October 15 through 18, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/14/bernie-sanders-tweet-sends-shares-of-ariad-pharmaceuticals-down-11.html

Bernie Sanders tweet sends shares of Ariad Pharmaceuticals down 15%
Christine Wang | @christiiineeee
October 15, 2016, 3 Hours Ago
CNBC.com

Photograph -- Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images, Senator Bernie Sanders


Shares of Ariad Pharmaceuticals plunged as much as 15 percent after Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized the price of the company's leukemia drug on Twitter.

Follow
Bernie Sanders ✔ @SenSanders
Drug corporations' greed is unbelievable. Ariad has raised the price of a leukemia drug to almost $199,000 a year. https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2016/10/07/ariad-riases-leukemia-drug-price/ …
12:39 PM - 14 Oct 2016

Photo published for What outrage? Ariad raises price of its leukemia four times so far this year

Since the beginning of the year, the company has raised the price of its Iclusig chronic myeloid leukemia treatment four times.
statnews.com
1,225 1,225 Retweets 1,635 1,635 likes

The stock ended the day down about 14.8 percent at $11.14 a share.

Ariad did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

The key biotech ETF has fallen 21 percent in 2016, as the sector faces renewed criticism on the campaign trail. Last month, Hillary Clinton proposed a consumer response team that would monitor drug prices and impose penalties for unjustified price increases.

"Over the past year, we've seen far too many examples of drug companies raising prices excessively for long-standing, life-saving treatments with little or no new innovation or R&D," Clinton said in a statement.

Even with Friday's decline, ARIAD shares have surged 78 percent so far this year.



Yes. We do need more and stronger restrictions on how Big Business does business. Such a consumer response team would help. I wonder if private individuals can make class action lawsuits against drug companies or businesses that, without good reason, jack up the prices. A 15% drop isn’t very much, but it does show me that a good many people in this country sold their shares when Bernie Sanders merely tweeted his shaming comments. You can’t say he doesn’t have a strong following.

In fact, I would like to see felony level criminal charges brought against all the officials in such a company. Recently the nefarious Martin Shkreli was arrested for his price raises, and several Net articles speak of price gouging during an emergency as being illegal, with the business in question subject to the loss of their license to do business. The penalty mentioned in one article was a measly $1,000 fine, which is not sufficient to stop the bad behavior even among ordinary Americans who are Middle Class or less in income.

Corporations simply laugh at penalties like that. So we need much stiffer laws and a federal agency with teeth to keep track of the price gougers. See: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-fraud/legacy/2010/04/11/charging-corps.PDF


DELTA AIRLINES CONSUMER ISSUES

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-female-doctor-delta-discriminated-barred-me-sick-passenger-n666251?cid=eml_nnn_20161014

Black Female Doctor: Delta Discriminated, Barred Me From Sick Passenger
by EMMA MARGOLIN
NEWS OCT 14 2016, 1:41 PM ET

Play Video -- Doctor Alleges Delta Barred Me From Helping Passenger 1:36
Image: Dr. Tamika Cross, Dr. Tamika Cross. Dwight Andrews / McGovern Medical School


A black doctor has accused Delta Air Lines of discrimination after a flight attendant allegedly shooed her away from a passenger in need of medical attention and said "actual physicians" were needed.

Delta said in a statement Friday afternoon that the airline is investigating the incident.

Dr. Tamika Cross, an OBGYN resident at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston, wrote in a Facebook post that she was on a flight from Detroit last week when someone two rows ahead her of starting screaming for help.

"I naturally jumped into Doctor mode as no one else was getting up," she wrote on Sunday in the account that has been shared more than 35,000 times.

But as she was about to stand, Cross said a flight attendant told everyone to stay calm — the man was just suffering from a night terror. Minutes later, the flight attendant yelled for a physician on board, Cross said.

Cross raised her hand to get the flight attendant's attention, but her help was rejected, she said.

"She said to me 'oh no sweetie put ur hand down, we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we don't have time to talk to you,'" Cross wrote. "I tried to inform her that I was a physician but I was continually cut off by condescending remarks."

As the overhead speaker called for physicians on board to alert the flight attendants, Cross said she pressed her button, staring at the flight attendant who had just cast her aside.

Tamika Cross
last Sunday

I'm sure many of my fellow young, corporate America working women of color can all understand my frustration when I say I'm sick of being disrespected.

Was on Delta flight DL945 and someone 2 rows in front of me was screaming for help. Her husband was unresponsive. I naturally jumped into Doctor mode as no one else was getting up. Unbuckle my seatbelt and throw my tray table up and as I'm about to stand up, flight attendant says "everyone stay calm, it's just a night terror, he is alright". I continue to watch the scene closely.

A couple mins later he is unresponsive again and the flight attendant yells "call overhead for a physician on board". I raised my hand to grab her attention. She said to me "oh no sweetie put ur hand down, we are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we don't have time to talk to you" I tried to inform her that I was a physician but I was continually cut off by condescending remarks.

Then overhead they paged "any physician on board please press your button". I stare at her as I go to press my button. She said "oh wow you're an actual physician?" I reply yes. She said "let me see your credentials. What type of Doctor are you? Where do you work? Why were you in Detroit?" (Please remember this man is still in need of help and she is blocking my row from even standing up while

Bombarding me with questions).

I respond "OBGYN, work in Houston, in Detroit for a wedding, but believe it or not they DO HAVE doctors in Detroit. Now excuse me so I can help the man in need". Another "seasoned" white male approaches the row and says he is a physician as well. She says to me "thanks for your help but he can help us, and he has his credentials". (Mind you he hasn't shown anything to her. Just showed up and fit the "description of a doctor") I stay seated. Mind blown. Blood boiling. (Man is responding the his questions and is seemingly better now Thank God)

Then this heifer has the nerve to ask for my input on what to do next about 10 mins later. I tell her we need vitals and blood sugar. She comes back to report to me a BP of 80/50 (super low, to my non medical peeps) and they can't find a glucometer. We continue down that pathway of medical work up, but the point is she needed my help and I continued to help despite the choice words I had saved up for her. The patient and his wife weren't the problem, they needed help and we were mid flight.

She came and apologized to me several times and offering me skymiles. I kindly refused. This is going higher than her. I don't want skymiles in exchange for blatant discrimination. Whether this was race, age, gender discrimination, it's not right. She will not get away with this....and I will still get my skymiles....



https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/delta.htm

Top 1,798 Complaints and Reviews about Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Consumer Complaints and Reviews


This article is too long to bother with excerpting selections or printing it all. I scanned the first few pages and found the usual scheduling mixups, unexplained seat changes, seating a husband and wife on separate aisles, poor treatment of business passengers in the business section, rudeness and last but not least, BEDBUGS…. Delta's rating with consumeraffairs.com is only one and a half stars. Not impressive, and I’m sure the medical doctor in the story above will win her lawsuit. At least I hope so.




THE LEGAL DEMOTION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS BELOW FULL CITIZENSHIP?

THIS RIGHT ORIENTED ARTICLE BLAMES MCKEON’S BEING A DEMOCRAT FOR HIS CALLOUSNESS TOWARD THE CHILD IN QUESTION HERE, EVEN STATING THAT DEMOCRATS ARE SOFT ON PEDOPHILES.

I SAY IT’S PERHAPS THAT MCKEON HAS A PERSONAL TENDENCY TOWARD PEDOPHLIA HIMSELF, OR THAT ALL THESE ADULTS ARE INVOLVED IN A “CHURCH” THAT JUSTIFIES COMPLETE DOMINATION AND SUBJEGATION OF WOMEN, AN EXCLUSIVELY RIGHT WING CONSTITUENCY. GROUPS LIKE THAT ARE OFTEN PART OF THE DOMINIONIST MOVEMENT.

AS FOR THIS REALSTRATEGY.COM ARTICLE, I DID SIGN THEIR PETITION, DEMOCRAT OR NOT, BECAUSE IT IS TRUE THAT “NO ONE SPOKE FOR THE CHILD!”

FOR THE ORIGINAL STORY, SEE THE BLOG OF OCTOBER 14.


https://therealstrategy.com/john-c-mckeon/

This Is The Last Straw For Judge John C. McKeon – You Are On Notice.

This judge, who did this. This pedophile sympathizing pathetic embarrassment for America…deserves the wrath of America.

Resign and Do Not Collect Your Pension. Make A Public Apology. And Accept Everything America Throws At You, The Public Shaming You Deserve.

The “unnamed” pedophile who raped his 12 year old daughter was set free by Dishonorable Judge John C. McKeon.

HE RAPED HIS OWN DAUGHTER.

HE DESTROYED HER LIFE.

THIS HAS TO STOP.

No one spoke on behalf of the 12 year old child at trial. No one.

It is time to start punishing the judges who let these monsters walk our streets.

Judge Mckeon is retiring very soon and does NOT deserve to collect retirement from the people of Montana. He did not fulfil the duties of the position we elected him for. He acted without respect for the laws of the state of Montana.

He did not take care of us.

He did not do his job.

We should not have to take care of him.

SHE DESERVES JUSTICE.

Judge John C. McKeon Has Been BLACKLISTED


Dishonorable Judge John C. McKeon

Hon. John C. McKeon
304 3rd Avenue West
P.O. Box 470
Malta, MT 59538
654-1062; 654-2363 fax

http://courts.mt.gov/locator/dist17

Ben Rattray founder of Change.org has a petition with thousands of signatures already.

If you think this matters petition McKeon’s Impeachment here: https://www.change.org/p/impeach-judge-john-mckeon

It’s just too bad he is retiring NEXT MONTH. From a recent press release: “McKeon is retiring next month after 22 years as a state judge.” (November, 2016) (TRISTATE)

More Info on John C. McKeon’s retirement: http://www.havredailynews.com/story/2016/09/23/local/district-judge-retires-after-22-years/510300.html

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN GATHERED THROUGHOUT THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

John C. Mckeon lives in Malta, Montana, has or “had” a PO BOX there. Send him some letters at PO BOX 545, Malta, MT 59538-0545.

blacklist-john-c-mckeon-address-wife-name

Confirmed in the second public search, Teresa Mckeon, Age 65+ must be his wife.

teresa-mckeon-malta-montana-wife-john-mckeon-tax-preparer

Teresa McKeon has a registered PTIN with the IRS. This information can be found here: http://www.ptindirectory.com/tax-preparers/montana/malta-mt/148276/teresa-mckeon-cpa

john-c-mckeon-other-relatives-address

One wouldn’t have to guess Dishonorable John C. Mckeon is a Democrat. Democrats love to play down pedophilia as if it is a sexual identity or at best a disease worth managing. Here is his record of most recent donation to the Montana Democratic Central Committee in 2012.

john-c-mckeon-contributed-montana-democratic-central-committee

John Mckeon, Pedophile Sympathizing Judge, Lets Child Rapist Free

Dishonerable Judge John C. McKeon

GLASGOW, MT (AP) – An eastern Montana man has been given a 30-year suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to raping his 12-year-old daughter last year.

District Judge John McKeon sentenced the man to 60 days in jail for incest, giving him credit for 17 already served, the Glasgow Courier reported. The man also was ordered to complete community-based sex-offender treatment and register as a sex offender.

The Associated Press is not naming the man to avoid identifying the victim of a sexual assault.

Deputy Valley County Attorney Dylan Jensen recommended a 100-year prison sentence with 75 years suspended – as called for in state law – as part of a plea agreement that recommended the dismissal of two other incest charges.

“A father repeatedly raped his 12-year-old daughter,” Jensen said during the Oct. 4 sentencing hearing.

A licensed clinical social worker testified that the man was a low-risk to re-offend and that it would be important for him to have social support while he received treatment. The social worker, Michael Sullivan of Billings, said the man did suffer a “collapse of social support” when he lost his family and job.

Court records said the girl’s mother walked in on one of the sexual assaults.

Public defender Casey Moore argued there was more than one way to hold a person accountable, the Courier reported.

“I’m not asking that he be given a slap on the wrist,” Moore said. “He did spend 17 days in jail and he did lose his job,” and will be on supervision for the rest of his life.

READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC: http://www.tristateupdate.com/story/33394120/man-admits-to-raping-12-year-old-daughter-gets-60-days-in-jail



WHY AREN’T MORE PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE CLASS?


http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/14/heres-how-much-you-have-to-earn-to-be-considered-middle-class-in-the-us.html

Here's how much you have to earn to be considered middle class in the US
Kathleen Elkins | @kathleen_elk
October 14, 2016

Photograph -- ABC Photo Archives | ABC | Getty Images
Leave it to Beaver


More and more people are falling out of America's middle class.

In fact, the Pew Research Center reported in 2015 that middle-income Americans no longer make up the majority of the people in the nation: "The American middle class is now matched in number by those in the economic tiers above and below it. In early 2015, 120.8 million adults were in middle-income households, compared with 121.3 million in lower- and upper-income households combined."

The same Pew report highlighted the minimum household income required to qualify as middle class. Pew defined middle class as "those with an income that is 67% to 200% (two-thirds to double) of the overall median household income."

Of course, there's more to class than income — the middle class can also be identified by net worth, education, and occupation, for example — but household income can be a useful tool by which to group people.

The income it takes to be considered middle class varies by household size, Pew noted.

For example, a one-person household needed only $24,000 to $73,000 to be considered middle-income in 2014, while a five-person household needed an income ranging from $54,000 to $162,000 to qualify.

How do you stack up?


It’s so sad that the more prosperous (wealthy) and societally advanced DNC Dems linked arms against the “radical” Bernie Sanders to protect their own status. The time may yet come when they will have to move over and make room at the Progressives’ table for a real Progressive. I notice they are happy to let him stump for them.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chief-armor-wearing-gunman-tried-to-assassinate-california-police-officers/

Chief: Armor wearing gunman tried to assassinate Calif. police officers
CBS/AP
October 17, 2016, 4:44 PM

Photograph -- Adam Powell. CBS SACRAMENTO


VALLEJO, Calif. -- A gunman wearing body armor targeted two California police officers who were taking a break at a coffee shop in an ambush that failed when his gun malfunctioned, authorities said Monday.

Adam Powell, 41, appeared in the doorway of a Starbucks and “attempted to assassinate” the two officers on Sunday, Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou said.

The officers were not injured because the battered weapon, its butt covered with duct tape or foil, appeared to jam. Powell of Suisan City was in critical condition after being shot by the officers during a foot chase.

It was the latest attack on police across the country. Earlier this month, a man in body armor shot and killed two officers in Palm Springs who were responding to a domestic disturbance call at the home of an ex-convict’s family.

That shooting occurred just three days after Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Steven Owen was shot and killed in Lancaster while answering a burglary call. Owen was the victim of “a calculated execution” by a parolee with a long history of arrests who pumped bullets into his body as he lay wounded, Sheriff Jim McDonnell said.

Bidou said he attacks have led to a heightened sense of alert among police.

He gave no further information on a motive for the attack in Vallejo, where the gunman kept trying to fire the assault-style weapon as he fled from the officers, police said, noting that the man was also carrying a loaded handgun.

The officers “were ambushed by somebody who has superior firepower,” Bidou said.

Police say Powell fled when he could not get the weapon to fire.

Officers said they caught up with Powell about 100 feet from the Starbucks and he was shot three times in a neighborhood of small houses next to a freeway on-ramp.

Jazmin Addison, who lives next to the intersection, said she heard more than a dozen shots. “It was scary. I made my kids get down on the floor,” she said.

She later saw the suspect on the ground, with numerous police around him.

Authorities said Powell had served prison time for robbery and drug-related offenses and was barred from possessing guns.

Bidou said Powell is the father of a 2-year-old boy who may have accidentally shot himself earlier Sunday in Suisun City, about 50 miles north of San Francisco. The child was taken to a hospital for a gunshot wound.

Police said preliminary information indicates the wound was accidental and self-inflicted. Powell was present when the child was shot and left the home before officers arrived, police said.

Several people were reportedly at the home at the time of the shooting, but left before officers arrived, police said, CBS Sacramento reported.

In Palm Springs, prosecutors say a gang member killed two police officers and wounded a third.

John Hernandez Felix, who has pleaded not guilty to murder charges, wore body armor and used armor-piercing ammunition when he opened fire with an AR-15 rifle on officers who came to the door, prosecutors said.

Five Dallas police officers were killed in a sniper attack this summer and earlier this month, a gunman also wearing body armor was fatally shot after critically wounding two police officers in Boston.



One at a time, murders of police officers are making the news. I wish I could say that surprises me, but it doesn’t. It merely grieves me. That is not the way to achieve justice in a civilized society, which I hope we still are.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kansas-muslims-bomb-plot-garden-city-afraid/

Some Kansas Muslims say they're afraid for their lives
CBS/AP
October 16, 2016, 8:41 AM

Photograph -- People stand outside an Islamic mosque located within an apartment complex, which federal authorities allege was to be targeted in a bomb plot by three Kansas men, is seen in Garden City, Kansas, U.S. October 14, 2016. REUTERS/ADAM SHRIMPLIN
Play VIDEO -- Feds make domestic terror arrest
Play VIDEO -- What we know about foiled Kansas bomb plot


GARDEN CITY, KAN. - Law enforcement sought Saturday to reassure immigrants in a diverse western Kansas community of their safety after three men were accused of plotting to target Somali immigrants there.

A complaint unsealed Friday charged Curtis Wayne Allen, 49; Patrick Eugene Stein, 47; and Gavin Wayne Wright, 49, with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in Garden City. The men are members of a small militia group that calls itself “the Crusaders,” and whose members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors said the men don’t yet have attorneys.

The suspects planned to detonate truck bombs around a small apartment complex where about 120 Somali residents live, according to the complaint. Prosecutors also said the men talked about attacking some of the area churches that have helped settle refugees and helped them get jobs at Tyson Foods, the meat packing company that has drawn a diverse immigrant population to the area.

Hundreds of Somalians, Malaysians, Burmese and others gathered around FBI agents and law enforcement officers for a briefing early Saturday, The Wichita Eagle reported.

“The only answer I can give you about why this happened is that they wanted to attack your religious beliefs,” Police Chief Michael Utz said. “But you need to know that whether you are an immigrant or not, you are all Garden Citians.”

“Some of you have said you can’t go to your mosque to pray, or that you can’t go to your homes because you are afraid,” Utz said. “But we and the sheriff and the FBI are here to say that you are safe in Garden City, and safe in the United States of America.”

CBS Wichita affiliate KWCH reports some members of the Somali community were helped by the talk the chief gave.

“I didn’t sleep very well, but today when I saw the police and heard the police, all the people in the community coming here, I was feeling very, very happy,” said Frah Farah, a community member. “I will sleep very well tonight.”

Dalma Ali Warsame, a 34-year-old Somalian, said Somalia had no government “and no safety,” which was why he came to the U.S. Now he has a wife and two daughters, ages 1 and 3, who are frightened, as is he.

But he says he likes it in Garden City and wants “to stay a long time.”

Mahad Jama, a Somalian who works at Tyson, said he has always felt welcomed.

“I see white people at Tyson, at the gas station, everywhere, and everyone is my friend. I don’t know what’s going on here,” he said.

John Doll, a former Garden City mayor and candidate for the Kansas Senate in the November election, said he was told he was one of the targets discussed by the group.

“This is terrible, because these people they targeted are great people; they work hard, pay taxes, obey the laws,” he said. “Why would anyone want to hurt them?”

Debra Bolton has studied the immigrant populations for years, currently for Kansas State University and said 35 languages and dialects besides English are spoken in Garden City schools. Of the 40,000 people in Finney County, only 46 percent are of white European descent, and there are about 500 Somalians, she said.

“This is devastating to the community,” she said.

Mohamad Saufar, a 13-year-old Malaysian Muslim who lives across the street from the targeted apartments, said his mother won’t let him play outside now. His 9-year-old sister tried to reassure him.

“Now they are in jail,” Nurjannah Ezaharhussain said of the suspects. “And they won’t get out until, like, forever!”



EXCERPTS -- “I see white people at Tyson, at the gas station, everywhere, and everyone is my friend. I don’t know what’s going on here,” he said. …. Debra Bolton has studied the immigrant populations for years, currently for Kansas State University and said 35 languages and dialects besides English are spoken in Garden City schools. Of the 40,000 people in Finney County, only 46 percent are of white European descent, and there are about 500 Somalians, she said.”


This is not New York City where the residents are much more accustomed to having a large percentage of immigrants present in their neighborhoods. Even there, street gangs do band together to attack them. These politically motivated “militia” groups, however, are more likely to be part of a community of thought that is proudly destructive and aggressive, and they are part of a growing radical movement in the US. See the Southern Poverty Law Center for more information on them.

They’ve been in the news since the Oklahoma City Bombing as a clear-cut “philosophy” of evil, and all such groups are similar. They take up where the KKK and Nazis left off and are encouraged by Donald Trump and others like him. The Sovereign Citizens groups are especially scary to me because they are firmly entrenched in a psychology of separatism, hatred of government and of all people who happen to differ from them in skin color or religion, based on their own twisted interpretation of the US Constitution.

Some of them are undoubtedly literally insane, but I think most of them are simply so filled with hatred that they don’t care about other humans than their own “special” group of White Anglo Saxon Protestants. While I don’t want a “police state” or a Big Brother society here, I do want GOOD law enforcement groups, such as I believe most FBI and DOJ agents to be, on the alert for groups who are dangerous. Stopping and arresting them BEFORE they act as occurred in this case is ideal. This time they did a great job.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-schumer-gets-political-some-fans-walk-out-tampa/

Hundreds walk out as Amy Schumer gets political
By BRITTANY LOGGINS CBS NEWS
October 17, 2016, 12:12 PM

Photograph -- Actress and comedian Amy Schumer at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, April 19, 2015. JASON MERRITT, GETTY IMAGES

Can fans love a comedian, but hate their politics?

Some members of Amy Schumer’s audience seemed to think so this weekend. Around 200 people walked out of her Tampa show when Schumer launched into a withering takedown of Donald Trump. The Tampa Bay Times reports some fans booed or walked out after Schumer called Trump an “orange, sexual-assaulting, fake- college-starting monster.”

It’s somewhat of a surprise that fans were caught off guard because Schumer isn’t known for suppressing her political views.

In fact, she has been very vocal about her opinions in the past. She’s advocated for Hillary Clinton on various talk show appearances, pushed for gun-control legislation and even features a callout in the back of her new book informing readers how they can take action on the issue. That’s all without mentioning the various sketches on her show that make her political standing crystal clear.

But in the Tampa audience, some were more than surprised – they were offended, and took to Twitter to voice their disagreement.

Hey @amyschumer leave the political stuff out of your comedy shows. We came to laugh not talk politics. We can turn On CNN and NBC for that😊

— Luisa Metallo (@LuiGucci) October 17, 2016
that moment when you go to a comedy show to get a break from all the political drama, but this happens https://t.co/zUdSgfqc96 #AmySchumer

— Alex∑π (@PixieSlide) October 17, 2016
@amyschumer you ruined my night. spent 300 for a comedy show. Then you went on a political path that was rude and disrespectful to Tampa.

— Nick Poe (@Nicholaspoe) October 17, 2016
That said – out of an audience of thousands of fans, a vast majority stuck with the show, and a lot of fans did speak up in recognition of her ideals:

AMY SCHUMER SOUNDING POLITICAL SHOULD SURPRISE NO ONE!
https://t.co/WVo2D1myGp via @TB_Times

— Mile High & Mad (@jlbrow7) October 17, 2016
Great show @amyschumer! Big ups for getting political. #tampa #lovefl #AmySchumer

— Krystle Murphy (@NewMurphyLaw) October 17, 2016
At what point is a reasonable conclusion that an Amy Schumer show is not going to be political?https://t.co/HWdsPdDq70

— StealthBadger (@stealthbadger) October 17, 2016
As for Schumer? She seems to have moved on:

All love Tampa https://t.co/KvYGJeR7uz

— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) October 17, 2016
In a statement to Vanity Fair, Ms. Schumer wrote: “I loved the crowd and my show in Tampa last night! I want to thank the 8400 people who stayed. We had a great time! We have always depended on comedians to make us laugh and tell the truth. I am proud to continue that tradition.”



EXCERPT -- …. That’s all without mentioning the various sketches on her show that make her political standing crystal clear. But in the Tampa audience, some were more than surprised – they were offended, and took to Twitter to voice their disagreement. …. Schumer called Trump an “orange, sexual-assaulting, fake-college-starting monster.” It’s somewhat of a surprise that fans were caught off guard because Schumer isn’t known for suppressing her political views. In fact, she has been very vocal about her opinions in the past.”


This looks like an ordinary staged event which is backed directly by Trump’s political campaign. He is known for attacking those who attack him, and for doing so viciously, such as the overly assertive young reporter with an involuntary physical condition that most (civilized) people would refrain from noticing at all, much less mocking. To do so is, after all, cowardly.



https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/protect-the-rights-of-vulnerable-children-and-care-leavers?bucket=email-blast-17_10_2016_social_care_test_blast&source=facebook-share-button&time=1476725279

To: Rt Hon Justine Greening MP
Protect the rights of vulnerable children and care leavers
CWContact Campaign Creator
Campaign created by
Carolyne Willow
October 17, 2016

Photograph -- Please don’t let councils be excused from their legal duties to vulnerable children and care leavers.


Why is this important?

Parts of the Children and Social Work Bill allow councils in England to be excused from their legal duties to provide for and protect vulnerable children and young people for up to six years. These protections have built up over 80 years and include many key laws passed by Parliament. They give vital rights to children living in their own families, including disabled children; children living in foster care, children’s homes, residential schools and custody; and young people leaving care.

The Government says this will encourage innovation, but we fear the loss of essential services and support for children and care leavers by cash-strapped councils.

There has been no public consultation and no evidence produced by the Government to support its plan to offer up for abolition every legal duty made for vulnerable children and care leavers since 1933.



“The Government says this will encourage innovation.” Conservatives in the US also say the same thing when arguing for reducing financial aid to impoverished households. The “overdependence of our poor on government sources” is supposedly the root cause of their very poverty or joblessness – too comfortable and lazy to work, in other words. The fact that there are no jobs doesn’t seem to figure into the matter in their view.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/firebombed-republican-party-office-north-carolina-investigation/

"Political terrorism": Search for suspects after GOP office firebombed in N.C.
CBS/AP
October 17, 2016, 12:34 PM


HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. -- Authorities are investigating after a local Republican Party office in North Carolina was vandalized and set on fire in what a state GOP official called an act of “political terrorism.”

A bottle filled with flammable liquid was thrown through the window of the Orange County Republican Party headquarters overnight, damaging the interior before burning out, according to a Sunday news release from the town of Hillsborough. The office was empty and no one was injured.

Also, someone spray-painted “Nazi Republicans leave town or else” on a nearby wall.

There were no new developments overnight in the investigation, Hillsborough Police Chief Duane Hampton said in an email Monday morning.

The violent act in the key battleground state has been condemned by public figures across the political spectrum.

A tweet from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Sunday said the attack “is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe.” An hour later, Trump tweeted: “Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning.”

The North Carolina GOP tweeted thanks to both Clinton and Trump for their words of support.

In tweets of their own, North Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and his Democratic challenger, state Attorney General Roy Cooper both described the violence as a threat to democracy.

“I will use every resource as governor to assist local authorities in this investigation,” McCrory’s added, and Cooper’s said “the culprits must be caught and brought to justice.”

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was working with local investigators to solve the crime.

The graffiti and remnants of the fire were discovered Sunday morning by 68-year-old Bobbie Sparrow, whose Balloons Above Orange shop is next to the GOP headquarters. She came to feed stray cats before church when she noticed the graffiti.

“I saw the hate in it. And the only reason they used the side of my building, because it was a blank canvas for a message to the Republican Party people,” she said in an interview. “I picked up my cellphone and called 911 and told them someone needed to get here immediately.”

She said she isn’t aware of any surveillance cameras outside the buildings, and Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said he wasn’t aware of any in the immediate vicinity, either.

On Monday afternoon, police released a recording of Sparrow’s 911 call placed at 8:54 a.m. Sunday.

“I don’t see any flames, but it has smoked up outside the window and there is a strong smell of smoke,” she says on the tape. “They obviously threw something flaming through the window at the Republican Party, and I’m not sure what kind of damage is inside. I’m not about to go look.”

Democrats joined a campaign to raise $10,000 to reopen the GOP office, meeting the goal in less than 40 minutes and “showing that Americans are thirsty for civility and decency, and that we love our democracy above all differences,” wrote the GoFundMe drive’s creator, David Weinberger, a researcher at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

“It’s a great gesture. We appreciate it a lot, but I don’t know how much of that we’re going to get to use because of the campaign laws,” Orange County GOP chairman Daniel Ashley told the AP on Monday.

Ashley said he wasn’t aware of any previous threats against the office, several miles from the town’s historic square, and that he didn’t learn anything new from investigators. Local police, state troopers and State Bureau of Investigation officers were at the scene, aiding the federal agencies involved.

The White House is responding to reports, saying there is no justification for the use of violence to advance a political agenda.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in Monday’s press briefing that President Barack Obama has consistently praised political activists who sought to overcome significant differences through the use of non-violent tactics.

Earnest says in a season heated with political rhetoric that neither side benefits from vandalism and violence.

He is also noting that some Democrats are trying to raise money to rebuild the campaign office. The online campaign he says is consistent with the president’s optimistic vision about the country and that progress can be made on key issues by focusing on shared values.

Republican offices around the state are re-examining their security, state GOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse said. People sometimes work after-hours in the office, and the bottle appeared to have landed on or near the couch where volunteers sometimes take naps, he said.

“They are working around the clock. It is a miracle that nobody was killed,” he said in an interview, calling the fire an act of “political terrorism.”

On Sunday afternoon, the walls of the multi-room office were covered in black char, and a couch against one wall had been burned down to its springs. Shattered glass covered the floor, and melted campaign yard signs showed warped lettering. The graffiti had been covered in paint.

At a news conference, Woodhouse urged Republicans to respond peacefully by turning out to vote in November. He said he’d received messages of support from Democrats.

Tom Stevens, mayor of the town about 40 miles northwest of Raleigh, said the act doesn’t represent the character of Orange County, which also includes much of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina campus. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3-1 margin in the county that picked President Barack Obama by a lopsided margin in the 2012 election.

“I’d like to believe we aspire to respect hearing differing views,” Stevens, a Democrat, said in an interview. “This is very troubling.”

CBS affiliate WNCN reports that tips can also be left anonymously through the town’s website or by calling the Hillsborough Police Department’s tip line at 919-732-3975.



I don’t believe a normal, mentally stable Democrat or Sanders follower did this. This is the kind of thing that someone who has had too many drinks does. Of course, college students have been known to get drunk and get into immature and unacceptable mischief.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/james-comey-fbi-director-lack-of-data-fuels-police-bias-narrative/

FBI director: Lack of use-of-force data fuels "police bias" narrative
By CRIMESIDER STAFF AP
October 17, 2016, 10:38 AM

FBI Director James Comey testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing in a September 28, 2016 file photo REUTERS/JOSHUA ROBERTS - RTSPUUU


WASHINGTON -- Dramatic videos of deadly law enforcement encounters and the absence of reliable data about how often police use force contribute to a regrettable narrative that “biased police are killing black men at epidemic rates,” FBI Director James Comey says.

Controversial killings by police
22 PHOTOS
Controversial killings by police

That story line has formed amid a lack of comprehensive, national data about how many citizens are killed or injured at the hands of police officers.

Videos of fatal police encounters that capture the public’s attention and are shared broadly across the internet can fuel the perception that “something terrible is being done by the police,” even if the data aren’t there to back it up, Comey said Sunday, speaking in San Diego during a gathering of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

“It is a narrative driven by video images of real and gut-wrenching misconduct, by images of possible misconduct, by images of perceived misconduct,” Comey said. “It’s a narrative given force by the awesome power of human empathy.”

Americans “actually have no idea if the number of black people or brown people or white people being shot by police is up, down or sideways over the last three years, five years, 10 years,” or if black people are more likely than white people to be shot during police encounters, Comey said.

That narrative creates a wedge between law enforcement and the public, keeping “good officers in their car” and perhaps causing them to think twice before making a certain traffic stop at midnight, Comey said.

“Our officers see the videos. They desperately do not want to be in one. They think about that all the time,” he added.

Unrest grows across the U.S. after fatal police shootings
Play VIDEO
Unrest grows across the U.S. after fatal police shootings

On the other side of the divide are distrustful community members who stay quiet instead of sharing information with the police after a crime, he said.

“And so into the chasm, into that gap of distrust, fall more dead young black men. In places like Chicago, we know what the chasm looks like and how much pain it causes,” the FBI director said.

The FBI is moving forward with plans for a national database to track information about police use of force, Justice Department officials announced last week.

“We need to collect actual, accurate and complete information about policing in this country so that we have informed debates about things that matter enormously,” Comey said.



There has been talk of this for a year or more, but now they’re going to actually do it. I’m delighted to see it, because arguments about justice can’t be achieved without proof. It doesn’t say how they are going to force the local and state governments to cooperate with the FBI on this, though. It’s my understanding that in many states the recording of each shooting is a matter of local option rather than a requirement. Still, I hope there’s more on the subject that hasn’t been stated in this article.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-fbi-documents-clinton-emails-state-department-denies-quid-pro-quo/

"Misunderstanding": FBI, State Dept. say no quid pro quo on Clinton emails
CBS NEWS
October 18, 2016, 11:26 AM

Play VIDEO -- Controversies that raise questions about Clinton campaign


Donald Trump is using FBI documents to launch a new attack on Hillary Clinton. The bureau released interview notes and summaries from its investigation of Clinton’s private email servers.

The files show a top State Department official asked the FBI to declassify a single message. That item was left unchanged.

The Clinton campaign tried to distance itself from the controversy Monday. Aides said they were not aware of this conversation between an undersecretary and an FBI official. But it will be harder for Clinton to distance herself from some of the other details just released by the FBI, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

As part of their investigation into Clinton’s email servers, FBI agents interviewed a former diplomatic security agent who “served briefly” on “Clinton’s protective detail.”

This one agent described a “stark difference” between Clinton and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice.

Clinton, the agent said, “frequently and ‘blatantly’ disregarded protocol.”

On overseas trips, the agent said Clinton often chose to ride in an armored limousine with her top aide, Huma Abedin, instead of with local U.S. ambassadors, “which frequently resulted in complaints by ambassadors who were insulted and embarrassed by this breach of protocol.”

The agent added that Clinton’s treatment of “agents on her protective detail was so contemptuous that many of them sought reassignment.”

By the end of Clinton’s tenure, “it was difficult to find senior agents willing to work for her.”

“This is worse than Watergate,” Trump said at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin Monday night.

Trump focused Monday on another FBI interview with an FBI employee, who said he felt “pressured” to “change a classified email from Clinton’s server to “unclassified” as part of a “quid pro quo” between an FBI official and Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy.

The employee said in exchange for the reduced classification, he was told “State would reciprocate by allowing the FBI to place more agents in countries where they are presently forbidden.”

“This is felony corruption by any standards,” Trump said. “This is one of the great miscarriages of justice in the history of this country.”

Both the FBI and State Department insist there was no quid pro quo. One spokesman called it a “misunderstanding.”

“Any really assertion that this was somehow tit for tat or quid pro quo or exchange in that manner really frankly is insulting,” said State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner.

In a little bit of good news for Clinton, FBI was releasing its notes in four batches, and this is the last batch. But the bad news is congressional Republicans said they think the supposed quid pro quo between the State Department and FBI was a violation of the law and they’re rallying to hold more hearings.



EXCERPT -- “Both the FBI and State Department insist there was no quid pro quo. One spokesman called it a “misunderstanding.”


The FBI maintains the same thing that the Dept. of State does – no quid pro quo; while Republicans back the Trump story just to keep the war going. It’s highly likely that the “former diplomatic security agent who “served briefly” on “Clinton’s protective detail” was fired for cause, or at any rate encouraged to resign. He is apparently the only one who was willing to go on the record, at any rate, in complaining about her sins and peccadilloes.

I personally am glad that I don’t have to follow as many small rules as Clinton did as Secretary of State. Not riding in the same car as a “local US ambassadors” seems like a small matter rather than “one of the great miscarriages of justice in the history of this country,” as Trump put it. Arresting Black people for a broken taillight and then fining them so much money that they are then thrown into jail by a judge for nonpayment -- we aren’t supposed to have “debtors’ prison in this country since the 1800s. Now that’s a “great miscarriage of justice.”



Finally, watch this masterful Bill Maher Youtube show if you like his wry take on life. I think all candidates for President should have to go up against Maher in a debate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OdtJ7lNjIs


Real Time With Bill Maher: Don't let Trump Quit! "New Rule - Over Time" | (HBO) October, 2016
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