August 25, 26, and 27, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/julian-assange-expect-another-leak-on-clinton-democrats/

Julian Assange: Next leak on Clinton, Dems will have "unexpected angles"
By REENA FLORES
CBS NEWS
August 25, 2016, 8:55 AM

Photograph -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures during a press conference inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on August 18, 2014 where Assange has been holed up for two years. JOHN STILLWELL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange warned Wednesday that his website is slated to release another batch of documents that could prove “significant” to the general election race.

“We have a lot of pages of material, thousands of pages of material,” Assange told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly in a televised interview. “It’s a variety of different types of documents and different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles that are, you know, quite interesting, some even entertaining.”

“I think it’s significant,” he added. “You know, it depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media.”

Assange, who is currently wanted for extradition by Sweden on sexual assault charges and who could be implicated for his involvement in leaking the damaging Democratic National Committee (DNC) email trove, said his website team is “working around the clock” to get the information out by November.

“We have received quite a lot of material,” Assange said, but declined to commit to a date for when the documents would be released.

He added that the DNC email dump had been scheduled to make as much of an impact ahead of the Democratic party’s national convention.

“In the case of the DNC leaks, for example, we pushed as far as we could to try to get it before the Democratic nomination process,” Assange said.

The WikiLeaks chief has been in exile at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012.



Whistleblowers like Assange do cause considerable trouble for politicians and for the society at large at times, but if their newly released information is TRUE AND PERTINENT I have considerable respect for them. In this case there has been evidence of some “dirty doins’” at the DNC, and I don’t really care much for Hillary at all any more. Unfortunately, Sanders is not available now to take her place, so what are we going to do? I still plan to vote for Hillary. See my secondary Blog today about the book which is fueling the newest Trump allegations of “pay to play” under Clinton’s Secretary of State years.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/burkini-ban-overturned-france-high-court/

Burkini ban overturned by France high court
CBS/AP August 26, 2016, 9:26 AM


PARIS -- France’s top administrative court has overturned a town burkini ban amid shock and anger worldwide after some Muslim women were ordered to remove body-concealing garments on French Riviera beaches.

The ruling by the Council of State Friday specifically concerns a ban in the Riviera town of Villeneuve-Loubet, but the binding decision is expected to set a legal precedent for all the 30 or so French resort municipalities that have issued similar decrees.

Lawyers for two human rights groups challenged the legality of the ban to the top court, saying the orders infringe basic freedoms and that mayors have overstepped their powers by telling women what to wear on beaches.

Mayors had cited concern about public order after deadly Islamic extremist attacks this summer, and many officials have argued that burkinis oppress women.

Nice Deputy Mayor Rudy Salles says wearing a burkini is a provocation.

“How is banning the burkini going to make Nice more secure?” CBS News’ Debora Patta asked him.

“The feeling of the people is very important,” Salles said. “If you see [an] Islamist, or something looking like Islamist on the beach, on the street, everywhere -- you don’t feel safe. And so we have rules.”

Lawyer Patrice Spinosi, representing the Human Rights League, told reporters that the decision should set a precedent, and that other mayors should conform to it. He also said women who have already received fines can protest them based on Friday’s decision.

The mayor of Sisco in northern Corsica says he won’t lift his ban.

Ange-Pierre Vivoni had banned the burkini after an Aug. 13 clash on a beach in Sisco.

He told BFM-TV: “Here the tension is very, very, very strong and I won’t withdraw it.”

He conceded he doesn’t know whether a woman was actually wearing a burkini the day a clash occurred that set a group of sunbathers of North African origin, from another town, against villagers from Sisco.

It took days to untangle the events leading to the violence that many immediately assumed was over a burkini sighting.



“The mayor of Sisco in northern Corsica says he won’t lift his ban. Ange-Pierre Vivoni had banned the burkini after an Aug. 13 clash on a beach in Sisco. He told BFM-TV: “Here the tension is very, very, very strong and I won’t withdraw it.” He conceded he doesn’t know whether a woman was actually wearing a burkini the day a clash occurred that set a group of sunbathers of North African origin, from another town, against villagers from Sisco. It took days to untangle the events leading to the violence that many immediately assumed was over a burkini sighting.”


This Sisco incident sounds like hysteria to me, in which a rumor starts a disturbance, sometimes with lives being lost. I’m glad to see that the French court has forbidden a ban on burkinis, because forbidding the wearing of a traditional Islamic garment would tend, I think, to enflame rather than calm hostilities. The French authorities should perhaps do more to communicate more public confidence to the citizens. It is clear, though, that in a nation where terrorists have been active more than a few times, there could be a “hair trigger” situation at work, and more violence is likely in the future. Personal rights set aside, I do understand why the ban was put into place. We haven’t had such traumatic situations in this country, so I can’t say that the non-Islamic citizens are being overwrought.



BLM ON CLOSER INSPECTION -- ASIAN ROUGHED UP BY BLM PROTESTORS


http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/milwaukee-protests-asian-american-black-lives-matter-214184

‘You’re Asian, Right? Why Are You Even Here?’
What I learned when I was attacked—and spared—because of my race at a Black Lives Matter protest.
By Aaron Mak
August 23, 2016

Photograph -- Riot scene AP Photo


WILWAUKEE — I knew the protest was going to spiral into something bigger when I saw a man in tears push a police officer. I had never seen anyone lay a hand on a cop, even amicably. But these people gathered now in the street were utterly out of patience. I wasn’t sure whether I would be caught in the crossfire. Then a community activist I had earlier asked to interview spotted me, and called me over.
“I can see from your face that you don’t think you’re safe,” he told me. He was black; I’m Chinese-American. “You are. You’re a minority, too.”

It was just the reassurance I was looking for. It would also turn out to be wrong.
It had all started earlier that day, around 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 13, when Milwaukee police officers pulled over two black men in the city’s predominantly African-American Sherman Park neighborhood. The men fled on foot with the officers running after them. Officer Dominique Heaggan caught up with one of the men, Sylville Smith, who was armed. After a confrontation, the details of which are still unclear, the officer shot and killed Smith.
Outrage at Smith’s death surged over social media, and hundreds of people came out to protest on the street where he was killed. It was the latest in a string of often-dubious police shootings in the city. I was sent to go report on the scene as an intern for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel—my last assignment for the summer.
Shortly after I arrived, I saw the beginnings of a shoving match between a line of policemen in riot gear and the distraught residents of the neighborhood. I was the only non-black person there at the time—the other news crews had left—and my presence was soon questioned: Some pointed me out as an interloper; others, like the reassuring activist, told me I would be fine. I brushed off the more hostile comments as much as I could: They were angry, and anger doesn’t always hit its intended target.
As the confrontation went on, the crowd became more and more violent. What started as shoving and rock throwing escalated into smashing cars and setting businesses aflame. By nightfall, I was crouching behind a Chevy Suburban to avoid bullets. Another intern, a white man who had arrived later on to take photos, huddled beside me. After the gunfire ceased, he emerged from behind the car to take more pictures while I stayed behind.
“Get your white ass out of here!” he soon heard. “You better not let me fucking catch you!”
After trying unsuccessfully to defuse the situation, my colleague was flying down the street with a group of men chasing him. Wanting to help, but not knowing how, I decided to run after them. In order to run faster, my colleague dropped the two bulky cameras hanging around his neck. When I tried to retrieve them, and yelled at him to get out of the area, some in the group of rioters started chasing after me too. As a former back-of-the-pack runner in middle school gym class, I wasn’t surprised when they caught me. When they threw me to the ground, I reflexively curled up into a ball. Blows landed on my back, head and torso.
“Stop! He’s not white! He’s Asian!”
I wasn’t sure who said it, or how they knew my race, but within seconds, the punches stopped. Someone grabbed me by the arm and lifted me up. As my vision came back into focus, I saw a group of concerned black faces and heard someone repeating, “Don’t fuck with Chinese dudes.” My attackers had run off. Those who had intervened escorted me to safety.
The Journal Sentinel pulled its reporters off the scene that night once it got violent; thankfully, I walked away from the incident with only scrapes and bruises, and none of my colleagues were injured. Still, I was rattled.
The voice that stuck in my head over the next few days, as I talked to my relatives and friends about it, belonged to a woman who’d come up to me in the afternoon scrum: “You’re Asian, right?” she said to me. “Why are you even here?
***
In one sense, the answer was obvious: I am a journalist. I’ve covered protests against police brutality before, and see it as a responsibility of the press to convey the pain and grief that can result from misuse of power.
But as an Asian-American who’s concerned with systemic racism, it would be naive for me to pretend—especially in moments like this, when anger over the treatment of African-Americans bubbles over into violence—that race wasn’t part of why people came out to protest in Milwaukee, or part of sifting out who belongs there.
As race and police violence become a higher-profile issue in America, many Asian-Americans are still trying to figure out where—or if—we fit in to the movement. Black Lives Matter is the highest-profile effort to push for minority rights in America right now. It was born of grievances just like those we’re seeing in Milwaukee; at each killing, whether Milwaukee or Baton Rouge or St. Paul, BLM emerges as the voice pushing for police accountability, for the full dignity of Americans who’ve been deprived of it. It’s also, explicitly, an African-American cause. Should Asian-Americans like me count ourselves part of the same effort to fight for minority rights, or are we at odds with it?
Asian-Americans—like all ethnic groups—are, of course, diverse in our origins and experiences, which means there are varying degrees of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. I’ve had lengthy arguments with my more conservative immigrant grandparents in San Francisco about stop-and-frisk, mass incarceration and racial profiling. We don’t agree on how much systemic racism versus personal responsibility factors into the plight of African-Americans. I’ve yelled at my grandparents, self-righteously accusing them of racism for failing to see how often the system cheats black people. I had thought this should be obvious to everyone, including Asian-Americans.
But the debate among Asian-Americans over BLM, I’ve since found, is messier and more nuanced. It is rooted in the immigrant experience, as well as political fissures within the Asian-American community. While it’s difficult to make generalizations about a population that’s made up of more than a dozen ethnic groups, there do seem to be two major camps that Asian-American activists fall into. One is supportive of BLM and sees the elimination of police brutality toward black people as a moral imperative on its own account, but also as a victory that will uplift all minorities. The other camp is much more skeptical of the movement, preferring to improve the justice system incrementally and focus on challenges that Asian-Americans face, such as difficulty accessing health care and low rates of English proficiency.
Relations between Asian-Americans and African-Americans were thrust into the spotlight in the case of Chinese-American police officer Peter Liang. In 2014, Liang killed Akai Gurley, a black man who was unarmed, in New York, by firing a bullet into a dark stairwell that ricocheted off a wall and hit Gurley in the heart. Liang was ultimately found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and official misconduct, and now must complete 800 hours of community service and serve five years of probation. (Last Tuesday, Gurley’s family reached a settlement with the City of New York for $4.1 million, and with Liang for $25,000.)
Among Asian-Americans, the reaction to the case was split. Thousands in cities around the country came to Liang’s defense with marches and money, arguing that Liang had been unfairly singled out: Many white police officers, they pointed out, hadn’t been charged after killing black men in similar circumstances. Others in the Asian-American community rallied for Gurley, asserting that it was important to stand in solidarity with BLM, and that all police officers need to be held accountable for violence against African-Americans.
With the recent eruption of police-involved shootings this summer—in St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Dallas and now Milwaukee—activists in Asian-American circles have renewed their dialogue about where they fit into BLM, with “a lot more voices [coming] out in solidarity in addition to voices on the other side,” according to Chris Kang of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, a coalition of Asian-American policy organizations.
One factor in some activist groups’ hesitancy to stand with BLM seems to be the fear that bringing race into any debate can turn society into a zero-sum game—one that Asian-Americans often lose. Asian-Americans are labeled, controversially, as the “model minority”—referring to the notion that many of us have achieved success in the United States through sheer hard work and determination. But we still must fight against discrimination in politics, workplaces and the media. When it comes to some key minority-rights issues like affirmative action, Asian and black communities can often sit on opposite sides of the fence. Some Asian-Americans believe a college admissions policy that lets more black students into the University of California system, for instance, ends up taking spots away from Asian families (though many Asian-American groups see this as a myth and support race-based admission factors). Despite the relative high education rates and wealth of Asian-Americans, certain ethnic subgroups still strain under the weight of socioeconomic burdens, just as many African-Americans do. Affirmative action strikes some Asian-Americans, therefore, as unfair.
That kind of thinking seems to underlie certain Asian-American groups’ uneasiness about the BLM movement. Indeed, close to a dozen interviews with activists and a rough review of news releases from activist organizations in the wake of this summer’s shootings reveals that Asian-American groups opposed to race-based affirmative action policies and demographic data disaggregation tend to be less inclined to get behind BLM, while groups that back these policies are more likely to be actively supportive of BLM. In New York, the Chinese Action Network, which backed Peter Liang’s defense, has stood against allowing race considerations to factor into admissions in elite New York prep schools. In California, there are several Asian-American rights groups that were part of the uproar over SCA5, a state amendment that would have allowed race to factor into admissions for the California public university system, and that have demonstrated skepticism or silence toward the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It shows our consistent principles,” says Frank Xu of San Diego Asian Americans for Equality. “If we always point out race, that won’t help solve the problem. It will make the problem even worse.”
To groups like Xu’s that have been fighting to keep race out of political issues, the idea of focusing on wrongs committed against black people in the justice system seems misguided. They further argue that race has often not been a factor in the officers’ decision-making in various police shootings. And while they may recognize that police are 2.5 times more likely to use force against black people compared to other races, they also don’t want to take focus away from issues affecting their own community, like severe underreporting of violence against Asians.
“A lot of these people don’t realize that there are a lot of crimes committed against Asians,” says Karlin Chan, formerly of the Chinese Action Network. “You have to take care of your own house before you can go outside.”
Many immigrants also feel grateful for the U.S. justice system, after having left unstable Asian countries that lack civilian juries and rule of law. They believe that some activists, alarmingly, seem to want to blow the whole system up. “I’ve experienced the broken system in my home country and the working system here, so that’s why I really appreciate that everyone can have an opportunity to be judged by a relatively fair judge and jury,” says Xu, who is from China. “I hope the current system can be continuously improved, instead of suddenly broken.”
Once they’re more settled in America, many Asian-American immigrants also feel they have been able to work hard within the system to achieve success, and assert that black people have equal opportunities to do the same. For those Asian-Americans who support BLM, though, this train of thought obscures many of the socioeconomic challenges that subgroups within the Asian-American community face. It also perpetuates the misconception that Asian-Americans and black people are on a level playing field, when in reality our society was built on a rigged racial hierarchy with roots hundreds of years deep.
While many Asian-Americans do work hard to succeed, some also don’t realize how much they benefit from a system that doesn’t limit their ambition in the same way it often does for black people, through mechanisms like redlining and discriminatory incarceration. This ignorance is built into the model minority mentality, implicitly discounting the struggles of black people and falsely portraying them as simply lacking the willpower to get ahead. “I hear from relatives that Black people play the victim or that affirmative action makes them lazy,” Lee-Sean Huang, a Taiwanese-American activist, wrote in a message to me. “In my own family … the challenge is getting relatives to understand the unique challenges faced by Black communities.”
Over the past few years, more and more efforts have emerged to persuade Asian Americans to stand in solidarity with BLM. One of these efforts, launched earlier this summer, is called Letters for Black Lives. The digital initiative, started by writer-ethnographer Christina Xu and others, consists of crowd-sourced letters written by Asians raised in America and addressed to their first-generation family members and friends. The idea grew out of a tweet from Xu: “Asian-Americans who support BLM, we need to get ahead of our community organizing another pro-Liang rally. Talk to your families today.” Now translated into dozens of languages, the letters acknowledge the obstacles and prejudices that many Asian-American immigrants face, but then pivot to explain how much more difficult and dangerous it is right now for many black people in America.
“For the most part, nobody thinks ‘dangerous criminal’ when we are walking down the street,” the letter reads, in part. “The police do not gun down our children and parents for simply existing.”
Activists like those behind Letters for Black Lives also believe that there’s an element of collective victory in supporting the cause. Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders face high rates of incarceration, and there are cases in which police have targeted South Asians because of their darker skin tone. Some activists point out a parallel to the civil rights movement, when Asian-Americans benefited from African-Americans’ victories on immigration, voting rights and even affirmative action policies. In other words, it’s not a zero-sum game.

***
I called my grandparents a couple days after leaving Milwaukee to tell them what happened. They were flustered. Their first suggestion was that I should switch to a safer career and become a paralegal instead of a journalist.
What I was really afraid of, though, was that the incident would stoke their distrust of Black Lives Matter. While I don’t condone the attacks on my Journal Sentinel colleague and me, I don’t think our experience represents the movement overall. I wanted to move on to talk about the many African-Americans who stopped my attackers, who got me to safety and who may very well have saved me from more serious injuries. I wanted to encourage my grandparents to read the Letters for Black Lives.
But before I could, my grandma cut me off. She warned me against holding a grudge because of the incident. “Black people are human beings,” she said, “and I am a human being. But a lot of them are not lucky in America, like you and me. You should support them if you can. I want to help them too.”
While we still disagree on how exactly to do that, it’s good to know that we’re on the same page.



BLM is not blameless in this instance and in a few others. It is most unwise, and totally unnecessary to harass anyone of any race (white, Asian, or otherwise) who chooses to join their protests. Friends should not be abused, but welcomed. There was an incident a couple of months ago when some well-meaning whites joined one of their protests and was told to go to the back away from the news cameras. That’s a real mistake.

Force is not enough. Without cooperation, they won’t win the hearts of lawmakers and city council members, and though they seem to be able to raise a good-sized crowd, it won’t be enough to change laws. Black people are still the minority. In 40 years, we’ll see, I guess. In the meantime, we need more cooperation, not more stress.

Many whites want to make interpersonal relationships with black people, but are rebuffed. Right now there are a lot of YOUNG black people who are very much into black pride, but not much interested in really being a part of the American populace. Their goals are short-term and the result will not profit them. They’re into voicing and exhibiting their anger (their “rights”), but wearing dreadlocks, playing earsplitting music and wearing their pants down to the very limit of acceptability (created by those colorful boxer shorts) will only get them more ill will from whites and no respect. It’s a losing battle.

The trick in gaining political power in a conservative nation of majority whites is to make them open up their hearts, and that takes good will. By snubbing and even threatening people, that goodwill will be rapidly diminished, and so will their power. They need to go through the lawmakers and the governing bodies who control the rules under which policemen operate. The Law of the land is still the key to power in this country. Americans as a whole really believe in that process.

Martin Luther King was sometimes called an Uncle Tom over being a pacifist in his movement. The fact is, however, that if he hadn’t been BLAMELESS, the impact of his moral victory would have been diminished, and he wouldn’t have gained the full respect of most whites in the country, especially those particular whites who filled the seats of the Congress and Senate. It’s no different from the immense victory won by Mahatma Gandhi over Britain. He shamed Britain into granting India full nation status. See the following about Gandhi, who was Martin Luther King’s role model.


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

Mahatma Gandhi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi, ˈɡæn-/;[2] Hindustani: [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable")[3]—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,[4]—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for "father",[5] "papa"[5][6]) in India. In common parlance in India he is often called Gandhiji. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation.[7][8]

Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule. . . . .

Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.

Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.[9] Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire[9] was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan.[10] As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Eschewing the official celebration of independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several fasts unto death to promote religious harmony. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 at age 78,[11] also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.[11] Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating.[11][12] Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest at point-blank range.[12]



https://www.yahoo.com/gma/orlando-hospitals-wont-bill-pulse-nightclub-massacre-victims-074146723--abc-news-topstories.html

Orlando Hospitals Won't Bill Pulse Nightclub Massacre Victims
DAVID CAPLAN,Good Morning America
August 25, 2016

Pulse Nightclub Released Back to Owner After Mass Shooting Investigation
Police's Play-by-Play of Orlando Shooting Revealed: From 'Shots Fired' to 'Subject Down'
Play video -- Orlando Hospital Trauma Teams Put Emotions Aside Transcript: Orlando Shooter's Call With Police Dispatcher
View gallery -- Orlando Hospitals Won't Bill Pulse Nightclub Massacre Victims (ABC News)


Survivors of the Pulse nightclub massacre who were treated at two Orlando hospitals will not be billed for their medical care, the facilities announced Wednesday.

Orlando Health, a health care network that includes Orlando Regional Medical Center, said in a statement to ABC News, "Orlando Health has not sent any hospital or medical bills directly to Pulse patients, and we don’t intend to pursue reimbursement of medical costs from them."

Orlando Regional Hospital treated 44 patients of the June 12 terrorist attack, during which gunman Omar Mateen slaughtered 49 people at Pulse, one of Orlando's most popular LGBT venues.

Orlando Health said it is "exploring numerous options to help the victims of the Pulse nightclub tragedy address immediate and ongoing medical costs. These include state and federal funds, private insurance, victim funds like the One Orlando fund, disability insurance, Florida’s crime victim compensation program, funding sources established for individual victims, means-tested programs like Medicaid, as well as charity care provided by Orlando Health."

The not-for-profit health care network said total unreimbursed costs "could exceed $5 million."

Florida Hospital, part of the Florida Hospital Healthcare system, treated 12 survivors of the attack. It also said it will not be billing for services, according to ABC Orlando affiliate WFTV.

"It was incredible to see how our community came together in the wake of the senseless Pulse shooting," the hospital’s CEO, Daryl Tol, said in a statement. "We hope this gesture can add to the heart and goodwill that defines Orlando."

Pulse massacre survivor Mario Lopez, 34, who was grazed by a bullet and had bullet fragments in his left side, told The Orlando Sentinel he welcomes the announcement, since he is uninsured. "I was so worried because I can't afford any of that," he told the newspaper, which reported that his seven-hour hospital visit left him with a potential $20,000 bill. "It's a huge relief."



This is my Good News story for the day. Business has behaved with very creditable good will to the community when they could have just soaked all those families for every dollar they had left. Thank you, Good Guys.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-campaign-ceo-stephen-bannon-anti-semitic-remarks/

Donald Trump campaign CEO accused of making anti-Semitic remarks
CBS/AP
August 27, 2016, 9:10 AM

Play VIDEO -- Behind Trump's campaign CEO and the "alt-right" movement
Play VIDEO -- What is the alt-right movement and what does Trump's campaign CEO have to do with it?
Photograph -- Stephen K. Bannon looks at his computer to see who will be the next caller he will talk to while hosting Brietbart News Daily on SiriusXM Patriot at Quicken Loans Arena on July 20, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio. KIRK IRWIN/GETTY IMAGES FOR SIRIUSXM
Play VIDEO -- Impact of Trump and Clinton's sharpening war over race
Play VIDEO -- Trump and Clinton trade blows over bigotry
Play VIDEO -- Could Trump's "softening" on immigration anger his voter base?


LOS ANGELES -- An ex-wife of Donald Trump’s new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, said Bannon made anti-Semitic remarks when the two battled over sending their daughters to private school nearly a decade ago, according to court papers reviewed Friday by The Associated Press.

What is the alt-right movement and what does Trump's campaign CEO have to do with it?

That revelation came a day after reports emerged that domestic violence charges were filed 20 years ago against Bannon following an altercation with his then-wife, Mary Louise Piccard.

In a sworn court declaration following their divorce, Piccard said her ex-husband had objected to sending their twin daughters to an elite Los Angeles academy because he “didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.”

“He said he doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiney brats,’” Piccard said in a 2007 court filing.

Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, took the helm of Trump’s campaign last week in yet another leadership shake-up. The campaign has been plagued by negative stories about staffers, including charges lodged against his former campaign manager following an altercation with a reporter, and questions about his former campaign chairman’s links with Russian interests.

On Friday, the Florida secretary of state’s office told CBS News that Bannon recently changed his voter registration reportedly from an address where a vacant home was due to be demolished. EH???

Alexandra Preate, a spokeswoman for Bannon, denied Friday night that he made anti-Semitic remarks about the private school. “He never said that,” Preate said, adding that Bannon was proud to send his daughters to the school.

Trump has previously been criticized for invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes, including tweeting out an anti-Hillary Clinton image that included a Star of David atop a pile of money.

He also raised eyebrows when he spoke in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition and declared, “I’m a negotiator like you folks were negotiators.”

Clinton has tried in recent days to highlight Trump’s popularity with white nationalist and supremacist groups. She delivered a speech Thursday that linked him with the “alt-right” movement, which is often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve “white identity,” oppose multiculturalism and defend “Western values.”

Trump has pushed back, defending himself and his supporters, and labeling Clinton “a bigot” for supporting policies he argues have ravaged minority communities.

Trump has noted that his daughter, Ivanka, would soon be having another Jewish child. Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married Jared Kushner, a young real estate developer who has become a driving force in his father-in-law’s campaign.

The court filing was among several documents related to Bannon and Picard’s voluminous divorce case, filed in 1997, which was revisited several times as Piccard sought support for tuition and other expenses. The documents reviewed by the AP were part of a request for Bannon to pay $25,000 in legal fees and to cover the $64,000 in tuition it cost to send both girls to The Archer School for Girls for the 2007-08 school year.

Bannon’s remarks about Jews followed other comments that caught Piccard’s attention when they were visiting private schools in 2000.

At one school, she said, he asked the director why there were so many Hanukkah books in the library. At another school, he asked Piccard if it bothered her that the school used to be in a temple.

“I said, ‘No,’ and asked why he asked,” Piccard said. “He did not respond.”

Piccard said Bannon wanted the girls to attend a Catholic school.

In 2007, when the girls were accepted at Archer, he told Piccard he objected because of the number of Jews in attendance.

Piccard filed for divorce in January 1997, just over a year after she told police Bannon roughed her up on New Year’s Day 1996 following a spat over money, in which she spit on him.

A police report obtained by the AP said he grabbed her wrist and “grabbed at” her neck. When she tried to call 911, she told police that Bannon grabbed the phone and threw it across the room. An officer who responded reported seeing red marks on her wrist and neck.

Bannon was charged in 1996 with misdemeanor witness intimidation, domestic violence with traumatic injury and battery, according to a Santa Monica, California, police report. The charges were dropped after his estranged wife didn’t show up at trial, according to court records.

Piccard said in her declaration that she skipped the trial after Bannon and his lawyer arranged for her to leave town. She said Bannon had told her the lawyer would make her look like the guilty party if she testified and the attorney told her she’d be broke if Bannon went to jail.

The Trump campaign declined to comment on the abuse charges. But Preate said police never interviewed Bannon. She added that Bannon has a great relationship with his ex-wife and kids.



Bannon’s anti-Semitism doesn’t surprise me at all. See the secondary Blog today called Clinton Cash for more information about Bannon and his past connections.