DECEMBER 16, 2018

NEWS AND VIEWS

HMMMM. SINCE WE CAN’T TELL WHETHER OR NOT THERE ARE ISLAMIST RADICALS THERE, WE’LL JUST LEAVE THIS IN AS A PERMISSION SLIP. “EXCEPT FOR THOSE COMBATING ISLAMIST EXTREMISTS.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46588036
Saudi Arabia condemns US Senate 'interference'
DECEMBER 16, 2018 12 minutes ago

PHOTOGRAPH -- Yemen has been devastated by a four-year conflict GETTY IMAGES

Saudi Arabia has denounced US Senate resolutions to end US military aid for a Riyadh-led war in Yemen and to blame the country's crown prince for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudi foreign ministry described the move as "interference" based on "untrue allegations".

Thursday's US resolutions are largely symbolic and unlikely to become law.

But they sent a warning to President Donald Trump about US lawmakers' anger towards Saudi policies.

RELATED:
Senators rebuke Trump with Yemen vote
Jamal Khashoggi: The story so far

What did Saudi Arabia say?

In a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi foreign ministry said: "The kingdom condemns the latest position of the US Senate."

It said that such a position "was built on untrue allegations and affirms a total rejection of any interference in its internal affairs".

The US has so far not publicly responded to the Saudi statement.

What about the US Senate resolutions?

Thursday's vote was the first time any chamber of US Congress had agreed to pull US forces from a military conflict under the 1973 War Powers Act.

Some of President Trump's fellow Republicans defied him to pass the measure with Democrats by 56-41.

Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption -- President Trump has consistently defended US business and military ties with Saudi Arabia

The non-binding resolution called upon Mr Trump to remove all American forces engaging in hostilities in Yemen, except for those combating Islamist extremists.

The Senate then unanimously passed a resolution blaming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi's murder in October, and insisting that the kingdom hold accountable those responsible.

The US chose to cease refuelling Saudi war planes last month, and Thursday's resolution - if it were ultimately passed into law - would prohibit that practice from resuming.

Can this legislation become law?

President Trump has vowed to veto the measures, and they are unlikely at present to pass the House of Representatives, which on Wednesday blocked a vote on the matter.

But independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who co-sponsored the measures, said he expected the resolutions to succeed once Democrats formally take over control of the House in January following their mid-term elections victory.

VIDEO
Media captionSenators slam Saudi crown prince as "crazy" and a "wrecking ball"

The Trump administration had argued the bill on Yemen would undercut US support for the Saudi-led coalition against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

White House officials have emphasised US economic ties to the kingdom. Mr Trump's adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has continued to cultivate ties with the prince, according to the US media.

Yemen crisis: Hudaydah ceasefire delayed after clashes
Why the battle for Hudaydah matters
Why is there a war in Yemen?

Related Topics -- Jamal Khashoggi death


THIS IS A FASCINATING INTERVIEW AND DISCUSSION ON THE FORMS TAKEN BY THE CLAN AT VARIOUS TIMES. LIKE ALL NPR PRODUCTIONS, IT’S EXCELLENT.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/12/08/671999530/what-the-ebbs-and-flows-of-the-kkk-can-tell-us-about-white-supremacy-today
What The Ebbs And Flows Of The KKK Can Tell Us About White Supremacy Today
December 8, 20186:00 AM ET
Kat Chow at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 25, 2018. (photo by Allison Shelley) (Square)
KAT CHOW

PHOTOGRAPH -- Members of the Ku Klux Klan ceremonially initiate a new recruit at a meeting in 1922. Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

As long as the United States has existed, there's been some version of white supremacy. But over the centuries, the way white supremacy manifests has changed with the times. This includes multiple iterations of the infamous Ku Klux Klan.

According to the sociologist Kathleen Blee, the Klan first surfaced in large numbers in the 1860s in the aftermath of the Civil War, then again in the 1920s, and yet again during the civil rights era.

Blee is a professor and dean at the University of Pittsburgh, and the author of Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement, as well as Understanding Racist Activism: Theory, Methods and Research. She says the anonymity allowed by the internet makes it difficult to track just how much white supremacist activity we're seeing today.

But despite this difficulty, she and other experts say there's been an indisputable uptick in hate crimes — and an overall rise in white supremacist violence: Earlier this fall, a gunman shot and killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue. In 2017, a clash with protesters at the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., left one woman dead. In 2015, the shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, S.C., killed nine black churchgoers. And in 2012, a rampage at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, Wisc., killed six people.

By subscribing, you agree to NPR's terms of use and privacy policy.
As we consider this spate of racist attacks, we thought it'd be helpful to talk to Blee about the ebbs and flows of white supremacy in the United States — and what, exactly, those past waves say about today's political climate.

Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

First, can we talk about the various phases of white supremacy in the U.S. throughout history — and what caused those ebbs and flows?

The 20th to 21st century Klan actually formed after the Civil War, during the Reconstruction period. Then it was entirely contained within the South, mostly in the rural South. It [was] all men. There were violent attacks on people who were engaged, or [wanted] to be engaged, in the Reconstruction state, [including] freed blacks, southern reconstructionists, politicians and northerners who move to the South. That collapses for a variety of reasons in the 1870s.

Then, the Klan is reborn in the teens, but becomes really big in the early 1920s. And that is the second Klan. That is probably the biggest organized outburst of white supremacy in American history, encompassing millions of members or more. ... And that's not in the South, [it's] primarily in the North. It's not marginal. It runs people for office. It has a middle class base. They have an electoral campaign. They are very active in the communities. And they have women's Klans, who are very active and very effective in some of the communities. That dissolves into mostly scandals around the late '20s.

Then there's some fascist activity around the wars — pro-German, some Nazi activity in the United States — not sizable, but obviously extremely troubling.

The Klan and white supremacy reemerge in a bigger and more organized way around the desegregation and civil rights movement — again, mostly in the South, and back to that Southern model: vicious, violent, defensive, Jim Crow and white rights in the South.

And then it kind of ebbs. After a while, it kind of comes back again in the late '80s and the early 21st Century as another era. And then there's kind of a network of white supremacism that encompasses the Klan, which is more peripheral by this time. Also Neo-Nazi influence is coming as white power skinheads, racist music, and also neo-Nazi groups. The Klans tend to be super nationalist, but these neo-Nazi groups have a big international agenda.

Then the last wave is where we are now, which is the Internet appears. The movement has been in every other era as movement of people in physical space like in meetings, rallies, protests and demonstrations and so forth. It becomes primarily a virtual world, and as you can see, has its own consequences — many consequences. It's much harder to track. And then there are these blurred lines between all these various groups that get jumbled together as the alt-right and people who come from the more traditional neo-Nazi world. We're in a very different world now.

That's a long history. You mentioned that, for a variety of reasons, the Klan in the Reconstruction era collapsed. What are some of the factors that contributed to that?

I would say two things that mostly contributed to that ebb over time.

One is the white supremacist world, writ large, is very prone to very serious infighting. Internal schisms are quite profound in collapsing white supremacists, even as an entire movement, over time.

What's that infighting look like? How racist to be?

No, no. It's almost always power and money. So, for example, the '20s Klan — I say "Klan" but in every era there were multiple Klans, they all have different names, they all have different leaders — they are trying to extract money from their groups, and they are all fighting about money .... and then over power, and who controls the power, because white supremacy groups don't elect their leaders right away. To be a leader just means to grab power and control. So there's a lot of contention in these groups of control.

It's not ideas. Ideas aren't that central. They have these certain key ideas that they promulgated — race and anti-Semitic ideas — but the fine points of ideological discussion don't really occur that much in white supremacist groups, nor do they get people that agitated. It's not like in other kinds of groups, where people might have various versions of ideas, versions of ideologies. [The Klan] just have kind of core beliefs. But they do tend to fight over ideas for money, power and access to the media.

So that's the fighting. The other thing is, in different waves of history, there are prosecutions, either by the police or civil prosecutions that collapse groups and movements. Sometimes, there's kind of a blind eye to white supremacist organizing, but at other times there is really successful either civil or state prosecutions of these groups that do debilitate them.

How does the longevity of white supremacy or these [hate] groups coincide with who has political power?

It's very hard to create a generalization here. Certain groups, like the Klan, tend to rise and fall based on the threats to who is in power. The 1870s Klan [was] based on the Southern racial state formed during slavery being threatened by Reconstruction. In the 1920s, the idea was that political power [was] being threatened by this wave of immigrants. The 1920s Klan [was] very anti-Catholic, as well as racist and anti-Semitic. Part of this anti-Catholicism [was] based on the idea that Catholics were going to start controlling politics as well as the police.

There's some really good analysis by some sociologists that showed that the Klan appeared in counties where there was the least racist enforcement of the law. Because in counties where the sheriff and the county government was enforcing racist laws, there was no need for the Klan.

How does this apply to this more recent wave of white supremacy?

Right now, we have an extremely heterogeneous group that we might call white supremacists. So some of them, probably the smallest group, are nationalistic. And probably the larger group are not particularly nationalistic. This is why it's hard to make generalizations. It's not the case that nationalist fervor just finds itself in the white supremacist movement. The person accused of the shooting in Pittsburgh is an example. If you look at [his] writings, they're not nationalistic, they're in fact anti-nationalistic. And that's pretty common with white supremacy today — some of them have this sense that their mission is this pan-Aryan mission. They're fighting global threats to whites and creating a white international defense. So that's not a nationalist project, that's an internationalist project.

And the other reason is there's this idea among white supremacists in the United States that the national government is ZOG — Zionist Occupation Government — and that's a shorthand way of saying that the national government is secretly controlled by an invisible Jewish cabal. So some of them will be amenable to very local government ... they'll embrace, and work with, and even try to seize control of the government at the county level. But generally, national politics are quite anametha for those two general reasons.

In the 1920s, synagogues were targeted by the KKK. Can you run through other examples of violence like this?

People will say the '20s Klan was not as violent as other Klans. But that's really because its violence took a different form. So there, the threat that the Klan manufactured was the threat of being swapped — all the positions of society being taken by the others — so immigrants, Catholics, Jews and so forth. So the violence was things like, for example, I studied deeply the state of Indiana where the Klan was very strong — pushing Catholics school teachers out of their jobs in public schools and getting them fired, running Jewish merchants out of town, creating boycott campaigns, whispering campaigns about somebody's business that would cause it to collapse. So it's a different kind of violence but it's really targeted as expelling from the communities those who are different than the white, native-born Protestants who were the members of the Klan. So it takes different forms in different times. It's not always the violence that we think about now, like shootings.

When did we start seeing the violence that we see today?

Well, the violence that we see today is not that dissimilar from the violence of the Klan in the '50s and '60s, where there was, kind of, the violence of terrorism. So there's two kinds of violence in white supremacy. There's the "go out and beat up people on the street" violence — that's kind of the skinhead violence. And then there's the sort of strategic violence. You know, the violence that's really meant to send a message to a big audience, so that the message is dispersed and the victims are way beyond the people who are actually injured.

You see that in the '50s, '60s in the South, and you see it now.

I was wondering if we could kind of talk a little bit about the language we use when we talk about mass killings that are related to race, religion or ethnicity — especially about the second type of violence, "strategic violence," that you describe. I've seen people use the phrase "domestic terrorism." What do you make of that phrase?

Terrorism means violence that's committed to further a political or ideological or social goal. By that definition, almost all white supremacist violence is domestic terrorism, because it's trying to send a message, right? Then there's that political issue about what should be legally considered domestic terrorism, and what should be considered terrorism. And that's just an argument of politics, that's not really an argument about definitions right now.

How these things get coded by states and federal governments is quite variable depending on who's defining categories. But from the researcher point of view, these are terrorist acts because they are meant to send a message. That is the definition of terrorism. So it's not just, you don't bomb a synagogue or shoot people in a black church just because you're trying to send a message to those victims or even to those victims and their immediate family. It's meant to be a much broader message, and really that's the definition of terrorism.

I think what we don't want is for all acts of white supremacist violence to be thought of as just the product of somebody who has a troubled psyche. Because that just leaves out the whole picture of why they focus on certain social groups for one thing. [And] why they take this kind of mass horrific feature ... so I think to really understand the tie between white supremacism and the acts of violence that come out of white supremacism, it's important to think about that bigger message that was intended to be sent.

What are the most effective strategies to combat these ideas of white supremacy, or this violence?

I'd say the most effective strategy is to educate people about it, because it really thrives on being hidden and appearing to be something other than it is. I mean, millions of white supremacist groups have often targeted young people, and they do so often in a way that's not clear to the young person that these are white supremacists, they appear to be just your friends and your new social life, like people on the edges who seem exciting. ... And so helping people understand how white supremacists operate in high schools, and the military, and all kinds of sectors of society gives people the resources the understanding to not be pulled into those kinds of worlds.

Twenty years, or even 10 years ago, I would have said it's really effective to sue these groups and bring them down financially, which was what the Southern Poverty Law Center was doing.

[Now,] they don't have property; they operate in a virtual space. So the strategies of combating racial extremism have to change with the changing nature of it.

white supremacy
white supremacist
white supremacists
violence



“IS THERE A CURE FOR HATE?” THIS IS SOMETHING I PONDER OFTEN, EVERY TIME I READ ONE OF THESE STORIES, BUT WITH LITTLE HOPEFUL RESULT. THE PROBLEM IS, I THINK, THAT WHILE IT IS A KIND OF ILLNESS, IT IS AT LEAST PARTLY VOLUNTARILY ACQUIRED TO MAKE THE PERSON FEEL LESS FEARFUL, HURT, OUT OF TOUCH, AND HOPELESS. FOR SOME OF US, IT WAS ALCOHOL OR COCAINE, FOR OTHERS IT IS WILD-EYED RACE AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES. THEY MAY ALSO HAVE A CLASSIC MENTAL ILLNESS SUCH AS SCHIZOPHRENIA, BECAUSE THEY MAY HAVE A DISABILITY REGARDING REASONING THEIR WAY THROUGH FEELINGS AND PROBLEMS. THE THING THAT KEEPS ME FROM PITYING THESE PEOPLE IS THAT THEY ACTUALLY LIKE BEING CRUEL. THAT’S NOT FORGIVABLE TO ME. I KEEP COMING TO THE CONCLUSION THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CHANT AIMED AT HILLARY CLINTON APPLIES VERY APPROPRIATELY – LOCK ‘EM UP!! HOWEVER, THE SOCIOLOGIST BELOW SAYS THAT JAIL DOESN’T WORK AS WELL AT “CURING” THE HATRED AS SOME PERSONAL TREATMENTS DO. IT’S LIKE A BEAUTY AND THE BEAST PROBLEM. WILL YOU LOVE IT OR FIGHT IT? IF YOU CAN LOVE IT, THERE IS A HUMAN BEING INSIDE.

TO SHOW I DO HAVE SOME HUMANITY MYSELF, HOWEVER, I WILL SAY THAT THE JUDGE SHOULD MANDATE, NOT SUGGEST, THAT THE CRIMINAL HATER SHOULD BECOME AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN GROUP THERAPY THROUGH A MENTAL HEALTH CENTER, AND ONE TO ONE TALK THERAPY ONCE A WEEK OR MORE OFTEN WITH A QUALIFIED PSYCHOLOGIST. INCLUDING WITH THAT A GROUP MEDITATION PRACTICE WOULD ALSO BE LIKELY TO HELP, I THINK, BECAUSE IT HELPS US TO “GET INSIDE” OUR OWN MIND ON A CONSCIOUS BASIS. ALIENATION IS A WORD THAT I THINK APPLIES HERE, AND I DIDN’T SEE IT MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE. THAT IS THE STATE OF MIND IN WHICH CHRONICALLY LONELY AND MENTALLY OR PHYSICALLY ABUSED PEOPLE MAY GET INTO WHEN THEY CAN’T “FEEL” FOR OTHERS OR “FEEL” A CONNECTION TO THEM.

IN FACT, THE PHRASE “TOO TOUCHY FEELY” WAS POPULAR FOR AWHILE. THERE IS AN UNDERSTANDABLE FEAR OF “FEELING” OUR INNER PERSONHOOD – WHAT I TEND TO CALL MY INNER BEING, CONSCIENCE OR SPIRIT. THAT FEAR IS “UNDERSTANDABLE,” BECAUSE THEY FEEL SO HURT, REJECTED, USELESS, DEJECTED AND HOPELESS THAT THEY CAN’T EVEN GET UP ENOUGH ENERGY TO FEEL ANGRY. WHEN THEY COME ACROSS A GROUP OR AN IDEOLOGY THAT THEY CAN APPLY TO THEMSELVES, LIKE “ALL WHITES ARE SUPERIOR TO ALL BLACKS,” IT FORMS A SIMPLE FORM OF LOGIC CALLED A SYLLOGISM. IF ALL WHITES ARE SUPERIOR TO ALL BLACKS, I’M OKAY, BECAUSE I’M WHITE. I’M SUPERIOR TO SOMEBODY AFTER ALL. NOW I CAN LIFT MY HEAD AND FACE ANOTHER DAY.

IF THEY CAN EVER COME TO A POINT OF SELF-ACCEPTANCE, INSTEAD OF CONSTANTLY HAVING TO FIGHT OFF SELF-HATRED, THEY’RE ON THEIR WAY UP AND OUT OF THE DANGEROUS PLACE. I THINK THIS MAY BE WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHITE SOUTHERNERS WHO GET CAUGHT UP IN PLAYING THE UGLY NAMES GAME OR EVEN VIOLENCE, AND THOSE WHO DON’T, THOUGH THEY ALSO WERE EXPOSED ALL THEIR LIVES TO THAT SAME CULTURE. IF THEY CAN ACCEPT THEMSELVES, THEY’LL PROBABLY BE ABLE TO ACCEPT OTHERS AS WELL AND ON AN EQUAL PLAYING FIELD. FOR EXAMPLE, I CAN LOOK AT RACIST MATERIAL ON THE INTERNET AND FEEL NOTHING BUT REPUGNANCE. THERE IS NO EXHILARATION THERE FOR ME.

THIS ARTICLE COMPARES RACIAL HATRED TO ADDICTION, AND I THINK THAT IS PROBABLY A GOOD ANALOGY. THEY COULD PERHAPS USE THE 12 STEP PROGRAMS OF AA AND NA ALSO. ANOTHER THING OCCURS TO ME, WHICH IS THAT THEY OFTEN MAY BE IN A KIND OF “GANG” RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER HATERS, WHICH WITH STREET GANGS INVOLVES USING THEIR “GROUP” AS A SUPPORT SYSTEM IN PLACE OF FAMILY. IF YOUR MOTHER REJECTED YOU, AND YOU CAN FIND A GROUP WHO ACCEPT AND VALUE, BEING AROUND THEM CAN BECOME A DEPENDENCY. IF THAT’S TRUE, I THINK SOME OTHER HEALTHIER SUPPORT SYSTEM MIGHT WORK TO PRY THEM AWAY FROM THEIR “SUPREMACY” RELATED IDEOLOGY. THE SOONER WE LEARN “I’M OKAY, YOU’RE OKAY” THE MORE TIME WE WILL SPEND OUTSIDE OF JAILS AND IN LAW SCHOOLS.

THE OTHER THING I’VE SEEN THAT THIS CLINGING TO A RACIST IDEOLOGY RESEMBLES IS MEMBERSHIP IN CULTS, SUCH AS THE “JIM JONES” GROUP FROM 20 OR SO YEARS AGO. I THINK A PERVERSION OF RELIGION IS INVOLVED IN MANY CASES IN THE FAKE NORDIC NONSENSE OF HITLER’S NAZISM, AND THE MODERN “CHRISTIAN IDENTITY CHURCHES.” AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, IT’S ALL VERY, VERY SAD FOR EVERYBODY CONCERNED, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG BLACK TEEN WHO WHISTLES AT A WHITE WOMAN.

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/06/663773514/is-there-a-cure-for-hate
NATIONAL
Is There A Cure For Hate?
November 6, 2018 7:19 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
ERIC WESTERVELT

PHOTOGRAPH -- Taly Kogon and her son Leo, 10, listen to speakers during an interfaith vigil against anti-Semitism and hate at the Holocaust Memorial late last month in Miami Beach, Fla.
Wilfredo Lee/AP

For months prior to the recent shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, suspect Robert Bowers spewed venomous bigotry, hatred and conspiracies online, especially against Jews and immigrants. During the Oct. 27 attack, according to a federal indictment, he said he wanted "to kill Jews."

He is charged with 44 counts — including hate crimes — for the murder of 11 people and wounding of six others at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue.

The attack follows a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, concerns about the rise in domestic extremism and calls for politicians to rethink their anti-immigrant rhetoric.

We wanted to know what programs, if any, are effective in getting violent and violence-prone far-right extremists in America to cast aside their racist beliefs and abandon their hate-filled ways.

Here are five key takeaways:

1) Neglected, minimized and underfunded

Creating and expanding effective programs to get homegrown far-right racists to find the off-ramp from hate is, overall, an under-studied, underfunded and neglected area.

White supremacy is really a problem throughout the United States. It doesn't know any geographic boundaries. It's not isolated to either urban or rural or suburban — it cuts across all.

Pete Simi, Chapman University

"We haven't wanted to acknowledge that we have a problem with violent right-wing extremism in this kind of domestic terrorism," says sociologist Pete Simi of Chapman University, who has researched and consulted on violent white nationalists and other hate groups for more than two decades.

"White supremacy is really a problem throughout the United States," he says. "It doesn't know any geographic boundaries. It's not isolated to either urban or rural or suburban — it cuts across all."

But it's a problem and topic that America has "tended to hide or minimize," he adds.

That willful denial, Simi says, has left many nonprofits, social workers and police and other interventionists largely flying blind.

"There really haven't been much resources, attention, time, energy devoted to developing efforts to counter that form of violent extremism."

In fact, the Trump administration in 2017 rescinded funding that targeted domestic extremism.

The administration, instead, has focused almost exclusively on threats from Islamist extremists and what it sees as the security and social menace of undocumented immigrants including, again, whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment ahead of the midterm elections.

2) There's no consensus on what really works

The research done so far shows that adherence to white supremacist beliefs can be addictive. Some who try to leave can "relapse" and return to the hate fold.

But Simi says, "We're really very much in the early days."

And there is no consensus yet on what works best over the long haul.

Academically, there has been more attention and research on interventions with American gang members or would-be Jihadis.

And while there is some crossover, far-right hate comes with ideological baggage often absent in gangs and is different from the religion-infused Jihadi belief system.

3) Best practices are costly and labor-intensive

Can racist radicals and homegrown right-wing violent extremists successfully be rehabilitated and re-enter civil society?

"The answer to that question is absolutely 'yes,' " Simi says.

The groups with the best approach, he says, seem to be those that partner with a broad section of civil society — educators, social workers, those in health care and police — to tackle the full range of problems someone swept up into an extremist world might face.

They may need additional schooling or employment training, he says or "maybe they have some housing needs, maybe they have some unmet mental health needs," such as past trauma or substance use problems.

It's a more holistic approach that he says, in the end, is far more effective and less costly than prison and packing more people into the already overcrowded U.S. criminal justice system.

But that "wraparound services" model is also labor-intensive, expensive and hard to coordinate.

It's also severely hampered, Simi says, by America's woefully inadequate drug treatment and mental health care systems.

"A big, big problem that we face as a society is abdicating our responsibility in terms of providing this kind of social support and social safety net for individuals that suffer from mental health," as well as drug problems, he says.

4) Life after hate

Tony McAleer knows the mindset of the suspect in the synagogue shooting.

A former member of the White Aryan Resistance and other hate groups, he once echoed the type of racist invective Bowers spewed online; the kind that sees a cabal of malevolent Jews running the world by proxy through banks, Hollywood, corporations and the media.

I think of them as lost...And I can tell you being in that place is not a fun place to be. When you surround yourself with angry and negative people I guarantee you your life is not firing on all cylinders.

Tony McAleer, Life After Hate

And McAleer knows how savvy racist recruiters can be. He was one of them.

"I was a Holocaust denier. I ran a computer-operated voicemail system that was primarily anti-Semitic," he says.

He eventually renounced his bigotry and helped co-found the nonprofit Life After Hate, one of just a handful of groups working to help right-wing extremists find an off-ramp. It also was among those that lost funding — a $400,000 Obama-era federal grant — when the Trump administration changed focus.

In McAleer's experience, adherence to racist beliefs — whether as part of a group or as a lone wolf like the synagogue suspect — is more often sparked by a flawed search for identity and purpose than by a deeply held belief.

The group doesn't attack people's ideology verbally. He calls that approach "the wrong strategy. Because it's about identity."

The best method, he believes, is simply listening and trying to reconnect to the person's buried humanity.

McAleer says he tries to get at what's motivating the hate, to find out why people are really so angry and upset to begin with, and to start the dialogue from there.

You condemn the ideology and the actions, he says, but not the human being.

"I think of them as lost. Somewhere along the line, they find themselves in this place," says McAleer, "and I can tell you being in that place is not a fun place to be. When you surround yourself with angry and negative people, I guarantee you your life is not firing on all cylinders."

He says that's the way he felt. "I was just so disconnected from my heart."

The birth of his children and compassion from a Jewish man, he says, helped him to leave that life and to reconnect with his own humanity and that of others.

People often have never met the people that they purport to hate, he says.

"And there's nothing more powerful — I know because it happened to me in my own life — than receiving compassion from someone who you don't feel you deserve it from, someone from a community that you had dehumanized."

5) How do you scale compassion?

But there are only a few programs like Life After Hate.

And they're often small. Since the summer of 2017, for example, the Chicago-based group has taken on only 41 new people who want to leave their racist hate behind.

"Keep in mind, de-radicalization is a lifelong process," says Life After Hate's Dimitrios Kalantzis. "We consider it a major success when formers remain active in our network, even if that means checking in within our online support group. That means they are engaged and unlikely to relapse."

But is inspiring compassion really scalable, and how can groups more effectively structure and organize similar efforts?

How can researchers and others scale it to reach as large a number of people as possible?

"That's the answer I can't provide because at this point, we really don't know," sociologist Pete Simi says.

domestic extremism
anti semitic
racist
hate groups


WOLVES ARE ESSENTIAL IN A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM, BUT OF COURSE THE FARM ANIMALS HAVE TO BE PROTECTED, AS DO THE CHILDREN. WHAT DISTURBS ME IS THAT IN THE USA EVERYTHING FROM COYOTES TO OUR ONLY BIG CAT, THE MOUNTAIN LION, ARE COMING UP TO THE EDGES OF PEOPLE'S PROPERTY -- WATCHING YOU TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE SO THEY CAN DIG INTO IT. WHAT I'VE HEARD THAT MAKES THE MOST SENSE IS THAT WE HAVE LITERALLY MOVED INTO THEIR TERRITORY WITH OUR SUBURBAN SPRAWL. THERE IS ALSO POSSIBLE HUNGER IF THEIR NATURAL PREY ARE SCARCE. I DON'T WANT WIDESPREAD HUNTING AS WE HAVE HAD IN THE PAST.

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/15/672434852/wolves-are-back-in-germany-but-not-always-welcome
EUROPE
Wolves Are Back In Germany, But Not Always Welcome
December 15, 2018 8:02 AM ET
Martin Kaste 2010

PHOTOGRAPH -- A wolf in its enclosure at the Hexentanzplatz zoo in Thale, northern Germany.
Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/AFP/Getty Images

Wolves are making a big comeback in Germany, which is making some Germans uneasy.

Farmers and hunters drove the species out of the country over 150 years ago, but conditions for wolves became more welcoming in 1990, after Germany's reunification extended European endangered species protections to the eastern part of the country.

Since 2000, the Central European gray wolves have been moving back, mostly from Poland. In Brandenburg state, which surrounds Berlin, the number of known wolf packs jumped from zero in 2007 to 26 this year, according to the state's environmental office.

That has come as a shock to many farmers, who now have to worry about protecting livestock from predators. They don't lose many animals to wolves nationally, but the few incidents that happen can be dramatic. In April, at least 40 sheep were killed in a single attack, and news reports described the aftermath as looking "like horror."

At an anti-wolf rally in November in Brandenburg's capital of Potsdam, farmer Marco Hintze said farmers should once again have the right to shoot at wolves.

"If we miss him it's OK, if we don't miss him, [it shouldn't be] against the law, and that's what we try to fight for," Hintze says.

He says government officials are insensitive to the worries of people living in the countryside. He thinks urban Germans have come to romanticize the returning wolves.

"They think, 'Aww, it's a nice wolf, and he needs to be in nature and be free.' But people raised in the countryside, they don't need the wolf anymore," Hintze says.

There are many similarities with wolf politics in the American West, where hunters and ranchers also criticize wolf restoration as a policy supported by urban environmentalists who don't have to live with the everyday reality of having the predator around.

Soil ecologist Hans-Holger Liste out for a walk in the woods by his home near Berlin. He welcomes the returning wolf population in this region, and takes part in pro-wolf activism.
Martin Kaste/NPR
Dirk Wellershoff, with the Brandenburg Hunting Society (Landesjagdverband Brandenburg), sees the returning wolves as a symptom of a bigger political problem.

"I get the impression that our politics in all of Germany is getting distant from the people and our concerns," he says. "And we observe very clearly with the wolves how our problems aren't being seen ... and solutions aren't being found."

Hans-Holger Liste, a soil ecologist who volunteers with a pro-wolf organization called Wolfsschutz Deutschland, says political attitudes on the issue mirror the left-right split that he's observed in the U.S.

"Definitely, I would say it's going to be the same," he says. In the last round of elections in Germany, "the Left Party and the Green Party were almost 100 percent pro-wolf, and the party of very conservative people were basically against wolves."

By the "very conservative people," he means the Alternative for Germany, an upstart party on the far right that has built up political clout by campaigning against immigration — of humans. But now they're also against the arriving wolves.

Liste says there are good environmental reasons to protect the wolves. The returning predators help to control the overabundant deer population, which in turn limits the damage hungry deer do to newly planted trees.

He also acknowledges emotional reasons for supporting the wolves. Liste finds it exciting to have them moving back into the woods around his house in Beelitz, near Berlin.

"If you meet them for the first time, it's like a spiritual experience. They stand there, they're not afraid of anything, they don't run from you, they just move slowly away," Liste says.

He thinks most of his neighbors share his feelings, but he knows there's intense anger in other parts of rural Germany. Over the summer, in the eastern state of Saxony, authorities found the remains of a female wolf that had been illegally shot and then sunk into a lake with a concrete weight.

"It was such a gruesome act of killing," Liste says. "As the media called it, it was like a mafia killing."

He thinks some of the hostility toward the wolves is a remnant of fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood. He loved those stories when he was a kid, he says — though he usually sympathized with the wolves.

The animal is likely to be an important issue in the next local elections, Liste predicts.

There have been more high-profile incidents, including the report of an attack on a 55-year-old man in northern Germany in November. It's not certain it was a wolf that bit him — wolf attacks on humans are very unusual, and a subsequent DNA test of his wound was inconclusive — but the report threatens to inflame fears for the safety of children in rural areas.

At the federal level, Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union party responded to the growing tensions by proposing a downgrade to the legal protections for wolves, which would allow for some hunting.

Journalist Anna Noryskiewicz contributed reporting for this story from Potsdam, Germany.


LOOK AT THE PHOTOS OF THIS TOMB. IT LOOKS LIKE A PRIVATE MUSEUM WITH MULTIPLE STATUES SMALL TO LIFE SIZE, WRITING OF A KIND THAT I DON’T REMEMBER SEEING BEFORE – A KIND OF HIEROGLYPHICS BUT SIMPLER AND FLATTER -- AND MANY WALL DECORATIONS.

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/15/677068697/after-more-than-4-000-years-vibrant-egyptian-tomb-sees-the-light-of-day
HISTORY
After More Than 4,000 Years, Vibrant Egyptian Tomb Sees The Light Of Day
December 15, 2018 3:51 PM ET
IAN STEWART

PHOTOGRAPH -- Visitors enter a newly-discovered Egyptian tomb at the Saqqara necropolis on Saturday. KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

More than four millennia after being chiseled by Egyptian artisans, the intricate hieroglyphics and stone carvings of an ancient tomb have been uncovered.

Egyptian officials made the announcement Saturday at the site of the discovery in Saqqara, outside of Cairo, according to multiple media reports. Photographs of the tomb show a narrow doorway leading to a rectangular room, its walls covered with carved symbols, images and human forms. Particularly striking are their well-preserved colors – light yellows, rich blues and a reddish-brown skin tone.

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"The color is almost intact even though the tomb is almost 4,400 years old," said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, according to Reuters. He told reporters the find was "one of a kind in the last decades."

PHOTOGRAPH -- The entrance of the newly-discovered tomb, seen Saturday. -- KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

This rediscovered site is part of a massive complex that has proven invaluable to historians and researchers, as described by the magazine Archaeology:

"Thousands of tombs are spread across an area nearly four miles long and nearly a mile wide, and covering more than 3,000 years of complex Egyptian history. ... Saqqara has yielded some of antiquity's most compelling art and architecture, from the magnificent complex of Djoser, which set the standard for future pharaonic tombs, to intimate, carved stone friezes picturing some of the most moving scenes of daily life in ancient Egypt."

The tomb uncovered this week dates from the reign of Fifth Dynasty Egyptian King Neferirkare Kakair, Reuters reports. The news site Egypt Today reports that the site honors Wahtye, a purification priest. It also details the collection of domestic moments carved into the walls "featuring Wahtye ... and his family, in addition to scenes depicting the manufacturing of pottery and wine, making religious offering, musical performances, boats sailing, the manufacturing of the funerary furniture, and hunting."

PHOTOGRAPH -- An interior view of the tomb. KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

As NPR's Sasha Ingber has reported, Egyptian discoveries such as the one announced Saturday are both an archaeological achievement and a public relations coup – new finds can attract visitors to the country, still recovering from a slowdown in tourism caused by political unrest.

Another Fifth Dynasty tomb, one that belonged to Hetpet, a priestess to the goddess of fertility Hathor, was revealed in February. And last month, Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of 100 wooden feline statues and dozens of mummified cats.

This latest tomb was uncovered on Thursday, Reuters reports, and still contains a number of sealed shafts that could lead to sarcophagi or other archaeological treasures. Excavation of those openings will begin Sunday.


HERE IS ANOTHER GREAT 60 MINUTES STORY FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT. THE GOOD NEWS HERE IS THAT A YOUNG MAN HAS INVENTED A COLLECTION SYSTEM THAT DOESN’T OPERATE PERFECTLY, BUT IT DOES HELP. AS ONE EXPERT SAID, IT’S FAR BETTER TO CATCH IT BEFORE IT GETS TO THE OCEAN.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-isnt-what-you-think-60-minutes/
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch isn't what you think
60 Minutes producers clear up misconceptions about the concentration of litter — including plastic — in the ocean between California and Hawaii
Dec 16, 2018
BY Brit McCandless Farmer

VIDEO – INTERVIEWS AND ON SITE VIEWING

The world's largest collection of ocean debris is also the most famous, but its name, the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," is a misnomer.

For starters, it's not one giant patch.

"It's not a mass. It's nothing you can see from space, all these things one's heard," 60 Minutes producer Michael Gavshon said in the video above. "But in fact it's just a giant soup, a gyre. It's a whirlpool of tiny fragments of plastic in the ocean at various depths."

Along with 60 Minutes associate producer David Levine, Gavshon produced a report this week on the plague of plastic in the ocean. While on Midway Atoll, they spoke with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Kevin O'Brien, who oversees marine debris removal in the part of the Pacific between California and Hawaii. O'Brien said that when he sailed through the Garbage Patch, he noticed an uptick in the amount of plastic he was seeing all around him, but it wasn't quite an island of trash.

IMAGE: MAP SHOWING GARBAGE CONCENTRATION ot-plasticplague-garbagepatchmap.jpg

"I saw lots of things floating in the water — a large derelict fishing net, a ghost net, or I might see a bottle or a crate" he said. "Even if the debris isn't so intense that it's a floating mat of trash, even if it's more disperse than that, it could still hold an enormous amount of plastic."

O'Brien said plastics floating in the ocean are exposed to several environmental factors — including waves, reefs and rocks — that cause them to break down into smaller fragments, which are difficult to clean.

"The plastics spread out," Levine said. "It's under the surface. It's not an easy thing to mop up. If it were a garbage island, I think it probably would be much easier to clean up."

RELATED: ot-plasticplaguef-garbagepatchkevin.jpg
Kevin O'Brien of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration CBS NEWS
To watch the 60 Minutes two-part report about plastics pollution, click here.

The video above was produced by Will Croxton and Brit McCandless Farmer. It was edited by Will Croxton. Ann Silvio was the interviewer.

Underwater footage courtesy of NatureFootage and Getty Images

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46588033
Hungarians rally again against 'slave laws'
DECEMBER 16, 2018 31 minutes ago

REUTERS
Image caption -- Sunday's protest was the largest since the new laws were adopted last week

About 10,000 people have rallied in Hungary's capital Budapest against new labour laws, which have been labelled "slave" legislation by opponents.

The crowds marched towards parliament and the state TV headquarters, in what was the fourth and largest protest since the laws were passed last week.

Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters near the TV station.

New rules mean companies can demand up to 400 hours of overtime a year and delay payment for it for three years.

The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the labour reform will benefit workers as well as companies who need to fill a labour shortage.

Viktor Orban's Hungary: The full story
Hungary country profile
Sunday's demonstration was led by trade unionists and students.

Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption -- Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside the state TV headquarters

The event was dubbed "Happy Xmas Prime Minister". Mr Orban is seen by his opponents as becoming increasingly authoritarian.

The prime minister denies the claim.

His governing Fidesz party has said the protests are the work of foreign mercenaries paid by Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros.

Mr Soros has denied the accusations as lies aimed at creating a false external enemy for the Hungarian authorities.

Related Topics
HungaryBudapestViktor Orban

More on this story:
Hungary 'slave labour' law sparks protest on parliament steps
13 December 2018
EU parliament votes to punish Hungary over 'breaches' of core values
12 September 2018
Hungary passes 'Stop Soros' law banning help for migrants
20 June 2018
Hungary country profile
15 April 2018
Hungary enforces 'cruel' ban on rough sleeping
15 October 2018


DO YOU REMEMBER HITLER’S CRITICISM OF “DEGENERATE ART?” SIT DOWN AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH BEFORE YOU READ THIS. DO WE REALLY WANT TO BE ONE OF V. PUTIN’S ALLIES? WILL WE LET TRUMP FOLLOW THAT PATH AS WELL?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46584554
Putin wants government to "take charge" of rap music
DECEMBER 16, 2018 6 hours ago

VIDEO -- Why are Russian rappers getting arrested?

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the government to "take charge" of rap music after a number of concerts were cancelled across the country.

Efforts to ban rap were "impossible" and so the state should play a greater role in controlling it, he said.

The Ministry of Culture would find the best way to "navigate" youth concerts, he added.

His comments come after Russian rapper Husky was arrested after several of his concerts were cancelled.

In December, authorities in the southern city of Krasnodar called off his planned performance for "extremism".

The musician - real name Dmitry Kuznetsov - was then jailed for 12 days after performing for fans on the roof of a car.

Image copyrightAFP/GETTY
Image caption
A number of Russian rap concerts have been cancelled recently

Speaking at a meeting of the presidential Council for Culture and Art in St Petersburg, President Putin said the problem should be approached "with great caution".

"However, what I really agree with is that if it is impossible to stop it, it should be taken over and navigated in a particular way," he said.

The unexpected facts about music in Russia
Who are the hypebeasts of Russia?

The president expressed particular concern about drug abuse among young people.

"Rap and other modern [forms of art] are rested upon three pillars - sex, drugs and protest," he said. "I am most worried about drugs. This is the way towards the degradation of a nation."

Image copyrightEPA
Image caption -- President Putin believes rap should be controlled, not banned

Mr Putin also said he was worried about bad language in rap, saying he had spoken to a linguist about it.

While she had explained to him that swearing is "a part of our language", Mr Putin compared it to the human body, joking that "we have all sorts of body parts, and it's not like we put them on display all the time".

The Russian government has long had a complicated relationship with music.

Feminist protest band Pussy Riot claims Russia's intelligence service poisoned member Pyotr Verzilov earlier this year.

The BBC DJ who 'brought down the USSR'
Recording music onto X-rays to beat the censors

Under the Soviet Union meanwhile, most Western pop and rock music was frowned on and some Russian rock musicians faced persecution.

Even classical musicians clashed with the state. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich was denounced twice under the leadership of Joseph Stalin.

VIDEO
Media caption -- Sofia Gubaidulina is one of three composers whose works were outlawed by the Soviet regime


THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE ONE OF THOSE SAD CASES, NO MATTER WHAT THE FACTS ARE, AND A MAJOR SCANDAL. IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT WE POSSIBLY HAVE NO VERIFIABLE FACTS TO GO ON IN DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT HE SHOULD BE TREATED AS A CRIMINAL OR PERHAPS A MENTALLY DISTRESSED INDIVIDUAL. WAS THE MAN MAKING WHAT COULD BE A BOMB AT THE TIME? WAS HE SOMEONE WHO WAS SUSPECTED BEFORE THE SHOOTING? WAS HE BEING TORTURED TO GET HIM TO “SPILL THE BEANS” AT THE TIME? WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46587185
Trump 'to review' Mathew Golsteyn Afghan murder case
DECEMBER 16, 2018 4 hours ago

REUTERS
Image caption -- President Trump's tweet could complicate the case against Maj Golsteyn

President Donald Trump has tweeted that he plans to "review" the case of US soldier Mathew Golsteyn, charged with murdering an Afghan civilian in 2010.

The Army Green Beret Major allegedly shot someone he described as a suspected Taliban bomb-maker during his deployment.

He was charged with murder last week, allegations he denies.

But President Trump has complicated proceedings with his tweet, saying he will now be "reviewing the case".

Decorated US soldier 'admitted murder in CIA job interview'

Maj Golsteyn "could face the death penalty from our own government", he wrote, saying he was getting involved in the case "at the request of many".

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Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
At the request of many, I will be reviewing the case of a “U.S. Military hero,” Major Matt Golsteyn, who is charged with murder. He could face the death penalty from our own government after he admitted to killing a Terrorist bomb maker while overseas. @PeteHegseth @FoxNews

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It is unclear what the president meant when he posted the tweet.

However, as Commander in Chief of the US armed forces, any intervention by Mr Trump could count as unlawful command influence, and might mean the case against Maj Golsteyn is thrown out.

A Pentagon spokesperson said on Sunday that the allegations against the major are "a law enforcement matter".

"The Department of Defense will respect the integrity of this process and provide updates when appropriate."

What are the charges against Maj Golsteyn?

During his deployment to Afghanistan in 2010, then-Captain Golsteyn allegedly shot a man he described as a suspected Taliban bomb-maker.

He allegedly admitted to the killing as part of a lie detector test taken during a CIA job interview in 2011. This led to an investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

Image copyrightFOX NEWS
Image caption -- Maj Golsteyn told Fox News about the killing in 2014

In April 2014, he got off with an official reprimand because of lack of evidence.

But two years later, Maj Golsteyn spoke on a Fox News special report, titled "How We Fight", about how he killed the suspected bomb-maker.

RELATED:
BBC reporter's terrifying days amid Taliban assault
Why are more troops going to Afghanistan?
Who are the Taliban?

He told the anchor he shot the man because he was concerned he would kill Afghan informants if released.

What's the latest?
On Friday, Maj Golsteyn was charged with premeditated murder - which carries a possible death penalty.

US Army Special Operations Command spokesman Lt Col Loren Bymer said in a statement: "Major Matthew Golsteyn's immediate commander has determined that sufficient evidence exists to warrant the preferral of charges against him."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption-- The former Green Beret fought in Marjah, Afghanistan, which saw fierce fighting in 2010

Maj Golsteyn's lawyer, Phil Stackhouse, told US media he would be "relentless" in defending his client from the charges, which he was notified of on Thursday.

"Major Golsteyn is a humble servant-leader who saved countless lives, both American and Afghan, and has been recognised repeatedly for his valorous actions," Mr Stackhouse said.

A congressman sided with Maj Golsteyn, writing a letter to the secretary of the US Army to complain about the investigation.

Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, called for an end to the "retaliatory and vindictive" inquiry into "a distinguished and well regarded Green Beret".

Related Topics
AfghanistanTalibanDonald TrumpUS Armed Forces


THERE IS A REALLY RICH PAGE OF SANDERS OFFERINGS HERE, SO I’M PICKING THE ONE OR TWO MOST RECENT AND IMPORTANT.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/15/iowa-poll-biden-2020-democrats-1066661
2020 ELECTION
Iowa poll: Biden, Bernie lead Democratic caucus field
By STEVEN SHEPARD 12/15/2018 08:30 PM EST Updated 12/15/2018 09:21 PM EST

PHOTOGRAPH -- Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the University of Utah on Thursday in Salt Lake City. | Rick Bowmer/AP Photo

Joe Biden is the top choice of nearly a third of Iowa Democrats likely to participate in the 2020 presidential caucuses — putting the former vice president atop a roughly 20-candidate field 14 months ahead of the first votes, according to a new poll released Saturday.

The first Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom survey before the 2020 caucuses shows Biden beginning a potential bid at 32 percent in Iowa, more than a dozen points ahead of the second-place candidate, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The 2016 runner-up for the nomination is at 19 percent.

Outgoing Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who lost a Senate race last month, is in third place, at 11 percent. Slightly behind him are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 8 percent, and California Sen. Kamala Harris at 5 percent.

All other candidates are below 5 percent support. Only 6 percent of poll respondents said they weren’t sure whom they would support after being read a list of 20 names.

Iowa is the first state in the presidential nominating process. The winner of the caucuses has gone on to win the Democratic presidential nomination in six consecutive election cycles, after favorite son Tom Harkin won the 1992 vote.

The Register’s poll is a closely watched barometer of the state’s politics. Pollster Ann Selzer is a political celebrity in Iowa, in equal parts due to her track record of accuracy and the influence of the poll on the caucuses.

Most Democratic voters in Iowa, the poll shows, are prioritizing electability. A majority, 54 percent, say it’s more important for the caucus winner to have a strong chance to defeat President Donald Trump in November 2020 — more than the 40 percent who say it’s more important to have a candidate who shares their positions on key issues.

And with a vast candidate field that could include the experienced Biden — who served 36 years in the Senate and 8 years as vice president — and a three-term congressman in O’Rourke, more voters say they want a “seasoned hand” to face off with Trump (49 percent) than a newcomer (36 percent).

Aside from the three leading candidates, the top candidates are New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (4 percent), former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (3 percent) and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (3 percent). Another four candidates are at only 1 percent, including Maryland Rep. John Delaney, a declared candidate who has already visited all of the Iowa’s 99 counties, according to his campaign.

Potential candidates who failed to register any support at all include wealthy businessman Tom Steyer, who has run ads in the state to tout his drive to impeach Trump.

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2020 ELECTIONS
The left blindsides Beto
By DAVID SIDERS

With few candidates officially running yet, Biden and Sanders also lead the field in name identification. Only 4 percent of voters said they didn’t know enough to have an opinion of each man. O’Rourke (36 percent have no opinion), Harris (41 percent) and Warren (16 percent) have lower name-ID.

Biden, in particular, stands out from the rest of the field. In addition to the 32 percent who say the former vice president is their preferred candidate, he is the second choice of another 18 percent of likely caucusgoers. Only 8 percent of caucusgoers say they could never imagine voting for Biden.

He is also the best-liked potential candidate: More than eight-in-10 Democrats, 82 percent, have a favorable opinion of Biden. Only 15 percent view him unfavorably.

Sanders is viewed favorably by 74 percent of Democratic caucusgoers, and unfavorably by 22 percent.

The potential candidate with the highest negatives: Bloomberg, who was elected in New York as a Republican. Forty percent of Democrats view him favorably, while 31 percent have an unfavorable opinion.

One longtime Democratic figure isn’t welcome in the race, however: A large majority of caucusgoers, 72 percent, say 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton would “detract” from the race for president, while only 25 percent say she would add to the race. And roughly as many Democratic voters have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton (49 percent) as view her favorably (47 percent).

Clinton, who narrowly defeated Sanders in the 2016 caucuses, says she won’t run for president again.

The poll was conducted December 10-13 by West Des Moines-based Selzer & Company. Out of 1,838 registered voters contacted, 455 said they would definitely or probably attend a Democratic caucus in early 2020, for a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.


THE NEW TRANSPARENCY IN THE DNC -- SOUNDS GOOD TO ME. I CALL IT HONESTY.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/03/democratic-candidates-2020-campaigns-fundraising-1036015
2020 ELECTION

‘Nothing’s invisible now’: How the 2020 contenders are trampling the old rules
From Bernie Sanders to Elizabeth Warren to Kamala Harris, the emerging 2020 Democratic field is taking a new approach to the early presidential campaign.

By DAVID SIDERS 12/03/2018 05:06 AM EST Updated 12/03/2018 02:03 PM EST

PHOTOGRAPH -- Informed by the potent operation Sen. Bernie Sanders built in 2016, presidential contenders have spent months cultivating lists of small donors on social media while promoting themselves on TV. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

For decades, the most critical early stages of a presidential campaign unfolded largely out of public view, with candidates quietly courting financiers, party bosses and interest groups influential in the nominating process.

But two years after President Donald Trump proved a candidate could flout traditional power structures and succeed — and with the 2020 campaign now picking up — the reign of the “invisible primary” is in decline.

New Democratic Party rules have stripped party leaders of much of their power in selecting a nominee. The prevalence of small-dollar fundraising has tilted the presidential landscape toward more public maneuvers designed to build massive lists of supporters online. And the rise of progressive populism is making its mark, prioritizing high-profile appeals and personal brand-building — typically through digital platforms — over the behind-the-scenes pursuit of party elites.

The shift toward an increasingly open, early presidential primary is exemplified by uncharacteristically brazen campaigning by top-tier contenders, more than a year ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Informed not only by Trump, but by the potent, small-dollar operation built by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) have spent months cultivating lists of small donors on highly public social media channels, while promoting themselves on TV.

In the process, they have pulled back the curtain — or removed it entirely — from a critical stage in the nomination process.

“Nothing’s invisible now,” said Paul Maslin, a top Democratic pollster who worked on the presidential campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Howard Dean. “This notion that if you got the endorsements and you got the money and played your cards right, you became the de facto choice of the party, whatever that means … Trump blew all that up. That’s all out the window now.”

COUNTDOWN TO 2020
The race for 2020 starts now. Stay in the know. Follow our presidential election coverage.

He said, “Trump is the tsunami that came, and as the wave pulls back, there’s nothingness. Anybody can fill it up. … Do donors still matter? Sure. Will an endorsement matter in a given state? Of course. But they’re not decisive in any way.”

In one chockablock span of 24 hours last week, Sanders rallied supporters via livestream from a progressive gathering in Vermont, Warren began running ads on Facebook calling the Trump administration "the most corrupt in modern history," and the political action committee Democracy for America opened its first online poll of the 2020 election — all for public consumption.

The website TMZ, meanwhile, was airing video of Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke at Reagan National Airport. He told supporters recently that once he leaves office in January, his posts on Medium will be “my venue to talk to you.”

Even Joe Biden, the 76-year-old former vice president, is posting selfies on Instagram.

“The days when the wizard could hide behind the curtain and be the unseen moving hand are over," said Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist in California.

Momentum toward a more visible and transparent primary has been building, said Arshad Hasan, a former executive director of the activist group Progress Now.

“More and more of this [campaign] is public,” he said. “I saw this beginning to happen in the run-up to and in the wake of Howard Dean’s campaign, the first really big campaign where you had a bunch of outsiders come in and start participating.”

Many of those outsiders ended up joining local political organizations and paying increasing attention to practices and procedures that in previous decades drew less focus. Now, in the early stages of the 2020 primary, Hasan said, “there are so, so many more people not just paying attention, but being active in these otherwise mind-numbingly boring processes.”

Michael Avenatti
2020 ELECTION

RELATED: ‘He’s going through a pretty rough time’: Avenatti crashes and burns
By NATASHA KORECKI

Amid an uproar from such activists, the Democratic National Committee in August voted to prevent superdelegates — the members of Congress, DNC members and other party officials representing about 15 percent of delegates in 2016 — from voting on the first ballot at a contested national convention. Though superdelegates could prove instrumental in a second ballot, candidates’ ties to them, at least initially, have been rendered less significant.

Some invisible primary practices endure, even as other efforts become more visible. Candidates continue to schedule private meetings with DNC members and major donors. As in previous election cycles, Democratic contenders have rushed since the midterm elections to dial donors in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago, while simultaneously courting members of Congress, state party leaders, labor officials and other Democrats influential in party politics. Many candidates have enlisted so-called sherpas in critical primary states to help them make introductions.

“Right now, what is happening with people considering running for president is they are actively talking to people they think may fund their campaigns, could support their campaigns in other ways, or are trying to get those individuals not to support other candidates,” said Bill Burton, a Democratic strategist and veteran of the Obama White House. “There are certain people in certain parts of this country whose phones are ringing off the hook with people who fancy themselves Democratic primary contenders.”

Jaime Harrison, associate chair of the Democratic National Committee and a former South Carolina state party chair, said candidates need DNC members and members of Congress to help them navigate “who is important and where are the friendships and the issues of importance” in critical primary states.

And he suggested that “the voices and the clout and the influence of these folks may actually be enhanced, because there’s a limited number of Congress people, and there’s a limited number of DNC members, and in order to break through the pack, and break through the din, these candidates are going to want to be able to showcase that they have some clout and have some support.”

But with many major donors and many party leaders hesitating to commit to one candidate because of the unusually large field, the effect of institutional support has been dulled in the campaign's earliest stages. And it is most likely to substantially materialize following — not proceeding — a culling of the field.

“I think a lot of people will be taking their cues from what happens publicly,” Harrison said.

RELATED-- Kamala Harris to make 2020 decision 'over the holiday'
By QUINT FORGEY

The newly introduced sunlight has not always been flattering. Elizabeth Warren stumbled in front of a national audience with her elaborate — and widely panned — presentation of DNA test results to support her distant Native American ancestry. Michael Avenatti, the combative lawyer who gained prominence feuding with Trump on cable television, has been unraveling under equally bright lights after being arrested on domestic violence allegations, accusations he denies.

“There’s nothing invisible in the world anymore,” Sragow said. “Every person has a TV camera in their hands, right? The iPhone, the smartphone. Every person is a reporter. Every person is a pundit, and they can capture something, and you don’t even know it’s captured, and it gets posted on the internet, and it’s there for the whole world to see forever.”

In one early — and public — effort to narrow the progressive lane of the primary, the progressive political action committee Democracy for America last week opened its first online poll ahead of the 2020 election. The group, which boasts more than 1 million members, employed similar field tests ahead of its unsuccessful effort to draft Warren into the 2016 presidential campaign, before swinging its support to Sanders.

In the 2020 campaign, said Yvette Simpson, DFA’s incoming chief executive, “we don’t have a person who’s anointed … to be the presumed nominee this cycle.”

That is a significant departure from the dynamic that Arthur T. Hadley described in his 1976 book “The Invisible Primary,” a point of reference for 40 years.

In 2020, Maslin said, the campaign is “going to be in front of us. You’re going to see it on cable news. You’re going to see it on YouTube. You’re going to see it in people interacting with candidates that go beyond the Great Mentioner* or the big donors or the party hierarchy.”

Nowadays, he said, “There is no party hierarchy.”

The primary, Maslin said, “won’t be invisible. It will be unbelievably visible, right in front of our very eyes.”


Great Mentioner*

https://politicaldictionary.com/words/the-great-mentioner/
The Great Mentioner
The phenomenon whereby certain people are “mentioned” to journalists as possible candidates for higher office.

Scott Simon of National Public Radio explained: “The late Art Buchwald used to talk about the Great Mentioner — some unnamed person who told pundits and reporters a lot of people say this, a lot of people say that. Art said that if you trace back exactly who said this and that, it was usually just the reporters and analysts themselves that tried to splash a coat of credibility over sheer speculation by putting it in the mouth of the Great Mentioner.”

Ryan Lizza attributes the term to New York Times columnist Russell Baker who used it “to describe the mysterious source who plucks politicians from obscurity and mentions them to political journalists as contenders for higher office.”


IF YOU THINK THESE VIDEO ARE PROBABLY GOING TO BE AMATEURISH OR BABYISH PRESENTATIONS FOR THE GULLIBLE, YOU ARE WRONG. THIS IS A PBS SERIES. IT SHOWS SCIENTISTS AT WORK IN THE FIELD AND THE LAB. I SUGGEST YOU WATCH THEM FROM THE BEGINNING.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5cXQj80PxM
PBS The Dinosaurs! The Monsters Emerge 1 of 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDUW6HGQCpg
PBS THE DINOSAURS Flesh on the Bones 2 of 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UDeojaTr9g
THE DINOSAURS The Nature of the Beast 3 of 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgxB6BNRbQA
PBS THE DINOSAURS The Death of the Dinosaurs 4 of 4