WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Kellyanne Conway, the Republican pollster and strategist who helped guide Donald J. Trump to victory in November, on Thursday was appointed counselor to the president, becoming the woman at the White House and one of his principal messengers to the public. Ms. Conway will be joined in the West Wing, steps from the Oval Office, by Sean Spicer, a veteran Washington political operative, who will be the face of Mr. Trump's administration as its press secretary, the transition team announced. Along with several other White House communications specialists appointed on Thursday, the pair will wage daily battles with legislators on Mr. Trump's behalf while seeking to preserve the president's political power base among voters outside the capital. Ms. Conway and Mr. Spicer will also be responsible for a relationship with the press corps that has often turned antagonistic. The 's team has hinted that they may change the way reporters are treated, and possibly eliminate the daily press briefing, after a campaign during which Mr. Trump frequently derided reporters as dishonest. Ms. Conway, 49, who took over as Mr. Trump's campaign manager in August, shortly after the Republican convention, guided him through a brutal and divisive campaign, often appearing on television to vouch for him during periods of scandal or controversy. She stood by Mr. Trump after a 2005 tape surfaced in which he boasted about groping women, proving her loyalty and helping secure her position as someone who will have the president's ear on a wide variety of topics. In a statement, the said Ms. Conway would continue her role as a "close adviser," responsible for helping carry out his priorities and delivering his message from inside the White House. "She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message," Mr. Trump said. "I am pleased that she will be part of my senior team in the West Wing. " Jason Miller, a Republican operative who was an early spokesman for Mr. Trump during the campaign, will become the communications director at the White House, transition officials announced. Hope Hicks, who served as a campaign spokeswoman, will become the director of strategic communications, and Dan Scavino will be the director of social media. The new members of the staff will have the power to shape Mr. Trump's presence in Washington as he makes the transition from businessman to president. The is also under pressure from his supporters to deal aggressively with the national press corps. And his political advisers will help guide him through a potentially contentious relationship with some members of Congress, including ones from his own party. The West Wing sweepstakes has provoked a weekslong roiling debate within Mr. Trump's circle over who should fill prime posts. It also reflected the 's apparent dissatisfaction with some of his options for who would appear at the White House podium as press secretary. Mr. Trump had hoped to have a woman at least share those briefing duties. But after Ms. Conway declined, Mr. Trump eventually dismissed alternatives that could have signaled a more hostile approach to the press, such as the conservative radio host Laura Ingraham and Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Fox News host and commentator. Mr. Spicer, 45, is a fierce advocate for Mr. Trump and can be combative with reporters. But he is also a familiar face in Washington, having served for years as the chief spokesman for the Republican National Committee. His ascension to one of the most visible jobs in Washington represents a victory for Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and the incoming chief of staff, in internal jockeying with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump's as well as with Stephen K. Bannon, who will be Mr. Trump's chief White House strategist, and Vice Mike Pence. Mr. Trump is deeply fond of Ms. Conway, whose job as counselor will give her frequent access to the president. Considered a "Trump whisperer" during the campaign, and someone who was particularly adept at explaining his appeal to voters, Ms. Conway will serve as one of the chief protectors of Mr. Trump's political brand. She also has been a favorite strategist for other conservative candidates, such as Newt Gingrich during the 2012 presidential race, and she was an adviser to Mr. Pence during his run for governor of Indiana. She has reportedly clashed at times with Mr. Priebus and Mr. Kushner. Both men were frustrated when she gave a series of interviews in which she criticized Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, who was being considered for secretary of state despite having been a key figure of opposition to Mr. Trump during the campaign. With a approach that has appealed to Mr. Trump, Ms. Conway was credited during the campaign — even by Democrats who opposed her — with smoothing out some of Mr. Trump's most jagged edges during her appearances on television. In the coming days, Mr. Trump is also expected to name three deputy chiefs of staff to help Mr. Priebus manage the sprawling operations at the White House. Among those being considered for these posts are Katie Walsh, who was the chief of staff at the Republican National Committee Joe Hagin, who was the deputy chief of staff for operations through most of George W. Bush's administration and Rick A. Dearborn, who was the chief of staff to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who has been selected by Mr. Trump to serve as attorney general. Tending to Mr. Trump's relationships in Washington is likely to fall, in part, to Bill Stepien, who is in line to be the new political director. Mr. Stepien once played that role as the longtime political adviser to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, but was fired for his part in the scandal involving a plot to punish a Democratic mayor by closing traffic lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge. Mr. Stepien has been credited by Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bannon, who brought him on board in August, with helping them secure Mr. Trump's victory in November. It is unclear how Mr. Trump intends to use David Bossie, who left the conservative nonprofit group Citizens United to be the deputy campaign manager, and was among Mr. Trump's earliest informal advisers about a presidential run. Mr. Bossie frequently clashed with Mr. Priebus, and Mr. Trump was dissatisfied with him by the end of the campaign. He has sought to be a deputy chief of staff. One loyal aide who will not be joining the president's White House staff is Corey Lewandowski, who was recruited to be Mr. Trump's first campaign manager at the recommendation of Mr. Bossie. Mr. Lewandowski, who was fired from the campaign early last summer, waged the most visible fight for a role at the White House. In the end, though, he will remain outside the gates, announcing on Twitter on Wednesday that he has set up a Washington public relations and consulting business a block from the White House. "I will always be President Trump's biggest supporter," Mr. Lewandowski wrote in a news release announcing the new business, Avenue Strategies. The of the firm is Barry Bennett, who managed the presidential campaign of Ben Carson Mr. Lewandowski brought him onto the Trump campaign after Mr. Carson dropped out.


U.S. President Donald Trump has re-tweeted anti-Islam videos originally posted by Jayda Fransen, a leader of a far-right British party convicted earlier in November of abusing a Muslim woman. Fransen is deputy leader of the anti-immigrant Britain First group. Here are some details about her organization: Britain First was founded in 2011 by leader Paul Golding with a membership of three individuals. It describes itself as a "patriotic political party and street movement", although critics denounce it as a far-right, racist organization. "Britain First is committed to preserving our ancestral ethnic and cultural heritage, traditions, customs and values," it says on its website. It wants to deport all illegal immigrants, halt all further immigration, and introduce "a comprehensive ban on the religion of Islam" with headscarves being outlawed in public. "Anyone found to be promoting the ideology of Islam will be subject to deportation or imprisonment," its policy platform states. It holds protests across the country, usually attended by a couple of hundred supporters at most, many of whom hold white crosses because the group argues Christianity in Britain is being threatened by immigration and the growth of militant Islam. Golding was a former senior figure in the far-right British National Party and was elected a local councillor in 2009. In his biography on the group's website it says he was "sent to prison in 2016 for confronting a Muslim hate preacher who was secretly recorded saying it's okay for Muslims to keep sex slaves". Golding stood for election as London mayor in May 2016, winning 31,372 votes, 1.2 percent of all cast. Fransen, who was elected deputy leader in 2014, was convicted of religiously aggravated harassment in November 2017, and both she and Golding are facing further similar charges. The group gained prominence in June 2016 when Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot dead on the street by a Nazi-obsessed loner who witnesses said had been shouting "Britain first" during the attack. Fransen told Reuters the killer had nothing to do with her group.


Two influential U.S. Congressmen have asked the World Health Organization's cancer agency to get ready to testify about its work assessing if substances cause cancer, citing concerns about its "scientific integrity". Their letter to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), seen by Reuters and sent on Wednesday, is part of ongoing investigations by two Congressional committees into IARC that were fueled by the agency's review of glyphosate, the primary ingredient of Monsanto Co's weedkiller Roundup. A letter to IARC director Chris Wild from the Republican chairmen of the House Committee on Science and the Subcommittee on Environment said they are "concerned about the scientific integrity" of IARC's "monograph" program, which assesses whether various substances can cause cancer in people. IARC, a semi-autonomous part of the WHO based in Lyon, France, has in recent years assessed whether substances as diverse as coffee, mobile phones and processed meat cause cancer - reports that have all caused controversy. A spokeswoman for IARC said she could not immediately comment on whether the letter had been received. IARC says its methods are scientifically sound and its monographs are "widely respected for their scientific rigor, standardized and transparent process and ... freedom from conflicts of interest". In a second letter seen by Reuters, the Congressmen, Lamar Smith and Andy Biggs, expressed concern that IARC's assessment meetings, deliberations and drafts are not made public. "It is an affront to scientific integrity to keep 'confidential' a scientific process that directly influences policy and individual taxpayers," Smith and Biggs wrote. "With United States' taxpayer dollars funding (part of the monograph program), it is this (Science) Committee's duty to ensure sound science and transparency within the agency." Citing data from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the letter to Wild said that since 1985, IARC has received more than $48 million from NIH, more than $22 million of which went to the monographs program. It added that Smith's Committee on Science, Space and Technology may soon hold a hearing to receive testimony from IARC on how it conducts its reviews. It asked Wild to provide "names and contact information of IARC-affiliated individuals who would serve as potential witnesses for this hearing". The second letter, sent on Wednesday to acting U.S. Health Secretary Eric Hargan, asked his department to provide "all documents and communications between or among members of the IARC monograph program and any research institutes or agencies within HHS." In this letter, the lawmakers said their aim was to understand the extent to which the taxpayer-funded National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institutes of Health are involved with IARC's monograph process. This is "to ensure scientific integrity and an honest use of taxpayer dollars", the letter said. In an assessment in 2015 that put it at odds with many government regulators, including those in the United States, Europe and Japan, IARC classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic". A Reuters investigation in October found that a draft of a key section of IARC's assessment of glyphosate underwent significant changes before the report was made public. Reuters also reported in June on how the chairman of the IARC glyphosate panel was aware of new data showing no link between the weed-killer and cancer in humans, but the agency did not take it into account because it had not been published. The Congressional committee letters cited these Reuters investigations as well as other media reports, saying they revealed "troubling evidence" about the way IARC operates. In the letters, Smith and Biggs asked IARC to respond by Nov. 8, and the department of Health and Human Services to respond by Nov. 15.


U.S. Judge James Robart emerged from relative obscurity on Saturday as the first jurist to come under fire from the president since he took office after his temporary order to lift Donald Trump's immigration ban. In a reaction that went viral on Twitter, Trump called the 69-year-old Robart a "so-called judge" whose "ridiculous" opinion "essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country." To those who know Robart, who has been on the federal bench in Seattle for more than a decade after his appointment by another Republican, President George W. Bush, the ensuing drama surrounding the move was a far cry from the judge's standard. "He is relatively apolitical," said Douglas Adkins, a private equity investor and former investment banker who has known Robart since childhood. "He's not a conservative or a liberal. He's a man interested in the law and fairness." Late on Friday, Robart grabbed national headlines with his decision to temporarily lift Trump's week-old travel ban for citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries and refugees. His ruling was just a first step in considering the merits of the case challenging the ban. The Justice Department on Saturday filed a formal notice that it intends to appeal the ruling. As a candidate, Trump had criticized federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was overseeing a case against his Trump University - arguing Curiel could not be impartial because of his Mexican heritage and Trump's vow to crack down on Mexican immigrants. But by lashing out at Robart as president, Trump's anti-judiciary stance takes on new importance: it hits at the very heart of the checks and balances system meant to protect the country from government abuse of power. Coincidentally, in his wide-reaching ruling on Friday, Robart emphasized that the three branches of government - the executive branch, Congress and the judiciary - should function as equals. "The work of the Judiciary, and this court, is limited to ensuring that the actions taken by the other two branches comport with our country's laws, and more importantly, our constitution," Robart wrote. Reached by email, Robart declined to comment on Trump's tweets. A graduate of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and Georgetown University Law Center, Robart spent 30 years in private practice at the law firm now known as Lane Powell, before being appointed to the bench by Bush in 2004. Adkins said Robart and his wife have no children but have been foster parents to several immigrant children over the years, primarily from Southeast Asia. Robart could not be reached for comment. The judge served in the past as the president of the Seattle Children's Home and was a former trustee of the Children's Home Society of Washington, according to his official biography on the federal court website. Those organizations provide mental health services for at-risk youth and help troubled families. "His involvement with children may have helped contribute to his understanding of the people impacted by this ruling but would not have shaped his interpretation of the rule of law," said Paul Lawrence, who was one of the attorneys who filed an amicus brief backing Washington State in the immigration case. During his confirmation hearing, Robart recalled providing pro-bono legal services early in his career to "people who in many times felt that the legal system was stacked against them." He said he learned that the law "could be, if properly used, an opportunity for them to seek redress if they had been wronged," according to a transcript of the testimony. Often sporting bow-ties with his black robes, Robart is known for saying from the bench in 2016 that "black lives matter." He cited the statement popularized by protesters during a hearing about a 2012 consent decree with the federal government that required the Seattle police department to address allegations of bias and excessive force. In 2011, Robart put a temporary hold on a state rule change that would have cut government funding for disabled children and families in Washington. "When faced with a conflict between the financial and budgetary concerns ... and the preventable human suffering," Robart wrote in that opinion, "the balance of hardships tips in the favor of preventing human suffering." Adkins said he thought his friend would be able to take Trump's attacks in stride. "His view is that criticism is important," said Adkins.


Saad al-Hariri, who resigned from his post as Lebanon s prime minister two weeks ago from Saudi Arabia, said on Friday he has been in Saudi for discussions on the future of the situation in Lebanon and its relations with the surrounding Arab region . Writing on Twitter, Hariri also said information which has been circulating about his stay, his departure and his family are just rumors .


With the nation focused on anti-LGBT religious liberty battles, a Mississippi landlord has done something that brings focus back to one of our nation s prior fights over religious liberty the right to discriminate against interracial couples. In 2011, a poll taken among Republicans in the Red state of Mississippi revealed that a shocking 46 percent of them want to ban interracial marriages outright.In 1946, then-Mississippi Governor Theodore Bilbo wrote that [p]urity of race is a gift of God And God, in his infinite wisdom, has so ordained it that when man destroys his racial purity, it can never be redeemed and that God was the original segregationist. He may be dead, and African-Americans may have rights now (including the freedom to marry anyone they choose) that they did not have when Bilbo was in charge, but his spirit lives on in RV park landlord Gene Baker, who admitted over the weekend that he evicted an interracial couple simply because they were an interracial couple. Me and my husband, not ever in 10 years have we experienced any problem, said Erica Flores Dunahoo, who is Hispanic and Native American. Nobody s given us dirty looks. This is our first time. Her husband, a former National Guardsman of more than a decade, is black something that bothers the racist landlord s friends, neighbors, and church.In February, Dunahoo and her husband, Standley Hoskins, and their two children were set to move into an RV sace to save money and get our life on track, the lighter half of the interracial couple explained. On February 28, she gave Baker a check for $275 to pay for a month s rent. This should have been the end of it she paid her rent and inexchange she should have been allowed to stay. In fact, there were no problems that first day. He was real nice, she said. He invited me to church and gave me a hug. I bragged on him to my family. Unfortunately, the next morning, Baker called her, fuming:Dunahoo told him that she didn t realize it would be a problem. It is, after all, 2016. Oh, it s a big problem with the members of my church, my community and my mother-in-law, Baker told her. They don t allow that black and white shacking. We re not shacking. We re married, she replied, but Baker would have none of it, explaining that it s the same thing. You don t talk like you wouldn t be with no black man, the church-going Christian continued. If you would had come across like you were with a black man, we wouldn t have this problem right now. Dunahoo explained that her husband is not a thug, and told Baker of his distinguished and lengthy service to our country, but that didn t matter to the landlord. All he saw was black. He returned the $275 and forced them to leave. They took refuge at another RV park, where rent is higher $325 a month.Baker maintains that he is not a racist, telling the Clarion-Ledger that he only refused to provide a space to the couple because of the issues members of his church and community had with a black man and a light-skinned woman shacking. He even says they would be welcome to attend his church. They just could not be members, because the church does not believe in interracial marriage.To avoid future issues, he plans to completely close his RV park down just in case he ever encounters another interracial couple who wishes to rent a space: I m closing it down, and that solves the problem. Recently, the Mississippi state Senate passed a religious liberty bill allowing businesses to deny service to the LGBT community just like they used to do (and some individuals currently still do) with interracial couples.Hate is hate and unfortunately the state of Mississippi is full of it, apparently.Watch a report on this blatant and unabashed act of discrimination below:


Senior defense officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held trilateral talks and urged North Korea to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of weapons development, the U.S. military said in a statement. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford hosted his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at the U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii on Sunday to exchange views on North Korea s recent long-range ballistic missile and nuclear tests. Together they called upon North Korea to refrain from irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tensions, and to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of development, the statement said.


Russia's countersanctions for Syria will hit the West below the belt 08.11.2016 Print version Font Size The West and Russia are entering the third year of the war of sanctions . Washington threatens to impose new sanctions against Russia, this time for Syria. Russia will take "painful measures" in response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. Pravda.Ru offers the list of counter sanctions that we made up on the basis of experts' opinions. 1. Russia's first answer would be the abolition of neo-liberal economic policies and transition to a new economic development strategy . This will block channels of Western influence on our country and thus become the most asymmetric, but a tough answer to Western sanctions, said Ruslan Dzarasov, Doctor of Economics, head of the department of political economy at the Russian Economic University named after Plekhanov.The expert noted that "we continue to adhere to the export growth model, taking capital to the West and forming the budget on the basis of financial interests of capital rather than domestic consumers." Russia, the expert said, should introduce a combination of state planning and market sector, "similar to what the USSR was doing during the 1920s .""The state should ensure the financial transparency of corporations, expand the rights of trade unions and workers, strengthen social control over big business, show influence on the formation prices in economy to eliminate price disparity in favor of the mining export sector to the detriment of the manufacturing industry," Ruslan Dzarasov told Pravda.Ru.2. Russia could refuse from saving its reserves in US dollars . Russia does not take the first place in terms of dollar savings in the world, but it could still cause a serious blow on the Western financial system, Valentin Katasonov, Doctor of Economics, Professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Finance, the head of Russian Economic Society named after S.F. Sharapov, told Pravda.Ru."A lot of Russia's liabilities in national gold and currency reserves are nominated in US dollars. Should they are put on the market, the US dollar will suffer greatly ," leading expert at the Union of Oil and Gas Industrialists, Rustam Tankan said. Noteworthy, some privately run Russian companies already abandon the US dollar in their activities. Megafon, one of Russia's three leading cellular providers, converted about 40 percent of dollar deposits in euros and Hong Kong dollars. The company transferred the funds to accounts in major Chinese banks. Norilsk Nickel took similar measures. The Hong Kong dollar is a Chinese foreign clone of the dollar, and the USA is unable to impose any sanctions on this currency . Russia has started abandoning from the US dollar as a reserve currency by opening the Raw Materials Exchange of St. Petersburg, where Russian energy carriers are traded in rubles. 3. Russia could freeze assets of US investors in the Russian economy . "Foreign citizens are the ultimate beneficiaries of our shadow holdings. There are tricky financial mechanisms in the timber industry, for instance," Igor Gerasimov, member of the Committee for Business Security at the Chamber of Commerce, security expert, told Pravda.Ru. The shadow mechanism works as follows. A wood-working company does most of the work, while most of the profit goes to a "general contractor." The latter pays the company a relative price for production, plus a minimum profit. Most of the profit goes to specific individuals, to accounts of foreign companies. Therefore, Russia could adopt laws about the nationalization of natural resources and city-forming enterprises, said Igor Gerasimov.4. The State Duma of the Russian Federation has already discussed a draft law to relieve state-run and privately-owned Russian companies from debts totaling $700 billion . These debts are held by Western banks of the countries that threatened to impose sanctions against Russia.5. Sanctions in the field of high technology will be no less sensitive. "Russian titanium will cease to arrive at European companies, and this will certainly be a very significant act of pressure on our partners," Alexei Mukhin, general director of the Center for Political Information told Pravda.Ru. Boeing and United Technologies, as well as Europe's Airbus Group, purchase most of their titanium from Avisma, a Russian company, which happens to be the world's largest titanium producer . Yet, it goes about only 30 percent of needs. The USA remains entirely dependent on Russia in the field of rocket engines . RD-180 is a six-ton liquid rocket engine with a thrust of more than 400 tons. The USA has been using Russian rocket engines since 2000. US Congress passed the budget, which provided for the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase an "unlimited" number of RD-180 rocket engines. 6. Russia's sanctions against Western airlines would lead to their elimination . A great deal of airlines fly across the territory of Russia and save a lot of money on this, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Andrei Klimov, told Pravda.Ru."If all of a sudden, the Russian authorities try to do something in this field, it will generate huge profits to companies from such countries as the United Arab Emirates, but at the same time it will cause serious financial damage to German, French and other air carriers," - said the expert.7. Many large companies in the West have a strong lobby in legislative authorities. Therefore, the input of targeted sanctions under the pretext of violation of rules and regulations would be a very strong response . Starting from 1 November 2016, Russia banned imports of salt from the EU, the US, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Albania and Ukraine. On February 15, 2016 Russia banned imports of soybeans and corn from the United States, including through third countries. Russia still imports various food products from the United States, spending millions of dollars a year (PepsiCo, Starbucks, Cargill, McDonald's), pharmaceuticals (Pfizer), cosmetic products (Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson), plastics, machinery, textiles, footwear, automobiles (Ford, General Motors) as well as products under the "secret code" worth $554 million in the first half of 2016. Lyuba Lulko Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru Is Russia scared of Western sanctions?


It s somewhat terrifying listening to how some of how our young people praise Donald Trump and how he d like to govern the country. It s also more than disconcerting when you hear them just parrot talking points that have no basis in reality. Such as, Conservative values are ensuring that the government doesn t get too involved in people s lives. They ve apparently never witnessed their conservative legislators trying to dictate the lives of women and the LGBT community. Maybe they mean their lives other people, well, that s different.You ll also hear these kids talk about the standard catch phrases like family values, which has been code for hating gays for a very long time, as well as limited government which is code for limited regulations on business. Because as aforementioned, they have no problem making sure government gets involved in the lives of those they don t agree with.These young cons even had the audacity to say: The worst Republican is better than the best Democrat. Really? Where the hell did you hear that? And most of these young conservatives would actually vote for Donald Trump if he were to become the nominee. However, not all of them have fallen for The Donald s schtick.You really need to witness the insanity for yourself. Caution, you ll be left wondering where our society went wrong.// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Here s what young conservatives have to say about Donald Trump.Posted by ATTN: on Tuesday, February 9, 2016Video/Featured image: Facebook


Every year, about 30 Americans die in avalanches, with an additional 110 deaths in Canada and Europe. Skiers and snowmobilers account for the vast majority of these deaths. Jordy Hendrikx has lost friends and a student to such disasters. An earth sciences professor and director of the Snow and Avalanche Laboratory at Montana State University, Dr. Hendrikx studied the geophysics of snow for a decade before he decided that, to prevent avalanche accidents, human behavior in the backcountry needed to be better understood. Scientists and avalanche forecasters have a good grasp on how weather and terrain contribute to avalanches. Research suggests that statistical avalanche forecasts have about an 80 percent accuracy rate, and forecasts made with expert judgment tend to be even more accurate. But human activity is a huge — and unpredictable — factor in avalanches. "Avalanches aren't just acts of God," Dr. Hendrikx said. "About 90 percent of avalanche victims trigger the avalanche themselves. " These accidents are rarely a result of ignorance. People traveling in the backcountry usually understand avalanche forecasts and know how to read the terrain. What they are unaware of, Dr. Hendrikx believes, "is how they make decisions in a group, under different settings and different pressures. " To untangle these processes, Dr. Hendrikx teamed up with Jerry Johnson, a professor of political science at Montana State University, to start their Tracks Project in 2013. The project relies on backcountry skiers and snowmobilers who record their slope movements and answer survey questions using their smartphones. The researchers have collected reports from more than 800 people around the world. Among their preliminary findings, some are intuitive. Older people, especially those with children, make more conservative decisions. Young, groups take more risks. Those firmly set on a goal, like conquering a new slope, make riskier choices. Other findings are more surprising. Though going out alone in the backcountry tends to be seen as risky, project respondents who were solo travelers tended to make safer choices than those who traveled in larger groups. Some evidence suggests larger groups make riskier decisions. Part of that may be peer pressure or a desire to show off. Part of it may be the expert halo, which causes people to blindly defer to the perceived authority in the group instead of communicating about perceived dangers. Faced with the same avalanche conditions, experts chose steeper terrain, where avalanches are more likely to be triggered, than others. The Tracks Project follows work from an avalanche researcher named Ian McCammon, who, in the early 2000s, analyzed 715 recreational avalanche fatalities in the United States across three decades. Among other findings, he suggested that skiers took more risks when they were familiar with a route or when competing for "first tracks" on fresh powder. Unlike Dr. McCammon, Dr. Johnson explained, "we're also looking at the good side of the story, which is that 99 percent of people are using the terrain appropriately. " Though the number of people engaging in backcountry sports has surged in the last decade, the accident rate has remained steady. From survey responses, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Hendrikx have found that groups that preplanned routes and made communication a priority made better decisions. People who dug pits to assess snow characteristics or looked for recent avalanche activity before going down a slope sometimes changed routes to avoid danger. The researchers hope their findings can help improve avalanche education. They also believe their research can help others who traverse tricky terrain in their work, such as wildland firefighters and military personnel. These wider implications drive Dr. Hendrikx. "At some point, I realized I could spend the next 10 years looking at the minute details of how snow surface crystals form, and maybe save one or two lives," he said. "But really understanding the matrix, and how group dynamics affect it — I felt this is where I could make the biggest impact, and ultimately, save more lives. "


Iowa Girl Faces Death: Life Destroyed by Gardasil Vaccine  by Health Impact News  The VAXXED film crew continues interviewing people who are vaccine damaged around the country. They were recently in Iowa, and interviewed the family of Sydney Weggen.  Sydney states that before Gardasil she used to dance up to 5 hours every day, but now she does not dance at all.  Her school recommended to her parents that she get the Tdap vaccine, because a student in her class with pertussis "coughed on" her. Sydney was almost 11 years old at that time.  When they took her to their doctor to get the pertussis vaccine, they were offered the Gardasil vaccine as well. Because they had seen many commercials on TV for the Gardasil shot, and because the doctor was recommending it, they consented and Sydney received the first Gardasil shot. She also received the second and third shots a few months apart.  Sydney began to have appetite problems, not being able to eat much. She began to lose weight. She lost over 20 lbs. before her 12th birthday and became anemic. Doctors thought at this point it was a psychiatric problem, and not physical. The parents were told it was "all in her head."  As her condition continued to deteriorate, blood work done suggested there was something physical going on, and she was referred to the university hospital to check for some autoimmune sickness, such as Crohn's Disease or Lupus.  After being admitted to the University of Iowa Hospital, they ran further tests. Her right lung was found full of fluid. But the doctors could not figure out what the problem was, and so they waited for more specialists to look at her.  As they waited, her weight dropped to only 66 lbs., and her parents realized that she was dying.  Someone suggested they take her to the Mayo clinic so they could get some answers. After spending $20,000.00 on tests, they were still not getting results. They had to put a stent in to get her lung to keep functioning.   VaccineImpact.com.  Watch the entire interview: More information about Gardasil Leaving a lucrative career as a nephrologist (kidney doctor), Dr. Suzanne Humphries is now free to actually help cure people. In this autobiography she explains why good doctors are constrained within the current corrupt medical system from practicing real, ethical medicine. FREE Shipping Available! Order here . Medical Doctors Opposed to Forced Vaccinations – Should Their Views be Silenced? eBook – Available for immediate download.  One of the biggest myths being propagated in the compliant mainstream media today is that doctors are either pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine, and that the anti-vaccine doctors are all "quacks."  However, nothing could be further from the truth in the vaccine debate. Doctors are not unified at all on their positions regarding "the science" of vaccines, nor are they unified in the position of removing informed consent to a medical procedure like vaccines.  The two most extreme positions are those doctors who are 100% against vaccines and do not administer them at all, and those doctors that believe that ALL vaccines are safe and effective for ALL people, ALL the time, by force if necessary.  Very few doctors fall into either of these two extremist positions, and yet it is the extreme pro-vaccine position that is presented by the U.S. Government and mainstream media as being the dominant position of the medical field.  In between these two extreme views, however, is where the vast majority of doctors practicing today would probably categorize their position. Many doctors who consider themselves "pro-vaccine," for example, do not believe that every single vaccine is appropriate for every single individual.  Many doctors recommend a "delayed" vaccine schedule for some patients, and not always the recommended one-size-fits-all CDC childhood schedule. Other doctors choose to recommend vaccines based on the actual science and merit of each vaccine, recommending some, while determining that others are not worth the risk for children, such as the suspect seasonal flu shot.  These doctors who do not hold extreme positions would be opposed to government-mandated vaccinations and the removal of all parental exemptions.  In this eBook, I am going to summarize the many doctors today who do not take the most extremist pro-vaccine position, which is probably not held by very many doctors at all, in spite of what the pharmaceutical industry, the federal government, and the mainstream media would like the public to believe. Read : Medical Doctors Opposed to Forced Vaccinations – Should Their Views be Silenced? on your mobile device!


If you ve ever wondered why suddenly, now, Christian conservatives are making a huge stink over where people go to the bathroom, grab a match and take a look at this attack ad in Texas.Mail piece says @BriscoeCain is well known to those who frequent gay bars in Montrose section of Houston #TxLege pic.twitter.com/fqMH682gWz Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) May 20, 2016On its face, it looks like a pretty standard below the belt political attack ad. It might make a candidate an asshole and a bigot to spread unfounded rumors that your opponent is gay, but on the next page is where the real insight into the Republican party is: Irony: Mailer against a Hotze-backed candidate, @BriscoeCain, says he should be kept out of men s bathrooms #TxLege pic.twitter.com/wLOzL3nQRY Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) May 20, 2016The transgender bathroom laws that are popping up across the country are not specifically about transgender people. Once the Supreme Court ruled that marriage equality was the law of the land, anti-gay bigots had to take their fight elsewhere. Besides, gay marriage might not be so bad if you don t actually have to see people *gasp* holding hands or *I feel faint* kissing. What s a better way to keep people out of the public than to ban them from using public restrooms?If you think this is a bit of a stretch, think about the bathroom laws themselves. Imagine a very masculine looking man, who happened to have been born with a vagina. Do women, who already see predators around every corner, really want to share a bathroom with him? Should a woman, feminine in every way except for what s between her legs, be forced to use the men s room? Of course not. Anti-LGBT conservatives don t want them to use the bathroom at all, just like Briscoe Cain s opponent doesn t want him in bathrooms.Yes, this is just one person, but this guy (unfortunately, not a Republican) feels that gay people should have their own bathrooms. You know, separate, but equal.Here are a few more charmers:Keep the freaks, perverts, and Fags out of the bathrooms!! https://t.co/owUwDcjhGz Lisa Smith (@JuliaKi96952130) May 9, 2016 i m not against gender neutral bathrooms, but can we get a faggot only restroom?For all the fags. Grant (@DieBABIP) April 28, 2016When you #fags have your own bathrooms fully designed I will support the #LGBT community in having them built across the nation> #Deal? James Perry (@fuzzydeduction) March 25, 2016 Question: Why are fags allowed to use male bathrooms? Jim Screechie (@WaHeName) October 27, 2014@Holden114 I don t really see why. Gay men can use bathrooms that little boys use. Is there something wrong with that? Brandt (@UrbanAchievr) May 13, 2016 I remember reading about how people were afraid gay men would rape boys in men s bathrooms. The news media must be covering up those reports I m fejimanz (@fejimanz) May 9, 2016why are gay men allowed in men bathrooms, they like men, why they in the same bathroom? Now the guys that cut it off, want another bathroom ASTRONAUT (@astronaut_____1) May 4, 2016 I propose we also put in bathrooms strictly for lesbians and gay men. Idk like if im peeing and a lesbian just walks in idk man Cat (@pleasecatcallme) April 26, 2016You hate fighting off unwanted advances? Try being a woman.This is why fags should not share bathrooms with us straight guys ? https://t.co/mdV3kliW6v Mist (@HolyChanteuse) April 19, 2016Apparently, beaches should also be off limits to gay people: @zekestokes said he s gonna lead a boycott against Myrtle Beach Bc of trans bathrooms. Haha. Like we care. Who wants fags at the beach? Gator Chomper (@Swampnut) May 3, 2016Ironically, Cain is a Tea Party candidate and he s about as anti-gay as his opponent, Rep. Wayne Smith, 72. Cain is married to a woman. I suppose in most people s eyes, that makes it safe for him to pee.


U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told Reuters on Wednesday he expects bipartisan support for approval of a bill authorizing taxpayer and industry funding for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The bill to reauthorize the Prescription Drug User Fee Act would let the FDA continue to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from drugmakers and medical device companies to partially cover the cost of reviewing new products, with U.S. taxpayers funding the remainder. "It's an extremely important bill that I think we'll be able to move on a bipartisan basis," McConnell said in an interview. [L1N1IQ1CH] The FDA has been charging companies to review their products since 1992. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump proposed in his 2018 budget that the industry pay the full cost of drug and medical device reviews. The industry at present pays about 60 percent. That proposal is unlikely to be approved in this cycle. Reauthorization of the user fee bill is typically negotiated between the FDA and industry over a period of several years. Earlier this month, the bill was approved by a Senate panel by a 21-2 vote. It must be renegotiated every five years. The FDA reviews drugs for approval or rejection for many companies, including major ones such as Pfizer Inc, Merck & Co Inc and Johnson and Johnson. Pharmaceutical companies based overseas, including Roche Holding AG and Novartis AG, also pay these fees for U.S.-approved drugs.


Donald Trump  After staying up all night playing Russian Roulette with America, I spy with Russia, and sniff & tweet with some nasty girls, Donald Trump is in trouble again! His team of babysitters woke up to chaos at the crack of Trump which turned into more cat fights amongst themselves. Donald Trump managed to grab one of them before his phone was confiscated.  One babysitter said Trump is totally out of control, he doesn't listen, and he says and does whatever he wants like a spoiled little brat! Another babysitter said if they keep paying him enough, he believes he can control him by buying him more sniffle treats, cover up his lies with bigger blankets and cause lots of tremendous distractions. Another babysitter complained that he's only hanging around because the campaign still owes him money for buying likes, retweets and followers for Donald Trump because everyone who knows him hates him unless they're getting paid and says Trump doesn't deserve to have twitter because he can't even read or write!  Melania came to her husbands defense by saying Donald has a wonderful ability to keep going and she was proud of him for still being awake at 3:00 AM, dressed as a Marionette sitting on Putin's lap, sniffling, laughing, and playing truth or dare on twitter.  Paul Ryan said he wants nothing to do with the chaos. He said he was there to look for his house keys, it's not his party, he only watched, and he didn't play!  Giuliani was found passed out with Donald Trump's shoe in his mouth mumbling drool, and Comey was found tied up on a chair in a corner rambling in and out of consciousness about giving Trump Paul Ryan's house keys and it's not his fault Trump burned his house down.  The babysitter club is so fed up, they have taken away all of Donald Trump's twitter privileges! Make DeniseVasquez's


Trump Raises Concern Over Members Of Urban Communities Voting More Than Zero Times ATKINSON, NH—Warning supporters that the troubling practice could affect the outcome of the election, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed strong concern Friday that members of urban communities were voting more than zero times, sources reported. Nation Puts 2016 Election Into Perspective By Reminding Itself Some Species Of Sea Turtles Get Eaten By Birds Just Seconds After They Hatch WASHINGTON—Saying they felt anxious and overwhelmed just days before heading to the polls to decide a historically fraught presidential race, Americans throughout the country reportedly took a moment Thursday to put the 2016 election into perspective by reminding themselves that some species of sea turtles are eaten by birds just seconds after they hatch. Report: Election Day Most Americans' Only Time In 2016 Being In Same Room With Person Supporting Other Candidate WASHINGTON—According to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, Election Day 2016 will, for the majority of Americans, mark the only time this year they will occupy the same room as a person who supports a different presidential candidate. Most Hotly Contested Down-Ballot Measures Of 2016 As Americans head to the polls, they will be presented with a number of issues to vote on besides choosing their representatives. The Onion gives voters an advance look at which measures will be included on the ballots in which states. New Heavy-Duty Voting Machine Allows Americans To Take Out Frustration On It Before Casting Ballot WASHINGTON—Saying the circumstances of this year's presidential race made the upgrade necessary, election commissions throughout the country were reportedly working to install new heavy-duty voting machines this week that will allow Americans to physically take out their frustrations on the devices before casting their votes. Clinton Staff Readies EMP Launch To Disable All Nation's Electronic Devices NEW YORK—In an effort to prepare for any new revelations that might emerge about her emails during her tenure as secretary of state, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly told her staff Tuesday to ready the launch of several electromagnetic pulses to disable all of the nation's electronic devices. End Of Section More News Up Next


Palestinians switched off Christmas lights at Jesus traditional birthplace in Bethlehem on Wednesday night in protest at U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. A Christmas tree adorned with lights outside Bethlehem s Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe Jesus was born, and another in Ramallah, next to the burial site of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, were plunged into darkness. The Christmas tree was switched off on the order of the mayor today in protest at Trump s decision, said Fady Ghattas, Bethlehem s municipal media officer. He said it was unclear whether the illuminations would be turned on again before the main Christmas festivities. In a speech in Washington, Trump said he had decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital and move the U.S. embassy to the city. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump s move marked the beginning of a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said it was an historic landmark . Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East condemned the U.S. decision, calling it an incendiary move in a volatile region and the European Union and United Nations also voiced alarm at the possible repercussions for any chances of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.


A trio of U.S., Japanese and Russian astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday, a NASA TV broadcast showed. Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Scott Tingle of NASA docked their Soyuz spacecraft about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth at 0839 GMT. The docking completes their two-day journey following Sunday s blast-off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Shkaplerov, Kanai and Tingle join Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA, who have been aboard the space station since September.


The United Nations human rights office on Tuesday condemned attacks and threats made against its investigators by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and by senior Burundian officials. Last week Mr Duterte threatened to slap (U.N. special rapporteur Agnes) Callamard if she investigates him for alleged extrajudicial killings, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing. He made the same threat against her in June after she criticized his war on drugs campaign which has left thousands dead, he added, referring to remarks made after her visit in May in an unofficial capacity to attend an academic conference. The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing arguments in a petition to declare Duterte s deadly war on drugs, denounced by rights groups across the world, as unconstitutional. More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in what the police called self-defense after armed drugs suspects resisted arrest in the 16 month-long campaign. Critics say executions are taking place with zero accountability, allegations the police reject. Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, is an independent expert reporting to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Her planned visit to the Philippines last December was called off because she refused to accept Duterte s conditions. Recently she has also been subjected to a tirade of online abuse, including physical threats, during what appears to be a prolonged and well-orchestrated trolling operation across the internet and on social media , Colville said. We condemn this treatment of Ms Callamard and the disrespect it shows to the Human Rights Council that appointed her in the strongest terms, he added. On Burundi, the U.N. rights office has written to the Bujumbura government to demand that officials stop threatening with prosecution members of a U.N. Commission of Inquiry that found Burundian officials at the highest level should be held accountable for crimes against humanity, Colville said. Burundi s ambassador in New York told the U.N. General Assembly that the inquiry s report was biased and politically motivated and threatened to bring to justice its authors for defamation and attempted detribalization, he said. Burundi is an elected member of the 47-member Human Rights Council, the main U.N. rights forum. All states should cooperate with mandates established by the Council. None of them are established without good cause, Colville said.


Iran has sentenced to death a person found guilty of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists, Tehran s prosecutor said on Tuesday. Dolatabadi did not identify the defendant, but Amnesty International said on Monday that Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian doctor who studied and taught in Sweden, had been sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges. At least four scientists were killed between 2010 and 2012 in what Tehran said was a program of assassinations aimed at sabotaging its nuclear energy program. Iran hanged one man in 2012 over the killings, saying he had links to Israel. On the latest conviction, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the judiciary s news agency: The person had several meetings with (Israeli intelligence agency) Mossad and provided them with sensitive information about Iran s military and nuclear sites in return for money and residency in Sweden. The headline of the report described the convicted person as a Mossad agent . Amnesty said the court verdict against Djalali stated that he had worked with the Israeli government which then helped him obtain a Swedish residency permit. Neither Iran nor Amnesty said when the verdict was issued. Sweden condemned the sentence and said it had raised the matter with Iranian representatives in Stockholm and Tehran. We condemn the use of the death penalty in all its forms. The death penalty is an inhuman, cruel and irreversible punishment that has no place in modern law, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in an emailed comment. Djalali, a doctor and lecturer at Stockholm medical university the Karolinska Institute, was arrested in April 2016 and held without access to a lawyer for seven months, three of which were in solitary confinement, according to London-based Amnesty. Djalali was sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial that once again exposes not only the Iranian authorities steadfast commitment to (the) use of the death penalty but their utter contempt for the rule of law, said Philip Luther, Amnesty s Middle East advocacy director. The United States has denied Iran s accusation that it was involved in the scientists deaths, while Israel has a policy of not commenting on such allegations. Dolatabadi said the convicted person gave Mossad information about 30 nuclear and military scientists including Massoud Ali Mohammadi, who was killed by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle outside his home in Tehran. The judiciary said the defendant was also linked to the assassination of nuclear engineer Majid Shahriari, killed in a bomb attack in November 2010. Djalali s wife Vida Mehrannia, who lives in Sweden with their two children, has told Amnesty that his physical and mental health has sharply deteriorated since he was detained. We are calling for his release because he has not committed any crime, Amnesty quoted her as saying. The vice-chancellor of the Karolinska Institute, where Djalali received his PhD in disaster medicine in 2012, said he was deeply concerned. For many years, he has worked with researchers from all over the world to improve the capacity of hospitals in countries suffering from extreme poverty or affected by disasters and armed conflicts, Ole Petter Ottersen said in a statement published on the university s website. We ask that Dr Djalali be subjected to due process and fair trial.


Iran said on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump cannot cause its nuclear deal with six major powers to collapse. The nuclear deal will not collapse... Those who hope that Trump will cause its collapse, are wrong, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on State TV. In October, Trump declined to certify that Iran was complying with the nuclear agreement reached among Tehran, the United States and other powers in 2015. His decision triggered a 60-day window for Congress to decide whether to bring back sanctions on Iran. Congress passed the ball back to Trump by letting the deadline on reimposing sanctions on Iran pass last week. Trump must decide in mid-January if he wants to continue to waive energy sanctions on Iran. Under the deal, nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted last year, in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear program. Iran has said it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it, but will shred the deal if Washington pulls out.


It was recently noted that superhero costumes were far outpacing princess ones as children's Halloween outfits of choice this year . But what would be dead last? Probably the hackneyed political groan-inducer dreamed up by Liz Cheney for her daughter.  For inexplicable reasons, Liz Cheney – daughter of America's most detestable former vice president, Dick – decided to staple a bunch of pieces of office scrap paper onto her daughter and send her to school as "Hillary Clinton's deleted emails." Ugh.  On social media, proud mom Liz even boasted about the costume. Trick or treat? Our daughter Gracie went to school in the scariest of Halloween costumes: Hillary Clinton's deleted emails. #HappyHalloween pic.twitter.com/Gs33p78FJT  — Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) October 31, 2016  It's hard to imagine a less "cool" thing to go as than the living embodiment of a manufactured right-wing scandal that only aging conservatives cared about in the first place. Teens, whom already lean heavily liberal, probably won't spontaneously become registered Republicans because a classmate showed up covered in paper. Making matters worse, the costume's gimmick isn't even obvious. Kids will have to go up to Gracie and ask "So what are you supposed to be?" And she will have to respond, time and again, "I'm Hillary Clinton's deleted emails. Those things your grandfather was yelling about at the family reunion and quite literally nobody else is interested in."  And because irony died and was buried in a shallow grave this year, Liz Cheney didn't bother to justify her own father's carelessness with emails. Forget the 33,000 emails, the Bush Administration "lost" or "deleted" over 22 million. Guess whose emails "disappeared" most often?  Most troubling, researchers found a suspicious pattern in the White House email system blackouts, including periods when there were no emails available from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. "That the vice president's office, widely characterized as the most powerful vice president in history, should have no archived emails in its accounts for scores of days—especially days when there was discussion of whether to invade Iraq—beggared the imagination," says Thomas Blanton, director of the Washington-based National Security Archive.  I guess stapling 22 million emails to her daughter would be a bit impractical, though. Maybe they should have stuck with a superhero costume.


If you live in Michigan, you know about the controversial wife of Congressman John Conyers. She s had her share of scandals and has even served 3 years in Federal prison for bribery. But this IS Detroit so anything goes Watch the video below and you ll see her in action pulling the race card Monica Conyers wasn t in a talkative mood Wednesday morning as the media camped outside her house looking for her embattled husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit. John Conyers has come under fire because of sexual harassment allegations made against him and how they were handled by his office.The Detroit Free Press reports:As she was leaving the family s house Wednesday morning, Monica Conyers said: I ll make a comment when you all disclose to me who has made the allegations. Monica Conyers became irritated with the media attention then pulled the race card: Do you all go and stalk other people s houses? Monica Conyers asked the media camped outside her house. Do you go and stalk white people s houses or just come to the black neighborhoods and stalk our houses? Monica Conyers, wife of John Conyers, accuses the media of stalking black people. Typical, a Dem goes right to race baiting. It s pretty pathetic at this point. pic.twitter.com/v6xToqEbqW Based Monitored (@BasedMonitored) November 29, 2017Earlier, her son, John Conyers III, said it was disconcerting to see how his father was being treated in the wake of the allegations regarding the longest-serving member of the House.John Conyers III spoke to reporters early Wednesday outside his family s Detroit home, saying it s very unfortunate to see him fight so long for so many people and to automatically have the allegations assumed to be true. Conyers said her husband wasn t home and that she didn t know his whereabouts HERE S A GREAT EXAMPLE OF WHAT A NASTY WOMAN MONICA CONYERS IS: Watching this video will help anyone who is curious about why the city of Detroit continues to be bailed out of trouble like an irresponsible child with a trust fund. This video of Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers (D), wife of US Representative John Conyers helps to explain the type of character Detroit voters have been placing their trust in for decades. This is an older video, but definitely worth sharing.Shortly after this debate with an 8th grader, City Councilwoman Monica Conyers was found guilty of bribery and sent to prison for 3 years.Former Detroit City councilwoman, Monica Conyers was sentenced to more than three years in prison for bribery after a federal judge refused to set aside her guilty plea during a stormy court hearing dominated by a dispute over evidence of other payoffs.As guards cleared the packed courtroom, Monica Conyers yelled that she planned to appeal. The wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., wanted to withdraw her guilty plea, suggesting she was the victim of badgering last year when she admitted taking cash to support a Houston company s sludge contract with the city.But U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, reviewing a transcript of the June hearing, said Conyers had denied any coercion and voluntarily pleaded guilty to conspiracy.Conyers, 45, is the biggest catch so far in the FBI s wide-ranging investigation of corruption in Detroit city government. Nine people have pleaded guilty, including two former directors of the downtown convention center, and prosecutors have promised more charges are coming. Bribery is a betrayal of trust, Cohn told Conyers after announcing a 37-month prison term for her egregious crime. She quit the council after pleading guilty in June.Conyers plea deal was limited to taking bribes to support a contract with Synagro worth $47 million a year. But the recent trial of her former aide, Sam Riddle, exposed a series of alleged schemes involving others making payoffs to do business at city hall.Prosecutors said Riddle and Conyers collected $69,500 by shaking people down and urged Cohn to consider the alleged crimes when sentencing her. Defense lawyer Steve Fishman firmly objected and demanded a separate hearing.Conyers declared, I m not going to jail for something I didn t do. Before the hearing, Conyers moved around the courtroom like a playful host, blowing kisses to supporters while wearing dark sunglasses. Her husband, who has an office in the federal courthouse, was not in the courtroom. Spokesman Jonathan Godfrey said he didn t know his whereabouts. Via: Huff PostDespite her going to prison, losing her political job and often embarrassing the family with her behavior in City Hall, U.S. Rep. John Conyers does not want a divorce from his feisty wife, Monica Conyers, his lawyer told the Free Press on Monday.The former Detroit city councilwoman filed for divorce last month, claiming the marriage has fallen apart beyond repair. But her 86-year-old husband wants to work things out. Detroit Free Press


Has the United States mismanaged the ascent of China? By April 15, the Treasury Department is required to present to Congress a report on the exchange rate policies of the country's major trading partners, intended to identify manipulators that cheapen their currency to make their exports more attractive and gain market share in the United States, a designation that could eventually lead to retaliation. It would be hard, these days, to find an economist who feels China fits the bill. Under a trade law passed in 2015, a country must meet three criteria: It would have to have a "material" trade surplus with the rest of the world, have a "significant" surplus with the United States, and intervene persistently in foreign exchange markets to push its currency in one direction. While China's surplus with the United States is pretty big — almost $350 billion — its global surplus is modest, at 2. 4 percent of its gross domestic product last year. Most significant, it has been pushing its currency up, not down. Since the middle of 2014 it has sold over $1 trillion from its reserves to prop up the renminbi, under pressure from capital flight by Chinese companies and savers. Even President Trump — who as a candidate promised to label China a currency manipulator on Day 1 and put a 45 percent tariff on imports of Chinese goods — seems to be backing away from broad, immediate retaliation. And yet the temptation remains. "When you talk about currency manipulation, when you talk about devaluations," the Chinese "are world champions," Mr. Trump told The Financial Times, ahead of the state visit of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to the United States last week. For all Mr. Trump's random impulsiveness and bluster — and despite his lack of a coherent strategy to engage with what is likely soon to become the world's biggest economy — he is not entirely alone with his views. Many learned economists and policy experts ruefully acknowledge that the president's intuition is broadly right: While labeling China a currency manipulator now would look ridiculous, the United States should have done it a long time ago. "With the benefit of hindsight, China should have been named," said Brad Setser, an expert on international economics and finance who worked in the Obama administration and is now at the Council on Foreign Relations. There were reasonable arguments against putting China on the spot and starting a process that could eventually lead to American retaliation. Yet by not pushing back against China's currency manipulation, and allowing China to deploy an arsenal of trade tactics of dubious legality to increase exports to the United States, successive administrations — Republican and Democratic — arguably contributed to the economic dislocations that pummeled so many American workers over more than a decade. Those dislocations helped propel Mr. Trump to power. From 2000 to 2014 China definitely suppressed the rise of the renminbi to maintain a competitive advantage for its exports, buying dollars hand over fist and adding $4 trillion to its foreign reserves over the period. Until 2005, the Chinese government kept the renminbi pegged to the dollar, following it down as the greenback slid against other major currencies starting in 2003. American multinationals were flocking into China, taking advantage of its entry into the World Trade Organization in December 2001, which guaranteed access to the American and other world markets for its exports. By 2007, China's broad trade surplus hit 10 percent of its gross domestic product — an imbalance for an economy this large. And its surplus with the United States amounted to a full third of the American deficit with the world. Though the requirement that the Treasury identify currency manipulators "gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade" dates back to the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, China was never called out. There were good reasons. Or at least they seemed so at the time. For one, China hands in the administration of George W. Bush argued that putting China on the spot would make negotiations more difficult, because even Chinese leaders who understood the need to allow their currency to rise could not be seen to bow to American pressure. Labeling China a manipulator could have severely hindered progress in other areas of a complex bilateral economic relationship. And the United States had bigger fish to fry. "There were other dimensions of China's economic policies that were seen as more important to U. S. economic and business interests," Eswar Prasad, who headed the China desk at the International Monetary Fund and is now a professor at Cornell, told me. These included "greater market access, better intellectual property rights protection, easier access to investment opportunities, etc. " At the end of the day, economists argued at the time, Chinese exchange rate policies didn't cost the United States much. After all, in 2007 the United States was operating at full employment. The trade deficit was because of Americans' dismal savings rate and supercharged consumption, not a cheap renminbi. After all, if Americans wanted to consume more than they created, they had to get it somewhere. And the United States had a stake in China's rise. A crucial strategic goal of American foreign policy since Mao's death had been how to peacefully incorporate China into the existing order of economies, bound by international law into the fabric of the postwar multilateral institutions. And the strategy even worked — a little bit. China did allow its currency to rise a little from 2005 to 2008. And when the financial crisis hit, it took the foot off the export pedal and deployed a giant fiscal stimulus, which bolstered internal demand. Yet though these arguments may all be true, they omitted an important consideration: The overhaul of the world economy imposed by China's global rise also created losers. In a set of influential papers that have come to inform the thinking about the United States' relations with China, David Autor, Daron Acemoglu and Brendan Price from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gordon Hanson from the University of California, San Diego and David Dorn from the University of Zurich concluded that lots of American workers, in many communities, suffered a blow from which they never recovered. Rising Chinese imports from 1999 to 2011 cost up to 2. 4 million American jobs, one paper estimated. Another found that sagging wages in local labor markets exposed to Chinese competition reduced earnings by $213 per adult per year. Economic theory posited that a developed country like the United States would adjust to import competition by moving workers into more advanced industries that competed successfully in global markets. In the real world of American workers exposed to the rush of imports after China erupted onto world markets, the adjustment didn't happen. If mediocre job prospects and low wages didn't stop American families from consuming, it was because the American financial system was flush with Chinese cash and willing to lend, financing their homes and refinancing them to buy the furniture. But that equilibrium didn't end well either, did it? What it left was a lot of betrayed anger floating around among many Americans on the wrong end of these dynamics. "By not following the law, the administration sent a political signal that the U. S. wouldn't stand up to Chinese cheating," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "As we can see now, that hurt in terms of maintaining political support for open trade. " If there was a winner from this dynamic, it was Mr. Trump. Will Mr. Trump really go after China? In addition to an expected executive order to retaliate against the dumping of Chinese steel, he has promised more. He could tinker with the definitions of "material" and "significant" trade surpluses to justify a manipulation charge. And yet a charge of manipulation would add irony upon irony. "It would be incredibly ironic not to have named China a manipulator when it was manipulating, and name it when it is not," Mr. Setser told me. And Mr. Trump would be retaliating against the economic dynamic that handed him the presidency.


American intelligence agencies believe that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, but many questions remain about how the documents made their way to WikiLeaks, which released them. Before the WikiLeaks release, a large sampling was published by several news organizations and a hacker called Guccifer 2. 0, who investigators now believe was an agent of the G. R. U. Russia's military intelligence service. American intelligence agencies say the earlier leaks from Guccifer and the WikiLeaks material have the same bits of code and telltale metadata traced to previous intrusions attributed to the G. R. U. or the F. S. B. another Russian spy agency. However, Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks, makes a distinction between the Democratic National Committee material he released and the earlier releases by Guccifer and others, saying there is no proof that the Russians gave him the documents. In recent weeks, Mr. Assange has threatened to take his revelations to a new level. In August, some of the National Security Agency's source code for breaking into foreign computer systems — the holy grail of the N. S. A. 's Tailored Access Operations unit — was revealed on a website, with the announcement of an auction for the remainder of it. Mr. Assange then declared he would soon publish the rest on WikiLeaks free. So far he has not. Most experts say the code — the digital equivalent of codes for the release of weapons — could have come only from one of two sources: another N. S. A. insider like Edward J. Snowden or, more likely, an external computer server that the N. S. A. 's artists used in the course of an operation. If they had left their digital tool kit on that server, and the Russians or another power was already inside that network, the code would have been stolen. The N. S. A. has not said whether the code released was real or where it came from. This week, suspicions of Russian tampering took a new turn with reports that earlier this summer, the F. B. I. warned election officials in Arizona about Russian hackers targeting systems there. The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, asked the F. B. I. to investigate, writing to the director, James B. Comey, that the threat of Russian interference "is more extensive than is widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results. " The administration has stopped short of publicly accusing the Russian government of engineering the theft of the Democratic National Committee emails, presumably to buy time for President Obama to make a decision. James R. Clapper Jr. the director of national intelligence, said last month that American spy agencies were not yet prepared to publicly identify a culprit.


GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump wants everyone to believe that he is this hyper-masculine ladies man that every guy on the planet should strive to emulate. However, as Real Time host Bill Maher points out, nothing could be further from the truth. Trump is actually more like a whiny brat than he is like anyone s version of a real man.Maher started out by asking the guests on his show how anyone could think Trump is masculine: Tell me what is masculine about Donald Trump. I don t see anything masculine about this guy the most thin-skinned erratic non-logical whiny person in the world. That s the old woman stereotype. But I don t see what is so masculine about him. Then, the conversation turned to the woman card insults that were directed at Hillary Clinton, and one of Maher s guests, Kelly Conway, insisted that the comment was Trump putting Clinton on notice that she better fight for the votes from the ladies, saying: Hillary Clinton s having a hard time getting these young women in the Democratic primaries. They re voting for Bernie Sanders, so why is that? If it were just as simple as, I m pro-choice or I m for pay inequality she d be running away with it, Bill, she would be the nominee. Then again, though, Conway is a Ted Cruz supporter, so she clearly doesn t know much about being pro-women s rights, despite being a woman herself.After that ridiculous moment, Rob Reiner, who was also on Maher s panel, shut Conway down, saying: So she s not just playing the woman card.' Indeed, she is not. She is doing well because she is qualified. Reiner later pointed out the obvious and gave Trump an epic beatdown, when he said that everything that comes out of his mouth is moronic to the Nth degree. Maher reminded Reiner that moronic or not, Trump s idiocy is authentic. Reiner replied, He is authentically moronic, yes. Yes, Trump is a moron. Hopefully, there are enough people out there who recognize this as fact and not merely opinion to keep that fool from becoming the next president of the United States.https://youtu.be/jcGyI_lRJ2o


A Berlin court ruling that permits the parents and siblings of a 16-year-old Syrian migrant to join him in Germany will now take effect after the foreign ministry abruptly dropped an appeal of the decision, German broadcaster ARD reported on Friday. ARD said Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), decided to drop an appeal filed just days ago, allow the ruling to take effect, following intense criticism by top SPD leaders. The ruling was the first to deal with the right of under-age migrants to bring their families to Germany and could set a new precedent, ARD reported. The foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the issue, but Gabriel told the broadcaster: We know that it is bad, of course, when minors are here without their parents. It s a good thing that we now have clarity. The ministry s reversal on the issue comes as Gabriel s party prepares to enter talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives about continuing the grand coalition that has ruled Germany for the past four years. Migration - and the issue of allowing migrants to bring family members to Germany - could be a key topic in the coalition talks, which are due to begin on Jan. 7. Merkel had failed to reach agreement with two smaller parties. The case in question centers on a Syrian youth who arrived in Germany in the summer of 2015 with an older cousin, and was granted only subsidiary protection rather than full asylum. In 2016, the government had decided to suspend family re-unifications for two years for migrants with subsidiary protection , which is granted to people who are not considered as being persecuted individually but in whose home country there is war, torture or other inhumane treatment. The court said that rejecting the family reunification in this case violated child welfare protections guaranteed under the European human rights convention and the U.N. Refugee Convention.


A white football player from Idaho will not face jail time, after being accused of raping a mentally disabled black student with a coat hanger. [John R. K. Howard, 19, will instead serve out the punishment initially handed down by the courts in October of 2015, when he received a probation and 300 hours of community service. The courts decided against prison time, after a judge accepted a plea deal which allowed Howard to plead guilty and still maintain innocence. That plea, also known as the Alford plea, technically allows the client to continue maintaining innocence while acknowledging that the evidence against them is serious enough that the jury could find them guilty. The victim's family have not spoken publicly, but according to the Independent, are "furious" at the court's decision. The victim relayed the harrowing details of the rape during the trial of one of the other accused rapists, Tanner Ward. "After practice I was in the locker room, and one of my friends, he told me to come here, and I went over to him and gave him a hug," the victim said during testimony obtained by the Guardian. "He told me to give him a hug. He had his hands out like he was going to give me a hug. And I gave him a hug, and he signaled for one of my other friends to come over. " At that point, the rape commenced. The victim described his feelings during the rape, saying, "Pain that I have never felt took over my body. I screamed, but afterwards, I kept it to myself. " The assailant, Howard, faced the charge of forcible sexual penetration by a foreign object, a charge which was later reduced. According to the Independent, " … following negotiations between the defence counsel and the State Attorney General's office — in which the state prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Casey Hemmer, claimed the attack was not racially motivated and did not constitute a sex crime — the felony rape charge was dropped and replaced by a lesser charge of felony injury to a child. " The victim, aged 17 at the time of the attack, qualified as a minor. The judge also referred to the attack as "bullying. " As for the racial component of all this, the Independent reports, "Legal documents filed by the family in a separate case suing the school and district officials claim before the attack, the victim was "taunted and called racist names by other members of the team which names included ' ' 'chicken eater' 'watermelon' and [the ]". The family's lawsuit against the school states that coaches on the football team encouraged players to toughen the victim up, presumably through fighting or hazing, and that coaches confronted the victim before the trial, convincing him to repudiate his own statement. During that episode, another coach recorded the conversation. According to the victim, "I just started telling a bunch of just lies because I wanted my friends back. " The victim has attempted to commit suicide multiple times since the incident occurred in late 2015. Meanwhile, should John Howard violate his probation, he will face a possible prison sentence of up to ten years. However, according to the Independent, even this could get thrown out since Judge Stoker entered "a withheld judgement at the final hearing. " Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn


The European Union's executive has not been forewarned about a possible U.S. withdrawal from the global deal on fighting climate change, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. President Donald Trump will follow through on a campaign pledge to pull the United States out of a pact, a source briefed on the decision told Reuters, a move that promises to deepen a rift with U.S. allies. The executive European Commission said separately on Wednesday the 28-nation bloc was ready to take on global leadership should the United States pull out.


Dilbert creator Scott Adams endorses Trump, says Hillary is a bully  Monday, October 31, 2016 by: Natural News Editors (NaturalNews) I've been trying to figure out what common trait binds Clinton supporters together. As far as I can tell, the most unifying characteristic is a willingness to bully in all its forms.If you have a Trump sign in your lawn, they will steal it.If you have a Trump bumper sticker, they will deface your car.if you speak of Trump at work you could get fired.(Article republished from Dilbert.com )On social media, almost every message I get from a Clinton supporter is a bullying type of message. They insult. They try to shame. They label. And obviously they threaten my livelihood.We know from Project Veritas that Clinton supporters tried to incite violence at Trump rallies. The media downplays it.We also know Clinton's side hired paid trolls to bully online. You don't hear much about that.Yesterday, by no coincidence, Huffington Post, Salon, and Daily Kos all published similar-sounding hit pieces on me, presumably to lower my influence. (That reason, plus jealousy, are the only reasons writers write about other writers.)Joe Biden said he wanted to take Trump behind the bleachers and beat him up. No one on Clinton's side disavowed that call to violence because, I assume, they consider it justified hyperbole.Team Clinton has succeeded in perpetuating one of the greatest evils I have seen in my lifetime. Her side has branded Trump supporters (40%+ of voters) as Nazis, sexists, homophobes, racists, and a few other fighting words. Their argument is built on confirmation bias and persuasion. But facts don't matter because facts never matter in politics. What matters is that Clinton's framing of Trump provides moral cover for any bullying behavior online or in person. No one can be a bad person for opposing Hitler, right?Some Trump supporters online have suggested that people who intend to vote for Trump should wear their Trump hats on election day. That is a dangerous idea, and I strongly discourage it. There would be riots in the streets because we already know the bullies would attack. But on election day, inviting those attacks is an extra-dangerous idea. Violence is bad on any day, but on election day, Republicans are far more likely to unholster in an effort to protect their voting rights. Things will get wet fast.Yes, yes, I realize Trump supporters say bad things about Clinton supporters too. I don't defend the bad apples on either side. I'll just point out that Trump's message is about uniting all Americans under one flag. The Clinton message is that some Americans are good people and the other 40% are some form of deplorables, deserving of shame, vandalism, punishing taxation, and violence. She has literally turned Americans on each other. It is hard for me to imagine a worse thing for a presidential candidate to do.I'll say that again.As far as I can tell, the worst thing a presidential candidate can do is turn Americans against each other. Clinton is doing that, intentionally. Intentionally. As I often say, I don't know who has the best policies. I don't know the best way to fight ISIS and I don't know how to fix healthcare or trade deals. I don't know which tax policies are best to lift the economy. I don't know the best way to handle any of that stuff. (And neither do you.) But I do have a bad reaction to bullies. And I've reached my limit.I hope you have too. Therefore... I endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States because I oppose bullying in all its forms. I don't defend Trump's personal life. Neither Trump nor Clinton are role models for our children. Let's call that a tie, at worst.The bullies are welcome to drown in their own bile while those of us who want a better world do what we've been doing for hundreds of years: Work to make it better while others complain about how we're doing it.Today I put Trump's odds of winning in a landslide back to 98%. Remember, I told you a few weeks ago that Trump couldn't win unless "something changed."Something just changed.


Alfred Hitchcock explains James Comey, the media and 2016's 'MacGuffin' It takes a master of suspense to decode the final plot twists of this election. By Neal Gabler Posted on November 7, 2016 by Neal Gabler  It is impossible to count the myriad ways in which the media botched FBI Director James Comey's Friday announcement that the agency had found a cache of emails that seemingly (a key word) pertain to Hillary Clinton's use of a private server. I heard the news via CNN at an airport while waiting to board a plane. No one needs to be told that CNN is a journalistic disgrace—a textbook case of the decline of American media, all the more depressing because, unlike Fox News and MSNBC, it purports to be a real news organization. Instead, it is a ratings machine, and it is beyond contemptible.  So what I heard was Wolf Blitzer in his customary tizzy, as if Pearl Harbor had just been attacked, breathlessly ballyhooing Comey's missive to Congress and asking what seemed to be an endless queue of talking heads to weigh in on what is now routinely called a "bombshell." This too is a textbook example of media practice. In the movies, bombast has replaced narrative. The last half-hour of every blockbuster is obligatory and generic: noise, lots and lots and lots of noise, and a gazillion special effects until any vestige of story evaporates and your head throbs. Cable has done something similar with news. It is all pitch, no content. The hysteria can transform anything into a drama, which is precisely cable's intention.  This has been true of the Clinton emails since the beginning. It was always something of a hoax—a new chapter for a hungry media juicing its audience. Not one in a hundred voters can tell you the awful crime Clinton was supposed to have committed or why it matters. Not one in a hundred—and I would include journalists—have any idea of what really went down with these emails, as I discussed in an earlier post that highlighted the one reporter, Garrett M. Graff of Politico , who actually did something it appears no other reporter thought of doing: read the FBI's summary account of the investigation.  In effect, then, the Clinton emails have always been what the great film director Alfred Hitchcock called a "MacGuffin," which Hitchcock described as the "device, the gimmick, if you will, that sets the plot in motion." And he continued: "It doesn't matter what it is. And the logicians are wrong in trying to figure out the truth of a MacGuffin, since it's beside the point. The only thing that really matters is that in the picture, the plans, documents or secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no importance whatever."  It takes Alfred Hitchcock to reveal the secret of the emails as well as the basic operating principle of our political media. To the media, the emails are the primary plot device. In reality, they mean nothing. And I should add this: Should Donald Trump win this election, and he very well might now, historians 50 years from now will be scratching their heads over how something so inconsequential as a private email server could possibly have swayed the election. Emails! Really! How do we explain a MacGuffin overtaking our politics?  The thing is that while the media have been obsessing over the MacGuffin, they have missed entirely the real story—the story that historians will examine and ponder. Oddly enough, it was arguably one of the world's worst newspapers, England's right-wing Daily Mail tabloid, which is about 10 notches below our own New York Post , which is 10 notches below any real newspaper, that broke the deeper story .  The Daily Mail reported that FBI agents were incensed over Comey's decision not to prosecute Clinton (so, says the paper, was Comey's wife) and many submitted resignations in protest. Even when real newspapers finally caught up with this angle, they soft-peddled the significance of the nation's primary investigative agency being an in-house right-wing force that was determined to veer the election toward Trump. The later dump of Bill Clinton documents only underscores the determination of the FBI to turn the election.  That is real and really disturbing news—colossally big news, giant headline news. With his sudden announcement, Comey may or may not have been trying to pacify the GOP, which would have been bad enough. It does appear he was trying to raise morale among the Gestapo at his own agency by aiding Trump. And let's be clear: He knew he was aiding Trump.  That the media have largely ignored this aspect is both astonishing and depressing. The New York Times very delicately compared Comey to the late J. Edgar Hoover, who used the agency for his own devices, largely to settle personal grievances and advance his right-wing agenda. (And I mean very delicately. The media have always treated Comey as Diogenes.)  But then the media are so caught up in their own hysteria over emails, they don't have distance to view the big story. And when they aren't preoccupied with the emails, they are preoccupied with how Comey's revelation, seemingly in violation of Justice Department protocols and the Hatch Act, will affect the election. So you go from the MacGuffin to the horse race without ever having to engage anything substantive.  You could say that Comey brilliantly played the media for his own benefit, knowing that they couldn't resist and certainly wouldn't investigate a new plot twist. Hitch knew the difference between an insubstantial MacGuffin and something that was important. Comey realized that the media don't. Their confusion, along with their unwillingness to out the FBI and its seemingly alt-right agenda, could wind up being the decisive element in this election. It is the campaign equivalent of that deafening superhero movie climax—all noise, no sense. This post was first published on BillMoyers.com .  Neal Gabler is an author of five books and the recipient of two LA Times Book Prizes, Time magazine's non-fiction book of the year, USA Today's biography of the year and other awards. He is also a senior fellow at The Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, and is currently writing a biography of Sen. Edward Kennedy.


U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is not considering a carbon tax, a White House official said on Tuesday. On Feb. 8, Trump administration officials met with a group of Republican elder statesman who called for a $40 per ton tax on carbon emissions to fend off global climate change. In response to that meeting, the White House official said: "The Trump Administration is not considering a carbon tax."


Almost three years ago, a history buff and biographer of Robert E. Lee, Jonathan Horn, wrote a book that provided a different perspective of the Confederate general. The book, titled The Man Who Would Not Be Washington, recalled a history of Lee that many casual readers don t know, and one that many fans like to whitewash. With all of Donald Trump s ridiculous comparisons between Lee and the father of our country, it s easy to overlook that the southern leader was the son of a man who d served Washington in the Revolutionary War like nearly no other.In fact, Lee s father, Light Horse Harry, gave the eulogy at George Washington s funeral:First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.In death, only the best things are remembered. There was no urban legend about Washington s wooden teeth while he was alive. He provided for the liberation of his own slaves in his will. His last words, after the valiant efforts of doctors to save him, were Tis well. Washington was a complex man, and his legacy would only unpack years after his passing.The same can be said of the eulogist s son. When the most famous Confederate looked at secession before the Civil War, he was disdainful:The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labour, wisdom and forbearance in its formation if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will.Lee eventually resigned his commission in the Union Army. He joined his home state of Virginia in taking up arms in rebellion, and like many of the conservatives of today, he fudged on his history, insisting that he d always favored leaving the United States. But his complexity, unpacked after his death, is most compelling in looking at his view of remembrance.Robert E. Lee never wanted monuments or memorials to the Civil War.Some of the history of Lee s re-change of heart is well-known: Upon his surrender, he vowed to support the U.S. Constitution henceforth, and commanded his followers to do the same. But many wanted to honor Lee s service to the South with statues and memorials. Lee rebuffed them:As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated, my conviction is, that, however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt, in the present condition of the country, would have the effect of retarding instead of accelerating its accomplishment, and of continuing if not adding to the difficulties under which the Southern people labor.Robert E. Lee understood then what many still do not get today: That the flags of wars past serve nothing but to fight those wars over again in our minds. He was adamant:I think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavoured to obliterate the marks of civil strife and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered.Now, I personally am not a historian. But early America has always been a passion of mine My great-great-great-great-great grandfather is buried in Calais, Vermont, his service in the Revolutionary War inscribed on his headstone. It should likewise at least serve as instruction for those who would fawn over its legends. Many symbols exist today commemorating the Confederacy, especially in Virginia, Lee s own state.But if you want to honor Robert E. Lee, honor the fact that he never wanted to see you waving a Confederate flag.