August 14, 2016


News and Views


CLASH WITH POLICE IN A TROUBLED NEIGHBORHOOD -- TWO ARTICLES AND ONE VIDEO

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-shooting-in-milwaukee-sparks-violent-protest/

Police shooting in Milwaukee sparks violent protest
AP August 13, 2016, 11:08 PM

Photograph -- A car burns as a crowd of more than 100 people gathers following the fatal shooting of a man in Milwaukee, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016. CALVIN MATTHEIS/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL VIA AP


MILWAUKEE - A crowd of protesters skirmished with police Saturday night in a Milwaukee neighborhood where an officer shot and killed a man after a traffic stop and foot chase earlier in the day, setting fire to a police car and torching a gas station. One officer was hurt by a thrown brick.

Police said the 23-year-old man was armed with a handgun. Mayor Tom Barrett said the officer ordered the suspect to drop the weapon, but he refused. The officer then shot the suspect twice, Barrett said, adding that the officer was wearing a body camera.

Assistant Chief Bill Jessup told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it wasn't immediately clear whether the man had pointed a gun or fired at the officer. They described the man as a suspect, but didn't say what led to the traffic stop.

The races of the man and the officer weren't immediately released.

Police with shields and helmets moved slowly into an intersection after 11 p.m., telling a crowd of about 50 people to disperse. Protesters threw rocks and other debris at police, who held up their shields. At least two bus shelters had been thrown into the street, with their glass shattered.

Protesters also began throwing objects at a business a half-block from the intersection. A nearby traffic light was bent over.

Police tweeted that shots had been fired and at least arrests were made.

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Milwaukee Police ✔ @MilwaukeePolice
Arrests made in area of disturbance. MPD continues efforts to disperse crowd.
11:59 PM - 13 Aug 2016
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Milwaukee Police ✔ @MilwaukeePolice
Gas station at Sherman and Burleigh set on fire. MFD cannot extinguish fire as gunshots are being fired.
11:13 PM - 13 Aug 2016
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Milwaukee Police ✔ @MilwaukeePolice
MPD officer undergoing treatment at local hospital after brick thrown through squad window, striking officer in the head.
11:05 PM - 13 Aug 2016
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Large police presence in area of Sherman and Auer. Officers working on peacefully dispersing crowd.
10:33 PM - 13 Aug 2016
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Milwaukee Police ✔ @MilwaukeePolice
Crowd breaks widows of unoccupied squad near Sherman and Auer. Other squad set afire and broken windows on another.
10:31 PM - 13 Aug 2016
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It was at least the second confrontation at the intersection, following an earlier standoff involving more than 100 people pushing against 20 to 30 officers. Officers got in their cars to leave at one point and some in the crowd started smashing a squad car's windows. Another police car was set on fire. The newspaper also reported that one of its reporters was shoved to the ground and punched.

The Police Department tweeted that one officer was taken to a hospital after he was struck by a brick thrown through his squad car window. Police also tweeted that a gas station had been set on fire. Firefighters initially couldn't extinguish the blaze because gunshots were being fired, but they had started fighting the fire by midnight local time, authorities said.

A bank on Milwaukee's north side was also set ablaze. Smoke could be seen billowing from The BMO Harris branch a few blocks away from the intersection where as many as 100 protesters skirmished with police earlier Saturday evening. It was at least the fourth building to burn, following a BP gas station, an O'Reilly Auto Parts store and a beauty supply store. Footage from a news helicopter also appeared to show a small grocery store had been looted.

At a news conference, Barrett urged parents of anyone at scene of unrest to "get them home right now."

The shooting that sparked the tensions occurred about 3:30 p.m. after officers stopped a car with two people inside.

Police Capt. Mark Stanmeyer said in a news release that the two people in the car got out and ran and that the officers chased them. He said a man who was one of the people fleeing was armed with a handgun and was shot by an officer during the pursuit. He said the man died at the scene.

The man's name wasn't immediately released. Stanmeyer said he had an arrest record, and that the handgun he carried had been stolen in a March burglary in suburban Waukesha. The gun held 23 rounds of ammunition, Barrett said.

The 24-year-old officer who shot the man has been placed on administrative duty. The officer's name wasn't immediately released. He has been with the Milwaukee department six years, three as an officer.



http://www.cbs58.com/story/32754765/man-claiming-that-he-is-the-brother-of-man-shot-by-officers-speaks-to-cbs-58-during-the-violence

Man Claiming that He is the Brother of Man Shot by Officers Speaks to CBS 58 During the Violence
Posted: Aug 14, 2016 10:38 AM EDT
Updated: Aug 14, 2016 10:38 AM EDT
By Christie Green

CBS 58's Evan Kruegel spoke exclusively to a man claiming to be the brother of the man shot and killed by police yesterday.

He was with a crowd of people at the O'Reilly Auto Parts as it burned last night.

“There is riot going on because once again the police have failed to protect us like they said they would. They failed to be here like they say like they sworn in to do. Us as a community, we are not going to protect ourselves. But, we don’t have anyone to protect us than this is what you get. So you got riots. We got people right here going crazy. We are losing loved ones everyday to the people that are sworn in to protect us,” said the man.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/call-for-calm-milwaukee-violent-protests-police-shooting/

Call for calm in Milwaukee after violent protests
CBS/AP
August 14, 2016, 7:53 AM

Photograph -- A gas station burns in Milwaukee, Wisc., after a night of violent protests over a police shooting on August 13, 2016. WDJT-TV


MILWAUKEE - Simmering anger over the fatal shooting of a man by police erupted in violence on Milwaukee's north side, with protesters skirmishing with officers over several hours and setting fire to at least four businesses in an outburst the mayor says was fed by social media.

The violent protests appear to be part of the tension between minority communities and police officers that has boiled over in recent months.

The uprising that broke out Saturday evening didn't subside until after midnight, after Mayor Tom Barrett and other city leaders appeared at a news conference to plead for calm. Police said three people were arrested, and one officer was hurt by a brick thrown into a squad car.

The triggering event came Saturday afternoon, when a man fleeing police after a traffic stop was shot and killed. Police said the man was armed, but it wasn't clear whether he was pointing the gun or aiming it at officers. Barrett said the man was hit twice, in the chest and arm. Neither his race nor the officer's was immediately released, nor were they identified.

The shooting was being investigated by the state. The officer was wearing a body camera, Barrett said.

The mayor said the uprising was driven by social media messages instructing people to congregate in the area.

"We have to have calm," Barrett said at the news conference. "There are a lot of really good people who live in this neighborhood."

WDJT reports that a man identifying himself as the victim's brother (seen in the above video) says the protests were a "riot" and they happened because police "failed to protect us like they were sworn to do."

Milwaukee Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton echoed Mayor Barrett's plea for help restoring order.

"We understand the frustration people feel with the police community nationally. ... We have to go through the process of finding justice, but we have to be able to restore order to these neighborhoods," Hamilton said. "Please participate in restoring order to these neighborhoods."

Alderman Khalif Rainey, who represents the district where the violence occurred, said the city's black residents are "tired of living under this oppression." He said he didn't justify the violence "but nobody can deny that there are racial problems here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that have to be rectified."

Barrett said the 23-year-old man who died was stopped by police for "suspicious activity." Police said earlier that he was carrying a gun that had been stolen in a March burglary in suburban Waukesha.

CBS Milwuakee affiliate WDJT reports the 23-year-old suspect had a lengthy arrest record. The victim of the suspect's burglary reported 500 rounds of ammunition were also stolen with the handgun.

"This stop took place because two officers ... saw suspicious activity," the mayor said. "There were 23 rounds in that gun that that officer was staring at. I want to make sure we don't lose any police officers in this community, either."

WDJT reports the officer is a 24-year-old male with six years of service with the Milwuakee Police Department, including three years as an officer. He was not injured and, as is standard practice, will be placed on administrative duty during the investigation.

As many as 100 protesters massed at 44th Street and Auer Avenue between 8 and 9 p.m., surging against a line of 20 to 30 officers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that officers got in their cars to leave at one point and some in the crowd started smashing a squad car's windows. Another police car was set on fire. The newspaper reported that one of its reporters was shoved to the ground and punched.

Around 11 p.m., police with shields and helmets moved slowly into the intersection, telling a crowd of about 50 people to disperse. Some threw rocks and other debris at police, who held up their shields. People in the crowd also threw objects at a business a half-block from the intersection. A nearby traffic light was bent over and bus shelters overturned.

The businesses that burned included a BMO Harris bank branch, a BP gas station, an O'Reilly Auto Parts store and a beauty supply store. Firefighters held back from the gas station blaze because of gunshots.

CBS Milwuakee affiliate WDJT reports that the gas station that was torched had been the focal point of community anger recently. Protesters said in July that gas station employee Bhupinder Singh fired gun shots at children. Singh said the children rushed the store and he feared for his life.

Police said the man who was shot had an arrest record. The 24-year-old officer who shot the man has been placed on administrative duty. The officer has been with the Milwaukee department six years, three as an officer.

The shooting occurred just a few blocks from two fatal shootings Friday and Saturday, part of a violent stretch in the city in which five people died in shootings during a nine-hour stretch. Assistant Chief Bill Jessup alluded to the violence in discussing the fatal shooting.

"As everyone knows, this was a very, very violent 24 hours in the city of Milwaukee," Jessup told the Journal Sentinel. "Our officers are out here taking risks on behalf of the community and making split-second decisions."



POLICEMAN DOWN -- TWO ARTICLES

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/eastman-police-department-officer-tim-smith-shot-killed-georgia-n630286

Eastman Police Department Officer Tim Smith Shot, Killed in Georgia
by KURT CHIRBAS and CASSANDRA VINOGRAD
NEWS AUG 14 2016, 2:03 PM ET

Photograph -- U.S. Secret Service ✔ @SecretService


A police officer was fatally shot while responding to a call about a suspicious person in central Georgia, officials said.

The shooting took place in the city of Eastman at around 9:30 p.m. Saturday night.

Officer Tim Smith was shot and killed after exiting his vehicle while responding to the call, according to Special Agent Scott Whitley.

The suspect fled the scene and remains on the loose, Whitley said, adding that officials are appealing to the public for information.

He said the investigation was ongoing.


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FIRST PUBLISHED AUG 14 2016, 4:38 AM ET



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/13-year-old-danny-fitzpatrick-kills-self-describes-being-bullied-in-emotional-note/

13-year-old Danny Fitzpatrick kills self, describes being bullied in emotional note
CBS NEWS
August 13, 2016, 10:01 PM

Photograph -- Danny Fitzpatrick. GOFUNDME.COM/2JD3EANC
Video -- Daniel Fitzpatrick
Video -- Staten Island teen commits suicide


NEW YORK-- A 13-year-old Staten Island boy took his own life after what he described as merciless bullying by his classmates at a private Catholic school, according to CBS New York.

Danny Fitzpatrick hung himself in the attic of his home on Thursday.

The teen left behind a hand-written note describing the alleged abuse by five boys at Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

"They did it constantly," Danny said in a note, adding that he told his teachers, but they did nothing.

"I gave up the teachers ... they didn't do ANYTHING," Danny wrote.

Daniel Fitzpatrick, Danny's father, said in an emotional Facebook video that his son "was a kind, gentle little soul" and "didn't have a mean bone in his body."

"No child should have to go through what my son went through," Fitzpatrick said.


Brooklyn Archdiocese spokeswoman Carolyn Erstad said they take the issue of bullying very seriously.

"Daniel's complaints about bullying did not fall upon deaf ears," Erstad said. "The principal believes she did everything in her power to help Daniel, and to deal with any students accused of bullying."


However, that's not enough for Fitzpatrick, who had a message for the parents of the other boys.

"You get to hold your children every night and day for the rest of your lives and their natural lives. I don't get that anymore," he said.

The NYPD confirms they are investigating.

The Fitzpatrick family has set up a GoFundMe page to give Danny a "proper memorial to shine a bright light" on bullying.



Listen to this father's heartrending commentary. It's 12 minutes long, but worth the attention. This terribly sad story tells what, unfortunately, is commonplace, and I just don’t believe it when school officials say, “We did all we could.” The problem is still rarely being faced and fought head on by school authorities. Too often, parents aren’t being put on notice and fined a high enough amount to tempt them to discipline and control their bullying children, and school administrations just want to ignore the situation in the hope that it will go away. I’m glad to see that the NYPD is making an investigation. I think that is appropriate.

I think that under any other situation than the public schools, bullying would be a crime punishable by jail time. Unfortunately, those young troublemakers are used to being treated in a tough way rather than something more positive. Bullies are sick individuals because they lack empathy and are overly aggressive and angry. See the interesting PBS article on a positive alternative below.


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/zero-tolerance-fails-schools-teaching-students-cope-trauma/

A radical approach to discipline that starts with listening to students
BY MEREDITH KOLODNER, THE HECHINGER REPORT
April 2, 2015 at 9:43 AM

Photograph -- Metropolitan ninth-graders Latrese Martin, Ross Jacobson and Tia Stevens say their trauma-informed class gives them a place to be heard. (Photo: Meredith Kolodner/Hechinger Report)
Photograph -- Nataliya Braginsky, the lead teacher in Metropolitan Business Academy’s trauma-informed class, mixes class discussion with role-playing and writing assignments. Photo by Meredith Kolodner/Hechinger Report
Photograph -- Judith Puglisi, principal of Metropolitan Business Academy, brought a nontraditional approach to school discipline five years ago and has seen the graduation rate rise to 90 percent. Photo by Meredith Kolodner/Hechinger Report
Related: Expelled in preschool
Related: At Newark school striving for turnaround, a 12-year-old’s fragile success
Related: The painful backlash against ‘no excuses’ school discipline




NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Having racked up multiple up absences and missed assignments, a high school sophomore showed up in his English class last year, hopeful for another chance. “Where have you been?” his teacher asked. “You can’t pass this class if you don’t show up.” Without warning, the young man exploded.

“Shut the f— up,” the 16-year-old shouted. “You think you’re better than me? Who the f— do you think you are?” He stormed out of the room.

As the screaming and the swearing escalated in the hall, the Metropolitan Business Academy principal, Judith Puglisi, was called. She approached the student. “What do you need?” she asked in an almost-whisper. He kept yelling and pacing, and Puglisi walked with him, she recalled.

After she quietly repeated her question close to a dozen times, he turned to her and said, “I need to come to your office.” There, Puglisi and the assistant principal listened to him shout until he began to cry, telling them that his stepfather had beaten him since he was 7. “I am sick of people calling me a loser,” he said.

The student was not suspended, which would be normal protocol at some schools for cursing at a teacher. Instead, he saw a drama therapist trained in trauma at Metropolitan the next day. The day after that, he met with the teacher, apologized and said he knew he had overreacted. He returned to the class immediately after that meeting.

“If you run a school that’s based on punishment and compliance, eventually you’re going to push kids out.” — Judith Puglisi, principal of Metropolitan Business Academy, “Some would say that punishment will extinguish bad behavior, but I would say the opposite,” said Puglisi, who recounted the incident under the condition that the student’s name be withheld for his protection.

Metropolitan is among a small but growing number of schools nationally that are turning the traditional approach to discipline on its head. Instead of trying to get students to leave their personal troubles at the door, these schools help kids cope with what often is a history of trauma. The idea is to catch problems before they become disciplinary issues resulting in suspensions or expulsions.

Metropolitan and a dozen other schools in Connecticut work with Animated Learning by Integrating and Validating Experience (ALIVE), a trauma response program that provides drama therapists to work with teachers to identify trauma, prevent problems from escalating and respond effectively when students do act out. The therapists — who hold master’s degrees with training in psychology and theater — offer one-on-one therapy and use drama and role playing in a mandatory class for freshmen.

A growing body of research shows that nearly half of all children in the United States have experienced a traumatic event tied to poverty or family dysfunction, and repeated exposure to high stress can literally rewire the brain. This calls into question the so-called “zero-tolerance” school discipline systems that many states have adopted in the past decade in response to pressure to improve graduation rates and test scores. “If you run a school that’s based on punishment and compliance, eventually you’re going to push kids out,” Puglisi said. “Your test scores might even go up, if you push the right kids out.”

A spike in expulsions and suspensions has disproportionately affected black and Latino students, especially in poor communities. Wisconsin, for example, suspended 34 percent of its black students during the 2011-2012 school year, according to a national study; Florida suspended 37 percent of those with learning disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education issued new guidelines last year in an effort to bring down the high rates of students losing time in school, which has been linked to higher drop-out rates. A study released in January showed that high suspension rates hurt academic achievement for everyone, even classmates who have not been suspended. Researchers believe a punitive environment causes anxiety and poor relationships.

“Pretty much every state in the country is re-examining the zero-tolerance and harsh disciplinary policies,” said Nina Salomon, senior policy analyst at the Council of State Governments Justice Center. “Schools that want to reduce their expulsions are looking at these trauma-informed methods. … They seem to be more effective in changing students’ behavior.”

But some researchers and advocates caution that the pendulum could swing too far. “We so often swing from one extreme to another in education policy, and I worry that’s what’s happening here,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. “Zero tolerance was mindless, but it’s also mindless to take away discipline tools from teachers. Tools like suspensions and expulsions are part of that.”

Metropolitan is a public magnet school that draws about two-thirds of its 390 students from New Haven and the rest from surrounding towns. The student body is about 40 percent black, 35 percent Latino and 23 percent white, and 57 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunches. The school began its new approach to discipline when Puglisi arrived as principal in 2010.

She came in with a background as a longtime special education teacher who had run a program to prepare ninth- and 10th-graders to enter a large, comprehensive high school in New Haven. “There were a lot of at-risk children. We didn’t have any support staff, and there were a lot of discipline issues,” recalled Puglisi, a 57-year-old Queens, New York, native and grandmother of two whose kinetic energy provides a presence larger than her trim 5-foot-2 stature. “Every time I interviewed a child, nine times out of 10 they would end up in tears, divulging very personal information that made me think they needed a lot of help.”

In 2005, the Post Traumatic Stress Center began offering an after-school program for the most troubled students. Puglisi saw behavior problems and suspensions among those students drop.

The after-school program grew into an effort to train all staff in a trauma-sensitive approach and develop a mandatory academic course for freshmen to address personal hardships. Puglisi brought those programs with her to Metropolitan.

The year she arrived, Metropolitan had just moved into a gorgeous new building and enrollment jumped to 295 from 167. In a school survey, close to half the students said teachers didn’t have control of their classrooms, and nearly three-quarters of teachers said they didn’t get the help they needed to handle student discipline problems. Tenth-grade test scores had dropped, putting the school near the bottom of the pack in New Haven: Only 10 percent of students met reading goals; only 7 percent met math goals.

Metropolitan’s team now includes a school social worker, six social work interns and three part-time drama therapists from the ALIVE program. The social worker’s salary is included in the school budget, and the therapists’ work is funded this year with $30,000 from the New Haven Trauma Coalition, a public-private partnership launched in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

With that small investment, the impact has been profound. Over the past three years, the number of suspensions at Metropolitan has dropped by two-thirds. It now has a suspension rate of 3 percent. Incidents of physical fights in school have also plummeted, from 40 in 2010 to less than five last year. The graduation rate rose to 90 percent in 2014 from 82 percent in 2012, and college enrollment rose to 70 percent in 2012 from 48 percent in 2010.

Garth Harries, superintendent of New Haven’s 21,500-student school district, said the city is exploring how to fund more programs like Metropolitan’s.

Metropolitan’s required course for ninth-graders addresses some of the students’ most potent problems, from homelessness to gun violence to drug addiction. By bringing experiences into the open and allowing all the teens to hear what others have been through, the aim is to reduce bullying and enable adults to offer support.

“It’s a nonjudgment zone,” said Tia Stevens, an outgoing 14-year-old who mixes prodding and compassion to encourage her peers to speak up in class.

In one freshman class on a snowy March afternoon, teacher Nataliya Braginsky asked students to list community problems. Responses included snitching, abuse, money, violence and drugs.

A boy raised his hand and asked if the teacher knew of a drug called K2. Braginsky said she didn’t and tried to move on with the conversation, but the ninth-grader interrupted several times, joking about how he used and sold it. Braginsky finally brought the discussion to a halt.

“Are you using K2?” she asked, smiling. “Are you using drugs?”

“You gonna call the cops on me?” the student shot back.

“No, I don’t think I’d call the cops on you,” said Braginsky, a slender 29-year-old with cropped hair and a nose ring.

“You don’t care?” asked the student, his voice rising.

Braginsky’s tone turned serious. “No, I care a lot about whether you use drugs. I just don’t think I’d call the cops on you.”

The class quickly moved into a role play between a drug dealer and a teenager who had gotten kicked out of his house — played by the student who had raised the K2 question. Classmates tried to intervene and help the homeless student stay away from the dealer. When he rejected every offer, the class reconvened to discuss what to do when you can’t help a friend and what some other options might have been. A drama therapist who was co-teaching the class followed up with the boy after class. The staff determined he wasn’t using drugs but was still coping with the violent death of his older brother a few years ago.

This nontraditional approach to discipline has garnered attention from educators nationwide. The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative at Massachusetts Advocates for Children has received emails from 250 schools around the country requesting help in the past year. Susan P. Cole, the initiative’s senior project director, said schools won’t get the results they want if they just reduce suspensions and expulsions. They must learn how to create a place where students feel safe enough to learn.

The Metropolitan student who exploded at his English teacher is on track to graduate next year. He still sometimes struggles to stay motivated and complete his work. But he continues to see the school-based therapist as needed, and he hasn’t had any more outbursts or fights. He and his English teacher became close after the incident. Today, when things get tough in his life, the teenager turns to the adult who welcomed him back into class.

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read more about high school reform.

PBS NewsHour education coverage is part of American Graduate: Let’s Make it Happen, a public media initiative made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.


ECOLOGICAL THOUGHT IS PAYING OFF --


http://www.npr.org/2016/08/13/489913707/in-a-remote-vault-in-norway-repository-stores-the-worlds-seeds

BOOKS
In A Remote Vault In Norway, Repository Stores The World's Seeds
August 13, 20165:02 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered


ALLISON AUBREY, HOST:

And now for something that may sound like the beginning of a fairy tale. Deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, between continental Norway and the North Pole, there's a massive vault built into an icy mountain. It's a repository of seeds - hundreds of millions of seeds - everything from wheat and barley to the seeds of food crops most of us have never heard of, like prickly poppy and bastard cabbage. They're actually spare copies of seeds that are being stored away just in case diseases or pests wipe out our crops and we need to develop new ones. Cary Fowler is an adviser to the trust that manages this vault, and he's written a book about it called "Seeds On Ice." He joins us from New York. Hi there, Cary.

CARY FOWLER: Hi, Allison.

AUBREY: So I am so curious about this place. I mean, part of it is the allure of this remote location, close to the North Pole. What's it like to be at the Global Seed Vault? Can you describe it for me?

FOWLER: Sure. Well, when you step off the plane you know you're in a different place. The air is clean and wonderful, and you're just - a smile will come onto your face. It's an incredible landscape around there. And being in the seed vault itself is - it's an emotional experience. And it's a humbling experience because you're there amidst what is probably the largest collection of biodiversity in the world, certainly the largest collection of food crop biodiversity in the world.

AUBREY: Now, I have read that there are seeds of 150,000 different types of wheat and rice, 15,000 different kinds of peanuts in the vault. I mean, who knew? Why do we need all these seeds?

FOWLER: Well, there's no such thing as the best variety because obviously our agricultural crops are evolving and so are pest and diseases. So the diversity that we're holding in the seed vault is there to protect our natural resource in agriculture and to give us options for the future for plant breeding so that our crops can continue to evolve. And that's why we need as much of that diversity as we can gather and conserve. The more diversity we have, the more options we have for the future.

AUBREY: I mentioned that there are lots of seeds of crops that we've never heard of - things like prickly poppy, bastard cabbage. What do you find to be some of the weirder things in the vault?

FOWLER: Yeah, I've been working in this field for 35, 40 years, and there are things I'm saying what is that? You know, there's a rattlebox, zombie pea (ph), love-lies-bleeding - maybe I should know, but I really have no clue. But this is part of the fabric, the tapestry of agriculture in this world.

AUBREY: So I gather that this vault works like a repository. Countries around the world store seeds there, and then if they want them back, they can request a withdraw. Has anyone ever made such a request to withdraw?

FOWLER: Well, so far just once. And you're right, this works like a safety deposit box at the bank where a country or an institution will deposit a duplicate copy of the seeds that they're storing for their own purposes. And then, if something happens to their seed bank, then they have their duplicate copy and all is not lost. So the first time that we had to send seeds back was actually September last year. And what happened was that one of the major international collections of wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas and a wonderful little crop called grass pea were being stored by this institute in a facility outside of Aleppo, Syria. And we all know what is happening in Aleppo these days and...

AUBREY: Lots of violence there.

FOWLER: Oh, it's terrible. So the scientists at this facility had to re-establish themselves, and they did that in two locations - one in Morocco and one in Lebanon. And so they requested a return of the seeds that they had stored. And we had worked, when Arab Spring first started, to get a safety duplicate copy of their collection up to Svalbard. And we succeeded in getting, I guess, the last batch of seeds out of Syria and into safety just a couple weeks before, really, all hell broke loose there.

AUBREY: So are they using these seeds to grow out new crops, or do they just now have their seed bank restored?

FOWLER: Well, they've taken a portion of the seeds that they deposited in this Svalbard. They took about 30,000 varieties. And they'll use that in their plant breeding programs. They'll reconstitute their entire seed bank. And they'll again multiply those seeds. And obviously, they'll be highly motivated to send us a duplicate copy back because they know what kind of insurance policy this is.

AUBREY: You know, I've often heard this vault referred to as something that could save us from Armageddon if all of our crops were wiped out. But I'm wondering if there might be another use as well. There's kind of a pushback against industrial agriculture. People say tomatoes all taste the same, bananas all taste the same, they all came, you know, from the same variety. Could we - could scientists or breeders ever use all of these seeds that are stored to kind of just create new flavors?

FOWLER: Oh, sure. Because really what we're storing is not just a lot of different varieties, it's a collection of traits. It's the gene pool. So anything and everything that you might want a tomato to be in the future - or a wheat plant, is going to be created, if you will, fashioned by plant breeding by farmers and scientists in the future based on the kind of diversity that we have in the seed vault.

AUBREY: Well, thank you. Cary Fowler is the author of "Seeds On Ice," which comes out next month. Thanks for joining us, Cary.

FOWLER: Sure. Thank you.



THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IS OVER, BUT THE PROBLEM ISN’T

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/08/12/489618059/flint-mayor-everybody-played-a-role-in-this-disaster

Flint Mayor: 'Everybody Played A Role In This Disaster'
August 12, 20169:15 AM ET
NPR STAFF

Photograph -- Mayor Karen Weaver takes a sip of water at the House Democratic Steering & Policy Committee hearing titled, "The Flint Water Crisis: Lessons for Protecting America's Children."
Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images
THE TWO-WAY -- Lead-Laced Water In Flint: A Step-By-Step Look At The Makings Of A Crisis
AROUND THE NATION -- With Federal Aid Set To End, Flint Mother Criticizes Water Efforts, Photograph -- Jeneyah and Earl McDonald sit with their sons Josiah (left), and Justice at their home in Flint, Mich. Jeneyah says she and her husband "don't see a future" in Flint and are considering moving.


On Sunday, the city of Flint, Mich., will no longer be under a federal state of emergency. A new report suggests that lead levels in the city's water are dropping, though researchers still recommend caution because of the health dangers posed by even small amounts of lead. Filters have been distributed to many residents, but they don't work for everyone, and some still depend on bottled water to meet their basic needs.

The problems started in April 2014, when the city's water supply was switched to a new, corrosive source as a cost-saving measure. It took more than a year for authorities to publicly acknowledge that the water was unhealthy, despite the illnesses and complaints of residents in poor, majority African-American city. Several Michigan government workers have been criminally charged with covering up evidence of contamination.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver spoke with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep about the crisis, the state of emergency and the future of her city.

Interview Highlights

On what's better — and what's not — as the official state of emergency ends

That was why we thought this should be more than an emergency, because we still can't drink the water. And any time you can't just turn on your tap and drink the water, you have a problem. Some of the things that are different from when this first started is things are, I would say, more organized as far as the distribution of the water and the filters.

We have more school nurses in place than we had. When this first started, we only had one in place, and now we have nine. We've been able to hook up young people to employment opportunities where we had the National Guard doing things before. We have so many young people that were unemployed and weren't in school and that should be part of this process of healing their own community.

“I believe if I announced today that the pipes were safe ... there are too many people that wouldn't trust that, because the trust has been broken here in Flint.” Flint Mayor Karen Weaver

And so what we've done is employed them to do the water distribution. We're employing them to deliver the food. And we've also been able to hook some of them up with the plumbers and pipe-fitters and other kinds of, I guess, trade jobs where they can be in an apprenticeship program and get paid and have a skill that no one can take from them.

On whether safety or comfort level with the water is the primary issue now

You know what? That's a real concern to me, even if that's what it is, is comfort level, because that's one of the things that we've talked about all of this time, is the only way people will truly feel comfortable is when we have new pipes in place. And whether it's perceived or real, your perception is your reality.

On the response from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder

We always say we deserve more than what we've gotten thus far. And that's been one of the issues. We don't think that we've gotten everything that the citizens deserve as a result of what has happened. We've been able to make some inroads, but it hasn't been enough, and it hasn't been fast enough.

On the $25 million in state infrastructure aid, and millions more in federal assistance under consideration in Congress

People participate in a national mile-long march in February to highlight the push for clean water in Flint, Mich.

We need money from not only the state — we need money from the federal government as well. Everybody played a role in this disaster and need to be held accountable and responsible and get Flint citizens what we deserve. This is way too long. We should not be in year three and we cannot drink our water.

On the question of whether replacing all of Flint's pipes is the only acceptable solution

It goes back to when you were saying about people's comfort level. I believe if I announced today that the pipes were safe, turn on your faucets, there are too many people that wouldn't trust that, because the trust has been broken here in Flint. And the trust will be seeing new pipes go into the ground.



WHEN POLICE INTERROGATION IS OR SHOULD BE CRIMINAL

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brendan-dassey-making-a-murderer-subject-conviction-tossed/

"Making a Murderer" subject Brendan Dassey's conviction tossed
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP
August 12, 2016, 4:36 PM

Play VIDEO -- "Making A Murderer" subject files appeal in murder conviction
Play VIDEO -- Defense lawyers in "Making a Murderer" react to series
Play VIDEO -- New Netflix series raises questions about old murder case
Play VIDEO -- Fans of "Making a Murderer" call for convicted killer's pardon


MANITOWOC, Wisc. -- A federal judge on Friday overturned the conviction of a Wisconsin man serving time in the murder at the center of the popular Netflix series "Making a Murderer,"CBS affiliate WDJT reported.

Brendan Dassey is in prison for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach along with his uncle Steven Avery.

Avery was tried and convicted separately of first-degree intentional homicide in the death of photographer Halbach. Both Avery and Dassey are serving separate life sentences.

Avery made headlines in 2003 when he was released from prison after spending 18 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit. After being freed, he had a $36 million lawsuit pending against public officials when Halbach disappeared on Halloween 2005.

Dassey was 16 when Halbach was killed after she went to the Avery family auto salvage yard to photograph some vehicles. Dassey confessed to helping Avery carry out the rape and murder of Halbach, but attorneys argued that the confession was coerced and that his constitutional rights were violated throughout the investigation.

The 10-part Netflix series raises questions about whether Avery and Dassey were wrongly convicted, spurring new scrutiny of the case nationally and prompting armchair sleuths to flood social media.

Authorities involved in the case have called the series biased, while the filmmakers have stood by their work.

The U.S. District Court in Milwaukee overturned Brendan Dassey's conviction and ordered him freed within 90 days unless prosecutors decide to retry him. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, which was handling the case, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The ruling comes after Dassey's appeal was rejected by state courts.

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law professors Steven A. Drizin and Laura Nirider have served as two of his attorneys throughout the appellate process. They released a statement Friday upon receiving the news about their client.

"Dr. Martin Luther King said that the 'arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' It has taken a decade but the law is finally bending toward justice in the case of Brendan Dassey," the statement read.

The attorney's said the Court's decision rests on a fundamental principle that is too often forgotten by courts and law enforcement officers.

"Interrogation tactics which may not be coercive when used on adults are coercive when used on juveniles, particularly young people like Brendan with disabilities," the statement read. "And when these tactics are used on juveniles, the risk that a young suspect will give a false confession increases exponentially."

Magistrate Judge William Duffin ruled Dassey's confession was involuntary because when investigators questioned him in March 2006, they used "deceptive interrogation tactics that overbore Dassey's free will."

The judge ruled Dassey's borderline to below average intellectual ability likely made him more susceptible to being coerced than someone with a higher ability. Court papers describe Dassey as a slow learner with poor grades, with difficulty understanding some aspects of language and expressing himself verbally. He was also described as extremely introverted and poor at picking up on communications such as body language and tone.

In his ruling, the judge noted that Dassey was a juvenile and questioned by investigators without an adult present. The investigators, he said, took advantage of that by "feigning paternalistic interest" and telling Dassey they were and "on his side" and that he had "nothing to worry about."

Duffin found the appeals court erred when they ruled investigators didn't make any "promises of leniency" to Dassey during the interrogation. The investigators, he said, repeatedly told Dassey they already knew what happened in order to elicit more information from him, and led him to believe he wouldn't be arrested if he went along with their version of events.

The judge found Dassey himself demonstrated he truly believed he "would not be punished for telling them the incriminating details they professed to already know." After admitting to committing serious crimes, Dassey asked investigators if he would be allowed to return to school and asked if he was being arrested "only for one day."

Duffin also blasted the conduct of Dassey's pre-trial defense attorney, Leonard Kachinsky, who he said encouraged Dassey to take a plea deal though Dassey later said he falsely confessed. Duffin said Kachinsky spoke frequently about the case in the media, at one point telling Nancy Grace there would be "no defense" for Dassey if his confession was true.

Kachinsky withdrew from the case in 2006 after a trial court censured him for allowing the boy to be questioned by prosecution investigators after his arrest without his lawyer present. In Friday's ruling, Duffin called Kachinsky's conduct "inexcusable both tactically and ethically." However, ultimately he threw out the conviction based on investigators' "false promises" during the interrogation, not the lawyer's misconduct.

"These repeated false promises, when considered in conjunction with all relevant factors, most especially Dassey's age, intellectual deficits, and the absence of a supportive adult, rendered Dassey's confession involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments," Duffin wrote.

The error was not harmless because Dassey's confession was the entirety of the case against him, the judge said.

Dassey was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, second-degree sexual assault, and mutilation of a corpse in Halbach's killing. He is now 26.

Kathleen Zellner, an attorney for Avery, said in a statement that Avery was thrilled for his nephew. Avery is pursuing his own appeal.

"We know when an unbiased court reviews all of the new evidence we have, Steven will have his conviction overturned as well," Zellner said.

Joe Friedberg, a defense attorney in Minnesota who was not involved in the case but is familiar with it and participated in a forum on it with Avery's first defense attorney, said he doesn't believe the decision will have any bearing on Avery's case.

"The kid's confession was not entered into evidence against Avery, and I don't think it impacted Avery's trial at all," Friedberg said.

Netflix last month announced new episodes were in production to follow appeals by both Avery and Dassey.



ROUGH JUSTICE IS DONE

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jailhouse-fight-dylann-roof-leads-fame-future-n629576

Jailhouse Fight With Dylann Roof Leads to Fame and Future for Dwayne Stafford
by TRYMAINE LEE
NEWS AUG 13 2016, 1:10 PM ET

Play -- FBI: Roof Shouldn't Have Been Able to Buy Gun Used in Massacre 2:21
Related: Roof, Accused Charleston Church Shooter, Assaulted in Jail
Related: Dylann Roof Indicted on 33 Counts, Hate Crime Charges
Related: Judge Delays Trial Against Charleston Church Shooter
Play -- Sheriff: Dylann Roof Assaulted by Inmate 2:43
Photograph -- Dwayne Marion Stafford is a suspect in the assault in Dylann Roof. Charleston County Sheriff's Office
Related: FBI Says Dylann Roof Should Not Have Been Sold Gun


Dwayne Stafford was likely on his way to being just another throw away, a product of South Carolina's notoriously deficient foster care system that churns out troubled children like a meat grinder.

Between the ages of 3 and 18 he'd cycled through more than a dozen foster homes. He fought with family and neighbors and struggled with the trauma of instability. At 21, he started to rack up summonses, arrests and jail time. At 25 he's facing strong armed robbery and assault and battery charges for a crime he says he didn't commit.

According to Stafford's lawyer, Stafford is accused of roughing up and robbing someone outside of a gas station he frequented. No one was seriously hurt, but the incident landed Stafford in the county jail, where he served 571 days while awaiting trial before finally being bonded out earlier this month.

But despite his rocky, winding path through the foster care and criminal justice systems, Stafford sees a bit of hope on the horizon, thanks to a twist of fate and a jailhouse fight with a mass-murderer.

If Stafford's name doesn't ring a bell, he's the black guy who snuck out of his cell last week and beat up a fellow inmate, Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old white supremacist charged with killing nine parishioners at the historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

"I wouldn't say its justice, but I felt as if I did the right thing," Stafford said in an interview on Friday, his first with national news media.

From the moment Roof stepped onto the unit, a "special management unit" reserved for inmates who might have problems in general population, Stafford was drawn to the scraggly killer.

"When he first got there, everyone was cussing him out, saying what they were going to do to him," Stafford said. "But I wasn't even in the mindset of violence. I was more like damn, that could've been my people. No, they were my people. I just didn't understand how he could do that… Pure evil."

Still, Stafford said that he'd engage in small talk with Roof. He said he'd walk by his cell and they'd chat about politics and current events, sometimes girls.

"I'd say, 'What's up man,' and he'd come to the cell door smiling like I'm his friend," Stafford said. "But the whole time I'm looking at him like, you couldn't find nothing else to do with your life? I didn't know I was going to get him but it was more of a 'you know what you did' type thing."

But soon enough, Stafford said he knew he had to do something. He said that one day not too long ago he'd pressed Roof on his plans to start a race war, and at some point Roof insulted Stafford's recently-deceased father.

From that moment on, Stafford fumed. No more small talk. No more faux friendship. Weeks passed. Then in a stroke of serendipity, there was an opening. A pair of prison guards responsible for guarding the unit botched the jail's inmate handling procedure.

It was Thursday, Aug. 4, a little after 7 a.m. Jail officials say that when guards locked down the unit in order to take Roof to the showers they failed to properly lock Stafford's cell door.

"The doors rattle when they lock them," Stafford said. "My door didn't rattle. He didn't pull it hard enough. After I heard all the other doors rattle, I pushed on the door and went downstairs."

There, Stafford found Roof alone in the shower. One of the officers had gone on break and the other was delivering toilet paper to another inmate, according to officials.

Stafford said he uttered just four words before he started throwing punches: "Mind if I join?"

By the time jail guards responded Roof was badly bloodied, curled up in a fetal position.

Did Roof fight back?

"He tried, but, nah," Stafford said with a chuckle. "I beat Dylann Roof's ass."

Charleston County Sherriff Al Cannon Jr., who runs the jail, blamed the incident on "complacency" and at the time told reporters that it was not clear if race was a factor, "beyond the obvious speculation that we would all have given the nature of the situation."

News of the jailhouse beat down quickly went viral, with social media users cheering Stafford on.

Community activists began calling the jail inquiring about Stafford's bond, which was set at $100,000 for the robbery and assault charges. Other supporters began to rally together to see how they could help, while good Samaritans added a few hundred dollars on his jail commissary.

Within hours, community organizers reached out to attorney Marvin Pendarvis, who soon joined the team as Stafford's lawyer. Pendarvis, who has made a name for himself as a fierce advocate for the poor and vulnerable, said he was going to do everything he could to get Stafford out of jail.

Despite rumors that supporters sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay Stafford's bond, Pendarvis said a well-meaning bail bondsman cut a favorable deal to secure his release.

Stafford was out the following day.

"I took my first steps out of jail," he said, "and I felt secure."

It was a feeling he said he's rarely felt. He was homeless when he went into jail. He didn't have much clothing and very little money. But he emerged from jail something of a folk hero. People have given him temporary housing and have donated money, clothing and food.

His supporters have also set up a crowdfunding page to collect donations to pay off the money owed to the bail bondsmen, and to support him until he goes to trial on his earlier charges. Stafford said he was innocent of those charges and that "they got the wrong guy."

For Stafford, the long road to redemption wound its way through foster care, jail, and ultimately through Dylann Roof, who has declined to press charges. Stafford said that he hopes to stay out of jail, to help others and to use his voice for those who don't have one. And that he's thankful for his turn of good luck, after a life filled with the opposite.

"I respect people, especially when they say I don't condone violence but you did the right thing," Stafford said. "I just look straight up at the sky and thank Jesus because that could've gone really wrong."



Email, 8/12/16 Three Progressive candidates

Our Revolution

Lucy:

The political revolution was never just about electing a president. It's a movement of millions of Americans uniting to upend the status quo and transform our country. That's why we're coming together around dozens of strong candidates — from school board to Senate — to win important victories on November 8th.

We need to elect a wave of progressive candidates all over this country who will fight for the values we share, and that's why I'm asking you today to support three people who have long stood with our political revolution:

Make a $28 contribution right now to help elect three strong progressives who support our movement: Zephyr Teachout, Rick Nolan and Pramila Jayapal.
CONTRIBUTE $28 …. [Sorry, Bernie and Shannon . I just can’t.]

These candidates endorsed Bernie's campaign for president because they believe in our political revolution. They had the guts to take on the establishment when it wasn't necessarily going to be easy and we know they will be strong and consistent allies in the fight for economic, social, environmental and racial justice in the House of Representatives.

Zephyr Teachout (New York): Zephyr is running in a swing district, but she's running on a progressive agenda that will win working people on both sides of the aisle. Zephyr wrote a book on political corruption because she understands deeply how wealthy campaign contributors are buying our politicians and rigging our economy. In Congress, she'll fight to ban fracking and rein in Wall Street. This won't be an easy race and she needs your financial support.

Rick Nolan (Minnesota): Rick represents one of the most competitive congressional districts in the country, but he's been a strong fighter for enacting single-payer health care, overturning Citizens United and ending offshore tax havens. He's running against a multimillionaire CEO who thinks he can pour millions into television ads, win himself a congressional seat, and then cast votes to cut taxes on the ultra-rich.

Pramila Jayapal (Washington): Pramila was a leader in the fight for paid sick leave and a $15 minimum wage in Seattle. She's been taking on the ruling class in Washington state for years, and now we need to make sure she gets past a tough general election so that she can be one of our strongest allies in Congress.

Let's win these races. Make a $28 contribution right now to elect these progressives who are going to fight for our revolution in Congress.

I believe that when future historians look back and describe how our country moved forward and created a government which represents all people and not just the few, they will note that, to a significant degree, that effort began with the political revolution of 2016 and the tidal wave of strong leaders we elected all over the country.

Thank you for all you're doing to power our movement. Let's keep it going.

In solidarity,
Shannon Jackson
Executive Director
Our Revolution



If you haven’t read anything else from today's blog, read this from democracynow.org


http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/8/google_in_the_white_house_assange

INDEPENDENT GLOBAL NEWS
Google in the White House? Assange Warns of Close Ties Between Hillary Clinton & Internet Giant
AUGUST 08, 2016


During the Green Party convention in Houston, Texas, over the weekend, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke via video stream about his book "When Google Met WikiLeaks" and the relationship between Hillary Clinton, the State Department and the internet giant Google.

TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

DAVID COBB: I’m reminded of the great political philosopher Lily Tomlin, who said, "No matter how cynical I get, it’s hard to keep up." Julian, Greens, like most Americans, are disgusted by the collusion between Wall Street, multinational corporations and our own government. We know, as most Americans do, that these large corporations are no longer merely exercising power, they are literally ruling over us. In your book, When Google Met WikiLeaks, you describe, quote, "a special relationship," end-quote, between Google, the U.S. State Department and Hillary Clinton. Could you talk about that, please?

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, I just want to correct, very quickly, some false reporting. So, very interestingly, when we published the DNC leaks, The New York Times, which has picked its favorite candidate, as has Bloomberg, which is Hillary Clinton, said that I intended to harm Hillary Clinton. This is what we’ve been doing for 10 years. It was a completely fabricated story by Charlie Savage. OK.

But, yes, we are very interested in power and publishing the truth about power, so people can work out however they choose to reform power. And so, Google is a kind of new power on the block, so we are interested in it, and we’re also interested in Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state and now, I mean, the presidential candidacy. So, these two powers have merged at a kind of personal level and political level, and even, to a small extent, at the organizational level. So, that book, written three years ago, has been proved to be very prescient.

The chairman of Google, who was the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has started, about a year ago, a company to run Hillary Clinton’s digital campaign. Google has been to the White House, on average over the last four years, once per week—more than any other single company. It spends more money lobbying Washington, D.C., than any other single company. Hillary Clinton’s former staffer, Jared Cohen, was hired by Google in 2009 to head up Google’s internal think tank. There’s a lot of other interconnections between Google and the state. Eric Schmidt is now also, at the same time as being chairman of what is now Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is chairman of the Pentagon innovation board.

So you have a connection between Google, the Clinton campaign, which will be almost certainly the next White House, and the Pentagon. And this triangle is extremely worrying, because, as time goes by, Google is understanding that it does have an ability to influence election campaigns. It’s also bought more than 10 drone companies. It’s integrating its mapping data in order to better be able to fly and navigate drones around the world, is expanding into every country in the world.

And it has a very strange, quasi-religious vision of the future, of this vision of the singularity. It’s really a—I’ve done research that it’s very disturbing what they believe in Silicon Valley, that they believe they can create a massive artificial intelligence, more powerful than any human being or any society’s ability to think. And, of course, we all know what happens when such power is in limited hands.

And so, Google in the White House will be, essentially, an unregulatable company. It’s a question whether it’s already unregulatable, but you can—you can just completely forget about any kind of antitrust legislation being used on Google if there is a Hillary Clinton White House.

DAVID COBB: Julian, I’m reminded that Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator, said that fascism more appropriately should be called corporatism, because it merges the private power of corporations with the military might of the nation-state. And, of course, he thought that was a good thing. It occurs to me that you were describing our newer, kinder, gentler, smiling face of fascism, where all of the information that we receive is controlled by that same collusion between government and major transnational corporations, and now our ability to even talk to myself, or ourselves. Am I being overdramatic, or do I understand you correctly?

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, it could be both. It could be both. No, it is—it is possibly the most serious issue. The potential threat of nuclear war, I think, is perhaps the other one. Yes, there is a merger going on at a rapid pace between the largest American corporations and the traditional aspects of the U.S. state, the military intelligence aspects. I mean, that’s been there for a long time, frankly, with Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, General Electric, etc. But this is a new generation. And Eric Schmidt wrote in his book about Google and the world that what Lockheed Martin and other aerospace companies were to the 20th century, high-tech companies will be to the 21st century. And that’s very much their vision, to integrate with Washington, to prevent antitrust regulation and to be part of that family of traditional D.C.-mediated power.

DAVID COBB: Julian, Greens, like most Americans, have been horrified to learn—and, for many of us, have it objectively collaborated—that multinational corporations and wealthy oligarchs are literally directing U.S. foreign policy. So I have a question for you, because of your unique vantage point: What advice, if any, would you give the next president of the United States about how to shift that policy, given the reality that she might be facing?

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, that’s a very interesting question. Does it make any difference who is president or not? A very, very interesting question. It certainly doesn’t make as much difference as people say. What really makes a difference is what the environment is in which the president has to work. And that is the environment of critique, on the one hand, to how free the media is, how much opposition organizations are doing their job in holding government to account. And it’s the economic and corporate environment, and then, to a degree, the international foreign affairs environment. And the president is much more a spokesperson for these forces around them.

Where they do make a big difference is in their initial appointments, so the people that they choose to fill those spots in government that then reactively makes policy. But as you can see with Barack Obama, most of the time is spent reading out teleprompters. There’s just not enough time to do much else than be a spokesperson for these groups. So, what is happening now, with the Green Party and Gary Johnson and the Bernie Sanders campaign and so on, is very, very important, but it must be seen past the moment, past this political moment. That’s a moment to build a movement and build pressure. And having built it, then one can discipline and hold to account and check the abuses of government during the next four years.

AMY GOODMAN: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaking at the Green Party convention in Houston, being interviewed by former Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb. Assange’s books include When Google Met WikiLeaks, which is based on Assange’s meeting with Google CEO Eric Schmidt five years ago, when Assange was under house arrest in England, before he was granted political asylum in Ecuador, now living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, afraid if he steps foot outside, he’ll be arrested and ultimately extradited to the United States, where there, it is believed, a sealed indictment against him for WikiLeaks.


THE SINGULARITY AND THE HUMAN BEING

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Singularity-the

DEFINITION
Singularity (the)


Part of the Nanotechnology glossary:

The Singularity is the hypothetical future creation of superintelligent machines. Superintelligence is defined as a technologically-created cognitive capacity far beyond that possible for humans. Should the Singularity occur, technology will advance beyond our ability to foresee or control its outcomes and the world will be transformed beyond recognition by the application of superintelligence to humans and/or human problems, including poverty, disease and mortality.

Revolutions in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics (GNR) in the first half of the 21st century are expected to lay the foundation for the Singularity. According to Singularity theory, superintelligence will be developed by self-directed computers and will increase exponentially rather than incrementally.

Lev Grossman explains the prospective exponential gains in capacity enabled by superintelligent machines in an article in Time:

“Their rate of development would also continue to increase, because they would take over their own development from their slower-thinking human creators. Imagine a computer scientist that was itself a super-intelligent computer. It would work incredibly quickly. It could draw on huge amounts of data effortlessly. It wouldn't even take breaks...”

Proposed mechanisms for adding superintelligence to humans include brain-computer interfaces, biological alteration of the brain, artificial intelligence (AI) brain implants and genetic engineering. Post-singularity, humanity and the world would be quite different. A human could potentially scan his consciousness into a computer and live eternally in virtual reality or as a sentient robot. Futurists such as Ray Kurzweil (author of The Singularity is Near) have predicted that in a post-Singularity world, humans would typically live much of the time in virtual reality -- which would be virtually indistinguishable from normal reality. Kurzweil predicts, based on mathematical calculations of exponential technological development, that the Singularity will come to pass by 2045.

Most arguments against the possibility of the Singularity involve doubts that computers can ever become intelligent in the human sense. The human brain and cognitive processes may simply be more complex than a computer could be. Furthermore, because the human brain is analog, with theoretically infinite values for any process, some believe that it cannot ever be replicated in a digital format. Some theorists also point out that the Singularity may not even be desirable from a human perspective because there is no reason to assume that a superintelligence would see value in, for example, the continued existence or well-being of humans.

Science-fiction writer Vernor Vinge first used the term the Singularity in this context in the 1980s, when he used it in reference to the British mathematician I.J. Good’s concept of an “intelligence explosion” brought about by the advent of superintelligent machines. The term is borrowed from physics; in that context a singularity is a point where the known physical laws cease to apply.

See also: Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, supercomputer, cyborg, gray goo, IBM’s Watson supercomputer, neural networks, smart robot

Neil deGrasse Tyson vs. Ray Kurzweil on the Singularity: Video.

This was last updated in February 2016
Posted by: Margaret Rouse


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6cSOVy5mU

Neil DeGrasse Tyson 2016 - Neil deGrasse Tyson vs Ray Kurzweil On The Singularity
Published on Apr 4, 2016
A 20 minute discussion.


Assange -- EXCERPTS: “And it has a very strange, quasi-religious vision of the future, of this vision of the singularity. It’s really a—I’ve done research that it’s very disturbing what they believe in Silicon Valley, that they believe they can create a massive artificial intelligence, more powerful than any human being or any society’s ability to think. And, of course, we all know what happens when such power is in limited hands. And so, Google in the White House will be, essentially, an unregulatable company. It’s a question whether it’s already unregulatable, but you can—you can just completely forget about any kind of antitrust legislation being used on Google if there is a Hillary Clinton White House.” Assange shows why some fear Hillary as much as they do Trump, or more. Assange is making all these accusations against Hillary, but I have no doubt that on the personal level, she would be a more Benign Dictator than will Trump. Having read this article I am already contemplating the story line of my potential novel to come.”


So if the singularity were to emerge as the true center of political control, worldwide no less, would we as mere mortals have a say in what goes on and who presides over our government? I think, probably so. I don’t think even the Singularity would be able to or desire to handle all the minutiae of life down to the local level. It would be a case of "herding cats." Humans will remain a dangerous species when aroused, such as by persistent deprivation and abuse. The Singularity may do what it will, but the ghetto dwellers will still turn out on the street by the hundreds and throw bricks at the Robocops. Besides, we will still need local leaders or there would be great disorder. And remember, somebody will have to do routine maintenance on the super-intelligent computers. True democracy, of course, would be dead.

Unfortunately, already the brightest and the best can be persecuted at home in any nation. Albert Einstein had to leave Germany because he was a Jew, Aung San Suu Kyi from Burma because she spoke out too freely, Julian Assange and Edward Snowdon are in exile, and lots of others over the years for being enemies of the government or simply too outspoken. The well-educated who have not been co-opted to government purposes are clearly dangerous and will be jailed or exterminated.

I am not happy at all with our leaders for abandoning our proud tradition of civil rights in this way that we see in 2016. You’ve probably all heard the prediction that a democracy can only last about two hundred years. There is a great article on the subject, as are most writings in thedailybeast.com: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/28/american-democracy-under-threat-for-250-years.html.

Assange’s article tells me that Bernie and the Green Party are on the side of right, transparency and good, if not of power. I agree with that, and it’s enough for me. Even if we cannot win the election, we can at least stand up for what is right. It's a form of heaven on earth. I hope that, if and when the Greens do become rich and powerful like the Democrats and Republicans, they won’t automatically turn to corruption, too.

It’s too bad that so many of the great citizens of the world are so badly treated. Having read this democracynow.com article, it is surprising that there aren’t more within Western nations who are living in fear of imprisonment or even the death penalty due to standing up for principles. If Assange is correct, we are already living under the shadow of Big Brother, and soon may be absolute thralls.

Too big to fail takes on new meaning here. If Google does rule the whole world five or ten years from now, will Trump or Clinton be the dictator of all the oligarchs? For the sake of the poor, I hope our world government is at that time leaning toward more financial stability and human justice than we have today. It is grotesque if the rich will still be getting richer and richer and richer after Clinton is (I hope) elected. That, of course is what so many Progressives fear about her. This is definitely the time, after November of course, for me to join the Greens. It’s like marrying for love and not for security and power.