September 26, 2017


News and Views


BILL GATES ON CBS TALKING ABOUT TRENDS IN COMPUTING

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-gates-global-health-daca-ctrl-alt-del/
GLOBAL GOALKEEPERS -- BILL GATES ON INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATIVES
CBS NEWS September 22, 2017, 2:07 PM
Bill Gates on global health progress, DACA and "ctrl-alt-delete"

Thanks in part to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's work, global childhood mortality rates have dropped by more than 55 percent since 1990, and 89 percent of the world's population is now vaccinated against common diseases. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty (defined as living on less than $1.90 a day) dropped to just nine percent in 2016, down from 35 percent in 1990.

But in a new report, the foundation warns that future progress is in jeopardy, writing "there is more doubt than usual about the world's commitment to development."

"In our own country, Congress is currently considering how to deal with the big cuts to foreign aid proposed in the president's budget. A similar mood of retrenchment has taken hold in other donor countries. Meanwhile, most developing countries need to do more to prioritize the welfare of their poorest citizens," Bill and Melinda Gates write

On "CBS This Morning" Friday, Bill Gates expanded on the warning.

"The 1 percent of U.S. budget that goes toward this is over five times what we [the foundation] spend, and so by partnering with the U.S. government and making sure it's money well spent, the potential is huge. But if that got cut back — for example, we showed [if] they cut the HIV spending by 10 percent, five million additional people would die between now and 2030," Gates, co-chair and trustee of the foundation, said.

In addition to global health, the former Microsoft CEO and co-founder spoke out on the Trump administration's recent decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, saying he was "very proud" of Microsoft's response. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showed his support for "diversity and economic opportunity for everyone," including the "Dreamers" who work at the company. Microsoft president Brad Smith said changes in the program for undocumented young adults who grew up in the U.S. would "be a step backwards for our entire nation."

"It's great. We shouldn't let those 800,000 have that uncertainty or do anything against them. And that should be the top priority for any legislative agenda," Gates said.

Gates said bad immigration policy is "unjust and unwise economically."

"We benefited by having very talented people who want to come to the United States. Many countries are very envious that a lot of their top people see the freedom and the quality of the academics here, and so that's part of the reason why our universities and companies are so strong," Gates said. "So I think it would be a mistake from an economic point of view. Even worse though is how you treat people, including those already here."

As for his Microsoft legacy, Gates recently made headlines for expressing some regrets about the two-handed "ctrl-alt-delete" command on PCs. At a Bloomberg business forum this week, Gates said that if he could go back in time, he'd make stopping software a "single-key operation."

"It's a little tricky to tell people that these three strange keys do something special on your computer. Between us and IBM, that one wasn't as user-friendly as it should be. So we feel bad about that," Gates said on "CBS This Morning."

Watch the video above to see what Bill Gates thinks is "the next big frontier" of artificial intelligence.



I HAVE INCLUDED THIS ARTICLE BECAUSE MICHAEL GRAHAM, AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE AND CONSERVATIVE WRITER SAID INTERESTING THINGS IN IT, DESPITE MY DISAGREEMENT WITH THE VIEWS. THE WHITE LOWER MIDDLE CLASS ARE MAINLY BEHIND TRUMP. THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT THERE AREN’T LIBERAL POOR TO WORKING CLASS PEOPLE AS THERE WERE IN THE PAST, BUT NOT AS MANY. IT’S ALSO A MATTER OF RURAL AND CITY. THE ACCESS TO INFORMATION, VARYING IDEAS AND ENTERTAINMENT, IS GREATER IN THE CITIES. THE RURAL AREAS FOLLOW “THAT OLD TIME RELIGION,” INTENSE PATRIOTISM AND RACIALISM.

THE MODERN PROGRESSIVE ATTITUDE AS IN THE FOLLOWERS OF BERNIE SANDERS, IS MAINLY ABOUT EDUCATION, WELFARE EXPANSION TO INCLUDE MORE OF THE POOR AND LOWER MIDDLE CLASS, AND A GREATER PERSONAL OPENNESS TO ETHNIC AND RACIAL GROUPS WHOM THE “CONSERVATIVES” SCORN OR EVEN HATE. OUR PROGRESSIVISM IN THE 1950S AND ‘60S CAME FROM THOSE WHO WORKED HARD PHYSICALLY FOR THEIR MONEY, HAD RELATIVELY LITTLE SCHOOLING AND SCRAMBLED TO MAKE IT DAY BY DAY. THEY WERE NUDGED OUT BY THE DEMOCRATS WHEN THEY ESPOUSED THE GREAT SOCIAL CAUSES OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR EVERYONE.

THE WORKING POOR WERE SEDUCED BY RONALD REAGAN, AND LEFT DUE TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS WHICH MADE DISCRIMINATION NOT ONLY UNDESIRABLE, BUT ILLEGAL. THEY SUCCEEDED MODESTLY AND GRADUALLY, LED BY THE UNIONS OF THE DAY. NOW THE LAWS WHICH MAKE IT FINANCIALLY EASIER FOR A COMPANY TO MOVE ITS’ OPERATIONS OVERSEAS ARE EATING THIS COUNTRY ALIVE ON THAT TYPE OF JOB, AND THERE ARE STILL WHITES AND BLACKS WHO NEED THEM. THAT WAS, MANY BELIEVE, A BILL CLINTON CHANGE TOWARD GLOBALIZATION – SUPPOSEDLY TO CREATE JOBS. SEE THE ARTICLE FROM BUSINESS INSIDER ON THE SUBJECT OF NAFTA.

DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE WILL “BRING BACK” INDUSTRIAL AND MINING JOBS, BUT I DON’T BELIEVE THAT WILL BE POSSIBLE. BESIDES, WHAT WE NEED MOST IS TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT EDUCATING OUR PEOPLE MUCH BETTER, SO THEY DON’T HAVE TO WORK IN A MINE OR A STEEL MILL. ALSO, PEOPLE AREN’T TALKING AS MUCH AS THEY DID ABOUT THE HUGE AMOUNT OF AUTOMATION THAT IS HAPPENING NOW; WHICH SIMPLY REMOVES JOBS FROM THE MARKETPLACE ENTIRELY THAT THE RELATIVELY UNEDUCATED PEOPLE USED TO DO. WHEN THERE IS SUCH A JOB, LIKE FARM LABOR AND MEAT PACKING, THE BUSINESSES HERE HIRE THOSE UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS FOR WELL UNDER THE MINIMUM WAGE, IGNORING THE FACT THAT THEY AREN’T LEGAL. IF THEY GET CAUGHT, OH WELL. THEY’LL JUST PAY THE FINE AND KEEP ON GOING IN THE SAME WAY. WE NEED A REMAKE OF THE WHOLE ECONOMIC SYSTEM FROM THAT STANDPOINT. IF DONALD TRUMP CAN DO THAT, I’LL GIVE HIM POINTS.

I CERTAINLY DON’T THINK THAT BILL AND HILL IN THEIR PRESIDENCY SHOULD HAVE GIVEN WAY TO THE RIGHT IN ORDER TO GRAB THOSE ERRANT DEMOCRATIC VOTES AFTER THE REAGAN REVOLUTION OF THE EARLY 1980S, AS THEY DID. THE SO-CALLED “NEW DEMOCRAT,” TO ME IS NOT A DEMOCRAT AT ALL, BUT AN ADJUNCT TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. THAT MOVE WAS CORRUPT, IN MY VIEW, AND VERY OPPORTUNISTIC. IT IS THE MAIN REASON WHY THE PEOPLE OF ALL COLORS WHO DO NEED A PARTY WHICH STILL FIGHTS FOR THOSE OF LESSER EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT, HAVE LEFT HILLARY AND THE MAINSTREAM DEMOCRATS. UNFORTUNATELY, THEY DIDN’T ALL GO TO SANDERS, BUT A SURPRISING NUMBER WENT TO TRUMP. LACK OF JOBS AND THE RACIAL ISSUES HAVE DRIVEN THEM OFF TO MORE RADICAL ENCLAVES OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. THE REPUBLICANS DON’T STRESS RACIAL AND CULTURAL MIXING, AS THE DEMOCRATS DID AND STILL DO.

WHITES DON’T WANT TO SAY SO, BUT WE ARE FALLING BACKWARD OUT OF THE MIDDLE CLASS, AND IN MUCH GREATER NUMBERS, WHITES ARE NEEDING FINANCIAL HELP NOW. THE CORE OF BOTH THE REPUBLICAN AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTIES NOW IS A WEALTHY ELITE, AND THAT PUTS THEM OUT OF SYNCH WITH PEOPLE OF ANY COLOR WHO HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO GET A JOB. THOSE PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR A PARTY, AND I THINK THEY WILL DIVIDE ON THE BASIS OF CULTURAL ELEMENTS SUCH AS RACE AND RELIGION. ALSO, THERE IS A BASIC BELIEF OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – THE WELFARE OF THE MANY OVER THAT OF THE VERY WEALTHY FEW – AND IF THEY DON’T CONTINUE AT LEAST TO AN ACCEPTABLE DEGREE TO FOLLOW THAT PATH, THE DEMOCRATS WILL FALL APART. CERTAINLY, THEY HAVE MONEY FROM THE KOCHS BUT THEY NEED VOTES, TOO.

I WANT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO GO BACK TO THE PRINCIPLE OF THE MOST FOR THE MANY RATHER THAN FOR THE FEW, AS IT DID WHEN I WAS YOUNG. IT IS NO SECRET THAT A LARGE CHUNK OF THE US POPULATION DISLIKE “THE OUTSIDER GROUPS” INTENSELY, AND BELIEVE THAT FREE THOUGHT IS POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS HERESY. THOUGHT, AFTER ALL, IS DANGEROUS TO UNDEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS, AND THE LEADERS KNOW IT. THAT’S WHY THEY PUSH THIS REQUIRED PERFORMANCE OF A CEREMONY THAT IS NOT WITHIN EVERYONE’S BELIEF SYSTEM. THE GOAL IS UNIFORMITY.

WITHOUT A HARDCORE TAKEOVER BY SOME GROUP LIKE THESE NEO-NAZIS, HOWEVER, THAT CAN’T HAPPEN I BELIEVE, BECAUSE WE ARE STILL TOO VARIED AS A POPULATION FOR THAT. WE HAVE ALSO BEEN TAUGHT FROM CHILDHOOD THAT AMERICA IS INCLUSIVE IN ITS’ NATURE, AND SHOULD OPERATE IN ACCORDANCE WITH FAIRNESS AND COMPASSION. TRUMP IS ENCOUNTERING OPEN OPPOSITION FROM ALL QUARTERS OVER THESE STRONGARM MOVES THAT HE MAKES. THIS BUSINESS OVER WHETHER “DISRESPECTING” THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OR THE FLAG IS UNACCEPTABLE, NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON, IS A VERY BASIC ONE TO OUR WHOLE PHILOSOPHY AS A NATION. I BELIEVE WE WILL GO BACK TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT ON SUCH MATTERS.

I KNOW THOSE PEOPLE ARE OUT THERE, AND THAT THEY ARE A FORCE TO RECKON WITH. IT’S JUST THAT THEY ARE STILL THE ENEMY OF PUBLIC DECENCY IN HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, AND I STRONGLY FEEL THAT THEY MUST BE FOUGHT AS LONG AS WE HAVE BREATH. THAT’S WHY WHEN I FIRST HEARD THE PASSION, SOCIAL OPENNESS, ELOQUENCE AND INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY OF BERNIE SANDERS, I THOUGHT “HERE IS THE LEADER” THAT I WANT TO FOLLOW. THE MEMBERS OF THAT ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE ELEMENT ARE EQUALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT THEIR IDEAS, AND THAT’S THEIR PREROGATIVE, BUT IT’S NO REASON FOR US PROGRESSIVES TO ROLL OVER AND PLAY DEAD. WE CAN GIVE THEM THEIR DUE AND STILL FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DAILY.

FOR THE BIOGRAPHY OF THIS AUTHOR MICHAEL GRAHAM, GO TO: HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/MICHAEL_GRAHAM_(RADIO_PERSONALITY).


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/heres-why-the-nfl-flag-flap-probably-isnt-a-losing-issue-for-donald-trump/
By MICHAEL GRAHAM CBS NEWS September 25, 2017, 10:09 PM
Commentary: Why the NFL flag flap probably isn't a losing issue for Donald Trump


If you think the NFL flag flap is a losing issue for Donald Trump, you might want to call Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic nominee for president and say these two words:

"Flag factory."

After the Democratic National Convention in 1988, Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor, was leading Vice President George H. W. Bush by 17 points. But then, the GOP vice president's campaign put Bush at an event at a flag factory. And Republicans also seized upon the fact that, as governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis had vetoed a bill requiring school teachers to lead their classes in the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each school day. The idea was so popular that even in deep-blue Massachusetts, the legislature overrode his veto.

"Huge divide" over NFL anthem protests
Play VIDEO
"Huge divide" over NFL anthem protests

While Dukakis was arguing about constitutional nuance, Bush was standing on national TV. He looked in the camera and asked Americans, "Should public school teachers be required to lead our children in the Pledge of Allegiance? My opponent says no, but I say 'yes!'"

Bush won by seven points. It wasn't even close.

Now, fast-forward to 2017:

On Sunday, more than 150 of America's wealthiest, most elite athletes refused to stand with their fellow Americans for the playing of the national anthem. Other wealthy celebrities joined in spirit and on social media -- from Steph Curry and LeBron James to Stevie Wonder and P. Diddy. In Detroit, singer Rico Lavelle "took a knee" while actually singing the anthem. And in London, the Jaguars and Ravens refused to stand for the national anthem at their game in Wembley Stadium -- and then stood up for the UK's national anthem "God Save The Queen."

And Trump's opponents think he's losing this fight?

The problem for Colin Kaepernick and his allies is that they've chosen the disrespect-the-flag-at-the-beginning-of-a-fun-family-outing as their method of protest. And whether they intend to convey disrespect or not, it's difficult to argue that refusing to stand for the national anthem isn't disrespectful -- however legitimate the motive. In fact, the only reason #TakeAKnee works as a protest in the first place is because it's a rejection of the idea that the nation represented by the flag is worthy of our full respect.

If there's no disrespect intended, then it's not an act of protest. It's just a yoga position.

And most Americans don't like it. They want everyone to stand up, shut up and respect the flag because they see it as part of their civic contract. A Reuters poll in September 2016 found that while 64 percent of Americans thought Kaepernick had a right to his #TakeAKnee protests, 61 percent said they did not agree with him, and even more -- 72 percent -- said they thought it was unpatriotic. A Washington Post poll found that 64 percent of sports fans found such player political protests "a problem."

Long before the NFL flag flap, large majorities of Americans told pollsters they support requiring students to recite the pledge. It is no coincidence that a majority of Americans tell Pew Research that they fly the flag, or someone at home or work does, or that they've put it on their cars. To these Americans, the flag is the ultimate symbol of what's so lacking in today's discourse: Unity.

Behind the NFL national anthem protests
Play VIDEO
Behind the NFL national anthem protests

When Tom Brady and TV pundits charge that Trump's decision to call out the protesting players was "divisive," it is particularly galling to Americans who objected to the #TakeAKnee protests on the basis of their divisiveness. If athletes want to make political speeches at the ESPY awards or campaign for Hillary Clinton -- as LeBron James did -- that's fine. That's also part of the civic contract. But taking a moment that is designed specifically to unite us as Americans and turning that into an attack on America itself is, in the eyes of many, inherently divisive.

Trump supporters argue the real "dividers" are those people who are, in essence, attacking America as unworthy of their respect. Seeing people behave this way toward the flag angers them, and Trump knows it. When he shouted "son of a bitch," many Americans thought "It's about damn time."

Was it presidential? Did it help bring us together as a country? No.

But was it smart politics to make standing up for the American flag synonymous with supporting Donald Trump?

Ask Mike Dukakis.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Michael Graham
CBSN contributor Michael Graham is a conservative columnist for the Boston Herald.



THIS IS THE FIRST HINT I’VE SEEN ABOUT WHY VALERIE PLAME -- WHO IS UNPOPULAR RECENTLY FOR AN ANTI-SEMITIC TWEET THAT SHE MADE -- MIGHT HAVE BEEN “OUTED.” I WANT TO TRUST PEOPLE IN GOVERNMENT, BUT THEY ARE OFTEN THERE TO MAKE MONEY AND GAIN POWER, AND THAT MEANS THEY WILL GO WHERE THE ACTION IS. THE ACTION WAS IN GAINING A FOOTHOLD IN IRAQ FOR ITS’ STRATEGICALLY ADVANTAGEOUS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND ITS’ MINERAL RESOURCES, NOT IN AVENGING BUSH’S FATHER. GEORGE W BUSH CLAIMED THAT SADDAM HUSSEIN “TRIED TO KILL MY DADDY,” WHEN A REPORTER ASKED HIS REASON FOR GOING INTO IRAQ. IT IS ASSUMED BY MANY, HOWEVER, THAT THE BUSHES MAINLY WANTED THE OIL THERE INSTEAD. IT’S FASCINATING THAT WE HAVE JUST SIGNED ON FOR ANOTHER COMMITMENT WITH THEM. SOMETIMES I CAN SEE WHY SOME BELIEVE THAT THE USA SHOULD BE FREE OF LINKS, ESPECIALLY COMMITMENTS TO OTHER NATIONS, BUT WHEN YOU RUN INTO AN UNEXPECTED CONFLICT, IT’S GOOD TO HAVE ALLIES. PLUS, ISOLATION DESTROYS PROSPERITY RATHER THAN CREATING IT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/opinion/contributors/valerie-plame-antisemitic-state-department.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0
Memories of an Anti-Semitic State Department
By DENNIS B. ROSS SEPT. 26, 2017

Photograph -- The State Department building in Washington. Credit Win Mcnamee/Getty Images

The former C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame Wilson made news with her Twitter account last week when, on the first day of Rosh Hashana, she shared an article that said, “America’s Jews are driving America’s wars: Shouldn’t they recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?”

The article, which appeared on a fringe website, said that Jewish neoconservatives were pushing for a war with Iran. Ms. Wilson, whose identity as a covert operative was leaked in 2003 by members of the George W. Bush administration nettled by the opposition of her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to the Iraq war, repeated the well-worn narrative that Jewish neoconservatives promoted the invasion of Iraq — and are beating the drum for a conflict with Iran.

Of course, most Jews are not neoconservatives, and most neoconservatives are not Jewish. In any case, it was two influential non-Jews, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who played the central role with President Bush in deciding to go to invade Iraq in 2003. Ignoring the old saying about when you are in a hole you should stop digging, Ms. Wilson made some excuses and then mentioned that she is of Jewish descent. Finally, she apologized.

I have little interest in piling on Ms. Wilson. But the whole affair brought back some memories about how Jews were perceived within the national security apparatus for a long time. When I began working in the Pentagon during President Jimmy Carter’s administration, there was an unspoken but unmistakable assumption: If you were Jewish, you could not work on the Middle East because you would be biased.

However, if you knew about the Middle East because you came from a missionary family or from the oil industry, you were an expert. Never mind that having such a background might shape a particular view of the region, the United States’ interests in it, or Israel. People with these backgrounds were perceived to be unbiased, while Jews could not be objective and would be partial to Israel to the exclusion of American interests.

Sometimes, I would find this view expressed subtly. Other times it would be overt, including well after Secretary of State George Shultz tried to change the culture of the State Department during the early years of the Reagan’ administration. For Mr. Shultz, being Jewish was no longer a disqualification from working on Arab-Israeli issues. He was more interested in your knowledge than your identity. He made me, someone who is Jewish and was working on the National Security Council staff at the time, a member of the small team working with him on Arab-Israeli diplomacy. (Daniel Kurtzer, who is also Jewish and a career Foreign Service Officer, was on that team as well.)

When James Baker became secretary of state in 1989, he continued to help remove suspicions about Jews from the national security establishment. And yet, I remember well the time in 1990, when I was the head of the State Department’s policy planning staff, I was visited by a diplomatic security investigator who was doing a background check on someone who had listed me as a reference. This person was being considered for a senior position in the George H. W. Bush administration, not one directly involved with the Middle East.

At one point, the investigator asked me a question that is routine in these background checks: Was this person loyal to the United States? I answered yes, without a doubt. But his follow-up question was if this person had to choose between America’s interests and Israel’s, whose interests would he put first? There was nothing subtle about this presumption of dual loyalty.

“Why would you ask that question?” I asked, even though I realize I might not be helping the person using me as a reference. He answered: “Because he is Jewish.” So I went on: If he was Irish and had to work on problems related to Ireland or if he was Italian and had to work on Italy, would you ask that question? Initially, the investigator did not seem to know how to respond, but then I saw a look of recognition. He suddenly realized that I was Jewish. And, at that point, he changed the subject.

This investigator was not a rookie. And his experience with senior State Department officials led him to believe it was natural to ask this question. Like most mythologies which take on a life of their own, the idea that Jewish-Americans might have dual loyalties was not challenged or questioned, it was assumed. That made it all the more insidious.

Just like Ms. Wilson tweeting that Jews are pushing for a new war. It is the definition of prejudice. How can it not be when you label a whole group and ascribe to all those who are a part of it a particular negative trait or threatening behavior? It is the same today with those who single out all Muslims as dangerous extremists. It is just as unacceptable.

Today, surging nationalism and xenophobia promise to create even more prejudice. These attitudes foster an “us versus them” mentality. The “other” is a threat. And once you have singled out groups, the leap is small to imposing limits on them, quarantining them and rationalizing violence against them.

Rather than be worried about being mistrusted and accused of dual loyalties, Jewish American should feel proud. In uncertain times, identity can provide a source of security and comfort. And having a strong identity, being comfortable with who you are and whom you are connected to, need not come at the expense of others. As my rabbi, Jonathan Maltzman, pointed out in his Rosh Hashana sermon, the particular and the universal have always been embedded in Jewish identity.

Indeed, to live a Jewish life one must be committed to the Jewish community, but also to others. Jews have an obligation to promote justice, mercy, compassion, tolerance and peace.

In the United States, diversity of peoples and opinions is our strength as a democracy. Listening to one another, as opposed to labeling one another, can restore civil debate. It is certainly the only way to produce better policies. And it might even introduce greater care and civility to Twitter.

Dennis Ross is the counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author, most recently, of “Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israeli Relationship from Truman to Obama.”



I HOPE THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS PREPARING FOR A LARGE NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS FOR RESIDENCY IN THE US. THE PEOPLE OF PUERTO RICO ARE US CITIZENS ALREADY, BUT WE MAY HAVE MARKED HOUSING SHORTAGE, AND A GREATER NEED FOR GENERAL LIFE AID OF ALL KINDS IF THOSE 3.5 MILLION AMERICAN CITIZENS THERE, ALONG WITH OTHERS, DO TRY TO COME TO THE US IN “A MASSIVE EXODUS.” I HOPE THIS DOESN’T MAKE THE TRUMP V IMMIGRANT WAR OF WORDS WORSE, OR EVEN BRING VIOLENCE FROM THE WHITE AMERICANS WHO NOW ARE MOVING EVER FARTHER TO THE RIGHT POLITICALLY. I’M VERY CONCERNED. I DO FEAR RACIAL/ETHNIC VIOLENCE IN THE US TO A GREATER DEGREE THAN THE EVERYDAY GANGBANGERS, ETC. THINK OF THE JETS VS THE SHARKS IN THE GREAT OLD MOVIE “WESTSIDE STORY.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-puerto-rico-tweet-humanitarian-crisis-hurricane-maria-aftermath/
CBS NEWS September 26, 2017, 12:01 PM
Drump* Tweets Puerto Rico's "massive debt" as humanitarian crisis unfolds

Officials are calling the devastation in Puerto Rico a humanitarian disaster. Six days after Hurricane Maria hit, millions are struggling for basic necessities like adequate food, water, fuel and electricity. Eighty percent of the island's transmission lines are down, and power may not be restored for more than a month.

In a series of tweets Monday night, President Trump said the U.S. territory's old electrical grid was "devastated." He also appeared critical of the island's financial problems, tweeting they owed "billions of dollars to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with."

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble..
8:45 PM - Sep 25, 2017
24,371 24,371 Replies 12,180 12,180 Retweets 50,759 50,759 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy
FEMA has sent out over 10,000 federal forces to work around the clock, reports CBS News' David Begnaud.

Supplies are coming in slowly from the U.S. mainland to help millions still struggling across the island.

FEMA administrator Brock Long said at a press conference, "We've got a lot work to do. It's the worst hurricane Puerto Rico has seen."

Governor Ricardo Rosselló traveled with the National Guard to deliver a satellite phone to the mayor of San Sebastian. Satellite phones are critical in allowing senior government officials to communicate with local leaders in some of the hardest-hit areas.

170925-en-begnaud-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-10.jpg
Damage seen in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. CBS NEWS

"Two Category 5 hurricanes passing through an island is unprecedented and therefore the response needs to be unprecedented," Rosselló said.

Only a handful of flights are trickling out of Puerto Rico's main airport. Desperate travelers crowded the ticket counters hoping to get on one of the few flights leaving for the states.

"My mother needs dialysis. We've been here 26 hours," one woman said.

"Why can't food and water be sent there right now, I mean there are babies who are naked in strollers their parents are fanning them," Begnaud asked Rosselló.

"Because of your reporting that I saw last night, I ordered food and snacks to be delivered to the airport today," he replied.

"Ok I hear you, but it's not getting to them," Begnaud said.

170925-en-begnaud-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-04.jpg
People stranded at an airport in Puerto Rico as the island recovers from Hurricane Maria. CBS NEWS

"I understand and that's why immediately I'm taking action and I will as soon as we finish the interview I will make sure that water it's on its way and food is on its way," Rosselló said.

He kept his word. Food and snacks arrived within an hour, but he worries about the lasting effects if Washington doesn't pass a financial aid package soon.

"Humanitarian crisis will come to the United States in the form of the 3.5 million U.S. citizens that live here," Rosselló said. "And what you're bound to see is a massive exodus of Puerto Ricans into the mainland. It's going to be a problem for us, it's going to be a problem for mainland as well."

Puerto Rico's governor has complimented the work FEMA is doing, and FEMA's complimented the governor. They both complimented President Trump, but CBS News has asked where the aid is happening. The governor guaranteed that we would be able to see it.

[DRUMP* -- SEE THE HEADLINE ABOVE. I’M SURE THIS IS A MISPRINT, BECAUSE CBS NEWS WOULDN’T DO THAT PURPOSELY, BUT “DRUMPF” WAS THE ORIGINAL GERMAN NAME OF TRUMP’S FAMILY. HE DIDN’T LIKE THE WAY IT SOUNDED, OR FOR SOME OTHER REASON, CHANGED IT. FOR THE SCOOP ON “DRUMPF,” SEE SNOPES (ANOTHER HIGHLY UNLIKELY SOUNDING NAME.) -- HTTP://WWW.SNOPES.COM/DONALD-DRUMPF/.]



JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY, WHY WOULD ONLY 66 PERCENT IN THIS COUNTRY WHO HAVE A POST-GRADUATE DEGREE BE AWARE THAT PUERTO RICANS ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS, WHEN 72 OF THOSE WITH A BACHELORS DEGREE KNOW IT? I DO THINK THAT’S ODD. I HOPE IT ISN’T A “CLASS” BASED IDEA. PROFESSIONALS MAY BE IN A MUCH HIGHER ECONOMIC BRACKET, AND THAT COULD POSSIBLY MEAN THAT THEY CONSIDER PUERTO RICANS TO BE “INFERIOR?” I HOPE NOT, BECAUSE THERE WILL BE A LARGE NUMBER OF THEM HERE SOON, WITH POSSIBLY EVEN MORE CLASS AND CULTURAL CONFLICT THAN WE HAVE NOW. THAT WORRIES ME.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/upshot/nearly-half-of-americans-dont-know-people-in-puerto-ricoans-are-fellow-citizens.html
INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS
Nearly Half of Americans Don’t Know Puerto Ricans Are Fellow Citizens
By KYLE DROPP and BRENDAN NYHAN SEPT. 26, 2017

More than three million Americans in Puerto Rico are struggling to meet basic needs after a devastating strike from Hurricane Maria, but their plight seems to be attracting far less public or political attention than the woes caused by the recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida.

One potential explanation is the congested news environment. Over the weekend, for instance, President Trump reignited a debate over whether N.F.L. players should kneel during the national anthem, crowding the hurricane out of the headlines.

The lack of functioning power and communications in Puerto Rico has also hindered reporting on the storm.

Photo -- Lining up to buy gasoline in Humacao, P.R., on Sunday. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

But another explanation is simpler: Many Americans don’t realize that what happened in Puerto Rico is a domestic disaster, not a foreign one.

A new poll of 2,200 adults by Morning Consult found that only 54 percent of Americans know that people born in Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, are U.S. citizens. (Because Puerto Rico is not a state, they do not vote in presidential elections, but they send one nonvoting representative to Congress.)

This finding varied significantly by age and education. Only 37 percent of people ages 18 to 29 know people born in Puerto Rico are citizens, compared with 64 percent of those 65 or older. Similarly, 47 percent of Americans without a college degree know Puerto Ricans are Americans, compared with 72 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree and 66 percent of those with a postgraduate education.

Inaccurate beliefs on this question matter, because Americans often support cuts to foreign aid when asked to evaluate spending priorities. In our poll, support for additional aid was strongly associated with knowledge of the citizenship status of Puerto Ricans. More than 8 in 10 Americans who know Puerto Ricans are citizens support aid, compared with only 4 in 10 of those who do not.

Percent of Americans Who Support Aid for Puerto Rico
About half of Americans know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, and they are more likely to support aid.

Support among those who:
Know Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens
Don’t know
81%
44

Source: Morning Consult

Being informed about the citizenship status of Puerto Ricans also modestly increases support for aid. Over all, 64 percent of Americans in the poll who were given no additional information said that Puerto Rico should receive additional government aid to help rebuild the territory, while 14 percent said it was not necessary and 20 percent said they did not know or had no opinion.

But when a random sample of participants was informed that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens before answering this question, support for aid increased four percentage points, to 68 percent. These effects were especially large for Republicans (+9 percentage points), Trump voters (+10 percentage points) and Hispanic respondents (+12 percentage points). For example, 67 percent of Trump voters who saw a prompt informing them that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens supported additional aid, compared with 57 percent who did not see the prompt.

These findings are consistent with research showing that people tend to allocate contributions in laboratory games toward fellow members of their group. They also underline the pivotal role the news media can play in shaping public sympathies. Previous research has found that competing stories can crowd foreign disasters out of the news, reducing aid provided by the United States.

In this case, the lack of media attention could lead people to ignore Puerto Rico’s plight. Our sympathies for other people depends in part on whether we see them as fellow members of our tribe. Without more coverage, it may be easy to forget that the people suffering are our fellow Americans.

Morning Consult data was collected from Sept. 22-24, 2017, among a national sample of 2,200 adults. The interviews were conducted online, and the data was weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on age, race/ethnicity, gender, educational attainment and region.


Kyle Dropp is co-founder and chief research officer of Morning Consult. Follow him on Twitter at @KyleDropp. Brendan Nyhan is a professor of government at Dartmouth College. Follow him on Twitter at @BrendanNyhan.



FINALLY, AN EXCELLENT VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH ART GARFUNKEL, WHO HAS CONTINUED AS A SOLO ARTIST AND WRITER UNTIL NOW. I THINK HE IS PROBABLY SEVERAL YEARS OLDER THAN I AM, BUT HE LOOKS AS LIVELY AS EVER, AND VERY RELAXED AND AT EASE. GO TO THE WEBSITE TO PLAY THE INTERVIEW.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/art-garfunkel-new-memoir-career-paul-simon/
CBS NEWS September 26, 2017, 12:49 PM
Art Garfunkel on life's "little insights" and his "intense" relationship with Paul Simon

Art Garfunkel's voice helped shape some of the most famous songs in American music. As half of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, his pipes dominated the pop charts with hits like "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Cecilia" and "Homeward Bound" and multiple No. 1 records.

Later he moved onto a successful solo career. The acclaimed singer told "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday that he never planned to write a book, but after years of jotting down insights in a small notebook he keeps tucked in his back pocket, he decided to put together a memoir.

9780385352475-fullsize-cmyk.jpg
"What Is It All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man," chronicles his life, career-defining moments and tumultuous relationship with Paul Simon.

"I've walked the United States and I've walked across Europe. As I walk, little insights occur to me, some of them are big and I get a notion of a first line and I go, that line has rhythm and it means something to me. It touches the theme I've thought about all my life," Garfunkel said.

Garfunkel's voice helped Simon & Garfunkel earn induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Early on, Garfunkel knew he had a gift and often sang at his temple as a young boy – a place that influenced his style.

"It gave me a spirituality connected to singing right from the earliest age. So you share it with others," Garfunkel said. "The temple had a big high ceiling with lovely wood walls so the reverb was wonderful and that became a big thing for me. The echo which puts tails on your notes and extends them, I was entranced with that sound."

After Simon & Garfunkel split in 1970, it was his voice that gave him confidence.

"I didn't know if the world would accept me, but I knew I could sing without Paul," he said.

He described the duo's relationship as "intense" and "like a marriage."

"It has summers and winters. It waxes and wanes, it is best not talked about. You leave it alone. Sometimes you get a call from Paul or I from him, and out of nowhere something funny goes on and you laugh and you go, I miss him, and then you hang out, you have a dinner," Garfunkel said. "It's standard to be asked, 'Do you think you'll work together?' And I've always said, 'Who knows, life is a surprise.' We don't know what comes next. Nowadays, I say, 'No, we won't.'"

Art Garfunkel writes a note to his younger self
Play VIDEO
Art Garfunkel writes a note to his younger self

Asked what the "luminous" referenced in his memoir's title means, he said, "It's as if you're walking and you are so entranced by the beauty of everything you tear up and in the blurry vision of tearing up, what is it all but luminous? It's a poet's notion."

In the book, a travelogue of sorts, he described the songs that changed his life, including songs from The Beatles and one of his own.

"'Scarborough Fair' felt to me like the best, most flowing, most organic thing we ever recorded."



SEVERAL YEARS AGO, IN ONE OF THESE ARTICLES I FOUND THAT SAUDI ARABIAN WOMEN CAN’T LEGALLY DRIVE. I THOUGHT HOW DISGUSTING, HOW IDIOTIC, HOW BACKWARD. THEN IN THAT SAME ARTICLE I DISCOVERED THE STATEMENT THAT ADULT WOMEN CAN’T EVEN GO OUTDOORS WITHOUT A MALE FAMILY MEMBER. I THOUGHT, HOW CAN THESE WOMEN LIVE THAT WAY? AND HERE I SEE THAT THEY ARE TO BE ALLOWED OUT ON THEIR OWN BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR. FOR ALL THE PROBLEMS WE HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY, I AM SO GLAD THAT I WAS BORN HERE. I WANT TO PRAISE THE MEN IN SAUDI ARABIA FOR OPENING UP THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS, EVEN IF IT IS RATHER LATE. SOCIETIES THAT CLING TOO CLOSELY TO RIGID TRADITIONAL NORMS BECOME IGNORANT AND POOR. OF COURSE, I GUESS ALL THAT OIL HELPS KEEP THEIR ECONOMY AFLOAT. THIS WILL NOT GO INTO EFFECT UNTIL JUNE, 2018.

TO PREPARE YOUR MIND FOR THE FOLLOWING NEWS ARTICLE, SIT DOWN AND LISTEN CLOSELY TO THIS ARABIAN AND EGYPTIAN MUSIC. IT’S ONE HOUR LONG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4izWydINP8


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41408195
Saudi Arabia driving ban on women to be lifted
September 26, 2017

Photograph -- Saudi Arabia's King Salman has issued a decree allowing women to drive for the first time, state media say.

Government ministries are to prepare reports within 30 days and the order will be implemented by June 2018, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to forbid women from driving.

Under the current system, only men are allowed driving licences and women who drive in public risk being arrested and fined.

Because of the law, many families have had to employ private drivers to help transport female relatives.

Rights groups in the kingdom have campaigned for years to allow women to drive, and some women have been imprisoned for defying the rule.

"The royal decree will implement the provisions of traffic regulations, including the issuance of driving licences [sic] for men and women alike," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

Saudi woman live-tweets her arrest for driving
Is Saudi Arabia on the cusp of change?
Saudi girls' council launched - by men
Saudi women's rights video goes viral

The country's US ambassador, Prince Khaled bin Salman, said it was "an historic and big day" and "the right decision at the right time".

Media captionSaudi Arabia's permanent representative to the UN confirmed the change in policy

He confirmed that women will not have to get permission from their male guardians to take driving lessons, and would be able to drive anywhere they liked.

What was the reaction?

The move was welcomed by the US state department, which called it "a great step in the right direction".

Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was detained for 73 days in 2017 for flouting the ban, tweeted "thank God" following the announcement.

Manal al-Sharif, an organiser of the Women2Drive campaign who has also been imprisoned for driving, said on Twitter that Saudi Arabia would "never be the same again".

Activist Sahar Nassif in Jeddah told the BBC she was "very, very excited - jumping up and down and laughing".

"I'm going to buy my dream car, a convertible Mustang, and it's going to be black and yellow," she said.

Skip Twitter post by @manal_alsharif
Follow
منال مسعود الشريف ✔@manal_alsharif
You want a statement here is one: "Saudi Arabia will never be the same again. The rain begins with a single drop" #Women2Drive ❤️
4:03 PM - Sep 26, 2017
53 53 Replies 929 929 Retweets 1,239 1,239 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy
Report
End of Twitter post by @manal_alsharif
Not everyone reacted positively, however, with conservative voices accusing the government of "bending the verses of Sharia".

"As far as I remember, Sharia scholars have said it was haram (forbidden) for women to drive. How come it has suddenly become halal (permissible)?" one critic tweeted.

Analysis: A massive change for Saudi society

By Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent

This decree is huge for Saudi Arabia. For decades now, Saudi women, many of whom are extremely well-educated and ambitious, have been waiting for their chance to participate fully in their country's economy.
For all this time families have had to stretch their budgets to the limit, as they have had to hire in imported chauffeurs from south and south-east Asia, house them, feed them and insure them.

An estimated 800,000 imported chauffeurs currently ferry Saudi women around. The reason it has taken so long is the long-standing opposition from religious conservatives, who have expressed views varying from "they are too stupid to drive" to "it will lead to intolerable mingling of the sexes".

Yet this decree is in line with a programme called Vision 2030, promoted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, to modernise Saudi society and bring it more into line with the rest of the world.

Lifestyle limits for Saudi women

Saudi law enforces a strict form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism and is known for its gender segregation rules.

Women have to adhere to strict dress codes, must not associate with unrelated men, and if they want to travel, work or access healthcare they must be accompanied by - or receive written permission from - a male guardian.

Saudi women sit in a stadium to attend an event in the capital Riyadh on 23 September 2017 commemorating the anniversary of the founding of the kingdomImage copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGES

Image caption

Saudi women were recently allowed inside King Fahd Stadium to celebrate for the first time

The Islamic kingdom recently faced a backlash from conservatives on social media after allowing women to participate in Saturday's National Day celebrations for the first time.

The festivities included fireworks, light shows and a concert in King Fahd International Stadium in the capital, Riyadh.

Media captionWhat do Saudi women say about oppression?



IT’S TOO BAD THAT CORKER IS GOING TO STEP DOWN IN 2018. HE’S ONE OF THE REPUBLICANS WHO SEEMS TO ME TO BE MOST PRINCIPLED, THOUGHTFUL, AND INDEPENDENT OF THE HERD. THIS EXCERPT MENTIONS A SURPRISING EVENT, EVEN FOR REPUBLICANS: “IN 2015, AS REPUBLICAN CRITICISM OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S NUCLEAR TALKS WITH IRAN ESCALATED, CORKER WAS ONE OF A HANDFUL OF REPUBLICANS WHO DECLINED TO SIGN A LETTER CIRCULATED BY SEN. TOM COTTON, R-ARK., THAT WAS ADDRESSED DIRECTLY TO IRAN'S LEADERS WARNING THEM THAT ANY ACCORD OBAMA STRUCK COULD BE UNDONE." IN OTHER WORDS, HE ISN’T ONE OF THE BAD DUDES, AND HE’S LEAVING THE SENATE. I WONDER IF THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH DONALD TRUMP.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-sen-corker-announces-wont-seek-election-200626942--politics.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=dbb2094c-7d9a-37c0-96b9-7f844af62e78&.tsrc=notification-brknews
GOP Sen. Corker announces he won't seek re-election
Associated Press
September 26, 2017

Photograph -- This Sept. 19, 2017 photo shows chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., pausing before a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the nomination of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to become the US ambassador to Russia, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Corker says he will not seek re-election. In a surprise announcement, the two-term lawmaker said that after discussions with his family, “I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee and a political force on financial issues, announced Tuesday he would not seek re-election.

The 65-year-old lawmaker, who recently had been encouraged by President Donald Trump to seek a third term, made the surprise announcement hours before a showdown vote in an Alabama Senate runoff that pitted the establishment favorite against firebrand Judge Roy Moore.

"After much thought, consideration and family discussion over the past year, Elizabeth and I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018," Corker said in a statement.

Corker has helmed the Foreign Relations panel, playing a significant role on Russia and Iran sanctions, and was considered a possible secretary of state in the Trump Cabinet before the president tapped Rex Tillerson. A member of the Banking Committee, Corker played a key role on financial legislation.

Corker had a $6.5 million balance in his campaign account at the end of the last reporting period, the most among GOP senators facing re-elections next year. Corker has increased his cash on hand by $1 million, according to his office.

The senator had criticized Trump after he blamed both white nationalists and anti-racist protesters for the violence at an August rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Corker questioned whether Trump had shown the "stability" and "competence" to succeed in office.

Trump responded on Twitter, "Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in '18." Trump added, "Tennessee not happy!"

Corker's detractors in Tennessee have been keen to highlight the discord between senator and the president, who remains highly popular in the state.

But Corker has downplayed any notion of a rift between himself and Trump, telling reporters last week that "for people to try to act as if there is daylight between us as a result is just not true."

Earlier Tuesday, when he was pressed on whether the Republicans should hold a vote on a health care bill, he put off the question by saying: "I'm not much of a politician, as you know. So I'll let people who worry about politician-y things decide that."

Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, but establishment candidates backed by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have come under fire from the right, with critics questioning their fealty to Trump. Republican incumbents in Nevada and Arizona face primary challengers.

The biggest test for the GOP establishment is in Alabama, where Sen. Luther Strange is locked in a runoff Tuesday against Moore.

Corker took over as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in 2015 after Republicans took control of the Senate. The panel's top Democrat, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, gave Corker high marks for running the committee in an inclusive, bipartisan way.

But Corker emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the Obama administration's foreign policy. At a September 2016 hearing on Syria, Corker assailed President Barack Obama and his administration for refusing to take the necessary steps to get humanitarian aid into Syria and to deter Bashar Assad's military forces from targeting civilians. He considered Obama to be unreliable on foreign affairs, declaring that the president wasn't willing to "roll up sleeves and deal with the tough issues that we have to deal with."

Corker also could be an iconoclast. In 2015, as Republican criticism of the Obama administration's nuclear talks with Iran escalated, Corker was one of a handful of Republicans who declined to sign a letter circulated by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., that was addressed directly to Iran's leaders warning them that any accord Obama struck could be undone.



DID BERNIE SANDERS SHIFT THE VOTE TOWARD REPUBLICANS, “UNINTENTIONALLY” OR OTHERWISE? THE CBS PRINT ARTICLE BELOW SAYS NOT, BECAUSE, AT LEAST FOR NOW, MITCH MCCONNELL HAS LED IN THE DIRECTION OF SAVING HIS POWDER FOR LATER USE. AT LEAST TEMPORARILY, THEY HAVE GIVEN UP ON THEIR EFFORT TO STRIP THE AMERICAN PUBLIC OF ITS’ ONE AFFORDABLE CARE PLAN. WHAT I THINK BERNIE AND OTHER LIBERALS HAVE DONE IS TO CAUSE PEOPLE TO THINK AND REEVALUATE. AS ONE ARTICLE SAID, OUR CITIZENS ARE NOW ACCUSTOMED TO THE SECURITY OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AND ITS’ LIFESAVING MEDICAL CARE. IT’S LIKE A BABY WITH TWO COOKIES, ONE IN EACH HAND. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU TRY TO TAKE ONE OF THEM AWAY FROM HER?

https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/did-bernie-sanders-unintentionally-help-republicans-with-their-obamacare-repeal/
RED AND BLUE
Did Bernie Sanders unintentionally help Republicans with their Obamacare repeal?
LYNDA TRAN
VIDEO ONLY


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-gop-leaders-decide-not-to-hold-vote-on-last-ditch-obamacare-repeal/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS September 26, 2017, 2:22 PM
Senate GOP leaders decide not to hold vote on last-ditch Obamacare repeal

Senate Republican leaders have decided not to bring their last-ditch Obamacare repeal bill, known as Graham-Cassidy, to the floor this week, for now killing their seven-year effort to dismantle the 2010 health care law.

"We don't have the votes," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, one of the co-authors of the bill, at a press conference following a closed-door Senate GOP Conference lunch. "We made the decision that since we don't have the votes, we won't hold the vote."

The decision comes after three Senate Republicans came out against the latest version of the measure -- John McCain of Arizona, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine. Republicans could only afford two defections, assuming all Democrats were going to oppose the legislation proposed by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina and Cassidy.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said that the GOP will now move forward with their next priority, which is tax reform.

"We're coming back to this after taxes," Graham insisted at a press conference after their lunch. "We're going to fulfill our promise to repeal and replace."

Republicans were relying on the budget reconciliation process to repeal the law, which allows for passage of certain legislation with 51 votes rather than the usual 60-vote threshold. However, due to a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian, Senate Republicans have only until Saturday, the end of the fiscal year, to use the procedure.

Under the bill, "millions fewer" people would have health insurance over the next decade according to a preliminary analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).

Collins came out against the measure after the CBO report was released.

"It found, as I suspected would be the case, that it would have a negative impact on millions of Americans who are now insured, so it was the final piece of the puzzle that I had been waiting to confirm," Collins told reporters outside her Senate office.

McCain had announced Friday that he opposed the last-ditch Graham-Cassidy effort because it hadn't gone through regular order. He helped deliver the deciding blow to GOP leadership's last effort to repeal Obamacare at the end of July, shocking the political world by turning his thumb down in a "no" vote. McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer over the summer.

Paul also railed against the bill, describing it as "Obamacare lite."

Many health care advocacy groups opposed the measure as did a bipartisan group of governors.

CBS News' Margaret Brennan and Nancy Cordes contributed to this report.



ALL PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY? NOT IN THIS CASE.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/restaurantsandnews/woman-attacked-by-a-venomous-copperhead-snake-at-longhorn-steakhouse/ar-AAsspd0?li=BBnb4R7&ocid=iehp
Woman Attacked By a Venomous Copperhead Snake At LongHorn Steakhouse
Collier Sutter
September 25, 2017

Photograph – Long Horn Restaurant sign

A Virginia resident was bitten by a venomous snake inside a LongHorn Steakhouse before she even made it to her table.

Rachel Myrick and her family were heading into the foyer of the restaurant for dinner earlier this month when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her foot. “My left foot felt a bee sting, a hornet sting — something similar,” Myrick told Washington’s Top News. “So, I reached down to brush my foot off to keep walking.”

Once she did so, she was bitten a second time and immediately began screaming as she dropped her cellphone, wallet, and let go of her 13-year-old son Dylan’s hand. When addressing the pain between the bites Myrick said, “[The second] was significantly more painful than the first time.”

After she was bitten a total of three times—twice on her toes and once on the side of her foot—the 8-inch-long copperhead stayed clung onto her foot until she was able to shake free.

“I freaked out,” Myrick told Fredericksburg.com. “I got bit! I got bit!” she recalls yelling out loud.

Her boyfriend, Michael Clem, who was with her at the time, knows a fair share about snakes. “I’ve bred and raised reptiles for 15 years… there was no question what it was,” he said.

Myrick was hospitalized after the incident where she was administered antivenin, morphine and benadryl for the severe swelling and pain.

A spokesman for LongHorn Steakhouse, Hunter Robinson, says the restaurant believes the snake may have come from a nearby retention pond and called the incident a “highly unusual incident.”

“We are working with our facilities team to see how this may have occurred and we are taking steps to prevent it from happening again,” he added.

Myrick estimates it will take her about three months to fully recover.

This article was originally published on PEOPLE.com



TRUMP’S MAIN PROBLEM IS THAT HIS STYLE OF “LEADING” IS NOT ONE OF DEMOCRACY, OR EVEN GOOD SENSE. IT’S “SMASH AND GRAB” –PURELY RAW POWER AND NOT WITHIN THE NORMS OF AMERICAN THOUGHT FOR A PRESIDENT. HE DEALS WITH FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS THE SAME WAY, AND WE HAVE SEEN THE RESULTS. IT IS NOT HYPERBOLE TO SAY THAT WE MAY BE IN A HOT WAR, REPLACING OUR FORMER COLD WAR WITH NORTH KOREA, WITHIN MONTHS.

AS THIS ARTICLE SAYS, PEOPLE IN THE GOVERNMENT, ESPECIALLY THOSE OF THE OLD GROUP OF LONG-TIME CIVIL SERVANTS – ARE “APPALLED,” WHICH IS WHY THEY ARE LEAKING. IT IS OUT OF WHAT TO ME IS ACTUALLY PATRIOTISM THAT THEY ARE OPPOSING TRUMP THIS ACTIVELY. ALSO, THE ARTICLE SAYS THAT EXCEPT FOR “A HANDFUL” OF STORIES, THERE WAS NO SERIOUS NATIONAL SECURITY MATTER INVOLVED, AND THAT MANY ARE JUST STORIES THAT TRUMP FINDS INCONVENIENT OR EMBARRASSING.

POMPEO, OF VANITY FAIR, SAID HERE: “SINCE THE ELECTION, OUTLETS INCLUDING THE POST, THE TIMES, AND BUZZFEED HAVE SET UP CONFIDENTIAL ELECTRONIC TIP LINES THROUGH WHICH SOURCES CAN PASS INFORMATION ALONG SECURELY AND ANONYMOUSLY. GIZMODO MEDIA GROUP’S VERSION WAS PERHAPS THE MOST BRAZEN: “TELL ON TRUMP.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/donald-trump-leak-war-reporter-fear#intcid=dt-recirc-cral1
Growing Fears
IN THE TRENCHES OF TRUMP’S LEAK WAR
How the administration has changed the game between investigative reporters and their government sources.
BY JOE POMPEO
AUGUST 29, 2017 10:30 AM

On July 6, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs issued a scathing report detailing what the Committee characterized as a seething epidemic of classified information making its way into the press. Titled, “State Secrets: How an Avalanche of Media Leaks Is Harming National Security,” the 23-page document cites “at least 125 stories” between Inauguration day and May 25 “with leaked information potentially damaging to national security.” That last part is debatable. While the report, which was commissioned by the Republican majority, does include a handful of truly astonishing disclosures—things like FISA warrants and transcripts of private phone calls with foreign leaders—most of the document essentially reads like a chronology of what the public has learned about the interlocking investigations into the Trump administration and its potential ties to Russia. The bylines of New York Times and Washington Post reporters are especially prolific. “Listing individual reporters who allegedly harmed national security is something that illiberal nations do,” the Committee to Protect Journalists* wrote in response.

The report was provided to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who would stand before a podium one month later and announce that the Trump administration had already tripled the amount of leak investigations pursued under Barack Obama, whose administration had in turn been more aggressive about hunting down sources than any other since Nixon’s. “I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country,” Sessions said. “We are taking a stand. This culture of leaking must stop. . . . So, today, I have this message for the intelligence community: the Department of Justice is open for business. And I have this warning for would-be leakers: don’t do it.”

Consternation about the report was particularly high in The Washington Post’s newsroom, not only because 33 of its journalists’ stories were in the crosshairs, but also because “State Secrets” was being promoted on Twitter by one of their own. Jerry Markon was a longtime Post reporter who covered the Department of Homeland Security until February, when he left the paper to work for the Committee on Homeland Security as senior policy adviser to its chairman, Senator Ron Johnson. When the report landed, along with six retweets from Markon touting its findings, jaws hit the floor. At least one of Markon’s former colleagues, according to people with knowledge of the matter, e-mailed him to ask if he’d written the report himself. Adam Goldman, who worked with Markon at the Post and even shared some bylines with him, was blunt in his assessment. “Many former colleagues at the Post were disappointed,” Goldman told me. “It was a betrayal.” (I reached out to Markon through the Committee’s press office but he was not made available.) A Johnson aide emphasized that Johnson’s “concern is about the leakers and the national-security threats their leaks pose, not individual journalists.”

I spoke with more than half a dozen national-security journalists at several major news organizations to get their take on the current climate. The conversations were overwhelmingly off the record, either because these reporters have a policy of keeping discussions pertaining to their tradecraft offline, or because they didn’t want to inflame hostilities or play into the government’s hands. (Indeed, some were of the opinion that a story like this one would do more harm than good.) Goldman, who now covers the F.B.I. for the Times, and who was the only one of the group to give me a quote for attribution, summed up the state of play like this: “We can’t do our jobs effectively if we have to run around fearful the government is always watching us. We’re journalists, not spies.”

And yet many journalists these days do have to acts like spies. That’s not exactly new. Back in the 70s, Bob Woodward resorted to moving a flowerpot around on his balcony in order to arrange post-midnight meetings with Deep Throat. As the government in recent years has become more heavy-handed about cracking down on whistleblowers, and as electronic surveillance has become increasingly sophisticated, reporters have in turn become increasingly sophisticated about communicating through encryption and other highly secure methods.

Trump’s election was not a total sea change. Those who spoke with me agreed that the previous administration laid the groundwork for the current leak jihad. But his very public war on the press, along with his suspicion of his own intelligence agencies, has significantly raised the temperature. The president has toyed publicly with the idea of putting reporters in jail, so it’s no surprise that journalists and sources are on edge. “I’ve seen a perceptible change that impacts my day-to-day job since literally the day after he won the election,” one of the reporters I spoke with said, describing “lots of dark humor from trusted sources.”

Another said, “We’ve always taken great steps to protect our sources. Now we’re taking steps like we’ve never taken before.” Even casual sources who used to be fine exchanging quick e-mails or texts now insist on using Signal, an encrypted messaging app that has become the whisper tool de rigueur because it enables people to speak or send messages to one another without fingerprints. Disposable phones are another trick of the trade that came up in my conversations, as well as two other ingenious technologies: face-to-face meetings and snail mail.

All of this judicious paranoia extends beyond the realm of high-level intel revelations that may result in new prosecutions under Trump. “A lot of people talk late at night in this administration,” said Times reporter and longtime Trump chronicler Maggie Haberman, a master of the sort of inside-the-room palace intrigue scoops that also are a hallmark of today’s White House coverage. She was being interviewed on an episode of the Longform podcast last month: “There’s a real fear for most people that they’re being monitored in some way. People use different kinds of phones. . . . People are scared.”

Fear has not stopped the torrent of previously secret information, which has come much more frequently than it did during Obama’s two terms. One veteran NatSec scribe told me there was a certain amount of reverence for Obama within the government and intelligence apparatus: “People treated Obama like a cult figure. Some people view Trump more as the Godfather.”

Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and editor in chief of the national security-oriented Web site Lawfare, that rare journalist with substantial sympathy for the secrecy concerns of the NatSec bureaucracy, is skeptical of the notion of a deep-state war on the administration. He broke down the Trump era’s leak phenomenon into a few general buckets: information-control problems among the palace guard as it contends with fractious administration figures competing for the president’s attention, and often screwing each other in the process; disenfranchisement among career bureaucrats who are willing to dish to reporters because they see what’s going on and they’re disturbed by some of it; and disclosures that flow from the high-level investigations being pursued by Congress and the executive branch. “These are very different categories of leaks, and I don’t think anybody knows what the balance is,” he told me. “It is fair to say that there are a lot of people in the government who are appalled, and those people are much more likely to talk to journalists than when they’re not appalled. When you have a president who himself dishes classified information to an adversarial foreign power, why should anybody else protect him?”

Leaking is often a continuation of bureaucratic struggles by other means. There are always officials who want certain pieces of information to become public, but they are restrained by what Wittes has described as their own oaths of good behavior—“a belief in the underlying project,” he said, “and a sense that in the main, the government is on the side of good and justice, and that the system will work better if they behave according to the rules. This situation tests that for a lot of people.”

Wittes continued: “I’m not at all uncomfortable with people saying that stuff shouldn’t leak.” But mostly, he said, Trump is “complaining about the wrong thing. If the issue is inappropriate disclosure of classified information and programs, those leaks should be taken seriously. The problem is when you conflate that stuff with any disclosure that the president finds inconvenient.”

Given the current tensions, news organizations are making sure their security protocols are air tight. The Washington Post recently brought in an investigative-services firm called the Mintz Group to give the paper’s national-security and national-politics teams a refresher on best practices, a person with knowledge of the meeting said. Topics covered: what to do if you feel like you’re being surveilled, the virtues of in-person meetings versus phone conversations, and so on. (The Post wouldn’t comment.) Since the election, outlets including the Post, the Times, and BuzzFeed have set up confidential electronic tip lines through which sources can pass information along securely and anonymously. Gizmodo Media Group’s version was perhaps the most brazen: “Tell On Trump.”

The current, blustering buildup to a prospective leak war has a faint whiff of the North Korea standoff—lots of tough talk but no visible evidence that a conflagration looks imminent. If the Justice Department has indeed “more than tripled the number of active leak investigations compared to the number pending at the end of the last Administration,” as the attorney general said, the vast majority of those investigations remain a mystery. The only confirmed case to date is that of Reality Winner, a National Security Agency contractor charged in June with giving The Intercept an intelligence report about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. (She has pleaded not guilty.) It was an instance in which Winner as well as one of the journalists who reported on the information she allegedly provided both made missteps that may have helped the government identify her.

But reporters are still wary. As one said: “There’s definitely a vulnerability. If you get to a place where half the country wants to see the media in prison, there’s a risk somebody’s gonna go to prison.”


*COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS -- HTTPS://CPJ.ORG/ABOUT/

Why We Protect Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.

CPJ promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. CPJ ensures the free flow of news and commentary by taking action wherever journalists are attacked, imprisoned, killed, kidnapped, threatened, censored, or harassed.

Hundreds of journalists are killed, harassed, or imprisoned every year. For 30 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists has been there to defend them worldwide.

Why do we protect journalists? Journalism plays a vital role in the balance of power between a government and its people. When a country's journalists are silenced, its people are silenced. By protecting journalists, CPJ protects freedom of expression and democracy.

When journalists can't speak, we speak up.

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 7th Avenue, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
info@cpj.org
Tel +1 212-465-1004
Fax +1 212-465-9568



WATCH THIS FASCINATING WAR DANCE TRADITION FROM MAORI AND AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINE CULTURES. IT’S A GREAT WAY TO GET THE CROWD READY PSYCHOLOGICALLY FOR A HARD-FOUGHT BALL GAME.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdhrUKRdKM8
Maori haka vs Aboriginal dream time war dance before their rugby match



MADDOW BLOGS

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/25/17
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
Trump dangerous bellicosity raises nuclear war risk with N. Korea
Joe Cirincione, MSNBC nuclear security analyst, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Donald Trump's insult-comic threats against North Korea have only escalated the threat of war with North Korea. Duration: 16:50


CAMPAIGN TO CHILL FREE SPEECH

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/bill-moyers-on-trump-nfl-this-is-an-alien-in-the-white-house-1054862915890
9/25/17
Bill Moyers on Trump, NFL: 'This is an alien in the White House'
Bill Moyers, former Press Secretary for President Lyndon Baines Johnson, speaks to Lawrence O'Donnell about Donald Trump's anger and "narcissism" and how it's spilling over to now attacking professional athlete protests. Duration: 6:46


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/facebok-warned-fbi-of-russian-activity-twice-during-2016-election-1054870595536
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/25/17
Facebook warned FBI of Russian activity twice during 2016...
Rachel Maddow reports on developments in what is known about how Russia used Facebook to manipulate the American democratic process including buying ads to amplify American cultural divisions. Duration: 2:30


http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/bill-moyers-on-trump-nfl-this-is-an-alien-in-the-white-house-1054862915890
9/25/17
Bill Moyers on Trump, NFL: 'This is an alien in the White House'
Bill Moyers, former Press Secretary for President Lyndon Baines Johnson, speaks to Lawrence O'Donnell about Donald Trump's anger and "narcissism" and how it's spilling over to now attacking professional athlete protests. Duration: 6:46


http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/first-on-the-beat-secret-paul-manafort-memo-to-trump-revealed-1055646275834
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER 9/26/17
First on The Beat: Secret Paul Manafort memo to Trump revealed
NYT reporter Glenn Thrush and former prosecutor Renato Mariotti joins Ari Melber to break down the exclusive Paul Manafort memos in which he makes the case to be the Trump campaign chair. Duration: 10:59


http://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/mueller-continues-to-chip-at-russia-investigation-bit-by-bit-1055543363569
DEADLINE: WHITE HOUSE 9/26/17
'Scary Times': Mueller to begin interviewing WH staffers as...
NBC News' Ken Dilianian on the latest in Bob Mueller's investigation into the Russia probe Duration: 0:54


http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/matthews-trump-can-t-silence-freedom-of-speech-1055691843853
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 9/26/17
Matthews: Trump can’t silence freedom of speech
President Trump had a chance today to tamp this fire down. He could have said that the athletes protesting police conduct are entitled to their views, entitled to express them. But he didn’t. Duration: 1:50


http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/roger-stone-testifies-on-russia-probe-1055640643837
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 9/26/17
Roger Stone testifies on Russia Probe
NBC News also reports that Special Counsel Robert Muller's team could begin interviews with current and former Trump aides as early as this week. Duration: 7:35


http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/steve-schmidt-trump-is-hijacking-american-values-1055334979844
MSNBC LIVE WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE 9/26/17
Steve Schmidt Trump is 'hijacking' American values
MSNBC contributor Steve Schmidt responds to Trump's attacks on athletes and says the president is hijacking American values in order to score political points, which is more of a threat to the flag than the protests themselves. Duration: 2:09