intern in a state hospital in Oregon during her training.
Adair recalls that the patients would participate in vocational therapy by learning how to use brooms and how to polish the floors. Some of them worked in the kitchen peeling apples and potatoes for the meals, and other patients were given materials to make their own clothing.
“It was a very moving experience to witness, because many of them didn’t have any nice personal items, and they were so happy to be able to wear something new that made them feel pretty.”
Adair continued to work in state hospitals for much of her career.
Some of the nurses went on to work as flight attendants, because at that time the stewardesses had to also be nurses to get the job.
Adair worked at several veterans’ hospitals after she completed her education.
“That was also another very interesting experience, because the places were so large and there were a variety of different wards to work in: from vision-impaired quarters to paraplegic and psychiatric wards,” she said.
Adair was very career-oriented and applied for a grant to work in a psychiatric hospital in Topeka, Kansas.
She was chosen along with eight other nurses to work in a veteran’s hospital that was affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh.
Later she was hired as the educational director at a receiving hospital in Oregon, but she left that position and continued to work in various VA hospitals until retiring.
Adair met her husband Joe in Cleveland, Ohio. They were married and lived in Cleveland for nearly 50 years. They had six children: Mark, Joan, Laurie, Carol, Tom and Nancy.
Adair said Joe enjoyed hunting and fishing, so after the children were grown, she would find herself travelling to different destinations and exploring new places on her own while he went off and spent time with the men.
Adair moved to Englewood, Florida 15 years ago after Joe passed away.
“We had always planned on moving here, and I always wanted to get away from the cold up north,” she said.
After suffering a stroke two years ago, Adair moved to Boca Grande to live with her daughter Carol.
“She very graciously takes care of me, and I’m so thankful for her,” she said. “And Doug is a wonderful chef – it’s nice to have someone cook meals for me.”
Adair used to enjoy doing a lot of arts and crafts, but since her movement is somewhat limited these days, she finds music to be great therapy.
She’s had an interest in music since she was about six years old. She recalls that a neighbor lady would take her to see the Portland Symphony on Sunday afternoons, and she enjoyed watching the talented musicians.
She played piano and taught private lessons in her home and also at a studio in Cleveland for many years.
Adair discovered a new hobby and started playing the harp at age 80. She found a harp made of carbon fiber, which is much easier to hold and play.
“I have a smaller one that is easier for me to practice on and a larger one that I use when I take lessons,” she said.
Betsy Wagner, her harp instructor, comes out to the island once a month, and they practice playing the instrument together. Adair tries to practice at least two hours every day.
She also enjoys playing the hammered dulcimer, a percussion instrument in which the strings are typically stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board.
“It’s really a fun instrument to play, and it projects some very beautiful sounds,” she said. “I had wanted one for years because I enjoy playing Celtic music.”
Adair has taken many musical workshops over the years to keep her skills sharp.
When she practices playing her music, she copies the songs and enlarges the notes and sometimes colors them in to help her see them more clearly.
Adair enjoys the theater. She likes to see plays by the Royal Palm Players at the Boca Grande Community Center, and she’s been a volunteer at the art center on the island.
She is a world traveler and has visited England, Scotland, Russia, China and a few other countries.
“My daughter was an exchange student in Germany, so we went there one year and that was a really beautiful trip.”
Adair has 16 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, who live all around the United States.
Even though she has some physical challenges, not much can stop this sharp lady, who is quick to share details and stories of days gone by. And she still has a keen sense of humor.
“Since my stroke, I have been stuck on one speed – and that’s slow,” she said. “But I have nothing but time, and I eventually get where I’m going at my own pace.”
She’s not able to read much these days because of vision complications, but she said that audio books are now her favorite kind of entertainment.
“The (Johann Fust) library has some wonderful items available, so I’m thankful for that. Those have been my salvation.”
Adair Newman
Carol Stewart
Johann Fust
Newer PostObituary: William Charles Kunkler Jr.
Older PostWhat happens if the worst happens?
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Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. Acknowledges Enbridge Inc. Offer and Establishes a Special Committee
May 18, 2018 6:45 AM CNW
HOUSTON, TX, May 18, 2018 /CNW/ – Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EEP) (EEP or the Partnership) today announced that it has received a non-binding offer from Enbridge Inc. (Enbridge) (TSX, NYSE: ENB) and Enbridge (U.S.) Inc. to acquire all of the outstanding equity securities of EEP not currently beneficially owned by Enbridge.
The board of directors of Enbridge Energy Management, L.L.C., as the delegate of the general partner of the Partnership (the EEP Board), has established a special committee of independent directors to review and consider the proposal.
The proposed transaction is subject to the review and recommendation by the special committee of the EEP Board, final approvals by the EEP Board and the boards of directors of Enbridge and Enbridge (U.S.) Inc., and negotiation of a definitive agreement. Any definitive agreement is expected to contain customary closing conditions, including standard regulatory notifications and approvals. There can be no assurance that any agreement will be reached or that a transaction will be consummated.
Unitholders of EEP do not need to take any action with respect to the proposal at this time.
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
This communication includes certain forward looking statements and information (FLI) to provide EEP unitholders and potential investors with information about EEP and its subsidiaries and affiliates. FLI is typically identified by words such as “anticipate”, “expect”, “project”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “plan”, “intend”, “target”, “believe”, “likely” and similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be FLI. In particular, this news release contains FLI pertaining to, but not limited to, information with respect to a proposed transaction between EEP and Enbridge.
Although we believe that the FLI is reasonable based on the information available today and processes used to prepare it, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and you are cautioned against placing undue reliance on FLI. By its nature, FLI involves a variety of assumptions, which are based upon factors that may be difficult to predict and that may involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, levels of activity and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these FLI, including, but not limited to, the following: the negotiation and execution, and the terms and conditions, of definitive agreements relating to the proposed transactions and the ability of Enbridge or EEP to enter into or consummate such agreements; the risk that the proposed merger does not occur; negative effects from the pendency of the proposed merger; failure to obtain the required vote of EEP's unitholders; the timing to consummate the proposed transaction; the focus of management time and attention on the proposed transaction and other disruptions arising from the proposed transaction; potential changes in the Enbridge share price which may negatively impact the value of consideration offered to EEP unitholders; expected supply and demand for crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids and renewable energy; prices of crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids and renewable energy; economic and competitive conditions; expected exchange rates; inflation; interest rates; tax rates and changes; completion of growth projects; anticipated in-service dates; capital project funding; success of hedging activities; the ability of management of EEP, its subsidiaries and affiliates to execute key priorities, including those in connection with the proposed transactions; customer, shareholder, regulatory and other stakeholder approvals and support; and regulatory and legislative decisions and actions.
Except to the extent required by law, we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Reference should also be made to the Partnership's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), including its most recently filed 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K dated February 16, 2018 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for additional factors that may affect results. These filings are available to the public over the Internet at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov) and at the Partnership's website.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO INVESTORS
This press release is not a solicitation of a proxy, an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell Class A common units of EEP, and it is not a substitute for any proxy statement or other filings that may be made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should these proposed transactions go forward. If such documents are filed with the SEC, investors will be urged to thoroughly review and consider them because they will contain important information, including risk factors. Any such documents, once filed, will be available free of charge at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov) and from Enbridge and EEP, as applicable.
ABOUT ENBRIDGE ENERGY PARTNERS, L.P.
Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. owns and operates a diversified portfolio of crude oil transportation systems in the United States. Its principal crude oil system is the largest pipeline transporter of growing oil production from western Canada and the North Dakota Bakken formation. The system's deliveries to refining centers and connected carriers in the United States account for approximately 25 percent of total U.S. oil imports. Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EEP; information about the Partnership is available on its website at www.enbridgepartners.com.
ABOUT ENBRIDGE ENERGY MANAGEMENT, L.L.C.
Enbridge Energy Management, L.L.C. manages the business and affairs of the Partnership, and its sole asset is an approximate 20 percent limited partner interest in the Partnership. Enbridge Energy Company, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Enbridge Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (NYSE: ENB) (TSX: ENB) is the General Partner of the Partnership and holds an approximate 35 percent interest in the Partnership. Enbridge Management is the delegate of the General Partner of the Partnership.
Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
Investment Community
Roni Cappadonna
Email: michael.barnes@enbridge.com
Email: investor.relations@enbridge.com
SOURCE Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P.
View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2018/18/c3303.html
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In so many areas the EU’s negotiating stance is sadly defined by the politics of punishment, rather than economics
Sir Gerald Howarth
Sir Gerald Howarth is a former Conservative MP who represented Aldershot from 1997 to 2017 and Cannock and Burntwood between 1983 and 1992. He was Minister for International Security Strategy from 2010 to 2012 and is now a member of the Leave Means Leave Advisory Board.
The news that Boeing has just opened a £40 million manufacturing facility in Sheffield to make parts for their latest 737 and 767 aircraft, which are assembled in the United States, serves to remind us that our world-class aerospace business is global and to torpedo the claims of Airbus – and some car manufacturers – that Brexit will threaten jobs in the UK because it will cause havoc to the just-in-time manufacturing process. Boeing’s plans call for the production of 52 aircraft a month with thousands of parts being shipped every month to Portland, Oregon, so timely delivery will be just as critical to Boeing as it is to Airbus.
So, the question arises: if Boeing can operate a slick production process using parts made in Britain, shipped six times the distance to their assembly line compared to shipping Airbus parts from Bristol or North Wales to Hamburg or Toulouse (and BAE ship 15% of every single F35 Joint Strike Fighter to the Lockheed Martin plant in Dallas), what is Airbus’s problem? The answer lies not in economics but in politics.
As is increasingly clear, despite protestations to the contrary, elements of the EU really do want to punish the UK for having had the insolence to Leave and to deter other countries from following our lead. France seems to be the most determined to press for punishment, partly to try to seize the City of London’s business and partly to promote President Macron as the new EU leader as Angela Merkel’s grip weakens.
Recently there were reports, subsequently denied, that President Macron intended to require UK visitors to France to obtain visas whilst those Brits with homes in France would immediately upon Brexit become illegal visitors. Apparently, the word ‘not’ was omitted in translation and the proposed new law designed to prevent such action. However, Dominic Raab subsequently spoke about the possibility of France ‘deliberately’ delaying lorries entering the port of Calais.
Earlier this year, the EU announced the creation of a fund to develop new defence equipment, a programme from which the UK, home to Europe’s largest defence contractor and with the largest defence budget in Europe, was to be excluded. Furthermore, the UK is to be ejected from key parts of the EU satellite navigation programme, Galileo, despite having contributed £1.2 billion and constituting, through Airbus subsidiary Surrey Satellites, a key portion of the technology. Any reasonable person would ask where was the commercial, let alone defence, interest in excluding such a major European player. Again, the answer lies not in economics but in politics: the UK has to be punished even if it means damaging the defence interests of the continent.
As we approach the sombre commemorations of the centenary of the 1918 armistice which ended The Great War, it is worth pausing to reflect on the role of some of those nations who, in the famous words of Margaret Thatcher, ‘we either rescued or defeated’. The British people have voted freely but decisively to Leave the EU, yet face punitive measures by some on the continent for whose liberation in two world wars this country and its Empire shed 1,300,000 lives. Whilst falling over themselves to secure favourable trade deals with the rest of the world, the EU’s leaders have adopted the reverse policy with their closest neighbour, refusing to discuss trade arrangements before sorting out an artificial problem of their creation by weaponising the Irish border, a clear solution to which has been proposed by the ERG and others.
In another example of the pathetic approach in Brussels, I understand that the EU’s aviation safety agency, EASA, is debarred from discussing with our CAA how we manage air travel post Brexit. Given the UK’s prominence in air transport, with Heathrow being the most important transatlantic gateway airport in Europe, why is EASA not engaged in constructive debate? Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are members of EASA even though they are not EU members, so why remove the UK? Again, the answer lies in politics, not economics. They want to cause inconvenience, if not chaos, to rub home to the others the cost of recovering national sovereignty.
All this illustrates the fundamental naivety exhibited by the UK at the outset of the negotiations, namely that if we conceded and acted in a friendly fashion the EU would respond in similar vein, leading many Leave voters to question the motives of those in charge. We never acknowledged the determination of the Commission to protect The Project (to create the United States of Europe) and we failed to recognise the strength of the cards in our hands.
So we threw away the security card, offering unconditional support to the 27, only to be rewarded by exclusion from EU defence programmes. The Prime Minister offered to pay a staggering £39 billion of our money in return for – nothing. Well, if she thinks British taxpayers will tolerate that, I fear she is mistaken. I can no longer withhold my vote in Parliament, but I can withhold my taxes unless I see a fair trade deal is secured.
Tags: aerospace, airbus, Angela Merkel, aviation, Boeing, Business, Calais, Civil Aviation Authority, Dominic Raab, EASA, Emmanuel Macron, European Research Group, Galileo, Heathrow Airport, industry, Irish border, just-in-time supply chains, Macron, manufacturing, Margaret Thatcher, Sir Gerald Howarth, Surrey Satellites
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Theresa May warns of ‘catastrophic and unforgivable breach of trust’ if UK remains in EU: Brexit News for Sunday 13 January
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Theresa May warns of ‘catastrophic and unforgivable breach of trust’ if UK remains in EU…
With just two days to go before the Commons vote on her withdrawal agreement, the Prime Minister pleaded with parliamentarians to “do what is right for our country” and back her controversial exit plan. Mrs May said the UK risks crashing out of the EU without a deal or, if MPs are “unwilling” to face the uncertainty of no deal, then the UK may not leave at all. In what she described as the “biggest and most important decision that any MP of our generation will be asked to make”, the Prime Minister said it was time for politicians to “deliver” for the people. Writing in the Sunday Express, Mrs May said: “You, the British people, voted to leave. And then, in the 2017 General Election, 80% of you voted for MPs who stood on manifestos to respect that referendum result. You have delivered your instructions. Now it is our turn to deliver for you. When you turned out to vote in the referendum, you did so because you wanted your voice to be heard. Some of you put your trust in the political process for the first time in decades. We cannot – and must not – let you down. Doing so would be a catastrophic and unforgivable breach of trust in our democracy. So my message to Parliament this weekend is simple: it is time to forget the games and do what is right for our country.” – Belfast Telegraph
Brexit failure a catastrophic breach of trust, says May – BBC News
May warns MPs against ‘breach of trust in our democracy’ – Sky News
…as her party runs the risk of ‘imploding’ over Brexit…
The Tories are on the brink of a historic split, senior Conservatives warned last night, as Brexiteers and Remainers both threatened to torpedo the Government if they did not get their way on Brexit. Pro-EU MPs claimed that a third of the Cabinet would resign if Theresa May pursued a no-deal Brexit in the face of almost certain defeat over her deal, as they threatened a walkout of backbenchers that would obliterate the Government’s Commons majority. At the same time, The Sunday Telegraph understands that several senior ministers are agitating Mrs May to immediately open talks with Labour MPs about a compromise involving a permanent customs union if her deal is defeated by a large margin on Tuesday. One senior Tory said: “A growing number of the Cabinet now think the only feasible option is to tack towards a softer Brexit involving a permanent customs union, in order to get a deal through with Labour votes. Amber [Rudd], David [Gauke], Greg Clark and others have made noises along those lines.” Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptics, warned that the move would risk a split akin to the schism prompted by Robert Peel’s repeal of the corn laws. “It’s difficult to see how at least some Conservative MPs would not withdraw confidence in the Government,” he said. – Sunday Telegraph (£)
…while anti-Brexit MPs plot to seize control of the Commons agenda from Theresa May…
Theresa May has been warned that her government “will lose its ability to govern” after Downing Street uncovered a bombshell plot by senior MPs to seize control of Brexit negotiations and sideline the prime minister. A cross-party group of senior backbenchers — including former Tory ministers — plan what one senior figure branded a “very British coup” if May loses the crunch vote on her Brexit deal on Tuesday. At least two groups of rebel MPs are plotting to change Commons rules so motions proposed by backbenchers take precedence over government business, upending the centuries-old relationship between executive and legislature. Downing Street believes that would enable MPs to suspend article 50, putting Brexit on hold, and could even lead to the referendum result being overturned — a move that would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis. – Sunday Times (£)
End of democracy? ‘It’s game over for Brexit’ as MPs plot ‘coup’ to stop UK leaving EU – Sunday Express
…as it emerges Dominic Grieve secretly met John Bercow hours before the Speaker allowed his killer amendment
Commons Speaker John Bercow secretly met Tory rebel Dominic Grieve just hours before throwing out centuries of tradition to allow the MP to scupper Theresa May’s Brexit plans. The pair spoke in Mr Bercow’s grace-and-favour Commons apartment the day before the Speaker tore up the rule book to allow the former Attorney General to table an amendment to wrest control of Brexit from the Prime Minister, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Mr Grieve, who was last night accused of mounting a ‘stitch-up’ over the extraordinary events, refused to reveal what he had discussed with Mr Bercow but insisted: ‘Speakers make up their own minds.’ His amendment led to the Prime Minister’s second major Commons setback in 24 hours. Now even No 10 is warning that the Prime Minister could be ousted as soon as Wednesday if she suffers another heavy defeat over her Brexit deal in this week’s crunch vote. – Mail on Sunday
Labour set to call vote to topple Theresa May’s Government if her deal is rejected on Tuesday
Labour MPs have been told to prepare for Jeremy Corbyn to table a dramatic and immediate vote of no confidence in Theresa May’s government as early as Tuesday evening in an attempt to force a general election if – as expected – she suffers a heavy defeat this week on her Brexit deal. Messages have been sent to Labour MPs, even those who are unwell, to ensure their presence both for the “meaningful vote” on the prime minister’s Brexit blueprint on Tuesday and the following day. Labour whips have told MPs the no-confidence vote is likely to be tabled within hours of a government loss, with the actual vote taking place on Wednesday. A senior shadow cabinet member said: “There is now recognition that we cannot wait any longer. If May goes down to defeat and she does not resign and call an election, this is the moment we have to act.” – Observer
MoD sends planners to ministries over post-Brexit border fears
Military planners have been deployed to the Department for Transport, the Home Office and the Foreign Office as officials desperately try to avoid backlogs and chaos at the border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Observer can disclose. Details released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 14 military planners have been dispatched by the Ministry of Defence to key ministries, which also include the Cabinet Office, the hub of the government’s Brexit planning, in a sign of concerns inside Whitehall at the prospect of Britain crashing out of the EU with no agreement in place. In a ramping up of no-deal preparations in recent weeks, one planner is in place at Chris Grayling’s beleaguered DfT, which has already been criticised for awarding a £14m contract to run ferries in the event of a no-deal Brexit to a company that does not have any ships. – Observer
Brexit Minister unable to explain why ’emergency’ loophole was used to give £13.8m contract to ferry firm with no ferries
The decision to award almost £14 million of government cash to a ferry company which has yet to run a single service remains a mystery, after a government minister dodged the question no less than three times. It was revealed last week that Seaborne Freight had been awarded the shipping contract in the case of a ‘no deal Brexit’, as part of contingency plans to ease pressure on the port of Dover. However, the contract wasn’t awarded by a competitive tender process, with the government instead using rules which come into play when “unforeseen events” cause an “extreme emergency”. The firm, which plans to run services between Ramsgate in Kent and Osten in Belgium from March, also came under fire after it emerged it doesn’t currently own any ferries, and has yet to run a single service. It was later revealed they had copied their terms and conditions from both a food delivery website and an online clothes boutique. While quizzing Chris Heaton-Harris MP, part of the government’s Brexit department, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry also called for him to explain how the process could have been forced by “unforeseen events”. In the session he confirmed his own department has employed staff to plan for a ‘no-deal’ Brexit since its inception two years. “A range of operators were invited to tender, including new entrants into the market,” he told the committee. – iNews
Liam Fox urged to clarify the UK’s future relationship with Switzerland after leaving the EU
Liam Fox has been urged to clarify what the UK’s future relationship with Switzerland will be like after Brexit, the chairman of the International Trade Committee has urged. SNP MP Angus MacNeil accused the International Trade Secretary of making “blithe assurances of progress” on the transition of a trade agreement between the two countries. Last month, the Government announced that it had approved an agreement with the Swiss Federal Council allowing businesses to continue trading freely after Brexit. The agreement replicates the existing EU-Switzerland arrangements “as far as possible” and will come into effect at the end of the implementation period in January 2021 – or on March 29 if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal. – Evening Standard
No-deal Brexit only way to get back control of borders, insists Iain Duncan Smith
The former Tory leader reckons the UK can reap the benefits of Brexit from March 29 under a no-deal exit, rather than being left in ‘Brexit in name only purgatory’ under the Prime Minister’s deal. He described Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, which MPs will vote on next week, as ‘flawed’. If it was up to the former work and pensions secretary, he’d leave under World Trade Organisation terms. Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘Only by leaving the EU on WTO terms can the UK fully take back control of its borders and deal with these issues. ‘In taking back control of our migration policy we are also giving notice to industry that we will have to invest and train to a far greater degree than they have for some time. ‘The greatest benefit of leaving under No Deal is that our country can start to enjoy the benefits of Brexit from March 29th 2019, rather than being left in the BRINO (Brexit In Name Only) purgatory of Mrs May’s deal. ‘The British people have already waited for almost three years – they should not have to wait any longer.’ – Metro
UK still ‘hopes’ for EU Brexit assurances, says Business Secretary
The government is hoping for further assurances from the EU to win round skeptical backbenchers to supporting Theresa May’s Brexit deal, according to Business Secretary Greg Clark. In a key vote Tuesday, MPs in the House of Commons are widely expected to vote down the Brexit deal that EU and U.K. negotiators struck in November. There is particular unease that the Northern Ireland backstop, which is designed to protect the Good Friday peace agreement by avoiding the need for a hard border, may prove impossible for the U.K. to exit. “I hope that our colleagues in Europe will also reassure skeptics in the U.K. that the Irish backstop is not intended to be a perpetual arrangement,” Clark told German paper Die Welt in an interview published Saturday, adding: “I hope that over the next few days the cabinet and the prime minister will be able to provide assurance that won’t be the case.” – Politico
Brussels to send backstop letters as May battles to save Brexit deal
EU officials are preparing letters on the backstop for Theresa May ahead of Tuesday’s vote, in a last-ditch effort orchestrated by Downing Street to save her Brexit deal. The wording has been teased out in closed sessions and phone calls between top aides from London and Brussels but it has not been shared among all the other EU governments. Martin Selmayr, secretary-general of the European Commission, has taken a key role in sketching out the contents, underlining his increasingly prominent role in the Brexit process. Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, another top EU official, has briefed ambassadors that the assurances offered “would be within the existing mandates”. That indicates they will highlight and underline what is already explicit in the agreement, rather than changing anything of substance. This will fall short of earlier British hopes for an expiration date on the backstop, an escape clause from the Northern Ireland protocol or a target date for agreeing a future trade agreement. – Sunday Times (£)
More than 100 MEPs from every corner of EU sign heartfelt letter asking British people to reconsider Brexit – Independent
Poland calls for some ‘give’ from Brussels on May’s deal
A senior EU minister has broken ranks over Brussels’ refusal to offer concessions to help salvage Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Speaking on a visit to London, Anna Maria Anders, the Polish Secretary of State for international dialogue, said the ongoing uncertainty over the UK’s departure from the bloc was a “disaster for everybody” and called for some “give” from Brussels. Ms Anders who has studied and worked in the UK, also described the prospect of a second referendum, as the “worst scenario, because we start all over again.” Ms Anders said: “I think a little bit of give on Brussels’ part would be good. The problem with Brussels and the EU generally is the fact it is so different to the way it was when Britain first joined the EU. “I think the bureaucracy in Brussels has become a real issue … Right now they are refusing to compromise. Frankly I just wish that we would get on with it. This period of uncertainty is a disaster. It is a disaster for everybody. It has weakened the leadership in this country terribly and people want to move on.” – Sunday Telegraph (£)
John Major: let’s take time out and revoke article 50
Sir John Major today demands that the government should revoke article 50 to halt Britain’s departure from the EU and hand control to parliament instead. Writing in The Sunday Times, the former Tory prime minister says Theresa May should rescind existing Brexit legislation and call another referendum, arguing that “a new process” of national consultation is required. Major warns that it would be “morally reprehensible” to slip into a no-deal Brexit, saying: “The cost . . . to our national wellbeing would be heavy and long-lasting. The benefits are close to zero. Every single household — rich or poor — would be worse off for many years to come. Jumping off a cliff never has a happy ending.” Calling for a halt to the process, he writes: “In the midst of chaos, it is always sensible to pause and think . . . The only sensible course now is for the government to revoke article 50 and suspend any decision on departure. – Sunday Times (£)
Theresa May: It is time to forget the games and do what is right for our country
The verdict of the referendum was clear – the people of the UK want our future to be outside the European Union. But behind the record number of votes cast lie many different views about exactly what that future should look like. The same is true of Parliament. The vast majority of MPs want to respect the result of the referendum, which is why nearly all of us voted to trigger Article 50 two years ago. But there is far less of a consensus about the manner of our departure from the EU. This week, I have seen more than 200 MPs from different parties who want to rule out No Deal. I have debated with MPs who want a Second Referendum as well as those who want to pursue what they believe to be the perfect deal which for them means no deal at all. And I have spoken with business and union leaders worried about jobs who want the certainty that comes from a smooth and orderly transition to our future relationship with the EU. As Prime Minister, it is my duty to navigate a path through this complex web of views. That is why, since 2016, I have been working tirelessly to pull together the huge variety of options and opinions into a Brexit that works for the whole of the UK. And, after negotiating hard, standing up for the UK, and winning concessions many said were impossible to achieve, that is what I have done. – Theresa May for the Sunday Express
Dominic Raab: Brexit was a roar for change – and Britain is capable of so much more than this
On Tuesday, MPs will vote on the terms of the Government’s proposed Brexit deal with the European Union. It is a bad deal, and Britain can do better. It’s time to stop treating Brexit as a gloomy book-keeping exercise in risk-management. MPs should vote against the deal, send a clear message to Brussels that the UK will not be bullied – and deliver the optimistic vision that, in 2016, fired up the biggest democratic mandate for change we’ve ever seen. When people voted Leave, it was a vote for change – a vote for hope over fear. Yet, this deal would keep us locked into swathes of EU laws without any democratic say, threaten the integrity of the UK, and prevent us from pursuing an independent trade policy. It suffocates the opportunities Brexit offers. The UK should be a global leader in free trade, removing tariffs and breaking down barriers to trade. We want to keep trading with our European partners, but the growth markets lie between Latin America and Asia. Reducing global barriers to trade is a sure way of boosting small and medium sized enterprises and raising productivity – to create the jobs for the next generation, raise wages for workers, and cut prices in the shops to ease the cost of living for working Britons. That’s who Brexit is for. – Dominic Raab MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£)
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Brits have nothing to fear from Brexit but leaving with a deal is unquestionably best
It unquestionably would be better to leave the EU with a deal. This is partly because it would smooth the path and lessen the worry for those who do any form of business with the EU or are simply holidaymakers. Project Fear may not be true but it has made people fret, which is irresponsible on behalf of its progenitors and a pity for those affected. More importantly, it is better for the UK to depart on friendly rather than hostile terms. Leaving the EU is not about dislike of our European neighbours, it is about escaping from a failed economic model and reasserting democratic control over the nation’s future. It makes sense to depart in a way that maintains as much friendship as possible. Whatever happens, the European Union will remain an important economic partner and market; on many international issues the UK and the EU will continue to have similar objectives and personal friendships; and inter-connections will remain. A deal would help ease all of this and even be worth making a modest payment for. Trade is helped by an absence of barriers, be they tariff or regulatory ones. The EU specialises in erecting barriers for a fortress Europe. Leaving without a trade deal under WTO rules would allow us to look to the rest of the world sooner and open up opportunities. There really is nothing to fear but fear itself. – Jacob Rees-Mogg for The Sun
Steve Baker: Let’s be positive, and ready, for a no-deal Brexit
When I launched Conservatives for Britain in the Telegraph on 6 June 2015, I was filled with optimism. I wrote “free nation states should pursue together the ideal of international co-operation”, and “the post-War paradigm of state rules and controls is not merely less relevant but positively alien to a dynamic spontaneous order enabled by technology, liberty and the urge to co-operate with whomsoever may have common Interests”. Nothing has changed. I remain optimistic, even as Europe’s governing class has, as one brave civil servant explained this week, sought to triple lock us into the structures of the EU as we leave. Demoralisation through tales of doom to provoke despondency may be a key pillar of the strategy to reverse the biggest democratic decision in our history, but it will not work. The British are not a small and cowardly people. – Steve Baker MP for the Telegraph
Anthony Bamford: No Deal Brexit would end business uncertainty
With less than 80 days to go until we formally leave the EU, and after many months of political wrangling between Brussels and Whitehall, the current impasse makes the prospect of a so-called ‘no deal’ exit more likely than ever. This does not worry me at all. At least, it will deliver the ‘clean break’ that I, and more than 17 million others, voted for in 2016. And, as we have seen in recent weeks, the UK and EU have – somewhat belatedly – started to find ways of dealing with any potential short-terms problems with air travel, medicines etc. As a businessman, I would have preferred a well-constructed negotiated settlement, including an agreement on how we trade with the EU in the future. As it stands, in the absence of a negotiated settlement that truly delivers on the result of the referendum, a ‘no deal’ exit means that we’ll default to trading with the EU on WTO terms. I am not concerned about this. In fact, it delivers certainty about how we will trade with our EU neighbours from the moment we leave the EU at 11pm on 29th of March. – Lord Bamford for the Telegraph
Bim Afolami: Brexit is in peril because we politicians have failed to grasp that it can be a springboard for total economic renewal
These are interesting times. Over the past two years, the Conservative Party has been trying to get Brexit out of the way and then move onto domestic policy, regarding the two as distinct and separate. This is both unrealistic in terms of timing, but is also a political error. The British people want, and deserve, hope and opportunity for the future after Brexit. The lack of connection between Brexit and domestic policy is, in my view, a core reason why we lost our majority in the 2017 election. We were asking for a mandate to deliver Brexit, but without offering a vision of what Brexit was for, and how it would make the lives of British people better. If Corbyn is the only change on offer at the next election, he will win. As a party, we need to show we can deliver national renewal into the 2020s. Imagine if, at the 2017 election, Brexit had been connected to a major reform programme for technical education and new investment programmes to regenerate northern cities and the most deprived areas. Many will say that we could have carried out those reforms anyway. We could have. But that misses the point. Our post-Brexit policy need not be constrained to those areas that were technically or legally prohibited within the EU, merely enabling things that we were previously prevented from doing. It should be about hearing the message voters were sending and re-evaluating all policy accordingly. – Bim Afolami MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£)
Owen Paterson: No Deal would put the people back in control
The EU question has always been about sovereignty. It is about who governs the United Kingdom and how. Parliament deliberately put the answer to this in the hands of the British people by passing the EU Referendum Act in 2015. In 2016, the people gave their answer. They wished, via democratically-elected Members of Parliament, to govern themselves. Perhaps the real reason for the Establishment hysteria surrounding a No Deal Brexit under WTO rules is that we actually would be leaving. The other options now being floated – extending Article 50, a second referendum, or the subjugation demanded by the Withdrawal Agreement – are designed to hold the UK in the EU’s orbit in the hope that it may be sucked back in. These options would completely fail to honour the biggest democratic verdict ever delivered in British history. The optimal Brexit outcome remains a wide-ranging, zero-tariff Free Trade Agreement as offered repeatedly by Donald Tusk. Such a deal can still be negotiated, but not by the end of March. Having wasted so much time on the Withdrawal Agreement, leaving on WTO terms is now the only way to break free fully and build a more prosperous, independent future. – Owen Paterson MP for ConservativeHome
Arlene Foster: Deal will fall unless there is change of heart in Dublin and EU on backstop
Yesterday I hosted a meeting with the Republic of Ireland’s Foreign Minister and Tanaiste Simon Coveney in Stormont. We discussed how the Irish Government and Brussels negotiators needed to have a change of heart if the United Kingdom is to reach an agreement with the European Union before March 29. The DUP wants a sensible deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union. One that works for Northern Ireland and our nearest neighbours in the Republic of Ireland. The current withdrawal agreement is not that deal. As the House of Commons debates the withdrawal agreement, it is abundantly clear that the backstop is the problem. Indeed, with the backstop removed, despite other concerns, the withdrawal agreement would command much greater support in Parliament. I am very aware of concerns amongst business leaders who long for certainty. We want to make progress towards a better deal, but to do so will require the Irish Government to raise its voice in Brussels. Common sense needs to be applied. The notion of a hard border is nothing more than a bogeyman. Our focus is on getting a deal which protects the integrity of the United Kingdom market and upholds the precious Union between NI and Great Britain. – Arlene Foster MP for the Belfast Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph: MPs must vote against Theresa May’s Brexit deal in large enough numbers to kill it forever
Not only should MPs vote against the Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday, but they must vote against it in large enough numbers to kill it dead, otherwise Theresa May will just keep bringing it back to the Commons until she gets her way. Her supporters say that the only alternative to her deal is the reversal of Brexit – a desperate bid to scare pro-Leave MPs into voting it through. But this is just not true. There are other options – and, yes, that includes no deal, where progress on the preparations is finally being made, if belatedly – and besides, if a treaty is a bad treaty then MPs are duty-bound to vote it down. Be in no doubt: this is an appalling, misconceived deal that would leave us trapped in the EU’s orbit, unable to govern ourselves properly and still arguing about Brexit for years to come. Those saying that Mrs May’s deal is the only one on the table are fraudulently limiting this great country’s options to a Brexit so light it is barely Brexit at all (the Government’s current position) or a reversal of Brexit to keep us within the EU (the effective position of the Remainers, including the Tory rebels). Both options frustrate the will of the people, and MPs have to consider the political backlash. If an MP’s goal is to delay or stop Brexit, let them be open about it and face the consequences at the ballot box. If, however, an MP is genuinely committed to upholding the result of the referendum, then on Tuesday there is only one thing in all good conscience that they can do: vote down Mrs May’s deal. – Telegraph (£) editorial
Dominic Lawson: Parliament takes back control — from the people
Debating points are all very well, but they don’t necessarily become truer — or even true at all — by being endlessly repeated. For example, it is forever being said by those opposed to Brexit: “The ‘leave’ campaign argued for a restoration of full parliamentary sovereignty. Now parliament is doing just that by ‘taking back control’ of Brexit. Ha!” But the argument of the leave campaign was for a restoration of accountability to British voters and away from a supranational authority: a fully sovereign parliament simply meant one not superseded by the European Court of Justice. Actually, there is no need for parliament to take a decision. Or rather, it already has: under article 50, which it voted to invoke, the UK will leave the EU on March 29 whether or not a subsequent withdrawal agreement is approved by MPs. That’s the sword of Damocles that Downing Street was holding over parliament: under all precedent there is no way that primary legislation — for example, to revoke article 50 — could be tabled without the consent of the executive. It now appears that the Speaker is prepared to enable this. – Dominic Lawson for The Sunday Times (£)
Macer Hall: It’s crunch time for battling PM
The opposition forces lined up against the Prime Minister’s EU Withdrawal Agreement appear insurmountable. Her strategists are focused on winning a few feet of political ground rather than achieving the breakthrough towards ultimate victory. Ahead of the Commons division about supporting her deal with Brussels, her generals are already plotting future battles amid expectations that she will have to return for a second and possibly third attempt at rallying a majority behind the package. EU officials are understood not to have seriously contemplated any change to their painstakingly compiled deal whatsoever. In the UK, the Remainers’ “Project Fear” campaign has plucked plenty of imaginary figures out of the air to raise jitters about the economic impact domestically of a no-deal Brexit. Yet in Brussels, there has been no concern raised about the very real figure of £39billion that the EU is set to lose out on in the event of no-deal. No Brexit deal with Britain is plainly not in the EU’s interests. Yet the Brussels bureaucracy’s track record in making key decisions has been dire and self-destructive in recent years. As Tuesday’s vote looms, MPs of all parties are wary of making any predictions about what will happen if and when the Government loses. None of them should rule out Britain quitting the EU without a deal – and plunging the EU into a financial crisis – simply as a result of the incompetence and pig-headedness of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his useless gang. – Sunday Express
James Forsyth: What will be May’s Plan B?
The Cabinet aren’t even waiting for the meaningful vote to be lost to start discussing Plan Bs. As I say in The Sun this morning, multiple ministers are expecting a major row when Cabinet meets on Tuesday morning—ahead of the meaningful vote. The row will be about what to do once the government has lost. One faction in the Cabinet believes that, in the words of one Secretary of State, ‘the only realistic route to go down is to force it into the EU’s hands’. May’s deal is flawed. How could it not be given the failure to prepare properly for no deal which has so weakened the UK’s negotiating position and the loss of the Tory majority in parliament which has hobbled Mrs May. But the reality is that if this deal doesn’t pass, Brexit will only be weakened. The government doesn’t want no deal and doesn’t think it could get it through this parliament even if it did. That means it will soften the deal to try and get Commons support for it. – James Forsyth for The Spectator
Janet Daley: In a final act of betrayal, a cross-party Remainer alliance has conspired to kill off Brexit
I wouldn’t get too excited about the prospect of no-deal if I were you. It may be what you want. It may be what I want. It may have the most credible arguments in its defence of any of the current positions on offer. Indeed, it may seem to be becoming more plausible by the day. But the people who are now joining forces in their determination to stop it are very likely to be invincible. In fact, a lot of the talk about the imminence of no-deal is being orchestrated by them. Paradoxically, the more feasible the Unthinkable Outcome appears, the more acceptable the once Unthinkable Strategies of resistance become. How about an alliance between a Tory government and the most irresponsible, extremist Labour party in living memory? Number Ten and its Cabinet loyalists are working on it. Anybody up for abandoning Ulster and allowing it to be annexed by the EU (in effect, by the Irish Republic) in the interests of a cross party alliance to save Theresa May’s “deal”? You bet. I was reminded last week of Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay on the hedgehog and the fox: “The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” The clever, disputatious, idealistic Leave fox wants many things – the return of national sovereignty, an open and limitless economic future, a return to accountable government. But the Remain hedgehog wants one big thing: to reverse this wretched popular decision. I fear that its ruthless, single-minded determination has won. – Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph (£)
Robert Peston: Theresa May’s single most important strategic mistake
If May had spent more – or any – time negotiating with MPs from all parties to establish a consensus on an acceptable post-Brexit relationship with the EU, she would stand a decent chance of winning the notorious meaningful vote. But Jeremy Corbyn’s vision of a post-Brexit relationship with the EU is a million miles from that of many of his own MPs and from that of Remainer Tory MPs and even further away from that of Brexiter Tory MPs. The only thing that unites most of them is their contempt for the backstop. Which is why I cannot find any minister who thinks there is any way she can win on Tuesday – and most expect her to lose big. Unless May can persuade EU leaders that she would win the vote on the back of a climbdown on the backstop, they will not put themselves through the humiliation of such a retreat. We are heading, as the PM warned, for uncharted waters. And Theresa May – some would say – only has herself to blame. – Robert Peston for The Spectator
Tony Parsons: If the elite stop us from leaving the EU, those on the fringes of society will feel enabled
The British people are starting to realise that the fix is in. Brexit looks like it is never going to happen because the British establishment are simply not going to allow it. Brexit will be blocked by a majority in the House of Commons, our elected representatives, who smile, bow, scrape and promise us anything and lie through their teeth when they want our votes. And it will be blocked by the House of Lords, the Civil Service and by every living ex-Prime Minister, including Tony Blair, the bottom of the sewer, whose treacherous collaboration with a hostile foreign force would have seen him banged up in wartime. And it will be blocked by the Labour Party, former defenders of the working man, erstwhile champions of the working class, who now view all Labour supporters who voted for Brexit as thick, racist bigots. And Brexit will be crippled by the BBC, our licence-funded state broad-caster, which can never quite stop the anti-Brexit sneers from breaking through. Can you imagine sitting in the canteen at Broadcasting House and revealing that you had voted for Brexit? They would all choke on their avocado focaccia. And Brexit will be blocked by the great embodiment of British fair play and neutrality, John Bercow, the House of Commons Speaker, who probably has “B******s to Brexit” tattooed on his flabby little buttocks. It is a powerful coalition! The full might of the British establishment has joined forces to overthrow the biggest democratic vote in our history. – Tony Parsons for The Sun
The Sun: Softening Brexit further in a desperate plea for Labour votes will be the final nail in PM’s coffin
Her deal is already toxic to Brexiter backbenchers and the DUP on whom she relies for power. Cave in to Remainers further, for example over a permanent customs union tying us to the EU forever, and the Government is kaput. The PM’s only solution after defeat on Tuesday is to return immediately to Brussels, preferably with DUP chief Arlene Foster, and tell the EU it’s now or never for a legally-binding assurance on the Irish backstop. It should be enough for the DUP and maybe Tory eurosceptics faced with the real threat of Brexit never happening. If this Remainer-stuffed Government nullifies or destroys Brexit they can kiss goodbye to their jobs and their party. They will have gifted everything, our economy and our national security, to Corbyn’s anti-western Marxist rabble. Britain will never forgive them. – The Sun says
Yellow vest activist James Goddard arrested over Anna Soubry abuse claims – Sunday Times (£)
New Brexit referendum is most popular path if May’s deal is defeated, poll claims – Independent
Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin forced to end pub Brexit debate as he’s confronted by angry remainers – iNews
Tesco and M&S reveal stockpiling amid concerns of a ‘no deal’ Brexit – City A.M.
Lord Hattersley calls for second referendum – BBC News
Tags: 13, Brexit, january, news, sunday
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Uganda Celebrates First Graduation of Optometrists
Kampala, Uganda, 16 January 2019: Today marks the momentous occasion of the pioneer optometrists graduating at Makerere University in Kampala after completing the first optometry degree ratified in Uganda. The graduating optometrists are the first locally trained optometrists for their country and will act as the primary eye carers for optometry services for the population.
Uganda is one of the African countries supporting optometry as a relevant profession to help solve their nation’s burgeoning eye care needs. Currently, there are less than 10 practicing optometrists in Uganda to service the population of 40 million, all of which received their training overseas.
Professor Charles Ibigira, Principal of the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University spoke enthusiastically. “Makerere University is very grateful for the support to start the much needed Optometry program from Brien Holden Vision Institute by providing high tech equipment, curriculum development, human resources and inspiration through their vision. This has put Makerere University in the lead by providing optometry training and optometry services in Uganda, done in partnership with the College of Heath Sciences.”
The progression of having locally trained optometrists in Uganda will raise the efficiency of eye care services by increasing access for the population and strengthen referral pathways enabling great cost-effectiveness for the existing health systems. Optometrists will relieve ophthalmologists from providing eye care services like refraction and prescribing glasses, allowing them to focus on medical and surgical treatments of care.
Dr Naomi Nsubuga, Sub-regional Manager, Brien Holden Vision Institute has been an active proponent in the development of optometry in Uganda since 2004. “It gives me great pleasure knowing we can now train optometrists locally in Uganda using internationally developed teaching materials and using the latest advanced equipment. The graduate optometrists from Makerere University will provide much needed optometry services to the people of Uganda,” she said.
Establishing the School of Optometry at Makerere University took more than ten years of intense planning, negotiations and collaboration by many dedicated partners working closely with the University. These included the Brien Holden Vision Institute, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, University of New South Wales in Australia, Optometry Giving Sight, Light for the World, and the Optometrist Association of Uganda. Together all partners are collectively overjoyed to celebrate the first graduation as a landmark achievement for Uganda.
Also attending the graduation ceremony is Petronella Nichols, Africa Regional Director, Brien Holden Vision Institute said, “Today we see the first optometry students graduate in Uganda because of the collaborative efforts and shared vision of all partners and stakeholders. With these pioneer graduates we greatly look forward to seeing optometry services reaching many more Ugandans in need of glasses and facilitating referrals for more serious eye conditions such as cataract and glaucoma.’’
Dr Luigi Bilotto, Director of Education, Brien Holden Vision Institute reiterated the importance of optometry for Uganda. “The introduction of optometrists in the health workforce is a significant milestone for Uganda taking it a step further in the fight against avoidable blindness and vision impairment.”
Dr Anguyo Dralega, Head of the Optometry School, Makerere University said excitedly. “The young optometrists are the building blocks for a sustainable eye care service in Uganda, which has a population of around 39.5 million people. They will relieve the country’s 45 ophthalmologists from the management of eye conditions, allowing them to concentrate on other areas of specialties. Additionally, the optometrists will help improve the quality of life for many Ugandans with uncorrected vision impairment by providing refraction services and appropriate glasses. The benefit of this simple measure cannot be underestimated by a life diminished through poor vision.”
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BrienHoldenPH/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brienholden
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Khotyn district is located in the North-Eastern part of Chernivtsi oblast. It borders on Novoselytsa district in the South, Kelmentsy district in the East, Zastavna district in the West and Ternopil and Khmelnitskiy oblasts in the North. The Northern border goes along the Dnister river. The district occupies 717 sq. km. The administrative center is the ancient town of Khotyn located 69 km afar from Chernivtsi.
Archeologists found that a Slavic settlement existed on the territory of today’s Khotyn city in VIII century. Eastern Slavs built a wooden fortress on the right bank of the Dnister which was surrounded by settlements later. In XIII century Prince Danylo of Galicia ordered to replace the wooden fortress by a stone one, which was many times reconstructed and enlarged, destroyed by conquerors and rebuilt again. The walls of Khotyn Fortress were witnesses of many historical events and numerous battles. The biggest battle took place in 1621. Khotyn Fortress is the greatest historical and architectural monument of Khotyn district.
It is interesting to visit the museum of local lore located in a park in the center of Khotyn. Next to the museum there is Sviato-Pokrovska built in 1867-1868.
Sviato-Mikolaivska Church, the oldest monument of architecture, is located in the Southern part of Khotyn. The church belongs to the temple heritage uncommon for Ukraine and originating from traditions of the Afon center of Christian monasteries.
Excellent panoramas of Bukovina villages can be seen from the top of the Nedoboivska mountain with its windmills built in the XIV century.
The largest village of Khotyn district is famous for Leonid Kadeniuk, the first astronaut of independent Ukraine who was born there. The village school has an aerospace museum.
The cemetery of Stavchany village has a large burial mound. Russian warriors taking part in Stavchany battle in 1739 rest there.
The tour along the right bank of the Dnister starts in Ataki village located 2 km away from Khotyn. A vivid panorama opens from the Rashkivska mountain. The rocks above the Dnister close to Rashkova village have several caves.
KHOTYN FROM THE SPACE
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by junasun | August 11, 2017 · 4:18 pm
Ayala Museum, with the support of Bench, DivinaLaw, Araneta & Faustino Law Offices, and AuraStrat, will be presenting an exhibition of 19th century paintings, illustrations, and sculptures by preeminent Filipino artists of the time, the brothers Justiniano, Leoncio, and Mariano Asuncion.
Entitled Art and Family: The Asuncion Legacy, the exhibition will be on display at Ayala Museum’s Third Floor Galleries and will run from 8 August 2017 to 14 January 2018.
Justiniano Asuncion
Portrait of Filomena Asuncion
Dr. Eleuterio Pascual Collection
Selected works include paintings and sculptures, miniatures, medallions, portraits, and watercolor illustrations by the aforementioned artists loaned from both private and institutional collections. Many are commissioned by the artist’s patrons and families and showcase both popular religious and secular motifs of the time.
The union of Mariano Asumpcion and Maria dela Paz Molo de San Agustin of Manila produced 12 children: Manuel (born 1732); Antonio (1794); Victoria (1796); Mamerta (1789); Justo (1800); Mariano(1802); Epifanio (1806); Ambrosio (1808); Pascuala (1811); Leoncio (1813); Justiniano (1816); and Canuta (1819), who had devoted their lives to the arts through paintings and sculpture. As a big family, art kept them a closely knit clan. Many of the original works of the Asuncion family have been lost through fire, earthquakes, floods, and wars.
The descendants hold regular meetings and reunions and have initiated this exhibition to honor the memory and legacy of the Asuncion family, whose works are held in high esteem in Philippine art history.
Mariano Asuncion (1802-1888) is the eldest of the featured artists and enjoyed a wide patronage of religious clientele. His subjects were mostly about the miracles of saints, the Passion of Christ and images of the Virgin Mary. His works are compared to Italian painters of the 13th – 15th centuries. Leoncio Asuncion(1813-1888) is considered as the Father of Modern Religious Sculpture. He is remembered for his santos made of ivory and wood. Justiniano Asuncion (1816-1896), fondly remembered as Kapitan Ting after having served as cabeza de barangay of Sta. Cruz, Manila, in 1853, was a painter known for his portraits. Aside from exposure from practicing artists in his family, he also received artistic training under Damian Domingo (1796-1834) noted painter of portraits, miniatures and religious imagery, who established an art school in Tondo in 1821.
Additional support for this exhibition was provided by Via Mare. Talks and activities will be scheduled during the exhibition run and will be announced through Ayala Museum’s website and social media channels.
For more information, visit www.ayalamuseum.org or call (632) 759 82 88 or email hello@ayalamuseum.org.
Filed under Announcement, Art And Culture, Asuncion's History, Bulan Families, History
by junasun | August 4, 2017 · 7:44 pm
THE Ayala Museum presents an exhibition of 19th century paintings, illustrations, and sculptures by the pre-eminent Filipino artists of the time, the brothers Justiniano, Leoncio, and Mariano Asuncion. Entitled Art and Family: The Asuncion Legacy, the exhibit will be on display at the museum’s 3rd floor Galleries from Aug. 8 to Jan. 14. Selected works include paintings and sculptures, miniatures, medallions, portraits, and watercolor illustrations. Talks and activities will be scheduled during the exhibition run and will be announced through Ayala Museum’s Website and social media channels.
Filed under Announcement, Art And Culture, Asuncion's History
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“Security Centres”, Shoreham: electrified portcullis
“Security Centres” burglar alarm, Shoreham-by-Sea • Security Centres must have been a big firm once, as there are still plenty of their sounders around London, all pretty old. This is one of the more recent examples, and shows the lightning flash much better than yesterday’s rusty and faded box. Shoreham’s meant to be quite posh, and has a weird 1930s “millionaire’s row” down by the seafront, home to Fatboy Slim and David Walliams amongst others; but most of the area is dominated by a really grim dockyard, which is exactly the sort of place you’d expect to find an electrified portcullis. • Spotted: Town centre, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, BN43, England, 2005 • Politics: In the Conservative constituency of Worthing West
ceri price says:
This sounder is. From Security Centres (GB) ltd not UK as in the previous pic, this company is based in Swansea and is quite a large and well respected company.
It was founded by two ex Security Centres (UK) engineers initially as Swansea Security Services, they used the portcullis on their bell boxes and got away with it and then changed the company name to Seecurity Centres (GB)
Modern Alarms who had bought the original company (UK) ltd weren’t too happy about this and took them to court and lost!
Vici MacDonald says:
Thanks for the clarification Ceri, great to have a new contributor. Your comments will go straight through without moderation in future.
Thanks Vicky, I was in the industry for a LONG time, been out for a couple of years but still keep an interest!
Andy Gilmore says:
Ok…..let’s remember that ths ‘Security Centres’ was born out of Security Centres Uk which is what Mike probably remembers. Both firms used the same logo. I think that this ‘Security Centres’ is based in Wales. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was part of the original Security Centres and then sold off separately. Security Centres UK was originally Advanced SOS Security Group. Security Centres UK was aquired by Modern Alarms.
Mike Hardesty says:
Wow Security Centres, that brings back memories of the 80s, SC was the new company that was expanding and going places. Their website states they are now one of UKs largest privately owned fire & security companies.
You’re right, and they’ve still got the same logo. Their major activity seems to be in Wales and the west of England, where they’ve undertaken many major projects, so perhaps that’s why I haven’t come across many of their more recent bell boxes in the London area.
2005, Conservative Party, Illustrated, Lightning flash, Portcullis, Rectangle, Stylised graphic
burglar alarm, graphic design, politics, Shoreham-by-Sea, surveillance, West Sussex
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Ancient Wisdom - Sacred Alignment and the Constellation of Orion
January 01, 2018 | By Sarah Wells
For at least ten thousand years, human beings have been plotting the movement of the stars, studying the heavens, constructing calendars, and erecting monuments to track the procession of the constellations and heavenly bodies across the night sky.
Many ancient cultures shared the belief that we came from the stars. Perhaps this is why so much time, effort, and energy has been put into the study of the celestial bodies from ancient times right up through today.
Several constellations and stars have played an important role in ancient mysteries and mythology surrounding the celestial origins of our species. In the places where these legends emerge, we find structures that correlate with the position of these stars and constellations in the sky.
What were our ancient predecessors trying to tell us with this information?
The constellation of Orion is one of the most prominent and recognizable constellations in the sky, as its location on the celestial equator allows it to be seen all over the planet. It was of central importance to many ancient cultures, as alignment with the position of the stars matches up precisely to various ancient structures, from the pyramids at Giza to those found at Teotihuacán in Central Mexico.
Orion’s Belt and the Giza Plateau
We know from The Pyramid Texts, which are among the oldest religious writings in the world, that the ancient Egyptians believed that the gods descended from the belt of Orion and from Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) in the form of human beings. This is critically important to Egyptian cosmology, as Orion was associated with the god Osiris and Sirius was associated with the goddess Isis, who together are said to have created the whole of human civilization.
The three pyramids at Giza are some of the most mysterious, perplexing, and magnificent ancient structures in the world. Together they demonstrate the concept of sacred alignment, as they form a precise three dimensional map of the stars in the belt of Orion onto the ground. Their size and placement also takes into account both the visible brightness and location of the stars within Orion’s belt, as the two larger pyramids are lined up perfectly in comparison to the smaller offset pyramid of Menkuare.
Additionally, the Giza plateau is located at the geographical center of the Earth, which means that it is positioned exactly in the center of the Earth’s landmass. The central pyramid, Khufu, is not only the last remaining of The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, but is more aligned to true North than the Greenwich observatory in London.
Teotihuacán
Located in the highlands of central Mexico, 35 miles northeast of present day Mexico City, lies the ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacán, another marvel of the ancient world with ties to star constellations. Archaeologists and scholars debate the age of the site, although it is generally agreed upon that the city flourished for at least 500 years before it completely collapsed by the 7th century of the common era.
The city was one of the largest in the world at its peak, with an approximate population of 150,000-200,000 people. Despite the fact that the city predated the Aztecs by several centuries, they called it Teotihuacán, meaning the “Place of the Gods”, as they believed that it was the place where the current world was created.
Like many sacred sites from the ancient world, the observatories, pyramids, and structures at Teotihuacán are constructed mirroring celestial alignments. The complex at Teotihuacán contains three pyramids, two larger and one smaller, boasting a similarity to the layout of the pyramids at Giza and forming another correlation to the belt of Orion. The Pyramid of the Sun is said to be aligned with the Pleiades, another constellation of great importance in myth and lore that is often connected to the constellation of Orion.
Sacred Alignment of the Hopi
The Hopi are a Native American tribe whose cosmology, monuments, and landscape have a deep connection with the constellation of Orion. For many generations, they built and abandoned villages before settling on an area comprised of three mesas in the northeastern part of Arizona, where they have been for over a thousand years.
The natural structure of the three mesas mirrors the three stars in the belt of Orion, and it is said that this is why the Hopi chose to settle in this location. They believe this place to be the center of their universe, where they can make contact with the gods. Furthermore, when connected to other Hopi monuments and landmarks around the southwest, the collective sites are said to map the entire constellation of Orion.
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Category: Big Data
White House Hears from Intel on Federal Data Strategy Action Plan By Clifton Roberts, Global Director, Cloud and Data Policy Times are changing. In the past, the notion of government data being released to the public was not only antithetical to U.S. government policy, but was illegal. Today, we are witnessing a significant shift in the government’s view on the matter. Aligned with Intel’s position that legislative and regulatory initiatives should...
NIST Collects Input to Outline Standardization Priorities in AI and to Make Sense of a Complex Technology Field By Claire Vishik, Intel Fellow, and Riccardo Masucci, Global Director of Privacy One of the considerations for a technology area that is expected to gain considerable importance is the development of international standards to ensure global interoperability and harmonization. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not an exception. A number of efforts in technical standardization have already been started in international standards...
Intel’s Artificial Intelligence Policy Vision Helps Governments Realize AI’s Tremendous Opportunities By Derek Waxman - Global Policy Director, Artificial Intelligence On May 29-31, as part of our Canadian stop on the AI Policy World Tour, Intel sponsored the 6thannual Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Ottawa, Canada. Created in 2011, the OGP is the leading global, multilateral organization focused on open government. Seventy-nine countries and a growing number of local...
Data Brokers Need Reining In, and the FTC Needs the Authority to Do It By David Hoffman, Associate General Counsel and Global Privacy Officer The data broker industry has long been the bottom feeding portion of the growing data economy. They purport to be innovators but are in fact nothing more than malicious profiteers. Recent high-profile misuses of personal data have shown how dangerous this largely unregulated category of companies has become. The Federal...
Intel Talks the Future of Artificial Intelligence at Hub.Berlin By Mario Romao, Global Director of Health and Data Policy On April 10 in Berlin, Germany at hub.berlin, Amir Khosrowshahi, Intel Artificial Intelligence Vice-President & Chief Technology Officer and Abigail Wen, Counsel for Office of the AI CTO staged a conversation on “The Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence: Innovations, Investments and Strategies”. The conversation addressed the current status of...
The U.S. Needs a Stronger and Better Privacy Law By David A. Hoffman, Associate General Counsel and Global Privacy Officer On March 12th, I was honored to testify to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: GDPR & CCPA: Opt-ins, Consumer Control, and the Impact on Competition and Innovation. It was a welcome opportunity to explain why the U.S. needs a stronger and better privacy law than the California Consumer Privacy Act...
Data Saves Lives By Mario Romao, Director, Health and Data Policy At the 2nd European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Congress, held in Milan 26-28 November I had the pleasure to speak at a session on health data sharing. Whilst doctors are the ones saving lives, data - and the information thereof – are the building blocks of medical knowledge. In the era...
Intel Participates in A Conversation about Ethical AI at the Brookings Institute Last Friday, Intel’s Heather Patterson, PhD, a Senior Research Scientist in Intel Labs, participated in a panel dialogue hosted by the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institute. The conversation concerned ethical implications raised by artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on the roles and responsibilities of industry and government in ensuring the responsible design, development, and deployment of AI. Central...
Europe, AI, and Genomics – Big Topics Discussed at Digital Day 2018 By Mario Romao, Global Director, Health and Data Policy April 10th was a big day for the digital ambitions of Europe. We saw leaders from 25 nations signing a Declaration of Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence (AI), committing to join forces to advance research and deployment of AI, without forgetting the social, economic, ethical, and legal aspects. And a couple of...
How to Use Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare While Protecting Privacy By David Hoffman, Associate General Counsel and Global Privacy Officer Technological advancements in health IT have created tremendous possibility for improved efficiency and better interoperability, empowering patients to play a more dynamic role in their healthcare. Increased access to data that can predict health outcomes, and more effective analytical capabilities including artificial intelligence, create tremendous potential to solve some of...
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Carnivàle as a case of bad timing
21 May 2011 at 11:58 (Uncategorized) (apocalypse, Carnivale, Father Coughlin, Great Depression, Great Recession, mass media, modernism, modernity, television)
My husband’s been diligently watching the now defunct HBO series, Carnivàle, for several months now, and while initially a bit skeptical I’ve gradually grown fond of the show.
The series (which lasted a mere two seasons) traces two parallel stories: one about a traveling troupe of carnival workers (the most prominently featured include a tarot reader played by Clea Duvall, a worker with mystical healing powers played by Nick Stahl, and a cootch dancer played by Carla Gallo) and an evangelical minister named Brother Justin (Clancy Brown). Over the course of the series, these seemingly disparate story lines converge. We learn that Ben must confront the minister who, despite his popular image as a pious preacher, contains a deep-ceded evil (see promos for both seasons below).
I am late in coming to the Carnivàle bandwagon. I remember that while in grad school, I attended a panel at the first-ever Flow Conference featuring two organizers from the Save Carnivàle movement. These passionate fans petitioned against HBO’s decision in 2005 to cancel the show and continue to do so. Six years later, I’m beginning to understand their point.
But part of the reason I am enjoying the show has to do with its relevance to the current recessionary economy. The touring members of Carnivàle struggle to persist in an America hobbled by the Great Depression. Their impoverished audiences take in these amusements to distract themselves from the destitution of the everyday. Meanwhile, Brother Justin’s followers suffer from the same need for diversion, seeking a divine explanation for their troubles. In the series’ last episode, when the co-manager of Carnivàle, Samson (Michael J Anderson), and Brother Justin meet, Samson points out the similarities between what they do: both are performers stirring their despairing audience’s emotions, though to different ends and in different ways.
But while Carnivàle must move from city-to-city as a slow-moving caravan, the minister harnesses the power of radio to disseminate his populist message. Brother Justin’s fiery sermons combine theology and politics to tap into the fears of the era. Here’s a clip featuring one of these speeches:
The scene highlights the importance of mass media in summoning followers to Brother Justin’s ministry. In other words, Brother Justin’s power results from the technological innovations of modernity and, in effect, the series critiques modernity itself by imbuing these technologies with an evil power.
The famous historical figure, Catholic priest Father Coughlin, similarly utilized mass media to draw followers to his controversial message. This newsreel describes Coughlin’s impact on the national discourse:
Right now, we’re living in an age of so many Father Coughlins that I don’t even feel it’s necessary to name the television network and its particular personalities that emulate his approach. Needless to say, the conservative pundits of today paint Barack Obama with the same brush that Coughlin and Brother Justin use to tar FDR.
I cannot help but wonder, then, if Carnivàle would have resonated more had it been released about a half a decade later in the midst of the Great Recession. As with Brother Justin, today’s religious zealots assert that the Apocalypse is upon us (tonight at 6:00 PM, to be exact). In a recent New York Times article about this prediction, Courtney Campbell, an Oregon State University professor of religion and culture, remarks “Ultimately we’re looking for some authoritative answers in an era of great social, political, economic, as well as natural, upheaval.” Carnivàle presents a similar historic moment and a shaken populace looking for the same sorts of answers. Sadly, the show arrived too soon, but we can still appropriate it to reflect upon today’s uncertainties.
Meek’s Cutoff, Jon Raymond, and “gentrification” olde West style
15 May 2011 at 20:58 (Uncategorized) (colonization, cultural genocide, Feminism, gentrification, indigenous rights, Jon Raymond, Kelly Reichardt, Livability, Meek's Cutoff, post-colonialism, Wendy and Lucy)
I saw Meek’s Cutoff a few weeks ago with my buddy, Tara, and the film far exceeded my expectations. While many critics praised the film, several reviews included caveats about slow pacing and failed potential given the brilliance of director Kelly Reichardt’s previous efforts, Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. Such undercutting comments calibrated my expectations sufficiently that I found the film neither dull nor deficient in comparison to the director’s previous works.
But another factor, I believe, enhanced my appreciation of the film. At the time of the screening, I had worked through most of Livability: Short Stories by the film’s screenwriter, Jon Raymond. In the past month or so, Jon Raymond’s name continually popped up in the arts section of The Oregonian. Raymond resides in Portland, Oregon, and locals love stories about the successes of their own. Those recent successes include Raymond’s collaboration with Reichardt on Meek’s Cutoff (Reichardt’s previous films resulted from adaptations of Raymond’s stories in Livability) as well as his work with another Portland filmmaker, Todd Haynes, on the teleplay for the Mildred Pierce miniseries that recently aired on HBO. The press on Raymond often mentioned the award-winning Livability, inspiring me to check out a copy from the Multnomah County Library.
Now, I’ll have to admit, reading the book was a classic act of Portlander narcissism: I wanted to see my city interpreted artistically. There’s always something thrilling about that moment of recognition–I know that place; I’ve been there. I was particularly pleased that “Train Choir” (the story upon which Wendy and Lucy is based) took place in North Portland where I went to school for four years. That sound of train whistles that haunts the story’s protagonist also resonated through my dorm room. The Walgreen’s in the story is blocks from the first house I rented, and the lampshade store on Lombard is an oddity I always noticed. This story, as with every piece in Livability, is as much about Portland’s landscape as the characters that occupy it.
The cover of "Livability" highlights the importance of setting in Raymond's work. Image from SFGate.com.
But Raymond’s descriptions of Portland always undercut the romanticism that many residents (myself included) feel about this place. In one of my favorite stories, “Benny,” Raymond addresses how gentrification has transformed many of the city’s neighborhoods. A fantastic series of recent articles in The Oregonian demonstrates that in the past ten years (since about the time I first moved here) Portland’s inner city has become dramatically whiter and more affluent even as the larger metro area grows more diverse. I was reminded of this trend while reading “Young Bodies,” a story about a teenage child of Russian immigrants who commutes from her family’s home at the outer edges of the city to work in the mall adjacent to my central neighborhood (yes, I’m certainly implicated in this trend). While conservatives might chalk such trends up to the invisible hand of the market, The Oregonian articles show that government policies benefit some to the detriment of others, and Portland failed to gear those policies toward the communities of color long established in these urban neighborhoods targeted for development.
With all of this in the back of my mind, I watched Meek’s Cutoff with great fascination. The film follows a group of pioneers trekking along the Oregon Trail in 1854. Led by guide Stephen Meek the party gets lost in the desert with a limited supply of water. In the midst of their distress, they come across an Indian (I use this problmeatic term here intentionally) and capture him. Meek argues that killing him would be the safest course of action while the rest of the men in the party debate the merits of this plan. They decide to keep the Indian alive in hopes that he might guide them toward a source of water. One of the pioneer women clearly at odds with Meek, Emily (played brilliantly by Michelle Williams), goes so far as to threaten the guide with a shotgun to prevent him from killing the Indian (see poster below). The Indian’s intentions, however, are difficult to decipher, and to describe exactly how these dynamics play out would be to undercut the power of the film’s conclusion.
Maybe my favorite film poster of the year. Image from Collider.com.
What struck me as I watched Meek’s Cutoff was the ways in which the themes of Livability recurred in the narrative. As with “Train Choir” and “Benny,” the setting plays as much of a role in the story as the characters. The dry, remote landscape, gorgeously filmed by cinematographer Chris Blauvelt, feels at once vast and enclosed, like it could go on forever and is hence inescapable. Tara pointed out that the camera angles often create a claustrophobic affect. The viewer, like the settlers, feels an anxiety about what might be over the next hill.
Also as in Raymond’s stories, the story vividly depicts the mundane activities of daily life. Scenes detail the labor involved in pioneer living, such as washing laundry, mending clothing, cooking, and knitting. These scenes show that pioneer women in particular played an important function in the labor of immigration, despite their subservient role in decision making processes. The camera places us in a similarly disempowered position, filming the conferences of the men from a distance and muffling their dialog accordingly. Critics point to such scenes as evidence of the film’s feminist intentions.
The women of "Meek's Cutoff" look on from a distance as the men decide the group's fate. Image from trailershut.com
But the film also operates as post-colonial allegory with the pioneers not so unlike the urban gentrifiers of Raymond’s more contemporary stories. Their presence signals the transformation of the landscape that decimated and displaced tribes across the West. It would be a false equivocation to say that this is the same is the current patterns of gentrification (it’s clearly not), but gentrification and colonization both involve a dominant group claiming a space as their own to the detriment of previous occupants. In this respect, Meek’s Cutoff aligns nicely with Livability and it’s depictions of the evolution of Portland. The current whitening of the city center may not be history repeating, but most definitely it’s rhyming.
Adventures in Auditing
Beyond Film
Childhood Cinematic Traumas
Undermining Auteurism
Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style
Feminist Music Geek
Katie in Mostar
Manvertised
Monitor Mix
Pith Report
Social Convergence
Dark Room by Caitlin Cimmiyotti Collins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at c8ic8.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://c8ic8.wordpress.com.
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UC Lodge students’ new home away from home
Story by University of Canberra
TRENDING IN Study
Cultural exchange blooming at UC with Ngunnawal Plant Use Education Space
The University of Canberra’s newest student accommodation facility is undergoing its finishing touches ahead of welcoming students next week.
Hundreds of new and returning students will call UC Lodge home from 1 February.
The 496-bed facility is located in the middle of the University campus, providing residents easy access to their learning spaces and the growing amenities the campus has to offer.
UC Lodge consists of an eight-storey main building and a seven-storey annex. A combination of single bed and multi-share dwellings are split across 353 apartments.
University of Canberra Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Finance and Infrastructure Vicki Williams said it was an exciting time for students to be living on campus.
“Students really value the opportunity to live on campus while they study,” Mrs Williams said. “Not only is it convenient, but the camaraderie they share enhances their learning experience.
“With so much happening on campus at the moment, including the construction of the University of Canberra Public Hospital as part of our growing Health Precinct, the University is only going to become a more vibrant and enjoyable place to be.”
UC Lodge is the University’s second major student accommodation project to open in the last three years. It is similar in design to Cooper Lodge, the 416-bed facility that opened in 2014.
The University now has a total of 2,476 beds available on campus – an increase of 11 per cent on 2016.
The new facility boasts common areas, cooking facilities, private study rooms, a theatre room, laundry services, 24-hour on-site staff and a rooftop terrace.
University student Luke Favero has been living in Cooper Lodge since it opened but is relocating to UC Lodge this year. He said living on campus had added another layer of enjoyment to his university experience.
“Living on campus has been a great experience,” he said. “I come from a small country town in New South Wales and UC has really become my home away from home.
“The support services in place to assist students who aren’t familiar with the University and Canberra are fantastic. The staff really go out of their way to make students’ experience living on campus an enjoyable one.”
Mrs Williams said UC Lodge reinforces the University’s policy of providing an accommodation guarantee to all first year students.
The facility, she added, would help meet growing demand for on-campus accommodation.
“We’re excited to have so many new and returning students living on campus in 2017,” she said.
Learn more about UC Lodge here.
This article has been repurposed with permission from the University of Canberra. To view it in its original form, click here.
Written by University of Canberra University of Canberra
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Problems With Our Current Food System by Chris Cook
By The Real Truth About Health on September 12, 2018 in Health Science
The following video is brought to you courtesy of the The Real Truth About Health YouTube Channel. Click the video below to watch it now.
Christopher Cook is an award-winning investigative journalist and the author who has written extensively on agribusiness, food policy, the environment, labor, and social justice issues for a wide array of national publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Harper’s, The Atlantic, The Economist, Mother Jones, The Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, The American Prospect, and others. Christopher is a contributing writer for The Progressive magazine and former city editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He has also worked as a reporter for The Oakland Tribune, United Press International, and other daily outlets.
Christopher also works as a research and writing consultant for numerous national institutions, including Oxfam America, Friends of the Earth, Food First, Natural Resources Defense Council, and others. In this capacity, he has written reports on climate change and the food industry, agroecology, food industry labor abuses, and other topics.
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Warning for This Year’s Flu Vaccine!
What is Laparoscopic | How It Help | Dr. Ramesh Babu With Free Diabetes
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Department of Liberal Studies
Speakers Series
Kimberly Lynn (2006)
Ph.D. History, Johns Hopkins University
Office: BH 152A ~ Phone: 360-650-4869 ~ E-Mail: Kimberly.Lynn@wwu.edu
Summer 2019 Office Hours: By appointment
Kimberly Lynn’s primary expertise is in the history of early modern Europe and the Iberian world. In both her teaching and research, she is particularly interested in the question of Empire and in the intersecting histories of ideas, religion, and culture. She has conducted research in numerous archives in Spain and Italy, and in Mexico City. Her research has focused on some of the most infamous historical figures—Spanish inquisitors. She is interested in how inquisitorial careerism can illustrate the nature of empire in the early modern world. She is the author of Between Court and Confessional: The Politics of Spanish Inquisitors (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013). She also edited The Early Modern Hispanic World: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Approaches (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017). Curriculum Vitae
Ethan Bushelle (2018)
Ph.D. Japanese Religions and Literature, Harvard University
Office: BH 418F ~ Phone: 360-650-7761 ~ E-Mail: Ethan.Bushelle@wwu.edu
Fall 2019 Office Hours: By appointment
Ethan Bushelle is a scholar of East Asian religions and culture. In both his teaching and research, he explores the role religion plays in shaping the way people understand their world and their place in it. He is currently working on a book project that attempts to clarify the impact that Buddhism had on the development of classical Japanese culture and society from the sixth through twelfth centuries. Prof. Bushelle teaches courses on East Asian religions and culture in both Liberal Studies and the Program in East Asian Studies. In 2018-19 academic year, he will teach “Buddhism” in the Fall and “Zen” and “Humanities of Japan” in the Winter.
Holly Folk (2007)
Ph.D. Religious Studies, Indiana University
Office: BH 158 ~ Phone: 360-650-6875 ~ E-Mail: Holly.Folk@wwu.edu
Holly Folk is a historian who studies 19th and 20th-century American religion and culture. Her research addresses a variety of social movements that fall outside the ‘mainstream’, including new religions, communes and utopias, anarchism, and alternative medicine. At WWU she teaches courses in theory and methods, American religious history, and modern world religion. Folk wrote the volume on New Religious Movements that is part of the World Religions database to be published by Infobase / Facts on File. A monograph based on her dissertation, Vertebral Vitalism: The Birth of Chiropractic, is under contract with UNC Press, with anticipated publication in 2017. She has served on the board of the Communal Studies Association since 2010.
Andrea Gogröf (1995)
Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of Washington
Office: BH 168 ~ Phone: 360-650-4770 ~ E-Mail: Andrea.Gogrof@wwu.edu
Andrea Gogröf’s main area of interest is comparative literature and philosophy with a focus on romanticism and modernity. She is the author of Defining Modernism: Baudelaire and Nietzsche on Romanticism, Modernity, Decadence, and Richard Wagner, and has continued to publish on Baudelaire and Nietzsche as well as on the Austrian writer Peter Handke and the Austrian director Michael Haneke. Her research uses an interdisciplinary approach that links sociological discourse with literature and literary theory to explore representations of hygiene. In modern literature the topic of hygiene became a site for expressing many cultural anxieties evoked by new theoretical and practical problems of modernity. Another interest of research is a critical examination of the systematic proliferation of surveillance technologies as they contribute to a perceivable erosion of the distinction between the public and private sphere in people’s professional and personal lives. Her teaching includes courses on the relationship between Enlightenment and Romanticism, psychoanalysis and representations of otherness, critical and literary theory, literature and film. Publications
Jonathan Miran (2003)
Ph.D. History, Michigan State University
Office: BH 166 ~ Phone: 360-650-4867 ~ E-Mail: Jonathan.Miran@wwu.edu
Jonathan Miran is a historian of Africa and the Islamic world. His research focuses on the social, religious and cultural history of Muslims and their institutions and practices in Northeast Africa, especially Eritrea and Ethiopia. He has also developed interests in the history of the Red Sea region from a broader regional and maritime perspective that draws on and converses with trans-local, transregional and global history approaches. Miran is the author of Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa (Indiana U.P., 2009) and currently serves as General Editor of the journal Northeast African Studies. He is also a member of several editorial boards, including the boards of Africa. Rivista semestrale di studi e ricerche, Arabian Humanities, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, and Rivista italiana di storia internazionale. Dr. Miran teaches classes on Islam and the Islamic world, on the history and cultural traditions of Africa, and on the Indian Ocean area. Publications
Seán Eisen Murphy (2002)
Ph.D. Medieval Studies, Cornell University
Office: BH 160 ~ Phone: 360-650-4870 ~ E-Mail: Sean.Murphy@wwu.edu
Trained in history, philosophy, and literature, Seán Murphy is the Department’s specialist in the humanities of medieval Europe. His introductory courses explore the cultural history of the ancient world (LBRL 121) and medieval and early modern Europe (LBRL 122). At the advanced level, he teaches seminars on Dante (LBRL 302) and on the mutual influence of Jewish and Christian cultures in Europe, c. 1100-c. 1650 (LBRL 417C). His research expertise is in twelfth- and thirteenth-century cultural conflict and its place in the formation of religious identity; he has a special interest in university intellectuals and their ideas about Judaism. He has published articles in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly (Special Issue on Peter Abelard), the Journal of Medieval History, and the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Scott Pearce (1992)
Ph.D. History, Princeton University
Office: BH 156 ~ Phone: 360-650-3897 ~ E-Mail: Scott.Pearce@wwu.edu
Trained in the history of China, inner Asia, and Japan, and in Chinese thought and religion, Scott Pearce specializes in the alien dynasties that ruled northern China during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. He currently is working on a book on the “great reformer” emperor, Xiaowen (r. 471-499), who refashioned his realm from an imposition by force of arms into a state that sought to rest upon the traditions of his conquered Chinese subjects. From this work come scholarly and teaching interests in many related issues, such as the encounter and interaction of cultures, the evolution of Buddhism in medieval China, military history, and the poetry of war.
Michael Slouber (2014)
Ph.D. South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Office: BH 170 ~ Phone: 360-650-7649 ~ E-Mail: Michael.Slouber@wwu.edu
Michael Slouber is a specialist in early medieval religions of India, and teaches a variety of courses in South Asian Studies and Religious Studies. His introductory courses (LBRL 271 and 378; HNRS 105) emphasize an interdisciplinary approach to the humanities of Indian civilization, drawing on history, literature, religion, film, art, and ethnography. He also teaches the topical courses “Fierce Goddesses of India” (LBRL 345) and “Traditional Indian Medicine” (LBRL 421), and guides senior research projects relating to South Asian humanities. Slouber trained in the classical languages of India—Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit—at UC Berkeley and Uni Hamburg, and may be available to tutor highly motivated students in these languages at any level, or the modern languages Hindi-Urdu and Nepali at the elementary level. His research has focused on the history of medicine, Tantra, and studies of lesser-known goddess traditions. He is the author of Early Tantric Medicine: Snakebite, Mantras, and Healing in the Gāruḍa Tantras (Oxford University Press, 2016), and a number of articles, book chapters, and translations. His current project is editing and contributing to a collection of translated goddess narratives called A Garland of Goddesses: Hindu Tales of the Divine Feminine from India and Beyond.
Ph.D. Divinity, University of Chicago
Office: BH 418E ~ Phone: 360-650-4074 ~ E-Mail Tom.Moore@wwu.edu
Tom Moore has taught a variety of courses for the Liberal Studies department and for the Honors program. His scholarly program is divided between the analytical and the more broadly creative. He has had a chapter accepted for a forthcoming book on mimesis in which he contrasts the work of the French theorist Jean Baudrillard with that of Mircea Eliade, the historian of religions. His poem ‘Central Massachusetts Afternoon’ appeared in the journal Rock and Sling.
Errol Seaton
Ph.D. English and American Literature, University of California, San Diego
Office: BH 162 ~ Phone: 360-650-4866 ~ E-Mail: Errol.Seaton@wwu.edu
Fall 2019 Office Hours: Prof. Seaton retired July 2019
Errol Seaton has diverse teaching interests such as British Romantic poetry; 20th century British and American literature; literature and society in England, 1900-1945; poetry and World War 1; postcolonial prose and verse. He has taught several courses for the Liberal Studies Department including Western Traditions I, II, and III.
David Bresnahan
Ph.D. African History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Office: BH 159A ~ Phone: 360-650-3033 ~ E-Mail: David.Bresnahan@wwu.edu
Fall 2019 Office Hours: Will not be teaching fall quarter
David Bresnahan is an historian of early Africa and the Indian Ocean world. His research focuses on coastal East Africa’s interactions with social and economic networks of the Indian Ocean since the first millennium CE. He is currently working on a book project that explores the history of the Swahili coastal region from the perspectives of rural societies that never fully integrated into maritime exchange networks despite living just kilometers away from the Indian Ocean. The project draws on research conducted in Kenya, Tanzania, and England. In the Winter and Spring 2019 he will teach courses on African Humanities and Religion and Society in Africa.
Kathleen Brian
Ph.D. American Studies, George Washington University
Office: BH 159A ~ Phone: 360-650-7706 ~ E-Mail: Kathleen.Brian@wwu.edu
Kathleen Brian is a cultural historian whose primary interests are in histories of science, medicine, and public health in the United States and its imperial outposts, as well as critical race and disability theory. Both her research and teaching are animated by inquiry into epistemology; the transmutation of knowledge as it circulates between popular, professional, and official spaces; and the role that emotion plays in both processes. Her recent work appears in the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies and the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, and her co-edited collection, Phallacies: Historical Intersections of Masculinity and Disability (2017), is available from Oxford University Press. She is also at work on a book project that rethinks the origins and agendas of Anglophone eugenics through the history of suicide.
Carrie Frederick Frost
Ph.D. Religious Studies, University of Virginia
Office: BH 159A ~ Phone: 360-650-3033 ~ E-Mail: frostc8@wwu.edu
Carrie Frederick Frost is a scholar of modern Orthodox Christianity, who attends to matters of women and mothers in the church, sacraments and practice, Christian material culture, and contemplative prayer. She received a PhD in Theology, Ethics, and Culture from the Religious Studies Department at the University of Virginia, and she is the author of Maternal Body: A Theology of Incarnation from the Christian East (Paulist Press, 2019) and the editor of The Reception of the Holy and Great Council: Reflections of Orthodox Christian Women (GOARCH, 2018). In the fall of 2019, she will teach Introduction to the Study of Religion and Christianity and Modern Literature.
Michael Brattus Jones
Ph.D. Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Office: BH 159A ~ Phone: 360-650-3033 ~ E-Mail:
Michael Brattus Jones is a scholar trained in Sanskrit philology and in the critical and historical study of religion. The current focus of his research is the religious conception of agriculture in the Sanskrit tradition. While his primary areas of expertise are Vedic and Classical India, he is generally interested in topics of religion, culture, language, myth, and ritual, as well as pre-modern agriculture. He is also interested the scholarly process of the construction of knowledge about the ancient world, including issues of epistemology, methodology, and textual studies. He is currently in the process of streamlining the overarching narrative of his dissertation into a monograph, while developing the highly specialized tangents into separate articles. He is teaching Myth and Folklore (REL 232) twice in the 2019-2020 academic year, in Fall and again in Spring.
Nicholas Margaritis
Ph.D. Medieval Literature, University of Virginia
Office: HU 281 ~ Phone: 360-650-2537 ~ E-Mail: Nicholas.Margaritis@wwu.edu
Fall 2019 Office Hours: Not teaching for Global Humanities and Religions fall quarter
Nicholas Margaritis' areas of specialty include Greek and Roman literature, Medieval Literature, Shakespeare, and Modern Comparative Literature (with special interest in 19th and 20th century French and Russian). He has published articles on and translations of Cavafy, essays on Proust, Joyce, and George Saintsbury, and is the author of two full-length plays, "Philip of Macedon" and "Pushkin."
Philip Tite
Ph.D. Religious Studies, McGill University
Office: BH 418F ~ Phone: 360-650-6301 ~ E-Mail: Philip.Tite@wwu.edu
Fall 2019 Office Hours: Will not be teaching for Global Humanities and Religions fall quarter
Philip L. Tite is a specialist in early Christian studies with strong interests in method and theory in the academic study of religion, engaging research on ancient Gnosticism, ancient martyrdom, apocryphal traditions, religion and violence, and social scientific approaches to the study of religion. He is the editor of Bulletin for the Study of Religion and authored several books, including The Apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans (Brill, 2012) and Valentinian Ethics and Paraenetic Discourse (Brill, 2009), and co-edited Religion, Terror and Violence (Routledge, 2008). He is currently writing a book on the apocryphal letters of Paul. Dr. Tite also teaches at the University of Washington, and has taught at Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle University, Willamette University, and McGill University.
Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam
Ph.D. Middle Eastern History, University of Haifa
Office: BH 159A ~ Phone: 360-650-3033 ~ E-Mail: siyamak.Zabihi-Moghaddam@wwu.edu
Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam is a historian of the Middle East and North Africa specializing in women’s and gender history. He has taught courses on Islam and Islamic civilization, the modern Middle East, modern Iran, women and gender in the Middle East and North Africa, and women and feminist movements in Europe. His articles have been published in the Journal of Women’s History, Journal of Religious History, Contemporary Review of the Middle East and Iranian Studies. In addition, he has published a book in Persian and has edited a volume of Persian primary sources on the 1903 massacre of Baha’is, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority.
Monique Kerman is now an Assistant Professor of Art History in the College of Fine and Performing Arts at WWU.
David Curley (1996)
M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago
David.Curley@wwu.edu
David Curley retired in 2012. He continues to do research in interdisciplinary studies in precolonial Indian history and literature, and has more time for his extended family.
After retirement Curley travelled to India for two months to complete research for a social and intellectual history to be titled, Sentiments, Mastery, Truth: Gokul Chandra Ghoshal and Joy Narayan Ghoshal in Calcutta, Chittagong and Banaras, 1761-1821. In loose connection with research about Gokul’s activities in Chittagong, and a local uprising against his agents, Curley also has been working on a paper titled, ‘Sentiments, Social Bonds, and Public Memory in Ballads of Eastern Bengal’. While in India he presented an early draft to the History Department of Jadavpur University.
Milton Krieger (1970)
Ph.D. University of Toronto
Milt Krieger retired from Western in 2003. After retirement he taught in Ghana in 2004, and in the Semester at Sea around the World Program in 2006. His latest book is Cameroon’s Social Democratic Front: Its History & Prospects as an Opposition Political Party (1990-2011), published in 2008. He recently published a book on the history of jazz in Bellingham and Whatcom County, and together with his wife Judy Krieger, on a history of the community of Loon Lake, B.C.
Rodney Payton (1970)
M.A. Washington State University, Ph.D. University of Chicago
Rodney Payton retired from Western in 2005. He is the author of A Modern Reader’s Guide to Dante’s Inferno (1992) and together with Ulrich Mammitzsch, who also was a member of the department, he translated Johan Huizinga’s Autumn of the Middle Ages (1996), and produced a beautifully illustrated edition. Both books are still in print. After retirement Payton has been giving more time to his interests in woodworking and grandchildren.
William K.B. Stoever (1970)
M.Div., Yale Divinity School
M.Phil., Ph.D., Yale University
William Stoever’s research interests center on Reformed Protestants in England and America, chiefly New England Puritans and Jonathan Edwards. He also is interested in history and theory in the study of religions since the Enlightenment. His book, A Faire and Easie Way to Heaven: Covenant Theology and Antinomianism in Early Massachusetts (1978) gained wide recognition for its contributions to scholarship on New England’s Puritans. Although he officially retired in 2007, he continued to teach until 2008.
Robert Stoops (1983)
Ph.D. Study of Religion, Harvard University
E-Mail: Robert.Stoops@wwu.edu
Rob Stoops retired from Western in 2018. Broadly interested in the history of ideas and the interaction between religion and culture, Rob Stoops takes particular interest in the ways in which elements of a tradition, a story element, a symbol, or an image, can be taken up and given new meaning in a changed context. His area of research is comparative religion. While the development of Christianity in the first two centuries is his main topic, Stoops also studies the larger Greco-Roman world as the context within which early Christianity must be understood. He has written on Alexander the Great and the Aeneid. His ‘related field’ in doctoral studies was art and archeology. Stoops tries to incorporate works of art and architecture along with texts in both his teaching and research.
William Wallace (1970)
Ph.D. English, Ohio University
William Wallace taught at Southern Methodist University before joining the Liberal Studies department. His interests were Renaissance English, poetry, myth as narrative, Homer, and the patriarchal narratives in Genesis and medieval European culture. He has published on George Gascoigne and Elizabethan politics. The highlight of working at Western for Wallace was being able to earn a living doing what he loved most: reading and talking about important books.
Liberal Studies Department
Bond Hall (BH) 152
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NAPLP Program
INSPIRE Program
Foggy Bottom Campus
NAPLP
Home News & Events
News about the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy (AT&T CIPP), the Native American Political Leadership Program (NAPLP) and the INSPIRE Pre-College Program.
GW Develops a ‘Guide to Indigenous D.C.’
A new tool will help visitors to Washington, D.C., discover the historic and contemporary landmarks of those who inhabited the city’s land before its development as the nation’s capital. “Guide to Indigenous D.C.” is a free mobile app developed by AT&T CIPP in collaboration with the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association.
Smithsonian Museum Director Speaks at GW about Native American History and Policymaking
Kevin Gover, the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, discussed his career and problems with the way Native American history is taught at a lecture in late April. His presentation was the keynote lecture of the Indigenous America University Seminar, a programming initiative led by Dr. Elizbeth Rule, assistant director for the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics & Policy (AT&T CIPP).
GW Panel Talks about Engaging Youth in Politics
The panel featured U.S. Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and was titled “More Than a Vote” and was sponsored by the GW Graduate School of Political Management in collaboration with the School of Media and Public Affairs and the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy. The panel also included Lara Brown, director of GSPM.
Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Rule
Congratulations to CPS faculty member Elizabeth Rule who successfully defended her dissertation in December 2018 and completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at Brown University.
New Website Launched for AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics & Policy
The AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics & Policy (AT&T CIPP) launched a new website in January.
Experts Discuss Missing Indigenous Women at GW
A newly released report from the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) aims to bring to light more than 500 stories of missing and slain indigenous women and girls in cities across the U.S. The previous lack of data contributes to a false perception that the issue does not impact American Indian and Alaska Native women living off of reservations. GW’s AT&T CIPP partnered with UIHI to host their research briefing event at GW.
The silent epidemic: Indigenous ELCA women combat gender injustice and violence
Living Lutheran -"Native American women are murdered at a rate 10 times the national average in many U.S. counties, according to a report funded by the U.S.
October 8: Is it Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day?
The second Monday in October has traditionally been celebrated as Columbus Day, but a growing movement is recognizing it as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Wendy Helgemo Receives St. Olaf College Alumni Award
Congratulations to Ms. Wendy Helgemo, Director of the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy, on receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award from St. Olaf College for her work as an advocate for Native Americans.
Secretary Zinke Visits with Native American High School Students
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Principal Deputy Secretary for Indian Affairs John Tahsuda met with a group of native high school students who were attending the INSPIRE Pre-College Program to learn about intergovernmental relations between tribal governments and the federal government.
NAPLP Students Learn from Native Lawyer & Playwright Mary Katherine Nagle
Students and faculty from CIPP have crossed paths with the extraordinary Mary Katherine Nagle, a local lawyer and playwright, in multiple ways lately. They have learned from her unique legal expertise and been inspired by her Native American play.
Wendy Helgemo to Lead Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy
Wendy Helgemo has joined GW as the inaugural director of the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy (CIPP), a GW-based research and advocacy center that provides support to tribal leaders and promotes public awareness on issues of national significance to indigenous communities.
AT&T Helps Establish GW Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy
Indigenous peoples will soon have a new resource to help their voices be heard in Washington, D.C. with the launch of the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics & Policy (CIPP) at George Washington University.
GW Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
The George Washington University announced today it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to establish the Richard M. Milanovich Fellowship to provide funding for Native American students who are members of federally recognized California tribes to study, live and work in Washington, D.C., through GW's Native American Political Leadership Program (NAPLP).
Tweets by GWCIPP
AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy (CIPP)
805 21st Street, NW, Suite 301
INSPIRE Pre-College Program
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HIGH POINT’S DEFENSE LEADS EAGLES TO SHUTOUT VICTORY OVER HORNETS
October 6, 2018: High Point High School quarterback Keshaun Griffin celebrates with teammate Thomas Owens during a high school football game against Surrattsville High School in Clinton. Photo by Daniel Kucin Jr./The Prince George’s Sentinel
CLINTON – After giving up a total of 75 points over the past two weeks, High Point High School’s football team turned over a new leaf defensively with a dominant performance against Surrattsville High School on the road.
The Eagles defense had two safeties, two interceptions, a forced fumble and fumble recovery that led them to a 24-0 victory on Oct. 6.
The first big play from High Point’s defense came in the second quarter by junior safety Daron Walker. As Walker was trotting deep back in coverage, he stepped in front of the Hornets wide receiver to make an interception for his team.
“Pretty much, I was in the backfield, so I was watching the whole play,” Walker said. “I am also looking at the quarterback and his waist.
“So, I trailed the quarterback and wherever his waist went and wherever his eyes went, that’s where I was. I did my job and came to the ball and got the interception. We did good as a team talking to each other and taking responsibility for each job, not getting mad at each other and just kept pushing forward.”
After Walker’s interception, High Point sophomore quarterback Keshaun Griffin broke off for a 57-yard run. On the very next play, Griffin ran in for his second rushing touchdown from three yards out.That gave High Point a 13-0 late in the second quarter.
“I was using my offensive skills by basically using my speed and my God-giving ability to make plays, get first downs and win the game,” Griffin said.
“I mostly use my feet over passing for the most part, but I do try to pass. After I use my feet, I try to get out of the pocket but sometimes I can’t, so that’s when I use my arm. We made a lot of big plays when blocking, especially when I would run.”
Walker and his fellow teammates got into the Surrattsville backfield and forced a safety, which gave them a 15-0 lead as they went into halftime.
The second half started off like the first half ended as High Point’s defense picked up right where they left off.
On Surrattsville’s opening drive of the third quarter, High Point senior safety Thomas Owens earned the team’s second safety of the game via an early tackle, increasing the Eagles’ lead to 17.
“On that safety, I was just reading because they weren’t really running the ball that powerful,” Owens said. “So, I said I’m going just to sit back, saw the player run our the pocket and I got him.
The rest of the game ended with more plays by High Point’s defense as they closed the game out with a forced fumble, fumble recovery and interception in the fourth quarter.
“I think our defense could have done better” Owens said. “We kept giving away a lot of plays. We did get to the line of scrimmage well, and we played pretty good pass coverage.”
The vital game was High Point’s second win of the season but the blowout victory could have been the breakthrough that the Eagles needed.
“We compete and we been competing all season,” High Point Head Coach Wilbert Brinson said. “We just have to eliminate the minimal mistakes and the drive-killing penalties. “We’re a young team, and overall, we compete, but we really got to lock in and focus on everybody individually doing their job. I’m satisfied with the win and to score 24. I would think that’s an accomplishment for them as well. We still have a lot of work to do.
“They have to stay focused, and they have to continue to want to get better. What hurt us is that we lost some possessions and opportunities, so I tell them to stay focus. We didn’t play up to our potential today. We competed and played, but we missed a lot of opportunities because of the penalties and minimal mistakes.”
January 13, 2019 January 13, 2019 cjbutta Tagged DC, Football, Maryland, Sports, Washington DC Leave a comment
DIVAS COME UP SHORT IN WFA CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Landover, MD, Saturday, July 14, 2018: Amanda Congialdi (6) of DC Divas scrambles and looks downfield for a receiver during the WFA Eastern Conference Championship game held at Marvin F. Wilson Stadium in Landover, MD. (Michael R. Smith/The Prince George’s Sentinel).
LANDOVER – The D.C. Divas and Boston Renegades rivalry continued on July 14 in Landover, MD at The Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex during the Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) Division I Eastern Conference championship game.
It was the ninth playoff meeting between the two organizations over the past 10 years and last Saturday night showed the storied rivalry of these two powerhouses.
After a slow start by the Divas in the first half, D.C. rebounded in the second half to make it a more competitive game. However, for the second straight season, the Renegades knocked the Divas out of the playoffs in a nailbiter (34-32).
“We’ve seen this all year,” D.C. Divas Head Coach Greg Gaskins said. “We woke up in the second half. In the first game when they came down here, they were up 14 at halftime, and we ended up waking up in the second half and winning. The same thing happened here. It was just that they made a few more plays in the second half then we did. At the end of the day, we played 30 minutes, they played 60, and that’s what shows on the scoreboard.”
In the first quarter, both teams were evenly matched. Each squad missed out on tremendous opportunities as they respectively drove down the field. The Divas had their only turnover of the game halfway through the first, and the Renegades had a touchdown called back by a penalty, which led to a missed field goal. That left the score knotted at zero at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Boston outscored the Divas 21-7 as quarterback Allison Cahill threw four touchdowns, with two of those tosses to wide receiver Stephanie Pascual. The Divas had no answer for the fast-paced offensive attack of the Renegades and went into halftime down by two scores (21-7).
To add insult to injury, the Divas star running back D’Ajah Scott went down with a leg injury with 1:46 left in the second quarter.
“In the first half, we definitely came out flat,” said Divas linebacker Safi Mojidi, who led D.C. with 10 tackles. “We have a terrible habit of coming out flat. Defensively, I think we had some miscues. We practiced the past two weeks going over scouting tapes and watching film. We were very well-prepared, but there were some miscues, dropped personnel, and we didn’t take care of business like we should have in the first half.”
With 6:06 left in the third quarter and the score still 21-7, Scott, who had the team’s only touchdown, returned to the game. On that same drive, she checked back into the game, and the Divas scored on a quick one-yard quarterback sneak play by Amanda Congialdi to cut the deficit to 21-13. However, Boston responded right back with a score of their own that extended the Renegades lead to 28-13. With 46 seconds left in the frame, Congialdi scored her second touchdown of the game with a two-yard pass to running back Courtney Smith. As they headed into the final quarter, the Divas trailed 28-20.
“The game plan for us was to establish the run,” Congialdi said. “I think they knew our game plan was to establish the run, so in the second half, we decided to spread them out and go wide. That way, we were able to take advantage of the secondary.”
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Divas got the break that they needed. The Renegades muffed a punt, and D.C. recovered the ball. Defense leads to offense, and the Divas took advantage of that opportunity as Congialdi scored her third touchdown of the game.
However, the Divas missed out on the two-point conversion chance, which made the score 28-26. Every time the Divas scored, the Renegades came right back with an answer. Cahill threw her fourth touchdown of the night, which increased Boston’s lead yet again (34-26). Boston missed the extra point, however, which left the door wide open for the Divas to make one more push to score.
With 4:22 left in the fourth quarter, Congialdi delivered her fourth touchdown of the night with a strike over the middle to wide receiver Lois Cook, which made it a two-point game. The Divas had no choice but to go for another two-point conversion attempt but came up short once again. The Renegades got the ball back with a 34-32 lead, and after multiple first downs, they ended the Divas season for the second straight year.
After a quiet first half, wide receiver Kentrina Wilson had a big second half and ended the game with seven catches for 144 yards but unfortunately could not find the endzone. On the defensive end, Mojidi led the Divas with 10 tackles, and linebacker Tia Watkins had nine tackles. Cahill led the Renegades with four touchdowns.
“When we had a wide receiver open, that was a missed opportunity, but we came back and scored the next play,” Gaskins said. “Offensively, we missed a few passes. If we hit a couple of those passes, there’s more time on the clock. That’s what happens when you miss those passes, and you miss time.
Defensively, we missed tackles. It wasn’t that we were always out of place. We had people in place, but at the end of the day, you got to make a play.”
July 19, 2018 July 19, 2018 cjbutta Tagged Boston, Boston Renegades, DC, DC Divas, Football, Maryland, Sports, Washington DC, WFA, Women, Women's Football, Women's Football Alliance Leave a comment
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Tag Archives: Badlands
Great Movie Switchovers
Few greater changes can occur on a movie’s production than the leading man being replaced at the last minute.
But what if history had played out differently? Yes, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones now, but it almost happened.
LOS ANGELES – 1980: Actor Tom Selleck poses for a portrait in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Just consider…
HARRISON FORD Vs TOM SELLECK
The role: Adventurer/archaeologist Indiana Jones in Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The first choice: Tom Selleck, star of TV’s Magnum PI.
The replacement: Harrison Ford. Despite small parts in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, Ford was not actually a big star in 1981. Even his role as Han Solo in Star Wars had not in itself assured him widespread and enduring fame, any more than it did for his co-stars Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher.
The switch: After struggling to receive serious attention from the industry into his mid-thirties, Selleck landed the role of Magnum in 1980. Although a big success, contractually Selleck found himself unable to take the role of Indiana Jones which went to Ford instead. Annoyingly, a strike on the set of Magnum meant that Selleck could probably have performed both roles anyway.
The result: The film was a box office smash and an all time classic, winning an Oscar nomination for Best Film and spawning three sequels.
What happened to the new star?: Relatively late in life, Harrison Ford became one of the biggest movie stars of all time and for close to twenty years had a reputation for never being in a flop (although, in truth, the critically acclaimed Blade Runner and Mosquito Coast both failed commercially). In addition to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises he appeared in the highly regarded “grown-up” films Witness, Frantic, Working Girl, Regarding Henry and Presumed Innocent. Despite never winning an Oscar, he is one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time.
And the first choice?: Selleck stayed in Magnum – a big success in its day – until it was cancelled in 1988 (the character was killed off). He appeared in one or two transparent attempts to emulate Indiana Jones such as High Road to China and Lassiter during the Eighties as well as Quigley Down Under. He played the King in Christopher Columbus The Discovery (for which he received a Razzle) but aside from Magnum is probably best known for his role alongside Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg in the comedy Three Men And A Baby and as Monica’s older lover Richard in Friends.
Conclusion: I’ve no desire to compound Tom Selleck’s misery on this subject but from what we’ve seen during his career, it’s hard to imagine he would have a) been as good as Indiana Jones as Harrison Ford was anyway or b) had the same career Ford subsequently enjoyed. Would Selleck have taken up a half-arsed role in Cowboys and Aliens? Would Selleck have married Calista Flockhart? Would Selleck’s second wife have written ET? We must assume not.
Crumbs of comfort: Tom Selleck is still a household name. And he has arguably demonstrated more of a flair for comedy than Ford has. And before we get too sympathetic: Selleck is a vocal supporter of the National Rifle Association.
The winner?: HARRISON FORD
MARTIN SHEEN Vs HARVEY KEITEL
The role: Captain Benjamin Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now (1979).
The first choice: Harvey Keitel, then best known for his roles in the early Martin Scorsese films, Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.
The replacement: Martin Sheen, previously the troubled James Dean-alike Fifties hoodlum in Terence Malick’s Badlands.
The switch: Keitel was fired and replaced by Sheen early in the troubled production. Coppola felt Keitel struggled to play Willard as a “passive onlooker”.
The result: Keitel must initially felt like he’d had a narrow escape. Apocalypse Now was soon christened “Apocalypse When?” by critics as the production overran, the crew in the Philippines were hit by a bout of food poisoning, director Ford Coppola grew increasingly power-mad and co-star Marlon Brando arrived much fatter than expected and delayed production still further while he took time out to read the Joseph Conrad novella, Heart of Darkness upon which the film is loosely based. Although only in his late thirties, Sheen, then struggling with alcohol, also suffered a heart attack while filming. Despite these issues, the film was a critical and commercial success and is rivalled only by Platoon (starring Martin’s son Charlie Sheen) as the best ‘Nam film ever made.
What happened to the new star?: Despite quitting the booze and keeping busy, Sheen didn’t choose particularly great film roles during the next two decades. Indeed, the period saw him slightly eclipsed by his sons Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen. However, his role as President Josiah Bartlet in Aaron Sorkin’s long-running TV drama The West Wing put him back on the map. Now in old age he appeared recently in the new Spider Man film and generally plays small “elderly father” roles.
And the first choice? Keitel slipped into near obscurity in the Eighties before enjoying a comeback towards the end of that decade playing Judas in Scorsese’s controversial Last Temptation of Christ and securing an Oscar nod for a role in Warren Beatty gangster film, Bugsy. The Nineties were very good for Keitel with hard hitting acclaimed roles in Thelma and Louise, Jane Campion’s The Piano, Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn and Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant and lighter roles (although again as a gangster/criminal type) in the likes of Sister Act. His profile has fallen in the 21st century though.
Conclusion: Hmmmm. Sheen has starred in two classic films Badlands and Apocalypse Now and one great series The West Wing. Harvey Keitel has starred in two classic films, Mean Streets and Reservoir Dog and had notable support roles in three others Taxi Driver, Thelma and Louise and Pulp Fiction. Sheen is perhaps the slightly more famous of the two men, thanks partly to his sons. But oddly, as huge a deal as Apocalypse Now must have seemed at the time, in the long run, neither actor has been obviously more successful than the other. Both have kept busy, done some great stuff and both have done hell of a lot of stuff you’ll never see.
The winner?: A DRAW
MICHAEL J. FOX Vs ERIC STOLTZ
The role: Marty McFly in science-fiction rom com Back To The Future (1985).
The first choice: Eric Stoltz, then best known for his role alongside Cher in Mask (no, not the Jim Carrey one).
The replacement: Michael J. Fox then the star of US sitcom Family Ties. The ‘J’ incidentally, doesn’t stand for anything. Michael Fox’s middle name is Andrew but he reasoned Michael A Fox might sound silly or even a bit conceited.
The switch: Brutal. Filming had commenced when Eric Stoltz was fired for playing the role too much like it was a drama rather than as a comedy. Fox – unlike Tom Selleck on Magnum – was lucky to be able to work around his Family Ties schedule although endured a punishing timetable with many scenes being filmed early in the morning. Stoltz – who was physically similar to Fox although eight inches taller – remains in some shots used in the finished film.
The result: The film was a box office smash and is still much loved. There were two sequels, both big hits despite being slightly less good.
What happened to the new star?: Fox became a huge star overnight as the film coincided with the release of Teen Wolf, a film disliked by Fox personally but which nonetheless did well. Fox appeared in the BTTF sequels and the weighty Casualties of War but his star waned in the early Nineties, probably in part due to Fox struggling to come to terms with the private news of the diagnosis of his Parkinson’s disease in 1991. He enjoyed an impressive comeback in 1996 with his role as a youthful looking political adviser (based on Bill Clinton’s own George Stephanopoulos) which led in turn to a triumphant return to sitcom in Spin City. He announced his illness in 1998 and has become a vocal spokesman for the disease since, as well as voicing Stuart Little. He’s also enjoyed recurring 21st century TV roles in Boston Legal, The Good Wife and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
And the first choice?: Poor Eric Stoltz must wish he could time travel and change history himself sometimes. But he did get to stab Uma Thurman through the heart in Pulp Fiction and directs Glee sometimes.
Conclusion: Although not cursed by the ill-health of Michael J. Fox, fame wise, sadly Stoltz isn’t even really a household name.
The winner? MICHAEL J FOX
JOHN TRAVOLTA Vs RICHARD GERE
The role: Several: the leads in Days of Heaven, An Officer and A Gentleman and American Gigolo
The first choice: John Travolta, already a huge star after Saturday Night Fever and Grease.
The replacement: Richard Gere, who ironically had starred in the original London stage production of Grease in 1973.
The switch: Travolta foolishly turned down all these roles. Gere took them all instead.
The result: All the films did well. Days of Heaven was more of a critical than commercial hit.
What happened to the new star?: Richard Gere became a star. He is still probably as much admired for these early roles as anything he has done since although enjoyed another massive hit with Pretty Woman in 1990. His career has had a few ups and downs over the years and may have been harmed slightly by his pro-Tibetan stance but he has never vanished from view. He returned to musicals for the Oscar winning Chicago in 2003, a role also turned down by John Travolta.
And the first choice?: Travolta’s career endured a dramatic fifteen year slump relieved only by the success of Amy Heckerling’s Look Who’s Talking in 1990. By 1994, however, with the Seventies becoming fashionable, turns in Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty suddenly made him very cool again and he returned to stardom. Occasionally, he’s made bad career choices since (the Scientology inspired Phenomenon and Battlefield Earth) and he’s not exactly “cool” anymore. However, he remains a star.
Conclusion: Gere to some extent owes his career to John Travolta’s early poor career choices. Yet as with Keitel and Sheen, the decades have evened the score somewhat.
The winner? A DRAW
Posted in Chris Hallam, ChrIs Hallam Freelance Writer chrishallam_@hotmail.com
Tagged Apocalypse Now, Apocalypse when?, Back to the Future, Badlands, Calista Flockhart, Carrie Fisher, Carrie Fishet, cast changes, Cher, Cheryl Cole, chris hallam, Church of Scientology, Cowboys and Aliens, Eric Stoltz, ET, Family Ties, films, Francis Ford Coppola, Friends, From Dusk Till Dawn, Han Solo, Harrison Ford, Harvey Keitel, Hollywood, Indiana Jones, John Travolta, Magnum PI, Mark Hamill, Martin Scorsese, Martin Sheen, Marty McFly, Mean Streets, Michael J Fox, movies, NRA, Pulp Fiction, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reservoir Dogs, Richard Gere, Sister Act, Star Wars, Steve Guttenberg, Steven Spielberg, switchovers, Tarantino, Taxi Driver, Ted Danson, Teen Wolf, Teen Wplf, Thelma and Louise, Tom Selleck, Willard
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Meaning: honorable
Titus was with Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, and accompanied them to the council at Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1-3; Acts 15:2), although his name nowhere occurs in the Acts of the Apostles. He appears to have been a Gentile, and to have been chiefly engaged in ministering to Gentiles; for Paul sternly refused to have him circumcised, inasmuch as in his case the cause of gospel liberty was at stake. We find him, at a later period, with Paul and Timothy at Ephesus, whence he was sent by Paul to Corinth for the purpose of getting the contributions of the church there in behalf of the poor saints at Jerusalem sent forward (2 Corinthians 8:6; 12:18). He rejoined the apostle when he was in Macedonia, and cheered him with the tidings he brought from Corinth (7:6-15). After this his name is not mentioned till after Paul’s first imprisonment, when we find him engaged in the organization of the church in Crete, where the apostle had left him for this purpose (Titus 1:5). The last notice of him is in 2 Tim. 4:10, where we find him with Paul at Rome during his second imprisonment. From Rome he was sent into Dalmatia, no doubt on some important missionary errand. We have no record of his death. He is not mentioned in the Acts.
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Texas Middle School Teacher Charged After Performing Lap Dance on Student in Front of Class
HOUSTON — A middle school teacher in Texas has been charged with having an improper relationship with a student after she performed a full-on lap dance on the teen in front of the class.
The incident occurred at Stovall Middle School in Houston on February 26th–the unidentified 15-year-old student’s birthday. Police state that teacher Felicia Smith, 42, told them that she did the dance at the urging of other students.
According to reports, at the beginning of the class, Smith put a chair in front of the room as music began to play and students began cheering for the boy to sit in it. As he sat in the chair, Smith proceeded to rub her hands all over the teen’s body and grind her buttocks on him, and, at one point while on her knees, she placed her head between his legs. The teen admits to slapping the teacher’s bottom as she performed the dance on him.
The incident went on for nearly four minutes, presumably the length of the song that was playing, while the class watched. At the end of the dance, Smith hugged the teen, stating, “I love you, baby. Happy birthday.”
While it is unknown as to whom videotaped the incident, the Houston District Attorney’s Office and the Aldine Police Department both have copies of the footage.
Smith was formally charged in the matter on Thursday and appeared before a judge on Friday. She is out on $30,000 bail.
The Aldine Independent School District also released a statement in the matter this week, advising that the “charge was filed by Aldine Independent School District Police, who investigated the case along with the campus administration.”
“The teacher was removed from the campus during the investigation and has not returned,” said spokesperson Jason Spencer. “The district takes this allegation seriously and is fully cooperating with prosecutors. The safety and security of our students will continue to be a top priority in Aldine ISD.”
Public reaction to the matter has been mixed.
“She was being self-effacing and playful. Anyone with any sense of nuance, humanity and humor would get it,” commenter Inge Berge wrote. “All this shows is that she has great rapport with her students and can participate in some humor with them. But of course, in America, school is supposed to be more like jail. No personal connection nor levity allowed.”
“That’s way too much ‘personal connection’ and not how are teachers should be acting or teaching students,” Fred Berner Jr. replied. “Anybody who doesn’t see the problem here needs to check themselves.”
“Disgraceful, disgusting, criminal,” wrote Sandral Miller-Louden. “And yes, I am judging her, because she’s nothing more than a child molester.”
“[S]tuff like this is why I was homeschooled,” said James McKissick.
Smith is on paid leave and is not speaking to the media about the matter.
Texas Middle School Teacher Charged After Performing Lap Dance on Student in Front of Class added by Heather Clark on April 26, 2014
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81 items found in collection [showing 1 - 20]
annual reports (12)
agendas (administrative records) (10)
lists (document genre) (9)
organizational charts (6)
bylaws (administrative records) (3)
clippings (information artifacts) (2)
examinations (documents) (1)
Women college students (53)
Societies, etc. (50)
Student movements (49)
Universities and colleges (46)
Political activity (36)
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Peace movements (12)
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Supplementary materials to the 1933 program study of Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas including notes from interviews and materials collected prior to the study concerning the history and function of each part of the Kansas City YWCA programs.
reports, outlines (documents), notes
In response to a national reorganization and recommendations from the Jones study of the YWCA of the U.S.A., Kansas CIty is selected to be the subject of a local association study. The detailed study conducted throughout the year 1933 examines the social, economic, political and cultural background of the city, surveys current association programs and makes recommendations based on its findings. The report of the study is presented in three volumes. The first section concerns the social and political climate, the second section concerns the economic background and the third section is the program assessment. The study is initiated at the request and with cooperation from the YWCA of Kansas City, Missouri and the YWCA of Kansas City, Kansas.
Supplementary materials to the 1933 program study of Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas including responses to questionnaires, initial reports and environmentals scans and vital statistics of the community.
Business and professional conferences
Documents concerning weekend area conferences of YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional Women in Northern and Southern Indiana, the Inland Empire (Idaho, Utah, Washington and Oregon), Kansas-Missouri, Kentucky-Tennessee, Michigan and Northern and Southern New England. Weekend conferences are held between regional conferences to bring together Business and Professional clubs from a state or smaller region and connect on current issues and program. Minutes, reports, and newsletters give an overview of the events and themes of the conferences. Weekend conferences unify Business and Professional clubs, conduct business and elect officers, plan for upcoming conferences and report on local association work. In addition, conferences include lecturers and discussion groups concerning the issues faced by women, specifically employed women. Matters of economics, both personal and global, are often discussed especially in light of the changing employment and financial situations. In addition, the conferences have an international focus as the world approaches World War II. Conference materials also reveal discussions on racism and discrimination in the club and at work, political activity, and social awareness.
reports, minutes (administrative records), schedules (time plans), correspondence, bulletins, agendas (administrative records)
Documents concerning weekend area conferences of YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional Women in Texas-Louisiana, the Tri-State area (North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota), Virginia and West Virginia. Weekend conferences are held between regional conferences to bring together Business and Professional clubs from a state or smaller region and connect on current issues and program. Minutes, reports, and newsletters give an overview of the events and themes of the conferences. Weekend conferences unify Business and Professional clubs, conduct business and elect officers, plan for upcoming conferences and report on local association work. In addition, conferences include lecturers and discussion groups concerning the issues faced by women, specifically employed women. Matters of economics, both personal and global, are often discussed especially in light of the changing employment and financial situations. In addition, the conferences have an international focus as the world approaches World War II. Conference materials also reveal discussions on racism and discrimination in the club and at work, political activity, and social awareness. Several conference reports include summaries and reports on Cause and Cure of War conferences. Planning materials reveal difficulties in the logistics of hosting and organizing an integrated conference. Miscellaneous materials appear at the end of the microdex and concern matters regarding the National Business and Professional groups. Materials include a handbook for conducting a conference, reports on regional conferences, and a 1924 report on the position of the Business and Professional group in the YWCA of the U.S.A.
reports, minutes (administrative records), correspondence, bulletins, agendas (administrative records), lectures, handbooks
Documents concerning weekend area conferences of YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional Women in Northern and Southern Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Weekend conferences are held between regional conferences to bring together Business and Professional clubs from a state or smaller region and connect on current issues and program. Minutes, reports, and newsletters give an overview of the events and themes of the conferences. Weekend conferences unify Business and Professional clubs, conduct business and elect officers, plan for upcoming conferences and report on local association work. In addition, conferences include lecturers and discussion groups concerning the issues faced by women, specifically employed women. Matters of economics, both personal and global, are often discussed especially in light of the changing employment and financial situations. In addition, the conferences have an international focus as the world approaches World War II. Conference materials also reveal discussions on racism and discrimination in the club and at work, political activity, and social awareness. Several conference reports include summaries and reports on Cause and Cure of War conferences.
reports, minutes (administrative records), correspondence, bulletins, agendas (administrative records), lectures
Business and professional women
Documents concerning the YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional Council, jobs in the YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional Women Department and YWCA of the U.S.A. Nationwide Observance Day. The Business and Professional Councils represent established areas and are comprised of delegates from Business and Professional clubs. Councils serve as a link between local associations, the gatherings and events of the summer conferences, and the National Assembly. Documents concern preparations for conferences, social and political action and calls for action, summaries of council work, and circulation of findings and reports. Following council materials are documents concerning the jobs of Business and Professional secretaries including detailed job descriptions, duties, and requirements and position screening tests. Last are documents concerning the Nationwide Observance Day. Nationwide Observance (later World Wide Observance) is a chance for Business and Professional clubs from around the world to unite around the common theme of the working woman. Materials include statements from international clubs or associations, suggestions for celebrating and discussion of the theme.
reports, minutes (administrative records), correspondence, outlines (documents), questionnaires, bulletins, notes, examinations (documents)
Documents concerning weekend area conferences of YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional Women in Eastern and Western New York, New Jersey and Northern and Southern New England. Weekend conferences are held between regional conferences to bring together Business and Professional clubs from a state or smaller region and connect on current issues and program. Minutes, reports, and newsletters give an overview of the events and themes of the conferences. Weekend conferences unify Business and Professional clubs, conduct business and elect officers, plan for upcoming conferences and report on local association work. In addition, conferences include lecturers and discussion groups concerning the issues faced by women, specifically employed women. Matters of economics, both personal and global, are often discussed especially in light of the changing employment and financial situations. In addition, the conferences have an international focus as the world approaches World War II. Conference materials also reveal discussions on racism and discrimination in the club and at work, political activity, and social awareness.
Documents concerning the YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional summer conferences in the southern region of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Regional conferences bring together girls and women with common interest to unify them in their work, provide training and education, convey the national program and method and encourage fellowship beyond one's usual circles. Conference materials give an overview of events of the southern summer conferences. In addition, materials include data concerning the persons attending, where they come from, their jobs, and other participant data. Minutes and reports outline the schedule including lectures, committee meetings, discussion groups, and recreational activities. Bulletins and newsletters give a personal and narrative account of the conferences sometimes including poetry and art. Southern conferences increase their discussion of racism and integration of Southern conferences over time. Much of the discussion and meeting notes concern race relations in the Business and Professional group in particular. In addition topics of discussion include economics, international matters, working conditions and the social aspects of work.
reports, minutes (administrative records), schedules (time plans), correspondence, bulletins
Documents concerning YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional summer conferences in the southwest region of the YWCA of the U.S.A. and area weekend conferences for Alabama-Louisiana-Mississippi, Arkansas and Arizona. Weekend conferences are held between regional summer conferences to bring together Business and Professional clubs from a state or smaller region and connect on current issues and program. Minutes, reports, and newsletters give an overview of the events and themes of the conferences. Regional summer conferences serve to unify Business and Professional clubs, conduct business and elect officers, plan for upcoming conferences, and report on local association work. In addition, conferences provide lecturers and discussion groups concerning the issues faced by women focusing specifically employed women. Matters of economics, both personal and global, are often discussed especially in light of the changing employment and financial situations. In addition, the conferences have an international focus as the world approaches World War II. Conference materials also reveal discussions on racism and discrimination in the club and at work, political activity, and social awareness.
Documents concerning weekend area conferences of YWCA of the U.S.A. Business and Professional Women in California, Colorado, Wyoming, Florida and Northern and Southern Illinois. Weekend conferences are held between regional conferences to bring together Business and Professional clubs from a state or smaller region and connect on current issues and program. Minutes, reports, and newsletters give an overview of the events and themes of the conferences. Weekend conferences unify Business and Professional clubs, conduct business and elect officers, plan for upcoming conferences and report on local association work. In addition, conferences include lecturers and discussion groups concerning the issues faced by women, specifically employed women. Matters of economics, both personal and global, are often discussed especially in light of the changing employment and financial situations. In addition, the conferences have an international focus as the world approaches World War II. Conference materials also reveal discussions on racism and discrimination in the club and at work, political activity, and social awareness.
Documents concerning convention committees, constitution revisions, and group meetings at the Fifteenth National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Associations of the United State of America. The Convention Committee assess the past convention and collects feedback, plans the location and accommodations, and arranges programming and special speakers. Group meeting materials largely concern the meeting of adults responsible for work with younger girls. These discussions assess work with programs including YWCA of the U.S.A. Girl Reserve and the role of young women and girls in social movements. In addition, the leaders emphasize the educational atmosphere for these girls, getting support from parents, and family and social relationships. The group meetings concerning work with younger girls often draw from reports and accounts from the Girl Reserve members.
bulletins, minutes (administrative records), reports, correspondence, constitutions
Conventions, twentieth
Stenotype proceedings of the Twentieth National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Association of the United States of America. Proceedings begin on page 174 continuing from reel 40, microdex 1. Confronted with social, economic, and political changes, the Convention confronts the implications of life in the atomic age and the role of the Christian organization. Special addresses and panels addresses these issues and include remarks from distinguished guests. In addition to special remarks, YWCA of the U.S.A. groups and departments present on their work and an international celebration invites women from around the world to speak on their experiences. Convention business includes adopting a national public affairs program to address social and economic problems in addition to civil rights and inequalities.
Special addresses and ceremonies and Convention Committee documents for the Twentieth National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Associations of the United States of America. The Convention Committee is formed following each convention to plan the next one. They discuss and assess previous conventions, take comments and requests from local associations regarding desired content and business, arrange special guests, and organize the format. Following convention, the committee evaluates the convention content and organization. As the YWCA is celebrating its centennial anniversary as a world Christian women's movement addresses, services, and dramatizations reflect on the past, the changing role of women, and the work to be done in the future. Speeches concern the role of Christianity in the world, the meaning of being a woman, anxiety in the atomic age, social and demographic changes in the United States, and building an inclusive movement. These speeches and convention proceedings are summarized in the June 1955 issue of "YWCA Magazine" reproduced following the speeches.
proceedings, articles, memorandums, speeches (documents), pamphlets, scripts (documents)
Documents concerning special interest group meetings at the Twentieth National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Associations of the United States of America. In response to the changing political, social and economic conditions faced by women, the assemblies and group meetings discuss the changing role of women and what it means to be in the workplace, at home, and in society. The National Employed Women's Assembly (N.E.W.) is a combination of all employed women, young adults, and YW-Wives. In addition to discussion of aims and purpose of the group, the assembly attempts to decide on the practicalities of incorporating the previously separate groups. At the student assembly, a workbook and discussion guide is used to look at the role of women beyond college, the meaning of being a women, and the challenges a woman can face after school. In addition to meetings of constituency groups, the convention hosts small discussion groups comprised of diverse groups of women from all parts of the YWCA. These groups are intended to stimulate discussion with members from diverse backgrounds and cover matters of spirituality, reactions to the political climate and the atomic age, segregation, and other social and political issues.
proceedings, reports, minutes (administrative records), outlines (documents), essays, memorandums
Workbook, program, and call to the Twentieth National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Associations of the United States of America. Prior to convention the National Board sends local associations materials to prepare delegates for planning their trip to convention. A workbook is distributed to prepare delegates for the topics of discussion by providing background information to key issues. In 1955 the YWCA is celebrating its centennial anniversary as they are faced with new issues of freedoms, technological advances, population and demographic changes, and more. The convention theme, "Our task today and tomorrow," is realized throughout the workbook. In addition to these social and political challenges, the materials also consider the relationship of the national movement to the local associations, finance, and the role of the YWCA of the U.S.A. as a Christian organization. Following the workbook is a book by J. H. Oldham titled "Life is commitment" and a discussion guide.
handbooks, correspondence
Official proceedings of the Twentieth National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Associations of the United States of America. Confronted with social, economic, and political changes, the Convention confronts the implications of life in the atomic age and the role of the Christian organization. Special addresses and panels addresses these issues and include remarks from distinguished guests. In addition to special remarks, YWCA of the U.S.A. groups and departments present on their work and an international celebration invites women from around the world to speak on their experiences. In response to the national desegregation of schools, the Interracial Charter, adopted at the 1946 convention, is discussed in regards to specific policy. A pamphlet following the proceedings provides an overview of these policies. Convention business includes adopting a national public affairs program to address social and economic problems in addition to civil rights and inequalities.
proceedings, pamphlets
Pamphlets, publications and summaries of the purpose, function and role of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Pamphlets and booklets, arranged alphabetically by title, provide historical backgrounds for the work of the YWCA of the U.S.A., explanations of its purpose and information on how a person can be involved. Additional materials include fact sheets and presentation notes further explaining the role and function of the organization as a organization for women and for social change.
pamphlets, notes
Documents concerning the YWCA of India and the YWCA of the U.S.A.'s work with them. Helen Flack, a YWCA of the U.S.A. worker assigned to a special project in India through the World YWCA's mutual service program, correspondences with the YWCA of the U.S.A. Foreign Division reporting on her work and the status of the leadership development project. Next, a series of pamphlets on the leadership development program provide an overview of the contents and purpose of the program. Following the pamphlets is a report assessing the success of the leadership development program. Additional documents include YWCA of India annual reports and miscellaneous correspondence.
reports, pamphlets, notes, correspondence, annual reports
Helen Flack's reports on the YWCA of India. Helen Flack is assigned to a special project sponsored by the World YWCA's mutual service program. The purpose of the first phase of the project is to develop leadership in the YWCA of India, strengthen their financial situation and develop plans for a national convention. After the convention the project extends to a second phase to support the implementation of the convention emphases. Ms. Flack's reports note the project's accomplishments and provide social, historical and political context to the development of association leadership and work. The reports include supporting documents illustrating the project impact and activity including articles from "Today," the magazine of the YWCA of India, conference notes, historical facts, the YWCA of India's peace statement and local association reports. The report of the first phase of the project begins with an index to its contents.
reports, pamphlets, notes, articles, proceedings
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EagleConnect
Giving to UNT
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Garry Landreth Research Library
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Our mission is to encourage the unique development and emotional growth of children through the process of play therapy, a dynamic interpersonal relationship between a child and a therapist trained in play therapy procedures. The therapist provides the child with selected play materials and facilitates a safe relationship to express feelings, thoughts, experiences and behaviors through play, the child's natural medium of communication. To fulfill its objectives, the center provides training, research, publications, scholarships, oversees clinical play therapy services, and acts as a clearinghouse for literature in the field.
The Center for Play Therapy is the result of twenty-five years of planned development of a play therapy program in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at the University of North Texas. Interest in play therapy training by graduate students and practicing professionals in the fields of counseling, psychology, social work, and early childhood education resulted in the addition of specialized courses of instruction to UNT's play therapy curriculum. This training also increased the need for additional play therapy rooms for practice and supervision of play therapists in training. Concomitant with these developments, in 1973, the counseling department began to sponsor an annual Play Therapy Conference on the University of North Texas campus. These conferences attracted nationally recognized authorities in the field of play therapy and participants from a wide geographical region.
In 1987, responding to a request by the UNT Vice President for Academic Affairs that all departments establish national goals as part of their planning, the department of counseling faculty voted unanimously to make play therapy training a national focus. The establishment of the Center for Play Therapy in 1987 was a culmination of efforts, beginning with the first international play therapy conference in 1973, promoting the field of play therapy at the University of North Texas. Support for the Center for Play Therapy and physical space were provided by the University of North Texas. In 1988, the Center for Play Therapy was established under the direction of Dr. Garry Landreth, and a doctoral level graduate assistant was employed to assist in the operation of the Center.
The Center for Play Therapy grew rapidly and currently provides the largest play therapy training program in the world, attracting graduate students from throughout the fifty states, Canada, Mexico, China, and other countries around the world.
Founder & Director Emeritus
Garry L. Landreth, Ed.D., LPC, RPT-S, internationally known for his writings and work in promoting the development of child-centered play therapy, is a Regents Professor in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education and founder of the Center for Play Therapy at the University of North Texas.
Dr. Landreth is a frequent speaker at play therapy conferences around the world. His more than 150 journal articles, books, and videos include the recent 3rd edition of his award-winning book Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship, which has been translated into several languages. Dr. Landreth's other recent books are Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT): A 10-Session Filial Therapy Model and the accompanying Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) Treatment Manual. His CPRT Model received the Parent Education Best Practices Award.
Dr. Landreth served as Director of the Center for Play Therapy until 2003 and currently consults regularly with the center. Dr. Landreth is Director Emeritus of the Association for Play Therapy (APT) and received the APT Lifetime Achievement Award and the APT Research Award.
He has received numerous professional honors:
Meadows Honor Professor Award
President's Outstanding Professor Award
Toulouse Scholar Award
Regents Distinguished Professor Award
American Association for Counseling and Development Humanitarian and Caring Person Award
Virginia Axline Distinguished Professional Award
Shelton Excellence in Teaching Award
Texas Association for Play Therapy Distinguished Contribution Award
University of North Texas President's Award
Association for Specialists in Group Work Research Award
Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Counseling Vision and Innovation Award
Sue Bratton, Ph.D., LPC-S, RPT-S was the Director of the UNT Center for Play Therapy from 2003 – 2017. Dr. Bratton was a Professor at the University of North Texas with over 20 years of experience as a university professor, researcher, and clinician. Dr. Bratton is a nationally and internationally known speaker and author with more than 60 publications in the area of child counseling, play therapy, trauma, expressive arts, and Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT). She has been an invited speaker in South Africa, Uganda, England, Ireland, Denmark, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Canada, and across the U.S.
Her most recent books are Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT): A 10-Session Filial Therapy Model, Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) Treatment Manual, Child-Centered Play Therapy Research: The Evidence Base for Practitioners, and Integrative Play Therapy. Her research agenda focuses on effectiveness studies on school-based play therapy and CPRT. Dr. Bratton currently consults regularly with the Center for Play Therapy.
Dr. Bratton is a Past President of the Association for Play Therapy, and recipient of several awards:
Outstanding Research Award for Association for Play Therapy
Chi Sigma Iota Outstanding Practitioner Supervisor Award
ACA Best Practice Award
AHC Humanistic Educator/ Supervisor Award
APT Lifetime Achievement Award
Several UNT teaching, research and service awards.
Welch Street Complex 2
425 S. Welch St.
cpt@unt.edu
Counseling and Higher Education
© Center for Play Therapy. All Rights Reserved.
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Tall Grandpa Mark Hendrickson Is Trying A Comeback
Filed to: mark hendicksonFiled to: mark hendickson
mark hendickson
Is there anything better than a good comeback attempt, especially one where everybody involved recognizes the minuscule chance of it being successful, yet wants to give it a shot anyway because what the hell, why not? Hope springs eternal in Orioles minicamp, where 40-year-old grandpa and former NBAer Mark Hendrickson is trying to get back into the majors for the first time since 2011.
The 6-foot-9 reliever isn't nearly the same pitcher that spent 10 seasons with five different teams—he's a sidearmer now, having converted two years ago on Buck Showalter's advice. He spent 2014 in independent ball, closing for the first time, and says he was humbled by playing alongside guys who'd give their non-throwing arm for a shot at even the minors. So why not give MLB one more go?
"I'm a grandfather, for goodness sake, and that was two months ago," Hendrickson said. "Now there's extra motivation. How many active grandfathers have been in the big leagues? Well, that right there is motivation in itself.
"Most of it's just unfinished business because it was a challenge that was offered."
So Hendrickson sent Showalter a letter asking for a chance, and the manager invited him to minicamp in Sarasota, just as he did in 2013. The best part of this story, and a constant since they first crossed paths in 2010, is the relationship between Hendrickson and Showalter. It was Showalter who suggested the new arm angle to potentially resurrect Hendrickson's career, and Showalter who tells anyone who listens that Hendrickson will be a great pitching coach one day. When the Orioles cut him in spring training in 2011, Hendrickson declined an opt-out in his deal that would have let him look for other Major League jobs, instead content to chill in the minors and wait for a chance at a call-up. I think he and Buck just enjoy hanging out together, being baseball buddies. Here's Showalter lurking, watching:
Hendrickson knows Showalter isn't going to bullshit him, and appreciates that:
"He's a straight shooter. He's not doing a charity case. If he doesn't think I can help, then I'm not going to be here. So for me, it's just taking that initiative and saying, 'Look, I don't want to waste your time. You don't want to waste my time. Let's give this a shot.'"
Hendrickson, who spent four years in the NBA before his professional baseball career began, was never much more than an innings-eater even in his prime. It's hard to see any way this works out. But that's OK! Everyone seems to be having fun, and how else can any of us survive the long, cold, offseason but by having the biggest dreams?
[MASN]
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Kimberly Kelly~ Q&A (New Music)!!!
September 25, 2018 By Dixiedeeblog
Kimberly Kelly is a country musician and she was born in Lorena, Texas. Lorena, Texas is a small town right outside of Waco. Her grandfather Sterling Kelly started a band named Sterling Kelly and the Hearts and was a fixture in the Texas music division. Kelly’s father was a mechanic who played anything from Steve Nicks to Lynyrd Skynyrd in his truck as they drove into town. Her mother is a hairdresser, and she introduced both Kelly and singer/songwriter sister to Patty Loveless and Gary Stewart, as the three of them would racked up many miles in their old Honda hatchback. Also, there are not many memories from Kelly’s childhood that did not involve music.
Kelly’s song “There’s Daddy’s 8 Track,” is sentimental reflection on her dad’s musical taste and inspiration from her formative years. And “Put Some Lipstick On It,” is a powering retaliation anthem for the heartbroken. There also Kelly’s love songs, like “Don’t Blame It On Me,” which is a romantic ballad.
If you would like find out more Kimberly Kelly then check out her website https://www.kimberlykellymusic.com. Her latest EP and all the rest of songs are available to listen on Spotify and ITunes.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KimberlyKelly
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyKellyMusic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/KimberlyKellyMusic
Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/KimberlyKellyMusic
Q&A:
1. Hi Kimberly, how have you grown as country singer/songwriter in the past year?
My confidence in my style and brand of country has grown. I went back “home” so to speak, and realized people still want to hear the more traditional sounding country I make, enough to help me fund a campaign for a project.
2. How did you come up with the name “Some Things Have A Name” for your new single?
I chose “Some Things Have a Name” to come out first before the rest of my ep “Don’t Blame It on Me,” because the song just hits you in the face honestly. It’d been so long since I’d heard something that country I knew people would feel the same as I did when they heard it the first time. I wanted the song to have it’s moment, and it felt like the perfect introduction to what else would be following a couple weeks later.
3. What is the background story behind your new song?
I didn’t write “Some Things Have a Name” it was pitched to me, but when I heard it I fell in love with the melody and story of the song. I’ve been in that situation before, and it felt like something I would’ve written myself and how I would’ve delivered the message to “the cheater.” I loved the sass.
Stand up for yourself maybe? You can tell somebody how it is and still have some class while doing it. I mainly just wanted to give people something they could dance to! : )
5. Was there any other artists or producers that helped to create this song?
The song was written by Bob DiPiero and Troy Johnson. Brett Tyler produced my entire project, and he did a great job of encouraging me to push for the best songs I could find (whether I wrote them or found them). The musicians in the studio I think also had an impact on how the recordings came out. There was a lot of joy and freedom for creativity in the room, and I think it translated in their playing. For this song in particular, when the keys player had the idea to add a “string” section the song really came alive!
6. Is there anything coming up with your music for the rest of 2018?
I’m going to continue pushing the ep, have plans to record another video for one of the songs, and I am panning on doing a Christmas house concert tour with my friend and fellow artist Erin Enderlin.
Just want to say thanks to people listening and sharing the music- it means a lot and helps a ton! I also have a video in the running for the CMT 12 pack if they want to vote for it! “Don’t Blame It on Me” haha
Artist Spotlight, Dee's Finds, Q & A' s
← Brooke Carmean (Owner of Soul Revival Boutique): Crunchy Chicken Recipe!!!
Kimberly Kelly’s “Uglies Recipe”!!! →
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Difference between Theft, Robbery, and Burglary
For what it matters to a victim, theft, robbery, and burglary, all end up with him/her losing something to someone who took advantage of a moment of carelessness or who took it by force. However, as far as the state is concerned, these actions are well-defined and punished accordingly. This is why it is important to know exactly in which category such an act may fall.
3 Theft vs Robbery vs Burglary
Theft Robbery Burglary
The act of taking money or goods from a person without the intent of returning it The act of taking money or goods from a person, without the intent of returning it, and by using force or threats The act of breaking and entering a building with the intent of committing a crime
Is a misdemeanor or a felony Is a second-degree felony Is a second-degree felony
Punishment depends on the value of the item stolen Punishment depends on the weapon and type of threat posed on the other person Punishment applies even if no crime was committed but the person has unlawfully entered the premises
Victim does not have to be present The victim is present Victim does not have to be present
A thief stealing a camera from a backpack
Theft, or larceny, involves the unlawful appropriation of another person’s property without the latter’s consent or knowledge. What is thus stolen is not intended for a return, but for personal use or sale for profit. The punishments for theft vary according to the legislation of each state. For example, the theft of an item whose value is less than $100 is punishable by a fine of $500 in the state of Texas. In California, for example, grand theft is considered to be the case of values higher than $950.
An important issue to remember about theft is that the victim is usually not present or aware of it. Apart from snatching a bike off someone’s lawn, other types of theft include service theft (using services such as mobile phone, utilities, or public transportation without paying for them), eating or staying at a hotel and fleeing without footing the bill, and even identity theft.
Embezzlement, fraud, property damage, arson, looting, mugging, and shoplifting are also considered forms of theft. It is usually considered a misdemeanor or a felony.
A dramatization of a bank robber being confronted by a policeman
Robbery is the act of taking money or goods from another person by means of physical force or fear. For example, we call it robbery if a person snatches a purse off the victim’s shoulder or demands that she hands it over herself at gunpoint. In the case of robbery, the victims are present. All cases of people taking money from banks during holdups are referred to as bank robberies.
This is one of the most serious offenses a person can be accused of, and it implies both harming as well as threatening to harm another person in order to get possession of money or goods. What makes it tricky is the fact that a mere threat, without the actual harming of an individual, places the action in the category of robberies. This means second degree felony charges and serious penalties such as up to 20 years in jail and fines of up to $10,000.
The severity of the punishment depends on the specifics of each case. For example, “aggravated robbery” refers to having a deadly weapon, or merely making the victim believe such a weapon is present.
A burglar trying to force open a door
For many, a burglary is often associated with the notion of theft, although its definition says something different. We consider burglary to be any situation in which an individual forces his way into a building (residential, business, or any other type of premise) with the intention of committing a crime. Theft is not the only thing that applies in this case, although it is the most often met situation. A burglary may even include breaking into someone’s house to make pot brownies.
What is more, a person can be charged with burglary even without a crime having been committed. All that matters, in this case, is that someone was somewhere he was not supposed to be. It also applies to entering a building through a door left unlocked. This is why a burglary is often referred to as “breaking and entering.”
The victim does not have to be present in the case of a burglary. And even if a crime has not been committed and there is no damage to be reported, the crime of burglary is a very serious charge with a second-degree felony punishment of up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Theft vs Robbery vs Burglary
So what is the difference between theft, robbery, and burglary?
All three are property crimes; however, they do not all imply theft by definition, despite the fact that in most cases, this is the main reason people commit them. Theft means taking money or goods away from a person without the victim noticing. Robbery means threatening the victim into surrendering the goods or taking them by force. Burglary means breaking into a building with intent to commit a crime.
As far as the victim is concerned, he does not have to be present in the case of theft and burglary, but he is present in the case of robbery.
When it comes to punishments, theft is registered as a misdemeanor, while robbery and burglary are registered as second-degree felonies and are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.
Current rating: 10 / 10 , 1 votes
Difference between Concurrent and Consecutive Sentences Difference between Substantive and Procedural Law Difference between Duress and Undue Influence
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Home › Resources › Five Years, Or Three Centuries?
Five Years, Or Three Centuries?
January 12, 2015 by Amy Wilentz
Amy Wilentz, journalist and author of "Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti," reflects on the five-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
A young girl prays with her family during a service held under tents in place of the Sacré-Coeur church that was destroyed five years ago by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that killed as many as 316,000 people in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
We’re all checking the news this morning, and noticing — in the margins of the reams of words on Charlie Hebdo and the 19th-arrondissement network — that it is the fifth anniversary today of the Haitian earthquake that took hundreds of thousands of lives in 2010.
Everyone wants to know how Haiti is recovering from that catastrophe.
It’s a good question that is more about how well the international community can deliver relief and recovery aid than it is about Haiti in particular. A brief answer to the question is this: some good was done with foreign help; a lot of rubble was removed; a few new buildings are going up that are seismically reinforced (a few of them are “luxury” hotels built by international chains); some good projects were started and some that were already in place before the quake have been bolstered by outsider contributions.
But the crisis caravan and the compassion economy also threw Haitians into disarray because their own initial efforts to help themselves were knocked out of kilter by the downpour of so much charity in such a short time offered by so many people who knew so little.
Here’s what my brilliant Haitian friend Louino Robillard has written about the immediate post earthquake descent of the foreign helpers:
The aid itself kept us off-balance. We didn’t know when the aid would be coming, when it would be going, why it was there, or what it would look like. It felt as arbitrary as the aftershocks, and we often felt just as powerless. We saw so many cars and logos and clipboards, and so little change. And we were at fault as well. That magical sense of solidarity melted into jealousy and competition over the tarps and tents that we knew wouldn’t be enough for everyone. Sometimes, we tore down the very things that people had built to help us, because we didn’t trust it. But when the very ground beneath your feet starts shaking, what can you trust?
For more of Robillard’s thoughts and words, click here.
Sitting here at my desk in L.A., and thinking about the minimedia fest going on in Port-au-Prince to examine the results of our blundering but well-meaning aid packages and programs, I’m a little perplexed at the continuing commentator focus on the earthquake-this and the earthquake-that.
Haiti is in crisis.
First of all, the usual political crisis: The photograph above, from belpoz.com, supposedly shows U.S. Ambassador Pamela White at the Haitian parliament last night, putting pressure on Haiti’s legislators to come to a deal with President Martelly on a new electoral law; according to the rumor mill, a deal was reached, which could mean that on the fifth anniversary of the earthquake, ie today, the Haitian government can go forward, Parliament will not be disbanded, the President will not rule by decree, and there will be legislative elections, followed by a presidential vote.
Don’t hold your breath. Last night’s deal was made without the input of the powerful Lavalas party, and as of this morning is still anything but certain.
So that’s the immediate political crisis.
But there’s a real and basic reason why Haiti — and countries like it — can’t be fixed, can’t be, in the memorable words of Bill Clinton after the earthquake, “built back better.” The problem lies in that passive voice of the hoped for results: that someone else is fixing Haiti, that someone else can build it back better, that scores of nice, good-hearted, kindly white people can fix the world’s first black republic.
My bottom line is this: You can’t fix it, because you broke it, and your mindset is the same now as it was 300 years ago, give or take a little bit of wisdom and little bit of harsh experience. Just looking at Pamela White trying to influence the legislature reminds me of this.
Haiti is the way it is because Haiti was always a plaything of the global economy, from its early heyday as a giant work camp of African slaves to its more recent iteration as an offshore manufacturing haven (low wages! no unions! easy corruption! practically China!) and possible package tourist destination. These are not terms on which a nation can truly be free nor a state truly establish upright institutions, pace the incredible and astounding successful Haitian revolution of 1791 that ousted the French. In the centuries since, the Haitian government has been conceived of and encouraged by outsiders (including the 19-year 20th-century US Marine occupation) to be a corruption creation device, a clacking machine that takes whatever clean dollars it can sweep up and sends them through obscure and shadowy gears until those dollars come out flaccid, filthy, and in the hands of the wrong people. Dirty dollars go into the corruption creation device as graft, and simply disappear. This makes it easy to run any old kind of business in Haiti, both for Haitians and foreign enterprises.
There are other, better ways to go for the country.
Haiti should be running its own agriculture and putting together cooperatives that export mangoes, sugar, coffee and rum for the international market. The Haitian state should have a five, ten and twenty year economic plan for the country that includes achieving a measure of self-sufficiency and detachment from the depredations of the rapacious global economy — if that is even possible in this era. But although Haiti grows some of the best mangoes in the world, the best sugar, the best coffee, when is the last time you saw a sticker on a mango that said “Haiti”? When is the last time, outside of Miami and Montreal, that you saw a nice silver bag of Cafe Rebo for sale? Put it down to the the corruption creation device. The only sugar produced in Haiti now (in a place where sugar was at the heart of the cruel slave regime and was produced by an international consortium until the mid-Duvalier era) is raised in small patches by single cultivators who sell raw cane as a roadside snack, and are not properly organized for profit.
I wanted to write a short post, not a complete history, and this is short, for me (ask my editors). Suffice it to say that the problems that have led to some 80,000 displaced people from the earthquake still living in temporary ad hoc camps in Haiti are the same problems we’ve seen since the days of the French colony. They are: a racist global economy, a condescending and yet exploitive global economic mindset, a prone, corrupt, and pandering Haitian elite, and the corruption creation device, which works for both sides. It takes two to create corruption: the corruptee and the corruptor.
So when you are looking at how the earthquake recovery effort has gone, don’t forget the two sides of that equation, and don’t forget the corruption creation device.
I met a kid in 2010, right after the earthquake, at a muddy rally at a new displaced persons camp near the shantytown Cite Soleil. He came right up to me with a piece of paper with his name on it and an email address. His name was Krushchev Rosale (not his real last name). Krushchev! How could I ever forget him? I have followed Krushchev’s progress since then — today is our fifth year anniversary, in a sense. Soon after the quake, Krushchev began taking English lessons. His English is now pretty good. His new Facebook image is of…. the real Krushchev. He is really smart but doesn’t have much means — some relatives in the US. I tried to set him up for jobs in Haiti with friends of mine in the relief effort, but those jobs, even the lowest of them, were really hard to get and very competitive. Now many of those jobs no longer exist as the crisis caravan moves on, and out.
Krushchev has also moved out. He didn’t want to live in one of the new shantytowns erected for earthquake refugees with the aid of the international community. He left Haiti for the Dominican Republic and is living there now in an ad hoc sort of way, trying to find work and some kind of useful education. Haiti is still pushing out its most resourceful people at all levels. If the international community wants to pat itself on the back for creating a handful of new Haitian shantytowns, well, go right ahead.
Yet five years after the earthquake (and you could have said this for centuries before), there is still so much left to do for Haiti and for Haitians, by Haiti and by Haitians. As my friend Louino Robillard might say, if you want to get it done, do it yourself.
2010 Haiti Earthquake
Amy Wilentz
Amy Wilentz is the author of "Farewell Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti" (2013), "The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier" (1989), "Martyrs’ Crossing" (2000), and "I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen: Coming to California in the Age of Schwarzenegger "(2006). She is the winner of the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN Martha Albrand Non-Fiction Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award, and also was a 1990 nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2014, she won the National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography) for "Farewell, Fred Voodoo." Wilentz has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, The New Republic, Mother Jones, Harper’s, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, The San Francisco Chronicle, More, The Village Voice, The London Review of Books and many other publications. She is the former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker and a long-time contributing editor at The Nation. She teaches in the Literary Journalism program at the University of California at Irvine, and lives in Los Angeles.
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Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide
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Based on "Blood Brothers," the award-nominated series that ran in Army Times, this is the remarkable story of a courageous military unit that sacrificed their lives to change Adhamiya, Iraq from a lawless town where insurgents roamed freely, to a safe and secure neighborhood. This is a timeless story of men at war and a heartbreaking account of American sacrifice in Iraq.
The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans
Aaron Glantz reported extensively from Iraq during the first three years of this war and has been reporting on the plight of veterans ever since. The War Comes Home is the first book to systematically document the U.S. government's neglect of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou, and Civil Strife in Haiti
Kathie Klarreich's compelling memoir interweaves shattering political events with an intensely personal narrative about the Haitian musician Klarreich, who turns out to be as enthralling and complicated as the political events she covered.
In the tradition of Helter Skelter and In Cold Blood, Columbine is destined to be a classic. A close-up portrait of hatred, a community rendered helpless, and the police blunders and cover-ups, it is a compelling and utterly human portrait of two killers-an unforgettable cautionary tale for our times
Juvenile, photographer Joseph Rodríguez spent several years following several youths, from arrest, counseling, trial adjudication, and incarceration, to release, probation, house arrest, group homes, and the search for employment and meaning in their lives.
Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
By age twelve, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East Los Angeles gang warfare. This story is at times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-earned lesson for the next generation.
Still Here: Stories After Katrina
Still Here, documents the ongoing expressions of hope, perseverance, and suffering in the still-devastated communities of New Orleans and Texas post hurricane Katrina. Rodríguez spent two years photographing and interviewing families and individuals who shared their daily struggles to rebuild their lives.
Breaking News Breaking Down
Breaking News, Breaking Down, Two journalists' emotional journey after 9/11 & Katrina - This program tells the hidden story of how traumatic news impacts the men and women who cover it. Mike Walter loved chasing the big story, but on one September morning, the biggest story of his career chased him down: a jet rained from the sky, piercing the Pentagon and shattering his emotional well being.
One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers
The debate about women and torture has, until recently, focused on women as victims of violence. The essays in One of the Guys challenge and examine the expectations placed on women while attempting to understand female perpetrators of abuse and torture in a broader context.
Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War
Tara McKelvey — the first U.S.journalist to speak with female prisoners from Abu Ghraib — traveled to the Middle East and across the United States to seek out victims and perpetrators. McKelvey tells how soldiers, acting in an atmosphere that encouraged abuse and sadism, were unleashed on a prison population of which the vast majority, according to army documents, were innocent civilians.
Gogo Mama : A Journey Into the Lives of Twelve African Women
This book is a journey across Africa, in all its complexity; from the townships of Johannesburg, to the back alleys of Zanzibar; from the frontline of the war in the Sudan, to the nightclubs of Cairo. It is a vivid, illuminating and often haunting composite picture of an extraordinary continent, in the words of the women who know it best.
Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America
This is the first anthology of its kind, bringing together outstanding practitioners of the muckraking tradition, from the Revolutionary era to the present day. Ranging from mainstream figures like Woodward and Bernstein to legendary iconoclasts such as I. F. Stone and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the dispatches in this collection combine the thrill of the chase after facts with a burning sense of outrage
This book examines several current clinical approaches to trauma-focused treatment. Rather than describe theoretical approaches in isolation, the editors have integrated these interventions into a broader clinical context. Chapter authors emphasize basic therapeutic skills such as empathic listening, instilling resilience, and creating meaning, in the service of empirically-supported, highly efficacious trauma interventions.
Living a Year of Kaddish: A Memoir
Ari Goldman’s exploration of the emotional and spiritual aspects of spending a year in mourning for his father will resonate with anyone who has lost a loved one, as he describes how this year affected him as a son, husband, father, and member of his community.
The Search for God at Harvard
What began as a project to deepen his knowledge of the world’s sacred beliefs turned out to be an extraordinary journey of spiritual illumination, one in which Goldman reexamined his own faith as an Orthodox Jew and opened his mind to the great religions of the world. Written with warmth, humor, and penetrating clarity, The Search for God at Harvard is a book for anyone who has wrestled with the question of what it means to take religion seriously today.
Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today
In Being Jewish, Ari L. Goldman offers eloquent thoughts about an absorbing exploration of modern Judaism. A bestselling author and widely respected chronicler of Jewish life, Goldman vividly contrasts the historical meaning of Judaism's heritage with the astonishing and multiform character of the religion today.
Writing on Gravestones
This book is a collection of reflective crime pieces, often approaching the events from different angles, yet written by on-the spot observers and reporters. There is an emphasis on the victims, and as a result these stories are written with sensitivity and compassion rather than sensationalism.
Lives of Crime: The Melbourne Gangland Murders
Over twenty-five tales of grisly murders and suspicious killings are laid out for inspection, including the story of the Police Killers and tales of the seedy Melbourne underworld.
Smart Health Choices
This fully revised and updated new edition of Smart Health Choices will provide you with the tools for assessing health advice, whether it comes from a specialist, general practitioner, naturopath, the media, the Internet, or a friend. It shows you how to take an active role in your health care, and to make the best decisions for you and your loved ones based on personal preferences and the best available evidence.
Tragedias & Periodistas
The Spanish-language version of the Dart Center's 40-page guide to help journalists, photojournalists and editors report on violence while protecting both victims and themselves.
9/11: Mental Health in the Wake of Terrorist Attacks
This book comprehensively describes the psychological response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and, to a lesser degree, Washington DC. The impact of what happened on the local and US national population is considered through various epidemiological studies, as well as personal accounts from some of those more directly involved.
Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11
Filled with astonishing personal stories, conflict, and drama, Feet to the Fire gives readers the rare opportunity to walk a mile in the shoes of this nation’s most powerful journalists and news executives and experience their highly stressful environments. With each new and revealing interview, Borjesson gathers devastating details from national security and intelligence reporters, White House journalists, Middle East experts, war correspondents, and others. Like pieces of a terrible puzzle, these conversations combine to provide a hair-raising view of the mechanisms by which the truth has been manufactured post 9/11.
From a MacArthur Fellow and the author of The Good Soldiers, a profound look at life after war
Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss
Grounded in the latest research in the fields of trauma studies, literary biography, and the history of journalism, this study draws upon the lively and sometimes breathtaking accounts of popular writers such as Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Graham Greene, and Truman Capote, exploring the role that trauma has played in shaping their literary works. Underwood notes that the influence of traumatic experience upon journalistic literature is being reshaped by a number of factors, including news media trends, the advance of the Internet, the changing nature of the journalism profession, the proliferation of psychoactive drugs, and journalists' greater self-awareness of the impact of trauma in their work.
Daring to Feel: Violence, the News Media, and Their Emotions
Daring to Feel is a bold, brave book. Jody Santos challenges the entrenched doctrine that journalists are neutral, dispassionate observers of 'fact.' Santos demonstrates how journalists themselves and society as a whole benefit from emotionally nuanced and emotionally engaged reporting. This is a beautifully written tribute to the passion of journalists and the heart-wrenching stories they cover.
The Things They Cannot Say: Stories Soldiers Won't Tell You About What They've Seen, Done or Failed to Do in War
In The Things They Cannot Say, award-winning journalist and author Kevin Sites asks these difficult questions of eleven soldiers and marines, who—by sharing the truth about their wars—display a rare courage that transcends battlefield heroics. For each of these men, many of whom Sites first met while in Afghanistan and Iraq, the truth means something different. One struggles to recover from a head injury he believes has stolen his ability to love; another attempts to make amends for the killing of an innocent man; yet another finds respect for the enemy fighter who tried to kill him. Sites also shares the unsettling narrative of his own failures during war—including his complicity in a murder—and the redemptive powers of storytelling that saved him from a self-destructive downward spiral.
In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars
Kevin Sites, the award-winning journalist, covered virtually every major global hot spot as the first Internet correspondent for Yahoo! News. Beginning his journey with the anarchic chaos of Somalia in September 2005 and ending with the Israeli-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006, Sites talks with rebels and government troops, child soldiers and child brides, and features the people on every side, including those caught in the cross fire. His honest reporting helps destroy the myths of war by putting a human face on war's inhumanity.
Swimming with Warlords: A Dozen-Year Journey Across the Afghan War
Using his trademark immersive style, Kevin Sites uncovered surprising stories with unexpected truths. He swam in the Kunduz River with an infamous warlord named Nabi Gechi, who demonstrated both his fearsome killing skills as well as a genius for peaceful invention. Sites talked with ex-Taliban fighters, politicians, female cops, farmers, drug addicts, and diplomats, and patrolled with American and Afghan soldiers. In Swimming with Warlords he helps us to understand this kingdom of primitive beauty, dark mysteries, and savage violence, as well as the conflict that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives--and what we might expect tomorrow and in the years to come.
The Price They Paid: Enduring Wounds Of War
The Price They Paid is the stunning and dramatic true story of a legendary helicopter commander in Vietnam and the flight crews that followed him into the most intensive helicopter warfare ever—and how that brutal experience has changed their lives in the forty years since the war ended.
What Have We Done: The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars
Most Americans are now familiar with PTSD and its prevalence among troops. In this groundbreaking book, David Wood examines the far more pervasive yet less understood experience of those we send to war: moral injury, the violation of our fundamental values of right and wrong that so often occurs in the impossible moral dilemmas of modern conflict.
Collective Conviction: The Story of Disaster Action
Collective Conviction tells the story of Disaster Action, a small charity founded in 1991 by survivors and bereaved people from the disasters of the late 1980s, including Zeebrugge, King's Cross, Clapham, Lockerbie, Hillsborough and the Marchioness. The aims were to create a health and safety culture in which disasters were less likely to occur and to support others affected by similar events.
High Tea in Mosul
When Lynne O’Donnell met Pauline and Margaret in Iraq she could never have guessed the wealth of stories she’d discover. Over tea the two women tell Lynne of their lives in the country: each having married Iraqi men had then relocated from England more than thirty years before.
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HMS Scholarly Articles
Multiple failed intubation attempts are associated with decreased success rates on the first rescue intubation in the emergency department: a retrospective analysis of multicentre observational data
4307194.pdf (358.4Kb)
Goto, Tadahiro
Gibo, Koichiro
Hagiwara, Yusuke
Morita, Hiroshi
Brown, David FM
Brown, Calvin A
Hasegawa, Kohei
Note: Order does not necessarily reflect citation order of authors.
Goto, Tadahiro, Koichiro Gibo, Yusuke Hagiwara, Hiroshi Morita, David FM Brown, Calvin A Brown, and Kohei Hasegawa. 2015. “Multiple failed intubation attempts are associated with decreased success rates on the first rescue intubation in the emergency department: a retrospective analysis of multicentre observational data.” Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 23 (1): 5. doi:10.1186/s13049-014-0085-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13049-014-0085-8.
Background: Although the international guidelines emphasize early and systematic use of rescue intubation techniques, there is little evidence to support this notion. We aimed to test the hypothesis that preceding multiple failed intubation attempts are associated with a decreased success rate on the first rescue intubation in emergency departments (EDs). Methods: We analysed data from two multicentre prospective registries designed to characterize current ED airway management in Japan between April 2010 and June 2013. All patients who underwent a rescue intubation after a failed attempt or a series of failed attempts were included for the analysis. Multiple failed intubation attempts were defined as ≥2 consecutive failed intubation attempts before a rescue intubation. Primary outcome measure was success rate on the first rescue intubation attempt. Results: Of 6,273 consecutive patients, 1,151 underwent a rescue intubation. The success rate on the first rescue intubation attempt declined as the number of preceding failed intubation attempts increased (81% [95% CI, 79%-84%] after one failed attempt; 71% [95% CI, 66%-76%] after two failed attempts; 67% [95% CI, 55%-78%] after three or more failed attempts; Ptrend <0.001). In the multivariable analysis adjusting for age, sex, principal indication, change in methods, devices, and intubator specialty, and clustering of patients within EDs, success rate on the first rescue intubation after two failed attempts was significantly lower (OR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.41-0.77) compared to that after one failed attempt. Similarly, success rate on the first rescue intubation attempt after three or more failed attempts was significantly lower (OR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.25-0.94) compared to that after one failed attempt. Conclusion: Preceding multiple failed intubation attempts was independently associated with a decreased success rate on the first rescue intubation in the ED.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4307194/pdf/
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAA
HMS Scholarly Articles [15741]
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Ukraine - Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) Database 2017
Ukraine - World Bank Group Country Survey 2017
The Country Opinion Survey in Ukraine assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Ukraine perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local...
Ukraine - STEP Skills Measurement Household Survey 2013 (Wave 1)
The STEP (Skills Toward Employment and Productivity) Measurement program is the first ever initiative to generate internationally comparable data on skills available in developing countries. The program implements standardized...
Data Type: Microdata Last Updated: Mar 31, 2016
Ukraine - Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2012
The Ukraine Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is a household survey programme carried out in 2012 by the State Statistics Service in collaboration with the Ukrainian Institute for Social Reforms and StatInformConsulting....
The World Bank Group is interested in gauging the views of clients and partners who are either involved in development in Ukraine or who observe activities related to social and economic development. The following survey will...
Data Type: Microdata Last Updated: Nov 25, 2014
Ukraine - All-Ukrainian Population Census 2001 - IPUMS Subset
Ukraine - Enterprise Survey 2013
This research was conducted in Ukraine between January and November 2013, as part of the fifth round of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey. The objective of the study is to obtain feedback from...
Ukraine - World Health Survey 2003
Different countries have different health outcomes that are in part due to the way respective health systems perform. Regardless of the type of health system, individuals will have health and non-health expectations in terms of...
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Tag: Change Maker
Blog Post, Info for HS Students/Parents, Written by Betty
Four Areas for High School Students to Make a College Application Shine!
For those of you who are looking for tips on what to do in high school to get into college of your dreams – this post is for you! I have identified four areas that will make your college application shine.
Back in 2013, after my daughter was born, I had opportunity to serve as an ambassador for the Gates Millennium Scholarship. I spoke to students from several high schools in my area, and boy, did I love it!
In my experience, people working in admissions for these four areas to be strong.
Academic Performance (AKA Grades!)
I have great news! If three out of four of these areas pop, that is more than good enough to make you a highly qualified and high-caliber applicant.
I was accepted to several top tier universities. Guess what? I did terrible on the SAT! Acceptance letters still rolled in because my application showcased my strong academic performance, involvement in community service, and leadership roles I took on. A friend of mine had the minimum requirement for community service but was very strong in the other three categories and she got into MIT! The lesson is, do not stress about perfection. If you are already strong in the four areas, that’s an amazing feat. What is most important is to have a well-rounded high school experience!
Here I am volunteering! I was always up to something with school clubs, I’m still very much like that – always involved!
Now, although I am suggesting that three of the four be strong— I do not mean to abandon the fourth! Do try your best and work hard in all four areas. Your grades should always be as best as you can maintain them. Join as many school activities and organizations as is enjoyable and comfortable for you. What I do not suggest, is letting anything be all consuming.
Trying to perfect all four will almost certainly be a drain on your energy and may wind up making certain areas weaker. For example, if I would have spent countless hours studying even more for the SAT, I would have never had the time to plan a 5k to raise money to support the Down Syndrome Association or had the time to enjoy a trip to New York with the photography club!
So there you have it! Lesson one— schools want a well-rounded student. My action item for you: Reflect on which of these three areas you can focus on. Again, we don’t want to abandon any category!
Stay tuned because my next post will be all about how to make the best in each area.
Here I am, smiling. It was joyous to be at UM, where I was truly meant to be!
My bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in education, however, I do not work in an admissions. All suggestions given from my extensive experience!
By Betty Carricaburu, Ms.Ed
Tagged applying to college, Change Maker, college application, college bound, dream chaser, tips for high school students1 Comment
Blog Post, Change Makers, The People Need to Know!, Written by Alé
12 Black Change Makers You Didn’t Learn about in School
In this post we will give you bios of 11 black change makers you didn’t learn about in school. Learn the rich history from yesterday and today of some of the most influential, pioneering and badass black Americans who influence our history.
1. Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey was a child during racial segregation and lynchings and grew to have the nickname, “Cultural Ambassador to the World,” for having danced and toured all over the world. He had a strong sense of black pride that developed at an early age while attending a southern baptist church and juke joints. He found dance at Lester Horton’s dance school. Ailey went on to popularize modern dance and his show “Revelations,” is the best known modern dance performance in history. He founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and later the Alvin Ailey school. Although the dancers were multi-racial, Ailey wanted to ensure black dancers were given opportunities because they were often turned away from other performances. He died in 1989, and after his death Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Honor. @alvinailey‘s dances theater continues on today.
Learn More: https://www.biography.com/people/alvin-ailey-9177959
2. Mae Carol Jeminson
Dr. Jemison became the first black woman in space in 1992, going into orbit on the Space Shuttle Endeavor. She was selected to join the Astronaut Corps by @nasa while she was serving the @peacecorps in the 80’s. Currently she is the principal of the 100 Year Starship organization. Oh, and she’s been an actress too! She’s been featured on Star Trek: The Next Generation. 🚀
Learn More: https://www.biography.com/people/mae-c-jemison-9542378
3. Keith Boykin
This man’s resumé is more than impressive but here’s a little info: @keithboykin1 was the editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties law review, while attending Harvard Law. He later went on to be the highest ranking openly gay staffer in the Clinton White House, as special assistant to the president and Director of Specialty Media. He published his first book in 1996, “One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America.” He is often seen as progressive broadcaster and commentator on CNN, and he is the cohost of “My Two Cents,” a talk show on BET.
Learn More: https://www.keithboykin.com/bio
4. Anna J Cooper
If you’re like me, you have never heard of Anna J Cooper despite her impressive contributions to society. Not only was she the first black woman to earn her PhD, she is often referred to as “The Mother of Black Feminism.” Ms. Cooper was born enslaved and at only 9 years old she was able to earn a scholarship and began her teacher training and road to academic excellence.
Learn More: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anna-Julia-Cooper
5. Angela Rye
@angelarye is a change maker currently impacting history. She is an attorney and a liberal political commentator on @cnn and a political analyst for @npr. She is involved in several organizations– including the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and the Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network. Angela also co-founded @impactstrategies which encourages young professionals to engage both civically and politically.
Learn More: https://dodoodad.com/angela-rye-biography
6. Octavia E Butler
Rejecting the idea to become a secretary, Octavia E. Butler entered a field dominated by white men, and became an award winning science-fiction writer. Ms. Butler spread her success around by teaching several writing workshops as well. Furthermore, Octavia Butler’s stories explore far reaching issues of sex, power, and race. Her writing garnered her a diverse following, and she claimed black readers, sci-do fans, and feminists were her most loyal fans.
Learn More: https://www.biography.com/people/octavia-e-butler-38207
7. Janet Mock
@janetmock is a transgender activist, a New York Times bestseller, a TV producer & host, an NYU grad (woo woo), and has been a magazine editor. She was assigned male at birth but affirms that she always been female. Her book Redefining is the first book written by a trans person who transitioned in their younger years. She’s also been a guest on Oprah’s (😍) #supersoulsunday. She stands as with other black and trans change makers, like Laverne Cox.
Learn More: https://janetmock.com/bio/
8. Edward Bouchet
Despite his brilliant mind and his PhD in physics Edward Bouchet was unable to get a job as a college professor because he was black, even though he was one of the only people in country to have attained that academic achievement. Additionally, he taught at some of the only schools that offered rigorous curriculums of chemistry and physics offered to African Americans for 25 years. It was only after death that his work was given accolades with several awards and honors.
Learn More: https://www.biography.com/people/edward-alexander-bouchet-21317497
9. Rachel Cargle
If you haven’t heard of her yet, @rachel.cargle is an educator and academic. She is one of the most influential black change makers of our time. Her work focuses on the intersection of womanhood and race. She has a large Instagram following where she asks her followers to #dothework and unlearn the racism that has been perpetuated throughout white culture. For black history month, Rachel has posted a prompt for people to google and learn about important black history. She also is a speaker and tours the country with her lecture, “Unpacking White Feminism.” Rachel writes for Harper’s Bazar. She is also a student at Columbia University, and an entrepreneur.
Learn More: https://www.rachelcargle.com/
10. Ella Baker
Ella Baker is one of many black change makers who worked largely behind the scenes with famous civil rights leaders, like MLK. She was a mentor to many other activists. One of her mentees was Rosa Parks. Her work involved empowering the oppressed to advocate for their rights. She also called out racism and classism within the civil rights movement. Ms. Baker worked within the NAACP for 15 years. She started as a secretary and worked her way to becoming the highest ranking woman within the organization. However, she challenged hierarchies within organizations all together.
Learn More: https://ellabakercenter.org/about/who-was-ella-baker
11. Killer Mike
Atlanta based rapper, Killer Mike is half of the Grammy award winning rap duo, Run the Jewels. He is a political activist whose work leads to empower the black community. In the 2016 election and now, he has been an outspoken supporter of Bernie Sanders. He invests in property and owns a barber shop. Killer Mike aims to show the black community how they can find financial security and success outside of sports and music. He has recently produced and released a Netflix series, “Trigger Warning: with Killer Mike.” It is enlightening and HILARIOUS, he is certainly one of the highest ranking entertaining black change makers.
Learn More: https://www.biography.com/people/killer-mike-5102017
11. Angela Davis
Angela Davis is a writer, activist, educator, and revolutionary. Her work is vast and spans decades. She is known for work in prison abolition, she herself was jailed, accused of participating in a prison outbreak but was later cleared. She has written several books, including a title called, “Women, Race, & Class.” Throughout recent history she has spoke out on major events like the Vietnam War, LGBT rights, the war on terror, and was a co-chair for the @womensmarch on Washington in 2017.
Learn More: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/angela-davis
Are there more black change makers you are inspired by? Let us know in the comments below.
By Alé Cardinalle | LMSW Candidate NYU 2019
Tagged Alvin Ailey, Angela Davis, Angela Rye, Black Heritage, Black History Month, Change Maker, dream chaser, Edward Bouchet, Janet Mock, Killer Mike, Rachel CargleLeave a comment
Ep 3: Bravely Vulnerable
Listener discretion advised. This episode includes discussions of sexual abuse, intimate partner violence and themes of suicide. There is also a ton of hope and joy and laughter, but it’s a heavy episode. Get to know the hosts of the show on a bravely intimate level. If you like the show please rate and review, it helps us tremendously. Connect with us on all social media @dcncmpod. Enjoy the episode.
Tagged Anxiety, Change Maker, daring greatly, Depression, dream chaser, dream chasers and change makers, FSU, love warrior, mental health, mental illness, PTSD, Recovery, rising strong, Soul sisters, truth teller, UM, university of miamiLeave a comment
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The real story about the Famous "Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge" in Skokie, Illinois. (1939-1988)
Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge was located, hidden among the trees, at 7545 Skokie Boulevard (Skokie Blvd. is Cicero Ave. in Chicago) at the intersection of Howard Street, Lincoln Avenue and Skokie Boulevard in Skokie, Illinois.
Chris Elliott purchased the property in 1938 for $38,000. The logs were shipped from Wisconsin. The restaurant was completed and opened in 1939 at the end of the great depression.
The pine log building is nestled in three wooded acres, that are beautiful in any season. No matter where you were seated in any of the four intimate dining rooms, you'd have a relaxing view of the picturesque outdoors through huge picture windows.
It was hard to believe you were in Skokie as it felt more like you were in a Wisconsin country inn or a Swiss Alps Chalet.
Natural wood paneling, different in each dining room, heavy beamed ceilings and wood burning fireplaces added to the rustic look of Elliott's. Inside the large waiting room with its natural wood burning fireplace, were comfortable sofas and overstuffed chairs, where you would wait for your table to be readied.
Adjacent to it was the "Keyhole Bar" with a sunken cocktail lounge with a raised wood burning hearth. On Friday and Saturday nights there was a piano player who would play your requests.
Chris built apartments above the restaurant for his parents to live in. Sometimes the kitchen help would use the apartments to rest and then go back on shift.
Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant had the best roasted duck, which I personally ordered every single time I ate there.
Elliott's specialties included; Roasted Duck, Broiled Aged Steaks, Fresh Dressed Chicken among other great dishes. They hosted many Banquets, Showers, Wedding Parties, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs and lots of company parties and meetings.
Elliott's survived the November 9, 1955 fire that gutted the inside and injured two firefighters Fred Albrecht and Warren Redik, suffered superficial burns about the hands and face when they fell through the first floor. Skokie Fire Chief estimated the damage at $100,000, said the fire, of undetermined cause, started in the basement. As it turns out, the total loss was $250,000. Chris Elliott told the Skokie News, " I don't know who released the earlier estimates of damages, 'around $100,000,' but I know that whoever it was never had the pleasure of eating in my restaurant." Fireman Jerome Burke and Robert Kutz receive awards for saving two fireman at the Elliot’s Pine Log Restaurant fire in 1956.
Mr. Anthony 'Tony' Gargano, the restaurant's manager was a patient of my father who was an Optometrist (O.D.). Tony always found the time to sit with us for a minute.
To this day, Elliott's had the best roasted duck I ever ate!
As the neighborhood changed in the 1980s, business dropped off and the Pine Log was closed. There was a public auction held of all the restaurant's equipment, fixtures, antiques, collectables, seating, etc., in Chicago on June 25, 1988.
Classified Ad, Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1988
Construction of two mid-rise condominium buildings on the Pine Log's property began in August of 1988. The Park Lincoln, as it was named, has 70 units.
NOTE: The myth of Elliott's Pine Log being a speakeasy, as stated numerous sites online is false. Prohibition began in 1920 and ended on December 5, 1933. Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant and Lounge opened 6 years later. Rumor has it that the speakeasy was the "Morton House Restaurant" in Morton Grove, Illinois which was destroyed by fire on January 2, 1954.
Living History of Illinois and Chicago® Food & Restaurants, IL Northeast, Postcard(s)
Laura Grindle Saturday, October 06, 2018 11:07:00 AM
I have very fond memories of eating at Elliott's Pine Log Restaurant with my parents. Thank you for having this information online.
Mike S. Wednesday, December 19, 2018 2:11:00 PM
yes, thank you for posting. I had a heck of a time remembering the name. My wedding rehearsal dinner was here way back in 1976.
Unknown Monday, May 20, 2019 10:29:00 AM
I have been there several times and always enjoyed my meal. My wife's girlfriend was also a bartender there.
Anonymous Thursday, May 23, 2019 7:34:00 PM
Chris Elliot was a generous man who donated his delicious food to charities. He donated Christmas dinner to Angel Guardian Orphanage for many years.
Unknown Sunday, May 26, 2019 9:31:00 AM
The best Roast Duck ever.
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D.S. White
Writer. Los Angeles.
Selected Writing
Dana White is a writer from Los Angeles, California. Her published work includes satire, travel writing and entertainment and cultural criticism. Sometimes she combines everything and writes satirical entertainment criticism that functions as an anti-travel guide (I’m Not Sure Whether I Have The Flu Or Just Didn’t Like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).
Dana has studied with The Second City and has an undergraduate degree from The University of Chicago. She has previously worked in entertainment, print publishing and tech and looks forward to a future in the similarly stable and career-tracked online content industry.
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Translate Languages with Tech
March 6, 2018Posted by: Stephanie TuckerCategory: Apps • Cool Stuff • Education • Tips & Tricks0 Likes
When it comes to working with a language other than your own, it might seem intimidating. Some languages are incredibly complex, making them especially difficult to learn. If you decide to use a translator, you have another issue: when it comes to translation technology, it can be tricky to find a tool that translates with as much accuracy as you might like.
All of this being said, using some tech for translating can be a step in the right direction if you’re looking for an easy way to communicate some of the basics. Idioms might make things difficult, and some more complex languages might not easily translate when using a machine translator, but the tech is pretty consistently improving, and it can be a huge help.
Translation technology is on a lot of peoples’ minds. Many different companies are working to come up with the newest and best tech that will help people translate through text or through spoken word. For instance, news recently broke that Amazon is interested in making Alexa capable of translating in real-time.
Read on to learn more about what’s currently available in the world of machine translation!
When you might use translation tech
There are many different times you could benefit from accessing a translator. You might want translation tech if you’re:
Going on a trip
Working with a document written in another language
Communicating online with people who speak a different language
Accessing a website in a foreign language
Some of your options
Since most people know about Google Translate, you might be thinking that is the only real competitor when it comes to translation. While Google Translate is top-notch, there are actually a lot of other apps, sites, and devices to help you translate another language. This means you can find the one you enjoy the most and that fits with your specific priorities. You can:
Use an app
Use a website
Use a device
Hire a real person
Before we get started…
You might have noticed the last item on the list above. It’s important to note that translating with a device or an app just isn’t going to be as accurate as relying on a human interpreter or translator. If you’re looking for a high degree of accuracy, you should probably skip the tech and hire a professional.
To get started learning more about translators and interpreters, you can look into the American Translators Association. The ATA has a search function that lets you search for people available for hire. They also explain what translators and interpreters do.
If you don’t need or want a professional human translator or interpreter, let’s move on to the tech!
Google Translate—The app version of Google’s translation service is one of the most popular apps in this list. You can translate with its 103 languages. There are even 59 languages available for offline translation. You can translate text from images (using the in-app camera), handwritten text, and during two-way conversations, and there are many more features. (Android, iOS)
iTranslate—This is another hugely popular translation app. There are more than 100 available languages. The free version has some customization options, different dialects, favorites, a dictionary, and more. In the paid version, you can translate offline in some languages, translate from voice to voice, and more. (Android, iOS)
Microsoft Translator—This translator from Microsoft has more than 60 available languages, and some languages are available to be downloaded and used offline. You can use the in-app camera to translate text in photos, and you can have multiple people involved in a conversation. You can also save translations, connect with Android Wear, and access a phrasebook. (Android, iOS)
Naver Papago Translate—This translation app is a particularly good one for those wanting to translate between English and some specific languages including Korean and Chinese. There may be only 10 languages, but the idea is that the translations will be more accurate because of the narrow focus. You can do things like use voice translation, translate text in images, and use a phrasebook. (Android, iOS)
TripLingo—TripLingo is a translation app with some nice extra features. You can do the typical things, like translate with text and voice, look through phrases, and check the dictionary. But you also can choose different levels of slang, learn about different cultures, use travel tools (like a currency converter), and even pay per minute to have a live translation done by a real person—plus more. (Android, iOS)
Waygo—This app is another one that has far fewer available languages but might be ideal in certain situations. This app is for translating in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. You can translate offline, use the camera to get translations immediately (without actually taking a picture), share translations, and with Chinese food name translations, you can even see pictures of the food. There’s a free trial, after which you have to pay for unlimited translations. (Android, iOS)
Translation websites
If you don’t want to download an app, just use a site!
Google Translate—Again, Google’s translator is one of the most popular. It can translate in 103 languages, and you can do things like upload a document for translation, translate a website, or even write by hand.
Bing Microsoft Translator—Microsoft’s translator has more than 60 available languages. You can translate websites, listen to your translations, share, and more. You can also take part in their Conversations between people who are using Translator on computers and mobile devices.
Translation devices
There are some devices you can take with you to make translating a little easier. Most of these are in-ear devices, including earbuds. Here are just a few devices available to you:
Bragi Dash Pro—The Dash Pro is a set of earbuds that pair with iTranslate. The earbuds work as typical earbuds, so they’re not solely for translation. With the Dash Pro, you have earbuds that are recognized to work well with the iTranslate app. If someone else also has Dash, you can both speak to each other using the translation capabilities without even having to use a phone. With others, though, you’ll have to use your phone to translate during conversations.
Google Pixel Buds—Like the Dash Pro, Google Pixel Buds are also multi-purpose earbuds that have translation capabilities integrated (if you have Google’s Pixel or Pixel 2 phone). You can use the Google Translate app to translate dozens of languages by holding down a button on the earbuds and saying what you’d like to translate. The other person can then respond using the app on your phone, and the translation will be spoken into the earbuds.
ili—ili is a handheld device that translates English into Mandarin, Spanish, or Japanese. It works offline, so you don’t have to be connected to use it. It’s also meant to hear your voice better than a translation app on a smartphone because of the microphones it uses. It is a one-way translator, which means you’re the only one who’s being translated, and you may have to rely on things like gestures and body language during a conversation.
Pilot—Pilot is an earpiece that can translate more than 15 languages. It uses noise-canceling microphones so it’s easier to pick up what’s being said, and you can share the earpiece with the other person in the conversation so you can communicate both ways. It currently doesn’t work offline, but this may not be an issue in most situations.
communication foreign language global travel google translate itranslate languages machine translation microsoft translate speaking translation translation devices translation earbuds translator travel
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Home » Auto Accidents » EMT Loses Life in RTA on Southern Highway
An emergency medical technician is dead following an accident between miles ten and eleven on the Southern Highway sometime early this morning. Police say Khalil Reyes was along with his co-worker socializing in a village prior to the accident. The surviving occupant of the ambulance told police that he was asleep and it was only when he woke up he realized they had met in an accident. Police say that at this time they are not sure who was driving the ambulance and while they believe the men had been drinking that is yet to be confirmed. Both men are employees of the Southern Emergency Services, a private ambulance service located at mile ten on the Southern Highway. Police responded to the scene of the accident and shared the details.
“This morning sometime shortly before five a.m., Dangriga police was called to an area between miles ten and eleven on the southern highway where they observed a red and white ambulance, being operated by Southern Emergency Services, on the right hand side of the road when travelling north somewhere just before the vicinity of the Hopkins junction with extensive damage to its front portion. Also seen was a clear complexion male person who seemed to be lifeless with a portion of his right food severed. His name was learnt to be Khalil Reyes, a twenty-six year old of a Belmopan address. According to the other person who was in the ambulance with him, Gerson Chavez, said that they were somewhere in the vicinity of Maya Center village socializing and had left there sometime after eleven p.m. According to him, he fell asleep and when he woke up he was inside the creek. Police are in the process of detaining him pending further investigation into this matter. The interview conducted with Mr. Chavez revealed that they had come off duty sometime around eight p.m. that night.
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After fish pedicure, woman loses her toenails
By Michael Nedelman, CNN
Updated 1500 GMT (2300 HKT) July 3, 2018
A woman's toenails fell off due to a fish pedicure she'd had months prior, according to a new report
Fish pedicures involve a species called Garra rufa that will eat dead human skin
Fish pedicures may carry an infection risk, experts say
(CNN) After a young woman's toenails started to separate from her toes, a doctor finally zeroed in on the reason: a fish pedicure, according to a report published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
Six months prior, the woman had dunked her feet in a tub of water filled with tiny fish called Garra rufa that will eat dead human skin when no plankton are around. It wasn't until later on that she noticed her nails beginning to shed.
"I think that this is probably more common than we think," said the report's author, Dr. Shari R. Lipner, an assistant professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medicine and director of the nail division.
"We don't see the [nail] shedding until months after the event, so I think it's hard for patients and physicians -- especially if they're not even aware that fish pedicures can do this -- to make that connection," she said.
Six of the woman's toenails began to look abnormal in the months after a fish pedicure. This image appears in her case report.
This phenomenon, known to doctors as onychomadesis, usually results in the nail falling off long after an initial event (such as an injury) arrests nail growth. In her report, Lipner describes this as a "relatively common physical examination finding" that has been linked to infections, medications, autoimmune and heritable conditions.
Lipner said the patient had no other medical history that she could link to her abnormal toenails. Although there's no definitive test for fish-nibble-induced toenail loss, "I think we're fairly sure that it was the fish pedicure," she said.
"I am not convinced at all that the fishes caused the problem," Dr. Antonella Tosti, the Fredric Brandt Endowed Professor of Dermatology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, wrote in an email.
Tosti, a former president of the European Nail Society, said the woman's problem could be caused by something much more mundane: overlapping toes in a certain type of shoe.
"This is not uncommon in women with a Greek foot ... who wear high heels and pinpointed shoes," Tosti said, referring to feet whose second toes are longer than the first, like Greek statues.
Toenails usually grow at about 1 millimeter per month, Lipner said, so a nail can take up to a year to fully grow back.
Other risks
Lipner is unaware of any other such cases linked to fish spas, whose popularity seem to have drawn from unfounded claims about their health benefits, according to her report. However, the use of "doctor fish," as they are also known, goes further back in other countries, such as Turkey.
Another species of fish, which "grows teeth and can draw blood," is sometimes mistaken for Garra rufa and used in fish pedicures, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lipner was not able to identify the fish species involved in this case.
While Lipner believes that the woman's problems stemmed from the physical impact of the fish biting at the nail, she noted that there have been past reports of infections associated with fish pedicures, too.
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