Photos From the ‘March for Our Lives’ Protests Around the World
UPDATED MARCH 24, 2018
Crowds gathered Saturday in cities across the United States and around the world to join student activists in “March for Our Lives” protests against gun violence.
Schools across West Virginia are closed for an eighth day, as more than 20,000 teachers and 13,000 school staffers remain on strike demanding higher wages and better healthcare. The strike, which began on February 22, has shut down every public school in the state. Teachers are demanding a 5 percent raise and a cap on spiraling healthcare costs. For more, we speak with Jay O’Neal, a middle school teacher and a union activist in Charleston, West Virginia. And we speak with Mike Elk, senior labor reporter at Payday Report. His most recent piece is titled “West Virginia Teachers’ Strike Fever Starting to Spread to Other States [ http://paydayreport.com/west-virginia-teachers-strike-fever-starting-spread-states/ ].” https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/5/people_have_just_had_enough_west[with embedded video, and transcript]
U.K. University Workers Enter Week 3 of Strike Against Pension Cuts & “Marketization” of Higher Ed
Published on Mar 5, 2018 by Democracy Now!
In Britain, tens of thousands of lecturers, librarians, researchers and other university workers are on strike to protest attacks on their pensions, as well as soaring school fees for students. For more, we speak with Priya Gopal, a university lecturer at the Faculty of English at Cambridge who is participating in the academic strike. She is a member of the the University and College Union. https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/5/uk_university_workers_enter_week_3[with embedded video, and transcript]
From Coal Miners to Teachers: West Virginia Continues to Lead Radical Labor Struggle in the U.S.
Published on Mar 5, 2018 by Democracy Now!
For decades, West Virginia has been at the forefront of labor activism in the United States. As the state’s teachers continue their historic strike, which has shut down every single West Virginia school, we look at the history of the labor activism in the Mountain State. We speak with Jay O’Neal, a middle school teacher and a union activist in Charleston, West Virginia. And we speak with Mike Elk, senior labor reporter at Payday Report. His most recent piece is titled “West Virginia Teachers’ Strike Fever Starting to Spread to Other States.” https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/5/from_coal_miners_to_teachers_west[with embedded video, and transcript]
Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Call with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom
Issued on: March 5, 2018
President Donald J. Trump spoke yesterday with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom. The leaders agreed that the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian sponsors must immediately and fully implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 2401, which calls for an immediate ceasefire across Syria. The leaders condemned sharply the bombing in East Ghouta. They affirmed that the United States and United Kingdom will hold Russia accountable for compelling the Assad regime to halt attacks against civilian areas and for granting access to humanitarian relief in East Ghouta. The leaders agreed that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent statements on nuclear weapons development were irresponsible. President Trump and Prime Minister May discussed other topics, including President Trump’s efforts to ensure fair and reciprocal trade as well as Prime Minister May’s work on Brexit negotiations.
Italian election pushes back against the EU, Lindsey Graham pushes mass murder against North Koreans (“it’s worth it”), HHS Secretary Azar pushed Cialis on children & says “there’s no such thing as medical marijuana”, Hollywood pushes depravity while virtue signaling with a Marxist agenda and Gerald Celente on the Trump tariff.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
The National Institutes of Health own 518 research chimpanzees. But since the late nineties, long before biomedical research on chimpanzees was actually banned in 2015, the use of our closest animal relative in science has been declining. And the NIH is still trying to figure out what to do with its aging community of ex-lab chimps.
Over 200 research chimps are still being housed in labs, instead of sanctuaries. The research chimpanzees and their ancestors, contributed to the eradication of diseases like Hepatitis A and B and polio in many parts of the world. They’ve helped us better understand the human body and mind.
Any other lab animal would be euthanized -- but not chimpanzees. It’s a decision that acknowledges just how similar they are to humans, and the CHIMP act, signed by President Clinton in the year 2000, makes it official: The Federal Government guarantees that all research chimps will live out their lives in a federally approved sanctuary.
That sanctuary is Chimp Haven in Louisiana. This month, ten years after the first chimps arrived there and some of them experienced trees and open space for the first time, Chimp Haven is celebrating a milestone. More than half the NIH chimps have made it into the sanctuary system. But to accept more transfers, Chimp Haven will need to expand, and it’s struggling to find the funding it needs.
VICE News Tonight visited Chimp Haven to see what retirement looks like for the lucky half of America’s research chimps.
Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel
Issued on: March 5, 2018
President Donald J. Trump met today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to reaffirm the great friendship between the United States and Israel, and the commitment of the United States to Israel’s security. President Trump underscored his goal of countering Iran’s malign influence. The President also emphasized his commitment to achieving a lasting peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.
FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor interview Cara Santa Maria on this weeks episode of Freethought Matters.
Cara Santa Maria is a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, producer, and podcaster.
Cara reports on local issues for SoCal Connected on KCET, and she hosts the digital companion series for the popular competition reality show America's Greatest Makers on TBS. Cara is the creator and host of a weekly science podcast called Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria and co-hosts the popular Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast. She is a founding member of the Nerd Brigade and co-founded the annual science communication retreat #SciCommCamp.
Previously, Cara was a regular contributor to TechKnow on Al Jazeera America and Real Future on Fusion. She also co-hosted Brain Surgery Live on National Geographic Channel. She was a co-host and producer of TakePart Live on Pivot TV and FabLab on Fox. Before that, she was the Senior Science Correspondent for The Huffington Post and costarred in Hacking the Planet and The Truth About Twisters on The Weather Channel.
Cara has made appearances on BBC America, CBS, CNN, Current TV, Fox, Fox News, G4tv, Nat Geo WILD, Science Channel, SundanceTV, and the Travel Channel. She is also a contributor to The Young Turks.
Prior to her career in media, Cara taught biology and psychology courses to university undergraduates and high school students in Texas and New York. Her published research has spanned various topics, including clinical psychological assessment, the neuropsychology of blindness, neuronal cell culture techniques, and computational neurophysiology.
Monday, March 5th 2018[, with an appearance by Leo Zagami, and Gerald Celente hosting the fourth hour]: America Ignores Oscars - Ratings for the Oscars are near all-time lows, which indicates Americans are rejecting Hollywood just as they rejected the NFL for its hypocrisy. Street artist Sabo talks about his successful troll job at the Oscars to refocus the narrative on the truth, and famous first responder Brandon Tatum breaks down how middle America is moving away from mass entertainment in favor of family.
In the wake of the February 2018 Parkland, Florida school shooting, many Christians again claim that the right to own an assault rifle is God-given. We take a fair, candid look at the tragedy, the political maneuvering, the law, and the future of God & Guns in America.
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg refusing to comply with Mueller subpoena
MSNBC Live with Katy Tur 3/5/18
Sam Nunberg, a former aide to President Trump, has been subpoenaed by Robert Mueller’s special counsel. However, Nunberg says he refuses to cooperate, citing he sees no reason to spend hours digging up emails of his from 2015 that are requested. He talks to Katy Tur over the phone about the development in Mueller’s case, saying, "Trump may have done something during the election. I don't know what it is."
Court Rulings Don't Mean All Dreamers Are Safe (HBO)
Published on Mar 5, 2018 by VICE News
Last September, Attorney General Jeff Sessions set March 5th as the end date for DACA — the 2012 program that provided Dreamers with work permits and protection from deportation.
But a series of court injunctions this year has temporarily halted the administration’s wind down of the program, leading many to believe that Dreamers are safe. Starting tomorrow, however, roughly 400 people each day will lose their protected status.
DACA recipients whose status expires after March 5 were not allowed to apply for a renewal until a District Judge in California halted President Trump’s plan in January. But the relief came too late. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can take up to 120 days to process an application. So even people who applied immediately could face a lapse in their status while they wait for their renewal to be processed. During that time, they could lose their jobs and driver’s licenses, and will immediately be subject to deportation.
Hugo, a DACA recipient whose status expires March 9th, is currently waiting for his renewal to be processed. "After my DACA expires, I'm not going to have any protection. I have an eight-year-old daughter [who is a U.S. citizen] and knowing that there might be a period of time where I might be able to be kicked out of the country, it is very scary."
Editor-in-chief Judd Legum sits down with ThinkProgress immigration reporter Esther Lee to discuss the significance and insignificance of the White House's March 5 DACA deadline, and what will happen to Dreamers in the months ahead.
Officials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are rounding up immigrants and immigrant rights activists, and terrorizing communities across America. None of this should be considered normal.
Michael Zimmermann fills in to host with Ashton Whitty, Lee Ann McAdoo, Roger Stone and Harrison Smith. As CNN wages war against Infowars, the internet censorship attacks multiply.
[from Alex Jones and his merry band of batshit bullshitters]
How YouTube's Algorithm Could Prioritize Conspiracy Theories (HBO)
Published on Mar 5, 2018 by VICE News
A former YouTube engineer is speaking out against the company’s recommendation algorithm, saying that it is programmed in a way that could lead to the promotion of conspiracy theories.
Guillaume Chaslot, who has a Ph.D, in computer science and worked on the YouTube recommendation algorithm in 2010, says that when he worked at the company, YouTube was programming its algorithm to optimize for one key metric: keeping viewers on YouTube for as long as possible, or “watch time.”
Chaslot says that conspiracy videos, like those about flat earth or autism and vaccines, were more likely to be recommended in YouTube’s recommendation algorithm because of the focus on watch time. In a statement to VICE News, a YouTube spokesperson says the company still considers watch time in its algorithm, but it now also focuses on another metric: user satisfaction.
Chaslot has since created a tool, dubbed AlgoTransparency, that he says shows conspiracy videos on YouTube are some of the most likely to be recommended. VICE News meet with Chaslot to discuss how YouTube's algorithm works and how he plans to create another similar tool for the Facebook and Twitter algorithms.
Politicians are trolling the media to advance their own agendas.
Between Rep. Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) secret memo, allegations of missing text messages, and the panic over a so-called “secret society” in the FBI, the past few weeks of political news coverage have been dominated by Republican pseudoscandals. And while each of these alleged “bombshells” has turned out to be a dud, these stories raise questions about whether GOP politicians are intentionally baiting journalists -- trolling them into covering conspiracy theories in order to raise doubts about the FBI and the ongoing Mueller investigation.
In 2003, the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth) study set out to prove that the half-lives of radioactive elements were drastically different in the past. They were attempting to invalidate the entire field of radiometric dating… one of science’s most relied-upon methods for determining the age of ancient materials.
But did they prove this claim? Dr. Kevin R. Henke and Dr. Gary Loechelt have spent over a decade looking at the helium diffusion rates in zircon crystals studies and asking important questions.
Dr. Kevin Henke and Dr. Gary Loechelt discuss creationist claims about helium diffusion rates
4,800 people are serving life without parole in Louisiana.
That’s more than the number of people serving life without parole in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas – combined, according to a 2017 report by the Sentencing Project.
Louisiana is one of only two states in the country that has a mandatory life sentence without parole for second-degree murder.
To address laws like this that made Louisiana the incarceration capital of the world, a Justice Reinvestment Task Force reviewed the state’s policies and recommended a number of changes aimed at reducing the prison population, saving tax dollars and improving public safety.
As the recommendations worked their way through the Louisiana Legislature, 10 bills passed, but the language that would give people serving long sentences like Starr an opportunity to share their stories with a parole board was left on the cutting room floor.
The legislation would have extended parole eligibility to those who have served 20 years and are reaching age 45 and would have made most lifers eligible for parole after serving 30 years in prison and reaching age 50.
Watch: Sam Nunberg defying Mueller gets cross-examined on live TV
The Beat with Ari Melber 3/5/18
In a historic interview, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg tells Ari Melber he won’t comply with Mueller’s Grand Jury Subpoena because the Russia probe is trying to "set up” his mentor Roger Stone. For the first time, Nunberg admits on live TV That Mueller offered him “immunity”, but he claims he’s willing to go to jail and defy the Special Counsel.
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg tells Ari Melber that after his interview with Bob Mueller he thinks “Trump did something pretty bad” and it relates to Trump’s businesses.
For the first time, Nunberg admits on live TV That Mueller offered him “immunity”, but he claims he’s willing to go to jail and defy the Special Counsel.
Sam Nunberg: Mueller “definitely” has Roger Stone’s emails
The Beat with Ari Melber 3/5/18
In a historic interview, former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg tells Ari Melber he will refuse to comply with a Grand Jury Subpoena issued to him by Bob Mueller, because he suspects they are trying to “set-up a case" against his mentor and “surrogate father” Roger Stone.
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg tells Ari Melber if Special Counsel Mueller tries to send him to jail for refusing to comply with the Grand Jury subpoena he’ll “laugh about it" and "make a bigger spectacle" than he did on The Beat.
The New Yorker reveals that Christopher Steele wrote a memo laying out a Russian official's claim that the Kremlin may have blocked Trump from picking Romney for Secretary of State.
Trump hits landmark 100 days at golf clubs as president
All In with Chris Hayes 3/5/18
President Trump hit an auspicious landmark this weekend, as the Trump Organization reportedly ordered dozens of replicas of the presidential seal for tee boxes at Trump golf course holes.
Belarusian escort: I have audio linking Kremlin to Trump
All In with Chris Hayes 3/5/18
A Belarusian self-styled "sex coach" in a Bangkok jail says she is "the only witness and th emissing link in the connection between Russia and the U.S. elections."
Follow-the-money stories plague Trump team with scandals
The Rachel Maddow Show 3/5/18
Rachel Maddow reviews the many and diverse follow-the-money stories about Donald Trump and his associates in recent news, from a sketch stock sale by Carl Icahn, to new questions about payments to a porn star, to Jared Kushner's solicitation of investments in his family business.
Report raises specter of a Trump Russia dossier-related death
The Rachel Maddow Show 3/5/18
Jane Mayer, staff writer for The New Yorker, talks with Rachel Maddow about the reporting behind her lengthy profile of Trump Russia dossier author Christopher Steele.
Why didn't Democrats use the dossier during the 2016 campaign?
The Rachel Maddow Show 3/5/18
Jane Mayer, staff writer for The New Yorker, talks with Rachel Maddow about why the Clinton campaign didn't use material from the dossier they had paid for, and when the Obama White House found out that Donald Trump and his campaign were the subject of a counterintelligence investigation.
Tillerson spends $0 to counter Russia despite millions set aside
The Rachel Maddow Show 3/5/18
Gardiner Harris, State Department correspondent for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reporting that Rex Tillerson has not utilized tens of millions of dollars allocated for countering Russian intrusion.
After day-long TV meltdown, ex Trump aide reconsiders subpoena
The Rachel Maddow Show 3/5/18
Rachel Maddow reports on former Donald Trump aide Sam Nunberg's bizarre performance via successive cable news appearances in which he vowed to defy a Robert Mueller subpoena, only to be reported having second thoughts by day's end.
Nunberg says he'll comply, but won't 'make it easy' for Mueller
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 3/5/18
The world watched ex-Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg unravel over and over again on live television as he dared special prosecutor Robert Mueller to arrest him for refusing to comply with a subpoena.
Ex-Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg gave wild and erratic interviews saying he wouldn't cooperate with the special counsel's subpoena but then had an apparent change of heart. Ari Melber, who interviewed Nunberg, joins Lawrence O'Donnell, Ron Klain, and Mike Murphy.
The Washington Post reports Trump allies are increasingly worried that the president's obsession with cable commentary and perceived slights is taking a toll on the 71-year-old. Ashley Parker, who wrote the piece, and Francesca Chambers join Lawrence O'Donnell.
Ex-Trump aide: Mueller may have something on Trump
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 3/6/18
During a string of confusing and conflicting media appearances across a frenetic day, ex-Trump aide Sam Nunberg suggested Trump "may have done something during the election" on Russia. Nunberg also offered mixed messages on whether he would comply with a subpoena from Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation.
Trump's State Dept. has spent $0 fighting Russia meddling
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 3/5/18
A slew of headlines break on the Russia investigation including how Russia may have meddled in more than the 2016 election and that the State Dept. has spent none of the $120 million allotted to fight Russian meddling. Our panel reacts.
GOP lawmakers are quick to denounce President Trump's plan to put tariffs on steel and aluminum, citing a possible trade war and thousands of job losses.
Citizen Journalist Laura Grey heads to Texas to confront a pair of female candidates trying to suppress men by reducing their already slim 80 percent majority in Congress.
Chelsea Clinton's Role As First Daughter Was Different Than Ivanka's
Published on Mar 6, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
'She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History' author Chelsea Clinton had a very different First Daughter experience than Ivanka Trump.
[originally aired March 5, 2018 (U.S. central time)]
When you're in the waiting room for close to an hour, your doctors aren't dealing with other patients or filling out paperwork – they're cramming for your appointment.
Seth takes a closer look at the thousands of teachers on strike in West Virginia and how the constant turmoil in his administration is causing President Trump to lash out.
Italy election: Projections point to hung parliament Italy is on course for a hung parliament after voters backed right-wing and populist parties, vote projections based on partial results suggest. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43272700
Ex-Russian spy critically ill after exposure to substance in UK: BBC LONDON (Reuters) - A former Russian spy was critically ill after being exposed to an unknown substance in western England, British broadcaster BBC said on Monday. The BBC identified the man as Sergei Skripal who was granted refuge in Britain after a spy swap between the United States and Russia in 2010. Police said two people had been found unconscious on a bench on Sunday in the city of Salisbury. They were being treated for“suspected exposure to an unknown substance” and they remained critically ill, police said. A hospital in Salisbury said earlier on Monday it was“dealing with a major incident involving a small number of casualties.” It said staff and patients should come to the hospital as usual. Relations between Britain and Russia have been strained since the murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, a killing which a British inquiry said was probably approved by President Vladimir Putin. Skripal, a former colonel of Russia’s military intelligence, was convicted in Russia in 2006 on charges of espionage for Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency. He was sentenced to a 13-year prison term before he was pardoned in 2010 as part of a spy swap with the United States, according to media reports at the time. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia/ex-russian-spy-critically-ill-after-exposure-to-substance-in-uk-bbc-idUSKBN1GH2UX
U.S. judge orders ex-drug executive Shkreli to give up $7.36 million NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former drug company executive Martin Shkreli may have to give up a Picasso and a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album, after a U.S. judge on Monday ordered him to forfeit $7.36 million following his conviction of defrauding investors. U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn said the assets Shkreli could forfeit to satisfy the judgment also include $5 million in a brokerage account and his stake in Vyera Pharmaceuticals, one of the drug companies he founded. Shkreli is scheduled to be sentenced for securities fraud on Friday. A lawyer for Shkreli could not immediately be reached for comment on the judge’s order. Shkreli, 34, has been in jail since September, when Matsumoto revoked his bail after he offered a $5,000 bounty for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair in a Facebook post. Shkreli became notorious as the“Pharma Bro” when he raised the price of anti-parasitic drug Daraprim by over 5,000 percent in 2015 while he was chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Turing is now Vyera. In December 2015, Shkreli told Bloomberg Businessweek that he had bought the Wu-Tang Clan’s“Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” when the hip-hop group auctioned the sole copy of the album to the highest bidder. Bloomberg reported that he paid $2 million for it. Shkreli has also boasted of owning a Picasso painting. A jury found Shkreli guilty last August of securities fraud charges unrelated to Daraprim. They determined that he lied to investors about the performance of two hedge funds he ran, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare. He also was found guilty of conspiring to manipulate the stock price of another drug company he founded, Retrophin Inc. Shkreli’s lawyers have asked that he be sentenced to 12 to 18 months in prison. They argued in a court filing that a lenient sentence is warranted partly because the investors eventually came out ahead when Shkreli paid them in stock and cash from Retrophin. Matsumoto has already ruled that when Shkreli is sentenced, he will be held responsible for $10.4 million in losses, including all of the money his investors entrusted to his hedge funds. She said that regardless of the investors’ ultimate gains, Shkreli got their money in the first place through fraud. Although the $10.4 million loss will result in a higher recommended sentence under federal guidelines, Matsumoto is not required to follow those guidelines. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-shkreli/u-s-judge-orders-ex-drug-executive-shkreli-to-give-up-7-36-million-idUSKBN1GH2RS
Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg to meet with Mueller team 02/21/2018 Sam Nunberg, one of President Donald Trump’s earliest campaign advisers, is scheduled to meet Thursday with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators in Washington, according to a person with knowledge of the interview. Nunberg was an outspoken Trump aide who got fired in August 2015 over racially charged Facebook posts. Trump later sued Nunberg for $10 million for breaching a confidentiality agreement. They settled the case a month later. [...] https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/21/mueller-russia-probe-sam-nunberg-420362
Longtime Trump adviser Sam Nunberg who was fired over racially charged social media gets his turn on Mueller's hot seat Nunberg, 36, was fired from Trump's campaign in the early going when racially charged social media posts from his past were discovered He was accused of fabricating an 'affair' between then-campaign director Corey Lewandowski and White House communications director Hope Hicks Nunberg is also close to Trump-whisperer Roger Stone He's set to be grilled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team on Thursday 21 February 2018 Updated: 22 February 2018 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5420141/Trump-Russia-probe-counsel-interview-ex-Trump-aide-Nunberg-sources.html
Trump lawyer's $130,000 payment to adult film star was reportedly flagged as suspicious and sent to Treasury Department Trump's lawyer's payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels was reportedly flagged as suspicious and sent to the Treasury Department. Cohen complained that the money he sent out of his own pocket had not been reimbursed, the WSJ reports, citing sources. Daniels reportedly received the payment as part of a nondisclosure agreement regarding an alleged affair with Trump. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/05/trump-lawyer-payment-to-porn-star-flagged-as-suspicious-wsj.html
Putin's power play: Saudi-Russia oil deal leads to bigger Russia role in Middle East The agreement between Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut back on oil production has boosted oil prices and is now the foundation for a broader relationship. The partnership with OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, allows Russia to strengthen its hand in the Middle East at the same time the U.S. role has been diminished. Saudi Arabia may believe Russia can help it with the Iran nuclear threat. Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, expected to become king after his father, will be visiting the United States later this month. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/05/saudi-russia-oil-deal-leads-to-bigger-russia-role-in-middle-east.html
Republicans 'extremely worried' by Trump's metal tariffs plan Republicans have raised concern about the US president's plan to impose tariffs on metals, with the party's top lawmaker calling for it to be scrapped. US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said he was "extremely worried" about the impact of a trade war, adding that it could undermine economic gains. But Mr Trump pushed back during a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We're not backing down," he told reporters on Monday. "I don't think you're going to have a trade war," he said. His comments came an hour after Mr Ryan released a statement urging the White House to reconsider its plan. [...] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43290969
IS video 'shows deaths of US soldiers in Niger ambush' The Islamic State (IS) group has published a video purporting to show an ambush in Niger in which four US soldiers were killed last October. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43280890
Trump's lawyer reportedly complained that he was not reimbursed for his hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels President Donald Trump's personal lawyer reportedly complained to friends after the 2016 election that he had not yet been reimbursed for a payment he made to keep a porn star quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. Michael Cohen said last month that he was not reimbursed for the $130,000 payment by the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization, but has not said whether Trump ever personally paid him. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Cohen's bank marked the transaction as suspicious and reported it to the Treasury Department. http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lawyer-not-reimbursed-for-hush-payment-to-stormy-daniels-2018-3
'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie How a farcical series of events in the 1880s produced an enduring and controversial legal precedent Somewhat unintuitively, American corporations today enjoy many of the same rights as American citizens. Both, for instance, are entitled to the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion. How exactly did corporations come to be understood as “people” bestowed with the most fundamental constitutional rights? The answer can be found in a bizarre—even farcical—series of lawsuits over 130 years ago involving a lawyer who lied to the Supreme Court, an ethically challenged justice, and one of the most powerful corporations of the day. That corporation was the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, owned by the robber baron Leland Stanford. In 1881, after California lawmakers imposed a special tax on railroad property, Southern Pacific pushed back, making the bold argument that the law was an act of unconstitutional discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment. Adopted after the Civil War to protect the rights of the freed slaves, that amendment guarantees to every “person” the “equal protection of the laws.” Stanford’s railroad argued that it was a person too, reasoning that just as the Constitution prohibited discrimination on the basis of racial identity, so did it bar discrimination against Southern Pacific on the basis of its corporate identity. The head lawyer representing Southern Pacific was a man named Roscoe Conkling. A leader of the Republican Party for more than a decade, Conkling had even been nominated to the Supreme Court twice. He begged off both times, the second time after the Senate had confirmed him. (He remains the last person to turn down a Supreme Court seat after winning confirmation). More than most lawyers, Conkling was seen by the justices as a peer. It was a trust Conkling would betray. As he spoke before the Court on Southern Pacific’s behalf, Conkling recounted an astonishing tale. In the 1860s, when he was a young congressman, Conkling had served on the drafting committee that was responsible for writing the Fourteenth Amendment. Then the last member of the committee still living, Conkling told the justices that the drafters had changed the wording of the amendment, replacing “citizens” with “persons” in order to cover corporations too. Laws referring to “persons,” he said, have “by long and constant acceptance … been held to embrace artificial persons as well as natural persons.” Conkling buttressed his account with a surprising piece of evidence: a musty old journal he claimed was a previously unpublished record of the deliberations of the drafting committee. Years later, historians would discover that Conkling’s journal was real but his story was a fraud. The journal was in fact a record of the congressional committee’s deliberations but, upon close examination, it offered no evidence that the drafters intended to protect corporations. It showed, in fact, that the language of the equal-protection clause was never changed from “citizen” to “person.” So far as anyone can tell, the rights of corporations were not raised in the public debates over the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment or in any of the states’ ratifying conventions. And, prior to Conkling’s appearance on behalf of Southern Pacific, no member of the drafting committee had ever suggested that corporations were covered. There’s reason to suspect Conkling’s deception was uncovered back in his time too. The justices held onto the case for three years without ever issuing a decision, until Southern Pacific unexpectedly settled the case. Then, shortly after, another case from Southern Pacific reached the Supreme Court, raising the exact same legal question. The company had the same team of lawyers, with the exception of Conkling. Tellingly, Southern Pacific’s lawyers omitted any mention of Conkling’s drafting history or his journal. Had those lawyers believed Conkling, it would have been malpractice to leave out his story. When the Court issued its decision on this second case, the justices expressly declined to decide if corporations were people. The dispute could be, and was, resolved on other grounds, prompting an angry rebuke from one justice, Stephen J. Field, who castigated his colleagues for failing to address “the important constitutional questions involved.” “At the present day, nearly all great enterprises are conducted by corporations,” he wrote, and they deserved to know if they had equal rights too. Rumored to carry a gun with him at all times, the colorful Field was the only sitting justice ever arrested—and the charge was murder. He was innocent, but nonetheless guilty of serious ethical violations in the Southern Pacific cases, at least by modern standards: A confidant of Leland Stanford, Field had advised the company on which lawyers to hire for this very series of cases and thus should have recused himself from them. He refused to—and, even worse, while the first case was pending, covertly shared internal memoranda of the justices with Southern Pacific’s legal team. The rules of judicial ethics were not well developed in the Gilded Age, however, and the self-assured Field, who feared the forces of socialism, did not hesitate to weigh in. Taxing the property of railroads differently, he said, was like allowing deductions for property “owned by white men or by old men, and not deducted if owned by black men or young men.” So, with Field on the Court, still more twists were yet to come. The Supreme Court’s opinions are officially published in volumes edited by an administrator called the reporter of decisions. By tradition, the reporter writes up a summary of the Court’s opinion and includes it at the beginning of the opinion. The reporter in the 1880s was J.C. Bancroft Davis, whose wildly inaccurate summary of the Southern Pacific case said that the Court had ruled that “corporations are persons within … the Fourteenth Amendment.” Whether his summary was an error or something more nefarious—Davis had once been the president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company—will likely never be known. Field nonetheless saw Davis’s erroneous summary as an opportunity. A few years later, in an opinion in an unrelated case, Field wrote that “corporations are persons within the meaning” of the Fourteenth Amendment. “It was so held in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad,” explained Field, who knew very well that the Court had done no such thing. His gambit worked. In the following years, the case would be cited over and over by courts across the nation, including the Supreme Court, for deciding that corporations had rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Indeed, the faux precedent in the Southern Pacific case would go on to be used by a Supreme Court that in the early 20th century became famous for striking down numerous economic regulations, including federal child-labor laws, zoning laws, and wage-and-hour laws. Meanwhile, in cases like the notorious Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), those same justices refused to read the Constitution as protecting the rights of African Americans, the real intended beneficiaries of the Fourteenth Amendment. Between 1868, when the amendment was ratified, and 1912, the Supreme Court would rule on 28 cases involving the rights of African Americans and an astonishing 312 cases on the rights of corporations. The day back in 1882 when the Supreme Court first heard Roscoe Conkling’s argument, the New-York Daily Tribune featured a story on the case with a headline that would turn out to be prophetic: “Civil Rights of Corporations.” Indeed, in a feat of deceitful legal alchemy, Southern Pacific and its wily legal team had, with the help of an audacious Supreme Court justice, set up the Fourteenth Amendment to be more of a bulwark for the rights of businesses than the rights of minorities. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/corporations-people-adam-winkler/554852/
Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It. If you want to understand the evangelical decline in the United States, look no further than the transition from Billy to Franklin Graham. While Billy Graham was leading a revival in Los Angeles in 1949, William Randolph Hearst looked at the handsome thirtysomething evangelist with flowing blond hair and famously directed editors in his publishing empire to “puff Graham.” Some six decades later, the preacher had become a silver-haired retiree whose Parkinson’s disease kept him largely out of view, but the puffery never stopped. When Graham died this week, he was hailed by President George W. Bush as “America’s pastor,” and even more lavishly by Vice-President Mike Pence as “one of the greatest Americans of the past century.” President Bill Clinton praised him for integrating his revivals. Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called him “the most important evangelist since the Apostle Paul.” Graham’s accomplishments are, without doubt, legion. The widely cited estimate that he preached to some 215 million people is likely in the ballpark. And while the nineteenth-century lawyer-turned-evangelist Charles Finney must be credited with inventing modern revivalism, Graham perfected and scaled it, turning evangelicalism into worldwide impulse that has transformed Christianity in recent decades in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. But almost two decades ago, Graham handed over the keys of the empire to his son, Franklin. And if you want to chart the troubled recent course of American evangelicalism—its powerful rise after World War II and its surprisingly quick demise in recent years—you need look no further than this father-and-son duo of Billy and Franklin Graham. The father was a powerful evangelist who turned evangelicalism into the dominant spiritual impulse in modern America. His son is—not to put too fine a point on it—a political hack, one who is rapidly rebranding evangelicalism as a belief system marked not by faith, hope, and love but by fear of Muslims and homophobia. As a staunch believer in sin, Billy Graham would have been the first to admit that he was a flawed man. His determination to be about his father’s business meant he left almost all the parenting of his five children to his wife Ruth. The rabid anti-communism that caught Hearst’s attention blinded Graham in his early years to the ways the United States had fallen far short of its ideals. Graham got into bed with the wrong man in Richard Nixon. And while he must be praised for integrating his revivals (which he called crusades) and for inviting the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to deliver an invocation at his massive New York City crusade in 1957, he was missing in action when it came to civil rights legislation. After King imagined in his 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech” a “beloved community” in which “little black boys and little black girls will join hands with little white boys and white girls,” Graham dismissed that dream as utopian. "Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children," he said. As a young boy growing up in an Episcopal household, I watched Billy Graham at least a dozen times as he preached his straightforward gospel of sin and salvation on national television. I was dazzled by what I later learned to describe as his charisma. He was tall and handsome. There was a sweet urgency in his voice. And he didn’t seem to be hiding anything behind his deep-set blue eyes. So I may be unduly forgiving of his faults. But I still view him as a good man who was ultimately chastened by his chumminess with Nixon, who worked hard to transcend the racism and anti-Semitism that swirled around him as a farm boy in North Carolina, and who understood (at his best) that the Christian message (at its best) is about love rather than fear, inclusion rather than exclusion. When he spoke to the nation at the post-9/11 memorial service at Washington’s National Cathedral, he spoke of evil, but he did not denounce Islam. Throughout his career, Graham was criticized by fundamentalists for working with Catholics and liberal Protestants at his crusades. He prayed with Democratic and Republican presidents. And instead of castigating Christianity’s religious rivals, he focused on preaching Christ. When asked to join in common cause with Jerry Falwell after the foundation of the Moral Majority in 1979, Graham refused to yoke his organization to the cultural wars of the Religious Right and the Republican Party. And almost immediately after saying during a 1993 crusade in Columbus, Ohio, that AIDS might be “a judgment of God,” he retracted those words, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer a few days later, “I don't believe that and I don't know why I said it. . . . To say God has judged people with AIDS would be very wrong and very cruel. I would like to say that I am very sorry for what I said.” Franklin Graham is a very different sort of man, better known today for his right-wing political pronouncements than for his evangelism. Shortly after 9/11, Franklin Graham provided the sound bite of today’s culture wars when he denounced Islam as “a very wicked and evil religion.” He later became the standard bearer for the view that Islam is, in his words “a religion of hatred . . . a religion of war.” In addition to purveying the birther nonsense that helped to propel Donald Trump to political prominence, Franklin Graham suggested that President Barack Obama was not a Christian and might in fact be a secret Muslim. Along with Jerry Falwell’s son, Jerry Falwell Jr., he helped to elect Trump president by swinging 80 percent of white evangelical voters to his side. And then when Trump was elected he attributed his victory not to a surge of White Christian support or to swing states in the Midwest but to divine providence. Franklin Graham seems blissfully unaware of the possibility that there might be even the slimmest of gaps between the words that come out of his mouth and the words written down in scripture. More damningly, he demonstrates no awareness of the ways in which his political pronouncements are breaking down the evangelical witness his father devoted so much energy to building up. During World War II era, European churches were hurt badly by the affiliation of Christianity with right-wing political movements. During the 1940s and 1950s, the United States persisted in its religiosity as European countries secularized. In fact, the Americans witnessed a powerful religious revival after the war, thanks in part to Billy Graham. That revival is over. Religion is now declining in the United States, and evangelicalism with it. In fact, over the last decade, the portion of white evangelical Protestants in the United States declined from 23 percent to 17 percent. The most significant development in American religion in recent years is the shocking rise of the religiously unaffiliated (otherwise known as “nones”), who now account for roughly one quarter of all Americans. This increasing distance from religious institutions is accompanied by increasing distance from religious beliefs and practices. Today 27 percent of Americans describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” and another 18 percent as “neither religious nor spiritual.” There are many reasons for this decline in religious believing and belonging. But the most important in my view is the increasing identification of the Christian churches with right-wing politics. If you are among the 26 percent of eligible voters who voted for Trump, you likely applaud this development. But what about the other 74 percent? One of Billy Graham’s few Christian rivals during his heyday in the 1950s and 1960s was the Union Theological Seminary professor Reinhold Niebuhr, who criticized Graham for his “pietistic individualism” and his neglect of social sin. Graham read and reflected on Niebuhr, but stuck for the most part to his simpler message that the world would be saved only through individual regeneration. To his credit, however, Graham internalized some of the teachings of Niebuhr, including the tendency of mere mortals to mistake God’s voice for their own, and to mistake the gospel of Christ for the gospel of American civilization. In short, Graham had a humility almost entirely lost among the public preachers of our day, his eldest son included. The qualities of temper and judgment that made Billy Graham so singularly successful are almost entirely lacking in his son, who now imperils his father’s legacy. Thanks to Franklin Graham and his cronies on the Religious Right, American evangelicalism has now become first and foremost a political rather than a spiritual enterprise. The life of Billy Graham helped build it up. And his death may well have ensured its demise. Stephen Prothero is a professor of religion at Boston University and the author of Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections): The Battles That Define America from Jefferson’s Heresies to Gay Marriage (HarperOne). https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/24/billy-graham-evangelical-decline-franklin-graham-217077
Trump-Russia: Ex-aide refuses to co-operate with Mueller probe A former aide to Donald Trump says he will not co-operate with the inquiry into alleged Russian election meddling. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43295989
United Airlines shelves lottery bonus program after employee backlash United Airlines' executives had introduced a plan to replace automatic bonuses with a lottery. United's president said executives "misjudged" how employees would receive the plan. Under the new plan, one employee would have won a drawing for a $100,000 prize each quarter. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/05/united-airlines-swaps-quarterly-bonuses-with-a-lottery-angering-some.html
Facebook asked users whether they want child grooming to be allowed on the site Facebook asked its users whether they would like child grooming to be permitted on the site. In a surreal survey, it asked how it should approach the issue — but didn't give contacting the police as an option. British politicians have criticised the social network's questioning as "stupid and irresponsible." http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-survey-asks-users-about-child-grooming-2018-3
Facebook survey asked if 'adult man' should be allowed to request 'sexual pictures' from 14-year-old Facebook asked some users if they thought the company should host content from child sexual predators and violent extremists. The company then reversed course and pulled the surveys after they were spotted by a U.K. media outlet. The wording of the questions was puzzling given that both types of offensive content have long been banned by Facebook's own terms of use. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/05/facebook-asks-users-if-child-predator-content-ok.html
The killer disease with no vaccine Since the beginning of the year, Nigeria has been gripped by an outbreak of a deadly disease. Lassa fever is one of a number of illnesses which can cause dangerous epidemics, but for which no vaccine currently exists. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43211086