A recent viral video showed a woman wielding a Bible overhead and marching through a Target, ringing out her message through the brightly lit aisles. "I'm a mother of 12 and I'm disgusted by this wicked practice," she cried. "Mothers, get your children out of this store … it's a dangerous place!" The woman, who has not been identified, is not the only one incensed by Target's announcement that it would allow transgender customers to use the restroom that matches their gender identity. More than 700,000 people have pledged to boycott the store. Target's move, meanwhile, was seen as a response to a new North Carolina law that requires people in government buildings to use the bathroom that corresponds with the sex on their birth certificate—in effect forcing post-transition transgender people to use the bathroom of the opposite sex. The idea that children, especially girls, will somehow be hurt by relieving themselves alongside transgender women has been one of the main arguments of the law's proponents. In the words of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, "Men should not be going to the bathroom with little girls." There's no evidence that municipalities that have protected trans people's restroom access have seen a spike in public-safety issues. But according to some studies, not having protected restroom access can be harmful for trans people. According to a study by Georgia State University's Kristie L. Seelman, being denied bathroom access is correlated with an increased risk of suicide attempts among trans people. Transgender people have said bathroom access is one of their "most pressing challenges," Seelman writes in the study, which was published in February in the Journal of Homosexuality. Trans people have reported getting stared at or being asked to leave, something that causes them "great stress," according to researchers. Seelman highlights an earlier study of 93 trans people that found 68 percent had been verbally harassed in bathrooms, and 9 percent were physically assaulted.


New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said on Monday that he still had not spoken to either major party leader after his small nationalist party was left holding the balance of power in Saturday s indecisive election. On the same day, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern confirmed she would seek to form a coalition government with NZ First, following the heels of Prime Minister Bill English who had started making overtures to Peters in an election night speech. I think his chief of staff s talked to my chief of staff... I have yet to have a chance to talk to my colleagues, Peters told broadcaster One News from his home in the far north. The ruling National Party won the most seats, but failed to secure enough to form government, leaving Peters kingmaker. English has said it could take weeks to form a coalition government, with the uncertainty weighing on the New Zealand dollar, which posted its biggest daily drop in over four months. Peters is a veteran maverick politician who has served as a cabinet minister in both previous National and Labour governments and also said on Sunday talks would take two to three weeks . While Labour trailed the National Party by around 10 points, under the country s German-style proportional representation it could still form a government if it goes into coalition with the Green Party and NZ First. My expectation is over the next couple of days to reach out but I haven t done so yet, Ardern told reporters in Wellington, referring to Peters. Our job now is to work with what voters delivered us which was an expectation that ...as a bloc that voted against the status quo to see if we can form a stable coalition government. National secured 58 seats ahead of the 52 seats from the Green Party and Labour, which experienced a surge in popularity under new leader Ardern. That left both still needing NZ First s nine seats to reach the 61 seats required to form a government. While both National and Labour are expected to adhere to fiscal prudence, they will likely differ on monetary policy, trade and immigration. Some expect Labour s plans to cut migration and renegotiate some trade policies will hurt two key sources of growth for New Zealand s small, open economy. There is also some concern about what NZ First will demand in return for its support. Peters has lobbied for more currency intervention by the central bank, which would weigh on the Kiwi, the world s 11th most traded currency. The currency fell 1.19 percent to $0.7254, posting it biggest daily loss since May. We now wait to find out who is going to form a coalition with NZ First and that may take some weeks, said Stuart Ive, dealer at OM Financial. A final tally of the results is due on Oct. 7, when special votes , which make up 15 percent of the total and which include overseas votes, are released. English remains prime minister in the interim.


Former CIA director John Brennan on Friday criticized as "disgraceful" President Donald Trump's efforts to play down U.S. intelligence agencies' assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump's administration has been dogged by investigations into allegations of Russian interference in last year's U.S. presidential election and possible ties with his campaign team. Speaking one day before his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg earlier this month, Trump said he suspected Russian interference in the election but that no one knows for sure. "These types of comments are just disgraceful ... and the person who said them should be ashamed of himself," said Brennan, CIA chief under former President Barack Obama, at the Aspen Security Forum. Special Counsel Robert Mueller and several U.S. congressional committees are investigating whether Russia interfered in the election and colluded with Trump's campaign to try to swing the race in his favor over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those probes are focused almost exclusively on Moscow's actions, lawmakers and intelligence officials have said, and no evidence has surfaced publicly implicating other countries. Moscow has denied any interference, and Trump has said that his campaign did not collude with Russia. Brennan said he was disappointed by the president's handling of security issues in his first six months in office. "I must say there are disappointments that I see in terms of what Mr. Trump is doing on the international stage that I think pose serious questions about how he is keeping safe our national security," Brennan said. Speaking at the same event in Aspen, James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence under Obama, was also critical of Trump's administration. Asked if Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and top adviser, should have his security clearance canceled for initially failing to list on a disclosure form contacts he had with Russians, Clapper said it should be suspended pending a review. "I do think the appropriate thing here is take a pause and at least suspend a clearance until you've had the opportunity to investigate and then decide whether the clearance should be restored or not," Clapper told the same panel. Brennan and Clapper also criticized Trump's remarks in a tweet earlier this year about U.S. spy agencies in which he accused them of practices reminiscent of Nazi Germany. "That (tweet) was a terrible insulting affront not to me or John. We get paid the big bucks to take that. But I'm talking about the rank and file, the people in the trenches, men and women, the patriots in the intelligence community and that was completely inappropriate," said Clapper.


I'm going to level with you. Getting inside the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is hard. "Advanced timed passes for April 2017 Available on January 4th," the website laughs. So with all due respect to the buckets of cash raised to fix Dorothy's ruby shoes, the opening of the Blacksonian is the museum event of the year — probably the century. (Yes, "the Blacksonian," because no one is going say that whole name and no one's going to say "NMAAHC," either, because no one wants to hear "God bless you" every time somebody does.) The wait to create a national museum of black history and culture was decades long. And the result amounts to a major bureaucratic, academic and emotional achievement. Now everybody wants in. So some of us have to wait. I got in on a chilly autumn Sunday, after a stranger, who had more passes than she needed, gave an extra one to me. There aren't many places where gluttony becomes largess, but it does at the Blacksonian. While you're standing there, hoping a look of pity turns into a pass, there's plenty of time to roll your eyes at the faint fragrance of barbecued meat from the food truck parked along Constitution Avenue, or to ask someone to hold your spot in line while you consult with the man selling pies nearby. There's also plenty of time to admire the edifice you're waiting to enter: three tiered trapezoidal stacks of gating that sheaths a giant glass box. I had assumed that the gating was iron or actual bronze. Nope. Aluminum. Aluminum siding. But it's the most vivid, most alive, aluminum siding you're ever going to see. Obviously, we're talking about architecture not black hair, but the edges lay perfectly. Designed just a little differently, the gating might have read as defensive, as a meticulous: "Keep out. " But the panels are too porous for combat. They extend cautious warmth, instead: "Take care. " The trapezoids, we've been told, evoke a Yoruba crown, imputing a sense of majesty. You can see that, especially in the museum's silhouetted logo. Yet viewed from the minor distance of 14th Street and Constitution, with the Washington Monument playing the role of antenna, it's a fortress. But — unlike, say, the pink marble of its neighbor the National Gallery of Art, or the curvilinear limestone of the National Museum of the American Indian — the Blacksonian is brown. In the course of a day, depending on the weather and the light, that aluminum skin turns every shade of that color. In the sunlight, it's golden, sepia in the shade, when it's overcast. At dusk, it's mahogany and deep chestnut after a cloud gobbles up the sun. The building can be all of these browns without ever getting to black, as if it knows that no black person is actually, phenotypically black. So the building, a mighty, physical construct, memorializes a figurative one. "Black" is the concept that gets unpacked, rebuilt and celebrated within the museum. Inside, there's more waiting to be done — for the very good restaurant, for the ladies' room, for entry to the museum's deep lower levels. Building waiting into the experience feels right for a place that tells the story of a people who've had to wait for everything else. The anticipation for the subterranean history galleries already feels mythic. You might know, for instance, that the museum's narrative history starts underground, and gradually brings you up — into the present, into the ample light that pours through the great glass enclosure. But that doesn't account for the emotional toll of all the waiting and reading and thinking and connecting and feeling to come. It doesn't account for the experience of standing in the immense concourse and seeing the faces of the hundreds of people waiting with you, the endless hues of skin. This standing around is simultaneously boring and one of the happiest, most poignant things I've ever done with monotony. Here we all are, imported as Africans, standing around as checking our phones, laughing, talking, taking group selfies, waiting with white people from this country and from Europe, with all kinds of Latinos, all kinds of Asians, all kinds of Arabs, to interact with a version of a story of what America truly is. During that wait for the underground galleries, natural impatience threatens to upstage the human majesty of it all. You don't know why it's taking so long to get there. Once you reach the entrance, you see. You're waiting for an elevator. The Blacksonian has one pivotal conceit, one metaphorical device that you need to embrace despite its hokiness, despite its comical proximity to a set of stairs, and it's the elevator. The elevator is an enormous glass box that comfortably fits about 30 people. The operator welcomes you to a time machine that's going to carry you from the 21st century to the 15th. It was a device I knew I'd bought into when the operator asked whether we were ready, and I honestly couldn't say that I was. Despite waiting all morning for this — despite waiting all my life, really — I was overcome with stress. Suddenly, I was unready to see any of the 37, 000 procured, purchased and donated objects, even as the box began its descent and landed its cargo at the year 1400. The stress never left. And it probably shouldn't have. That's history. It's heavy. You just bear the weight as you set forth to graze thousands of chronologically arranged facts, names, photographs, things, explanatory guides, problems. The museum doesn't tell you how to proceed. You're not doing it wrong, even though a school of museum criticism — and to be fair, some museumgoers — expect . Maybe the Blacksonian doesn't instruct you on where next to graze. But you're always oriented. And it's the orientation that gets to you. Until the installation on slaves' role in the Revolutionary War, for instance, the ceilings in the galleries are low (Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are among the museum's donors, and I wish their heads luck). With a crowd, the walkways narrow the lighting is almost notional, polite, correspondent with one solemn detail after the next. You can see more than well enough to understand that enslaved labor was foundational for the colonies. You can hear that anyone speaking is doing so almost reluctantly. You feel simultaneously overheated and spiritually chilled. In these early galleries, you're always in someone's way. There's always some image you're not seeing, some wall text you practically have to kiss in order to read. It's strange: Here we are, climbing past one another, inspecting the historical molecules that make us us. Objects, stories, illustrations, faces, ideas and legislation will magnetize you to them, will imprint themselves upon you. That happened to me almost immediately, with the wall of slave ships. It carries the names of vessels and their countries of commercial origin (always Europe, often Portugal). It specifies the date of disembarkation and tallies the number of passengers versus the number of survivors. The wall appears to be a single structure, full of information that you have to both crouch and get on the tips of your toes to make out. Then you realize that it runs the length of much of one side of the gallery, and that the decorative presentation has fooled then floored you. It's such a horrifyingly casual display that it becomes grimly amusing before it turns devastating. The awkward presentation feels morally apt. The Atlantic Ocean was once a sloshing highway to transport slaves. The work you do to see that wall is emblematic of the work to be done by visitors all over the historical galleries. You reach the end of Reconstruction on the lowest level and have to climb a ramp to get to the civil rights era. That doesn't feel accidental. It's effort that seems meant as a terribly loaded abridgment of the work black people have always done in this country. Progress is a StairMaster. The Blacksonian reveals a wicked, poetic sense of humor about this history. You exit that long, tight, airless gallery into a huge open space with virtually no ceiling, and you realize you weren't breathing. And then you catch your breath only to look up and see, on a platform, a statue of Thomas Jefferson. Arrayed behind him are rows and rows of bricks painted with the names of some of his slaves — Hercules and Jupiter and lots of Sallys. Surrounding him are equally proportioned statues of Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Banneker, Phyllis Wheatley and the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture — black people the museum argues are equally important. They loom near Jefferson. They haunt him. Abraham Lincoln, too, is morally conjoined here, on the abolition of slavery. He is as bound to Frederick Douglass, as Tony Curtis is chained to Sidney Poitier in "The Defiant Ones. " Lincoln's not a hero at the Blacksonian. He's a man with a nagging mandate from Douglass to do the right thing. He's another brick in the wall. The time machine transports you to other places — to an old slave cabin, a heartbreakingly perfunctory bill of sale for a black girl, the coffin of young, murdered Emmett Till, to photograph after photograph of slaves who radiate a kind of melancholic neutrality. Encountering so many long faces makes you aware of the length of yours. They also dare you to wonder: Who, among these ancestors, was the first to have the audacity to be pictured with a smile? The wonder keeps growing. How did this country ever evolve from a wall listing the amount paid for so many black people to the wall on the great ground floor featuring the many black people who helped pay to build the museum that would display either wall? How did we get from the funereal assessment of American history below ground to the vibrant galleries on the upper floors that salute black hair, black comedy, black athletes, black scientists, black travel, black art, black body language, Chuck Berry's Cadillac? (That's not quite the story down the Mall, at the Museum of the American Indian, and I carried that heaviness around with me, too.) The Blacksonian takes astonishing care to correct a crucial misrepresentation of slavery. I, at least, am guilty of necessarily focusing on the very real degradation of the work and not on the dignity and ingenuity of the workers. Over and over, the word "skill" appears in the display texts to describe the innovation slaves made to streamline agriculture and industry. Though the labor was evilly got and cruelly maintained, the laborers were innovators, creators and artisans. We call this place a museum, but to behold its impregnability, to feel centuries of pain and pride, to receive the story of how black people helped forge this nation (first by whip then by will) to find, at the twilight of one historic presidency and the dawn of what promises to be a very different one, that the forging must (must) continue — to see that metal gating reaching up, up, up — is to sense that the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture really should have an additional name, one worthy of all that forging and hammering and ironing out. It should also be called the Blacksmith.


One of the fastest growing groups of refugees coming to the U.S. are coming from Africa According to the Center for immigration studies:The sending countries with the largest percentage increases in the number of immigrants living in the United States since 2010 were Saudi Arabia (up 122 percent), Nepal (86 percent), Afghanistan (up 74 percent), Burma (up 73 percent), Syria (up 62 percent), Venezuela (up 58 percent), Bangladesh (up 53 percent), Kenya (up 46 percent), Ethiopia (up 41 percent), Nigeria (up 40 percent), Iraq (up 39 percent), Ghana (up 37 percent), India (up 37 percent), Egypt (up 32 percent), Pakistan (up 28 percent), and China (up 25 percent). The states with the largest numerical increases in the number of immigrants from 2010 to 2016 were Texas (up 587,889), Florida (up 578,468), California (up 527,234), New York (up 238,503), New Jersey (up 171,504), Massachusetts (up 140,318), Washington (up 134,132), Pennsylvania (up 131,845), Virginia (up 120,050), Maryland (up 118,175), Georgia (up 95,353), Nevada (up 78,341), Arizona (up 78,220), Michigan (up 74,532), Minnesota (up 73,953), and North Carolina (up 70,501).ACCORDING TO PEW RESEARCH: There were 2.1 million African immigrants living in the United States in 2015, up from 881,000 in 2000 and a substantial increase from 1970 when the U.S. was home to only 80,000 foreign-born Africans.The fact is that whether Africans come to the U.S. legally or illegally, they brig with them risks like the one below:DANCING WITH THE DEADIn Madagascar, ceremonies in which families exhume the remains of dead relatives, rewrap them in fresh cloth and dance with the corpses are a sacred ritual.A local name for these ceremonies is famadihana. It s one of Madagascar s most widespread rituals, historian Mahery Andrianahag told AFP. It s necessary to assure cosmic harmony it satisfies our desire to respect and honour the ancestors so that they can be blessed and one day return. The dead are believed to reciprocate the blessings. Says one participant, I am extremely proud to go to rewrap the bones of my grandmother and all of our ancestors. I will ask them for blessings and success in my school leavers exams. Famadihana is also an opportunity to party:The customary ritual, rather than a religious rite, can be shocking for some, but for those taking part, it is an intense celebration accompanied by music, dancing and singing, fuelled by alcoholic drinks.When the party is over, participants store the mats that the bodies are laid on under their own mattresses. This is said to bring good luck.But some doctors warn that they can also transmit germs and infections.And, at a time when Madagascar is enduring its most lethal outbreak of the plague in years, the practice of body turning has raised fears among health officials.Since August, the disease has infected more than 1,100 people, with 124 deaths. Health ministry epidemiologists have long observed that plague season coincides with the period when famadihana ceremonies are held from July to October.But who cares about the plague? Scoffs one participant, I will always practise the turning of the bones of my ancestors plague or no plague. The plague is a lie. Meanwhile, immigrants from every corner of the Third World pour into our country, often illegally, bringing along their exotic customs and diseases.


The following are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump works to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, according to Reuters sources and media reports. Trump has already named a number of people for other top jobs in his administration. * Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York City * Bob Corker, Republican U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * David Petraeus, retired general and former CIA director who pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information that he shared with his biographer, who also was his mistress * Jon Huntsman, former Republican Utah governor and ambassador to China under President Barack Obama; ran for Republican presidential nomination in 2012 * James Stavridis, retired Navy admiral * John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, foreign policy adviser to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney * Rex Tillerson, president and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp * Joe Manchin, Democratic U.S. senator for West Virginia * Dana Rohrabacher, Republican U.S. representative of California and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee * Alan Mulally, former CEO at Ford Motor Co and former executive vice president at Boeing Co * Kevin Cramer, Republican U.S. representative from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Heidi Heitkamp, Democratic U.S. senator from North Dakota * Joe Manchin, Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp * James Connaughton, CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * Rick Perry, Republican former Texas governor * Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, Republican former U.S. representative from Michigan * Rudy Giuliani, Republican former mayor of New York * Debra Wong Yang, a former U.S. attorney who was appointed by former President George W. Bush * Ralph Ferrara, a securities attorney at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP * Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner who heads Trump's transition team for independent financial regulatory agencies * Daniel Gallagher, Republican former SEC commissioner * John Allison, a former CEO of regional bank BB&T Corp and former head of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank * Paul Atkins, former SEC commissioner * Thomas Hoenig, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp vice chairman and former head of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank * Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steel producer Nucor Corp * Robert Lighthizer, former deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration * Mick Mulvaney, Republican U.S. representative from South Carolina * David Malpass, former chief economist with investment bank Bear Stearns and a senior Trump adviser * Rick Perry, former Texas governor * Chuck Conner, a former acting secretary of the U.S. Agriculture Department and current head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives * Tim Huelskamp, Republican U.S. representative from Kansas * Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner * Sonny Perdue, former Georgia governor * Scott Brown, former Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor * Jeff Miller, former Republican U.S. representative from Florida who was chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee * Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a hedge fund partner and former FDA deputy commissioner under former Republican President George W. Bush * Jim O'Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who previously served in the Department of Health and Human Services, also under Bush The Trump transition team confirmed the president-elect would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.


What the HELL just happened in Orlando? Donald Trump, the guy that most of the free world has been legitimately comparing to Adolf Hitler, just ordered thousands of supporters at an Orlando rally to raise their hands in salute and swear loyalty to him.And they did it THEY ACTUALLY DID IT. Watch all the hands in the clip below.Donald Trump tells the audience to raise their right hands and promise to vote for him pic.twitter.com/thqQYL2tlF Brandon Wall (@Walldo) March 5, 2016Here is pretty much what just happened in Orlando at the Trump rally.Image via thelocal.deIt isn t an exaggerationDonald Trump makes members of his Orlando crowd raise their right hands and swear to vote in the primary. pic.twitter.com/EVenRilJrV Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) March 5, 2016What the hell is going on with the Republican party and Trump?This is seriously starting to get legitimately frightening. We have huge crowds of Americans gathering to have their most vile inclinations validated by someone who is, factually speaking, running on a fascist presidential platform. Now, they are throwing up what you might as well call a 1940s Berlin Style salute to him as well.Some people might say this couldn t happen in America. But remember during WWII America unconstitutionally imprisoned thousands of Japanese-American citizens for no crime other than being Japanese. We didn t think that would happen, did we?The Nazi party rose to power by promising suffering Germans, who were practically bankrupt from the after-effects of World War I, help in lifting the nation and its people out of poverty and unemployment. At the same time, the party was severely critical of existing political leaders in Germany for not addressing the needs and will of the people. They promised widespread economic prosperity, a regained national strength via the military, and to make Germany great again. Does this sound familiar?Republicans have spent the better part of eight years now calling President Obama one of the greatest leaders of the modern era a fascist, Nazi, communist, dictator and whatever else they can come up with that has a negative governmental connotation. At the exact same time, they are fully embracing an actual fascist and using nazi-style salutes to pledge their loyalty to him.If you are a liberal, please don t stay home this November. The nation can t afford it.


Erdogan's dream of reinstating Turkey's death penalty is set to become reality after a new bill looks set to pass in Parliament.  Recep Tayyip Erdogan will make good on his promise of cleansing Turkey of "traitor citizens" and "political dissidents"– by sending them to their deaths. Recommended  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced plans to bring back the death penalty in Turkey following last months failed coup. (2 hours ago)  Yahoo News reports:  Addressing crowds in Ankara on Saturday, Erdogan said he would ratify such a bill once it passed despite any objections it might spark in the West.  Erdogan made the comments in response to public chants calling for the death penalty, which Turkey abolished in 2004 as part of its bid to join the European Union.  Erdogan said:  "Soon, our government will bring (the bill) to Parliament…It's what the people say that matters, not what the West thinks." Recommended  Turkish President Recep Taiyp Erdogan has been warned not to use the failed coup in Turkey as a "blank cheque" to bypass democratic principles. (2 hours ago)  The government has blamed the coup on the followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.  The cleric denies involvement.


Saudi Arabia aims to start issuing tourist visas to foreigners next year, a senior Saudi official told CNN, as the government seeks to open up the conservative kingdom and find new sources of revenue to diversify its economy. At present, foreigners traveling to Saudi Arabia are largely restricted to resident workers and their dependents, business travelers, and Muslim pilgrims who are given special visas to travel to holy sites. The targets are people who want to come and literally experience this country, and really the grandness of this country, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Natural Heritage, said in an interview broadcast late on Wednesday. Asked about plans for the visas, he replied: Hopefully in 2018, adding that the government would use online technology to make applying for visas easy. Saudi Arabia s 32-year-old heir to the throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is seeking to develop new industries to wean his country off its dependency on oil exports. He has also taken some steps to loosen its ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police and announcing plans to allowing women to drive next year. Plans to admit significant numbers of tourists from abroad have been discussed for years, only to be blocked by conservative opinion and bureaucracy; the commission announced such a plan as long ago as 2006, but it did not go ahead. This time, the government appears determined to push through the change, partly because of financial pressures. It hopes to earn billions of dollars to cover a state budget deficit caused by low oil prices. Economic reforms aim to lift total tourism spending in the country - by local citizens as well as foreigners - to $46.6 billion in 2020 from $27.9 billion in 2015. Prince Sultan said his commission was focusing mainly on increasing numbers of local tourists. The commission has estimated Saudis spend more than $20 billion annually on tourism abroad, and persuading more of them to holiday inside the country would reduce that drain on the economy. But Prince Sultan told CNN that his commission was also working to prepare tourist spots for foreigners. The government announced plans in August to develop resorts on about 50 islands off the Red Sea coast, with the first phase of the project to be completed in 2022. The kingdom also intends to offer visits to historic sites such as Mada in Saleh, a 2,000-year-old Nabatean city carved into the rocks of the northern desert. Heir to the throne Prince Mohammed would be the first ruler from a new generation since 1953, after six kings who were all sons of state founder Abdulaziz ibn Saud. He has announced wide plans for social and political reforms to the kingdom, which is ruled as an absolute monarchy with a powerful clergy that adheres to Wahhabism, an ultra-austere version of Sunni Islam.


PaulCraigRoberts.org October 29, 2016  I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump.  Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks like this is not endeared to the oligarchs.  Who are the oligarchs?  —Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put 5 banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the federal reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks' balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.  —The military/security complex which has spent trillions of our taxpayer dollars on 15 years of gratuitous wars based entirely on lies in order to enrich themselves and their power.  —The neoconservatives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China.  —The US global corporations that sent American jobs to China and India and elsewhere in order to enrich the One Percent with higher profits from lower labor costs.  —Agribusiness (Monsanto et.al.), corporations that poison the soil, the water, the oceans, and our food with their GMOs, herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, while killing the bees that pollinate the crops.  —The extractive industries—energy, mining, fracking, and timber—that maximize their profits by destroying the environment and the water supply.  —The Israel Lobby that controls US Middle East policy and is committing genocide against the Palestinians just as the US committed genocide against native Americans. Israel is using the US to eliminate sovereign countries that stand in Israel's way.  What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes' reporting and the facts on the ground.  According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote. Hillary has won the election before the vote. Hillary has been declared a 93% sure winner.  I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary's public appearances are unattended but Trumps are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida:  "Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and stickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages."  I know the person who gave me this report and have no doubt whatsoever as to its veracity.  I also receive from readers similar reports from around the country.  This is how the theft of the election is supposed to work: The media concentrated in a few corporate hands has gone all out to convince not only Americans but also the world, that Donald Trump is such an unacceptable candidate that he has lost the election before the vote.  By controlling the explanation, when the election is stolen those who challenge the stolen election are without a foundation in the media. All media reports will say that it was a runaway victory for Hillary over the misogynist immigrant-hating Trump.  And the liberal, progressive opinion will be a relieved and off guard as Hillary takes us into nuclear war.  That the Oligarchy intends to steal the election from the American people is verified by the officially reported behavior of the voting machines in early voting in Texas. The NPR presstitutes have declared that Hillary is such a favorite that even Republican Texas is up for grabs in the election.  If this is the case, why was it necessary for the voting machines to be programmed to change Trump votes to Hillary votes? Those voters who noted that they voted Trump but were recorded Hillary complained. The election officials, claiming a glitch (which only went one way), changed to paper ballots. But who will count them? No "glitches" caused Hillary votes to go to Trump, only Trump votes to go to Hillary.  The most brilliant movie of our time was The Matrix. This movie captured the life of Americans manipulated by a false reality, only in the real America there is insufficient awareness and no Neo, except possibly Donald Trump, to challenge the system. Americans of all stripes—academics, scholars, journalists, Republicans, Democrats, right-wing, left-wing, US Representatives, US Senators, Presidents, corporate moguls and brainwashed Americans and foreigners—live in a false reality.  In the United States today a critical presidential election is in the process in which not a single important issue is addressed by Hillary and the presstitutes. This is a total failure. Democracy, once the hope of the world, has totally failed in the United States of America. Trump is correct. The American people must restore the accountability of government to the people. The Best of Paul Craig Roberts Tags: Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions , co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House. Visit his website . Copyright © 2016 Paul Craig Roberts


A new ad from a conservative super PAC absolutely destroys Donald Trump, and it uses his own words to do the job. The commercial comes from Our Principles PAC, and it showcases ordinary everyday women reading a series of horribly sexist and misogynist quotes from current Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.A few choice quotes from the ad include:These are the sorts of quotes that have terrified the Republican establishment about what Trump would do to the party in the general election. Even with candidates without misogynist comments like these on the ballot, Republicans have struggled to convince female voters. In 2012, 55 percent of women voted for Barack Obama, a number that was almost the same at 56 percent in 2008. Even when John Kerry lost the election in 2004, he still got 51 percent of the women s vote.You can hear the audio of Trump himself making many of these sexist comments in a story compiled by Buzzfeed. They went through Trump s appearances on radio shows like Howard Stern:Trump appeared upwards of two dozen times from the late 90s through the 2000s with the shock jock, and BuzzFeed News has listened to hours of those conversations, which are not publically available. The most popular topic of conversation during these appearances, as is typical of Stern s program, was sex. In particular, Trump frequently discussed women he had sex with, wanted to have sex with, or wouldn t have sex with if given the opportunity. He also rated women on a 10-point scale.This Super PAC ad is designed to derail Trump s path to the Republican nomination, but it may be too late for that. But a similar ad, broadcast from coast to coast by Democrats and their affiliated super PACs would likely be extremely devastating.


It will feel like a familiar affair at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, with "Game of Thrones," "Modern Family" and Julia once again landing nominations on Thursday. But the occasionally stodgy Emmys, which sometimes latch on to winners (like Ms. ) and stay with them, was also infused with new blood. Popular shows like "The People v. O. J. Simpson," "Roots'' and "Fargo" drew attention to the limited series category, James Corden emerged as a force in the competition, and there was recognition in the best drama category for the widely praised but previously overlooked "The Americans. " "Game of Thrones," HBO's fantasy epic, will again be the leader of the pack heading into the awards. The drama, which just completed its sixth season, received 23 nominations, the highest total for any show. The show received 24 nominations last year and won its first best drama Emmy. [ List: Nominations for the 2016 Emmy Awards ] HBO, which is coming off its biggest Emmy haul ever last year, had a total of 94 nominations, the highest of any network for the 16th consecutive year. FX's limited series "The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story" and its anthology series "Fargo" were the and nominated shows. FX finished behind HBO in nominations with 56. The streaming services Netflix and Amazon continue to make significant inroads, with each scoring its highest Emmy nomination totals (54 for Netflix and 16 for Amazon). The Emmys reflect an infusion of talent into television at a time when movie stars are increasingly turning to TV, especially in limited series, and there are more scripted shows than ever before. Over the past few months, networks have been ferociously competing against one another in nomination campaigns. The broadcast networks are still experiencing a diminished presence at the Emmys, with three of the networks — ABC, Fox and CBS — notching fewer nominations than in 2015. NBC had the same total, with 41. And for the fifth consecutive year, the networks were shut out of nominations for best drama. In that category, "Game of Thrones" will compete against the final season of the PBS show "Downton Abbey," USA's "Mr. Robot," AMC's "Better Call Saul," Netflix's "House of Cards," FX's "The Americans" and Showtime's "Homeland. " "Mr. Robot," which won the Golden Globe for best drama in January, is a new entrant in the category, along with "The Americans. " They replace "Mad Men," which ended last year, and Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black. " HBO's "Veep," which last year ended the winning streak of ABC's "Modern Family'' in the best comedy category, was once again nominated for that award. It will go up against "Modern Family" again, along with Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," Amazon's "Transparent," HBO's "Silicon Valley," ABC's " " and Netflix's "Master of None. " With Jon Hamm's Don Draper from "Mad Men" out of the race, the best actor category for drama has no clear . Two previous Emmy winners, Kyle Chandler ("Bloodline") and Bob Odenkirk ("Better Call Saul") will compete against Kevin Spacey ("House of Cards") Liev Schreiber ("Ray Donovan") Matthew Rhys ("The Americans") and Rami Malek ("Mr. Robot") all of whom are looking for their first Emmy. Viola Davis, who last year became the first woman to win a best acting Emmy in the drama category, will try to repeat, for her performance in "How to Get Away With Murder. " She is up against Robin Wright ("House of Cards") Keri Russell ("The Americans") Tatiana Maslany ("Orphan Black") Claire Danes ("Homeland") and Taraji P. Henson ("Empire"). Ms. Russell is the only new actress in the category, and this represents her first Emmy nomination. FX's Emmy haul was propelled by "The People v. O. J. Simpson," "Fargo" and "The Americans. " "The People v. O. J. Simpson" received a whopping six nominations in the limited series acting categories, including one for Sarah Paulson, who was also nominated for her role in FX's "American Horror Story: Hotel. " Ms. Paulson, who portrayed the prosecutor Marcia Clark in "The People v. O. J. Simpson," said in an interview that she shot both roles at the same time and that she was "running on fumes, just as Marcia was. " She added, "I used all of my exhaustion to my benefit since no one was more tired during that trial than Marcia Clark. " Another standout on Thursday was Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf, who was nominated for three awards: for best actress in a comedy series for HBO's "Getting On" and for guest appearances in "The Big Bang Theory" and "Horace and Pete. " Netflix had a strong day, with nominations in both the lead drama and comedy categories and in several acting categories. With 54 nominations, Netflix has 20 more than it received last year, its previous record. "Making a Murderer," the popular Netflix documentary, was nominated for six awards, including best documentary series. This is the first year that Netflix eclipsed each of the broadcast networks. Amazon was led by its comedy "Transparent," which had 10 nominations. Last year, the show's star, Jeffrey Tambor, won the best actor award, the first time a streaming service had won a lead acting Emmy. For the first time in 16 years, "The Daily Show" was not nominated in the best variety show category, a blow to its rookie host, Trevor Noah. Likewise, Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" was snubbed, while Mr. Corden's "The Late Late Show" was honored instead. The nomination will add fuel to the discussion that Mr. Corden is outshining his more experienced CBS colleague. Rounding out the category were HBO's John Oliver, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, HBO's Bill Maher, NBC's Jimmy Fallon and Crackle's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" with Jerry Seinfeld. Unlike the Academy Awards, which have overhauled the membership ranks following controversy over its slate of acting nominees, the Emmys have a relatively diverse lineup, with a number of actors of color receiving nominations. Last year, the Emmys made changes to the voting process, opening up the best drama and comedy categories to all Television Academy voters, not just a committee. "Game of Thrones," which has never been more popular, has probably been a beneficiary to the rules change. In the comedy acting categories, Ms. is up again for her performance in "Veep. " She has won the award four years in a row (and has seven Emmys over all). She will be competing against Ms. Metcalf, Amy Schumer ("Inside Amy Schumer") Lily Tomlin ("Grace and Frankie") Tracee Ellis Ross (" ") and Ellie Kemper ("Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"). Mr. Tambor will be up against Anthony Anderson (" ") Aziz Ansari ("Master of None") Will Forte ("The Last Man on Earth") William H. Macy ("Shameless") and Thomas Middleditch ("Silcon Valley"). Though television has never been more celebrated as an art form, drawing a sizable audience for the Emmys remains something of a challenge: Last year's show was its lowest rated ever. The Emmys will be hosted this year by Mr. Kimmel and will be broadcast on Sept. 18 on ABC.


A Spanish judge ordered nine Catalan secessionist leaders to be held in custody on Thursday pending a potential trial over the region s independence push. The lawyer for ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said a warrant had also been issued for his client s arrest - though the statement was dismissed by a senior official in Spain s High Court. The reason for the differing accounts was not immediately clear. In an short address broadcast by Catalan regional television TV3, Puigdemont called for the release of the legitimate government of Catalonia , a call echoed by hundreds of people gathered outside the Catalan parliament. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Puigdemont and his government last week, hours after the Catalan parliament made a unilateral declaration of independence - a vote boycotted by the opposition and declared illegal by Spanish courts. Puigdemont later traveled to Belgium with four associates and ignored an order to appear before the High Court to answer charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds relating to the region s secessionist drive. Mr. Puigdemont will stay here. He has said that he will fully cooperate with Belgian authorities during the procedure, lawyer Paul Bekaert told Belgian state broadcaster VRT. He said Puigdemont had told him a European arrest warrant has been issued, though the court source said that would most likely happen on Friday. The detention of the secessionist leaders and Puigdemont s flight to Belgium make it difficult for leading figures from the independence movement to stand in a snap election in the wealthy region called by the Spanish government for Dec. 21. Puigdemont said on Tuesday he would go back to Spain only if given unspecified guarantees by the Spanish government. His flight appears to have cost some support for his cause at home. President, enough is enough, the influential Catalan newspaper el Peridico, which has been skeptical of the case for independence, said on its front page on Wednesday. Ebelio Ramos, a pensioner from the pro-independence town of Berga said: I don t know what they re thinking about but when someone does what he did and declares independence and then flees... A president has to fulfill the law and if he doesn t, it is better that he stays calm, because if he starts doing something outside the law, he is going to lose everything. Following a tumultuous month, attention is gradually turning to the December vote. Protests taking place in central Barcelona on Thursday to support secessionist leaders as they testified in Madrid failed to attract a big crowd. Several hundred people took part in another protest called after the nine leaders were ordered held in custody, many fewer than the hundreds of thousands who staged several demonstrations for independence over the last two months. Cracks have appeared within the pro-independence coalition of center-right and far-left parties as well as inside Puigdemont s own PdeCat (Democratic Catalan Party) where some of his allies are now pushing for a negotiated solution with the central government. The struggle has divided Catalonia itself and caused deep resentment across the rest of Spain. In Madrid, 20 secessionist leaders had been summoned by two separate courts to testify over their role in holding a banned Oct. 1 referendum on secession and later proclaiming independence from Spain. With Puigdemont and four others in Belgium, only 15 turned up. All the members of the dismissed Catalan cabinet but one declined to answer questions from the state prosecutor and the High Court judge, who opened an investigation that could take several years before any potential trial. The defendants have played an active role by propelling the carefully designed secessionist process and overcoming all kinds of obstacles that could make them deviate from their final objective, the judge said in the ruling that sent the defendants to jail. She said the defendants, who could face jail sentences of up to 50 years, must be held in custody because they were a flight risk and could destroy evidence. One of them, Santi Vila, who stepped down from the Catalan cabinet before a unilateral declaration of independence last Friday and has since then been pushing for a negotiated solution with the government, was granted bail of 50,000 euros ($58,300). A lawyer for several of the jailed Catalan leaders said they would appeal against the judge s decision. The decision to hold them in custody is absolutely disproportionate as we consider the charges of rebellion and sedition lack any ground, no matter how much the prosecution insists on affirming it, lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said. Five senior regional lawmakers and the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell, were summoned by the Supreme Court, which handles the cases of people who enjoy parliamentary immunity. The Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to give one more week to Forcadell and the Catalan lawmakers to prepare their defense and a new hearing will take place on Nov. 9. The courts have already told the Catalan secessionist leaders to deposit 6.2 million euros ($7.2 million) by Friday to cover potential liabilities.


We do this not because it s legally required, because it s not, Patton said at a hearing on the agreement. We do this because we believe it s the right thing to do, both for the victims and their families and for the city. This is historic, said Mr. Coverson. The only city in America that has given reparations and passed a reparations ordinance, and given an official apology for the violence that the police have done to citizens. The city of Chicago on Tuesday sought to put to rest one of its most persistent scandals, proposing a $5.5 million reparations fund for dozens of torture victims connected to former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his so-called midnight crew of rogue detectives.The proposal, negotiated with a key plaintiff s attorney and supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, would offer free city college tuition for victims and their families, free counseling for psychological issues and substance abuse as well as other assistance to more than 50 potential victims. The city would also issue a formal apology, create a permanent memorial recognizing the victims and ensure that eighth- and 10th-grade students attending Chicago Public Schools would be taught about the Burge case and its brutal legacy, cementing the scandal s role in city history.But as much as the proposal seeks to end a painful, controversial era Emanuel said it would close this book, the Burge book on the city s history it is unlikely to stanch the flow of torture claims from victims. A Loyola University Chicago law school dean appointed by a Cook County judge has identified some 20 additional cases in which inmates may have been Burge victims. Other inmates who have made torture claims continue to fight to overturn convictions and win their freedom. And one lawsuit over the torture is pending.Already, this stubborn scandal has cost taxpayers about $100 million in lawsuit settlements, judgments and other legal costs, according to lawyers. It brings it much closer to closure, especially from the city s point of view, said Flint Taylor, an attorney who has been pursuing the torture issue for decades and was one of the lawyers who negotiated the reparations package. But it s not done and over. But as much as the proposal seeks to end a painful, controversial era Emanuel said it would close this book, the Burge book on the city s history it is unlikely to stanch the flow of torture claims from victims. A Loyola University Chicago law school dean appointed by a Cook County judge has identified some 20 additional cases in which inmates may have been Burge victims. Other inmates who have made torture claims continue to fight to overturn convictions and win their freedom. And one lawsuit over the torture is pending.Already, this stubborn scandal has cost taxpayers about $100 million in lawsuit settlements, judgments and other legal costs, according to lawyers. It brings it much closer to closure, especially from the city s point of view, said Flint Taylor, an attorney who has been pursuing the torture issue for decades and was one of the lawyers who negotiated the reparations package. But it s not done and over. Burge was convicted in federal court of lying about the torture and sentenced to 41/2 years in prison. He was released in October but confined to his home until February. He still collects a police pension.Burge did not return calls Tuesday to his home in Florida.But John Jack Byrne, Burge s former right-hand man, on Tuesday called the reparations deal a scam perpetuated on taxpayers.


It is an iconic photograph of American patriotism, depicting the heroism of service members raising the flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, which inspired the book and movie "Flags of Our Fathers. " But while the image has become a symbol of the sacrifices of American troops, the Marine Corps has also had to defend it for 70 years against accusations that it was staged and that some of the men were misidentified. Now, the man who wrote the book, which chronicled how his father and five Marines came together to lift the flag in the famous photograph, has raised new doubts about the image, saying that he now believes his father is not actually in it. The author, James Bradley, revealed his conclusion in an interview on Tuesday, just days after the Marine Corps said that it had opened an inquiry into whether the identifications in the photograph were correct. He said that his father, John, a Navy corpsman, had participated in raising a flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, but had not taken part in another the same day, which became the famous photograph. His father, he said, probably thought that the first was the one that was captured in the famous picture taken by Joe Rosenthal, a photographer for The Associated Press. Mr. Bradley's doubts tell a story about the fog of war, the efforts of a son to memorialize his father and the apparent willingness of the Marines to at first brush aside questions about one of their most historic moments. Mr. Bradley said he had become convinced that his father was not in the photograph after studying evidence that was published in a 2014 article in The Omaha which described doubts raised by amateur historians who compared that photograph to images of the first . They found that the pants, headgear and cartridge belt on the Navy corpsman identified as John Bradley were different from the gear he wore that day. Mr. Bradley said he had waited a year to examine the evidence in the newspaper article because he was working on a new book in Vietnam, and then became ill. He did not come forward with his belief that his father was not in the photograph, he said, because there was little interest from the news media and the Marines. "It wasn't top of mind," Mr. Bradley said in the interview. "It wasn't a priority. I was overseas, and this past fall I was recovering from a disease I got in New Guinea that almost killed me. Now there's interest in this, and I'm talking about it. I didn't have the energy to carry the water all by myself. " The photograph, taken during one of the bloodiest battles of the war, was splashed across the front pages of newspapers throughout the country less than 48 hours after it was taken, exceptionally fast for the time. It was an immediate source of patriotism and controversy. President Harry S. Truman used it to sell bonds to fund the war, and Mr. Rosenthal brushed back accusations that it had been staged. And two years after the image was taken, one of the men identified as being in it hitchhiked to Texas from Arizona to tell the family of a man who died on Iwo Jima that the man had been incorrectly named as one of those depicted. That spurred a congressional investigation that led the military to acknowledge that it had misidentified one of the men. "Flags of Our Fathers," first published in 2000, was on lists for nearly a year. It was later made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood. The photograph was also the inspiration for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. a statue in which six figures are depicted in the positions captured by Mr. Rosenthal. Mr. Bradley said that his father had met with the sculptor of the memorial, who based some of the figures on his body. All of the men identified in the photograph are dead. Three of the men died fighting the Japanese on Iwo Jima. John Bradley died in 1994. The 2014 article in the Omaha newspaper detailed how Stephen Foley, a man in Ireland who worked at a building supply company, and Eric Krelle, an historian, had concluded that Mr. Bradley was misidentified after poring over the images and studying uniforms worn on the island. At the time, however, the Marines and James Bradley discounted the research. "Listen, I wrote the book based on facts told to me by guys who had actually been there," Mr. Bradley was quoted saying in the article. "That's my research. That's what I trust. " He added: "At the end of the day, the truth is the truth. Everything is possible. But really?" The Marines said at the time that they "firmly" stood by the established accounts of who was in the photograph. Last year, Dustin Spence, a historian from California who made a documentary about the and Mr. Foley approached the Marines with findings that they said showed problems with the identifications, Mr. Spence said in a telephone interview. The Marines, Mr. Spence said, did not seriously look into their claims. "I believe it's something difficult for some in the Marine Corps to swallow," Mr. Spence said. The Smithsonian Channel said it had gone to the Marines after "months of thorough, scientific analysis" and had since been working closely with the service. It added that it would broadcast the findings this year. The Marine Corps acknowledged the inquiry in a statement, but provided few details. "Our history is important to us, and even today, this iconic image still represents the fighting spirit of Marines and is a symbol of the tremendous accomplishments of our corps," the Marines said. "As such, with the information and research provided by the Smithsonian Channel, who used advanced digital technology to examine battle footage, the Marine Corps decided to review their photo enhancements, film analysis and findings. " It added, "Joe Rosenthal's photo captured a single moment in the battle during which more than 6, 500 U. S. servicemen made the ultimate sacrifice, and it is representative of the more than 70, 000 U. S. Marines, sailors, soldiers and Coast Guardsmen that contributed to the battle. " A summary on the paperback edition of "Flags of Our Fathers" reads: "Here is the true story behind the six flag raisers and the immortal photograph that came to symbolize the power and courage of America during World War II. In 'Flags of Our Fathers,' the son of one of the flag raisers captures the glory, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six ordinary boys who came together at a crucial moment in one of history's bloodiest battles — and lifted the heart and spirit of a nation at war. "


When the Islamic State was about to be driven out of the ancient city of Palmyra in March, Yves Ubelmann got a call from Syria's director of antiquities to come over in a hurry. An architect by training, Mr. Ubelmann, 36, had worked in Syria before the country was engulfed by war. But now there was special urgency for the kind of work his youthful team of architects, mathematicians and designers did from their cramped offices in Paris: producing digital copies of threatened historical sites. Palmyra, parts of it already destroyed by the Islamists who deemed these monuments idolatrous, was still rigged with explosives. So he and Houmam Saad, his Syrian colleague, spent four days flying a drone with a robot camera over the crumbled arches and temples. "Drones with four or six rotors can hover really close and register structural details, every crack and hole, and we can take very precise measurements," said Mr. Ubelmann, who founded the company Iconem. "This is the stuff architects and archaeologists need. " They need it in a new push for virtual preservation that scientists, archaeologists and others, like Mr. Ubelmann, are compiling on a large scale. The records could be used to create computer models that would show how monuments and endangered historical sites might one day be restored, repaired or reconstructed. Of special interest today are ancient sites in Syria, and also Iraq, that have suffered from war, looting and the Islamic State. "Palmyra was very difficult," Mr. Ubelmann said. "The terrorists were uploading videos with them blowing up monuments and smashing statues to manipulate public opinion," he said. "We felt the best response was to magnify the pictures of these places and show their splendor and their importance to the culture. It became a war of images. " The latest front in that war is in the exhibition halls of the Grand Palais in Paris, where, through Jan. 9, many of the 40, 000 images he and his team took at Palmyra have become the basis for displays. Called "Eternal Sites: From Bamiyan to Palmyra," the show aims to draw attention to the rising threats to global heritage. To underscore the exhibition's political importance, it was opened several weeks ago by President François Hollande of France, who described it as "an act of resistance" against terror and intolerance. Showing the beauty of the Middle Eastern heritage, he said, "is the best answer to the Islamist propaganda of hate, destruction and death. " Martinez, the director of the Louvre and the lead curator of the show, said the sites had been chosen because "all are under threat from pillaging, neglect or destruction and are not accessible to the public. " He said it aimed to mobilize public opinion "in the face of the devastation of unique heritage. " Besides images from Palmyra, the multimedia show projects enormous photographs and videos, immersing visitors in different eras, including the ancient Iraqi city of Khorsabad around 700 B. C. an mosque in Damascus and a medieval Christian citadel. Mr. Ubelmann dismissed any criticism of collaboration with the government of the Syrian president, Bashar . "We were working pro bono, not for any government, but to help the archaeologists," he said. They shared their work with the Syrian archaeologists, he said, adding, "We also train our colleagues so they can later do this on their own. " What is paramount is memory and potential restoration. In the last year, his team has flown drones over some 20 historic sites in Syria. Recently, it moved into zones in Iraq, close to the front line in the fight against the Islamic State. The team is now analyzing the war's effects on the remains of once thriving cities dating back some 3, 000 years, including Nineveh, Khorsabad and the thrashed temple and palace of Nimrud, where the government drove out the jihadists in November. In 2015, Islamists sent out videos showing militants using sledgehammers to break reliefs of human figures and mythical winged bulls as part of their campaign. "Nimrud was probably the most splendid of the Assyrian cities," Layla Abdulkarim, a Syrian architect, said as she analyzed aerial photographs. Using drones in archaeological work is not entirely new, specialists say, but at a recent gathering in Paris researchers from Europe and the Middle East said they were now having to practice "war archaeology," that is, collecting reliable data from areas. The images from the drones in war zones had proved immensely valuable. But these were barely scratching the surface. Before the war, close to 150 archaeological projects were underway, just in Syria, researchers said. Experts from many countries are trying to assess the damage in Syria's old cities but also in the area where the Islamic State held sway that is straddling Iraq and Syria, the region that is seen as central to human history and often called the birthplace of modern economics and writing. There is an outcry for data about the havoc wreaked in Yemen by Saudi bombing. "People are exchanging satellite images and data on blogs and other research platforms, but we have no real assessment yet because so many ancient sites are not accessible," said Pascal Butterlin, a professor of archaeology at the Sorbonne in Paris. Time is of the essence, even in the case of ruins, Mr. Butterlin said. He has led expeditions for more than 20 years to Mari, near Syria's border with Iraq. Before fleeing, the guards at Mari reported that looters had come from Iraq, he said. "We need to know what places need to be stabilized and how looters have altered the sites," he said. "Important evidence, like clandestine pits, can disappear very quickly through sandstorms and erosion. " Cheikhmous Ali, a Syrian archaeologist based in France, who founded the international group the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology, said reports of organized pillaging continued. A first wave of looting began in 2012, Mr. Ali said, and looting has accelerated since 2014 with the arrival of the Islamic State. While jihadists were more motivated to destroy the artifacts, they had also allowed looters to operate in exchange for money. Mr. Ali said he kept an ever changing tally of museums bombed, objects carted off, safes stolen. The exhibition in Paris, which is drawing large crowds, coincides with "History Begins in Mesopotamia," a show at the Louvre's regional museum in Lens. Both exhibitions highlight the French government's active concern about cultural damage in Syria, which was briefly controlled by France in the first half of the 20th century. Mr. Hollande has taken a strong interest, condemning the deliberate destruction of patrimony by all sides as "war crimes. " This past month, France offered $30 million toward a proposed $100 million fund to protect sites as fighting abates, provide emergency storage for artifacts and eventually rehabilitate monuments. At the "Eternal Sites" opening at the Grand Palais, Mr. Hollande stressed that France was taking in more Syrian refugees trying to protect monuments of great historical and cultural importance did not mean ignoring the suffering of the population. "Should we be concerned about the patrimony?" he asked. "What is more important, saving lives or saving stones? In reality, these two are inseparable. "


President Barack Obama's administration has added record levels of new regulation in the year 2016, with 18 regulations added for every new law, according to a new analysis by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. [Whilst Congress passed 211 laws over the course of the year, they had an accompanying 3, 852 new federal regulations, costing billions of dollars in both implementation and losses to businesses. This was 443 more regulations than 2015. There was also a record number of pages of red tape, with 97, 110 pages printed on the 2016 Federal Register. However the level of regulation per new law passed is still down considerably compared to 2013, when the Obama administration introduced 3659 new regulations for just 72 new laws, a record 51 pieces of regulation for every new law. The record for overall new regulation is still held by George. W. Bush in 2003, who introduced 4148 new rules to improve security following the terror attacks, 21 one pieces of regulation for every law. However, the report states that "the multiple [of number of regulations per law passed] did tend to be higher during Obama administration. Bush's eight years averaged 20, while Obama's have averaged 29. " "There's no pattern to any of this, since the numerators and denominators can vary widely there had been 114 laws in 2015, and a multiple of 39. The multiple can be higher with fewer laws, or with more regulations, holding the other constant. The point is that agencies do the bulk of lawmaking, no matter the party in power," the report continued. Throughout the election campaign, Donald Trump promised to cut taxation as well as much federal regulation that has risen under Obama. A report from the American Action Forum found that will save the financial services industry at least $1. 7 billion per year. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com


The maroon passport currently held by British citizens will revert back to its original dark blue colour as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, the Home Office has confirmed. [The classic dark blue design, which was replaced by passports in 1988 to comply with EU policy of a single European passport, could be as soon as 2019, with a range of contractors currently bidding for its production. In 2007, the European Union sought to further dilute the passport's individuality by insisting that the words "Her Britannic Majesty," were removed from the first page. Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, who is chairman of the Parliamentary Flags and Heraldry Committee said: "It's a matter of identity. Having the pink European passports has been a source of humiliation. It merged us into one European identity, which isn't what we are. " "The old dark blue design was a distinct, clear and bold statement of what it means to be British, which is just what our citizens need as they travel abroad after Brexit," he continued. The current contract with passport manufacturers De La Rue expires with the British government in 2019, with the Home Office now accepting proposals from companies to manage £490 million redesign project. Other priorities for the government's new design will include incorporating new mechanisms to combat identity fraud. Responding to the news, a Home Office spokesperson said: "We are launching the procurement process now to ensure there is sufficient time to produce and design UK passports from 2019 when the current contract ends. " The issue of the British passport was one frequently mentioned by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who pointed out that as well as having the words 'European Union' on the front, it also guarantees British citizenship rights for all 500 million EU citizens. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com


The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will not comply with a request from President-elect Donald Trump's Energy Department transition team for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers. The Energy Department's response could signal a rocky transition for the president-elect's energy team and potential friction between the new leadership and the staffers who remain in place. The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and reviewed by Reuters last week contains 74 questions, including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years. Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the department will not comply. "Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people," Burnham-Snyder said. "We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," he added. "We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team." He added that the request "left many in our workforce unsettled." Andrew Rosenberg, an official at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Energy Department "made the right choice in refusing this absurd and dangerous request. Federal agencies need the best available science to respond to the growing risk of climate change." Reuters reported late Monday that former Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to be named by Trump to run the Energy Department. The agency employs more than 90,000 people working on nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy, advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science. The memo sought a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environmental regulations. It also asked for all publications written by employees at the department's 17 national laboratories for the past three years. Trump transition officials declined to comment on the memo. "This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list," a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition team, had told Reuters. Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, said in a news briefing on Tuesday that the queries "could have been an attempt to target civil servants," including "scientists and lawyers and other experts who are critical to the success of the federal government's ability to make policy." By design, their work transcends the term of any one president, Earnest said. Trump, a Republican, said during his election campaign that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S. manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year's landmark global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by President Barack Obama. Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has said he will keep an "open mind" about the Paris deal. He also met with former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on climate change. After that meeting, he picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.


U.S. President Donald Trump does not like the "border adjustment" tax cooked up by U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans in the House of Representatives. At least, he does not like the term. "I don't like the word 'adjustment', because our country gets taken advantage of, to use a nice term, by every other country in the world," Trump told Fox Business News in an interview that aired on Wednesday. "Adjustment means we lose. We lose." "Let's call it an import tax. Let's call it a reciprocal tax," he added. "Nobody gets angry when you say reciprocal tax." Trump was talking about a provision in Ryan's House Republican tax blueprint that has polarized the tax reform debate, as the White House tries to score a much-needed legislative victory by overhauling the U.S. tax code for the first time since the Reagan era. The proposal would exempt U.S. corporate export revenues from federal taxes, while requiring U.S. companies to shoulder the same flat 20 percent tax rate on supplies and other purchased products, whether produced overseas or domestically. But the president appeared to favor an import tax that could be adjusted to reflect the country of origin's tax rate for U.S. products. He said such an approach could take the form of trade policy rather than tax policy. "There has to be a certain reciprocal nature to it," the president said. "The other countries, if they're charging you a 50 percent tax, you say: 'O.K., whatever you charge, we're charging'." The House border adjustment tax, or BAT, would help Trump keep his campaign pledge to create manufacturing jobs, advocates say, by exempting U.S. export revenue from tax while subjecting imports to the same 20 percent corporate tax imposed on domestic products. But the measure has been angrily denounced by import-dependent industries and rejected by enough Senate Republicans to call its political viability into question. In his Fox interview, Trump lamented the inequalities of the international tax system, saying U.S. products face high tax rates overseas while foreign-made goods enter the U.S. market tax free. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin floated the idea of a "reciprocal" tax in February, but administration officials have offered few details and lobbyists have suggested that it could strongly resemble the House BAT proposal. "I love the idea of reciprocal," Trump said. "You can call it a reciprocal or a matching tax or a mirror tax. There are numerous terms. But the reciprocal tax is very important."


What this story shows is that while there are some conscientious journalists at the New York Times who have made a concerted effort to discover the truth about President Trump s somewhat outlandish claim that the Cuban government have deployed sonic attacks against US diplomats in Havana the paper s editors also ran with the predictable mainstream conspiracy theory that Putin might be behind this malicious high-tech assault on US foreign service officials.Is there an internal struggle underway in mainstream media institutions between those who want to retain their integrity, and gatekeepers determine to use these outlets to peddle Establishment propaganda?Consortium News Exclusive: When the Trump administration blamed Cuba for a sonic attack on U.S. diplomats, a New York Times reporter did something unusual for his newspaper: he tried objectively to assess the evidence, as Robert Parry reports By Robert ParryI often criticize The New York Times, Washington Post and other major mainstream media outlets for a very simple reason: they deserve it especially for their propagandistic, unprofessional and reckless coverage of foreign crises.But there are occasional moments when some reporter at an MSM outlet behaves responsibly and those instances should be noted at least under the classic definition of news something that is unexpected or as the old saying goes, dog bites man is not news; man bites dog is news. One such moment occurred earlier this month when a Times science editor assigned science reporter Carl Zimmer to look into the mysterious illnesses affecting U.S. diplomats in the recently reopened U.S. embassy in Cuba.About two dozen U.S. diplomats supposedly were suffering hearing loss and cognitive difficulties due to what has been labeled a sonic attack. The Trump administration blamed the Cuban government even though the Cubans claimed to be mystified and would seem to have little motive for disrupting a long-sought d tente with Washington along with the expected boon to their tourist industry. President Trump retaliated by expelling 15 Cuban diplomats.Zimmer recounted the background to his story in a reporter s notebook piece on Oct. 6: On Tuesday, Michael Mason, my editor on the science desk, shot me an email. Would I consider writing an article about this sonic attack business ? I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had been vaguely puzzled about this business for months. Checking Out the StoryZimmer then did what professional journalists are supposed to do: he started contacting impartial experts to get their assessments of what was possible, what was likely, and what didn t make sense. I decided to try to find something out not as a political reporter but as a science writer, Zimmer wrote in the sidebar that accompanied his news article. I usually base my ideas on scientific research that has matured far enough that it is beginning to get published in peer-reviewed journals. I knew that an article on sonic weapons would be very different from the ones I usually write. I learned there was not even an official medical report. I decided to try to draw some boundary lines for all the speculation swirling around the story. Is the idea of a sonic attack plausible, based on what scientists know about sound and the human body? So I hit the phone. I didn t want to talk with just anyone I looked for people with lots of experience in research that had direct bearing on this question. I started with Timothy Leighton, whose job title at Southampton University is, literally, professor of ultrasonics and underwater acoustics. Better yet, Dr. Leighton has published the only thorough recent scientific review of the effects of environmental ultrasound that I m aware of. When I interviewed Dr. Leighton and others, I made clear I didn t expect them to solve this mystery; I just wanted them to reconcile the question with what we know through science. The consensus was that it was extremely unlikely the diplomats were the victims of a sonic weapon. It would be necessary to rule out less exotic possibilities before taking that one seriously. Yet, despite this skeptical scientific consensus among experts, Zimmer noted, The notion [of a sonic attack] has ricocheted like mad around the press, making it possible for readers to assume that [the sonic attack explanation] has been generally accepted by experts. But it most certainly has not. I ll be curious to see if articles like mine can put the brakes on the speculation. Suspecting PutinWell, Zimmer could have read the Times editorial in the same day s (Oct. 6) newspaper for a partial answer. While critical of the Trump administration for rushing to judgment in blaming the Cuban government and expelling 15 diplomats, the editorial concluded: The sonic attacks on Americans are too serious to be used for cynical political ends. So much for the editorial writers reading their own newspaper, but clearly they were driven by a higher agenda. A New York Times editorial about some unpleasant topic anywhere in the world these days wouldn t be complete without taking the opportunity to blame Russia or, in this case, at least suggest Russia as a possible villain in the mystery.The Times wrote: Other parties, most notably Russia, must also figure as suspects: President Vladimir Putin would probably welcome a setback to American-Cuban relations. Yes, every possible conspiracy theory must somehow circle back to Vladimir Putin, a real-life Dr. Evil. When he is not plotting how to flood Facebook with images of puppies or manipulate Americans in their pursuit of Pokemon Go characters, he is building secret sonic weapons to disorient U.S. diplomats in Havana and provoke President Trump to act rashly (when we all know how cool and collected Trump normally is) Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE ABOUT MSM REPORTING AT: 21st Century Wire Media Cog FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV


32 King World News  On the heels of yesterday's Fed meeting, what we just witnessed has rarely occurred in the past 20 years!  Surprises In The Put Options Market From Jason Goepfert at SentimenTrader: " Equity options traders focused on puts almost as much as calls on Wednesday. A stocks-only put/call ratio is rare during bull markets, occurring only 17 times in 20 years (see chart below).  King World News note: For a broader look at how extreme the put/call ratio is, below is a 5-year chart.  Although this is flashing a warning signal for the bears who are short the stock market, the exception would be if stocks are about to enter a bear market. In that case put buyers are often rewarded for their pessimism.  The charts and commentary above are from SentimenTrader. To try a free 14-day trial of the internationally acclaimed work that Jason Goepfert produces at SentimenTrader simply CLICK HERE.   Investors Intelligence Says Here Is The Key To A Turnaround In Gold & Silver


While the mainstream media remains transfixed on a phony Trump-Russian collusion story, they completely ignore the real news, about how things appear to be heating up between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the U.S.A Marine Corps commandant on Thursday warned U.S. troops stationed in Norway to be prepared for a coming war.Neller pointed to the near future possibility of Russia and the Pacific theater being the next major areas of conflict.Sgt. Maj. Ronald Green sounded a similar tone. Just remember why you re here, Green said. They re watching. Just like you watch them, they watch you. We ve got 300 Marines up here; we could go from 300 to 3,000 overnight. We could raise the bar. The warnings came a day before Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., that storm clouds are gathering over the Korean Peninsula.Whether the comments were more than motivational rhetoric remained unclear.Neller and Green s arrival in Norway coincided with heightened tensions between the U.S. and its NATO allies and Russia. According to Military.com, Russia warned Norway that its decision to host a new unit of U.S. troops through the end of 2018 would negatively affect relations. FOX NewsAccording to UK Express, Russian President Putin said the US missile defense sites in Romania containing interceptor missiles could also house ground-to-ground intermediate-range cruise missiles, which would be in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.He told the military officials that both the US and NATO have been accelerating build-up of infrastructure in Europe and emphasised that the deployment of NATO forces near Russia s borders had threatened its security.He said: When we move military units on our own territory, they present it as some kind of a threat. And when they move military bases, infrastructure and new weapons near our borders they present it as something normal. It s probably normal for those who do it, but not for us. NATO has deployed military units to Poland and the Baltics to reassure allies worried over Russia s intentions following its 2014 annexation of Ukraine s Crimea and its support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.Mr Putin mentioned NATO s US-led missile defense system and efforts to develop new prospective conventional weapons among other security challenges.He added: They are searching for some violations on our part while consistently infringing on it themselves. All that seriously affects security in Europe and in the whole world. Mr Putin accused the US of violating a landmark Cold War-era nuclear arms pact and harbouring aggressive intentions, and pledged to fend off any potential threats.FOX News At a Q&A session with the troops in the Norwegian Home Guard base near Trondheim, Neller said that the U.S. could shift its focus from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, citing Russia s conflicts with Ukraine and Georgia as justification. He told the Marines that they should be prepared for a big-ass fight on the horizon.Russia has reportedly been uneasy about the presence of American troops close to its borders. The 300 U.S. Marines deployed to Norway in June 2016 were the first foreign troops allowed to operate in the country since World War II.In September of this year, Russia conducted a joint-military exercise with neighboring Belarus that involved 12,700 troops.A new National Security Strategy unveiled by the Trump administration on Monday singled out Russia and China as two world powers challenging American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. F


If the metal barricades, "Do Not Enter" signs and lurking Secret Service agents were a bother the past eight years in the Hyde area — the South Side neighborhood where President Obama still owns a house, but rarely has been home — residents are not complaining. "All that's been fine, really. You get used to it," said Adela Cepeda, who like many people on Mr. Obama's block of Greenwood Avenue met him before he was president, or a senator, or elected to anything at all. "To me, it's just too bad his time will be over. This has been fabulous for Chicago in a certain way. I think that all things being equal, we came first. But I guess all good things must end. " As Mr. Obama prepared to give his farewell address on Tuesday from McCormick Place, the cavernous convention center beside Lake Michigan, people in his hometown sounded by turns possessive, proud, anxious and wistful. With his election in 2008, this city — and its heavily South Side in particular — had suddenly been thrust to the forefront of the national political conversation. And so early Saturday, in temperatures barely above zero, thousands waited outside for the chance to receive free tickets to witness the end of that story. By Sunday, tickets were being hawked online for as much as $5, 000. Near the Obamas' red brick Georgian, not far from the University of Chicago, some wondered gloomily whether his legacy might now be erased by his successor, Donald J. Trump, who received just 12 percent of the vote in Chicago and only slivers in the wards near Mr. Obama's house. Would Chicago's spin in the spotlight, complicated as it had been at times, be over now, too? "I guess I feel sad," said Antonio Coye, a barber at the Hyde Park Hair Salon, where the plain black chair Mr. Obama used to sit in for his trims is now preserved under glass. Not long ago, a crew of bicyclists peered at the chair from the foyer of the small shop, where a line of men forms on Saturdays and "the Obama cut," a taper on the side and the back for $24, remains popular. "This was really something unique that happened," Mr. Coye said as he worked on a customer with a razor over the weekend. "It was the first time somebody really different became president, and he did a really good job. To me, the person in office after him is going to make his time in office stand out even more than it did already. " tour buses, once an oddity, cruise down Hyde Park Boulevard with some frequency now. People can occasionally be seen pulling over with cameras outside a nondescript shopping center along 53rd Street, where an plaque notes the Obamas' first date, during which Barack Obama bought Michelle Robinson ice cream from a shop that has since become a Subway. For a place that has not forgotten being called the Second City by a New Yorker writer long ago, Chicago had watched its standing, in the eyes of the coasts, rise along with Mr. Obama's. Chicagoans were entrusted with important posts in Washington, and many of them, along with the first family, had roots on the South Side, rather than on the richer and whiter North Side. At points during the term, Chicago voices seemed to be everywhere. Both Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, who is now back in Hyde Park at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, were senior advisers. Chicago cabinet members included Arne Duncan (education) and Penny Pritzker (commerce). Austan Goolsbee, another Hyde Parker, was an economic adviser, and Desirée Rogers was an early White House social secretary. And Mr. Obama's chiefs of staff included William M. Daley, the brother of Chicago's former mayor, and Rahm Emanuel, who was later elected mayor. But it is not just the shutting of that pipeline that causes concern. In Mr. Obama's old neighborhood, the notion that Mr. Trump was soon to step in left some speaking of the president's farewell speech in terms more akin to a funeral than a celebration. Many recalled watching an ebullient evening here in 2012, when President Obama appeared at McCormick Place — a bookend, it now seems, to Tuesday night. Others recounted how they had felt as they watched his 2008 victory from Grant Park, the city's downtown front yard along the lake, where he addressed thousands with the gleaming Chicago skyline as a backdrop. "It was a magical moment — such a positive buzz all around," said Kevin Elliott, a manager at 57th Street Books, an underground maze where Mr. Obama had held book signings and often visited before his election. Even here, though, a few have questioned whether Mr. Obama did as much as he could during his time in office to solve urban problems of gang violence, joblessness and segregation. In Chicago, violence cascaded last year: More people, 762, were murdered in the president's hometown in 2016 than in New York and Los Angeles combined. Some complained that Mr. Obama had not interceded forcefully enough. "He was a community organizer here himself, and he should be embarrassed that he came in as president and the problems have actually worsened," said Ja'Mal Green, a local activist. But others, like Mr. Coye, the barber, noted that Mr. Obama was president of the United States, not of the South Side: "Who knows what happens now, but you can't have expected him to solve this city's violence. " The Obamas intend to stay in Washington while their younger daughter finishes high school, but many residents here believe that they might never return to the house on Greenwood Avenue. He is building his presidential library in Chicago, many say, and that is just fine. "No, he's not coming back, and he shouldn't, either — he couldn't go anywhere without being recognized," said Stephanie Crouse, 53, a school bus driver eating her lunch from a tray at Valois, a Hyde Park cafeteria Mr. Obama once frequented. "This is like your kids," she added. "He's done his thing. He did what he could. And you're sending him off now to graduate and move up and go off to better things. "


A lot of people have a lot to say about the role of Hermione Granger, of the famed Harry Potter series, now being played by black actress Noma Dumezweni in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. However, none more than Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling herself who has slapped down all criticism calling critics idiots and a bunch of racists, because they are.In the latest bout of criticism being thrown at Rowling, one Potter fan decided they would tell her how to cast her own film. You know, because they know best. This person named Dan took to Twitter and said: It is not about racism. It is just about consistency of the movie. How come you cannot find even a good white actress @jk_rowling it is not about racism. It is just about consistency of the movie. How come you cannot find even a good white actress Dan (@Dan49905785) June 10, 2016First sign you re a Twitter troll? You can t even take the time to upload a selfie it would take three seconds to take and upload. However, Rowling wasn t going to let this clear racism slide, even though she was clearly being trolled.Not even giving a clear f*ck what this racist, not racist person has to say, Rowling threw the ultimate shade right back when she said: We found the best actress and she s black. Bye bye, now. We found the best actress and she's black. Bye bye, now. https://t.co/1fGmP5znHP J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 10, 2016Good for you, Rowling. That s the only response that is needed.Featured Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images