SEPTEMBER 1 - 5, 2018
PLEASE PARDON THIS HUGE DUMP OF STORIES, BUT MY COMPUTER HAS BEEN DOWN FOR ALMOST A WEEK, SO I'M CATCHING UP.


I’VE SEEN SOME PRETTY BAD TWEETS, BUT THIS ONE IS ONE OF THE WORST COMBINATIONS OF CRUELTY AND PERSONAL CRUDENESS THAT I HAVE SEEN SO FAR. HILLARY CLINTON CAUGHT SEVERAL OF THOSE, TOO, AND BOTH OF THE OBAMAS. WE’RE REALLY RAISING SOME PRIME QUALITY CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY, AREN’T WE?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-domenech-meghan-mccain-slams-twitter-for-waiting-hours-to-remove-threatening-tweet/
CBS NEWS September 1, 2018, 9:00 PM
Meghan McCain's husband slams Twitter for waiting hours to remove tweet threatening wife

VIDEO – EULOGY FOR JOHN MCCAIN

Meghan McCain's husband, Ben Domenech, slammed Twitter for letting a tweet stay up for hours that included an image doctored to show a gun pointed at Meghan McCain as she approached her father's casket. The account has since been suspended, Domenech said on Friday, but not until after he had to "raise a ruckus."

On Thursday, Domenech, who is a conservative writer and contributor to CBS News, tweeted the screengrab of the doctored image of a gun pointed at Meghan McCain as she approached her father John McCain's casket. The original poster had written "America, this ones for you," according to the Arizona Republic.

"Hey @jack, this has been up for half a day. It has been reported 100+ times. No response. Tell me why this is cool by you," Domenech wrote in the now-deleted tweet. Domenech later deleted that tweet when the account was suspended "so no one will have to see it."

Memorial Service Held For Sen. John McCain At North Phoenix Baptist Church

Meghan McCain walks with her husband Ben Domenech as the casket of U.S. Sen. John McCain leaves the Arizona State Capitol to go to a memorial service at the North Phoenix Baptist Church on August 30, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. / GETTY IMAGES

On Friday, Domenech slammed Twitter for letting it stay up for hours, writing that it was only after his "hours later tweet to finally get a reaction. Did not want to elevate it but that is what Twitter requires apparently."

"Twitter finally suspended this account this morning," Domenech posted Friday. "No one should have to raise a ruckus or highlight this sort of thing publicly to get their attention."

Meghan McCain was photographed overcome with emotion at her father's casket at a service on Wednesday. She said at a service at the National Cathedral on Saturday that "the best of John McCain, the greatest of his titles, and the most important of his roles was as a father. John McCain was defined by love."

John McCain died on Aug. 25 at the age of 81.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


I THINK WE SHOULD START CALLING “STAND YOUR GROUND” THE WILD WEST LAW. MAYBE IT’S JUST BECAUSE OF WHERE I LIVE IN JACKSONVILLE, BUT I HAVE NEVER FELT THREATENED. OF COURSE, I HAVEN’T BEEN GOING AROUND VERBALLY ACCOSTING PEOPLE OVER PARKING SPACES, EITHER, HANDICAPPED OR OTHERWISE. THIS GUY ISN’T SHOWING MUCH OF A CONSCIENCE, AND HE REALLY “HAS A BEE IN HIS BONNET” ABOUT THE HANDICAPPED PARKING SPOTS. THERE HAVE BEEN THREE OTHER INCIDENTS IN WHICH HE HAS BEEN CAUGHT DOING THAT SAME SORT OF VERBAL ASSAULT. STRANGE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-stand-your-ground-shooting-michael-drejka-says-he-wouldnt-change-shooting-markeis-mcglockton/
By ALEX SUNDBY CBS NEWS September 3, 2018, 10:58 AM
Gunman in Florida "stand your ground" shooting says he wouldn't change what he did

A white man facing criminal charges for fatally shooting an unarmed black man in a Florida convenience store's parking lot told CBS affiliate WTSP-TV he wouldn't change what he did but apologized to the dead man's family. Michael Drejka initially wasn't arrested for killing Markeis McGlockton in July because of the state's controversial "stand your ground" law.

Surveillance video shows Drejka appearing to yell at McGlockton's girlfriend for parking in a handicapped spot. McGlockton then shoves Drejka to the ground.

From the ground, Drejka pulls out his gun and shoots McGlockton. "I've had plenty of time to think about it, but as far as changing anything as events ... I don't see, I really, no, not off the top of my head," Drejka told WTSP-TV in an interview at the Pinellas County Jail on Friday.

Drejka was charged with manslaughter nearly a month after the shooting and is being held on $100,000 bond. Florida's "stand your ground" law allows people to use deadly force when fearing "imminent death or great bodily harm" without a duty to try to escape the danger.

"I was very scared," Drejka told WTSP-TV. "I've never been confronted like that or never been assaulted like that, if you will, ever ... It felt like I was tackled or someone hit me from behind with something. I left my feet and slid along the ground before I was able to- but, yes, I was stunned, yeah."

Drejka said he's not a racist and apologized to McGlockton's family. "I'm sorry," Drejka said.

"It's all I can really say to them, and thinking about it would you accept those kind of words from someone? I don't think I would."

Drejka said the way handicapped parking spots are "abused" has been a sensitive issue for him. He described his deceased high school sweetheart and his mother-in-law as handicapped.

"It's always been a hotbed for me," Drejka said. "My whole life has always been looking for a handicapped parking spot, and it's always touched a nerve with me because of the way they're abused and used."

Authorities have said in court documents that Drejka has been in confrontations with three other drivers. Two motorists accused Drejka of waving a gun at them, and a truck driver accused Drejka of threatening to shoot him for parking in the same handicapped parking spot as McGlockton's girlfriend three months before the July shooting.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/former-prisoner-of-war-john-mccain-cellmate-vietnam-trump-comments/?setDevice=amp#referrer=https://www.google.com&_tf=From%20%251$s
John McCain's Vietnam cellmate describes reaction to candidate Trump's POW comments
AUG 29, 2018 8:56 AM EDT CBS THIS MORNING
CBS NEWS

VIDEO – FORMER PRISONER OF WAR REMEMBERS LATE SENATOR

Retired Air Force colonel and former prisoner of war John Fer shared a cellblock with Sen. John McCain in Vietnam. "CBS This Morning" co-host John Dickerson spoke with Fer about his reaction to McCain's death and what then-candidate Donald Trump said about the senator on the campaign trail.

JOHN FER: America is going to feel the absence of John McCain. I spent, you know, those months and a couple of years pacing the floor with him back and forth and talking, and I got a very good sense of the depth of John.

JOHN DICKERSON: If you were in Hanoi and you heard somebody running for president said about a captive, "I like heroes who weren't captured," would you believe that they said it?

FER: I think it's really, really sad commentary to say … any American captive who had put his life on the line and risked it for, as John says, a cause greater than himself.

DICKERSON: What was your reaction when you heard Donald Trump had said that?

FER: I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe somebody would say that about a national hero.

DICKERSON: When you'd see him on TV, and you can't always be in touch with him, what would you think back to?

FER: I saw the John McCain that I knew that was the mixture of seriousness of the moment, but he had almost, had a glimmer of a humor that wanted to come out and say, 'Look this is serious business, but we've got to remember… Don't lose your sense of humor, you know, look on the bright side.' ... When I see him in those interviews, when I see him sitting behind the desk in committee meetings and things like that, that's what I see with John. … I see an exceptionally knowledgeable guy who was able despite – and he had by his own admission, he had lots of setbacks in his public life – he was always able to bounce back. And he was a man.

In his own words: John McCain on his love for America 3:49
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


BERNIE RALLIES FOR LABOR DAY

https://www.mynbc5.com/article/sen-bernie-sanders-labor-day-rallies/22917042
Sen. Bernie Sanders Labor Day Rallies
The Vermont Senator spends his Labor Day with rallies.
Updated: 1:00 PM EDT Sep 3, 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Sen. Sanders rallies on Labor Day
Sen. Sanders rallies on Labor Day

Vermont — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will be holding Labor Day rallies in White River Junction and Middlebury today.

The first rally will be held at Lyman Point Park, 167 Maple St, White River Junction at 1 P.M. The second, at Middlebury Town Green, 3 Main St, Middlebury at 4 P.M.

Vermont Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman is expected to join Sanders at the rallies.

Sen. Sanders also spoke at the New Hampshire AFL-CIO Annual Labor Day Breakfast this morning in Manchester.

Other speakers included Democrats Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, and Rep. Annie Kuster.


SAY IT AGAIN, SAM! IT’S A MESSAGE THAT SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/404841-bernie-sanders-trump-is-a-pathological-liar
Bernie Sanders knocks Trump on Labor Day: He works around the clock for 'his fellow billionaires'
BY MORGAN GSTALTER - 09/03/18 04:25 PM EDT

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tore into President Trump on Monday while speaking before a crowd of labor organizers, arguing that Trump is a “pathological liar” who “works night and day on behalf of his fellow billionaires.”

Sanders told those gathered for an AFL-CIO Labor Day breakfast in New Hampshire that Trump is trying to divide Americans for “cheap political reasons,” Politico reported.

“And most reprehensible, we have a president who is not doing what almost every president in American history has done — When you make it into the Oval Office, you understand you’ve got a sacred responsibility to bring the American people together,” Sanders said.

The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate also went after Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on the eve of his confirmation hearing, arguing Kavanaugh would be an “anti-worker justice.”

“We should call him out,” Sanders said of Kavanaugh, according to Politico.

Sanders praised the labor movement on Monday, saying Americans owe a “debt of gratitude” for their advocacy, the newspaper reported.

“The union movement today is the last line of resistance to the reactionary corporate agenda,” Sanders said.

Sanders’s comments at the AFL-CIO event follow a public battle between Trump and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Trumka argued during an interview on Sunday that Trump has done more to harm workers than help them.

“He hasn’t come up with an infrastructure program that could put a lot of us back to work,” Trumka said during an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

“He overturned a regulation that would deny over 5 million overtime that they would’ve had. He overturned some health and safety regulations that will hurt us on the job.”

The labor chief added that the AFL-CIO keeps "trying to find areas where we can work with him."

Trump celebrated Labor Day on Monday with a tweet saying, “The Worker in America is doing better than ever before.”

The president had also offered rare praise for labor unions in a Labor Day proclamation issued Friday night.

"We have kept our promise to always keep the White House door open to members and leaders of our country's labor organizations," Trump wrote.

The president on Monday went after Trumka’s comments, arguing that unions were performing poorly because a Democrat was in the top leadership position.

“Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend,” Trump tweeted. “Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!”


THE CURRENT SITUATION ON THE GROUND IN PUERTO RICO

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-sos-sign-punta-santiago-humacao-new-slogan-one-year-after-hurricane-maria/
By CHRISTOPHER BRITO CBS NEWS August 21, 2018, 11:51 PM
"We're ready to turn the page": Puerto Rican town with viral S.O.S. sign after Maria has new slogan

45 PHOTOGRAPHS -- A side-by-side photo shows a crosswalk in Puerto Rico -- 11 months in between. The photo on the left taken in September 2017 shows an S.O.S. sign that was taken in Punta Santiago, mere days after Hurricane Maria hit. The other was captured in August 2018 with a message of welcome. DISCOVER PUERTO RICO

The Puerto Rican neighborhood of Punta Santiago in Humacao is eagerly moving forward with a slogan for tourists, "Bienvenidos," or welcome, nearly one year after the desperate residents wrote a sign saying "S.O.S. Necesitamos agua/comida." That sign became one of the most memorable images in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

With the help of community members, tourism agency Discover Puerto Rico launched an initiative underscoring the island's comeback on Monday. At the top of their list, the reemergence of Punta Santiago, where locals want to move beyond the viral S.O.S. photo that was taken by an aid worker assessing Maria damage 11 months ago.

Donations sent to Puerto Rico were found rotting in parking lot
"Being on the island and completely disconnected, we didn't realize how far our picture traveled," said resident Janet Gonzalez. "We're thankful it did. But now, we're ready to turn the page. We've been wanting to clean up that message for a while as we're past it. We were asked what message we'd want to share with the world and hope our new positive message spreads just as fast."

Puerto Rico said in a report to Congress earlier this month that there were 1,427 more deaths "than normal" in the wake of Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma "may or may not be attributable to the hurricanes."

Maria turned into one of the costliest storms in U.S. history and knocked out power for most of the island for almost the entire year. Recovery efforts have been slow as they've been dragged on by politics and geography.

Puerto Rican officials said earlier this month that power had been restored to all those available on the island. As part of its full reset, Punta Santiago and much like the rest of Puerto Rico want to express they're embracing tourists again -- despite the island declaring itself open for tourism in late December.

Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico, told CBS News there's improvements that still need to be made, but he said he believes the island's "best days lie ahead."

"It's pretty impressive how far that community has come in terms of progress," Dean said. "We believe it's going to yield one of the best comeback stories in tourism history. As we approach Maria's [anniversary next month], the local tourism and community members collaborated to put positive imagery to show the milestone. The sentiment from members of the local community is really what drove the initiative."

He also credited Puerto Rico's resiliency.

"The story isn't about what Maria did to Puerto Rico, Dean said. "Its about what people achieved after Maria."

Puerto Rico's long road to recovery from Hurricane Maria
Puerto Rico's long road to recovery from Hurricane Maria
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


NON-VIOLENT PROTEST, AH THAT CARRIES ME BACK. IN MY DAY THEY WERE LYING DOWN IN THE STREETS, AND HERE THEY ARE BLOCKING ACCESS TO HIGHWAY ENTRANCES, ETC. EITHER WAY, THE COPS HATE IT BECAUSE IT’S A PAIN IN THE NECK TO DEAL WITH WITHOUT INJURING ANYONE. THE ACTIVISTS LOVE IT, BECAUSE IT GETS MEGA-COVERAGE FROM THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS. YES!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chicago-protests-police-arrest-a-dozen-anti-violence-activists-during-march-near-ohare-international-airport/
CBS/AP September 3, 2018, 4:19 PM
Police arrest a dozen anti-violence activists during march near Chicago airport

PHOTOGRAPH -- Rev. Gregory Livingston, the organizer of the march, appeared to be arrested during Monday's protests. FOX NEWS CHANNEL

CHICAGO — A dozen anti-violence activists were arrested Monday as they sought to interrupt Labor Day traffic near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. About 40 to 60 protesters participated in the march, which called for more investments into neighborhoods where most shootings occur.

Illinois State Police troopers blocked the protesters' access to Interstate 90, also known as the Kennedy Expressway, and no protesters appeared to reach it. The protesters had planned to march westbound on the interstate for about a mile.

Rev. Gregory Livingston, the organizer of the march, appeared to be one of those arrested Monday. Live TV reports showed Livingston speaking calmly to an Illinois state trooper as protesters and dozens of officers stood nearby.


LAUREN VICTORY
✔
@LaurenVictory
In-fighting among #antiviolence protesters. Unclear what their next move is. #CTA #BlueLine entrance is just steps away. @cbschicago @CBSNews @ILStatePolice @Chicago_Police

1:54 PM - Sep 3, 2018
5
See LAUREN VICTORY's other Tweets
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Earlier in the day, as several dozen protesters gathered, Livingston told reporters he wanted to highlight the inequities in the nation's third largest city. Poverty and a lack of investment in minority neighborhoods underpinned much of the deadly violence, he said.

"What we're trying to do is end the tale of two cities in Chicago," he said. "We think that so much of this violence is generated by Chicago's legacy of segregation."

Some protesters carried signs that read, "End State-Sanctioned Violence." Other called on Chicago's mayor to resign, chanting, "Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!" Troopers deployed megaphones to warn some protesters that they were too close to the expressway, saying: "The arrest process has begun. Please leave the roadway or you will be arrested."

Livingston also organized a protest last month that briefly shut down Lake Shore Drive on Chicago's North Side.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Share Tweet Reddit Flipboard Email

GO ALSO TO MY SPECIAL BLOG FOR TODAY ON THE SERIES OF RACIST ATTACKS IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT STATES BY ONE MAN. AS A HATE MONGER, HE'S A SUPERSTAR.


MADDOW TIME
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/episodes


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/31/18
U.S. prosecutors ask judge to gag Mariia Butina lawyer
Rachel Maddow reports on the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. asking the judge in the Mariia Butina case to prevent Butina's defense lawyer from talking about the case to the media. Duration: 2:30


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/31/18
Mueller gets another guilty plea flip following foreign money
Rachel Maddow reports on the unexpected revelation of the guilty plea and cooperation agreement from Republican operative Sam Patten with the Robert Mueller investigation, and the new insight that could offer on the Trump campaign's data operation and the flow of foreign money to the Donald Trump inauguration fund. Duration: 25:17


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/episodes
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/5/18
W.H. official's NYT screed on Trump sets up crisis for Americans
Rachel Maddow outlines the issues facing Americans after a senior White House official wrote anonymously in the New York Times about the paucity of Donald Trump's incapability to serve safely in the office he holds. Duration: 26:04


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/5/18
Some Trump admin officials see role as protecting US from Trump
Nicolle Wallace talks with Rachel Maddow about officials within the Donald Trump administration who see it as their duty to thwart Donald Trump in order to, as they see it, protect the United States from Trump's whims and ill-considered policies. Duration: 7:15


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/5/18
Veracity of Kavanaugh testimony under oath challenged at hearing
Rachel Maddow reviews highlights of Brett Kavanaugh's Senate Supreme Court confirmation hearing, from his ducking questions about prosecuting presidents to questions about whether he was truthful in his past Senate testimony. Duration: 4:30


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/5/18
Kavanaugh ducks answering on points of personal controversy
Senator Cory Booker talks with Rachel Maddow about his frustrations getting straight answers from Brett Kavanaugh at today's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, compounded by Republicans withholding information about Kavanaugh's record. Duration: 8:33


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/5/18
Maddow on anonymous Op-ed: Somebody is pulling the fire alarm
Rachel Maddow reacts to the anonymous Op-ed in the New York Times purportedly written by a senior White House staffer describing Donald Trump's lack of fitness for the office he holds and how members of his staff have appointed themselves the bulwark protecting Americans from Trump’s irresponsibility. Duration: 9:49


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/4/18
Trump abandons pretense of legal mindfulness in flaying Sessions
Rachel Maddow reports on the latest in the criminal case against Republican congressman Duncan Hunter and notes Donald Trump's unabashed call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prosecute Trump's political enemies and leave his allies alone. Duration: 2:06


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/4/18
New Woodward book paints Donald Trump as unfit to serve
Rachel Maddow rounds up highlights from Bob Woodward's new book, Fear, which depicts chaos in the Trump White House as staffers struggle to compensate for Trump's abject incompetence. Duration: 3:46


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/4/18
GOP carries Kavanaugh weight to protect legally precarious Trump
Rachel Maddow points out that while many judges are as reliably conservative as Brett Kavanaugh, Kavanaugh is distinct for his opposition to prosecuting presidents, which likely explains the lengths to which Republicans are going to conceal Brett Kavanaugh's past record and rush him onto the Supreme Court. Duration: 13:22


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/4/18
Ayanna Pressley upsets incumbent Michael Capuano in MA-07 primary
Rachel Maddow reports breaking news that 10-term incumbent Michael Capuano has conceded a Democratic House primary race to Ayanna Pressley, who would become the first African-American to represent Massachusetts in the House of Representatives if she wins in November. Duration: 3:03


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/4/18
Kerry sees 'new era of accountability' heralded by 2018 races
Former Secretary of State John Kerry reacts to the news of the upset victory by Ayanna Pressley over long-time incumbent Michael Capuano in a Massachusetts Democratic House primary, and talks about the importance of the 2018 primary as a repudiation of Donald Trump. Duration: 8:03


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/4/18
Ayanna Pressley poised to make history with historic House seat
Steve Kornacki, MSNBC political correspondent, discusses Ayanna Pressley's upset Democratic primary victory that leaves her poised to take a historic seat whose lineage includes J.F.K. and Tip O'Neill, and add to that history the first African-American to serve in the House of Representatives for Massachusetts. Duration: 4:17


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/3/18
U.S. women see reason to reject Trump SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh
Rachel Maddow outlines the historic depth of the unpopularity of Donald Trump's pick for Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, and and unearths audio of Kavanaugh looking for legalistic excuses to keep a 17-year-old pregnant immigrant from exercising her constitutional right to an abortion. Duration: 21:16


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/3/18
Kavanaugh behavior on bench suggests opposition to Roe v. Wade
Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Brett Kavanaugh's apparent resistance to allowing a pregnant immigrant access to an abortion contributes to the notion that he would help overturn Roe v. Wade if he were faced with that issue on the Supreme Court. Duration: 5:56


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/3/18
Kavanaugh accused of misapplying SCOTUS precedent on abortion
Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, talks with Rachel Maddow about why her organization has officially opposed Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, the first time in the organization's 25-year history that it has taken such a position. Duration: 4:56


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 9/3/18
New hearing revives question of whether Kavanaugh lied under oath
Rachel Maddow looks at Brett Kavanaugh's testimony in his previous Senate confirmation hearing and how facts learned subsequently contradict his answers, an issue likely to come up now that he faces a new confirmation hearing for a seat on the Supreme Court. Duration: 11:41


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/31/18
U.S. prosecutors ask judge to gag Mariia Butina lawyer
Rachel Maddow reports on the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. asking the judge in the Mariia Butina case to prevent Butina's defense lawyer from talking about the case to the media. Duration: 2:30


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 8/31/18
New light shines on 'blatantly shady' Trump inauguration finances
Rachel Maddow outlines the ways in which the financing of Donald Trump inauguration defy obvious explanation and why the guilty plea by Sam Patten could help resolve some unanswered questions about the flow of that money. Duration: 3:53

RECENT RACIST ACTIVITIES
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
SEPTEMBER 5, 2018


I THINK WHAT THIS WOMAN HAS TOLD IN HER STATEMENT BELOW ON “WHAT SHE BELIEVES,” IS THE WORST PROBLEM WITH RACISM – IT IS VERY LIMITED IN ITS’ INTEREST AREA. THE NEEDS OF HUMANS ARE SIMPLY UNIMPORTANT TO PEOPLE OF THAT TURN OF MIND. THIS IS WHAT HER ESPOUSED LOYALTIES ARE:
“... our Flag the National Anthem and America period end of story....”

“I KNOW MY POSTS AND COMMENTS WERE DISRESPECTFUL TO NOT ONLY THE PEOPLE THAT I LOVE, BUT FAMILIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY,” SHE WROTE. THE POSTS WERE MADE PUBLIC THIS WEEK AS A RESULT OF “AN ONGOING FAMILY DISPUTE,” MALONEY ADDED.” I HOPE THE FAMILIES SHE IS REFERRING TO HERE ARE PRIMARILY BLACK FAMILIES, BECAUSE WHITES HAVE ONLY BEEN HURT BY THE PUBLIC VIEW THAT FOCUSSES ON SOME OF THEIR OWN WHO ARE INSUFFICIENT TO THE TASK OF HOLDING A PUBLIC OFFICE.

THE SUBJECT OF HER “FAMILY DISPUTE” IS PROBABLY RACE IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. WHY ARE PEOPLE SO DOWNRIGHT NUTTY ABOUT THIS ISSUE? I KNOW. I JUST MADE A “DISTASTEFUL, INAPPROPRIATE AND INSENSITIVE” COMMENT ABOUT ANOTHER OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO SO PROUDLY CALL THEMSELVES “CONSERVATIVE,” WHEN THEY ARE ACTUALLY RADICAL RIGHTISTS INSTEAD. AND THAT UNDERGROUND RUMORING ABOUT A COMING CIVIL WAR EMERGED AGAIN HERE FOR THE THIRD TIME I’VE SEEN IN THESE ARTICLES SINCE I BEGAN DOING THE NEWS CLIPS. THIS TIME IT IS COMING FROM A FEMALE ELECTED REPUBLICAN OFFICE HOLDER, AND IT IS WORRYING EVEN IF IT IS A MINOR OFFICE. THERE HAVE BEEN MORE THAN SIX OR EIGHT NEWS REPORTS OF A RACIAL OR NEOFASCIST COMMENT BY A REPUBLICAN SINCE TRUMP WAS ELECTED. I DON’T EVER VOTE FOR THEM, BUT IF MY MIND WEREN’T MADE UP, THIS KIND OF THING WOULD CERTAINLY REPEL ME.

https://nypost.com/2018/09/02/gop-official-resigns-after-calling-kneeling-nfl-players-baboons/
NEWS
GOP official resigns after calling kneeling NFL players ‘baboons’
By Tamar Lapin September 2, 2018 | 5:08pm | Updated

PHOTOGRAPH -- NFL players kneel during the national anthem, Getty Images

Carranza hails parent calling for forced school integration
Nike shares tumble amid Kaepernick ad backlash
'Stand your ground' shooter who shot unarmed black man has no regrets
Neo-Nazis overload Floridians with racist robocalls about black candidate

A racist Republican county official in Pennsylvania has resigned over social media posts in which she called NFL players who protested by taking a knee during the national anthem “baboons” and “ignorant blacks.”

“Tired of these overpaid ignorant blacks telling me what I should believe in. I will tell you what I believe in and that is our Flag the National Anthem and America period end of story,” Carla Maloney, the ex-Republican Committee of Beaver County’s secretary, wrote on Facebook under the name Carla Belich Fueller, local outlet The Beaver Countian reported.

“You don’t like it here go to Africa see how you like it there. We are all Americans not African American not Hispanic American. WE ARE ALL AMERICAN,” she added.

The racist posts were made before Maloney was named secretary earlier this year, Chip Kohser, chairman of the RCBC, told the Beaver County Times.

Most of the comments were made after many of the Pittsburgh Steelers stayed in their locker room for the anthem before their game on Sept. 24, 2017, Kohser added.

“Steelers are now just as bad as the rest of the overpaid baboons… How many men and women have lost limbs or died to protect this country and you baboons want respect,” she wrote in one post. “Let’s see how the baboons get paid when white people stop paying their salaries.”

In other posts, she complained about “reverse racism” in America and predicted another civil war would break out “soon than later.”

In a letter sent Friday, Maloney resigned as both secretary and an elected member of the committee, and apologized for her “distasteful, inappropriate and insensitive social media posts.”

“I know my posts and comments were disrespectful to not only the people that I love, but families across the country,” she wrote.

The posts were made public this week as a result of “an ongoing family dispute,” Maloney added.

Kohser, the committee chairman, said Maloney’s comments “do not reflect the opinions of the Republican party as a whole” — though he admitted knowing about the posts last year.

The Facebook page that Maloney was commenting on as well as pages under her name were no longer available as of Sunday.

Maloney appeared on CNN’s “Van Jones Show” in July after the host visited to talk to supporters of President Trump. She was identified only as a Trump supporter and not as a county committee officer.



BERNIE SANDERS’ FELLOW SPEAKER FROM LAST WEEK, ANDREW GILLUM, IS UNDER ASSAULT FOR JUST BEING WHO HE IS. WHENEVER A BLACK MAN OR WOMAN GETS RECOGNITION AND SUCCESS, THE HYENAS WILL COME AFTER HIM. THE SAME IS APPARENTLY TRUE FOR ANOTHER DONALD TRUMP VICTIM, JOHN MCCAIN’S DAUGHTER. IF YOU CAN’T GET THE MAN, GO FOR HIS DAUGHTER. WHAT COURAGE THAT TAKES !!

NOTE THE INTERESTING AND FRIGHTENING LINKS BETWEEN THE SEVERAL DIFFERENT FAR RIGHT AND RACIST PEOPLE OR GROUPS HERE WHO ARE, SEEMINGLY, RELATED TO EACH OTHER AND TO THE ROBOCALLS AND MORE. I BELIEVE THAT SINCE A STATE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE HAS BEEN TARGETED, THE STORY WILL GROW RATHER THAN DIE. LIKEWISE, I FEEL SURE THAT ANDREW GILLUM WILL NOT ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE INTIMIDATED BY ALL THIS.

THE STATE OF IDAHO MAY BE THE CENTER, BUT IT CONNECTS TO THREE OTHER STATES AS WELL. I WONDER HOW MUCH OF A WEB IS FORMED ACROSS THE COUNTRY BY EVEN MORE OF THESE RIGHTIST RADICALS WHOM WE HAVEN’T YET DISCOVERED. IS IT THE BEGINNINGS OF A REVOLUTION INDEED? THIS IS AN OPERATIONAL NETWORK HERE I THINK, AND NOT JUST INDIVIDUALS, ALTHOUGH SCOTT RHODES IS INVOLVED WITH ALL, AND WAS CAUGHT BY THE POLICE PERSONALLY ON CAMERA DISTRIBUTING RACIST VIDEOS. IF HE HAS BEEN DOING IT ALL, THEN HE MAY NOT HAVE ANY LIEUTENANTS; BUT IF IT HAS ONLY BEEN HIM AT WORK, HE HAS BEEN VERY BUSY.

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/03/644292095/florida-election-is-latest-target-of-white-supremacist-robocalls
Florida Election Is Latest Target Of White Supremacist Robocalls
September 3, 20181:57 PM ET
Emily Sullivan

PHOTOGRAPH -- Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for Florida governor, speaks Friday during a campaign rally in Orlando.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Racist robocalls targeting Andrew Gillum, a black Democrat gubernatorial nominee in Florida, went to residents throughout the state recently in an apparent attempt to influence voting.

The 39-year-old Tallahassee mayor and upset candidate is the first black nominee from a major party for Florida governor.

The robocall message, obtained by NPR, is narrated by someone pretending to be Gillum. The narrator uses an exaggerated minstrel dialect — featuring phrases like "We Negros" — with jungle noises in the background. The calls end with a disclaimer that they were paid for by The Road to Power, a neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic podcast operated by Scott Rhodes of Idaho.*

In Florida, robocalls supporting or opposing non-federal candidates or ballot proposals need a financial disclaimer — as well as a registered agent in the state, which the Idaho-based calls may not be able to prove. The FCC also says that robocalls must "state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call" at the beginning of each message — rather than impersonate someone.

The same group is linked to robocalls sent out last week that used the death of Mollie Tibbetts to promote white supremacist messages, according to the Iowa Starting Line. Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student, disappeared on a run in July. Her body was discovered more than a month later. The suspect in her killing is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. The Starting Line reports the call said, "If after her life has now been brutally stolen from her, she could be brought back to life for just one moment and asked, 'What do you think now?' Mollie Tibbetts would say, 'Kill them all.'"

Tibbetts' father Rob Tibbetts wrote an op-ed in the Des Moines Register on Saturday, decrying the right-wing punditry around his daughter's death. "Do not appropriate Mollie's soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist," he wrote.

The same podcast has also been linked to robocall campaigns in Charlottesville, Va., Oregon and California, according to Right Wing Watch. The Tallahassee Democrat reports that calls have previously used "the local area code and prefix followed by a four-digit number associated with neo-Nazi rhetoric."

Over a billion robocalls head to landlines and cellphones every month, reports Planet Money. Many of them appear to be from a line that has the recipient's same area code — but are really scammers or spammers "spoofing" their real number using the Internet. Experts tell NPR that it costs around 1 to 5 cents per call.


SCOTT RHODES OF IDAHO* – WHO HE IS AND HOW HE HAS BEEN SPENDING HIS SPARE TIME. OR MAYBE HIS “BUSINESS” LINKS PEOPLE UP TO MORE THAN THE ORDINARY BUSINESS DEAL. AM I BEING RIDICULOUS? I DON’T THINK SO. READ THE FOLLOWING.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder,_Inc.

“Murder, Inc. (or Murder Incorporated) were organized crime groups in the 1930s and '40s that acted as the enforcement arm of the Italian-American Mafia, Jewish mob, and connected organized crime groups in New York and elsewhere.[1] . . . .”


SCOTT RHODES’ BUSINESS IS A SPECIALIZED PUBLISHING COMPANY WITH AN INTERACTIVE WEB SITE SUPPOSEDLY GIVING INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS DECISIONS. SEE:

http://americandiscoverypublishing.com/contact_us.php
Contact Us
American Discovery Publishing, LLC
131 A Stony Circle, Suite 500
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
(800) 817-7415

“In a marketplace filled with unverified claims, American Discovery Publishing provides private and corporate consumers with accurate, on-target shopping information. The Web-based information products that we publish are constantly researched and updated to provide buyers with the right information to evaluate products and services. Our mission is to provide the most valuable and relevant product and service information for local consumer and corporate buyers.”

SCOTT RHODES AND SCOTT PLATEK ARE ONE AND THE SAME MAN, WHO HAS BEEN ACTIVE IN FOUR US STATES OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS OR MORE LINKED TO DISTRIBUTING HATE LITERATURE. THAT IS HARDLY THE PROFILE FOR A JEWISH MAN SINCE ANTI-SEMITISM IS A BASIC PART OF THEIR RANGE OF ATTENTION, BUT ACCORDING TO SPLC AND POLICE AUTHORITIES HE IS LINKED WITH SEVERAL SUCH INCIDENTS.

HE WOULD APPEAR TO BE A POLISH JEW BY ORIGIN, WHO HAS TAKEN AN AMERICANIZED NAME. THE REVERSE OF THAT WOULDN’T MAKE MUCH SENSE TO ME. I DO WONDER WHERE HE WAS BORN AND WHETHER HE OR HIS FAMILY CHANGED THEIR NAME UNDER NAZI PRESSURE; OR PERHAPS MORE LIKELY HE HAS A CRIMINAL RECORD SOMEWHERE UNDER PLATEK. WHICHEVER IS TRUE, IT’S UNUSUAL FOR A JEWISH BORN MAN TO BE A MEMBER OF A WHITE SUPREMACIST MOVEMENT. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS. WHEN I SEARCHED THE NAME PLATEK I FOUND LITTLE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION EXCEPT FOR A SITE WHICH DID SAY THAT IT’S A JEWISH NAME, AND ANOTHER WITH A MAP OF CURRENT DISTRIBUTIONS WORLEDWIDE. FOR THAT GO TO: https://surname.world/platek, WITH POLAND AND THE USA/ALASKA HAVING THE HIGHEST NUMBERS.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/01/12/hate-literature-connection-between-idaho-and-virginia
Hate literature connection between Idaho and Virginia
January 12, 2018
Bill Morlin

Police in Sandpoint, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia — communities 2,000 miles apart — have identified the same person of interest in the distribution of hate flyers and harassing phone calls.

Although the distribution of flyers and hate speech generally are protected by the 1st Amendment, police are taking an interest because, in both cities, the racist, anti-Semitic literature targeted elected officials and human rights activists.

Hate flyers in Alexandria began appearing last year shortly after white nationalist and “alt-right” leader Richard Spencer was confronted by a Georgetown University professor and later kicked out a fitness center in that community. The professor’s photo subsequently was printed on the hate flyers.

Later, Alexandria’s Mayor Allison Silberberg and several City Council members began receiving racist, anti-Semitic phone calls, the Sandpoint Reader reports. The alternative weekly newspaper first broke the story about the connection between hate incidents in the two cities.

In Sandpoint, photos of the city’s mayor and the president of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force were included in hate flyers distributed there last year. Variations of hate handbills were distributed on the front lawns of homes and others were sent via U.S. Mail and email to targeted recipients, police said.

In Alexandria, the mayor received a telephone recording, later determined to be the voice of Adolf Hitler. Police reports say that call subsequently was linked to a Sandpoint business called American Discovery Publishing, linked to Scott D. Rhodes.

SCOTT D. RHODES

When Alexandria police called the number, they were told they had “reached the desk of Scott Rhodes.” Other phone listings further connected the number to Rhodes, the Reader reported.

Alexandria police forwarded to Sandpoint police “copies of several anti-Semitic [and] nuclear weapon flyers” and a handwritten note sent to a public official which said, “You ran a town where they fuck dogs with broomsticks? Get ready for your bombs! We are coming.”

The Alexandria hate flyers varied in style and content from those distributed in Sandpoint. Authorities did not disclose if the same racist groups were identified in both batches.

Rhodes, 48, also is known as Scott Platek, was identified by Sandpoint police after his red Jeep was spotted on surveillance video at the Sandpoint High School on November 30. At the school, police recovered 56 CDs containing racist, anti-Semitic material, according to police reports.

Rhodes, who’s apparently from Connecticut, has lived in Eugene, Oregon, San Francisco, Rohnert Park, California, and Los Angeles. He has no known criminal record. While using the name Scott Platek, he was named in state and federal tax liens filed in California, public records show.

After the CD distribution was captured on video, the Sandpoint School District obtained a trespass order against Rhodes, barring him from school property for one year.

When the order was delivered to Rhodes at a small business suite in Sandpoint, where he apparently operates a publishing business, he denied being involved in distributing the hate CDs or the other literature, the police reports say.

“We have you on camera … getting out [of your Jeep] and putting CDs on several cars,” a Sandpoint police officer told Rhodes.

“No, I don’t think you do, not me,” Rhodes responded, according to a publicly released Sandpoint Police Department report.

“I’d be happy to take your number and have my attorney call you,” Rhodes told the police officers.

“We know it’s you,” a second officer told Rhodes. “We’ve had you on our radar. OK? We know you’ve been handing out the flyers, putting them on the lawns. We know you went to the school. We got you on video … your Jeep, your license plate number.”


SEE ALSO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=PLvY9bdXHfk&has_verified=1
VIDEO -- HATE RISING : White Supremacy in America



THERE IS A NEED TO MODIFY THE CONSTITUTION TO PROHIBIT RACIAL, RELIGIOUS AND ALL OTHER KINDS OF STALKING, THREATS AND HARASSMENT AS WE FINALLY DID SOME 20 YEARS AGO IN THE CASE OF SEXUAL STALKING AND THREATS. THIS IS AN ATTACK. WORDS ARE MORE THAN MERE SOUND. THEY ARE MEANING, IN THIS CASE SAID WITH THE AIM OF FRIGHTENING THE VICTIM AT THE VERY LEAST, AND THE FORERUNNER TO A PHYSICAL ATTACK AT THE WORST.

INTERESTINGLY, THIS MAN REPEAT’S TRUMP’S SLY CLAIM THAT THE THINGS HE HAS BEEN CONNECTED WITH “ARE NOT CRIMES.” RUDY JULIANI SAID THE SAME THING. WE NEED TO MAKE MORE OF THE THINGS WHICH ARE CLEARLY EVIL, INTO CRIMES. SO MUCH THAT HAPPENS IN THIS COUNTRY IS NEVER PUNISHED – DEPENDING OFTEN ON THE IDENTITIES OF THE VICTIM AND THE PERPETRATOR. AGAIN, I’LL SAY, IT’S CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION TIME.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/jan/14/sandpoint-racist-flyer-suspect-identified/
NEWS
CRIME/PUBLIC SAFETY
Sandpoint racist flyer suspect identified
UPDATED: Tue., Jan. 16, 2018, 4:41 p.m.

By Chad Sokol
chadso@spokesman.com
(509) 459-5047

PHOTOGRAPH-- Scott Rhodes, left, speaks with Sandpoint police Officer Spencer Smith and Detective Mike Aerni, right, on Dec. 1, 2017. Police say Rhodes was captured on surveillance video the previous day distributing racist propaganda CDs at Sandpoint High School. (Sandpoint Police Department)

For more than a year, Sandpoint has been plagued by racist propaganda, including flyers targeting city leaders, CDs left on cars in a high school parking lot and anonymous letters mailed to minorities.

Police now believe they have found a man responsible for some of that, although it’s unlikely the hateful speech will get him charged with a crime.

The same man, Scott D. Rhodes, also has captured the interest of police in Alexandria, Virginia, a home base of influential white supremacist Richard Spencer.

Alexandria investigators asked Sandpoint police for help after Alexandria city leaders began receiving threatening, anti-Semitic phone calls last fall, according to a Sandpoint police report. Investigators determined that one of those calls was a recording of Adolf Hitler and traced the phone number to Rhodes and one of his Idaho-registered business entities.

The Alexandria Police Department’s public information office did not respond to a message seeking comment on Friday, but a spokeswoman told the Sandpoint Reader, an alternative weekly magazine, that the agency was looking into harassing phone calls made to Alexandria Mayor Allison Silberberg and several City Council members.

The Spokesman-Review contacted Rhodes by phone, and he responded in an email. He claimed he had been targeted by local media and “extreme leftists” because of his opposition to refugee settlement in North Idaho and said he might try to sue them for libel. He did not explicitly deny making a call to Virginia.

“There has been an outrageous attempt by two small town papers to mislead readers to infer that I have something to do with actual crimes,” he wrote. “Further, a single phone call to a public office holder, if truly made from my shared offices as alleged, is not a crime if the content was as they describe.”

Rhodes did not respond to a list of specific questions about his involvement in racist propaganda in Sandpoint, much of which has targeted Mayor Shelby Rognstad.

[NOTE: SEE http://www.khq.com/story/35137898/sandpoint-mayor-responds-to-hateful-flyers-distributed-around-bonner-county. YES, SHELBY IS A MAN, AND HE IS ALSO BLACK AND LIBERAL. NO WONDER HE HAS BEEN TARGETED.]

During his 2015 election campaign, robocalls branded Rognstad as a feminist who would purge blue-collar white people from the city. And an email distributed in September showed Rognstad in a Nazi gas chamber with the cartoon Pepe the Frog – a caricature that has become a white supremacist symbol – manning the switch.

Other mailings have targeted Muslims, African Americans, local journalists and members of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force.

Ben Olson, publisher of the Sandpoint Reader, said the onslaught is different from the rise of the Aryan Nations in the ’80s and ’90s, when racist leaders like Richard Butler were outspoken and unabashed.

“It’s a little different thing when you have somebody operating under the cover of night,” Olson said. “It’s created a lot of division and a lot of fear in the community.”

Cameron Rasmusson, the magazine’s editor, said, “I think that a lot of people are really happy that some answers may be coming to light.”

Banned from schools

Sandpoint police say Rhodes, 49, was captured on surveillance video pulling into the parking lot of Sandpoint High School and leaving CDs on the windshields of 56 vehicles on Nov. 30. Each disc was in a protective sleeve labeled “What They Are Hiding From You” and promoted a website that traffics in racism and far-right conspiracies.

The next day, School Resource Officer Spencer Smith and Detective Mike Aerni confronted Rhodes at his office in Sandpoint. Body-camera footage of the encounter was obtained through public records requests and published by the Sandpoint Reader and the Bonner County Daily Bee.

During the encounter, Smith informed Rhodes that police had him on video visiting the school parking lot in his red Jeep and distributing the CDs.

“No, I don’t think you do,” Rhodes responded. “Not me.”

He repeatedly told the police any questions would have to go through his attorney.

During the exchange, the officers informed Rhodes that he also is suspected in a rash of a racist flyers and emails that have been circulating in Sandpoint.

“We know that it’s you,” Aerni said. “We’ve had you on our radar. We know you’ve been handing out the flyers, putting them on the lawns. We know you went to the school. Got you on video.”

Rhodes was insistent. “I’ve never handed out flyers,” he said, “so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Rhodes is not charged with any crime, as hate speech is protected by the First Amendment. But the police informed him that, per the request of the superintendent, he is banned from all Lake Pend Oreille School District properties for one year. If he sets foot on school grounds, he can be arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge.

In his email to The Spokesman-Review, Rhodes wrote, “The issue the very professional Sandpoint Police Department spoke to me about was not a crime, and I stand by what I have already stated to them.”

Months of harassment

One evening last summer, Lee Hardin, a black man, was returning to his car in front of a sandwich shop in downtown Sandpoint with carryout from a nearby Thai restaurant in hand.

A red Jeep had been parked beside his car, and the driver was making a three-point turn to leave.

“As he pulled off, he screamed the N-word at me,” Hardin, 43, recalled in a recent interview. “I turned around and was like, ‘What?’ ”

Hardin said he shouted back, and the driver repeated the slur while speeding away. “And then I was looking, trying to get his license plate, but I never got it.”

Hardin didn’t immediately report that incident to police. But soon afterward, in mid-August, he held a grand opening for his mortgage-lending business and a photo of him appeared in the Daily Bee.

Soon after that, anonymous letters started arriving at his office in intervals of about a week.

Hardin said each envelope had “weird” handwriting on it and contained a single letter on a sticker one might buy from a stationery or craft store.

The first was an “N,” the second an “I,” the third a “G,” and so forth until the letters spelled out the same racial slur. Hardin was on vacation in Hawaii when his business partner texted him a photo of the last letter to arrive, an “R.”

It didn’t stop there. Around the beginning of November, Hardin said, he began receiving catalogs and magazines addressed to “Stu Pidkune*.”
[*THE GIST OF THIS IS CLEAR, BUT RHODES IS THE STUPID ONE. HE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL HIS SLUR PROPERLY.]

Hardin said he’s sure the letters and the magazines all came from the same person because each misspelled the name of his business. It’s Guaranteed Rate – singular – not Guaranteed Rates.

He turned over all the materials to Sandpoint police and asked the letter carrier to stop delivering all magazines.

According to a police report and court records, a detective showed Hardin a photo lineup, including body-camera images from a July 25 traffic stop in which Scott Rhodes was pulled over in a red Jeep.

Hardin said he’s almost certain Rhodes was the man who shouted at him outside the sandwich shop. And he has little doubt Rhodes sent all those letters and magazines.

Hardin moved to Sandpoint from Chicago in 2007 and lives with his wife and their 2-year-old son. He said he had never experienced such racism in Sandpoint before, and his family has received an outpouring of support from the community.

“I’m not going to let that jade my outlook on the people in this community, because I know it’s just a couple of ignorant idiots that are spewing this hateful information,” he said. “I’m not going to let that run me away.”

Strange retaliation

Rhodes, who is also known as Scott Platek, has lived in Connecticut, Oregon and California, where a number of state and federal tax liens were lodged against him in the 1990s and early 2000s.

He appears to have moved to Sandpoint about two years ago. He was listed as the registered agent for American Discovery Publishing based in Santa Rosa, California. The business was registered in Idaho from May 2016 until its license was canceled in August 2017.

According to its bare-bones website, American Discovery Publishing specializes in “timely and relevant consumer research.” A toll-free number listed on the site repeatedly led to an answering machine, and a message was not returned.

Dates and times on the report were redacted, but Alexandria police Sgt. Wil Salas contacted Sandpoint police late last year. Sandpoint Detective Eric Ryan wrote that Salas emailed him copies of “several anti-semitic/nuclear weapon fliers and a handwritten note” that had appeared in Alexandria.

The note contained a vulgar reference to bestiality, followed by a threat: “Get ready for your bombs! We are coming.”

Ryan wrote that the flyers were not the same as those being distributed in Sandpoint and that the handwriting in the letter did not match the writing on the envelopes addressed to Hardin.

Olson, the Sandpoint Reader publisher, who doubles as a reporter, said he had made several trips to Rhodes’ office to inquire about the CDs, the harassment of Hardin and the call to Virginia, but Rhodes declined to comment each time.

“He said he didn’t want to talk,” Olson said, recalling a visit last month. He said he was able to give a business card to Rhodes, and then, “He kind of shut the door in my face.”

The day after Christmas, Olson received an anonymous card with a bizarre message written on it, and he assumed it came from Rhodes. He said he and magazine editor Rasmusson are trying to discern if Rhodes has any connection to Richard Spencer, Spencer’s think tank in Alexandria or any other sizable racist organizations.

“That’s the one question for me,” Olson said. “He’s being instructed to do that by somebody, it seems. I think it’s pretty weird that Scott Rhodes, here in Sandpoint, Idaho, seems to have a connection to that.”

Olson said he believes that racists make up a tiny yet vocal fraction of the Sandpoint community.

“Sandpoint has no place for racism,” he said.

Correction: This story was changed on Jan. 16, 2018. A previous version misstated when Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad was the target of racist robocalls. The story also has been updated to clarify Scott Rhodes’ affiliation with American Discovery Publishing.

UPDATED: JAN. 16, 2018, 4:41 P.M.

Tags: alexandria, Ben Olson, Flyers, Propaganda, racist, Richard Spencer, Sandpoint, scott d. rhodes, Shelby Rognstad, Virginia


“THE ROAD TO POWER” – NOT RACIALLY CHARGED? WHAT ABOUT HAM-HANDED COMMENTARY, THEN? I GREW UP IN THE SOUTH, TOO, AND I’VE NEVER HEARD THAT PHRASE. WHAT I HAVE HEARD IS “MUCK IT UP.” I THINK THOSE FINE REPUBLICANS ARE JUST TRYING TO DODGE A BULLET.

Episode 789: Robocall Invasion
PLANET MONEY (NPR)

Last week, GOP Florida gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis was criticized for comments some said amounted to racist dog whistling. "Let's build off the success of Gov. Scott. The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda," DeSantis said. A spokesperson for the candidate later said the comments were not racially charged.

Gillum told CNN he "will continue to focus solely on the issues that Floridians care about and uniting our state." A spokesperson for DeSantis said the calls were "absolutely appalling and disgusting."

"What I don't want the race to turn into is a race of name calling," he continued. "I want to make sure that we don't racialize and, frankly, weaponize race as a part of the process, which is why I have called on my opponent to really work to rise above some of these things."


WHAT IS THE ROAD TO POWER?

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/230131/the-road-to-power-by-karl-kautsky/9781573924788/
The Road to Power
By KARL KAUTSKY
Category: Philosophy

ABOUT THE ROAD TO POWER

The Road to Power was a highly controversial political pamphlet published in 1909—an important document for the understanding of the Wilhelmine Empire and especially of the German Social Democratic Party and Kautsky’s role in it—and it was Kautsky’s last major attack on the revisionists’ hope for a gradual “growth in socialism” without any drastic changes in the political order. To this, Kautsky opposed his view of the political revolution that he hoped for and predicted as the achievement of parliamentary democracy and of working-class power through parliamentary majority. He believed that the initial democratization of the autocratic empire could be realized peacefully by electoral victories and trade-union political action.

The present edition contains an excellent new translation of Kautsky’s text; a scholarly introduction by John H. Kautsky; the author’s prefaces to three German editions; and the correspondence concerning Kautsky’s conflict with the Social Democratic Party’s Executive Committee regarding publication of his work.


WILHELMINE EMPIRE

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/chapter.cfm?subsection_id=65
Wilhelmine Germany and the First World War (1890-1918)
INTRODUCTION | DOCUMENTS | IMAGES | MAPS | EDITOR

Overview: Wilhelmine Germany, 1890-1914

No period of modern German history has inspired as much controversy as the era bounded by Otto von Bismarck's dismissal from power in March 1890 and the outbreak of war in 1914. During the interwar period, Imperial Germany was the focus of the debate over the origins of the Great War. After 1945, the issue became the place of the German Empire in the historical trajectory towards Nazism. By the 1970s, it had become common to trace the roots of the Third Reich directly back to the manifold tensions and contradictions of Imperial Germany.


I THINK WE SHOULD START CALLING “STAND YOUR GROUND” THE WILD, WILD WEST LAW. MAYBE IT’S JUST BECAUSE OF WHERE I LIVE IN JACKSONVILLE, BUT I HAVE NEVER FELT THREATENED. OF COURSE, I HAVEN’T BEEN GOING AROUND VERBALLY ACCOSTING PEOPLE OVER PARKING SPACES, EITHER, HANDICAPPED OR OTHERWISE. THIS GUY ISN’T SHOWING MUCH OF A CONSCIENCE, AND HE REALLY “HAS A BEE IN HIS BONNET” ABOUT THE HANDICAPPED PARKING SPOTS. THERE HAVE BEEN THREE OTHER INCIDENTS IN WHICH HE HAS BEEN CAUGHT DOING THAT SAME SORT OF VERBAL ASSAULT. STRANGE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-stand-your-ground-shooting-michael-drejka-says-he-wouldnt-change-shooting-markeis-mcglockton/
By ALEX SUNDBY CBS NEWS September 3, 2018, 10:58 AM
Gunman in Florida "stand your ground" shooting says he wouldn't change what he did

A white man facing criminal charges for fatally shooting an unarmed black man in a Florida convenience store's parking lot told CBS affiliate WTSP-TV he wouldn't change what he did but apologized to the dead man's family. Michael Drejka initially wasn't arrested for killing Markeis McGlockton in July because of the state's controversial "stand your ground" law.

Surveillance video shows Drejka appearing to yell at McGlockton's girlfriend for parking in a handicapped spot. McGlockton then shoves Drejka to the ground.

From the ground, Drejka pulls out his gun and shoots McGlockton. "I've had plenty of time to think about it, but as far as changing anything as events ... I don't see, I really, no, not off the top of my head," Drejka told WTSP-TV in an interview at the Pinellas County Jail on Friday.

Drejka was charged with manslaughter nearly a month after the shooting and is being held on $100,000 bond. Florida's "stand your ground" law allows people to use deadly force when fearing "imminent death or great bodily harm" without a duty to try to escape the danger.

"I was very scared," Drejka told WTSP-TV. "I've never been confronted like that or never been assaulted like that, if you will, ever ... It felt like I was tackled or someone hit me from behind with something. I left my feet and slid along the ground before I was able to- but, yes, I was stunned, yeah."

Drejka said he's not a racist and apologized to McGlockton's family. "I'm sorry," Drejka said.

"It's all I can really say to them, and thinking about it would you accept those kind of words from someone? I don't think I would."

Drejka said the way handicapped parking spots are "abused" has been a sensitive issue for him. He described his deceased high school sweetheart and his mother-in-law as handicapped.

"It's always been a hotbed for me," Drejka said. "My whole life has always been looking for a handicapped parking spot, and it's always touched a nerve with me because of the way they're abused and used."

Authorities have said in court documents that Drejka has been in confrontations with three other drivers. Two motorists accused Drejka of waving a gun at them, and a truck driver accused Drejka of threatening to shoot him for parking in the same handicapped parking spot as McGlockton's girlfriend three months before the July shooting.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THE MATTER OF MIND
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
SEPTEMBER 2, 2018


CERTAIN BUSINESSES ARE SPECIFICALLY SEEKING AUTISTIC PEOPLE TO WORK FOR THEM. WHY, YOU MIGHT ASK? FOR AN ENLIGHTENING AND ENTERTAINING LOOK AT AUTISTIC PEOPLE, WATCH THE MOVIE “RAINMAN.” TO GO BEYOND THAT INTO OTHERS WITH KNOWN MENTAL/EMOTIONAL DISORDERS, I SUGGEST YOU WATCH THE MOVIES “CHARLIE,” “FORREST GUMP,” “I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN,” “ONE FLEW OVER THE “CUCKOO’S NEST,” “THE GLASS MENAGERIE,” “SALOME.” THERE ARE ALSO DOZENS OF OTHERS WHOSE WORKS I EITHER HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED, OR I CAN’T BRING THEM TO MIND RIGHT NOW. THOSE LISTED ABOVE HAVE BEEN OF GREAT HEALING AND INSIGHT TO ME.

THERE IS A LINK BETWEEN MENTAL/EMOTIONAL PAIN AND CREATIVITY THAT IS WELL-RECOGNIZED NOW, AS WELL AS EVIDENCE OF AT LEAST ONE GENETIC “ABNORMALITY.” REMEMBER THAT IN MENTAL DIFFERENCES, “DISORDERS” ARE NOT EQUALLY DAMAGING TO THE INDIVIDUAL OR DANGEROUS TO SOCIETY FROM TYPE TO TYPE, NOR FROM CASE TO CASE.

IF WE COULD JUST BRING OURSELVES TO APPRECIATE SUCH PEOPLE RATHER THAN TRYING DESPERATELY TO KILL THAT CREATIVITY, INDEPENDENCE, OR HIDE THAT SO VERY EMBARRASSING “SYMPTOM,” HAND FLAPPING FOR INSTANCE, THE WORLD WOULD BE HUGELY IMPROVED. WE DO NEED TO INTERVENE, BUT IN A WAY THAT HELPS RATHER THAN EXACERBATING THE PROBLEM. WHEN A CHILD KNOWS, AS THEY USUALLY DO, THAT THEY ARE NOT PRIZED AND WARMLY LOVED, WHATEVER THEIR PHYSICALLY CAUSED PATTERNS ARE WILL BE WORSE. I’M OF THE OPINION THAT A GREAT DEAL OF WHAT SEEMS TO AIL THE CHILD, IS CAUSED BY SOCIAL FACTORS SUCH AS THE ENVIRONMENT AND FAMILY LIFE. ALMOST ALWAYS PARENTS WILL BE IN MORE OR LESS SERIOUS CONFLICT WITH A CHILD WHO DOES HAVE EMOTIONAL OR MENTAL PROBLEMS, AND EVEN MORE SO WILL THE SIBLINGS BE. ADD INTO THAT THE ALMOST INEVITABLE JEALOUSY FACTOR. WHERE THERE SHOULD BE LOVE, THERE MAY BE SMOLDERING HATRED INSTEAD. WE WERE ALL FINE UNTIL YOU CAME HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL!

PARENTS WHO PHYSICALLY PUNISH, INTIMIDATE OR SHAME THEIR CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY OVER THINGS THAT ARE ACTUALLY A DISABILITY OR A SIMPLE AND NATURAL VARIABILITY, ARE NUDGING THEM CLOSER TO THE CLIFF’S EDGE. OF COURSE, IF YOU TELL SUCH PARENTS THAT THEIR BEHAVIOR IS PART OF THEIR CHILD’S “PROBLEM,” THEY MAY BE HIGHLY INSULTED. SOME MONTHS BEFORE THE DAUGHTER OF A FRIEND OF MINE COMMITTED SUICIDE, THE PSYCHIATRIST WARNED HER AND HER HUSBAND THAT SUCH COULD BE THE RESULT, AND INFORMED THEM THAT THE FAMILY WAS IMPACTING HER IN A VERY DAMAGING WAY, SHE WAS INSULTED. NEEDLESS TO SAY, WHEN THAT HAPPENS, THE YOUNG PERSON WILL NOT RECEIVE HELP AND MAY BE HURT WORSE INSTEAD.

I DO TEND TO THINK THAT, AS A SOCIETY IN GENERAL, ON THE SUBJECT OF SOCIAL ISSUES WE ARE REALLY VERY MUCH IMPROVED AS COMPARED TO THE 1950S WHEN I GREW UP; BUT WHEN WE RUN UP AGAINST A WALL OF THE EMOTIONAL DISORDERS OF THE “NORMAL” PARENTS, WE NEED TO APPLY SOME SPECIAL EMOTIONAL EDUCATION. THERE IS FAMILY THERAPY, FOR INSTANCE, AND FAMILY SUPPORT GROUPS SET UP SIMILARLY TO A.A. I HAVE FAITH IN CERTAIN OTHER THINGS THAT HILLARY CLINTON WOULD INCLUDE UNDER THE HEADING OF “THE VILLAGE,” SUCH AS 4-H CLUB FOR RURAL KIDS, GIRL OR BOY SCOUTS, OR RELIGIOUSLY ORIENTED GROUPS OF A SIMILAR SORT. KIDS NEED ASSOCIATION WITH ADULTS AND PEERS OTHER THAN THEIR FAMILY OF ORIGIN. IT GIVES THEM FRESH NEW INPUT AND HEALS THE WOUNDS THAT ARE RELATED TO THEIR HOME ENVIRONMENT.

SOME CHURCHES, SYNAGOGUES, MOSQUES, MEDITATION CENTERS, ETC. PROVIDE WHAT IS NEEDED, SUPERVISED AND MENTORED YOUTH PEER GROUPS, GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL THERAPY USUALLY HELPS, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE LARGER COMMUNITY, WE MAY FIND OURSELVES UP AGAINST THE WALL OF INSTINCT OVER COMPASSION. DOGS CHASE CATS, CATS CHASE ALL KINDS OF LOVELY LITTLE CREATURES, AND HUMANS CHASE WHOMEVER THEY SEE AS A VICTIM. THAT’S HOW ANIMALS GET FOOD TO EAT, BUT WHEN IT IS SIMPLY MINDLESS AND HEARTLESS, WE REALLY CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT. WE ARE AFTER ALL HALF ANIMAL AND HALF DIVINE. OUR DIVINE PART NEEDS TO TRY HARDER, PERHAPS.

THE AVERAGE, OR NORMAL, PERSON IS TOO LIKELY TO BE MORE OR LESS DISINTERESTED IN THE ISSUE OF WHAT SOMEBODY ELSE HAS TO GO THROUGH AS LONG AS THEY PERSONALLY AREN’T INCONVENIENCED OR MADE TO FEEL PAIN; AND LET’S FACE IT, EMPATHIZING WITH SOMEONE WHO NEEDS HELP CAUSES PAIN. THAT PAIN IS USUALLY THE STIMULUS CAUSING US TO HAVE A DESIRE TO HELP THOSE WHO NEED IT; BUT SOMETIMES IT CAUSES INSTINCTUAL HATRED INSTEAD, TOWARD THE MENTALLY OR PHYSICALLY UNUSUAL, DIFFERENCES OF RACE, RELIGION, AND EQUALLY IMPORTANT, THE INABILITY TO FIGHT BACK EFFECTIVELY. I RELATE THE FEAR OF TOO MUCH VARIANCE TO FOLK BELIEFS SUCH AS TROLLS, WEREWOLVES, WITCHES, AND OTHER OUTSIDERS WHO ARE CONSIDERED THREATENING -- “JEWS EAT BABIES,” ETC.

A PERSON WHO EXHIBITS PHYSICAL MANNERISMS SUCH AS THOSE OF AUTISM OR DOWN SYNDROME IS LIKELY TO AFFECT THE UNTRAINED OBSERVER ON AN INNER PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVEL, AS BEING UGLY, DISGUSTING, MAGICAL, DANGEROUS OR OTHERWISE AS UNDESIRABLE. SO, I KEEP SAYING THAT OUR TENDENCY TO ATTACK A WEAKER BEING IS AN INSTINCT; BUT WE NEED TO KEEP FIGHTING IT, BECAUSE IT IS SO HARMFUL. PROGRESS IS ALWAYS HELPFUL, AND SHOULD BE HONORED, ALONGSIDE “PERFECTION.”

DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THAT IS THE CONCEPT OF “UGLINESS,” SUCH AS THE KID IN CLASS WHO HAS SIX FINGERS ON HIS HANDS. DOES IT HAPPEN? YES, AND IN THE 1500S, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A SIGN OF MALIGN MAGIC; SO, IT IS ALSO A CAUSE OF THE ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR EXPERIENCED BY A MORE VULNERABLE INDIVIDUAL. THIS HAPPENS TO ADULTS AS WELL AS CHILDREN. EUGENICS IS OFTEN CONCERNED WITH THAT SORT OF THING AND ANY MENTAL ABERRATION. A LACK OF BEAUTY IS ALSO TOO OFTEN VIEWED AS BEING UNACCEPTABLE, THOSE LARGE HOOKED NOSES, FOR INSTANCE. SOME OF THE THINGS I’VE SEEN WRITTEN ABOUT JEWS AS THEY ARE COMMONLY PORTRAYED AND ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE ARE HIDEOUS – MUCH MORE SO THAN THE TRUE PHYSICAL FEATURE. CRUELTY NEEDS TO BE NAMED FOR WHAT IT IS, AND NOT CALLED “TEASING.” IT IS HARASSMENT.

SUCH EMOTIONALLY “CONSERVATIVE” PEOPLE, THOUGH THEY DON’T LOOK LIKE WOLVES, ARE PREDATORS NONETHELESS. WE, AS INTELLIGENT AND KIND PEOPLE, CAN CHOOSE TO REFRAIN FROM THAT SELF-SATISFIED ATTITUDE AND FIGHT FOR A HIGHER GOODNESS THAN THE ABILITY TO WIN IN A SPORTS COMPETITION, TO GAIN WEALTH, OR TO COME OUT WITH THE CROWN IN A BEAUTY CONTEST. IF WE WOULD ENCOURAGE ARTISTIC AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING AT LEAST AS MUCH AS FOOTBALL, WE WOULD RAISE BETTER KIDS.

UNFORTUNATELY, IN THIS COUNTRY WE HAVE IDEALIZED COMPETITIVENESS INSTEAD OF COOPERATION AND MUTUAL RESPECT. IT ISN’T POSSIBLE TO WAVE A MAGIC WAND AND ELIMINATE THE CRUELTY COMPLETELY, BUT IF WE WOULD BY POSITIVE BUT PERSISTENT ATTENTION, MODEL KINDNESS, THERE WOULD BE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS COUNTRY. WE NEED TO SEE THAT VIEWPOINT AS A NEGATIVE TENDENCY, EXCEPT WHEN THERE IS A GENUINE NEED TO FIGHT. I PERSONALLY BELIEVE IN FIGHTING (HOPEFULLY VERBALLY) TO SAVE OURSELVES, THE UNDERPRIVILEGED, THE DISABLED, OR OTHERS WHO GENUINELY NEED A HAND, BUT NOT TO EXTERMINATE OTHERS OVER SOME SUPERFICIAL DIFFERENCE OR EVEN FOR A LAUGH. A TRULY CRUEL PERSON DOES IT BECAUSE THEY GET FUN OUT OF IT. A CHILD WHO DOES THAT SHOULD BE SENT FOR MENTAL HEALTH THERAPY BY A PROFESSIONAL BEFORE IT BECOMES THEIR LIFE PATTERN.

UNLESS CONFRONTED, PEOPLE OF THAT WOLFLIKE TYPE, VERY LIKELY WON’T EVEN CONSIDER CHANGING THEIR OWN ATTITUDES OF PRIVILEGE, COMPETITIVENESS AND UNQUESTIONED “SUPERIORITY.” SOME OF THEM WOULD HAPPILY BEDEVIL OR EVEN KILL THOSE WHO EITHER EMOTIONALLY OR PHYSICALLY CAN’T FIGHT BACK, ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE OUTNUMBERED AND BLAMED FOR THE SOCIETY’S PROBLEMS. THAT’S HOW SCAPEGOATS ARE CHOSEN. AS MY SECOND HUSBAND SAID, “THERE ARE ONLY THE WINNERS AND THE LOSERS.” HIS VIEWS ARE VERY DAMAGING TO THE WHOLE COUNTRY WHEN WE GET OUT OF HAND AS CITIZENS, AND IT ISN’T TOTALLY TRUE, EITHER. PEOPLE CAN OFTEN PUT UP SOME KIND OF DEFENSE, AND THEY BY ALL MEANS SHOULD. ALL CONCEPTS ONCE THEY BECOME PHYSICAL REALITY COME IN SHADES OF GRAY RATHER THAN IN BLACK OR WHITE. AS THERE IS ONLY PARTIAL SUCCESS, THERE IS ALSO ONLY PARTIAL FAILURE.

ACCEPTANCE OF OUR CHILDREN AND COMPASSION WHEN THEY NEED IT DIFFER FROM PUNISHING TO ACHIEVE A PERCEIVED PERFECTION, IN THAT THEY ARE SKILLS WHICH ARE TAUGHT IN MOST CASES. RARELY IS A PERFECTLY BENIGN PERSON "BORN THAT WAY." THAT MEANS THAT PARENTS MUST WORK ON THEIR OWN INNER PSYCHOLOGY TO BECOME GOOD PARENTS. IF THEY WEREN'T TREATED WELL GROWING UP, THE LIKELIHOOD THAT THEY WILL BE ABLE TO MODEL IT TO THEIR CHILDREN, SO THAT THEIR KIDS IN TURN WILL ALSO LEARN IT, IS OBVIOUSLY VERY LOW. THAT IS WHY SOCIETY NEVER BECOMES PERFECT, BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY OF US STUMBLING THROUGH LIFE THAT CRIME BECOMES BUILT INTO OUR PCYCHIC STRUCTURE. GENTLENESS IS LEARNED, PARTLY BY PARENTAL GUIDANCE AND INTERVENTION IN THE HOME, PARTLY THROUGH TEACHERS’ AND OTHER PEOPLE IN AUTHORITY OVERCOMING THE MALADAPTED ACTIONS AND PSYCHOLOGY OF BOTH BULLIES AND VICTIMS. WE ALSO NEED DESPERATELY TO DIMINISH THAT AMERICAN EMPHASIS ON TOTAL SUCCESS, VERSUS “TRYING” OR “COPING.” TRYING IS ESSENTIAL TO ALL OF US, AND "MERELY COPING" IS MUCH BETTER THAN FALLING BY THE WAYSIDE TOTALLY, WHICH IS MY IDEA OF FAILURE. INDIVIDUAL CAPABILITIES VARY WIDELY ON A LARGE NUMBER OF CHARACTERISTICS. ACTUALLY, WHEN WE’RE DEALING WITH INSTINCT ONLY, IT WILL OFTEN OVERCOME OUR HIGH-MINDED THOUGHT IN A TIME OF STRESS AND ESPECIALLY IN HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE PEOPLE. FROM THAT SOURCE COMES THE BATTERED WIFE AND CHILD, THE LYNCH MOB AND THE SERIAL KILLER.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS TO WORK WITH OUR NEWLY BORN INDIVIDUALS FROM BIRTH, IN ORDER TO INSTILL THAT EMPATHY WHICH WILL OVERCOME ABUSIVENESS. THAT’S WHAT DR. SPOCK WAS TRYING TO TELL PARENTS – WE SHOULD BLEND GENTLENESS AND UNDERSTANDING WITH OUR “DISCIPLINE.” EMPATHETIC THOUGHT IS THE ONLY WAY TO PRODUCE A NURTURING SOCIETY.

A GREAT MANY AMERICANS DON’T WANT A “NURTURING” SOCIETY, OF COURSE, BECAUSE WE ARE SO DEEPLY INVOLVED IN COMPETITION AND STATUS SEEKING. IT’S SAD, BUT NOT IRREMEDIABLE IN SPECIFIC CASES AND IN GROUPS AS WELL. TO SAY AN OLD APHORISM IN A DIFFERENT WAY, A GROUP IS THE SUM OF ITS’ INDIVIDUALS, SO IF WE WORK TO BRING AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE INTO THE HEALTHY RANGE, WE DON’T HAVE TO HAVE A SOCIETY OF ABUSERS AND MURDERERS. WE WOULD NEED MORE TEACHERS, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, MORE MENTAL HOSPITALS FOR THOSE WHO DO NEED IT, AND FEWER POLICEMEN TRYING TO DEAL WITH THE ISSUE. THAT'S OFTEN HOW THE SHOOTING OF THE NIGHT OCCURS. THE COP BARKS AN ORDER, THE DEAF MAN DOESN'T RESPOND WITH OBEDIENCE, "AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST." TO ME, BECOMING A CARING AND NURTURING SOCIETY IS THE PATH TO ENLIGHTENENT, AND TO DECENCY. MOVING IN THAT DIRECTION WOULD MAKE US IN THE USA WINNERS AND NOT LOSERS. "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," MEANS RETURNING TO SIMPLER AND MORE SPIRITUAL LIVES, IN THE SENSE OF THE FARMER WHO LIVED ON THE LAND AND EXPERIENCED THE PEACE OF THE FRAGRANT SOIL AND GREENERY.

ON THE LINK BETWEEN GENETIC ABNORMALITY* AND CREATIVITY -- SEE THIS VERY INTERESTING AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND ARTICLE FROM PSYCHOLOGY TODAY ON THE SUBJECT:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-trust/201605/are-creativity-and-madness-written-together-in-your-genes.

TODAY’S NEWS ARTICLE SPEAKS OF SOME SIGNIFICANT IF NOT YET WIDESPREAD SOCIETAL IMPROVEMENTS. AUTISTIC WORKERS ARE BEING SOUGHT OUT FOR THEIR SPECIAL CAPABILITIES BY THE LIKES OF MICROSOFT TO ADD TO THEIR PROGRAMMING STAFF. THAT’S RECOMMENDATION ENOUGH FOR ME. IF WE CAN EVER GET BEYOND THE SITUATION OF ASD [AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER] INDIVIDUALS BEING HARASSED OR WORSE BECAUSE THEY DON’T MEET THE EYES OF OTHERS OR THEY TALK IN AN UNUSUAL WAY, WE CAN REACH TO THE INNER NUGGET OF HUMAN FIRE THAT IS IN US ALL, ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE CAN STOP SUFFERING THE GRIEF OF THE UNWANTED.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/companies-open-doors-to-talent-with-autism/
CBS NEWS September 2, 2018, 9:14 AM
Companies open doors to talent with autism

We like to think that good work is always rewarded. But what if some people who could do good work can't get their foot in the door in the first place? That's where recent hiring initiatives that look beyond unfair stereotypes come in, as Lee Cowan reports in our Cover Story (Originally broadcast on February 11, 2018):

Twenty-seven-year-old Christopher Pauley thought he had it all figured out when it came to looking for a job. He had a detailed spreadsheet of each and every position he applied for – at least 600.

But despite his degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University, he went two years with barely a nibble.

Did he get discouraged? "Oh my gosh, my morale really started to drop towards the end," he said. "In fact, there were days where I would either hardly fill out any applications at all, or just simply not apply on anything."

He knew he had the smarts for most jobs; he was a former Spelling Bee Champ, after all. But Pauley struggles with social and communications skills because he's also autistic.

While precise numbers are hard to come by, by some estimates at least 80% of adults with autism are unemployed, even though their IQs are often well above average.

Sometimes their job skills can present themselves in unique ways. For Christopher, it's video games. His ability to recognize patterns and his acute attention to detail -- both hallmarks of autism -- make his playing the video game Rock Band look pretty easy.

christopher-pauley-plays-rock-band-video-game-620.jpg
Christopher Pauley. CBS NEWS

And they are the same skills he was hoping would impress prospective employers in the computer programming world. But he always had to get past that interview, which was a challenge at best.

Cowan asked, "Was there, in any of those interviews, a time where you just wanted to tell somebody, 'Look, I know my social skills maybe aren't quite what you expect, but I know I can do this job, and I know I can do a really good job if you give me a chance'?"

"Yes."

"But you never said that to anybody?"

"Most of the time, no," he replied.

"Because why?"

"I just wasn't comfortable. It makes me come across as desperate."

At Microsoft, however, there was no need to hide his autism; they were looking for it.

"It's a talent pool that really hasn't been tapped," said Jenny Lay-Flurrie, the chief accessibility officer at tech giant Microsoft outside Seattle.

autism-jenny-lay-flurrie-chief-accessibility-officer-at-microsoft-promo.jpg
Jenny Lay-Flurrie, chief accessibility officer at Microsoft. CBS NEWS

"There really is, and was, a lot of data on the table that said to us that we were missing out. We were missing out on an opportunity to bring talent in with autism."

Cowan said, "So in a way, it sounds like this was almost a business imperative."

"Heck, yeah!" she laughed. "People with disabilities are a strength and a force of nature in this company, myself included."

Lay-Flurrie, who is profoundly deaf, communicates by reading lips and working with an interpreter. She helped create a hiring program for Microsoft back in 2015 designed to better identify candidates with autistic talents.

Instead of the traditional job interview focusing so heavily on social skills, the company has replaced it with a vetting process that lasts for weeks, and team building exercises like one called the Marshmallow Challenge.

autim-at-work-christopher-pauley-marshmallow-challenge-620.jpg
Christopher Pauley (left) takes part in a Marshmallow Challenge exercise. CBS NEWS

"Being able to watch a candidate in that environment as opposed to sitting across the table interviewing them makes all the difference in the world," said Cowan.

"Every difference," said Lay-Flurrie. "Every day, in any company, in any role, you're going to be asked to work with someone else to figure out a problem or a challenge, or a project."

"And yet in that scenario, they're not as self-conscious that they're being observed for a job – they're just doing a task."

"It's marshmallows!"

autism-christopher-pauley-microsoft-promo.jpg
Christopher Pauley now works as a software engineer at Microsoft. CBS NEWS

After Christopher Pauley went through a similar, unconventional interview process back in 2016, Microsoft quickly hired him as a software engineer.

His manager Brent Truell says he was immediately impressed by Christopher's "out of the box" thinking.

"When we are faced with really complicated problems, the solutions to those aren't always simple," said Truell. "And Christopher always kind of brings new insights. And having that creative mind, he always brings something new to the team, which is really exciting."

"Which is exactly why you hired him, right?

"Right."

autism-at-microsoft-620.jpg
Microsoft has actively recruited workers on the autism spectrum, increasing diversity in the company. CBS NEWS

It's an idea that's catching on.

Last year, 50 big-name companies -- including JP Morgan, Ford and Ernst & Young -- came together for a summit on how to bring more autistic adults into the workforce.

It was hosted at the Silicon Valley campus of German software maker SAP, which was one of the first large companies to reach out to the autistic community.

It started its Autism at Work Program five years ago, and since then it's hired 140 people on the spectrum, with the goal of hiring more than 600.

"I have been in this industry for close to 30 years, and I can tell you it's probably the single most rewarding program that I have been involved with," said Jose Velasco, who heads the program.

The biggest surprise for him, he says, has been the variety of candidates applying. "Very quickly we started getting resumes from people that had degrees in history, in literature, in graphic design, attorneys … the whole gamut of jobs," Velasco said.

"So really, you went into this thinking that people with autism would be good at certain jobs, and what you ended up discovering is they're good at all jobs?" asked Cowan.

"They are good at just about every role."

And they're expected to perform in those roles, just like anyone else.

Mike Seborowski, for example, was hired three years ago and works in cybersecurity in SAP's office outside of Philadelphia. When Cowan was visiting, Jose was helping Mike get ready for a long stint at the company world headquarters in Germany.

autism-mike-seborowski-jose-velasco-at-sap-620.jpg
Mike Seborowski, who works in cyber security, and Jose Velasco, who heads SAP"s program for hiring autistic workers. CBS NEWS

"If you would had [sic] told me six years ago that we would have an employee who was openly autistic in the company, going on a business trip to Germany for a month, I would have not believed you," said Velasco.

Almost everyone has been a surprise, he says. He points to 26-year-old Gloria Mendoza.

She told Cowan, "You should see some of the videos I had when I was a child. I was not very socially skilled with the other kids. Not showing interest with other people, displaying some of the challenging behaviors that a child on the autism spectrum would have."

Her parents, Rosaura and Enrique Mendoza, helped get Gloria years of speech and occupational therapies, as well as access to top doctors. "When she was very young, I used to worry so much because I never thought she will overcome all what she has done," said Rosaura. "So, it was like a very dark cloud."

Gloria made huge strides in her childhood, but her parents were still concerned about how autism might affect her future.

"We worry about her adult life – well, first of all, could she make it through high school?" said Enrique. "Then, once she does that, you know, can she make it through college? Can she be independent?"

She made it through both high school and college; in fact, she got two degrees from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania – one in music (she has a beautiful singing voice), and another in computer science. And yet, a year after graduating – and hundreds of resumes later – she still couldn't find a job … until she applied to SAP.

"Probably the best part about working here is that I can use the skills which I have studied whilst being among people that understand who I am and how I'm different from everybody else," she said.

SAP put Mendoza through five weeks of training, which included working on her social skills.

She's now in something called Digital Business Services, where she deals directly with customers.

autism-at-work-gloria-mendoza-sap-620.jpg
Gloria Mendoza engages with customers in her position at SAP. CBS NEWS

Cowan asked, "What's the one dream you really want to come true?"

"Probably that I can be really up there in my department, earning a lot of money, and still keeping the friends that I have," she replied.

Her new friends are mostly co-workers in the autism program, and they try to get together regularly. Cowan watched as Mendoza and her friends participated in Game Night.

"And that, CBS, is how you play Smash Brothers!" said Gloria.

autism-at-work-sap-game-night-620.jpg
Software company SAP has hired many workers on the autism spectrum, who find camaraderie and fulfillment in the workplace. CBS NEWS

She told Cowan, "I never really had that many friends when I was younger, and having this wide variety of friends that understands me really makes all the difference for me."

How so? "'Cause I can express myself in ways that people won't look at me weird. And it turns out that a lot of people have common interests as I do."

SAP boasts a retention rate of about 90% for their autistic employees. Part of that may be due to the fact they're not just set adrift in the workplace all alone. Each participant in the program is assigned a mentor from within the company – like an on-site guardian angel.

autism-gloria-mendoza-gabby-robertson-cawley-promo.jpg
Gloria Mendoza with her mentor, Gabby Robertson-Cawley. CBS NEWS

Gabby Robertson-Cawley, who has a cousin on the spectrum, volunteered to work with Gloria. "I think it's just the rewards of getting to be friends with these colleagues who have autism – it's not something you get in your typical corporate day-to-day experience," Robertson-Cawley said.

Microsoft also has mentors. Melanie Carmosino, who works with Christopher Pauley, has a personal connection as well; she has a son who's autistic.

Cowan asked, "What have you taken away from this whole experience, personally?"

"Hope," Carmosino replied. "I think that this program gives hope to the autism community. It gives hope to parents like me, and it gives hope to people like my son that a company can, and will, look past their differences and see their gifts and let them contribute to society just like everybody else."

autism-melanie-carmosino-lee-cowan-620.jpg
Melanie Carmosino, who works with Christopher Pauley at Microsoft, with correspondent Lee Cowan. CBS NEWS

Christopher Pauley is now independent, living on his own in a high-rise apartment, something he's always wanted.

Cowan said, "I don't want to ask how much you're making, but you're doing pretty good, it sounds like, yeah?"

"Yes," he said.

"Could you ever imagine you'd be making this much money?"

"No, I never did! Honestly I would have been perfectly happy with, like, half the money I'm making now."

He bought a car and drives himself to work – and for the first time, he says, looks forward to arriving at a place where he's accepted for who he is.

He knows there are still challenges ahead, but given a chance to prove his worth, says Christopher, has given him an optimism he never had.

Cowan asked, "If other kids, or young adults, or adults with autism are watching this, what's your message to them?"

"Don't give up, and make sure to always aim high," he replied. "Don't aim in the middle You know, shoot for the stars every time, 'cause you never know what might happen."


See also:

Autism may be more common than previously thought, CDC says (CBS News, 04/26/18)
Students with autism make music with iPads (12/17/17)
Breaking through autism with Disney movies ("Sunday Morning," 05/04/14)
Autistic fans' appreciation of "The Curious Incident" ("Sunday Morning," 03/01/15)

For more info:

Microsoft: Inclusive hiring for people with disabilities
SAP: Diversity & Inclusion
thespectrumcareers.com
AHRC New York City
Autism Speaks
Autism Society
Autism Spectrum Disorder (National Institute of Mental Health)
Autism Research Institute
Autism (American Psychological Association)

Story produced by Deirdre Cohen.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



FRAGILE X CHROMOSOME -- https://www.fraxa.org/fragile-x-syndrome/symptoms/
Fragile X Syndrome – Symptoms and Signs

Symptoms

intellectual disabilities, ranging from mild to severe
attention deficit and hyperactivity, especially in young children
anxiety and unstable mood
autistic behaviors, such as hand-flapping and not making eye contact
sensory integration problems, such as hypersensitivity to loud noises or bright lights
speech delay, with expressive language more severely affected than receptive language
seizures (epilepsy) affect about 25% of people with Fragile X syndrome

Physical Signs

These features may be hard to recognize in babies and young children, but sometimes become more apparent with age. Not everyone with Fragile X has all these signs.

long face, large prominent ears, flat feet
hyperextensible joints, especially fingers
low muscle tone
males may have large testes after puberty
Girls are Often Less Affected than Boys



https://fragilex.org/2014/support-and-resources/fragile-x-syndrome-and-autism-spectrum-disorder-similarities-and-differences/
FRAGILE X SYNDROME AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER IS REFERRED TO BELOW AS ASD.

Now Available: Autism Spectrum Disorder in Fragile X Syndrome Consensus Document

To complete the initial collection of Fragile X Clinical and Research Consortium (FXCRC) we are proud to feature the final document: Autism Spectrum Disorder in Fragile X Syndrome.

The summary below was extracted in part from the Autism Spectrum Disorder in Fragile X Syndrome Consensus Document and from original text by Dr. Dejan Budimirovic of the Kennedy-Krieger Institute FX Clinic in Baltimore, MD.

About The FXCRC Consensus Documents
The Consensus Documents are supported in part by a CDC-funded grant and created and reviewed by a variety of FXCRC clinicians with many clinical backgrounds in order to offer the most up-to-date insight on a variety of subjects related to Fragile X.

Using information gathered from the , we are pleased to bring you newly updated versions of the Sleep, Seizures, Psychopharmacology, and Toileting Consensus Documents in 2015.

Families and some providers are often confused by the relationship between Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is important to note that it is more common for a child to be diagnosed with ASD and then to receive an additional diagnosis of FXS. This document attempts to clarify overlaps and gaps between the two conditions. Understanding these distinctions can be particularly helpful when deciding upon the most appropriate medical, therapeutic, counseling and education interventions, and will increase the potential for both short-term and long-term benefits.

What is known about ASD and its relationship with FXS?

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder primarily characterized by a selective impairment in social interaction. Namely, people with ASD have differences in how they understand and react to people and social situations, which result from differences in how their brains process socially-relevant information. Symptoms of ASD appear in early childhood. It is a lifelong disorder, though symptoms change over time. At this time, there is no medical test, such as a blood test or brain scan, that can diagnose ASD. Yet in some cases the cause of ASD is known, such as FXS, the most common-known single-gene disorder that accounts for about 2-3 percent of all ASD cases. Specifically, FXS is a genetically-defined condition that can be diagnosed by a DNA blood test, unlike ASD that is a behaviorally-defined diagnosis. Thus FXS is one cause out of many, for a person to manifest the clinical symptoms that define ASD.

Why are autistic features common in FXS?

Our current ASD knowledge indicates that it is a developmental brain disorder, beginning shortly after birth or even earlier. Its most characteristic feature is the presence of abnormal patterns of neural “wiring” or connectivity. Because multiple genetic and environmental factors have been linked to ASD, there are probably multiple ways in which neural connectivity and other processes can be disrupted, leading to a common outcome or set of clinical features that result in a diagnosis of ASD. In regard to the neural connectivity, many proteins that have similar jobs as FMRP (the protein made from the Fragile X gene, which is absent or reduced in people with FXS) and also proteins that interact with FMRP have been found to be associated with ASD. Thus, it is likely that ASD is frequently present in FXS because the lack of FMRP in FXS adds to the risk of developing the types of abnormal wiring and related brain abnormalities that lead to ASD symptoms.

ASD as a “cloud” scheme with FXS in it.
It may be useful to see ASD as a cloud that represents a final common diagnostic category illustrative of abnormal patterns of brain wiring that result from a blend of multiple diverse genetic and other etiologies.

. . . . THIS ARTICLE IS LONG, SO I AM ENDING IT HERE. GO TO THE WEBSITE TO READ IT FOR YOURSELF IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO.


https://fragilex.org/learn/premutation-carriers/
WHAT IS A PREMUTATION? NO. IT IS NOT A MISSPELLING OF PERMUTATION. IT’S GENETICS AND NOT MATH. SEE HERE:

CGG Repeat Ranges. A premutation carrier is an individual, male or female, who has between 55-200 CGG repeats in the Fragile X (FMR1) gene. The full mutation is defined as over 200 CGG repeats.

AUGUST 31, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


WE NEED TO TAKE THE CONTROL OF VOTING AND ELECTIONS AWAY FROM STATES, AND CREATE A NATIONAL SET OF LAWS THAT DO NOT DISENFRANCHISE PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY AFTER THEY SERVE THEIR TERMS. FLORIDA HAS A LAW LIKE THIS, TOO. THERE ARE TOO MANY HOOPS TO JUMP THROUGH TO GET THE RIGHT TO VOTE BACK. TOO MANY OF THE STATE GOVERNMENTS ARE RACIST AND GENERALLY UNSCRUPULOUS. THAT "CONSERVATIVE" TURN OF MIND FINDS FAIRNESS TO THE POOR OR BLACK PEOPLE TO BE UNFAIR TO THE WHITES – AND REPUBLICANS. IT'S TIME TO DROP THE GRIEVANCES OF THE CIVIL WAR AND MOVE FORWARD. THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS THAT MAKE ME THINK THAT WE DO INDEED NEED ANOTHER CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. THIS IS JUST ONE OF THE PROBLEMATIC ISSUES.

[SEE ALSO FOR FULL NAME AND LAWS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crystal-mason-texas-woman-sentenced-to-5-years-for-voter-fraud-speaks-out-on-felon-voting-rights/]

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/31/598458914/texas-woman-sentenced-to-5-years-for-illegal-voting
Texas Woman Sentenced To 5 Years For Illegal Voting
March 31, 20181:33 PM ET
VANESSA ROMO
SASHA INGBER

PHOTOGRAPH -- A Texas judge sentenced a woman to five years in prison for voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election. Tonio Vega/Flickr

"You have to go vote!" [Crystal] Mason's mother said, according to her attorney, J. Warren St. John, who spoke to NPR.

Mason grabbed her keys and set out for her local precinct. When she got there, she found out that her name was not on the voter roll so she was given a provisional ballot. An election worker stuck around to walk her through the form. She used her current license and her current address, St. John says.

After she cast her vote, she went home.

"She had a good faith belief that she could vote," St. John says. "She would have never voted if she didn't know she could vote."

The next time she thought about that night she was being arrested.

She was detained by sheriffs in February 2017 at the Dallas County Courthouse while meeting with her probation officer.

Mason, 43, is a convicted felon. She was previously convicted for committing tax fraud for clients through her tax preparation business.

And by casting a ballot – even a provisional one — in the general election, she had broken a state law that prohibited residents from voting until their sentences have been fully served. That includes parole, probation or supervision.

Mason had been on a supervised release after spending three years in prison. For a time, she was even working for the state of Texas, St. John says.

POLITICS
Should It Be Easier To Vote? Americans Are Deeply Divided By Party

On Wednesday, she was sentenced to five years for voting illegally. She contends that she was never informed of the state's voting restrictions on felons.

"She didn't understand!" St. John said. "She was never told she couldn't vote. Not by a district judge. Not by anyone at the half-way house where she lived after she got out. Not by the probation officer."

But Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson said in a statement that despite "multiple safeguards in place," Mason "still made that choice."

According to a CNN report, "She signed and affirmed a document which clearly stated that (1) she was prohibited from voting due to her status as a convicted felon still serving her term of supervision, and (2) she would be committing a second degree felony if she lied about her status," Wilson said. "The judge found her guilty of illegal voting beyond a reasonable doubt."

POLITICS
Despite Little Evidence Of Fraud, White House Launches Voting Commission

President Trump has insisted that millions of people voted illegally in the presidential election despite little evidence, and other states have taken action against voter fraud.

In Nebraska, two men accused of voting multiple times in the presidential election could face two years in prison and a fine $10,000. A former mayor in Florida found guilty of voting fraud received four years of probation and 400 hours of community service hours.

In recent years, Texas has passed laws that have stepped up penalties for voter fraud, extending prison terms and increasing fines, according to John Powers, who specializes in voting rights at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The disenfranchisement of felons varies state to state. NPR reported that a federal judge said Florida's process of restoring voting rights of felons who completed their sentences was "nonsensical" and in violation of the First and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.

Mason is currently out of jail on an appellate bond that is pending outcome of an appeal, says St. John.

There is a danger that people like Mason face on election day, Powers says. "When you have an election and poll workers are trying to get through long lines of voters, frequently they don't have the requisite training and experience to deal with complicated legal scenarios. The loser in all of this can be the voter."



MOST OF US PROBABLY REMEMBER THE POOR, GRUDGING AND SLOW RESPONSE BY THE US GOVERNMENT. TRUMP CAME CLOSE TO STATING THAT THE PEOPLE THERE WEREN’T REAL AMERICANS, DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY ARE CITIZENS; THAT THE COUNTRY WAS A DRAIN ON REAL AMERICA’S RESOURCES, ALWAYS IN DEBT, ETC. THE LAST I HEARD, THE US GOVERNMENT IS IN DEBT TO CHINA AND PROBABLY RUSSIA AND OTHER PLACES, TOO. TRUMP IS IN DEBT TO RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS AND HAS RUSSIAN MOB TIES. I’M IN DEBT TO THE DENTIST, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT I SHOULD NOT RECEIVE HELP WHEN I NEED IT, AND THE SAME GOES FOR THOSE OTHER ENTITIES. TRUMP’S “SHITHOLE COUNTRIES” COMMENT TELLS IT ALL. THERE IS A DEEP DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “CONSERVATIVES” AND DEMOCRATS, ESPECIALLY PROGRESSIVES, DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS, AND JUST GOOD HONEST PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN FAIRNESS TO ALL. AMERICA NEEDS TO CHANGE IT’S ATTITUDE. I WONDER IF TRUMP WILL NOW ADMIT THAT THIS WAS A REAL CATASTROPHE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-maria-death-toll-puerto-rico-2975-killed-by-storm-study-finds/
By SARAH LYNCH BALDWIN, DAVID BEGNAUD CBS NEWS August 28, 2018, 11:16 AM
Hurricane Maria caused an estimated 2,975 deaths in Puerto Rico, new study finds

VIDEO – 2975 DEAD 3:32

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria killed far more people in Puerto Rico than initially thought, accounting for an estimated 2,975 deaths on the island from September 2017 through February 2018, according to a new analysis. The study found that those in low-income areas, and elderly men, were at greatest risk of dying.

The independent analysis was commissioned by the governor of Puerto Rico and conducted by researchers at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health. CBS News obtained a report on the findings from Carlos Mercader, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration.

"The reality is that we take this very seriously," Mercader said on CBSN.

"We mourn those people that died because of this storm and we have a responsibility of making sure that we prepare Puerto Rico for a future event like this," he said.

To arrive at the 2,975 figure, the study looked at historical death patterns from 2010 to 2017 to estimate how many people would have died had Hurricane Maria not hit the island. That figure was then compared to the actual number of deaths from September 2017 through February 2018 — obtained in records provided by the Puerto Rico Vital Statistics Records division of the Puerto Rico Department of Health — to determine what the report describes as the "estimate of excess mortality due to the hurricane."

The study found that while all age groups and social strata were affected by the hurricane, the risk of death was "45% higher and persistent until the end of the study period for populations living in low socioeconomic development municipalities."

It also found that men age 65 and older were at heightened risk of death through February, the end of the study period.

"Overall, we estimate that 40% of municipalities experienced significantly higher mortality in the study period than in the comparable period of the previous two years," the report says.

Complete coverage: Puerto Rico's road to recovery

In the aftermath of the devastating storm, which barreled into Puerto Rico last September, Puerto Rico's government initially reported 64 deaths blamed on the hurricane. Since then, several studies have indicated the actual death toll was much higher, though researchers have arrived at a range of different figures.

cbsn-hurricane-maria-deaths-gfx.jpg
CBS NEWS

In May, a Harvard University study said Maria was likely responsible for more than 4,600 deaths from the day of the storm, September 20, until December 31, 2017 — a figure that was based on results of a door-to-door survey of 3,299 randomly selected homes across the island. Earlier this month, Puerto Rico said in a report to Congress there were 1,427 more deaths "than normal" in the four months after Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma, which churned on a path just north of the island two weeks before Maria hit. That report said, however, those 1,427 deaths "may or may not be attributable to the hurricanes."

The latest study says that from the period ranging from September to December 2017 alone, there were an excess of 2,098 deaths, and 2,975 from September 2017 through February 2018.

"2,975 — it's 2,975 people who suffered," Mercader said.

By comparison, at least 1,833 people died as a result of Hurricane Katrina, which hit in the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused devastating flooding in New Orleans in 2005.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has accepted the findings of the report and is raising the official death from the storm from 64 to 2,975.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz called the report "painful and shameful."

The report offered insight as to why the initial count of 64 was so much lower than this new figure.

"The official government estimate of 64 deaths from the hurricane is low primarily because the conventions used for causal attribution only allowed for classification of deaths attributable directly to the storm, e.g., those caused by structural collapse, flying debris, floods and drownings," the report says. "During our broader study, we found that many physicians were not oriented in the appropriate certification protocol. This translated into an inadequate indicator for monitoring mortality in the hurricane's aftermath."

The report goes on to say that "physician unawareness of appropriate death certification practices after a natural disaster and the Government of Puerto Rico's lack of communication about death certificate reporting prior to the 2017 hurricane season substantially limited the count of deaths related to Maria."

The report, which analyzed processes related to death certification, says that physicians and forensic physicians are among those in Puerto Rico who are authorized to complete death certificates, but that most physicians have no formal training in how to do so. They are therefore unaware of "appropriate death certification practices, especially in a disaster setting," the report found.

"Those interviewed said they did not receive information about how to certify deaths during, or in conditions created by, a disaster," the report says.

It also says there was a communication problem between the Puerto Rico Vital Statistics Registry and other government agencies and those involved in the death certification and registration process.

"Many stated that the Puerto Rico Department of Health (DoH) and the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety (DPS) did not notify them about the CDC special guidelines for correct documentation of cases, on the importance of correctly documenting deaths related to the hurricane or on an emergency protocol for handling these cases," it says.

The report makes various recommendations on issues including mortality surveillance and communication during natural disasters.

Rosselló is expected to sign an executive order in the next 24 hours that will create a commission to implement recommendations made in the report.

Mercader said that in the days after Hurricane Maria hit, "there were a lot of things that failed in their response and we take responsibility for that."


WHEN THE PUBLIC GOES AGAINST TRUMP, THEY WILL ELECT DEMOCRATS, WHO IN TURN WILL LIKELY VOTE TO IMPEACH HIM. I THINK, HOPE AND PRAY THAT THAT HAPPENS. LOOK AT THESE POLL RESULTS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-disapproval-at-60-in-new-poll/
By KATHRYN WATSON CBS NEWS August 31, 2018, 11:16 AM
Trump disapproval hits 60 percent in new poll

Disapproval of President Trump reached 60 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, the highest those outlets have recorded throughout his tenure.

The results, released Friday, come at a challenging time for the Trump presidency, after his former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court, and his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts and faces yet another trial next month. Meanwhile, White House counsel Don McGahn is on his way out this fall, as Democrats aim to take control of the House come November. Mr. Trump's approval rating is still high among conservatives, but it has dropped from a high of 74 percent to 67 percent. And his approvals among white men without college education has also dropped 15 points -- from a high of 70 percent to 55 percent.

Mr. Trump, who often calls polls fake, has more to worry about, if this poll is accurate. A majority of those polled, 53 percent, believe he has tried to interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in a way that amounts to obstruction of justice, compared to 35 percent who believe has has [sic] not. Speaking of Mueller, Americans are broadly supportive of him and his investigation, according to the ABC-Washington Post poll. The survey found 63 percent support Mueller's investigation into Trump associates, while 29 percent oppose it.

While the president has complained that Manafort's prosecution was unfair, the poll finds a majority of Americans think it was justified, 67 to 17 percent, and nearly half of Republicans agree with this. Sixty-six percent of Americans oppose a Trump pardon for Manafort, and 45 percent of Republicans also oppose a pardon.

Those polled did express concern over Mr. Trump's associates, and the president's interactions with them. A majority of those polled, 61 percent, agreed that if Mr. Trump directed Cohen to pay off women, he committed a crime. And only 18 percent of those polled believed the president should pardon Manafort, while 66 percent say he should not.

Americans are split on whether impeachment proceedings should begin against Mr. Trump, something that would likely only happen if Democrats take control of Congress. Of those polled, 49 percent said impeachment proceedings should begin, while 46 percent said they should not.

There's also a split among Americans on Mr. Trump's handing [sic] of the economy, with 45 percent who approve and 47 percent who disapprove.

The poll was conducted by landline and cell phone from Aug. 26 through Aug. 29, in both English and Spanish, among 1,003 adults.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


INTERVIEW WITH HEIDI WEBBER, VIDEO ONLY. FOLLOWED BY CBS LOCAL PRINT ARTICLE BELOW.

SHE WAS FOLLOWED AROUND AT NIGHT, HER WINDSHIELD WAS SHATTERED, AND SHE WAS FIRED FOR SPEAKING UP ABOUT CORRUPT COLLEGE PRACTICES. SHE WON HER LAWSUIT AGAINST THEM, TO THE TUNE OF A MILLION DOLLARS. WHISTLEBLOWERS CAN LOSE BIG, BUT SOMETIMES WIN BIG ALSO. SHE’S AN INTERESTING WOMAN. WATCH THE VIDEO.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/whistleblower-former-dean-alleges-globe-university-ripped-off-students/
HEIDI WEBBER DEAN GLOBE UNIVERSITY 3:19

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2018/08/31/whistleblower-heidi-weber-globe-university/
Whistleblower Hopes Win Over Globe University Inspires Others To Speak Up
By Liz Collin August 31, 2018 at 5:48 pm Filed Under:Fraud, Globe University, Heidi Weber, Liz Collin, Local TV, Whistleblower

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Twin Cities woman stood up to a multi-million dollar college system and won.

Now, she hopes a TV series will inspire others to speak up if they see wrongdoing at the workplace. WCCO recounts the shocking revelations made in court, now for a national audience to see on Whistleblower.

Heidi Weber spent a year as dean of the Medical Assistant Program at Globe University. In charge of one program in a sprawling college system that enrolled 11,000 students at 20 campuses in five states.

“In the beginning I was just doing my job,” Weber said.

Soon, she couldn’t ignore how she says Globe staff falsified job placement numbers, inflated starting salaries and went after students eligible for federal money like military members.

“Predatory, manipulating messages to potential students,” she said.

Globe fired Weber when she complained. She first told her story to WCCO five years ago, before it landed in a Washington County courtroom, where a jury awarded her nearly $1 million.

Clayton Halunen of Halunen Law won Weber’s case.

“It takes courageous people to make change,” he said.

He calls it a turning point after more staff and students came forward, chronicling their own unethical practices by for-profit colleges.

“There’s fraud and illegality that goes on in every industry and unless people stand up and say no, this is never going to change,” Halunen said.

“I got exactly what I asked for, my life back. That’s what I wanted,” Weber said.

Weber has gone on to raise her three girls. The state revoked Globe’s license to practice.

Weber now offers this message to anyone else brave enough to blow the whistle.

“Believe in yourself and do the right thing. It’s as simple as that,” Weber said.

You can catch Heidi’s story on the season finale of Whistleblower this Friday night, Aug. 31 at 8 p.m. right here on WCCO-TV Channel 4.

WRITER, Liz Collin
At 15 years old, Liz Collin made her broadcast debut covering a tornado that touched down in southwest Minnesota. It was her first night on the job at...


THE SLOGAN ON THE BANNER THESE PEOPLE ARE CARRYING, ‘ICH BEREUE NICHTS” TRANSLATES TO MEAN “I REGRET NOTHING.” HOW EASILY EVIL BECOMES A VIRTUE. (I’M SURE OF THAT TRANSLATION BECAUSE AFTER I GUESSED AT IT, BASED ON THE WORD “RUE,” I PUT IT ON ONE OF THE TRANSLATOR SITES.) AFTER THE FILMING OF AN ATTACK ON A JEWISH MAN BY AN ISLAMIC YOUNG MAN, MANY NON-JEWS IN BERLIN PUT ON YAMULKAS ALSO. THE PHOTO SHOWS ONE OF THEM AND IT PRINTED WITH THE WORDS, “ONE PEOPLE ONE COMMUNITY.” WE NEED A LOT MORE OF THAT KIND OF SUPPORTIVENESS TO WHOMEVER IS ON THE HOT SEAT OF SCAPEGOATING AT THE MOMENT.

VIDEO ONLY
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/recent-attacks-in-germany-highlight-return-of-anti-semitism/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rise-of-extreme-nationalist-groups-in-germany-return-of-anti-semitic-acts/
By ROXANA SABERI CBS NEWS August 31, 2018, 6:36 PM
Rise of extreme nationalist groups in Germany brings a return of anti-Semitic acts

PHOTOGRAPH -- A participant of the "Berlin wears kippa" rally wears a kippa in Berlin on April 25, 2018. - Germans stage shows of solidarity with Jews after a spate of shocking anti-Semitic assaults, raising pointed questions about Berlin's ability to protect its burgeoning Jewish community seven decades after the Holocaust. TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

BERLIN — The world watched with alarm this week as far-right protesters in Germany went chasing after immigrants amid word that refugees from Iraq and Syria were suspected in a knife attack that killed a local man. The rise of extreme nationalist groups in Germany has also brought a return of anti-Semitic acts.

Video showing a teenager in Berlin whipping a man wearing a yarmulke and shouting "Jew" in Arabic shocked many Germans this spring. The response was quick, with people of different faiths donning yarmulkes in solidarity.

German police received more than 400 reports of anti-Semitic attacks in the first half of this year, which is 10 percent more than the same period last year.

"It happens everywhere in Germany," said Wenzel Michalski.

He and his wife Gemma said their son was bullied by kids at school because he's Jewish.

"Three-and-a-half months of really terrible, anti-Semitic abuse, both verbal and physical," Gemma Michalski said.

Their son agreed to an interview, only if CBS News hid his face and altered his voice. He said they pushed and kicked him, and shot at him.

"It was a fake gun, but it was very realistic, and he was really, really frightened," Gemma Michalski said.

Anti-Semitic incidents spike 57 percent in 2017, report says
To tackle the reported rise in attacks, Germany has appointed its first anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein.

"In spite of all our efforts, anti-Semitism is still existing," he said.

Those efforts include building a Holocaust memorial in Berlin. But while statistics show the far-right carries out nearly 90 percent of assaults on Jews, Klein said Muslim refugees, like the teenager caught on camera, are increasingly behind anti-Semitic attacks. Since 2015, Germany has taken in hundreds of thousands of them.

"These people who were raised in countries where hatred toward Israel and towards Jews is very common," Klein said.

The Michalskis believe Germany should do more to teach all kids about the dangers of discrimination.

"There's a new generation growing up, and becoming adult, who are racist and anti-Semitic and you could stop it," Wenzel Michalski said.

To do that, they said Germany has to stop burying its past under monuments, and build a future of tolerance.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


THIS IS REALLY SAD. I HAVE ALWAYS CONSIDERED BUSES TO BE THE SAFEST WAY TO TRAVEL. STILL, THIS BUS AND SEMI ARE BOTH SO HEAVY THAT THEY CAN’T SLOW DOWN TO A STOP QUICKLY, AND STRIKE WITH EXTREME IMPACT.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-mexico-bus-crash-semi-truck-greyhound-survivor-describes-horror/
CBS NEWS August 31, 2018, 7:05 AM
"Ripped open sardine can": Survivor describes horror in deadly Greyhound-semi-truck crash

VIDEO – DEADLY BUS CRASH

At least seven people were killed and more than 40 injured after a semi-truck and Greyhound bus collided on a busy New Mexico highway Thursday. One survivor, Rachel Cunningham, who said she was asleep on the Greyhound when the crash happened, woke up to a gaping hole in the bus' passenger side.

"It was horrifying. Like, I've never actually seen in my life a bus look like a ripped open sardine can," Cunningham said.

Forty-nine people were on board when the crash happened near Thoreau, New Mexico.

"I was literally carrying these people with the paramedics into ambulances," Cunningham added. "My experience of what I've seen today, I mean, some stuff that I've only thought I'd end up seeing on TV."

Debris from the wreckage littered the stretch of Interstate 40, with the semi-trailer spilt open, the truck's cab upside down, and in the middle, the front end of the shredded shell of the Greyhound bus completely ripped off, reports CBS News correspondent Don Dahler.

"There was one person hanging out the window. Oh god," one witness said.

The bus, headed from St. Louis to Los Angeles, left Albuquerque Thursday and was on the road for about two hours when, police say, the semi-truck blew one of its tires and swerved across the median – right into oncoming traffic.

Survivors and bystanders turned into first responders, climbing ladders with emergency crews to reach passengers still trapped inside.

"It was nonstop," said Chris Jones, who stopped to help with the rescue. "There weren't enough ambulances there to get everybody out. … There's people that were stuck in the bus trying to get out, screams from inside there."

This is the second deadly crash involving a bus and a semi-truck in New Mexico this summer. In July, three people were killed when a passenger bus rolled into oncoming traffic. Thursday's incident shut down part of Interstate 40 for nearly eight hours, as crews worked into the night to clear the wreck.

"As you can imagine, the scene down there is chaos, so it's going to take investigators quite a while to go through and actually identify who was sitting where and who were the drivers and who were the passengers," said Officer Ray Wilson, a spokesperson for New Mexico State Police.

Officials said the truck driver from Thursday's collision is expected to recover.

A team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators was to arrive Friday.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.