July 30, 2017


News and Views


THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT FROM WHERE I’M STANDING, THIS LOOKS LIKE A TRUE ACCIDENT, BECAUSE THERE WERE TWO CARS INVOLVED. SEVERAL CASES HAVE BEEN TERRORIST ACTION, THOUGH. I CAN REMEMBER TWO OTHERS IN THE LAST YEAR OR TWO. PEOPLE SIMPLY DRIVE TOO FAST AND MISS STOP SIGNALS OR SIGNS. IF LA IS LIKE NYC AND WASHINGTON DC, DOZENS OF PEOPLE CAN BE CROSSING A STREET AT THE SAME TIME. DRIVERS LOOKING DOWN AT THEIR SMART PHONES, ETC. IS DEADLY. I DO HOPE THIS MAN (OR WOMAN) IS CHARGED WITH A CRIME.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/los-angeles-vehicle-crashes-into-crowd-pedestrians/
CBS NEWS July 30, 2017, 8:42 PM
Multiple people injured after vehicle plows into crowd in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES -- At least 11 people were injured when a vehicle crashed into bystanders Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to CBS News.

The incident took place at 3:47 p.m. on Sunday at West Pico and Redondo Boulevard when two vehicles collided and one careened into a crowd of bystanders, an LAPD spokesperson said.

Of the 11 injured, one person was listed as in severe condition.

One of the drivers was taken into custody pending an investigation, the LAPD spokesperson said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement that eight people required emergency transport. They said an off-duty firefighter was injured at the scene but did not sustain injuries requiring transport.

This story is developing. Please check back for latest updates.


THIS VIDEO SHOWS SOME VERY WILD FIGHTING IN THE STREET THERE, LIKE OUR WATTS RIOTS IN THE 1960S.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-democracy-vote-protests-death-toll-caracas-nicolas-maduro/
CBS/AP July 30, 2017, 6:01 PM
Death toll rises amid deadly protests over controversial vote in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office is reporting three deaths on the day of a controversial vote for a constituent assembly that opposition leaders fear will trigger the end of democracy in Venezuela.

The office tweeted that 28-year-old Angelo Mendez and 39-year-old Eduardo Olave were killed at a protest Sunday in Merida. Thirty-year-old Ricardo Campos was killed in a separate incident in Sucre.

Few details were provided on the deaths.

White House warns of "end of democracy in Venezuela" as U.S. imposes sanctions

Leaders with the opposition Democratic Action party on Twitter identified Campos as the group's youth secretary in Sucre, a state in northern Venezuela east of the nation's capital.

The deaths bring the total to at least 122 killed in nearly four months of political upheaval.

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Demonstrators watch a barricade burn after clashes broke out while the Constituent Assembly election is being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sun., July 30, 2017. REUTERS

Meanwhile, Venezuelans appeared to be abstaining in massive numbers on Sunday in a show of silent protest against a vote to select a constitutional assembly giving the government virtually unlimited powers.

Associated Press journalists toured more than two dozen polling places in neighborhoods across the capital, including many traditional strongholds of the ruling socialist party in southern and western Caracas. Virtually all the polling places saw hours-long lines of thousands of people in past elections over the last two decades of socialist government.

One site, a sports and cultural complex known as the Poliedro, had several thousand people waiting about two hours to vote, many having traveled from opposition-dominated neighborhoods where polling places were closed. Of the dozens of others sites seen by the AP, two in the loyalist-heavy neighborhood of El Valle had lines of approximately 200 to 400 people. All the others had at most a couple of dozen voters, and many had less than a half-dozen or were completely empty.

Opinion polls say more than 70 percent of the country is opposed to Sunday's vote.

"People aren't in agreement with this," said Daniel Ponza, a 33-year-old drywall contractor, as he watched a few dozen people outside a polling place in El Valle. "People are dying of hunger, looking for food in the trash. And I think this is just going to make things worse."

Sunday evening, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations sent a message on Twitter calling the Venezuela election a "sham" and "step toward dictatorship":

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Nikki Haley ✔ @nikkihaley
Maduro’s sham election is another step toward dictatorship. We won't accept an illegit govt. The Venezuelan ppl & democracy will prevail.
5:13 PM - Jul 30, 2017
1,563 1,563 Replies 10,517 10,517 Retweets 9,676 9,676 likes

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In opposition-dominated eastern Caracas, riot police used tear gas to stop protesters from gathering for a march on the capital's main highway. At least three police were wounded when one of their motorcycles detonated in a powerful explosion. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.

After voting at dawn, President Nicolas Maduro called for international acceptance of what he called his government's fight against a violent opposition trying to sabotage his administration.

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Motorcycles burn after clashes broke out while the Constituent Assembly election was being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sun., July 30, 2017. REUTERS

The run-up to the vote has been marked by months of clashes between protesters and the government that have left at least 116 dead and nearly 2,000 wounded. A 61-year-old nurse was fatally shot by men accused of being pro-government paramilitaries during a protest at a church a few hundred feet from the school where Maduro voted.

"We've stoically withstood the terrorist, criminal violence," Maduro said. "Hopefully the world will respectfully extend its arms toward our country."

In an unusual moment this morning when Maduro cast his own ballot on state-controlled national television, his national ID card was to be scanned. He intended to make a statement that his vote was counted and said: "We are going to verify my national ID card so that the record shows that I came to vote and my ID card will show this for posterity, that I voted on this historic day of the constituent assembly of July 30th."

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Nicolas Maduro having his national ID card scanned. REUTERS

When the female official of the National Electoral Council (CNE) proceeds to use a smartphone to scan Maduro's card, a second camera zooms in to reveal that according to CNE's own system, that "person does not exist, or the card has been revoked."

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After scanning Maduro's national ID card, the smartphone read: "person does not exist, or the card has been revoked." REUTERS

Maduro appears livid but doesn't acknowledge the misshap, pauses for a second and then grabs his wife's ID card for scanning.

Social media was abuzz with the misshap, which fanned the flames of speculation about the place of birth of the socialist president, whose mother is rumored to be a Colombian national. Following an opposition-mandated special commission investigation into the matter, the socialist-majority Supreme Court issued a ruling last October that stated that Maduro had been born in Caracas in 1962, but did not produce a birth certificate.

Some opposition leaders continue to sustain that they have proof that Maduro was born a Colombian national, which would make him constitutionally ineligible to occupy the presidency.

Maduro's highly vocal critic and former president of Colombia ridiculed Maduro in a tweet that reads: "My fellow countryman, didn't they let you vote?"

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Andrés Pastrana A ✔ @AndresPastrana_
Paisano ¿ No te dejaron votar? https://twitter.com/dianacaroruiz/status/891623165276848128 …
9:58 AM - Jul 30, 2017
926 926 Replies 18,167 18,167 Retweets 11,835 11,835 likes

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Despite that hiccup, the opposition is boycotting Sunday's vote, contending the election has been structured to ensure Maduro's socialist party continues to dominate. So all 5,500 candidates for the 545 seats in the constituent assembly are his supporters and the vote's success is being measured by turnout.

The government is encouraging participation with tactics that include offering social benefits like subsidized food to the poor and threatening state workers' jobs if they don't vote.

"I'm here because I'm hoping for housing," said Luisa Marquez, a 46-year-old hairdresser.

Others said they were there out of conviction that the constitutional assembly would help the government fend off what they called an international capitalist conspiracy to undermine Venezuela's socialist system with the help of the domestic opposition.

"The crisis, the shortages of food and medicine, that isn't the government's fault," said Luis Osuna, a 42-year-old private bodyguard. "Those who are attacking us to kill us with hunger and blame the government are the same enemies the government's always had."

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Women shout slogans during a protest held by Venezuelans in Spain against Venezuela's Constituent Assembly election, in Madrid, Spain, on July 30, 2017. REUTERS

Once one of Latin America's wealthiest nations, Venezuela has spiraled into a devastating crisis during Maduro's four years in power, thanks to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement. Inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The special assembly being selected Sunday will have powers to rewrite the country's 1999 constitution but will also have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

While opinion polls say a vast majority oppose him, Maduro made clear in a televised address Saturday evening that he intends to use the assembly to govern without limitation, describing the vote as "the election of a power that's above and beyond every other."

He said he wants the assembly to strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution and indicated he eager to prosecute many more members of the opposition parties that control a handful of state governments along with the National Assembly, providing one of the few remaining checks on the power of the socialist party that has ruled this OPEC nation for nearly two decades.

"The right wing already has its prison cell waiting," the president said. "All the criminals will go to prison for the crimes they've committed."

Saying the assembly will begin to govern within a week, Maduro said its first task in rewriting the constitution will be "a total transformation" of the office of Venezuela's chief prosecutor, a former government loyalist who has become the highest-ranking official to publicly split from the president.

The Trump administration has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on high-ranking members of Maduro's administration, with the support of countries including Mexico, Colombia and Panama. Vice President Mike Pence promised on Friday that the U.S. would take "strong and swift economic actions" if the vote went ahead. He didn't say whether the U.S. would sanction Venezuelan oil imports, a measure with the potential to undermine Maduro but cause an even deeper humanitarian crisis here.

Maduro's supporters on the Supreme Court set off the protests and clashes between police and demonstrator when they tried to strip the National Assembly of its powers in April. Most of the dead have been protesters apparently shot by police and government-linked paramilitaries.

The opposition has organized a series of work stoppages as well as a July 16 protest vote that it said drew more than 7.5 million symbolic votes against the constitutional assembly.

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A demonstrator makes a fake call using a public phone at a rally during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, on Wed., July 26, 2017. On his vest reads "I want a free country". REUTERS


WAS LIFE ON EARTH ALWAYS THIS TRAUMATIC? PROBABLY SO, ESPECIALLY IF WE FIGURE IN THE SABER TOOTH CATS, CAVE BEARS, ETC. AND THERE WERE OTHER TRIBES TO WORRY ABOUT AS WELL. THEY COULDN’T ATTACK FROM 6,000 MILES AWAY, THOUGH. APPARENTLY, KIM THINKS ITS’ HIS TURN NOW.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/feinstein-says-north-korea-a-clear-and-present-danger-to-the-united-states/
By EMILY TILLETT CBS NEWS July 30, 2017, 1:23 PM
Feinstein calls North Korea a "clear and present danger" to the United States

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said Sunday that North Korea poses a "clear and present danger" to the United States, in the wake of the country's second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Feinstein said on "Face the Nation" that after spending time on intelligence and in briefings, she's "convinced that North Korea has never moved at the speed that this leader has to develop an ICBM to put solid fuel, to have an interesting launch device, and to have a trajectory which, as of the latest analysis, would enable it to go about 6,000 miles and maybe even hit as far east as Chicago."

Transcript: Sen. Dianne Feinstein on "Face the Nation"

"We can't have that," she added. "To me, it points out the danger in isolating a country, that they go to the science and the technical know-how to show their brute force, not to handle the isolation."

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein on "Face the Nation," July 30, 2017 CBS NEWS

Feinstein's comments come after President Trump tweeted Saturday about North Korea, saying he is "disappointed" in China for not doing enough in regard to the country -- a sentiment Feinstein echoed.

"I'm very disappointed in China's response, that it has not been firmer or more helpful," she said.

China has said that it shouldn't be held responsible for solving the nuclear standoff with North Korea, and that it doesn't hold the key to resolving the issue.

The intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea tested Friday flew longer and higher than the first one the country tested, according to its wary neighbors, leading analysts to conclude that a wide swath of the U.S. including Los Angeles and Chicago is now within range of Pyongyang's weapons.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga has said that the missile flew for about 45 minutes -- about five minutes longer than the ICBM that was test-fired on July 4.

Following the launch, the U.S. conducted a missile defense test Sunday, using a Terminal High Altitutde Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in Alaska. The U.S. Air Force launched a medium-range ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean, and the THAAD system -- in Kodiak, Alaska -- "detected, tracked and intercepted the target," the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a statement Sunday.

Feinstein said "the only solution is a diplomatic one."

Feinstein added that she hopes incoming White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly will be effective in beginning some "very serious negotiation with the North and stop this program."



A FACE FROM THE PAST WHOM I HAVE MISSED A GOOD DEAL LATELY. HE’S LOOKING QUITE A BIT OLDER NOW, BUT STILL THE HUMOROUS LITTLE SMILE IS ON HIS FACE. WILL HE JOIN THE POLITICAL FRAY AGAIN, OR STAND DOWN?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/out-of-the-ashes-dick-cavett-on-rebuilding-his-historic-montauk-home/
CBS NEWS July 30, 2017, 9:37 AM
Out of the ashes: Dick Cavett on rebuilding his historic Montauk home

For years many of us were pleased to welcome talk show host Dick Cavett into our living rooms -- and now he's welcoming us into his grand summer home, along with Lee Cowan:

Amid the pounding surf, Dick Cavett pointed out nearby Cavett's Cove.

Cowan asked, "I read at some point that clothing was optional in Cavett's Cove, on the beach?"

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The original Tick Hall, built in 1882, was designed by Stanford White. COURTESY DICK CAVETT
"Oh, you could wear it, if you wanted to," Cavett replied.

There are lots of endearing stories like that, that happened at this endearing place: Dick Cavett's ocean-front getaway in Montauk, Long Island.

"It's just, people fall in love with it," Cavett said. "Watch, you'll ask if you can come back."

The house is historic -- it was one of seven beach cottages designed back in the 1880s by flamboyant architect Stanford White.

Cavett and his late wife, actress Carrie Nye, bought the house in 1966, just before his TV star went super-nova.

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After a fire destroyed his 1880s Long Island seafront house, former TV talk show host Dick Cavett built an exact replica. CBS NEWS
His talk show was often the talk of TV, and many of the celebrities Cavett hosted on stage he also hosted out at that beach house, including Woody Allen, Lauren Bacall, and even playwright Tennessee Williams.

dick-cavett-house-fire.jpg
A fire destroyed the house on March 18, 1997. COURTESY DICK CAVETT
"Tennessee said, 'Dick, it's the most beautiful house I've ever seen in the North!'" Cavett laughed.

But on one tragic night in 1997, a fire destroyed it all, leaving only the brick chimney as a grim sentinel.

"You can't imagine your house being gone," Cavett said. "Every cell, I think, in your body probably, if they could be seen magnified, moves at that moment."

"Because you lost everything, right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

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The interior of the house after restoration. CBS NEWS

Cavett and Nye set about to rebuild it -- but only had their memory and pictures to go by ("forensic architecture," they called it). Out of the ashes came an exact replica of Stanford White's historic home. "I think Stan would have said, 'Hey Dick, you done good!'"

He did good in his career, too. Cavett started as a comedy writer for Jack Parr, then continued for writing Johnny Carson, and did a little stand-up himself.

When he finally got his own show in 1968, he just shut up and let his guests talk -- a piece of showbiz advice he had gotten from Jack Parr.

dick-cavett-carrie-nye.jpg
An undated photo of Dick Cavett and Carrie Nye. DICK CAVVETT

"He said, 'Hey kid, when you're going to do the show, don't do interviews,'" Cavett recalled. "Make it a conversation."

It landed him guests who rarely did other shows, like Marlon Brando; John Lennon and Yoko Ono; and Groucho Marx.

The conversation didn't even have to include Cavett. He got Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier to square off, not only verbally and almost physically. "I didn't think they'd hit me, but I didn't know!" Cavett laughed.

"I have to say though, sitting across from someone who made conversation on TV the best it could be is a little intimidating, for me," Cowan said. "Because you're so good at this."

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The product of "forensic architecture": The restored house. CBS NEWS
"Is that why you've stuttered and stammered the whole way through?" Cavett said.

"That's exactly why I've stud, stamm, see, I doing it now!"

"I dare them to cut this out. You are really good, really good."

"Well, coming from you that means a lot."

"I say that to everybody, of course!" Cavett added.

But perhaps his greatest back-and-forth chat was with Katharine Hepburn, who famously thought of talk shows as being mostly tactless. "She was wary, because nothing in her experience had any real connection with sitting and talking about herself," he said.

She made him move the furniture on the set, and told him his carpet was ugly, but Cavett kept her talking. "Yeah, she wouldn't shut up!" he said.

At one point, Hepburn even referenced that house of Cavett's in Montauk, which she implied held the same romance as her own beach getaway across Long Island Sound in Connecticut.

"Each one of us has a secret," Hepburn told him. "You go to Montauk and you try you rebuild your secret, and I go to the mouth of the Connecticut River and my childhood, and I try to rebuild mine."

Katharine Hepburn's Connecticut home ("Sunday Morning," 07/13/14)
But after more than 50 years, the time has come, Cavett laments, to put his seaside treasure, and the 20 acres of moorlands around it, up for sale. Asking price: $62 million and change.

Cowan asked, "So why after all these years do you want to sell this perfect place?"

"I don't want to sell it," Cavett replied. "You'd have to be a fool to want to sell it."

The home's charm never wavered, but at age 80 Cavett's enthusiasm for its upkeep did. Even fairy-tales, he reasons, have to come to an end, just like summer.

"It's just a new chapter?" Cowan asked.

"That's good, let's call it that, yeah."


See also:

A Phoenix Rises in Montauk (Architectural Digest, 01/31/01)
"From the Ashes: The Life and Times of Tick Hall" (Documentary)
dick-cavett-house-exterior-drone-after-restoration-620.jpg
The restored Tick Hall. CBS NEWS

For more info:

dickcavettshow.com
House listing on Corcoran.com



I FEEL AMBIVALENT TOWARD THIS KIND OF PROACTIVE POLICING – GOING AROUND FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE ARRESTING PEOPLE, PERHAPS CAUSING ENDANGERMENT TO FAMILY MEMBERS AND NEIGHBORS. IN HIGH THREAT SITUATIONS SUCH AS THIS ONE, OF COURSE, IMMEDIATE ACTION IS REQUIRED, AND THE TROUBLE WITH TERRORISTS IS THAT THEY GO AROUND DAILY JUST “BLENDING IN,” WHICH MEANS THEY CAN BE UNDETECTED UNTIL THEY ATTACK. TARGETING NEIGHBORHOODS CAN BE VERY REASONABLE IN THAT CONCENTRATIONS OF POTENTIALLY ALIENATED GROUPS DO TEND TO LIVE CLOSE TO EACH OTHER, JUST OUT OF A DESIRE FOR THE CULTURAL FAMILIARITY THAT FORMS THERE.

IF POLICE DON’T HAVE SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE FOR SUCH RAIDS, THEY SHOULD HOLD OFF UNTIL THEY DO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SITUATION THAN THEY SOMETIMES DO. IN ADDITION, SOMEONE SHOULD BE SUPERVISING OFFICERS, EVEN IF IT’S FROM A DISTANCE, AND A PARTNER SHOULD BE IN THE PATROL CAR WITH THEM. TWO PEOPLE ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE ABLE TO APPREHEND A SUSPECT WITHOUT KILLING HIM.

OF COURSE, AS IN THIS CASE, ANYONE WHO IS TINKERING AROUND WITH BOMB MAKING ISN’T A HOBBYIST, BUT A POTENTIAL KILLER. THEY AREN’T BUILDING MODEL AIRPLANES, AFTER ALL. AT LEAST THAT IS WHAT AUTHORITIES HAVE TO ASSUME IF THEY ARE GOING TO DO THEIR JOB EFFECTIVELY. EVEN THE ACLU PROBABLY WOULDN’T DISAGREE WITH THAT. IT’S A FINE LINE TO WALK, AND I FEEL FOR POLICE OFFICERS WHO DO HAVE TO WORK THE STREETS. A STRUGGLING SUSPECT MEANS A DANGEROUS SUSPECT. RACE SHOULD NOT BE THE REASON ACTIVE FOR SUSPICION OF GUILT, THOUGH, AND IT VERY FREQUENTLY IS. THAT IS ONE ISSUE THAT WE HAVEN’T CONQUERED.

OF COURSE, IT IS ONLY FAIR THAT POLICE NEED TO BE ABLE TO PRESENT EVIDENCE TO PROVE THEIR CASE; AND THEY SHOULDN’T BEAT OR OTHERWISE HURT ANYONE WITHOUT A GENUINE THREAT TO THE OFFICERS OR TO BYSTANDERS. THOSE CHOKE HOLDS ARE BANNED, BUT THE OFFICERS USE THEM ANYWAY. GIVEN ALL THIS I DO UNDERSTAND WHY “RESISTING ARREST” IS A CRIME. IN ARRESTS HERE IN THE USA, THOUGH, SOMETIMES RESISTING MEANS SIMPLY A FAILURE TO IMMEDIATELY GO LIMP AND LIE STILL, OR MAKING A FAST MOVE OF ANY KIND; AND ANY “FAILURE TO OBEY A COMMAND” CAN BE ENOUGH FOR ROUGH TREATMENT OR EVEN BEING KILLED.. MENTALLY ILL AND EVEN DEAF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED FOR “FAILURE TO OBEY A COMMAND.”

NOT ALL COPS DO THAT, OF COURSE. MOST ARE GOOD AND DECENT PEOPLE, AND TEMPER THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR BECAUSE THEY HAVE AN ACTIVE CONSCIENCE. POLICE ADMINISTRATION DOES NEED TO MANDATE A MINIMAL EFFECTIVE LEVEL OF FORCE TO ACHIEVE AN ARREST, THOUGH; AND FAILING TO DO THAT IS TOO OFTEN NOT REALLY PUNISHED BY POLICE OFFICIALS. I MAINTAIN THAT TWO WEEKS OF DESK WORK IS NOT PUNISHMENT. THAT’S WHERE THE PROBLEM WITH POLICE ACTIVITY LIES. THERE IS NO REAL PENALTY FOR MISCONDUCT. “SUPPORTING OUR POLICE OFFICERS” HAS TURNED INTO A LICENSE TO KILL.

THERE HAVE BEEN IMPROVEMENTS ON ALL OF THIS SINCE THE VIDEOS OF OFFICER MISCONDUCT HAVE COME TO LIGHT. PUTTING THESE THINGS ON PUBLIC VIEW IS A VERY EFFECTIVE TOOL. A MARCH AND DEMONSTRATION BY THE HATED BLM IS ANOTHER. AS A RESULT OF SOME REAL PUSHBACK, CITY OFFICIALS ARE CHANGING THE WAY THEY HANDLE OFFICER MISCONDUCT, AND ARE TRAINING MORE THOROUGHLY TO AVOID IT. UNFORTUNATELY, THEY DON’T ALWAYS DO THAT UNLESS THERE IS A PUBLIC OUTCRY ABOUT IT. PUBLICITY OF THAT SORT IS MAKING CITIES MORE PRONE TO SUPERVISE AND PUNISH THEIR OFFICERS MORE RELIABLY TO ACHIEVE A LESSENING OF UNDUE VIOLENCE.

ALL IN ALL, I SEE A DIFFERENCE IN THESE NEWS STORIES ON THE SUBJECT; BUT IF A “ROGUE OFFICER” DOES DO HIS WORST, THE SUSPECT AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS MAY NOT APPRECIATE THE DIMINISHING NUMBER OF INCIDENTS. SIMPLE-MINDEDNESS IS A HUMAN FLAW, BUT UNTIL OFFICERS DO START RELATING TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS ON A PERSONAL BASIS AND BEING SENSITIVE TO THINGS LIKE MENTAL ILLNESS, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO BE CONSIDERED “THE ENEMY.” THAT’S BECAUSE POLICE ARE DANGEROUS, ALSO.

THAT “COMMUNITY POLICING” MODEL IS TAKING HOLD IN CITIES, THANK GOODNESS, AND THERE IS A DECREASE IN VIOLENCE IN RESPONSE TO IT. THE POLICE OFFICER RECENTLY WHO GOT OUT OF HIS PATROL CAR AND STARTED PLAYING BASKETBALL WITH A GROUP OF YOUNG BLACK MEN WHO WERE PROBABLY VIOLATING A RULE BY PLAYING IN THE STREET. HE COULD HAVE HARSHLY REPRIMANDED THEM AND RUN THEM OUT OF THE STREET, BUT HE DIDN’T. THAT IS COMMUNITY POLICING. POLICE OFFICERS WILL FIND THAT IF NEIGHBORHOOD MEMBERS TRUST THEM THEIR JOB WILL BE MUCH EASIER, AND MAYBE THEY WILL BE LESS PRONE TO “FEAR FOR THEIR LIFE.”

THE CASE IN ATLANTA LAST YEAR IN WHICH A GROUP OF POLICE WERE SHOT AND KILLED BY A BLACK SNIPER HAS MADE PEOPLE MORE AWARE THAT THE PEOPLE LIVING IN PRIMARILY BLACK AND HISPANIC COMMUNITIES WILL SOMETIMES BUILD UP ENOUGH RAGE TO RETALIATE. WE DON’T WANT WHAT AMOUNTS TO A WAR IN OUR CITIES, SO OFFICERS NEED TO HELP SOLVE THE INTERACTION PROBLEMS ON THEIR OWN OR, BETTER STILL, AS A GROUP. “THE BRASS” SHOULD FACILITATE THAT AND CITY NEIGHBORHOODS COULD ALSO INITIATE IT. DISCUSSION GROUPS COULD BE FORMED IN CHURCHES AND COMMUNITY CENTERS, FOR INSTANCE, BETWEEN POLICE AND CITIZENS ON THE ISSUES OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND A CARING STYLE OF POLICING, JUST AS A HUMANE LEVEL OF CARING AND EMPATHY SHOULD GO OUT FROM THE COMMUNITY TO THE POLICE. WHERE THERE IS GENUINE RESPECT AND FRIENDLINESS, THERE WON’T BE A WAR IN THE CITY STREETS.

WHEN I WAS YOUNG, AND IN A SMALL CITY RATHER THAN THE CRIME RIDDEN METROPOLIS ENVIRONMENTS, POLICE WERE COMMUNITY MEMBERS (IN THE WHITE NEIGHBORHOODS) AND WENT TO THE SAME CHURCHES, CONVERSED WITH PEOPLE IN A CIVIL WAY, AND WERE RESPECTED AND LIKED. THAT’S HARD IN BIG CITIES BECAUSE SO FEW PEOPLE EVEN KNOW EACH OTHER, BUT THAT’S WHAT WE NEED TO MOVE TOWARD ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. IT IS POSSIBLE. IT JUST WON’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/arrests-disrupted-plan-to-bring-down-planes-australian-pm-says/
AP July 29, 2017, 10:32 PM
Police disrupted plot to "bring down an airplane," Australian PM says

Photograph -- A policeman stands on a street that has been blocked to the public after Australian counter-terrorism police arrested four people in raids late on Saturday across several Sydney suburbs in Australia, July 29, 2017. REUTERS / DAVID GRAY

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australian police disrupted a plot to bring down an airplane and arrested four men in raids on homes in several Sydney suburbs, the prime minister said Sunday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that security has been increased at Sydney Airport since Thursday because of the plot. The increased security measures also were extended to all major international and domestic terminals around Australia overnight.

"I can report last night that there has been a major joint counterterrorism operation to disrupt a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane," Turnbull told reporters. "The operation is continuing."

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said details were scant on the specifics of the attack, the location and timing.

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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks as Australia's Minister for Justice Michael Keenan listens on during a media conference in Sydney, Australia, July 30, 2017. AAP/SAM MOOY/VIA REUTERS

"In recent days, law enforcement has been become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist attack using an improvised devise," Colvin said. "We are investigating information indicating the aviation industry was potentially a target of that attack."

Australia's terrorist threat level remained unchanged at "probable," Turnbull said. He advised travelers in Australia to arrive at airports earlier than usual - two hours before departure - to allow for extra security screening and to minimize baggage.

There was no evidence that airport security had been compromised, Colvin said.

"We believe it's Islamic-inspired terrorism," Colvin said when asked if the Islamic State group was behind the plot.

Seven Network television reported that 40 riot squad officers wearing gas masks stormed an inner-Sydney house before an explosives team found a suspicious device. Colvin declined to say whether a fully equipped improvised explosive device had been found at that address.

A woman led from a raid by police with her head covered told Nine Network Television: "I love Australia."

2017-07-30t021525z-950168549-rc1b6b5cfda0-rtrmadp-3-australia-security-raids.jpg
A police officer wearing protective gear talks to fellow officers as he stands in the doorway of a home after Australian counter-terrorism police arrested four people in raids late on Saturday across several Sydney suburbs in Australia, July 30, 2017. REUTERS / DAVID GRAY

None of the four suspects arrested in five raids had been charged, Colvin said. He would not discuss what charges they might face. None of the arrested men worked in the airport industry, Colvin said.

The plot was the 13th significant threat disrupted by police since Australia's terrorist threat level was elevated in 2014, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said. Five plots have been executed.

"The primary threat to Australia still remains lone actors, but the events overnight remind us that there is still the ability for people to have sophisticated plots and sophisticated attacks still remain a real threat," Keenan said." In light of this information, it's very important that everyone in Australia remains vigilant."

New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said police agreed they had to act on Saturday night because the threat was imminent.

"The reality with terrorism ... (is) you can't wait until you put the whole puzzle together," Fuller said. "If you get it wrong, the consequences are severe."

Since Australia's terrorist threat level was raised in 2014, 70 suspects have been charged in 31 counter-terrorism police operations, Keenan said.



LOOK AT THIS PHOTO OF VLADIMIR PUTIN WITH THE ARTICLE. HE LOOKS GENUINELY UNHAPPY, BUT NOT ANGRY. I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA, BUT WITH PUTIN’S VERY HIGHHANDED BEHAVIOR, STARTING WITH TAKING OVER A CHUNK OF UKRAINE AND THEN MANIPULATING THE ELECTION OF 2016 HERE, I DON’T HAVE MUCH GOOD WILL TOWARD HIM ANY MORE. I DID REALLY LIKE KHRUSHCHEV AND GORBACHEV. BOTH WERE ACTUALLY FRIENDLY TOWARD THE US, AND MORE OPEN IN THEIR PERSONALITIES THAN PUTIN.

PUTIN IS A VERY BRIGHT MAN, BUT NOT GENTLE NOR TRUSTWORTHY IN MY HUMBLE VIEW. FROM WHAT A NEWS COMMENTATOR SAID RECENTLY, HE IS HIGHLY MANIPULATIVE; AND THAT HE WAS SEEMING TO BEFRIEND TRUMP, WITH THE LIKELY GOAL OF ESTABLISHING SOME CONTROL OVER HIM. I HOPE TRUMP IS BRIGHT ENOUGH TO SEE THAT.

I READ AN INTERESTING NEWS ARTICLE DESCRIBING A SERIES OF OPEN AIR INTERVIEWS WITH VARIOUS RUSSIANS WHO HAPPENED TO BE WALKING DOWN THE STREET. ONE WAS A SCHOOL TEACHER WHO HAD SOME UNHAPPY WORDS ABOUT PUTIN; AND HIS REPUTATION INCLUDES HIGHLY UNETHICAL ACTIONS, SUCH AS ASSASSINATING POLITICAL RIVALS. THE FACT THAT OUR PRESIDENT SEEMS TO BE SO DRAWN TO HIM – AND IN AN INTERVIEW NOT LONG AGO ACTUALLY EXCUSED THOSE MURDERS -- MAKES ME FEEL THAT HE MAY APPROVE OF SUCH ACTIONS BECAUSE THEY SEEM “STRONG.” TO ME, VILLAINY IS NOT STRONG.

KHRUSHCHEV APPEALED TO ME BECAUSE HE WAS DISAPPOINTED THAT HE DIDN’T GET TO GO TO DISNEYLAND, AND WAS FASCINATED WITH OUR LARGE MIDWESTERN FARMS. HE ALSO BEAT ON A TABLE IN A UNITED NATIONS ASSEMBLY MEETING WITH HIS SHOE. THERE WAS A NEWS SHOT OF IT, AND HE WAS GRINNING AS HE DID IT. HE HAD SOME FUN IN HIS PERSONALITY, WHICH IS A VERY IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC TO ME. BILL CLINTON AND HE GOT ALONG VERY WELL TOGETHER. THERE’S A PHOTO OF THEM SHARING A “BELLY LAUGH.”

I LIKED GORBACHEV BECAUSE HE WAS A CULTIVATED AND HANDSOME MAN, AND PUT THROUGH MUCH NEEDED CHANGE TO RUSSIA AND HER RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD. THERE WAS A RUMOR HERE IN THE US, UNDOUBTEDLY STARTED BY SOME RADICAL FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN GROUP HERE, THAT HE WAS “THE ANTI-CHRIST” BECAUSE OF THE LARGE RED BIRTHMARK ON HIS FOREHEAD. THOSE WHO LOVE TO READ THE BOOK OF REVELATION INTERPRETED THAT AS “THE MARK OF THE BEAST.” OH, DEAR! RELIGION IS A GOOD THING UNLESS IT IS DANGEROUS – THE BURNING OF WITCHES AND THE CRUSADES, FOR INSTANCE.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/755-us-diplomats-must-leave-russia-putin-181315699.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=69f70237-124f-3ea9-acd0-fc922af945e2&.tsrc=notification-brknews
AFP July 30, 2017

Photograph -- "More than a thousand people were working and are still working" at the US embassy and consulates, Putin said in an interview with Rossia-24 television (AFP Photo/Martti Kainulainen)

Moscow (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin said 755 US diplomats must leave Russia and warned ties with Washington could be gridlocked for a long time, in a move Sunday that followed tough new American sanctions.

The Russian foreign ministry had earlier demanded Washington cut its diplomatic presence in Russia by September to 455 -- the same number Moscow has in the US.

"More than a thousand people were working and are still working" at the US embassy and consulates, Putin said in an interview with Rossia-24 television.

"755 people must stop their activities in Russia."

Putin added that an upturn in Russia's relations with Washington could not be expected "any time soon".

"We have waited long enough, hoping that the situation would perhaps change for the better," he said.

"But it seems that even if the situation is changing, it's not for any time soon."

On Thursday, the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill to toughen sanctions on Russia for allegedly meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and for its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Iran and North Korea are also targeted in the sanctions bill.

The law now goes to President Donald Trump who had made an improvement in ties with Russia a plank of his election campaign.

Moscow on Friday ordered the US to slash its number of diplomats in Russia to 455 and froze two embassy compounds -- a Moscow summer house and a storage facility in the city -- from August 1.

In December, the then US president Barack Obama ordered out 35 Russian diplomats and closed down two embassy summer houses that Washington said were being used by Moscow for espionage.



WELL, THIS POLL DOESN’T SURPRISE ME. TRUMP DOES THINGS EVERY NOW AND THEN THAT ARE ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING, WHICH CONTRASTS WITH THOSE EVENTS THAT SHOW HIM TO BE MERELY CLUELESS AND INEPT, WITH A LEANING TOWARD THE DESPOTIC. THE TERMS “FRIGHTENING, UNNECESSARY DRAMA AND CHAOS, ARE GREAT DESCRIPTIONS ABOUT THE WAY I REACT TO TRUMP. SOMETIMES I SEE IT AS MAINLY INEPTITUDE, BUT LATELY I HAVE BEGUN TO VIEW IT AS BEING SOMETHING WORSE – A CLEVER IF DESPICABLE PLAN ON HIS PART (AND PERHAPS PUTIN’S PART) TO DESTABILIZE THIS NATION TO THE DEGREE THAT OUR ABILITY TO GOVERN COULD ACTUALLY BE AT STAKE. I WILL CITE THE INCREASING UPRISING OF MULTIPLE FAR RIGHT GROUPS WHOSE GOAL IS TO “TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT” FROM THE “COASTAL LIBERAL ELITES.”

THE ONLY THING GOOD I CAN SAY ABOUT HIM IS THAT HE DOES LOVE HIS CHILDREN – MELANIA, MAYBE NOT. I CAN FORGIVE THOSE INEPTITUDES, THOUGH WE DON’T NEED THEM IN OUR NATION’S LEADER AND REPRESENTATIVE FIGUREHEAD, BUT I DON’T FORGIVE DEEP, GREEDY DISHONESTY (LIKE THE TRUMP UNIVERSITY SCAM), AND CRUELTY AS WHEN HE WENT INTO A GROTESQUE IMITATION OF A REPORTER WHO HAD A NEUROLOGICAL DISABILITY SOMETHING LIKE CEREBRAL PALSY.

WHEN I SEE THINGS LIKE THAT, IT SOLIDIFIES MY BELIEF THAT WEALTH, PER SE, DOES NOT IMPROVE THE CHARACTER. PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE LOOKING AT TRUMP AND WHAT THEY SEE IS NOT GOOD. I HAVE A SIMILAR REACTION ON THE PERSONAL LEVEL TO “LITTLE KIM” OF NORTH KOREA. THEY JUST AREN’T READY TO HEAD A NATION, AND THEY ARE DANGEROUS AS PERSONALITIES. KIM HAS KILLED SEVERAL PEOPLE, INCLUDING AT LEAST ONE FAMILY MEMBER IN ORDER TO ADVANCE HIS POWER.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-most-say-trump-creating-conflict/
By ANTHONY SALVANTO, KABIR KHANNA, JENNIFER PINTO, FRED BACKUS CBS NEWS July 30, 2017, 10:30 AM
Nation Tracker poll: Most say Trump creating “conflict and drama” and “chaos” as core backers applaud the fight

Six months in, President Donald Trump's strongest backers like seeing him fight his chosen opponents: they want the president to call out those he believes disloyal, do even more to make Democrats mad, fight with the mainstream media, and feel he's taking on "people who deserve it."

CBS News 2017 Nation Tracker Tabs
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CBS NEWS POLL

But the combativeness they applaud seems precisely what most others dislike. And that – along with declining personal evaluations - is costing the president potential support, even as many give him credit for an improving economy, according to a new Nation Tracker poll released Sunday.

The president's overall ratings on the metrics of being "presidential" and "effective" remain down, and today many of his softer and would-be supporters feel he creates unnecessary "conflict and drama," and most of his detractors – and most Americans overall - describe what they see from the White House as "chaos."

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CBS NEWS POLL

The nationwide trend in support, comparing today to the initial Nation Tracker study at the beginning of the president's term, is a slow drift in the direction of opposition. Resister ranks have increased over time (six points from the start of the administration) and the strongest supporter ranks have thinned slightly (down four points from the start.)

The big gaps between the groups are defined by very different personal ratings of the president and how he's handling himself in office. And things could become even more intractable: those on the furthest ends – the strongest backers and strongest opponents – are more likely to strongly believe their way of life is at stake.

Trump says Congress should have approved health care repeal

Believers

President Trump's most ardent backers – who call themselves supporters, period, and whom we've labeled Believers since the start of this ongoing panel study – remain connected and loyal to the president by what seems a deep cultural and personal link, feeling he "fights for people" like them and speaks in a way they can relate to.

They're the only group, among the segments in this study, where a majority wants the president to do more tweeting. A majority of these Americans describe what they're seeing from the White House as "great" and overwhelmingly feel the country, and their culture, are safer now.

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CBS NEWS POLL

Their loyalty – which they say the president deserves – is to Donald Trump over other political parties and labels like conservative or Republican.

But this core base has shrunk a bit as it intensifies – down now to 18 percent from the 22 percent where it started in February. They like him both personally and politically, but softer supporters do not.

In a signal of how much culture and national issues may matter to the Believers even over their own finances, they are more likely to say the nation is safer and the borders are more secure than to say their own economic situation has improved under this president. Demographically, they are also much older than other support groups.

Conditionals

Conditional supporters – who back him but say he must deliver what they want - are still with the president, but increasingly call him distracted, and much less likely to call him effective than they were this spring, and less likely than believers to think he's gotten things done so far, though most do.

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CBS NEWS POLL

They're more apt than believers to say Mr. Trump is starting unnecessary conflict and drama. They want to see less fighting and "taking on" other groups, and more of Mr. Trump working across the aisle; more focus on policy items like infrastructure.

Most of them do not think the "swamp" is being drained.

What keeps them attached? They're attached to his policies – which they like – more so than to the president, personally.

But despite the critiques they also say they remain patient – in fact, patience is one thing that distinguishes "conditionals" from other people who don't want the fighting but who've now become curious opponents. And most are rooting for him to succeed.

They give the president credit for the economy. The question for them, it seems, is whether they'll ultimately get all they want. The people who started in February as supporters, but have drifted away to become curious opponents today, say things have gone worse than expected so far.

John Dickerson on the most recent White House shake-up
Play VIDEO
John Dickerson on the most recent White House shake-up
The Curious

Opponents who are potential supporters – we've labeled them curious because they say they still might consider the president, but are not with him now – say they are neither rooting for nor against him at this point. They disapprove of him personally, because they feel he isn't making their own prospects any better. They're more likely to describe themselves as growing impatient than being out of patience yet. Personal views of the president take a big downward turn as people go from Conditional supports to curious opponents.

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CBS NEWS POLL

The curious cite Mr. Trump's own personal behavior and comments as the main reason they are against him, far ahead of not keeping his promises. For them his rating on being "presidential" has declined five points from May.

Most don't think he's gotten any meaningful policy things done, and this dovetails with their description of him as distracted.

Like both supporters and opponents of the president, they want to see him negotiate with Democrats more. The curious are more likely to call themselves independent than to align with either of the two major parties. Importantly, most also did not vote in the 2016 presidential election.

As the ranks of the curious have declined during the course of the administration (one might now even label them skeptical) those who have left have become resisters, not supporters.

Those who moved into the resister ranks since February describe what they see as "frightening" and "chaos." Back in February, they said they would decide whether or not to support the president in part by how he handled himself in office. Today, they voice a strong dislike of President Trump personally.

Health care may have had some impact on all this. Those who disapproved of the president's handling of health care overwhelmingly felt he was not fighting for their economic interests, more generally.

The Resisters

Finally, the ranks of his staunchest opponents – who we call resisters in this study - have grown, due in part to former supporters who describe themselves as out of patience, and those in this group overwhelmingly (three in four) call what they're seeing "frightening" -- a sentiment that may, in turn, be exactly what the core supporters want them to feel.

Most resisters – eight in ten - at least somewhat believe the fundamental matter of how the country's democracy works is at stake today, the highest of any group.

They are also distinguished from curious [the] by their desire for what will happen. Believing so much is at stake, nine in 10 resisters are hoping President Trump does not succeed, because they think the country will be better off if he didn't accomplish what he wants to.

The main reason resisters say they are against Mr. Trump is that they feel he's harming the country and its democracy – more than two-thirds do - which is different from the curious, who point to Trump's personal behavior as the reason they oppose him.

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CBS NEWS POLL

They don't see much outreach from the president. Nearly all of the resisters don't think the president speaks for them. And they don't see him as fighting for people like them. Two-thirds of them say the first six months of the Trump presidency is worse than they expected – far higher than the less than half of the curious who say that. They see Mr. Trump as temperamental and even dangerous.

The CBS News 2017 Nation Tracker is conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 2,334 U.S. adults from July 26-28, 2017. The margin of error is ±2.5.

FOR DETAIL ON THE POLL, SEE BELOW.

Poll questions and polling methods –
SEE https://www.scribd.com/document/355077014/Nationtracker-Tabs-July-30-Cbs-20170730


http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/enduring-hundreds-of-insect-stings-for-science/
SEE ALSO THE VIDEO AD ON GREAT BARRIER REEF STATUS – EXCELLENT LIVE IMAGES OF HOW REEFS AND LIVING POLYPS LOOK AND GROW.