August 31, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-emails-controversy-avoiding-press-donald-trump-tax-form-doctor-letter/

Clinton's absence from the public eye comes at a price
CBS NEWS
August 31, 2016, 7:18 AM

Related: Congress receives FBI material on Hillary Clinton emails
Related: GOP chairman: FBI should release Hillary Clinton's State Department schedules
Play VIDEO -- Clinton courts donors in wealthy vacation spots


Sources tell CBS News the FBI will soon release notes from its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email servers. According to the State Department, her latest emails given to the FBI include “approximately 30 documents” that may be related to the Benghazi, Libya attack that killed four Americans.

This comes as Clinton returns to the campaign trail Wednesday after spending most of the past two weeks fundraising, which her aides say was always the plan for the end of summer. But this has come at a price, fueling a new talking point for Donald Trump, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

“She doesn’t do rallies of any consequence,” Trump said of Clinton.

Clinton did phone into two cable news shows last week, promising -- as she has for months -- that she will do a news conference at some point.

“Stay tuned. There will be a lot of different opportunities for me to talk to the press,” Clinton told CNN.

Trump has held at least 14 news conferences this year. His combative approach is a far cry from Clinton’s -- she’s generally too busy ignoring reporters to insult them.

She did take eight questions at a journalism conference earlier this month.

“I may have short-circuited,” she admitted, regarding her explanation on her emails controversy at the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ joint convention in Washington earlier this month.

But two of the questions were on her least favorite subject, which could help explain her aversion to the format.

“I have acknowledged repeatedly that using two email accounts was a mistake,” Clinton said.

As election nears, Trump has grown less accessible too. Nearly all of his recent TV interviews have been with Fox News, and Democrats note he still has not released his tax returns, or explained discrepancies in the glowing letter released by his doctor.

“He said, ‘the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.’ So that physical problem that caused him to not serve in the military has cleared up apparently,” Clinton’s vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine said in Pennsylvania.

Clinton wrapped up her coast-to-coast fundraising tour Tuesday night. Her 22 fundraisers in the wealthy enclaves of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Cape Cod, The Hamptons plus California, netted at the very least a combined $31 million for her and the Democratic party.

As for Trump, it appears his controversies have caused wealthy Republicans to keep wallets shut. A new analysis by USA Today found wealthy Democrats and liberal groups have given nearly three times as much money as Republicans, and a lot of that Republican giving went to down-ballot races.


Excerpt – “His combative approach is a far cry from Clinton’s -- she’s generally too busy ignoring reporters to insult them.” …. She did take eight questions at a journalism conference earlier this month. “I may have short-circuited,” she admitted, regarding her explanation on her emails controversy at the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ joint convention in Washington earlier this month. …. or explained discrepancies in the glowing letter released by his doctor. “He said, ‘the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.’ So that physical problem that caused him to not serve in the military has cleared up apparently,” Clinton’s vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine said in Pennsylvania.” …. netted at the very least a combined $31 million for her and the Democratic party. As for Trump, it appears his controversies have caused wealthy Republicans to keep wallets shut. A new analysis by USA Today found wealthy Democrats and liberal groups have given nearly three times as much money as Republicans, and a lot of that Republican giving went to down-ballot races.”


This reporter doesn’t like either candidate much. That’s how most American are feeling now, I think; I want Sanders, but I’m not going to “waste my vote by writing his name in on the ballot, and I hope very few others will do that either. If Hillary is a skunk, Trump is a pit viper. I love the comment that Hillary is usually “too busy ignoring reporters to insult them, and that Trump physical problem which he used to avoid the army in Vietnam has apparently healed up. Good going, Tim.



CHICAGO POLICE RESULTS

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/31/492066739/chicago-police-dept-moves-to-fire-5-officers-over-laquan-mcdonald-shooting

Chicago Police Dept. Moves To Fire 5 Officers Over Laquan McDonald Shooting
CAMILA DOMONOSKE
August 31, 2016 8:20 AM ET

Photograph -- Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke leaves the Criminal Courts Building after pleading not guilty to first-degree murder charges related to the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on December 29, 2015, in Chicago. The police superintendent is now moving to fire Van Dyke and four other officers, who are accused of making false statements about the shooting. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Related: AROUND THE NATION, Chicago Shooting Drives Calls For Emanuel To Go, So Far Without Result
Related: THE TWO-WAY, Justice Department Launches Civil Rights Investigation Into Chicago Police
Related: THE TWO-WAY, Chicago Police Task Force Report Calls For Oversight Reform, Admission Of Racism


Chicago's police superintendent is moving to fire five officers who were involved in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old LaQuan McDonald in 2014 — one who pulled the trigger, and four who are accused of giving false statements about what happened.

McDonald, who was black, was shot 16 times by officer Jason Van Dyke. Other officers said that McDonald had lunged at police before he was shot. But dashcam footage of the incident — released under a court order — contradicted their testimony.

Van Dyke, who is white, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bond, NPR's David Schaper reports.

Now Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson is seeking the dismissal of Van Dyke, as well as four other officers accused of giving false statements during an investigation into the shooting.

Chicago's inspector general had recommended that 10 officers be fired for the shooting — Van Dyke and nine others.

Of those officers, four have since either resigned or retired. In the case of one officer, a police spokesman said, there was "insufficient evidence" to prove that the officer willfully lied during investigations.

Johnson has filed administrative charges with the Chicago Police Board to request the dismissal of the five officers.



http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/13/474043035/chicago-police-task-force-report-calls-for-oversight-reform-admission-of-racism

Chicago Police Task Force Report Calls For Oversight Reform, Admission Of Racism
MARIE ANDRUSEWICZ
April 13, 2016 3:20 AM ET


A Chicago Police accountability task force is releasing a report Wednesday recommending sweeping changes to what it says is a "broken" system. A draft of the report has already been delivered to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who created the task force and fired police Superintendent Garry McCarthy following the release of a video showing a white police officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times.

The Chicago Tribune describes the tone of the draft as "scathing" and says it recommends that the department "acknowledge its racist history and overhaul its handling of excessive force allegations."

NPR's David Schaper reports the recommendations would affect the way investigations are conducted and how police officers are disciplined:

"That could include doing away with the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police shootings and allegations of excessive force. Critics say it's biased in favor of police and turns the code of silence into official policy."

The report calls for the IRPA [sic] to be replaced by a "fully transparent and accountable" civilian agency. The draft also suggests creating the post of deputy chief of diversity and inclusion.

On Tuesday, the Chicago City Council approved Emanuel's request to appoint interim police superintendent Eddie Johnson as the new police superintendent. A national search had presented Emanuel with three candidates for the job, all of whom he rejected. Tuesday's vote by the council allows Johnson's appointment without a second hiring search.

When appointing Johnson to serve as interim superintendent last month, Emanuel said of the 27-year veteran of the force: "He's well respected within the department and among all the rank-and-file officers that I have spoken with. He will have their backs when they do their job well and he will hold them accountable when they do not."

The City Council will take a final vote on Johnson's appointment today.

"We don't have time to play," said Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. during Tuesday's meeting. "People are dying in our wards."



Ferguson, MO, was “the shot heard ‘round the world,” on August 9, 2014. Like the original case in 1775, this almost instantaneously started a legal, social, and somewhat physical war. So far we haven’t had the widespread rioting like some other times in the last few decades, but I believe that’s half luck. It’s not a surprising result, because so little effort has been made within the White communities to STOP their aggression and worse events. It has long been known that there was a basic problem with the police, with the more conservative citizens always stating that we should “give the police the benefit of the doubt,” and in any interaction with officers, we should be very passive and obedient. The result is that nothing has been done to address the problem. Better supervision, better training, hiring officers with a good ethical structure and normal to high intelligence, all are needed.

At present, it is NOT incumbent upon the police to treat citizens with any respect or fairness at all, in the eyes of the conservative members of the public, and that’s a large part of the cause of all those extremely negative interactions to begin with. It comes of rage. Police should be professional and not abusers, and if mental health care is needed, then call an ambulance rather than arresting the subject.

It should surprise no one that officers are now being picked off one at a time by attackers. That should change, too, of course. It’s a vendetta situation, much like a gang war. Latino people, poor whites, homeless and deranged individuals also get harassed and murdered, and about a month ago a Korean woman in her 50s was assaulted by a policeman in a parking lot where she had stopped in an empty parking lot for some problem she was having. It is not illegal or even unusual to stop in an empty parking lot. I do it if I have to read a map or if the rain is coming down in a sheet so that I can’t see. It was thought that part of the problem causing her to be beaten was a language barrier, but why is a policeman beating a woman or child or old person or deaf person or non-English speaker or mentally disabled person anyway?? Now, we will probably be hearing about Islamic people being traumatized as well, since Trump has been inflaming the public sentiment about such people.

Cell phone cameras, dash cams, people stopping when an incident starts and watching to bear witness to the interaction, have begun to stop the almost universally assumed privilege that police have over black and poor citizens of all groups. Wealthy people have little problem, because they always have a personal lawyer, whom they will ask for a letter calling an abusive cop out. Chicago has done well in this case, and I hope more serious punishment will be meted out to police across the country in the future over excessive violence, whether anyone is killed or not.

Those “punishment” beatings that officers sometimes do, and the hideous “rough ride” which was also a punishment in the Gray case, should be absolutely illegal and grounds for instant dismissal and criminal charges. Now if only the jury and judge will actually CONVICT Jason Van Dyke of first degree murder, and send him to Federal Prison there will be a real step forward. It will be a real life punishment and, I feel sure, will be helpful, especially if it is mandated on a nationwide basis. It’s time for Federal law to firmly preside over these local events. I think that will probably come about because the American public is now fully aware of what so often happens. It used to be hidden.

These all-civilian panels to oversee punishments will help. “The draft also suggests creating the post of deputy chief of diversity and inclusion.” That whole idea of “integration” has always been resisted, and is needed for our various minority groups to begin to get along better with each other and the majority population.

The photograph of Supt. Johnson shows a calm and intelligent man, and he is black. He doesn’t look like an angry person at all, so I hope for some regular follow-up reports on the Chicago situation with positive changes. For an excellent and detailed description of the Ferguson case, go to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html?_r=0.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-supporter-pastor-mark-burns-hillary-clinton-apology-tweet-cartoon-blackface/

Pro-Trump pastor regrets cartoon of Clinton in blackface, but "not the message"
CBS NEWS
August 30, 2016, 6:35 AM

Donald Trump always has something to say on Twitter, but now, a supporter’s tweet is creating outrage.

It shows an image of Hillary Clinton in blackface, at a time when Trump is reaching out to minority groups. Now, the top African American adviser to Trump is apologizing for posting the racially offensive cartoon of Clinton, undercutting any serious Trump effort to appeal to African-American voters, reports CBS News correspondent Major Garrett.

In Atlanta Monday night, supporters defended Donald Trump.

“I know Donald Trump. He does not look down on anybody, he is not racist at all,” 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told a crowd at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

This came just hours after Trump loyalist Pastor Mark Burns posted a tweet depicting Hillary Clinton in blackface and accusing her of pandering to African American voters.

mark-burns-tweet-square.jpg
Pastor Mark Burn’s controversial cartoon of Hillary Clinton
“It’s not racist to be proud to be an American,” Burns told a rally in Jackson, Mississippi.

Burns -- a frequent warm-up act for Trump -- at first said he did no wrong.

“The picture is designed to do draw attention to the very fact that Hillary Clinton do pander after black groups, after black people,” Burns told MSNBC.

But later, Burns deleted the tweet, apologizing for the imagery, saying, “I regret the offensiveness of the black face,” but not the message.

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Pastor Mark Burns @pastormarkburns
LIVE on #Periscope: I want to Apologize for my Twit that many found to be offensive... https://www.periscope.tv/w/apNz2DYzODAwMzl8MURYeHlMUVpQZUVKTX6b9Iy9IbOs8lcz3jPJG343nrRRYGAxHHVGgdXIbKqD …
8:05 PM - 29 Aug 2016

Pastor Mark Burns @pastormarkburns
I want to Apologize for my Twit that many found to be offensive... — Easley, SC, United States
periscope.tv
175 175 Retweets 347 347 likes
“I still stand by what the image represents but I think that, you know, I should have used better judgment,” Burns said.

The cartoon firestorm heightens the tension around the presidential conversation about race relations, with the candidates’ ongoing exchanging of attacks that accuse each other of racism.

Donald Trump: "Hillary Clinton is a bigot"
Clinton calls out Trump's "steady stream of bigotry"
Also Monday, former KKK Grand Wizard and now U.S. Senate candidate David Duke released a campaign robocall, linking himself to Trump.

“We’re losing our country. It’s time to stand up and vote for Donald Trump for president and vote for me, David Duke for the U.S. Senate,” Duke said.

The Trump campaign denies any relationship to Duke or white supremacist groups.

“We don’t want the support of people who think like David Duke,” Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, told CNN.

The Trump campaign released a statement to CBS News, saying they have no knowledge of and strongly condemn the David Duke robocalls.

As for Pastor Burns, Trump will be with him in Detroit this weekend, attending a church service and doing an interview with an African-American Christian television network.

Burns also apologized again Tuesday morning for the “offensive” image, but also stressed to “stand by the message that we blacks are being used” by Democrats for votes.

Follow
Pastor Mark Burns @pastormarkburns
I'm so sorry for the offensive #Blackface image of @HillaryClinton but stand by the message that we Blacks ARE being Used by #Dems for VOTES
7:06 AM - 30 Aug 2016
199 199 Retweets 392 392 likes



“Burns also apologized again Tuesday morning for the “offensive” image, but also stressed to “stand by the message that we blacks are being used” by Democrats for votes.” If Pastor Burns really thinks that any Republican, or certainly most, will cater to the needs and opinions of black people or any other minority, he is blind. And as for the blackface business, that is unacceptable for anyone. It’s like “n!$%&r.” Some black people do call each other that, sometimes playfully and sometimes not, but it’s still a word with such a horrible history that it raises negative interactions in all cases. We can do better than that as a society. I also don’t think black people should call each other that, but if a white says it, there may be a fight. Let’s GET REAL! Everybody, let's all try to do good things rather than what to me is simply evil, and behave fairly and gently to all. I know. That's idealistic, but it is the real solution, unless we want more and more police on the streets all over the nation.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/huma-abedin-announces-separation-from-anthony-weiner/

Huma Abedin announces separation from Anthony Weiner
CBS NEWS
August 29, 2016, 12:13 PM

19 Photographs -- Huma Abedin
Play VIDEO -- Documentary reveals toll of Anthony Weiner's downfall

Top Clinton aide Huma Abedin announced she’s splitting from her husband, former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner after news broke of yet another sexting scandal involving Weiner.

“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” Abedin said in a statement. “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life.”

The New York Post on Sunday night reported that last summer, Weiner had started sexting with a buxom brunette who told him she was a supporter of Donald Trump. Among the photos the two exchanged was one Weiner crotch shot that also included his toddler son.

“Someone just climbed into my bed,” Weiner wrote to the woman, the New York Post reported.

“Really?” she wrote back. He then sent the photo -- which focused on his groin and showed he was clad only in white underwear, with his son next to him.

Weiner, according to the Post, seemed nervous that he had inadvertently posted to social media, “For half a second I thought I posted something,” he wrote.

“I see you thought you posted on your TL [public timeline] not DM [direct message]. S**t happens be careful,” the woman wrote back.

Weiner’s Twitter account has been deleted.

Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides, has struggled with her husband’s social media exhibitionism in the past. Sexting ended his 12-year congressional career in 2011. Weiner had attempted to mount a comeback in a run for New York City mayor in 2013, and that, too, was thwarted by another sexting scandal.

Abedin and Weiner were the subject of a recent documentary, “Weiner,” which chronicled Weiner’s mayoral run, and it showcased the fallout from the scandal that ended his mayoral candidacy. Weiner recently claimed to the New York Times Magazine that Abedin had not approved extensive footage shown of her in the documentary, a fact disputed by the filmmakers, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg.

Republican nominee Donald Trump quickly attempted to make Abedin’s decision a campaign issue.

“Huma is making a very wise decision,” he said in a statement. “I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him. I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information.

Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this.”



I have no love for Huma Abedin or Hillary Clinton either nowadays, but I am delighted to see that she is divorcing the obscene SOB to whom she was legally tied. Bless you, Huma.



R.I.P. Gene Wilder. You are one of my happy memories.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blazing-saddles-star-gene-wilder-dead-at-83/

Gene Wilder, "Blazing Saddles" and "Willy Wonka" star, dead at 83
CBS/AP
August 29, 2016, 3:43 PM

17 Photos -- Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Related: Doris Roberts, Emmy-winning sitcom icon, dies at 90
Related: Director Garry Marshall dead at 81


NEW YORK -- Gene Wilder, the star of such comedy classics as “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles,” has died. He was 83.

Wilder’s nephew said Monday that the actor and writer died earlier this month in Stamford, Connecticut from complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

“It is with indescribable sadness and blues, but with spiritual gratitude for the life lived that I announce the passing of husband, parent, and universal artist Gene Wilder, at his home in Stamford Connecticut. It is almost unbearable for us to contemplate our life without him,” Wilder’s nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, said in a statement.

“The cause was complications from Alzheimers Disease with which he co-existed for the last three years. The choice to keep this private was his choice, in talking with us and making a decision as a family. We understand for all the emotional and physical challenges this situation presented we have been among the lucky ones -- this illness-pirate, unlike in so many cases, never stole his ability to recognize those that were closest to him, nor took command of his central-gentle-life affirming core personality. It took enough, but not that.”

“He continued to enjoy art, music, and kissing with his leading lady of the last twenty-five years, Karen. He danced down a church aisle at a wedding as parent of the groom and ring bearer, held countless afternoon movie western marathons and delighted in the the company of beloved ones.”

The frizzy-haired actor was a master at playing panicked characters caught up in schemes that only a madman such as Mel Brooks could devise, whether reviving a monster in “Young Frankenstein” or bilking Broadway in “The Producers.”

But he also knew how to keep it cool as the boozy gunslinger in “Blazing Saddles” and as the charming candy man in the children’s favorite “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” Just this week, Brooks had made his case to Vanity Fair that “Blazing Saddles” was the funniest movie ever made.

Brooks himself reacted quickly to news of Wilder’s death.

Follow
Mel Brooks ✔ @MelBrooks
Gene Wilder-One of the truly great talents of our time. He blessed every film we did with his magic & he blessed me with his friendship.
3:47 PM - 29 Aug 2016
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Scorsese, De Niro honor Mel Brooks at AFI tribute
Wilder developed a special onscreen relationship with “Blazing Saddles” co-writer Richard Pryor, going on to co-star with him in a series of films including “Stir Crazy” and “See No Evil, Hear No Evil.”

Wilder was married four times. His most famous relationship was with “Saturday Night Live” vet Gilda Radner, to whom he was married from 1984 until her death from cancer in 1989. Following Radner’s passing, he married Karen Boyer in 1991.


WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: Pure Imagination Gene Wilder (1971) by TheRealWhatTheFudge on YouTube
Notable deaths in 2016
120 PHOTOS
Notable deaths in 2016



Willy Wonka didn’t appeal to me. That was apparently a well-known children’s story, but not when I was a kid, so I didn’t know the story, and it is more than a little bit strange. Putting the little girl whom he didn’t like into the oven and turning her into a “blueberry girl” because she smarted off a bit was, shall I say, “harsh.” I read several of Dahl’s poems and found them also “dark.” I didn’t like them, either. That particular movie’s failing to appeal to me, however, is not Wilder’s fault but the writer’s. However, my favorites were Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers and Silver Streak -- all spectacular films. Like the Marx Brothers he was a truly great talent. I’m very sorry to hear that he has died. May he rest in peace.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/638d6331-0a1e-39bb-8c59-ba58f189e403/ss_mariska-hargitay-reportedly.html

U.S. New York Post
Mariska Hargitay reportedly freaks out on 'Law & Order: SVU' set
Fox News
August 29, 2016

Screenshot -- "Law & Order: SVU" cast member Mariska Hargitay takes part in a panel discussion at the NBC Universal Summer Press Day 2012 in Pasadena, California April 18, 2012.
Photograph – Hargitay and cast on street with cameraman


Mariska Hargitay lost it on the NYC set of “Law & Order: SVU” last week.

“They were shooting on Ninth Avenue, and she was yelling, ‘Did you get that?’ to a crew member. The guy responded, ‘No,’ and she went apes - - t,” a spy said.

“She was saying, ‘When I do these, you have to make sure you get this.’ She was in a full NYPD police vest and was running down the street out of nowhere yelling at this guy.”

A source close to the show, however, told us, “It’s her on-set shtick. This is her joking around with the camera guys . . . They’ve been working together for 18 years.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post's Page Six.



This fascinating near story is all there is, even on NYPost Page Six. There is so little here here that I’m really annoyed. Her name was mentioned, again in the Post, about the ending to the last episode which seemed to show that her character Benson had been fired. When I Googled her just now I found several news stories about her from the last year. Apparently she is one of the “media darlings.” She certainly is a very good actress, and I would grieve if she were to actually go off the show.

Apparently Christopher Meloni “left to pursue a film career,” according to his bio. I must say I really do miss him terribly. He is one of those men who looks like a hawk or falcon – not full of bulky muscle, but with an intensity that is really impressive, and he portrays his role very well. He and Hargitay made a great team, and the whole cast together made the show profoundly believable, moving, exciting and somehow elegant. In short, I love it, and if Hargitay really is leaving it I will be upset. It will be like Perry Mason without Raymond Burr. Shows are on their way down the toilet when they start playing around with their characters like this. The public simply will not accept substitutes.



WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/turkey-backed-syria-rebels-advance-on-u-s-backed-kurds/

Turkey-backed Syria rebels advance on U.S.-backed Kurds
AP August 28, 2016, 10:19 AM

Photograph -- Turkish soldiers stand on tanks as they prepare for a military operation at the Syrian border town of Karkamis in the southern region of Gaziantep, on August 25, 2016 in Jarablus, Turkey. DEFNE KARADENIZ, GETTY IMAGES
Play VIDEO -- Turkey troops attempt to cleanse border of ISIS
Play VIDEO -- Turkey enters Syria to fight ISIS strongholds


BEIRUT - Turkey-backed Syrian rebels seized a number of villages and towns from Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria on Sunday amid Turkish airstrikes and shelling that killed at least 35 people, mostly civilians, according to rebels and a monitoring group.

Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels drive the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria out of the frontier town of Jarablus last week in a dramatic escalation of its involvement in the Syrian civil war.

The operation, labeled Euphrates Shield, is also aimed at pushing back U.S.-allied Kurdish forces. The fighting pits a NATO ally against a U.S.-backed proxy that is the most effective ground force battling IS in Syria.

Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency said Turkish airstrikes killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and destroyed five buildings used by the fighters in response to attacks on advancing Turkish-backed rebels in the Jarablus area.

The Turkish military is “taking every precaution and showing maximum sensitivity to ensure that civilians living in the area are not harmed,” Anadolu reported.

A Turkish soldier was killed by a Kurdish rocket attack late Saturday, the first such fatality in the offensive, now in its fifth day.

Various factions of the Turkey-backed Syrian rebels said Sunday they have seized at least four villages and one town from Kurdish-led forces south of Jarablus. One of the villages to change hands was Amarneh, where clashes had been fiercest. Rebels posted pictures from inside the village.

Ankara is deeply suspicious of the Syrian Kurdish militia that dominates the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces, viewing it as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency raging in southeastern Turkey. Turkish leaders have vowed to drive both IS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, away from the border.

The SDF crossed the Euphrates River and drove ISIS out of Manbij, a key supply hub just south of Jarablus, earlier this month. Both Turkey and the United States have ordered the YPG to withdraw to the east bank of the river. YPG leaders say they have, but their units play an advisory role to the SDF and it is not clear if any of their forces remain west of the Euphrates.

Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS, but the airstrikes that began Saturday marked the first time it has targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombing killed at least 20 civilians and four Kurdish-led fighters in Beir Khoussa, a village about nine miles south of Jarablus, and another 15 in a village to the west.

ANHA, the news agency of the Kurdish semi-autonomous areas, said Beir Khoussa has “reportedly lost all its residents.”

SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said the airstrikes and shelling started overnight and continued Sunday along the front line, killing many civilians in Beir Khoussa and nearby areas. He said the bombing also targeted Amarneh village. He said 50 Turkish tanks were taking part in the offensive.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that 20 civilians were killed and 50 wounded in Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes, calling it Turkish “encroachment” on Syrian sovereignty under the pretext of fighting IS. Turkey is a leading backer of the rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.

An Associated Press reporter in the Turkish border town of Karkamis spotted at least three Turkish jets flying into Syria amid heavy Turkish shelling from inside Syrian territory on Sunday morning.



EXCERPT -- “Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS, but the airstrikes that began Saturday marked the first time it has targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombing killed at least 20 civilians and four Kurdish-led fighters in Beir Khoussa, a village about nine miles south of Jarablus, and another 15 in a village to the west. ANHA, the news agency of the Kurdish semi-autonomous areas, said Beir Khoussa has “reportedly lost all its residents.”


This story disturbs me on several levels. One, the Kurds are not bad guys at all, and now Turkey has wiped out a whole Kurdish village. The degree of devastation in the Middle East is sad and dangerous. Second, Turkey was always a western leaning and secular nation, placed strategically between ISIS and Europe, who was an ally for the US; and now that the regime change has occurred that seems to be less likely to be the case in the future. It further endangers the US in our Middle East involvement and kills more and more human lives.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/your-dog-does-understand-what-youre-saying-study-suggests/

Yes, your dog really does understand what you say, study suggests
AP August 30, 2016, 11:18 AM

Photograph -- New research suggests that dogs - like Prince George’s family pet Lupo, pictured here on July 22, 2016 - process words with the left hemisphere of the brain and process intonation with the right hemisphere, just like humans. MATT PORTEOUS/DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

Play VIDEO -- Here's how dogs are helping kids with summer reading


BERLIN — Scientists have found evidence to support what many dog owners have long believed: man’s best friend really does understand some of what we’re saying.

Researchers in Hungary scanned the brains of dogs as they were listening to their trainer speaking to determine which parts of the brain they were using.

They found that dogs processed words with the left hemisphere, while intonation was processed with the right hemisphere – just like humans.

What’s more, the dogs only registered that they were being praised if the words and intonation were positive; meaningless words spoken in an encouraging voice, or meaningful words in a neutral tone, didn’t have the same effect.

“Dog brains care about both what we say and how we say it,” said lead researcher Attila Andics, a neuroscientist at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. “Praise can work as a reward only if both word meaning and intonation match.”

Andics said the findings suggest that the mental ability to process language evolved earlier than previously believed and that what sets humans apart from other species is the invention of words.

“The neural capacities to process words that were thought by many to be uniquely human are actually shared with other species,” he said. “This suggests that the big change that made humans able to start using words was not a big change in neural capacity.”

While other species probably also have the mental ability to understand language like dogs do, their lack of interest in human speech makes it difficult to test, said Andics.

Dogs, on the other hand, have socialized with humans for thousands of years, meaning they are more attentive to what people say to them and how.

The study was published in the journal Science.

Andics also noted that all of the dogs were awake, unrestrained and happy during the tests. “They participated voluntarily,” he said.



I will just put in one personal anecdote on how smart and capable of understanding us some dogs are. This is a true story. Years ago at Christmas I was at my in-laws’ house and we had already opened the gifts. They had a largish Border Collie, who was meaningfully communicating with me with her eyes as I stroked her thick fur. Like most of them she was black with a wide white “collar” marking, and I picked up a large red bow from a package and put it around her neck. I petted her and told her about four times how “beautiful” she looked with her red bow. She suddenly got a startled look on her face, turned and pranced over to the wall mirror on the other side of the room and gazed at herself for 20 or 30 seconds, as though to see just how pretty she was. You can believe that or not, but it happened exactly that way.

Not only is her ability to understand words impressive, but the fact that she apparently does understand that the image in the mirror is herself, which is something that many or maybe most monkeys and cats do not understand. Faced with their image they will become angry and try to fight "that other monkey." A chimpanzee or gorilla, however, does know that they are seeing themselves. One chimpanzee was on a psychologist's scientific video and when he saw himself, he stared a bit and then took his fingernail and picked some small piece of food off of his tooth. So a Border Collie may, at least in some ways, be as intelligent as some of the great apes, maybe!

August 29 and 30, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-foreign-hackers-accessed-state-election-systems/

FBI has found hackers accessed two states' election databases
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS
August 29, 2016, 11:47 AM
Last Updated Aug 29, 2016 11:47 AM EDT


The FBI has found that hackers accessed Arizona’s and Illinois’s state election databases, CBS News has confirmed.

The bureau issued an alert to state election officials of the attempted hacks, which was sent earlier this month and it referenced two attacks in two states that are under investigation. At least one site was compromised, CBS News confirmed.

The two states that were targeted were Arizona and Illinois, and while the FBI released a statement, it didn’t offer any details.

“The FBI routinely advises private industry of various cyber threat indicators observed during the course of our investigations. This data is provided in order to help systems administrators guard against the actions of persistent cyber criminals.”

The intrusions were first reported by Yahoo News on Monday after it obtained a copy of the alert. Yahoo said foreign hackers are responsible.

According to its report, earlier this month, the FBI’s Cyber Division issued an alert that warned: “Targeting Activity Against State Board of Election Systems. The alert said that the FBI was investigating the intrusions into two states’ election websites whereby one resulted in the “exfiltration” or theft of voter registration data.

Only three days earlier, on Aug. 15, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson held a conference call with state election officials offering to help make states’ voting systems more secure, the report said. Johnson also said that DHS was not aware of “specific or credible cybersecurity threats” to the election.

The alert, Yahoo’s report said, didn’t identify the states that were targeted, but sources told Yahoo that they were Arizona and Illinois. While the Arizona incident appears to be limited, Ilinois’s Board of Elections general counsel Ken Menzel told Yahoo that Illinois had to shut its system down for 10 days in late July and that personal data for up to 200,000 voters had been downloaded.

Menzel told Yahoo that FBI agents confirmed that the people behind the intrusions were foreign hackers, but the bureau didn’t name the country or countries involved. He also told Yahoo that he heard the FBI was seeing whether a “possible link” existed between these attempted hacks and those at the Democratic National Committee and other political groups.

U.S. officials said last month that they believed people working for the Russian government were behind the hack of internal emails at the DNC.

CBS News’ Andres Triay contributed to this story.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-state-board-of-elections-hack-update-met-0830-20160829-story.html

Illinois election officials say hack yielded information on 200,000 voters
Rick Pearson
Chicago Tribune
August 29, 2016

Photograph -- Amid an FBI warning to state election officials to tighten election security, Illinois State Board of Elections officials said Monday they believe voters' personal information was targeted in a cyberattack. Aug. 29, 2016. (CBS Chicago)


Illinois State Board of Elections officials said Monday they believe personal information from fewer than 200,000 voters was hacked through a cyberattack of possible foreign origin that began in June and was halted a month later.

Ken Menzel, general counsel for the elections board, said no files of registered voters were erased or modified and that no voting history information or voter signature images were captured.

But he said it's possible that some voter personal information, including drivers' license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, could have been accessed of voters who entered that information when they registered to vote online.

Voters who have been registered for a long time or those who registered to vote through a registrar do not have that personal information in the state voter files, he said.

"It looks to be fewer than 200,000" names, Menzel said of the hack. "We say that the system was compromised in this context, that it's been accessed. We're very confident nothing was added, deleted or altered."

The elections board, however, warned that "due to the ambiguous nature of the attack, we may never know the exact number of affected voters."

After the Illinois cyberattack and another attempt in Arizona, the FBI issued a "flash alert" this month to warn of malicious attempts to obtain access to states' election voter registration information. The FBI alerted Arizona officials in June that Russians were behind the assault on the election system in that state, The Washington Post reported Monday. The actions by the FBI and related activity by the Department of Homeland Security were first reported by Yahoo News.

In Illinois, elections officials said the cyberattack began June 23. Board staff became aware of a security breach on July 12 and programmers used code changes to stop the malicious outside database queries.

The board also took offline outside access to its website, including its online voter registration application process, to prevent further intrusions. Notifications were made to the Illinois attorney general's office and the General Assembly under the state's Personal Information Protection Act, Menzel said.

The online voter registration portal was restored late last month and the board has added further encryption and taken other steps to enhance security, officials said.

"We've been working with the people in the governor's technology group (the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology) and they've been wonderfully helpful," he said. "There are also some interstate groups that have banded together for security issues, as well as the FBI and Homeland Security."

Menzel said there is a "reasonable suspicion" that the cyberattack was foreign.

"We know foreign servers were used, but it's not conclusive that foreign actors were involved," Menzel said. He said the FBI has "their reasons for suspecting foreign involvement, other than just some foreign servers were used."

The stepped-up activity to protect states' voter election databases comes as the FBI investigates a hack of the Democratic National Committee that resulted in the unauthorized release of tens of thousands of emails. Security and intelligence experts have said they believe the DNC was hacked by interests linked to Russia.

rap30@aol.com
Twitter @rap30



These two articles are very disturbing to me. First, it went on, at least in Illinois, for almost a month before it was detected. I think something like a Failsafe program with a very sensitive trigger mechanism would help. At the first hint of tampering from any outside source, the database would shut down. Then in a few minutes it would be opened again automatically for a squad of White Hat Hackers to trace the source of the assault. It would be fun if another way to handle it were to pop off a virus to anyone using “the back door.” We could call that the Poison Ivy technique. Then the White Hats need to seek out and close/remove that “back door” which allowed the Russians in. Many websites simply ask for a password to get on the site at all, and if the correct one isn’t given within one try or 20 seconds, the user/abuser will be locked out.

Second, what particular types of villains would want to access and, especially, tamper with our voter registration data? Well, there are the typical crooks. That’s those who want our personal data so they can steal money from our bank or use our credit card to buy highly expensive things on our bill. Then there are the more exciting crooks like individuals or groups who want to capture the election for themselves, say Donald Trump, or the most frightening of all, THE RUSSIANS.

OOPS, that’s who the FBI thinks it was. Getting access to our power grids so that they can stop whole cities in their tracks is one thing, but close-up snooping on elections or actually modifying voting results is even worse in a democratic society. The Trumpites are highly suspicious of the Islamic persona, but I am highly suspicious of THE RUSSIANS due to the year of my birth 1945 and young years. There was quite an* hysterical view of Russia in those days. (For a fun look at life in the 1950s and 60s in the great movie "The Russians are coming, the Russians Are Coming," go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEWWRbn4zG0.)

It does not improve the way I feel about Trump that he has been so playfully cozy with Russian interests in the last few months, and Putin’s flirtation with him in return, makes the situation even worse. (I thought for a while recently that we were going to have an international sexual scandal.) My distrust of Russia is largely because I grew up in the 1950s during The Cold War, but it's also because of Putin's interference in Ukraine a couple of years ago. He has no scruples at all. Under Gorbachev I was actually becoming fond of Russians, but under Putin I’m not. He is not only treacherous; he is openly and audaciously aggressive. How could Trump think he can actually bargain with such a man and win? It’s like trying to pet a wild wolf. Trump has outsized ideas of just how good he actually is.


*https://www.grammarly.com/answers/questions/16479-a-or-an/

A or AN?
Should you use A or AN before the word HISTORIC?

Use of "an" or "a" before a word starting with "h" usually depends on whether the "h" is sounded or unsounded. We say "a house" but "an hour". The word "historic", and other three syllable words starting with "h" where the stress is on the middle syllable, doesn't quite fit this rule. Usage has differed over time and differs between countries and also dialects.
However, there is a group of words of three or more syllables with the stress on the second syllable, such as historic, historical, hypothesis, hysterical, habitual, harmonica and hereditary, where people tended to still use "an" rather than "a". The "h" is less well sounded in these words compared with certain other words starting with "h" where the stress is on the first syllable such as history, histogram, hypothetical, holiday and hemorrhoid, or on the only syllable such as hand, host and hymn. Thus "an historic" is still often used. The word "haphazard" is an interesting exception. Here, the stress is on the second syllable but we hardly ever see, for example, "an haphazard event" even though it fits into the same category of words as "historic" etc above. This is perhaps because the first syllable of "haphazard" is actually quite strong even though the stress is on the second syllable.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/border-patrol-officers-us-mexico-border-wall/

U.S. border officer: "Do you think a wall is gonna stop them?"
By INES NOVACIC CBS NEWS
August 30, 2016, 3:34 PM

IMAGE -- screen-shot-2016-07-26-at-3-36-47-pm.png. Agent Eisenhauer on patrol near Douglas, Arizona on the U.S.-Mexican border. CBS NEWS
IMAGE -- screen-shot-2016-07-26-at-3-36-34-pm.png, A fenced section of the U.S.-Mexican border at Nogales, Arizona. CBS NEWS
IMAGE -- screen-shot-2016-07-26-at-3-37-01-pm.png, Officer Agosttini says that illegal immigration happens every five to ten minutes. CBS NEWS
IMAGE -- screen-shot-2016-07-26-at-3-34-42-pm.png, Agent Eisenhauer on the outskirts of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector of the border. CBS NEWS
IMAGE -- screen-shot-2016-07-26-at-3-35-17-pm.png, Cars wait in line at the Nogales Port of Entry in Arizona. CBS NEWS
IMAGE -- screen-shot-2016-07-26-at-3-36-18-pm.png, Residents on the Mexican side of the border say that a higher wall will not prevent illegal immigration. CBS NEWS


The temperature dropped drastically as nightfall cloaked Arizona’s 100,000-square-mile desert, including sections on the border with Mexico, surrounding the small city of Douglas.

Matthew Eisenhauer, a border patrol agent with the Tucson sector, steered his white Chevy Tahoe off the highway onto a dirt road, parked, and stepped out into brush-covered terrain near the border.

“We had a sensor activation. Two individuals... made an incursion into the U.S.,” said Eisenhauer, setting out on foot without a flashlight, in the dark, to join fellow border patrol agents already stationed there in an effort to apprehend the suspects. According to Customs and Border Patrol -- America’s largest law enforcement agency, with an annual budget of $10.7 billion that has increased by 75 percent over the past decade -- more than 1,100 individuals are apprehended along the border every day.

As well as individual attempts to cross into the U.S. illegally, some are suspected of crimes including drug smuggling and human trafficking. Illegal immigration happens routinely, as do apprehensions along unfenced sections of the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to latest statistics, the Border Patrol reported 337,117 apprehensions nationwide in 2015, compared to 486,651 in 2014. The number of apprehensions has dropped dramatically since the year 2000, when a record high of 1.6 million people were caught trying to cross illegally.

In March 2016, the Border Patrol issued a “snapshot” of a given day; it said an average of 924 apprehensions between U.S. ports of entry occur daily, as well as 367 refusals of inadmissible persons.

A weakened U.S. economy after the 2008 recession, combined with tougher border security, has changed the landscape of illegal immigration. A recent Pew Research Center report found there are more immigrants from Mexico leaving the U.S. than coming in. From 2009 to 2014, one million Mexican immigrants and their families left the U.S. to return to Mexico, while an estimated 870,000 entered the U.S.

Of the 262-mile stretch of border that Eisenhauer oversees, 50 miles does not have a fence or wall.

“What we see is, to avoid detection, these criminal networks will try and exploit areas that are more remote... kind of a harsher terrain, with the idea that agents have less of a response time and less of response capabilities there and that there is less tactical infrastructure in those areas,” Eisenhauer told CBS News.

The idea of walling off America’s border with Mexico has become the focus of the immigration debate in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has for months argued that a wall would cut off the flow of illegal immigration into America. In controversial remarks last year, Trump referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and claimed that the Mexican government was actively sending criminals to the United States. He has insisted that as president he would make Mexico pay for the wall he wants to build along the border.

But some border patrol agents like Eisenhauer, who typically work in remote areas, see it differently. Eisenhauer told CBS News that a “great wall” is not really the solution.

“Border fortification means a lot of things in different areas,” said Eisenhauer. “In areas where we can’t have a physical structure, we use the environmental challenges to funnel traffic into certain areas to identify and apprehend [individuals] in a more effective manner.”

That could involve “using ground sensors, using infrared or camera technology, [or] having agents there,” he said.

Eisenhauer declined to comment on “policy or legislation,” but maintained that the solution to border security requires a combination of technology, infrastructure and agents.

Outside of the border city of Douglas, Arizona, cameras can be found along the border, spaced out from one to four miles apart. Officers stationed in the Tuscon headquarters of this 262-mile border sector monitor the activity. They also oversee the six ports of entry in that area.

“The law is very clear that you must report to a CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officer before you come to the United States,” said Joe Agosttini, the assistant port director in Nogales for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which daily processes about 29,000 people crossing between the two countries.

“You can see the officer, how detailed how he or she is when you come into the port of entry -- admissibility is number one,” said Agosttini, and gestured to an agent performing a vehicular check of an incoming white car: opening the trunk, inspecting the interior as well as underneath the car.

President Obama has said that the border has never been more secure. Customs and Border Protection operates at 328 ports throughout the nation, and since 2001, the number of border patrol agents has nearly doubled to more than 18,000 today.

Asked whether these measures have resulted in a drop in illegal immigration, Agosttini noted that someone still crosses the border illegally every five to ten minutes.

“Remember something, where there’s money, there’s gonna be customers, there’s always gonna be people trying,” he said. For some criminal networks on the south side of the Mexican border, both human trafficking and drug smuggling remain a lucrative businesses [sic].

For agents like Agosttini, the question of how high a wall is, is almost irrelevant.

“Do you think a wall is gonna stop them from coming in? The fact that you have a house, would that stop a burglar from coming in?” said Agosttini. “I used to live about 30 feet from the fence, OK? I’ve been seeing these things for 30 years.”

Later that afternoon, a short drive from the port of entry, dozens of people walked along the 26-foot-high fence on the Mexican side of the Nogales border. Some even shouted over to their friends who had crossed to the American side to shop or visit family.

“What are they going to do, build a wall... that not even a helicopter could fly over?” Jose Luis, a resident in Nogales, Mexico, told CBS News through the fence. Referring to Donald Trump, he added, “He’s crazy!”

“Those who have a need to get across, they’ll find a way.... Even if they have to use catapults to fling themselves over, they’ll find a way, you know?”



On one news shot during the last few years, three Mexicans were filmed climbing over the wall, and several times the camera crews have gone into tunnels of an apparently permanent nature, in some cases even with lighting built in, so I don’t believe the idea of keeping all would be immigrants out is feasible. Heck, there is open ocean access between CA and Mexico, and I’m sure there are people on both sides who own boats large enough to transport people for a fee. I’m sure Trump knows that his comments are impossible to achieve, just like the one of “deporting 11,000,000” people. How are you going to transport them all out? It’s just not practical, but if the German example were followed it would be, unfortunately, a more likely method. I believe and hope that we in America would rebel against that sort of thing if it became known. I do fear this Rightist fear/hatred of immigrants, either Hispanic or Islamic.

Of course, Hitler’s idea of getting rid of ALL Jews was to kill them all rather than deport them. As for what to do with all those corpses, he had that figured out, too. He incinerated them in many sites across Europe. If there was no crematorium nearby, he buried them in mass graves. I looked just now to find a more accurate number of Jewish deaths than the most commonly heard 3,000,000 and found a site claiming 6,000,000. That turned out to be a clearly anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial site called www.darkmoon.me. It’s disgusting. Don’t read it.

For what looks to me to be a more serious appraisal of the rampages of the Nazis, go to http://www.scottmanning.com/content/nazi-body-count/. Manning's body count estimate is 20,000,000, not 3 or 6 million. It should be remembered that the Nazis killed also anyone who was physically or mentally disabled, gypsies, anybody whose skin was brown to black, and anyone who had the guts to disagree with them. The same rude, crude and undereducated trend that is behind all of that cruelty is unfortunately present in this country to much too great a degree today. Heaven help us. PS: I highly recommend this scottmanning site if you like to learn and think.

It seems to me that nobody knows exactly how many Jews were killed in WWII, but the idea that it could happen here; and that however many deaths there were, there were definitely TOO MANY, remains in the forefront of my thinking about those who follow Trump, if not himself. His megalomania is obvious, and that is the key personality characteristic to produce a new Hitler. The idea that killing people because they are deemed culturally or racially “different” or “impure” or “degenerate,” is a prime sign of the “degenerate” thinking of those who hold such an opinion.


See more about scottmanning below.

http://www.scottmanning.com/content/nazi-body-count/

HISTORIAN ON THE WARPATH
Nazi Body Count: 20,946,000 Non-Battle Deaths
by SCOTT MANNING on APRIL 1, 2009

The Nazi Body Count represents non-battle deaths caused by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. This includes genocide, execution of civilians and POWs, forced labor that resulted in deaths, bombing of civilian populations, imposed famine and resulting diseases, and “euthanasia.” These numbers do not include civilians who got caught in the cross-fire of battle.

The numbers are mid-estimates. The source for the numbers, R. J. Rummel’s Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder, uses of a method of accumulating all available estimates typically from government sources or scholarly examinations. The estimates are sorted by lows, mids, and highs. Averages are determined from the estimates to arrive at a low-estimate (the minimum), a mid-estimate (the more probable), and a high-estimate (the least likely).1

The Nazi body counts are grouped by country and sorted from highest to lowest. Also, an occupation death rate is provided for the countries that Nazi Germany actually occupied. This number was determined by dividing the 1939 population estimate by the body count to give the percentage that a citizen of that country was likely to be killed during that time period. An appendix at the end lists the sources for the population estimates.

Subsequent articles will examine each country in detail: Their relationship with Nazi Germany and more information on the numbers.



Go to this website to see the whole article which includes figures from 27 countries, including the USSR and the United States. This is without a doubt one of the best and most informative articles I’ve read in a long while. The US deaths he mentions are due to prisoner of war status, a total of 2,038.

For Manning’s bio, go to http://www.scottmanning.com/about/. “While software pays the bills, his real passion is history, specifically war. He currently holds a bachelor’s in military history from American Military University and he is working on a master’s in ancient and classical history.” His achievements outpace his educational attainment, however. He has published numerous published book reviews, gives speeches, and has two articles on famous battles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, in January and April, 2015, and that, to me, is impressive. To contact him, go to scottmanning13@gmail.com or Facebook.

About Scott Manning

Photograph -- Marathon, Greece. September 2014.

“. . . . Scott Manning is an analyst for a large software company outside Philadelphia. While software pays the bills, his real passion is history, specifically war. He currently holds a bachelor’s in military history from American Military University and he is working on a master’s in ancient and classical history.

When he is not studying or working, you can find Scott speaking at conferences, leading battlefields tours, or traveling the world. His journeys outside the US include Guatemala, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, China, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Austria, Mexico, and Scotland.

You can find him active on Twitter and Facebook.

Education

American Military University, M.A. 2016 (projected), Ancient and Classical History.

American Military University, B.A. 2013, Military History, Magna Cum Laude.”

August 28, 2016


News and Views


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/27/491615045/italy-in-mourning-funerals-underway-for-earthquake-victims

Italy In Mourning: Funerals Underway For Earthquake Victims
MERRIT KENNEDY
August 27, 201611:01 AM ET

Photograph -- Relatives mourn over a coffin of one of the earthquake victims prior to the start of the funeral service on Saturday in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. Gregorio Borgia/AP
THE TWO-WAY -- Rescue Crews Race To Find Survivors In Rubble Of Quake-Hit Italian Towns
Photograph -- Aerial view of the village of Saletta in central Italy on Friday where a strong quake hit early Wednesday. AP
Photograph -- A woman touches a coffin of one of the victims of Wednesday's earthquake inside a gymnasium in Ascoli Piceno. Gregorio Borgia/AP
Related: Despite Lessons From 2009 Quake, Buildings In Italy Remain Vulnerable
Photograph -- Mourners gather under an olive tree during the state funeral in Ascoli Piceno. Eleanor Beardsley
THE SALT -- Food World Rallies For Quake-Hit Amatrice, Home Of Famous Pasta Dish


Italy has started to bury its dead following a devastating earthquake on Wednesday that killed at least 290 people and left whole towns in ruins. The country has declared Saturday a national day of mourning for the quake's victims.

Reporting from a state funeral in the town of Ascoli Piceno, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley described a community overcome with grief. She said the service was held in a gymnasium, where 35 caskets were laid out. "People cried and held each other," Eleanor said.

Among those in attendance were Italy's President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The earthquake struck Wednesday in the Apennine Mountains, an area that is a popular with tourists. And as we reported, the aftershocks have continued ever since, even as hopes fade that rescue crews will be able to find survivors of the powerful temblor.

As Eleanor reported, this is what the bishop said during the service:

"He told people not to be afraid to cry out their suffering. At the same time, he told them not to lose courage. He said that only together can we rebuild our houses and our churches and restore life to our communities. And then the bishop, he talked about the earthquake a lot. The terremoto. ... He talked about nature. He said nature is wise, and we must commune with nature and not provoke it relentlessly."

Prior to the funeral, Mattarella visited the town of Amatrice, which "bore the brunt of destruction with 230 fatalities," as The Associated Press reported. Reporter Christopher Livesay told our Newscast unit that in Amatrice, a festival had been planned for today:

"It was supposed to be the day that the town of Amatrice was going to hold the 50th annual festival of its famous pasta dish, bucatini all' Amatriciana. Amatrice was at the epicenter of the earthquake. Chefs around the world are putting the dish on their menus and donating the proceeds to the victims of the quake."

As Livesay explained, festivals this this [sic] one are a major tourism draw, and area towns in the area "easily double or quadruple" during the summer months. Many foreigners are among the dead, he reported.

At the state funeral in Ascoli Piceno, mourners overflowed from the packed gymnasium to a nearby church, while some sat under the shade of an olive tree and watched the service on screens, as Eleanor reported.

Mourner Raphaela Baiocchi told Eleanor that "we are participating, all our pain for our population. And it's not the first time for our people." She added: "Italy is a very beautiful and dangerous place. And so we are here to share the pain today, then we will speak about other things."

Things like justice, she told Eleanor. "There's a growing anger about the construction of some of the buildings that collapsed," Eleanor says. Here's more:

"Granted, many are medieval but there are earthquake codes that need to be followed. For example, one bell tower rebuilt ten years ago collapsed and killed a family. And the Italian prosecutor in charge of the quake investigation said what happened can't simply be chalked up to nature. He said if buildings had been built like they are in Japan, they would not have collapsed."



When the civilization in an area is really old, the buildings are usually fragile. As the Italian prosecutor mentioned above said, they really need to set aside funds for this problem. How to retrofit a Medieval village without ruining the way it looks, I don’t know, but some engineers do. His suggestion that the Italian government should study the methods that Japan is using is a good one. These villagers are in my thoughts.



WAGES AND RACIAL EQUALITY SISTER ISSUES – TWO ARTICLES

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/minimum-wage-convention-richmond-226972

$15 minimum wage movement to vote on organizing mass fast-food worker strike
The Fight for $15 group is holding its first-ever convention this weekend, where it aims to plot a course forward for its advocacy.
By Donovan Harrell
08/13/16 07:49 AM EDT

Photograph -- Sen. Bernie Sanders leaves after speaking as protesters gather at a 'Fight for $15' rally, on Capitol Hill, Apr. 22, 2015. | Getty
Related: Letitia James. Public advocate introduces bill to ban employers from asking about prior salaries, By LAURA NAHMIAS
Related: Dozens camping out in West Village in hopes of securing construction apprenticeships
By EMILY JULIA ROCHE


The “Fight for $15” minimum wage movement will hold its first-ever convention Saturday, where roughly 3,000 who will vote on a resolution calling for mass strikes among fast-food workers nationwide.

Thousands of members of the movement head to Richmond, Va. this weekend, and among the items on the agenda is a resolution that would call on the organization to organize the fast-food strikes and a string of accompanying homecare and childcare worker protests.

In the past, protests at presidential primary debates drew thousands of supporters of the movement. At its convention this weekend, the group will discuss how to continue its advocacy through the November election.

The organization’s last major strike was April 14, and thousands across more than 320 U.S. cities walked out on their jobs. Supporters in more than 40 countries, including Brazil, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and Nigeria also stood in solidarity with the group.

The convention, and potential attempt to organize the mass protest, come as the movement works to build off its success in the Democratic primary. While the group has not officially endorsed any political candidates, as thousands of members of the Fight for $15 began striking and organizing for $15 minimum wages four years ago, it captured the attention of Bernie Sanders, who successfully fought to get the resolution added to the Democratic party’s official platform.

And lawmakers in several states have moved toward its recommendations. As of the start of this year, 29 states have passed laws to increase hourly wages above the federal minimum of $7.29. And cities including New York and Washington D.C. plan to incrementally raise minimum wages to $15 over the next few years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Fight for $15 has a strong ally: Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, who’s supported the group since its first strike in New York on November 29, 2012. With more than 2 million members in the SEIU, Henry said she’s proud that the attendees of the convention will include members from industries beyond fast food, including nail salon, grocery store, cell phone company workers and truck drivers.

Construction workers smooth wet concrete into place at the site of a new apartment building.

“The thing that's most impressive to me … is the absolute courage and fearlessness that people have of taking very dramatic actions on their own behalf and that action has resulted in 20 million people getting wage increases, either through collective bargaining or minimum wage initiatives or state legislatures and city councils,” Henry said. “And we can make that possible through collective action.”

Fight for $15 also has support from leading figures in the civil rights movement.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) also joined Atlanta fast-food workers on a strike line in August 2013. The next year, the NAACP formally passed a resolution to support for the Fight for $15.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, will be a keynote speaker for the convention and lead a march, which organizers expect more than 10,000 participants — both members and allies — will join.

And it’s no coincidence that Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, was chosen for the convention, according to Terrence Wise, a 3-year member and organizer for Fight for $15. It stands as a symbolic location that is deeply rooted racial and economic issues pervasive throughout the U.S. since it was once the former capital of the Confederacy, he added.

Wise said The Fight for $15 Movement is about more than just about improving stagnant wages and unionization, it’s for racial equality — two issues that intersect because of the economic disparities faced by people of color in the U.S. This convention has been “a long time coming” for Wise since the group's inception four years ago.

“People don’t understand the Civil Rights Movement isn’t just for civil rights, it’s for economic equality as well,” Wise said. “So we’re just carrying on the tradition of the Civil Rights Movement, the poor people’s campaign, the abolitionist movement. We’re carrying that torch today as well. So we're fighting for racial and economic equality. You can’t have one without the other. I don’t want to have $15 and still have to walk down the street and have a high percentage of being harassed by the police, so you’ve got to have racial and economic equality as well.”

Not everyone, however, is so excited about the movement’s goals. Among economists, there is a fierce internal debate about whether the minimum wage limits the total number of available jobs, either by making it more costly for employers to hire new workers or because they become more likely to replace workers by way of automation. Other economists, however, contend that a raise in the minimum wage produces no discernible cut in the availability of jobs, but does boost employee morale and productivity — and each side of the argument has produced volumes of research in support of their position.

Kelly Klass, media manager for the National Federation of Independent Business, said supporters of a wage hike aren’t taking small business owners into account. Klass said a government-mandated wage increase would put many of NFIB’s member in a bind, as many members have 20 or less employees. “Most of our members already pay more than the minimum wage,” Klass said. “If our members can pay more, they actually will. It’s not that they don’t want to pay their employees, they can’t. If they can pay their employees more then they will. They do.”

Wise, who works at both Burger King and McDonalds to support his three daughters, sees it differently. An average work day is more than 16 hours for him and when he comes home, his children are already in bed. It’s about more than money, he argued. A wage increase would allow him to spend more time with his family and provide them with the “simple” pleasures of visiting the zoo, buying new bikes and new shoes for the school year. Not providing them with these things reminds him of his own upbringing.

“Now my past is looking like my kid’s future,” Wise said. “That’s not good.”


FIGHTFOR15.ORG, Rev. William Barber

http://fightfor15.org/watch-rev-dr-william-barber-ii-sermon-fightfor15-convention/

This is a really great speech. Go to the website above and listen to it.



http://fightfor15.org/about-us/

About Us

The Fight for $15 started with just a few hundred fast food workers in New York City, striking for $15 an hour and union rights.

Today, we’re an international movement in over 300 cities on six continents of fast-food workers, home health aides, child care teachers, airport workers, adjunct professors, retail employees – and underpaid workers everywhere.

For too long, McDonald’s and low-wage employers have made billions of dollars in profit and pushed off costs onto taxpayers, while leaving people like us – the people who do the real work – to struggle to survive.

That’s why we strike.

We can’t feed our families, pay our bills or even keep a roof over our heads on minimum wage pay.

When we first took the streets, the skeptics called us dreamers – said a $15 wage was “unwinnable.”

We didn’t listen.

We won $15 an hour across New York State and California.

We won $15 in Seattle, and huge raises in cities from Portland to Chicago.

We won $15 for Pennsylvania nursing home workers and all hospital employees at UPMC – Pennsylvania’s largest private employer.

And we won’t stop fighting until we turn every McJob into a REAL job.

That’s the #FightFor15.

Stand with us by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

Read our top press clips here.

Media contact: press@fightfor15.org



When I was young in the 1950s there were unions in many jobs. By the 1980s the Reaganites had overtaken the liberal politicians by the well-known dog whistle technique, and laws favoring the business owner over the workers were being put into place again. That has caused a long dry spell, so to speak, of wage increases, with the result that the poor were becoming destitute. This union centered push for a meaningful national minimum wage is long overdue.

I notice Sanders’ photo from 2015 shows his activity on the issue, for which I’m grateful. We need politicians who FIGHT for right rather than merely sitting back with their wealthy friends doing very little. I want to see a legislature that makes a difference in the inevitable rise of greed and worse until people object loudly again. Speaking of objecting loudly, listen to the speech by Rev. Barber at the Fightfor15 website above. It’ll give you that good old fashioned enthusiasm that Democrats used to have when I was young.

Rep. John Lewis joined workers on the line in 2013 and in 2014 the NAACP officially spoke in support of Fightfor15. Lewis and Rep. Alan Grayson and some others joined a sit in strike that lasted several days in the Capitol a few months ago, so Democrats aren’t all fat, lazy and much too comfortable now. Bernie Sanders is part of that change. He’s capable of getting up a really good rant over important issues, and the people heard him “loud and clear.”

Just to let the public know, I did go down for early voting a couple of days ago and changed my voter registration from Democrat to Independent. I will vote in November for Hillary, because letting Trump win without a fight is totally unthinkable, but the Dems will not have my uncontested approval any more. They’re going to have to EARN IT. I hope others will do the same. And to make it official, I’m going to copy off this blog into an Email and send it to the DNC. It’s not enough to do it. We have to let them KNOW we have done it. 5:05 PM, I did just now send this to the DNC.


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/27/491636683/49ers-quarterback-sits-out-national-anthem-to-protest-oppression-of-minorities

49ers Quarterback Sits Out National Anthem To Protest Oppression Of Minorities
MERRIT KENNEDY
August 27, 2016 2:06 PM ET

Photograph -- Quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers throws a pass against the Green Bay Packers in the first half of their preseason football game on Friday in Santa Clara, California. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images


As players rose to stand for the national anthem at the 49ers-Packers game on Friday night, 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick pointedly remained seated.

His gesture was to protest the treatment of African Americans and minorities in the United States, as he told NFL.com after the game. Kaepernick has remained sitting during the anthem "in at least one other preseason game," according to the site.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick said, according to NFL.com. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

He told NFL.com that he did not notify the team in advance. "I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. ... If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right," Kaepernick said. NFL.com reports that Kaepernick recently "decided to be more active and involved in rights for black people."

In a statement carried by NFL.com, the 49ers said they recognize his right to remain seated:

"The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem."

On his Twitter page, Kaepernick has recently focused on Black Lives Matter, police violence and civil rights issues.

Kaepernick's protest has drawn comparisons to a similar gesture 20 years ago from Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, which generated a major controversy. He was suspended for one game and ultimately agreed to stand with his head bowed in prayer, as SB Nation reported.

The gesture has also ignited debate and is currently trending on Twitter. It has sharply divided fellow NFL players.

For example, Miami Dolphins running back Arian Foster wrote, "the flag represents freedom. the freedom to choose to stand or not. that's what makes this country beautiful." Later, he wrote, "protest is imperative for change. it invokes the conversation."

Follow
Feeno ✔ @ArianFoster
the flag represents freedom. the freedom to choose to stand or not. that's what makes this country beautiful. ... http://tmi.me/1ffvx0
12:34 PM - 27 Aug 2016
151 151 Retweets 234 234 likes

Taking a different view, former Denver Broncos offensive tackle Tyler Polombus wrote, "Activists changed USA for better but have to associate Nat Anthem w/ military that die for ur right to protest. Stand up. Find another way."

Follow
Tyler Polumbus ✔ @Tyler_Polumbus
Activists changed USA for better but have to associate Nat Anthem w/ military that die for ur right to protest. Stand up. Find another way
12:15 PM - 27 Aug 2016 · Castle Rock, CO, United States
119 119 Retweets 313 313 likes

Here's more discussion about Kaepernick's protest:

Follow
mike freeman ✔ @mikefreemanNFL
Texts coming in from coaches, players, front office execs from around league on Kap. So far every player backs him. No coach/exec does.
10:34 AM - 27 Aug 2016
3,437 3,437 Retweets 2,885 2,885 likes

Follow
AUBREY HUFF ✔ @aubrey_huff
Wow the amount of people who agree with sitting during the national anthem is truly disturbing! we wonder why our country is in the toilet?!
11:28 AM - 27 Aug 2016
648 648 Retweets 1,809 1,809 likes

Follow
Mitch Harris ✔ @Mitch_Harris2
Bad decision by @Kaepernick7 but bc of the men/women who died for that flag, he has the liberty to disrespect them #betterwaystogetattention
11:28 AM - 27 Aug 2016
240 240 Retweets 470 470 likes

Follow
Tiki Barber ✔ @TikiBarber
Kaep is using his platform & brand to make a compelling & polarizing point, which is his right, even if it's met with ire!#idontagree
10:38 AM - 27 Aug 2016
185 185 Retweets 572 572 likes

Follow
Adrian Clayborn ✔ @AJaClay
The easy thing to do is to make fun of Kap and his play. How about trying to understand where he's coming from....but that would be too hard
11:12 AM - 27 Aug 2016



This poor man is being treated like a TRAITOR over a matter of rights and serious societal issues. His main problem is that FOOTBALL is not the home of much cultural concern. I notice, however, that the 49ers organization spoke up for his right to do what he is doing. I just went to his Facebook page and put in the only positive comment, at least on that front page, over his action, without insulting anyone, I hasten to add, but I’m sure I’ll have 500 Facebook hits when I get back to look at it, including probably some death threats. I didn’t want to leave it alone, however, because the man is being viciously assaulted on the Net; and his peaceful, simple and intelligent protest of a serious issue is a breath of fresh air to me. We need more positive support for BLM and others. Of course, the BLM need to be sure that they don’t do any harm in their protests, as they have a couple of times when someone who ISN’T BLACK joins their group. That attitude, not only, “won’t win friends and influence people,” it also is working against their very goals. My, oh my, we have a complicated society.


ABOUT DRINKING AND THINKING

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/2-united-airlines-pilots-arrested-for-suspected-drunkenness-glasgow-airport/

2 United pilots arrested for suspected drunkenness
CBS/AP
August 28, 2016, 9:44 AM

Photograph -- United Airlines jets sit at gates at O’Hare International Airport on September 19, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. SCOTT OLSON, GETTY IMAGES


LONDON – Two United Airlines pilots have been arrested for suspected intoxication before they were to fly 141 passengers from Scotland to the United States, police and airline officials said.

United Airlines officials have confirmed Saturday’s arrest of the pilots, aged 45 and 35, at Glasgow Airport. The Police Service of Scotland says both men are expected to be arraigned Monday at a court in Paisley, a Glasgow suburb, to face charges connected to Britain’s transport safety laws.

United said Saturday’s Flight 162 from Glasgow to the U.S. city of Newark, New Jersey, was delayed for 10 hours while the airline sought replacement pilots. Spokeswoman Erin Benson declined to say if the pilots had boarded the aircraft or if it had left the gates, reports CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave. She also wouldn’t comment on how the pilots were discovered to have been drunk.

Saturday’s arrests come barely a month after two Canadian pilots of an Air Transat plane were arrested at Glasgow Airport and charged with trying to fly while intoxicated.

There have been other recent incidents as well:

--A co-pilot on a charter plane in northern Michigan was arrested Aug. 26 after the plane’s captain suspected that he was drunk.

Traverse City police Capt. Kevin Dunklow said a breath test Thursday showed co-pilot Sean Michael Fitzgerald, 35, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.30, nearly four times the legal threshold for driving.

Captain Manny Ramirez alerted the police about his colleague’s condition, CBS Cadillac affiliate WWTV reports.

“He had the strong odor of intoxicants emanating from his person,” Dunklow told the station. “He had slurred speech, bloodshot watery eyes.”

Fitzgerald flew for Farmingdale, New York-based Talon Air, which said in a statement to WWTV that the co-pilot was “immediately terminated.” The plane didn’t leave Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City.

“This is yet another example of Talon Air’s safety procedures working effectively on behalf of our clients and for airport safety,” the company said, in addition to it being “very proud” of Ramirez.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports Fitzgerald, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, was arraigned Friday on a misdemeanor charge.

-- On Aug. 24, an American Airlines co-pilot who was grounded at a Detroit-area airport because of excessive alcohol pleaded no contest.

Defense attorney Frank J. Manley says John Maguire was placed on probation during an appearance in court in Romulus, Michigan. He was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol.

Maguire, from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, was removed from a Detroit-to-Philadelphia flight before takeoff on March 26. Authorities say his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

Manley says Maguire “accepts responsibility” for what happened and hopes to fly again.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office says he will be on probation for 12 months. Maguire also has to complete alcohol assessment and treatment, and perform 48 hours of community service.

--In April, a JetBlue pilot was charged with flying under the influence of alcohol.

A federal complaint said that Dennis Murphy Jr. was selected for a random alcohol test last year after piloting a flight from Orlando, Florida, to New York on April 21, 2015.

Murphy, who had only been hired in January of that year, was behind the controls of Flight 583 with 119 passengers to Orlando. Later that day, he flew flight 584 with 151 passengers back to New York City.

Upon landing at JFK he was selected for random alcohol testing where he registered a blood-alcohol level of .111, which is above the legal limit for a person driving an automobile. When tested again 15 minutes later, he blew a .091.

He apparently told the person administering the test that the results must be due to the gum he was chewing, Van Cleave reports.

JetBlue said it has a “zero tolerance” drug and alcohol policy and that Murphy no longer works there.

--In January, federal authorities arrested a former Alaska Airlines captain on federal charges of piloting a plane while intoxicated.

According to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday, David Hans Arntson, 60, was the pilot of two Alaska Airlines flights on in June 2014, in which he was under the influence. The first flight was from San Diego International Airport to Portland, Oregon. He then flew a plane from Portland, Oregon, to John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

Arntson was selected for random drug and alcohol testing by Alaska Airlines at at John Wayne Airport after landing. He had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.134 percent and 0.142 percent, according to the DOJ. After Alaska Airlines received the test results it removed Arntson from all safety-sensitive duties.

Arntson’s co-pilot on the two flights remembered seeing the drug tester when the plane landed at John Wayne Airport, according to the complaint.

The co-pilot also recalled Arntson saying “I bet it’s for me.”

Following the incident, Arntson retired from Alaska Airlines.



This isn’t the first I’ve heard of pilots being drunk or high while in that very important seat. The good news is that there is always another pilot in the cockpit at the time in the big airlines. Those privately owned small planes are another matter. I had a roommate years ago who was an airline stewardess, and she said they fairly often are drinking. Part of the problem is that they have layovers between flights, and then to kill time, they go to the lounge if the Airport has one.

The comments above about what disciplinary treatment they receive didn’t seem impressive to me, just like the "discipline" that police officers get when they shoot somebody for little or no reason. The co-pilot who was 4 times the legal limit and turned in to the police by his captain, only got charged with a misdemeanor. Every day there are road, boat and probably airline accidents which could be related to drinking. Small planes end up in places like the middle of a highway fairly often. Drinking is one of those “old boy network” issues in the sense that drinking in such situations is usually done by a man, and therefore not as “serious” as it would be if it were a woman. In fact, overall, drinking is a prevalent American problem, and we need to legally penalize it, if it causes accidents. It’s just too dangerous for that not to be the case.


MAN’S DEADLIEST ENEMY – THE VIRUS

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/baby-born-with-zika-virus-is-medical-mystery/

Baby born with Zika virus is medical mystery
By DAVID BEGNAUD CBS NEWS
August 26, 2016, 6:48 PM

Photograph -- begnaud-zika-0826.png, Baby Micaela was born with Zika, but showed no signs of the virus before she was born. CBS NEWS
Play VIDEO -- Baby dies from Zika virus in Texas


MIAMI -- Eight-week-old Micaela was exposed to the Zika virus in the womb, but does not have microcephaly, the birth defect marked by an abnormally small head and brain.

“She looks normal to me, but the doctors say she’s not,” said her mother, Maria Fernanda Ramirez Bolivar.

Ramirez Bolivar contracted the Zika virus in her native Venezuela when she was three months pregnant. Micaela has slight damage to one eye and stiffness on one side of her body.

It took a team of doctors at the University of Miami several weeks to rule out other causes.

Dr. Ivan Gonzalez is part of a her [sic] medical team, and said ultrasounds Ramirez Bolivar had in Venezuela and Miami all looked normal.

Gonzalez said scans of Micaela’s brain show calcification, which is like a scar, and could lead to seizures down the road. Her prognosis is uncertain.

“The plan right now is to follow her for five to six years,” Gonzalez told CBS News.

There is also more evidence that the effects of Zika are not limited to babies.

In Puerto Rico, where Zika is an epidemic, the CDC reported an increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. That’s a neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness and numbness.

This year, 34 patients with the syndrome also had evidence of Zika or a similar virus infection. One person has died.

The CDC has set up a registry to follow pregnant women in the U.S. who’ve been infected with Zika. There are over 584 so far, and 16 babies have been born in the U.S. with Zika-related birth defects.



“Dr. Ivan Gonzalez is part of a her [sic] medical team, and said ultrasounds Ramirez Bolivar had in Venezuela and Miami all looked normal. Gonzalez said scans of Micaela’s brain show calcification, which is like a scar, and could lead to seizures down the road. Her prognosis is uncertain. …. There is also more evidence that the effects of Zika are not limited to babies. In Puerto Rico, where Zika is an epidemic, the CDC reported an increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. That’s a neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness and numbness.”


I’m only glad that the professionals have isolated a clear and dependable cause of these conditions. Remember “the gay disease”? This series of cases do have some similarity to AIDS, however, because we are just discovering the various ways that it can show up and be spread. I can only hope and pray that an effective vaccine will emerge soon. At this point, we are clearly “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

For another viral mosquito borne illness, see below.



http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/28/491471697/yellow-fever-timeline-the-history-of-a-long-misunderstood-disease

HEALTH
Yellow Fever Timeline: The History Of A Long Misunderstood Disease
SUSAN BRINK
August 28, 2016 7:00 AM ET

Drawing -- This illustration depicts a yellow fever victim in a Jefferson Street home in Memphis. It's from a series of images entitled "The Great Yellow Fever Scourge — Incidents Of Its Horrors In The Most Fatal District Of The Southern States." Bettmann Archive
Photograph -- Health workers during the first day of the yellow fever vaccination campaign in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on August 17. Eduardo Soteras Jalil/World Health Organization
Photograph -- Health workers during the first day of the yellow fever vaccination campaign in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on August 17. Eduardo Soteras Jalil/World Health Organization


No one knows for sure, but scientists believe that yellow fever has plagued the world for at least 3,000 years. in all likelihood, the disease started in the rain forests of Africa. It rode barges and sailing ships to tropical ports around the world, followed the slave trade to the Americas, interrupted the building of the Panama Canal and left a trail of graves around the world.

The fearsome disease starts like a common flu with symptoms of headache, fever, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. But roughly 15 percent of patients progress to a severe form of the disease: high fever, jaundice, internal bleeding, seizures, shock, organ failure and death. Up to half of those who develop severe disease will die.

In 2016 the mosquito-borne disease is making headlines once more. An outbreak in Angola has spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 3,867 suspected cases in Angola and 2,269 suspected cases in DRC, according to the World Health Organization, since December 2015. And there's a shortage of the yellow fever vaccine: Only four manufacturers make the vaccine using a time-consuming, labor-intensive production process that cannot keep up with the current need. It's the latest chapter in yellow fever's long and storied history.

Probably Around 1,000 B.C.

The virus almost certainly originated in Africa, passing back and forth between the Aedes aegypti mosquito and monkeys. "Almost without a doubt, for thousands of years the virus circulated in monkeys and mosquitoes in the rain forests of Africa," says Dr. Duane Gubler, founding director of the Signature Research Program in Emerging Infectious Disease at Duke University-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School. "It probably infected people as well but not in large populations because people lived in small villages."

Over thousands of years, the mosquitoes carrying the virus adapted to village life, then city life. They got used to feeding off human beings and made their way to larger cities and coastal towns.

The 1600s

As the shipping industry and global commerce expanded, mosquitoes could hitch rides on barges and sailing vessels to port cities in the tropical world. The slave trade also took off. "Ships had to carry kegs of water. And there were large numbers of African slaves in the hold," says Gubler. Mosquito larva could thrive in the water kegs. And some of the slaves, infected with yellow fever, were bitten by mosquitoes, which then bit uninfected people, spreading the disease. "That's how both the mosquito and the virus got introduced to the Americas," he says.

The first recorded epidemic of yellow fever was in the Yucatan Peninsula in 1648, probably part of a larger epidemic involving a number of Caribbean Islands. Between 1668 and 1699, outbreaks were reported in New York, Boston and Charleston. Northern areas of the U.S. saw summer outbreaks. "The epidemics died out in winter because the tropical mosquito doesn't survive," says Gubler. "But the mosquito moved north with ships taking goods up river. Every year, the mosquito distribution would expand in the spring, then contract in the winter." Doctors didn't suspect a mosquito link and assumed that yellow fever spread through human-to-human contact.

The 1700s

Eventually yellow fever made its way to Europe. In 1730, 2,200 deaths were reported in Cadiz, Spain, followed by outbreaks in French and British seaports. "It spread as far north as Glasgow," Gubler says. But there wasn't as much of a slave trade in Europe, and outbreaks were less frequent than in the Americas. The disease might have arrived in Europe by way of America, not Africa. "The ships from Europe would load up with goods, go to Africa, load up with slaves, go to America, then load up with sugar or sorghum, and take that back to Europe," he says. "There was a triangular route that these ships followed and the virus and the mosquitoes could have been introduced from the Americas rather than Africa." Because there wasn't as much of a slave trade in Europe, outbreaks were less frequent than in the Americas.

"It was the scourge of much of the tropics, and it prevented economic development," says Gubler.

The 1800s

Throughout this century public health experts continued to believe yellow fever was transmitted by contact with infected patients. With that misconception, most efforts to control outbreaks were futile. But in 1881 a Cuban physician, Carlos Finlay, acting on a theory that mosquitoes carried the virus, conducted an experiment with mosquitoes that harbored the disease after biting yellow fever patients. He let the mosquitoes bite an experimental subject, who then came down with yellow fever. Still, much of the scientific community remained unconvinced.

Meanwhile, thousands of people were dying every year in New Orleans — a major port for the slave trade and a city with a climate hospitable to the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Between 1839 and 1860, some 26,000 people in New Orleans contracted yellow fever.

By the end of the 19th century, during the brief Spanish-American War, fewer than 1,000 soldiers died in battle, but more than 5,000 died of disease in Cuba, and most of those deaths were due to yellow fever, according to records of the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission.

The 1900s

The Yellow Fever Commission was formed by the U.S. military in response to the war-time deaths. Its mission was to study the cause and spread of the yellow fever. Led by Major Walter Reed, working in Cuba, the commission confirmed in 1900 what Dr. Finlay suspected: Yellow fever was transmitted by mosquito bites. To prove it, 30 men, including Spanish immigrants, soldiers and two civilians, volunteered to be deliberately infected with mosquito bites. The commission started mosquito control programs in Cuba using improved sanitation, fumigation with insecticides and reduction in standing water areas where mosquitoes breed. The number of yellow fever cases dropped dramatically.

Those successful efforts in Cuba came just in time to save the Panama Canal building project. had been hospitalized with either malaria or yellow fever. By 1906, roughly 85 percent of canal workers had been hospitalized with either malaria or yellow fever. Workers were so terrified of yellow fever that they fled the construction site in droves at the first hint of the disease. Tens of thousands of workers died.

Dr. William Gorgas, who had worked on mosquito eradication in Cuba, convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to grant funding on an eradication effort in Panama. In the summer of 1905, Gorgas, along with 4,000 workers in what he called his "mosquito brigade," spent a year working to stop mosquitoes from laying their eggs. They fumigated private homes with insecticides and sprayed areas of standing water with oil to interrupt mosquito breeding. The efforts cut the number of yellow fever cases in half by September, and in October there were only seven new cases. Finally, on November 11 1906, the last victim of yellow fever on the Panama Canal died. The yellow fever epidemic was over.

After World War II, the world had DDT in its arsenal of mosquito control measures, and mosquito eradication became the primary method of controlling yellow fever.

Then, in the 1940s, the yellow fever vaccine was developed. "It is one of the cheapest, most effective vaccines in the world," says Gubler. The vaccine provides lifetime immunity for 99 percent of people immunized, and by the late 1980s, the World Health Organization made a push to increase vaccine coverage. A few African countries have begun routine childhood immunization against yellow fever, and carried out catch-up campaigns to immunize adults, but vaccine producers have not kept up with the demand, according to WHO.

In the past 30 years, there have been limited outbreaks in Kenya, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Senegal in Africa; and in the Americas in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil.

The 2000s

The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 170,000 people had yellow fever in 2013, and 60,000 people died.

And now, the world faces a worrisome outbreak in densely-populated cities of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And there's so little vaccine left that WHO is doing something unprecedented: Stretching the vaccine supply by giving people smaller doses, which will provide immunity for a year rather than lifetime immunity of the full dose.

WHO has already vaccinated more than 16 million people and plans to vaccinate another 13 million.

There's growing concern the virus could spread to Asia, where it has been conspicuously absent.

With millions of people getting on ships and jets, the modern transportation system is even more efficient than the slave ships of 400 years ago at transporting both mosquitoes and virus-infected humans. "Global trends have created the ideal situation for the spread of epidemics," says Gubler.



“No one knows for sure, but scientists believe that yellow fever has plagued the world for at least 3,000 years. in all likelihood, the disease started in the rain forests of Africa. It rode barges and sailing ships to tropical ports around the world, followed the slave trade to the Americas, interrupted the building of the Panama Canal and left a trail of graves around the world.” I only clipped this paragraph because it’s such a very good piece of dramatic writing. It reminds me of the excellent book I read this year called “Rabid,” which scours historical, literary and artistic sources for indicators of rabies. It is veeerrry fascinating.

Bacteria, amoeba, and parasites all do terrible damage, but the viruses as a class seem to have the most damaging and shocking symptoms. I read a biography about Walter Reed in the 4th grade or so and became a great admirer of scientists because of what they do to help society, and how they think about things in order to pinpoint cause and effect, which isn't as easy as people usually think. Diseases like yellow fever caused life for people like my grandparents to be even harder than it would have been as “poor farmers.” Rural life was hard in those days, and often meant having to ration food use. To have a large number of serious illnesses ravage their families made it even worse.

We have it so easy today, comparatively, that it is making us unthinking, greedy, lazy and some other equally damaging things. I’m afraid that 1) global warming may bring society to its knees, 2) we will be unaware of how to take care of our needs in a society without city life and the Internet, etc., much less 3) being emotionally willing to do what it takes to make it. I think some of us who have SEEN country life of the 1950s may have an advantage. Okay. That’s the end of the sermonette for the day.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed

Walter Reed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Major Walter Reed, M.D., U.S. Army, (September 13, 1851 – November 22, 1902) was a U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that postulated and confirmed the theory that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species, rather than by direct contact. This insight gave impetus to the new fields of epidemiology and biomedicine, and most immediately allowed the resumption and completion of work on the Panama Canal (1904–1914) by the United States. Reed followed work started by Carlos Finlay and directed by George Miller Sternberg ("first U.S. bacteriologist").

Legacy[edit]

~ Dr. Walter Reed ~
Issue of 1940

Reed's breakthrough in yellow fever research is widely considered a milestone in biomedicine, opening new vistas of research and humanitarianism. It was largely an extension of Carlos J. Finlay's work, carried out during the 1870s in Cuba, which finally came to prominence in 1900. Finlay was the first to theorize, in 1881, that a mosquito was a carrier, now known as a disease vector, of the organism causing yellow fever: a mosquito that bites a victim of the disease could subsequently bite and thereby infect a healthy person.[2] He presented this theory at the 1881 International Sanitary Conference, where it was well received. A year later Finlay identified a mosquito of the genus Aedes as the organism transmitting yellow fever.[1] His theory was followed by the recommendation to control the mosquito population as a way to control the spread of the disease. El Obelisco, Finlay's memorial in Havana

His hypothesis and exhaustive proofs were confirmed nearly twenty years later by the Walter Reed Commission of 1900. Although Dr. Reed received much of the credit in history books for "beating" yellow fever, Reed himself credited Dr. Finlay with the discovery of the yellow fever vector, and thus how it might be controlled. Dr. Reed often cited Finlay's papers in his own articles and gave him credit for the discovery in his personal correspondence. In the words of General Leonard Wood, a physician and U.S. military governor of Cuba in 1900: "The confirmation of Dr. Finlay's doctrine is the greatest step forward made in medical science since Jenner's discovery of the vaccination [for smallpox]."

This discovery helped William C. Gorgas reduce the incidence and prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in Panama during the American campaign, from 1903 onwards, to construct the Panama Canal. Prior to this, about 10% of the workforce had died each year from malaria and yellow fever.”