AUGUST 13, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


IT SEEMS TO ME THAT ONE OF THE PRIMARY REQUIREMENTS IN A REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN IS TO USE HIS BLINDERS ALL THE TIME, AND DENY WHAT THEY SEE FROM THE FRONT.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/401640-sanders-blasts-zinke-says-wildfires-have-everything-to-do-with
NEWS AND VIEWS
Sen. Sanders blasts Zinke: Wildfires 'have everything to do with climate change'
BY TIMOTHY CAMA - 08/13/18 05:07 PM EDT

PHOTOGRAPH -- © Greg Nash

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Monday for saying that the debate over California’s wildfires has “nothing to do with climate change.”

Sanders, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016 and is one of the Senate’s most progressive members on climate change, said the wildfires should show how serious a threat global warming is.

“No, Secretary Zinke. The record-breaking wildfires in California have everything to do with climate change,” Sanders tweeted, responding to a report in The Hill on Zinke’s remarks to a Sacramento television station. “We must confront the reality that climate change is already destroying tens of thousands of lives, and take concrete steps to avoid its worst consequences.”

While saying the fires have “nothing to do with climate change,” Zinke seemed to acknowledge the role of climate change.

“This is not a debate about climate change. There’s no doubt the [fire] season is getting longer, the temperatures are getting hotter,” he said Sunday.

Climate and forestry experts have said a warming planet, caused largely by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, has made severe wildfires more likely, due to drought, increased extreme heat and other effects.

Zinke and others in the Trump administration, though, have focused heavily on the argument that the historic wildfires — including the largest fire in California’s recorded history — are due to a lack of “active” forest management.

They blame environmental groups for stopping management techniques like clearing brush, increasing logging and prescribed burns.

“Extreme environmentalists have shut down public access. They talk about habitat, and yet they are willing to burn it up,” he said in the television interview.

Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue were in California on Monday to meet with officials, firefighters, fire survivors and others, and promote the administration’s active forest management agenda.


THE PROSECUTION PORTION IN THE MANAFORT TRIAL HAS ENDED. I WONDER WHEN WE WILL HEAR OF THE RESULTS AND PATH FORWARD.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/13/paul-manafort-trial-prosecution-rests/981936002/?csp=chromepush
Government rests in ex-Trump campaign chief Manafort's fraud trial
Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY Published 5:41 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2018 | Updated 5:46 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2018
Ap Trump Russia Probe Manafort A File Usa Dc
(Photo: AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va.–The government rested its case Monday in the tax and bank fraud trial of Paul Manafort with testimony from a Chicago bank official who said the institution disregarded numerous "red flags" to grant the former Trump campaign chairman $16 million in loans in 2016.

The testimony from James Brennan, a vice president at Federal Savings Bank, represented the capstone to the prosecution’s case that has featured 28 witnesses over 10 days here.

Manafort’s attorneys are expected to notify the court Tuesday whether they intend to offer a defense or move the case directly to final arguments.

The trial has attracted packed galleries to the federal courthouse each day, with U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III setting a pretty brisk pace for the proceedings, the first case to come to trial as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Paul Manafort trial: Key takeaways as the prosecution prepares to rest
Paul Manafort trial: Evidence turns to lavish lifestyle

A pin-striped suit owned by Paul Manafort from the House of Bijan. The expensive suit is one of many that is being used as evidence in the case against him. U.S. Department of Justice



WAS BERNIE WRONG ABOUT THE MERCATUS STUDY AS CLAIMED? JACOBINMAG.COM SAYS HE WAS NOT.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/mercatus-report-bernie-sanders-medicare-for-all
Sorry, Bernie Is Right
BY MATT BRUENIG
08.13.2018
UNITED STATES

PHOTOGRAPH -- US senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) greets supporters as he arrives at an event on health care on September 13, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty

Two weeks ago, the libertarian Mercatus Center released a report estimating the cost of Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-All proposal. Like most think tank products, the author and communications team behind the Koch-funded Mercatus report carefully cultivated a certain kind of media coverage in pursuit of their political agenda. In this case, the political goal was to undermine Medicare for All by getting journalists to write that it was impossibly expensive.

The Strategy

You can tell that this was their goal by looking at how the Mercatus paper was written, and specifically how its abstract was written. The first sentence contains the claim that many journalists put as their headline and lede: Medicare for All will “increase federal budget commitments by approximately $32.6 trillion” between 2022 and 2031. The rest of the abstract, and indeed the rest of the text of the paper, omits the more important fact that their estimate states that overall health expenditures would fall by $2 trillion over that period.

The abstract then says “doubling all currently projected federal individual and corporate income tax collections would be insufficient to finance the added federal costs of the plan.” This claim makes it seem like the author is saying we would have to more than double federal taxes, but this is only because the author curiously excluded payroll taxes from the sentence, despite the fact that payroll taxes are the second-largest federal revenue source and the fact that payroll taxes are the main proposed mechanism for raising the funds.

The abstract closes with the claim that “healthcare providers operating under Medicare for All will be reimbursed at rates more than 40 percent lower than those currently paid by private health insurance.” This is designed to trick journalists into thinking that Medicare for All would cut provider payments by 40 percent overall. Indeed, this phrasing did successfully trick the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, who wrote as much in his piece and later had to issue a correction. The abstract fails to mention that, although provider payment rates for the privately insured will go down, provider payment rates for the uninsured and those on Medicaid will go up.

Success Slips Away

This careful bit of framing and deception by Mercatus initially worked out as planned. They got the Associated Press to write a story with the lede “Sen. Bernie Sanders’ ‘Medicare for all’ plan would boost government health spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years.” Because of the way the AP wire service works, that means the story showed up on just about every news website in the country: ABC News, Bloomberg, Washington Post, and so on.

But this initial success slipped away from Mercatus because folks like myself quickly noticed that, buried in the report’s tables, the author had actually found that Sanders’s plan would save $2 trillion.

That’s right: the same estimate with the scary $32.6 trillion figure they were promoting to all the journalists in the country also said that the US could insure 30 million more Americans, virtually eliminate out-of-pocket expenses, and cover dental, vision, and hearing care for everyone — all while spending $2 trillion less over the next ten years. After this was pointed out, the coverage of the report changed dramatically, and Bernie Sanders put out a video thanking the Koch brothers for their positive study.

Needless to say, Mercatus was not thrilled that its attempt to torpedo Medicare for All had become one of the leading talking points in its favor, and so it badly wanted a do-over. The preferred theater for their do-over was gullible and biased fact-checkers who they successfully coached into declaring that Bernie Sanders is lying using their inane truth-o-meter and Pinocchio-based measures.

What the Report Says

To understand why the fact-checkers’ various declarations are themselves wrong or deceptive, it is necessary first to briefly slog through the actual Mercatus report to explain how it works and what its important findings really were.

In the report, Charles Blahous initially starts with health expenditure projections produced by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Those projections say that, under our current system, Americans as a whole will spend $59.653 trillion on health care between 2022 and 2031. From there, Blahous adds the estimated cost of insuring the uninsured, virtually eliminating out-of-pocket expenses, and providing dental, vision, and hearing care to everyone. Then he subtracts the savings from lower administrative costs, lower drug prices, and lower payment rates for healthcare providers. After those additions and subtractions, the number drops to $57.599 trillion, which means there is a savings of $2.054 trillion.

Blahous then proceeds to observe that, although Medicare for All saves $2 trillion overall, it also shifts nearly the entire healthcare bill to the federal government, meaning that federal expenditures will necessarily go up. Under the current system, the federal government is expected to contribute $21.927 trillion of the $59.653 trillion in total healthcare spending. Under M4A, the federal government takes on almost all of the spending currently done by private insurers and state Medicaid programs, meaning that federal expenditures go up to $54.571 trillion of the (now lower) $57.599 trillion of total health spending. Thus, total federal spending increases by $32.644 trillion ($54.571 – $21.927).

There are two important things to note about this report for our purposes here. The first is that the claim “Medicare for All will cost $32.6 trillion” and the claim “Medicare for All will save $2 trillion” are two ways of describing the exact same estimate. The former claim refers to how much more Mercatus says the federal government will spend. The latter claim refers to how much less they say America as a whole will spend. If the $32.6 trillion cost figure Mercatus promoted to the entire world is correct, then the $2 trillion savings figure is also correct.

The second is that the $32.6/$2 trillion estimate is the one that is based on Sanders’s plan as written. Blahous says this explicitly on page twelve:

In contrast with Thorpe’s and the [Urban Institute] team’s earlier estimates, the estimates in this study are based instead on the language of the M4A bill as subsequently introduced, imposing Medicare payment rates on all providers and thereby substantially reducing national average provider payment rates relative to current law.

Blahous then goes on to say that if Bernie Sanders does not actually follow through with his plan as written and instead implements a different plan with significantly higher provider payment rates, then of course the cost will be higher. Blahous estimates these costs with “alternative scenarios” he constructs and then publishes in the appendix of the report. It is important to be very clear on this point, though: these alternative scenarios are not Sanders’s plan but are instead completely different plans Blahous constructed with higher provider payment rates.

Working the Referees

The Mercatus report created a huge mess that at first glance seemed impossible to fix. Mercatus really did release a report that said that Bernie Sanders’s plan, as written, saves $2 trillion in its first ten years. They really did promote that report and that specific estimate to the journalist community. So how then do they go back into the journalist community and get them to write pieces declaring that Bernie Sanders and Medicare-for-All advocates are lying about the content of the report?

Apparently what you do is approach the various fact-checker journalists and try to sell them on the idea that the real estimate of Medicare for All is the alternative scenario Blahous constructed in the appendix of the report, an alternative scenario that Blahous himself says does not track Bernie Sanders’s plan.

PolitiFact pointed to the alternative scenario to declare the claim that the Mercatus study says Medicare for All will save $2 trillion “half true.” The Associated Press, which I didn’t even realize did fact-checking, called the claim “spin.” And the Washington Post gave the claim three Pinocchios out of a possible four Pinocchios, which apparently means it is a “significant factual error” or contains “obvious contradictions.”

Think for a second about how completely absurd these three suspiciously identical fact-check pieces are. They acknowledge that Sanders and others are right that the Mercatus estimate says there will be $2 trillion in savings. But then they say Sanders is mostly lying because he does not also talk about alternative scores of totally different plans that are not his plan.

It would be like if Sanders released a plan to raise the top tax rate to 70 percent and then a study came out that said the hike would raise $1 trillion of revenue but that a 60 percent hike would only raise $800 billion. Then Sanders said, “Good news, my 70 percent tax rate raises $1 trillion in revenue,” and the fact-checkers wrote pieces saying he was lying because he failed to mention that a 60 percent tax rate would raise much less. That is how ridiculous the argument of these pieces are.

In addition to the absurdity of this general argument Mercatus coached these journalists to repeat, the specific fact-check pieces are quite funny and riddled with errors.

The Washington Post piece, authored by Glenn Kessler, had three serious factual errors in it that he later had to correct. Although Kessler corrected these errors in his piece, one of the factual errors — that the Sanders plan would cut payments to medical providers by 40 percent — is still being broadcasted by the Post’s video version of Kessler’s story without correction.

The Associated Press fact-check piece was authored by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, who is the same AP journalist that initially reported on the Mercatus study when it was released in July. What’s funny about this is that Alonso-Zaldivar’s initial piece uses the $32.6 trillion estimate in both its headline and lede, but then his fact-check piece says that Bernie Sanders is basically being deceptive by using that estimate in his messaging. If the estimate is so deceptive, then perhaps Alonso-Zaldivar should take down his first piece reporting on it.

As noted by Vox’s Dylan Scott, the really important takeaway of the Mercatus report is not whether Sanders’s plan saves precisely $2 trillion, but rather that the report confirms that the general Medicare-for-All idea is clearly doable. If you play around with the utilization rates, the provider rates, the coverage areas, and the actuarial value variables, you can generate estimates that range from modest savings to modest spending increases, meaning that a national health insurer that covers everyone in the country is clearly in reach, if we want it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Bruenig is the founder of People's Policy Project.


THE REASONS BEHIND HOW THE NEW DEMOCRATS/CORPORATE DEMOCRATS OPERATE, ARE ALL TOO CLEAR. MONEY, MONEY, AND IN ADDITION, MONEY.

https://www.commondreams.org/tag/bernie-sanders?gclid=CjwKCAjwwJrbBRAoEiwAGA1B_TFSt0dwMdoPD8-1qhp_XXM77x3bqxiKySh8VX67OT6-qtZErpxgPRoCTJMQAvD_BwE
Bernie Sanders
Progressive Fury Over DNC Proposal to Reverse Ban on Fossil Fuel Donations
Published on
Friday, August 10, 2018
byCommon Dreams
Progressives 'Furious' After Report of DNC Proposal to Reverse Ban on Fossil Fuel Donations
"Honestly, these people are bound and determined to deflate and demobilize their base," declared author and activist Naomi Klein

byJake Johnson, staff writer

PHOTOGRAPH -- "New DNC proposal would support an 'all of the above' energy policy which the last party platform explicitly rejects," said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org.* (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/cc)
QUOTATION -- "The rule being proposed by Tom Perez may allow the Koch Brothers to donate to the party."
—People for Bernie”

After winning applause from environmentalists in June for unanimously voting to ban donations from fossil fuel companies, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has reportedly proposed reversing the ban and is planning to vote on a resolution on Friday that would once more allow oil companies to pour money into DNC coffers.

"Couched in language of embracing the contributions of fossil fuel workers, the proposal, introduced by DNC Chair Tom Perez, states that the party will accept donations from 'employers' political action committees,'" reports the Huffington Post, which obtained a copy of the new proposal (pdf).

The DNC's reversal immediately sparked anger among progressives and activists who have been pushing the party to end its reliance on Big Oil money and begin confronting the climate crisis with the urgency and boldness it requires.


Naomi Klein
✔
@NaomiAKlein
Honestly, these people are bound and determined to deflate and demobilize their base - and then blame the Russians when they lose.

Jamie Henn
@Agent350
This sort of spineless corporate pandering by the DNC is why Democrats keep losing. Over 900 candidates have signed the #NoFossilFuelMoney pledge but the party is still kissing the boots of Big Polluters. Grow a spine, @TomPerez. https://twitter.com/alexckaufman/status/1027993096641040384 …

4:21 PM - Aug 10, 2018


"I am furious that the DNC would effectively undo a resolution passed just two months ago just as the movement to ban fossil fuel corporate PAC money is growing (and Democrats are winning)," Democratic Party activist R.L. Miller, a co-sponsor of the original resolution that banned fossil fuel PAC money, told the Huffington Post.

"There's no reason the DNC should go back on their promises and accept corporate PAC money," tweeted the advocacy group People for Bernie. "The rule being proposed by Tom Perez may allow the Koch Brothers to donate to the party. They could create an 'employer pac' at Georgia Pacific, have a union member donate, then fill it with their own cash."


People For Bernie
✔
@People4Bernie
If union members want to pool donations to donate to @TheDemocrats they can donate through their union pacs.

There's no reason the @DNC should go back on their promises and accept corporate PAC money. cc: @TomPerez https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dnc-fossil-fuel-donations_us_5b6dddd4e4b0530743c9ca67?oh …

3:16 PM - Aug 10, 2018
451
241 people are talking about this

View image on Twitter

People For Bernie
✔
@People4Bernie
Replying to @People4Bernie
The rule being proposed by @TomPerez may allow the Koch Brothers to donate to the party. They could create as "employer pac" at Georgia Pacific, have a union member donate, then fill it with their own cash. They've used elections to intimate workers before http://inthesetimes.com/article/14017/koch_industries_sends_45000_employees_pro_romney_mailing …

3:22 PM - Aug 10, 2018


"New DNC proposal would support an 'all of the above' energy policy which the last party platform explicitly rejects," said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. "This is a bad idea, on both scientific and political grounds."

In a Twitter thread responding to the DNC's apparent reversal, science journalist Erin Biba called the move "disgusting" and tweeted at Perez: "You better believe your constituents are watching. Honestly how dare you. This will haunt the Democratic party and we will make sure you never forget this choice."

"This is just another example [of how] many Democrats are complicit in the utter failure of our government to fight climate change and instead line their pockets with fossil fuel money," Biba added. "This is is why it's essential to vote and let your congresspeople know you won't tolerate this."


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https://www.newsweek.com/2018/06/01/bernie-sanders-clinton-democrats-939875.html
Newsweek Magazine
Bernie Sanders: Why Democrats Can’t Win Midterms 2018 Without Him
BY ALEXANDER NAZARYAN ON 5/24/18 AT 10:35 AM

PHOTOGRAPHS -- PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPHER LANE

U.S.
BERNIE SANDERS
AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

“Please do not think these are somehow radical, or unpopular, or extreme or fringe ideas,” Bernie Sanders tells me. It’s early May, and the once-and-perhaps-future presidential contender is ticking off progressive policy proposals—his policy proposals—that, in the two years since his loss to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary, have rapidly remade the Democratic Party: universal health care, tuition-free public college, a $15-an-hour minimum wage. When he’s told that some believe his ideas may be better suited to Finland than Nebraska, Sanders bristles. “Look at the polling,” he snaps in his thick Brooklyn accent, which decades in Vermont have not diminished. “You don’t have to believe what I tell you.”

By many measures, he’s right. In the two years since his insurgent campaign for the White House succumbed to the Clinton juggernaut, Sanders has gone from cult hero to mainstream dynamo. ­Larry David can mock him on Saturday Night Live as a cranky, quixotic septuagenarian, but when Sanders endorses an idea, many of his peers in the Senate listen without laughing. The American public has become increasingly receptive to his brand of democratic socialism; once-skeptical centrists have seen the polls and have followed accordingly.

This has resulted in a high-stakes ideological war to out-Bernie Bernie. In March, for example, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York endorsed a pro­posal that would ensure the government guarantees a job to every American. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey followed with modest legislation, before Sanders bested both lawmakers with a national plan (pay rate: $15 an hour, of course).

Sanders cover for web
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER LANE

This is all new for Gillibrand and Booker, Northeasterners closely affiliated with the centrist donor class that funds the Democratic establishment. For the Sandernistas, however, the focus hasn’t changed since Bernie announced his candidacy for president in 2015. Their liberalism is not transactional, pegged to the latest focus-group findings. It is ferocious and uncompromising: Scandinavian to supporters, Soviet to detractors. Sanders and his backers believe the old divides between Republicans and Democrats are being replaced by the far more real rift between those who can’t comprehend how anyone could live on as little as $15 an hour and those who spend their working lives making half that much.

Outside Washington, however, this vision is getting a mixed reception. On May 8, in a series of Democratic primaries, establishment figures romped to victory over liberal insurgents. In Indiana, a health care executive who had donated to Republicans won the Democratic nomination for a House seat, besting challengers who backed universal health care. And in Ohio’s race for governor, Richard Cordray, the staid former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ­defeated former Representative Dennis Kucinich, the liberal firebrand endorsed by the Sanders-aligned Our Revolution, the political group started by his campaign’s alumni.

Within a week, the Berniecrats had rebounded. On May 15, the more liberal candidates beat mainstream hopefuls in Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Idaho. Most striking was the victory of Kara Eastman, a progressive community organizer from Omaha who campaigned for a House seat on a platform of single-payer health care, gun control and marijuana decriminalization. The national Democratic apparatus made no secret of its preference for former Representative Brad Ashford, a centrist who promised compromise. Republicans cheered the result, convinced that Eastman will be the weaker opponent in the conservative-leaning district.


I DO HOPE THAT FRANKLIN CAN RECOVER AND GET COMPLETELY WELL. SHE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SINGERS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aretha-franklin-ill-respect-singer-sources-monday-2018-08-13/
Aretha Franklin performs at the world premiere of "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives" at Radio City Music Hall, during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, Wednesday, April 19, 2017, in New York. CHARLES SYKES

NEW YORK — Legendary singer Aretha Franklin is seriously ill, according to a person close to the artist. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not allowed to publicly talk about the topic, told The Associated Press on Monday that Franklin is seriously ill. No more details were provided.

Two sources also told TMZ that Franklin is gravely ill.

The Queen of Soul canceled planned concerts earlier this year after she was ordered by her doctor to stay off the road and rest up. Last year, the 76-year-old icon announced her plans to retire, saying she would perform at "some select things."

The singer said she was no longer going to perform regularly after the release of her newest album, "A Brand New Me." She said last February, "This will be my last year. I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it." Franklin said she wanted to spend more time with her grandchildren.

Franklin has had health scares before. In 2011, widespread reports claimed the diva was being treated for pancreatic cancer. In 2012, though she admitted to Anthony Mason on "CBS Sunday Morning" that she was worried during her scare, there was nothing to worry about. She said at the time, "My health is wonderful. It is fabulous now." Franklin added of any health issues, "It wasn't bad."

Franklin's last known performance was in November, for Elton John's AIDS Foundation Fall Gala.

Celebrities like Mariah Carey and Missy Elliott said they were praying for Franklin.

PHOTOGRAPH OF FRANKLIN AS A YOUNG WOMAN.


Mariah Carey
✔
@MariahCarey
Praying for the Queen of Soul 🙏🙏 #ArethaFranklin

10:26 AM - Aug 13, 2018
21.5K
6,526 people are talking about this



Missy Elliott
✔
@MissyElliott
My prayers are with Aretha Franklin & her family during this difficult time 🙏🏾 LOOK BELOW @ what I tweeted at the top of the year we MUST CELEBRATE the Living Legends while they are here to see it. So many have given us decades of Timeless music...❤️

Missy Elliott
✔
@MissyElliott
People like Stevie Wonder/Tina Turner/Patti Labelle/Aretha Franklin so many LIVING LEGENDS need to be Celebrated while they are here! We tend to say how great they were when they gone🤷🏽‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️ Give them Flowers & Credits Tributes now🙌🏾💯

8:23 AM - Aug 13, 2018
13K
4,430 people are talking about this


Ciara
✔
@ciara
Praying for Aretha Franklin and her family right now! ❤️🙏🏽

8:49 AM - Aug 13, 2018
7,012
1,644 people are talking about this


Paula Abdul
✔
@PaulaAbdul
My love, prayers and warm thoughts are with Aretha Franklin—the Queen of Soul. I’m praying for her and her health. Thank you to all her family and friends who are standing by her and loving her through her illness. I’m holding you all in my heart.

11:00 AM - Aug 13, 2018


PEOPLE WHO WORK IN THIS WHITE HOUSE AND DON'T KEEP A RECORD OF WHAT HAPPENS ARE NOT PATRIOTIC IN MY VIEW. BLOW, WHISTLEBLOWERS.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-exploring-legal-options-omarosa-manigault-newman/story?id=57146994
White House exploring legal options against Omarosa Manigault Newman for making secret recording in Situation Room
By MERIDITH MCGRAW TARA PALMERI Aug 12, 2018, 7:28 PM ET

WATCH Omarosa Manigault Newman releases White House secret recording

Omarosa Manigault Newman's former White House colleagues are looking into legal options to stop her from releasing more tapes and to punish her for secretly recording her conversation with Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, White House officials tell ABC News.


White House press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to Manigault Newman’s appearance on Meet the Press during which she played one of the recordings she made in the Situation Room when she was being fired after working as an assistant to President Donald Trump and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison.

PHOTO: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly listens to President Donald Trump during a working lunch with governors in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, in Washington, DC, June 21, 2018.Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images, FILE
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly listens to President Donald Trump during a working lunch with governors in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, in Washington, DC, June 21, 2018.more +

“The very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room, shows a blatant disregard for our national security –- and then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee,” Sanders said.

(MORE: Trump calls Omarosa a 'low-life'; says Sessions is 'scared stiff' )
The claims Manigault Newman made in her soon-to-be-released book have been receiving swift backlash from the people she used to work with in the West Wing.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer told ABC News her claims are "completely fictional."

PHOTO: Then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer smiles as he answers a question during a briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, June 20, 2017.Alex Brandon/AP, FILE
Then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer smiles as he answers a question during a briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, June 20, 2017.more +

Spicer rebutted Manigault Newman's claim that he signed a non-disclosure agreement and called her assertion that he was paid hush money "false."

He added that Manigault Newman had top secret clearance at a minimum, and she may have broken the law by recording her conversation in the Situation Room -- what's supposed to be the most secure place in the White House.

Part of applying for clearance is agreeing to security protocols.

(MORE: White House slams Omarosa Manigault Newman's new book as 'riddled with lies and false accusations' )
"It's an unbelievable violation of protocol and the law," Spicer said. "You can lose your security clearance for bringing your device into SCIF -- to bring it in is a violation but to willfully record it -- you're entering a whole other realm."

Many within the White House fear Manigault Newman will release their private conversations.

"She's on a different level," a senior White House official said. "She terrified me."

(MORE: Omarosa Manigault-Newman set to release 'explosive' book about White House )

Manigault Newman takes both current and former White House officials to task in her new book, "Unhinged." Now there are concerns that her allegations will have more validity backed up by tapes.

"People now understand that she has a lot," a former White House official said. "It's stopping people from punching back."

While many say they guarded themselves from Manigault Newman, some fear their tangles with her will be broadcast, and they're unsure of just how many tapes she has in possession.

"If you pissed off Omarosa, buckle up -- it's going to be a tough couple of weeks," said one former official.

Another senior White House official described Newman as unprofessional, and recalled that she would shop online during meetings.

The staffer said she witnessed Manigault Newman being verbally abusive to junior level staffers several times.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with state leaders about prison reform, Aug. 9, 2018, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.Carolyn Kaster/AP, FILE

PHOTOGRAPH -- President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with state leaders about prison reform, Aug. 9, 2018, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

Katrina Pierson, a former Trump campaign spokeswoman, said Manigault Newman is embarrassing herself by "creating salacious lies and distortions."

On NBC's Meet the Press, Manigault Newman claimed that Pierson told her she had heard Trump say the N-word, a claim Pierson rejected.

(MORE: Trump adviser Omarosa Manigault resigning, White House says )

In a statement to ABC News, Pierson said, "Omarosa is being intentionally dishonest in order to sell her new book. First, I have never heard President Trump ever use the derogatory language that Omarosa claims.

"Also, I never confirmed the existence of an alleged tape from ‘The Apprentice’ to her as she said today," the statement continued. "That’s a complete fabrication by Omarosa."

The statement continued, saying the president and his family have "always been kind, generous, thoughtful, and respectful to me and other people of color."

"I was honored when he appointed me, a single mother, as the first black National Spokeswoman for a winning U.S. presidential campaign," it read. "I feel pity for Omarosa as she embarrasses herself by creating salacious lies and distortions just to try to be relevant and enrich herself by selling books at the expense of the truth. ‘Unhinged,’ indeed."

Manigault Newman's book is scheduled for release on Tuesday.


THE FREE PRESS FIGHTS BACK

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/11/boston-paper-presses-coordinated-response-to-trumps-media-criticisms.html
WHITE HOUSE August 12, 2018 2 hours ago
Boston paper presses coordinated response to Trump's media criticisms
By Jeffrey Rubin | Fox News

PHOTOGRAPH -- President Trump, preparing to board Marine One last month. His criticisms of "fake news" are spurring a response from some news media outlets. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A Boston newspaper is calling for publications nationwide to take a coordinated editorial stand against President Trump's attacks on the media.

"We are not the enemy of the people," The Associated Press quoted Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe, as saying. AP said she was referring to a characterization of journalists that Trump has used in the past.

The president, who regularly declares that his administration is getting unfair media coverage, has made frequent speeches and tweets decrying "fake news" and fabricated sources. After his recent summit in Singapore with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, he assailed fake news as "our country's biggest enemy."

The Globe has reportedly reached out to editorial boards around the U.S. to run editorials this Thursday denouncing what the newspaper called a "dirty war against the free press" -- regardless of the respective publications' political leanings.

Pritchard said about 70 outlets had committed to editorials as of Friday, with the list expected to grow, AP reported. The publications ranged from large metro dailies, such as The Houston Chronicle, The Minneapolis Star Tribune and and The Denver Post, to small weekly periodicals.

The newspaper's request was being promoted by industry groups including the American Society of News Editors.

"Our words will differ. But at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming," the appeal said.

Pritchard said the decision to seek the coordinated response was reached after Trump appeared to step up his rhetoric of late.

At an Aug. 2 political rally in Pennsylvania, for instance, he told his audience that the media was "fake, fake disgusting news."

Pritchard said she hoped the editorials would make an impression on Americans.

"I hope it would educate readers to realize that an attack on the First Amendment is unacceptable," she said. "We are a free and independent press; it is one of the most sacred principles enshrined in the Constitution."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


ROBERT KING FROM NATIONAL EXAMINER, A RIGHTIST NEWS SOURCE, SAYS BERNIE DIDN’T “UNDERSTAND” THE STUDY, BUT MATT BRUENIG OF JACOBIN SAYS THAT IS UNTRUE. I FIND A WHOLE BUNCH OF MATHEMATICAL FIGURES TO BE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN CONFUSING AND DOWNRIGHT INSCRUTABLE, SO I DIDN’T READ IT. I AM, THEREFORE USING THE BALANCED IF NOT FAIR RULE THAT FOX NEWS USES, BY PRESENTING THE TWO FEUDING VIEWS TOGETHER FOR PUBLIC EXAMINATON. ENJOY.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/bernie-sanders-misunderstood-study-he-used-to-tout-medicare-for-all-author-says
Bernie Sanders misunderstood study he used to tout ‘Medicare for All,’ author says
by Robert King
| August 12, 2018 12:00 AM

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and progressive Democrats have defended their push for "Medicare for All" in recent days with an unlikely aid: A study from a free-market think tank that concludes, in their reading, that the reform would save $2 trillion in healthcare costs.

But the study’s author said that the advocates are glossing over key details in the findings.

“Some are people under the misimpression that the study found that healthcare spending nationally would go down or rise more slowly if we enacted Medicare for All,” Charles Blahous, the author of the study published last month by the libertarian Mercatus Center at George Mason University, told the Washington Examiner. “The study absolutely did not say that. It says the opposite.”

New study pegs cost of Sanders’ 'Medicare for All' at $32 trillion
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The study came out in July, as Medicare for All and single payer grew in importance in Democratic primary races.

Earlier this week, Democratic establishment candidate Gretchen Whitmer defeated progressive challenger Abdul El-Sayed for the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s gubernatorial race. El-Sayed had campaigned for a state-run single payer program and got support from Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive star who defeated incumbent congressman Joe Crowley in his New York City district.

The study looked at a bill introduced last September by Sanders, who represents Vermont as an independent in the Senate, that would expand Medicare to every American. Blahous found that Medicare for All would add $32.6 trillion in federal budget commitments over the next decade.


But Sanders looked past the $32.6 trillion price tag to seize on another figure in the study, interpreting it as a validation of his legislation.

“Let me thank the Koch brothers, of all people, for sponsoring a study that shows 'Medicare for All' would save the American people $2 trillion over a ten-year period,” Sanders said in a video posted on Twitter, referencing GOP megadonors Charles and David Koch.

Sanders claimed that the $2 trillion in savings would come from lower administrative costs and lower drug prices because the government-run system would be able to negotiate for lower prices. Other progressives also touted that finding.

But Blahous said that the savings in the study do not come from lower drug costs or lower overhead.

“That particular table is a projection of what happens if you cut provider payments by 40 percent [compared to] what they are getting,” he said.

If it's assumed that providers instead get reimbursed at current law levels, Blahous explained, "not only would federal costs be greater, but national medical spending would be higher as well.”

Sanders’ bill would reimburse doctors and hospitals at Medicare rates, which are 40 percent below private insurance. The study said it couldn’t know how providers will react to the losses, or whether certain health services will be reduced, or the quality of such services.

“My study was clear that actual costs would be higher,” Blahous said.

The study does assume there would be some additional savings from negotiating lower prices, citing estimates from Sanders’ original bill that Medicare for All would save approximately $846 billion from 2022 to 2031.

“There are limits to the potential effectiveness of this approach to lowering healthcare costs,” the study said. “Generics have prices 75 to 90 percent lower than those of brand-name drugs, but they already make up roughly 85 percent of all prescription drugs sold.”

It added that prescription drugs only account for 10 percent of total national health expenditures.

Mercatus’ cost estimates don’t reflect other potential effects of Medicare for All, “such as lessened pharmaceutical innovation,” the study added.

Sanders' office stood by the analysis of the $2 trillion figure.

Blahous said that he has no problem with Sanders referencing the study to make his case for single payer, but “there is some misunderstanding on what the study says.”


https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/07/medicare-for-all-mercatus-center-report
Even Libertarians Admit Medicare for All Would Save Trillions
BY MATT BRUENIG
Matt Bruenig is the founder of People's Policy Project.
BERNIE SANDERS MEDICARE FOR ALL
07.30.2018
UNITED STATES

A new study from a libertarian think tank admits that Medicare for All would save a whopping $2 trillion.

PHOTOGRAPH -- Supporters of Bernie Sanders during an event to introduce the Medicare-for-All Act of 2017 in Washington DC last September. Alex Wong / Getty

The US could insure 30 million more Americans and virtually eliminate out-of-pocket health care expenses while saving $2 trillion in the process, according to a new report about Medicare for All released by the libertarian Mercatus Center.

In the report, Charles Blahous attempts to roughly score Bernie Sanders’s most recent Medicare-for-All bill and reaches the somewhat surprising (for Mercatus) conclusion that, if the bill were enacted, the new costs it creates would be more than offset by the new savings it generates through administrative efficiencies and reductions in unit prices.

The report’s methods are pretty straightforward. Blahous starts with current projections about how much the country will spend on health care between 2022 and 2031. From there, he adds the costs associated with higher utilization of medical services and then subtracts the savings from lower administrative costs, lower reimbursements for medical services, and lower drug prices. After this bit of arithmetic, Blahous finds that health expenditures would be lower for every year during the first decade of implementation. The net change across the whole ten-year period is a savings of $2.054 trillion.

When talking about Medicare for All, it is important to distinguish between two concepts: national health expenditures and federal health expenditures. National health expenditures refer to all health spending from any source whether made by private employers, state Medicaid programs, or the federal government. It is national health expenditures that, according to the report, will decline by $2.054 trillion.

Federal health expenditures refer to health spending from the federal government in particular. Since the federal government takes on nearly all health spending under Medicare for All, federal health expenditures will necessarily go up a lot, $32.6 trillion over the ten-year period according to Blahous. But this is more of an accounting thing than anything else: rather than paying premiums, deductibles, and co-pays for health care, people will instead pay a tax that is, on average, a bit less than they currently pay into the health care system and, for those on lower incomes, a lot less.

At first glance, it is strange that the Mercatus Center, which is libertarian in its orientation and heavily funded by the libertarian Koch family, would publish a report this positive about Medicare for All. The claim that “even the Koch organizations say it will save money while covering everyone” provides a useful bit of rhetoric for proponents of the policy.

But the real game here for Mercatus is to bury the money-saving finding in the report’s tables while headlining the incomprehensibly large $32.6 trillion number in order to trick dim reporters into splashing that number everywhere and freaking out. This is a strategy that already appears to be working, as the Associated Press headline reads: “Study: ‘Medicare for all’ projected to cost $32.6 trillion.”

Messaging strategy aside, there is room to quibble with Blahous’s positive findings. He assumes administrative costs will only drop from 13 percent to 6 percent for those currently privately insured. But, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare’s administrative costs have consistently been below 2 percent. He assumes utilization of health services will increase by 11 percent, but aggregate health service utilization is ultimately dependent on the capacity to provide services, meaning utilization could hit a hard limit below the level he projects.

But even if you take the report’s headline figures at face value, the picture it paints is that of an enormous bargain. We get to insure every single person in the country, virtually eliminate cost-sharing, and save everyone from the hell of constantly changing health insurance all while saving money. You would have to be a fool to pass that offer up.

Note: this post originally stated that the estimated savings from Medicare for All would be $303 billion, rather than $2.054 trillion. We regret the error.


EASTER ISLAND AND THE RAPA NUI

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2176464-tools-reveal-easter-island-may-not-have-had-a-societal-collapse/?cmpid=ILC|NSNS|2018_webpush&utm_medium=ILC&utm_source=NSNS&utm_campaign=webpush-Roost-EasterIslandtools
DAILY NEWS 13 August 2018
Tools reveal Easter Island may not have had a societal collapse

Made by a cooperating culture
plainpicture/NaturePL/Phil Chapman
By Chelsea Whyte

The indigenous people of Easter Island, the Rapa Nui, were thought to have undergone a societal collapse some time after the 17th century due to in-fighting over depleted natural resources. But a new study of the tools they used to carve their famous moai statues adds to the evidence that the Rapa Nui in fact had a highly collaborative society.

Easter Island covers just 170 square kilometres and is one of the most remote places on Earth, sitting thousands of miles from the nearest landmass in the south-eastern …


THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THE STATUES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapa_Nui_people
Rapa Nui people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rapa Nui are the aboriginal Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) make up about 60% of the current Rapa Nui population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland Chile. They speak both the traditional Rapa Nui language and the primary language of Chile, Spanish.[1] At the 2002 census there were 3,304 island inhabitants—almost all living in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered west coast.

As of 2011, Rapa Nui's main source of income derived from tourism, which focuses on the giant sculptures called Moai.

Rapa Nui activists have been fighting for their right of self-determination and possession of the island.[2] Protests in 2010 and 2011 by the indigenous Rapa Nui on Easter Island objecting the creation of a marine park and reserve,[3] have led to clashes with Chilean police.[4][5]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapa_Nui_people#Pre-European_contact_(300%E2%80%931722_CE)


History

Further information: History of Easter Island
Pre-European contact (300–1722 CE)
Rapa Nui are believed to have settled Easter Island between 300 and 1200 CE. Previously, the date of arrival was estimated to be around 700–800 CE, but more-recent evidence from radiocarbon dating supports an arrival date as late as 1200 CE. The Rapa Nui People have been found to be of Polynesian origin through genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA of pre-historic skeletons. Genetic analysis performed by Erik Thorsby and other geneticists in 2007 revealed genetic markers of European and Amerindian origin that suggest that the Rapa Nui had European and Amerindian contributions to their DNA during or before the early 1800s.[6]

Drawing of Easter Island Man, 1777
Drawing of Easter Island Woman, 1777
Drawing of Easter Island man and woman, by William Hodges, 1777
Early European contact (1722–1870 CE)
Jacob Roggeveen was the first European to record contact with the Rapa Nui. Roggeveen allegedly set sail either in search of Juan Fernandez Islands or David's Island but instead arrived at Easter Island on April 5, 1722 (Easter Sunday). He remained on the island for about a week.[7] Felipe González de Ahedo visited the Rapa Nui in 1770 and claimed the island for Spain on a document which the islanders wrote on in rongorongo, the now undecipherable Rapa Nui script. James Cook and Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, visited the island for a few days in 1774 and 1786, respectively.


Group of Rapa Nui people at Hanga Roa, c. 1914
Culture
Language

Main article: Rapa Nui language
The Rapa Nui currently speak Spanish and the traditional Rapanui language. The Rapanui language, also known as Pascuan, is classified as an Eastern Polynesian language and is currently written in Latin script. Rapanui is a minority language, as most Rapa Nui people speak Spanish as their first language. Spanish is the most widely spoken language on Easter Island and the primary language of education and administration. It is believed that Rapanui is currently undergoing a shift towards more Spanish sentence structure. Rongorongo, a system of glyphs discovered in the 1800s, is believed to represent an older version of the Rapanui language. However, the decipherment of rongorongo is an ongoing process and it is not yet clear whether Rongorongo is a form of writing or some other form of cultural expression.

Mythology
Main article: Rapa Nui mythology
The main stories of Rapa Nui mythology are that of Hotu Matu'a, believed to be the first settler of Easter Island, and the Tangata manu. The Tangata manu is the mythology of the Birdman religion and cult which had creator god Makemake and a competition with eggs to choose the birdman who would remain sacred for five months. More recent Rapa Nui mythology includes the story of the epic battle between the Hanau epe and the Hanau momoko.

The trans-Neptunian dwarf planet Makemake is named after this creator deity.

Art
See also: Object history of the Iuhi

Tattooing on native woman, Easter Island, 1886
The Rapa Nui have historically made feather headdresses, bark cloth, wood carvings, and stone carvings. Adzes, blunt round stones, were used to complete stone images and wood carvings. A distinguishing characteristic of Rapa Nui statues is the use of shell or coral inlaid with obsidian to represent eyes.

Music
Main article: Music of Easter Island
Rapa nui traditional music consists of choral singing and chanting accompanied by instruments including conch shell trumpets, percussive dancers, accordions, and kauaha, a percussion instrument created from the jaw bone of a horse. Modern Rapanui music has had Latin American influences creating new genres such as the Rapa Nui style of tango. Matato'a, one of the most famous musical groups on the island, promotes traditional styles of dance and music.

Tattoos

Tepano, photograph by Madame Hoare
Sketch by Hjalmar Stolpe of Tepanos tattoos.
Photo of Tepano by Oscar Ekholm.

Tepano, a man from Rapa Nui with tattoos on his face. Left picture is photographed in the 1870s by Sophia Hoare in Tahiti. Middle is an engraving after sketches by Hjalmar Stolpe in Tahiti 1884, and right is a photo by Oscar Ekholm in 1884. It is very hard to see any traces of the tattoos on the right picture, something Stolpe also writes in his article 1899[8].

Like in other Polynesian islands, tattoos and body paintings had a fundamentally spiritual connotation. In some cases the tattoos were considered a receptor for divine strength or mana. They were manifestations of the Rapa Nui culture. Priests, warriors and chiefs had more tattoos than the rest of the population, as a symbol of their hierarchy. Both men and women were tattooed to represent their social class[9][10].

The tattooing process was performed with bone needles and combs called Uhi made out of bird or fish bones[10]. The ink was made out of natural products, primarily from the burning of Ti leaves (Cordyline terminalis) and sugar cane[11][10].

The tattoos were named based on its location on the body:

. . . . Tattoos, as well as other forms of art in Rapa Nui, blends anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagery[10]. The most common symbols represented were of the Make-Make god, Moais, Komari (the symbol of female fertility), the manutara, and other forms of birds, fish, turtles or figures from the Rongo Rongo tablets[11]. Certain designs were more common than others. Women and men very often had heavy lines on their faces, which, crossing the forehead, extended from one ear to the other[10]. These lines were curved and combined with a series of large dots (humu or puraki, “to enclose”) that marked the forehead and temples. They are also seen on existing barkcloth figures, but in smaller detail[10]. Parallel lines across the forehead and the fringe of dots were the first motifs tattooed on the face. This pattern was the most general, and it was commonly recorded by early voyagers[10].

Sebastian Englert refers to the tattooing, also called Tatú or Tá kona, as a form of natural expression among the islanders, commonly seeing both adults and children with these paintings[12]. "Ta," means to write or engrave and "kona," means place. The whole word means something like "the place to engrave"[13].

Nowadays, young people are bringing back Rapa Nui tattoos as an important part of their culture and local artists base their creations on traditional motifs.

Interaction with the environment

A common hypothesis is held that the apparent decline of Rapa Nui culture and society before European discovery in 1722 was caused by the over-exploitation of the island’s environment, most notably through deforestation of almost all the island’s trees. The most prominent proponent of this explanation is Jared Diamond who proposes a scenario for the "ecocide" on Easter Island in his 2005 book Collapse.

This idea that Rapa Nui society collapsed came out of the imbalance between general resources present on the island, mainly population, timber and food sources, and the energy- and resource-intensive feat of transporting and raising the moai. Food resources may have been scarcer than in other areas of Polynesia because of factors like the cooler climate, lack of rainfall in comparison to other islands in the area, high winds and a lack of biodiversity, leading to common Polynesian crops not faring as well as they would in other areas of the Pacific. A source of good timber is also currently noticeably absent from the Island, the tallest, extant plant life averaging around 7 feet.

Although Easter Island currently has only 48 different kinds of plants as evidenced by botanical surveys of the island, it once possessed many more, shown through pollen analysis conducted on sediment layers from swamps or ponds. From these samples, 22 no longer present on the island were shown to have existed at some time there. These plants included a giant palm, the Rapa Nui Palm, that showed signs of being the largest palm species in the world, eclipsing the size of the Chilean Wine Palm if it were not extinct. There are also signs of Easter Island's once possessing a far more diverse collection of fauna. The skeletal remains of 25 different species of nesting bird have been located on the island, but have since been reduced to 16. This trend of extinction and extirpation is a common occurrence when humans populate a new area, because of tendencies to overhunt and overexploit resources.[14]

Deforestation would have caused a decrease in crop yields due to soil erosion, loss of wood as a resource to construct fishing boats, among other things, and would have necessitated a halt to the construction of the moai erected around the island. Diamond hypothesizes that resource scarcity may have led to brutal civil war, creating a drop in population. He further hypothesizes that there were about 7,000 individuals pre-war, a number which fell to the 2,000 whom missionaries met when they showed up in the 19th century and conducted the first census of the island.

Others attribute this decline to overpopulation[citation needed] or the introduction of Europeans to the island and the diseases that commonly came with them like smallpox.[15]

Agriculture

Agriculture on Easter Island shows signs of intensification before European arrival necessary because of its climate which had an excess of wind and a low amount of rainfall for the area. Archaeological finds show a multitude of composting pits and irrigation systems. Large boulders were also stacked to serve as barriers against the wind. In the fields, a system of agriculture called lithic mulch was employed. In this method, farmers would lay rocks out in patterns in their fields, forcing the plants to grow in certain areas. This method is known to increase soil moisture while decreasing soil erosion from wind, effectively combating the climate conditions.[citation needed]

Crops grown on Easter Island included sweet potatoes, yams, taro, bananas and sugarcane. Chickens were the sole domestic animal, though the "chicken coops" carved of stone which still dot the fields of the island were most likely tombs from which the chickens obtained calcium and phosphorus in the form of bone meal.[16]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Easter_Island
History of Easter Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MAP -- Location of Easter Island in the South Pacific Ocean [Located off the coast of Chili

Geologically one of the youngest inhabited territories on Earth, Easter Island, located in the mid-Pacific Ocean, was, for most of its history, one of the most isolated. Its inhabitants, the Rapa Nui, have endured famines, epidemics of disease and cannibalism, civil war, environmental collapse, slave raids, various colonial contacts,[1][2] and have seen their population crash on more than one occasion. The ensuing cultural legacy has brought the island notoriety out of proportion to the number of its inhabitants.

First settlers

Early European visitors to Easter Island recorded the local oral traditions about the original settlers. In these traditions, Easter Islanders claimed that a chief Hotu Matu'a[3] arrived on the island in one or two large canoes with his wife and extended family.[4] They are believed to have been Polynesian. There is considerable uncertainty about the accuracy of this legend as well as the date of settlement. Published literature suggests the island was settled around 300–400 CE, or at about the time of the arrival of the earliest settlers in Hawaii. Some scientists say that Easter Island was not inhabited until 700–800 CE. This date range is based on glottochronological calculations and on three radiocarbon dates from charcoal that appears to have been produced during forest clearance activities.[5] Moreover, a recent study which included radiocarbon dates from what is thought to be very early material suggests that the island was settled as recently as 1200 CE.[6] This seems to be supported by a 2006 study of the island's deforestation, which could have started around the same time.[7][8] A large now extinct palm, Paschalococos disperta, related to the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis), was one of the dominant trees as attested by fossil evidence; this species, whose sole occurrence was Easter Island, became extinct due to deforestation by the early settlers.[9]

The Austronesian Polynesians, who first settled the island, are likely to have arrived from the Marquesas Islands from the west. These settlers brought bananas, taro, sugarcane, and paper mulberry, as well as chickens and Polynesian rats. The island at one time supported a relatively advanced and complex civilization.

It is suggested that the reason settlers sought an isolated island was because of high levels of Ciguatera fish poisoning in their then current surrounding area.[10]

South American links
See also: Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact § Possible Polynesian trans-oceanic contact

The Norwegian botanist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl (and many others) has documented that cultural similarities exist between Easter Island and South American Indian cultures. He has suggested that this most likely came from some settlers arriving from the continent.[11] According to local legends, a group of people called hanau epe (meaning either "long eared" or "stocky" people) came into conflict with another group called the hanau momoko (either "short eared" or "slim" people).[12] After mutual suspicions erupted in a violent clash, the hanau epe were overthrown and nearly exterminated, leaving only one survivor.[13] Various interpretations of this story have been made – that it represents a struggle between natives and incoming migrants; that it recalls inter-clan warfare; or that represents a class conflict.[14]

Some contact between the two cultures is proved by the dispersion of the sweet potato: this staple of the pre-contact Polynesian diet is of South American origin, and there is no evidence that its seed could spread by floating across the ocean.[15] Either Polynesians traveled to South America and back, or South American balsa rafts drifted to Polynesia, possibly unable to make a return trip because of their less developed navigational skills and more fragile boats. Polynesian connections in South America have been claimed to exist among the Mapuches in central and southern Chile.[16] The Polynesian name for the small islet of Sala y Gómez (Manu Motu Motiro Hiva, "Bird's islet on the way to a far away land") east of Easter Island has also been seen as a hint that South America was known before European contacts. Further complicating the situation is that the word Hiva ("far away land") was also the name of the islanders' legendary home country. Inexplicable insistence on an eastern origin for the first inhabitants was unanimous among the islanders in all early accounts.[17]

Jacob Roggeveen's expedition of 1722 gives us our first description of the islanders. They were "of all shades of colour, yellow, white and brown" and they distended their ear lobes so greatly with large disks that when they took them out they could "hitch the rim of the lobe over the top of the ear".[18] Roggeveen also noted how some of the islanders were "generally large in stature". Islanders' tallness was also witnessed by the Spanish who visited the island in 1770, measuring heights of 196 and 199 cm.[19] DNA sequence analysis of Easter Island's current inhabitants indicates that the 36 people living on Rapa Nui who survived the devastating internecine wars, slave raids and epidemics of the 19th century and had any offspring,[20] were Polynesian. Furthermore, examination of skeletons offers evidence of only Polynesian origins for Rapa Nui living on the island after 1680.[21]

. . . . Indigenous rights movement

Starting in August 2010, members of the indigenous Hitorangi clan occupied the Hangaroa Eco Village and Spa.[47][48] The occupiers allege that the hotel was bought from the Pinochet government, in violation of a Chilean agreement with the indigenous Rapa Nui, in the 1990s.[49] The occupiers say their ancestors had been cheated into giving up the land.[50] According to a BBC report, on 3 December 2010, at least 25 people were injured when Chilean police using pellet guns attempted to evict from these buildings a group of Rapa Nui who had claimed that the land the buildings stood on had been illegally taken from their ancestors.[51]

In January 2011, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People, James Anaya, expressed concern about the treatment of the indigenous Rapa Nui by the Chilean government, urging Chile to "make every effort to conduct a dialogue in good faith with representatives of the Rapa Nui people to solve, as soon as possible the real underlying problems that explain the current situation".[47]

The incident ended in February 2011, when up to 50 armed police broke into the hotel to remove the final five occupiers. They were arrested by the government and no injuries were reported.[47] Since being given Chilean citizenship in 1966, the Rapa Nui have re-embraced their ancient culture, or what could be reconstructed of it.[52]

Mataveri International Airport is the island's only airport. In the 1980s, its runway was lengthened by the U.S. space program to 3,318 m (10,885 ft) so that it could serve as an emergency landing site for the space shuttle. This enabled regular wide body jet services and a consequent increase of tourism on the island, coupled with migration of people from mainland Chile which threatens to alter the Polynesian identity of the island. Land disputes have created political tensions since the 1980s, with part of the native Rapa Nui opposed to private property and in favor of traditional communal property.

On 26 March 2015, local minority group Rapa Nui Parliament took control over large parts of the island, throwing out the CONAF park rangers in a non-violent revolution.[53] Their main goal is to obtain independence from Chile. The situation has not yet been resolved.