JANUARY 22, 2017

NEWS AND VIEWS

THERE ARE TOO MANY ARTICLES TODAY THAT I WOULD LIKE TO INCLUDE, SO I AM DOING VERY LITTLE COMMENTARY. THE ARTICLES ARE BELOW.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-broken-promise-wikileaks-seeks-donald-trumps-tax-returns/

After broken promise, WikiLeaks seeks Donald Trump's tax returns
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS CBS NEWS
January 22, 2017, 4:38 PM

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 years. JOHN STILLWELL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


WikiLeaks spent the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election leaking information harmful to Hillary Clinton’s campaign -- but now they’re not happy with the man who beat her, President Donald Trump.

After Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said Sunday morning that Mr. Trump had no plans to release his tax returns, a shift from his stance during the campaign, WikiLeaks tweeted its disappointment:

Follow
WikiLeaks ✔ @wikileaks
Trump Counselor Kellyanne Conway stated today that Trump will not release his tax returns. Send them to: https://wikileaks.org/#submit so we can.
11:53 AM - 22 Jan 2017
5,489 5,489 Retweets 8,171 8,171 likes

Follow
WikiLeaks ✔ @wikileaks
Trump's breach of promise over the release of his tax returns is even more gratuitous than Clinton concealing her Goldman Sachs transcripts.
12:15 PM - 22 Jan 2017
3,228 3,228 Retweets 5,519 5,519 likes

WikiLeaks, founded by Julian Assange, posted thousands of hacked emails last year, first from the Democratic National Committee last summer and then from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s personal email account in the fall.

Assange has said he did not get the emails from the Russian government, despite the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the hacks were directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the wake of the intelligence report on Russian hacking, Mr. Trump appeared to side with Assange over U.S. intelligence agencies on the issue of Russian hacking, though he has denied that he agrees with Assange.



http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/inauguration-2017/new-white-house-press-secretary-blasts-media-over-crowd-size-n710351

POLITICS INAUGURATION 2017 JAN 21 2017, 6:59 PM ET
New White House Press Secretary Blasts Media Over Crowd Size Reporting
by PHIL HELSEL

Video -- White House Blasts Media Over Inauguration Coverage 2:07


President Donald Trump's press secretary on Saturday slammed what he called inaccurate tweets and reporting that suggested the crowd gathered to watch Friday's inauguration was far smaller than the one that watched Barack Obama's in 2009.

Sean Spicer in his first briefing since the inauguration also warned the media that "we're going to hold the press accountable" and said Trump doesn't need the press.

"As long as he serves as the messenger for this incredible movement he will take his message directly to the American people, where his focus will always be," Spicer said.

Related: Women's March Brings Flood of Pink Hats, Fiery Rhetoric to Washington

Spicer, who did not take questions from reporters, spent much of his statement condemning a photo and the reporting around it showing big gaps in the crowds on the National Mall on Inauguration Day.

He said white floor coverings to protect the grass "had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past the grass eliminated this visual." He claimed the tweeted photo was "intentionally framed" to be misleading.

Play Tweet comparing Obama and Trump's inauguration crowd sizes is against government policy Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
Tweet comparing Obama and Trump's inauguration crowd sizes is against government policy 0:34

An estimated 1.8 million people gathered to watch Obama, the nation's first African-American president, be inaugurated in 2009. The size of the crowd Friday is unclear because the National Park Service, which controls the mall, no longer releases official estimates of crowd sizes.

"These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong," Spicer said.

The Park Service said the coverings are translucent decking to protect the National Mall turf, part of a five-year, $40 million project that was completed in 2016.

Related: Trump Visits CIA, Says 'I Am So Behind You'

Image: Press briefing by White House press secretary Sean Spicer
White House press secretary Sean Spicer delivers his first statement in the Brady press briefing room at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 21, 2017. SHAWN THEW / EPA

In a Saturday visit to the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Trump also complained about reports on the crowd size and called the media "dishonest." He was criticized by some for the remarks.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, attacked Trump's public remarks during his CIA visit for giving "little more than a perfunctory acknowledgment" of staffers who have lost their lives on the job.

Spicer said Trump "delivered them a powerful and important message: He told them he has their back, and they were grateful for that." An official press briefing will be held Monday.

Spicer also said Trump has spoken with Canadian prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who will visit on Oct. 31. British Prime Minister Theresa May will also visit the White House, Spicer said.



https://www.laprogressive.com/american-goodwill/?utm_source=LA+Progressive+Newsletter&utm_campaign=7abf40e247-LAP+News+-+11+August+16+PC&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9f184a8aad-7abf40e247-286822829

Trying the Patience of the Planet
BY JAIME O'NEILL
POSTED ON JANUARY 19, 2017

Great Cartoon with this article

The people of the world have been pretty patient with my country, have generally and generously continued to view Americans with warm regard and friendship even when our government has behaved badly, and even when so many of our fellow citizens travel abroad and behave boorishly and arrogantly. Our neighbors to the south, those Mexicans who have routinely been treated with such disrespect, disdain, condescension and cruelty, generally continue to be gracious toward us, as individuals and as a nation.

They may disparage us behind our backs, of course, tell tales about their encounters with imperious tourists as they eat dinner with their families, of express contempt for our leaders as they sip cervezas in the cantina, but Mexicans tend to treat us with scrupulous politeness, in their own country, or in ours.

The same is true nearly everywhere else Americans are likely to travel. Even the French, who are so often stereotyped as rude and haughty, have–in my experience–always been kind, helpful to a bewildered visitor who is fumbling with their language, lost or confused. Because my first born daughter has lived in France for three decades now, I go there often, and I have never had an unpleasant encounter with a French person, not on the Metro, in a cab, or in a restaurant, not in Paris, not in any village I’ve visited, and not even during periods when American foreign policy was pissing people off, or when American numb skulls were going public with expressions of derision toward the French people, calling them “cheese eating surrender monkeys,” or making a splash about changing the name of French fries to Freedom Fries on the menu in the congressional dining room.

Our country continues to garner affection and genuine respect from people around the globe who still see our system and the ideals that undergird it as a beacon of hope for them, and for all humanity. But can that affection and respect be inexhaustible?

Far more consistently than too many Americans seem capable of doing, people elsewhere in the world largely manage to separate us as individual human being, exempting us from blame for the displays of arrogance and the “American exceptionalism” chest thumping so many of our high visibility politicians engage in so frequently.

Even beyond that, our country continues to garner affection and genuine respect from people around the globe who still see our system and the ideals that undergird it as a beacon of hope for them, and for all humanity.

But can that affection and respect be inexhaustible? When JFK was inaugurated, American prestige rose throughout the world. From that speech Kennedy gave in Berlin to his visit to his ancestral home in Ireland, he was seen as the embodiment of American idealism and vigor, a living vision of hope for the future, a bright symbol not only of and for the U.S., but of and for the planet.

The heroism of American soldiers, sailors, and airmen during World War II left an enduring legacy of love and gratitude in the hearts of people who had been freed from or spared oppression at the hands of the Nazis, the fascists, or the forces of the ruthlessly cruel Japanese occupying forces in places like Nanking and the Philippines.

But it seems impossible to imagine America’s repository of accrued goodwill is inexhaustible, that our account cannot be overdrawn, that the patience of people, here and abroad, will not be drained away by an excess of arrogance, exceptionalism, nationalism, imperialism, and bully boy belligerence as it expresses itself in the face of the man the disunited States of America inaugurates as its leader, as its symbol to the world on this perilous moment in our national and global history.

Jaime O’Neill

Print Friendly
POSTED ON JANUARY 19, 2017



RUSSKIES HAVING FUN AT OUR EXPENSE AGAIN:

“Russia company minting Donald Trump coins declaring “In Trump we trust”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/most-americans-think-russia-tried-to-interfere-in-presidential-election/

Most Americans think Russia tried to interfere in presidential election
CBS NEWS
By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, Kabir Khanna and Anthony Salvanto
January 18, 2017, 6:30 PM


Russian Interference in the 2016 Election

Most Americans - 57 percent - now think that Russia tried to interfere in 2016 presidential election, though not all think it was in order to help then-candidate Donald Trump. Of those Americans who think Russia did interfere, 44 percent think it was to help Donald Trump’s candidacy, while 13 percent agree that Russia interfered, but not to favor Mr. Trump. Another 34 percent of Americans don’t believe there was any Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats (71 percent) are far more likely than Republicans (18 percent) to think that Russia interfered in order to favor the Republican candidate. Just over half of Republicans – 53 percent - don’t accept the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election at all.

Sixty-five percent of Americans are at least somewhat concerned about the reports by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia tried to influence the election, including four in 10 who are very concerned. Two-thirds of Democrats are very concerned. In contrast, 55 percent of Republicans are either not very concerned (25 percent) or not at all concerned (30 percent).

Still, even most Republicans agree that Congress should investigate further. Two-thirds of Americans - including majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents – think Congress should investigate whether Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election.

Donald Trump and Relations with Russia

Amidst these reports from U.S. intelligence agencies, the percentage of Americans who now think President-elect Trump will be too friendly towards Russia has risen seven points since last month – from 36 percent in December to 43 percent today. Just 6 percent think he will be too hostile, while nearly half – 45 percent - think his approach will be about right. Views are largely partisan: 78 percent of Republicans think his approach will be about right, while 66 percent of Democrats think he will be too friendly toward Russia.

Mike Pompeo: Russia tried to impact U.S. democracy
Play VIDEO
Mike Pompeo: Russia tried to impact U.S. democracy

Half of Americans think that Russia is either unfriendly towards (27 percent) or an enemy of (23 percent) the United States, while fewer - 41 percent - think of Russia as either an ally (8 percent) or a friend (33 percent). While these percentages are roughly similar to what they were a couple of years ago, the partisan make-up of these opinions has shifted dramatically. Back in February 2015, 62 percent of Republicans thought of Russia as unfriendly or an enemy; now just 39 percent do. In contrast, the percentage of Democrats that views Russia as unfriendly or an enemy has risen – from 52 percent in 2015 to 67 percent today.

Russia company minting Donald Trump coins declaring “In Trump we trust”

Rating the Intelligence Agencies

Americans have mixed opinions of the two most prominent U.S. intelligence agencies - the CIA and the FBI. Views of the CIA have changed little since they were last measured in 2014: 40 percent of Americans give the CIA either a good or excellent rating, while 48 percent view the agency as either fair or poor. Meanwhile, positive assessment of the FBI has dropped considerably: now just 35 percent of Americans rate the FBI as excellent or good, down from 51 percent in 2014.

The drop in positive assessment of the FBI is largely among Democrats, some of whom may have been influenced by the FBI announcement that the agency was re-opening an investigation into Hillary Clinton just days before the 2016 election. Now just 37 percent of Democrats rate the FBI favorably, down from 54 percent in October 2014.

Cyber Security

Despite partisan disagreement on the intent and scope of Russian hacking into the 2016 election, a large majority of Americans of all political persuasions think the specter of cyber-attacks against computer systems in the United States more generally is a very serious threat.

Seventy-seven percent of Americans think cyber-attacks pose a very serious threat to the U.S. – up from 69 percent in September - and another 18 percent think the threat is somewhat serious.

Photograph -- cyber-attacks-how-serious.png, Few Americans think the United States is adequately prepared to deal with a major cyber-attack. Most – 63 percent - don’t think the U.S. is prepared for such an event.

This poll was conducted by telephone January 13-17, 2017 among a random sample of 1,257 adults nationwide. Data collection was conducted on behalf of CBS News by SSRS of Media, PA. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones.

The poll employed a random digit dial methodology. For the landline sample, a respondent was randomly selected from all adults in the household. For the cell sample, interviews were conducted with the person who answered the phone.

Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish using live interviewers. The data have been weighted to reflect U.S. Census figures on demographic variables.

The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher and is available by request. The margin of error includes the effects of standard weighting procedures which enlarge sampling error slightly.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

CBS News poll toplines - Russia by cbsnews on Scribd



AFTER THE CHANGEOVER – OTHER NEWS



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-u-k-ambassador-to-russia-says-fsbs-use-of-sexual-entrapment-widespread/

Ex-U.K. ambassador to Russia says Kremlin's use of sexual entrapment "widespread"
CBS NEWS
January 18, 2017, 7:13 PM


LONDON -- It was the persistent rumors of the dossier that had Sir Andrew Wood most concerned; Explosive material that could allow the Russians to blackmail the president-elect.

“Anybody has reason to be concerned if they think the future president of the United States is somehow under Russian or any other tutelage,” Wood said.

The retired British ambassador to Russia was concerned enough that he met with Sen. John McCain at a security conference last November.

dagata-split-frame-366.png
Sir Andrew Wood CBS NEWS

“It seemed to me that it was right, knowing that I had the chance to see, speak to the senator, that it was only right for me to say, ‘this does exist,’” Wood said to CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata.

The dossier contains unverified allegations of President-elect Donald Trump’s sexual behavior and potential bribes.

Trump says it’s a complete fabrication.

The report was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

Christopher Steele is seen in a photo obtained by CBS News.

“You know him, what kind of man is he?” D’Agata asked.

“He’s an honest professional. And nobody in his position would wish to make this sort of stuff up because, after all, it’s a potentially dangerous problem,” Wood replied.

Steele has fled his home southwest of London and has gone into hiding.

Wood said he doesn’t know if the allegations are true, but the tactic of sexual entrapment by Russia’s intelligence services, the FSB, is widespread.

“It is just a very common practice and for the FSB to say they never use it is laughable,” he said.

In 2013, Trump returned to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, and used the occasion to try and develop other business ties.

“No one I suppose knew that he was going to become president then. But why not give it a go and stick it away for possible use later?” Wood said.

“Because that’s what Russians do?” D’Agata asked.

“Yes,” Wood replied.



SANDERS AS ROCK STAR RIVALING TRUMP:


https://www.yahoo.com/news/sanders-on-trump-inauguration-today-will-be-a-tough-day-161803439.html

Sanders on Trump inauguration: ‘Today will be a tough day’
Michael Walsh Yahoo News
January 20, 2017

Photograph -- U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and John McCain arrive for the inauguration ceremonies at the Capitol. (Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)


Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video Friday morning lamenting that Donald Trump was preparing to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

The former Democratic presidential candidate has been a longtime critic of Trump’s rhetoric and policies.

“Today is going to be a tough day for millions of Americans, including myself,” Sanders said. “But our response has got to be not to throw up our hands in despair, not to give up. But in fact to fight back as effectively and as vigorously as we can.”

According to the populist firebrand, Americans who oppose what Trump stands for need to keep their “eyes on the prize”: the continuing fight for a government that represents all Americans instead of just the ultra-wealthy.

“We’re going to go forward in the fight for economic, social, environmental and racial justice,” he continued. “That’s who we are. That’s what we’re going to do. We are not giving up.”

Just minutes earlier, Sanders praised the Obama family for representing the United States with “dignity, grace and civility” for the past eight years. Sanders was among the many political figures at the inauguration.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who defeated Sanders for her party’s nod but ultimately lost the general election to Trump, also attended the inauguration with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. In a tweet, she explained that she was there to honor the nation’s democracy and “its enduring values.”

“I will never stop believing in our country & its future,” she wrote.

Throughout the campaign, both Sanders and Clinton repeatedly lambasted Trump for statements and policy proposals that they labeled regressive and rooted in bigotry.

Read more from Yahoo News:

Trump team defends lack of diversity in cabinet picks
More Democratic lawmakers announce their intention to skip inauguration

Trump team to retain 50 Obama advisors (for now)


LET’S DO THIS IN EVERY STATE!

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/315040-sanders-backers-take-over-california-democratic-party

Sanders backers take over California Democratic Party
BY REID WILSON - 01/19/17 10:20 AM EST


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) turned out en masse at ordinarily sleepy party caucuses earlier this month, electing a slate of delegates who could be poised to take over the largest Democratic Party organization outside of Washington, D.C.

As final vote totals trickled in, Sanders backers claimed to have elected more than 650 delegates out of 1,120 available seats chosen at this month’s caucuses. Those delegates will choose the next state Democratic Party chairman, along with other party officials.

Sanders supporters say they hope to change the very nature of the Democratic Party.

“One of the issues we’re looking to do is transform the party,” said Shannon Jackson, executive director of Our Revolution, the organization that grew out of the Sanders’s presidential campaign. “This is the first step in that process.”

Our Revolution ran an on-the-ground get-out-the-vote effort to make sure supporters attended caucuses in each of the state’s 80 assembly districts. The group sent out more than 100,000 emails and delivered 40,000 text messages, Jackson told The Hill. More than 800 Sanders supporters signed up to run for delegate seats.

Longtime Democratic activists, used to low-turnout caucuses in which only party regulars show up, were stunned by the long lines they faced this year. One party strategist in Sacramento said he waited 45 minutes in line before being able to vote, when he was used to walking in and out in the span of five minutes.

The surge in turnout, and Sanders backers’ success, caught the attention of elected leaders in Sacramento.

“There’s a lot of energy in the party right now. We need to move really quickly to harness this energy,” state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D) said in an interview, marveling at the turnout in his Los Angeles-area district.

California’s legislature has been at the vanguard of some of the most liberal policy programs in the nation, on everything from climate change to immigrant rights. Sanders supporters hope to leverage their newfound power to convince Democratic majorities in the state Assembly and state Senate to embrace even more aggressive progressive positions.

“This is to basically force the issues that we vote on onto the legislators for action. So it’s a very serious sea change,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, who heads National Nurses United and the California Nurses Association, groups that backed Sanders during his 2016 presidential primary.

The first test of the new Sanders bloc of voters will come in May, when California Democrats choose a replacement for outgoing state party Chairman John Burton. The nurses union backs Kimberly Ellis, a San Francisco-area party activist who runs Emerge California, a group that trains Democratic women to run for office.

Ellis will face Eric Bauman, who heads the Los Angeles Democratic Party and who backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Sanders’s group has not made an endorsement in the race, though Jackson said Our Revolution would consider weighing in.

California is not the only state in which Sanders backers are trying to take over Democratic parties. The group is also organizing in Florida, Iowa, Colorado and Michigan, Jackson said.

“Hopefully, within a year or two, we’ll have a majority of the states covered,” Jackson said.

The bids to seize control of state Democratic parties is reminiscent of similar moves by fans of former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who engineered takeovers of state Republican parties in Nevada and Arizona, among others, after Paul’s bid for president in 2012.

But Democrats find themselves in deeper minorities, both in Congress and in state legislative chambers across the country. The party is poised to elect a new national chair person in February.



THIS ARTICLE IS A LITTLE OLD, BUT RELEVANT

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/09/opinions/serious-questions-bernie-sanders-opinion/index.html

Bernie Sanders: We need serious talk on serious issues
By Bernie Sanders
Updated 4:19 PM ET, Mon January 9, 2017

28 Photos – Bernie Sanders in the spotlight


(CNN)In my view, the media spends too much time treating politics like a baseball game, a personality contest or a soap opera. We need to focus less on polls, fundraisers, gaffes and who's running for president in four years, and more on the very serious problems facing the American people -- problems which get relatively little discussion. I hope that's what our town meeting on CNN tonight will accomplish.

There are a lot of important questions to talk about, including:
How do we stop the movement toward oligarchy in our country in which the economic and political life of the United States is increasingly controlled by a handful of billionaires?

Bernie Sanders

Are we content with the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that we are experiencing? Should the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent? Should one family in this country, the Waltons of the Walmart retail chain, own as much as the bottom 40 percent of our people? Should 52 percent of all new income be going into the pockets of the top 1 percent?

While the very rich become much richer, are we satisfied with having the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth? Can a worker really survive on the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? How can a working-class family afford $15,000 a year for childcare? How can a senior citizen or a disabled veteran get by on $13,000 a year from Social Security?
What can be done about a political system in which the very rich are able to spend unlimited sums of money to elect candidates who represent their interests? Is that really what democracy is about? Why, in the year 2017, do we still have state governments trying to suppress the vote and make it harder for poor people, young people and people of color to participate in the political process?

CNN will host town hall with Bernie Sanders

Why is the richest country in the history of the world the only major country not to provide health care to all as a right, despite spending much more per capita? Why are we one of the very few countries on earth not to provide paid family and medical leave? With the five major drug companies making over $50 billion in profits last year, why do we end up paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs?

How do we succeed in a competitive global economy if we do not have the best educated workforce in the world? And how can we have that quality workforce if so many of our young people are unable to afford higher education or leave school deeply in debt? Not so many years ago, we had the highest percentage of college graduates in the world. Now we don't even rank in the top ten. What can we do to make sure that every American, regardless of income, gets all of the education he or she needs?

Meanwhile, on climate change, the debate is over. The scientific community is virtually unanimous in telling us that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and is already doing devastating harm to our country and the entire world. How do we transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy while protecting those workers who might lose their jobs as a result of the transition? This is no small issue. The future of the planet is at stake.

Video -- Obama: US climate efforts can withstand 'near-term politics'

We are now spending $80 billion a year to imprison 2.2 million Americans, who are disproportionately African-American, Latino and Native American. We have more people in jail than any other country on earth, including China, which is home to four times as many people. How do we reform a broken criminal justice system? How do we create jobs and educational opportunity for young people, not more jails and incarceration?

We must create a path for the 11 million undocumented people in our country to become lawful permanent residents and eventually citizens. How can we move our nation toward common sense, humane and comprehensive immigration reform and by doing that help reverse the decline of our middle class and better prepare the United States to compete in the global economy?

Our nation's infrastructure is collapsing and the American people know it. At a time when our roads, bridges, water systems, rail and airports, levees, dams, schools and housing stock are decaying, the most effective way to rapidly create meaningful jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. How can we work together to make that happen?

Follow CNN Opinion
Join us on Twitter and Facebook

These are the issues that need to be talked about all over the country. I thank CNN for allowing us to have a serious discussion about serious issues.



THIS DEPLORABALL SHOULD NOT BE FINANCED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, EVEN IF TRUMP’S GROUP DID RAISE $90,000,000! IS THIS LEGAL?


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-presidential-inauguration-cost/

By the numbers: Donald Trump's $200 million inauguration
By AIMEE PICCHI MONEYWATCH
January 18, 2017, 5:15 AM


Donald Trump has promised that his inauguration will “very, very special, very beautiful.” By one measure, the event will definitely be as “bigly” as Mr. Trump envisions, given his inaugural committee has raised a record $90 million in private donations to help cover the tab. And oh, what a tab, judging by the following numbers:

Total cost: about $200 million. Cost estimates for the event range from $175 million to $200 million. The biggest expense is likely to be security, transportation and emergency services, given that the federal government spent $124 million on those items for the 2009 inauguration.

Private donations: $90 million. The Trump inaugural committee has said it’s raised more than $90 million from private donors, who are paying steep prices to gain access to Mr. Trump and his circle.

Most expensive inauguration ticket: $1 million. Wealthy donors and corporations have the option of underwriting the inauguration through donations ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. The most expensive package offers a “candlelight dinner” that will include appearances by Mr. Trump; his wife, Melania; and Vice President-elect Mike Pence and his wife, Karen.

Gala tickets: from about $150 and up. If you’re hoping to attend the Freedom Ball, one of the official Trump Inauguration Committee events, you are out of luck -- tickets are sold out. Yet there are other balls still selling tickets, ranging from about $150 to more than $1,000 per person.

Average Airbnb rental: $129 per night. Airbnb said the typical price for lodgings advertised on the online service has increased by about $30 per night, reaching $129 per night during inauguration weekend.

Average hotel price: $464 per night. That’s according to Expedia, which says the average hotel room for two people in Washington, D.C., will set you back by $464 for the night of Jan. 20th.

Trump commemorative license plate: $50. The inaugural committee is selling the “Official 58th Presidential Inaugural License Plate” for $50. Trump’s name is in black type on the white plate, with the slogan “Make America Great Again” underneath. Contributions aren’t tax-deductible.

Aside from the private funds, taxpayers will foot the rest of the bill. Even though Mr. Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee has raised almost as much as President Barack Obama’s two inaugural committees combined, the Jan. 20 event is slated to be lower key than previous celebrations.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott inauguration
Play VIDEO
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott inauguration

Tom Barrack, the lead inaugural planner, has told The Associated Press that he’s aiming to avoid a “circus-like atmosphere.” That may partly be out of the inauguration committee’s hands, since many A-list performers have snubbed the event, including Elton John and Celine Dion.

While Mr. Obama held 10 inaugural balls at his first inauguration, Mr. Trump is organizing only three. His parade is expected to run about 90 minutes. By comparison, the longest ever inaugural procession followed the 1952 election of Dwight Eisenhower, clocking in at more than four hours, according to accounts at the time.

Trump has predicted that “massive crowds” will attend the event, which kicks off with a Friday morning worship service and culminates that night with the inaugural balls.

John Dickerson takes a look at past Presidential Inaugurations
Play VIDEO
John Dickerson takes a look at past Presidential Inaugurations

“For many of us who worked behind the scenes before the election, this is in part a celebration of the end of the Clinton era and the beginning of a new dialogue between political factions,” said Kat Niedermair of Warfare Media, which is behind the DeploraBall events, a play on Hillary Clinton’s description of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.

One of the DeploraBall events will be held at the National Press Club, while another will be a formal gala at the William F. Bolger Center in Potomac, Maryland. Other events are also being organized around the country. Many tickets for the National Press Club event were sold below cost, so that event is “striving to break even,” Niedermair said.

About half the DeploraBall attendees are estimated to be traveling from beyond the Beltway. Niedermair added, “Many attendees were already planning to attend an inauguration, and this is the culmination of being able to celebrate with your political cohorts.”

Trump inauguration boycott grows after John Lewis feud
Play VIDEO
Trump inauguration boycott grows after John Lewis feud

Still, it’s not entirely clear how many in the crowd will be attending in support of Mr. Trump versus protesting his presidency.

While hotels are reporting strong demand for the inauguration weekend, many said that guests are booking rooms for the so-called Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, according to tourism group Destination DC. Airbnb said that it’s booked more than 13,000 guests at its listings for inauguration day, a tenfold increase from inauguration day in 2013. Some of those bookings are also for people attending the Women’s March, rather than the inauguration.

Inauguration attendees can watch many of the events for free. No tickets are required for general admission to the swearing-in ceremony, Tickets are required for special viewing areas for the parade, which will have more than 8,000 participants, including equestrian corps and high school and college marching bands.

Mr. Trump’s well-heeled supporters won’t have to line up along Pennsylvania Avenue in the chilly weather with the hoi polloi, however. Donors who have at least $25,000 to contribute to the inaugural committee are guaranteed tickets to the “victory reception,” billed as an “entertainment-filled welcome reception” and shuttles to the events.

The Trump Inauguration Committee didn’t immediately return a request for comment.


NON-POLITICAL NEWS


SYNTHETIC MILK? I THINK NOT!

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/09/yeast-animal-free-milk-perfect-day-cow-synthetic-biology

Your Breakfast Is About to Take a Weird Turn
Americans might soon be milking billions of microscopic creatures.
MARTA ZARASKANOV/DEC 2016 ISSUE


We seem to have come full circle on milk. First people began spurning cow's milk in favor of soy, which they then swapped for almond or rice. Soon, baristas began touting hemp and coconut instead—nondairy milk sales have soared 30 percent since 2011. But the next trend for the beverage isn't a plant-based alternative: It's cow's milk—with a twist. Though nearly identical to the stuff you grew up drinking, this milk is produced not by bovines, but by yeasts—single-celled fungi. And if Perfect Day, a Bay Area-based synthetic-biology startup, has its way, you might be able to buy yeast-produced milk this year.

Humans have been using yeast in their cooking for at least 9,000 years. Chemical analyses of pottery shards from China reveal that early Asians prepared a yeast-fermented beverage of rice, honey, and fruit. People around the world began to make beer and bread using a similar process, but it wasn't until the 1970s that we learned how to manipulate yeasts' genetic codes, tricking the fungi into secreting certain proteins. Now a multibillion-dollar market, GM yeasts have given us important medical commodities such as insulin, hepatitis vaccines, and cancer-fighting drugs.

Along with Perfect Day's milk, we will soon have egg proteins and animal-free gelatin made from yeast.
But it's only in the last few years that companies have used genetically modified yeasts to "brew" food ingredients. Much of the world's cheese is now made using rennet that's produced by synthetic yeast and bacteria to clot and curdle dairy. Yeast-made vanillin—the compound responsible for vanilla flavor—has been on the market since 2014. Along with Perfect Day's milk, we will soon have egg proteins and animal-free gelatin made from yeast. Saffron (the world's most expensive spice) is likely to follow.

Concocting such high-tech foods isn't cheap: When it debuts, Perfect Day's milk is projected to cost twice as much as milk from a cow. But the price of sequencing DNA "is now falling faster than the cost of computing," says Ron Shigeta, the chief science officer at IndieBio, a startup accelerator for synthetic biology. Shigeta estimates that eight years ago, it took about $1,200 to create a new strain of yeast; these days it's down to $200 to $300.

To make its animal-free milk, Perfect Day uses 3D-printed DNA sequences for the six most common cow's milk proteins and inserts them into yeast cells. Fed with corn sugar, the yeast begins emitting those proteins, which are separated out and used as ingredients in the milk. Perfect Day's beverage contains 98 percent of the proteins found in cow's milk, including casein, which is key to cheese production. But it lacks immunoglobulins, which can offer protection against E. coli and Helicobacter pylori bacteria, the cause of stomach infections and ulcers.

Perfect Day also has to add fats (like sunflower oil), carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins to its drink. As for sugars, which occur naturally in milk, the company has an alternative to lactose, the root of many dairy allergies, but it won't say what it is.

The company is happy to boast about the potential for yeast milk to take a load off the environment. Dairy production is responsible for almost 3 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans every year—more than airplanes. It takes 1,093 gallons of water and up to 27 acres of land to create one gallon of cow's milk. According to a study commissioned by Perfect Day, switching from conventional dairy production to its yeast milk could mean a 98 percent reduction in water consumption and up to 65 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Driven by Asia's growing appetite for dairy, global demand for milk "appears to be outstripping supply."

But yeast-made milk has a built-in PR problem. Some consumers could be turned off by the words "lab-made" or "genetically modified." Technically, the product itself won't be GM, since the engineered yeasts won't end up in the milk, but that hasn't stopped critics from denouncing Perfect Day's process; the international environmental organization Friends of the Earth calls it "an extreme form of genetic engineering." And you can expect the US dairy industry, which already spends $7 million a year lobbying, to jealously guard its $34 billion in annual sales and substantial government subsidies.

That said, driven by Asia's growing appetite for dairy, global demand for milk "appears to be outstripping supply," notes an article by analysts at multinational financial company Rabobank, which concludes that "cows cannot be coerced" to produce more. We might be better off coaxing yeast to work for us instead.


MARTA ZARASKA
Marta Zaraska is a freelance journalist living in rural France. Marta is the author of _Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession With Meat._



BILL GATES IS REALLY ON TO SOMETHING GOOD HERE – “ADAPTABLE VACCINES”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/davos-world-economic-forum-bill-gates-outsmart-global-epidemics-cepi-coalition-for-epidemic-preparedness/

Bill Gates on how to "outsmart" global epidemics
By JEAN SONG CBS NEWS
January 18, 2017, 6:41 PM

Play VIDEO -- Ebola vaccine proves "highly protective"
Play VIDEO -- Inside Bill Gates' new strategy for battling epidemics
Photograph -- ebola.png, Ebola in Guinea model COALITION FOR EPIDEMIC PREPAREDNESS INNOVATIONS (CEPI)
Photograph -- cepi-vaccines.png, Outpacing epidemics COALITION FOR EPIDEMIC PREPAREDNESS INNOVATIONS (CEPI)


Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, is preparing to “outsmart epidemics” by launching an effort that develops adaptable vaccines before another global health crisis like Zika or Ebola, which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa, threatens the world again.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) – founded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the governments of India and Norway, the medical research charity Wellcome and the World Economic Forum – addresses how “the world is tragically unprepared” to quickly detect and respond to outbreaks, Gates said.

“The idea is to take a new way of building vaccines that could let us develop in less than a year a novel vaccine, called DNA/RNA vaccines,” Gates told CBS News senior producer Lulu Chiang at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Part of CEPI’s research would explore ways to create “plug-and-play” vaccines using genetic sequences of pathogens to identify effective antibodies against infections.

The ultimate goal is to prepare ahead and outpace pandemics. “Right now,” Gates explained, “it takes years to build a new vaccine. But the scientific idea of these new platforms could radically change that so that a lot of the steps are sitting there ready – the factory piece, understanding the regulatory piece. And you just have to plug in some information and do some quick safety profiles and then you can get into manufacturing quite rapidly.”

So far, CEPI has an initial investment of $460 million from private, public and philanthropic organizations. Norway plans to invest around $120 million in the initial five years, Japan will invest $25 million a year for a total of $125 million, and Germany will initially commit $10.6 million. Additionally, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome will invest $100 million each over the next five years.

CEPI is using the Ebola outbreak in Guinea between September 2014 and May 2015 to model how many lives could have been saved if the time to introduce new vaccines had been cut down. For example, over the course of those nine months, there were approximately 2,407 deaths in Guinea. If the time to introduce a vaccine could have been whittled down to six weeks, 2,006 deaths could have been potentially prevented, according to a collaboration among researchers.

Gates said epidemics will surprise us, but there are lessons we can learn through simulations.

“We can take the same type of approach we use to prepare for military situations,” Gates said. “We can say, ‘Hey, is there standby capacity? Do people train and drill on these things? And how would the coordination work?’ And we haven’t invested enough in trying to minimize the damage.”

CEPI will engage in “just in case” and “just in time” strategies to implement their goal.

“If we pick some things that we know there is a risk from, if we’re right about the ones we pick, those will be there and that’s an amazing thing,” Gates said. “Even if we don’t anticipate it, we will have this platform that will be more timely and so you won’t have to build a new factory, the approval steps will be streamlined, and having gone through that with particular pathogens, we’ll understand what the regulator wants to see for this emergency case.”